Washington:

A temporary US aid pier has again been removed from the Gaza coast due to high seas and will be towed to an Israeli port, the Pentagon said on Friday.

It is the third time the pier has been detached from the shore because of weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May, and the effort is also facing difficulties with distribution of assistance once it reaches Gaza.

“Due to high sea states expected this weekend, Central Command has removed the temporary pier from its anchored position in Gaza and will tow it back to Ashdod, Israel,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, referring to the military command responsible for the Middle East.

She said she does not have a date for the pier’s reinstallation, and that “the commander will continue to assess the sea states over the weekend.”

The pier was first anchored to the Gaza coast in mid-May, but was damaged by bad weather later in the month and had to be removed for repairs.

It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod on June 14 to protect it from anticipated high seas — a situation that is now being repeated.

When the pier has been operational, it has been used to deliver a large amount of aid to the shore.

“Since May 17, Central Command has assisted in the delivery of more than 8,831 metric tons, or approximately 19.4 million pounds, of humanitarian aid to the shore for onward distribution by humanitarian organizations,” Singh said.

But distribution has been a problem, with the UN World Food Program suspending its deliveries of assistance that arrive via the pier earlier this month to assess the security situation.

The move came after Israel conducted a military operation nearby that freed four hostages, but which Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said killed more than 270 Palestinians.

As a result, aid is piling up in the marshalling yard where it is delivered onshore.

“There’s still some room there, but it’s, I would say majority is pretty full right now,” Singh said.

Gaza is suffering through a war which broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The operatives also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinians carry the body of a person killed in an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, May 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

New divisions have emerged among Israel’s leaders over post-war Gaza’s governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli Army has been battling Hamas militants across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces along the northern border with Lebanon.

But after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, where Israel previously said the group had been neutralised, broad splits emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days.

Mr. Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

The Israeli Premier’s outright rejection of post-war Palestinian leadership in Gaza has broken a rift among top politicians wide open and frustrated relations with top ally the United States.

Experts say the lack of clarity only serves to benefit Hamas, whose leader has insisted no new authority can be established in the territory without its involvement.

“Without an alternative to fill the vacuum, Hamas will continue to grow,” International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein said.

Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, echoed this sentiment.

“If only Hamas is left in Gaza, of course they are going to appear here and there and the Israeli Army will be forced to chase them around,” Mr. Navon said.

“Either you establish an Israeli military government or an Arab-led government.”

U.S. pressure

Mr. Gallant said in a televised address on Wednesday: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip.”

The Premier’s war planning also came under recent attack by Army chief Herzi Halevi as well as top Shin Bet security agency officials, according to Israeli media reports.

Mr. Netanyahu is also under pressure from Washington to swiftly bring an end to the conflict and avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Washington has previously called for a “revitalised” form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war.

But Mr. Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA in post-war Gaza, saying on Thursday that it “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror”.

Instead, Mr. Netanyahu has clung to his steadfast aim of “eliminating” Hamas, asserting that “there’s no alternative to military victory”.

Experts say confidence in Mr. Netanyahu is running thin.

“With Gallant’s criticism of Netanyahu’s failure to plan for the day after in terms of governing Gaza, some real fissures are beginning to emerge in the Israeli war cabinet,” Colin P. Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’m not sure I know of many people, including the most ardent Israel supporters, who have confidence in Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Hostage ‘impasse’

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 125 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 37 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,386 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Many Israelis supported Netanyahu’s blunt goals to seek revenge on Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.

But now, hopes have faded for the return of the hostages and patience in Netanyahu may be running out, experts said.

On Friday, the army announced it had recovered bodies of three hostages who were killed during the October 7 attack.

After Israeli forces entered the far southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Gazans were sheltering, talks mediated by Egypt, the United States and Qatar to release the hostages have ground to a standstill.

“The hostage deal is at a total impasse — you can no longer provide the appearance of progress,” said Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.

“Plus the breakdown with the U.S. and the fact that Egypt has refused to pass aid through Rafah — all those things are coming to a head.”

London:

There is only enough fuel to run health services in the south of Gaza for three more days, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in the south of Gaza from combat further north in the Palestinian enclave. Israel has threatened a major assault on the southern city of Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are holed up there, and its troops are now battling the Islamist group on Rafah’s outskirts.

The WHO said a delivery of fuel to the area had been denied on Wednesday. It also said that Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah was already no longer functional, one of three hospitals in the city. Some of its equipment has been moved to field hospitals, WHO said.

“WHO has pre-positioned some supplies in warehouses and hospitals, but without more aid flowing into Gaza, we cannot sustain our life-saving support to hospitals,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that WHO would remain in the area to provide health services.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers his remarks at the start of the Cabinet meeting amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to continue Israel’s war on Hamas despite suffering “painful losses” in ground fighting inside the Gaza Strip.

“We have so many important achievements, but also painful losses. We know that every soldier of ours is an entire world,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised address after the Army confirmed at least 11 soldiers were killed in ground fighting on Tuesday.

The leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on Wednesday accused Israel of committing “massacres” in the Gaza war to cover its own “defeats”.

Haniyeh, whose Islamist group launched the bloody October 7 attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, accused Israel of “committing barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians”. “Its villainy will not save them from resounding defeat,” he vowed in a speech broadcast by Al Jazeera.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that 3,648 children are among 8,796 people killed in Israeli strikes since the war erupted.

The isolated Palestinian enclave, home to 2.3 million people, is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis amid a siege imposed by Israel. Over half the population has fled their homes, and supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel are running low. A territory-wide blackout has left hospitals reliant on generators that could shut down soon as Israel has barred all fuel imports.

Israel has been vague about its operations in Gaza, but residents and spokesmen for militant groups say troops appear to be trying to take control of the two main north-south roads.

An estimated 800,000 Palestinians have fled south from Gaza City and other northern areas following Israeli orders to evacuate, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north.

Israel has allowed international aid groups to send more than 200 trucks carrying food and medicine to enter from Egypt over the past 10 days, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ ability to govern Gaza or threaten it, while also saying it does not plan to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. But it has said little about who would govern Gaza afterwards.

In congressional testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that “at some point, what would make the most sense is for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.”

In the latest war between Israel and Hamas, children were targets on both sides. Israel started its heavy bombardment of Gaza, a tiny Mediterranean land strip of 2.3 million people, on October 7 after Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the enclave, carried out an unprecedented cross-border raid, killing at least 1,400 Israelis.

Of the victims, 447 were children and 248 were women, according to Israeli authorities. In retaliation, Israel has cut off food, fuel and power supplies to Gaza, laid siege to the enclave and started bombing it disproportionately. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog suggested there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. In the Israeli attacks, in 22 days, at least 7,700 people were killed, some 70% of them women and children.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the toll includes more than 3,500 minors. The Israeli attacks have also turned more than a million people refugees. Israel ordered one million people living in northern Gaza to move towards the south. Since children make up half of Gaza’s population, they are the hardest hit age category by the displacement as well.

Now that Israel launched its ground invasion, many more Palestinians will be killed, wounded and displaced, which means many more children would be victimised.

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Saturday discussed the worsening security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. Both leaders expressed their concern over the increase in terrorism, violence, and civilian casualties in the area, largely owing to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. 

PM Modi and President el-Sisi agreed on the need to quickly restore peace and stability and to provide humanitarian assistance to those who have been affected by the conflict.

“Yesterday, spoke with President @AlsisiOfficial. Exchanged views on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. We share concerns regarding terrorism, violence, and loss of civilian lives. We agree on the need for early restoration of peace and stability and facilitating humanitarian assistance,” PM Modi wrote on X. 

Yesterday, spoke with President @AlsisiOfficial. Exchanged views on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. We share concerns regarding terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives. We agree on the need for early restoration of peace and stability…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 29, 2023

The two leaders also exchanged views on the latest developments in the “Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip”, a spokesperson for the Egyptian Presidency said.

“President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received a phone call from Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, in which views were exchanged between the two leaders on the latest developments in the Israeli military operations in the Gaza strip, and the danger of continuing the current escalation, whether due to its grave effects on the lives of civilians, or the threat it poses to security,” a Facebook post from the spokersperson read.

The October 7 attack by Hamas killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the besieged Palestinian territory has said. 

India on Friday abstained from a UN General Assembly resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas war, saying that the resolution does not mention Hamas and that the UN needs to send a clear message against terrorism.

“We hope that the deliberations of this assembly will send a clear message against terror and violence and expand prospects for diplomacy and dialogue while addressing the humanitarian crisis that confronts us,” said India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Yojna Patel.

India expressed grave concern over the worsening situation in Gaza and urged both sides to cease hostilities and pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Saturday discussed the worsening security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. Both leaders expressed their concern over the increase in terrorism, violence, and civilian casualties in the area, largely owing to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. 

PM Modi and President el-Sisi agreed on the need to quickly restore peace and stability and to provide humanitarian assistance to those who have been affected by the conflict.

“Yesterday, spoke with President @AlsisiOfficial. Exchanged views on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. We share concerns regarding terrorism, violence, and loss of civilian lives. We agree on the need for early restoration of peace and stability and facilitating humanitarian assistance,” PM Modi wrote on X. 

Yesterday, spoke with President @AlsisiOfficial. Exchanged views on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in West Asia. We share concerns regarding terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives. We agree on the need for early restoration of peace and stability…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 29, 2023

The two leaders also exchanged views on the latest developments in the “Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip”, a spokesperson for the Egyptian Presidency said.

“President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received a phone call from Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, in which views were exchanged between the two leaders on the latest developments in the Israeli military operations in the Gaza strip, and the danger of continuing the current escalation, whether due to its grave effects on the lives of civilians, or the threat it poses to security,” a Facebook post from the spokersperson read.

The October 7 attack by Hamas killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the besieged Palestinian territory has said. 

India on Friday abstained from a UN General Assembly resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas war, saying that the resolution does not mention Hamas and that the UN needs to send a clear message against terrorism.

“We hope that the deliberations of this assembly will send a clear message against terror and violence and expand prospects for diplomacy and dialogue while addressing the humanitarian crisis that confronts us,” said India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Yojna Patel.

India expressed grave concern over the worsening situation in Gaza and urged both sides to cease hostilities and pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

The Israeli military announced it was stepping up its bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza Saturday just hours after the first aid trucks arrived from Egypt bringing desperately needed relief to civilians in the war-torn enclave.

The military said it aimed to reduce the risks its troops would face as they enter Gaza in the next phase of the war it launched on Hamas after the militant group carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history on October 7.

Hamas militants killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death, and took more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has retaliated with a relentless bombing campaign that has killed more than 4,300 Palestinians in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

An Israeli siege has cut food, water, electricity and fuel supplies to the densely populated territory of 2.4 million people, sparking fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have deployed to the Gaza border ahead of an expected ground offensive that officials have pledged will begin “soon”.

“From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimising the danger,” military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari told a press conference Saturday.

“We have to enter the next phase of the war in the best conditions, not according to what anyone tells us.”

On a visit to a frontline infantry brigade, chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said troops were ready to deal with any surprises Hamas had in store for them when they enter Gaza.

“Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there — but we are also preparing for them,” Mr. Halevi said.

AFP journalists saw 20 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent pass through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza on Saturday.

The crossing — the only one into Gaza not controlled by Israel — closed again after the trucks passed.

The lorries had been waiting for days on the Egyptian side after Israel agreed to a request from its main ally the United States to allow aid to enter.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the 20 trucks admitted on Saturday fell far short of the needs of Gazans, more than one million of whom have been forced from their homes.

“Much more” aid needs to be sent, Mr. Guterres told a peace summit in Egypt.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the aid and urged “all parties” to keep the Rafah crossing open.

But a Hamas spokesman said “even dozens” of such convoys could not meet Gaza’s requirements, especially as no fuel was being allowed in to help distribute the supplies to those in need.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hosted a peace summit attended by regional and some Western leaders.

“The time has come for action to end this godawful nightmare,” Mr. Guterres told the summit, calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire”.

Mr. Guterres said “the grievances of the Palestinian people are legitimate and long” after “56 years of occupation with no end in sight”.

But he stressed that “nothing can justify the reprehensible assault by Hamas that terrorised Israeli civilians”.

“Those abhorrent attacks can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he added.

According to Arab diplomats who spoke with AFP on condition of anonymity, the summit broke up without a joint statement, highlighting the gulf between Arab and Western countries on how best to bring lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Western delegates demanded “a clear condemnation placing responsibility for the escalation on Hamas” but Arab leaders refused, the diplomats said.

Instead, the Egyptian hosts released a statement — drafted with the approval of Arab delegates — criticising world leaders for seeking to “manage the conflict and not end it permanently”.

The statement said such “temporary solutions and palliatives… do not live up to even the lowest aspirations” of the Palestinian people.

Israel bemoaned the lack of a condemnation of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

“It is unfortunate that even when faced with those horrific atrocities, there were some who had difficulty condemning terrorism or acknowledging the danger,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

A full-blown Israeli ground offensive of Gaza carries many risks, including to the hostages Hamas took and whose fate is shrouded in uncertainty.

So the release of two Americans among the hostages — mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan — offered a rare “sliver of hope”, said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s political bureau, for its mediation in securing the release.

He said he was working “around the clock” to win the return of other Americans being held.

Natalie Raanan’s half-brother Ben told the BBC he felt an “overwhelming sense of joy” at the release after “the most horrible of ordeals”.

Hamas said Egypt and Qatar had negotiated the release and that it was “working with all mediators to implement the movement’s decision to close the civilian (hostage) file if appropriate security conditions allow”.

Almost half of Gaza’s residents have been displaced, and at least 30% of all housing in the territory has been destroyed or damaged, the United Nations says.

Thousands have taken refuge in a camp set up in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Fadwa al-Najjar said she and her seven children walked for 10 hours to reach the camp, at some points breaking into a run as missiles struck around them.

“We saw bodies and limbs torn off and we just started praying, thinking we were going to die,” she told AFP.

The United States has moved two aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both Hamas allies, amid fears of a wider conflagration.

Exchanges of fire continued across Israel’s border with Lebanon Friday.

Hezbollah reported the loss of four of its fighters while Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad reported one fighter killed.

In Israel, two Thai farm workers were wounded, emergency services said.

Violence has also flared in the West Bank, where 84 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the health ministry.

Israeli airstrikes pounded locations across the Gaza Strip early Thursday, including parts of the south that Israel had declared as safe zones, heightening fears among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere was safe.

In the nearly two weeks since a devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel, the Israeli military has has relentlessly attacked Gaza in response. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to what it called “safe zones” in the south, strikes continued overnight throughout the densely populated territory.

A residential building in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fought shelter, was among the places hit. Medical personnel at Nasser Hospital said they received at least 12 dead and 40 wounded.

The bombardments came after Israel agreed on Wednesday to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day siege. Many among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have cut down to one meal a day and resorted to drinking dirty water.

The announcement of a plan to bring water, food and other supplies into Gaza came as fury over a Tuesday night explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East. There were conflicting claims of who was behind the blast, which the Hamas-run Health Authority said had killed hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas officials in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying hundreds were killed. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed the Israeli claim.

The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, said data from his Defense Department showed the explosion was not likely caused by an Israeli airstrike. The White House later said an analysis of “overhead imagery, intercepts and open-source information” showed Israel was not behind the attack. But the U.S. continues to collect evidence.

Video from the scene showed the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Hundreds of wounded were rushed to Gaza City’s main hospital, where doctors already facing critical supply shortages were sometimes forced to perform surgery on the floors, often without anesthesia.

More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes in Gaza City and other places in the northern part of the territory since Israel told them to evacuate. Most have crowded into U.N.-run school shelters or the homes of relatives.

Following early Thursday’s airstrikes, sirens wailed as emergency crews rushed to rescue survivors from a building where many residents were believed trapped under misshapen bed frames, broken furniture and cement chunks.

A small, soot-covered child, unconscious and dangling in the arms of a rescue worker, was taken out of a damaged building and rushed toward a waiting ambulance.

The Israeli military said it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and hit hundreds of targets across Gaza, including tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure and command centers. It said it hit dozens of mortar launching posts, most of them immediately after they launched shells at Israel. Palestinians have been launching barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting began.

Israel has said it is attacking Hamas militants wherever they may be in Gaza, and accused the group’s leaders and fighters of taking shelter among the civilian population, leaving Palestinian feeling in constant danger.

The Musa family fled to the typically sleepy central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah and took shelter in a cousin’s three-story home near the local hospital. But at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, a series of explosions, believed to be airstrikes, rocked the building, turning the family home into a mountain of rubble that they said buried some 20 women and children.

The dead body of Hiam Musa, the sister-in-law of Associated Press photojournalist Adel Hana, was recovered from the wreckage Wednesday evening, the family said. They don’t know who else is under the rubble.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Hana said. “We went to Deir al-Balah because it’s quiet, we thought we would be safe.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating.

In northern areas that Israel warned to evacuate, airstrikes also hit three residential towers in al-Zahra, the Hamas-led Interior Ministry in Gaza said, as well as homes along the border with Israel. Israel has massed troops in the area and is expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, though military officials say no decision has been made.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and more than 12,000 wounded, mostly women, children and the elderly. Another 1,300 people are believed buried under the rubble, health authorities said.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion on Oct. 7. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.

Violence between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has also flared in recent days amid fears the fighting could spread across the region. In the West Bank, where scores of Palestinians have been killed since the war started, Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians in the past two days, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The deal to get aid into Gaza remained fragile, as hospitals in the sealed territory say they are on the verge of collapse.

Biden said Egypt’s president agreed to open the Rafah crossing to let in an initial group of 20 trucks with humanitarian aid. If Hamas confiscates aid, “it will end,” he said. The aid will start moving Friday at the earliest, White House officials said.

Egypt must still repair the road across the border, which was cratered by Israeli airstrikes. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid are positioned at or near the crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, said the head of the Red Crescent for North Sinai, Khalid Zayed.

Supplies will go in under supervision of the U.N., Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Al-Arabiya TV. Asked if foreigners and dual nationals seeking to leave would be let through, he said: “As long as the crossing is operating normally and the (crossing) facility has been repaired.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was approved after a request from Biden. It said Israel “will not thwart” deliveries of food, water or medicine from Egypt, as long as they are limited to civilians in the south of the Gaza Strip and don’t go to Hamas militants. The statement made no mention of fuel, which is badly needed for hospital generators.

Relatives of some of the people who were taken hostage and forced back to Gaza during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack reacted with fury to the aid announcement.

“Children, infants, women, soldiers, men, and elderly, some with serious illnesses, wounded and shot, are held underground like animals,” said a statement from the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. But “the Israeli government pampers the murderers and kidnappers.”

In his brief visit, Biden tried to strike a balance between showing U.S. support for Israel, while containing growing alarm among Arab allies. He also announced $100 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on Thursday in a trip aimed at showing solidarity after the Hamas attack and preventing the war from escalating.

The people of Israel had “suffered an unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you,” he said on arriving.

New Delhi:

A massive explosion ripped through a hospital in Gaza, killing at least 500 people on Tuesday. The incident sparked global outrage and demonstrations in several Muslim-majority countries. Israel and Palestine exchanged blame for the incident, which US President Joe Biden denounced while en route to Israel.

While the Israeli army pinned the blame on a “misfired rocket” by Palestine’s Islamic Jihad group, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says Israel was behind the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital.

But what is the Islamic Jihad group?

The Beginnings

Designated as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an ally of Hamas, violently opposes the existence of Israel. 

The group’s founders, Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda, were students in Egypt and members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist social movement founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Sometime in the late 1970s the two felt that the Brotherhood was not fully committed to the Palestinian cause. 

Taking inspiration from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini-led Iranian revolution, Shaqaqi and Awda created an offshoot group with the sole objective of militant destruction of the Israeli state. 

In 1981, the Egyptian government exiled PIJ, which had split from the Muslim Brotherhood, to Gaza after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. 

Operations In Gaza 

The PIJ functions as a decentralised, compartmentalised organisation that typically prioritises attacking Israel, while avoiding the prominent social, welfare, and political roles played by other Islamic extremist groups in the region like Hamas, Fatah, or even the Lebanon-based Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

Their first successful strike is thought to have been in Gaza, the killing of an Israeli military police captain in August 1987, a few months before the first Palestinian intifada.

While in Gaza, the Islamic Jihad killed an Israeli military police captain just a few months before the start of the First Intifada in 1987. 

In the same year, they were expelled to Lebanon where the Islamic Jihad built a strong relationship with Hezbollah and even received arms training from Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Two years later, Shaqaqi established the group’s official headquarters in Syria’s Damascus where they continue to operate to this day. 

Relationship With Hamas

Unlike Hamas, the Islamic Jihad does not carry out any form of social service in Gaza nor does it intend to fight for political office or intend to open diplomatic channels with Israel. 

The one thing that is common between the two groups is the fact that both oppose Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have often coordinated militant operations in the Palestinian enclave. 

However, there have been times when Hamas, ironically, has cautioned the Islamic Jihad against attacking Israel. The Islamic Jihad, on most occasions, acts independently. Primarily focused on military confrontations, there have been times when the Islamic Jihad has taken the front seat while Hamas remained on the sidelines during clashes with Israel.

Relationship With Iran 

The Iranian Revolution’s sphere of influence in its first decade was confined to Shi’a groups in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Gulf Emirates. It failed to make headways in countries with a majority Sunni population nor did its fundamentalist ideas entice Islamic militant groups.

While Shaqaqi and Awda drew inspiration from the Iranian Revolution, Iran did not pay it any heed. Ayatollah Khomenei and Iranian leaders remained steadfast in propagating Shi’ite values without focusing on Sunni-dominated nations.

However, a change occurred. In the late 80s, after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran decided to export its fundamentalism to countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, and more importantly, Palestine — coinciding with the First Intifada. And after Israel kicked the Islamic Jihad to Lebanon, the group came under direct influence of Iran.

According to the US State Department, it is Iran that funds the Islamic Jihad’s budget, exactly like it reportedly does for Hamas and Hezbollah. The US also blames the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria for providing a safe haven to the group in Damascus. 

Attacks Carried Out By Islamic Jihad 

The Islamic Jihad’s modus operandi includes suicide bombings targetting Israeli civilians and military personnel. 

1987: Killing Of an Israeli military police commander in Gaza

1994: Car bomb attack killing nine and injuring 50 aboard a public bus

1995: Suicide bomb attack killing 18 soldiers and one civilian in ISrael’s Netanya.

1996: Suicide bomb attack at a Tel Aviv shopping mall killing 13 and injuring 75. 

2003: Suicide bomb attack a a Haifa restaurant killing 22 and injuring 60.

Along with other suicide bombings, the Islamic Jihad also works with Hamas to launch rockets into Israel.