Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza as Israelis urge mass protest over war
The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war — a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks.
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A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. 'Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,' it said in a statement.
'I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,' said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity.
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She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv, along with Pushpa Joshi, sister of kidnapped Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, a student seized from a kibbutz.
'I miss my best friend,' Pushpa said.
A Palestinian man carried the body of his 7-year-old nephew Alaa Al-Toum who, according to the family, was killed in an Israeli army airstrike on Friday.
Jehad Alshrafi/Associated Press
Airstrike kills a baby girl and her parents
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.
'Two and a half months, what has she done?' neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). 'They are civilians in an area designated safe.'
Israel's military said it couldn't comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas' military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians.
Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen the coming military offensive, along with Gaza City and 'central camps' — an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza.
Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in
Elsewhere, an official at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the Zikim area of northern Gaza, as well as four people killed in shelling.
Palestinians struggled to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
Jehad Alshrafi/Associated Press
11 more deaths related to malnutrition
Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said Saturday, with one child among them. That brings malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251.
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The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza.
A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' died Friday after being transferred from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday.
The U.N. and partners say getting food and other aid into the territory of over 2 million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians.
The U.N. human rights office says at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and Wednesday. It says 766 were killed along routes of supply convoys and 994 in the vicinity of 'non-U.N. militarized sites,' a reference to the Israeli-backed and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza.
People took part in a protest demanding the end of the war, the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv.
Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press
US stops visitor visas for people from Gaza
The U.S. State Department on Saturday said all visitor visas for people from Gaza are being stopped while a review is carried out of how 'a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas' were issued in recent days.
The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
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The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Palestine Action's violent criminality is not lawful protest
Faced with the intolerable scenes of suffering and devastation in Gaza, people across the country are feeling desperate and angry about what is happening and many have joined protests on the street. Each month, the police work with organisers to facilitate safe, lawful protests, and will continue to do so. Over the last 18 months, hundreds of thousands of people have joined pro-Palestinian protests, while only a tiny minority have been arrested for breaking the law. Protest and free speech are an important part of our democracy and those freedoms will always be protected. So anyone who wants to protest against the catastrophic humanitarian situation and crimes against humanity in Gaza, to oppose Israel's military offensive, or to criticise the actions of any and every government, including our own, has the freedom to do so. The recent proscription of the group Palestine Action does not prevent those protests, and to claim otherwise is nonsense. That proscription concerns one specific organisation alone – a group that has conducted an escalating campaign involving not just sustained criminal damage, including to Britain's national security infrastructure, but also intimidation, violence, weapons, and serious injuries to individuals. The clear advice and intelligence given to me earlier this year from the UK's world-leading counter-terrorism system, based on a robust assessment process, was that Palestine Action satisfies the relevant tests in the Terrorism Act 2000 and should be proscribed. Some may think it is just a regular protest group known for occasional stunts. But that is not the extent of its past activities. Nor does it reflect disturbing information given to me that covered ideas and planning for future attacks. Many of those important details cannot yet be publicly reported because of criminal proceedings. But if stunts were the only concern, its proscription would never have been considered in the first place, and it certainly wouldn't have become the unanimous recommendation to ministers from the cross-government security expert review group. Palestine Action has claimed responsibility for – and promoted on its website – attacks that have seen those allegedly involved subsequently charged with violent disorder, grievous bodily harm with intent, actual bodily harm, criminal damage and aggravated burglary. Charges that include, in the assessment of the independent Crown Prosecution Service, a terrorism connection. Many people will also know about the attack on RAF planes at Brize Norton, but fewer will have read about the Jewish-owned business in north London badly vandalised in the dead of night by masked men just three weeks before. Or the attack on a Glasgow factory that caused the sentencing sheriff to say: 'Throwing pyrotechnics into areas where people are being evacuated could hardly be described as non-violent.' 'For a home secretary to ignore all the security assessments, advice and recommendations on Palestine Action would be irresponsible' Or the 'underground manual' that encourages the creation of cells, provides practical guidance on how to identify targets to attack and how to evade law enforcement. These are not the actions of a legitimate protest group. For a home secretary to ignore all those security assessments, advice and recommendations would be irresponsible. Protecting public safety and national security are at the very heart of the job I do. Were there to be further serious attacks or injuries, the government would rightly be condemned for not acting sooner to keep people safe. Public protests on the Gaza crisis will continue through the summer, and the overwhelming majority of those involved do not and will not endorse violent and criminal tactics. That is why the proscription of this group is not about protest or the Palestinian cause. In a democracy, lawful protest is a fundamental right but violent criminality is not. Some of those holding placards in direct support of Palestine Action may not know the kind of organisation they have been promoting: its violence, intimidation, or future plans and aspirations. But that is all the more reason why no one should allow desperate calls for peace in the Middle East to be derailed into a campaign to support one narrow group involved in violence here in the UK. Because it is those calls for peace that should be the most urgent focus now. Each day the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, the conditions for hostages deteriorate, the prospects for peace are diminished, and the scenes of children being shot and starved get ever more horrific. An immediate ceasefire, release of the hostages and urgent humanitarian aid are vital. So too is the pathway the prime minister has set out to the recognition of a Palestinian state, now supported by Australia and Canada as well as France. Yvette Cooper is home secretary. Photograph by @FLO360aero
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Trump administration wants to end the UN peacekeeping in Lebanon. Europe is pushing back
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Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
Thousands storm Manhattan calling for 'global intifada,' a phrase with a pending violence designation
Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators reportedly flooded midtown Manhattan Saturday afternoon, calling for a "global intifada," a slogan many view as an incitement to violence against Jewish communities. The Stand with Gaza protesters, carrying signs seeking to "end all aid to Israel," clanged cowbells while chanting "free, free Palestine" and "Palestine will live forever." Since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas in southern Israel, the phrase "globalize the intifada" has been referred to as a call for antisemitic violence. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, recently sparked controversy after failing to publicly condemn the mantra. After critics noted his silence on the issue, he said it is not "language" he uses. "It is language, I understand, there are concerns about, and what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words and my actions," Mamdani said. Bipartisan legislation recently introduced by U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., would denounce the term as "a call to violence against Israeli and Jewish people across the world." "Condemning it should be common sense, but some would rather play politics than tell the truth," Yakym told Fox News Digital in July. "The violence and hatred directed at Jewish and Israeli people is reprehensible. No one, especially in America, should have to live in fear for their safety, or even their life, because of their religion or ethnicity." Gottheimer, who is Jewish, added the intifada refers to the horrific wave of terror attacks that killed thousands of Jews. Globalizing it, he said, is a direct call for violence against Jews. "It must be condemned," Gottheimer said. "I'm against hate speech targeting anyone — and everyone should be. It's insane and unacceptable to me that this antisemitic rhetoric is spreading rampant across our country." The legislation cites violent attacks against Jewish people in the U.S., including the fatal burning of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, and the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in D.C. If passed in the House, the resolution would denote the phrase as a call for violence against Israeli and Jewish people throughout the world, putting their safety at risk. It would also discourage leaders from supporting or partaking in the chant.
