Tag: war

  • Putin Says Russia Will ‘Intensify’ Attacks on Ukraine

    Putin Says Russia Will ‘Intensify’ Attacks on Ukraine

    President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will intensify strikes on military targets in Ukraine after an unprecedented attack over the weekend on the Russian city of Belgorod.

    The attack killed 24 people and left over 100 wounded in Belgorod on Saturday. It came after Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities.

    “We’re going to intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said Monday during a visit to a military hospital.

    He said Russia will press on with hitting what he called “military installations.”

    “We are doing that today, and tomorrow we will continue doing it,” Putin said, almost two years into Moscow’s offensive.

    He spoke as Ukraine said Russia had hit it with a “record” number of drones on New Year’s Day.

    Putin called the Belgorod hit a “terrorist attack” and accused Ukrainian forces of targeting “right in the city centre, where people were walking, before New Year’s Eve.”

    He repeated a claim that Ukraine is being used by the West to “settle its problems” with Russia.

    The Russian leader said he believed the “strategic initiative” in the dragging conflict was on the Russian side.

    “In any case that is how I am being briefed and I always insist: any offensive operations should be done after a defeat of the enemy,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

  • 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 faces mounting outrage over Gaza war

    Israel faces mounting outrage over Gaza war

    Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel faced mounting international pressure Monday over the rising civilian death toll and destruction of hospitals in Gaza, as it pressed on with its war in the besieged Palestinian territory.

    The United Nations Security Council was set to vote Monday on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” in Gaza.

    The health ministry says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s campaign in Gaza. It said dozens were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday.

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

    Fewer than one-third of Gaza’s hospitals are partly functioning, according to the UN, with the World Health Organization denouncing on Sunday the impact of Israeli operations on two hospitals in the north of the territory.

    WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was “appalled by the effective destruction” of the Kamal Adwan hospital, where Israeli forces carried out a multi-day operation against Hamas.

    Outside the hospital courtyard, which showed tank and bulldozer tracks, Abu Mohammed, who came to look for his son, stood crying.

    “I don’t know how I will find him,” he said, pointing to the debris.

    The Israeli army pulled out of the hospital on Sunday after an operation lasting several days, claiming it had been used as a command and control centre by Hamas.

    Israel said that before entering the hospital it had negotiated safe passage for the evacuation of most of the people inside.

    The WHO also said Israeli bombing had reduced the emergency department at the Al-Shifa hospital to “a bloodbath”.

    The health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Yunis, killing one person and injuring seven others.

    And the ministry said Israeli forces had stormed Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday and detained medical staff following several days of siege and bombing.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed to “fight until the end” on Sunday, promising to achieve the aims of eliminating Hamas, freeing all hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again become “a centre for terrorism”.

    Near Gaza’s northern border crossing at the Israeli city of Erez, the Israeli army said it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel so far.

    An AFP photographer reported that the tunnel was large enough for small vehicles to use.

    Israel said the tunnel cost millions of dollars and took years to construct, featuring rails, electricity, drainage and a communications network.

    The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 126 in the Gaza Strip since ground operations began in late October.

    Calls for truce

    The Israeli government has come under growing pressure from the international community to pause the fighting and do more to protect civilians.

    The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Gazans — around 80 percent — have been displaced by the war.

    “I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

    Gazans have also faced repeated communications outages but on Sunday Gaza’s main telecoms firm said mobile and internet service had been gradually restored.

    French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was in Israel on Sunday, where she called for an “immediate and durable” truce.

    France separately condemned an Israel bombardment that killed one of its foreign ministry officials in Gaza.

    Qatar, which helped mediate a truce last month that saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 jailed Palestinians, said there were “ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause”.

    But Hamas said on Telegram it was “against any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely”.

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Kuwait on Monday as part of a regional trip that will include stops in Israel and Qatar, which brokered a previous ceasefire deal.

    Syria strikes

    Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus on Sunday, wounding two Syrian soldiers, the Syrian defence ministry said.

    Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants are exchanging regular fire across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

    Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, saying they want to pressure Israel, have launched attacks on passing vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping zone, forcing major companies to redirect vessels.

  • Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

    Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

    Palestinian poet, writer, literature professor, and activist Dr. Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike, announced on Thursday evening.

    “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago,” wrote his friend, the Gazan poet, Mosab Abu Toha.

    The Israeli airstrike also killed his brother, his sister, and four of her children. He is now survived by his wife, Nusayba, and their children.

    Dr. Alareer was one of the leading contemporary authors in Gaza who settled on writing in English to tell stories of the besieged strip. He was one of the most prominent voices conveying details of the atrocities Israel is committing to global audiences.

    He had been working as a professor of literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza since 2007.

    His other contributions included co-editing Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and being editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2014).

    Dan Sheehan quotes in LitHub that in his contribution to the 2022 collection Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, titled “Gaza Asks: When Shall this Pass?”, Refaat writes:

    “It shall pass, I keep hoping. It shall pass, I keep saying. Sometimes I mean it. Sometimes I don’t. And as Gaza keeps gasping for life, we struggle for it to pass, we have no choice but to fight back and to tell her stories. For Palestine.”

    He was also one of the founders of We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit organisation founded in Gaza following the 2014 Israeli attack and devoted himself to establishing “a new generation of Palestinian writers and thinkers who can bring together a profound change to the Palestinian cause.”

    In November, Alareer published a poem on X entitled “If I must die” that was shared tens of thousands of times. It concludes with the words: “If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.”

    Via his X (formerly Twitter) account, “Refaat in Gaza“, Dr. Alareer also openly condemned Israeli atrocities being committed in Gaza and was also vocal against the US who has been supporting Israel in its operations.

    Remembering Refaat

    The announcement of Dr. Refaat Alareer’s death evoked a cascade of sorrow and anguish across social media, shared by his friends, colleagues, former students, and followers:

  • Israel resumes attacks in Gaza as truce ends

    Israel resumes attacks in Gaza as truce ends

    The additional one-day truce between Israel and Gaza has ended on Friday while the deadline to further extend the truce has passed in vain.

    Israeli Defense Forces wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that IDF has “resumed combat” against Hamas in Gaza because they “violated the operational pause, and in addition, fired toward Israeli territory.”

    As of yet, Al Jazeera has reported that according to witnesses in Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip, “heavy clashes are taking place between Palestinian fighting groups and Israeli troops,” while in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks are also firing near Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps. Additionally, air raids have also resumed.

  • Emirates suspends flights to Israel for an indefinite period

    Emirates suspends flights to Israel for an indefinite period

    Emirates announced the suspension of flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice on Wednesday, citing concerns related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. This marks the first instance of Emirates indefinitely halting operations to Tel Aviv.

    An Emirates spokesperson while talking to Gulf News stated, “We are closely monitoring the situation in Israel and are in close contact with the relevant authorities. Customers with onward connections to Tel Aviv on Emirates flights will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin until further notice.”

    The airline initially cancelled its Tel Aviv flights on October 12 due to safety concerns amidst the conflict, subsequently extending the suspension multiple times, with the latest extension lasting until November 30.

    In June 2022, the inaugural Emirates flight departed from Dubai International Airport to Tel Aviv, carrying 335 passengers. This milestone marked the initiation of a daily service connecting the two cities, a development spurred by the signing of the Abraham Accords.

    Separately, in a welcoming development, Israel and Hamas have brokered a four-day truce through the mediation of Qatar. As part of this agreement, 50 women and children held in Gaza will be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children currently detained in Israeli jails.

  • Qatar confirms Israel, Hamas reach deal on four-day truce, hostage release

    Qatar confirms Israel, Hamas reach deal on four-day truce, hostage release

    AFP – Doha, Qatar: Qatar confirmed on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on a four-day humanitarian pause, to begin in the next 24 hours, in exchange for the release of 50 hostages in Gaza.

    “The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

    “The agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement,” it added.

    Qatar has been engaged in weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations aimed at freeing some of the 240 hostages held in Gaza in return for temporary ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid.

    The number agreed for release by the militants is by far the largest since Hamas gunmen stormed over Gaza’s militarised border on October 7, seizing the hostages and killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

    In response, Israel has launched a relentless bombing campaign and subsequent ground invasion in Hamas-ruled Gaza, killing more than 14,100 people — two thirds of them women or children — according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Qatar said the deal had been undertaken with Egypt and the United States as well as Hamas and Israel and would include “the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs”.

  • Palestinian content leaves Israel miles behind on social media

    Palestinian content leaves Israel miles behind on social media

    While activists and civilians flood the streets across the world protesting for Palestine, social media is actively reflecting the changing tides. Currently, the hashtag #FreePalestine has over 2 billion views on TikTok, while in contrast the hashtag #standwithIsrael has over 162.8 million views.

    In a statement posted on Monday, the social media platform responded to US Representative (R) Mike Gallagher’s allegations that TikTok was “controlled by America’s s foremost adversary, one that does not share our interests or our values: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)”, calling for America to ban the app.

    TikTok said the overwhelming support teens have for Palestine is dominating the app’s algorithm.

    “Support for Israel (as compared to sympathy for Palestine) has been lower among younger Americans for some time. This is evidenced by looking at Gallup polling data of millennials dating as far back as 2010, long before TikTok even existed. A March 2023 Gallup poll, before the war, shows young adults have rapidly shifting attitudes towards the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. While an Echelon poll from October 26, 2023 shows that US TikTok users under 40 are more likely to support Israel (33% vs 28% for Palestine), and the proportions broadly reflect the split in the general under 40 population (32% for Israel, 23% for Palestine).”

    Other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram show more audiences engage with the pro-Palestinian content than with Israel’s. Instagram shows that the hashtag #FreePalestine has over 6 million views, while in comparison #IstandwithIsrael has gained only 233,000 views.

    Instagram was being taken to task by users for censoring and shadow banning prominent pro-Palestinian voices who were reporting on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Freelance journalist Plestia Alaqad reported her Instagram account was hacked.

    Furthermore, journalist Ahmed reported he was locked out of his Instagram account and was warned it would be shut down for violating the company’s guideline.

    On Facebook, the #FreePalestine hashtag has over 11 million views while in comparison the #IstandwithIsrael hashtag has over 323,000 views.

  • More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    On Thursday more than 100 activists, including writers and journalists, protested outside The New York Times head office to criticise the publication for their complicity in the genocide of Gaza, as the death toll climbs up to almost 11,000 Palestinians.

    Israeli tanks are currently surrounding all of the hospitals in Gaza with no opportunity for doctors and patients to leave, or for food and medicine to arrive.

    In viral videos, the journalists distributed a mock newspaper of the publication titled ‘The New York Crimes’ which listed the names of the 36 Palestinian journalists who have been confirmed dead since Israel declared war on Gaza.

    The activists accused NYT of complicity in the genocide in Palestine, demanding that the editorial board of the newspaper publicly back a ceasefire in Gaza.

  • One month of Israeli attacks, death toll crosses 10,000 in Gaza: What we know about day 32

    A month has passed since the declaration of war by Israel on Palestine. More than 10,000 people in Gaza have been killed including 4,104 children, while many are still trapped under the debris of destroyed infrastructure. Israeli blockades have led to scarcity of fuel, food and electricity.

    ‘Little pauses’, no ceasefire: Netanyahu

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted that there will be no ceasefire until the hostages being held in Gaza are released, adding that only “tactical little pauses” will be accepted.

    “An hour here, an hour there – we’ve had them before,” Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News. “I suppose we’ll check the circumstances, in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave.”

    While many around the world are calling for a ceasefire, the US has urged for a “humanitarian pause” without specifying the duration of the pauses.

    Considering the casualties and destruction of Gaza, human rights groups and organisations are calling for an immediate ceasefire.

    On the contrary, Hamas has reportedly offered to set hostages free if Palestinian captives are released from Israeli jails.

    Netanyahu also told ABC News that Israel would have “overall security responsibility” after the fighting with Hamas is over “for an indefinite period”, implying a continued occupation of the territory.

    Job losses costing Palestinians $16m a day

    The UN’s labour agency has revealed that job losses in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank are costing Palestinians $16m a day.

    The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported on Monday that 182,000 jobs have been lost in Gaza (61 percent of total employment).

    An additional 208,000 jobs losses have been recorded in the occupied West Bank, (24 percent of total employment).

    Aid into Gaza

    The Palestinian Red Crescent teams received 93 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent through the Rafah crossing on Monday.

    The supplies consisted of food, water, relief items, medical equipment and medications.

    Since October 21, a total of 569 trucks have been sent whereas before October 7, 750 to 850 trucks used to enter Gaza daily.

    Israel, however, has still not allowed fuel into Gaza.