Gaza Conflict

3 hostages recovered earlier likely killed in Nov strike: Israeli military

The Israeli military says there is a high probability that three hostages found dead months ago were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The army on Sunday announced the conclusions of its investigation into the deaths of Cpl. Nik Beizer, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano. It said investigations had determined that the three were likely killed in a November airstrike that also killed a senior Hamas militant, Ahmed Ghandour. All three of the hostages were kidnapped in Hamas' October 7 attack. Their bodies were recovered in December, but the cause of death was only recently determined. In its report, the army said there was a high probability they were killed in the strike, based on where the bodies were recovered, pathological reports and other intelligence. But it said, "it is not possible to definitely determine the circumstances of their deaths." The conclusions could add pressure on the government to strike a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Critics say it

UN food agency emphasis on Gaza ceasefire after staff come under fire

An Israeli airstrike last month demolished the top floor of a guest house in Gaza where World Food Program international staff were staying, the UN agency's director said Thursday, calling the situation impossibly dangerous for aid workers trying to feed the Palestinian population. The previously undisclosed incident occurred Aug 31 in the Nuseirat refugee camp, just days after WFP temporarily stopped aid deliveries to northern Gaza and halted staff movements when its team came under fire near an Israel checkpoint. "It was always dangerous before. It's become impossibly dangerous now," McCain said. The World Food Programme is in touch with the Israeli Defence Force over the strike on the house where 11 UN employees, including 10 WFP staff, were staying. None was injured and they have been evacuated to Jordan, where McCain met with them this week. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. McCain said she has a simple message for Israeli Prime Minister .

Israeli airstrike hits UN school in Gaza, kills at least 14, says official

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 14 people, including two children, when it hit a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in central Gaza on Wednesday, hospital officials said. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The claim could not be independently confirmed. Officials from Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said they had received 10 dead from the strike, and another four dead were brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. At least one woman and two children were among those killed, and at least 18 people were wounded in the strike, hospital officials said. One of the children was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of Gaza's civil defence agency, which works rescuing wounded and bodies after strikes, the agency said in a statement. Selmi hadn't seen his daughter for 10 months, since he remained in north Gaza to keep working while his family fled south, the ...

Iran's president Pezeshkian slams West over war in Gaza, support for Israel

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday slammed the West, saying that Israel is committing massacres in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so. Pezeshkian, who spoke in Baghdad at the start of his first visit abroad since taking office, is hoping to cement Tehran's ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both majority Shiite countries into the widening Middle East fray. Iran has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian militant Hamas group since its Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted, according to local health officials. The war has also caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. The Israeli entity is committing massacres against women, children, young men and elderly. They bomb hospitals and schools, Pezeshkian said. All these crimes are being committed

Not 40, but 19 killed in Israeli strike on tent camp: Gaza health ministry

Gaza's Health Ministry says it has confirmed that at least 19 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in a designated humanitarian zone. The Civil Defence, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said that 40 people were killed in the strike early Tuesday. The Israeli military disputed that toll, saying it had used precise munitions against a group of militants. Gaza's Health Ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government but its figures are widely seen as generally reliable. It maintains detailed records and its tallies from previous wars have largely coincided with figures from independent researchers, the UN and even the Israeli military. The Health Ministry said the toll from Tuesday's strike could rise. The Health Ministry and the Civil Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.

Temporary truce possible, no commitment on war's end: Israeli defence chief

Israel's defence minister says the window is closing on an opportunity to reach a temporary cease-fire deal with the Hamas militant group that he believes could also bring calm to the country's volatile northern border with Lebanon. Speaking to reporters, Yoav Gallant said that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting, as Hamas has demanded, raising questions about the feasibility of a deal. Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages, he said. After that period, he said, we maintain the right to operate and achieve our goals including the destruction of Hamas. The United States, along with mediators Egypt and Qatar, has been working for months to broker a cease-fire to end the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. A main area of disagreement has been Hamas' demand for

Brown University trustee Edelman resigns over divestment vote on Israel

Brian Clark, a school spokesperson, responded that Edelman has a 'fundamental misunderstanding of the decisions that led to the upcoming vote on divestment'

Israeli strikes left 18 dead in biggest toll since war in Gaza began: Syria

The number of people killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Syria has risen to 18 with dozens more wounded, Syria's health minister said on Monday the largest death toll in such an attack since the beginning of the war in Gaza. One of the sites targeted was a research centre used in the development of weapons, a war monitor said. Syrian officials said civilian sites were targeted. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas a Hezbollah ally in Gaza. However, the intensity and death toll of Sunday night's strikes were unusual. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the ...

Israel finance ministry slashes growth forecast as war in Gaza hits economy

Gross domestic product will rise 1.1 per cent, according to updated figures on the ministry's official website, down from the previous figure of 1.9 per cent

SC rejects PIL asking to halt export of arms, military equipments to Israel

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to stop the export of arms and military equipments to Israel which is fighting a war in Gaza, saying the court cannot enter into the domain of the nation's foreign policy. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the Indian firms, involved in the export of arms, equipments to Israel, may be sued for breach of contractual obligations and hence they cannot be stopped from supplying. "We cannot enter into the nation's foreign policy domain," the bench said. "Can we direct that under the UN's genocide convention you ban the export to Israel...why this restraint. This is because it impacts the foreign policy and we do not know what the impact will be," the CJI said. A PIL was filed by Ashok Kumar Sharma and others through lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel licences and not to grant new ones to Indian firms exporting arms an

Amid polio vaccination drive Israeli strikes in Gaza kill more than dozen

Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday, hospital and local authorities said, as health workers wrapped up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak. The vaccination drive was launched after health officials confirmed the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy whose leg is now paralyzed. The nine-day campaign by the UN health agency and partners aims to vaccinate 640,000 children, an ambitious effort during a war that has destroyed Gaza's health care system and much of its infrastructure. The third phase of vaccinations is in the north. Israel, meanwhile, kept up its military offensive. In central Gaza's urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of nine people killed in two separate air raids. One hit a residential building, killing four people and wounding at least 10, while five people were killed in

US, UK intelligence agencies issue joint statement for ceasefire in Gaza

The heads of the American and British foreign intelligence agencies said Saturday they are working ceaselessly for a cease-fire in Gaza, using a rare joint public statement to press for peace. CIA Director William Burns and MI6 Chief Richard Moore said their agencies had exploited our intelligence channels to push hard for restraint and de-escalation. In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, the two spymasters said a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war could end the suffering and appalling loss of life of Palestinian civilians and bring home the hostages after 11 months of hellish confinement. Burns has been heavily involved in efforts to broker an end to the fighting, traveling to Egypt in August for high-level talks aimed at bringing about a hostage deal and at least a temporary halt to the conflict. So far there has been no agreement, though United States officials insist a deal is close. U.S. President Joe Biden said recently that just a couple more issues remain unresolved.

UN accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza that Netanyahu denies

The UN independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a "starvation campaign" against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denies. In a report this week, investigator Michael Fakhri claimed it began two days after Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, when Israel's military offensive in response blocked all food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid were "outrageously false". "A deliberate starvation policy? You can say anything it doesn't make it true," he said in a press conference Wednesday. Following intense international pressure especially from close ally the United States Netanyahu's government gradually has opened several border crossings for tightly controlled deliveries. Fakhri said limited aid initially went mostly to southern and central Gaza, not to the north where ..

Walz condemns Hamas, says Gaza activists protesting for 'all right reasons'

Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Thursday that those protesting American support for Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza are doing so for all the right reasons," as the Democratic ticket looks to balance its support for Israel with the humanitarian plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave. Walz' comments came in an interview with a local Michigan public radio station a state with a large Muslim American population that is also a potentially pivotal swing state in this November's election. His comments appeared to mark tonal shift, though not a policy one, from the steadfast support for Israel that Vice President Kamala Harris espoused at the Democratic National Convention last month. Walz said the October 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves. But, he also said that, we can't allow what's happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right

UN hails limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow polio vaccinations

United Nations officials on Wednesday hailed limited pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow children's polio vaccinations as rare moments of hope in the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. Top U.N. officials on peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs spoke at a meeting requested by Israel, which was backed by its allies, veto-holding permanent council members France, Great Britain and the United States. Israel's ambassador on Wednesday focused on the hostages taken during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that launched the war and the recent killing of six captives. Algeria, which sits on the 15-member council until next year, also requested that the U.N. body meet to discuss the broader situation in the Palestinian territories. Both Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, and Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, spoke about the ...

Gaza war: US expects ceasefire soon; key Philadelphi Corridor deal likely

The US is pushing Israel for a Gaza ceasefire deal as the conflict with Hamas approaches its one-year mark, with at least 40,000 Palestinians dead and extensive regional devastation in Gaza

161,000 children vaccinated against polio in Gaza in 2 days, says WHO

The WHO official confirmed that vaccination teams faced larger numbers of residents in Al-Maghazi, Al-Bureij and Al-Masdar

UK halts 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel amid Gaza conflict

Lammy clarified that it is not a complete ban on arms exports to Israel and that it continues to support Israel's right to self-defence, as per Al Jazeera

Netanyahu pushes back against new pressure over Gaza cease-fire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pushed back against a new wave of pressure to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza after hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested and went on strike and U.S. President Joe Biden said he needed to do more after nearly 11 months of fighting. In his first public address since Sunday's mass protests showed many Israelis' furious response to the discovery of six more dead hostages, Netanyahu said he will continue to insist on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza's border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it. Netanyahu called the corridor vital to ensuring Hamas cannot rearm via tunnels. This is the oxygen of Hamas, he said. And he added: No one is more committed to freeing the hostages than me. But no one will preach to me." Israelis had poured into the streets late Sunday in grief

Strike call in Israel over dead Gaza hostages reflects political divisions

A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza led to closures and other disruptions around the country on Monday, including at its main international airport. But it was ignored in some areas, reflecting deep political divisions. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets late Sunday in grief and anger after six hostages were found dead in Gaza. The families and much of the public blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they could have been returned alive in a deal with Hamas to end the nearly 11-month-old war. But others support Netanyahu's strategy of maintaining military pressure on Hamas, whose October 7 attack into Israel triggered the war. They say it will force the militants to give in to Israeli demands, potentially facilitate rescue operations and ultimately annihilate the group. A labour court ruled that the strike must end by 2:30 pm local time, accepting a petition from the government saying it w