Israel presses operation in north Gaza amid Netanyahu territory claims

Palestinians stand in front of destroyed buildings and rubble after the Israeli military withdrew from the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City on Jul. 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 July 2024
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Israel presses operation in north Gaza amid Netanyahu territory claims

  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Thursday that Israel retain control of key Gaza territory
  • Hamas said it had not been informed “of any new developments” from the latest talks

GAZA: Fighting and bombardment shook Gaza’s biggest city on Thursday, an AFP correspondent said, even after Israel’s military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months.
The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement came as talks were held in the Gulf emirate of Qatar toward a truce and hostage release deal after more than nine months of war.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Thursday that Israel retain control of key Gaza territory along the border with Egypt — a condition that conflicts with Hamas’s position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers said troops had pulled back from Gaza City’s eastern district of Shujaiya, leaving “more than 300 residential units and more than 100 businesses destroyed.”
Witnesses said tanks and troops had moved on to other parts of Gaza City. An AFP correspondent reported air strikes on the Sabra neighborhood while militants engaged in heavy clashes with Israeli forces in Tel Al-Hawa.
Explosions and orange flashes shook the darkened city before daylight brought automatic weapons fire, AFPTV images showed.
Hamas reported 45 air strikes in the Gaza City area, as well as in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Netanyahu had said the intense phase of the war was nearing its conclusion.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that its negotiating team, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, had returned to Israel following talks with mediators in Doha on Thursday.
Speaking after the team’s return, Netanyahu said Israel needed control of the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border with Egypt to stop weapons reaching Hamas.
He added that Israel must also be allowed to keep on fighting until its war aims of destroying Hamas and bringing home all hostages are achieved.
A new delegation will head to Cairo on Thursday evening “to continue the talks,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Hamas said it had not been informed “of any new developments” from the latest talks and accused Israel of “delaying tactics” aimed at “sabotaging” the truce efforts.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post had reported that both Israel and Hamas had “signalled their acceptance of an ‘interim governance’ plan” in which neither would rule the territory and a US-trained force of Palestinian Authority supporters would provide security.
Netanyahu separately met US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.
In Washington, the Pentagon announced it will soon permanently end its problem-plagued effort to deliver aid to Gaza by sea from Cyprus using a temporary pier.
The $230-million pier has repeatedly been detached from the shore because of weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May, and the project also faced problems with the distribution of supplies after they had been landed.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war 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.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets warning “everyone in Gaza City” that it would “remain a dangerous combat zone.”
The leaflets urged residents to flee, and set out designated escape routes from the area where the UN humanitarian office said up to 350,000 people had been sheltering.
The United Nations said the latest evacuations “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times,” and who face “critical levels of need.”
An Israeli government spokesman said the aim was “to put civilians out of harm’s way” as troops battle militants.
Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP that Israel was “hoping that the resistance will relinquish its legitimate demands” in truce negotiations.
But “the continuation of massacres compels us to adhere to our demands,” he said.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it had completed its mission in Shujaiya after two weeks.
AFPTV images showed Palestinians gathered around a burnt out armored vehicle beneath a fire-blackened building.
Standing nearby, Mohammed Nairi said he and other residents returned to “immense destruction that defies description. All the houses were demolished.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency said around 60 bodies had been found under the rubble in Shujaiya.
“Once the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Shujaiya neighborhood, civil defense crews, with local residents, managed to recover about 60 martyrs up to now,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Israel’s military said operations were also continuing in the Rafah area where “dozens” of militants were killed over the past day.
The military said it responded with air and ground strikes after five rockets were fired from the area toward Israel on Thursday.
Separately, the military acknowledged Thursday it had “failed” to protect Kibbutz Beeri, where more than 100 people died during Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
A summary of the inquiry, made public after being presented to kibbutz residents, said there had been a “lack of coordination” in the military response.


US designates Yemen’s Houthis ‘foreign terrorist organization’

Updated 21 sec ago
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US designates Yemen’s Houthis ‘foreign terrorist organization’

WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Tuesday said it was designating Yemen’s Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” after US President Donald Trump’s call for the move earlier this year.

More to follow...


Palestinian president welcomes Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza

Updated 2 min 12 sec ago
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Palestinian president welcomes Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza

Abbas also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allow

CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbad said on Tuesday he welcomed an Egyptian plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip and urged US President Donald Trump to support such a plan that would not involve displacing Palestinian residents of the enclave.
Speaking at an Arab League summit that aims to counter Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan, Abbas also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allow, adding his Palestinian Authority was the only legitimate governing and military force in the Palestinian Territories.
Abbas said that he would issue a general amnesty for all those dismissed from the Fatah movement which rules the West Bank.

UN’s Guterres supports Arab-led efforts to mobilize support for Gaza’s reconstruction

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (File/AFP)
Updated 3 min 17 sec ago
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UN’s Guterres supports Arab-led efforts to mobilize support for Gaza’s reconstruction

  • Speaking at the Cairo summit, Guterres also called for the resumption “without delay” of negotiations on continuing a ceasefire in Gaza
  • He also expressed concern over an escalation of violence in the West Bank

CAIRO: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he supported an Arab-led initiative to mobilize support for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt presented a plan for reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday at an Arab League summit in Cairo. The plan, seen by Reuters, aims to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a Middle East “Riviera” in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at the Cairo summit, Guterres also called for the resumption “without delay” of negotiations on continuing a ceasefire in Gaza, and he expressed concern over an escalation of violence in the West Bank.


Palestinian president meets Syrian counterpart for first time since Assad’s fall

Updated 25 min 20 sec ago
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Palestinian president meets Syrian counterpart for first time since Assad’s fall

  • Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmad Al-Sharaa meet in Cairo on sidelines of emergency Arab summit
  • Both leaders oppose Israeli policies that threaten to further encroach on their territory

LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has met the president of the Syrian Arab Republic for the first time since the change of power in Damascus last December.

Abbas and Ahmad Al-Sharaa met in Cairo on the sidelines of an emergency Arab summit that will focus on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and oppose US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace Palestinians in Gaza and “take over” the enclave.

Abbas and Al-Sharaa discussed the latest developments in the occupied West Bank and stressed that the Gaza Strip was an integral part of Palestine’s territory.

Abbas said that the priorities were to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza, provide aid, and for Israeli forces to withdraw from the enclave, according to the Palestine News Agency.

Both Abbas and Al-Sharaa are opposing Israeli policies that threaten to further encroach on their territory. The Israeli government’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps, and its plans to annex part of the territory jeopardize the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.

Following the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, Israeli forces have occupied parts of the southern Syrian region, including the strategically important summit of Mount Hermon, shattering a decades-long agreement.

Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Diab Al-Louh, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, were also present at the meeting.


Sudan’s RSF signs ‘transitional constitution’: alliance member

Updated 04 March 2025
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Sudan’s RSF signs ‘transitional constitution’: alliance member

  • “The constitutional document was signed in Nairobi last night by all parties involved in the signing of the founding charter,” said Ahmed Tuqud Lisan
  • The next step would be to form the government, which will “be announced inside Sudan“

NAIROBI: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies have signed a constitution paving the way for the formation of a parallel government, a member of its coalition said Tuesday.
“The constitutional document was signed in Nairobi last night by all parties involved in the signing of the founding charter,” Ahmed Tuqud Lisan, a member of the preparatory committee of the Sudan Founding Alliance told AFP.
For nearly two years, the RSF and the regular army have been in a devastating war that has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises.
Last week, the RSF and its alliance of political and military partners signed a charter vowing to establish a “government of peace and unity” in rebel-controlled areas of Sudan.
The “transitional constitution” signed on Monday documents the “tasks of the transitional period, the decentralized governing system and the structures of the executive authority,” Lisan said.
The next step would be to form the government, which will “be announced inside Sudan,” he added.
Kenya has been criticized for hosting the RSF and its allies, with Sudan’s army-aligned government recalling its ambassador in protest last month.
Sudan’s foreign ministry accused Kenyan President William Ruto of acting on “his commercial and personal interests with the militia’s regional sponsors.”
The RSF’s constitution, seen by AFP, was signed by 24 signatories including RSF deputy Abdel Rahim Dagalo.
The war between the RSF and the army has torn the country in two, with the army controlling the north and east, while the RSF holds nearly all of the western region of Darfur and swathes of the south.