Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza, spokesperson says
This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, home to about 2.2 million people.
The equipment will be transferred via the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom by the United Nations and other international relief organisations after being thoroughly inspected by defence ministry personnel, Adraee added in a post on X.
Israel's COGAT, the military agency that coordinates aid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the preparations were part of the new plan.
Taking over the city of about one million Palestinians complicates ceasefire efforts to end the nearly two-year war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu follows through with his plan to take on Hamas' two remaining strongholds.
Netanyahu said Israel had no choice but to complete the job and defeat Hamas as the Palestinian militant group has refused to lay down its arms.
Hamas said it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state was established.
Israel already controls about 75% of Gaza.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are alive.
Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry says. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.
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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
'Not in our name': Israelis protest against Gaza war - but Netanyahu seems unmoved
The coordinates came through last minute. The instruction was to get there fast. People organising demonstrations, blocking motorways and major intersections, did not want police getting wind of their plans. The one we found ourselves at, near the town of Lod, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, felt a bit like a flash-mob protest, done and dusted in less than half an hour. The protestors had set fire to tyres, which blazed across the motorway, filling the sky with thick black smoke. They waved the Israeli flag and other yellow flags to show solidarity with the remaining hostages still in Gaza, whose photos they carried - their faces and names seared on the collective consciousness now - a collective trauma. "We want the war to end, we want our hostages back, we want our soldiers back safe home, and we want the humanitarian disaster in Gaza to end", one of the protestors told me. "We do not want to have these crimes made in our name." And then she was gone, off to the next location as the group vanished in a matter of minutes, leaving police to put out the fire. This was a day of stoppage, a nationwide strike - a change of tactics by the hostage families to up the ante with the government in their calls to stop the war, make a deal and bring the hostages home. Benjamin Netanyahu was unmoved. "Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas's stance and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will recur again and again", he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. Netanyahu 'broke contract' with us Ahead of the day of strike action, we spoke to a former Air Force reservist who quit in April in protest over Netanyahu's decision to break the ceasefire. "I felt he hadn't broken the contract with Hamas, he'd broken the contract with us - with the people, releasing the hostages, stopping the war. That was my breaking point." He wanted to be anonymous, identifying himself by the call sign 'F'. He had done three tours since the war began, mostly spent with eyes on Gaza - coordinating air strikes to support ground operations and ensuring the Air Force gets the target right. 2:55 'This is eternal war' "It's very complicated, very demanding and very hectic. The main problem is to see that you follow the rules and there are lots of rules - safety rules, international law rules, military doctrine rules. "And to see that there are no mistakes because you can check all the rules, you can make everything perfect, if there's a mistake, it bypasses everything you did and the bomb would fall on someone you didn't want it to fall on." I ask him how he feels about the huge death toll in Gaza. "Look, the uninvolved death toll is tough. It's tough personally, it's tough emotionally, it's tough professionally. It shouldn't happen. "When you conduct a war at this scale, it will happen. It will happen because of mistakes, because of the chaos of war." 1:05 He is softly spoken, considered and thoughtful, but says he's prepared to take part in the more radical protest actions, such as blocking motorways and starting fires, to try and get the message through. "Hamas is probably the weakest enemy we have had since 1948," he says. "In '48, in the liberation of Israel, we fought seven armies, much better equipped, better ordered than us, and the war took less time. "We stopped the war with Iran after 12 days. They are much more dangerous than Hamas. We stopped a war with Hezbollah in a couple of months, and they are still a much bigger threat than Hamas.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ex-Israeli intelligence chief said 50 Palestinians must die for every 7 October victim
The Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day and 'it does not matter now if they are children', in recordings broadcast by Israel's Channel 12 TV station. Aharon Haliva said the toll in Gaza, which he put at more than 50,000 dead, was 'necessary' as a 'message to future generations' of Palestinians. 'They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price,' he added, referring to the mass expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands after the creation of Israel in 1948. Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic. Much of Israel's leadership and media has used genocidal rhetoric about Palestinians since Hamas's 7 October attacks, including describing them as 'human animals', saying there are 'no innocents' in Gaza and calling for Gaza's total destruction and its ethnic cleansing. However, Haliva's description of a campaign of mass killing including children was an unusually direct description of collective punishment of civilians, which is illegal under international law. Haliva, who stepped down from his position in April 2024, also appeared to endorse the casualty figures compiled by health authorities in Gaza, which Israeli officials regularly attack as propaganda. They have proved reliable in past conflicts. Channel 12 said the undated conversations were recorded 'in recent months'. The Gaza health ministry's toll for those killed by Israeli attacks passed 50,000 in March and has recently climbed above 60,000. Israel's most recent published data on the war put the number of militants killed at about 20,000, so Haliva would have been aware that even by his country's own count most of the Palestinians killed were civilians. 'The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,' he said in the broadcast comments. 'For everything that happened on October 7th, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die. It doesn't matter now if they are children.' About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led cross-border attacks, the majority of them civilians, and 250 were taken hostage to Gaza. Channel 12 did not clarify how it had obtained the recordings or who Haliva was speaking with. Israel's Haaretz newspaper described the recordings as a format that allowed the retired officer to 'give an interview … without actually being interviewed'. Haliva's comments about mass killings of Palestinian civilians did not make headlines in other mainstream Israeli outlets. They focused instead on his criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu and warnings of systemic failures in security and intelligence. That coverage highlighted the vast gulf between how the war is perceived and discussed inside Israel's borders and beyond them. Among Israelis, Haliva is widely seen as a centrist critic of the current government and its far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, as the general himself noted in the broadcast comments. He quoted an internal critic at the intelligence directorate telling him it was 'lucky' that many of those killed and kidnapped on 7 October 2023 were leftwing Israelis linked to peace movements. 'He told me: 'If this had happened to us, the right, you wouldn't have gone to war like this,'' Haliva said. 'That's what people believe here.' Quique Kierszenbaum contributed to this report
BreakingNews.ie
2 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Israel's growing frustration over war in Gaza erupts in nationwide protests
Israeli police made dozens of arrests on Sunday as tens of thousands of protesters demanding a deal to free hostages in Gaza tried to shut down the country in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war. Groups representing families of hostages organised the demonstrations, and gave an even larger estimate of attendees, as frustration grows in Israel over plans for a new military offensive in some of Gaza's most populated areas. Advertisement Many Israelis fear this could further endanger the remaining hostages. Twenty of the 50 who remain are believed to be alive. 'We don't win a war over the bodies of hostages,' protesters chanted. Even some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs now call for a deal to end the fighting. Protesters gathered at dozens of places including outside politicians' homes, military headquarters and on major roads. They blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Some restaurants and theatres closed in solidarity. Police said they arrested 38 people. Advertisement 'The only way to bring (hostages) back is through a deal, all at once, without games,' former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv. Her boyfriend Ariel Cunio is still held by Hamas. Demonstrators block a road during a protest near Jerusalem (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP) One protester carried a photo of an emaciated Palestinian child from Gaza. Such images were once rare at Israeli demonstrations but now appear more often as outrage grows over conditions for Palestinian civilians after more than 250 malnutrition-related deaths. An end to the war does not seem near. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing competing pressures including the potential for mutiny within his coalition. 'Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas's position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will be repeated,' Mr Netanyahu said, referencing the Hamas-led attack in 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and sparked the war. Advertisement The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages earlier this year, far-right members of his cabinet threatened to topple Mr Netanyahu's government. Frustration is growing in Israel over plans for a new military offensive in some of Gaza's most populated areas (Mahmoud Illean/AP) Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called the demonstrations on Sunday 'a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas's hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardise its security and future'. The new offensive would require the call-up of thousands of reservists, another concern for many Israelis. Hospitals and witnesses in Gaza said Israeli forces killed at least 17 aid-seekers on Sunday, including nine awaiting UN aid trucks close to the Morag corridor. Advertisement Hamza Asfour said he was just north of the corridor awaiting a convoy when Israeli snipers fired, first to disperse the crowds, then from tanks hundreds of metres away. He saw two people with gunshot wounds. 'It's either to take this risk or wait and see my family die of starvation,' he said. Protesters gathered at dozens of locations, including in Tel Aviv (Maya Levin/AP) The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the Israeli-backed and US-supported distribution points that have become the main source of aid since they opened in May, said there was no gunfire 'at or near' its sites, which are located in military-controlled areas. Israel's military did not immediately respond to questions. Advertisement Israel's air and ground war has displaced most of Gaza's population and killed more than 61,900 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. Two children and five adults died of malnutrition-related causes on Sunday, according to the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own. The United Nations has warned that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Most aid has been blocked from entering Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade in March after ending a ceasefire. Deliveries have since partially resumed, though aid organisations say the flow is far below what is needed. It is not clear when Israel's military will begin the new offensive in the crowded Gaza City, Muwasi and what Mr Netanyahu has called the 'central camps' of Gaza. Humanitarian aid was airdropped to Palestinians over Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) The military body that co-ordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, this weekend noted plans to forcibly evacuate people from combat zones to southern Gaza 'for their protection'. But designated 'safe zones' have also been bombed during the war. War-weary Palestinians said on Sunday that they would not leave, arguing that there was 'no safe place' in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's capital on Sunday, escalating strikes on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who since the war in Gaza began have fired missiles at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea. The Houthi-run Al-Masirah Television said the strikes targeted a power plant in the southern district of Sanhan, sparking a fire and knocking it out of service. Israel's military said the strikes were launched in response to missiles and drones aimed at Israel.
