Israel-Palestine category, Page 21
Netanyahu says Israel is as ‘committed as ever’ to war after soldiers mistakenly killed 3 hostages
JERUSALEM — Three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly shot by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip had been waving a white flag and were shirtless when they were killed, military officials said Saturday, in Israel’s first such acknowledgement of harming any hostages in its war against Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin...
EU struggles to unify around a Gaza cease-fire call but work on peace moves continues
BRUSSELS — As the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to mount, a number of European Union leaders sought on Friday to use growing concern about Israel’s military offensive against Hamas to convince their partners to rally around a united call for a ceasefire. “The killing of innocent civilians really...
U.S., Israel discuss when to scale back Gaza combat, agree fight will take months, envoy says
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The U.S. and Israel have discussed a timetable for scaling back intense combat operations in the war against Hamas, even though they agree the overall fight will take months, an envoy said Friday, amid growing American unease about the mounting death toll in Gaza. U.S. national...
Israel, U.S. show sharp divisions over mounting casualties and future of war against Hamas
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel and the United States on Tuesday showed their sharpest public disagreement yet over the conduct and future of the war on Hamas as the two allies became increasingly isolated by global calls for a cease-fire. The dispute emerged while Israeli forces carried out strikes across...
Israel battles militants in Gaza’s main cities, with civilians still trapped in the crossfire
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in Gaza’s two largest cities on Monday, with civilians still trapped in the fighting even after hundreds of thousands have fled to other parts of the besieged territory. Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles...
Turkey’s Erdogan accuses West of ‘barbarism’ and Islamophobia in war in Gaza
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia. “Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,”...
Palestinians crowd into ever-shrinking areas in Gaza as Israel’s war against Hamas enters 3rd month
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Desperate Palestinians fleeing Israel’s expanding ground offensive crowded into an ever-shrinking area of the Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third month Friday. The United Nations warned that its aid operation is “in tatters” because no place in the besieged enclave is safe. Israel’s...
Desperation grows among Palestinians trapped with little aid as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge....
Heavy fighting in Gaza halts most aid delivery and leaves civilians with few places to seek safety
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces battled Hamas militants across Gaza on Wednesday in intense fighting that has prevented the distribution of vital aid in much of the territory and brought some of the devastation and mass displacement seen in the north to the south. As the focus of...
Survivors of Hamas attack to speak in Squirrel Hill as Hanukkah begins
Hila Fakliro was a bartender during an all-night music festival in Israel on Oct. 7. At daybreak, she looked up at explosions in the sky. She thought they were fireworks. Hamas fired rockets from Gaza during a terrorist attack that killed hundreds of festival attendees. Fakliro ran. She hid in...
Israel strikes in and around Gaza’s 2nd-largest city in a bloody new phase of the war
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel intensified its bombardment in and around Gaza’s second-largest city early Tuesday, sending ambulances and private cars racing into a local hospital carrying people wounded in a bloody new phase of the war. Under U.S. pressure to prevent further mass casualties, Israel says it is...
Biden’s allies in Senate demand that Israel limit civilian deaths in Gaza as Congress debates U.S. aid
WASHINGTON — As a cease-fire ticked down last week and Israel prepared to resume its round-the-clock airstrikes, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators had a message for their president: They were done “asking nicely” for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. Lawmakers...
Israel orders evacuations as it widens offensive but Palestinians are running out of places to go
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory. The...
Israel expands Gaza ground offensive, vows to hit the south with ‘no less strength’ than the north
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel’s ground offensive expanded to every part of the Gaza Strip, its military said Sunday, as it ordered more evacuations and vowed to hit south Gaza with “no less strength” than the fight that has reduced large parts of north Gaza to a moonscape. Heavy...
Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians a...
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resume after weeklong truce with Hamas ends
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s war with Hamas resumed in full force Friday, with airstrikes hitting targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired. Black smoke billowed from the besieged territory, and Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians...
Squirrel Hill native prepares to go to war alongside Israel Defense Forces
As a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas entered its seventh day Thursday, Isaac Nadoff waited. The fourth-generation Pittsburgher said Wednesday he was prepared to march with the Israel Defense Forces into the war-torn Gaza Strip whenever the cease-fire ended. “I’m just in a steady state of readiness,” said Nadoff,...
Israeli military confirms release of 8 more Israeli hostages from captivity in Gaza Strip
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas freed eight Israeli hostages Thursday in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners under a last-minute deal to extend their cease-fire in Gaza by another day. But any further renewal of the truce, now in its seventh day, could prove more daunting since...
Senate Majority Leader Schumer warns that antisemitism is on the rise as he pushes for Israel aid
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who is the highest-ranked Jewish elected official in the U.S., warned Wednesday that antisemitism in the United States has reached levels unseen in generations and called on his fellow Democrats to clearly condemn it. Schumer’s remarks during a nearly-45 minute speech...
Israeli military says 10 Israelis, 4 Thai nationals, have been released by Hamas
JERUSALEM — Hamas released 16 hostages late Wednesday in the last swap for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel under the current Gaza truce, as international mediators raced to seal another extension to allow further exchanges and prolong the halt of Israel’s air and ground offensive. The Israeli military said a...
Former Pittsburgh man reunites with nephews held hostage by Hamas for over 50 days
It took Ziv Gome four hours to race from Israel’s Eilat to Tel Aviv — roughly the distance from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg — to reunite with his two young nephews, who were released late Monday after being held hostage by Hamas militants for more than 50 days. The trek across...
U.S. tells Israel any ground campaign in southern Gaza must limit further civilian displacement
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has told Israel that it must work to avoid “significant further displacement” of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza if it renews its ground campaign aimed at eradicating the Hamas militant group, senior U.S. officials said. The administration, seeking to avoid more large-scale civilian casualties or...
Israel says 12 more hostages have been freed by Hamas and have arrived in Egypt
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas held for a fifth day Tuesday, as the militant group released more hostages to delay the expected resumption of the war. Israel came under pressure from the United States to better protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza if its...
Elon Musk visits Israel to meet top leaders as accusations of antisemitism on X growVideo
JERUSALEM — Elon Musk, who’s been under fire for endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory and wider accusations of hatred flourishing on his social media platform X, visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants and held talks with top leaders. The billionaire met with Israeli President Isaac...
Israel, Hamas agree to extend truce for two more days, and to free more hostages and prisoners
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel and Hamas agreed to extend their cease-fire for two more days past Monday, raising the prospect of further exchanges of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and a longer halt to their deadliest and most destructive war. Eleven Israeli women and children, freed by...
