Published February 17, 2024
Hamas said Friday that “many” Israeli hostages have died during the relentless warfare spanning four months, with survivors enduring harsh conditions as assaults by Israel persist in the Gaza Strip, the Daily Mail reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to advance a robust operation in the southern city of Rafah, aiming for what he terms “complete victory” over Hamas.
Netanyahu rebuffed Hamas’ fresh cease-fire terms last week and remains impervious to international pressures advocating for an independent Palestinian state.
Apprehensions are heightening for the well-being of approximately 1.4 million Palestinians seeking refuge in Gaza’s southernmost city as Israeli forces gear up to navigate through the area to dismantle Hamas and retrieve hostages taken into Gaza on Oct. 7.
The enduring conflict in Gaza has prompted criticism and spurred families of Israeli hostages to pressure the government into negotiating their release.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.newsmax.com
RELATED: US envoy: Israel hasn’t provided ‘specific evidence’ Hamas is stealing aid shipments
But David Satterfield says terror group using delivery channels to ‘shape where and to whom assistance goes,’ adds police escorting aid trucks ‘certainly include Hamas elements’
Armed, masked men reportedly affiliated with Hamas can be seen atop trucks carrying humanitarian aid that arrived in the Gaza Strip via Egypt’s Rafah crossing, December 17, 2023. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Published February 17, 2024
The top US diplomat involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas has stolen aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official has presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”
At the same time, Hamas has been using other aid delivery channels to “shape where and to whom assistance goes,” David Satterfield told an event on Friday hosted by the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Footage from Gaza has shown gunmen, believed to members of the terror group, stealing trucks delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt. Israel has also long said that Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from increasingly desperate civilians.
According to Sutterfeld, Israeli forces earlier this month killed Palestinian police — among them Hamas operatives — protecting a UN aid convoy in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah. As a result, Sutterfeld said they have since refused to protect convoys, hampering aid deliveries inside Gaza because of threats from criminal gangs.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
RELATED: Israel’s defense chief says military ‘thoroughly planning’ offensive in crowded Gaza border town
Published February 17, 2024
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s defense minister on Friday said Israel is “thoroughly planning” a military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, signaling determination to move ahead despite growing international concerns about the safety of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians seeking refuge there.
U.S. President Joe Biden has urged Israel not to carry out the operation without a “credible” plan to protect civilians and to instead focus on a cease-fire, while Egypt has said an operation could threaten diplomatic relations between the countries. Many other world leaders have issued similar messages of concern.
An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza’s population, have crammed into Rafah, most of them displaced by fighting elsewhere in the territory. Hundreds of thousands are living in sprawling tent camps.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.apnews.com
