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Tag: Israel

  • War: Israel military announces massive ground bombardments in Gaza

    War: Israel military announces massive ground bombardments in Gaza

    In a bid to fulfill its goals in the war with Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces, IDF on Friday announced that they “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip

    The development comes as airstrikes, bombardments continue in Gaza Strip.

    Earlier Friday, Israel’s military conducted “targeted raids” for a second night in northern Gaza, after vowing to continue ground raids over the coming days, and amid growing humanitarian concerns about the fate of civilians in the enclave.

    However, the international community has continued to appeal to Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza.
    While the initial aid deliveries have provided food, water and medicine, they have not included fuel, which the United Nations has said is “paralyzing” its aid operations.

    Israel said Hamas is stockpiling fuel for its own use and has called on the militant Palestinian group that governs Gaza to share it.

    Recall that crisis between Israel Military and Palestinian fighters escalated on October 7 resultings to attacks from both sides.

    Over 1.4 million people are internally displaced in Gaza while more than 1,400 people in Israel and 7,000 Palestinians have been killed amid fighting between Israel and Hamas.
  • BREAKING: Israel eliminates chief of Hamas’s aerial forces

    BREAKING: Israel eliminates chief of Hamas’s aerial forces

    The Israel Defense Forces says it has eliminated Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas’ Aerial Array.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports IDF disclosed on Saturday, saying Abu Rakaba took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel.

    A statement by IDF states Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas’ UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense.

    According to the statement, elimination of the chief of Hamas’s aerial forces happened overnight.

    The statement reads: “Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas’ Aerial Array. Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas’ UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense.

    “He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts..

  • War: Israel ground forces raid Central Gaza

    War: Israel ground forces raid Central Gaza

    Israeli infantry backed by warplanes mounted an incursion deeper into Gaza, the army said Friday, as it readies for a ground offensive against Hamas for the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

    As the conflict raged into its 21st day, there was no letup in Israel’s relentless strikes on the Gaza Strip, with European leaders calling for “humanitarian pauses” to allow in critically needed aid.

    Israel has been bombarding the Palestinian territory since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

    So far, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, raising growing calls for protection of innocent people caught in the conflict.

    With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed alongside the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said its forces had staged a brief ground incursion into central Gaza.

    “During the last day, IDF ground forces, accompanied by IDF fighter jets and UAVs, conducted an additional targeted raid in the central Gaza Strip,” it said in the second such operation in as many days.

    Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles as a thick cloud of dust billowed into the sky after the strikes.

    Tanks and infantry had staged a similar raid targeting the Islamist Hamas in northern Gaza the previous night, the army said.

    As concern spiralled over the fate of the 2.4 million Palestinians trapped under the relentless bombardment, European Union leaders called late Thursday for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs”.

    ‘Our Lives Stopped’

    Only 74 trucks of food, water and medicine have been permitted to enter Gaza since the war began in a figure described by aid groups as vastly insufficient.

    Before the fighting began, around 500 trucks entered daily, according to the United Nations.

    Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, and has insisted no fuel can be imported as it could be used by Hamas, which it has vowed to destroy in response to the October 7 attacks.

    That has forced 12 of the territory’s 35 hospitals to close, forcing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to “significantly reduce its operations”.

    “Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian response, no aid reaching people in need, no electricity for hospitals, no access to clean water, and no availability of bread,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

    Israel has won staunch backing from allies including the United States for its military action in Gaza, demanding Hamas release the 224 hostages it snatched on October 7 that include a mix of Israelis and foreign nationals.

    The fate of the hostages remains a complicating factor for Israel’s planned ground operation.

    Hamas’ armed wing said Thursday that “almost 50” hostages had been killed in the bombardments, in a claim that could not be independently verified.

    Four female hostages have been released, but for relatives of those left behind, the anguish continues.

    “Our lives stopped,” said Moran Betzer Tayar of the day her nephew and his wife were abducted, telling reporters in Paris she was “worried sick” and desperate to keep the fate of the hostages in the public eye.

     

    AFP

     

  • Israel again bombs hundreds of targets in Gaza Strip

    Israel again bombs hundreds of targets in Gaza Strip

    The Israeli Air Force has again bombed numerous targets in the Gaza Strip in the fight against the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement.

    As the Israeli military announced on Telegram on Thursday, that its “fighter jets attacked more than 250 terror targets over the previous day’’.

    These included command centres, tunnel shafts and rocket-launching pads in the middle of residential areas, which had been used to fire on Israeli territory since the beginning of the latest outbreak of hostilities.

    Soldiers also hit a Hamas surface-to-air missile launching site in the Khan Younis area in the south of the Gaza Strip, the military said.

    The launching site was located near a mosque and a kindergarten.

    This was further evidence that Hamas was deliberately using civilian facilities for terror purposes, it said.

    According to Hamas members, two long-range rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Haifa in the north and Eilat in the south of Israel on Wednesday.

    The media reported that, one projectile exploded in the air and the other fell on open ground in the south.

    There were initially no reports of injuries or damage.

  • JUST IN: Hamas gives condition to release held hostages

    JUST IN: Hamas gives condition to release held hostages

    A Hamas official warned on Tuesday that there would be no more hostage releases by the Islamist group unless medical supplies and fuel are allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip.

    On Monday, two Israeli women held captive by Hamas were released from the Gaza Strip. Two U.S. nationals were released on Friday.

    More than 220 hostages are being held in total.

    “For humanitarian reasons, we have released four (hostages) without conditions,” Osama Hamdan, a Hamas politiburo member, and representative in Lebanon, told dpa.

    “But if anyone seeks to have more releases, we have to insist that the international community exerts more pressure on Israel to open Rafah crossing to allow fuel and medical supplies to come inside Gaza,” he added.

    Hamdan, who is close to the hostage negotiations, stressed that it is a basic right of the Palestinian people to be allowed to have hospital treatment if they are subjected daily to Israeli air raids.

    “The people in Gaza have the right to the minimum of humanitarian needs, which is to be able to be treated for the wounds Israel is inflicting on them” through airstrikes, he added.

    “We need Israel to stop the raids on our people so we will be able to secure the release of people who were taken,” Hamdan said.

    At least 222 hostages were taken when attackers from the Islamist group, which controls Gaza, carried out a terrorist attack on Israeli communities on Oct. 7.

    The attacks near the Gaza border killed over 1,400 people and left the country reeling in shock.

    The subsequent Israeli air bombardment of Gaza has killed over 5,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there.

    These figures cannot be independently verified.

    Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and the EU.

    Since the attacks, the coastal Palestinian Territory, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007, has been under a complete siege by Israel, with no food, water, or fuel entering the territory via Israel.

    The only supplies reaching Gaza’s population of some 2.2 million people are arriving via aid trucks through the Rafah border from Egypt.

  • Israel-Palestine: Gaza death toll passes 5,000 with no ceasefire in sight

    Israel-Palestine: Gaza death toll passes 5,000 with no ceasefire in sight

    The number of people killed in Gaza has exceeded 5,000 according to latest reports from de facto authorities there, amid intensifying Israeli airstrikes in response to Hamas attacks, while humanitarians repeated urgent calls for a ceasefire and more aid convoys.

    Echoing that message, World Health Organisation (WHO)  Tedros Ghebreyesus issued a new appeal on Monday for “sustained safe passage” for medical essentials and fuel to keep health facilities open.

    “Lives depend on these decisions,” he insisted on social platform X.

    Latest media reports citing the Gaza Ministry of Health indicate that the number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 5,087.

    Women and children have made up more than 62 per cent of the fatalities, while more than 15,273 people have been injured.

    In addition to the overall death toll, the number of UN staff members working with the Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, has reached 35, according to the latest situation report released late on Monday. A further 18 staffers have been injured.

    According to UNRWA, nearly 600,000 internally displaced are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities overall with nearly 420,000 seeking refuge in 93 of the agency’s shelters in Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas, further to the south .

    In its latest humanitarian update on the crisis UN humanitarian aid coordination office, OCHA , said that more than 1,000 had been reported missing and were  presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble.

    The largest medical facility in Gaza, Shifa hospital, is now treating around 5,000 patients, many times beyond its normal figure of around 700.

    According to Israeli official sources quoted by OCHA, some 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, the vast majority in the Hamas attacks on 7 October which triggered the latest conflict.

    OCHA said that the reported fatality toll is “over threefold the cumulative number of Israelis killed” since it began recording casualties in 2005.

    3rd delivery convoy of 20 trucks arrive in Gaza – UN

    United Nations (UN) Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has said that a  new aid convoy entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing comprises 20 trucks according to the Egyptian Red Crescent.

    Dujarric disclosed this while briefing reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

    He said that was equivalent to just four per cent of the pre-crisis level of daily needs, for commodities for Gaza’s population of more than two million.

    This was the third such delivery after the crossing opened on Saturday for the first time since the start of the conflict, following intense diplomatic efforts.

    A total of 34 trucks with aid provided by the UN and the Egyptian Red Crescent entered the enclave over the weekend. The UN has stressed that to respond to soaring humanitarian needs, at least 100 aid trucks per day are required.

    The development comes as (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that it was set to run out of fuel within three days, putting the humanitarian response in Gaza at risk.

    UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said  that without fuel, “there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries” and that “no fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza”.

    Meanwhile, OCHA said that more than 625,000 children in Gaza had been deprived of education for at least 12 days, and 206 schools have been damaged.

    At least 29 of them are UNRWA-run establishments.

    UNRWA reported on Sunday that 29 of its staff members have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 – half of them teachers.

    In the occupied West Bank, the escalation has also resulted in restrictions on the access to education.

    OCHA said that all the schools inside the territory were closed from 7 to 9 October, affecting some 782,000 students.

    As of last week, more than 230 schools which cater to some 50,000 students had not reopened.

    The Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly has confirmed that the 10th Emergency Special Session on Israel and Palestine will reconvene on Thursday.

    The session is officially titled: Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

    Special sessions are convened allowing the UN’s entire membership to make recommendations for collective measures during times of intractable crisis – if requested by either the Security Council (seven of its members or more) or a majority of the General Assembly.

    The Tenth Emergency Session was last adjourned in 2018.

    Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Volker Türk has said that a broad humanitarian ceasefire is essential for both Gaza and Israel.

    “Far too many civilian lives, many of them children, have already been lost – on both sides – as a consequence of these hostilities.

    “And, unless something changes, coming days will see more civilians on the brink of death from continuing bombardment. Humanity must come first,” the High Commissioner said.

    Noting the Gaza Strip is already on the verge of catastrophe, he said the reports of overcrowding and disease spreading, “are deeply worrying”.

    “This violence will never end unless leaders stand up and take the brave and humane choices that are required by fundamental humanity.

    “The first step must be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saving the lives of civilians through the delivery of prompt and effective humanitarian aid, throughout Gaza, provided according to need and not limited by any other, arbitrary criteria,” he added.

  • Gaza: Fuel supply set to runs out in 3 days, says UN agency

    Gaza: Fuel supply set to runs out in 3 days, says UN agency

    The UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, will run out of fuel in three days, putting humanitarian response in Gaza at risk, Director-General Philippe Lazzarini warned on Sunday.

    “Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance.

    “No fuel will further strangle the children, women and people of Gaza,” he said in a statement.

    UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip, which is home to more than two million people.

    More than a million have been displaced since the start of the latest hostilities on October 7, with over half a million now sheltering in its facilities.

    Lazzarini warned that “without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch,” adding, “this cannot and should not happen.”

    He appealed to all parties and those with influence over them to immediately allow fuel supplies into Gaza and to ensure that it is strictly used to prevent humanitarian operations from collapsing.

    Although he welcomed the entry of the first humanitarian convoy into Gaza on Saturday, Lazzarini said it was “far from enough”, stressing the need for sustained aid.

    UNRWA also published its latest situation report on Sunday, which revealed that 13 more staff members have been killed since the conflict began, bringing the total to 29, while a further 17 have been injured.

    In a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, UNRWA noted that half of those killed were teachers.

    The report also documented that 12 displaced people sheltering at UNRWA schools have been killed, and nearly 180 injured.

  • Israeli army says majority of hostages held in Gaza alive

    Israeli army says majority of hostages held in Gaza alive

    The Israeli Army said on Friday that most of the hostages being held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant Palestinian organisation are still alive.
    However, the army did not say where they got the information and it cannot be independently verified.
    Tensions have been particularly high in the wake of bloody attacks and massacres in Israel on Oct. 7 carried out by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the United States and Israel.
    About 203 hostages are being held in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave, including more than 20 children and teenagers, according to Israeli military sources.
    Between 10 and 20 hostages are elderly people over 60, it said.
    Between 100 to 200 people are still missing since the unprecedented attack getting to two weeks ago.
  • War: UK, US, Germany order citizens to exit Lebanon over Israel, Hamas conflict

    War: UK, US, Germany order citizens to exit Lebanon over Israel, Hamas conflict

    The United Kingdon, United States and Germany  on Thursday have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon as border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah  increased over war with hamas.

    “We recommend that United States citizens in Lebanon make appropriate arrangements to leave the country; commercial options currently remain available,” a statement from the US embassy in Beirut said, with a similar warning issued by the British.

    “If you are currently in Lebanon, we encourage you to leave now while commercial options remain available,” the British embassy said, urging its nationals to “exercise caution.”

    Germany’s foreign office also asked citizens to “leave Lebanon” in a statement warning that border clashes “can escalate further at any time” and advising its nationals to “use existing commercial travel options to leave the country safely.”

    It was gathered that Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions have been trading daily cross-border fire with Israel after Hamas launched a massive October 7 assault on southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

    Relentless Israeli strikes on Gaza have since killed at least 3,700 people, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry says. France, Canada, Australia and Spain have also warned against travel to Lebanon.

    At least 21 people have been killed by cross-border fire in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, mostly combatants but also three civilians including a Reuters journalist. At least three people have been killed on the Israeli side.

  • Israel-Gaza crisis: SCSN advises FG to provide relief materials to Palestinians

    Israel-Gaza crisis: SCSN advises FG to provide relief materials to Palestinians

    Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN), has advised the Federal Government to provide relief materials to Palestinians who are in dire need of food, clothing, medicine and other essentials.

    The President of the Council, Sheikh AbdurRasheed Hadiyyatullah, gave the advice at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

    He also urged the Nigerian humanitarian organisations and worship centres to mobilise assistance to the distressed people of Palestine.

    “The Council called on all Muslims and people of other faiths to offer special prayers invoking Allah, The Most High, to come to the aid of the Palestinians and all oppressed people of the world.

    “The Federal Government of Nigeria on behalf of the teeming Muslims and Christians and people of conscience in Nigeria, should, as a matter of urgency, provide relief materials to the besieged Palestinians.

    “Muslim organisations, under the auspices of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN), are deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

    “This is because apart from its criminality and lack of humanity, it also clearly shows the failure of global institutions established after the Second World War to protect human beings against any form of tyranny.”

    He stressed the need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to emulate the Government and opposition party of South Africa who condemned the actions of the Zionist State of Israel.

    The cleric also called on the international community to address the root cause of the conflict.

    “The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the most recent resolution on December 15, 2022, by a recorded vote of 167 in favour and six against (Chad, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, United States).

    “This resolution emphasised the necessity of ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and returning to the pre-1967 borders.

    “It re-echoed the need for lasting peace based on relevant resolutions of the United Nations and agreements of the parties on the two-state solution.”

    He added that the UN resolution further stressed the need to respect the territorial integrity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

    “The General Assembly implored “lall States and the United Nations to continue to support and assist the Palestinian people in the early realisation of their right to self-determination”