Tag: Palestinians

Desperate search for missing Israelis in aftermath of Hamas attack

By Amit Meyer LOD, Israel, Oct 8, 2023 (AFP) – Dozens of distraught Israeli families scrambled for information on missing loved ones Sunday, a day after Palestinian militants unleashed a surprise attack and forced hostages, some of them bloodied, back to Gaza. More than 100 Israelis have been taken hostage, the government’s press office said. “I just want to be able to hug him,” said Omri Shtivi, 30, whose brother Idan went missing after a […]

What we know about the Hamas assault on Israel

Gun battles raged Sunday between Hamas militants and Israeli forces a day after the Islamist group launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza, in a dramatic escalation of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Hundreds of people have been killed on both sides since the Iran-backed Hamas launched the multi-pronged assault at dawn on Saturday, with Israeli forces fighting holdout militants and pounding the Gaza Strip with air strikes. This is what we know about the conflict […]

US deploying ships closer to Israel, sends munitions

By Danny Kemp and W.G. Dunlop President Joe Biden ordered US ships and warplanes to move closer to Israel in a show of support on Sunday, while sending fresh military aid after attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Pentagon said it was sending the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying warships to the eastern Mediterranean, while boosting fighter aircraft squadrons in the region. The United States, a major supplier of […]

Germany, France step up security at Jewish sites

BERLIN, Oct 7, 2023 (AFP) – Germany and France on Saturday moved to reinforce security around Jewish temples, schools and monuments after the surprise attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas against Israel. Germany tightened police protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions, as some supporters of the Palestinians took to the streets of Berlin to celebrate the attack. France focussed on Jewish temples and schools in cities across the country, as one Jewish leader expressed concern […]

Israel and Gaza at war after Hamas launches surprise attack

By Oren Ziv with AFP bureaus in Israel and the Palestinian Territories SDEROT, Israel, Oct 7, 2023 (AFP) – At least 200 Israelis died in a surprise large-scale attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday, the army said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to reduce the group’s Gaza hideouts to “rubble”. Intense air strikes on the coastal enclave brought the Palestinian death toll to at least 232, Gaza officials said, following Hamas’s […]

President Biden vows ‘rock solid’ support, defense aid for Israel

By Maria DANILOVA WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Saturday condemned the attacks by “Hamas terrorists” against Israel and vowed to ensure the key US ally has the means to defend itself. President Joe Biden described the assault as “a terrible tragedy on a human level” and said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to underline his support. “I told him the United States stands with the people […]

Hamas violently forces detour from Saudi-Israel momentum

By Shaun Tandon with Robbie Corey-Boulet in Riyadh WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2023 (AFP) – With its surprise attack against Israel, Hamas has violently shifted the world’s eyes back to the Palestinians and dealt a severe blow to momentum to secure a landmark US-brokered deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Iranian-backed Islamist militants who run the impoverished, blockaded Gaza Strip on Saturday fired thousands of rockets and infiltrated forces into Israel, 50 years after Arab […]

UNESCO grants World Heritage Status to Jericho ruins, provoking Israeli controversy

JERICHO, Palestinian Territories, Sept 17, 2023 (AFP) – UNESCO inscribed the prehistoric site of Tell al-Sultan, near the Palestinian city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, on its World Heritage List Sunday, in a move criticised by Israel. Tell al-Sultan, which predates Egypt’s pyramids, is an oval-shaped tell, or mound, in the Jordan Valley, and contains the prehistoric deposits of human activity. The decision by the United Nations cultural organisation, which it posted on […]

Israel halts Gaza imports over ‘attempt to smuggle explosives’

JERUSALEM, Sept 4, 2023 (AFP) – Israel’s army chief on Monday ordered the suspension of all imports from Gaza after an alleged attempt to smuggle explosives, the army and defence ministry said in a statement. Officers from the defence ministry, which controls crossings between Israel and the Palestinian enclave, “detected several kilograms of high quality explosives, hidden within a clothing delivery carried by three trucks” at the Kerem Shalom crossing, the statement said. Army chief […]

Escalation ‘not the answer,’ UN chief tells Israel

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United Nations chief on Thursday accused Israel of using disproportionate force against Palestinian groups in a recent raid and warned against escalating the violence. A large-scale military operation by Israel in the occupied West Bank earlier this week killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier. “There was an excessive force used by Israeli forces,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York. Israel has “legitimate concerns over its […]

Rockets fired from Gaza at Israel as troops withdraw from Jenin

By Rosie Scammel, with Gareth Browne in Ramallah and Jay Deshmukh in Jerusalem Agence France-Presse JENIN, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — The Israeli army said five rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip Wednesday, as the military began withdrawing forces from Jenin in the occupied West Bank after a major two-day operation in the area. Twelve Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed during the assault on Jenin refugee camp, launched early Monday […]

Israeli volunteers help Palestinians travel to hospitals

By Delphine Matthieussent Agence France-Presse REHAN, Palestinian Territories, June 27, 2023 (AFP) — As dawn broke over the occupied West Bank, Mamoun Abu al-Rob and his son crossed into Israel, where a volunteer was waiting to take them to a hospital. Past the Rehan crossing in the northern West Bank, where Palestinian workers were passing through a dimly lit corridor, Abu al-Rob walked towards Yael Noy’s car as his six-year-old son, Adam, dozed in his […]