Khan Younis pullout ‘to prepare for Rafah attack,’ says Israeli defense chief

Short Url
Updated 08 April 2024
Follow

Khan Younis pullout ‘to prepare for Rafah attack,’ says Israeli defense chief

  • Minister Yoav Gallant claims Hamas ceased to exist as ‘military framework’
  • Netanyahu said Israel was “one step away from victory,” but his military chief said "we are far from stopping"

JEDDAH:  Israeli troops pulled out of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Sunday after months of fierce fighting half a year into the war sparked by the attack against Israel by Hamas militants on October 7.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the withdrawal was because “Hamas ceased to exist as a military framework” in Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering. He also said the pullout was “to prepare for future missions, including ... in Rafah.”

Israel said it had withdrawn more soldiers from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade, as it and Hamas sent teams to Egypt for fresh talks on a potential ceasefire in the six-month conflict.

After troops left areas in and around the largely destroyed city of Khan Yunis, a stream of displaced Palestinians walked there, hoping to return to their homes from temporary shelters in Rafah, a little further south.




Israeli army vehicles move in an area along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on April 4, 2024. On Sunday, most of Israel's troops pulled out of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Stirop after six months of war. (AFP)

Khan Yunis is the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel accuses of being the mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli army said a “significant force” would stay on elsewhere in the besieged territory as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “one step away from victory.”

“Israel is ready for a deal. Israel is not ready to surrender,” Netanyahu said to his Cabinet in a speech to mark six months since Hamas’s attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.

On a day when talks toward a truce deal were set to resume in Cairo, Netanyahu also stressed that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages.”

He is facing intense pressure at home from families and supporters of captives seized by the militants as well as from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

“The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping,” said Israel’s military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. “This is a long war, with varying intensity.”

Growing global opposition

World leaders have expressed alarm at the prospect of an invasion of the city, near the Egyptian border, where most of Gaza’s population has taken shelter.

The UN and international aid organizations decried the devastating toll of the war, warning that the Palestinian territory had become “beyond catastrophic.”

“Six months is an awful milestone,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said, warning that “humanity has been all but abandoned.”

The war broke out on Oct. 7 with an attack by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people. Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants also took more than 250 hostages — 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,175 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “terrible” war “must end.” He said in a statement: “We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defeat the threat from Hamas terrorists and defend their security. But the whole of the UK is shocked by the bloodshed.
“This terrible conflict must end. The hostages must be released. The aid — which we have been straining every sinew to deliver by land, air and sea — must be flooded in.”

The outcry intensified after an Israeli drone strike killed seven aid workers — most of them Westerners — for the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on April 1.

Vast areas of Gaza have been turned into a rubble-strewn wasteland with damage estimated at $18.5 billion to critical infrastructure, mostly housing, a World Bank report said.




Palestinians inspect destroyed residential buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, after the Israeli military withdrew most of its ground troops on April 7, 2024. (REUTERS)

Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel has defended its efforts and blamed shortages on aid organizations’ inability to distribute assistance once it gets in.

“The denial of basic needs — food, fuel, sanitation, shelter, security and health care — is inhumane and intolerable,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Israeli security expert Omer Dostri predicted that, as more displaced Palestinians leave densely crowded Rafah, “within two months there will be a move in Rafah to destroy the remaining Hamas brigades.”

The partial withdrawal came as talks toward a truce and hostage release deal were expected to resume in Cairo, including United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

United States President Joe Biden told Netanyahu on Thursday he wants a ceasefire and hostage release deal and ramped-up aid deliveries.

After the deaths of the seven aid workers, Biden — whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier and political backer — also hinted at making US support for Israel conditional on curtailing the killing of civilians and improving humanitarian conditions.

Hours after Biden’s comments, Netanyahu said Israel would allow “temporary” aid flow through Erez and Ashdod.




A man gestures from a vehicle moving past destroyed buildings along a road in Khan Yunis on April 7, 2024 after Israel pulled its ground forces out of the southern Gaza Strip, six months into the devastating war sparked by the October 7 attacks. (AFP)

Maha Thaer, a mother of four returning to Khan Yunis, said she would move back into her badly damaged apartment, “even though it is not suitable for living, but it is better than tents.”

Muhammad Yunis, 51, a Palestinian in northern Gaza, sees nothing but loss.

“Isn’t the bombing, death and destruction enough?” he asked. “There are bodies still under the rubble. We can smell the stench.”

(With AFP)

Battleground: Jerusalem
The biblical battle for the Holy City

Enter


keywords

19 injured in Israeli port after Iran missile barrage

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

19 injured in Israeli port after Iran missile barrage

JERUSALEM: At least 19 people were injured in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa as Iran fired a fresh barrage of missiles on Friday afternoon, authorities said.
Iran has been launching daily missile salvos at Israel for the past week since a wide-ranging Israeli attack on its nuclear and military facilities triggered war.
One projectile slammed into an area by the docks in Haifa on Friday afternoon where it damaged a building and blew out windows, littering the ground with rubble, AFP images showed.
Israel’s foreign ministry said it struck “next to” the Al-Jarina mosque.
The locations of missile strikes in Israel are subject to strict military censorship rules and are not always provided in detail to the public.
A spokesman for Haifa’s Rambam hospital said 19 people had been injured in the city, with one in a serious condition.
A military official said that “approximately 20 missiles were launched toward Israel” in the latest Iranian salvo.
More than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones, according to Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate.
The directorate added that the country’s tax authority had received over 25,000 claims linked to damage caused to buildings during the war.
Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on June 13, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran.
Residential areas in both countries have suffered, while Israel and Iran have traded accusations of targeting civilians.
At least 25 people have been killed in Israel by Iranian missile strikes, according to authorities.
Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not updated the toll since.

Thousands protest in Iraq against the Iran-Israel war

Updated 20 June 2025
Follow

Thousands protest in Iraq against the Iran-Israel war

  • “No to Israel! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers in the Sadr City district of Baghdad
  • In Iraq's southern city of Basra, around 2,000 people demonstrated after the prayers

BAGHDAD: Thousands of supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied Friday in Baghdad and other cities against Israel’s war with Iran, AFP correspondents said.

“No to Israel! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Moqtada Sadr’s stronghold in the capital, holding umbrellas to shield themselves from Iraq’s scorching summer sun.

“It is an unjust war... Israel has no right” to hit Iran, said protester Abu Hussein.

“Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (program). What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East,” added the 54-year-old taxi driver.

He said he hoped Iran would come out of the war victorious, and that Iraq should support its neighbor “with money, weapons and protests.”

In Iraq’s southern city of Basra, around 2,000 people demonstrated after the prayers, according to an AFP correspondent.

Cleric Qusai Assadi, 43, denounced Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to bomb Iran. “It is a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty,” he said, warning against “a third world war against Islam.”

Echoing the views of Sadr, Assadi said that Iraq should not be dragged into the conflict.

In a statement earlier this week, Sadr condemned “the Zionist and American terrorism” and the “aggression against neighboring Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen,” referring to Israel’s military operations in those countries.

Sadr, who once led a militia fighting US-led forces after the 2003 invasion, retains a devoted following of millions among the country’s majority community of Shiite Muslims, and wields great influence over Iraqi politics.

He has previously criticized Tehran-backed Iraqi armed factions, who have threatened US interests in the region if the United States were to join Israel in its war against Iran.

On Friday, Israel launched a surprise attack targeting Iran’s military and nuclear sites and killing top commanders and scientists, saying it was acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran denies having.

The assault has prompted Iran to retaliate with barrages of missiles aimed at Israel, with residential areas in both countries suffering.

Iraq is both a significant ally of Iran and a strategic partner of Israel’s key supporter, the United States, and has for years negotiated a delicate balancing act between the two foes.

It has only recently regained a semblance of stability after decades of devastating conflicts and turmoil.


Fearful of Iranian missiles, many sleep in Israel’s underground train stations

Updated 20 June 2025
Follow

Fearful of Iranian missiles, many sleep in Israel’s underground train stations

  • “We’re not sleeping because of the anxiety and because of the sirens that are happening during the nights,” said Shraibmen
  • Melech said the scene, with hundreds of people in their pajamas in the train station, reminded her of her grandfather’s stories from World War II

RAMAT GAN, Israel: Aziza Melech felt her body relax for the first time in days when she settled onto her inflatable mattress in an underground station of Israel’s light rail system on a recent evening.

For the next few hours, at least, the 34-year-old event planner wouldn’t need to run every time a siren warning of Iranian missiles sounded.

Since the war began a week ago with Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, families with young kids, foreign workers, and young professionals have brought mattresses and sleeping bags, snacks and pets into the stations each evening.

Repeatedly running for shelter

On Wednesday night, in a station that straddles Tel Aviv and neighboring Ramat Gan, parents settled in their kids with stuffed animals, while young people fired up tablets loaded with movies.

Many walked in carrying boxes of pizza. Workers set out snacks and coffee.

It was Melech’s first night sleeping in the brightly lit train station, and she was joined by her friend Sonia Shraibmen.

“We’re not sleeping because of the anxiety and because of the sirens that are happening during the nights,” said Shraibmen. “It’s very scary to run every time to the shelter.”

That morning, Shraibmen fell on the street while rushing to a nearby shelter, and decided to move somewhere where she wouldn’t have to get up and run each time her phone blared.

Melech said the scene, with hundreds of people in their pajamas in the train station, reminded her of her grandfather’s stories from World War II. “Now, we’ll be able to tell our grandkids about this,” she said.

The war between Israel and Iran began on June 13, when Israel launched airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites as well as top generals and nuclear scientists.

More than 600 people, including over 200 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. People in Tehran have also packed into metro stations as strikes boomed overhead.

Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and more than 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Those strikes have killed have killed 24 people and injured hundreds in Israel. Missiles have struck 40 different sites, including apartment buildings, offices and a hospital, according to authorities.

Footage of pancaked buildings or apartment towers with faces sheared off has forced some people to reconsider what they do when a siren blares.

The Tel Aviv light rail, which is not running because of the war, has several underground stations. In addition to the hundreds who sleep in them each night, thousands of others come only when there’s a siren, crowding into every part of the station not taken up by mattresses.

Those living older apartments lack shelter

Around half of the nighttime residents at the train station are foreign workers, who often live in older apartment buildings that are often not equipped with adequate shelters.

While new buildings in Israel are required to have reinforced safe rooms meant to withstand rockets, Iran is firing much stronger ballistic missiles. And shelter access is severely lacking in poorer neighborhoods and towns, especially in Arab areas.

Babu Chinabery, a home health aide from India, said he went to the station ”because we are very scared about the missiles because they’re so strong.”

Chinabery, 48, has been in Israel for 10 years, so he is no stranger to the sirens. But the past week has been something different. “It’s very difficult, that’s why we’re coming to sleep here,” he said.

The light rail stations aren’t the only places people have sought shelter.

Around 400 people also sleep in an underground parking garage at one of the city’s biggest malls each night, according to organizers. Mutual aid groups set up more than 100 tents, each one in a parking space, providing a bit more privacy for people who wanted to sleep in a safe area.

Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station — a half-abandoned cement behemoth — also opened its underground atomic shelter to the public for the first time in years.

While likely one of the safest places in Israel during a missile attack, the creepily deserted rat- and cockroach-infested shelter, filled with standing water from leaky pipes, attracted only a handful of curious onlookers during the day and no residents at night.

Not taking ‘unnecessary risks’

Roi Asraf, 45, has been sleeping at the train station in Ramat Gan for the past few nights with his wife and 3-year-old daughter, even though they have a safe room at home.

“I don’t like to take unnecessary risks,” he said.

They now have the routine down: They give their daughter a bath at home, get everyone in their pajamas, and walk to the train station by 7 p.m. Local volunteers have run a nightly show for kids to help settle them before sleep.

“I hope (the conflict) will be short and quick,” said Asraf, after his daughter, Ariel, bounded off with her mom to catch the show. Despite the difficulties, he supports Israel’s attack on Iran.

“If I have to sleep a week of my life in a train station for everything to be safer, I’m willing to do it,” he said.


Libya objects to Greek tender for hydrocarbon exploration off Crete

Updated 20 June 2025
Follow

Libya objects to Greek tender for hydrocarbon exploration off Crete

  • Greece opposed the agreement, saying it had no legal basis
  • Last month Athens invited bidders for hydrocarbon exploration in two blocks south of Crete

TRIPOLI: Libya’s internationally recognized government of national unity has objected to Greece’s approval of an international tender for hydrocarbon exploration off the island of Crete, saying some of the blocks infringed upon its own maritime zones.

The two countries have been trying to mend relations strained by an accord signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Greece’s regional rival Turkiye, which mapped out a sea area between them close to the Greek island.

Greece opposed the agreement, saying it had no legal basis as it sought to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkiye’s southern Mediterranean shore to Libya’s northeast coast, ignoring the presence of Crete.

Last month Athens invited bidders for hydrocarbon exploration in two blocks south of Crete following an expression of interest by US major Chevron.

Libya’s Tripoli-based foreign ministry said in a statement late on Thursday that some of the tendered sea blocks off Crete fell within disputed zones and were “a clear violation of Libya’s sovereign rights.”

The ministry objected “to any exploration or drilling activities in these areas without a prior legal understanding that respects the rules of international law,” it said, calling on Greek authorities to prioritize dialogue and negotiation.

Responding to questions at the Greek parliament, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said Greece was willing to discuss with Libya “the delimitation of maritime zones within the framework of international law.”

Gerapetritis is expected to visit Libya in the coming weeks, an official with the Greek foreign ministry told Reuters on condition of anonymity.


Israeli defense minister warns Hezbollah against joining conflict with Iran

Updated 20 June 2025
Follow

Israeli defense minister warns Hezbollah against joining conflict with Iran

  • Hezbollah has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah to exercise caution on Friday, saying Israel’s patience with “terrorists” who threaten it had worn thin.

The head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called “brutal Israeli-American aggression” against Iran.

In other statements, the group has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting and a Hezbollah official told Reuters last week that the group did not intend to initiate attacks against Israel.