GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Efforts mounted on Thursday to get more aid into the war-devastated Gaza Strip, where the UN warns of famine and desperate residents have stormed relief convoys.
After mediators failed to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started Monday, fighting continued with at least 69 deaths over the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said.
Hamas authorities reported more than 40 air strikes across Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge and Israel is threatening a ground assault.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday doubled down on pledges to invade Rafah, saying: “There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the job.
“I will continue to repel the pressures and we will enter Rafah... and bring complete victory to the people of Israel,” he said during a visit to a field intelligence base.
Around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt in Rafah.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Wednesday that a “significant” number of them would need to be moved “to a humanitarian island that we will create with the international community.”
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was “raiding Hamas’s hideouts and military strongholds” in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Yunis.
“During a search in the area, the forces located several weapons in a bedroom under a bed, including missiles and explosives. Following the searches in the area, the forces located a rocket launcher and missiles near a school and destroyed it.”
Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire at an aid distribution point near Gaza City. The army had no immediate comment.
In central Israel, police said a Gaza-raised Palestinian had stabbed a soldier in a shopping center, who had shot his attacker dead before later dying from his injuries.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, resulting in about 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel has carried out a relentless campaign of bombardment and ground operations in Gaza, killing at least 31,341 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Hamas militants also seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 of the captives remain in Gaza and that 32 are dead.
Activists and families of Israeli hostages kept up pressure for their negotiated release, again blocking a Tel Aviv highway in protest on Thursday.
And in a sign of mounting US exasperation with the Netanyahu, US Senate leader Chuck Schumer called for a snap election in Israel, describing the veteran hawk as one of a number of “major obstacles” to a two-state solution and peace.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister, three weeks after his predecessor resigned.
Washington and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the end of the war.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators failed to broker a new truce in time for Ramadan, but Netanyahu said Thursday there was now “Qatari pressure on Hamas.”
“As of this moment, there has been no real response from Hamas. They are still clinging to unacceptable demands,” he told representatives of hostages’ families.
“As a result of our pressure... and also with your help, we are seeing — for the first time — Qatari pressure on Hamas.”
The war has resulted in severe shortages of medical supplies across Gaza, with only a fraction of hospitals partially functioning.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said aid had been delivered to Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, but said it was “struggling with water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management.”
“Two of the hospital’s warehouses are no longer functional and are being used to shelter 7,000 displaced people,” he added.
The Spanish aid vessel Open Arms, pulling about 200 tons of food, was nearing Israel’s coast after departing Cyprus on Tuesday, the Marinetraffic website showed on Thursday.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said a second, bigger vessel was being readied for the aid corridor which, senior US officials have said, will be complemented by a temporary pier off Gaza to be built by American troops.
Daily aid airdrops by multiple countries have been taking place this month, and Germany said it would join the effort.
But the air and sea missions are “no alternative” to land deliveries, 25 organizations including Amnesty International and Oxfam said in a statement.
Dire shortages have left many scrambling for scraps of aid, among them Mokhles Al-Masry, 27, who was displaced from Beit Hanoun to Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
“There is no food, nothing to feed our children. We can’t even find a bottle of baby milk. We’ve been wandering around since early morning, hoping that a plane would drop parachutes,” he said.
“As you can see, these parachutes don’t cover one percent of people’s needs.”
Amnesty’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard, said the international community seemed to have accepted that the war will drag on.
“Why are you making an investment that is going to take two months?” she asked, referring to the Pentagon’s timeline for setting up the temporary pier which, it said, could enable the provision of more than two million meals a day.
Aid efforts intensify for famine-stalked Gaza
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Aid efforts intensify for famine-stalked Gaza
- The war has resulted in severe shortages of medical supplies across Gaza, with only a fraction of hospitals partially functioning
- WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said aid had been delivered to Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza
Israeli forces have completed encirclement of Gaza’s Rafah, military says
- Israel said on April 2 that troops had begun seizing an area it called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, in southern
The military has issued repeated evacuation warnings to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Rafah since it resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, forcing them into a diminishing space limited by the sea.
Israel said on April 2 that troops had begun seizing an area it called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have since fled Rafah, a 60 square km area that borders Egypt to the south.
“Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division’s troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis,” the military said on Saturday.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza was launched after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the offensive, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
Israel restarted the offensive in March after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January. The campaign will continue, it says, until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Hamas is stamped out of Gaza.
Hamas says it will free hostages only as part of a deal that will end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms. A Hamas delegation was expected in Cairo over the weekend to discuss new truce proposals, according to a source in the group.
Hamas expects ‘real progress’ in Cairo talks to end Gaza war
- Hamas official says delegation to reach Cairo Saturday for Gaza truce talks
- The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies
CAIRO: Hamas expects “real progress” toward a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official said, as senior leaders from the Palestinian movement hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday.
The scheduled talks come days after US President Donald Trump suggested an agreement to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza was close to being finalized.
A Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian group anticipated the meeting with Egyptian mediators would yield significant progress.
“We hope the meeting will achieve real progress toward reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” the official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The delegation will be led by the group’s chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, he said.
According to the official, Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
“However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he added, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression” in Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.
EVACUTAIONS CONTINUE
President Trump said during a cabinet meeting this week that “we’re getting close to getting them (hostages in Gaza) back.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days.”
Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.
Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” according to a report by UN human rights office.
The report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”
On Saturday, Israel continued with its offensive.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning.
AFP footage of the aftermath of the strike showed the bodies of four men, wrapped in white shrouds, at a local hospital, while several individuals gathered to offer prayers before the funeral.
The ceasefire that ended on March 17 had led to the release of 33 hostages from Gaza — eight of them deceased — and the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that at least 1,542 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.
Gazans struggle to find water as clean sources become increasingly scarce
- Many residents across the enclave queue for hours to get one water fill, which usually is not enough for their daily needs
- The Gaza Strip’s only natural source of water is the Coastal Aquifer Basin, which runs along the eastern Mediterranean coast from the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, through Gaza and into Israel
GAZA/CAIRO: Hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents have lost their main source of clean water in the past week after supplies from Israel’s water utility were cut by the Israeli army’s renewed offensive, municipal authorities in the territory said.
Many now have to walk, sometimes for miles, to get a small water fill after the Israeli military’s bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaia neighborhood, in the north of the Strip, damaged the pipeline operated by state-owned Mekorot.
“Since morning, I have been waiting for water,” said 42-year-old Gaza woman Faten Nassar. “There are no stations and no trucks coming. There is no water. The crossings are closed. God willing, the war will end safely and peacefully.”
Israel’s military said in a statement it was in contact with the relevant organizations to coordinate the repair of what it called a malfunction of the northern pipeline as soon as possible.
It said a second pipeline supplying southern Gaza was still operating, adding that the water supply system “is based on various water sources, including wells and local desalination facilities distributed throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Israel ordered Shejaia residents to evacuate last week as it launched an offensive that has seen several districts bombed. The military has said previously it was operating against “terror infrastructure” and had killed a senior militant leader.
The northern pipeline had been supplying 70 percent of Gaza City’s water since the destruction of most of its wells during the war, municipal authorities say.
“The situation is very difficult and things are getting more complicated, especially when it comes to people’s daily lives and their daily water needs, whether for cleaning, disinfecting, and even cooking and drinking,” said Husni Mhana, the municipality’s spokesperson.
“We are now living in a real thirst crisis in Gaza City, and we could face a difficult reality in the coming days if the situation remains the same.”
Worsening water crisis
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have become internally displaced by the war, with many making daily trips on foot to fill plastic containers with water from the few wells still functioning in remoter areas — and even these do not guarantee clean supplies.
Water for drinking, cooking and washing has increasingly become a luxury for Gaza residents following the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose fighters carried out the deadliest attack in decades on Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people in southern Israel and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, Palestinian authorities have said.
Many residents across the enclave queue for hours to get one water fill, which usually is not enough for their daily needs.
“I walk long distances. I get tired. I am old, I’m not young to walk around every day to get water,” said 64-year-old Adel Al-Hourani.
The Gaza Strip’s only natural source of water is the Coastal Aquifer Basin, which runs along the eastern Mediterranean coast from the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, through Gaza and into Israel.
But its salty tap water is severely depleted, with up to 97 percent deemed unfit for human consumption due to salinity, over-extraction and pollution.
The Palestinian Water Authority stated that most of its wells had been rendered inoperable during the war.
On March 22, a joint statement by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics and the Water Authority said more than 85 percent of water and sanitation facilities and assets in Gaza were completely or partially out of service.
Palestinian and United Nations officials said most of Gaza’s desalination plants were either damaged or had stopped operations because of Israel’s power and fuel cuts.
“Due to the extensive damage incurred by the water and sanitation sector, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day,” the statement said.
That was far below the minimum 15 liters per person per day requirement for survival in emergencies, according to the World Health Organization indicators, it added.
Iran delegation in Oman for high-stakes nuclear talks with US
- Iranian state TV said that after his delegation arrived in Muscat on Saturday morning Araghchi met with Omani officials
- Trump had made a surprise announcement last Monday that the talks would take place
Muscat: The United States and Iran begin high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear program on Saturday, with President Donald Trump threatening military action should they fail to produce a new deal.
They will be the highest-level discussions between the foes since an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program crumbled after Trump pulled out in 2018 during his first term in office.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are set to lead the discussions behind closed doors in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which has long played a mediating role between Iran and Western countries.
Iranian state TV said that after his delegation arrived in Muscat on Saturday morning Araghchi met with Omani officials.
Iran seeks 'fair' deal with US in nuclear talks
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday his country seeks a “fair and honorable” deal with the United States, hours before the start of talks between the two sides.
“Our intention is to reach a fair and honorable agreement from an equal position, and if the other side also comes from the same position, then hopefully there will be a chance for an initial understanding that will lead to a path of negotiations,” he said, according to a video posted by state TV before the talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Hours before the talks were due to begin Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country. But they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump had made a surprise announcement last Monday that the talks would take place.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser Ali Shamkhani said Tehran was “seeking a real and fair agreement,” adding that “important and implementable proposals are ready.”
If Washington showed goodwill, the path forward would be “smooth,” he said on social media platform X.
The format for the talks has not been confirmed, with the United States calling them direct talks but Iran insisting on an intermediary.
According to Iranian news agency Tasnim, the delegations will start indirect negotiations after a meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi.
The talks are expected to begin in the afternoon with Busaidi as intermediary, Tasnim added.
Trump announced the talks during a White House press appearance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Iran’s arch foe.
'Red line'
The contact between the two sides, which have not had diplomatic relations for decades, follows repeated threats of military action by both the United States and Israel.
“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked what would happen if the talks fail to produce a deal.
Responding to Trump’s threat, Tehran said it could expel United Nations nuclear inspectors, a move that Washington warned would be an “escalation.”
Iran, weighed down by years of sanctions and weakened by Israel’s pummelling of its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, has strong incentives to negotiate.
The United States wants to stop Iran from ever getting close to developing a nuclear bomb.
The 2015 deal which Trump withdrew from aimed to render it practically impossible for Iran to build an atomic bomb, while at the same time allowing it to pursue a civil nuclear program.
Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany were the other parties to the agreement, of which Araghchi was a key architect.
Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal that “our position today” starts with demanding that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear program — a view held by hard-liners around Trump that few expect Iran would ever accept.
“That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries,” Witkoff told the newspaper.
“Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability,” added Witkoff.
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes, stepped up its activities after Trump abandoned the 2015 agreement.
The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report noted with “serious concern” that Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 percent.
'Survival of the regime'
Karim Bitar, a Middle East Studies lecturer at Sciences Po university in Paris, said negotiations “will not focus exclusively on... the nuclear program.”
“The deal would have to include Iran stopping its support to its regional allies,” a long-standing demand by US allies in the Gulf, he said.
For Iran, it could be a matter of the government’s very survival.
“The one and only priority is the survival of the regime, and ideally, to get some oxygen, some sanctions relief, to get their economy going again, because the regime has become quite unpopular,” Bitar said.
Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group think-tank, said agreeing the scope of the talks would be “one of the first and most consequential issues.”
“Iran does not want an expanded agenda in the early stages. But no deal will be sustainable unless it becomes more comprehensive,” he said.
Iran is “likely to engage on steps to roll back its nuclear program, but not dismantle it entirely” in exchange for sanctions relief, Vaez added.
What are US troops doing in the Middle East and where are they?
- Since 2023, the Houthi movement has launched more than 100 attacks on ships off Yemen’s coast, which they say were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza with Iran-backed Hamas militants
WASHINGTON: The United States and Iran are set for talks this weekend in Oman as President Donald Trump reiterated this week threats of military action against Tehran if it does not agree to limits on its nuclear program.
Western countries suspect Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which Iran denies.
If Iran does not make a deal, Trump has said, “There will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Here is what we know about the US military presence in the Middle East:
WHERE ARE US BASES IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
The US has operated bases around the Middle East for decades and the largest is Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, built in 1996, based on the number of personnel.
Other countries where the US has troops include Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
There are normally about 30,000 US troops across the region, down sharply from when US forces were involved in major operations. There were more than 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan in 2011 and over 160,000 in Iraq in 2007.
The US has roughly 2,000 troops in Syria at small bases mostly in the northeast. About 2,500 US personnel are stationed in Iraq including at the US Union III site in Baghdad.
WHAT REINFORCEMENTS HAS TRUMP SENT?
The Pentagon has said that it surged additional forces to the Middle East in recent weeks.
It also relocated as many as six B-2 bombers in March to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which experts said would put them in an ideal position to intervene quickly in the Middle East.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that it was up to Iran to decide whether to interpret this as a message to Tehran.
The Pentagon has also sent other aircraft and more air defense assets including a Patriot missile defense battalion.
Two US aircraft carrier ships are in the Middle East, and each carries thousands of troops and dozens of aircraft.
WHY ARE US TROOPS STATIONED IN THE REGION?
US troops are stationed in the Middle East for a variety of reasons.
In some countries like Iraq, US troops are fighting Daesh militants and local forces. But over the past several years Iran-backed fighters have attacked US personnel who have struck back.
Jordan, a key US ally in the region, has hundreds of US trainers and they hold extensive exercises throughout the year.
US troops are in other countries such as Qatar and the UAE as a security assurance, for training and to assist in regional military action as needed.
The United States is undertaking a bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.
DO US BASES IN THE REGION GET ATTACKED OFTEN?
US bases are highly guarded facilities, including air defense systems to protect against missiles or drones. Facilities in countries like Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait are not usually attacked.
But US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under frequent attack in recent years.
Since 2023, the Houthi movement has launched more than 100 attacks on ships off Yemen’s coast, which they say were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza with Iran-backed Hamas militants.
These include drone and missile strikes on US Navy ships in the region. So far, no Houthi attack is known to have damaged a US warship.
