Page 27 - Gaza Conflict

India shares with Israel its concern over escalating situation in West Asia

India and Israel on Wednesday held a key meeting during which the two sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral endeavours even as New Delhi shared its concern over the "escalating situation" in West Asia and emphasised "restraint, dialogue, and diplomacy", an official statement said. During the 17th India-Israel Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) hosted here, the two sides also shared views on the prevailing situation in the Indo-Pacific, the Ministry of External Affairs said in the statement. The Indian side was led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, and the Israeli side by the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yaakov Blitshtein. "Reiterating India's strong and unequivocal condemnation of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel, the Foreign Secretary called for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages, ceasefire, the need for continued humanitarian assistance, and adherence to international humanitarian law," it said. "At the same time,

UN aid operations in Gaza halted after Israel issues evacuation orders

The official said UN staff on the ground had been directed to try and find a way to keep operating. He said UN operations had not been formally suspended

One of Gaza's last working hospitals empties out as Israeli forces approach

One of Gaza's last functioning hospitals has been emptying out in recent days as Israel has ordered the evacuation of nearby areas and signalled a possible ground operation in a town that has been largely spared throughout the war, officials said Monday. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main hospital serving central Gaza. The military has not ordered its evacuation, but patients and people sheltering there fear that it may be engulfed in fighting or become the target of an Israeli raid. Israeli forces have invaded several hospitals over the course of the 10-month-old war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials. Israeli evacuation orders now cover around 84 per cent of Gaza's territory, according to the United Nations, which estimates that around 90 per cent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have been forced from their homes. Many have been displaced multiple times, fleeing with what they can carry

Economists suggest ending war to revive Israel's struggling economy

In Jerusalem's Old City, nearly all souvenir shops are closed. In Haifa's flea market, forlorn merchants polish their wares on empty streets. Airlines are canceling flights, businesses are failing and luxury hotels are half empty. Nearly 11 months into the war with Hamas, Israel's economy is struggling as the country's leaders grind ahead with an offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to allay concerns by saying the economic damage is only temporary. But the bloodiest, most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas has hurt thousands of small businesses and compromised international trust in an economy once thought of as an entrepreneurial dynamo. Some leading economists say a cease-fire is the best way to stop the damage. The economy right now is under huge uncertainty, and it's related to the security situation how long the war will go on, what the intensity will be and the .

Hezbollah's Nasrallah says attack on Israel completed after drone attack

Expectations of an escalation had risen since a missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month killed 12 youths

Hamas sending delegation to Cairo for update on ceasefire negotiations

In a statement, Hamas spokesman Izzat Al-Rishq said the team, led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya, is traveling "at the invitation of the mediators in Egypt and Qatar."

Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza ahead of high-level ceasefire talks

Multiple Israeli airstrikes killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for high-level cease-fire talks in neighboring Egypt. Among the dead were 11 members of a family, including two children, after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which received a total of 33 bodies from three strikes in and around the city that also hit tuk-tuks and passersby. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it received three bodies from another strike. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. First responders also recovered 16 bodies from the Hamad City area of Khan Younis after a partial pullout of Israeli forces, 10 bodies from a residential block west of Khan Younis and two farther south in Rafah. The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear, but the areas were repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military over the past week. An Associated Press

Israel evacuation orders cram Palestinians into shrinking humanitarian zone

Young girls screamed and elbowed each other in a crush of bodies in southern Gaza, trying desperately to reach the front of the food line. Men doled out rice and chicken as fast as they could, platefuls of the nourishment falling to the ground in the tumult. Nearby, boys waited to fill plastic containers with water, standing for hours among tents packed so tightly they nearly touched. Hunger and desperation were palpable Friday in the tent camp along the Deir al-Balah beachfront, after a month of successive evacuation orders that have pressed thousands of Palestinians into the area that the Israeli military calls a humanitarian zone. The zone has long been crowded by Palestinians seeking refuge from bombardment, but the situation grows more dire by the day, as waves of evacuees arrive and food and water grow scarce. Over the last month, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for southern Gaza at an unprecedented pace. At least 84 per cent of Gaza now falls within the ...

White House says it is making progress on Gaza ceasefire as talks continue

The White House said on Friday that cease-fire talks in Cairo have been constructive and will continue over the weekend as the US and Mideast allies continue to press Israel and Hamas to forge an agreement. CIA Director William Burns and Brett McGurk, a senior adviser on the Middle East to President Joe Biden, are leading the US side of negotiations that began on Thursday amid major differences between Israel and Hamas over Israel's insistence that it maintain forces in two strategic corridors in Gaza. There has been progress made, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, We need now for both sides to come together and work towards implementation. Kirby did not detail where progress had been made, but he did insist that there's been momentum in the conversations among the mediators from the US, Israel and Hamas's interlocutors Egypt and Qatar. Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the

Palestinians plan UN resolution enshrining court demand to end Israel hold

The Palestinians said Thursday they are planning to introduce a U.N. General Assembly resolution in September enshrining the recent sweeping ruling by the U.N.'s top court that declared Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful and setting a time frame for it to end. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel's occupation. We are sick and tired of waiting, he said. The time for waiting is over. The International Court of Justice on July 19 issued an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule o ver the lands it captured 57 years ago. It called for the occupation to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, who spoke to the

Pro-Palestinian leaders say their request for speaker at DNC was declined

Leaders of an Uncommitted movement, which garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries across the nation in protest of the Israel-Hamas war, have been negotiating for weeks to secure a speaking slot for a Palestinian American at the Democratic National Convention this week. The negotiations stalled late Wednesday when leaders with the Uncommitted National Movement say a Democratic National Committee official called and delivered a firm response: The answer is no. The leader, Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted delegate to the convention and co-founder of the movement, described the call as shocking after weeks of talks that he felt were positive. In response, he and other delegates decided to stage a sit-in outside Chicago's United Center, where the convention is being held. They spent the night on the sidewalk on Wednesday, and vowed to remain until their request was granted or the convention ended Thursday night. When we ran out of options doing everything we can and

Israeli strikes kill at least 16 in Gaza, say Palestinian officials

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received the bodies, including the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the bodies. A man held the body of a child wrapped in a white shroud as a woman next to him wept, saying: My love, my soul. The Israeli offensive launched in response to Hamas' October 7 attack has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants or civilians. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted around 250. Around 110 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a ...

Israeli tanks push deeper into central, southern Gaza, as Biden urges peace

A phone call between Biden and Netanyahu late on Wednesday followed a whirlwind trip to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that ended on Tuesday without producing a breakthrough

Parents of American held by Hamas appeal for hostages' release during DNC

The parents of a 23-year-old American taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel gave a moving speech Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, pleading for the release of the dozens of people who continue to be held captive in Gaza. This is a political convention. But needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue, said Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin lost his part of his left arm and was kidnapped from Israel by militants who attacked the music festival he was attending. Polin and his wife, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, were greeted with an extended ovation and chants of bring him home by the thousands of Democratic delegates in Chicago. They steered clear of politics in their 10-minute speech, but Jon Polin said the families of the American hostages meet regularly in Washington and are heartened to see bipartisan support for securing the release of their loved ones. President Joe Biden

American Airlines extends suspension of flights to Israel amid Gaza war

American Airlines is suspending flights to Israel through late March, extending a break in service that started in the early days of the war in Gaza. A spokesperson for the airline said Wednesday that customers with tickets for flights to Tel Aviv can rebook at no extra charge or cancel their trip and get a refund. The airline said flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv will be suspended through March 29. The airline updated a travel advisory on its website over the weekend. We will continue to work closely with our partner airlines to assist customers travelling between Israel and European cities with service to the US, the spokesperson said. Delta Air Lines extended its suspension of Tel Aviv flights through September 30 from August 31. United Airlines has suspended service indefinitely. All three airlines stopped flying to Israel shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack that started the war. Many other international airlines did the same, although some later ..

Egypt skeptical of Gaza cease-fire proposal as more details emerge

Key mediator Egypt expressed scepticism Wednesday about the proposal meant to bridge gaps in cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas as more details emerged a day before negotiations were expected to resume in Cairo. The challenges around the so-called bridging proposal appeared to undermine the optimism for an imminent agreement that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried into his latest Mideast visit this week. Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the White House said, without immediately giving details on what was said. Officials in Egypt, in its unique role as both a mediator and affected party since it borders Gaza, told The Associated Press that Hamas won't agree to the bridging proposal for a number of reason

Israeli tank, drone strikes kill at least 17 in Gaza's Khan Younis

Israeli tank and drone strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 17 people, according to hospital staff and Associated Press journalists who counted the bodies. The strikes happened in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south. Lebanon's Hezbollah on Wednesday launched more than 50 rockets, hitting a number of private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Hezbollah said the attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night. The attacks came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, even as Hamas and Israel signalled that challenges remain. Diplomatic efforts had redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation. Meanwhile, key mediator Egypt expressed skepticism Wednesda

Israeli military retrieves bodies of six hostages from Khan Younis in Gaza

The current war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities

Israel accepts proposal to bridge impasse, Hamas must do same: Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, and he called on Hamas to do the same, without saying whether the latest draft had addressed concerns cited by the militant group. The high-stakes negotiations have gained speed in recent days as diplomats hope an agreement will deter Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah from avenging the targeted killings of two top militants that were blamed on Israel. The escalating tensions have raised fears of an even more destructive regional war. Blinken spoke after holding a 2 1/2 hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, and will travel to Egypt and Qatar for further negotiations. The three mediators have spent months trying to end the war in Gaza, with the talks repeatedly stalling. In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel supports the bridgin

Oil prices falls 2% on Gaza ceasefire talks, weak Chinese economy

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the latest diplomatic push by Washington to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza was "probably the best, maybe the last opportunity"