ਹਮਾਸ-ਇਜ਼ਰਾਈਲ ਯੁੱਧ, 2023: ਇੱਕ ਵਿਸ਼ਲੇਸ਼ਣ

Heavy fighting continues in Jabalia, where Israeli forces have targeted residential buildings and an ambulance. Battles rage in Gaza’s north with Palestinian groups targeting invading Israeli troops in small-arms ambushes and with rocket fire and IEDs.
The International Rescue Committee says the “scale of the crisis defies imagination” in southern Gaza as Israeli ground forces invade Rafah and mass displacement leaves people in need of food and water.
A major fissure in Israel’s war cabinet is exposed with Defence Minister Gallant challenging PM Netanyahu’s unspecified plans for post-war Gaza.
At least 35,272 people have been killed and 79,205 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens still held captive.
ICJ is hearing South Africa's new appeal on Gaza

Spain, Norway and Ireland on Wednesday, said, that they would recognise an independent Palestinian state, a rebuke to Israel over its war in Gaza and its decades of occupation of Palestinian territories, The New York Times reported.
Over 140 countries and the Holy See have recognised a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Israel has strongly condemned international attempts to recognise a Palestinian state and emphasised that Israel needs to negotiate directly with Palestinian leaders on a permanent solution.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that establishing a Palestinian state would be an 'existential danger' to Israel, The New York Times reported.
Most Western European countries and the US have not as according to them, the recognition should be achieved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and while they support a two-state solution, unilateral measures by third parties will not advance that goal.
Israel's Foreign Minister, Israel Katz sent a clear and unequivocal message to Ireland and Norway stressing, "Israel will not remain silent."
Israel's foreign minister instructed the immediate recall of Israel's ambassadors to Ireland and Norway for consultations in light of this development.
I have instructed the immediate recall of Israel's ambassadors to Ireland and Norway for consultations in light of these countries' decisions to recognise a Palestinian state. I'm sending a clear and unequivocal message to Ireland and Norway: Israel will not remain silent in the face of those undermining its sovereignty and endangering its security,' he said in a post shared on X.
Foreign Minister Katz emphasised that the decision sends a message to them that 'Terrorism pays'.
"Today's decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays," he said.
The Israeli foreign minister highlighted that these countries are choosing to reward Hamas and Iran by recognising a Palestinian state.
'After the Hamas terror organisation carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state,' he said in his post on X.
Calling it a 'distorted step', Katz said that this would be an injustice to the memory of the victims of the October 7 attack, adding that it undermines the chance for peace.
"This distorted step by these countries is an injustice to the memory of the victims of 7/10, a blow to efforts to return the 128 hostages, and a boost to Hamas and Iran's jihadists, which undermines the chance for peace and questions Israel's right to self-defence," he said.
"Israel will not remain silent -- there will be further severe consequences," Katz stressed, adding that if Spain follows through on its intention to recognise a Palestinian state, a similar step will be taken against it.
"The Irish-Norwegian folly does not deter us; we are determined to achieve our goals: restoring security to our citizens, dismantling Hamas, and bringing the hostages home. There are no more just causes than these," he said.

The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' top judicial body, has ordered Israel to pause all operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces say they have recovered the bodies of three more hostages killed in the initial Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

Diminished but not deterred, Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities.

Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency — and a growing feeling among many Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This was the subtext of a rebellion in recent days by two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s three-man War Cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political rival — who demanded that he come up with detailed postwar plans.
They supported Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, including one of the heaviest bombing campaigns in recent history, ground operations that obliterated entire neighborhoods and border restrictions that the U.N.'s World Food Program says pushed parts of the territory into famine.


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But now the two retired generals fear a prolonged, costly re-occupation of Gaza, from which Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. They are also opposed to a withdrawal that would leave Hamas in control or lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.



Instead, they have put forth alternatives that many Israelis see as wildly unrealistic. Hamas, meanwhile, has proposed its own postwar plan.

Here’s a look at four ways this war might end.

ULL-SCALE MILITARY OCCUPATION​

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, June 25, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Netanyahu has promised a “total victory” that would remove Hamas from power, dismantle its military capabilities and return the scores of hostages it still holds from the attack that triggered the war.

He has said victory could come within weeks if Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Rafah, which Israel portrays as the last Hamas stronghold.
Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general and former deputy commander of the Gaza division, says that’s only the beginning. He said Israel would need to remain in control to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

“If you don’t drain the swamp, you cannot deal with the mosquitoes. And drain the swamp means a complete change in the education system, and dealing with local leadership and not with a terror organization,” he said. “This is a generational process. It’s not going to happen in a day.”

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who hold the key to his remaining in power, have called for permanent occupation, “voluntary emigration” of large numbers of Palestinians to anywhere that will have them, and rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Most Israelis are opposed, pointing to the immense costs of stationing thousands of troops in the territory that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. As an occupying power, Israel would likely be held responsible for providing health, education and other services. It’s unclear to what extent international donors would step in to fund reconstruction amid ongoing hostilities.

There’s also no guarantee such an occupation would eliminate Hamas.

Israel was in full control of Gaza when Hamas was established in the late 1980s. Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon coincided with the rise of Hezbollah, and Israeli troops routinely battle militants in the West Bank, which it has controlled since 1967.

A LIGHTER OCCUPATION, AIDED BY ‘UNICORNS’​

FILE - Palestinians line up for a meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. The United Nations said Tuesday, May 21, 2024, it suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity. It also said no aid trucks entered in the past two days via a floating pier set up by the U.S. for sea deliveries. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)
Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain security control over Gaza but delegate civilian administration to local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank. He has suggested that Arab and other countries assist with governance and rebuilding. But so far, none have shown interest.
No Palestinians are known to have offered to cooperate with the Israeli military, perhaps because Hamas has said they would be treated as collaborators, a veiled death threat.

Efforts to reach out to Palestinian businessmen and powerful families “have ended in catastrophe,” says Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University and a former military intelligence officer.

He says Israelis seeking such allies are searching for “unicorns” — something that does not exist.

Arab states have also roundly rejected this scenario — even the United Arab Emirates, which is one of the few to formally recognize Israel and has close ties with it.

“The UAE refuses to be involved in any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said this month.

A GRAND BARGAIN​

FILE - Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s War Cabinet and the top political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaves a meeting in the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the Capitol in Washington, on March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant makes a joint statement with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, after their meeting about Israel’s military operation in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Dec. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
Instead, Arab states have coalesced around a U.S. proposal aimed at resolving the decades-old conflict and transforming the Middle East.

Under this plan, a reformed Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza with the assistance of Arab and Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia, which would normalize relations with Israel in return for a U.S. defense pact and help in building a civilian nuclear program.
But U.S. and Saudi officials say that hinges on Israel committing to a credible path to eventual Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu has ruled out such a scenario — as have Gallant and Gantz — saying it would reward Hamas and result in a militant-run state on Israel’s borders.

Palestinians say ending Israel’s decades-long occupation and creating a fully independent state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — is the only way to end the cycle of bloodshed.

Hamas has said it would accept a two-state solution on at least an interim basis, but its political program still calls for the “full liberation of Palestine,” including what is now Israel. Hamas has also said it must be part of any postwar settlement.
A DEAL WITH HAMAS

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos of their loved ones during a performance calling for their return in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Hamas has proposed a very different grand bargain — one that, ironically enough, might be more palatable to Israelis than the U.S.-Saudi deal.

The militant group has proposed a phased agreement in which it would release all of the hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — including senior militants — as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a lengthy cease-fire and reconstruction.

That would almost certainly leave Hamas in control of Gaza and potentially allow it to rebuild its military capabilities. Hamas might even claim victory, despite the extensive death and destruction suffered by Palestinian civilians since Oct. 7.

But thousands of Israeli protesters have taken to the streets in recent weeks calling on their leaders to take such a deal, because it’s probably the only way to get the hostages back.

They accuse Netanyahu of standing in the way of such an agreement because it could lead his far-right allies to bring down his government, potentially ending his political career and exposing him to prosecution on corruption charges.

Supporters of such a deal say there would be other benefits for Israel, beyond freeing the hostages.

The low-intensity conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah would likely die down as regional tensions ease, allowing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to return to their homes. Israel could finally reckon with the security failures that led to Oct. 7. And it could prepare for another inevitable round of fighting. Milshtein says Israel should adopt Hamas’ concept of a “hudna” — a prolonged period of strategic calm.
“Hudna doesn’t mean a peace agreement,” he said. “It’s a cease-fire that you will exploit in order to make yourself stronger and then to attack and surprise your enemy.”

The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah — but stopped short of ordering a full cease-fire. The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' top judicial body, has ordered Israel to pause all operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces say they have recovered the bodies of three more hostages killed in the initial Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

Medical situation
G7 leaders say the UN Palestinian refugee agency must be allowed to work unhindered in Gaza in a draft of an end-of-summit statement seen by AFP Friday. “We agree it is critical that UNRWA and other UN organisations and agencies’ distribution networks be fully able to deliver aid to those who need it most, fulfilling their mandate effectively,” the Group of Seven nations said.
Israel bombed UNRWA school in central Gaza, killing at least 39 displaced Palestinians
In his interview, Hossam Abu Safiyya says the conditions faced by the malnourished children in Gaza could be reversed with the right level of support and supplies. If we had the minimum amount of medical supplies, we could have saved lived, we could have addressed these malnutrition cases.
However, due to the lack of necessities, these malnutrition cases develop into further complication. Many of these children either die or suffer chronic diseases. The Israeli occupation forces have laid tight siege to the entire Gaza Strip, namely the northern part. We are reeling under famine, we are left with nothing but some quantities of white flour. We do not have any livestock, any meat, any protein and these conditions require treatment in addition to certain nutrition, like fat, proteins, carbohydrates, etc.
However, we are left with nothing – no medical supplies, no food items, nothing but flour. That’s why we are running out of options. This is a very dire experience. Two months ago, in the north part of Gaza Strip we lost more than 26 children due to malnutrition.Children are very delicate; their conditions require immediate medical intervention and the longer they remain in this condition the more threat they are faced with. We are in a dire need for immediate response, immediate delivery of medical supplies and food items. The northern part of the Gaza Strip is totally besieged. We appeal for an immediate delivery of medical supplies and all forms of food and nutrition – from fat to protein to baby milk to other food items. If we don’t receive any assistance in the coming days, the number of fatalities among children will no doubt rise.
Hossam Abu Safiyya, the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, says: As a matter of fact, the current condition is really dire. It is dangerous, beyond any [imagination]. We ran out of all medical supplies and after the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital, all that was left was massive destruction and total devastation. The Israeli soldiers willfully destroyed the main generators feeding Kamal Adwan Hospital. The hospital is running at a minimum level. Due to the shortage of medical supplies, as well as the total absence of fuel, we are not able to fully function. However, we’ve resumed some functions like the paediatric units. As a result of all this, many children die as a result of poor nutrition. We’ve documented many cases where children were suffering acute malnutritio They were put in the maximum care unit and we’ve administered a number of first-aid operations. However, we are running out of options simply because these cases require certain medication, certain baby milk and certain nutrition. The entire part of the Gaza Strip is still besieged from all directions.

Critical Education situation
Israel’s targeting of educational institutes across Gaza is “shameful as we consider the global education crisis where we see that more than 250 million children are out of school globally”, according to Talal al-Hathal, Director of the Al Fakhoora Programme at Education Above All foundation in Qatar.

Hundreds of educational institutes in Gaza, including schools run by the UN, have been bombed, and students and teachers killed. The attacks have ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students.

“The war will undoubtedly leave educational institutions, access to critical infrastructure, and the regularity of the education process in Gaza in a worse state than before the war,” al-Hathal told Al Jazeera.

“With almost 400 school buildings in Gaza sustaining damage, the war has exacerbated the plight of the educational sector. This damage is compounded by the internal displacement with these schools now serving as shelters and hosting nearly four times their intended capacity, further burdening the already strained educational infrastructure.”

The G7 group of countries announced a plan on Thursday to use frozen Russian assets to finance a $50bn loan for Ukraine as Kyiv continues its desperate campaign to stop its bigger neighbour’s forces from advancing further, 28 months into Moscow’s war.

The announcement came as leaders of the grouping, which consists of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, France and the European Union, met at an annual summit held in Puglia (Apulia), Italy.

The Ukrainian military said its forces were fighting fierce battles near Chasiv Yar, a strategic hilltop settlement in Donetsk, and the situation was “tense”. A civilian was killed further south on the front line near Pokrovsk, while another man was killed by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region.

Russian journalist Valery Kozhin, who worked for Russia’s state-run NTV television channel, was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a Russian-occupied village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian news agencies reported, quoting the mayor of the town of Horlivka near where the incident took place. NTV reported earlier that three of its staff, including Kozhin, had been injured and taken to hospital.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia’s advance in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region was slowing and the front line was stabilising after some allies lifted restrictions on Kyiv’s use of donated weapons inside Russian territory.

United States’ President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion and moving Ukraine closer to NATO membership.
Group of Seven (G7) nations meeting in Italy agreed to provide financial support of $50bn to Ukraine by the end of the year, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said. The deal will be funded from profits on frozen Russian assets.

Ukraine also signed a 10-year security agreement with Japan. “In 2024, Japan will provide Ukraine with $4.5 billion and will continue to support us throughout the agreement’s entire 10-year term,” Zelenskyy said on X. The deal, he added, envisages security and defence assistance, humanitarian aid, technical and financial cooperation.
The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR said in an annual report that about 750,000 people became newly displaced inside Ukraine last year as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a total of 3.7 million internally displaced people registered by the end of 2023. The number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers increased by more than 275,000 to six million, it said.
Human rights organisation Global Rights Compliance said in a report that Russian forces deliberately used starvation of civilians as a military tactic during the 85-day siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in 2022. The report found Russian forces “systematically attacked objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population” such as food, water, energy and access to healthcare, and also cut off evacuation routes and blocked humanitarian aid from coming in.
Russian prosecutors said they would send Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in March 2023, for trial, accusing the 32-year-old of collecting information for the US CIA about a Russian tank factory. Gershkovich, who is being held in custody, has denied wrongdoing. His employer said the charge was “false and baseless” and built on lies. Biden called his detention “totally illegal”. Prosecutors did not say when the trial would start.

The judge in the trial of director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, two leading figures in Russian theatre, agreed to a prosecution request to close the trial to the public and the media over unspecified “threats” to witnesses. The two were arrested in May last year and accused of “justifying terrorism” over their production of an award-winning play about Russian women who married Islamic State fighters. The women have pleaded not guilty and say the play was about preventing terrorism.

German Moyzhes, a 39-year-old lawyer with dual Russian-German citizenship, was detained in Saint Petersburg with some Russian independent media reporting that he was suspected of treason. The German Federal Foreign Office told the Reuters news agency that its embassy in Moscow was in contact with Moyzhes’s family. There was no official word from Russia on the detention.

Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, accompanied by a tug boat and a fuel ship, arrived in Cuba for a five-day visit seen as a show of force by Moscow amid rising tension over its invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy told a news conference in Italy that Chinese President Xi Jinping had given him his assurance in a phone call that China would not sell weapons to Russia. Speaking in English, Zelenskyy said Xi had told him that “he will not sell any weapon to Russia”. Zelenskyy did not say when the conversation took place. The last publicly known phone call between Zelenskyy and Xi was in April 2023.

The Dutch Ministry of Defence said Kyiv’s allies will send Ukraine about 350 million euros ($376.74m) worth of 152mm shells.

Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair said the country would start sending a total of about 2,000 surplus unarmed rockets to Ukraine as well as a selection of other weapons.

Heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters continues in northern and southern Gaza with at least six civilians, including children, killed in a strike on a home in Rafah.
No progress in has been made in ceasefire talks but Hamas remains ready to “deal positively” with any proposal that includes a “permanent ceasefire”, a senior official says
The Arab League, the European Union, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar slam Israel’s decision to legalize five settlements as an Israeli minister promised to bring "a million new settlers into the occupied West Bank.
At least 37,877 people have been killed and 86,969 wounded in Israel War on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks is estimated at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

29 civilians have been killed in Gaza by Israel bombing today

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuously being flaked for Hamas war and non release of captives. To hold on to his post he is regularly increasing butchery on helpless Palestinians and destroying their houses, schools and hospitals. This has also earned him global flak as well for his inhuman actions.
Earlier Netanyhu claimed that Hamas Chief has been killed but now he said it was still not clear whether Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif and another senior commander were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza on Saturday but he vowed to pursue Israel's war aims to the end.

"Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas," he told a televised news conference, adding that chances of an agreement to return Israeli hostages would be improved by increasing military pressure on Hamas.

The brief news conference was called after the Israeli military said it had conducted a strike based on what it said was precise intelligence, targeting Deif and senior Hamas commander Rafa Salama in the city of Khan Younis.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Wednesday it was his country’s “duty” to avenge the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, as Iran declared three days of national mourning.
“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our home,” Khamenei said in a statement, adding that Israel has “prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself.”

Hamas’s military arm, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Ismail Haniyeh’s killing in Iran “takes the battle to new dimensions and will have major repercussions on the entire region.” In a statement, the group said Israel committed a miscalculation by expanding “the circle of aggression” with the alleged attack, which it said violated Iran’s sovereignty.
It added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “blinded by megalomania, is leading the occupation entity into the abyss.”

Qatar, Turkey and Jordan strongly condemned the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran on Wednesday.
Haniyeh’s killing is “a heinous crime, a dangerous escalation, and a blatant violation of international law,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Haniyeh was based in Qatar, and the Persian Gulf country has been a primary negotiator in the cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza and end the war there.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned both Israel’s attack Tuesday on Lebanon and the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

The Biden administration was not warned of the attack against Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh ahead of time, nor did it have any part in it, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken told Channel News Asia in an interview in Singapore.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed Wednesday by an explosive device planted in a Tehran guest house two months before the explosion a source tells CNN. Haniyeh was one of three high-profile figures in Iran-backed militant groups to be killed in recent weeks.

A strike last month in Gaza killed Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing and an architect of the October 7 attacks, Israel said Thursday. And a strike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday killed a senior Hizbollah Commander..

In Iran’s capital, thousands gathered to mourn Haniyeh today before his coffin was sent to Qatar for his burial. Iran and Hamas have blamed the assassination on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed o avenge Haniyeh. And in Beirut, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel has crossed "red lines" and that regional conflicts are entering a “new phase.”

Multiple Israeli attacks on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City kill at least 17 and injure dozens. Israeli forces carry out two air attacks and multiple raids on Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, killing local commanders and fighters with the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Netanyahu shoots back against reports and criticism that he is sabotaging a Gaza ceasefire agreement to sustain his troubled leadership. Negotiators return to Israel after hitting an impasse in Cairo.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says that Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range” projectile fired from outside his residence.
A ship is hit with a missile after two separate attacks off Yemen’s Aden, indicating the latest Houthi strike amid major pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Yemen.
Hamas says it has initiated a broad consultation process to select a new leader following the assassination of its political chief Haniyeh in Tehran.
Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli attacks on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, August 3, 2024 [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]

The US is sending more warships and other military assets to the Middle East as the Iran-led axis of resistance is coordinating a response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr.
Israel has continued its relentless bombardment in Gaza, killing at least five people, including three children, in one attack in Gaza City. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has announced that Israeli negotiators have been authorised to travel to Cairo to resume Gaza ceasefire talks.

Middle East officials have joined tens of thousands of people attending Haniyeh’s funeral in the Qatari capital Doha. Across the region, people also rallied in multiple countries – including Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan and Somalia – to pay tribute to Haniyeh. Turkey and Israel have intensified their war of words, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan calling his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz a “monument to the insolence and impudence of the genocidal Netanyahu government”.
Destroyed buildings in Gaza, as the Israeli military continues to pound the besieged enclave to devastating effect, August 1, 2024 [Amir Cohen/Reuters]

The Pentagon has announced that the U.S. will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region. The announcement was made Friday, a day after United States President Joe Biden said he’s “very concerned” that the violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that the killing of a top Hamas leader in Iran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Israel Hamas War..

Biden said he’d had a “very direct” conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. “We have the basis for a cease-fire. He should move on it and they should move on it now.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among the growing voices internationally calling for a cease-fire in recent days, saying that it was the only way to begin to break the cycle of violence and suffering.
Netanyahu has said his country was determined to win nothing less than total victory” against Hamas. He also said that Israel hoped for a cease-fire soon and was working for one.

The assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday and senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut on Tuesday risks esclating the fighting into an all out regional war, with Iran also threatening to respond after the attack on its territory. Israel has vowed to kill Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct 7 attack on Israel that sparked the wa

The Israeli attacks that killed nine people, including a local Hamas commander, near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, go here. Call for collective global action in support of Palestinian prisoners,
Multiple Israeli attacks on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City kill at least 17 and injure dozens. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says that Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range” projectile fired from outside his residence.
Israeli forces carry out two air attacks and multiple raids on Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, killing local commanders and fighters with the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Netanyahu shoots back against reports and criticism that he is sabotaging a Gaza ceasefire agreement to sustain his troubled leadership. Negotiators return to Israel after hitting an impasse in Cairo.
A ship is hit with a missile after two separate attacks off Yemen’s Aden, indicating the latest Houthi strike amid major pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Yemen.
Hamas says it has initiated a broad consultation process to select a new leader following the assassination of its political chief Haniyeh in Tehran.

An intense Israeli raid of the occupied West Bank’s Jenin is ongoing, with at least four Palestinians killed so far according to the Health Ministry, including by an army drone strike. An earlier Israeli raid on the city of Tubas killed four people. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that at least 40 people were killed and 71 injured in Israeli attack over the past 24 hours. The UN’s Human Rights chief Volker Turk and EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell have called for urgent de-escalation in the Middle East over fears that the Gaza war could spread. So far 39000 Hamas people have been killed and the causalities are increasing as Israel goes on Bombing, camps, schools and hospitals disregarding all human values. Attacks on Israel may be coming on soon as the warning of the same are being given. US camps in Iraq has also been attacked with 2 missiles so far. Action of Iranians are yet a secret which has confused both Israel and US which has sent warships in to the zone to retaliate without delays. There is a likly hood of war expansion in West Asia sooner or later.
Child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip jumped almost 50 percent in July compared with June, with more than 650 Palestinian children now suffering from “acute malnutrition” in the enclave, the UN reports.
At least 39,623 people were killed and 91,469 wounded in Israel Hamas war. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

Thousands of Palestinians are forced to flee Khan Younis once again, as Israeli forces launch a new assault on southern Gaza. The Israeli army attacks some 30 sites after issuing new evacuation orders for the city’s exhausted residents.
Leaders of Qatar, Egypt and the United States have invited Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire talks on August 15 as regional tension grows amid an anticipated retaliatory strike over Israel’s assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah officials. Israel has accepted the invitation to attend the proposed talks in either Cairo or Doha, while Hamas has yet to respond.
At least 39,699 people have been killed and 91,722 wounded in the war. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

90+ killed in Gaza school in Israel bombing. Israel claims it has destroyed control center of Hamas. One wonder how killing of near 40000 civilians justify the arrest of abduction/killing of 1200 Israelis. It is inhuman butchery and nothing else which the world has failed to stop with the most powerful being party to it and cannot escape the blame.

Israeli military orders Palestinians living in more areas of battered Khan Younis to immediately evacuate as it prepares to “act forcefully”.
A rocket fired from Gaza fell into the sea off Tel Aviv as Hamas announces its first attack on the city in months. An Al Jazeera investigation strongly suggests that Israel’s attack o al Tabin school in Gaza City – which killed over 100 Palestinians – was “deliberately” timed to maximise civilian casualties.
At least 10 people killed and several wounded in an overnight Israeli strike on a home in eastern Khan Younis. Hamas called on the US, Qatar and Egypt to submit a plan to implement the ceasefire proposal put forward by President Biden instead of holding “more rounds of negotiations” and discussing new proposals for Gaza.
At least 39,929 people have been killed and 92,240 wounded in Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that Israeli forces have killed 18 Palestinians in the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip since this morning. Gaza’s Health Ministry says a ceasefire is necessary for a polio vaccination campaign to succeed.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has confirmed that a 10-month-old baby in Gaza is now paralysed due to the virus. It is the first case in more than 25 years.
US envoy to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has urged calm in the Middle East as she told the UN Security Council a ceasefire and captive release deal is “now in sight”.
At least over 40 thousand have been killed and 93,144 wounded in Israel Hamas wr. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

Successive Israel eacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just in August, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the top U.N. humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.
U.S. Vice President Kamla Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war on Gaza where the International Rescue Committee says the polio virus has been circulating for the first time in a quarter-century because of the destruction of hospitals and water infrastructure, along with overcrowded living conditions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office says a delegation from the country has arrived in Cairo to resume efforts to salvage a cease-fire deal. The talks are being mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. A crucial sticking point involves Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed Israel, killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted around 250. About 110 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.