Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians; Biden says he didn’t request a cease-fire

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes in Gaza, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned that nowhere is safe in the territory and that Israel’s offensive creates “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.

President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.

How strong is Hamas and could there be another ceasefire in Gaza?

Now that fighting has begun again, how strong is Hamas?

In military terms, Hamas is significantly weaker than it was on 7 October.

The Israeli offensive has undoubtedly damaged the group’s military infrastructure, and killed a significant number of militants. Quite how many is unclear. It is now known that Hamas needed to mobilise auxiliaries such as police into Israel for the attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on 7 October alongside better trained fighters, which suggests that estimates that Hamas has 30,000 or more combat troops are exaggerated.

Ceasefire demands will grow without proof of Hamas HQ at Al-Shifa

It is now days since Israeli forces entered al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and what appears to be happening on Friday is that they are continuing their search for evidence of this being a key Hamas command centre.

We have to remember that there is no independent scrutiny inside the hospital; journalists cannot move freely into Gaza, and any who are reporting from the site are working under the aegis of the Israeli military.

With Major Gaza Hospitals Under Threat, EU Calls For Cease-Fire

As the Israel Defense Forces attack two major hospitals in Gaza, patients and staff are facing imminent danger of dying, prompting more calls for a cease-fire, including from the European Union, according to multiple reports.

Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, is without electricity and lacks vital resources as the Israel Defense Forces continues to bombard the facility. The Israeli government says Hamas militants built a command complex under the hospital. Hamas and hospital officials have denied militants are hiding under the facility. 

Netanyahu Rejects Calls for Ceasefire as Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 8,300

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected international calls for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza during a press conference on Monday.

Since the Hamas-led infiltration attack on October 7 that killed around 1,400 people, Israeli forces have waged a genocidal bombing campaign against Palestinians, killing more than 8,300 people in Gaza — more than a third of whom are children, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Thousands more Gazans are estimated to be trapped under the rubble.

Syria and Russia break ceasefire, sending 50,000 civilians running toward Jordanian border

Nearly 50,000 people have been displaced since the Syrian government and its Russian allies escalated an offensive in the southern province of Deraa last week, prompting concerns at the United Nations over where these displaced civilians have to run.

Airstrikes, mortar shells, and barrel bombs have pounded the area, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The goal of the campaign seems to be regaining control of the town as well as the border with Jordan.

Assad Agreed to Local Cease-Fires in Syria — But War Crimes Worsen in Eastern Ghouta

Abu Fahed, a Syrian rebel and resident of the district of Eastern Ghouta, was on his way home from work a few weeks ago when he lost five members of his family. He had been building hillforts in Jobar, part of the effort to keep Eastern Ghouta, a hotly contested area on the outskirts of Damascus, in rebel hands. He stopped in at his sister’s home on his way back to the town of Kafr Batna, where he lives.

Hundreds flee fighting near Syria capital despite truce

Hundreds of civilians fled a mountainous region outside the Syrian capital on Sunday where government forces battled several insurgent groups, including one excluded from a recent nationwide ceasefire.

The Syrian military said some 1,300 people fled the Barada Valley region since Saturday. The region has been the target of days of air strikes and shelling despite the truce, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey and appears to be holding in other parts of the country, despite some reports of fighting.

Rebels: Ceasefire 'void' if government bombing persists

Syrian rebel groups warned they would consider a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and Turkey "null and void" if government forces and their allies continued to violate it.

Clashes and air strikes persisted in some areas since the ceasefire began on Friday, though the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said on Saturday that the truce was still largely holding.

Everything You Need To Know About The Syrian Ceasefire

A rare cessation of hostilities in Syria will begin late on Friday night, according to an agreement struck by Russian and U.S. officials. While Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s acquiescence to the terms of the ceasefire raises hopes for the plan’s success, many high-ranking diplomats and Middle East analysts see the agreement to reign in the sprawling geopolitical battle as fundamentally flawed.

'Provisional' Syria ceasefire plan called into question as bombs kill 120

A “provisional agreement” on a ceasefire in Syria has been reached between the US and Russia, the US secretary of state John Kerry said on Sunday, but serious doubts remain on whether it will come into force as the country reeled from a series of deadly car bombs in Syria’s two biggest cities that left more than 120 dead.

In Homs, twin car bombs killed at least 57 people and wounded 100 on Sunday, and explosions hit parts of the capital, Damascus, killing a further 62 and wounding 180, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The attacks on both cities were claimed by Islamic State.

Ceasefire Doesn’t Mean Parties 'Stop Using Weapons,' According To Syria's Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday any ceasefire did not mean each side had to stop using weapons, and nobody was capable of securing the conditions for one within a week.

"Regarding a ceasefire, a halt to operations, if it happened, it doesn't mean that each party will stop using weapons," Assad said in Damascus in televised comments.

'Cessation Of Hostilities' In Syria Lets Russia Keep Bombing

MUNICH, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Major powers agreed on Friday to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria to begin in a week, doing nothing in the meantime to halt Russian bombing poised to give government forces their biggest victory of the five-year-old war.

If implemented, the deal would allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged towns. It has the potential to be the first diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has fractured the Middle East, killed at least 250,000 people, made 11 million homeless and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing into Europe.

As Casualties Rise, Egypt Urges Israel, Palestinians To Return To Ceasefire Talks

GAZA/CAIRO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Egypt called on Israel and the Palestinians on Saturday to halt hostilities and resume peace talks, but both sides kept up attacks, including an Israeli air strike which destroyed a residential tower block in the center of Gaza City.

Hamas militants also fired rockets at Israel, hitting the southern city of Beersheba, where two people were hurt, police said. At least two rockets were also fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, but it was not initially clear who fired them, Lebanese and Israeli sources said.