GAZA: Israel carried out fresh strikes on Gaza Sunday as its leaders came under growing pressure to secure the release of hostages still held in the Hamas-run territory more than two months after the October 7 attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced protests on Saturday by relatives of hostages who called for an urgent deal to secure their freedom after the army admitted mistakenly killing three captives in Gaza.
The trio were among an estimated 250 people taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 raids into Israel, which also killed about 1,140 people, according to the Israeli authorities’ latest figures.
According to Hamas, Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 18,800 people, mostly women and children.
At a protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday, relatives of hostages gathered to plea with the government for a deal.
“Take us into consideration and come up with a plan now (for negotiation),” said Noam Perry, daughter of hostage Haim Perry, at the protest.
More than 100 of the Israelis and foreigners seized by Hamas and other militants on October 7 were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners during a week-long truce last month, mediated by Qatar.
Netanyahu doubled down on his war effort on Saturday, telling reporters of the three hostages’ deaths: “It broke my heart. It broke the whole nation’s heart.”
“With all the deep sorrow, I want to clarify: the military pressure is necessary both for the return of the kidnapped and for achieving victory over our enemies,” he added.
On Sunday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the central city of Deir Al-Balah.
Witnesses also reported Israeli air and artillery strikes on the southern municipality of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Yunis, the Gaza Strip’s second city.
Also on Saturday, Netanyahu appeared to address Qatari efforts toward a new truce.
“We have serious criticisms of Qatar, about which I suppose you will hear in due course, but right now we are trying to complete the recovery of our hostages,” he said.
In a statement, Qatar reaffirmed on Saturday its “ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause.”
But Hamas said on Telegram it was “against any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Saturday he was traveling to Israel, Bahrain and Qatar to highlight Washington’s “commitments to strengthening regional security and stability.”
News platform Axios said Israeli spy chief David Barnea met Friday in an unspecified European location with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped negotiate the earlier truce.
New threat: Hunger
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left much of the territory in ruins, with the UN estimating 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced by the war.
The UN said this week that hunger and desperation were driving people to seize humanitarian aid being delivered to Gaza, warning of a “breakdown of civil order.”
International aid organizations have struggled to get supplies to desperate Gazans.
“I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The agency reported a “prolonged communications blackout” across Gaza that started on Thursday night and has continued over the past 48 hours.
US President Joe Biden, whose administration provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has voiced growing concern over civilian deaths.
UK Foreign Minister David Cameron and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock wrote in The Sunday Times that the “need is urgent” for a “sustainable cease-fire” in Gaza.
In the face of mounting international pressure, Israel announced a “temporary measure” to allow aid deliveries directly to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Fierce fighting raged in Gaza on Saturday, with the Israeli army saying it had raided two schools which it said were Hamas hiding places in the northern Gaza City.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a Christian mother and daughter were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on the grounds of the Gaza Strip’s only Catholic church.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” the patriarchate said in a statement.
In the city of Khan Yunis, dozens of journalists took part in a funeral for Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who was killed in an Israeli strike, according to his news organization.
More than 60 journalists and media staff have died since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Broader conflict
The war continues to be felt across the Middle East and has raised fears of a broader conflict.
Israel has exchanged regular fire with militants, mainly the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah, across its northern border with Lebanon.
The Israeli army said on Saturday a soldier was killed and two others wounded in the Margaliot area on the Lebanese boundary. A spokesperson confirmed to AFP the casualties were caused by a “hostile aircraft.”
The conflict has also caused major disruption to the key Red Sea shipping lane between Asia and Europe, with two more major firms announcing they were redirecting their vessels following repeated attacks by Yemeni rebels allied with Hamas.
The action by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and CMA CGM follows similar moves on Friday by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.
It comes after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched repeated attacks on passing vessels in recent days.
The rebels also launched a wave of 14 one-way attack drones on Saturday, all of which were “shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries,” the US military’s Central Command said.
Israel strikes Gaza as pressure grows to free more hostages
https://arab.news/zae4s
Israel strikes Gaza as pressure grows to free more hostages
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced protests by relatives of hostages who called for urgent deal to secure their freedom
- Israeli air and artillery strikes reported on the southern municipality of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Yunis
Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting
- The ministers were in Turkiye’s largest city on the eve of weekend gathering of the OIC
- Some 40 top diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering
ISTANBUL: Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported, for a meeting with Arab League diplomats to discuss Tehran’s escalating conflict with Israel.
Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile strikes.
“The Foreign Minister arrived in Istanbul this morning to participate in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ meeting,” Tasnim reported.
It comes after Araghchi met with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Friday.
“At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime’s attack on our country will be specifically addressed,” said Iranian foreign Abbas Araghchi, according to the news agency.
Israel began its assault in the early hours of June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran in the worst-ever confrontation between the two arch-rivals.
Earlier on Friday, Araghchi said Tehran was ready to “consider diplomacy” again only if Israel’s “aggression is stopped.”
The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement following their meeting, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.
Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks
- Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: Iran and Israel exchanged fresh attacks early on Saturday, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear program while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.
Shortly after 2:30 a.m. in Israel (2330 GMT on Friday), the Israeli military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing across the metropolitan area as Israel’s air defense systems responded.
22 arrested for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict
Police in Iran’s Qom province said Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported.
“22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.
Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site targeted by Israel
Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was targeted by Israel, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, adding that there was no leakage of hazardous materials.
At the same time, Israel launched a new wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.
Sirens also sounded in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. An Israeli military official said Iran had fired five ballistic missiles and that there were no immediate indications of any missile impacts.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Interceptions visible in skies over Tel Aviv
• Israel says it targeted Iranian missile storage, infrastructure
• Iran says no talks with US under 'Israeli aggression'
There were no initial reports of casualties.
The emergency service released images showing a fire on the roof of a multi-storey residential building in central Israel. Local media reported that the fire was caused by debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.
Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.
Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organization that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.
Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.
Talks show little progress
Iran has repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4 million people and the country’s business and economic hub, where some critical military assets are also located.
Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the US “until Israeli aggression stops”.
But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy.
US President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that he would take as long as two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.
Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel to scale back its airstrikes to allow negotiations to continue.
“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one,” Trump said.
Hundreds of US citizens have fled Iran since the air war began, according to a US State Department cable seen by Reuters.
Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”.
Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the US might join the war.
Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.
A senior Iranian official said that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.
Israel may have breached EU agreement, bloc’s foreign policy arm says
- EU-Israel pact requires “respect for human rights and democratic principles” for both sides
- EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the review during a gathering in Brussels on Monday
BRUSSELS: The European Union’s diplomatic service said on Friday there were indications that Israel had breached its human rights obligations under the terms of a pact governing its ties with the bloc, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Citing assessments by independent international institutions, the European External Action Service said “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.”
The report comes after months of deepening concern in European capitals about Israel’s operations in Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
“Israel’s continued restrictions to the provision of food, medicines, medical equipment, and other vital supplies affect the entire population of Gaza present on the affected territory,” the document said.
Asked about the EU review, an Israeli official called it “a one-sided report that exemplifies the double standards the EU uses toward Israel.”
Under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which came into force in 2000, the EU and Israel agreed that their relationship “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.”
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, announced in May that the bloc would examine whether Israel was complying with the terms of the pact, after over half of EU members backed the conducting of a review.
The report includes a section dedicated to the situation in Gaza, covering issues related to denial of humanitarian aid, attacks with a significant number of casualties, attacks on hospitals and medical facilities, displacement, and lack of accountability.
The report also looks at the situation in the West Bank, including settler violence.
The document relies on “facts verified by and assessments made by independent international institutions, and with a focus on most recent events in Gaza and the West Bank,” it said.
Israel has said that it respects international law and that operations in Gaza are necessary to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the review during a gathering in Brussels on Monday. Member countries remain divided in their approach to Israel.
While some ministers could advocate for moving toward taking action based on the review, no concrete decisions are expected at Monday’s session.
Diplomats expect EU officials will reach out to Israel with the outcome of the review in an effort to influence it, and that ministers will return to the subject during a July meeting.
Morocco says 2024 ‘hottest year’ on record
- Moroccan climatologist Mohammed-Said Karrouk, who also heads Morocco’s National Future Planet Committee, warned that the kingdom’s geography and climate make it more vulnerable to temperature extremes
RABAT: The year 2024 was Morocco’s hottest on record, the North African country’s meteorological agency said on Friday, mirroring the record surface temperatures measured globally.
In an annual report, the agency said it recorded an average temperature anomaly of +1.49 degrees Celsius (+2.7 Fahrenheit) last year compared to the 1991-2020 period.
“The year 2024 stands out as the hottest ever recorded in Morocco,” it said, adding that every month in 2024, excluding June and September, had been hotter than the average for the 1991-2020 reference period.
Several cities broke daily heat records, with 47.6 degrees Celsius (117.7 Fahrenheit) in Marrakech and 47.7 degrees Celsius (117.8 Fahrenheit) in Beni Mellal in July last year, the agency said.
It also noted “an increase in thermal anomalies, particularly during the autumn and winter seasons.”
Morocco’s all-time heat record was set in August 2023, when temperatures hit 50.4 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in Agadir.
The country, which is enduring a seventh straight year of drought, registered an average rainfall deficit of -24.7 percent last year, the report said.
The agency said last year’s data reflected “an amplification of climate contrasts in Morocco, where prolonged droughts alternate with episodes of extreme precipitation.”
Torrential rains in September 2024 — causing floods and killing 18 people — “did not reverse the overall rainfall deficit,” it added.
Moroccan climatologist Mohammed-Said Karrouk, who also heads Morocco’s National Future Planet Committee, warned that the kingdom’s geography and climate make it more vulnerable to temperature extremes.
He said warming was now observed in all seasons.
“In autumn, lingering summer heat combined with gradually cooling temperatures favors violent downpours, which have become more dangerous due to excess humidity in the atmosphere,” he said.
“In winter, the heat originating mostly from warming tropical oceans now influences North Africa as well.”
A former member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Karrouk also warned of a recent intensification of the West African monsoon — a seasonal wind system that brings moist air from the Atlantic Ocean — which he linked to the deadly September floods.
He called for the construction of shelters to protect vulnerable populations and dams to capture water — a valuable resource with Morocco’s unrelenting drought.
Weather extremes have taken a toll on farming, a vital sector for Morocco which employs nearly a third of its active population and accounts for 12 percent of GDP.
Scientists say that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Fuelled by human-driven climate change, 2024 was the warmest year on record globally — and 2025 is projected to rank among the top three.
Hundreds of US citizens left Iran in last week, State Department cable says
- Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday.
While many left without problem, “numerous” citizens had faced “delays and harassment” while trying to exit, the cable said. It said, without giving further details, that one unidentified family had reported that two US citizens attempting to leave Iran had been detained.
The internal cable dated June 20 underscores the challenge Washington is facing in trying to protect and assist its citizens in a country with which it has no diplomatic relations and in a war in which the United States may soon get involved.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The cable was first reported by The Washington Post.
HIGHLIGHTS
• US advises land exits via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkey
• Some US citizens departing Iran faced problems, cable says
• Over 6,400 US citizens filled possible evacuation form in Israel
President Donald Trump and the White House said on Thursday he will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting Washington might join the fighting on Israel’s side.
The air war began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and has alarmed a region that has been on edge since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons, and said it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with its own strikes on Israel. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.
POTENTIAL EVACUATION
The US State Department in a travel alert earlier on Friday urged its citizens wishing to depart Iran to use land routes via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkiye. Iranian airspace is closed.
The US Embassy in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat has requested entry for over 100 American citizens, but the Turkmenistan government has yet to give its approval, the cable said.
The Islamic Republic treats Iranian-US dual citizens solely as nationals of Iran, the State Department emphasized.
“US nationals are at significant risk of questioning, arrest and detention in Iran,” the alert said.
Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday said the administration was looking at different ways to get US citizens out.
“We’re working to get military, commercial, charter flights and cruise ships for evac,” he said in an X post, urging US citizens and green card holders to complete an online form.
As of Friday, more than 6,400 US citizens filled out that form for Israel, a separate internal department email seen by Reuters said. The form allows the agency to predict an approximate figure for potential evacuations.
“Approximately 300-500 US citizens per day would potentially require departure assistance,” said the internal email, also dated June 20 and marked “sensitive.”
The State Department does not have official figures but thousands of US citizens are thought to be residing in Iran and hundreds of thousands in Israel.
Israel’s strikes over the last week have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel says Iranian attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel.
“The US Department of State received no reports of US citizen casualties in Israel or Iran,” the second email said.
