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

[Saif]

Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN

The last assessment, based on images from early July, determined that 63 per cent of structures in the Palestinian territory had been damaged

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Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN
Updating its damage assessment, the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) said very high-resolution imagery collected on 3 and 6 September showed a clear deterioration
AFP
Geneva
Published: 30 Sep 2024, 20: 35

A woman sorts through clothing salvaged from the rubble of a destroyed dress shop in a residential building hit by Israeli bombardment, in the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City on 14 June, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas AFP

Two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since the Gaza war began in October 2023, the United Nations said on Monday.

Updating its damage assessment, the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) said very high-resolution imagery collected on 3 and 6 September showed a clear deterioration.

“This analysis... shows that two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage,” UNOSAT said.

“Those 66 per cent of damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip account for 163,778 structures in total,” it said.

The last assessment, based on images from early July, determined that 63 per cent of structures in the Palestinian territory had been damaged.

Monday’s update said the damage now included “52,564 structures that have been destroyed; 18,913 severely damaged; 35,591 possibly damaged structures; and 56,710 moderately affected”.

Gaza City has been notably affected, with 36,611 structures destroyed, it added.

UNOSAT and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said that approximately 68 per cent of the permanent crop fields in the Gaza Strip showed “a significant decline in health and density” in September.

Hamas’s unprecedented 7 October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,615 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Part of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Geneva-based UNOSAT says its satellite imagery analysis helps the humanitarian community assess the extent of conflict-related damage and helps shape emergency relief efforts.

“Over the past year, UNOSAT’s team has worked tirelessly to provide the world with precise and timely insights into the impact of the conflict on buildings and infrastructure in Gaza,” said UNITAR’s executive director Nikhil Seth.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas praises 'heroic' missile attacks launched by Iran

Hamas praised on Tuesday what it called Iran's "heroic" missile attacks avenging the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan

www.thedailystar.net

Hamas praises 'heroic' missile attacks launched by Iran

Rockets fly in the sky, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel, October 1, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad

Hamas praised on Tuesday what it called Iran's "heroic" missile attacks avenging the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.

"We congratulate the heroic rocket launch carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, on large areas of our occupied territories, in response to the occupation's continuing crimes against the peoples of the region, and in retaliation for the blood of our nation's heroic martyrs," the group said.

Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Tehran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a "painful response" against its enemy.

Iran had vowed to retaliate following Israeli strikes that killed the top leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, including that group's leader Hassan Nasrallah, a towering figure in Iran's network of fighters across the region.

In a statement, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the attack was also in response to Israel's assassination in July of former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, locked in nearly a year of war with Israel, celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave after being intercepted by Israel's iron dome, but caused no human losses, witnesses said.

Israeli forces operating in central Gaza opened fire at a gathering of Palestinians, killing at least three people and wounding others, medics said.

Some Palestinian residents said some people tried to approach the road connecting north and south Gaza in an apparent attempt to return to homes from where the Israeli army evicted them, taking advantage of the Iranian attacks.

The Israeli military said it opened fire against a group of Palestinian "suspects" who posed a threat to forces operating in central Gaza and identified that some of them were hit.

"There were no casualties among the forces and the incident is under control," the military statement said.

In Nuseirat, one of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families and killed three people, medics said. Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 43 people on Tuesday.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel almost a year ago, in support of its ally Hamas in the war in Gaza, which began after the militant group staged the deadliest assault in Israel's history on October 7.

The assault, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, triggered the war that has devastated Gaza, displacing most of its 2.3 million population and killing more than 41,600 people, according to Gaza health authorities.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 65 Palestinians

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 65 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics said, as Israeli tanks advanced in areas of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.

www.thedailystar.net

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 65 Palestinians
Dozens injured; tanks carry out raids in Khan Younis

Palestinians look out of a damaged house near the site where Omar Masoud and his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip September 12, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 65 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics said, as Israeli tanks advanced in areas of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.

Israeli tanks carried out a raid on several areas in eastern and central Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, before partially retreating, leaving at least 40 people killed and dozens wounded, according to the official Voice of Palestine radio and Hamas media.

In Gaza City, at least 22 Palestinians were killed, the medics said. One Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City killed 17 people, while another hit the Al-Amal Orphan Society, which also houses displaced persons, killing at least five others, the medics said.

Later yesterday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering Palestinian displaced families in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed three people and wounded 15, medics said. The Israeli military said the strike was aimed at Hamas members operating from a command center embedded in the compound that had previously served as the 'Nuseirat Girls' School.

It accused Hamas of exploiting civilian facilities and population for military purposes, a tactic Hamas denies using.

Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,689 Palestinians and wounded 96,625 since October 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said yesterday.

The escalation came after Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Tehran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a "painful response" against its enemy.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave after being intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defences, but caused no human losses, witnesses said.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza still bleeds

Intensified Israeli airstrikes on Gaza yesterday killed dozens on the eve of the first anniversary of its offensive in the besieged territory that has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins.

www.thedailystar.net

Gaza still bleeds
Death toll nears 42,000; rallies worldwide call for ceasefire

Intensified Israeli airstrikes on Gaza yesterday killed dozens on the eve of the first anniversary of its offensive in the besieged territory that has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins.

Israel's war on Gaza has since spread as it invaded Lebanon after months of trading fire across the border, raising the fear of a wider conflict in the Middle East with experts saying it risks sucking in major regional and world powers.

As the Israeli invasion enters its second year, tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, a prospect which experts say is unlikely anytime soon.

The marches were held in almost all major cities across Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas demanding an end to the conflict.

In Washington, more than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside the White House, seeking that the United States, Israel's top military supplier, stop providing weapons and aid to Israel.

One man attempted to set himself on fire, AFP journalists saw, succeeding in lighting his left arm ablaze before bystanders and police extinguished the flames.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led fighters streamed across the border from Gaza into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.

The next day, Israel formally declared war on Hamas.

Since then, indiscriminate Israeli bombardment has damaged or destroyed two thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip, The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) said on September 30. It also damaged or destroyed around 68 percent of cropland and roads.

Only 17 of 36 hospitals remain partially functional, and all suffer from a lack of fuel, medical supplies, and clean water.

According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza (more than 90 percent of the population) have been displaced, with many experiencing multiple forced displacements as a result of persistent Israeli relocation orders.

The blockade on humanitarian goods has caused a hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

The offensive has not only destroyed the present day Gaza but also robbed its future as children, who make up almost half of Gaza's entire population, are the primary victims. Of the 42,000 killed in the enclave, at least 16,456 are children.

According to UN, none of them have been able to attend school since October 7. The longer fighting goes on, the greater the chance of losing an entire generation, it said.

The offensive intensified early yesterday with Israeli airstrikes hitting a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip killing at least 26 people and wounding 93 others, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

Palestinian health officials said at least another 20 people had been killed since Saturday night in northern Gaza, after the army sent tanks into areas there for the first time in months and urged residents to leave.

The Israeli military said it had conducted "precise strikes on Hamas terrorists" who were operating within command and control centres embedded in Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque, in the area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Hamas rejects accusations it uses civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and mosques for military purposes.

Amid the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross urged all parties to ensure all civilians were protected.

"This is a year marked by heartbreak and unanswered questions. Families have been torn apart, with many loved ones still held against their will. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced across the region," it said.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel had struck 27 houses, schools and displacement shelters across Gaza in the past 48 hours.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where Israeli forces have been operating since May.

On Saturday, Israeli army issued new evacuation orders in parts of Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, just north of Deir al-Balah, forcing hundreds of families to leave their houses. The military statement said its forces aimed to operate against Hamas fighters who waged attacks from the territory.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks pushed into the northern Gaza areas of Beit Lahiya and Jabalia overnight, and planes hit several houses, killing at least 20 people, according to medics.

The Israeli military said its forces had encircled the area of Jabalia.

In one air strike, 10 people were killed in one house, and five others in another strike on a second home. Residents described it as one of the worst nights in many months.

"The war is back," said Raed, 52, from Jabalia, before he and his family left for Gaza City yesterday.

"Dozens of explosions from airstrikes and tank shelling shook the ground and buildings, it felt like the early days of the war," he told Reuters via a chat app.

The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller factions said fighters were engaged in gunbattles with Israeli forces in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza Strip's eight refugee camps.

Palestinian and UN officials say no place in the enclave is safe, including the humanitarian zones.

Ahead of the anniversary, Israel placed its forces on alert.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a televised briefing: "We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day", when there could be "attacks on the home front".

In Washington, US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said US will continue to pressure Israel and other players in the Middle East to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza even as advocates say that the United States has not thus far used its leverage over its ally.

Washington's occasional condemnation of Israel over the civilian death toll has mostly been verbal with no substantive change in policy.

President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for Gaza on May 31 but a deal between Israel and Hamas has not been reached due to gaps in exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Israel's demand that it maintain presence in a corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt.

As the war in Gaza enters its second year and a wider Middle East conflict is on the verge of breaking out, one question remains: How, if it at all, does this end?

"I'm not sure that it does end," Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel-Palestine analyst for International Crisis Group, told the ABC.

"At this point, we can't talk just about the war in Gaza, but we have to talk about the war with Hezbollah, and the war in the West Bank … and of course Iran and its proxies."

All of this makes the prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza even less likely, according to Zonszein.

"There's a spectrum," she said.

"It could get much, much worse on several fronts. They're all connected and the connecting theme … is Gaza."​

 

[Saif]

Israel steps up Gaza bombing on war's first anniversary

Hamas, Islamic Jihad fire rockets from Gaza at Tel Aviv, Israeli towns near Gaza border; two people lightly injured

www.thedailystar.net

Israel steps up Gaza bombing on war's first anniversary
Hamas, Islamic Jihad fire rockets from Gaza at Tel Aviv, Israeli towns near Gaza border; two people lightly injured

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike as displaced Palestinians make their way to flee areas in the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli evacuation order, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 7, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled

Israel stepped up its air and ground offensive in Gaza with more attacks on Hamas militants and command posts on Monday, the first anniversary of a war that has destroyed much of the territory and shattered the lives of its people.

For its part, Hamas said it struck Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo, setting off sirens in central Israel. Two people were lightly injured, according to the Israeli ambulance service.

The rocket volley signalled Hamas' enduring ability to hit back despite a protracted Israeli military campaign that has seriously degraded its combat capacities, a year after the shock cross-border Hamas incursion into Israel that kindled the war.

Hamas' smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it hit Sderot, Nir Am and other Israeli towns near Gaza with rockets. The Israeli military said it intercepted five rockets fired from Gaza.

Hamas-led militants stormed through Israeli towns and kibbutz villages near the border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the small coastal enclave's health ministry, displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million population, and caused a hunger and health crisis.

Israel says militants fight from the cover of built-up residential areas in the densely populated territory, including schools and hospitals. Hamas denies this.

On Monday, Israeli tanks advanced into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza Strip's eight historic urban refugee camps, after encircling it, residents said. Soon after the rocket volley, the Israeli military expanded evacuation orders in Jabalia to cover areas in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Residents said Israeli forces pounded Jabalia from the air and the ground, and medics said several Palestinians had been killed, with rescuers unable to reach some of the victims.

Later on Monday, Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians to the west of Jabalia.

ISRAEL TARGETS HOSPITAL COMPOUND

The Israeli military said it killed dozens of militants and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia, saying the operation would continue to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million displaced people are sheltering, an Israeli air strike hit tents inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, wounding 11 people, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military said it struck at Hamas militants operating from a command centre embedded inside the hospital.

The Israeli army later ordered residents in some eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis in southern Gaza to leave their homes, and many families started doing so, loading belongings on donkey carts and rickshaws.

Israelis marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack, which has given rise to a multi-front conflict across the Middle East as Israel sharply escalates its campaign against the Iranian-backed militant movement Hezbollah in Lebanon.

US-backed Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt have been unable so far to broker a Gaza ceasefire that could also help defuse the Lebanon hostilities and see the release of hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed by Israel.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for the failure so far to reach an agreement, with each accusing the other of adding conditions that are impossible to meet.

Hamas wants a deal that ends the war and gets Israeli forces out of Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the war can end only with the eradication of Hamas.

In Gaza on Monday, uprooted Palestinian civilians expressed a desperate desire to go back to pre-war lives.

"Before October 7, one had dreams. As a father, I have six children, my biggest burden was how to provide them with homes and get them married. But after October 7, this came to nothing. After 58 years of work for me, same as my father - all of it went to dust and rocks," said Abu Hassan Shaheen.

Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas' political office in exile, urged Arab and Muslim countries on Monday to launch "new fronts of resistance (against Israel) for the sake of freedom and dignity".​