GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces bombed and battled Hamas in Gaza City on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Palestinians scrambled for a safe haven after the army issued an evacuation order for a vast swathe in the territory’s south.
Apache helicopters and Israeli quadcopter drones flew above Gaza City’s Shujaiya district as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets, said AFP reporters.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US media report saying his generals were urging a Gaza truce even with Hamas undefeated, stressing on Tuesday that “this will not happen.”
Military chief Herzi Halevi meanwhile said Israel is engaged in “a long campaign” to destroy Hamas over the October 7 attack and to bring home the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The United Nations warned that the almost nine-months-old war had “unleashed a maelstrom of human misery” and that the latest evacuation order had plunged yet more Palestinians into “an abyss of suffering.”
Ten days after Netanyahu said the war’s “intense phase” was winding down, the Israeli military again rained down air strikes and artillery fire on militants in the Shujaiya district.
The air force struck “over 50 terror infrastructure sites” across Gaza in 24 hours while ground troops “eliminated terrorists,” located tunnels and found weapons including AK-47 assault rifles, the military said.
The Israeli army — which issued an evacuation order for Shujaiya a week ago — on Sunday did the same for a larger area near Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, raising fears of renewed heavy battles there.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have again taken to the road there, many bundling their scant belongings on top of cars or donkey carts as they sought safety elsewhere in the bombed-out wasteland.
The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 250,000 people had been impacted by the latest evacuation order that covers southern areas bordering Israel and Egypt.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the order covers 117 square kilometers (45 square miles), or “about a third of the Gaza Strip, making it the largest such order since October.”
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, told the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday that the war had now displaced 80 percent of Gaza’s population.
She also said not enough aid was reaching the besieged territory and that crossings must be reopened, particularly to southern Gaza, to avert a humanitarian disaster.
“Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been plunged into an abyss of suffering, their home lives shattered, their lives upended,” she said. “The war has not merely created the most profound of humanitarian crises. It has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery.”
Amid the war, siege and mass displacement, more than 150,000 people have contracted skin diseases in the squalid conditions, said the World Health Organization.
Wafaa Elwan, a Palestinian mother of seven who now lives in a tent city by the sea, said: “We sleep on the ground, on sand where worms come out underneath us.”
She said her five-year-old son, much of whose body was covered in rashes and welts, “can’t sleep through the night because he can’t stop scratching his body.”
The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that “operational activities continue throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The Gaza civil defense agency said seven people were killed when a strike hit a family house north of Gaza City.
Another strike killed three people in a car at Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Deir Al-Balah area, said an AFP reporter.
Air strikes also hit homes in Rafah, according to Gaza’s government media office.
The New York Times has quoted Israeli security officials as saying top generals see a truce as the best way to secure the release of the remaining hostages, even if that meant not achieving all of the war goals.
Netanyahu, who heads a government including hard-line right-wing parties, strongly rejected this on Tuesday and vowed Israel would not give in to the “winds of defeatism.”
“The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages,” he said.
Heavy fighting rocks Gaza as thousands on the move again
https://arab.news/4hkcr
Heavy fighting rocks Gaza as thousands on the move again
- Apache helicopters and Israeli quadcopter drones flew above Gaza City’s Shujaiya district as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US media report saying his generals were urging a Gaza truce even with Hamas undefeated
A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years
JERUSALEM: Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement homes, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group. They are the latest steps by Israel’s hard-line government meant to cement Israel’s control over the territory and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
This map shows the expansion of settlements and outposts from 1967 until now.
Half a century of settlements
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek all three areas for their future state. In 56 years, Israel has built well over 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank. Settlers also have built scores of tiny unauthorized outposts that are tolerated or even encouraged by the government. Some are later legalized.
Dwindling two-state prospects
The international community considers the settlements illegal or illegitimate, and the Palestinians say they are the main barrier to a lasting peace agreement.
But with more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, it will be difficult – some say impossible – to partition the territory as part of a two-state solution.
Israeli team led by spy chief Barnea meets Qatari mediators on Gaza deal
- US believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement
- No public statement was issued after the talks
JERUSALEM: Israel’s spy chief held talks with Qatari mediators on Friday in the latest effort for a truce and hostage release deal for Gaza, almost nine months into the Israel-Hamas war.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations said Mossad chief David Barnea and his delegation had left Doha straight after the meetings on the latest Hamas ideas for an agreement.
No public statement was issued after the talks.
The US, which has worked alongside Qatar and Egypt in trying to broker a deal, had talked up the significance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to send a delegation to Qatar.
The US believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement, a senior official said.
The Gaza war — which has raised fears of a broader conflagration involving Lebanon — began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel. It included an initial six-week truce, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza population centers and the freeing of hostages by Palestinian militants.
Talks subsequently stalled but the US official said on Thursday that the new proposal from Hamas “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal,” though “significant work” remained.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that the group expected a swift Israeli response — “likely today or tomorrow morning” — to its new “ideas.”
He blamed Israel for the deadlock since Biden’s announcement.
Hamdan said the ideas had been “conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court.”
Hamdan said the Doha talks “will be a test for the US administration to see if it is willing to pressure the Zionist entity to accept these proposed ideas.”
There has been no truce in the war since a one-week pause in November saw 80 Israeli hostages freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring “catastrophic” hunger, UN agencies say.
The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.
The Israeli leader has faced a well-organized protest movement demanding a deal to free the hostages, which took to the streets again on Thursday evening.
Netanyahu insists the war will not end until Israel destroys Hamas and the hostages are freed.
The head of the World Health Organization warned that “further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel.”
Only 90,000 liters (20,000 gallons) of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday, but the health sector alone needs 80,000 liters each day.
The WHO and its partners in Gaza were having “to make impossible choices” as a result, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope that a ceasefire in Gaza could lead to an easing of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border as well.
Since the war began, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of its Palestinian ally.
The exchanges have intensified over the past month after Israel killed senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted air strikes.
Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets and “explosive drones” at army positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in its latest round of reprisals on Thursday.
A military source said the rocket fire killed a soldier in northern Israel.
Hamas said Friday that its foreign relations chief Khalil Al-Hayya had met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to coordinate their “resistance efforts” and the upcoming truce negotiations.
Khamenei protege and low-key moderate face off in tight Iran presidential race
- The Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot when the polls opened at 08:00 am
- Khamenei called for a higher turnout in the runoff
DUBAI: Iranians voted on Friday in a run-off presidential election to choose between a low-key moderate and a hard-liner close to the supreme leader at a time of growing public frustration, regional tensions and Western pressure.
Polling ended at midnight in Iran after being extended three times for a total of six hours. The interior ministry said initial reports showed the turnout was around 50 percent, higher than the first round. The final result will be announced on early Saturday, the interior ministry said.
The run-off follows a June 28 ballot with historically low turnout, when over 60 percent of Iranian voters abstained from the snap election for a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, following his death in a helicopter crash.
The vote is a tight race between low-key lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, and hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, a staunch advocate of deepening ties with Russia and China.
While the election is expected to have little impact on the Islamic Republic’s policies, the president will be closely involved in selecting the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader who calls all the shots on top matters of state.
“I have heard that people’s zeal and interest is higher than in the first round. May God make it this way as this will be gratifying news,” Khamenei told state TV after casting his vote.
Khamenei acknowledged on Wednesday “a lower than expected turnout” last week, but said “it is wrong to assume those who abstained in the first round are opposed to Islamic rule.”
Voter turnout has plunged over the past four years, which critics say underlines that support for clerical rule has eroded at a time of growing public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedoms.
Only 48 percent of voters participated in the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, and turnout was 41 percent in a parliamentary election in March.
However, the interior ministry spokesman said early reports indicated “higher participation compared with the same hour in the first round of the election.”
The election coincides with escalating Middle East tensions due to the war between Israel and Iranian allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing uranium enrichment program.
“Voting gives power ...even if there are criticisms, people should vote as each vote is like a missile launch (against enemies),” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Commander Amirali Hajjizadeh told state media.
The next president is not expected to produce any major policy shift on the nuclear program or change in support for militia groups across the Middle East, but he runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran’s foreign and domestic policy.
FAITHFUL RIVALS
Election rivals Jalili and Pezeshkian are establishment men loyal to Iran’s theocracy. But analysts said a win by the anti-Western Jalili would signal a potentially an even more authoritarian domestic policy and antagonistic foreign policy.
A triumph by Pezeshkian might promote a pragmatic foreign policy, ease tensions over now-stalled negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, and improve prospects for social liberalization and political pluralism.
However, many voters are skeptical about Pezeshkian’s ability to fulfil his campaign promises as the former health minister has publicly stated that he had no intention of confronting Iran’s power elite of clerics and security hawks.
“I did not vote last week but today I voted for Pezeshkian. I know Pezeshkian will be a lameduck president but still he is better than a hard-liner,” said Afarin, 37, owner of a beauty salon in the central city of Isfahan.
Many Iranians have painful memories of the handling of nationwide unrest sparked by the death in custody of young Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in 2022, which was quelled by a violent state crackdown involving mass detentions and even executions.
“I will not vote. This is a big NO to the Islamic Republic because of Mahsa (Amini). I want a free country, I want a free life,” said university student Sepideh, 19, in Tehran.
The hashtag #ElectionCircus has been widely posted on social media platform X since last week, with some activists at home and abroad calling for an election boycott, arguing that a high turnout would legitimize the Islamic Republic.
Both candidates have vowed to revive the flagging economy, which has been beset by mismanagement, state corruption and sanctions reimposed since 2018 after the United States under then-President Donald Trump ditched the nuclear deal.
“I will vote for Jalili. He believes in Islamic values. He has promised to end our economic hardships,” retired employee Mahmoud Hamidzadegan, 64, said in the northern city of Sari.
Hamas delegation holds talks in Beirut with Hezbollah
- Naim Qassem: ‘Prospects of war expansion are unlikely, but Hezbollah is prepared for worst possibilities’
- Nasrallah received Hamas deputy chief Hayya for the meeting, which reviewed “the latest security and political developments” in the Gaza Strip
BEIRUT: Hezbollah and Hamas leaders discussed the latest developments in ceasefire negotiations with Israel at a meeting in Beirut on Friday
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, received a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, and both sides discussed “the developments of the ongoing negotiations and the proposals aiming to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
A statement issued by Hezbollah and Hamas affirmed that both parties “emphasized continued field and political coordination at all levels to achieve the desired goals.”
The Hamas delegation also met with the leaders of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, which is an ally of Hezbollah.
BACKGROUND
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since October across the Lebanese-Israeli border in a conflict that has run in parallel to the Gaza war, raising fears of a bigger conflict between the heavily armed adversaries.
The group said the discussion focused on “indirect negotiations and the implications of these developments for Palestine, Lebanon, and the region.”
The talks also tackled ways to face the “challenges of the next phase, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and the mobilization of the nation’s capabilities in this pivotal battle,” the statement added.
The talks came as Israel continued its raids on Lebanese border villages, with a drone raiding Markaba, injuring a paramedic next to an aid station for the Islamic Risala Scout.
Israeli media outlets said that five missiles were launched from Lebanon toward western Galilee without triggering local sirens.
Talks took place in Paris on Friday as part of efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A White House official said Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the discussions, spoke about efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials.
Reuters quoted a White House source as saying that France and the US shared the goal of diplomatically resolving the current conflict.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan expressed the Kingdom’s “concern over the risk of the war expanding in Lebanon.”
In a statement, he said: “We do not see any political horizon,” noting that “a ceasefire in Gaza could help stop the tension in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem commented on the diplomatic efforts to Russian Sputnik Radio.
Qassem said foreign delegates, including from the US and French, wanted to separate the Lebanese front from the war in Gaza, and are trying to appease Israel to allow Jewish settlers to return to their homes.
“There’s no discussion without a ceasefire, which will then be followed by the necessary political discussion and a review of the latest developments,” he warned.
Qassem said that “the chances of an expanded war are not likely soon, but Hezbollah is prepared for the worst possibilities.”
Qassem said Israel’s “only option is to accept Hamas’ conditions because it won’t stop its resistance as long as the aggression and the targeting of civilians continue.”
He also wondered “whether the Israeli Army can tolerate (Hezbollah’s) attrition operations.”
Qassem said the party had not built its military position based on political analysis but on information and field results.
He said: “Reaching an agreement is the strongest option today, especially amid the upheaval inside Israel, in addition to the Israeli opposition and its ability to pressure (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).”
He added that he expected Hamas to play a major role in Palestine after the war ended, contrary to Israeli aims.
This came as the UN said the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon reached 98 as of June 28, including 31 women, 12 children, 21 health workers and three journalists.
A renewed report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA said that “IDPs and host communities were experiencing “escalating fatigue, heightening the risk of intra-Lebanese tensions.”
It said internally displaced people were grappling with extended displacement and uncertain living conditions, while host communities were beginning to feel the pressure on local resources and, in some instances, competition for jobs.
According to the International Organization for Migration, around 96,829 people from border towns have been displaced mostly to relatives’ homes, while 16 shelters are housing around 1,498 displaced people.
The Ministry of Agriculture observed that more than 1,240 hectares of land had been destroyed, while around 72 percent of farmers had lost their sources of income in the south, with 340,000 livestock and a significant number of beehives destroyed as a result of Israeli bombing.
The National Council for Scientific Research documented “more than 175 Israeli attacks with phosphorus bombs and more than 196 attacks with incendiary bombs.”
It said that 10 water facilities had been destroyed, and more than 100,000 residents had been affected by water shortage.
The clashes have caused the closure of around six healthcare centers in Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil and the partial or complete closure of 72 private and public schools in the affected towns.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah and Hamas leaders discussed the latest developments in ceasefire negotiations with Israel at a meeting in Beirut on Friday
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, received a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, and both sides discussed “the developments of the ongoing negotiations and the proposals aiming to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
A statement issued by Hezbollah and Hamas affirmed that both parties “emphasized continued field and political coordination at all levels to achieve the desired goals.”
The Hamas delegation also met with the leaders of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, which is an ally of Hezbollah.
The group said the discussion focused on “indirect negotiations and the implications of these developments for Palestine, Lebanon, and the region.”
The talks also tackled ways to face the “challenges of the next phase, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and the mobilization of the nation’s capabilities in this pivotal battle,” the statement added.
The talks came as Israel continued its raids on Lebanese border villages, with a drone raiding Markaba, injuring a paramedic next to an aid station for the Islamic Risala Scout.
Israeli media outlets said that five missiles were launched from Lebanon toward western Galilee without triggering local sirens.
Talks took place in Paris on Friday as part of efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A White House official said Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the discussions, spoke about efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials.
Reuters quoted a White House source as saying that France and the US shared the goal of diplomatically resolving the current conflict.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan expressed the Kingdom’s “concern over the risk of the war expanding in Lebanon.”
In a statement, he said: “We do not see any political horizon,” noting that “a ceasefire in Gaza could help stop the tension in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem commented on the diplomatic efforts to Russian Sputnik Radio.
Qassem said foreign delegates, including from the US and French, wanted to separate the Lebanese front from the war in Gaza, and are trying to appease Israel to allow Jewish settlers to return to their homes.
“There’s no discussion without a ceasefire, which will then be followed by the necessary political discussion and a review of the latest developments,” he warned.
Qassem said that “the chances of an expanded war are not likely soon, but Hezbollah is prepared for the worst possibilities.”
Qassem said Israel’s “only option is to accept Hamas’ conditions because it won’t stop its resistance as long as the aggression and the targeting of civilians continue.”
He also wondered “whether the Israeli Army can tolerate (Hezbollah’s) attrition operations.”
Qassem said the party had not built its military position based on political analysis but on information and field results.
He said: “Reaching an agreement is the strongest option today, especially amid the upheaval inside Israel, in addition to the Israeli opposition and its ability to pressure (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).”
He added that he expected Hamas to play a major role in Palestine after the war ended, contrary to Israeli aims.
This came as the UN said the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon reached 98 as of June 28, including 31 women, 12 children, 21 health workers and three journalists.
A renewed report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA said that “IDPs and host communities were experiencing “escalating fatigue, heightening the risk of intra-Lebanese tensions.”
It said internally displaced people were grappling with extended displacement and uncertain living conditions, while host communities were beginning to feel the pressure on local resources and, in some instances, competition for jobs.
According to the International Organization for Migration, around 96,829 people from border towns have been displaced mostly to relatives’ homes, while 16 shelters are housing around 1,498 displaced people.
The Ministry of Agriculture observed that more than 1,240 hectares of land had been destroyed, while around 72 percent of farmers had lost their sources of income in the south, with 340,000 livestock and a significant number of beehives destroyed as a result of Israeli bombing.
The National Council for Scientific Research documented “more than 175 Israeli attacks with phosphorus bombs and more than 196 attacks with incendiary bombs.”
It said that 10 water facilities had been destroyed, and more than 100,000 residents had been affected by water shortage.
The clashes have caused the closure of around six healthcare centers in Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil and the partial or complete closure of 72 private and public schools in the affected towns.
Close adviser of Syrian president dies after car crash: Presidency
- Shibl was involved in incident on Yaa’four Road in Damascus
DAMASCUS: Luna Shibl, an adviser to Syrian president Bashar Assad, died on Friday three days after she was involved in a car accident, the office of the president said.
“The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic mourns the death of the adviser Luna Al-Shibl, who passed away today after a serious car accident,” it said in a statement.
“She served in recent years as a director of the political and media office of the presidency and then as a special adviser to the presidency,” it added.
State media reported on Tuesday that Shibl was involved in a traffic accident on Yaa’four Road in Damascus, suffering a “cerebral haemorrhage” after her car “veered off the road,” after which she was taken to a clinic near the crash site and then transferred to intensive care in Al-Shami Hospital in the Syrian capital.
The 48-year-old rose to prominence for quitting a prestigious journalism career at Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera to become Assad’s media adviser.
She carved out a place within Assad’s inner circle as she accompanied him to high-level meetings in Syria and on his rare visits abroad and played an important role during the most intense years of the Syrian civil war. She was part of the delegation to ultimately doomed peace talks in 2014.
Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported earlier this week that she had fallen out of official favor in recent months and her brother had been arrested.
“There was growing dissatisfaction with her within the regime,” said Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman.
“Accusations surfaced that she leaked minutes of closed meetings between Assad and Iranian officials,” Abdulrahman added.
Syrian intelligence arrested her brother “on charges of communicating with a party hostile to Syria” after Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, the monitor said.
In 2020, Washington sanctioned Shibl and her husband Ammar Saati, with the US Treasury saying at the time that “she has been instrumental in developing Assad’s false narrative that he maintains control of the country and that the Syrian people flourish under his leadership.”
* With AFP
