[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

UN official blasts West’s double standards

The UN’s special rapporteur on the right to housing has rebuked countries he accused of bias on Israel’s offensive on Gaza following a deadly attack by Tel Aviv on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the enclave.

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ISRAEL'S DEADLY ATTACK ON GAZA REFUGEE CAMP
UN official blasts West's double standards

The UN's special rapporteur on the right to housing has rebuked countries he accused of bias on Israel's offensive on Gaza following a deadly attack by Tel Aviv on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the enclave.

"Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and thousands held in arbitrary detention by Israel, have lost moral credibility for generations and don't deserve to be on any UN human rights body," Balakrishnan Rajagopal said on X about the attack that took place on Saturday.

Earlier, the Israeli army announced that it had launched attacks on various locations in the central part of the Gaza Strip and had successfully rescued four captives alive from two different areas.

Citing a US official, CNN reported that an American unit in Israel aided the efforts to rescue the hostages.

US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were among leaders who greeting their release even as they have also called for a truce.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell welcomed the hostage release and said reports "of another massacre of civilians are appalling... the bloodbath must end immediately".

The Gaza-based Government Media Office said that at least 274 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 injured on Saturday in severe Israeli airstrikes targeting Nuseirat refugee camp, areas east of Deir al-Balah, and al-Bureij and al-Maghazi camps in central Gaza, coinciding with a sudden incursion of vehicles east and northwest of Nuseirat.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the offensive began on October 7, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli offensive, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, reports Middle East Monitor Online.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge.

"My child was crying, afraid of the sound of the plane firing at us," said one Gaza woman, Hadeel Radwan, 32, recounting how they fled the intense combat as she carried her seven-month-old daughter.

"We all felt that we wouldn't survive," she told AFP. Israel's top diplomat rejected unspecified accusations "of war crimes" in the operation.​

 

[Saif]

UN Security Council backs plan for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution backing a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip

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UN Security Council backs plan for Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Israel attack on Rafah

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike as Israeli forces launch a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 7, 2024. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution backing a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Russia abstained from the vote, while the remaining 14 council members voted in favor. The US had finalised its text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the council.

Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan on May 31 that he described as an Israeli initiative. Some Security Council members questioned whether Israel had accepted the plan to end the fighting in Gaza.

The resolution welcomes the new ceasefire proposal, "which Israel accepted, calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition."

"We're waiting on Hamas to agree to the ceasefire deal it claims to want," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council before the vote. "With every passing day, needless suffering continues."

The resolution also goes into detail about the proposal, and spells out that "if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue."

The council in March demanded for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.

For months, negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over an October 7 attack by its militants.

More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the Palestinian territory, killing more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.​

 

[Saif]

Many in Gaza back to eating ‘one meal per day’

Israel’s relentless bombardment and obstruction of humanitarian efforts are making it nearly impossible for aid agencies to reach starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

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ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN PALESTINIAN ENCLAVE
Many in Gaza back to eating 'one meal per day'

Israel's relentless bombardment and obstruction of humanitarian efforts are making it nearly impossible for aid agencies to reach starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The flow of aid into Gaza has remained scarce, with many people now eating "only one meal per day", said Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary.

"This is not only in the south, but also in the north" of Gaza, said Khoudary, adding that markets are largely empty and what food available is hard to afford for most people.

Khoudary has sent an update from Deir el-Balah's Al-Aqsa Hospital, where she said an extra emergency department has been opened to deal with the massive influx of injured patients.

The hospital, running on just one generator, remains flooded with sick and injured patients, and is performing surgeries on an "hourly basis", she said.

Israeli forces have withdrawn from the eastern part of Deir el-Balah, but civil defence teams were able to bring the bodies of five people who were killed in the area.

Israeli forces take a position in a street during a raid in the al-Faraa camp for Palestinian refugees near Tubas city in the occupied West Bank yesterday. Photo: AFP
There have been a couple of air strikes in the area after the Israeli forces withdrew, as well as intensive artillery shelling throughout the night.

Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud has spoken to residents of the Nuseirat refugee camp who witnessed the Israeli military's operation there on Saturday that killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians.

Anaas Alayan, one resident of the camp, said Israeli special forces committed mass "executions" on the street. "I went down to the street and found bodies everywhere," he told Al Jazeera.

The military, which rescued four Israeli captives during the operation, killed at least 274 Palestinians, including at least 64 children during the day-time assault, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The camp is now left with a "trail of destruction", according to Mahmoud.

With many of Gaza's water wells and pipelines destroyed in the offensive, accessing water has become a daily struggle for Palestinians in the coastal enclave.

Anas al-Jamal, a pregnant woman in the enclave, tells Al Jazeera she has to leave her home every day to search for water to carry home. "The water scarcity is severely affecting me because I'm supposed to rest and avoid strenuous physical activity," al-Jamal told Al Jazeera. "We're really struggling."

Israel's military offensive has killed at least 37,124 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory's health ministry.

The toll includes at least 40 deaths over the past 24 hours, the ministry said yesterday.

The offensive has brought widespread devastation to Gaza and displaced most of its 2.4 million inhabitants, reports AFP.​

 

[Saif]

Baby Ahmad was beheaded by Israel, with a US bomb

AHMAD Al-Najjar was a happy one-year old child from Gaza. He loved trampolines, balls, and cats. Born as the youngest of his four siblings, his father liked to call him ‘bobba’ or ‘baby.’..

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Baby Ahmad was beheaded by Israel, with a US bomb
11 June, 2024, 00:00

Photo of 18-month-old Ahmad Al-Najjar (right), photo of his father holding up his beheaded corpse (left) (screenshot). | Scheerpost.com

On Sunday night, May 26, Ahmad became the symbol of the unspeakable horror of genocide in Gaza after Israel bombed his family tent in north Rafah, writes Seraj Assi

AHMAD Al-Najjar was a happy one-year old child from Gaza. He loved trampolines, balls, and cats. Born as the youngest of his four siblings, his father liked to call him 'bobba' or 'baby.'

On Sunday night, May 26, Ahmad became the symbol of the unspeakable horror of genocide in Gaza after Israel bombed his family tent in north Rafah, killing him along with his mother, Faten, his sister, Houda, and his brother, Arkan. Though he was bombed beyond recognition, Ahmad was the most recognisable victim of the tents massacre in Rafah, which burned alive, beheaded, and killed at least 45 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded hundreds others.

Rafah's tents massacre was one of the most heinous assaults on Palestinian civilians in recent memory. International media and Palestinian sources reported that Israel blitzed the camp where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in tents with seven massive US bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each. Meanwhile, weapons experts told CNN and The New York Times that they identified the remains of Boeing-made GBU-39s in the rubble.

The bombarded refugee tents had been designated by Israel as a 'safe area' for civilians. Rafah was described by UNICEF officials as 'a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza.' It was believed to be Gaza's last refuge, and the limit of the Biden administration's 'red line' in Gaza. This grim reality, however, did not prevent the Biden administration from shipping thousands of bombs and weapons to Israel, despite Israel's repeated threats to invade Rafah. As Israeli forces were pounding Rafah's refugee camps, US presidential candidate Nikki Haley was in Israel signing 'finish them' on the very US bombs that were used to slaughter children in Gaza.

It is the children of Gaza who are forced to live the most unspeakable horrors while being denied the same outrage that Israel's invented horrors have generated among US and Western politicians

Widely circulated footage from the massacre showed a night of unspeakable horror: bodies burned to ashes, charred and blackened beyond recognition; beheaded children, decapitated and ripped apart by US bombs; parents clutching their dead and burned children, screaming in horror; rescuers pulling people's charred remains from the burning tents; wounded victims transferred to the hospital with horrific and gruesome injuries.

But the most horrifying footage from that night showed a man holding up what appeared to be the body of a small child who had been beheaded. It belonged to Baby Ahmad, who was wearing black pants and an orange shirt that night. His left leg was also severed in the blast. The family never found Ahmad's head, and they buried him without it. He was put in the same body bag with his sister Houda. His mother and brother Arkan were buried in separate body bags.

His surviving brothers, Muhammad and Yamin, both saw the ravaged body of their little brother that night. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ahmad's father, Abdel Hafez, and two brothers, the only survivors of the family, speak up about the unspeakable horror they had to endure that night.

'I did not believed he was beheaded in the bombing until I saw it with my own eyes at the Tal As-Sultan clinic,' says Abdel Hafez. 'His head was separated from his body.'

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas accepts UN-backed Gaza truce plan

Hamas accepts a UN resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details, a senior official of the Palestinian group said on...

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Hamas accepts UN-backed Gaza truce plan
New Age Desk 12 June, 2024, 00:05

Children wait for food being distributed at a camp for internally displaced people where they live due to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, amid the on-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. | AFP photo

Hamas accepts a UN resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details, a senior official of the Palestinian group said on Tuesday in what America's top diplomat called 'a hopeful sign,' reports The Algemeiner.

Conversations on plans for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war ends will continue on Tuesday afternoon and in the next couple of days, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv after talks with Israeli leaders. 'It's imperative that we have these plans,' he added.

Blinken met Israeli officials on Tuesday in a push to end the eight-month-old Israeli air and ground war against Hamas in Gaza, a day after president Joe Biden's proposal for a truce was approved by the UN Security Council.

Ahead of Blinken's trip, Israel and Hamas both repeated hardline positions that have undermined previous mediation to end the fighting, while Israel has pressed on with its campaign in central and southern Gaza.

The United States on Tuesday promised more than $400 million in new aid for the Palestinians at an emergency summit in Jordan, where world leaders backed a US push for a ceasefire as the only ultimate solution to help war-ravaged Gaza.

Jordan and Egypt called the urgent talks on the Dead Sea as aid groups warned conditions were worse than ever in Gaza, with virtually the whole population of more than two million people relying on sporadic aid deliveries.

On Tuesday, however, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said the group, which rules the Palestinian enclave, accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details. It was up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it, he added.

He said Hamas accepted the formula stipulating the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.

'The US administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war

in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,' Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Blinken said the Hamas statement was 'a hopeful sign' but definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership inside Israeli-besieged Gaza. 'That's what counts, and that's what we don't have yet.'

The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas' military and governing capabilities.

Biden's proposal envisages a ceasefire and release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel in stages, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.

Israel has said it will agree only to temporary pauses in the war until Hamas is defeated, while Hamas has countered it will not accept a deal that does not guarantee the war will end.

Blinken, speaking to reporters before departing for neighbouring Jordan, said his talks were also addressing day-after plans for Gaza, including security, governance, and rebuilding the enclave.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.
​

 

[Saif]

When did Hamas commit war crimes?

Israel and Hamas committed war crimes: UN

Report says Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses

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Israel and Hamas committed war crimes: UN
Report says Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses

PHOTO: REUTERS

A UN inquiry found on Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the early stages of the war in Gaza, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The findings were from two parallel reports by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI), one focusing on the October 7 attacks and another on Israel's response.

Israel, which did not cooperate with the commission, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The war began on October 7 when militants led by Hamas, the Islamist group ruling Gaza, killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military retaliation has caused the deaths of more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, caused widespread hunger, and devastated housing and infrastructure. Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to mediate a ceasefire and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, said its formal response to a US ceasefire proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden on May 31 was "responsible, serious and positive" and "opens up a wide pathway" for an accord.

But an Israeli official said on Tuesday, on condition of anonymity, that Israel had received the answer via the mediators and that Hamas "changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters" and "rejected the proposal for a hostage release".

The proposal outlined by Biden envisages a ceasefire and phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.​

 

[Saif]

I stand for humanity, Coca-Cola ad only part of professional work: Zibon

A new advertisement by Coca-Cola Bangladesh added fuel to the fire of this movement.

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I stand for humanity, Coca-Cola ad only part of professional work: Zibon

Photo: Collected

Israel's genocide in Palestine has led to many Muslim countries, including Bangladesh, calling for boycott of 'Israel-backed' products. There is an ongoing social media call to boycott Coca-Cola, as users believe it to be the aforementioned type.

A new advertisement by Coca-Cola Bangladesh added fuel to the fire of this movement. The advertisement, starring Saraf Ahmed Zibon and Shimul Sharma, two popular artistes from the series "Bachelor Point," faced massive criticism on social media. People even assumed that the show's director, Kajal Arefin Ome, directed the advertisement, which he later clarified to the media that he has never directed commercials.

Later on, netizens discovered that actor and filmmaker Zibon directed the advertisement, which led to massive trolling and criticism of him on social media.

Zibon finally broke his silence, posting a status where he defended his involvement in the advertisement.

The actor shared his personal beliefs and the context of making the advertisement. Zibon stated, "I am known to everyone as a director and actor. For the past two decades, I have been involved in showbiz. Recently, Coca-Cola Bangladesh hired me to direct and act in one of their commercials. I only presented the commercial based on the information and data provided by their agency."

He then addressed the negative response following the advertisement's airing.

"After the advertisement aired, I have been receiving a lot of mixed reactions from my fans. With all due respect, I would like to reiterate that this work is only a part of my professional life," stated the actor.

In response to netizens condemning him for allegedly supporting genocide against the people of Palestine, the actor clarified that he does not support anything that goes against human rights.

"In my personal life, I have always stood against any aggression against human rights, and have been respectful of your feelings and opinions. Nowhere in this ad have I taken Israel's side, and I have never been pro-Israel. My heart has always been, and always will be, on the side of justice and humanity," concluded Zibon.

Coca-Cola's recent advertisement in Bangladesh is a stark reminder of the importance of well-executed crisis communication.
Coca-Cola Bangladesh aimed to highlight through the commercial that Coca-Cola is not an Israeli product, showcasing that it has been consumed by people in 190 countries, including Bangladesh, for 138 years.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah attacks 9 Israeli military sites with rockets

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said yesterday it had launched rockets and weaponised drones at nine Israeli military sites in a coordinated attack, ramping up hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border for the second consecutive day.

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Hezbollah attacks 9 Israeli military sites with rockets

Lebanon's Hezbollah said yesterday it had launched rockets and weaponised drones at nine Israeli military sites in a coordinated attack, ramping up hostilities on Lebanon's southern border for the second consecutive day.

The attacks were made in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Tuesday that killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.

The group said in a statement it had fired volleys of Katyusha and Falaq rockets at six Israeli military locations. Its Al-Manar television reported more than 100 rockets fired at once.

Hezbollah's statement said it had also launched attack drones at the headquarters of Israel's northern command, an intelligence headquarters and a military barracks.

A security source told Reuters that involved firing at least 30 attack drones at once, making it the group's largest drone attack to date in the eight-month-old Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The group said yesterday's attack was in response to the killing. It had already carried out at least eight attacks on Wednesday in retaliation.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon - more than it lost in 2006, when the sides last fought a major war, according to a Reuters tally.​

 

[Saif]

Battles rage in Rafah

Israeli helicopters struck Gaza’s Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat...

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Battles rage in Rafah
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 14 June, 2024, 00:18

| AFP photo

Israeli helicopters struck Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible.

But the war raged on, and tensions soared on Israel's northern border with more attacks by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah forces targeting military positions.

Israel, which has traded near-daily fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war, said it would respond 'with force'.

Israeli ground forces have been operating in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there, including in a ruling by the International Court of Justice later that month.

Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday from the air, sea and land, residents said.

'There was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battle ships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah,' one told AFP.

Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets in the city, near the besieged Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.

The Gaza war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.

The latest toll includes at least 30 more deaths over the previous day, it said.

Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but US president Joe Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.

On Monday the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.

Blinken, in Doha on Wednesday to promote Biden's ceasefire roadmap, said Washington would work with regional partners to 'close the deal'.

Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt late Tuesday. Blinken said some of its proposed amendments 'are workable and some are not'.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group sought 'a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal' of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.

The plan includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza reconstruction.

It would be the first truce since a week-long November pause in fighting saw hostages freed and Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has far-right members strongly opposed to the deal, has not publicly endorsed it.

Blinken expressed hopes that an agreement could be reached.

'We have to see over the course of the coming days whether those gaps are bridgeable,' he said.

A UN investigation concluded Wednesday that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the war, while Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes.

The independent Commission of Inquiry's report is the first in-depth investigation by UN experts into Gaza's bloodiest-ever war.

Israel's foreign ministry dismissed it as 'biased and tainted by a distinct anti-Israeli agenda'.

The war has led to widespread destruction, with hospitals out of service and the UN warning of famine.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes hit Gaza as truce talks fail to progress

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Friday as truce talks with Hamas members failed to progress and tensions surged on Israel’s northern border with...

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Israeli strikes hit Gaza as truce talks fail to progress
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 15 June, 2024, 00:27

Women search the rubble of a destroyed dress shop in a residential building hit by Israeli bombardment, in the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City on Friday, amid the on-going conflict between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Friday as truce talks with Hamas members failed to progress and tensions surged on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Witnesses reported the strikes in various parts of the Gaza Strip in the morning, particularly the centre.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, men gathered over the body of an 11-year-old boy who died during bombardment of nearby Bureij refugee camp.

In a black singlet, the child lay on a floor smeared with fresh blood, a white bandage covering the top half of his face, AFP images showed.

Israel's military on Friday said troops continued operations in central Gaza, where warplanes had struck a militant cell and 'military structure' in the Zeitun area.

After projectiles were fired from northern Gaza into southern Israel on Thursday night, artillery and aircraft hit the launch sites, the army said.

The war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled

territory.

Fears of a broader Middle East conflict have surged again, with Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters, who are backed by Iran, launching waves of rockets against Israeli military targets on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hezbollah said the strikes were retaliation for the Israeli killing of one of its commanders.

Sirens sounded on Friday morning in northern Israel, where police said munitions had fallen in the Kiryat Shmona area, with no immediate sign of victims.

Since the Gaza war began, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire, which have escalated.

During a Middle East trip this week to push a Gaza ceasefire proposal, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said 'the best way' to help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence was 'a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and getting a ceasefire'.

At the G7 summit in Italy, US president Joe Biden called Hamas 'the biggest hang-up so far' to reaching a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.

Blinken has said Israel backs the plan, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government allies are strongly opposed, has not publicly endorsed it.

In Jerusalem on Thursday, a student-led protest near Israel's parliament urged the government to secure an agreement to bring the remaining hostages home.

'Ceasefire now,' read one banner.

Similar demonstrations have regularly occurred in Tel Aviv.

Biden's roadmap for the first truce since a week-long pause and hostage-prisoner release in November includes a six-week ceasefire, an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and Gaza's reconstruction.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.

The World Health Organisation said more than 8,000 children aged under five in Gaza had been treated for acute malnutrition.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​