How Jews first migrated to Palestine, and how Israel was born
In the latest chapter of bloodshed in the Israel-Palestine dispute, the Israeli military has ordered thousands of civilians to leave Gaza City as it prepares for a possible ground offensive.
While the modern contours of the Israel-Palestine conflict are well-known — Palestinians saying Israel was forcibly established on their homeland, Israel claiming it has every right to exist on its Biblical homeland — how did the Jewish migration to ‘Israel’ first begin? Before the official declaration in May 1948 of the creation of Israel, how was the stage set for it? What was the role played by the British and other Arab powers? (Read more)
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Saturday that his fighters have introduced new weapons, including a missile with a heavy warhead in the ongoing fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border, adding that they will keep using the tense frontier to pressure Israel, news agency AP reported.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also blasted the United States over the Israel-Hamas war, saying it is the only country that can stop Israel’s wide offensive on the Gaza Strip but doesn’t do so. He said attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, that Washington says have reached more than 40 rockets and suicide drone attacks, will continue until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
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Nasrallah’s comments came as the situation along Lebanon’s southern border continues to escalate. Hezbollah on Friday attacked northern Israel with three suicide drones after an Israeli strike in central Syria killed seven Hezbollah fighters.
A joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh on Saturday rejected describing Gaza war or justifying it as "self-defence". As per a communique, the summit condemned "Israeli aggression in Gaza, war crimes and barbaric and inhumane massacre by occupation government." The meeting also called for ending the seize on Gaza and allowing humanitarian aid to enter.
Saudi Arabia and Muslim countries called on for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza, and declared that Israel bears responsibility for "crimes" against Palestinians.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, gathered Arab and Muslim leaders for the summit as the kingdom has sought to exert its influence to press the United States and Israel for an end to hostilities in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through central London on Saturday following scuffles nearby between far-right protesters and police, who launched a major operation to avert clashes, Reuters reported.
The pro-Palestinian march drew counter-protesters from right-wing groups on Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One, involving commemorations of Britian's war dead.
The "National March for Palestine" is the latest in a series to show support for the Palestinians and call for a ceasefire from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Ministers had called for it to be cancelled because it falls on Armistice Day.
Police said far-right groups opposing the march were present in central London in "significant numbers", leading to skirmishes with officers near the Cenotaph war memorial, close to the Houses of Parliament and in Westminster. Officers in riot gear sought to contain the far-right protesters, some of whom threw bottles at them, and police vehicles sped around the city to respond to reports of tensions in the streets.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that an international peace conference should be convened to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Reuters reported. Erdogan was addressing a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, where leaders gathered to urge Israel to end hostilities in Gaza.
"Israel is taking revenge... on Gazan babies, children and women," Erdogan said, renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire. "What is urgent in Gaza is not pauses for few hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire."
Turkey, which has sharply escalated its criticism of Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has intensified, supports a two-state solution and hosts members of Hamas, which it does not view as a terrorist organisation, unlike the United States, Britain and others in the West.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday that any political process with Israel should halt given the ongoing violence in Gaza, Reuters reported.
Assad spoke at a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, which gave its blessing to Gulf neighbors United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establishing relations with Israel in 2020 under the previous US administration of Donald Trump.
In dystopia this week, we recap headlines around the Israel-Hamas conflict and its toll on civilians. Take the quiz here
Palestinian health minister has said that 39 babies are at risk of death at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital as electricity was cut off along with lack of oxygen and medicines, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said that operations in Al Shifa hospital complex were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel. The official added that one newborn baby died inside the incubator.
Saudi Arabia will gather Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday for an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh, as the kingdom wields its influence to press the United States and Israel for an end to hostilities in Gaza, Reuters reported.
Dozens of leaders including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are attending the summit, which is expected to strongly condemn Israel's campaign in Gaza and call for a halt to forced displacement of Palestinians there.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had on Friday condemned "what the Gaza Strip is facing from military assault, targeting of civilians, the violations of international law by the Israeli occupation authorities".
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the time had come for action over the conflict in Gaza rather than talk as he headed to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit on the war between Israel and Hamas militants.
"Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action," Raisi said at Tehran airport before departing for the summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.
"Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important," he added.
It is the first visit to Saudi Arabia by an Iranian head of state since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a China-brokered deal in March.
The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and Arab states need to do more to help Palestinians.
In a statement ahead of addressing Saturday’s extraordinary summit meeting of the League of Arab States in Riyadh, Lazzarini said “the people of the Gaza Strip have always relied on Arab support and solidarity”.
“They need it now, more than ever,” he said.
"The tight siege is devastating infrastructure and services as food, water, medicine and fuel have either totally run out or are in very short supply. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic and too little humanitarian aid is coming in,” said Lazzarini.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a BBC interview published late on Friday, said Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas (is) committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Netanyahu said.
Israel has said that Hamas militants, who are holding as many as 240 hostages of different nationalities taken in last month's attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.
Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza as Israel's military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants. Officials in the besieged enclave said the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 11,000 people.
The search for safety in Gaza is growing more desperate as combat intensifies. Residents who escaped to the south and Palestinian health officials reported strikes in and around Gaza City's main hospital overnight. Israel said at least one was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket.
The World Health Organization said Friday that 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area.
Israeli air strikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school on Friday, killing at least 22 people, and a ground battle was under way at another hospital, Palestinian officials said, as Israel's forces took on Hamas in the heart of the enclave.
Officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital. The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors. Israel says Hamas is using them as human shields, which the group denies.
More than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed an open letter urging the Biden administration to call for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.
The letter is latest sign of unease within the US government over President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israel in its response to the October 7 attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians.
Washington has rebuffed calls from Arab and Palestinian leaders and others to call for Israel to halt its assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip which has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including over 4,500 children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a road used by displaced Palestinians heading south in the enclave, Hamas-affiliated media cited Gaza health officials as saying on Friday.
The UN human rights chief called for an investigation into what he called Israel's use of "high-impact explosive weapons" in Gaza, which he said was causing indiscriminate destruction in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Israel must end its use of such weapons in the densely populated area, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, half of whom have been displaced by fighting in the last month.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the Palestinian death toll in the war has surpassed gone up to 11,078 since hostilities began on October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, primarily in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
Israeli strikes close to hospitals in has rendered Rantissi hospital, the only hospital providing paediatric services in northern Gaza, non-functional. Twenty of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are now out of action entirely, she said. Earlier this week the WHO said this tally included the only psychiatric hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli air strikes hit Gaza's biggest hospital, the Al Shifa, on Friday, killing one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said, adding that it was one of several hospitals that were struck as Israeli troops battled Hamas in the heart of the enclave. Officials said other strikes had damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Rantissi paediatric and cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel says Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated.
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al-Quds and Nasser Children's hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there, medical staff said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that “far too many” Palestinians have died and suffered as Israel wages a relentless war against the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. He urged Israel to minimize harm to civilians and maximize humanitarian assistance that reaches them.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Blinken said recent Israeli moves to improve dire conditions in Gaza as its military pushes deeper into the strip — including pauses in military operations to allow Palestinians to move from northern to southern Gaza and the creation of a second safe corridor — are positive but they are not nearly enough.
The leaders of Qatar and Egypt met in Cairo on Friday, both hoping to mediate a de-escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the provision of humanitarian aid and the release of Israeli hostages.
The talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed intensified efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of sufficient quantities of aid for its 2.3 million besieged residents, a statement from Sisi's office said.
Qatar said "joint efforts to stop the aggression against Gaza, reduce escalation and bring in urgent humanitarian aid" were discussed. The Qatari emir's visit comes a day after Qatar's prime minister met the chiefs of the US's Central Intelligence Agency and Israeli spy agency Mossad in Doha to discuss the parameters of a deal for a hostage release and a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Sirens were sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas on Friday as Hamas said it fired rockets deep into Israel in what the Palestinian militant group described as a response to mounting civilian deaths in the Gaza war.
Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from the salvo, which followed a relative lull in rocket fire as Israeli forces press a ground offensive in Gaza in the fifth week of the war. The military said some 9,500 missiles, rockets and drones were fired at Israel from Gaza and other fronts since Oct. 7, and 2,000 of them had been shot down by air defences designed to ignore projectiles on a course to land harmlessly in open areas.
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Friday that the Al Shifa hospital had been “coming under bombardment”, adding that 20 hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely. Israel has blamed Hamas for hiding command posts and tunnels in some hospitals after it was accused of launching air strikes on or near at least three hospitals today.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to sack Home Secretary Suella Braverman over an article she wrote accusing the London police of pro-Palestine bias, reported local media.
For now, Sunak has chosen to back the Indian-origin cabinet member, with his No. 10 office issuing a statement on Thursday saying that the Prime Minister has “full confidence in her” but that he did not approve of her comments.
The furore followed an opinion piece Braverman wrote regarding “hate marches” being held in London over the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza. Thousands of protesters have been gathering in London every weekend, rallying for a ceasefire to the month-old Israel-Hamas war which has killed over 1,400 Israelis and at least 10,000 Palestinians to date. Another large rally is expected on Saturday, the anniversary of the end of World War One. (Read more)
Israeli security forces have demolished the east Jerusalem home of a Palestinian family whose 13-year-old son has been accused of stabbing an Israeli police officer earlier this year, a case that has drawn attention to Israel’s tactic of punitive demolitions.
The United States Office of Palestinian Affairs condemned the demolition on Friday, saying that “an entire family should not lose their home because of the actions of one individual.”
The Zalabani family says that the demolition happened Wednesday. It comes as tensions in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank surge over Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza and deadly raids against militants in the northern West Bank, such as Thursday’s operation in the Jenin refugee camp that killed 13 Palestinians, most of them alleged militants.
Basel Zalabani, Mohammed’s father, said that Israeli forces had arrested him and his other 18-year-old son Yazan ahead of the demolition. He was released, he said, after officers beat him repeatedly over several hours. His son remains in custody.
“Of course we’ve been on edge, anxious and waiting for this to happen for several months,” said 45-year-old Zalabani. “But when it happens, it’s even harder than you’d expect.”
Rights watchdog describe such punitive home demolitions as collective punishment, leaving uninvolved parents, siblings and spouses homeless. Israel’s far-right government is more aggressively pursuing the policy, which it defends as a deterrent against militant attacks. (AP)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that Israel must take immediate measures to protect Palestinians in the West Bank as they find themselves targeted by more violence since the conflict with Hamas erupted last month.
"I also appeal, as a matter of urgency, for Israeli authorities to take immediate measures, to take steps to ensure the protection of Palestinians in the West Bank, who are being on a daily basis subjected to violence from Israeli forces and settlers, ill treatment, arrests, evictions, intimidation and humiliation," Volker Turk told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman. (Reuters)
Turkey has made necessary preparations to take injured Palestinians and patients with chronic illnesses from Gaza to its hospitals for treatment, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said today.
Speaking to reporters after a visit to Uzbekistan, Erdogan also said Turkey will make efforts to increase pressure on Israel to ensure injured Palestinians could be evacuated from Gaza. (Reuters)
A new UN report paints a stark picture of the devastation of the collapse of the Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s near-total siege of Gaza.
The gross domestic product shrank 4% in the West Bank and Gaza in the war’s first month, sending over 4,00,000 people into poverty — an economic impact unseen in the conflicts Syria and Ukraine, or any previous Israel-Hamas war, the UN said. The rapid assessment of economic consequences of the Gaza war released Thursday by the UN Development Program and the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia was the first UN report showing the devastating impact of the conflict especially on the Palestinians.
If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that the Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4 billion before the war began, will drop by 8.4% — a loss of $1.7 billion. And if the conflict lasts a third month, Palestinian GDP will drop by 12%, with losses of $2.5 billion and more than 6,60,000 people pushed into poverty, it projects. (AP)
Makram Daboub may be struggling to prepare his Palestinian team for the start of 2026 World Cup qualification but he takes some comfort, for now at least, that his players stuck in Gaza are safe. The national football team’s head coach wanted to include Ibrahim Abuimeir, Khaled Al-Nabris, and Ahmed Al-Kayed in a training camp in Jordan ahead of World Cup qualifying games against Lebanon next Thursday and Australia on Nov. 21.
But they were unable to make it out of Gaza because of the Israel-Hamas war, now in its second month. “So far they are fine,” Daboub told The Associated Press. “Many of their relatives have died, however, as a result of the bombing.”
Two players from Gaza, Egypt-based Mohamed Saleh and Mahmoud Wadi, are expected to join the Palestinian team in Jordan. Daboub, who is from Tunisia, acknowledged it will be difficult for players to focus on football while many have families in danger. “With the death and destruction in Gaza, the players are in a difficult psychological state,” Daboub said.
But for Susan Shalabi, the vice-president of the Palestine Football Association, there's no question that the players and the people want the games to go ahead. (AP)
An expansion of the scope of the war in Gaza is inevitable due to the heightened Israeli "aggression", Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Press TV reported today. (Reuters)
Israel's Ministry of Defense said yesterday that a cargo ship carrying approximately 2,500 tons of equipment has arrived in the country to aid Israeli Defence Forces in the war against Hamas.
Gaza's health ministry has said 18 of Gaza's 35 hospitals and 40 other health centres were out of service either due to damage from bombardment or lack of fuel, reported the news agency Reuters.
Oil prices were little changed today after rising in the previous session but are set to fall for a third week as concerns of supply disruptions from the Israel-Hamas conflict have ebbed allowing demand worries to reassert themselves.
Brent crude futures for January were flat at $80.01 a barrel at 0157 GMT, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for December were at $75.67, down 7 cents.
Brent futures are down 5.7% this week while WTI has declined 5.9% since last week. The three weeks of declines are the longest weekly losing streak for both contracts since a four-week drop from mid-April to early May.
"The threat of disruptions to supplies from the Middle East continues to fall," ANZ Research said in a note today. "The conflict remains well contained within Gaza, despite concerns it would escalate as neighbouring Arab nations show their displeasure." (Reuters)
Two Jewish schools in Montreal were hit overnight by gunshots, police said yesterday. Staff members discovered bullet holes on the exterior of the buildings when they arrived Thursday morning. Nobody was inside at the time of the shootings, police said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted to the shootings, telling reporters in a Montreal suburb that Canadians must denounce violent antisemitism in the strongest terms.
“We are seeing an increase in threats of violence,” Trudeau said. “That’s not who we are as Canadians. We are a country that has done better than just about any other country at understanding and respecting different perspectives.”
Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters at the same news conference that what happened at the schools cannot be tolerated.On Wednesday, three people were injured and one person was arrested at Montreal’s Concordia University after several incidents police said were tied to the Israel-Hamas war. (AP)
Gaza officials said Israel launched air strikes on or near at least three hospitals today, further stressing the Palestinian enclave's precarious health system as it struggles to cope with thousands of people wounded or displaced in Israel's war against Hamas militants.
"The Israeli occupation launched simultaneous strikes on a number of hospitals during the past hours", Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra told Al Jazeera television.
The medical facilities included Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, where Israel said Hamas has hidden command centres and tunnels, allegations Hamas denies. Qidra said Israel targeted the Gaza City medical complex's courtyard and there were casualties, but he did not provide details. (Reuters)
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, during a recent statement in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, addressed the Israel-Palestine conflict. He emphasised that Assam does not have issues with Palestine but expressed concern over the actions of Hamas, which he stated had shot children and taken many hostage in Israel.
International flight bookings around the world have fallen since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict especially in the Americas as people cancel trips to the Middle East and around the world, according to travel analysis firm ForwardKeys.
"This war is a catastrophic, heartbreaking, human tragedy that we are all seeing daily on our TV screens," said Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys in a statement. "That is bound to put people off (from) traveling to the region, but it has also dented consumer confidence in traveling elsewhere too."
International flight bookings from the Americas dropped 10% in the three weeks after the Oct. 7th attack, when compared to the number of tickets issued three weeks before the attack, according to flight ticketing data from ForwardKeys.
People in the Middle East have also been traveling less with international flight tickets issued in the region having fallen 9% in the same period. (Reuters)
In the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, day 34 unfolds with a grim death toll as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry – over 10,000 lives lost, a heart-wrenching 40% of them children. Gaza City's main hospital grapples with scores of casualties from overnight Israeli strikes, as the UN and WHO defy risks to deliver crucial medical supplies.
As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, India urged both the sides to eschew violence, de-escalate the situation and create conditions for an early resumption of direct peace negotiations towards a two-state solution to the Palestine issue.
Without naming Hamas, India also called for “immediate and unconditional” release of hostages. At his weekly media briefing, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi said India has made its position clear on the Hamas-Israel conflict on multiple occasions including during the UN General Assembly debate on October 27.
“We have strongly condemned the horrific attack on Israel, urged the need for zero tolerance for terrorism and called for immediate and unconditional release of hostages,” he said.
“We have also conveyed our deep concern at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the increasing civilian toll and welcomed efforts to de-escalate the situation and provide humanitarian assistance,” he said. (Read more)
The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Thursday it is seeking $481 million for Israeli-besieged Gaza in response to "unprecedented devastation" there and growing needs in the occupied West Bank.
"One month into a tight siege and a brutal war, the humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip are colossal. They grow by the hour," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. UNRWA said in a statement the money would be used to provide basic food assistance, shelter, water and sanitation to 1.6 million people in Gaza and provide basic health care and protection to those in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
An unusual statement by Israeli spy agency Mossad saying it had helped foil a Hezbollah attack in Brazil is the latest incident to strain relations between Israel and Latin America's largest nation against the backdrop of the Gaza war.
On Wednesday, Brazil arrested two people on terrorism charges as part of an operation to take down a suspected Hezbollah cell planning attacks on Brazilian soil. Later that day, Mossad publicly thanked Brazil's police and said that, "given the backdrop of the war in Gaza," Hezbollah was continuing to attack Israeli, Jewish and Western targets.
Mossad's comments angered Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino, who on Thursday delivered a stiff rebuke to Israel, saying on social media that "Brazil is a sovereign country," and "no foreign force orders around the Brazilian Federal Police."
Dino did not explicitly deny any of the details in the Israeli statement, but seemed more angered by its timing, tone and the link it drew to the current war in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday told reporters he has asked for a three-day pause in Gaza, and a pause much longer than that to get hostages being held by Hamas out.
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the Netherlands to discuss the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, he said on X on Thursday.
Rutte said the invitation followed a phone call he had with Abbas on Wednesday night.
"President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has just been invited to visit the Netherlands at short notice to discuss current developments in Israel and the Palestinian Territories and the long-term perspective", he said.
Israel will begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza starting on Thursday to allow people to flee hostilities, the White House said in what it called a step in the right direction. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the pauses emerged out of discussions between US and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks US President Joe Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
An unidentified drone hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Emergency services said there were no injuries.
The Israeli military said earlier this month it had deployed missile boats in the Red Sea as reinforcements, a day after the Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had launched missile and drone attacks on Israel and vowed to carry out more.
Nine Palestinians were killed and at least 15 others were injured by Israeli forces in a raid on Jenin city and refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday.
Israel's military said it was conducting counter-terrorism raids in Jenin, but gave no further details. At least 174 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Ibrahim Raisi that Ankara was ready to assume guarantor role to resolve crisis between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, Turkish presidency said on Thursday.
Erdogan and Raisi met on the sidelines of a summit of Economic Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, according to a statement of the Turkish presidency.
Israeli forces fought Hamas militants among ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, inching their way closer to two big hospitals as the plight of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory worsened.
Thousands more Palestinians were fleeing from the embattled north to the south along a perilous frontline path after Israel told them to evacuate, residents say.
But many are staying in the north, packed into the Al Shifa Hospital and al-Quds Hospital as ground battles rage around them and more Israeli air strikes rain down from above.
Israel says its Hamas foes have command centres embedded in the hospitals.
In Paris, officials from about 80 countries and organisations were meeting to coordinate humanitarian aid to Gaza and find ways to help wounded civilians escape the siege, now in its second month.
French President Emmanuel Macron opened a Gaza aid conference on Thursday with an appeal for Israel to protect civilians as it fights Hamas, saying “all lives have equal worth” and that fighting terrorism “can never be carried out without rules.” The gathering in Paris brought together officials from Western and Arab nations, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations, with the aim of providing urgent aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip that is being pounded by Israel in its war against Hamas. Israeli authorities weren't participating in the talks, Macron's office said.
Macron reiterated calls for a humanitarian pause in Israel's operations. He said that by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas “shouldered the responsibility for exposing Palestinians to terrible consequences,” and he again defended Israel's right to defend itself.
Britain's government escalated its row with London's police chief today over the handling of a pro-Palestinian march this weekend, accusing his officers of taking a softer stance towards left-wing causes.
Plans for a demonstration in London on Saturday's Armistice Day has sparked a row between government and police, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying he would hold the force accountable for any trouble after it said there was not enough reason to ban it.
Sunak has called the march disrespectful but police commissioner, Mark Rowley, has said any ban would require intelligence of a threat of serious disorder, and that such bans had not been implemented for a decade.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman has called the demonstrations "hate marches". Writing in The Times today she said they were an "assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists" and a show of strength.
"Unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters," she wrote. "During COVID, why was it that lockdown objectors were given no quarter by public order police yet Black Lives Matters demonstrators were enabled, allowed to break rules and even greeted with officers taking the knee?" (Reuters)
The general director of Gaza City's main hospital says scores of wounded people are being treated at the Al-Shifa Hospital following overnight Israeli strikes and shelling.
Dr. Mohammad Abu Selmia told the Associated Press by phone that at least one shell landed very close to the hospital at around dawn Thursday, resulting in only a few people sustaining minor injuries. He said it would've been a “catastrophe” had the shell landed any closer, adding that conditions at the hospital are “disastrous in every sense of the word.”
Abu Selmia said the hospital is in short supply of medicine and other medical equipment while doctors and nurses are exhausted, while staff is “unable to do much for th patients.” He said the hospital has also been acting as makeshift shelter for some 60,000 displaced Palestinians.
A convoy of medical aid from the United Nations World Health Organization and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reached al-Shifa Hospital Wednesday night. The heads of both agencies said in a joint statement that this the second convoy to reach the hospital since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct. 7. It did not include fuel, as Israel has banned it in its blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
“It would help us get by for another few hours, not days,” Abu Selmia said, adding that a steady stream of such aid convoys are needed to meet the hospital's needs. (AP)
Israel and Hamas had been in talks to release 50 civilians among the 240+ hostages, days before Israel launched the ground invasion in Gaza, a report in the New York Times said.
"But once Israel’s ground assault on Gaza got underway Oct. 27, the negotiations came to an abrupt halt, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The talks resumed days later and are still underway," the report, authored by Maria Abi-Habib and Matthew Rosenberg said.
"Israel had delayed its ground attack to give some time for the hostage negotiations to be completed, according to two of the officials. But as the talks stalled, it decided to go forward, reckoning that Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that rules Gaza, would bow to military pressure," it said, adding, "Hamas leaders have since claimed that their group does not have control over all of those captives because other Gaza factions, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also entered Israel that day and took some hostages of their own."
Residents in Gaza City said Israeli were fighting Hamas and other militants and that tanks were stationed around the city. They said Israeli forces were moving closer to two hospitals where thousands of displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter.
The Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza City, Hamas' main bastion and the biggest city in the Palestinian coastal enclave, while the Islamist group said its fighters had inflicted heavy losses. (Reuters)
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Thursday he and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared the view there is a need for humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas war.
Park, speaking after his meeting with Blinken in Seoul, said the two countries condemn Hamas' attack against civilians and were monitoring possible North Korea's connection with Hamas. (Reuters)
Negotiations are underway to reach a three-day humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of about a dozen hostages held by Hamas. That’s according to two officials from Egypt, one from the United Nations and a Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic efforts.
The deal would enable more aid, including limited amounts of fuel, to enter the besieged territory to alleviate worsening conditions for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped there. It is being brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, according to the officials and the diplomat. (AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated Diwali at her official residence during which she told the guests that it's important to celebrate this festival of light as the world today is facing a "difficult and dark moment" in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas.
“There is certainly a difficult and dark moment that we are facing in our world in a number of ways, but in particular seeing the images in the reports coming out of Israel and Gaza. And I know for all of us, and certainly for me and for Doug (her husband), it's devastating and heartbreaking,” she said.
“I wanted to just be clear with everyone that President (Joe) Biden and I are working to support Israel's right to defend itself. We support the need for humanitarian aid to be received by the people in Gaza. We believe it is very important to not conflate who the Palestinians are with Hamas and understand the difference," she said.
It is critically important that we bring the American hostages home and that we prevent escalation in that region. So I will speak those words, understanding that it is critically important that when we celebrate something like Diwali, it is about also shedding light in a way that is about speaking truth,” she said.
“I also want to say that for the Palestinian people, and I've said this many times, and I'll say it again, they have a right and deserve to have an opportunity for self-determination and dignity. We'll continue to support that as well,” Harris said. (PTI)
Since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, conflict in the region has escalated to tragic proportions. This is the latest bloody chapter in the bitter conflict between Israel and Palestine that has been going on since 1948.
Here is an alphabetical list of important terms you might come across while reading about the conflict. (Read more)
Hospitals in Gaza are nearing collapse under Israel's wartime siege, which has cut power and deliveries of food, fuel and other necessities to the territory.
Inside the maternity department at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, the workload has doubled because of the mass displacement from Gaza's north. That's according to neonatal specialist Dr. Asaad al-Nawajha, who said Wednesday his team has seen an increase in premature births as the monthlong war intensifies.
Shouq Hararah is one of those mothers. She says her delivery took place with “no proper birth procedures, no anesthesia, painkillers or anything.” “I gave birth to twins. The boy was discharged, but the girl remains in the maternity ward,” she said.
Standing before a row of beeping incubators, al-Nawajha emphasised the war's life-threatening consequences. “All of our work depends on electricity; all the machines you see here rely on it,” the doctor said. “When the electricity is cut, these devices stop working, and all the babies will face certain death.” (AP)
How did the watermelon become the symbol of Palestinian cause? We explain.
The pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing the combat zone in northern Gaza has picked up as Israel’s air and ground campaign there intensifies. The pace appeared to be greater Wednesday, after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said about 15,000 people fled Tuesday, compared to 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday.
The densely populated northern area of Gaza, specifically Gaza City and adjacent crowded urban refugee camps, are the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years. (AP)