Middle-East
UN Security Council to vote Tuesday on resolution demanding Gaza ceasefire, US vows to use its veto
The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Tuesday on an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, which the United States announced it will veto.
Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, put the draft resolution in a final form that can be voted on. Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said the vote will take place Tuesday morning.
In addition to a ceasefire, the final Algerian draft, obtained by The Associated Press, reiterates council demands that Israel and Hamas “scrupulously comply” with international law especially the protection of civilians, and rejects the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians.
The draft also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken by Hamas during their surprise Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken captive, with over 100 still believed to be held in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement that the United States has been working on a hostage deal for months that would bring at least a six-week period of calm “from which we could then take the time and the steps to build a more enduring peace.”
She said U.S. President Joe Biden has had multiple calls over the last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to push the deal forward.
Read: Israel strikes across Gaza as US says it will block another cease-fire resolution at UN
“Though gaps remain, the key elements are on the table” and it remains the best opportunity to reunite hostages with their families and enable a prolonged pause in fighting which would allow lifesaving aid to get to Palestinian civilians who desperately need it, Thomas-Greenfield said. Qatar said Saturday the talks “have not been progressing as expected.”
By contrast, the Arab-backed resolution wouldn’t achieve those outcomes, “and indeed, may run counter to them,” she said. “For that reason, the United States does not support action on this draft resolution. Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted.”
The 22 Arab countries at the United Nations have been demanding a ceasefire for months as Israel’s military offensive in response to the Hamas attacks has intensified, with the number of Palestinians killed surpassing 28,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Arab Group chair this month, Tunisia’s U.N. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, told U.N. reporters last Wednesday that some 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah face a “catastrophic scenario” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with a potential evacuation of civilians and military offensive in the area bordering Egypt.
Netanyahu ordered the military to come up with a plan for Rafah’s evacuation, but Israel hasn’t announced a timeline.
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The Algeria draft resolution also expresses “grave concern over the dire and urgently deteriorating humanitarian situation ” in Gaza and reiterates the council's call for unhindered humanitarian access throughout the territory, where U.N. officials say a quarter of the 2.3 million population are facing starvation.
The Security Council has adopted two resolutions on Gaza, with the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, abstaining on both.
Its first resolution on Nov. 15 called for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel’s aerial and ground attacks.
On Dec. 22, the council adopted a watered-down resolution calling for immediately speeding aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza, but without the original plea for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.
Read more: EU Parliament resolution calls for permanent cease-fire in Gaza
It did call for “creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The steps are not defined, but diplomats said it was the council’s first reference to stopping fighting.
Do everything to prevent further military offensives, forge permanent ceasefire in Gaza: Joint Statement
Chief executives of humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations have called upon all states to do everything in their power to prevent further military offensives and forge a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza.
"We are appalled by the harrowing developments in Rafah, Gaza’s most populated area where 1.5 million people are sheltering as their last resort - over half a million of them children," they said in a joint statement.
If Israel launches its proposed ground offensive, thousands more civilians will be killed and the current trickle of humanitarian aid risks coming to a complete halt. If this military plan is not stopped immediately, the consequences will be catastrophic, said the signatories of the statement.
The signatories are Ana Alcade, acting Secretary General, ActionAid International; Dr Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International; Charlotte Slente, Secretary General, Danish Refugee Council; Manuel Patrouillard, CEO, Handicap International-Humanity & Inclusion; Amitabh Behar, Executive Director, Oxfam International and Rob Williams CEO, War Child Alliance.
With significant damage to over 70 percent of civilian infrastructure, many areas in Gaza have been reduced to rubble and are uninhabitable.
Most hospitals are non-functional or only partially operational and are completely overwhelmed.
There is little food, clean water, shelter, or sanitation.
"People are living in the most inhumane conditions, many of them out in the open. It defies belief that the Israeli military has forcibly displaced the majority of the population from their homes into Rafah - with six times as many people than before now squeezed into the area - and then announced plans to attack it," according to the statement received here from ActionAid Bangladesh.
The statement also said, "The Israeli government's strategy of systematic and repeated forcible transfer of the civilian population has led to the forced displacement of more than three quarters of the population, many of whom left without adequate shelter or homes to return to. Collectively punishing civilians by denying them adequate shelter, food, clean water and other essentials needed for their survival and obstructing humanitarian relief consignments destined to alleviate starvation may amount to grave breaches of the obligations of an occupying power under International Humanitarian Law, constituting war crimes.”
Last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling mandated Israel to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Not only has this not happened, the situation on the ground has deteriorated further. Israel’s airstrikes in Rafah killed at least 100 Palestinians in a single day, defying both international calls for moderation and potentially the ICJ order.
Over 1.5 million people trapped in Rafah have nowhere safe to go, and many have already been displaced multiple times. All of the Israeli supposed-safe spaces have been compromised, without exception, further proof that there was never truly anywhere safe in Gaza.
“Our call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire is more urgent than ever as Israel’s relentless bombardment and siege have decimated Gaza and left the Palestinian civilian population starving, facing famine, and with diseases rife while obstructing attempts to alleviate their suffering. The Israeli military offensive has made it virtually impossible for our collective agencies to meaningfully and effectively deliver humanitarian work, compromising not only safety but also the very principles guiding our humanitarian efforts. Rafah has been the primary entry point for aid and bombardment will then prevent any assistance from getting through,” the statement said.
“The silence, and at times material support of Israel’s military by powerful nations, signals distressing complicity in Gaza’s deepening crisis. Whether through the transfer of weapons, diplomatic obstruction of resolutions, or silence, such actions have effectively granted Israel impunity. The harrowing situation in Gaza underscores the urgent need for governments worldwide to stop the supply of arms and ammunition used in these atrocities. We also call for a permanent ceasefire to protect civilian lives and release of hostages and Palestinian detainees, and full, unhindered access for humanitarian aid and workers.
“States bear legal and moral responsibilities to protect civilians, prevent war crimes and uphold international law. We urge all States to consider that their inaction or continued support not only deepens the tragedy but also implicates them."
Top UN court rejects South African request for urgent measures to safeguard Rafah
The top UN court on Friday rejected a South African request to impose urgent measures to safeguard Rafah in the Gaza Strip, but also stressed that Israel must respect earlier measures imposed late last month at a preliminary stage in a landmark genocide case.
The International Court of Justice said in a statement that the "perilous situation" in Rafah "demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures" that it ordered Jan. 26.
It said no new order was necessary because the existing measures "are applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah."
The world court added that Israel "remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention" and the Jan. 26 ruling which ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
Citing U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the court noted "the most recent developments in the Gaza Strip, and in Rafah in particular, 'would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.'"
Israel has identified Rafah as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza and vowed to continue its offensive there. An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, has crammed into the city, most of them displaced people who fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Israel has said it will evacuate the civilians before attacking, though international aid officials have said there is nowhere to go due to the vast devastation left behind by the offensive.
South Africa announced Tuesday that it had lodged an " urgent request " with the International Court of Justice to consider whether Israel's military operations targeting the southern Gaza city of Rafah breach provisional orders the court handed down last month in a case alleging genocide.
South African foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said in a message on X, formerly Twitter, that the court "has affirmed our view that the perilous situation demands immediate & effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024 which are applicable throughout the #GazaStrip & has clarified that this includes #Rafah."
The court's statement was issued on the Jewish sabbath, when government offices are closed, and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
On Thursday, Israel urged the world court to reject what it called South Africa's "highly peculiar and improper" request.
Israel strongly denies committing genocide in Gaza and says it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. It says Hamas' tactic of embedding in civilian areas makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
The provisional measures ordered last month came at a preliminary stage of a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention.
The court also called on Hamas to release the hostages who are still in captivity. Hamas urged the international community to make Israel carry out the court's orders.
South Africa's legal campaign is rooted in issues central to its identity: Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel's policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to "homelands." Apartheid ended in 1994
5 patients die as oxygen runs out in Gaza hospital seized by Israeli forces, health officials say
Five patients in intensive care died after their oxygen ran out in southern Gaza's main hospital that was stormed by Israeli troops, causing chaos for hundreds of staff and wounded people inside, health officials said Friday. Troops were searching the complex, where the military said it believes the remains of hostages abducted by Hamas might be located.
The raid came after troops had besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis for nearly a week, with staff, patients and others inside struggling under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, including food and water. The Israeli military said Friday it had detained dozens from the facility, including some it alleged were involved in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Also Friday, an assailant opened fire at a bus stop on a busy intersection in southern Israel, killing two people and wounding four before being shot dead by a bystander. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Later Friday, Israeli security forces arrived at the Jerusalem home of a Palestinian man who was previously identified on social media as being linked to the attack.
Israeli forces storm main hospital in southern Gaza, saying hostages were likely held there
Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, meanwhile, appear to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back hard against the U.S. vision for after the war — particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. After speaking overnight with President Joe Biden, Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel will not accept "international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians."
He said that if other countries unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, it would give a "reward to terrorism." Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive and expand it to the Gaza city of Rafah, near Egypt, until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the militants' Oct. 7 attack are freed. In their phone call, Biden again cautioned Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a "credible and executable plan" to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, the White House said.
Two Israeli airstrikes on Rafah overnight killed at least 13 people, including nine members of the same family, according to hospital officials and relatives.
With the war showing no sign of ending, the risk of a broader conflict grew as Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group had deadliest exchange of fire along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel launched airstrikes into southern Lebanon for a second day on Thursday after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded several others.
Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
SCENES OF PANIC IN HOSPITAL
Nasser Hospital was the latest in a series of hospitals Israeli forces have besieged and stormed during the war, claiming Hamas was using them for military purposes. The assaults have gutted Gaza's health sector as it struggles to treat a constant stream of people wounded in daily bombardments.
The military said Thursday it had "credible intelligence" that Hamas had held hostages there and that the hostages' remains might still be inside. On Friday, the military said its troops were continuing to search the hospital but did not report finding any bodies.
It said they arrested 20 people on suspicion of participating in the Oct. 7 attack, and that dozens were taken for questioning. It also said troops found grenades and mortar shells, and that militants had fired mortars from inside the hospital a month ago. The claims could not be independently confirmed.
A released hostage told The Associated Press last month that she and over two dozen other captives had been held in Nasser Hospital.
As they searched, troops ordered the more than 460 staff, patients and their relatives to move into an older building in the compound that isn't equipped to treat patients, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Six patients were left in the ICU with no one to watch over them, along with three infants in incubators, the ministry said.
China calls on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible
On Friday, the ministry said five of those patients had died because electricity was cut, stopping oxygen supplies for them. "The Israeli occupation is responsible for the lives of patients and staff as the compound now is under its full control," the ministry said. It said troops had set up in the hospital's maternity ward and were bringing male patients there, apparently for interrogation.
Israeli troops, tanks and snipers have surrounded Nasser Hospital for at least a week, with food, water and supplies inside dwindling and fire from outside killing several people inside, according to health officials. Hours before the troops moved into the hospital Thursday, Israeli fire killed one patient and wounded six others, staff said.
Hamas in a statement Friday denied that its fighters were using Nasser Hospital for military purposes, calling the accusations "lies circulated to justify the war crime."
International law prohibits the targeting of medical facilities, though they can lose those protections if they are used for military purposes. Even then, Israel must take precautions and follow principles of proportionality, the U.N. Human Rights Office said, adding that "as the occupying power" Israel has the duty to maintain medical facilities.
Israeli forces rescue 2 hostages in dramatic Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
NO END IN SIGHT TO THE WAR
The war began when Hamas militants on Oct. 7 burst out of Gaza and attacked several Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. More than 100 captives were freed during a cease-fire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Around 130 hostages remain in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel responded to the Hamas attack with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
At least 28,775 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 68,500 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Some 80% of the population has been driven from their homes, and a quarter are starving amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. Large areas in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, have been completely destroyed.
Israeli media reported that CIA Director William Burns flew to Israel to meet with Netanyahu to discuss efforts for a cease-fire.
Death toll exceeds 100 in Israel's heavy strikes on Gaza's Rafah
Hamas says it will not release all the remaining captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws and frees Palestinian prisoners, including top militants.
Netanyahu has rejected those demands and says Israel will soon expand its offensive into Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city. Over half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere.
Israeli forces storm main hospital in southern Gaza, saying hostages were likely held there
Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex. The Israeli army said it was seeking the remains of hostages taken by Hamas.
The raid on Nasser Hospital came after troops had besieged the facility for nearly a week, with hundreds of staff, patients and others inside struggling under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, including food and water. A day earlier, the army ordered thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter there to leave the hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the focus of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in recent weeks.
Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
The war shows no sign of ending, and the risk of a broader conflict grew as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group stepped up attacks after a particularly deadly exchange on Wednesday.
The military said it had “credible intelligence” that Hamas had held hostages at Nasser Hospital and that the hostages' remains might still be inside. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said forces were conducting a “precise and limited” operation there and would not forcibly evacuate medics or patients. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.
China calls on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible
A released hostage told The Associated Press last month that she and over two dozen other captives had been held in Nasser Hospital. International law prohibits the targeting of medical facilities; they can lose those protections if they are used for military purposes, though operations against them still must be proportional to any threat.
As troops searched hospital buildings, they ordered the more than 460 staff, patients and their relatives to move into an older building in the compound that isn't equipped to treat patients, the Gaza Health Ministry said. They were “in harsh conditions with no food or baby formula” and severe water shortages, it said.
Israeli forces rescue 2 hostages in dramatic Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
Six patients were left in intensive care, along with three infants in incubators with no staff to attend to them. The ministry said fuel for generators would soon run out, endangering their lives.
Separately, Israel launched airstrikes into southern Lebanon for a second day after killing 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday in response to a rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded several others.
It was the deadliest exchange of fire along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel and Hezbollah — an ally of Hamas — have traded fire on a daily basis, raising the risks of a broader conflict.
Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket attack. Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior member of the group, said it is “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”
Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, meanwhile, appear to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the militants' Oct. 7 attack are freed.
SCENES OF PANIC IN HOSPITALNasser Hospital has been the latest focus of Israeli military operations that have gutted Gaza’s health sector as it struggles to treat a constant stream of people wounded in daily bombardments.
Israeli troops, tanks and snipers have surrounded the hospital for at least a week, and fire from outside has recently killed several people inside, according to health officials.
“There’s no water, no food. Garbage is everywhere. Sewage has flooded the emergency ward,” said Raed Abed, a wounded patient who was among those who left Nasser Hospital on Israeli orders Wednesday.
Still suffering from a severe stomach wound, Abed said he initially collapsed as he got out of his hospital bed and tried to leave. He then waited outside for hours as troops made those leaving pass by five at a time, arresting some and making them strip to their underwear, he said. Finally, he walked for miles until he reached the border town of Rafah, where he was put in a hospital. Lying in a bed there, he wheezed in pain from his wound as he spoke.
Overnight, a strike slammed into one of Nasser Hospital’s wards, killing one patient and wounding six others, Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of the remaining surgeons there, told the AP.
Video showed medics scrambling to move patients down a corridor filled with smoke or dust, while in a dark room a wounded man screamed in pain as gunfire echoed outside.
“The situation is escalating every hour and every minute,” Alserr said.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French language acronym MSF, said its staff had to flee the hospital on Thursday, leaving patients behind, and that one staffer was detained at an Israeli checkpoint just outside the facility.
Hours after troops entered the hospital, military spokesman Hagari said they were still conducting searches. He said dozens of militants were arrested from the hospital grounds, including three who participated in the Oct. 7 attack. He also said troops found grenades and mortar shells, and that Israeli radar determined that militants fired mortars from the hospital grounds a month ago.
NO END IN SIGHT TO THE WARThe war began when Hamas militants on Oct. 7 burst out of Gaza and attacked several Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. More than 100 captives were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Around 130 captives remain in Gaza, a fourth of whom are believed to be dead. Netanyahu has come under intense pressure from hostages' families and the wider public to make a deal to secure their freedom, but his far-right coalition partners could bring down his government if he is seen as being too soft on Hamas. Dozens of hostages' relatives protested and blocked traffic Thursday outside the military's headquarters, where the War Cabinet also meets.
Israel responded to the Hamas attack with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
At least 28,663 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 68,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Some 80% of the population has been driven from their homes, and a quarter are starving amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. Large areas in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, have been completely destroyed.
Israeli media reported that CIA Director William Burns flew to Israel to meet with Netanyahu to discuss efforts for a cease-fire.
Hamas says it will not release all the remaining captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws and frees Palestinian prisoners, including top militants.
Netanyahu has rejected those demands and says Israel will soon expand its offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Over half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere.
Airstrikes late Wednesday in central Gaza killed at least 11 people, including four children and five women, according to hospital records. Relatives gathered around bodies wrapped in white shrouds outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah before the remains were placed in a truck to be taken for burial.
One man struggled to let go, lying down and holding one of the bodies on the truck as he wept.
Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Lebanese civilians in a single day
The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest in more than four months of cross-border exchanges.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for Wednesday's strikes, which hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after projectiles from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier.
More Israeli strikes were reported in south Lebanon on Thursday and Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the escalation.
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“At a time where we are insisting on calm and call all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression,” read a statement from his office.
The Israeli military said Thursday's strikes targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and launch posts.
In Nabatiyeh, the strike knocked down part of a building, killing seven members of the family, including a child, the state-run National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble. Initial reports had said four people were killed.
Hussein Badir, a neighbor of the Berjawi family that was killed in the strike, said he and other neighbors had rushed to the street to dig through the rubble. He said the family was “decent and respectable" and "not involved in anything.”
For Badir, the strike brought back memories of Israeli bombardment during its 2006 war with Hezbollah and also during a 1996 offensive.
“Nobody is doing anything to help us,” he said. “It’s our right to defend ourselves in our country in Lebanon.”
Read: Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
In the village of Souaneh, a woman and her two young children were killed. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children while three Hezbollah fighters were also killed.
Earlier Wednesday, the fire from Lebanon struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding eight others, all soldiers, according to the Israeli military, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah did not claim the strike in Safed.
Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said at an event Thursday in southern Lebanon that the militant group was “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” and would meet “escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction.”
The fatalities marked a significant escalation in more than four months of daily cross-border exchanges triggered by the Oct. 7 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The war began with the surprise attack in southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.
Government institutions, schools and Lebanese University were to close on Thursday in protest of the airstrikes.
Gaza cease-fire and hostage release talks appear to stall as Netanyahu blames Hamas
International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.
Netanyahu's remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.
The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu's decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.
The mediation efforts, steered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have been working to bring the warring sides toward an agreement that might secure a truce in the monthslong war, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. The fighting has destroyed vast parts of Gaza, displaced most of the territory's population and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.
“In Cairo, Israel did not receive any new proposal from Hamas on the release of our captives,” Netanyahu said in a statement. "A change in Hamas' positions will allow progress in the negotiations."
Hamas officials had no immediate comment.
On Tuesday, CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, attended the talks in the Egyptian capital, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. The talks continued Wednesday at a lower level, even as deadly violence persisted both in the Gaza Strip and along Israel's border with Lebanon, where fighting has simmered since the war broke out.
Israeli media reported Wednesday that Netanyahu told his delegation not to return to the talks unless Hamas softens its demands.
The sides have been far apart on their terms for a deal. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of all the remaining hostages.
Hamas has said it will not release all the captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. Netanyahu has rejected those demands, calling them “delusional.”
The plight of the hostages has deeply shaken Israelis, who see their lengthy captivity as an enduring symbol of the failure of the state to protect its citizens from Hamas' attack.
A group representing the families of the hostages called Netanyahu's reported decision to keep the delegation away from the talks “scandalous” and said the families would set up a “mass barricade” outside the Israeli Defense Ministry unless Netanyahu agreed to meet them.
Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in return for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The war, which erupted after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 captive, ground on even as the talks appeared to be stalling.
Palestinians began evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics Wednesday. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it.
Now in its fifth month, the war has devastated Gaza's health sector, with less than half of its hospitals only partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover.
Khan Younis is now the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza’ southernmost city of Rafah. Some 1.4 million people — over half the territory’s population — are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
The videos of the evacuation in Khan Younis showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital complex. A doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.
The Israeli military said it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation,” it said.
The military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there. Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it.
The Gaza Health Ministry said last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital. It said 10 people have been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday.
The ministry says around 300 medical staff were treating some 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes. It says 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility.
The war in Gaza has become one of the deadliest and most destructive air and ground offensives in recent history. At least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Over 68,000 people have been wounded in the war.
Around 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, large areas in northern Gaza have been completely destroyed and a humanitarian crisis has left a quarter of the population starving.
In northern Israel, meanwhile, a rocket attack killed a female soldier, the Israeli military said, and wounded eight people when one of the projectiles hit a military base in the town of Safed on Wednesday.
Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon in response, killing four people, including a Syrian woman and her two Lebanese children, and wounding at least nine, Lebanese security officials and local media said.
The U.N. children’s agency condemned the killings of “two innocent children" and called "for the protection of children in times of war and at all times.”
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which supports Hamas, have traded fire along the border nearly every day since the start of the war in Gaza, raising the risk of a wider conflict. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the rocket attack.
Blasts hit a natural gas pipeline in Iran that an official says was an act of sabotage
Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran early Wednesday, with an official blaming the blasts on a “sabotage and terrorist action” in the country as tensions remain high in the Middle East amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Details were scarce, though the blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran's western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran's offshore South Pars gas field.
Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran's gas network control center, told Iranian state television that a “sabotage and terrorist” action caused explosions along several areas of the line.
Israel and Hamas making progress in Cairo ceasefire talks, officials say
There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran's Lur ethnic group. Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.
In the past, Arab separatists in southwestern Iran have claimed attacks against oil pipelines. However, attacks against such infrastructure are rare elsewhere.
Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in its northwest, the Baluch in its east and Arabs in its southwest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
However, tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces an economy hobbled by international sanctions over its nuclear program. The country has faced years of mass demonstrations, most recently in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest allegedly over how she wore her mandatory headscarf.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out attacks in Iran, but have predominantly targeted its nuclear program. On Tuesday, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.”
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship bound for Iran, their main supporter
Tensions over Iran's nuclear program comes as militias it arms in the region — Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel during the war in Gaza. The Houthis continue to attack commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
Israel and Hamas making progress in Cairo ceasefire talks, officials say
Israel and Hamas are making progress toward another cease-fire and hostage-release deal, officials said Tuesday, as negotiations went on and Israel threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza's southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The talks continued in Egypt a day after Israeli forces rescued two captives in Rafah, the packed southern town along the Egyptian border, in a raid that killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and caused heavy destruction. The operation offered a glimpse of what a full-blown ground advance might look like.
A cease-fire deal, on the other hand, would give people in Gaza a desperately needed respite from the war, now in its fifth month, and offer freedom for at least some of the estimated 100 people still held captive in Gaza. Qatar, the United States and Egypt have sought to broker a deal in the face of starkly disparate positions expressed publicly by both Israel and Hamas.
Israel has made destroying Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages the main goals of its war, which was launched after thousands of Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 people captive. Tens of thousands of Israelis were displaced from destroyed communities.
The war has brought unprecedented destruction to the Gaza Strip, with more than 28,000 people killed, more than 70% of them women and minors, according to local health officials. Vast swaths of the territory have been flattened by Israel's offensive, around 80% of the population has been displaced and a humanitarian catastrophe has pushed more than a quarter of the population toward starvation.
In other developments, South Africa, which has lodged genocide allegations against Israel at the International Court of Justice, said Tuesday that it filed an “urgent request” with the court to consider whether Israel's military operations in Rafah constitute a breach of provisional orders handed down by the justices last month. Those orders called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians.
Israel has adamantly denied the genocide allegations and says it is carrying out operations in accordance with international law. It blames Hamas for the high death toll because the militants operate in dense residential areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on until “total victory,” and has insisted that military pressure will help free the hostages. But the rescued hostages, 60-year-old Fernando Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har, were just the second and third captives to be freed by the military since the war erupted.
Other Israeli officials have said only a deal can bring about the release of large numbers of hostages.
Over 100 were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong truce last year. Three hostages were killed erroneously by Israeli forces in December and one female Israeli soldier was freed in a rescue mission in the early weeks of the war. Israeli officials say around 30 hostages taken on Oct. 7 have died, either during the initial attack or in captivity.
BRIDGING THE GAPSA senior Egyptian official said mediators have achieved “relatively significant” progress ahead of a meeting Tuesday in Cairo of representatives from Qatar, the U.S. and Israel. The official said the meeting would focus on “crafting a final draft” of a six-week cease-fire deal, with guarantees that the parties would continue negotiations toward a permanent cease-fire.
CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, attended the Cairo talks. Both men played a key role in brokering the previous cease-fire.
A Western diplomat in the Egyptian capital also said a six-week deal was on the table but cautioned that more work is still needed to reach an agreement. The diplomat said the meeting Tuesday would be crucial in bridging the remaining gaps.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks with the media.
While the officials did not disclose the precise details of the emerging deal, the sides have been discussing varying proposals for weeks.
Israel has proposed a two-month cease-fire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
Hamas rejected those terms. It laid out a three-phase plan of 45 days each in which the hostages would be released in stages, Israel would free hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including senior militants, and the war would wind down, with Israel withdrawing its troops. That was viewed as a non-starter for Israel, which wants to topple Hamas before ending the war.
But President Joe Biden signaled Monday that a deal might be within reach.
“The key elements of the deal are on the table,” Biden said alongside visiting Jordanian King Abdullah II, adding, “there are gaps that remain.” He said the U.S. would do “everything possible” to make an agreement happen.
DEATH TOLL MOUNTSThe signs of progress came despite ongoing fighting.
Palestinians were still counting the dead after Israel’s hostage rescue mission as the death toll climbed Tuesday to 74. Residents and displaced Palestinians in Gaza were searching through the rubble from Israeli airstrikes that provided cover for the rescue mission.
Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab broadcaster funded by Qatar, said an Israeli airstrike in Rafah wounded two of its journalists, with one having to undergo an amputation. It identified the wounded as cameraman Ahmad Matar and reporter Ismail Abu Omar. It was unclear when the strike took place, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment.
While concerns have grown over Rafah because it is sheltering such a large number of Palestinians, fighting continued throughout the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said troops were battling militants in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and in central Gaza. It said Tuesday that three soldiers were killed in combat, raising the death toll among troops since the Gaza ground operation began in late October to 232.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the bodies of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the past day. The fatalities brought the death toll in Gaza to 28,473 since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the ministry, which says more than 68,000 people have been wounded.
China calls on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible
China on Tuesday called on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible, a day after Israeli forces rescued two hostages from the Gaza Strip in a dramatic operation that also killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
The raid took place in Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the Israel-Hamas war. Women and children were among those killed in the airstrikes, Palestinian officials said.
China's Foreign Ministry added in a brief statement on Tuesday that Israel should "do everything possible to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and prevent a more devastating humanitarian disaster in Rafah."
The Palestinian death toll from the war has surpassed 28,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. A quarter of Gaza's residents are starving.
The war began with Hamas' assault into Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, while Hamas is holding the remains of roughly 30 others who were either killed on Oct. 7 or died in captivity. Three hostages were mistakenly killed by the army after escaping their captors in December.
CHINA CALLS ON ISRAEL TO STOP MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GAZA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
BEIJING — China has called on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza as soon as possible following a raid that rescued two hostages and killed at least 74 Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing added in a brief statement on Tuesday that Israel should "do everything possible to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and prevent a more devastating humanitarian disaster in Rafah."
Israel has signaled its ground offensive may soon target Rafah, the town where the hostages were freed by the raid.
China has consistently opposed the Israeli offensive, calling from the start for a cease-fire and talks to find a permanent solution to the crisis.
HEALTH MINISTRY IN GAZA SAYS 133 BODIES BROUGHT TO HOSPITALS IN THE PAST DAY
CAIRO — The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the bodies of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the war-wrecked territory over the past day.
Hospitals also received 162 wounded patients, the ministry said.
Also Tuesday, the death toll from an Israeli hostage rescue operation in the town of Rafah rose to 74, according to Dr. Marawan al-Hams, director of the local Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. Israeli forces conducting the operation, which freed two hostages, were backed by heavy airstrikes on the town, to where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled.
The fresh fatalities brought the death toll in Gaza to 28,473 since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the ministry.
The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than 70% of the dead are women and minors. Israel says its forces have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters without providing evidence. It blames Hamas for the death toll, saying it embeds in civilians areas, putting noncombatants at risk.
More than 68,000 people have been wounded in the war, of them 11,000 who need urgent evacuation for treatment out of Gaza, the ministry said.
The ministry said many of the dead remain under the rubble of destroyed buildings and on roadsides with first responders unable to reach many areas and collect the bodies.
ISRAELI FORCES KILL PALESTINIAN MAN IN WEST BANK, PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY
CAIRO — Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as 20-year-old Mohammed Sherif Hassan Selmi and said he was shot in his chest, shoulders and head.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that forces were operating in the West Bank city of Qalqilya when the man allegedly attempted to run over soldiers, who opened fired and killed the man. The military said it was not aware of whether any soldiers were wounded.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah party, said its fighters clashed with the Israeli forces but did not claim Selmi as a member.
The West Bank has seen a surge of violence since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza broke out in October. The Health Ministry says more than 380 Palestinians have been killed during that time. The Israeli military says it has arrested more than 3,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began.
ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS ISRAEL AGAINST FORCEFULLY DISPLACING PALESTINIANS
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The secretary-general of the Arab League has warned Israel against policies he described as forcefully displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit decried what he called an "Israeli mentality" to try and seize land the Palestinians want for their future state. He warned any seizure of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank by Israel would mean "a confrontation for the next thousand years."
"The United States must order Israel to stop these policies or otherwise the Middle East will explode in an unprecedented way," he said.
He also called on Israel to "empty the settlements" in Palestinian land as well.
Aboul Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Egypt's last foreign minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
COUNCIL MEETS ON GAZA TOLL AND ISRAEL'S EXPECTED MOVE INTO RAFAH
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council held an emergency closed meeting on the escalating civilian death toll in Gaza and Israel's plans to move its offensive to Rafah where some 1.5 million Palestinians have fled hoping to find safety.
China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told The Associated Press after Monday's late meeting that there was "a loud cry" among council members about the need for urgent action -- to deal with the "unfolding humanitarian catastrophe," Israel's announced intentions in Gaza, and further spillover of the war.
Algeria, the Arab representative on the 15-member Security Council who called the meeting, has circulated a draft resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war that began after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage. More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's offensive, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
Zhang said the "very strong and overwhelming position of council members" is for the Security Council to act but one member – a clear reference to Israel's closest ally the United States – "worries about the complication of Security Council action with the bilateral efforts" it is undertaking.
The Chinese envoy said discussions on the Algerian draft resolution are still taking place, and he expressed hope "that eventually the council will be demonstrating our united position."