Page 64 - Israel-palestine

Israel-Gaza war should end now, Israel must not occupy Gaza: Prez Biden

Biden in late May detailed a proposal of three phases aimed at achieving a ceasefire

Palestinians return to rubble in Gaza City after Israeli withdrawal

Palestinians returned to breathtaking scenes of destruction in the Gaza City district of Shijaiyah after Israeli troops withdrew, ending a two-week offensive there. Civil defense workers said Thursday that so far, they had found the bodies of 60 people in the rubble. Families who fled the assault ventured back into Shijaiyah to see the condition of their homes or salvage whatever they could. Nearly every building was flattened to rubble for block after block, leaving giant piles of concrete and twisted rebar. Here and there, grey gutted concrete frames still stood a few stories high. The ever-present buzzing sound of Israeli military drones hung in the hot summer air as people on bicycles or horse-drawn carts made their way over dirt paths where the streets had apparently been bulldozed away. Sharif Abu Shanab found his family's four-story building collapsed. I can't enter it. I can't take anything out of it, not even a can of tuna. We have nothing, no food or drink, he said. Since

UAE reportedly deports university student who yelled 'Free Palestine'

At the graduation ceremony of New York University Abu Dhabi this May, a student wearing the traditional Palestinian black-and-white keffiyeh scarf shouted Free Palestine! as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma, witnesses say. Days later, he reportedly was deported from the United Arab Emirates. The incident at the graduation comes as the UAE tries to balance its diplomatic recognition of Israel with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that's devastated the Gaza Strip. While offering aid to the Palestinians, there have been none of the mass demonstrations that swept the Arab world here in the UAE, a federation of seven emirates that tightly controls speech and where political parties are illegal. That's stretched into academic life at NYU Abu Dhabi, where students say activities over the war have been barred, and into cultural events in the country's capital as well where those wearing the keffiyeh have been stopped from entering. I think the government and the laws of the country .

Israeli airstrike kills 25 in Gaza as assault shuts down medical facilities

An apparent Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in southern Gaza killed at least 25 Palestinians on Tuesday, as heavy bombardment in the north forced the closure of medical facilities in Gaza City and sent thousands fleeing in search of increasingly-elusive refuge. Israel's new ground assault in Gaza's largest city is its latest effort to battle Hamas militants regrouping in areas the army previously said had been largely cleared. Large parts of Gaza City and urban areas around it have been flattened or left a shattered landscape after nine months of fighting. Much of the population fled earlier in the war, but several hundred thousand Palestinians remain in the north. "The fighting has been intense," said Hakeem Abdel-Bar, who fled Gaza City's Tuffah district to the home of relatives in another part of the city. He said Israeli warplanes and drones were "striking anything moving" and that tanks had moved into central districts. The strike at the entrance to the school kil

Thousands flee again after Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza city

Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip's largest city in pursuit of militants who had regrouped there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday from an area ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war. The Gaza City incursion comes as Israel and Hamas drew closer to bridging gaps in indirect talks over a cease-fire and hostage release. Israeli troops were again battling militants in areas that the army said had been largely cleared months ago in northern Gaza. The military ordered evacuations ahead of the raids, but Palestinians say nowhere feels safe. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sweltering tent camps. Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza in the opening weeks of the war and has prevented most people from returning. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain, living in the shells of homes or shelters. We fled in the darkness amid heavy strikes, s

'Gaza destruction likely pushed Hamas to soften cease-fire demands'

Several officials in the Middle East and the US believe the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip caused by a nine-month Israeli offensive likely has helped push Hamas to soften its demands for a cease-fire agreement. Hamas over the weekend appeared to drop its longstanding demand that Israel promise to end the war as part of any cease-fire deal. The sudden shift has raised new hopes for progress in internationally brokered negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday boasted that military pressure including Israel's ongoing two-month offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is what has led Hamas to enter negotiations. Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, is highly secretive and little is known about its inner workings. But in recent internal communications seen by The Associated Press, messages signed by several senior Hamas figures in Gaza urged the group's exiled political leadership to accept the cease-fire proposal pitch

Israeli protesters block highways, call for ceasefire to return hostages

Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country on Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a ceasefire to bring back scores of hostages held by Hamas. The demonstrations come as long-running efforts to broker a truce gained momentum last week when Hamas dropped a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war. The militant group still wants mediators to guarantee a permanent ceasefire, while Netanyahu is vowing to keep fighting until Israel destroys Hamas' military and governing capabilities. "Any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved," Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday that was likely to deepen Hamas' concerns about the proposal. Sunday's "Day of Disruption" started at 6:29 am, the same time Hamas militants launched the first rockets toward Israel in the October 7 attack that triggered the war. Protesters blocked main roads

Gaza soccer stadium now shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians

Thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have sought refuge in one of the territory's largest soccer arenas, where families now scrape by with little food or water as they try to keep one step ahead of Israel's latest offensive. Their makeshift tents hug the shade below the stadium's seating, with clothes hanging in the July sun across the dusty, dried-up soccer field. Under the covered benches where players used to sit, Um Bashar bathes a toddler standing in a plastic tub. Lathering soap through the boy's hair, he wiggles and shivers as she pours the chilly water over his head, and he grips the plastic seats for balance. They've been displaced multiple times, she said, most recently from Israel's renewed operations against Hamas in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. We woke up and found tanks in front of the door, she says. We didn't take anything with us, not a mattress, not a pillow, not any clothes, not a thing. Not even food. She fled with a group of 70 othe

Hamas drops objections to US-backed cease-fire proposal as talks continue

An Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea was in Qatar earlier Friday for the talks, and returned home late in the day

Highlights: PM Modi's goal for high-income India by 2047 unlikely to be achieved, says Martin Wolf

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Israel conducts military operation in West Bank city; 7 Palestinians killed

The Israeli military said on Friday it was conducting counterterrorism activity that included an airstrike in the area of the West Bank city of Jenin. Palestinian authorities said four people were killed. The military said Israeli soldiers had encircled a building where terrorists have barricaded themselves in and the soldiers were exchanging fire, while an airstrike had struck several armed terrorists in the area. The Palestinian Health Ministry said four people died but did not provide any information on their identities. No further details were immediately available from either side. The clashes in Jenin, a known militant stronghold where the army frequently operates, came a day after an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group said the government plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank. The construction plans revealed by the Peace Now group are part of the hard-line government's efforts to beef up settlements as part of a strategy of ...

Hamas broadly agrees with cease-fire framework with Israel: US official

The official spoke after a half-hour phone meeting between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

News updates: Team India take victory lap around the Wankhede Stadium

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After killing of commander, Hezbollah attacks Israel with over 200 rockets

The Israeli military said "numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets" had entered its territory from Lebanon, many of which it said were intercepted

Israel weighs Hamas' response to cease-fire proposal as diplomacy revives

Israel's Cabinet was set to convene on Thursday to discuss Hamas' latest response to a US-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, as diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the nine-month war stirred back to life after a weekslong hiatus. Fighting, meanwhile, has intensified between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, with the militant group saying it fired more than 200 rockets and exploding drones into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli airstrike the day before. The relatively low-level conflict has literally set the border ablaze, and raised fears of a potentially even more devastating war in the Middle East. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire between Hamas a fellow Iran-backed ally and Israel. The United States has rallied world support behind a plan that would see the release of all of the scores of hostages still held by the militant group in return for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forc

Fires are most visible sign on border as Hezbollah-Israel fight continues

With cease-fire talks faltering in Gaza and no clear offramp for the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border, the daily exchanges of strikes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are tearing through forests and farmland on both sides of the frontline. The blazes exacerbated by supply shortages and security concerns have consumed thousands of hectares of land in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, becoming one of the most visible signs of the escalating conflict. There is an increasingly real possibility of a full-scale war one that would have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border. Some fear the fires sparked by a larger conflict would also cause irreversible damage to the land. Charred remains in Lebanon In Israel, images of fires sparked by Hezbollah's rockets have driven public outrage and spurred Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to declare last month that it is time for all of Lebanon to burn. M

News updates: Lal Krishna Advani admitted to Apollo Hospital; under observation, stable

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Meta to end ban on the word 'shaheed' on oversight board's recommendations

The company has been criticized for years over its handling of content involving the West Asia

Alleging rocket attack on its territory, Israel hits Hamas sites in Gaza

Among the targets that were attacked were a weapons warehouse, apartments used as operations control centers and other terrorist infrastructures

S'pore to recognise Palestine in principle at appropriate time: Foreign min

Singapore is prepared in principle to recognise Palestine as a state and will make this move at an appropriate time, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in Parliament on Tuesday, emphasising that the country has advocated a negotiated two-state solution, consistent with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions to achieve lasting peace. In particular, there needs to be an effective Palestinian government that accepts Israel's right to exist and categorically rejects terrorism, Dr Balakrishnan said. Both sides have legitimate rights, and both peoples have a right to live in peace and dignity within secure borders, The Straits Times quoted the Singapore minister as saying. He was responding to questions from parliamentarians on Singapore's May 10 decision to vote for a United Nations resolution backing the admission of Palestine as a member of the world body, which it said was made after serious and careful consideration. Dr Balakrishnan urged both sides to seize the moment