Page 50 - Gaza Conflict

President Biden urges Israeli caution as leaders eye 'lower-intensity' war

Biden has delivered increasingly urgent appeals to Israel to exercise restraint in its Gaza offensive following Hamas's Oct. 7 attack

Israel vows to continue fight in Gaza despite rising international pressure

Israel has vowed to keep fighting in Gaza until it crushes Hamas after one of the deadliest single battles of the war for its soldiers, even as it faces mounting international calls for a cease-fire and unease on the part of its closest ally, the United States. The ambush a fresh reminder that Hamas is still able to fight after six weeks of devastating warfare aimed at crushing its military capabilities. Israel has imposed a total siege and flattened much of northern Gaza with a massive air and ground campaign, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Hamas' resilience has called into question whether Israel can defeat Hamas without wiping out Gaza. Support for Hamas has surged among Palestinians, in part because of the militant group's stiff resistance to a far more powerful foe, while Israel's most important ally, the US, has expressed growing discomfort over civilian deaths in what is already one of the 21st century's most devastating military campaigns. We are .

Zara yanks ads that some found reminiscent of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza

The Spanish fashion brand Zara has pulled advertising images that to some appeared to reference Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. The images for a line of jackets included what the company called unfinished sculptures in a sculptor's studio. But some online critics said one image of a model holding a wrapped-up mannequin resembled someone holding a corpse. Other photos included a mannequin with missing limbs and a figure wrapped in fabric or plastic on the floor, according to news reports. The company apologised in a statement posted on Instagram on Tuesday and said the campaign was conceived in July and photographed in September. Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on October 7, prompting Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza. Zara said the campaign was created with the sole purpose of showcasing craftmade garments in an artistic context. While acknowledging the offence critics took to the images, the company said these people saw in them something far from what was intended when t

Israel pounds Gaza as hunger spreads, disease risk grows: Report

Residents said the shelling of Rafah, where the Israeli army this month ordered people to head for their safety, was some of the heaviest in days

Heavy fighting in south Gaza as Israel presses on with renewed US support

Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally. Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee. But the United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over USD 100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel's goal of crushing Hamas' military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the October 7 .

Day after US vetoes UN truce resolution, Israel continues with Gaza strikes

Israeli warplanes struck parts of the Gaza Strip overnight into Saturday in relentless bombardments, including some of the dwindling slivers of land Palestinians had been told to evacuate to in the territory's south. The latest strikes came a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other nations. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. Attacks from air, land and sea are intense, continuous and widespread, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before the vote. Gaza residents are being told to move like human pinballs ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival. Guterres told the council that Gaza was at a breaking point with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse, and that he feared the consequences could be ..

Desperation grows among Palestinians trapped with little aid in warzone

Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge. United Nations officials say there are no safe places in Gaza nearly a week after Israel widened its offensive into the southern half of the territory. Heavy fighting in and around the city of Khan Younis has displaced tens of thousands of people and cut most of Gaza off from aid deliveries. More than 80% of the territory's population has already fled their homes. Two months into the war, the grinding offensive has triggered renewed international alarm. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and urged members to demand a cease-fire. Gutteres explicitly cited Article 99 of the UN Charter, which allows th

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 ...