Tag: Israel

  • Israel sets Ramadan deadline for Rafah assault

    Israel sets Ramadan deadline for Rafah assault

    Israel will launch its long-threatened offensive against Rafah next month if the remaining hostages held in Gaza are not freed by the start of Ramadan, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said.

    “The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know — if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

    Ramadan, the holy month, is expected to begin on March 10.

    The Israeli government has not previously specified a deadline for its planned assault on the city where the majority of the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.

    Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organisations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war.

    Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the war cannot be completed without pressing into Rafah.

    Speaking at the same Jerusalem conference on Sunday, Netanyahu renewed his vow “to finish the job to get total victory” over “Hamas”, with or without a hostage deal.

    Gantz added that an offensive would be carried out in a coordinated manner and in conversation with Americans and Egyptians to facilitate an evacuation and “minimise the civilian casualties as much as possible”.

    But where civilians can safely relocate to on the besieged Gaza Strip remains unclear.

    The comments come after weeks of ceasefire talks have failed to produce a deal, with key mediator Qatar acknowledging over the weekend that the prospects are dimming.

    Washington, Israel’s key ally and military backer, has been pushing for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of the 130 hostages still estimated by Israel to be held in Gaza, including around 30 presumed dead.

    Israel has said it believes many of those hostages, as well as the Hamas leadership, are holed up in Rafah.

    The militants took about 250 people hostage during the October 7 attacks that triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

    Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

  • Top UN court rejects South Africa request for more Gaza measures

    Top UN court rejects South Africa request for more Gaza measures

    THE HAGUE: The UN’s top court Friday rejected South Africa’s request to put more legal pressure on Israel to halt a threatened offensive against the Gaza city of Rafah, saying it was “bound to comply with existing measures.”

    Pretoria has already filed a complaint against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging that its assault on Gaza amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention.

    The court has yet to rule on the underlying issue, but on January 26 it ordered Israel to ensure it took action to protect Palestinian civilians from further harm and to allow in humanitarian aid.

    South African officials on Tuesday filed a further request to the court, asking it to order new measures in the light of Israel’s preparation of a new operation against Rafah.

    More than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have sought shelter there from Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.

    The ICJ’s judges acknowledged that the recent developments “’would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences’” — citing remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    But although Israel needed to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of Palestinians, that did not require “the indication of additional provisional measures,” they added.

    Israel remained “bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order,” the ICJ ruling said.

    Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

    Militants also took about 250 people hostage, around 130 of whom are still in Gaza, including 30 who are presumed dead, according to Israeli figures.

    Israel’s assault on Gaza has since killed at least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Israel’s foreign minister on Friday said the country would coordinate with Egypt before launching any military offensive in the southern border city of Rafah.

    “We will operate in Rafah after we coordinate with Egypt,” Israel Katz told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where 180 dignitaries have gathered to discuss conflicts around the globe.

    Fears had been growing for the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the north of Gaza to Rafah as Israeli troops advanced into the territory to wage war on Hamas.

    But Israel is now planning a major operation in the overcrowded city. With the border to Egypt closed, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are essentially trapped there.

  • Pressure mounts on Israel for Gaza ceasefire

    Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel faced growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire, as it planned an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

    CIA Director William Burns was due in Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-mediated ceasefire that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Gaza freeing hostages.

    His planned visit comes after Washington and the United Nations warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

    “Wherever we go there’s bombing, martyrs and wounded,” said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.

    On a visit to the White House Monday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II pushed for a full ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.

    “We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe,” said the monarch whose country hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.

    “We cannot stand by and let this continue. We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end.”

    After rejecting Gazas’s terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a predawn raid in Rafah on Monday that freed two hostages and killed around 100 people.

    Netanyahu hailed the overnight operation freeing Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, as “perfect”, while the Palestinian foreign ministry said the deaths of dozens of Gazans amounted to a “massacre”.

    The rare rescue mission under heavy air strikes came hours after Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden, who reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

    But Netanyahu has defied pressure from key ally and military backer Washington, insisting that “complete victory” cannot be achieved until the elimination of the militants’ last battalions in Rafah.

    While meeting with the units that freed the two hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said there would be “more operations” soon and pledged to see “Gaza destroyed”.

    “In my opinion, the day is not far.”

    No safe place

    Rafah has become a last refuge for over half of Gaza’s population, who are pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift encampments where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea, and a scarcity of food and water.

    Netanyahu has said Israel would provide “safe passage” to civilians trying to leave, but foreign governments and aid groups — as well as Gazans — wondered where they could go.

    “As it is, there is no place that is currently safe in Gaza,” said United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

    When asked about an evacuation mission, he said the UN would “not be party to forced displacement of people”.

    The UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk warned that “an extremely high number of civilians” would likely be killed or injured in a full Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the “meager” humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

    “It’s almost famine here, we’re almost out of flour in the north region,” said a man in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia. “We can’t even find food and drinks for the children.”

    ‘Time is running out’

    Israel’s operation to free the two hostages left Rafah with bomb craters and piles of rubble.

    The United States said it was deeply concerned by the reports that around 100 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the early Monday raid.

    The State Department also called for Israel to investigate the “heartbreaking” killing of six-year-old Gazan Hind Rajab.

    Her body was recovered on Saturday along with two relatives and two Red Crescent workers who went to find her after her family’s car came under fire while trying to flee an Israeli advance on Gaza City.

    “I will question before God on Judgment Day those who heard my daughter’s cries for help and did not save her,” Hind’s mother Wissam Hamada told AFP.

    At least 28,340 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

    Militants also seized about 250 foreign and Israeli captives from southern Israel, around 130 of whom Israel says are still held in Gaza including 29 who are presumed dead.

    The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group warned that “time is running out for the remaining hostages”, urging the Israeli government to “exhaust every option on the table to release them”.

  • Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead, family says, blaming Israel

    Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead, family says, blaming Israel

    Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – A six-year-old Palestinian girl who went missing after the family’s car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza was found dead Saturday, the health ministry and her relatives said, accusing Israel of killing her.

    The last time Hind Rajab had been seen was about two weeks ago when she was surrounded by dead relatives after becoming trapped in the vehicle as they tried to flee Gaza City as Israeli forces advanced.

    “Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred,” the girl’s grandfather, Baha Hamada told AFP.

    A number of family members made the grim discovery when they went to Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa area looking for the car near a petrol station where it had last been spotted, he said.

    “They were able to reach the area because Israeli forces withdrew early at dawn today,” Hamada added.

    The health ministry in the Gaza Strip confirmed Hind’s death.

    “She was killed by (Israeli) occupation forces with all those who were with her in the car outside the petrol station in Tel al-Hawa,” the ministry said in a statement.

    Earlier this week, family members had said the group found their way in the path of Israeli tanks and were fired on as they tried to flee.

    Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not comment on the incident.

  • Talks for a possible ceasefire between Gaza and Israel underway

    Talks for a possible ceasefire between Gaza and Israel underway

    Under the latest development, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has reportedly received “an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side” on the “general framework” for a ceasefire in Gaza.

    According to Qatari officials, Hamas has responded positively to receiving a proposal to pause the military operations in Gaza. However, the final deal is “weeks” away.

    As of January 30, reported by Al Jazeera, Hamas is “studying” a three-phased truce proposal whereas some Israeli officials have warned to “collapse the coalition” if the deal is not in accordance with their wants.

    On the other hand, journalists on social media are claiming that Hamas officials have denied confirmation of any agreement pertaining to a truce.

  • Iran executes four men convicted of spying for Israel

    Iran executes four men convicted of spying for Israel

    Iran executed four men at dawn on Monday after they were convicted of collaborating with the country’s arch-foe Israel on a plan to sabotage an Iranian defense site, according to the judiciary.

    The four defendants, identified as Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Wafa Azarbar, Pejman Fatehi, were arrested in July 2022 and accused of plotting to carry out out an operation against a Ministry of Defense centre in the central province of Isfahan, according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.

    “The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organisation, who were arrested… for plotting a bombing operation in Isfahan, was carried out this morning,” Mizan Online reported.

    According to Iran, the men had been recruited by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, “about a year and a half before the operation”.

    They were sent to African countries for “training courses in the military centres” where Mossad officers were present, the judiciary added.

    The men were sentenced to death in September 2023.

    In August 2023, Iran claimed to have foiled a “very complex” Mossad-initiated project to “sabotage” its ballistic missile industry. A few months earlier, in February, Teheran accused Israel of being responsible for a drone attack on a military site in Isfahan.

    The two countries have been engaged in a shadow war for decades, with Iran regularly accusing Israel and its ally the United States of inciting unrest.

  • Israel alleges UN organisation involved in Oct 7 attack, funding suspended for agency

    Israel alleges UN organisation involved in Oct 7 attack, funding suspended for agency

    Australia and Canada have suspended their funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, after Israel accused several employees of involvement in October 7 attacks by Hamas.

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday she was “deeply concerned” by the allegations against the agency, UNRWA.

    “We are speaking with partners and will temporarily pause disbursement of recent funding,” she wrote on social media platform X.

    “We welcome UNRWA’s immediate response, including terminating contracts and launching an investigation, as well as its recent announcement of a full investigation into allegations against the organization,” she added.

    Canada’s International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen on Friday announced that Ottawa had “temporarily paused any additional funding to UNRWA while it undertakes a thorough investigation into these allegations”.

    “Canada is taking these reports extremely seriously and is engaging closely with UNRWA and other donors on this issue,” he wrote on X.

    “Should the allegations prove to be accurate, Canada expects UNRWA to immediately act against those determined to have been involved in Hamas’s terrorist attacks.”

    The moves come after the United States halted its funding to UNRWA on Friday, saying the allegations were against 12 employees who “may have been involved” in the Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

    The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says it has opened an investigation into some employees Israel alleges were involved in the October 7 attacks, and that it has severed ties with those staff members.

    “The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on Friday.

    UN chief Antonio Guterres has pledged to conduct an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA”.

    Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, the agency provides services including schooling, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

    It is important to note that since the onset of the war on Gaza, Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have accused it of fuelling anti-Israeli incitement – allegations it denies.

    UNRWA says it has provided aid to desperate people in Gaza and used its facilities to shelter those fleeing Israeli attacks.

    The agency’s shelters have also been repeatedly targeted by Israeli missiles during the war, despite pleas for safe passages to deliver humanitarian aid and assistance.

  • Saudi Says Israel Must Be Held ‘Accountable’, After UN Court Rules

    Saudi Says Israel Must Be Held ‘Accountable’, After UN Court Rules

    Saudi Arabia on Friday welcomed the UN top court’s decision on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and called for the international community to “hold Israel accountable” for “violations” of international law.

    In a statement, the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry also called for “more measures” to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and provide protection for the Palestinian people.

  • International Court of Justice acknowledges Israeli genocide against Palestinians; does not call for ceasefire

    International Court of Justice acknowledges Israeli genocide against Palestinians; does not call for ceasefire

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced its first ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel on Friday evening, calling on Israel to take urgent and effective measure to protect Palestinians, contain death toll and destruction, acknowledging that there is a risk of genocide in Gaza. However, it did not call for an immediate ceasefire.

    The hearing took place on Friday with 16 judges out of the court’s 17-member panel, present. Presiding Judge Joan Donoghue asserted that the court has the authority to rule over emergency measures in the case.

    The court noted that the charges against Israel fall under the provisions of the Genocide Convention, additionally acknowledging that Israeli military operations have killed as well as injured a large number Palestinians in Gaza, destroyed a number of homes and infrastructure, and resulted in the internal displacement of about 1.7 million people.

    It was further acknowledged that the Palestinians’ have the right to be protected from acts of genocide.

    The issue of “dehumanising language” used against Palestinians was also highlighted, particularly shedding light on statements by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordering a “complete siege” of Gaza and apprising the soldiers that they are fighting against “human animals”.

    Social Media Reacts

  • Indian singer Lucky Ali wants a state for Palestinians

    Indian singer Lucky Ali wants a state for Palestinians

    As Israel continues with its genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, famous people worldwide are asking for an immediate stop to the fighting and for Palestine to be free. Indian singer Lucky Ali, who has supported Palestine since a long time, has spoken up for the establishment of a free state for Palestinians.

    In a video posted on Instagram and X, Lucky Ali can be seen speaking up for Palestine during a concert in Dubai. “There can only be one state, and I agree with Netanyahu on that. But it has to be Palestine,” he said.

    The crowd in the video cheered and clapped when Lucky Ali spoke up. “We can all live together, but the state has to be Palestine,” the Indian singer said.