A 17-truck aid convoy yesterday entered Gaza from Egypt as Israel intensified strikes on the Palestinian enclave facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the war sparked by a Hamas’ attack.
As fears mount of a wider conflagration, Iran warned that the region could spiral “out of control.” while the Pentagon moved to bolster its forces in the Middle East.
Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians on the first day of the raid, Israeli officials said.
Photo: AFP
It was the worst attack on civilians in Israel’s history.
Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign has killed more than 4,600 Palestinians, mainly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
More than 40 percent of all Gaza’s housing has been damaged or destroyed, the UN said, citing local authorities, and Israel has halted food, water, fuel and electricity supplies.
Yesterday’s aid delivery through the Rafah crossing was the second such operation in two days after 20 trucks arrived on Saturday.
The UN has estimated that about 100 trucks per day are needed to meet the needs of 2.4 million Gazans given the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.
Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops around the enclave for an anticipated ground invasion.
Israel increased its attacks overnight and killed “dozens of terrorists” in and around Gaza City, including the deputy commander of the Hamas rocket network, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said yesterday.
Hamas said that overnight raids on the Gaza Strip killed at least 80 people and destroyed more than 30 homes.
In central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, an Agence France-Presse journalist saw the bodies of children on the bloodied floor of a morgue.
A man clutched his dead toddler and people wept as they identified the bodies of their relatives.
Israel has warned more than 1 million residents of northern Gaza to move south for their safety, and the UN says that more than half of the territory’s population is now internally displaced.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in and around Gaza City in the north, unwilling or unable to leave.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian yesterday said that if the US and Israel “do not immediately stop the crime against humanity and genocide in Gaza, anything is possible at any moment and the region will go out of control.”
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’