Gaza Conflict
Live Reporting
Jordan’s King Abdullah warns of the dangers of Israel’s planned Rafah military operation
Jordan’s King Abdullah has warned of the dangers of a military operation planned by Israel in Rafah and reiterated his appeal for an immediate ceasefire to help protect civilians in Gaza and bring in much needed aid, the royal palace said.
According to Reuters, the king also said the only way to end the decades-old conflict was to find a “political horizon” for Palestinians that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state on territory Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, including east Jerusalem.
Egypt accused of threatening group that reported on enclosure near Gaza
Human rights groups have accused Egypt of a “smear campaign and threats” against an activist group that reported the construction of a walled enclosure in the Sinai bordering the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.
The group had said in mid-February that the enclosure, visible on satellite images, is meant to receive refugees in case of “a mass exodus” from Gaza.
Since then the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) had been targeted by “government and pro-government figures and entities”, 18 rights groups charged in a joint statement.
Among the signatories were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. They said the group’s director, Ahmed Salem, had been targeted on social media, in newspapers and on
PHOTOS: Church houses Gaza’s injured
HRW accuses Israel of blocking aid to Palestinians
Israel has failed to comply with an order by the United Nations’ top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said Monday, a month after a landmark ruling in The Hague ordered Israel to moderate its war.
In a preliminary response to a South African petition accusing Israel of genocide, the U.N.’s top court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. It stopped short of ordering an end to its military offensive that has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny Palestinian enclave. Israel vehemently denies the charges against it, saying it is fighting a war in self-defense.
Security Council 'perhaps fatally' undermined by Gaza: UN chief
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday deplored how the UN Security Council had failed to respond adequately to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying the conflicts had "perhaps fatally" undermined its authority.
Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Guterres said the UN Security Council often found itself deadlocked and "unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues of our time".
Israeli delegation heads to Qatar for ceasefire deal push
Israeli officials headed on Monday to Qatar, where Hamas has its political office, to work on terms of a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, a source told Reuters, a step towards nailing down a ceasefire which Washington says is now close.
Israel is under pressure from its main ally the United States to agree a truce soon, to head off a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, the last city at Gaza Strip's southern edge where over half the enclave's 2.3 million people are sheltering.
Israel court hears challenges to religious waiver amid Gaza war
The top Israeli court heard challenges on Monday to exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews from military conscription, a long-standing source of friction with more secular citizens now stoked by the country's costly mobilisation in the Gaza war.
In the name of equality, the Supreme Court in 2018 voided a law waiving the draft for ultra-Orthodox men. Parliament failed to come up with a new arrangement, and a government-issued stay on mandatory conscription of ultra-Orthodox expires next month.
More from Israel’s air attack on Lebanon’s Baalbek
A video posted by the Lebanese media have shown a plume of smoke rising from the vicinity of the Adous Plain in Budai, west of the city of Baalbek.
Two separate videos showed a destroyed area with a burnt out and overturned truck as well as a damaged Range Rover SUV lying next to a road as well as a huge pile of rubble from what seems to be a building.
No casualties were mentioned in the reports.
Baalbek is nearly 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Israeli-Lebanese border where the tit-for-tat violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli military is usually limited to.
Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh resigns
RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday he was resigning to allow for the formation of a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements following Israel's war against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
The move comes amid growing US pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority as international efforts have intensified to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.
Israeli strikes target Lebanon’s Baalbek for first time since Gaza war
At least two simultaneous Israeli strikes have hit around the Lebanese city of Baalbek, in the first bombardment of eastern Lebanon since regional hostilities erupted following the start of the war in Gaza.
This was confirmed by security sources to news agencies.
The Israeli military told Reuters it was “currently striking Hezbollah terror targets deep inside Lebanon” but provided no further details. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
ICJ: Israel-Palestine conflict did not start on October 7 – Yildiz
Turkey’s representative at the ICJ hearing says the conflict could have been settled by now if international law and human rights law had been upheld and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people had been recognised.
“The conflict is not about a certain Palestinian faction or group. The conflict dates back to an earlier century,” he says.
“The real obstacle to peace is obvious,” he adds, identifying the “deepening occupation by Israel of the Palestinian territories” and a failure to implement a two-state solution as the underlying issues.
Security Council ‘perhaps fatally’ undermined by Gaza inaction: UN chief
Antonio Guterres has criticised the UN Security Council’s failure to counter Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he said had “perhaps fatally” undermined its authority.
Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he stated, “The Council needs serious reform to its composition and working methods.”
Doctors in Rafah’s tent hospital speak of spread of infectious diseases
Doctors in Rafah have built a tent hospital to treat patients, including children, in the Sultan neighbourhood.
In a video published on Instagram by Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih, doctors spoke of the spread of infectious diseases, as well as gastroenteritis, respiratory diseases, rashes and jaundice due to contamination of water and lack of hygiene.
Lack of medicines and medical equipment poses another major issue in treating patients, according to doctors.
Israel’ bombardment has left only one third of Gaza’s hospitals in function.
Last week’s attacks on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, the second-largest hospital in the strip left the facility nonoperational.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mhmoud said that the Israeli military partially withdrew from the Nasser Hospital, but snipers were still positioned in the vicinity of the hospital, and were still shooting at anything moving near it.
Israeli army will submit a dual plan for Rafah: Netanyahu
In an interview with CBS on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister stated that once the Israeli military begins its planned Rafah operation, the “intense phase” of the fighting will be weeks away from completion.
He also said he had asked the army to submit a dual plan which included details on how to evacuate civilians from Rafah and how to eliminate Hamas battalions stationed there.
An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, more than half of Gaza’s population, having been pushed to the southernmost part of the Strip by Israel’s war on the enclave.
The UN has warned that an attack on Rafah would be catastrophic, with more than 600,000 children sheltering in the path of an assault and a severely limited humanitarian lifeline already on the brink of collapse.
If there is a truce, Netanyahu said the military offensive on Rafah will be delayed, but it will still go ahead eventually. “It has to be done because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach”.
Four, including a child, killed north of Rafah in Israeli strike: Report
An Israeli military strike on a home north of Rafah has killed four people, including a woman and a child, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Several others were injured in the strike.
This comes as Israeli forces also continue to shell the eastern side of Rafah, which many residents have evacuated from.
Israeli forces still firing near Nasser Hospital
Despite the Israeli military’s statement that it has completed operations inside Nasser Hospital, snipers are still at the vicinity of the hospital and, tragically, are still shooting at anything moving near it.
There is also still an ongoing blockade of relief convoys, stopping fuel or water supplies from reaching those inside the hospital.
The Israeli military previously conducted mass arrests of about 200 people in or around the hospital, including medical staff and patients. Their fate is unknown. Nobody knows where they are or what’s going to happen to them.
Minister says Paris captive deal sent to Hamas fits within Israel’s ‘red lines’
A framework deal agreed by Israel in Paris last week and sent to Hamas for consideration fits within the “red lines” outlined by Tel Aviv, according to Gideon Sa’ar, former Israeli minister of justice.
“From what I understand, what was presented in Paris fits our red lines, but there must be a partner,” he told Kan public radio.
He said that Israel hasn’t heard yet whether “Hamas has given a positive response to the framework”. An Israeli delegation met with Qatari, Egyptian and US officials in the French capital last week. The deal has now been sent to Hamas for consideration.
According to media reports in Israel, the deal would see a six-week pause in the fighting in exchange for about 40 Israeli captives held in Gaza, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails.
Third person dies from Israeli drone attack on vehicle in Jenin
A third Palestinian has died as a result of an Israeli drone attack last week on a car in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports.
The man died in hospital from injuries sustained in Friday’s attack, which killed two others, including a 17-year-old, and injured at least 15 people.
The Israeli military claimed that the drone attack killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter who had “previously been detained for his involvement in the terrorist organisation’s military activities”.
US airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli embassy in Washington
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A US military service member set himself on fire, in an apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza, outside the Israeli Embassy her on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
The man was transported to an area hospital after the fire was put out by US Secret Service officers, DC Fire and EMS posted online. The man remains in critical condition, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson said Sunday afternoon.
US says Yemen's Houthis ballistic missile misses US tanker Torm Thor
CAIRO (Reuters) – The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said early on Monday that Yemen's Houthis launched one anti-ship ballistic missile likely targeting the MV Torm Thor, but missed the US-flagged, owned and operated oil tanker, in the Gulf of Aden on Feb. 24.
The missile impacted the water causing no damage nor injuries, CENTCOM added in a post on X.
The Iran-aligned group said on Sunday that they targeted the tanker, as it continues to attack shipping lanes in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli military says 5 soldiers seriously injured in Gaza
The Israeli military has announced that five soldiers were seriously injured in fighting in Gaza on Sunday. No fatalities were reported.
Among three soldiers wounded in fighting in southern Gaza are a soldier from the Paratroopers Brigade, a soldier from the Combat Engineering Corps, and a Paratrooper officer.
Two soldiers from the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion were injured in fighting in northern Gaza.
Associations mark international day for Palestinian journalists
Journalist unions and associations from more than 100 countries are marking today, Monday, February 26, as the International Day for Palestinian Journalists.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) say they are holding the day in support of colleagues in Palestine.
The associations described the killing of 100 journalists in the four months since the war began as a “terrible and unjustified tragedy”.
“Palestinian journalists are the eyes of the world in Gaza, and without them, the humanitarian crisis would go unseen,” the Australian journalists union MEAA said in a post on social media.
Palestinian journalists are the eyes of the world in Gaza, and without them the humanitarian crisis would go unseen. Today is the @IFJGlobal International Day to #SupportPalestinianJournalists, donate and share this post to spread the word: https://t.co/Ty6sLWkk3I#MEAAmedia pic.twitter.com/rpAchXwspT
— MEAA (@withMEAA) February 25, 2024
Qatar emir due in Paris for talks on Gaza
PARIS (AFP) – Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country has played the key mediation role in the Gaza war, visits Paris this week for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, the French presidency said Sunday.
The ruler's trip on Tuesday and Wednesday will be his first state visit to France since he became emir of the small but gas-rich and hugely influential emirate in 2013, according to the Elysee.
Israel to discuss 'next steps' in truce talks as famine fears deepen in besieged Gaza
GAZA STRIP (Reuters) - Israel sounded a positive note on efforts to broker a new hostage release and ceasefire deal in its war with Hamas, as concern deepened over the growing humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
As aid agencies warned of unprecedented levels of desperation and looming famine, dozens more Gazans were killed in Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said.
Israel vows to push into Gaza's far-south as truce talks underway
GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel's prime minister said Sunday a potential ceasefire in its war against Hamas militants would only delay a ground invasion of Gaza's southern city Rafah that shelters more than half of the conflict-battered territory's population.
Israel's ally the United States said ongoing mediation efforts produced "an understanding" towards a ceasefire and hostage release, while a Hamas source said the group insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
