GAZA: Gaza saw its first day of relative calm in months Sunday, after Israel’s military said it would “pause” fighting daily around a southern route to facilitate aid flows, following repeated UN warnings of famine in the Palestinian territory.
“Compared with the previous days, today, the first day of Eid Al-Adha, is considered near calm and the calm has prevailed across all of Gaza,” Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defense agency in Hamas-ruled Gaza, told AFP.
He said the exceptions included “some targeting” in Gaza City’s Shujaiya and Zeitun areas, as well as Israeli artillery fire in Rafah, southern Gaza.
AFP correspondents in Gaza’s north and center reported no fighting on Sunday morning, though they reported some shelling and at least one strike in Rafah and an air strike in central Gaza during the early evening.
The military stressed in a statement there was “no cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.”
The announcement of a “local, tactical pause of military activity” during daylight hours in an area of Rafah came a day after eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast near the far-southern city and three more troops died elsewhere.
It was one of the heaviest losses for the army in more than eight months of war against Hamas militants.
“Since this morning, we’ve felt a sudden calm with no gunfire or bombings... It’s strange,” said 30-year-old Haitham Al-Ghura from Gaza City.
The United Nations welcomed the Israeli move, although “this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
He called for “further concrete measures by Israel to address longstanding issues” on aid needs.
Laerke told AFP Gazans “urgently need food, water, sanitation, shelter, and health care, with many living near piles of solid waste, heightening health risks.”
“We need to be able to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza,” he added.
The UN and aid groups have repeatedly voiced alarm over dire shortages of food and other essentials in the Gaza Strip.
This has been exacerbated by overland access restrictions and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in early May.
Israel has long defended its efforts to let aid into Gaza including via its Kerem Shalom border near Rafah, blaming militants for looting supplies and humanitarian workers for failing to distribute them to civilians.
The pause “for humanitarian purposes will take place from 8:00 am (0500 GMT) until 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah Al-Din road and then northwards,” a military statement said.
A map released by the army showed the declared humanitarian route extending until Rafah’s European Hospital, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Kerem Shalom.
The announcement came as Muslims the world over mark Eid Al-Adha, or the feast of the sacrifice.
“This Eid is completely different,” said Umm Muhammad Al-Katri in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
“We’ve lost many people. There’s a lot of destruction. We don’t have the joy we usually have,” she told AFP.
Instead of a cheerful holiday spirit, “I came to the Eid prayers mourning. I’ve lost my son.”
The military said the pause was already in effect as part of efforts to “increase the volumes of humanitarian aid” following discussions with the United Nations and other organizations.
The eight soldiers killed Saturday were hit by an explosion as they traveled in an armored vehicle near Rafah, the military said. Troops were engaged in fierce street battles against Palestinian militants there.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the blast was “apparently from an explosive device planted in the area or from the firing of an anti-tank missile.”
Separately, two soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza and another succumbed to wounds from recent fighting.
Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, vowed to “continue our painful strikes against the enemy wherever it may be.”
Saturday’s losses brought the Israeli military’s overall toll to 309 deaths since it began its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences following “this terrible loss” and said that “despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas following the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,337 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The latest toll includes at least 41 deaths over the previous 24 hours, it said.
Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been pushing for a new Gaza truce, so far without success.
The only previous truce lasted one week in November and saw many hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, while increased aid flowed into Gaza.
Hamas has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Israel backs the latest plan but Netanyahu, whose far-right coalition partners are strongly opposed to a ceasefire, has not publicly endorsed it.
Israel’s hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Sunday the humanitarian pause announced by the military was part of a “crazy and delusional approach.”
In early November, the United States said Israel had agreed to humanitarian pauses of four hours. One such pause occurred on December 14, COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said at the time.
Rare day of relative calm as Gaza sees ‘tactical pause’ for aid
https://arab.news/n9xxq
Rare day of relative calm as Gaza sees ‘tactical pause’ for aid
- The pause is aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing
UN rights chief says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria
“And then justice must be served, fairly and impartially”
DAMASCUS: United Nations rights chief Volker Turk on Wednesday said transitional justice was “crucial” for Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad, during the first-ever visit by someone in his post to the country.
“Transitional justice is crucial as Syria moves forward,” the UN high commissioner for human rights said.
“Revenge and vengeance are never the answer.”
The United Nations has said Assad’s fall must be followed by accountability for him and others behind the crimes committed during his rule.
“The enforced disappearances, the torture, the use of chemical weapons, among other atrocity crimes, must be fully investigated,” Turk said, alluding notably to accusations Assad used sarin gas against his own people.
“And then justice must be served, fairly and impartially,” he said at a press conference in Damascus.
Since Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month, the new authorities have sought to reassure Syrians and the international community that they will respect the rights of minorities in rebuilding the country.
Turk said that, during his visit, he and the country’s new leader Ahmed Sharaa had discussed “the opportunities and challenges awaiting this new Syria.”
“He acknowledged and assured me of the importance of respect for human rights for all Syrians and all different components of Syrian society,” Turk said.
He said Sharaa also backed “the pursuit of healing, trust building and social cohesion and the reform of institutions.”
Turk also called for an easing of certain sanctions imposed on Syria under Assad’s rule.
“I... call for an urgent reconsideration of... sanctions with a view to lifting them,” he said, that they had had “a negative impact on the enjoyment of rights” of Syrian people.
Turk said he had visited Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison and met with a former detainee, “a former soldier suspected of being a defector.”
“He told me of the cruel treatment he endured. I cannot even bear to share the stories of beatings and torture that he shared with me,” he said.
Negotiators resume talks on final details of Gaza ceasefire deal
- Despite efforts to reach ceasefire, the Israeli military, Shin Bet internal intelligence agency and air force attacked 50 targets throughout Gaza over last 24 hours
DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Negotiators in Qatar resumed talks on Wednesday hoping to hammer out the final details of a complex, phased ceasefire in Gaza aiming to end a conflict that has inflicted widespread death and destruction and upended the Middle East.
Officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US as well as Israel and Hamas said on Tuesday that an agreement for a truce in the besieged Palestinian enclave and the release of hostages was closer than ever.
But a senior Hamas official told Reuters late on Tuesday that the Palestinian group had not yet delivered its response because it was still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its forces would withdraw from Gaza.
During months of on-off talks to achieve a truce in the devastating 15-month-old war, both sides have previously said they were close to a ceasefire only to hit last-minute obstacles. The broad outlines of the current deal have been in place since mid-2024.
If successful, the planned phased ceasefire could halt fighting that has decimated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million and is still killing dozens of people a day.
That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fueled conflict in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed across its borders on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 46,700 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave.
Palestinians were once again hoping the latest talks would deliver some relief from Israeli air strikes, and ease a deep humanitarian crisis.
“We are waiting for the ceasefire and the truce. May God complete it for us in goodness, bless us with peace, and allow us to return to our homes,” said Amal Saleh, 54, a Gazan displaced by the war.
“Even if the schools are bombed, destroyed, and ruined, we just want to know that we are finally living in peace.”
Under the plan, Israel would recover around 100 remaining hostages and bodies from among those captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that precipitated the war. In return it would free Palestinian detainees.
The latest draft is complicated and sensitive. Under its terms, the first steps would feature a six-week initial ceasefire.
The plan also includes a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to the north of the enclave.
The deal would also require Hamas to release 33 Israeli hostages along with other steps.
The draft stipulates negotiations over a second phase of the agreement to begin by the 16th day of phase one. Phase two includes the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.
Even if the warring sides agree to the deal on the table, that agreement still needs further negotiation before there is a final ceasefire and the release of all the hostages
If it all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states and Israel still need to agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a massive task involving security guarantees for Israel and billions of dollars in investment for rebuilding.
One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war.
Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority must be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war.
Israeli attacks
Despite the efforts to reach a ceasefire, the Israeli military, the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency and the air force attacked about 50 targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours, Shin Bet and the military said in a statement on Wednesday.
Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians across the enclave. Those included seven people who were in a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, and six others killed in separate airstrikes on houses in Deir Al-Balah, Bureij camp and Rafah, medics said.
Families of hostages in Israel were caught between hope and despair.
“We can’t miss this moment. This is the last moment; we can save them,” said Hadas Calderon, whose husband Ofer and children Sahar and Erez were abducted.
Israel says 98 hostages are being held in Gaza, about half of whom are believed to be alive. They include Israelis and non-Israelis. Of the total, 94 were seized in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and four have been held in Gaza since 2014.
Israel struck Gaza ‘humanitarian zone’ almost 100 times, BBC analysis finds
- Naval, aerial attacks hit stretch of land housing more than 1m Palestinians
- ‘Heavy fire is recurrent in this area despite Israel’s unilateral ‘humanitarian designation,’ says aid official
LONDON: The Israeli military hit its own designated “humanitarian zone” in Gaza 97 times since May, analysis by the BBC has shown.
Israel established the area in October 2023, and told Palestinians in Gaza to relocate there for safety.
It was later expanded to include the urban centers of Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah.
Despite intending to “keep innocent civilians out of harms way,” Israeli forces struck buildings within the zone 97 times since May 2024, according to BBC Verify.
The area covers a significant and densely populated strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea.
More than 1 million people — many living in tents — are believed to be living inside the Israeli-imposed zone, humanitarian groups have said.
Since the new year, Israel has carried out at least 22 strikes in the area.
The 97 strikes since last May have killed 550 Palestinians.
Israeli military officials have acknowledged 28 of the attacks, and the BBC said it could not confirm that all 97 are the result of Israeli operations.
In a statement to the BBC, the Israeli military said that it was targeting Hamas fighters in the “humanitarian zone.”
It accused Hamas of international law violations, using civilians as human shields and launching rockets from the zone.
Gavin Kelleher, Gaza access manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC that Israel had conducted “near daily” strikes inside the zone, using naval vessels and drones.
“Heavy fire is recurrent in this area despite its (Israel’s) unilateral ‘humanitarian’ designation,” he added.
“The Israeli military appears keen to maintain the illusion of a ‘humanitarian zone’ that remains a certain size, yet that zone can be subject to ‘evacuation orders’ at any time and be targeted.”
One resident in the zone, Khaled Abdel Rahman, told the BBC that fear was “dominating the lives” of Palestinians in the area.
“We were displaced to Khan Younis because it was designated as a safe zone, but in fact we find nothing here but insecurity,” he said.
Due to Israel’s ban on foreign media operating in Gaza, BBC Verify used Palestinian and Israeli social media channels to document the strikes.
Researchers analyzed more than 300 photos and videos posted from the “humanitarian zone” since May.
The deadliest strike in the area came on July 13, and killed more than 90 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry, medics and first responders said.
Nine strikes hit within 100 meters of buildings belonging to Al-Aqsa Hospital complex in Deir Al-Balah.
Four struck within 150 meters of Khan Younis’ Nasser Medical Complex.
The Israeli military told the BBC that the attacks were launched “against terrorists and terror infrastructures including rocket launchers, weapons warehouse and manufacturing sites, operational apartments, underground infrastructure, operational headquarters and terrorist hideouts.”
Turkish prosecutors target the Istanbul Bar Association
ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against the Istanbul Bar Association for “terrorist propaganda” over its calls for a probe into journalist deaths in Syria, the country’s main lawyers association has said.
“The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office has begun legal action to remove Istanbul Bar Association president Ibrahim Kaboglu and his executive board,” Turkish Bar Association head Erinc Sagkan wrote on X late Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed several weeks after the Istanbul Bar Association demanded an investigation into the deaths of two journalists from Turkiye’s Kurdish-majority southeast who were killed in northern Syria.
Nazim Dastan, 32, and Cihan Bilgin, died on December 19 when their car was hit by what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was a “Turkish drone strike” during clashes between an Ankara-backed militia and the SDF, a US-backed group of mainly Kurdish fighters.
Turkiye sees the SDF as a terror group tied to the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
The pair worked for Syrian Kurdish media outlets Rojnews and the Anha news agency, and the strike denounced by the Turkish Journalists’ Union.
The Turkish military insists it never targets civilians but only terror groups.
At the time, the Istanbul Bar Association issued a statement saying “targeting members of the press in conflict zones is a violation of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention.” It demanded “a proper investigation be conducted into the murder of two of our citizens.”
Prosecutors immediately opened an inquiry into allegations of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “publicly spreading false information” on grounds the two journalists had ties to the PKK.
The Istanbul Bar Association denounced the lawsuit as having “no legal basis” and said its executive council was “fulfilling its duties and responsibilities in line with the Constitution, democracy and the law.”
Turkish Bar Association head Sagkan said: “Although the methods may change, the only thing that has remained constant for the past half century is the effort by the government’s supporters to pressurise and stifle those they see as opponents.”
UNRWA chief vows to continue aid to Palestinians despite Israeli ban
OSLO: The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will continue to provide aid to people in the Palestinian territories despite an Israeli ban due to be implemented by the end of January, its director said Wednesday.
“We will ... stay and deliver,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a conference in Oslo. “UNRWA’s local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and where possible, education and primary health care,” he said.
