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Israel launches major Gaza assault, shattering ceasefire

Israel launches major Gaza assault, shattering ceasefire

Israel has launched a major assault on Gaza, shattering the fragile two-month-old ceasefire between its forces and Hamas. Israeli air strikes across the territory early on Tuesday killed more than 200 Palestinians, Gaza’s Government Media Office said. The dead included at least 77 people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and at least 20 people in Gaza City in the north, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Israel strikes also hit locations in central Deir el-Balah and Rafah in the south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to take “strong action” against Hamas over its refusal to release captives taken from Israel or agree to offers to extend the ceasefire. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. The Israeli military said on Telegram that it was conducting “extensive strikes on terror targets” belonging to Hamas. Hamas, which governs Gaza, said it viewed Israel’s attacks as a unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire that began on January 19. Advertisement “Netanyahu and his extremist government are making a decision to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate,” the Palestinian group said in a statement. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) accused Israel of “deliberately sabotaging all efforts to reach a ceasefire”. “We affirm that what Netanyahu and his barbaric army failed to achieve in 15 months of crimes and bloodshed, they will not succeed in achieving again, thanks to the steadfastness of our oppressed people and the courage of our mujahideen in the fields of… resistance,” the group said, according to a statement shared with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Injured Palestinians are brought to the Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on March 18, 2025 [Abdallah F.s. Alatta/Anadolu] Ahmed Abu Rizq, a teacher in Gaza, said he and his family woke up the sound of “Israeli strikes everywhere.” “We were frightened, our children were frightened. We had many calls from our relatives to check, to check [on] ourselves. And the ambulance started to run from one street to another,” Abu Rizq told Al Jazeera, adding that families started to arrive at the local hospital with the “remains of their children” in their hands. Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said that while Israel has accused Hamas of rejecting various proposals made by negotiators, talks had been stalled after Netanyahu refused to begin negotiations on phase two of the ceasefire deal on February 6. “Several Israeli analysts, several within the political opposition and several within Netanyahu’s own government said that this was the plan all along, a resumption of the fighting, to go back to full-scale war,” Salhut said. Advertisement “And in fact, there’s a new army chief of staff, one who said that 2025 is going to be a year of war – noting that Israel still has a lot of goals to accomplish when it comes to the Gaza Strip, meaning that they are in no way finished with their military action.” Hamas has released about three dozen captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners since the start of the ceasefire. Negotiations on the second phase of the deal, which would see the release of nearly 60 remaining captives and the establishment of a permanent ceasefire, had been at an impasse over Israel’s insistence that the first stage be extended until mid-April. Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said it was unclear if the attacks marked a single offensive or “the beginning of a larger campaign”. “The most important element of which, from Israel’s perspective, was negotiations on the second phase leading to a durable ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip,” Rabbani told Al Jazeera. “And that is something that the Israeli government has repeatedly said it would not do.” “In other words, [Israel] signed an agreement, knowing that it would refuse to implement it,” he said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Israel had consulted with United States President Donald Trump about the strikes. “As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran – all those who seek to terrorise not just Israel but the US – will see a price to pay, and all hell will break loose,” Leavitt told Fox News. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Two people killed in Israeli air strike on Deraa in southern Syria

Two people killed in Israeli air strike on Deraa in southern Syria

The Israeli army said it had targeted military sites in southern Syria that posed a ‘threat to the State of Israel’. At least two people were killed and 19 others wounded after an Israeli air strike on the outskirts of the southern Syrian province of Deraa, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, has reported. The Israeli military confirmed the strikes Monday night and said it was targeting military sites that contained weapons and vehicles that belonged to the forces of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Israeli army “is currently striking military targets in southern Syria, including command centres and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian regime,” an army statement said, adding that the “military assets” posed “a threat to the State of Israel”. The army said it “will not allow the presence of military threats in southern Syria and will operate against it”. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel targeted a military site previously used by al-Assad’s forces but now used by the army of Syria’s new government. However, this is not the first time Israel has targeted the southern Deraa province, near the Jordanian border. Earlier this month, it targeted several Syrian military assets in the same area. Advertisement The Israeli military said at the time that the military sites, which had included bases and radar systems, posed a threat that the strike was meant to “eliminate”. Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said four Israeli air strikes targeted Deraa on Monday night. “This is a strategy of Israel [to] really reduce the country’s military capacity, particularly its defence capacity, and now Israel is going further, saying well it doesn’t want any military presence in the south of Syria,” Serdar said. “Of course, for the government in Damascus [this] is a huge, huge challenge, so practically, that means they’re not in control of the southern cities of Syria,” he added. Since al-Assad was ousted, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights. While al-Assad was in power, Israel also routinely attacked Syria, bombing what it said were Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Adblock test (Why?)

Trump says he will release 80,000 pages of JFK files on Tuesday

Trump says he will release 80,000 pages of JFK files on Tuesday

US president says files contain ‘a lot of reading’ about assassination that has fuelled conspiracy theories for decades. United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will on Tuesday release approximately 80,000 pages of files about the assassination of John F Kennedy, whose killing has fuelled conspiracy theories for more than six decades. Speaking at the Kennedy Center on Monday, Trump said the release will contain “a lot of reading” about the assassination of the 35th US president, who was killed in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. “I don’t believe we are going to redact anything. I said, ‘just don’t redact, you can’t redact’,” Trump told reporters. “But we are going to be releasing the JFK files.” Asked if he had seen what was in the files, Trump said he was aware of their contents. “It’s going to be very interesting,” he said. Trump’s remarks follow a January executive order calling for the release of all remaining records on the JFK assassination, as well as files related to the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. Under the order, Trump instructed the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to present a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release” of files on the JFK assassination. Advertisement Last month, the FBI said that searches it had undertaken to comply with the order had turned up about 2,400 new files related to the assassination. The circumstances of JFK’s death have captivated US society for decades, with surveys showing a majority of Americans doubt official explanations of the case. In a 2023 Gallup poll, 65 percent of Americans said they did not accept the Warren Commission’s finding that Lee Harvey Oswald, a US Marine veteran arrested over JFK’s death, acted alone in killing the president. Twenty percent of those surveyed said they believed Oswald conspired with the US government, while 16 percent said they thought that he worked with the CIA. During his first administration, Trump promised to disclose all outstanding records on the assassination but ultimately only released about 2,800 documents after the CIA and FBI requested that thousands of pages of material be withheld pending review. Former US President Joe Biden’s administration released about 17,000 more records, leaving fewer than 4,700 files withheld in part or in full. According to the National Archives, authorities have released more than 99 percent of the approximately 320,000 documents reviewed under the 1992 JFK Records Act. The law mandated the disclosure of all remaining files by October 26, 2017, unless the president determined their release would cause “identifiable harm” to national defence, intelligence operations, law enforcement or foreign relations of such gravity that it “outweighs the public interest in disclosure”. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Trump says he’ll speak with Putin in call to push for truce in Ukraine

Trump says he’ll speak with Putin in call to push for truce in Ukraine

President Donald Trump said he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about the final points of a deal to end the war in Ukraine. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said many “elements” of the Final Agreement” have been agreed to “but much remains.” “Thousands of young soldiers, and others, are being killed. Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW,” Trump wrote. “I look very much forward to the call with President Putin.” TRUMP, PUTIN CALL EXPECTED THIS WEEK, AS ADMIN EDGES CLOSER TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE CEASEFIRE DEAL: WITKOFF Some points of discussion could involed territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Trump administration has been working on a deal to end the three-year war. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reportedly said that the Kremlin wants an “ironclad” guarantee that Ukraine will be prohibited from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “we have never been closer to peace,” as the U.S. waits for Russia’s answer on a 30-day ceasefire agreement.  Ukraine accepted the deal earlier in the week after a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia, on the condition that Moscow commits to the plan. PUTIN IN NO RUSH TO FOLLOW ‘TRUMP TIME’ CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for tougher sanctions on Russia and accused Putin of trying to drag out the peace talks to prolong the war. “It’s clear to everyone in the world—even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years—that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war,” the Ukrainian leader wrote Monday on X. “For a week now, Putin has been unable to squeeze out ‘yes’ to the ceasefire proposal. He’s saying whatever he wants, but not what the whole world wants to hear.” He called for world leaders to pressure Moscow into ending the conflict. “The unconditional ceasefire proposal is essentially about saving lives, allowing diplomats to work on ensuring security and a lasting peace—the proposal that Russia is ignoring,” he said. “Pressure is needed to finally make Moscow accept that their war must be brought to an end.”

Political geography: quarrelling NYC neighbors a country mile apart on Trump-era policy

Political geography: quarrelling NYC neighbors a country mile apart on Trump-era policy

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reside just a few blocks from one another as you traverse from Prospect Heights to Park Slope in Brooklyn. But political observers suspect there’s practically a bridge of political distance spanning between the two Brooklyn Democrats now. Schumer decided to help Republicans break a filibuster and forestall a government shutdown last week. Schumer’s decision triggered howls of derision from House Democrats who were practically unified in their opposition to the GOP spending package. Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to break the filibuster. That sent many Democrats into a fit of apoplexy.  Distance and geography helps us understand this perceived chasm between Schumer and Jeffries. It’s a solid 40 miles from the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va., to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. After the House voted to approve the emergency spending bill last Tuesday, Democrats high-tailed it to Leesburg for their annual issues retreat. Jeffries and other Democratic leaders held a press conference on the first day. Other Democrats spoke at nine news conference on the succeeding days. TOP HOUSE DEMOCRAT LEAVES SCHUMER IN THE COLD AMID LEFT’S DISARRAY ON SHUTDOWN DRAMA But back on Capitol Hill last Friday, Jeffries and other Democratic leaders would speed back from Leesburg for a news conference just before the vote to break a filibuster on the spending measure. Schumer asserted that sidestepping a government shutdown was the lesser of two evils. He argued that a shutdown would further empower President Trump and Elon Musk to slash the federal workforce and shutter departments. Jeffries wasn’t buying it. And he needed to signal to House Democrats about what side he was on. “House Democrats remain strongly opposed to the partisan Republican spending bill that will hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, and hurt the American people,” said Jeffries. “It is a false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans have been presenting.” Schumer and Jeffries spoke after the top Democrat in the Senate announced he would reluctantly vote to break a filibuster – and bring several Democratic colleagues along with him. Republicans control the Senate. But they only have 53 votes. Sixty votes are necessary to crush a filibuster. That’s where Democrats come in. And Schumer relented. SCHUMER UNDER FIRE FROM DEMOCRATS FOR SUPPORTING REPUBLICAN SPENDING BILL, FUELING LEADERSHIP CONCERNS: REPORT “Is it time for new leadership in the Senate,” asked Chase Williams of Fox Business to Jeffries at the hastily arranged House Democratic leadership news conference on Capitol Hill. “Next question,” replied Jeffries. Another reporter tried a different approach. “Have you lost confidence in him, the fact that you guys see this so differently,” asked the reporter. “Next question,” echoed Jeffries. What’s unsaid is often what speaks the loudest in politics. That’s what was so striking about Jeffries’ identical responses when asked about his fellow Brooklynite. Again, Jeffries seethed about the bill and how Schumer caved to the Republicans. Otherwise, he and other Democratic leaders wouldn’t have hustled back to Capitol Hill from suburban Virginia to blast the legislation. DEMOCRATS BLAST SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER FOR BACKING GOP SPENDING BILL Yours truly wanted to follow up after the press conference, given Jeffries’ direct reticence about Schumer. “Why were you afraid to say anything about Schumer when you were asked?” I questioned Jeffries as he walked out of the House Radio/TV Gallery studio. Jeffries demeanor is usually cooler than a swirled Mister Softee cone under a shade tree in Prospect Park in August. But after my question, Jeffries stopped in his tracks and flashed a hint of anger. “Don’t characterize! No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No,” admonished Jeffries, “But my question was, why are you afraid to say anything?” I interjected. “Do not characterize my remarks. I’m not afraid about anything. Anything!” said Jeffries.  “You went to another question,” I noted. “I said I was very clear that we look forward to working with every single one of our Senate Democratic colleagues. Every single one of them who pushed back against the Trump administration. Every single one of them. It’s very clear,” said Jeffries. MSNBC PANEL GRILLS SCHUMER FOR SUPPORTING GOP SPENDING BILL So Jeffries had the fine line to walk. Incinerate the interim spending bill. Show rank-and-file Democrats how unhappy he was with what the Senate was doing. Yet be careful about what he says about Schumer. But as we said, what’s unsaid often speaks the loudest. Jeffries demonstrated his displeasure. But frankly, Jeffries didn’t have to say much. Just returning to the Capitol said everything. And doing so right after getting an earful from House Democrats about Schumer’s maneuver may have scored Jeffries some points. So, back to the questions at the House Democratic leadership press conference… “Is it time for new leadership in the Senate?” And, has Jeffries “lost confidence” in Schumer? The second interrogative is not as important. Democrats nationally – if not Senate Democrats – will determine what they want to do with Schumer. If anything. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., opposed the interim spending bill. Warner was torn because he represents so many federal workers in northern Virginia. DEMOCRATS LASH OUT AT SCHUMER FOR ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SIDING WITH TRUMP “Are you going to issue a statement on Schumer’s leadership?” asked one reporter of Warner after the vote to fund the government. “Is Leader Schumer the right leader in this moment,” asked another. “I have faith in Chuck Schumer,” replied Warner. Scribes asked similar questions of Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., following the vote. “We also need to figure out how to use our leverage,” said Heinrich. In other words, some Democrats believed the interim spending bill was an inflection point. They might not be able to stop President Trump and Congressional Republicans from approving the “big, beautiful bill” to slash spending and cut taxes. But they could have shuttered the government by filibustering the spending plan because it failed to reflect any major Democratic priorities. They needed to stand up.