Iran’s president slams the West over Gaza war

Iran’s president slams the West over Gaza war
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a press conference at the government palace in Baghdad, on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 September 2024
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Iran’s president slams the West over Gaza war

Iran’s president slams the West over Gaza war

BAGHDAD: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has slammed the West, saying that Israel is “committing massacres” in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so.

Pezeshkian, who spoke in Baghdad at the start of his first visit abroad since taking office, hopes to cement Tehran’s ties to Baghdad.

“The Israeli entity is committing massacres against women, children, young men, and the elderly. They bomb hospitals and schools,” Pezeshkian said.

“All these crimes are being committed by using European and American ammunition and bombs,” he added.

Ahead of Pezeshkian’s arrival, an explosion struck a site near Baghdad International Airport used by the US military on Tuesday night. There were no reported casualties, and the circumstances of the explosion were unclear.

The US Embassy later described it as an “attack” on the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, an American diplomatic facility, and that it was “assessing the damage” and the cause of the explosion. It did not provide further details.


Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media

Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media
Updated 58 min 31 sec ago
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Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media

Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media
  • It comes after a strike in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh late Tuesday

BEIRUT: Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed a policeman in the south of Syria near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, state media said, the day after a deadly air strike on the capital.
Israel has repeatedly struck Syria throughout the civil war that started in 2011, but it has ramped these up in recent weeks as it also pounds Lebanon.
Citing a police official, the official SANA news agency reported “the death of a security force member and wounding of another in an Israeli strike” on the outskirts of Quneitra city.
It comes after a strike in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh late Tuesday, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Syrian government said it killed seven civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor on Wednesday reported a higher toll of nine civilians, including four children.
The Britain-based organization said four others were also killed, including two members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Last week, the Observatory said an Israeli strike on Mazzeh killed four people, including the son-in-law of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on south Beirut last month.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.
Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been among the Syrian government’s most important allies in the country’s more than decade-old civil war.


Six wounded in stabbing attack in Israel, police say

Six wounded in stabbing attack in Israel, police say
Updated 56 min 6 sec ago
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Six wounded in stabbing attack in Israel, police say

Six wounded in stabbing attack in Israel, police say
  • At least two were in serious condition

JERUSALEM: At least six people were wounded, two of them seriously, in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.
“The terrorist has been neutralized,” police said in a statement. “Four separate locations have been identified, resulting in six victims with stab wounds.”
The police did not immediately provide other details, but issued a brief video of the suspected attacker being apprehended.
Of the six people rushed to the hospital, at least two were in serious condition, according to medical officials.
Israel has been on high security alert since the Hamas assault a year ago sparked the war in Gaza, while a the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to escalate.


Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon
Updated 09 October 2024
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Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon
  • Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon

ANKARA: Turkiye on Wednesday sent ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon, with its Beirut envoy saying it would be “the biggest” evacuation of its type from the war-torn country.

A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP two naval ships carrying the evacuated nationals and their families would arrive at the southern Turkish port of Mersin “in the early hours” of Thursday morning.

The two ships set sail overnight for the Lebanese capital whose southern suburbs were hit overnight by fresh Israeli bombardments.

“These ships, with a capacity of around 2,000 people, will be ready to take those of our citizens who requested it from Lebanon to Mersin port,” Turkish ambassador Ali Baris Ulusoy told TRT Haber public television.

Turkiye, which is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation on the ground in Lebanon.

Images on TRT Haber showed a crowd of people at Beirut port waiting to board the boats.

The ambassador said the two ships were also bringing “approximately 300 tons of humanitarian aid” to show Turkiye’s support for the Lebanese people, including tents, bedding, hygiene kits and kitchenware.

Since September 23, Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing more than 1,100 people and forcing more than a million to flee, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010
Updated 09 October 2024
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010
  • The toll includes 45 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 42,010 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 45 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 97,720 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.


Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo
Updated 09 October 2024
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Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo
  • Hamas delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar

CAIRO: Leaders from the Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold further unity talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official told Reuters.
According to Taher Al-Nono, the media adviser of the Hamas political chief, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday. It was led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar.
“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Nono said.
There was no immediate comment from Fatah.
The meeting will be the first in months since the two groups held talks in the Chinese capital in July, agreeing on steps to form a unity government. Similar rounds in the past have so far failed to make progress.
The issue of the post-war Gaza administration is one of the thorniest issues facing the Palestinians, and both factions have said it was an internal affair, rejecting any Israeli conditions.
Israel vowed it would not accept any role for Hamas in post-war Gaza. It says it doesn’t trust the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to do the job either.