Page 17 - Gaza

'100% Gazans at risk of famine', warns UN as aid delays deepen Gaza crisis

UN agency warns that entire population of Gaza faces risk of famine due to severe aid shortages and bureaucratic barriers, as Israel permits only limited supplies into the besieged territory

Israel accepts US-backed Gaza truce plan, Hamas gives cool response

Israel has accepted a new US proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, the White House said Thursday. US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, expressed optimism earlier this week about brokering an agreement to halt the Israel-Hamas war and return more of the hostages captured in the attack that ignited it. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Israel backed and supported the new proposal. Hamas officials gave the Israeli-approved draft a cool response, but said they wanted to study the proposal more closely before giving a formal answer. The Zionist response, in essence, means perpetuating the occupation and continuing the killing and famine, Bassem Naim, a top Hamas official, told The Associated Press. He said it does not respond to any of our people's demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine. Nonetheless, he said the group would study the proposal with all national responsibility. Hamas had previously said i

Who was Mohammad Sinwar? The Hamas commander killed in an Israeli strike | Israel-Gaza war

Mohammad Sinwar, one of the key figures in Hamas’ military leadership, has been killed in an Israeli strike, according to Israeli PM Netanyahu. What was his role, and why does his death matter?

Israel to establish 22 new Jewish settlements in occupied West bank

Israel said Thursday it would establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria, using the biblical term for the West Bank, "anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism. He added it was also a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel. Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small ..

Who is Muhammed Sinwar, the top Hamas commander killed by Israel?

Muhammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, was a Hamas commander from Khan Younis. A key figure in Hamas' military wing, he helped plan the 2006 Schalit raid and rose to high ranks before his death

Highlights: SC holds tree felling in Delhi's Ridge area as contempt on part of DDA officials

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Netanyahu confirms Israel forces killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Speaking before parliament, Netanyahu included Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli strikes. Mohammed is the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader and one of the masterminds of the October 7, 2023 attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year.

Kamal Haasan set to enter Rajya Sabha, Manipur govt formation, mock drills to resume, Gaza, & more

BJP legislator from Manipur Thokchom Radheshyam Singh on Wednesday claimed that 44 MLAs are prepared to form a new government in the state. The statement came after Singh, along with nine other MLAs,

1 killed, 48 injured as Israeli troops open fire on crowds at Gaza aid site

At least one Palestinian was killed and 48 others wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd overrunning a new aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip set up by an Israeli and US-backed foundation, Gaza's Health Ministry said Wednesday. Crowds of Palestinians broke through the fences around the distribution site on Tuesday, and an Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares. Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, had earlier told reporters in Geneva that 47 people were wounded, mostly by gunfire. In a separate development, Israel said it had carried out airstrikes Wednesday on the international airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, after Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired several missiles at the country in recent days, without causing casualties. The Israeli military said it destroyed aircraft used by the rebels. Israel last struck the airport in Sanaa on May 6, destroying the

New aid system in Gaza begins operations, says US-backed group

A new aid system in Gaza opened its first distribution hubs Monday, according to a US-backed group that said it began delivering food to Palestinians who face growing hunger after Israel's nearly three-month blockade to pressure Hamas. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is taking over the handling of aid despite objections from United Nations. The desperately needed supplies started flowing on a day that saw Israeli strikes kill at least 52 people in Gaza. The group said truckloads of food -- it did not say how many -- had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun. More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day, it said in a statement. The UN and aid groups have pushed back against the new system, which is backed by Israel and the United States. They assert that Israel is trying to use food as a weapon and say a new system won't be effective. Israel has pushed for an alternative aid delivery plan because it says

Highlights: Parts of Mumbai receive over 200 mm rainfall today

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Israeli strikes kill 46 in Gaza, with 31 in school-turned shelter: Medics

Israeli strikes killed at least 40 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including 25 in a school-turned-shelter that was struck as people slept, igniting their belongings, according to local health officials. The military said it targeted militants operating from the school. Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas. It has vowed to seize control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until it returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the Oct 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war. The strike on the school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City also wounded more than 55 people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the ministry's emergency service. He said a father and his five children were among the dead. He said the school was hit three times while people slept, setting their belongings ablaze. Footage circulating online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.

Israel eying to take over 75% of Gaza in two months as war intensifies

The offensive is aimed at finally defeating Hamas, or forcing the exile of its leadership, and pressing the militant group to release the remaining hostages taken in Hamas' attack on Oct 7, 2023

US-German citizen arrested for attempted attack at US embassy in Tel Aviv

A dual US-German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, officials said on Sunday. Federal prosecutors in New York said the man, Joseph Neumeyer, walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to grab him. Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York. The attack took place against the backdrop of Israel's war in Gaza, now in its 19th month. Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado and has dual US and German citizenship, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records. He had made a series of threatening social media posts

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 38 people including children

Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours killed at least 38 people in Gaza, including a mother and her two children sheltering in a tent, local health officials said Sunday, with no data available for a second straight day from now-inaccessible hospitals in the north. Further details also emerged of the local doctor who lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli strike on Friday. Gaza's Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its offensive in March, vowing to destroy Hamas and return the 58 hostages it still holds from the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Israel also blocked the import of all food, medicine and fuel for 2 1/2 months before letting a trickle of aid enter last week after experts' warnings of famine and pressure from some of Israel's top allies. Israel has been pursuing a new plan to tightly control all aid to Gaza, which the United Nations has rejected. Israel also says it plans to se

Netanyahu shocked by 'horrific, antisemitic' DC shooting of embassy staff

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office said Thursday he is shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting of two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington. We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel. The blood libels against Israel are costing blood and must be combatted to the bitter end, he said in the statement. Netanyahu said he had instructed Israeli missions around the world to beef up security. Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said. The two victims, a man and a woman, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

Israeli politician critiques Gaza war's toll on Palestinians, sparks outcry

Killing babies as a hobby. Expelling a population. Fighting against civilians. It is some of the harshest language against Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism. It is not uncommon for politicians to criticise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war strategy, especially his failure to free all the hostages held by Hamas. What made the comments by centre-left opposition party leader Yair Golan rare and jarring to officials across the political spectrum -- was their focus on the plight of Palestinians. The ensuing controversy underscored how little the war's toll on Gaza's civilians has figured into the public discourse in Israel in stark contrast to the rest of the world. Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, Golan a former general said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that a sane country doesn't engage in fighting

Pope Leo XIV urges aid in Gaza, end to hostilities in first public address

Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the heartbreaking toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were on hand for the audience, which came just days after an estimated 200,000 people attended the inaugural Mass on Sunday for history's first American pope. Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, began the audience with a tour through the piazza in the popemobile and stopped to bless several babies. In addressing specific greetings to different groups of pilgrims, Leo spoke in his native English, his fluent Spanish as well as the traditional Italian of the papacy. I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entrance of dignified humanitarian aid to Gaza and to put an end to the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is being paid by children, the elderly and sick people, he said. The general audience on Wednesdays is a weekly ...

No aid that entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians, says UN

The UN said Wednesday it was trying to get the desperately needed aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions. Israeli strikes pounded the territory, killing at least 82 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months. But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, and the UN has been unable to bring them in further to distribute. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the majority of supplies that had entered since Monday had been loaded onto UN trucks, but they could not take them out of the crossing area. He said the road that the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe. Talks were underway for an alternative, he said. Food security experts have warned that Ga

Israeli allies unleash strong rhetoric over Gaza but with limited action

Three allies of Israel used words like abhorrent and monstrous this week to describe the country's actions in Gaza. The leaders of Britain, France and Canada consistent defenders of Israel's right to strike back at Hamas after its October 2023 attack now express dismay at the high civilian death toll in Gaza and the monthslong blockade of supplies that has led to famine warnings. While their rhetoric is remarkably strong, it does not mean tough action will follow. What did France, Britain and Canada say? UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Israel's renewed Gaza offensive after a two-month ceasefire wholly disproportionate. They threatened to take concrete actions if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government doesn't halt the offensive and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid. They condemned as abhorrent some of the language used by members of the Israeli government suggesting the destruction of Gaz