Researchers urge caution after Jordan tomb excavation and say new clues about Nabataean culture may lie elsewhere
For one of the most famous ancient sites on the planet, there is a surprising amount about the city of Petra – and the Nabataean people who built it – that we don’t know for sure.
What exactly were their origins? How did their society operate? And why did they hand-carve such spectacular monuments into the reddish rock of the Jordanian desert?
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At least 28 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, amid accusations Israel intends to forcibly expel the remaining population in a renewed ground campaign.
The bombing of Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya on Thursday killed 28, including doctors and several children, and injured dozens more, according to health officials, who warned the final toll was likely to be higher. Another 11 people were killed in two separate airstrikes in Gaza City, and it was unclear how many were killed in other strikes in central and southern Gaza.
Continue reading...Deputy leader says group’s conditions for a ceasefire will be maintained, as Israel shows no sign of accepting them
Hamas has acknowledged the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar but vowed to keep fighting, in the face of international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
“We are continuing Hamas’s path,” Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy said from exile in Qatar, adding that the slain leader’s conditions for a ceasefire would not be compromised.
Continue reading...Nine deaths in a week, including soldier’s killing of 59-year-old woman as she farmed, brings charges of ‘war-like’ tactics
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are facing an increase in Israeli settler attacks and Israeli army violence at the start of the important olive harvest season, the UN has said.
The international body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) accused Israel on Friday of using “war-like” tactics in the West Bank amid a rise in killings and settler attacks since the olive harvest got under way last week. Nine people were killed by Israeli forces between 8-14 October, OCHA said.
Continue reading...More than 60 deaths recorded in territory in past day as Israel launches more airstrikes and sends in more troops
Israel has launched new airstrikes and sent more troops into Gaza, dashing brief hopes among many residents of the territory that the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, could bring an end to the devastating conflict.
Sinwar, 62, was killed on Thursday by tank fire directed at a building in Rafah in the far south of Gaza after exchanging fire with an Israeli patrol.
Continue reading...Hamas leader’s discovery in Gaza camp may not have been a random twist of fate – his DNA was found in the area in September
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The Israeli soldiers who came across Yahya Sinwar and his two bodyguards were trainee squad commanders from an infantry school unit.
The fact it was a platoon from the infantry commanders and combat training school (Bislamach) that found the Hamas commander and mastermind of the 7 October attacks is all the more ironic in light of the year-long fruitless manhunt conducted by the cream of Israel’s special forces and intelligence units.
Continue reading...Hamas is seeking to frame death of its leader as a victory, but Islamist group’s 17-year hold in Gaza is gravely weakened
Hamas is seeking to frame the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza as a victory. It is emphasising how the 62-year-old veteran died on Thursday fighting on the frontline, armed and wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, and how the organisation has survived for 37 years despite the assassination by Israel of a series of its leaders.
In a statement, Bassem Naim, a Hamas spokesperson and member of the leadership council, acknowledged the pain and distress of losing “beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders like ours” but said the group was sure of eventual victory as “this is the outcome for all people who fought for their liberty”.
Continue reading...Regime is punishing families of Woman, Life, Freedom protesters who died at hands of security forces, say activists
The mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl who became one of the faces of the unprecedented nationwide protests against the regime has reportedly been arrested.
Nasrin Shakarami, the grieving mother of Nika Shakarami, who was allegedly killed by the security forces in September 2022, had been outspoken in her criticism of the regime over the death of her daughter.
Continue reading...Other leaders hail the death of the Hamas leader, saying there is opportunity for ceasefire and humanitarian aid
Kamala Harris has hailed the death of Yahya Sinwar as an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza and prepare for “the day after” when Hamas no longer dominates the territory.
The US vice-president and Democratic nominee said “justice has been served” with the death of the Hamas leader, adding that the US, Israel and the wider world were “better off as a result”.
Continue reading...The mastermind of the 7 October attack that triggered the current war in Gaza has been killed in a neighbourhood of Rafah
Israel has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in southern Gaza. Here is what we know so far:
Israel’s military said it had killed Sinwar, who is seen as the architect of the 7 October attack in Israel, in Gaza. In a statement, the IDF said: “After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.”
The statement came shortly after the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said Sinwar had been killed. “Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described Sinwar’s death as “the beginning of the end” but warned the “task before us is not yet complete”. In a press conference, Netanyahu said Israel will continue to work until the end of the war.
To the people of Israel, Netanyahu said that there are “a lot of challenges still facing us” and that “we have to remain resilient” and “stand firm on our ground and to continue to fight”. He added: “We will not stop the war. We will go into Rafah.”
The US president, Joe Biden said Israeli reports that Sinwar had been killed marked a “good day” for Israel, the US and the world and compared it to how Americans felt after Osama bin Laden’s death. Biden said in a statement that DNA tests confirmed Sinwar’s death. Biden reportedly spoke to Netanyahu and they agreed to work towards a deal to free the remaining hostages.
Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, said “justice has been served” after Sinwar’s death was announced. She said “this moment gives us an opportunity to end the war in Gaza” and stressed the need to end suffering in Gaza.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has commended the Israeli military, the Shin Bet intelligence agency, and the security services for the killing of Sinwar. In a post to X, Herzog described Sinwar as the “mastermind” behind the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel and for being “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians” for years. He added: “His evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East.”
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present at the site of the killing in the Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “three terrorists were eliminated”. Some in the defence establishment had believed that Sinwar was likely to have surrounded himself with human shields as he sought to evade Israeli troops.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has recently spoken with his US counterpart, defence secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a US official. The call came moments after Katz announced Sinwar was dead, the official said. According to CNN, Austin was passed a note about Sinwar’s death during a Nato meeting in Brussels earlier today.
Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies found at the site were found with large amounts of cash and fake IDs.
Continue reading...Death toll of at least 28 reportedly includes doctors and children at site IDF said was used by Islamic Jihad members
At least 28 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, amid accusations Israel intends to forcibly expel the remaining population in a renewed ground campaign.
The bombing of Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya on Thursday killed 28, including doctors and several children, and injured dozens more, according to health officials, who warned the final toll was likely to be higher. Another 11 people were killed in two separate airstrikes in Gaza City, and it was unclear how many were killed in other strikes in central and southern Gaza.
Continue reading...Netanyahu says death of mastermind of 7 October attack that triggered war in Gaza marks ‘beginning of the end’
Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed by Israeli forces, ending a year-long hunt for the mastermind of the 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, confirmed reports on Thursday in a message sent to counterparts around the world. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said almost immediately after Katz’s statement was reported by Israeli media that Sinwar had been “eliminated”.
Continue reading...Drawn into Islamist activism as a teenager, Sinwar spent 22 years in Israeli jails before return to frontline militancy
Within days of the 7 October attacks last year, Israeli investigators had identified Yahya Sinwar, then the military leader of Hamas in Gaza, as the mastermind. To their increasing astonishment, they learned that not only had Sinwar conceived of what he called Operation al-Aqsa Flood but he had planned and organised the assault almost alone.
Only a handful of close aides had been let in on the plans, some with only days to go before the attack, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 abducted, and which triggered an Israeli offensive that has so far killed 42,500 people, also mostly civilians, and left swaths of Gaza in ruins.
Continue reading...Israeli PM says 'task before us is not yet complete’; US president, VP and senior leaders say killing must be opportunity to end Gaza war
The US military has mobilised its long-range B-2 stealth bombers to conduct strikes against “five hardened underground weapons storage locations” in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The Pentagon said the facilities house various weapons components the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels, roiling commercial shipping in the Red Sea. “This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The US Central Command said its battle damage assessments from the strikes were under way and did not indicate civilian casualties. The early morning strikes marked the first the US has used the B-2 bomber to attack Houthis in Yemen, and according to Bloomberg, the first time since January 2017 the wing-shaped bomber has flown in a combat mission.
The mayor of one of the largest cities in Lebanon’s south has been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the city’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war. The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” the meeting.
UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon said an Israeli army tank fired at a Unifil watchtower in Kafer Kela, a village in south Lebanon, in what it described as a “direct and apparently deliberate” act. The incident is the latest in a string of violations that Unifil has blamed on the IDF, prompting international condemnation. The IDF denied it was targeting Unifil forces.
Syrian news agency SANA reported an Israeli airstrike hitting the coastal city of Latakia. The state media outlet reported “fires were triggered by the Israeli aggression” at the entrance to Latakia, a stronghold of president Bashar al-Assad. It also reported two injuries and damage to private properties.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon says, after Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken jointly penned a letter earlier this week calling on Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation.
The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the security council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France, UK and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”.
The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high”, the World Health Organization has warned, after a case of the acute and potentially deadly infection was detected in the conflict-hit country. The WHO highlighted the risk of cholera spreading among hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.
More than 500 Filipino migrant workers are expected to soon be repatriated from Lebanon, according to the Philippine government, amid warnings that workers who want to leave are facing resistance from their employers.
More than 500 Filipino migrant workers are expected to soon be repatriated from Lebanon, according to the Philippine government, amid warnings that workers who want to leave are facing resistance from their employers.
Migrante International, which represents Filipinos working abroad, warned last month that many workers wanted to leave Lebanon but were struggling with a slow repatriation process and problems with employers. Employers, who have paid large agency fees to hire workers, have been reluctant to support repatriation applications or hand over workers’ passports, the group warned. Filipino workers in Lebanon are mainly employed as domestic workers in Beirut.
Analysts suggest proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen fighting hidden conflict could be targets for Israel as it considers retaliation against Tehran
Iran-linked militias in Iraq have launched about 40 attacks involving missiles, drones or rockets on Israel in the past two and a half weeks, the latest escalation in a largely clandestine proxy battle fought across a swath of the Middle East.
The attacks began in October last year when the war in Gaza started, but data compiled by the Washington Institute, a US-based thinktank, shows a sharp increase in their pace after Israel killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on 27 September.
Continue reading...Mayor among 16 people killed when airstrike hit municipal building in Nabatieh in south of country
The mayor of one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon has been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit the city’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war.
The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, killed 16 people and wounded 52, the Lebanese health ministry said. Howaida Turk, the governor of Nabatieh province, said members of the provincial capital’s crisis committee were meeting at the time.
Continue reading...Images of Shaban al-Dalou, 19, being engulfed by flames have added to mounting outrage at Israeli conduct of war
The brother of a teenage Palestinian computing student who burned to death in a blaze sparked by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital compound has described how he tried to save his injured sibling as flames engulfed tents.
“I heard the sound of bombing, I looked out and saw very black smoke next to our tent,” said Mohammed al-Dalou, speaking to Reuters at the location of the strike in Deir al-Balah, where charred ground and twisted debris lay between still standing tents.
Continue reading...Pressure grows on Israel to allow in more aid, as UN ambassador says US ‘will be watching’ its actions on the ground
The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the security council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France UK and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”.
Continue reading...Migration to dominate summit as four people including two toddlers die after falling from crowded speedboat off Kos
A growing number of European leaders are expected to back calls for offshore immigration centres, as the EU casts around for tougher measures to stop asylum seekers reaching the bloc.
EU officials were preparing for intensive talks on migration at a leaders’ summit on Thursday, as it emerged that four people, including two toddlers, had died after falling overboard from an overcrowded speedboat off the Greek island of Kos.
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Aid has arrived in northern Gaza for the first time in two weeks, according to an update by Cogat, the Israeli body that oversees the Palestinian territories and coordinates with aid groups.
In a social media post shared on Wednesday morning, Cogat said that 145 humanitarian aid trucks, containing food, hygiene products, baby formula, and shelter equipment, had entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings.
A convoy of 28 trucks entered Gaza directly through Gate 96. The rotation coordination of humanitarian personnel has been successfully completed. 12 bakeries are operational in Gaza, 4 bakeries in northern Gaza, and 8 bakeries southern Gaza.”
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