Hamas charter, writings, teachings reveal 'genocidal intent to destroy, dehumanise Israeli people'
08/07/2025
Israeli report accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7
Middle East
08/07/2025
Following decades in Iran, 'there's nothing left' for millions of Afghan migrants in Afghanistan
Middle East
07/07/2025
Iran: Concern grows as French teenager disappears during trip
Middle East
07/07/2025
White House visit: 'For Netanyahu the issue is mostly about domestic politics, not Israeli security'
Middle East
07/07/2025
'Netanyahu wants to perpetuate status quo: No agreement, no political framework, no Gaza withdrawal'
Middle East
06/07/2025
Israel and Hamas delegations resume truce talks over Gaza in Doha
Middle East
06/07/2025
Gaza ceasefire talks: Netanyahu confirms delegation will travel to Qatar
Middle East
06/07/2025
Hezbollah is considering giving up more weapons
Middle East
06/07/2025
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: Two US staff members wounded in attack
Middle East
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France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
UN says hundreds killed in recent weeks while seeking aid in Gaza
Friday's reported violence came as negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he hoped a deal for a 60-day pause in the war could be struck in the coming days, and that he would then be ready to negotiate a more permanent end to hostilities. Hamas has said the free flow of aid is a main sticking point in the talks, with Gaza's more than two million residents facing a dire humanitarian crisis of hunger and disease amid the grinding conflict. Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new US- and Israel-backed organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory's vast UN-led aid delivery network. There are frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people seeking aid, with Gaza's civil defence agency saying 10 Palestinians were killed Friday while waiting at a distribution point near the southern city of Rafah. 'Unacceptable' The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 "in the vicinity of the GHF sites". "Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's deaths, but has previously accused militants of firing at civilians in the vicinity of aid centres. Asked about the UN figures, the military said it had worked to minimise "possible friction" between aid seekers and soldiers, and that it conducted "thorough examinations" of incidents in which "harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported". "Instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned," it added in a statement. GHF called the UN report "false and misleading", claiming that "most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys". Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP that Israeli forces killed 45 people overall in the territory on Friday. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties. Truce talks In Gaza's south, a witness said Israeli tanks were seen near Khan Yunis, reporting "intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling, and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land". Israel's military said troops were operating in the area against "terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground". Hamas has said that as part of a potential truce deal it was willing to release 10 of the hostages taken during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war. Netanyahu, who is under pressure to end the war after mounting military losses, said that would leave 10 living hostages still in captivity. "I hope we can complete it in a few days," he said of the initial ceasefire agreement and hostage release in an interview with US outlet Newsmax. "We'll probably have a 60-day ceasefire, get the first batch out, then use the 60-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to this." Netanyahu has said that a key condition of any deal is that Hamas first gives up its weapons and its hold on Gaza, warning that failure to do so on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict. Another issue holding up a deal is disagreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said. The group's 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. At least 57,823 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
LeMonde
7 hours ago
- LeMonde
Iran's attack on Qatar air base hit geodesic dome used for US communications, satellite photos show
An Iranian attack on an air base in Qatar that's key to the US military hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analyzed on Friday, July 11 show. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledged that an Iranian ballistic missile had hit the dome. Qatar did not respond to requests for comment about the damage. The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar's capital, on June 23 came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran − and provided the Islamic Republic a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war. The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage − likely because the US evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command, before the attack. Trump also has said that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East, but otherwise didn't tip over into the regional war long feared by analysts. Images show burn marks, dome gone after attack Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show the geodesic dome visible at the Al Udeid Air Base on the morning of June 23, just hours before the attack. The US Air Force's 379 th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates out of the base, announced in 2016 the installation of the $15 million piece of equipment, known as a modernized enterprise terminal. Photos show a satellite dish inside of the dome, known as a radome. Images taken June 25 and every day subsequently show the dome is gone, with some damage visible on a nearby building. The rest of the base appears largely untouched in the images. In a statement, Parnell said the missile strike "did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base. Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region." The London-based satellite news channel Iran International first reported on the damage, citing satellite photos taken by a different provider. Trump downplayed attack while Iran boasted about it In the US, Trump described the Iranian attack as a "very weak response." He had said that Tehran fired 14 missiles, with 13 intercepted and one being "set free" as it was going in a "nonthreatening" direction. "I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured," he wrote on Truth Social. The White House had no immediate comment after Parnell's acknowledgment Friday. Trump visited Al Udeid Air Base on May 15 as part of his Mideast tour . After the attack, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted that the air base had been the "target of a destructive and powerful missile attack." Iran's Supreme National Security Council also said that the base had been "smashed," without offering any specific damage assessments. Potentially signaling that he knew the dome had been hit, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei separately said that the base's communications had been disconnected by the attack. "All equipment of the base was completely destroyed and now the US command stream and connection from Al Udeid base to its other military bases have been completely cut," said Ahmad Alamolhoda, a hard-line cleric.
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
PKK militants want to enter Turkish politics: top commander
Speaking to AFP after handing in her own weapon alongside 29 of her comrades, the Kurdistan Workers' Party's top female commander Bese Hozat said if Turkey were willing, the disarmament process could be completed very quickly. But the 47-year-old militant also warned the fragile peace process risked being derailed if Ankara fails to free the PKK's jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, also known as 'Apo' -- Kurdish for 'uncle'. "If Apo were freed tomorrow and... Turkey made legal and constitutional arrangements the next day, within a week we could return to engage in democratic politics," she said of a process which Ankara expects to last for months. Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali near Istanbul since 1999 and his release has been a constant demand of the PKK. - 'We miss him very much' - "Ensuring leader Apo's physical freedom legally, via legal guarantees, is essential... he should be able to freely lead and manage this process. This is our primary condition and demand," she said. "We want to see him, we miss him very much and there are many things we want to discuss with him," said Hozat, who joined the PKK when she was 16 and has spent more than three decades of her life as a fighter. "Without this development, it is highly unlikely that the process will continue successfully." Earlier this week, the 76-year-old dismissed talk of his own release as unimportant, positioning himself more as a guide than as a leader of the ongoing process. Hozat said it was essential Turkey put in place mechanisms to allow them to return without fear of prosecution or reprisal. "We do not want to wage armed struggle against Turkey, we want to come to Turkey and do democratic politics. In order for us... to achieve democratic integration with Turkey, it is imperative we can freely travel to Turkey," she said. "If Turkey takes concrete steps, enacts laws and implements radical legal reforms... we will go to Turkey and engage in politics. If (not)... we will end up either in prison or being killed." 'The PKK no longer exists' Asked whether she now expected Turkey and its Western allies to remove the PKK from their blacklists of terrorist organisations, Hozat said the issue was irrelevant. "Right now, the PKK no longer exists, we've dissolved it. We are a freedom movement.. advocating for peace and a democratic society. "The PKK has achieved its main goal: the existence of the Kurds has been recognised." Seen as the world's largest stateless people, the Kurds were left without a country when the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I. Although most live in Turkey, where they make up around a fifth of the population, the Kurds are also spread across Iraq, Iran and Syria, where Ankara has for years been striking Kurdish fighters. Hozat hailed positive changes in Syria since the PKK announced the end of its armed struggle against Turkey. "Turkish attacks on (Kurdish-majority) northeastern Syria have ceased and its autonomous administration is currently negotiating" with the Damascus government. Hozat said the Kurdish question was the key to freedom for all peoples of the Middle East. "If the Kurdish question is resolved, the Middle East can truly become a democracy," she said. "That's why we want this solution everywhere, including Iran, which must also become democratic. The Kurdish question must also be resolved there on the basis of autonomy." © 2025 AFP
