Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

US military ship heading to Gaza to build port

A US military ship is sailing towards the Middle East, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, the army says.

The support ship, General Frank S Besson, set sail from a military base in the state of Virginia on Saturday.

It comes after President Joe Biden said the US would build the floating harbour to help get aid into Gaza by sea.

The UN has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" and children are starving to death.

Aid deliveries by land and air have proved difficult and dangerous.

The World Food Programme had to pause land deliveries after its convoys came under gunfire and looting. And on Friday, there were reports that five people had been killed by a falling aid package, when its parachute failed to open properly.

The US ship departed "less than 36 hours" after Mr Biden made his announcement, US Central Command wrote on X.

It is "carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies" to Gaza, the statement continued.

The Pentagon has said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops - none of whom would go ashore.

Charities have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long.

Meanwhile, an aid ship laden with some 200 tonnes of food was still waiting for clearance to set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday morning.

It is hoped the vessel, Open Arms, will be able to depart before Monday, following an EU announcement that a new sea route would be opened over the weekend to allow aid to sail directly from Cyprus - the closest EU country to Gaza.

The ship belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name, Open Arms, and the food on board has been provided by US charity World Central Kitchen.

It is unclear how any aid delivered by sea would get safely to shore before the US pier is built. Gaza has no functioning port and its surrounding waters are too shallow for large vessels.

However Oscar Camps, the founder of Open Arms, told the Associated Press that at the destination point - which remains a secret - a team from the World Central Kitchen has been building a pier to receive the aid.

Israel has welcomed the ocean initiative, and said aid would be delivered after security checks were carried out in Cyprus "in accordance with Israeli standards".

Israel's military launched an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip after Hamas's attacks on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.

More than 30,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry says.

The conflict has created a growing humanitarian crisis, and the UN has warned that at least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip - one quarter of the population - are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Western countries have pressed Israel to expand land deliveries by facilitating more routes and opening additional crossings.

Lorries have been entering the south of Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of the Israeli ground offensive, has been largely cut off from assistance in recent months.

An estimated 300,000 Palestinians are living there with little food or clean water.

Israel has been accused of hampering aid efforts, and an independent UN expert last week accused it of mounting "a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza".

Yeela Cytrin, a legal adviser at the Israeli mission to the UN, responded that "Israel utterly rejects allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war", before walking out in protest.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68526503

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Hamas leader ‘Shadow Man’ may have been killed in Israeli air strike

Israel is investigating whether a Hamas leader, the elusive deputy commander of its armed wing, was killed in an air strike over the weekend.

A strike on a building in the Nuseirat refugee camp early on Sunday targeted Marwan Issa, one of the suspected masterminds of the Oct 7 attack on Israel, Israeli media reported.

Reports said five Palestinians were killed in the strike, although it is unclear if Issa was among them.

Issa, 59, is the third most senior Hamas leader in Gaza and has been nicknamed “Shadow Man” for his eagerness to avoid publicity.

Israeli officials also believe that another senior Hamas official was at the site during the attack.

Both Israel and Hamas are working to establish whether the Hamas commander came out of attack alive but neither has made public statements.
It came as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, confirmed the killing of another senior Hamas leader in January.

Israel, he said, in a statement broadcast on Monday afternoon, “has eliminated number four in Hamas. And number three, two and one are on their way”.

“They all are dead men walking. We will reach them.”

Mr Netanyahu did not name the Hamas official but he appeared to be referring to Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas political leader who was killed in an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) air strike on Beirut, Lebanon, at the beginning of the year.

But it is Hamas’s top three leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Issa – who are Israel’s top targets in Gaza.

Sinwar and Deif are both believed to be hiding in the area of the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli troops are still operating.

Issa is notorious for keeping a low profile, constantly moving around Gaza’s tunnel network.

It was only in 2011 that the first photograph of him emerged, standing next to Gilad Shalit, the IDF private who was taken hostage by Hamas before being freed in a landmark prisoner exchange.

A promising basketball player in his youth, Issa is a long-time Hamas member and considered influential within the terror group.

In 1987 he was imprisoned in Israel for his activities with Hamas during the First Intifada. A decade later, he was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for his role in a series of bombings, but escaped jail in 2000 when the Second Intifada erupted.

Israel has tried to kill him on several occasions, bombing his house three times, including during the 2021 offensive in Gaza.

Issa has four children, two of whom are believed to have died. His eldest son, Bara’a, died in 2009 after Egypt refused to allow him to enter from Gaza for medical treatment.

The Hamas commander’s other son was killed at the end of last year in an IDF airstrike.

Earlier in the war, the Israeli military released photos of what it said was Issa’s vacation home in al-Bureij in central Gaza. The photos showed a mansion, with a swimming pool and manicured lawns.

Issa’s death, if confirmed, could significantly affect Hamas’s combat operations in Gaza.

The commander has been credited with overhauling the operations of Hamas’s al-Qassam brigades, turning them into a fighting force capable of full-scale military operations.

Issa would be the highest-ranking Hamas official to be taken out by Israel in more than five months of war that has destroyed Gaza and killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians.

His death could also complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages, although Israel says talks are continuing through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...7ff78cf3&ei=58

[Jimbuna]

'Every day felt like an eternity' - freed hostage Itay Regev

Freed Israeli hostage Itay Regev has told the BBC he was held in "horrific" conditions in Gaza and he did not think he would get out alive. The 19-year-old was kidnapped from the Nova music festival along with his sister and a friend.

In November, he was released along with his sister, Maya, and 103 other hostages in return for some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails during a brief truce.

On a visit to London, Itay also accused the world of forgetting those still held by Hamas and urged the Israeli government to do whatever it took to bring them home.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...-east-68561634

[Jimbuna]

Israel downplays truce prospects after Hamas response

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed the chances of a truce in Gaza after Hamas gave what it called a "comprehensive vision" to mediators.

Mr Netanyahu's office said Hamas was still "holding to unrealistic demands".

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

On Thursday night Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 20 people had been killed as they waited for aid. Israel denies involvement and accuses armed Palestinians of firing at the crowds.

The incident took place at the Kuwaiti roundabout on the southern outskirts of Gaza City, a known drop off point for the little aid that reaches northern Gaza where the UN says children are dying of malnutrition and famine is looming.

In its latest update, the health ministry said 155 people were injured in the incident. People wounded in the attack were lying on the floor of Shifa hospital in Gaza City and medical teams struggling to deal with the number and type of injuries they had, it said.

In a statement the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had facilitated the passage of 31 aid trucks to northern Gaza.

"Approximately one hour before the arrival of the convoy to the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy," it said.

The firing continued as a crowd looted the trucks and some people were run over, the IDF said, adding that it was continuing to review the incident.

Meanwhile a ship towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of food supplies was visible off the Gaza coast in a pilot voyage aimed at opening up a maritime route for aid.

Open Arms - a salvage vessel belonging to a Spanish charity of the same name - is towing a barge filled with rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and canned proteins.

Gaza has no functioning port, so the US charity behind the mission, World Central Kitchen, has been building a jetty to unload the cargo.

The quickest, most effective way to get aid into the territory is by road. But aid agencies say Israeli restrictions mean a fraction of what is needed is getting in.

Israel says it welcomes the creation of a maritime corridor and that it is facilitating the transfer of aid to Gaza while its forces continue to fight Hamas.

On Friday, Australia said it would resume funding to UNRWA - the main United Nations aid agency in Gaza. Australia and several other donors paused funding two months ago when Israel accused some of its staff of involvement in the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said government lawyers had advised that UNRWA "was not a terrorist organisation".

Canada, Sweden and the EU have already said they will resume funding to UNRWA but its biggest donor, the US, is maintaining a payment freeze.

Ms Wong urged Israel to let more food into Gaza.

"The Australian Government has been briefed by the World Food Program that there are large stocks of food outside of Gaza's borders, but there is no way to move it across the border into Gaza and deliver it at scale without Israel's cooperation and we implore Israel to allow more aid into Gaza now," she said.

Israel has said that trucks containing aid have crossed into Gaza but have not been distributed and accuses aid agencies of logistical failures.

The war began when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages. More than 31,400 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68573551

[Jimbuna]

Aid supply ship from Cyprus reaches Gaza coast but weather slows delivery

GAZA STRIP (Reuters) -A ship towing a barge loaded with food arrived off Gaza on Friday, witnesses said, in a test run for a new aid route by sea from Cyprus into the devastated Palestinian enclave where famine looms after five months of Israel's military campaign.

The ship, arranged by the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity, is carrying nearly 200 tonnes of aid to be delivered via a jetty being prepared in Gaza, with a second ship expected to sail soon.

Floating on a barge attached by rope to a salvage ship, rough seas appeared to slow down the cargo reaching land, footage posted by a WCK official on social media showed.

WCK have been constructing a makeshift jetty which would allow the flat-bottomed barge to approach Gaza's shallow waters for lack of proper port infrastructure.
"So far 2 crates already delivered from the barge," WCK founder Jose Andres, a Michelin-starred chef, said in a post on X. "But still more to do next few (h)ours".

There are few details on how the aid delivery and distribution will work once it is ready to unload in Gaza, with U.N. relief agencies having described huge obstacles to getting relief supplies to those in need.

If the new sea route is successful, it may help to ease the hunger crisis affecting Gaza, where much of the population faces malnourishment and hospitals in the worst-stricken northern areas have reported children dying of starvation.

However, bringing in aid by sea and through air drops will not be enough to make up for difficulties getting in supplies by land, aid agencies have repeatedly said.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's air and ground campaign has since killed more than 31,000 Palestinians according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, while driving most of the population from their homes and pushing the enclave towards famine.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...95b270fc&ei=24

[Jimbuna]

Germany calls for more larger-scale aid

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for more aid to reach Gaza on the ground, as he criticised Israel's plans for a full-scale offensive in the southern city of Rafah.

Israel has previously defended its plans for an offensive in Rafah, calling it necessary to bring an end to Hamas in the strip.

Mr Scholz's remarks come a day after the first maritime aid package to Gaza.

The shipment contained 200 tonnes of food, including rice, oil and dates.

The mission was carried out by US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates.

Aid has trickled into Gaza slowly since the start of the war, which began after Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages.

Since then, more than 31,400 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a visit to the Middle East, Mr Scholz described the situation in Gaza as "difficult", adding that it is "necessary for aid to reach Gaza on a larger scale now".

He said he will be bringing up the subject during talks with his counterparts in the region.

Mr Scholz went on to stress that Germany is concerned about military developments in Rafah, which is on the border with Egypt.

More than a million people from other parts of Gaza are sheltering there.

"There is a danger that a full-scale offensive in Rafah will result in many terrible civilian casualties, which must be avoided at all costs," Mr Scholz said.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for a military operation in Rafah, adding that the army was preparing for the evacuation of civilians.

Defending its strategy, Israel says Hamas cannot be fully removed in Gaza without targeting Rafah.

Israel's plans have been criticised by the international community, with the UN and US also warning that a full-scale assault in Rafah could be disastrous.

Speaking on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it planned to move displaced Palestinians in Gaza to what it called "humanitarian islands" in the middle of the strip. It is not clear what the "islands" will look like, or how they will operate.

A population plagued by deprivation, Gazans are in desperate need of food with the United Nations previously warning that the enclave is on the brink of famine.

Cogat, the Israeli body that coordinates humanitarian aid to Gaza, says that so far this month an average of 126 food trucks have entered each day. It says this is more than the 70 trucks carrying food specifically that entered Gaza before the war. Some 500 trucks in total entered Gaza each day before the war.

Getting aid in by land is most effective. But military operations and the breakdown of social order have severely hampered aid distribution, leading some countries to try alternative routes - by air and sea.

Israel denies impeding the entry of aid to Gaza and accuses aid organisations of failing to distribute it.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas could meet in Doha for talks on a potential truce deal as soon as Sunday. Hamas said it had given a "comprehensive vision" to mediators.

But Mr Netanyahu accused the group of making "unrealistic" demands. Nevertheless, he agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar.

In an interview with the BBC on Saturday, Dr Margaret Harris, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), said it is "good news" to hear there is movement towards a ceasefire.

She described that measure as "the only answer" to the current situation in Gaza. Dr Harris said her colleagues on the ground have never seen misery like it.

"They have never seen the speed and the horror and the misery the people are living in there, living massively crowded together, starving in places covered in human waste faeces, unable to clean the place because we can't even bring chlorine in".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68586065

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Israel blocks UNRWA chief from entering Gaza, UNRWA and Egypt say

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli authorities denied permission for the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) to enter the Gaza Strip on Monday, UNRWA and the Egyptian foreign minister said, calling it an unprecedented move.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, speaking alongside Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry at a Cairo news conference, said he had intended to go to Rafah on Monday "but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined".

Shoukry told Lazzarini: "You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry which is an unprecedented move for (a) representative at this high position".

UNRWA, founded in 1949, provides aid and essential services to Palestinian refugees and is the largest such provider in Gaza.

The move to deny Lazzarini permission to enter the territory comes as Palestinians in Gaza face a deepening humanitarian crisis, with a U.N.-backed report saying on Monday that famine is expected between now and May in the north of Gaza.

"We are engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said, describing hunger in the Gaza Strip as "man-made".

The crisis could be resolved and reversed through proper political will and Gaza could be "flooded" with food through the land crossings, he added.

Lazzarini has visited the Gaza Strip four times since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, and on numerous occasions prior to that, UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters.

"The Israeli authorities denied entry of the UNRWA CG (Commissioner General) to Gaza today," she said.

It marked the first time Lazzarini had been denied entry since he began in the post, to which he was appointed in 2020.

"We were ready to leave this morning on an Egyptian plane from Cairo to El Arish," Touma said.

UNRWA is at the centre of a crisis over Israeli allegations made in January that 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The Israeli accusations led 16 countries including the United States to pause $450 million in UNRWA funding, throwing its operations into crisis.

UNRWA fired some staff members, saying it acted in order to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal U.N. investigation was launched.

Australia is one of several countries which have subsequently resumed funding, its foreign minister saying last week that Australia had consulted with UNRWA and other donors and was satisfied the aid agency was not a terrorist organisation.

UNRWA has condemned the Oct. 7 attacks, saying the Israeli allegations against the agency - if true - are a betrayal of U.N. values and of the people UNRWA serves.

With the war between Israel and Hamas now in its sixth month, the U.N. has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access for aid.

Lazzarini also said that more than 150 of UNRWA's facilities have been hit, damaged or completely destroyed during the offensive launched by Israel in response to the Oct. 7 attacks.

"We also know that a number of staff that have been arrested have gone through very tough investigation, ill-treatment and humiliation," Lazzarini said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...48a6c3e6&ei=59

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Israel blocks UNRWA chief from entering Gaza, UNRWA and Egypt say

UNRWA should be declared a known terrorist organization.

[Jimbuna]

Agreed

[Jimbuna]

Israel Gaza: US reports death of senior Hamas military leader Marwan Issa

Hamas leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said.

As deputy military commander, Mr Issa would be Hamas's most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October.

The Palestinian group, which controls Gaza, has not officially commented on reports of his death.

Israeli media sources have reported that Mr Issa was killed in a strike on a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week.

The deputy commander of Hamas's military wing - the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was considered one of Israel's most-wanted men. The European Union, which placed the Hamas leader on its terrorist blacklist, linked him directly to the 7 October attack led by the group which killed approximately 1,200 people.

He had been jailed by Israel for five years during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, and detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the second intifada in 2000.

The Israeli military has killed a number of Hamas's senior leaders since 7 October. Hamas political leader Saleh al-Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel is widely considered responsible for that attack.

Mr Sullivan, the White House's national security adviser, said other Hamas leaders were believed to be in hiding, "likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network" in Gaza.

He pledged that the US would aid Israel in its continued hunt for top Hamas leaders, adding: "Justice will come for them, too."

But he also emphasised that US President Joe Biden had expressed his growing alarm over the rising number of civilian deaths in Gaza in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - their first conversation in a month.

The US president reiterated his commitment to Israel and its "right to go after Hamas", according to Mr Sullivan, but he also said that it would be a "mistake" for Israel's military to invade Rafah - a city in southern Gaza where an estimated million refugees have fled to during the war.

The invasion "would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally", the US national security adviser told reporters.

More than 31,000 Palestinian civilians have died since the war started on 7 October, according to the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza. The death toll has drawn international condemnation and alienated many of Israel's allies.

President Biden pushed Mr Netanyahu for a "clear, strategic end game" in Gaza during the call, Mr Sullivan said.

"The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen," he said.

Mr Biden was able to get the Israeli leader to agree to sending a "senior interagency team composed of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials" to Washington in the coming days to discuss US concerns over an invasion of Rafah.

The expectation is that Israel will delay its assault until that meeting is held, Mr Sullivan said.

Mr Netanyahu confirmed the call on X, formerly Twitter, and said the two had "discussed the latest developments in the war" as well as Israel's goals in the conflict.

The Israeli prime minister said those objectives included: "Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel - while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in achieving these goals."

Senior Democrats in the US are growing more vocally critical of Mr Netanyahu.

On Thursday, Chuck Schumer - the top Democrat in the Senate - called for new elections in Israel, saying that Mr Netanyahu was prioritising his "political survival" over the country's needs.

Mr Netanyahu's Likud party pushed back, saying Israel was not a "banana republic" and that the prime minister's policies were "supported by a large majority".

Mr Biden told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he knew Mr Schumer's remarks were coming. The president said, however, that the Senate leader had "expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but many Americans".

Elsewhere, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East this week on his sixth visit to the region since the conflict in Gaza erupted.

He will hold meetings in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to discuss international efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages.

Israeli negotiators are due to begin talks in Qatar on Tuesday in a fresh attempt to secure a ceasefire deal.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68578735

[Jimbuna]

Blinken visits Middle East to discuss Gaza post-war plan

The US secretary of state has flown to the Middle East to discuss a post-war plan to govern and secure Gaza.

Antony Blinken's talks with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia and then Egypt will focus on what the US calls "an architecture for lasting peace".

It comes as witnesses said Israeli forces had escalated their operation around al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, carrying out a number of air strikes.

Earlier, Israel's military said it had killed 90 gunmen there since Monday.

Separately, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are continuing in Qatar to bring about a ceasefire and the release of hostages. But there are few signs that a breakthrough is imminent.

Mr Blinken's sixth trip to the region since the start of the war in Gaza saw him land in Jeddah on Wednesday afternoon to meet the Saudi leadership.

Descending from the plane shortly before sundown he was greeted by waiting officials, including Mazin al-Himali from the Saudi foreign ministry, who embraced Mr Blinken.

He is expected to meet the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at the royal palace on Wednesday night.

State department spokesman Matthew Miller said they would discuss efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement and increase aid deliveries to Gaza, amid further dire warnings about the scale of the humanitarian crisis there.

A UN-backed food security assessment this week said 1.1 million people in Gaza were struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation, adding that a man-made famine in the north was imminent between now and May.

Also on the agenda would be "co-ordination on post-conflict planning for Gaza, including ensuring Hamas can no longer govern or repeat the attacks of 7 October, a political path for the Palestinian people with security assurances with Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region", Mr Miller added.

Mr Blinken will travel to Cairo on Thursday to meet Egyptian leaders.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68614549

[Jimbuna]

Gaps are narrowing in Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks, Blinken says during Mideast visit

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the “gaps are narrowing” in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over another cease-fire and hostage release that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent several weeks trying to broker.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-b2516165.html

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