World
Gaza ceasefire negotiations extend to another day as death toll exceeds 40,000
This round of negotiations opened on Thursday, and the talks would resume on Friday for a second day, Qatari and U.S. officials said.
![](https://www.ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Gaza.jpg)
Negotiators were to meet in the Qatari capital Doha again on Friday in an effort to hammer out a Gaza ceasefire agreement as Israel continued to slam targets in the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza health officials reported separately on Thursday that the death toll there had surpassed 40,000 people after more than 10 months of fighting, Reuters reported.
This round of negotiations opened on Thursday, and the talks would resume on Friday for a second day, Qatari and U.S. officials said.
A U.S. official briefed on the discussions in Doha, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that Thursday's talks were "constructive."
"This is vital work. The remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close," U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House.
Israel, meanwhile, pressed its assault on Gaza. Gaza health officials said at least six Palestinians were killed on Thursday night in an Israeli air strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops earlier hit targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
In a statement issued late on Thursday on Telegram, Hamas politburo member Hossam Badran said Israel's continuing operations were an obstacle to progress on a ceasefire. Hamas officials did not join Thursday's talks.
Badran said the talks must move toward implementation of a framework agreement accepted previously and achieve a complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces, return of displaced Palestinians and a hostage exchange deal.
"Hamas looks at the ongoing negotiations in Doha regarding a ceasefire and a hostage exchange from a strategic perspective with the goal of ending the aggression on Gaza," he added.
Mediators planned to consult with Hamas' Doha-based negotiating team after the meeting, the U.S. official told Reuters.
The Israeli delegation includes spy chief David Barnea, head of the domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military's hostages chief Nitzan Alon, defence officials said.
The White House sent CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also took part.
The negotiations, an effort to end bloodshed in Gaza and bring 115 Israeli and foreign hostages home, were put together as Iran appeared poised to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
ESCALATION RISK
With U.S. warships, submarines and warplanes dispatched to the region to defend Israel and deter potential attackers, Washington hopes a ceasefire agreement in Gaza can defuse the risk of a wider regional war.
The White House said late on Thursday attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank were "unacceptable and must stop," after dozens of settlers assaulted a village, killing at least one person.
With U.S. presidential elections looming on Nov. 5, Republican candidate Donald Trump criticised the Biden administration's months-long calls for a ceasefire, saying it "would only give Hamas time to regroup."
Israel and Hamas have each blamed the other for failure to reach a deal yet neither side has ruled out an agreement.
On Wednesday, a source in the Israeli negotiating team said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed significant leeway on a few of the substantial disputes.
Gaps include the presence of Israeli troops in Gaza, the sequencing of a hostage release and restrictions on the free movement of civilians from southern to northern Gaza.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said the Gaza death toll of more than 40,000 reported by the enclave's health ministry was a "grim milestone for the world".
"This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war," he said in a statement from Geneva on Thursday.
Separately, Israel's military said it had "eliminated" more than 17,000 Palestinian militants in its Gaza campaign.
In shattered Gaza where the war has driven almost all of its 2.3 million population from their homes, there was a desperate desire for an end to the fighting.
"We are hopeful this time. Either it's this time or never I am afraid," Aya, 30, sheltering with her family in Deir Al-Balah in the central part of the Gaza Strip, told Reuters via a chat app.
The war started after a Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Israel says the militants killed some 1,200 people, prompting Israel to attack Gaza in retaliation.
World
Dozens killed, wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza tent camp, Gaza agency says
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
![](https://www.ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Gaza-Khan-younis.jpg)
Israeli airstrikes on a tent camp for displaced Palestinians killed and wounded 65 people in southern Gaza, the enclave's civil emergency service said early on Tuesday, as the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas command center, Reuters reported.
Residents and medics said a tent encampment near Khan Younis in the Al-Mawasi area, a designated humanitarian zone, was struck by at least four missiles. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the territory.
The Gaza civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught on fire, and missiles caused craters as deep as nine meters (30 feet). It said the 65 victims included women and children but did not provide a breakdown of deaths and injuries.
There was no immediate comment from the Gaza health ministry, which compiles casualty figures. Earlier, the Hamas-aligned Shehab News Agency said 40 Palestinians were killed.
"Our teams are still moving out martyrs and wounded from the targeted area. It looks like a new Israeli massacre," a Gaza civil emergency official said.
The official added that teams have been struggling to search for victims who might have been buried, read the report.
The Israeli military said it "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis."
"The terrorists advanced and carried out terror attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel," the statement said, referring to the Israeli Defence Forces.
Hamas, the Islamist group that controlled Gaza before the conflict, denied Israeli allegations gunmen existed in the targeted area, and rejected accusations it exploited civilian areas for military purposes.
"This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or using these places for military purposes," said Hamas in a statement.
Ambulances raced between the tent camp and a nearby hospital, while Israeli jets could still be heard overhead, residents said.
Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times, Reuters reported.
The war was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health ministry.
The two warring sides each blame the other for a failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.
World
Israeli strikes on Syria kill at least four civilians, Syrian state media say
There has been no immediate comment from Israel, which typically does not comment on specific reports of strikes in Syria.
![](https://www.ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Israel-strikes-.jpg)
Multiple Israeli strikes on Syria's Hama countryside late on Sunday killed at least four civilians, Syrian state media reported, with sources saying the attacks targeted a major military research center.
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces, Reuters reported.
A local health official quoted by Syria's state news agency said 13 people were also injured, including several critically, following Sunday's strikes in the vicinity of the city of Misyaf, with ambulances still ferrying the wounded.
Two regional intelligence sources said a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Misyaf was hit several times. It is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production, read the report.
Syria's state media also reported that the strikes caused two fires, which firefighters were working to extinguish.
There has been no immediate comment from Israel, which typically does not comment on specific reports of strikes in Syria.
In the most high-profile attack on Syria since the war in Gaza began, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in April, a strike that Iran said killed seven military advisers, including three senior commanders.
World
Thirteen Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, WAFA says
In a separate incident, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
![](https://www.ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Gaza-airstrike-3.jpg)
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded in Israeli strikes on a school sheltering refugees and a residential building in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency WAFA reported early on Saturday.
At least eight of the dead were in refugee tents at Halima al-Sa'diyya School in Jabalia in northern Gaza, WAFA said.
The Israeli army said in a statement it had "conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control centre... embedded inside a compound that previously served as the 'Halima al-Sa'diyya' School in the northern Gaza Strip."
In a separate incident, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered Oct. 7 last year when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,800 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
According to the United Nations, at least 1.9 million people across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including some uprooted more than 10 times.
-
Sport5 days ago
Afghanistan name squad for maiden Test against New Zealand
-
Science & Technology5 days ago
New iPhone will use Arm’s chip technology for AI
-
Latest News5 days ago
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM wants to hold talks with IEA over security
-
Latest News5 days ago
UN Security Council condemns IEA’s morality law
-
Sport4 days ago
Futsal World Cup just 6 days away
-
Regional4 days ago
US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming
-
World4 days ago
Thirteen Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, WAFA says
-
Latest News4 days ago
Norway donates $1.8 million to Afghanistan