Gazans flee as Israel broadens evacuation order, pushes into Khan Yunis

Gazans flee as Israel broadens evacuation order, pushes into Khan Yunis
An Israeli tank holds its position near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Israel. (Reuters)
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Updated 11 August 2024
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Gazans flee as Israel broadens evacuation order, pushes into Khan Yunis

Gazans flee as Israel broadens evacuation order, pushes into Khan Yunis
  • Military dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages warning of “dangerous combat”
  • Intense diplomacy in recent days sought to avert wider war in Middle East

KHAN YUNIS: Palestinians fled southern Gaza’s main city on Sunday as Israel warned of a new military operation, a day after one of the deadliest reported strikes in more than 10 months of war.
The fighting in the besieged Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack has sent tensions soaring across the region, including in the occupied West Bank where medics said an Israeli man was killed Sunday in a shooting.
Intense diplomacy in recent days sought to avert a wider war in the Middle East following the killings of Iran-aligned militant leaders, while international mediators invited Israel and Hamas to resume stalled talks toward a long-sought Gaza truce and hostage-release deal.
AFP journalists said hundreds of Palestinians fled northern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city already ravaged by months of bombardment and battles, after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders in the early morning.
The military dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages warning of “dangerous combat” in Al-Jalaa district and telling Palestinian residents to leave the area, which until Sunday was designated a humanitarian safe zone.
Similar evacuation orders have preceded major military incursions, often forcing Palestinians displaced numerous times by the war to pack up and leave for safety.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that “just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza.” The entire territory has a population of about 2.4 million people.
The military said in a statement its forces were “about to operate against the terrorist organizations in the area,” calling on “the remaining population left in the Al-Jalaa neighborhood to temporarily evacuate.”
Families gathered their meagre belongings as crowds of people left Al-Jalaa, some loading mattresses, clothing and cooking utensils into pick-up trucks. Others took to the road on foot.
Umm Sami Shahada, a 55-year-old displaced Palestinian, said she had “fled Gaza City at the start of the war for Khan Yunis,” hoping to find shelter.
“My daughter was killed in bombardment, so we went to Rafah, then we came back here, and now with this new evacuation order we don’t know where to go,” she said.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed at least 93 people at a religious school housing displaced Palestinians, according to civil defense rescuers, sparking international condemnation.
Israel said it targeted militants operating out of Gaza City’s Al-Tabieen school and mosque with “precise munitions,” declaring that “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated.”
The death toll, which AFP could not independently verify, would be one of the largest from a single strike since the war began.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency in Hamas-run Gaza, said on Sunday that identifying the victims could take at least two days as “we have many bodies torn into pieces” and “shredded or burnt by the bombs.”
Hamas in a statement called Arab and Muslim nations to “take effective decisions” to stop the war and demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting to force Israel “to stop the aggression and genocide.”
The Palestinian group, which has named its Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar to succeed slain political leader Ismail Haniyeh, has yet to respond to an invitation from US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators for truce negotiations on August 15. Israel has accepted.
Haniyeh was killed during a visit to Tehran on July 31, an attack blamed on Israel which has not claimed responsibility. But hours earlier it the military chief of Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah in a strike on Beirut.
Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other regional allies have vowed retaliation, spurring fears of a wider conflagration.
US President Joe Biden, asked what his message was to Iran, responded: “Don’t.”
The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,790 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Sunday that “an end to the war in Gaza would be a decisive step toward a regional de-escalation.”
Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel have said Netanyahu has sought to prolong the fighting for political gain.
Witnesses told AFP that Israel carried out a strike on Khan Yunis, wounding several people.
“Civilians... were shopping in the market when a missile hit,” said resident Awad Barbakh.
The military said its air forces hit militants in Rafah, further south, and “struck approximately 30 Hamas terror targets” across Gaza over the past day.
In the northern West Bank, emergency services said an Israeli man was shot dead and another wounded in what the military described as a “terrorist” attack.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 when it also seized the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew in 2005, but later imposed a crippling blockade followed by a siege shortly after October 7.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas is due to visit Moscow next week to discuss the Gaza war with Russian President Vladimir Putin, official Russian media said citing the Palestinian ambassador.


Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer

Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer
Updated 50 min 49 sec ago
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Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer

Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer
  • Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge

TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court sentenced a lawyer and media figure to eight months in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday, over comments deemed critical of President Kais Saied.
Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge, following her remarks made on television.
Initially sentenced to one year in prison on July 6, she appealed.
Her lawyer, Pierre-Francois Feltesse, said the eight-month sentence was issued late Tuesday without her legal representatives being able to enter a plea, after the hearing was suspended.
The defense team said in a statement to AFP that Dahmani had been “subjected a disgraceful body search” in custody and forced to wear a “long white veil” usually reserved for women prosecuted for sexual offenses, despite no legal basis for it.
Feltesse said her case would be referred to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The charges stemmed from comments Dahmani made on TV, sarcastically questioning Tunisia’s state of affairs in response to claims sub-Saharan migrants were settling in the country.
“What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she said at the time.
A judicial report said her comments referenced a speech by Saied, who said Tunisia would not become a resettlement zone for migrants blocked from going to Europe.
Saied, democratically elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab.
He leads the race for an October 6 presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred. One of his two challengers, Ayachi Zammel, is in prison.
Decree 54, enacted by Saied in 2022, criminalizes “spreading false news.”
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists says it has been used to prosecute more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures.
Human Rights Watch has said at least eight prospective candidates had been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned in the run-up to the election.
“Holding elections amid such repression makes a mockery of Tunisians’ right to participate in free and fair elections,” said the New York-based advocacy group.


Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war

Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war
Updated 11 September 2024
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Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war

Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war
  • The Islamist Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law
  • Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament

AMMAN: Jordan’s moderate Islamist opposition made significant gains in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, initial official results showed on Wednesday, boosted by anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Islamist Action Front (IAF) also benefited from a new electoral law that encourages a bigger role for political parties in the 138-seat parliament, though tribal and pro-government factions will continue to dominate the assembly.
The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law, which for the first time allocated 41 seats for parties, according to preliminary figures seen by Reuters and confirmed by independent and official sources.
“The Jordanian people have given us their trust by voting for us. This new phase will increase the burden of responsibility for the party toward the nation and our citizens,” Wael al Saqqa, head of the IAF, told Reuters.
The election represents a modest step in a democratization process launched by King Abdullah as he seeks to insulate Jordan from the conflicts at its borders, and speed up the slow pace of political reforms.
Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence.
Turnout among Jordan’s 5.1 million eligible voters in Tuesday’s poll was low at 32.25 percent, initial official figures showed, up slightly from 29 percent at the last election in 2020.
Jordanian officials say the fact that elections are being held at all while the war in Gaza and other regional conflicts are raging demonstrates their country’s relative stability.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been allowed to operate in Jordan since 1946.
 


Biden seeks ‘full accountability’ after death of US citizen in West Bank

Biden seeks ‘full accountability’ after death of US citizen in West Bank
Updated 11 September 2024
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Biden seeks ‘full accountability’ after death of US citizen in West Bank

Biden seeks ‘full accountability’ after death of US citizen in West Bank
  • Turkish and Palestinian officials say Israeli troops shot 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who had been taking part in a protest against settlement expansion

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion never happen again, calling her death “totally unacceptable.”
In a statement, Biden said while Israel has taken responsibility for her death, the US government expects continued access as the investigation continues over the circumstances of the shooting. Israel has said her death was accidental.
Turkish and Palestinian officials said on Friday that Israeli troops shot 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who had been taking part in a protest against settlement expansion.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said the incident took place during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus that has seen repeated attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers.
Israel’s military said it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.”
A rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the settler movement.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state.
Israel has built settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.


US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says

US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says
Updated 11 September 2024
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US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says

US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says
  • Two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport

BAGHDAD: A United States diplomatic facility in Baghdad came under attack late on Tuesday but there are no reports of casualties and a damage assessment is underway, a US embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Security sources told Reuters two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport at the Camp Victory base.
“At approximately 23:00 on Tuesday, September 10, there was an attack at the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a US diplomatic facility,” the US embassy statement said.
“Fortunately, there are no reported casualties, and we are assessing the damage and its cause. Our assessment is ongoing,” it said.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s Iran-backed armed factions, said the timing of the attack was clearly designed to disrupt a visit to Iraq by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that began on Wednesday.
The group called on Iraqi security forces in a statement issued early on Wednesday to investigate the attack and to determine who was responsible.
Pezeshkian, on his first foreign trip since being elected in July, is expected to sign a number of bilateral agreements with Baghdad and to discuss the Gaza war and the wider situation in the Middle East with Iraqi leaders.
Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and Iran, hosts 2,500 US troops and also has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces.
Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US troops in the Middle East since the Gaza war began.


Israel army says two soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash

Israel army says two soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash
Updated 11 September 2024
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Israel army says two soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash

Israel army says two soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash
  • The military said it was investigating the cause of the crash
  • The seven injured had been evacuated to hospital for treatment

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Wednesday that an army helicopter crashed in the south of war-ravaged Gaza overnight, killing two soldiers and injuring seven.
“An initial inquiry... indicates that the crash was not caused by enemy fire... Two IDF (Israeli) soldiers were killed as a result of the crash,” the military said in a statement, adding that the seven injured had been evacuated to hospital for treatment.
The military said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred when the helicopter was landing near the southern city of Rafah.
The latest deaths bring the military’s losses in the Gaza campaign to 344 since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.
The war erupted after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which also include hostages killed in captivity.
During the attack militants abducted 251 people, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,020 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.
The United Nations human rights office says most of the dead in Gaza are women and children.