Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scheduled a meeting with security officials to discuss a possible expansion of Israel's military operation in Gaza after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month.
The meeting could result in an order for for the first time since Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers two decades ago. would be aimed at boosting Israel's security, but is fraught with humanitarian and diplomatic risks.
The meeting was scheduled for Thursday evening, but it is not clear if it will lead to any immediate decision.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in an Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They still hold 50 hostages, around 20 of them believed to be alive. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than , according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Here’s the latest:
The Israeli airline's Paris office is vandalized with graffiti
red paint on the Paris office of El Al, the Israeli airline.
El Al said the offices were unoccupied at the time of the vandalism, which was discovered Thursday morning, and no one was harmed.
Red paint and the words “El Al genocide airline†were sprayed across the glass doors and walls of the airline’s office.
El Al called the incident “deeply disturbing.†It occurred as tensions are running high between France and Israel over France’s decision
Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called an antisemitic attack and urged the French government to ensure the safety of El Al staff and offices and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Indonesia offers help to Palestinians
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, is preparing Galang, an uninhabited island on the northwest side of the country, to treat around 1,000 wounded people from the Gaza Strip.
The announcement was made Thursday by Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like other Indonesians uses one name only.
Indonesia's a plan to temporarily house and treat wounded Palestinians, particularly women and children. The country's top clerics have criticized the plan due to a lack of guarantees that evacuated Gazans would be able to return home, something they worry could partly enable the depopulation of Gaza.
Wounded Palestinians would be taken to a medical facility where COVID-19 patients and Vietnamese refugees have been treated in the past. Thursday’s announcement marks the first time the location was named, but no other details were given.
The relatives of hostages protest
Almost two dozen relatives of hostages being held in Gaza set sail from southern Israel on Thursday towards the maritime border with Gaza, where they broadcast messages of protest from loudspeakers.
The families denounced Netanyahu’s reported plan to expand military operations. Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his government and to prevent it from collapsing.
“Netanyahu is working only for himself,†he said, pleading with the international community to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war and save his son.
More death in Gaza
At least 29 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 12 of the fatalities were from people attempting to access aid near a distribution site run by a U.S. and Israeli-backed private contractor. At least 50 people were wounded, many from gunshots, the hospital said.
Neither the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation nor the Israeli military, which helps secure the group’s sites, immediately commented on the strikes or shootings. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating in densely populated civilian areas.
Palestinians receive body of a slain activist and mourn him
Israeli authorities returned the body of a Palestinian activist allegedly killed by an Israeli settler last week, after female Bedouin relatives to protest the authority’s decision to hold his body in custody. The hunger strike was a rare public call from Bedouin women who traditionally mourn in private.
Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video last month. Israeli authorities said they would if the family agrees to certain conditions that would “prevent public disorder.†Despite dropping some of their demands, family members said Israel set up checkpoints and prevented many mourners from outside the village from attending.
