Israel-Gaza War (2023- )

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      Why Trump’s Plan to Relocate Gazans Is Untenable for Jordan

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      President Trump’s plan would send a huge number of refugees to Jordan, adding new frictions to the kingdom’s often tense, sometimes violent history with displaced Palestinians.President Trump’s proposal that the United States take over the Gaza Strip while other countries take in the Palestinians who live there is a deal King Abdullah II of Jordan cannot make.The monarch rebuffed Mr. Trump gently, telling him at the White House on Tuesday that the American president was essential to peace in the Middle East and pledging that Jordan would host more Palestinians in need of medical care. And the approach seemed to convince Mr. Trump to walk back threats made before the visit about withdrawing aid to Jordan if it rejected his plan.Still, the notion has laid bare dilemmas for King Abdullah, whose family — and the land they have ruled for generations — has a complex relationship with Palestinians that has at times turned violent.Here’s what to know about the president’s plan and the history informing the king’s rejection.Here’s what you need to know:What is the plan?Why is the plan problematic for Jordan?What has been Jordan’s relationship to Palestinians?When did Jordan clash with Palestinians?Are there personal concerns for the king?What is the plan?The Tel al-Zaatar area east of Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesThe president’s proposal is vague and came as a surprise to even his advisers when he presented it last week. Mr. Trump has not been consistent or clear about what it entails except insofar as his plan certainly appears to rely on Jordan and Egypt, among others, accepting a huge influx of Palestinian refugees.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israeli Troops Withdraw From Netzarim Corridor in Gaza

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      Israel’s military withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor under the cease-fire with Hamas. During the war, troops patrolled the zone that splits the territory, preventing evacuated Palestinians from returning north.Israel’s military withdrew Sunday from a key corridor dividing the Gaza Strip, leaving nearly all of the territory’s north as required by a tenuous cease-fire with Hamas ahead of any negotiations for a longer-lasting agreement.The military’s departure from the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza came as the Israeli government sent a delegation to Qatar over the weekend to discuss the next group of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed during the cease-fire agreement’s initial phase, which came into effect last month and is ongoing. The gaunt appearances of three Israeli hostages who were released on Saturday, stoking public comparisons to Holocaust victims, heaped new pressure on the negotiations.In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said troops were “implementing the agreement” to leave the corridor and allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to continue returning home to northern Gaza.Two Israeli military officials and a soldier in Gaza who were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly or by name said the troops had already left the Netzarim Corridor by Sunday morning.Hamas also said that Israeli troops had departed from the Netzarim Corridor, saying in a statement that it was “a victory for the will of our people.”A drone view after Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday.ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      I Do Not Want Revenge for My Father’s Death

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      On a warm October night 12 years ago, my father, Yaya Ofer, was murdered by two Palestinian terrorists. They attacked him at home, at night, with axes, landing 41 blows on his body. His killing was planned. My father, who had retired as a colonel in the Israeli Army, had been the central figure in my childhood. As an adult, I loved hiking with him all over this country and meeting people from every background. In one evening all that was gone. The attackers were sentenced to life in prison. Now, as part of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, one of those men will walk free.I have come to peace with his freedom.Many of the 1,000 prisoners who are being released in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages have the blood of people like my father on their hands, some of it barely dry. Behind every heartwarming video of a hostage embracing family members is a family like mine, being forced to relive our own grief.Knowing that the man who killed my father will walk out of prison stirs complex emotions, but I know it is the right decision to release these prisoners, if that is what it takes to save the hostages who have been held for almost 500 days. I believe nothing could be more sacred than bringing the hostages home — not my grief, which will not end, and not even my father, whose life I cannot restore. Not if we can bring back to life my fellow countrymen who are still held in the tunnels under Gaza.I hope this hostage-prisoner exchange will bring an end to this long and terrible war that has been thrust upon millions of people on both sides who did not choose it. And yet I am terribly worried that when the exchanges are finished, when the troops withdraw, we will discover that Israelis and Palestinians are now farther from peace than at any point in our history.I come from a family of peaceniks. My paternal grandfather, born in Haifa, helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp with the British Army. My maternal grandfather survived the Holocaust in Europe. He emigrated after the war to Israel and pioneered treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome.After my father’s death I, too, wanted peace, not revenge. So I got involved in the peace-building community, including the Parents Circle-Family Forum — a group of bereaved families, Israelis and Palestinians, who have all lost loved ones, brutally, in this endless conflict. In the friendships I formed, I sought out not just Israelis, but also Palestinians, to understand their loss and mine. It was an antidote to spiraling into a state of depression, fear and hatred. Around the time of my father’s murder, I was helping to organize the annual Jerusalem Season of Culture project, which brings together Jews and Arabs for shared cultural projects including music, art and theater.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      USAID Turmoil Threatens Key Aid Supplies to Gaza, Officials Say

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      The Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the United States Agency for International Development have endangered the funding for food, tents and medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, according to U.S. officials and workers for humanitarian groups funded by the agency.Officials said that the threats to the aid supply chain risked destabilizing the fragile cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which is contingent on the weekly entry of 4,200 aid and commercial trucks to the territory.With almost all U.S.A.I.D. staff set to be placed on administrative leave by Friday night, there will be only a handful of officials left to sign off on and audit hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding payments to the agency’s partners on the ground in Gaza, raising alarm about how those groups will fund their operations.Of more than 200 officials in the agency’s Mideast team, just 21 will remain in post to manage its entire regional portfolio, according to an internal agency email reviewed by The New York Times. The team that organizes emergency aid supplies in dozens of crisis zones around the world each year, of which Gaza was just one, is down to just 70 staff members from more than 1,000.This is expected to slow or prevent the delivery of food packages to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as well as tents, mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits and medical treatment, according to three officials and an aid worker. All four people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.While the aid agency does not operate inside Gaza, it has provided roughly $1 billion in aid to international aid groups on the ground since the war began in October 2023 — about a third of the total aid response, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of millions of dollars have yet to be disbursed and now may never be transferred to United Nations agencies and other major aid organizations, three officials said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Private Schools Group Apologizes After Claims of Antisemitism at Event

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      After criticism from Jewish groups over speeches at a conference, the president of the National Association of Independent Schools said future addresses would be vetted.A prominent national private schools group has apologized for remarks some speakers made at a conference about diversity and inclusion earlier this month, after leaders of several Jewish organizations condemned the comments as antisemitic.The speakers, whose remarks were recorded, characterized Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide and the establishment of the state of Israel as a racist project. They were addressing an annual gathering of students and educators held by the National Association of Independent Schools, which includes about 1,700 private schools across the United States, including 60 Jewish day schools. The event, known as the People of Color Conference, has been held for nearly four decades and focuses on helping schools create inclusive communities.Some of New York City’s most prestigious private schools sent delegations to the conference, including the Dalton School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which sent 48 administrators, faculty and staff members, according to its website.The leaders of several Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, denounced the remarks in an open letter to the association sent last Wednesday. Citing complaints from attendees, the letter described the atmosphere at the conference, held in Denver from Dec. 4 to Dec. 7 and attended by about 8,000 adults and students, as “toxic.” Some Jewish students were frightened, the letter said, to the point that some who were wearing Star of David jewelry felt compelled to hide it.“No student should ever be made to feel this way because of their identity,” said the letter, which was signed by the A.D.L.’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt, as well as three chief executives of prominent Jewish groups, Paul Bernstein of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools; Ted Deutch of the American Jewish Committee; and Eric Fingerhut of the Jewish Federations of North America.In response to the criticism, Debra Wilson, the association’s president, issued an apology and said that future speakers’ addresses would be vetted. “That any student would feel the need to conceal their identity at our conference is antithetical to our mission and our values,” Ms. Wilson wrote.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stunned Iranian Officials Try to Distance Their Country From Assad

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      Iranians watched in astonishment over the weekend as the reign of their nation’s longtime political and military ally, Bashar al-Assad, came to a crashing end. By Sunday, the reckoning had arrived as officials and pundits recognized that Iran was taken by surprise, and they hurried to distance Iran from a tyrant the country had supported in maintaining power.Iranian leaders and military commanders said in public statements that it was up to Syrians to decide what kind of government should replace Mr. al-Assad, who resigned and fled Syria on Sunday after rebel forces stormed the country’s capital.“It is the Syrian people who must decide on the future of their country and its political and governmental system,” said President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran in a meeting with his cabinet on Sunday, according to state media outlets. He added that Syrians must be free to do so without violence and foreign meddling.It was yet another remarkable turnabout for Iran after withdrawing its military forces on Friday when the collapse of Mr. al-Assad’s government became inevitable.State television channels candidly discussed Iran’s policies, with officials and pundits admitting that Iran had misjudged the regional dynamics and officials had overlooked Mr. al-Assad’s unpopularity among Syrians, which also reflected Iran’s lack of support there.Hatef Salehi, an analyst who supports Iran’s government, said in a live town hall discussion on the audio chat app Clubhouse that “the most important lesson of Syria for the Islamic Republic is that no government can last without the support of the people.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Amnesty International Accuses Israel of Genocide in Gaza

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      Israel rejected the charge — the first of its kind by a major human rights organization — saying it was “based on lies.”Amnesty International on Thursday became the first major international human rights organization to accuse Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, drawing a rebuke from Israeli officials who denied the claim.Amnesty’s contention, outlined in a 296-page report, comes as the International Court of Justice, the principal court of the United Nations, is reviewing similar allegations by South Africa.“Israel committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the Amnesty report said.The Israeli Foreign Ministry swiftly rebuffed the report, saying it was “based on lies.”“Israeli citizens have been subjected to daily attacks” on multiple fronts, said Oren Marmorstein, the spokesman of the ministry. “Israel is defending itself against these attacks acting fully in accordance with international law.”Amnesty International said it took into account acts by Israel between October 2023 and July 2024, including what it described as “repeated direct attacks on civilians” and extensive restrictions on humanitarian aid.Israel has maintained that it is waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and not civilians. It has also blamed the United Nations for mismanaging the delivery of aid and accused Hamas of looting it.The genocide accusation is acutely sensitive for Israel, which was founded in 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Many Israelis argue that it is Hamas that should face charges of genocide after its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed in Israel and about 240 were taken captive, according to Israeli officials.While the Amnesty report didn’t focus on the Oct. 7 attack, it said militants from Hamas and other armed groups conducted “deliberate mass killings, summary killings and other abuses, causing suffering and physical injuries.” It said war crimes committed by Hamas would be the subject of a separate report.Under a convention adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, genocide is defined as carrying out certain acts of violence with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”In the case before the International Court of Justice, South Africa has argued that inflammatory public statements made by Israeli leaders are proof of intent to commit genocide. Part of Israel’s defense is to show that whatever politicians may have said in public was overruled by executive decisions and official orders from Israel’s war cabinet and its military’s high command.Amnesty International said it used the 1948 convention to make its determination that Israel was committing genocide and it warned against narrow interpretations of what constitutes intent. More

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      Deadly Israeli Strike Hits Gaza Humanitarian Zone

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      The Israeli military said it was targeting senior Hamas militants in the area. Video from the scene showed the charred remains of tents.The Israeli military bombed a densely populated tent encampment on Wednesday night in an area of southern Gaza that it had designated as a humanitarian zone, saying the airstrike targeted senior Hamas militants who were operating in the area.Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, reported that at least 20 people were killed and several others wounded in the strike on a coastal area in southern Gaza known as Al-Mawasi, where thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The death toll could not be independently verified.The Israeli military said in a statement that there were secondary explosions after the strike, suggesting “the presence of weaponry in the area.” It added that it took steps to mitigate the risk of civilian harm. Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, which led the attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza, and it says Hamas militants hide among Gaza’s civilian population.The Palestinian civil defense in Gaza said in a statement on Wednesday evening that its rescue and emergency crews were trying to extinguish a fire that engulfed the tents of displaced people after the strike.The aftermath of the strike on Thursday.Haitham Imad/EPA, via ShutterstockVideo taken in the aftermath of the strike by the Reuters news agency showed people walking through the mangled and charred remains of their makeshift tents on Thursday morning, with smoke rising from piles of clothes, mattresses and other belongings.“The flames of the missile were the cause of almost all of this destruction,” Ahmed Abu Shahla, a displaced man sheltering in Al-Mawasi, told Reuters. “There were two children here in this place who were completely burned.”Abu Kamal al-Assar, another displaced Palestinian who survived the strike, told Reuters that “it was a big and scary explosion” that turned the area “into a fireball.”Al-Mawasi was designated as safer for civilians by Israel’s military. But Israel has also said that it will target Hamas or its infrastructure wherever it believes it to be and the area has frequently been hit by strikes.The military has repeatedly ordered Palestinians in other areas of Gaza to evacuate to the humanitarian zone, despite protests from aid groups that the area lacks adequate shelter, water, food, sanitation and health care. More