Israel

Israel would cease to exist if Kamala Harris became president: Trump

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of hating Israel and said if she became president, the Jewish state would not exist "within two years from now". Trump's comments came during a bitter televised debate with Harris on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. He asserted that the Israel-Hamas war would have never started if he had been president. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers She hates Israel," Trump, 78, said. "If she is president I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now, he claimed. I've been pretty good at predictions, but I hope I'm wrong on that one," the former president said. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone, Trump said during the debate hosted by ...

Not 40, but 19 killed in Israeli strike on tent camp: Gaza health ministry

Gaza's Health Ministry says it has confirmed that at least 19 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in a designated humanitarian zone. The Civil Defence, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said that 40 people were killed in the strike early Tuesday. The Israeli military disputed that toll, saying it had used precise munitions against a group of militants. Gaza's Health Ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government but its figures are widely seen as generally reliable. It maintains detailed records and its tallies from previous wars have largely coincided with figures from independent researchers, the UN and even the Israeli military. The Health Ministry said the toll from Tuesday's strike could rise. The Health Ministry and the Civil Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.

Israel to carry out recruitment drive in India for 10k construction workers

Israel has approached India recently to carry out a recruitment drive again for 10,000 construction workers and 5,000 caregivers simultaneously to plug the skill gap in infrastructure and health sectors, the National Skill Development Corporation said. This comes on the back of a similar request made by Israel earlier this year, the NSDC said. The statement assumes significance as a media report on Tuesday claimed faulty selection under a bilateral jobs scheme, under which Indians would be taken to Israel to work in the construction sector, after over 1 lakh Palestinian workers were banned in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7 last year. Citing data from the Israeli Embassy, the report claimed that around 5,000 workers each have been recruited through two "pathways": Government-to-Government (G2G) handled by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Business-to-Business (B2B) through private agencies overseen by the Ministry of External Affairs. According to NSDC, th

Temporary truce possible, no commitment on war's end: Israeli defence chief

Israel's defence minister says the window is closing on an opportunity to reach a temporary cease-fire deal with the Hamas militant group that he believes could also bring calm to the country's volatile northern border with Lebanon. Speaking to reporters, Yoav Gallant said that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting, as Hamas has demanded, raising questions about the feasibility of a deal. Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages, he said. After that period, he said, we maintain the right to operate and achieve our goals including the destruction of Hamas. The United States, along with mediators Egypt and Qatar, has been working for months to broker a cease-fire to end the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. A main area of disagreement has been Hamas' demand for

Israeli missile strike on Gaza kills at least 40: Palestinian authorities

Israel's military conducted a missile strike early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians there, authorities said. Details about the strike in the Mawasi coastal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone remained unclear. The area is home to many Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war in which the Israeli military has devastated the wider Gaza Strip after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Israeli military described the strike as hitting significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center, without immediately providing additional evidence. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground. The Israeli military said it used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional means it did

Israel finance ministry slashes growth forecast as war in Gaza hits economy

Gross domestic product will rise 1.1 per cent, according to updated figures on the ministry's official website, down from the previous figure of 1.9 per cent

Israel carries out intense strikes in central Syria, 14 killed, 40 injured

A series of Israeli strikes hit multiple areas in central Syria late Sunday, killing at least four people, wounding 13 and sparking fires, state media reported. Syria state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defences "confronted an aggression that targeted several points in the central region," damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires that firefighting teams were battling to control early Monday. At least four dead and 13 wounded people arrived at the Masyaf National Hospital in western Hamas province, SANA said, citing hospital head Faysal Haydar. It was not immediately clear if they were civilians or militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that one of the strikes targeted a scientific research centre in Maysaf and other sites where "Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria." Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous. There was no immediate comment from the ..

Israelis protest again over govt's failure to bring hostages back from Gaza

Israelis again poured into the streets for another large protest over the government's failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza, while hospital and local authorities said Israeli air raids in the territory killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday. Health workers wrapped up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak. The drive, launched after the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed Gaza's health care system and much of its infrastructure. The third phase of vaccinations will be in the north. Israel kept up its military offensive. In central Gaza's urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of nine people killed in two air raids. One hit a residential building, killing four people and wounding at least 10, while five people were killed in a strike on a house in western ...

Israeli soldiers shot American woman at West Bank protest: Reports

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, according to a witness who said she was shot while posing no threat to Israeli forces and during a moment of calm after clashes earlier in the afternoon. Two Palestinian doctors said 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle was shot in the head. The US government confirmed Eygi's death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said it was deeply disturbed by the killing of a US citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian ...

UN accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza that Netanyahu denies

The UN independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a "starvation campaign" against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denies. In a report this week, investigator Michael Fakhri claimed it began two days after Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, when Israel's military offensive in response blocked all food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid were "outrageously false". "A deliberate starvation policy? You can say anything it doesn't make it true," he said in a press conference Wednesday. Following intense international pressure especially from close ally the United States Netanyahu's government gradually has opened several border crossings for tightly controlled deliveries. Fakhri said limited aid initially went mostly to southern and central Gaza, not to the north where ..

Israeli soldiers kill American woman during West Bank protest, witness says

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, another protester who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. He said the US was gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and would have more to say. He and the doctors who treated her released the woman's name, but the activist organisation she was volunteering with, the International Solidarity Movement, said her family had asked she not be identified. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The woman who was fatally shot was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grow

Israeli forces appear to withdraw from West Bank camp after military ops

Israeli forces appeared Friday to have withdrawn from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, after a more-than weeklong military operation that has left dozens dead and a trail of destruction. Overnight, Israeli armored personnel carriers were seen leaving the camp from a checkpoint set up on one of the main roads, and an Associated Press reporter inside the camp saw no evidence of any remaining troops inside as dawn broke early Friday morning. Israel's military had no immediate comment but said it would issue a statement later in the day. It was not clear whether the apparent withdrawal was only a temporary measure to regroup forces. Hundreds of Israeli troops have been involved for more than a week in what has been their deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began, employing what the United Nations called lethal war-like tactics. Their focus has been the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian militancy that has grown since th

Maharashtra approves $ 10 bn semiconductor fab unit by Adani, Israeli firm

The project will have capacity to produce 80,000 wafers monthly and it will create 5,000, says Devendra Fadnavis

Nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated: Kirby on Mideast war

"You call that optimistic. I call that accurate. That's how close we believe we are. That's where we have gotten to. The basic framework of the deal has been agreed to," Kirby said

Israel, India improve security ties via cooperation against drone threats

Throughout the seminar, nine Israeli defence companies showcased advanced technologies to counter the drone threat

Israel's Netanyahu demands open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel must keep open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt, digging in on his stance on an issue that has threatened to derail cease-fire efforts. Netanyahu's comments came as the United States is developing a new proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release, hoping to break a long deadlock and bring an end to the nearly 11-month-old war. The question of Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor - a narrow strip of land along Gaza's border with Egypt, seized by troops in May - has become a central obstacle in the talks. Hamas has demanded an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the multi-phase truce deal. Egypt, a mediator in the talks along with the U.S. and Qatar, has also demanded a concrete timeline for Israeli troops to leave the Philadelphi corridor. And on Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates, which established formal ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords, also criticized the Israeli ...

UN hails limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow polio vaccinations

United Nations officials on Wednesday hailed limited pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow children's polio vaccinations as rare moments of hope in the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. Top U.N. officials on peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs spoke at a meeting requested by Israel, which was backed by its allies, veto-holding permanent council members France, Great Britain and the United States. Israel's ambassador on Wednesday focused on the hostages taken during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that launched the war and the recent killing of six captives. Algeria, which sits on the 15-member council until next year, also requested that the U.N. body meet to discuss the broader situation in the Palestinian territories. Both Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, and Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, spoke about the ...

PIL in SC seeks direction to Centre to halt export of arms to Israel

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel licences and not to grant new ones to Indian firms exporting arms and other military equipments to Israel, which is fighting a war in Gaza. The PIL, filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, has made the union ministry of defence a party, and said, "India is bound by various international laws and treaties that obligate India not to supply military weapons to States guilty of war crimes, as any export could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law". The plea filed by 11 people, including Ashok Kumar Sharma, a resident of Noida, said the supply of military equipments to Israel by companies, including a public sector enterprise, under the MoD violates India's obligations under international law coupled with Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. "Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or direction to the respondents, Union of India, through its various organs, to

US charges Hamas chief Sinwar, other leaders over Oct 7 attack on Israel

It also accuses Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons to Hamas

UK govt's decision to suspend some arms for Israel frustrates both sides

His foreign minister, David Lammy, said the move to limit the licences Britain gives for arms exports to Israel was because there was a risk such equipment might be used to commit serious violations