Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 27 people across Gaza

Rescuers work to recover the body of a Palestinian girl from under the rubble of a house hit in an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City September 19, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 20 September 2024
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Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 27 people across Gaza

  • Palestinian health officials said shelling by Israeli tanks killed eight people and wounded several others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of Gaza, and s
  • Six others were killed in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City

CAIRO: Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians in tank and air strikes on north and central areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, as tanks advanced further into northwest Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The unrelenting fighting between the Israelis and Hamas militants in the enclave carried on even as a parallel conflict in the Lebanon-Israel border area involving Hamas’ allies Hezbollah intensified.
Meanwhile, some Palestinians displaced by the Israeli assault on Gaza said they feared their temporary beachside camp would be inundated by high waves.
Palestinian health officials said shelling by Israeli tanks killed eight people and wounded several others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of Gaza, and six others were killed in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, an Israeli strike on a car killed and wounded several Palestinians, medics said.
It was not clear how many of the casualties were combatants and how many were civilians.
In the southern city of Rafah, where the Israeli army has been operating since May, tanks advanced further to the northwest area backed by aircraft, residents said.
They also reported heavy fire and explosions echoing in the eastern areas of the city, where Israeli forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media.
“Our fighters are engaged in fierce gunbattles against Israeli forces, who advanced into Tanour neighborhood in Rafah,” Hamas armed wing said in a statement.
The Israeli military has said that forces operating in Rafah had in past weeks killed hundreds of Palestinian militants, located tunnels and explosives and destroyed military infrastructure.
Israel’s demand to keep control of the southern border line between Rafah and Egypt has been the focus of an international effort to conclude a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a truce but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
Two obstacles have been especially difficult — Israel’s demand that it keep forces in the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, and the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

ENCROACHING SEA
In a new challenge to Palestinians displaced in the Al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, many were concerned about the danger of high waves. Some tents put up close to the beach flooded last week.
“Enough, enough, enough. We were pushed by the occupation (Israel) to the sea, where we believed it was safe, last week the sea flooded and washed away some tents, and that could happen again, where would we go?” said Shaban, 47, an electrical engineer displaced from Gaza City.
This latest war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Israel says it aims to eradicate the Iran-aligned Hamas, which it deems a threat to its own existence.


Lebanese university students launch donation campaign to aid war-displaced families

Updated 4 sec ago
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Lebanese university students launch donation campaign to aid war-displaced families

  • ‘Hardship of war should never be faced alone,’ says student Nour Farchoukh
  • More than 1,000 families benefit from food and clothing donations

DUBAI: Three American University of Beirut students have launched a donation campaign to support families across Lebanon displaced by the 13-month war with Israel.

Titled “Hope for our Lebanon,” the campaign distributes food supplies, sanitary boxes, and clothes through a collaboration with ‘Wahad Activism’ charity organization.  

Nour Farchoukh, Celine Ghandour, and Kian Azad told Arab News that they provide the aid based on the needs of each family.

“We put snacks or diapers if there are children. We also ask if they need clothes,” said Ghandour, adding that the group depends on people’s in-kind donations.

So far, the donation campaign has reached more than 1,000 families in Baabda, Beirut, Chouf, Batroun, Barouk, and Hazmieh among other areas.

Israel stepped up its military campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges launched by Hezbollah in retaliation for the war on Gaza.

Over 13 months, the war killed more than 4,000 people across Lebanon, injured over 16,600 people, and displaced 1 million people, according to the latest figures of the Lebanese health ministry.

On Nov. 27, a 60-day ceasefire agreement, brokered by US and France, was signed between Hezbollah and Israel.

Azad said the campaign was still running after the ceasefire, with clothes donations being distributed to orphanages.

“We know that no matter how small the number of families we help, it will still make a difference,” he added.

“Every volunteer and every donation help rebuild Lebanon bit by bit. The hardship of war should never be faced alone,” Farchoukh said.

The three students have invited the community to take part in the initiative through donations or volunteering.


Israeli forces raid north Gaza hospital, health ministry says contact with staff lost

A woman and children react at the site of an Israeli strike in a residential area in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City
Updated 9 min 34 sec ago
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Israeli forces raid north Gaza hospital, health ministry says contact with staff lost

  • Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of only three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip
  • Israeli forces order dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the compound

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of only three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, on Friday, ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the compound, officials said.

In separate incidents across Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, medics said. One of those strikes on a house in Gaza City killed 15 people, medics and the civil emergency service said.

The Palestinian health ministry said contact with staff inside the facility, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost.

“The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it,” Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said in a statement.

The Israeli military said it had made efforts to mitigate harm to civilians and had “facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation” but gave no details.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza, from which terrorists have been operating throughout the war,” it said in a statement.

Kamal Adwan, as well as the Indonesia and Al-Awda hospitals, have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, which have been clearing out the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, Palestinian medical staff say.

Friday’s raid comes a day after the army evacuated the nearby Indonesian Hospital and continued to press Al-Awda Hospital.

Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people inside the facility to leave to a nearby school sheltering displaced families. They included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Television said that hours after the raid, Israeli forces set the hospital ablaze. Footage circulating on Palestinian and Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the area of the hospital.

There was no Israeli military comment.

Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and systematically razed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.

Israel denies the claims saying its campaign is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

On Thursday, health officials said five medical staff, including a pediatrician, were killed by Israeli fire at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, where Israeli forces have been operating since October.

In a statement, Hamas held Israel and the United States responsible for the fate of patients, injured people and the medical staff inside the hospital.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.


Israel strikes ‘infrastructure’ on Syria-Lebanon border

Updated 27 December 2024
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Israel strikes ‘infrastructure’ on Syria-Lebanon border

  • It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military reported it conducted air strikes on Friday targeting “infrastructure” on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the village of Janta, which it said was used to smuggle weapons to the armed group Hezbollah.
“Earlier today, the IAF (Israeli air force) struck infrastructure that was used to smuggle weapons via Syria to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon at the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border,” the military said in a statement.
It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side, but they came a day after Lebanon’s army accused Israel of “violation of the ceasefire agreement by attacking Lebanese sovereignty and destroying southern towns and villages.”
There is no official crossing point near Janta but the area is known for illegal crossings.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, has also expressed concern over “continuing destruction” caused by Israeli forces in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Friday’s strikes were aimed at preventing weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah, with whom it fought a land and air war for more than a year until a ceasefire was agreed upon last month.
“These strikes are an additional part of the IDF’s (Israeli military’s) effort to target weapons smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon, and prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing weapons smuggling routes,” the military said.
“The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to the state of Israel in accordance with the understandings in the ceasefire agreement.”
The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.


Israel hospital says woman killed in stabbing attack in coastal city

Updated 27 December 2024
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Israel hospital says woman killed in stabbing attack in coastal city

  • Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested

HERZLIYA, Israel: An Israeli hospital reported that a woman in her eighties was killed after being stabbed in the coastal city of Herzliya on Friday, while police stated that the suspected attacker had been arrested.
“She was brought to the hospital with multiple stab wounds while undergoing resuscitation efforts, but the hospital staff was forced to pronounce her death upon arrival,” Tel Aviv Ichilov hospital said in a statement. Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested.


Yemen Houthis claim missile attack on Tel Aviv airport: statement

Updated 27 December 2024
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Yemen Houthis claim missile attack on Tel Aviv airport: statement

  • Houthis also launched drones at Tel Aviv and a ship in the Arabian Sea

SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Friday claimed a strike against the airport in Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Friday, after Israeli air strikes hit rebel-held Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen.
The Israeli strikes on Thursday landed as the head of the UN’s World Health Organization said he and his team were preparing to fly out from Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital.
Hours later on Friday, the Houthis said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion airport and launched drones at Tel Aviv as well as a ship in the Arabian Sea.
No other details were immediately available.
Yemen’s civil aviation authority said the airport planned to reopen on Friday after the strikes that it said occurred while the UN aircraft “was getting ready for its scheduled flight.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they knew at the time that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was there. Israel’s attack came a day after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed the firing of a missile and two drones at Israel.
Yemen’s Houthis have stepped up their attacks against Israel since late November when a ceasefire took effect between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Houthis Al-Masirah TV said the Israeli strikes killed six people, after earlier Houthi statements said two people died at the rebel-held capital’s airport, and another at Ras Issa port.
The strikes targeting the airport, military facilities and power stations in rebel areas marked the second time since December 19 that Israel has hit targets in Yemen after rebel missile fire toward Israel.
In his latest warning to the rebels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “continue until the job is done.”
“We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil,” he said in a video statement.