Gaza Strip: More than 100 people were reported killed early Saturday in overnight strikes across Gaza, as Israel’s spy chief was in Paris for talks seeking to “unblock” progress toward a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The Paris negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
They also come as fears for civilians in the territory are deepening, with the UN warning of the growing risk of famine and its main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, saying early Saturday that Gazans were “in extreme peril while the world watches on.”
AFP footage showed distraught Gazans queuing for food in the territory’s devastated north on Friday and staging a protest decrying their living conditions.
“Look, we are fighting each other over rice,” said Jabalia resident Ahmad Atef Safi. “Where are we supposed to go?“
“We have no water, no flour and we are very tired because of hunger. Our backs and eyes hurt because of fire and smoke,” fellow Jabalia resident Oum Wajdi Salha told AFP.
“We can’t stand on our feet because of hunger and lack of food.”
In a Friday night statement on social media platform X, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said: “Without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in #Gaza is projected to increase.”
The war started after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Hamas militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 29,514 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by Gaza’s health ministry on Friday.
An Israeli air strike Friday destroyed the Gaza home of well-known Palestinian comedian Mahmoud Zuaiter, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more, the health ministry said.
The ministry announced early Saturday that at least 103 more people were killed in strikes overnight, with many others believed to be missing under rubble.
Netanyahu on Thursday night presented his war cabinet with a plan for the post-war Gaza Strip that envisages civil affairs being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas.
The plan stipulates that, even after the war, the Israeli army would have “indefinite freedom” to operate throughout Gaza to prevent any resurgence of terror activity, according to the proposals.
It also states that Israel will move ahead with a plan, already under way, to establish a security buffer zone inside Gaza along the territory’s border.
The plan drew criticism from the United States, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying Friday that Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-war Gaza.
“The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote... through a revitalized Palestinian Authority,” he said, adding the United States also did not “believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza.”
Asked about the plan during a visit to Argentina, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would “reserve judgment” until seeing all the details, but that Washington was against any “reoccupation” of Gaza after the war.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan dismissed Netanyahu’s plan as unworkable.
“When it comes to the day after in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is presenting ideas which he knows fully well will never succeed,” Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.
Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation led by David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency, was in Paris on Saturday for a fresh push toward a deal to return the remaining hostages.
Barnea will be joined by his counterpart at the domestic Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, Israeli media reported.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have all been deeply involved in past negotiations aimed at securing a truce and prisoner-hostage exchanges.
Pressure has been mounting on Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a ceasefire and secure the hostages’ release after more than four months of war, with a group representing the captives’ families planning what it billed as a “huge rally” to coincide with the Paris talks on Saturday night to demand swifter action.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have all been deeply involved in past negotiations aimed at securing a truce and prisoner-hostage exchanges.
White House envoy Brett McGurk held talks this week with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, after speaking to other mediators in Cairo who had met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
A Hamas source said the new plan proposes a six-week pause in the conflict and the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages being held by Hamas.
Barnea and his US counterpart from the CIA helped broker a week-long truce in November that saw the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
US National Security Council spokesman Kirby had told journalists earlier that so far the discussions were “going well,” while Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz spoke of “the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress.”
Scores killed overnight in Gaza amid negotiations in Paris for truce
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Scores killed overnight in Gaza amid negotiations in Paris for truce
- UN aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, says Gazans are ‘in extreme peril while the world watches on’
- The Paris talks come after plan for post-war Gaza by Israeli prime minister drew criticism from the US
Egypt’s presence at Gaza talks highlights its ‘pivotal role’ in region, says analyst
- Meeting in Rome fuels hope amid concerns that Israel is sabotaging peace negotiations
CAIRO: The presence of Egyptian delegates at a scheduled meeting in Rome to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza underscores Cairo’s “pivotal role” in the region, political analyst and MP Osama Al-Ashmouni told Arab News on Saturday, adding that it also shows Egypt’s unquestionable commitment to the Palestinian cause.
Egypt — along with Qatar and the US — has been involved in months of mediation efforts aimed at ending the war that has raged in the Gaza Strip for more than nine months.
A senior source told the Cairo News Channel that a meeting involving Egyptian, US, and Qatari officials and the head of Israeli Intelligence will take place in Rome on Sunday, in the hopes of developing an agreement that would immediately halt military engagements and guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The source said Egyptian authorities have stressed the importance of reaching an agreement that ensures the free movement of Gaza’s citizens and a complete withdrawal from the Rafah crossing.
Al-Ashmouni told Arab News that Egypt “has been a stalwart supporter of the Palestinian cause throughout its history, offering tremendous support to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and their quest to reclaim their occupied land and establish a Palestinian state.”
Al-Ashmouni added that Israel “consistently disseminates falsehoods and continues its deceptive practices and lies, whether in distorting Egypt’s role in supporting the Palestinian cause or by trying to portray itself as the victim, thereby reversing the roles of victim and perpetrator.
“It is crucial for attendees at the Rome meeting to recognize this, as the conscience of the free world should not heed the fabrications spread by the Israeli propaganda machine, despite the international community’s passive stance on Israel’s actions, which include crimes against humanity and war crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Al-Ashmouni expressed his hope that the negotiations in Rome would prove effective, although he anticipates that Israel will continue what he called its policy of sabotaging peace negotiations.
Journalist Mahmoud Mosalam, a member of the Egyptian Senate, told Arab News that Egypt plays a crucial role in mediation talks amid “intense accusations by Israel and other parties who would prefer Egypt to withdraw from the role.”
Mosalam added: “They allege that Egypt is facilitating arms smuggling to the resistance, and some American media outlets falsely claim that Egypt has altered texts from previous negotiations.”
He hopes the negotiations in Rome, which will also include Palestinian and Italian officials, “will be fruitful and help Gaza emerge from its severe crisis, a situation akin to actual genocide.”
He added that the recent outpouring of global support for the Palestinian people gives them an opportunity that they must seize and said it is inevitable the war will end, which would present the Palestinian leaders with “significant responsibilities,” including the reconstruction of Gaza and the reorganization of the Palestinian administration in preparation for a “comprehensive resolution” of the Palestinian issue.
Heat wave forces Iran to shutter government offices and banks. Electricity consumption soars
- Banks, offices, and public institutions across the country close to protect people’s health and conserve energy, due to extreme temperatures
TEHRAN: A heat wave blanketing Iran has forced authorities to cut operating hours at various facilities Saturday and order all government and commercial institutions to shutter on Sunday.
The temperature ranged from 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to 42 C (about 107 F) in the capital, Tehran on Saturday, according to weather reports.
State-run IRNA news agency said banks, offices, and public institutions across the country would close on Sunday to protect people’s health and conserve energy, due to extreme temperatures and that only emergency services and medical agencies would be excluded.
Authorities also cut working hours on Saturday in many provinces due to the sweltering heat, IRNA reported, adding that high temperatures, over 40 C (104 F), have been registered in Tehran since Friday.
Iranian media warned people to stay indoors until 5 p.m. local time.
Authorities also said electricity consumption reached record levels of 78,106 megawatts on Tuesday.
Nournews, close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported Wednesday that Iran’s temperature is rising at twice the pace of the global temperature which has increased by more than one degree compared to the long-term average. Meanwhile, Iran has become warmer by 2 degrees over the past 50 years, the agency said.
Last year, Iran ordered a two-day nationwide holiday due to increasing temperatures.
170 killed in days-long Israeli operation, says Gaza civil defense
- Deir Al-Balah is one of the areas most populated with displaced families, and said over 100 others were wounded
GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Saturday that Israel’s military operation around Khan Yunis has killed about 170 people and wounded hundreds since it started on Monday.
“Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Yunis area, we are talking of approximately 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
He said many people had been displaced again on Saturday as the Israeli operation continued.
“The questions is where will these residents go?” Basal said.
“Anyone who sees the situation in Khan Yunis will witness thousands of people spread out on the ground, on the roads, in areas that unfortunately are not suitable for living.
“With no other options available, they are exposing themselves to death.”
Earlier on Saturday the military issued new evacuation orders for residents of the southern city, after retrieving the bodies of five Israelis and warning of new operations.
The United Nations said more than 180,000 Palestinians have fled Khan Yunis since the Israeli operation began on Monday.
The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations,” it added, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” across the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said it launched the operation to halt rocket fire from the area, which already saw heavy fighting earlier this year.
On Wednesday, it said troops had retrieved the bodies of five Israelis from the area.
They had been killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7 and their bodies taken back to Gaza, the military said.
On Saturday, it ordered residents from more parts of Khan Yunis “to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi” — the second such adjustment made to the safe zone within a week.
Israel orders the evacuation of an area designated as a humanitarian zone in Gaza
- The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry
KHAN YOUNIS: Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.
The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It’s the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign.
On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.
The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel’s estimates. That’s more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.
The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
WHO sends over 1 mln polio vaccines to Gaza to protect children
- Israel’s military said it would start offering the vaccine to soldiers in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples
- Besides polio, the UN has reported an increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza
GENEVA: The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.
“While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.
Israel’s military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.
Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.
