Israeli troops launch a new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis as mediators push for ceasefire talks

Israeli troops launch a new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis as mediators push for ceasefire talks
Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to figures from health officials in the enclave, who say thousands of others are feared dead under the rubble. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 10 August 2024
Follow

Israeli troops launch a new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis as mediators push for ceasefire talks

Israeli troops launch a new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis as mediators push for ceasefire talks
  • Israel has killed around 40,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli troops launched a new assault Friday into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives, as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.
Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago — after the Israeli military’s last incursion into the city in July.
A wave of Israeli airstrikes in the city Friday killed at least 21 Palestinians, medics at the city’s Nasser Hospital said. Israeli bombardment also continued in central Gaza, with the bodies of seven people — four women and six children — arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah from airstrikes that hit towns nearby.
With tensions running high along the Israel-Lebanon border, an Israeli drone strike on Friday crashed into an SUV in the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing a Hamas official identified as Samer Al-Hajj on the main road to the southern port city, Lebanon’s state media reported.
The explosion engulfed Al-Hajj’s car in flames just outside the sprawling Palestinian refugee camp of Ein Al-Hilweh, where Lebanese media reported that he oversaw security matters. Israel confirmed it targeted Al-Hajj, describing him as a senior Hamas commander and accusing him of recruiting militants to attack Israel as well as directing rocket launches.
In the Gaza Strip, one of the airstrikes in Khan Younis hit the home of the Abu Moamar family, killing a Palestine TV journalist, his wife and three daughters.
Another strike smashed into tents housing displaced people in Mawasi, a costal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, killing a journalist for the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel and five others. A third airstrike targeted a car in Khan Younis.
Thousands had fled the city Thursday, carrying essentials like small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.
It’s at least the third time that Israeli forces have launched a major incursion into Khan Younis, where Israeli and American officials have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ newly named top leader and one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, could be hiding. Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, pledged allegiance to Sinwar as its new leader and promised to carry out his decisions.
Haniyeh’s swift replacement “shows that Hamas is coherent and strong,” said Abu Obaida, the group’s chief spokesperson.
The Israeli military said Friday its warplanes struck 30 Hamas targets in the city, including fighters and weapons storage sites. It said troops were searching for Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure while fighting “above and below ground.”
After 10 months of war in Gaza, the mediators’ push aims to resume indirect negotiations for a ceasefire that have been on hold since Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in a presumed Israeli blast in Tehran on July 31.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed Thursday that it would send negotiators to talks that mediators have called for on Aug. 15, to be held in either Qatar’s capital of Doha or Egypt’s capital of Cairo.
Netanyahu’s far-right allies have resisted calls for a ceasefire, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling the latest proposal a “dangerous trap” that amounts to an Israeli surrender.
On Friday, the White House sharply rebuked Smotrich for his opposition to negotiations, with US national security adviser John Kirby telling reporters that his criticism is “ridiculous” and “dead wrong.”
“The views expressed by Mr. Smotrich would in fact sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, his own countrymen,” Kirby said, in unusually pointed public comments.
There was no immediate response from Hamas, which announced Tuesday that Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza, would replace Haniyeh as the group’s top leader. Haniyeh previously served as the key interlocutor in the negotiations.
Haniyeh’s killing and that of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut brought vows of retaliation from Hezbollah and Iran.
The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which leads the guard’s operations around the region, repeated promises of retaliation in a letter to Sinwar, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press. “We are preparing to avenge his blood,” Ismail Qaani wrote, referring to Haniyeh.
International diplomats have been scrambling to prevent an escalation and seal a deal to stop the fighting in Gaza and release the hostages still captive in the enclave.
In a joint statement, the United States, Egypt and Qatar called for the new round of talks, to be held either in Doha or Cairo, and pressed both sides to move ahead.
“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay,” they said, adding that the negotiators have already finalized a framework for the deal.
A key question hanging over the talks is the impact of Sinwar’s elevation to Hamas’ top leadership post. Seen as a hard-liner within the group, Sinwar has been hiding in the vast network of tunnels running under Gaza throughout the war as Israel vows to kill him.
Sinwar has already been closely involved in negotiations from behind the scenes. Hamas officials have said negotiators regularly sought his approval on the group’s positions as it pressed for guarantees that a deal would bring a complete end to the war and withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, in return for the release of all hostages.
Israel says it aims to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others. After a round of release exchanges in November, Israel says 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including 39 bodies.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others. More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives. Most are now crowded into ramshackle tent camps in an area about 50 square kilometers (19 square miles) on the Gaza coast.
With sanitation systems collapsed, diseases have run rampant, health officials say, and humanitarian groups are trying to feed the population. The United Nations says a half-million Palestinians facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Israel’s military said Friday that its forces were still battling Hamas fighters in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, in an assault there that has lasted three months. Its new assault in Khan Younis drove more people into the camps and neighboring areas.
Ghazi Abu Daka, one of the evacuees, told the AP that he and his family have been forced to flee Khan Younis four times now.
“Every day there is war. Every day there are rockets. There is no safe place in the eastern area. Now, we are displaced in the streets and don’t know where to go,” he said as he carried his son, a piece of cloth on his head to protect him from the heat.
Yasser Abu Alyan, another evacuee, said he was displaced six times from the Beni Seheila area east of the city. He said he took nothing with him except his two little girls: “Everything is gone.”
 

 


US embassy in Tripoli denies report of planned relocation of Palestinians to Libya

US embassy in Tripoli denies report of planned relocation of Palestinians to Libya
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

US embassy in Tripoli denies report of planned relocation of Palestinians to Libya

US embassy in Tripoli denies report of planned relocation of Palestinians to Libya
  • Palestinians vehemently reject any plan involving them leaving Gaza

TRIPOLI: The US embassy in Libya denied on Sunday a report that the US government was working on a plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
On Thurdsay, NBC News said the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
NBC News cited five people with knowledge of the matter, including two people with direct knowledge and a former US official.
“The report of alleged plans to relocate Gazans to Libya is untrue,” the US embassy said on the X platform.
The Tripoli-based interionationally-recognized Government of National Unity was not available for immediate comment.
Trump has previously said he would like the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and its Palestinian population resettled elsewhere.
Palestinians vehemently reject any plan involving them leaving Gaza, comparing such ideas to the 1948 “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war that led to the creation of Israel.
When Trump first floated his idea after taking the presidency, he said he wanted US allies Egypt and Jordan to take in people from Gaza. Both states rejected the idea, which drew global condemnation, with Palestinians, Arab nations and the UN saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
In April, Trump said Palestinians could be moved “around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that.”
During a visit to Qatar this week, Trump reiterated his desire to take over the territory, saying he wanted to see it become a “freedom zone” and that there was nothing left to save.
Trump has previously said he wants to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”


Libya’s PM says eliminating militias is ‘ongoing project’ as ceasefire holds

Libya’s PM says eliminating militias is ‘ongoing project’ as ceasefire holds
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

Libya’s PM says eliminating militias is ‘ongoing project’ as ceasefire holds

Libya’s PM says eliminating militias is ‘ongoing project’ as ceasefire holds
  • The United Nations Support Mission in Libya expressed concern on Friday about the escalation of violence in Tripoli, calling on parties to protect civilians and public property

TRIPOLI: Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah said on Saturday that eliminating militias is an “ongoing project,” as a ceasefire after deadly clashes this week remained in place.
“We will not spare anyone who continues to engage in corruption or extortion. Our goal is to create a Libya free of militias and corruption,” Dbeibah said in a televised speech.
Dbeibah is the country’s internationally recognized leader in the west, based in Tripoli.
After Dbeibah on Tuesday ordered the armed groups to be dismantled, Tripoli was rocked by its fiercest clashes in years between two armed groups. The clashes killed at least eight civilians, according to the United Nations.
The government announced a ceasefire on Wednesday.
It followed Monday’s killing of major militia chief Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, and the sudden defeat of his Stabilization Support Apparatus group by factions aligned with Dbeibah.
SSA is under the Presidential Council that came to power in 2021 with the Government of National Unity of Dbeibah through a United Nations-backed process.
SSA was based in the densely populated Abu Salim neighborhood.
GNU’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that nine decomposed corpses were found in a morgue refrigerator in Abu Salim-based Al-Khadra hospital. It said SSA never reported them to authorities. The PM’s media office posted a video of Dbeibah greeting the security force protecting the Prime Ministry Building. It said he later received delegations from elders to discuss Tripoli’s situation and what he called “successful security operation in Abu Salim.”
“The Prime Minister stressed that this operation falls within the state’s fixed vision to eliminate armed formations outside the police and army institutions,” the media office said.
On Friday, at least three ministers resigned in sympathy with hundreds of protesters who took to the streets calling for Dbeibah’s ouster.
Dbeibah did not comment on their resignations. “The protests are annoying, but I’ve put up with them. I know some of them are real, but a lot of them are paid,” he said.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya expressed concern on Friday about the escalation of violence in Tripoli, calling on parties to protect civilians and public property.
Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi. The country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.
While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army, control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.
A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe, while its conflict has drawn in foreign powers including Turkiye, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
State-oil firm NOC said on Friday that its operations at oil facilities are proceeding as normal, with oil and gas exports operating regularly.


Israel says intercepted missile from Yemen, Houthis claim attack

Israel says intercepted missile from Yemen, Houthis claim attack
Updated 32 min 27 sec ago
Follow

Israel says intercepted missile from Yemen, Houthis claim attack

Israel says intercepted missile from Yemen, Houthis claim attack

CAIRO: The Israeli military said Sunday it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthis claimed launching two missiles at Israel’s main airport.
“A missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that air raid sirens had sounded in several areas of the country.
The Houthis later said they had fired “two ballistic missiles” toward Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv.
The Iran-backed militants have regularly fired missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, following an attack on Israel by the Houthis’ Palestinian ally Hamas.
Earlier this month, a Houthi missile struck the area of the Tel Aviv airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people in a rare penetration of Israeli air defenses.
On Friday, Israel bombed the Houthi-held Red Sea ports of Hodeida and Salif following three missile attacks in as many days. It threatened to target the Houthi leadership if the attacks continued.
In response to the strike that landed near Ben Gurion, Israel has struck the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.
On Sunday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group would continue targeting Israel until the “siege is lifted” on Gaza.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have also targeted Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.
Their attacks on the vital shipping route drew retaliatory strikes by the United States, which in early May sealed a ceasefire with the group that did not include Israel.


Syria announces commissions for missing persons, transitional justice

Syria announces commissions for missing persons, transitional justice
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

Syria announces commissions for missing persons, transitional justice

Syria announces commissions for missing persons, transitional justice
  • A decree signed by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and released by the presidency announced the formation of an independent “national commission for missing persons”

DAMASCUS: Syria on Saturday announced the formation of a national commission for missing persons and another for transitional justice, more than five months after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar Assad.
Syria’s new authorities have pledged justice for victims of atrocities committed under Assad’s rule, and a five-year transitional constitution signed in March provided for the formation of a transitional justice commission.
The fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others who went missing remains one of the most harrowing legacies of Syria’s conflict, which erupted in 2011 when Assad’s forces brutally repressed anti-government protests, triggering more than a decade of war.
A decree signed by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and released by the presidency announced the formation of an independent “national commission for missing persons.”
The body is tasked with “researching and uncovering the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared, documenting cases, establishing a national database and providing legal and humanitarian support to their families.”
A separate decree announced the formation of a national commission for transitional justice to “uncover the truth about the grave violations caused by the former regime.”
That commission should hold those responsible to account “in coordination with the relevant authorities, remedy the harm to victims, and firmly establish the principles of non-recurrence and national reconciliation,” according to the announcement.
The decree noted “the need to achieve transitional justice as a fundamental pillar for building a state of law, guaranteeing victims’ rights and achieving comprehensive national reconciliation.”
Both bodies will have “financial and administrative independence” and act over all of Syrian territory, according to the decrees signed by Sharaa.
In December, an Islamist-led coalition toppled Assad after five decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule and nearly 14 years of brutal war that killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more.
Tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured in the country’s jails, while Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons against his own people.
Rights groups, activists and the international community have repeatedly emphasized the importance of transitional justice in the war-torn country.
In March, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration for a five-year transitional period.
It stipulated that during that period, a “transitional justice commission” would be formed to “determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors” of the former government’s misdeeds.
This week, prominent Syrian human rights lawyer Mazen Darwish told AFP that lasting peace in Syria depended on the country building a strong judicial system giving justice to the victims of all crimes committed during the Assad era.


Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 66 people, hospitals and medics say

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 66 people, hospitals and medics say
Updated 19 min 12 sec ago
Follow

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 66 people, hospitals and medics say

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 66 people, hospitals and medics say
  • The Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis said it received the bodies of 20 people who were killed in multiple overnight airstrikes

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 66 people overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics in the battered enclave said as Israel launches an escalation of its war in the territory, which it says is meant to ramp up pressure on Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis said it received the bodies of 20 people who were killed in multiple overnight airstrikes that hit houses and tents sheltering displaced families in the Muwasi area.
In northern Gaza, at least 36 people were killed in multiple strikes, according to first responders from the health ministry and the civil defense.
The dead included nine people from a single family who were killed when an airstrike hit their house in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, according to the health ministry’s emergency services.
Another strike hit the house of the Berawi family, also in Jabaliya, killing 10 people including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government. Among the dead were two parents and their three children and a father and his four children, it said.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed in two separate strikes, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir Al-Balah. One strike in the Zweida town killed seven people, including two children and four women. The second hit an apartment in Deir Al-Balah, killing two parents and their child, the hospital said.