An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border. (AP)Israel-Hamas War News Highlights: The Israel Defense Forces said troops found and destroyed 130 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the ground operation began last month, the Times of Israel reported. Thousands fled northern Gaza as an evacuation corridor was opened for five hours, a measure that comes at a time when the strip’s health infrastruture is buckling under mounting injuries. The Al Quds Hospital said in a statement that it is nearing shutdown amid severe shortage of fuel.
The Israeli military said today that a top Hamas weapons maker, Mahsein Abu Zina, and several fighters engaged in anti-tank or ground-to-ground rocket fire, were killed in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. There have been clashes between militants and Israeli forces near the al-Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City, reported Palestinian media. Israeli ground troops have battled Palestinian militants inside Gaza for over a week, cutting the territory in half and encircling Gaza City.
What is the death toll? More than 10,300 Palestinians, including 4,200 children have been killed in the war so far, said the Gaza health ministry. On the Israeli side, more than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed and 242 hostages have been taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Palestinians look for survivors of the Israeli bombardment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP)
Italy is sending a hospital ship that will be stationed off the coast of Gaza to aid the Palestinian population, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto announced. Crosetto said the mission is a concrete sign of Italy’s “closeness to the Palestinian people, distance from the Hamas terrorists.”
The ship Vulcano has 170 people on board, including medical and military personnel, and includes operating rooms. It will first head to Cyprus and then as close as possible to the conflict zone to provide emergency medical support, Crosetto said.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops found and destroyed 130 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the ground operation began last month, the Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops found and destroyed 130 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the ground operation began last month, the Times of Israel reported.
Palestine Red Cross Society-run Al Quds Hospital announced that it has scaled down most of its services, including the surgical ward and oxygen generation plant, owing to severe shortage of fuel which is expected to run out on Wednesday.
Forty-three Ukrainian citizens have been evacuated from Gaza, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X. The citizens are “now safe in Egypt, where Ukrainian diplomats are providing them with the necessary assistance,” he added.
As per the Committee to Protect Journalists, 39 journalists have died since the Israel Hamas conflict began on October 7. Of these 34 are Palestinian, four are Israeli, and one of Lebanese. Eight are injured and three are missing.
For the fourth day in a row, the Israeli Defence Forces opened an evacuation corridor for civilians in northern Gaza to move southwards towards safer areas. As thousands of Gazans passed through, the corridor, which was to remain open from 10 am till 2 pm local time, was kept open till 3 pm.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies called for "humanitarian pauses" in the Gaza Strip while stressing that they condemned the militant group Hamas and supported Israel's right to defend itself.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy emphasized that they "support humanitarian pauses to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement and the release of hostages."
The top diplomats also condemned "the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians," describing it as "unacceptable undermines security in the West Bank, and threatens prospects for a lasting peace." The statement also said the ministers "emphasize Israel's right to defend itself and its people in accordance with international law as it seeks to prevent a recurrence" of the Hamas attacks.
Al-Shifa, the biggest hospital in Gaza, is right now treating around 5,000 patients as opposed to its capacity of 700 patients. Last week, an ambulance was bombed outside the hospital, killing fifteen people. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the attack should be investigated as a possible war crime.
Israeli forces claim the Al-Shifa hospital, which translates to 'house of healing', is located above the headquarters of Hamas.
Last month, the Israeli military released a video that used a combination of satellite imagery and animated graphics to claim that it had intelligence-based proof of Hamas’s purported use of the hospital below ground, with tunnels, facilities and meeting rooms, according to Al Jazeera. Hamas has rejected those claims, which it said is sheltering more than 40,000 displaced people.
In the many posts showing support for Palestine on social media, a popular symbol is the watermelon. Pictures and emojis of the sliced fruit, as well as artwork featuring it, are often used to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.
While the reason for why a watermelon is considered a symbol of the Palestinian struggle is simple enough, the history of its use is more complicated.
But why a watermelon? A watermelon when sliced shows the colours of the Palestinian flag — red, green, black, and white. As carrying and displaying the Palestinian flag has often been barred by Israeli authorities, a watermelon is used to symbolise it instead. Read the full story here
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has cancelled Professor’s Achin Vanaik’s proposed talk on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The lecture was initially scheduled to be held Monday evening, but IIT authorities said it was being postponed to Tuesday. However, on Tuesday, students received an email from the Department of Humanities and Social Science that the event was cancelled.
Vanaik during his talk was expected to throw light on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and repercussions of the recent outbreak of violence. Read the full story here
A lawmaker in Britain's opposition Labour Party has resigned from his policy role in protest at his leader's refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has so far rejected growing calls in his party for him to press for a ceasefire, saying he supports an immediate humanitarian pause to ease the suffering in Gaza.
Imran Hussain, a lawmaker for a constituency in northern England with a large Muslim population, said that while he still supported Starmer's broader agenda, he wanted to go further on the situation in Gaza.
"I want to be able to strongly advocate for a ceasefire," Hussain, the party's spokesman for employment reform, said in a post on X late on Tuesday night. "In order to be fully free to do so, I have tonight stepped down from Labour's Frontbench." (Reuters)
The Israeli military said today that a top Hamas weapons maker, Mahsein Abu Zina, and several fighters engaged in anti-tank or ground-to-ground rocket fire, were killed in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
There have been clashes between militants and Israeli forces near the al-Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City, reported Palestinian media, as per a Reuters report.
Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza. Israeli tanks have encountered heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnels to launch ambushes, according to sources with Hamas and the separate Islamic Jihad militant group.
About 15,000 people fled northern Gaza on Tuesday, triple the number that left Monday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They are using Gaza's main north-south highway during a daily four-hour window announced by Israel.
Those fleeing include children, the elderly and people with disabilities, and most walked with minimal belongings, the UN agency said. Some say they had to cross Israeli checkpoints, where they saw people being arrested, while others held their hands in the air and raised white flags while passing Israeli tanks. (AP)
The Israel-Palestine conflict has affected not just Gazans, where the militant group Hamas is based, but also Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. At least 140 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces, as per reports. In this Guardian video, a West Bank resident talks about increasing violence by Netanyahu's forces.
G7 foreign ministers are set to issue a joint statement on the Israel-Hamas war today and are expected to call for temporary pauses in fighting to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
It would mark only the second joint statement from the group of wealthy nations on the crisis since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas sparked the conflict with an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
The communique is also likely to reiterate G7 support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, highlight the need for engagement with China over shared concerns, and condemn North Korea's missile tests and arms transfers to Russia. (Reuters)
The White House has reiterated that President Joe Biden does not support an Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip once the war ends.
Asked about Netanyahu’s comments, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he would leave it to Netanyahu to clarify what he means by having “indefinite” control of Gaza's security. “There needs to be a healthy set of conversations about what post conflict Gaza looks like and what governance looks like,” Kirby told reporters. “What we absolutely agree with our Israeli counterparts on is what it can’t look like, and it can’t look like it looked on October 6.”
Biden previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza. (AP)
The misinformation about the latest Israel-Hamas war is thriving on social media platforms, where misrepresented video footage, mistranslations and outright falsehoods often crowd out real reporting from the conflict. In recent weeks, users have pushed false claims that “crisis actors” are staging scenes of carnage and that US Marines are flooding in to fight on the ground in Gaza.
Here is a closer look at the latest misinformation spreading online — and the facts. (Read more)
An Israeli soldier was killed in the ground offensive in Gaza, bringing the total number of Israeli Defence Forces casualties to 31, reported The Times of Israel.
The 28-year-old Yaacov Ozeri of the 401st Armored Brigade was killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, the paper said.
Dozens of Filipinos fled from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah crossing after Filipino diplomats negotiated for their safe passage and Qatar mediated for the border to be opened, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said today.
The 40 Filipinos were travelling to the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where they planned to take flights back to the Philippines, Marcos said in a video message in Manila. Two Filipino doctors managed to leave the Gaza Strip into Egypt last week.
“I hope the rest of our countrymen who also wanted to return home can also exit properly with their spouses and loved ones,” Marcos said. Most of at least 134 Filipinos in Gaza, many of whom are married to Palestinians, have sought help to leave the besieged territory and are waiting for an opportunity to leave, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said. (AP)
This has not been an easy article to write, for it has been triggered by emotion. The visuals of the humanitarian carnage over the past four weeks, ever since the Al Qassam brigades of Hamas butchered civilians in Israel, and then the severity of the retaliatory bombing of Gaza by Israel that has killed, predictably, thousands of children has been searing. I write “predictably” because 50 per cent of the 2.2 million people in Gaza are below the age of 18.
There are historical and political explanations for this latest round of violence between Israel and Palestine. Many experts have written about it and assigned blame. I do not intend to do that. I do not have comparable expertise or interest. Also, my thoughts are preoccupied by the brutality of what I have read and seen. I am wrestling to come to terms with the corruption of morality by leaders who prima facie have lost the support of the majority of the population that they claim to represent or act on behalf of.
Benjamin Netanyahu is an unpopular and polarising leader of Israel. His Likud party received only 23.41 per cent of the votes polled in the national elections of November 2022. He leads the most ultra-right coalition that Israel has ever had. Members of that coalition do not recognise the right of Palestinians to any land in the Levant. They aggressively encourage citizens to settle in the West Bank. (Read more)
The House voted late last night to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian American in Congress — an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
The 234-188 tally came after enough Democrats joined with Republicans to censure Tlaib, a punishment one step below expulsion from the House. The three-term congresswoman has long been a target of criticism for her views on the decades-long conflict in the Middle East.
The debate on the censure resolution on Tuesday afternoon was emotional and intense.
Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia pushed the censure measure in response to what he called Tlaib’s promotion of antisemitic rhetoric. He said she has “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7.” With other Democrats standing by her side, Tlaib defended her stance, saying she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words.” Tlaib added that her criticism of the Jewish state has always been directed toward its government and its leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It is important to separate people and government,” she said. “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent. And it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.” (AP)
Doctors Without Borders reported the death of Mohammed Al Ahel, a laboratory technician for the organization in Gaza, on Nov. 6, during a bombing in the Shati refugee camp. Several members of his family also died in the bombing.
The international charity said Al Ahel had worked with them for more than two years and was at his home when the area was bombed and his building collapsed.
“Our repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire have gone unanswered,” the charity said in a statement yesterday. “But we insist that a ceasefire is the only way to prevent more senseless deaths across Gaza and allow adequate humanitarian aid into the Strip.” (AP)
Israel unleashed another wave of strikes across the Gaza Strip yesterday as hundreds more Palestinians fled Gaza City to the south. Some arrived on donkey carts, most on foot, some pushing elderly relatives in wheelchairs, all visibly exhausted.
Many had nothing but the clothes on their backs. “There is no food or drink, people are fighting in the bakeries,” said one man who didn’t want to give his name.
Hundreds of thousands have heeded Israeli orders to head to the southern part of Gaza, out of the ground assault’s path. Others are afraid to do so since Israeli troops control part of the north-south route.
Bombardment of the south has also continued.
An Israeli airstrike destroyed several homes early Tuesday in Khan Younis. An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw first responders pulling five bodies — including three dead children — from the rubble. (AP)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday expressed solidarity with the people of war-ravaged Palestine and said one cannot remain neutral when a section of people were facing genocidal aggression.
The CM also alleged that Israel was targeting Palestine with the support of the US.
“Our Palestinian brothers are suffering. We all know that with the support of America, Israel is targeting Palestine and the people there are facing genocidal aggression. We cannot take a neutral stand. We need to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine,” Vijayan said. (Read more)
Five hostages of Hamas are free, offering some hope to the families of others snatched in southern Israel during the militants’ deadly rampage on Oct. 7. But the families of those still in captivity have questions, such as why progress has been so slow, why some and not others are being released and whether Israel's punishing bombardment of the Gaza Strip puts their loved ones in danger.
Israel on Oct. 30 announced its first hostage rescue — that of Army Pvt. Ori Megidish. Hamas had earlier released Americans Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie, 18. Also let go were Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, along with Nurit Cooper, 79. Their husbands remain in captivity.
Hamas has said it would let the others go in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which has dismissed the offer. (AP)
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has cancelled Professor’s Achin Vanaik’s proposed talk on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The lecture was initially scheduled to be held Monday evening, but IIT authorities said it was being postponed to Tuesday. However, on Tuesday, students received an email from the Department of Humanities and Social Science that the event was cancelled.
Vanaik during his talk was expected to throw light on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and repercussions of the recent outbreak of violence. (Read more)
In this update on the Israel-Hamas war, the Palestinian death toll has now exceeded 10,000, with a significant number of casualties, including children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced Israel's intention to maintain "overall security responsibility" over the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period after the conflict, despite rejecting calls for a general ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia will host summits of Arab and Islamic nations in the coming days to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Saudi Arabia's investment minister said today.
"We will see, this week, in the next few days Saudi Arabia convening an emergency Arab summit in Riyadh," said Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih, at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
"In a few days you will see Saudi Arabia convening an Islamic summit," he said. "In the short term, the objective of bringing these three summits and other gatherings under the leadership of Saudi Arabia would be to drive towards peaceful resolution of the conflict." (Reuters)
Israel said that its ground forces were battling Hamas fighters deep inside Gaza’s largest city, signaling a major new stage in the month-old conflict.
Israeli ground troops have battled Palestinian militants inside Gaza for over a week, cutting the territory in half and encircling Gaza City. The army's chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said that Israeli ground forces “are located right now in a ground operation in the depths of Gaza City and putting great pressure on Hamas.”
Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad, speaking on Tuesday from Beirut, denied that Israeli forces were making any significant military gains or that they had advanced deep into Gaza City. “They never give the people the truth,” Hamad said. He added that numerous Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday and “many tanks were destroyed.”
“The Palestinians fight and fight and fight against Israel, until we end the occupation,” said Hamad, who left Gaza days before Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, which sparked the war. (AP)
A top US envoy said in Beirut on Tuesday that Washington doesn’t want the ongoing war in Gaza to expand to Lebanon, as a Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were laid to rest two days after they were killed in an Israeli strike.
The comments from Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden come during a previously unannounced visit to Beirut to discuss the volatile situation with Lebanon’s parliament speaker and caretaker prime minister.
Hochstein told reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that restoring calm along Lebanon’s southern border is of “utmost importance.” Hochstein said he heard Berri’s concerns over the tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border where fighters of the militant group Hezbollah and their allies have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops for about a month, after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7. (Read more)
As the Israel-Hamas war wages on, even after a month, Director -General of World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today said that history will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy. Taking to social media platform X, he wrote, "It has been a month of intense bombardment in #Gaza. 10,000 people have died. Over 4,000 of them were children. How long will this human catastrophe last? We urge all parties to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire and work toward lasting peace. We again call for the immediate release of the hostages. History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy."
The number of evacuees moving from Gaza into Egypt rose on Tuesday, a day after the Rafah border crossing was re-opened.
At least 320 foreign nationals and dependents passed through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, the only border crossing not controlled by Israel, along with 100 Egyptians, an Egyptian security source said.
The border crossing was closed on Saturday and Sunday after an Israeli strike on an ambulance that was heading to Rafah. Egyptian security sources said Egypt was continuing to press for increased aid and fuel into the strip and security for ambulances.
Jordan's foreign ministry said 262 Jordanians were evacuated on Tuesday, out of a total of 569 that had been stuck in Gaza following the outbreak of fighting there.
However, only four injured Gazans were allowed through, a medical source said, to join dozens of others who are being treated in Egyptian hospitals. (Reuters)
The British government will hold an emergency response meeting on impact of the Israel-Hamas war on community cohesion in Britain, amid concerns from ministers about pro-Palestinian protests planned for the Armistice Day weekend.
"The deputy prime minister will chair a Cobra (emergency response meeting) to coordinate the government's response to the situation in Israel and Gaza," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesperson said. "It will look at a wide range of areas but it's obviously particularly focused on the impact of the terrorist attack on the UK domestically and how we can address some of the importance around community cohesion particularly."
Trade between Israel and Turkey has decreased by 50% since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, the Turkish trade minister said. "From October 7, we notice that mutual trade (between Turkey and Israel) decreased by more than 50% compared to last year," Omer Bolat told a news conference via an Arabic translator.
Cyprus will present its plan for a humanitarian sea corridor to Gaza when the Cypriot president meets other EU heads of state in Paris at an international donor conference for the besieged Palestinian enclave on Nov 9.
Government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis told reporters the initiative to ship aid from the eastern Mediterranean island will be discussed at length during the conference, which will also seek to address Gaza's pressing needs including water, electricity and fuel supply.
Israel's attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza are disproportionate, Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters after meeting Jordan's King Abdullah in Brussels.
"Bombing down a refugee camp because it allegedly houses one Hamas leader is completely disproportionate. It is never acceptable that so many civilian casualties are caused trying to eliminate one person. Civilians and civilian places must be protected, but of course Hamas cannot use them as a shelter either because that only complicates matters."
He also said both Israel and Hamas disregard international humanitarian law on a daily basis. He added that Hamas should also release as soon as possible innocent hostages, saying it could be an important part of halting the "spiral of violence".
A Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were laid to rest in their hometown in southern Lebanon, two days after they were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit the car they were travelling in near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Hundreds of men and women marched before the four coffins, which were draped in black and white banners as they were carried through the streets of the village of Ainata. The coffins were later taken for burial in a cemetery in the nearby village of Blida.
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly criticised the government of South Africa for recalling not only its ambassador but the nation's entire diplomatic mission to Israel. South Africa said it did so to protest at the "genocide" being carried out by Israel in Gaza.
The Foreign Ministry said that the South African government's decision to recall its diplomatic staff is a "victory for the terrorist organisation Hamas and Iran" for the massacre they carried out on October 7.
The ministry added that it expects South Africa to condemn Hamas and support Israel's right to defend itself. (ANI)
At least 23 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes early today in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, health officials said.
In Khan Younis, a man rescued from the rubble of a house where Palestinian health officials said 11 people had been killed warned that Israel would be "taught a very tough lesson".
"This is the bravery of the so-called Israel, they show their might and power against civilians, babies inside, kids inside, and elderly," the man, who gave his name as Ahmed Ayesh, told reporters. (Reuters)
Israeli govt spokesman Eylon Levy took to X today to share photos of professionals sifting through charred rubble to find and identify human remains. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed in the devastating Hamas attack on October 7, triggering the current Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Russia's foreign ministry said today that a statement by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised many questions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu, from a far-right party in the coalition government, from cabinet meetings "until further notice". Asked in a radio interview about a hypothetical nuclear option, Eliyahu had replied: "That's one way.
His remark drew swift condemnation from around the Arab world, scandalised mainstream Israeli broadcasters and was deemed "objectionable" by a US official. (Reuters)
According to Russia’s official stance on the war between Hamas and Israel, the US is to blame for the terrorist attack by militant Islamist organization Hamas. Moscow also assigns responsibility for tensions across the wider Middle East to the US. Conversely, Russia says it wants peace and is doing everything to end the war.
In reality, however, Russia’s interests diverge from its official position, Russian Middle East expert Ruslan Suleymanov told DW. It is clear Russia benefits from theIsrael-Hamas conflict and is interested in seeing it drag on, Suleymanov said. He added that it may welcome the conflict spilling over as this would harm its adversary, the US.
“Russia and China are rubbing their hands, watching with glee as the [Middle East] situation unfolds,” Suleymanov said. Russia will be pleased that “the US and other Western countries are now paying attention to the Middle East and no longer to Ukraine,” he added. (Read more)
Singapore's government has warned that anyone who displays or wears emblems linked to the Israel-Hamas war could be jailed, saying the conflict was an “emotive issue” that could disrupt national peace.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement late Monday that Singapore's laws prohibited the display or wearing of foreign national emblems, including flags and banners of any state.
It also warned that promoting or supporting terrorism by exhibiting apparel or paraphernalia with logos of terrorist or militant groups such as Hamas or its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigade, will not be condoned.
Those convicted face up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 500 Singapore dollars (USD 370) or both. Travellers who wear such apparel can also be denied entry into Singapore, it added. (AP)
A Jewish man who fell to the ground in an altercation amid pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian street protests in California died on Monday, and his death was determined to be a homicide, law enforcement and a Jewish organisation said.
Paul Kessler, 69, died of blunt force head trauma a day after the altercation on Sunday, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office said, adding that witnesses described the incident as battery. "During the altercation, Kessler fell backwards and struck his head on the ground. Kessler was transported to an area hospital for advanced medical treatment. On November 6, 2023, Kessler succumbed to his injuries," the statement said.
As of Monday night, no suspect was in custody in what the sheriff's office said "appears to be isolated and not part of a large effort," though it had not ruled out a hate crime. (Reuters)
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, a human organisation functioning out of Palestine, said today that two Israeli rockets targeted the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, approximately 50 meters from the hospital's gate.
In an appeal on X earlier today, the PRCS had appealed for essential aid and supplies for the hospital which was home to 14,000 displaced people. It said that there was a severe shortage of medical supplies, medicines, food and water, and that the hospital's fuel reserves were set to run out in 48 hours.
Mohamed Zaqout, general manager of all hospitals in Gaza, said the roof of a building at al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, was damaged by an Israeli strike, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Speaking on Al Jazeera, Zaqout said the strike killed displaced people who were sheltering on the top floor. Solar panels that were installed on the roof were destroyed in the attack, he said. Al-Jazeera showed a video of bloodstained wreckage inside the top floor, where the beds of displaced families were still laid out. Other videos showed smoke rising from the building.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official on Monday denied Israeli charges that the militant group has located missiles and rocket launchers near a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Israel is trying to destroy the medical sector in Gaza to force Palestinians out of their land. Hamdan also denied Israeli military statements that the group has a tunnel near a hospital in Gaza, saying a hole shown in a photo presented by the Israeli military spokesperson is used for storing fuel. Hamdan urged the UN to send an international committee to visit hospitals to confirm they are not being used by Hamas for military activities. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that his country will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period” after the war against Hamas ends.
Speaking to ABC News, Netanyahu said, "I think Israel for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine."
His statement came amid Israeli officials' insistence that they have no plans to occupy Gaza after the end of the current war.
The Ohio-class submarine that US Central Command announced had sailed into Middle East waters on Sunday is an SSGN, a guided missile submarine variant that is not capable of firing nuclear weapons, a defense official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter. The vessel was photographed as it transited the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, the defense official said.
On Monday, Pentagon press secretary Brig . Gen. Pat Ryder said the submarine would provide “further support our deterrence efforts in the region.”
Although it’s not unusual for a US submarine to transit the canal, Central Command’s online statement acknowledging the location of an Ohio-class submarine is rare. There are Ohio-class submarines that can fire nuclear weapons known as SSBN, or ballistic missile submarine variants. (AP)
Hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza blocked traffic today at the Port of Tacoma, where a military supply ship had recently arrived.
Organisers say they targeted the vessel based on confidential information that it was to be loaded with weapons bound for Israel. Those claims could not immediately be verified. Police said no arrests had been made.
The Defense Department confirmed that the ship is supporting the movement of US military cargo. The Cape Orlando drew similar protests in Oakland, California, on Friday before it sailed to Tacoma. (AP)
A woman who allegedly drove her car into a building in Indianapolis after watching coverage of the Israel-Hamas war told officers she believed the building was an “Israel school,” according to police and court records.
One adult as well as four children — ages 7 months, 1, 2 and 3 years — were inside the Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge at the time of late Friday's crash, but no one was injured, police said.
The 34-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and was being held Monday at the Marion County Jail on a preliminary charge of criminal recklessness in Friday's crash. She had not been formally charged as of Monday afternoon, said Michael Leffler, a spokesperson for the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
The woman “told one officer she has been watching the news and couldn't breathe anymore. She referenced her people back in Palestine,” according to a news release from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which said it had notified the FBI of the crash. "She said she passed by a couple times and saw the `Israel school,”' the release states, adding that the woman further stated, “Yes. I did it on purpose.” (AP)
Israeli troops yesterday arrested a Palestinian activist, regarded in the occupied West Bank as a hero since she was a teenager, on suspicion of inciting violence, but her mother denied the claim and said it was based on a fake Instagram post.
The Israeli military said it apprehended Ahed Tamimi, 22, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Tamimi rose to prominence in 2017 when, at age 16, she slapped an Israeli soldier who raided her village. She and others have for years protested Israeli land seizures.
Tamimi "is suspected of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activity to be carried out," the military said. Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, said more than a dozen Israeli soldiers entered their house overnight and arrested her daughter.
Israeli authorities alleged the young woman "wrote an inciting (Instagram) post calling for the killing of settlers and saying what Hitler did wasn't enough - but Ahed does not have an Instagram account," her mother said in an interview. (Reuters)
Hundreds of protesters, many from the group Jewish Voice for Peace, staged a sit-in yesterday outside New York's Statue of Liberty, calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Video on social media, including footage posted by the group itself, showed throngs of activists sitting at the base of the statue chanting, "Never again for anyone, never again is now," echoing a Jewish rallying cry in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Others stood on the statue's pedestal, draping large banners over the side that read "Ceasefire Now!" and "The Whole World is Watching."
The group, which has mounted similar demonstrations in recent weeks at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and at the Canon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, said the demonstration drew 500 people. (Reuters)
Meta’s actions in May 2021 appear to have had an adverse human rights impact (in Palestine).” The report commissioned by Meta last year on how its policies harmed the rights of Palestinian Instagram and Facebook users during the attacks on Gaza in 2021 was damning. It also found “a lack of oversight at Meta that allowed content policy errors with significant consequences to occur”. In 2023, though, it seems that the bias in the algorithm persists – it’s now AI-powered.
An investigation by The Guardian has found that a new feature on WhatsApp – which, like Facebook and Instagram, is owned by Meta — that generates images in response to queries seems to promote anti-Palestinian bias, if not outright bigotry. Searches for “Palestinian” and “Palestinian boy” resulted in images of children holding guns. In contrast, searching for “Israeli boy” shows children playing sports or smiling, and even for “Israeli army” shows jolly, pious — and unarmed — people in uniform. The controversy around AI-generated stickers has not occurred in a vacuum. Meta’s social media platforms have been accused of being biased against content from and in support of Palestinians. (Read more)
The UN Security Council yesterday failed again to agree on a resolution on the monthlong Israel-Hamas war.
Despite more than two hours of closed-door discussions on Monday, differences remained. The US is calling for “humanitarian pauses” while many other council members are demanding a “humanitarian cease-fire” to deliver desperately needed aid and prevent more civilian deaths in Gaza.
“We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,” US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters after the meeting. “But there are disagreements within the council about whether that’s acceptable.” (AP)
In the many posts showing support for Palestine on social media, a popular symbol is the watermelon. Pictures and emojis of the sliced fruit, as well as artwork featuring it, are often used to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.
While the reason for why a watermelon is considered a symbol of the Palestinian struggle is simple enough, the history of its use is more complicated. Read here.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi on Monday discussed the “difficult situation” in the West Asian region in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as part of Delhi’s diplomatic engagement with the key players in the war.
This comes after the PM spoke to British PM Rishi Sunak and UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday and discussed the situation arising out of the Israel-Hamas war. Modi has spoken to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah-II on the issue in the last one month. (Read more)
As of day 31 in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza City is fully surrounded by Israeli ground troops, with plans to enter the city within 48 hours. The death toll continues to rise, with over 9,700 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes, including over 4,000 children and minors. The Palestinian Authority refuses a partial tax transfer from Israel due to withheld funds for administration expenses.