Palestine

19 October 2023; MEMO: The Israeli occupying forces, this morning, imposed a raid and a military blockade around the Nour Shams refugee camp, located east of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm.

According to a Wafa correspondent, the military conducted home searches and used bulldozers to clear streets before imposing the blockade, severely restricting Palestinian residents’ movement.

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday that they will soon see the Palestinian enclave "from inside", suggesting an expected ground invasion with the aim of annihilating Hamas could be nearing.

Israel pounded Gaza with more air strikes following the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas gunmen who killed 1,400 Israelis, as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed U.S. President Joe Biden with a visit to demonstrate Western support for the war against Hamas militants.

GAZA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior female member of Hamas was killed on Thursday by an Israeli airstrike targeting her house in Gaza, Palestinian security sources said.

Hamas said in a press statement that Jameela Shanti, the only female member of the movement's political bureau, the highest-ranking body of the group, was killed during the intense Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources said 41 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Khan Younis, and the central area of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes on Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, and the country’s defense minister told ground troops to “be ready” to invade, though he didn’t say when.

Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a delivery of aid from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza stitched wounds by the light of mobile phones, and others used vinegar to treat infected wounds.

GAZA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 Palestinians were killed last night after Israeli airstrikes on various locations in the coastal enclave, the Hamas-run health ministry said Wednesday.

In a brief statement sent to Xinhua, the ministry said that the latest assault happened in the cities of Deir al-Balah, Rafah, and Khan Younis in the southern parts of the coastal enclave, as well as in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

(AP) --- A fatal stabbing in Illinois, a gun pointed at protesters in Pennsylvania, vandalism at synagogues and harassment of staff at a Palestinian restaurant all are raising fears that the war between Israel and Hamas is sparking violence in the United States.

The tensions follow a familiar pattern of crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities rising when conflict erupts in the Middle East and Americans have been killed or taken hostage.

DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Even the “safe zones” of Gaza aren’t safe for Palestinians.

Intense Israeli strikes Tuesday destroyed homes, hit a U.N. school sheltering the displaced and killed dozens of people in south and central Gaza.

“The situation is very, very difficult with artillery shelling and aerial bombardment on homes and defenseless people,” said Abu Hashem Abu al-Hussein, who initially welcomed displaced families into his home in Khan Younis, but then fled to a U.N. school, where he hoped to find safety himself.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of the territory.

The Hamas militant group blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants. At least 500 people were killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.

GAZA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Israeli air strike killed senior Hamas armed commander Ayman Nofal in Gaza, the Hamas armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades said on Tuesday.

A member of the higher military council of Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, Nofal was in charge of the Central Gaza area in the armed wing.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected ground invasion, killing dozens of people on Tuesday in retaliatory attacks it says are targeted at Hamas militants that rule the besieged territory.

With no water, fuel or food being delivered to Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel last week, mediators struggled to break a deadlock over delivering supplies to increasingly desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.