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Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

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Hundreds of Palestinian families have fled after receiving orders to evacuate several areas of Gaza City

Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

Palestinians in Gaza City say they have experienced one of the most intense Israeli bombardments since Israel launched its war on Hamas after the group’s unprecedented 7 October attack.

Columns of Israeli tanks are reported to be closing in on the centre of the city from several different directions.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service says it believes a number of people have been killed but has so far been unable to reach them because of fighting in several districts in the east and west of Gaza City.

The Al-Ahli Baptist hospital is reported to have been evacuated, with its patients being taken to one of the only medical facilities still functioning in the area – the already overcrowded Indonesian hospital.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage release deal are expected to resume in Qatar within 48 hours.

A preliminary meeting would take place in Egypt on Monday between US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, the official said.

Ahead of the assault in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for several neighbourhoods in the centre, including Tuffah, Daraj and the Old City.

But one of the areas that has come under the most intense assault, Tel al-Hawa, was not included in the evacuation order that was posted online with a map by the IDF Arabic spokesperson on Sunday.

On Monday afternoon, the IDF issued a new order that covered Tel al-Hawa as well as the Sabra and al-Rimal areas, to the north and west.

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One resident of Gaza City, Abdel Ghani asked: “The enemy is behind us and the sea is in front of us, where shall we go?”

Others have also told the BBC that they do not know where to go. They say that only one route remains – to go north towards the port area of Gaza City.

Some fled districts after receiving an evacuation order, only to find that the area they moved to was coming under Israeli bombardment.

In al-Rimal, a freelance cameraman working for the BBC says that he did not receive any evacuation orders, but later learnt that his neighbour did.

He left the area with his family and headed north. They are now in the port area but lack basic necessities. He says he is struggling to find water for his children.

In a statement, the IDF confirmed that it launched what it called a new operation in Tel al-Halwa overnight, following what it said was intelligence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure and fighters in the area.

The military also said that it was operating at the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, in the area.

The IDF said that at the start of the operation, it gave warnings to civilians – and it said that it would open up a humanitarian corridor for people to leave the area.

The latest Israeli offensive in Gaza comes as hopes have been rising that a ceasefire deal might finally be agreed.

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A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between the Hamas and Israeli negotiating teams, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will start in Doha within the next 48 hours.

The official also said a preparatory meeting was due to take place in Cairo on Monday between CIA director William Burns, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel.

The three intelligence chiefs are then all due to travel to Doha on Tuesday.

The official outlined to the BBC several key sticking points from the Hamas perspective:

  • Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from both the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Philadelphi corridor, a strip of land running along the Egyptian border
  • Israel has vetoed Hamas’s demand for release from Israeli prisons of 100 senior figures from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah political factions

Hamas’s negotiating team has already dropped its requirement for Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire as a precondition for any potential deal.

The official said the negotiating process would be very long and complex, but that there was some degree of hope that it might work this time.

On Sunday, a statement by the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have somewhat dampened expectations by insisting that any deal must not stop Israel from resuming fighting in Gaza until its war objectives are met.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly defined those aims as being the eradication of Hamas, both militarily and politically.

Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

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Over 330 dead as Israel unleashes ‘hell fire’ on Gaza

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Over 330 dead as Israel unleashes ‘hell fire’ on Gaza

Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting in Gaza until the return of all hostages as it unleashed its most intense strikes since a ceasefire, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 330 people killed.

Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to “resume war” after an impasse in truce negotiations, and warned that the return to fighting could be a “death sentence” for hostages still alive in Gaza.

The strikes were by far the biggest and deadliest since a truce took effect on January 19. Hamas has not responded to the strikes so far.

Netanyahu warned Hamas this month of consequences it “cannot imagine” if it does not free hostages still in Gaza, and Israeli media said Israel had drafted plans to ramp up pressure on Hamas under a scheme dubbed the “Hell Plan”.

The White House said Israel consulted US President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the wave of strikes, which the health ministry in Gaza said killed mostly women and children.

Netanyahu’s office said the operation was ordered after “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators”.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement said.

“We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Apart from the release of the remaining hostages, Israel’s other main war aim is to crush Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas said: “Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement.

Over 330 dead as Israel unleashes ‘hell fire’ on Gaza

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Trump revokes security details for Biden’s children

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Former US President Joe Biden and US President Donald Trump

Trump revokes security details for Biden’s children

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is withdrawing Hunter Biden’s government bodyguards, extending his campaign of political retribution to Joe Biden’s son.

Trump announced the same measure against Ashley Biden, the former president’s daughter with former first lady Jill.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump asserted that Hunter Biden’s security detail is composed of as many as 18 people, calling it “ridiculous.”

He said Hunter Biden was currently on vacation in South Africa and noted he had recently suspended US aid to the country over alleged rights violations.

“Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection. Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list,” Trump wrote.

Federal law grants Secret Service protection to former presidents and their spouses, but only to their children if they are under age 16.

Nonetheless, protection is often extended for a period of time to adult children.

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A Secret Service spokesperson, when queried about Trump’s action, told AFP: “We are aware of the President’s decision to terminate protection for Hunter and Ashley Biden.”

“The Secret Service will comply and is actively working with the protective details and the White House to ensure compliance as soon as possible.”

Hunter Biden has been a target of Republican ire for years, with the animosity intensifying after his father pardoned his gun and tax crime convictions shortly before leaving office in January.

On Monday, Trump declared that the pardon and others issued by Biden were void, an unprecedented move with unclear legal founding.

Trump revokes security details for Biden’s children

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Trump invokes Alien Enemies Act, deports over 200 gang members

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U.S President Donald Trump

Trump invokes Alien Enemies Act, deports over 200 gang members

US President Donald Trump issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, accusing Tren de Aragua of “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion of predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”

He announced that members of the gang will be deported for engaging in “irregular warfare” against the United States. The Alien Enemies Act was last used during WWII to imprison Japanese-American civilians.

On Saturday evening, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, DC, issued a 14-day freeze to deportations covered by Trump’s proclamation, pending more legal arguments.

After lawyers informed him that planes carrying deportees had already taken off, Judge Boasberg issued a verbal order for the planes to return, according to US media, though this command was not included in his written ruling.

According to Reuters, the written notice was filed in the court docket at 19:25 EDT on Saturday (00:25 GMT on Sunday), but it is unknown when the flights carrying the alleged gang members left the United States.

In a court filing on Sunday, Department of Justice lawyers stated that the order did not apply since the deportees “had already been removed from United States territory”.

The Justice Department has appealed the judge’s decision.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was participating in the case against the Trump administration, stated that the court order may have been breached.

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The case presents constitutional issues because, under the US system of checks and balances, government entities are expected to follow a federal judge’s decision.

Venezuela denounced Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, claiming it “unjustly criminalises Venezuelan migration” and “evokes the darkest episodes in the history of humanity, from slavery to the horror of Nazi concentration camps.”

Rights organisations blasted Trump, accusing him of utilising a 227-year-old legislation to sidestep due process.

Amnesty International USA commented on X that the deportations were “yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist targeting” of Venezuelans “based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation”.

Bukele, a Trump ally, stated that the detainees were promptly taken to El Salvador’s renowned mega-jail, the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot).

The Salvadoran president stated that they will be imprisoned there “for a period of one year,” which might be “renewable.”

El Salvador’s Cecot jail is part of Bukele’s efforts to combat organised crime in the country.

Human rights groups have accused the newly built maximum-security institution, which can accommodate up to 40,000 people, of mistreating inmates.

The agreement between the United States and El Salvador is an indication of improved diplomatic relations.

El Salvador was the second country Rubio visited as the US’s top diplomat.

During that trip in February, Bukele made an initial offer to accept US deportees, claiming it would help finance the enormous Cecot facility.

The newest deportations during Trump’s second term are part of the president’s long-standing campaign against illegal immigration in the United States.

In January, Trump signed an executive order designating Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organisations.

He won over voters during the campaign, in part, by threatening to carry out the greatest deportation operation in US history.

While illegal border crossings have dropped to their lowest levels in decades since Trump took office, the Republican president has allegedly been upset by the slow pace of deportations thus far.

Trump invokes Alien Enemies Act, deports over 200 gang members

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