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☆ Israel Pushes Ahead With War Against Hamas Despite Growing Pressure Over Hostages
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Iran-backed groups form a land bridge across the Middle East and connect in an alliance that Tehran calls the “Axis of Resistance.” Here’s what to know about the alliance that includes Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Photo Illustration: Eve HartleyTEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue the war in Gaza despite mounting international pressure to wrap up the conflict, now stretching into its 100th day, and persistent demands at home for him to give priority to the return of hostages still held by Hamas. “Nobody will stop us—not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,” he said from the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, referencing an alliance of Iran-backed armed groups in the region and a United Nations court case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.

Persons: ”, Hartley, Benjamin Netanyahu, “, Israel Organizations: United Locations: Iran, Tehran, Gaza, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Yemen, AVIV, Hague, Tel Aviv, United Nations, South Africa

The first call came at 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 8. The recorded voice instructed doctor Hussam Abuouda, his wife and five children to get out. Leave Beit Hanoun, the city at the Israeli border in northern Gaza, Abuouda recalls the unidentified man saying in Arabic.

Persons: Hussam Abuouda, Abuouda Locations: Gaza

☆ Israeli Families Push for Deal to Free Men Still Held Hostage in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Chao Deng | Isabel Coles | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yuval Haran was among the family members of those held hostage by Hamas speaking at a demonstration outside the Israeli prime minister’s office last month. Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty ImagesTEL AVIV—Renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas is sparking heightened concern among families of the roughly 140 Israelis still held captive—the majority of them men—after the end of a weeklong truce. The pause in fighting had led to the release of dozens of hostages, most of them women and children. Many families hoped Israel and Hamas could strike a similar deal to release men, but the militant group regards fighting-age men as soldiers and the hostages it still holds as valuable leverage.

Persons: Yuval Haran, Alexi J . Rosenfeld, — Organizations: Getty, TEL Locations: TEL AVIV, Israel

TEL AVIV—Their Hamas captors told 13-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani and 9-year-old Emily Hand to keep their voices low when speaking. A day after the close friends’ release, safe in the arms of family and doctors, Hila was still whispering to Emily. Yair Rotem, Hila’s uncle, is now her primary guardian, as his sister Raaya remains a Hamas hostage. He said his niece doesn’t show emotion when talking about her time in captivity, held in the dark for 50 days with little food and no showers. He is reluctant to press her for details of what happened when Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel interrupted a sleepover she was having with Emily at Hila’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Persons: Hila Rotem Shoshani, Emily Hand, Hila, Emily, Yair Rotem, Hila’s Organizations: TEL AVIV — Locations: TEL AVIV, Israel, Hila’s, Kibbutz Be’eri

TEL AVIV—Neta Heiman Mina awoke Wednesday morning to news that Israel had reached a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, bringing some small measure of relief and hope that her 84-year-old mother might be among those freed. By the evening, she was tempering her expectations as media outlets started reporting that the deal might be delayed. A call from a military liaison officer, who is assigned to give her updates, confirmed her fear.

Persons: Heiman Mina, Israel Locations: TEL AVIV

☆ Israeli Military Encircles Another Gaza Hospital, Doctors Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Omar Abdel-Baqui | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Patients and staff at a second hospital in Gaza, Indonesia Hospital, braced for Israeli troops to enter the complex Monday after tanks surrounded it and artillery shelling hit the building, killing about a dozen people including patients, according to Palestinian officials and doctors. The Israeli military said it targeted militants that opened fire at Israeli troops from within the hospital and that no shells were fired toward the facility. Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, denies using hospitals for military purposes.

Organizations: Indonesia Hospital Locations: Gaza, Indonesia, U.S

☆ Explosion Rocks Gaza Hospital After Clashes Intensify Outside
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Omar Abdel-Baqui | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An explosion Monday rocked the second floor of a hospital in Gaza, killing about a dozen people, including patients, according to hospital staff and Palestinian officials. Gunfire and explosions around the Indonesia Hospital, in the northern part of the enclave and where thousands are seeking shelter, have intensified in recent days, the hospital’s medical director Marwan Al-Sultan said in a telephone interview. He said several Israeli tanks had been moving back and forth about 100 feet from the hospital entrance.

Persons: Marwan Al, Sultan Organizations: Indonesia Hospital Locations: Gaza, Indonesia

☆ Israel Says It Is Close to Dismantling Hamas Military System in Northern Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Israel’s military said it was close to dismantling Hamas’s military system in the north of the Gaza Strip, as the enclave was plunged into a communications blackout when fuel ran out. As the war stretches to six weeks, the Israeli military said Friday “there remains work to be completed” in northern Gaza, but that it would target more areas in the strip. In the south of the enclave, where Israel had told people to go in October as it prepared to mount a ground offensive in the north, displaced families crowded in homes and shelters worried that the Israeli military would expand operations there.

Persons: Israel Locations: Gaza

The Israeli military Wednesday said its troops came under fire outside Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, as they entered part of the medical complex Israel says Hamas militants are operating from. A senior Israeli military official said Israeli soldiers killed four militants during the firefight on their way into the hospital and had found weapons inside, adding that they saw “concrete evidence” that Hamas militants were operating there.

Organizations: Shifa Locations: Al, Gaza’s, Israel

☆ Israel Says It Found Evidence of Hamas Activity at Gaza Hospital
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Dov Lieber | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Israel released footage from Gaza’s largest hospital on Wednesday that it said proved the site was being used by Hamas militants, after searching buildings in an operation that carries high stakes for both sides of the war. The footage showed the MRI wing of the sprawling Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Israel said it found AK-47s, grenades, military uniforms and a battle vest with the insignia of Hamas’s military wing. In a video, an Israeli military spokesman pointed to a laptop, a hand-held tactical radio and a set of discs as evidence of a Hamas command center in the hospital, although the laptop screen was blurred and he didn’t specify what was found on it.

Organizations: Hamas, Shifa, AK Locations: Israel, Gaza City

Israeli soldiers moved into Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, on Wednesday, searching buildings and questioning Palestinians sheltering there in an operation that carries high stakes for both sides of the war. The Israeli offensive has faced international criticism for the killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Israel contends the hospital compound sits atop underground complexes and a command center used by militants, a claim endorsed by the U.S. Hamas denies those claims.

Organizations: U.S Locations: Gaza’s, Al, Gaza, Israel

☆ Israeli Forces Reach Gate of Gaza’s Largest Hospital
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Dov Lieber | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TEL AVIV—Israeli troops reached at least one of the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital where Israel says Hamas conceals a major center of operations, while medical staff reported deteriorating conditions inside because of a lack of supplies and electricity. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli military vehicles were at the southeast gate of Al-Shifa Hospital, and an Israeli military spokesman confirmed that troops had reached one of the gates. Israel alleges that Hamas runs four underground complexes and a command-and-control center at the hospital, a claim Hamas denies.

Organizations: Health Ministry, Hamas, Shifa Locations: TEL AVIV, Gaza’s, Israel, Gaza, Al

Israeli troops and Hamas militants fought intense street battles Sunday around the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, leaving the medical facility with dwindling supplies for thousands sheltering there while a power outage led to the death of two newborns, according to doctors there. Doctors described an increasingly desperate situation at hospitals in northern Gaza, including the biggest one, Al-Shifa Hospital, where they said dozens of dead bodies have been left in the open and decomposing and nearly 40 prematurely born babies are without the incubators they need.

Organizations: Shifa Locations: Gaza

Israeli forces said they were engaged in fierce fighting early Saturday around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where Israel says Hamas has positioned fighters near thousands of displaced people and hundreds of patients amid worsening conditions at the facility. Hospital officials said doctors were using scant remaining medical supplies to treat wounded people as the battle in the area intensified, the hospital largely operated without electricity and water ran desperately low. There were no indications that Israeli troops had entered the hospital complex as of Saturday morning or whether Hamas fighters were inside it.

Organizations: Shifa, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Al, Israel

Israeli forces said they were engaged in fierce fighting Saturday around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where Israel says Hamas has positioned fighters near thousands of displaced people and hundreds of patients amid worsening conditions at the facility. Hospital officials said that doctors at Al-Shifa were using scant remaining medical supplies to treat wounded people, that the hospital was largely operating without electricity and water was running desperately low.

Organizations: Shifa, Hamas, Al Locations: Gaza, Al, Israel

☆ ‘They Have Nowhere to Go’: A Gaza Hospital Braces for Fighting
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Margherita Stancati | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

At the sprawling Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, families pack the hallways inside, while others have set up makeshift tents outside, with bed sheets hung up for privacy. Doctors, short on space and supplies, tend to bloodied patients on the floor. About a mile away, a much bigger problem is approaching: The Israeli army is engaging in firefights with Hamas militants. Palestinians have been told to evacuate the 700-bed hospital, but many believe it’s the safest place they can go. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people are sheltering inside and around the grounds of the hospital, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, with 2,500 patients in need of care.

Organizations: Shifa, Hamas, Health Ministry Locations: Gaza City, Gaza

A Palestinian mourned the death of family members in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday. Photo: mahmud hams/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIsraeli troops were advancing toward the heart of Gaza City, engaging in heavy gunbattles and ratcheting up pressure on neighborhoods that have become a refuge for tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Israeli military said Thursday it captured an area on the western side of the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, after a 10-hour gunbattle with Hamas that unfolded in tunnels and on city streets that have become a wasteland. Israel troops fought amid destroyed buildings, backed up by tanks, and with armored bulldozers clearing a path through the rubble, pictures released by Israel Defense Forces showed. Weapons were captured and tunnel shafts uncovered, the Israeli military said

Persons: Khan Younis, mahmud Organizations: Agence France, Getty, Hamas, Israel Defense Forces Locations: Gaza, Gaza City, Israel

The tiny Palestinian enclave of Gaza has been the focus of Israeli fire for the past month, after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking hundreds hostage. More than 10,500 people have been killed, most of them women and children, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza. The figures don’t distinguish between civilians and militants. The voices of people living there provide a picture of how life has changed for them under siege and bombardment. Write to Juanje Gómez at juanje.gomez@wsj.com, Chao Deng at chao.deng@wsj.com, Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com and Luke Vargas at Luke.Vargas@wsj.com

Persons: Chao Deng, Stephen Kalin, Luke Vargas Locations: Gaza, Israel, juanje.gomez@wsj.com, chao.deng@wsj.com, stephen.kalin@wsj.com

CAIRO—On the wall of the border crossing between bombed-out Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai desert there is a list. The names on it have been a source of hope, despair and confusion for the hundreds of foreign families wanting to escape the Palestinian enclave under Israeli fire. When American sisters Jana and Mena Timraz appeared on the list on Thursday, they rejoiced. But their parents, their brothers and Jana’s husband, who aren’t U.S. citizens, were missing from the roster.

Persons: Jana, Mena Timraz Locations: CAIRO, Gaza

Airstrikes on a densely populated neighborhood in Gaza this week show Israel is waging a broader and more ferocious war against Hamas, an approach that aims to destroy the Palestinian militant group but has sparked an international backlash. The repeated strikes on the Jabalia neighborhood—a refugee camp that has turned into a warren of permanent homes and apartment buildings—come amid a three-week-long air campaign by Israel that is the most intense in its history and rivals any aerial bombardment this century, military analysts say.

Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel

Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ Israel Says It Has Killed a Planner of Oct. 7 Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Chao Deng | Ari Flanzraich | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Israel’s military said its ground forces continued to fight inside Gaza early Saturday, after an intense wave of airstrikes and ground raids overnight targeted Hamas’s extensive network of underground tunnels and killed leaders of the militant group involved in the planning of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The war between Israel and Hamas entered a new phase Friday after Israel said it was expanding its ground operation in the Gaza Strip and launched an intense wave of strikes from air and sea, possibly laying the ground for a full-blown invasion of the enclave.

Persons: Israel Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that the second phase of Israel’s war in Gaza had begun, effectively signaling the start of a ground operation but stopping short of calling it an invasion. Israel’s ground forces continued to fight inside Gaza Saturday, after an intense wave of airstrikes and ground raids overnight Friday targeted Hamas’s extensive network of underground tunnels and killed leaders of the militant group involved in the planning of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that left more than 1,400 people dead.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: Gaza Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ Gaza Hospitals, Shelters Cut Back on Services as Fuel Runs Short
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As Gaza runs out of fuel to power its generators, hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave fear they will have to turn away patients and unplug lifesaving machines. Shelters housing tens of thousands of families are switching off the lights. Bakeries are shutting down. “The situation is getting worse day by day, hour by hour,” said Mohammad Aburayya, a 47-year-old doctor, who has been sheltering with his family at a United Nations facility for nearly two weeks. “I don’t remember the last time I saw electricity.”

Persons: ”, Mohammad Aburayya, “ Organizations: United Nations Locations: Gaza

The Israeli army said Friday night that it was expanding its ground operations in the Gaza Strip amid intensifying airstrikes in its most significant maneuver yet ahead of an invasion intended to end 16 years of Hamas rule, while the strip came under a nearly complete communications blackout. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief Israel Defense Forces spokesman, again urged Palestinians to leave the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, to head south, amid growing signs that the military was poised to launch an expansive ground operation.

Persons: Daniel Hagari Organizations: Israel Defense Forces Locations: Gaza

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