Israel-Gaza conflict

","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Caitlin Dickson"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}},{"@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Israel-Hamas war - live: Key updates from the region as death toll rises","datePublished":"2023-10-12T19:00:49.000Z","articleBody":"

Israeli military: 6,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza

\n Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Thursday, Oct.

12, 2023. (Hatem Moussa/AP)

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli military says it has dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in retaliation of the brutal attacks by Hamas. Palestinian residents in the northern region of the Gaza Strip in the city of Beit Lahiya said Israeli planes dropped flyers that warned them to evacuate their homes to head to "known shelter," the Associated Press reported [1]. "Anyone who is near Hamas terrorists will put their lives in danger," the flyers said. "Adhering to IDF instructions will prevent you from being exposed to danger." But shelters in the area aren't safe from airstrikes as the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has seen 10 of its shelters hit since the start of the war.

Israel has amassed troops on the border with Gaza, indicating that a ground incursion could be imminent. The UN warned that the situation in Gaza is "dire" as food and water are running out and more than 338,000 Palestinians have been displaced.

","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Murphy"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}},{"@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Israel-Hamas war - live: Key updates from the region as death toll rises","datePublished":"2023-10-12T18:55:54.000Z","articleBody":"

Twin babies found alive after parents killed in Hamas attack

CBS News reports: [2] "An Israeli kibbutz just miles from the Gaza Strip was the scene of a 'massacre' on Saturday when Hamas terrorists attacked.

Amid what officials described as a 'haunting' scene, they also uncovered that twin babies less than a year old had miraculously survived -- because their young parents hid them just before being murdered by the militants. ... Among those killed there Saturday were Itai and Hadar Berdichevsky, both 30 years old, according to the Israeli Embassy in France.

But in one final act before they were killed, they managed to spare the lives of their 10-month-old twins."

12 U.N. workers killed

At least 12 workers for the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRAW have died in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, the agency said.

","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nicole Darrah"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}},{"@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Israel-Hamas war - live: Key updates from the region as death toll rises","datePublished":"2023-10-12T18:32:05.000Z","articleBody":"

U.S., Qatar agree not to release £6 billion to Iran: reports

The U.S. and Qatar have agreed not to release the £6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that was unfrozen last month as part of a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran, according to multiple news outlets.

CBS News reported [3] that Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats on Thursday of a \"quiet understanding\" that was reached with Qatar. NBC reported [4] it was unclear how long the U.S. and Qatar agreed to block the funds.

As part of the prisoner swap, the Biden administration granted five Iranians clemency in exchange for the freedom of five wrongfully detained Americans. Part of the deal included releasing £6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that was frozen in South Korea. It was unfrozen and the money was transferred to a bank in Qatar.

Nournews, a state-linked Iranian news outlet, reported [5] on Thursday that Tehran had full access to the £6 billion. \"There has been no change in Iran's access to its foreign funds in Qatari banks, and the existing agreement remains in effect,\" the website said.The deal with Iran drew criticism both then and now, with the White House pushing back on claims [6] this week that the deal helped fuel Hamas's attack on Israel.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said last weekend: \"Let's be clear: the deal to bring U.S. citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel.

Not a penny has been spent.\"

The U.S. is arranging flights to evacuate Americans who want to leave Israel

The U.S. government is arranging charter flights to help evacuate Americans who want to leave Israel, as the country plans to ramp up retaliatory action against Hamas following deadly attacks on Israeli civilians by the Islamist militant group over the weekend. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the flights are expected to begin on Friday. According to the Associated Press [7], there will be at least four charter flights per day leaving Israel.

Reuters [8]also reported Thursday that the State Department is making arrangements to transport Americans who want to leave Israel by either air or sea to Europe, where they would then be expected to arrange their own lodging and further travel to the U.S. or other final destination.

The news of the charter flights follows a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken by 146 lawmakers earlier this week, urging the State Department to \"use all tools at its disposal to help get Americans out of Israel and back home to the United States.\"","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Caitlin Dickson"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}},{"@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Israel-Hamas war - live: Key updates from the region as death toll rises","datePublished":"2023-10-12T17:42:38.000Z","articleBody":"

Blinken to meet with Abbas in Jordan

\nU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference, Oct.

12, 2023, in Tel Aviv. (Jacquelyn Martin, pool/AP)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a Thursday neews conference in Tel Aviv that from Israel, he will travel to Jordan, where he'll meet with His Majesty King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In the coming days, he'll also travel to visit with leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt.

Germany cracks down on Hamas support

\nChancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a government statement on the situation in Israel during the plenary session in the German Bundestag in Berlin on Thursday. (Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images)

He told lawmakers on Thursday there would be \"zero tolerance\" for antisemitism and said law enforcement would hold people accountable \"with all the means that our defensible constitutional state offers.\"

\"These means expressly include bans on associations and activities. The Federal Ministry of the Interior will issue a ban on Hamas activities in Germany,\" Scholz added. \"At this moment, there is only one place for Germany -- the place at Israel's side," he said. "Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.\"

\nPolice officers bring a pro-Palestinian demonstrator into a police van as they evacuate a small demonstration in support of Palestinians, at Richardplatz, Neukoelln, Berlin on Wednesday. (John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images)","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nicole Darrah"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}},{"@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Israel-Hamas war - live: Key updates from the region as death toll rises","datePublished":"2023-10-12T17:07:05.000Z","articleBody":"

'No one should have to endure what they're going through': Blinken says of families of Americans missing

\nAbbey Onn, who has five family members who were taken hostage by Hamas, speaks to the media on Thursday, Oct.

12, 2023. (Screenshot via Reuters video)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a Thursday news conference that he met with families of American citizens who Hamas has killed or taken hostage. \"The enormity of their anguish, their loss, is immeasurable,\" Blinken said. \"For the families of the missing, there is an unrelenting agony not knowing the fate of their loved ones. ... No one should have to endure what they're going through.\" At least 27 U.S. citizens have been killed following Hamas's attack on Israel.

According to the White House, 14 Americans were unaccounted for as of Thursday. Two relatives of American citizens missing or held hostage spoke to the media after meeting with Blinken. One of them was Abbey Onn, who has five family members who were taken hostage by Hamas.

When asked by a reporter if she was satisfied by the U.S.'s recovery efforts she replied, \"Absolutely.\" The other relative who spoke to the media was Rachel Goldberg, whose 23-year-old son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was hiding in a bomb shelter at the Israeli music festival when Hamas attacked. Goldberg said that according to three witnesses, Hersh's arm was blown off and he was taken in a pickup truck toward the Gaza border.

The last texts Goldberg received from her son early Saturday morning were: \"I love you\" and \"I'm sorry.\" When Goldberg was asked by reporters about what Blinken was doing to recover the Americans held hostage or missing, she said it sounded like he was \"exploring all different options.\"

Retired general joins forces to fight Hamas

\"Israel Ziv, a retired Israeli army general, was taking a bike ride Saturday morning when a flood of alarming calls started coming in.

A huge barrage of rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip. Gunmen from Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls the territory, were pouring across the border.

Soon he would learn a friend's son was trapped in a kibbutz. He raced home, put on his uniform and grabbed his weapon, a 9 mm pistol.

Within minutes he was flying down a deserted highway in his new white Audi. As he neared the Gaza border, columns of black smoke rose in front of him, and the Israeli army, at least at first, was nowhere to be seen.

Hamas attackers were running across the landscape, hunched under the weight of heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers, shooting at him. 'They were all over,' he said. 'Hundreds of them.' Ziv, stocky, spiky-haired, a bit irascible, and the former head of the operations directorate of the Israel Defense Forces, is a well-known figure in Israel, especially now.

His actions over the weekend -- driving headlong into the battle zone armed only with a pistol, organizing a confused group of soldiers into a fighting unit and overseeing evacuations -- have been widely publicized on Israeli news channels. In the process he has become an avatar of Israel's DIY spirit -- and of the failure of its military and intelligence agencies. The Israeli government said the toll in the devastating incursion by Hamas had reached 1,200 people killed, most of them unarmed civilians.\"

","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Niamh Cavanagh"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Yahoo News","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.yimg.com/rz/p/yahoo_news_en-GB_h_p_news_2.png","width":310,"height":50},"url":"https://uk.news.yahoo.com/"}}]} Read full article London-based British-Israelis, Noam Sagi (R) and Sharon Lifschitz, whose respective parents were taken hostage from the Nir Oz Kibbutz during the surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, attend a press conference hosted by Defend Israeli Democracy UK, in London on October 12, 2023.

London-based British-Israelis, Noam Sagi (R) and Sharon Lifschitz, whose respective parents were taken hostage from the Nir Oz Kibbutz during the surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, attend a press conference hosted by Defend Israeli Democracy UK, in London on October 12, 2023.

British-Israelis Sharon Lifschitz and Noam Sagi, whose respective parents were both taken hostage from the Nir Oz kibbutz, attend a press conference by Defend Israeli Democracy UK. (PA)

Yahoo News UK has handed over its ongoing coverage to our colleagues in the US

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How to limit exposure to graphic images coming out of the Israel-Hamas war

The Washington Post reports:[9] "You might be seeing violent, abhorrent videos in your social media feeds from Israel and Gaza. Those images have included the apparent killing of Israeli hostages, dead bodies and other cruelties.

Those online videos can feed a hunger for information for people in Israel and Gaza in the absence of official information about their loved ones. And they show the world the horrors of war. But you need to know that some of the videos, photos and posts you're seeing on social media might be fake or misleading.

They may also violate the dignity, privacy and human rights of people in those images and videos."