Israeli air strike in Gaza ahead of new talks on truce with Hamas

Palestinians leave after attending the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at Imam Shafi’i Mosque, damaged by Israeli army strikes, in Gaza City, Friday March 7, 2025.(AP)
Palestinians leave after attending the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at Imam Shafi’i Mosque, damaged by Israeli army strikes, in Gaza City, Friday March 7, 2025.(AP)
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Updated 09 March 2025
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Israeli air strike in Gaza ahead of new talks on truce with Hamas

Palestinians leave after attending the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at Imam Shafi’i Mosque, damaged by Israeli army strikes.
  • Israel’s military said strike targeted militants who “were identified operating in proximity to IDF troops and attempting to plant explosive device” in Gaza

GAZA CITY: Israel carried out an air strike on militants in northern Gaza on Sunday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as it prepared for fresh talks in Doha on the future of its truce with Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which it hopes will lead to a permanent end to the war.
However, Israel says it prefers an extension of phase one until mid-April.
The disagreement over how to proceed came as the deal’s first phase ended at the start this month, with Israel cutting off aid to the territory over the impasse.
Hamas representatives met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, emphasising the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged territory “without restrictions or conditions,” a Hamas statement said.
“Hamas stresses the urgency of forcing the occupation to immediately begin second-phase negotiations under the agreed parameters,” senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP, adding this would pave the way for a permanent end to the fighting.
Hamas’s key demands for the second phase include a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an end to the Israeli blockade, the reconstruction of the Palestinian territory and financial support, Mardawi said.
Following talks with mediators, Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said indicators were so far “positive.”
A Hamas source said Sunday its delegation had now left Cairo for Doha.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would send delegates to the Qatari capital on Monday, and Israeli media reported the security cabinet would discuss the matter later on Sunday.
Despite the end of the truce’s initial phase, both sides have refrained from returning to all-out war, though there have been sporadic episodes of violence.
Israel’s military said its air strike Sunday targeted militants who “were identified operating in proximity to IDF troops and attempting to plant an explosive device in the ground in northern Gaza.”
The truce largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, where virtually the entire population was displaced by Israel’s relentless military campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
The six-week first phase revolved around the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
It also allowed much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance to re-enter Gaza.
After Israel again cut off the aid flow over the disagreement on the truce extension, UN rights experts accused the government of “weaponizing starvation.”
“To date, only 10 percent of the required medical supplies have been allowed in, exacerbating the crisis,” Gaza health ministry spokesman Khalil Al-Dakran said, adding that the “continued closure of the crossings threatens the lives of patients in Gaza.”
Displaced Palestinian widow Haneen Al-Dura told AFP she and her children spent weeks living on the street “among dogs and rats” before receiving a tent.
“As the family’s provider, it was distressing and I couldn’t sleep at all during the night,” she said.
Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened further destruction of Gaza if all remaining hostages were not released, issuing what he called a “last warning” to Hamas leaders.
He also alluded to repercussions for all Gazans, telling them: “A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!“
Hamas said Trump’s threats would only encourage Israel to ignore the terms of the truce.
The Trump administration has also confirmed the start of unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, which Washington had previously refused contact with since designating it a terrorist organization in 1997.
Of the 251 hostages taken by the Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including five Americans. Four American captives have been confirmed dead, while one, Edan Alexander, is believed to be alive.
Trump had previously floated a widely condemned plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, prompting Arab leaders to offer an alternative.
Their proposal would see Gaza’s reconstruction financed through a trust fund, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority returning to govern the territory.
“We need more discussion about it, but it’s a good-faith first step,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, told reporters in Washington in response to the Arab plan.
Witkoff will be returning to the region this week as he travels to Saudi Arabia for talks on the war in Ukraine.
At a weekend rally in Tel Aviv, family members of Israeli hostages demanded the government fully implement the ceasefire.
“The war could resume in a week,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, told the crowd.
“The war won’t bring the hostages back home, it will kill them.”
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.


Gaza rescuers say 44 killed in new Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 44 killed in new Israeli strikes
Updated 51 sec ago
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Gaza rescuers say 44 killed in new Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 44 killed in new Israeli strikes
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on Tuesday.
“Civil defense teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded, following new massacres committed by the occupation” across Gaza since 1:00 am (2200 GMT Monday), agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Bassal said eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Another 15 were killed in a strike on a gas station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp.
There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military.
Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza on Saturday, saying it was aimed at “the defeat of Hamas” — the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory.
It launched what it called “extensive ground operations” across Gaza the following day.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,486.

At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says

At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says
Updated 20 May 2025
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At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says

At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says
  • The corpses found on Monday are the second set of unidentified remains discovered in recent days

TRIPOLI: At least 58 unidentified corpses were found on Monday in a hospital in Tripoli that was under the control of a militia whose leader was killed last week, the interior ministry said.
The corpses were found in a morgue refrigerator in Abu Salim Accidents Hospital in the densely populated Abu Salim neighborhood, following a report from the hospital, the ministry said in a statement.
Pictures of corpses with numbers and censored faces were posted by the ministry, showing remains in various states of decomposition on steel carriers and beds. Some of the remains were burnt. An investigation was underway to establish the identities of the deceased.
“So far, 23 corpses have been examined, and all necessary legal procedures have been taken, including documenting data and collecting samples,” the ministry said.
Abu Salim was home to a militia known as the Stabilization Support Apparatus, whose chief, Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, was killed in unconfirmed circumstances last Monday.
Kikli’s killing led to the sudden defeat of the SSA by factions aligned to internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
On Tuesday, Dbeibah ordered armed groups to be dismantled, triggering the fiercest clashes Tripoli had seen in years between two armed groups. The clashes killed at least eight civilians, according to the United Nations.
The corpses found on Monday are the second set of unidentified remains discovered in recent days. On Saturday, officials said nine corpses had been found in a morgue refrigerator in Al-Khadra hospital, another SSA-controlled hospital in the Abu Salim neighborhood.
The militia had not reported the corpses to the relevant authorities, the interior ministry said.
Dbeibah said on Saturday that eliminating militias was an “ongoing project,” as a ceasefire after last week’s clashes remained in place.
The GNU posted a video on Monday showing bulldozers demolishing the so-called 77 camp, one of the biggest facilities that was under control of SSA. The camp is to be turned into a national park.
Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi. The country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.


Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas

Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas
Updated 20 May 2025
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Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas

Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hit back at condemnation of his country’s military offensive in Gaza by the leaders of France, Canada and Britain saying they had given a “huge prize” to Hamas.
“By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to the October 2023 attack that set off the Gaza war.


Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel

Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel
Updated 20 May 2025
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Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel

Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel

HELSINKI: An East Jerusalem hospital chief told AFP on Monday that Gaza was in a “catastrophic” state after weeks of a complete blockade of humanitarian aid and called on countries to act to end the suffering of civilians.
Fadi Atrash, chief executive of the Augusta Victoria-Hospital in East Jerusalem — which helps Palestinians from the occupied territories and Gaza — said he could no longer “find the words” to describe the crisis faced by people in war-torn Gaza.
“We are facing a very, very critical and catastrophic situation,” he said, with all components of the health care system destroyed, and health care workers “running out of energy.”
Augusta Victoria, which had a hospital in Gaza that has been destroyed in Israeli bombings now provides health care in Gaza with the limited resources available, Atrash said.
Atrash visited Finland — which has not recognized Palestine as a state — on Monday as part of a tour of the Nordic countries.
“My main message for the Nordic countries is to put pressure to stop the war, to stop the killing.”
Humanitarian food, medical and fuel supplies have been blocked from entering Gaza for 11 weeks, and the World Health Organization has warned that two million people face starvation.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb joined other European leaders on Monday to call on Israel to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Stubb also said “forced displacement of populations is a war crime and cannot form part of any solution,” in a post on X.
Israel this month approved an expanded military offensive in Gaza but has agreed to let limited aid into Gaza.


Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday

Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday
Updated 20 May 2025
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Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday

Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday

GAZA CITY: A Gaza civil defense official said that 91 people were killed in strikes and attacks throughout Monday as Israel steps up an offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The deaths had been recorded since the early hours of Monday, according to Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, an official in the civil defense agency of the Hamas-run territory. The department had earlier given a toll of 52 dead.