Page 70 - Israel

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 ...

Israeli soldiers shot American woman at West Bank protest: Reports

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, according to a witness who said she was shot while posing no threat to Israeli forces and during a moment of calm after clashes earlier in the afternoon. Two Palestinian doctors said 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle was shot in the head. The US government confirmed Eygi's death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said it was deeply disturbed by the killing of a US citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian ...

UN accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza that Netanyahu denies

The UN independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a "starvation campaign" against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denies. In a report this week, investigator Michael Fakhri claimed it began two days after Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, when Israel's military offensive in response blocked all food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid were "outrageously false". "A deliberate starvation policy? You can say anything it doesn't make it true," he said in a press conference Wednesday. Following intense international pressure especially from close ally the United States Netanyahu's government gradually has opened several border crossings for tightly controlled deliveries. Fakhri said limited aid initially went mostly to southern and central Gaza, not to the north where ..

Israeli soldiers kill American woman during West Bank protest, witness says

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, another protester who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. He said the US was gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and would have more to say. He and the doctors who treated her released the woman's name, but the activist organisation she was volunteering with, the International Solidarity Movement, said her family had asked she not be identified. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The woman who was fatally shot was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grow

Israeli forces appear to withdraw from West Bank camp after military ops

Israeli forces appeared Friday to have withdrawn from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, after a more-than weeklong military operation that has left dozens dead and a trail of destruction. Overnight, Israeli armored personnel carriers were seen leaving the camp from a checkpoint set up on one of the main roads, and an Associated Press reporter inside the camp saw no evidence of any remaining troops inside as dawn broke early Friday morning. Israel's military had no immediate comment but said it would issue a statement later in the day. It was not clear whether the apparent withdrawal was only a temporary measure to regroup forces. Hundreds of Israeli troops have been involved for more than a week in what has been their deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began, employing what the United Nations called lethal war-like tactics. Their focus has been the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian militancy that has grown since th

Maharashtra approves $ 10 bn semiconductor fab unit by Adani, Israeli firm

The project will have capacity to produce 80,000 wafers monthly and it will create 5,000, says Devendra Fadnavis

Nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated: Kirby on Mideast war

"You call that optimistic. I call that accurate. That's how close we believe we are. That's where we have gotten to. The basic framework of the deal has been agreed to," Kirby said

Israel, India improve security ties via cooperation against drone threats

Throughout the seminar, nine Israeli defence companies showcased advanced technologies to counter the drone threat

Israel's Netanyahu demands open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel must keep open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt, digging in on his stance on an issue that has threatened to derail cease-fire efforts. Netanyahu's comments came as the United States is developing a new proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release, hoping to break a long deadlock and bring an end to the nearly 11-month-old war. The question of Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor - a narrow strip of land along Gaza's border with Egypt, seized by troops in May - has become a central obstacle in the talks. Hamas has demanded an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the multi-phase truce deal. Egypt, a mediator in the talks along with the U.S. and Qatar, has also demanded a concrete timeline for Israeli troops to leave the Philadelphi corridor. And on Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates, which established formal ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords, also criticized the Israeli ...

UN hails limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow polio vaccinations

United Nations officials on Wednesday hailed limited pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow children's polio vaccinations as rare moments of hope in the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. Top U.N. officials on peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs spoke at a meeting requested by Israel, which was backed by its allies, veto-holding permanent council members France, Great Britain and the United States. Israel's ambassador on Wednesday focused on the hostages taken during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that launched the war and the recent killing of six captives. Algeria, which sits on the 15-member council until next year, also requested that the U.N. body meet to discuss the broader situation in the Palestinian territories. Both Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, and Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, spoke about the ...

PIL in SC seeks direction to Centre to halt export of arms to Israel

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel licences and not to grant new ones to Indian firms exporting arms and other military equipments to Israel, which is fighting a war in Gaza. The PIL, filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, has made the union ministry of defence a party, and said, "India is bound by various international laws and treaties that obligate India not to supply military weapons to States guilty of war crimes, as any export could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law". The plea filed by 11 people, including Ashok Kumar Sharma, a resident of Noida, said the supply of military equipments to Israel by companies, including a public sector enterprise, under the MoD violates India's obligations under international law coupled with Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. "Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or direction to the respondents, Union of India, through its various organs, to

US charges Hamas chief Sinwar, other leaders over Oct 7 attack on Israel

It also accuses Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons to Hamas

UK govt's decision to suspend some arms for Israel frustrates both sides

His foreign minister, David Lammy, said the move to limit the licences Britain gives for arms exports to Israel was because there was a risk such equipment might be used to commit serious violations

As Iran threatens Israel, danger of missile programme remains in question

As Iran threatens to attack Israel over the assassination of a Hamas leader in the Iranian capital, its long-vaunted missile program offers one of the few ways for Tehran to strike back directly, but questions loom over just how much of a danger it poses. The program was behind Iran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel in April, when Iran became the first nation to launch such a barrage since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lobbed Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. But few of the Iranian projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a US-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed while in flight. Even those that reached Israel appeared to miss their marks. Now a new report by experts shared exclusively with The Associated Press suggests one of Tehran's most advanced missiles is far less accurate than previously thought. The April assault showed "some ability to strike Israel, said Sam Lair, a research associate at the Jame

Netanyahu faces backlash over hostage death, citizens demand cease-fire

Israelis were plunged into grief and anger this weekend after the military said six hostages were killed by their captors in Gaza just as troops were closing in on their location. The rage sparked massive protests and a general strike the most intense domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the start of the war nearly 11 months ago. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the mounting number of dead hostages and are calling for a cease-fire agreement to free the remaining roughly 100 captives even if that means ending the conflict. Sunday's demonstrations were the largest show of support for a hostage deal since October 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and kidnapped 250 people. But Netanyahu has faced fierce pressure to reach a cease-fire agreement before, from key governing partners to top security officials and even Israel's most important international ally, the US. Yet a deal to wind down the war in Gaza remains elusive. Here's a look at

Netanyahu pushes back against new pressure over Gaza cease-fire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pushed back against a new wave of pressure to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza after hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested and went on strike and U.S. President Joe Biden said he needed to do more after nearly 11 months of fighting. In his first public address since Sunday's mass protests showed many Israelis' furious response to the discovery of six more dead hostages, Netanyahu said he will continue to insist on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza's border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it. Netanyahu called the corridor vital to ensuring Hamas cannot rearm via tunnels. This is the oxygen of Hamas, he said. And he added: No one is more committed to freeing the hostages than me. But no one will preach to me." Israelis had poured into the streets late Sunday in grief

Israelis go on day-long protests nationwide as anger over hostages builds

The strike was called by the Histadrut labor federation, though a court order ruled Monday that it should end at 2.30 p.m.

Strike call in Israel over dead Gaza hostages reflects political divisions

A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza led to closures and other disruptions around the country on Monday, including at its main international airport. But it was ignored in some areas, reflecting deep political divisions. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets late Sunday in grief and anger after six hostages were found dead in Gaza. The families and much of the public blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they could have been returned alive in a deal with Hamas to end the nearly 11-month-old war. But others support Netanyahu's strategy of maintaining military pressure on Hamas, whose October 7 attack into Israel triggered the war. They say it will force the militants to give in to Israeli demands, potentially facilitate rescue operations and ultimately annihilate the group. A labour court ruled that the strike must end by 2:30 pm local time, accepting a petition from the government saying it w