Latest news with #safezones
ABC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Israeli military prepares relocations to southern Gaza as US cancels Palestinian visitor visas
Gaza residents will be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to "safe" ones in the south of the enclave, the Israeli military said. This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the strip, home to about 2.2 million people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that before launching the offensive the civilian population would be evacuated to what he described as "safe zones" from Gaza City, which he called Hamas' last stronghold. The shelter equipment will be transferred via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza by the United Nations and other international relief organisations after being inspected by defence ministry personnel, the Israeli military said. The military declined to comment when asked whether the shelter equipment was intended for Gaza City's population, estimated at around one million people presently. It also did not say if the relocation site in southern Gaza would be the area of Rafah, which borders Egypt. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said that the plans for the new offensive were still being formulated. However, Israeli forces have already increased operations on the outskirts of Gaza City over the past week. Residents in the neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Shejaia have reported heavy Israeli aerial and tank fire which has destroyed many houses. The Israeli military said on Friday local time that it had begun a new operation in Zeitoun to locate explosives, destroy tunnels and kill militants in the area. The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli authorities, with 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza reportedly still alive. Israel's subsequent military assault against Hamas has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry said. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced most of Gaza's population, and left much of the enclave in ruins. Protests calling for a hostage release and an end to the war were expected throughout Israel on Sunday, with many businesses and universities saying they will strike for the day. Negotiations to secure a US-backed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release ended in deadlock last month and mediators Egypt and Qatar have been trying to revive them. The US State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducted "a full and thorough" review. The department said "a small number" of temporary medical-humanitarian visas had been issued in recent days but did not provide a figure. In 2025 so far, the US has issued more than 3,800 B1/B2 visitor visas, which permit foreigners to seek medical treatment in the United States, to holders of the Palestinian Authority travel documents. That figure includes 640 visas issued in May, according to an analysis of monthly figures provided on the department's website. The PA issues such travel documents to residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The State Department's move to stop visitor visas for people from Gaza comes after Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and an ally of President Donald Trump, said on social media on Friday that Palestinian "refugees" had entered the US this month. Ms Loomer's statement sparked outrage among some Republicans, with US Representative Randy Fine of Florida describing it as a "national security risk". The Palestine Children's Relief Fund said the decision to halt visas would deny access to medical care for wounded and sick children in Gaza. "This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment — a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years," it said in a statement. The US has not indicated that it would accept Palestinians displaced by the war. However, sources told Reuters that South Sudan and Israel are discussing a plan to resettle Palestinians. Reuters
Sky News
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing
Israel's prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday - despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink. Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a "fairly short timetable" to establish designated "safe zones" for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City. He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas's final strongholds there - in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza's southwestern coast. 1:03 This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed "subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety". Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone. If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can't evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go? Netanyahu's plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food. He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation - describing particular photos of starving babies as "fake news", and accusing the media of painting a false picture. "The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages," the prime minister claimed. 2:55 I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating. Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated. The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer. "And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces," he added. "And very often they didn't, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line." 3:17 This was Israel's prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza. It took two questions before he acknowledged there was "deprivation", even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role. He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look. This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
Sky News
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza - and describes photographs of starving babies as 'fake news'
Israel's prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday - despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink. Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a "fairly short timetable" to establish designated "safe zones" for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City. He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas's final strongholds there - in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza's southwestern coast. 1:03 This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed "subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety". Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone. If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can't evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go? Netanyahu's plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food. He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation - describing particular photos of starving babies as "fake news", and accusing the media of painting a false picture. "The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages," the prime minister claimed. 2:55 I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating. Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated. The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer. "And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces," he added. "And very often they didn't, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line." 3:17 This was Israel's prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza. It took two questions before he acknowledged there was "deprivation", even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role. He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look. This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
