Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim

A Palestinian civil defence member stands near a building on fire that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City on September 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 08 September 2024
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Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim

  • The chances of a truce that would swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appeared slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions
  • According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12th month Saturday with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held there.
The chances of a truce that would swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appeared slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war, which authorities in Gaza say has killed at least 40,939 people.
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Scores were released during a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s announcement last Sunday that the bodies of six hostages including a US-Israeli citizen had been recovered shortly after being killed sparked grief and anger in Israel.
Thousands of demonstrators rallied on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, demanding the government secure the release of hostages.
They carried banners that read “The blood is on your hands” and “Who’s next.”
International pressure to end the war was further underlined by Friday’s fatal shooting in the occupied West Bank of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the territory.
Eygi’s family demanded an independent investigation into her death, saying her life “was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military.”
The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi, 26, with a “shot in the head.”
Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” while the United States called her death “tragic” and pressed Israel to investigate.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel as a “barbaric” state and urged Muslim nations to forge an “alliance” against Israel, saying: “It is an Islamic duty for us to stand against Israel’s state terror. It is a religious duty.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded by saying that Erdogan “continues to throw the Turkish people into the fire of hatred and violence for the sake of his Hamas friends.”
Around 490,000 people live in Israeli settlements — illegal under international law — in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 690 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israel says at least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, were killed during the same period in Palestinian attacks.
Eygi’s killing came on the day Israeli forces withdrew from a deadly 10-day raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, where AFP journalists reported residents returning home to widespread destruction.
The pullout came with Israel at loggerheads with the United States over talks to forge a truce in the Gaza war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “90 percent is agreed” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a deal. Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”
Hamas is demanding Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, saying the group agreed months ago to a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

AFP reporters said air strikes and shelling rocked Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 17 people according to civil defense officials, the Palestinian Red Crescent and witnesses.
Among those who died were a woman and a child in an air strike north of Gaza City, while four people were killed in another strike targeting a flat in Bureij camp.
In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the civil defense said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people killed at least three people and wounded more than 20.
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, also exchanged fire.
Hezbollah had announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Saturday, while Israel’s military said it had intercepted missiles detected crossing from Lebanon and struck a Hezbollah launch site in the country’s south.
Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed and two others wounded in an Israeli attack on a civil defense team putting out fires in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah later announced retaliatory rocket fire targeting a town in northern Israel “in response to the enemy attacks... and particularly the attack” that killed the emergency workers.


Italy demands Israel stops strikes, blasts expulsions of Gazans

Updated 10 sec ago
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Italy demands Israel stops strikes, blasts expulsions of Gazans

  • Antonion Tajani: ‘The bombings must stop, humanitarian assistance must resume as soon as possible, respect for international humanitarian law must be restored’
ROME: Italy’s foreign minister on Wednesday again urged Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza, while warning that expelling Palestinians from the territory “is not and never will be an acceptable option.”
“The legitimate reaction of the Israeli government to a terrible and senseless terrorist act has unfortunately taken on absolutely tragic and unacceptable forms, that we ask Israel to stop immediately,” Antonion Tajani told parliament, referring also to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“The bombings must stop, humanitarian assistance must resume as soon as possible, respect for international humanitarian law must be restored,” he said.
“Hamas must immediately free all the hostages which are still today in its in hands, and who have the right to return to their homes.”
Tajani also condemned US President Donald Trump’s plan for US control of Gaza and the forced displacement of the Palestinians living there.
“I want to reiterate today in this chamber with the utmost clarity – the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is not and will never be an acceptable option,” Tajani said.
“This is why we wholeheartedly support the Arab plan led by Egypt for the recovery and reconstruction of the (Gaza) Strip, which is incompatible with any hypothesis of forced displacement.”

Israel strikes Yemen’s Sanaa airport for 2nd time in a month

Updated 21 min 11 sec ago
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Israel strikes Yemen’s Sanaa airport for 2nd time in a month

  • Israel last struck the airport in Sanaa on May 6

DEIR AL-BALAH: The Israeli military said Wednesday it struck Yemen’s Sanaa airport for the second time in a month targeting the Houthis.

The strike came after the Houthis have fired several missiles at Israel in recent days without causing casualties or damage.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in Sanaa.

Israel last struck the airport in Sanaa on May 6, destroying the airport’s terminal and leaving its runway riddled with craters. Some flights to Sanaa resumed on May 17.


At least 47 wounded, mostly by gunfire, as Palestinians crowd aid hub in Gaza

Updated 28 May 2025
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At least 47 wounded, mostly by gunfire, as Palestinians crowd aid hub in Gaza

  • The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people

GENEVA: A UN official says 47 Palestinians were wounded, mostly by gunfire, when crowd overran Gaza aid hub.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva that it appeared Israeli army fire had caused most of the injuries.

On Tuesday, crowds of Palestinians overwhelmed a new aid distribution hub set up by an Israeli and US-backed foundation. The crowd broke through fences and an Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.

The distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was opened the day before by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.

The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.

Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli blockade pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.


Gaza rescuers say 16 killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday

Updated 28 May 2025
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Gaza rescuers say 16 killed in Israeli strikes Wednesday

  • Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza this month, aiming for ‘the defeat of Hamas’
  • At least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza rescuers said sixteen people were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes across the besieged Palestinian territory where Israel intensified its operations this month.

“Sixteen people have been killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Among them, nine belonged to the family of photojournalist Osama Al-Arbeed and were killed in a strike on their home in Gaza’s north at 2:00 a.m., Bassal said.

He added that Arbeed was injured, noting that he is a videographer and editor at a local film production organization.

Another six members of the same family were killed in central Gaza in a strike that left 15 people wounded, “including children.”

One other person, a civilian per Bassal, was killed near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes, saying it could not do so without precise coordinates.

Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza this month, aiming for “the defeat of Hamas,” more than 18 months after the group’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Some 1,218 people were killed in that attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.


UNRWA chief warns of the organization’s dire financial state

Updated 28 May 2025
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UNRWA chief warns of the organization’s dire financial state

  • UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini gave his remarks during a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo

TOKYO: The chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) on Wednesday said the organization’s financial situation is desperate, adding that it urgently needs support to continue operations past June.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini gave his remarks during a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.