tag

Doctors Michele Ghielmini, Brenno Balestra, Alessandra Guaita and Marco Franzi sit outside the Swiss Parliament building (Bundeshaus) at the start of their hunger strike over Gaza, calling on their government to apply targeted sanctions on Israel over its alleged violations of international law and to recognise a Palestinian state, in Bern, Switzerland.

An Israeli strike flattened a high-rise in Gaza City Saturday — the second in as many days — after the military warned people to flee ahead of a planned offensive against the urban hub. Israel has been warning for weeks of a new assault on the territory's largest city, without issuing a timeline. It has stepped up air strikes and ground operations on the city's outskirts, sparking fears it could worsen already dire conditions. Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on western neighbourhoods calling on residents to evacuate, witnesses and an AFP journalist said. Nafez Anis, who has been living in a tent with his family in Gaza City, said he had read the leaflet, but was not planning on leaving. "Where should we go?" he told AFP. "We will wait, and when we see Israeli tanks approaching here, we will leave." Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 55 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire during the day, including 18 near an aid distribution centre in the north. Saturday, the military struck a Gaza City high-rise, saying Hamas was using it "to monitor" Israeli troops and adding that it had taken "measures to mitigate harm to civilians". Witnesses identified the building as the Sussi residential tower and said it was destroyed. Hamas condemned the attack and denied using residential or civilian buildings for military purposes. The Israeli military has said it will target structures being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings. It also issued an evacuation order for another high-rise Saturday, warning of an imminent strike and telling people to leave for the south. A military spokesperson had earlier called on residents to leave for Al-Mawasi, on the Mediterranean coast to the south. Israel first declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying they targeted Hamas. Gaza City residents said they believed it made little difference whether they stayed or fled. "Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay," said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48. "But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths" he added, pointing, in particular, to the strikes on Al-Mawasi. "It no longer makes any difference to us," said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. "Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger." Israel has faced mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year war. Thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Saturday evening to call for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. In Tel Aviv, protesters unfurled a massive banner saying: "President Trump, save the hostages now!" Hamas agreed last month to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and staggered hostage releases, but Israel has demanded the group release all the hostages at once, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, among other conditions. The UN estimates nearly 1mn people remain in and around Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of a looming "disaster" if the assault proceeds. Israel's offensive has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

Yemen's Houthi fighters held a funeral Monday for their prime minister and 11 other senior officials killed in an Israeli air strike that decimated its political cabinet.Twelve coffins draped in flags were displayed at Sanaa's Al-Shaab mosque, as masked gunmen patrolled the area and thousands of mourners flooded in.Houthi prime minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, nine ministers and two cabinet officials were killed as they attended a government meeting in the Sanaa area on Thursday.It was the highest profile assassination to be announced in Yemen in months of attacks by Israel during the Gaza war. The United States also waged an intense bombing campaign against Houthi targets from March to May this year.The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones towards Israel throughout the Gaza war.Monday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a drone launched from Yemen before it entered Israeli territory.On Sunday, the Houthis detained at least 11 United Nations workers as part of a round-up, prompting a protest from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.A Yemeni security source told AFP on Saturday that Houthi authorities had arrested dozens of people in Sanaa and other areas "on suspicion of collaborating with Israel".The Houthis also fired a missile at an Israeli tanker in the Red Sea on Sunday, reprising a campaign they have waged throughout the Gaza war.The missile landed close to the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray with a "loud bang", the UK Maritime Trade Operations monitoring agency said.The Houthis, part of Iran's "axis of resistance" of anti-Israeli groups, vowed to step up their attacks on Israel following Thursday's killings.Their campaign of missile and drone strikes at Israel and on shipping in the Red Sea, a major cargo route, has persisted throughout the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.Last week's Israeli strike wiped out about half of the 22-strong Houthi cabinet, which plays a mainly administrative role.Rahawi, the late prime minister, was from the southern province of Abyan, which is not part of the large swathes of Yemen under Houthi control.The Houthis, who hail from divided Yemen's rugged north, have traditionally reserved the premiership for southerners in an attempt to win hearts and minds.US-based Yemen analyst Mohammed al-Basha said Thursday's strike may signal an Israeli shift towards targeted killings, an approach that gutted the leadership of Gaza rulers Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.The attack could mark "the beginning of a campaign of targeted assassinations against both civilian and military Houthi leadership, even at informal gatherings", he posted on X, calling it a "bad day" for the group.

The prime minister of Yemen's Houthi government and several other ministers were killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sanaa, the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council said Saturday, in the first such attack to kill senior officials.A number of others were wounded in Thursday's strike, Mahdi al-Mashat added, without providing details.Israel said on Friday that the airstrike had targeted the Iran-aligned group's chief of staff, defence minister and other senior officials and that it was verifying the outcome.Mashat's statement did not make clear whether the Houthi defence minister was among the casualties.Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi became prime minister around a year ago but the de facto leader of the government was his deputy, Mohamed Moftah, who was assigned Saturday to carry out the prime minister's duties.Rahwi was seen largely as a figurehead who was not part of the inner circle of the Houthi leadership.During the last year, Israel carried out a series of assassinations targeting senior leaders and commanders of Hamas and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, significantly weakening both groups.The Houthi-run news agency Saba ran a statement from Defence Minister Mohamed al-Atifi shortly after the prime minister's death was confirmed and quoted him as saying the group was ready to confront Israel.The statement did not mention Thursday's airstrike and it was unclear if it was made before or after the attack.Atifi runs the Houthis' Missiles Brigade Group and is considered their leading missiles expert.Sources confirmed to Reuters that the energy, foreign and information ministers were among those killed.On Thursday, Israeli security sources had said the targets had been various locations where a large number of senior Houthi officials had gathered to watch a televised speech recorded by leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi.The Israeli military described the attack as a "complex operation" made possible by intelligence-gathering and air superiority."Our stance remains as it is and will remain until the aggression ends and the siege is lifted, no matter how great the challenges," Mashat said in a televised speech, adding that the group "shall take revenge."