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☆ Israel Presses for Gaza Border Presence as Part of Cease-Fire Deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Aaron Boxerman | Raja Abdulrahim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mediators plan to move ahead with a summit next week pursuing a cease-fire agreement in Gaza, Israeli officials said on Friday, after Israeli security chiefs sought to obtain Egyptian consent for a postwar Israeli presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Hamas has repeatedly rejected the idea of an Israeli presence in the border area, saying that any deal to stop the war must involve Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza. Egypt, as a neighboring country and a mediator in the truce talks with a significant stake in the war’s outcome, is also key to reaching a truce agreement. The government has said that keeping Israeli troops at its Gaza border could raise national security concerns and potentially threaten Egyptian-Israeli relations. Egypt also says it has already taken aggressive action to destroy tunnels and stop smuggling.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Qatar, United States

“Some critics, like Mr. Smotrich, for example, have claimed that the hostage deal is a surrender to Hamas or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners,” Mr. Kirby said at the start of a briefing for reporters. Mr. Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister and a far-right ally, have threatened to quit Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition if he signs a deal ending the war. But whether it could help Mr. Netanyahu to have the Americans weigh in on his domestic politics was not as clear. “The idea that he would support a deal that leaves Israel’s security at risk is just factually wrong,” Mr. Kirby said of the president. “He won’t allow extremists to blow things off course — including extremists in Israel making these ridiculous charges against the deal,” he said.

Persons: ”, Biden’s, John F, Kirby, Biden, Bezalel Smotrich, Smotrich, Mr, “ Smotrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, ” Mr, Itamar Ben, Gvir, Biden administration’s pushback, Netanyahu, “, he’s Organizations: White, Hamas, ISIS Locations: U.S, Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Iran

An Israeli airstrike early Saturday hit a school compound in northern Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing dozens of people, according to Gazan officials. The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, but said Hamas and another armed Palestinian group were using the facility for military operations and attacks on Israel. The strike in Gaza City, the latest in a string of attacks on schools turned into shelters, drew strong condemnation from the European Union and the United Nations, with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the top E.U. diplomat, saying, “There’s no justification for these massacres.”The strikes have taken place alongside mounting international pressure on Israel to conclude a deal for a cease-fire and an exchange of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian detainees, with President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar saying this week that “the time has come.”

Persons: Josep Borrell Fontelles, “, Biden, ” Organizations: European Union, United Nations Locations: Gaza, Israel, Gaza City, Egypt, Qatar

An Israeli ground assault in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes and shelters, many for a third time or more, even as the United States and some Arab allies pressed both Israel and Hamas to restart peace talks. Between 60,000 and 70,000 people had fled by Thursday evening after the Israeli military ordered people in the city of Khan Younis to leave, according to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. More continued to flee into the night and into Friday. The Israeli military said its troops were “engaged in combat both above and below-ground” in the Khan Younis area, in an attack involving ground troops, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and paratroopers, and that the air force had struck more than 30 targets. Some were in tears.

Persons: Khan Younis, “, Younis Organizations: United Nations Locations: Gaza, United States, Israel

Some American warships already in the Mediterranean will move closer to the coast of Israel, according to a senior Pentagon official. The killing of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran on Wednesday, was a stunning breach of security in the Iranian capital. Iran arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, in response. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly for the killing, according to Iranian officials. “We will be bolstering our force protection in the region,” she said.

Persons: Lloyd J, Austin III, Ismail Haniyeh, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Sabrina Singh, Austin, Yoav Gallant, Austin “, ”, “, Mr, Haniyeh Organizations: . Defense, American, Pentagon Locations: Israel, Iran, Tehran, Qatar, Gaza, United States, Yemen, Iraq

Thousands packed Qatar’s largest mosque on Friday for the funeral of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, hours after President Biden said his killing could hurt the monthslong effort to negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza. Mr. Haniyeh, who was based in the Persian Gulf nation, had been a negotiator in the cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas. His death in an explosion in Iran on Wednesday and the assassination of the Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday have put the Middle East on edge, bracing for a possible escalation in retaliatory violence. Asked by a reporter on Thursday night whether the killing of Mr. Haniyeh had ruined the prospect of a negotiated cease-fire in Gaza, Mr. Biden said, “It has not helped.”He added that he had a “very direct” conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel earlier that day and had urged him to agree to a deal to stop the war in Gaza and free the remaining people kidnapped in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Persons: Ismail Haniyeh, Biden, Haniyeh, Fuad Shukr, Mr, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Persian, Israel, Iran, Lebanon

But although Mr. Nasrallah promised that Hezbollah would respond, he equivocated on the scope and nature of that retaliation. “We have entered a new phase,” he said, speaking in a televised address during the funeral for Mr. Shukr. “You do not realize the red lines you have crossed,” warned Mr. Nasrallah, addressing Israel directly. “The only things lying between us and you are the days, the nights and the battlefield,” said Mr. Nasrallah, again addressing Israel. Credit... Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York TimesAfter Mr. Nasrallah finished his speech, Mr. Shukr’s coffin was carried onto the street outside and met a sea of mourners.

Persons: Hassan Nasrallah, Fuad Shukr, Nasrallah, ”, Shukr, Mr, Diego Ibarra Sanchez, Fatima Nizan al, “, ” Aaron Boxerman, Hwaida Saad Organizations: The New York Locations: Lebanese, Beirut, Lebanon, Israel, Lebanon’s, Iran, Credit, Beirut’s, Jerusalem

Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader who led the Palestinian militant group’s political office from Doha, Qatar, was killed while visiting Iran on Wednesday. Mr. Haniyeh, originally from the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, had long played a central role in Hamas, helping lead the group through multiple wars with Israel and through elections. More recently, he managed high-stakes negotiations and diplomacy for Hamas, including the long-stalled indirect cease-fire talks with Israel to end the war in Gaza. He survived one assassination attempt in 2003, when Israel targeted him and his mentor, the spiritual leader and founder of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The Israeli military assassinated Mr. Yassin the following year.

Persons: Ismail Haniyeh, Haniyeh, Israel, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Mr, Yassin Locations: Doha, Qatar, Iran, Gaza, Israel

☆ Many in Gaza City Ignore Israeli Military’s Calls to Evacuate
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Thomas Fuller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

During nine months of war, Amani Zanin’s extended family has fled from place to place, escaping the Israeli bombardments that have flattened many neighborhoods in northern Gaza. But this week, when the Israeli military issued repeated calls for Palestinians to clear out of Gaza City, the Zanin family and many others decided not to leave. “The road is not safe,” said Ms. Zanin, whose family is now sheltering in a school building. Exhausted by the constant threat of bombardment and encircled by death and decimation, families in the northern Gaza Strip who heeded earlier warnings to flee are now taking the risk of staying put. Fliers dropped by the Israeli military over parts of Gaza City and posted on social media laid out four “safe corridors” Palestinians could use to get to central Gaza “quickly and without inspection.”

Persons: Amani Zanin’s, ”, Zanin Organizations: Gaza Locations: Gaza, Gaza City

☆ Carnage at Gaza School Compound Adds to Mounting Death Toll at U.N. Buildings
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Thomas Fuller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The soccer ball went out of bounds and the goalkeeper was lofting it toward his teammates as dozens of people looked on from the sidelines of the courtyard. It was a moment of respite in the Gaza Strip — but it did not last. Before the ball reached the ground, a large boom shook the yard, sending players and spectators fleeing in frenzied panic. The Gazan authorities say that at least 27 people were killed on Tuesday in that explosion, which was caused by an Israeli airstrike near the entrance to a school turned shelter on the outskirts of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Persons: Khan Younis Locations: Gaza, Khan

After eight devastating months of war, Muslims in Gaza on Sunday will mark a somber Eid al-Adha, a major religious holiday usually celebrated by sharing meat among friends, family and the needy. Adha means sacrifice, and the ritual killing of a sheep, goat or cow on the day is meant as a symbol of the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Hunger has gripped the Palestinian territory as Israel has unleashed an eight-month military offensive on the enclave and severely restricted what is allowed to enter, including humanitarian aid. “There won’t be any Eid, nor any Eid atmosphere,” said Zaina Kamuni, who was living with her family in a tent on a sandy expanse of land in southern Gaza called Al-Mawasi. “I haven’t eaten any meat in five months.”“It will be a day like any other day, just like Eid al-Fitr,” she added, referring to the other major Muslim holiday, which Gazans observed more than two months ago under the same conditions.

Persons: ”, Zaina Kamuni, Gazans Locations: Gaza, Israel, Al

☆ As War Drags On, Gazans More Willing to Speak Out Against Hamas
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-15 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Iyad Abuheweila | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But it was just a temporary boost for Hamas, whose support among Gazans has been low for some time. And as the Israeli onslaught has brought widespread devastation and tens of thousands of deaths, the group and its leaders have remained broadly unpopular in the enclave. More Gazans have even been willing to speak out against Hamas, risking retribution. In interviews with nearly a dozen Gaza residents in recent months, a number of them said they held Hamas responsible for starting the war and helping to bring death and destruction upon them, even as they blame Israel first and foremost. One Gazan, Raed al-Kelani, 47, said Hamas always acts in its own interests.

Persons: Gazans, Israel, Raed, ” Organizations: Hamas, Palestinian Authority Locations: Israel, Gaza

☆ Middle East Crisis Palestinians Returning to Jabaliya Find Wide Devastation
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Lauren Leatherby | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

“The destruction is indescribable,” said Mohammad Awais, who returned with his family to their home in Jabaliya on Friday. “Even the ambulances can’t drive through them to transport the injured and martyrs,” he said of the streets in Jabaliya. April 17 Jabaliya market Area of image GAZA STRIP May 24 Jabaliya market April 17 Jabaliya market Area of image GAZA STRIP May 24 Jabaliya marketSome buildings had already been destroyed before the latest Israeli offensive in the area, according to imagery from April. Having survived the assault during the early months of the war, many people in Jabaliya thought they were safe from another Israeli offensive. Credit... Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Image Resting in the rubble in Jabaliya on Friday after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.

Persons: ”, Mohammad Awais, Awais, inhabitable, Israel, Omar Al, Mahmoud Issa, Hossam Shbat, Jabaliya, Shbat Organizations: Planet Labs, Agence France, Reuters “ Residents, “ Residents Locations: Gaza, Jabaliya, GAZA, Credit, Israel

☆ Under Israeli Bombs, a Wartime Economy Emerges in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

On tables and desks from schools turned shelters, wartime vendors lined a street, selling used clothes, baby formula, canned food and the rare batch of homemade cookies. Issam Hamouda, 51, stood next to his paltry commercial offering: an array of canned vegetables and beans from an aid carton his family had received. “Most of the goods found in the markets are labeled, ‘Not for sale,’” he said. Before the Israel-Hamas war devastated Gaza’s economy, he was a driving instructor. Now, Mr. Hamouda supports his family of eight the only way he can — by reselling some of the food aid they receive every few weeks.

Persons: Issam Hamouda, ’ ”, Hamouda Locations: Israel

Trucks of humanitarian aid began moving ashore into Gaza early Friday via a temporary pier built by the U.S. military, the first supplies of aid to be sent into the enclave by sea in two months. But the new shipments of food and other supplies fall far short of what humanitarian groups say is needed to meet the staggering levels of hunger and deprivation in Gaza. U.S. officials and international aid groups have said that sea shipments can only supplement deliveries through land crossings, not replace them. The war-torn territory of 2.2 million civilians is more reliant than ever on humanitarian aid. The devastation after seven months of Israeli bombardment, strict Israeli inspections and restrictions on crossing points had already severely limited what could enter.

Organizations: U.S ., U.S, Pentagon Locations: Gaza, Israel, Rafah

Israel said on Thursday that it would send more troops to Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, which has become the focal point in the war between Israel and Hamas. The announcement signaled that Israel intends to press deeper into Rafah despite international concerns about the threat to civilians from a full-scale invasion of the city, where more than a million displaced people had been sheltering. “Hundreds of targets have already been attacked,” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said after meeting with commanders in the Rafah area. “This operation will continue.”For the past week Israel has described its offensive as a limited military operation, but satellite imagery and Mr. Gallant’s comments on Thursday suggested that a more significant incursion was already underway.

Persons: Israel, ” Yoav Gallant, Gallant’s Organizations: Hamas Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Israel, “

Around 300,000 Palestinians in southern and northern Gaza are being forced to flee once again, the United Nations says, as Israel issued new and expanded evacuation orders on Saturday. But many are unsure where to find secure shelter in a place devastated by war. The expanded evacuation orders apply to the city of Rafah at Gaza’s southernmost tip, where more than a million Gazans have gathered after fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere over the past seven months. Some 150,000 people have already fled Rafah over the past six days, according to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians. “Fear, confusion, oppression, anxiety is eating away at people.”

Persons: “, ”, Mohammad al, Masri Organizations: Nations, United Nations Locations: Gaza, Israel, Rafah

☆ U.N. General Assembly Adopts Resolution Supporting Palestinian Statehood
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The United States voted no. The 193-member General Assembly took on the issue of Palestinian membership after the United States in April vetoed a resolution before the Security Council to recognize full membership for a Palestinian state. The majority of Council members supported the move, but the United States said recognition of Palestinian statehood should be achieved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians are currently recognized by the United Nations as a nonmember observer state, a status granted in 2012 by the General Assembly. They do not have the right to vote on General Assembly resolutions or nominate any candidates to U.N. agencies.

Persons: ”, Richard Gowan, Riyad Mansour, Gilad Erdan, Nate Evans, Gilad, Israel’s, Yahya Sinwar, Mr, Mansour Organizations: United Nations General Assembly, United Nations, United, United Arab Emirates, . Arab, Security, Washington, Security Council, International Crisis, Palestinian, ”, U.S, General Locations: Israel, United States, Palestinian, France, Gaza, U.S, South Sudan, Taiwan, Kosovo, Palestine, United

Just a few weeks ago, Israel, under extraordinary international pressure to respond to warnings of imminent famine in the Gaza Strip, announced new steps to increase humanitarian aid. But after an Israeli military incursion into the southern city of Rafah this week, the flow of aid has come to a near-total stop, first closed off by Israel and then further restricted, officials say, by Egypt. Aid officials warned that essentials like food and medicine were running dangerously low, threatening to worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Organizations: Aid Locations: Israel, Gaza, Rafah, Egypt

☆ People Leaving Rafah Describe Fearful Flight From Israeli Assaults
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Bilal Shbair | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Displaced from their home in Gaza City months ago, Ms. al-Wakeel and relatives began packing their bags on Monday and preparing to dismantle their tent in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Hamas had announced that it had accepted a cease-fire proposal from Qatar and Egypt, leaving many Gazans thinking that a truce was imminent. Instead, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in eastern Rafah telling people to flee and move to what Israel called a humanitarian zone to the north, as the Israeli military bombarded the area. Gazan health officials say that dozens have been killed since Israel’s incursion into parts of Rafah this week. “We thought that day a cease-fire was possible,” said Ms. al-Wakeel, 48, who helped the aid group World Central Kitchen prepare hot meals.

Persons: Manal, Israel, ”, Abu Yousef al, Marwan al Organizations: Hamas, Najjar Locations: Gaza, Rafah, Qatar, Egypt, Israel, Hams

Under intense international scrutiny, Israel has expedited the flow of aid into Gaza this month, but humanitarian groups say that more is needed as severe hunger grips the enclave, particularly in the devastated north. Israel’s efforts — which include opening new aid routes — have been acknowledged in the last week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially the north, where experts have warned for weeks that famine is imminent. The increased levels of aid are a good sign, but it is too early to say that looming famine is no longer a risk, said Arif Husain, the chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program. “If we can do this, then we can ease the pain, we can avert famine.”

Persons: Biden, Arif Husain, ” Mr, Husain, ” Organizations: United Nations, Food Locations: Israel, Gaza

☆ Middle East Crisis End of Ramadan Is Marked by War and Hunger in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Ameera Harouda | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

As Eid al-Fitr approached, Amani Abu Awda’s four children began asking her for new clothes and toys — festive items that Muslims customarily buy to celebrate the holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. “Oh God, I couldn’t get anything for them because of the high prices,” she said Saturday, days before most Muslims worldwide would celebrate Eid al-Fitr. We have lost family and loved ones. Image Displaced Palestinians prepare traditional cakes before Eid al-Fitr, in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. “I have a lot of hopes for Eid,” he said, “but firstly for them to end this revolting war.”

Persons: Eid, Fitr, Amani Abu Awda’s, ”, “, —, Abu Awda’s, Ms, Abu Awda, Alina Al, Yazji, Haitham Imad, Muna Daloob, Mohammad Shehada, we’re, Shehada, enjoyments Organizations: Hospital, Al, Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, ., Agence France, Gaza Ministry, Health Locations: Gaza, Rafah, Jabaliya, Aqsa, Deir al, Gaza City, Israel, Egypt

☆ Gazans Describe Search for Food and Wonder If It Will Get Worse
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Al-Asaad and his family, like so many others, were displaced from their home by Israel’s intense bombardment and invasion and now sleep in a tent in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. He spends his days struggling to find food for himself, his wife, their three children and his sick mother. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, the aid group said, it had delivered more than 43 million meals there. Mr. Al-Asaad knows many people relied on meals from World Central Kitchen, which often consisted of rice and beans and sometimes meat or chicken. His family rarely got the meals “because the demand was more than the supply,” Mr. Al-Asaad said in an interview on Friday.

Persons: Suhail Al, Asaad, José Andrés, Mr Locations: Gaza City, Rafah, Gaza

☆ Airstrikes Kill Soldiers in Syria in Apparent Israeli Attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Victoria Kim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Airstrikes killed a number of soldiers near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early Friday, Syria’s state news media and an independent organization reported, in what appeared to be one of the heaviest Israeli attacks in the country in years. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that tracks Syria’s civil war, said that the dead included 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian from the pro-Iranian militias. The group said the attack appeared to have hit multiple targets, including a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia that Iran supports and has a presence in Syria. The airstrikes stoked fears that have unsettled Western officials for months: that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza could escalate into a broader conflict against Syria, Iran and its proxies across the region, which could entangle allies of those involved, like Russia and the United States. But fears of a wider conflict have persisted as Israel and Hezbollah have clashed for months along the border, and as Israel has carried out assaults on Iran-linked targets in Syria.

Organizations: Syrian Observatory, Human Rights, Lebanese, . Army Locations: Syrian, Aleppo, Britain, Iran, Syria, Gaza, Russia, United States, Israel

Every night during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the man would come along Rawoand Altatar’s street, banging on his drum and calling out to the faithful to wake them up for suhoor, the predawn meal. His nightly mission used to be lit up by Ramadan lamps and twinkling decorations. But this Ramadan, Ms. Altatar’s street is eerie. There are no decorations or electricity, and the street is surrounded by buildings destroyed or damaged in Israel’s bombardment. “There is no sense of Ramadan,” she said, referring to the month when Muslims fast all day.

Persons: ”, Altatar Organizations: suhoor Locations: Altatar’s

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