Israeli strikes kill 29 people in Gaza, medics say, as tanks push deeper in the north

Israeli strikes kill 29 people in Gaza, medics say, as tanks push deeper in the north
Ali Assaf (C), 20, reportedly the only survivor from his family killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, is comforted by two young men as mourns near the bodies of his relatives in front of the Al-Maamadani on October 12, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 13 October 2024
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Israeli strikes kill 29 people in Gaza, medics say, as tanks push deeper in the north

Israeli strikes kill 29 people in Gaza, medics say, as tanks push deeper in the north
  • Israeli forces continue to pound Jabalia from air, ground
  • Around 150 killed in Jabalia over past week

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes on Gaza on Saturday killed at least 29 Palestinians, medics said, and forces kept pushing deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.
Residents said Israeli forces continued to pound Jabalia, in the north of the enclave, the largest of its historic refugee camps, from the air and ground.
Nineteen people were killed in Gaza overnight, and 10 more died on Saturday evening after Israel struck two houses in Jabalia and the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. The death toll could rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition, medics said.
The Israeli military published new evacuation orders on Saturday to two neighborhoods on the northern edge of Gaza City, which also lies in the north of the enclave, saying the area was a “dangerous combat zone.”
In a statement, Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry urged residents not to relocate within northern areas of the enclave and also to avoid heading south “where the occupation is conducting continued bombing and killing every day in the areas it claims to be safe.”
The Israeli military said it had been operating against Hamas fighters who had been using civilian buildings and said clear evacuation instructions had been issued over recent days to areas including the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
It said an evacuation convoy to take patients from the hospital to Gaza City had arrived on Saturday with a supply of fuel for the facility.
In recent days, the military had said that forces operating in Jabalia and nearby areas killed dozens of militants, located weapons and dismantled military infrastructure.
On Saturday, it said more than 20 fighters had been killed by tank fire, close range gunfire and airstrikes as forces continued operations throughout the Gaza Strip.
The operation in this area began a week ago and the military said then it aimed to fight against militants waging attacks and to prevent Hamas from regrouping. Hamas denies that its fighters deliberately use civilian areas as bases.
Palestinian health officials put the number of people killed in Jabalia over the past week at around 150.
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Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City October 12, 2024. (REUTERS)

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in Gaza. They have also voiced concerns over severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there is a risk of famine there.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the militant group Hamas, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and has laid waste to the enclave.
The war began after a Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas said Israel’s “massacre against the civilians” aimed to punish the residents of Jabalia for refusing to leave their homes. It also said it was a sign of Israel’s military failure to defeat the group.
Israel has denied it targets civilians.
The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and nearby areas with anti-tank rockets, and mortar fire.
United Nations officials said on Friday an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza might affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to start next week.
The territory’s health ministry announced on Saturday that the campaign would begin on Monday in central Gaza Strip areas and would last three days before moving to other territories.
Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus in August, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
As in the first phase, humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza are planned, in order to reach hundreds of thousands of children.


UKMTO receives report of incident 70NM of Yemen's Hodeidah

UKMTO receives report of incident 70NM of Yemen's Hodeidah
Updated 12 November 2024
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UKMTO receives report of incident 70NM of Yemen's Hodeidah

UKMTO receives report of incident 70NM of Yemen's Hodeidah

No repeat of Jerusalem incident will be accepted, France says

No repeat of Jerusalem incident will be accepted, France says
Updated 12 November 2024
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No repeat of Jerusalem incident will be accepted, France says

No repeat of Jerusalem incident will be accepted, France says

PARIS: A repeat of an incident in Jerusalem that saw armed Israeli security forces entering a property administered by France must never happen again, France’s foreign minister said ahead of summoning Israel’s envoy on Tuesday.
Two French security officials with diplomatic status were briefly detained on Nov. 7 after Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of The Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives.
The site, one of four administered by France in Jerusalem, is under Paris’ responsibility and it not the first time that problems have arisen over France’s historic holdings in the Holy City.
“It is an opportunity for France to reiterate that it will not tolerate Israeli armed forces entering these areas, for which it (France) is responsible, for which it ensures protection,” Barrot told France 24 television when asked what the ambassador would be told.
“And to strongly reaffirm that this incident must never happen again, meaning that Israeli forces enter armed and without authorization.”
Israel’s ambassador is due to meet Barrot’s chief of staff at the foreign ministry on Tuesday.
Israel’s foreign ministry has said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been “clarified in advance in the preparatory dialogue with the French Embassy in Israel.”
Diplomatic relations between France and Israel have worsened since President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the supply to Israel of offensive weapons used in Gaza.
The French government also attempted to ban Israeli weapons’ firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris and has become increasingly uneasy over Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


Aid groups say Israel misses US deadline to boost humanitarian help for Gaza

Aid groups say Israel misses US deadline to boost humanitarian help for Gaza
Updated 12 November 2024
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Aid groups say Israel misses US deadline to boost humanitarian help for Gaza

Aid groups say Israel misses US deadline to boost humanitarian help for Gaza
  • The Biden administration last month called on Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into Gaza
  • Aid distribution is also being hampered by the UN and other agencies’ failure to collect aid that entered Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel has failed to meet United States demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war, international aid organizations said Tuesday.
The Biden administration last month called on Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into Gaza, giving it a 30-day deadline that was expiring Tuesday. It warned that failure to comply could trigger US laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel wages war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel has announced a series of steps toward improving the situation. But US officials recently signaled Israel still isn’t doing enough, though they have not said if they will take any action against it.
Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday he was confident “the issue would be solved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after the reelection of Donald Trump, who was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.
Tuesday’s report, authored by eight international aid organizations, listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.
An Oct. 13 letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on Israel to, among other things: allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing into the besieged territory; allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland ahead of the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Despite Israeli steps to increase the flow of aid, levels remain far below the US benchmarks. The promised fifth crossing was set to open Tuesday, but residents remain crammed in the tent camps and access for aid workers to northern Gaza remains restricted. Israel also has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.
“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller last week said Israel had made some progress, but needs to do more to meet the US conditions. “What’s important when you see all of these steps taken is what that means for the results,” he said.
Israel launched a major offensive last month in northern Gaza, where it says Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands. Israel has allowed almost no aid to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.
Aid to Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, or less than half the previous month, according to Israeli data.
UN agencies say even less actually gets through due to Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting, and lawlessness that makes it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.
In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, according to Israeli figures, and 81 a day in the first week of November. The UN puts the number lower, at 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said the drop in the number of aid trucks in October was due to closures of the crossings for the Jewish high holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war.
“October was a very weak month,” said an Israeli official, who spoke under condition of anonymity in line with military briefing rules. “But if you look at the November numbers, we are holding steady at around 50 trucks per day to northern Gaza and 150 per day to the rest of Gaza.”
Aid distribution is also being hampered by the UN and other agencies’ failure to collect aid that entered Gaza, leading to bottlenecks, and looting from Hamas and organized crime families in Gaza, he said. He estimated as much as 40 percent of aid is stolen on some days.
Israel on Monday announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter in sprawling tent camps. It also has announced additional steps, including connecting electricity for a desalination plant in the central Gaza town of Deir al Balah, and efforts to bring in supplies for the winter. On Tuesday, COGAT announced a “tactical” delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun, one of the hardest-hit towns in northern Gaza.
The war began last year when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many of those killed were militants. Around 90 percent of the population has been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.
The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war and has shielded it from international calls for a ceasefire while pressing it to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The amount of aid entering Gaza increased under US pressure last spring after Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers before dwindling again.
Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his reelection last week.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is mostly ceremonial, is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Former State Department official Charles Blaha, who ran the office in charge of ensuring that US military support complies with US and international law, predicted the Biden would administration would find that Israel violated US law by blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.
“It’s undeniable that Israel has done that,” Blaha said. “They would really have to torture themselves to find that Israel hasn’t restricted ... assistance.”
But he said the administration would likely cite US national-security interests and waive restrictions on military support.
“If the past is prologue — no restrictions, and then kick the can down the road to the next administration.”


Israeli strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, medical officials say

Israeli strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, medical officials say
Updated 12 November 2024
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Israeli strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, medical officials say

Israeli strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, medical officials say
  • One strike late Monday hit a cafeteria in the so-called Muwasi humanitarian zone west of the city of Khan Younis

DEIR AL-BALAH: Palestinian medical officials say two Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, most in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone.
One strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, the center of the so-called humanitarian zone. At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Video from the scene showed men pulling bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set up in the sand in an enclosure made of corrugated metal sheets.
The strike came hours after the Israeli military announced an expansion of the zone, where it has told Palestinians evacuating from other parts of Gaza to take refuge. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in sprawling tent camps in and around Muwasi, a largely desolate area of dunes and agricultural fields with few facilities or services along the Mediterranean coast of southern Gaza.
Israel faces a deadline this week for the Biden administration’s ultimatum for it to allow more aid into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on US military funding.
Another strike early Tuesday hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people including a woman, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. The strike also wounded 11 others, it said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on either strike.
Israel’s 19-month-old campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities who don’t distinguish between civilians and militants in their count, but say more than half the dead were women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas militants and blames the militant group for civilian deaths, saying it operates in residential areas and infrastructure and among displaced people.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third believed to be dead.


Israeli army says four soldiers killed in northern Gaza Strip

Israeli army says four soldiers killed in northern Gaza Strip
Updated 12 November 2024
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Israeli army says four soldiers killed in northern Gaza Strip

Israeli army says four soldiers killed in northern Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM:The Israeli army said Tuesday that four of its soldiers have been killed in the northern Gaza Strip.
It said in a statement that all four “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip” on Monday, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of ground operations in October last year to 376.