Israel pounds Gaza City; Muslim leaders condemn strike on Qatar

Residents of Gaza City say they are being subjected to “heavy, relentless” bombardment amid reports that Israel’s military has begun its ground offensive to occupy the northern urban centre.Leaders from across the Arab and Islamic world have met in the Qatari capital, Doha, and condemned Israel’s “cowardly” attack on Qatar as well as its “genocide” in Gaza.

United States President Donald Trump, speaking at the White House, has repeated his assertion that Israel will not be attacking Qatar again.Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,871 people and wounded 164,610 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.

UN envoy calls for end to ‘escalatory cycle’ between Israel, Houthis

UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg has told the UN Security Council that hostilities between Israel and Yemen’s Houthis are intensifying against the backdrop of the war on Gaza.“We are seeing an alarming and dangerous intensification of hostilities between Ansar Allah and Israel,” he said, referring to the Houthis by their official name.The Yemeni rebel group has targeted Israel with drones and missiles, wounding civilians and impacting a civilian airport, while Israeli attacks on Yemen in August and September have killed Houthi officials as well as numerous civilians, he noted.“This escalatory cycle must end,” he said.Grundberg also condemned the Houthis’ detention of UN personnel in areas including Sanaa, saying it marked an “egregious escalation”. More than 40 staff remain in custody, he said, along with a colleague who died in detention.“That arbitrary detention of now 44 UN staff, the forcible entry of UN offices and the seizure of equipment – all of that undermines our ability to continue to deliver at scale in these locations,” he added.