JERUSALEM: Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 30 people, nearly a dozen of them children.
Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory was “expanding to crush and clean the area” of militants and “seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a written statement.
The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded since the war began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab that further shrinks the narrow coastal territory, home to around 2 million people.
Katz didn’t specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation, which he said includes the “extensive evacuation” of the population from fighting areas. His statement came after Israel ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah and nearby areas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel aims to maintain an open-ended but unspecified security control of the Gaza Strip once it achieves its aim of crushing Hamas.
The minister called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all hostages.” The militant group still holds 59 captives, of whom 24 are believed to still be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
“This is the only way to end the war,” Katz said.
The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said that it was “horrified to wake up this morning to the Defense Minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.”
The group said the Israeli government “has an obligation to free all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity — to pursue every possible channel to advance a deal for their release.” They stressed that every passing day puts their loved ones’ lives at greater risk.
“Their lives hang in the balance as more and more disturbing details continue to emerge about the horrific conditions they’re being held in — chained, abused, and in desperate need of medical attention,” said the forum, which called on the Trump administration and other mediators to continue pressuring Hamas to release the hostages.
“Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home — the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial — and end this war,” the group said.
Children killed in strike on UN building
Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes overnight killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis. Another 15 people were killed in a strike in the north of the strip Wednesday, according to officials at hospitals where the bodies were taken.
Officials at the Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike that were brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Officials at the Gaza European Hospital said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate airstrikes.
Later Wednesday, officials at the Indonesian Hospital said an Israeli strike on a building of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip killed 15 people, including nine children and two women.
Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, confirmed that an UNRWA building had been hit, but did not have any further details on casualties or what the building was being used as.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said the building had been an UNRWA clinic that was now being used to house displaced people. It said the attack hit two rooms in the building, and that it evacuated the bodies of seven of those killed as well as 12 people who were wounded.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas members in the area, adding that they were hiding inside “a command and control center that was being used for coordinating” armed activity and served as a central meeting point for the Palestinian group.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since a ceasefire ended about two weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Over 30 killed as Israel’s military operation in Gaza Strip expanding to seize ‘large areas’
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Over 30 killed as Israel’s military operation in Gaza Strip expanding to seize ‘large areas’
- Katz didn’t specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation
- His statement came after Israel ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah and nearby areas
France says Algeria threatening to expel diplomatic staff
- Algeria protested over the weekend against Frances’s detention of an Algerian consular agent suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian
PARIS: France said on Monday that Algeria had threatened to expel 12 of its diplomatic staff and that it would take immediate reprisals should that occur in the latest flare-up between them.
Algeria protested over the weekend against Frances’s detention of an Algerian consular agent suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian. French media said three people, including the diplomat, were under investigation over the seizure of Algerian government opponent Amir Boukhors.
“The Algerian authorities are demanding that 12 of our agents leave Algerian territory within 48 hours,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement.
“If the decision to expel our agents is maintained, we will have no choice but to respond immediately.”
There was no immediate confirmation from Algeria of an imminent expulsion.
France’s relations with its former colony have long been complicated, but took a turn for the worse last year when French President Emmanuel Macron angered Algeria by backing Morocco’s position over the disputed Western Sahara region.
Only last week, Barrot had said ties were returning to normal after a visit to Algeria.
Palestinian ministry says Israel PM’s criticism of Macron an ‘unjustified attack’
- Emmanuel Macron said that France could take the step during a United Nations conference in New York in June
- His remarks sparked a wave of criticism from right-wing groups in France and from Netanyahu and his son Yair
“The ministry strongly condemns the unjustified attack and offensive remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his son against President Emmanuel Macron,” the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.
“The ministry considers these statements a clear acknowledgement of Netanyahu’s ongoing hostility to peace based on the two-state solution, as well as a blatant rejection of international legitimacy and a persistent preference for violence and military solutions over the political path.”
Macron, in an interview with France 5 broadcast on Wednesday, said that France could take the step during a United Nations conference in New York in June, adding he hoped it would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab countries.
“We must move toward recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron said.
“I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do.”
His remarks sparked a wave of criticism from right-wing groups in France and from Netanyahu and his son Yair Netanyahu.
“Screw you!” Yair Netanyahu wrote in English on X late on Saturday, while Netanyahu himself dismissed Macron’s remarks.
“President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land – a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“To this day, not a single figure in Hamas or the Palestinian Authority has condemned the horrors of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” he said, referring to the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas on Israel.
He described it as “a silence that reveals their true attitude toward the Jewish state.
“We will not endanger our existence over illusions detached from reality, and we will not accept moral lectures about establishing a Palestinian state that would threaten Israel’s survival — especially not from those who oppose granting independence to Corsica, New Caledonia, French Guiana, and other territories, whose independence would pose no threat to France whatsoever.”
Home to centuries of heritage, Sudan’s biggest museum is looted and wrecked by a 2-year war
CAIRO: Inside Sudan’s biggest museum, the exhibition halls once filled with statues and relics from centuries of ancient civilizations are trashed, littered with debris. The display cases stand empty and shattered. A mummy lies exposed in an open storage box. All the gold artifacts have been looted.
The Sudan National Museum has been wrecked by two years of war in Sudan, with most of its artifacts stolen. Authorities blame the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which held this district of Khartoum along the banks of the Nile River for most of the conflict.
Since the Sudanese military regained control of the capital last month, officials have been working to assess the damage and loss in hopes of one day restoring the museum.
“The losses are extremely big and saddening. A significant number of antiquities were stolen,” Gamal ElDeen Zain Al-Abdeen, a senior official at the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, told The Associated Press. “The RSF destroyed everything ... concerning the civilization of the Sudanese people.”
The National Museum had thousands of pieces, dating back to the Paleolithic era well before the development of agriculture, and through the kingdoms of ancient Sudan. Many came from the Napatan era in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., when pharaohs from Sudan ruled over much of ancient Egypt, or from the later Meroitic kingdom that built pyramids in Sudan. Other halls had later Christian and Islamic material.
Some pieces too heavy to carry remain in place. In the museum’s garden, a line of stone lions remains, as do the Colossi of Tabo, two large pharaonic-style statues. Also remaining are three pharaonic temples that were moved from northern Sudan and reassembled at the museum in the 1960s to escape the rising waters of Lake Nasser from Egypt’s construction of the High Dam.
But many objects are gone. Looters broke into the locked storerooms and made off with all the gold artifacts, Zain Al-Abdeen said. But it was too early to know how much of the museum’s collection had been stolen, he said.
Museums paid a heavy price in the war
He blamed the RSF for the destruction, saying they had fighters in the museum at some point during the war.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, after tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF turned into battles in the streets of Khartoum and rapidly spread around the country. The RSF held much of Khartoum during the war, including the district of the museum.
Now that they have been driven out, the extent of the destruction from fighting and looting is coming clear.
“Khartoum in general has been destroyed, particularly the center of Khartoum,” Zain Al-Abdeen said. “No building was spared from the bloodshed and theft, and this is what I saw with my own eyes.” He said all the city’s museums were damaged, particularly the Ethnography Museum, where walls were demolished and halls and offices burned.
The ransacking is a blow to a country with a rich heritage, one that has deep resonance among Sudanese but is often overlooked abroad because of Sudan’s decades of instability.
‘Erasing history’
UNESCO said in September it was concerned about looting at the Sudan National Museum, which it helped renovate in 2019. It warned that sale or removal of artifacts “would result in the disappearance of part of the Sudanese cultural identity and jeopardize the country’s recovery.”
A UNESCO spokesperson said Friday that damage, looting and destruction of museums and cultural sites happened across Sudan’s states of Khartoum, River Nile, Northern State, Gezeira and the Darfur region. An accurate assessment isn’t possible due to the ongoing fighting.
The Sudan National Museum is among several that have undergone “extensive looting and substantial damage,” according to UNESCO.
Sedeeq Mohamed Sedeeq, who lives near the museum, said the RSF vowed democracy and liberation but instead they are “erasing the oldest nation in history, erasing its history.”
Reconstruction plans for destroyed museums will begin after committees assess the damage and recommend proposals for rehabilitation, Zein Al-Abdeen said. The plans are expected to include building repairs, restoration of the antiquities storage areas and fixing the museum’s surrounding grounds.
At least 20,000 people have been killed since the war broke out, though the number is likely far higher. The war has also driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.
Yemen’s Houthis say six killed in US strike on Sanaa province
- US strikes targeted various other areas in Yemen, including in the Saada and Hodeida provinces
DUBAI: Suspected US airstrikes around Yemen’s rebel-held capital killed at least six people and wounded 26 overnight, the Houthis said Monday as they also claimed shooting down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Since its start nearly a month ago, the intense campaign of US airstrikes under President Donald Trump targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters — related to the Israel-Hamas war — has killed over 120 people, according to casualty figures released Monday by the Houthis’ Health Ministry.
Footage aired by the Houthis’ Al-Masirah satellite news channel showed firefighters spraying water on a raging fire they described as being sparked by the airstrikes. Rubble littered a street as rescuers carried one person away from the site, which the rebels claimed was a ceramics factory in the Bani Matar neighborhood of Sanaa, the capital.
The US military’s Central Command, which oversees American military operations, did not acknowledge the strikes. That follows a pattern for the command, which now has authorization from the White House to conduct strikes at will in the campaign that began March 15.
The American military also hasn’t been providing any information on targets hit. The White House has said over 200 strikes have been conducted so far.
Houthis claim another American drone shot down
The Houthis separately claimed Sunday night they shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen’s Hajjah governorate.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, described the downing in a prerecorded video message as the fourth in two weeks by the rebels. Saree said the rebels targeted the drone with “a locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.
Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. They have been flown by both the US military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.
Central Command said it was aware of “reports” of the drone being shot down, but did not elaborate.
US strikes come as part of monthlong intense campaign
An AP review has found the new US operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than that under former President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The US campaign shows no signs of stopping, as the Trump administration has also linked its airstrikes on the Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Syrian, UAE presidents hold talks in Abu Dhabi
- President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes second trip to Gulf after visiting Saudi Arabia in February
- UAE leader reaffirms support for Syrian rebuild efforts
LONDON: President Ahmed Al-Sharaa of the Syrian Arab Republic arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday for talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
The sheikh wished Al-Sharaa success in leading Syria and in fulfilling his people’s hopes for development, security and stability, the Emirates News Agency reported.
He also reaffirmed the UAE’s support for Syria’s efforts to rebuild and commitment to its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, which he said were essential to the broader region.
Al-Sharaa was welcomed at Al-Bateen Airport by Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and other senior officials. Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shibani, who visited the UAE earlier this year, was also present at the meeting.
Al-Sharaa visited Saudi Arabia in February on his first foreign trip since assuming the presidency in January. The Syrian leader is keen to strengthen ties with Arab and Western governments and turn a new page in his nation’s diplomatic relations following the collapse of the Assad regime in December.
Last week, Syria and South Korea formally established diplomatic relations and agreed to open embassies in each other’s countries. Syria was the only UN member without diplomatic ties to South Korea.
