Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support

Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, left, and Belgian PM Alexander De Croo meet with Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in March of 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 18 September 2024
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Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support

Palestinian president in Madrid to thank Spain for support
  • Abbas’ visit comes after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, on May 28 formally recognized a Palestinian state
  • First Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI

MADRID: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet Thursday in Madrid with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in his first visit to the country since it formally recognized a Palestinian state in May.
Abbas is stopping in Madrid at Spain’s invitation before heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, according to an official in his office.
Sanchez will meet with Abbas on Thursday, the Spanish premier’s office said Wednesday, but the details of the program for the rest of the Palestinian president’s visit is not yet known.
Abbas is also due to be received by Spain’s King Felipe VI according to the official in his office, but the royal palace, contacted by AFP, has not confirmed this meeting.
His visit comes after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, on May 28 formally recognized a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Israel condemned their decision, saying it bolsters Hamas, the militant Islamist group that led the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Spain’s leftist government then announced that a first bilateral summit between Spain and Palestine would be held before the end of the year, and the first Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said the recognition of a Palestinian state is “not against anyone, least of all Israel,” but the move led to a further deterioration in ties between the two countries.
He has been one of the most outspoken critics in Europe of Israel’s Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.
The October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Sanchez vowed this month to continue to “pressure” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the global stage over the war in Gaza, especially at the International Criminal Court, which in May requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his defense minister.
Spain, along with other nations, has joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice in which Pretoria has accused Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
“We are going to strengthen our ties with the Palestinian state,” Sanchez said, adding that Madrid hoped “to sign several collaboration agreements” with the Palestinian state at the bilateral summit later this year.
Last week, Madrid hosted a gathering of representatives from European and Arab nations to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The international community must take a decisive step toward a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Sanchez said at the time.


Flights from all Iran’s airports canceled from late on Sunday

Flights from all Iran’s airports will be canceled until 6 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Monday from 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Flights from all Iran’s airports will be canceled until 6 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Monday from 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Updated 57 min 59 sec ago
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Flights from all Iran’s airports canceled from late on Sunday

Flights from all Iran’s airports will be canceled until 6 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Monday from 9 p.m. on Sunday.
  • The flights have been canceled due to operational restrictions, state media cited the spokesperson as saying without providing further details

DUBAI: Flights from all Iran’s airports will be canceled until 6 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Monday from 9 p.m. on Sunday, Iran’s state media said, citing a spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization.
The flights have been canceled due to operational restrictions, state media cited the spokesperson as saying without providing further details.
Iran implemented restrictions on flights on Tuesday when it launched missiles at Israel, in an attack to which Israel vowed to respond.


Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far

Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far
Updated 06 October 2024
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Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far

Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far
  • On Sunday, a grey haze hung over city and rubble was strewn across streets in southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over area
  • Israel said its air force had ‘conducted a series of targeted strikes on a number of weapons storage facilities belonging to the Hezbollah’

BEIRUT: Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday, the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometers away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday a grey haze hung over the city and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes — we couldn’t count them all — and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj Al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Videos posted on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed fresh damage to the highway that runs from Beirut airport through its southern suburbs into downtown.
Israel said its air force had “conducted a series of targeted strikes on a number of weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure sites belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the area of Beirut.”
Lebanese authorities did not immediately say what the missiles had hit or what damage they caused.
This weekend’s intense bombardment came just ahead of the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
The target of Israel’s airstrikes across Lebanon and its ground invasion in the south of the country is the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Iran’s chief ally in the region. The assault has killed hundreds of people including civilians and has displaced 1.2 million, Lebanese officials say.
For days Israel has bombed the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh — considered a stronghold for Hezbollah but also home to thousands of ordinary Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian refugees — killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.
A Lebanese security source said on Saturday that Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s potential successor, had been out of contact since Friday, after an Israeli airstrike on Thursday near the city’s international airport that was reported to have targeted him.
Israel continues to bomb the area of the strike, preventing rescue workers from reaching it, Lebanese security sources said.
Hezbollah has not commented on Safieddine.
His loss would be another blow to the group and its patron Iran. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in recent weeks, have devastated Hezbollah’s leadership.

Gaza war
Israel’s war in Gaza, launched after the Oct. 7 attacks and aimed at eliminating Hamas, another Iran-backed group, has killed nearly 42,000 people, Palestinian authorities say. The coastal enclave lies in ruins.
At least 26 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel a day after the Oct. 7 attacks and after Israel had begun bombing Gaza, saying it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinian group.
Cross-border fire continued between Israel and Hezbollah for months, but were mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area before the recent upsurge.
Israel says it stepped up its assault on Hezbollah last month to enable the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to homes in northern Israel, bombarded by the group since last Oct. 8.
Israeli authorities said on Saturday that nine Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon so far.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens sounded on Sunday and the Israeli military said it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanese territory.
Iran has signalled it does not want a direct war with Israel but has launched responses on occasion to Israeli attacks. It fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday that did little damage.
Israel has been weighing options for its response.


UN refugee chief says humanitarian law violated in strikes on Lebanon

A man stares at the devastation in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that targeted the Sfeir neighbourhood.
A man stares at the devastation in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that targeted the Sfeir neighbourhood.
Updated 06 October 2024
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UN refugee chief says humanitarian law violated in strikes on Lebanon

A man stares at the devastation in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that targeted the Sfeir neighbourhood.
  • Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday

BEIRUT: The United Nations’ refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Sunday that many strikes on Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law, in apparent reference to Israel’s bombardment of large parts of the country.
Grandi’s statement comes as Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometers away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday a grey haze hung over the city and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes — we couldn’t count them all — and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj Al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.


Too hot by day, Dubai’s floodlit beaches are packed at night

Too hot by day, Dubai’s floodlit beaches are packed at night
Updated 06 October 2024
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Too hot by day, Dubai’s floodlit beaches are packed at night

Too hot by day, Dubai’s floodlit beaches are packed at night
  • The city has more than 800 meters of designated night beaches fitted with shark nets and illuminated by giant, bright floodlights
  • The idea, in one of the world’s hottest regions, with temperatures climbing ever higher through climate change, has proved popular

Dubai: Roasted by summer temperatures too hot for the beach, Dubai has turned to an innovative solution: opening them at night, complete with floodlights and lifeguards carrying night-vision binoculars.
The idea, in one of the world’s hottest regions, with temperatures climbing ever higher through climate change, has proved popular — more than one million people have visited the night beaches since last year, an official said.
Even with much of the region preoccupied with the widening conflict that pits Israel against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the United Arab Emirates’ giant neighbor, the night beaches remain busy on weekend evenings.
“The temperature drops down in the evening after the sun sets. So, yeah, it’s amazing,” said Mohammed, 32, from Pakistan, who brought his children to enjoy the sea without having to worry about the burning Gulf sun.
For residents of Dubai, a coast-hugging, desert metropolis of about 3.7 million people, the hot season from June to October is an annual trial.
With temperatures regularly topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), often with high humidity, outdoor activities are severely limited.
The city now has more than 800 meters (yards) of designated night beaches fitted with shark nets and illuminated by giant, bright floodlights.
“While you’re... bathing inside the water, you can see the sand even on your foot and your hands and everything,” said Mohammed, who has lived in Dubai for a decade.
Lifeguards are posted 24 hours a day and, beyond the floodlights’ glare, they use the night-vision binoculars to keep an eye on swimmers or kayakers further out in the water.
Officials are also testing an artificial intelligence camera system meant to detect when people are in distress.
At nearly midnight on a recent Friday, with temperatures still above 30C (86F), Umm Suqeim beach was packed with people — mainly expatriates, who make up about 90 percent of the UAE’s population.
Mary Bayarka, a 38-year-old fitness coach from Belarus, was enjoying being outside after a “long, hot day,” even if the Gulf seawater was a little warm.
“It feels like (I’m) in a bath,” she said.
Nearby, Filipino saleswoman Laya Manko was burying her body in the sand. The beach is an escape for the 36-year-old, one of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who keep Dubai’s economy ticking.
“Every weekend we come here to have fun,” she said. “Sometimes we sleep here with my friends.
“Because you work hard in Dubai, you feel you need to relax. Yes, this is my stress reliever,” said Manko.
For the authorities, the night beaches are another way to tempt tourists, especially in summer when the stifling heat usually keeps them indoors.
“I believe we are one of the only cities in the world to have such infrastructure on public beaches at night,” said Hamad Shaker, an official from the Dubai municipality.
Dubai used to empty out in summer as expats fled the heat in droves, said Manuela Gutberlet, a tourism researcher at the University of Breda in the Netherlands.
But with attractions such as the world’s tallest building, giant malls and indoor amusement parks, it has become “a year-round urban destination,” attracting more than 17 million visitors last year, she said.
However, climate change could limit its ambitions, Gutberlet warned, citing the unprecedented rains that paralyzed the city for several days in April.
Extreme weather events and a further rise in temperatures could discourage some visitors, she said, highlighting the need to “adapt quickly to new risks.”
Meanwhile, Frenchman Laziz Ahmed, 77, found himself on the night beach during his first holiday in Dubai, where he was visiting relatives.
“During the day, I don’t go out much,” he said, adding that in the evening “I make up for it.”


Israeli strike hits car factory in Syria: monitor

An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday targeted trucks transporting aid for Lebanese people. (File/AFP)
An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday targeted trucks transporting aid for Lebanese people. (File/AFP)
Updated 06 October 2024
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Israeli strike hits car factory in Syria: monitor

An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday targeted trucks transporting aid for Lebanese people. (File/AFP)
  • Israeli aircraft launched “air strikes with three missiles targeting... three trucks loaded with food and medical supplies inside an Iranian car factory,” the monitor said

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday targeted trucks transporting aid for Lebanese people, wounding three aid workers, a war monitor said, the latest such attack on the country.
Israeli aircraft launched “air strikes with three missiles targeting... three trucks loaded with food and medical supplies inside an Iranian car factory... in southern Homs,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The attack destroyed the trucks and wounded three aid workers, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
“The trucks crossed over from Iraq to provide humanitarian aid to Lebanese people” affected by intensifying Israeli strikes, it added.
On Friday, Lebanon said an Israeli air strike on the Syrian border cut off the main international road linking the two countries.
Israel has repeatedly targeted the border area in recent days because it says Hezbollah is bringing in weapons across the border from ally Syria.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including those of Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes but have said repeatedly they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.