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  • Key moments from a momentous day for Israelis and Palestinians

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    (CNN) — The last 20 living hostages held in Gaza were released on Monday, reuniting with their families in jubilant scenes as world leaders gathered in Egypt to discuss the future of Gaza and the next phases of the US-brokered ceasefire deal.

    For the first time in more than two years, Hamas and its allies are not holding any living hostages in Gaza.

    Meanwhile, 1,718 Palestinian detainees who were being held in Israel without charge were released on Monday and returned to Gaza. Israel also released 250 Palestinians serving long-term sentences.

    Addressing the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Monday during his trip to the Middle East, US President Donald Trump said the “long and painful nightmare is finally over.”

    “This is a historic dawn of a new Middle East,” Trump told Israeli lawmakers, having earlier projected confidence that the ceasefire deal would hold and that the war in Gaza was over.

    But a number of issues related to the 20-point plan brokered by Trump, alongside Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, remain unresolved.

    Here are some key moments from Monday and where the peace process may go next:

    Hostages freed

    The remaining 20 living hostages were released in two groups on Monday, prompting elation and relief throughout Israel.

    In Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, large crowds cheered, waved flags and chanted “thank you, Trump!” as news of the hostages’ freedom was announced.

    Emotional scenes unfolded at the Re’im military facility in southern Israel, where the released hostages were reunited with their immediate families after more than two years in captivity.

    In footage shared by the Israeli military, 24-year-old Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, was met by his parents and siblings. His family cried and embraced him in a large hug.

    Omri Miran embraces his father Dani in Re’im, Israel, after his release from captivity on October 13. Credit: Israel Defense Forces / Reuters via CNN Newsource

    Omri Miran, 48, who was kidnapped when Hamas gunmen broke into his family’s home in kibbutz Nahal Oz, was met by his wife Lishay Miran-Lavi and his father Dani Miran. Photos showed him playing with his children for the first time in more than two years.

    “We are at the beginning of a complex and challenging, yet moving, journey of recovery,” Miran’s family said in a statement.

    Under the agreement brokered by the US, Hamas and its allies were meant to release all of the remaining hostages, including 28 dead ones, within 72 hours of the ceasefire being announced.

    Israeli authorities said that Hamas had handed over four coffins said to contain the remains of four deceased hostages to the Red Cross on Monday.

    Later in the day, Israeli police said the coffins had been released into Israel, before being escorted to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for formal identification. Israel has not yet confirmed the identities of the remains being returned.

    Palestinian prisoners released

    Israel released 1,718 Palestinian detainees – detained by its forces in Gaza over the past two years and held without charge – on Monday. The detainees were brought back to Gaza on buses, where they were met by large crowds at Nasser hospital in the southern part of the enclave.

    A freed Palestinian is hugged by a relative in Ramallah, West Bank, after he was released from an Israeli jail on October 13. Credit: Ammar Awad / Reuters via CNN Newsource

    Israel also released 250 Palestinians serving life or long-term prison sentences.

    Some of those released prisoners were taken to the occupied West Bank, where they were hugged by family and friends as they emerged from buses in Ramallah. CNN also witnessed a substantial presence of Palestinian security forces and medics at the scene.

    A further 154 Palestinian prisoners who had been serving long sentences in Israeli jails were deported to Egypt, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. Israeli authorities had demanded that prisoners convicted of “violent offenses” be deported to third countries rather than be allowed to return to the West Bank or Gaza.

    Trump’s pointed address to Israel

    Trump spoke for more than an hour in the Israeli parliament, taking a victory lap for the ceasefire deal and repeatedly, pointedly telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not restart the war.

    “Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms. You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won,” Trump said. “Now it’s time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East. It’s about time you were able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

    The US president also warned that more war would diminish Netanyahu’s legacy, adding that he will be remembered for the truce “far more than if you kept this thing going.”

    Netanyahu has previously been accused of prolonging the war in Gaza in order to delay and distract from his corruption cases and domestic political troubles, an accusation he’s rejected.

    World leaders meet in Egypt

    Trump traveled on to Egypt to meet with other world leaders, including the leaders of Qatar, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. They converged on the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Egypt and the US are co-hosting a summit on the end of the Gaza war and the next phases of a peace plan.

    World leaders took part in a signing ceremony for the Gaza ceasefire deal during the summit.

    Netanyahu said he was invited but did not attend.

    The 20-point ceasefire plan brokered by the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey still has several unresolved issues and details that must be hammered out.

    Those sticking points include how the largely destroyed Gaza Strip will be governed after the war, as well as how Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza will be carried out.

    Next steps of ceasefire plan

    The full withdrawal of the Israeli military is contingent on Hamas’ disarmament, according to the agreement, leaving some wiggle room for Netanyahu to say Israel still has the freedom to resume fighting.

    Hamas’ chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said last week that the group has received guarantees from the US and international mediators confirming that this deal means “the war has ended permanently,” rather than representing a temporary ceasefire. It’s not clear in what form those guarantees came.

    The key unanswered question is what will happen to Hamas, according to Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British think tank.

    “You have what looks like a pathway to Palestinian statehood … but this, ultimately, is a Palestinian state that does not seem to have any place for Hamas. To what extent Hamas will agree to this and comply with this in the weeks and months to come – I think that is a big question,” Ozcelik told CNN.

    “I think Israel will retain what it sees as its national security imperative to operate in Gaza if it believes that there is a credible threat to its security and its border communities,” Ozcelik said. “But at the same time, there needs to be a governing body in Gaza. There needs to be security and law enforcement. There needs to be basic service delivery and distribution of vital humanitarian aid.”

    She added that other regional actors will be expected to play an important role in the transition, particularly Egypt and Turkey. “I think for the time being, all sides are going to want to be seen as doing all that they can to make Trump’s plan work.”

    CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Ivana Kottasova, Kara Fox, Tim Lister, Abeer Salman and Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.

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  • VIDEO: Hostages reunite with their families, friends in Israel

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    After two years of the Israel-Hamas war, all 20 living hostages have been freed and are in Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement. Video above: People celebrate at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after hostages releasedThousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, singing and cheering as the initial hostages were released. Guy Gilboa-Dalal was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7. Evyatar David, Gilboa-Dalal’s childhood best friend, was also abducted from the festival and reunited with his family Monday.Watch below: Guy Gilboa-Dalal reunites with his family after being freedAlon Ohel was taken from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7.Watch below: Former hostage Alon Ohel meets with his familyEvyatar David was reunited with his family after being kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival along with his childhood best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who also returned to his family Monday.Watch below: Former hostage Evyatar David reunites with his familyBar Kupershtein was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7.Watch below: Released Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein reunites with familyZiv and Gali Berman were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Kfar-Aza on Oct. 7. Their mother, Liran Berman, told CNN in February that other hostages who had been released had informed the family that the twin brothers were alive but separated from each other.Watch below: Former hostages Gali and Ziv Berman on their way to hospital in Israeli Air Force helicopterMore than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners were also freed as part of the ceasefire.Watch below: People celebrate in West Bank as released Palestinians reunite with their familiesSenior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences was included in the ceasefire deal.Watch below: Released prisoner says prison conditions are terrible, celebrates releaseAll the hostages freed Monday are men, as women, children and men older than 50 were released under previous ceasefire deals.Watch below: The 13 remaining living hostages have been released by Hamas

    After two years of the Israel-Hamas war, all 20 living hostages have been freed and are in Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement.

    Video above: People celebrate at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after hostages released

    Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, singing and cheering as the initial hostages were released.

    Guy Gilboa-Dalal was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7. Evyatar David, Gilboa-Dalal’s childhood best friend, was also abducted from the festival and reunited with his family Monday.

    Watch below: Guy Gilboa-Dalal reunites with his family after being freed

    Alon Ohel was taken from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7.

    Watch below: Former hostage Alon Ohel meets with his family

    Evyatar David was reunited with his family after being kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival along with his childhood best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who also returned to his family Monday.

    Watch below: Former hostage Evyatar David reunites with his family


    Ziv and Gali Berman were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Kfar-Aza on Oct. 7. Their mother, Liran Berman, told CNN in February that other hostages who had been released had informed the family that the twin brothers were alive but separated from each other.

    Watch below: Former hostages Gali and Ziv Berman on their way to hospital in Israeli Air Force helicopter

    More than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners were also freed as part of the ceasefire.

    Watch below: People celebrate in West Bank as released Palestinians reunite with their families

    Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences was included in the ceasefire deal.

    Watch below: Released prisoner says prison conditions are terrible, celebrates release

    All the hostages freed Monday are men, as women, children and men older than 50 were released under previous ceasefire deals.

    Watch below: The 13 remaining living hostages have been released by Hamas


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  • Hamas releases all 20 remaining living hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire

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    Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza on Monday, as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war that pummeled the territory, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, and had left scores of captives in militant hands.The hostages, all men, returned to Israel, where they will be reunited with their families and undergo medical checks. The bodies of the remaining 28 dead hostages are also expected to be handed over as part of the deal, although the exact timing remained unclear.Meanwhile, a convoy of Israeli vehicles, Red Cross jeeps and buses left Ofer Prison for the occupied West Bank on Monday afternoon, carrying some of the 250 long-term prisoners set to be released in the exachange. The buses are headed to the center of Beitunia, the nearest Palestinian town, where friends and families await their arrival.In Tel Aviv, families and friends of the hostages who gathered in a square broke into wild cheers as Israeli television channels announced that the first group of hostages was in the hands of the Red Cross. Tens of thousands of Israelis watched the transfers at public screenings across the country.Israel released the first photos of hostages arriving home, including one showing 28-year-old twins Gali and Ziv Berman embracing as they were reunited. Hostages previously released had said the twins from Kfar Aza were held separately.The photos of the first seven hostages released Monday showed them looking pale but less gaunt than some of the hostages freed in January.Earlier, while Palestinians awaited the release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel, an armored vehicle flying an Israeli flag fired tear gas and rubber bullets at a crowd. As drones buzzed overhead, the group scattered.The tear gas followed the circulation of a flier warning that anyone supporting what it called “terrorist organizations” risked arrest. Israel’s military did not respond to questions about the flier, which The Associated Press obtained on site.While major questions remain about the future of Hamas and Gaza, the exchange of hostages and prisoners raised hopes for ending the deadliest war ever between Israel and the militant group.The ceasefire is also expected to be accompanied by a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine.U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the region, where he plans to discuss the U.S.-proposed deal and postwar plans with other leaders.The war began when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage.In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the dead were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.The toll is expected to grow as bodies are pulled from rubble previously made inaccessible by fighting.The war has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its some 2 million residents. It has also triggered other conflicts in the region, sparked worldwide protests and led to allegations of genocide that Israel denies.”Much of Gaza is a wasteland,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the AP on Sunday. Living hostages being released firstThe hostages’ return caps a painful chapter for Israel. Since they were captured in the attack that ignited the war, newscasts have marked their days in captivity and Israelis have worn yellow pins and ribbons in solidarity. Tens of thousands have joined their families in weekly demonstrations calling for their release.As the war dragged on, demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging his feet for political purposes, even as he accused Hamas of intransigence. Last week, under heavy international pressure and increasing isolation for Israel, the bitter enemies agreed to the ceasefire.With the hostages’ release, the sense of urgency around the war for many Israelis will be effectively over.It remains unclear when the remains of 28 dead hostages will be returned. An international task force will work to locate deceased hostages who are not returned within 72 hours, said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the hostages and the missing.Meanwhile, buses lined up in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning in anticipation of the release of prisoners.The exact timing has not been announced for the release of Palestinian prisoners. They include 250 people serving life sentences for convictions in attacks on Israelis, in addition to 1,700 seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge. They will be returned to the West Bank or Gaza or sent into exile.Trump is traveling to Israel and EgyptTrump arrived Monday in Israel, where the White House said he will meet with families of the hostages and speak at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Vice President JD Vance said Trump was likely to meet with newly freed hostages.”The war is over,” Trump told to reporters as he departed — even though his ceasefire deal leaves many unanswered questions about the future of Hamas and Gaza.Among the most thorny is Israel’s insistence that a weakened Hamas disarm. Hamas refuses to do that and wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza.So far, the Israeli military has withdrawn from much of Gaza City, the southern city of Khan Younis and other areas. Troops remain in most of the southern city of Rafah, towns of Gaza’s far north, and the wide strip along the length of Gaza’s border with Israel.The future governance of Gaza also remains unclear. Under the U.S. plan, an international body will govern the territory, overseeing Palestinian technocrats running day-to-day affairs. Hamas has said Gaza’s government should be worked out among Palestinians.Later Monday, Trump will head to Egypt, where he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi will lead a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East.Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, will attend, according to a judge and adviser to Abbas, Mahmoud al-Habbash. The plan envisions an eventual role for the Palestinian Authority — something Netanyahu has long opposed. But it requires the authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, to undergo a sweeping reform program that could take years.The plan also calls for an Arab-led international security force in Gaza, along with Palestinian police trained by Egypt and Jordan. It said Israeli forces would leave areas as those forces deploy. About 200 U.S. troops are now in Israel to monitor the ceasefire.The plan also mentions the possibility of a future Palestinian state, another nonstarter for Netanyahu.___Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Truro, Massachusetts; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

    Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza on Monday, as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war that pummeled the territory, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, and had left scores of captives in militant hands.

    Seven of the hostages were released early Monday, while the remaining 13 were freed a few hours later.

    The 20, all men, were being reunited with their families and expected to undergo medical checks.

    The bodies of the remaining 28 dead hostages are also expected to be handed over as part of the deal, although the exact timing remained unclear.

    Families and friends of the hostages who gathered in a square in Tel Aviv broke into wild cheers as Israeli television channels announced that the first group of hostages was in the hands of the Red Cross. Tens of thousands of Israelis watched the transfers at public screenings across the country.

    Israel released the first photos of hostages arriving home, including one showing 28-year-old twins Gali and Ziv Berman embracing as they were reunited. Hostages previously released had said the twins from Kfar Aza were held separately.

    The photos of the first seven hostages released Monday showed them looking pale but less gaunt than some of the hostages freed in January.

    Palestinians, meanwhile, awaited the release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel. In the West Bank, an armored vehicle flying an Israeli flag fired tear gas and rubber bullets at a crowd waiting near Ofer Prison. As drones buzzed overhead, the group scattered.

    The tear gas followed the circulation of a flier warning that anyone supporting what it called “terrorist organizations” risked arrest. Israel’s military did not respond to questions about the flier, which The Associated Press obtained on site.

    While major questions remain about the future of Hamas and Gaza, the exchange of hostages and prisoners raised hopes for ending the deadliest war ever between Israel and the militant group.

    The ceasefire is also expected to be accompanied by a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine.

    U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the region, where he plans to discuss the U.S.-proposed deal and postwar plans with other leaders.

    The war began when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage.

    In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the dead were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

    The toll is expected to grow as bodies are pulled from rubble previously made inaccessible by fighting.

    The war has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its some 2 million residents. It has also triggered other conflicts in the region, sparked worldwide protests and led to allegations of genocide that Israel denies.

    “Much of Gaza is a wasteland,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the AP on Sunday.

    Living hostages being released first

    The hostages’ return caps a painful chapter for Israel. Since they were captured in the attack that ignited the war, newscasts have marked their days in captivity and Israelis have worn yellow pins and ribbons in solidarity. Tens of thousands have joined their families in weekly demonstrations calling for their release.

    As the war dragged on, demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging his feet for political purposes, even as he accused Hamas of intransigence. Last week, under heavy international pressure and increasing isolation for Israel, the bitter enemies agreed to the ceasefire.

    With the hostages’ release, the sense of urgency around the war for many Israelis will be effectively over.

    It remains unclear when the remains of 28 dead hostages will be returned. An international task force will work to locate deceased hostages who are not returned within 72 hours, said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the hostages and the missing.

    Meanwhile, buses lined up in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning in anticipation of the release of prisoners.

    The exact timing has not been announced for the release of Palestinian prisoners. They include 250 people serving life sentences for convictions in attacks on Israelis, in addition to 1,700 seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge. They will be returned to the West Bank or Gaza or sent into exile.

    Trump is traveling to Israel and Egypt

    Trump arrived Monday in Israel, where the White House said he will meet with families of the hostages and speak at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Vice President JD Vance said Trump was likely to meet with newly freed hostages.

    “The war is over,” Trump told to reporters as he departed — even though his ceasefire deal leaves many unanswered questions about the future of Hamas and Gaza.

    Among the most thorny is Israel’s insistence that a weakened Hamas disarm. Hamas refuses to do that and wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza.

    So far, the Israeli military has withdrawn from much of Gaza City, the southern city of Khan Younis and other areas. Troops remain in most of the southern city of Rafah, towns of Gaza’s far north, and the wide strip along the length of Gaza’s border with Israel.

    The future governance of Gaza also remains unclear. Under the U.S. plan, an international body will govern the territory, overseeing Palestinian technocrats running day-to-day affairs. Hamas has said Gaza’s government should be worked out among Palestinians.

    Later Monday, Trump will head to Egypt, where he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi will lead a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East.

    Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, will attend, according to a judge and adviser to Abbas, Mahmoud al-Habbash. The plan envisions an eventual role for the Palestinian Authority — something Netanyahu has long opposed. But it requires the authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, to undergo a sweeping reform program that could take years.

    The plan also calls for an Arab-led international security force in Gaza, along with Palestinian police trained by Egypt and Jordan. It said Israeli forces would leave areas as those forces deploy. About 200 U.S. troops are now in Israel to monitor the ceasefire.

    The plan also mentions the possibility of a future Palestinian state, another nonstarter for Netanyahu.

    ___

    Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Truro, Massachusetts; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

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  • Hamas releases first group of 7 hostages to Red Cross in Gaza, Israel says | Special Report

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    Hamas releases first group of 7 hostages to Red Cross in Gaza, Israel says | Special Report – CBS News










































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    Hamas has handed over a first group of living Israeli hostages to the Red Cross as part of President Trump’s peace plan. Kelly O’Grady anchored CBS News’ special report.

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  • Reflecting on Oct. 7 and 2 years of Gaza war with Israeli hostages set to come home

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    Reflecting on Oct. 7 and 2 years of Gaza war with Israeli hostages set to come home – CBS News










































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    Kelly O’Grady looks back at the Oct. 7 attack, the war in Gaza and the U.S. reaction to the conflict as Hamas prepares to release the remaining Israeli hostages.

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  • Trump heads to the Middle East amid Gaza ceasefire

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    Trump heads to the Middle East amid Gaza ceasefire – CBS News










































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    President Trump is on his way to the Middle East and plans the address the Israeli Knesset. Nancy Cordes reports.

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  • Inside war-torn Gaza as Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues

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    Inside war-torn Gaza as Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues – CBS News










































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    Displaced Palestinians are returning to the ruins of their homes and new drone video from Gaza City shows what remains after two years of war. Debora Patta is in East Jerusalem with more on the territory’s urgent needs.

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  • Israel pushing forward with Gaza City operation, Hamas yet to respond to Trump peace plan

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    Israel pushing forward with Gaza City operation, Hamas yet to respond to Trump peace plan – CBS News










































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    Israel is moving ahead with its operations in Gaza City as the world awaits a response from Hamas to President Trump’s proposed peace plan. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Debora Patta has more.

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  • Opinion | How Israel Can Punish France and Britain

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    Shutter the consulates in Jerusalem, which act as embassies to the Palestinian Authority.

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    Ran Ichay

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  • Airstrikes and gunfire kill at least 59 people in Gaza as pressure grows for ceasefire, hostage deal

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    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UNAmong the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building. Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure growsThe attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikesThe strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals. Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.

    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —

    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.

    Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UN

    Among the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.

    Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.

    The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.

    “The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

    He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building.

    Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure grows

    The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.

    Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.

    International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.

    A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

    Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”

    Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.

    Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.

    Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikes

    The strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.

    Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

    Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.

    On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.

    Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

    Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

    Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.

    Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.

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  • Rubio in Israel as fallout from IDF strike on Qatar continues

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    Rubio in Israel as fallout from IDF strike on Qatar continues – CBS News










































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    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Israel on Sunday night despite President Trump’s unhappiness over an Israeli airstrike that targeted a Hamas negotiating team in Qatar last week. Leigh Kiniry reports from London.

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  • Oscar-winning Palestinian director Basel Adra says Israeli soldiers raided his West Bank home

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    Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra said Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at his West Bank home on Saturday, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.

    Israeli settlers attacked his village, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told The Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.

    The soldiers asked his wife, Suha, about his whereabouts and went through her phone, he said, while his 9-month-old daughter was home. They also briefly detained one of his uncles, he said.

    As of Saturday night, Adra said he had no way of returning home to check on his family, because soldiers were blocking the entrance to the village and he was scared of being detained.

    Israel’s military said that soldiers were in the village after Palestinians had thrown rocks, injuring two Israeli civilians. It said its forces were still in the village, searching the area and questioning people.

    Adra has spent his career as a journalist and filmmaker chronicling settler violence in Masafer Yatta, a group of villages in the southern reaches of the West Bank, where he was born. After settlers attacked his co-director, Hamdan Ballal, in March, he told the AP that he felt they were being targeted more intensely since winning the Oscar. Adra said he witnessed the detention and said around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns, some in Israeli uniform — attacked the village of Susiya. Ballal said the settlers beat him in front of his home while filming the assault.

    Adra described Saturday’s events as “horrific.”

    “Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house,” he said. “The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.”

    Another co-director, Yuval Abraham, said he was “terrified for Basel.”

    “What happened today in his village, we’ve seen this dynamic again and again, where the Israeli settlers brutally attack a Palestinian village and later on the army comes, and attacks the Palestinians.”

    “No Other Land,” which won an Oscar this year for best documentary, depicts the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. Ballal and Adra made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Abraham and Rachel Szor.

    The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad. In March this year, Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary, although it later backed down.

    Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

    Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to more than 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

    The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

    During the war in Gaza, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank during wide-scale military operations, and there has also been a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians. There has also been a surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

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  • Barrage of Israeli airstrikes kills 32 in Gaza City, including 12 children, hospital says

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    A barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate, medical staff reported Saturday.The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.In recent days, Israel has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings and accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.On Saturday, the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave as part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, struggling under conditions of famine.One of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children, said health officials. The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes, along with 14 members of his family. Images showed the strikes hitting followed by plumes of smoke.Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.Hostages’ relatives rally in IsraelMeanwhile, relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a deal to release their loved ones and criticized what they said was a counterproductive approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in securing a resolution.Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, described Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar this week as a “spectacular failure.”“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone. But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, as families, to bring our loved ones home,” Zangauker said.Some Palestinians are leaving Gaza City, but many are stuckIn the wake of escalating hostilities and calls to evacuate the city, the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, according to aid workers. However, many families remain stuck due to the cost of finding transportation and housing, while others have been displaced too many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the enclave is safe.In a message on social media Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to leave “immediately” and move south to what it’s calling a humanitarian zone. Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than a quarter of a million people had left Gaza City — from an estimated 1 million who live in the area of north Gaza around the city.The United Nations, however, put the number of people who have left at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September. The U.N. and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are overcrowded, according to the U.N., and it can cost money to move, which many people do not have.An initiative headed by the U.N. to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.The bombardment Friday night across Gaza City came days after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.Families of the hostages still held in Gaza are pleading with Israel to halt the offensive, worried it will kill their relatives. There are 48 hostages still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed, and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.

    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —

    A barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate, medical staff reported Saturday.

    The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

    In recent days, Israel has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings and accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.

    On Saturday, the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave as part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, struggling under conditions of famine.

    One of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children, said health officials. The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes, along with 14 members of his family. Images showed the strikes hitting followed by plumes of smoke.

    Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.

    Hostages’ relatives rally in Israel

    Meanwhile, relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a deal to release their loved ones and criticized what they said was a counterproductive approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in securing a resolution.

    Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, described Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar this week as a “spectacular failure.”

    “President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone. But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, as families, to bring our loved ones home,” Zangauker said.

    Some Palestinians are leaving Gaza City, but many are stuck

    In the wake of escalating hostilities and calls to evacuate the city, the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, according to aid workers. However, many families remain stuck due to the cost of finding transportation and housing, while others have been displaced too many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the enclave is safe.

    In a message on social media Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to leave “immediately” and move south to what it’s calling a humanitarian zone. Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than a quarter of a million people had left Gaza City — from an estimated 1 million who live in the area of north Gaza around the city.

    The United Nations, however, put the number of people who have left at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September. The U.N. and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are overcrowded, according to the U.N., and it can cost money to move, which many people do not have.

    An initiative headed by the U.N. to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.

    Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.

    The bombardment Friday night across Gaza City came days after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.

    Families of the hostages still held in Gaza are pleading with Israel to halt the offensive, worried it will kill their relatives. There are 48 hostages still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.

    The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed, and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.

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  • Battle over W. Bank Palestinian work permits heats up after Jerusalem terror attack

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    Defense Minister Israel Katz announced canceling 750 Palestinian work permits and demolishing homes after the Jerusalem attack, drawing pushback from security chiefs.

    A battle broke out within the defense establishment on Tuesday as Defense MinisterIsrael Katz announced the elimination of certain Palestinian work permits and the demolition of particular Palestinian residences in response to the terror attack in Jerusalem on Monday.

    More specifically, Katz said that he would cancel the work permits of 750 Palestinian workers from the villages of Qatannah and Al-Qubeibah, where the two terrorists who perpetrated Monday’s attack were from, and that he would order the demolition of Palestinian residences in those areas which had been built illegally.

    The defense minister’s statement generated significant confusion since he mentioned that he had the support of outgoing COGAT chief Maj.-Gen. Raasan Elian, but he did not mention the rest of the defense establishment.

    The Shin Bet and the two IDF commanders who have led the Central Command during the war, Maj.-Gen. Yehuda Fuchs and Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, have pressed heavily for the government to restore the over 200,000 West Bank Palestinian work permits approved before the war started, and which the cabinet dropped to around 10,000.

    Although the political echelon said dropping the work permit numbers was necessary to avoid terrorists after October 7, there has been no evidence to date of any statistically significant number of terrorists from those who received work permits.

    Israeli security forces disperse Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, August 31, 2025. (credit: WISAM HASHLAMOUN/FLASH90)

    In fact, the Shin Bet and the IDF are convinced that the cabinet’s decision to cancel work permits drove many normative persons to terrorism by denying them work opportunities and leaving them nothing to do with their time.

    There are no indications that the Shin Bet or IDF Central Command have changed their view after the Monday terror attack, and The Jerusalem Post understands that they are still in favor of increasing, rather than decreasing, work permits for West Bank Palestinians (vs for Gazans.)

    In contrast, the Post can confirm that Elian does support Katz’s policy change.

    While Elian also supports increasing work permits for West Bank Palestinians in general, he believes that a narrow targeted work permit penalty against villages that produce terrorists could be effective in deterring future terror from such villages.

    ‘Only a few bad apples’

    When pressed that such a policy could backfire in the villages that were generally peaceful, with only a few “bad apples,” that would view the collective punishment as unfair, Elian would say that some past targeted penalties had demonstrated the opposite, that normative villages understood they were only being penalized because of the isolated incidents.

    The penalty had led the villagers to increase pressure on extremist elements in their village against perpetrating terror, in order to have their work permits restored.

    Sources did not dismiss the possibility of the work permits being restored if the villages remained quiet, though there was no set timeline for doing so.

    The Post also understands that the announcement regarding destroying Palestinian residences was not coordinated with IDF legal authorities.

    In fact, it is unclear what legal authority the IDF has to destroy Palestinian residences in Area A or Area B of the West Bank under Palestinian control because they were built “illegally,” given that the PA decides what is legal and illegal building in those areas.

    Israel can demolish Palestinian residences built in Area C without approval or in areas under PA control if connected to specific terrorists and approved by Israeli legal authorities and the courts.

    But this would not apply to a general rule against Palestinians who had not committed terror.

    Katz did not specify where or how many residences might be demolished.

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  • Palestinians face severe water shortages in the West Bank

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    COGAT, Israel’s military agency, stated that the PA is responsible for supplying water in the West Bank. Israel transfers 90 million cubic meters annually, blaming shortages on Palestinian theft.

    Palestinians in the West Bank are facing severe water shortages that they say are being driven by increasing attacks on scarce water sources by extremist Jewish settlers.

    Across the West Bank inPalestinian communities, residents are reporting shortages that have left taps in homes dry and farms without irrigation.

    In Ramallah, one of the largest Palestinian cities in the West Bank and the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, residents facing water shortages are now relying on public taps.

    “We only get water at home twice a week, so people are forced to come here,” said Umm Ziad, as she filled empty plastic bottles with water alongside other Ramallah residents.

    The United Nations recorded 62 incidents of Israeli settlers vandalizing water wells, pipelines, irrigation networks, and other water-related infrastructure in the West Bank in the first six months of the year.

    A Palestinian boy fills a water bottle from a public water point, in Ramallah in the West Bank, July 22, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman)

    The IDF acknowledged it has received multiple reports of Israeli civilians intentionally causing damage to water infrastructure, but that no suspects had been identified.

    Among the targets have been a freshwater spring and a water distribution station in Ein Samiya, around 16 km (10 miles) northeast of Ramallah, serving around 20 nearby Palestinian villages and some city neighborhoods.

    Settlers have taken over the spring that many Palestinians have used for generations to cool off in the hot summer months.

    Palestinian public utility Jerusalem Water Undertaking said the Ein Samiya water distribution station had become a frequent target of settler vandalism.

    “Settler violence has escalated dramatically,” Abdullah Bairait, 60, a resident of nearby Kfar Malik, standing on a hilltop overlooking the spring.

    “They enter the spring stations, break them, remove cameras, and cut off the water for hours,” he said.

    The Ein Samiya spring and Kfar Malik village have been increasingly surrounded by Jewish Israeli settlements. The United Nations and most foreign governments consider settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law and an obstacle to the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

    According to the United Nations’ humanitarian office, settlers carried out multiple attacks targeting water springs and vital water infrastructure in the Ramallah, Salfit, and Nablus areas between June 1 and July 14. The Ein Samiya water spring had been repeatedly attacked, it said in a July report.

    Israeli security forces view any damage to infrastructure as a serious matter and were carrying out covert and overt actions to prevent further harm, the Israeli military said in response to Reuters’ questions for this story. It said the Palestinian Water Authority had been given access to carry out repairs.

    Kareem Jubran, director of field research at Israeli rights group B’Tselem, told Reuters that settlers had taken control over most natural springs in the West Bank in recent years and prevented Palestinians from accessing them.

    Settler violence

    Palestinians have long faced a campaign of intimidation, harassment, and physical violence by extremist settlers, who represent a minority of Israeli settlers living in the West Bank. Most live in settlements for financial or ideological reasons and do not advocate for violence against Palestinians.

    Palestinians say the frequency of settler violence in the West Bank has increased since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

    They say they fear the rise in settler violence is part of a campaign to drive them from the land. The United Nations has registered 925 such incidents in the first seven months of this year, a 16% year-on-year increase.

    Since the Hamas terrorist attacks, which sparked the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians have advocated for Israel to annex the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.

    Reuters reported on Sunday that Israeli officials said the government is now considering annexing the territory after France and other Western nations said they would recognize a Palestinian state this month. The Palestinian Authority wants a future Palestinian state to encompass the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

    Palestinians in the West Bank have long struggled to access water. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited civic rule in parts of the territory and relies on Israeli approvals to develop and expand water infrastructure. Palestinian officials and rights groups say that’s rarely given.

    B’Tselem said in an April 2023 report that Palestinians were facing a chronic water crisis, while settlers have an abundance of water.

    “The water shortage in the West Bank is the intentional outcome of Israel’s deliberately discriminatory policy, which views water as another means for controlling the Palestinians,” B’Tselem wrote in the report.

    Costly deliveries

    Across the West Bank, water tanks are common in Palestinian homes, storing rainwater or water delivered by trucks due to an already unreliable piped water network that has been exacerbated by the settler attacks.

    COGAT, the Israeli military agency that oversees policy in the West Bank and Gaza, said in response to Reuters questions that the Palestinian Authority was responsible for supplying water to Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel transferred 90 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinian Authority each year, it said, blaming any shortages on water theft by Palestinians.

    Along with traveling long distances to collect water, Palestinians have become reliant on costly water deliveries to manage the chronic water crisis that they fear will only grow.

    “If the settlers continue their attacks, we will have conflict over water,” said Wafeeq Saleem, who was collecting water from a public tap outside Ramallah.

    “Water is the most important thing for us.”

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  • Letters: Describing deaths in Gaza and Lebanon is not anti-Israel bias

    Letters: Describing deaths in Gaza and Lebanon is not anti-Israel bias

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    Pointing fingers in the Mideast

    Re: “Media bias against Israel is fueling antisemitism,” Oct. 20 commentary

    I read Doug Friednash’s op-ed, again highlighting rising antisemitism as a result of the media bias and escalating retaliatory acts between Israel and Hamas.

    As a descendant of Lebanese heritage, I find it insulting and remiss that Friednash can’t seem to acknowledge the toll this conflict is exacting upon innocent Lebanese civilians caught in the middle of this conflict. By his logic, failing to mention the collateral damage to the Lebanese people is actually anti-Lebanese.

    Please, readers and the American public, appreciate and disavow the unintended consequences of these unending aggressions on Lebanese soil.

    Peter Murr, Denver

    I liked the piece in Sunday’s paper by Doug Friednash. It’s about time somebody said something. I was surprised to see it in The Post, as the paper is becoming known as the New York Times West!

    The question that is never answered is why? Why is our media doing this? These are established American news companies, supposedly staffed by patriotic Americans, yet they slant their coverage to favor the terrorists.

    Ralph H. McClure, Greeley

    In his attempt to blame the media for presenting a false picture of Israel, Doug Friednash seems to assume that Americans are unable to understand the multiple layers that exist in that region of the world.

    I am pro-Israel, but only within its pre-1967 borders. Since Israeli policy denies the right of return with full civil rights to the descendants of the indigenous people who lived there before Israel was established, I am also in favor of a fully sovereign Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital, which makes me pro-Palestine.

    I have many Jewish friends — but that does not blind me to the fact that AIPAC’s lobbyists wield an effective veto over U.S. policy in the Middle East. That said, antisemitism is as stupid as racism or being anti-Chinese or anti-immigrant.

    Because Zionism is a colonial project that continues to seize Palestinian land, I am an anti-Zionist. I am also vehemently anti-Netanyahu because his policies have killed many more non-Israeli civilians for each Israeli civilian who was killed on Oct. 7.

    Friednash seems to expect unquestioning support for all elements of Israeli policy. If not, by some twisted calculus, one is antisemitic. This is nonsense. His real complaint is that for the first time in over 75 years, the American public is finally getting factual reporting on the Middle East instead of the steady diet of pro-Zionist “news” that had been common in the past.

    The current policies of the Netanyahu government have covered Israel with shame. What is worse is that they are providing the fodder that has fueled the rise of antisemitism — worldwide. Since it is impossible to kill the idea of Palestinian nationalism with a bomb, this is surely a lose-lose situation for both Israel and the Jewish people.

    Guy Wroble, Denver

    TABOR demands permission, and ballot is asking

    Re: “Don’t mess with my TABOR refund: vote no on JJ, KK and JeffCo 1A,” Oct. 20 letter to the editor

    The letter writer apparently is a bit befuddled; he starts with “all these ballot issues would otherwise violate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR),” then admits that “TABOR requires that government ask voters for such approval.”

    Ideologically, doesn’t the reality of TABOR go against what conservatives always say: “Let the people decide?” That should apply at the get-go of our gross earnings because, personally, I don’t need or want the state to be an annual savings account for me.

    His ending, “don’t mess with my TABOR refund,” is reminiscent of the protest signs in a past presidential election that said, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”

    Ken Valero, Littleton

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    To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

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  • Mideast violence is spiraling a year since the Gaza war began

    Mideast violence is spiraling a year since the Gaza war began

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    JERUSALEM — A year after Hamas’ fateful attack on southern Israel, the Middle East is embroiled in a war that shows no signs of ending and seems to be getting worse.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive was initially centered on the Gaza Strip. But the focus has shifted in recent weeks to Lebanon, where airstrikes have given way to a fast-expanding ground incursion against Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war began.

    Next in Israel’s crosshairs is archenemy Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other anti-Israel militants in the region. After withstanding a massive barrage of missiles from Iran last week, Israel has promised to respond. The escalating conflict risks drawing deeper involvement by the U.S., as well as Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

    When Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, it called on the Arab world to join it in a concerted campaign against Israel. While the fighting has indeed spread, Hamas and its allies have paid a heavy price.

    The group’s army has been decimated, its Gaza stronghold has been reduced to a cauldron of death, destruction and misery and the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed in audacious attacks.

    Although Israel appears to be gaining the edge militarily, the war has been problematic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too.

    Dozens of Israeli hostages are languishing in Hamas captivity, and a year after Netanyahu pledged to crush the group in “total victory,” remnants of the militant group are still battling in pockets of Gaza. The offensive in Lebanon, initially described as “limited,” grows by the day. A full-on collision with Iran is a possibility.

    At home, Netanyahu faces mass protests over his inability to bring home the hostages, and to many, he will be remembered as the man who led Israel into its darkest moment. Relations with the U.S. and other allies are strained. The economy is deteriorating.

    Here are five takeaways from a yearlong war that has upended longstanding assumptions and turned conventional wisdom on its head.

    A region is torn apart by unthinkable death and destruction

    A long list of previously unthinkable events have occurred in mind-boggling fashion.

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    Josef Federman

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  • Oil prices climb with Israel considering strikes on Iranian oil facilities

    Oil prices climb with Israel considering strikes on Iranian oil facilities

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    Oil prices climb with Israel considering strikes on Iranian oil facilities – CBS News


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    As the Middle East waits to see how Israel will respond to Tuesday’s massive missile attack by Iran, oil prices have risen over the prospect of possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil facilities. CBS News foreign correspondent Ramy Inocencio has more.

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  • White House warns direct attack from Iran against Israel will have severe consequences

    White House warns direct attack from Iran against Israel will have severe consequences

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    White House warns direct attack from Iran against Israel will have severe consequences – CBS News


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    A senior White House official says that the U.S. believes Iran is preparing to imminently launch a missile attack against Israel and warns that should there be an attack, Iran will face consequences. CBS News White House reporter Willie James Inman and CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie D’Agata have the latest.

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  • Israel conducts

    Israel conducts

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    Beirut, Lebanon — The Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted strike” in Beirut on Friday, as social media video showed smoke rising from the site of an attack in the Lebanese capital.

    “At this moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” the Israel Defence Forces said in a statement.

    Lebanese health officials said at least 8 people were killed and 59 people were wounded in the strike. The IDF said it had “eliminated” Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.

    “During the strike, senior operatives in Hezbollah’s Operations Staff and commanders from the Radwan Unit were eliminated alongside Aqil,” the IDF said in a statement, claiming the killed Hezbollah operatives, including Aqil, had been planning an attack on Israel “in which Hezbollah intended to infiltrate Israeli communities and murder innocent civilians.”

    The United States had previously offered a “reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction,” of Aqil, who it said was a leader of Hezbollah in the 1980s, when the group claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

    The White House earlier warned both Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group against “escalation of any kind” following this week’s synchronized pager and walkie talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah members, but overnight, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has continued firing back.

    An Israeli fighter jet takes off at an unidentified location to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
    An Israeli fighter jet takes off from an unidentified location to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo released Sept. 19, 2024 by the Israel Defense Forces.

    Israel Defense Forces/Handout/REUTERS


    There were loud explosions and fires ignited by what the IDF said were strikes targeting hundreds of active Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon early Friday. Hezbollah struck northern Israel again in a counterattack, killing at least two soldiers, according to Israeli officials.

    The deadly escalation in violence followed a televised address from a weary-looking Hassan Nasrallah — the leader of Hezbollah — who admitted this week’s pager and walkie talkie explosions had delivered a “severe blow” to the powerful group, which like Hamas has long been designated a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S.

    Nasrallah accused Israel of not only violating “all red lines” with the explosions but of a “declaration of war.”

    Israel has not publicly claimed the complex communications device attacks, but CBS News learned that American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon on Tuesday. There were no specific details shared about the methods to be used.

    For two terrifying days in Lebanon, thousands of low-tech communications devices — many used by Hezbollah members — exploded simultaneously across the country, wounding over 3,000 people and killing at least 37, including children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.


    Hezbollah leader links Israel to Lebanon device explosions, calls them act of war

    05:59

    In his address, Nasrallah vowed that Israel would not achieve its goal of enabling the return of tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes in northern border towns. Even as he spoke on Thursday, however, sonic booms echoed above Beirut as Israeli fighter jets roared over the city, flexing Israel’s military might.

    But as the U.S. warning Thursday indicated, the next moves — be they further retaliation from Hezbollah or ground operations by the IDF against the group — could have major consequences.

    “Ultimately, if they [Israel] do invade, they would have to occupy” southern Lebanon, regional analyst Makram Rabah told CBS News. “This would lead to a kind of a slow, depleting war for Israel, and this would, more importantly, legitimize Hezbollah.”

    But hundreds of Hezbollah fighters were likely injured by the explosives attacks, which almost certainly left the group’s communications networks in complete disarray. And despite warnings from Israel’s defense chief of “a new phase” in the country’s war with Iran’s so-called proxy groups, and one IDF division already being transferred there from Gaza, there’s also been no major Israeli build-up of forces or hardware along the Lebanon border seen yet.

    Omar Abdulkader

    contributed to this report.

    Imtiaz Tyab


    headshot-600-imtiaz-tyab.jpg

    Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London and reports for all platforms, including the “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Mornings,” “CBS Sunday Morning” and CBS News 24/7. He has extensive experience reporting from major global flashpoints, including the Middle East and the war on terror.

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