
Thousands gather at Dataran Merdeka in solidarity with Palestinians
The rally commenced with marches from three main points: Masjid Negara, Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad and Kompleks Sogo, before participants convened in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building.
Despite rain around 4pm, participants remained enthusiastic, continuing their march while wearing mufflers in the colours of the Palestinian flag and chanting slogans such as 'Bebaskan Palestin' and 'Undur Israel dari Gaza'.
The event at Dataran Merdeka resumed at around 5pm with a pantomime performance by Palestinian children, followed by songs and speeches from various attendees.
Participants also performed the Maghrib prayers in congregation at the assembly site before the programme, organised by the Humanity 4 Gaza (H4G) secretariat, continued. The event brought together 20 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from across the country.
Dang Wangi police chief ACP Affendy Sulaiman said that 400 police personnel were deployed to ensure security and manage traffic throughout the rally, working closely with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
"As of 8.30pm, we estimate that more than 2,000 participants attended the rally. The entire event was conducted peacefully and in a controlled manner," he said when contacted. – Bernama
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The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Israel prepares for costly Gaza City battle as Hamas digs in
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces are bracing for a gruelling battle in Gaza City, where Hamas fighters are deeply entrenched. Security experts warn the operation will be difficult and costly due to the dense urban environment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to target Hamas's last strongholds in Gaza City and central camps. Gaza City, once home to 760,000 people, has seen its population swell with displaced civilians fleeing northern combat zones. The city now features a mix of bomb-damaged buildings and makeshift shelters. Amir Avivi, a former Israeli general, calls Gaza City the 'heart of Hamas's rule in Gaza.' He notes it houses Hamas's strongest brigade and serves as the group's administrative centre. A major challenge is evacuating civilians, with around 300,000 residents still in the city. Israel has urged civilians to move south to designated humanitarian zones, but space is limited. 'You cannot put another one million people over there. It will be a horrible humanitarian crisis,' said Michael Milshtein, a former military intelligence officer. Humanitarian aid is being directed south of Gaza City to encourage movement, according to Avivi. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plans to expand aid sites from four to 16. However, Gaza's civil defence agency reports Israeli troops firing on civilians near these sites. Human Rights Watch has labelled the zones a 'death trap,' while the UN criticises the militarisation of aid. Milshtein estimates Hamas has 10,000 to 15,000 fighters in Gaza City, many newly recruited. 'It's very easy to convince a 17, 18, 19-year-old Palestinian to be a part of Al-Qassam Brigades,' he said. Hamas is preparing for urban warfare, with Milshtein comparing the coming battle to Stalingrad. Israeli forces will face tunnels, IEDs, and human shields in narrow alleys and high-rise buildings. 'It's almost impossible to go in there without creating both hostage casualties and a large humanitarian disaster,' said Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group. She predicts massive destruction, stating, 'They will simply destroy everything, and then nothing will be left.' Despite reported disagreements, army chief Eyal Zamir insists forces can capture Gaza City as they did Khan Yunis and Rafah. 'Our forces have operated there in the past, and we will know how to do it again,' he said. - AFP


Free Malaysia Today
7 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Israeli army will ‘take control' of Gaza City, says Netanyahu's office
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not intend to govern Gaza. (AP pic) JERUSALEM : Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan proposed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military to 'take control' of Gaza City, his office said in a statement Friday. Under the plan to 'defeat' Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army 'will prepare to take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones', it said. Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister faces mounting pressure at home and abroad for a truce to pull the Palestinian territory's more than two million people back from the brink of famine and to spare hostages held by Palestinian militants. As he convened his security cabinet on Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel planned to take full control of Gaza but did not intend to govern it. Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu told US network Fox News that the government intended to seize complete control of the Gaza Strip, where the military has been fighting Hamas since the Palestinian group's Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel. He added that Israel did not want 'to keep' the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967 but withdrew troops and settlers from in 2005. Netanyahu said Israel wanted a 'security perimeter' and to hand the Palestinian territory to 'Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.' 'That's not possible with Hamas,' he added. His office on Friday said a majority of the security cabinet had adopted 'five principles for concluding the war: the disarming of Hamas; the return of all hostages – living and dead; the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip; and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. 'A decisive majority of security cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the security cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,' it added, without giving further details. An expanded Israeli offensive in Gaza could see ground troops operate in densely populated areas where hostages are believed to be held, Israeli media reported. The reported plans to expand the war have sparked growing concern in Israel about what it means for the remaining hostages. As the cabinet meeting kicked off, hundreds rallied near the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, calling for a deal to free the hostages. 'The only way to bring the hostages home is to halt the war and end the suffering of the hostages and all those living through this terrible conflict,' said protester Sharon Kangasa-Cohen. In Gaza, fears grew over what an expansion of Israeli operations would entail. 'Ground operations mean more destruction and death,' said Ahmad Salem, 45. 'More destruction' Hamas in a statement said that 'Netanyahu's plans to escalate the aggression confirm beyond any doubt his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda.' Out of 251 hostages captured during Hamas's 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the military says are dead. Ahead of Thursday's meeting, rumours have been rife in the Israeli press about disagreements between the cabinet and Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose plans to fully reoccupy Gaza. Defence minister Israel Katz weighed in on social media Wednesday, saying the military must ultimately respect any policies adopted by the government. In a statement released by the military Thursday, Zamir underscored his independence, vowing to 'continue to express our position without fear'. 'Unrealistic costs' International concern has been growing over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment warned that famine was unfolding. The World Health Organization said at least 99 people have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip this year, with the figure likely an underestimate. Displaced Gazan Mahmoud Wafi said that the prices of available food remained high and erratic. 'We hope that food will be made available again in normal quantities and at reasonable prices, because we can no longer afford these extremely high and unrealistic costs,' the 38-year-old told AFP. In late July, Israel partially eased restrictions on aid entering Gaza, but the UN says the amount allowed into the territory remains insufficient. Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network in the Gaza Strip, told AFP that lengthy inspection procedures at entry points meant few trucks could come in – 'between 70 to 80 per day – carrying only specific types of goods'. The UN estimates that Gaza needs at least 600 trucks of aid per day to meet its residents' basic needs. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,258 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. The 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


New Straits Times
8 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Israel bombards Gaza City overnight; Hamas leader due in Cairo in bid to salvage ceasefire talks
CAIRO: Israeli planes and tanks kept bombarding eastern areas of Gaza City overnight, killing at least 11 people, witnesses and medics said on Tuesday, with Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya due in Cairo for talks to revive a US-backed ceasefire plan. The latest round of indirect talks in Qatar ended in deadlock in late July with Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas trading blame over the lack of progress on a U.S. proposal for a 60-day truce and hostage release deal. Israel has since said it will launch a new offensive and seize control of Gaza City, which it captured shortly after the war's outbreak in Oct 2023 before pulling out. Militants regrouped and have waged largely guerrilla-style war since then. It is unclear how long a new Israeli military incursion into the sprawling city in north Gaza, now widely reduced to rubble, could last or how it would differ from the earlier operation. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to expand military control over Gaza, expected to be launched in Oct, has increased a global outcry over the widespread devastation of the territory and a hunger crisis spreading among Gaza's largely homeless population of over two million. It has also stirred criticism in Israel, with the military chief of staff warning it could endanger surviving hostages and prove a death trap for Israeli soldiers. It has also raised fears of further displacement and hardship among the estimated one million Palestinians in the Gaza City region. Witnesses and medics said Israeli planes and tanks pounded eastern districts of Gaza City again overnight, killing seven people in two houses in the Zeitoun suburb and four in an apartment building in the city centre. In the south of the enclave, five people including a couple and their child were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Khan Younis and four by a strike on a tent encampment in nearby, coastal Mawasi, medics said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces take precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Separately, it said on Tuesday that its forces had killed dozens of militants in north Gaza over the past month and destroyed more tunnels used by militants in the area. MORE DEATHS FROM STARVATION, MALNUTRITION Five more people, including two children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said. The new deaths raised the number of deaths from the same causes to 227, including 103 children, since the war started, it added. Israel disputes the malnutrition fatality figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The war began on Oct 7, 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed over the border into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures, in the country's worst ever security lapse. Israel's ground and air war against the Islamist Hamas in Gaza since then has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, left much of the enclave in ruins and wrought a humanitarian disaster with grave shortages of food, drinking water and safe shelter. Netanyahu, whose far-right ultranationalist coalition allies want an outright Israeli takeover and re-settlement of Gaza, has vowed the war will not end until Hamas is eradicated. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the ceasefire talks said Hamas was prepared to return to the negotiating table. However, the gaps between the sides appear to remain wide on key issues including the extent of any Israeli military withdrawal and demands for Hamas to disarm, which it has ruled out before a Palestinian state is established. An Arab diplomat said mediators Egypt and Qatar have not given up on reviving the negotiations and that Israel's decision to announce its new Gaza City offensive plan may not be a bluff but served to bring Hamas back to the negotiating table. — REUTERS