JERUSALEM, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – Israel’s military released security camera footage Sunday it said showed hostages being brought into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after being kidnapped in the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel. In one of the clips a man is brought in on a gurney by several individuals, at least four of them armed, while in another someone struggles to resist while being forcibly dragged into a building resembing a […]
Middle East
Tanzania says student abducted by Hamas is dead
DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Tanzania’s foreign ministry has confirmed the death of one of two citizens who have been missing since Hamas’s October 7 attacks across southern Israel. The Israeli government had named two students from Tanzania — 22-year-old Clemence Felix Mtenga and 21-year-old Joshua Loitu Mollel — among those missing since the militant attack six weeks ago. “It’s with great sadness we confirm the death of Clemence Felix Mtenga,” a […]
Hundreds flee as Israel orders Gaza’s main hospital evacuated
By Adel Zaanoun GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of people fled on foot Saturday after the director of Gaza’s main hospital said Israel’s army ordered evacuation of the facility where more than 2,000 patients, medics and displaced people were trapped by the war between Israel and Hamas. Columns of sick and injured — some of them amputees — displaced people, doctors and nurses, were seen making their way out of […]
UAE inaugurates giant solar plant, two weeks before climate talks
AL DHAFRA, United Arab Emirates, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates inaugurated on Thursday one of the world’s biggest solar plants, two weeks before the oil-rich Gulf state hosts UN climate talks. The Al Dhafra plant, south of the capital Abu Dhabi, stretches over 21 square kilometres (eight square miles) of desert, an area about one-fifth the size of Paris. Its rows of photovoltaic panels rotate to follow the sun and are […]
Appeals court judge temporarily lifts Trump gag order
NEW YORK, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – An appeals court judge on Thursday temporarily lifted a partial gag order imposed on Donald Trump in his New York civil fraud trial. Judge David Friedman issued an interim stay of the gag order imposed by another judge, who is presiding over the business fraud trial of the former president. Judge Arthur Engoron slapped a limited gag order on Trump on October 3 after he insulted the judge’s […]
Israel army says body of hostage found near Gaza hospital
JERUSALEM, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli soldiers near Gaza’s largest hospital found the body of a hostage seized by Hamas militants in their attacks on southern Israel on October 7, the army said Thursday. A military spokesman identified the slain woman as Yehudit Weiss, saying she had been “murdered” by militants in the war-torn Palestinian territory. “Yehudit was murdered by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip and we didn’t manage to reach her in […]
Twenty-five Hamas-held Thai hostages are ‘safe’: mediator
BANGKOK, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s government has been given assurances by Hamas that 25 of its nationals held hostage by the Palestinian armed group are “safe”, a member of the kingdom’s hostage release negotiating team said Thursday. The hostages could be released in days if a ceasefire is agreed between Israel and Hamas, Thai politician Lepong Syed said. More than 240 people were taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which […]
Gunmen wound several in attack near Jerusalem: Israeli police
JERUSALEM, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Three gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Jerusalem on Thursday, Israeli police said, wounding several people before the attackers were “neutralised”. Four people suffered gunshot wounds, including one who was critically injured, said the emergency medical service Magen David Adom in a statement, with another two people lightly wounded. All those injured were members of security services, according to police. The attack on a checkpoint guarding access to road tunnels […]
Israel presses Gaza hospital raid
By Mai Yaghi and Adel Zaanoun GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – Israel renewed its military operation Thursday at Gaza’s largest hospital, targeting what it said was a Hamas command centre hidden beneath thousands of patients, medics and displaced people. “Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital,” said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of army operations in Gaza. “We continue to move forward.” Both Israel and its top ally […]
Hamas has command center at Gaza hospital: White House
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Palestinian militants have a command center at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, the White House said Tuesday, backing up a key Israeli justification for military moves on the facility. Hamas and Islamic Jihad operate a “command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, citing US intelligence sources. “We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals […]
Israel says carrying out ‘operation’ in Gaza’s main hospital
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli forces said on Wednesday that they were carrying out an operation in Gaza’s largest hospital, targeting a suspected Hamas command centre located below thousands of ailing and sheltering civilians. After warnings from the United States and others that the Al-Shifa hospital must be protected, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in the early hours that they had entered the compound in Gaza City. “Based on […]
Israel shows ‘evidence’ Hamas held hostages at hospital
JERUSALEM, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Israel’s army cited a discarded baby bottle, makeshift toilet and bullet-scarred motorbike as evidence Hamas held hostages in a Gaza hospital, as an Israeli soldier was declared killed in captivity Tuesday. On Monday evening, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops “found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages” in the basement of Al-Rantisi children’s hospital in Gaza City. AFP was not able to independently confirm the allegation, and Hamas […]