Gaza agency says Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone

Palestinians check the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Palestinians check the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on September 10, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians take shelter from the Israeli bombardment at a school in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP)
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Palestinians take shelter from the Israeli bombardment at a school in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Gaza agency says Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone

Gaza agency says Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone
  • Hamas denies fighters present at site of Israeli strike in Al-Mawasi
  • Israel has killed at least 40,988 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory

CAIRO: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Tuesday that an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command center in the area.
The strike hit Al-Mawasi — in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis — which was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.
However, Israel’s military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that it said killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza health authorities said killed more than 90 people.
Gaza civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP early Tuesday that “40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred” to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike.
“Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis,” Mughair added.
In a separate statement, civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hindering rescue operations.
“More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged,” he said, adding the strike left behind “three deep craters.”
“There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre.”
The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that its aircraft had “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis.”
“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops,” it added.
Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were “a blatant lie.”
Over the course of the war, Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the group denies.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including some hostages killed in captivity, official Israeli figures show.
Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 40,988 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during nearly a year of war, according to the United Nations.
From 1,200 inhabitants per square kilometer before the war, the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone now houses “between 30,000 and 34,000 people per square kilometer,” and its protected area shrank from 50 square kilometers to 41, the UN has calculated.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, but talks remain stalled.
Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal, but Israel insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border.
 

 


Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut

Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
Updated 16 sec ago
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Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut

Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
“Enemy aircraft launched three strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs,” NNA reported
A source close to the group said the strike “targeted a building housing Hezbollah’s media relations office“

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s state-run media said three Israeli air strikes hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold on Thursday, the latest raids following a night of intense bombardment.
“Enemy aircraft launched three strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
A source close to the group told AFP the strike “targeted a building housing Hezbollah’s media relations office,” which had already been “evacuated.”
This week, Israel announced that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of heavy bombardment of areas across the country where the militant group holds sway.
After nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border fighting, Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 1,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
Last week, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the group’s southern Beirut bastion, a densely packed residential area before residents fled the violence.

Lebanon says it’s monitoring border crossings after Israeli accusations of weapon smuggling

Lebanon says it’s monitoring border crossings after Israeli accusations of weapon smuggling
Updated 11 min 14 sec ago
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Lebanon says it’s monitoring border crossings after Israeli accusations of weapon smuggling

Lebanon says it’s monitoring border crossings after Israeli accusations of weapon smuggling
  • All border crossings were under government monitoring

DUBAI: Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said on Thursday that all border crossings were under government monitoring following Israeli accusations that Hezbollah was smuggling weapons from Syria through the Masnaa border crossing.


Airlines avoid Iranian airspace, hiking up flight times and fuel costs

Airlines avoid Iranian airspace, hiking up flight times and fuel costs
Updated 20 min 28 sec ago
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Airlines avoid Iranian airspace, hiking up flight times and fuel costs

Airlines avoid Iranian airspace, hiking up flight times and fuel costs
  • “Most airlines have rerouted flights away from Iran,” said FlightRadar24 spokesperson Ian Petchenik
  • Some airlines have said they have resumed most of their operations across the Middle East

LONDON: Airlines are largely avoiding Iranian airspace in their flights over the Middle East, according to flight tracker FlightRadar24, lengthening flight times and hiking up fuel costs as worries over a retaliatory attack from Israel targeting Iran grow.
Turmoil in the Middle East in the last year has led to confusion and upheaval for aviation, prompting airlines to frequently change routes as they reassess the safety of the airspace in the region.
“Most airlines have rerouted flights away from Iran, with the northern route taking flights through Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on their way to Asia, and the southern route flying over Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” said FlightRadar24 spokesperson Ian Petchenik.
Some airlines have said they have resumed most of their operations across the Middle East since Iran hit Israel with a ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, leading to flight cancelations and delays.
Petchenik said most strategic changes to flights to avoid parts of the Middle East have been lifted in direct connection with the Tuesday attack.
Late on Wednesday, German group Lufthansa said it would resume flights to Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan using a limited amount of Iraqi airspace, and will resume using Jordanian airspace on Thursday.
It added that flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Tehran will remain suspended for the time being.


Israel calls for evacuations from south Lebanon, explosions in Beirut

Israel calls for evacuations from south Lebanon, explosions in Beirut
Updated 35 min 51 sec ago
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Israel calls for evacuations from south Lebanon, explosions in Beirut

Israel calls for evacuations from south Lebanon, explosions in Beirut
  • The call for evacuations from southern towns included the provincial capital Nabatieh
  • “Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent,” UN special coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel’s military urged residents of over 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with an incursion after suffering its worst losses in a year of fighting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
The call for evacuations from southern towns included the provincial capital Nabatieh, suggesting another Israeli operation designed to further weaken Hezbollah is imminent.
Israel, which has been fighting with Hamas in Gaza for almost a year, sent its troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense airstrikes, escalating tensions in a conflict that risks drawing in the United States and Iran.
In Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold, three explosions were heard on Thursday and several large plumes of smoke were rising after heavy Israeli strikes.
While Hezbollah said it detonated an improvised explosive device against Israeli forces infiltrating a southern Lebanese village.
Overnight, Israel bombed central Beirut in an attack the Lebanese health ministry said killed nine people.
Reuters witnesses reported hearing a massive blast, which a security source said had targeted a building in the district of Bachoura a few hundred meters from parliament, the closest an Israeli strike has come to the central downtown district.
“Another sleepless night in Beirut. Counting the blasts shaking the city. No warning sirens. Not knowing what’s next. Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent,” UN special coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said on X on Thursday.


A Hezbollah-linked civil defense group said seven of its staff, including two medics, had been killed in the Beirut attack, which Israel said was a “precise” airstrike.
Israel also said it targeted a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil killing 15 Hezbollah members, while more than a dozen Israeli missiles also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week.
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in ground combat on Wednesday in south Lebanon as its forces thrust into its northern neighbor.
As it pushes into south Lebanon, Israel is also weighing its options for retaliation against its arch-foe Iran.

ISRAEL, US VOW TO STRIKE BACK
The Islamic Republic launched its largest ever assault on Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
On Thursday, Israel’s military said it had “eliminated” Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, along with senior security officials Sameh Al-Siraj and Sami Oudeh in strikes three months ago.
Tehran said its attack was over, barring further provocation, but Israel and the United States have promised to hit back hard.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking at an event in Doha, said Iran would be ready to respond and warned against “silence” in the face of Israel’s “warmongering.”
“Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces.” Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called for serious ceasefire efforts to stop Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon and said no peace was possible in the Middle East without the creation of a Palestinian state.
What is happening in the Middle East is a “collective genocide” he said at the same Doha event, adding that his country has always warned of Israel’s “impunity.”
The Lebanese border front opened after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza.
Iran’s other regional allies — Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq — have also launched attacks in the region in support of Hamas.
The Houthis, who have been firing missiles, sending armed drones and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, US and UK entities since last year, said they launched a successful attack on Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv with drones. Israel said it intercepted a suspicious aerial target in the area of central Israel early on Thursday.
SHELTERING IN A NIGHTCLUB More than 1,900 people have been killed and over 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said about 1.2 million Lebanese had been displaced by Israeli attacks.
More than 300 of those displaced have taken shelter in a Beirut nightclub, once known for hosting glitzy parties and where staff are now using their guest-list clipboards to register residents.
“We’re trying to keep strong,” said Gaelle Irani, who was formerly in charge of guest relations, taking a brief break from finding people a corner to live in.
“It’s just overwhelming. So overwhelming and sad. But just as this was a place for people to come enjoy themselves, it’s now a place to shelter people and we are doing everything we can to help and be there for them.”
Hassan Shaaban, a fisherman from Sidon, said he has been struggling to make a living as the fighting rages.
“What can we do, we need to be able to live, we are working while they are striking, yesterday night was very intense,” he said.


Morocco to spend $260 mln on flood relief

Morocco to spend $260 mln on flood relief
Updated 03 October 2024
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Morocco to spend $260 mln on flood relief

Morocco to spend $260 mln on flood relief
  • Government will offer 80,000 Dirhams for partially demolished homes and 140,000 dirhams for totally collapsed ones

RABAT: The Moroccan government said on Thursday it plans to spend 2.5 billion dirhams ($ 260 million) on a flood relief plan that includes reconstruction aid, infrastructure upgrades and farming support.
Floods ravaged several villages in the country’s south-east last month, killing at least 28 people and destroying roads.
The government will offer 80,000 Dirhams for partially demolished homes and 140,000 dirhams for totally collapsed ones, the prime minister’s office said.
The plan includes upgrading destroyed infrastructure and support to affected farmers.
Separately, the government said it will continue, for the next five months, to offer cash handouts of 2500 dirhams to some 60,000 households affected by an earthquake that hit the High Atlas mountains in September 2023.
One year on, just 1000 homes have been built, according to official data, as the government continues its gradual construction aid plan for some 57,000 damaged or totally destroyed homes.