Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim

Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim
People mourn over the body of a loved one killed during an Israeli strike on the Amr Ibn al Aas school housing displaced Palestinians in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City on Sept. 7, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 07 September 2024
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Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim

Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim
  • Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border
  • The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war

GAZA: The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12 month Saturday with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held captive.
The chances of a truce that would also swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appear slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions.
Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war, is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war that authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza say has killed at least 40,939 people.
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.
Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Scores were released during a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s announcement last Sunday that the bodies of six hostages including a US-Israeli citizen had been recovered shortly after being killed sparked grief and anger in Israel.
Marking the anniversary, UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini posted on X on Saturday: “Eleven months. Enough. No one can take this any longer. Humanity must prevail. Ceasefire now.”

International pressure to end the war was further underlined by Friday’s shooting dead in the West Bank of a Turkish-American activist demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied territory.
The family of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has demanded an independent investigation into her death, saying on Saturday her life “was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military.”
The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot in the head.”
Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Israeli action as “barbaric.”
The United States called her death “tragic,” and has pressed its close ally Israel to investigate.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank — where about 490,000 people live — are illegal under international law.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 662 Palestinians in the West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.
Eygi’s death came on the day Israeli forces withdrew from a deadly 10-day raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, where AFP journalists reported residents returning home to widespread destruction.
The Jenin pullout came with Israel at loggerheads with the United States over talks to forge a truce in the Gaza war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday “90 percent is agreed” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a deal.
But Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”
Hamas is demanding Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, saying it agreed months ago to a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
AFP reporters said several air strikes and shelling rocked the territory overnight and early Saturday.
Gaza’s civil defense agency and the Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli air strike killed four people near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The civil defense and a witness said an air strike that targeted a flat in Bureij camp killed another four.
And in Jabalia, an Israeli air strike killed four more Palestinians, civil defense officials said.
They added that a woman and a child were also killed in an air strike north of Gaza City.
Medics reported at least 33 Palestinians wounded in an air strike on a residential area in Beit Lahia and said they were being treated at Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals.
In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the civil defense said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people killed at least three people and wounded more than 20.
Israel has also traded fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement since the October 7 attack.
On Saturday Hezbollah said it targeted two Israeli bases with Katyusha rockets. Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel carried out air strikes and shelling of several areas of the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it detected missiles crossing from Lebanon, intercepting some of them. It said it later struck a Hezbollah launch site in the Qabrikha area of southern Lebanon, as well as Aita Al-Shaab and Kfarshuba.


Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
Updated 13 October 2024
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Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
  • At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace”

TEHRAN: Iran held a series of diplomatic talks on Sunday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian seeking support from France’s Emmanuel Macron for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and the foreign minister visiting Iraq while on a regional tour.
According to a statement on Iran’s presidential website, Pezeshkian and Macron discussed ways to secure a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as the Iranian leader condemned Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza and Lebanon.
Macron’s office said he called on Pezeshkian to support “a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilising actors that enjoy its support.”
Iran backs Hamas, which is battling Israel in Gaza, and Hezbollah, which is fighting Israel in Lebanon.
Israel has vowed to retaliate against an Iranian missile strike on October 1, raising fears of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon morphing into an all-out regional conflict.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was meanwhile in Iraq on Sunday, a neighbor and ally of his government, as part of a series of visits in the region for talks on the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
Araghchi said there would be “no red lines” in defending the country’s people and interests, adding that efforts would continue to “contain an all-out war in our region.”
Iran has said its launch of 200 missiles on Israel earlier this month was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders in the region and a general in its Revolutionary Guards.
At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace.”
He also said Iran would continue consultations “to prevent the escalation of tension in the region and to work for peace” and a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
After his visit to Iraq, Araghchi headed to Oman, IRNA state news agency reported.
On Thursday, he had been in Qatar, where he met Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose government has been mediating talks aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and has also called for a truce in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Araghchi met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during his trip to the Kingdom.

 

 


Israel rescuers say over 60 wounded in area Hezbollah claimed drone strike

An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 13 October 2024
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Israel rescuers say over 60 wounded in area Hezbollah claimed drone strike

An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
  • Hezbollah said it launched “a squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on Lebanon

JERUSALEM: An Israeli volunteer rescue service on Sunday said more than 60 people were wounded south of Haifa, where Hezbollah earlier claimed a drone strike that targeted a military base.
“With the help of United Hatzalah ambulance teams, we provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries — critical, serious, moderate and mild,” the rescue service United Hatzalah said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, said it launched “a squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on the country.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon, with at least one building damaged north of Tel Aviv during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones across the border into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since late September when fighting escalated.
Israel’s sophisticated air defenses, including the Iron Dome system, has intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.


Palestinian detainee dies in Israel custody

Palestinian detainee dies in Israel custody
Updated 13 October 2024
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Palestinian detainee dies in Israel custody

Palestinian detainee dies in Israel custody
  • Israel currently detains more than 9,600 Palestinians — including more than 5,000 who were arrested after Oct. 7, 2023, following the outbreak of war in Gaza

RAMALLAH: Two Palestinian organizations that monitor the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails announced on Sunday the death of a detainee in an Israeli hospital.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reported that Israeli officials had informed Palestinian officials about the “martyrdom of prisoner Mohammed Munir Moussa from Bethlehem at Soroka Hospital in Israel.”
Moussa, 37, had been detained by Israel since April 2023 and had been suffering from diabetes before his arrest. Until now, there was no information available about the circumstances of his death, according to the two Palestinian organizations.
Israel currently detains more than 9,600 Palestinians — including more than 5,000 who were arrested after Oct. 7, 2023, following the outbreak of war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel — according to data provided by Palestinian officials.
The head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees, Qaddura Fares, accused Israel of taking “revenge” on Palestinian detainees after the Hamas attack.
His agency is part of the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
With the death of Moussa, the number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody has risen to 41 since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian officials.
Of those, 24 were from Gaza.
Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, 278 Palestinians are known to have died in Israeli prisons, according to these organizations.
The issue of detainees in Israel has become a central point in the war between Israel and Hamas, with the Palestinian movement demanding the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages taken captive during the attack that began the war.
Out of 251 people taken hostage by militants on Oct. 7 last year, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

 


Macron calls on Iran’s president to back Mideast ‘de-escalation’

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday held a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. (File/AFP)
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday held a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. (File/AFP)
Updated 13 October 2024
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Macron calls on Iran’s president to back Mideast ‘de-escalation’

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday held a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. (File/AFP)
  • Iranian presidential website said that in his conversation with Macron, Pezeshkian had called for an end to “crimes” in Lebanon and Gaza

TEHRAN: French President Emmanuel Macron called on Iran’s leader Masoud Pezeshkian to support a “general de-escalation” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a telephone conversation Sunday, his office said.
Macron stressed “the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilising actors that enjoy its support.” Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters are fighting Israeli troops in Lebanon.
The Iranian presidential website said that in his conversation with Macron, Pezeshkian had called for an end to “crimes” in Lebanon and Gaza.
They discussed ways to secure a “ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel,” a statement on the website said.
Pezeshkian “asked the French president to work together with other European countries to force the Zionist regime to stop the genocide and crimes in Gaza and Lebanon,” the statement added.


Lebanon’s PM condemns Netanyahu’s demand for UNIFIL’s withdrawal

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 13 October 2024
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Lebanon’s PM condemns Netanyahu’s demand for UNIFIL’s withdrawal

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
  • Organization protests against ‘shocking violations’ by Israel
  • Relief airlift from Kingdom to ‘support Lebanese people facing critical conditions’

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu for appealing to UN chief Antonio Guterres to remove peacekeepers from the Lebanese side of the border, where clashes between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli troops have intensified.

Lebanon “condemns Netanyahu’s position and the Israeli aggression against UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) peacekeepers,” said Mikati.

He added: “The warning that Netanyahu addressed to … Guterres demanding the removal of the UNIFIL represents a new chapter in Israel’s approach of not complying with international norms.”

Mikati’s statement came as Saudi Arabia officially launched relief air support to Lebanon, and the first plane carrying humanitarian and medical aid reached Beirut.

Rafic Hariri International Airport on Sunday witnessed the arrival of the first aircraft from the Saudi relief airlift, accompanied by the Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari.

The Saudi aid agency KSrelief announced that the airlift was established “under the directives of the Kingdom’s leadership to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people in support of their efforts to cope with critical circumstances.”

The first aircraft carried 46 containers of various aid supplies, including tents, in anticipation of the approaching winter season.

The Saudi Press Agency also reported that KSrelief had continued implementing the fourth phase of the Hope Bakery charitable project in the Akkar Governorate and Miniyeh district in northern Lebanon.

During the past week the project has distributed 175,000 bundles of bread to families in need, including Syrian and Palestinian families, and host communities in northern Lebanon, benefiting 12,000 households.

The Lebanese Caretaker Minister of Economy Amin Salam; Caretaker Minister of Environment Nasser Yassin; and the Secretary-General of the Lebanese High Relief Commission Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair welcomed the support’s arrival at the airport.

Yassin thanked Saudi Arabia “for this assistance in these challenging times to secure urgent needs. The Kingdom has consistently supported Lebanon, and we appreciate this stance and commitment.”

Bukhari, who met Mikati, said: “The first wave of assistance has arrived, confirming Saudi Arabia’s commitment and support for the Lebanese people in facing difficult challenges.”

A Qatari aircraft transporting tonnes of medical supplies also arrived at the airport, while an Omani aircraft, loaded with 40 tonnes of medicine and humanitarian assistance, is scheduled to arrive on Monday.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued to target the Lebanese army.

A drone targeted a Lebanese army vehicle with a missile on Sunday as it passed through the town of Burj Al-Muluk, injuring three soldiers.

An airstrike on the town of Srebbine in the district of Bint Jbeil wounded four paramedics.

Meanwhile, UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Sunday asked for an explanation from the Israeli army over what they said were “shocking violations” against their force, including forcing entry into one of their positions.

UNIFIL said in a statement: “We have requested an explanation from the Israeli army for these shocking violations.”

The organization also accused Israel’s military of halting a logistics convoy.

The UN peacekeepers said Israeli tanks broke through a gate to enter a Blue Helmet position in Lebanon on Sunday, after blocking their movement the previous day.

The peacekeeping mission said: “At around 4:30 a.m., while peacekeepers were in shelters, two Israeli military Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position in the Ramia area of southern Lebanon.

“They requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights. The tanks left about 45 minutes after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism.”

A little over two hours later, peacekeepers reported “the firing of several rounds 100 meters north, which emitted smoke.”

They added: “Despite putting on protective masks, 15 peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp.”

Israeli soldiers on Saturday had “stopped a critical UNIFIL logistical movement near Mais Al-Jabal, denying its passage,” the force said, referring to an area in south Lebanon.

“For the fourth time in as many days, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel.”

The UN force added: “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Resolution 1701.”

It added that UNIFIL’s mandate provided freedom of movement in its area of operations.

The number of peacekeeping soldiers in UNIFIL stands at 10,500, representing over 40 countries worldwide. They are deployed in fixed and mobile sites in the border area to monitor the implementation of Resolution 1701 in coordination with the Lebanese army.

Mikati on Sunday reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to Resolution 1701.

He said that Netanyahu “is not content with the aggression he is waging on Lebanon, claiming martyrs and victims and causing indescribable destruction.”

Mikati added that Netanyahu’s “warning to Guterres represents a new chapter in the approach of non-compliance with international legitimacy and its related resolutions.”

He added: “This statement is for the international community and the UN, and it should be a new incentive to take the appropriate stance after Netanyahu turned against the French-American call, supported by foreign and Arab countries, for a ceasefire.”

The southern front on Sunday witnessed new Israeli incursion attempts, especially in Maroun Al-Ras where Hezbollah announced its targeting of a gathering of Israeli soldiers inside the town.

The group also announced it had targeted an Israeli tank south of the Lebanese town of Qouzah with a guided missile.

A violent confrontation also took place at the entrance to the town of Ramyah, and machine-gun clashes were heard in an area between Aita Al-Shaab and Ramyah.

Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported that the Israeli army had captured a Hezbollah member in southern Lebanon and found an underground tunnel within a building that led to an area where other members of the group were present. Hezbollah-affiliated activists denied Israel’s claim.