Turkey condemns attack on Gaza media building
The communications director to Turkey's president tweeted that Israel's targeting of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera offices in the Gaza Strip were a blow on the freedom of press.
The airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. (AFP)
Thousands rally across Europe to back Palestinians
Thousands of protesters marched in support of Palestinians on Saturday in major European cities including London, Berlin, Madrid and Paris, as the worst violence in years raged between Israel and militants in Gaza.
In London, several thousand protesters carrying placards reading "Stop Bombing Gaza" and chanting "Free Palestine" converged on Marble Arch, near the British capital's Hyde Park, to march towards the Israeli embassy. (AFP)
BREAKING | Israel has warned residents of upscale Gaza City neighborhood to leave their homes
"We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP's bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit,"AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said.
US tells Israel to ensure safety of journalists after Gaza strike
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Saturday that the United States had told Israel to ensure the "safety and security of journalists" after the Israeli military destroyed a Gaza tower block housing media offices.
"We have communicated directly to the israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility," Psaki wrote on Twitter.
Al Jazeera says will not be silenced, after Gaza office destroyed
Al Jazeera said Saturday it would not be silenced, after an Israeli air strike on Gaza demolished the building housing the Qatar-based broadcaster as well as US news agency The Associated Press.
''It is clear that those who are waging this war do not only want to spread destruction and death in Gaza, but also to silence media that are witnessing, documenting and reporting the truth of what is happening in Gaza,'' said Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau chief.
''But this is impossible,'' he said on air shortly after the 13-storey Jala Tower in Gaza was obliterated.
''This is a crime among a series of crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.''
Protests continue across Israel as thousands gather in the northern parts of the country to mark the Palestinian Nakba Day 2021.
Lebanon mourns Hezbollah protester killed by Israeli fire
Hundreds of people brandishing Palestinian flags and the yellow colours of Hezbollah gathered in south Lebanon on Saturday for the funeral of a Lebanese protester killed by Israeli fire a day earlier.
Mohamad Kassem Tahan, a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, had been protesting at the Lebanese border against the Jewish state's latest assault on the Gaza Strip when he was hit by Israeli shellfire. (AFP)
Mortal remains of Kerala woman killed in Israel reached Delhi today
Gaza tower housing AP, Al Jazeera collapses after missile strike in Gaza city
Israel strikes Gaza building hosting Associated Press, Al-Jazeera
Israel's army destroyed in an air strike Saturday the 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and American news agency The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip, AFP journalists said.
Israel "destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al-Jazeera office and other international press offices," Al-Jazeera said in a tweet, with an AP journalist saying the army had warned the tower's owner ahead of the strike.
Israeli man killed by rocket from Gaza: medics, police
An Israeli man was killed Saturday after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza hit the central city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, police and medics said.
"Update to rocket strike on Ramat Gan, 1 man killed," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Twitter.
The Magen David Adom emergency services confirmed saying their "medics have pronounced the death of one person critically injured after performing CPR".
Police said the rocket hit a street in Ramat Gan "fatally injuring a man in his 50s". (AFP)
Protest in support of Palestinians, in London
Ten family members killed in Israeli strike on Gaza: medics
Ten members of a single extended family were killed in an Israeli air strike early Saturday on the western Gaza Strip, medics in the Palestinian enclave said.
The eight children and two women were killed when a three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following an Israeli strike, medical sources said.
Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets in Gaza overnight, while Palestinian militants fired some 200 rockets at southern Israel, around 30 of which fell short, hitting the ground inside Gaza, the Israeli military said. (AFP)
JUST IN |More rocket sirens heard in central Israel
Iran minister cancels Vienna visit in flag spat
Iran's foreign minister has called off a planned visit to his Austrian counterpart in Vienna.
The decision came after Austria's chancellery and foreign ministry flew the Israeli flag as a signal of solidarity in Israel's conflict with the militant Hamas group. (AP)
Hamas says it has fired dozens of rockets in response to killing of family of 10, Times of Israel reported.
BREAKING | Rocket sirens have been sounded in central Israel, Tel Aviv.
Egypt sends ambulances to pick up wounded from Gaza
Egypt sent 10 ambulances into Gaza on Saturday to pick up casualties of Israeli bombardments for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, medical and security sources said.
The ambulances entered Gaza at the Rafah crossing, which is otherwise closed for five days over the Eid al-Fitr holiday and the weekend and is due to reopen on Monday. (Reuters)
Paris braces for pro-Palestinians demo despite ban
Paris braced for possible clashes on Saturday as organisers vowed to hold a march in support of the Palestinians through the French capital despite a ban by authorities fearing a flare-up of anti-Semitic violence.
Police have ordered shops to close from noon along the planned route, from the heavily immigrant Barbes neighbourhood in the north to the place de la Bastille. (AFP)
IDF says it thwarted infiltration attack against Israelis from Lebanon
Egypt sends ambulances to pick up wounded from Gaza
Egypt sent 10 ambulances into Gaza on Saturday to pick up casualties of Israeli bombardments for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, medical and security sources said.
The ambulances entered Gaza at the Rafah crossing, which is otherwise closed for five days over the Eid al-Fitr holiday and the weekend and is due to reopen on Monday.
A further five ambulances have been deployed to enter Gaza later and three Egyptian hospitals have been readied to provide treatment, the sources and local health officials said. (Reuters)
So far, 40 children killed in Gaza Strip; 2 in Israel: UNICEF
Israel pounds Gaza as US envoy arrives for talks
Israeli fighter jets pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing 10 members of a single family, medics said Saturday, after a day of deadly violence rocked the West Bank and a US envoy arrived for talks.
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was due to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem Saturday before heading to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials.
Israeli strike on Gaza kills 7, unrest spreads to West Bank
An Israeli air raid in Gaza City killed at least seven Palestinians early Saturday in the deadliest single strike since the battle with Gaza's militant Hamas rulers erupted earlier this week.
Both sides pressed for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gathered strength.
The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.
Israeli military accused of using media to trick Hamas
Early Friday, just after midnight, the Israeli military put out an ominous statement to the media: “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”
The terse statement set off frenzied speculation thatIsraelhad launched a ground invasion of Gaza - a much-feared scenario that would mark a bloody escalation of this week's operation against Hamas militants. Some reporters were even told outright the incursion had begun.
Hours later, the military issued a “clarification.” There were no troops inside Gaza. But by then, several major news outlets had erroneously reported the ground offensive was under way. (AP)
A series of Israeli airstrikes land Northwest of Gaza City: Palestine Information Centre
Family of 10 killed in airstrike on Gaza, medics say
A family of 10 were killed early Saturday in an Israeli air strike on the western Gaza Strip, medics in the Palestinian enclave said.
Eight children and two women, all belonging to the Abu Hatab family, were killed in the three-storey building in Shati refugee camp that collapsed following an Israeli strike, medical sources said. (AFP)
Israel Defence Force claims struck Hamas rocket launch sites, terror squads
Israel-Palestine strife widens as frantic calls for calm go unheeded
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians expanded in new directions Friday, with deadly clashes convulsing the occupied West Bank and anti-Israeli protests erupting alongIsrael’sborders with two Arab neighbors.
The widening sense of mayhem inIsraeland the Palestinian territories came as Israeli airstrikes brought mass evacuations and funerals to Gaza, and as Hamas rockets singed Israeli towns for a fifth consecutive day.
Hamas and Israeli officials signaled they were open to discussing a cease-fire amid global calls for peace and frantic diplomacy aimed at heading off a further fracturing in one of the Middle East’s most intractable struggles.(International New York Times)
Lies on social media inflame Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In a 28-second video, which was posted to Twitter this week by a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to launch rocket attacks at Israelis from densely populated civilian areas.
Instead, the video that he shared, which can be found on many YouTube channels and other video-hosting sites, was from 2018. And according to captions on older versions of the video, it showed militants firing rockets not from Gaza but from Syria or Libya.
Schools in Gaza to be converted to shelters for those who lost their homes in Israel airstrikes
Gulf partners in a diplomatic blind as Israel escalates conflict
The deadly escalation betweenIsraeland the Palestinians has embarrassed Gulf states which forged ties with the Jewish state and put a strain on their Abraham Accords that were billed as a game-changer.
The bloodshed has prompted condemnation fromIsrael's new Arab partners, at a time when Muslims have been celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Less than a year after signing normalisation agreements withIsrael, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have been forced to change course and turn to critical rhetoric.
Death toll rises as violence rocks Gaza, Israel and West Bank
Israeli planes renewed air strikes in Gaza early on Saturday and Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth night and US and Arab diplomats sought an end to the violence.
Editorial | As tensions escalate, Israel must be restrained
Israel appears to be preparing for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. It has amassed troops and tanks close to its border with Gaza. Since early this week, Israel has pounded Gaza with artillery and airstrikes, while Hamas has responded with rocket fire. The two sides seem to be on the brink of an all-out war.
Congress urges India to proactively work towards ending hostilities between Israel, Hamas
The Congress on Friday urged India to proactively work towards cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas and restore peace with the intervention of the UN Security Council.