First boat carrying 1,500 stranded Israelis docks in Israel: Army
"As part of the Ministry of Transportation's Operation 'Safe Return,' a passenger ship bringing Israelis from the Port of Limassol in Cyprus docked today... at the Ashdod Port with over 1,500 Israelis on board," the army said in a statement.
AFP
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Nahar Net
2 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Egypt says Gaza mediators 'working very hard' to revive truce plan
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 August 2025, 19:52 Egypt said Tuesday it was working with fellow Gaza mediators Qatar and the United States to broker a 60-day truce, as part of a renewed push to end the Israel-Hamas war. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty made the announcement at a press conference in Cairo, as two Palestinian sources told AFP that a senior Hamas delegation was due to meet Egyptian officials for talks on Wednesday. Diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 22-month-old war has stalled for weeks, after the latest round of negotiations broke down in July. Abdelatty said that "we are working very hard now in full cooperation with the Qataris and Americans", aiming for "a ceasefire for 60 days, with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees, and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions, without conditions". One of the Palestinian sources earlier told AFP that the mediators were working "to formulate a new comprehensive ceasefire agreement proposal" that would include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza "in one batch". Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year. The Hamas delegation expected in Cairo, led by the group's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, is scheduled to meet Egyptian officials on Wednesday to "discuss the latest developments" in negotiations, said the second Palestinian source. News of the potential truce talks came as Gaza's civil defense agency said Israel has intensified its air strikes on Gaza City in recent days, following a government decision to expand the war there. - Intensified strikes - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not provided an exact timetable on when forces may enter the area, but civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Tuesday that air raids had already begun increasing over the past three days. Bassal said the neighborhoods of Zeitun and Sabra have been hit "with very heavy air strikes targeting civilian homes". "For the third consecutive day, the Israeli occupation is intensifying its bombardment" using "bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction", he said. Bassal said that Israeli strikes across the territory, including on Gaza City, killed at least 33 people on Tuesday. "The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes," said Majed al-Hosary, a resident of Gaza City's Zeitun. "There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped." An Israeli air strike on Sunday killed five Al Jazeera employees and a freelance reporter outside a Gaza City hospital, with Israel accusing one of the slain Al Jazeera correspondents of being a Hamas militant. Israel has faced mounting criticism over the war, which was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 2023 attack. U.N.-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allowed in. Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages -- 49 people including 27 the Israeli military says are dead -- as well as over his plans to expand the war. The Israeli premier has vowed to keep on with or without the backing of Israel's allies. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable.
Nahar Net
4 hours ago
- Nahar Net
'Nothing will be left': Israel prepares for Gaza City battle
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 August 2025, 12:53 In a dense urban landscape, with likely thousands of Hamas fighters lying in wait, taking Gaza City will be a difficult and costly slog for the Israeli army, security experts say. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of victory in Gaza following 22 months of war --- with the military ordered to attack the last remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps further south. With a pre-war population of some 760,000, according to official figures, Gaza City was the biggest of any municipal area in the Palestinian territories. But following the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that sparked the war, its population has only swelled, with thousands of displaced people fleeing intensive military operations to the north. Gaza City itself has come under intense aerial bombardment, and its remaining apartment buildings now rub shoulders with tents and other makeshift shelters. - 'Death trap' - Amir Avivi, a former Israeli general and head of the Israeli Defense and Security Forum think tank, described the city as the "heart of Hamas's rule in Gaza". "Gaza City has always been the center of government and also has the strongest brigade of Hamas," he said. The first challenge for Israeli troops relates to Netanyahu's call for the evacuation of civilians -- how such a feat will be carried out remains unclear. Unlike the rest of the Strip, where most of the population has been displaced at least once, around 300,000 residents of Gaza City have not moved since the outbreak of the conflict, according to Avivi. Israel has already tried to push civilians further south to so-called humanitarian zones established by the military, but there is likely little space to accommodate more arrivals. "You cannot put another one million people over there. It will be a horrible humanitarian crisis," said Michael Milshtein, an Israeli former military intelligence officer. According to Avivi, humanitarian aid would be mainly distributed south of Gaza City in order to encourage residents to move toward future distribution sites managed by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Up from just four currently, the GHF plans to operate 16 sites. However, Gaza's civil defense agency says Israeli troops are firing at and killing civilians daily around the sites. Human Rights Watch has called them a "death trap", while the UN and other groups have lashed out at what they call a militarization of aid. - 'Stalingrad' - According to Michael Milshtein, who heads the Palestinian Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, Hamas's military wing could have as many as 10,000 to 15,000 fighters in Gaza City, many of them freshly recruited. "It's very easy to convince a 17, 18, 19-year-old Palestinian to be a part of Al-Qassam Brigades," Milshtein told AFP, referring to Hamas's armed wing as he cited a lack of opportunities for much Gaza's population. "While (Israel's army) prepares itself, Hamas also prepares itself for the coming warfare, if it takes place," he added, predicting that the battle could end up being "very similar to Stalingrad." He was referring to the battle for the city now known as Volgograd, one of the longest and bloodiest in World War II. The Israeli army will encounter obstacles including a vast network of tunnels where Israeli hostages are likely being held, along with weapons depots, hiding places and combat posts. Other obstacles could include improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and the use of civilians as human shields in a dense urban maze of narrow alleys and tall buildings, according to press reports. "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. The material destruction, she added, will be enormous. "They will simply destroy everything, and then nothing will be left," she said. Despite rumored disagreements over the plan by the chief of the army Eyal Zamir, the general said his forces "will be able to conquer Gaza City, just as it did in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south," according to a statement on Monday. "Our forces have operated there in the past, and we will know how to do it again."
LBCI
5 hours ago
- LBCI
Preparations underway: Gaza occupation plan slowed by recruitment shortfall and tunnel threats
Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi The Israeli army has redeployed its units across multiple fronts, moving most of them south in preparation for the first phase of a plan to occupy the Gaza Strip. The move comes alongside the call-up of 450,000 soldiers, a decision that has sparked significant anger and opposition among reservists. Military sources acknowledge difficulties in mobilizing more than 60% of reserve brigade members. The army has also issued warnings about the risks of implementing the political leadership's decision, noting that Israel's focus remains on the West Bank, Iran, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and the infrastructure of hostile groups in Syria and Jordan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing to justify the occupation plan, insisted that eliminating Hamas is essential to Israel's security and declared that his government is determined to reshape the Middle East, including developments in Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. Military officials admitted that the army has not trained for underground operations, a major obstacle to occupying Gaza, due to concerns for the safety of Israeli hostages. A military report said Hamas is expanding a plan to hinder Israeli operations by strengthening what it calls "defensive walls" for the hostages underground and dispersing them across multiple tunnel locations in areas where the army is expected to operate. This strategy has fueled protests led by captives' families, who accuse Netanyahu and his ministers of effectively sentencing their loved ones to death. Facing a recruitment crisis, the Israeli army is expected to implement the occupation plan slowly and in phases—not only to give mediators time to reach a deal to end the war, but also to account for the possibility of failing to mobilize units fully and to ensure readiness for battles expected to be no less intense than those seen in Gaza over the past 22 months of conflict.
