Page 102 - Israel

US govt restores Trump's policy on illegitimacy of Israeli settlements

The Biden administration on Friday restored a US legal finding dating back nearly 50 years that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegitimate under international law. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US believes settlements are inconsistent with Israel's obligations, reversing a determination made by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, in the Biden administration's latest shift away from the pro-Israel policies pursued by former President Donald Trump. Blinken's comments came in response to a reporter's question about an announcement that Israel would build more than 3,300 new homes in West Bank settlements as a riposte to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack. It wasn't clear why Blinken chose this moment, more than three years into his tenure, to reverse Pompeo's decision. But it came at a time of growing US-Israeli tensions over the war in Gaza, with the latest settlement announcement only adding to the strain. It also came as the United Nations'

Israel kills 100 Palestinians in 24 hrs amid hold on cease-fire talks

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour period, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Friday. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Egyptian officials about a possible cease-fire in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, according to a Hamas statement Friday morning. During Hamas' Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed on Oct 7 or died in captivity. Israel's subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south, and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with ...

Netanyahu seeks open-ended control over security, civilian affairs in Gaza

Israel seeks open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip, according to a long-awaited postwar plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was swiftly rejected Friday by Palestinian leaders and runs counter to Washington's vision for the war-ravaged enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the two-page document to his security Cabinet late Thursday for approval. Deep disagreements over Gaza's future have led to increasingly public friction between Israel and the United States, its closest ally. The Biden administration seeks eventual Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood, an outcome vehemently opposed by Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Netanyahu's plan envisions hand-picked Palestinians in Gaza administering the territory. Separately, cease-fire efforts appeared to gain traction, with mediators to present a new proposal at an expected high-level meeting this weekend

48 people killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza amid calls for ceasefire

At least 48 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern and central Gaza overnight, half of them women and children, the territory's health officials said. European diplomats stepped up calls for a cease-fire on Thursday, with alarm rising over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Tensions were also rising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where three gunmen opened fire Thursday morning on the road near a checkpoint, killing one Israeli and wounding at least five, police said. Two of the attackers were killed and a third was found later and detained. Yoav Gallant, Israel's defence minister, said Thursday that Israel will expand the authority of its hostage negotiators, signalling a small sign of progress in ongoing international efforts to broker a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. But unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Israel will launch a ground offensive into the crowded southern city of Rafah during the .

Yemen's Houthi rebels force Israel to intercept another attack near Eilat

Yemen's Houthi rebels launched attacks Thursday on both Israel and a ship travelling through the Gulf of Aden, setting the vessel ablaze and again demonstrating their ability to launch assaults despite facing US-led airstrikes targeting their forces. The rebels' supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced an the escalation in sea operations conducted by his forces as part of what they describe a pressure campaign to end Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis' targets have grown more random since their attacks began in November, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments travelling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe. The attack Thursday in the Gulf of Aden saw two missiles fired at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, the US military's Central Command said. A European naval force in the region described the attack as sparking a fire and wounding one sailor on board the vessel, though the ship is continuing on its way. The ...

Israel army destroys major tunnel under Khan Yunis used by Hamas leaders

The tunnel boasted electrical and water infrastructure, kitchens, toilets and living quarters, costing millions of shekels to construct, the IDF said

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 67 Palestinians in civilian area overnight

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah says it received 44 bodies after multiple strikes in central Gaza. Associated Press reporters saw the bodies arriving in ambulances and private vehicles

UN shouldn't urge Israel to withdraw from Palestinian-claimed lands: US

The United States said Wednesday the United Nations' top court should not issue an advisory opinion that says Israel should immediately and unconditionally withdraw from territories sought for a Palestinian state. Acting State Department legal adviser Richard Visek said the 15-judge panel at the International Court of Justice should not seek to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict through an advisory opinion addressed to questions focusing on the acts of only one party. Visek spoke on the third day of hearings at the court into a request by the General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israel's policies in the occupied territories. He said the court "can address the questions before it within the established framework based on the land for peace principle and within the parameters of established principles of occupation law. Visek added that the court's opinion will have consequences for the parties to the conflict and for the ongoing .

Israeli strike has hit Damascus residential area, casualties caused: Syria

Israeli strikes hit a neighbourhood of the Syrian capital on Wednesday morning, Syrian state TV said, and other media reported casualties. State TV reported that several missiles hit the western neighbourhood of Kfar Sousseh and didn't elaborate. The pro-government Sham FM radio station said the strike hit a building near an Iranian school and caused casualties. Israel had no comment. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike was an assassination. He did not say who might have been the target. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years. Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces. Last month, an Israeli strike on the Syrian capital's western ..

Iran accuses Israel of attack that saw explosions strike gas pipeline

An Israeli sabotage attack on an Iranian natural gas pipeline caused the multiple explosions that struck it a week ago, Iran's oil minister alleged on Wednesday, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The comments by Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji come as Israel has been blamed for a series of attacks targeting Tehran's nuclear programme. The explosion of the gas pipeline was an Israeli plot, Owji said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. The enemy intended to disturb gas service in the provinces and put people's gas distribution at risk. He added: The evil action and plot by the enemy was properly managed. Owji provided no evidence to support his claims. Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the attack, though it rarely claims its espionage missions abroad. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime foe of Iran, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The blasts on Febr

UN World Food Programme suspends aid amid chaos, violence in northern Gaza

The United Nations' World Food Programme announced a pause in food and aid deliveries to northern Gaza on Tuesday after its drivers faced gunfire and violence from desperate residents swarming the trucks. The convoys faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order, according to a statement from the WFP. WFP had attempted to resume aid deliveries in northern Gaza after a three-week pause following a strike on an aid convoy from the Israeli military. The WFP said 1 in 6 children under age 2 are acutely malnourished and people are dying of hunger-related cases, and the situation is even more dire in northern Gaza. In these past two days our teams witnessed unprecedented levels of desperation, the WFP said. Hamas's government media office described the WFP decision as a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of people who are in the northern half of Gaza. The office called for the WFP to withdraw its decisions and for all UN agencies to return and avert catastrop

US proposes UN resolution calling for 'temporary ceasefire' in Gaza

Notably, Israel is planning to carry out a ground operation in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled over the course of the conflict

Israel vows to 'finish the job' in Gaza, sets Ramzan deadline for Rafah attack

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off growing calls to halt the military offensive in Gaza, vowing to “finish the job.” Watch the video to know more

Israel orders evacuations in Gaza, where UN says children are malnourished

Israel ordered new evacuations from parts of Gaza City on Tuesday, as a study led by the UN children's agency found that one in six children are acutely malnourished in the isolated and largely devastated north of the territory, where the city is located. The report finds deepening misery across the territory, where Israel's air and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas' Oct 7 attack, has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, obliterated entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 80% of the population. Israel has vowed to expand the offensive to the Gaza Strip's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. Many have crowded into sprawling tent camps and overflowing UN-run shelters near the Egyptian border. On Tuesday, the military ordered the evacuation of the Zaytoun and Turkoman neighbourhoods on the southern edge of Gaza City, an indication that Palestinian militants are still putti

Israel asks Brazil's Prez to apologise for comparing Gaza war to Holocaust

Israel's foreign minister said on Monday that Brazil's president would not be welcome in Israel until he apologises for comments he made comparing Israel's war in Gaza to the Holocaust, accusing him of a very serious antisemitic attack. On Sunday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn't been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. Lula made the comments while speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia. Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel's national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem on Monday for a reprimand. The things that Lula said when he compared the righteous war of the State of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred the Jews, and Hitler and the Nazis is shameful and unacceptable, Katz said. On Monday evening, Lula recalled Brazil's ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to the country

Port workers' federation won't handle military cargo bound for Israel

The federation, which has representatives at 11 of the country's 12 major ports, said that loading and unloading these weapons helps provide organisations with the ability to kill innocent people

Israel's economy takes deep dive in Q4 with 19.4% GDP drop amid Gaza war

"The contraction of the economy in the fourth quarter of 2023 was directly affected by the outbreak of the Iron Swords War on October 7," the statistic bureau said

Over 29,000 Palestinians killed in Israel-Hamas war: Gaza health ministry

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday that 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. That brings the total number of fatalities to 29,092 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records, but says most of those killed were women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

UN opens hearings into Israel's occupation of lands sought for Palestine

Historic hearings are opening on Monday at the United Nations' top court into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state. Palestinian representatives will speak first as the International Court of Justice begins hearing legal arguments following a request submitted by the UN General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel's policies in the occupied territories. Though the case opens at the court's Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem. The Palestinian legal team will tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians' right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid. We want to hear new words from the court, said Omar ..

UNSC to vote Tuesday on resolution demanding Gaza ceasefire, US to use veto

The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Tuesday on an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, which the United States announced it will veto. Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, put the draft resolution in a final form that can be voted on. Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, said the vote will take place Tuesday morning. In addition to a ceasefire, the final Algerian draft, obtained by The Associated Press, reiterates council demands that Israel and Hamas scrupulously comply with international law, especially the protection of civilians, and rejects the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. The draft also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken by Hamas during their surprise October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken captive, with over 100 still believed to be held in Gaza.