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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Russia on Aug. 12-14, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a diplomatic source.
— More to follow
WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians, urging its ally Israel to bring greater accountability.
The sanctions were announced on the same day that Israel launched a wide-scale attack on the West Bank that it said killed nine Palestinian fighters, despite warnings by President Joe Biden’s administration against expanding the war in Gaza.
“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank,” he said.
The latest sanction targets included Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli group that has supported the unauthorized settler outpost of Meitarim Farm in the south Hebron Hills.
Volunteers from the group earlier this year fenced off a village whose 250 Palestinian residents had all been forced to leave, the State Department said.
Hashomer Yosh’s website, using the biblical name for the West Bank, says the group helps “various farmers throughout Judea and Samaria, who bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime.”
The State Department also imposed sanctions against Yitzhak Levi Filant, who was accused of leading armed settlers in setting up roadblocks and patrols with a goal of attacking Palestinians.
Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.
At least 640 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concern to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about settler violence and about the expansion of settlements championed by far-right members of his government.
US sanctions generally bar targets from the US financial system, leading Israeli banks to restrict dealings with sanctioned individuals for fear of repercussions.
But the Biden administration has held off on imposing sanctions on government ministers leading the settlement policy.
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon for a year, calling for a “de-escalation” of a recent surge in violence between Israel and armed group Hezbollah.
A unanimously adopted resolution said the council “decides to extend the present mandate of UNIFIL until 31st August 2025,” referring to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
With more than 10,000 personnel, the peacekeeping force has been stationed in Lebanon since 1978, with its role strengthened after a 33-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Tensions have risen again since the October start of Israel’s war in Gaza, with Hezbollah supporting the Palestinian armed group Hamas with operations in southern Lebanon, including daily exchanges of fire with Israeli troops.
On Sunday, Hezbollah carried out a major drone and rocket attack against Israel, in retaliation for the death of one of its military leaders, Fuad Shukr, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut on July 30.
In response, Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack.
The UN Security Council resolution said the body “strongly urges that all relevant actors implement immediate measures toward de-escalation, including with a view to restoring calm, restraint and stability across the Blue Line,” referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a letter to the council at the end of July, had supported Beirut’s request to extend UNIFIL’s mandate unchanged.
While the mandate has not been amended, the resolution adopted on Wednesday “encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that UNIFIL remains ready to adapt its activities to support de-escalation, within its mandate and its rules of engagement.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, criticized what he termed the “failure” of UNIFIL.
“What good does this mandate do when it fails so miserably to meet any of its objectives?” he told reporters.
Danon described a rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Israeli-annexed part of the Syrian Golan Heights at the end of July as “a direct result of the failure of UNIFIL and the Lebanese government to implement” the Security Council’s resolutions.
BENGHAZI: Libya’s oilfield closures spread on Wednesday as the Sarir field almost completely halted output, two field engineers told Reuters, amid a political dispute over control of the central bank and oil revenue.
Authorities in the east, where most of Libya’s oilfields lie, declared on Monday that all production and exports would be halted.
Sarir was producing about 209,000 barrels per day (bpd) before output was reduced, the engineers said.
Force majeure had already been announced on exports at the 300,000 bpd Sharara oilfield and this week Reuters has reported disruptions at El Feel, Amal, Nafoora and Abu Attifel.
In July, Libya, an OPEC member, was producing about 1.18 million barrels of oil per day.
The move to shut off Libya’s main source of revenue comes in response to the Tripoli-based Presidency Council sacking Central Bank of Libya (CBL) chief Sadiq Al-Kabir, prompting rival armed factions to mobilize.
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, installed through a UN-backed process in 2021 and head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, said this week that oilfields should not be allowed to be shut “under flimsy pretexts.”
On Tuesday, US Africa Command General Michael Langley and Chargé d’Affaires Jeremy Berndt met Khalifa Haftar, the head of a force called the Libyan National Army that controls the country’s east and south.
“The United States urges all Libyan stakeholders to engage constructively in dialogue,” with support from the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and the international community, the US Embassy in Libya said on social media platform X.
Benchmark Brent oil prices were down 1.2 percent to $78.35 per barrel as of 1039 GMT as concerns about Chinese demand and risks of a broader economic slowdown offset concerns about potential supply losses from Libya and elsewhere.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that at least 40,534 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month.
The toll includes 58 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,778 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
