Germany appeals to citizens: don’t wait for evacuation from Lebanon

Germany appeals to citizens: don’t wait for evacuation from Lebanon
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on Aug. 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 07 August 2024
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Germany appeals to citizens: don’t wait for evacuation from Lebanon

Germany appeals to citizens: don’t wait for evacuation from Lebanon
  • “The time now has come to leave Lebanon,” the spokesperson said

BERLIN: Rumours of a possible evacuation operation from Lebanon have given German citizens there a false sense of security, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday, urging them to leave the country immediately.
“The time now has come to leave Lebanon,” the spokesperson said, calling on citizens to organize their own exit even if this means traveling via Türkiye or paying high prices for flights.
A spokesperson for the defense ministry declined to give details on preparations for possible evacuations in the event of an escalation in the Middle East conflict.

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Ten years after the genocide, their torment continues

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Egyptian and British officials hold talks on economic, investment and trade cooperation

Egyptian and British officials hold talks on economic, investment and trade cooperation
Updated 16 sec ago
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Egyptian and British officials hold talks on economic, investment and trade cooperation

Egyptian and British officials hold talks on economic, investment and trade cooperation
  • Sectors discussed by Egyptian foreign minister and UK trade commissioner for Africa include clean energy, comms and IT, and development of smart cities
  • John Humphrey said authorities in the UK are keen to continue their efforts to boost investments in Egypt, bolster business and trade between the two countries, and promote bilateral trade

CAIRO: Officials from Egypt and the UK met in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on the growing cooperation between their countries.

Badr Abdelatty, the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, emigration and Egyptian expatriates, and John Humphrey, the UK trade commissioner for Africa, discussed economic and trade cooperation in several fields, most notably clean energy, communications and information technology, transportation and the supply of railway stock.

They also talked about ways in which their nations can work together in the development of cities and infrastructure, given the fact that the UK is one of the top foreign investors in Egypt.

Abdelatty outlined the measures taken by Egypt to empower the private sector, improve the competitive nature of its economy, support the transition to a green economy, and provide investment incentives for industrial localization. Such efforts have contributed to an investment boom in various sectors, he said, and present an opportunity for additional British investment in Egypt.

The minister, who was appointed in July, expressed his desire to continue to enhance cooperation between the countries in various economic and investment fields, and encourage British companies to further benefit from opportunities in Egypt, in particular infrastructure projects, smart city developments and renewable-energy plans, and help boost trade exchange.

Humphrey said authorities in the UK are keen to continue their efforts to boost investments in Egypt, bolster business and trade between the two countries, and promote bilateral trade.


Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27

Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27
Updated 03 September 2024
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Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27

Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27
  • An Israeli air strike overnight that the military said targeted militants in Tulkarem killed a 15-year-old Palestinian
  • In total, “there are 30 martyrs and about 130 wounded in the West Bank since Wednesday,” when the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids

JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces were operating Tuesday in the northern West Bank, nearly a week into military raids in the occupied territory that the Palestinian health ministry said killed at least 27.
An Israeli air strike overnight that the military said targeted militants in Tulkarem killed a 15-year-old Palestinian, said a hospital source in the city.
In total, “there are 30 martyrs and about 130 wounded in the West Bank since Wednesday,” when the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
The toll includes three deaths in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank, in incidents unrelated to the raids in the north.
On the seventh day of Israel’s major “counter-terrorism” operation in the northern West Bank, the focus remained in the Jenin area, where according to the Palestinian health ministry at least 18 have been killed since Wednesday.
The military on Monday said its forces had killed 14 militants in Jenin and apprehended “25 terrorists.”
In a separate incident, a 16-year-old girl was killed by the Israeli army in the town of Kfar Dan, in the Jenin governorate, the health ministry said Tuesday, without specifying whether she was part of the 18 killed in the area.
An AFP correspondent said the streets were empty and shops were closed in Jenin on Tuesday, with Israeli armored vehicles and army bulldozers as well as ambulances among the few vehicles on the roads.
The correspondent said paved streets had been overturned by Israeli bulldozers in several areas, which the army says is a way to detonate explosive devices hidden under roads.
The Jenin city council said that 70 percent of roads and streets have been destroyed since the start of the raid.
Bashir Matahen, a municipality spokesperson, said about 20 kilometers of water, sewage, communication and electricity lines were destroyed, including 80 percent of the city’s water pipes.
The municipality lacked the funds to carry out all the necessary repairs, he told AFP.
Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp — where army bulldozers also destroyed infrastructure — have long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
The military carries out regular incursions into Palestinian population centers, but such operations are rarely conducted simultaneously as in the northern West Bank in recent days.
In Tulkarem, near Jenin, the Israeli military said on Monday night that its aircraft struck a Palestinian militant cell “that shot at security forces during the counter-terrorism operation.”
A medical source at the Tulkarem government hospital told AFP on Tuesday that a 15-year-old teenager was killed in the strike that also wounded his father and four others.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled several shrapnel injuries in Tulkarem, including one of its paramedics.
On Tuesday Israeli military vehicles including bulldozers were seen on the streets of Tulkarem, where roads have also been damaged or destroyed, said an AFP journalist.
One man, holding a Palestinian flag, was standing defiantly in front of the bulldozers.
Further south, Israeli forces entered the Birzeit University campus near Ramallah before dawn on Tuesday, confiscating property from the student council, the institution said in a statement.
Violence in the Palestinian territory has surged since Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 637 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the UN figures from last week.
At least 23 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.


Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border

Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border
Updated 03 September 2024
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Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border

Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border
  • A civilian who works as a barber contracted with the Spanish battalion in UNIFIL was wounded by Israeli sniper fire on the Abil Al-Qamh road
  • Hezbollah MP: If the party’s drones reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv once, they can reach it anytime

BEIRUT: The Israeli army has begun using snipers across the land border with Lebanon to target passersby on adjacent roads after it paralyzed life in the border villages through the systematic destruction of their neighborhoods with airstrikes, drones, and incendiary bombs for nearly 11 months.

On Tuesday, a civilian who works as a barber contracted with the Spanish battalion in UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was wounded by Israeli sniper fire on the Abil Al-Qamh road.

The barber was hit by several bullets in his side while waiting in a Rapid-model car with a private license plate at a specific point, where a patrol from the Spanish battalion was supposed to pick him up, as usual, and take him to his workplace at the UNIFIL headquarters opposite the Metula settlement.

He was transported to Marjayoun Governmental Hospital for treatment.

This is the second time contractors working with UNIFIL have been targeted in less than 24 hours.

On Monday morning, two civilians working for a company providing services to UNIFIL were killed on the Naqoura road by an Israeli drone strike that targeted their car.

Hostile operations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have continued at a relatively lower rate.

Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the towns of Aita Al-Shaab and Markaba, while another strike hit the heights of Jabal Al-Rihane.

The Israeli army also opened fire with heavy machine guns at dawn toward Ras Naqoura and Labouneh. The town of Khiam was subjected to heavy artillery shelling.

Hezbollah’s military media announced that the party targeted in the afternoon “surveillance equipment at Al-Jardah site with appropriate weapons, hitting it directly and destroying it.”

MP Hassan Ezzeddine, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said the party “managed to impose a deterrence equation with the Israeli enemy through its response to the assassination of military commander Fuad Shukr after the party’s drones reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv.” He added: “Whoever reaches there once, can reach it every time.”

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in an updated report on the situation in southern Lebanon that “the total number of civilian deaths since Oct. 8, 2023, has reached at least 133, while the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that the total number of casualties since that date has reached 2,412, including 564 deaths.”

The report revealed that “the number of displaced individuals from the border towns has increased to 111,940, with 94 percent of them originating from the districts of Bint Jbeil, Marjeyoun, and Tyre.”

According to the report, “tensions in southern Lebanon reached a critical level over the past three weeks as the conflict intensified, increasing the risk to civilians.

“The security situation along the Blue Line remains unstable, with approximately 150,000 residents living within 10 km of the border facing daily shelling and airstrikes.”

The report indicates that “the Inter-Sector Coordination Groups have been working since August to develop a contingency plan in response to the escalating situation in southern Lebanon.

“The groups are focusing their efforts on assessing the capabilities of various sectors. The UN (Office) for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has assisted in humanitarian sectors to address the current circumstances in Lebanon.

“This includes cash assistance to 290 farmers (80 in the south and 210 in Nabatieh) to support their livelihoods and agricultural assets.

“Additionally, 6,700 individuals received emergency cash assistance since June, while 1,614 Lebanese citizens and 778 Syrian refugees were granted cash aid to secure shelter from October 2023 until the report’s preparation date.”

The assistance extended to the education sector, where 10,250 displaced children received emergency scholarships and were re-enrolled in schools to resume their educational programs.

Additionally, food aid was provided to displaced individuals residing in refugee centers, as well as those who were taken in by relatives and families in the regions of Tyre, Sidon, Nabatieh, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, and Baalbek-Hermel.


Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis

Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis
Updated 03 September 2024
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Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis

Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis
  • Announcement by the EU’s Operation Aspides leaves the Sounion stranded in the Red Sea, threatening to spill its 1 million barrels of oil

DUBAI: Salvagers abandoned an effort to tow away a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea targeted by Yemen’s Houthis as it “was not safe to proceed,” a European Union naval mission said Tuesday.
The announcement by the EU’s Operation Aspides leaves the Sounion stranded in the Red Sea, threatening to spill its 1 million barrels of oil.
“The private companies responsible for the salvage operation have concluded that the conditions were not met to conduct the towing operation and that it was not safe to proceed,” the EU mission said, without immediately elaborating. “Alternative solutions are now being explored by the private companies.”
The EU mission did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the announcement. The safety issue could be from the fire still burning aboard the vessel — NASA fire satellites detected a blaze in the area the Sounion was anchored on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there’s the threat of attacks by the Houthis, who on Monday targeted two other oil tankers traveling through the Red Sea. The Houthis have suggested they’ll allow a salvage operation to take place, but critics say the militia has used the threat of an environmental disaster previously involving another oil tanker off Yemen to extract concessions from the international community.
The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged tanker on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of Operation Aspides rescued the Sounion’s crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.
Last week, the Houthis released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the militia has done before in their campaign.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.


Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media

Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media
Updated 03 September 2024
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Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media

Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media

TEHRAN: Six crew members have died after an Iranian merchant ship capsized in Kuwaiti waters, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Tuesday.

"The Arabakhtar I ship, whose six crew members were of Indian and Iranian nationality, sank on Sunday," Nasser Passandeh, head of Iran's port and maritime navigation authority, was quoted by IRNA as saying.

The report did not say what caused the Sunday incident, and an Iranian official said search operations were still ongoing to locate three of the victims' bodies.

Three bodies had been retrieved in a joint effort between Iran and Kuwait, Passandeh said.