Israel-Gaza War (2023- )

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      U.S.-Backed Group Created to Distribute Aid in Gaza Says It’s Ready to Go

      by

      The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation seeks to create an alternative aid system, but other groups have raised doubts about the feasibility of its plan.A foundation created with backing from the Trump administration to establish a new system for aid to flow into the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that it had reached agreements with Israel to begin operations in the enclave before the end of the month. It also suggested that Israel had agreed to allow aid into Gaza as the foundation is setting up its operations.The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is meant to create an alternative aid system for the war-torn enclave and to end Israel’s two-month blockade on food and fuel deliveries. Israeli officials say the measure was imposed to pressure Hamas, by reducing the militant group’s ability to access and profit from food and fuel meant for civilians.The blockade has raised alarms from international organizations about the risk of famine and also from some Israeli military officials who said privately that Gazans will face widespread starvation unless aid deliveries are restored within weeks.But some other aid groups have already raised doubts about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s approach and the plan’s feasibility.The foundation’s general plan, according to two Israeli officials and a U.N. diplomat, had been to establish a handful of distribution zones that would each serve food to several hundred thousand Palestinians. This had led to concerns that vulnerable civilians would be forced to walk longer distances to get to the few distribution hubs, making it harder to get food to those who need it most.In a statement on Wednesday, the foundation for the first time gave an indication of when it would start and said that it had secured several key agreements with Israeli officials. These agreements include allowing aid to flow into Gaza while the foundation sets up the distribution sites, letting the foundation establish sites in more places in the enclave, and creating alternative arrangements for those who cannot reach its locations.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

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Pope Leo XIV Calls for End to War in First Sunday Blessing as Pontiff

      by

      The new pope echoed themes that Francis, his predecessor, regularly addressed, as he appeared in front of thousands of the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.Pope Leo XIV on Sunday returned to the balcony where he was presented to the world as the new leader of the Roman Catholic church just days ago, using his first Sunday address to the faithful to call for peace.“Never again war,” he said to a roar from the massive crowd that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square, an appeal he addressed to the world’s most powerful leaders. He noted that it was almost 80 years to the day that the “immense tragedy” of World War II ended and quoted Pope Francis, his predecessor, who often referred to the current wave of violence globally as “a third world war in pieces.”Leo called for an “authentic, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and the freeing of all prisoners in that war. The pope said that children should be returned to their families. Although he did not specify which children he was referring to, many Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia during the war against their family’s wishes.Leo also made a plea for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be allowed to be distributed “to the exhausted civilian population” in the territory, as well as the return of the hostages taken in Hamas’ assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.Leo’s calls for peace in Ukraine and a cease-fire in Gaza echoed themes that Francis spoke about regularly in his Sunday addresses.Thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear Pope Leo’s first Sunday address as pontiff.Marko Djurica/ReutersHe sent a special greeting to “all mothers” as families celebrated Mother’s Day in Italy, the United States and some other countries.Sunday also marked the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, he noted. Leo said he prayed along with the faithful that more Catholics take up vocations to the priesthood and religious orders. “The Church has such a great need for them!” he said. The number of people joining the priesthood and religious orders has been declining in many countries.Candice Dias from California, was in the square to hear the pope deliver his first traditional Sunday blessing at noon local time. “He seems to be very down to earth,” she said. “He’s humble.”Leo has been busy since he became pope. On Friday, he celebrated his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel as pontiff with the cardinals who had elected him the previous day. In his homily, he pledged to align himself with “ordinary people” and not with the rich and powerful. The pope met with the cardinals again on Saturday, saying he would continue the work of Francis in steering the church in a more missionary direction, greater cooperation among church leaders and a closeness to marginalized people.Ms. Dias added that now that the conclave that elected him pope was over, she hoped her tour of the Vatican, scheduled for Monday, would include the Sistine Chapel. The chapel had been closed to the public even before the conclave began to prepare it for the vote but is set to reopen on Monday. More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Man Is Charged With Federal Hate Crimes in Assaults on Jewish Protesters

      by

      Tarek Bazrouk, 20, on three occasions kicked and punched Jewish protesters who were wearing religious attire or carrying Israeli flags at demonstrations in Manhattan, prosecutors said.A New York man has been charged with federal hate crimes in three assaults on Jewish protesters at demonstrations over the war in Gaza, according to an indictment released on Wednesday.The man, Tarek Bazrouk, 20, was arrested at three separate protests in Manhattan over roughly nine months after he kicked and punched Jewish protesters who were wearing religious attire or carrying Israeli flags, federal prosecutors said.“Despite being arrested after each incident, Bazrouk allegedly remained undeterred and quickly returned to using violence to target Jews in New York City,” Jay Clayton, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news release on Wednesday.Mr. Clayton said his office was “dedicated to seeking justice for victims of hate crimes and will aggressively prosecute those who spread bigotry and discrimination through violence.”Mr. Bazrouk was charged with three hate crime counts, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.According to prosecutors, Mr. Bazrouk was arrested in April 2024 at a protest outside the New York Stock Exchange after he “lunged” at a group of pro-Israel demonstrators and then, as he was being taken to a police vehicle, kicked one protester in the stomach.He was arrested again in December at a protest in Upper Manhattan after punching a Jewish student who was draped in an Israeli flag and stealing another flag from the student’s brother, prosecutors said. Mr. Bazrouk was arrested a third time in January, prosecutors said, after he punched a protester wearing an Israeli flag at a demonstration near First Avenue and East 18th Street in Manhattan.In the release, Christopher G. Raia, the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York field office, accused Mr. Bazrouk of “demonstrating a pattern of supporting antisemitic terrorist organizations.” A search of his cellphone after his arrest revealed pro-Hamas propaganda and text messages in which he identified himself as a “Jew hater,” prosecutors said. The two-page indictment does not address those allegations.The charges come at a time when the Trump administration has taken an aggressive posture toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, accusing them of antisemitism and seeking to deport some protesters.Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, who were both active in protests at Columbia University, were detained by immigration authorities earlier this year, as was a Tufts graduate student, Rumeysa Ozturk, who had criticized Israel in an opinion essay for a student newspaper. Mr. Mahdawi was released last week; Mr. Khalil and Ms. Ozturk remain in federal detention in Louisiana.Protests in New York City over the war in Gaza, once a near-daily occurrence, have become less frequent. Dozens of people were taken into police custody on Wednesday evening after pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied part of Columbia’s main library for several hours in an effort to rekindle the movement that swept the campus last spring. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Kehlani Concert in Central Park Is Canceled After Pressure From Mayor

      by

      The singer, a vocal critic of Israel, had been scheduled to perform in June as part of Pride festivities. Two weeks ago, Cornell dropped a plan to have her headline a concert.The nonprofit group behind the SummerStage concerts has canceled a scheduled Central Park performance by the popular R&B singer Kehlani under pressure from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams.The move came on Monday after a top New York City official warned the group, the City Parks Foundation, that its license to stage the long-running concert series could be at risk if it did not “promptly take steps” to address “security concerns” raised by the planned show.Billed as “Pride With Kehlani,” the concert was to take place on June 26 as part of the city’s broader Pride festivities. It was the second scheduled Kehlani performance to be canceled in recent weeks amid a furor over the singer’s pro-Palestinian stance.Unlike Cornell University officials, who explicitly cited what they said were Kehlani’s antisemitic and anti-Israel views when they dropped the singer two weeks ago as the headliner of an annual campus concert, the city official, First Deputy Mayor Randy M. Mastro, did not invoke the singer’s personal opinions.Instead, he said in a letter to the foundation’s executive director, Heather Lubov, that the Adams administration’s concerns were based on “the controversy” surrounding the scheduled Cornell performance, as well as the security demands posed by such an event in Central Park and by other Pride events around the city.Mr. Mastro wrote that the police would conduct a security assessment of the concert. If the department determined that the event posed “an unacceptable risk to public safety,” he added, there could be implications for SummerStage’s future. The series began in 1986.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

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Poised to Expand Gaza Offensive, Israel Calls Up Thousands of Reserve Soldiers

      by

      The mobilization could indicate that Israel is preparing to shift its tactics in its fight against Hamas. Israel will mobilize thousands of reserve soldiers to bolster its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Saturday night, as the country appeared poised to expand its offensive in the Palestinian enclave.The call-up suggested the Israeli government was preparing to shift tactics in an attempt to force Hamas to agree to its terms for an end to the war. It is unclear whether that would prove successful, as Hamas has fought a determined insurgency through more than a year of Israeli operations in Gaza. Israel’s security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was set to meet on Sunday to formally sign off on broadening the campaign in Gaza, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.The mobilization announcement compounded fears in Gaza, where Israel has barred food, medicine and other humanitarian aid from entering for over two months. Reeling from more than a year of hunger and fighting, many are still displaced or living amid the rubble of their homes.After Israel ended a two-month cease-fire with Hamas in mid-March, Israeli forces resumed attacking across the enclave. But while Israel jets and drones have regularly bombarded Gaza from the air, Israeli ground forces slowed their advance after seizing some territory.More than 50,000 people have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. They do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but their tallies include thousands of children.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

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Dozens Killed in Attack on Migrant Facility in Yemen, Houthis Say

      by

      There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military, which the Iran-backed Houthi militia blamed for the attack in Saada.Dozens of people were killed in an attack on a migrant facility in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, the Iran-backed militia and aid officials said on Monday.The Houthi militia said that an American strike hit what they called a migrant center in Saada, killing at least 68 African migrants. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the claim.The attack came hours after the U.S. military said that American forces had conducted more than 800 strikes in Yemen since mid-March in a campaign against the Houthis. It said the campaign targeted “multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations” — but made no mention of civilian casualties.Houthi officials have said that more than 100 civilians have been killed, and condemned the latest strike as a “heinous crime against African migrants.”The Houthis and the U.S. military have made competing claims about who was responsible for civilian deaths in recent strikes. Last week, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command said that an explosion on April 20 that killed 12 people in the Yemeni capital had been caused by a misfired Houthi missile, not an American strike as the Houthis had claimed.On Monday, graphic footage broadcast by the Houthi-controlled al-Masirah news channel showed bodies scattered amid the rubble in Saada. In addition to the dozens who were killed, at least 40 migrants were injured, according to two aid officials in Yemen who spoke on the condition of anonymity while they further verified the circumstances of the attack.Each year, tens of thousands of African migrants attempt the perilous journey across the narrow strait separating the Horn of Africa from the Arabian Peninsula, hoping to reach wealthy Gulf States north of Yemen. Nearly 60,900 migrants have arrived in Yemen in 2024 alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.Over the past year, the Houthis have launched rockets and drones at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea, saying their actions are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.The United States intensified a bombing campaign against the Houthis starting on March 15, under orders from President Trump, who has vowed to continue military operations until the Houthis no longer pose a threat. More

    • 175 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      U.S. Military Says Its Air Campaign Has Hit More Than 800 Targets in Yemen

      by

      President Trump ordered a start to the strikes against the Houthis on March 15. Congressional officials say the campaign has cost well over $1 billion.American forces have hit more than 800 targets in Yemen during an ongoing air campaign that began six weeks ago against the Houthi militia, the U.S. military said on Sunday.The military said the targets of the strikes, called Operation Rough Rider, included “multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations.”Among the arms and equipment in stockpiles struck by the Americans were antiship ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, the types of weapons that the Houthis have used against ships in the Red Sea, the military said. The details were outlined in an announcement issued by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations and forces in the Middle East.Congressional officials say the campaign has cost well over $1 billion so far, based on closed-door briefings Pentagon officials gave to Congress early this month, just three weeks into the campaign. The New York Times reported in early April on the rapid rate of munitions used in the campaign, a rate that has caused concern among some strategic planners in the U.S. military.The Houthis have been firing projectiles and launching drones at commercial and military ships in the Red Sea as a show of solidarity with the residents of Gaza and with Hamas, the militant group that controls it. They have been under assault by Israel since Hamas carried out a deadly strike in southern Israel in October 2023 and took hostages.On March 15, President Trump ordered the U.S. military to begin a continual air campaign against the Houthis, after the Biden administration carried out some strikes. Until Sunday, the U.S. military had not publicly disclosed the number of targets struck in Operation Rough Rider.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

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Palestinian Leader Abbas Appoints Hussein al-Sheikh as Deputy Amid Succession Fears

      by

      For many ordinary Palestinians, the appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh was emblematic of how out-of-touch the leadership of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has become.Palestinian leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank met this week for the first gathering of its kind in years. Their mission: to allow Mahmoud Abbas, the aging Palestinian Authority president, to appoint a longtime loyalist to a newly minted senior position. On Saturday night, Mr. Abbas formally named Hussein al-Sheikh, a close confidant, as his deputy. Some analysts believed Mr. al-Sheikh’s promotion indicated that Mr. Abbas, 89, was signaling that Mr. al-Sheikh was his preferred heir, while others saw it as a cosmetic reshuffle to placate Arab officials frustrated by the Palestinian leader.For many Palestinians, their leadership’s focus on palace politics as the war in Gaza has raged, and a sweeping Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank has displaced tens of thousands of people, has further underscored the complacency of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. “The ship is sinking, and everyone’s fighting over who’s going to be seated at what table,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former adviser to Mr. Abbas and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war began with Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostage. The war cast a spotlight on the Palestinian cause and spurred worldwide protests. But the frail and internally divided Palestinian Authority — the Palestinians’ internationally recognized representative — has struggled for relevance. 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