On tour of war-scarred Gaza, Israel army renews vow to save hostages

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari speaks at the entrance to a tunnel leading to Egypt amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in the Philadelphi Corridor area in southern Gaza, September 13, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 14 September 2024
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On tour of war-scarred Gaza, Israel army renews vow to save hostages

  • Israel has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli army will use all means to bring back hostages still held in Gaza, its spokesman told a group of foreign journalists on Friday in the war-scarred city of Rafah.
“We need to do everything, everything we can, in all means, to bring them back home,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told the journalists embedded with the Israeli army.
“This is one of the goals of the war, and we will achieve it.”
Rear Admiral Hagari was speaking in front of a shaft in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah that connects to a tunnel where Israel says Hamas shot dead six hostages late last month.
Their deaths spurred an outpouring of grief in Israel as well as anger at the government, which critics say is not doing enough to reach a deal that would end the war in Gaza and secure the remaining hostages’ release.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.
Israel has denied independent access to Gaza for international media during the war, now in its 12th month.
Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, has been hit hard by the fighting, and AFPTV footage on Friday showed streets lined with the bombed-out shells of buildings, many partially collapsed with rubble spilling into the streets.
Hagari said the destruction was intended to wipe out the network of tunnels under the city.
“You have a maze of tunnels here, a maze of tunnels here in Rafah, underneath the houses. This is why the destruction,” he said.
“There is even not one point left without a tunnel here in Rafah.
“In order to defeat (Hamas) we need to take control of this underground system.”
The army also showed journalists the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land that has emerged as a key sticking point in talks toward a possible ceasefire mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that retaining control of the corridor was important to stop any arms smuggling into Gaza from Egypt.
Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
 

 


US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

Updated 20 sec ago
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US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

WASHINGTON: Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the terms of a deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Axios reported on Monday citing an unnamed senior US official.
Israel’s government on Monday said it was moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there were still outstanding issues.

Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

Updated 7 min 11 sec ago
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Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

  • ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Several EU states have said they will meet commitments under the statute if needed

FIUGGI: Britain would follow due process if Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UK, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday, when asked if London would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.
“Of course, if there were to be such a visit to the UK, there would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues.”
The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity.
Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.
“The states that signed the Rome convention must implement the court’s decision. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.

 

 


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 25 November 2024
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 25 November 2024
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 25 November 2024
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.