UN repeats calls for humanitarian pause as Israel trains its guns on Gaza’s tunnel network
With the war now entering its second month, UN officials and G7 nations stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza, where buildings have been flattened and basic supplies are running out. Palestinian officials say more than 10,000 people have been killed, 40 per cent of them children.
Israel attacks target Hamas militants’ tunnel network in Gaza as death toll crosses 10,200
Since October 7, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,200 Palestinians, around 40 per cent of them children, according to counts by health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Israel appears to be bowing to pressure to pause Gaza attacks to allow aid, hostages movement
The Israeli military on Monday released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot. It says it has surrounded Gaza City, cutting off northern parts of the narrow coastal strip from the south.
Israeli troops surround Gaza City, cut off northern part of besieged Hamas-ruled territory
The situation remains dire in the north. Some 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza, even though Israel had continued airstrikes in the area. Strikes in central and southern Gaza – the purported safe zone – killed at least 53 people on Sunday.
Israeli strikes on Gaza intensify as Western allies pile pressure on Tel Aviv to limit civilian casualties
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to meet Turkey’s foreign minister in Ankara, hours after hundreds of people at a pro-Palestinian protest tried to storm an air base that houses US troops in southern Turkey.
Israel rejects US push to pause fighting, scales up airstrikes on Gaza as death toll nears 10,000
Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza overnight, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said. It said first responders and residents were still digging through the rubble, hoping to find survivors.
UN drugs office says Afghanistan opium crop dropped by 95 per cent after Taliban ban
The sharp decline could have major consequences for the economy in a country where around two-thirds of the population are already in need of humanitarian aid, the report said.
Middle East experts pinpoint how Hamas lured Israel into war that will suck in wider Muslim world
Hamas, which rules Gaza, has stockpiled weapons, missiles, food and medical supplies, according to the people, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation. The group is confident its thousands of fighters can survive for months in a city of tunnels carved deep beneath the Palestinian enclave and frustrate Israeli forces with urban guerrilla tactics, the people told Reuters.
Trapped in hell: Why Gaza City residents can’t evacuate south, won’t find safety in the north
Weeks after ordering northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants to evacuate south, the Israeli army is intensifying its bombardment of the area that stretches down toward the wetlands of Wadi Gaza, in the central strip. Israeli soldiers are also battling Hamas militants in close quarters just north of Gaza City – the start of what is expected to be a long and bloody ground invasion.
Healthcare workers in hospitals suffer trauma, burnout and loss as Israel bombards Gaza
Hospitals that remain functional are only operating at one third of their normal staffing levels due to the high number of medical workers who have been displaced and killed, according to a situation report from the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA.