All posts tagged: Israelis

Israelis and Palestinians React to Assassination of Hamas Leader

Israelis and Palestinians React to Assassination of Hamas Leader

new video loaded: Israelis and Palestinians React to Assassination of Hamas Leader transcript Back transcript Israelis and Palestinians React to Assassination of Hamas Leader While some Israelis expressed hope that the war might end soon, many Palestinians were doubtful that the death of Yahya Sinwar would lead to a cease-fire. “We are kind of, let’s say, happy to see some kind of justice, to see that Sinwar is dead now. But as I said, what’s most important is that we want to see all the hostages coming back.” “The leader is gone now. But this does not solve the problem. The problem now is that all the hostages that Hamas have in Gaza, and it depends now on the Israeli government.” “I hope it’s going to bring peace as soon as possible. And quiet, and not a war. The war should stop, and I hope it’s going to be positive stage for the State of Israel.” Recent episodes in Middle East Crisis Show more videos from Middle East Crisis Source link

Three Israelis killed in West Bank shooting amid deadly Jenin raids | Occupied West Bank News

Three Israelis killed in West Bank shooting amid deadly Jenin raids | Occupied West Bank News

Three police officers were killed at a checkpoint shooting near Tarqumiyah, south of Hebron. Three Israeli security personnel have been killed in a shooting at a checkpoint in Hebron, as Israel brought reinforcements in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin as part of its ongoing deadly raids. The shooting on Sunday took place as the Israeli army continued its deadly assault on Jenin for a fifth consecutive day killing at least 24 Palestinians. Israel has killed more than 500 people as it intensified operations in the West Bank since it launched war on Gaza on October 7. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past 11 months. The police confirmed three police officers were killed near the Tarqumiyah checkpoint, south of Hebron. Earlier today, the Israeli national emergency service Magen David Adom said two people, a man and a woman in their 30s, were declared deceased at the scene while a third man in his 50s was transferred to a hospital. A little-known armed group calling itself the Khalil al-Rahman …

Monday Briefing: Among Some Israelis, Muted Sympathy for Gaza

Monday Briefing: Among Some Israelis, Muted Sympathy for Gaza

Blame for Hamas and little sympathy for Gazans Some Israelis are struggling to show concern for the people suffering in Gaza, according to interviews conducted in right-wing and liberal strongholds in southern Israel, and with residents from across the country. Even though Israelis know about the devastation in the enclave, many in the country ask why they should show pity when they say Palestinians there showed none on Oct. 7. They blame Hamas for starting the war and embedding itself in residential areas of Gaza, which endangers civilians. And the pain of the attacks on Oct. 7 — which was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust — is still raw and increasingly overlaid with anger. Israel’s mainstream media also rarely focuses on the suffering of Gaza’s civilians and routinely leads broadcasts with the funerals and profiles of soldiers who have died in battle. Diplomacy: Yoav Gallant, Israel’s minister of defense, visited Washington yesterday for meetings with senior U.S. officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel aired new grievances over the Biden administration’s distribution …

Republicans Ready Sanctions On World Court If It Issues Arrest Warrants For Israelis

Republicans Ready Sanctions On World Court If It Issues Arrest Warrants For Israelis

Via The Cradle Republican members of the US House of Representatives are preparing a sanctions package targeting International Criminal Court (ICC) officials as a “precaution” against potential arrest warrants of Israeli officials for war crimes committed in Gaza, according to Axios. “We want to emphasize to [ICC prosecutor Karim Khan] that going down this road of arrest warrants is a really bad idea, and it’s going to blow up the relationship,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul told the US news outlet. Image source: @Yaf “We’re not sure if the arrest warrants are imminent, but it’s sort of a precaution to let them know that, if they do, we have this legislation ready to go. It won’t be put on the floor unless we have to,” he added. McCaul emphasized the new package would come as a “companion” to legislation introduced last February in the Senate that seeks to sanction ICC officials “involved in probes of US allies who are not ICC members, such as Israel.” The report by Axios comes on the heels of a harshly …

Biden Speaks With Netanyahu as Israelis Appear Closer to Rafah Offensive

Biden Speaks With Netanyahu as Israelis Appear Closer to Rafah Offensive

But soon after Israel announced that it was ordering about 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from Rafah, Hamas said in a statement it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza. Details of the proposal had not been released. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says Israel will continue its operations in Gaza as Israeli officials deliberate the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. And the Israeli War Cabinet voted unanimously to approve a Rafah military operation but will continue cease-fire efforts. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that Biden had been briefed on the matter. CIA Director William Burns, who was in Qatar for hostage talks with regional officials, was discussing the Hamas’ response with allies in the region. Kirby declined to discuss the parameters of what Hamas is saying it has agreed to. “Bill Burns is looking at that response. He’s talking to the Israelis about it,” Kirby told reporters. “And we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully, it can lead to those …

Opinion: Since Oct. 7, Israelis have begun arming themselves the American way

Opinion: Since Oct. 7, Israelis have begun arming themselves the American way

Among the core Israeli national narratives that have been fractured by the Hamas terror attacks and months of war and violence is the notion that Israel’s ethos on firearms differs from that of the United States. Both countries can be characterized as gun-centric democracies, but according to the Israeli narrative, the U.S. is a land of too many guns and too few laws, while Israelis “trust their state, and don’t fear each other.” A common refrain emphasizes that in Israel, bearing arms isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. After Oct. 7, in a shockingly fast turnaround, that privilege became, if not a right, an imperative. In changing Israel’s relationship with firearms, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is also changing the nation in ways that could have profound and lasting implications. I have spent more than a decade collaborating with Israeli public health scholars and safety activists to better understand how a country with many guns could see only a fraction of U.S. civilian gun deaths. Partner shootings, homicides, gun suicides, accidental shootings and mass shootings have been …

Thousands of Israelis protest, demand return of hostages

Thousands of Israelis protest, demand return of hostages

tel aviv, israel —  Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a cease-fire agreement with the Islamist movement Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza. At a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the estimated 100 hostages still alive and in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home. “I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor. “We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.” The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on May 6, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting. “The only thing that keeps us going is the …

‘They hide when Israelis come’: Palestinians despair of leadership after killing of colonel’s son | Israel

‘They hide when Israelis come’: Palestinians despair of leadership after killing of colonel’s son | Israel

Khaled Arouq was in his pyjamas when he was killed, shot by a sniper before dawn during a recent Israeli raid close to the centre of Ramallah. The 16-year-old, who had joined a group throwing stones at Israeli armoured vehicles, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on arrival at the local hospital. “My son was killed in cold blood,” said his father, Sulaiman, his voice heavy. “They shot him right next to our house.” The junction where Arouq was shot is just a few feet from his home on Athens street, in one of Ramallah’s most expensive neighbourhoods. Shiny four-wheel-drive cars sit in sweeping driveways beneath clipped pines and new sleek beige stone buildings housing those close to the commercial and political powers of the West Bank. A large yellow banner strung above the door of Arouq’s former home displayed the teenager’s placid baby-face next to portraits of the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, and longtime former leader Yasser Arafat. Sulaiman Arouq is a colonel in the PA’s military intelligence …

Israelis, Palestinians ponder Rafah invasion in Gaza during Passover holiday

Israelis, Palestinians ponder Rafah invasion in Gaza during Passover holiday

JERUSALEM — Israelis marked a somber Passover this week, breathing easier after an ominous military escalation eased with Iran but bracing themselves amid signs that Israel is preparing the next phase of its war in Gaza: a final fraught assault on Rafah, the packed city where Hamas’s remaining fighters are holding Israeli hostages and more than a million civilians are sheltering. Gazans reported an increase in Israeli raids and shelling, and the Israeli military said Wednesday that it had struck more than 50 targets in the last 24 hours. World Food Program officials warned again of impending starvation in Gaza, particularly in the north. But the United Nations also offered a rare optimistic accounting of humanitarian aid shipments, saying a recent surge of deliveries has boosted the number of food trucks entering Gaza to the highest levels since the start of the war. The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it has called up two reserve brigades for both “offensive and defensive” missions inside Gaza. Some analysts see both the increased military activity and the humanitarian …

A Passover shrouded in grief as Israelis remember hostages

A Passover shrouded in grief as Israelis remember hostages

CAESAREA, Israel — Around the world, Jews left empty seats at their Seder tables as they marked Passover — the religious celebration of the Jewish people’s freedom from slavery in Egypt. The vacant chairs served as a reminder of the more than 130 hostages still captive in Gaza. On Monday, the first night of the holiday, hundreds gathered outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in this seaside town shouting, “You’re the head, you’re to be blamed.” Demonstrators demanded that Netanyahu’s government do more to free the hostages. Israelis said the holiday was shrouded with sadness. “You can’t walk and say happy holidays to people,” said Maya Raviv, who came to demonstrate with her 8-year-old daughter, Liyah. “It’s not.” Liyah’s friend and classmate, Naveh Shoham, was taken hostage on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 250 civilians and soldiers. Although 8-year-old Naveh was released during a pause in fighting last year, his father, Tal Shoham, remains in Gaza. In Tel Aviv, at what …