Tag: Hamas

  • Palestinians feel ‘no joy’ as Israel bombs Gaza on Christmas

    Palestinians feel ‘no joy’ as Israel bombs Gaza on Christmas

    Palestinians said they felt “no joy” this Christmas as Israel bombed Gaza on Monday, with no end in sight to the war that Hamas says has claimed more than 20,000 lives.

    Festivities were effectively scrapped in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, with few worshippers or tourists on the usually packed streets.

    In the besieged Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run ministry of health said early Monday Israeli strikes had killed at least 18 people in the southern city of Khan Yunis, the centre of recent fighting.

    At a hospital in the city, Fadi Sayegh — whose family has previously received permits to travel to Bethlehem for celebrations — said he would not be celebrating Christmas this year.

    “There is no joy. No Christmas tree, no decorations, no family dinner, no celebrations,” he said while undergoing dialysis. “I pray for this war to be over soon.”

    Sister Nabila Salah from the Catholic Holy Church in Gaza — where two Christian women were killed by an Israeli sniper earlier this month according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — struck a sombre tone.

    “All Christmas celebrations have been cancelled,” she told AFP. “How do we celebrate when we are… hearing the sound of tanks and bombardment instead of the ringing of bells?”

    The war broke out when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and seized 250 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

    Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas in response and its military campaign, which has included massive aerial bombardment. The campaign has killed 20,424 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    Pope Francis kicked off global Christmas celebrations on Sunday with a call for peace.

    “Our heart goes to Gaza, to all people in Gaza but a special attention to our Christian community in Gaza who is suffering,” the Catholic leader said.

    Christmas eve strike

    Just ahead of Christmas, the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 70 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

    Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the “toll is likely to rise” as many families were thought to be in the area at the time of the strike.

    In a separate incident, the ministry said 10 members of one family were killed in an Israeli strike on their house in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.

    AFP was unable to independently verify either toll.

    Vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins and its 2.4 million people have endured dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine due to an Israeli siege, alleviated only by the limited arrival of aid trucks.

    Eighty percent of Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many fleeing south and now shielding against the winter cold in makeshift tents.

    The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, called for an end to the suffering.

    “A humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “War defies logic and humanity, and prepares a future of more hatred and less peace.”

    World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also renewed calls for a ceasefire, saying: “The decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy.”

    ‘No choice’

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the war was exacting a “very heavy price”, as the death toll of soldiers killed in the conflict continued to mount.

    “But we have no choice but to keep fighting,” he said, adding: “This will be a long war.”

    The army said Monday two more soldiers had been killed, taking to 17 the number of troops killed since Friday and 156 since Israel’s ground assault began on October 27.

    Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus indicated that forces were close to gaining control in northern Gaza and that now “we focus our efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza”.

    Two freed detainees and a medic said Sunday that Palestinians held by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip had suffered torture, a charged denied by the military.

    The two men were among hundreds detained by Israeli forces over alleged links with Hamas during Israel’s ground offensive.

    About 20 men released from Israeli custody “have bruises and marks of blows on their bodies”, Marwan al-Hams, hospital director in the southern city of Rafah, told AFP.

  • Israel intentionally starving civilians in Gaza: HRW

    Israel intentionally starving civilians in Gaza: HRW

    The group Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the Israeli government of intentionally starving civilians in Gaza as part of its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory. 

    “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime,” the New York-based group charged in a report.

    “Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” it added.

    The Israeli government hit back at HRW, accusing it of being an “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli organisation”.

    “Human Rights Watch … did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of October 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what’s going on in Gaza if they turn a blind eye to the suffering and the human rights of Israelis,” foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP.

    The deadliest ever Gaza war began with the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7, when the group killed 1,139 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250, according to updated Israeli figures.

    The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have died in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

    Following months of fierce bombardment and fighting, most of Gaza’s population has been displaced and people are grappling with shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.

    Israel on Friday approved the “temporary” delivery of much-needed aid to Gaza via its Kerem Shalom crossing.

    A humanitarian aid convoy entered Gaza through the crossing on Sunday, the first since Israel approved the move, an Egyptian Red Crescent official said.

    A total of “79 trucks began entering today,” the official, who is not authorised to speak to the media, said on condition of anonymity.

  • Palestinians forced to loot aid trucks as hunger crisis worsen

    Palestinians forced to loot aid trucks as hunger crisis worsen

    Intensified Israeli attacks on Gaza continue after more than two months since the October 7 attacks.

    Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud from Rafah reported on increasing hunger in the Gaza strip as available resources are not enough to compensate for food requirements and other necessities for the locals who are now on “survival mode”.

    A video from Sunday shows Palestinians jumping onto aid trucks to get their hands on food and other supplies in the Rafah area near the border with Egypt.

    As the aid truck drove by, the locals tried to stop it, climbed up on it, pulling or pushing down containers of food and water, “carrying them off or passing them off to crowds below”.

    Al Jazeera reports that some trucks were guarded by masked people with sticks.

    “The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, not only for the residents of Rafah city but also for the one million displaced Palestinians here who are becoming hungry, thirsty and traumatised as the war pounds on,” said Hani Mahmoud.

    “People are without anything – without a home, without access to food, without water and without medical supplies,” he said.

    “So, the scenes at Rafah crossing are a natural response: When people starve to death, when they are hungry, this is what we will see happening.”

  • CNN’s Clarissa Ward first Western reporter to enter Gaza without Israeli supervision

    CNN’s Clarissa Ward first Western reporter to enter Gaza without Israeli supervision

    CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward has become the first Western journalist to have gone into the Gaza Strip without the Israel Defense Forces’ supervision, reporting from sight what she deemed “absolute horror.”

    Ward entered the besieged strip on Wednesday with UAE medical volunteers and visited a field hospital setup by the Gulf country.

    “Even in that brief window, you really got a sense of the absolute horrors that have been taking place in Gaza,” she said speaking to CNN.

    “I can honestly say I don’t think we’ve ever seen it quite on this scale.” she expressed while reviewing the destruction she witnessed.

    International coverage of Gaza depends on reports from Palestinian journalists, aid teams, health workers, and social media because of Israel’s entry bans.

    As of yet, at least 63 journalists have been killed since October 7 in Israeli airstrikes.

    Ward was initially accused of staging a video in which she can be seen trying to seek a safe place from attacks during live coverage near the Israel-Gaza border. CNN, however, rebutted these assertions, contending the authenticity of the video.

  • Huda Beauty’s founder willing to risk her business for truth and justice

    Huda Beauty’s founder willing to risk her business for truth and justice

    Huda Kattan, the founder of Huda Beauty, posted a video on December 11, stating that she will “not be intimidated” by the backlash she has faced for speaking up against Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

    “I am speaking on behalf of humanity, and I will not be intimidated,” Kattan said in her video.

    “We can’t be afraid to lose anything; we have to trust the process. If we lose something, something else will come to us the right way because we are doing good work — I believe that wholeheartedly,” she said.

    She also asserted that she is willing to risk her business for what’s right and fair.

    “I am willing to risk my entire business, everything that I have on that, in search of the truth and justice,” Kattan stressed.

    “I’m not antisemitic; I’m not anti any people and never will be. I stand against that,” Kattan added, pointing at the attempts being made to redefine terms related to genocide and that Israel is jeopardizing Jewish people.

    @hudaheidi #freepalestine #fyp #foryou @Huda Beauty @Huda ♬ كلام عينيه – شيرين

  • Yemenis turn captured Israeli-linked cargo ship into tourist attraction for locals

    Yemen’s Houthi movement has lately attacked and captured a number of Israeli-linked ships crossing through the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait — a pathway for the world’s oil shipment.

    Among the captured ships was an Israeli-linked cargo ship known as Galaxy Leader.

    Yemenis are now utilising the ship as a tourist spot for the locals.

    Visitors can be seen enjoying themselves as they dance, make videos and take pictures.

    Houthis have been targeting Israeli-linked ships following the failure of the international community to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza where more than 18,000 people have been killed because of heavy Israeli attacks and blockade of humanitarian aid.

  • Journalist in Gaza killed by an Israeli sniper

    Journalist in Gaza killed by an Israeli sniper

    Bisan, a reporter from Gaza, announced the death of another journalist, Mohamed Abu Samra, who has been killed by an Israeli sniper.

    Only days before his death, his twin brother Ahamad was killed in an air strike that targeted their home.

    As of December 10, the Committee to Protect Journalist’s preliminary investigations documented that at least 63 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7.

  • December 11: Global strike for Palestine

    December 11: Global strike for Palestine

    Palestinian activists and organisations across the world have called for a global strike on Monday, December 11, to demand immediate ceasefire of the Israeli attacks on Gaza that have intensified with time.

    Palestinian coalition, National and Islamic Forces, called for a strike and people across the world, to strike “all aspects of public life” in support of Gaza.

    “We expect the entire globe to join the strike, which comes in the context of a broad international movement involving influential figures. This movement stands against the open genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing and the colonial settlement in the West Bank,” the statement released by the coalition read.

    “The strike also opposes attempts to undermine the just national cause of the Palestinian people,” it said.

    People around the world have been called to unanimously express their solidarity with Palestinians who are currently suffering the consequences of Israeli atrocities being committed in Gaza. So far, more than 18,000 people have been killed and more than 49,000 people have been wounded.

  • In a rare move, UN secretary-general invokes Article 99 on Gaza

    In a rare move, UN secretary-general invokes Article 99 on Gaza

    The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, calling on the Security Council to declare a ceasefire to put a stop to Israeli atrocities committed in Gaza.

    Invoking Article 99 is one of the few powers that the Charter gives the UN Secretary-General.

    In a letter written to the council’s president, Guterres cites the responsibility of the 15-member Security Council that has the obligation to maintain international peace and security, stating that the situation in Gaza and Israel “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.”

    He added that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza can have “potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”

    UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric explained that the move has been taken “given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short amount of time.”

    He described the use of Article 99 as a “dramatic constitutional move” made by Guterres in the hope that it would put more pressure on the Council – and the international community at large – to demand a ceasefire between the warring parties.

    “I think it’s arguably the most important invocation”, Dujarric told reporters at UN Headquarters, “in my opinion, the most powerful tool that he [the Secretary-General] has.”

  • ‘Soul of my soul’; Bereaved grandfather comforts injured children in Gaza hospitals

    ‘Soul of my soul’; Bereaved grandfather comforts injured children in Gaza hospitals

    A few days back, a video of a Gazan grandfather bidding goodbye to his dead granddaughter went viral. In the video, the man, who’s two grandchildren were killed by Israeli airstrikes, kisses the little girl and hugs her as he calls her the “soul of my soul”.
    What touched hearts across the world was Khaled’s relationship with his granddaughter Reem.

    The grandfather, Khaled, is now volunteering in hospitals in Gaza. He can be found comforting other children who have been injured from Israeli air strikes. Many of the patients are severely wounded, having no access to adequate medical facilities because Israel has blocked aid into Gaza.