Israel orders Rafah evacuations amid renewed military offensive against Hamas
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month.
The Israeli military indicated on Monday it could soon launch another major offensive in Rafah and ordered most of the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip evacuated.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement.
Also read: Hamas says it accepts new Gaza ceasefire proposal, Israel makes ‘counter-offer’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a new domestic security chief, after he moved to fire the current one over a crisis of confidence that critics say was politically motivated.
Funeral held for 8 Palestinian paramedics killed by Israel
Dozens of people gathered Monday as the bodies of eight Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics killed by Israel arrived at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. Grieving family members and mourners bid them a final farewell, many overcome with tears.
Saleh Muammar’s mother Asmahan said she waited for days to hear from her son, and was later told he was either killed or wounded. The first responders' bodies were pulled from beneath a mound of sand on Sunday after they'd been missing for over a week.
“The fact is that they (Israel) killed them from the very first moment,” she told The Associated Press, adding that she believes the Israeli military buried the bodies to “cover their awful actions so that no one knows what the Israelis are doing.”
Israel has said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.
Funeral prayers for the eight paramedics were held outside the hospital, their corpses wrapped in white body bags with their pictures on them, before they were loaded to ambulances to be taken for a dignified burial.
Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said the paramedics were “killed in cold blood” despite wearing uniforms and operating in clearly labeled ambulances.
3 suspects arrested in Lebanon over rocket attacks on Israel
Lebanese security officials said they have arrested two Lebanese and one Syrian in connection with rocket attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel.
At least eight rockets were launched into Israel on March 22 and 28. The militant group Hezbollah denied involvement, and no group claimed responsibility. In response, Israel carried out strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut’s southern suburbs. They were first strikes there since ae ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hezbollah in late November.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Also read: Inside Israel’s Military Operation in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Netanyahu's Likud Party slams arrest of a top aide to the prime minister
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has slammed the arrest of a top aide to the Israeli leader, saying it is part of a civil servant-driven effort to topple Netanyahu’s rule.
The Likud named the adviser arrested as Jonatan Urich, a longtime aide to Netanyahu. It said in a statement that his arrest was “a new low in the political witch hunt” against the Israeli leader.
Police said earlier Monday it had arrested two suspects in connection with an investigation looking into ties between the Gulf state of Qatar and people in Netanyahu’s close orbit.
