Israeli military says it identified missile launched from Yemen towards Israel
Houthis have been firing at Israel and attacking shipping lanes, in what the group says is solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
Norway to review sovereign wealth fund's Israel investments
OSLO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Norway's government said on Tuesday it had ordered a review of its sovereign wealth fund portfolio to ensure that Israeli companies contributing to the occupation of the West Bank or the war in Gaza were excluded from investments. The review followed a report by the Aftenposten daily that said the $1.9 trillion fund had built a stake in 2023-24 in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets. The fund's investment in the Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL) ( opens new tab group is worrying, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK. "We must get clarification on this because reading about it makes me uneasy," Stoere said. BSEL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund, took a 1.3% stake in BSEL in 2023 and raised this to 2.09% by the end of 2024, holding shares worth $15.2 million, the latest available NBIM records show. In light of Aftenposten's story and the security situation in Gaza and the West Bank, the central bank will now conduct a review of NBIM's Israeli holdings, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen told NRK that BSEL had not appeared on any lists of recommended exclusions, such as by the United Nations or the fund's own ethics council. Norway's parliament in June rejected a proposal for the sovereign wealth fund to divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. The fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, held shares in 65 Israeli companies at the end of 2024, valued at $1.95 billion, its records show. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group in the last year, and its ethics council has said it is reviewing whether to recommend divesting holdings in five banks.
North Wales Chronicle
35 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Ex-Israeli security chiefs call for end to war as Netanyahu hints at new stage
On the ground in Gaza, health officials reported new deaths on Tuesday of Palestinians seeking food at distribution points. The Israeli defence body co-ordinating aid to Gaza announced a new deal with local merchants to improve aid deliveries as desperation mounts. The former security officials speaking out included those who led Israel's Shin Bet internal security service, Mossad spy agency and the Israeli military. In a roughly three-minute video posted to social media this week, they demanded an end to the war and said the far-right members of the government are holding the country 'hostage' in prolonging the conflict. 'This is leading the state of Israel to the loss of its security and its identity,' Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet, said in the footage. Yoram Cohen, former head of Shin Bet, called Mr Netanyahu's objectives 'a fantasy'. 'If anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon and in parallel bring our hostages home, I think it is impossible,' he said. Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, announced on Monday that he would convene his Security Cabinet in the coming days to direct the army on the next stage of the war, hinting that even tougher military action was an option in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu said he remained committed to achieving his war objectives, including defeating Hamas, releasing all hostages and ensuring Gaza never again threatens Israel. Israeli media said the meeting was expected on Tuesday, with disagreements between Mr Netanyahu and the army chief, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, on how to proceed. The reports, citing anonymous officials in Mr Netanyahu's office, said the prime minister was pushing the army, which already controls about three quarters of Gaza, to conquer the entire territory, a step that could endanger the hostages, deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally. Various reports have said Mr Zamir opposes this step and could step down or be pushed out if it is approved. Several hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since May while heading toward food distribution sites, airdropped parcels and aid convoys in Gaza, according to witnesses, local health officials and the United Nations human rights office. The Israeli military says it has fired only warning shots and disputes the toll. Local health officials said Israeli forces opened fire on Tuesday morning towards Palestinians seeking desperately needed aid and in targeted attacks in the central and southern Gaza Strip, killing at least 25 people. The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment. The dead include 19 people who were killed in southern Gaza, 12 of them seeking aid near the Morag corridor and in Teina area, some three kilometres (1.86 miles) from the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hub east of Khan Younis, according to the Nasser hospital and the Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. Elsewhere in central Gaza, Al-Awda hospital said it received the bodies of six Palestinians who were killed on Tuesday after Israeli troops targeted crowds near an aid distribution site run by the GHF. The GHF, however, said there were no incidents at their sites on Tuesday. The Israeli defence body in charge of co-ordinating aid to Gaza, called COGAT, wrote on X that there will be a 'gradual and controlled renewal of the entry of goods through the private sector in Gaza'. 'This aims to increase the volume of aid entering the Gaza Strip, while reducing reliance on aid collection by the UN and international organisations,' it said Tuesday. A limited number of local merchants were approved for the plan and will sell basic food products, baby food, fruit and vegetables, and hygiene supplies through bank transfers, COGAT said. Thousands of Palestinians crowded against aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the southern Morag corridor on Monday, attempting to get whatever food they could during a protracted food shortage across the enclave. Mohammed Qassas from Khan Younis in southern Gaza said his children are so hungry that he is forced to storm aid trucks. 'I have young children, how am I supposed to feed them? No one has mercy. This resembles the end of the world,' he said. 'If we fight, we get the food. If we don't fight, we don't get anything.' As the trucks drove away, men climbed onto them, scrambling for any remaining scraps. 'The conditions are very challenging and we are hoping for a system to be in place,' Mr Qassas said. 'Some people go home with some 200 kilogrammes (441 pounds), and others go home with only one kilogramme (35 ounces). It is a mafia-like system.' After relentless efforts to get food from the trucks, it has become a routine for men to be seen coming back carrying flour sacks on their back, as well as carrying wounded and dead bodies from near the aid sites. Yusif Abu Mor from Khan Younis said the trucks' aid system is akin to a death trap. 'This aid is stained with humiliation and blood,' he said, adding that aid seekers run the risk of being killed by shootings or run over by aid trucks surrounded by crowds of hungry Palestinians. Israel's blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible to deliver aid safely, contributing to the territory's slide towards famine nearly 22 months into the war with Hamas. Aid groups say Israel's week-old measures to allow more aid in are far from sufficient. Families of hostages in Gaza fear starvation affects them too, but blame Hamas. As international alarm has mounted, several countries have airdropped aid over Gaza. The UN and aid groups call such drops costly and dangerous for residents, and say they deliver far less aid than trucks.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Israel considers full Gaza takeover as more die of hunger
TEL AVIV/CAIRO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favours a complete military takeover of Gaza for the first time in two decades, media reported, and was to meet senior security officials on Tuesday to finalise a new strategy in the 22-month war. Mediation between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has collapsed despite intense international pressure for a ceasefire to ease hunger and appalling conditions in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Eight more people died of starvation or malnutrition in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said, while another 79 died in the latest Israeli fire. Netanyahu was to meet Defence Minister Israel Katz and military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to decide on a strategy to take to cabinet later this week, an Israeli official told Reuters. Strategic Affairs Minister Rob Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu, would also be present. Israel's Channel 12, citing an official from Netanyahu's office, said the prime minister was leaning towards taking control of the entire territory. That would reverse a 2005 decision to pull settlers and military out of Gaza while retaining control over its borders, a move right-wing parties blame for Hamas gaining power there. It was unclear, however, whether Netanyahu was foreseeing a prolonged occupation or a short-term operation aimed at dismantling Hamas and freeing Israeli hostages. The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Channel 12 report. A Palestinian official said it may be a tactic to pressure Hamas into concessions, while the Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged foreign nations to take heed of the reports. "The ministry urges countries and the international community to treat these leaks with utmost seriousness and to intervene urgently to prevent their implementation, whether these leaks are meant to exert pressure, test international reactions, or are genuine and serious," it said. Israel's coalition government, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in its history, includes far-right politicians who advocate for the annexation of both Gaza and the West Bank and encourage Palestinians to leave their homeland. Nearly two years of fighting in Gaza has strained the military, which has a small standing army and has had to repeatedly mobilise reservists. It has throughout the war pushed back against the idea of Israel fully occupying Gaza and establishing military rule. In a sign of differences between some members of Israel's ruling coalition and the military, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on X challenged military head Zamir to state he would comply with government directives even if a decision was made to take all of Gaza. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar then said the military chief must give his professional opinion, while Defence Minister Katz weighed in to say the military would professionally implement whatever policy the government set. "Defeating Hamas in Gaza, while creating the conditions for the return of the hostages, are the central goals of the war in Gaza, and we must take all necessary actions to achieve them," Katz said. The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023, attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing 251 hostages, taking them into Gaza. Israel's military response has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, killing more than 61,000 people - mostly civilians - according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel's campaign has forced nearly all of Gaza's over 2 million people from their homes and caused what a global hunger monitor called last week an unfolding famine. Some 188 Palestinians, including 94 children, have died from hunger since the war began, according to Gaza authorities. An Israeli security official, in a briefing to reporters, acknowledged there may be hunger in some parts of Gaza but rejected reports of famine or starvation. International anger at the suffering in Gaza has prompted several countries to recognise or announce their intention to recognise Palestine as an independent state. On Tuesday, Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza but it was not clear if the move was part of a larger ground offensive. Palestinians living in the last quarter of territory where Israel has not yet taken military control - via ground incursions or orders for civilians to leave - said any new push would be catastrophic. "If the tanks pushed through, where would we go, into the sea? This will be like a death sentence to the entire population," said Abu Jehad, a Gaza wood merchant. The failed mediation in Doha had aimed to clinch agreements on a U.S.-backed proposal for a 60-day truce, during which aid would be flown into Gaza and half of the hostages Hamas is holding would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
