Page 12 - Gaza Conflict

Israel to create new Gaza security corridor to pressure Hamas: Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory. The announcement came after Netanyahu's defence minister said that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones. A wave of Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed more than 40 Palestinians, including several women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel ended a ceasefire in March and has imposed a monthlong halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid. Netanyahu described the new axis as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan ..

Israel announces plan to seize parts of Gaza as military operation expands

Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize large areas of the Gaza Strip, the defence minister said Wednesday. Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory was expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a written statement. The defence minister called on Gaza residents to expel Hamas and return all hostages. The militant group still holds 59 captives, of whom 24 are believed to still be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Israel's offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since a ceasefire ended about two weeks ago, according to Gaza's Health Ministr

Israeli military orders mass evacuation of Gaza's southern city of Rafah

The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory's roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement. The evacuation orders appeared to cover nearly all of the city and nearby areas. The military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins. The military seized a strategic corridor along the border as well a

Gaza's bakeries may close within week under Israel's blockade of supplies

Gaza's bakeries will run out of flour for bread within a week, the UN says. Agencies have cut food distributions to families in half. Markets are empty of most vegetables. Many aid workers cannot move around because of Israeli bombardment. For four weeks, Israel has shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for the Gaza Strip's population of more than 2 million Palestinians. It's the longest blockade yet of Israel's 17-month-old campaign against Hamas, with no sign of it ending. Aid workers are stretching out the supplies they have but warn of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition. Eventually, food will run out completely if the flow of aid is not restored, because the war has destroyed almost all local food production in Gaza. We depend entirely on this aid box, said Shorouq Shamlakh, a mother of three collecting her family's monthly box of food from a UN distribution center in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. She and her children reduce their meals

Thousands of Palestinians protest in Gaza in rare call to end Hamas's rule

The demonstrations against Hamas have been largely peaceful, with the militant group's police and security forces rarely appearing in public

Israel moves Gaza detainees to new camps, but abuses persist, say prisoners

Under pressure from Israel's top court to improve conditions at a facility notorious for mistreating Palestinians seized in Gaza, the military transferred hundreds of detainees to newly opened camps. But abuses at these camps were just as bad, according to Israeli human rights organizations that interviewed dozens of current and former detainees and are now asking the same court to force the military to fix the problem once and for all. What the detainees' testimonies show, rights groups say, is that instead of correcting alleged abuses against Palestinians held without charge or trial including beatings, excessive handcuffing, and poor diet and health care -- Israel's military just shifted where they take place. What we've seen is the erosion of the basic standards for humane detention, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked, one of the rights groups petitioning the Israeli government. Asked for a response, the military said it complies with international law and completel

Israeli settlers in West Bank attack Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director

Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary film "No Other Land", was later detained by the Israeli military

Over 65 killed in Gaza strike as Egypt offers new ceasefire proposal

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 65 Palestinians over the past day, including women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday. In less than a week of air and ground operations since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas, its forces have killed hundreds of people in Gaza -- sending the death toll from 17 months of war soaring above 50,000. Meanwhile, officials said Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try and get the ceasefire back on track. Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and a weekslong pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. A Hamas official said the group had responded positively to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the closed-door talks. Meanwhile, Israel has said it fired on a

UN says will reduce footprint in Gaza, blames Israel for staffer's death

The United Nations has said it will reduce its footprint in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli tank strike hit one of its compounds last week, killing one staffer and wounding five others. Israel has denied it was behind the March 19 explosion at the UN guesthouse in central Gaza. In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stphane Dujarric said that based on the information currently available, the strikes on the site were caused by an Israeli tank. He said the UN has made taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organisation's footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar. He said the UN is not leaving Gaza but did not give details on the impact of the decision.

Israel strikes largest hospital in south Gaza; 2 dead, several injured

Israel's military struck the largest hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing one person, wounding others and causing a large fire, the territory's Health Ministry said. The strike hit the surgical building of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the ministry said, days after the facility was overwhelmed with dead and wounded when Israel resumed the war in Gaza last week with a surprise wave of airstrikes. Israel's military confirmed the strike on the hospital, saying it hit a Hamas militant operating there. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. Like other medical facilities around Gaza, Nasser Hospital has been damaged by Israeli raids and strikes throughout the war. More than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war, the Health Ministry said earlier Sunday. The military claimed to have eliminated dozens of militants since Israel ended a ceasefire Tuesday with strikes that killed hundreds of people on on

Israel vows to maintain 'permanent presence' in Gaza unless hostages freed

The wobbly ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday when Israel bombarded Gaza, shattering two months of calm that also saw dozens of hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners

Israel vows severe response to rocket attack from Lebanon amid Gaza ops

Israel said it would respond severely to an attack from Lebanon after rockets were fired into northern Israel Saturday morning, a day after it vowed to increase the intensity of its operations in Gaza. Israel's army said the intercepted rockets were targeting the Israeli town of Metula. This is the second time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel since December, sparking concern about whether the fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would hold. Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into an all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group's senior leaders. The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis. Under the ceasefire reached in November, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all ..

A world much like the 1930s: Echoes of war, tariffs, and autocracy

But three key differences make today even more alarming

Where was UN, Red Cross, world, asks Israeli hostage freed after 491 days

Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi, who was beaten, chained and starved while held for 491 days by Hamas, expressed his anger during an appearance at the UN Security Council on Thursday for having to suffer for so long and worry every day about being killed. Where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world? Sharabi asked. He challenged the UN's most powerful body: If you stand for humanity prove it" by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead. The fate of the remaining hostages became more uncertain after Israel on Tuesday ended a six-week break in the fighting that had allowed for the return of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas militants eating stolen food from dozens of boxes marked with UN emblems while the hostages starved. They were given maybe a piece of pita and a sip of tea a day

58 people killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza: Palestinian officials

Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, according to three hospitals. The strikes hit homes in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya, they said. Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the militant group rejected an Israeli-backed proposal that departed from their signed agreement. More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. There have been no reports of Hamas firing rockets or carrying out other attacks. On Wednesday, Israeli ground troops advanced in Gaza for the first time since the ceasefire took hold in January, seizing part of a corridor separating the northern third of the territory from the south. Israel, which has als

Fragile ceasefire shattered: Why did Israel resume its war in Gaza?

Israel has resumed its military operations in Gaza after ceasefire talks stalled, with Israel and the US pushing to revise the original deal with Hamas

Israel launches ground op to retake part of key corridor in northern Gaza

Israel said Wednesday it launched a limited ground operation in northern Gaza to retake part of a corridor that bisects the territory, and the country's defence minister warned that the army plans to step up the attacks that shattered a two-month ceasefire "with an intensity that you have not seen. The military said it had retaken part of the Netzarim corridor, which bisects northern Gaza from the south and from where it had withdrawn as part of the ceasefire with Hamas that began in January. Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Palestinians in Gaza that the army would again order evacuations from combat zones soon, and that its attacks against Hamas would become more fierce if dozens of hostages held for more than 17 months weren't freed. As Israel continued its airstrikes on Gaza Wednesday, the United Nations said an international United Nations staffer was killed and five others were wounded in a strike Wednesday on a UN guesthouse in Gaza. Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN

'Cold-blooded murder': Priyanka Gandhi slams Israel for killing 400 Gazans

Gandhi criticised the Western countries for their collusion in Israel's act of genocide against the Palestinians

Israeli strikes kill nearly 413 in Gaza, risk fully reigniting Hamas war

Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon and southern Syria on Monday, killing at least 10 people, including a child, according to local authorities. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants plotting attacks. The airstrikes were the latest in what have been frequent and often deadly attacks by Israeli forces during the fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel has blocked all food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza the past two weeks, demanding Hamas accept changes in the two sides' ceasefire deal. In Syria, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel. The strikes hit a residential area in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including four children

Will only release American-Israeli hostage if truce deal implemented: Hamas

Hamas said Saturday it would only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements the existing ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, calling it an exceptional deal aimed at getting the truce back on track. A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire's second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Israel would also need to stop barring the entry of humanitarian aid and withdraw from a strategic corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt. Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Edan Alexander, 21, who grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, was abducted from his military base during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, and is the last living American citizen held in Gaza. Israel has cast doubt on Hamas' offer There was no immediate commen