middle-east
UNGA adopts resolution with 2/3rd majority calling for humanitarian truce in Gaza
After the continuous failure of the UN Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution, with a 2/3rd majority, calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza.
In the last three weeks, the Security Council has repeatedly failed to take decisions regarding humanitarian ceasefires despite having a series of meetings.
Also read: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
Since October 7, more than 7,000 civilians, including 3,500 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip due to a heinous and barbaric attack by Israel. More than one million people have been displaced. In the last 20 days, several proposals were tabled in the Security Council.
However, not a single proposal succeeded in passing. Finally, today, in the resumed 10th Emergency Special Session of the UNGA, a resolution with the proposal of a humanitarian truce was adopted with 2/3rd majority.
Also read: At least 60% of Gaza's population displaced due to Israeli attacks: UN
In the voting, 121 countries voted in favour of the resolution, 14 voted against it, and 45 countries abstained.
The Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ambassador Muhammad Abdul Muhit, represented Bangladesh in the voting.
Also read: UN chief 'horrified' by strike on Gaza hospital
After the adoption of the resolution, Ambassador Muhit said the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the Palestine issue were very clear.
"In her statement delivered at the high level of the 78th UNGA, she strongly urged the international community to work together to realise the rights of the people of Palestine and reiterated Bangladesh’s unflinching commitment to the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine,” he said.
According to the kind instruction of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Bangladesh voted in favour of this resolution, said Muhit.
“We have not only voted yes for the resolution but also played an instrumental role in organising this emergency session. When the Security Council fails to adopt any resolution regarding the maintenance of international peace and security, it becomes urgent to hold an emergency session in the General Assembly."Ambassador Muhit also mentioned.
"In this regard, we sent a written letter to the President of the General Assembly to hold that emergency session. We mobilised support for the resolution. Earlier, in the Security Council Open Debates, we reiterated Bangladesh’s unwavering support for Palestine and urged all the permanent and non-permanent members of the Council to work together for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
Bangladesh will continue to extend unwavering and steadfast support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian brothers and sisters for a just and lasting solution to their legitimate aspirations through the establishment of an independent, viable, and sovereign Palestinian State, according to a media release on Saturday.The main focus of the UNGA resolution was immediate truce; immediate, continuous, sufficient, and unhindered provision of essential goods and services to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip; and protection of civilians and civilian objects, as well as the protection of humanitarian personnel, persons hors de combat, and humanitarian facilities and assets.
The resolution also called for the rescinding of the order by Israel, the occupying power; firmly rejected any attempts at forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population; and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive. It also referred to the two-state solution as a basis for a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As mentioned, an amendment proposal to the resolution that proposed to condemn Hamas for attacking on October 7 was tabled by Canada. However, the amendment proposal failed to get adopted due to a lack of support from the majority (2/3rd) of the member states, as it did not refer to the horrific crimes being committed by Israeli defence forces.
Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space following relentless Israeli bombing raids
Apartment buildings are crumpled. Neighborhoods lie in ruins. Terrain is transformed into moonscape.
The destruction of areas of northern Gaza is visible from space in satellite images taken before and after Israeli airstrikes, which followed the raids carried out by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
Also read: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
In images shot Saturday by Maxar Technologies, four- and five-story buildings in the Izbat Beit Hanoun neighborhood are in various states of collapse. Huge chunks are missing from some, others are broken in half and two large complexes lie in piles of rubble.
The pattern of destruction in the Al Karameh neighborhood can be traced by a widespread pattern the color of ash.
Tightly packed streets in Beit Hanoun look obliterated, with a rare white structure standing out in the gray wasteland.
Also read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
Israel has carried out thousands of airstrikes since the war began following a cross-border raid that killed 1,400 people in Israel and took over 200 others hostage. Palestinian health officials say over 7,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the fighting erupted.
With the airstrikes continuing around the clock, the full extent of the damage remains unknown. The satellite photos provide a glimpse of the devastation, particularly in the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip.
Also read: Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say
US strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US troops
The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.
Also read: Israeli troops launch brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected wider incursion
Information about the specific targets and other details were not yet provided.
According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since Oct. 17. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the "precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."
Also read: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes "to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests." And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamasa.
Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. won't hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.
According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.
The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be "at the time and place of our choosing."
"I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas," he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.
The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.
Also read: Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza approximates 5,800: Hamas-run Health Ministry
The U.S., including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.
In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.
U.S. officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.
U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.
The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.
Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.
Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.
Israeli troops launch brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected wider incursion
Israeli troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several militant targets in order to "prepare the battlefield" ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids.
The raid came after the U.N. warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas' bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month.
Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. Health officials said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets pounded Gaza. Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory.
Also read: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
Gaza's Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, said its strikes killed militants and destroyed military targets. Gaza militants have fired unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.
During the overnight raid, the military said soldiers struck fighters, militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either aide.
The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.
Also read: Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza approximates 5,800: Hamas-run Health Ministry
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war. That figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas also holds some 222 hostages in Gaza.
The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.
Gaza's population has also been running out of food, water and medicine. About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into U.N. shelters.
In recent days, Israel let a small number of trucks with aid enter from Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel — needed to power generators — saying it believes Hamas will take it.
UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working.
Also read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.
"Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries?" she said. "It is an excruciating decision."
More than half of Gaza's primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.
At Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to "alarming" infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said. Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said.
One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with only "slight sedation" on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched.
The conflict has also threatened to spread across the region. The Israeli military said it struck military sites in Syria in response to rocket launches from the country. Syrian state media said eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.
Strikes in Syria also hit the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.
Hamas' surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated.
"We will get to the bottom of what happened," he said. "This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me."
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said his country will stop issuing visas to U.N. personnel after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Hamas' attack "did not happen in a vacuum." It was unclear what the action, if implemented, would mean for U.N. aid personnel working in Gaza and the West Bank.
"It's time to teach them a lesson," Erdan told Army Radio, accusing the U.N. chief of justifying a slaughter.
The U.N. chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that "the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation." Guterres said "the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
Guterres said Wednesday he is "shocked" at the misinterpretation of his statement "as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas."
"This is false. It was the opposite," he told reporters.
Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza approximates 5,800: Hamas-run Health Ministry
The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to 5,791, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, 16,297 Palestinians were wounded in the coastal enclave, the ministry said in a statement.
Read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
The Israeli airstrikes were triggered by a large-scale Hamas attack on Israeli military targets and towns on Oct. 7, which has so far killed at least 1,400 people in Israel.
Read: Hamas frees two Israeli women as US advises delaying ground war to allow talks on captives
Leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah holds talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
A brief statement following the meeting said that Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas' Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad's leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage."
Read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
Their goal, according to the statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel's "treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”.
No other details were provided. The discussions in Beirut came as the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, is now in its third week. The fighting, triggered by Hamas' deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, has killed more than 5,700 Palestinians in Gaza.
As the Gaza death toll spirals, tensions have also been rising along the tense Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops since the day after Hamas' rampage into Israel.
Read: Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say
For now, those exchanges remain limited to a handful of border towns and Hezbollah and Israeli military positions on both sides. Lebanese army soldiers and United Nations peacekeeping forces have deployed in large numbers.
Dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the clashes so far, the group says, while the Israeli military has also announced some deaths among its ranks.
Nasrallah has yet to publicly speak about the war in Gaza and clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border. However, other Hezbollah top officials have warned Israel against its planned ground invasion into the besieged territory.
Israeli officials have said they would retaliate aggressively in case of a cross-border attack by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
Read: 40 years after bombing that killed Americans in Beirut, US troops again deploy east of Mediterranean
“We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state (will be) devastating," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting Israeli troops along the border with Lebanon on Sunday.
Lebanon's cash-strapped caretaker government, along regional and international figures, has been scrambling to keep the country out of the war.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed more than 700 people in the past day
Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip had killed more than 700 people in the past day, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Tuesday.
That represented a massive increase in the death toll amid widening Israeli bombing attacks in the territory.
Israel has been attacking Gaza since Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Israel escalated its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, the military said Tuesday, ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants that the U.S. fears could spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.
The stepped-up attacks, and the rapidly rising death toll of thousands killed in Gaza, came as Hamas released two elderly Israeli women who were among the hundreds of hostages it captured during its devastating Oct. 7 attack on towns in southern Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, meeting with the families of French citizens who were killed or held hostage before heading to talks with top Israeli officials. He told them that he came “to express our support and solidarity and share your pain” as well as to assure Israel it is “not left alone in the war against terrorism.”
Read: Syria, Lebanon call for immediate stop to deadly Israel-Hamas conflict
In a joint news conference with Macron, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would make every effort to fight the war quickly, “but it could be a long war.”
Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack. A third small aid convoy entered Gaza on Monday carrying only a tiny fraction of the supplies aid groups say is necessary.
Tamira Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said the 54 trucks that entered Gaza over the last several days was a “trickle” compared to the 500 trucks a day that entered before the war. She said U.N. negotiators were “very, very far away” from getting an agreement to send the sustained aid into Gaza that is needed.
With Israel still barring the entry of fuel, the U.N. said aid distribution would soon grind to a halt when it can no longer fuel trucks inside Gaza. Hospitals overwhelmed by the wounded are struggling to keep generators running to power lifesaving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies.
On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they were preparing to launch rockets into Israel and striking command centers and a Hamas tunnel shaft. The previous day, Israel reported 320 strikes. The Palestinian official news agency, WAFA, said many of the airstrikes hit residential buildings, some of them in southern Gaza where Israel had told civilians to take shelter.
An overnight strike hit a four-story residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores of others, according to survivors.
Read: Pro-Palestinian activists occupy international court entry, demanding action against Israeli leader
The fatalities included 13 from the Saqallah family, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said there were about 100 people there, including many who had come from Gaza City, which Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate.
“They were sheltering at our home because we thought that our area would be safe. But apparently there is no safe place in Gaza,” he said.
Fifteen members of another family were among at least 33 Palestinians buried Monday in a shallow, sandy mass grave at a Gaza hospital after being killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Israel says it does not target civilians and that Hamas militants are using them as cover for their attacks. Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war, Israel said, and Hamas said it fired a new barrage Tuesday morning.
“We continue to attack forcefully in Gaza City and its environs, where Hamas is building up its terrorist infrastructure, where Hamas is arraying its troops," said Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. He again told Palestinians to head south “for your personal safety.”
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said six of its staff were killed in bombings, bringing to 35 the death toll of its workers since the war started.
The war has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The toll has climbed rapidly in recent days, with the ministry reporting 436 additional deaths in just the last 24 hours.
Read: Israel plans to step up attacks on the Gaza Strip
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack.
On Monday night, the two freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances. The women, along with their husbands who were not released, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz.
Appearing weak in a wheelchair and speaking softly, Lifshitz told reporters Tuesday that the militants beat her with sticks, bruising her ribs and making it hard to breathe as they kidnapped her. They drove her into Gaza, then forced her to walk several kilometers (miles) on wet ground to reach a network of tunnels that looked like a spider web, she said.
Once there, though, her treatment improved, she said. The people assigned to guard her “told us they are people who believe in the Quran and wouldn’t hurt us.” Lifshitz, whose husband remains a hostage, said conditions were kept clean, she received medical care, including medication, and was given the same one meal a day of cheese and cucumber that her captors had.
The women were freed days after an American woman and her teenage daughter were released. Hamas and other militants in Gaza are believed to have taken roughly 220 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual citizens.
On Monday, Hamas released a video showing the handover, with militants giving drinks and snacks to the dazed but composed women, and holding their hands as they are walked to Red Cross officials. Just before the video ends, Lifshitz reaches back to shake one militant’s hand.
Around the same time, Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, released a recording showing Hamas prisoners — most in clean prison uniforms, but one in a bloody T-shirt and at least one wincing in pain — sitting handcuffed in drab offices talking about the Oct. 7 attack. The men said they were under orders to kill young men, and kidnap women, children and the elderly, and that they’d been promised financial rewards.
The Associated Press could not independently verify either video, and both the hostages and the prisoners could have been acting under duress.
The Israeli military later dropped leaflets in Gaza asking Palestinians to reveal information on the hostages’ whereabouts. In exchange, the military promised a reward and protection for the informant’s home.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation, including the targeting of U.S. forces deployed in the Mideast, if a ground offensive is launched.
The U.S. has told Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank in recent days.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there has been an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, and the U.S. was “deeply concerned about the possibility for any significant escalation” in the coming days.
He said U.S. officials were having “active conversations” with Israeli counterparts about the potential ramifications of escalated military action.
The U.S. advised Israeli officials that delaying a ground offensive would give Washington more time to work with regional mediators on the release of more hostages, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal sensitive negotiations.
Syria, Lebanon call for immediate stop to deadly Israel-Hamas conflict
Syria and Lebanon on Monday jointly condemned the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and called for an immediate stop to the deadly Israel-Hamas conflict.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met with his visiting Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where they underscored the importance of continued consultation and strategic alignment to address the pressing common challenges, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
Read: Is Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system ironclad?
During the visit, both sides reiterated their unwavering commitment to addressing the plight of the Palestinian people, stressing unconditional and immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
They vehemently rejected any attempts aimed at the displacement of the Palestinians or delegitimization of the Palestinian cause.
Moreover, they stressed the urgent need for the enforcement of related international resolutions to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Arab territories, while advocating for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Read: Pro-Palestinian activists occupy international court entry, demanding action against Israeli leader
The discussion also delved into the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, with both nations highlighting collaborative efforts to ensure the dignified and safe return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.
The two sides agreed to initiate subsequent coordination meetings to address important issues including the safe return of displaced individuals, border control, the exchange of convicts, and other matters of mutual concern.
Is Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system ironclad?
Since Israel activated the Iron Dome in 2011, the cutting-edge rocket-defense system has intercepted thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
The system has given residents a sense of security, and Israelis can often be seen watching the projectiles flying through the skies and destroying their targets overhead.
But the current war with Gaza's militant Hamas group might be its stiffest challenge yet.
Pro-Palestinian activists occupy international court entry, demanding action against Israeli leader
In just two weeks, Hamas has fired 7,000 rockets toward Israel, according to the Israeli military. That is more than any of the previous four wars fought between Israel and Hamas since the militant group seized power in Gaza in 2007.
On Oct. 7 alone, the first day of fighting, Hamas launched at least 2,000 rockets, according to data from West Point. Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has also fired hundreds of rockets along Israel's northern front since the fighting began.
Most of the rockets have been intercepted. But some have managed to get through, killing at least 11 people and hitting buildings as far away as Tel Aviv, according to Israeli officials.
Here is a look at the accomplishments — and limitations — of the Iron Dome.
Second aid convoy reaches Gaza as Israel attacks targets in Syria and occupied West Bank
HOW DOES THE IRON DOME WORK?
The Iron Dome is a series of batteries that use radars to detect incoming short-range rockets and intercept them.
Each battery has three or four launchers, 20 missiles, and a radar, according to Raytheon, the U.S. defense giant that co-produces the system with Israel's Rafael Defense Systems.
Once the radar detects a rocket, the system determines whether the rocket is headed toward a populated area.
If so, it launches a missile to intercept and destroy the rocket. If the system determines the rocket is headed to an open area or into the sea, it is allowed to land, thus conserving missiles. According to the military, all interceptions occur in Israeli airspace.
The military declined to comment on how many Iron Dome batteries are currently deployed. But as of 2021, Israel had 10 batteries scattered around the country, each able to defend a territory of 60 square miles (155 square kilometers), according to Raytheon.
Little light, no beds, not enough anesthesia: A view from the 'nightmare' of Gaza's hospitals
The Iron Dome is part of a larger multi-layer air-defense system that includes the Arrow, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles, and also David's Sling, which intercepts medium-range missiles such as those believed to be possessed by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Both systems, like the Iron Dome, were jointly developed with the United States. Israel is also developing a laser-based system called the Iron Beam that it says will be able to intercept rockets and other short-range threats at a fraction of the cost of the Iron Dome. Israel says that system, developed with U.S. funding, has not yet been deployed.
HOW ACCURATE IS THE IRON DOME?
It is roughly 90% effective, according to Rafael.
But it can get overwhelmed if a mass barrage of rockets is fired, allowing some to slip through.
While it has performed well so far, the risk could be raised if Hezbollah enters the war. Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles.
HOW EXPENSIVE IS THE SYSTEM?
Each missile costs an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, according to the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank.
The U.S. has invested heavily in the system, helping with development costs and replenishing it during times of fighting.
Israel plans to step up attacks on the Gaza Strip
President Joe Biden has said he will ask Congress for $14.3 billion in military aid for Israel. The majority of that would help with air and missile defense systems, according to the White House.
"We're surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish Iron Dome," Biden said.
Journalists in Gaza wrestle with issues of survival in addition to getting stories out
Pro-Palestinian activists occupy international court entry, demanding action against Israeli leader
Dutch authorities detained 19 activists who occupied the entrance to the International Criminal Court on Monday, denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel’s actions during the war with Hamas.
Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group took over a bridge in front of The Hague-based court just after noon, carrying a banner that read “Netanyahu is a war criminal.” The Dutch branch of the activist group, which was originally set up to campaign against climate change, has staged several other pro-Palestinian actions since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Read: Iranian, Egyptian FMs urge immediate end to attacks on Palestinians
“The demonstration did not cause any disturbance to the ICC normal activities. The situation was addressed by the ICC security with the police,” said ICC spokesperson Sonia Robla.
After police released the 19 following their brief detention, they joined a small pro-Palestinian protest outside the ICC’s grounds.
Read: Dwindling fuel supplies for Gaza's hospital generators put premature babies in incubators at risk
The demonstration took place as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrived in the Middle East to meet with both Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.