Page 69 - Israel

US expresses frustration with Israel's military about strikes in Gaza

The US ambassador to the United Nations on Monday accused Israel's military of striking schools, humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza in a sign of growing American frustration with its close ally as the war approaches its first anniversary. Israel has repeatedly said it targets Hamas militants, who often hide with civilians and use them as human shields, in retaliation for the October 7 attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was unusually outspoken against the Israeli military at a UN Security Council meeting, saying many of the strikes in recent weeks that injured or killed UN personnel and humanitarian workers were preventable. Many council members cited last week's Israeli strike on a former school turned civilian shelter run by the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, in which six UNRWA staffers were among at least 18 people killed, including women and children. Israe

Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, including 4 children, say Palestinians

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including five women and four children. A strike flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people there, including four women and two children. The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll and also said 13 people were wounded. Hospital records show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings. Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed six people, including a woman and two children, according to the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas' O

Blinken heads back to Mideast, this time without fanfare or visit to Israel

Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago, this one aimed partly at refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire deal and release of hostages. Unlike in recent mediating missions, America's top diplomat this time is travelling without optimistic projections from the Biden administration of an expected breakthrough in the troubled negotiations. Notably, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. The Israeli leader's fiery public statements like his declaration that Israel would accept only total victory when Blinken was last in the region in June and some other unbudgeable demands have complicated earlier diplomacy. Blinken is going to Egypt for talks Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and others, in a trip billed as focused both on American-Egyptian relations and Gaza ...

3 hostages recovered earlier likely killed in Nov strike: Israeli military

The Israeli military says there is a high probability that three hostages found dead months ago were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The army on Sunday announced the conclusions of its investigation into the deaths of Cpl. Nik Beizer, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano. It said investigations had determined that the three were likely killed in a November airstrike that also killed a senior Hamas militant, Ahmed Ghandour. All three of the hostages were kidnapped in Hamas' October 7 attack. Their bodies were recovered in December, but the cause of death was only recently determined. In its report, the army said there was a high probability they were killed in the strike, based on where the bodies were recovered, pathological reports and other intelligence. But it said, "it is not possible to definitely determine the circumstances of their deaths." The conclusions could add pressure on the government to strike a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Critics say it

Missile from Yemen lands in central Israel, sets off air raid sirens

A long-range missile fired from Yemen landed in an open area in central Israel early Sunday, the Israeli military said. The early morning attack triggered air raid sirens, including at Israel's international airport, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The military said the sound of explosions in the area came from interceptors. Israeli media aired footage of passengers racing to safe rooms at Ben Gurion International Airport and taking cover on a train. They also showed images of a fragment that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea. In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of air strikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen. The Houthis have

Thousands of anti-govt protesters rally in Israel, urge captives' release

The conflict in Gaza escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas, where about 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, leading to casualties and the seizure of hostages

Interviews for jobs in Israel to start from next week in Pune: Fadnavis

Interviews for the job of construction worker in Israel will be conducted at Aundh Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Pune from September 17, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday. Nearly 10,000 construction workers are going to be recruited from India as per a memorandum of understanding signed with Israel, he said in a post on X. "The interviews of some 9,000 candidates are scheduled to start at Aundh based ITI.....The interviews will start from September 17 and go on till 25," he added.

UN food agency emphasis on Gaza ceasefire after staff come under fire

An Israeli airstrike last month demolished the top floor of a guest house in Gaza where World Food Program international staff were staying, the UN agency's director said Thursday, calling the situation impossibly dangerous for aid workers trying to feed the Palestinian population. The previously undisclosed incident occurred Aug 31 in the Nuseirat refugee camp, just days after WFP temporarily stopped aid deliveries to northern Gaza and halted staff movements when its team came under fire near an Israel checkpoint. "It was always dangerous before. It's become impossibly dangerous now," McCain said. The World Food Programme is in touch with the Israeli Defence Force over the strike on the house where 11 UN employees, including 10 WFP staff, were staying. None was injured and they have been evacuated to Jordan, where McCain met with them this week. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. McCain said she has a simple message for Israeli Prime Minister .

Indian origin Israeli soldier killed amid tensions in the West Bank

A 24-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier from the Bnei Menashe community was killed in a vehicle-ramming attack close to the West Bank's Beit El settlement, community members said on Thursday. Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal was a resident of Nof HaGalil and a soldier in the Kfir Brigade's Nahshon Battalion, the Israeli Army said. Community members told PTI that they were "in shock at the news of the loss of a young life" on Wednesday near Asaf Junction. His funeral will be held on Thursday, they said. Hanghal immigrated to Israel from the northeastern part of India in 2020. Some 300 Bnei Menashe youngsters are said to be doing Army duty during the current war, most of them serving in combat units. The Bnei Menashe, hailing from India's north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram, are believed to have descended from the Israelite tribe of Menasseh, one of the lost tribes of ancient times. Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi, declared them descendants of Menasseh in 2005 pav

Israeli airstrikes hit UN school, homes in Gaza, 34 dead, say hospitals

Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight and Wednesday hit a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinian families as well as two homes, killing at least 34 people, including 19 women and children, hospital officials said. The war in Gaza is now into its 11th month, with tens of thousands of people dead, and international efforts to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militant group have repeatedly stalled as they accuse each other of making additional and unacceptable demands. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops launched raids in several towns backed by airstrikes, continuing a crackdown across the territory that the military says is targeting militants but has wrecked neighbourhoods and killed civilians. One airstrike killed five people the military said were militants threatening its troops. A second strike on a car killed at least three people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. An attacker crashed a fuel truck into a West Bank bus stop near the Israeli ...

Israeli airstrike hits UN school in Gaza, kills at least 14, says official

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 14 people, including two children, when it hit a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in central Gaza on Wednesday, hospital officials said. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The claim could not be independently confirmed. Officials from Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said they had received 10 dead from the strike, and another four dead were brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. At least one woman and two children were among those killed, and at least 18 people were wounded in the strike, hospital officials said. One of the children was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of Gaza's civil defence agency, which works rescuing wounded and bodies after strikes, the agency said in a statement. Selmi hadn't seen his daughter for 10 months, since he remained in north Gaza to keep working while his family fled south, the ...

Iran's president Pezeshkian slams West over war in Gaza, support for Israel

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday slammed the West, saying that Israel is committing massacres in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so. Pezeshkian, who spoke in Baghdad at the start of his first visit abroad since taking office, is hoping to cement Tehran's ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both majority Shiite countries into the widening Middle East fray. Iran has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian militant Hamas group since its Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted, according to local health officials. The war has also caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. The Israeli entity is committing massacres against women, children, young men and elderly. They bomb hospitals and schools, Pezeshkian said. All these crimes are being committed

Israel would cease to exist if Kamala Harris became president: Trump

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of hating Israel and said if she became president, the Jewish state would not exist "within two years from now". Trump's comments came during a bitter televised debate with Harris on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. He asserted that the Israel-Hamas war would have never started if he had been president. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers She hates Israel," Trump, 78, said. "If she is president I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now, he claimed. I've been pretty good at predictions, but I hope I'm wrong on that one," the former president said. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone, Trump said during the debate hosted by ...

Not 40, but 19 killed in Israeli strike on tent camp: Gaza health ministry

Gaza's Health Ministry says it has confirmed that at least 19 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in a designated humanitarian zone. The Civil Defence, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said that 40 people were killed in the strike early Tuesday. The Israeli military disputed that toll, saying it had used precise munitions against a group of militants. Gaza's Health Ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government but its figures are widely seen as generally reliable. It maintains detailed records and its tallies from previous wars have largely coincided with figures from independent researchers, the UN and even the Israeli military. The Health Ministry said the toll from Tuesday's strike could rise. The Health Ministry and the Civil Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.

Israel to carry out recruitment drive in India for 10k construction workers

Israel has approached India recently to carry out a recruitment drive again for 10,000 construction workers and 5,000 caregivers simultaneously to plug the skill gap in infrastructure and health sectors, the National Skill Development Corporation said. This comes on the back of a similar request made by Israel earlier this year, the NSDC said. The statement assumes significance as a media report on Tuesday claimed faulty selection under a bilateral jobs scheme, under which Indians would be taken to Israel to work in the construction sector, after over 1 lakh Palestinian workers were banned in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7 last year. Citing data from the Israeli Embassy, the report claimed that around 5,000 workers each have been recruited through two "pathways": Government-to-Government (G2G) handled by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Business-to-Business (B2B) through private agencies overseen by the Ministry of External Affairs. According to NSDC, th

Temporary truce possible, no commitment on war's end: Israeli defence chief

Israel's defence minister says the window is closing on an opportunity to reach a temporary cease-fire deal with the Hamas militant group that he believes could also bring calm to the country's volatile northern border with Lebanon. Speaking to reporters, Yoav Gallant said that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting, as Hamas has demanded, raising questions about the feasibility of a deal. Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages, he said. After that period, he said, we maintain the right to operate and achieve our goals including the destruction of Hamas. The United States, along with mediators Egypt and Qatar, has been working for months to broker a cease-fire to end the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. A main area of disagreement has been Hamas' demand for

Israeli missile strike on Gaza kills at least 40: Palestinian authorities

Israel's military conducted a missile strike early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians there, authorities said. Details about the strike in the Mawasi coastal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone remained unclear. The area is home to many Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war in which the Israeli military has devastated the wider Gaza Strip after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Israeli military described the strike as hitting significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center, without immediately providing additional evidence. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground. The Israeli military said it used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional means it did

Israel finance ministry slashes growth forecast as war in Gaza hits economy

Gross domestic product will rise 1.1 per cent, according to updated figures on the ministry's official website, down from the previous figure of 1.9 per cent

Israel carries out intense strikes in central Syria, 14 killed, 40 injured

A series of Israeli strikes hit multiple areas in central Syria late Sunday, killing at least four people, wounding 13 and sparking fires, state media reported. Syria state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defences "confronted an aggression that targeted several points in the central region," damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires that firefighting teams were battling to control early Monday. At least four dead and 13 wounded people arrived at the Masyaf National Hospital in western Hamas province, SANA said, citing hospital head Faysal Haydar. It was not immediately clear if they were civilians or militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that one of the strikes targeted a scientific research centre in Maysaf and other sites where "Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria." Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous. There was no immediate comment from the ..

Israelis protest again over govt's failure to bring hostages back from Gaza

Israelis again poured into the streets for another large protest over the government's failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza, while hospital and local authorities said Israeli air raids in the territory killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday. Health workers wrapped up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak. The drive, launched after the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed Gaza's health care system and much of its infrastructure. The third phase of vaccinations will be in the north. Israel kept up its military offensive. In central Gaza's urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of nine people killed in two air raids. One hit a residential building, killing four people and wounding at least 10, while five people were killed in a strike on a house in western ...