Tag: israel palestine

Netanyahu rejects two key Hamas demands for any cease-fire

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected two key demands Hamas has made during indirect cease-fire talks, saying Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of jailed militants.

During an event on January 30 in the occupied West Bank, Mr. Netanyahu again vowed that the war would not end without Israel’s “absolute victory” over Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces working undercover killed three Palestinian militants in a raid on a hospital in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said forces entered the Ibn Sina hospital in the northern city of Jenin early Tuesday and shot the three men, whom Hamas claimed as members. The military said the men were using the hospital as a hideout and that at least one was planning an attack.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli forces opened fire inside the hospital’s wards and called on the international community to stop Israeli operations in hospitals.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

The October 7 attack in southern Israel that sparked the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

‘Israel raided a Gaza hospital’

The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israeli forces raided the Al-Amal Hospital in south Gaza city of Khan Younis, where about 7,000 displaced people were sheltering.

In a post on X, the group said Israeli tanks were lined up outside the front of the hospital on Tuesday, firing live ammunition and smoke grenades at people inside. Raed al-Nims, a spokesperson for the aid group, told AP in a telephone interview that everyone was ordered to evacuate.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating in the area of the hospital but not inside it, without elaborating.

In recent weeks, the Israeli army has expanded its assault on the southern half of the Gaza Strip, with a focus on territory’s second-largest city, Khan Younis.

Since the war erupted, the Israeli army has raided at least six hospitals in the north of Gaza, accusing several of being a base for Hamas fighters.

U.S. Treasury official visits Baghdad

A U.S. Treasury official travelled to Baghdad this week amid high regional tensions. The U.S. is seeking to crack down on Iranian-backed armed groups that have launched attacks on its forces, including through sanctions.

U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson’s two-day visit Sunday and Money aimed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries on “countering illicit finance and strengthening the Iraqi financial system,” the Treasury said in a statement Tuesday.

On Monday, the U.S. issued a notice of proposed rulemaking identifying Iraqi bank Al-Huda Bank as a conduit for terrorist financing, an action that would sever the bank from the U.S. financial system. It also imposed sanctions on the bank’s owner, Hamad al-Moussawi.

Last week, the Treasury hit Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad and its CEO with sanctions, alleging assistance to Iran’s military wing. The airline denied the allegation.

Biden says he has decided how to respond to attack in Jordan

President Joe Biden says he has made a decision on how to respond to the drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers.

But in talking to reporters before boarding the presidential helicopter, Mr. Biden declined to provide more details about what that response would be.

The weekend drone strike on a U.S. base in Jordan near the Syrian border also wounded more than 40 others.

When asked how the U.S. response would be different from past responses to aggressions from groups backed by Iran, Mr. Biden said, “We’ll see.”

The U.S. President said he did hold Iran responsible for supplying the weapons used in the attack. Mr. Biden was also asked what he would say to Democratic lawmakers who are concerned about the risks of an expanding war in the Middle East and he, again, said, “We’ll see.”

“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”

Israeli lawmaker faces possible explusion

An Israeli parliamentary committee has recommended expelling a lawmaker for supporting the South African genocide case against Israel in the U.N. world court.

The Knesset’s House Committee on Tuesday passed the measure to expel lawmaker Ofer Cassif by a 14-2 margin. The proposal now goes to the full 120-member parliament. Approval would require a 90-vote supermajority.

Mr. Cassif is the lone Jewish member of a small predominantly Arab party in parliament called the Joint List.

After Tuesday’s vote, Mr. Cassif said claims that he supports Hamas are a “blatant lie.”

He called himself a victim of “political persecution and silencing.”

In response to South Africa’s case, the International Court of Justice last week called on Israel to take steps to prevent a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It rejected an appeal to order an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli leaders have rejected the accusations, saying their war in Gaza is against Hamas, not the broader civilian populations.

Investigation of sexual assaults from Hamas attack

The U.N.’s special representative on sexual violence has begun a weeklong visit to Israel to look into reports of sexual assaults committed by Hamas militants during the Octoter 7 attack that triggered Israel’s war in Gaza.

Pramila Patten kicked off her visit on Monday by meeting with Israeli diplomats and Israel’s president, Issac Herzog, and his wife Michal. Patten encouraged victims to come forward to meet with her delegation.

“We really want to ensure that you have justice so that we put an end to this heinous act,” Ms. Patten said during the meeting, according to Mr. Herzog’s office.

Reports have emerged that sexual assaults were part of the deadly rampage by militants from Hamas and other Gaza groups who killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 250 hostages from southern Israel.

Jewish tradition calls for the dead to be buried as soon as possible, and in the chaos of the beginning of the war, few autopsies were conducted, so forensic evidence of rape has been difficult to collect.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned women’s rights organisations, including the United Nations, for not immediately condemning the reports of sexual assault.

Ms. Patten is also set to meet with representatives from the Palestinian Authority, Israeli security forces, local organisations, witnesses, and released hostages during her visit.

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Israel notes ”significant gaps” after ceasefire talks with U.S., Qatar, Egypt but says constructive

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Israel said “significant gaps” remain after ceasefire talks Sunday with the United States, Qatar and Egypt but called them constructive and said they would continue in the week ahead, a tentative sign of progress on a potential agreement that could see Israel pause military operations against Hamas in exchange for the release of remaining hostages.

The U.S. announced its first military deaths in the region since the war began and blamed Iran-backed militants for the drone strike in Jordan that killed three American service members amid concerns about a wider conflict.

The statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on the ceasefire talks did not say what the “significant gaps” were. There was no immediate statement from the other parties.

The war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, destroyed vast swaths of Gaza and displaced nearly 85 per cent of the territory’s people.

Israel says its air and ground offensive has killed more than 9,000 militants, without providing evidence. The October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostages.

With Gaza’s 2.3 million people in a deepening humanitarian crisis, the United Nations secretary-general called on the United States and others to resume funding the main agency providing aid to the besieged territory, after Israel accused a dozen employees of taking part in the Hamas attack that ignited the war.

Communications Director Juliette Touma warned that the agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, would be forced to stop its support in Gaza by the end of February.

Ceasefire talks to continue

Sunday’s intelligence meeting included CIA Director Bill Burns, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

Ahead of the meeting, two senior Biden administration officials said US negotiators were making progress on a potential agreement that would play out over two phases, with the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages to be released in a first 30-day phase. It also would call for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The officials requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.

More than 100 hostages, mainly women and children, were released in November in exchange for a weeklong ceasefire and the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to troops, said that “these days we are conducting a negotiation process for the release of hostages” but vowed that as long as hostages remain in Gaza, “we will intensify the (military) pressure and continue our efforts — it’s already happening now”.

At least 17 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes that hit apartment buildings in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw the bodies at a local hospital. One hit a building in Zawaida, killing 13 people, and the other an apartment block in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing four.

Also Sunday, 10 Palestinians were killed in a strike that hit a residential building in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, said Dr. Moataz Harara, a physician at Shifa Hospital, where the dead were taken.

Israel’s military said troops were engaging in close combat with Hamas in neighbourhoods of the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest.

U.S. deaths highlight regional tensions

The three deaths announced by Biden were the first US fatalities in months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East by Iranian-backed militias amid the war in Gaza. U.S. Central Command said 25 service members were injured.

U.S. officials were working to conclusively identify the group responsible for the attack, but assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups was responsible. Jordanian state television quoted a government spokesperson as contending the attack happened across the border in Syria. U.S. officials insisted it took place in Jordan, which U.S. troops have long used as a basing point.

The U.S. in recent months has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to respond to attacks on American forces and to deter Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The war in Gaza has sparked concerns about a regional conflict. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has increasingly called for restraint in Gaza and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the territory while supporting the offensive.

Gaza lifeline at risk of collapse

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the abhorrent alleged acts” of staff members accused in the October 7 attack “must have consequences”, but added the agency should not be penalised by the withholding of funding, and “the dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met”.

The United States, the agency’s largest donor, cut funding over the weekend, followed by eight other countries including Britain and Germany. Together, they provided nearly 60% of UNRWA’s budget in 2022.

Mr. Guterres said that of the 12 employees accused, nine were immediately terminated, one was confirmed dead and two were still being identified. He said they would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

UNRWA provides basic services for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country’s creation. The refugees and their descendants are the majority of Gaza’s population.

Since the war began, most of the territory’s 2.3 million people depend on the agency’s programmes for “sheer survival”, including food and shelter, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

A quarter of Gaza’s population is facing starvation as fighting and Israeli restrictions hinder the delivery of aid, which has been well below the daily average of 500 trucks before the war.

In the past week, hostages’ family members and supporters have blocked aid trucks from entering at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Dozens again blocked the entry on Sunday, chanting “No aid will cross until the last hostages return”.

The military later declared the area around the crossing a closed military zone, which would prohibit protests there.

With Gaza’s future being debated, thousands, including far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition and senior Cabinet ministers, gathered in Jerusalem to call for renewing Jewish settlement in Gaza. Settlements there were evacuated in 2005, ending a 38-year-occupation, during a unilateral withdrawal of troops that bitterly divided Israel.

Crowds chanted “death to terrorists” as far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took the stage and declared it was “time to encourage immigration” of Palestinians from Gaza.

The international community, including the U.S., has said it will oppose any attempts to expel Palestinians from Gaza. It also overwhelmingly considers settlements on occupied territory illegal.

Mr. Netanyahu has said such views do not reflect official policy and he has no plans to resettle Gaza, but he has released few details of a postwar vision for the territory.

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Netanyahu says no one can halt Israel’s war against Hamas, including the world court

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Israel will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the world court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on January 13, as the fighting in Gaza approached the 100-day mark.

Netanyahu spoke after the International Court of Justice at The Hague held two days of hearings on South Africa’s allegations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a charge Israel has rejected as libelous and hypocritical. South Africa asked the court to order Israel to halt its blistering air and ground offensive in an interim step.

Also read: Why has South Africa dragged Israel to the ICJ? | Explained

“No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks Saturday evening, referring to Iran and its allied militias.

The case before the world court is expected to go on for years, but a ruling on interim steps could come within weeks. Court rulings are binding but difficult to enforce. Netanyahu made clear that Israel would ignore orders to halt the fighting, potentially deepening its isolation.

Israel has been under growing international pressure to end the war, after its actions have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza and led to widespread suffering in the besieged enclave, but has so far been shielded by U.S. diplomatic and military support.

Israel argues that ending the war means victory for Hamas.

The war was triggered by a deadly Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. About 250 more were taken hostage, and while some have been released or confirmed dead, more than half are believed to still be in captivity. Sunday marks 100 days of fighting.

Fears of a wider conflagration have been palpable since the start of the war. New fronts quickly opened, with Iran-backed groups — Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria — carrying out a range of attacks. From the start, the U.S. increased its military presence in the region to deter an escalation.

Following a Houthi campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes against the rebels Friday, and the U.S. hit another site Saturday.

In more fallout from the war, the world court this week heard arguments on South Africa’s complaint against Israel. South Africa cited the soaring death toll and hardships among Gaza civilians, along with inflammatory comments from Israeli leaders presented, as proof of what it called genocidal intent.

In counter arguments Friday, Israel asked for the case to be dismissed as meritless. Israel’s defence argued that the country has the right to fight back against “ruthless enemy”.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his Army chief, Herzl Halevi, said they have no immediate plans to allow the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, the initial focus of Israel’s offensive. Fighting in the northern half has been scaled back, with forces now focusing on the southern city of Khan Younis, though combat continues in parts of the north.

Netanyahu said the issue had been raised by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit earlier this week. The Israeli leader said he told Blinken that “we will not return residents (to their homes) when there is fighting.”

At the same time, Netanyahu said Israel would eventually need to close what he said were breaches along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Over the years of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, smuggling tunnels under Egypt-Gaza border had constituted a major supply line for Gaza.

However, the border area, particularly the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, is packed with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had fled northern Gaza, and their presence would complicate any plans to widen Israel’s ground offensive.

“We will not end the war until we close this breach,” Netanyahu said Saturday, adding that the government has not yet decided how to do that.

In Gaza, where Hamas has put up stiff resistance to Israel’s blistering air and ground campaign, the war continued unabated.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that 135 Palestinians had been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall toll of the war to 23,843. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but the ministry has said about two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The Ministry said the total number of war-wounded surpassed 60,000.

Following an Israeli airstrike before dawn Saturday, video provided by Gaza’s Civil Defense department showed rescue workers searching through the twisted rubble of a building in Gaza City by flashlight.

Footage showed them carrying a young girl wrapped in blankets with injuries to her face, and at least two other children who appeared dead. A boy, covered in dust, winced as he was loaded into an ambulance.

The attack on the home in the Daraj neighborhood killed at least 20 people, according to Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal.

Another strike late Friday near the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border killed at least 13 people, including two children. The bodies of those killed, primarily from a family displaced from central Gaza, were taken to the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital where they were seen by an Associated Press reporter.

The Palestinian telecommunications company Jawwal said two of its employees were killed Saturday as they tried to repair the network in Khan Younis. They company said the two were hit by shelling. Jawwal said it has lost 13 employees since the start of the war.

Israel has argued that 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 Israeli military released a video Saturday that it said showed the destruction of two ready-to-use rocket launching compounds in Al-Muharraqa in central Gaza. A large grove of palm trees and some homes are seen in the frame. In the video, a rocket is being thrown into the air by the blast. The military said there had been dozens of launchers ready to be used.

Since the start of Israel’s ground operation in late October, 187 Israeli soldiers have been killed and another 1,099 injured in Gaza, according to the military.

More than 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced as a result of Israel’s air and ground offensive, and vast swaths of the territory have been leveled.

Only 15 of the territory’s 36 hospitals are still partially functional, according to OCHA, the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs agency.

Amid already severe shortages of food, clean water and fuel in Gaza, OCHA said in its daily report that Israel’s severe constraints on humanitarian missions and outright denials had increased since the start of the year.

The agency said only 21% of planned deliveries of food, medicine, water and other supplies have been successfully reaching northern Gaza.

American and other international efforts pushing Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians have met with little success.

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Israel bombs Gaza as UN warns territory ‘uninhabitable’

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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.

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Israel says it will defend itself against genocide accusations at International Court of Justice filed by South Africa

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Israel will defend itself before the United Nation’s top court against charges that it has engaged in genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, officials said on January 2, a rare engagement with the world body, which Israel often denounces as biased against it.

South Africa launched the case Friday at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, saying the magnitude of death, destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza from the Israeli military campaign against Hamas meets the threshold of genocide under international law. South Africa asked the court to order Israel to halt its attacks in Gaza.

Also read | Israel is fighting in the dark in Gaza

Israel dismisses international cases against it as unfair and biased and rarely cooperates. Its decision to respond to the charge signals that the government is concerned about the potential damage to its reputation.

Eylon Levy, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, on Tuesday accused South Africa of “giving political and legal cover” to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered Israel’s campaign.

“The state of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at the Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the war until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed, which he has said could take several more months.

But Israel is under growing international pressure to scale back the offensive ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. On Monday, Israel said it was withdrawing thousands of troops from other areas in a potential shift away from the massive air and ground operations that have devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Still, heavy fighting continued Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has been unprecedented in the century-old Mideast conflict, killing nearly 22,000 Palestinians and leveling large swaths of the tiny Mediterranean territory. Since the war began, Israel has banned entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies to its population of 2.3 million people, except for a trickle of aid that the U.N. says falls far below its needs.

Israel’s War Cabinet was to meet later Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said. The agenda reportedly includes a discussion on postwar arrangements for Gaza, a highly polarizing issue in Israel.

Until now, Netanyahu has not presented any plan despite repeated U.S. requests. He has rejected proposals that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers pockets of self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, undergo reforms and then take over administration of Gaza as a precursor to Palestinian statehood.

The army said Monday that five brigades, or several thousand troops, would leave Gaza in the coming weeks. Some will head to bases for further training or rest, while many older reservists will go home. The war has taken a toll on the economy by preventing reservists from going to their jobs, running their businesses or returning to university studies.

The military has not said publicly whether the withdrawal reflects a new phase of the war. But the move is in line with the plans that Israeli leaders have outlined for a low-intensity campaign that focuses on remaining Hamas strongholds and could last for much of the year.

Israel has said it’s close to achieving operational control over most of northern Gaza, reducing the need for forces there. Yet fierce fighting has continued in other areas of the Palestinian territory, especially the south, where many of Hamas’ forces remain intact and where most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced late Monday that residents from seven Israeli communities close to Gaza can return to their homes soon, one of the most concrete signs that the army feels confident it has minimized the threat of rocket launches from parts of Gaza.

Palestinians reported heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling overnight and into Tuesday in the southern city of Khan Younis and farming areas to the east, near the border with Israel. Fighting was also underway in and around the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The army also issued evacuation orders to people living in parts of the camp of Nuseirat, near Bureij. The orders were delivered by phone and in leaflets dropped over the camp.

Even in Gaza City, which has been largely depopulated and where Israeli ground troops have been battling militants for over two months, residents said there were clashes in different neighborhoods, as well as in the nearby urban Jabaliya refugee camp.

The militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, and 240 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded with an air, ground and sea offensive that has killed more than 21,900 people in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The Israeli military says 173 soldiers have died since it launched its ground operation.

Israel says, without providing evidence, that more than 8,000 militants have been killed. It blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, saying the militants embed within residential areas, including schools and hospitals.

The war has displaced some 85% of Gaza’s population, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into overcrowded shelters or teeming tent camps in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed. Palestinians are left with a sense that nowhere is safe.

In its case to the ICJ, South Africa accused Israel at the ICJ of “genocidal” acts that aim “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.” It pointed to “indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants” as well as the Israeli siege. It argued that no attack on a state — even one ”involving atrocity crimes” — can justify violations of the 1948 convention against genocide.

Israel, a signatory to the convention, angrily rejected the charge. “The Jewish people know more than any other what genocide is,” national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

South Africa asked the court last week to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza. The case, if it goes ahead, will take years, but an interim order could be issued within weeks.

The case came as Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan, which had deeply divided Israelis and threatened the military’s readiness before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The Supreme Court ruling could help Israel at the International Court of Justice, since it and other international tribunals consider whether countries have their own independent judiciaries in deciding on whether to intervene.

It’s unclear what concrete effects an ICJ ruling against Israel would have, but it would likely isolate the country politically and economically. “Israel can’t afford to ignore this,” said Barak Medina, a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The judicial overhaul itself, meanwhile, appears to have been defeated. Netanyahu and his allies seem unlikely to revive the divisive initiative during wartime. Elections are widely expected once the fighting winds down, and widespread anger in Israel over intelligence and security failures linked to the Hamas attack could mean a poor showing for those in power now.

Netanyahu’s coalition could propose a watered-down version, but it would have to be passed by parliament, a process that would reopen deep divisions within Israeli society and generate even more anger at the prime minister, already blamed by many for the failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack.



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Israeli forces bombard central Gaza in apparent move toward expanding ground offensive

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Israeli forces bombarded Palestinian refugee camps in central Gaza and issued orders telling residents to evacuate the area on December 26, signs that the military plans to expand its ground offensive into a third section of the besieged territory.

The opening of a potential new battle zone threatens to bring a new wave of destruction and displacement in a war that Israel has said will last for months as it vows to crush Hamas after its October 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller parts of the territory in search of refuge.

Despite international pressure for a cease-fire and U.S. calls for a reduction in civilian casualties, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned that the fight “isn’t close to finished.”

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, whose count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Meanwhile, there were new signs of the Israel-Hamas war enflaming tensions around the region. An Israeli airstrike in Syria killed an Iranian general, bringing vows of revenge from Iran. U.S. warplanes hit Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that had carried out a drone strike that wounded American soldiers there.

Residents of central Gaza on Tuesday described a night of shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The camps are built-up towns, housing Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war and their descendants — and now are also crowded with people who fled the north.

“The bombing was very intense,” Radwan Abu Sheitta, a Palestinian teacher said by phone from his home in Bureij. “It seems they are approaching,” he said of Israeli troops.

In the afternoon, the Israeli military issued an order calling on residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, including Bureij, urging them to move to the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. Hamas’ military arm, the Qassam Brigades, said its fighters struck two Israeli tanks east of Bureij. Its report couldn’t be independently confirmed, but it suggested Israeli forces were moving toward the camp.

Throughout the war, a constellation of Iranian-backed militia groups around the region have stepped up attacks in support of Hamas. So far, all sides have appeared to calibrate the violence to stay short of sparking an all-out conflict, but the fear is that an unexpected escalation could spiral out of control.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq carried out a drone strike on a U.S. base in Irbil in northern Iraq on Monday, wounding three American servicemembers, one of them critically, according to U.S. officials. It was the latest in more than 100 attacks that militias have carried out on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

In response, American warplanes before dawn Tuesday hit three locations in Iraq connected to one of the main militias, Kataib Hezbollah.

The Israeli strike on Monday hit a neighborhood of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi, an adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The strike hit as he was entering a farm reportedly used as an office of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the district of Sayeda Zeinab on Damascus’ outskirts, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel faces a “multi-arena war” from seven different fronts — Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. “We have responded and acted already on six of these fronts,” he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Almost daily, Hezbollah and Israel exchange volleys of missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the Israeli-Lebanese border. Around 150 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other groups but also 17 civilians. At least nine soldiers and four civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

In the Red Sea, attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen against commercial ships have disrupted trade and prompted a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to protect shipping routes.

An Israeli move into central Gaza would further shrink the area into which Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced to squeeze to escape the fighting. Already more than 85% of the population has been driven from their homes.

Deir al-Balah and Rafah — in the far south on the Egyptian border — have been overwhelmed with displaced people, even as Israel continues to bombard them. U.N. officials say a quarter of the population is starving under Israel’s siege, which allows only a trickle of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into the territory.

A strike Tuesday hit a family home in Mawasi, a rural area in the province of Khan Younis on Gaza’s southern coastline that Israel declared a safe zone for people to take shelter. One woman was killed, and at least eight other people were wounded, according to a cameraman working for The Associated Press at the nearby hospital. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on the strike.

The U.N. Security Council last week called for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to Gaza. But so far there has been little concrete sign of a change in entry of aid, which the U.N. has said it struggles to distribute because many areas are cut off by fighting.

Israel has vowed to continue fighting to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza, after the militants carried out their shock attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostage. Israel says it also aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence.

People prepare to bury Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli strikes and fire, after their bodies were released by Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a mass grave in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 26, 2023
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Israeli troops have been engaged in nearly two months of ground combat with Hamas and other militants in northern Gaza and weeks of urban fighting in Khan Younis. The battles and bombardment have leveled large swaths of both areas.

In the north, troops are focusing on the Gaza City neighborhood of Daraj Tufah, believed to be one of Hamas’ last strongholds in the area, according to reports from Israeli military correspondents, who receive briefings from army commanders.

The reports said the army is aiming to destroy an estimated 70% of Hamas infrastructure, leaving the remainder for further operations during lower intensity phases of fighting.

Still, Hamas fighters have shown a tough resilience. The Israeli military announced the deaths of two more soldiers Tuesday, bringing the total killed in the ground offensive to 158. Militants late Monday launched a barrage of rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens in the southern city of Ashkelon. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

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The Hindu Morning Digest, December 12, 2023

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Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh dubbed the protests by farmers as “sponsored” by traders and said no onion farmers will face any loss. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Govt. withdraws three criminal codes, to replace them with new Bills 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed members of the Lok Sabha that the three criminal codes that seek to replace the British-era laws will be withdrawn and replaced with three new Bills after incorporating the changes recommended by a parliamentary committee. The three criminal codes — Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023 — seek to replace the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, respectively .

Over 30,000 people detected to be foreigners by tribunals in Assam since 1966: Centre

The Union government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that 32,381 people were “detected to be foreigners” by Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam since 1966. The top court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. 

FBI Director calls on CBI chief, discusses enhanced coordination between two agencies over transnational crimes

A U.S. delegation led by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher A. Wray on December 11 held a meeting with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief, Praveen Sood, and other senior officials for enhanced coordination between the two agencies in combating transnational crimes. During the meeting, both sides also discussed the possibility of exchanging the best practices of FBI Academy (Quantico) and the CBI Academy (Ghaziabad).

SC directs establishment of ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ to address human rights violations in J&K

The Supreme Court has ordered the establishment of a Truth-and-Reconciliation Commission to address human rights violations both by state and non-state actors in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1980s. Pointing out that there is an absence of a ‘commonly accepted narrative of what has happened’, Justice Kaul reasoned that such a Commission will help in the ‘collective telling of the truth’.

COP28 pledges meet only 30% of needed energy emission cuts: IEA

Pledges made so far at the COP28 climate summit will only reduce energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of what is needed by 2030, the International Energy Agency said Sunday. The agency released an assessment of non-binding promises made in Dubai by governments and the oil and gas industry — tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, as well as sharp cuts in methane emissions. 

Opposition walks out accusing Union Government of imposing economic blockade on non-BJP States 

Members of Parliament from INDIA bloc parties staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, alleging that the Union government is imposing an “economic blockade” on the Opposition-ruled States by withholding the central funds allocated to different schemes using various excuses. During the Zero Hour, Aam Aadmi Party MP Sandeep Pathak raised the issue of ₹8,000 crores worth of funds under various schemes including the National Health Mission that has been withheld by the centre raising numerous objections.

Centre blames traders for onion price hike, terms farmers’ protests as ‘sponsored’

Even as protests of farmers and traders continued in Maharashtra over the ban on onion exports and MPs from the State urging the Centre to reconsider the decision, the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry said that the steps it had taken are bringing results with the prices of the kitchen staple coming down in both retail and wholesale markets. Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh dubbed the protests by farmers as “sponsored” by traders and said no onion farmers will face any loss as the Centre has stepped up procurement of the essential vegetable at various markets in Maharashtra and other States.

Amidst drought, Centre yet to approve increasing man-days under MGNREGA

Stating that ₹895 crore is available with the district administration to undertake drought relief, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Monday said that the Centre has not approved increase of man-days under MGNREGA that could stem rural migration. He also said that the government has directed the State-level bankers committee to restructure the loan and not harass farmers.

Fossils show dismembered young dinosaurs in belly of T. rex cousin

The young Gorgosaurus knew what it liked for dinner. About 75 million years ago in what is now Canada’s Alberta province, this fearsome T. rex cousin set about hunting turkey-sized yearlings of a feathered plant-eating dinosaur called Citipes. Scientists said on Friday they have unearthed fossilized remains of a juvenile Gorgosaurus that was 5 to 7 years old and about 15 feet (4.5 meters) long. Amazingly, it included the animal’s stomach contents, revealing its last meals.

Must raise voices against horrific injustice being perpetrated against Palestinians: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urged people on December 11 to participate in a global strike demanding a ceasefire in Gaza to stop the “massacre” of the Palestinian people and called for raising voices against the “horrific injustice” being perpetrated against them. Noting that the “merciless bombing” of Gaza continues with even more “savagery” than before the truce, Ms. Gandhi had said on Thursday it is the duty of India as a member of the international community to stand up for what is right and do all it can to ensure a ceasefire at the earliest.

SpiceJet to soon list shares on National Stock Exchange

No-frills airline SpiceJet on December 11 said it will soon be listing its securities on the National Stock Exchange. Shares of the carrier, which is navigating financial turbulence, jumped more than 8% in the morning trade on the BSE. In order to reach a wider investor base, “the company shall soon be listing its securities on National Stock Exchange of India Limited”, the airline said in a regulatory filing.

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Israel battles militants in Gaza’s main cities, with civilians trapped in the fighting

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Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in Gaza’s two largest cities on December 11, with civilians still trapped in the fighting even after hundreds of thousands have fled to other parts of the besieged territory.

Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and returns all of the hostages taken by militants during Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack into Israel that ignited the war.

The U.S. has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for the campaign, even as it has urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties and further mass displacement. The war has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and driven nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.

Residents said there was heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week, and battles were still underway in parts of Gaza City and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble.

In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike overnight flattened a residential building where some 80 people were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp, residents said.

Ahmed al-Qarah, a neighbor who was digging through the rubble for survivors, said he knew of only six people who made it out. “The rest are under the building,” he said.

Several of the dead were brought to a nearby hospital, where their loved ones could be seen sobbing and holding funeral prayers.

In Khan Younis, Radwa Abu Frayeh saw heavy Israeli strikes overnight around the European Hospital, where the U.N. humanitarian office says tens of thousands of people have sought shelter. She said one hit a home close to hers late Sunday.

“The building shook,” she said. “We thought it was the end and we would die.”

Hussein al-Sayyed, who fled Gaza City earlier in the war with his three daughters, is staying in a three-story home in the city with around 70 others. He said they have been rationing food for days. “I don’t know where to go,” he said. “No place is safe.”

Hamas is believed to have suffered heavy losses, but on Monday it fired a barrage of rockets that set off sirens in Tel Aviv. One person was lightly wounded, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service, and Channel 12 broadcast footage of a cratered road and damage to cars and buildings in a suburb.

With very little aid allowed into Gaza, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Some openly worry that Palestinians will be forced out of the territory altogether in a repeat of the mass exodus from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. That gave rise to built-up and seemingly permanent refugee camps like Jabaliya and Maghazi.

“Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a forum in Qatar on Sunday.

Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, called allegations that Israeli intends to drive people en masse from Gaza “outrageous and false.” But other Israeli officials have discussed such a scenario, raising alarm in Egypt and other Arab countries that refuse to accept any refugees.

At the same time, it’s not clear when or if Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza City and much of the north — home to some 1.2 million before the war — where entire neighborhoods have been flattened.

Palestinians in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank observed a general strike on Monday called by activists to demand a cease-fire, after the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for one on Friday. A similar, nonbinding vote is planned in the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, saying it endangers residents by fighting in dense areas and positioning military infrastructure — including weapons, tunnels and rocket launchers — in or near civilian buildings.

The military said five soldiers were killed in a battle in southern Gaza on Sunday, after militants fired at them from a school and set off an explosive device. It said the troops, backed by aircraft and tanks, returned fire and killed the militants.

Forces operating in Jabaliya found a truck full of long-range rockets near a school, and a rifle, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and explosives in a home, the army said.

Israel has urged people to flee to what it says are safe areas in the south — and the fighting in and around Khan Younis has pushed tens of thousands toward the town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt. But Israel has continued to strike alleged militant targets throughout the territory.

Associated Press reporters saw nine bodies brought to a local hospital on Monday after an airstrike hit a home in Rafah overnight.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said people in the south are also falling ill as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas.

Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory infection after prolonged exposure to cold and rain.

“In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he said.

With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Some 1,300 people have died on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed during the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas and other militants also captured more than 240 people, including babies, women and older adults. More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month in exchanges for women and minors held in Israeli prisons.

Israel says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people who died in captivity or during the initial attack. The Israeli toll includes 104 soldiers who have died since the start of the Gaza ground offensive in late October.

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Israeli ground forces move into south of Gaza

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December 04, 2023 05:00 pm | Updated 07:43 pm IST – Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

Israel has moved ground forces into the south of Gaza in its war on Hamas, witnesses said on December 4, despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths and fears the conflict will spread elsewhere in the Middle East.

Dozens of Israeli tanks as well as armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers entered the south of the territory near the city of Khan Yunis, which is crowded with internally displaced Palestinians, witnesses told AFP.

Amin Abu Hawli, 59, said the Israeli vehicles were “two kilometres (1.2 miles) inside” Gaza in the village of al-Qarara, while Moaz Mohammed, 34, said Israeli tanks were rolling down the strip’s main north-south highway, the Salah al-Din road.

Weeks after Israel sent ground forces and tanks into northern Gaza, the army has been air-dropping leaflets in the besieged territory’s south, especially around Khan Yunis, telling Palestinians there to flee to other areas.

Also read | Israel knew about Hamas attack over a year in advance: report

The Army “continues to expand its ground operation against main Hamas fronts in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said Sunday. “Wherever there is a Hamas stronghold, the IDF operates.”

Full-scale fighting resumed Friday after the collapse of a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, during which Israel and Hamas had exchanged scores of hostages and prisoners.

Air strikes have since intensified in Gaza’s south, said James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

“Despite what has been assured, attacks in the south of Gaza are every bit as vicious as what the north endured,” he posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter.

“Somehow, it’s getting worse for children and mothers.”

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the Islamist militant group‘s October 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s military said Sunday it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes in total, while Gaza militants had resumed rocket salvos into Israel, most of which had been intercepted.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 15,500 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children — a death toll that has sparked global alarm and mass demonstrations.

– ‘No safe place’ –

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said as a UN agency estimated around 1.8 million people in Gaza, roughly 75 percent of the population, had been displaced.

The Israeli army said Monday three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, raising the number of troop deaths there to 75.

The fatalities brought the number of Israeli defence personnel killed since October 7 — among them those killed in the Hamas attacks themselves and including soldiers, reservists, kibbutz guards and others — to 401.

Under the temporary truce that expired Friday, 80 Israeli hostages were freed, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. More than two dozen Thai and other captives were also released from Gaza.

With at least 137 hostages still held in Gaza, according to the Israeli military, Hamas has ruled out more releases until a permanent ceasefire is agreed.

More air strikes have rained down on northern Gaza where the Hamas-run government and the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the entrance of the Kamal Adwan hospital was hit late Sunday.

Several people were killed in the strike, Wafa said, while Hamas accused Israel on Telegram of a “grave violation” of humanitarian law. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Israel says Hamas uses hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes, an accusation the militant group denies.

Nine-year-old Huda, who was wounded in the head, arrived at the Deir al-Balah hospital with a Red Cross convoy bringing casualties from northern Gaza.

“She doesn’t answer me any more,” said her bereaved father Abdelkarim Abu Warda.

– ‘Too many innocents killed’ –

Israel’s ally the United States has intensified calls for the protection of Gaza’s civilians, with Vice President Kamala Harris saying that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”.

A White House official said Sunday the United States believes Israel is “making an effort” to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said those killed “would still be alive” had Hamas not carried out the October 7 attacks.

Israel said Monday it was not seeking to force Palestinian civilians to permanently leave their homes, even as it acknowledged conditions in Gaza were “tough”.

Any suggestion of Palestinian dispersal is highly contentious in the Arab world as the war that led to Israel’s creation 75 years ago gave rise to the exodus or forced displacement of 760,000 Palestinians.

Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Monday: “We are not trying to displace anyone, we are not trying to move anybody from anywhere permanently.

“We have asked civilians to evacuate the battlefield and we have provided a designated humanitarian zone inside the Gaza Strip,” he said, referring to a tiny coastal area of the territory named Al-Mawasi.

With fears of a wider regional conflagration rising, a US destroyer shot down multiple drones over the Red Sea while assisting commercial ships on Sunday, according to the US Central Command.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels — who said they targeted two of the ships –— launched a series of drones and missiles towards Israel in recent weeks and seized a cargo vessel last month.

In Iraq, an air attack killed at least five pro-Iranian militants on Sunday, according to Iraqi security sources, a day after Baghdad warned Washington against “attacks” on its territory.

Fighting also flared on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

The Israeli army said it had launched artillery strikes in response to cross-border fire, and its fighter jets hit targets linked to Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Israel-occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence since October.

The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said two Palestinians had been shot dead in an Israeli raid on the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, adding that Israeli forces kept the two bodies.



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What is Hezbollah and what is its involvement in the Israel-Hamas war? | Explained

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The story so far: More than 19,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid growing tensions between Israel and the Hezbollah group in West Asia, the United Nations announced on Monday. The ongoing Israel-Hamas war is now on day 23, with the death toll crossing 1,400 in Israel and 7,500 in Gaza.

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Israel President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that the country is not looking to wage war with Hezbollah militants on its northern border, but is focused instead on battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip, news agency Reuters reported.

“I want to make clear, we are not looking for a confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else … But if Hezbollah drags us into war, it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price,” the report quoted President Herzog as saying.

What is Hezbollah?

Hezbollah, which stands for “party of God”, is a Shia Islamist political party in Lebanon as well as a militant group designated a terrorist organisation by the U.S., the U.K., Israel, Germany, Australia, and other countries.

Origin of Hezbollah

In 1982, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) invaded Lebanon, where the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was active. Hezbollah was established soon after the invasion as a resistance effort against the Israeli forces. In addition to Lebanon’s Shia population, Hezbollah’s resistance to Israel gained support of Palestinian groups as well as State sponsorship from Iran, which underwent an Islamic revolution in 1979.

Even though it was established in the 1980s, the roots of Hezbollah go back to Lebanon’s confessional system established after the country got independence from the French colonial rule in 1943. The National Pact, signed by the new leaders of the country, agreed to a power division among the major religious groups – a Sunni Muslim to serve as Prime Minister, a Maronite Christian as President, and a Shia Muslim as the Speaker of the Parliament.

The influx of thousands of displaced Palestinians into Lebanon caused the country’s demography to shift in favour of Muslims of the Sunni sect. In 1971, PLO relocated its headquarters from Jordan to Lebanon. The religious and political sects in the country continued to fight for greater power shares, resulting in a civil war that began in 1975 and ended in 1989. Syria also sent troops to Lebanon in 1976, intensifying an already volatile geopolitical situation.The involvement of the U.S. and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon further complicated matters.

Israel invaded Lebanon when it was engrossed in civil war. Named “Operation Peace for Galilee” by Israel, the invasion was aimed at “removing the military threats from northern Israel, destroying PLO’s forces [in Lebanon], ending Syrian presence and influence, and assisting in forming a more friendly government in Lebanon that would be able to sign a peace treaty with Israel.” The invasion followed the shooting of Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the U.K. by the Abu Nidal Palestinian Organisation.

A group of Shia extremists, influenced by Iran’s newly-formed theocratic government, took up arms against the Israeli forces in Lebanon and came to be known as Hezbollah. The group was financially and militarily supported by Iran; the two were tied together by a similar ideology and the goal of seizing power in West Asia.

According to Israel, its Operation Peace for Galilee achieved some of its goals — PLO leadership was expelled from Lebanon and forced to relocate to Tunisia, but the newly-formed Shia militant group Hezbollah continued to attack Israeli forces in Lebanon. The IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000, but it still keeps the Shebaa Farms, a Lebanese territory on the border, under its control.

Hezbollah’s “goals and principles”

In an “open letter” issued in 1985, Hezbollah called the U.S. the “first root of vice”, and also seconded the views of Ruhollah Khomeini, the former Supreme Leader of Iran. “Imam Khomeini, the leader, has repeatedly stressed that America is the reason for all our catastrophes and the source of all malice. By fighting it, we are only exercising our legitimate right to defend Islam and the dignity of our nation,” the letter read.

The letter blamed the U.S., France, Israel, and the Phalange [Lebanon’s Maronite Christian party] for the destruction of Palestine and the displacement of nearly half a million Muslims from their homes. Hezbollah listed removing the U.S., France, and their allies from Lebanon, and the removal of IDF from the country as well as Israel’s eventual “obliteration” as its objectives in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s growth

The U.S. embassy in Beirut was attacked in April 1983, in which 63 people were killed. In October of the same year, around 300 people were killed in suicide attacks on barracks housing U.S. and French troops. A U.S. court blamed Hezbollah for the attacks, but the group denied responsibility.

In 1984, multiple people were killed in a bombing at the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut. The attack was attributed to Hezbollah.

A bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1992 killed more than 20 people. The Islamic Jihad Organisation claimed responsibility for the attack; this according to the U.S. Department of State, is another name for Hezbollah.

In 1989, Lebanese parliamentarians met in Taif, Saudi Arabia and reached an agreement to end the Lebanese Civil War. The members accepted a constitutional reform package that modified the 1943 pattern of governance in Lebanon — the powers of Maronite Christian President were reduced in comparison to the Sunni Prime Minister and Shia Speaker. The agreement also banned all militias, except Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s electoral success and alleged terrorist activities

Following the Taif Agreement, Hezbollah decided to contest elections in Lebanon. In 1992. The militia-party contested national polls for the first time, winning eight seats. Hezbollah won the seats under the leadership of Hassan Nasrallah, who is still its Secretary-General. Nasrallah took over after the IDF killed his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi in February 1992.

Hezbollah has held parliament positions in Lebanon since 2005. In the 2018 election, it won 13 seats— 71 in total along with allies. Currently running a political party, a militia, and a social services network of schools, hospitals, and youth programmes, Hezbollah has been described by the Centre for Foreign Relations as a “state within a state”.

In the 2022 general elections, Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in the Lebanese Parliament, winning 62 of the Parliament’s 128 seats.

Despite its electoral success, multiple international terrorist attacks were attributed to Hezbollah. In 1994, a car bomb at Israel’s embassy in London injured more than a dozen people, and another at a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Both these attacks were attributed to Hezbollah, although the group denied involvement.

Hezbollah was also implicated in the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bombing in Beirut. Mr. Hariri’s assassination led to the ‘Cedar Revolution’ in Lebanon, a peaceful civic resistance to drive out Syrian influence and military from the country and hold free elections.

Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in a bomb attack in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012. Bulgarian courts convicted two Hezbollah operatives in absentia in connection with the bombing.

What is the structure of Hezbollah?

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Nasrallah oversees a seven-member Shura Council of Hezbollah and five sub-councils, which include the political assembly, the jihad assembly, the parliamentary assembly, the executive assembly, and the judicial assembly. Shura is a generic Islamic term denoting a council or an advisory body.

How is Hezbollah involved in the Israel-Hamas war?

Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah met leaders of the Palestinian militant factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Wednesday to discuss what the alliance must do to “achieve a real victory for the resistance,” Reuters reported. The Iran-backed group has had daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the report added. 

Despite Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, sporadic clashes between the two have continued over the years on Lebanon’s southern and Israel’s northern border. In 2006, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli patrol unit, reportedly killing three and abducting two Israeli soldiers. The attack led to an intense month-long war where more than a thousand Lebanese people and around 160 Israelis were killed before a ceasefire was reached.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire in 2019 and then again in 2021, CFR reported.

Experts believe that if the war spills on to a second front apart from Gaza, it will be on the Israel-Lebanon border.

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