SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
 July wk2 P2 -- July wk2 -- July wk1 P3 -- July wk1 P2 -- July wk1 -- June wk4 P3 --   Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

July 9 - 6, 2024 <<Israeli arrests daunt Palestinian journalists in West Bank... and <<'The war in Gaza is also an environmental catastrophe'... and <<Thousands of Palestinians flee fighting in Gaza City, mediators push for truce deal... and <<Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas... and <<Gaza death toll rises to 38,193... and <<Alain Dieckhoff, sociologist: 'Netanyahu offers no political prospects for Gaza'... and <<Protesters rally in Israel to call for Gaza ceasefire and Netanyahu's resignation... and <<Hamas drops key demand to accept phased US deal on ceasefire, hostages... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

July 5 - 4, 2024 Food for thought: Truce or not the Palestinians are not going anywhere.  Read all the actual news here.

July 4 - 2, 2024 <<Gazan orphans face suffering beyond territory's borders... and <<Hamas faces growing public dissent as Gaza war erodes support... and <<Thousands scramble for safety as Israel launches airstrike on Rafah... and <<Fears of spread of disease as rotting garbage piles up in Gaza... and <<Israel's Netanyahu should leave 'immediately', former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon says... and <<Ex-officials say Gaza policy has put US at risk... and <<Israel carries out deadly strikes on southern Gaza after issuing evacuation order... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!    Click here to go throughout July and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: July 2 2024: Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war June 25 - 23, 2024: Press' vests do not protect them and related stories   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.


France 25 - July 9, 2024 - by
<<Israeli arrests daunt Palestinian journalists in West Bank
As the Israel-Hamas war raged in the Gaza Strip, Amarneh spent nearly nine months behind bars until his release on Tuesday, though he was never charged with an offence or put on trial. Including Amarneh, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented 51 Palestinian media workers detained in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli authorities since the start of the war. The 37-year-old freelancer was placed under <administrative detention>, which allows for suspects to be held without charge for renewable periods of up to six months. His initial term was reduced to five months, but then renewed for four months in March. Mohammed Laham of the Palestinian Journalists' Union said <90 percent of the journalists arrested are in administrative detention>, including five women detained since October 7. On his release, Amarneh was transferred to hospital due to <poor health>, according to the family. Amarneh, who in 2019 was wounded while covering a protest against Israeli land confiscation, was arrested at his home in Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp, his family said. For five years, since being hit by a rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops, Amarneh has used a prosthetic eye. But he did not have it with him in prison, and relatives were not allowed to visit him, his wife Walaa Amarneh told AFP in an interview before his release. She said the family was only allowed to send Amarneh 500 Israeli shekels (about $135) to buy glasses, after a pair was <broken due to harassment by Israeli soldiers>. Contacted by AFP, the Israel Prison Service did not comment on Amarneh's case.
Most dangerous conflict
As the Gaza war went on, violence and tensions have soared in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip have risked their lives to provide the world with a glimpse of the death and destruction in the conflict, while also trying to keep their loved ones safe. The Israel-Hamas war has been the most dangerous conflict for journalists, according to the CPJ, which by July 8 counted 108 media workers killed and 32 wounded -- most of them Palestinians in Gaza. Journalists in the West Bank have meanwhile faced the risks of covering increased Israeli raids into Palestinian communities that often lead to bloody clashes with militants. According to Palestinian authorities, at least 572 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7. Advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said Israel has also arrested journalists <for alleged incitement via the media... and social networks>. <Tools of freedom of opinion and expression... have become tools of targeting journalists and Palestinians in general,> it said.
'We think twice'
In November, another West Bank freelance journalist, Somaya Jawabreh, was arrested for alleged incitement to violence in a series of online posts.
AFP was not able to review the posts as her Facebook profile has been shut down, but her husband, journalist Tariq Youssef, said the court took issue with her mention of the October 7 attack. The journalist was released after a week, because she was seven months pregnant, and placed under house arrest. She was also ordered to pay a 50,000-shekel bail, barred from speaking to the media, and forbidden from owning or using a mobile phone as well as the internet. <She lost her job due to all these conditions,> Youssef said. <Her professional future is over.> Moussab Shawar, a photojournalist who contributes to AFP, was detained in November with two colleagues in the southern West Bank for meeting with Palestinian prisoners released by Israel during a Gaza ceasefire. At an Israeli checkpoint, <the vehicle was seized and searched, IDs checked, phones confiscated,> said 33-year-old Shawar. He said they were <handcuffed with zip ties>, blindfolded and released seven hours later. <With the war, everything has become frightening,> he said.
<We think twice before deciding on our coverage.>
AFP>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240709-israeli-arrests-daunt-palestinian-journalists-in-west-bank

France 25 - July 8, 2024 - Column by columnist Jean-Pierre Filiu
<<'The war in Gaza is also an environmental catastrophe'
For the past nine months, the Israeli army has been relentlessly attacking the Gaza Strip, with no hope of achieving the two objectives set by Benjamin Netanyahu: "total victory" over Hamas and the release of the hostages captured on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli bombardments put the 116 hostages still alive at serious risk. As for the Islamist militia, whatever losses they have suffered, they have more than made up for them with recruits eager to avenge the death of one or more relatives killed in the Israeli strikes.
Nevertheless, the toll of this freewheeling war continues to worsen in Gaza, with over 38,000 people killed, or one in every 60 inhabitants. This death toll, already staggering, could double or triple due to the devastating combination of hunger and epidemics.
Water access increasingly compromised
The colossal challenge of such a humanitarian emergency must not blind us to the medium- and long-term environmental impact of ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip. With its population density comparable to Hong Kong's, this territory was already experiencing significant strain on its natural resources, aggravated by an Israel-imposed blockade since 2007.
Frequent power cuts had convinced 20% of households to switch to solar power, while the United Nations (UN) equipped schools and hospitals with photovoltaic installations. Wadi Gaza, or the "Gaza Valley," Palestine's largest wetland, had been rehabilitated during long years of patient work.
Bombardments have swept away these efforts, destroying more than half the water supply and wastewater management infrastructure. According to the UN, the daily volume of water accessible per person has fallen to a few liters since this spring, compared with 85 liters before the current conflict.
Much of Wadi Gaza has been ravaged, compromising the entire ecosystem that depended on it. More than half the arable land and a third of greenhouses have been hit by Israeli army strikes, with complete or partial destruction. Two-thirds of livestock perished in these strikes or were slaughtered in advance, compromising their natural replacement, while cattle feed became a default food supplement for a starving population.
The "security zone" that Israel imposes on its border has also been extended from 300 meters to one kilometer in depth. Palestinian farmers who dare to venture out to cultivate their land are liable to be shot at without warning. This is also the fate reserved for Palestinian fishermen. All this destruction and restriction are contributing to the terrible level of food insecurity (95% of the population), with half a million women, men, and children in "catastrophic insecurity.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/08/the-war-in-gaza-is-also-an-environmental-catastrophe_6677828_4.html

France 25 - July 8, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Thousands of Palestinians flee fighting in Gaza City, mediators push for truce deal
Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) - Heavy fighting raged in the besieged north of the Gaza Strip on Monday, forcing thousands of Palestinians to pick up their belongings and flee from Gaza City. Israeli tanks and troops moved into the city as ceasefire mediators Egypt and Qatar prepared to host new truce talks this week. Thousands of Palestinians fled heavy battles in Gaza City on Monday, as Israel's military expanded an evacuation order nine months into its war with Hamas militants. While fighting raged, Hamas and Israel staked their claims for truce talks as mediators Egypt and Qatar were due to host new meetings this week, according to officials. Israeli troops and tanks pushed into parts of Gaza City, in the besieged territory's north, and battled Palestinian militants. Thousands were on the move again, according to the Civil Defence agency in the Hamas-run territory. Witnesses said messages on loudspeakers urged civilians to leave Gaza City's Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah neighbourhoods. AFP photographers saw Palestinians leave on foot, bikes and on donkey carts, carrying their belongings through rubble-strewn streets. Muhammad Bisan said he had been through <an indescribable night> in Gaza City. <Planes and artillery are bombing and drones are firing from all directions, and we do not know where to run, right or left,> he told AFP. Elsewhere in Gaza, AFPTV images showed Palestine Red Crescent members removing a body from the rubble after a strike in Jabalia, another Gaza City district. Israel's military reported strikes on targets in the Rafah and Khan Yunis areas of southern Gaza.
The war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead. Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,193 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the territory's health ministry. The toll includes at least 40 deaths over the previous 24 hours, it said. Diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting aim for an initial six-week ceasefire that would see some hostages in Gaza freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but talks would continue for a comprehensive deal to end the war. Hamas has signalled it would drop its insistence on a <complete> ceasefire, a demand Israel has repeatedly rejected. A top Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that mediators had offered assurances <that as long as the... negotiations continued, the ceasefire would continue>. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office reiterated in a statement that <any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved>.
Evacuation order
The military said Israeli forces were carrying out a <counterterrorism operation> against Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the area of the Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. There was no immediate comment from UNRWA, whose facilities across Gaza have come under attack before. In Gaza City's Shujaiya district, where battles have raged for nearly two weeks, the military said it had <eliminated dozens> of militants including in air strikes. Israel in early January said it had dismantled Hamas's <military framework> in northern Gaza, but militants have since regrouped -- pointing to the difficulty of destroying the group which Netanyahu says is one of the goals. Gaza's Civil Defence reported <dozens of martyrs and wounded> across the coastal territory, saying rescuers were unable to reach some areas due to the intense fighting. A Hamas senior official on Monday accused the Israeli premier of stepping up bombardment in order to derail the latest truce effort.
<Whenever a round of negotiations begins and a breakthrough is within reach, he... escalates the aggression,> the Hamas official charged, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two separate strikes, on Saturday in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and on Sunday in Gaza City, killed people in schools turned into displacement shelters. The United Nations estimates 90 percent of Gazans have fled their homes. Netanyahu's hard-right political allies have threatened to leave the government if he agrees to stop the fighting before Hamas is eliminated. Israelis rallied again on Sunday in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, demanding a hostage release deal and new elections in a <Disruption Day> to step up their pressure. <Our message to the government is very simple,> said demonstrator Yehuda Cohen, the father of kidnapped soldier Nimrod Cohen. <There is a deal on the table. Take it.>
Israel strikes Hezbollah
Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said Cairo would host Israeli and US delegations in a new push in the months-long effort toward a truce. Israel has said it would also be sending negotiators to Qatar, and an official with knowledge of the mediation said US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns would also go to the Gulf emirate this week. Israel has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Hamas's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, raising fears of all-out war as such exchanges escalate. Israel on Saturday struck deep inside eastern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah operative, an attack that sparked major rocket and drone barrages by the Iran-backed movement. On Monday, the Israeli said an air strike had killed a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah announced the fighter's death without elaborating.
(AFP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240708-palestinians-flee-battles-as-mediators-push-for-truce-deal

BBC - July 8, 2024 - By By Sebastian Usher & Rushdi Aboualouf, BBC News, Jerusalem & Istanbul
<<Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas
Hundreds of Palestinian families have fled after receiving orders to evacuate several areas of Gaza City. Palestinians in Gaza City say they have experienced one of the most intense Israeli bombardments since Israel launched its war on Hamas after the group's unprecedented 7 October attack.
Columns of Israeli tanks are reported to be closing in on the centre of the city from several different directions. The Gaza Civil Emergency Service says it believes a number of people have been killed but has so far been unable to reach them because of fighting in several districts in the east and west of Gaza City. The Al-Ahli Baptist hospital is reported to have been evacuated, with its patients being taken to one of the only medical facilities still functioning in the area - the already overcrowded Indonesian hospital. Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage release deal are expected to resume in Qatar within 48 hours. A preliminary meeting would take place in Egypt on Monday between US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, the official said. Ahead of the assault in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for several neighbourhoods in the centre, including Tuffah, Daraj and the Old City.
But one of the areas that has come under the most intense assault, Tel al-Hawa, was not included in the evacuation order that was posted online with a map by the IDF Arabic spokesperson on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, the IDF issued a new order that covered Tel al-Hawa as well as the Sabra and al-Rimal areas, to the north and west. One resident of Gaza City, Abdel Ghani asked: <The enemy is behind us and the sea is in front of us, where shall we go?> Others have also told the BBC that they do not know where to go. They say that only one route remains - to go north towards the port area of Gaza City. Some fled districts after receiving an evacuation order, only to find that the area they moved to was coming under Israeli bombardment. In al-Rimal, a freelance cameraman working for the BBC says that he did not receive any evacuation orders, but later learnt that his neighbour did. He left the area with his family and headed north. They are now in the port area but lack basic necessities. He says he is struggling to find water for his children. In a statement, the IDF confirmed that it launched what it called a new operation in Tel al-Halwa overnight, following what it said was intelligence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure and fighters in the area. The military also said that it was operating at the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, in the area. The IDF said that at the start of the operation, it gave warnings to civilians - and it said that it would open up a humanitarian corridor for people to leave the area. A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between the Hamas and Israeli negotiating teams, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will start in Doha within the next 48 hours. The official also said a preparatory meeting was due to take place in Cairo on Monday between CIA director William Burns, the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel. The three intelligence chiefs are then all due to travel to Doha on Tuesday. The official outlined to the BBC several key sticking points from the Hamas perspective:
Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from both the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Philadelphi corridor, a strip of land running along the Egyptian border
Israel has vetoed Hamas's demand for release from Israeli prisons of 100 senior figures from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah political factions
Hamas’s negotiating team has already dropped its requirement for Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire as a precondition for any potential deal.
The official said the negotiating process would be very long and complex, but that there was some degree of hope that it might work this time.
On Sunday, a statement by the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have somewhat dampened expectations by insisting that any deal must not stop Israel from resuming fighting in Gaza until its war objectives are met. Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly defined those aims as being the eradication of Hamas, both militarily and politically.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51yle4m5pzo


Gaza death toll rises
Jinha - Womens News Agency - July 8, 2024
<<Gaza death toll rises to 38,193
At least 38,193 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7,2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
News Center- At least 38,193 Palestinians have been killed and 87,903 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Monday. At least 40 Palestinians were killed and 75 others injured in Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours, the ministry added, noting that there are many bodies under rubble and the civil defense crews cannot reach them due to ongoing Israeli attacks.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/gaza-death-toll-rises-to-38-193-35342

BBC - July 7, 2024 - By Sebastian Usher and Rushdi Abualouf
<<Senior Hamas official killed as Israel orders fresh evacuation
The death of Al-Ghussein is not considered to be a blow to Hamas militarily.
A senior Hamas administration official was among four people killed in an Israeli air strike at a school in Gaza City, Palestinian sources say.
A local official told the BBC that Ehab Al-Ghussein was appointed to manage the affairs of the Hamas government in Gaza City and northern Gaza three months ago. The Israeli army says that it carried out a strike on the area of a school building in Gaza City from which it says <terrorists were operating and hiding>. It says that it took steps to minimise the risk of civilians being harmed. Eyewitnesses say the attack targeted the Holy Family School next to the Holy Family Church to the west of Gaza city. A large number of people were sheltering in the building, the BBC understands.
The air strike targeted two classrooms on the ground floor, they said. Ehab Al-Ghussein was formerly deputy labour minister in the Hamas administration and before that an interior ministry spokesman. His death is not considered to be a blow to Hamas militarily, but he was considered a significant figure in the leadership of the Hamas administration. Many others in the Hamas administration have been killed in the past nine months.
In one Israeli airstrike last November, the deputy culture minister and the deputy speaker of the legislative council were killed, along with other government employees and officials, as well as senior police officers. Separately the Israeli military issued another evacuation order for a central part of Gaza City. Ibrahim Al-Barbari, 47, who lives with his wife, five children, mother and sister in the Bani Amer neighbourhood, told the BBC that dozens of families were leaving and women and children were carrying bags and heading west. <We heard from the neighbours that we had to leave the house. We haven't received any calls or texts from the army, but we have already started gathering our belongings in preparation for moving again. We have been living in a state of near famine for months.> Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that any ceasefire deal in Gaza must allow Israel to resume fighting afterwards, until its objectives are met. He has previously defined these as dismantling Hamas's military and governing capabilities, as well as returning hostages. Hamas officials say they are awaiting Israel's response to the latest ceasefire proposals. Israel's war was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. At least 38,098 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel's offensive, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce93qvvzzx0o

Le Monde - July 7, 2024 - Interview by Gaidz Minassian
<<Alain Dieckhoff, sociologist: 'Netanyahu offers no political prospects for Gaza'
Traumatized by October 7, Israeli society has lost confidence in Benjamin Netanyahu, explains sociologist Alain Dieckhoff in an interview with Le Monde. Alain Dieckhoff is director of research at CNRS and professor at Sciences Po's Center for International Studies. He is the author of Israel-Palestine: Une Guerre sans Fin? ("Israel-Palestine: An Endless War?," 2022).
What do you think of the proposed truce and the US's proposal for a global ceasefire?
The plan for a permanent ceasefire, presented on May 31 by the US president, seems to me to be well-balanced, even if some points would certainly merit clarification in the sequence of events. It offers two major things: to the Palestinians, quite simply, an end to bombing and military operations; to the Israelis, the return of hostages still being held (or, unfortunately, dead). Joe Biden has deliberately made this roadmap public to put pressure on both parties, but judging by initial reactions, the gamble has not been won. On the Israeli side, Benjamin Netanyahu risks not being content with a merely diminished Hamas, but aiming for the eradication of the Palestinian group - an objective that is, if not illusory, at least distant. What's more, if he accepts this plan, he runs the risk of being let down by the extremists in his government (Ben Gvir, Smotrich) and losing his majority. On the Hamas side, continuing to fight would not only demonstrate its ability to endure but would also keep the Israeli army in the Gaza trap and permanently taint Israel in the eyes of a large part of the world. In short, the American initiative is welcome, but it's not certain that it will materialize.
Have we truly gauged the shock of the October 7 massacre for Israelis?
Since 1948, Israeli society has experienced many traumas, but nothing like the mass slaughter of October 7, which affected the vast majority of civilians, murdered in their homes, their cars or at the rave. This massacre spared neither children, women nor the elderly. This indiscriminate violence sent shockwaves that have not died down because the Hamas terrorist attack was accompanied by massive hostage-taking. More than 251 people were originally kidnapped, and around 120 are still in the hands of the Islamist movement as of June 4, 2024. The trauma persists, then, because October 7 is still with us.
Is there a feeling in Israel and the Jewish world that the Israeli state is less protective of Jews today?
The State of Israel was created as a refuge state, to welcome Jews and protect them. The October 7 events challenged this protective function of the state head-on. Israeli citizens suddenly appeared as vulnerable as Jews had been in Tsarist Russia or in Europe under the Nazi boot. It's no coincidence that the term <pogrom> came up so often. Some even spoke of the Holocaust, the Shoah (<catastrophe> in Hebrew), which is obviously an exaggeration compared to the genocide of European Jews, but again underlines the <out of the ordinary> dimension of October 7.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/07/alain-dieckhoff-sociologist-netanyahu-offers-no-political-prospects-for-gaza_6677005_4.html

France 25 - July 7, 2024
<<Protesters rally in Israel to call for Gaza ceasefire and Netanyahu's resignation
Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire to bring back scores of hostages held by Hamas. The demonstrations come as long-running efforts to broker a truce gained momentum last week when Hamas dropped a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war. The militant group is still seeking a permanent cease-fire, while Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240707-protesters-rally-in-israel-to-call-for-gaza-ceasefire-and-netanyahu-s-resignation

France 25 - July 7, 2024
<<Israeli air strike kills at least 16 in school at Nuseirat refugee camp
The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday an Israeli airstrike killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 50 others in a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Israeli military said they were targeting Hamas militants and had taken <numerous steps> to reduce civilian casualties.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240707-israeli-air-strike-kills-at-least-16-in-school-at-nuseirat-refugee-camp

France 25 - July 7, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Israeli protesters stage nationwide 'disruption day' to push for Gaza hostage deal
Israeli protesters on Saturday started a nationwide <disruption day> at 6:29am - marking nine months from the moment Hamas began the attacks in southern Israel - to push the government to secure a deal with Hamas for the release of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. Israeli protesters blocked roads in Tel Aviv for a second day on Sunday, demanding the government secure a hostage deal with Hamas as the Gaza war enters a 10th month. A nationwide <disruption day> began at 6:29 am, corresponding to the start of the Hamas October 7 attacks on southern Israel that set off the conflict. Flag-wielding demonstrators stopped traffic at an intersection in Tel Aviv, calling for elections and for the government to do more to free remaining captives in Gaza. Police stepped up security around Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence before a rally called for Sunday. The night before, anti-government demonstrators blocking a highway clashed with police on horseback before authorities deployed water canon to clear the road. Mediators have launched new truce talks between Israel and Hamas and some hostage families say they have been given renewed hope. <For the first time, we all feel that we are closer than ever to getting our loved ones back,> Sachar Mor, a relative of hostage Ofer Kaderon, told a Saturday rally. <This is an opportunity that cannot be missed.>
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
In response, Israel's military offensive has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
(AFP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240707-israeli-protesters-push-for-gaza-truce-as-war-enters-10th-month

France 25 - July 7, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Israel launches deadly strikes in Gaza as war enters tenth month
Israel conducted deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip as the war entered its tenth month on Sunday, with intense fighting continuing across the Palestinian enclave. Amidst the violence, new diplomatic efforts are underway to achieve a ceasefire, although significant differences remain between Israel and Hamas regarding the terms of a truce and hostage release. Israel carried out deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip as the war entered its tenth month on Sunday, with fighting raging across the Palestinian territory and fresh diplomatic efforts under way to halt the violence. Israel has said it will send a delegation in the coming days to continue truce talks with Qatari mediators that began recently in Doha. But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman said <gaps> remained with Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal. <It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties,> the spokesman said in a statement on Friday. Meanwhile, the fighting in Gaza continued unabated, with the Palestinian Red Crescent saying Sunday that the bodies of six people, including two children, who were killed in Israeli strikes had arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Paramedics also said Sunday that six people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a house in a northern area of Gaza City. The day before, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 16 people had been killed in a strike on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) that was sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted <terrorists> operating around the Al-Jawni school.
The military earlier said it had conducted operations across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir al-Balah and Rafah in the south. Shujaiya is among the areas the military had previously declared to be cleared of Hamas, but where fighting has since resumed. The Hamas press office and paramedics said four journalists working for local media outlets were killed in strikes overnight into Saturday, and UNRWA said two of its employees had been killed. UNRWA, which coordinates much of the aid delivered to Gaza, says 194 of its employees have been killed in the war.
'Ball in Israel's court'
The United States, which has mediated ceasefire negotiations alongside Qatar and Egypt, has talked up the prospects of a deal, saying there is a <pretty significant opening> for both sides. US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel. It included an initial six-week truce, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza's population centres and the freeing of hostages held by Palestinian militants. Talks subsequently stalled, but a US official said Thursday that a new proposal from Hamas <moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal>. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that new ideas from the group had been <conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side>.
<Now the ball is in the Israeli court.> There has been no truce since a one-week pause in November when 80 Israeli hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Pressure has mounted domestically for another hostage release deal, with regular protests and rallies in Israel. <It's important that we reach a deal so that all the mothers can embrace their children and husbands, just as I hug my mother every morning now,> rescued hostage Almog Mair Jan said in a recorded message to a rally in Tel Aviv Saturday. The war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza's population, destroyed much of its housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring <catastrophic> hunger, UN agencies say. The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas's demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject. The veteran hawk demands the release of the hostages and insists the war will not end until Israel has destroyed Hamas's ability to fight or govern.
Lebanon attacks
Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have exchanged cross-border fire almost daily since the Gaza war began, but attacks have escalated over the past month. This has raised fears of a major conflagration between the bitter enemies that could draw in others including Iran.
Israel's army said late Saturday that its jets had struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and troops had fired artillery across the border <throughout the day>. Earlier Saturday, sirens blared over northern Israel and the military said it had downed a <suspicious aerial target> and that two <hostile aircraft> launched from Lebanon had hit open ground. A source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in eastern Lebanon Saturday, killing a Hezbollah official. Israel said he was part of the group's air defence unit.
(AFP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240707-deadly-strikes-hit-gaza-as-war-enters-tenth-month

France 25 - July 6, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Hamas drops key demand to accept phased US deal on ceasefire, hostages
Hamas on Saturday tentatively accepted a US-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, abandoning its demand for an upfront commitment from Israel to end the war entirely. This potential agreement, still under negotiation, could initiate a six-week cease-fire involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and pave the way for broader talks to conclude the nine-month conflict. Hamas has given initial approval for a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday. The apparent compromise by the militant group - which controlled Gaza before triggering the war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel - could help deliver the first pause in fighting since last November and set the stage for further talks on ending a devastating nine-month war. But all sides cautioned that a deal is still not guaranteed. The two officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, said Washington’s phased deal will first include a <full and complete> six-week cease-fire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the pair said. Over that period, Hamas, Israel and the mediators would also negotiate the terms of the second phase that could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers, the officials said. In return, Israel would free additional Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including bodies of dead captives, and the start of a yearslong reconstruction project. Hamas still wants <written guarantees> from mediators that Israel will continue to negotiate a permanent cease-fire deal once the first phase goes into effect, the two officials said. The Hamas representative told The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received >verbal commitments and guarantees> from the mediators that the war won't be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached.
<Now we want these guarantees on paper,> he said.
Months of on-again off-again cease-fire talks have stumbled over Hamas’ demand that any deal include a complete end to the war. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has offered to pause the fighting, but not end it altogether until Israel reaches its goals of destroying Hamas' military and governing capabilities and returning all hostages held by the militant group. Hamas has previously expressed concern Israel will restart the war after the hostages are released. Likewise, Israeli officials have said they are worried Hamas will draw out the talks and the initial cease-fire indefinitely, without releasing all the hostages. Netanyahu's office did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no immediate comment from Washington. On Friday, the Israeli prime minister confirmed that the Mossad spy agency's chief had paid a lightning visit to Qatar, one of the key mediators. But his office said <gaps between the parties> remained. Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas' October attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and abducted about 250. Since then, the Israeli air and ground offensive has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The offensive has caused widespread devastation and unleashed a humanitarian crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine, according to international officials. Israel says Hamas is still holding about 120 hostages - about a third of which Israel believes to have died. In line with previous proposals, the deal would see around 600 trucks of humanitarian aid entering Gaza daily - including 50 fuel trucks - with 300 bound for the hard-hit northern of the enclave, the officials said. Following Israel's assault on the southernmost city of Rafah, aid supplies entering Gaza have been reduced to a trickle. Saturday's news comes as fighting and Israel's aerial bombardment in Gaza continues unabated. In the central city of Deir al-Balah, funeral prayers were held for 12 Palestinians, including five children and two women, killed in three separate strikes in central Gaza on Friday and Saturday, according to hospital officials. The bodies of the dead were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where they were counted by AP journalists. Two of those killed in one of the strikes that hit the Mughazi Refugee camp Friday were employees with the United Nations agency for Palestinian Refugees, the organization's director of communications told the AP. Juliette Touma added that a total of 194 workers with the U.N. agency have been killed by the conflict since October. Earlier this week, some 250,000 Palestinians were affected by an Israeli evacuation order in the southern city of Khan Younis and the surrounding areas. Most Palestinians seeking safety are either heading to an Israeli-declared <safe zone> centered on a coastal area called Muwasi, or the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. Ground fighting has also raged in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City for the past two weeks, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many sheltered in the Yarmouk Sports Stadium, one of the strip's largest soccer arenas.
(AP)>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240706-hamas-drops-key-demand-to-accept-phased-us-deal-on-ceasefire-hostages

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