RSS
Israeli Cabinet Approves Gaza Aid Boost Ahead of US Embargo Deadline
November 2023: An Israeli soldier helps to provide incubators to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot
JNS.org — The Israeli government this week approved a series of measures that will vastly expand the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip ahead of a deadline set by the Biden administration to implement 15 policy changes or risk a possible arms embargo, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Among the list of steps approved by the Security Cabinet on Sunday was an unspecified increase in the amount of aid entering the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Ministers also agreed to provide the Biden administration with a written pledge that Israel is not seeking to deport Palestinians from combat zones in Gaza, Channel 13 News reported. Another step approved by the Cabinet is the inland widening of the Al-Muwasi humanitarian zone on Gaza’’ coast.
On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories announced that, “in accordance with the directive of the political echelon,” it reopened the Kissufim Crossing to transfer additional humanitarian aid from Israel to the southern Strip.
The border crossing, which served as the main route for traffic to Israeli communities in Gaza before Jerusalem’s withdrawal from the Strip, was closed as part of the disengagement from the territory on Aug. 15, 2005.
Meanwhile, Channel 13 reported the Cabinet voted not to yield to the US demand for representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to be allowed to visit Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails. Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to see the 101 hostages it still holds captive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned fellow ministers that while President-elect Donald Trump was unlikely to slap an arms embargo on Israel, US President Joe Biden could still take steps against the Jewish state in his last two-plus months in office.
In an Oct. 13 missive addressed to then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Jerusalem to implement more than a dozen policy changes within 30 days or risk “implications” for US policy, including an arms embargo.
Among other measures, the Biden administration called on the Jewish state to allow at least 350 aid trucks to pass daily through existing border crossings with Gaza and to immediately open a fifth crossing.
An Israeli official told Ynet that Jerusalem was unable to meet the demand for that number of trucks.
Israel was also instructed to announce “adequate humanitarian pauses across Gaza” for at least four months, rescind evacuation orders, remove a ban on the entry of “container and closed trucks,” authorize certain items with dual military use to enter, and declare that there will be no “policy of forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.”
Citing reports of alleged abuses against Palestinian terrorists captured during Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and the Gaza war, the letter urged Israel to immediately allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit all “individuals detained in connection with this conflict.”
The Biden administration confirmed the contents of a letter, with John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, telling reporters that Washington’s criticism was prompted by a “recent decrease in humanitarian assistance reaching the people of Gaza.”
The Israel Defense Forces has been fighting to defeat Hamas in Gaza since the terror group led a mass invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 people, mainly Jewish civilians, while wounding thousands more and kidnapping 251 people to Gaza, where 101 remain.
Jerusalem has rejected any accusation that the IDF does not comply with international law or is interfering with aid efforts, and has accused Hamas of stealing most of the aid. At times, the White House and State Department have admitted that the terror group is known to seize aid.
The post Israeli Cabinet Approves Gaza Aid Boost Ahead of US Embargo Deadline first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.