Israel-Hamas war, Day 36 updates | Israel PM Netanyahu rejects growing calls for a ceasefire

Palestinians seeking refuge at Gaza’s largest hospital and staff said they were trapped in increasingly horrific conditions Saturday, with two premature infants dying due to lack of electricity as heavy fighting raged nearby.

The gun battles and intense bombardment around the Al-Shifa hospital came as Israel pressed deep into Gaza City in its offensive aimed at destroying the militant group Hamas in the territory it rules. -AFP

“Shooting is never stopping, airstrikes are unabated as well as artillery shells,” said a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There are dozens of bodies around the complex that nobody can reach.”

Though tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting, many have taken shelter in northern Gaza’s hospitals which have been repeatedly hit by explosive strikes and gunfire.

More than 300,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday, with police arresting nearly 100 far-right counter-protesters to stop them ambushing the main rally.

Skirmishes broke out between police and the far-right groups that had also descended on the capital as the Palestinian demonstration clashed with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One, when Britain commemorates its war dead.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was disrespectful to hold the rally the same day as the commemorations, and ministers had called for the cancellation of the march - the biggest so far in a series to show support for the Palestinians and call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Police said there were several hundred counter-protesters on the streets of central London, and skirmishes broke out near the Cenotaph war memorial early on Saturday.

Incidents continued throughout the day, with police in riot gear trying to contain protesters near the House of Commons, in train stations and in side streets, with footage showing police officers with batons working to control the crowds. - Reuters

The Israeli army said Saturday reports of its troops firing on the biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip were “false information”, as fighting rages in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“During the past hours, false information is being spread, that we are encircling Al-Shifa Hospital and striking it. These are false reports,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing. - AFP

The UAE dispatched on Saturday a plane carrying 100 tonnes of food, medical, and relief supplies to El Arish city in the Arab Republic of Egypt, in preparation for entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Border Crossing, in coordination with the UN World Food Programme.The extension is part of the UAE’s continuous humanitarian efforts which aim to provide essential food, medicine, health supplies, and sanitary products for those affected in the Gaza Strip, particularly women, children, and the elderly. - ANI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday against growing international calls for a cease-fire, saying Israel’s battle to crush Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants will continue with “full force”.

A cease-fire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza are released, Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised address.

The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain security control there. The position appears to run counter to post-war scenarios floated by Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has said it opposes an Israeli reoccupation of the territory.

Asked what he meant by security control, Mr. Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza when necessary to hunt down militants. - ​Read more​

The head of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah party said on Saturday that its armed wing had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel, and pledged that the front against its sworn enemy would remain active. It was Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s second speech since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. In his first, he said there was a possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a fully-fledged war.

On Saturday, in a televised address, he said Hezbollah had shown “a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size and the number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons”.

He said it had used a “Burkan” missile that carries an explosive payload of 300-500 kg, as well as weaponised drones for the first time.

Nasrallah said the group had also struck the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona for the first time in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed three girls and their grandmother this month.

“This front will remain active,” he pledged. -Reuters

Gaza’s border authority announced on Saturday that the Rafah land crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders.

Evacuations from the Gaza Strip into Egypt for foreign citizens and Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment were suspended on Friday, three Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official said.

The Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source said the suspension was due to problems bringing medical evacuees to Rafah from inside Gaza. - Reuters

The Israeli military said Saturday it will aid the evacuation of babies from Gaza’s largest hospital, amid intense fighting around the facility between soldiers and Palestinian militants.

“The staff of the Al-Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow, we will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing. _ AFP

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have turned their skills to finding and identifying the victims of Hamas’s bloody October 7 attack.

In the weeks following the attack, paramedics, police and Zaka, an Israeli organisation specialising in collecting human remains, combed over the devastation in southern Israel’s towns, cities and kibbutzim.

However, the scope and scale of Hamas’s attack, in which Israeli officials say around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, has presented a challenge in identifying the bodies of the dead, many of whom were set alight, and locating those still missing.

Archaeologists were first called to Kfar Aza, a kibbutz bordering the Gaza Strip that was attacked by Hamas. _ AFP

During a press conference held on Sunday for a joint Arab-Islamic conference on Gaza, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that any talk about the future of Gaza should only be about an immediate ceasefire.

“The only future, and this is the unifying position of the Arab, is an immediate ceasefire,” he said.

Reuters

Israeli forces are not firing on Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City but there are clashes with Hamas militants around it, a defence official said on Saturday, adding that people there can still leave the hospital safely.

The east side of the hospital was open for anyone who wants to evacuate safely, Colonel Moshe Tetro of COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry agency that liaises with Palestinians on civilian affairs, said in an Arabic video message.

The head of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah said on Saturday that his armed group had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel in recent days, and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.

It was Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s second speech since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. In his first address earlier this month he said there was a possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a full-fledged war.

Nasrallah said on Saturday there had been “an upgrade” in Hezbollah’s operations along its front with Israel. “There has been a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size and the number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons,” he said in a televised address.

He said Hezbollah had used a missile known as the Burkan, describing its explosives payload as between 300 to 500 kilograms, and confirmed the group had used weaponised drones for the first time.

Reuters

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Thursday it is seeking $481 million for Gaza due to “unprecedented devastation” there as well as growing needs in the occupied West Bank and a possible mass displacement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

“One month into a tight (Israeli) siege and a brutal war, the humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip are colossal. They grow by the hour,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

UNRWA said in a statement the money would be used to provide basic food assistance, shelter, water and sanitation to 1.6 million people in Gaza and provide basic health care and protection to those in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It also said the funding was needed for Lebanon “in anticipation of a potential mass displacement of Palestine refugees, particularly in the areas of Saida and Tyre, in the southern part of the country”.

Tens of thousands have already been displaced by clashes on the Israel-Lebanon border that have escalated since the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza erupted, the U.N. previously said.

Reuters

About 300,000 people marched through the British capital on Saturday, as pro-Palestinian supporters made a new call for a Gaza war ceasefire.

Authorities had feared trouble as the “National March for Palestine” was scheduled for Armistice Day, Britain’s annual commemoration of its war dead. Dozens of arrests were reported.

The march set off after a two-minute silence was observed at The Cenotaph war memorial in central London.

A police spokesman said about 300,000 were estimated to be taking part.

Protesters waved black, red, white and green Palestinian flags and held aloft placards proclaiming “Stop Bombing Gaza”.

There have been nearly weekly rallies in London since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and 239 people taken hostage, according to Israel.

AFP

An Arab-Islamic summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for an end to the war in Gaza and rejected justifying Israel’s actions against Palestinians as self-defence.

The summit condemned “Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, war crimes and barbaric and inhumane massacres by the occupation government,” a final communique said.

The communique also called for an end to the siege on Gaza, allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave and halting arms exports to Israel.

Reuters

Two premature babies have died due to power cuts at Gaza’s largest hospital, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said Saturday citing doctors there, as fighting rages around the Al-Shifa complex.

“As a result of the lack of electricity, we can report that the neonatal intensive care unit has stopped working. Two premature infants have died, and there is a real risk to the lives of 37 other premature infants” at Al-Shifa hospital, the Israeli doctors’ group said in a statement.

AFP

Arab leaders and Iran’s president meeting in the Saudi capital Saturday roundly condemned Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza, as fears mount the conflict could draw in other countries.

Host Saudi Arabia “confirms that it holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom’s de facto ruler, said as Saturday’s summit began.

“We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and the settlements,” he said of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic countries should designate the Israeli army a “terrorist organisation” for its conduct in Gaza.

Israel says it is out to destroy Hamas and blames the Palestinian armed group for the high death toll, accusing it of using civilians as “human shields” -- a charge Hamas denies.

AFP

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through central London on Saturday following scuffles nearby between far-right protesters and police, who launched a major operation to avert clashes.

The pro-Palestinian march drew counter-protesters from right-wing groups on Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One, involving commemorations of Britian’s war dead.

The “National March for Palestine” is the latest in a series to show support for the Palestinians and call for a ceasefire from Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Ministers had called for it to be cancelled because it falls on Armistice Day.

Police said far-right groups opposing the march were present in central London in “significant numbers”, leading to skirmishes with officers near the Cenotaph war memorial, close to the Houses of Parliament and in Westminster. Officers in riot gear sought to contain the far-right protesters, some of whom threw bottles at them, and police vehicles sped around the city to respond to reports of tensions in the streets.

Reuters

As many as 50,000 Palestinians have moved from northern to southern Gaza through the humanitarian corridors set up the Israel, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced, The Times of Israel reported.

As many as 50,000 Palestinians have moved from northern to southern Gaza through the humanitarian corridors set up the Israel, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced, The Times of Israel reported.

It was the sixth consecutive day in which the IDF permitted people to flee northern Gaza and move south through the Salah a Din humanitarian corridor, with 50,000 evacuating in the course of seven hours, The Times of Israel reported.

In its daily update, OCHA said, “Hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the north [of Gaza] are struggling to secure the minimum amounts of water and food to survive.”

ANI

The executive director of Israeli media advocacy group HonestReporting said on Friday he accepted as “adequate” statements by four media organisations that they had no previous knowledge of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, adding he was “so relieved”.

Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times issued adamant denials after HonestReporting published an article on Thursday that questioned whether Palestinian photojournalists had tipped off the four outlets, which had used their images.

HonestReporting’s Gil Hoffman told Reuters his organisation had not claimed to know that there had been any prior knowledge by the news groups of the Hamas attack.

“I was so relieved when all four of the media organisations said they didn’t have prior knowledge,” Hoffman said in an interview by telephone about the article.

“We raised questions, we didn’t give answers,” he said. “I still very much think that the questions were legitimate and the answers were adequate from the media organisations themselves.”

Reuters

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Saturday for an immediate sustainable ceasefire in Gaza “without restrictions or conditions”.

“The policies of collective punishment of the people of Gaza...are unacceptable and cannot be justified by self-defence or any other claims. They must be stopped immediately,” he added during a speech at an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.

Reuters

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that an international peace conference should be convened to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

“What we need in Gaza is not pauses for a couple of hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire,” Erdogan said in his address to an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said on Saturday that his country is making efforts in mediation to secure the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and that he hopes a humanitarian truce would be reached in the strip soon.

“The international community failed to bear its legal and ethical responsibilities, Sheikh Tamim said during a joint Islamic-Arab summit on Gaza in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

“For how long will the international community treat Israel as if it is above international laws,” he added.

Reuters

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday hailed the Palestinian group Hamas for its war against Israel and urged Islamic countries to launch sanctions against Israel.

“There is no other way but to resist Israel, we kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel,” Raisi said in his address to a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh. He also called on Islamic countries to impose oil and goods sanctions on Israel.

Reuters

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that Palestinians are facing an “unmatched genocidal war”, calling on the United States to pressure Israel into halting its offensive on Gaza.

Speaking during an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Abbas also said Palestinians needed international protection in the face of Israeli attacks.

Reuters

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Saudi Arabia to participate in the OIC summit in Riyadh on Saturday, which aimed to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, The Times of Israel reported.

In a video from the airport, the Iranian President was seen wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, greeting Saudi officials after disembarking from his plane.

Iranian President Raisi will attend the summit focused on addressing the conflict between Israel and Hamas which is set to take place on Sunday, according to an IRNA report.

Moreover, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwarul Haq Kakar, and Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim also arrived in Riyadh for the summit.

ANI

Protesters gathered in central London on Saturday ahead of a pro-Palestinian march expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people, with police launching a major operation due to fears of clashes on the day of remembrance for war veterans.

The “National March for Palestine”, due to start after 1200 GMT, is the latest in a series of rallies in the British capital to show support for the Palestinians since Israel launched an air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas group’s Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.

Government ministers had called for Saturday’s march to be cancelled because it falls on Armistice Day, which marks the end of World War One and commemorates those killed in military action.

About a mile away from the start of the march, about 1,000 people lined the streets to watch the remembrance events at the Cenotaph war memorial. Among the crowd, some right-wing counter-protesters opposed to the pro-Palestinian march chanted messages including “We want out country back”.

Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler on Friday denounced the conduct of Israeli forces fighting Hamas in Gaza, ahead of weekend summits that will focus on the unfolding violence in the Palestinian territory.

“We condemn the military aggression witnessed in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of civilians, and the continued violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation forces,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a summit with African leaders, his first public comments on the Israel-Hamas war.

“We stress the necessity of stopping this war and forced displacement and creating conditions for the return of stability and achieving peace.”

Riyadh has repeatedly criticised attacks on civilians in statements, though Prince Mohammed had not publicly addressed them before Friday.

His comments at the Saudi-Africa summit came one day before the Gulf kingdom hosts two emergency meetings on the fighting in Gaza -- of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

AFP

London police have stepped up efforts to ensure a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday remains peaceful following a week of political sparring over whether the demonstration should go ahead on the weekend Britain honors its war dead.

More than 2,000 officers, some called in from surrounding forces, will be on the streets of the capital this weekend to make to ensure marchers obey the law and to prevent potential confrontations with counter protesters, the Metropolitan Police Service said.

“We know the cumulative impact continued protest, increasing tensions, and rising hate crimes are having across London and the fear and anxiety our Jewish communities in particular are feeling,” the police said in a statement. “They have a right to feel safe in their city, knowing they can travel across London without feeling afraid of intimidation or harassment.”

The law enforcement operation comes after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley resisted pressure from political leaders to ban the march over fears that it would interfere with Saturday’s Armistice Day events commemorating the end of World War I.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have also expressed concern that the protests could spill over into Sunday, when King Charles III and the prime ministers of Commonwealth nations will lay wreaths at the national war memorial, known as the Cenotaph.

AP

The United Arab Emirates plans to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel despite international outcry over the mounting toll of the war in Gaza and hopes to have some moderating influence over the Israeli campaign while safeguarding its own interests, according to four sources familiar with UAE government policy.

Abu Dhabi became the most prominent Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. That paved the way for other Arab states to forge their own ties with Israel by breaking a taboo on normalising relations without the creation of a Palestinian state.

The mounting death toll from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip – launched in retaliation for cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 by the Hamas militant group that governs the enclave – have stirred outrage in Arab capitals.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. UAE officials have publicly condemned Israel’s actions and repeatedly called for an end to the violence.

In response to a request for comment for this story, an Emirati official said the UAE’s immediate priority was to secure a ceasefire and to open up humanitarian corridors.

Arab leaders and Iran’s president are in the Saudi capital Saturday for a summit meeting expected to underscore demands that fighting in Gaza end before the Israel-Hamas war draws in other countries.

The Arab League and the OIC were originally meant to meet separately, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced early Saturday that the blocs’ summits would be combined.

The move underscores the importance of reaching “a unified collective position that expresses the common Arab and Islamic will regarding the dangerous and unprecedented developments witnessed in Gaza and the Palestinian territories,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Arab League aims to demonstrate “how the Arabs will move on the international scene to stop the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation, and hold it accountable for its crimes”, the bloc’s assistant secretary-general, Hossam Zaki, said this week.

But Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Friday said it did not “expect anything” from the meeting, criticising Arab leaders for the delay.

AFP

Israel’s prime minister pushed back Saturday against calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops encircled Gaza’s largest hospital where doctors said five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out of fuel.

Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas’ main command post, saying militants were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it. In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in the combat zone of northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out.

“There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions.

Abu Selmia said Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital,” and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound.

AP

The spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said that operations in Al Shifa hospital complex, the largest in the Palestinian enclave, were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel

“As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies,” Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza told Reuters.

Israel’s military, which residents said had been fighting Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where the hospital is located, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The situation is worse than anyone can imagine. We are besieged inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, and the occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside,” Qidra said by telephone.

Reuters

The spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said that operations in Al Shifa hospital complex, the largest in the enclave, were suspended on Saturday after it ran out of fuel.

“As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies,” Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza told Reuters.

Reuters

Less than a week after Hamas’s devastating attacks on October 7, Israel’s intelligence ministry produced a chilling document. It advocated that Israel remove all of Gaza’s Palestinian population and forcibly resettle them in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.

In November, a poster advertising a far-right rally in Tel Aviv juxtaposed an image of two cherubic Jewish-Israeli children on a beach (presumably in a vision of a future Gaza) with the ominous policy prescriptions of “occupy, expel, settle”.

AP

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the time had come for action over the conflict in Gaza rather than talk as he headed to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit on the war between Israel and Hamas militants.

“Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said at Tehran airport before departing for the summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

“Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important,” he added.

- Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud reiterated the Kingdom’s “condemnation of the Israeli occupation authorities’ violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza,” Arab News reported.

In his opening remarks at the Saudi-African Summit, he said, “We stress the necessity of stopping this war and forced displacement and creating the conditions for the return of stability and peace.”

Leaders from 50 nations across the Middle East and Africa reached Riyadh to attend the inaugural Saudi-African Summit. The event held after the Saudi-Arab African Economic Summit sought to enhance political coordination between African nations and Saudi Arabia, according to Arab News report.

The event addressed regional security threats, championed economic transformation through new partnerships and research, and boosted local development for new energy solutions and investment cooperation.

During the summit, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said, “We also reaffirm our support for a two-state solution, which is the only way forward to lasting peace in the region.”

- ANI

Following the attack on the Shifa hospital in Gaza, the Israel Defence Forces said that the Hamas terror group misfired a projectile that was aimed at IDF troops operating in the vicinity.

However, the Hamas-run media office in the Gaza Strip immediately claimed that the strike was carried out by the IDF.

An examination of IDF operational systems indicated that a misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations inside the Gaza Strip hit the Shifa Hospital.

The IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee on Friday said that a rocket-propelled grenade hit the hospital and Hamas terror organization was responsible for the failed missile.

In a post on X, The IDF spokesperson highlighted, “An analysis of the IDF’s operational systems indicates that sabotage elements fired rockets this morning targeting IDF forces operating near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to IDF systems, rocket-propelled grenades hit the hospital. Therefore, according to the information available to the IDF, terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are responsible for the failed missile launch that hit the hospital.”

- ANI

The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west.

But a phrase about the space in between, “from the river to the sea,” has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists in the aftermath of Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinian activists say it’s a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction.

By 2012, it was clear that Hamas had claimed the slogan in its drive to claim land spanning Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north,” Khaled Mashaal, the group’s former leader, said that year in a speech in Gaza celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. “There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”

The phrase also has roots in the Hamas charter.

The story behind the phrase is much larger, and reaches across the decades.

Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating two hostage release proposals, one involving a small number of people to be released, and the other involves the release of 100 or more civilians held in Gaza, as per officials, The New York Times reported.

The Hamas terror group has over 240 hostages captivated in Gaza, according to Israeli officials, adding that a little less than half of them are civilians, and the larger deal negotiated would involve the release of all of those civilians.

According to the first proposal, Hamas would have to release 10 to 20 civilian hostages, including Israeli women and children as well as foreigners, including Americans, and in exchange, Israel will put a brief pause in hostilities, according to one of the officials. It would be followed by a larger release of about 100 civilians if both of them agreed.

Although Hamas has refused to release any of the military-age Israeli men held in Gaza, the officials said.

Additionally, in exchange for releasing all civilians, Hamas is asking for a brief pause, along with more humanitarian aid, fuel for hospitals and the release of women and children in Israeli prisons, the official added.

However, Israeli authorities have expressed uncertainty about releasing their prisoners, reported The New York Times.

- ANI

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister who is now heading its most rightwing government, is not known for moderation. He built a career promising security to Israelites and has emerged as the most powerful and influential leader in the Jewish state’s history after David Ben-Gurion. Yet, he will go down in history as the leader under whose watch Israel’s greatest security crisis unfolded.

Read more here...

The health care system in the Gaza Strip is “on its knees,” the head of the World Health Organization warned Friday, noting that half of the territory’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning.

Speaking to the Security Council, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the situation on the ground as desperate: “Hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick, the dying; morgues overflowing; surgery without anesthesia; tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering at hospitals.”

“The health system is on its knees, and yet somehow is continuing to deliver lifesaving care,” he said.

Tedros said there had been more than 250 attacks on health care -- such as strikes on hospitals, clinics, ambulances and patients -- in Gaza and the West Bank, and 25 such attacks in Israel in the conflict triggered by Hamas’s shock October 7 assault.

“The best way to support those health workers and the people they serve is by giving them the tools they need to deliver that care -- medicines, medical equipment and fuel for hospital generators,” he said, calling for an increase in aid trickling in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt and repeating the UN’s call for a ceasefire.

- AFP

Arab leaders and Iran’s president are in the Saudi capital Saturday for summits expected to underscore demands that Israel’s war in Gaza end before the violence draws in other countries.

The emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation come after Hamas militants’ bloody October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead and 239 taken hostage.

Israel’s subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Aid groups have joined pleas for a ceasefire, warning of a humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are in short supply.

The Arab League aims to demonstrate “how the Arabs will move on the international scene to stop the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation, and hold it accountable for its crimes”, the bloc’s assistant secretary-general, Hossam Zaki, said this week.

- AFP

Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC in an interview published late on Friday.

Macron said there was “no justification” for the bombing and saying a ceasefire would benefit Israel.

He said that France “clearly condemns” the “terrorist” actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel’s right to protect itself, “we do urge them to stop this bombing” in Gaza.

When asked if he wanted other leaders - including in the United Sates and Britain - to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: “I hope they will.”

- Reuters

Almost 2,000 police officers will be on duty Saturday when more than 100,000 pro-Palestinian supporters are expected to march through London, with extra powers in place to protect landmarks honouring Britain’s war dead.

Pro-Palestinian marches have been held in the UK capital over recent weekends, with police making almost 100 arrests for offences including supporting banned organisations and serious hate crimes.

But Saturday’s march promises to be more fraught as it coincides with Armistice Day, which commemorates those who have died in conflict since World War I.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a late plea for peaceful demonstrations

“It is because of those who fought for this country and for the freedom we cherish that those who wish to protest can do so, but they must do so respectfully and peacefully,” Sunak said in a statement released late Friday.

- AFP

India reiterated the need for a two-state solution to end the current Israel-Palestinian crisis, during a ministerial meeting between India and the United States on November 10. The Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries focussed on the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and called for the “immediate release” of those being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. There was no mention of a ceasefire; instead, India and the U.S. called for “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict

Read more here...

Israel’s embassy to the United States issued a rare public rebuke Friday to a State Department office that deals with Palestinian affairs, after it criticized Israel’s demolition of a Palestinian home in Jerusalem.

“The government of Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian family in response to the actions of their 13-year-old child,” the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“An entire family should not lose their home because of the actions of one individual,” it added.

The Israeli embassy shot back in response, “Context is helpful: the ‘13-year-old’ is a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen by stabbing him to death.”

Neither side named the teen, but Israeli media identified him as Muhammad Zalbani, who it said had stabbed to death an Israeli border policeman as he was inspecting a bus in East Jerusalem in February.

- ANI

A prestigious U.S. university said Friday it suspended two student groups that organized protests on the Israel-Hamas war that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.”

Gerald Rosberg, Columbia University’s chair of the special committee on campus safety, said Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace would be suspended throughout the fall semester.

“This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” he said in a statement.

Rosberg said the suspension would only be lifted if the two groups showed they were willing to comply with campus regulations.

“This ensures both the safety of our community and that core University activities can be conducted without disruption” during what Rosberg described as “charged time,” with protests in the United States -- including some involving college students -- having turned violent.

Hundreds of Columbia students had walked out of lectures on Thursday, US media reported, to attend a protest organized by the two groups in which they called on Washington to push for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched a deadly cross-border raid on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people.

- AP