Israel pounds Gaza City, shoots at ambulances trying to rescue wounded
Hamas urges global protests against Israel
The Gaza-based armed group has released a statement regarding the ongoing Israeli attack and siege of the coastal enclave.
Here are there translated comments:
We demand the activation of popular, student, and union pressure to open the crossings and allow the entry of medicine, water, food, and all relief aid.
We call on our nation and the free people of the world to continue the popular movement against aggression, genocide, and starvation in Gaza.
Let Saturday and Sunday be global marches of anger against the occupation and its supporters until the aggression stops and the crossings are opened.
We call for widespread action in solidarity with martyred journalists Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqea, and their colleagues, and against the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian press.
We stress the need to escalate popular movements globally, denouncing the Zionist aggression and American support, and rejecting international silence.
We call for participation in marches in front of the embassies of the Zionists, the Americans, and all countries supporting the occupation to expose the crimes of genocide and starvation.
How the world is reacting to Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank?
Israel’s announcement that it will illegally build thousands of homes in a highly controversial development in the occupied West Bank – in a move Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted “buries the idea of a Palestinian state” – has drawn widespread international condemnation.
Smotrich announced Thursday that he was pushing ahead with long-frozen plans for the E1 area settlement project that would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.
The planned settlement, which was shelved for years amid opposition from the United States and European allies, would comprise more than 3,400 homes for Israeli settlers on Palestinian-owned land that experts say is vital for any future territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Smotrich said the development was being revived as a response to plans by other countries to recognise a Palestinian state.
But the response from the rest of the world has been scathing, with governments describing the move as a blatant violation of international law that would fuel regional instability and leave the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict in tatters.
Read our story for an overview of the reactions so far here.
Vigil in Berlin honours slain Al Jazeera journalists
Journalists and political activists held a vigil in Berlin to honour Al Jazeera staff killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and to denounce Germany’s support of Israel’s military campaign in the enclave.
Participants displayed photographs of the slain journalists, placed white roses and lit candles beside the images. Organisers read the final testament of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and recited the names of all 270 journalists killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023.
Al-Sharif and colleague Mohammed Qreiqeh were killed Sunday, alongside three camera operators from the network and a local freelance reporter, when Israel struck a journalists’ tent near the al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
Speakers at the vigil condemned what they called Germany’s “unconditional support” for Israel, accusing Berlin of ignoring war crimes and human rights violations.
