War in Gaza
Live Reporting
Israel wants to destroy ‘social fabric’ of Gaza: Analyst
The chances of a long-lasting truce remain low as the Israeli government’s desire for war remains “very strong”, says analyst Mahjoob Zweiri.
“They have set very high goals for this war. They are trying to destroy the social fabric and infrastructure of Gaza,” the director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University told Al Jazeera.
“Israel is looking at social connections of Hamas on the ground and if there is someone who is affiliated with them, they will destroy his house. That is the reason why we see the number of casualties is increasing rapidly.”
More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7.
As Israel’s war on Gaza enters the 57th day, here is what is expected to take place today:
In Tel Aviv, families of the remaining captives are expected to hold a large protest.
In Ramallah, occupied West Bank, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan will be meeting President Abbas.
Demonstrations are scheduled to take place in Paris and other French cities in solidarity with Gaza.
German and Arab civil societies are organising a demonstration in the German city of Dusseldorf.
More demonstrations are scheduled to take place in Belgium, Spain, Canada, US, Chile and the UK.
Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of Damascus, Syrian state media says
DAMASCUS — Israeli airstrikes hit several points on the outskirts of Damascus early Saturday, Syrian state media reported.
State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said the strikes came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and that Syrian air defenses shot most of the missiles down. The strikes resulted in only “material losses,” the statement said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said the strikes hit in the area of the south Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, where it said that “there are military forces working with the Lebanese Hezbollah.” It said ambulances rushed to the scene.
Israel has struck targets in Syria several times since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct. 7. On Sunday, a reported Israeli airstrike hit the international airport in Damascus and put it out of commission, just hours after the airport resumed flights following a monthlong hiatus after a previous Israeli strike.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, often targeting Hezbollah and other militant groups backed by Iran, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
'I was reborn': Thai hostages have reunion after homecoming from Gaza
KHON KAEN, Thailand (Reuters) - After he was released by Hamas from captivity in Gaza, Thai farm worker Natthaporn Onkaew, 26, described the experience as dying and being "reborn".
"I missed home so much ... it's something you'd never expect would happen to you," he said, wearing a flag with the Thai and Israeli flags.
At an airport in northeastern Thailand, relatives swarmed Natthaporn with hugs, flowers and garlands, welcoming him home.
New York Times report says Israel knew about Hamas attack over a year in advance
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military was aware of Hamas ' plan to launch an attack on Israeli soil over a year before the devastating Oct. 7 operation that killed hundreds of people, The New York Times reported Friday.
It was the latest in a series of signs that top Israeli commanders either ignored or played down warnings that Hamas was plotting the attack, which triggered a war against the Islamic militant group that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
The Times said Israeli officials were in possession of a 40-page battle plan, code-named “Jericho Wall,” that detailed a hypothetical Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities.
Schwarzenegger lends support to families of Israeli hostages
SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) - Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday met relatives of three people seized by Hamas in Israel and now held in Gaza, lending his celebrity to support those whose loved ones are still unaccounted for following the Oct. 7 attack.
Schwarzenegger gave bronze eagle sculptures to his visitors at a video production company in Santa Monica, just west of Los Angeles. In turn they presented Schwarzenegger with "Bring Them Home" dog tags.
Declaring himself "a big friend of the Jewish people and Israel," Schwarzenegger said he wanted to amplify the message not to abandon those who remain captive.
Gaza ‘most dangerous place in the world to be a child’, UNICEF says
Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, has warned that Gaza is once again “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” following the resumption of the war.
Russell said that hundreds of children will die each day if violence returns at the scale and intensity seen before the seven-day pause in fighting that ended on Friday.
“It does not have to be this way – for seven days, there was a glimmer of hope for children amidst this horrific nightmare,” Russell said in a statement on Friday.
“More than 30 children held hostage in Gaza were safely released and reunited with their families. And the humanitarian pause enabled an increase in the delivery of lifesaving supplies into and across Gaza.”
“Children need a lasting humanitarian ceasefire,” Russell added.
“We call on all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted, in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. All children in the State of Palestine and Israel deserve peace and hope for a better future.”
All children in the State of Palestine and Israel deserve peace and hope for a better future.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) December 1, 2023
We call on all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted.
My statement on the resumption of fighting in Gaza ?? https://t.co/jcbyOAEZVS
Israel informs Arab states it wants buffer zone in post-war Gaza
DUBAI/CAIRO/LONDON (Reuters) - Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza's border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the enclave after war ends, Egyptian and regional sources said.
According to three regional sources, Israel related its plans to its neighbours Egypt and Jordan, along with the United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020.
They also said that Saudi Arabia, which does not have ties with Israel and which halted a U.S.-mediated normalisation process after the Gaza war flared on Oct. 7, had been informed. The sources did not say how the information reached Riyadh, which officially does not have direct communication channels with Israel. Non-Arab Turkey was also told, the sources said.
Renewed Gaza fighting stretches into second day after Israel-Hamas truce collapses
GAZA (Reuters) - Renewed fighting in Gaza stretched into a second day on Saturday after talks to extend a week-old truce with Hamas collapsed and mediators said Israeli bombardments were complicating attempts to again pause hostilities.
Eastern areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza came under intense bombardment as the truce deadline lapsed shortly after dawn on Friday, with columns of smoke rising into the sky, Reuters journalists in the city said.
By Friday evening, Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes had killed 184 people, wounded at least 589 others and hit more than 20 houses.
Hamas leader Sinwar plotted Israel's most deadly day in plain sight
LONDON (Reuters) - Last year, Yahya Sinwar told a rally in Gaza that Hamas would deploy fighters and rockets in a fierce strike on Israel, the nation that imprisoned him for 23 years before he was freed and rose to a leadership role in the militant group.
The speech by Hamas' leader in Gaza to thousands of cheering supporters bore the hallmarks of crowd-pleasing hyperbole. Less than a year later, Israel discovered it was no idle threat, when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza's fence, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.
Israel refused all mediators’ suggestions: Hamas
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas senior official said that Israel has been undermining every effort to extend the truce.
“Every day in the past seven days of the temporary ceasefire, Israel was acting in a way to undermine the whole process,” Hamdan said.
“Yesterday night we were talking about extending the temporary ceasefire, we were very clear about some options which were suggested by the mediators – we accepted three suggestions, but all those were rejected by the Israelis.
“We were and we still are positive about all the efforts, but the Israelis are refusing them,” he said.
‘War makes threats of water and food scarcity more severe’, says Jordan’s king
(Reuters) - Jordan’s King Abdullah has said that “war makes threats of water and food scarcity more severe”, in his address to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
“This year’s conference of the parties must recognize even more than ever that we cannot talk about climate change in isolation from the humanitarian tragedies unfolding around us,” he said.
“In a region already on the front lines of climate change, the massive destruction of war makes these environmental threats of water scarcity and food insecurity even more severe,” he said, in a clear reference to fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that resumed after a seven-day truce.
Fear, trauma returns to children in Gaza as fighting resumes
James Elder, UNICEF’s global spokesperson, says children have returned to a state of fear and trauma as Israeli air attacks resume across the enclave.
“You can see the gentle change; a little childhood was returning in them” during the truce, said Elder from southern Gaza. “That has gone now. The trauma, the fear in their little eyes as they see a look in their parents that they may be losing their ability to protect them – and that’s terrifying.”
“You see people shudder, particularly children. You just see that reflex action that has now become a learned behaviour of fear seeping in,” he added.
At least 6,000 children have been killed in the besieged strip since the start of the war, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Ceasefire over in #Gaza. Attacks v near this hospital. Bombing consistent. Has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?! pic.twitter.com/dsyvQeBEWx
— James Elder (@1james_elder) December 1, 2023
US has enough leverage to stop the fighting, analyst says
Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at Chatham House, says the US has enough leverage to stop the fighting and influence other countries to change the course of the war.
“Europe responds in many ways to what the United States’ stand is,” Mekelberg told Al Jazeera, adding that the US had laid out the parameters for Israel’s continued bombardment on Gaza.
During US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel on Thursday, he urged Israel to account for the safety of Palestinian civilians before resuming any military operations.
Mekelberg said Israel’s timeframe to carry out its war against Hamas is “much shorter” and eventually a ceasefire will be called.
“The way that the war is conducted right now and what is developing in Gaza, it can’t continue for weeks, definitely not for months,” Mekelberg said.
Hamas says confronting Israeli ‘crimes’
Ezzat El Rashq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, says what Israel did not achieve during the first 50 days of the war, it “will not achieve by continuing its aggression after the truce”.
“With the steadfastness of our people and the heroism of our resistance, we confront the enemy’s crimes, the resumption of its Nazi aggression, and its targeting of civilians,” he said in statement.
Truce negotiations ongoing, Qatar says
The mediating country has confirmed negotiations between Hamas and Israel are continuing “with the aim of returning to a state of the pause”.
In a statement, the Qatari foreign ministry expressed its “deep regret” over Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza saying it complicates the mediation efforts and “exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip”.
Statement |Qatar expresses its deep regret at the resumption of the Israeli aggression against Gaza following the end of the humanitarian pause #MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/9eJVs3qSqI
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) December 1, 2023
Hamas should be destroyed ‘without compromises’: Ben-Gvir
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says the army “must return to and crush Gaza with all our might.”
In a post on X, he said the enclave should be attacked at maximum power “for the sake of the children who have not yet returned, for the murdered who will no longer return, and so that the horrors of 7/10 will never return.”
He added that Hamas should be destroyed “without compromises, without deals.”
‘Gaza is unprepared for all of this’
Israeli forces have been dropping leaflets in certain areas of Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, warning civilians to evacuate southwards towards Rafah – a city bordering Egypt that was targeted by Israeli air raids earlier this morning.
“People are asking ‘where should we go?’ Gaza is unprepared for all of this,” said journalist Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis.
“There is no shelter, no safe space for people in Gaza. Many of them have lost their houses. Hospitals, UN facilities are packed with those who have already evacuated from other areas,” Khoudary said.
The evacuation warnings suggest Israel is now planning to further target areas in the south of the Strip after concentrating most of its bombardment on the north of the enclave in the weeks before the truce.
It is not clear where the more than two-thirds of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million who have been displaced since October 7 are now expected to be sheltering as Israel resumes its offensive.
14 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since truce expired - health ministry
GAZA (Reuters) - Fourteen Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured in Israeli strikes during the first two hours since the truce in Gaza expired, Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for Gaza's health ministry said on Friday, according to the ministry's telegram account.
Most of those killed were women and children, he added.
Israel prepares to demolish home of alleged perpetrators of Jerusalem attack
The Israeli police have released a video of its forces preparing to demolish the house of the alleged perpetrators of Thursday’s shooting attack in the occupied West Jerusalem.
The video posted on X showed the Israeli security forces carrying out measurement and mapping activities in the Sur Baher district in the occupied East Jerusalem before the demolition.
Several people were killed and injured in the shooting attack by two attackers on a bus stop in the occupied West Jerusalem.
Off-duty soldiers and a civilian at the scene subsequently killed the attackers, according to reports.
Several people killed in Israeli attacks
Health Ministry officials in Gaza say Israeli air strikes have killed at least nine people across the Gaza Strip in less than two hours since the resumption of military operations.
In the south, at least six people were killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and one in Khan Younis, journalist Hind Khoudary reported from Khan Younis. In central Gaza, at least seven people were killed in the Maghazi area.
Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave ahead of an expected attack in the area.
“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.
Gaza death toll breakdown
According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 21 people have been killed since Israel’s army resumed its attacks:
Two people killedin Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip
Seven people killed at al-Maghazi, central Gaza Strip
One in Khan Younis city, southern Gaza Strip
Two in Hamad town, south of Khan Younis
Nine in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip
Where is Israel striking?
Al Jazeera’s reported Israeli forces have launched a broad air campaign across the Gaza Strip in the past hour.
These are some of the areas targeted so far:
In the north, a residential building has been completely destroyed in the Jabalia refugee camp.
In central Gaza, a number of civilians were wounded at the al-Maghazi area.
Reports indicate a house has been completely destroyed in Rafah, in the south, where four Palestinians were reported killed.
A residential building close to a hospital in the south has also been hit by Israeli drones.
“Right now, sounds of Israeli explosions can be heard in the south, an area that the Israeli authorities had recommended as safe for civilians to flee,” Abu Azzoum said.
“Largely in the last hour, we have been under heavy Israeli bombardment,” he added.
Blinken ends his visit to Israel, heads to the UAE
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has left Israel after he boarded a US military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was announced as his next destination in the region.
Israel strikes Gaza after truce expires, in clear sign that war has resumed in full force
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fighter jets hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday shortly after a weeklong truce expired, the military said, as the war resumed in full force.
Airstrikes hit southern Gaza, including the community of Abassan east of the town of Khan Younis, the Interior Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said. Another strike hit a home northwest of Gaza City.
Loud, continuous explosions were heard coming from the Gaza Strip and black smoke billowed from the territory.
In Israel, sirens blared at three communal farms near Gaza warning of incoming rocket fire, suggesting Hamas had also resumed its attacks.
The Israeli military’s announcement of the strikes came only 30 minutes after the cease-fire expired at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) Friday.
Earlier Friday, Israel accused Hamas of having violated the terms of the cease-fire, including by firing rockets toward Israel from Gaza.
Palestinian media say Israel strikes area in Northern Gaza, Jerusalem claims Hamas violated truce
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A temporary truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas that was due to end at 7 am (0500 GMT) on Friday has expired, with neither side announcing a deal to extend it.
In the hour before the truce was set to end, Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza and Hamas-affiliated media reported sounds of explosions and gunfire in the Palestinian enclave.
On the other hand, Palestinian media reported explosions and gunfire in Northern Gaza.
The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
In Gaza, teacher brings school to displaced children
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza teacher Tareq al-Ennabi arranges his pupils' chairs in a circle, sets out the slates and chalk, and plans his lesson for the day: how to say in English "I love Palestine".
Nearly two months ago, Hamas fighters streamed into Israel from the Gaza Strip in the worst attack in the country's history, taking some 240 hostages and killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
By the next day -- a Sunday, and the first day of the week in Gaza -- many of the territory's schools had either become shelters for Palestinians displaced by Israel's retaliatory bombing campaign, or been deserted altogether by students and teachers alike.
Blinken urges Israel to create safe zones in Gaza when fighting resumes
TEL AVIV (AFP) – Visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged Israel to create safe zones for Palestinian civilians in Gaza before it resumes "major military operations" in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Speaking on the seventh day of a pause in fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, Blinken also called for a further extension of the truce which included hostage and prisoner swaps and aid deliveries into the besieged Gaza Strip.
"Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward," he told reporters in Tel Aviv at the end of a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Climate and Gaza crises share spotlight as world leaders attend COP28
DUBAI (AFP) – World leaders take centre stage at UN climate talks in Dubai on Friday, under pressure to step up efforts to limit global warming as the Israel-Hamas conflict casts a shadow over the summit.
The COP28 conference kicked off on Thursday with an early victory as nations agreed to launch a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries devastated by natural disasters.
But delegates face two weeks of tough negotiations on an array of issues that have long bedevilled climate talks, starting with the future of fossil fuels.
Israel frees 30 Palestinian prisoners, Hamas releases eight hostages
GAZA (AFP) - Hamas on Thursday (Nov 30) released eight Israeli hostages in Gaza under a last-minute truce deal and and Israel freed 30 Palestinian prisoners as negotiators sought to renew the pause in fighting again.
Israel identified two women who were released first on Thursday as 21-year-old Mia Schem, among those seized at a dance party that Hamas militants attacked on Oct 7, and 40-year-old Amit Soussana.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister's office showed Schem, who also holds French nationality, embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas then freed a group of six more hostages, transferring them to the Red Cross, the Israeli military said. Four were women aged 29 to 41, including one Mexican-Israeli dual national, according to official information.
(Reuters) - Two Israeli women have been handed to the Red Cross in Gaza City, Israel said on Thursday, and further hostages are expected to be released later in the evening, following a last-minute deal struck by Israel and Hamas.
Israel named the women as 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was seized at a dance party along with many of the other hostages abducted into Gaza, and 40-year-old Amit Sosana. Schem also holds French nationality.
The warring sides agreed to extend their ceasefire for a seventh day, while mediators pressed on with talks to extend the truce further to free more hostages and let aid reach Gaza.
'Imperative' to ensure civilian protection in southern Gaza, Blinken says in Tel Aviv
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ensure that civilians were safe in southern Gaza during his latest visit to the Middle East.
Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to extend the temporary pause in fighting for one more day but Israel has said it intends to resume military operations against the Palestinian militant group. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments.
Two Hamas gunmen open fire at Jerusalem bus stop, killing three
(Reuters) - Two Hamas gunmen killed three people at a Jerusalem bus stop during morning rush hour on Thursday, and Israel reiterated its commitment to wiping out the Palestinian Islamist faction, whose Oct. 7 killing spree triggered the Gaza war.
The attackers, Palestinians from East Jerusalem, were shot dead by off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian, police said. At least eight people were also wounded in the shooting.
"The terrorists arrived at the scene by car in the morning, armed with an M-16 rifle and a handgun," police said. "The terrorists began shooting at civilians before subsequently being killed at the scene."
Israeli settlers uproot Palestinians’ olive trees near Salfit
Israeli settlers have uprooted ten olive trees and prevented Palestinian harvesters from reaching their lands north and west of the town of Kafr al-Dik, in northern occupied West Bank, Palestinian Wafa news agency has cited mayor Mohammad Naji as saying.
Naji told Wafa that the settlers destroyed and cut down trees belonging to his family and attacked the olive harvesters, forcing them to leave their lands, located west of the city of Salfit.
The land in question totals some 1,500 dunums (370 acres).
Blinken says truce between Israel-Hamas is producing results
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said that a temporary truce between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas had produced results and that the United States hoped that it continued.
Sitting beside Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Blinken said Washington was focused on helping to secure freedom for hostages taken to Gaza during an Oct. 7 attack during which Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 240.
Herzog said about 150 hostages remained in Gaza.
Shooting attack in Jerusalem as Israel, Hamas extend Gaza truce by a day
Shortly after the agreement, Israeli police said two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing two people and wounding eight others. Both attackers were "neutralised", it said.
"Two terrorists arrived at the scene in a vehicle armed with firearms, these terrorists opened fire towards civilians at the bus station and were subsequently neutralised by security forces and a nearby civilian," the police said.
Israeli army, Hamas say Gaza truce extended
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters/AFP) - Israel and Hamas agreed on Thursday to extend the ceasefire in their war by at least one more day, minutes before the six-day truce was due to expire.
Israel's military said in a statement the truce will continue as mediators sought to release more hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The truce, extended from its initial four days, has brought the first respite in the bombardment of Gaza with much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million having been reduced to wasteland in response to a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Ten Israeli women, children, four Thai nationals freed by Hamas
Ten Israeli women and children and four Thai nationals held captive in Gaza were freed by Hamas, and Israel followed with the release of a group of Palestinian prisoners Thursday. It was the latest exchange of hostages for prisoners under a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza war. Two Russian-Israeli women were also freed by Hamas in a separate release.
International mediators are working to extend a cease-fire that’s just a few hours from expiring. Israel has agreed to extend the truce by one day for every 10 militant-held hostages who are freed. The cease-fire, which was originally set to expire on Monday, has paused the deadliest fighting between Israel and Palestinians in decades.
Israel has vowed to resume the war in an effort to end Hamas’ 16-year rule of Gaza, but it’s facing mounting international pressure to extend the truce and spare southern Gaza a devastating ground offensive like the one that has demolished much of the north.
Roughly 240 hostages were captured by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that ignited the war. More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. About 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial incursion by Hamas.
Second Israeli American hostage is released, Biden confirms
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed on Wednesday that a second Israeli American hostage has been released by Hamas from Gaza.
Biden told reporters that Liat Beinin Atzili, 49, was among the latest group of Hamas-held hostages to be released from Gaza and taken to Israel. Speaking in Pueblo, Colorado, Biden added that he’d a chance to speak with Atzili’s parents.
“They’re very appreciative and things are moving well,” Biden said of his conversation with Atzili’s family. “She’ll soon be home with her three children.”
Four-year-old Abigail Edan, an Israeli-American dual citizen, was the first U.S. hostage to be released under the cease-fire. Both of her parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7.
White House officials believe seven or eight Americans remain in captivity.
Sixteen more hostages freed from Gaza as part of Israeli-Hamas truce
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Sixteen people who were being held hostage in Gaza were handed over to Israeli officials on Wednesday, the second and last day of an extended truce in the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Red Cross and other authorities said.
In a repeat of scenes over the past six days during a humanitarian pause in hostilities, the civilians were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and driven in vehicles to Israel.
Under the terms of the Qatari-mediated deal, 30 Palestinians -- 16 minors and 14 women -- will be released on Wednesday in exchange, Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Jordan says it will host conference to coordinate aid to Gaza
AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan on Thursday will host an international conference attended by the main U.N. bodies and regional and international relief agencies to coordinate humanitarian aid to war-devastated Gaza, official media said.
U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths and key U.N. bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in ramping up aid to Gaza will be present at the conference, along with representatives of Western and Arab countries involved in the aid effort, they said.
The conference, to be held behind closed doors, will be addressed by King Abdullah who has been lobbying Western leaders to back a U.N. resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Talks intensify to extend Israel-Hamas truce after more hostages, prisoners freed
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - International pressure grew on Israel and Hamas to extend a truce on Thursday after another exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian aid was delivered to the besieged Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, 16 more hostages were released by Hamas on the final day of a two-day truce extension, which is set to expire early on Thursday. Israel's prison service said it released 30 more Palestinians from its jails in a sixth round of swaps. The exchanges are a core component of the arrangement, which was initially set at four days.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv early on Thursday, his third trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and was set to meet with Israeli leaders to discuss extending the temporary truce and boosting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israeli official says Hamas has enough hostages to cover 2-3 day truce extension
(Reuters) - An official involved in the negotiating process has said Israel believes Hamas has enough women and children hostages to allow the current pause in fighting in Gaza to be extended by another two to three days.
“We know for a fact that there are additional hostages in the hands of Hamas for at least two more days, potentially three days from the list of women and children,” said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named.
Gazans in midst of ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’: UN chief
(AFP) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world”.
“Intense negotiations are taking place to prolong the truce — which we strongly welcome — but we believe we need a true humanitarian ceasefire,” he said at a UN Security Council meeting.
“I welcome the arrangement reached by Israel and Hamas — with the assistance of the governments of Qatar, Egypt and the United States,” Guterres said.
“Meanwhile, an estimated 45 per cent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed,” he added.
5 premature babies found dead in Gaza hospital: health ministry
(AFP) - Five premature babies have been found dead at a hospital in Gaza City during a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, the health ministry said.
Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP that Israeli soldiers had blocked access to the intensive care unit at Al-Nasr paediatric facility, and doctors were finally “able to get into the ward on Tuesday night”.
There, Qudra said, “the occupation (Israeli) forces left five premature babies” who were found “partly decomposed”.
“The soldiers forbade the families from going near” the newborns before Tuesday, he said. The Israeli army said it was unable to immediately comment on the matter when contacted by AFP.
Gazans in midst of ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’: UN chief
(AFP) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world”.
“Intense negotiations are taking place to prolong the truce — which we strongly welcome — but we believe we need a true humanitarian ceasefire,” he said at a UN Security Council meeting.
“I welcome the arrangement reached by Israel and Hamas — with the assistance of the governments of Qatar, Egypt and the United States,” Guterres said.
“Meanwhile, an estimated 45 per cent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed,” he added.
Last-minute negotiations between Israel and Hamas to extend the Gaza truce were overshadowed on Wednesday by an unconfirmed claim by Hamas that a 10-month old baby Israeli hostage and his family had been killed.
Shortly before the final release of women and children hostages scheduled under the truce, the military wing of Hamas said the youngest hostage, baby Kfir Bibas, had been killed in an earlier Israeli bombing, along with his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother. Their father has also been held.
Israel said it was checking the claim, which was potentially explosive, as the family were among the highest-profile civilian hostages yet to be freed.
Palestinians in Gaza fear resumption of war
CAIRO — Palestinians in Gaza fear a resumption of the Israel-Hamas war, which has brought unprecedented levels of death, destruction and displacement in the impoverished coastal strip.
“We are fed up,” said Omar al-Darawi, who works at the overwhelmed Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. “We want this war to stop.”
Ihab Abu Auf, a father of three staying with another family in southern Gaza, said he tried twice to return to his home in the north but was turned back by Israeli troops.
The two men spoke Wednesday as international mediators worked to extend the cease-fire that has paused the fighting for nearly a week. Both said it would be catastrophic if Israel resumes its offensive and sends troops south, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge.
“Where will we go then with our women and children?” Abu Auf said. “They want another Nakba,” or catastrophe, he said, referring to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
Egypt has refused to accept Palestinian refugees and Israel has sealed its border since start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 cross-border attack.
WHO warns that more people could die from disease than from bombing in Gaza
CAIRO — The head of the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that more people in the Gaza Strip could die from disease than from bombing.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, said there is a heightened risk of disease outbreaks because of overcrowded shelters and a lack of food, water, sanitation and medication.
He said 111,000 people are suffering from respiratory infections and 75,000 others from diarrhea, more than half of them under age 5.
“Given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people could die from disease than bombings,” he said, calling for a sustained cease-fire. “It’s a matter of life or death for civilians.”
The war, which was trigged by an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on Oct. 7, has displaced up to 1.8 million people, or about 80% of Gaza’s population, according to U.N. figures.
From the Israel-Gaza war to the Moon race: events that defined 2023
Paris (AFP) – From Hamas's attacks in Israel, and the fierce retribution it provoked, to the kiss that caused a revolt in Spanish football, here are 10 events that marked a tumultuous 2023:
Israel-Gaza war
On October 7, hundreds of Hamas gunmen pour across the border from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage in the worst attack in Israel's history, traumatising the country and stunning the world.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to "destroy" Hamas and Israel launches air bombardments followed by a ground offensive that reduces entire neighbourhoods in the densely packed Palestinian territory to rubble.
As Gaza's destruction and death toll mount, international pressure grows on Israel to pause its offensive.
Manila welcomes release of second Filipino hostage
MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino-Israeli woman arrived in Israel after being released by Hamas Tuesday night as part of a group of 12 hostages, the president of the Philippines announced on social media early Wednesday.
Noralin Babadilla was the second of two Filipinos released from captivity in Gaza during the truce in the Israel-Hamas war. With her release, “all Filipinos affected by the war have been accounted for,” wrote President Ferdinand Marcos.
Babadilla, who lived in Israel and worked as a caregiver, was visiting friends in Kibbutz Nirim with her husband during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli embassy in Manila said in a statement. Her husband, Gideon Babani, was killed during the attack, and Babadilla was taken hostage.
Marcos thanked Israel for facilitating Babadilla’s release, and thanked Egypt and Qatar “for their crucial role in this process over the past several weeks.”
Thailand welcomes release of two more Thai hostages held by Hamas
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara welcomed on Wednesday the release of two more Thai hostages who had been held by Hamas in Gaza, the latest to be freed under a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.
"Happy to personally welcome 2 additional Thai hostages just released and arrived at the hospital in Tel Aviv," Parnpree, who is also deputy prime minister, posted on social media platform X.
"A totally warm feeling to see how the former 17 were lining up to welcome and give moral support to the two newcomers," he said.
G7 foreign ministers support extension of pause in fighting in Gaza
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries support the further extension of the current pause in fighting in Gaza and future pauses to increase assistance and facilitate the release of all hostages, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
"Every effort must be made to ensure humanitarian support for civilians. ... We support the further extension of this pause and future pauses as needed to enable assistance to be scaled up, and to facilitate the release of all hostages," the joint statement added.
The current truce brought Hamas-ruled Gaza its first respite after seven weeks of bombardment that has reduced much of the coastal strip to rubble and killed more than 15,000 people, according to health officials there.
Hamas senior official invites Elon Musk to visit Gaza
(Reuters) – A Hamas senior official invited US billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday to visit the Palestinian Gaza strip to see the extent of destruction caused by the Israeli bombardment.
"We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility," Hamas' senior official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference in Beirut.
On Monday, Elon Musk, the social media mogul assailed for his endorsement of an anti-Jewish post, toured the site of the Hamas assault on Israel and declared his commitment to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of hatred.
Hamas, Israel release more hostages, prisoners in fifth day of Gaza truce
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hamas freed 12 more hostages and Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday, the fifth day of an extended six-day truce between the militant Palestinian group and Israel in the Gaza war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the 12 hostages had been transferred from Gaza, and Israel's military confirmed that the 10 Israeli citizens and two foreign nationals were with its special forces on Israeli territory.
The hostages were among some 240 people seized by Hamas gunmen during a rampage into southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Israel's bombardment of Hamas-ruled Gaza in retaliation has killed more than 15,000 Gazans, health authorities there said.
US and Israeli intelligence chiefs have arrived in the Qatari capital to discuss the "next phase" of a deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, a source briefed on their visit told AFP on Tuesday.
"The director of the CIA and the director of the Israeli National Intelligence Agency (Mossad) are in Doha to meet with the Qatari prime minister to build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal," the source told AFP, adding that Egyptian officials were also present.
Israel, Hamas appear to abide by truce, discuss further extensions
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces and Hamas fighters appeared to be abiding by a truce for a fifth morning on Tuesday, after a four-day ceasefire was extended at the last minute for at least two days to let more hostages go free.
A single column of black smoke could be seen rising above the obliterated wasteland of the northern Gaza war zone from across the fence in Israel, but there was no sign of jets in the sky or rumble of explosions.
Both sides reported some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning, but there were immediate reports of casualties. A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces said: "After suspects approached IDF troops, an IDF tank fired a warning shot."
Elon Musk promises to wear symbol of Gaza hostages
(Reuters) - Elon Musk, on a visit to Israel after being assailed for an anti-Jewish post on his social media site X, received a symbolic dog-tag from the father of an Israeli taken captive by Hamas in Gaza and promised to wear it until all the hostages were free.
"Our hearts are hostage in Gaza," read the metal tag he received from Malki Shem-Tov, the father of hostage Omer Shem-Tov, in a video of Musk's visit issued on Monday by the office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Musk placed it around his neck. Later on Monday he wrote on X: "I will wear it every day until your loved ones are released."
The dog-tags, prevalent throughout Israel, mark the Oct. 7 cross-border killing spree by Hamas during which 240 people were dragged back to Gaza.
On Nov. 15, Musk posted on X his agreement with a post that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was speaking "the actual truth".
Following the post, major U.S. companies including Walt Disney (DIS.N), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) and NBCUniversal parent Comcast (CMCSA.O) suspended their advertisements on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The White House criticised Musk for what it called an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans".
Musk has said he is against antisemitism and anything that "promotes hate and conflict" and stated that X would not promote hate speech.
Israeli shell hits southern Lebanon following truce extension - state media
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An Israeli shell hit near the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab on Tuesday morning, according to Lebanon's state news agency, hours after a truce between Israel and Hamas was extended.
The truce did not formally include Lebanon, but weeks of cross-border shelling between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, had come to a halt when the truce first came into force last Friday.
Family of freed 4-year-old hostage says she is safe and being evaluated at a hospital
A day after 4-year-old Israeli American hostage Abigail Edan was released by Hamas, her family has given an update on the girl’s well-being.
“Abigail is still being evaluated at Schneider Children’s Medical Center, where she was taken immediately upon her release,” the statement said.
The girl is “safe” and being looked after by her aunt, uncle and grandparents, the statement said. Her parents were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into Israel.
Three of the new hostages released from Gaza are French citizens
France says three of the hostages released from Gaza on Monday were French citizens, all three children.
“France welcomes the liberation of three of its children today: Eitan, Erez and Sahar,’’ the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. ‘’They are now in security in Israel. We share the relief of their families and all those who mobilized for their freedom.’’
France thanked Egypt and the ICRC and for mediation efforts and Qatar for its ‘’decisive role’’ in the release, and said the French government is ‘’working tirelessly’’ to free five other French citizens held hostage. France’s president, foreign minister and defense minister have traveled to the region to push for the release of the hostages.
French media has identified the three children hostages as Franco-Israeli citizens Eitan Yahalomi, 12, Erez Calderon, 12, and Sahar Calderon, 16.
Freed Palestinian prisoners arrive in West Bank city
A Red Cross bus carrying Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah early Tuesday.
Israel’s prison service said it was releasing 33 Palestinian prisoners in the fourth such release as part of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The prisoners were greeted by cheering crowds who surrounded the bus as it made its way through the streets of the West Bank city.
So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.
Blinken to visit Israel, West Bank, UAE this week to continue Gaza diplomacy
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates this week, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, as Washington aims to press for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and help secure the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
Blinken will travel to Belgium, North Macedonia, Israel, the West Bank, and the UAE from Monday to Saturday, the department said in a statement.
"In Israel and the West Bank, Secretary Blinken will discuss Israel’s right to defend itself consistent with international humanitarian law, as well as continued efforts to secure the release of remaining hostages, protect civilian life during Israel’s operations in Gaza, and accelerate humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza," the department added.
More Israeli hostages, Palestinians expected to be freed with extended truce
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza was poised to stretch into a fifth day on Tuesday amid expectations the Islamist group will free more of the hostages it seized on Oct. 7 in return for greater aid flows and Israel's release of imprisoned Palestinians.
After releasing 11 Israelis from the coastal Mediterranean strip on Monday, Hamas has freed 69 of the about 240 hostages it took during an incursion into southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
Hamas-affiliated media reported early on Tuesday that Israel freed 30 Palestinian children and three women, in the truce's fourth swap.
Eleven more Gaza hostages released as Israel-Hamas truce extended
GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel said Monday that 11 more hostages released in the Gaza Strip had arrived safely, hours after the announcement that a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will be extended by two days, opening the way for further releases.
Hamas announced the agreement to prolong the truce by 48 hours shortly before it was due to end Tuesday, though there was no immediate confirmation from Israel.
The move was nevertheless hailed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as "a glimpse of hope and humanity in the middle of the darkness of war".
Polish citizen among hostages released from Gaza
(Reuters) - Poland’s foreign ministry has said a Polish citizen was among hostages released from Gaza as it welcomed news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“We welcome the information about the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which allowed the release of the first group of hostages, including a Polish citizen, and increased supplies of humanitarian aid to the enclave,” the ministry said in a statement.
“At the same time, Poland continues to firmly demand that Israel consent to the safe departure from the Gaza Strip by other Polish citizens.”
Hamas to free new wave of hostages in Gaza truce
Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Hamas fighters are set to release a new wave of hostages Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, officials said, offering hope to anguished families after seven weeks of war that have killed thousands of people.
Key mediator Qatar was expected to announce the numbers of prisoners and hostages to be freed later Saturday, the second swap since a four-day ceasefire came into effect on Friday and largely silenced the guns on both sides.
Israeli authorities said they had received a list of the hostages to be freed but did not provide numbers or the precise timing.
Israel reviews list of hostages set to be freed by Hamas on Saturday
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has received a list of hostages to be freed from Gaza on Saturday by Hamas, officials said, following the release of 24 hostages the previous day, the first of a planned four-day truce.
Israeli security officials were reviewing the list, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, after his government’s vow to work for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
The pause in the fighting was the first such break, with both sides saying hostilities would resume as soon as the truce ends. U.S. President Joe Biden expressed hope the pause could be extended, however.
Relief and sadness for Palestinian prisoners freed in Gaza hostage deal
BEITUNIA, West Bank (Reuters) - For the families of Palestinian detainees freed by Israel under a hostage deal agreed with the Islamist group Hamas, Friday brought relief tinged with sadness at the fighting that is set to continue in Gaza after the expiry of a four-day truce.
Thirty nine Palestinian women and minors detained on various charges were freed under an accord brokered by Qatar that also saw the release of 13 Israeli hostages seized by Hamas gunmen during their assault on Israel last month.
"There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait," said Sawsan Bkeer, the mother of 24-year-old Palestinian prisoner Marah Bkeer, jailed for eight years on knife and assault charges in 2015. Israeli police were seen raiding her Jerusalem home before her daughter was released.
Thailand says Hamas still holds 20 of its nationals after freeing 10
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Palestinian militant group Hamas is still holding 20 Thai nationals after having freed 10 from Gaza, Thailand's foreign ministry said on Saturday, following a deal during the first truce of a seven-week war.
The freed hostages will return home after 48 hours in hospital, the ministry said in a statement after the deal brokered separately from Friday's exchange of hostages for Palestinians from Israeli jails.
"There are now an estimated 20 Thai nationals who remain abducted," the ministry said, however, adding that four of the Thais released on Friday had not previously been confirmed by Israel to be in captivity.
Biden says chance of extending truce is 'real'
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has received a list of hostages to be freed from Gaza on Saturday by Palestinian militant group Hamas, officials said, following the release of 24 hostages the previous day, the first of a planned four-day truce.
Israeli security officials were reviewing the list, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, after his government's vow to work for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
The pause in the fighting was the first such break, with both sides saying hostilities would resume as soon as the truce ends. U.S. President Joe Biden expressed hope the pause could be extended, however.
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Hamas, Israel conduct hostage-for-prisoner swap on first day of temporary truce
GAZA (AFP) - Hamas on Friday released 24 hostages it held captive in Gaza for weeks, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison in the first stage of a swap under a four-day cease-fire that offered a small glimmer of relief to both sides.
Israel — wrenched by the abduction of nearly 240 people in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war — cheered as 13 Israeli women and children emerged free from Gaza. Most were in their 70s or 80s, and the youngest was a 2-year-old. Also released were 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines.
In Gaza, the truce’s start Friday morning brought the first quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians reeling and desperate from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and leveled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel went silent as well.
Joy and defiance as Israel frees Palestinian prisoners
Beitunia (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Firecrackers lit up the night sky Friday as raucous celebrations -- mixed with defiance -- marked the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons in exchange for the first wave of hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza.
Crowds across the West Bank cheered and waved Palestinian and Hamas flags, along with kaffiyeh scarves after two white coaches -- escorted by armoured vehicles -- exited the Ofer military camp with the prisoners.
"I am happy but my liberation came at the price of the blood of the martyrs," said Marah Bakir, 24, referring to the nearly 15,000 deaths across the Gaza Strip that its Hamas-led government says were caused by Israel's military offensive.
(AFP) – A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Friday that it was working on further evacuations from northern Gaza hospitals as soon as possible as a truce gets underway, voicing fears for the safety of those remaining in Al Shifa Hospital.
"We're extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al Shifa," said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.
He declined to react to comments from the Gaza health ministry saying it was suspending cooperation with the global health agency amid reports that Israel is holding medical staff for questioning.
Thousands led by Cuba’s president march in Havana in solidarity with Palestinian people
HAVANA (AP) — Thousands of people led by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel marched along Havana’s iconic boardwalk Thursday in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanding an end to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Wearing a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, Díaz-Canel was accompanied by Cuba’s main leaders, including Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
Palestinians say 24 women, 15 teenaged males to be freed from Israeli jails
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel will on Friday release 39 Palestinians prisoners, among them 24 women and 15 teenaged males, in the occupied West Bank in exchange for 13 hostages due to be freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, a Palestinian official said.
The inmates, all of them from the occupied West Bank or Jerusalem, will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Israel's Ofer military jail around 4 pm (1400 GMT), said Qadura Fares, Palestinian commissioner for prisoners.
That would coincide with the planned handover at the Gaza-Egypt border of 13 women and children who were among some 240 people taken hostage by Hamas gunmen during a deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel.
Gaza truce 'officially' begins ahead of first release of hostages
(AFP) – A temporary truce in the Israel-Hamas war took effect early Friday, setting the stage for the exchange of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The halt in fighting began at 7 am local time (0500 GMT) and is expected to last at least four days. During the truce, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other groups took in their deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
A first batch of 13 Hamas hostages, including elderly women, in Gaza will be released at 4pm local time (1400 GMT).
Entire families 'wiped out' as war rages in Gaza
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Sahar Awwad is seated between her two nephews. Together, they are among the few survivors of an extended Gaza family of which at least 80 members have been killed in nearly seven weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The entire family had fled first to a hospital in Khan Yunis, then to a school, which was initially transformed into a camp for the displaced then a clinic, in Rafah near the border with Egypt, the southernmost point of the besieged enclave.
Only 35 kilometres (20 miles) separated them from their former home in Gaza City, but the journey took them a week.
Israel and Hamas to start four-day truce today - Qatar mediators
DOHA/GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will start a four-day truce today (Friday) morning with a first group of 13 Israeli women and child hostages released later that day, mediators in Qatar said.
World powers gave the news a cautious welcome. But fighting raged on, with local officials saying a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed as the hours counted down to the start of the first break in a brutal, near seven-week-old war. Both sides also signalled the pause would be temporary before fighting resumes.
The truce would begin at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, Qatar's foreign ministry said.
Israel confirms it has received a list of hostages to be released
Israel's prime minister’s office has confirmed that Israel has received an "initial" list of the names of hostages to be released.
“The relevant officials are checking the details of the list and are currently in contact with all families,” said the statement.
Hamas confirms Gaza truce to start Friday
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has confirmed that the truce with Israeli forces in Gaza Strip will "begin on Friday at 7am" (local time).
"The truce applies for four days, starting from Friday morning, accompanied by the cessation of all military actions from the Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian resistance, as well as the Zionist enemy throughout the truce period."
UN and Red Crescent workers evacuate 190 patients from Al Shifa Hospital
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Thursday it joined forces with the United Nations to evacuate a further 190 wounded and sick people, their companions and medical staff from Al Shifa to other hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The evacuation took nearly 20 hours due to delays at the checkpoint separating northern and southern Gaza, it said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that three paramedics had been detained, two of whom were subsequently released.
Today, the Palestine Red Crescent and the United Nations teams evacuated 190 wounded and sick people, their companions, and a number of medical teams from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to other hospitals in the southern part of the #Gaza Strip, while many other wounded and…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 22, 2023
Israel says hostage release will not take place before Friday, talks ongoing
Israel’s national security adviser said late Wednesday that ceasefire talks with the Hamas militant group were still ongoing, and the hostage release will not take place before Friday.
The Israel-Hamas deal would involve the release of 50 people kidnapped from Israel in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
Gaza world's 'most dangerous place' for children: UNICEF
UNITED NATIONS (United States) (AFP) – The head of the United Nations children's agency on Wednesday called the besieged Gaza Strip "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child," and said that the hard-won truce deal between Israel and Hamas was not enough to save their lives.
UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that over 5,300 children have reportedly been killed in Gaza since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, accounting for 40 percent of the deaths.
"This is unprecedented," said Russell, who had just returned from a trip to southern Gaza. "I am haunted by what I saw and heard."
Israel-Hamas truce deal: The devil is in the details
GAZA (AFP) - Israel and Hamas announced a deal on Wednesday allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.
The first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict follows weeks of painstaking negotiations brokered by Qatar with help from Egypt and the United States.
It is also intended to allow the delivery of desperately needed food, medicines and fuel to the 2.4 million civilians trapped in Gaza in increasingly dire conditions.
In Gaza, dozens of unidentified bodies buried in 'mass grave'
KHAN YUNIS (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The bodies of dozens of unidentified people were buried on Wednesday in a mass grave at a cemetery in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Wrapped in blue tarpaulin, the bodies were lowered on stretchers, some of them stained with blood, into a sandy pit that was gradually enlarged by a digger. Some were the size of children.
"As these martyrs had no one to say goodbye to, we dug a mass grave to bury them. They are unknown martyrs," Bassem Dababesh of the emergency committee at the religious affairs ministry told AFP.
No Gaza hostage release will start before Friday, says Israel
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The release of hostages under a temporary truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants will not happen before Friday, Israel's national security adviser said, thwarting hopes of relatives that some would be freed on Thursday.
Israel and Hamas had agreed early on Wednesday to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days, to let in humanitarian aid and free at least 50 hostages held by militants in the enclave in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.
The starting time of the truce and release of hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel had yet to be officially announced. An Egyptian security source said mediators sought a start time of 10 a.m. on Thursday.
France's Macron to discuss Mideast situation with Arab foreign ministers
French President Emmanuel Macron will on Wednesday discuss "the situation in the Middle East" with foreign ministers from major Arab and majority-Muslim countries, his office said.
Joining the talks at the Élysée Palace in Paris will be the top diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, the presidency added, as well as Arab League boss Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Jordan's King Abdullah heads to Cairo in stepped up efforts to end Gaza war
Jordan's King Abdullah headed on Wednesday to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on how to end "Israel's aggression against the Palestinians", a palace statement said.
The talks will focus on how to turn a four-day truce agreed between Israel and Hamas into a permanent ceasefire that brings an end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and averts a humanitarian catastrophe, an official told Reuters.
UN welcomes Israel-Hamas deal as 'important step'
The United Nations on Wednesday welcomed the deal between Israel and Hamas to free hostages and pause the fighting and bombardment in Gaza, but said much more needed to be done.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres "welcomes the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas, with the mediation of Qatar supported by Egypt and the United States. This is an important step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done", a spokesman for Guterres said in a statement.
Pope says Israel-Hamas conflict has gone beyond war to 'terrorism'
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza and said the conflict had gone beyond war to become "terrorism".
Speaking in unscripted remarks at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square shortly after the early morning meetings in his residence, Francis said he heard directly how "both sides are suffering" in the conflict.
"This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism," he said.
He asked for prayers so that both sides would "not go ahead with passions, which in the end, kill everyone".
Both groups were holding separate news conferences later on Wednesday.
The meetings and the pope's comments came hours after Israel's government and Hamas agreed to silence the guns in Gaza for at least four days, allow in aid and release at least 50 hostages captured by militants in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.
Israel has placed Gaza under siege and relentless bombardment since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 13,000 Gazans have been killed, about 40% of them children, according to medical officials in the Hamas-ruled territory, figures deemed reliable by the United Nations.
Hamas says Israel truce will bring in aid, free prisoners
CAIRO/DOHA (Reuters) – Hamas said on Wednesday it agreed with Israel to a four-day ceasefire that will see the release of hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails and allow humanitarian aid and fuel to enter the besieged enclave.
Hamas said in a statement it would release 50 women and children - from among the roughly 240 hostages captured by them in their surprise Oct. 7 attack in Israel - in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children.
It said the agreement, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will allow hundreds of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid trucks to enter Gaza. All Israeli air activity in south Gaza will stop for four days, while air traffic in the north, the initial focus of Israel's ground assault, will stop from 10:00 am to 04:00 pm local time, Hamas said.
The secret negotiations that led to the Gaza hostages deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shortly after Hamas took hostages during their deadly assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, the government of Qatar contacted the White House with a request: Form a small team of advisers to help work to get the captives freed.
That work, begun in the days after the hostages were taken, finally bore fruit with the announcement of a prisoner swap deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt and agreed by Israel, Hamas and the United States.
The secretive effort included tense personal diplomatic engagement by US President Joe Biden, who held a number of urgent conversations with emir of Qatar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the weeks leading up to the deal.
Five Palestinians killed in West Bank's Tolkurm in Israeli strike - WAFA
RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Five Palestinians were killed and others were injured on Wednesday in Tolkurm camp in the occupied West Bank in an Israeli drone strike, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The Israeli military conducted a raid on the emergency department in the Thabet Thabet governmental hospital in Tolkurm, the agency added.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill reporters, senior Hamas official
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Separate Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed eight people, including two journalists working for a Lebanese TV channel and a senior Hamas official, according to Lebanese state media and official sources.
The deaths bring those killed in Lebanon since the beginning of hostilities along the border to more than 80 people, mostly fighters from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Violence along the border broke out after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah - a Hamas ally - have exchanged rocket fire in fighting that has steadily escalated.
South African lawmakers vote to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel, shut embassy
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire is agreed in its war with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
The resolution is largely symbolic as it will be up to President Cyril Ramaphosa's government whether to implement it; a presidency spokesperson said Ramaphosa "notes and appreciates" parliament's guidance on South Africa's diplomatic relations with Israel, particularly on the status of the embassy.
"The president and cabinet are engaged over the matter, which remains the responsibility of the national executive," Vincent Magwenya said.
Israel, Hamas agree on deal for release of Gaza hostages, truce
GAZA/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel's government and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a four-day pause in fighting to allow the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.
Officials from Qatar, which has been mediating secret negotiations, as well as the US, Israel and Hamas have for days been saying a deal was imminent.
Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 hostages, taken when its fighters surged into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged all nations during an extraordinary BRICS summit on Tuesday to cease weapon exports to Israel, according to Saudi Gazette and Al Arabiya.
South Africa is hosting a virtual meeting of BRICS -- a group of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- aimed at drawing up a common response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Saudi Arabia demands the start of a serious and comprehensive peace process to establish a Palestinian state along the borders of 1967, the Saudi Crown Prince said.
“The Kingdom’s position is constant and firm; there is no way to achieve security and stability in Palestine except through the implementation of international decisions related to the two-state solution,” MBS said.
Israel recalls ambassador ahead of South African parliamentary vote to shut down Israeli embassy
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Israel has recalled its ambassador to South Africa, Eliav Belotserkovsky, back to Jerusalem “for consultations” ahead of a parliamentary vote in the African country to decide the fate of the Israeli embassy on Tuesday.
The two countries’ diplomatic relations have recently witnessed a rise in tensions over the Israeli war on Gaza. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa previously said his country believes Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
“Following the latest South African statements, the Ambassador of Israel to Pretoria has been recalled to Jerusalem for consultations,” Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs posted late Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This came ahead of a vote in South Africa’s parliament on a motion to shut down the Israeli embassy and cut all ties with Israel until a cease-fire is implemented in Gaza.
Seized Galaxy Leader ship in Yemen's Hodeidah port area - owner
LONDON (Reuters) – The Galaxy Leader commercial ship was "illegally boarded by military personnel via a helicopter" on Nov. 19 and is now in the Hodeidah port area in Yemen, the vessel’s owner said on Monday.
"All communications were subsequently lost with the vessel," Isle of Man registered Galaxy Maritime Ltd, owner of the pure car carrier Galaxy Leader, said in a statement.
"The company, as a shipping concern, will not be commenting further on the political or geopolitical situation."
WHO official says Gaza hospital situation 'catastrophic'
(AP) - A top World Health Organization official described the hospital situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” on Monday, saying most are no longer functioning and what remains will likely be overwhelmed by thousands of births expected in the next month.
The United Nations briefing came hours after a shell struck the second floor of a hospital in northern Gaza, killing 12 people, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry and a medical worker. The ministry and the worker both blamed Israel, which denied shelling the hospital.
Heavy fighting broke out around the Indonesian Hospital, which has housed thousands of patients and displaced people for weeks.
Gaza strikes kill family members of journalist targeted by death threats
(Reuters) - Deadly strikes hit the Gaza home of a news photographer days after an Israeli media advocacy group questioned his coverage of Hamas' Oct. 7, prompting death threats against him on social media.
Yasser Qudih, who survived the strikes on the night of Nov. 13, said four projectiles hit the rear of his house, killing eight family members.
The attack was five days after the Nov. 8 report by HonestReporting questioning whether Qudih, a freelance photographer, and three other Gaza-based photographers had prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
Hamas chief says close to truce agreement with Israel
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The chief of Hamas told Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel.
Hamas officials are "close to reaching a truce agreement" with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.
There were no more details about the terms of the potential agreement.
Rallies held across Iran to support conflict-battered Gaza
(AFP) - Thousands of Iranians have held rallies across the country against Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of Gaza Strip following the shock attacks by Hamas last month.
The demonstrations in the capital Tehran and other cities were held in “support of the oppressed children of Gaza” under the slogan “Palestine is not alone”, according to local media.
In Tehran, crowds of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, while others held banners reading “Down with America” and “Down with Israel”, according to AFP journalists.
Others burnt Israeli flags while some waved the flags of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, which has been engaged in border skirmishes with Israel since Oct 7.
“The Zionist regime (Israel) can no longer see peace and security,” Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in a speech during the Tehran rally. Similar demonstrations took place in other major cities including Shiraz, Kerman and Isfahan.
Attacking hospitals makes ‘criminal nature’ of Israel more obvious to world: Iran minister
(AFP) - Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani has decried Israel’s “attacks” on hospitals in the Gaza strip.
“Attacking hospitals is in conflict with all human rights standards, international law and Geneva Conventions and makes the criminal nature of this regime even more obvious to the world,” he said on X, formerly Twitter, in reference to Israel.
His statement came as hundreds of people fled Gaza’s main Al-Shifa hospital, where more than 2,000 patients, medics and displaced people were trapped.
Gaza health ministry says 80 dead in strikes on refugee camp
(AFP) - An official of the health ministry in the Gaza Strip has said more than 80 people were killed in double Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp.
“At least 50 people” were killed in an Israeli strike at dawn on the UN-run Al-Fakhura school in the camp, which had been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, the official told AFP.
A separate strike on another building in the camp on Saturday killed 32 people from the same family, 19 of them children, the health ministry official said.
Jabalia is the biggest refugee camp in Gaza, where some 1.6 million have been displaced by more than six weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the two strikes. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was also unable to offer an immediate reaction.
Palestinian detainees report Israeli beatings in West Bank
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Hamza al-Qawasmi was at home in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron last month when Israeli forces stormed in after midnight and told him he was under arrest.
The 27-year-old coffee seller had taken part in marches against the Gaza war. He had been arrested and detained previously for being a member of the Islamic bloc at Hebron University but he said the treatment this time was the worst.
Israeli offensive in south Gaza putting civilians in firing line
LONDON/GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli military push into the crowded south of the Gaza Strip, expected in the coming days, may prove more complicated than its ground offensive in the north, with higher casualties likely for civilians and soldiers, a senior Israeli security source and two former top officials said.
An Israeli military spokesman indicated on Friday that the military operation against Hamas would advance into southern Gaza but gave no indication of timing.
Jordan doubts Israel can destroy Hamas
MANAMA (Reuters) - Jordan's foreign minister voiced doubt on Saturday that Israel could reach its goal of obliterating Hamas with its heavy bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip long dominated by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
"Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There's a lot of military people here, I just don't understand how this objective can be realised," Ayman Safadi said at the annual IISS Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.
Germany criticises Israel’s settlements in occupied West Bank
(Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has criticised Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West Bank and repeated calls for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians.
“We don’t want any new settlements in the West Bank, no violence by settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank,” Scholz said during a visit to Nuthetal in Brandenburg state.
The best outcome for Israelis and Palestinians remains the two-state solution, he said.
“If some in Israeli politics distance themselves from this, we will not support them,” Scholz said.
Israeli air strikes kill 32 in south Gaza amid calls for civilians to flee
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes on residential blocks in south Gaza killed at least 32 Palestinians on Saturday, medics said, after Israel again warned civilians to relocate as it turns to attacking Hamas in the enclave's south after subduing the north.
Such a move could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from the Israeli assault on Gaza City to move again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, worsening a dire humanitarian crisis.
"We're asking people to relocate. I know it's not easy for many of them, but we don't want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire," Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC on Friday.
Israel vowed to annihilate the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip after its Oct. 7 rampage into Israel in which its fighters killed 1,200 people and dragged 240 hostages into the enclave, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel has bombed much of Gaza City - the enclave's urban core - to rubble, ordered the depopulation of the northern half of the narrow strip and displaced around two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians. Many of those who have fled fear their homelessness could become permanent.
Gaza health authorities raised their death toll on Friday to more than 12,000, 5,000 of them children. The United Nations deems those figures credible, though they are now updated infrequently due to the difficulty of collecting information.
Overnight on Saturday, 26 Palestinians were killed and 23 injured by an air strike on two apartments in a multi-storey block in a busy residential district of Khan Younis, according to health officials.
Germany, Turkey leaders trade barbs over Israel-Hamas war
BERLIN (AFP) – Germany and Turkey's leaders traded barbs Friday over Israel's war on Hamas, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressing the country's right to self-defence while Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded an end to Israel's military operation.
Erdogan is on a highly controversial visit to staunch Israel defender Germany, made more tricky by his recent accusations directed at Israel.
The Turkish leader has branded Israel a "terror state" and repeatedly defended the Hamas militants who rule Gaza as "liberators" fighting for their land.
Israel to allow some fuel into Gaza after US push -officials
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel's war cabinet has agreed to allow 140,000 liters (36,985 gallons) of fuel into Gaza every two days after a request from Washington, amid acute shortages that threatened aid deliveries and communications in the besieged strip, Israel and U.S. officials said on Friday.
Israel imposed a strict blockade on all goods entering Hamas-controlled Gaza when it launched a military campaign in response to the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 rampage, in which its fighters killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Israel has since agreed to allow in aid trucks after stringent inspections, and a small amount of fuel was allowed in on Wednesday to keep United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid delivery trucks moving.
Israel renews call for Gazans to flee key southern city
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel issued a fresh warning to Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to relocate west out of the line of fire and closer to humanitarian aid, in the latest indication that it plans to attack Hamas in south Gaza after subduing the north.
"We're asking people to relocate. I know it's not easy for many of them, but we don't want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire," Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC on Friday.
Such a move could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from the Israeli assault on Gaza City to relocate again, along with residents of Khan Younis, worsening a dire humanitarian crisis.
UN says starvation imminent in Gaza as Israel continues to search Al Shifa hospital
UN aid deliveries to Gaza were suspended again on Friday due to shortages of fuel and a communications shutdown, with the United Nations' World Food Programme warning civilians faced the "immediate possibility of starvation" due to the lack of food supplies.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers are still inside Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, where they have been searching for evidence of a Hamas command centre they say was operating below the facility.
A doctor at the Gaza Strip's Al Shifa hospital said on Friday that food and water were running out and that supplies provided by the Israeli military were "very, very minimal".
Doctor Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters over the phone that that Israeli forces were pressing on with searches of the hospital complex, but had "found nothing". He also said that no babies at the hospital had died since Israeli troops entered it.
Israel says Hamas has a command centre underneath the hospital, an assertion the Palestinian militant group denies. Reuters has been unable to independently verify the situation at the hospital.
Insight: Israel risks a bloody insurgency in Gaza
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The families of Israeli hostages and thousands of supporters marched towards Jerusalem on Friday, ramping up pressure on the government to secure their release nearly six weeks after Hamas militants abducted them and took them into Gaza.
The procession left Tel Aviv three days ago and at this point stretched a few kilometres. Police blocked off parts of the main highway as the marchers began to ascend the foothills leading to Jerusalem.
They held up pictures of their loved ones, waved Israeli flags, and chanted "We won't give up, we demand the hostages' release!"
Several Israeli airstrikes hit near Damascus, Syria’s state news agency says
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel’s military has carried out strikes that hit several posts near the capital, Damascus, causing material damage but no casualties.
SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles before they reached their targets early Friday.
There has been no confirmation from the Israeli military.
In the weeks since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out, Syria reported Israeli airstrikes that hit the international airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
DOZENS ARE KILLED OR INJURED FROM STRIKES OVERNIGHT IN SOUTHERN GAZA
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel bombarded two homes in southern Gaza late Thursday and Friday morning, according to survivors accompanying those killed and wounded in the strikes to the main hospital in Khan Younis.
An Associated Press journalist witnessing the arrivals said he saw three dead and dozens injured, including babies and young children, from Friday’s strike. The attack late Thursday killed 11 members of a family who had fled the main combat zone in Gaza City in the northern part of Gaza earlier in the war.
The strikes hit Bani Suheila, an area east of Khan Younis, located in the southern half of Gaza. Early in the war, now in its sixth week, Israel told civilians to flee the north and head south for their safety.
Florida sued over ban on pro-Palestinian student groups
(Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union challenged Florida's ban on pro-Palestinian university groups, arguing in a federal lawsuit on Thursday that the state is violating students' free speech as tensions roil US campuses over Israel's war with Hamas.
Florida’s university system, joined by Governor Ron DeSantis, last month ordered colleges to shut down chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group at the center of US campus activism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
The lawsuit - against DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, and several state university system officials - was filed on behalf of the University of Florida's SJP chapter and seeks a preliminary injunction to a state order blocking SJP from receiving school funds and using campus facilities.
US will not share intel on Hamas and Al Shifa hospital - White House
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will not share any Israeli intelligence or elaborate on its own intelligence assessment that Hamas used Gaza's Al Shifa hospital as a command center and possibly as a storage facility, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.
The United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in the Gaza facility, Kirby said. He has refused to elaborate or provide details over the past several days.
The Biden administration has not declassified the sources of the US intelligence "because some of those same channels are being used to monitor the status of hostages," a knowledgeable source said.
Thousands of bodies lie buried in rubble in Gaza. Families dig to retrieve them, often by hand
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The wreckage goes on for block after devastated block. The smell is sickening. Every day, hundreds of people claw through tons of rubble with shovels and iron bars and their bare hands.
They are looking for the bodies of their children. Their parents. Their neighbours. All of them killed in Israeli missile strikes. The corpses are there, somewhere in the endless acres of destruction.
More than five weeks into Israel’s war against Hamas, some streets are now more like graveyards. Officials in Gaza say they don’t have the equipment, manpower or fuel to search properly for the living, let alone the dead.
Under a communication blackout, Gaza's 2.3 million people are cut off from each other and the world
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, bringing a potentially long-term blackout of communications as Israel signaled its offensive against Hamas could next target the south, where most of the population has taken refuge.
Israeli troops for a second day searched Shifa Hospital in the north for traces of Hamas. They displayed what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found in a truck inside the compound. But the military has yet to release evidence of a central Hamas command center that Israel has said is concealed beneath the complex. Hamas and staff at the hospital, Gaza’s largest, deny the allegations.
The military said it found the body of one of the hostages abducted by Hamas, 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss, in a building adjacent to Shifa, where it said it also found assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. It did not give the cause of her death.
What war crimes laws apply to the Israel-Palestinian conflict?
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – War between Israel and Palestinians since the cross-border attack by Gaza's ruling Islamist group Hamas on Oct. 7 has caused a large civilian death toll.
The conflict falls under a complex international system of justice that has emerged since World War Two, much of it aimed at protecting civilians. Even if states say they are acting in self-defence, international rules regarding armed conflict apply to all participants in a war.
Israel dismisses UN rights chief request for access to country
(AFP) – Israel on Thursday dismissed a request from the UN rights chief to access the country, amid growing concern over spiralling violence in its war with Hamas.
"Israel is not aware of any added benefit of the high commissioner's visit at this time," the country's mission to the UN in Geneva told AFP, when asked about Volker Turk's request to be permitted to visit.
Israel claims control of Gaza port, calls for further evacuations in south
(AFP) – The Israeli army said Thursday its troops had taken "operational control" of the port at Gaza City in the territory's north, showing at least a dozen tanks and groups of soldiers massed on the coast near Gaza City.
The claim came as Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning Palestinians to flee parts of southern Gaza, residents said Thursday, signaling a possible expansion of their offensive to areas where hundreds of thousands of people who heeded earlier evacuation orders are crowded into UN-run shelters and family homes. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.
POLICE SAY SHOOTERS OPEN FIRE AT A CHECKPOINT IN ISRAEL, WOUNDING 4
JERUSALEM — Shooters opened fire Thursday at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem, wounding at least four people, one critically, Israeli police said.
The attackers arrived by car at the checkpoint on the main road connecting Jewish settlements in the West Bank and southern Jerusalem and opened fire at Israelis, police said, and at least three shooters were killed by security guards at the crossing. Police and bomb disposal units were searching for the area for suspicious activity or any additional shooters.
Tensions have been rising as a result of the war in the Gaza Strip and deadly Israeli military raids in the West Bank. Violence has soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war, with nearly 200 Palestinians killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most were killed during gunbattles triggered by Israeli arrest raids or in violent demonstrations. Israel says it has arrested hundreds of people, mostly suspected Hamas members.
AN OUTDOOR FUNERAL SERVICE IS HELD FOR 28 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN OVERNIGHT BOMBING
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, an outdoor funeral service was held for 28 Palestinians killed in overnight bombing, their bodies pulled from the rubble of destroyed buildings. Some of the mourners crouched over bodies wrapped in sheets of white plastic.
UN Security Council calls for pauses in Gaza fighting for aid
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip for a "sufficient number of days" to allow aid access.
The 15-member council overcame an impasse, which saw four unsuccessful attempts to take action last month, to adopt a resolution that also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.
The United States, Russia and Britain, who are council veto-powers, abstained from Wednesday's vote on the resolution drafted by Malta. The remaining 12 members voted in favor.
US Capitol police clash with protesters demanding Gaza ceasefire
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US Capitol Police officers in riot gear clashed with dozens of demonstrators who gathered outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington on Wednesday evening to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
The protest was organised by three advocacy groups and held in an area near the US Capitol. Lawmakers who were inside the DNC building said police had evacuated them from the area.
Protesters linked arms in front of the DNC building's entrance, where some sang: "Which side are you on?" Officers pushed and pulled the protesters to try to remove them from the area, at one point shoving one protester down a staircase leading to the entrance.
Qatar seeking Israel-Hamas deal to free 50 hostages and 3-day truce
DOHA/CAIRO (Reuters) – Qatari mediators on Wednesday sought to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that included the release of around 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.
The deal, under discussion and coordinated with the US, would also see Israel release some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, the official said.
It would mark the biggest release in hostages held by Hamas since the Palestinian militant group burst over the Gaza border, attacked parts of Israel and took hostages into the enclave.
UN Security Council calls for pauses in Gaza fighting for aid
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip for a "sufficient number of days" to allow aid access.
The 15-member council overcame an impasse, which saw four unsuccessful attempts to take action last month, to adopt a resolution that also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.
The United States, Russia and Britain, who are council veto-powers, abstained from Wednesday's vote on the resolution drafted by Malta. The remaining 12 members voted in favor.
Turkey's Erdogan labels Israel a 'terror state', slams its backers in West
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Israel was a "terror state" committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, sharpening his repeated criticism of Israeli leaders and their backers in the West.
Speaking two days before a planned visit to Germany to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Erdogan said Israel's military campaign against Hamas included "the most treacherous attacks in human history" with "unlimited" support from the West.
He called for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and repeated his view - and Turkey's position - that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation but a political party that won past elections.
Israeli troops deepen search at main Gaza hospital for evidence of Hamas
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said its forces were operating in and around Gaza's biggest hospital, a chief objective in its campaign to destroy Palestinian Hamas militants that the army says stored weapons and ran a command centre in tunnels beneath the buildings.
Israeli troops forced their way into Al Shifa hospital in the early hours of Wednesday and spent the day deepening their search, the army said. An army video showed automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets it said were recovered from an undisclosed building within the complex.
"The troops continue to search the hospital in a precise, intelligence-based, manner," army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing late on Wednesday. "We will continue to do so, in order to gather further information, to discover additional assets, and to expose the terror activities within the hospital."
Surge in Israeli forces killing West Bank Palestinians
(AFP) - With scores of Palestinians killed across the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, rights groups have accused Israel of giving soldiers free rein to shoot on site while war rages in Gaza.
In just over five weeks since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, at least 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority's health ministry.
The figure is almost as high as the ministry's toll of 208 dead for the first nine months of the year up to the start of the war.
The surge in violence comes as raids by Israeli forces on Palestinian communities have multiplied in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Lives of 36 babies in Gaza hospital at risk
(Reuters) - The lives of 36 babies at Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital were hanging in the balance on Tuesday, according to medical staff there who said there was no clear mechanism to move them.
Three of the original 39 premature babies have already died since Gaza's biggest hospital ran out of fuel at the weekend to power generators that had kept their incubators going.
The 36 babies, who weigh less than 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) and with some as small as 700 to 800 grammes, were now lying side-by-side on ordinary beds, exposing them to infection and without any individual adjustments to humidity levels and temperatures, staff said.
Mass grave inside Israeli-encircled Gaza hospital
(Reuters) - Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are digging a mass grave to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and say there is no plan in place to evacuate babies.
Israeli forces have surrounded Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which they say sits atop an underground headquarters of Hamas. The group denies the claim.
According to officials, 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other displaced civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. In recent days, 40 patients have died, including three premature babies whose incubators were shut down when power went out.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.
“We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC, but we have no other options the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose,” he told Reuters.
Israeli forces kill six Palestinians in West Bank clash
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops backed by the air force raided a town in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, touching off clashes in which at least six Palestinians were killed, medics and local media said.
The Israeli army and police said their forces, sent into Tulkarm to detain suspected militants, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the ensuing skirmish.
An Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group, the army and police statement added. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the air strike was carried out by a drone and killed three people.
My comments on the current situation in the Middle East: pic.twitter.com/isygf2Ekjd
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 14, 2023
Israeli military claims hostages were held in Gaza hospital
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli military shared video and photographs on Monday showing what it said were weapons stored by Hamas in the basement of a children's hospital in Gaza where it also said hostages appear to have been held.
Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops had found a command centre with an armoury of weapons including grenades, suicide vests and other explosives stored by Hamas fighters in the basement of Rantissi Hospital, a paediatric hospital with a specialty in treating cancer patients.
"And we also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here," he told a televised briefing. "This is currently under our investigation. But we also have intelligence that verifies it."
Pakistan, OIC envoys call for immediate ceasefire, hold Israel accountable for war crimes
BRUSSELS (APP) – The ambassadors of the OIC member states, including Paksitan, in Brussels on Monday called upon the European Union to make all necessary efforts to bring about an immediate and complete ceasefire and put an end to the Israeli aggression in Gaza.
The ambassadors, in a joint press conference held here, emphasised the EU’s role to help end impunity and hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the barbaric aggression during its more than 16-year illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas armed wing says it discussed freeing 70 hostages in return for 5-day truce
CAIRO (Reuters) – The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday it told Qatari mediators the group was ready to release up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in return for a five-day truce with Israel.
"Last week there was an effort from the Qatari brothers to release the enemy captives from women and children, in return for the release of 200 Palestinian children and 75 women detained by the enemy" Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, said in an audio recording posted on the group's Telegram channel.
"The truce should include a complete ceasefire and allow aid and humanitarian relief everywhere in the Gaza Strip," he said.
He accused Israel of "procrastinating and evading" the price of the deal.
Israel weapons makers leave stands empty at Dubai Airshow
DUBAI (Reuters) – The exhibition stands of Israeli weapons makers Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems were empty at the start of the opening day of the weeklong Dubai Airshow on Monday, amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
It was not immediately clear why there were no staff at either exhibition stand, which were located close to the pavilion of United Arab Emirates state arms maker EDGE. IAI and EDGE signed joint development programmes at the last Dubai Airshow in 2021.
IAI and Rafael did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment on their participation. The IAI exhibition stand was blocked off with red rope.
Brazil's Lula welcomes citizens rescued from Gaza, condemns 'inhumane violence'
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday welcomed 32 nationals that his government managed to rescue from the Gaza Strip this week following a month of negotiations, receiving them at the Brasilia Air Base after a nearly day-long flight.
The Brazilians crossed the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday and were taken to Cairo, where this morning they boarded an Embraer presidential airplane loaned by Lula and traveled to Brazil via Las Palmas, Spain.
Lula greeted passengers with hugs and kisses after their arrival late on Monday evening, offering his support to Brazilians still in or arriving from the Gaza Strip and condemning the killing of civilians in Gaza.
"I have never seen such brutal, inhumane violence against innocent people," Lula said in a short speech on the tarmac.
Biden says Gaza hospital 'must be protected'
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Joe Biden urged Israel on Monday to protect Gaza's main hospital as heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas raged around the complex.
"It's my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital," Biden told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he had expressed concerns to Israel on the issue.
"The hospital must be protected."
Biden, who spoke as he was signing a women's health research initiative alongside First Lady Jill Biden, added that he was "in contact with the Israelis" on the matter.
Israeli tanks outside Gaza hospital, Biden hopes for 'less intrusive' action
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli tanks advanced on Monday to the gates of Gaza City's main hospital, a chief target in Israel's battle against Hamas, as US President Joe Biden said hospitals must be protected and he hoped for less intrusive Israeli action.
Separately, the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group said it was ready to release up to 70 women and children held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day truce in the war triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra, who was inside Al Shifa hospital, said 32 patients had died in the last three days, including three newborn babies, as a result of the siege of the hospital in northern Gaza and a lack of power.
UNRWA chief says more than 60 of its installations have been hit by Israeli strikes
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 13, 2023
Nothing to sell: Empty shelves in southern Gaza
(Reuters) - Most of the shelves were bare at Hassan Abu Shabab’s convenience store in the centre of Khan Younis, a town in southern Gaza whose population has ballooned as tens of thousands of people displaced from the Israeli-encircled north have arrived.
A few bottles of cooking oil and cans of tomatoes were left on one shelf. Other than those, there were only sweets, toilet paper, washing-up liquid and a few other random, non-edible items. No bread, flour, sugar, rice, meat or cheese. Outside, two refrigerators normally stocked with sodas were empty.
“Before the war, we used to sell goods worth about 1,000 shekels ($260) a day. Today, we have nothing to sell. People have money, but there is nothing we can sell them,” said Abu Shabab, standing in the emptied store.
Jordan’s king rejects any Israeli plan to occupy parts of Gaza
(Reuters) - Jordan’s state media has said that King Abdullah rejects any plans by Israel to occupy parts of Gaza or to create security zones within the enclave.
In comments he made at the royal palace, the king was quoted as telling senior politicians he met as saying there could be “no military or security solution” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
He said the war-ravaged enclave of Gaza should not be severed by Israel from the other Palestinian Territories.
UNRWA says its Gaza fuel depot is now empty, warns of further shutdowns
(Reuters) - The UN Palestinian refugee agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and within a few days UNRWA will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water, its chief said.
UNRWA is sheltering nearly 800,000 people, or about half of the total population of Gazans who have fled their homes since an Israeli military campaign began over a month ago in response to Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct 7.
The agency chief, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, told donors that it had been slowly emptying a fuel depot on the Israeli border containing strategic reserves.
A request to the Israeli military to replenish it had gone unanswered, he said. “That reservoir is now empty,” Lazzarini said.
“If we project out a couple of days, by the 14th of November this will severely impact ambulances and major hospital operations. Some of them (hospitals) have a bit of solar but it is marginal, so those hospitals cease functioning,” he said.
Babies still trapped as thousands flee Gaza hospitals
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of people have fled Gaza’s largest hospital as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants battle outside its gates, but hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies at risk of dying because of a power blackout, remained inside, health officials said Monday.
With only intermittent communications, it was difficult to reconcile competing claims from the Israeli military, which said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, and Palestinian health officials inside Shifa Hospital, who said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.
Riad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Foreign Minister addressing the General Conference of Unesco, said Israel kills one Palestinian child every 10 minutes.
At the General Conference of UNESCO, 42nd session, Minister Malki: Israel kills a child every 10 minutes. During its aggression, it killed 11,078 martyrs, 74% of whom were children and women, and 49 journalists.
— State of Palestine - MFA (@pmofa) November 13, 2023
This exceeds the number of all journalists killed in the world… pic.twitter.com/sDnhOxmLVt
Israeli tank at gate of main Gaza hospital; medics plead for fuel to save babies
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces reached the gates of Gaza City's main hospital on Monday, the primary target in their battle to seize control of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, where medics said patients including newborn babies were dying for lack of fuel.
There was also fresh concern that the war could spread beyond Gaza, with an upsurge of clashes on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, and the United States launching air strikes on Iran-linked militia targets in neighbouring Syria.
Israel launched its campaign last month to annihilate Hamas, the militant group which runs the Gaza Strip, after Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel killing civilians. Around 1,200 people died and 240 were dragged to Gaza as hostages according to Israel's tally, in the deadliest day in its 75-year history.
Biden, Qatari emir discuss Gaza, agree all hostages must be released
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about developments in Gaza and "urgent ongoing efforts" to secure the release of hostages being held by the Hamas militant group, the White House said.
Biden "unequivocally" condemned the holding of hostages by Hamas, including many young children, one of whom is a 3-year old American citizen whose parents were killed by the group on October 7th, the White House said in a statement.
"The two leaders agreed that all hostages must be released without further delay," the statement said.
Netanyahu claims Hamas refused Israeli fuel offer for Gaza's Shifa hospital
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which suspended operations after running out of fuel, but that the militants had refused to receive it.
Netanyahu was asked by NBC News whether Israeli allegations that Hamas had a command post under Gaza's main hospital justified jeopardizing the lives of sick people and babies.
"On the contrary, we offered actually, last night, to give them enough fuel to operate the hospital, operate the incubators and so on, because we (have) no battle with patients or civilians at all," Netanyahu said.
Israel sharpens warning to Lebanon as cross-border hostilities spike
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said it was poised to impose quiet on the Lebanese front as hostilities spiked on Sunday, with Hezbollah wounding civilians in a cross-border missile attack and the Israeli air force bombing sites linked to the Iranian-backed group.
The chief Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, described Hezbollah as "the defender of Hamas-ISIS", in reference to the Islamist Palestinian faction whose cross-border rampage against Israel on Oct. 7 sparked a devastating Gaza war.
Hezbollah, whose rocket arsenal is widely believed to dwarf that of Hamas, has been carrying out relatively limited attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday described the Israel front as "active".
More Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two more major hospitals in Gaza closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that Israeli bombardment plus lack of fuel and medicine meant more babies and others could die.
Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said. Israel says it is homing in on Hamas militants in the area and the hospitals should be evacuated.
Gaza's largest and second largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations. With more people killed and wounded daily but half of the territory's hospitals now out of action, there are ever fewer places for the injured.
"Enough" conflict, says Pope Francis as he calls for more aid to Gaza
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday reiterated his plea for an end to hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians, and called for "much more" humanitarian aid for Gaza.
"Enough, enough brothers, enough", Francis said, adding the wounded in the Gaza Strip needed to be taken care of immediately and the protection of civilians assured. He also said hostages held by Hamas must be freed.
Addressing the crowds in St Peter's Square after his weekly Angelus prayers, Francis said arms would never bring peace and that the conflict must not widen.
"I am close to all those who suffer, Palestinians and Israelis," he said, adding he was praying for them.
Erdogan calls for pressure on US to stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza
(AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for pressure on the United States to stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza, but said there would be no agreement unless Washington accepted the enclave as Palestinian land.
Erdogan returned from a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which condemned Israeli forces’ “barbaric actions” in Gaza without approving concrete punitive measures.
He is due to visit Germany on Friday and plans to travel to Egypt and host Iran’s president in the coming weeks.
“We should hold talks with Egypt and the Gulf countries, and pressure the United States,” Erdogan told Turkish reporters on board his return flight from Riyadh.
“The US should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel […] It’s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,” he said.
‘Catastrophic conditions’ afflict hospitals in Gaza Strip: Palestinian FO
— State of Palestine - MFA (@pmofa) November 12, 2023
Displaced Gazans live in dust, fear and hunger
(AFP) - At first Youssef Mehna thought Israeli bombardment in Gaza would quickly be over. Then he was wounded, his house was destroyed, and he was forced to survive “25 days without anything."
So like thousands of others, Mehna finally fled north Gaza for the south.
Perched on trucks, crammed into cars, pulled by donkeys on carts, and on foot, tens of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing Israeli army strikes on the territory squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
At the Bani Suheila crossroads in Khan Yunis, on the immense Salah Al-Din road that threads Gaza top to bottom, the processions are growing still.
People fleeing Gaza City are joined by those leaving Khan Yunis heading further south, towards Rafah, the last city before Egypt.
Mehna left the Jabalia refugee camp at seven in the morning, in the north of Gaza City, also hoping to reach Rafah. But his journey finished in Khan Yunis, after eight hours of travel covering only 25 kilometres.
“I already paid 500 shekels ($130) to come from Jabalia and so I have nothing more to carry on to Rafah,” he said with a drawn face, surrounded by his six children.
Ministry says 2 babies dead after Al-Shifa Hospital ran out of fuel
(Reuters) - Ashraf Al-Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Gaza, said the Al-Shifa Hospital had ceased functioning after it ran out of fuel. He said two babies had died in an incubator as a result.
“We are using all and primitive means to try not to lose more lives,” Al-Qidra told Reuters.
“But unless a solution is found to provide us with fuel or electricity the patients and injured are at risk of death,” he said.
Asked about the evacuations, Al-Qidra said: “We have not been informed about any mechanism to get the babies out to a safer hospital. So far we are praying for their safety and not to lose more of them.”
WHO has lost contact with Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) November 12, 2023
People who sought safety in UN office in Gaza killed in attack: UNDP chief
(Web Desk) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) office in Gaza was shelled last night, Achim Steiner, the head of the programme, has said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Hamas says it has destroyed over 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza in 48 hours
(Reuters) - Hamas has said it has completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza in the past 48 hours, including more than 25 vehicles.
“The confrontation is unequal, but it frightens and terrifies the most powerful force in the region,” said spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
More than 20,000 people join pro-Palestinian rally in Brussels
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - About 21,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally in Brussels on Saturday, police said, many chanting slogans such as "Free Palestine" and demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as they marched peacefully through the city.
"What is happening right now in Gaza is beyond devastating," one demonstrator said, carrying a poster that read "Ceasefire now!" in Dutch.
Other protesters held up posters that read "Stop the Genocide", "Human Rights for Palestinians" or demanded the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what they called war crimes.
Thousands of Paris protesters call for end to Gaza massacre
(AFP) - Several thousand people have demonstrated in Paris under the rallying cry “Stop the massacre in Gaza.”
The left-wing organisers called for France to “demand an immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.
“I came to support the Palestinian cause, for a ceasefire in Gaza,” said engineer Ahlem Triki, a Palestinian flag over her shoulders.
“It is elementary that as activists or simple citizens, you go out onto the street to support the Palestinian people,” said 85-year-old trade unionist Claude Marill.
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 11, 2023
Israel's actions have made Gaza a 'living hell': PM Kakar
(Web Desk) - Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has said Israeli actions in the besieged Gaza enclave amount to “genocide” and have turned the territory into a “living hell”.
“Israel’s incessant flouting of international law with impunity has few parallels in history,” he said while addressing a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.
He added that the “massacre” in Gaza must stop and has appealed to world leaders to play their role in ensuring an urgent and much needed ceasefire in the territory.
Middle East leaders slam Israel at Saudi-hosted summit on Gaza
(AFP) - The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after Hamas militants' bloody October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and 239 taken hostage.
Israel's subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people, also mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Host Saudi Arabia "confirms that it holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom's de facto ruler, said as Saturday's summit began.
"We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and the settlements," he said of Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic countries should designate the Israeli army a "terrorist organisation" for its conduct in Gaza.
Israel says it is out to destroy Hamas and blames the Palestinian armed group for the high death toll, accusing it of using civilians as "human shields" -- a charge Hamas denies.
Read more
Israel must be tried in war crimes court on genocide: Palestinian President
RIYADH (Dunya News) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decried Israel's genocide of the Palestinians and called for its accountability at the International Criminal Court.
Addressing the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on the Gaza situation in Saudi Arabia, he expressed regret for the international community's apathy, urging its involvement, particularly from the United States, in achieving regional peace.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman delivered the opening speech, expressing a rejection of the war in Gaza, calling for the release of hostages, an end to the Gaza siege, and a humanitarian aid grant.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted these points in his inaugural address.
OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha urged the immediate extinction of the massacre of innocent Palestinians, a Gaza ceasefire, and an end to the Israeli army's siege.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that an international peace conference should be convened to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
"What we need in Gaza is not pauses for a couple of hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire," Erdogan said in his address to an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.
King Abdullah II of Jordan condemned Israel's 70-year-long atrocities on Palestinians, emphasising the need for a ceasefire and pledging ongoing support for Palestine.
Turkiye’s Erdogan suggests international peace conference
(Reuters) - Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan has said that an international peace conference should be convened to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“What we need in Gaza is not pauses for a couple of hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire,” Erdogan said in his address to an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.
Egypt’s president voices support for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
(Reuters) - Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for an immediate sustainable ceasefire in Gaza “without restrictions or conditions."
“The policies of collective punishment of the people of Gaza…are unacceptable and cannot be justified by self-defence or any other claims. They must be stopped immediately,” he added during a speech at an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.
WATCH: OIC’s Joint Arab Islamic summit on Gaza
— OIC (@OIC_OCI) November 11, 2023
Saudi crown prince says Israel responsible for ‘crimes’ against Palestinians
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said Israel bears responsibility for “crimes committed against Palestinian people” and called for an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip.
Speaking during an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh, the crown prince also called for the immediate end of military operations and the release of hostages.
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) November 11, 2023
Israel waging ‘genocidal war’ in Gaza, says Palestinian president
(Reuters) - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Palestinians are facing an “unmatched genocidal war”, calling on the United States to pressure Israel into halting its offensive on Gaza.
Speaking during an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Abbas also said Palestinians needed international protection in the face of Israeli attacks.
South Africa calls in Israeli ambassador to discuss conduct over Gaza war
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has called in Israel's ambassador to discuss what it described as his recent "unfortunate conduct" linked to the war in Gaza, the foreign ministry in Pretoria said on Friday.
The ministry said Eliav Belotsercovsky received the order on Thursday, but it did not go into details on his conduct..
"Ambassador Belotsercovsky is called upon to conduct himself in line with the Vienna Conventions, which accord heads of diplomatic missions certain privileges and responsibilities, key amongst which is to recognise the sovereign decisions of the host nation," the South African statement said.
Qatar's emir holds talks in Egypt on ending Gaza violence
CAIRO (Reuters) - The leaders of Qatar and Egypt met in Cairo on Friday, both hoping to mediate a de-escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the provision of humanitarian aid and the release of Israeli hostages.
The talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed intensified efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of sufficient quantities of aid for its 2.3 million besieged residents, a statement from Sisi's office said.
Qatar said "joint efforts to stop the aggression against Gaza, reduce escalation and bring in urgent humanitarian aid" were discussed.
US voices concern over killing of Palestinians as Gaza death toll tops 11,000
GAZA (Reuters) - The United States on Friday expressed growing concern about the rising Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip where health officials said the number killed in a five-week-old Israeli bombardment had topped 11,000.
Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants escalated near and around Gaza City's besieged and overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza cross-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."
As Gaza death toll rises, Israel faces pressure to protect Palestinian civilians
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel faced mounting international pressure, including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified between Israeli forces and Hamas militants near and around hospitals.
Global calls for Israeli restraint increased as the number of Palestinians killed rose above 11,000 in a five-week-old Israeli bombardment launched against Hamas in retaliation for its deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza cross-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."
Gaza in spotlight as Arab, Muslim blocs meet in Saudi Arabia
Riyadh (AFP) – Arab leaders and Iran's president are in the Saudi capital Saturday for a summit meeting expected to underscore demands that Israel's war in Gaza end before the violence draws in other countries.
The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after Hamas fighters' bloody October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead and 239 taken hostage.
Israel's subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Over 1,000 USAID officials call for Gaza ceasefire in letter
(Reuters) - More than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed an open letter urging the Biden administration to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.
The letter is the latest sign of unease within the US government over President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel.
Washington has rebuffed calls from Arab and Palestinian leaders and others to call for Israel to halt its assault on the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including over 4,500 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“As development, public health, and humanitarian assistance professionals, we are alarmed and disheartened at the numerous violations of international law; laws which aim to protect civilians, medical and media personnel, as well as schools, hospitals, and places of worship,” the letter reads.
The letter, published on Nov 2, had now garnered 1,029 signatures from staff of the US aid agency. Signatories names are hidden but the letter shows it was signed by officials in many of the agency’s bureaus in Washington as well as officials posted around the world.
President Alvi condemns Israeli bombing in call with President Mahmoud Abbas
(Web Desk) - “The President strongly condemned the lethal bombing by Israel that even did not spare schools and hospitals and its barbaric actions resulted in the killing of thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, healthcare workers, journalists, and UN aid workers,” a statement issued by the President’s office said in a post on X.
“The President said that the current situation in Gaza was the reaction of decades of apartheid and unjust policies of Israel. He condemned Israel for ethnic cleansing against the Muslims and pushing them out of their territories,” the statement added.
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) November 10, 2023
Palestinian envoy criticises West for Gaza stance, calls for more support
(Reuters) - A Palestinian envoy has criticised Western states for supporting Ukraine by calling out Russia’s violations of international law while stopping short of naming what he said were breached by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
According to Reuters, Palestinian ambassador to the UN in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi was speaking alongside more than 40 ambassadors to observe a minute of silence for thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza since the start of Israeli bombardments more than a month ago.
“There are a plethora of international laws that can be applied. They are applied fully when it comes to Ukraine. When it comes to us they are put aside, they’re violated, they’re not used, they’re belittled,” he told a gathering of diplomats and reporters.
He specifically mentioned European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen’s allegations last year that Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure, including electricity, in Ukraine were war crimes.
Qatar’s emir holds talks in Egypt on ending Gaza violence
(Reuters) - The leaders of Qatar and Egypt have met in Cairo, both hoping to mediate a de-escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the provision of humanitarian aid, and the release of Israeli hostages.
The talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed intensified efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of sufficient quantities of aid for its 2.3 million besieged residents, a statement from Sisi’s office said.
Qatar said “joint efforts to stop the aggression against Gaza, reduce escalation and bring in urgent humanitarian aid” were discussed.
The Qatari emir’s visit comes a day after Qatar’s prime minister met the chiefs of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israeli spy agency Mossad in Doha to discuss the parameters of a deal for a hostage release and a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza’s health ministry says death toll hits 11,078
(AFP) - The health ministry in Gaza has said that 11,078 people have died in five weeks of an Israeli military campaign targeting the besieged enclave and hapless civilians since October 7.
The death toll includes 4,506 children, a health ministry statement said, while 27,490 people have been wounded in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
North Gaza hospitals are under bombardment: WHO
(Reuters) - The biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip and another with children on life support have been coming under bombardment, the World Health Organisation said.
Twenty hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely, it said.
Asked about the Gaza health ministry’s allegation of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said: “I haven’t got the detail on Al Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment.”
She said there was also “significant bombardment” on Rantissi Hospital, the only hospital providing pediatric services in North Gaza. Asked to elaborate, she said there was “intense violence” at the Shifa site, quoting colleagues on the ground. She did not attribute blame.
Gaza families have been sheltering at the hospital, the territory’s largest, which is inside Gaza City encircled by Israeli troops.
Palestinian officials say Israeli air strikes hit Gaza hospitals
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes hit Gaza's biggest hospital, the Al Shifa, on Friday, killing one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said, one of several hospitals reported struck at dawn as Israel battles Hamas in the heart of the enclave.
Officials said other strikes had damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and hit vehicles outside the Rantissi cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel says Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated.
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al-Quds and Nasser Children's hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there, medical staff said.
"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals, on Rantissi, Nasser hospitals and on Al Shifa," Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Gaza's main Shifa hospital, told Reuters.
Iran warns expansion of Gaza war 'inevitable'; officials say air strikes hit hospitals
GAZA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran warned the scale of civilian suffering caused by Israel's war on Hamas would inevitably lead to an expansion of the conflict, as officials in Gaza reported Israeli air strikes on or near several hospitals in the Palestinian enclave.
The comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian could ramp up concerns over whether Washington's diplomatic efforts and deployment of U.S. naval forces to the eastern Mediterranean will be able to keep the conflict from further destabilising the Middle East.
"Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza's civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable," Amir-Abdollahian told his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Thursday night.
Netanyahu rules out ceasefire, says no plans to occupy Gaza
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday, saying the military was performing "exceptionally well," but insisted Israel does not plan to reoccupy the Palestinian territory.
"No. The fighting continues against the Hamas enemy, the Hamas terrorists, but in specific locations for a given period of a few hours here or a few hours there, we want to facilitate the safe passage of civilians away from the zone of fight and we're doing that," he told Fox News.
On the ground in northern Gaza, there were no reports of a lull in fighting. Each side reported inflicting heavy casualties on the other in intense street battles.
Israel agrees to four-hour pauses to let people flee Gaza: White House
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has agreed to pause operations in northern Gaza for four hours a day from Thursday, the White House said, in the first sign of a respite in more than a month of fighting that has left thousands dead and stoked fears of a regional conflict.
The pauses would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and were significant first steps, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.
"We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today," Kirby said.
Gaza officials say hospitals come under new Israeli attacks as death toll rises above 10,800
GAZA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Gaza officials said Israel launched air strikes on or near at least three hospitals on Friday, further endangering a health system swamped with thousands of casualties and people displaced by Israel's war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
"The Israeli occupation launched simultaneous strikes on a number of hospitals during the past hours," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra told Al Jazeera television.
Qidra said Israel targeted the courtyard of Al Shifa, the biggest hospital in Gaza City, and there were casualties, but he did not provide details. Israel said Hamas has hidden command centres and tunnels beneath Al Shifa, allegations Hamas denies.
'All lives have equal worth': Macron urges Israel to protect civilians at Gaza aid conference
PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron opened a Gaza aid conference on Thursday with an appeal for Israel to protect civilians as it fights Hamas, saying “all lives have equal worth” and that fighting terrorism “can never be carried out without rules.”
The gathering in Paris brought together officials from Western and Arab nations, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations, with the aim of providing urgent aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip that is being pounded by Israel in its war against Hamas. Israeli authorities weren't invited but have been informed of the talks, Macron's office said.
Macron reiterated calls for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s operations. He said that by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas “shouldered the responsibility for exposing Palestinians to terrible consequences,” and he again defended Israel’s right to defend itself.
Major aid groups call for Gaza ceasefire
(AFP) - An alliance of 13 major aid groups including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Amnesty International and Oxfam has urged world leaders to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The organisations “call on French President Emmanuel Macron and heads of state… to do everything in their power to obtain an immediate ceasefire,” they said in a statement, one day before a humanitarian conference on the Gaza Strip is due to be held in Paris.
Other priorities should include “concrete measures to free civilian hostages and protect all civilian populations, guaranteeing entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and respecting international humanitarian law,” the groups said.
Hezbollah says it struck Israeli infantry units
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed two attacks on Israeli infantry units in the areas of Shomera and Dovev on Wednesday which it said inflicted casualties on Israeli forces. There was no immediate confirmation of the casualties from the Israeli military.
Following the strikes, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency and an Associated Press journalist in south Lebanon reported heavy shelling in several border areas in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the attack on Dovev was in retaliation for Israeli forces targeting an ambulance in Lebanon. On Sunday, local Lebanese officials said an Israeli drone had struck near two ambulances on their way to pick up casualties from overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics.
Al-Khidmat Foundation extends support to Gaza victims
(Web Desk) - Al-Khidmat Foundation, the relief wing of Jamaat-i-Islami, has taken swift action by dispatching relief supplies for Gazans to Egypt’s El Arish airport as part of ongoing efforts to alleviate the suffering of victims of Israeli bombardment in the besieged enclave.
A press release from the organisation said in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority, the foundation has sent a “comprehensive aid package, including essential items such as food, medicines, hygiene kits, delivery kits and baby kits”.
It added that the foundation was prepared to send five additional planes with the necessary items already in shipping position.
— Alkhidmat Foundation Pakistan (@AlkhidmatOrg) November 8, 2023
Qatar negotiating release of 15 hostages for Gaza ceasefire
(AFP) - Qatar is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the potential release of 10-15 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire of one or two days, a source briefed on the talks told AFP.
“Negotiations mediated by the Qataris in coordination with the US are ongoing to secure the release of 10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day ceasefire,” the informed source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
Israel cannot occupy Gaza after war: Blinken
(Web Desk) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that it is clear that Israel cannot “occupy” Gaza after the war.
The comments from the top US diplomat came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that they could manage Gaza’s security for an “indefinite period”.
“Now, the reality is that there may be a need for some transition period at the end of the conflict, but it is imperative that the Palestinian people be central to governance in Gaza and the West Bank as well, and again, we don’t see a reoccupation,” Blinken told reporters.
“What I’ve heard from Israeli leaders is that they have no intent to reoccupy Gaza.”
40 Filipinos leave Gaza Strip
(Web Desk) - About 40 Filipinos have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Marcos, on X, wrote that the Filipinos are travelling to Cairo where they will take flights to their country.
— Bongbong Marcos (@bongbongmarcos) November 8, 2023
“I hope the rest of our countrymen who also wanted to return home can also exit properly with their spouses and loved ones,” Marcos said in a separate video message.
G7 backs ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza
(AFP) - G7 foreign ministers have said that they support “humanitarian pauses and corridors” in Israel’s bombing of Gaza but refrained from calling for a ceasefire, AFP reports.
“We stress the need for urgent action to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza… We support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages,” a joint statement said.
The ministers also “emphasise Israel’s right to defend itself and its people in accordance with international law as it seeks to prevent a recurrence” of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
It added: “We call on Iran to refrain from providing support for Hamas and taking further actions that destabilise the Middle East, including support for Lebanese Hezbollah and other non-state actors, and to use its influence with those groups to de-escalate regional tensions.”
Israel says kills top Hamas weapons manufacturer as it targets Gaza tunnel network
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed a top Hamas weapons maker and several fighters, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, as its air and ground offensive targeted the militants' vast tunnel network beneath the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Gaza City, the Hamas militant group's main stronghold in the territory, is encircled by Israeli forces. The military said troops have advanced to the heart of the densely-populated city while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses.
The Israeli military statement said two separate strikes eliminated a leading Hamas armorer, Mahsein Abu Zina, and fighters engaged in anti-tank or ground-to-ground rocket fire.
Gaza health crisis deepens for the chronically ill as war intensifies
(Reuters) - Tahreer Azzam, a nurse at Makassed Hospital in east Jerusalem, has been caring for young, desperately-ill Palestinian patients for 16 years. Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last month, she now struggles to find them.
Usually, around 100 patients from Gaza receive care each day for complex health needs such as treatment for rare cancers and open heart surgery, at hospitals like Azzam’s, as well as in the occupied West Bank, Israel and other countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
That came to a halt after Oct. 7, when gunmen from the group Hamas broke through the Gaza border fence, killing nearly 1,400 people inside Israel and taking some 240 hostages.
G7’s top diplomats prepare statement on Gaza conflict
TOKYO (Reuters) - G7 foreign ministers are set to issue a joint statement on the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday and are expected to call for temporary pauses in fighting to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
It would mark only the second joint statement from the group of wealthy nations on the crisis since gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas sparked the conflict with an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
The communique, to be issued near the end of a two-day meeting in Tokyo, is also likely to reiterate that G7 support for Ukraine in its war with Russia remains undimmed despite the spiralling conflict in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia says will host Arab and Islamic summits to discuss Gaza conflict
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will host summits of Arab and Islamic nations in coming days to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Saudi Arabia’s investment minister said on Wednesday.
“We will see, this week, in the next few days Saudi Arabia convening an emergency Arab summit in Riyadh,” said Saudi investment minister Khalid Al-Falih, at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
“In a few days you will see Saudi Arabia convening an Islamic summit,” he said.
Israel targets Hamas tunnels after encircling Gaza City
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's ground forces in the Gaza Strip aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable Hamas' vast tunnel network beneath the enclave, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 cross-border gun rampage, Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the coastal enclave in two.
Gaza City, the territory's largest town and Hamas' main stronghold, is encircled. Israel says its troops have advanced to the heart of the city while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces.
Gaza evacuees continue to move through Rafah crossing after re-opening
(Reuters) -The number of evacuees moving from Gaza into Egypt has risen a day after the Rafah border crossing was re-opened, Reuters reports.
At least 320 foreign nationals and dependents passed through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, the only border crossing not controlled by Israel, along with 100 Egyptians, an Egyptian security source said.
The border crossing was closed on Saturday and Sunday after an Israeli strike on an ambulance that was heading to Rafah. Egyptian security sources said Egypt was continuing to press for increased aid and fuel into the strip and security for ambulances.
However, only four injured Gazans were allowed through, a medical source said, to join dozens of others who are being treated in Egyptian hospitals.
Israel says troops push into ‘heart of Gaza City’
(Reuters) - Israel has said that its forces have pushed deep into Gaza City, where residents said tanks were positioned on the outskirts for a potential storming of Gaza’s urban heartland, Reuters reports.
“For the first time in decades, IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. At the heart of terrorism,” Major General Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Southern Command of the Israeli Defence Forces, told reporters near the Gaza border.
“Every day and every hour the forces are killing fighters, exposing tunnels and destroying weapons, and continuing onward to enemy centres.”
There was no indication on the ground that Israeli forces had thrust en masse further into the city, but a spokesperson for the military, Richard Hecht, suggested that the encircling troops could be making raids inside.
Asked whether such raids had taken place, he said: “I’m not going to talk about how we are operationally acting from within our encirclement around Gaza City. You are in the right direction, that’s all I can say.”
Images of suffering in Middle East are heart-breaking, soul-crushing: UN chief
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 7, 2023
Israel readies for Gaza City push as UN decries month of Middle East 'carnage'
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel gave civilians still trapped inside freshly encircled Gaza City a four hour window to leave on Tuesday, and residents escaping said they passed tanks in position to possibly begin storming it.
Israel says its forces have surrounded Gaza City, home to a third of the enclave's 2.3 million people, and are poised to storm it soon in their campaign to annihilate the Hamas Islamists who attacked Israeli towns exactly a month ago.
War began on Oct. 7 when the fighters burst across the fence surrounding Gaza and killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and abducted more than 200, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has pounded Hamas-run Gaza with strikes, killing more than 10,000 people, around 40 percent of them children, according to tallies by health officials there.
Israel’s attacks on innocent Gazan civilians are disproportionate: Belgian PM
(Reuters) - Israel’s attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza are disproportionate, Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has told reporters after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah in Brussels, according to Reuters.
“Bombing down a refugee camp because it allegedly houses one Hamas leader is completely disproportionate. It is never acceptable that so many civilian casualties are caused trying to eliminate one person,” he said.
“Civilians and civilian places must be protected, but of course, Hamas cannot use them as a shelter either because that only complicates matters.”
He also said both Israel and Hamas disregard international humanitarian law on a daily basis. De Croo added that Hamas should also release as soon as possible innocent hostages, saying it could be an important part of halting the “spiral of violence”.
Palestinian journalist and his 42 family members martyred in Israeli strikes
(Web Desk) - Journalist Muhammad Abu Hasira and 42 other family members, including his brothers and sons, were martyred after Israel bombarded their homes in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa also reported that another journalist, Muhammad Hamouda, was wounded a few days ago alongside his wife, who lost her left eye, and 22-year-old son, Ahmed, whose leg had to be amputated, Al Jazeera reported.
The US-based watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported on Monday that, since the conflict began, at least 37 journalists and media professionals had been killed and eight had been injured.
China’s Mideast envoy discusses Israel-Palestinian conflict with US Ambassador
(Reuters) - China’s special envoy for Middle East issues, Zhai Jun, has met the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, Reuters reports.
The two leaders exchanged views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and other topics, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Slain Lebanese schoolgirl sisters are latest victims of Mideast war
AYNATA, Lebanon (Reuters) – Sisters Rimas, Taline and Lianne Chour were preparing to travel to Beirut for temporary schooling there because of escalating clashes between Israel and Hezbollah militants in their native southern Lebanon.
When they set off on Sunday, a missile Lebanon says Israel fired hit their car, killing all three and their grandmother, and leaving their mother wounded and confused.
"She was shouting, 'where are my children, where are my children?'" said their uncle Samir Ayyoub, who witnessed the strike while he drove in convoy with them in his own car.
WHO: Over 160 health care workers have died on duty in Gaza
GENEVA (Reuters) - A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that over 160 health care workers had died on duty in Gaza and called for a lifting of restrictions on medical aid, saying some doctors were performing operations, including amputations, without anaesthetic.
"Over 160 of the healthcare workers have died on duty while taking care of those injured and diseased. These are the people keeping the health system going through the dedication they have somehow found a way to keep some level of service going," Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing, without citing the source of information.
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Kremlin calls for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into Gaza
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin called on Tuesday for "humanitarian pauses" during Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as "catastrophic".
Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing.
Blinken in Japan for Gaza-dominated G7 meet
TOKYO (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan on Tuesday for a meeting of G7 foreign ministers set to seek a common line on Gaza as calls mount for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Blinken made no public comment as he arrived for the two days of discussions in Tokyo following his latest whirlwind tour of the Middle East.
The Israeli military has relentlessly bombarded Gaza since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack that left 1,400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,000 people – including more than 4,000 children.
- At least 23 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes early on Tuesday in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, health officials said.
- The Israeli military said on Tuesday it took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, where it said the forces located anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence materials.
Russia says Israeli nuclear remark raises 'huge number of questions'
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a remark by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to express openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised a huge number of questions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu, from a far-right party in the coalition government, from cabinet meetings "until further notice".
Asked in a radio interview about a hypothetical nuclear option, Eliyahu had replied: "That's one way."
"This has raised a huge number of questions," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, was quoted as saying by state RIA news agency.
Zakharova said the main issue was that Israel appeared to have admitted that it had nuclear weapons.
Israel does not publicly acknowledge it has nuclear weapons though the Federation of American Scientists estimates Israel has about 90 nuclear warheads.
"Question number one - it turns out that we are hearing official statements about the presence of nuclear weapons?" Zakharova said.
If so, she said, then where are the International Atomic Energy Agency and international nuclear inspectors?
Eliyahu remark drew condemnation from around the Arab world, scandalised mainstream Israeli broadcasters, was deemed "objectionable" by a U.S. official, and Iran called for a swift international response.
"The UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency must take immediate and uninterrupted action to disarm this barbaric and apartheid regime. Tomorrow is late," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on platform X on Monday.
(Reuters) - Russian foreign ministry: Israel's statement on nuclear weapons has raised many questions, including about their presence in the country - RIA
Israel says it is open to Gaza fighting pauses for aid, hostages
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- G7 foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo plan to urge for pause in fighting, humanitarian aid to Gaza - Japan's Kamikawa
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