Headline

Over 330 Dead As Israel Unleashes ‘Hell Fire’ On Gaza

Published

3 months ago

March 18, 2025

Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting in Gaza until the return of all hostages as it unleashed its most intense strikes since a ceasefire, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 330 people killed.

Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to “resume war” after an impasse in truce negotiations, and warned that the return to fighting could be a “death sentence” for hostages still alive in Gaza.

The strikes were by far the biggest and deadliest since a truce took effect on January 19. Hamas has not responded to the strikes so far.

Netanyahu warned Hamas this month of consequences it “cannot imagine” if it does not free hostages still in Gaza, and Israeli media said Israel had drafted plans to ramp up pressure on Hamas under a scheme dubbed the “Hell Plan”.

The White House said Israel consulted US President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the wave of strikes, which the health ministry in Gaza said killed mostly women and children.

Netanyahu’s office said the operation was ordered after “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators”.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement said.

“We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Apart from the release of the remaining hostages, Israel’s other main war aim is to crush Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas said: “Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement.

“Netanyahu’s decision to resume war is a decision to sacrifice the occupation’s prisoners and impose a death sentence on them,” it said.

A Hamas official said the group was “working with mediators” to stop the strikes, adding that the movement had “adhered to the ceasefire”.

‘Fire of hell’
In Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, AFP footage showed people rushing stretchers with wounded people, including young children, to the Nasser Hospital. Bodies covered with white sheets were also taken to the hospital’s mortuary.

Mohammed Jarghoun, 36, was sleeping in a tent near his destroyed house in Khan Yunis when he was woken by huge blasts.

“I thought they were dreams and nightmares, but I saw a fire in my relatives’ house. More than 20 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women.”

Ramez Alammarin, 25, described carrying children to hospital southeast of Gaza City.

“They unleashed the fire of hell again on Gaza,” he said of Israel, adding that “bodies and limbs are on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them.

“They bombed a building in the area and there are still martyrs and wounded under the rubble… fear and terror. Death is better than life.”

Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza pleaded with Netanyahu to “stop the killing and disappearance” of their loved ones, and called for a protest in front of the premier’s residence.

‘Hell will break loose’
Brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, the initial phase of the ceasefire took effect on January 19, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

That first phase ended in early March, and the two sides have been unable to agree on the next steps.

Mohammed Zaqut, head of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said “at least 330 deaths” had been recorded, “most of them Palestinian women and children”.

He said there were “hundreds of wounded, dozens of them in critical condition”.

Israel ordered all schools near the Gaza border to shut, amid fear of attack.

US envoy Witkoff told CNN on Sunday he had offered a “bridge proposal” that would see five living hostages, including Israeli-American Edan Alexander, released in return for freeing a “substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners” from Israel jails.

Hamas had said it was ready to free Alexander and the remains of four others.

Witkoff said Hamas had provided “an unacceptable response” and “the opportunity is closing fast”.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump’s administration had been consulted ahead of Israel’s operation.

“As President Trump has made it clear, Hamas, the Huthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorise not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay — all hell will break loose,” she said.

Yemen’s Huthis, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, vowed to escalate its attacks in the Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas.

Deadlock
During the first phase of the truce, Hamas released 33 hostages, including eight deceased, and Israel freed around 1,800 Palestinian detainees.

Since then, Hamas has consistently demanded negotiations for the second phase.

Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase which would involve the release of remaining living hostages, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces left in Gaza and the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.

Israel, however, seeks to extend the first phase until mid-April, insisting any transition to the second phase must include “the total demilitarisation” of Gaza and the removal of Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007.

The talks have been deadlocked, and Israel has cut aid and electricity to the territory.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza has killed at least 48,572 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the two sides.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Both Russia and China warned against an escalation in Gaza.

Headline

Israeli Strikes Kill 13 In Gaza

Published

1 hour ago

June 7, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 13 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting incident near a US-backed aid distribution centre in the territory’s south.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), “six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout” in southern Gaza’s Rafah area.

Gazans have massed at Al-Alam almost daily since late May to collect humanitarian aid at a centre about one kilometre (0.6 miles) away, operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout.

“As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,” Abu Hadid said.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incident, the latest deadly fire near the Al-Alam aid point.

The GHF began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations, which has refused to cooperate with the GHF over neutrality concerns, has warned that Gaza’s entire population of more than two million people was at risk of starvation.

In the territory’s north early Saturday, Bassal said seven people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a house near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

AFP

Headline

Russian Strikes Kill Five In Ukraine

Published

1 hour ago

June 7, 2025

Editor

Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across Ukraine early Saturday, killing five people in a major attack that the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, described as unprecedented.

Russian forces have accelerated attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, with the Kremlin vowing to retaliate over a brazen attack on its air bases last weekend.

In Kharkiv, Mayor Igor Terekhov counted 48 Iranian-made drones, two missiles and four guided bombs before dawn in the city of some 1.4 million residents located less than 50 kilometres from the Russian border in northeastern Ukraine..

“Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the beginning of the full-scale war,” Terekhov posted on Telegram around 4:40 am (0140 GMT), adding that drones were still buzzing overhead.

The Russian strikes pummelled homes and apartment blocks, killing at least three people and wounding 17 more, the mayor said. A woman was also pulled alive from the rubble of a high-rise building.

Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Synegubov said the wounded included two children.

“Medical personnel are providing the necessary assistance,” he wrote.

The northeastern city was already reeling from an attack on Thursday that wounded at least 18 people, including four children.

In the southern port city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed a couple and damaged two high-rise buildings, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

And in Dnipro, two women, aged 45 and 88, were injured in strikes, according to local officials.

Rescuers in the western city of Lutsk, near the Polish border, meanwhile discovered a second fatality from Friday’s strikes, describing the victim as a woman in her 20s.

The aerial bombardments come days after Ukraine launched a brazen attack well beyond the frontlines, damaging nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases and prompting vows of revenge from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal during peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

But Russia, which now controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, has repeatedly rejected such offers to end its three-year war.

The Kremlin said on Friday the Ukraine war was “existential” for Russia.

– Ceasefire hopes dim –

The comments are Moscow’s latest to dampen hopes for a breakthrough amid a flurry of meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, as well as telephone calls between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, aimed at stopping the fighting.

“For us it is an existential issue, an issue on our national interest, safety, on our future and the future of our children, of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, responding to remarks by Trump on Thursday comparing Moscow and Kyiv to brawling children.

Ahead of the talks this week in Istanbul, an audacious Ukrainian drone attack damaged nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases, including thousands of kilometres behind the front lines in Siberia.

Putin had told Trump he would retaliate for the brazen operation, 18 months in the planning, in which Ukraine smuggled more than 100 small drones into Russia, parked them near Russian air bases and unleashed them in a coordinated attack.

Putin has issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine if it wants to halt the fighting.

They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support, and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the demands as old ultimatums, questioned the purpose of more such talks and called for a summit to be attended by him, Putin and Trump.

AFP

Headline

Trump Puts His Tesla Car Up For Sale As Feud With Elon Musk Escalates

Published

5 hours ago

June 7, 2025

Editor

A bright red Tesla Model S is now for sale at the White House — the most visible symbol yet of the fractured relationship between President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

According to a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to lack of authorization to comment publicly, Trump made the decision to sell the vehicle less than 24 hours after a public clash with Musk.

The car, acquired by the president in March and regularly seen parked on West Executive Avenue, appears to be among the first material casualties of their soured alliance.

For years, Trump criticized electric vehicles, often claiming they were too expensive and lacked sufficient range.

In 2023, he declared online that the cars should “ROT IN HELL.”

That stance shifted after Trump and Musk forged an unlikely partnership. Musk contributed around $275 million to Trump’s 2024 re-election effort and was tapped to lead a major initiative to downsize the federal workforce.

In March, with Tesla under fire over Musk’s new political role, the two held an event at the White House showcasing Tesla models.

Musk touted the Cybertruck as “bulletproof.” Trump, pointing to a red Model S, said: “That kind.” He got it.

Trump later remarked that the Secret Service would not allow him to drive it and that the car would remain at the White House for staff use.

He stated he would pay by check — around $80,000 — and declined any discounts. A White House spokesperson confirmed the vehicle was purchased “at a market rate.”

While executive branch employees are generally barred from endorsing commercial products, those rules do not apply to the president.

Trump maintained that his gesture was merely to support Musk.

On March 11, several Tesla vehicles were delivered to the South Grounds of the White House, shortly after Musk signaled his intent to donate $100 million to Trump-aligned political groups.

(New York Times)