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Israeli Military Says It Has Begun New Ground Operation in Gaza

A Palestinian man reads one of the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army ordering the residents to leave, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
A Palestinian man reads one of the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army ordering the residents to leave, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
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Israeli Military Says It Has Begun New Ground Operation in Gaza

A Palestinian man reads one of the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army ordering the residents to leave, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
A Palestinian man reads one of the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army ordering the residents to leave, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local health workers.

The renewed ground operations come a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict, shattering a ceasefire that has largely held since January.

The Israeli military said its operations have extended Israel's control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a "focused" maneuver aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave.

The United Nations said an Israeli airstrike had killed a foreign staffer and wounded five workers at the site of a UN headquarters in central Gaza City on Wednesday. But Israel denied this, saying it had hit a Hamas site, where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN office for Project Services, said: "Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place."

Israel, which has vowed to eradicate Hamas, said its latest onslaught was "just the beginning".

TRADING BLAME

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza's 2.3 million residents after 17 months of war that has reduced the enclave to rubble and forced most of its population to evacuate multiple times.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 49,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water.

Israel has accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombings.

The war - the most devastating episode in decades of Israel-Palestinian conflict - was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which gunmen killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to resume bombardments has triggered protests in Israel as 59 hostages are still held in Gaza, with 24 of them believed to be still alive.

A coalition of hostage families and protesters against Netanyahu's moves against the judiciary and other parts of the security establishment has regrouped and accuses the prime minister of using the war for political ends.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, once again ordering residents to evacuate their homes.

Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a video statement warning Gaza residents that evacuation from combat zones would begin shortly.

'FORCE YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN'

He said airstrikes were "only the first step" and if the hostages were not released, "Israel will act with force you have not yet seen".

The renewed violence was condemned by Western nations, including France and Germany, as well as Qatar and Egypt which had been acting as mediators in the ceasefire negotiations.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday she told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar that the situation in Gaza is "unacceptable".

Jordan's King Abdullah called for the ceasefire to be restored and for aid flows to resume.

"Israel's resumption of attacks on Gaza is an extremely dangerous step that adds further devastation to an already dire humanitarian situation," he said on a visit to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

However, Dorothy Shea, acting US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday the blame for the resumption of hostilities "lies solely with Hamas".

In Wednesday's violence, three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, while another airstrike left two men dead and wounded six others in Beit Hanoun town in the north, the Gaza health officials said.

Palestinian medics said Israeli tank shelling on the Salahdeen Road killed one Palestinian and wounded others, while an Israeli airstrike killed three people in a house in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave. 

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Arab World

More Than Half of Sudan Needs Humanitarian Aid, Says NGO Chief

FILE PHOTO: Displaced Sudanese gather after fleeing El-Fasher city in Darfur, in Tawila, Sudan, October 29, 2025, in this still image taken from a Reuters' video. REUTERS/Mohamed Jamal/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Sudanese gather after fleeing El-Fasher city in Darfur, in Tawila, Sudan, October 29, 2025, in this still image taken from a Reuters' video. REUTERS/Mohamed Jamal/File Photo
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More Than Half of Sudan Needs Humanitarian Aid, Says NGO Chief

FILE PHOTO: Displaced Sudanese gather after fleeing El-Fasher city in Darfur, in Tawila, Sudan, October 29, 2025, in this still image taken from a Reuters' video. REUTERS/Mohamed Jamal/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Sudanese gather after fleeing El-Fasher city in Darfur, in Tawila, Sudan, October 29, 2025, in this still image taken from a Reuters' video. REUTERS/Mohamed Jamal/File Photo

More than half of Sudan's population is in need of humanitarian aid, the head of the Danish Refugee Council told AFP, as fighting ravages the northeast African nation.

Since breaking out in April 2023, the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"We see a situation where more than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. That is half of the population of Sudan," Danish Refugee Council Secretary General Charlotte Slente told AFP by phone this week after a visit to a border region in neighboring Chad.

"The suffering we see is unimaginable."

Sudan had a population of around 50 million people in 2024, according to the World Bank.

The aid official's comments came after a field visit to an area in Chad that borders Sudan's western Darfur region, which has seen fierce fighting of late.

Violence has escalated dramatically in recent weeks, with the RSF seizing control of the key town of El-Fasher -- the army's last stronghold in Darfur -- after an 18-month siege and reports of atrocities multiplying.

"There are violations that cross all international humanitarian laws," she added.

Slente said the NGO had seen evidence of mass killings and sexual violence in Sudan.

"We see detentions, we see abductions, forced displacement and torture," she said.

She accused the international community of not doing enough.

"Statements have a very limited impact both on the ongoing humanitarian needs on the ground, and they have not been able to stop the violence," she said.

She warned that there were other cities still under siege that were not receiving the same level of attention.

The town of Babanusa, the last army stronghold in West Kordofan state, has been under siege for several months, as have North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and South Kordofan's Kadugli and Dilling.

"The international community must stop managing the consequences of this conflict and must start preventing the atrocities," said Slente.

Arab World

Iraq Tribal Clashes Kill Eight

Iraq's tribes have once again become one of the most powerful actors in the rural and oil-rich south. (AFP)
Iraq's tribes have once again become one of the most powerful actors in the rural and oil-rich south. (AFP)
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Iraq Tribal Clashes Kill Eight

Iraq's tribes have once again become one of the most powerful actors in the rural and oil-rich south. (AFP)
Iraq's tribes have once again become one of the most powerful actors in the rural and oil-rich south. (AFP)

Tribal clashes over agricultural land in central Iraq have killed eight people and injured another nine, a security official in Wasit province told AFP on Saturday.

The dispute broke out early in the morning in the village of Kheshan between members of a Bedouin tribe, the official said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, AFP reported.

"Eight people were killed and another nine injured," the official said, adding they were all involved in the fighting.

Security forces have surrounded the area, though skirmishes have not yet ceased.

Tribal feuds are common in Iraq, a war-scarred country awash with weapons where petty rows can turn into deadly clashes.

Tribes wield significant influence and often operate under their own moral and judicial codes, and they possess huge caches of arms.

Iraq has only recently begun to regain a sense of stability after decades of violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted long-time ruler Saddam Hussein. 

Arab World

UN Security Council Calls for End to Houthi Attacks

Armed tribesmen participate in an anti-Israel gathering mobilizing more fighters, in Sanaa, Yemen, 05 November 2025. (EPA)
Armed tribesmen participate in an anti-Israel gathering mobilizing more fighters, in Sanaa, Yemen, 05 November 2025. (EPA)
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UN Security Council Calls for End to Houthi Attacks

Armed tribesmen participate in an anti-Israel gathering mobilizing more fighters, in Sanaa, Yemen, 05 November 2025. (EPA)
Armed tribesmen participate in an anti-Israel gathering mobilizing more fighters, in Sanaa, Yemen, 05 November 2025. (EPA)

The UN Security Council on Friday called for an end to cross-border and maritime attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants and urged member states to beef up efforts to implement an arms embargo against them.

In a resolution renewing sanctions against the militants, the Council condemned the attacks and demanded an end to all such actions, "including those against infrastructure and civilian targets."

The text was adopted in a 13-0 vote, with permanent members China and Russia abstaining.

Targeted sanctions were extended until November 14, 2026, including a freezing of assets and travel bans currently in place against about 10 people, most of them high-ranking Houthi officials and the militia as a whole.

The text says that sanctions could now affect those who launch cross-border attacks from Yemeni territory using ballistic and cruise missile technology, or attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

Member states were asked to "increase efforts to combat the smuggling of weapons and components via land and sea routes, to ensure implementation of the targeted arms embargo."

The Houthis, who hail from Yemen's rugged north, have controlled large swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, for more than a decade.

The militants have frequently launched attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea.

The UN text called on the panel of experts tasked with monitoring the application of the embargo to present a report to the Council by mid-April with recommendations on the sale and transfer to Yemen of "dual-use components and precursor chemicals" that could fall into Houthi hands.

Council members also want the report to offer advice on improving information sharing on vessels suspected of carrying arms in violation of existing sanctions.

"The resolution will support the council's ability to monitor and therefore deter violations of the arms embargo," Britain's interim UN envoy James Kariuki said.

But several member states, notably the United States and France, lamented that the Council had not gone farther.

"We regret that the text adopted was not more ambitious and does not reflect the deterioration of the situation in Yemen over the past year," said France's deputy envoy Jay Dharmadhikari.

But veto-wielding China and Russia kept the council from further strengthening the sanctions.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, the Houthis have increased the number of missile and drone attacks on Israeli soil and on ships in the Red Sea, claiming those actions were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.