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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴 Live: Netanyahu vows to increase ‘military pressure’ on Hamas in ‘the coming days’
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase “military pressure” on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza. The announcement came after Israeli overnight strikes in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 16 people, according to the Civil Defence agency in the war-torn Palestinian territory. Read our liveblog to follow today’s developments in the Middle East.
Issued on: 21/04/2024 – 07:12
Modified: 21/04/2024 – 16:51
2 min
A Palestinian man waits for news of his daughter after a building was hit in an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 21, 2024.
A Palestinian man waits for news of his daughter as rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit in an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 21, 2024. © Mohammed Abed, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase “military pressure” on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Israeli overnight strikes in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 16 people, the Palestinian territory’s Civil Defence agency said Sunday.
Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. An ambulance driver was also killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 76,980 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
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43 minutes ago
an hour ago
Israeli soldiers share ‘abusive’ videos mocking destruction in Gaza
Israeli soldiers have filmed and posted hundreds of videos of destruction in Gaza online since the start of the war in the the coastal enclave over six months ago.
In the videos, Palestinians are mocked, destruction is celebrated and launching artillery is an opportunity to have a laugh.
The Israel Defence Forces said they have called their soldiers to order and have sanctioned some of them without saying how many.
Click on the video to watch the report:
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an hour ago
Israel vows to increase ‘military pressure’ on Hamas in ‘the coming days’
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase “military pressure” on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
“In the coming days we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a video statement on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, threatening to “deliver additional and painful blows” without specifying what they might be.
Despite an international outcry, Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the Israeli army will launch a ground assault on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
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an hour ago
Netanyahu says he will fight any sanctions imposed on Israeli army battalions
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units after media reported that Washington was planning such a step against a battalion for alleged rights violations.
On Saturday, Axios news site reported that Washington was planning to impose sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion that has operated in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said it was not aware of any measures being taken.
“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) – I will fight it with all my strength,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that Netzah Yehuda battalion is an active combat unit that operates according to the principles of international law.
“Following publications about sanctions against the battalion, the IDF is not aware of the issue. If a decision is made on the matter it will be reviewed. The IDF works and will continue to work to investigate any unusual event in a practical manner and according to law,” the military said.
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an hour ago
Gaza civil defence agency says 50 bodies exhumed at hospital in Khan Younis
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Sunday that health workers had uncovered at least 50 bodies of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Israel’s military said it was checking the reports.
In a statement to AFP, the civil defence agency said the remains were discovered in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex.
“Inside the Nasser Medical Complex there are mass graves dug by the Israeli occupation … we were shocked by the presence of bodies of 50 martyrs in one of the pits yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.
“We are continuing the search operation today and are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number of martyrs.”
He alleged some of those killed had been tortured. “There were no clothes on some bodies, which certainly indicates (the victims) faced torture and abuse,” Bassal said.
Intense fighting raged in mid-February in the area of the hospital, and Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded it on March 26.
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2 hours ago
US ‘risks complicity’ in approving military aid for Israel, says Oxfam
Responding to the US House of Representatives on Saturday approving $13 billion in new military aid for Israel, the West Bank policy lead for Oxfam, Bushra Khalidi, said:
“To continue arming Israel after an ICJ (International Court of Justice) decision that finds that there is a possible risk of genocide and a United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate, sustained ceasefire … from our opinion, risks complicity.”
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3 hours ago
Israeli military says it is unaware of US sanctions against one of its battalions
The Israeli military said on Sunday it was unaware of any US sanctions against one of its combat battalions, after media reported that Washington was planning such a step against the unit for alleged rights violations.
The military said that its “Netzah Yehuda” battalion is an active combat unit that operates according to the principles of international law.
“Following publications about sanctions against the battalion, the IDF is not aware of the issue. If a decision is made on the matter it will be reviewed. The IDF works and will continue to work to investigate any unusual event in a practical manner and according to law,” the military said.
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3 hours ago
Israel indicts sister of Hamas political leader Haniyeh on charges of incitement
Israel’s state attorney on Sunday indicted the sister of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on charges of incitement and showing solidarity with a terror group, after she allegedly praised Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the more than six-month-old war in Gaza.
Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh, 57, lives in the southern Israeli town of Tel Sheva. Her brother is based in Qatar, as are other officials from Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Haniyeh has been held in custody since her arrest on April 1, Israel’s justice ministry said. There was no immediate comment from her lawyer.
According to the indictment, in the days after Hamas’s killing spree in southern Israel, Haniyeh sent messages to dozens of contacts, including to her brother, praising the cross-border assault and calling for further “slaughter”.
One of her messages mentioned in the indictment includes the line: “Oh God, count them and kill them and don’t leave any of them, Oh God”.
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4 hours ago
Hamas says US military aid to Israel is a ‘green light’ for Gaza ‘aggression’
Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday condemned the US House of Representatives’ approval of billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel, much of which is to strengthen Israeli air defences.
“This support, which violates international law, is a licence and a green light for the Zionist extremist government (Israel) to continue the brutal aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
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5 hours ago
Iran’s Khamenei thanks armed forces for attack on Israel, says state media
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, thanked the country’s armed forces for their operation against Israel, and urged them to “ceaselessly pursue military innovation and learn the enemy’s tactics”, Iran’s official news agency reported on Sunday.
Tehran openly targeted Israel for the first time on April 13 with more than 300 missiles and drones in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s suspected deadly bombing of its embassy compound in Damascus on April 1.
“How many missiles were launched and how many of them hit their target is not the primary question, what really matters is that Iran demonstrated its willpower during that operation,” Khamenei said on Sunday.
Early on Friday, explosions echoed over the Iranian city of Isfahan in what sources said was an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and said it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
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5 hours ago
Death toll rises in overnight Israeli strikes on Rafah area
Israeli overnight strikes that hit the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah have killed at least 16 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s Civil Defence agency.
The bodies of 13 people, mostly children, were recovered after a strike hit the home of a family near Rafah, the agency said.
A separate Israeli strike on a home in the Rafah area killed at least three people and wounded others, Civil Defence said.
The Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah earlier said the strikes killed at least 13 people.
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6 hours ago
At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, says health ministry
At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed and 76,980 others injured in Israel’s ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 7, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Sunday.
Some 48 Palestinians were killed and 79 others injured over the past day, the ministry added.
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6 hours ago
Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza could be a sign of coming ground offensive in Rafah
ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller assesses the Israeli army’s strategy ahead of a possible ground attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
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7 hours ago
Two Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in West Bank: Palestinian media
Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, as the army confirmed they were “neutralised” after attempting to stab and shoot soldiers.
The incident, after numerous deaths during an Israeli raid further north in the Palestinian territory, added to a two-year surge of violence in the West Bank that has accelerated since the war in Gaza began on October 7.
Wafa reported that the latest incident occurred at the entrance to the village of Beit Einun near the city of Hebron.
Quoting two Palestinian security sources, Wafa reported that the men succumbed to their wounds after they were fired on.
Following the incident, Israeli troops stormed Beit Einun and raided several homes, the agency reported.
The military said two assailants had attempted to harm troops near the village.
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8 hours ago
Two Palestinians attack Israeli soldiers in West Bank, army says
Two Palestinian attackers tried to shoot and stab Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and the soldiers responded with live fire, the military said. Israel’s Army Radio said one of the attackers was killed.
“One of the terrorists attempted to stab IDF soldiers that were in the area, who responded with live fire and neutralised him,” the military said. “At the same time, the other terrorist opened fire at the soldiers, who responded with live fire and neutralised him too.”
A Reuters cameraman saw a body at the scene of the incident – a junction near the Palestinian city of Hebron.
There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.
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9 hours ago
Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill at least 13, mostly children
Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed at least 13 people, including nine children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US.
The first Israeli strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant, and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.
The second strike killed eight children and two women, all from the same family, according to hospital records.
An air strike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
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11 hours ago
Israeli forces have killed at least 14 Palestinians during West Bank raid, say health sources
Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday, while an ambulance driver was killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by violent Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.
Israeli forces began an extended raid in the early hours of Friday in the Nur Shams area, near the flashpoint Palestinian city of Tulkarm and were still exchanging fire with armed fighters well into Saturday.
Israeli military vehicles massed and bursts of gunfire were heard, while at least three drones were seen hovering above Nur Shams, an area housing refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel.
The Tulkarm Brigades, which groups forces from numerous Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
The US House of Representatives passed billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel which continues to prosecute its war against Hamas, despite growing international concern for the fate of civilians in Gaza.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks in Istanbul.
One member of Iraq’s pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces was killed in an explosion on Saturday at its command post on the Calso military base 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, a military statement said on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed as inconsequential the reported Israeli retaliation near the central city of Isfahan for the unprecedented Iranian strike on Israel last weekend, and said Tehran would not respond unless Iranian “interests” were targeted.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
