UN alarmed by ongoing Israeli strikes in central Gaza that kill scores

Palestinians wounded in Israeli airstrikes arrive at the Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
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Updated 26 December 2023
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UN alarmed by ongoing Israeli strikes in central Gaza that kill scores

  • War to last ‘many months’, Israel military chief says

CAIRO: Israel launched fresh airstrikes on Tuesday against central Gaza, where the United Nations voiced alarm over an escalation of attacks that have killed more than 100 Palestinians over two days in one part of the enclave.
The war intensified around Christmas, particularly in a central area just south of the seasonal waterway that bisects the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army told civilians to leave the area, though many said there was no safe place left to go.
“We are gravely concerned about the continued bombardment of Middle Gaza by Israeli forces, which has claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve,” said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango.
“Israeli forces must take all measures available to protect civilians. Warnings and evacuation orders do not absolve them of the full range of their international humanitarian law obligations.”
Israel is determined to destroy Hamas despite global calls for a cease-fire in the 11-week-old war and new concerns the conflict could spread with US and Iran-aligned forces attacking each other elsewhere in the region.
Palestinian health authorities said nearly 21,000 people in Gaza had been killed in Israeli strikes since Oct. 7, with thousands more feared buried under rubble. Nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times.
Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, and blames Hamas for putting them in harm’s way by operating among them, which Hamas denies. But even Israel’s closest ally the United States has said it should do more to reduce civilian deaths from what President Joe Biden has called “indiscriminate bombing.”

’NO MAGIC SOLUTIONS’
Israel’s Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told reporters in a televised statement on the Gaza border that the war would go on “for many months.”
“There are no magic solutions, there are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization, only determined and persistent fighting,” Halevi said. “We will reach Hamas’ leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months.”
Since a truce collapsed at the start of December, Israel has extended its ground campaign from the northern half of Gaza to encompass the entire enclave.
In recent days, fighting in the north has remained as intense as ever, even as southern and central areas now holding hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have become war zones.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest medical facility in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said 10 Palestinians had been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes.
“There were displaced people and residents inside the house, more than 20 people, children and women. We managed to rescue some children, but the rest were martyred,” said Khan Younis resident Salah Shaat, describing the aftermath of an airstrike at sunset on Monday.
Washington has openly pressed Israel in recent weeks to scale down its Gaza war from a full-blown military assault to a more targeted operation of raids on Hamas leaders. Israel says it will not stop fighting until Hamas is completely destroyed.
Netanyahu hammered that point on Monday at a meeting with lawmakers after visiting troops in Gaza.
“We are not stopping. The war will continue until the end, until we finish it, no less,” he said.
Netanyahu adviser Mark Regev told CNN on Tuesday that destroying Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, was “a prerequisite for a better future both for Israelis and Palestinians.”
“You won’t have a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza without first destroying Hamas. You can’t have reconstruction in Gaza, rebuilding the lives of people without first getting rid of Hamas.”
Elsewhere in the region, US forces have come under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington’s backing of Israel.
The US military carried out retaliatory airstrikes on Monday in Iraq after a drone attack by Iran-aligned militants on a US base in Irbil left one US service member in critical condition and wounded two.
The airstrikes killed “a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants” and destroyed multiple facilities used by the group, the US military said.
There were reports of new explosions near shipping off the coast of Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement has attacked ships it says have links to Israel in the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
On Monday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria.
On the Lebanon border, Israel said on Tuesday that nine Israeli soldiers and one civilian had been injured by anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon toward a church, drawing retaliatory airstrikes against Hezbollah targets.
“We are in a multi-front war and are coming under attack from seven theaters: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Iraq, Yemen and Iran,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told lawmakers, listing six places where Iran-backed militants are active, as well as Iran itself.
“We have already responded and taken action in six of these theaters,” he said, without specifying the one that had yet to see Israeli action.
In India, there was an explosion near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi. Authorities said no staff were hurt.


Israel defense ministry says arms exports hit all time high in 2024

Updated 57 min 8 sec ago
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Israel defense ministry says arms exports hit all time high in 2024

  • “Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024,” the ministry said

JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense ministry said Wednesday that its arms exports hit an all-time high of more than $14.7 billion in 2024, with a sharp rise in deals with Arab Gulf states, despite international criticism of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive record-breaking year in the scope of defense agreements,” the ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel’s defense industries, said in a statement.


Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

Updated 04 June 2025
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Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

  • France thanks Morocco for arresting 24-year-old after kidnappings targeting French crypto entrepreneurs

PARIS: France’s justice minister on Wednesday said that Morocco had arrested a man suspected of ordering a series of kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in France.
“I sincerely thank Morocco for this arrest, which demonstrates excellent judicial cooperation between our two countries, particularly in the fight against organized crime,” Gerald Darmanin said on X.


Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

  • AJet said flights from Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16
  • Flights to Damascus from Ankara will start from Jun. 17

ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet said it will start flights to Damascus International from Istanbul and Ankara airports in mid-June.

AJet said in a statement that flights from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16. Flights will initially take place four times per week before operating daily from July, it added.

Flights to Damascus from the Turkish capital Ankara will start from Jun. 17, three-times per week, the carrier also said.

Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Damascus in January after a 13-year suspension.

Turkiye, a close ally of the new government in Damascus, has pledged to support the country’s reconstruction. Ankara has already helped with the improvement and maintenance of Syria’s airports, the Turkish transport minister has said.


UAE president meets Egypt’s Sisi in Abu Dhabi

Updated 04 June 2025
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UAE president meets Egypt’s Sisi in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed met his counterpart Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.  
El-Sisi, who is on a visit to the UAE, arrived at the presidential airport and was received by the UAE leader along with a number of senior officials.


Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

  • Guler says Israel de-confliction talks continue
  • Turkish troops stay for now in Syria, he tells Reuters

ANKARA: Turkiye is training and advising Syria’s armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.
Turkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria’s new government since rebels — some of them backed for years by Ankara — ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December to end his family’s five-decade rule.
It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.
The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.
In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Turkiye and Israel — which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday — are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.
Turkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.
“We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria’s defense capacity,” Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.
Named to the post by President Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.
Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.
This can “only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel’s assault on Gaza.
But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.
Guler described the talks as “technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events” or direct conflict, as well as “a communication and coordination structure.”
“Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization,” he told Reuters.