Hamas

November 8, 2024 5:40 PM

Nearly 70% of verified Gaza war dead women and children, UN rights office says

The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. The U.N. tally since the start of the war, in which Israel's military is fighting Hamas militants, includes only fatalities it has managed to verify with three sources, and counting continues. The 8,119 victims verified is a much lower number than the...

November 6, 2024 6:47 PM

Israeli government celebrates Trump’s election triumph

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters celebrated Donald Trump's election as president, hailing what a leader of the Israeli settler movement called an ally who would support them "unconditionally". Congratulating Republican Trump, Netanyahu said the former president had made "history's greatest comeback". "Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America," he said in a ...

October 28, 2024 10:32 AM

Netanyahu says Israel hit Iran hard; Khamenei says damage should not be exaggerated

Israel's airstrikes "hit hard" Iran's defences and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country was considering its response. With warfare raging in Gaza and Lebanon, direct confrontation between Israel and Iran risks spiralling into a regional conflagration. But a day after the airstrikes, there was no sign they would spark another round of escalation. However, heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli ...

October 23, 2024 5:22 PM

Twenty reported killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies siege of north

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 20 people on Wednesday as Israeli forces intensified a siege of northern parts of the Palestinian enclave, surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters, and ordering residents to head south, medics and residents said. The Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organization said they would be unable to start a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned because of the intense bombardments, mass displacements and lack of access. Israeli forces began...

October 23, 2024 3:40 PM

Blinken urges halt to Middle East conflict as Israel bombs historic Lebanese port city

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting between Israel and militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, but heavy Israeli air strikes on a large historic Lebanese port city demonstrated that there was no respite. Israel began to bomb the UNESCO-listed port city of Tyre on Wednesday roughly three hours after issuing an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings. Tens of thousands of people h...

October 22, 2024 11:36 AM

Blinken heads to Middle East for new ceasefire push as Israel strikes Beirut

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East on Monday to launch another push for an elusive ceasefire, seeking to revive negotiations to end the Gaza war and defuse the spillover conflict in Lebanon. Blinken's trip to the region is his 11th since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza war. It comes as Israel intensifies its military campaign against Iran-backed militants - Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbolla...

October 21, 2024 10:20 AM

Lebanese flee as blasts hit Beirut, Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah finance arm

Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday with multiple explosions heard across the Lebanese capital, as Israel prepared to attack sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and told people to leave those areas immediately. Dense plumes of black smoke were seen billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts, Reuters reported. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern s...

October 18, 2024 3:37 PM

Netanyahu promises more war, dashing peace hopes after Hamas leader killed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's promises to press on with Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon dashed hopes on Friday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might help end more than a year of escalating conflict in the Middle East. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah meanwhile vowed to escalate fighting against Israel and its backer Iran said "the spirit of resistance" would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza. Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, att...

October 18, 2024 10:35 AM

International reaction to death of Hamas leader Sinwar

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said. Following is international reaction: U.S. President Joe Biden Sinwar's death provides the opportunity for a "day after" in Gaza without the militant group in power. "Yahya Sinwar was an insurmountable obstacle to achieving all of those goals. That obstacle no longer exists. But much work remains before us." Kamala Harris, U.S. vice ...

October 17, 2024 10:16 PM

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader committed to eradicating Israel

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar remained unrepentant about the Oct. 7 attacks a year ago, people in contact with him have said, despite unleashing an Israeli invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his Gaza homeland and rained destruction on ally Hezbollah. Two officials with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday that Israeli ministers were told Israeli troops had likely killed Sinwar, 62, dubbed by Israelis "the Face of Evil" and architect of the Hamas cross-bord...