Author: Steven Sahiounie

GAZA: An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed about 500 Palestinians at a Gaza City hospital crammed with patients and displaced people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said.The strike was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for a deadly cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7. Arab countries, Iran and Turkiye swiftly condemned the attack. The Palestinian prime minister called it “a horrific crime, genocide” and said countries backing Israel also bore responsibility.Sources at the Gaza Ministry of Health told Reuters that…

Israel’s order for 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to move south could amount to a forcible transfer of civilians, UN says. The United Nations human rights office has said Israel’s complete siege of Gaza, combined with the evacuation order, could amount to a forcible transfer of civilians, breaching international law. Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva on Tuesday that Israel has yet to make any effort to ensure those evacuated were provided with proper accommodation and satisfactory conditions. “We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as…

CAIRO: Egyptian trucks loaded with aid to help Gaza’s civilians trapped amid Israel’s war against Hamas arrived at the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday. The convoy of 100 vehicles traveled from the city of El-Arish in Egypt’s north to the border with the enclave. Sonaa Al-Khair Foundation, which is part of the National Alliance for Civil Development Work, a coalition of NGOs in Egypt, announced on its Facebook page that the aid convoy had “arrived at the Rafah crossing and is waiting to enter Gaza.” Volunteers from the foundation have also traveled to the Rafah crossing “to deliver aid in…

BEIRUT: An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed about 500 Palestinians at a Gaza City hospital crammed with patients and displaced people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said. Here are some of the global reactions to the strike: Egypt denounced “in strongest terms” the Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians, saying the international community must urgently intervene to stop such violations. Qatar’s foreign ministry also issued a statement in which it strongly condemned the Israeli airstrike saying, “the expansion of Israeli attacks over the Gaza Strip to include hospitals, schools, and other population centers is a…

More than 2,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed as Israel targets homes in crowded areas. A few days after Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari admitted freely that the emphasis of the heavy bombardment of the besieged coastal enclave “is on damage and not accuracy”. A day later, on October 11, the Israeli army boasted that 6,000 bombs weighing a combined 4,000 tonnes had been dropped on Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated regions where 2.2 million people live on a 365sq-km (140sq-mile) strip of land. That is nearly the equivalent…

AMMAN, Tuesday, October 17, 2023 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas met today with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Jordanian capital, Amman. During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian scene as well as the ongoing efforts to stop the escalation and spare civilians the blight of war. They also underscored the importance of securing Gaza with medical relief supplies, food, water, and electricity as quickly as possible. Both the Palestinian and American sides stressed the rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. President Abbas stressed that peace and security can…

The World Health Organization has issued a statement condemning a deadly strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip and demanded the immediate protection of civilians and health care givers in the Palestinian enclave. “The hospital was operational, with patients, health- and care-givers, and internally-displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.” The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military, the WHO said. “The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the attack on a Gaza hospital was “the latest example of Israel’s attacks devoid of the most basic human values.” “I call on all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” Erdogan wrote on social media platform X. Source: AlJazeera

PA President Abbas will be leaving Amman and heading back to the West Bank, says a PLO official. PLO Secretary Hussein al-Sheikh said Abbas has called for an emergency meeting of the wider leadership tonight. Source: AlJazeera

Egypt has condemned the Israeli attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, calling it “a dangerous violation” of international humanitarian law (IHL). “This deliberate attack on civilian targets is a dangerous violation of IHL and basic human values,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Source: alJazeera