Latest news with #GideonsChariots
Bloomberg
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Israeli Military Aims to Take Over 75% of Gaza in Two Months
Israel aims to take control of 75% of the Gaza Strip and move its 2 million inhabitants into three designated areas as part of a new military offensive in the coastal strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the 10-day-old operation, codenamed Gideon's Chariots, is intended to defeat Hamas and recover hostages held by the Iran-backed group. All of Gaza will eventually be taken over by Israeli forces, Netanyahu has said, without detailing any plans for the day after.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘The world does not care if we all die': hunger and despair in the ruins of Gaza City
On the streets of Gaza City this week, there were two sounds that never ceased, day or night. In the west, the Mediterranean breakers crashed on the rubbish-strewn shoreline. In the east, the shells, missiles and rockets exploded with dull thuds and occasional ear-splitting cracks. At least 100,000 people have come to Gaza City, once the bustling commercial and cultural hub of the Palestinian territory. All are fleeing the new offensive – dubbed Gideon's Chariots – recently launched by Israel into the ruined towns and neighbourhoods of northern Gaza. The blasts that the newly displaced can hear, as they crowd into makeshift shelters and hastily constructed encampments, or simply set up their tents or tarpaulins on the pock-marked pavements, sometimes come during direct clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas, though the militant Islamist organisation remains elusive, often underground. Much more often, they are the sounds of airstrikes and artillery bombardment which have killed about 750 people and injured 2,000 more across Gaza in the last week, mostly women and children, according to medical officials there. On Wednesday, Mohammed Abu Nadi moved his family from Jabaliya, a neighbourhood east of Gaza City that has been reduced to ruins in multiple Israeli offensives and raids. 'What happened this week was another escalation … There were relentless bombings everywhere,' the 33-year-old said. 'My friend was on his way to get a vehicle to move his family to Gaza City, but when he returned, he found his home reduced to rubble. His wife and children were all killed. 'They were just young children, innocent civilians with no involvement in anything. I was shocked when it happened. I quickly carried my wife and family and left the area heading towards Gaza City.' Abu Adam Abdul Rabbo, 55, said more than 80 members of his extended family had been killed during the 19-month conflict, which was triggered by a Hamas attack into Israel in which militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, of whom 57 remain in Gaza. The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, and reduced much of the territory to rubble; smashing roads, health facilities, schools, religious sites, sanitation systems and much else. Israeli officials say they only attack military targets and accuse Hamas of using civilians as human shields, a charge it denies. A week ago, Rabbo said he was woken by the sound of a huge blast that had targeted his brother's house, killing five. 'We struggled to transfer their bodies to hospital as a quadcopter drone was firing bullets everywhere. We managed to bury them in the Jabaliya town cemetery. After that, we decided to leave, fearing for the lives of our remaining children. 'We were able to carry only a few basic items – some clothes and food. My wife was crying bitterly, asking: 'How will we survive? What can we take with us? How long will we remain displaced?,'' Rabbo said. This month, food security experts backed by the United Nations said the territory was at critical risk of famine, with cases of malnutrition rising rapidly. UN warehouses in the territory are empty and most of the free bakeries that many relied on for their daily bread shut down weeks ago – though aid agencies have been able to keep some community kitchens running to produce about 300,000 meals a day. The limited food available to buy is too expensive for almost everybody, with 1kg of tomatoes or onions costing the equivalent of $13. 'Every corner of every street is crowded with people,' said Amjad Shawa, the director of the Gaza NGOs Network who is based in Gaza City. 'They are living in rubbish dumps, cesspits. There are flies, mosquitoes. We have no water to deliver, no food, no tents or blankets or tarpaulins, nothing. People are very, very hungry but there is nothing to give them.' UN officials said on Friday that their clinics and pharmacies were no longer able to offer 40% of the treatments categorised as essential by the World Health Organization. Medics interviewed last week reported seeing many abscesses and skin diseases among patients, as well as acute cases of diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses – in addition to the many injuries from airstrikes. 'We see some children with malnutrition, but everyone complains of being hungry,' said Dr Iain Lennon, a British emergency medicine consultant in Mawasi, southern Gaza. 'We often see patients who are tired or dizzy because they just have not eaten enough.' In recent days, Israel has eased the tight blockade into Gaza imposed in early March, when the first phase of a fragile ceasefire expired. On Friday, 100 trucks entered the territory, but very little aid had been distributed. Humanitarian officials said a key problem was security. Law and order improved in the territory during the ceasefire from mid-January to March when Hamas-run police were on the streets, but it has collapsed since. Of a convoy of 20 trucks each carrying 20 tonnes of wheat flour for the World Food Programme, only three arrived at their destination on Thursday night after two broke down and 15 were hijacked by looters and driven away. 'You don't see lines of children with rib cages and spines showing like in Africa,' said one UN official, 'but there you have no roads and a population scattered over an area the size of Europe. Here, there is 130,000 tonnes of aid just the other side of the entry points into Gaza, a few kilometres away.' Few have confidence that a US-backed Israeli scheme to bring in aid due to start next week will improve the situation. The plan involves a small number of distribution hubs in southern of Gaza being run by private contractors and protected by Israeli troops who will vet recipients. UN aid workers describe the scheme as dangerous, impractical and possibly unlawful. To get aid, Palestinians will have to travel up to 25 miles (40km) across rubble-strewn roads during an active conflict, despite an almost total lack of available transport, to retrieve a monthly 20kg food parcel. 'It would be very difficult to go there, and there is no guarantee that you can come back,' Shawa said. 'This is an engineered strategy to displace people and start clearing the north of Gaza.' Israel said the plan was necessary to prevent Hamas seizing and selling aid to fund its operations. Aid officials in Gaza said on Friday there was no evidence of any widespread diversion of aid at any stage of the conflict. Meanwhile, the vulnerable suffer the most. Six weeks ago the eldest son of Ihab al-Attar, from Beit Lahia, tried to return to the family home to retrieve food and clothes, but he was targeted by a missile and badly injured. There was no warning and no evacuation orders from the Israeli military, Attar, 41, said. A series of operations saved 21-year-old Mahmoud's life but left him without much of his intestines and an infected wound. When the new Israeli offensive began 10 days ago, the family were forced to more from their battered but habitable home to a tent on a street in Gaza City. With almost all hospitals in northern Gaza no longer functioning and the remaining few overwhelmed, the family were trying to care for Mahmoud themselves. 'Now Mahmoud's condition worsens day by day,' Attar said. 'The hardest part is watching my son dying before my eyes and being unable to do anything for him. I fear I will lose my son.' Also in great danger is Yazan, Nadi's eight-year-old quadraplegic son who, his father said, needed a special diet and care. 'He has become extremely thin and is suffering from severe malnutrition. I took him to the hospital several times, but the doctors told me they can't do anything for him.' Few hold out much hope for any relief soon. Negotiations for a new ceasefire have stalled, and aid is likely to take days, even weeks to arrive, in northern Gaza, if at all. Umm Ammar Jundiyea, 65, who is in Gaza City after fleeing the eastern neighbourhood of Shujaiya, described a 'bleak' future. 'The world does not care about what is happening in Gaza, even if we all die,' the mother of eight said. 'This world is deceitful and hypocritical. It claims to be civilised and humane, but it only sees with one eye.'
The National
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
'They were firing in the street,' say Khan Younis residents after Israel's orders to leave
The Israeli military on Monday ordered all residents of Khan Younis and nearby areas in southern Gaza to leave immediately ahead of an "unprecedented offensive", as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel planned to take control of the Palestinian enclave in its entirety. People living in Khan Younis, Bani Suheila and Abasan must move immediately west to the coastal Mawasi area, army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in an eviction order posted on X. The military "will launch an unprecedented offensive to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations in this area", he said. "From this moment, Khan Younis will be considered a dangerous combat zone." The army said on Sunday that its troops were carrying out 'extensive' ground operations throughout northern and southern Gaza as part of a new offensive called Gideon's Chariots. Mr Netanyahu said on Monday that the fighting in Gaza was "intense" and that Israeli forces were "making progress". "We will take control of all the territory of the strip," he said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. The intensified campaign, which Israel says has the aim of freeing remaining hostages and defeating Hamas, began on Saturday as the two sides held indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar. Residents reported heavy Israeli bombardment in the centre of Khan Younis on Monday morning as Israeli forces disguised as displaced Palestinians carried out a raid that killed a member of Al Nasser Salah Al Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. "Heavy explosions and air strikes began in Al Balad area, specifically on Street 5 in the city centre. There were possibly more than 50 air strikes, along with artillery shells falling on the area one after another,' said Khalil Sardah, 28. 'I was at home, standing by the window watching. I saw many people injured and killed in the streets, especially those who usually go out early to bake bread, fetch water, or collect firewood for cooking. I saw vehicles carrying armed men, and on top of the vehicles were belongings of displaced people. They were firing randomly in the street. 'There is a house belonging to the Sarhan family in our area. It was surrounded by special forces, and we saw gunmen coming out of the house after there had been heavy gunfire inside. There were a lot of quadcopters filling the sky and smoke everywhere. From the very first moment, we realised that something serious, an operation was happening. 'When things calmed down a little, we entered the Sarhan house and found our neighbour, Ahmad Sarhan, who is known to work with the Al Nasser Brigades, martyred along with one of his children. There was no one else in the house, even though he has four children. This strongly suggests the arrest of his wife and the remaining children by the Israeli special forces.' Ibrahim Al Astal, 32, who also lives in the area, said residents found 'a box, a sleeping mat and several blankets that appeared to have fallen from the roof of one of the vehicles believed to have been used in the operation. The way these items were arranged and tied together strongly suggested they belonged to a displaced family,' he told The National. There was no immediate confirmation of the raid from the Israeli military. Israeli strikes across Gaza on Monday had killed at 63 people by the evening, including 16 in Khan Younis, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoting medical sources. The death toll from the war in Gaza, which began with a deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups in October 2023, rose to 53,475, health authorities in the strip said on Monday, with another 121,398 wounded. Alongside its intensified military operations, Israel on Monday began allowing aid to enter Gaza for the first time since March 2, ending a blockade that it said was intended to force concessions from Hamas.
South China Morning Post
18-05-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Israeli strikes kill 103 across Gaza overnight, hospitals say
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 103 people overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and doctors in the battered enclave said, as Israel intensifies its war in the territory that, after more than 19 months, shows no signs of abating. More than 48 people were killed in air strikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, some of which hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital. Among the dead were 18 children and 13 women, hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said. In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Gaza health ministry's emergency services. Another strike on a family's residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defence, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the overnight strikes. The bloodshed comes as Israel ramps up its war in Gaza with a new offensive named 'Gideon's Chariots,' in which Israel says it plans to seize territory, displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza's south and take greater control over the distribution of aid. Israel's new offensive Israel says the new plan is meant to ramp up pressure on Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel's terms – one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza but wouldn't necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 75 people, hospitals and medics say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 75 people overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics in the battered enclave said, as Israel intensifies its war in the territory that, after more than 19 months, shows no signs of abating. More than 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis. In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Gaza health ministry's emergency services. Another strike on a family's residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the overnight strikes. The bloodshed comes as Israel ramps up its war in Gaza with a new offensive named 'Gideon's Chariots,' in which Israel says it plans to seize territory, displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza's south and take greater control over the distribution of aid. Israel's new offensive Israel says the new plan is meant to ramp up pressure on the militant Hamas group to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel's terms — one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza but wouldn't necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal. Israel had said it would wait until the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the region before launching its new offensive, saying it was giving a chance for efforts to bring about a new ceasefire deal. And while teams are still negotiating a potential truce in the Qatari capital Doha, there appears to have been no breakthrough. Trump did not visit Israel on his trip, which wrapped up on Friday. Israel shattered a previous 8-week ceasefire in mid-March, launching fierce airstrike that killed hundreds. Days before the end of that ceasefire, Israel also halted all imports into Gaza, including food, medicine and fuel, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings of an increasing risk of famine in the territory — a blockade that continues. Israel says that move is also meant to pressure Hamas. The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. Strikes pound Gaza In northern Gaza, parts of which have been flattened by Israel's onslaught, at least 43 people were killed in multiple strikes, according to first responders from the health ministry and the civil defense. Gaza City's Shifa Hospital said among the dead, 15 were children and 12 were women. In Jabaliya, a built-up refugee camp in northern Gaza, 10 people, including seven children and a woman were killed, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government. Among the dead were two parents and their three children and a father and his four children, it said. In central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, hospitals said. One strike in the Zweida town killed seven people, including two children and four women, according to according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah. The second hit an apartment in Deir al-Balah, killing two parents and their child, the hospital said. In Nuseirat camp, a strike hit a house and killed two people, said the camp's Awda hospital, Nasser Hospital said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition the bodies were brought in. Houthi rebels launch missile at Israel As the war in Gaza grinds on, the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen has escalated. The Israeli military said it intercepted a Houthi missile launched at the country early Sunday, which set off air raid sirens in multiple parts of the country. The rebels said they fired two ballistic missiles - including a hypersonic one - towards Israel's main airport near Tel Aviv, whose grounds earlier this month were struck by a Houthi missile. 'The operation successfully achieved its goal, thanks to Allah, and caused millions of occupying Zionists to rush to shelters," said Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree. Israel was left out of a U.S. deal to halt attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in exchange for a stop to their strikes on U.S. shipping vessels in the Red Sea. On Friday, Israel struck Yemen for the eighth time since the war in Gaza began in response to the Houthi attacks. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at Wafaa Shurafa And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press
