Israeli police kill Palestinian at Al-Aqsa entrance

Update Israeli police kill Palestinian at Al-Aqsa entrance
Israeli police forces deploy in the Old City in annexed east Jerusalem after a reported shooting incident. (AFP)
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Updated 01 April 2023

Israeli police kill Palestinian at Al-Aqsa entrance

Israeli police kill Palestinian at Al-Aqsa entrance
  • Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of Mohammed Al-Osaibi, 26
  • Settlers group announces rewards for those who can offer Passover sacrifices inside mosque

RAMALLAH: A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli police in the early hours of Saturday at the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of Mohammed Al-Osaibi, 26, an ethnic Bedouin Israeli citizen from the Negev region.
Talab Al-Sanee, a former Israeli lawmaker and the representative of Bedouin Arab villages of the Negev, told Arab News that Al-Osaibi was killed when he tried to intervene after seeing Israeli police and border guards assaulting a young Palestinian woman and trying to remove her from the mosque’s courtyards.
Israeli police said the man grabbed a gun from a police officer who had stopped him for questioning and managed to fire two shots before police killed him. Each side has vehemently rejected the other’s version.
“The police claim that he tried to snatch someone’s weapon is a lie and slander. The police, with their cameras, document everything big and small, and I challenge the police to show the video documenting the attempt to snatch a weapon, as they claim,” Al-Sanee, who is representing Al-Osaibi’s case, told Arab News.
“This heinous crime is a wake-up call and a natural result of the unbridled racist incitement against the Arab masses. What is required is the dismissal of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the racist minister of Israel’s national security, the biggest instigator against the Arab masses,” he said.
He called for the establishment of an independent investigation committee headed by a judge, and the strengthening of Muslim presence at Al-Aqsa.
He said some elements in the civil movement against the government “plan to form armed militias that obey the orders of the fascist Bin-Gvir.”
A Jerusalem police statement said the suspect was alone and had been stopped for questioning after the closing time of Al-Aqsa. “At some point, Al-Osaibi suddenly attacked one of the police officers who asked the suspect to come outside and tried to grab the secured gun on the policeman’s body. Al-Osaibi managed to take the weapon and fire two bullets from it,” it claimed.
The police officer “physically struggled with him” before a shot was fired at the man “and he was neutralized on the spot,” it said.
Videos shared on social media captured the sound of at least 11 gunshots in quick succession.
Al-Osaibi’s family has demanded that police release security footage of the incident to prove “the allegations that their son pulled a soldier’s weapon,” but the police said there was no video of the incident.
A large group of Muslims staged a mass prayer outside the holy site after the incident, video from the scene showed.
Local authorities in Al-Osaibi’s native region of Rahat in Negev called for a general strike on Sunday in protest.
Palestinian presidency spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh warned in a statement against what he described as “the dangerous escalation by the Israeli occupation authorities,” calling the Israeli version of the incident “fabricated.”
He said the Israeli escalation at Al-Aqsa Mosque could lead to an explosion of anger.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis.
Ayman Odeh, an Israeli-Arab parliamentarian, denounced the “cold-blooded murder” of Al-Osaibi and called it part of the occupation’s systematic anti-Palestinian policy. It warned that the current far-right government would escalate these crimes to set fire to the region to escape from its internal crises.
The Islamic Jihad Movement called the killing “a dangerous, aggressive escalation aimed at terrorizing worshipers,” while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine warned of “severe repercussions.”
Meanwhile, the Returning to the Temple Mount group has announced a financial reward for those who manage to slaughter the Passover offerings inside Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Financial compensation for every settler who can slaughter the Jewish Passover sacrifice inside Al-Aqsa courtyards, even if he tried and was stopped,” read a message on the group’s Facebook page.
“This is the time to sacrifice for Passover. If you succeed the prize is 20,000 shekels ($5,555). If you get arrested with a goat inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, 2,500 shekels ($694),” it said.
Hamas warned Israel following the settlers’ threat.
Its spokesman for Jerusalem, Mohammed Hamada, said: “Our Palestinian people will not remain silent in the face of settlers’ threats to slaughter sacrifices in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The occupation must know very well that its desecration of the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque will be met with a reaction.”
On Wednesday evening, 15 rabbis sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir requesting that settlers be allowed to slaughter this year’s Passover offerings on the “Temple Mount”, or Al-Aqsa Mosque.


Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal
Updated 41 min 40 sec ago

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal
  • Tanker was heading from Russia to China

CAIRO: Egypt has deployed three tug boats to tow an oil tanker that suffered an engine failure in the Suez Canal, the canal’s authority said in a statement on Sunday.
The canal’s head Osama Rabie said traffic heading northwards will resume as normal after the tugboats move the tanker.
The crude tanker, SEAVIGOUR, is a Malta-flagged vessel that was built in 2016, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data.
It was heading from Russia to China, the canal authority added.
Frequent traffic disruptions occur because of technical malfunctions but stoppages are usually brief.
Less than two weeks ago, tugboats managed to move a bulk carrier that had been stranded for several hours in the Suez Canal.


50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq
Updated 04 June 2023

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq
  • Al-Hol camp, in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, is home to about 50,000 people including family members of suspected terrorists

BAGHDAD: Fifty Daesh terrorists and 168 Iraqi members of terrorist families were repatriated from Syria to Iraq on Saturday, an Iraqi official said.
Iraqi authorities “received 50 members of the Daesh from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The SDF are the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, and led the battle that dislodged Daesh group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.
They will “be the subject of investigations and will face Iraqi justice,” they added.
According to conflict monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights they were detained in Hasakah, northeast Syria.
Additionally, 168 relatives of Daesh-group members were repatriated from Syria’s Al-Hol camp to be relocated to Al-Jadaa camp south of Mosul, the Iraqi official added, where they will undergo psychiatric treatment.
“Once we receive the assurances of their tribal leaders that they will not face reprisals, they will be sent home.”
Al-Hol camp, in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, is home to about 50,000 people including family members of suspected terrorists.
Among them are displaced Syrians, Iraqi refugees as well as more than 10,000 foreigners originally from some 60 countries.
In March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift repatriation of foreigners held in Al-Hol.
Nearly half of the camp’s population is under the age of 12 and residents are “deprived of their rights, vulnerable, and marginalized,” Guterres said in a statement during a visit to Iraq.
“I have no doubt to say that the worst camp that exists in today’s world is Al-Hol, with the worst possible conditions for people and with enormous suffering for the people that have been stranded there for years,” Guterres said.
Since May 2021, hundreds of families have been transferred from Al-Hol to Al-Jadaa in Iraq, with a number of those going on to flee.
The repatriation to Iraq of relatives of fighters who joined the ultra-radical group that controlled one-third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017 has sparked opposition.
In December 2021, Iraqi authorities announced plans to close Al-Jadaa.
But little progress has been made and the relocation of displaced people to their home regions has proven challenging and prompted opposition from local people.

 


Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home
Updated 04 June 2023

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home
  • Vienna reacted with relief at the release of its two citizens, named as Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, who it said had been arrested “unjustly” by Iran in January 2016 and January 2019, respectively

BRUSSELS: One Dane and two Austrian-Iranian citizens released from detention by Tehran arrived in their home countries on Saturday, after the latest in a series of prisoner swaps.
The three Europeans had landed shortly before 2:45 am (0045 GMT) Saturday at Melsbroek military airport just outside Brussels.
They had flown there from Muscat, the capital of Oman which helped broker their release.
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib welcomed them at the airport along with Danish and Austrian diplomats.
The trio’s release, as well as that of a Belgian aid worker a week earlier, were part of a prisoner swap in which Tehran got back an Iranian diplomat convicted and incarcerated in Belgium on terrorism charges.
Vienna reacted with relief at the release of its two citizens, named as Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, who it said had been arrested “unjustly” by Iran in January 2016 and January 2019, respectively.
Thanking Belgium, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said: “Our years of diplomatic efforts to secure their release have borne fruit... Today is a very emotional day for all of us.”
Ghaderi and Mossaheb arrived at Vienna airport from Belgium at around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) on Saturday, where they were welcomed by their families and Schallenberg, his spokeswoman Claudia Tuertscher told AFP.
The Danish man, identified as Thomas Kjems, landed at Copenhagen airport at around 11:00 am local time, telling reporters that he had been treated well in Iran, without being subjected to torture.
Kjems had been arrested in Iran in November 2022 on the sidelines of a demonstration for women’s rights, according to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

Melsbroek is the same airport that Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele arrived at on May 26 upon being freed by Iran after 15 months in captivity.
His liberation was obtained in exchange for Belgium freeing Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who had been imprisoned for a 2018 plot to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris.
Iran had levelled charges of “espionage” at Vandecasteele but his family, the Belgian government and rights groups all say that was a fabricated case used to pressure Brussels for Assadi’s release.
Belgian government officials said the release of Vandecasteele, the Dane and the two Austrian-Iranians were all part of “Operation Blackstone,” in reference to an 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, who was known for declaring: “It is better that 10 guilty escape than one innocent suffer.”
De Croo confirmed to Le Soir daily that the three Europeans released on Friday were the second part of the negotiations with Tehran on the exchange between Vandecasteele and Assadi.
The exiled Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance in Iran, the target of the 2018 bomb plot, has criticized Assadi’s release, saying it violated a Belgian court order requiring them to be consulted first.
Critics of the prisoner swap said it would encourage Tehran to take more Europeans hostage as bargaining chips to seek the return of agents like Assadi arrested for terror offenses in the West.
De Croo stressed his government “continues to fight for the respect of human rights and the release of European citizens unjustly detained by Iran.”

The exact number of foreign passport holders still being held by Iran is thought to be in the dozens but is not precisely known, as the families of some detainees opt to negotiate out of the public eye.
Belgian government officials said at least 22 “innocent” Europeans remained detained in Iran. France last week gave a figure of more than 30 EU citizens held.
Austria’s Schallenberg said of his two freed compatriots: “We are especially happy for the brave families who have suffered so much in recent years. Now they can finally embrace their husbands, fathers and grandfather again in freedom.”
The Gulf sultanate of Oman has emerged as a key interlocutor between the West and Iran.
In 2016 it also played a mediator role in the release of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other US citizens who had been held by Tehran.
In May, Iran released a Frenchman and a French-Irish citizen, both of whom had gone on hunger strike to protest their detention and conditions.

 


Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan
Updated 04 June 2023

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan
  • On Friday, several hundred Israelis had protested outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea north of Tel Aviv in a demonstration police labelled as unauthorized

TEL AVIV: Tens of thousands of demonstrators thronged Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Saturday for the 22nd consecutive week to protest against a controversial plan to reform Israel’s judicial system.
The government’s reform proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.
In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced a “pause” to allow for talks on the reforms, which were moving through parliament and split the nation.
Israeli media said nearly 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv for Saturday’s protest. The police do not supply official figures for the number of demonstrators.
On Friday, several hundred Israelis had protested outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea north of Tel Aviv in a demonstration police labelled as unauthorized. There were at least 17 arrests.
“We will keep demonstrating to show them that even if they have paused in the reform plan we will stay mobilized — they will not be able to pass laws on the sly,” said 55-year-old dentist Ilit Fayn at Saturday’s Tel Aviv protest.
“It’s important for us to eliminate the possibility of Israel becoming a dictatorship,” added Arnon Oshri, a 66-year-old farmer.
Netanyahu’s government, a coalition between his Likud party and extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, argues that the proposed changes are needed to rebalance powers between lawmakers and the judiciary.
But opponents of the plan believe it could open the way to a more authoritarian government.
“This corrupt government is full of outlaws who are degrading our country to the level of a third world country,” Oshri said.
“It took 2,000 years for the Jewish people to have a state, and we cannot lose it because of a bunch of fanatics.”

 


Tunisian coast guard finds drowned child’s body after migrant ships sink

Tunisian coast guard finds drowned child’s body after migrant ships sink
Updated 03 June 2023

Tunisian coast guard finds drowned child’s body after migrant ships sink

Tunisian coast guard finds drowned child’s body after migrant ships sink
  • The flow of migrants from Tunisia has intensified since President Kais Saied made a fiery speech on Feb. 21 claiming illegal immigration was a demographic threat to Tunisia

SFAX, Tunisia: The Tunisian coast guard recovered the body of a young child thought to have drowned at sea when two vessels carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean, a journalist working with AFP said.
The child’s body, dressed in a pink jumpsuit and grey woollen cap, was discovered during a patrol off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia’s second city, according to the journalist who was accompanying the coast guard.
The child was likely from Cameroon, as more than 200 Cameroonians had been rescued in the last two days, the coast guard undertaking the operation said.
The child’s mother was believed to have been one of the people missing after the sinking of two boats earlier in the week, they added.
The Cameroonian Embassy in Tunis was nonetheless unable to confirm this information when contacted by AFP.

BACKGROUND

The child’s body, dressed in a pink jumpsuit and grey woollen cap, was discovered during a patrol off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia’s second city, according to a journalist who was accompanying the coast guard.

Local court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi meanwhile said that two boats carrying migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank off Sfax’s coast Wednesday.
Six people died and 39 were rescued from the first boat, while 12 people from the second boat were rescued and 41 others are missing, he said.
It was unknown which of the boats the child had been traveling on, Masmoudi added.
Tunisia, whose coastline is less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has long been a favored launching point for migrants attempting the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe.
The flow of migrants from Tunisia has intensified since President Kais Saied made a fiery speech on Feb. 21 claiming illegal immigration was a demographic threat to Tunisia.
The country is in the grips of a long-running socio-economic crisis, with spiralling inflation and persistently high unemployment, pushing some of its citizens to seek a better life abroad.
On May 26, authorities announced the arrest of an alleged smuggler in Sfax, wanted in connection with the September deaths of 20 Tunisian migrants who drowned off the coast of Chebba.