Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant officially stepped down Friday in a ceremony that replaced him with Israel Katz, the former foreign minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this week.
Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s dismissal, with the news setting off mass protests across the country. Many in Israel view Gallant as the sole moderate voice in a far-right government, and see his removal as a sign that the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu has lost interest in returning hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.
Also Friday, the Israeli military body handling aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it is preparing to open a new aid crossing into Gaza as the deadline for a U.S. deadline to increase desperately-needed aid into the war-ravaged territory approaches. But the body did not say when the crossing will open nor if aid will be delivered to north of Gaza, where the UN and aid groups say the humanitarian situation is most dire.
The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel’s monthlong offensive in northern Gaza is preventing the estimated 75,000 to 95,000 Palestinians in the north from receiving essential items for their survival.
On Thursday, the Israeli military says it will allow 300 truckloads of humanitarian aid supplied by the United Arab Emirates to enter the Gaza Strip in the coming days. That’s less than the 350 trucks per day that the United States said it wants to see enter the war-ravaged territory.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,100 people have been killed and some 13,800 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry reported.
Here’s the latest:
UNITED NATIONS — Hunger experts say there is “a strong likelihood” that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza where Israeli forces are conducting a major offensive.
An alert issued Friday by the experts calls the humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip “extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating.”
The Famine Review Committee said all actors in the war in Gaza must take immediate action “within days not weeks … to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation.”
It stressed that this includes not only combatants but those who have influence on them.
The alert follows an Oct. 17 report from the committee that said Palestinians in the entire territory face acute food insecurity. That’s the emergency level, Phase 4, on the five-level classification system for hunger. Phase 5 is Catastrophe-Famine.
Friday’s alert pointed to recent significant developments, including the impact of Israel’s designation of northern Gaza as a combat zone and orders for the entire population to evacuate,;a lower level of aid shipments than at any time since October 2023; and food access reaching “critical levels and deteriorating.”
The committee is part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which comprises 15 U.N. and other organizations that monitor global hunger and food security.
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon says Israeli forces deliberately destroyed some of its property in violation of international law.
The force, known as UNIFIL, is in southern Lebanon to monitor the border between Israel and Lebanon.
UNIFL said in a statement Friday that the Israeli military used two excavators and a bulldozer to destroy part of a fence and a concrete structure at the peacekeeping mission’s position in Ras Naqoura on Thursday. UNIFL said that in response to its “urgent protest,” the Israeli Defense Forces denied any activity was taking place inside the UNIFIL position.
UNIFIL also said the Israeli military this week destroyed and removed two blue barrels that mark the border.
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