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Primary schools in India's Delhi to remain closed as air pollution worsens
All primary schools in India's Delhi will stay closed till Nov. 10 in the wake of rising air pollution levels in and around the national capital, announced Delhi's Education Minister Atishi Marlena on Sunday.
The minister said that while primary schools will remain shut, the option of taking online classes has been given to the teachers of Grade 6-12.
Read: Afghans in droves head to border to leave Pakistan ahead of a deadline in anti-migrant crackdown
"As pollution levels continue to remain high, primary schools in Delhi will stay closed till Nov. 10. For Grade 6-12, schools are being given the option of shifting to online classes," posted the minister on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The overall air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was recorded at 482 on Sunday, which is in the "severe" category, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research.
A blanket of haze has enveloped Delhi and its surrounding areas over the past few days, and many people complained of itching in the eyes, sore throat and breathing problems.
Read: India Hosts 6th Session of the International Solar Alliance Assembly in New Delhi
Air pollution normally rises in Delhi during the winter months from November to February. Stubble burning by farmers in nearby states, particularly Punjab and Haryana, is often cited as the major cause. Other reasons include construction and demolition activities, as well as vehicular pollution.
Palestinian death toll rises to 9,488 as Israel-Hamas conflict rages on
The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has reached 9,488 on Saturday, as the Israel-Hamas conflict that started four weeks ago shows no sign of ending, according to the Gaza-bases Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, 24,000 others were wounded in the Palestinian enclave, said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra.
At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the al-Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to the ministry, adding four Palestinians were killed in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and one in a house west of Gaza City.
Read: US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
"On Saturday, the Israeli warplanes launched intensive raids on the neighborhoods of Al-Nasr, Sheikh Radwan, and Al-Shati Camp, west of Gaza City, and in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun in the northern Strip," a Palestinian security source who wished to remain anonymous told Xinhua.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli fighter jets attacked Al-Naser Hospital, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, most of whom were displaced people in the street, according to the ministry.
Al-Naser Hospital's attack came a day after a similar incident took place in front of the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza, which left more than 13 dead people and a number of others wounded.
The Israeli army claimed on Friday that it had attacked the ambulance which was being used by Hamas fighters.
Read: Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Moreover, several Israeli airstrikes targeted solar energy sources in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Quds Hospital on Friday, causing a major fire in the two hospitals and putting the generators out of service, according to Salama Maarouf, the head of the government media office in Gaza.
Palestinian security sources and locals said on Saturday that sounds of clashes and explosions continued to be heard in several areas south, north, and west of Gaza City as the Israeli army forces advanced on the ground for the second week in a row.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, published a video clip on Friday showing its fighters damaging a number of Israeli tanks in the south of Gaza City and areas in the northern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army confirmed the continuation of the ground attack on Gaza. Avichai Adraee, an Israeli army spokesman, said Israeli forces operated for hours Friday night in the northern Gaza Strip.
Read: The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
"During last night's fighting, our forces clashed with 15 armed men in the northern Gaza Strip. The forces eliminated a number of them and directed tanks to destroy three Hamas reconnaissance sites," he said.
About 260 wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in Israel on Friday, as part of 150 air and ground rescue operations, according to Adraee.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that the ground operation in Gaza was expected to continue for several more weeks and to advance deeper into Gaza City to control Hamas leadership sites and targets.
On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating Israeli territory, while Israel responded with airstrikes, ground operations and punitive measures that included a siege on the Gaza Strip.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has killed at least 1,400 Israelis, the vast majority in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory's Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.
The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire.
Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.
“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life,” Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive against Hamas. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.
Read: US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
Early Sunday, airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people and wounding 42, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry.
He said first responders, aided by residents, were still searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors.
The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere. It has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed in such attacks.
Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”
Blinken, however, said “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7," when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.
He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, "while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.” The spokesman of the Hamas military wing, who goes by Abu Obeida, said in a speech that fighters had destroyed 24 Israeli vehicles and inflicted casualties in the past two days.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Read: The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south, and on Saturday it offered a three-hour window for residents to do so. An Associated Press journalist on the road, however, saw nobody coming. The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said no one went south because the Israeli military had damaged the road.
Israel asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
The United States and Arab partners disagreed Saturday on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israeli military strikes killed civilians at a U.N. shelter and a hospital, and Israel said the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive to crush Hamas. Gaza's Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.
“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life," Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan a day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”
Blinken, however, said “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.” He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, "while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.
As he left church in Delaware on Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden hinted at progress in efforts to convince Israel to agree to a humanitarian pause, responding “Yes,” to reporters’ questions about any forward movement on the subject. He did not elaborate.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.” The spokesman of the Hamas military wing, who goes by Abu Obeida, said in a speech that fighters had destroyed 24 Israeli vehicles and inflicted casualties in the past two days.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south, and on Saturday it offered a three-hour window for residents to do so. An Associated Press journalist on the road, however, saw nobody coming. The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said no one went south because the Israeli military had damaged the road.
But Israel asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
Read: Israel-Hamas war: Why India’s Congress is facing backlash over ‘support for Palestine’
Some Palestinians said they didn’t flee because they feared Israeli bombardment.
“We don’t trust them,” said Mohamed Abed, who sheltered with his wife and children on the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, one of thousands of Palestinians seeking safety at medical centers in the north.
Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. U.N. monitors say more than half of northern Gaza’s remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has lost contact with many in the north.
On Saturday, two strikes hit a U.N. school sheltering thousands just north of Gaza City, killing several people in tents in the schoolyard and women who were baking bread inside the building, according to the U.N. agency. Initial reports indicated that 20 people were killed, said spokeswoman Juliette Touma. The health ministry in Gaza said 15 people were killed at the school and another 70 wounded.
Also Saturday, two people were killed in a strike by the gate of al-Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, according to Medhat Abbas, health ministry spokesman. And a strike hit near the entrance to the emergency ward of al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, injuring at least 21, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The World Health Organization called attacks on health care in Gaza “unacceptable.”
Also hit was the family home of Hamas’ exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Shati refugee camp on the northern edge of Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza. It had no immediate details on damage or casualties.
Israel has continued bombing in the south, saying it is striking Hamas targets.
An airstrike early Saturday destroyed a home in the southern town of Khan Younis, with first responders pulling three bodies and six injured people from the rubble. Among those killed was a child, according to an AP cameraman at the scene.
“The sound of explosions never stops,” said Raed Mattar, who was sheltering in a school in Khan Younis after fleeing the north.
Read: Bangladesh urges Security Council to take urgent measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation in Palestine
At least 1,115 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded have exited Gaza into Egypt, but on Saturday authorities in Gaza didn’t allow foreign passport holders to leave because Israel was preventing the evacuation of Palestinian patients for treatment in Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority.
The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes
Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out.
Anger over the war and civilian deaths in Gaza sparked large demonstrations in Paris, Washington, London, Pakistan and elsewhere on Saturday. “Against apartheid, free Palestinians,” a banner in Rome read.
Turkey said it was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations, and Turkish media reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could no longer speak to Netanyahu in light of the bombardment.
Thousands of Israelis protested outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people.
"I find it difficult to understand why trucks with humanitarian aid are going to monsters,” said Ella Ben Ami, whose parents were abducted. She called for aid to be halted until the hostages are released.
Thousands of people also joined a demonstration of hostages' families in Tel Aviv.
Air raid sirens sounded Saturday evening in southern Israel as Hamas launched rockets into Ashkelon. Rocket fire has continued in the area throughout the conflict, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Read more: 31 killed as Israel-Palestine fighting continues, Egypt pushes truce
Fears continued of a new front opening along Israel's border with Lebanon. The Israeli military said it had struck militant cells in Lebanon trying to fire at Israel, as well as an observation post for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily. Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate.
“We are not interested in a northern front, but we are prepared for any task,” Gallant, Israel's defense minister, said after touring the border. He said the Air Force is "preserving most of its might for the Lebanon front,” according to a video statement.
Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 3,900 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.
The Israeli military said four more soldiers have died during the Gaza ground operation, bringing the confirmed death toll to 28.
Israeli strikes kill multiple civilians at shelters in Gaza combat zone
Israeli military strikes killed multiple civilians Saturday at a U.N. shelter and hospital in the main combat zone in the Gaza Strip as the assault intensified on the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers, while the United States and Arab partners disagreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire.
Large columns of smoke rose from Gaza as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the target of its offensive to crush Hamas.
Blinken tries to cajole wary Arabs on support for post-conflict Gaza as Israel's war intensifies
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan a day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries seek an immediate cease-fire. “The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” Safadi said.
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
Blinken, however, said that “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.” He said the U.S. believes that humanitarian pauses can be a “critical mechanism in protecting civilians, in getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas, suggestions Israel seems unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first
On Saturday, Israel offered a three-hour window for trapped residents to flee south, but as the window closed, there was no immediate information on how many fled. The Israeli military asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south as it escalates bombardment of the north. However, some of those traveling south were killed in recent days, and Israel has continued bombing in the south, saying it is striking Hamas targets.
With wide swaths of residential neighborhoods leveled in airstrikes, most of northern Gaza’s remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, have sought shelter in U.N.-run schools and in hospitals where they hope they’ll be safe. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has lost contact with many in the north.
On Saturday, two strikes hit a U.N. school-turned-shelter sheltering thousands just north of Gaza City, killing several people in tents in the schoolyard and women who were baking bread inside the building, according to the U.N. agency.
Initial reports indicated that 20 people were killed, but the agency has not yet been able to verify the figure, said spokeswoman Juliette Touma.
The Health Ministry in Gaza reported that 15 people were killed at the school and another 70 wounded.
Also Saturday, two people were killed in a strike by the gate of Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, according to Medhat Abbas, Health Ministry spokesman.
The World Health Organizaton on Saturday called attacks on health care in Gaza “unacceptable.”
About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, according to the U.N.
With food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities running out, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late Friday urged an immediate cease-fire to allow aid in, calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza “horrific.” He also said civilians must not be used as human shields, and called upon Hamas to release all of the roughly 240 hostages it has.
Incoming aid trucks in recent days have contained far more body bags than canned food, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only portal to the outside world.
The family home of Hamas' exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh, in the Shati refugee camp on the northern edge of Gaza City, was hit Saturday morning by an airstrike, according to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza. It had no immediate details on damage or casualties.
Another strike hit near the entrance to the emergency ward of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, injuring at least 21, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
In the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an airstrike early Saturday destroyed the home of a family, with first responders pulling three bodies and six injured people from the rubble.
Among those killed was a child, according to an Associated Press cameraman at the scene.
Raed Mattar, who was sheltering in a school in Khan Younis after fleeing the north, said he regularly heard explosions.
“People never sleep,” he said. “The sound of explosions never stops.”
The Israeli military said ground forces were also now operating in the south, with an armored and engineering corps working to remove booby traps from buildings.
Anger over the civilian deaths in Gaza sparked large demonstrations in Paris, London, Pakistan and elsewhere. “Against apartheid, free Palestinians,” a banner in Rome read.
Skirmishes along Israel’s northern border continued Saturday as the Israeli military said it had struck militant cells in Lebanon trying to fire at Israel, as well as an observation post for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily along the Lebanese border, raising fears of a new front opening there.
After touring Israel’s northern border, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said that “we are not interested in a northern front, but we are prepared for any task. The Air Force is preserving most of its might for the Lebanon front,” according to a video statement released by his office Saturday.
DIPLOMACYOn Friday in Tel Aviv, on his third trip to Israel since the war began on Oct. 7, Blinken pushed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address the worsening humanitarian crisis. But Netanyahu said there could be no humanitarian pause until Hamas releases all the hostages it holds.
On Saturday, Blinken held meetings in Amman with diplomats from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.”
There was consensus among Arab governments involved in discussions with the U.S. to resist “any talks” on the postwar period in Gaza before establishing a cease-fire and allowing the delivery of more humanitarian aid and fuel to Gaza, according to the Egyptian officials.
CASUALTIES RISINGMore than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including more than 3,900 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.
More than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.
The overall toll is likely to rise dramatically as the assault on densely built-up Gaza City continues.
More than 386 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded exited Gaza into Egypt on Friday, according to Wael Abou Omar, the Hamas spokesperson for the Rafah border crossing. That brings the total who have gotten out since Wednesday to 1,115.
Blinken tries to cajole wary Arabs on support for post-conflict Gaza as Israel's war intensifies
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stepped up his frantic diplomacy on Saturday, trying to build support for planning a post-conflict future for Gaza as he continued his second urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.
A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointedly snubbed Blinken's blunt warning that Israel risks losing any hope of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians unless it eases the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he met in Amman with senior Jordanian and other Arab officials, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel as it intensifies its war against Hamas.
Read: Arab countries who normalized relations with Israel under growing public pressure to cut ties
Blinken met first with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose economically and politically ravaged country is home to Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed force hostile to Israel.
The U.S. has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has already stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the conflict.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave his first major speech since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the war, but did not forecast his group’s greater involvement despite professing it was not perturbed by U.S. attempts to deter it.
Neither Blinken nor Mikati spoke to reporters at the top of their meeting in an Amman hotel. Nor did Blinken speak publicly as he posed for pictures with Qatar’s foreign minister, whose country has emerged as the most influential interlocutor with Hamas and has been key to negotiating the limited release of hostages held by the group as well as convincing it to allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt.
Read: Biden calls for humanitarian 'pause' in Israel-Hamas war
Blinken was then to meet with the head of the United Nations agency in charge of assisting Palestinian refugees. UNRWA has said dozens of its staff have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and is running critically low on necessary supplies like food, medicine and fuel.
Later, Blinken was to hold group talks with foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the chair of the PLO executive committee. All parties have denounced Israel’s tactics against Hamas, which they say constitutes unlawful collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Blinken will also see King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose country this week recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Israel’s envoy not to return to the country until the Gaza crisis was over.
Still, the Arab states have thus far resisted American suggestions that they play a larger role in crisis, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli military operations but believing Gaza to be a problem largely of Israel’s own making.
The Arabs meeting with Blinken were convened by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi, who said the gathering was organized “in the context of their efforts aimed at stopping the Israeli war on Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing,” Jordan's foreign ministry said.
Still, U.S. officials believe Arab backing — no matter how modest — will be critical to efforts to not only ease the worsening conditions in Gaza but also to lay the groundwork for what would replace Hamas as the territory’s governing authority if and when Israel succeeds in eradicating it.
Read: Israeli airstrikes crush apartments in Gaza refugee camp, as ground troops battle Hamas militants
However, ideas on Gaza’s future governance are few and far between, with Blinken and other U.S. officials offering a vague outline that it might include a combination of a revitalized Palestinian Authority — which has not been a factor in the territory since 2007 — international organizations and potentially a peacekeeping force. U.S. officials acknowledge these ideas have been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the United Nations had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is “Water, water,” the Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday.
Thomas White, who said he traveled “the length and breadth of Gaza in the last few weeks,” described the place as a "scene of death and destruction.” No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their future and their ability to feed their families.
Read: Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
The Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, is supporting about 89 bakeries across Gaza, aiming to get bread to 1.7 million people, White told diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member nations in a video briefing from Gaza.
But, he said, “now people are beyond looking for bread. It’s looking for water.”
U.N. deputy Mideast coordinator Lynn Hastings, who is also the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational.
“Many people are relying on brackish or saline ground water, if at all,” she said.
In the briefing, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also said intense negotiations are taking place among authorities from Israel, Egypt, the United States and United Nations on allowing fuel to enter Gaza.
Fuel, he said, is essential for the functioning of institutions, hospitals and the distribution of water and electricity. "We must allow these supplies reliably, repetitively and dependently into Gaza.”
Backup generators, which have been essential to keep hospitals, water desalination plants, food production facilities and other essential services operating “are one by one grinding to a halt as fuel supplies run out,” Hastings said.
White pointed to other major problems.
Sewage is not being treated and instead is being pumped into the sea, he said. “But when you speak to municipal workers, the reality is once their fuel runs out, that sewage will flow in the streets.”
Read: Internet, phone service gradually returns after vanishing for most of Gaza amid heavy bombardment
In addition, he said, cooking gas that was brought into Gaza from Egypt by the private sector before the war is increasingly in short supply. Aid organizations like UNRWA “are not going to be able to step in and replicate the network of distribution by the private sector for this essential item,” he said.
White said close to 600,000 people are sheltering in 149 UNRWA facilities, most of them schools, but the agency has lost contact with many in the north, where Israel is carrying intense ground and air operations following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks.
An average of 4,000 displaced people in Gaza are living in the schools without the resources to maintain proper sanitation, he said. “The conditions are desperate,” with women and children sleeping in the classrooms and men sleeping outside in the open, he said.
The U.N. can’t provide them safety, White said, pointing to over 50 UNRWA facilities impacted by the conflict, including five direct hits. “At last count, 38 people have died in our shelters. I fear that with the fighting going on in the north right now, that number is going to grow significantly,” he said.
Griffiths, the humanitarian chief, said 72 UNRWA staff members had been killed since Oct. 7. “I think it’s the highest number of U.N. staff lost in a conflict,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s total of more than 9,000 people killed in Gaza is four times as many deaths as during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2014 when just over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, Griffiths said. He added that the real toll will only emerge once buildings are cleared and rubble is taken away.
Griffiths called for humanitarian pauses to get aid to millions of people. He also urged the immediate release of all hostages and protection of all civilians by both sides as required under international humanitarian law.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for a full cease-fire, and Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, criticized Griffiths for talking about humanitarian pauses, something the United States is also urging.
Read: Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space following relentless Israeli bombing raids
This means “Israel continues killing the Palestinians, but gives us few hours every now and then, in order to get food and other stuff,” Mansour said.
He said a cease-fire is essential to save lives, saying that “almost 50% of all the structures in the Gaza Strip” have been destroyed by Israel and the situation for Palestinians “is beyond comprehension and beyond description.”
“It requires from all of us to do everything that we can to stop it,” he said.
At least 128 dead as strong quake rocks northwestern Nepal
Helicopters and ground troops rushed to help people hurt in a strong earthquake that shook northwestern Nepal districts just before midnight Friday, killing at least 128 people and injuring dozens dozens more, officials said Saturday.
Authorities said the death toll was expected to rise, noting that communications were cut off with many places.
As day broke, rescue helicopters flew into the region to help out and security forces on the ground were digging out the injured and dead from the rubble, Nepal police spokesman Kuber Kadayat said.
Troops were also clearing roads and mountain trails that were blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake. Helicopters flew in medical workers and medicines to the hospitals there.
Read: 3 earthquakes jolt district close to Nepal capital
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal also flew in on a helicopter with a team of doctors. Dahal led an armed communist revolt in 1996-2006 that began from the districts that were hit by the quake.
In Jajarkot district, where the quake’s epicenter was, 92 people were confirmed dead and another 55 injured. Kadayat said.
The quake killed at least 36 people in neighboring Rukum district, where numerous houses collapsed, and at least 85 injured people already had been taken to the local hospital, he said.
Security officials worked with villagers all throughout the night in the darkness to pull the dead and injured from fallen houses.
The quake, which hit when many people already were asleep in their homes, was felt in India’s capital, New Delhi, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) away.
Read: Powerful earthquake shakes west Afghanistan a week after devastating quakes hit same region
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 and occurred at a depth of 11 miles. Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring & Research Center said its epicenter was at Jajarkot, which is about 250 miles northeast of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
Earthquakes are common in mountainous Nepal. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015 killed some 9,000 people and damaged about 1 million structures.
Read more: 6.3 magnitude earthquake shakes part of western Afghanistan where earlier quake killed over 2,000
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began, reiterating American support for Israel's campaign to crush Hamas after its brutal Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. He also echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and deepening misery for civilians from weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties. Overwhelmed hospitals say they are nearing collapse, with medicine and fuel running low under the Israeli siege. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, the U.N. said Friday.
Palestinians are increasingly desperate for the most basic supplies.
The average Gaza resident is now surviving on two pieces of bread per day, much of it made from stockpiled U.N. flour, said Thomas White, Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Demands for drinking water are also growing.
“People are beyond looking for bread,” he told U.N. diplomats in a video briefing from Gaza. "It’s looking for water.”
After talks with Netanyahu, Blinken said a temporary halt was needed to boost aid deliveries and help win the release of the hostages Hamas took during its brutal incursion nearly a month ago.
But Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel was “going with full steam ahead," unless hostages are released.
U.S. officials initially said they were not seeking a cease-fire, but short pauses in specific areas to allow aid deliveries or other humanitarian activity, after which Israeli operations would resume. Netanyahu has not publicly addressed the idea and has instead repeatedly ruled out a cease-fire.
On Friday, however, a senior U.S. administration official said policymakers believe a “fairly significant pause” in fighting will be needed to allow for releases. The idea is modeled on a smaller-scale pause that allowed the freeing of two American hostages from Hamas captivity last month.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said that release was a “testing pilot” for how a broader deal could be struck and said negotiations on a “larger package” of hostages are ongoing. The official emphasized it would require a significant pause in fighting to ensure their safety to the Gaza border.
Read: Israeli airstrikes crush apartments in Gaza refugee camp, as ground troops battle Hamas militants
Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City amid continued battles with Hamas militants as airstrikes wreaked havoc around the city, the largest in the tiny Mediterranean territory. Al Jazeera TV reported that a strike late Friday hit a school in Gaza City where many were taking refuge, causing casualties.
Strikes hit near the entrances of three hospitals in northern Gaza just as staff were trying to evacuate wounded to the south, hospital directors said. Footage showed the aftermath outside Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, where more than a dozen bloodied bodies of men, women and young children were strewn next to damaged cars and ambulances. One bleeding boy screamed as he huddled on top of a woman sprawled on the pavement.
At least 15 people were killed and 60 wounded outside Shifa Hospital, said Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. At least 50 others were killed or wounded in a strike outside the Indonesian Hospital, its director said, without providing more precise figures.
The Israeli military said its aircraft Friday hit an ambulance that Hamas fighters were using to carry weapons. The claim could not be independently verified. It was not clear whether the strike was connected to the one by Shifa Hospital. The military said it took place “near a battle zone,” suggesting it was close to ongoing ground battles.
Al-Qidra said a convoy of ambulances left Shifa, carrying wounded to Rafah, when a strike hit a vehicle on the edges of Gaza City. The convoy turned around, and another strike hit another ambulance. He denied that any of the ambulances were used by Hamas fighters.
Read: UN agency in Gaza says urgent cease-fire is `matter of life and death' for millions of Palestinians
FEARS OVER NEW FRONTS
Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily along the Lebanon border, raising fears of a new front opening there.
In his first public speech since the war began, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the cross-border fighting showed his group had “entered the battle.”
He suggested escalation was possible: “We will not be limited to this.” But he gave little sign that Hezbollah would fully engage in the fighting. So far, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to show backing for Hamas without igniting an all-out war that would be devastating for Lebanon and Israel.
Thursday saw one of the heaviest exchanges over the border yet. Hezbollah attacked Israeli military positions in northern Israel with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones, and Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships retaliated with strikes in Lebanon. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks.
“We are in a high state of readiness in the north, in a very high state of alert,” he said.
The exchanges since the start of the war have killed 10 Lebanese civilians and 66 fighters from Hezbollah and other militant groups, as well as seven Israeli soldiers and a civilian in northern Israel.
GAZA CITY ENCIRCLED
More than 9,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far, two thirds of them women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.
More than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack. Rocket fire by Gaza militants into Israel has continued, disrupting life for millions of people and forcing an estimated 250,000 people to evacuate towns in northern and southern Israel. Most rockets are intercepted.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.
The toll is likely to rise dramatically. Israeli military officials said their forces have encircled densely built-up Gaza City and began Friday to launch targeted attacks within the city on militant cells.
Read: Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in the city and nearby parts of northern Gaza. Israel says Hamas has extensive military infrastructure in the city, including a network of underground tunnels, bunkers and command centers. It says its strikes target Hamas and the militants endanger civilians by operating among them.
Friday's strike outside Shifa Hospital came after Israel said Hamas has a command center at the facility — a claim that could not be independently verified and that Hamas and hospital officials deny. The Palestinian Red Crescent said a strike damaged one of its ambulances carrying wounded to southern Gaza on the coastal highway. The agency posted images of the vehicle with its hood destroyed and blood on the side.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli strikes have destroyed 25 ambulances, Qidra said.
The military said its troops have killed numerous Hamas militants exiting tunnels. Footage released by the military showed soldiers and tanks advancing toward bombed out buildings.
Israel has repeatedly told residents of Gaza's north to evacuate to the south for greater safety. But many have been unable to leave or to stay in the south, fearing continued airstrikes there.
The military on Thursday told residents to evacuate the Shati refugee camp on Gaza City’s edge. On Friday, shells hit a convoy of evacuees on the coastal road they were told to use, killing around a dozen people, doctors said. Footage from the road showed dead children lying in the sand.
Further south, workers pulled 17 bodies from the rubble of a building leveled by a strike in Khan Younis, witnesses said. Associated Press images showed rescuers digging with bare hands to save someone completely buried, with one arm protruding from the wreckage. At a hospital, a crying man held up the dead body of a small girl whose lower limbs appeared to be missing.
In the occupied West Bank overnight, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in different places and arrested many more, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian health officials.
More than 386 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded exited Gaza into Egypt on Friday, according to Wael Abou Omar, the Hamas spokesman for the Rafah border crossing. That brings the total who have gotten out since Wednesday to 1,115.
Israel has allowed more than 300 trucks carrying food and medicine into Gaza, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough. Israeli authorities have refused to allow fuel in, saying Hamas is hoarding fuel for military use and would steal new supplies.
Arab countries who normalized relations with Israel under growing public pressure to cut ties
Arab nations that have normalized or are considering improving relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of Israel's war with Hamas.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rabat and other Moroccan cities in support of the Palestinians. In Bahrain — a country that almost never allows protest — police stood by as hundreds of people marched last month, waving flags and gathering in front of the Israeli Embassy in Manama.
The demonstrations, which mirror protests across the Middle East, present an uncomfortable dilemma for governments that have enjoyed the benefits of closer military and economic ties with Israel in recent years.
In Egypt, which has had ties with Israel for decades, protesters rallied in cities and at universities, at times chanting “Death to Israel." A parliamentary committee in Tunisia last week advanced a draft law that would criminalize normalization with Israel.
In Morocco and Bahrain, the public anger has an additional dimension; activists are demanding the reversal of agreements that formalize ties with Israel, underscoring discord between the governments and public opinion.
READ: Biden calls for humanitarian 'pause' in Israel-Hamas war
The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, aimed at winning broader recognition of Israel in the Arab world, paved the way for trade deals and military cooperation with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates starting in 2020. Their autocratic rulers — as well as American and Israeli officials — continue to frame the deals as a step toward a “ new Middle East ” in which closer ties could foster peace and prosperity.
The accords marked a major diplomatic victory for Morocco because they led the U.S. — and eventually Israel — to recognize its autonomy over the disputed Western Sahara. Morocco's Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about the agreement or protests.
The accords also led Washington to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, presenting a lifeline for the ruling military junta fighting a pro-democracy movement and spiraling inflation.
Large protests against the Israel-Hamas war have not erupted in Sudan or the United Arab Emirates.
A highly sought-after agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia has become less likely due to the war and regionwide protests, Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Associated Press in October.
“I think this dynamic of normalization will likely slow down or come to a halt, at least for a period of time,” Cook said.
READ: Israeli airstrikes crush apartments in Gaza refugee camp, as ground troops battle Hamas militants
Opponents of normalization say the protests make clear the governmental wins that resulted from the accords did little to move public opinion.
“Hamas isn’t terrorists. It’s resistance to colonization. Imagine someone enters your house. How would you behave? Smile or make them leave by force?” said Abouchitae Moussaif, the national secretary of Morocco's Al Adl Wal Ihsane, a banned but tolerated Islamist association that has long supported the Palestinian cause.
The group, which rejects King Mohammed VI's dual authority as head of state and religion, organizes throughout Morocco, where undermining the monarchy is illegal.
Morocco has not always been so lenient with opponents of normalization. Before the war, authorities broke up protests and sit-ins outside Parliament and a judge in Casablanca sentenced a man to five years in prison for undermining the monarchy because he criticized normalization.
Now, law enforcement personnel mostly stand aside as the large daily protests take place.
“Normalization is a project of the state, not the people,” Moussaif said. “The protests touched on a project of the government, more specifically a project of the King.”
Zakaria Aboudahab, a professor of International Relations at Universite Mohammed V in Rabat, said the protests likely won't lead to Morocco overturning normalization but that allowing them works as a “safety valve” to temper public outrage.
READ: UN agency in Gaza says urgent cease-fire is `matter of life and death' for millions of Palestinians
“The Moroccan state knows very well that when popular anger reaches such proportions and people express injustice and so on, it has to listen to the people,” he said.
Bahrain had banned protests since the 2011 uprisings, when thousands poured into the streets emboldened by pro-democracy protests in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. But in recent weeks, demonstrations have been allowed again.
“Now people are taking some risks to be in the street and participate,” said Jawad Fairooz, a former leader of Bahrain’s outlawed Al Wefaq Party who lives in exile in London. “Governments want to give some relief to people’s anger by allowing them to get together.”
As the war intensified, Arab leaders moved from condemning violence and calling for peace to more pointed criticism of Israel’s attacks in Gaza.
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry initially called Hamas' Oct. 7 raid in southern Israel a “serious and grave escalation," and its finance minister told reporters the country does not mix trade with politics. After Israel struck Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday, the UAE warned that “indiscriminate attacks will result in irreparable ramifications in the region."
Morocco's Foreign Ministry initially said it "condemns attacks against civilians wherever they may be." But it later blamed Israel for the escalation of violence — including an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City — and highlighted its humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza.
In a statement last week, Morocco called its delivery of food, medical supplies and water part of the king's commitment to the Palestinian cause.