Page 82 - Israel-palestine

Trump urges Israel to 'finish up' Gaza offensive amid fading global support

Former US President Donald Trump said he would have responded the same way as Israel did after the October 7 attack by Hamas but urged the country to "finish up" its offensive in Gaza and "get this over with", warning about international support fading. "You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You've got to get it done," he said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. "We've got to get to peace. You can't have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support." Trump, who earlier this month became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, brought up global criticism of Israel's offensive even as he has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict. According to the newspaper's transcript of the interview, Trump said "Israel made a very big mistake" in releasing photos and videos of its offensive in Gaza, commenting the country's public image is "

Highlights: UN passes resolution demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza

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It's time to 'truly flood' Gaza with aid, says UN Secy-General Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres stood near a long line of waiting trucks Saturday and declared it was time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid," calling the starvation inside the enclave a moral outrage. He called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Guterres spoke on the Egyptian side of the border not far from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israel plans to launch a ground assault despite widespread warnings of a potential disaster. More than half of Gaza's population has taken refuge there. Any further onslaught will make things even worse worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region," Guterres said. He spoke a day after the UN Security Council failed to reach consensus on the wording of a resolution supporting an immediate and sustained cease-fire. Guterres repeatedly noted the difficulties of getting aid into Gaza, for which international aid agencies have largely blamed Israel. Here from this ..

Netanyahu rebuffs US plea to halt Rafah offensive, tensions escalate

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday once again left the Middle East empty-handed as Israel's prime minister rejected American appeals to call off a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians. The tough message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets the stage for potentially difficult talks next week in Washington between top U.S. officials and a high-level Israeli delegation. Netanyahu said Israel is ready to do it alone in Rafah if necessary. Despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide crucial military aid and diplomatic support, even as Israel's war against Hamas has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza and led to a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas and says the militant group's forces there must be defeated for Israel to meet its war objectives. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group's Oct. 7 attack

UN to vote US resolution declaring immediate cease-fire in Gaza imperative

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that an immediate and sustained cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is imperative to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was optimistic that the new, tougher draft resolution would be approved Friday by the 15-member council. The draft being put to a vote determines which is a council order the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire, with no direct link to the release of hostages taken during Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, which was in the previous draft. But it would unequivocally support diplomatic efforts to secure such a cease-fire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages. Russia's deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow will not be satisfied with anything that doesn't call for an immediate cease-fire, saying it's

Israeli assault on Gaza's Rafah not needed to defeat Hamas, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday a major Israeli ground assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah would be a mistake and unnecessary to defeating Hamas, underscoring the further souring of relations between the United States and Israel. Blinken, on his sixth urgent Mideast mission since the war began, spoke after huddling with top Arab diplomats in Cairo for discussions over efforts for a cease-fire and over ideas for Gaza's post-conflict future. He said an immediate, sustained ceasefire with the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas was urgently needed and that gaps were narrowing in indirect negotiations that US, Egypt and Qatar have spent weeks mediating. Blinken heads to Israel on Friday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. The growing disagreements between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden over the prosecution of the war will likely overshadow the talks particularly over Netanyahu's determination to launch a ground assault on ..

US has unveiled draft UNSC resolution for immediate Gaza ceasefire: Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was imperative that protecting civilians 'who are in harm's way' be treated as a priority

Highlights of the day: Fed keeps key rates unchanged at 5.25-5.50%

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Highlights of the day: PM to address Startup Mahakumbh tomorrow at 10.30 am

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Netanyahu to send officials to Washington to discuss prospective Rafah ops

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. We've arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective, Sullivan said. The White House has been sceptical of Netanyahu's plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following Hamas' deadly Oct 7 attack. The development comes as President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel's conduct during the war, according to the White House. The call comes after Republicans in Washington and Israeli officials were quick to express outrage after Senate Majority Leader Chuck

Highlights of the day: India, Cabo Verde hold Foreign Office consultations

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Double standards

Weapons to allies and aid to adversaries is self-defeating

Israel launches raid on Gaza hospital, alleges presence of Hamas' militants

Israeli forces launched another raid on the Gaza Strip's largest hospital early Monday, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the compound, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people were sheltering. The army last raided Shifa Hospital in November after claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command centre within and beneath the facility. The military revealed a tunnel leading to a bunker, as well as weapons it said were found inside the hospital, but the evidence fell short of the earlier claims, and critics accused the army of recklessly endangering the lives of civilians. People sheltering in the hospital said Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery had surrounded the medical complex early Monday and that snipers were shooting at people inside. They said the army raided a number of buildings and detained dozens of people. We're trapped inside, said Abdel-Hady Sayed, who has been sheltering in the medical facility f

Israel PM Netanyahu hits back against growing criticism from top ally US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as wholly inappropriate. In recent days, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had lost his way. President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer's good speech," and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza. Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer's comments as inappropriate. We're not a banana republic," he said. The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they'll elect, and it's not something that will be foisted on us. When asked by CNN whether he would

Netanyahu says Israel won't stop until 'total victory' is achieved

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed on Sunday against growing criticism from the United States against his leadership amid the devasting war with Hamas, saying the pressure won't stop Israel from achieving total victory. In recent days, top officials from the US, Israel's staunchest ally which has provided key military and diplomatic support during the war, have publicly voiced their frustration with Netanyahu and his government. US President Joe Biden accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, then called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had lost his way. Biden then expressed support for what he called Schumer's good speech. The US also has expressed concerns about a planned Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering,

Suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targets a ship in Gulf of Aden

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship early Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre offered few details in an announcement about the attack, saying only it happened off the coast of Aden, the port city in southern Yemen home to the country's exiled government. The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks in the same area, disrupting energy and cargo shipments through the Gulf of Aden. The rebels did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, though it typically takes the Houthis several hours before acknowledging their assaults. Separately, the US military's Central Command said it carried out a series of strikes targeting the Houthis. It said it destroyed five drone boats and one drone before takeoff from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. It was an unusual

Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria, soldier wounded

Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early Sunday wounding a soldier, Syrian state media reported. State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said air defences shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at around 12:42 a.m. local time. The strikes led to material losses and the wounding of a soldier, the statement said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes also hit two military sites in the Qalamoun mountains northeast of Damascus, an area where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has operations. One of the targets was a weapons shipment, the observatory said. The observatory said the strikes represented the 24th time Israel has struck inside Syria since the beginning of 2024. They have killed 43 fighters with various groups including Hezbollah and Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and nine civilians. There was no .

Ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid approaches Gaza through new sea route

The ship, manned by the Spanish aid group Open Arms, left Cyprus on Tuesday towing a barge laden with food sent by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres

Australia to restore funding for UNRWA, pledges to increase Gaza aid

Australia will restore funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, weeks after the agency lost hundreds of millions of dollars in support following Israeli allegations that some of its Gaza-based staff participated in the Oct. 7 attack. The Australian government also pledged Friday to increase aid for the besieged enclave, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressing horror at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Australia's move follows Sweden, the European Commission and Canada in reinstating funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which had seen its international funding frozen while the allegations were investigated. The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, Wong told reporters Friday in Adelaide while she announced the aid package. "(We have) been working with a group of donor countries and with UNRWA on the shared ...

Palestinian Prez appoints ex-top govt official Mohammad Mustafa as new PM

Mohammad Mustafa (69) will have several weeks to appoint his cabinet. During the process, outgoing Palestinian PM Mohammed Shtayyeh will remain at the helm