Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested in a recent interview that a civilian administration with Gazans and possibly with the aid of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries could run Gaza after the war.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) lashed out on Saturday at a suggestion from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join a potential civil administration in the post-war Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu suggested in a recent interview that a civilian administration with Gazans and possibly with the aid of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries could run Gaza after the war.
On Saturday, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said his country denounced Netanyahu’s call, adding that Gaza is currently under Israeli occupation.
“The State of Emirates stresses that the Israeli Prime Minister has no legitimate capacity authorising him to take this step,” the Emirati official said in an Arabic post on X.
“The [UAE] state rejects being drawn into any plan aimed to provide cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
The UAE became the first Gulf state to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020. However, the wealthy country has repeatedly criticised Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this week, the UAE condemned Israel’s “control” of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, an operation that has halted humanitarian aid deliveries via the facility into the heavily populated strip.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza for months since Hamas militants launched unprecedented bloody attacks on Israel in October last year that included civilian massacres.
The resolution on Friday won a resounding majority of 143 votes in favour, including by India. 25 countries abstained, while nine nations, including Israel and the United States, voted against the text, reports Asian Lite News
A resolution was passed in the United Nations with an overwhelming majority, supporting full membership of Palestine and pressing the Security Council to give “favourable consideration” to the bid, CNN reported.
The resolution on Friday won a resounding majority of 143 votes in favour, including by India. 25 countries abstained, while nine nations, including Israel and the United States, voted against the text.
Other nations that voted against the resolution were: Czechia, Hungary, Argentina, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and
The text, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, grants new privileges to the Palestinian Authority in its current capacity as a non-member observer state, and calls for the UN Security Council – which must rule on Palestinian membership – to “reconsider the matter favourably.”
“The State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations,” it asserts.
Notably, India has always reiterated its stand for a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestine conflict. While, New Delhi has condemned any terrorist attack, including the October 7 attack by Hamas, it has also called for a homeland for Palestinians.
“We have supported a negotiated two-state solution, towards establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine within secure and recognised borders, living side by side in peace with Israel,” the Ministry of External Affairs reiterated in the Parliament in February.
In his remarks before voting on Friday, Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour elaborated on the plight of Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.
“As we speak, 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah wonder if they will survive today,” he told the assembly, referring to Israeli threats of a major attack on the densely populated city in southern Gaza, as reported by CNN.
He also thanked protesters on US university campuses and abroad who have demonstrated against the Israel-Hamas war.
“Our flag flies high and proud in Palestine and across the globe, and on the campus of Columbia University. It has become a symbol by all those who believe in freedom and is just ruled by all those who can no longer stand idly by in the face of such utter injustice,” Mansour said.
Israel foreign minister Israel Katz quickly condemned the resolution’s passage, describing it as an “absurd decision” that highlights “the structural bias of the UN” and rewards the actions of Hamas on October 7.
“The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,” he said. “The decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
It is pertinent to note that while a General Assembly vote cannot confer UN membership, the approved resolution does endow the Palestinian Authority with new procedural rights and privileges, CNN reported.
Though, only member states can vote, the Palestinian Authority can now be seated among member states in alphabetical order, submit and introduce proposals and amendments, and co-sponsor proposals and amendments.
It can also make statements and explanations of votes. It has the right to reply on behalf of a group within the UN. The Palestinian Authority can also request proposals to be put to a vote and request items to be put on the UNGA’s provisional agenda.
Mansour further stated that the Palestinian Authority will now request full membership from the Security Council.
However, the US has already warned that it will likely veto such a request in the Security Council – a replay of its April veto of an earlier Palestinian membership request.
Following the general assembly vote on Friday, US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood described the resolution text as “unproductive,” saying a “durable peace” in the Middle East would mean bundling the two-state solution with other elements, as reported by CNN.
“Gaza cannot be a platform for terrorism, that there should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and that the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced,” he said.
Wood also suggested that the United Nations was the wrong forum for consideration of Palestinian statehood, telling the General Assembly that “it remains the US view that the most expeditious path toward statehood and UN membership for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority.”
Angry Israeli envoy shreds UN Charter
In a strong display of outrage, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan shredded the UN charter at the United Nations General Assembly just before it passed a resolution for supporting full membership of Palestine.
The Israeli envoy Erdan called the resolution a “clear violation” of the UN Charter and said that it subverted the US veto in the Security Council last month. Erdan said he is “holding up the mirror” for General Assembly members while shredding the UN Charter.
“This day will go down in infamy. I want the entire world to remember this moment, this immoral act…today I want to hold up a mirror for you, so you can see what exactly you are inflicting upon the UN Charter with this destructive vote. You are shredding the UN Charter with your own hands,” he said.
He also alleged that the resolution opens up the UN for “modern day Nazis” referring to Hamas.
“Today, you are also about to grant privileges and write to the future terror state of Hamas. You have opened up the United Nations for modern day Nazis, to the Hitler of our times…So here it is. I present to you the future outcome of today’s vote…the soon-to-be President, Yahya Sinwar, President tyrant of the State of Hamas, sponsored by the UN, and he owes his deepest gratitude to you, the General Assembly,” the Israeli envoy added while holding up an image of Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza.
“At the end of my speech, I tore the ‘UN Charter’ to pieces, to illustrate what the assembly is doing in its support for the entry of Palestinian terrorism into the UN,” Erdan later posted on X. (ANI)
US criticises Israel's conduct of war; says it may have violated 'international humanitarian law'
Howvever, Washington stopped short of a “determinative finding of wrongdoing” because the review did not find specific instances of violations, reports Asian Lite News
The United States has stated that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has “violated international humanitarian law” during its ongoing war in Gaza, The Hill reported.
However, Washington stopped short of a “determinative finding of wrongdoing” because the review did not find specific instances of violations.
A highly anticipated report from the State Department, released Friday (local time), looked into whether Israel violated international humanitarian law, and described “sufficient reported incidents to raise serious concerns” about how Israeli forces have carried out the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The report notes that 34,700 Palestinians have been killed amid the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. While the United Nations and aid groups say the majority of those killed are women and children, Israel claims that half of those numbers are Hamas fighters.
The US government said “it could not independently verify” the figures.
“Given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made defence articles, it is reasonable to assess that defence articles covered under [the national security memorandum] have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report stated.
Still, US officials acknowledged it was “difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents,” which appeared to prevent language for a definitive finding that Israel has violated any laws in the report.
According to The Hill, the report drew on assessments from multiple US agencies, including bureaus in the State Department, the Department of Defence, and the Intelligence Community.
The intelligence findings further raise concern about Israel’s war conduct, saying that Israel’s security forces “have inflicted harm on civilians in military or security operations, potentially using US-provided equipment.”
While the Intelligence Community assessment said that there’s “no indication” that Israel directly targeted civilians, it “assesses that Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm, however.”
The State Department said it was difficult to reach conclusive findings on individual incidents because of the lack of personnel on the ground in Gaza.
Officials also said Israel has not shared complete information to verify whether US weapons have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
Notably, this report comes after the Biden administration paused the delivery of heavy bombs to Israel and vowed to hold more offensive weapons if Israeli forces launch a major operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering, The Hill reported.
Biden’s pause on the heavy bombs, his criticism of Israel’s military campaign and his threat to withhold more weapons in the event of a Rafah invasion come amid sweeping college protests and frustration with the war from some Democrats and his left flank.
After pausing the transfer of more than 3,000 heavy bombs to Israel, the US President warned in an interview with CNN that the US could hold back more arms transfers if Israel launched a major offensive into Rafah, the southern Gazan city believed to be the last holdout for Hamas but sheltering more than 1 million displaced Palestinians.
On the other hand, the United Nations and humanitarian aid groups have accused Israel of slowing the delivery of aid shipments into Gaza, which is facing a severe hunger crisis and a famine in the northern part of the territory. Israel now controls all three major checkpoints that facilitate aid into the strip.
The officials also noted in the report that Israel has “repeatedly struck” humanitarian aid workers, including seven workers from the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) in April, despite attempts to avoid those casualties. More than 250 aid workers have died in Gaza.
The State Department review also found credible reports of “Israeli airstrikes impacting civilians and civilian objects unrelated to humanitarian operations that have raised questions about Israel’s compliance with its legal obligations.”
Israel has divided Gaza into 300 different zones to better assess the level of civilians in each area, but the US State Department memo questioned the efficacy of the system. It also raised concerns about the adequacy of Israel’s other methods to prevent civilian casualties, including weapon selection for certain strikes or attacks, advanced warnings and target determination.
“While Israel has the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations,” the report says, “the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether [Israel] is using them effectively in all cases.
Israel launched its war against Hamas following the massive attack on October 7, which killed over 1200 people and took 250 as hostages, with around 130 still in captivity.
Biden has supported Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, but has grown increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war. The president has come under pressure from Democrats and protests across the US decrying a staggering Palestinian civilian death toll and an appalling humanitarian crisis, as reported by The Hill.
The efforts to secure a deal between Hamas and Israel to secure the release of hostages and implement a six-week cease-fire fizzled out this week amid discussions in Cairo. (ANI)
It had been closed to humanitarian shipments on Sunday following a rocket attack by the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas…reports Asian Lite news
The Kerem Shalom border crossing for the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip reopened on Wednesday after being closed for several days, according to the Israeli military.
It had been closed to humanitarian shipments on Sunday following a rocket attack by the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas.
Despite another rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, lorries from Egypt with humanitarian aid, including food, water, equipment for shelters, medicines, and medical supplies donated by the international community, have now arrived at the crossing, the Israeli army said.
After a thorough security inspection, the equipment will be transported to Gaza. However, the number of lorries involved was not specified.
Aid supplies are also entering Gaza via the Erez checkpoint in the north.
Israel’s Western partners, including Germany, had urged the government in Jerusalem to reopen the crossing given the catastrophic humanitarian situation for civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Territory has been the target of a massive Israeli air and ground offensive since the October 7 terrorist attacks led by Hamas in southern Israel.
The Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt is another crucial crossing point, but the situation there is unclear after the Israeli army took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing on Monday night.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the enclave, shutting down a vital aid route. Tanks rolled through the crossing complex and the Israeli flag was raised on the Gaza side…reports Asian Lite News
Israel’s seven-month bombardment of Gaza has caused more destruction than the controversial firebombing of the German city of Dresden near the end of the Second World War, analysts of satellite images said on Tuesday.
Nearly 75 percent of buildings in Gaza City have been damaged or destroyed, five hospitals have been completely destroyed, fewer than one in three hospitals are even partially functioning, 408 schools out of 563 have been damaged and 53 completely destroyed, and more than 60 percent of mosques have been reduced to rubble.
“The fastest rates of destruction were in the first two to three months of the bombardment,” said Corey Scher, a satellite image analyst at the City University of New York in the US. “The rate of damage being registered is unlike anything we have studied before. It is much faster and more extensive than anything we have mapped.”
In comparison, four air raids on Dresden in February 1945 destroyed just under 60 percent of the city’s buildings. US and British bombers dropped more than 3,900 tonnes of high-explosive and incendiary devices that devastated more than 6.5 km2 of the city in one of the most controversial acts of the war.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the enclave, shutting down a vital aid route. Tanks rolled through the crossing complex and the Israeli flag was raised on the Gaza side.
There was heavy tank shelling on Tuesday evening in eastern Rafah. “They have gone crazy, tanks are firing shells and smoke bombs cover the skies and with smoke over Al-Salam and Jneinah neighborhoods,” said Emad Joudat, 55, a refugee from Gaza City. “I am now seriously thinking of heading north, maybe to the central Gaza area. If they move further into Rafah it will be the mother of massacres.”
The seizure of the crossing came despite weeks of calls from allies and international bodies for Israel to hold off from a major offensive in the city. Israel’s military said it was conducting a limited operation in Rafah to kill Hamas fighters and dismantle its infrastructure.
Meanwhile there was confusion in Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on Monday night. One Israeli official said the plan was almost identical to Israel’s own truce proposal submitted at the end of April, with some minor amendments.
However, Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the ceasefire plan fell “far short” of Israel’s demands. Talks on a truce continue in Cairo.
Kirby emphasised that the US wouldn’t back a ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza’s south, endangering over a million people….reports Asian Lite News
The US government has said that it is examining Hamas’ agreement to a mediated proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We’re currently reviewing that response. And we’re discussing it with our partners in the region,” National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said on Monday. Kirby evaded a journalist’s question as to what exactly Hamas had agreed to in the proposal. He would not go into that, he said.
“We still believe that reaching an agreement is the absolute best outcome not only for the hostages, but for the Palestinian people. And we’re not going to stop working to that outcome,” Kirby said.
Pentagon Press Secretary John F Kirby.(photo:John F Kirby Twitter)
CIA chief William Burns is in the region working with the Israelis to reach an agreement, Kirby said. “And the last thing that I want to do is say anything at this podium that’s going to put that process at risk,” he added. The worst thing to do now would be to speculate about what exactly Hamas’ response will be.
Kirby described a telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Monday morning as “constructive.” The conversation lasted around half an hour.
“During the call at the president’s urging, Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to ensure that the Kerem Shalom crossing is back open for humanitarian assistance for those in need,” said Kirby.
During the talks, Hamas’ agreement to a mediator’s proposal was not yet known.
With regard to an expected ground offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Kirby stressed that the US government would not support an operation that would put more than 1 million people at great risk. When asked by the press whether Washington would support a limited Israeli operation in Rafah, Kirby did not respond directly. However, Israel had not yet presented the plan for protecting the civilian population requested by the US.
The protesters denounced their university’s stance on the Gaza war and are demanding, among other things, that cooperation with Israeli universities be reconsidered…reports Asian Lite News
French President Emmanuel Macron has criticised blockades at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at French universities, saying that the tactics went beyond legitimate means of debate and protest.
Macron said he understands that the events in the Gaza Strip, in particular, are upsetting people, “but preventing a debate has never helped resolve the conflict,” according to an interview published on Sunday in the newspapers La Provence and La Tribune Dimanche.
“It is perfectly legitimate and even reasonable and reassuring that our youth can say that international events affect them and discuss them. But using violence and blockades to force an institution to adopt this or that policy, to prevent other students from entering a lecture hall on the pretext that they are Jewish – that is not the Republic,” Macron said.
He said such behaviour does not reflect mutual respect, pluralism and a condemnation of racism and anti-Semitism.
On Friday, police broke up a sit-in by pro-Palestinian students at the renowned Sciences Po University in Paris, at which protesters had blocked entrances to university buildings.
The protesters denounced their university’s stance on the Gaza war and are demanding, among other things, that cooperation with Israeli universities be reconsidered.
The university management’s attempt to put an end to the conflict with a large-scale internal debate failed.
Pro-Palestinian students at other Sciences Po campuses in France and other French universities also recently blocked parts of the universities. Some protesters reportedly made anti-Semitic statements during the demonstrations.
Israel has been heavily bombarding the Gaza Strip from the air and ground for months now in military operations that were launched in retaliation for unprecedented attacks on October 7 led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The October 7 attacks, which included massacres of civilians, left more than 1,200 people dead in Israel.
Israel has faced intense international criticism over the very high number of civilian casualties in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings…reports Asian Lite News
A top UN official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
Cindy McCain, the American director of the UN World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.
“It’s horror,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”
Executive Director of the World Food Programme Cindy McCain delivers a speech at the first meeting of the Global School Meals Coalition in Paris on October 18, 2023. (AFP)
She said a ceasefire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which controls entrance into Gaza and says it is beginning to allow in more food and other humanitarian aid through land crossings.
The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said earlier this year that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it this month. The next update will not come before this summer.
One of the US Agency for International Development’s humanitarian officials in Gaza said that on-the-ground preparations for a new US-led sea route were on track to bring in more food — including treatment for hundreds of thousands of starving children — by early or mid-May. That’s when the American military expects to finish building a floating pier to receive the shipments.
Ramping up the delivery of aid on the planned US-backed sea route will be gradual as aid groups test the distribution and security arrangements for relief workers, the USAID official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity over security concerns for work done in a conflict zone. They were some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s $320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution.
At a factory in rural Georgia on Friday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pointed to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world as she announced a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5.
Power spoke to factory workers, peanut farmers and local dignitaries sitting among pallets of the paste at the Mana nonprofit in Fitzgerald. It is one of two factories in the US that produces the nutritional food, which is used in clinical settings and made from ground peanuts, powdered milk, sugar and oil, ready to eat in plastic pouches resembling large ketchup packets.
“This effort, this vision meets the moment,” Power said. “And it could not be more timely, more necessary or more important.”
Under pressure from the US and others, Israeli officials in recent weeks have begun slowly reopening some border crossings for relief shipments.
But aid coming through the sea route, once it’s operational, still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza. Aid organizations including USAID stress that getting more aid through border crossings is essential to staving off famine.
Children under 5 are among the first to die when wars, droughts or other disasters curtail food. Hospital officials in northern Gaza reported the first deaths from hunger in early March and said most of the dead were children.
Power said the UN has called for 400 metric tons of the nutritional paste “in light of the severe hunger that is pervading across Gaza right now, and the severe, acute humanitarian crisis.” USAID expects to provide a quarter of that, she said.
Globally, she said at the Georgia factory, the treatment made there “will save untold lives, millions of lives.”
USAID is coordinating with the World Food Program and other humanitarian partners and governments on security and distribution for the pier project, while US military forces finish building it. President Joe Biden, under pressure to do more to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as the US provides military support for Israel, announced the project in early March.
US Central Command said in a statement Friday that offshore assembly of the floating pier has been temporarily paused due to high winds and sea swells, which caused unsafe conditions for soldiers. The partially built pier and the military vessels involved have gone to Israel’s Port of Ashdod, where the work will continue.
A US official said the high seas will delay the installation for several days, possibly until later next week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operation details, said the pause could last longer if the bad weather continues because military personnel and divers have to get into the water for the final installation.
The struggles this week with the first aid delivery through a newly reopened land corridor into north Gaza underscored the uncertainty about security and the danger still facing relief workers. Israeli settlers blocked the convoy before it crossed Wednesday. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before UN officials reclaimed it.
In Gaza, the nutritional treatment for starving children is most urgently needed in the northern part of the Palestinian territory. Civilians have been cut off from most aid supplies, bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and driven into hiding by fighting.
Acute malnutrition rates there among children under 5 have surged from 1 percent before the war to 30 percent five months later, the USAID official said. The official called it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history, more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan.
One of the few medical facilities still operating in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan hospital, is besieged by parents bringing in thousands of children with malnutrition for treatment, the official said. Aid officials believe many more starving children remain unseen and in need, with families unable to bring them through fighting and checkpoints for care.
Saving the gravely malnourished children in particular requires both greatly increased deliveries of aid and sustained calm in fighting, the official said, so that aid workers can set up treatment facilities around the territory and families can safely bring children in for the sustained treatment needed.
Egypt’s state-affiliated broadcaster al-Qahera News also reported the arrival of a Hamas delegation in Cairo and cited “significant progress” in negotiations to reach the deal…reports Asian Lite News
Teams from the Palestinian militant group Hamas and mediator Qatar have arrived in the Egyptian capital for further talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel, sources at the Cairo airport said.
Both teams arrived aboard a flight from Qatar on Saturday, they added.
Egypt’s state-affiliated broadcaster al-Qahera News also reported the arrival of a Hamas delegation in Cairo and cited “significant progress” in negotiations to reach the deal.
The broadcaster, citing what it termed as a high-level source, said the Egyptian security team engaged in the negotiations had reached a “consensus formula” on several contentious issues. No specific details were given.
Israel, meanwhile, is reportedly not sending a team to Cairo. A delegation will only be sent to Egypt once Hamas has responded to the current proposed ceasefire agreement, Israel’s Kan radio reported on Saturday, citing a government representative.
Israel plans to send a delegation to continue indirect negotiations with Hamas if the militant organization agrees to the draft deal presented, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a high-ranking Israeli official as saying.
Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip from the ground and air since Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel in October that left about 1,200 people dead.
As part of the latest mediation efforts, Hamas, which abducted some 250 people from Israel on October 7, was presented with a proposal for a ceasefire in return for the release of remaining hostages. A response is still pending.
More than 100 hostages were released during a six-day truce in November. It is unclear how many of those remaining in captivity are still alive.
As of Friday, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said the death toll in Gaza from Israeli attacks launched in response to the October 7 attacks stood at 34,622.
Months of mediation by Egypt, Qatar and the United States in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have yet to result in a breakthrough. A diplomatic push to clinch a deal has picked momentum over the past few days.
Late Friday evening, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at an event in Arizona that it was challenging to understand Hamas’ thought process.
“The leaders of Hamas that we’re indirectly engaged with through the Qataris, through the Egyptians, are of course living outside of Gaza, living in Qatar or living in [Turkey], other places, and the ultimate decision-makers are the folks who are actually in Gaza itself with whom none of us have direct contact,” he said.
Blinken said if Hamas was really concerned about the well-being of the Palestinians, then agreeing to the ceasefire deal that is on the table should be a “no-brainer.”
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it carried out an airstrike on a rocket launch site in the southern Gaza Strip.
Fighter jets hit the militant site near the city of Khan Younis after a rocket was fired from there toward the Ein HaShlosha kibbutz on Friday, the IDF said.
A mortar launching site in central Gaza was also destroyed, a statement said. The Israeli navy has also conducted strikes along Gaza’s coast over the past day.
According to Palestinian security services, the Israeli army attacked a building in the village of Abasan in the east of Khan Younis and shelled refugee camps in the central part of the Palestinian territory.
It said at least one Palestinian was killed in the Israeli navy strikes.
IDF Announces Killing of Islamic Jihad Commander
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that Aiman Zaarab, a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad Rafah Brigade, was killed in an airstrike on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.
Zaarab directed the Islamic Jihad’s elite forces during the October 7 onslaught on Kibbutz Sufa and the Sufa military post bordering the Gaza Strip, the IDF was quoted as saying on Saturday by Xinhua news agency.
Zaarab had “commanded and directed” several attacks, and over the past few days, he led the Islamic Jihads’ preparations for combat in the southern Gaza Strip against the Israeli military, according to the IDF statement.
Along with Zaarab, two other Islamic Jihad operatives were killed during the strike, the IDF added.
Buildings lie in ruin as Palestinians carry their belongings following Israeli strikes on residential buildings at the Qatari-funded Hamad City, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 2, 2023. REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
The IDF said it launched its attack after “a number of launches” on Wednesday from central Gaza against Israeli forces….reports Asian Lite News
Israeli fighter jets and artillery hit central Gaza on Thursday, the army said, as efforts to reach a new deal between Israel and Hamas continue.
Israeli Air Force (IAF) “fighter jets struck armed terrorists, terrorist infrastructure, and operational tunnel shafts,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Telegram.
“The IDF continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip,” it added.
The IDF said it launched its attack after “a number of launches” on Wednesday from central Gaza against Israeli forces. A mortar shell launcher was destroyed and several armed fighters were killed, the army said. It reported no Israeli injuries.
Meanwhile Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant discussed “operational developments” in northern and southern Israel in a phone call with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, a Gallant spokeswoman said. They also discussed efforts to release further hostages held by Hamas.
Austin also provided information about preparations for future Gaza operations. Israel has announced that it will go ahead with a controversial military operation in the city of Rafah in the south of the coastal strip if there is no early agreement on a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
In addition, humanitarian aid for the suffering population in Gaza and the opening of further crossings were also on the agenda. Aid deliveries have recently increased significantly, but the US is demanding a further increase.
