Palestine Financial News

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA CITY (Reuters) — The Palestinian Red Crescent Society received an order from Israeli forces on Saturday with a new deadline to evacuate its Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City by 1300 GMT (16:00 pm local), according to a statement.

Antony Blinken called on Saturday for protection for civilians in both the Gaza Strip and Israel as the Israeli military ordered half of the Palestinian territory's population to evacuate in advance of an expected ground assault. Blinken met his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, in Riyadh as he began a third day of intense Middle East diplomacy aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from expanding into a regional conflict and fuelling a humanitarian crisis.

By Sharon Bernstein

AFP report, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said, "We, as Hezbollah, are contributing to the confrontation and will (continue) to contribute to it within our vision and plan," Qassem told a pro-Palestinian rally in Beirut's southern suburbs. "We are fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will take it," he said.

Also read: Israel-Hamas war: Putin backs Israel's self-defence, calls for 'independent' Palestinian state "The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may disrupt the project's timelines and outcomes, marking a pivotal juncture in the development of this ambitious economic corridor. While the war's direct impact remains regional, the geopolitical consequences reverberate far beyond, with potential consequences for the proposed corridor," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence in the face of Hamas' attacks of “unprecedented brutality," and stressed the creation of an “independent Palestine state with East Jerusalem" as its capital. As reported by ANI citing TASS, “Russia proceeds from the postulate, a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has no alternatives," said Putin while speaking at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit here on Friday. Also Read:Israel-Hamas War LIVE Updates: Israel strike kills senior Hamas military commander Murad Abu Murad “The negotiations' goal should be the implementation of the United Nations' two-state formula, which implies the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting in peace and security with Israel, which, of course, as we have seen, has come under an attack of unprecedented brutality.

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily

El Deif' or the Guest, because, for decades, he has stayed in different houses every night to avoid being tracked, and killed, by Israel and he is now in charge of the militant group's military wing, the Al Qassem Brigades, the media reported. Thought to have been born in the 1960s, El Deif is little known to ordinary Palestinians, CNN quoted Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at Al Azah University in Gaza, as saying. “He’s very much like a ghost to the majority of the Palestinians,” he said. The Al Qassem Brigades were opposed to the peace process embraced by Yassir Arafat, then-leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the 1993 Oslo Accords that were supposed to pave the way to a two-state solution of a new Palestine living in peace alongside Israel. In 1996, El Deif, an accomplished bomb maker, was behind a wave of four suicide attacks that killed 65 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other outrages intended to derail the peace process, CNN reported. The tighter the Israeli and Egyptian control over Gaza’s borders – the more Hamas (and other groups) developed military means to fight back. Chief among them is rockets. Primitive at first, the missiles have been improved and refined over years of help from Iran. The Tehran theocracy, also dedicated to the eradication of the Jewish state, trained engineers, organised technology transfers and guided developments to create rockets capable of hitting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, CNN reported. Men like El Deif, the bomb makers and decision takers, were hunted by Israel. In 2014, an air strike killed his wife and daughter.

Saudi Arabia has suspended talks on potentially normalising ties with Israel, a source told AFP on Saturday, amid the war raging between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 1,900 in the Gaza Strip ahead of a potential Israeli ground invasion of the territory. «Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,» a source familiar with the discussions told AFP. Saudi Arabia in the weeks before the attacks had spoken of progress in US-led diplomacy to normalise relations with Israel — which would be a landmark step for the conservative kingdom that is guardian of Islam's two holiest sites. But Riyadh has voiced increasing disquiet about the fate of Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where Israel has launched thousands of strikes and ordered the evacuation of the territory's north, prompting thousands to flee. On Friday, Saudi Arabia denounced the displacement of Palestinians within Gaza and attacks on «defenceless civilians», its strongest language criticising Israel since the war broke out. Riyadh «affirms its categorical rejection of calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza, and its condemnation of the continued targeting of defenceless civilians there,» the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israel has used white phosphorus in Gaza and in two rural locations near the border with Lebanon, Human Rights Watch alleged in a recently released report amid escalating conflict.

Israel Hamas conflict, Israeli Defence Forces Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus noted on Saturday that people in the Gaza Strip are listening to Israel's warning and are doing the right thing, noting that there has been a significant movement of Palestinian civilians towards the South. «We have seen a significant movement of the Palestinian civilians towards the south...we have seen people listening to our warning, understanding that they doing the clever thing, moving out of the dangerous area, and the right thing for their family...,» he said. On Friday the Israeli military had called for the evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City.

Josep Borrell said Saturday that a plan by Israel to evacuate more than one million people out of northern Gaza in a single day was «utterly impossible to implement». Israel warned residents in the area to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel's history. «I am saying that, representing the official position of the European Union… (the evacuation plan) is utterly, utterly impossible to implement,» Borrell told a press conference in Beijing on the final day of a three-day diplomatic visit to China. «To imagine that you could move one million people in 24 hours in a situation like Gaza can only be a humanitarian crisis,» he added. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had expressed support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday during a visit to the country. «Europe stands with Israel,» said von der Leyen, adding that the country had «a duty to defend its citizens». But Borrell's comments in Beijing showed the limits of that affirmation, saying that Israel was also obligated to follow international humanitarian law in the process of defending itself. «The position is clear,» said Borrell. «We certainly defend the right of Israel to defend itself.» «But, as any right, it has a limit.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -More than 1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza faced an Israeli deadline on Saturday to flee south, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had only just begun to retaliate for last week's Hamas rampage across southern Israel.

Hamas will confront an ever-more capable opponent trained for years by a clandestine support network that stretches far beyond the tiny enclave to Iran and allied Arab groups. Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel six days ago — unprecedented for the group in its planning and scale — was a devastating demonstration of the military expertise it has gained since seizing control of Gaza in 2007. «Necessity is the mother of invention,» said Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official, adding that the group had long drawn on money and training from Iran and Iranian regional proxies like Lebanon's Hezbollah, while bolstering its own forces in Gaza.

Israel as tensions flared between the country and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. India initiated 'Operation Ajay' on Thursday, with the primary objective of facilitating the return of Indian nationals affected by the recent attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas militants from Gaza.

JPMorgan Chase's third quarter profit soared 35% from last year, fueled by a rapid rise in interest rates, but the bank's CEO, Jamie Dimon, issued a sobering statement about the current state of world affairs and economic instability. «This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,» Dimon wrote in the bank's earnings statement. Dimon laid out a laundry list of major issues: the Russia-Ukraine War, the new war between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, high levels of government debt and deficits, high inflation, as well as the tight labor market, where worker demands for increased wages has led to high-profile strikes in manufacturing and entertainment.

Gold rate today: On account of escalating tension in Israel Palestine conflict, gold price on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) registered an intraday rise of ₹1497 per 10 gm, which is its biggest rise on the bourse since 13th March 2023. On 13th March 2023, yellow metal price had surged ₹1,492 per 10 gm on MCX.

Israel-Hamas war enters 6th day, India begins Operation Ajay, over 1,400 killed in Gaza attack Read all the LIVE updates on Israel-Hamas war here 1. Tens of thousands in Gaza are estimated to have fled south after Israel gave Palestinians 24 hours' notice to evacuate from the enclave's north before an expected ground offensive. Prior to the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to the hostilities.

AP reported.However, there were no signs that the US was attempting to deter an anticipated Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, a move that could exacerbate the humanitarian plight of the 2.3 million Palestinians confined within the besieged area. Read all the LIVE updates here.Acknowledging Israel's right to self-defence in the face of Hamas' attacks of "unprecedented brutality," Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasised the "creation of an independent Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital" to resolve the issue, TASS reported.Russia proceeds "from the postulate, a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has no alternatives," said Putin while speaking at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit here on Friday.

Investing.com — “Never a dull moment in the oilfield,” oil services firm Panther says on its website. By that extension, of course, are the oil markets, which seldom go a day, or even hours, without drama.