Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member of the group said on Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of fighting. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks. “The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators’ new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Facebook. A general view shows the destroyed Rashad al-Shawa cultural centre in Gaza City on August 18. — AFP Earlier, a Ham...
Dozens of people in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an Israeli strike, in an attack which drew widespread condemnations from across the world. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who were killed in a “directed assault” on a tent opposite Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike. A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, according to medics at Al Shifa Hospital. Mourners stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital to pay ...
TEL AVIV: Families of Israeli hostages and killed soldiers announced a nationwide strike scheduled for August 17, in protest against the Gaza war and the Israeli government’s latest military strategy, which includes plans to seize Gaza City. According to the Times of Israel, the protest is being organized by the October 7th Families Forum (also […]
Madrid: Spain and seven other European nations on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, warning it would kill large numbers of civilians and force nearly a million Palestinians from their homes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave […]
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel’s far-right finance minister has demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrap his plan to seize Gaza City in favour of a tougher one, while Italy said on Sunday the plan could result in a “Vietnam” for Israel’s army. Netanyahu’s security cabinet, of which the minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is a member, approved the plan by […]
Tel Aviv: Thousands took to the streets in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, a day after the government vowed to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City. Demonstrators waved signs and held up pictures of hostages still held captive in the Palestinian territory as they […]
ANKARA: Muslim nations must act in unison and rally international opposition against Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday after talks in Egypt. Regional powers Egypt and Turkey both condemned the plan on Friday. Ankara has said it marked a new phase in what it called […]
UNITED NATIONS: An average of 28 children are being killed each day in Gaza amid Israel’s restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance and a collapse of vital services, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). According to Al Jazeera report, “Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of […]
Jerusalem: Atop air strikes, displacement and hunger, an unprecedented water crisis is unfolding across Gaza, heaping further misery on the Palestinian territory’s residents. Gaza was already suffering a water crisis before nearly 22 months of war damaged more than 80 percent of the territory’s water infrastructure. “Sometimes, I feel like my body is drying from […]