Page 50 - Gaza Conflict

Israel hits South Gaza town, one of last areas where Palestinians can flee

Israeli forces struck the southern Gaza town of Rafah twice overnight, residents said Thursday, sowing fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge after Israel widened its offensive against Hamas to areas already packed with displaced people. United Nations officials say there are no safe places in Gaza. Heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis has displaced tens of thousands of people in a territory where over 80% of the population has already fled their homes, and cut most of Gaza off from deliveries of food, water and other vital aid. Two months into the war, the grinding offensive has set off renewed alarms internationally, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres using a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending humanitarian catastrophe and urging members to demand a cease-fire. The United States has called on Israel to limit civilian deaths and displacement, saying too many Palestinians were killed when it

Israeli forces battle Hamas in southern Gaza, humanitarian concerns grow

Tanks were stationed on the edge of the Khan Younis refugee camp, not far from the house of Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yehya Al-Sinwar, they said. It was unclear whether anyone was there

Israeli forces should retain control of Gaza for disarmament: PM Netanyahu

Meanwhile, the Israeli military encircled the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces' chief of the general staff said, CNN reported

Biden calls reports of Hamas raping Israeli hostages 'appalling'

President Joe Biden has forcefully denounced the reported rape and sexual violence against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants following the October 7 attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct without equivocation and without exception. Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston on Tuesday, Biden noted that in recent weeks, female survivors and witnesses to the attacks have shared horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty. Reports of women raped repeatedly raped and their bodies being mutilated while still alive of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them, Biden said. It is appalling. Israel has said it is investigating several cases of sexual assault and rape from the Hamas attack on Israel. Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the October 7 attack, ...

Israel orders mass evacuations as it widens offensive across Gaza Strip

The Israeli military says it has expanded its ground operation against the Hamas militant group to every part of the Gaza Strip. The army resumed its offensive Friday after a weeklong cease-fire expired. After focusing its ground operation on the northern part of Gaza in recent weeks, the military began carrying out airstrikes in southern Gaza as well. The vast majority of Gaza's population has fled to the south in search of safety. But late Sunday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground troops were also pushing into the south. The Israeli army is continuing and expanding the ground operation against the Hamas presence in every part of the Gaza Strip, he said.

UK to start Gaza surveillance flights to locate captives held by Hamas

The report stated that Britain did not reveal when its military surveillance flights over the territory would start but stressed they would be unarmed and focused only on the captive recovery efforts

Threatened by Hezbollah, Israel seeks solution for empty North: Report

Calls for Gaza evacuations; refugee camp reportedly hit

Israel orders more people in Khan Younis to evacuate due to heavy bombing

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

Palestinian toll crosses 15,200, 70% of them women, children: Hamas

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll has surpassed 15,200 and that 70 per cent of those killed were women and children. The figure was announced on Saturday by ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who did provide further details. The previous toll given by the ministry was more than 13,300 dead. Al-Qidra did not explain the sharp jump. However, the ministry had only been able to provide sporadic updates since November 11, amid problems with connectivity and major war-related disruptions in hospital operations. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Palestinians say Israel is warning them to leave areas in southern Gaza

Residents say Israel has dropped leaflets over parts of southern Gaza, urging people to leave homes east of the town of Khan Younis. The leaflets also warned that Khan Younis was now a dangerous battle zone. The leaflets signaled that Israel was preparing to widen its offensive, which has so far focused largely on the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza earlier in the war, with many taking shelter in Khan Younis and other cities in the south.

Gaza truce expires without word of extension, fresh clashes possible

A temporary truce in the Israel-Hamas war expired Friday morning, without immediate word from mediator Qatar on an extension, raising the possibility of renewed fighting. The truce expired at 7 a.m (0500 GMT) Friday. The halt in fighting began a week ago, on Nov. 24. It initially lasted for four days, and then was extended for several days with the help of Qatar and fellow mediator Egypt. During the week-long truce, Hamas and other militants in Gaza released more than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in return for 240 Palestinians freed from prisons in Israel. Virtually all of those freed were women and children. Reaching agreements on swaps appears to be growing harder as most women and children held in Gaza have already been released.

More Israeli hostages freed by Hamas as truce in Gaza lasts another day

Hamas began freeing Israeli hostages Thursday in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners under a last-minute deal to extend their cease-fire in Gaza by another day. But any further renewal of the truce, now in its seventh day, could prove more daunting since Hamas is expected to set a higher price for many of the remaining hostages. Hamas freed two Israeli women Thursday afternoon, and in the evening six more hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza and were being brought to Israel, the Israeli military said. International pressure has mounted for the truce to continue as long as possible after weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign following Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war. Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than three-quarters of the population of 2.3 million have been uprooted, leading to a humanitarian crisis. Israel has vowed to resume the fighting with the goal of dismantling Hamas onc

Gaza truce: Hamas and Israel exchange more hostages for prisoners on day 5

Hamas released 12 hostages and Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday, the fifth day of a fragile cease-fire that has enabled humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and that mediators hope to extend even as Israel pledges to resume the war. Israel said 10 of its citizens and two Thai nationals freed by Hamas returned to Israel. Soon after, Israel released the Palestinian prisoners. The truce is due to end after one more exchange Wednesday night. CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, who heads Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, were in Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, to discuss extending the cease-fire and releasing more hostages, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. A US official confirmed Burns was in Qatar, speaking anonymously because the director's travel plans are not publicised for security reasons. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit the region this week, also with an eye to extending the ...

Avoid further Palestinian civilians' displacement in Gaza: US tells Israel

The Biden administration has told Israel that it must work to avoid significant further displacement of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza if it renews its ground campaign aimed at eradicating the Hamas militant group, senior U.S. officials said. The administration, seeking to avoid more large-scale civilian casualties or mass displacement like that seen before the current temporary pause in the fighting, underscored to the Israelis that they must operate with far greater precision in southern Gaza than they did in the north, the officials said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. Amid mounting international and domestic pressure about the rising Palestinian death toll, the White House has begun to put greater pressure on Israel that the manner of the coming campaign must be carefully thought through, according to one of the officials. The Israelis have been receptive when administration officials have raised these concerns, the

Truce between Israel and Hamas extended by two days: Qatar official

Israel offering a day's pause in fighting for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas

Israel-Hamas truce to be extended for two more days, says mediator Qatar

The spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that an agreement has been reached to extend the Israel-Hamas truce for another two days. Qatar, along with Egypt, has been the key mediator in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The announcement comes on the final day of a four day truce between the warring sides.

Attackers release Israel-linked tanker seized off Yemen coast: Officials

Attackers seized and later let go a tanker linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, authorities said. Yemen's internationally recognised government blamed the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for the attack, which followed at least two other recent maritime attacks linked to the Israel-Hamas war. The attackers seized the Liberian-flagged Central Park, managed by Zodiac Maritime, in the Gulf of Aden, the company, the US and British militaries and private intelligence firm Ambrey said. Early Monday morning, Zodiac said the vessel carrying phosphoric acid and its crew of 22 sailors from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Russia, Turkiye and Vietnam were unharmed. "We would like to thank the coalition forces who responded quickly, protecting assets in the area and upholding international maritime law, the company said. It offered no details on how the attackers left the vessel, nor identified them. The Pentagon told The Associated Press that the vessel was currently safe

Hamas releases 17 but killing at Gaza camp casts shadow on truce

An Israel-linked tanker seized off Yemen coast

Fragile truce back in Gaza after hourslong delay in second hostage swap

The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early on Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce's fragility. The exchange was delayed on Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel. The deal seemed at risk of unravelling until Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners. Thousands of people gathered in central Tel Aviv late Saturday to call for the release of all the estimated 240 people

Israeli forces kill at least 8 Palestinians in West Bank: Health officials

Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank killed at least eight Palestinians in a 24-hour period, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, as a fragile pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered its third day. Violence in the West Bank has surged in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, setting off a devastating war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in the West Bank. Jewish West Bank settlers have also stepped up attacks. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in the militant stronghold Jenin, while three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said. The Israeli military said forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli father and son at a West Bank car wash earlier in t