Israel says strikes will dismantle Hamas as Palestinian death toll rises By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and ARI RABINOVITCH, Reuters

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Israel said on Tuesday it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight in strikes on Gaza and indicated that it had no intention of easing its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave. The United States urged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, trapped in a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of intense Israeli attacks. But there appeared to be little prospect of a ceasefire any time soon in the bloodiest episode in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. The Palestinian health ministry said more than 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza by two weeks of Israeli air strikes unleashed in response to a Hamas attack. The Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people—mostly civilians—in a single day. Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women who were among the more than 200 hostages taken during the group's Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released. Israeli tanks and troops are massed on the border between Israel and the Hamas-ruled enclave awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion—an operation that will be complicated by concerns over the hostages. The Israeli military said it had hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders. Among the targets hit was a tunnel that allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea and Hamas command centers in mosques, it said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Wide areas of Gaza have been flattened by Israeli bombs, forcing more than one million residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the territory. With food, clean water, medicine and fuel fast running out, the United Nations and aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and pleaded for supplies to be allowed in. Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel had no intention of curbing its strikes. "We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling," Halevi said in a statement. "We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south," he added. "Troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now." Medical officials in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed or wounded overnight across the enclave, mostly in southern Gaza, due to the Israeli bombing. At least 15 houses were destroyed, the officials said. Residents said an Israeli missile hit a petrol station in Khan Younis, where workers, families, and others who fled the eastern side of the city were gathered. Several were killed or wounded, they said. "This is a petrol station and there is solar panel power here, so people come to charge their devices and fill water. They bombed them in their sleep," said Abdallah Abu Al-Atta, who lives by the petrol station. More than 40 medical centers stopped operations after they ran out of fuel and after some of them were damaged by Israeli bombing, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said. No green light Foreign governments have expressed concern that the conflict could ignite the whole of the Middle East. Already clashes have taken place in the West Bank and along the Lebanon-Israel border. The ruling emir of Qatar, which has tried to mediate between Israel and Hamas, urged the international community to rein in Israel in its fight against Hamas. "We say enough. Israel shouldn't be granted an unconditional green light and unrestricted authorization to kill," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in a speech to Gulf state's Shura council. Support for Israel came from French President Emmanuel Macron, who landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of Israel's war cabinet. "We are linked to Israel through mourning," Macron said on social media, saying that 30 French people were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks and nine were still missing or held hostage. US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the two hostages, and also underscored the need to sustain "a continuous flow" of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in a telephone call with Netanyahu, the White House said. In public, the United States has said Israel has the right to defend itself, but two sources said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis. A US priority is to gain time for negotiations to free other hostages, said the sources, who spoke before the hostage releases were announced on Monday. Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, Biden said: "We should have those hostages released and then we can talk." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned on Tuesday to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, though it was unclear what action, if any, might be taken by the council, whose five veto-wielding powers—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France—are divided. — Reuters

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more