Al Jazeera – April 7, 2024
Israel ‘pulls out troops’ from southern Gaza as attacks enter seventh month
The Israeli military says it has withdrawn its ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, including Khan Younis, amid conflicting reports about the scale and duration of the disengagement.
“Today, Sunday April 7th, the IDF’s 98th commando division has concluded its mission in Khan Younis. The division left the Gaza Strip in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the army said in a statement on Sunday.
“A significant force led by the 162nd division and the Nahal brigade continues to operate in the Gaza Strip and will preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based operations,” it said.
The military confirmed the reported withdrawal to Reuters news agency, but added that one brigade has remained, without giving further details. An Israeli brigade is typically made of a few thousand soldiers.
It was unclear whether the reported withdrawal would delay a long-threatened incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which Israeli leaders have said is needed to eliminate Hamas.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, sought to emphasise that an operation in Rafah would take place, without giving details.
“The forces are exiting and preparing for their next missions, we saw examples of such missions in the al-Shifa operation, and also of their coming mission in the Rafah area,” Gallant said in a meeting with military officials, according to a statement.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said the Israeli claim of withdrawal could be a “new strategy”.
“We’re told that they don’t need that number of troops to put this new strategy into place,” said Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.
“But if you listen to the Israeli military analysts, you get a slightly different take on things. What we are hearing is that this could be a redeployment of forces in order to get ready for a ground offensive into Rafah,” Khan said, noting that the United States is “dead set” against the plan.
The White House, commenting on the partial withdrawal, said it was likely to be an opportunity for troops to “rest and refit”.
“They’ve been on the ground for four months, the word we’re getting is they’re tired, they need to be refit,” said the White House’s National Security Spokesman John Kirby.
Six months of ‘genocide’
The Israeli announcement came as its war on Gaza hits the six-month mark, leaving a deadly trail that the International Court of Justice described as a “plausible case of genocide”.
Egypt, meanwhile, is preparing to host a new round of talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and release of captives taken by Hamas.
The withdrawal is one of the demands that Hamas made before agreeing to a ceasefire with Israel.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched after the attack by Hamas on Israel six months ago on October 7, has focused in the past months on the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Rafah has become the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the territory near the border with Egypt.
More than 250 people were seized and some 1,200 people during the October 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies.
In the Israeli operation that followed, more than 33,100 Palestinians, including 13,800 children, have been killed, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
According to the United Nations estimates, about 1.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes and into shelters, a situation, which the the world body warned could lead to widespread famine
Israeli bombing kills six Palestinians in Gaza
GAZA, Sunday, April 7, 2024 (WAFA) – Six Palestinians were killed on Sunday in a bombing by occupation warplanes on citizens’ homes in the cities of Gaza and Khan Yunis, sources confirmed.
They said that four people were killed and 10 others were injured, including three children and two women, in the occupation aircraft’s bombing that targeted a house in Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
The sources added that two citizens were killed and seven others were injured when occupation aircraft and artillery bombed several homes in Al-Zinna and Bani Suhaila areas, east of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
In Gaza City, six people were injured in the occupation artillery shelling of citizens’ homes in Al-Zaytoun and Tal Al-Hawa neighborhoods in the city, as the occupation tanks stationed in the western region, firing at citizens’ homes.
The occupation artillery fired shells towards citizens' homes and targeted Sheikh Zayed Towers in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, wounding a number of citizens.
The occupation aircraft targeted a house in the Bureij camp in the central sector.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7 has risen to 33,175 reported fatalities, with an additional 75,886 individuals sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
Meanwhile, ambulance and rescue teams are still unable to reach many casualties and dead bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on roads across the war-torn enclave, as Israeli occupation forces continue to obstruct the movement of and ambulance and civil defense teams.
https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/143062
The situation in Gaza is simply catastrophic: UN official
RAMALLAH, Sunday, April 7, 2024 (WAFA) – Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations' Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine, has said that the situation in Gaza is "simply catastrophic."
"Over the past six months, the people of Gaza have endured unfathomable suffering. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 75,000 injured," McGoldrick said in a statement.
"Nearly 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes, many of them multiple times. Half of all people in Gaza are at risk of imminent famine, and child malnutrition has reached levels never before seen in Gaza," he added.
"The situation is simply catastrophic," McGoldrick noted.
"As I have stated previously, the humanitarian community is prepared to scale-up assistance in Gaza, but this requires better security, greater access, and more reliable facilitation from Israeli authorities."
"We stand ready to work with all parties to alleviate the suffering of people in Gaza," he concluded.
https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/143064
Türkiye to mobilize 12-nation aid flotilla for Gaza
Nearly 14 years after nine activists headed for Gaza were killed in an Israeli raid in the Mediterranean, Türkiye is planning to dispatch another 'freedom flotilla' that will carry aid and activists from 12 nations as Israel continues pounding the Palestinian enclave
Türkiye is gearing up to send a flotilla of humanitarian aid, volunteers and activists from 12 countries, including England, Sweden and the United States, directly to the blockaded Gaza Strip.
The "International Freedom Flotilla" is setting out to "bring down" Israel's blockade on Gaza with three ships named "Anadolu" (Anatolia), "Akdeniz" (Mediterranean) and "Vicdan" (Conscience), 14 years after an incident now known as the Gaza flotilla raid.
Bülent Yıldırım, the head of the independent Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), told reporters on Friday that the flotilla is likely to set sail for Gaza on April 15.
"We have completed purchasing three vessels so far for the flotilla. Since these ships will directly sail to Gaza, it was very difficult to obtain them," Yıldırım informed, pointing out the updated naval routes and rules in the Mediterranean after the 2010 "Mavi Marmara" incident.
2010 Israeli raid
In May 2010, the IHH sent an aid vessel called Mavi Marmara to Gaza along with five other civilian ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in an attempt to breach the Israeli blockade. The ship was intercepted by the Israeli military in a deadly offshore raid in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Nine pro-Palestinian activists on board the aid ship were killed during the raid and a 10th died in 2014 after years in a coma.
The raid touched off a diplomatic crisis between Türkiye and Israel. Turkish-Israeli relations have historically been rocky due to disputes over the Palestinian cause. The pair was in the process of normalizing their relations when the new round of conflict broke out. Ankara shelved normalization plans and vowed to pursue the rights of Palestinians after Oct. 7.
Flouting the International Court of Justice's provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, where at least 33,175 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 75,886 injured since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the October cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
'Struggle for freedom'
Türkiye, a virulent critic of Israel in the past six months of its relentless attacks, has so far sent its aid to Gaza through neighboring Egypt.
Currently, aid agencies say only about a fifth of needed supplies are entering Gaza as Israel persists with an air and ground offensive that has shattered the coastal enclave, pushing parts to the verge of famine. They say that deliveries by air drop or by sea directly onto Gaza's beaches are no substitute for increased supplies coming in by land via Israel or Egypt.
Israel says it puts no limit on the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and blames problems in it reaching civilians within the enclave on U.N. agencies, which it says are inefficient. Aid groups blame Israel's blockade and red tape.
The IHH chairperson said the Anadolu vessel would carry humanitarian aid supplies while Vicdan would carry activists and media professionals from around the world, including Dr. Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Cuban leader Che Guevara, and Zwelivelile "Mandla" Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela.
"No one must remain silent in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza," Yıldırım stressed. "We must save Gaza and the world from this cruelty and these wars."
The Freedom Flotilla will call for a cease-fire in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and urge people worldwide to take to the city squares, Yıldırım said.
"Similarly, we will push the gates of Egypt and authorities to reach the port of Gaza," he added. "We will do whatever we can to stop this genocide."
He assured the flotilla would include "people of different religions and faiths."
"But we especially want press members to join our fleet and announce our struggle for freedom to the whole world."
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/turkiye-to-mobilize-12-nation-aid-flotilla-for-gaza/news
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