GAZA: A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the Islamist group has not withdrawn from ceasefire talks with Israel after this weekend's deadly attacks in Gaza that Israel said had targeted the group's military leader Mohammed Deif.
But Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of the political office of Hamas, accused Israel of trying to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal by stepping up its attacks in the enclave.
Saturday's strike in the Khan Younis area of Gaza, in which at least 90 Palestinians were killed, according to local health authorities, has put the ceasefire talks in doubt.
There had been increasingly hopeful signs in recent days that a deal could be reached to halt fighting and return hostages held in Gaza.
Two Egyptian security sources at ceasefire talks in Doha and Cairo said on Saturday that negotiations had been halted after three days of intense talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene his close circle of ministers later on Sunday to discuss the talks.
The strike on Saturday which targeted Deif killed Rafa Salama, commander of Hamas' Khan Younis brigade, the Israeli military said on Sunday, but there was no confirmation about the fate of Deif.
"The strike in Khan Younis was a result of surgical intelligence," the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service said in a video released by the service from Rafah. He said 25 Hamas operatives who took part in the deadly Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the war had been killed in the past week.
On Saturday, a senior Hamas official denied that Deif had been killed and the group said Israeli claims were aimed at justifying the attack.
Israel's military chief said on Sunday in a televised statement that Hamas was concealing the truth about Deif's fate, but stopped short of confirming whether he was alive or dead.
Israeli forces pressed ahead on Sunday with aerial and ground shelling of several areas across the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, most of whom have been displaced by the war.
A strike on a UN-run school in Nuseirat camp, one of Gaza's eight longstanding refugee camps, killed 15 Palestinians and wounded dozens more, Hamas media and health officials said.
The Israeli military said the site was used as a base for Hamas fighters to attack Israeli forces and said numerous steps were taken to limit the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and intelligence.
Residents said two missiles targeted the upper floor of the school, not far from the camp's local market, usually busy with shoppers, where displaced families have also taken shelter nearby.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli airstrikes on four houses in Gaza City killed at least 16 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others, medics said.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 38,584 Palestinians have been killed and 88,881 others injured in Israel's military offensive since Oct. 7.
It added that 141 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip in the past day, the biggest one-day death toll in many weeks.
Gaza's health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but officials say most of the dead throughout the war have been civilians.
Israel says it has lost 326 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters.
The war began after a Hamas-led attack inside Israel on Oct. 7, that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas says it has not left ceasefire talks after Israeli attacks
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Hamas says it has not left ceasefire talks after Israeli attacks
- Militant group says leader Mohammed Deif is ‘fine’ after Israeli strike
- Said it was “ready to resume negotiations” when Israel’s government “demonstrates seriousness”
UN urges peaceful settlement of disputes as UN chief points to ‘the horror show in Gaza’
- In urging greater efforts to pursue global peace, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council: “Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law” as well as the UN Charter
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council urged the 193 United Nations member nations on Tuesday to use all possible means to settle disputes peacefully. The UN chief said that is needed now more than ever as he pointed to “the horror show in Gaza” and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.
The vote was unanimous on a Pakistan-drafted resolution in the 15-member council.
In urging greater efforts to pursue global peace, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council: “Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law” as well as the UN Charter.
It is happening at a time of widening geopolitical divides and numerous conflicts, starting with Gaza, where “starvation is knocking on every door” as Israel denies the United Nations the space and safety to deliver aid and save Palestinian lives, Guterres said.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and blames UN agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in.
In conflicts worldwide, “hunger and displacement are at record levels” and security is pushed further out of reach by terrorism, violent extremism and transnational crime, the secretary-general said.
“Diplomacy may not have always succeeded in preventing conflicts, violence and instability,” Guterres said. “But it still holds the power to stop them.”
The resolution urges all countries to use the methods in the UN Charter to peacefully settle disputes, including negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, referral to regional arrangements or other peaceful means.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who chaired the meeting, cited “the ongoing tragedies” in Gaza and between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, one of the oldest disputes on the UN agenda, that need to be resolved peacefully.
“At the heart of almost all the conflicts across the globe is a crisis of multilateralism; a failure, not of principles but of will; a paralysis, not of institutions but of political courage,” he said.
The Pakistani diplomat called for revitalizing trust in the UN system and ensuring “equal treatment of all conflicts based on international law, not geopolitical expediency.”
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the Trump administration supports the United Nations’ founding principles of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war and working with parties to resolve disputes peacefully.
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, she said, the US has delivered “deescalation” between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Congo and Rwanda.
The US calls on countries involved in conflicts to follow these examples, Shea said, singling out the war in Ukraine and China’s “unlawful claims” in the South China Sea.
The war in Ukraine must end, she said, and Russia must stop attacking civilians and fulfill its obligations under the UN Charter, which requires all member nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every other country.
“We call on other UN member states to stop providing Russia with the means to continue its aggression,” Shea said.
Palestinian teen succumbs to wounds from Israeli gunfire near Jenin
- Ibrahim Majed Ali Nasr was shot by Israeli live ammunition when forces entered the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city
- His killing raises the Palestinian death toll in Jenin governorate to 43 since the Israeli military assault began on Jan. 21
LONDON: A 16-year-old Palestinian died from injuries sustained earlier on Tuesday evening after being shot by Israeli forces during a raid in the northern occupied West Bank.
Ibrahim Majed Ali Nasr was shot by Israeli live ammunition when forces entered the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city.
The teenager was shot in the chest, suffering a life-threatening injury, while another young man was injured in the leg, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Nasr was later declared dead at the hospital in Jenin.
Israeli forces raided a house, with no detentions reported, in Qabatiya on Tuesday evening.
Nasr’s killing raises the Palestinian death toll in Jenin governorate to 43 since the Israeli military assault began on Jan. 21. Dozens more have been injured or detained, the Palestine News Agency reported.
Iran: 27 inmates are still at large following Israeli airstrike
- The New York-based Center for Human Rights had criticized Israel for striking the prison, saying it violated the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets
TEHRAN, PARIS: Iran said on Tuesday 27 inmates were still at large after an Israeli airstrike last month targeted Evin prison in the north of the capital, Tehran, local media reported.
The airstrikes were part of Israel’s 12-day bombardment of Iran that killed about 1,100 people, while 28 were left dead in Israel in Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Judiciary’s news website, Mizanonline, quoted spokesman Asghar Jahangir as saying 75 prisoners had escaped following the strike, of which 48 were either recaptured or voluntarily returned. He said authorities will detain the others if they don’t hand themselves over.
Jahangir said the escapees were prisoners doing time for minor offenses.
FASTFACT
Between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners were being held at the time in the prison.
Iranian officials said the Israeli strike killed 71 people, but local media reported earlier in July that 80 were left dead at the time, including prison staff, soldiers, inmates and visiting family members. Authorities also said five inmates died.
It’s unclear why Israel targeted the prison.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights had criticized Israel for striking the prison, saying it violated the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets.
Amnesty International, an international nongovernmental organization that campaigns to protect human rights, called the Israeli attack “deliberate” and “a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
The air strikes should therefore be “criminally investigated as war crimes,” it said.
“The Israeli military carried out multiple air strikes on Evin prison, killing and injuring scores of civilians and causing extensive damage and destruction in at least six locations across the prison complex,” Amnesty said, basing its assessment on what it said were verified video footage, satellite images and witness statements.
There was nothing to suggest that Evin prison could justifiably be seen as a “legal military objective,” it said.
Heat wave hits water, electricity supplies across much of Iran
- The heat wave has been accompanied by drought, with the capital experiencing its lowest rainfall in 60 years
TEHRAN: A severe heat wave sweeping Iran has disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country, with reservoir levels falling to their lowest in a century, state media said on Tuesday.
Extreme temperatures, which began on Friday, are expected to ease gradually by Thursday.
Government offices in at least 15 of Iran’s 31 provinces, including the capital Tehran, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity.
The measure comes as temperatures in parts of southern and southwestern Iran topped 50 degrees Celsius.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh MoHajjerani said authorities would extend office closures “if it deems necessary,” while warning of the “critical situation” in Tehran regarding water supplies.
The heat wave has been accompanied by drought, with the capital experiencing its lowest rainfall in 60 years. Water levels in the reservoirs which supply Tehran have fallen to “their lowest level in a century,” said the Tehran Provincial Water Supply Company, advising people to use a tank and pump to cope with mains disruption. Tehran provincial governor, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said the dams are only filled to 14 percent, adding that the capital is going through its fifth year of drought.
Many residents reported water supply cuts lasting several hours.
“It’s not just the heat — there’s also no electricity and no water,” said Moini, a 52-year-old housewife from Tehran. “Our whole lives have basically fallen apart.”
Many Iranian newspapers carried photographs of the low reservoir levels on their front pages on Tuesday.
US targets Houthis with fresh sanctions
- Among those targeted was Muhammad Al-Sunaydar, who the Treasury said manages a network of petroleum companies and was one of the most prominent petroleum importers in Yemen
WASHINGTON: The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on what it said was a Houthi-linked petroleum smuggling and sanctions evasion network across Yemen in fresh action targeting the militant group.
The US Treasury Department in a statement said the two individuals and five entities sanctioned were among the most significant importers of petroleum products and money launderers that benefit the Houthis.
“The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products and to enable the group’s access to the international financial system,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender.
“These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes.”
Among those targeted was Muhammad Al-Sunaydar, who the Treasury said manages a network of petroleum companies and was one of the most prominent petroleum importers in Yemen.
Three companies in his network were also designated, with the Treasury saying they coordinated the delivery of $12 million worth of petroleum products with a US-designated company to the Houthis.
Since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October 2023, the Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea in acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
In January, the US re-designated the Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, aiming to impose harsher economic penalties in response to its attacks on ships.
