CAIRO: Israeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents and Israel’s military said.
Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.
Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and center. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which had been sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have been forced to flee again.
The Israeli military said on Friday its forces were conducting “precise, intelligence-based” actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.
Some residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has been accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds of explosions and gunfire indicating fierce fighting have been almost non-stop.
More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel’s advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge and the area surrounding Deir Al-Balah in the center.
“The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations,” Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
“The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment,” he added.
Sofi said there was no medical facility functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum of their daily needs of food and water.
Palestinian and UN figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.
The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.
“The soldiers located inside a civilian residence large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition, and arms,” the military said in a statement late on Thursday.
Hamas’ armed wing said on Thursday its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in the Shaboura camp in Rafah, and killed soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys. There was no Israeli immediate comment on the Hamas claim.
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.
In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new push back into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants. Residents said the army forces had destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.
Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike on a main road in Gaza City killed four Palestinians, medics said.
Israel’s ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.
Israeli forces step up bombardment across Gaza, amid fierce fighting
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Israeli forces step up bombardment across Gaza, amid fierce fighting
- Tanks forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and center.
- Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah
Palestinian Authority pledges more backing for NGOs in Gaza
- Hamad added that the PA believed 300,000 families in Gaza were now “marginalized and going through hardship”
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority on Monday pledged to give greater backing to NGOs in Gaza as it warned that 300,000 families in the beleaguered territory are “marginalized” and need assistance.
The authority held a meeting with about 15 NGOs and aid groups who have complained about increasing problems getting aid into the Gaza Strip and distributing food and other essentials around the territory where Israel has been fighting Hamas for more than eight months.
While the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied West Bank, has virtually no influence in Hamas-ruled Gaza, the authority’s emergency relief minister Basil Al-Kafarna acknowledged the mounting dangers and said: “We are here to support the non-governmental organizations and the agencies for humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip.”
He emphasized a number of cooperation projects including two online platforms that monitor the districts and families among Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabits most in need and allow NGOs to highlight problems.
Social development minister Samah Hamad said the authority would be able to provide family records from its social register. “Before (the war) we had about 120,000 families benefitting from cash transfers from the social protection scheme.”
Hamad added that the PA believed 300,000 families in Gaza were now “marginalized and going through hardship.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinian Authority workers still live in Gaza but the territory has been under Hamas control since 2007 when the militant group won weeks of battles with Fatah, the party of PA president Mahmud Abbas.
Iranian presidential candidates accuse each other of having no plan or experience ahead of runoff
- The candidates will face Tuesday in a second and last debate
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s presidential candidates on Monday accused each other of having no solution for the country’s problems ahead of Friday’s runoff election aimed at choosing a successor for the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash.
During a more than two-hour debate on public TV, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian attacked his competitor, Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, for his lack of experience, saying: “Tell me, what single company have you ever managed to make you capable to run the country?
Jalili, who is known as the “Living Martyr” after losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and is famous among Western diplomats for his haranguing lectures and hard-line stances, defended himself highlighting his career and several positions held, including that of top nuclear negotiator.
Pezeshkian further questioned his opponent on what plans he would have for reaching a nuclear deal, with Jalili responding he would approach it “based on strength not weakness,” without providing details.
Jalili said Pezeshkian has no plans for managing the country saying his presidency would drive the country to a “backward position,” as it was under relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021). Rouhani struck a nuclear deal with world powers that capped Iran’s uranium enrichment in return to lifting sanctions but later, in 2018, President Trump pulled the US out from the landmark deal abruptly restoring harsh sanctions on Iran.
Jalili said that “with the support of people,” Iran would achieve an economic growth of 8 percent a year, a promise Pezeshkian mocked, saying authorities should be allowed to “execute him if he failed” to deliver on it.
Iran must implement “a dynamic foreign policy” if it wants to have a successful economy, Jalili said, adding that it should not be limited to those nations that it has a problem with — a reference to the US and the western world. Instead, he said, “Iran should look to the other 200 nations in the world where “foreign relations should be improved.”
Pezeshkian said his foreign policy will be based on “engagement with the world” including engaging in “negotiations for lifting sanctions.”
Both sides promised to address the problems of the country’s poor, workers, women, ethnic groups and religious minorities, and vowed to provide better and faster Internet — a plea to a younger generation that showed apathy during Friday’s vote.
Pezeshkian and Jalili also said the low turnout in the first round — the lowest-ever poll turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history — should be probed.
“It is not acceptable that some 60 percent (of voters) did not cast a ballot,” said Pezeshkian.
The candidates will face Tuesday in a second and last debate.
Lawsuit accuses Iran, Syria and North Korea of providing support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Israel has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry
NEW YORK: Victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sued Iran, Syria and North Korea on Monday, saying their governments supplied the militants with money, weapons and know-how needed to carry out the assault that precipitated Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks at least $4 billion in damages for “a coordination of extrajudicial killings, hostage takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the allegations, while Syria and North Korea did not respond.
The United States has deemed Iran, Syria and North Korea to be state sponsors of terrorism, and Washington has designated Hamas as what’s known as a specially designated global terrorist.
Because such countries rarely abide by court rulings against them in the United States, if the lawsuit’s plaintiffs are successful, they could seek compensation from a fund created by Congress that allows American victims of terrorism to receive payouts. The money comes from seized assets, fines or other penalties leveled against those that, for example, do business with a state sponsor of terrorism.
The lawsuit draws on previous court findings, reports from US and other government agencies, and statements over some years by Hamas, Iranian and Syrian officials about their ties. The complaint also points to indications that Hamas fighters used North Korean weapons in the Oct. 7 attack.
But the suit doesn’t provide specific evidence that Tehran, Damascus or Pyongyang knew in advance about the assault. It accuses the three countries of providing weapons, technology and financial support necessary for the attack to occur.
Iran has denied knowing about the Oct. 7 attack ahead of time, though officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have praised the assault.
Iran has armed Hamas as a counter to Israel, which the Islamic Republic has long viewed as its regional archenemy.
In the years since the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war of attacks on land and at sea. Those attacks exploded into the open after an apparent Israeli attack targeting Iran’s embassy complex in Damascus, Syria, during the Israel-Hamas war, which sparked Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel in April.
Neighboring Syria has relied on Iranian support to keep embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in power amid a grinding civil war that began with the 2011 Arab Spring protests. Like Iran, Syria also offered public support for Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack.
North Korea denies that it arms Hamas. However, a militant video and weapons seized by Israel show Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during the Oct. 7 attack
South Korean officials, two experts on North Korean arms and an Associated Press analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield by Israel point toward Hamas using Pyongyang’s F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armored vehicles.
The lawsuit specifically cites the use of the F-7 grenade in the attack as a sign of Pyongyang’s involvement.
“Through this case, we will be able to prove what occurred, who the victims were, who the perpetrators were — and it will not just create a record in real time, but for all of history,” said one of the attorneys, James Pasch of the ADL, also called the Anti-Defamation League. The Jewish advocacy group frequently speaks out against antisemitism and extremism.
Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250 during the Oct. 7 attack. Israel invaded Gaza in response. The war has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were civilians or fighters.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of over 125 plaintiffs, including the estates and relatives of people who were killed, plus people who were physically and/or emotionally injured. All are related to, or are themselves, US citizens.
Under US law, foreign governments can be held liable, in some circumstances, for deaths or injuries caused by acts of terrorism or by providing material support or resources for them.
The 1976 statute cited in the lawsuit, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, is a frequent tool for American plaintiffs seeking to hold foreign governments accountable. In one example, a federal judge in Washington ordered North Korea in 2018 to pay $500 million in a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died shortly after being released from that country.
People held as prisoners by Iran in the past have successfully sued Iran in US federal court, seeking money earlier frozen by the US
The new lawsuit joins a growing list of Israel-Hamas war-related cases in US courts.
Last week, for example, Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack sued the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, claiming it has helped finance the militants by paying agency staffers in US dollars and thereby funneling them to money-changers in Gaza who allegedly give a cut to Hamas.
The agency, known as UNRWA, has denied that it knowingly aids Hamas or any other militant group.
Red Sea disruptions to continue into Q3, Maersk CEO says
- Maersk and other shipping companies have diverted vessels around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope since December to avoid attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in the Red Sea, with the longer voyage times pushing freight rates higher
COPENHAGEN: The coming months will be challenging for carriers and businesses, as disruptions to container shipping via the Red Sea continue into the third quarter, Danish shipping company Maersk said on Monday.
Maersk and other shipping companies have diverted vessels around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope since December to avoid attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in the Red Sea, with the longer voyage times pushing freight rates higher.
“The longer that this lasts, the more our costs will get deeply ingrained,” Maersk said in a statement, citing comments made by CEO Vincent Clerc at “a recent online event with customers.”
“We don’t know yet exactly how much of these costs we will recover and for how long. The higher rates we are seeing right now are of a temporary nature,” Clerc said.
Maersk expects to have missing positions or ships that differ in size from what the company would normally have on a given string, it said, adding that this would reduce the company’s ability to carry the current demand.
Hunger grips Yemen even more. The UN says more than half of households aren’t eating enough
- The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured much of northern Yemen including Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile
CAIRO: More than half of households in Yemen are not eating enough due to poor economic conditions and a months-long pause in food assistance to millions of people in the rebel-held north, the United Nations food agency said Monday.
The World Food Program update said “severe food deprivation” has reached the highest it’s ever seen in parts of northern Yemen including Al Jawf, Al Badya, Hajjah, Amran, and Al Hodeidah. WFP stopped food assistance to the north in December, citing limited funding and the lack of agreement with the rebel authorities on downscaling the program.
WFP also said the southern part of Yemen, controlled by the internationally recognized government, also has “historic highs” of insufficient food consumption.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 and has pushed the economy to the brink of collapse, affecting exports and the value of the local currency.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured much of northern Yemen including Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to try to restore the government to power. Much of the south including Aden is governed by the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, a United Arab Emirates-backed group that is an ally of the internationally recognized government.
Yemen is experiencing an economic divide fueled by the rivalry between the Houthi and the STC governments, who have established separate and independent central banks and different versions of the Yemeni currency, the riyal.
As of Monday, the Yemeni riyal had depreciated in Aden to an all-time low of YER 1,841 to the US dollar, but stayed stable in Sanaa at YER 530 to the US dollar, according to the Yemen Press Agency. Economists have attributed the significant devaluation in currency in STC-controlled areas to low foreign currency reserves and a decline in crude oil export revenue.
That affects people’s purchasing power. In May, essential food items were available in markets across Yemen but the most vulnerable communities could not afford them, WFP said, noting price hikes in sugar, vegetable oil, wheat flour, and red beans.
