RAFAH: Hundreds more foreigners and dual nationals fled war-torn Gaza for Egypt on Thursday as Israeli forces kept bombing the besieged Palestinian territory where thousands have died.
Wael Abu Mohsen, spokesman for the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, said about 100 foreign nationals had been able to leave.
A total of 400 foreign passport holders as well as 60 severely wounded Palestinians in ambulances were due to cross by the end of the day, he said, and Egyptian officials later reported the first arrivals.
A list of those approved to travel Thursday shows hundreds of US citizens and 50 Belgians along with smaller numbers from various European, Arab, Asian and African countries.
AFP reporters in Rafah saw cars inside the crossing point and trucks being inspected.
The evacuation marks a tiny proportion of the 2.4 million people trapped in Gaza under weeks bombardment since Hamas launched a bloody cross-border attack into Israel on October 7.
Egyptian officials have said they hope to help evacuate 7,000 foreigners from more than 60 countries from the densely crowded territory, as international calls for a cease-fire mount.
Ground battles flared again overnight in northern Gaza as Israeli troops seek to destroy Hamas.
Hamas’ assault on October 7, which Israel says claimed 1,400 lives, was the bloodiest in the country’s 75-year-history.
The Israeli army is also seeking to free around 240 hostages, both civilians and troops, captured by Hamas during the attacks.
On Thursday, the military said it had killed dozens of enemy fighters.
“IDF fighters continue to advance in the Gaza City area and conduct face-to-face battles with Hamas terrorists and deepen the fighting,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.
“During the night the forces fought against many terrorists who tried to ambush them. At the end of a battle that lasted several hours and included ground fighting and fire support from aircraft and a missile ship, many terrorists were killed.”
Some 332 soldiers have already died in the October 7 attacks and in the Israeli offensive they triggered.
Now gruelling urban warfare lies ahead deeper inside Gaza, where Hamas is fighting from a tunnel network spanning hundreds of kilometers (miles).
Global concern has risen sharply over Israel’s response, in which the army says it has struck more than 12,000 targets so far.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 9,000 people have died, mostly women and children.
The United States and several Western countries back Israel in ruling out a cease-fire for now, arguing that it must have the right to defend itself against Hamas.
But President Joe Biden said he would support a humanitarian “pause” to help get the hostages out of Gaza.
The long-blockaded coastal strip has been under a total Israeli siege that has cut off water, food, electricity, fuel and medical supplies.
A total of 227 aid trucks have so far entered under a US-brokered deal, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, an amount aid groups say falls far short of meeting basic needs.
Special concern has focused on repeated heavy strikes on Gaza’s largest refugee camp — densely populated Jabalia, north of Gaza City — where explosions brought down residential buildings.
Gaza’s Hamas-ruled government said 195 were killed in two days of Israeli strikes on Jabalia, a figure AFP could not independently verify.
Hamas said seven of the estimated 242 hostages it is holding, died in Tuesday’s bombings, a claim that was also impossible to verify.
Israel has sought to justify the first Jabalia attack by saying it had targeted a senior Hamas commander in a tunnel complex below the camp.
AFP has witnessed rescuers desperately clawing through the rubble and twisted metal in frantic attempts to bring out survivors and bodies.
Emergency responders say “whole families” have died.
The wounded were rushed away by cart, motorcycle and ambulance as anguished wails and blaring sirens filled the dusty air.
But Gaza’s hospitals have been overwhelmed and run short of medical supplies and even electricity.
More than 20,000 people in Gaza are wounded, according to aid group Doctors Without Borders.
Israel has argued it is trying to avoid civilian casualties and has told residents to evacuate northern Gaza. It also says Hamas has blocked many civilians from leaving.
While the United States and other Western powers have largely backed Israel, anger has flared across the Arab and Muslim world.
Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel “to condemn the Israeli war that is killing innocent people in Gaza.”
Israel has also drawn fire from Iran-backed enemy forces, including Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon and Houthi rebels in distant Yemen.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will embark on another Middle East tour from Friday.
Hundreds more foreign nationals flee Gaza as bombing toll mounts
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Hundreds more foreign nationals flee Gaza as bombing toll mounts
- A list of those approved to travel Thursday shows hundreds of US citizens and 50 Belgians along with smaller numbers from various European, Arab, Asian and African countries.
Gaza hospital says 20 killed in Israeli strike on Nuseirat
- Hospital statement: Israeli air strike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza
“We received 20 fatalities and several wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza,” the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said in a statement.
Witnesses said the strike occurred around 3:00 a.m. local time. The Israeli army said it was checking the report.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the wounded included several children, and rescuers were searching for missing people trapped under the rubble.
Fierce battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported in the central Nuseirat camp since the military launched a “targeted” operation focussing on the southern city of Rafah in early May.
Palestinian militants and Israeli troops have also clashed in north Gaza’s Jabalia camp for days now.
Witnesses said several other houses were targeted in air strikes during the night across Gaza, and that air strikes and artillery shelling also hit parts of Rafah during the night.
The Israeli military said two more soldiers were killed in Gaza the previous day.
The military said 282 soldiers have been killed so far in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.
Houthi missile strikes China-bound oil tanker in Red Sea
- The vessel and crew are safe and continuing to its next port of call: UKMTO
- The incident occurred 76 nautical miles (140 kilometers) off Yemen’s Hodeidah
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia launched an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Red Sea on Saturday morning, striking an oil tanker traveling from Russia to China, according to US Central Command, the latest in a series of Houthi maritime strikes.
CENTCOM said that at 1 a.m. on Saturday, a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile struck a Panamanian-flagged, Greek-owned and operated oil tanker named M/T Wind, which had just visited Russia and was on its way to China, causing “flooding which resulted in the loss of propulsion and steering.”
Slamming the Houthis for attacking ships, the US military said: “The crew of M/T Wind was able to restore propulsion and steering, and no casualties were reported. M/T Wind resumed its course under its power. This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”
Earlier on Saturday, two UK naval agencies said that a ship sailing in the Red Sea suffered minor damage after being hit by an item thought to be a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia from an area under their control.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors ship attacks, said on Saturday morning that it received an alarm from a ship master about an “unknown object” striking the ship’s port quarter, 98 miles south of Hodeidah, inflicting minor damage.
“The vessel and crew are safe and continuing to its next port of call,” UKMTO said in its notice about the incident, encouraging ships in the Red Sea to exercise caution and report any incidents.
Hours earlier, the same UK maritime agency stated that the assault happened 76 nautical miles northwest of Hodeidah.
Ambrey, a UK security firm, also reported receiving information regarding a missile strike on a crude oil tanker traveling under the Panama flag, around 10 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s government-controlled town of Mokha on the Red Sea, which resulted in a fire on the ship.
The Houthis did not claim responsibility for fresh ship strikes on Saturday, although they generally do so days after the attack.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk another, and claimed to have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at international commercial and naval ships in the Gulf of Aden, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and Red Sea in what the Yemeni militia claims is support for the Palestinian people.
The Houthis claim that they solely strike Israel-linked ships and those traveling or transporting products to Israel in order to pressure the latter to cease its war in Gaza.
The US responded to the Houthi attacks by branding them as terrorists, forming a coalition of marine task forces to safeguard ships, and unleashing hundreds of strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
Local and international environmentalists have long warned that Houthi attacks on ships carrying fuel or other chemicals might lead to an environmental calamity near Yemen’s coast.
The early warning came in February when the Houthis launched a missile that seriously damaged the MV Rubymar, a Belize-flagged and Lebanese-operated ship carrying 22,000 tonnes of ammonium phosphate-sulfate NPS fertilizer and more than 200 tonnes of fuel while cruising in the Red Sea.
The Houthis have defied demands for de-escalation in the Red Sea and continue to organize massive rallies in regions under their control to express support for their campaign. On Friday, thousands of Houthi sympathizers took to the streets of Sanaa, Saada, and other cities under their control to show their support for the war on ships.
The Houthis shouted in unison, “We have no red line, and what’s coming is far worse,” as they raised the Palestinian and militia flags in Al-Sabeen Square on Friday, repeating their leader’s promise to intensify assaults on ships.
Meanwhile, a Yemeni government soldier was killed and another was injured on Saturday while fending off a Houthi attack on their position near the border between the provinces of Taiz and Lahj.
According to local media, the Houthis attacked the government’s Nation’s Shield Forces in the contested Hayfan district of Taiz province, attempting to capture control of additional territory.
The Houthis were forced to stop their attack after encountering tough resistance from government troops.
The attack occurred a day after the Nation’s Shield Forces sent dozens of armed vehicles and personnel to the same locations to boost their forces and repel Houthi attacks.
Israel war cabinet minister says to quit unless Gaza plan approved
- The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across the Gaza Strip for more than seven months
JERUSALEM: Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said Saturday he would resign from the body unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.
“The war cabinet must formulate and approve by June 8 an action plan that will lead to the realization of six strategic goals of national importance.. (or) we will be forced to resign from the government,” Gantz said, referring to his party, in a televised address directed at Netanyahu.
Gantz said the six goals included toppling Hamas, ensuring Israeli security control over the Palestinian territory and returning Israeli hostages.
“Along with maintaining Israeli security control, establish an American, European, Arab and Palestinian administration that will manage civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip and lay the foundation for a future alternative that is not Hamas or (Mahmud) Abbas,” he said, referring to the president of the Palestinian Authority.
He also urged the normalization of ties with Saudi Arabia “as part of an overall move that will create an alliance with the free world and the Arab world against Iran and its affiliates.”
Netanyahu responded to Gantz’s threat on Saturday by slamming the minister’s demands as “washed-up words whose meaning is clear: the end of the war and a defeat for Israel, the abandoning of most of the hostages, leaving Hamas intact and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across the Gaza Strip for more than seven months.
But broad splits have emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, an area where Israel previously said the group had been neutralized.
Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on October 7 on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 124 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 37 the military says are dead.
Israel’s military retaliation against Hamas has killed at least 35,386 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.
Iran to send experts to ally Venezuela to help with medical accelerators
- “Venezuela has a number of accelerators in its hospitals that have been stopped due to the embargo,” the message said
CARACAS: Iran on Saturday said it will send experts to its ally Venezuela to help with medical accelerators in hospitals it said had been stopped due to Western sanctions.
Venezuela requested Iran’s help, according to a message on the social media platform X by the Iranian government attributed to the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
“Venezuela has a number of accelerators in its hospitals that have been stopped due to the embargo,” the message said.
Medical accelerators are used in radiation treatments for cancer patients.
Venezuela is also an ally of Russia and China.
The return of US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry has made its alliance with Iran critical to keeping its lagging energy sector afloat. Washington last year temporarily relaxed sanctions on Venezuela’s promise to allow a competitive presidential election. The US now says only some conditions were met.
Three Syrians missing after cargo ship sinks off Romania
- Eight sailors were rescued by one of the nearby commercial vessels, while the search for the other three, “all of Syrian nationality,” was continuing, the statement said
BUCHAREST: Romanian rescue teams on Saturday were scouring the Black Sea for three Syrian sailors who went missing when their cargo ship sank off the coast, the naval authority said.
The Mohammed Z sank with 11 crew on board, 26 nautical miles off the Romanian town of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube delta in the Black Sea on Saturday morning, officials said in a statement.
The ship sailing under the Tanzanian flag was carrying nine Syrian and two Egyptian nationals, it said.
After receiving an alert at “around 4:00am,” naval authorities and border police were dispatched, with two nearby commercial vessels also joining the search and rescue operation.
Eight sailors were rescued by one of the nearby commercial vessels, while the search for the other three, “all of Syrian nationality,” was continuing, the statement said.
The cause of the accident was unclear.
According to the specialist website Marine Traffic, the ship departed from the Turkish port of Mersin and was heading to the Romanian port of Sulina.
Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, drifting sea mines have posed a constant threat for ships in the Black Sea, with countries bordering it doubling down on demining efforts.
Ensuring safe passage through the Black Sea has gained particular importance since Romania’s Danube ports became hubs for the transit of grain following the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports.
