Connect with us

World

Israel faces pressure over Gaza deaths as fighting rages near hospitals

Published

on

Israel faced mounting international pressure this week, including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified near and around hospitals.

The number of Palestinians killed during the bombardment of the coastal enclave in the past five weeks rose above 11,000, according to Gaza health officials, as Israeli forces waged war on Hamas militants who carried out the deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, Reuters reported.

In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the cross-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."

But Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel's campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used "as a platform for launching terrorism."

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a BBC interview published late on Friday, said Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas (is) committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Netanyahu said.

Israel has said that Hamas militants, who are holding as many as 240 hostages of different nationalities taken in last month's attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia will host an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh on Saturday, the Saudi foreign ministry said. The joint meeting "will be held in response to the exceptional circumstances taking place in the Palestinian Gaza Strip as countries feel the need to unify efforts and come out with a unified collective position," it said.

Overcrowded hospitals hit by explosions and gunfire

Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City's overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.

"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.

He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.

Gaza officials said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave's biggest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi pediatric cancer hospital.

Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

The hospitals, filled with displaced people as well as patients and medical staff, are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants are concentrated.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital's basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that health workers the group was in contact with at Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.

"Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there," Tedros wrote on social media.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.

"One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack," he said by phone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.

Israeli tanks have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier.

The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces were shooting at Al-Quds hospital, and there were violent clashes, with one person killed and 28 wounded, most of them children.

Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said at a briefing the army "does not fire on hospitals. If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals we'll do what we need to do. We're aware of the sensitivity (of hospitals), but again, if we see Hamas terrorists, we'll kill them."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said Israel had created a task force to establish hospitals in southern Gaza. On Oct. 12, Israel ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza to move south ahead of its ground invasion.

Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Oct. 7.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said around 1,200 people had been killed, mostly civilians, in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, a revision of the earlier death toll, although it added that might change again once all the bodies are identified.

Israel has also said 39 soldiers have been killed in combat since Oct. 7.

World

Trump safe after assassination attempt thwarted at Florida golf course

The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle and other items at the scene and fled in a vehicle and was later arrested

Published

on

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe on Sunday after the Secret Service foiled what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Several Secret Service agents fired on a gunman in bushes near the property line of the golf course after he was spotted a few hundred yards from where Trump was playing, law enforcement officials said.

The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle and other items at the scene and fled in a vehicle and was later arrested, Reuters reported.

The apparent attempt on Trump's life came just two months after he was shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, sustaining a minor injury to his right ear.

Both incidents highlight the challenges of keeping presidential candidates safe in a hotly contested and polarized campaign with just over seven weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election.

"I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day!," Trump said on social media late on Sunday, thanking Secret Service and police for keeping him safe.

CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.

It was not clear if or how the suspect knew Trump was playing golf at the time, or what his motive was, but the attempted attack was sure to raise new questions about the level of protection he is given.

 

Continue Reading

World

Houthi missile reaches central Israel for first time, no injuries reported

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.

Published

on

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time, Reuters reported.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.

An Israeli military official said the missile was hit by an interceptor and fragmented in the air, rather than being completely destroyed.

Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard, read the report.

Missile pieces landed in fields and near a railway station. There were no direct casualties, but nine people were lightly hurt while seeking cover. Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a "heavy price" for attacks on Israel.

"Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port," Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.

The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October, Reuters reported.

The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.

Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.

Israel should expect more strikes in the future "as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah," Houthis spokesperson Sarea said.

The deputy head of the Houthi's media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after "20 missiles failed to intercept" it, describing it as the "beginning".

Continue Reading

World

Trump pledges to deport Haitians in Ohio city if elected

President Joe Biden urged the attacks on the Haitian community to cease

Published

on

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged on Friday to conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city of Springfield, even though the majority of them are in the United States legally.

The city for days has found itself at the center of a social media maelstrom after right-wing agitators latched onto false claims that Haitian arrivals were eating household pets, Reuters reported.

"We will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio," Trump said at a press conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles.

The majority of the 15,000 Haitians in Springfield are there legally. Trump's longstanding pledge to conduct mass deportations usually refers to those in the country illegally.

Trump did not repeat the assertion he made during Tuesday's presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris that immigrants were eating dogs and cats, remarks that have been widely mocked.

Two elementary schools were evacuated and one middle school in Springfield was closed on Friday after anonymous bomb threats were made against the community for the second day in a row, according to ABC News.

At the White House, President Joe Biden urged the attacks on the Haitian community to cease.

"It's simply wrong. There's no place in America. This has to stop - what he's doing. It has to stop," Biden said.

The Biden administration extended Temporary Protected Status to hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States in June, a decades-old program that protects legal immigrants from deportation and gives them work permits.

Gang wars in Haiti have displaced over half a million people and nearly five million are facing severe food insecurity.

Trump has cited the tensions in Springfield as another example of the need for hardline immigration policies. The influx of Haitians has boosted the economy but also has strained social services.

"I'm angry about illegal Haitian migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio. You see that mess, don't you?" Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas, later on Friday.
"I'm angry about young American girls being raped and murdered by savage criminal aliens that come into our country very easily, but very illegally," he added later in his speech.

Haitian community leaders across the United States said the Republican candidate's remarks could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in Springfield.

"We need help, not hate," Springfield's mayor Rob Rue told ABC News.

City officials say they have received no credible reports of anybody eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Ariana News. All rights reserved!