Author: Steven Sahiounie

Martin Griffiths says the first convoy carrying aid into the besieged Gaza Strip “must not be the last”. “I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to the people of Gaza,” the UN humanitarian chief said after 20 trucks crossed from Egypt into the enclave. Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the opening of the Rafah crossing was an “important first step” to “alleviate the suffering of innocent people”. Source: Aljazeera

Algiers and Tunis will not take part in the summit due to the presence of representatives from the Israeli occupation entity. Amid the savage and brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza, Algeria refrained from participating in the “Cairo Peace Summit,” which is expected to focus on ways to de-escalate the situation in Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had received an invitation from his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to participate in the summit scheduled for Saturday, October 21, 2023, in Cairo to discuss developments in the Palestinian cause and the “peace process”. However, according to Algerian media,…

Israel urged its citizens to immediately leave Egypt and Jordan, the national security council said on Saturday as regional tensions flared over the war in Gaza.“Israel’s National Security Council raises its travel warnings for Egypt (including Sinai) and Jordan to level 4 (high threat): recommendation not to travel to these countries and for those staying there to leave… as soon as possible,” it said in a statement.The notice comes just days after Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkiye as a security precaution following an earlier request for its citizens to leave as well.The evacuation calls came after days of protests…

Mark Owen Jones, assistant professor of Middle East studies at Doha’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says the reported 20 aid trucks entering Gaza is “an absolutely insignificant number”. “About 100,000 tonnes of aid is about enough to sustain half a million people for a week. When you consider there’s two million people [in Gaza] and only a portion of that aid is going through, what’s that going to do?,” he told Al Jazeera. “The aid that is going in, is also in addition to the fact that the existing stocks and supplies in Gaza have already been depleted. Really, it’s…

“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies [canned goods],” a statement from Hamas’s media office has said. Source: AlJazeera

The Palestinian authorities have blamed Israel for the bombing of the St. Porphyrios church The oldest Christian church in Gaza was damaged in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday evening, according to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Unconfirmed reports from the site said at least two people were killed and more buried under the rubble of the adjacent meeting hall. A follow-up report by the Gaza media office updated the death toll to at least 18. In a statement on Friday, officials expressed the “strongest condemnation of the Israeli airstrike [on] its church compound in the city of Gaza,” and called the targeting…

Israel continued today to arrest dozens of Palestinians in raids at their homes in different places of the occupied West Bank with at least 120 people rounded up today raising the total detained so far since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7 to 1070, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and other sources. More than 40 people were rounded up in different towns and villages in the Ramallah area, mainly from the towns of Aroura and Rantis, 27 others were detained in the Bethlehem governorate, one of them 15 years of age detained with his father, 26…

Two separate missile attacks targeted Omar oil field and the gas line connecting to Conoco natural gas plant, used by American occupation forces as bases in Deir Ezzor countryside. Local sources said that targeting the gas transmission line pipe used by the American occupation forces and QSD militia linked with them, to steal natural gas from the Conoco plant took place in Abu Khashab desert area in the western countryside. The sources added that a huge explosion hit the pipeline, causing a loud sound in the area, followed by a full alert of the American occupation forces and QSD militia…

With the images of the Israeli bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza and the killing as a result of hundreds of Palestinian civilians still vivid in the minds of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) this morning expressed concern over an Israel warning to Al-Quds Hospital in northern Gaza Strip to evacuate patients and refuge seekers before attacking it. “Worrying reports of evacuation orders sent to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza. Sick and injured patients, and health workers, are inside. Hundreds more — mostly women and children — are seeking shelter on the hospital’s grounds. The sanctity of health…

The US president has warned the Middle Eastern ally against targeting civilians in Gaza US President Joe Biden has called on Israel to respect the rules of war and not slip into senseless “rage” in its conflict with Palestinian militants. He also urged everyone to denounce the anti-Semitism and Islamophobia ignited by the conflict. “When I was in Israel yesterday, I said that when America experienced the hell of 9/11, we felt enraged as well,” Biden said in a televised address on Thursday night. “While we sought and got justice, we made mistakes. So, I cautioned the government of Israel not to be blinded…