Israel-Hamas war: Gaza death toll rises as US ceasefire veto condemned

Israel-Hamas war: Gaza death toll rises as US ceasefire veto condemned

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza City, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Gaza death toll rises to 17,700 with a further 48,780 wounded

The health ministry in Gaza has announced that the death toll in the war-torn region has risen to at least 17,700.

They added that at least another 48,780 people have been wounded in ongoing Israeli attacks.

“The crimes and genocide against the people of Gaza are beyond any description… Ending Palestinian existence with American and European support is inhuman,” the ministry’s spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

UN aid official warns that half of all Gazans are starving

A senior UN aid official has indicated that the food and aid issues are getting significantly worse in Gaza.

Carl Skau, the deputy director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), warned during an interview with Reuters that some nine out of 10 people in the Palestinian territory are not able to eat every day – and added that half the population is starving.

In the interview, Skau explained that nothing had prepared him for the despair, chaos and fear he found when visiting Gaza.

He added that conditions on the ground are making deliveries near impossible and that just a tiny fraction of the food supplies needed are coming into the region.

Tens of thousands take to London’s street to protest war

For the eighth week in a row, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the UK, protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza in London and other cities in the nation.

Most are chanting ‘ceasefire now’ and the majority of the grounds are angry with the government, moreso still since they abstain from voting at the UN Security Council on an immediate ceasefire.

Hamas hostage killed – Haaretz report

It has been reported that Hamas hostage Sahar Baruch has been killed.

The 25-year-old was among the hostages kidnapped by the Hamas militant group on 7 October.

In a joint statement issued to Haaretz, Kibbutz Be’eri and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said: “It is with great sadness and a broken heart that we announce the murder of Sahar Baruch who was kidnapped from his home by Hamas terrorists to Gaza on Black Saturday and murdered there”

“His brother Idan was murdered by Hamas on 7 October. We share in the unbearable grief of his parents, Tami and Roni, his brother, Guy and Niv, his family and all his loved ones,” they added.

“We will demand the return of his body as part of any hostage return deal. We will not stop until everyone is at home.”

The death comes following Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades announcing on Friday via Telegram that a number of its fighters had discovered a special forces unit mounting a rescue attempt and attacked it.

In the process, they say they killed and wounded several soldiers, including one Israeli soldier – named as Sahar Baruch.

Man arrested at pro-Palestine march in London, accused of racially aggravated public order offence

A man has been arrested in London on suspicion of an apparently racially aggravated public order offence during a pro-Palestine march in the capital city.

London’s Metropolitan police force say the man was carrying a placard which made comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

Thousands are expected to attend the march in the city. An exclusion zone has been put in place prohibiting any protesters from assembling around the Israeli embassy.

UN veto: Abbas holds US ‘responsible for bloodshed’ in Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he holds the United States “responsible for the bloodshed” in Gaza, after their veto of a UN resolution for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory.

The Americans, allies of Israel, reiterated their hostility to a cease-fire on Friday.

Describing the American position as “immoral”, President Abbas said he held Washington “responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli occupying forces.”

According to a statement from his office, the United States is “partners” with Israel in its “crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war”, whether committed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

“This policy is becoming a danger for the world and a threat to international security and peace,” added Mr. Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had already described the failure at the UN as a “shame” and “a new licence given to the occupying state to massacre, destroy and displace”.

Palestinian death toll rises to 17,487

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry has announced that the death toll from the start of the conflict on 7 October has risen to 17,487.

In a statement, spokesman Dr Ashraf Al-Qedra said that 70% of those killed were children and women.

Al-Qedra added that in the past 24 hours 71 fatalities had arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Arab-Islamic committee calls on US to step up ceasefire pressure on Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the Arab-Islamic Summit Ministerial Committee in Washington DC.

Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs says the Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani were also in attendance.

“During the session… members of the ministerial committee stressed their call for the United States to play a broader role in pressuring the Israeli occupation for an immediate ceasefire,” the ministry said in a statement on X – formerly Twitter.

It also added that members of the committee also expressed “their disappointment at the failure of the UN Security Council, for the second time, to vote on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons, after the United States used its veto power.”

‘Relentless’ bombardments hit Gaza Strip

Israeli warplanes struck parts of the Gaza Strip overnight into Saturday in relentless bombardments, including some of the dwindling slivers of land Palestinians had been told to evacuate to in the territory’s south.

The latest strikes came a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other nations. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining.

“Attacks from air, land and sea are intense, continuous and widespread,” UN

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before the vote. Gaza residents “are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival.”

Guterres told the council that Gaza was at “a breaking point” with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse, and that he feared “the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region.”

In response to the US vetoing the resolution, Hamas branded the nation’s decision ‘inhumane’.

No escape for many Palestinians

Gaza’s borders with Israel and with Egypt are effectively sealed, leaving Palestinians with no option other than to try to seek refuge within the territory.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the start of the war has surpassed 17,400, the majority of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, accusing the militants of using civilians as human shields, and says it’s made considerable efforts with its evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way.

On Saturday, Gaza residents reported airstrikes and shelling in the northern part of the strip as well as in the south, including the city of Rafah, which lies near the Egyptian border and where the Israeli army had ordered civilians to evacuate to.

The main hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 71 people killed in bombings in the area over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said Saturday morning. The hospital also received 160 wounded, the ministry said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the bodies of 62 people and another 99 wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

Why has there been no ceasefire – or renewed truce agreement?

More than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the collapse of the truce on 1 December.

About two-thirds of that number were women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Despite growing international pressure, the Biden administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to survive and pose a threat to Israel.

Officials have expressed misgivings in recent days about the rising civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis, but have not pushed publicly for Israel to wind down the war, now in its third month.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued a cease-fire would be a victory for Hamas. “A cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas, dismissing the hostages held in Gaza, and signalling terror groups everywhere,” he said.

As fighting resumed after a brief truce more than a week ago, the US urged Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow more aid to besieged Gaza. The appeals came as Israel expanded its blistering air and ground campaign into southern Gaza, especially the southern city of Khan Younis, sending tens of thousands more fleeing.

Airstrikes were reported overnight in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where resident Omar Abu Moghazi said a strike hit a family home, causing casualties.

There were also airstrikes and shelling in Gaza City and other northern parts of the strip.

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #Gaza #death #toll #rises #ceasefire #veto #condemned

Israel Hamas war: Israel widens evacuation orders as strikes intensify

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Kamala Harris, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel’s military has ordered more areas in and around Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate, as it shifted its offensive to the southern half of the territory where it says many Hamas leaders are hiding.

Heavy bombardments were reported overnight and into Sunday in the area of Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had previously been the focus of Israel’s blistering air and ground campaign.

Many of the territory’s 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israeli forces ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the 2-month-old war.

With the resumption of fighting, hopes have receded that another temporary truce could be negotiated. A weeklong cease-fire, which expired on Friday, had facilitated the release of dozens of Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address on Saturday night.

UK to carry out flights over Gaza to locate hostages

The United Kingdom will carry out surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to help locate hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the British Ministry of Defence has announced.

“Since the terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, the British government has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages, including British nationals, who were kidnapped,” the ministry wrote in a statement.

“The safety of British nationals is our top priority,” it adds.

“To support hostage rescue operations, the UK Ministry of Defense will carry out surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including airspace over Israel and Gaza,” the statement said.

These planes “will not be armed” and “will not have a combat role”. Their sole mission will be to locate the hostages. “Only information relating to the release of hostages will be transmitted to the competent authorities responsible for the release of hostages.”

Some 240 people were kidnapped on 7 October during Hamas’ unprecedented deadly attack in southern Israel, then taken to the Gaza Strip.

A seven-day truce allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in the hands of Hamas and 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

But nearly 140 people are still detained in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

Evacuation orders step up

On Sunday, the Israeli military widened evacuation orders in and around Khan Younis, asking residents of at least five more areas and neighbourhoods to leave for their safety.

Residents said the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering residents to move south to Rafah or to a coastal area in the southwest.

“Khan Younis city is a dangerous combat zone,” the leaflets read.

UN monitors said in a report issued before the latest evacuation orders that the residents who were told to leave make up about one-quarter of the territory of Gaza. The report said that these areas were home to nearly 800,000 people before the war.

Ahead of a resumption of fighting, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, had warned Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement.

New targets hit by IDF

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its fighter jets and helicopters “struck terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnel shafts, command centres and weapons storage facilities” overnight, while a drone killed five Hamas fighters.

In northern Gaza, rescue teams with little equipment scrambled Sunday to dig through the rubble of buildings in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other neighbourhoods in Gaza City in search for potential survivors and dead bodies.

“They strike everywhere,” said Amal Radwan, a woman sheltering in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp. “There is the non-stop sound of explosions around us.”

Mohamed Abu Abed, who lives in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City, also said there were relentless airstrikes and artillery shelling in his neighbourhood and surrounding areas.

“The situation here is imaginable,” he said. “Death is everywhere. One can die in a flash.”

US Vice President condemns death toll rise

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the overall death toll in the strip since the 7 October start of the war had surpassed 15,200 – a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on 20 November.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began.

US appeals to protect civilians came after an offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza.

The territory itself, bordering Israel and Egypt to the south, is sealed, leaving residents with the only option of moving around within Gaza to avoid the bombings.

“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Saturday during the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, said Israel was making “maximum effort” to protect civilians and the military has used leaflets, phone calls, and radio and TV broadcasts to urge Gazans to move from specific areas. He added that Israel is considering creating a security buffer zone that would not allow Gazans direct access to the border fence on foot.

Israel say they are targeting Hamas hideouts, allegedly among civilians

Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbourhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed in the offensive in northern Gaza.

Bombardments on Saturday destroyed a block of about 50 residential buildings in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City and a six-story building in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on the northern edge of the city, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

More than 60 people were killed in the Shijaiyah strikes and more than 300 buried under the rubble, the monitors said, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense, said rescuers lack bulldozers and other equipment to reach those buried under the rubble, confirming the Red Crescent estimate of about 300 people missing. He said the block had housed over 1,000 people.

“Retrieving the martyrs is extremely difficult,” he said in video comments from the site of the attack.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in a meeting that “under no circumstances” would the US permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to a US summary.

Source link

#Israel #Hamas #war #Israel #widens #evacuation #orders #strikes #intensify

Israel-Hamas war: Bombing of Gaza intensifies as death toll grows

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza attack, Hamas, Israel Hamas war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Further truces are unlikely to go ahead – reports

In the clearest sign yet that a return to negotiations for further truces is unlikely, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed negotiators to return to Israel from Qatar.

They had been continuing discussions in Qatar on a new truce with Hamas but were called back to Israel because the dialogue was “at an impasse”, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Kamala Harris speaks out on ongoing conflict

US Vice President Kamala Harris, in Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, has said in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that “under no circumstances” would the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza or redrawing of its borders.

Harris was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the centre” of planning the next steps for Gaza after the conflict, according to the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasised the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

Israelis call for Benjamin Netanyahu to resign

Thousands of Israeli protesters in Caesarea are protesting outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for him to step down.

Over the past few weeks, demonstrators have been gathering in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Caesarea to protest what they believe is Netanyahu’s mishandling of the case of hostages being held in Gaza.

On Saturday, at the same time the demonstration was going on outside Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, another was taking place in Tel Aviv, also demanding that the Israeli prime minister resign his post.

Gaza says fatalities surpass 15,200 – 70% of them women and children

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has announced the death toll has surpassed 15,200 and that 70% of those killed were women and children.

The figure was announced on Saturday by ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who did not provide further details.

The previous toll given by the ministry was more than 13,300 dead. Al-Qidra did not explain the sharp jump. However, the ministry had only been able to provide sporadic updates since 11 November amid problems with connectivity and major war-related disruptions in hospital operations. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

More than 40,000 people have been wounded, al-Qidra said.

Aid trucks enter Rafah crossing for first time since truce ended

A fresh batch of aid trucks has entered through the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing for the first time since the seven-day truce in Gaza ended, the Palestinian Red Crescent has announced.

“The Palestine Red Crescent crews have now received aid trucks through the Rafah crossing from our partners in the Egypt Red Crescent,” PRCS posted on X – formerly Twitter.

No aid trucks were able to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday as Israel immediately renewed its attacks on the besieged enclave following the conclusion of the truce.

Israel resumes heavy bombing post-truce

Israel has been pounding targets in the southern Gaza Strip, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties.

At least 400 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed on Friday morning, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, even as the United States urged ally Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.

“This is going to be very important going forward,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. “It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”

Many of Israel’s attacks on Saturday were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military said it had struck more than 50 Hamas targets with airstrikes, tank fire and its navy.

Leaflet drops resume – but nowhere for Gazans to go

The IDF dropped leaflets on Friday warning residents to leave but, as of late on Friday, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, according to the United Nations.

“There is no place to go,” lamented Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis.

“They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south.”

Israel’s military said it also carried out strikes in the north, and hit more than 400 targets in all across the Gaza Strip.

Some 2 million people – almost Gaza’s entire population – are currently crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start.

Unable to go into north Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometre area.

UN criticises IDF’s evacuation ‘plan’

In response to US calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map, but it has done more to confuse than to help.

It divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels, sometimes across roads or blocks, and asks residents to learn the number of their location in case of an eventual evacuation.

“The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to,” the UN office for coordinating humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territory noted in its daily report. “It is unclear how those residing in Gaza would access the map without electricity and amid recurrent telecommunications cuts.”

Egypt has expressed concerns the renewed offensive could cause Palestinians to try to cross into its territory. In a statement late on Friday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the forced transfer of Palestinians “is a red line.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in Dubai on Saturday for the COP28 climate conference, was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the centre” of planning the next steps for the Gaza Strip after the conflict, according to the White House. US President Joe Biden’s administration has been emphasising the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

What will become of the remaining hostages?

The renewed hostilities have also heightened concerns for 136 hostages who, according to the Israeli military, are still held captive by Hamas and other militants after 105 were freed during the truce. For families of remaining hostages, the truce’s collapse was a blow to hopes their loved ones could be the next out after days of seeing others freed.

The Israeli army said on Friday it had confirmed the deaths of four more hostages, bringing the total of known dead to seven.

During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians from its prisons. Most of those released from both sides were women and children.

A halt on humanitarian aid

Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza to Khan Younis and other parts of the south earlier in the war, part of an extraordinary mass exodus that has left three-quarters of the population displaced and facing widespread shortages of food, water and other supplies.

Since the resumption of hostilities, no aid convoys or fuel deliveries have entered Gaza, and humanitarian operations within Gaza have largely halted, according to the UN

The International Rescue Committee, an aid group operating in Gaza, warned the return of fighting will “wipe out even the minimal relief” provided by the truce and “prove catastrophic for Palestinian civilians.”

Up until the truce began, more than 13,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s assault, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since 11 November.

The ministry says thousands more people are feared dead under the rubble.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbourhoods. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in northern Gaza. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #Bombing #Gaza #intensifies #death #toll #grows

Fraternal ties and humanitarian gestures go hand in hand for the UAE in support of Gaza

Post By World Israel Hamas war, Palestine, two-State solution, UAE Gaza Aid, West Asia conflict

The war-weary world, especially the Arabian Peninsula, can heave a sigh of relief that Israel and Gaza-based militant group Hamas have reached a six-day truce for the exchange of detainees as well as delivery of relief aid and humanitarian assistance for Gazans, who have borne the brunt of an Israeli onslaught since the October 7 Hamas attack that reportedly killed 1200 Israelis and abducted another 240.

The directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, to airlift 1,000 injured Gazan children and 1,000 cancer patients and treat them prior to their safe return home has offered a reprieve for Palestinians caught in the quagmire that is the Israel- Hamas conflict.

Ever since Israel began its military retaliation on Hamas in Gaza, the UAE has been vocal about the rights of civilians in the war zone. Apart from persistent pleas to stop the bombardment, the UAE, which established full diplomatic relations with the Jewish nation in September 2020 through the Abraham Accords, made an entreaty in the UN Security Council through its ambassador Lana Nousseibeh. “Access to fuel, food, water, medical aid, and other basic necessities must be fully restored. We must create a framework for rapid, unimpeded, and safe humanitarian access for the brave workers who are risking their lives today on the ground.” She expressed her nation’s disappointment at the vetoing of draft resolutions seeking a respite for Gaza, which has seen the death of over 14,000 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air and ground raids.

The UAE, like other Arab nations in the region, does not intent to upset the applecart that is regional peace and stability, and propel West Asia into a full-fledged war. It has instead opened humanitarian corridors, sending flights of aid through the Egyptian city of Arish and pledging funds to the tune of US$ 20 million. According to Dr Maha Barakat, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Health, the UAE has dispatched 51 planes carrying 1,400 tonne of food, medical, and relief supplies in coordination with international organisations such as the UN World Food Programme.

Individual brands and companies in the country chipped in with their profits and earnings not to mention young school children, who contributed their savings or cancelled Deepawali celebrations in solidarity with the suffering millions in the Palestinian enclave.

The Tarahum for Gaza (Compassion for Gaza) campaigns in late October saw residents and citizens turn up in large numbers in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to pack relief material as well as make donations in cash and kind for the war victims.

For Indian expatriates Owais Asgar Bade and Ashwin Mathew, university students who took part in the Sharjah drive on October 22, volunteering for the cause was the least they could do for the people of Gaza. “I was driven by a desire to make a tangible impact and support those in need, and it turned out to be a profound experience. It showcased the power of collective efforts in providing essential aid to those going through challenging circumstances,” said Mr. Bade. “In fact, the campaign brought to the venue such large numbers of people that the packing was over much earlier than anticipated,” noted Mr. Mathew who had helped pack groceries.

From despair to hope

On November 18, the first plane carrying 15 Palestinians including children and their guardians – most often one parent, with the other staying behind to tend to their remaining children – and medical volunteers landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport from Al Arish airport in Egypt. Pregnant women as well as children in need of urgent medical assistance, such as those suffering from severe injuries, burns and cancer, had reached Arish through the Rafah crossing in an operation that takes 15 hours. The second and thirds flights landed on November 21 and 28 respectively, and more such missions are on the anvil.

The UAE President also ordered the establishment of an integrated field hospital and three desalination plants in Gaza as part of the “Gallant Knight 3” operation. The 150-bed hospital, to be built in stages, will include the departments of general surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics, dentistry, psychiatry and gynaecology, in addition to anaesthesia and intensive care units for both children and adults. Moreover, 31 premature babies shifted from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza are being cared at the UAE-run Al Helal Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah.

Truce and two-state solution

Since the war began, Abu Dhabi saw visits from the King of Jordan and the Emir of Qatar for a collaborative action, which reached fruition with the Qatar-brokered truce on November 24. The UAE, which condemned the Hamas attack as “a grave and serious escalation”, was also critical of Israel’s ground operations in Gaza that compounded the humanitarian tragedy. At the Cairo Peace Summit on October 21 attended by the UAE and 30 other regional and international players, the UAE President appealed to the international community to “work together to avert further violence and wider instability”.

At a November 21 virtual summit of BRICS countries addressing the situation in West Asia, Sheikh Mohammed reiterated that the only way to address the crisis is to revive the peace process and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Soon after the escalation of war in October, UAE carriers had cancelled flights to Tel Aviv due to safety concerns. However, according to media reports, UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani al Zeyoudi stated that trade with Israel will remain unaffected as “we don’t mix the economy and trade with politics”. Since 2022, the Arab nation has a free trade pact with Israel that removed or reduced tariffs on 96% of goods traded between the two nations, and this has seen a boom in bilateral trade to the tune of US$ 2.56 billion in 2022 and $3 billion by the end of 2023. Visa-free entry for citizens of both countries had ensured a surge in tourist arrivals, with 1,50,000 Israelis having visited the UAE in 2022.

(Roshin Mary George is an independent journalist based in the UAE.

Source link

#Fraternal #ties #humanitarian #gestures #hand #hand #UAE #support #Gaza

Israel-Hamas war: Further hostage swaps expected as ceasefire holds

Post By World Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Hostages, Israel Hamas war, Palestine, The Gaza Strip

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

PRCS: Palestinian killed in refugee camp Gaza despite truce

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) says a Palestinian farmer has been killed and another injured in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza strip.

It appears they were targeted by Israeli forces but there has been no immediate comment from Israel about the incident.

The death comes during an ongoing four-day truce deal agreed by Hamas and Israel, which began on Friday.

That day, at least two Palestinians are thought to have been killed by Israeli forces while they were making the journey to northern Gaza.

Israel tells Palestinians not to move north in Gaza amid truce

Israel’s military has asked Palestinians not to move to the north of the Gaza Strip during the ongoing four-day truce.

Following its start on Friday, the IDF took to social media to warn civilians that they must not move to the north of the Strip, but tells them they are “allowed to move south”, specifically south of Wadi Gaza.

The IDF also added that both getting within one kilometre of the Israeli border is also prohibited as is entering the sea.

Hamas confirms death of top military leader and three commanders

The armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas has announced the death of the military commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade and three other senior figures during the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory.

Ahmed al-Ghandour was also a member of the Hamas Military Council and was considered a “terrorist” by American authorities. Among the three other executives named in the press release is Ayman Siam, Hamas’ head of the rocket firing array.

New exchange of hostages for prisoners planned for the third day of truce

A new exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinian prisoners is planned for Sunday, the third day of the truce between Israel and the Islamist movement in power in Gaza, after two previous swaps.

As a sign of the fragility of the truce, Saturday’s releases were delayed by several hours, with Hamas accusing Israel of not respecting the terms of the agreement concluded on Wednesday with the backing of Qatar and the support of the United States and Egypt.

The Israeli government said it had a list of those kidnapped who were to be released on Sunday, but did not reveal their identity, number or expected time.

Israeli forces kill at least 8 Palestinians in surging West Bank violence – despite truce

Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank have killed at least eight Palestinians in a 24-hour period, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, as a fragile pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered its third day.

Violence in the West Bank has surged in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in the West Bank. Jewish West Bank settlers have also stepped up attacks.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in the militant stronghold of Jenin, while three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning – despite the truce. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli father and son at a West Bank car wash earlier in the year. In its statement on Sunday, the military made no mention of clashes, nor of the Palestinian deaths, but said forces were still operating in the area.

Second day of hostage swap goes ahead in tense exchange

Hamas militants have released 17 hostages – including 13 Israelis – from captivity in the Gaza Strip, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage of a four-day cease-fire.

The late night exchange on Saturday was held up for several hours after Hamas accused Israel of violating their agreement. The delay underscored the fragility of the cease-fire, which has halted a war that has shocked and shaken Israel, caused widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip, and threatened to unleash wider fighting across the region.

The ceasefire, brokered by Qatar and the United States, is the first extended break in fighting since the war began. Overall, Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners. All are women and minors.

Israel has said the truce can be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive and complete its goals of returning all hostages and destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.

The plight of the hostages has gripped the Israeli public’s attention. Thousands of people gathered in central Tel Aviv on Saturday in solidarity with the hostages and their families. Many accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring the hostages home. The releases have triggered mixed emotions: happiness, coupled with angst over the scores of hostages who remain in captivity.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early on Sunday that it had received a new list of hostages slated to be released later in the day in the third of four scheduled swaps.

In the West Bank, hundreds of people burst into wild celebrations for a second night as a busload of Palestinian prisoners arrived early Sunday. Teenage boys released in the deal were carried on the shoulders of well-wishers in the main square of the town of Al Bireh. But the mood of celebration was dampened by scenes of destruction and suffering in Gaza.

The start of the pause brought quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who are reeling from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and levelled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also went silent.

The United Nations said the pause enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water, and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of aid convoys on Oct. 21. It was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (about 35,000 gallons) of fuel – just over 10% of the daily pre-war volume – as well as cooking gas, a first since the war began.

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #hostage #swaps #expected #ceasefire #holds

Palestinian families rejoice over release of minor, women from Israeli prisons amid ceasefire

Post By World Israel Hamas truce, Israel Hamas war, Palestine, Palestinian prisoners, Prisoners released Israel

Over three dozen Palestinian prisoners returned home to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank on November 24 following their release from Israeli prisons as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The procession of freed prisoners, some accused of minor offences and others convicted in attacks, at a checkpoint outside of Jerusalem stoked massive crowds of Palestinians into a chanting, clapping, hand-waving, screaming frenzy.

Fifteen dazed young men, all in stained grey prison sweatsuits and looking tight with exhaustion, glided through the streets on the shoulders of their teary-eyed fathers as fireworks turned the night sky to blazing colour and patriotic Palestinian pop music blared.

Israel-Hamas truce updates November 25

Some of those released were draped in Palestinian flags, others in the green flags of Hamas. They flashed victory signs as they crowd-surfed.

The International Red Cross confirmed that its teams had started carrying out a multi-day operation to facilitate the release and transfer of hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinian detainees https://t.co/zAWRJ6Gntb pic.twitter.com/aTDKsuLn88

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 24, 2023

“I have no words, I have no words,” said newly released 17-year-old Jamal Brahma, searching for something to say to the hordes of jostling journalists and thousands of chanting Palestinians, many in national dress. “Thank God.” Tears fell down his father Khalil Brahma’s cheeks as he brought his son down from his shoulders and looked him in the eye for the first time in seven months. Israeli forces had arrested Jamal at his home in the Palestinian city of Jericho last spring and detained him without charge or trial.

“I just want to be his father again,” he said.

The release of the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails came just hours after two dozen hostages, including 13 Israelis, were released from captivity in Gaza in the initial exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners during the four-day ceasefire that started on Friday.

Editorial | Cease fire: On the danger of Israel turning Gaza into an open prison on fire

Children hold Palestinian flags sitting atop a car as family members welcome released Palestinian prisoner Fatima Amarneh, amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, near Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on November 25, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Although the atmosphere was festive in the town of Beitunia near Israel’s hulking Ofer Prison in the West Bank, people were on edge.

The Israeli government has ordered police to shut down celebrations over the release. Israeli security forces at one point unleashed tear gas canisters on the crowds, sending young men, old women and small children sprinting away as they wept and screamed in pain.

“The army is trying to take this moment away from us but they can’t,” Mays Foqaha said as she tumbled into the arms of her newly released 18-year-old friend, Nour al-Taher from Nablus, who was arrested during a protest in September at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. “This is our day of victory.” The Palestinian detainees freed on Friday included 24 women, some of whom had been sentenced to years-long prison terms over attempted stabbings and other attacks on Israeli security forces. Others had been accused of incitement on social media.

There were also the 15 male teenagers, most of them charged with stone-throwing and “supporting terrorism”, a broadly defined accusation that underscores Israel’s long-running crackdown on young Palestinian men as violence surges in the occupied territory.

For families on both sides of the conflict, news of the exchange — perhaps the first hopeful moment in 49 days of war — stirred a bittersweet jumble of joy and anguish.

“As a Palestinian, my heart is broken for my brothers in Gaza, so I can’t really celebrate,” said Abdulqader Khatib, a UN worker whose 17-year-old son, Iyas, was placed last year in “administrative detention”, without charges or trial and based on secret evidence. “But I am a father. And deep inside, I am very happy.” Israel is now holding an all-time high of 2,200 Palestinians in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, in a controversial policy that Israel defends as a counter-terrorism measure.

Since October 7, when Hamas took roughly 240 Israeli and foreign citizens hostage and killed 1,200 Israelis in its unprecedented rampage through southern Israel, Palestinians have wondered about the fate of their own prisoners.

Israel has a history of agreeing to lopsided exchanges. In 2011, Hamas got Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a single captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit.

A prisoner release touches Palestinian society to its core. Almost every Palestinian has a relative in jail — or has been there himself. Human rights groups estimate that over 7,50,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967.

Whereas Israel views them as terrorists, Palestinians refer to them by the Arabic word for prisoners of war, and devote a good chunk of public funds to supporting them and their families. Israel and the U.S. have condemned the grants to prisoner families as an incentive for violence.

“These kinds of prisoner exchanges are often the only hope families have to see their sons or fathers released before many years go by,” said Amira Khader, international advocacy officer at Addameer, a group supporting Palestinian prisoners. “It’s what they live for, it’s like a miracle from God.” Since the Hamas attack, Israel has escalated a months-long West Bank crackdown on Palestinians suspected of ties to Hamas and other militant groups. Many prisoners are convicted by military courts, which prosecute Palestinians with a conviction rate of more than 99 per cent. Rights groups say Palestinians are often denied due process and forced into confessions.

There are now 7,200 Palestinians in Israeli prison, said Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, with over 2,000 arrested since October 7 alone.

Source link

#Palestinian #families #rejoice #release #minor #women #Israeli #prisons #ceasefire

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu says war against Hamas will not stop after ceasefire

Post By World ceasefire, Gaza, Hamas, israel always at war, israel ceasefire, Israel Hamas war, israel news, Netanyahu, Netanyahu war, Palestine

Israel and Hamas on Tuesday appeared close to a deal to temporarily halt their devastating six-week war for dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip to be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

But as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for a vote, he vowed to resume the Israeli offensive against Hamas as soon as the truce ends.

“We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.”

The Israeli Cabinet was expected to vote on a plan that would halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza for several days in exchange for the release of about 50 of the 240 hostages held by Hamas. Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns all hostages.

Hamas predicted a Qatari-mediated deal could be reached in “the coming hours.”

Israeli PM tells cabinet hostage deal is ‘right decision’

Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged that the Cabinet faced a tough decision, but supporting the ceasefire was the right thing to do. Mr. Netanyahu appeared to have enough support to pass the measure, despite opposition from some hard-line ministers.

Mr. Netanyahu said that during the lull, intelligence efforts will be maintained, allowing the army to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until “Gaza will not threaten Israel.”

The announcement came as Israeli troops battled Palestinian militants in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza and around hospitals overcrowded with patients and sheltering families.

Details of the expected ceasefire deal were not released. Israeli media reported that an agreement would include a five-day halt in Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for some 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV said the first releases would take place on Thursday or Friday and continue for several days.

Talks have repeatedly stalled. But even if a deal is reached, it would not mean an end to the war, which erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped some 240 others.

In weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, and more than 2,700 others are missing and believed to be buried under rubble, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says it has been unable to update its count since Nov. 11 because of the health sector’s collapse.

Gaza health officials say the toll has risen sharply since, and hospitals continue to report deaths from daily strikes, often dozens at a time.

The Health Ministry in the West Bank last reported a toll of 13,300 but stopped providing its own count on Tuesday without giving a reason. Because of that, and because officials there declined to explain in detail how they tracked deaths after Nov. 11, the AP decided to stop reporting its count.

The Health Ministry toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants but has not provided evidence for its count.

In southern Lebanon, an Israeli strike killed two journalists with Al-Mayadeen TV, according to the Hezbollah-allied Pan-Arab network and Lebanese officials. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. A separate Israeli drone strike in Lebanon killed four Hamas members, a Palestinian official and a Lebanon security official said.

The Israeli military has been trading fire almost daily across the border with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Palestinian militants since the outbreak of the war.

Israel, the United States and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas, have negotiated for weeks over a hostage release that would be paired with a temporary cease-fire and the entry of more aid.

In Washington, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that a deal on releasing some hostages was “very close.”

“We could bring some of these hostages home very soon,” he said at the White House.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari expressed optimism, telling reporters that “we are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.” He added that negotiations were at a “critical and final stage.”

Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said Tuesday that an agreement could be reached “in the coming hours,” in which Hamas would release captives and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. Hamas’ leader-in-exile, Ismail Haniyeh, also said they were close to a deal.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV, citing anonymous Israeli officials, said a truce could be extended and additional Palestinian prisoners released if there were additional hostages freed.

Inside Gaza, the front line of the war shifted to the Jabaliya refugee camp, a densely built district of concrete buildings near Gaza City that houses families displaced in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has bombarded the area for weeks, and the military said Hamas fighters have regrouped there and in other eastern districts after being pushed out of much of Gaza City.

The fighting in Jabaliya also affected two nearby hospitals, trapping hundreds of patients and displaced people sheltering inside. A strike Tuesday hit inside one of the facilities, al-Awda, killing four people, including three doctors, the hospital director told Al-Jazeera TV. The director, Ahmed Mahna, blamed the strike on Israel, a claim that AP could not independently confirm. The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders confirmed that two of the doctors killed worked for it.

Residents of Jabaliya said there was heavy fighting as Israeli forces tried to advance under the cover of airstrikes. “They are facing stiff resistance,” said Hamza Abu Mansour, a university student.

The Israeli military said strikes hit three tunnel shafts where fighters were hiding and destroyed rocket launchers. Footage released by the military showed Israeli soldiers patrolling on foot as gunfire echoed around them.

It was not possible to independently confirm details of the fighting.

It’s unclear how many Palestinian civilians remain in northern Gaza, but the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that some 160,000 people are still in its shelters there, though it can no longer provide services. Thousands more still shelter in several hospitals in the north even after many fled south in recent weeks.

Most hospitals are no longer operational. The hospital situation in Gaza is “catastrophic,” Michael Ryan, a senior World Health Organization official, said Monday.

With Israeli troops surrounding the Indonesia Hospital, also near Jabaliya, staff had to bury 50 dead in the facility’s courtyard, a senior Health Ministry official in the hospital, Munir al-Boursh, told Al-Jazeera TV.

Up to 600 wounded people and some 2,000 displaced Palestinians remain stranded at the hospital, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

A similar standoff played out in recent days at Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, where over 250 patients and medical workers are stranded after the evacuation of 31 premature babies.

Israel has provided evidence in recent days of a militant presence at Shifa. But it has yet to substantiate its claims that Hamas had a major command center beneath the facility, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have crowded into the southern section of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli strikes have continued and where the military says it intends to extend its ground invasion. Many are packed into U.N.-run schools and other facilities across the territory’s south or sleeping on the streets outside, even as winter rains have pelted the coastal enclave in recent days.

There are shortages of food, water and fuel for generators across all of Gaza, which has had no central electricity for over a month.

Strikes overnight crushed residential buildings in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 20 people, according to hospital officials. Footage from the scene showed the legs of five young boys sticking out from under a collapsed concrete slab of one home.

Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets throughout Gaza, often killing women and children. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

Source link

#Israel #Prime #Minister #Netanyahu #war #Hamas #stop #ceasefire

Israel-Hamas war: IDF claim tunnel discovery under Shifa hospital

Post By World Al Shifa hospital, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Palestine

The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea, taking crew members hostage

Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel and took the crew as hostages. The group warned that it would continue to target ships in international waters that were linked to or owned by Israelis until the end of Israel’s campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

“All ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets,” the Houthis said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had blamed the Houthis for the attack on the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said the 25 crew members had a range of nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican and Ukrainian, but that no Israelis had been on board.

The Houthis said they were treating the crew members “in accordance with their Islamic values,” but did not elaborate on what that meant.

Netanyahu’s office condemned the seizure as an “Iranian act of terror.” The Israeli military called the hijacking a “very grave incident of global consequence.”

Israeli officials insisted the ship was British-owned and Japanese-operated. However, ownership details in public shipping databases associated the ship’s owners with Ray Car Carriers, which was founded by Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is known as one of the richest men in Israel.

Ungar told The Associated Press he was aware of the incident but couldn’t comment as he awaited details. A ship linked to him experienced an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli media blamed it on Iran at the time.

The complex world of international shipping often involves a series of management companies, flags and owners stretching across the globe in a single vessel.

Two US defence officials confirmed that Houthi rebels seized the Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on Sunday afternoon local time. The rebels descended on the cargo ship by repelling down from a helicopter, the officials said, confirming details first reported by NBC News. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter.

Twice in the last month, US warships have intercepted missiles or drones from Yemen that were believed to be headed towards Israel or posing a threat to the American vessels.

The Red Sea, stretching from Egypt’s Suez Canal to the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa, remains a key trade route for global shipping and energy supplies. That’s why the US Navy has stationed multiple ships in the sea since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.

Since 2019, a series of ships have come under attack at sea as Iran began breaking all the limits of its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. As Israel expands its devastating campaign against Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip following the militant group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, fears have grown that the military operations could escalate into a wider regional conflict.

The Houthis have repeatedly threatened to target Israeli ships in the waters off Yemen.

Israeli army claims it has discovered 55-metre-long tunnel under Shifa hospital

The Israeli army has said that it has discovered a 55 metre long tunnel used “for terrorism” by Hamas under the besieged Shifa hospital in Gaza.

The IDF says it has been searching since Wednesday to find a Hamas military base.

Posting a video of the discovery on X – formerly Twitter – they claim the tunnel is ten metres deep, with a steep staircase leading to the entrance. The IDF also added in a press release that the tunnel is equipped with several means of defence including an armoured door.

“This type of gate is used by Hamas organisation terrorists to prevent Israeli forces from entering command centres,” the IDF claimed.

The tunnel was apparently discovered in an area of the hospital under a hangar containing weapons, including “grenade launchers, explosives and Kalashnikov rifles”, the army said.

Israeli forces have besieged the hospital since Wednesday, leading to the evacuation of a large number of its patients.

The army claims that Hamas has a hideout there, which the movement denies.

Volker: ‘Horrific events’ in Gaza ‘beyond comprehension’

The “horrific events” that have taken place in Gaza over the past 48 hours “are beyond comprehension”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said on Sunday.

“The killing of so many people in schools turned into shelters, hundreds fleeing al-Shifa hospital to save their lives while thousands of others continue to be displaced in southern Gaza, are actions that run counter to the basic protections that international law must afford civilians,” he warned in a statement.

France to send Dixmude helicopter carrier for hospital support

France is preparing to send the Dixmude helicopter carrier to the Middle East “in the coming days”, configured to offer “hospital support” to Gaza, the Elysée declared on Sunday.

The Dixmude will set off “at the beginning of the week” and “will arrive in Egypt in the coming days”, a spokesperson for the French president said.

“A new charter of a plane carrying more than 10 tonnes of medical cargo for the start of the week” was also announced.

“France will also contribute to the European effort with medical equipment on board European flights on November 23 and 30,” the Elysée said, adding, “France is mobilising all the means at its disposal to help evacuate injured or sick children from the Gaza Strip to its hospitals who need urgent care.”

Emmanuel Macron met with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on Saturday.

They discussed the pressing situation of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the ongoing negotiations.

Macron and his Egyptian counterpart are said to have agreed on: “the need to increase the number of trucks entering Gaza and to strengthen coordination for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the treatment of the wounded.”

Palestinian Authority will meet with Muslim leaders in China on Monday

A delegation of foreign ministers from the Palestinian Authority and four predominantly Muslim countries will visit China on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, Beijing announced on Sunday.

The foreign ministers of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia – a non-Arab country but with the largest Muslim population in the world – as well as the secretary general of the The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will be part of the delegation.

“During the visit, China will maintain in-depth communication and coordination with the delegation… to promote de-escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, protection of civilians and a fair settlement of the Palestinian issue,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan against Israel’s bombing in Gaza

Tens of thousands of supporters from Pakistan’s main religious political party have rallied in the eastern city of Lahore against Israel’s bombing of Palestinians in Gaza and what it said is the world’s failure to protect Gazans.

Amid anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans the emotionally charged crowd also called for jihad, or holy war.

Earlier this month, Jamaat-e-Islami held massive rallies in the port city of Karachi and the capital, Islamabad.

Supporters, including women and children, marched for several kilometres to reach the location of the rally, holding banners and posters with slogans opposing Israel and the United States and in support of the Palestinians.

Senator Sirajul Haq, the JI chief, said the ongoing rallies in support of Palestinians around the world awaken world governments and give a voice to the innocent.

He said the resolutions and words issued by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation will not work, and that Muslim rulers have to rise and to stop the hand of the aggressor.

Qatar: ‘minor’ obstacles before an agreement on hostages

The conclusion of an agreement on the release of hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian movement Hamas during its attack on 7 October against Israel now rests on “minor” practical questions, the Qatari prime minister said on Sunday, without providing a timetable.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor… They are more logistical, they are more practical,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani during a press conference in Doha alongside Josep Borrell.

Negotiations for a deal have been “up and down over the last few weeks. I think I’m more confident now that we are close enough to reach an agreement that will allow these people (the hostages) to return home safely,” he added.

Evacuation of 31 premature babies from Shifa hospital announced

31 premature babies who were still in Gaza’s Shifa hospital after its evacuation yesterday have been removed from the establishment, Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told AFP

According to him, “three doctors and two nurses are accompanying them” and “preparations are underway to evacuate them to Egypt” via the Rafah terminal, the only opening to the world from the Palestinian territory which is not in the hands of Israel.

Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing total to 62 since war began

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said in a statement on Sunday, bringing to 62 the number of soldiers killed since the start of the war.

The three new victims were all reservists and were killed in the north of the Gaza Strip, said the army, which is relentlessly shelling the Palestinian territory and has launched a ground offensive there to “eradicate” the Islamist Hamas movement.

Scores of patients left at beseiged Shifa Hospital after mass evacuation

A United Nations team has said that some 291 patients are left at Gaza’s largest hospital after Israeli troops made all others evacuate.

Those left include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, trauma patients with severely infected wounds and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move.

The team was able to tour Shifa Hospital for an hour after about 2,500 displaced people, mobile patients and medical staff left the sprawling compound Saturday morning, said the World Health Organisation, which led the mission.

It added that 25 medical staff remained, along with the patients.

“Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,” the agency said, describing Shifa as a ‘death zone’.

It said more teams will attempt to reach Shifa in the coming days to try to evacuate patients to southern Gaza, where hospitals are also overwhelmed.

Israel has long alleged that Hamas maintains a sprawling command post inside and under Shifa. It has portrayed the hospital as a key target in its war to end the militants’ rule in Gaza following their wide-ranging attack into southern Israel six weeks ago, which triggered the war.

Hamas and hospital staff deny the allegations. Israeli troops who have been based at the hospital and searching its grounds for days claim they have found guns and other weapons and showed reporters the entrance to a tunnel shaft.

Saturday’s mass departure was portrayed by Israel as voluntary, but the WHO said the military had issued evacuation orders, and some of those who left described it as a forced exodus.

“We left at gunpoint,” Mahmoud Abu Auf told The Associated Press by phone after he and his family left the crowded hospital. He said he saw Israeli troops detain three men.

Strikes continue – in north and south

Elsewhere in northern Gaza, dozens of people were killed in the urban Jabalia refugee camp when what witnesses described as an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded UN shelter Saturday.

The Israeli military, which has repeatedly called on Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, said only that its troops were active in the area “with the aim of hitting terrorists.” It rarely comments on individual strikes, saying only that it targets Hamas while trying to minimise civilian harm.

In southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building near the town of Khan Younis on Saturday, killing at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken.

Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, said a convoy of staff members and their families tried to evacuate northern Gaza in a clearly marked convoy on Saturday but turned back after shots rang out at a crowded Israeli checkpoint. On their way back to Gaza City, the convoy was attacked and a staffer’s family member was killed, it said. It was not immediately clear who attacked the convoy.

More than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants; Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #IDF #claim #tunnel #discovery #Shifa #hospital

Israel-Hamas war: How is China juggling Israeli economic ties with its pro-Palestine stance

Post By World China, diplomacy, Gaza Strip, Hamas, Israel, israel palestine, Israel-China, Palestine, Palestine-China

The story so far: Commenting on Beijing’s stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on October 24, stated that Tel Aviv had a right to self-defence against Hamas. In a telephone call with his counterpart Eli Cohen, Mr. Wang re-affirmed that every country has a right to self-defence but should abide by international humanitarian law and protect civilians, according to a Bloomberg report.

Previously, Beijing had termed Israel’s actions as “beyond the scope of self-defence,” as Tel Aviv ordered one million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours ahead of its ground assault. Mr. Wang said, “Israel’s actions go beyond the scope of self-defence. It should heed the calls of the international community and avoid collective punishment of the people of Gaza,” in a phone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on October 14.

(FILES) US President Joe Biden (R) and China’s President Xi Jinping (L) meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 14, 2022.
| Photo Credit:
SAUL LOEB

Beijing’s comment regarding Tel Aviv came before Mr. Wang’s Washington visit where he was set to discuss a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden. China, Israel’s largest Asian trading partner, has offered to mediate peace talks between Israel and Hamas as the war escalated. As of date, Israel has reportedly killed over 9700 people in Gaza via air and ground strikes since October 7 when Hamas killed over 1400 people in Israel and took 240 residents as hostage.

Through the years, Beijing’s relations with Israel has evolved from recognising it as an independent Jewish state to supporting the establishment of Palestine as part of a two-state solution.

Historical ties – Military, then diplomatic

Recognition & boost in arms sale

China was one of the first countries to recognise Israel as an independent sovereign nation following the formation of Israel in 1949. Similarly, Israel too recognised the Communist party-established People’s Republic of China in 1950, a year after the Communist Party defeated the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War.

Since then the ties between the two nations remained weak as China aligned with several Arab nations and even supported the Palestinian cause. At the Bandung Conference in 1955, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai pledged support for establishing Palestine as an independent nation. Later in the 1960s, members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) visited China where they were offered military training by Beijing.

Sino-Arab ties strengthened further in the 1970s when several Arab nations and Iran faced were facing armed revolutions and a change in administration to a more dictatorial and military leadership from a democratic western-backed political government. Throughout these revolutions, China supported most Arab military leaderships, both ideologically and by supplying arms.

As China entered the Deng Xiaoping era, Sino-Israeli ties revived in a pragmatic manner. Tapping into China’s ambition to expand its military, in the 1980s, Israel began exporting equipment such as missiles, radars, and navigation systems as well as transferring military technology. These military contracts were promoted by the United States in the last stages of the Cold War (late 1980s to 1991) in a bid to contain the Soviet Union (USSR) and break through Israel’s diplomatic isolation.

Notable military deals include technology transfer of Israel’s Python-3 air-to-air missiles which aided in the development of China’s PL-8 missiles (both ground-to-air and ship-to-air). China also imported the EL/j-7M-2032 planar array radar system which was integrated into its J-7 fighter jets – the Chinese version of the MiG-21.

Diplomacy strengthens, US hinders military ties

Military ties between China and Israel were subject to Western ire during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when the PLA used military force to clear student protestors at the Square, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. The U.S. and many European nations condemned the PLA’s aggression, threatening to suspend military technical projects with Beijing, and subsequently banning arms sales to it.

Israeli embassy in Beijing
| Photo Credit:
Ng Han Guan

By 1992, the military ties transformed into diplomatic ones, with each country formally opening embassies in Tel Aviv and Beijing respectively. As China sought to fill the vacuum created by the fall of USSR in a post-Cold War world, the U.S. viewed its growing global stature as competition to its own. Post-Tiananmen Square, Washington started expressing concerns over Sino-Israeli military pacts, accusing Tel Aviv of transferring sensitive American military technology to China. Throughout the 1990s, China and Israel kept their defence deals under wraps to avoid US scrutiny. However, arms exports from Israel to China remained $28-38 million on average each year, as per Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In 2000, the U.S. stalled the sale of Israel’s Phalcon airborne early warning and control systems (AEWC) to Beijing, fearing its potential use in an offensive against Taiwan. This soured Sino-Israeli military ties, with Tel Aviv agreeing to pay China $350 million in compensation and strengthening its ties with the U.S. Similarly, in 2005, Washington objected to the upgradation of China’s Harpy drones, bought from Israel, claiming that it contained U.S.-produced subsystems. The deal was eventually cancelled.

Sino-Israel defence deals have been stalled since then.

Sino-Israeli economic ties

Since the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1992, Israel and China have robust economic trade relations. Bilateral trade was estimated to be $50 million in 1992 and has now rapidly expanded to $17.62 billion in 2022, according to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). With Benjamin Netanyahu coming to power in 2009 and Xi Jinping in 2013, the two nations strengthened their technological cooperation, pushing massive Chinese investment in Israel.

Israel-China trade 2013-22

China launched its ambitious infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in 2013 and chose Israel as its biggest investment destination among the Middle Eastern and North Africa (MENA) nations. Between 2005 and 2018, China invested $12.19 billion in construction projects in Israel, according to AEI China Global Investment Tracker. This is despite Israel not formally joining the initiative.

Israeli exports to China

Israeli trade deficit

China also imports Israeli computers, electronic and optic equipment, minerals and mining materials, chemicals, metals, food and beverages, plastic, rubber, wood and leather, agriculture, forestry and fishing goods. As per INSS, Israel’s exports to China has grown from $2.58 billion in 2013 to $4.5 billion in 2022.

Similarly, Israel too imports many Chinese goods, mainly cars, batteries, electronic equipment, machinery, and consumer products. Its imports from China have increased from $5.64 billion in 2013 to $13.12 billion in 2022, adding $8.62 billion in trade deficit to the Israeli economy. After the European Union ($49.19 billion), and the U.S. ($22.04 billion), China is Israel’s third biggest trading partner – dealing almost entirely in goods and commodities, not services.

China’s stance on Israel-Palestine dispute

Since 1950, Beijing has backed Palestine’s claim for independence, but never commented on Israeli settlements in West Bank. Most recently, at the Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing, Mr. Xi called for a ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and expressed hope for implementing the two-state solution (establishing Israel and Palestine as independent nations as per UN-drawn borders).

Zhai Jun, left, special envoy of the Chinese government on the Middle East issue, meets with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023

In the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas, most Western leaders condemned the militant group, with state heads visiting Israel. However, China has not condemned Hamas. It sent its Middle East envoy Zhai Jun to Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — but to neither Israel nor Palestine.

Both Russia and China vetoed the U.S.-led proposal at the UN Security Council calling for UN action in the Israel-Gaza war, asserting Tel Aviv’s right to defend itself and demanding Iran stop exporting arms to militant groups. Beijing vetoed the proposal claiming that it “did not reflect the world’s strongest calls for a ceasefire and help resolve the issue.”

However, China supported an Arab-backed UN proposal that called for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in Gaza. While the motion passed, fourteen nations including Israel and the U.S. voted against it. China’s actions were severely condemned by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who called it a “despicable call for a ceasefire.”

China initially criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza, calling it “beyond the scope of self-defence,” and asserted that “justice has not been done to the Palestinian people.” However, following the Hamas attack, China reaffirmed Tel Aviv’s right to defend itself while highlighting civilian casualties in Gaza and omitting Israeli casualities.

In an interview to news network Al Jazeera, William Figueroa, an assistant professor at the University of Groningen, said that the Chinese playbook in the Middle East often followed the same pattern — an cautious initial stance, calls for peace, condemning violence against civilians and primarily focusing on Palestinian grievances. He added that China’s deep economic ties with oil-rich states like Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iran has prompted it to take a more pro-Palestine stance.

Uyghurs & the U.S. link to China’s pro-Palestine stance

China’s stance has also been linked to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ support for China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The vast community’s forced detention in camps has been termed as ‘genocide’ by most Western nations, but this was denied by Mr. Abbas. Terming China’s action in Xinjiang as countering extremism and terrorism, Mr. Abbas condemned interference in Beijing’s internal affairs. Incidentally, the majority of Uyghur Muslims and Palestinian Muslims fall under the Sunni sect of Islam.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on June 14, 2023

Israel, on the other hand, signed a declaration at the UN Human Rights Council in 2022, expressing “grave concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” but did not term it a genocide.

Another factor fueling China’s stance against Israel is Washington’s steadfast support of Israel, extending to sending troops to counter Hamas. Openly condemning the U.S., China’s state-controlled daily Global Times has accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire by blindly backing Israel in the ongoing conflict.” Pinning the increasing civilian casualties on the US, Global Times said that the US was “stained with the blood of innocent civilians.”

Beijing, which heads the UN Security Council this month, has called for a closed-door deliberations by its fifteen members next week on the Israel-Hamas war, focusing mainly on Gaza. While Beijing hopes for a ceasefire soon with its involvement in the negotiations, it seems unlikely in the face of Israel’s siege of Gaza.

Source link

#IsraelHamas #war #China #juggling #Israeli #economic #ties #proPalestine #stance

Why Ireland’s leaders are willing to be tougher on Israel than most

Post By World Ireland, Irish politics, Israel, Leo Varadkar, Palestine, Sinn Fein

A long anti-colonial history and specific recent incidents mean Irish-Israeli relations are noticeably strained by European standards.

Like other European countries, Ireland is watching in horror as thousands of people are killed in Gaza, knowing that among them are likely to be some of its own citizens.

One particularly shocking case stands out: that of Emily Hand, an eight-year-old girl who was thought to have been killed by Hamas terrorists at a kibbutz during the massacre on 7 October.

Her father was initially informed of her likely death, but DNA tests have indicated her body was not among the remains recovered from the kibbutz.

She is now thought to be alive and held hostage in Gaza, providing the Irish government with an imperative to secure her release – if at all possible – requiring intense diplomatic work as fighting rages in Gaza.

But at home in Ireland, Hand’s case is part of a complicated political reality. While many European governments have hesitated to condemn Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – if they have criticised it at all – many Irish leaders have taken a noticeably tougher tone.

The Irish Taoiseach (prime minister), Leo Varadkar, has repeatedly condemned the Hamas massacre of 1,400 people in Israel, but has also said that Israel’s response in Gaza resembles “something more approaching revenge“.

At an international aid conference for Gaza hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday, Varadkar said that failure to observe humanitarian law “can’t be inconsequential”.

Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins, meanwhile, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of nothing less than undermining international human rights norms.

“To announce in advance that you will break international law and to do so on an innocent population, it reduces all the code that was there from Second World War on protection of civilians and it reduces it to tatters,” Higgins said in mid-October as the air campaign in Gaza began to claim increasingly more civilian lives.

His remarks were criticised by the Israeli ambassador in Dublin, Dana Erlich, who accused him of being misinformed and suggested that Israel’s overall impression of Ireland was one of unconscious anti-Israeli bias.

Another Israeli diplomat in Dublin posted their criticism on X: “Ireland wondering who funded those tunnels of terror? A short investigation direction – 1. Find a mirror 2. Direct it to yourself 3. Voilà.” The post has since been clarified and disowned.

Higgins has also been critical of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whom he said was “reckless” in her initial pro-Israeli response to the outbreak of war.

He continues to call for a humanitarian ceasefire, and for international independent verification of the death toll in Gaza – a number currently reported only by the Hamas-run health ministry.

So while many Western European governments remain in near-lockstep, why are Ireland’s leaders noticeably more ambivalent in their public statements about Israel’s actions?

Long memories

For one thing, the two countries have not had the warmest relationship over the last two decades. In 2010, it was revealed that agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, had used counterfeited passports to travel undercover to Dubai, where they assassinated a Hamas leader.

Among their forged travel documents were Irish passports, including some using stolen genuine passport numbers.

The episode put a chill on Irish-Israeli relations, one that marks the relationship to this day. At the time, Irish ministers warned that Mossad’s actions may have put Irish travellers at risk. But six years after the incident, the then-Israeli ambassador to Ireland declined to guarantee that the same thing would not happen again.

On both sides of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, many Irish nationalists have identified with the Palestinian cause for decades, seeing in it a parallel with their own resistance to military violence from the British state.

This resonance is still felt today. Sinn Fein, the largest and oldest party that advocates for Irish reunification, is widely expected to lead the next government in Dublin, and its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, has made her views on Israel abundantly clear.

In 2021, during a major outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence, she told parliament that Israel needed to be condemned as a “racist, apartheid regime”, and grounded her call for Palestinian statehood in the grand narrative of Irish history.

But as independent Irish Senator Tom Clonan, himself a former military officer, told Euronews, while Ireland’s experience of colonisation makes it something of an outlier in Western Europe, most of its politicians or population do not take a negative view of Israel’s existence.

“Irish people support Israel and believe in the legitimacy of the state of Israel,” he said.

“We have strong links in terms of trade, and there’s a large diaspora of Irish Israelis. Chaim Herzog, the president of Israel for most of the 1980s, was an Irish-Israeli who grew up in Dublin! What we’re critical of are the actions of the Netanyahu government.

“Hamas committed truly genocidal attacks on October 7th, breaking all the laws around armed conflict, which it continues to do in Gaza. But at the same time, the Israeli military has failed to provide safe passage to the elderly, the sick, pregnant women and so on, as they are required to under the Geneva Conventions. Forcibly expelling civilians from their homes, firing on hospitals and schools and civilian areas – all of that and more is prohibited.

“That’s what Varadkar was referring to: proportionality of response, which is an objective standard in the law of conflict. In fairness to the British, for instance, when the IRA was setting off bombs in the UK and murdering innocent civilians, including children, the UK government didn’t order air strikes on republican neighbourhoods in Belfast!”

Actions beyond the pale

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has condemned Hamas’ attack, but is also criticising Israel for “ignoring” calls for a ceasefire. And like party leaders to the left of Sinn Fein, she is also calling for the Israeli ambassador in Dublin to be expelled because of Israel’s actions since 7 October.

Varadkar has rejected that call, pointing out that not even the Russian ambassador has been expelled and warning that to eject Erlich would “disempower” Dublin as it tries to get 40-odd Irish citizens out of Gaza.

Varadkar’s partners in the coalition, centre-right party Fianna Fáil, meanwhile hosted Erlich at their annual party conference last weekend. Her appearance was met with outrage on the left, but party leader and current foreign secretary Micheál Martin defended the government’s decision not to expel her, pointing out that to do so would likely result in Ireland’s own ambassador being expelled from Israel just as they try to save Emily Hand and the other Irish citizens trapped in the crossfire.

All the while, Ireland’s voice in Europe remains a distinctive one. Clonan suggests that since Ireland has itself been through a difficult peace process at home, its leaders are perhaps particularly alert to double standards when it comes to the protection of civilians in conflict.

“I was very dismayed when Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Tel Aviv and gave absolutely unqualified support for Israel,” he says. “It must be remembered that when Russia targeted the electricity network in Ukraine, she said that hitting civilian targets there was a war crime.

“I would encourage her to reflect on that, and look at Israel’s actions through that prism as well.”

Source link

#Irelands #leaders #tougher #Israel

Cart

Gaza death toll rises to 17,700 with a further 48,780 wounded

UN aid official warns that half of all Gazans are starving

Tens of thousands take to London’s street to protest war

Hamas hostage killed – Haaretz report

Man arrested at pro-Palestine march in London, accused of racially aggravated public order offence

UN veto: Abbas holds US ‘responsible for bloodshed’ in Gaza

Palestinian death toll rises to 17,487

Arab-Islamic committee calls on US to step up ceasefire pressure on Israel

‘Relentless’ bombardments hit Gaza Strip

No escape for many Palestinians

Why has there been no ceasefire – or renewed truce agreement?

UK to carry out flights over Gaza to locate hostages

Evacuation orders step up

New targets hit by IDF

US Vice President condemns death toll rise

Israel say they are targeting Hamas hideouts, allegedly among civilians

Further truces are unlikely to go ahead – reports

Kamala Harris speaks out on ongoing conflict

Aid trucks enter Rafah crossing for first time since truce ended

Israel resumes heavy bombing post-truce

Leaflet drops resume – but nowhere for Gazans to go

UN criticises IDF’s evacuation ‘plan’

What will become of the remaining hostages?

A halt on humanitarian aid

Truce and two-state solution

PRCS: Palestinian killed in refugee camp Gaza despite truce

Israel tells Palestinians not to move north in Gaza amid truce

Hamas confirms death of top military leader and three commanders

New exchange of hostages for prisoners planned for the third day of truce

Israeli forces kill at least 8 Palestinians in surging West Bank violence – despite truce

Second day of hostage swap goes ahead in tense exchange

Israeli PM tells cabinet hostage deal is ‘right decision’

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea, taking crew members hostage

Israeli army claims it has discovered 55-metre-long tunnel under Shifa hospital

Volker: ‘Horrific events’ in Gaza ‘beyond comprehension’

Palestinian Authority will meet with Muslim leaders in China on Monday

Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan against Israel’s bombing in Gaza

Qatar: ‘minor’ obstacles before an agreement on hostages

Evacuation of 31 premature babies from Shifa hospital announced

Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing total to 62 since war began

Scores of patients left at beseiged Shifa Hospital after mass evacuation

Strikes continue – in north and south

Historical ties – Military, then diplomatic

Sino-Israeli economic ties

China’s stance on Israel-Palestine dispute

Uyghurs & the U.S. link to China’s pro-Palestine stance

Long memories

Actions beyond the pale