Page 51 - Gaza

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 ..

Top UN court holds hearing on Israeli military's incursion into Rafah

The United Nations' top court opens two days of hearings on Thursday into a request from South Africa to make sure Israel halts its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population has sought shelter. It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice for emergency measures since the nation launched proceedings alleging that Israel's military action in its war with Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide. According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza. Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians. South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah; to take measures to ensure unimpeded acce

Biden admin must listen to youth voices on Gaza: Indian-American students

The Biden administration should listen to the voices of the youth over the war in Gaza, two Indian-American students have said, as they came out in support of the ongoing protests on college campuses across the US over demand to divest from Israel. Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have spread across US university and college campuses in recent weeks, leading to disruptions and arrests. A lot of students are currently protesting with various forms of sit-ins in order to try and demand the schools to divest from Israel, Aara Sampath, a rising freshman at the University of Pennsylvania told PTI in an interview. The term "rising freshman" refers to a student who is about to start their freshman year of high school. Since the 7 October attack by Hamas and Israel's retaliatory assault, students have launched rallies, sit-ins, fasts and, most recently, encampments against the war. They are demanding that their schools, many with massive endowments, financially divest from ...

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

Highlights of the day: Windfall tax on petroleum cut to Rs 5,700 per metric tonne

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US protests: Why are faculty voices muted?

The silence of faculty underscores a shift where the pursuit of academic values takes a back seat to preserving financial interests

Yemen's Houthi rebels claim attacking US Navy destroyer, commercial ship

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday claimed targeting a U.S. Navy destroyer and a commercial ship in the Red Sea. However, the attack on the warship apparently happened nearly two days earlier and saw the vessel intercept the missile targeting it. The latest statement from the Houthis comes as their attacks on shipping, which have disrupted trade through a vital corridor leading onto the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, have slowed in recent weeks. Though the rebels have not acknowledged the slowdown, the U.S. military has suggested its airstrikes and interceptions of Houthi fire have disrupted their assaults and chewed into their weapon stockpiles. Recently, the Houthis have been claiming days-old attacks. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the rebels targeted the USS Mason with missiles and launched an attack on a ship he identified as the Destiny. Multiple vessels have that name in shipping registries. The Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile ...

Indian missions assisting to bring remains of Col Kale killed in Gaza: MEA

Kale (46) died while travelling in a vehicle to a hospital in the Khan Younis area from Rafah

UN launches probe into first international staff killed by strike in Rafah

The staffer, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah

UN mourns death of ex-Indian Army officer in Gaza, blames Israeli tank

The United Nations condoled and expressed apologies to India over the killing of a former Indian Army officer, who died in war-torn Rafah in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in was attacked by shots fired from what it believes was an Israeli tank. Colonel Waibhav Anil Kale, 46, who retired prematurely from the Indian Army in 2022, joined the world body as a Security Coordination Officer in the UN Department of Safety and Security (DSS) two months ago. He was killed, and another DSS staffer from Jordan was injured when their UN-marked vehicle was struck when they were travelling to the European Hospital in war-torn Rafah in Gaza on Monday morning. Kale, who had commanded the 11 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles in Kashmir, is the "first international casualty" for the world body since the Israel-Hamas conflict started last year. We also express our apologies and our condolences to the Government and people of India, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio ...

Israel-Hamas conflict: Indian personnel working with UN killed in Rafah

An Indian personnel working with the United Nations was killed in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack in Rafah, making it the first international casualty for the organisation since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The individual was a staff member of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS). While the identity of the victim has not yet been revealed, sources confirmed to PTI he was from India and a former Indian Army personnel. The Indian personnel killed in Rafah is the first casualty" among international UN staff in Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict following the October 7 terror attacks. Another DSS staffer was injured in the incident when their UN vehicle was struck as they travelled to the European Hospital in Rafah. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) staff member and injury to another DSS staffer when ..

Killer April heat wave in Asia was made much worse by climate change

In South Asia, which was the focus of two such studies in 2022 and 2023, abnormal heat was found to be 45 times more likely to occur, and to be 0.85C higher due to climate change

India set to face hotter heatwaves amid preparation gaps, says study

The study advocates for the expansion of mandatory regulations alongside existing action plans to tackle the challenges posed by climate change

Highlights of the day: Promoter group to sell stake worth $316 million in Cipla, say reports

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Palestinians to mark 76 yrs of dispossession as larger catastrophe unfolds

Palestinians on Wednesday will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. Palestinians refer to it as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians a majority of the prewar population fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment. After the war, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Gaza, the refugees and their descendants make up around three-quarters of the population. Israel's rejection of what Palestinians say is their right of return ha

News of the day: Fomer-Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi dies, was diagnosed with cancer

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Israeli forces press deep into Gaza ruins to recapture an area from Hamas

Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing again. Around half of Gaza's population took sanctuary there after Israel ordered evacuations from northern Gaza in October

US calls on Iran to halt 'unprecedented' weapons' transfer to Houthis

The United States has called on Iran to halt its transfer of an unprecedented amount of weaponry to Yemen's Houthi rebels, enabling its fighters to carry out reckless attacks on ships in the Red Sea and elsewhere. US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told the UN Security Council that if it wants to make progress toward ending the civil war in Yemen it must act collectively to call Iran out for its destabilising role and insist that it cannot hide behind the Houthis. He said there is extensive evidence that Iran is providing advanced weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles, to the Houthis in violation of UN sanctions. To underscore the council's concern regarding the ongoing violations of the arms embargo, we must do more to strengthen enforcement and deter sanctions violators, Wood said. The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians there

Misery deepens in Gaza's Rafah as Israeli troops intensify operation

Aid workers are struggling to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by what Israel says is a limited operation in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remain closed. The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees said 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah over the past week, out of 1.3 million who were sheltering there before the operation began, most of whom had already fled fighting elsewhere over the course of the 7-month war between Israel and Hamas. Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians. Hamas has meanwhile regrouped in some of the most devastated parts of Gaza that Israel had previously claimed to have cleared with heavy bombardment and ground operations. Thirty-eight trucks of flour arrived through the Western Erez Crossing, a ...

As Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, Hamas regroups elsewhere in Gaza

This comes after the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighbourhoods in eastern Rafah as the Israeli military steps up its operations in the southern Gazan city