Palestinians fear escalation of violence as Netanyahu closes in on victory

Palestinians fear escalation of violence as Netanyahu closes in on victory
Palestinians react next to a burning tire during clashes with Israeli forces in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 03 November 2022
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Palestinians fear escalation of violence as Netanyahu closes in on victory

Palestinians fear escalation of violence as Netanyahu closes in on victory
  • Rise of right-wing ‘result of growing extremism’ in Israel, PM Shtayyeh says
  • Election result confirms ‘we have no partner in Israel for peace,’ he says

RAMALLAH: The prospect of Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power as head of one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israeli history has prompted concern among Palestinians who fear it could be a prelude to an escalation of their conflict with Israel.
More than 100 Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces this year.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the rise of right-wing parties was “a natural result of the growing extremism and racism in Israeli society, which the Palestinians have been suffering from for years.”
But Palestinians “would not stop their legitimate struggle to end the occupation, gain freedom and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital regardless of the identity of the winners in the Israeli elections.”
He added: “The difference between the Israeli parties is the same as the difference between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola.
“We had no illusions that the ballot boxes in the Israeli elections would produce a partner for peace in light of the aggressive policies and practices that our people suffer from, which do not give weight to international decisions and laws.
“The results of the Israeli elections confirmed that we have no partner in Israel for peace and that the international community must assume its responsibility to implement international resolutions and protect our people after the rise of racist parties to power in Israel.”
The Palestinian leadership has always supported and maintained ties with Israel’s left-wing parties in the hope of a resumption of peace talks.
Ahmed Al-Deek, an adviser to the Palestinian foreign minister for political affairs, told Arab News: “We will determine our position on the upcoming Israeli coalition based on its policies and stances on the Palestinian issue.
“We view with great gravity this emergence of Israeli fascism represented by Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and we consider it one of the expressions of the deep crisis that Israelis are experiencing as a result of the continuation of the occupation and the establishment of the apartheid regime in the Palestinian territories.”
Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir calls his Arab colleagues “terrorists” and advocates deporting political opponents. In his youth, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.
Bezalel Yoel Smotrich is a radical right-wing politician who heads the Religious Zionist Party and previously served as a Knesset member for Yamina.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, holds a similar position to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah on the Israeli poll.
Hamas official Bassim Naiem told Arab News that the results of the election showed the “true face of Israel.”
“Those who showed great sadness over these results or expressed great surprise, locally and internationally, are either naive or politically ignorant, who didn’t read the history of the Zionist movement and project, and if they did, they didn’t understand it,” he said.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the elections would not change anything because they were taking place between two extremist right-wing groups and in the absence of a true peace camp.
He added that the most troubling thing was that a criminal fascist party headed by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir might get third place, indicating the degree of descent of colonial Israeli society toward racial extremism and the doctrine of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
Al-Deek said: “There is no power in the world capable of canceling the presence of the Palestinian people on their land and homeland, and they will continue to struggle by all means to confront the occupation until the double standards in international standards are broken.”
Palestinians also expressed anger at the fact that their occupier has held five elections in less than four years while they have not held any since 2006.
Amer Hamdan, a legal activist from Nablus, said on Facebook: “How will we feel about ourselves when we watch millions of Israeli citizens going to the polling stations … and we cannot choose who represents us; neither in the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip?”
Another Palestinian commented sarcastically: “The elections are taking place to choose the best, and as long as the best is currently ruling us, what is the need for elections?”
Another said: “We don’t need democracy, we have perfect leadership, but the problem is that the people are not able to understand them properly.”
Another comment read: “They (Fatah and Hamas) divided it. The West Bank is for the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza is for Hamas, and each side is satisfied with its share.”


Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM

Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
Updated 58 min 18 sec ago
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Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM

Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
  • International aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing
  • The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas

Derna: Libya’s flood disaster, which killed thousands in the city of Derna, also displaced more than 43,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel lashed the area on September 10.
It razed entire neighborhoods, sweeping untold thousands of people into the sea.
The official death toll stands at more than 3,300 — but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
“An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya,” the IOM said, adding that a “lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna” to other areas.
“Urgent needs include food, drinking water and mental health and psychosocial support,” it said.
Mobile and Internet services were meanwhile restored after a two-day disruption, following protests Monday that saw angry residents blame the authorities for the high death toll.
Authorities had blamed the communications outage on “a rupture in the optical fiber” link to Derna, but some Internet users and analysts charged there had been a deliberate “blackout.”
Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah announced that communications had been restored in the east, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
War-scarred Libya remains split between Dbeibah’s UN-backed and nominally interim government in the west, and another in the disaster-hit east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The dams that were overwhelmed by the torrential rains of September 10 had developed cracks as far back as the 1990s, Libya’s top prosecutor has said, as residents accused authorities of negligence.
Much of Libya’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair in the chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Haftar’s forces seized Derna in 2018, then a stronghold of radical Islamists, and with the reputation as a protest stronghold since Qaddafi’s days.
The demonstrators had gathered on Monday outside Derna’s grand mosque and chanted slogans against the parliament in eastern Libya and its leader Aguilah Saleh.
In a televised interview Wednesday evening, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Seddik Al-Sour vowed “rapid results” in the investigation into the cause of the tragedy.
He added that those suspected of corruption or negligence “have already been identified,” without naming them.
Survivors in have Derna meanwhile faced new threats.
The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas.
Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization “are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation,” the UN said.
Libya’s disease control center has warned that mains water in the disaster zone is polluted and urged residents not to use it.


Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024

Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024
Updated 21 September 2023
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Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024

Israel says framework Saudi normalization deal possible by early 2024
  • Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “every day we get closer” to a deal
  • Biden voiced optimism about the prospects in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: A framework US-brokered deal for forging relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be in place by early next year, the Israeli foreign minister said on Thursday after the three countries signalled progress in the complex negotiations.
An Israeli-Saudi normalization would dramatically redraw the Middle East by formally bringing together two major US partners in the face of Iran — a foreign-policy flourish for President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection in late 2024.
Biden voiced optimism about the prospects in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Wednesday. Separately, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “every day we get closer” to a deal.
But a Rubik’s cube of tie-in issues looms. Riyadh’s quest for a civilian nuclear program tests US and Israeli policy. Saudi and US calls for the Palestinians to make gains under any deal are unpalatable for Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
“The gaps can be bridged,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio. “It will take time. But there is progress.”
“I think there is certainly a likelihood that, in the first quarter of 2024, four or five months hence, we will be able to be in at a point where the details (of a deal) are finalized.”
Such a timeline could enable the Biden administration to get through a review period in the US Congress and Senate and clinch ratification ahead of the November presidential ballot.


Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack

Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack
Updated 21 September 2023
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Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack

Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack
  • Nine suspects — all of them foreigners — were arrested after the August 13 attack
  • The convicted attacker, identified as Rahmatollah Nowruzof from Tajikistan and described as an Daesh member, was handed two death sentences

TEHRAN: An Iranian court has sentenced to death a Tajik man convicted over carrying out a deadly gun attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine in August, the judiciary said Thursday.
The attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, capital of Fars province in Iran’s south, came less than a year after a mass shooting at the same site that was later claimed by the Daesh group.
Nine suspects — all of them foreigners — were arrested after the August 13 attack, which killed two people and wounded seven others.
The convicted attacker, identified as Rahmatollah Nowruzof from Tajikistan and described as an Daesh member, was handed two death sentences, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.
He was convicted on charges of “moharebeh,” or waging war against God, as well as “sedition and collusion against the security of the country,” the website said.
Two other men were sentenced to five years in prison and deportation from the country over “participating in gatherings and collusion with the intention of disrupting the country’s security,” it added.
Footage and pictures published following the attack showed windows shattered by bullets, and blood staining the ground in a courtyard of the arched and colonnaded complex.
The European Union and several countries including Iraq, Russia and France condemned the shooting and expressed their condolences.
In October 2022, a mass shooting at the shrine left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. Daesh later claimed the attack.
Iran hanged two men in public on July 8 over the killings after their conviction for “corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security,” Mizan said at the time.
London-based rights group Amnesty International says Iran executes more people than any other country except China and hanged at least 582 people last year, the highest number since 2015.
The Shah Cheragh mausoleum is home to the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shiite imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.


An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard

An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard
Updated 21 September 2023
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An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard

An Israeli tank was stolen from a military zone. Authorities found it in a junkyard
  • The army said the tank was not armed and could not have been used for military purposes

JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities are trying to figure out how a heavily armored, but unarmed, tank was stolen from a military training zone after finding it discarded in a junkyard.
The Israeli Merkava 2 tank disappeared from a training zone in northern Israel near the coastal city of Haifa, the Israeli army said Wednesday. The training zone is closed to the public when in use, but is otherwise accessible to passersby.
Police said the 65-ton tank was found abandoned in a scrapyard near a military base. In a video from the scene, the army green tank towers alongside rusty scraps of metal and other industrial castoffs.
The army said the Merkava 2 was decommissioned years ago and was unarmed. It said it had been used most recently as a “stationary vehicle for soldiers' exercises.”
Police said they had arrested two suspects in connection with the theft.


Qatar prepared to become international mediator: Foreign Ministry

Qatar prepared to become international mediator: Foreign Ministry
Updated 21 September 2023
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Qatar prepared to become international mediator: Foreign Ministry

Qatar prepared to become international mediator: Foreign Ministry
  • Doha recently brokered prisoner swap deal between Iran and the US
  • Qatar has success mediating in Africa, Mideast, says spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari

New York: Qatar is prepared to take on the role of an international mediator in the wake of the recent Doha-brokered prisoner swap deal between Iran and the US, the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Wednesday.

“Our job as mediator is to make sure that prisoners come back home and the humanitarian channel is secure; secure in a way that would guarantee the Iranians would be able to use it, and secure in the way that it would not be used for anything that would fall under US sanctions,” Al-Ansari said at the Middle East Global Summit in New York.

Al-Ansari also serves as an advisor to Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

He added that the prisoner swap, during which five dual Iranian-US citizens were traded for five Iranians held in America on charges of violating US sanctions, was carried out with many safeguards to ensure that funds would not be used for nefarious purposes. The final part of the deal included the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds, which was sent to banks in Doha.

Al-Ansari also referenced other examples of Qatar’s efforts to play a mediating role, including in the conflicts in Darfur, Djibouti, Eritrea, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Qatar also acted as a mediator during and after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Al-Ansari said. While Qatar’s role met with some criticism, the spokesperson says that engagement with the Taliban was preferable to isolation.

“We understand the situation is not easy for the international community to engage. But complete isolation is not the solution. It didn’t work, and it won’t work. It will push the government there into the hands of other states which are not interested in human rights for women and children in Afghanistan,” he said.

He added that the Qatari prime minister’s meeting with the leader of the Taliban in Kandahar was the first-ever talks between that nation’s leadership and a foreign official.

Regarding trade, and specifically the dominant role of China internationally, Al-Ansari stated that it would be impossible to isolate Beijing.

“China is one of the biggest producers in the world. We will always need it and it will always need us.” However, he said, “we shouldn’t allow economic pressure to be used in political matters. Energy should not be weaponized. Trade should not be weaponized.”