Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, high-ranking Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians…

Earlier we reported that Israel agreed to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Israel. But Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, said the aid may not reach the people of Gaza because humanitarian agencies have not increased their capacity to distribute relief to meet the demand in the south of the enclave. “If the UN won’t have the capacity to collect and to distribute, it doesn’t matter how many crossings we will open,” Goren said. “They cannot rely upon the same mechanism they had before the war. We adjusted…

In an interview with Al Jazeera, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini says he hasn’t seen anything of this scale of disaster before. “Everything is absolutely unprecedented and staggering,” Lazzarini told diplomatic correspondent James Bays. “In 40 days, more women and children were killed than the number of civilians in the Ukraine war.” The UNRWA head went on to say the level of destruction resulted in more than 60 percent of infrastructure being destroyed, and more than 90 percent of the population displaced. “Conditions are absolutely appalling. The sanitary conditions are terrible [and] there is hardly…

War monitor reports Israeli forces killed two people in a strike on a military facility near Syrian capital as they targeted Hezbollah members. Syria’s state-run SANA broadcaster also reported injuries to two Syrian soldiers, adding the country’s military shot down several missiles fired by Israeli fighter jets from over the Golan Heights. Israel has struck Syrian territory 34 times since October 7, according to the observatory, including air strikes and ground assaults with rocket-propelled grenades. The attacks have killed 14 members of the Syrians army, along with 17 Hezbollah members, and two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, it said.…

Israel’s army said Sunday it had found a vast Hamas tunnel as it pressed its offensive in Gaza despite growing international calls for a ceasefire and pleas from relatives to bring home the remaining hostages. Israel’s army said it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel so far near the border crossing at Erez — large enough for small vehicles to use, an AFP photographer reported.Israel said the tunnel cost millions of dollars and took years to construct, featuring rails, electricity, drainage and a communications network. The Gaza war started when Hamas militants burst through Gaza’s high-security border fence on October…

An Israeli hostage mistakenly killed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip was buried on Sunday, with his brother accusing the army of having “abandoned” and “murdered” him. Alon Shamriz, 26, was one of the three Israeli hostages shot dead Friday by soldiers during combat in the Gaza City district of Shejaiya, even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew. Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer El-Talalqa were killed when troops mistook them for a threat and opened fire, the army said.“Those who abandoned you also murdered you after all that you did right,” Ido, Shamriz’s brother,…

The United Nations Security Council will vote Monday on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, as Washington exhibits growing impatience with key ally Israel. The vote comes days after the United States blocked a previous Security Council resolution that would have called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the battered Palestinian territory, where Israel continues its deadly strikes in retaliation for Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7. But in the General Assembly, the UN’s 193 members voted overwhelmingly for a ceasefire, with 153 in favor — exceeding the 140 or so countries that…

 For the tenth week in a row, thousands of demonstrators marched in the southeastern Australian city of Melbourne on Sunday to express solidarity with Palestinians and demand ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Footage shows activists marching with flags and banners through the city’s central business district while chanting “Palestine will be free” and “Ceasefire now!” “We are for freedom. We want ceasefire. So that’s our main course and the reason why we are here today. We’ve been here for 10 weeks every Sunday. We won’t stop until it ends,” said a demonstrator. “It’s been going on for 75 years plus and what…

The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm about Israel’s destruction of a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip amid reports that the regime’s forces buried Palestinians alive at the facility’s courtyard during the operation. WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comment in a Sunday post on X social media platform concerning an Israeli operation targeting the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the city of Beit Lahia. Ghebreyesus said the Israeli military’s attack on the facility had rendered it non-functional and resulted in the killing of at least eight patients and detention of many health workers. “We learned that many patients had to self-evacuate…

The Palestinian Health Ministry says women and children comprise 70 percent of nearly 18,800 people killed in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s bloody aggression against the besieged territory. In a statement on Sunday, the Ramallah-based ministry said the death toll covers a period of 70 days between October 7 and December 15. More than 300 health sector workers, 86 journalists, 135 employees of the UN agency for the Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and approximately 35 civil defense workers are among the death toll, it added. The ministry also said that over 51,100 Palestinians have been wounded in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza,…