Page 34 - Gaza Conflict

UN court orders halt on military ops in Rafah; Israel unlikely to comply

The United Nations' top court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Although Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up the pressure on the increasingly isolated country. Criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza has been growing, particularly since it turned its focus to Rafah. This week alone, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor for another international court requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, along with Hamas officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under some pressure at home to end the war, which was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people, most civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostage. Thousands of Israelis have joined weekly demonstrations calling on the government to reach a deal to bring .

ICJ orders end to Israeli assault on Rafah: What does this mean for Israel?

International Court of Justice ruling against Israel comes just days after the International Criminal Court top prosecutor's decision to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders

ICJ Gaza ruling: Why Israel fears another legal bombshell after ICC move

International Court of Justice to rule on Friday on South Africa's request to order Israel to implement ceasefire in Gaza

Bodies of 3 more hostages recovered overnight from Gaza, says Israel army

The bodies of three more hostages killed on October 7 were recovered overnight from Gaza, Israel's army said on Friday. The bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez were found and their families have been notified. The army said they were killed on the day of the attack at the Mefalsim intersection and their bodies were taken to Gaza. The announcement comes less than a week after the army said it found the bodies of three other Israeli hostages killed on October 7. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the October 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Hezbollah's prominent weapons manufacturer killed in Israeli airstrike

Hezbollah responded by firing barrages of rockets at northern Israel. The rockets triggered brush fires in the Hula Valley

'Watch': Israel shares new video of 'cruel' Hamas as global support weakens

Israel-Hamas are locked into the Gaza war, in which 35,000 people have died so far. Releasing a new video, Israel urged the world 'not to look away' while directing its attention to 'cruelty' of Hamas

With Hamas firm, fighting back in Gaza, Israel faces only bad options

Diminished but not deterred, Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities. Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency and a growing feeling among many Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was the subtext of a rebellion in recent days by two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-man War Cabinet Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's main political rival who demanded that he come up with detailed postwar plans. They supported Israel's retaliation for Hamas' October 7 attack, including one of the heaviest bombing campaigns in recent history,

Three more join the club: Which nations recognise Palestinian state so far?

Norway, Spain and Ireland have announced they will officially recognise Palestine as an independent state by May 28

Benjamin Netanyahu ICC arrest warrant: Can Israeli PM actually be arrested?

Israeli media has described possible International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as a 'legal earthquake' and 'legal bombshell'

Israeli, Hamas leaders join list of people accused by top war crimes court

By accusing the heads of Israel and Hamas of war crimes, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor placed them among world leaders infamous for heinous acts against humanity. The chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced arrest warrants Monday against two Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders. The prosecutor focused on actions taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 when militants stormed southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, and on Israel's military response in Gaza, which has killed roughly 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Netanyahu condemned the decision Monday, calling it a complete distortion of reality. I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas, Netanyahu said. In a statement, Hamas accused the prosecutor of trying to equate the victim with the executioner. It said it has the right to resist Israeli ...

Satellite photos show Palestinians' exodus after Israel's evacuation orders

Newly-released satellite photos reviewed by the Associated Press show a large exodus of Palestinians from the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah earlier this month ahead of a feared Israeli ground invasion there. The photos taken three days apart first on May 5 and then on May 8 show the change on the ground after Israel issued its first evacuation order for the city on May 6. They show that crowded tent camps in the central and northwest regions of the city grew sparse within days of the order. One pair of before-and-after photos shows an area near the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp, one of the camps built for families displaced during the war surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948. In the three days between the photos, at least half of the hundreds of tents cramming the area disappeared, likely from Palestinians packing up and departing. The other pair of photos shows the central Ash Shabourah neighborhood of Rafah city. Tents packing city streets give way to sandy patches. The

ICC seeks arrest warrants against Israel PM Netanyahu, Hamas head Sinwar

Warrants against Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC is targeting the top leader of a close US ally

Ultimatum raises pressure on Netanyahu to make postwar plans for Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from his own War Cabinet and his country's closest ally over postwar plans for Gaza, even as the war with Hamas shows no sign of ending. On Saturday, Benny Gantz, a member of the War Cabinet and Netanyahu's main political rival, said he would leave the government on June 8 if it did not formulate a new war plan including an international, Arab and Palestinian administration to handle civilian affairs in Gaza. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the third member of the Cabinet, has also called for a plan for Palestinian administration, and said in a speech this week that he wouldn't agree to Israel governing Gaza itself. The United States has meanwhile called for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states ahead of eventual statehood. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is expected to push those plans when he visits Israel on Sunday. So far, Netanyahu ha

'Sent envoy to Israel to stop bombing at least during Ramzan': PM Modi

'I sent my special envoy to Israel and asked him to convey and explain to the Prime Minister that at least do not carry out bombings in Gaza during Ramzan,' said PM Modi

First aid shipment sent across newly built US pier into Gaza Strip

Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built US floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time on Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there. The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its 7-month offensive against Hamas rages on. But the US and aid groups also warn that the pier project is not considered a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day. The operation's success also remains tenuous due to the risk of militant attack, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the trucks to run due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' October 7 attack on

Gaza conflict: Hezbollah introduces new weapons, tactics against Israel

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah this week struck a military post in northern Israel using a drone that fired two missiles. The attack wounded three soldiers, one of them seriously, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah has regularly fired missiles across the border with Israel over the past seven months, but the one on Thursday appears to have been the first successful missile airstrike it has launched from within Israeli airspace. The group has stepped up its attacks on Israel in recent weeks, particularly since the Israeli incursion into the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. It has struck deeper inside Israel and introduced new and more advanced weaponry. This is a method of sending messages on the ground to the Israeli enemy, meaning that this is part of what we have, and if needed we can strike more, said Lebanese political analyst Faisal Abdul-Sater who closely follows Hezbollah. While the cross-border exchanges of fire have been ongoing since early Octobe

South Africa urges UN's top court to order immediate cease-fire in Gaza

South Africa urged the United Nations' top court on Thursday to order a cease-fire in Gaza during hearings over emergency measures to halt Israel's military operation in the enclave's southern city of Rafah. It was the third time the International Court of Justice held hearings on the conflict in Gaza since South Africa filed proceedings in December at the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide. The country's ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, urged the panel of 15 international judges to order Israel to totally and unconditionally withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The court has already found that there is a real and imminent risk to the Palestinian people in Gaza by Israel's military operations. This may well be the last chance for the court to act, said Irish lawyer Blinne N Ghrlaigh, who is part of South Africa's legal team. Judges at the court have broad powers to order a cease-fire and other measures, although the court does not h

Israel Q1 economic growth rebounds 14.1%, lifted by shopping, building

The recovery in the January to March period was led by large increases in private spending and investment, both of which slid in the fourth quarter

US military completes Gaza Strip pier project, aid to flow soon amidst war

The US military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border. Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the maritime route is designed to bolster the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip, but it is not considered a substitute for far cheaper land-based deliveries that aid agencies say are much more sustainable. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups. US ..

Israel forces destroy weapons workshop as Hamas tries to regroup in Gaza

This comes on the heels of Israel killing 15 terrorists in a Hamas command center located inside a UNRWA school