Gaza

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Bedwetting, nightmares and shaking. War in Gaza takes a mental health toll, especially on children

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Nabila Hamada gave birth to twin boys in Gaza early in the war, in a hospital reeking of decaying bodies and full of displaced people. When Israeli forces threatened the hospital, she and her husband fled with only one of the babies, as medical staff said the other was too weak to leave. Soon after, Israeli forces raided the hospital, Gaza’s largest, and she never saw the boy again.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-war-children-mental-health-370c7ccc24dcc8a2c4b81acd5345221b?

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Israel’s Netanyahu makes surprise Gaza visit as far-right politician tours flashpoint Jerusalem site

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to troops in southern Gaza on Thursday, saying it was essential that Israel keep control of a strip of territory along the territory’s border with Egypt, just days before he was set to give a speech to the U.S. Congress.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-ben-givr-jerusalem-temple-mount-gaza-f92f49c9f2254702f07a6a2af677c89e?

Gaza aid

 

The US military is ending its temporary pier mission off the Gaza coast after roughly 20 days of operational use. The pier delivered more than 19 million pounds of humanitarian aid, but resources will now be shipped in through an Israeli port instead. US officials have repeatedly claimed they successfully completed the intended mission, but the pier has been plagued with issues since it was first anchored to the beach in Gaza in May. Analysts say the effort, which cost the US $230 million, did little to alleviate the grave situation in Gaza as the war between Hamas and Israel continues.

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As Gaza death toll passes 40,000, corpses are buried in yards, streets, tiered graves

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Tiers of graves are stacked deep underground in a bloated Gaza cemetery, where Sa’di Baraka spends his days hacking at the earth, making room for more dead.

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-war-hamas-dead-graves-40000-988d16b648e06e222f04964dc9440da0?

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Biden goal: Gaza deal by end of next week

Palestinians evacuate the Hamad area of Khan Yunis, Gaza, earlier this week after the Israeli army issued a warning. Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images President Biden is aiming for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal by the end of next week while also trying to deter Iran and Hezbollah from conducting an attack on Israel that could undermine this effort, U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid. Why it matters: Biden and his aides say they feel they're closer than ever to getting a deal that could lead to the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including American citizens — and end 10 months of war that has killed more than 1,600 Israelis and 40,000 Palestinians. "I'm optimistic. It's far from over. Just a couple more issues. I think we've got a shot," Biden told reporters on Friday. ⚡ The latest: Yesterday, at the end of a two-day summit in Doha, the U.S. presented a new proposal to Israel and Hamas in an effort to close the remaining gaps and reach a deal. A U.S. official said the proposal bridges nearly all of the remaining gaps that have been under discussion for the past six weeks. Biden called the Emir of Qatar and the President of Egypt to discuss the proposal and the plan for the coming days, the White House said. "There was a consensus between all three leaders that this process is now in the end game," a senior U.S. official said. Keep reading.

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Quintuplets among Gaza’s dead as Blinken visits the region to seek a cease-fire deal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 29 people including young quintuplets overnight and into Sunday, health officials said, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to try to seal a cease-fire deal that could help ease soaring regional tensions.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-08-18-2024-4059985bff76d459360f17e8319633c7?

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Gaza

 

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza received new orders from the Israeli military to flee the embattled enclave. People were seen in videos leaving areas near the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah. Some were in cars loaded with their belongings, including mattresses tethered to the top of their vehicles. The streets appear littered with leaflets dropped by Israeli forces reiterating the order to evacuate. Many residents now on the move have had to evacuate multiple times — leaving them in a constant state of displacement and fear. Nearly 84% of the enclave has been placed under evacuation orders since the start of the war, according to the UN.

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Jews and Arabs hoped to fill a truck with aid for Gaza civilians. We ended up filling 300.

At a recent visit with a Palestinian-Israeli friend in the Lower Galilee, where I live, I invited her to come to a local conference organized by Standing Together, a joint Jewish-Arab Israeli national activist movement working for peace, equality and justice, in which I have been involved for the past several years. My local chapter has about 700 members, almost twice as many as a year ago, before the war. There are seven other chapters throughout the country.

https://www.jta.org/2024/08/26/ideas/jews-and-arabs-hoped-to-fill-a-truck-with-aid-for-gaza-civilians-we-ended-up-filling-300?

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Gaza

 

At least 40 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone created to shelter displaced people in southern Gaza, according to local rescue officials, in what Israel said was an operation targeting Hamas fighters in the area. More than 60 people were also wounded in the strike, according to the Gaza Civil Defense, as rescuers raced to recover victims buried under sand and debris. The strike hit Al-Mawasi, a coastal region in Khan Younis where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled, many living in tents in an area with sparse infrastructure and little access to shelter or humanitarian aid.

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Hostages

 

An Israeli official has floated the possibility of offering Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza once all remaining 101 hostages held in the Palestinian territory are released. Sinwar, one of Hamas' most powerful figures, is accused by Israel of being the key architect of the October 7 massacre in Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 people hostage. He is also among the Hamas leaders charged by US prosecutors over the deadly attack. An Israeli official said the conditions for his release, along with Gaza being "demilitarized and deradicalized," could help recover Gaza and end the war. CNN has reached out to Hamas for comment on the proposal.

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Israel passes laws to restrict the work of a UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza It’s the culmination of a long-running campaign against UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel contends has been infiltrated by Hamas. But supporters say Israel’s real aim is to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugees. Read more.

Why this matters: Gaza’s population of some 2.3 million is almost entirely dependent on aid to survive. The agency is a main distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The head of the agency, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, called the move “unprecedented” on X and said the bills “will only deepen the suffering Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”   Israel is reportedly considering taking over aid distribution itself or subcontracting it, but it has yet to put forth a concrete plan. Any such effort would likely require a large number of troops and other resources at a time when Israel is at war on two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon.   UNRWA supporters say Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian refugee issue by dismantling the agency. Israel says the refugees should be permanently resettled outside its borders.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ BREAKING: Israeli strike in northern Gaza kills at least 60, officials say, as Hezbollah announces new leader   As Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon, fear rises in communities where the displaced took refuge   Oil prices fall as reality of weak global demand overtakes risk of wider war in Middle East

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US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday that Israel has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and therefore it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved. Relief groups say conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-aid-us-48cd09c1c007cacd6d7a309589490320?

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?? Biden asks Trump to work on Gaza deal

President Biden asked President-elect Trump during their two-hour meeting yesterday to work together to push for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: Biden wants to use the two months he has left in office to break the prolonged deadlock in the negotiations over a Gaza deal. Trump, on the other hand, would likely be happy to reach Inauguration Day with one less crisis on his plate.

? Behind the scenes: Biden also met yesterday with the families of the American hostages who are held in Gaza, two sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.

• One source said the families stressed that the hostages are running out of time and expressed concern for their lives.

Biden told the families that he and Trump agreed that the hostage issue is urgent and that they want to try and solve it before Jan. 20, the other source said.

• The president told the families they have every right to be angry at him for not bringing their loved ones home by now, the two sources said.

? What's next: The families of the U.S. hostages asked for meetings with many of the newly appointed members of Trump's team, the sources said.

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Top White House advisor travels to Middle East in last ditch push for a Gaza deal

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to travel to Israel, Egypt and Qatar this week in a last ditch effort to reach a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal before President-elect Trump's inauguration in six weeks, two sources with knowledge of the trip told Axios.

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/11/israel-hamas-qatar-egypt-white-house-adviser-sullivan?

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Israeli troops forcibly remove staff and patients from northern Gaza hospital, officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, the territory’s health ministry said. The army denied claims it had entered or set fire to the complex and accused Hamas of using the facility for cover.

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-hospital-israel-troops-patients-fire-5bfab932afc29ce2205765ce1416a808?

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State Dept. warns Trump of Gaza "catastrophe"

Palestinians carrying empty pots line up to receive meals distributed by charity organizations in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Jan. 2. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images State Department officials told the Trump administration transition team there could be a humanitarian "catastrophe" in Gaza when a new Israeli law barring contact with the UN refugee agency for Palestinians takes effect at the end of the month, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. "We wanted them to know what is going to happen 10 days into their presidency," a U.S. official told Axios. "We thought it was the responsible thing to do. It's a catastrophe waiting to happen." Why it matters: The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is the primary aid agency operating in Gaza. U.S. officials say there's no serious backup plan for providing humanitarian supplies and services to Palestinians. After more than a year of war, the UN and other aid organizations warn Gaza is close to uninhabitable. The Israeli law will take effect a few days after President-elect Trump's inauguration, when the new administration will be faced with mounting world crises. ?? UN officials say they're concerned that after the laws come into effect, UNRWA staff won't be able to move between Gaza and Israel. That will put the ability of UNRWA to continue working in Gaza in jeopardy, UN officials said. Keep reading.

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Surviving War and HIV

Life in Northern Gaza is precarious enough without having to worry about AIDS. Airstrikes and ground raids are a constant threat that keep people from leaving their homes to find food. “We have to conserve,” said E.S., a 27-year-old who lives with his mother and younger brother in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southwest Gaza City. “People are fighting each other to get the aid boxes.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/13/israel-gaza-war-hiv-aids-medication/?

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Middle East

Tens of thousands of displaced Gaza residents began returning to what was left of their homes today after Israel opened a corridor into the north of the battered enclave. Their return was pushed back by 48 hours after Israel accused Hamas of breaching the terms of the fragile ceasefire agreement. Tensions also heightened on Saturday after President Donald Trump said he had discussed his plan to "clean out" Gaza with the leaders of Jordan and Egypt. "I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change," Trump said of Gaza. Both Jordan and Egypt rejected Trump's idea to shift Palestinians out of the enclave, saying such a move would displace Palestinians from their homeland.

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Egypt and Qatar accuse Israel of violating humanitarian law for blocking aid into Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza on Sunday and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire isn’t extended.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-ceasefire-hostages-03-02-2025-99402570996dcf33239d0492d99909e4?

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Arab leaders endorse Egypt’s plan to rebuild Gaza as an alternative to Trump’s proposal Arab leaders on Tuesday endorsed Egypt’s postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that would allow its roughly 2 million Palestinians to remain, in a counterproposal to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to depopulate the territory and redevelop it as a beach destination. Read more.

Key points: The $53 billion plan’s endorsement by Arab leaders at a summit in Cairo amounted to a rejection of Trump’s proposal. The summit conclusions were welcomed by Hamas, rejected by Israel and given a lukewarm response by the Trump administration.   Egypt’s plan foresees rebuilding Gaza by 2030 without removing its population. The first phase calls for starting the removal of unexploded ordnance and clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment and military offensives. Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the summit’s final communique calls on the U.N. Security Council to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.   According to a 112-page draft of the plan obtained by The Associated Press, hundreds of thousands of temporary housing units would be set up for Gaza’s population while reconstruction takes place. Rubble would be recycled, with some of it used as infill to expand land on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. In the following years, the plan envisages completely reshaping the strip. It also calls for the opening of an airport, a fishing port and a commercial port. Hamas would cede power to an interim administration of political independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority can assume control.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Israel cut off food and supplies to Gaza. Aid groups are scrambling   Trump administration again labels the Houthis a ‘foreign terrorist organization’   Palestinians hope ‘No Other Land’ Oscar win brings help as they face possible Israeli expulsion

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Gaza protests

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in northern Gaza on Tuesday to denounce Hamas and call for an end to the war with Israel. It appeared to be the largest protest against the militant group since its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The demonstrations took place just two days after the death toll from the conflict hit 50,000 in Gaza, according to the enclave's health ministry. Overnight, Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza killed eight more people, including five children, the Palestine Red Crescent said.

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Gaza Journalist Fadi al-Wahidi Avoided Israel’s “Red” Zone. Israel Shot Him Anyway.

Investigative journalists working as part of the Gaza Project used reporting, geolocation, and forensic analysis to reconstruct the shooting of Fadi al-Wahidi.

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/27/israel-target-palestinian-journalists-gaza/?

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Indonesia offers to temporarily shelter wounded and orphaned Palestinians from Gaza

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Wednesday that his country will offer temporary shelter to Palestinian medical evacuees and children orphaned by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-palestinians-gaza-shelter-war-34095ff70dd333ad1c328e515d9a0426?

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UN food agency says its foods stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel's blockade

The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel’s nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory. Read More.

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Gaza

Nearly two months after Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid, the World Food Programme in Gaza has run out of food. The UN agency delivered its final food stocks to charity kitchens throughout the besieged enclave on Friday and those supplies are only expected to last for a few days. “For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza,” the WFP said in a statement. “Despite reaching just half the population with only 25% of daily food needs, they have provided a critical lifeline.” Israel cut off food, medical supplies and other aid on March 2 in an effort to pressure Hamas to accept a US-backed ceasefire proposal. Hamas has refused to disarm and free the remaining hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack.

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U.S. and Israel near Gaza aid agreement

Displaced Palestinians receive hot meals distributed by aid organizations in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza earlier this week. Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images The U.S. and Israel are close to an agreement on how to resume the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza without it being controlled by Hamas, two Israeli officials and one U.S. source familiar with the plan told Axios' Barak Ravid. Why it matters: After the Gaza ceasefire deal collapsed two months ago, Israel halted all humanitarian aid delivery of food, water and medicine into the enclave, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. ? The suspension of aid deliveries and the resumption of Israeli strikes have once again displaced thousands of Palestinian civilians, delving the enclave further into a chaotic situation that has resulted in widespread looting and lawlessness. Behind the scenes: In recent weeks, Israeli and U.S. officials, representatives of an international humanitarian foundation and private companies have been discussing a new aid delivery mechanism, officials say. A private U.S. company would be in charge of the logistical delivery and of providing security in and around the humanitarian compounds, a source familiar with the plan said. More details.