Page 41 - Israel-palestine

Israel strikes central Beirut, 20 killed as diplomats push for ceasefire

Israeli airstrikes Saturday in central Beirut killed at least 20 people, officials said, as the once-rare attacks on the heart of Lebanon's capital continued without warning while diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire. Lebanon's Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, which were the fourth in central Beirut in less than a week. The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein travelled to the region in pursuit of a deal to end months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has erupted into full-on war. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon's population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and the fighting. An eight-storey building is turned to rubble The 4 am strikes destroyed an eight-storey building in central Beirut. Hezbollah ..

News highlights: Priyanka Gandhi wins in debut poll contest in Wayanad by a margin of over 410,000

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Airstrikes hit central Beirut's Basta, destroying at least one building

A series of Israeli airstrikes hit central Beirut's Basta neighbourhood early Saturday, destroying at least one building and leaving a crater in the ground. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Israeli war planes completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles. It was not immediately clear how many people were injured or killed, but ambulances rushed to the scene. The Israeli military did not issue a warning for residents to evacuate prior to the strike and did not immediately issue a statement on it. The strikes, which occurred around 4 am local time, came after a day of heavy bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs and the southern coastal city of Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes. Heavy ground fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants was ongoing in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops have pushed farther from the border. The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein travelled t

Highlights: Mankind Pharma gets GST order with penalty of Rs 29.1 million

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What is the International Criminal Court that issued Netanyahu's warrant?

International Criminal Court issued warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity related to the 13-month war in Gaza

Israel-Gaza war: Hungarian PM Orban defies ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu

International Criminal Court issued warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity related to the 13-month war in Gaza

US rejects ICC arrest warrants against Israeli PM, defence minister

Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the 'antisemitic' decision of the ICC in a statement on his social media platform comparing it to the infamous Dreyfus trial

Highlights: ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israel's defense minister & Hamas official

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Gaza death toll from Israel-Hamas war crosses 44,000: Palestine officials

The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000, local health officials said Thursday. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The Health Ministry said 44,056 people have been killed and 104,268 wounded since the start of the war. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel PM Netanyahu, Hamas officials

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan's request for warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic

Senate rejects effort from Sanders to block weapons for Israel over deaths

The Senate on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday to block sales of offensive weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza over mounting civilian deaths there. The Vermont lawmaker and a small group of Democrats sought to put legislation up for a Senate vote that would block the sale of some tank and mortar rounds and smart-bomb kits to Israel. The first attempt to block the sales was rejected overwhelmingly, and two more were expected to go down to defeat. Sanders, in making the case for stopping the sales, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people. Known as joint resolutions of disapproval, the measures would have had to pass both houses of Congress and withstand any presidential veto to become binding. Congress has never succeeded in blocking any arms sales with the joint resolutions. But the vote served as a test of broader frustration among ..

Israel insists on right to act against Hezbollah in any deal to end fight

Israel's defence minister says his country insists on the right to act militarily against Hezbollah in any agreement to end the fighting in Lebanon. Lebanon's government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty, complicating efforts to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted into all-out war in September. Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Wednesday that the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the (Israeli military's) right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah. Lebanese officials mediating between Israel and Hezbollah have called for a return to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between the sides. It calls for Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. U.S. e

US aid for Ukraine, Israel eating into weapons stockpiles, says commander

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are eating away at critical US weapons stockpiles and could hamper the military's ability to respond to China should a conflict arise in the Indo-Pacific, the top US commander for that region said on Tuesday. Head of US Indo-Pacific Command Adm Samuel Paparo cautioned that the US providing or selling billions of dollars worth of air defences to both Ukraine and Israel is now impeding his ability to respond in the Indo-Pacific, such as if China invades Taiwan. "Up to this year, where most of the employment of weapons were really artillery pieces and short-range weapons, I had said, 'not at all'," when asked if the conflicts were hampering US ability to respond to threats in the Indo-Pacific, Paparo said. "It's now eating into stocks, and to say otherwise would be dishonest," he told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington. China has ramped up its military pressure against Taiwan, including a massive military exercise that involv

Israel PM Netanyahu offers $5 mn reward to Gazans for each hostage returned

It's the latest twist in Netanyahu's frustrated attempts to deliver on pledges to the families of hostages to bring home those seized when Hamas militants attacked Israel more than a year ago

Israel-Hezbollah truce 'within grasp' as Gaza food crisis worsens: US envoy

A US envoy said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is "within our grasp" after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday. However, there was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsened an already severe food crisis. Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration's pointsman on Israel and Lebanon, arrived as Hezbollah's allies in the Lebanese government said the militant group had responded positively to the proposal, which would entail both its fighters and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon. The buffer zone would be policed by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism, potentially including the ability to conduct military operations against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose. An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Lebanese army base in the southern town of Sarafand, killing three soldiers, the arm

Daniel Barenboim, Awwad conferred with Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2023

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2023 was on Tuesday conferred on Daniel Barenboim and Ali Abu Awwad, who have dedicated their lives to promoting amity among Israeli and Palestinian people through non-violent tools of music, dialogue and peoples' participation. The awardees were selected by a distinguished jury headed by former Chief Justice of India T S Thakur. The award was presented virtually on Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary on Tuesday. The ceremony, conducted virtually, was attended by Chairperson of Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust Sonia Gandhi, former Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari, current head of the jury and former NSA Shivshankar Menon, Justice T S Thakur, Mariam C. Said, who accepted the award on behalf of Daniel Barenboim, and others. Daniel Barenboim is an Argentine-born distinguished classical pianist and conductor, renowned for performing with and directing some of the leading orchestras in the world. Apart from his musical

G20 summit calls for more aid to Gaza and end to Russia-Ukraine war

Leaders of the world's 20 major economies called for a global pact to combat hunger, more aid for war-torn Gaza and an end to hostilities in the Mideast and Ukraine, issuing a joint declaration Monday that was heavy on generalities but short of details on how to accomplish those goals. The joint statement was endorsed by group members but fell short of complete unanimity. It also called for a future global tax on billionaires and for reforms allowing the eventual expansion of the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) beyond its five current permanent members. At the start of the three-day meeting which formally ends Wednesday, experts doubted Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could convince the assembled leaders to hammer out any agreement at all in a gathering rife with uncertainty over the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, and heightened global tensions over wars in the Mideast and Ukraine. Argentina challenged some of the language in initial

Trump fancies himself a skilled dealmaker, Mideast peace may be beyond him

Trump will have much difficulty balancing his ardent support of Israel and his other ambitions in the region

India releases second tranche of $2.5 mn to UNRWA for Palestinian refugees

India has provided financial support to the tune of $40 million for the UN Agency's core programmes and services

Who's Iran's next supreme leader? Trace Mojtaba Khamenei's rise to power

Born in Mashhad in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei is the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the present Supreme Leader of Iran