Biden decision to quit made Netanyahu more ‘bold’ against Iran: Israeli official

Biden decision to quit made Netanyahu more ‘bold’ against Iran: Israeli official
An Israeli official has said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been encouraged to take stronger action against Iran because Joe Biden has quit the US presidential race. (AFP/File)
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Updated 03 August 2024
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Biden decision to quit made Netanyahu more ‘bold’ against Iran: Israeli official

Biden decision to quit made Netanyahu more ‘bold’ against Iran: Israeli official
  • PM ‘feels confident that he can attack Israel’s enemies and still have the full support of the US’
  • Another Israeli official describes conversation between the two leaders earlier this week as ‘tense’

LONDON: An Israeli official has said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been encouraged to take stronger action against Iran because Joe Biden has quit the US presidential race.
The official told the Daily Telegraph that Biden had tried to “restrain” Netanyahu while he was still running for a second term in the White House.
“He told him not to respond too harshly to Iran’s attacks. And Iran knew this, which is why they exploited the situation to attack Israel,” the official said.
He added that now he was free of the constraints of having to balance party politics, Biden would be more inclined to support Israel, and that his decision would be a “big game changer” for the region.
“His true agenda is to support Israel fully. And he has done so for decades. Netanyahu knows this, which is why he’s being more bold and feels confident that he can attack Israel’s enemies and still have the full support of the US,” the official said.
It comes after a series of assassinations rocked the Middle East, including of senior Hamas figure Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel, which also conducted strikes in Lebanon and Syria, is anticipating a significant military response from Iran.
Washington too is preparing for an escalation, increasing military support for Israel by sending aircraft and aircraft carriers to the region in preparation for a drone or missile attack by Iran and its proxies.
However, another Israeli official told the Daily Telegraph that relations between Biden and Netanyahu had not been made any easier following former’s decision to drop out.
“Biden wants to get a ceasefire. That is how he wants to leave his term. The conversation they held two days ago was tense,” the official said.
Dan Arbell, a scholar-in-residence at the Center for Israeli Studies at American University, told the Daily Telegraph that he does not believe Biden dropping out of the race was the reason for the assassinations earlier this week.
“Biden being a lame duck could play a small role, but I don’t think that’s the ultimate consideration,” he said, adding that the outgoing president was also not going to give Netanyahu “carte blanche to do whatever” he wants.
“I think that any move by him (Biden) to support Israel, he has to take into consideration how that impacts (new Democratic presidential nominee Kamala) Harris in public,” Arbell said.


‘Stop this war now,’ Slovenian PM tells Israel’s Netanyahu

‘Stop this war now,’ Slovenian PM tells Israel’s Netanyahu
Updated 23 sec ago
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‘Stop this war now,’ Slovenian PM tells Israel’s Netanyahu

‘Stop this war now,’ Slovenian PM tells Israel’s Netanyahu
  • Addressing UN General Assembly, Robert Golob demands Israel ‘stop the bloodshed, end the occupation’
  • Sudan experiencing ‘man-made humanitarian catastrophe’ with millions displaced

LONDON: Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, telling his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop this war now.”

Golob was addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, with Slovenia having assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council on Sept. 1. 

During the speech, he left no room for doubt, thumping the lectern as he said: “I want to say this out loud and clear to the Israeli government: Stop the bloodshed, stop the suffering, bring the hostages home and end the occupation.”

He told the UNGA that the UNSC is finding itself unable to respond “in an effective way to major conflicts such as Gaza, Ukraine or Sudan,” adding that the council needs reform.

“In Gaza, almost four months since the council’s resolution on (a) ceasefire and hostage release, the deal is nowhere close,” Golob said.

“As the (UN) secretary-general (Antonio Guterres) said yesterday … people in Gaza are existing, not living, existing among lakes of sewage, piles of rubbish and mountains of rubble. The only certainty they have is that tomorrow is going to be worse.

“In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, violence and dehumanization of Palestinians is increasing and has reached a boiling point.

“All this is taking us further away from the two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in peace and security. 

“(The) escalation of (the) Gaza crisis into the region is now a reality. The region is (on) the brink of an abyss. De-escalation is urgently needed, starting with the ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Golob also highlighted the civil war in Sudan, saying: “We’re witnessing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, with millions displaced and in desperate need of humanitarian aid. At the same time, we’re seeing (an) atrocity happening again in Darfur.”

He blamed the five permanent members of the UNSC for “misusing veto power and putting national interest first,” adding: “We urgently need a council that’s a true representation of the international community, a council that’s fit for the world of today.

“We need to ensure that the distribution of the seats is fair. The council needs stronger voices of the regions that have been underrepresented, such as (the) African continent.”

Golob added that the “erosion of respect for international humanitarian law” is making it harder for humanitarian work to be carried out.

“In Gaza, humanitarians aren’t just occasional collateral victims — they seem to have become a deliberate military target,” he said.

“There’s no other explanation for the highest number of humanitarian workers being killed last year, of whom the vast majority (were) in Gaza.

“The sense of impunity for crimes in Gaza is putting humanitarian organizations under stress elsewhere. This is undermining the very essence of the UN.”

Golob also addressed climate change and the measures being taken to halt its effects across the world, especially threats to water supplies, including the use of supercomputers and artificial intelligence.

“Unfortunately, people suffering from armed conflicts don’t have the luxury of high-tech solutions. More often than not, they’re denied basic access to clean drinking water,” he said.

“Even more, we’re increasingly seeing how access to water is becoming weaponized in Yemen, Somalia, Gaza and Sudan.”

Golob spoke about how children disproportionately suffer as a result of climate change and conflict, once again highlighting the dire situation of young people in Gaza.

“Slovenia is offering concrete help with the foundation Let Them Dream, which is dealing with the rehabilitation of children from Gaza,” he said.

“It’s an extremely noble and human project which was launched years ago and has already helped hundreds of children from Gaza who came for rehabilitation in Slovenia, and will continue to do so. Sadly, some of these kids are now already the victims of recent aggression on Gaza.”

Golob concluded his address by telling delegates about an experience earlier this week when he met two young “courageous” Palestinian girls at an event hosted by Save the Children.

“They spoke about their challenges in life. They spoke about their feelings. They spoke about their plans for the future. And despite all of the destruction, dehumanization and fear, there was no anger nor hate in their stories,” he said.

“They just had this enormous wish to live a normal, decent life. They just had this enormous wish to be able to educate and study in order to be able to contribute back to their community.

“One wants to become a doctor, the second wants to become a humanitarian worker. Today, I fulfill my promise to them, and I bring their story to the General Assembly.”


Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes

Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes
Updated 25 min 12 sec ago
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Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes

Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes
  • Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported that four buildings were destroyed and there were many casualties
  • Israeli military spokesperson said central command center target was embedded deep within civilian areas

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said Friday it struck the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, where a series of massive explosions leveled multiple buildings, sending clouds of orange and black smoke billowing in the skies.
The strikes in the suburbs south of Lebanon’s capital came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN, vowing that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue. His comments further dimmed hopes for an internationally backed ceasefire aimed at preventing a spiral into all-out war.
Three major Israeli TV channels said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strikes. But the unsourced reports could not immediately be confirmed by The Associated Press, and the army declined comment. But given the size and timing of the blast, there were strong indications that a high-value target may have been inside the buildings struck.
To a degree unseen in past conflicts, Israel this past week has aimed to eliminate Hezbollah’s senior leadership.
Friday’s bombings were the most powerful yet seen in the Lebanese capital the past year. The Israeli army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said it targeted the main Hezbollah headquarters, located beneath residential buildings. Four buildings in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Dahiyeh were reduced to rubble, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported. The blast rattled windows and shook houses some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen headed to the scene, sirens wailing.
Officials at a nearby hospital said they received at least 10 wounded, three critically including a Syrian child.
Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon this week, saying it is determined to put an end to more than 11 months of Hezbollah fire into its territory. The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel has moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.
At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes early Friday, Health Minister Firass Abiad said, bringing the death toll in Lebanon this week to more than 720. He said the dead included dozens of women and children.
A predawn strike Friday in the mainly Sunni border town of Chebaa hit a home, killing nine members of the same family, the state news agency said. A resident identified the dead as Hussein Zahra, his wife Ratiba, their five children and two of their grandchildren.
At the UN, Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals.
Netanyahu’s comments have damped hopes for a US-backed call for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah to allow time for a diplomatic solution. Hezbollah has not responded to the proposal.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, saying it was a show of support for the Palestinians. Since then, it and the Israeli military have traded fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.
An Israeli security official said he expects a possible war against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza, because the Israeli military’s goals are much narrower.
In Gaza, Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas’ military and political regime, but the goal in Lebanon is just to push Hezbollah away from the border with Israel — “not a high bar like Gaza” in terms of operational objectives, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to military briefing guidelines.
The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of strikes over the course of two hours around the south on Friday, including in the cities of Sidon and Nabatiyeh. It said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure. It said Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Tiberias.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defense workers pulled the bodies of two women – 35-year-old Hiba Ataya and her mother Sabah Olyan – from the rubble of a building brought down by a strike. “That’s Sabah, these are her clothes, my love,” one man cried out as her body emerged.
Israel says its accelerated strikes this week have already inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s weapons capabilities – and a string of its top commanders have been assassinated in strikes. Officials have suggested its limited fire of missile and rockets the past week show it has been set back.
But the group boasted a large arsenal of rockets and missiles and its remaining capacities remain unknown.
Hezbollah officials and their supporters remain defiant. Not long before the explosions Friday evening, thousands were massed in another part of Beirut’s suburbs for the funeral of three Hezbollah members killed in earlier strikes, including the head of the group’s drone unit, Mohammed Surour.
Men and women in the giant crowd waved their fists in the air and chanted, “We will never accept humiliation” as they marched marched behind the three coffins, wrapped in the group’s yellow flag.
Hussein Fadlallah, head of Hezbollah in Beirut, said in a speech that no matter how many commanders Israel kills, the group has endless numbers of experience fighters who are deployed all over the front lines. Fadlallah vowed that Hezbollah will keep fighting until Israel stops its offensive in Gaza.
“We will not abandon the support of Palestine, Jerusalem and oppressed Gaza,” Fadlallah said. “There is no place for neutrality in this battle.”

The explosives used in the strike were 2,000-pound bombs, according to unverified reports.

The administration of US President Joe Biden in June sent to Israel large numbers of munitions, including thousands of Hellfire missiles, according to two US officials briefed on an updated list of weapons shipments.


Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’

Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’
Updated 27 September 2024
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Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’

Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’
  • In Tehran after Friday prayers, a protest took place around Enghelab Square in the city center
  • Demonstrators carried portraits of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as Palestinian and Hezbollah flags

TEHRAN: Thousands of Iranians protested on Friday in the capital Tehran and other cities to condemn Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, AFP journalists and state media reported.
Officials had on Wednesday called on the nation to demonstrate in support of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon “and to condemn the barbaric crimes of the Zionist regime in Palestine,” the official IRNA news agency said.
Hezbollah is part of the “Axis of Resistance,” Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East which have targeted Israel, and also US forces, in support of Palestinian militants Hamas.
In Tehran after Friday prayers, a protest took place around Enghelab Square in the city center, an AFP journalist said.
Demonstrators carried portraits of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as Palestinian and Hezbollah flags.
“Israel is destroyed. Lebanon is victorious,” they chanted, deploring “a bloodbath in Lebanon.”
Protesters also burned Israeli and US flags.
State television aired footage of other demonstrations in Semnan, Qom, Kashan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering a war with Israel and near-daily cross-border fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel, which has hit back.
Those exchanges have intensified dramatically over the past week. Israeli raids on Lebanon since Monday have killed hundreds in the deadliest violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
As the violence escalates, analysts say Iran is walking a tightrope by trying to support Hezbollah without getting dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands.


Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders

Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders
Updated 27 September 2024
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Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders

Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders
  • “I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life,” Netanyahu said
  • He insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you”

UNITED NATIONS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his leadership strained by conflicts on two fronts, took the UN General Assembly podium on Friday and said he was there to refute the untruths he had heard from other leaders on the same rostrum earlier in the week.
Netanyahu, armed with visual aids as he has been in the past, defended his nation’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
“I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life,” Netanyahu said. “But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”
He insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you.” He once again blamed Iran for being behind many of the problems in the region.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.
In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah militants and has inflicted civilian casualties as well. Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the Hamas invasion, and ongoing fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israel is vowing to step up its attacks on Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely to their homes.
Late Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations as fears grow that the violent escalation in recent days — following 11 months of cross-border exchange of fire — could grow into an all-out war.
The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has maintained its military operations are justified and are necessary to defend itself.
As Netanyahu took the stage, there was enough ruckus in the audience that the presiding diplomat had to shout, “Order, please.”
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday each made a point of calling out Israel for its actions. “Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said as he closed his remarks, pounding the podium. And Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: “This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine.” He thumped the rostrum to audible applause.


UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’

UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’
Updated 27 September 2024
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UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’

UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’
  • “The attacks on Lebanon are killing and injuring children at a frightening rate,” UNICEF’s Lebanon representative Edouard Beigbeder said
  • “The suffering of children must stop“

BEIRUT: The UN children’s agency condemned this week’s sharp escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, saying that the bombardment of Lebanon was killing children “at a frightening rate.”
Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a deadly exchange of cross-border fire since the Iran-backed group’s Palestinian ally, Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel shifted its focus this week from Gaza to its northern front with Lebanon, while Hezbollah has launched barrages of rockets into northern Israel.
Since Monday, Israeli warplanes have bombarded what the military says are Hezbollah targets around Lebanon, leaving around 700 people dead, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which says the majority were civilians.
On Monday and Tuesday, 50 of those killed were children, UNICEF said, citing ministry data.
“The attacks on Lebanon are killing and injuring children at a frightening rate,” UNICEF’s Lebanon representative Edouard Beigbeder said, according to the statement.
The situation “has moved from crisis to catastrophe. The suffering of children must stop,” Beigbeder said, calling for a halt in the fighting.
Israel has hit back against accusations of large numbers of civilian casualties, accusing Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields.