Palestine Financial News

Gaza's civil defence agency reported that Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 33 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks in southern parts of the Palestinian territory. The latest bloodshed came just hours after the UN General Assembly called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated territory. Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, while another attack left five guards dead in Khan Yunis, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Hamas has yielded to two of Israel’s key demands for a cease-fire deal in Gaza, Arab mediators said, raising hopes of an agreement that could release some hostages within days despite the repeated collapse of previous negotiations. The militant group told mediators for the first time that it would agree to a deal that would allow Israeli forces to remain in Gaza temporarily when the fighting stops.

Medics said at least 30 people were wounded and with several in critical condition, they feared the death toll may rise in the first strike in the western area of Rafah City, in the south of the enclave. In the nearby city of Khan Younis, another group of men tasked with security for aid shipments was hit by a separate Israeli airstrike that wounded several of them, medics said.

Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz told his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Wednesday there was now a chance for a new deal that would allow the return of all the hostages, including U.S. citizens, Katz's office said. A Western diplomat in the region, however, said a deal was taking shape, but it would likely be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.

Donald Trump's win in last month's US election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to congratulate the president-elect: «History's greatest comeback!» he gushed. If Trump's staunchly pro-Israel first term and his nominations for top administration positions are any indication, Netanyahu's glee is justified. But much has transpired since Trump left office in early 2021. The wars in the Middle East, the lofty ambitions of Netanyahu's far-right governing coalition and Netanyahu's personal relationship with him could dampen that enthusiasm and complicate what on the surface looks like a seamless alliance. «For Bibi, this is his dream. He wanted this,» said Mazal Mualem, an Israeli journalist and Netanyahu biographer, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname. «For Bibi, it's too good to be true.»

Matan Zangauker in captivity on Saturday. In the video a man who introduces himself as Matan Zangauker, 24, can be seen pleading with the Israeli leaders to make a deal that would bring captives being held by Hamas in Gaza back to Israel. Mediating countries, including Qatar, see increased momentum for a possible deal that could allow the 100 hostages being held in Gaza to be released in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners, after Israel signed a landmark ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon last month.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV—One of the first things Israel did when it invaded Gaza in October last year was carve a dirt road across the middle of the strip. It was then wide enough for two armored vehicles.

S Jaishankar on Thursday, reiterated India's support for a two-state solution in the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict, while also asserting that issues of terrorism and hostage-taking cannot be underplayed or ignored. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha today, Jaishankar explained India's decision to abstain from voting in some of the resolutions regarding the Gaza conflict in the United Nations General Assembly. In response to TMC MP Saket Gokhale's question on India's stance on a two-state solution to Palestine, Jaishankar said, «We support the two-state solution and we have been public and unambiguous about that. So, there should be no cause for confusion regarding the two-state solution.»

When asked the reason for India's abstention from a resolution in the UN General Assembly on October 27, 2023, regarding the protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations, Jaishankar said there were many resolutions in the UN General Assembly and in some India abstained and in some, it voted in favour. According to him, there are several reasons to abstain such as a resolution is not balanced, it is more divisive, it can set a precedence which has consequences for India or it has larger implications.

Sake is perhaps even more Japanese than the world-famous sushi

Amnesty International accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a report published on Thursday, an allegation Israeli leaders have repeatedly denied. The London-based human rights group said it reached the conclusion after months of analysing incidents and statements of Israeli officials. Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict. The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as «acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group».

The draft resolution 'Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine' tabled by Senegal was overwhelmingly adopted in the 193-member General Assembly on Tuesday. India was among the 157 nations that voted in favour, while eight Member States — Argentina, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the United States voted against it.

Gaza Strip because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted recent convoys. It blamed the breakdown of law and order in large part on Israeli policies. The decision could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as the cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in squalid tent camps and reliant on international food aid. Experts were already warning of famine in the territory's north, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since early October. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing is too dangerous on the Gaza side. Armed men looted nearly 100 trucks traveling on the route in mid-November, and he said gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday.

Mariam a.k.a. Mary, the mother of Jesus, unexpectedly burst on to my Instagram feed this fortnight. The occasion was the release of the trailer for the epic Biblical film, Mary. The trailer has provoked anger over the casting of Israeli actors to play Mary and other central roles, while 'erasing the characters' Palestinian roots', as the London-based Middle East Eye put it. The sentiment was further explained by a social media user quoted on the website as saying: 'There is something profoundly offensive about having an Israeli actor play Mary, the mother of Jesus, while Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, killing some of the oldest Christian communities in the world and erasing their heritage sites.' Earlier, Mary director DJ Caruso told Entertainment Weekly, 'It was important to us that Mary, along with most of our primary cast, be selected from Israel to ensure authenticity.' Caruso's comment is designed to confuse cinephiles who have not studied West Asia, and therefore, understandably, do not know the difference between the ancient Israel mentioned in the Bible versus the modern-day country known as the State of Israel, or the historic region of Palestine versus the present-day State of Palestine.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) was killed Saturday after Gaza rescuers announced the deaths of three aid workers following an Israeli air strike. The army said in a statement that the worker was a «terrorist» who «infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre in Kibbutz Nir Oz» and «worked for the WCK organisation». Representatives from the Israeli military unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza «demanded senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify the issue and order an urgent examination regarding the hiring of workers who took part in the October 7 massacre», the statement said.

Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday, testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting between the sides but has seen continued sporadic fire. The military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military said was a violation of its terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations, several times since the ceasefire began on Wednesday.

Nuseirat refugee camp at the centre of the enclave, medics said, after Israeli tanks pulled back from parts of the camp. Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave's eight long-standing refugee camps. Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip, medics said.

Israeli troops, the military and emergency services said on Friday. Israel's MDA medical service said four people suffered gunshot wounds, with three in a serious condition, while four others were hurt by flying glass. There was no initial information about the identity of the attacker.

The escalation came a day after Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, halting more than a year of hostilities and raising hopes among many Palestinians in Gaza for a similar deal with Hamas, which rules the enclave. Israel's military campaign — with the avowed intent of eradicating Hamas militants after the group's deadly raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — has laid waste to the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Reuven Azar spoke to about Hamas, how Israel is neutralising the terrorists and the way Hamas is exploiting the aid meant for Palestinians. The conflict in Gaza reignited after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. About 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1200 people, including citizens of more than 30 countries, and also took 250 people as hostages. Following the October 7 attack, Israel launched a counter-offensive against Hamas, vowing to eliminate the entire terror group. Ambassador Reuven Azar said that Israel has given «very severe blows» to Hamas.