Tag: Hamas

  • Israeli military strikes Rafah while continuing talks with mediators

    Israeli military strikes Rafah while continuing talks with mediators

    The Israeli military said that it is conducting targeted strikes against positions held by the Islamist group Hamas in the eastern part of Rafah, a southern city in Gaza.

    The operation is part of ongoing efforts to pressure Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages and achieving other strategic goals, reports Ari Rabinovitch.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that his war cabinet has approved the continuation of the operation in Rafah. The aim is to increase pressure on Hamas to ensure the release of Israeli hostages while pursuing other military objectives.

    “The war cabinet unanimously decided that Israel continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

    The statement also indicated that despite the ongoing strikes, Israel would engage with mediators in an attempt to reach an agreement with Hamas, noting that the current Hamas proposal does not meet Israel’s necessary demands.

    “In parallel, even though the Hamas proposal is far from Israel’s necessary demands, Israel will send a working delegation to the mediators in order to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel,” the statement read.

    Meanwhile, the White House announced that it is reviewing Hamas’s response to a ceasefire and hostage release deal and is urging Israel to avoid launching a large-scale offensive in Rafah.

    White House spokesperson John Kirby noted that U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu for about 30 minutes regarding the ongoing operation in Rafah and the hostage situation before Hamas’s response was received.

    Kirby described the discussion as constructive, stating, “It wasn’t a pressure call; it wasn’t about twisting his arm towards a certain set of parameters.”

    However, he also said that the United States does “not support ground operations in Rafah” unless Israel can demonstrate a clear plan to protect hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians living in the area.

    CIA Director William Burns is also in the region, discussing the Hamas response with Israeli officials.

    Kirby highlighted the urgency of the situation, stating, “We are at a critical stage right now,” and reiterated that the U.S. is urging restraint to avoid further civilian casualties.

  • Pro-Palestinian students camp out at Mexico’s largest university

    Pro-Palestinian students camp out at Mexico’s largest university

    Mexico City (AFP) – Dozens of pro-Palestinian students from Mexico’s largest university camped out Thursday in solidarity with similar protests that have swept colleges in the United States.

    Mounting flags and chanting “Long live free Palestine,” the protesters set up tents in front of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) head office in Mexico City.

    The students called on the Mexican government to break diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel.

    “We are here to support Palestine, the people who are in Palestine, and the student camps in the United States,” said Valentino Pino, a 19-year-old philosophy student.

    Jimena Rosas, 21, said she hoped the protest would have a domino effect and spread to other universities in the country.

    “Once people see that UNAM is beginning to mobilize, other universities should start as well,” she said.

    Dozens of universities in the United States have seen pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, leading to clashes with police and counter-protests.

    Israeli genocide against Palestinians since October 8 has killed more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

  • More war debris in Gaza than Ukraine: UN

    More war debris in Gaza than Ukraine: UN

    Geneva (AFP) – The Gaza Strip is filled with more war debris and rubble than Ukraine, the head of UN demining operations for the narrow Palestinian territory said Wednesday.

    And the danger for clearance work is restricted not just to unexploded ordnance but includes possible exposure to toxic substances such as asbestos.

    The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimated the amount of debris in Gaza at 37 million tonnes in mid-April, or 300 kilogrammes per square metre.

    “Gaza has more rubble than Ukraine, and to put that in perspective, the Ukrainian front line is 600 miles (nearly 1,000 kilometres) long, and Gaza is 25 miles (40 km) long,” said Mungo Birch, head of the UNMAS programme in the Palestinian territories.

    But the sheer volume of rubble is not the only problem, said UNMAS.

    “This rubble is likely heavily contaminated with UXO (unexploded ordnance), but its clearance will be further complicated by other hazards in the rubble,” Birch told journalists.

    “There’s estimated to be over 800,000 tonnes of asbestos, for instance, alone in the Gaza rubble.” The cancer-causing mineral used in construction requires special precautions when handling.

    Birch said he hoped UNMAS, which works to mitigate the threats posed by all types of explosive ordnance, would become the coordination body for mine action in Gaza.

    It has secured $5 million of funding but needs a further $40 million to continue its work in Gaza over the next 12 months.

    However, “the sector as a whole will need hundreds of millions of US dollars over multiple years in order to make Gaza safe again for the population”, Birch added.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

  • Google fires 28 workers protesting contracts with Israel

    Google fires 28 workers protesting contracts with Israel

    New York, United States – Google fired 28 employees following a sit-down protest over the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government, a Google spokesperson said Thursday.

    The Tuesday demonstration was organized by the group “No Tech for Apartheid,” which has long opposed “Project Nimbus,” Google’s joint $1.2 billion contract with Amazon to provide cloud services to the government of Israel.

    Video of the demonstration showed police arresting Google workers in Sunnyvale, California, in the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s, according to a post by the advocacy group on X, formerly Twitter.

    Kurian’s office was occupied for 10 hours, the advocacy group said.

    Workers held signs including “Googlers against Genocide,” a reference to accusations surrounding Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

    “No Tech for Apartheid,” which also held protests in New York and Seattle, pointed to an April 12 Time magazine article reporting a draft contract of Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense more than $1 million for consulting services.

    A “small number” of employees “disrupted” a few Google locations, but the protests are “part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” a Google spokesperson said.

    “After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” the Google spokesperson said. “We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”

    Israel is one of “numerous” governments for which Google provides cloud computing services, the Google spokesperson said.

    “This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” the Google spokesperson said.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • US says new sanctions on Iran coming soon

    US says new sanctions on Iran coming soon

    The United States said Tuesday it would soon impose new sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program after its retaliatory attack on Israel, and that it expects its allies and partners to follow with parallel measures.

    US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s announcement came after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated punitive measures were in the works, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said his office was working on it.

    Iran sent more than 300 missiles, drones and rockets at Israel over the weekend, in what it said was retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus. Nearly all of the projectiles were intercepted, and there was little damage.

    “In the coming days, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Iran, including its missile and drone program” as well as the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian defense ministry, Sullivan said in a statement.

    “We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions,” he added.

    “These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors.”

    US authorities have been using economic tools to counter Iran’s activities, taking aim at its drone and missile programs, as well as its financing of groups like Hamas, which launched its own attack on Israel on October 7.

    Earlier, Yellen previewed the sanctions, telling reporters: “Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers.”

    The Treasury will not hesitate to work with US allies to “use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity,” she said.

    She added that “all options to disrupt terrorist financing” will be on the table.

    ‘More that we could do’

    Months of Israeli genocide in Gaza have triggered violence in the region involving Iranian proxies and allies who say they are acting in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    But tensions have soared even higher with Tehran’s first direct assault on Israel, which has prompted appeals for de-escalation by world leaders fearing wider conflict.

    Yellen did not offer specifics on the possible measures to be taken, but said Washington has been working to diminish Iran’s ability to export oil, adding there might be “more that we could do.”

    The United States is also looking to work with G7 partners and countries including China to constrain Iran’s ability to access goods needed to build weapons, a senior Treasury official told reporters.

    “We’re going to have conversations with all major suppliers around the world,” the official said.

    In Brussels, Borrell said after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers that some member states had proposed “the adoption of expanded restrictive measures against Iran” and that his office would begin preparatory work.

    “We have to move away from the edge of the abyss,” Borrell said.

    Sullivan said that Washington had sanctioned more than 600 Iran-linked individuals and entities “connected to terrorism, terrorist financing and other forms of illicit trade, horrific human rights abuses, and support for proxy terrorist groups.”

    “The pressure will continue,” he warned.

    “We will not hesitate to continue to take action, in coordination with allies and partners around the world, and with Congress, to hold the Iranian government accountable for its malicious and destabilizing actions.”

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • UN agency finds unexploded 1,000-pound bombs in Gaza schools

    UN agency finds unexploded 1,000-pound bombs in Gaza schools

    The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday it had found unexploded 1,000-pound bombs inside schools after Israel pulled troops out of southern Gaza’s main city Khan Yunis.

    The Israeli army has carried out relentless air strikes and bombardments in Gaza since October 7 attacks.

    UN agencies led an “assessment mission” in Khan Yunis after Israeli forces withdrew from the embattled city last week, UNRWA said.

    It found “significant challenges in operating safely due to the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs), including 1,000-pound bombs inside schools and on roads”.

    “Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) require a range of lifesaving assistance, including health, water and sanitation, and food,” it said.

    Earlier this month, the United Nations said it would take “millions of dollars and many years to decontaminate the (Gaza) Strip from unexploded munitions”.

    “We work off the rule of thumb that 10 percent of ordnance doesn’t function as designed,” UN Mine Action Service chief Charles Birch said in a statement earlier this month.

    “We estimate that, to begin the clearance of Gaza, we need around $45 million.”

    Israeli genocide in Gaza since October 7 has killed at least 33,843 people in the besieged strip, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israeli fire ‘most likely’ killed woman hostage on Oct 7: Army

    Israeli fire ‘most likely’ killed woman hostage on Oct 7: Army

    An Israeli investigation found Friday that an Israeli woman who had been seized during the October 7 attack was “most likely” killed when a combat helicopter fired on her kidnappers’ vehicle.

    Efrat Katz and most of the militants in the vehicle were killed when the Israeli aircraft fired on them on October 7, the army investigation said.

    The helicopter “fired at a vehicle that had terrorists in it, and which, in retrospect, based on the testimonies, also had hostages in it,” the army said in a statement.

    “As a result of the fire, most of the terrorists manning the vehicle were killed, and most likely, Efrat Katz … was killed as well.”

    The “tragic and unfortunate” event occurred at a time of “fighting and conditions of uncertainty,” Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar said in the statement.

    “The commander of the air force did not find fault in the operation by the helicopter crew, who operated in compliance with the orders in a complex reality of war.”

    The army statement said the mistake occurred because surveillance systems could not distinguish hostages from kidnappers once in a vehicle, and that “the shooting was defined as shooting at a vehicle with terrorists”.

    Katz, 68 at the time of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, was kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz close to the Gaza border.

    Her daughter Doron Katz-Asher and her two children were taken hostage during the attack, but were later released on November 24.

    Katz’s partner Gadi Moses and his ex-wife Margalit Moses were also taken hostage during the attack. She was later released but Gadi is believed to remain in captivity in Gaza and still alive.

    The Hamas attack resulted in the death of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

    Palestinian militants took more than 250 hostages, of whom 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli army says are dead.

    Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 33,091 people since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

  • Israel increases Gaza aid; admits ‘mistakes’ in aid worker deaths

    TEL AVIV: The Israeli army on Friday admitted a series of errors and violations of its rules in the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, saying it had mistakenly believed it was “targeting armed Hamas operatives”.

    The two brigade officers who ordered the drone strikes, a colonel and a major, are being fired, the army said, and its Southern Command chief reprimanded.

    It was a rare confession of wrongdoing by Israel in its nearly six-month war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the health ministry of the Hamas-ruled territory says more than 33,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

    The victims — an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole — were killed Monday night in three strikes over four minutes by an Israeli drone as they ran for their lives between their three vehicles, the military said.

    The US-based charity for which they worked, World Central Kitchen, demanded an independent inquiry, and Poland called for a “criminal” probe after the military’s announcement.

    The drone team who killed the aid workers made an “operational misjudgement of the situation” after spotting a suspected Hamas gunman shooting from the top of one of the food trucks the aid workers were escorting, an internal Israeli military inquiry found.

    Senior Israeli officers showed reporters clips from drone footage of what they said was a “Hamas operative” joining the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy.

    Although the roofs of the three aid workers’ vehicles were emblazoned with WCK logos, retired Israeli general Yoav Har-Even, who is leading the investigation, said the drone’s camera could not see them in the dark.

    “This was a key factor in the chain of events,” he said.

    The aid group has said its team was travelling in a “de-conflicted” area at the time of the strike. “Despite coordinating movements with the (Israeli army), the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse,” WCK said.

    The army said aid was moved at night to avoid deadly stampedes by hungry Gazans.

    The aid workers’ deaths “outraged” US President Joe Biden who demanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu order steps toward an “immediate ceasefire”.

    Israel later said it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into northern Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of imminent famine.

    Har-Even admitted that “the three air strikes were in violation of standard operating procedures”.

    But he argued that “the state of mind” of the Israeli drone commanders “was that they were striking cars that had been seized by Hamas” after they thought one passenger was carrying a gun rather than a bag.

    “One of the commanders mistakenly assumed the gunmen were inside the vehicles and were Hamas terrorists,” the army said in a statement.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was “very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident.”

    The aid workers were killed after they had overseen the unloading of a ship carrying 300 tonnes of food aid from Cyprus to a warehouse inland.

    But as they drove south at 11:09 pm on April 1 the drone “struck one car, and identified people running out of the car and entering the second car,” Har-Even said.

    “They decided to hit it, which was against standard operating procedures. Then they struck the third car.”

    Asked by AFP, the general was not able to explain what happened to the “Hamas gunman” on the truck but he conceded they had been mistaken to think armed Hamas suspects had joined the WCK aid workers in the three pickups.

    “It is a tragedy. It is a serious mistake that we are responsible for,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

    Har-Even said it was a breakdown in communication in the chain of military command which may have led to the strikes.

    He said that WCK had provided all the information necessary, but it was not passed down.

    “The biggest mistake was that (the drone team) didn’t have the coordination plan,” he said. “Their belief was the vehicles were Hamas, based on operational misjudgement and misclassification.”

  • UN Rights Council considers call for halt to arms sales to Israel

    UN Rights Council considers call for halt to arms sales to Israel

    The UN Human Rights Council was on Friday debating whether to demand a halt in arms sales to Israel, whose genocide in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people.

    If the text is adopted, it would mark the first time that the United Nations’ top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever genocide to beset the besieged Palestinian territory.

    The draft text calls on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel”.

    This, it said, is needed among other things “to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.

    It stresses that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza.

    Friday’s draft resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states except Albania, calls for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.

    It comes after the UN Security Council in New York last week also finally passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire — thanks to an abstention from Washington, Israel’s closest ally and largest arms supplier.

    However, the ceasefire demand has had no impact on the ground.

    Palestinian militants also took more than 250 hostages on October 7, and 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the army says are dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

    The rights council draft resolution does not name Hamas but it does condemn the firing of rockets at Israeli civilian areas and demands “the immediate release of all remaining hostages”.

    The strongly worded text repeatedly names Israel, stressing it is “the occupying Power”.

    It demands that Israel end its occupation of all Palestinian territories and “immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment”.

    The text, which was revised late on Thursday removing several references to genocide, continues to express “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide”.

    And it urges countries to “prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within and from Gaza”.

    It warns in particular “against any large-scale military operations in the city of Rafah” in the south of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where well over one million civilians are sheltering, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”.

    The draft resolution also condemns “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, where the UN has warned that famine is looming.

    And it slammed “the unlawful denial of humanitarian access, wilful impediment to relief supplies and deprivation of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including food, water, electricity, fuel and telecommunications, by Israel”.

    The text also condemns Israel’s “use of explosive weapons with wide area effects by Israel in populated areas in Gaza”.

    Friday’s draft resolution deplores the fact that Israel has persistently refused to cooperate with numerous investigations ordered by the UN rights council.

    And it insists on the “imperative of credible, timely and comprehensive accountability for all violations of international law” in Gaza.

    It calls on the Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories — the highest-level UN investigation launched prior to October 7 — to probe all “direct and indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual use items to Israel, the occupying Power”.

    The team, it said, should identify the weapons used since October 7 and “analyse the legal consequences of these transfers”.

    The investigators should present their findings to the council at its 59th session, which will be held in mid-2025, it said.

  • Israeli President apologises for deaths of Gaza aid workers

    Israeli President apologises for deaths of Gaza aid workers

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog apologised Tuesday for the air strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza.

    Herzog said he spoke to Jose Andres, the US-based celebrity chef who heads the aid group World Central Kitchen, to express his “deep sorrow and sincere apologies over the tragic loss of life”.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier stopped short of apologising for the deaths, which he described as a “tragic case” that would be investigated “right to the end”.

    “It happens in war… we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again,” he added.

    AFPTV footage showed the roof of a white vehicle emblazoned with the group’s logo punctured with a blackened hole, alongside the mangled wreckage of other vehicles.

    World Central Kitchen had earlier said a “targeted attack” by Israeli forces on Monday had killed its staff, which included Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian citizens.

    The charity, which has been delivering food aid to Gaza’s starving population, said its convoy was clearly marked and it had coordinated with the Israeli military to avoid any danger.

    Since October 7 attack, Gaza has been under a near-complete siege, with the United Nations accusing Israel of preventing deliveries of humanitarian assistance to the 2.4 million Palestinians in the devastated territory.

    UN agencies have repeatedly warned that northern Gaza is on the verge of famine, calling the situation a man-made crisis.

    But Herzog said Israel was committed to “delivering and upgrading humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza”.

    The Israeli military also said Tuesday they were looking at ways to coordinate safe aid deliveries.

    The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted with the October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

    Israeli genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.