Twenty reported killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies siege of north

Twenty reported killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies siege of north
Northern Gaza residents say Israeli troops have besieged shelters, forcing displaced people to leave while rounding up many of the men. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 October 2024
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Twenty reported killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies siege of north

Twenty reported killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies siege of north
  • Hospitals under siege
  • Israel says it has killed scores of militants

GAZA: Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 20 people on Wednesday as Israeli forces intensified a siege of northern parts of the Palestinian enclave, surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters, and ordering residents to head south, medics and residents said.
The Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organization said they would be unable to start a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned because of the intense bombardments, mass displacements and lack of access.
Israeli forces began the operation in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. The operation has intensified since the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Al-Sinwar a week ago.
Israel’s allies, including the United States, have said they hoped Sinwar’s death could provide a fresh impetus for peace by allowing Israel to declare that it had achieved some of its major objectives in Gaza.
But so far, Israeli forces seem to have only intensified their assault, especially on the northern areas, where Israel says Hamas fighters are regrouping in ruins of areas that were among the first targeted by Israel’s campaign last year.
The Israeli military announced last Friday it had sent another army unit to Jabalia on the northern edge of Gaza. Residents say the troops have besieged shelters, forcing displaced people to leave while rounding up many of the men. The health ministry said at least 650 people had been killed since the new offensive began.
Of at least 20 people reported killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Wednesday, 18 deaths were in northern Gaza.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Wednesday one of its staff members was killed when an UNRWA vehicle was hit in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Medics said the man’s brother was also killed. The municipality of Gaza City said two city workers were killed and three others wounded in a strike there.
Health and civil emergency officials said dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in and around Jabalia were scattered on roadsides and under the rubble where medical teams could not reach them.
Hospitals in the north have either stopped providing medical services or are hardly operating because of the offensive. Hospitals where medics have refused Israeli evacuation orders say they are running out of blood for transfusions, as well as coffins and shrouds for the dead.
“We call on the world, which has failed to provide protection and shelter for our people and has been unable to deliver food and medicine, to make an effort to send shrouds for our fallen,” the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
The polio vaccination campaign, launched after a baby was paralyzed by the disease in Gaza for the first time in 25 years, had to be halted.
“We have not been able to launch the campaign to vaccinate 120,000 children in Gaza City and northern Gaza today because of the siege and the Israeli aggression,” health ministry official Majdi Dhair said.
Israel’s military humanitarian unit, COGAT, which oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, said the vaccination campaign in northern Gaza will begin in the coming days, “after a joint assessment and at the request” of the World Health Organization and the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund UNICEF.

Call for truce
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel and was heading to Saudi Arabia to push for a ceasefire, the first major US peace initiative since the killing of Hamas leader Sinwar and the last before a Nov. 5 presidential election that could upend US policy in the region.
Washington has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza. Israel says aid has been delivered in scores of trucks as well as air drops, but Gaza medics say the aid has not reached them.
COGAT said on Tuesday that 237 trucks containing humanitarian aid from Jordan and the international community had been transferred to northern Gaza over the past eight days.
Israel “will continue to act in accordance with international law to facilitate and ease the humanitarian response to the Gaza Strip,” it said.
Palestinian health officials and residents said no aid has been allowed into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya, three towns on the northern edge of Gaza.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating against Hamas militants who staged attacks from there, and that they killed scores of militants and destroyed military infrastructure while helping residents who heeded evacuation orders to leave.
The overall death toll in Gaza is approaching 43,000, according to the latest health ministry figures, and nearly all of the 2.3 million Gazans have been displaced, many multiple times.
The Israeli offensive was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken as hostages back into Gaza.


Israeli FM: ‘No justification’ for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders

Israeli FM: ‘No justification’ for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders
Updated 20 sec ago
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Israeli FM: ‘No justification’ for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders

Israeli FM: ‘No justification’ for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders
PRAGUE: Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday that the ICC had “no justification” for issuing arrests warrants for Israeli leaders, in a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky.
Saar told Reuters Israel has appealed the decision and that it sets a dangerous precedent.
The foreign minister also said Israel would finish the war in Gaza when it “achieves its objectives” of returning hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza and ensuring the Iranian-backed group no longer controls the strip. Saar said Israel does not intend to control civilian life in Gaza and that he believes peace is “inevitable” but can’t be based on “illusions.”

Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025

Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025
Updated 28 November 2024
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Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025

Pope Francis set to visit Turkiye for Council of Nicaea anniversary in 2025
  • The pope had already expressed in June the desire to go on the trip despite international travel becoming increasingly difficult for him

ROME: Pope Francis said on Thursday he planned to visit Turkiye’s Iznik next year for the anniversary of the first council of the Christian Church, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The early centuries of Christianity were marked by debate about how Jesus could be both God and man, and the Church decided on the issue at the First Council of Nicaea in 325.
“During the Holy Year, we will also have the opportunity to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the first great Ecumenical Council, that of Nicaea. I plan to go there,” the pontiff was quoted as saying at a theological committee event.
The city, now known as Iznik, is in western Anatolia, some 150km southeast of Istanbul.
The pope had already expressed in June the desire to go on the trip and the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, had said the two men would celebrate the important recurrence together but no official confirmation had been made yet.
Despite international travel becoming increasingly difficult for him because of health issues, Francis, who will turn 88 on Dec. 17, completed in September a 12-day tour across Asia, the longest of his 11-year papacy.


Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations

Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations
Updated 28 November 2024
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Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations

Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue investments after US bribery allegations
  • Adani Group holds a 70 percent stake in Haifa port in northern Israel and is involved in multiple other projects with firms in the country
  • US last week accused Adani Group of being part of scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure contracts, misleading US investors 

HYDERABAD, India: Israel wants India’s Adani Group to continue to invest in the country, Israel’s envoy to India said on Thursday, affirming the nation’s support for the ports-to-media conglomerate whose billionaire founder is facing bribery allegations in the United States.

“We wish Adani and all Indian companies continue to invest in Israel,” Ambassador Reuven Azar said in an interview with Reuters, adding that allegations by US authorities were “not something that’s problematic” from Israel’s point of view.

The Adani Group holds a 70% stake in Haifa port in northern Israel and is involved in multiple other projects with firms in the country, including to produce military drones and plans for the manufacture of commercial semiconductors.

US authorities last week accused Gautam Adani, his nephew, and Adani Green’s managing director of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian power supply contracts and misleading US investors during fund raising efforts there.

Adani Group has denied all the accusations, calling them “baseless.”

Still, shares and bonds of Adani companies were hammered last week and some partners began to review joint projects.

“I am sure Adani Group will resolve its problems,” Azar said on the sidelines of an event in the southern city of Hyderabad.


Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president

Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president
Updated 28 November 2024
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Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president

Lebanon to hold parliament session on Jan. 9 to elect president
  • State news agency: ‘Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9’

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official media reported on Thursday, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.
“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reported.


Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated

Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated
Updated 51 min 1 sec ago
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Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated

Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated
  • Lebanese security sources and state media report tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba
  • Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday

BEIRUT: Israel’s military announced on Thursday that it had detected the presence of suspects in several areas of southern Lebanon, calling it a violation of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

At least two people were wounded by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon, state media reported. 

Earlier on Thursday Israeli tank fire targeted three towns along Lebanon’s southeastern border with Israel, according to Lebanese security sources and state media. The strikes came a day after the ceasefire, which prohibits “offensive military operations,” had officially taken effect.

The tank fire hit Markaba, Wazzani, and Kfarchouba, all located within two kilometers of the Blue Line that marks the border between Lebanon and Israel. One security source reported that two people were wounded in Markaba.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting.

But managing the returns have been complicated. Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border, and on Thursday morning the Israeli military urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.

The three towns hit on Thursday morning lie within that strip.

There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who had been fighting for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war.

Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday as a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war largely held for a second day.

A Lebanese army source said its forces were “conducting patrols and setting up checkpoints” south of the Litani River without advancing into areas where Israeli forces were still present.

In the border village of Qlaaya, residents threw rice and flowers to celebrate the arrival of Lebanese soldiers.

“We only want the Lebanese army,” chanted the residents of the Christian-majority village, as they clapped and cheered for the troops and waved the Lebanese red, white and green flag.

Since the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday, tens of thousands of Lebanese who fled their homes have headed back to their towns and villages, only to find scenes of devastation.

“Despite all the destruction and the sorrow, we are happy to be back,” said Umm Mohammed Bzeih, a widow who fled with her four children from the southern village of Zibqin two months ago.

“I feel as if our souls have returned,” she said, visibly exhausted as she swept up the shattered glass and pieces of stones that carpeted the floor.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said his group was cooperating on the army’s deployment in the south.

There is “full cooperation” with the Lebanese state in strengthening the army’s deployment, he said, adding the group had “no visible weapons or bases” but “nobody can make residents leave their villages.”

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.

Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.