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Tag: Israel

  • US Secretary of State hints at normalisation of Saudi-Israel ties while Kingdom stresses on establishment of Palestine

    US Secretary of State hints at normalisation of Saudi-Israel ties while Kingdom stresses on establishment of Palestine

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed on Thursday that the United States and Saudi Arabia have made “good progress” in talks on normalising ties between the kingdom and Israel. However, he did not provide a timeline for concluding the deal.

    “I believe we can reach an agreement, which would present a historic opportunity for the two nations, but also for the region as a whole,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo.


    Talks on normalisation had been put on ice after Oct 7 but conversations have resumed in recent months.


    While trying for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, the Biden administration has been working to secure a normalisation deal as well. However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries want the creation of a Palestinian state to be part of any such deal with Israel.


    Saudi Arabia is also looking to sign a mutual defence pact with Washington and get U.S. support for its civil nuclear program. Blinken discussed the topics on Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah during an official visit.


    “We had a very good discussion about the work that we’ve been doing for many months now on normalisation, and that work is moving forward. We’re continuing to make good progress,” Blinken said but added that he could not offer a timeframe.


    Earlier a senior State Department official said Washington and Riyadh were down to a handful of bilateral issues and there was political will to address those gaps.


    A pact giving the world’s biggest oil exporter U.S. military protection in exchange for normalisation would reshape the Middle East by uniting two long-time foes and binding Riyadh to Washington at a time when China is making inroads in the region.


    For such a deal to advance, Israel needs to agree to a pathway for creation of an independent Palestinian state, a prospect that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.


    Washington sees any normalisation deal woven into post-war planning that would include Arab countries providing security guarantees for Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian state under a reformed Palestinian Authority.


    Blinken did not elaborate how Washington would overcome Netanyahu’s objections to creation of a Palestinian state, but said the ongoing violence benefited Iran.


    “The perpetuation of this cycle only benefits Iran and the proxies that are working for it. So I think as that choice is clear, people will begin to really think about it and make decisions,” Blinken said.


    Until Oct 7, both Israeli and Saudi leaders had been saying they were moving steadily toward a deal that could have reshaped the Middle East.


    Five months of war in the densely populated Gaza enclave have triggered starvation and food shortages.


    The head of the World Health Organization said only opening more border crossings for trucks carrying aid could prevent famine in Gaza.

  • Gaza ceasefire deal close, says Blinken

    Gaza ceasefire deal close, says Blinken

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that the parties involved in the Israel assault on Gaza are close to reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in the besieged strip.

    In remarks given to Arab media outlets, Blinken emphasised the importance of putting a stop to the dire situation to pave the way for a better future for Gaza.

    Addressing Israel’s current offensive, Blinken stated that the US opposes Tel Aviv’s intention to carry out a large-scale ground assault on Rafah.

  • Israeli military wants evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

    Israeli military wants evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

    Al Jazeera has reported that according to Hani Mahmoud, their colleague reporting from Gaza, the Israeli army has given a notice to forcefully displaced people to immediately leave Al-Shifa Medical Complex or the premises will be bombed.

    Mahmoud suggests that based on past bombing patterns, the entire hospital complex is at risk of destruction at the hands of the Israeli army.

    Al Jazeera also reports that as per local Palestinian media reports that a building used for specialised care within al-Shifa Hospital has been destroyed by the Israeli military.

    The military justified the raid on Monday by claiming according to intelligence, Hamas fighters were using the hospital complex for shelter. During the raid, approximately 90 Palestinians were killed, 300 suspects were interrogated, and over 160 were detained.

    Israel is continuing with its policies of destroying all infrastructure in Gaza, including health institutions, to force the strip to become completely uninhabitable.

  • Canada FM confirms halting arms shipments to Israel

    Canada FM confirms halting arms shipments to Israel

    OTTAWA: Canada will halt all arms shipments to Israel, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s office confirmed Wednesday, a decision that has drawn the ire of Israeli leaders facing growing international scrutiny over the war in the Gaza Strip.

    The besieged Palestinian territory is facing a mounting humanitarian crisis, and months of war have pushed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the brink of famine.

    Canada, a key ally of the United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars a year in military aid, had already reduced its shipments to Israel to only include non-lethal equipment, such as radios, following the October 7 Hamas attack.

    “Since January 8th, the government has not approved new arms export permits to Israel and this will continue until we can ensure full compliance with our export regime,” said a statement from Joly’s office.

    “There are no open permits for exports of lethal goods to Israel,” it added.

    Export permits approved prior to January 8, however, would “remain in effect,” Joly’s office said, explaining that canceling them risked “important implications for both Canada and its allies,” including NATO and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

    A senior Canadian official had on Tuesday told AFP that “the situation on the ground makes it so that we can’t” export any equipment that could have a potential military use.

    Israel slammed the decision, with foreign minister Israel Katz saying it “undermines Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas terrorists.”

    “History will judge Canada’s current action harshly,” he said in a post on social media platform X.

    US Senator Bernie Sanders welcomed the move, saying in his own post on social media: “Given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including widespread and growing starvation, the US should not provide another nickel for (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s war machine.”

    The issue of arms deliveries to Israel has triggered legal proceedings in several countries around the world.

    In Canada, a coalition of lawyers and citizens of Palestinian origin filed a complaint against the government in early March to suspend arms exports to Israel, accusing Ottawa of violating both international and domestic law.

    Israel has historically been a top receiver of Canadian arms exports, with Can$21 million worth of military materiel exported to Israel in 2022, according to government data, following Can$26 million in shipments in 2021.

    That places Israel among the top 10 recipients of Canadian arms exports.

    Israel offensive in Gaza has killed at least 31,923 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    While affirming Israel’s right to defend itself, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken an increasingly critical stance toward Israel as civilian deaths have mounted in Gaza.

    On Monday, the Canadian Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution calling for the international community to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

  • Gaza world’s biggest ‘open-air graveyard’: EU’s Borrell

    Gaza world’s biggest ‘open-air graveyard’: EU’s Borrell

    EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza had turned the territory into the world’s biggest “open-air graveyard”.

    “Gaza was before the war the greatest open-air prison. Today it’s the greatest open-air graveyard,” Borrell said at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

    “It’s a graveyard for tens of thousands of people and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.”

    Borrell on Monday also reiterated his accusation that Israel was using famine as a “weapon of war” by not allowing aid trucks into Gaza.

    “Israel is provoking famine,” he told a humanitarian conference.

    The Islamist militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.

    Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive that Gaza’s health ministry says has killed at least 31,726 people, most of them women and children.

    The 27-nation EU has struggled to come up with a united response to the war in Gaza as some members firmly back Israel and others are more pro-Palestinian.

    EU ministers were set to discuss a proposal by Ireland and Spain to suspend a cooperation agreement with Israel, but that move was unlikely to get the support of all 27 countries.

    The bloc was however expected to agree on sanctions both against Hamas for sexual violence on October 7 and against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank for attacking Palestinians.

    Britain and the United States have already imposed sanctions targeting a small number of “extremist” settlers.

  • Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital

    Israeli military tells Gazans to evacuate Al-Shifa hospital

    Palestinian Territories

    Israel’s military on Monday called on Gazans to evacuate the area in and around the territory’s largest hospital as battles raged at the complex crowded with patients and displaced people.

    “In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X, instructing “all those present” to head west and then south to a “humanitarian area”.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • ‘Bloody’ Ramzan Friday as Gaza strike kills 36 relatives

    ‘Bloody’ Ramzan Friday as Gaza strike kills 36 relatives

    Palestinian Territories: Displaced by Israeli bombardment, the Tabatibi family gathered in central Gaza to eat together during the first Friday night of Ramzan, a scene that soon turned into a bloodbath.

    An air strike hit the building where they were staying as women prepared the pre-fasting meal, killing 36 members of the family, survivors told AFP on Saturday.

    The health ministry in Gaza, which provided the same death toll, blamed Israel for the strike in Nuseirat, while the Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

    “This is my mother, this is my father, this is my aunt, and these are my brothers,” 19-year-old Mohammed Al-Tabatibi, whose left hand was injured in the strike, said through tears at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir Al-Balah.

    “They bombed the house while we were in it. My mother and my aunt were preparing the suhoor food. They were all martyred.”

    He spoke as bodies were spread out in the hospital courtyard, then stacked on a truck to be driven to a cemetery.

    Because there were not enough body bags, some of the dead — including at least two children — were wrapped in white cloth stained with blood, AFPTV footage showed.

    The first Friday of Ramzan, the Muslim fasting month which began on Monday, passed peacefully in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, despite concerns about tensions at the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

    But it was a different story in Gaza.

    The strike in Nuseirat was one of 60 “deadly air strikes” reported overnight by the press office of the government, from Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south.

    “This is a bloody night, a very bloody night,” said Salama Maarouf of the media office.

    Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 31,553 people in Gaza since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

    In Rafah, where the majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have sought refuge, more bloodshed is feared after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday he had approved plans for a military operation there.

    Yet even before any such operation begins, air strikes continue, including one early Saturday that witnesses said killed Issa Duhair, the muezzin of a mosque, along with his two sons.

    Mahmoud Duhair, a 41-year-old relative who lives nearby, described the muezzin as “a good man” who, as usual, dutifully performed the call to prayer before dawn on Saturday, then went to eat with his family “when his house was struck.”

    Back in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, Yussef Tabatibi said the true toll of the strike that killed 36 members of his family could rise.

    “Some of the martyrs we are unable to retrieve. We lack equipment, bulldozers, machinery, or anything else, ” he told AFP, his hands and sweatshirt covered with dust from trying to clear rubble.

    “We retrieve them only with our hands. We brought shovels and hammers, but to no avail. Look at the extent of the destruction.”

  • In Gaza, there are no more ‘normal-sized babies’: UN official

    In Gaza, there are no more ‘normal-sized babies’: UN official

    The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a “nightmare” for mothers and babies, with doctors reporting small and sickly newborns, stillbirths and women forced to undergo C-sections without adequate anesthesia, a UN official said Friday.

    “I’m personally leaving Gaza this week terrified for the one million women and girls of Gaza… and most especially for the 180 women who are giving birth every single day,” Dominic Allen, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for the state of Palestine, said in a video news conference from Jerusalem.

    “Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies,”  Allen said after visiting hospitals still providing maternity services in the north of Gaza, where need is especially great.

    “What they do see though, tragically, is more stillborn births… and more neonatal deaths, caused in part by malnutrition, dehydration and complications.”

    The numbers of complicated deliveries are roughly twice what they were before the war with Israel began — with mothers stressed, fearful, underfed and exhausted — and caregivers often lacking necessary supplies.

    “We have had reports of insufficient anesthetic being available” for Caesarean sections, “which again is unthinkable.”

    “Those mothers should be wrapping their arms around their children,” he said. “Those children should not be wrapped in a body bag.”

    Israel has defended its policies as it pursues its stated goal of destroying Hamas, saying the UN should send more aid to the war-ravaged territory, pushing back on reports by the UN and NGOs that cumbersome Israeli inspections are blocking food and other essentials.

    Allen said Israeli authorities had refused to allow in some UNFPA supply shipments, such as kits for midwives, or had removed supplies like flashlights and solar panels.

    “It’s a nightmare which is much more than a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “It is a crisis of humanity… beyond catastrophic.”

    What he saw while driving through Gaza, he said, “really broke my heart.”

    Everyone he passed or spoke to, Allen said, “was gaunt, emaciated, hungry” and exhausted from the daily struggle to survive.

    At one military checkpoint, he said, he saw a boy who appeared to be about five years old walking with his hands held high, clearly frightened, as his slightly older sister followed behind, holding a white flag.

    Israel’s military operations has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza since October 7, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

  • All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza: NGO

    All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza: NGO

    A US charity said Saturday its team in Gaza Strip had finished unloading the first maritime aid shipment to reach the besieged territory.

    “All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza,” World Central Kitchen said in a statement, noting that the aid was “almost 200 tonnes of food”.

    The group is preparing a second boat of 240 tonnes of food to set sail from Cyprus, the starting point of a new maritime aid route across the eastern Mediterranean.

    The humanitarian effort is intended to mitigate food shortages that have prompted UN famine warnings in Gaza from the United Nations and aid workers.

    “That shipment includes pallets of canned goods and bulk product including beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil and salt,” World Central Kitchen said.

    The second shipment would also include a forklift and a crane to assist with deliveries, it added.

    The humanitarian group said it had “no information to release on when our second boat and the crew ship will be able to embark.”

    The Israeli military on Friday confirmed the first vessel, operated by the Spanish charity Open Arms, had arrived and said soldiers had been deployed to secure the area and conduct a security inspection.

    The military also said the delivery of humanitarian aid by sea did not constitute a breach of its years-long maritime blockade of Gaza, which has been ruled since 2007 by Hamas.

    World Central Kitchen had to build a jetty southwest of Gaza City to deliver the aid.

    Israel has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

    As cumbersome Israeli security checks and logistical hurdles slow overland aid delivery to Gaza, countries have pursued alternatives including airdrops and the new maritime corridor.

    Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, said on social media platform X on Friday that the first shipment was “a test” and that “we could bring thousands of tonnes each week.”

  • Hamas Proposes New Six-week Gaza Truce, Hostage-prisoner Exchange: Official

    Hamas Proposes New Six-week Gaza Truce, Hostage-prisoner Exchange: Official

    Hamas has proposed a new six-week truce in Gaza and an exchange of several dozen Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official from the militant group told AFP on Friday.

    “The agreement is for a six-week ceasefire and a prisoner exchange,” the official said after weeks of so far fruitless mediation efforts, adding that the group would want this to lead to “a complete (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a permanent ceasefire”.

    During the proposed truce, Gaza militants would release about 42 hostages seized during the October 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza, the official said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

    The official said that between 20 and 50 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would be released per hostage — down from a previous proposal of a roughly 100-to-one ratio, according to a Hamas source in late February.

    Under the new proposal, the initial exchange could include women, children, elderly and ill hostages, the official said.

    During the October 7 attack, militants seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza including 32 presumed dead.

    The latest proposal appears to be a shift for Hamas, whose armed wing said earlier this month there would be “no compromise” on its demand that Israel withdraw from Gaza before any more hostages are freed.

    Now the militants are saying that, during a six-week truce, Israeli forces would need to withdraw from “all cities and populated areas in the Gaza Strip” and allow for the return of displaced Gazans “without restrictions”, the official said.

    The Hamas proposal also calls to ramp up the flow of humanitarian aid, the official added.

    The terms of an eventual ceasefire would see Israel’s “complete military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip” and a comprehensive hostage-for-prisoner exchange involving the release of all hostages for “an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners”, according to the official.

    “Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, are responsible for following up and ensuring the implementation of the agreement,” the official said.

    Israel’s retaliatory military campaign after October 7 has disproportionately killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Thursday that Hamas “is continuing to hold unrealistic demands” but that an update on truce talks would be submitted to Israel’s war cabinet on Friday.