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Israeli settlers hold conference on resettlement in Gaza
Reuters
Sun, January 28, 2024 







Convention calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hundreds of members of the Israeli settler community gathered for a convention in Jerusalem on Sunday calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza and the northern part of the Occupied West Bank.

Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it does not intend to maintain a permanent presence again, but that Israel would maintain security control for an indefinite period.

There has been little clarity, however, about Israel's longer-term intentions, and countries including the United States have said that Gaza should be governed by Palestinians.


The conference was organized by the right-wing Nahala organization, which advocates for Jewish settlement expansion in territories including the West Bank, where they are classified as illegal by international and humanitarian groups and where violent clashes between settlers and Palestinians are frequent.

The conference, titled "Settlement Brings Security," was not organized by the Israeli government, though its hard-right coalition has been criticized for supporting settlement expansion, a position seen as hindering a possible future two-sate solution with the Palestinians.

Israel's Channel 12 reported that 12 ministers from Netanyahu's Likud party, along with public security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich - both from far-right parties in the governing coalition - attended the conference.

Smotrich said that many of the children who were evacuated from settlements in Gaza had returned as soldiers to fight in a war with Hamas and that he stood against the government's decision to evacuate Jewish settlements from Gaza in the past.

"We knew what that would bring and we tried to prevent it," Smotrich said in a speech. "Without settlements there is no security."

The crowd roared with enthusiastic chants to rebuild Jewish communities in Gaza.

Ben Gvir said he had protested the evacuation of Jewish settlements from Gaza and warned it would bring "rockets upon Sderot" and "rockets upon Ashkelon" in southern Israel.

"We yelled and we warned," Ben Gvir said. "If don't want another October 7, we need to return home and control the land."

(Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by David Holmes)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hits out at hostages' families for helping Hamas, say reports

Rebecca Rommen
Sun, January 28, 2024


Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu criticized protests by the families of hostages in Gaza.


He said the protests were helping harden Hamas' demands, The Jerusalem Post reported.


Hamas took around 240 hostages during its October 7 attacks on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said protests organized by families of hostages in Gaza were helping Hamas, say reports.

Speaking at a Tel Aviv press conference on Saturday night, Netanyahu criticized the hostage families' protests.

"I understand that it is impossible to control one's emotions," he said. But, the hostages' protest movement "doesn't help" and only "hardens Hamas' demands and delays the results that we all want," The Jerusalem Post reported.

The hostages' families hit back in a statement, per The Jerusalem Post. it said the "Prime Minister should remember that he is an elected official whose job it is to correct the mistakes" — a reference to the security failings on October 7 and the terror attacks on Israel by Hamas — "not to scold those whose family members were kidnapped."

Netanyahu added that the goal of his government was to eliminate Hamas, and the war would not end until the mission was completed.

"There are people among us who doubt our capabilities, but they are a minority," he added, per a report by Anadolu Agency, the Turkish state news outlet.

He also said that investigations into Hamas' October 7 attacks "should be opened after the end of the war, not during its peak," per the report.

Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel, previously said the families of those taken captive in Gaza should have been silenced.

"When Israel declared war, the first thing that the government should have done was declare a state of national emergency and told all the hostages: 'You will keep your mouth shut or we will shut them for you,'" he said.

"If that means imprisoning to silence certain members of the hostage families, then so be it — we're in a state of war," he continued.

During a temporary ceasefire in November, Hamas released 105 hostages from Gaza.

A destroyed Israeli tank in Gaza City, Gaza on October 7, 2023.Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Palestinian militant group's October 7 attacks killed around 1,200 people in Israel, while about 240 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded to the attacks by bombarding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and launching a ground invasion of the territory.

Its strikes have destroyed more than 60% of the homes in Gaza and left the area "uninhabitable," according to a report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

UN experts also said that Gazans now make up 80% "of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide," per the report.

Gaza Health Ministry urges 7,000 wounded people to leave occupied Palestine

Adam Schrader
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Displaced Palestinians receive flour bags at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian fighters. Israel has alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding and the agency to fire several staff over the claims, in a row between Israel and UNRWA a day after the UN's International Court of Justice ruling. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPILess


Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Gaza Health Ministry on Sunday urged at least 7,000 wounded Palestinians to leave the occupied territory of Gaza for treatment as Israel's war continues in the wake of genocide allegations.

"We urgently need 7,000 injured and sick people to leave for treatment abroad to save their lives," the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement.

In an earlier statement Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said that the Nasser Medical Complex, besieged by Israeli occupation forces, has accumulated medical and non-medical waste "everywhere" inside and outside the facility.

Palestinian officials are also urging for the safe passage to transfer the wounded in need of neurosurgery to the nearby Jordanian Field Hospital.

In total, Israeli forces have killed 26,422 people in Gaza and injured 65,087 more since the violence between Israel and Hamas -- the governing entity of Gaza considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States -- escalated last year.

Displaced Palestinians receive flour bags at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian fighters. Israel has alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding and the agency to fire several staff over the claims, in a row between Israel and UNRWA a day after the UN's International Court of Justice ruling. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI.More

The families of 150 people killed were forced to bury their dead in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex on Sunday while the bodies of at least 30 unidentified people remain in a freezer in the hospital, which is estimated to run out of fuel for power within four days.

Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of the Kingdom of Jordan, said Sunday that the allegation that 12 people who worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees participated in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas should not justify intentionally starving people in Gaza - a consequence of nations including the United States pulling funding.

Displaced Palestinians receive bags of flour at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian fighters. Israel has alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding and the agency to fire several staff over the claims, in a row between Israel and UNRWA a day after the UN's International Court of Justice ruling. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI.Less

"UNRWA is the lifeline for over two million Palestinians facing starvation in Gaza. It shouldn't be collectively punished upon allegations against 12 persons out of its 13,000 staff," Safadi said. "UNRWA acted responsibly and began an investigation. We urge countries that suspended funds to reverse decision."

Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was shot and injured by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian state news agency WAFA. He was taken to a local hospital in the city of Salfit.

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 28, 2024. Amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian fighters, Israel has alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding and the agency to fire several staff over the claims, in a row between Israel and UNRWA a day after the UN's International Court of Justice ruling. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPILess