DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Parties to Cease-Fire Talks Offer Mixed Signals
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The prediction matched that of President Biden, who said that a deal could come as soon as next week. In public, however, Hamas and Israel are sticking with their longstanding positions and not signaling any breakthrough. The two sides have not met face to face, instead negotiating through mediators in Doha, Cairo and Paris. Qatar’s foreign ministry said this week that talks were ongoing and it was too early to speculate about a resolution. Mr. Haniyeh met on Monday with the emir of Qatar and accused Israel of dragging its feet in the talks, according to a Hamas statement.

Persons: Israel, ”, Ismail Haniyeh, Abdel Fattah el, “ God, Biden, Haniyeh, Basem Naim, —, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Nada Rashwan, Adam Sella Organizations: West Bank, West Bank Palestinians, New York Times Locations: Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Qatar, United States, Doha, Cairo, Paris, Jerusalem, Islam

☆ Middle East Crisis Israeli Forces Enter Hospital Complex in Southern Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Relatives of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas at a rally near the International Criminal Court at The Hague on Wednesday. The hostage families, numbering about 100 people and accompanied by two former hostages who were released in November, said they had come to try to make sure that justice would be done. “It’s important to use the international tools that are more often used against Israel,” he added, of the effort to seek international justice. The Israeli government does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and is not a signatory to its founding treaty. Their mother mostly stays home surrounded by friends, they said, and their father prays much of the time while they “do the journeys.”

Persons: Raoul Wallenberg, “, ”, Amit Levy, Naama Levy, Mr, Levy, Moshe, Avinatan, Noa Argamani, Israel, Karim Khan, Dana Pugach, Shani Yerushalmi, Eden Organizations: Hamas, The Hague, Criminal, for Human Rights, Nova, International Court of Justice Locations: The, Gaza, Israel, Israeli, Canada, Nahal, Hague, South Africa, The Hague, Paris, Washington

☆ Palestinians Flee as Israeli Forces Raid a Major Hospital in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Israeli military on Thursday raided the largest hospital still functioning in the Gaza Strip, in what it called a search for Hamas fighters and the bodies of hostages. Many people who had sought shelter there were forced to flee from combat once again. The specific casualty claims, like many assertions in the conflict, could not be immediately confirmed. One video, verified by The New York Times, showed damage to the hospital and injured people being rushed through a smoke-filled corridor among debris amid sounds of gunfire. Witnesses said people by the hundreds — possibly thousands — later stood in long lines as Israeli troops screened them, a few at a time, for evacuation.

Persons: Khan Younis, Witnesses, — Organizations: Nasser, The New York Times Locations: Gaza, Khan

Talks involving lower-level officials will continue for another three days, according to an Egyptian and an American official briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They described the negotiations on Tuesday as promising, but Israel and Hamas were still not close to a deal. A primary obstacle, according to another U.S. official, is a disagreement on how many Palestinians Israel would release from its prisons in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies. Officials of Hamas, the armed group fighting Israel, were taking part in the negotiations indirectly, using Qatar and Egypt as intermediaries. Mr. Netanyahu has said that Israel will conduct such an offensive and has ordered the military to draw up plans to evacuate civilians from the city.

Persons: Biden, William J, Burns, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Netanyahu Organizations: American, Hamas, United Nations Locations: Cairo, Gaza, Rafah, Israel, Egypt, Qatar, United States

☆ Egypt Warily Eyes Gaza as War Builds Pressure on Its Border
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The pressure on Egypt is building. More than half of Gaza’s population is squeezed into miserable tent cities in Rafah, a small city along Egypt’s border, left with nowhere else to go by Israel’s military campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has threatened to overrun the area, and on Friday, he directed his forces to plan the evacuation of civilians from Rafah to clear the way for a new offensive against Hamas. But it is not clear where those people could go. Israel’s next steps in the war could force such a breaking point.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Organizations: Hamas Locations: Egypt, Rafah, Egypt’s, Israel, Gaza

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken began a diplomatic push in the Middle East on Monday for a deal that would pause the war in the Gaza Strip and release the hostages there, even as a drone struck a military base used by American troops and allied forces in eastern Syria. Mr. Blinken, making his fifth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, met in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the first stop on a trip that will also include meetings in Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank. Speaking with the crown prince, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Mr. Blinken “underscored the importance of addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza and preventing further spread of the conflict,” the State Department said. It added that they discussed “an enduring end to the crisis in Gaza that provides lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Mohammed bin Salman, Blinken “, ” Organizations: West Bank, State Department Locations: Gaza, Syria, Israel, Riyadh, Saudi, Egypt, Qatar

To many people outside Gaza, the war flashes by as a doomscroll of headlines and casualty tolls and photos of screaming children, the bloody shreds of somebody else’s anguish. With every passing week, however, the light dims as those documenting the war leave, quit or die. Reporting from Gaza has come to seem pointlessly risky to some local journalists, who despair of moving the rest of the world to act. “I survived death multiple times and put myself in danger” to document the war, Ismail al-Dahdouh, a Gaza reporter, wrote in an Instagram post this month to announce he was quitting journalism. Yet a world “that doesn’t know the meaning of humanity” had not acted to stop it.

Persons: “, Ismail al, ” Locations: Gaza

American, British and European officials are pressuring Israel to let aid for Gaza transit through the Israeli port of Ashdod to help alleviate a metastasizing humanitarian crisis, according to six U.S. and European officials. Israel’s military responded to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by invading and declaring a siege on Gaza, which was already under a yearslong blockade. Humanitarian workers say vastly more aid is needed to meaningfully help Gaza’s 2.2 million residents amid dire shortages of food, water and supplies. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken pressed Israeli officials about allowing Gaza aid through the port of Ashdod when he was in Tel Aviv earlier this month, according to one U.S. official. That official and the others interviewed about the new aid proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken Locations: Israel, Gaza, Ashdod, Egypt, Tel Aviv

☆ After Strikes, Iran Says It Won’t Hold Back on Using Its Military Might
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Vivian Yee | Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The morning after Iranian attacks on neighboring Pakistan and Iraq, Iran’s defense minister vowed Wednesday that his country would “not set any limits” on using its missile capabilities against enemies whenever necessary. “We are a missile power in the world,” the minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, told reporters at a cabinet meeting, according to state media. “Wherever they want to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will react, and this reaction will definitely be proportionate, tough and decisive.”Iran has demonstrated its willingness to use its military might — even when it involves striking the territory of its allies and neighbors — with back-to-back attacks on Syria late on Monday, then Iraq and Pakistan on Tuesday. The strikes could further inflame a widening conflict across the Middle East.

Persons: Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, — Locations: Pakistan, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran, Syria

☆ Iran Adds Prison Time for Nobel Winner and Frees 2 Journalists on Bail
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Vivian Yee | Leily Nikounazar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Iranian regime sentenced Narges Mohammadi, the jailed human rights activist who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, to 15 more months in prison, her family said on Monday. The news came a day after Iran released the journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi on bail while they appeal their sentences, according to state media. They had been jailed for their coverage of a young woman whose death sparked a nationwide protest movement that challenged the country’s system of authoritarian clerical rule. Ms. Hamedi, 31, reported for the Iranian daily newspaper Shargh from the hospital where the young woman lay dying and shared a photo of her grieving relatives that went viral on social media. She was arrested days after Ms. Amini’s death, and Ms. Mohammadi, who had covered her funeral for the newspaper Hammihan, was arrested a week after that, as protests swept Iran.

Persons: Narges Mohammadi, Niloufar Hamedi, Mohammadi, Mahsa Amini, Hamedi, Amini’s Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Iran

For all the fears of an outbreak of fighting in the Middle East that could draw the United States, Israel and Iran into direct combat, a curious feature of the conflict so far is the care taken — in both Tehran and Washington — to avoid putting their forces into direct contact. No one knows how long that will last, American and European diplomats and other officials say. It is the most delicate of dances, rife with subtle signals, attacks and feints, and deniable action. The evidence of caution is piecemeal, but everywhere. That is considered the red line that could trigger military action against its underground nuclear complexes.

Persons: Washington — Locations: United States, Israel, Iran, Tehran, Washington, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon

Amid a barrage of airstrikes, Israel sharply expanded its evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in preparation for an expected ground invasion in the southern part of the territory. The new orders, coming three days after the collapse of a weeklong truce, sowed confusion and fear among Gaza residents, some of whom have already been displaced at least once before. Images from Gaza on Sunday showed plumes of dark smoke rising above a rubble-covered landscape and bloodied children wailing in dust-covered hospital wards. Mourners stood beside rows of bodies wrapped in white sheets. Late Sunday night, a military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel “continues and expands its ground operations against Hamas strongholds all across the Gaza Strip,” but did not elaborate.

Persons: Daniel Hagari, Israel “ Locations: Israel, Gaza

The Israeli prime minister’s office said the released hostages included a 12-year-old boy and multiple members of four other families. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government, which had offered to extend the pause by one day for every additional 10 hostages released. Under the initial deal, Hamas agreed to release 50 women and children taken hostage during the Oct. 7 attack. In return, Israel agreed to free 150 women and minors held in Israeli jails, among other terms. Before Monday, Hamas had released 39 Israeli hostages under the deal, while Israel had freed 117 Palestinian prisoners.

Persons: —, Israel, Daniel Hagari, “ We’re, ”, Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, John F, Kirby, we’ve, ” Mr, Diaa Rashwan, Rashwan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Thani, Isabel Kershner, Iyad Abuheweila, Erica L, Green, Edward Wong Organizations: West Bank, Associated Press, National Security Council, State Information Service, Hamas, Financial Times Locations: Israel, Gaza, West, Ramallah, Gaza City, Washington, United States, Egypt, Qatar, Thani, al

The deal came after an Israeli offer to continue the cease-fire by one day for every additional 10 hostages released, who would be exchanged for 30 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Hamas said it had received a list of three women and 30 minors that Israel would release in return on Monday. Dozens of Israeli soldiers as well as civilian Israeli men in their 70s and 80s are still being held captive in Gaza. The official said Hamas has said that in those cases, the mothers are being held by different groups, and it would take time to get them. Late Monday, Israel’s Army Radio, citing the prime minister’s office, reported that the government had received a list of hostages held by Hamas who are expected to be released on Tuesday.

Persons: Kibbutz Nir Oz, Sharon Alony Cunio, Emma, Yuli Cunio, David Cunio, Cunio’s Organizations: Hamas, Israel’s Army Locations: Israel, Gaza, Qatar

☆ Israel-Hamas War Hamas and Israel Open to Extension of Truce
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Isabel Kershner | Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Medics attended to the victims as police officers secured the scene of the shooting in Burlington. The families of the men identified them in a statement as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed. Mr. Awartani studies at Brown University, Mr. Abdalhamid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Mr. Ahmed at Trinity College in Connecticut. Mr. Ahmed was shot in the chest, and Mr. Abdalhamid had minor injuries, according to a statement from the families of the victims. “Why would anyone shoot kids who were wearing Palestinian kaffiyeh?” Marwan Awartani said in an interview.

Persons: Jason J, Eaton, Eaton’s, Jon Murad, Miro Weinberger, Murad, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan, Tahseen Ahmed, Abdalhamid, Ahmed, Awartani’s, Marwan Awartani, Hisham, Christina H, Paxson, ” Marwan Awartani, Nikolas P, Kerest, Husam Zomlot, Biden, Bernie Sanders, Vermont, ” Livia Albeck, Ripka Organizations: Police, University of Vermont, Burlington, ”, Burlington police, Ramallah Friends School, West Bank, Brown University, Mr, Haverford College, Trinity College in, Palestinian Authority, District of, Justice Department’s Civil, Division, Islamic Relations, Defamation League, Twitter Locations: Burlington, Burlington , Vt, Ramallah, Pennsylvania, Trinity College in Connecticut, U.S, District of Vermont, Israel, Palestinian, United Kingdom, Illinois, Burlington , VT

The young men told relatives that they were talking in a mixture of English and Arabic before the gunman shot them, according to a family spokeswoman. Relatives said they feared that the young men were targeted for being Arab Americans. The suspect answered the door, “stepped toward them with his palms up,” Mr. Murad said, and told the agents, “I’ve been waiting for you.”When the agents asked him why, Mr. Eaton requested a lawyer. A public defender assigned as co-counsel for Mr. Eaton, Margaret Jansch, declined to comment on the details of the case. “These three young men are incredible,” he said, “and they are committed to building incredible lives.”Anna Betts contributed reporting from New York, and Siobhan Neela-Stock from Salisbury, Vt. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Persons: Eaton, ”, Aren’t, ’, Jon Murad, Jason J, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid, Tahseen Aliahmad, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan, Awartani, Ali Ahmad, Abdalhamid, Relatives, “, Radi Tamini, Mr, Murad, ” Mr, “ I’ve, Margaret Jansch, Mary Reed, Reed, Jason Eaton, Sarah George, Rich Price, Awartani’s, ” Anna Betts, Siobhan Neela, Kitty Bennett Organizations: “, West Bank, Burlington, Burlington police, North Prospect, ., Reuters, Brown University, Trinity College, Haverford College . Friends, United, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, Daily, University of Idaho Locations: Burlington , Vt, Vermont, Burlington, United States, Salisbury , Vt, Syracuse, New York

A third group of Gaza Strip hostages, including a 4-year-old American girl whose parents were killed in the Hamas raids on Israel, was freed on Sunday, raising the prospect more captives could be set free and a fragile truce extended. The 17 hostages released by Hamas, who were seized when the militants raided Israel on Oct. 7, included three Thai citizens, one Russian and the little girl Avigail Idan, a dual American-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped from a kibbutz. She marked her fourth birthday in captivity in Gaza on Friday. “Thank God she’s home,” President Biden said to reporters in Nantucket, Mass., where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday. “I wish I was there to hold her.”Much hinged on the latest release of hostages, who were exchanged for 39 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on the third day of a four-day truce.

Persons: Avigail Idan, God she’s, Biden, “ Organizations: ” Locations: Gaza, Israel, Nantucket

The Israeli military would not answer questions about whether its forces shot and killed Palestinians trying to go back to their homes. Ahead of the cease-fire, Israel had warned Gazans that it would prohibit them from trying to move from southern Gaza to the north during the cessation in hostilities. On Friday morning, Kareem al-Nasir, 30, joined thousands of other Palestinians trying to return from central Gaza to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip. But as they tried to make their way along a road on foot, he said, Israeli forces nearby opened fire on them. “No one feels safe,” said Mohammad al-Masri, a local journalist who last week fled his home in northern Gaza to Khan Younis.

Persons: Gazans, Israel, ”, Omar Shakir, Kareem al, Nasir, “, Mr, Khan Younis, Nayrouz, ” Ms, Qarmout, Wael Abu Omar, Mohammad al, Masri, ” Vivian Yee Organizations: Human Rights Watch, “, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Gaza City, Deir al, Beit Hanoun, Palestinian, Rafah

The following day, Lena and her family went back to the border — their fourth trip — as the first aid trucks were scheduled to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Hoping they would finally get to cross, the family waited at the border for hours, along with hundreds of others. Around 4:30 p.m., there was still no movement and no officials at the gates, Lena said. Over the next several days, Lena’s daughters in Gaza were “holding on by a thread,” Lena wrote in a message. Lena said she frequently called the State Department, but they could not tell her when she might be able to leave.

Persons: Lena, —, Lena’s, ”, “, “ I’m Organizations: State Department, Gaza Locations: Gaza, Rafah, U.S

The militants, Israeli security officials say, have spent the better part of 16 years building a vast command complex under the hospital, and setting up similar bases underneath other medical facilities in the enclave. Hamas denies doing anything of the sort, and hospital officials say the facility houses nothing but the sick and injured and the medical professionals dedicated to helping them. In the estimation of most Palestinians, the obsession with Al Shifa is evidence of Israel’s willingness to target even the most helpless civilians without justification. The hospital, Israeli officials said, was spared in past Israeli operations out of concern for civilian life, but at the cost of leaving whatever may be underneath it intact. They say that the complex under Al Shifa is one of the principal Israeli targets of the war and will not be left untouched, despite the growing international outcry to spare Al Shifa and other hospitals.

Persons: Al Shifa, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, ”, Chuck Freilich, “, —, Freilich, “ it’s Organizations: Israel Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ Tens of Thousands Flee Northern Gaza Strip, as Israel’s Invasion Advances
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tens of thousands of desperate civilians, some waving white flags, have fled the northern Gaza Strip this week, marching along a road pocked with airstrike craters and lined with ruined buildings, as Israeli officials reported that their troops had pushed into the heart of the densely populated Hamas stronghold of Gaza City. The United Nations estimated that through Tuesday, 40,000 people had walked out of northern Gaza along the only route south, after Israeli officials told residents of the besieged enclave to evacuate “for their own safety,” and thousands more streamed out on Wednesday. The evacuations have accelerated in part because of the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, with food and clean water now nearly nonexistent. As the ground invasion has expanded, the Israeli military said it was offering a daily window of time in which it would guarantee safe passage for civilians. News photographs as well as a video released by the Israeli military on Wednesday, the fifth day the evacuation corridor was open, showed men, women and children trudging past half-destroyed buildings.

Persons: Yoav Gallant, Salah Al, —, Saladin — Organizations: The United Nations, Crusaders Locations: Gaza, Gaza City, “, West, Jerusalem

They knew it would be perilous, but Jinan Al Salya and her family decided to heed Israeli directions to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip and head south. They fled their car before a shell hit it, sending it and their luggage up in flames, Ms. Al Salya, 20, said in a telephone interview. “I’m in total shock.” Ms. Al Salya said she believed the shell that hit the car had been fired by an Israeli tank; the Israeli military declined to comment on the incident. Despite intensifying Israeli ground operations, continued air and artillery strikes, a mounting death toll and a critical lack of resources, hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza. David Satterfield, U.S. special envoy for Mideast humanitarian issues, estimated on Saturday that at least 350,000 to 400,000 people remained in northern Gaza.

Persons: Al Salya, ”, “, Ms, Ahmed Ferwana, Al Shati, Ferwana, Iyad, David Satterfield Organizations: Jinan Al, The New York Times Locations: Jinan, Jinan Al Salya, Gaza, Rafah, Egypt, Jabaliya, Gaza City, Swiss

Eventually he found a ride, but he and the driver were terrified while driving from central Gaza on the enclave’s empty streets. Family members of those who could evacuate were sometimes barred from leaving, because they did not have foreign citizenship or the necessary documents, forcing people into difficult decisions. “We just want one thing: Help us to leave Gaza,” Ms. Abu Middain said. Mkhaimar Abu Sada, 58, an associate professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, was accompanying his two sons, both in their 20s, at the Rafah crossing on Thursday. He said they had American citizenship, but that he was not allowed to leave because he has only an American green card.

Persons: ” Ala, ” Ala Al Husseini, Al Husseini, Israel, “, ”, Hisham Adwan, Al Qahera, Adala Abu Middain, Maha, Ms, Abu Middain, Matthew Miller, Mkhaimar Abu Sada, Lena Beseiso, Iyad Abuheweila, Vivian Yee, Anna Betts Organizations: American Embassy, State Department, Al, Azhar University Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, “, ”, ” Ala Al, Austrian, Cairo, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, American

Yet over the last three weeks of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Rafah has become the focus of heated negotiations, a place where many people, both powerful and powerless, have pinned their waning hopes. So far, nothing and no one has been able to come out of Gaza. Aid trucks and army tanks lined the dusty road leading to the crossing. On Tuesday, 83 trucks arrived in Gaza, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing. There is still a chance that an agreement could come together for people with foreign passports to leave.

Persons: we’ve, Mostafa Madbouly, Wael Abu Omar, David M, ”, Israel, ’, Madbouly, Mustafa Mouftah, Mr, Satterfield, Biden, Hiba, Iyad Abuheweila Organizations: Gaza’s General Authority, ”, European Union, U.S, United Locations: Cairo, Rafah, Egypt, Gaza, Israel, North, United States, Egyptian, El Arish

☆ First Group Has Left Gaza Since the War Began
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

After three weeks of thwarted hopes and intensive diplomatic negotiations, the first group of people to evacuate Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7 was beginning to arrive in Egypt. Thousands of foreign passport holders and people affiliated with international organizations are set to evacuate to Egypt starting on Wednesday. Several seriously injured Palestinians arrived on Wednesday, Egyptian state TV and a local medical official said, and hundreds of foreign passport holders were moving through checkpoints at the Rafah border crossing. More were to follow in the coming days, according to Gazan authorities and Western diplomats. The agreement to allow them to cross came together late on Tuesday in talks that have been continuing among Israel, Egypt, Hamas, the United States and Qatar.

Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel, Egypt, Rafah, United States, Qatar

Search resuls for: "Vivian Yee"

25 mentions found