Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
Members of Morocco’s Auxiliary Forces arrest a man as they deploy to prevent illegal crossings of the land border fence with Spain’s African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on Sept. 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 16 September 2024
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Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
  • Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, the Spanish Interior Ministry said
  • Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks

RABAT: Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control.”
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.
Ceuta and Melilla — two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean — have long been targeted by migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe. Many attempt to climb over barbed wire fences encircling the autonomous cities or reaching the exclaves by sea.
Nationwide, Moroccan security forces stopped more than 45,000 migration attempts from January to early September, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In August alone, more than 11,000 migration attempts were prevented in the region around Ceuta and another 3,000 in the area around Melilla, it said in a statement.
Last month, thousands of migrants attempted to cross into Ceuta, including hundreds of young people who tried to swim their way around controls, according to Spanish authorities.


WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO
Updated 9 sec ago
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WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said late Sunday that a WHO-Red Cross operation had managed to resupply two hospitals in northern Gaza.
“WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week,” he posted on X.

 


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.