Latest news with #Israeli military
Al Mayadeen
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Mayadeen
Israeli 'humanitarian city' plan jeopardizes Gaza ceasefire deal talks
Israeli media reports that the Israeli insistence on keeping its forces in Rafah and proceeding with the establishment of an alleged "humanitarian city", despite mediators' objections, is hindering efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement. Israeli Channel 12 reported that the Israeli leadership's insistence on building what it claims will be a "humanitarian city" in Rafah is obstructing mediation efforts in Doha and risks derailing a prisoner-captive exchange deal with Hamas. According to Channel 12 correspondent Yaron Abraham, the Israeli military has warned political leaders that launching the construction of a massive facility to relocate 600,000 civilians from northern Gaza during the ceasefire could be interpreted by Hamas as a preparation for a partial deal followed by an inevitable return to war, a move that would undermine the assurances provided by the US administration to the group. According to the channel, estimates indicate that constructing this city would take between three to five months, posing challenges in terms of military stockpiles, troop deployment, resource drain, and managing the humanitarian costs tied to health services and sanitation in the area. Channel 12 also reported that although the military is prepared to execute the government's directives, officials have privately cautioned leadership to proceed carefully, warning of significant risks ahead. Meanwhile, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting with the security cabinet at 9 pm Sunday to discuss the ongoing negotiations in Doha. According to correspondent Gili Cohen, the discussion is expected to include a new proposal allowing Israeli forces to remain in Rafah during the ceasefire, a condition Hamas rejects, with sources noting that the Israeli government continues to insist on this clause despite its potential to derail negotiations. The channel also noted that the meeting is likely to discuss continuing preparations to establish an alleged "humanitarian city" in Rafah, a proposal that mediation parties oppose. According to Kan, even Israeli officials themselves express doubts about Hamas potentially accepting this proposal, even with flexible modifications or additional updates to the plans, reflecting an internal awareness that these terms could effectively sabotage the negotiations. Meanwhile, Tamir Morag on the Israeli Channel 14 stated that "the core dispute now centers on the Morag axis and the continued operation of the American company in distributing aid in southern Gaza," as "Israel" insists on rejecting Hamas's demands for a complete withdrawal from southern Gaza and halting the American company's aid distribution operations.
Asharq Al-Awsat
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Attacks on Syrian Security Forces Sent to Quell Sectarian Clashes Leave 18 Dead as Israel Strikes Targets to Protect Druze
At least 18 members of Syria's security forces have been killed in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the Defense Ministry said, after they deployed to quell deadly sectarian clashes that had resumed on Monday, while Israel said it struck tanks in a town in the same province on the same day. Sunday's fighting between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribal fighters was the first time that sectarian violence erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, following months of tensions in the broader province. Defense Ministry spokesperson Hassan Abdel-Ghani said in statements reported by Syrian state news agency SANA that a number of troops were also injured during attacks on military points by "outlawed groups". Earlier, the ministry said in a statement to Reuters that these groups, who it did not identify further, had attacked a number of its units at dawn. It said its forces responded to the attacks and had pursued the groups that refused to halt hostilities and continued to target security forces. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it attacked several tanks in a town in Sweida. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were a "clear warning to the Syrian regime", adding that Israel would not allow harm to the Druze living in Syria. Close ties between the Israeli state and its 120,000 Druze citizens, strengthened by the fact that Druze men serve in the Israel army, are one of the reasons for Israel's deepening involvement in Syria. The fighting on Sunday left 30 people dead and prompted Syria's security forces to deploy units to the city to restore calm and guarantee safe passage for civilians looking to leave, the defense ministry said in earlier statements. But intense clashes broke out again on Monday, local news outlet Sweida24 reported. Another security source said that Syrian troops would aim to exert state control over the whole province to prevent any more violence, but that this could take several days. It marked the latest episode of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have surged since opposition fighters toppled President Bashar al-Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces. The factions which fought Assad during the war agreed in December to dissolve into the Defense Ministry but efforts to integrate armed factions from minority groups - including Druze and Kurds - have largely stalled. In southern Syria, efforts have been further complicated by Israel's stated policy that it would not allow Syria's new army to deploy south of Damascus and that Sweida and neighboring provinces should make up a demilitarized zone. Interior Minister Anas Khattab said in a written statement carried on state media that the "absence of state institutions, especially military and security institutions, is a major cause of the ongoing tensions in Sweida and its countryside." Sunday's violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction
At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in central Gaza on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli missile strike which the military said missed its intended target. The Israeli military said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused the missile to fall 'dozens of metres from the target'. 'The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians,' it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review. The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital. Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers. [ Israeli airstrikes and shootings kill at least 52 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, hospital officials say Opens in new window ] In another attack, Palestinian media reported that a prominent hospital consultant was among 12 people killed by an Israeli strike midmorning on a busy market in Gaza City. Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says more than half of those killed are women and children. Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend. The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire were continuing in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a possible deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence. The war began on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive. Israel's campaign against Hamas has displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, but Gazans say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave. Early on Sunday morning, a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts. 'My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?' said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building. 'They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza,' he said. – Reuters
BBC News
3 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Children fetching water killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, emergency officials say
Ten people, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill water containers in central Gaza on Sunday, emergency service officials bodies were sent to Nuseirat's al-Awda Hospital, which also treated 16 injured people, seven of them children, according to a doctor said a drone fired a missile at a crowd of people queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in the heart of the al-Nuseirat refugee Israeli military has been asked to comment. Unverified footage shared online after the strike showed bloodied children and lifeless bodies, with screams of panic and rushed to the scene and transported the wounded using private vehicles and donkey strike came as Israeli aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip have escalated.A spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense Agency said 19 other Palestinians had been killed on Sunday, in three separate strikes on residential buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 57,882 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health of Gaza's population has been displaced multiple than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed. The healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and week, for the first time in 130 days, 75,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza - "far from enough to meet the daily needs of the population and vital civilian aid operations", the United Nations said. Nine UN agencies warned on Saturday that Gaza's fuel shortage had reached "critical levels", and if fuel ran out, it would affect hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks and bakeries."Hospitals are already going dark, maternity, neonatal and intensive care units are failing, and ambulances can no longer move," the UN said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point. The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others. An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said. In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added. Several other people were wounded, he said. In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack. On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.
