Gaza has lost telecom contact again, while Israel’s military says it has surrounded Gaza City

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This photo posted by the UNWRA on X shows Palestinians searching for survivors from the rubble of a building demolished after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. (X: @UNWRA)
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Updated 06 November 2023
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Gaza has lost telecom contact again, while Israel’s military says it has surrounded Gaza City

  • Shortly after the blackout, the Israeli army launched an intense bombardment on Gaza City and other nearby zones in the north of the enclave
  • Israeli airstrike flattened several multistory homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Gaza lost communications Sunday in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, while Israel’s military said it encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two.
“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the enclave. Israeli media reported troops were expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours. Strong explosions were seen in northern Gaza after nightfall.
The “collapse in connectivity” across Gaza, reported by Internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel, made it even more complicated to convey details of the new stage of the military offensive.
“We have lost communication with the vast majority of the UNRWA team members,” UN Palestinian refugee agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. The first Gaza outage lasted 36 hours and the second one for a few hours.

 

 

Earlier Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza, the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge, health officials said. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush Hamas, despite US appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in nearly a month of war in Gaza, more than 4,000 of them children and minors. That toll likely will rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.
Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said. An AP reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the corridor, her clothes caked in dust.
Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli airstrike flattened several multistory homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.
“It was a true massacre,” he said. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.




Palestinians look for survivors of the Israeli bombardment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Another airstrike hit a house near a school at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital told the AP at least 13 people were killed. The camp was struck on Thursday as well.
Despite appeals and overseas protests, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas and accusing the militant of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.
On the ground, Israeli forces in Gaza have reported finding stashes of weapons, at times including explosives, suicide drones and missiles. The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Jordan.
Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume control of Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” establishing an independent state that includes the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.
His remarks seemed to further narrow the already slim options for who would govern Gaza if Israel topples Hamas. The last peace talks with Israel broke down more than a decade ago, and Israel’s government is dominated by opponents of Palestinian statehood.
Blinken later visited Iraq to meet with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani about the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, and about efforts to increase the flow of aid to Gaza, which Blinken called “grossly insufficient” at about 100 truckloads a day.
A Jordanian military cargo plane air-dropped medical aid to a field hospital in northern Gaza, King Abdullah II said on social media early Monday. This appeared to be the first aid delivered by Jordan, a key US ally that has a peace deal with Israel.
Earlier in his tour, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday reiterated that “there will be no cease-fire without the return of our abductees.”
Arab leaders have called for an immediate cease-fire. But Blinken said that “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” when it stormed into southern Israel from Gaza, triggering the war.
Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. The UN office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in UN-run facilities. The UN said Sunday that 88 staff members from its Palestinian refugees agency have been reported killed — “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”
Israeli planes again dropped leaflets urging people to head south during a four-hour window Sunday. Crowds walked down Gaza’s main north-south highway carrying baggage or pets and pushing wheelchairs. Others led donkey carts.
One man said they walked 500 meters (yards) with their hands raised while passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing bodies along the road. “The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” said one Palestinian man who declined to give his name.
Israel’s military said a one-way corridor would continue for residents to flee to southern Gaza.
The UN said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70 percent of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals are running out. No fuel has come for nearly one month, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said.
The war has stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group trading fire along the border.
Four civilians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon on Sunday evening, including three children, a local civil defense official and state-run media reported. The Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah targets in response to anti-tank fire that killed an Israeli civilian. Hezbollah said it fired Grad rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel in response.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war.
Many Israelis have called for Netanyahu to resign and for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Some families are traveling abroad to try to make sure the hostages aren’t forgotten.
Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to leave their homes.
In another reflection of widespread anger, a junior government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later called the remarks “metaphorical.” Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings, a move with no practical effect.
The US military on Sunday acknowledged positioning a nuclear weapon-capable Ohio-class submarine in the Middle East, although it’s unclear if it’s armed with nuclear ballistic missiles. Several Ohio-class submarines instead carry cruise missiles and the capability to deploy with special operations forces.
 


Israel targeting Tehran’s Evin prison, ‘agencies of repression’: minister

Updated 3 min 5 sec ago
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Israel targeting Tehran’s Evin prison, ‘agencies of repression’: minister

Jerusalem: Israel targeted Tehran’s notorious Evin prison as well as the command centers of security agencies in Iran responsible for “maintaining the regime’s stability,” a minister and the military said Monday.
The Israeli military “is carrying out strikes of unprecedented force against regime targets and agencies of government repression in the heart of Tehran,” Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X as the Iran-Israel war raged for an 11th day.
These included Evin prison — “which holds political prisoners and regime opponents” — as well as the command centers of the domestic Basij militia and the powerful Revolutionary Guards, he added.
In a separate statement, the military said that it was hitting command centers of security forces including the Revolutionary Guards, a wing of the Iranian military.
“These forces... are responsible on behalf of the Iranian regime’s military for defending the homeland security, suppressing threats, and maintaining the regime’s stability,” it said in a statement.
Israel began its military campaign against Iran on June 13 with strikes on the country’s nuclear and missile facilities, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as an “existential” threat for his country.
But the list of targets has widened since then, encompassing state television and the Iranian domestic security forces, raising speculation that Israel is seeking to topple Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President Donald Trump hinted Sunday at interest in changing Iran’s system of government, despite several of his administration officials earlier stressing that US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites overnight on Saturday-Sunday did not have that goal.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
AFP journalists heard explosions in northern Tehran on Monday and Iran’s Red Crescent reported a strike near its building in the area.
Evin prison is often used to hold foreign nationals and Iranians that are seen by rights groups as political prisoners.
Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been published, in what some Western governments describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions.
The prison is a large, heavily fortified complex located in a northern district of the Iranian capital, and is notorious among activists for alleged rights abuses.
At least three waves of incoming Iranian missiles were reported by the Israeli military on Monday.
Katz, a hard-liner in Netanyahu’s government, added that “for every rocket fired at Israel’s home front, the Iranian dictator will be severely punished, and the attacks will continue with full force.”

Erdogan says won’t let terror ‘drag Syria back to instability’

Updated 23 June 2025
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Erdogan says won’t let terror ‘drag Syria back to instability’

ISTANBUL: Turkiye will not allow extremists to drag Syria back into chaos and instability, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after a suicide attack killed 22 at a Damascus church.
“We will never allow our neighbor and brother Syria... be dragged into a new environment of instability through proxy terrorist organizations,” he said, vowing to support the new government’s fight against such groups.


Air raid sirens sound as Israel warns of incoming Iran missiles as conflict enters 11th day

Updated 23 June 2025
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Air raid sirens sound as Israel warns of incoming Iran missiles as conflict enters 11th day

  • Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others
  • Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Canberra supports US strike on Iran

Tehran: Tehran threatened on Monday to inflict “serious” damage in retaliation for US strikes on the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities, as the Iran-Israel war entered its 11th day despite calls for de-escalation.

Aerial assaults meanwhile raged on, with air raid sirens sounding across Israel and AFP journalists reporting several blasts were heard over Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said it had struck missile sites in western Iran as well as “six Iranian regime airports” across the country, destroying fighter jets and helicopters.

President Donald Trump said US warplanes used “bunker buster” bombs to target sites in Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz, boasting the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Other officials said it was too soon to assess the true impact on Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel and some Western states consider an existential threat.

Iranian armed forces spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said on state television that the US “hostile act,” following more than a week of Israeli bombardments, would “pave the way for the extension of war in the region.”

“The fighters of Islam will inflict serious, unpredictable consequences on you with powerful and targeted (military) operations,” he warned.

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Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. (AFP)

Israeli strikes on Iran kill at least 950, wound 3,450 others, says human rights group

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, a human rights group said Monday.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. On Saturday, Iran’s Health Ministry said some 400 Iranians had been killed and another 3,056 wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Iran foreign minister to meet key ally Putin

Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described Sunday’s attacks “lawless and criminal” behavior. (AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was due to hold “important” talks with key ally Vladimir Putin on Monday, 48 hours after a major US attack on Iran’s key nuclear facilities.

Moscow is a crucial backer of Tehran, but has not swung forcefully behind its partner since Israel launched a wave of attacks on June 13, strikes that triggered Iran to respond with missiles and drones.

While Russia condemned the Israeli and US strikes, it has not offered military help and has downplayed its obligations under a sweeping strategic partnership agreement signed with Tehran just months ago.

“In this new dangerous situation ... our consultations with Russia can certainly be of great importance,” Russian state media reported Araghchi as saying after landing in Moscow.

Australia says it supports US strike, calls for return to diplomacy

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Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that Canberra supported the United States strike on Iran and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy.

“The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Albanese said “the information has been clear” that Iran had enriched uranium to 60 percent and “there is no other explanation for it to reach 60, other than engaging in a program that wasn’t about civilian nuclear power.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog that inspects Iran’s nuclear facilities, reported on May 31 that Iran had enough uranium enriched to up to 60 percent, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons.

“Had Iran complied with the very reasonable requests that were made, including by the IAEA, then circumstances would have been different,” said Albanese, referring to limitations on enrichment.

 

 


What do we know about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities?

Updated 23 June 2025
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What do we know about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities?

  • Tehran says damage limited, no radiation leaks after Trump declares Iran’s uranium-enrichment capabilities destroyed
  • Assault involved 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft

DUBAI: Amid mounting speculation, the US launched air strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday.

The operation aimed to support Israel in its war against Iran — ongoing since June 13 — by crippling Tehran’s uranium enrichment capacity, according to Asharq News.

US President Donald Trump later announced that Iran’s uranium-enrichment abilities had been eliminated, warning Tehran against any “retaliatory response.” Tehran, however, described the damage as “limited” and dismissed any indications of radiation leaks.

US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House in Washington on June 21, 2025, following the announcement that the US bombed nuclear sites in Iran. (POOL / AFP)

The US strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft, in an operation the top US general, General Dan Caine, said was named “Operation Midnight.”

Asharq News reported that the strikes targeted three critical nuclear facilities instrumental in Iran’s nuclear fuel cycle: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear complex.

These sites span the entire fuel-enrichment chain — from raw uranium conversion, through enrichment, to the production of fuel and technical components for research reactors.

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• The first B-2 bomber was publicly displayed on Nov. 22, 1988, but its first flight was on July 17, 1989.

• The combat effectiveness of the B-2 was proved in the Balkans, where it was responsible for destroying 33 percent of all Serbian targets in the first eight weeks.

• In support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the B-2 flew one of its longest missions to date from Whiteman to Afghanistan and back.

• The B-2 completed its first-ever combat deployment in Iraq, flying 22 sorties and releasing more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions.

This handout satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies and taken on December 11, 2020 shows an overview of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the Iranian city of Qom. (AFP)

Fordo facility

Location and structure: Fordo is 30 kilometers northeast of Qom, embedded within a mountain at an altitude of approximately 1,750 m, with over 80 meters of rock and volcanic shielding — making it one of Iran’s most fortified sites.

Technical role: It houses two underground halls that can hold about 3,000 IR-1 centrifuges, enriching uranium up to 60 percent — a level nearing weapons -grade.

Strategic importance: It is a primary target in any military effort to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear military capability, due to its high capacity and protection.

This handout satellite image courtesy of Maxar Technologies shows Iran's shows Natanz nuclear research center in the central Iranian province of Isfahan. (AFP) 

Natanz reactor

Location and structure: Situated near Kashan in central Iran, partially buried under about 8 meters of earth with a 220meter-thick concrete roof, naturally shielded by surrounding mountainous terrain.

Technical role: Contains primary and experimental plants with over 14,000 centrifuges (IR-1, IR-2m, IR-4, IR-6), making it Iran’s main industrial enrichment hub.

Strategic importance: Responsible for producing most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium and plays a key role in centrifuge development.

This handout satellite picture provided by Maxar Technologies and taken on June 22, 2025, shows damage after US strikes on the Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran. (AFP)

Isfahan nuclear complex

Location and structure: Located south of Isfahan on an arid plateau away from populated areas, it is neither buried nor heavily fortified.

Technical role: Includes a Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF); a research reactor fuel production plant; and a metallic fuel pelletizing plant, and three research reactors.

Strategic importance: Serves as the backbone of Iran’s nuclear research and production infrastructure, supplying both Natanz and Fordo.

The Pentagon used some of the world’s most advanced aircraft for Saturday’s strikes. The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions.

The bomber represents a major milestone in the US bomber modernization program. The B-2 brings massive firepower to bear anywhere on the globe through seemingly impenetrable defenses.

A B-2 bomber has a range over 11,000 km without refueling, capable of global reach from distant American bases. (Getty Images via AFP)

According to US officials, the bombers that carried out the Iran strikes flew for nearly 37 hours non-stop from its Missouri base, refueling in mid-air multiple times before striking in the early hours of Sunday.

A B-2 bomber offers several key advantages, primarily due to its stealth capabilities and global reach.

• A range over 11,000 km without refueling, capable of global reach from distant American bases.

• Stealth abilities such as flying-wing design and radar-absorbing materials that allow it to evade air defenses.

• It can carry both nuclear and conventional weapons, including the GBU‑57 bunker-buster bomb.

Initial reports quoted by Asharq News indicated that Fordo was hit with the GBU‑57, the most powerful US conventional bunker buster, designed for deeply buried targets like Fordo, which lies 90 meters underground. Fox News reported six bunker-busting bombs were dropped on Fordo, alongside approximately 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at Natanz and Isfahan.

The GBU‑57 ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator’ was designed by American military engineers to devastate deeply buried bunkers without radioactive fallout. It was the only nonnuclear weapon that could reach Iran’s hardest target.

• Weight: ~13,600 kg

• Length: 6.2 meters.

• Diameter: 0.8 meters.

• Explosive payload: 2,400 kg of high explosives.

• Guidance: GPS + inertial navigation.

* Penetration: Up to 60 meters of reinforced concrete or dense rock.

A Tomahawk cruise missile is a precision weapon that launches from ships, submarines and ground launchers and can strike targets precisely from a great distance, even in heavily defended airspace.

• Range: 1,250–2,500 km depending on variant.

• Speed: Subsonic (~880 km/h).

• Guidance: Inertial navigation, GPS, with some variants using terminal guidance (TERCOM, DSMAC).

• Warhead: ~450 kg conventional explosives.

• Launch platforms: Ships and submarines.

There has been a torrent of responses to the US move against Iran, Asharq News reported. President Trump declared the mission’s success, stating that the Fordo facility was “gone,” and Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment sites “completely and utterly destroyed.” Later on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes were an incredible and overwhelming success that have “obliterated Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.”

For its part, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency quoted an official saying the nuclear sites had been evacuated in advance, and the damage was “not irreparable.” The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran stated there was “no risk of any radiation leak.” Iran emphasized its nuclear industry would not be halted.
 

 


Israel rejects critical EU report ahead of ministers’ meeting

Updated 22 June 2025
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Israel rejects critical EU report ahead of ministers’ meeting

  • European nations have been increasingly critical of the massive civilian toll of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli communities

BRUSSELS: Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document ... and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
European nations have been increasingly critical of the massive civilian toll of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli communities.