Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault

Update Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
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Israel’s army said on the social platform X that it would act with “extreme force” against militants. (AFP)
Update Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
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Displaced Palestinians, who fled their house due to Israeli strikes, shelter at a tent camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5, 2024. (Reuters)
Update Palestinians transport an injured man pulled from the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in the center of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Palestinians transport an injured man pulled from the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in the center of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
Update Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
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Palestinians transport an injured man pulled from the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in the center of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
Update Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
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Mourners react near to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 5, 2024. (REUTERS)
Update Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
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Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 5, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 06 May 2024
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Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault

Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of an expected assault
  • EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell condemn Israel’s evacuation order
  • Israeli leaders have repeatedly said the invasion is necessary to defeat Hamas

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the area, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.
The announcement complicates last-ditch efforts by international mediators, including the director of the CIA, to broker a ceasefire. The militant Hamas group and Qatar, a key mediator, have warned that invading Rafah — along the border with Egypt — could derail the talks, and the United States has repeatedly urged Israel against the invasion.
However, Israel has described Rafah as the last significant Hamas stronghold after seven months of war, and its leaders have repeatedly said the invasion is necessary to defeat the Islamic militant group.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi. He said Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and would not say whether this was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. But after Oct. 7 and the unprecedented attack on southern Israel by Hamas, Israel did not formally announce the launch of a ground invasion that continues to this day.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Monday condemned Israel’s order for Palestinians living in eastern Rafah to flee the Gazan city.
“Israel’s evacuation orders to civilians in Rafah portend the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable. Israel must renounce to a ground offensive,” Borrell said in a social media post.
Overnight, Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin that Israel had no choice but to act in Rafah. On Sunday, Hamas carried out a deadly rocket attack from the Rafah area that killed four Israeli soldiers.
Shoshani said Israel published a map of the evacuation area, and that orders were being issued through air-dropped leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts. He said Israel has expanded humanitarian aid into Muwasi, including field hospitals, tents, food and water.
Israel’s army said on the social platform X that it would act with “extreme force” against militants, and urged the population to evacuate immediately for their safety.
Israel’s plan to invade Rafah has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
About 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are jammed into the city and its surroundings. Most of them fled their homes elsewhere in the territory to escape Israel’s onslaught and now face another wrenching move or the danger of staying under a new assault. They live in densely packed tent camps, overflowing UN shelters or crowded apartments, and are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and medical facilities infrastructure crippled.
The UN agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades, known as UNRWA, warned Monday of devastating consequences of a Rafah offensive, including more civilian suffering and deaths. The agency said it would not leave but stay in Rafah as long as possible to continue providing lifesaving assistance.
Egypt’s Rafah crossing, a main transfer point for aid going into Gaza, lies in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open on Monday after the Israeli order.
But even as the US, Egypt and Qatar have pushed for a ceasefire agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated last week that the military would move on the city “with or without a deal” to achieve its goal of destroying the Hamas militant group.
On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of “torpedoing” the hostage deal and not budging from its “extreme demands” while vowing to stop the militants from retaking control of Gaza. In a fiery speech Sunday evening marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, he rejected international pressure to halt the war, saying that “if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
A Hamas official told The Associated Press that Israel is trying to pressure the group into making concessions on the ceasefire, but that it won’t change its demands. Hamas wants a full end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the eventual reconstruction of the strip in exchange for the Israeli hostages held by the militants.
Shoshani would not say whether the upcoming Rafah operation is a response to Sunday’s attack by Hamas that forced Israel’s key border crossing for aid to close. He said it would not affect how much aid enters Gaza as other crossing points remain operational.
He wouldn’t comment, however, on US warnings not to invade and wasn’t clear on whether Monday’s evacuation order was coordinated with Egypt.
Egypt, a strategic partner of Israel, has said that an Israeli military seizure of the Gaza-Egypt border — which is supposed to be demilitarized — or any move to push Palestinians into Egypt would threaten its four-decade-old peace treaty with Israel.
In Rafah, people received flyers Monday morning in Arabic detailing which neighborhood blocks needed to leave and where humanitarian zones had expanded to. The flyers said that aid services would spread from Deir al Balah in the north to the center of Khan Younis city in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
“Anyone found near (militant) organizations endangers themselves and their family members. For your safety, the (army) urges you to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian area”, it read.
Palestinians in Rafah said people gathered to discuss their options after receiving the flyers. Most said they did not want to move alone and preferred to travel in groups.
“So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again, but no one will stay here it’s not safe,” Nidal Alzaanin told The Associated Press by phone.
A father of five, Alzaanin works for an international aid group and was displaced to Rafah from Beit Hanoun in the north at the start of the war. He said people are concerned since Israeli troops shot at Palestinians as they moved during previous evacuation orders.
Alzaanin said he has packed his documents and bags but will wait 24 hours to see what others do before relocating. He said he has a friend in Khan Younis whom he hopes can pitch a tent for his family.
But some people say they’re too tired and fed up of months of devastation to flee again.
Sahar Abu Nahel was displaced to Rafah with 20 of her family, her husband is being held by Israel, her son-in-law in missing, she said.
“Where am I going to go? I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired as are (my) children,” she said wiping tears from her cheeks. “Maybe its more honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated,” she said.


Iran urges Trump to change ‘maximum pressure’ policy

Iran urges Trump to change ‘maximum pressure’ policy
Updated 56 min 23 sec ago
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Iran urges Trump to change ‘maximum pressure’ policy

Iran urges Trump to change ‘maximum pressure’ policy
  • Nuclear deal of 2015 torpedoed in 2018 after US unilaterally withdrew under Trump
  • Tehran repeatedly denied Western countries’ accusations it is seeking to develop nuclear weapon

TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday urged US President-elect Donald Trump to reconsider the “maximum pressure” policy he pursued against Tehran during his first term.
“Trump must show that he is not following the wrong policies of the past,” Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters on Saturday.
Zarif, a veteran diplomat who previously served as Iran’s foreign minister, helped seal the 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and Western powers, including the US.
The deal however was torpedoed in 2018 after the US unilaterally withdrew from it under Trump, who later reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
In response, Iran rolled back its obligations under the deal and has since enriched uranium up to 60 percent, just 30 percent lower than nuclear-grade.
Tehran has repeatedly denied Western countries’ accusations that it is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
Zarif also said on Saturday that Trump’s political approach toward Iran led to the surge in enrichment levels.
“He must have realized that the maximum pressure policy that he initiated caused Iran’s enrichment to reach 60 percent from 3.5 percent,” he said.
“As a man of calculation, he should do the math and see what the advantages and disadvantages of this policy have been and whether he wants to continue or change this harmful policy,” Zarif added.
During his first term, Trump also ordered the killing of revered Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, who led the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force.
Soleimani was killed in a drone strike while he was in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday said he hoped the president-elect’s return to the White House would allow Washington to “revise the wrong approaches of the past” — however stopping short of mentioning Trump’s name.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters he was “not looking to do damage to Iran.”
“My terms are very easy. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’d like them to be a very successful country,” he said after he cast his ballot.
Trump’s victory comes as Iran has exchanged direct attacks with its arch-nemesis, Israel, raising fears of further regional spillover of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.


Israeli rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza

Israeli rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza
Updated 09 November 2024
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Israeli rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza

Israeli rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza
  • “Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” the military said
  • Israel’s military said it had increased aid efforts including opening an additional crossing on Friday

JERUSALEM: Israel rejected on Saturday a group of global food security experts’ warning of famine in parts of northern Gaza where it is waging war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” the military said in a statement.
The independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said on Friday in a rare alert that there was a strong likelihood of imminent famine in parts of north Gaza with immediate action required from the warring parties to ease a catastrophic situation.
Israel’s military said it had increased aid efforts including opening an additional crossing on Friday.
In the last two months, 39,000 trucks carrying more than 840,000 tons of food have entered Gaza, it said, and meetings were taking place daily with the UN which had 700 trucks of aid awaiting pickup and distribution.
With some critics decrying a starvation tactic in north Gaza, Israel’s main ally the US has set a deadline within days for it to improve the humanitarian situation or face potential restrictions on military cooperation.


Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building

Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building
Updated 09 November 2024
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Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building

Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building
  • Video footage showed some parked cars engulfed in flames as the blaze intensified

CAIRO: A large explosion on Beirut’s Hamra district on Saturday sparked a fire that engulfed several cars at a parking lot and caused smoke to spread massively across the area, local media reported.
Video footage showed some parked cars engulfed in flames as the blaze, which resulted from the electrical generator explosion, intensified.
The fire also spread to a nearby building, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said. 
The incident triggered panic as firefighting teams rushed to the scene, battling the blaze that remained out of control. 
Civil defense teams were working to extinguish the blaze and evacuate adjacent buildings, NNA added.


Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report

Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report
Updated 09 November 2024
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Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report

Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report
  • UN projects the number of people in Gaza facing ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000
  • Vast areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault

ROME: Famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid, a UN-backed assessment said Saturday.
The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.”
“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” said the alert.
On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing “catastrophic” food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report classified that as IPC Phase 5 — a situation when “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.”
Since that report, conditions have worsened in the north of Gaza, with a collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and critical water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, the committee said.
“It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas,” it read.
Vast areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault launched after the October 7 attack last year by Hamas.
Israeli forces have intensified their operations in large swathes of the Gaza Strip’s north since early October, where evacuation orders are in place.
Aid shipments allowed to enter the Gaza Strip were now lower than at any time since October 2023, said the report.
Access to food continues to deteriorate, with prices of essentials on the black market soaring. Cooking gas rose by 2,612 percent, diesel by 1,315 percent and wood by 250 percent, it said.
“Concurrent with the extremely high and increasing prices of essential items has been the total collapse of livelihoods to be able to purchase or barter for food and other basic needs,” said the alert.
The body expressed concern over Israel’s cutting ties last month with the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), warning of “extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations” in Gaza.


Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 09 November 2024
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Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Saturday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians overnight, including women and children.
An air strike hit tents housing displaced Palestinians in the southern area of Khan Yunis, killing at least nine people, including children and women, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also confirmed the toll, saying 11 others were wounded in the strike and were taken to Nasser Hospital.
A second air strike killed five people, including children, and injured about 22 when “Israeli warplanes hit Fahad Al-Sabah school,” which had been turned into a shelter for “thousands of displaced people” in the Al-Tuffah district of Gaza City, Bassal said.
The dead and injured were taken to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, he added.

In recent months, the military has struck several schools-turned-shelters where Israel has said Palestinian militants are operating.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its troops killed “dozens of terrorists” in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where it has been conducting a sweeping air and ground operation for more than a month to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Israeli forces also killed several militants in the area of Rafah in the territory’s south, the military added.
The military is currently engaged in a two-front war, with troops fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
“Over the past day, the IAF (air force) struck over 50 terror targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.
“Among the targets struck were military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers,” it added.
Israel’s war in Gaza broke out after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which included those who died and were killed in captivity.
During the attack, militants abducted 251 people, 97 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 43,508 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers to be reliable.