Hamas to Arab nations: We don’t need your military support; can’t you at least send humanitarian aid to Gaza?

News Network

October 29, 2023

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu against any plans to expand the regime’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after more than three weeks of incessant bombardments in the besieged area.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Gaza-based movement's military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, issued the warning after Netanyahu announced what he claimed to be the “second stage” of a ground incursion by the Israeli occupation army into Gaza.

"We are still waiting for him,” Abu Ubaida said in a video statement. "We will make him taste, by the strength of God, a defeat greater than what he expects or fears.”

The al-Qassam spokesman also hit out at Arab countries for a lack of humanitarian assistance to the besieged Gaza Strip and said the occupying regime was to blame for the failure to achieve an agreement over a prisoner swap with Palestinians.

"To the leaders of our Arab nations...We do not ask you to mobilize your armies and tanks, God forbid, to defend the children of Arabs and Islam in Gaza," Abu Ubaida said. "But have you reached the point where you cannot send relief and humanitarian aid?"

The spokesman stressed that there were "numerous contacts regarding the prisoner issue," and a chance to strike a deal; however, Israel was not willing to agree to the terms of the agreement, which focused on the release of 200 Israeli captives being held by the brigades, as well the rest who were kept by other Palestinian resistance factions.

The al-Qassam Brigades previously announced that around 50 of the captives had been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israel has been waging a barbaric war against Gaza since October 7, when Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups launched their biggest operation against Israel in years. The sneak attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, came in response to the regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli war has so far claimed the lives of over 8,000 innocent Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, and left upwards of 20,500 others wounded.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday, calling for the implementation of an immediate "humanitarian truce" in Gaza.

The vote at the General Assembly came after the United Nations Security Council failed four times in the past two weeks to take action due to the US's recurrently casting its veto against relevant resolutions.

The assembly stressed the "importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region," calling on "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and upon all those with influence on them to work toward this objective."

Israel has rejected all calls for a ceasefire, claiming it would benefit Hamas.

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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