Tag: Israel War

Biden says Israel shouldn’t press into Rafah without ‘credible’ plan to protect civilians

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Israel shouldn’t go ahead with a military operation in the densely populated Gaza border town of Rafah without a “credible” plan to protect civilians, President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House said.

They spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops are sent into Rafah, where Egypt fears fighting could force the closure of the besieged territory’s main aid supply route.

The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century, came after Mr. Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He asserted that Hamas still has four battalions there.


Also read: Netanyahu promises ‘safe passage’ to Palestinians ahead of Rafah operation

Over half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and they are packed into sprawling tent camps and U.N.-run shelters near the border. Egypt fears a mass influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who may never be allowed to return.

Mr. Netanyahu told “Fox News Sunday” that there’s “plenty of room north of Rafah for them to go to” after Israel’s offensive elsewhere in Gaza, and said Israel would direct evacuees with “flyers, with cellphones and with safe corridors and other things.”

The standoff between Israel and Egypt, two close U.S. allies, took shape as aid groups warned that an offensive in Rafah would worsen the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where around 80% of residents have fled their homes and where the U.N. says a quarter of the population faces starvation.

A ground operation in Rafah could cut off one of the only avenues for delivering Gaza’s badly needed food and medical supplies.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying that any invasion of Rafah would “blow up” talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar aimed at achieving a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages.

Mr. Biden last week called Israel’s military response in Gaza “over the top.”

All three officials confirmed Egypt’s threats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters on the sensitive negotiations. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have also warned of severe repercussions if Israel goes into Rafah.

“An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that forced displacement is a war crime and that civilians who don’t evacuate are still protected by international humanitarian law. “There is nowhere safe to go in Gaza,” refugee and migrant rights researcher Nadia Hardman said.

The White House, which has rushed arms to Israel and shielded it from international calls for a cease-fire, has also warned against a Rafah ground operation under current circumstances, saying it would be a “disaster” for civilians.

Israel and Egypt fought five wars before signing the Camp David Accords, a landmark peace treaty brokered by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The treaty includes several provisions governing the deployment of forces on both sides of the border.

Egypt has heavily fortified its border with Gaza, carving out a 5-kilometer (3-mile) buffer zone and erecting concrete walls above and below ground. It has denied Israeli allegations that Hamas operates smuggling tunnels beneath the border, saying Egyptian forces have full control on their side.

Egyptian officials fear that if the border is breached, the military would be unable to stop a tide of people fleeing into the Sinai Peninsula.

The United Nations says Rafah, normally home to fewer than 300,000 people, now hosts 1.4 million more who fled fighting elsewhere, and it is “severely overcrowded.”

Inside Rafah, some displaced people packed up again. Rafat and Fedaa Abu Haloub, who fled Beit Lahia in the north earlier in the war, placed their belongings on the back of a truck. “We don’t know where we can safely take him,” Fedaa said of their baby. “Every month we have to move, and with all the fear and missiles.”

An Israeli ground invasion of Rafah may force Palestinians in Gaza to flee to Egypt, Om Mohammad Al-Ghemry said, and she hoped that Egyptians would “open the borders and let us flee to Sinai.”

Israel has ordered much of Gaza’s population to flee south, with evacuation orders covering two-thirds of the territory, even as it regularly carries out airstrikes in all areas, including Rafah. Airstrikes on the town in recent days have killed dozens of Palestinians, including women and children.

Israel’s offensive has caused widespread destruction, particularly in northern Gaza, and heavy fighting continues in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis. In Gaza City on Sunday, remaining residents covered decomposing bodies in the streets or carried bodies to graves. Some streets were piled high with sand from bombings.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 112 people killed across the territory had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, as well as 173 wounded people. The fatalities brought the death toll in the strip to 28,176 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but says most of those killed were women and children.

The war began with Hamas’ attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Over 100 hostages were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Some of the remaining hostages have died.

Hamas has said it won’t release any more unless Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. It has also demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences.

Mr. Netanyahu has ruled out both demands, saying Israel will fight on until “total victory” and the return of all the hostages.



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Hamas gives ‘initial’ support to Gaza truce plan as fighting rages

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February 02, 2024 09:52 pm | Updated 09:52 pm IST – Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

Fighting in Gaza raged with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 112 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours, while the Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Younis — southern Gaza’s main city and the focus of recent fighting.

Gaza City resident Abir al-Madhun said leaflets calling on civilians to leave had again been dropped by Israeli aircraft over the Al-Shifa Hospital compound where she has sought refuge.

Watch | Israel-Hamas | As conflict spreads, where does India stand?

“Our houses were destroyed; our children were killed. Where should we go?” she asked. “The shooting must stop so we can find a place to live.”

Nearly four months of fighting have left Gaza “uninhabitable”, the United Nations says, while an Israeli siege has resulted in dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.

Winter storms brought torrential rain to Gaza on Friday, piling more misery on the hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians who have sought shelter in bombed out buildings and makeshift camps.

The humanitarian crisis and the mounting civilian death toll have triggered growing international calls for a ceasefire.

Bird flies over northern Gaza ruins, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, February 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

After a truce proposal agreed with Israeli negotiators was presented to Hamas, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of “good news” about a fresh pause to the fighting “in the next couple of weeks”.

Mr. Ansari said a truce plan thrashed out with Israeli negotiators by Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. mediators in Paris earlier this week had received a “positive” initial response from Hamas.

“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” he said.

But a source close to Hamas told AFP: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet — the factions have important observations — and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true.”

A Hamas source said the group had been presented with a three-stage plan which would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into Gaza.

The pause would also see the release of “women, children and sick men over 60” among the Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Palestinians, some wearing Hazmat suits left over from the Coronavirus pandemic to keep warm, transport some of their belongings as the flee Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip further south on February 2, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

Palestinians, some wearing Hazmat suits left over from the Coronavirus pandemic to keep warm, transport some of their belongings as the flee Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip further south on February 2, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
| Photo Credit:
AFP

A deal ‘right now’

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.

After the attack, Israel launched a withering offensive that has killed at least 27,131 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Visiting Khan Younis on Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops that the city’s Hamas brigade had been “dismantled” and the “same will happen in Rafah”, the border town where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have sought refuge.

Mr. Gallant reiterated the government’s position that only military force can secure the release of Israeli hostages, telling troops their operations “bring us closer to enabling the return of the hostages, because Hamas only responds to pressure”.

Also Read | Netanyahu rejects two key Hamas demands for any cease-fire

The government’s tough line has faced mounting opposition inside Israel, with protesters gathering again in Tel Aviv on Thursday night carrying placards featuring hostages’ faces and slogans such as “No more bloodshed”.

“This government, our leadership, needs to make decisions and they need to be brave,” said activist Moran Zer Katzenstein.

“We need them to bring the hostages back, right now. The only way is through a deal.”

Settler sanctions

Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank, where more than 370 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers since October 7.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers over the violence, in a rare U.S. move against Israelis. Any assets they hold in the U.S. will be blocked, with Americans forbidden from financial transactions with them.

“The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in an executive order laying the groundwork for U.S. actions.

In Syria, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard was killed in an Israel strike south of Damascus, Iranian media reported. Two pro-Iran fighters were also killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

Hamas’s war with Israel has sparked a surge in attacks by other Iran-backed groups around the region, primarily targeting Israel’s Western allies.

Washington has vowed to retaliate for a Sunday drone attack by Iraq-based militants that killed three US soldiers at a base just across the border in neighbouring Jordan.

The deaths marked the first U.S. military losses to hostile fire in the region since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

U.S. officials have underlined that they are not seeking a confrontation with Tehran but Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a stern warning Friday against any possible attack.

“We have said many times that we will not be the initiator of any war, but if a country, a cruel force wants to bully, the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond firmly,” Raisi said.

One faction in the Iran-backed alliance that Washington holds responsible for the Jordan attack, Kataeb Hezbollah, announced on Tuesday that it was suspending its attacks on US troops.

But another, the Al-Nujaba movement, vowed Friday to keep up its campaign. “Any (US) strike will result in an appropriate response,” Al-Nujaba leader Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement.

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Looking for Israel jobs? Read the fine print

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As officials in at least two States — Uttar Pradesh and Haryana — prepare to screen thousands of applicants for jobs in Israel, activists and trade unions say that the Union government is bypassing all protections it normally employs for Indian labour going abroad to conflict zones. In fact, these workers will not even be required to register themselves on the ‘e-migrate’ portal run by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and several government Ministries and agencies have disclaimed any responsibility for the welfare and safety of the workers.

Activists are planning to move the courts after the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) issued a detailed document calling for workers. Calling the move “inhumane”, the activists warned that the government’s decision to fast-track the recruitment of Indian construction workers, nurses and caregivers even while Israeli operations continue in Gaza and the West Bank will put them in harm’s way.

The latest push to screen Indian workers comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “advance” the date of arrival of workers, during a telephone call on December 19.

No protection

“This step is against Indian ethos. We are for a ceasefire in Israel. We are concerned about the safety and security of workers,” All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Amarjeet Kaur told The Hindu, adding that trade unions now plan to approach the courts. 

Official promotional documents accessed by The Hindu promise attractive salaries, but give no details of contractual protections. They stipulate that the workers will be expected to pay for their own tickets to Israel, apart from the ₹10,000 per worker that the NSDC is charging as facilitation fees. The workers heading to Israel will not receive any of the labour protections on insurance, medical coverage, and employment guarantees which the government insists on for workers heading to most Gulf countries and other labour markets.

A pamphlet linked to the NSDC portal billed the job-call as a “passport to dreams abroad”, and a chance to “discover new horizons in Israel”. It lists 2,000 openings for plastering workers, 2,000 for ceramic tile workers, and 3,000 each for iron bending and frame workers. Monthly salaries are approximately ₹1.37 lakh (6,100 Israeli shekels), from which accommodation, food, and medical insurance costs will be deducted. Advertisements placed by the Rozgar (Employment) departments of U.P. and Haryana this month have each advertised 10,000 jobs, for which screening will take place.

Passing the buck

While various government agencies formally distanced themselves from the documents themselves, put out in the name of NSDC International, government sources confirmed that the recruitment process will begin this week with interviews and screening in several cities. When asked, NSDC CEO Ved Mani Tiwari told The Hindu that the advertisements had been issued by the State governments, not by the NSDC.

“We have no mandate for Israel or for the employers. We are not a recruiting company. Some State governments have invited applications for jobs in Israel and our mandate is to provide skill training for workers,” Mr. Tiwari said. 

The Union Labour Ministry declined to comment on the plans, as did Haryana Labour Minister Anoop Dhanak. “It is the MEA that monitors such migration of workers,” an official said on condition of anonymity. 

However, the MEA also declined to reply to a detailed list of questions sent by The Hindu asking what kind of assurances were being requested from the Israeli labour agency — the Population and Immigration Authority, known as PIBA. Officials said that the recruitment was taking place as a “B2B” or business-to-business arrangement, offering little clarity on who will actually be responsible for the eventual fate of the workers. 

India-Israel agreement

About 80 to 100 foreign workers have been killed during the October 7 attacks against Israel and the conflict that has followed, leading many countries — including India — to fly out their expatriate citizens. However, only about 1,300 of the 18,000 Indian citizens in Israel actually opted for the government-run flights as part of Operation Ajay. 

PIBA, the Israeli immigration agency, declined to comment on specific questions about the welfare of the workers, but sources said that they would proceed on the basis of an agreement signed with the Indian government. On November 3 last year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, that oversees NSDC, signed a 3-year agreement with the Israeli government on the “Facilitation of the Temporary Employment of Indian Workers in Specific Labour Market Sectors (Construction and Care-giving) in the State of Israel”. 

“The responsibility of implementing the protocols has been delegated to NSDC,” the agreement says, adding that a PIBA delegation met with NSDC in December 2023 “to streamline the process of recruitment”. Despite the official document, however, none of the agencies involved agreed to comment on who would ensure safety. 

Israel not part of ‘e-migrate’

At present, all workers going to conflict zones or places without sufficient labour protections are required to register with the MEA’s ‘e-migrate’ portal. Passports issued under the ECR (Emigration Check Required) scheme cover workers travelling to 18 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The government has not included Israel to that list despite the deaths of foreign workers in the current conflict. An official confirmed that the ‘e-migrate’ system, introduced by the government in 2015 to streamline guarantees for workers, will not be used for those going to Israel. 

May replace Palestinian workers

Apart from the issue of safety, some officials have privately questioned the government’s policy decision to send in Indian workers as “replacements” for Palestinian workers who were banned by the Israeli government in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. The officials said this means that New Delhi will not be seen as a “neutral” party, warning that this could also lead to the targeting of about 8 million Indians working in other parts of the Gulf region inimical to Israel. They sought clarifications on whether the workers will also be sent to “occupied territories” and settler colonies that India does not recognise as Israeli territory. 

Responding to questions on the issue in Parliament on December 14, Minister of State in the MEA V. Muraleedharan said only that the government “has not made any discussions with Israel regarding possible replacement of Palestinian labourers with Indian workers”. 

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With antisemitism rising as the Israel-Hamas war rages, Europe’s Jews worry

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As he sits in Geneva, Michel Dreifuss does not feel all that far away from the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza. The ripples are rolling through Europe and upending assumptions both global and intimate — including those about his personal safety as a Jew.

“Yesterday I bought a tear-gas spray canister at a military-equipment surplus store,” the 64-year-old retired tech sector worker said recently at a rally to mark a month since the Hamas killings. The choice, he says, is a “precaution,” driven by a surge of antisemitism in Europe.

Last month’s slayings of about 1,200 people in Israel by armed Palestinian militants represented the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The fallout from it, and from Israel’s intense military response that health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, has extended to Europe. In doing so, it has shaken a continent all too familiar with deadly anti-Jewish hatred for centuries.


Also read: The geopolitical fallout of the Israel-Hamas war 

The past century is of particular note, of course. Concern about rising antisemitism in Europe is fuelled in part by what happened to Jews before and during World War II, and that makes it particularly fearsome for those who may be only one or two generations removed from people who were the victims of riots against Jews and Nazi brutality.

What most chills many Jews interviewed is what they see as the lack of empathy for the Israelis killed during the early morning massacre and for the relatives of the hostages — about 30 of whom are children — suspended in an agonizing limbo.

“What really upsets me,” said Holocaust survivor Herbert Traube said at a Paris event commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 government-backed pogroms against Jews in Germany and Austria, “is to see that there isn’t a massive popular reaction against this.”

Antisemitism is broadly defined as hatred of Jews. But a debate has been raging for years over what actions and words should be labeled antisemitic.

Criticism of Israel’s policies and antisemitism have long been conflated by Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by some watchdog groups. Critics say that blurring helps undermine opposition to the country’s policies and amps up perceptions that any utterance or incident against Israeli policy is antisemitic.

Some language — whether for or against Israel or the Palestinians – “makes it sound like a football match,” says Susan Neiman of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. “We are perpetuating the idea that you’ve got to be on one side or the other instead of being on the side of human rights and justice,” she said.

Others argue that antisemites often use criticism of Israel as a placeholder for expressing their views.

The list of examples of anti-Jewish sentiment since the Oct. 7 attacks is long and documented by governments and watchdog groups across Europe.

—Little more than a month after the attack in Israel, the French Interior Ministry said 1,247 antisemitic incidents had been reported since Oct. 7, nearly three times the total for all of 2022.

—Denmark’s main Jewish association said cases were up 24 times from the average of the last nine months.

—The Community Security Trust, which tracks antisemitic incidents in Britain, reported more than 1,000 such events — the most ever recorded for a 28-day period.

That all comes despite widespread denunciations of anti-Jewish hatred — and support for Israel — from leaders in Europe since the attack.

Some of Europe’s Jews say they see it on the streets and the news. Jewish schoolchildren face bullying on their way to class, or — in one instance — have been asked to explain Israel’s actions, according to Britain’s Community Security Trust. There’s been talk of blending in better: covering skullcaps in public and perhaps hiding mezuzahs, the traditional symbol on doorposts of Jewish homes.

In Russia, a riot broke out at an airport in which there were some antisemitic chants and posters from a crowd of men looking for passengers who had arrived from Israel. A Berlin synagogue was firebombed. An assailant stabbed a Jewish woman twice in the stomach at her home in Lyon, France, according to her lawyer.

In Prague’s Little Quarter last month, staffers at the well-known Hippopotamus bar refused to serve beer to several tourists from Israel and their Czech guides, and some patrons served up insults. Police had to step in. In Berlin, Jews are still reeling from an attempted firebombing of a synagogue last month.

“Some of us are in a state of panic,” said Anna Segal, 37, the manager of the Kahal Adass Jisroel in Berlin, a community of 450 members.

Some community members are changing how they live, Segal said. Students no longer wear uniforms. Kindergarten classes don’t leave the building for field trips or the playground next door. Some members no longer call taxis, or they hesitate to order deliveries to their homes. Hebrew-speaking in public is fading. Some wonder if they should move to Israel.

“I hear more and more from people from the Jewish community who say they feel safer and more comfortable in Israel now than in Germany, despite the war and all the rockets,” Segal said. “Because they don’t have to hide there.”

And in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, some protesters are shouting, “ from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Some say that’s a call for Palestinian freedom and is not anti-Jewish but anti-Israel; the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea includes not only Israel, but also the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. Many Jews, though, say the chant is inherently anti-Jewish and calls for the destruction of Israel.

Faced with fears that antisemitism will spread, communities are taking action. A hotline has been set up in France to help provide psychological support for Jews. The Community Security Trust, which aims to protect the Jewish community and foster good relations with others, has joined with the British government to distribute primers on how to address antisemitism in primary and secondary schools.

Peggy Hicks, a director at the U.N. human rights office, says the actions of governments and political movements are fair game for criticism but warned against discrimination, which the Geneva-based office has long battled. In the chaos of the past weeks, she sees reason to hope.

“I’ve been amazed in the course of my working in human rights about the amount of compassion and the resilience of of human beings,” Hicks said. “People who have lost children and come together on both sides of a conflict, who have shared a loss — but from opposing sides — and who have found a way to get past the fact that they should actually be enemies.”

She added: “I don’t think everybody has the ability to show that kind of courage. But the fact that it exists, I think, gives us all something to aspire to.”

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UAE plans to maintain ties with Israel despite Gaza outcry: Report

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The United Arab Emirates plans to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel despite international outcry over the mounting toll of the war in Gaza and hopes to have some moderating influence over the Israeli campaign while safeguarding its own interests, according to four sources familiar with UAE government policy.

Abu Dhabi became the most prominent Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. That paved the way for other Arab states to forge their own ties with Israel by breaking a taboo on normalising relations without the creation of a Palestinian state.

The mounting death toll from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip – launched in retaliation for cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 by the Hamas militant group that governs the enclave – have stirred outrage in Arab capitals.

Also Read: Israel-Hamas war, Day 36 LIVE updates

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. UAE officials have publicly condemned Israel’s actions and repeatedly called for an end to the violence.

In response to a request for comment for this story, an Emirati official said the UAE’s immediate priority was to secure a ceasefire and to open up humanitarian corridors.

The Gulf Arab power, backed by its oil wealth, wields significant influence in regional affairs. It also serves as a security partner of the United States, hosting American forces.

As well as speaking to Israel, the UAE has worked to moderate public positions taken by Arab states so that once the war ends there is the possibility of a return to a broad dialogue, said the four sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Sheikh Mohamed met in Abu Dhabi on Thursday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, amid Qatari-brokered talks for the release of a limited number of hostages in return for a break in the fighting.

“The UAE and Qatar stand firm in urging the need to advance de-escalation efforts and secure a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region,” Sheikh Mohamed said on social media after their discussions.

Despite closer economic and security ties with Israel forged over the past three years, Abu Dhabi has had little apparent success in reining in the Gaza offensive, which has led to the death of more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. Hamas killed around 1,200 people in its surprise attack on Israel and some 240 hostages were taken, Israeli authorities have said.

Amid the impasse, the UAE has grown increasingly frustrated with its most important security partner Washington, which it believes is not exerting enough pressure to end the war, the four sources said.

Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Advisor to the UAE President, said this week that Washington needed to end the conflict swiftly and initiate a process to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian issue by addressing refugees, borders and East Jerusalem.

The UAE has publicly expressed concern that the war now risks igniting regional tensions and a new wave of extremism in the Middle East.

Speaking on Oct. 18 at the UN Security Council, where the UAE holds a rotating seat, ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said that Abu Dhabi had sought via the Abraham Accords with Israel and the United States to deliver prosperity and security in a new Middle East through cooperation and peaceful co-existence.

“The indiscriminate damage visited upon the people of Gaza in pursuit of Israel’s security risks extinguishing that hope,” she said.

A senior European official told Reuters that Arab states had recognised now that it was not possible to build ties with Israel without addressing the Palestinian issue. Israel’s foreign ministry declined to comment for this story.

NO BREAK IN TIES

The UAE continues to host an Israeli ambassador and there was no prospect of an end to diplomatic ties, which represented a longer-term strategic priority by Abu Dhabi, the sources said.

The accord was motivated, in part, by shared concerns over the threat posed by Iran, as well as a broader economic-driven realignment of Abu Dhabi’s foreign policy. The UAE sees Iran as a threat to regional security, although in recent years it has taken diplomatic steps to de-escalate tensions.

Israel and the UAE have developed close economic and security ties in the three years since normalisation, including defence cooperation. Israel supplied the UAE with air defence systems after missile and drone attacks on Abu Dhabi in early 2022 by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen.

Bilateral trade has exceeded $6 billion since 2020, according to Israeli government data. Israeli tourists have thronged hotels, beaches and shopping centres in the UAE, which is an OPEC oil power and a regional business hub.

“They (UAE) have gains that they don’t want to lose,” said one of the sources, a senior diplomat based in the Middle East.

Even prior to the Oct. 7 attack, however, Abu Dhabi was concerned by the failure of Israel’s right-wing government to curb expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and repeated visits by right-wing religious Israelis to the compound that houses the Al Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The compound, revered by Jews as a vestige of their two ancient temples, has long been a flashpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

None of four sources ruled out that the UAE could downgrade or sever its ties if the crisis escalated.

Sources said that the displacement of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank into Egypt or Jordan was a red line for Abu Dhabi.

James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore, said the war in Gaza had discredited the notion that economic cooperation on its own could build a stable region. “The new Middle East was being built on very fragile ground,” he told Reuters.

DISTANCED FROM HAMAS

Israel has rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire: Netanyahu has said there would be no halt to its attack until hostages are returned. His government has pledged to destroy Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

While criticising Israel’s conduct of the war, Abu Dhabi has also condemned Hamas for its attack. The UAE sees the Palestinian militant group and other Islamists as a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond.

“Hamas is not their favourite organisation,” said one of the sources. “It is Muslim Brotherhood after all.”

The UAE has led the charge against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist organisation in the Arab World.

It helped Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi topple Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in a military takeover in 2013 that followed mass protests against his rule. The UAE provided Egypt with billions of dollars in support following Mursi’s ouster.

Abu Dhabi also abandoned Sudan’s former Islamist president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019, ultimately leading to the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood’s grip on power there after it had dominated Sudanese politics for decades. The UAE had previously pumped billions of dollars into Sudan’s coffers.

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Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive

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Nearly three dozen trucks entered Gaza on Sunday in the largest aid convoy since the war between Israel and Hamas began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of needs after thousands of people broke into warehouses to take flour and basic hygiene products.


Also read | Israel-Hamas war, Day 23 updates

The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, as Israeli tanks and infantry pursued what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion. The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Communications were restored to most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people Sunday after an Israeli bombardment described by residents as the most intense of the war knocked out phone and internet services late Friday.

Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt, a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar, told The Associated Press.

After visiting the Rafah crossing, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called the suffering of civilians “profound” and said he had not been able to enter Gaza. “These are the most tragic of days,” said Karim Khan, whose court has been investigating the actions of Israeli and Palestinian authorities since 2014.

Khan called on Israel to respect international law but stopped short of accusing it of war crimes. He called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a serious violation of international humanitarian law. “The burden rests with those who aim the gun, missile or rocket in question,” he said.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had struck more than 450 militant targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centers and anti-tank missile launching positions. Huge plumes of smoke rose over Gaza City. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said dozens of militants were killed.

Hagari also blamed Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yehiya Sinwar, for bringing destruction upon his people with the Oct. 7 attack. “We will chase him until we get him,” he said. Hamas has said it is sworn to Israel’s demise.

The Hamas military wing said its militants clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest Gaza Strip with small arms and anti-tank missiles. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.

The aid warehouse break-ins were “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” said Thomas White, Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. “People are scared, frustrated and desperate.”

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the crowds broke into four facilities on Saturday. She said the warehouses did not contain any fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel cut off all shipments. Israel says Hamas would use it for military purposes and that the militant group is hoarding large stocks of fuel for itself in the territory. That claim could not be independently verified.

One warehouse held 80 tons of food, the U.N. World Food Program said. It emphasized that at least 40 of its trucks need to cross into Gaza daily just to meet growing food needs.

President Joe Biden in a call with Netanyahu on Sunday “underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza,” the U.S. said.

Israeli authorities said they would soon allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But the head of civil affairs of COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, provided no details on how much aid would be available. Elad Goren also said Israel has opened two water lines in southern Gaza within the past week. The AP could not independently verify that either line was functioning.

Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in Gaza came under growing threat. Residents living near Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, said Israeli airstrikes overnight hit near the complex where tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.

“Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult,” Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, said by phone. “It seems they want to cut off the area.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said nearby Israeli airstrikes damaged parts of another Gaza City hospital after it received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday ordering it to evacuate. Some windows were blown out, and rooms were covered in debris. The rescue service said airstrikes have hit as close as 50 meters (yards) from the Al-Quds Hospital where 14,000 people are sheltering.

Israel ordered the hospital to evacuate more than a week ago, but it and other medical facilities have refused, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.

“Under no circumstances, hospitals should be bombed,” the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Israel says most Gaza residents have heeded its orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged territory, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones. More than 1.4 million people across Gaza have fled their homes.

An Israeli airstrike hit a two-story house in Khan Younis on Sunday, killing at least 13 people, including 10 from one family. The bodies were brought to the nearby Nasser Hospital, according to an AP journalist at the scene.

The military escalation has increased domestic pressure on Israel’s government to secure the release of some 230 hostages seized by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7 attack.

Hamas says it is ready to release all hostages if Israel releases all of the thousands of Palestinians held in its prisons. Desperate family members of the Israeli captives met with Netanyahu on Saturday and expressed support for an exchange. Israel has dismissed the Hamas offer.

“If Hamas does not feel military pressure, nothing will move forward,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told families of the hostages Sunday.

The Israeli military has stopped short of calling its gradually expanding ground operations inside Gaza an all-out invasion. Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants battle in dense residential areas.

Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate among civilians, putting them in danger.

The violence has inflicted serious damage on Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The territory’s sole power plant shut down shortly after the war began. Hospitals are struggling to keep emergency generators running to operate incubators and other life-saving equipment, and UNRWA is trying to keep water pumps and bakeries running. As water ran short, some Gazans bathed in the sea.

About 20,000 people were sheltering at Nasser Hospital, emergency director Dr. Mohammed Qandeel said. “I brought my kids to sleep here,” said one displaced resident who gave her name only as Umm Ahmad. “I used to be afraid of my kids playing in the sand. Now their hands are dirty with the blood on the floor.”

The fighting has raised concerns that the violence could spread across the region. Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in daily skirmishes along Israel’s northern border. Hagari said Israel on Sunday struck three militant cells that fired from Lebanon into Israel and killed militants who were trying to enter. Hamas said its forces in Lebanon fired 16 missiles at the Israeli city of Nahariya. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said it also fired missiles at several sites.

The Israeli military said Sunday night that rockets from Syria fell in open Israeli territory. It did not report any injuries.

More than 120,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes because of violence along the border with Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon.

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

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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

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Hezbollah | The party of God

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With Israel intensifying its bombardment of Gaza, in which more than 7,700 people were killed in 22 days, fears of a wider regional war are also rising. Israel started bombing Gaza, a tiny, defenceless enclave of 2.3 million people, who have been sandwiched between Israel proper and the Mediterranean Sea, after Hamas, an Islamist militant group that controls the land strip, carried out a cross-border raid on October 7, killing at least 1,400 Israelis. After Israel started the retaliatory strikes, Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militant group that had fought Israel in the past, fired rockets into the Shebaa Farms, a Lebanese territory on the border that Israel occupies, showing “solidarity” with the Palestinians. Last week, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah met Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders and offered support for the “Palestinian resistance”. Some Hezbollah fighters also tried to infiltrate into northern Israel after the Gaza war began. Israel responded with heavy shelling of southern Lebanon. As tensions rise, the world is watching whether Hezbollah would open another front or Israel carry out pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon, widening the conflict.

Also Read | UNGA vote on Gaza | India defends abstention, says resolution should have referred to October 7 terror attacks on Israel

Ironically, the roots of Hezbollah go back to Israel’s 1982 war on Lebanon, which the then Likud Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, said would bring “forty years of peace for Israel”. Lebanon was in the grip of a devastating civil war that began in 1975. According to Lebanon’s post-French Constitution, power was divided among the country’s different communities — the Presidency is reserved for Christians, the Premiership for Sunnis and the Speakership for the Shias. Roughly 40% of Lebanon’s population are Arab Shias. The influx of the Palestinian refugees into Lebanon and the relocation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) to Lebanon from Jordan in 1971 would create fissures in the country’s delicate confessional system, which would lead to the civil war. While the Sunnis and Maronite Christians were the powerful sects, Shias were the invisible majority, sidelined by the major players and post-colonial institutions.

Israel attacked Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, first to push the PLO out of the border region and then out of the country. In 1982, the PLO would agree to leave Lebanon, but one community that bore the brunt of Israel’s disproportionate bombing was the already marginalised Shias.

Three years earlier, a geopolitical earthquake had shaken West Asia — in Iran, which was an American ally, Shia Mullahs captured power after bringing down a thousands of years old monarchy. Iran, which was already fighting a conventional war with Iraq (1980-88), sensed an opportunity in Lebanon’s chaos. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Iranian regime helped mobilise thousands of Shias in Lebanon in 1982 to form a loose network of what was then unofficially called the ‘Islamic Resistance’.

Early attacks

One of the first targets of the Islamic Resistance was the Multinational Forces (MNF) deployed in Lebanon. In April 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed, killing 63 people. In October, 305 people, mostly American and French soldiers, were killed in suicide attacks on their military barracks. Following these attacks, the MNF would leave the country, providing the first victory to the newly organised Shia militants. Israeli troops retreated to a “security zone” in southern Lebanon. In 1985, the Islamic Resistance would come up with a manifesto, calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, vowing to oust occupied forces from Lebanon and declaring allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader. According to some reports, it was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader, who picked the name ‘Hezbollah’ (literally ‘the Party of God’) for the new movement.

Over the years, Hezbollah has built sprawling social, political and military networks with deep roots in Lebanon’s Shia community. In southern Lebanon, a Shia stronghold, it carried out a disciplined, effective, popular guerilla war against the occupying Israeli forces, turning the ‘security zone’ into what Adam Shatz calls an ‘insecurity zone’. The party organisation has been built in a Leninist order, centralising authority in the hands of the Secretary General. The chief would oversee a seven-member Shura council, like the Polit Bureau of a communist party, and then there are sub councils. Their social network caters to the Shia working class, offering support, including healthcare and education assistance, in a country where the state is systemically weak, while the political and parliamentary councils have played the role of a kingmaker in Lebanon’s fractured polity since 1992, when Hezbollah participated in the elections for the first time. Yet, the most important arm is the Jihad Council, which controls its military activities.

Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s co-founder Abbas al-Musawi in 1992 as part of a policy of targeted killings to weaken rival outfits. But the man who succeeded Musawi, Hassan Nasralla, turned Hezbollah into a socio- politico-militant giant, “a state within the state”, though it has been designated as a terrorist outfit by Israel and several of its allies. In 2000, after 18 years of occupation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak decided to unilaterally withdraw from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah celebrated as “the first Arab victory in the history of Arab-Israeli conflict”. But Israel’s withdrawal would not quieten the Lebanese border. Hezbollah said it would continue to fight the Israelis as long as its occupation of Shebaa Farms and Palestinian territories continues. In its 2019 updated manifesto, Hezbollah reiterated its commitment for the destruction of Israel.

War with Israel

In 2006, after Hezbollah carried out a raid and abducted two Israeli soldiers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared war against the militant group. The war lasted for over 30 days and even on the last day of fighting, Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets into Israel. Israeli air strikes and ground attacks destroyed much of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, but the group survived, and emerged politically stronger in Lebanon. In the subsequent years, Hezbollah rebuilt its military power, mainly with help from Iran. From the 1980s, Syria’s Baathist regime has been a conduit between Iran and Hezbollah. When Bashar al-Assad’s regime was losing control in the midst of the Syrian civil war, Nasrallah despatched thousands of soldiers to fight alongside the Syrian Army. Under Russian air cover and with support from Iran, the Syrian Army, Hezbollah and other Shia militias turned around the civil war. Hezbollah emerged stronger out of the Syrian conflict, with newly gained battlefield experience. It has also strengthened the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. In recent years. Israel has carried out repeated air strikes inside Syria, mainly targeting Iranian supplies for Hezbollah.

Israel sees Hezbollah as a potent rival, unlike other non-state actors, including Hamas. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, the militia has up to 20,000 active fighters and as many reservists, with an arsenal of small arms, tanks, drones, and long-range rockets. Last November, while briefing about Israel’s past conflicts with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, an Israeli Brigadier told this writer they never underestimated Hezbollah, which “has now amassed more than 1,00,000 rockets”. “Hezbollah is a tough enemy. They have very good military equipment. They are very well-trained,” he said, requesting anonymity. That Israel has mobilised 3,50,000 troops, including all reservists, suggests that it is taking the risk of a wider war seriously. Hezbollah, on the other side, keeps everyone guessing, while reiterating its rhetorical support for Hamas. “We are fully ready to fight Israel when time comes,” says the ‘Party of God’.

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US Preparing For Possible Mass Evacuation If Israel-Hamas War Escalates: Report

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Israel is preparing for a ground offensive against Hamas.

Washington:

The Joe Biden administration in the United States is preparing for the possibility of carrying out a mass evacuation of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from the Middle East if the ongoing conflict in Gaza isn’t contained, the Washington Post reported citing officials.

This comes as Israeli forces, aided by US weapons and military advisers, prepare for a ground offensive against Hamas terrorists responsible for the horrific cross-border attack on October 7 that killed over 1400 people.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail internal deliberations, said Americans living in Israel and neighbouring Lebanon are of particular concern, though they stressed that an evacuation of that magnitude is considered a worst-case scenario and that other outcomes are seen as more likely, Washington Post reported.

Still, one official said, it “would be irresponsible not to have a plan for everything.”

The US administration, despite its public support for Israel, is deeply alarmed by the prospect of escalation, and in recent days it has turned its attention in part to the complicated logistics of abruptly having to relocate a large number of people, according to three people familiar with the discussions, as per Washington Post.

There were about 6,00,000 US citizens in Israel and another 86,000 are believed to be in Lebanon when Hamas attacked, according to State Department estimates.

The concern in Lebanon is chiefly over the terror group Hezbollah, which, along with allies, currently controls the largest number of parliamentary seats. It entered parliament in 1992. It has long accepted training and weapons from Iran, prompting concerns that it could attack Israel from the north, creating a two-front war that would stretch Israeli forces. Already, there have been skirmishes along their shared border, the Washington Post reported.

“This has become a real issue,” one official said. “The administration is very, very, very worried that this thing is going to get out of hand.”

The administration’s concern extends beyond those two countries, as officials watch the street protests that have spread across the Arab world, putting both US personnel and citizens in the region at heightened risk.

The bombardment of Gaza has inflamed regional fury at Israel and its treatment of Palestinians — an issue some officials believed no longer carried as much importance in the Arab world.

“The street to a large extent is now in charge,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former official in the Clinton administration.

“We were told for the last 10 years that the Arab world and Muslim world didn’t care about Palestine anymore, and Abraham Accords were proof of that,” Riedel added, referring to agreements, signed by the governments of Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.

“Well, Palestine has come back. I don’t think it ever went away,” Washington Post quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, more than 5,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians and children, have been killed amid unrelenting Israeli airstrikes since the October 7 attacks, Palestinian health officials say.

Last week, the State Department issued an advisory to all US citizens worldwide “to exercise increased caution” due to “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, [and] demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests”, the Washington Post reported.

The warning was in response to demonstrations that have erupted in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict and broader anger in the Arab world over Washington’s full political, economic and military backing of Israel.

Many experts warn that depending on the scale of a potential US evacuation, it could be more difficult than any previous operations in recent memory. It could involve Air Force aircraft or Navy warships, which have surged to the region this month.

“With 600,000 Americans in Israel and threats to other Americans across the region, it’s hard to think of an evacuation that might compare to this in scale, scope and complexity,” said Suzanne Maloney, the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.

“The sort of advisories the State Department has put out lately have been fairly blunt,” Washington Post quoted her as saying.

On Monday, the Pentagon also signalled that it is bracing for a significant increase in attacks on US troops in the Middle East, and the department singled out Iran for its extensive sponsorship of groups with a long history of using rockets and drones to target American military positions. In response, Pentagon officials said, they are surging additional missile-defense systems to the region.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that a “broader escalation” is possible “in the days ahead.” Senior military leaders, he said, are taking “all necessary measures” to safeguard US personnel.

Particularly vulnerable are the estimated 3,400 troops deployed in Iraq and Syria, where earlier in the day US personnel based near the Jordan border intercepted at least two one-way attack drones, the Washington Post reported citing officials.

“We don’t necessarily see that Iran has explicitly ordered them to take these kinds of attacks,” Ryder said. “That said, by virtue of the fact that they are supported by Iran, we will ultimately hold Iran responsible.”

It’s unclear how many times deployed personnel have come under fire since the Israel-Hamas crisis began October 7.

The Post reported citing officials said that the Pentagon was compiling a list of confirmed incidents but that the effort had been hampered by what one senior defense official called the profusion of “disinformation and misinformation.”

Meanwhile, no US personnel are known to have been killed or seriously injured in any of the spillover violence. An American contractor in Iraq did suffer a fatal heart attack last week as troops and others at the Ain al-Asad air base raced to take cover from what proved to be a false alarm of an incoming attack, Washington Post reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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