Page 47 - Gaza Conflict

Problems in Red Sea impacting exports; increasing freight, insurance costs

The escalation of troubles in the Red Sea has started impacting India's exports as shippers have to take longer routes to reach destinations in the US and Europe, an official has said. The situation around the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping route connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, has escalated due to recent attacks by Yemen-based Houthi militants. Due to these attacks, the shippers are taking consignments through the Cape of Good Hope, resulting in delays of almost 14 days and also higher freight and insurance costs. The issues being faced by the concerned stakeholders were discussed at a high-level meeting in the commerce ministry on January 4. Stakeholders, including traders, shippers, container firms and freight forwarders were there at the meeting. "They told us that freight cost has increased. They have to take a long route now and due to that, the turnaround time has increased. It has increased by 14 days," the official said. Ex

Families in Gaza desparate for food, water; wait in long lines for aid

Stranded in a corner of southern Gaza, members of the Abu Jarad family are clinging to a strict survival routine. They fled their comfortable three-bedroom home in northern Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly three months ago. The 10-person family now squeezes into a 16-square meter (172-square foot) tent on a garbage-strewn sandy plot, part of a sprawling encampment of displaced Palestinians. Every family member is assigned daily tasks, from collecting twigs to build a fire for cooking, to scouring the city's markets for vegetables. But their best efforts can't mask their desperation. At night dogs are hovering over the tents, said Awatif Abu Jarad, an older member of the family. We are living like dogs! Palestinians seeking refuge in southern Gaza say every day has become a struggle to find food, water, medicine and working bathrooms. All the while, they live in fear of Israeli airstrikes and the growing threat of illnesses. Israel's bombardment and ground invasion

Israel lays out vision for next steps of Gaza war ahead of Blinken visit

Israel's defence minister on Thursday laid out his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza, describing how Israeli forces would shift to an apparently scaled-down "new combat approach" in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory "for as long as necessary". Ahead of a visit by the US secretary of state, Yoav Gallant also outlined a proposal for how Gaza would be run once Hamas is defeated, with Israel keeping security control while an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body runs day-to-day administration, and the US and other countries oversee rebuilding. Israel has come under heavy international pressure to spell out a post-war vision but so far has not done so. The issue is likely to be on the agenda in Secretary of State Antony Blinken's talks this weekend in Israel and other countries in the region. The United States has pressed Israel to shift to lower-intensity military operations in Gaza that more precisely target Hamas, after nearly

Israel offers tax incentives to aid housing crisis for war evacuees

Following the start of the "Iron Swords" war the government evacuated more than 100,000 citizens from the areas surrounding Gaza and near the Lebanese border, mainly to hotels

Israel focuses assault on southern Gaza amid concern over wider war

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, to continue "diplomatic consultations", a U.S. official said

Israel's ambassador to UN links Iran to Houthi attacks in Red Sea

The Houthis vowed in early December to target any Israel-bound ship in the Red Sea, regardless of its ownership

Strike kills 12 people in Southern Gaza area declared safe zone by Israel

An Israeli strike flattened a home on Thursday in an area of southern Gaza that the military had declared a safe zone as Israeli troops pressed their assault in the nearby city of Khan Younis. Palestinian hospital officials said the blast killed at least 12 people, almost all of them children. Israel's offensive has focused on Khan Younis, where the military said on Thursday it has uncovered tunnels used by Hamas and battled fighters from the militant group that attacked into southern Israel on October 7. Israel has vowed to continue its campaign in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. Now an apparent Israeli strike that killed a top Hamas leader in Beirut has stirred fresh fears that the conflict could expand into other parts of the region. The killing of Sameh Arouri prompted warnings of retaliation from Hamas' ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. But there was no immediate escalation in the daily exchanges of rocket fire and shells between Hezbollah and the Israeli military over the t

US intel says Hamas used Gaza hospital in campaign against Israel: Report

The US is confident that Palestinian militant groups used Gaza's largest hospital to hold at least a few hostages seized during their bloody Oct. 7 attack and to house command infrastructure, an American intelligence assessment declassified Tuesday and shared by a U.S. official found. The assessment offers the firmest U.S. support for Israeli claims about the Shifa hospital complex, which was raided by Israeli forces in November in an operation decried by global humanitarian organizations and some members of President Joe Biden' s party. Yet the information released doesn't fully back some of Israel's most significant allegations that the hospital served as the central node for activities by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The U.S. official shared the assessment on the condition of anonymity. The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident in its judgment on this topic and has independently corroborated information on HAMAS and PIJ's use of the hospital complex for a variety of ...

US rejects Israel's remarks on resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza

He said that the kind of future the US seeks is that in future, no terror groups are able to threaten Israel and Hamas has no control of Gaza

UAE president, WHO chief discuss cooperation and health challenges in Gaza

The WHO Director-General congratulated the UAE president on the successful hosting of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the UAE at the end of last year

Top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri killed in Israeli drone strike in Beirut

An explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and three others, officials with Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah said. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the blast killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment. If Israel is behind the attack it could mark a major escalation in the Middle East conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed to The Associated Press that Arouri was killed in the blast. A Hezbollah official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations also said Arouri was killed. Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, had headed the group's presence in the West Bank. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Octo

Israel shifts troops out of Gaza strip first time since war began

Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being shifted out of the Gaza Strip, the military said on Monday, in the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began as forces continued to bear down on the main city in the southern half of the enclave. The troop movement could signal that fighting is being scaled back in some areas of Gaza, particularly in the northern half where the military has said it is close to assuming operational control. Israel has been under pressure from its chief ally, the United States, to begin to switch to lower-intensity fighting. Word of the drawdown came ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region and after the Biden administration bypassed Congress for the second time this month to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel. But fierce fighting continued in other areas of Gaza, especially the southern city Khan Younis and central areas of the territory. Israel has pledged to charge ahead until its war aims have been achieved,

Maersk pauses Red Sea sailings after Houthi attack on container ship

The attack was the latest by Houthi militants in Yemen, who have been targeting vessels in The Red Sea to show their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fighting Israel in Gaza

Israeli jets pound central Gaza as Netanyahu indicates longer war

A Red Crescent video published on Sunday showed the chaotic aftermath of strikes in central Gaza, as rescuers worked in the dark to carry an injured child from smoking rubble

Israel hits camps in central Gaza day after Biden approves new arms sales

Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday, as the Biden administration approved a new emergency weapons sale to Israel despite persistent international cease-fire calls over mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the enclave. Israel says it is determined to pursue its unprecedented air and ground offensive until it has dismantled Hamas, a goal viewed by some as unattainable because of the militant group's deep roots in Palestinian society. The United States has shielded Israel diplomatically and has continued to supply weapons. Israel argues that ending the war now would mean victory for Hamas, a stance shared by the Biden administration which at the same time urged Israel to do more to avoid harm to Palestinian civilians. The war, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, has displaced some 85% of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million residents, sending swells of people seeking shelter in Israeli-designated safe are

Thousands of Palestinians stream into Rafah as Israel expands its offensive

The Israeli-Hamas war has already driven around 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes, levelling the northern part of the territory and heightening fears about a similar fate for the south as Israel's air and ground offensive widened Friday. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have streamed into the town of Rafah in the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days, according to the United Nations, crowding into an already overwhelmed area of the embattled territory. More than 20,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead. About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Currently: Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens of Palestinians, even in largely emptied north As Gaza war grinds on, tensions soar along Israel's

Turkey 'detains 32 IS militants, foils attack bid' on synagogues, churches

Turkish security forces have detained 32 people suspected of links to the Islamic State extremist group who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks on synagogues and churches as well as the Iraqi Embassy, Turkey's state-run news agency reported Friday. The suspects, including three alleged senior IS militants, were detained in raids carried out at dawn in nine provinces across Turkey, Anadolu Agency reported, citing unnamed security sources. They were detained in a joint operation by the country's intelligence agency and police, the agency said. The arrests come a week after police rounded up 304 suspected IS militants in simultaneous raids across Turkey in what appeared to be a security sweep leading up to the New Year festivities. The Islamic State group has carried out a string of deadly attacks in Turkey, including a shooting at an Istanbul night club on January 1, 2017, that killed 39 people during New Year celebrations.

Israel launches heavy strikes across central, south Gaza, toll crosses 21k

Israel launched heavy strikes across central and southern Gaza overnight and into Wednesday after broadening its offensive against Hamas to more areas where the military had told Palestinians to seek shelter earlier in the war. Residents reported heavy bombing in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, in the southern city of Khan Younis and in the southern town of Rafah, areas where tens of thousands have sought refuge as much of northern Gaza was pounded to rubble. It was a night of hell. We haven't seen such bombing since the start of the war, said Rami Abu Mosab, speaking from the Bureij camp, where he has been sheltering since fleeing his home in northern Gaza. He said warplanes flew overhead and gunfire and explosions echoed from the eastern edge of the camp which, like others in Gaza, houses refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and their descendants and now resembles other densely populated neighbourhoods. A home near Abu Mosab's shelter was hi

Oil prices slip as investors monitor Red Sea tensions triggered by Gaza war

Israeli forces pummelled central Gaza by land, sea and air on Wednesday after Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told reporters on Tuesday that the Gaza war would go on "for many months"

Gaza ground offensive has expanded into urban refugee camps, says IDF

Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate. Gaza's main telecom provider announced another complete interruption of services in the besieged territory. The military's announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel says will last for many months as it vows to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its October 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge. The US said Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Despite US calls for Israel to curb civilian casualties and international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said