Australia to recognise Palestinian State, reiterates no role for Hamas
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Israel Erupts In Rage Against Hostage Deadlock; Protesters Block Highways, Demand Hamas Deal
/ Aug 17, 2025, 08:27PM IST Massive anger across Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid no ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas. Thousands of protesters hit the streets in Tel Aviv and other parts of the country, demanding an immediate deal for the release of hostages. Israeli President Isaac Herzog also joined the protests. However, Netanyahu rebuked the protesters. Watch this video to know more.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
How right-wing outcry influenced US pausing visitor visas for Gazans
Written by Hamed Aleaziz and Ken Bensinger The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from the Gaza Strip, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions. The State Department said it would assess the process behind those visas. 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review,' the department said in a statement on the social platform X on Saturday morning. Palestinians coming to the US The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a 'national security threat' in a flurry of social media posts starting Friday that targeted a nonprofit aiding in medical evacuations. Just weeks ago, the nonprofit, HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based group that helps Palestinian families and children, began orchestrating what it called the 'largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.,' bringing injured and ill children from Gaza to the United States for care. To date, the group says it has evacuated 63 injured children for treatment, including 11, from age 6 to 15, who were flown to hospitals in nine U.S. cities this month. Many of the children had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza. They are expected to travel to Egypt to rejoin their families once their medical care is completed, according to HEAL Palestine. The group, which was founded last year and also operates food kitchens in Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier this month, Dr. Zeena Salman, a co-founder of HEAL Palestine, said in a statement that the medical evacuation flights were a matter of life or death. 'These children could not wait,' Salman said. 'Their lives are at stake, and this mission is about giving them a future.' Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said that more than 9,000 people with travel documents from the Palestinian Authority had entered the United States on visitor visas in the 2024 fiscal year. 'This move is consistent with the Trump administration's overall treatment of immigrants as constituting a threat to U.S. public safety,' Gelatt said. 'But it is extremely hard to imagine how someone coming to the U.S. for lifesaving medical treatment would present a national security risk.' Loomer, who wields extraordinary power in shaping Trump administration decisions over personnel and policy despite not having an official role in government, said she first learned of the flights earlier this month. 'I felt like this is something that needs attention,' she said in an interview. 'Under the Trump administration, they are actively importing Gazans into the U.S. Clearly this is not what we voted for.' On social media, Loomer called attention to a video posted Aug. 6 by HEAL Palestine, showing Palestinian children arriving at the San Francisco airport. She subsequently posted about flights to St. Louis, San Antonio and Houston and claimed without providing evidence that the nonprofit was connected to Hamas, tagging state and federal officials in her posts. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, responded to her late Friday on X that he was 'deeply concerned about the incoming flights' and was making inquiries. Loomer said she spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday night to alert him to the flights and what she called the threat of an Islamic invasion. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Those impacted the most Loomer has a long history of anti-Islam activism. In 2017, she wrote a social media post that cheered the drowning deaths of 2,000 refugees who were trying to flee violence in Syria and other countries with large Muslim populations by crossing the Mediterranean. For years, she has pushed for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni Islamist movement, to be designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, lobbying both members of Congress and the administration. Last week, Rubio said such a designation from the State Department was 'in the works.' Medical flights for children affected by the conflict in Gaza have been occurring for well over a year, organized by a variety of charities. Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician who volunteers for HEAL Palestine, said that he had previously treated some of the children who recently arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area during his time in Gaza. He said that the injuries included orthopedic trauma and severe burns and that they were exacerbated by malnutrition. 'I am saddened to see fear and hate permeate within a small yet vocal segment of our society, whereby people have dehumanized children,' he said, by pushing for policies to withhold 'life- and limb-saving care.' Andrew Miller, a former senior State Department official on Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the Biden administration, said that Gaza residents could only get visas to the U.S. by appearing at an embassy in Jerusalem, Cairo or Amman, Jordan, and undergo security checks. 'What's more, just to get to a U.S. Embassy outside of Gaza, the Israeli military and security services had to clear them and anyone accompanying them,' he said, adding: 'From what I saw, any insinuation that we were taking an unusual security risk in these cases is baseless.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Netanyahu Slams Anti-War Protests as Gaza City Conquest Looms
(Bloomberg) -- Israelis took to the streets on Sunday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to conquer the rest of the Gaza Strip rather than attempt to negotiate an end to the war under which Hamas would free its last hostages. As Netanyahu suggested calls to end the war would embolden Hamas, police scuffled with demonstrators blocking roads, making at least 30 arrests and turning a water cannon on participants at a sit-down protest at a Jerusalem access tunnel. Almost two years into an offensive that's pushed Israel toward global isolation and left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins, Netanyahu's government this month gave the army the green light to conquer the de facto capital, Gaza City, and crush Hamas holdouts. While the tanks and troops have yet to get rolling, some members of Netanyahu's security cabinet have complained that the planned scale of the operation is insufficient. At the same time, his envoys look poised to resume mediated talks on a truce and hostage release if Hamas softens its terms. There's been no indication so far that the Iran-backed faction will do so. Earlier unwavering domestic backing for the war, which was launched in response to Hamas' killing and kidnapping rampage of Oct. 7, 2023, is long gone. Polls show most Israelis want a deal to bring back the 50 hostages, even if the remnants of Hamas are left intact. The 20 hostages believed to be alive are at risk of execution or being caught up in cross-fire. In scenes recalling the kind of anti-government demonstrations that of preceded the war, groups organized over social media flooded several highway intersections on Sunday, the first day of Israel's workweek. Many held up Israeli flags and photographs of hostages. Netanyahu has vowed victory against Hamas. His timeline for achieving this has proven elastic, and he hasn't given details on who might next rule the shattered Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run health ministry — which doesn't distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties — says 61,000 Palestinians have died. 'Those calling today for the end of the war without a Hamas defeat are not only hardening the Hamas position and making the freeing of our hostages less likely,' Netanyahu said Sunday. 'They're also ensuring that the horrors of Oct. 7 recur time and again, that our sons and daughters will have to fight time and again in a forever war.' While Israel's main labor federation declined to join in Sunday's strike, the protesters found support from the private sector. The local operations of Apple and Microsoft pitched in, as did New York-listed web platform developer and online marketplace Fiverr, as well as Qumra Capital and Pitango Ltd. The companies allowed workers to take the day off to attend the demonstrations. 'We are at a fateful moment for the Israeli nation and we do not intend to sit idly by,' the Hi-Tech Forum, a coalition formed in 2023 to protest the government's proposed judicial overhaul, said in a statement. 'This is a moment when every Jew and Israeli should show their support for the (hostage) families and call for an end to the war and the return of all hostages.' Eli Cohen, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, said the Israel Defense Force would on Sunday finalize orders for the takeover of Gaza City, part of about 25% of the territory previously avoided during military incursions on the belief that hostages are being held there. The plan targets six to eight weeks for the forced evacuation of as many as 1 million Palestinian civilians before the main assault, Cohen told Channel 14 TV, adding that he would press for its acceleration: 'This can be done in two to three weeks.' Shva, operator of Israel's national payment processing infrastructure, reported that as of 12 pm local time, the day's credit card spending was down just 5.1% from a week ago, suggesting a minor impact on businesses from the strike. The Israel Business Forum, a group of 200 of the country's top business leaders, met with hostage families but stopped short of formally backing the strike. Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group in much of the West, wants any Gaza truce to guarantee a full Israeli withdrawal. It's signaled it might cede some power, but refuses Israel's demand to disarm. On Sunday, Hamas denounced the Gaza City plan as 'the beginning of a new wave of brutal genocide' by the Israelis. Israel lost 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7 attacks and more than 450 troops in Gaza combat since. Israel's longest war has spilled onto several fronts, including with Iran, and strained the military. 'Today's demonstrations show the difference between the Israeli government and its people,' said Noa Tishby, an Israeli-born Los Angeles actress/producer and social media influencer on the conflict. 'Israelis are exhausted from more than two years of protesting against this government, and yet are out today resisting the war in Gaza.' --With assistance from Ethan Bronner and Fadwa Hodali.
