The UN Refugee Agency (UNRVA) says at least 7 people have been killed in UNRVA shelters since the conflict began on October 288, Reuters reports.
UNRVA says 271 Palestinians, including 69 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, the Ix (X) platform reported.
The Biden administration is suspending the sale of more than 20.000 US-made rifles to Israel over concerns about attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Axios said today, citing two unnamed US officials, Reuters reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that "nothing will stop" his country on the way to "victory" in the war against the militant Palestinian movement Hamas.
During a visit to a military base in southern Israel, Netanyahu said that neither the deaths of soldiers nor "international pressure" for a ceasefire would stop the Jewish state.
"We will continue until the end. There is no doubt about that. I am also saying this knowing the great suffering caused by military losses, but also bearing in mind the international pressure," Netanyahu said and added:
"Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end, to victory, nothing less".
Yesterday, the vast majority of the world's countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly for a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Just hours before the UN vote, US President Joseph Biden warned that Israel is losing international support because of its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, a small but very densely populated area under the political leadership of Hamas.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised address today that any arrangement in Gaza without Hamas is a "deception," reports Reuters.
"We are open to discuss any ideas or initiatives that could end (Israeli) aggression and open the door to putting the Palestinian house in order in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," Haniyeh added.
The head of the UN refugee agency for Palestine (UNRVA) said the agency's ability to provide services in war-torn Gaza was on the verge of collapse after more than 130 staff were killed in the enclave, Reuters reports.
"The entire humanitarian response relies heavily on the capacities of UNRVA," said Filip Lazarini, adding that it is now on the verge of collapse.
Today, Pope Francis again called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
"May both parties involved have the courage to re-enter negotiations and I ask that everyone get down to the urgent business of delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," the head of the Roman Catholic Church said at the end of Sunday's audience.
He added that people in Gaza "have no more strength or patience" and that they really need humanitarian aid.
"Release immediately all the hostages who saw a glimmer of hope in the cease-fire a few days ago. Let the great suffering of Israelis and Palestinians end. Please, no arms and peace," the pope added.
He has sought to maintain the Vatican's traditional neutrality in the conflict, but has drawn the ire of Israelis for allegedly hinting that the war has turned into terrorism, claiming he had not directly condemned Hamas for the initial attacks.
(BETA)
In the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 18.608 people were killed and 50.594 were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, proposed today to hold an international conference of representatives of world powers and Arab countries, in order to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forever.
"The only way to solve this problem forever and to solve it in a fair way is to hold an international conference with all five permanent members of the UN Security Council," Lavrov told the Duma deputies, Agence France-Presse reported.
He also said that member countries of the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council should participate in that conference.
However, it remained unclear whether Lavrov thinks that Israel should also participate, according to Israeli media.
He assessed that "the continuation of injustice towards the Palestinian people, who were promised the creation of a Palestinian state, fuels very serious terrorist and extremist feelings."
Lavrov also accused Israel of razing the residential areas of Gaza to the ground, and called the situation in that Palestinian territory terrible. He expressed doubt about Israeli claims about the number of civilians killed.
(BETA)
The conflict in Gaza could encourage the displacement of people in the wider region, said the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
He said this at a meeting in Geneva where UN officials, politicians and humanitarian groups are trying to find a solution to the global displacement crisis.
There are 114 million people in the world who have been driven from their homes, including about 40 million refugees fleeing dozens of active conflicts, including Sudan and Ukraine, Radio Free Europe reports.
Due to the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack on the south of Israel, about 85 percent of the population of the Palestinian enclave was internally displaced.
"A major human catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip and so far the Security Council has failed to stop the violence," Grandi said at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, which takes place every four years.
According to him, more deaths and casualties of civilians are expected, as well as further displacement that threatens the region.
Grandi urged the international community not to forget other crises that fueled displacement.
"While the strong focus must still remain on Gaza, I have a plea: do not lose sight of other urgent humanitarian and refugee crises," he said.
The forum runs until Friday, and participants are expected to propose solutions related to the refugee issue, such as education and promoting voluntary return to home countries.
Grandi said he hoped funding would be pledged for the UN agency, which has a $400 million deficit in 2023.
According to him, there is "great uncertainty" about how much UNHCR donors, including the US and Germany, can give in 2024.
(MINE)
At least nine Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in Gaza City, Israeli media reported today.
The Israeli offensive caused international anger and criticism from its closest ally, the US, which normally rarely happens, due to the large number of civilian casualties, according to AP.
Israeli ground forces are still clashing heavily with Palestinian fighters in and around Gaza City, more than six weeks after the invasion of the north.
Clashes from last night continued this morning in several places, the most intense in the Šeđaija neighborhood, residents said.
The Israeli army said at least ten soldiers, including two commanders, were killed on Tuesday.
Israeli media reported that the ambush in which at least nine members of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) were killed was set up in the neighborhood of Shedjaia and that gunfire and explosions could be heard.
The same densely populated neighborhood was the scene of one of the biggest battles in the previous Gaza war.
In the ground offensive that began on October 27, ten days after the start of the war against Hamas, 115 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far.
The humanitarian office of the United Nations (UN) said today that Gaza faced a "public health disaster" due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of diseases caused by overcrowding, Reuters reports.
"We all know the health system has collapsed," said Lynn Hastings, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
"We have a textbook formula for epidemics and public health disaster."
The UN and humanitarian groups have sounded the alarm over the spread of an infectious disease in Gaza, where the internal displacement of 85 percent of the population has caused overcrowding in shelters and other temporary accommodation facilities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a sharp increase in acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, head lice, scabies and other rapidly spreading diseases.
Hastings said people in Gaza had to stand in line for hours just to get to the toilet.
"You can imagine the sanitary conditions," she said.
The WHO said on Tuesday that only 11 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were partially functional, one in the north and ten in the south of the enclave.
Hastings said nearly half of Gaza's population of 2,3 million are now in Rafah in the southern part of the enclave to escape Israeli bombardment.
"This leads to nothing but a health crisis," she said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they found the bodies of two hostages kidnapped by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7.
A military intelligence unit also participated in the military operation during which a tunnel was discovered deep in the Palestinian territory, near the house of the recently killed commander of the Northern Brigade of Gaza.
The media reports that the Israeli woman whose body was found was taken to Gaza from the place where an outdoor music festival was held. For now, it is not known whether she was killed in attacks by Palestinian extremists on the first day of the war or later.
A military logistics supervisor from the Golani Brigade, whose body was also found, was killed in those attacks. He was declared a "fallen soldier" back in October.
Two soldiers were killed in the military operation, one of them is the son of the former Chief of General Staff of Israel and now a member of the War Cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot.
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant said late last night, shortly after the announcement of the discovery of the bodies of the hostages, that the soldiers were "operating deep underground", where they are looking for bunkers, war rooms, communication centers, and ammunition storage, but that these operations are also being carried out on earth.
On the first day of the war, about 240 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip from the south of Israel. It is believed that 135 people are still detained in Gaza and not all of them are alive.
During the one-week truce at the end of November, 105 abducted civilians, 81 Israelis, 23 Thais and one Filipina, were released.
Four women were freed by Hamas before that, and one Israeli soldier was freed in a military operation.
The remains of two Israeli women were found at the beginning of the ground offensive in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military has confirmed the deaths of 18 hostages whose bodies are still being held by Hamas based on new intelligence and findings by soldiers in Gaza.
(BETA)
US President Joseph Biden must translate his words into action and call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said today in a post on the X social network, Reuters reports.
"Yesterday's statements by US President Biden must be transformed into actions, starting with calling for an immediate ceasefire and presenting a comprehensive political plan based on international legitimacy and international law, ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state," he said.
Biden said yesterday that Israel is beginning to lose the support of the international community due to the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Biden also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should change his hardline government
The Israeli army said ten soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, including a colonel who commanded the forward base of the Golani infantry brigade, reports Reuters.
The statement, released Wednesday, updates an earlier statement that put the latest death toll at eight, including the lieutenant colonel who commanded the Golani regiment.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have begun pumping seawater into Hamas underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip to destroy the network of passageways and hideouts and force the militant group's operatives out, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
Israel has come under pressure from its allies over the Gaza war, including the US, which has criticized the "indiscriminate" bombing in response to attacks by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas on October 7.
Last night, the UN General Assembly supported a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the devastated territory, which was voted for by 153 of the 193 members of the world organization.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the extremist Hamas, announced today that at least 50 people were killed in the latest wave of Israeli airstrikes.
On Tuesday, it was announced that more than 18.400 people, mostly women and children, have died in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
The war began after Palestinian extremists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel in which over 1.200 people were killed and 240 hostages were taken.
Israel then undertook to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home and continuously bombarded the Gaza Strip, and at the end of October a ground offensive was launched. As it was announced this morning, 113 Israeli soldiers died in it.
US President Joseph Biden said in Washington that Israel had the support of the majority of the world after the Hamas attack, but that this support "is beginning to be lost due to indiscriminate bombing".
A little later last night he nevertheless reiterated American support for Israel, but said that "the safety of innocent Palestinians remains a major concern."
For weeks, Washington has called on Israel to do more to avoid civilian casualties, saying too many Palestinians have been killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late last night that he does not agree with Biden in relation to the management of Gaza after the war, thus admitting that there is a gap between the two allied countries.
The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand and other Israeli allies have called for a ceasefire, warning that efforts to destroy Hamas cannot mean "continued suffering" for Palestinian civilians.
"We are alarmed by the reduction of the safe space for civilians in Gaza," the prime ministers of those countries wrote in a joint statement, assessing that the suffering of all Palestinian civilians cannot be the price of defeating Hamas.
The announcement came as the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire, with 153 votes in favor out of 193 member states.
The US and Israel voted against, but the number of countries that voted "for" was higher than the 140 or so that routinely supported resolutions condemning Russia for invading Ukraine.
The vote came after the head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philip Lazarini, described the situation in Gaza as "hell on earth".
Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives reduced much of that small enclave to rubble.
At the end of November, satellite images showed that 18 percent of Gaza's infrastructure was destroyed, according to the UN.
In addition, an estimated 1,9 million of Gaza's 2,4 million residents have been displaced, half of them children.
Aid organizations have warned that famine and disease will soon prevail in the territory and are asking Israel to step up efforts to protect civilians.
(BETA)
Israel announced today that eight more soldiers were killed in the fighting in Gaza, including the lieutenant colonel who commanded the Golani infantry regiment, Reuters reports.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
A mother from Gaza talks about the horrors of a war that is more difficult than any previous one:
DON'T MISS IT
Bonus video:
