Israel agrees to US request to delay Gaza invasion
Israel agrees to US request to delay Gaza invasion
Israel has agreed to delay an expected invasion of Gaza for now so that the United States can rush missile defences to the region to protect its troops there, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing US and Israeli officials.
Israel is also taking into account in its planning the effort to supply humanitarian aid to civilians inside Gaza, as well as diplomatic efforts to free hostages held by Hamas militants, the report said.
Threats to US troops were of paramount concern, it said.
The US military and other officials believe their forces will be targeted by militant groups once the invasion of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory starts.
Jordan queen raps West's 'glaring double standard' on Gaza
Jordan's Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a "glaring double standard" for not condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza, in an interview aired today.
"The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world's reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world," she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
"When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack," she said of the day when Hamas militants began a rampage that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 220 others, Israeli officials say.
"But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world."
Hamas health ministry says 6,546 killed in Gaza during war
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Wednesday that 6,546 people have been killed in the territory since the outbreak of war with Israel.
The death toll includes 2,704 children. A total of 17,439 people have also been wounded since the conflict erupted on October 7.
Erdogan says cancelling plans to visit Israel
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he was cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its "inhumane" war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
"We had a project to go to Israel, but it was cancelled, we will not go," Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers in parliament, adding that he viewed Hamas as "liberators" fighting for their own land.
Ankara's relations with Israel froze over an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship carrying aid into Gaza, which killed 10 civilians in 2010.
Erdogan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a United Nations summit in New York last month, marking an improvement in relations that began with a decision last year to reappoint ambassadors.
The Turkish leader did not say when he had intended to visit Israel, where Ankara had been eyeing joining a natural gas pipeline project promoted by the United States.
"Of course, we had good intentions, but (Netanyahu) abused them," Erdogan said.
Lebanon's Hezbollah chief meets Hamas, Islamic Jihad officials
Senior officials of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have held talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah about achieving "real victory" in their war with Israel, the Lebanese group said Wednesday.
The Hezbollah statement did not specify when or where Nasrallah met with Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh beyong saying that it was at a undisclosed location in Lebanon.
News of the meeting comes as Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions exchange daily fire with the Israeli army across the Lebanon-Israel border, raising fears of a new front in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.
The three groups are part of the "axis of resistance" -- Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and other Iran-backed armed groups opposed to Israel.
They discussed what "the axis of resistance must do at this critical stage to achieve real victory... in Gaza and Palestine and stop" Israel's "brutal aggression", the statement said.
They also discussed "recent events in the Gaza Strip since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" -- the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.
More than 100 Palestinians killed in West Bank amid Gaza war
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since war erupted between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas on October 7, the health ministry said Wednesday.
Violence had already spiralled in the West Bank before the Gaza war, with the highest death toll in the Palestinian territory since at least 2005.
Many of the Palestinian deaths came in raids by Israeli troops, but there has also been a rise in violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers which has seen civilians as well as fighters killed on both sides.
Since October 7, killings have surged in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, with the Palestinian death toll reaching 101 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Over the same period, the Israeli military has reported one member of the security forces killed while taking part in a raid.
In the latest violence, three Palestinians were killed in Jenin and one in Qalqilya, both in the northern West Bank. One Palestinian was also killed in Qalandia, just north of Jerusalem.
The health ministry said they were killed by Israeli "bullets and missiles".
The Israeli military said it launched a drone strike on "terrorists" in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.
"Armed terrorists fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces" in the camp, an army statement said.
Channels of impact on neighbouring economies already visible: IMF head
The raging war between Israel and Hamas is already battering the economies of nearby countries, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund told a Saudi investor forum on Wednesday.
"You look at the neighbouring countries -– Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan –- there the channels of impact are already visible," Kristalina Georgieva said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas staged a shock attack on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking 222 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel has responded with withering air strikes and a near-total land, sea and air blockade of Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry says 5,791 people have been killed in the war so far.
Georgieva spoke one day after Wall Street titans told the forum that the war could deal a heavy blow to the global economy, especially if it draws in other countries.
"What we see is more jitters in what has already been an anxious world," Georgieva said.
"You have tourism-dependent countries -- uncertainty is a killer for tourist inflows," she said, describing the potential economic cost for countries in the region before listing specific risks.
"Investors are going to be shy to go to that place. Cost of insurance -- if you want to move goods, they go up. Risks of even more refugees in countries that are already accepting more."
Hamas government says 80 killed in Israel night strikes on Gaza
Gaza's Hamas government said on Wednesday that Israeli air strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory during the night killed at least 80 people, reports AFP
A statement from the government's media office said "more than 80 people were martyred and hundreds wounded in massacres committed by the occupation (Israel) raids" overnight.
Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas since it erupted on October 7.
Biden's Israel stance angers Arab, Muslim Americans; could jeopardise 2024 votes
Arab and Muslim Americans and their allies are criticising President Joe Biden's response to the Israel-Hamas war, asking him to do more to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza or risk losing their support in the 2024 election.
Many Arab Americans are upset Biden has not pushed for any humanitarian ceasefire even as Palestinians are killed fleeing Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip, more than a dozen academics, activists, community members and administration officials said.
Their growing frustration could impact Democrat Biden's reelection bid, which opinion polls show is likely to be a rematch with the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.
Palestinians have been subjected to '56 years of suffocating occupation': UN chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday alleged violations of international law in Gaza and urged an immediate ceasefire as Israel pounds the Palestinian territory in response to Hamas attacks, with the crisis deeply dividing the Security Council.
Israel voiced anger over the UN chief's plea before a high-level session of the Security Council, where the Palestinian foreign minister in turn denounced what he described as inaction in the conflict that has killed thousands on both sides, mostly civilians.
Opening the session, Guterres said there was no excuse for the "appalling" violence by Hamas militants on October 7 but also warned against "collective punishment" of the Palestinians.
"I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law," Guterres said, without explicitly naming Israel.
Guterres also said that the Hamas attacks "did not happen in a vacuum" as the Palestinians have been "subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation."
His remarks infuriated Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen who, pointing his finger at Guterres and raising his voice, recounted graphic accounts of civilians including young children killed in the deadliest single attack in Israeli history.
US has 'high confidence' Palestinian rocket caused Gaza hospital blast: official
US intelligence officials have "high confidence" that an explosion at a Gaza hospital last week was caused by a Palestinian rocket that broke up mid-flight, and not by Israel, a US official said on Tuesday.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 471 people were killed in the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital on Oct. 17. Palestinians and Arab states said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital.
Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian militant Islamic Jihad group, which has denied responsibility.
US President Biden said a day after the incident, while visiting Tel Aviv, that the explosion appeared to be the result of an errant rocket fired by a "terrorist group", echoing Israel's view.
Israeli drone strike in West Bank kills three Palestinians, officials say
Israeli forces on an overnight raid in the occupied West Bank came under fire by a group of Palestinians whom the military then hit with a drone, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, and Palestinian officials said three people were killed.
The military said armed Palestinians "fired and hurled explosive devices" at its forces in Jenin refugee camp, in the northern West Bank. The military then struck them with a drone, and "hits were identified", it added.
The drone fired at least two projectiles, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency WAFA reported, citing sources in the camp.
Three people were killed and more than 20 others injured, WAFA reported, citing Wissam Bakr, director of Jenin Governmental Hospital.
The drone attack was at least the third use of Israeli air power in the West Bank since violence in the territory surged after Hamas' Oct. 7 armed rampage in southern Israel.
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