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13 hours ago
US-Israeli hostage died in captivity, kibbutz community says
A US-Israeli man abducted to Gaza during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants has died, a group representing families of hostages and his kibbutz community said on Friday.
Gad Haggai, 73, is the latest confirmed fatality among hostages held by Palestinian militants in the territory since the day of the attack.
A flautist who played in the military’s orchestra, he was abducted along with his wife Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, who is thought to be the oldest woman remaining among the hostages.
The couple was seized from kibbutz Nir Oz when they were out for their “regular morning walk” on October 7, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement announcing his death. It described him as a “musician at heart”.
The Nir Oz kibbutz said his body was still held by Hamas in Gaza. It said he was father of four and grandfather of seven. The Israeli army also confirmed his death.
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13 hours ago
EU adopts €118 million aid plan for Palestinian Authority
The European Commission on Friday said it had adopted an €118 million ($130 million) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority.
The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
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14 hours ago
Gaza ceasefire efforts: Signs show Israel-Hamas talks underway
Hopes that Israel and Hamas could be inching towards another truce and an exchange for the remaining 129 hostages rose this week as the head of the militant group visited Egypt and talks took place in Europe.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo for a second day of negotiations which ended late on Thursday. Meanwhile Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said negotiations on a hostage release were continuing withour providing details.
Despite Israel’s stated goal of removing Hamas from control in the Gaza Strip, its military appears to be planning for the “next phase” which would “involve the removal of a great deal of troops north of the Gaza Strip”, FRANCE 24’s Irris Makler said, reporting from Jerusalem.
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15 hours ago
EU adopts €118 million aid plan for Palestinian Authority
The European Commission says it has adopted a €118 million ($130 million) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank but has no control over the Hamas-held Gaza Strip.
The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
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16 hours ago
Putin vows aid, urges halt to Gaza fighting in call with Abbas
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to continue to supply the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and urged a peaceful resolution to fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“Russia will continue to supply the Gaza Strip with essential goods, including medicines and medical equipment,” Putin told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas during a telephone call, the Kremlin said, adding that Putin urged the “importance of a quick cessation of the bloodshed and the resumption of the political process”.
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16 hours ago
Why Gaza war is most deadly conflict for journalists in recent history
At least 68 journalists and media workers have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. No other conflict has taken so many journalists’ lives in such a short timeframe, with Palestinian journalists in Gaza accounting for the vast majority of the victims.
FRANCE 24’s Erin Ogunkeye spoke to Tim Dawson, Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, about these killings and the widespread claims that journalists are being deliberately targeted by the Israeli military.
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16 hours ago
‘Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history’
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, AP reports, citing military experts.
In just over two months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the US-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.
The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. But from blast fragments found on-site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are US-made. They say the weapons include 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) “bunker-busters” that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.
“Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” said Robert Pape, a US military historian. “It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.”
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Key developments from yesterday:
UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war.
Fourteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in three separate attacks on Thursday in northern, central and southern Gaza Strip, medics said.
For journalists, the first 10 weeks of the war have been the deadliest recorded, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report on Thursday.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it had delivered food into war-torn Gaza through the Israeli Kerem Shalom border crossing in the first direct aid convoy from Jordan.
Residents of Khan Younis in Gaza reported intensifying gun battles between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the centre and eastern districts of the southern city.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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