Palestinians’ UN proposal demands Israel leave Gaza and the West Bank in 6 months

A general view shows voting results during a UN General Assembly meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on October 12, 2022. (AFP)
A general view shows voting results during a UN General Assembly meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on October 12, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Palestinians’ UN proposal demands Israel leave Gaza and the West Bank in 6 months

Palestinians’ UN proposal demands Israel leave Gaza and the West Bank in 6 months
  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press on Monday that International Court of Justice rulings “should be accepted and should be implemented”
  • In the sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago, the International Court of Justice said Israel had no right to sovereignty over the territories & was violating international laws against acquiring the lands by force

UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinians have circulated a draft UN resolution demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within six months.
The proposed General Assembly resolution, which was obtained by The Associated Press, follows a ruling by the top United Nations court in July that said Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.
In the sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago, the International Court of Justice said Israel had no right to sovereignty over the territories and was violating international laws against acquiring the lands by force. It also said Israeli settlement building must stop.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon denounced the resolution and described it as a “reward for terrorism.” He called for the resolution to be rejected.
“Let it be clear: Nothing will stop Israel or deter it from its mission to bring home the hostages and eliminate Hamas,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press on Monday that International Court of Justice rulings “should be accepted and should be implemented.” As for the General Assembly resolution, he said, it’s up to the 193 UN member nations to make a decision.
The draft UN resolution comes as Israel’s military assault on Gaza enters the 11th month after being triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and as violence in the West Bank reaches new highs.
The proposal, if adopted by the 193-member General Assembly, would not be legally binding but the extent of its support would reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly, unlike in the 15-member Security Council.
A council diplomat said the Palestinians are aiming for a vote before world leaders of the General Assembly start their annual high-level meetings on Sept. 22. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions on the draft resolution have been private.
The proposal demands that Israel comply with international law, including by immediately withdrawing all military forces from the Palestinian territories.
The draft resolution not only demands an end to all new settlement activity but the evacuation of all settlers and the dismantling of the separation barrier Israel constructed in the West Bank.
And it calls for all Palestinians displaced during Israel’s occupation to be allowed “to return to their original place of residence” and that Israel make reparations “for the damage caused” to all people in the territories.
Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed, the future of which should be decided in negotiations, while it has moved people there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that isn’t internationally recognized. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007.
Since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,900 Palestinians have been killed there. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Meanwhile, settler violence in West Bank has reached new highs, and Israeli military raids on West Bank cities and towns have grown more devastating, killing 692 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis within the territory also have increased.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Security Council last month that he planned to introduce a General Assembly resolution in September to enshrine the ICJ ruling. “We are sick and tired of waiting,” he said. “The time for waiting is over.”
The proposed resolution includes other demands, including for Israel to be held accountable for any violations of international law, sanctions against those responsible for maintaining Israel’s presence in the territories, and for countries to halt arms exports to Israel if they’re suspected of being used in the territories.

 


Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas
Updated 10 sec ago
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Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas
  • Israel has increased its strikes on Lebanon after almost a year of cross-border fire by Hezbollah
  • The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.
“The Israeli enemy army uses the homes” of Israelis in north Israel, and has military bases inside residential “neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre,” it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.
It warned Israelis “from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives.”
After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23.
The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.


UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban

UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban
Updated 13 min 25 sec ago
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UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban

UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban
  • The citizen had traveled to Lebanon with his family via another country

ABU DHABI: UAE attorney-general Hamad Said Al-Shamsi ordered an immediate investigation into a UAE national who violated the country’s travel ban to Lebanon, state news agency WAM reported on Friday.
The citizen had traveled to Lebanon with his family via another country, overcoming the travel restrictions placed from the UAE.
He will be investigated for endangering his family’s safety amid the escalating violence in Lebanon, WAM said.
“The Attorney-General emphasized the importance of adhering to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ travel advisories, which are designed to protect UAE citizens from potential dangers in certain regions,” read the statement.
Violators will be subject to fines and/or imprisonment according to the UAE Penal Code, warned Al-Shamsi.

Israel has intensified its bombardment on Lebanon, a year after it exchanged almost daily cross-border fire with the militant group Hezbollah since the war in Gaza started last October.

The international community has called for a ceasefire to prevent the outbreak of a wider war in the region.


Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes

An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
Updated 12 October 2024
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Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes

An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
  • Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians

JERUSALEM: Israel observed Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on Saturday amid a firestorm of international criticism over its military offensive in Lebanon and its soldiers firing on peacekeepers.
As the holy day got under way Friday from sundown, Israel faced diplomatic backlash over what it acknowledged was a “hit” earlier in the day on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said Friday.
The military said Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to “an immediate threat” around 50 meters (yards) from the UNIFIL post.
As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation from UN chief Antonio Guterres and Western allies, the military pledged to carry out a “thorough review.”
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah meanwhile warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country, alleging the military “uses the homes” of locals and has military bases in residential neighborhoods.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.

The UNIFIL peacekeepers have found themselves on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The latest incident came a day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to UNIFIL, tank fire hit a watchtower.
Sean Clancy, the Irish military’s chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel’s explanation of Friday’s incident.
“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in UNIFIL.
Guterres condemned the firing as “intolerable” and “a violation of international humanitarian law,” while the British government said it was “appalled” by reports of the wounded.
US President Joe Biden said Friday he was “absolutely” asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing “outrage.”
French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been “deliberately targeted.”
The incidents came more than two weeks into Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has seen Israeli warplanes conduct extensive strikes since September 23 on the militants’ strongholds, with multiple civilian areas hit, and ground troops deployed across the border.

Israeli and Hezbollah forces fought along the border on Friday, with Israeli air strikes reported in the south and east of Lebanon.
It marked a tense start to Yom Kippur. From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets are closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as observant Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.
Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “full and immediate ceasefire.”
Leaders from nine European countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Friday also called for an end to fighting in Lebanon, as well as Gaza.
Mikati said that only the Lebanese military and peacekeepers should be deployed in the south of the country — the essence of existing Security Council Resolution 1701 — and “Hezbollah is in agreement on this issue.”
US special envoy Amos Hochstein said the United States was working “non-stop” toward a ceasefire.
“We want the whole conflict to end,” he told Lebanese television channel LBC from Washington.
Lebanon’s military said an Israeli strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two of its soldiers on Friday.
Hezbollah is heavily armed and controls large swathes of Lebanon, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to subdue it.
The movement also fought Israeli troops during Israel’s last invasion in 2006.

In Beirut, residents of a central area of the capital targeted by twin Israeli air strikes on Thursday night salvaged their possessions and cleared rubble from the devastated streets.
“There are a lot of families living here,” said Bilal Othman, who explained that many people had sought shelter there from southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, which has been pummelled by Israeli raids since last month.
“Do they want to tell us there is no safe place left in this country?” he said.
The Israeli strikes apparently targeted Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 22 people and wounded more than 100.
Safa was close to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians.
Late Friday, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia, north Gaza.
The co-head of a Japanese atomic bomb survivor group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize said the situation for children in Gaza reminded him of the plight of survivors after World War II.
“It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki said in Tokyo.
 

 


Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 12 October 2024
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Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
  • After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.
“The Israeli enemy army uses the homes” of Israelis in north Israel, and has military bases inside residential “neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre,” it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.
It warned Israelis “from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives.”
After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23.
The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.
 

 


Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
Updated 12 October 2024
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Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
  • Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs

BEIRUT: Most Palestinian refugees living in camps in southern Lebanon or near Beirut have fled following escalating Israeli strikes, the head of the UN agency on Palestine refugees said on Friday, drawing parallels with mass displacement in Gaza.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the agency continued to provide services to the most vulnerable left behind — and that repeatedly fleeing was sadly “part of the history” of Palestinians. “Now, that’s part, unfortunately, of the plight, but if you compare it with what happened also in Gaza recently, you might have heard me describing how people are constantly being moved like pinballs. And one of the fears is that we replicate a situation similar to the one we have seen until now in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs over the last three weeks, issuing evacuation warnings for more than 100 towns in southern Lebanon and neighborhoods near the capital.
They include evacuation warnings and strikes on the Burj Al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp near the south coastal city of Tyre. Many of the Palestinians who arrived in Lebanon after Israel’s creation in 1948, and their descendants, were living in 12 refugee camps around the country, which hosted about 174,000 Palestinian refugees.
Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA staff of collaborating with Hamas militants in Gaza, leading many donors to suspend funding.
The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s accusations and dismissed nine staff.
In July, the Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill that would declare UNRWA a “terrorist organization.”
Asked about the move, Lazzarini said the agency “has never, ever been as much under assault and attack.”
“A year ago, it was primarily a financial existential threat, but today it’s a combination of a political and financial threat. 2025 will be, again, a difficult year,” he said. He said he would have more clarity early next year on whether the US would resume funding.