Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza on Saturday after the Israeli military ordered nearly half the population to evacuate south and carried out limited ground forays ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas' bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel. Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for some 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The UN and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering, with hospital patients and others unable to relocate. Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions crowded a main road heading away from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes continued to hammer the 40-kilometre (25-mile) long territory, where supplies of food, fuel and drinking water were running low because of a complete Israeli siege. Egyptian officials said the southern Rafah crossing would open later Saturday for the first time in days to .
Israel's ultimatum that over one million people in northern Gaza should relocate within 24 hours is "extremely dangerous" and "simply not possible", UN chief Antonio Guterres has said, asserting that "even wars have rules. UN officials in Gaza on Thursday were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of northern Gaza, approximately 1.1 million, should relocate to the southern part within the next 24 hours. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities including schools, health centres and clinics. Moving more than one million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous and in some cases, simply not possible, Guterres told reporters here on Friday. The UN Secretary-General made those remarks before heading to a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East. He said that after days
In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views
Gaza, often termed an "open-air prison", is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, making it one of the world's most densely populated regions.
Security has also been stepped up at Jewish religious establishments and the Israel Embassy
Israel, which has vowed to crush Hamas, is now preparing for a possible ground offensive
India sees attack by Hamas on Israel as terrorist attack, says MEA
The short answer to that question is: They can't. Before I explain why, consider the lay of the land and the situation in which Gazans find themselves right now
"Every Hamas terrorist is a dead man," Netanyahu said at a late-night briefing, flanked by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the head of Israel's opposition
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A relatively lesser-known company, Maryan Apparel Ltd from Kannur district, has been providing uniforms to this esteemed force, recognised as one of the top police departments globally, since 2012
On the road approaching this rural village, the bodies of militants lie scattered between the shells of burned-out cars. Walls and doors of what used to be neatly kept stucco homes are blasted wide open. As bags holding the bodies of slain residents await identification, the smell of death hangs thick in the hot afternoon air. This is the scene confronting Israel's military as it battles to beat back a sweeping assault launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, in fighting that has killed hundreds in this country left reeling and the adjoining Palestinian enclave under heavy Israeli bombardment. You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms and how the terrorists killed, Maj. Gen. Itay Veruz, a 39-year veteran of the Israeli army who led forces that reclaimed the village from militants, said Tuesday as he stood amid the wreckage. It's not a battlefield. It's a massacre. The Israeli military led a group of journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, on a tour of
Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighbourhood by neighbourhood Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory now suffering severe retaliation for the deadly weekend attack by Hamas militants. Humanitarian groups pleaded for the creation of corridors to get aid into Gaza and warned that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing. The war, which has claimed at least 1,900 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate. The weekend attack that Hamas said was retribution for worsening conditions for Palestinians under Israeli occupation has inflamed Israel's determination to crush the group's hold in Gaza. New exchanges of fire over Israel's northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday pointed to
The public and the national security establishment in Israel are demanding retribution for the attacks by Hamas militants that claimed more than 1,000 Israeli lives over the weekend
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This came after several soldiers were called up for reserve service, and had arrived already expecting the worst, but the scenes were beyond imagination
The Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 770 Palestinians have been killed and 4,000 wounded in Israeli air raids. Among the dead are 140 children and 120 women, a ministry spokesperson said
India's solidarity with the Palestinian cause dates back to Mahatma Gandhi's time and its rising global stature and influence over all key players in West Asia make it well-placed to play a crucial role in defusing the crisis arising out of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Palestine Ambassador Adnan Abu Alhaija said on Tuesday. In an interview to PTI, Alhaija particularly noted that India is a "friend" for both Israel and Palestine and it is "qualified" to work towards bringing down the tensions and contribute towards a solution to the Palestine issue. The multi-pronged attacks against Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza since Saturday and the subsequent Israeli retaliation have left over 1,600 people dead in the last four days, triggering mounting global concerns and confabulations among key players. Alhaija said India can get in touch with the European countries, the US, countries in West Asia and build "pressure" on the Israelis to work towards peace, which, he said, is refusing so ...
The European Union on late Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was immediately suspending aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas. There will be no suspension of payments at the moment, a terse European Commission statement said late Monday, five hours after EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi had said that all payments from the development programme for Palestinians would be immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals postponed until further notice. No immediate explanation for the reversal was given. A full European Commission statement always trumps a statement from an EU commissioner, but the reversal on a 691 million-euro ($730 million) programme capped an embarrassing day at the EU's executive at a time of extreme geopolitical sensitivities.
Israel's response to the unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip will "change the West Asia," the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said