GAZA: Health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that Israeli strikes killed at least 60 people in the besieged territory, 99 days into the war.
Fears of the conflict widening intensified after US and British forces struck pro-Hamas Houthi rebels in Yemen following attacks on Red Sea shipping, with the US military announcing a fresh air strike on Saturday, a day after the initial barrage.
Witnesses in the Gaza Strip reported early-morning Israeli bombardment. An AFP correspondent said intense shelling and air strikes hit the south of Gaza overnight.
Nimma Al-Akhras, 80, described the strike that destroyed her home.
“It was very powerful,” she said. “We started to scream and I couldn’t move but someone pulled me out and put me on a cart.”
The Israeli army said its forces had struck dozens of rocket launchers that were “ready to be used” in central Gaza, and eliminated four “terrorists” in air strikes on Khan Yunis, Gaza’s main southern city.
The military also reported that its engineers had destroyed a Hamas “command center” and weapons found there, after a raid in central Gaza.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra reported “more than 60 martyrs” in Israeli air strikes and artillery fire overnight, with dozens more wounded.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack has killed at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest ministry toll.
The war, in which Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, began when the militants launched their unprecedented attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
At Rafah’s Al-Najjar hospital, mourners gathered and prayed around the bodies of slain relatives. One man stroked the body of a child, wrapped up like a white parcel. He kissed it, then placed it gently among others.
Another man, Bassem Araf, held up a photo of another child.
“She died hungry with bread in her hand. We tried to remove the bread from her hand but it was held tight,” Araf said. “This is the resistance they are targeting in Gaza, just children.”
An AFP reporter in Rafah said telecommunications had been partially restored, a day after Gaza’s main operator Paltel reported the latest outage. Paltel did not immediately confirm the service restoration.
Winter rains have exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN estimates 1.9 million — nearly 85 percent of the population — have been displaced.
Many have sought shelter in Rafah and other southern areas where the health ministry says there isn’t the infrastructure to support them.
“The infrastructure, services and health care in Rafah are fragile and cannot bear the needs of 1.3 million citizens and displaced people,” its spokesman said.
The United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, told AFP that Israel was blocking aid convoys into northern Gaza.
“They have been very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals,” OCHA’s head for the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, said on Friday decrying “a level of inhumanity... beyond comprehension.”
The health ministry spokesman accused Israel of “deliberately targeting hospitals... to put them out of service,” warning of “devastating repercussions.”
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war erupted.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of operating command centers in tunnels under hospitals, a charge denied by the Islamist group.
Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are functioning and those only partly, the World Health Organization says.
In Israel, concern grew for hostages held in Gaza as they approach their 100th day in captivity.
Palestinian militants on October 7 seized about 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under domestic pressure to get the hostages home — said on Friday a deal had been negotiated with Qatar to get medicine to the captives.
“It’s not enough. I want him home, in hospital, in a good health care, not in Hamas health care,” Ella Ben Ami, daughter of hostage Ohad Ben Ami, 55, said in Tel Aviv.
Bombing and deprivation didn’t stop Gaza couple Afnan Jibril and Mustafa Shamlakh, displaced by the war, from getting married in Rafah.
“We are all living through the same tragedy. However, we must continue to live, and life should go on,” said Ayman Shamlakh, the groom’s uncle.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged during the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli troops killed three militants after they attacked a Jewish settlement, the army said.
It said there had been a “terrorist infiltration” in the Adora settlement, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Hebron, and soldiers had come under fire.
Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the three killed as a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds.
The International Court of Justice this week heard arguments in a case launched by South Africa — and welcomed by Gazans — accusing Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention in the Gaza war. The case seeks a halt to Israel’s military campaign.
Israel stressed to the court that its response was in self-defense and not aimed at Palestinian residents.
The court is likely to make an initial ruling within weeks.
On 99th day of war, Gaza ministry says dozens killed in Israel strikes
https://arab.news/99x9a
On 99th day of war, Gaza ministry says dozens killed in Israel strikes
- Fears of the conflict widening have grown after US and British forces struck pro-Hamas Houthi rebels in Yemen
- UN aid chief calls anew for Gaza ceasefire, urges UN action to end war
Syrian army pushes into Aleppo district after Kurdish groups reject withdrawal
- Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo city on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.
The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria as the country tries to rebuild after a devastating war, with Kurdish forces resisting efforts by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government to bring their fighters under centralized authority.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces are trying to cling on to several neighborhoods they have run since the early days of the war, which began in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Standoff pits government against Kurdish forces
• Sharaa says Kurds are ‘fundamental’ part of Syria
• More than 140,000 have fled homes due to unrest
• Turkish, Syrian foreign ministers discuss Aleppo by phone
ِA ceasefire was announced by the defense ministry overnight, demanding the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over the pockets of Aleppo that Kurdish forces have held.
CEASEFIRE ‘FAILED,’ SECURITY OFFICIALS SAY
But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighborhoods,” accusing government forces of intensive shelling.
Hours later, the Syrian army said that the deadline for Kurdish fighters to withdraw had expired, and that it would begin a military operation to clear the last Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force.
The Syrian defense ministry had earlier carried out strikes on parts of Sheikh Maksoud that it said were being used by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to launch attacks on the “people of Aleppo.” It said on Friday that SDF strikes had killed three army soldiers.
Kurdish security forces in Aleppo said some of the strikes hit a hospital, calling it a war crime. The defense ministry disputed that, saying the structure was a large arms depot and that it had been destroyed in the resumption of strikes on Friday.
It posted an aerial video that it said showed the location after the strikes, and said secondary explosions were visible, proving it was a weapons cache.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
The SDF is a powerful Kurdish-led security force that controls northeastern Syria. It says it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighborhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.
Under an agreement with Damascus last March the SDF was due to integrate with the defense ministry by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
FRANCE, US SEEK DE-ESCALATION
France’s foreign ministry said it was working with the United States to de-escalate.
A ministry statement said President Emmanuel Macron had urged Sharaa on Thursday “to exercise restraint and reiterated France’s commitment to a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected.”
A Western diplomat told Reuters that mediation efforts were focused on calming the situation and producing a deal that would see Kurdish forces leave Aleppo and provide security guarantees for Kurds who remained.
The diplomat said US envoy Tom Barrack was en route to Damascus. A spokesperson for Barrack declined to comment. Washington has been closely involved in efforts to promote integration between the SDF — which has long enjoyed US military support — and Damascus, with which the United States has developed close ties under President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire declared by the government overnight said Kurdish forces should withdraw by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, but no one withdrew overnight, Syrian security sources said.
Barrack had welcomed what he called a “temporary ceasefire” and said Washington was working intensively to extend it beyond the 9 a.m. deadline. “We are hopeful this weekend will bring a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue,” he wrote on X.
TURKISH WARNING
Turkiye views the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has warned of military action if it does not honor the integration agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Thursday, expressed hope that the situation in Aleppo would be normalized “through the withdrawal of SDF elements.”
Though Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who belongs to the Sunni Muslim majority, has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, bouts of violence in which government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze have spread alarm in minority communities over the last year.
The Kurdish councils in Aleppo said Damascus could not be trusted “with our security and our neighborhoods,” and that attacks on the areas aimed to bring about displacement.
Sharaa, in a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirmed that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric,” the Syrian presidency said.
Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters from the recent clashes.
