Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as defense chief threatens to annex territory

Update Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as defense chief threatens to annex territory
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A military watch tower stands along Israel’s southern border with the northern Gaza Strip, backdropped by destroyed buildings on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Update Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as defense chief threatens to annex territory
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Witkoff presented last week a “bridge” plan to extend the ceasefire in Gaza into April beyond Ramadan and Passover and allow time to negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities. (REUTERS)
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Updated 22 March 2025
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Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as defense chief threatens to annex territory

Israeli troops move deeper into Gaza as defense chief threatens to annex territory
  • Explosion east of Gaza City killed couple and their two children, plus two additional children

JERUSALEM: A strike in Gaza killed several members of a family Friday as Israel ordered ground forces to advance deeper into the territory and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.
The explosion east of Gaza City killed a couple and their two children, plus two additional children who weren’t related to them but were in the same building, according to witnesses and a local hospital. The Israeli army said it struck a militant in a Gaza City building and took steps to minimize civilian harm. It was not immediately clear if the army was referring to the same strike.
The Israeli military said on social media it was planning to conduct raids in three neighborhoods west of Gaza City, and it warned Palestinians to evacuate the area in advance. The warning came shortly after the Israeli military said it intercepted two rockets fired from northern Gaza that set off sirens in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.
After retaking part of a corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south, Israeli troops moved Thursday toward the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah. The military said it had resumed enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that Israel would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity until the hostages are released by Hamas.”
He continued: “I ordered the army to seize more territory in Gaza ... the more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel.”

He also threatened “to expand buffer zones around Gaza ... by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area.”

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivered a setback in his attempt to fire the country’s domestic security chief.
Hours after Netanyahu’s Cabinet unanimously approved the firing Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security service, the Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to his dismissal until an appeal can be heard no later than April 8. Netanyahu’s office had said Bar’s dismissal was effective April 10, but that it could come earlier if a replacement was found.
Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis to dismiss Bar.

Opinion

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A Shin Bet report into Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that prompted the war in Gaza acknowledged failures by the security agency. But it also said policies by Netanyahu’s government created the conditions for the attack.
Netanyahu has resisted calls for an official state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 attack and has tried to blame the failures on the army and security agencies.
A number of senior security officials, including a defense minister and army chief, have been fired or forced to step down. Bar had been one of the few senior security officials since the Oct. 7 attack to remain in office.
The decision to sack Bar deepens a power struggle focused largely over who bears responsibility for the 2023 Hamas attack. It also could set the stage for a crisis over the country’s division of powers.
Critics say the move is a power grab by the prime minister against an independent-minded civil servant, and tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of Bar, including outside Netanyahu’s residence on Friday.
Netanyahu sounded defiant in a social media post Friday evening, saying: “The State of Israel is a state of law and according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet.”
Hundreds dead in Gaza since ceasefire collapsed
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered a truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.
In the southern city of Rafah, officials said Israeli bombardments had forced residents into the open, deepening their suffering. Officials said they halted the building of shelter camps to protect employees.
Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians. It says military operations will escalate until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.
The ceasefire agreed to in mid-January was a three-phase plan meant to lead to a long-term cessation of hostilities, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the return of all hostages taken by Hamas.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces also withdrew to buffer zones inside Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to northern Gaza.
The ceasefire was supposed to last as long as talks on the second phase continued but Netanyahu balked at entering substantive negotiations.
Instead, he tried to force Hamas to accept a new ceasefire plan put forth by US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
That plan would have required Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key component of the first phase.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the original ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
The militant group has said it is willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Hamas accuses Netanyahu of stalling negotiations
Hamas said in a statement Friday that the firing of Shin Bet’s head shows a “deepening crisis of distrust” within Israel’s leadership. It also said Netanyahu used the ceasefire negotiations “to stall and buy time without any genuine intention of reaching tangible outcomes.”
Netanyahu said he had ordered the resumed strikes on Gaza this week because of Hamas’ rejection of the new proposal.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war at its height displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.


Tunisia mass conspiracy trial ‘marred by violations’: UN rights chief

Updated 13 sec ago
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Tunisia mass conspiracy trial ‘marred by violations’: UN rights chief

Tunisia mass conspiracy trial ‘marred by violations’: UN rights chief
“The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights,” Turk said

GENEVA: The United Nations human rights chief on Thursday condemned the conviction of around 40 Tunisian opposition figures, saying their right to a fair trial was violated.
“The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights, raising serious concerns about political motivations,” the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

Iraqi PM, Jordanian speaker call for unified global action on Gaza

Iraqi PM, Jordanian speaker call for unified global action on Gaza
Updated 24 April 2025
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Iraqi PM, Jordanian speaker call for unified global action on Gaza

Iraqi PM, Jordanian speaker call for unified global action on Gaza
  • During a meeting at the prime minister’s offices in Baghdad, the pair emphasized the importance of aligning global positions to end the violation of the Palestinian people

AMMAN: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and Jordan’s Lower House Speaker Ahmad Al-Safadi on Thursday called for increased international efforts to halt Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting at the prime minister’s offices in Baghdad, the pair emphasized the importance of aligning global positions to end the violation of the Palestinian people, the Jordan News Agency reported.

They called for a concerted international response and unified regional efforts to restore stability and bolster security.

The officials also reaffirmed their commitment to closer relations between Iraq and Jordan, as well as advancing pan-Arab interests and confronting regional challenges.

Safadi stressed Jordan’s commitment to enhancing ties with Iraq, particularly in the parliamentary and economic spheres, and highlighted the need to broaden cooperation in other sectors to serve mutual interests.

He expressed his pride in the deep-rooted ties between the two countries and their peoples, and reiterated the shared determination to continue engagement on key issues.


UN Yemen envoy meets Houthi officials in Oman

UN Yemen envoy meets Houthi officials in Oman
Updated 24 April 2025
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UN Yemen envoy meets Houthi officials in Oman

UN Yemen envoy meets Houthi officials in Oman
  • Talks focused on the necessity to stabilize Yemen and 'to allow all Yemenis to live in dignity and prosperity'

MUSCAT: UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg met Houthi militant officials in Oman on Thursday to discuss “the necessity to stabilize the situation” in the Arabian Peninsula country.
The Houthis form part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, and since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, they have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
They have also targeted ships they accuse of having ties to Israel in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, sparking a US-led bombing campaign aimed at securing the key shipping lanes.
In a statement posted on X, Grundberg’s office said he “met today in #Muscat with senior Omani officials, members of Ansar Allah (Houthi) leadership and representatives of the diplomatic community.”
The talks “centered on the necessity to stabilize the situation in #Yemen to allow all Yemenis to live in dignity and prosperity and to address the legitimate concerns of all stakeholders including the region and the international community,” it added.
Grundberg “reiterated his commitment to continue to work toward that goal, as part of his efforts toward sustainable peace in Yemen.”
Since March 15, Israel’s key ally the United States has stepped up its attacks on the Houthis, targeting their positions in Yemen with near-daily air strikes.
The UN envoy’s meetings in Muscat come two days before a third round of indirect talks, mediated by Oman, between top officials from Iran and the United States on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
Grundberg’s office said he also raised UN demands for “the immediate and unconditional release of detained UN, NGO, civil society and diplomatic personnel” in Yemen.
In June last year, the Houthis detained 13 UN personnel, including six employees of the Human Rights Office, and more than 50 NGO staff, plus an embassy staff member.
They claimed they had arrested “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations — allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.


Israeli strikes put Gaza’s Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital out of service

Israeli strikes put Gaza’s Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital out of service
Updated 24 April 2025
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Israeli strikes put Gaza’s Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital out of service

Israeli strikes put Gaza’s Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital out of service
  • Bombing damages intensive care unit, energy panels
  • 37 hospitals have been put out of service since Israel began its attacks in late 2023

LONDON: The Martyr Mohammed Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital, east of Gaza City, was put out of service on Thursday, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The facility, which provides health services for children in northern Gaza, sustained severe damage after being targeted by Israeli forces this week, the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.

Bombing damaged the hospital’s intensive care unit and alternative energy panels, the report said.

Medical sources told Wafa that Israel’s blockade of food and medical supplies since mid-March meant that children in Gaza were facing a catastrophic situation.

Al-Durrah is the 37th hospital to be put out of service since Israel began its attacks on the Palestinian coastal enclave in late 2023.


Jordanian foreign minister chairs Arab meeting to address Israeli actions in Jerusalem

Jordanian foreign minister chairs Arab meeting to address Israeli actions in Jerusalem
Updated 24 April 2025
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Jordanian foreign minister chairs Arab meeting to address Israeli actions in Jerusalem

Jordanian foreign minister chairs Arab meeting to address Israeli actions in Jerusalem
  • Arab ministerial committee condemns the actions of Israel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem
  • Ministers emphasized the significance of the Hashemite custodianship in preserving Jerusalem’s religious identity

LONDON: Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, chaired an Arab ministerial meeting to discuss Israeli policies in the occupied East Jerusalem.

Safadi led the ninth meeting of the Arab Ministerial Committee on Wednesday evening in Cairo, which took place on the sidelines of the 163rd regular session of the Council of the Arab League.

Representatives from Bahrain, Palestine, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, along with the secretary-general of the Arab League, issued a statement regarding Israeli actions in Jerusalem.

Palestinian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian briefed the committee about Israel’s home demolition policy in Jerusalem, attempts to erase Palestinian cultural heritage, and the arbitrary arrests of individuals, including children.

The committee emphasized the need for united Arab and international efforts to end the illegal Israeli occupation and address the human rights offences in Jerusalem, Petra, the Jordan News Agency, reported.

In 2024, Israeli authorities demolished 181 homes belonging to Palestinians in Jerusalem on the pretext of not having a building permit, which Israel rarely grants to residents of the city, according to rights groups.

The committee condemned the actions of Israel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, where Palestinian families face the threat of eviction. It also condemned the regular storming of the Al-Aqsa compound by Israeli settlers and far-right ministers, asserting that these actions threaten the site’s sanctity and integrity.

It said Israeli policies represent “clear violations of international law, escalating tensions and undermining the historical and legal identity of occupied Jerusalem,” Petra reported.

The ministers emphasized the significance of the Hashemite custodianship in preserving Jerusalem’s religious identity and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state to pave the way for peace in the region.