Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
A Palestinian woman holds a cat as she walks pas the rubble of houses destroyed in the Israel’s military offensive in Khan Younis on Sept. 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 26 September 2024
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Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534

Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 41,534
  • The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours
  • Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strike on school

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “15 martyrs, including children and women, and dozens wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al-Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”
Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.
The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja school.
AFP was unable to immediately verify what was targeted, and the military statement did not provide information on casualties.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 41,534 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 12th month.
The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,092 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.


Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 58, hit flour trucks

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 58, hit flour trucks
Updated 10 sec ago
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Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 58, hit flour trucks

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 58, hit flour trucks
  • Around 30 people, most of them children, were wounded in the two strikes

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said a series of Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 58 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks, while the military said it targeted militants planning to hijack the vehicles.
The latest bloodshed came despite growing optimism that negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal might finally succeed, with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan saying on Thursday that the regional “context” had changed in favor of an agreement.
Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, in southern Gaza, while another attack left five guards dead in nearby Khan Yunis, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said.
“The (Israeli) occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks,” Basal told AFP, though the military said it “does not strike humanitarian aid trucks.”
Basal added that around 30 people, most of them children, were wounded in the two strikes.
“The trucks carrying flour were on their way to UNRWA warehouses,” Basal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
Witnesses later told AFP that residents looted flour from the trucks after the strikes.
The military said its forces “conducted precise strikes” overnight on armed Hamas militants present in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
“All of the terrorists that were eliminated were members of Hamas and planned to violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks and transfer them to Hamas in support of continuing terrorist activity,” a military statement said.
The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly warned about the acute humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, exacerbated by the war that has persisted for more than 14 months.
“Conditions for people across the Gaza Strip are appalling and apocalyptic,” UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told journalists during a visit to Nuseirat in central Gaza.
She added that life-saving aid to “besieged areas in north Gaza governorate has been largely blocked” since the Israeli military launched a sweeping assault there in early October.
In southern Gaza, UNRWA said earlier this week it had successfully delivered enough food aid for 200,000 people.
But on Thursday it said “a serious incident” meant that only one truck out of a convoy of 70 traveling along Gaza’s southern border reached its destination.
The agency did not provide any details on the incident, but called on “all parties to ensure safe, unimpeded and uninterrupted” aid deliveries.
As diplomacy aimed at ending the war appeared to be gaining pace again, the violence continued.
The civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on two homes, near Nuseirat refugee camp — which was again hit later in the evening — and Gaza City killed 21 people.
Fifteen people, at least six of them children, died “as a result of an Israeli bombing” of a building sheltering displaced people near Nuseirat, Bassal said.
Bassam Al-Habash, a relative of the dead in Nuseirat said: “These people are innocent, they are not wanted. They have nothing to do with the war.”
“They are civilians, and this is not a war between two armies, but a war armed with weapons, planes and Western support against a defenseless people who own nothing.”
Another strike late on Thursday killed at least 25 people and wounded 50 others in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the civil defense said.
In the latest diplomatic effort to secure an end to the violence, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
The non-binding resolution was rejected by the United States, Israel’s main military backer.
However, in recent days, there have been indications that previously stalled ceasefire negotiations could be revived.
Families of the 96 hostages still in Gaza since the Hamas attack that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead, are pressing for their release.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel on Thursday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he “got the sense” that the Israeli leader was “ready to do a deal.”
He also said that the Hamas approach to negotiations had changed, attributing it to the overthrow of their ally Bashar Assad in Syria and the ceasefire that went into effect in the war between Israel and another ally, Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Militants abducted 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
This count includes hostages who died or were killed while held in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,805 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.


NASA honors Algerian parks with Martian namesakes

NASA honors Algerian parks with Martian namesakes
Updated 12 December 2024
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NASA honors Algerian parks with Martian namesakes

NASA honors Algerian parks with Martian namesakes
  • “Our planet is fragile, and it’s a signal to the world that we really need to take care of our national parks, whether they are in Algeria or elsewhere,” Melikechi said
  • “The first one that came to my mind was the Tassili n’Ajjer,” he said of the UNESCO-listed vast plateau in the Sahara Desert

ALGIERS: NASA’s mapping of Mars now bears the names of three iconic Algerian national parks, Algerian physicist Noureddine Melikechi, a member of the US space agency’s largest Mars probe mission, has told AFP.
The Tassili n’Ajjer, Ghoufi and Djurdjura national parks have found their Martian namesakes after a proposition by Melikechi, which he sought as both a tribute to his native Algeria and a call to protect Earth.
“Our planet is fragile, and it’s a signal to the world that we really need to take care of our national parks, whether they are in Algeria or elsewhere,” the US-based scientist told AFP in a recent interview.
He said the visual resemblance between some of the Martian landscapes and the ones after which they were labelled was also a key reason for the naming.
“The first one that came to my mind was the Tassili n’Ajjer,” he said of the UNESCO-listed vast plateau in the Sahara Desert with prehistoric art dating back at least 12,000 years.
“Every time I see pictures of Mars, they remind me of Tassili n’Ajjer, and now every time I see Tassili n’Ajjer, it reminds me of Mars,” added Melikechi, who left Algeria in 1990 for the United States, where he now teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
The ancient art found in Tassili n’Ajjer depicts figures that can seem otherworldly, he said.
Some of the paintings show single-eyed and horned giants, among others which French archaeologist Henri Lhote dubbed as “great Martian” deities in his 1958 book, “The Search for the Tassili Frescoes.”
“Those paintings are a signature... a book of how people used to live,” said Melikechi.
“You see animals, but also figures that look like they came from somewhere else.”
Melikechi’s second pick was the Ghoufi canyon in eastern Algeria, whose rocky desert landscape was the site of an ancient settlement off the Aures Mountains.
Now a UNESCO-listed site and a tourist attraction, it has cliffside dwellings carved in the mountain, a testament to human resilience in a place where survival can be adverse.
“Ghoufi gives you a sense that life can be hard, but you can manage to keep at it as you go,” Melikechi said.
“You can see that through those homes.”
The third site, Djurdjura, is a snowy mountain range some 140 kilometers (about 90 miles) east of the capital Algiers.
Comapred to Tassili or Ghoufi, it bears the least resemblance to Mars.
Melikechi said its pick stemmed of Djurdjura’s “reminder of the richness of natural habitats.”
He said the naming process came after Perseverence, NASA’s Mars rover exploring the Red Planet, made it into uncharted territory.
That area was then split into small quadrants, each needing a name.
“We were asked to propose names for specific quadrants,” he said.
“I suggested these three national parks, while others proposed names from parks worldwide. A team then reviewed and selected the final names.”
The announcement, made by NASA earlier this month, sparked celebrations among Algerians.
Algerian Culture Minister Zouhir Ballalou hailed it as a “historic and global recognition” of the North African country’s landscapes.
Melikechi said he hopes that it will attract more visitors as Algeria has been striving to promote tourism, especially in the Sahara region, with authorities promising to facilitate tourist visas.
Official figures said some 2.5 million tourists visited the country last year — its highest number of visitors in two decades.
“These places are a treasure that we as humans have inherited,” Melikechi said.
“We need to make sure they are preserved.”


Lebanon PM condemns Israeli airstrike on Khiam as ‘treachery’

Lebanon PM condemns Israeli airstrike on Khiam as ‘treachery’
Updated 12 December 2024
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Lebanon PM condemns Israeli airstrike on Khiam as ‘treachery’

Lebanon PM condemns Israeli airstrike on Khiam as ‘treachery’
  • Israel bombs border town after Lebanese army deployed there; Mikati says attack breaches ceasefire deal
  • Amnesty International demands investigation into Israeli ‘war crimes’ after deadly air raids

BEIRUT: Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday accused Israel of “treachery” following a deadly airstrike on the border town of Khiam that came less than 24 hours after the Lebanese army began a deployment there under a ceasefire agreement.

The US brokered the truce between the Israeli army and Hezbollah last month.

Mikati said that Israeli forces resumed attacks on the town less than 24 hours after the Lebanese army began deploying in the Khiam and Marjeyoun areas to implement the ceasefire.

His protest came as Israeli forces targeted the town square a few hours after the Lebanese army entered the area, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar station reported.

The strategic hilltop town is less than 5 km from the border with Israel.  The Israeli army occupied the area during its land operation in southern Lebanon last October.

Lebanese soldiers were positioned in five posts on Thursday after Israeli forces reportedly withdrew from Khiam earlier in the day. The army was also preparing to deploy 6,000 soldiers north of the Litani River.

Mikati said Israeli “treachery” contradicted the commitments of the US and France, who sponsored the ceasefire agreement.

The two countries must address the situation and act against Israeli aggression, he said.

“These continued violations are the responsibility of the monitoring committee tasked with supervising the implementation of the ceasefire, which is required to address what happened immediately and firmly and prevent its recurrence,” said Mikati.

In a statement, the US Central Command leader, Gen. Erik Kurilla, earlier described the Israeli pullout as an “important first step in the implementation of a lasting cessation of hostilities and laid the foundation for continued progress.”

Kurilla arrived in Beirut on Wednesday and met Lebanese Army Chief Gen. Joseph Aoun.

In its statement, the Israeli army earlier said that its 7th Brigade had ended its mission in Khiam.

In accordance with the ceasefire agreement and in coordination with the US, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers will be deployed to the area, the Israeli army said.

The first phase of the Israeli withdrawal was accompanied by a series of Israeli violations, especially of Lebanese airspace.

Reconnaissance aircraft flying at low altitudes were seen over Beirut and its southern suburb.

Israeli warplanes were also seen over Rashaya, the western Bekaa, the Zahrani area, and the eastern sector.

Civil Defense workers continued to search for victims buried under rubble following Israel’s 64-day assault on Lebanon.

Human remains were found in a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike near the town of Maarakah.

Israeli forces continue to stop the Lebanese crossing into areas they have occupied south of the Litani River, while also destroying houses and facilities in the border area to make it uninhabitable.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office in Beirut said he discussed the latest developments with Maj. Gen. Patrick Gaushat, chief of staff of the UN Truce Supervision Organization.

Hezbollah had appointed Berri as its representative in the negotiations.

Hezbollah MP Hussein Jashi said the party was now exercising restraint in response to Israeli violations.

“This situation will not last long, as Hezbollah fighters are determined to confront the enemy to the very end,” he said.

“Those who were able to liberate Lebanon under the most challenging circumstances — from Beirut to Sidon, Tyre, and most of the southern lands in 2000 — are capable today of liberating what remains of our land so our people can live with dignity and pride in our country and on our land.

“There is no place for occupation among us, as the time of living under occupation is over.”

Hezbollah’s reaction came as Amnesty International said on Thursday that four recent airstrikes by Israeli forces that left at least 49 people dead must be investigated as war crimes.

“Under international law, direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects, indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians, and disproportionate attacks that cause excessive incidental civilian loss are war crimes,” it said.

In a research briefing titled “The Sky Rained Missiles: Israeli Airstrikes in Lebanon Must Be Investigated as War Crimes,” Amnesty International claimed that Israeli forces unlawfully targeted residential buildings in several locations. These strikes occurred in the village of Al-Ain in northern Bekaa on Sept. 29, in the town of Aitou in northern Lebanon on Oct. 14, and in Baalbeck city on Oct. 21.

Israeli forces also unlawfully attacked the municipal headquarters in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on Oct. 16.

“The Israeli military did not issue warnings ahead of these strikes,” the group said.

“These four attacks are emblematic of Israel’s shocking disregard for civilian lives in Lebanon and their willingness to flout international law,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.

“The Lebanese government must urgently call for a special session at the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism into the alleged violations and crimes committed by all parties in the conflict.”


Blinken meets Erdogan for talks in Turkiye

Blinken meets Erdogan for talks in Turkiye
Updated 12 December 2024
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Blinken meets Erdogan for talks in Turkiye

Blinken meets Erdogan for talks in Turkiye
  • The plane touched down at 8:14 p.m.
  • Blinken headed straight into talks with Erdogan

ANKARA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed straight into talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after landing in Ankara on Thursday, a US official said.
The plane touched down at 8:14 p.m. (1714 GMT), an AFP correspondent traveling with him said. Blinken headed straight into talks with Erdogan “in the VIP lounge” at Ankara’s Esenboga airport, the US official said.
Washington’s top diplomat flew in from the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba where he kicked off a regional tour on Thursday to discuss fallout from the ouster of Syria’s Bashar Assad.
Turkiye was expected to put heavy emphasis on its security concerns following the upheaval in Syria, where it has been fighting a Kurdish-led force that Washington backs as a key player in the fight against Daesh group militants.
Before leaving Aqaba, Blinken said the role of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was “critical” to preventing a resurgence of Daesh militants in the country.


Chemical weapons watchdog warns of dangers of Syria strikes

Chemical weapons watchdog warns of dangers of Syria strikes
Updated 12 December 2024
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Chemical weapons watchdog warns of dangers of Syria strikes

Chemical weapons watchdog warns of dangers of Syria strikes
  • The director-general of OPCW Fernando Arias, said his group was "following closely" reports of strikes on military facilities
  • "Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination"

THE HAGUE: Strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites risk contaminating and destroying valuable evidence, the head of the international watchdog warned Thursday, admitting the group did not yet know whether sites have been affected.
There has been widespread global concern about the fate of Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons since the dramatic overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
On Monday, Israel said it had struck "remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists".
The director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Fernando Arias, said his group was "following closely" reports of strikes on military facilities.
"We do not know yet whether these strikes have affected chemical weapons related sites. Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination," said Arias in a speech.
"Another real risk would be the destruction of valuable evidence for investigations by different independent international bodies related to past use of chemical weapons," he added.
In 2014, the OPCW set up what it called a "fact-finding mission" to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria.
This team has issued 21 reports covering 74 instances of alleged chemical weapons use, according to the OPCW.
Investigators concluded that chemical weapons were used or likely used in 20 instances.
"Additionally, we also have to consider the risk of any dangerous chemicals or equipment being lost, without any control," warned Arias in his speech.