Latest news with #AbuAzzoum
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gaza's Khan Younis latest focus of Israeli forced displacement, bombing
Israel's military has issued another forced displacement order to residents of Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, threatening an 'unprecedented' assault after launching a wave of deadly strikes on the area and pressing a punishing new ground offensive. The displacement order, posted on X by the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Monday, also applies to the nearby areas of Bani Suhaila and Abasan. It calls on Palestinians to move west towards al-Mawasi. 'From this moment, Khan Younis governorate will be considered a dangerous combat zone,' the post read. It comes a day after Israel's military issued a separate displacement order for areas of central Gaza, including the town of al-Qarara, as its expanded offensive continues. The new order also comes as Israeli forces continue to pound the blockaded enclave, where a famine is looming. There have been at least 30 air strikes in the Khan Younis area Monday as Israel hammered the vastly destroyed territory from north to south, killing at least 60 people since dawn, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Previous forced evacuation orders throughout Israel's 19-month war have displaced the majority of Gaza's population multiple times. Many Palestinians have been bombarded again after fleeing to Israeli-designated 'safe zones', including al-Mawasi. Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Monday's displacement order 'signals a potential full-scale attack' in Khan Younis. 'Many families are in a state of chaos. They are trying to get whatever they can from their properties and move to al-Mawasi, where the Israeli military has instructed them to go to,' Abu Azzoum said, adding that an attack targeting al-Mawasi earlier in the day had killed two people. 'The repeated issuance of evacuation orders has shattered any sense of safety for Palestinians,' Abu Azzoum said. Israeli forces carried out a massive operation earlier in the war that left much of Khan Younis in ruins. Al-Mawasi, where tens of thousands of people have fled, has also been repeatedly targeted by deadly Israeli strikes. Under the newly launched air and ground offensive, Israel said it plans to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and secure limited aid distribution inside the territory – something that has been widely criticised by aid groups and the United Nations. In a video message on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military is to 'take control of the entire territory of the Gaza Strip'.He said a plan to let 'minimal' aid into Gaza is aimed at alleviating pressure from allies, who, he said, cannot tolerate 'images of … mass hunger'. It remains unclear when the aid will be allowed to enter the Palestinian territory, where two million Palestinians are 'starving', UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned. Israel has kept Gaza under a total blockade since early March, pushing the population there into famine as the healthcare system remains under Israeli attack and is quickly crumbling as its access to medical equipment, supplies and fuel has been cut off. Meanwhile, the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian group in Gaza, has confirmed that one of its commanders, Ahmed Sarhan, was killed in Khan Younis. Sarhan was killed in an undercover operation backed by Israeli drones and jets early on Monday. The group said Israeli special forces tried to capture the commander, but he was killed in a shootout after he fought back.
Qatar Tribune
15-05-2025
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
Israel kills over 100 people in Gaza as Palestinians mark 77 years since Nakba
agencies Gaza At least 115 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, as indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas continue. At least 61 people were killed overnight and early on Thursday in a barrage of attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on Al-Tawba medical clinic killed at least 15 people and wounded several others, the health ministry said. Israel's army also attacked three hospitals in north and south Gaza: Al Awda hospital in Jabalia, the Indonesian Hospital in Khan Younis, and the European hospital, which Gaza's health ministry says is now out of service. Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, described 'another bloody day' in Gaza, as Israel intensified its air attacks on residential areas. 'Israeli warplanes directly targeted nine houses without any warning in the city of Khan Younis,' he said, adding that entire families were 'completely wiped out'. He described the situation as chaotic, with civilians fleeing repeated forced evacuation orders. 'The Israeli military targeted civilians while they were asleep,' launching 13 air raids on the Jabalia refugee camp and nearby areas. Civil defence teams, he added, were overwhelmed and struggling to rescue those trapped under the rubble, due to a lack of equipment. Abu Azzoum said the strikes reflect a 'pattern of attacks not aimed at military targets, but at systematically destroying Gaza's social fabric'. Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a 'desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire' as indirect ceasefire talks take place between Israel and Hamas, involving US envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha. The latest killings come amid new waves of forced displacement. Thousands fled Gaza City on Thursday after the Israeli military issued forced evacuation orders the day before. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported scenes of panic and fear as residents packed their belongings and tried to escape the expected onslaught. 'We're seeing families carrying their belongings and taking to the streets,' Mahmoud said. 'The children and elderly are carrying whatever they're able to carry … They don't know where to go. There is no safe place for these people – the so-called shelters have already been destroyed by Israeli bombs.' Speaking to Al Jazeera, displaced Palestinian Hasan Moqbel described the continuing assault as a war on civilians. 'They have been bombing Gaza for 19 months. What's left in Gaza? Innocent children are dying. There is no armed activity here. Most of them are elderly people who are dying,' he said. The attacks come as Palestinians mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled by Zionist paramilitary groups during the creation of Israel in 1948. Regarding the wider mood in Gaza on Nakba Day, Abu Azzoum said people were 'deeply worried' about a potential expansion of Israeli ground operations. 'They believe the Israeli army may force them to flee again – to new areas where conditions are even worse.' Despite international diplomacy, 'there is no sign of a slowdown on the ground,' he warned. The US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, spoke to Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays this week and 'painted a positive picture on a deal on Gaza', with a potential agreement being reached 'pretty soon'. When asked whether Witkoff was referring only to aid access – given that aid is currently completely blocked for the people of Gaza, with no food or medicine getting in – or to a ceasefire, he replied, 'all of it, I'm positive about all that'.
Al Jazeera
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat killed in Israeli attack on Gaza
Separate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed two media workers, including an Al Jazeera journalist. Hossam Shabat, a journalist who worked for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed in northern Gaza on Monday. Witnesses told the network that his car was targeted in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said Shabat, 23, had been previously wounded in another Israeli attack 'but he insisted on continuing news reporting' in Gaza. 'The Israeli military targeted his vehicle' without giving 'any prior warning', Abu Azzoum said. Earlier on Monday, an Israeli army attack on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, also killed journalist Mohammad Mansour, who worked for Palestine Today. Abu Azzoum said Mansour was killed 'in his house … alongside his wife and his son', in an attack that also came without any prior warning. The killing of the two journalists brings the number of media workers killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023 to 208, according to the Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza. In a statement on Monday, the GMO said it 'strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation' and called on press advocacy groups to denounce 'these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza'. The GMO said it held Israel and its main ally, the United States, as well as 'the countries participating in the genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous crime'. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killing of Shabat and Mansour and called for an independent investigation into whether they were deliberately targeted. 'The deliberate and targeted killing of a journalist, of a civilian, is a war crime,' Jodie Ginsberg, the CPJ's chief executive said, adding the organisation has been investigating several cases in which Israel appears to have deliberately targeted a journalist, knowing them to be a media worker. 'That would amount to a war crime. Journalists and civilians must never be targeted', she said, noting that the CPJ had spoken to Shabat for its own reports on the news void developing in northern Gaza because of Israel's war. Meanwhile, heavy Israeli bombardment across the besieged territory continued throughout Monday for the seventh straight day since Israel ended a fragile two-month ceasefire after imposing a renewed blockade on the Palestinian territory. More than 700 have been killed, including hundreds of children, in a relentless wave of bombardments since the resumption of large-scale Israeli attacks on March 18. Al Jazeera's Abu Azzoum said it had been 'another bloody day', with medical sources saying at least 51 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn on Monday. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 50,082 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 113,408 wounded in Israel's war on Gaza.
Al Jazeera
22-03-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Israel blows up Gaza's only specialised cancer hospital in massive blast
Israel has blown up Gaza's only specialised cancer treatment hospital, as well as an adjacent medical school, drawing condemnation for again targeting a medical facility, which is banned under international humanitarian law. Friday's explosion flattened central Gaza's Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli air strikes since October 2023. Footage posted online showed a massive ball of fire and smoke rising from the location after the Israeli military carried out the demolition. It came as Israel announced that it was expanding its operation in the so-called Netzarim Corridor near the hospital, and blocked all movement on Salah al-Din Street. Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is reporting from Gaza's Deir el-Balah, said the destruction has left thousands of patients in the besieged territory with nowhere to go for cancer treatment, amid the resumption of the deadly Israeli military operation. The third floor of the hospital was previously hit in an Israeli air strike on October 30, 2023. Fuel shortages forced the hospital to shut down on November 1, 2023, with the UN warning the lives of 70 patients were at risk. It later emerged that four patients died at the hospital due to a lack of medical care. 'The hospital was being used as a command centre by Israeli forces during their previous military assault in central and northern Gaza,' Al Jazeera's Abu Azzoum said. 'It was blown up completely after having been rebuilt with a Turkish donation of $34m in 2017,' he added. Israel later confirmed it destroyed the cancer hospital, claiming it was used by Hamas – without providing any evidence. In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the 'deliberate' destruction as 'part of Israel's policy aimed at rendering Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.' 'We call on the international community to take concrete and deterrent measures against Israel's unlawful attacks and systematic state terrorism,' the ministry added. Gaza Ministry of Health also condemned Israel's 'criminal behaviour', which it said is 'in line with the systematic destruction of the health system and the completion of the episodes of genocide'. The hospital was considered the largest cancer treatment facility in Gaza, and was the only hospital accredited to treat up to 30,000 cancer patients a year. Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, five children were declared dead upon arrival at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, following an air strike in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, who is reporting from Gaza City on Saturday. 'There have been almost nonstop air strikes across northern Gaza and Gaza City within the past five hours, with two massive air strikes targeting more residential buildings,' he said. As Israeli bombardments continue, Hamas said it is considering the United States 'bridge' proposal to restore the ceasefire, the Reuters news agency reports, quoting an unnamed official from the group. Germany, France and Britain are pressing the US to support an immediate restoration of the Gaza truce and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged enclave. But President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff remained vague about a ceasefire. In an interview with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, he said Trump's plan for Gaza is to achieve 'stability', while noting that 'stability in Gaza could mean some people come back … some people don't'.
Express Tribune
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Israel escalates Gaza airstrikes, killing 91, including newborn baby
A Palestinian casualty is brought to the Indonesian hospital following Israeli strikes in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip March 20, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS Listen to article Israel has intensified its airstrikes on Gaza for a third consecutive day, killing at least 91 people overnight and early Thursday, including a newborn baby, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Palestinian outlet Quds News Network reported that at least 20 people were killed in Khan Younis after Israeli forces struck several houses in the southern Gaza city. Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, an attack on a family home in the as-Sultan neighborhood west of Beit Lahiya claimed at least seven lives. 'The Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have intensified, especially at dawn, when at least 11 residential buildings were flattened by the Israeli forces,' said Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum. 'Among those victims who have been killed today were a newborn baby alongside children and women,' Abu Azzoum reported, adding, 'There has been a clear strategic approach that Israel has been using, which does not pass any sort of warning to civilians before striking the buildings that they are taking refuge in.' Hamas Responds with Rocket Fire Hamas claimed responsibility for launching rockets at Israel's commercial hub, Tel Aviv, on Thursday in retaliation for what it called 'massacres against civilians' in Gaza. The Palestinian group said it fired 'a barrage of M90 rockets' after Israel resumed airstrikes following a nearly two-month ceasefire. Hamas has lost several senior leaders in Israel's strikes, including the de facto head of Gaza's government and the head of security services. Israel's army said it intercepted one projectile from Gaza, while two others landed in open areas. No casualties were reported. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli attacks this week have killed at least 506 people, including 200 children, while 909 others have been injured. UN Demands Accountability for Deadly Strike The UN has strongly condemned the killing of one of its foreign staff members and the injury of five others in an Israeli airstrike on a UN site in central Gaza on Wednesday. UN humanitarian aid chief Tom Fletcher called the attack 'infuriating' and demanded accountability. 'International law is clear. Civilians – including UN staff and humanitarian workers – must not be targeted. The international community must join us in insisting on a genuine investigation and accountability,' Fletcher stated. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed that five more of its staff were killed this week. 'In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors, and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,' said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. The renewed Israeli airstrikes have drawn widespread condemnation, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressing outrage. Protests Against Netanyahu in Israel The ceasefire breakdown has also sparked backlash within Israel, as thousands of protesters gathered in Jerusalem on Wednesday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prioritise the safe return of captives still held in Gaza. Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou reiterated the group's commitment to the ceasefire framework agreed upon in January. 'We are working with mediators to spare our people from war permanently and ensure that Israel withdraws from Gaza,' al-Qanou said. Despite this, Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that the resumed bombardment was 'only the beginning' and vowed to continue military operations until Israel's objectives—eliminating Hamas and freeing all captives—were met.
