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The death toll has exceeded 40,000 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct 7, 2023.
GAZA/JERUSALEM — Dozens of people were killed in Israeli attacks on districts of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, as food continued to pile up at a Gaza crossing amid warnings from agencies that they are unable to deliver aid.
One Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 24 people, Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters. Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood.
The Israeli military issued a statement saying: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City."
Hamas said the attacks targeted the civilian population and that the perpetrators "will pay the price for their violations against our people".
"People were going about their business" when, suddenly, "the whole area was wiped out" in an airstrike, said Abu Mahmud al-Kariri, a witness in Al-Shati.
The European Union's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, on Saturday called for an "independent investigation" into the shelling that damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Late on Friday, the committee said 22 dead and 45 wounded were taken to a Red Cross field hospital after shelling with "heavy caliber projectiles" near its southern Gaza office.
Gaza's health ministry blamed the shelling on Israel.
The Israel military said on Saturday that an initial inquiry found "there was no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility", but that the matter was being looked into.
The conflict has led to dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and repeated warnings by the United Nations of famine.
Desperation among Gaza's 2.4 million people has increased as fighting rages, bringing warnings from agencies that they are unable to deliver aid.
"The breakdown of public order and safety is increasingly endangering humanitarian workers and operations in Gaza," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.
With civil order breaking down in Gaza, the UN says it has been unable to pick up any supplies from Kerem Shalom since Tuesday, leaving crucial aid in limbo.
A deputy UN spokesman said last week that the crossing "is operating with limited functionality, including because of fighting in the area".
Tel Aviv protests
On Saturday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced what organizers said was the biggest anti-government protest since the conflict began.
Tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv. One demonstrator's sign accused Netanyahu of being an "Enemy of Israel".
Supporters and families of the Gaza hostages also rallied, holding their pictures aloft.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that a dispute with the United States over weapons delays relating to the Gaza conflict would be resolved soon.
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant flew to Washington to discuss the next phase of the war and escalating hostilities on the border with Lebanon.
Exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border between Israel and Hezbollah have also escalated, raising fears of wider conflict.
On Saturday a security source said a leader of the Lebanese group Jamaa Islamiya was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in eastern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it had targeted a military position in northern Israel "with an attack drone" in response to the killing of a commander of the Jamaa Islamiya group.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said cross-border hostilities must not turn Lebanon into "another Gaza".
"One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination."
Violence has also soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli troops tied a wounded Palestinian man to a military vehicle during a raid in the city of Jenin on Saturday, the army said on Sunday, acknowledging that soldiers had violated operational procedures.
Footage of the incident on the internet shows a Jenin resident strapped to the hood of a military jeep as it passes through a narrow alley.
"The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly," the military said, adding that the wounded man was transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent for treatment.
Agencies via Xinhua
GAZA/JERUSALEM — In tents in the stifling heat and in bombed-out mosques, Gazans marked the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the six-member war cabinet.
Israeli media reported on Monday that Netanyahu told the security cabinet on Sunday night that the war cabinet, which was created on Oct 11, has been officially disbanded.
Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza conflict with a small group of ministers, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet, Reuters reported.
The prime minister had faced demands from partners in his coalition, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, to be included in the war cabinet, a move which would have intensified strains with international partners, including the United States.
Former general Benny Gantz left the government last week, over what they said was Netanyahu's failure to form a strategy for the Gaza operation.
After more than eight months of a devastating Israeli offensive that has flattened much of Gaza, displaced most of the besieged territory's 2.4 million people and sparked repeated warnings of famine, Eid this year is a day of misery for many.
"There is no joy. We have been robbed of it," said Malakiya Salman, who is now living in a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
"I hope the world will put pressure to end the war on us, because we are truly dying, and our children are broken."
Palestinians used to celebrate the holiday by decorating streets and alleys, slaughtering sacrificial animals, exchanging visits to offer greetings, and children and young people by visiting parks and playgrounds in the Strip with their families to have fun.
Holiday rituals absent
All the holiday rituals, however, were absent from the family of Ahmed Mansour, who was displaced from his home in Gaza City after October. "I was not able to buy new clothes for my children and we could not prepare the cakes. In short, this holiday came without joy," the 35-year-old father of three told Xinhua News Agency.
The Israeli military announced on Sunday morning a "tactical pause of military activity" around a Rafah-area route to facilitate the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gazans.
The pause "for humanitarian purposes will take place from 8:00 am until 7:00 pm every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din road and then northward", a military statement said.
The United Nations welcomed the Israeli move, although "this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need", said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
But Netanyahu criticized the plans announced by the military.
"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.
More than 37,347 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators have been pushing for a new Gaza truce, so far without success.
The only previous truce lasted one week in November and saw many hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, while increased aid flowed into Gaza.
Hamas has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent cease-fire — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected.
Agencies - Xinhua
The Group of Seven nations is being urged to do more to end Israeli atrocities in Gaza as Tel Aviv has yet to publicly accept a US-backed United Nations Security Council resolution despite the bloc's claim that it welcomes Israel's acceptance of the proposal.
The Islamic Relief group urged the G7 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to end arms sales to states in which there "are serious risks of international law being violated, such as Israel's actions in Gaza".
Military spending was at "record levels" while humanitarian aid to help people affected by wars and disasters had been cut, even as more than 1 million Palestinians are starving, it said.
Israel's continued offensives are reported to have killed at least 37,337 Gazans, in response to Hamas' attack on Israel in October, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Gaza on Saturday, the military said.
In Rafah, witnesses reported clashes between militants and Israeli troops in the city's west and artillery fire toward a refugee camp in the city center.
Abdalfatah Asqool, an international law lecturer at the University of Palestine, told China Daily: "They announce a deal, which is originally an Israeli deal, and they ask Hamas only to say yes to the deal without any comments. This proves that the US is acting as a representative of Israel. They announced that Israel accepted the deal, but we did not hear it from the Israelis themselves.
"So it is better for the US to stop playing the two faces role, because this will make them keep losing on both the local and international level."
Abdul Wahed Jalal Nori, an analyst and lecturer in the Department of Fundamental and Inter-Disciplinary Studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia, told China Daily that what the G7 said at its summit was "insufficient and overly cautious". G7's reliance on US President Joe Biden's proposed deal "places too much responsibility on Hamas to accept terms without significant leverage or guarantees", he said.
"This is seen as somewhat one-sided, failing to adequately pressure Israel to make concessions necessary for peace, such as easing the blockade on Gaza or addressing settlement activities in the West Bank."
At the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy, from Thursday to Saturday, the bloc called on Hamas to accept and implement UN Security Council Resolution 2735 while reaffirming support to Israel and its "right to defend itself", according to a G7 communique published on Friday.
Though demanding an increase in humanitarian aid flow, the G7 said it wanted "Israel's security interests and safety for Palestinian civilians in Gaza assured".
However, the government of Israel has yet to publicly acknowledge or accept the proposals even though the US has given assurances that Tel Aviv has accepted the conditions.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "faces significant pressure from various domestic political factions", Abdul Wahed said, and acknowledging international calls for a cease-fire or concessions to Hamas "might be seen as a sign of weakness or a betrayal of national security interests".
"This could erode political support within right-wing and conservative segments of the Israeli electorate, who favor a hard-line stance against Hamas and other Palestinian factions."
Though G7 leaders in their communique reiterated a commitment to a two-state solution, the outcomes "expressly show the double standards of the international community in dealing with the issues", said Asqool of the University of Palestine.
The G7 agreed on the right of Ukraine to resist but ignored the Palestinian right to defense against occupying forces and did little for the thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians killed after the Hamas attack in October, Asqool said.
Agencies contributed to this story.
GAZA -- At least nine Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on the first day of Eid al-Adha, Palestinian medical sources said on Sunday.
The airstrike targeted two residential houses, killing nine people, including six children, and injuring several others who were then taken to the hospital, said medical sources who require anonymity.
As of Sunday, the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 37,337, with 85,299 injuries, the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on Sunday that fighting continued in the southern Gaza Strip, including in the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.
He also confirmed that the road through which goods pass will be open during daylight hours for the passage of humanitarian aid only.
Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Gaza -- About 625,000 children have been denied an education in the Gaza Strip as schools have been forced to remain closed due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a UN body said on Saturday.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a statement on social media platform X that its crews continue to support Palestinian children through activities that help them return to learning, but this is not enough, stressing the necessity of a ceasefire now.
The war robbed the children in Gaza of their childhood, and the survivors are suffering from deep trauma, as their schools were destroyed and they lost an entire academic year without education or play, it added.
Children are the first to suffer the most in conflicts and wars, pointing out that a very large number of them have been killed and others injured, and many of them will have scars for life, the statement said.
As of Friday, the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing conflict has risen to 37,296, with 85,197 others wounded, Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement.
Also on Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement that eight Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a separate statement, Adraee said the IDF forces are moving forward with defeating the military wing of Hamas and stripping its Rafah Brigade of its capabilities.
"The forces in the field daily kill many terrorists and destroy weapons, platforms, and rockets, thus preventing Hamas from returning to action against Israel as it was on Oct. 7," Adraee added.
Since last Oct. 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has led to massive casualties and destruction of homes and infrastructure after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which claimed the lives of about 1,200 Israelis.
JERUSALEM -- The Israel Defense Forces announced on Saturday evening that its eight soldiers were killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah in the morning.
Urgent actions are imperative to achieve an immediate, permanent cease-fire and to accelerate humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to a leaders' statement on Tuesday, as the conflict is triggering wider spillover effects in the region.
The "Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza" conference in Sweimeh, Jordan, was co-organized by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations on Tuesday to address the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where about 1 million civilians are in hunger and forcibly displaced.
The statement called for establishing an immediate, permanent cease-fire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and civilians who are being illegally held captive, demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law.
"We cannot abandon Gaza," King Abdullah II of Jordan said at the conference.
The leaders expressed grave concerns at the enormous loss of life, the unprecedented civilian casualties and the unfolding man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, caused by the continuing lack of humanitarian access to civilians in need, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza is imperative", said Haoliang Xu, under-secretary-general and UNDP associate administrator, on behalf of UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, as stated on the United Nations Development Programme website.
In his remarks at the conference, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the entry of sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as Resolution 2735 adopted on Monday by the UN Security Council.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Qatar for talks after Hamas submitted a response to a US-led proposal for a cease-fire.
Blinken, on a four-country tour around the Middle East to push Hamas to accept the truce proposal, will meet the top leadership of Qatar, which has been in communication with the Palestinian militant group.
Amendments proposed
Hamas, responding to the plan laid out late last month by the United States, proposed amendments late on Tuesday, including a ceasefire timeline and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, according to a source close to the talks.
Egypt and Qatar said they had received Hamas' response, but did not disclose the content.
Hamas' response to a proposed Gaza cease-fire deal "opens up a wide pathway" to reach an agreement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, said on Wednesday.
The movement's response is "responsible, serious and positive", al-Rishq added.
The US said Israel accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. As Israel continues its assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest in the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel would not commit to an end of its assault in Gaza before Hamas is eliminated.
As the fate of a cease-fire hangs in the balance, Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions.
Hezbollah said it fired missiles and rockets at two military bases in retaliation for the killing of Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55. Known within Hezbollah as Hajj Abu Taleb, he is the most senior commander killed since the fighting began eight months ago.
Hezbollah has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the Israel-Hamas conflict began and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza.
As air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, the military said about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon, making it one of the largest attacks since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.
With the United Nations Security Council adopting a resolution on Monday for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, the international community is calling on Israel to urgently implement the consensus and halt the military campaign that is causing untold suffering to millions of besieged Palestinians.
According to a statement published by WAFA news agency, the Palestinian presidency welcomed the adoption of Resolution 2735 by the UN Security Council, calling for an immediate and complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as "a step in the right direction to stop the ongoing war of genocide against the Palestinian people".
It also reiterated its call for the implementation of the two-state solution. Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, who spoke to the media after the vote in New York, said Palestine is "determined with our friends to make a long-lasting, permanent cease-fire".
On Tuesday, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said it accepted the cease-fire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details.
It is up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it, he added. He said Hamas accepted the formula stipulating the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
Belal Alakhras, a political analyst and Palestinian researcher at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, told China Daily that the resolution endorsing a cease-fire in Gaza reflects the international consensus that "continuing the genocidal war is illegitimate and that restoring stability in the region is urgently needed".
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the fighting could "stop today if Hamas agrees to the deal now endorsed by the Security Council".
But Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, political coordinator of the Israeli mission to the UN, said her country's goals have been "very clear "since Oct 7, namely to bring all Israeli hostages home and dismantle Hamas and its capabilities, ensuring that Gaza "does not pose a threat to Israel in the future".
She also said Israel "will not engage in meaningless and endless negotiations which can be exploited by Hamas as a means to stall for time".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday following the rescue of four Israeli hostages that Israel would not relent "until we complete the mission and return all our hostages home, both the living and the deceased".
Last week, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued calls to "expand the war in Gaza" and to invade southern Lebanon.
Turkiye welcomed the UNSC resolution as "an important step toward putting an end to the massacre", and lauded Hamas' "constructive and positive approach" to the cease-fire plan. "It is imperative that Israel announces its commitment to the implementation of a permanent cease-fire and fully implements all elements of the resolution," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Alakhras noted that the US vetoed three cease-fire proposals while enabling Israel's conflict in Gaza for more than eight months, leading to unprecedented killing and destruction that impacted the entire region and swayed the US' and international public opinion.
Dire need
"This inconsistency highlights the world's dire need for a system not confined to one major power that can rapidly reverse course on matters of self-inflicted consequence. The priority now is implementing this resolution, though Palestinians seek guarantees that the war will truly end, while Israeli leaders publicly want to achieve all objectives of their total war," he said.
Further, he said emerging powers on the Security Council "should take the initiative to promote stability proactively, not just react after massive lives and interests are impacted".
In a social media post, Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza, welcomed the cease-fire resolution, but shared what she called "some critical observations".
She said the UNSC "cannot infringe people's right to self-determination" as it lacked the authority to determine who will or should rule over Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and underscored that only Palestinians will have to choose via "free and democratic elections".
Agencies contributed to this story.
DOHA/CAIRO - Qatar and Egypt have received a response from Hamas regarding the proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the Qatari Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions responded Tuesday to "the most recent proposal for a ceasefire deal and the exchange of prisoners and detainees", it said.
The two countries confirmed that they are mediating alongside the United States until an agreement is reached, but did not disclose details, according to the statement.
The mediators "will examine the response and coordinate with the parties concerned regarding the next steps", it added.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also announced on Tuesday that it had received a response of Hamas and the Palestinian factions to the latest ceasefire proposal and prisoners-detainees swap deal.
In a joint statement sent to Xinhua, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad said that a delegation from the two movements delivered the Palestinian factions' response on Tuesday to Qatar during a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and the response was also delivered to the Egyptian side.
The statement added that the response prioritizes the interests of the Palestinian people and emphasizes the necessity of completely stopping the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
It noted that the delegation expressed its readiness to engage positively to reach an agreement that would end this war against the Palestinian people.
The submission of the response follows the adoption by the UN Security Council on Monday of an American draft resolution aiming to reach a comprehensive agreement for a three-phase ceasefire to end the war in Gaza.
The resolution was adopted with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstaining. According to the resolution, the first phase includes an "immediate and complete ceasefire with the release of hostages and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners".
The second phase will see a permanent cessation of hostilities "in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza".
In the third phase, a "major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza" will begin, and the remains of any hostages who were killed and are still in Gaza will be returned to Israel.
The resolution stated that Israel has "accepted" the agreement and "calls on" Hamas to do the same.
Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage.
JERUSALEM -- An Israeli official said on Tuesday that Israel had received Hamas's response to the US-drafted proposal for a ceasefire-hostage release deal and the movement had rejected it, Israel's state-owned Kan TV news reported.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement earlier in the day that they had delivered their response to the proposal to Qatari and Egyptian mediators, expressing a "willingness to deal positively in order to reach an agreement." They emphasized their priority of stopping the war in the Gaza Strip and ensuring the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.
Israel has yet to formally announce its position, although both US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had endorsed the proposal.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the US had received Hamas's response and was evaluating it.
JERUSALEM/GAZA — A key member of Israel's war cabinet quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Sunday, heaping domestic pressure on the Israeli leader as the conflict in Gaza rages.
Benny Gantz, a former Israeli general and defense minister, announced his resignation from the emergency body after failing to get a postwar plan for Gaza approved by Netanyahu, which he demanded in May.
Although his departure is not expected to bring down the government, it marks the first political blow to Netanyahu eight months into the Gaza assault against Palestinian Hamas militants.
"Netanyahu is preventing us from progressing to a real victory. That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart," Gantz said.
Netanyahu responded within minutes, saying: "Benny, this is not the time to abandon the battle — this is the time to join forces."
It came after Israeli special forces fought gunbattles with Palestinian militants over the weekend in central Gaza's crowded Nuseirat refugee camp area as they swooped in to free the four captives.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 274 people were killed and 698 wounded, in what it labeled the "Nuseirat massacre".
Among those were at least 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people, the ministry said.
"People were screaming — young and old, women and men," said Nuseirat resident Muhannad Thabet, 35.
"Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed due to the heavy bombardment and gunfire."
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday condemned the "horrific massacre" in Nuseirat and insisted that "any agreement reached must include a permanent cessation of aggression, a complete withdrawal from the strip, an exchange deal and reconstruction".
On Monday, Palestinian residents said tanks had been trying to thrust deeper toward the north in the early hours of Monday, edging Shaboura, one of the most densely populated and militant stronghold neighborhoods at the heart of the city.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 37,124 people in Gaza, in response to Hamas' surprise attack on Israel on Oct 7, which has killed about 1,200 people.
Domestic discontent
Adding to the domestic discontent over Netanyahu's handling of the eight-month conflict, a senior military commander, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, also resigned on Sunday over what he called his failure to prevent the Oct 7 attack.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded to join the war cabinet in place of Gantz.
Netanyahu is also under growing pressure from his far-right coalition allies, who have threatened to quit the government if he goes ahead with a hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden last month.
Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have insisted that the government should not enter into any deal and continue the assault until the end goal of destroying Hamas has been achieved.
A senior Hamas official urged the United States on Monday to pressure Israel to end the conflict in Gaza, ahead of a planned visit on Monday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to push forward cease-fire efforts.
"We call upon the US administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Blinken arrived in Egypt on Monday at the start of a regional tour to push for a much-awaited Gaza ceasefire. He also aims to ensure the conflict does not expand into Lebanon.
Two members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were killed and three civilians injured on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages, Xinhua reported, citing Lebanese military sources.
In his eighth visit to the region since Oct 7, Blinken met Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before heading to Jerusalem later on Monday to meet Netanyahu.
Agencies—Xinhua
GAZA -- The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced on Monday that it welcomes a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council earlier in the day aimed at reaching a comprehensive ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza.
Hamas expressed in a statement its readiness to cooperate with the mediators to engage in indirect negotiations to implement resolution principles "that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance," including a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, prisoner-hostage exchange and reconstruction.
The movement reiterated its commitment to continuing its "endeavor and struggle" for the Palestinian people's national rights.
The Palestinian presidency hailed the adoption of the resolution as a step in the right direction to stop the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian News Agency WAFA reported.
The Palestinian presidency also called on all parties to fulfill their responsibilities to implement the resolution.
The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution aimed at reaching a comprehensive ceasefire deal in three phases to end the war in Gaza.
Adopted by a large majority with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstaining, the resolution also urges both parties to the conflict to fully implement the terms of the proposal "without delay and without condition."
GAZA/CAIRO — Israeli forces pounded central Gaza anew on Sunday, a day after killing 274 Palestinians during a hostage rescue raid, and tanks advanced further into areas of Rafah in a bid to seal off part of the southern city, according to residents and Hamas media.
Palestinians remained in shock over Saturday's death toll, the worst over a 24-hour period of the Palestine-Israel conflict for months that included many women and children, Palestinian medics said.
In an update on Sunday, Gaza's Health Ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 were injured when Israeli special force commandos stormed into the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp to rescue four hostages held since October by Hamas militants.
"My child was crying, afraid of the sound of the plane firing at us," Hadeel Radwan, 32, said, recounting how they fled the intense combat as she carried her 7-month-old daughter.
"We all felt that we wouldn't survive," she told Agence France-Presse, condemning "this brutal occupation that will not let us live".
Israel's military said a special forces officer was killed in the exchange of fire with militants emerging from cover in residential blocks, and that it knew of "under 100" Palestinians killed, though not knowing how many of them were militants or civilians.
Egypt condemned "with the strongest terms" Israel's attacks on the Nuseirat camp, with its Foreign Ministry calling it a "flagrant violation of all rules of international law".Jordan also condemned it.
The rescued hostages were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health, the Israeli military said. They were all kidnapped during the attack by Hamas militants on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on Oct 7, which precipitated the devastating offensive on Gaza.
Hamas' raid killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel's retaliatory bombardment and assault of Gaza has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Sunday.
Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for Hamas' armed al-Qassam Brigades, said some hostages were killed during the rescue operation.
"It's a blatant lie," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told CNN, refuting the claim.
On Sunday, three Palestinians were killed and several hurt in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled parts of nearby Maghazi and Nuseirat. All are built-up, historical refugee camps.
The Israeli military said in a statement its forces were continuing operations east of Bureij and the city of Deir al-Balah in the center of the coastal enclave, killing several Palestinian gunmen and destroying militant infrastructure.
Israel sent forces into Rafah last month in what it called a mission to wipe out Hamas' last intact combat units after eight months of conflict in which Israeli forces have bombed much of the rest of Gaza to rubble while advancing against fierce resistance.
Israeli tank forces have since seized Gaza's entire border strip with Egypt running through Rafah to the Mediterranean coast and invaded several districts of the city, prompting about 1 million displaced people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee elsewhere.
On Sunday, tanks advanced into two new districts in an apparent effort to complete the encirclement of the eastern side of Rafah, touching off clashes with dug-in Hamasled armed groups, according to residents trapped in their homes.
Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah killed two people.
The conflict in Gaza has destabilized the wider Middle East. Four people were killed on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua News Agency.
The sources said an Israeli warplane targeted a house in Houla village, killing two Hezbollah members and injuring three civilians. Another Israeli airstrike targeted a commercial market in Aitaroun village with two air-to-surface missiles, killing two civilians and wounding two others.
Hezbollah said it responded to Israel's raids on Saturday with several attacks in the occupied Shebaa Farms and a number of Israeli sites.
In Washington, thousands of protesters held a "red line" rally near the White House on Saturday, voicing anger at what they said is US President Joe Biden's tolerance of Israel's bloody military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The White House said last month that a deadly Israeli strike on Rafah did not cross a "red line" that Biden had seemingly set two months earlier when asked about a potential invasion of the southern Gazan city.
"I no longer believe any of the words that Joe Biden says," protester Zaid Mahdawi from Virginia, whose parents are Palestinian, told Agence France-Presse.
"This 'red line' in his rhetoric is rubbish... it shows his hypocrisy and his cowardice."
Agencies via Xinhua
GAZA - The death toll in the Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday has risen to 274, with 698 injured, Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement on Sunday.
The statement noted some victims remained under the rubble amid heavy bombardment and a lack of rescue crews.
During the operation, Israeli forces rescued four hostages from the refugee camp, namely Noa Argamani, 25, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, all of them among the about 250 Israelis abducted last October by Hamas while attending the Nova festival, an outdoor music event, in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel fence.
After the Hamas rampage, which killed about 1,200 according to Israeli tallies, Israel launched a retaliatory large-scale offensive in Gaza, which so far has killed 37,084 and injured 84,494 others, according to Gaza's health authorities.
GAZA -- During its operation to release four hostages in the central Gaza Strip, the Israeli army had killed several other hostages held there, Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Saturday.
In a statement, Al-Qassam denounced the Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat area in central Gaza as "a complex war crime," saying "the first to be harmed by it" were Israeli hostages.
"The operation will pose a great danger to the enemy's prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives," Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Al-Qassam, said in the statement.
At least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday in central Gaza, where the Israeli forces rescued four hostages kidnapped by Hamas into the strip last October.
The Israeli army, police, and intelligence body Shin Bet said in a joint statement that their fighters had attacked "a terrorist structure" in the region and freed four Israeli hostages.
It noted that the kidnapped persons were rescued alive from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat.
Following the rescue of the four, 120 Israeli hostages remain held in Gaza, including 43 feared dead, according to the Israeli army.
Israel's attacks on central Gaza are the latest development of the deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas which began on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel from Gaza in a surprise attack, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.
ISTANBUL -- The extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of Developing 8 (D-8) countries held in Turkiye's Istanbul called on Saturday for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
"We demand an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to Israel's attacks on the Palestinian people," the ministers stated in a declaration after the meeting, Turkiye's state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The declaration noted that D-8 member states would offer unwavering support for Palestine's pursuit of full membership in the United Nations (UN) and its struggle for self-determination.
At a press conference after the meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said D-8 countries will not remain silent in the face of Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
"We will work with all our strength to end the Israeli occupation and achieve the two-state solution," Fidan added.
Advocating for the acceptance of Palestine's UN membership, the minister stressed that "Palestine's full membership in the UN is hindered by the US veto.
As D-8 countries, we demand an immediate end to this injustice." D-8, established in 1997, is an organization for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkiye.?
GAZA -- At least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured on Saturday by Israeli airstrikes in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
JERUSALEM -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday said that it rescued four Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct 7, 2023.
The four, Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov, were located in two places in the center of Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, in proper medical condition.
The IDF conducted the operation with the Israel Security Agency and a police elite unit.
GAZA -- At least 55 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp and some other areas in the central Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.
Khalil Al-Dakran, director of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, told Xinhua that a large number of wounded Palestinians were sent to the hospital due to the intense Israeli bombing on the Nuseirat camp and the city of Deir Al-Balah, some of whom have been confirmed dead.
Wounded Palestinians were still being sent in, overwhelming the hospital amid a severe shortage of beds, medicines, medical consumables, and fuel to run the main emergency generator, said Al-Dakran.
Palestinian eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft targeted the area with intensive firepower, and local civil defense and ambulances were unable to reach some injured people in time.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said deadly clashes broke out on the ground between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops raiding the Nuseirat camp under the cover of artillery and aerial bombardment.
The Israeli army, police, and intelligence body Shin Bet said in a joint statement that "our forces are attacking a terrorist structure" in the region and freed four Israeli hostages.
It noted that the kidnapped persons were rescued by Shin Bet fighters and the Special Police Unit from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat.
The statement confirmed that the health condition of the hostages was good, and they were transferred for medical examinations to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel.
International grassroots organizations are calling for more agricultural support to be incorporated into humanitarian work in a bid to strengthen Palestinian food security resilience as attacks on Gaza continue, according to an online forum on Friday.
The global solidarity meeting, conducted by the Silenced Suffering: Stop Bombing Rural Communities platform, came as a response to a call by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri who had sought inputs on ways to resolve the human rights and starvation problem with an emphasis on the Palestinian people's "food sovereignty".
The meeting was facilitated by the People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty, a network of grassroots groups, with entities from Nepal, Malaysia, Lebanon and Gaza among the participants. The meeting discussed human rights issues in various parts of the world but mostly focused on the situation in Gaza.
Ahmed Sourani, founder and general coordinator of the Gaza Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform, said the root cause of Palestine's food insecurity was "the (Israeli) occupation, (resulting in) wars and conflicts". Hence, having solidarity and strong local, regional and international networks is important, he said.
After eight months of the current conflict in the Gaza Strip, more than 85 percent of Palestinian farmers and peasants "cannot practice work" and "are disconnected from land, resources and agriculture activities", Sourani said.
"They are living in unbearable conditions. Around 60 percent of agricultural lands and projects are not functioning. Only 15 percent (of farmers and peasants) can continue their production or their work. … The West Bank is the same," he said, adding that it is important to bring Palestine and Palestinian voices to global forums.
He noted that in Gaza, 95 percent of the agri-lands are small-scale, and the practices were usually "based on family (team work)". He said there were about 25,000 farmers in Gaza but the majority of them have now been displaced and lost their premises.
"It is really important to help people come back to their lands, but there is a problem of lack of agricultural inputs," said Sourani, calling for more support "to influence policies at the global levels".
"We cannot neglect the high need for support for people, displaced people, and families in all parts of the Gaza strip. (We are) still working with medium capacities, (and) there is always a high need for all types of support," said Sourani. Among other things, there is "need for pressure to open the borders for support", he said.
"In Gaza, 100 percent (of the) agriculture (is) based on family contributions, but this is almost destroyed and non-existent," he added.
Meanwhile, Firoza Mayet of the South Africa Palestine Solidarity Alliance called for more political support to help "stop the genocide", and demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
"After today, we need to look at how to (strengthen) our solidarity for the people of Palestine" and push for an end to Israeli occupation, said Mayet.
In related news, the International Labour Organization, or ILO, said in a new brief report on Friday that eight months of conflict in the Gaza Strip have created massive jobs and livelihood loss.
In the Gaza Strip, almost all private sector establishments "have either completely ceased or significantly reduced production, with the sector losing 85.8 percent of its production value — equivalent to $810 million — during the first four months of the war", according to the ILO.
Further, in the West Bank, the private sector suffered a 27 percent reduction in production value equivalent to $1.5 billion during the same period.
"Our new bulletin shows the grim toll the war in the Gaza Strip has taken on human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, are accompanied by widespread devastation of economic activities and livelihoods. This compounds the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and further endangers their safety and wellbeing," ILO Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat said in a statement.
"Restoring people's livelihoods and creating decent jobs is vital to enabling Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to recover from the horrors the war has inflicted on them," Jaradat said.
"This recovery work must take place alongside the ongoing humanitarian response, and the ILO and its constituents and partners are implementing an Emergency Response Plan to this end," she added.
