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SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

War monitor says 14 people wounded in Syria in Hezbollah pager blasts

Fourteen people have been wounded in Syria when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded there, a Britain-based war monitor says, adding to a toll of at least 2,750 people injured in Lebanon.

“Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


Syria condemns ‘new bloody crime’ in Lebanon

Syria expressed solidarity with the Lebanese people and says it “stands by their side in their right to defend themselves”.

The series of pager blasts, it said, reflects “Israel’s desire to expand the scope of the war and its thirst to shed more blood,” in the region, the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state-news agency SANA.

It called on nations to “unequivocally condemn this aggression”.


Hamas condemns ‘Zionist enemy’s aggression’ in Lebanon

Hamas says the series of pager blasts is a “crime that defies all laws” ​​and it holds the Israeli government fully responsible. “This terrorist act is part of the Zionist enemy’s larger aggression on the region,” Hamas said in a statement.

The group hailed Hezbollah’s “efforts and sacrifices” as it continues to back and support the Palestinian people.


Lebanese Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded in the southern port city of Sidon


Son of a Hezbollah legislator among the dead in Lebanon

The son of a member of Hezbollah’s bloc in Lebanon’s Parliament is among those killed. The sons of two other senior officials are wounded, a Hezbollah official says.

Prominent Hezbollah legislator Ali Ammar spoke to The Associated Press after his son, Mahdi, was killed. “This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.”

A Hezbollah official said the wounded include the son of Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah and the son of senior security official Wafiq Safa. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.



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SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

‘Hezbollah is a completely different echelon of fighting capability’

Israel’s Mossad is “highly likely” to be behind the spate of attacks throughout Lebanon, says Colin Clarke, director of research at The Soufan Group.

“This is about re-establishing the Mossad brand, if you will. After October 7, that brand was damaged significantly. This vaunted, ubiquitous, all-knowing intelligence agency proved to be vulnerable,” Clarke told Al Jazeera.

“What we saw today with the pagers exploding could very well be a prelude to a broader conflict in the Middle East. Many analysts have warned the fight in the north is going to look totally different than what the Israelis encountered in Gaza. And let’s be honest, they’ve struggled to deal with Hamas,” Clarke said.

“Hezbollah is a completely different echelon of fighting capability. Pound for pound, it’s probably the most sophisticated non-state actor in the world. You’re waging a multi-front campaign then, and this will put intensive pressure on the Israelis.”

Houthis condemn ‘Israeli security attack on Lebanon’

The rebel group’s spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam calls the attacks “a heinous crime and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty”.

“Our condolences and sympathy go to the families of the martyrs in the valiant Islamic resistance, asking God Almighty to have mercy and forgiveness for them, and to grant a speedy recovery to the wounded,” Abdelsalam said in a post on X.

“We are certain that Lebanon is capable of facing all challenges, and has a resistance movement capable of deterring the Zionist enemy entity and making it pay a heavy price for any escalation it may undertake against Lebanon.”


People gather outside a hospital n Beirut

Houthis say they downed US drone


People carry a piece of debris from the wreckage of what Yemen’s Houthis say was a US MQ-9 drone that the Iran-backed group downed in Dhamar province in Yemen in a still image taken from video released on September 16



SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

UNGA to debate resolution on ending Israeli occupation

The UN General Assembly is set to debate a push by the Palestinians to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation within 12 months.

The text, which has faced fierce criticism from Israel, is based around an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice calling Israel’s occupation since 1967 “unlawful”.

The draft resolution “demands” the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories, a halt to new settlements, the return of seized land and property, and the possibility of return for displaced Palestinians.

A paragraph calling on member states to halt arms exports to Israel was removed from the draft text during negotiations.

The draft is due to be voted on late on Tuesday or on Wednesday.


UN to vote on ending Israel’s ‘unlawful presence’ in Gaza and West Bank

Palestinians appealed to the UN General Assembly to vote for a resolution calling for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territories.

“Please stand on the right side of history with international law, with freedom, with peace. The alternative is what you witness every day on your TV screens and what the Palestinian people are enduring in their flesh,” said Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the UN.

“Those who think the Palestinian people will accept a life of servitude, a life of apartheid, are the ones who are not being realistic,” he said. “Those who claim that peace is possible in our region without a just resolution for the question of Palestine are the ones who are not being realistic.”

Israeli ambassador Danny Danon sharply criticized the move, describing it as “an attempt to destroy Israel through diplomatic terrorism”.

“We gather here to watch the Palestinians’ UN circus – a circus where evil is righteous, war is peace, murder is justified and terror is applauded,” Danon said. “How dare you continue this tradition of passing one-sided resolutions against Israel without even posing to consider what the Israeli people have endured.”



SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

US sanctions spyware firm founded by former Israeli military officer

The United States Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against Intellexa Consortium, a spyware company founded by former Israeli military officer Tal Dilian.

The new penalties target five people and one organisation, in addition to Dilian and other entities associated with Intellexa, who were already named in earlier sanctions announced by the Treasury Department in March this year.

The company developed and sold a suite of spyware tools known as Predator that allowed entry into a target’s device without requiring them to click on a link or attachment.

Intellexa was one of four Israeli-linked firms that an international investigation led by Amnesty International found had been selling invasive spyware and cyber-surveillance technology to Indonesia, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel.


Media watchdog slams Israel’s move to strip Al Jazeera journalists of press credentials

The International Press Institute (IPI) has strongly condemned the Israeli government’s recent decision to revoke the press passes of Al Jazeera journalists, months after the outlet was banned in the country.

“The Israeli government’s decision to revoke Al Jazeera press passes highlights a broader and deeply alarming pattern of harassment of journalists and attacks on press freedom in Israel and the region,” Scott Griffen, IPI interim executive director, said.

Nitzan Chen, director of Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO), announced the decision on Thursday, accusing Al Jazeera of spreading “false content” and “incitement against Israelis”.

Griffen said the move was indicative of a “systematic effort” by Israeli authorities to “expand its control over media reporting about Israel, including reporting on and from Gaza”.

In May, Israel’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera in the country, immediately ordering the closure of its offices and a ban on the company’s broadcasts.

At the time, Al Jazeera described it as a “criminal act” and warned that Israel’s suppression of the free press “stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.


‘Unprecedented in recent history’: German media ask Israel to allow reporting from Gaza

German news media outlets have called on Israel to grant them access to Gaza, charging that the “almost complete exclusion of international media … is unprecedented in recent history”.

“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.

They also urged Egypt to permit them entry to the widely devastated Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip.



SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

‘Netanyahu using Philadelphi Corridor as a pretext to avoid ceasefire deal’

Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas says Netanyahu is using the Philadelphi Corridor as a “pretext” to avoid a ceasefire deal.

“A host of Israeli generals who know the area and terrain, as well as the risks, have been saying that Mr Netanyahu has been mendacious about the Philadelphi Corridor, that this is not a major deal,” Pinkas, chief of staff under then-PM Ehud Barak, told Al Jazeera.

He said Israel is expecting Blinken to propose a new US plan for a deal in which it maintains only a “temporary control” of the corridor located between Gaza and Egypt.

“But again, the Philadelphi Corridor is a distraction,” he added.

Blinken is due back in the region this week to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks to end the 11-month-old war that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians.


Efforts to reach Gaza truce continue, Qatar says

Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US have failed to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking to reporters, Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said the mediators’ efforts “are still ongoing”. “Channels of communication remain open. … The goals and visits and meetings are ongoing,” he said.

Al-Ansari declined to comment on whether any further proposal had been relayed to Israel or Hamas.

“When it comes to the possibility of a deal taking place anytime soon, of course, we remain hopeful at every juncture,” he said. “I can’t comment on the prospects of a deal taking place right now, but I can tell you that we remain hopeful and we continue with our efforts.”


‘No northern Israel resident returning home after explosions’

Amir Oren, a columnist focusing on military and government affairs at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, says “not one Israeli hostage” and “not one Israeli resident is going back home in the north after the exploding pagers”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem, he said: “What Israel should have done – and many in the Israeli defence establishment have recommended – is to get a ceasefire in Gaza, which will bring about the ceasefire in the north and then let diplomacy take effect.”

Oren said he hoped the explosions in Lebanon will be “a substitute for a ground manoeuvre” and “not a precursor”, noting that it is in Israel’s interests “to get the war over both in Gaza and in Lebanon”.

But he added: “Netanyahu for his personal, political and even judicial reasons – he is, of course, standing trial for bribery and other offences and is supposed to testify in his own defence come December 2 – would like to prolong the war and probably to broaden it.

“Whether he has the power within the cabinet, within the Israeli political system, to do it, I doubt it. He has veto power over others, but up to now, he has not managed to provoke anything in regards to Hezbollah where he can later leapfrog from there to Iran. President Biden has been adamant not to let him do it for very good reasons of American national interest.”

“So there is a delicate balance with Netanyahu and others in the Israeli decision-making elite. Hopefully, he will not prevail.”


‘Prospect that Israel wants escalation higher now’

Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, says the pager explosions are “definitely” a step “towards broader escalation”. Speaking to Al Jazeera from London, he added that it was important to place the incident into the wider regional context.

“Last week, there was a major attack by the Israelis on Syria that resulted in 18 deaths, and the Houthis claimed to have fired a hypersonic missile at Israel,” he noted. “So there are escalations going on beyond Lebanon and to all the theatres of the ‘axis of resistance’ at once.”

Ramani argued that up until now, neither Israel nor Hezbollah “really wanted a situation where there’s been a major two-front war developing.

“But I think the Israelis are now sensing that this might be a historic capability to decapitate Hezbollah’s capabilities as the war in Gaza eventually winds down and they might be taking a step towards a broader escalation,” he added.

“So the jury is still out on what they really want, but I think the prospect that Israel wants escalation is higher now than it was earlier.”



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SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

Airlines halt Middle East flights over Israel, Lebanon tensions

British Airways has suspended flights to Israel for Wednesday. Air France announced it’s suspending flights connecting Paris with Beirut and Tel Aviv through Thursday because of security concerns.

German airline group Lufthansa also said it’s suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran through to Thursday, as tensions in the region soar following pager explosions across Lebanon.

“Due to the recent change in the security situation, the Lufthansa Group airlines have decided to suspend all connections to and from Tel Aviv [TLV] and Tehran [IKA] with immediate effect,” it said in a statement. “This applies up to and including September 19. During this period, the Israeli and Iranian airspace will also be bypassed by all Lufthansa Group Airlines.”

Lufthansa added that it was closely monitoring the situation and “will assess it further in the coming days”.

 

Hundreds of ambulances and medics involved after Lebanon attacks

The Lebanese Red Cross says it provided 150 units to hospitals across Lebanon through its blood banks and said centres are accommodating those who still wish to donate, after simultaneous explosions of pagers across Lebanon killed nine people and wounded more than 2,700 others.

The Red Cross said it responded with “130 ambulances and more than 500 EMTs” (emergency medical technicians), shortly after the incident.

In a post on X, it shared a video of ambulances and volunteer medics.

Unlikely pager batteries alone caused deaths and injuries

Experts were mystified by the explosions in Lebanon but some doubted the battery itself would have been enough to cause the blasts.

Paul Christensen, an expert in lithium-ion battery safety at Newcastle University, said the level of damage caused by the pager blasts seemed inconsistent with known cases of such batteries failing in the past.

“What we’re talking about is a relatively small battery bursting into flames. We’re not talking of a fatal explosion here. I’d need to know more about the energy density of the batteries, but my intuition is telling me that it’s highly unlikely,” he said.

SMEX, a Lebanese digital rights organisation, said Israel could have exploited a weakness in the device to cause it to explode. It said the pagers could also have been intercepted before reaching Hezbollah and either tampered with electronically or implanted with an explosive device.

Israeli intelligence forces have previously placed explosives in personal phones to target enemies. Hackers have also demonstrated the ability to inject malicious code into devices, causing them to overheat and explode in some instances.


Hospitals across Lebanon overwhelmed with casualties from pager blasts

Hospitals across Lebanon are treating an influx of patients after exploding pagers wounded nearly 3,000 people on Tuesday.

Here’s how some witnesses described the situation:

  • At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
  • At Mount Lebanon Hospital outside Beirut, a Reuters reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room and people with bloodied hands screaming in pain.
  • In southern Lebanon, the head of the Nabatieh public hospital, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that about 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.


People gather outside the American University hospital after the arrival of several people who were wounded by exploding handheld pagers, in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday


‘People were exploding in the streets’

There is a lot of anticipation in Lebanon as people are waiting to see how Hezbollah is going to retaliate to this vast attack. It’s maybe the first time in the history, of the confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel, that Lebanon has seen such an attack.

People were exploding in the streets.

Of course, in the past, people saw drone attacks, warplane attacks, huge explosions, but this is the first time that such devices are exploding with people [holding them]. This is a matter of concern to many people.

Because it’s not isolated from the front in the south of Lebanon and especially with Israel threatening over the past days that it could put Lebanon’s front as a main goal in its war objectives.



SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

Israel added explosives to pagers imported from Taiwan: Report

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-pagers-explosives.html

The Israeli military hid explosive material in a batch of Taiwan-made pagers to carry out Tuesday’s attack on Hezbollah members in Lebanon, according to US officials briefed on the operation, The New York Times reports.

Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, but they had been tampered with before reaching Lebanon, some of the officials claimed.

Most of the pagers were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also in the shipment, according to the report.

As little as one to two ounces (about 30 to 60 grams) of explosive material was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the sources said, while a detonator was also embedded that could be triggered remotely.

At least nine people have been killed and 2,750 wounded after pagers used by members of the Iran-backed group exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria. Israel is yet to claim the attack.

Err?

US says ‘not involved’ and ‘not aware’ of pager blasts The United States says it wasn’t aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers that targeted the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

US does nothing but lie. Politicians or media, it doesn't matter, lies upon lies.

Taiwan’s Gold Apollo denies making pagers used in Lebanon blasts

Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that manufactures pagers, did not make the devices used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday, the company’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters on Wednesday.

Hsu said the pagers used in the explosions were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the Taiwanese firm’s brand, Reuters added.

We reported earlier on a New York Times article that claimed Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Gold Apollo, citing US officials briefed on the operation.


How will Lebanon pager blasts affect Gaza truce talks?

The attack targeting Hezbollah members in Lebanon has put Biden’s hopes of a Gaza ceasefire further out of reach.

The US has watched for many weeks now as the Israeli military has been escalating its war preparations for a wider war with Lebanon. The US president, just one day earlier, dispatched a senior diplomat to the region, who met with top Israeli officials. The fear from the US standpoint is that an all-out war would not help Israel with its goal of bringing back the tens of thousands of Israelis who are displaced.

But now, with the fact that these attacks have occurred within Lebanon and there have been many many casualties, this is only going to make that effort for a ceasefire even harder to achieve.

In the midst of all of this, the White House says it is still gathering information. It says that it will not comment but the State Department says it has no knowledge of any US involvement. The Pentagon is also saying that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has in fact spoken with his Israeli counterpart and stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the region.

We also know that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is travelling to Egypt, where he is meeting with not only Egyptian mediators but also those from Qatar as well as of course the US.

What we know now is that there is a revamped proposal – one that is six weeks in duration and that the US – along with its counterparts Egypt and Qatar – is looking to put pressure on Israel as well as Hamas to try and get some sort of six-week ceasefire deal. The goal is to try and get Israeli captives out of Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The hope is that this can be achieved before Biden leaves office.

Still trying for a temporary pause instead of a ceasefire...

Australian senator calls for accountability for ‘sickening warfare’ in Lebanon blasts

Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said the perpetrators of “the horrific pagers attack” in Lebanon “must be held to account”, in a post on social media.

Faruqi, who is also the deputy leader of the Australian Greens, added that the attack was “exactly the kind of sickening warfare” people were protesting against in Melbourne, referring to recent demonstrations against an arms fair in Australia‘s largest city.



Hezbollah pagers compromised in a ‘major state operation’

Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, explained how the pagers used in the attack on Hezbollah members were compromised.

“There is an explosive – a type of PETN – that has been embedded within the pager electronic circuit, showing an advanced level of technical expertise and the involvement of a state-level intelligence agency,” Magnier told Al Jazeera from Brussels.

“The shipment was on its way, not directly to Lebanon, because it’s forbidden for Lebanon to receive these kinds of devices, and stopped on the harbour nearby for three months. And according to the Hezbollah investigation, that was enough time for the Israelis to plant the explosive that is very highly explosive.”

Magnier also explained how the explosions took place.

“The way the Israelis did it is they sent a message to these pagers. And with the message, there were errors. Three times errors. And the people needed to look at it and the pager started vibrating. And the pager exploded. This is why more than 300 people lost both hands and many others lost one eye or two eyes, while 150 others lost part of their stomach.”

The investigators were able to reach these conclusions from the pagers that did not explode, Magnier said.

“Because they were thousands unexploded, others that burned and there were some failures in the trigger system of the pager and that allowed the investigators to reconnect the dots and understand how this happened,” he said.


A man’s bag explodes in a supermarket in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024 in this screengrab from a video obtained from social media



SvennoJ on 17 September 2024

UN General Assembly debates Israel withdrawing from occupied Palestinian territory

The UN General Assembly debated a resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory in response to an International Court of Justice ruling (ICJ) earlier this year.

The discussion in the 193-member body lasted for close to three hours on Tuesday, pushing a vote on the motion back to Wednesday morning, New York time.

Here’s what some governments said:

  • The State of Palestine said that “each country has a vote, and the world is watching us… those who think the Palestinian people will accept a life of servitude, a life of apartheid, are the ones who are not being realistic”.
  • Ireland said it would vote yes, adding that “it is incumbent on the General Assembly to act upon the [ICJ’s] findings”.
  • The United States said it would vote no, saying “there is no path to peace offered through the … resolution under consideration”.
  • China described the vote as “a historic moment”, saying it hoped the resolution would bring “new impetus to ending the occupation”.
  • Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon sharply criticised the move, describing it as “an attempt to destroy Israel through diplomatic terrorism”.


Rescuers scrambling to save 80 Palestinians trapped under rubble in Bureij

There has been a remarkable intensification of Israeli air strikes and artillery bombardments in multiple areas of the Gaza Strip over the course of the past couple of hours.

In the north, the Sabra and Zeitoun neighbourhoods of Gaza City have been under relentless Israeli attacks. Several casualties were transferred to the Baptist Hospital [al-Ahli Arab Hospital] to get medical treatment.

But the main story is in the Bureij refugee camp, where a residential building has been completely flattened. We’re talking about an estimated 80 Palestinians stuck under the debris. Civil Defence workers have managed to recover the bodies of eight Palestinians who were killed. But there are still dozens under the rubble.

The emergency workers say they are facing a remarkable challenge in accessing the site again, especially as the Israeli military has targeted a number of workers as they were heading to the place in order to rescue those who are still under the rubble.

Apparently, confrontations are still ongoing in the southern part of Gaza, in particular in Rafah, where the Israeli military has stated that there was a serious military and security incident in Rafah, with four Israeli soldiers critically wounded amid ongoing hostilities with Palestinian armed groups.

Gaza’s Ministry of health publishes names of 34,344 people killed in Gaza

Gaza’s Ministry of Health has released a 649-page document listing the names, date of birth and gender of 34,344 people killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October last year. The PDF document, dated August 31, 2024, was shared by the ministry on its telegram account on Monday.

The first 14 pages of the document lists the names of 710 babies who were less than one-year old when they died.

The list does not include all the names of people killed in the war so far, which according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health is at least 41,252 people.


A Palestinian man carries the body of a relative killed in Israeli strikes on the Bureij refugee camp, at the al-Awda Hospital at the Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday



SvennoJ on 18 September 2024

Israeli forces attack ambulance crew in Nablus

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli soldiers assaulted its ambulance crew as they were “trying to evacuate a sick child” in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces stormed Nablus earlier tonight, resulting in clashes with Palestinian resistance groups in the city.

Israeli military raids have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank. They include:

  • the town of Deir al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarem
  • the city of Salfit, where Israeli forces have arrested a man
  • the al-Fawar camp, south of Hebron, where more arrests have been reported.


Palestinian teenager shot dead near Ramallah

A teenager has been shot dead by the Israeli army near the town of Nilin, west of Ramallah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported. The 17-year-old Palestinian child from the town of Hableh was heading to visit his friends in the city of Ramallah, the family told the news agency.

It is unclear what triggered the shooting. Israeli forces have been carrying out raids across the occupied West Bank amid rising tensions triggered by the war in Gaza.


Palestinian man beaten by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian man in the village of Khallet al-Dabaa in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Muhammad Dababseh was assaulted as Israeli soldiers stood nearby, the incident causing him injuries, the agency said.

Dababseh was later transferred to hospital for medical treatment, Wafa reported.



SvennoJ on 18 September 2024

Four Israeli soldiers killed in explosion in Rafah

The Israeli army has said that four of its soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces invaded Rafah on May 6, promising a “limited” operation against Hamas fighters.

More than four months later, much of the city has been levelled to the ground and little is known of the few Palestinians who remained there after Israel ordered more than 1 million people who had been sheltering there to flee.


Aid group decries killings of 710 newborn babies in Gaza

Save the Children has responded to Gaza’s Ministry of Health publishing a list that showed Israeli forces have killed at least 710 newborn babies in attacks on Gaza.

“No parent should have to go through the agony and heartbreak of losing their child,” the humanitarian organisation said in the post on X. “We simply cannot accept the violence that Palestinian children continue to face as normal.”


Palestinian Health Ministry condemns death of Gaza doctor while in Israeli prison

The Palestinian Ministry of Health denounced the death of Dr Ziad Muhammad al-Dalu in Israeli prison, detained while he was working in Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, the ministry said in a statement.

“The Ministry condemns this heinous crime against Palestinian medical staff, and considers targeting health cadres while performing their humanitarian duty a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and all international conventions,” its statement read.

Al-Dalu was detained by Israeli forces on March 18, according to the Health Ministry.

“The continuation of these violations against health workers is a systematic targeting of the Palestinian people and their institutions, and the Ministry stresses the need to hold the [Israeli] occupation accountable before the international community for its crimes against medical staff and civilians.”

Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinian medical staff in Gaza since it launched its devastating war last October.


Four bodies recovered from Rafah: Gaza’s civil defence

Gaza’s civil defence is reporting the recovery of four bodies in the Khirbet al-Adas area in Rafah, in southern Gaza. The civil defence stated the bodies found were from the al-Yazouri, Sheikh al-Eid, al-Jamal and Abu Hilal families.


Israel killed 20 Palestinians in Gaza in past 24 hours: Ministry

At least 20 people have been killed and 54 others wounded in Israeli attacks in Gaza during the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The latest figure brought the total death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza to at least 41,272, with thousands also missing.

At least 95,551 people have also been wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7 last year.


At least 10 killed as Israel bombs Gaza City school, Rafah vehicle

At least 10 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed, and dozens more were injured in Israeli bombings in Gaza City and Rafah, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which cited local sources.

Eight people were killed and several others wounded after Israeli forces targeted the Ibn al-Haytham School in the Shujayea neighbourhood east of Gaza City with a missile, Wafa reported. Those injured were taken to the nearby al-Ahli Arab (Baptist) Hospital, the agency said.

Meanwhile, two people were killed and at least 10 were injured after an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on a road in the al-Mawasi area opposite the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah, Wafa reported. The two victims were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to the agency.


Israeli army claims it targeted Gaza City school used by Hamas

The Israeli army has put out a statement claiming it carried out a “precise strike” on a Hamas “command and control centre embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Ibn Al-Haytam School in the area of Gaza City”. “This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” the statement said.

The Israeli military did not provide evidence to back up this claim. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of operating from civilian compounds such as schools and evacuation centres, a claim Hamas denies.


‘Surge of air strikes on evacuation centres in north Gaza’

Earlier today, Israeli drones hit a Palestinian civilian vehicle on the coastline of Rafah City where at least two people have been confirmed killed while more than 11 others were wounded. They were passerbyes and people who were living in the area that was bombarded.

One of the worst attacks today was carried out on one of the main evacuation centres in an al-Shajayea neighbourhood on the eastern side of Gaza City. At least eight Palestinians were killed, including five children and two women. But the scenes of children with their faces covered with dust and blood and mothers carrying their children in order to flee the area are very horrific.

There’s a massive surge of air strikes on evacuation centres in the north of Gaza, which are housing thousands of Palestinian families. People are now fleeing evacuation centres, going to either build makeshift tents on the remnants of their destroyed houses or they are looking for any empty piece of land.