Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah

Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah
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Palestinian women and children flee Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with some belongings on May 15, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant movement Hamas. (AFP)
Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah
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Displaced Palestinians pack their belongings after dismantling their tents before leaving an unsafe area in Rafah on May 15, 2024, as Israeli forces continued to battle and bomb Hamas militants around the southern Gaza Strip city. (AFP)
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Updated 16 May 2024
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Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah

Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday insisted there was no “humanitarian catastrophe” in Rafah, even as hundreds of thousands fled the south Gaza city amid intense fighting.
Hamas meanwhile insisted it would take part in any decision on the post-war government of Gaza as Palestinians marked the 76th anniversary of the “Nakba,” when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 creation of Israel.
Israeli forces have bombed Hamas militants around Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, but clashes have also flared again in northern and central areas which Israeli troops first entered months ago.
The upsurge in urban combat has fueled US warnings that Israel, which launched its war after the October 7 Hamas attacks, risks being bogged down in years of counterinsurgency.
But despite previous threats by US President Joe Biden to withhold some arms deliveries over Netanyahu’s insistence on attacking Rafah, his administration informed Congress on Tuesday of a new $1 billion weapons package for Israel, official sources told AFP.
The European Union urged Israel to end its military operation in Rafah “immediately,” warning failure to do so would “inevitably put a heavy strain” on ties with the bloc.
But even as he announced that hundreds of thousands had been “evacuated,” Netanyahu insisted there was no humanitarian crisis in Rafah.




Displaced Palestinians pack their belongings after dismantling their tents before leaving an unsafe area in Rafah on May 15, 2024, as Israeli forces continued to battle and bomb Hamas militants around the southern Gaza Strip city. (AFP)

“Our responsible efforts are bearing fruit. So far, in Rafah, close to half a million people have been evacuated from the combat zones. The humanitarian catastrophe that was spoken about did not materialize, nor will it,” he said.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, meanwhile said “600K people have fled Rafah since military operations intensified.”

Nakba Day

The sight of desperate families carrying scant belongings through the ruins of war-scarred Gaza cities has evoked for many the events of the 1948 Nakba which translates from Arabic as “catastrophe.”
Hamas declared in a Nakba Day statement that “the ongoing suffering of millions of refugees inside Palestine and in the diaspora is directly attributed to the Zionist occupation.”
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh insisted meanwhile that the militant movement will be involved in deciding post-war rule in Gaza along with other Palestinian factions.
“We say that the Hamas movement is here to stay ... and it will be the movement and all national (Palestinian) factions who will decide the post-war rule in Gaza,” Haniyeh said in a televised address for Nakba.
He also said the fate of truce talks was uncertain because of Israel’s “insistence on occupying the Rafah crossing and on its expansion of the aggression” in the Palestinian territory.
“Any agreement must ensure a permanent ceasefire, comprehensive withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from all sectors of the Gaza Strip, a real deal for exchange of prisoners, the return of displaced persons, reconstruction and lifting the siege” of Gaza, Haniyeh said.
Thousands marched to mark the day in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding up symbolic keys as reminders of long-lost family homes.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring home hostages still held in Gaza.




“Our responsible efforts are bearing fruit. So far, in Rafah, close to half a million people have been evacuated from the combat zones. The humanitarian catastrophe that was spoken about did not materialize, nor will it,” he said.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, meanwhile said “600K people have fled Rafah since military operations intensified.”

In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Netanyahu addressed the tensions with Biden over the offensive, saying: “Yes, we do have a disagreement on Gaza. Rather, on Rafah. But we have to do what we have to do.”
Washington has also repeatedly urged Israel to work on a post-war plan for Gaza and supports the goal of a two-state solution, which Netanyahu and his far-right allies strongly oppose.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said without a political plan, Palestinian militants “will keep coming back” trapping all sides in “this continued cycle of violence.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday said he would “not agree to the establishment of an Israeli military administration in Gaza, Israel must not have civilian control over the Gaza Strip.”
The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.




Activists of the Palestine Foundation Balochistan burn an effigy of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an anti-Israel protest in Quetta on May 15, 2024. (AFP)

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,233 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Clashes continue
The Israeli military said Wednesday its aircraft had “struck and eliminated approximately 80 terror targets” including military compounds, missile launchers and weapons depots.
It also reported battles in eastern Rafah and in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where it said it had killed militants, adding troops were also fighting in the Zeitun area.




An Israeli Air Force attack helicopter fires a missile while flying over the Palestinian territory on May 15, 2024. (AFP)

Hamas’s armed wing also reported its fighters were clashing with troops in the Jabalia area, much of which has been reduced to rubble.
At least five people were killed, including a woman and her child, in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza City overnight, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
At the city’s Al-Ahli hospital, a wounded man, his bare chest smeared with blood, lay on a cot while outside several men placed a shrouded corpse in the shade of a tree.
Sporadic aid deliveries into Gaza by truck have slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt last week.
A UK delivery of 100 tons of temporary shelter kits left Cyprus Wednesday on its way to a US-built pier in Gaza, Britain said.
Another convoy carrying humanitarian relief goods was ransacked by Israeli right-wing activists on Monday after it had crossed from Jordan through the West Bank.


CIA, Mossad chiefs to meet with Qatar PM for Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations: Official

CIA, Mossad chiefs to meet with Qatar PM for Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations: Official
Updated 53 min 40 sec ago
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CIA, Mossad chiefs to meet with Qatar PM for Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations: Official

CIA, Mossad chiefs to meet with Qatar PM for Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations: Official
  • The talks aim to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza that would last less than a month

DOHA: The directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Doha on Sunday to begin negotiations for a new short term Gaza ceasefire deal and the release of some hostages by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters.
The talks aim to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza that would last less than a month, with the hope that it would lead to a more permanent agreement, the official said. The details of which or how many hostages and prisoners would be released as part of the deal is not yet clear, the official said.


Iranian officials to determine how to respond to Israel

Iranian officials to determine how to respond to Israel
Updated 27 October 2024
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Iranian officials to determine how to respond to Israel

Iranian officials to determine how to respond to Israel
  • Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites around the capital and in other provinces, saying the raids caused “limited damage”
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s air attack on Iran was “precise and powerful”

TEHRAN: Iranian officials should determine how best to demonstrate Iran’s power to Israel after the Israeli attack on Iran two nights ago, Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Sunday.
“The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated,” IRNA cited Khamenei as saying.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel’s air attack on Iran was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its goals.
“We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Saturday we struck... The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives,” Netanyahu said in a speech marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.
Israel’s strikes were in retaliation for an October 1 attack by Iran, which fired about 200 missiles at Israel, though most were intercepted by the country’s air defenses.
“Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles and this attack failed,” Netanyahu said.
“We kept our promise. The air force attacked Iran and hit Iran’s defense capabilities and missile production,” he said.
Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites around the capital and in other provinces, saying the raids caused “limited damage” but killed four soldiers.
Iran on Saturday played down Israel’s overnight air attack against Iranian military targets, saying it caused only limited damage, as US President Joe Biden called for a halt to escalation that has raised fears of an all-out conflagration in the Middle East.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel’s military said.
Khamenei said Iran’s power should be demonstrated to Israel, adding that the way to do so should be “determined by the officials and that which is in the best interest of the people and the country should take place.”


Israel police say 24 injured as truck rams into bus stop

Israel police say 24 injured as truck rams into bus stop
Updated 27 October 2024
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Israel police say 24 injured as truck rams into bus stop

Israel police say 24 injured as truck rams into bus stop
  • Israeli rescue service says paramedics are treating dozens of wounded after truck slams into bus stop north of Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM: A truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel Sunday, injuring at least 24 people before he was “shot and neutralized,” police said.
Preliminary police findings showed the driver also hit a bus that had stopped at the same location to drop off passengers, the police said in a statement.
At least 24 people were injured in the incident, police said, without clarifying whether it was an attack.
The force however said civilians at the site of the incident “shot the truck driver and neutralized him.”
Earlier on Sunday the Magen David Adom emergency service said the incident occurred at Aharon Yariv Boulevard in Ramat HaSharon, north of the commercial hub Tel Aviv.
Of those injured, at least 16 people had been transported to nearby hospitals, MDA said in a statement.
Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where Israeli television channels showed police cordoning off the area as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.
The incident comes as Israel holds ceremonies to mark the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


Iran’s military suggests ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon trump retaliation against Israel

Iran’s military suggests ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon trump retaliation against Israel
Updated 27 October 2024
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Iran’s military suggests ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon trump retaliation against Israel

Iran’s military suggests ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon trump retaliation against Israel
  • Israel warns Iran will “pay a heavy price” if it responded to the strikes
  • Islamic republic insisted it had the “right and the duty” to defend itself

TEL AVIV: Iran’s military issued a carefully worded statement Saturday night suggesting a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon trumps any retaliation against Israel.
While saying it had the right to retaliate, the statement suggested Tehran may be trying to find a way to avoid further escalation after Israel’s attack early Saturday.
Iran’s military added that Israel used so-called “stand-off” missiles over Iraqi airspace to launch its attacks and that the warheads were much lighter in order to travel the distance to the targets they struck in three provinces in Iran.
The statement said Iranian military radar sites had been damaged, but some already were under repair.
Israel attacked military targets in Iran with pre-dawn airstrikes Saturday in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired on Israel earlier this month. The strikes marked the first time Israel’s military has openly attacked Iran.
Following the airstrikes, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it had a right to self-defense, and “considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression.” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran has “no limits” in defending its interests.
Israel’s military said it targeted facilities that Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites. There was no immediate indication that oil or nuclear sites were hit, which would have marked a much more serious escalation.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said four people were killed, all with the country’s military air defense. It did not say where they were stationed. Iran’s military said the strikes targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, without elaborating. The Islamic Republic said the attacks caused “limited damage.”
The strikes risk pushing the archenemies closer to all-out war at a time of spiraling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran — including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — are already at war with Israel.
US President Joe Biden told reporters Israel gave him a heads-up before the strikes and said it looked like “they didn’t hit anything but military targets.” He said he had just finished a call with intelligence officials.
“I hope this is the end,” he said.
Israel’s first open attack on Iran
Iran hadn’t faced a sustained barrage of fire from a foreign enemy since its 1980s war with Iraq. Explosions could be heard in Tehran until sunrise.
On Oct. 1, Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for devastating blows Israel landed against Hezbollah. They caused minimal damage and a few injuries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “made a big mistake.”
Israel is also widely thought to be behind a limited airstrike in April near a major air base in Iran that hit the radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery. Iran had fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel in April, causing minimal damage, after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic post in Syria.
“Iran attacked Israel twice, including in locations that endangered civilians, and has paid the price for it,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. He added: “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.”
Images released by Israel’s military showed members preparing to depart for the strikes in American-made F-15 and F-16 warplanes.
Israel’s attack did not take out highly visible or symbolic facilities that could prompt a significant response from Iran, said Yoel Guzansky, a researcher at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies who formerly worked for Israel’s National Security Council.
It also gives Israel room for escalation if needed, and targeting air defense systems weakens Iran’s capabilities to defend against future attacks, he said, adding that if there is Iranian retaliation, it should be limited.
Israel has again shown its military precision and capabilities are superior to Iran’s, said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
“By targeting military sites and missile facilities over nuclear and energy infrastructure, Israel is also messaging that it seeks no further escalation for now,” Vakil said. “This is a sign that the diplomacy and back-channel efforts to moderate the strike were successful.”
Biden’s administration won assurances from Israel in mid-October that it would not hit nuclear facilities and oil installations.
After the strikes, the streets in Iran’s capital were calm and children went to school and shops opened. There were long lines at the gas stations — a regular occurrence in Tehran when military violence flares as people stock up on fuel. But some Tehran residents seemed anxious and avoided conversations with an Associated Press reporter.
Mixed reactions at home and abroad
Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, criticized the decision to avoid “strategic and economic targets,” saying on X that “we could and should have exacted a much heavier price from Iran.”
The United States warned against further retaliation, and Britain and Germany said Iran should not respond. “All acts of escalation are condemnable and must stop,” the spokesman for the UN secretary-general said.
Saudi Arabia was one of multiple countries in the region condemning the strike, calling it a violation of Iran’s “sovereignty and a violation of international laws and norms.”
Both Hezbollah and Hamas condemned Israel’s attack, with Hezbollah saying it would not affect Tehran’s support for Lebanese and Palestinians fighting Israel.
Regional tensions have been soaring in recent weeks.
In Lebanon, dozens were killed and thousands wounded in September when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded in attacks attributed to Israel. A massive Israel airstrike the following week outside Beirut killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. More than a million Lebanese people have been displaced, and the death toll has risen sharply as airstrikes hit in and around Beirut.
Enemies for decades
Israel and Iran have been bitter foes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel considers Iran its greatest threat, citing its leaders’ calls for Israel’s destruction, their support for anti-Israel militant groups and the country’s nuclear program.
During their yearslong shadow war, a suspected Israeli assassination campaign has killed top Iranian nuclear scientists, and Iranian nuclear installations have been hacked or sabotaged.
Meanwhile, Iran has been blamed for attacks on shipping in the Middle East, which later grew into the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
The shadow war has increasingly moved into the light since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militants attacked Israel. They killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. In response, Israel launched a devastating air and ground offensive against Hamas, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until all hostages are freed. Some 100 remain, about a third believed to be dead.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in largely devastated Gaza, according to local health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say more than half have been women and children.


Satellite photos show Israel hit Iran former nuclear weapons test building, missile facilities

Satellite photos show Israel hit Iran former nuclear weapons test building, missile facilities
Updated 27 October 2024
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Satellite photos show Israel hit Iran former nuclear weapons test building, missile facilities

Satellite photos show Israel hit Iran former nuclear weapons test building, missile facilities
  • One struck building used in Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons program, researcher says
  • Other buildings mixed fuel for Iranian missiles, researchers say
  • Israel hit sites at Parchin and Khojir

TEHRAN: An American researcher said an Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a building that was part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program, and he and another researcher said facilities used to mix solid fuel for missiles also were struck.
The assessments based on commercial satellite imagery were reached separately by David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank.
They told Reuters that Israel struck buildings in Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran. Israel also hit Khojir, according to Eveleth, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran.
Reuters reported in July that Khojir was undergoing massive expansion.
Eveleth said the Israeli strikes may have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles.”
The Israeli military said three waves of Israeli jets struck missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran early on Saturday in retaliation for Tehran’s Oct. 1 barrage of more than 200 missiles against Israel.
Iran’s military said the Israeli warplanes used “very light warheads” to strike border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and around Tehran.
In posts on X, Albright said commercial satellite imagery showed that Israel hit a building in Parchin called Taleghan 2 that was used for testing activities during the Amad Plan, Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and US intelligence say Iran shuttered the program in 2003. Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons.
Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security research group, was given access to the program’s files for a book after they were stolen from Tehran by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency in 2018.
On X, he said the archives revealed that Iran kept important test equipment in Taleghan 2.
Iran may have removed key materials before the airstrike, he said, but “even if no equipment remained inside” the building would have provided “intrinsic value” for future nuclear weapons-related activities.
Albright told Reuters that commercial satellite imagery of Parchin showed Israel damaged three buildings about 350 yards (320 m) from Taleghan 2, including two in which solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed.
He did not identify the commercial firm from which he obtained the images.
Eveleth said an image of Parchin from Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, showed that Israel destroyed three ballistic missile solid fuel mixing buildings and a warehouse in the sprawling complex.
Planet Labs imagery also showed that an Israeli strike destroyed two buildings in the Khojir complex where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed, he said.
The buildings were enclosed by high dirt berms, according to the image reviewed by Reuters. Such structures are associated with missile production and are designed to stop a blast in one building from detonating combustible materials in nearby structures.
“Israel says they targeted buildings housing solid-fuel mixers,” Eveleth said. “These industrial mixers are hard to make and export-controlled. Iran imported many over the years at great expense, and will likely have a hard time replacing them.”
With a limited operation, he said, Israel may have struck a significant blow against Iran’s ability to mass-produce missiles and made it more difficult for any future Iranian missile attack to pierce Israel’s missile defenses.
“The strikes appear to be highly accurate,” he said.
Axios reported that Israel destroyed hit 12 “planetary mixers” used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles, quoting three unnamed Israeli sources as saying this severely damages Iran’s ability to renew its missile stockpile and could deter Iran from further massive missile strikes against Israel.
Iran has the Middle East’s largest missile arsenal and supplied missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and to Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, according to US officials.
Tehran and Moscow deny that Russia has received Iranian missiles.
Planet Labs imagery reviewed earlier this year by Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey showed major expansions at Khojir and the Modarres military complex near Tehran that the pair assessed were for boosting missile production, Reuters reported.
Three senior Iranian officials confirmed that conclusion.