TheNewsGuru

Tag: Gaza

  • Israel, Hamas agree Gaza truce after 11 days of disastrous conflict

    Israel, Hamas agree Gaza truce after 11 days of disastrous conflict

    Israel and Hamas agreed to cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of 2 a.m. today, an official with the Palestinian Islamist faction said, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in decades.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his security cabinet had voted unanimously in favour of a “mutual and unconditional” Gaza truce proposed by Egypt, but added that the hour of implementation had yet to be agreed.

    Within minutes of the announcements, in the countdown to the ceasefire, the sides were trading blows again. Sirens warned of incoming rockets in Israeli border communities, and a Reuters reporter heard an air strike in Gaza.

    There was no immediate word of casualties.

    Amid growing global alarm at the bloodshed, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu on Wednesday to seek de-escalation. Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations ventured mediation.

    A Hamas official told Reuters the ceasefire would be “mutual and simultaneous”.

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had ordered two security delegations into Israel and the Palestinian territories to work towards upholding the ceasefire, Egyptian state TV reported. It also confirmed the 2 a.m. hour.

    Rocket attacks by Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad had resumed after an eight-hour pause earlier yesterday, as Israel continued shelling that it said aimed to destroy the factions’ military capabilities and deter them from future confrontation after the current conflict.

    Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Twitter that the Gaza offensive had yielded “unprecedented military gains”.

    Since the fighting began on May 10, health officials in Gaza say 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, have been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it has killed at least 160 combatants in Gaza.

    Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.

    Yesterday, Biden discussed Gaza with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the White House said reports of moves toward a ceasefire were “encouraging”.

    UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that UN Middle East Envoy Tor Wennesland is in Qatar, adding: “We are actively engaged with all the relevant parties for an immediate ceasefire.”

  • Israeli military hit top Hamas commanders in 24 hours

    Israeli military hit top Hamas commanders in 24 hours

    The Israeli military has struck 12 houses of senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday.

    “The IDF has struck 12 houses of senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours,’’ the IDF said.

    The military’s fighter jets hit houses of three Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip a short time ago.

    The hit houses included those belonging to the deputy commander for the northern brigade in Gaza City, a company commander in Khan Yunis, and another military leader in the Hamas reserve battalion.

    The commanders used their houses as command posts and operations bases, the IDF added.

  • Israel kills senior militant commander in Gaza – Military

    Israel kills senior militant commander in Gaza – Military

    Israel on Monday assassinated Hasam Abu Harbid, a senior militant commander in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces said, triggering a fresh barrage of rockets on Israeli cities.

    Israel’s Shin Bet security service and the military said in a joint statement that warplanes struck and killed the commander of the Northern Division of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

    Islamic Jihad is a militant group in Gaza that has been fighting alongside Hamas in the recent escalation.

    “Abu Harbid has consistently led rocket launches against Israel as well as shooting attacks at soldiers,’’ the statement read, adding that he was behind an attack last Monday in which an Israeli civilian was injured.

    He was a commander in the Islamic Jihad for over the past 15 years, according to the statement.

    Shortly after the attack, a rocket barrage from Gaza was fired at southern Israel.

    One of the rockets hit a residential building in Ashdod city, causing damage and injuring three people, according to a statement by Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency health service.

    According to a military notice on Monday, some 3,150 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory.

    About 460 of these rockets failed to reach Israel and fell within the Gaza Strip.

    Israel’s Iron Dome Air Defence System has intercepted about 90 per cent of the rockets, the army said.

    At least 200 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave were killed, including 59 children.

    Meanwhile, 10 people were killed in Israel, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.

  • Israel says 3,150 rockets fired from Gaza in past week

    Israel says 3,150 rockets fired from Gaza in past week

    A week after the shelling began, militants have fired some 3,150 rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, the Israeli army said Monday morning.

    The army said about 460 of the rockets never made it across the border and went down in Gaza territory.

    The Iron Dome missile defence system had an interception rate of about 90 per cent, it said.

    By comparison, a total of 4,481 rockets were fired at Israel during the entire 51-day Gaza war in 2014.

    There were initially no current figures on the number of attacks by Israel in the Gaza Strip this morning, said the military.

    Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip began firing rockets at Israel a week ago, precisely Monday evening.

    Israel’s army responded with a massive assault on Hamas targets in the coastal area.

  • Israel, Hamas defy diplomatic interventions, continue fighting in Gaza

    Israel, Hamas defy diplomatic interventions, continue fighting in Gaza

    Israeli prime minister,Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday said an end to seven days of hostilities with Gaza fighters was not imminent despite diplomatic moves to restore calm.

    Over 200 people have lost their lives since the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants began.

    Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip entered its seventh consecutive day, with air raids early on Sunday killing at least 42 Palestinians, wounding dozens more, and flattening at least two residential buildings.

    The home of Gaza’s Hamas chief, Yehya al-Sinwar, was also targeted, according to the group’s media.

    In Israel’s Tel Aviv, people dashed for bomb shelters as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared across the city.

    At least 188 people, including 55 children and 33 women, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past week. More than 1,200 others have been wounded.

  • Why we demolished building housing AP, Al Jazeera, other media houses in Gaza – Israel

    Why we demolished building housing AP, Al Jazeera, other media houses in Gaza – Israel

    The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has said it demolished the building housing AP, Al Jazeera and some other media offices in Gaza because the Hamas terror organization hides behind it and uses it as human shields.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports IAF made this known, saying the Hamas terror organization deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

    IAF stated that prior to the strike, the IAF provided advance warning to civilians in the building and allowed sufficient time for them to evacuate the site.

    “A short while ago, IAF fighter jets struck a multi-story building which contained military assets belonging to the intelligence offices of the Hamas terror organization.

    “The building contained civilian media offices, which the Hamas terror organization hides behind and uses as human shields. The Hamas terror organization deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

    “Prior to the strike, the IAF provided advance warning to civilians in the building and allowed sufficient time for them to evacuate the site,” IAF stated.

    The IAF also stated that since the beginning of operation “Guardians of the Walls”, approximately 2,900 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory, of which approximately 450 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip.

    The Iron Dome Air Defense System has intercepted approximately 1,150 rockets.

    In response, over the last 24 hours, IAF fighter jets and aircraft struck over 90 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip.

    Among the targets struck, are the residences of Yahya Sinwar, Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau in Gaza, as well as of his brother, Muhammad Sinwar, Head of Logistics and Manpower for Hamas, in Khan Yunis.

    Both residences served as military infrastructure for the Hamas terror organization.

    Additional terror infrastructure struck includes the offices of Samah Sarag, Head of Planning and Development of the Hamas Political Bureau, the residence of Youssef Abel-Wahab, commander of the Hamas Zeitoun Battalion in Gaza City, and the residence of Ahmad Abd El Aal, a senior Hamas Military Intelligence official.

    As part of the continuing wave of strikes on the Hamas ‘Metro’ tunnel system, about thirty targets were attacked by IAF fighter jets using approximately 100 guided armaments.

    Dozens of weapon factories and storage sites in Tzabrah tel Aloha, Sheik Amodan, and Gaza City were struck as well. These terror sites were located within the residences of Hamas naval and airborne operatives, anti-tank squads, and offensive cyber units.

    Over the last day, the IAF struck approximately 40 rocket launch sites aimed towards central and southern Israel.

    The Hamas terror organization deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip. The IAF takes all possible precautions to avoid harming innocent civilians during operational activity.

    The IAF continues to strike terror targets in the Gaza Strip and will continue operating as needed.

  • Egypt, Saudi Arabia call for Gaza cease-fire after Israeli airstrike destroys AP, Al-Jazeera offices

    Egypt, Saudi Arabia call for Gaza cease-fire after Israeli airstrike destroys AP, Al-Jazeera offices

    The foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia yesterday demanded immediate ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    The state-run Saudi Press Agency said Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, had spoken to Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and both agreed that an immediate cease-fire was needed.

    Egypt has been trying to negotiate an end to the fighting.

    The Saudi statement also said the two diplomats called on “the international community to confront the aggressive Israeli practices against the brotherly Palestinian people.”

    President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have also spoken about the situation in Gaza.

    According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli leader updated Biden on the developments and actions that Israel has taken and intends to take.

    It said Netanyahu also thanked Biden for the “unreserved support of the United States for our right to defend ourselves.”

    The Biden-Netanyahu call came just hours after an Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera Television.

    AP’s President and CEO Gary Pruitt said the agency was “shocked and horrified” at the strike while Al Jazeera vowed that it “would not be silenced”.

  • Hamas says ceasefire reached with Israel after Gaza flare-up

    Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday said it has reached a ceasefire with Israel.

    This statement came after the most severe exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups since a 2014 war between Hamas and Israel.

    Palestinian militants fired dozens of mortars and rockets into Israel and the Israeli army retaliated by bombing dozens of military sites in the coastal enclave.

    The flare-up came amid ongoing tensions along the Gaza border, with over 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks.

    Khalil al-Hayah Deputy Chief of Hamas in Gaza, said it was agreed to resume the former ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.

    “We will be committed to these understandings as long as the occupation is committed to it,’’ he said in a statement, referring to Israel.

    Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in Gaza which claimed responsibility for the projectile fire along with Hamas, already declared a ceasefire on Tuesday.

    Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the security cabinet, has denied that there is a ceasefire or informal understanding.

    According to Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus, quiet will be met with quiet and hostility and violence will be met with appropriate measures.

    Three Israeli soldiers were injured during the unrest; no Palestinian injuries have been reported.

    The U.S. on Tuesday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over rocket attacks from Gaza.

     

  • Pope condemns Gaza killings, says Mideast needs justice, peace

    Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the killing of Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border, saying the deaths would only lead to more violence, and appealed for dialogue to bring justice and peace to the Middle East.

    “I express my great pain for the dead and wounded and I am close in prayer and affection to all those who are suffering,” he told tens of thousands of people at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

    “I repeat that the use of violence never leads to peace. War begets war and violence begets violence.”

    Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border on Monday during demonstrations against the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, in the bloodiest day in Gaza in years.

    Francis, who visited Israel and Palestinian territories in 2014, asked both sides and the international community to redouble efforts “so that dialogue, justice and peace prevail”.

    In December 2017, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced the decision to move the embassy, Francis called for Jerusalem’s “status quo” to be respected, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts.

    Speaking earlier in the audience to a group of Polish World War Two veterans, he said: “We never learn.”

     

  • Palestinians bury dead after bloodiest day of Israel border protests

    Palestinians bury dead after bloodiest day of Israel border protests

    Thousands of Palestinians participated in dozens of funerals in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a day after 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during mass protests along the border.

    Mourners chanted “God is great” in Arabic and “Death to Israel” as they marched the bodies, many of them wrapped in flags to signify political affiliation, to the cemeteries.

    “What was her fault, she went to the [protest] camps to watch, and while she was watching, she was killed,” said Faddel Khalil, father of 15-year-old girl Wissal Khalil, who was shot dead on Monday.

    The funerals came as Palestinians observe their “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” marking the creation of Israel in 1948.

    Monday’s protest – fuelled by a controversial US embassy move to Jerusalem and the Nakba commemoration – ended in the bloodiest day in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

    Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been overstretched by the more than 2,700 people injured, including 1,300 by gun fire, UN agencies warned in Geneva.

    The World Health Organization said that Israel’s long-lasting blockade of Gaza had created chronic shortages in Palestinian health facilities.

    “This month, two in every five essential drugs are completely depleted and half have less than a month’s supply remaining,” spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

    For weeks, Palestinians – some throwing stones, explosives, and burning tires – have been squaring off against Israeli army snipers along the Gaza border. Groups of mostly young men push towards the border fence in an attempt to break it down, while the army uses tear gas and live fire in response.

    Protesters are demanding an end to Israel’s over decade-long blockade of the Strip and a return to lands owned by Palestinians prior to 1948, but now in present-day Israel.

    As of Tuesday afternoon protests along the border had abated, although the Israeli army said it bombed 11 Hamas targets earlier in the day.

    The Israeli army says that Hamas, the Islamist group which much of the West considers a terrorist organization, is using the mask of protests to break down the border fence and carry out a “mass infiltration into Israel” and ultimately attack Israeli border communities.

    The army has defended its actions, saying its soldiers were following “standard operating procedures” to push back Palestinians seeking to break through the border barrier.

    But the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday said that Israel was not within its rights when it used bullets against protestors.

    “An attempt to approach or crossing or damaging the fence do not amount to a threat to life or serious injury and are not sufficient grounds for the use of live ammunition,” UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville told a press conference.

    As international criticism rains in over Israel’s use of force on the border, Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said her country should not fear a war crimes investigation.

    “We do not have anything to fear Israeli soldiers work very great, acting according to procedures of open fire,” she said on army radio.

    “War is not a nice thing and terrorist acts are not a nice thing,” she added.

    In Gaza, the health system hit its limits by the huge influx of injuries.

    “It is unbearable to witness such a massive number of unarmed people being shot in such a short time,” said Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, the head of Doctors Without Border in Palestine.

    But Hamas, which rules over nearly 2 million people in Gaza, blamed US President Donald Trump for the violence.

    The embassy move, first announced in December, triggered international condemnation and further angered Palestinians who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he denounced a “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

    “Erdogan is one of the great supporters of Hamas, and thus there is no doubt that he understands well terror and massacre. I suggest that he not preach morality to us,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Hamas.

    The West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for three days of mourning and a general strike in response to Monday’s violence.

    The UN Security Council was due to meet later Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza. The United States on Monday blocked the adoption of a joint UN Security Council statement calling for an independent investigation into the violence, a diplomat told dpa.

    Ahead of the meeting, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in China – a permanent member of the Security Council – “urged the Palestinians and Israelis, especially the Israeli side, to exercise restraint and avoid further tensions and escalation.”

    dpa