Page 91 - Israel-palestine

Hezbollah official killed, amid apparent Israeli shift to targeted killings

An Israeli airstrike hit two vehicles near a Lebanese army checkpoint in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding several other people, including civilians, Lebanese state media and health officials reported. The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra. Local civil defense and hospital officials said seven people were wounded, including two women, one of whom was in critical condition. Video from the scene showed a passenger sedan in flames next to a small truck stopped in the middle of the road. The Israeli military did not comment on the strike. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes wit

Death toll soars past 25K in Gaza with no end in sight to Israel-Hamas war

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza from over three months of war between Israel and the territory's Hamas rulers has soared past 25,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Sunday. At least 178 bodies were brought to Gaza's hospitals in 24 hours along with nearly 300 wounded people, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. The war began with Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage, including men, women and children. Israel responded with a three-week air campaign and then a ground invasion into northern Gaza that flattened entire neighbourhoods. Ground operations are now focused on the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

In strategic bind, Israel weighs freeing hostages against destroying Hamas

Government's two main goals are mutually incompatible, say military commanders

UAE urges US to support immediate ceasefire of Israel's attacks in Gaza

President Joe Biden's administration has refrained from demanding a halt to the Israeli military campaign and vetoed a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire put forward by the UAE in December

US strikes Yemen sixth time, as Israel's war in Gaza raises tensions

The US fighter jets struck Houthi rebel sites in Yemen for the sixth time Friday, taking out anti-ship missile launchers that were prepared to fire, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations. The Iranian-backed Houthi militants say their attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea corridor are aimed at stopping Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Now in its fourth month, the war has raised the temperature on tensions across the Middle East. In Israel, a member of the country's War Cabinet said only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The televised comments by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot on Thursday were the latest sign of a growing rift among political and military leaders over the direction of Israel's war. Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 24,400 Palestinians have died in the conflict, and the United Nations says a quarter of the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza

Israeli tanks renew push towards biggest hospital still working in Gaza

People inside Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, forced to house displaced Gazans as well as patients, reported hearing shellfire from tanks advancing into the west of the city

Non-Aligned Movement leaders denounce Israel's military campaign in Gaza

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after the Islamist militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in which Israeli officials say more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed and 240 taken hostage

Rifts emerge among Israeli officials over handling of war in Gaza: Report

Rifts are emerging among top Israeli officials over the handling of the war against Hamas in Gaza. A member of the country's War Cabinet cast doubt over the strategy for releasing hostages, and the country's prime minister rejected the United States' calls to scale back its offensive. Only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages still held by Islamic militants in Gaza, and claims they could be freed by other means was spreading illusions", said former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, one of four members of the War Cabinet, in his first public statements on the course of the war. Eisenkot's comments late Thursday were the latest sign of disagreement among political and military leaders over the direction of Israel's offensive on Hamas, now in its fourth month. Sparked by an unprecedented October 7 Hamas raid into Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 250 others taken hostage, the Israeli assault has pulverised much of the Gaza Strip, home

Firmly against Palestinian state in any postwar scenario: Netanyahu to US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel's assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate its Hamas rulers. The US has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the day after. But in a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realises a decisive victory over Hamas. He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans. In any future arrangement...Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan, Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do? The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends, he ..

In Davos, Israel's Prez calls ties with Saudi key to ending war in Gaza

Normalising ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a key element of ending the war with Hamas and a gamechanger for the entire Middle East, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos. It's still delicate, it's fragile, and it will take a long time, but I think that it is actually an opportunity to move forward in the world and the region towards a better future, Herzog said. It comes days after Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said on a Davos panel that the kingdom agreed regional peace includes peace for Israel. He said Saudi Arabia certainly would recognise Israel as part of a larger political agreement. But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state, he said. US Secretary Antony Blinken also reiterated in a talk at Davos that a pathway to statehood for Palestinians could help improve Israel's security and its relations with other countrie

Israeli army continues strikes in southern Gaza; 16 dead including kids

An Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, medics said early on Thursday. The military continued to strike targets in areas of the besieged territory where it has told civilians to seek refuge. There was meanwhile no word on whether medicines that entered the territory Wednesday as part of a deal brokered by France and Qatar had been distributed to dozens hostages with chronic illnesses who are being held by Hamas. More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its October 7 attack, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts. More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 85 per cent of the narrow coastal territory's 2.3 million people have fled their

Thousands of Indian workers queue up for jobs in Israel, undeterred by war

"There is unemployment here and its because of it that people want to leave," said Lekharam, a mason who was among the workers gathered at a recruitment camp in Rohtak, 66 km (40 miles) from Delhi

'Boycott Mcdonald's' trends as UK unit issues statement on Israel-Hamas war

Besides McDonald's, several Western brands have been facing the heat over the issue, including prominent names such as Starbucks, Puma, and Hewlett Packard, among others for their "support for Israel"

Palestinians suffer as about 60K wounded overwhelm remaining doctors: UN

Palestinians are dying every day in Gaza's overwhelmed remaining hospitals which can't deal with the estimated 60,000 injured people and daily arrival of hundreds more hurt in Israeli's military offensive, a UN health emergency expert said on Wednesday, while a doctor with the International Rescue Committee called the situation in Gaza's hospitals the most extreme she had ever seen. The two health professionals, who recently left Gaza after weeks working in hospitals there, described overwhelmed doctors trying to save the lives of thousands of wounded people amid collapsing hospitals that have turned into impromptu refugee camps. The World Health Organisation's Sean Casey, who left Gaza recently after five weeks of trying to get more staff and supplies to the territory's 16 partially functioning hospitals, told a UN news conference that he saw "a really horrifying situation in the hospitals as the health system collapsed day by day. Al-Shifa Hospital, once Gaza's leading hospital wi

Israel-Hamas war: Qatar, France send medicine for hostages in Gaza

A shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Hamas was en route to Gaza on Wednesday after France and Qatar mediated the first agreement between Israel and the militant group since a weeklong cease-fire broke down in November. The medicines will be shipped through Egypt and delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will then hand them over to Hamas. Qatar said the deal also includes the delivery of additional medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. The deal came more than 100 days into a conflict that shows no sign of ending and which has sparked tensions across the Middle East, with a dizzying array of strikes and counterstrikes in recent days from northern Iraq to the Red Sea and from southern Lebanon to Pakistan. In Gaza, Palestinian militants are still putting up resistance across the narrow coastal strip in the face of one of the deadliest military campaigns in recent history. Some 85 per cent of the ...

Maersk sends two container ships carrying goods for US army through Red Sea

With a fleet of 20 smaller container vessels, the unit ships goods for U.S. agencies including the Department of Defense, State Department and USAID, Maersk said

China calls for Gaza peace talks; Hamas to tell fate of Israeli hostages

Hamas aired video showing three Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza and urged the Israeli government to stop the offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group and bring about their release

Latest Houthi threat in Suez Canal to impact Indian shipping further

US and British forces had carried out a series of airstrikes on Houthi assets on both land and sea beginning Friday

Israel cabinet passes amended 2024 budget, allocates $15 bn for war in Gaza

Israel last year approved a two-year budget for 2023 and 2024, but the Gaza war has shaken up government finances, requiring budget changes and additional spending

Gaza needs more aid to arrive faster to prevent famine, disease: UN

Gaza urgently needs more aid or its desperate population will suffer widespread famine and disease, the heads of three major UN agencies warned Monday, as authorities in the enclave reported that the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 24,000. While the UN agency chiefs did not directly point a finger at Israel, they said aid delivery is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a slow vetting process for trucks and goods going into Gaza, and continuing fighting throughout the territory all of which Israel plays a deciding factor in. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militant group's Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, has prompted unprecedented destruction in the tiny coastal enclave and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population and pushed more than a quarter into starvation, according to the UN. Civilians have become desperate. Video posted Monday to X by Al Jazeera showed hundreds of people