Israel-Palestine category, Page 14
Hamas clears the way for a possible cease-fire after dropping key demand, officials say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Hamas has given initial approval for a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday. The apparent compromise by the...
Netanyahu will dispatch negotiators to resume Gaza cease-fire talks, an Israeli official says
JERUSALEM — An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will dispatch negotiators to resume Gaza cease-fire talks. The decision on Thursday comes a day after Hamas submitted a new response a a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire. The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal...
Israeli strike kills another senior Hezbollah commander as diplomats scramble for calm in Lebanon
BEIRUT — An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander as tensions between the two sides continue to boil, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press. The strike near the southern coastal city of Tyre took place as global diplomatic efforts have intensified in recent...
Anti-settlement group says Israel has made largest West Bank land seizure in 3 decades
JERUSALEM — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, an anti-settlement watchdog group said Wednesday, a move that could further worsen already soaring tensions linked to the ongoing war in Gaza. Peace Now said authorities recently approved the appropriation of...
Israel orders Palestinians to flee Khan Younis, signaling likely new assault on southern Gaza city
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Israeli army ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Younis on Monday, a sign that troops are likely to launch a new ground assault into the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city. The order suggests Khan Younis will be the latest target of...
Israel releases director of hospital it says was used as a Hamas base. He alleges abuse in custody
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel released the director of Gaza’s main hospital on Monday after holding him for seven months without charge or trial over allegations the facility had been used as a Hamas command center. He said he and other detainees were held under harsh conditions and tortured....
With another setback for cease-fire talks, worries of full-scale war for Israel and Lebanon escalate
BEIRUT — The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, particularly as cease-fire negotiations have faltered. Such a war could be...
Netanyahu says he won’t agree to a deal that ends the war in Gaza, testing the latest truce proposal
TEL AVIV, Israel — The viability of a U.S.-backed proposal to wind down the 8-month-long war in Gaza was cast into doubt on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would only be willing to agree to a “partial” cease-fire deal that would not end the war, comments...
Hezbollah says Israeli strikes kill 3 fighters as U.S. envoy tries to calm tensions
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed three Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday, the militant group said, as a U.S. envoy tasked with avoiding a devastating regional war returned to Israel after meeting officials in Lebanon. Lebanese state media reported multiple Israeli strikes along the border and in an area north of...
The war in Gaza has wiped out entire Palestinian families. AP documents 60 who lost dozens or more
BEIRUT — He is among the very last survivors of his Gaza family, a clan so close they knew without thinking how blood and marriage bound them across generations and city blocks. Then, branch by branch, 173 of Youssef Salem’s relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes in a matter of...
Israeli officials say Netanyahu has dissolved the War Cabinet after key partner bolted government
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the influential War Cabinet tasked with steering the war in Gaza, Israeli officials said Monday, a move that comes days after a key member of the body bolted the government over frustrations surrounding the Israeli leader’s handling of the war....
Hezbollah fires scores of rockets at northern Israel as Gaza cease-fire talks hang in the balance
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions as the fate of an internationally-backed plan for a cease-fire in Gaza hung in the balance. The retaliatory attack came as U.S. Secretary...
How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians in Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — They arrived in the middle of the day, when the squat concrete buildings of the Nuseirat refugee camp are stifling and the narrow streets outside are filled with people. No one suspected a thing until the shots rang out. The Israeli raid caught everyone off...
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 274 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raid that rescued 4 hostages
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 274 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were wounded in the Israeli raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday. The military said its forces came under heavy fire during the complex daytime operation deep inside the territory....
Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. At least 94 Palestinians are killed
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel on Saturday rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, the largest such recovery operation since the war began. At least 94 Palestinians including children were killed as heavy fighting continued around the sites in central Gaza, the Health...
Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at Gaza school the military claims was being used by Hamas
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said that Hamas militants were operating from within the school. It was the...
Israeli nationalist march through Palestinian area of Jerusalem is set to proceed despite tensions
JERUSALEM — Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis are expected to take part in an annual march through a dense Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday in an event that often sees racist chants and brawls. Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm throughout the...
Israeli strikes kill 11 overnight in Gaza, including a family of 3 at a refugee camp
Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people overnight into Tuesday, including a family of three in the built-up Bureij refugee camp and eight police officers. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it killed two Palestinian militants who were attempting...
Proposed Gaza cease-fire puts Netanyahu at a crossroads that could shape his legacy
TEL AVIV, Israel — The cease-fire proposal announced by President Joe Biden has placed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads, with either path likely to shape the legacy of Israel’s longest-serving and deeply divisive leader. The proposal offers the possibility of ending Israel’s war against Hamas, returning scores of...
Michael Douglas pays solidarity visit to southern Israel
JERUSALEM — Actor Michael Douglas on Sunday paid a solidarity visit to an Israeli kibbutz that was hit hard in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked Israel’s war against the Islamic militant group. Douglas met with members of Kibbutz Be’eri and visited burnt-out homes destroyed in the Oct. 7...
Hostage families call for cease-fire deal pushed by Biden; Israel says conditions must be met
TEL AVIV, Israel — Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas called for all parties to immediately accept a proposal detailed by U.S. President Joe Biden to end the nearly 8-month-long war and bring their relatives home, but Israel’s government said conditions for a cease-fire still must be met. Biden...
Israel confirms its forces are in central Rafah in expanding offensive in southern Gaza city
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military confirmed Friday that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city. Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and...
Israel could have used smaller weapons against Hamas to avoid deaths in Gaza tent fire, experts say
WASHINGTON — Defense experts who have reviewed debris images from an Israeli airstrike that ignited a deadly fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians questioned why Israel did not use smaller, more precise weapons when so many civilians were nearby. They said the bombs used were likely U.S.-made. The strikes,...
The U.S.-built pier in Gaza broke apart. Here’s how we got here and what might be next
WASHINGTON — A string of security, logistical and weather problems has battered the plan to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza through a U.S. military-built pier. Broken apart by strong winds and heavy seas just over a week after it became operational, the project faces criticism that it hasn’t...
Israel says it’s taken control of key area of Gaza’s border with Egypt awash in smuggling tunnels
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Wednesday it seized control of a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt to cut off smuggling tunnels as it tries to destroy the militant Hamas group in a war now in its eighth month. The capture of the Philadelphi Corridor could complicate Israel’s relations...
