Middle East

Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinian demonstrators in West Bank

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People took part in demonstrations in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, including Ramallah, Tulkarem, Nablus and al-Khalil (Hebron), Press TV reported.

Banners reading “Lift the siege on Gaza” and “Stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza” were carried by people through al-Khalil.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported, “nine martyrs by occupation (Israeli) bullets in the West Bank” and some 130 wounded across multiple locations, some critically.

At least three people were also killed in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and a 14-year-old boy was killed in Beit Furik, near Nablus.

A viral video shows an illegal Israeli settler opening fire on a Palestinian at point-blank range in al-Khalil.

The video shows the armed settler assaulting Palestinians in the village of Al-Tuwani near Yatta, before shooting one of them at point-blank range, in the presence of the Israeli military forces.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said: “The critical injury resulted from live ammunition fired by the occupation forces, impacting the abdomen. The wounded individual was transported to Shahid Abu al-Hasan al-Qasim Hospital in Yatta.”

Since Saturday, at least 46 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

The killings come as Israeli forces keep pounding the Gaza Strip since last weekend when the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm in response to the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and increased violence.

Demonstrations were also held across the world on Friday against the Israeli regime’s atrocities against the people of Palestine.

The relentless Israeli raids on Gaza Strip have killed some 1,800 Palestinians, including 583 children. Meanwhile, the regime has cut electricity, water, food, and fuel supply to the region, raising concerns over a major humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip which has become known as the largest open-air prison on earth. 

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Middle East

Palestinian PM slams ‘genocide’ of Gazans by Israel

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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has slammed the “genocide” of the people trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip by the Israeli regime.

“Our people in Gaza are going through genocide, and Gaza has become a disaster area,” Shtayyeh said, speaking at a press conference in Ramallah on Friday.

Shtayyeh said the world should take a clear stand against the regime to stop its “doctrine of killing, burning, erasure and genocide” of the Palestinians.

Gaza has been under a complete Israeli siege since October 7, when the resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm that has been without precedent in scale.

Israel has deployed thousands of military forces, tanks and heavy weaponry in preparation for an expected large-scale ground offensive on Gaza. Israeli warplanes continuously bombard residential areas. The regime claimed Friday its warplanes “struck 750 military targets in the northern Gaza Strip overnight” – the civilian casualty count proves otherwise, however.

Heavy strikes were reported in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning, including Al-Shati refugee camp and Gaza City, primarily targeting residential buildings.

Analysts believe Tel Aviv and Washington are apparently paving the way for a wider war, as was the case prior to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq under the false pretexts of war against terror and weapons of mass destruction.

The Israeli military on Friday dropped flyers warning residents to “immediately” flee south of Wadi Gaza, with a map pointing south across a line in the center of the 40 kilometer-long territory. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said the evacuation order is a “forced transfer” that constitutes “a crime.” Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said it will be “tantamount to a second Nakba (catastrophe)”, referring to the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that coincided with the advent of Israel.

More than 423,000 people have already fled their homes, according to the UN, which said the evacuation order could turn “already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”

The World Health Organization said hospitals are struggling to cope with the dead and wounded from the relentless Israeli bombardment, and the health system in Gaza has already been “at a breaking point.”

Ashraf al-Qudra from the Gaza Health Ministry said hospitals were “starting to lose capacity” and medicine was running out.

The health ministry said as of Friday at least 1,799 Palestinians, including 583 children and 351 women, have been martyred in the Israeli bombardment. More than 7,000 Palestinians have also been wounded.

Middle East

Israeli forces kill 11 in West Bank as Palestinians rally for Gaza

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Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians across the occupied West Bank as they opened live fire on demonstrators rallying to show solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip.

People took part in demonstrations in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, including Ramallah, Tulkarem, Nablus and al-Khalil (Hebron).

Banners reading “Lift the siege on Gaza” and “Stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza” were carried by people through al-Khalil.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported, “nine martyrs by occupation (Israeli) bullets in the West Bank” and some 130 wounded across multiple locations, some critically.

At least three people were also killed in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and a 14-year-old boy was killed in Beit Furik, near Nablus.

Shooting at point-blank range

A viral video shows an illegal Israeli settler opening fire on a Palestinian at point-blank range in al-Khalil.

The video shows the armed settler assaulting Palestinians in the village of Al-Tuwani near Yatta, before shooting one of them at point-blank range, in the presence of the Israeli military forces.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said: “The critical injury resulted from live ammunition fired by the occupation forces, impacting the abdomen. The wounded individual was transported to Shahid Abu al-Hasan al-Qasim Hospital in Yatta.”

Since Saturday, at least 46 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

The killings come as Israeli forces keep pounding the Gaza Strip since last weekend when the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm in response to the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and increased violence.

Demonstrations were also held across the world on Friday against the Israeli regime’s atrocities against the people of Palestine.

The relentless Israeli raids on Gaza Strip have killed some 1,800 Palestinians, including 583 children. Meanwhile, the regime has cut electricity, water, food, and fuel supply to the region, raising concerns over a major humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip which has become known as the largest open-air prison on earth. 

Middle East

Israeli onslaught against Gaza ‘organized crime’ backed by West: Hezbollah

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Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has denounced the ongoing brutal onslaught by the Israeli regime against the besieged Gaza Strip as an organized crime backed by the Western governments.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, made the statement in a mass rally in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday in condemnation of the occupying regime’s atrocities against the Palestinian people and the relentless shelling of Gaza with thousands of bombs over the past week.

Israel started its aggression on Saturday after Palestinian resistance groups launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation against the illegal entity in decades.

The ongoing Israeli offensive has brought immense suffering to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, with the number of casualties, particularly among innocent children and healthcare workers, mounting around the clock.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says almost 1,800 people, including 583 children, have been killed and more than 6,380 injured due to Israeli bombardment across the coastal area. A large number of buildings, homes and public facilities have also been badly damaged due to heavy Israeli bombardments.

The military operation by the Palestinians against the occupying regime saw more than 5,000 rockets in retaliatory strikes fired at the occupied territories, which left upwards of 1,300 settlers and troops dead and three times as many injured.

“You Zionists are destroying houses and martyring children and women, which is a criminal act with the support of the United States, Europe and others,” Qassem addressed the crowds in Beirut’s rally.

“Al-Aqsa Storm proved that Israel is frail,” he added. “What is happening in Gaza is an organized crime and the killing of children and civilians.”

Stressing that the direct political, military, economic and security support of the United States prolongs the life of the occupation, the Hezbollah official said, “The Israeli regime cannot survive and this will be proven.”

Qassem said the “villainous and craven” Israeli regime hides behind its military equipment, adding that the Zionists are criminals and use the “vilest” tools of murder.

“They kill from afar as they lack the courage to confront the Palestinian fighters face to face,” he said. “This is while Palestinian combatants honorably offer their lives on the battlefields.”

Expressing Lebanon’s and Hezbollah’s support for Operation al-Aqsa Storm, Qassem said, “We are on a winning streak not a losing one; we are hard on the enemy’s heels and we are fully prepared and when the time is ripe, we will do it.”

Middle East

"Palestinian will remain, Zionists will go": senior cleric

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During this week’s Friday Prayers sermon in the Iranian capital, which was accompanied by public rallies across Iran and the world in support of Palestinians to condemn the Zionist Israeli regime’s atrocities, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami pointed to a divine province and said that “َAs the holy Qur’an says God will hold to His words. God will fulfill His promise. One of God’s promises is that he will help those who resist in his way.”

The cleric said that the enemies of Islam will be destroyed and their threat will be neutralized in accordance with God’s promise, adding that “I would like to tell the oppressed Palestinians, believe God’s promise, you will stay and the Zionists will leave.”

Khatami further recalled the Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s prediction, reaffirming that the Zionist regime would not see the next 25 years.

He further warmly welcomed the attendance of the Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in the Tehran Friday Prayers sermon.

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Middle East

Turkey's Erdogan slams Israel’s ‘unacceptable’ evacuation ultimatum

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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the Israeli regime for forcing more than one million Palestinians to leave south of the Gaza Strip, as it has been shelling the besieged region for several days.

The regime’s military called for “all residents of Gaza City to evacuate their homes” and “move south for their protection” early Friday morning.

The military said it issued the ultimatum because it plans to “operate significantly in Gaza City in the coming days,” claiming that it wanted “to avoid harming civilians.”

The Turkish leader said later in the day, “To force the population of Gaza to migrate in 24 hours is unacceptable.”

He has already condemned Israel’s blockade and bombing of the besieged strip, calling it a “massacre.”

Erdogan said on Wednesday that even war had a “morality” but the flare-up since the weekend had “very severely” violated that.

Israel started its brutal aggression against Gaza on Saturday after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm in response to the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and increased violence against Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers.

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza, AFP reported. It said people had to leave north of  Gaza in cars, motorbikes, trucks and even by foot.

The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the evacuation order as a “death sentence” for vulnerable hospital patients.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic warned on Thursday that health authorities in Gaza have advised that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients within 24 hours.

“There are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.”

“So moving those people is a death sentence. Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel,” Jasarevic added.

The United Nations has also warned that the relocation of so many people could have devastating consequences.

Hamas asked the residents to ignore Israel’s evacuation order, describing it as “fake propaganda.”

‘War crime’

The Arab League has also urged the United Nations to prevent the evacuation, slamming it as a “war crime.”

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmad Aboul Gheit described the Israeli move as “a war crime that Israel plans to commit as part of its shameful bloody campaign against the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli demand blatantly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits the forced population movement, he said, noting that the plan would “lead to unlimited suffering for our Palestinian brothers in Gaza.”

Rising death toll in Gaza 

The death toll from Israel’s savage attacks on the Gaza Strip continues to rise. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 1,799 Palestinians, including 583 children, and 351 women have been killed in six days of incessant Israeli bombardment of the densely populated Palestinian territory.

The regime has also imposed a ‘total siege” on the Gaza Strip, severing all power and water supplies and blocking food and fuel. Palestinian medics warned the blockade will be “catastrophic” for the civilian population.

Middle East

Saudi Arabia puts Israel deal on ice amid Gaza war

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Two sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters that Saudi Arabia is putting US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on ice, signalling a rapid rethinking of its foreign policy priorities as war escalates between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.

The report continued to claim that the conflict has also pushed the kingdom to engage with Iran. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took his first phone call from Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi as Riyadh tries to prevent a broader surge in violence across the region.

The two sources told Reuters there would be a delay in the US-backed talks on normalization with Israel that was a key step for the kingdom to secure what Riyadh considers the real prize of a US defence pact in exchange.

The first source familiar with Riyadh’s thinking said talks could not be continued for now and the issue of Israeli concessions for the Palestinians would need to be a bigger priority when discussions resumed – a comment that indicates Riyadh has not abandoned the idea.

According to the report, the Saudi government did not respond to emailed requests for comment on this article.

MNA

Middle East

Raeisi: Israeli supporters complicit in regime's crimes against Palestinians

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Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says supporters of Israel, including the United States, are complicit in all its crimes against the Palestinian people.

Addressing a group of people in the city of Rostam in the southern Iranian province of Fars on Friday, Raeisi said the child-killing Zionist regime continues its war crimes by dropping bombs on the innocent and defenseless people of Gaza.

“After 75 years of cruelty and crime, the new generation of Palestinians is currently standing up against the Zionists, and this shows neither crime and killing nor deceitful contracts could discourage and dissuade the oppressed Palestinian people from pursuing their rights.”

The Iranian president emphasized that the Americans have failed to stabilize their presence in Afghanistan after two decades of crimes and killings.

He said tyranny, oppression and aggression have their limits and the Palestinian people have had enough.

“The Palestinian issue will not end by destroying the homes of the people in Gaza and the Palestinian people and the free nations of the world will get to the leaders of the Zionist regime,” Raeisi stated.

He reiterated the Islamic Republic’s policy on support for Gaza and the rights of the Palestinian people, saying, “Defense for Palestine and the oppressed people of Gaza is our duty.”

The regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started its brutal aggression against Gaza on October 7, after resistance groups launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation against the occupying entity in decades.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 1,800 Palestinians, including close to 600 children, have been killed since the beginning of the strikes. Over 6,300 people have been injured too, while more than 420,000 Gazans have been displaced.

Since then, the resistance groups have fired thousands of rockets in retaliatory strikes at the occupied territories.

Middle East

Putin blames failed US policy for flared-up conflict in ME

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Vladimir Putin made the remarks at the CIS Council of Heads of State, where he also said that Moscow is ready to mediate “in the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.”

Commenting on the current situation in the region, the Russian president said that civilian casualties in the conflict will be completely unacceptable.

The United States attempted to solve the political Palestinian-Israeli problem with the help of certain economic incentive measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

The aggravation of the situation in the Middle East is the result of the failed policy of the United States, which was not concerned with finding a compromise in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Russian leader said.

The President of Russia said that the Zionist Israeli regime can only have peace if Palestinians have a nation of their own, according to Russia Today. 

Meanwhile, Putin added that the use of heavy equipment by Israel as part of a ground operation in the Gaza Strip’s residential areas is a complex matter, fraught with serious consequences, and without equipment, it is even more difficult to carry out such an operation, Sputnik reported.

MNA