Author: ALJAZEERA

Prime minister booed when he promises to bring the captives home but adds that ‘more time’ needed.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been heckled and booed by the families of captives held by Hamas in Gaza during an address to parliament. “Now! Now!” the families chanted from the gallery on Monday when Netanyahu promised to bring the captives home but added that he has been told by Israeli field commanders that “more time” was needed. “We wouldn’t have succeeded up until now to release more than 100 hostages without military pressure,” Netanyahu said. “And we won’t succeed at releasing all…

Egypt has presented what is described as an ambitious plan to end the war in Gaza with a ceasefire. The proposal, which was presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments on Monday would see Israel fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip, all captives held by Hamas, and many Palestinian prisoners, freed, and a united technocratic Palestinian government installed in the enclave. The proposal, developed with the Gulf state of Qatar, includes several rounds of captive and prisoner exchanges, reports Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith from Tel Aviv. In the first phase, Hamas would free all civilian captives in…

In Christmas message, Pope Francis says Israeli strikes are reaping an ‘appalling harvest’ of innocent civilians.Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is reaping an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message. In his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address on Monday, the head of the Catholic Church also called the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas “abominable” and again appealed for the release of about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza, as he appealed for an end to hostilities. Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to thousands of…

The attack is one of the deadliest of the nearly three-month-long war.More than 100 people have been killed in Israeli air raids overnight in central Gaza. At least 70 people were killed in strikes in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said late on Sunday. Attacks on the Bureij refugee camp saw the number of casualties rise to more than 100. Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said the death toll at the Maghazi refugee camp was likely to rise. “What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded…