By Daphne Psaledakis and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday warned all parties in the Middle East against escalation as tensions between Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Israel remained high, saying Washington’s priority is to find a diplomatic solution. “We will continue to stand by Israel’s right to defend itself, but we don’t want to see any party escalate this conflict, period,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular briefing. […]
Tag: Hamas
Israeli security services arrest Israeli man over alleged Iranian-backed assassination plot
By James Mackenzie JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including the prime minister. A statement said the person was a businessman with connections in Turkey who had attended at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet […]
Israel shares video of cramped, bloody tunnel where hostages were held and killed
By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Blood on the ground of a dark, cramped tunnel sealed by an iron door, bullets and a chess set are seen in a video released by the Israeli military of the passageway deep underground where it said six slain hostages were held and killed by Hamas. The video was filmed by the military last Friday, its spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, as a forensic team investigated the hostage […]
Massive protests hit Israel after six hostages killed in Gaza
By Emily Rose and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Massive protests swept Israel on Sunday following the death of six hostages in Gaza as frustration mounted over the failure of the country’s leadership to secure a ceasefire deal that would free Israeli captives. Crowds estimated by Israeli media to number up to 500,000 strong demonstrated in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining […]
Israel recovers six hostage bodies in Gaza as polio vaccinations start
By Ari Rabinovitch and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. The Israeli military announced the recovery of the bodies from underground in the southern city of Rafah as a polio vaccination campaign began in the war-shattered territory and violence flared in the occupied West Bank. The bodies […]
Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including Goldberg-Polin
By Ari Rabinovitch and Stephanie Kelly JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. “According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing. The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, […]
UN food agency suspends staff movement in Gaza after vehicle fired on
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations World Food Programme temporarily suspended movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, saying at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint. WFP said in a statement that a convoy of two armoured vehicles received “multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach” the Wadi Gaza bridge checkpoint on Tuesday evening. Bullets hit one of […]
Israeli military rescues hostage from Gaza tunnel
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli special forces have recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip in “a complex rescue operation”, the military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7. It said 52 year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said […]
Israeli military retrieves bodies of six hostages from Gaza
By Maytaal Angel JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, as negotiations continued in an effort to bring back more than 100 captives who remain in the besieged Palestinian enclave. A total of 109 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, around a third of whom are thought to be dead, with the fate of the others unknown. Most of them were seized by […]
Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for bomb blast in Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Monday for a bomb blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv that Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency described as a terrorist attack. A man who was carrying the bomb was killed and a passerby was injured in the incident late on Sunday, according to police at the scene in Israel’s commercial capital. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the […]
US passes message to Iran not to escalate at ‘critical moment’ for Middle East
By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has been urging other countries through diplomatic channels to tell Iran that escalation in the Middle East is not in their interest, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday, at what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a “critical moment” for the region. Blinken said Washington was “engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much around the clock” to help calm tensions amid fears Iran is […]
Meta says Malaysian PM Anwar’s posts on Haniyeh assassination were removed in error
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Meta Platforms apologised on Tuesday for erroneously removing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts in which he expressed condolences to a Hamas official about the assassination of the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh. Meta was sorry for “an operational error”, adding that the content had been restored with “the correct newsworthy label,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters. The U.S. social media giant designates Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza, […]
