Egypt’s FM, Arab ministers embark on foreign tour to end war in Gaza

Egypt’s FM, Arab ministers embark on foreign tour to end war in Gaza
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is embarking on a tour of the capitals of several permanent members of the UN Security Council. (Reuters)
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Updated 19 November 2023
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Egypt’s FM, Arab ministers embark on foreign tour to end war in Gaza

Egypt’s FM, Arab ministers embark on foreign tour to end war in Gaza
  • Delegation will visit capitals of several permanent members of UN Security Council
  • Arab League meets foreign officials to highlight dangers of Israeli policies in region

CAIRO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is embarking on a tour of the capitals of several permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The foreign ministers of a committee set up during the recent Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit will join him on the trip.

Ahmed Abu Zeid, spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Shoukry’s tour sought to advance the process of stopping the war in the Gaza Strip and to deal with the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in besieged Palestinian territory.

He said the foreign ministers would meet political leaders and key ministers.

The ministry said the tour would promote the need for an immediate ceasefire and ensure the supply of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

It highlighted the need to address the root causes of the crisis and establish an independent Palestinian state through a political process.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit this week met several Arab and foreign officials in Bahrain on the sidelines of the annual IISS Manama Dialogue security conference.

He discussed several matters with Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani, most notably the moves being made to stop the aggression against Gaza in light of the decisions of the Arab-Islamic summit held on Nov. 11, and the preparations for the next Arab summit, which Bahrain will host.

Aboul Gheit also met Lord Tariq Ahmad, the UK’s minister of state for the Middle East, to discuss the situation in Gaza.

He said the continuing war “was the result of the policies of some countries that were quick to give Israel a blank check to exercise revenge and that Israel exploited this license in a brutal way that became rejected by the entire world.”

Aboul Gheit also spoke to Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

The secretary-general warned of the highly negative consequences of the spread of anger and hatred in the Middle East, especially in light of the biased positions of many Western countries and governments in supporting Israel in its “brutal, immoral and lawless aggression, which reflects a blatant pattern of double standards.”

He also briefed Borrell on the Arab approach to ending the conflict and working to find a permanent solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with the vision of the two states.

Aboul Gheit highlighted the dangers of all forms of displacement, exile and deportation, which is a red line for Arab nations.

He also spoke to Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan about the latest developments in Gaza and the dangers of continuing the war.


Israel forces move into Gaza’s second-largest city

Palestinians salvage their belongings from the destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Deir Al-Balah. (AP)
Palestinians salvage their belongings from the destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Deir Al-Balah. (AP)
Updated 13 sec ago
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Israel forces move into Gaza’s second-largest city

Palestinians salvage their belongings from the destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Deir Al-Balah. (AP)
  • Bombardment has grown fiercer across the territory, including areas where Palestinians are told to seek safety

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel said Tuesday that its troops had entered Gaza’s second-largest city as intensified bombardment sent streams of ambulances and cars racing to hospitals with wounded and dead Palestinians, including children, in a bloody new phase of the war.
The military said its forces were “in the heart” of Khan Younis, which has emerged as the first target in the expanded ground offensive into southern Gaza that Israel says aims to destroy Hamas. Military officials said they were engaged in the “most intense day” of battles since the ground offensive began more than five weeks ago, with heavy firefights also taking place in northern Gaza.
The assault into the south is pushing a new wave of displaced Palestinians almost two months into the war, raising alarm from relief groups that they can’t keep up because insufficient aid supplies are entering Gaza. The UN said 1.87 million people — more than 80 percent of Gaza’s population — have been driven from their homes. New evacuation orders by the Israeli military are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the tiny coastal strip’s southern portion.

BACKGROUND

The assault into the south is pushing a new wave of displaced Palestinians almost two months into the war, raising alarm from relief groups that they can’t keep up because insufficient aid supplies are entering Gaza.

Bombardment has grown fiercer across the territory, including areas where Palestinians are told to seek safety. In the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, just north of Khan Younis, a strike Tuesday destroyed a house where dozens of displaced people were sheltering. At least 34 people were killed, including at least six children, according to an Associated Press reporter at the hospital who counted the bodies.
Footage from the scene of the strike showed women screaming from an upper floor of a house shattered to a concrete shell. In a field of wreckage below, men pulled the limp body of a child from under a concrete slab next to a burning car. At the nearby hospital, medics tried to resuscitate a young boy and girl, placed together bloodied and unmoving on a single stretcher.
Under US pressure to prevent further mass casualties in the conflict with Hamas, Israel says it is being more precise as it widens its offensive into southern Gaza. Weeks of bombardment and a ground offensive obliterated much of northern Gaza.
Israel’s assault since Oct. 7 has killed more than 15,890 people in Gaza — 70 percent of them women and children — with more than 42,000 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. It says hundreds have been killed or wounded since a weeklong ceasefire ended Friday, and many still are trapped
under rubble.

 


West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings

West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings
Updated 7 min 56 sec ago
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West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings

West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings
  • Many families fleeing south to Rafah which is already overcrowded with dire conditions

AS-SAWIYAH, Palestinian Territories: Moussa is eight years old and really likes marbles. But for the past month, this Palestinian boy, living in the occupied West Bank, has a new game: “Pretend daddy isn’t dead.”
He calls his dad, imagines what he did with his day, and acts like he’s suddenly going to run into him.
But his father, Bilal Saleh, was killed on October 28.
The 40-year-old was shot in the chest while picking olives with his family near his home in the village of As-Sawiyah.
Saleh is one of more than 250 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, according to a Palestinian government tally, since Hamas’s attack on October 7 sparked a new war with Israel.

A Palestinian checks a car burned in Israeli settlers raid near Salfit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank December 3, 2023. (REUTERS)

“He was a simple man, attached to his land,” says his widow, Ikhlas, showing images on her phone of Saleh in the fields, reciting the Qur’an with Moussa and at a wedding.
She struggles to even look at them, let alone tell the story of what happened.

BACKGROUND

The 40-year-old was shot in the chest while picking olives with his family near his home in the village of As-Sawiyah.

The children pressed around her fill in the details.
Videos from the scene show four men wearing the knitted yarmulkes that are popular among Israeli settlers, shouting toward the family as they are harvesting.
One is armed with an automatic rifle.
The family flees, but Saleh has forgotten his phone and runs back to fetch it.
A few minutes later, a gunshot rings out.
The family rushes back to find Saleh bleeding from the chest.
He was taken to a hospital about 10 kilometers (six miles) away but declared dead soon after.
The family says Ikhlas’ brother and father saw on social media that a man had been arrested for the shooting but released a few hours later.
The police and COGAT, an Israeli Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian territories, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP.
A few days later, without knowing why, Ikhlas was called to a police station in Ariel, a neighboring Israeli settlement, where police asked her to explain what she saw.
“At the entrance, while a guard was checking my identity papers, a settler drove by. He saw that I was veiled and he rolled down his window to spit on me,” she told AFP.
“After that, I don’t see what kind of justice they could give us,” she added.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din convinced her to file a complaint anyway, though it says a study of settler violence cases between 2005 and 2021 showed 92 percent were dismissed by the Israeli authorities.
Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
Nearly half a million Israelis also live there in settlements considered illegal by the United Nations.
“For the past 10 years, it has been getting more and more serious,” said Hazem Saleh, Bilal’s brother-in-law. “We are being attacked, our land is being taken from us, settlements are being built. They have the power, they can do what they want.”
But it has been “even worse,” he said, since Hamas militants from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a large-scale military offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 15,900 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas authorities.
Israel has also relaxed laws on access to weapons, promising to arm Israeli civilians in at least 1,000 localities, including settlements.
On Saturday, settlers opened fire on a 38-year-old Palestinian in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
The As-Sawiyah residents’ WhatsApp group is a litany of fear and violence.
Mouna Saleh, 56, Bilal’s mother-in-law, fears for the children, especially Moussa and Mayce “who are so small — what can we explain to them?“
“How can you kill a man in a few seconds, in front of children? What is this world?” she said.
“We’re not calling for violence or revenge. We call for peace, justice, mercy as our Prophet Muhammad did,” said Hazem.
“All we can do is tell our story, even if it pains us.”

 

 


US sales of Palestinian keffiyehs soar, even as wearers targeted

US sales of Palestinian keffiyehs soar, even as wearers targeted
Updated 34 min 19 sec ago
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US sales of Palestinian keffiyehs soar, even as wearers targeted

US sales of Palestinian keffiyehs soar, even as wearers targeted
  • Hirbawi, which has patented its brand, sells scarves internationally via its US and German websites and on Amazon

WASHINGTON: A growing number of Americans are donning the keffiyeh, the distinctive patterned scarf that’s closely linked with Palestinians, to demand a ceasefire to Israel’s attacks on Gaza or to signal their support for Palestinians.
Sales of the scarves have jumped since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, US distributors say, even as keffiyehs have been forcibly removed by security forces at some protests and wearers report being targeted for verbal and physical abuse.
“It was like a light switch. All of a sudden, we had hundreds of people on the website simultaneously and buying whatever they could,” said Azar Aghayev, the US distributor for Hirbawi, which opened in 1961 and is the only manufacturer of keffiyehs left in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“In two days, the stock that we had was just gone, and not just gone, it was oversold.”
Hirbawi, which has patented its brand, sells scarves internationally via its US and German websites and on Amazon. All 40 variations on the US website, which include many in bright colors as well as the traditional black and white, are sold out, Aghayev said.
Unit sales of keffiyeh scarves have risen 75 percent in the 56 days between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2 on Amazon.com compared with the previous 56 days. Searches for “Palestinian scarf for women” rose by 159 percent in the three months to Dec. 4 compared with the previous three months.

 


UK’s Sunak tells Netanyahu in call of disappointment at new fighting in Gaza

UK’s Sunak tells Netanyahu in call of disappointment at new fighting in Gaza
Updated 06 December 2023
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UK’s Sunak tells Netanyahu in call of disappointment at new fighting in Gaza

UK’s Sunak tells Netanyahu in call of disappointment at new fighting in Gaza
  • Downing Street spokesperson: ‘The PM expressed disappointment about the breakdown of the pause in fighting in Gaza, which had allowed hostages to be released’
  • Spokesperson: ‘The leaders discussed urgent efforts to ensure all remaining hostages are safely freed and to allow any remaining British nationals in Gaza to leave’

LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his disappointment about the breakdown of the pause in fighting in Gaza in a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, his office said in a readout.
“The Prime Minister spoke to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon. He expressed disappointment about the breakdown of the pause in fighting in Gaza, which had allowed hostages to be released,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The leaders discussed urgent efforts to ensure all remaining hostages are safely freed and to allow any remaining British nationals in Gaza to leave.”
Sunak’s spokeperson said the British prime minister stressed the need for Israel to take greater care to protect civilians in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter the Palestinian enclave.
Defense minister Grant Shapps said Britain was considering sending a military support vessel to provide medical and humanitarian aid in the Middle East.


Jordan’s King Abdullah says world should condemn any attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians

Jordan’s King Abdullah says world should condemn any attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians
Updated 05 December 2023
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Jordan’s King Abdullah says world should condemn any attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians

Jordan’s King Abdullah says world should condemn any attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians
  • Talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides focused on the need to increase efforts to deliver humanitarian aid and relief to the embattled civilians living in Gaza
  • King Abdullah told Christodoulides there would be dangerous consequences from any attempt to forcibly push Palestinians en masse from their land

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday the world should condemn any attempt by Israel to create conditions that would forcibly displace Palestinians within the war-devastated Gaza Strip or outside its borders.
In remarks carried by state media after a meeting with the Cypriot president in Amman, the monarch again called for an immediate cease-fire and warned that Israel’s relentless bombing campaign was leading to a “dangerous deterioration” in the situation.
Talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides focused on the need to increase efforts to deliver humanitarian aid and relief to the embattled civilians living in Gaza.
Abdullah has lobbied Western leaders to pile pressure on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid and open crossings it controls to bring in sufficient level of aid needed.
Israel now controls the volume and nature of aid entering to over 2.3 million inhabitants under siege, according to UN officials and humanitarian workers.
UNRWA officials say only a trickle of the aid the enclave needs is getting through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt which NGOs and officials say can only handle a fraction of the needs.
Israel started its campaign in retribution for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters who rampaged through Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, according to Israel’s tally.
Israeli bombardments have killed nearly 16,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and driven 80 percent of the population from their homes.
King Abdullah told Christodoulides there would be dangerous consequences from any attempt to forcibly push Palestinians en masse from their land while it maintained security control, officials said.
Officials also fear wider violence in the West Bank, which Jordan borders, as settler attacks on Palestinian civilians, confiscation of land and Israeli military raids mount.
It could create circumstances that could encourage Israel to forcibly push tens of thousands of Palestians across the Jordan River.
Officials say the forcible expulsion of Palestinians would amount to a declaration of war and prompt Jordan to suspend its peace treaty with Israel.
On Tuesday, Amman condemned Israel’s move to build new settlements in Arab East Jerusalem, the part of the contested city that was seized along with the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the UN considers occupied territory..
“Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlement building on land it occupied and the confiscation of territory are a flagrant violation of international law” and dimmed any prospects of peace, said Sufain Qudah, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry.