Palestinians to ‘jointly lead post-war Gaza’

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of a building leveled by Israeli bombing in Gaza City amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians walk amid the rubble of a building leveled by Israeli bombing in Gaza City amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Updated 15 September 2024
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Palestinians to ‘jointly lead post-war Gaza’

Palestinians to ‘jointly lead post-war Gaza’
  • US not putting enough pressure on Israel to stop the war, Hamas official says

ISTANBUL: A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the group wants “joint Palestinian rule” in Gaza once war ends in the besieged territory.

“Clearly, we said that the next day must be Palestinian ... the day after the battle is a Palestinian day,” Osama Hamdan said during an interview in Istanbul.
He said that the Palestinian movement had ample resources to continue fighting Israel despite losses sustained over more than 11 months of war in Gaza.
“The resistance has a high ability to continue,” Hamdan said.




Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during an interview with AFP in Istanbul on September 15, 2024. (AFP)

“There were martyrs and sacrifices ... but in return, there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.”
His comments came less than a week after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told journalists that Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched retaliatory military operations to destroy Hamas after the group’s surprise attack on southern Israel.
The Israeli military campaign has killed at least 41,206 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not provide breakdowns of civilian and militant deaths.
Netanyahu is facing mounting domestic pressure to seal a deal in which hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s announcement this month that the bodies of six hostages had been recovered from a tunnel in Gaza after they were “executed’ by Hamas spurred an outpouring of grief and anger, leading to a brief general strike and large-scale demonstrations that continued in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday night.
But months of negotiations aimed at securing a truce have apparently stalled.
In the interview on Sunday, Hamdan said the US, Israel’s most crucial military backer, was not doing enough to force concessions from Netanyahu that would end the bloodshed.
“The American administration does not exert sufficient or appropriate pressure on the Israeli side,” Hamdan said.
“Rather, it is trying to justify the Israeli side’s evasion of any commitment.”
During two press conferences after officials announced the deaths of the six hostages earlier this month, Netanyahu said it was Hamas who refused to compromise and vowed “not to give in to pressure” on remaining sticking points.
He also said Israel’s military campaign had killed “no less than 17,000” Hamas militants.

 


Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
Updated 23 sec ago
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Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
  • Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon was “eliminated” in an air strike military said
Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.
Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area,” the military said in a statement.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.
In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.
Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps
Updated 6 min 5 sec ago
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Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps
  • Israel’s actions against UN workers condemned by Jordan, other officials

AMMAN: Jordan’s Department of Palestinian Affairs and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East held talks on Sunday to address the growing needs and challenges of the displaced and vulnerable in camps across the country.

During the meeting, Department of Palestinian Affairs Director-General Rafiq Khirfan condemned what he described as a “systematic campaign and political assassination” aimed at weakening UNRWA’s role, according to reports.

He pointed to Tel Aviv’s recent actions, including a decision by the Israeli Knesset to restrict UNRWA activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as East Jerusalem, and to withdraw diplomatic privileges from its staff.

Khirfan said the measures were a violation of international law and an attempt to undermine UNRWA’s mission of supporting Palestinian refugees, advocating for their right to return, and compensation.

Despite these challenges, Khirfan underscored Jordan’s continued commitment to backing UNRWA at regional and international levels, recognizing the agency’s critical role in providing services and stability for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA’s Jordan Affairs Director Olaf Becker thanked Amman for the ongoing support of the agency’s work in the refugee camps.


Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
Updated 2 min 36 sec ago
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Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
  • Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.
Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area,” the military said in a statement.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed on Monday, the latest attack in more than a month of war.
Hezbollah fighters launched a “big rocket salvo” at the city, the group said in a statement.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.
Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.


Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO

Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO
Updated 17 min 56 sec ago
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Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO

Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO
  • Arvin Ghahremani was hanged in prison in the western city of Kermanshah after being convicted of a murder during a street fight
  • Ghahremani’s mother, Sonia Saadati, had asked for his life to be spared

PARIS: Iran on Monday executed a member of the country’s Jewish minority who had been convicted of murder, an NGO said, at a time of rising tensions with Israel.
Arvin Ghahremani was hanged in prison in the western city of Kermanshah after being convicted of a murder during a street fight, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
“In the midst of the threats of war with Israel, the Islamic republic executed Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian Jewish citizen,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding the legal case had “significant flaws.”
“However, in addition to this, Arvin was a Jew, and the institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Islamic republic undoubtedly played a crucial role in the execution of his sentence,” Amiry-Moghaddam added.
The once sizeable Jewish community in Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran has dwindled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution but remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
While Jewish Iranians were executed in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the execution of a Jewish Iranian is unprecedented in recent years.
Ghahremani’s mother, Sonia Saadati, had asked for his life to be spared.
His family urged the victim’s relatives to accept blood money under Iran’s Islamic law of retribution (qesas), which permits this alternative.
The Mizan Online website of the Iranian judiciary confirmed Ghahremani’s execution, saying the victim’s family had “refused to give consent” to such a deal.
Iran and Israel have traded unprecedented air attacks this year following the outbreak of Israel’s wars with armed groups backed by the Islamic republic in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.


Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash during combat: state media

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash during combat: state media
Updated 21 min 43 sec ago
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Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash during combat: state media

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash during combat: state media

TEHRAN: An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot were killed in a helicopter crash during an anti-terror operation in the country’s restive southeast, state media reported on Monday.
The “ultra-light gyroplane” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “had an accident while conducting combat operations” in a border area, IRNA news agency said.
It said the crash happened in Sirkan, a city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, and identified the dead as General Hamid Mazandarani, the commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province, and Hamed Jandaghi, a pilot of the IRGC ground forces.
Iran’s armed forces have been mounting an operation in the region since October 26, when 10 police officers were killed in an attack claimed by Sunni Muslim militants.
They have killed several militants and arrested others during the operation, according to Iranian media outlets.
Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is one of the most impoverished provinces in the Islamic republic.
It is home to a large number of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who practice Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.
The province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.
Helicopter accidents are a rare sight in Iran, but former president Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his helicopter crashed into a mountainside in May, triggering snap elections in the country.
The ultra-conservative president was accompanied by then foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other people who were all killed.