Headline
Israel Says Troops Encircle Gaza City As Blinken Visits
Published
2 years agoon
By
Editor
Israeli ground troops encircled Gaza City on Friday in their war against Hamas, as top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for a trip focused on “concrete steps” to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties.
Ahead of Blinken’s arrival, Israel’s military said on Thursday it had “completed the encirclement” of the narrow Palestinian territory’s largest city — signalling a new phase in the nearly month-long conflict.
Fighting was triggered by Hamas’ bloody raids on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 9,000 people have died in Israeli bombardments, mostly women and children.
Fresh Israeli strikes rocked the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, an AFP correspondent said, and the Gaza health ministry reported at least 15 deaths in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood and seven in Jabalia refugee camp.
The Hamas government has said 195 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Jabalia earlier this week, with hundreds more missing and wounded, figures AFP could not independently verify.
Before his departure, Blinken said he would seek to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians is reduced, in a visible shift of tone for the United States which has promised full support and ramped-up military aid to Israel.
“We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimise harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Blinken said.
READ ALSO: Internet, Phones ‘Completely’ Shut Off In Gaza
“This is something that the United States is committed to.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had already had some “very impressive successes” with troops “more than on the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing,” he said late Thursday at a base near Tel Aviv.
Israel’s military describes Gaza City as “the centre of the Hamas terror organisation”.
Although many of the city’s half-a-million residents fled south following Israel’s warning to leave the north ahead of a ground operation, those who stayed behind have endured weeks of withering aerial bombardments, dwindling supplies and daily carnage.
– ‘Terrified’ –
Outside Gaza City’s Al-Quds hospital, displaced residents seeking shelter from Israeli strikes told AFP on Thursday that civilians would not withstand the barrage much longer.
“This is not a life. We need a safe place for our kids,” said 50-year-old Hiyam Shamlakh. “Everybody is terrified, children, women and the elderly.”
But yet more carnage seems to lie ahead, as the conflict turns to urban and underground warfare — with Hamas fighting from a tunnel complex believed to span hundreds of kilometres (miles).
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The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, insisted Israeli soldiers would go home “in black bags”.
“Gaza will be the curse of history for Israel,” spokesman Abu Obeida said.
Israel’s allies have backed its right to self-defence, but there is growing global concern and anger at how Israel has chosen to prosecute the war.
A group of UN-mandated human rights experts warned Thursday that “time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
“We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide,” the experts, who do not speak for the United Nations, said in a joint statement.
They called for “a humanitarian ceasefire” and the immediate release of all civilians being held captive since the Hamas attack.
“The situation in Gaza has reached a catastrophic tipping point,” the experts said, warning of the “dire need” for food, water, medicine, fuel and essential supplies and the risk of looming health hazards.
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Israel’s Geneva embassy denounced the report as Hamas “propaganda” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Both Israel and the United States have ruled out a blanket ceasefire, which they say would allow Hamas to regroup and resupply.
US President Joe Biden has backed “temporary, localised” pauses in fighting to allow humanitarian work to be done.
– Escape to safety –
Countries around the world recalled their ambassadors from Israel in protest at the strikes. Bolivia severed diplomatic ties.
Israel has sought to show Jabalia was a legitimate target, saying it killed a senior Hamas commander in a tunnel complex below the camp.
On Thursday some 400 more foreigners and dual nationals managed to escape the war to Egypt, along with 60 wounded Palestinians.
READ ALSO: Bodies Pile Up In Central Gaza As Israel Steps Up Strikes
Egypt has said it would help evacuate 7,000 foreigners through Rafah, which was to open again on Friday, a source at the crossing told AFP.
The UN said more than 100 trucks with aid crossed into Gaza on Thursday, a significant increase from previous days.
A total of 374 trucks have entered since a US-brokered deal was enacted on October 21, far short of what aid agencies say is needed.
Meanwhile, in Israel’s north, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it attacked 19 Israeli positions along the border simultaneously.
Some 71 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, nine people have died.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is on Friday expected to break weeks of silence and deliver a speech that could have a profound impact on the region.
Some analysts believe Hezbollah has little interest in becoming fully embroiled in a conflict that Israeli officials have threatened could destroy Lebanon.
Others say the decision lies with Iran, which leads the regional “axis of resistance” against Israel — backing Hamas, Hezbollah and a rollcall of armed groups from Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
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Headline
Family Of Five Killed In Iranian Missile Strike After Fleeing Ukraine For Safety In Israel
Published
13 hours agoon
June 28, 2025By
Editor
A Ukrainian family of five who fled Russia’s war in search of safety were killed in Israel by an Iranian missile — the very conflict they thought they had escaped.
Mariia Pieshkurova had brought her 7-year-old daughter, Anastasiia, to Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, hoping to get lifesaving cancer treatment and refuge from the violence at home.
Along with Anastasiia’s grandmother, Olena Sokolova, and two young cousins, Illia and Kostiantyn, they had started over — believing they were finally safe.
But on June 15, an Iranian missile tore through their apartment building during a retaliatory strike on Israel, killing them all.
“I really thought they’d be safe,” said Artem Buryk, Anastasiia’s father and Mariia’s former partner. “I never thought they’d go to Israel to escape war — and find it there.”
READ ALSO:US Struck Iran With B-2 Bombers, Submarine-launched Missiles – Top US General
The missile attack, part of Iran’s response to Israeli airstrikes on its territory, collapsed much of the building in Bat Yam.
It took four days to recover Mariia’s body from the rubble.
Their deaths marked a heartbreaking intersection of two wars — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s conflict with Israel — both of which had already tested the family’s will to survive.
Mariia had moved to Israel in late 2022 after Anastasiia was diagnosed with leukemia.
Ukraine’s hospitals were overwhelmed, and its largest children’s hospital was later destroyed in a missile strike.
In Israel, treatment began immediately. It was effective but costly. Mariia turned to Instagram, sharing photos of her daughter in treatment and videos of Artem pleading for help while serving on Ukraine’s front lines.
READ ALSO:Israel-Iran War: Stranded Nigerians Cry For Help From Underground Shelters
“Masha did everything for her little girl,” said Anastasiia’s godmother, Khrytsyna Chanysheva. “She dedicated her life to her, moved to Israel to get her full treatment.”
Despite the pain, Anastasiia always smiled at visitors.
“She was in pain, and she would close her eyes for a second,” said charity worker Lada Fichkovsi. “But every time I walked into her room, she would smile.”
Her cousins joined the family in May 2024 as the situation in Odesa deteriorated.
“The shelling made my children cry,” said Hanna Pieshkurova, Mariia’s sister. “I decided to let them go.”
Though Israel was at war with Hamas, Mariia had assured her sister that Bat Yam was calm. Air raid sirens were rare, and the Iron Dome defense system offered hope.
READ ALSO:Iran Nabs 22 Suspected Israeli Spies Amidst Escalating Conflict
“Ukrainians often say, ‘This is not Ukraine, it’s not as scary,’” said Inna Bakhareva of Chance4Life, a charity helping sick children in Israel. “They felt secure due to the Iron Dome.”
That sense of security evaporated after Israel struck Iranian targets on June 12. Iran retaliated with missile attacks across Israeli cities.
“Dad, at night I saw how the missiles were falling,” Anastasiia told her father in a voice message the night before she died.
She and her mother had been scheduled to visit the hospital the next morning. The missile struck before dawn.
Mr. Buryk, who had just returned from the front lines near Sumy, received the news that same day.
“I still don’t understand what’s happening,” he said. “I still can’t believe it.”
He used to promise Anastasiia they’d go fishing together when peace returned.
“Every time I talked to her, I’d say, ‘Sweetheart, we’ll go fishing. Just us,’” he said. “And now I just don’t understand. I still don’t even grasp that she’s gone.”
“Last night,” he added quietly, “I sent her voice messages.”
(New York Times)
Headline
Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children
Published
1 day agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.
Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.
The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.
Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.
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“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.
An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.
“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.
Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.
READ ALSO:Heineken Withdraws Staff As Armed Rebels Seize Facilities In Eastern DR Congo
According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.
That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.
Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.
The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.
The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.
AFP
Headline
Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans
Published
1 day agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.
“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.
“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”
READ ALSO:Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme
Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.
The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.
Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.
READ ALSO:We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.
However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.
The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.
In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.
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