Tag: gaza news

University protests: Violence, chaos erupts on campuses as protesters and counter-protesters clash over the war in Gaza

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A brawl erupted at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) after a pro-Palestinian encampment was “forcefully attacked,” the school’s chancellor said on May 1, while activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.

Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalized, according to the president of the University of California system. The chaotic scenes unfolded on Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

Chancellor Gene Block at UCLA said in a statement that “a group of instigators” came on campus Tuesday to “forcefully attack” the pro-Palestinian encampment, prompting the school to ask for assistance from outside law enforcement.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight, and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.

Also read | Demonstrations roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations as protesters spar over the war in Gaza

In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.

Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.

More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

The clashes at UCLA erupted when the pro-Palestinian protesters tried to expand their encampment late Tuesday night. Counter-protesters then tried to pull down the parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets surrounding the encampment. In the chaos, firecrackers exploded.

Police left the scene around 11.30 p.m., and police in riot gear showed up at 1.45 a.m. to establish a perimeter. Pro-Israel protesters threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray, and tore down barriers around the encampment. Some from the pro-Palestinian camp hopped over the barriers and scuffled with the counter-protesters.

No one was arrested. Officials have not clarified whether the demonstrators were all students.

Chancellor Block offered his sympathy to those who were injured and anyone who feels unsafe on campus, and promised the university will conduct a thorough investigation that he said may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals. In addition, Mr. Block said the administration is examining its own security response.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Block said. “It has shaken our campus to its core and — adding to other abhorrent incidents that we have witnessed and that have circulated on social media over the past several days — further damaged our community’s sense of security.”

Also read | More than 100 arrested at U.S. university pro-Palestinian protests

UCLA senior Edgar Gomez, who ventured outside his dorm to watch the ruckus unfold, said he saw counter-protesters tearing up Palestinian flags, and pepper spray hung in the air as the two sides fought.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said Mr. Gomez, adding that he isn’t with either group. “I’ve never seen people get so heated.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both called for accountability of those involved in the melee. A spokesperson for the governor said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. They had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier.

Protesters first set up a tent encampment at Columbia almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people. But the protesters returned.

Negotiations between the protesters and the college ground to a halt in recent days, and the school set a Monday deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment or be suspended.

Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.

In a letter to senior police officials, Columbia President Nemat Shafik, who uses the first name Minouche, said the administration asked officers to remove protesters from the occupied building and a tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”

Columbia on Wednesday called Hamilton Hall “an active crime scene” under NYPD investigation and limited campus access to people with Columbia identification and essential personnel, barring the media.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said in a statement.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.

“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”

Blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested in the crackdowns at Columbia and City College, officials said.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators closed their encampment after administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

Meanwhile, protest encampments were cleared or closed up voluntarily at schools from Flagstaff, Arizona, to New Orleans.

At Portland State in Oregon, school officials said some 50 protesters left a library on campus that had been occupied since Monday after administrators offered not to seek criminal charges or other discipline. An unknown number of people remained in the library Wednesday.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

Source link

#University #protests #Violence #chaos #erupts #campuses #protesters #counterprotesters #clash #war #Gaza

The Global South’s stand on Israel’s war in Gaza | Explained

Post By World , , , , , , , ,

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour attend a public hearing held by The International Court of Justice to allow parties to give their views on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories before eventually issuing a non-binding legal opinion in The Hague, Netherlands on February 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: Israel’s war in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas took centre-stage at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this week again, as the UN General Assembly raised the question of illegal Israeli settlements in the court, with public hearings that will end on February 26. The hearings sparked a further divide between Western countries, many of whom sought to defend Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as the “right to self-defence”, and were ranged against Global South countries, most of whom had supported South Africa’s bid to have the ICJ try Israel for “war-crimes” for its actions. The latest hearings opened in the backdrop of a major rift between Brazil and Israel.

What are the ICJ hearings about?

The current hearings of the ICJ at the Peace Palace in The Hague (The Netherlands) are not a consequence of the Israel-Hamas conflict of the past few months, but pre-date them. In December 2022, the UN General Assembly had asked the court for an “advisory opinion” on two specific questions pertaining to Israeli actions in the past: first, what are the “legal consequences” for Israel over its policy of “occupations, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territories since the 1967 war, and attempts to change the demographic status of Jerusalem, and second, what legal consequences arise for all other states and the United Nations over Israel’s “discriminatory” policies towards Palestinians. As many as 52 states and three international organisations gave written and oral comments during the hearings scheduled from February 19-26, led by Palestine, and followed by South Africa.

Editorial | Momentous ruling: On Israel and the International Court of Justice order

Who were the key speakers and what have they said so far?

While a majority of the speakers at the hearings are from the Global South led by Brazil and South Africa, all P-5 members of the UN Security council submitted comments, although Israel chose not to participate. India was not among the speakers, but its neighbours, Pakistan and Bangladesh were strongly critical of Israel’s actions. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki gave a three-hour high-powered submission in which he said Israeli governments had left only three choices for Palestinians: “displacement, subjugation or death”, calling their actions: “ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide.” The U.S., U.K. and allies began submissions with condemnations of the October 7 attack in which more than 1,100 were killed in Israel. Ireland, however, has diverged quite dramatically from the West and the European Union in its criticism of Israel’s actions, countering arguments on the “right to self-defence” by saying that international law “limits the use of force in self-defence to no more than what is necessary and proportionate”. More than 29,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s bombardment began. While the ICJ case pertains to events pre-2022, it was clear that the destruction of nearly half of all structures in Gaza in four months are precipitating concerns that Israel plans to occupy and resettle that territory as well. Brazil’s ambassador in particular called for the ICJ to pronounce Israel’s actions of confiscating land, demolishing Palestinian homes, establishing Israeli settlements, and constructing the West Bank barrier wall as illegal.

Why have Brazil and Israel drawn daggers?

While Brazil and Israel have had close relations in the past, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has been openly critical of “Zionism” in the past. For instance, he refused to visit the grave of Theodor Herzl during a visit to Jerusalem in 2010. Last week, Israel declared Mr. Lula a “persona non grata” who won’t be allowed to enter the country after he compared Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in which six million Jewish people were killed. Brazil has since recalled its ambassador to Israel.

What is India’s stand?

Despite its abstention in one vote calling for a ceasefire in October 2023, India has consistently voted in favour of UN resolutions that are critical of Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. Unlike the rest of the Global South, however, the Modi government has chosen to keep public comments on the issue to a minimum, and the decision not to speak at the ICJ is in line with that. Several factors complicate clarity on the Indian position. On the one hand, there is an expectation from the Arab world, particularly from close partners such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for India to stand with Palestine. Qatar, for instance, may have expectations after the Prime Minister’s visit this month to thank the Emir for releasing eight Indian naval officers. This may explain why New Delhi has spoken strongly about zero tolerance for the October 7 terror attacks, but has not designated Hamas as a terror group so far.


Also read | South Africa tells top U.N. court that it’s accusing Israel of apartheid against Palestinians

On the other hand, there is India’s close defence and surveillance equipment cooperation with Israel. While India has been buying defence equipment from Israel, recently, it shipped drones made by Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems in Hyderabad to help Israeli operations. In addition, the government has green-lighted the recruitment of tens of thousands of Indian workers by Israeli companies dealing with labour shortages due to the expulsion of Palestinians from jobs post October 7 attacks. However, the area of greatest concern for Indian diplomacy will come if it is seen as an outlier to the Global South that India seeks leadership of, which has been clearly critical of Israel’s actions, and is increasingly speaking in one voice for international judicial accountability for them.

  • The current hearings of the ICJ at the Peace Palace in The Hague (The Netherlands) are not a consequence of the Israel-Hamas conflict of the past few months, but pre-date them.
  • While a majority of the speakers at the hearings are from the Global South led by Brazil and South Africa, all P-5 members of the UN Security council submitted comments, although Israel chose not to participate.
  • While Brazil and Israel have had close relations in the past, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has been openly critical of “Zionism” in the past.

Source link

#Global #Souths #stand #Israels #war #Gaza #Explained

Missile from Lebanon kills two Israeli civilians as Israel-Hamas war rages for 100th day

Post By World , , , ,

An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit a home in northern Israel on Sunday, killing two civilians and renewing concerns about the risk of a second front erupting in the Israel-Hamas war.

The deadly strike near the border came on the 100th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas that has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack into southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages, about half of whom are still in captivity.

Since then, tensions have soared across the region, with Israel trading fire almost daily with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and Iranian-backed militias attacking U.S. targets in Syria and Iraq. In addition, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been targeting international shipping, drawing a wave of U.S. airstrikes last week.

Also read: Israel-Hamas war | Timeline of major events from the first 100 days

Sunday’s missile strike came a day after the Israeli army said it killed three militants who tried to infiltrate Israel.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said his group won’t stop until a cease-fire is in place for Gaza.

“We are continuing, and our front is inflicting losses on the enemy and putting pressure on displaced people,” Nasrallah said in a speech, referring to the tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled northern border areas.

The unprecedented level of death and destruction in Gaza has led South Africa to lodge allegations of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Israel denies the accusations and has vowed to press ahead with its offensive even if the court in The Hague issues an interim order for it to stop.

Israel has also vowed to return the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza as Israeli leaders have faced mounting protests from hostages’ families, including a 24-hour rally in Tel Aviv that began Saturday evening and drew tens of thousands of supporters.

Israel and Hezbollah have been careful not to allow their back-and-forth fighting to erupt into full-blown war on a second front.

But they have come close on several occasions — most recently in the aftermath of an airstrike that killed a top Hamas official in Beirut on Jan. 2. Hamas and Hezbollah have both blamed Israel for the strike.

The latest attacks on Israel, including the deaths of the two civilians on Sunday, raised the likelihood of new Israeli reprisals. Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it had carried out a series of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel would not tolerate attacks on civilians.

“The price will be extracted not just tonight, but also in the future,” Hagari said.

Earlier Sunday, the Lebanese missile hit a home in the town of Yuval, killing a man in his 40s and his mother, who was in her 70s, Israeli rescuers said.

Although Yuval is one of more than 40 towns along the northern border evacuated by the government in October, Israeli media reported that the family stayed in the area because they work in agriculture.

More than 115,000 Israelis have evacuated from northern Israel due to the ongoing tensions.

The deadly strike came hours after the army said it killed three militants who entered a disputed Israeli-controlled enclave in the Golan Heights.

A group called Islamic Glory Brigades claimed responsibility for the infiltration. The Associated Press could not independently verify the statement, and Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad all said the group was not affiliated with them.

Tensions have also spread to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian health officials say nearly 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in confrontations throughout the war.

On Sunday, the Israeli army said troops opened fire after a Palestinian car breached a military roadblock in the southern West Bank and an attacker fired at soldiers. Palestinian health officials said two Palestinians were killed.

Israel has also been under growing international pressure to end the war in Gaza, but it has so far been shielded by U.S. diplomatic and military support. Israel argues that any cease-fire would hand victory to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is bent on Israel’s destruction.

Thousands took to the streets of Washington, London, Paris, Rome, Milan and Dublin on Saturday to demand an end to the war. Protesters converging on the White House held aloft signs criticizing President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel.

In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back operations in northern Gaza, the initial target of the offensive, where weeks of airstrikes and ground operations left entire neighborhoods in ruins. Netanyahu said there are no immediate plans to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to their homes there, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue during a visit to the region last week.

Meanwhile, Israel has launched major operations against the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza.

“No one is able to move,” said Rami Abu Matouq, who lives in the Maghzai camp. “Warplanes, snipers and gunfire are everywhere.”

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, health officials said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes late Saturday.

At the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, men lined up to pray for the dead, their bodies wrapped in white shrouds. The bodies were put on the back of a pickup truck before they were taken to be buried.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad said a cameraman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The channel said Yazan al-Zwaidi was apparently in a crowd of people at the time. Details were not immediately available, and the Israeli military had no comment.

Meanwhile, the internet advocacy group Netblocks said communications in Gaza were still out after a 48-hour outage. The Palestinian telecommunications operator in Gaza, Jawwal, said two of its employees were killed Saturday when they were hit by a shell while fixing lines in Khan Younis.

Netanyahu said Israel would eventually need to push further south and take control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Israeli officials say is still used by Hamas to smuggle in arms.

Egypt — which in recent years has fortified the border, demolished tunnels and established a buffer zone — insists it has full control of the border and that any such operation would have to be considered in light of agreements with Israel and the United States.

The area in and around the border town of Rafah is also packed with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled from other parts of Gaza and are crowded into overflowing U.N.-run shelters and tent camps.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that hospitals had received 125 bodies in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll to 23,968. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around two-thirds of the dead are women and minors. It says over 60,000 people have been wounded.

Israel says Hamas is responsible for the high civilian casualties, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas. The military says 189 soldiers have been killed and 1,099 wounded since the start of the ground offensive.

Source link

#Missile #Lebanon #kills #Israeli #civilians #IsraelHamas #war #rages #100th #day

Israel bombs Gaza as UN warns territory ‘uninhabitable’

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 06, 2024 01:50 pm | Updated 01:51 pm IST – Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

Israel bombed Gaza on January 6 as the United Nations warned the Palestinian territory has become “uninhabitable” after three months of fighting that threatens to engulf the wider region.

Israeli strikes were reported early January 6 on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, with the UN warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis as famine looms and disease spreads.

Abu Mohammed, 60, who fled to Rafah from the central Bureij refugee camp, told AFP Gaza’s future was “dark and gloomy and very difficult”.

With much of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable”.

The UN’s children’s agency warned that clashes, malnutrition and a lack of health services had created “a deadly cycle that threatens over 1.1 million children” in Gaza.

Israeli forces were continuing “to fight in all parts of the Gaza Strip, in the north, centre and south”, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

Mr. Hagari said Israeli forces were maintaining a “very high state of readiness” near the border with Lebanon following the killing of a top Hamas commander in a strike in Beirut.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike, but a US defence official told AFP that Israel carried it out.

The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel, including at least 24 believed to have been killed.

In response, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,600 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Also Read: What is the global fallout of two warfronts? | Explained

Fighting rages

AFP correspondents reported on January 5 that Israeli strikes had hit the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah as well as parts of central Gaza.

A hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah reported that 35 people had been killed there.

The Israeli army said its forces had “struck over 100 targets” across Gaza in the previous 24 hours, including military positions, rocket launch sites and weapons depots.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said it had recorded 162 deaths over the same period.

A fighter jet bombed the central area of Bureij overnight, killing “an armed terrorist cell”, the army said, after what it described as an attempted attack on an Israeli tank.

And a number of Palestinian militants were killed in clashes in Khan Yunis, a city that has become a major battleground, the army said.

Troops also uncovered tunnels under the Blue Beach Hotel in northern Gaza that had been used “by terrorists as shelter from where they planned and executed attacks”, according to the army.

AFPTV footage on Friday showed entire families, seeking safety from the violence, arriving in Rafah in overloaded cars and on foot, pushing handcarts stacked with possessions.

Palestinian girl Rofan Nasser, who was wounded in an Israeli strike in which her parents and three of her siblings were killed, is comforted by her grandmother at the European hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

“We fled Jabalia camp to Maan (in Khan Yunis) and now we are fleeing from Maan to Rafah,” said one woman who declined to give her name. “(We have) no water, no electricity and no food.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported renewed shelling and drone fire in the area around Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis after seven displaced people, including a five-day-old baby, were killed while sheltering in the compound.

“We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe due to the spread of epidemics, with the hospital overcrowded with displaced people,” said a spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, meanwhile, slammed a proposal by two Israeli ministers to resettle Gazans outside the territory.

“It’s not up to Israel to determine the future of Gaza, which is Palestinian land,” Colonna told CNN on Friday.

Diplomatic push

Top Western diplomats were in the region as part of a fresh push to raise the flow of aid into the besieged territory and calm rising tensions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Turkey on January 6 where he was due to discuss the Gaza war with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Istanbul, Turkey, January 5, 2024.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Istanbul, Turkey, January 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Mr. Blinken will also visit several Arab states before heading to Israel and the occupied West Bank next week.

During his visit, Blinken plans to discuss with Israeli leaders “immediate measures to increase substantially humanitarian assistance to Gaza”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell travelled to Lebanon on Friday for talks on “all aspects of the situation in and around Gaza”, including escalating tensions with Israel.

Germany’s top diplomat, Annalena Baerbock, was also due to travel to the region, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

She plans to discuss “the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza” and tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, spokesman Sebastian Fischer said.

The war in Gaza and almost daily exchanges of cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group since October 7 have raised fears of a wider conflagration.

Those fears grew this week following the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri in Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that the group would swiftly respond “on the battlefield” to Aruri’s death.

Israel’s military that its fighter jets had conducted fresh strikes against Hezbollah targets just across the border.

Source link

#Israel #bombs #Gaza #warns #territory #uninhabitable

Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects U.S. push for a pause in fighting

Post By World , , , , , , ,

November 05, 2023 08:15 pm | Updated November 06, 2023 01:55 am IST – DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip

Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory’s Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.

Also read | Israel-Hamas war, Day 30 updates 

The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire.

Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that Hamas was “encountering the full force” of its troops.

“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life,” Israel’s Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant said.

Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise.

Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza overnight, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said. It said first responders and residents were still digging through the rubble, hoping to find survivors.

An Associated Press reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, who had been brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the hospital corridor by an adult holding her hand, her clothes caked in dust, an expression of shock on her face.

Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli airstrike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

“It was a true massacre,” he said early Sunday while standing on the wreckage of destroyed homes. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive on the north.

Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere and accusing it of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed.

Mr. Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after meeting with Arab foreign ministers in neighbouring Jordan. Abbas has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas routed forces loyal to him in 2007.

Mr. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

Arab leaders have called for an immediate cease-fire. But Mr. Blinken said that “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.

He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, “while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”

Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.

Swaths of residential neighbourhoods in northern Gaza have been levelled in airstrikes. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters.

Israeli planes dropped leaflets urging people to head south from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Few appear to have heeded a similar order the day before.

An Israeli airstrike overnight struck a water well in Tal al-Zatar in northern Gaza, cutting off water for tens of thousands of people, the Hamas-run municipality in the town of Beit Lahia said in a statement early Sunday.

The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out.

The war has stoked tensions across the region, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group repeatedly trading fire along the border.

In the occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed during the raid.

At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gun battles during arrest raids.

Thousands of Israelis protested outside Mr. Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to evacuate their homes.

In another reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior government Minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview Sunday that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later walked back the remarks, saying they were “metaphorical.” Netanyahu issued a statement saying the Minister’s comments were “not based in reality” and that Israel would continue to try to avoid harming civilians.

Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 4,800 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.

The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.

Source link

#Warplanes #strike #Gaza #refugee #camp #Israel #rejects #push #pause #fighting

Israel-Hamas war, Day 30 updates | Over 30 killed in Israeli bombing on Al-Maghazi camp in Gaza: Hamas-run Health Ministry

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says around 9,500 people, mostly women and children have since been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign

November 05, 2023 06:48 am | Updated 12:11 pm IST

Palestinians comfort a crying man after losing relatives under the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
AP

On Saturday, two strikes hit a U.N. school-turned-shelter just north of Gaza City, killing several people in tents in the schoolyard and women who were baking bread inside the building, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the target of its offensive to crush Hamas, but on Saturday offered a three-hour window for residents trapped by the fighting to flee south.

Also read | Israel-Hamas war, Day 29 updates

The new attacks came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region seeking ways to ease the plight of civilians caught in the fighting. He met with Arab Foreign Ministers on Saturday in Jordan, the day after talks in Israel with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas — suggestions Israel seems unlikely to accept.

About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, according to the U.N. With food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities running out, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate cease-fire to allow aid in.

(With inputs from agencies)

Follow the live updates here:

  • November 05, 2023 12:11

    Will open Gaza evacuation route again despite Saturday attack: IDF

    Despite coming under attack on Saturday in an attempt to open the road, Israel Defence Forces have said that they will try to reopen a corridor for Gazan civilians in the north of the Strip to escape south on Sunday, The Times of Israel reported.

    Despite being attacked while attempting to restore the route on Saturday, Israeli officials said they would let Gazan civilians in the northern part of the Strip flee south on Sunday, according to IDF Arabic Spokesman Avichay Adraee.

    – ANI

  • November 05, 2023 11:55

    ‘A curse to be a parent in Gaza’: More than 3,600 Palestinian children killed in just 3 weeks of war

    ‘A curse to be a parent in Gaza’: More than 3,600 Palestinian children killed in just 3 weeks of war

    Israel says its airstrikes target Hamas militant sites and infrastructure, and it accuses the group of using civilians as human shields.

  • November 05, 2023 10:11

    “What Hamas did was horrific…what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable”: Barack Obama

    In a strong condemnation of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, former U.S. President Barack Obama has said that the conflict is the “century-old stuff” that has now come to the fore and blamed social media for amplifying the divisions, according to the New York Times.

    Not only did he condemn the October 7 assault on Israel that killed many innocent Israelis but he also underlined the sufferings of the civilians in Palestine.

    “What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.”

    – ANI

  • November 05, 2023 09:40

    Analysis | Why did Hamas launch a surprise attack on Israel?

    Why did Hamas launch a surprise attack on Israel? | Analysis

    Israel faced largest attack in 50 years from Hamas militants using various methods. 40 killed, hundreds injured. Netanyahu declared war. Possible factors: deteriorating Palestine-Israel relations, Israel’s internal issues, normalisation talks with Saudi Arabia.

  • November 05, 2023 09:20

    Explained | On the legality of Israel’s occupation

    Official Israeli statistics show that Jewish settlers existed in historical Palestine even before the state of Israel was declared in 1948. A UNGA resolution had earlier sought to partition British mandate Palestine. But as the U.N. partition plan was rejected by the Arabs and the British mandate was coming to an end, Zionists went ahead declaring independence, triggering the first Arab-Israel war. When the war was over, Israel had captured more territories than what the U.N. plan had proposed and some 7,00,000 Palestinians were displaced. Historical Palestine was divided into the State of Israel (including West Jerusalem), the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) that was taken over by Jordan and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). Tensions kept rising between Israel and three countries in the region — Egypt, Jordan, and Syria — which led to the six-day war of 1967. The war resulted in Israel capturing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, along with Syria’s Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.

    Read more here

  • November 05, 2023 08:59

    U.S. and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians

    The United States and Arab partners disagreed Saturday on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israeli military strikes killed civilians at a U.N. shelter and a hospital, and Israel said the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.

    Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive to crush Hamas. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

    – AP

  • November 05, 2023 08:28

    Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader taunts Israel, U.S. in first speech since Israel-Hamas war

    Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group taunted Israel in his remarks, which were broadcast via a video-link on Friday. It was his first address to supporters since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Palestinian militants’ deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel.

    Read more here

  • November 05, 2023 08:10

    Explained | Understanding U.S.-Israel relations

    The U.S. had supported the idea of a Jewish homeland even before the state of Israel was declared within historical Palestine in 1948. On March 3, 1919, two years after the Balfour Declaration, in which the British government declared its support for the creation of a “Jewish homeland in Palestine”, President Woodrow Wilson said, “The allied nations with the fullest concurrence of our government and people are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish Commonwealth.” In 1922 and 1944, the U.S. Congress passed resolutions endorsing the Balfour Declaration. The U.S. was the first country that recognised Israel in 1948.

    Read more here

  • November 05, 2023 07:28

    Explained | Why did India abstain from the call for truce?

    External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that India’s vote was consistent with its stand on terrorism, adding that India takes a strong position on it because Indians are “big victims of terrorism”. In particular, government sources said that UNGA resolution (A/ES-10/L.25) lacked an “explicit condemnation” of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, in which 1,405 Israelis were killed, and about 240 were taken as hostages by Hamas militants. The UNGA resolution did condemn acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians “including terrorism”, and also called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages. However, India had wanted more, voting in favour of an amendment authored by Canada, that would have inserted more specific references, that was not passed by the UNGA.

    Read more here

  • November 05, 2023 06:50

    Over 30 killed in Israeli bombing on Al-Maghazi camp in Gaza: Hamas-run Health Ministry

    More than 30 people were killed in an Israeli bombing on a refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry there said, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.

    “More than 30 (dead) arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip,” health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement.

    Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram that Israel had “directly” bombed citizens’ homes, adding that most of the dead were women and children.

    – AFP

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #Day #updates #killed #Israeli #bombing #AlMaghazi #camp #Gaza #Hamasrun #Health #Ministry

Israel-Hamas war, Day 23 LIVE updates | Gaza civilians should move south where humanitarian efforts ‘will be expanding’: Israeli military

Post By World , , , , , , , , , ,

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children

October 29, 2023 07:46 am | Updated 10:55 am IST

The Israeli military fires shells toward the Gaza Strip on October 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
AFP

Israel’s army relentlessly hammered the territory on October 28 after fierce overnight bombardment that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that there was a potential for thousands more civilians to die if Israel presses a major ground offensive in Gaza. The U.N. rights chief also condemned the Internet and telecommunications blackout that has hit the Palestinian enclave since Friday.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas war Day 22 updates

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that fighting inside the Gaza Strip would be “long and difficult”, as Israeli ground forces operate in the Palestinian territory for more than 24 hours. The Israeli military spokesman said the country is expanding its ground operation in Gaza with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by “massive” strikes from the air and sea.

Israel unleashed its bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians. India was among the 45 countries who abstained from voting.

(With inputs from agencies)

Follow the live updates here:

  • October 29, 2023 10:55

    Explained | How much financial aid does U.S. provide to Israel?

    The Biden administration on October 20 sought emergency assistance from the U.S. Congress amounting to $14.3 billion in aid to Israel amid the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza Strip.

    In an address to the nation, U.S. President Joe Biden declared his support for Israel [and Ukraine as well, against Russia] and said that the urgent funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, as well as humanitarian aid and border management is a “smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”

    Read more here

  • October 29, 2023 10:37

    PM Modi discusses humanitarian assistance with Egypt’s El-Sisi as Israel attacks Gaza

    PM Narendra during the weekend spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the latest in the Israel-Palestine conflict which reached a critical stage with Israeli forces rolling into the north Gaza during late Saturday. The discussion indicated fast moving international exchanges among the key stakeholders as Prime Minister Benyanmin Netanyahu asserted that Israel will fight a “long and difficult” war against Hamas in Gaza.

    The discussion also indicates the importance that India attaches to the role of Egypt in ensuring humanitarian assistance to Gaza Strip where most of the Israeli military action is focusing right now. On October 22 India sent humanitarian relief meant for Gaza to Egypt’s El Arish airbase. However, Palestinian ambassador to India Adnan Abu Al-Haija had told The Hindu that much of the relief material that various countries have been sending for Gaza remained stuck inside Egypt because of intense military activity by Israel as well as because of shortage of fuel for the trucks inside Gaza.

    Read more here

  • October 29, 2023 10:10

    Gaza civilians should move south where humanitarian efforts ‘will be expanding’: Israeli military

    The Israeli military on Sunday told civilians in Gaza to move to the south of the besieged Strip, where it said humanitarian efforts “will be expanding”.

    “Tomorrow, the humanitarian efforts to Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be expanding,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement recorded on Saturday.

    – AFP

  • October 29, 2023 09:59

    Israel pounds Gaza as Red Cross warns of ‘intolerable’ suffering

    Israel further intensified its attacks on Gaza Sunday, warning its war on Hamas would be “long and difficult”, as calls mounted to end the violence and the Red Cross warned of “intolerable” suffering.

    The United Nations said thousands more civilians could die in Gaza as Israel announced the war had entered a “second stage”, with ground forces still operating inside the Hamas-run territory more than 24 hours after entering it on Friday.

    Relentless Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory said Saturday.

    – AFP

  • October 29, 2023 09:45

    Hamas ready to release Israeli hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners

    Hamas’s top leader in Gaza Yehia Sinwar said the Palestinian militant groups are ready to release Israeli hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s jails.

    “We are ready immediately to have an exchange deal that includes releasing all prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist occupation enemy in return for the release of all prisoners held by the resistance,” he said in a comment posted Saturday evening on Hamas media groups.

    The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, dismissed the offer as “psychological terror” andsaid Israel is working on multiple channels to free the hostages.

    – AP

  • October 29, 2023 09:34

    No international aid entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday

    No international aid entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as the communications blackout created by Israel continued.

    Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told The Associated Press that no aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday because communication was impossible and teams inside Gaza couldn’t connect with Egyptian Red Crescent or United Nations personnel.

    Before Saturday, a total of 84 aid trucks were let into Gaza, a tiny amount for a population of 2.3 million people in need of power, food, medical supplies and clean drinking water.

    – AP

  • October 29, 2023 08:55

    Gaza connectivity ‘being restored’: Internet monitor Netblocks

    Internet connectivity in the Gaza Strip is being restored, the global network monitor Netblocks said Sunday.

    “Real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the #Gaza Strip,” the company wrote on X, formerly Twitter, while an AFP employee in Gaza City said shortly after 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) that he could use the internet and phone network and had contacted people by phone.

    – AFP

  • October 29, 2023 08:37

    India abstains from UNGA vote on Israel, says terrorism is a ‘malignancy’ without naming Hamas

    Terrorism is a “malignancy” and knows no borders, nationality or race and the world should not buy into any justification of terror acts, India has told the U.N. General Assembly as it abstained on a resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

    India on Friday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a Jordanian-drafted resolution titled ‘Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations’ that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza strip.

    Read more here

  • October 29, 2023 08:22

    Israel says its war can both destroy Hamas and rescue hostages

    The Israeli military has sought to assure the public it can achieve the two goals of its war on Hamas simultaneously — toppling the strip’s militant rulers and rescuing some 230 hostages abducted from Israel.

    But as the army ramps up airstrikes and ground incursions on the blockaded enclave, laying waste to entire neighborhoods in preparation for a broader invasion, the anguished families of hostages are growing increasingly worried those aims will collide — with devastating consequences.

    – AP

  • October 29, 2023 08:02

    Telephone, internet gradually returning in Gaza

    Telephone and internet communications are returning gradually to the Gaza Strip, several Palestinian media outlets said early on Sunday.

    – Reuters

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #Day #LIVE #updates #Gaza #civilians #move #south #humanitarian #efforts #expanding #Israeli #military