Gaza Border Clash

Hezbollah drone attack kills 4 Israelis, Gaza strikes leaves 20 dead

An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics. The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded people from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents. Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was give

51 killed in Israeli strikes on southern Gaza, claim Palestinian officials

Israeli strikes killed at least 51 people in southern Gaza overnight, including women and children, as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas' October 7 attack ignited the war there, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran. Israel has launched ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Tehran fired ballistic missiles on Israel late Tuesday. Separately, Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the Lebanese border town of Odaisseh, forcing them to retreat. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or independent confirmation of the fighting, which would mark the first ground combat since Israeli troops crossed the border this week. Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of ..

22 people killed in Israeli strike on school, says Gaza health ministry

Israeli fire killed 22 people in a strike on a school in the north of the enclave, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday. The strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City injured another 30, the statement said. Earlier Saturday, the Israeli army said it struck a Hamas command and control centre, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as a school.

More than 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, says city's health ministry

The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. Thursday's announcement comes during new efforts to broker a cease-fire to the conflict, now in its 11th month. The count does not distinguish between civilians and militants. It reflects the magnitude of Israel's offensive in Gaza, one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. The war began October 7 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and dragging roughly 250 hostages to Gaza. International mediators were set to hold a new round of talks Thursday aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. The United States, Qatar and Egypt were to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war nears 40,000, according to local health authorities. Hama

Netanyahu eyes bolstering US support during visit, but faces protests

Protesters against the Gaza war staged a sit-in at a congressional office building Tuesday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, with Capitol Police making multiple arrests. Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday for a several-day visit that includes meetings with President Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Dozens of protesters rallied outside his hotel Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators took over the rotunda of the Cannon Building, which houses offices of House of Representatives members. Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, protesters wearing identical red T-shirts that read Not In Our Name took over the Rotunda of the Cannon Building, chanting Let Gaza Live! After about a half-hour of clapping and chanting, officers from the U.S. Capitol Police issued several warnings, then began arresting protesters binding their hands with zip ties and leading them away one by one. I am the

Israel quietly sends millions to unauthorized West Bank settler outposts

The Israeli government has budgeted millions of dollars to protect small, unauthorized Jewish farms in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, underwriting tiny outposts meant to grow into full-fledged settlements, according to an anti-settlement monitoring group. Documents uncovered by Peace Now illustrate how Israel's pro-settler government has quietly poured money into the unauthorized outposts, which are separate from its more than 100 officially recognized settlements. Some of those outposts have been linked to settler violence against Palestinians and are sanctioned by the US. Palestinians and the international community say all settlements are illegal or illegitimate and undermine hopes for a two-state solution. The Ministry of Settlements and National Mission, which is headed by a far-right settler leader, confirmed it budgeted 75 million Shekels (USD 20.5 million) last year for security equipment for young settlements the term it uses for unauthorized Jewish farms and outposts in

Israel orders evacuation of part of Gaza humanitarian zone as war's toll up

The Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of part of an area in the Gaza Strip it has designated a humanitarian zone. The military said it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas militants who have embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets toward Israel. The area includes the eastern part of the Muwasi humanitarian zone, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israeli's punishing air and ground campaign. Earlier this month, Israel said it estimates at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared covering a stretch of about 14 kilometers (8.6 miles) along the Mediterranean. Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, U.N. and humanitarian groups say. Families live in the midst of mountains of trash and streams contaminated by sewage. The announcemen

13 Palestinians killed in central Gaza strikes as ceasefire talks continue

At least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinians health officials, as cease-fire talks in Cairo appear to make progress. Among the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The 13 corpses were counted by AP journalists at the hospital. The latest casualties follow a rare moment of hope in war ravaged Gaza, after a medical teams recovered a live baby from a heavily pregnant Palestinian mother killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening. Heavily pregnant Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed along with six others in the blast, but was quickly rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told The Associated Press that a baby boy had .

Israeli officials consider letting EU, Palestinians control Rafah crossing

The US, United Nations and Arab states have urged Israel to reopen it to enable more supplies of food, fuel and medicine to get to Palestinian civilians in Gaza

Israeli PM Netanyahu makes surprise visit to troops in southern Gaza

Netanyahu's visit to Rafah was announced hours after Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site

14k Hamas terrorists killed or apprehended, half of leaders eliminated: IDF

With the majority of Hamas's military council killed in airstrikes, the terror group has begun appointing new leaders and making succession plans to replace other figures viewed as at risk

Rights group finds Hamas militants committed war crimes during Oct attack

Hamas-led armed groups committed numerous war crimes during the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that precipitated the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, according to a global human rights group report released Wednesday. Human Rights Watch said the acts of the Palestinian fighters, who killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 during the attack, met the international legal definition for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The group's report found that five different Palestinian armed groups, led by Hamas' Qassam Brigades, engaged in war crimes and violated international law by killing, torturing, taking hostages, looting and committing crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence. The New York-based rights group said its researchers were unable to independently verify claims of sexual violence and rape but that they relied on a separate report by a special U.N. envoy who found reasonable grounds to believe Hamas fighters committed sexual violence during the ...

'Gaza destruction likely pushed Hamas to soften cease-fire demands'

Several officials in the Middle East and the US believe the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip caused by a nine-month Israeli offensive likely has helped push Hamas to soften its demands for a cease-fire agreement. Hamas over the weekend appeared to drop its longstanding demand that Israel promise to end the war as part of any cease-fire deal. The sudden shift has raised new hopes for progress in internationally brokered negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday boasted that military pressure including Israel's ongoing two-month offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is what has led Hamas to enter negotiations. Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, is highly secretive and little is known about its inner workings. But in recent internal communications seen by The Associated Press, messages signed by several senior Hamas figures in Gaza urged the group's exiled political leadership to accept the cease-fire proposal pitch

From Gaza to Ghaziabad - how 'All Eyes on Rafah' campaign draws scammers

Since the Israeli attack on Rafah happened, email security providers in India have observed a surge in phishing attempts, while consumer protection agencies have noted a rise in complaints about fake

Anti-Israel boycotts hurting McDonald's, KFC in West Asia and Europe

McDonald's became a target of boycotts after photos and videos on social media showed its franchised stores in Israel giving meals to the nation's soldiers following the October 7 attack

'Don't have evidence' of Israel committing genocide in Gaza: Lloyd Austin

Austin referred to the horrors carried out by Hamas on October 7 as a 'war crime' but refrained from calling them a genocide at the hearing on Tuesday

India abstains from UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Gaza ceasefire

India backs resolution affirming the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination

Will reopen border crossing with hard-hit northern Gaza, says Israel

Israel on Friday said it is taking steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including reopening a key border crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced the plans, just hours after President Joe Biden told him that future US support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers. The announcement did not elaborate on quantities or types of items to be let in. Still, despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide Israel crucial military aid and diplomatic support for Israel's six-month war against Hamas. Israel faces growing international isolation after its forces killed seven aid workers helping deliver food in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll soared above 33,000 people on Thursday, with another 75,600 wounded, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but .

US welcomes new Palestinian govt following its call for political reform

The United States has welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian autonomy government, signalling it is accepting the revised Cabinet lineup as a step toward Palestinian political reform. The Biden administration has called for revitalising the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in hopes that it can also administer the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends. The war erupted nearly six months ago, triggered by an October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. In a statement late Friday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States looks forward to working with the new group of ministers to deliver on credible reforms. A revitalised PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region, Miller said. The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has not faced a

US sanctions online media site Gaza Now, its founder for supporting Hamas

The US on Wednesday imposed sanctions on online media site Gaza Now and its founder Mustafa Ayash for allegedly supporting Hamas. US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control says that after the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel the online entity began a fundraising effort in support of the militant organisation. Gaza Now's Arabic channel has more than 300,000 followers on social media channel X, formerly known as Twitter, and a large following on the encrypted chat platform Telegram. Included in the sanctions are firms Al-Qureshi Executives and Aakhirah Ltd., and their director Aozma Sultana, who are alleged to have partnered on multiple fundraising efforts alongside Gaza Now. The sanctions were imposed in collaboration with the UK's Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation. Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson said in a statement that the US and its partners "will continue to leverage our tools to disrupt Hamas' ability to facilitate further attacks. A representati