Middle-East
Booms and sirens in Israel after Iran launches over 200 missiles, drones
Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. In Washington, President Joe Biden said U.S. forces helped Israel down “nearly all” the drones and missiles and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.
The attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran “is risking a potential military escalation,” Britain calling the attack “reckless" and Germany saying Iran and its proxies “must stop it immediately."
The Israeli military's spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — with the vast majority intercepted outside Israel’s borders. He said warplanes intercepted over 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.
Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.
"A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation,” he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army “does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel.” He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.
Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.
“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”
Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in his statement that he reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment” to Israel's security — a departure from his growing criticism of Israel's conduct in its war on Hamas in Gaza.
Iran had vowed revenge since the April 1 airstrike in Syria, which Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for. Israel hasn’t commented on it.
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.
In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”
In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the U.S.: “The terrorist U.S. government is warned any support or participation in harming Iran’s interests will be followed by decisive and regretting response by Iran’s armed forces."
IRNA also quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack. A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.
Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.
Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos shared by Iranian state television purported to show delta-wing-style drones resembling the Iranian Shahed-136s long used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. The slow-flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target them.
Some Israelis watched the interceptions light up the night sky.
Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.
Israel's army ordered residents in the Golan Heights — near the Syrian and Lebanese borders — as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat into protective spaces. Dimona is home to Israel’s main nuclear facility, and Nevatim has a major air base. Loud booms were heard in Jerusalem and northern and southern Israel.
The army’s Home Front Command canceled school Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel and some other countries in the region closed their airspace.
Earlier, Netanyahu warned: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”
In Washington, Biden convened a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the attack.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials. The Central Command oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a warning to both Israel and the U.S. “Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” it wrote online. “It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!”
For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to “slap” Israel for the Syria strike.
In Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what may come next. Dozens of hard-liners demonstrated in support of the attack at Palestine Square.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Iran's launch of drones. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.
Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the sky above the Jordanian capital, Amman. In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and elsewhere in the country, residents reported seeing missiles in the sky and hearing explosions, likely from interceptions. In Syria, explosions were heard in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian air defenses tried to shoot down Israeli attempts to intercept Iranian missiles.
Iran launches its first direct military attack against Israel
Iran launched its first direct military attack against Israel on Saturday. The Israeli military says Iran fired more than 100 bomb-carrying drones toward Israel. Hours later, Iran announced it had also launch much more destructive ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
Iran had been threatening to attack Israel after an airstrike earlier this week widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran’s consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals.
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement early Sunday the “vast majority” of missiles launched from Iran were intercepted outside of Israel’s borders. Israel has made missile defense a priority, with a variety of air-defense systems available to shoot down incoming missile and drone fire.
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.
An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Currently:
— President Joe Biden cut short a weekend stay at his Delaware beach house to meet with his national security team and monitor the situation in the Middle East as Iran launched an attack against Israel.
— Israel has a multilayered air-defense system. It faces a big test with Iranian drone strike.
Here is the latest:
BIDEN SAYS U.S. HELPED ISRAEL DOWN ‘NEARLY ALL’ IRANIAN DRONES AND MISSILESWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says U.S. forces helped Israel down “nearly all” of the drones and missiles launched by Iran and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.
Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in a statement that he reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security — a departure from his harsh criticism over Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” Biden said in the statement. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”
The Iranian attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time it has launched a direct military assault on Israel
ISRAEL SAYS MOST MISSILES LAUNCHED FROM IRAN WERE INTERCEPTEDJERUSALEM — Israel's military says the “vast majority” of missiles launched from Iran were intercepted outside of Israel’s borders.
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement early Sunday that dozens of surface-to-surface missile launches from Iran were identified approaching Israeli territory and that “the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted the majority of the launches using the ‘Arrow’ Aerial Defense System, together with Israel’s strategic allies, before the launches crossed into Israeli territory."
“A small number of hits were identified, including at an IDF base in southern Israel, where minor damage was caused to infrastructure,” the statement added.
It said “many dozens of hostile aircraft, as well as dozens of cruise missiles, from Iran were identified approaching Israeli territory and intercepted.”
Dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets are currently operating to intercept aerial threats approaching Israeli territory, it added.
UN CHIEF CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIESU.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for an immediate halt to hostilities in the Middle East.
“I strongly condemn the serious escalation represented by the large-scale attack launched on Israel by the Islamic Republic of Iran this evening,” Guterres wrote in a statement Saturday night.
“I am deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation. I urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East,” Guterres wrote. “I have repeatedly stressed that neither the region nor the world can afford another war.”
GERMANY, FRANCE, CANADA CONDEMN IRANIAN ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAELThe French government forcefully condemned the Iranian air attack on Israel.
French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné said in a statement Saturday that in “taking such an unprecedented action, Iran has crossed a new threshold with regard to its destabilizing activities and is risking a potential military escalation.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote early Sunday on X that Germany condemns “in the strongest possible terms the ongoing attack, which could plunge an entire region into chaos.
“Iran and its proxies must stop it immediately,” Baerbock wrote. "We offer Israel our full solidarity at this time.”
Likewise, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his nation “unequivocally condemns Iran’s airborne attacks against Israel.”
"We stand with Israel. After supporting Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, the Iranian regime’s latest actions will further destabilize the region and make lasting peace more difficult,” Trudeau said in a statement.
"We support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people from these attacks.”
BRITAIN AND ARGENTINA RESPOND TO IRANIAN ATTACK ON ISRAEL
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said additional Royal Air Force jets and air refueling tankers have been sent to the Middle East to bolster Britain’s existing operation against the Islamic State Group in Iraq and Syria.
He said the jets “will intercept airborne attacks within range of our existing missions,” but did not confirm whether RAF jets had already shot down any Iranian drones.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of Argentine President Javier Milei says the leader will cancel a trip to Denmark and return to Buenos Aires due to Iran’s attack on Israel.
A statement from presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said Milei was flying home to form a “crisis committee in light of the latest events in Israel, to take charge of the situation and coordinate actions with the presidents of the Western world.”
US FORCES DOWN ATTACK DRONES HEADED TO ISRAELU.S. officials say American military forces have downed some Iran-launched attack drones flying toward Israel.
That is according to a U.S. defense official and two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The defense official said the effort to intercept the attack was continuing.
Since Iran announced its attack Saturday against Israel, air raid sirens have gone off in Jerusalem, in northern and southern Israel, in the Negev region, in the Shomron area and in the Dead Sea region.
— Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Mike Balsamo in New York contributed.
ISRAEL ORDERS RESIDENTS IN SOME AREAS TO MOVE CLOSE TO PROTECTED SPACES
The Israeli army has ordered residents of the Golan Heights in the north and Nevatim, Dimona and Eilat in the south to stay close to a protected space — such as a shelter, stairwell or inner room — until further notice.
Residents must be able to reach the protected spaces as soon as air raid sirens are activated, the statement said.
“We ask the public to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command regarding the situation and wait for additional instructions,” the statement said.
IRAN SAYS IT HAS FIRED BALLISTIC MISSILES AT ISRAEL
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has fired ballistic missiles at targets inside of Israel. The announcement came shortly after Iran said it fired dozens of bomb-carrying drones.
Slow-moving Shahed-136 drones have been seen in the skies over Iran. However, those are more easily shot down.
Israel has missile defense systems capable of targeting ballistic missiles. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles like the campaign launched late Saturday by Iran, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.
ISRAELI ARMY SAYS IT IS DETERMINED TO DEFEND THE COUNTRYThe Israel Defense Forces says that it is prepared to defend itself against a massive drone attack launched by Iran.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army's spokesperson, said the country is closely monitoring the drones that are headed to Israel.
“Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness,” he said. “Together with our partners, the Israel Defense Forces is operating at full-force to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.”
US PLEDGES UNWAVERING SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL AMID IRANIAN ATTACKNational Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Saturday that the United States "will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”
The Pentagon reported that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken with his Israeli counterpart “and made clear that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan also spoke with his counterpart to reinforce Washington’s “ironclad commitment" to Israel's security.
ISRAEL CLOSES ITS AIRSPACE AS IT ANTICIPATES DRONE ATTACKIsrael says it has closed its airspace after Iran launched dozens of drones against it late Saturday.
Israeli aviation authorities said they were closing the country’s airspace to all flights as of 12:30 a.m. local time (5:30 p.m. EDT).
ATTACK REPRESENTS FIRST DIRECT MILITARY ASSAULT ON ISRAEL BY IRANThe attack late Saturday marked the first time Iran had ever launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Tehran’s choice of the Shahed-136 drones both give Israel and its allies hours to shoot down the bomb-carrying drones. For the time being, it does not appear Iran has used any of its ballistic missiles in the attack, which would pose a greater risk to Israel.
Rampage by Israeli settlers kills Palestinian man in his village, injures 25
Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire. The rampage killed a Palestinian man and wounded 25 others, Palestinian health officials said.
The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen.
The killing came after an Israeli raid overnight killed two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant, in confrontation with Israeli forces.
Palestinian health officials say over 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the war erupted in October.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for the Israeli boy. The group said that settlers were shooting and setting houses on fire in the village.
Videos posted to X by the rights group showed dark clouds of smoke billowing from burning cars as gunshots rang out. A photo posted by the group showed what appeared to be a crowd of masked settlers.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that one man was brought dead to a hospital and 25 were treated for wounds. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said eight of the injured were hit by live fire.
The slain man was later identified by his family as 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia. His father, Afif Abu Alia, said he was shot and killed but was unsure whether the fatal bullet was fired by an armed settler or an Israeli soldier.
“My son went with others to defend our land and honor, and this is what happened,” Abu Alia said from a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his son’s body had been transported.
The attack was condemned by Mohammad Mustafa, the new Palestinian prime minister.
The Israeli army said it was searching for the missing Israeli teen, and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians. It said “hits were identified,” and soldiers also cleared out Israeli settlers from the village.
“As of this moment, the violent riots have been dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians present within the town,” it said.
United States officials, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly raised concerns about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel’s war with the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip began more than six months ago. Rights groups have long accused the military of failing to halt settler violence or punish soldiers for wrongdoing.
Earlier on Friday, two Palestinians were killed in confrontations with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medics and the military said. Hamas said one of those killed was a local commander.
The military said the target of the soldiers’ raid was Mohammed Daraghmeh, a local Hamas commander. It said Daraghmeh was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers who discovered weapons in his car. The army alleged that Daraghmeh had been planning attacks on Israeli targets but provided no evidence. It also said assailants hurled explosives at soldiers.
The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.
Israel said Friday it had opened a new crossing for aid trucks into hard-hit northern Gaza as ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.
Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.
Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,600 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.
Israel vows to defend itself if Iran responds to attack on its consulate
Israel’s military said Thursday it is prepared to defend the country and strike back if Iran retaliates for a deadly airstrike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria.
Tehran holds Israel responsible for the attack earlier this month, which the U.S. military believes Israel carried out. Israel has not commented on it. The increased tensions have sparked international concern that Israel’s devastating war against Hamas in Gaza could spill over into the rest of the Middle East.
Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation. The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, told lawmakers Wednesday she accepted “credible” reports that famine is now occurring in hard-hit northern Gaza. President Joe Biden said this week that Israel is not doing enough to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israeli bombardments and ground offensives have killed at least 33,360 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 74,993, the Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in a surprise attack, mostly civilians. Palestinian militants took around 250 people hostage.
ISRAELI PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST NETANYAHU AND CALL FOR HOSTAGE RELEASE
TEL AVIV, Israel — Protesters took to streets in Tel Aviv on Thursday night to demonstrate against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Demonstrators carried large photos of hostages as well as signs with slogans, some in English and some in Hebrew.
At the beginning of the month, tens of thousands of Israelis thronged central Jerusalem in the largest anti-government protest since the country went to war in October. Nearly six months of conflict have renewed divisions over Netanyahu’s leadership, although the country remains largely in favor of the war.
Netanyahu says early elections would paralyze Israel for six to eight months and stall the hostage talks. He has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring all the hostages home, however those goals have been elusive.
WHITE HOUSE SAYS FAMINE IS ‘IMMINENT,’ APPARENTLY SOFTENING USAID CHIEF’S COMMENTSWASHINGTON -- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted repeatedly Thursday that famine conditions in parts of Gaza were “imminent,” seemingly softening USAID Administrator Samantha Power saying that it was “credible” to assess that famine had already begun occurring there.
“That is why we’re doing everything we can to uptick, obviously, the humanitarian aid” arriving into Gaza, Jean-Pierre said, noting that the number of trucks carrying aid into Gaza has increased dramatically in recent days.
“We know how dire the situation is in Gaza, so we are certainly deeply concerned about these reports,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have been working around the clock, around the clock, to get more of that aid into Gaza.”
She added that the U.S. “will continue to push Israel to increase the flow” of aid into Gaza.
Under U.S. pressure, Israel has promised to ramp up aid to Gaza dramatically, saying last week it would open another cargo crossing and surge more trucks than ever before into the besieged Palestinian territory. But days later, there are few signs of those promises materializing and international officials say starvation is widespread in hard-hit northern Gaza.
While Israel says it has dramatically increased the number of aid trucks entering the territory, U.N. workers report only a slight uptick — possibly because they count trucks differently.
ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS IT IS PREPARED TO STRIKE BACK IF IRAN ATTACKS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military says it is prepared to defend the country and strike back if Iran decides to attack. Iran has been threatening to avenge the deaths of two of its generals killed in an airstrike in Damascus last week. It blames Israel for the strike, though Israel has not commented.
Israel has called up additional air defense units and activated other troops in anticipation of an attack by either Iran or the many proxy militant groups it supports in the region.
The army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters Thursday that an attack from Iranian territory “would be clear proof of Iranian intentions to escalate the Middle East and stop hiding behind the proxies.”
He said Israel has improved its offensive and defensive capabilities in recent months. “We will know how to act where needed,” he said.
Hagari said the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, Gen. Erik Kurilla, arrived in Israel for a strategic assessment with Israeli military leaders.
U.S. President Joe Biden said this week that the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad.
ULTRA-ORTHODOX MEN PROTEST NEW LAW THAT COULD END THEIR MILITARY SERVICE EXEMPTIONS
JERUSALEM — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men protested in Jerusalem on Thursday over a court ruling that could end their exemptions from mandatory service in the Israeli military.
Carrying signs that read “to jail, not to the army,” they rallied in front of Israel’s military enlistment office. There were scuffles between police and some of the protesters.
Israel’s Supreme Court last month ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army. The ruling could have far-reaching consequences for the government and the tens of thousands of religious men who refuse to take part in mandatory military service.
Most Jewish men are required to serve nearly three years in the military, followed by years of reserve duty. Jewish women serve two mandatory years.
The exemptions for ultra-Orthodox — coupled with government stipends many seminary students receive through age 26 — have infuriated much of the general public.
These longstanding tensions have only grown in the six months of war in Gaza. The ultra-Orthodox say integrating into the army will threaten their generations-old way of life. The army has said it is suffering from manpower shortages because of the war.
GERMAN FM CALLS IRANIAN COUNTERPART AS TENSIONS BETWEEN IRAN AND ISRAEL ESCALATE
BERLIN — Germany’s foreign minister has spoken with her Iranian counterpart as tensions between Iran and Israel escalate.
The Foreign Ministry wrote on social network X that Annalena Baerbock spoke by phone on Thursday with Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian.
It didn’t give details of the call but said “no one can have an interest in a further regional escalation.”
The ministry called on all in the region “to act responsibly and exercise restraint.”
Germany is a staunch ally of Israel, which is at war in Gaza with the militant Hamas group, a proxy of Iran.
USAID CHIEF: ‘CREDIBLE’ REPORTS OF FAMINE IN NORTHERN GAZA
WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, has said she accepted “credible” reports that famine was now occurring in northern Gaza and urged Israel to take further steps to surge humanitarian aid shipments.
Power told lawmakers on Wednesday that short of famine, civilians in all parts of Gaza, particularly children, are suffering from extreme malnutrition.
Her comments, in reply to a lawmaker’s question, did not include using the word “famine” but she responded affirmatively when asked whether she believes famine had begun in the north.
Power is not the first senior U.S. official to describe the hunger and malnutrition situation in Gaza. Last week in Brussels, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said all Gazans were suffering from acute food insecurity.
“Despite important steps that Israel has taken to allow assistance into Gaza, the results on the ground are woefully insufficient and unacceptable,” he told reporters at a news conference at NATO headquarters.
“A hundred percent of the population in Gaza knows acute levels of food insecurity. A hundred percent of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance,” he said.
CYPRUS FM SAYS HUMANITARIAN AID FOR GAZA STILL ARRIVING DESPITE HALT IN SHIPBORNE DELIVERIES
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus’ foreign minister says additional quantities of humanitarian aid continue to arrive in the east Mediterranean island nation for eventual transfer by ship to Gaza. That’s despite the suspension of shipborne aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
Constantinos Kombos told reporters Thursday that Cypriot authorities in cooperation with U.S. military officials continue preparations for a resumption of aid shipments. They will resume once the sea corridor to Gaza is reactivated after a U.S.-built floating dock designed to receive 1,500 tons or more of aid weekly is completed around May 1.
He said shipments will resume once security protocols are revised in the Palestinian territory to ensure the safe distribution of aid in the wake of the April 1 Israeli airstrikes that killed seven workers with U.S. charity World Central Kitchen.
Once that happens, Kombos said he doesn’t exclude the possibility that some shipments could reach Gaza through the WCK-built pier, where more than 300 tons of aid have already been offloaded.
Israel says the deaths were a tragic error but WCK laid the blame squarely on Israel’s military. The charity said the Israeli army had coordinated over the movement of the cars carrying the workers as they left northern Gaza.
KIBBUTZ RESIDENTS HIT HARD BY HAMAS-LED ATTACK HOLD SPECIAL PASSOVER CELEBRATION
KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel — Residents of a hard-hit kibbutz in southern Israel held a special Passover celebration Thursday ahead of the Jewish holiday in less than two weeks.
On April 22, Jews around the world will celebrate one of the most important holidays recounting the biblical story of their exodus from Egypt after hundreds of years of slavery. But for many Israelis it’s hard to fathom honoring an occasion focused on freedom, when friends and family are still in captivity.
Around 250 hostages were taken when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel more than six months ago. While some were released in a week-long cease-fire in November, about 130 remain, with approximately a quarter of those believed to be dead.
Kibbutz Nir Oz, the host of Thursday’s event was one of the hardest hit. Its residents comprised a third of the hostages.
On Thursday, photos of those abducted lined the empty chairs around the traditional Seder table, with flyers citing the names of those who had been killed or taken beside commemorative candles.
“Six months have passed, six months of them being there in hell. It can’t be that they are going through hell just in order to be murdered in captivity. There has to be hope, we have to free them now,” said Ofri Bibas-Levy.
Her sister, her sister’s husband and their two small boys were taken and are still held. The youngest was just 9-months old at the time he was abducted.
GERMAN AIRLINE LUFTHANSA EXTENDS FLIGHT SUSPENSIONS TO AND FROM TEHRAN
BERLIN – German airline Lufthansa says its flights to and from Tehran will remain suspended through Saturday “due to the current situation in the Middle East.”
Lufthansa, which usually has five flights per week from Frankfurt to Tehran, suspended its flights on Saturday, initially until Thursday.
In an emailed response to a query about the flights on Thursday, the company didn’t elaborate on its concerns about the situation. Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel over an attack on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month.
Lufthansa said that flights by its Austrian Airlines subsidiary to Tehran continue because, due to the shorter flight time from Vienna, it can run the flights as “daylight operations,” with the plane returning immediately after arrival in Tehran.
It said that flights to and from Frankfurt had to be canceled “as Lufthansa has decided not to let the crew disembark in Tehran.”
Israel threatens to strike Iran directly if Iran launches attack from its territory
Israel’s foreign minister threatened Wednesday that its country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel, as tensions between the rival powers flare following the killings of Iranian generals in a blast at the Iranian consulate in Syria.
“If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran,” Israel Katz said in a post on X in both Farsi and Hebrew.
The remarks came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated early Wednesday a promise to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month.
Israeli troops withdraw from Khan Younis ahead of expected Rafah offensive
Tehran holds Israel responsible for the strike that leveled the building, killing 12 people. Israel has not acknowledged its involvement, though it has been bracing for an Iranian response to the attack, a significant escalation in their long-running shadow war.
Khamenei spoke at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying the airstrike was “wrongdoing” and akin to an attack on Iranian territory.
“When they attacked our consulate area, it was like they attacked our territory,” Khamenei said, in remarks broadcast by Iranian state TV. “The evil regime must be punished, and it will be punished.”
Neither Katz nor the Ayatollah elaborated on the way they would retaliate.
Among 12 killed in the blast on Apr. 1 were seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, four Syrians and a Hezbollah militia member.
Khamenei also criticized the West, particularly the U.S. and Britain, for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel finds the body of a hostage killed in Gaza, while talks will resume on a cease-fire
“It was expected they (would) prevent (Israel) in this disaster. They did not. They did not fulfil their duties, the Western governments,” he said.
Iran supports anti-Israeli militant groups like Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah. It does not recognize Israel.
Will China flood globe with EVs, green tech? What's behind latest US-China trade fight
China's burgeoning production of electric cars and other green technologies has become a flashpoint in a new U.S.-China trade fight, highlighted by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during her five-day visit to China and seized on by former President Donald Trump in incendiary remarks on the campaign trail.
China has sharply ramped up its production of cheap electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries just as the Biden administration has pushed through legislation supporting many of those same industries in the United States. Concerns are growing not just in the U.S. but also in Europe and Mexico that China will seek to bolster its own struggling economy with a wave of exports that could undercut factories overseas.
A U.S. trade group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, noted in a February report that leading Chinese automaker BYD had recently introduced an electric SUV at the “astonishingly low” price of $14,000. China's auto industry poses an “existential threat” to U.S. carmakers, the report argued.
Trump, at a rally late last month in Ohio, charged that China would seek to export cars into the United States through Mexico. The U.S. currently has a 25% tariffs on cars from China that has largely blocked vehicles from that country, but Mexico has a free trade agreement with the U.S.
Trump promised to block such imports with new tariffs, but suggested if Biden were reelected it would be a “bloodbath” for the auto industry.
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So what's behind this new trade fight between the U.S. and China? Here are some questions and answers on the issue:
WHAT IS THE THREAT FROM CHINA?
After more than a decade of subsidizing its automakers, China has built a substantial car industry that accounts for 60% of global electric vehicle sales, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Yet by some estimates, Chinese companies are producing as many as 10 million more electric vehicles annually than they can sell domestically, according to the AAM. That is driving them to sell more cars overseas. Similar dynamics exist in other industries, such as solar panels, batteries, and more traditional areas such as steel.
“The concern is that the Chinese are building up a lot of capacity in many industries across the board, including these new technology sectors and if domestic demand does not pick up, they are going to be looking for markets outside the country,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.
HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS TRADE FIGHTS WITH CHINA?
It's pretty similar. American officials say they have seen this movie before.
In remarks on Saturday in Guangzhou, China, Yellen highlighted the Biden administration’s concerns by recalling a visit a week earlier to Suniva, a solar cell manufacturer in Norcross, Georgia.
The company “was once forced to close down, like other companies across a number of industries, because it could not compete against large quantities of goods that China was exporting at artificially depressed prices,” Yellen said. “It’s important that this doesn’t happen again.”
China is now the world's largest producer of solar cells. Suniva closed in 2017, but is restarting production with the help of subsides from the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act.
Steel and aluminum imports surged into the United States roughly a decade ago, after China's government supported increased production after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Those imports were hit with tariffs in 2017 during the Trump administration. Biden has kept the tariffs.
“What's new is that the concerns around overcapacity in some cutting edge sectors have become acute,” said Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Treasury Department official in the Obama adminstration. “China’s clearly built an insane amount of capacity to produce solar cells, and similarly large amounts of battery production. And now it’s starting to export autos.”
ISN'T THE UNITED STATES ALSO SUBSIDIZING THESE INDUSTRIES?
Yes, the Biden administration pushed through several pieces of legislation that have provided financial support to clean energy and semiconductor producers. China has even filed a complaint before the World Trade Organization charging that some of Biden's subsidies for electric car purchases violate trade rules.
But a report in 2022 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that China's industrial subsidies in 2019 were double, in dollar terms, the size of U.S. supports.
And both Prasad and Setser added that China subsidizes the production of goods, but does little to spur consumption by its own citizens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. supported much higher consumption with several rounds of stimulus checks, for example.
Yellen says US-China relationship on 'more stable footing' but more can be done to improve ties
WHAT'S NEXT?
For now, the two sides have mainly agreed to hold talks on the issue. China hasn't committed to any steps to address American concerns, arguing that its cheap solar panels and other green products are helping the world wage the costly battle against climate change.
But the government in Beijing has also acknowledged that manufacturing overcapacity and weak consumer spending are challenges it needs to confront to achieve sustainable growth for its own economy.
The rapid expansion of EV production has sparked fierce price wars that are expected to drive some makers out of business. Huang Hanquan, an expert on industrial policy, said that China needs better policy coordination so that it can encourage the development of new technologies without prompting every province to promote the same industry, and companies to overinvest.
“I think the Chinese realize how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the United States, for the potential to flood our markets with exports that make it difficult for American firms to compete,” Yellen told reporters on Saturday.
“It’s not going to be solved in an afternoon or a month, but I think they have heard that this is an important issue to us,” she said.
Israeli troops withdraw from Khan Younis ahead of expected Rafah offensive
Israel’s military says it has withdrawn its forces from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, wrapping up a key phase in its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group and bringing its troop presence in the territory to one of the lowest levels since the six-month war began.
But defense officials said Sunday that troops were merely regrouping as the army prepares to move into Hamas’ last stronghold, Rafah.
Israel for weeks has vowed a ground offensive in nearby Rafah. But the city shelters some 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population. The prospect of an offensive has raised global alarm, including from Israel’s top ally, the U.S., which has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Still, the withdrawal was a milestone as Israel and Hamas marked six months of fighting. Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army policy, said a “significant force” remained in Gaza to continue targeted operations including in Khan Younis, hometown of the Hamas leader, Yehya Sinwar.
The Palestinian death toll from the war has passed 33,000, with another 75,600 people wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Israel is pulling some troops from southern Gaza. Now the plan is to clear Hamas from Rafah
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
Currently:
— Israel is pulling some troops from southern Gaza. Now the plan is to clear Hamas from Rafah
— These Palestinian mothers in Gaza gave birth Oct. 7. Their babies have known only war
— AP Photos chronicle 6 months of devastation in Gaza war with no sign of an end
— Israel finds the body of a hostage killed in Gaza, while talks will resume on a cease-fire
— For families of hostages, it’s a race against time as Israel’s war reaches six-month mark
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here's the latest:
AUSTRALIA APPOINTS EX-DEFENSE CHIEF TO LOOK INTO ISRAELI STRIKE THAT KILLED 7 AID WORKERSMELBOURNE, Australia — Australia has appointed retired national defense chief Mark Binskin to look into how Israel Defense Forces came to kill seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, in Gaza last week.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday he expected Israel would fully cooperate with Binskin as Australia’s special adviser on Israel’s response to the missile strikes on three aid vehicles.
“We would expect that someone of Mr. Binskin's stature, frankly, will be given every cooperation from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli government,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“We don’t find the explanations to be satisfactory to this point,” Albanese added.
The seven aid workers’ deaths had “shaken the world,” Albanese said, adding it is “unacceptable” that almost 200 aid workers have died since the conflict began in October last year.
Binskin, who served as Australian Defense Force chief from 2014 to 2018, will advise the government on the “sufficiency and appropriateness of steps taken by the Israeli government” in response to the fatal attack, which the Israeli military has described as a tragic error, a government statement said.
Israel finds the body of a hostage killed in Gaza, while talks will resume on a cease-fire
PALESTINIAN PRISONER CONVICTED IN 1984 KILLING OF ISRAELI SOLDIER DIES OF CANCER, ISRAEL SAYSTEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities say a Palestinian prisoner convicted in the 1984 killing of a soldier has died in a hospital after he was battling cancer.
Walid Daqa, who was an Israeli citizen, was sentenced to life in prison following the killing of soldier Moshe Tamam. The Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, said he was slated for release next year. He was one of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israeli media said he died Sunday.
The plight of prisoners in Israeli jails is deeply sensitive to Palestinians, many of whom have relatives who have served time in Israeli prisons. Their conditions in prison are closely followed and deaths while in custody, even under natural circumstances, can heighten tensions, which are already high amid the war in Gaza.
The fate of the prisoners is under particularly close watch now because Israel is expected to release many as part of a deal that emerges between it and Hamas meant to bring about a cease-fire in the war and the release of hostages taken captive into Gaza.
The prisoners club said Israel had excluded Daqa from all previous prisoner exchange deals, as he had been characterized as a high-risk prisoner.
Hamas accused Israel of “deliberate medical negligence” in Daqa’s death. In a statement Monday, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Daqa died of natural causes.
ISRAEL PULLS SOME TROOPS OUT OF SOUTHERN GAZAJERUSALEM — Israel’s military announced Sunday it had withdrawn its forces from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, wrapping up a key phase in its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group and bringing its troop presence in the territory to one of the lowest levels since the six-month war began.
But defense officials said troops were merely regrouping as the army prepares to move into Hamas’ last stronghold, Rafah. “The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping,” said the military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Local broadcaster Channel 13 TV reported that Israel was preparing to begin evacuating Rafah within one week and the process could take several months.
Still, the withdrawal was a milestone as Israel and Hamas marked six months of fighting. Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army policy, said a “significant force” remained in Gaza to continue targeted operations including in Khan Younis, hometown of the Hamas leader, Yehya Sinwar.
AP video in Khan Younis showed some people returning to a landscape marked by shattered multistory buildings and climbing over debris. Cars were overturned and charred. Southern Gaza’s main hospital, Nasser, was in shambles.
ISRAEL FINDS BODY OF HOSTAGE KILLED IN GAZACAIRO — Israel’s military says it has recovered the body of a 47-year-old farmer who was held hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s army said Saturday it found the body of Elad Katzir and believed he was killed in January by militants with Islamic Jihad, one of the groups that entered southern Israel in the Oct. 7 attack, killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Katzir was abducted from Nir Oz, a border community that suffered some of the heaviest losses.
The discovery renewed pressure on Israel’s government for a deal to get the remaining hostages freed, and thousands gathered in Tel Aviv to call for a deal as well as early elections. Hostages’ families have long feared time is running out. At least 36 hostages have been confirmed dead. About half of the original number have been released.
“He could have been saved if a deal had happened in time,” Katzir’s sister Carmit said in a statement. “Our leadership is cowardly and driven by political considerations, and that is why (a deal) did not happen.”
Israelis are divided on the approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. A week ago, tens of thousands of Israelis thronged central Jerusalem in the largest anti-government protest since the war began.
Israel is pulling some troops from southern Gaza. Now the plan is to clear Hamas from Rafah
Israel's military announced Sunday it had withdrawn its forces from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, wrapping up a key phase in its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group and bringing its troop presence in the territory to one of the lowest levels since the six-month war began.
But defense officials said troops were merely regrouping as the army prepares to move into Hamas’ last stronghold, Rafah. “The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping,” said the military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Local broadcaster Channel 13 TV reported that Israel was preparing to begin evacuating Rafah within one week and the process could take several months.
Still, the withdrawal was a milestone as Israel and Hamas marked six months of fighting. Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army policy, said a “significant force” remained in Gaza to continue targeted operations including in Khan Younis, hometown of the Hamas leader, Yehya Sinwar.
AP video in Khan Younis showed some people returning to a landscape marked by shattered multistory buildings and climbing over debris. Cars were overturned and charred. Southern Gaza's main hospital, Nasser, was in shambles.
“It’s all just rubble,” a dejected Ahmad Abu al-Rish said. “Animals can’t live here, so how is a human supposed to?”
Israel for weeks has vowed a ground offensive in nearby Rafah. But the city shelters some 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza's population. The prospect of an offensive has raised global alarm, including from Israel's top ally, the U.S., which has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians. Allowing people to return to nearby Khan Younis could relieve some pressure on Rafah.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeated on Sunday the U.S. opposition to a Rafah offensive and told ABC the U.S. believes that the partial Israeli withdrawal “is really just about rest and refit for these troops that have been on the ground for four months and not necessarily, that we can tell, indicative of some coming new operation for these troops."
Israel's military quietly drew down troops in devastated northern Gaza earlier in the war. But it has continued to carry out airstrikes and raids in areas where it says Hamas has resurfaced, including Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called “an empty shell."
The six-month mark has been met with growing frustration in Israel, where anti-government protests have swelled and anger is mounting over what some see as government inaction to help free about 130 remaining hostages, about a quarter of whom Israel says are dead. Hamas-led militants took about 250 captives when they crossed from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Several thousand protesters called for a “hostage deal now” at a rally outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, organized by hostages' families. In southern Israel, weeping relatives gathered at the site of a music festival where more than 300 people were killed on Oct. 7.
“It’s an impossible reality for us, it’s an impossible reality for the Gazans and the people of this country. We just want to live,” said one protester, Talia Ezrahi.
“I would agree to anything to return the hostages and stop the mass killings in Gaza,” said another protester, Michal Fruchtman.
Negotiations in pursuit of a cease-fire in exchange for the hostages’ release were expected to resume in Cairo on Sunday. An Israeli delegation led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency was going to Cairo, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
Pressure rose for action now.
“This doesn’t seem a war against terror. This doesn’t seem anymore a war about defending Israel. This really, at this point, seems it’s a war against humanity itself," chef José Andrés told ABC, days after an Israeli airstrike killed seven of his World Central Kitchen colleagues in Gaza. Aid deliveries on a crucial new sea route to the territory were suspended.
“Humanity has been all but abandoned” in Gaza, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
The U.N. and partners now warn of “imminent famine” for more than 1 million people in Gaza as humanitarian workers urge Israel to loosen restrictions on the delivery of aid overland, the only way to meet soaring needs as some Palestinians forage for weeds to eat. Thousands of aid trucks have been waiting to enter Gaza.
“It’s a slow-motion massacre of people to subject them to the kind of deprivation of food and water that they have been subjected to for the last six months,” Doctors Without Borders USA executive director Avril Benoit told CBS.
Mothers who have given birth in Gaza since the war began are especially vulnerable.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the bodies of 38 people killed in Israel’s bombardment had been brought to the territory’s remaining functional hospitals in the past 24 hours. It said 33,175 have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says two-thirds of the dead are children and women.
Israel’s military continued to suffer losses, including in Khan Younis, where the military said four soldiers were killed. Over 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Oct. 7, according to Israel’s government.
Concerns about a wider regional conflict continued as a top Iranian military adviser warned Israel that none of its embassies were safe following last week’s strike in Damascus — blamed on Israel — that killed two elite Iranian generals and flattened an Iranian consular building. Israel has not directly acknowledged its involvement.
“None of the embassies of the (Israeli) regime are safe anymore,” Gen. Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim agency.
These babies born in Gaza on Oct 7 have known only war
Rockets streaked through the morning sky in Gaza on Oct. 7 as Amal Al-Taweel hurried to the hospital in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp, already in labor. After a difficult birth, she and her husband, Mustafa, finally got to hold Ali, the child they spent three years trying to have.
Rola Saqer’s water broke that day as she sheltered from Israeli airstrikes in Beit Lahia, a Gaza town near where Hamas militants streamed across the border hours earlier in the attack that kicked off the war. She and her husband, Mohammed Zaqout, had been trying to have a child for five years, and not even the terrifying explosions all around would stop them from going to the hospital to have their baby that night. Saqer gave birth to Masa, a name that means diamond in Arabic.
The families emerged from the hospitals to a changed world. On the babies' second day of life, Israel declared war on Hamas and its fighter jets swooped over the neighborhoods where Ali and Masa were supposed to grow up. In the six months since the children were born, the couples have experienced the trials of early parenthood against the backdrop of a brutal conflict.
The families' homes were leveled by airstrikes, and they've had no reliable shelter and scant access to medical treatment and baby supplies. The infants are hungry, and despite all of the plans the couples made before the war, they fear the lives they had hoped to give their children is gone.
“I was preparing him for another life, a beautiful one, but war changed all of these features,” Amal Al-Taweel told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We barely live day by day, and we don't know what will happen. There is no planning."
Saqer recalled the hope she had before the war.
“This is my only daughter," she said, rocking Masa gently in a cradle. "I prepared many things and clothes for her. I bought her a closet a week before the war. I was also planning her birthdays and everything. The war came and destroyed everything.”
Israel finds the body of a hostage killed in Gaza, while talks will resume on a cease-fire
FROM NUSEIRAT TO RAFAH
The Al-Taweel family spent the first days of Ali's life going between their home and relatives' houses in search of safety. Nearby buildings kept being struck — first one next to Amal's sister's home, and then one next to her parents' place.
As the family sheltered at home on Oct. 20, Israeli authorities issued an evacuation order warning that a strike was imminent and residents had 10 minutes to leave.
“I had to evacuate. I couldn’t take anything; no IDs, no university certificates, no clothes for my child — nothing,” Amal Al-Taweel said. “Even milk, diapers, and toys that I bought for my child.”
The family found temporary refuge at Amal's parents' house in central Gaza, where 15 family members took shelter.
Not far away, Saqer, her husband and daughter crammed into a relative’s two-bedroom house where more than 80 members of her extended family were staying. It became so crowded, she said, that her male relatives built a tent outside so that the women and children could sleep more comfortably indoors.
As Israeli ground troops advanced on central Gaza in December, both young families headed Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, which is now home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
TENT CAMPS, NO FOOD
Like many who have sought refuge in overcrowded Rafah, the Al-Taweel family lived in a tent, where they stayed for over a month.
“It was the worst experience of my life; the worst conditions I have ever lived in,” Amal Al-Taweel said.
Israel has severely restricted aid deliveries of food, water, medicine and other supplies into Gaza during the war, which began with Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages.
Israel has exacted a terrible toll: More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials whose death count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel's offensive has pushed Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, displacing over 80% of the population and leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.
An old land mine found by children near an Afghanistan village explodes, killing 9
Ali, who was diagnosed with gastroenteritis before the family fled to Rafah, had chronic vomiting and diarrhea — signs of malnutrition that the U.N.'s main health agency says are now common in one of every six young Gazan children. He is underweight, at just 5 kilograms (11 pounds).
“I can’t even feed myself to properly feed my child,” said Amal Al-Taweel. “The boy is losing more weight than he gains.”
His parents fretted about the rashes on his face, trying to shield him from near-constant sun exposure in the tent.
Mustafa Al-Taweel spent months waiting tables at a Gaza City cafe to save up for baby food, toys and clothes. Now, he can't buy his son even the simplest foods in Rafah. The war has brought shortages of the most basic necessities, with diapers and formula hard to find or unaffordable. They've had to rely on canned food provided by the U.N.
“His father was working every day to provide him with milk, diapers, and many other things he needed,” said Amal Al-Taweel. “Even the toys are gone. There’s nothing we can afford to provide him.”
Needing help, the Al-Taweels decided to return to Amal’s parents' home in central Gaza in February.
Not far from where the Al-Taweels lived in Rafah, Masa and her parents found a spot in the Shaboura refugee camp. They lived in a small tent the couple made by stitching together flour bags, Saqer said.
Muddy water pooled around the tent when it rained, and the area always smelled of sewage. Doing anything involved waiting in line, meaning a trip to the bathroom could take hours.
Masa grew sick. Her skin turned yellowish and she seemed to have a perpetual fever, with sweat beading on her small forehead. Saqer tried to breastfeed but couldn't produce milk because she, too, was malnourished. Sores broke out across her breasts.
“Even when I endure the pain and try to breastfeed my daughter, what she drinks is blood, not milk,” she said.
Desperate, Saqer sold aid packets the family received from the U.N. to buy formula for Masa. Eventually, she decided to go back to central Gaza to seek medical treatment for her daughter, leaving her husband behind to mind their tent and setting off in a donkey-pulled cart.
BACK TO CENTRAL GAZA
Both mothers tried their luck at the Al-Aqsa hospital once they arrived in central Gaza. Saqer was lucky — doctors there told her that Masa had a virus and gave the baby medicine.
But they told Amal that Ali needed surgery for a hernia that they couldn't perform. Like most other Gaza hospitals, Al-Aqsa is only conducting life-saving surgeries. After nearly six months of war, Gaza’s health sector has been decimated. Only 10 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still partially functioning. The rest have either shut down or are barely functioning because they ran out of fuel and medicine, were raided by Israeli troops or were damaged by fighting.
As the families ponder the future, they can't imagine that their babies' lives will be close to what they had envisioned. Saqer said that even if her family were able to return to their home in northern Gaza, they would find only rubble where their house once stood.
"The same I suffered in Rafah; I will suffer in the north," she said. "All of our lives will be spent in a tent. It will certainly be a hard life.”
Iranian commander renews vow to avenge Syria strike attributed to Israel that killed 2 generals
A top military commander Saturday renewed Iran's promise to retaliate after an airstrike earlier this week widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran’s consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals.
Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s joint chief of staff, told mourners gathered for the funeral of Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahdi that Iran will decide when and how to stage an “operation” to take revenge. Zahdi was the highest ranking commander slain in Monday’s attack.
“The time, type, plan of the operation will be decided by us, in a way that makes Israel regret what it did," he said. "This will definitely be done.”
The attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound was a significant escalation in a long-running shadow war between the two archenemies, and Israel has been bracing for an Iranian response.
In all, 12 people were killed in the strike: Seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, four Syrians and a Hezbollah militia member.
On Friday, the commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, warned that “our brave men will punish the Zionist regime,” escalating threats against Israel.
Tensions have flared against the backdrop of the six-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and raised renewed fears of a broader regional conflict. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 17 years, is one of Iran’s proxies, along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Both Hezbollah and the Houthis have carried out attacks along the fringes of the Gaza war, with Hezbollah engaging in daily cross-border exchanges with Israel and the Houthis frequently targeting Red Sea shipping.
Bagheri made the comments in Isfahan, Zahedi’s hometown, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of the capital Tehran.