Israel

ASHKELON, Israel (AP) — Tatyana Prima thought she’d left the bombs behind when she fled Ukraine more than a year and a half ago, after Russia decimated her city, Mariupol. The 38-year-old escaped with her injured husband and young daughter, bringing the family to safety in southern Israel.

The calm she was slowly regaining shattered again on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants invaded.

20 November 2023; MEMO: The deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has called for the burning of Gaza, which has been under relentless Israeli bombardment since 7 October.

According to the Hebrew TV Channel 12, Knesset Deputy Speaker and far-right Likud Party member, Nissim Vaturi, tweeted on Saturday on X that Gaza must be burned.

JERUSALEM, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Israel stepped up accusations of Hamas abuses at the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital on Sunday, saying a captive soldier had been executed and two foreign hostages held at a site that has been a focus of its devastating six-week-old offensive.

At one point a shelter for tens of thousands of Palestinian war refugees, Al Shifa Hospital has been evacuating patients and staff since Israeli troops swept in last week on what they called a mission to root out hidden Hamas facilities.

JERUSALEM, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Israel published video on Sunday of what it described as a tunnel dug by Palestinian militants under the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital, a focus of its search-and-destroy missions against Hamas in a war now in its seventh week.

While acknowledging that it has a network of hundreds of kilometres of secret tunnels, bunkers and access shafts throughout the Palestinian enclave, Hamas has denied that these are located in civilian infrastructure like hospitals.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Friday killed five Palestinians, including three militants, across the West Bank, deepening a surge of violence in the occupied territory that has accompanied Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The deaths raised to 205 the number of Palestinians killed in West Bank violence since the Gaza war erupted on Oct. 7, making it the deadliest period in the territory since the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

17 November 2023; MEMO: Israel has rejected a request for a visit from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, amid growing concern over the escalation of violence in its war on Gaza.

According to Euro News, the Israeli mission to the United Nations in Geneva told the French news agency AFP in response to a question about Turk’s request to visit Israel, “Israel is not aware of any additional benefit to a visit from the High Commissioner at this time.”

13 November 2023; MEMO: Israel’s Foreign Minister, on Monday, said international pressure on Israel would increase within two or three weeks over its onslaught on Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

According to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Eli Cohen told a press conference that Israel has only two or three weeks before it loses its diplomatic battle on the international stage to stop the war on Gaza.

15 November 2023; MEMO: Israeli tanks are trying to advance further into Gaza City on the 39th day of the war, under the cover of warplanes and Quadcopter drones which are opening fire on anyone moving in Gaza City’s streets.

Israeli tank movements are limited to the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, while continuing to try to reach Saraya Square.

15 November 2023; MEMO: The Israeli army killed an elderly Palestinian after using him in a propaganda campaign promoting its “safe corridor” in Gaza, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has revealed.