Tag: Hamas

  • Gaza Government Says Israel Returned 47 Exhumed Bodies

    Gaza Government Says Israel Returned 47 Exhumed Bodies

    Gaza’s government media office said Thursday that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks.

    Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack.

    AFP journalists have previously witnessed the reburial of bodies which Gaza officials said had been exhumed by Israeli forces in November, December and January.

    The 47 new bodies sent back by Israel on Thursday “have been transferred to Al-Najjar Hospital” in Rafah, in southern Gaza, the besieged territory’s crossings and borders authority said in a statement.

    A separate statement from the government media office said they would be “buried in a recently established mass grave” near Rafah.

    “The bodies were seized and transferred to Israel under the pretext of examination and verification” to ensure they were not those of hostages held in Gaza, the government statement said.

    Since the start of the war, Israeli officials have exhumed “hundreds” of bodies from graves at hospitals in the Gaza Strip, it said.

    The Israeli army told AFP it was looking into reports about the latest group of returned bodies.

    Hamas took around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages during the October 7 attack, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 of them remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.

    The attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza after October 7 has resulted in the deaths of at least 30,800 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is under immense domestic pressure to secure the return of hostages as part of any new truce deal with Hamas.

    That pressure intensified after soldiers killed three hostages in December, mistakenly perceiving them as a threat.

  • Tensions in Israel war cabinet as genocide in Gaza rages on

    Tensions in Israel war cabinet as genocide in Gaza rages on

    Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel’s war cabinet, seen as a symbol of national unity in the assault on Gaza, has been shaken by political rivalry between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist Benny Gantz, analysts say.

    A former military chief and ex-defence minister, Gantz visited Washington Monday before heading to London on Wednesday for high-level talks in a trip which was not authorised by Netanyahu.

    It served to highlight the deep divisions between the two men as international pressure mounts on Israel over the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with the genocide entering its sixth month.

    Gantz’s visit to the United States — Israel’s staunchest ally — shows that “his level of trust in Netanyahu is very low,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.

    It demonstrates he wanted to present an alternative view to Washington, he added.

    Gantz, who left the political opposition to join the war cabinet after Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel, has been at odds with Netanyahu on how to win the release of hostages and draw up an exit strategy from the conflict.

    But his trip to Washington has raised attention in Israel, and drew strong criticism from ministers of Netanyahu’s right-wing party Likud.

    “It looks like some kind of subversion,” said Transport Minister Miri Regev, adding Gantz is “working behind the prime minister’s back.”

    Dudi Amsalem, Israel’s regional cooperation minister and Netanyahu ally, said that Gantz had joined the wartime government “to create unity in an emergency, not to be a Trojan horse”.

    ‘Hate each other’

    “Tensions were always there,” between these “two people who hate each other,” said Reuven Hazan, a political science professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

    Five members make up the war cabinet, with Netanyahu, Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant seen as the main players.

    Hazan said Gantz travelled to Washington and London in a bid to demonstrate that he has the right profile to be a potential future prime minister.

    He met with US Vice President Kamala Harris a day after she delivered some of the most stinging US criticism of Israel since the war began calling for an “immediate ceasefire”.

    She also voiced the US administration’s concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and “urged Israel to take additional measures” to increase the flow of aid.

    Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas after its October 7 attack.

    The withering Israeli bombardment of Gaza has left more than 30,700 people dead in five months of war, and caused widespread destruction. UN agencies have also warned of the growing threat of famine as aid has struggled to reach those in need in Gaza.

    US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu are in an “open conflict” as the White House presses the Israeli leader not to “continue with a massive civilian casualties in Gaza” and “without knowing what to do the day after” the war, said Hazan.

    Gantz ‘comfortable counterpart’

    “Gantz is not where Netanyahu is, he is closer to the American position” on the war’s aftermath, said Hazan.

    He’s a “more comfortable counterpart” for Washington, “is more open to dialogue with moderate partners in the region” and over the role that the Palestinian Authority could play in Gaza after the war, Plesner added.

    Last week Gantz applauded Gallant’s proposal to reform military service in order to include ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are currently exempted for religious reasons.

    But the announcement shook Israeli politics to its core and was perceived in some Israeli media as a challenge from Gallant to Netanyahu, with both belonging to the same party.

    The proposal was a political bombshell and forces the prime minister into a tight corner, as the two main parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jews could topple his precarious coalition at any moment.

    Netanyahu is working on “avoiding an early election” that would benefit Gantz at any cost, said Plesner.

    Recent polls suggest that if there is an election, Gantz’s party will win the largest number of seats.

    “If there is one issue that might get out of hand and lead to a collapse of the coalition (it) is the issue of recruitment of ultra-Orthodox”, Plesner said.

    Gantz has to time his exit from the government in a way that makes Israelis feel he is “looking out for Israel’s interests” and create a perception that “Netanyahu is only looking at his personal interests,” said Hazan.

  • Israel says to allow worshippers access to Al-Aqsa in Ramzan as in ‘previous years’

    Israel says to allow worshippers access to Al-Aqsa in Ramzan as in ‘previous years’

    Israel will allow as many Muslim worshippers to access Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during the first week of Ramzan as in previous years, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday.

    “In the first week of Ramzan, worshippers will be allowed to enter the Temple Mount, in similar numbers to those in previous years,” the statement said, using the Jewish term for the site.

    “Every week there will be a situation assessment in terms of security and safety and a decision will be made accordingly,” it added.

    Every year, tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers perform Ramzan prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque.

    Ramzan comes this year as Israel wages a genocide in the Gaza Strip in a disproportionate response to Hamas in Israel on October 7.

    Israel has been assessing how to address worship in Jerusalem during Ramzan, the Islamic fasting month due to start on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

    Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had recently said that Palestinian residents of the West Bank “should not be allowed” entry to Jerusalem to pray during Ramzan.

    “We cannot take risks,” he said, adding: “We cannot have women and children hostage in Gaza and allow celebrations for Hamas on the Temple Mount.”

    Ben Gvir leads a hard-right party advocating Jewish control of the compound.

    Days later, the United States called on Israel to allow Muslims to worship at Al-Aqsa.

    “It’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve… it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

    “It is not in Israel’s security interest to inflame tensions in the West Bank or in the broader region.”

    Hamas has called for a mass movement on Al-Aqsa for the start of Ramzan.

    “Ramzan is sacred to Muslims; its sanctity will be upheld this year, as it is every year,” the Israeli government statement said after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting of all security agencies on Tuesday.

  • Gaza detainees released by Israel ‘traumatized,’ report abuse: UNRWA

    Gaza detainees released by Israel ‘traumatized,’ report abuse: UNRWA

    United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back “completely traumatized” upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said Monday.

    Detainees reported being subjected to a “broad range of ill treatment” including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a media briefing.

    The comments follow reporting by the New York Times on an internal investigation compiled by UNRWA staff documenting the state of returning detainees at the Kerem Shalom border.

    “We have seen these people coming back from detention, some of them for a couple of weeks, some of them for a couple of months, and most of them coming back (are) completely traumatized by the ordeal they have gone through,” Lazzarini said.

    “A number of people have been… debriefed about their ordeal, and we have indeed (compiled) an internal report about their experiences.”

    The report had been shared with rights groups specializing in detention, he added.

    Lazzarini’s comments capped a tumultuous day during which Israel and UNRWA have traded accusations, with Israel accusing the agency of having employed more than 450 “terrorists.”

    Ahead of Lazzarini’s comments, meanwhile, UNRWA said Israeli authorities had “detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip,” who later described abuses in custody.

    “Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse and sexual exploitation,” UNRWA said in a statement to AFP.

    “Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to sign confessions under torture and ill-treatment” while being asked about Hamas’s October 7 attack.

    Israel in Gaza has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Gaza health ministry.

  • Israel broadly agrees Gaza truce, US official says, ahead of talks

    Palestinian Territories – Israel has “more or less accepted” a proposal for a ceasefire in its attacks in the Gaza Strip, a US official said Saturday as Palestinian negotiators were expected in Cairo.

    Mediators have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which begins on March 10 or 11, eyeing an end to the almost five-month conflict that has ravaged Gaza.

    In a sign of the dire humanitarian conditions as violence rages on, the besieged territory’s health ministry reported more than a dozen child malnutrition deaths in recent days.

    The US official told reporters on condition of anonymity that “there’s a framework deal” for a ceasefire which “the Israelis have more or less accepted”.

    “Right now, the ball is in the camp of Hamas,” the official said.

    A source close to Hamas told AFP a delegation from the group was headed from Qatar to Egypt on Saturday.

    Israel has yet to confirm that it has accepted the truce plan.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Hamas would deliver its “official answer” to the plan, which resulted from talks with Israeli negotiators in Paris late last month.

    The mediators “will resume negotiations for a Gaza truce in Cairo on Sunday,” Egypt’s AlQahera News reported.

    Earlier the United States, which provides ally Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, said it began airdropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

    The start of the US relief operation came a day after President Joe Biden announced the move and spoke of the “need to do more” to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.

    But parachuting aid cannot replace “the fundamental need to move assistance through as many land crossings as possible”, the US official said.

    ‘Unjustifiable’ shooting

    Gaza has faced dwindling deliveries of relief supplies across its land borders, which aid groups blame at least in part on Israeli restrictions.

    US Central Command, in a post on social media platform X, said the air operation was conducted jointly with Jordan and saw planes drop “over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid”.

    Several Arab and European governments have carried out air drops over Gaza since November but Tuesday’s operation was the first involving the United States.

    At least 13 children have died from “malnutrition and dehydration”, the Gaza health ministry said Saturday, two days after a desperate rush for aid from a convoy of trucks in Gaza City ended in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians.

    The health ministry said Israeli forces shot civilians but the Israeli army insisted most died in a stampede or crush.

    A United Nations team that visited Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital reported seeing “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Palestinians in the aftermath of the aid truck storming.

    Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the city’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, said all the casualties it admitted were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from occupation forces”.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell joined calls for an “impartial international investigation” into the “tragic event” early Thursday.

    The shooting “against civilians trying to access foodstuff is unjustifiable”, he said.

    The health ministry said 116 people were killed and more than 750 wounded in the chaotic scenes, which drew widespread international condemnation.

    The aid convoy deaths helped push the number of Palestinian war dead in Gaza to 30,320, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    ‘Destruction is everywhere’

    Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, said on Friday that “a famine is almost inevitable”.

    Laerke cited the near-total closure of commercial food imports, the “trickle of trucks” coming in with food aid, and the “massive access constraints” to moving around inside Gaza.

    The International Rescue Committee said the very fact airdrops were “being considered is testament to the serious access challenges”.

    The group said parachuting aid mostly distracts “time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale”.

    AFPTV images showed people running and pedalling fast on bicycles past bomb-damaged buildings on a rutted dirt road to reach aid floating down to Gaza City.

    Hisham Abu Eid, 28, of Gaza City’s Zeitun area, said he got two bags of flour from an aid distribution and gave one to his neighbours.

    “Aid that is getting into Gaza is rare and not enough for even a small number of people. Famine is killing people,” Abu Eid said.

    As mediators seek a deal that may include more aid into Gaza and the release of hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under increasing domestic pressure over the fate of the remaining captives.

    Israelis protesters reached Jerusalem on Saturday, capping a four-day march from the Gaza border to pressure the government to secure the hostages’ release.

    The US official said a six-week ceasefire was on the table, “starting today if Hamas agrees to release the defined category of vulnerable hostages… the sick, the wounded, elderly and women”.

    In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the war have sought refuge, Israeli bombardment that hit a makeshift camp killed at least 11 people, the Gaza health ministry said.

    The strike near a hospital also left “about 50 injured, including children”, it added.

    The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

    An AFP journalist saw wounded people being rushed on stretchers to another Rafah hospital.

    “Destruction is everywhere and there are many martyrs,” said resident Belal Abu Jekhleh.

    burs-ami/kir

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israel forces kill more than 110 civilians rushing for food aid

    Israel forces kill more than 110 civilians rushing for food aid

    Israeli forces in Gaza opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid in a chaotic melee on Thursday that the health ministry said killed more than 100 people.

    The Israeli military said a “stampede” occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over by the lorries.

    An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.

    Gaza’s health ministry condemned what it called a “massacre” in Gaza City in which 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded.

    Türkiye accused Israel of committing “another crime against humanity” and condemning Gazans to “famine” as civilians scavenge for dwindling supplies of food.

    “The fact that Israel… this time targets innocent civilians in a queue for humanitarian aid, is evidence that (Israel) aims consciously and collectively to destroy the Palestinian people”, the Turkish foreign ministry  said in a statement.

    “We therefore call on all those with influence over the Israeli government to stop the ongoing violence in Gaza.”

    The incident adds to a Palestinian death toll from the war that the ministry said had topped 30,000, and dampens hopes a truce deal between Israel and Hamas militants could be just days away.

    There were conflicting reports on what exactly unfolded in the hours before dawn.

    A witness in Gaza City, declining to be named for safety reasons, said the violence began when thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks at the city’s western Nabulsi roundabout, with soldiers firing at the crowd “as people came too close” to tanks.

    Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had fired “a few warning shots” to try to disperse a crowd that had “ambushed” the aid trucks.

    When the crowd got too big, he said the convoy tried to retreat and “the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured”.

    Aerial images released by the Israeli army showed what it said were scores of people surrounding aid trucks in Gaza City.

    Ali Awad Ashqir, who said he had gone to get some food for his starving family, told AFP he had been waiting for two hours when trucks began to arrive.

    “The moment they arrived, the occupation army fired artillery shells and guns,” he said.

    Hagari later denied Israeli forces carried out any shelling or strikes at the time.

     ‘Another day from hell’ 

    U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the incident, while a State Department spokesman said the United States had been in touch with Israel and was “pressing for answers” on what happened.

    The incident would complicate efforts to broker a truce, Biden said, later admitting that any deal was unlikely to happen by Monday — the timeline that he had predicted earlier this week.

    The U.S. president spoke with Qatari and Egyptian leaders in separate phone calls, the White House said, saying he discussed both the ceasefire and the “tragic and alarming” aid incident.

    The U.N. Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting on the incident.

    The U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood condemned the incident before entering the meeting, calling it a “tragic day”.

    Saudi Arabia strongly condemned what it called the “targeting” of unarmed civilians, while Kuwait and the UAE also issued condemnations.

    Qatar warned that Israel’s “disregard for Palestinian blood… (will) pave the way for an expanding cycle of violence”.

    French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “strongest condemnation”, while Spain’s foreign minister described the events as “unacceptable”.

    European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell also denounced the “carnage”.

    Looting of aid trucks has previously occurred in northern Gaza, where desperate residents have taken to eating animal fodder and even leaves to stave off starvation.

    The chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that no U.N. agency had been involved in Thursday’s aid delivery, and called the incident “another day from hell”.

  • Death toll in Gaza exceeds 30,000 as Israeli attacks continue and famine looms

    Death toll in Gaza exceeds 30,000 as Israeli attacks continue and famine looms

    Palestinian Territories – The health ministry of Gaza said Thursday more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 as Israel intensified its attacks on the besieged strip.

    While mediators say a truce deal between Israel and Hamas could be just days away, aid agencies have sounded the alarm of a looming famine in Gaza’s north.

    Children have died “due to malnutrition, dehydration and widespread famine” at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, said the health ministry, whose spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra has called for “immediate action” from international organisations to prevent more of these deaths.

    Citing the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, USAID head Samantha Power said Israel needed to open more crossings so that “vitally needed humanitarian assistance can be dramatically surged”.

    “This is a matter of life and death,” Power said in a video posted on social media platform X.

    The latest overall toll for Palestinians killed in the war came after at least 79 people died overnight across the war-torn Gaza Strip, the health ministry said Thursday.

    Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been seeking a six-week pause.

    Negotiators are hoping a truce can begin by the start of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month that kicks off March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

    The proposals reportedly include the release of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

    Short of the complete withdrawal Hamas has called for, a source from the group said the deal might see Israeli forces leave “cities and populated areas”, allowing the return of some displaced Palestinians and humanitarian relief.

    US President Joe Biden is “pushing all of us to try to get this agreement over the finish line”, said his secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

    Famine ‘imminent’

    The crucial southern Gaza city of Rafah is the main entry point for aid crossing the border from neighbouring Egypt.

    But the World Food Programme said no humanitarian group had been able to deliver aid to the north for more than a month, accusing Israel of blocking access.

    Neighbouring Jordan has coordinated efforts to air-drop supplies over southern Gaza.

    “If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” the World Food Programme’s deputy executive director Carl Skau said.

    Israeli officials have denied blocking supplies, and the army on Wednesday said “50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid” had made it to northern Gaza in recent days.

    Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has left hundreds of thousands displaced, with nearly 1.5 million people now packed in Rafah.

    In a sign of growing desperation among Gazans over living conditions, a rare protest was held Wednesday by residents over the soaring prices of commodities.

    “Everyone is suffering inside these tents,” said Amal Zaghbar, who was displaced and sheltering in a makeshift camp.

    “We’re dying slowly.”

    Israel has repeatedly threatened a ground offensive on Rafah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a truce would only delay it, as such an operation was needed for “total victory” over Hamas.

    Egypt — which borders Rafah — says an assault on the overcrowded city would have “catastrophic repercussions”.

  • US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    The United States on Monday praised reforms by the Palestinian Authority as a step toward reuniting the West Bank with war-ravaged Gaza after the prime minister stepped down.

    “We do welcome steps for the PA to reform and revitalize itself,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, using the Palestinian Authority’s initials.

    Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had encouraged the Palestinian Authority “to take those steps” during talks with president Mahmud Abbas.

    “We think those steps are positive. We think they’re an important step to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority,” Miller said.

    He declined to comment directly on the resignation of prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, saying it was an internal matter for Palestinians.

    Shtayyeh submitted his resignation to 88-year-old Abbas, pointing to the need for change due to the “new reality” in the Gaza Strip, ruled by rivals Hamas.

    Israel launched a relentless military campaign into Gaza after Hamas on October 7 carried out the deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil.

    The Palestinian leadership has been divided since 2007, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited power in the West Bank.

    Blinken has called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to exert control over the Gaza Strip after the war, an idea that has not been met with enthusiasm from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, which has voiced opposition to creating a Palestinian state.

  • Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    The League of Arab States on Monday called Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories an “affront to international justice”, saying failure to end it amounted to “genocide”.

    The International Court of Justice entered its last day of week-long hearings after a request from the United Nations, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel’s occupation.

    “This prolonged occupation is an affront to international justice,” the 22 Arab-country bloc’s representative told judges in The Hague.

    “The failure to bring it to an end has led to the current horrors perpetrated against the Palestinian people, amounting to genocide,” Abdel Hakim El-Rifai said, reading a written statement.

    Most speakers during the hearings have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967.

    But last week the United States said Israel should not be legally obliged to withdraw without taking its “very real security needs” into account.

    Speakers on Monday warned a prolonged occupation posed an “extreme danger” to stability in the Middle East and beyond.

    “If left unchecked, it runs the risk of not only threatening regional, but also global peace and security,” Turkey’s representative Ahmet Yildiz said.

    Zambia’s representative however told judges that both sides had a duty to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

    “Both Israel and Palestine have a duty to respect international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Marshal Mubambe Muchende said.

    He said any settlement of the conflict should not be “one that puts the blame squarely on one party, but rather one that advances a negotiated solution which culminates in a two-state solution”.

    ‘Prejudicial’

    The UN has asked the ICJ to hand down an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

    The court will probably deliver its opinion before the end of the year but it is not binding on anyone.

    Israel is not taking part in the oral hearings. It submitted a written contribution, in which it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious”.

    The hearings began a week ago with three hours of testimony from Palestinian officials, who accused the Israeli occupiers of running a system of “colonialism and apartheid”.

    The case before the court is separate from one brought by South Africa against Israel for alleged genocide during its current offensive in Gaza.

    In that case, the ICJ ruled that Israel should do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow in humanitarian aid.

    Israeli’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 29,782 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, says he has submitted his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday that he had handed his West Bank government’s resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Shtayyeh added that he resigned last Tuesday but handed in the written resignation on Monday.

    What the Palestinian prime minister said

    “I submit the government’s resignation to Mr. President,” Shtayyeh said. He added that it came in the wake of the “developments related to the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

    Shtayyeh said he was resigning to allow Palestinians to form a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements amid Israel’s war against Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, in Gaza.

    The US has been pressuring Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank. This comes amid international efforts to stop the war and work toward a political structure to govern Gaza afterward.

    Abbas has yet to accept the resignation, and he may ask the Palestinian prime minister to stay in the role until a replacement is found.

    In a statement to the Cabinet, Shtayyeh said the next stage would “require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus.”

    He added that “the extension of the [Palestinian] Authority’s authority over the entire land, Palestine,” is another requirement.

    The Palestinian Authority lost control over the Gaza Strip following a struggle with Hamas in 2007. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, and Israel.