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The United States, key allies and Arab nations engaged in high-level diplomacy in hopes of avoiding another US veto of a new UN resolution on desperately needed aid to Gaza ahead of a long-delayed vote now scheduled for Thursday morning. The US has been struggling to change the text's references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war. Another sticking point is the inspection of aid trucks into Gaza to ensure they are only carrying humanitarian goods. The current draft proposes a U.N. role, an idea Israel is likely to oppose. US President Joe Biden told reporters on his way back from Milwaukee, Wisconsin late Wednesday afternoon that we're negotiating right now at the UN the contours of a resolution that we may be able to agree to. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, which sponsored the Arab-backed resolution, said earlier that high-level discussions are underway to try to reach agreement on a text that can be adopted. Everyone wants to see a ...
Israeli strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in southern Gaza and troops raided one of the last functioning hospitals in the north as the country pressed ahead with its offensive against Hamas on Tuesday with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm. The offensive, launched in response to Hamas' October 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on US and Israeli targets across the region. Attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have led major shipping companies as well as the oil and gas giant BP to suspend trade through the vital waterway, prompting the US and its allies to launch a new mission to counter the threat. But after meeting with Israeli officials Monday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was not here to dictate timelines or terms." His remarks signalled that the US would continue shielding Israel fro
The UN Security Council delayed until Tuesday morning a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Gaza to allow for urgently needed aid deliveries to a massive number of civilians as members intensified negotiations to try to avoid another veto by the United States. The council said Monday's 5 p.m. EST vote would not take place, and diplomats said negotiations were taking place to get the United States, Israel's closest ally, to abstain or vote yes on the resolution. A key issue is how to implement and sustain a desperately needed aid operation. Human Rights Watch accused Israel earlier Monday of deliberately starving Gaza's population by blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, a method of warfare that it described as a war crime. The United Nations' food agency reported on December 14 that 56 per cent of Gaza's households were experiencing severe levels of hunger, up from 38 per cent two weeks earlier. The draft on the table on Monday morning
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days. Internet and telephone lines went down Thursday evening and were still inaccessible Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel's war against Gaza's ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week. The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group's director. The United Nations' humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were severely disrupted due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south. The offensive, triggered by the unprecedented Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 85% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million
The two-state solution means establishing two separate states for the people of two communities, i.e., Israel for the Jewish and Palestine for the Palestinian people
The United States national security adviser and the Palestinian president were set Friday to discuss postwar arrangements for Gaza which, according to a senior US official, could include reactivating Palestinian security forces driven out by Hamas in its 2007 takeover of the territory. The proposal, floated as one of several, was the first specific indicator of Washington's vision for security arrangements in Gaza if Israel achieves its US-backed objective to end Hamas control of the besieged enclave. Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there and says it won't allow a postwar foothold for the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, a West Bank-based autonomy government led by President Mahmoud Abbas. On Thursday, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, spoke to Israeli leaders about a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war. The
Israel has vowed to keep fighting in Gaza until it crushes Hamas after one of the deadliest single battles of the war for its soldiers, even as it faces mounting international calls for a cease-fire and unease on the part of its closest ally, the United States. The ambush a fresh reminder that Hamas is still able to fight after six weeks of devastating warfare aimed at crushing its military capabilities. Israel has imposed a total siege and flattened much of northern Gaza with a massive air and ground campaign, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Hamas' resilience has called into question whether Israel can defeat Hamas without wiping out Gaza. Support for Hamas has surged among Palestinians, in part because of the militant group's stiff resistance to a far more powerful foe, while Israel's most important ally, the US, has expressed growing discomfort over civilian deaths in what is already one of the 21st century's most devastating military campaigns. We are .
India, voting in favour of a General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, has said the challenge in this extraordinarily difficult time is to strike the "right balance". The 193-member UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the draft resolution at an emergency special session on Tuesday, with 153 nations voting in favour, 10 against and 23 abstentions. India was among the 153 nations that voted in favour of the resolution, adopted amid a round of applause in the GA hall. Those voting against included Austria, Israel, and the US while Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, and the UK were among those who abstained. "India has voted in favour of the resolution just adopted by the General Assembly, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj said after the vote. The resolution, introduced by Egypt, demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and reiterated its demand that all parties comply with their obligations under ..
Some took up positions inside the town of Bani Suhaila on Khan Younis' eastern outskirts
Calls for Gaza evacuations; refugee camp reportedly hit
Israel's military ordered more areas in and around Gaza's second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate on Sunday, followed by heavy bombardment, as it shifted its offensive to the southern half of the territory where it asserts that leaders of the Hamas militant group are hiding. Palestinians in Gaza said they were running out of places to go. The Gaza Strip, bordering Israel and Egypt, is sealed. Many of the territory's 2.3 million people are crammed in the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war sparked by the Oct 7 attack by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Before the latest evacuation orders, United Nations monitors said the areas told to evacuate made up about one-quarter of the territory. Heavy bombardment was reported overnight into Sunday around Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had been the focus of Israel's shattering ai
The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip
Israel's war with Hamas resumed in full force Friday, with airstrikes hitting targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired. Black smoke billowed from the besieged territory, and Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians to leave their homes to avoid the fighting. In Israel, sirens warned of incoming rockets at several communal farms near Gaza, a sign that militants also restarted attacks. The renewed hostilities heightened concerns for Palestinians many of whom have been displaced by the war as well as about 140 hostages still in Gaza, after more than 100 were freed during the truce. Qatar, which has served as a mediator along with Egypt, said negotiators were still trying to restart the cease-fire. Qatar's Foreign Ministry singled out Israel's role in the resumption of fighting and said it complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe". A day earlier, US Secretary of State Antony ...
An Israel-linked tanker seized off Yemen coast
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the BRICS nations to combine their efforts to bring about a just and lasting peace in the war between Israel and Hamas. Ramaphosa was addressing a virtual Extraordinary Joint Meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Leaders and Leaders of invited BRICS members on the situation in the Middle East on Tuesday. He also proposed the deployment of a UN Rapid Deployment Force in Palestine, with a mandate to monitor the cessation of hostilities and protect civilians as well as comprehensive dialogue led and owned by Palestinians and Israelis themselves and facilitated by the United Nations. Besides leaders of BRICS countries, leaders of the new BRICS partners - Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates - also attended virtually, as did United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. As an important voice of the Global South representing a large part of humanity, we believe tha
Israel declares Lashkar-e-Taiba as 'terror organisation'
Internet and phone service was partially restored to the Gaza Strip on Saturday, ending a telecommunications blackout that forced the United Nations to shut down critical humanitarian aid deliveries because it was unable to coordinate its convoys. Meantime, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building on the outskirts of the town of Khan Younis, killing at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken. Early in the war, the Israeli military told civilians to flee northern Gaza, the target of its ground offensive, but also kept up its bombardment in the southern evacuation zone where Khan Younis is located. Israel has signalled plans to expand its offensive south while continuing operations in the north, including Gaza City, where troops were still searching the territory's biggest hospital, Shifa, for traces of a Hamas command centre that Israel alleges was located under the building a claim Hamas and the hospital staff deny. In Khan .
Israel said its troops had found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas at Al Shifa hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip
As a familiar script plays out, the threat to the world economy is limited