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Tag: Israel-Palestine conflict

  • More than 180 killed as Israel resumes Gaza assualt

    More than 180 killed as Israel resumes Gaza assualt

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    More than 180 people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded as Israeli forces resumed their bombardment of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials, after a week-long truce expired.

    Eastern areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza came under intense bombardment as the deadline lapsed shortly after dawn on Friday, with columns of smoke rising into the sky, the Reuters news agency reported. Residents took to the road with belongings heaped in carts, searching for shelter further west.

    Sirens blared across southern Israel as militants fired rockets from the coastal enclave into towns. Hamas said it had targeted Tel Aviv, but there were no reports of casualties or damage there.

    Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes had killed 184 people, wounded at least 589 others and hit more than 20 houses.

    The Israeli military dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave on Friday, urging civilians to flee to avoid the fighting, but rights groups have repeatedly warned there are no safe places in Gaza.

    “Civilians are being ordered to move south, but nowhere in Gaza is safe due to the indiscriminate bombing and continued fighting,” said the NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) on X, calling on the Israeli army to rescind the order.

    The UN said the fighting would worsen an extreme humanitarian emergency. “Hell on Earth has returned to Gaza,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office in Geneva, said.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) says Israeli forces informed “all organisations and entities” operating at the crossing that the entry of trucks is “prohibited, starting from today” and until further notice.

    “This decision exacerbates the suffering of citizens and increases the challenges facing humanitarian and relief organisations in alleviating the hardships of citizens and displaced persons due to the ongoing aggression,” the PRCS said in a post on X.

    ‘Urgent rescue plan’

    Speaking to reporters after Israel resumed its bombardment, Gaza’s government media office called on Arab and Muslim states to urgently establish field hospitals in the besieged enclave to save “tens of thousands of injured people”.

    The office’s spokesperson, Salama Marouf, said a “large number of aid trucks” is also urgently needed, including at least one million litres (more than 264,000 gallons) of fuel per day.

    Marouf called on countries, especially members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, to come up with an “urgent rescue plan” and to find “quick humanitarian solutions that address the fate of more than 250,000 families who have lost their homes”.

    Each of the warring sides blamed the other for causing the collapse of the truce by rejecting terms to extend the daily release of hostages held by armed groups in exchange for Palestinian detainees.

    The pause, which began on November 24, had been extended twice, and Israel had said it could continue as long as Hamas released 10 hostages each day. But after seven days during which women, children and foreign hostages were freed, mediators failed at the final hour to find a formula to release more, including Israeli soldiers and civilian men.

    Qatar, which has played a central role in mediation efforts along with the United States and Egypt, said negotiations were still going on with Israelis and Palestinians to restore the truce, but that Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza had complicated its efforts.

    In a meeting with the United Kingdom’s newly-appointed Foreign Secretary David Cameron on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said his country was committed to continuing efforts to de-escalate.

    According to a a statement released by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two reviewed the latest developments in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as well as ways to implement a lasting ceasefire.

    The White House also said it was pushing to restore the truce, with Press Secretary John Kirby telling reporters on Friday evening that the US wants to see more captives released and more humanitarian aid get into the Strip.

    “There has been some disappointment, the fact that the US efforts to extend the ceasefire were not successful, but the other reaction has been to simply repeat the Israeli line that the end of the ceasefire came about because of actions by Hamas,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hannah reported from Washington, DC.

    “Blinken says Israel is acting immediately to ensure the safety of civilians in the conflict zones, giving them areas in which they will take safe shelter. This ignores the fact that Israel has, in turn, ignored the humanitarian notification system,” he added.

    Egypt says it was also working to reinstate the truce in Gaza as soon as possible, according to a statement by Egypt’s State Information Service.

    More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including more than 6,000 children. In Israel, the official death toll stands at about 1,200.

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  • Palestinian refugees in Lebanon mourn, fear for family in war-torn Gaza

    Palestinian refugees in Lebanon mourn, fear for family in war-torn Gaza

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    Tripoli, Lebanon – When the humanitarian pause started in Gaza, Fatmeh Abu Swareh hadn’t heard from her daughter Wafaa in nearly two weeks.

    “I’m not sleeping. I sit here at 3am and cry. I cry all night… all day,” she said a few days before the pause in her living room in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp northeast of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city.

    She feared the worst for her daughter and four grandchildren. Once the pause was implemented, Wafaa finally got through to her mother, but things are still tough.

    “My daughter doesn’t have food or anything to drink,” she said. “Even with the truce, they’re scared of the [Israeli] planes.”

    More than 15,000 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, including at least 6,000 children. The Israeli assault was ostensibly in retribution for a Hamas-led attack into Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured more than 200.

    Fatmeh Abu Swareh hasn’t been able to sleep for weeks [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    The Palestinian death toll is certainly higher than 15,000 as there are likely thousands of people still missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

    Checking for new ‘martyrs’ daily

    Some 210,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, most still in the refugee camps set up for their forebears who arrived during the Nakba in 1948, fleeing violent Zionist gangs.

    Beddawi has about 20,000 people living in it, all of them transfixed by the news coming out of Gaza since October 7.

    The news has deeply impacted everyone, with physical and emotional signs of stress proliferating. It has also boosted national pride, with a huge uptick in sales of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.

    Everyone is suffering, but especially those with family in Gaza. Ducking into a clothing shop to get away from the noisy street outside, Ossama Najjar, 47, stood with his back to the enticingly stacked jeans.

    Ossama Najjar in a blue jacket
    Ossama Najjar has lost count of the family members killed in Gaza [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    He’s not interested. He has lost count of the family members lost in Gaza, he said.

    “Every day, I look online for the Ministry of Health lists with names of people from the Najjar family who were martyred,” he said. Among the dead were a cousin and an uncle.

    Mustafa Abu Harb worries often about his own uncle and cousin in Gaza. The clean-shaven Fatah official for north Lebanon sits in his office with framed photos of Yasser Arafat and his successor as Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, over his shoulders.

    “I’m talking to you here but my heart is there with my uncle and cousin,” he said from behind his desk, slumping slightly in his crisp blue shirt and grey blazer.

    “They’re killing the future generations of Palestine,” he said, fighting back tears.

    Fatah member Ahmad Hasan Alaaraj, also in the office, lost six family members in Gaza since October 7.

    Mustafa Abu Harb, Fatah official, at his office
    Mustafa Abu Harb, Fatah official, at his office in Baddawi [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    He was overcome by emotion several times while Abu Harb spoke and was only able to add: “Most people here have someone [in Gaza].”

    Generational communal pain, solidarity

    On a normal day, Najjar works in aluminium. But since October 7, “No one is working,” he said animatedly, his brow covered in sweat despite the sun beginning to set on this cool autumn afternoon.

    “All our attention is on Gaza. Everything on Facebook is Gaza.”

    While many others in Beddawi have lost relatives, even those without family in Gaza are suffering.

    Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Red Crescent director in north Lebanon, said the constant news barrage of death and destruction in Gaza was impacting his patients. From his office in the Safad Hospital, he said many patients now had high blood pressure while others reported increased psychological distress.

    Wehbe doesn’t have family in Gaza but has colleagues he studied with overseas and are now on the ground there, and he worries about them.

    Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Red Crescent director
    Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Red Crescent director in north Lebanon, at Safad Hospital [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    “We were in touch but then the electricity went out,” he said.

    The feelings of helplessness have also manifested in an uptick in national solidarity.

    At a small bridal shop in the camp, Nadia Mahmoud Moussa stood next to a tapestry shaped like Palestine, each region embroidered in a pattern representing local traditions.

    Moussa pointed to a turquoise section, decorated with flowers and small pink, grey, blue and orange lozenges. “Here’s Gaza,” she said.

    Before October 7, Moussa sold bridal dresses and hired out musical troupes to perform Palestinian traditions like the dabkeh, a Levantine folk dance, or zaffeh, an animated singing, drumming and dancing procession performed at weddings.

    Black dresses embroidered in traditional Palestinian tatreez still hang from racks in her shop but now her big sellers are keffiyehs and Palestinian flags as people sought to express their solidarity by displaying national symbols.

    A map of Palestine showing the different style stitches
    A map of historic Palestine in stitches at Nadia Mahmoud Moussa’s shop [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    “We’re all living this pain,” she said. “We pray for patience and resilience. From kids to the elderly, we are now learning what it means to be martyrs.”

    Back in Abu Swareh’s living room, she wipes away tears between pained sentences. Her daughter has already had at least one brush with death, she said, when the house next to hers was hit by an Israeli attack.

    “It destroyed the whole house,” Abu Swareh said.

    Even if her daughter and grandchildren survive the attacks, there is an extreme lack of food and water, which has led her daughter and her family to resort to drinking saltwater.

    A less-than-ideal ceasefire

    On Friday, November 24, a humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas went into effect. As Israel and Hamas traded captives and prisoners, the pause has been extended twice, most recently on Wednesday evening.

    A mural on a building showing a map of Palestine
    A mural on a building in Beddawi was painted during the first intifada. Renovations avoided painting over it to keep it intact [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

    Asked if the pause provided any relief, Najjar was dismissive. “There’s supposed to be aid coming in but there’s still no food or water or help on the ground,” he said. “And with the winter conditions, it’ll only get worse.”

    Najjar said the images he’s seen in the media recall other humanitarian catastrophes like Yemen and Somalia.

    “I hope the Arab countries, the West, and the rest of the world start to genuinely support Gaza,” he added. “Right now, it’s all talk.”

    Back at the Abu Swareh residence on Thursday, Fatmeh knew her relief counted for little as the fighting could restart at any moment. Furthermore, the acts of aggression haven’t entirely stopped, she said. “Today, they shot at them from [Israeli] ships in the sea.”

    Reports from Palestinian media said Israeli navy boats shot missiles at the coast of Gaza.

    Nearby, sat Fatmeh’s son, Mohammad. He sat quietly until his mother encouraged him to speak. He started, but laboured over his words, choosing them carefully.

    “This ceasefire is meaningless,” he eventually said. “It’s a ceasefire without a ceasefire.”

    On the morning of Friday, December 1, fighting resumed in Gaza.

    Additional reporting by Rita Kabalan in Beirut.

    Clogs with the Palestinian stitch
    Clogs with the Palestinian tatreez at Nadia Mahmoud Moussa’s shop [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]

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  • ‘We’re not here to beg’: Gaza residents’ anger over steep rise in prices

    ‘We’re not here to beg’: Gaza residents’ anger over steep rise in prices

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    Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip – As the sounds of war quietened with the advent of the first truce between Israel and Hamas since October 7, the markets in the Gaza Strip have been flooded with shoppers, desperate to buy food supplies and winter clothes.

    But the cost of these products has skyrocketed, particularly for basic foodstuffs, sparking anger and resentment among shoppers who blame shopkeepers and stallholders for high prices.

    Imm Abdullah, who was displaced from her home in the Nassr neighbourhood in Gaza City a month ago after Israel ordered people in northern Gaza to move south, has been staying at one of the United Nations-run schools in Deir el-Balah with her 12 children and grandchildren. She said conditions in the school have become desperate, with no water and barely any provisions.

    “When the Israelis threw leaflets down at us, I left with my family wearing just my prayer clothes,” she said. “At the school, we barely get food assistance. The other day we got a can of tuna. How am I supposed to sustain my family with that?”

    Prices of basic food products in Gaza have soared since the start of the war [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

    Imm Abdullah had come to the town’s market to try to buy food and some warmer clothes for herself and her grandchildren, as the weather had turned cold. But after visiting different stalls to look for basic food products, her exasperation bubbled over.

    “I don’t believe the merchants when they say the prices are out of their control,” she said. “They can regulate prices and be considerate of the fact that we are going through exceptional times, which is not something they should take advantage of.”

    She rattled off a list of products that are now unaffordable: Bottled water, which used to be 2 shekels ($0.50), is now 4 or 5 shekels ($0.80-$1). A carton of eggs is 45 shekels ($12). A kilo of salt, which used to be 1 shekel is now 12 ($3.20), while sugar is 25 shekels ($6.70).

    “It’s so unfair,” Imm Abdullah said. “I can’t take it any more and some days I go sit by the sea and weep because I don’t know how to feed or sustain my family. Sometimes I wish we had stayed in our home and got bombed instead of going through this.”

    Billions lost due to blockade

    According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 53 percent, with one-third (33.7 percent) of Gaza residents living in extreme poverty.

    Approximately 64 percent of households in Gaza are without enough food, and unemployment is at 47 percent – one of the highest rates in the world.

    According to Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst based in Gaza, the price distortion has led to inflation of between 300 and 2,000 percent for various products.

    Even before October 7, a 17-year Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave had resulted in the loss of $35bn to the Palestinian economy.

    “The latest Israeli aggression has been another nail in the coffin of Gaza’s economy,” Bakr told Al Jazeera. “The direct loss to the private sector has surpassed $3bn, while the indirect losses are more than $1.5bn.”

    Elhasan Bakr, economic analyst from Gaza Strip
    Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst from the Gaza Strip [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

    The agricultural sector, he added, has suffered a direct loss of $300m.

    “This includes the uprooting and bulldozing of fruitful trees in the agricultural lands in the north and east near the Israeli fence, which means that it will be another few years before farmers can reap what they sow,” he explained.

    “We are talking about a total paralysis of economic activity in Gaza. There are 65,000 economic facilities – ranging from the agricultural to the service industries – in the private sector which have been either destroyed or stopped working because of the war. This has resulted in a huge loss of jobs, which in turn leads to a complete lack of food security.”

    Furthermore, the small amount of aid that has been allowed by Israel to enter Gaza is insufficient to cover the needs of the almost one million displaced people staying at UN schools for even one day.

    “From October 22 to November 12 – in those 20 days – fewer than 1,100 trucks entered the Gaza Strip,” Bakr said. “Fewer than 400 of these trucks carried food products. Barely 10 percent of Gaza’s food sector needs are met. This is nowhere near enough, especially when you consider the fact that, before October 7, at least 500 trucks used to enter the Strip on a daily basis.”

    The Gaza Strip, he added, would need 1,000 to 1,500 trucks a day to deliver the needs of the population of 2.3 million.

    Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra (left) receives money from a shopper in the Deir al-Balah market
    Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra (left) receives money from a shopper in the Deir el-Balah market [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

    ‘We had to walk past dead bodies to shop’

    In the Deir el-Balah market, Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra stands over the bags of spices and grains that he sells each day that the truce lasts.

    “The war has affected everything, from delivery costs to supplies,” the 28-year-old said. “Whatever I have now, once that is finished I won’t have the money to buy the same products because it’ll be more expensive, so that leaves me no choice but to raise prices to break even.”

    The main reason for the price rises, he said, is the closure of the border crossings, which has led to wholesale merchants selling products to shopkeepers at much higher prices.

    “Lentils used to be 2 shekels ($0.50) per kilo and we would sell it for 3 ($0.80),” Abu Amra said. “Now we buy it for 8 shekels ($2) and sell it for 10 ($2.60).”

    A bag of fava beans used to be 70 shekels ($18) and is now priced at 150 shekels ($40), he added, while previously a bag of cornflour would be 90 shekels ($19) but is now 120 shekels ($32). Abu Amra’s neighbour, also a shopkeeper, lost his home and warehouse in an Israeli attack, resulting in the loss of $8,000 worth of produce.

    Another shopper, Imm Watan Muheisan, said loudly – to the chagrin of nearby shopkeepers – that the current prices are “insane”.

    “If you have 1,000 shekels ($270), you can only buy a handful of food items,” she snapped. “One kilo of potatoes is now 25 shekels ($6.70), it used to be three kilos for 5 shekels ($1.70).”

    The mother of seven, who fled her home in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp east of Gaza City four weeks ago, is sheltering at the Deir el-Balah UN school for girls where, she said, she and her family are barely surviving.

    “We walked here and had to pass by the dead bodies on the street,” she said. “We used to wear our best clothes to market… we’re not here to beg.”

    Imm Watan Muheisan
    Imm Watan Muheisan called the current prices of food products ‘insane’ [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

    Black market prices take over

    Ahmad Abulnaja, an 18-year-old shopkeeper, began selling clothes with his older cousin Ali at the beginning of the war. He agreed that wholesale merchants are behind the increase in prices.

    “A tracksuit used to sell for 20 to 25 shekels ($5.30 – $6.70) but now it’s 45 ($12),” he said. “That is, the merchant I get my supplies from has raised the price because the supply is dwindling.”

    Price hikes are more pronounced on food products rather than clothes, but the demand for clothes is also high as displaced people try to buy warm clothes with winter setting in.  were forced to flee their homes in northern Gaza without bringing their possessions.

    Abulnaja’s cousin, Ali, said he believed the informal prices will be around for a long time because the scale of destruction in Gaza is so immense and the demand for products shows no sign of abating.

    “It’ll be a while before we have a solution,” he said. “Even if more products enter the Gaza Strip, there’s nothing to stop one merchant from selling a product at the price he sets, especially since northern Gaza is cut off from the rest of the Strip.”

    There is also the issue of the lack of compensation for businesses, the economic analyst, Elhasan Bakr, said. He pointed to the fact that in the aftermath of previous Israeli wars on the enclave, donor aid has centred on rebuilding housing units, rather than supporting the economy.

    According to UN estimates, the last four Israeli offensives on the Strip between 2009 and 2021 caused damage estimated at $5bn, but none of the damage in the 2014 and 2021 wars had been repaired.

    Ali Abulnaja sells clothes in a stall in the Deir al-Balah marketplace
    Ali Abulnaja sells clothes in a stall in the Deir el-Balah marketplace [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

    “We are talking about the devastation of the basic infrastructure which would need months to rebuild, from roads to communications towers to electricity installations and sanitary extensions,” Bakr said.

    But until then, the Palestinian economy will not recover unless there is a huge international effort in aid, and poverty and unemployment levels will reach new record highs.

    “Gaza at its present stage is unliveable,” Bakr said, adding that more than 300,000 people have lost their homes.

    “We need a minimum of five years just to go back to where we were before the war started.”

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  • Analysis: Why extending the Israel-Hamas truce won’t be easy

    Analysis: Why extending the Israel-Hamas truce won’t be easy

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    With hours left of the agreed pause in Gaza fighting, Israel, Hamas and the intermediaries negotiating between them were on Wednesday again in a frenzy of activity.

    The original truce was to have lasted until Monday, but Hamas decided to accept the Israeli offer to extend the ceasefire by a day for each group of 10 captives released. As the original deadline loomed an extension was proclaimed, but of just two days.

    Two is still better than nothing, and the two extra days bought the Qatari and Egyptian mediators extra time to work out how to convince both sides to prolong the truce even further or turn it into a permanent ceasefire.

    It has not been easy. While negotiations through intermediaries have been difficult, long and often tedious, they did finally produce some results and an agreement in principle that led to the initial four-day truce and indirectly to the two-day extension. During initial negotiations, Israel unilaterally declared that the pause could be made longer by the release of additional captives, so not much had to be additionally negotiated. Yet, as more time passed, talks through Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries seemed to be dragging, and lists of detainees to be released kept being agreed upon and accepted later and later each day; at one point Hamas even threatened to stop the process and let the truce collapse.

    Now, on Wednesday evening, the situation appears to be more complicated than ever. Hamas announced that it is seeking a further four-day extension, and even hinted at being ready to negotiate the release of all captives it is holding, in exchange for a more lasting cessation of hostilities. At the same time, Israel said it welcomes the possible release of additional captives, but sent mixed messages about the continuation of the pause.

    In such an atmosphere of uncertainty mixed with anxiety and hope, international mediators are trying harder than ever. For the past two days, they have been joined in Qatar by the highest officials from the US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence services.

    No announcement has been made of the presence of their Hamas counterparts, but it is very hard to imagine that the Palestinian side would not be represented in such an intelligence summit.

    One would expect that, with the experience of two rounds of negotiations, it would be easier to reach agreements on the continuation and expansion of the deals. Yet, there are many signs to suggest that the situation is getting more complicated with talks possibly getting bogged down.

    How is it possible that from overwhelming optimism that marked the weekend mass celebrations of former captives rejoining their communities, the talks are now on the verge of failure with the real prospect of fighting resuming on Thursday?

    There are several reasons for the apparent reluctance of both Israel and Hamas to prolong the truce by exchanging more captives.

    First, tactical and strategic military reasons, mostly on the Israeli side. Over the past few days, several representatives of the Israeli military indicated that they would prefer the current two-day extension of the pause to be the last. Generals told the political leadership that the military believes that fighting should be resumed on Thursday morning.

    From the very beginning of the armed intervention, the Israeli army was wary of having to go to war without clearly defined strategic goals. I warned that soldiers detest “open-ended” tasks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated several times that his goal was to win the war by destroying Hamas, but he obviously never translated that into clear and measurable orders and tasks. Generals prefer to be told: “Go there and do that, if and when you achieve it your job is done”. Their eagerness to resume fighting is by no means an indication that they are bloodthirsty; on the contrary, it tells those who want to listen that they are realists.

    Following the 7 October attacks, the Israeli military mobilised 360,000 reservists, deploying them alongside the standing army of 150,000 soldiers. While the fighting went on, each reservist and each unit, whether in Gaza or along the northern front facing Hezbollah, knew exactly what his or her task and purpose was. They were focused, in a military mindset, not overtly influenced by the atmosphere among civilians.

    But as they stopped for four days, then for two more, many went home for short rest and were exposed to the doubts, uncertainties, fears and hopes of their families and relatives. For a couple of days, they lived almost as civilians, but, as the original pause was to expire on Monday, they would have had to return to units by Sunday afternoon – the time when the extension was announced. Military bureaucracy then had to decide whether to give them an extra day or two at home or rotate soldiers, with the eventual new group being granted just two days off and so on.

    Another extension would further complicate the logistics of leave and rotation, but prolonged semi-civilian life could also damage the determination to fight.

    After October 7, Israeli national adrenaline ran high and everyone was ready to fight. Now, seeing that the country’s politics is a mess; the leadership is in poorly hidden disarray and the prime minister is clearly troubled, shaken and insincere, soldiers may start to vacillate.

    Aware of potential problems with morale and determination, generals obviously prefer to get the fighting over with, rather than endure more of the stop-go-stop-go orders that in all wars prove detrimental to the fighting capabilities of an army.

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  • US rights advocates launch hunger strike for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

    US rights advocates launch hunger strike for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

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    Washington, DC – State lawmakers and Palestinian rights supporters, joined by actor and progressive advocate Cynthia Nixon, have launched a five-day hunger strike outside the White House to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

    At a news conference on Monday, the activists decried United States President Joe Biden’s role in supporting the Israeli offensive in Gaza and called for an immediate end to the fighting.

    The hunger strike adds to the growing demand for a ceasefire from activists, artists and politicians, as well as staff members working in the US government. But Biden has so far resisted such calls, voicing unwavering support for Israel.

    Biden has also pledged more than $14bn in additional US aid to Israel — funds that advocates say are contributing to the Israeli violence.

    The protesters at Monday’s event stressed that public opinion polls show that most Americans back a ceasefire. They also underscored the scale of the destruction in Gaza, where more than 14,800 Palestinians have died. United Nations experts have warned that the conflict puts Palestinians “at grave risk of genocide“.

    “How many more Palestinians must be killed before you call for a ceasefire, President Biden? We cannot wait any longer,” said Iman Abid, an organiser with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).

    Israel and Hamas declared a four-day truce in the conflict last week, and on Monday, officials announced the pause in fighting would continue for two additional days, to allow for the release of more Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners.

    The hunger-strikers said that the continued pause demonstrates that diplomacy — not bombs — can solve the crisis in Gaza.

    Israeli leaders, however, have suggested that they will resume the bombing with more intensity once the truce expires. They have also warned residents from northern Gaza against returning to their homes.

    “The area north of the Gaza Strip is a combat zone, and it is forbidden to stay there,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said last week.

    This week’s hunger strike in Washington, DC, is organised by Palestine solidarity advocates, progressive Jewish groups as well as Arab and Palestinian-American organisations.

    Here’s what some of the hunger-strikers at the White House had to say:

    Nixon: ‘Never again’ means never again – for anyone

    Best known for her work in the TV series Sex and the City and her run in the 2018 New York governor’s race, Nixon used her speech at Monday’s event to highlight the carnage in Gaza, including the killings of dozens of journalists and UN workers as well as the destruction of entire neighbourhoods.

    “Our president’s seeming disregard for the incredible human toll Israel’s far-right government is exacting on innocent civilians does not remotely reflect the desire of the overwhelming majority of Americans,” she said.

    “And I would like to make a personal plea to a president — who has himself experienced such devastating personal loss — to connect with that empathy for which he is so well-known and to look at the children of Gaza and imagine that they were his children.

    “We implore him that this current ceasefire must continue, and we must build off it to begin to negotiate a more permanent peace. We cannot keep letting American tax dollars aid and abet the killing and starvation of millions of Palestinians. ‘Never again’ means never again — for anyone.”

    Delaware lawmaker Madinah Wilson-Anton: Majority of Americans want ceasefire

    Wilson-Anton, a Muslim American legislator from Biden’s home state of Delaware, said that while she is anxious about abstaining from food for several days, her thoughts are with the people of Gaza who are experiencing a massacre with no choice or end in sight.

    “The majority of Americans are for a permanent ceasefire. And it’s unfortunate that our president and our congressional members are not being responsive to what’s important to Delawareans and Americans from all states,” Wilson-Anton, a Democrat, said.

    “And so I’m hoping that, this week, we’ll be successful in gaining the ear of our president and of our congressional members, so they can actually start to use their privilege and position to negotiate a ceasefire that is lasting.”

    Delaware Madinah Wilson-Anton, left, stands with other hunger-strikers outside the White House on November 27 [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]

    New York State Representative Zohran Mamdani: Negotiations, not war, freed captives

    Mamdani hailed the release of Israelis held by Hamas and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during the truce.

    “We are hunger striking for a world where everyone is with their family. And it is a world that can only be made possible through a ceasefire. It is not war that brought us these reunifications. It is negotiations; it is a cessation [of hostilities],” he said.

    “We hunger-strike not because we want to. We hunger-strike because we have been forced by this president and by our government’s foreign policy. We hunger-strike because Palestinians have been doubted in life and death, and their experience has been erased.”

    Activist Rana Abdelhamid: Dehumanising rhetoric normalises Palestinian deaths

    Abdelhamid, a New York organiser, linked the killing of Palestinians in Gaza to a rise in prejudice against Arabs and Muslims in the US. She pointed to Saturday’s shooting of three Palestinian students in a suspected hate crime as an example.

    “As someone who has been organising against hate-based violence across this country, I’m fully aware that the violence and the anti-Palestinian rhetoric that we’re seeing abroad is also impacting us here in the United States. Those two things are inextricably linked,” Abdelhamid said.

    “When our elected [officials] and our politicians and our representatives are continuously dehumanising Palestinian people, are normalising Palestinian deaths, we get what we got two days ago. We get three Palestinian students in Vermont being shot for simply wearing a keffiyeh, for simply speaking Arabic.”

    Palestinian-American writer and advocate Sumaya Awad: The US is complicit

    Awad stressed that the US is “complicit” in the ongoing violence against Palestinians. She added that the conflict also has domestic ramifications in the US.

    “I’m Palestinian and I’m a New Yorker. I’m an American and I’m a mother of a 16-month-old, and I’m on hunger strike to illustrate to our government just a sliver, a fragment of what Palestinians are enduring in Gaza every single day,” Awad said.

    “I am on hunger strike to demand a permanent ceasefire and to say that we will continue to pressure our government in every way possible to get that permanent ceasefire because we are not just silent observers. We are complicit in what is happening in Palestine.

    “We are on hunger strike because what’s happening in Gaza is not something far away that we have nothing to do with. It has real impacts on our lives here in the US.”

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  • People in Gaza are still in ‘desperate’ need, despite truce

    People in Gaza are still in ‘desperate’ need, despite truce

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    A UN official has described seeing thin and thirsty Palestinians “desperate” for aid as his team delivered supplies to Gaza during the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.

    Published On 27 Nov 2023

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  • It is time the US considers Hamas’s survival in Gaza

    It is time the US considers Hamas’s survival in Gaza

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    Three days into the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, the agreement appears to hold and there is even talk of extending it. By Monday, 50 Israeli women and children are supposed to have been exchanged for 150 Palestinian women and children, with mediators hinting that the deal could continue for a few more days through the same formula.

    Although the conditions of the truce resemble similar ones put forward by Qatari mediators in recent weeks, Israel’s war cabinet has insisted it was the result of military pressure it had exerted on Hamas. But only a few weeks ago, the government was vowing to free its hostages by force.

    By assenting to the terms of the release, Israel has shown that it can, in fact, negotiate with Hamas, tacitly conceding that it is no closer to eradicating a group that has gone, quite literally, underground. If anything, by laying waste to much of Gaza City and, with it, the institutions of Hamas governance, Israel’s actions have only made the group more elusive.

    That much was made clear by the Israeli army’s siege and raid of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, which failed to produce conclusive evidence that there was a Hamas-operated command centre there, as it had claimed. Instead, the operation against al-Shifa, which was anticlimactic at best, added to growing scepticism that Israel, with American backing, can uproot Hamas from Gaza.

    It is time this reality is recognised in the halls of power in Washington. The Biden administration must abandon unrealistic Israeli rhetoric about “ending Hamas” and embrace a more attainable political solution that factors in the movement’s survival.

    Mounting deaths, shifting public opinion

    Proof of Israel’s faltering mission can be found in the war’s bloody dividends. Its air and ground assault, which Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed would wipe Hamas “off the face of the earth”, has so far failed to halt Palestinian fighters’ ambushes of Israeli positions or the near-daily volley of rockets lobbed at Israeli cities.

    Now in its seventh week, the war has instead killed more than 14,800 Palestinians, including some 6,100 children, levelled residential neighbourhoods and refugee camps, and displaced more than a million people across the besieged strip.

    Military analysts had claimed that the massive bombing campaign would “soften” Hamas positions ahead of Israel’s ground invasion, limiting the group’s ability to wage urban warfare in the densely built enclave. But in recent weeks, some US officials, echoing reports in the Israeli media, have started to concede that Israel’s unrelenting bombing has failed to neutralise Hamas’s battle capabilities.

    Tolerance for Israel’s actions also appears to be declining. On November 10, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first G-7 leader to call for a ceasefire. On November 24, the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium criticised Israel’s “indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians” and the destruction of “the society of Gaza”. Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish premier, even vowed to unilaterally recognise Palestinian statehood.

    In the US, the Biden administration may be standing by their Israeli ally, but public opinion is swiftly shifting in favour of a permanent ceasefire. Mass demonstrations calling for a ceasefire have been held across the country and several large US cities, including Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle, have passed resolutions echoing this call.

    A recent poll showed that only 32 percent of Americans believe their country “should support Israel” in its war on Gaza. Having left little daylight between his stance on the war and Israel’s prosecution of it, US President Joe Biden has already seen his poll numbers slip.

    Public pressure may have encouraged not only Washington to push for the hostage exchange, but also the Israeli government to accept it. In addition to the backlash he has faced from families of the Hamas-held hostages, reports indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pressed on the exchange by Israel’s security services and military.

    Although Netanyahu, Gallant, and former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who sits in the current war cabinet, have all declared that the war on Hamas would continue, public pressure could make them walk back on this intention, too.

    The conflict is already taking a heavy toll on the Israeli economy, which is losing over a quarter billion dollars a day. It is expected to contract by 1.5 percent in 2024, as the fighting has disrupted air travel and cargo and the recent hijacking of an Israeli-linked ship may even threaten sea transportation.

    Then there are the tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from areas along the Gaza and Lebanon borders as well as all the families of the hostages calling for all to be released. The ongoing truce has demonstrated that Israelis held captive can be easily freed without firing a shot. This could help sway Israeli public opinion – which so far has been overwhelmingly in favour of the war – towards a ceasefire.

    Some Israeli analysts are already noting a shift favouring a truce extension. Indeed, continuing on the path of negotiations would limit the country’s mounting economic losses and safeguard the lives of both its captives and soldiers. The Israeli military has admitted to the deaths of 70 soldiers since the start of the ground invasion.

    The path to a ceasefire

    Another problem with the Israeli government’s insistence on continuing the war is that it has not actually laid out an endgame that is acceptable to its allies, including the US.

    Apart from the declared goal of “eradicating” Hamas from Gaza, Israeli officials have also indicated that they wish to expel the Palestinian population into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

    Pressure from Arab allies quickly quashed US support for this idea as well as for Israeli plans to claim indefinite “security responsibility” in Gaza. The Biden administration’s alternative – for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to assume control of the enclave – has been roundly rejected by both Israel and Hamas, which, in the absence of Israeli reoccupation, would remain the only power broker in Gaza.

    Instead of recognising this, the US has stubbornly refused to float any policy proposals that factor in Hamas’s survival. In that wilful blindness, Washington is joined by a chorus of pundits who continue to put forth “solutions” that presuppose Hamas’s destruction. But given the still-fresh memory of Afghanistan, US policymakers should know all too well that eradicating a homegrown resistance movement is, ultimately, impossible.

    More possible would be to build on the example of the current hostage deal, which showed that both Israel and Hamas have the political will to negotiate. By working with mediators Qatar and Egypt, the US can help move the conversation around Gaza beyond the disastrous “with us or against us” rhetoric that characterised America’s war on terror and into discussions about a long-term ceasefire, one that would need to be brokered through Hamas’s political leadership-in-exile.

    There is precedent for this. Recall that, in December 2012, Israel allowed Hamas’s then-leader Khaled Meshaal to return to Gaza as part of a negotiated truce after that year’s eight-day war. Whether current exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh can moderate the position of his Gaza counterpart, Yahya Sinwar, who is widely believed to have masterminded the October 7 attacks, will depend on Haniyeh’s ability to secure international relief and reconstruction funds.

    Just as important will be a US commitment to rein in Israel’s extremist policies, including its siege of Gaza and backing for settler violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Once such a de-escalation happens, it will become critical for the international community to uphold its commitment to Gaza’s reconstruction and development, easing the desperate conditions that helped give rise to the October 7 attacks.

    To be sure, no vision for a peaceful future can abide the murder of civilians. But finding a way out of the current crisis means reckoning with the reality laid bare by this war’s first seven weeks: There is no way to wipe Hamas “off the face of the earth” that does not take untold numbers of Palestinian – and Israeli – lives with it.

    If Hamas’s long-term survival strains the imagination, the risks of simply avoiding the thought are even more unimaginable. Although this is clearly not a widely held sentiment in Israel right now, some Israelis, like former government advisor and Bar-Ilan University professor Menachem Klein, are coming around to the idea. Speaking to Al Jazeera after the first Israeli hostages were released, Klein conceded that it is “impossible to totally destroy Hamas by force”. The path forward, he argued, should include the group in renewed negotiations around a Palestinian state.

    Given the horrific suffering endured by the people of Gaza, growing international and domestic pressure to end it, and the still-looming prospect of a broader regional conflict, the US can no longer insist that eliminating Hamas is the only path to ending this war.

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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  • Is a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine still possible?

    Is a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine still possible?

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    International calls grow louder to pursue a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

    The current Israel-Palestinian conflict has seen 47 days of air attacks on the Gaza Strip, nearly 15,000 Palestinians killed, 1,200 Israelis dead, and continuing raids and arrests by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank.

    There has also been an increase in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian communities throughout the occupied territories.

    Is now really the best time to restart discussions about the elusive two-state solution for Israel and Palestine?

    International calls have begun to grow louder to pursue this. But what are the red lines for both sides, and what would a return to the 1967 borders look like in reality?

    Presenter: James Bays

    Guests:

    Alon Liel – Former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa and formerly part of an Israeli campaign to advance recognition of a Palestinian state by other governments

    Phyllis Bennis – Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace and author of, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer

    Mustafa Barghouti – Secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative and a former information minister for the Palestinian Authority

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  • Israel vs Hamas: Battle for narrative supremacy

    Israel vs Hamas: Battle for narrative supremacy

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    A propaganda battle between Israel and Hamas – different messages, different audiences. Plus, Francesca Albanese on media missteps in this war.

    Forty-eight days of bloodshed later, a truce lasting 96 hours – between Israel and Hamas – has come into effect, giving Palestinians in Gaza some temporary room to breathe. But in the information war, there is no ceasefire in sight.

    Contributors:
    Abboud Omar Hamayel – Academic, Birzeit University
    Hussein Ibish – Arab Gulf States Institute
    Mia Bloom – Professor, Georgia State University
    Shashank Joshi – Defence Editor, Economist

    On our radar:

    This past week has been one of the most devastating for journalists in Gaza. This, in a war that has already been described as the “deadliest period on record” for the media. Meenakshi Ravi has the details.

    In recent weeks, there has been an alarmingly small number of official voices calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. One exception has been Francesca Albanese – the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories. She joins us for an interview on terminology, context and the blindspots of mainstream media.

    Contributor:
    Francesca Albanese – UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories

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  • Hamas Captives and Palestinian Prisoners Released

    Hamas Captives and Palestinian Prisoners Released

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    24 captives held by Hamas and 39 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel have been set free. The exchange is part of the truce deal that also stipulates a 4-day pause in fighting.

    Published On 24 Nov 2023

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  • Hamas releases 24 captives amid Israel truce: Here’s what’s to know

    Hamas releases 24 captives amid Israel truce: Here’s what’s to know

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    After weeks of negotiations, Hamas on Friday released the first batch of captives it had agreed to set free under a truce deal with Israel that came into effect in the morning.

    Fighters took 237 people into captivity from Israel after Hamas’s October 7 attack. Under the deal for a four-day truce, Hamas is to release 50 captives in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel and a pause in fighting. However, more than those numbers might be released, officials indicated.

    The deal was reached, and announced by Qatar, on Wednesday, while the truce officially started at 7:00am local time (5:00 GMT) on Friday.

    Here is what we know about the captives released by Hamas and those who are still in Gaza.

    How many captives were released on Friday?

    In all, 24 captives were freed by Hamas on Friday. While initially, the plan was for Hamas to release 13 Israeli captives — women and children — it eventually freed 24 people, including 10 Thai nationals.

    The Prime Minister of Thailand announced the release of 12 Thai citizens on X.

    But later in the evening, the foreign ministry of Qatar — which has led the negotiations that have culminated in the truce and exchange of captives and prisoners — said the composition of the freed captives was:

    • 13 Israelis, including some with dual nationalities
    • 10 Thai nationals
    • 1 Filipino

    All 24 captives were transferred by Hamas to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who crossed them over from Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah crossing.

    The captives were handed over to Egyptian authorities.

    At what time were they released?

    The first release reports suggest Thai captives were freed just before 4:00pm local time (14:00 GMT).

    About half an hour later, the other captives were released, Hamas officials told AFP.

    On the Egyptian side of the border, the freed Israeli captives met representatives of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, according to the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

    Medical staff, soldiers and helicopters are also waiting for them. The released captives will be taken in helicopters to hospitals in Tel Aviv for medical and psychological assessments.

    At the hospitals, captives will also reunite with their families, the Israeli army said earlier on Friday.

    Which captives were released?

    The Thai captives who were freed on Friday are among 23 who were captured by Palestinian fighters during their attack on southern Israel on October 7.

    On Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that it received an initial list of those who would be freed and was in contact with their families.

     

    However, relatives of the first group have not commented on the release. The Israeli government has reportedly warned them to not speak with the media and asked news outlets to not publish names accessed through any leaks.

    Who might be released next?

    The captives who were originally to be released today are among the 50 that Hamas has committed to freeing over four days under the truce agreement.

    But with the 10 Thai captives and one Filipino also being released, the total number of those whom Hamas frees during the truce is expected to exceed 50.

    Three US citizens and eight French citizens are among those who could be freed during the truce, according to officials from the two countries. The three American captives include two women and a three-year-old girl whose parents were killed in the initial Hamas attack. It is unclear if any of the American or French captives were among those released on Friday.

    Ghazi Hamad, member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera that they are focused on releasing civilians for now. Hamad added that a comprehensive release of captives, including Israeli soldiers, would require an exchange with all 7,200 Palestinians who are imprisoned.

    How many captives does Hamas have and who are they?

    Palestinian fighters took 237 people into captivity during its Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, according to Israel, although not all of them are currently with Hamas.

    Other resistance groups in the Gaza Strip, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are also holding some captives. The finalisation of the truce deal involved the agreement of all resistance brigades via phone call, said Hamas prior to the deal’s announcement.

    Hamas fighters abducted the captives during raids on an outdoor music festival, collective farms called kibbutzim, and military bases in Israel on October 7.

    Not all captives are Israeli. At least half are foreign and dual nationals hailing from approximately 40 countries including the US, Thailand, United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal, according to the Israeli government.

    At least 33 captives are children, including preschoolers and a 10-month-old baby, according to Israel. They have also reported that others in the group include soldiers, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

    Hamas has said that the captives are housed in “safe places and tunnels”. Freed captives have reported sleeping on mattresses on floors of tunnels and being provided medical care.

    Have any captives been released from Gaza?

    Hamas has previously released four captives that were being held in Gaza.

    The first pair of captives freed was an American mother-daughter duo on October 20, following Qatari meditation.

    Three days later, two elderly women were returned to Israel on “humanitarian reasons and poor health grounds”, following mediation led by Egypt and Qatar.

    Israel’s military has said that it rescued one abducted soldier, Ori Megidish, and found the body of another near al-Shifa Hospital. Hamas has said that Israeli air attacks have killed 50 captives in Gaza, including their army conscript, Noa Marciano, near the hospital.

    On November 16, Israel’s military also said it recovered the body of a civilian captive, Yehudit Weiss, near al-Shifa.

    On Tuesday, the PIJ said one elderly woman, Hanna Katzir, died in captivity owing to Israel “stalling” her release after the group offered to return her for humanitarian reasons. Israel has not responded to these claims.

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  • BBC accused of censoring acts of Gaza solidarity in BAFTA awards coverage

    BBC accused of censoring acts of Gaza solidarity in BAFTA awards coverage

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    Ceasefire calls by artists during a ceremony in Scotland did not make the final cut on the BBC’s streaming service.

    Glasgow, Scotland – The BBC has been accused of editing out multiple calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in its coverage of an entertainment awards ceremony in Scotland.

    The Scottish arm of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held its ceremony on Sunday in Glasgow.

    At the event, some public figures used their moment on stage to express solidarity with Palestinians from the besieged enclave.

    But they later found their words of support cut from the final edit of the show, which appeared on the British public service broadcaster’s streaming service, iPlayer.

    Among those to accuse the BBC of censorship was director Eilidh Munro, who prevailed in BAFTA Scotland’s best Short Film and Animation category.

    She used her acceptance speech to call on guests to “use your voice as filmmakers and artists” to lobby for a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as her colleague Finlay Pretsell displayed a poster that read, “I refuse to be silent. Ceasefire now.”

    While Munro’s entire award-winning segment, which included her acceptance speech, was seen by viewers watching the livestream version produced by BAFTA Scotland, it was not included in the final BBC iPlayer edit.

    Munro told Scotland’s The National newspaper: “It is deeply concerning that the BBC decided to cut the entire segment of our award acceptance speech from their coverage of the BAFTA Scotland Awards.

    “It is also somewhat surreal that an event which celebrates artists and filmmakers for using their voices and creating work to speak out against injustice can also be censored.”

    She added to The National: “In my opinion, the BBC’s editorial decision to omit these peaceful signs of solidarity is neither neutral nor impartial.”

     

    Pretsell’s poster is understood to have come from the campaigners who had gathered outside the ceremony’s venue at a Glasgow hotel.

    Art Workers for Palestine Scotland handed out pro-Palestinian paraphernalia to attendees, including Scotland’s Muslim First Minister Humza Yousaf.

    Yousaf was seen at the event with his Scottish-Palestinian wife Nadia El-Nakla, whose parents escaped Gaza after becoming trapped in the Palestinian territory for weeks after the start of the bloody conflict.

    Social media users outraged by the BBC edits have been sharing a video clip by the popular American TikTok user YourFavoriteGuy, who alleged the British broadcaster does not care “about [the Gazan] genocide or the Palestinians”.

    More than 14,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli air strikes in a matter of weeks. Israel’s bombardment began in retaliation for the Hamas attack on southern Israel nearly 50 days ago, during which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

    A truce is hoped to take hold early on Friday.

    A BBC spokesperson told Al Jazeera that “the programme on iPlayer is a highlights show and therefore significantly shorter than the actual event itself”.

    The spokesperson added: “Some edits were made so the content was compliant with BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality.”

    According to those rules, which are published on the BBC’s website, the broadcaster “must be inclusive, considering the broad perspective and ensuring that the existence of a range of views is appropriately reflected. It does not require absolute neutrality on every issue or detachment from fundamental democratic principles, such as the right to vote, freedom of expression and the rule of law”.

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  • Photos: Israel steps up attacks on Gaza before truce

    Photos: Israel steps up attacks on Gaza before truce

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    Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza in advance of an agreed truce with Hamas, killing dozens of Palestinians across the bombarded territory.

    The relentless raids on Wednesday dimmed hopes that the expected four-day pause would lead to a permanent ceasefire.

    “The ongoing mass bombardment of the Gaza Strip keeps creating tragedies and misery for Palestinians,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis.

    Three attacks in northern Gaza killed dozens of people, including entire families. There were also deadly air raids in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, including a building that houses a charity next to the Kuwait Speciality Hospital in Rafah.

    Southern Gaza has been designated as a supposedly safe area by the Israeli army, but its continuous bombardment there means that the area is “equally dangerous” to the north and “people are equally at risk of losing their life”, Mahmoud said.

    In central Gaza, Israeli forces hit residential buildings in Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, sparking fears of multiple deaths and injuries.

    Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued raiding towns across the occupied West Bank. In one such incident, six Palestinians were shot dead in Tulkarem, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health said.

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  • “A genocidal war” Surgeon says Israel strategically destroying Gaza health

    “A genocidal war” Surgeon says Israel strategically destroying Gaza health

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    NewsFeed

    Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah is a surgeon who worked at both the Al-Shifa and Al-Alhi Baptist hospitals in Gaza. He tells Al Jazeera he believes the destruction of the health sector is part of an Israeli military strategy to to wipe out the Palestinian population in Gaza – by ensuring no one survives.

    Published On 20 Nov 2023

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  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels seize cargo ship in Red Sea, Israel blames Iran

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels seize cargo ship in Red Sea, Israel blames Iran

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    Yemen’s Houthis say they have taken control of an Israeli-owned ship in the southern Red Sea, with Israel describing the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security.

    A Houthi military spokesman confirmed to Al Jazeera on Sunday that its fighters hijacked the British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship.

    At least 22 people were onboard the Galaxy Leader – reported to be partly owned by an Israeli businessman – which was en route from Turkey to India.

    “We have received confirmation from a Houthi official that they hijacked this ship. Earlier today [Sunday], they announced the beginning of operations to attack Israeli-flagged ships. They warned international sailors not to work for such companies,” said Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

    “We are treating the crew in accordance with Islamic norms and principles,” said Yemen’s Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree in a statement later on Sunday.

    He renewed the warning that any ship belonging to Israel or those who support it will be a legitimate target for Houthi forces.

    “We confirm our continuation of military operations against [Israel] until the aggression and ugly crimes against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop,” said Saree.

    The Houthis, backed by Tehran, have launched several missile and drone attacks against Israel since the latest assault on the besieged Gaza Strip began on October 7, killing more than 12,300 Palestinians, including 5,000 children.

    “The Houthis have carried out a number of attacks on Iranian targets. We are expecting more attacks in the coming days,” al-Attab said.

    The Israeli government called the hijack “a very serious event on a global level”, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying Israel was not involved in the ship’s ownership, operation or the makeup of its international crew.

    “This is another Iranian act of terrorism that represents an escalation in Iran’s belligerence against the citizens of the free world, with concomitant international ramifications vis-a-vis the security of global shipping routes,” said a statement released by the prime minister’s office.

    “There were no Israelis on the ship,” it said, adding the 25 crew members are from Ukraine, Mexico, the Philippines and Bulgaria, among other countries.

    Israel’s military also denied the ship was Israeli. In a statement on X, it said: “The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence.”

    “The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. It is not an Israeli ship,” the Israeli army said.

    A United States defence official said the US is “aware of the situation and closely monitoring it”.

    “What we understand is that the shipping company is partly owned by an Israeli businessman and this wouldn’t be the first time one of his ships was intercepted. In 2021, one of his vessels was also targeted,” said Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.

    Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said there has been no evidence put forth by Israel that Iran is behind the hijack.

    “This is an accusation made by the Israeli prime minister’s office without any concrete evidence to support it,” she said.

    The war in Gaza has sent tensions soaring in the region, with international organisations and political leaders warning of a potential wider regional conflict.

    “Iran in the past has distanced itself from these various armed groups in the Middle East that are against Israel,” Jabbari said.

    “But given Israel’s continuous bombardment of Gaza and what they call ‘genocide’ against the Palestinian population, the Iranians are saying the conflict could spread.”

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  • ‘Horrifying’: Dozens reported killed in Israeli attacks on camps, schools

    ‘Horrifying’: Dozens reported killed in Israeli attacks on camps, schools

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    At least 31 people killed in Israeli attacks on the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, officials say.

    Israeli air raids have killed dozens of people, including children, in northern, central, and southern Gaza, Palestinian officials and media have said, as the besieged territory endures its 44th day of bombardment.

    At least 31 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza, the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed enclave said on Sunday.

    A woman and her child were also killed in strikes in southern Khan Younis city, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

    Israeli forces also shot dead two people, including a disabled man, during incursions in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reported.

    Issam al-Fayed, a 46-year-old disabled man, was killed at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp, while 20-year-old Omar Laham was killed at the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem, Wafa said.

    ‘Our life is hell’

    The killings come on the heels of devastating assaults on schools and refugee camps in northern Gaza.

    At least 50 people were killed in an attack on al-Fakhoora school in the Jabalia refugee camp on Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, while dozens of casualties were reported from an attack on a second school in Tall az-Zaatar.

    “The scenes were horrifying. Corpses of women and children were on the ground. Others were screaming for help,” Ahmed Radwan, a wounded survivor of al-Fakhoora attack, told The Associated Press news agency.

    “Dead bodies [are] scattered … pieces of flesh”, an unnamed witness told Al Jazeera. “No one can recognise their sons. Our life is hell.”

    Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst for Al Jazeera, said al-Fakhoora school could be described as the “al-Shifa of schools” as it has been repeatedly hit by Israeli forces like al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, which has been a major target of Israel’s military campaign.

    “There is nothing discriminate about the fact that a school that shelters thousands of people has been bombed from the air; that is meant to create damage, human loss, suffering and death,” Bishara said.

    Patients fleeing al-Shifa

    Meanwhile, al-Shifa Hospital continued to be the focus of humanitarian concerns as hundreds of people fled the facility on foot on orders from the Israeli army, according to its director.

    Columns of sick and injured – some of them amputees – were seen leaving with displaced people, doctors, and nurses on Saturday, as loud explosions were heard around the complex.

    Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, described “horrifying images” of the scene, while Egypt called the bombing a “war crime” and “a deliberate insult to the United Nations”.

    A World Health Organization assessment team on Sunday said 291 patients were left at the hospital. They included 32 babies in extremely critical condition, trauma patients with severely infected wounds and others with spinal injuries who are unable to move, the UN health agency said.

    Since Palestinian group Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israeli territory on October 7, Israel has waged a devastating air and ground assault on Gaza, killing at least 11,500 people, more than a third of them children, according to Gaza officials.

    The 44-day war has displaced some 1.5 million Palestinians, wrecked much of the territory’s infrastructure and sparked a desperate humanitarian crisis, aid workers say.

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  • Photos: No end to Palestinian suffering with no end to Israel’s war on Gaza

    Photos: No end to Palestinian suffering with no end to Israel’s war on Gaza

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    Israeli air raids have killed many Palestinians at the al-Fakhoora School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), in the Jabalia refugee camp and another school in Tal al-Zaatar, also in northern Gaza.

    At least 50 people were killed in the attack on the al-Fakhoora School, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday. It said the two attacks killed and injured hundreds of people, with a combined estimated death toll of 200.

    Several hundred people were believed to have taken shelter at both schools, fleeing the non-stop Israeli attacks. The attack on al-Fakhoora is believed to have taken place in the early hours of the morning, while the attack on Tal al-Zaatar took place later in the day.

    The Israeli military had told Palestinians to move from north Gaza for their safety, but deadly air raids continued to hit central and southern areas of the narrow coastal territory.

    According to United Nations figures, about 1.6 million people have been displaced inside Gaza in six weeks of fighting. The Israeli army’s relentless air and ground campaign has since killed at least 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to Palestinian officials.

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  • Medical staff ordered out of Jenin hospital during Israeli raid

    Medical staff ordered out of Jenin hospital during Israeli raid

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    Palestinian medical workers were forced out of a hospital with their hands in the air during an Israeli raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night.

    Published On 17 Nov 2023

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  • Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital ‘out of service’, overwhelmed with wounded

    Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital ‘out of service’, overwhelmed with wounded

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    The Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has gone ‘completely out of service’ due to a lack of supplies and an overwhelming number of patients amid Israel’s assault on the besieged territory, hospital director Atef al-Kahlout has said.

    Footage from the hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip shows wounded Palestinians lining the hallways of the facility and lying prone amid pools of blood.

    “We cannot offer any more services … we can’t offer patients any beds,” al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

    While the hospital has a capacity of 140 patients, al-Kahlout said some 500 patients are currently inside the hospital.

    He said 45 patients are in need of “urgent surgical intervention”, and called on ambulances “not to bring any more wounded people” to the facility due to the lack of capacity.

    He says the hospital’s departments are “unable to carry out their work”. Health workers at the hospital cited a critical shortage of supplies.

    “We don’t have beds,” a health worker told Al Jazeera on a tour of the building.

    “This person needs an intensive care unit,” he added pointing to a young man lying on the ground while being tended to by a nurse.

    “And [here],” he says pointing to another patient with an amputated leg, “we have no medicine.”

    “We receive wounded people from Wadi Gaza to Beit Hanoon,” he says, “some have been here for 10 days.”

    Palestinians wounded in Israeli strikes lie on the floor at the Indonesian Hospital after the al-Shifa Hospital had shut down amid Israel’s ground offensive, in the northern Gaza Strip on November 16, 2023 [FadiAlwhidi/Reuters]

    Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been wounded since Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

    More than 11,400 people have been killed, including more than 4,600 children, in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel has also severely restricted supplies of water, food, electricity and fuel, with aid agencies warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.

    “Medical teams [at the Indonesian hospital] were forced to amputate some patients’ [body parts] due to the rotting of the organs,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Khan Younis, adding that the hospital is unable to transfer the injured elsewhere.

    “All hospitals in Gaza City and the north have stopped operating,” director al-Kahlout said.

    The Indonesian Hospital, located near the Jabalia refugee camp – the largest in Gaza – has also been sheltering hundreds of displaced people who sought shelter there.

    The vicinity of the hospital had been struck multiple times by Israeli forces, with at least two civilians killed in those strikes between October 7 and 28, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Israel’s military has alleged the Indonesian Hospital is used “to hide an underground command and control centre” for Hamas. Palestinian officials and the Indonesian group that funds the hospital have rejected the claims.

    Meanwhile, concerns are growing for the thousands of civilians trapped at al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, amid an ongoing Israeli raid. Israel says the hospital harbours a Hamas command centre, a claim the group has denied.

    White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday the United States was “confident in our own intelligence assessment” that Hamas has been using the hospital “as a command and control node, and most likely as well as a storage facility”.

    Late on Thursday, the Israeli army published videos it said showed a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle “containing a large number of weapons” uncovered at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital complex.

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  • UN Security Council adopts resolution for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza

    UN Security Council adopts resolution for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza

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    The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” to allow for aid delivery and medical evacuations, after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war.

    The resolution, introduced by Malta on Wednesday, also called for “corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days” to safeguard civilians, particularly children, ambassador Vanessa Frazier told the Council.

    It additionally asked for the unconditional release of captives held in Gaza.

    It was adopted by 12 votes in favour, zero against and three abstentions – Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

    “It is binding international law, but we know that there are many Security Council resolutions that are binding international law that Israel does not comply with. But I think it will add added pressure on Israel, particularly as the US allowed this resolution to go through – it could’ve used its veto,” said Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays.

    “Out of the previous four resolutions that didn’t go through, probably the one nearest to going through was the one on October 18, that’s when all the countries either voted for, or abstained, and the only country that voted against was the United States – it wielded its veto,” Bays said.

    “We’ve had 29 days since that date, and we know all the death toll figures are undercounted, but in that time there have been 7,600 more deaths and 3,653 of those deaths were children. What was called for then was a resolution calling for humanitarian pauses,” he added.

    The resolution made no mention of a ceasefire. It didn’t refer to Palestinian group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, during which Israeli authorities say about 1,200 people were killed and some 240 were taken captive.

    It omitted Israel’s retaliatory air strikes and ground offensive in Gaza, which Ministry of Health officials say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.

    The resolution listed fuel as among the items that must be allowed to be delivered “unhindered”.

    And it required that the UN chief give a report on its implementation at the next meeting of the Security Council concerning the Middle East.

    Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, was quick to respond that the resolution would have “no meaning”, calling it “disconnected from reality”.

    He maintained that Israeli was acting in accordance with international law in Gaza, a claim that has been rejected by several experts on the subject.

    “It is unfortunate that the council is still unable to condemn or even mention the massacre that Hamas carried out on [October 7] and led to the war in Gaza,” he wrote on X.

    “This is a disgrace,” he added, saying Hamas’s strategy is to “deliberately deteriorate the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and increase the number of Palestinian casualties in order to activate the UN and the Security Council in an attempt to stop Israel”.

    “It will not happen,” he continued.

    Earlier, the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemned council members that she said still have not condemned Hamas.

    “I want to say that I’m horrified that a few members of this council still cannot bring themselves to condemn the barbaric terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel on October 7,” she said. “What are they afraid of? There’s no excuse for failing to condemn these acts of terror.”

    Speaking ahead of a vote on her country’s draft resolution, Malta’s ambassador to the UN said it “aims to ensure respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims”.

    A last-minute amendment introduced by Russia called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce, leading to a cessation of hostilities”.

    The amendment failed to get the support needed with only five of the 15-member council voting in favour. The US voted against it.

    Over a two-week period last month, four previous resolutions failed in the Security Council, twice when Russia failed to get the minimum votes needed, once when the US vetoed a Brazilian-drafted resolution, and again when Russia and China vetoed a resolution put forward by the US.

    The US, Russia, China, France and the UK wield veto power as permanent members of the body.

    An initial Brazil-drafted resolution calling for humanitarian pauses was vetoed by the US for failing to “mention Israel’s right of self-defence”. A subsequent US-drafted resolution, which stated Israel’s “right to self-defence” but did not call for humanitarian pauses, was vetoed by Russia and China.

    Two subsequent Russian draft resolutions were not vetoed but did not attain the nine votes needed to be approved by the council.

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