I woke up Sunday morning, Dec. 3, 2023, to frantic texts from B, a college student I mentor in Gaza through We Are Not Numbers, an organization that helps young adult writers publish stories in English. I’m calling him “B” because Palestinians in Gaza fear retaliation from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) if they publicly … Read more
Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave JERUSALEM — Fighting intensified in southern Gaza Wednesday, further dashing hopes that a section of the enclave where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled in search of refuge would be spared the scale of combat that leveled much of northern Gaza. Israel Defense Forces said it … Read more
Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave JERUSALEM — Families in Israel, the occupied West Bank and around the world prepared to welcome home loved ones on the third day of a fragile humanitarian pause in Gaza that has seen Hamas exchange hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Among the hostages released by … Read more
Israeli forces on Saturday night claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans “hostage” in a hospital as human shields. The Israel Defense Forces said that Ahmed Siam, a leader in Hamas’s al-Furqan Brigade, had blocked civilians from evacuating the Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week. Israeli troops have been … Read more
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Thousands of Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centres of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) grabbing flour and “basic survival items”, the organisation said on Sunday. “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” … Read more
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — It was neither the place nor the time for a proper goodbye, said Omar Dirawi. Not here, in this dusty field strewn with dead people wrapped in blankets and zipped up in body bags. And not now, as Israeli airstrikes crashed around him for the third week, erasing more of … Read more
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council scheduled a Wednesday vote on a resolution that initially condemned “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas” on Israel as well as all violence against civilians, while calling for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver desperately needed aid to millions in Gaza. Negotiations on wording of the draft resolution sponsored by … Read more
Since the Israeli military issued an order last week for the 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to flee south, in an apparent prelude to its anticipated ground invasion, a mass exodus has ensued. While those with enough fuel have made the journey by car or truck, others have hitched rides on trailers and … Read more
Just before midnight on Thursday, Israel’s military ordered more than 1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to evacuate to the southern part of the enclave within the next 24 hours. The U.N. has called on Israel to withdraw the evacuation order and warned that this could lead to “devastating humanitarian consequences.” The announcement comes … Read more