Gaza doctor pleads: ‘Don’t wait until another massacre happens’
Updated 20 October 2023
Ahmed Hijazee
GAZA: A doctor at the Al-Shafaa Hospital in Gaza has implored the international community to stop the killing of innocent civilians in the enclave after a hospital was targeted on Tuesday evening.
“This is really a genocide, according to international humanitarian law … The hospital is supposed to be a safe place. It’s supposed to be a shelter for displaced people,” Dr. Mohammed Ghoneim told Arab News as he was surrounded by dead bodies wrapped in white blankets and piled together.
“All of these casualties that came to the hospital … came as body parts, amputated without any signs of life,” he said.
Ghoneim pleaded: “We have only five main hospitals working now, and they will be out of service in the coming hours.
“Don’t wait until these hospitals become out of service … We are not feeling safe in this hospital now. We are not feeling safe in any place. Please stop this madness. Stop this genocide. Stop this humanitarian crisis.”
On Tuesday, an attack on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of patients and civilians who had been asked to shelter in the hospital. Israel and the US accuse the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad of carrying out the attack, which was the largest one-off attack since the start of the conflict.
As Biden touched down in Tel Aviv, he held a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he claimed that the attack on the hospital was likely not caused by an airstrike by the Israeli military.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said to Netanyahu, referring to Islamic Jihad.
The international community has condemned the attack, and a summit that was scheduled to be held in Amman between US President Joe Biden and leaders from Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority has been canceled following the massacre.
Attack on communication devices in Lebanon violates international law, could be war crime: UN human rights chief
The explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people
Updated 8 sec ago
Arab News
NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Friday said the detonation of hand-held communication devices reportedly used by Hezbollah in Lebanon this week violated international law and could constitute a war crime.
A senior UN official separately warned on Friday that escalation between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon could lead to an inevitable spiral into a wider regional conflict.
The explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000 others after they detonated in public areas filled with civilians across Lebanon.
Hezbollah quickly blamed Israel for the violence, but the Israeli government has not commented directly on the attacks.
“It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” said the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
Speaking to a UN Security Council briefing on the attacks called for by Algeria, Turk said he was “appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks.”
UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaking during the Security Council session. (Screenshot/UNTV)
He continued: “These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners, and in homes as daily life unfolds.”
He told the council that this type of action “cannot be the new normal,” adding there was a need for an “independent, thorough, and transparent investigation” into the explosions.
“Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account. Let me be clear — this method of warfare may be new and unfamiliar. But international humanitarian and human rights law apply regardless and must be upheld,” he said.
The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the council that the recent escalation risked “seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far” in the nearly year-long conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
“As we approach a full year of near-daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line and bloodshed in Gaza, too many lives have been lost, too many people have been displaced, and too many livelihoods have been destroyed,” DiCarlo said.
“It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy, which must be used without delay.
“The secretary-general continues to urgently call on the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities,” she added.
The Slovenian representative to the UN, Samuel Zbogar, who currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, expressed his “profound concern” over rising violence in the Middle East.
“We are stepping in a dangerous new territory and as new technology is being used and developed, we underline the need to respect the existing legal obligations,” he said.
“Civilian objects should not be weaponized. The international law is clear: use of booby traps is prohibited.
“We call for maximum restraint by all actors in the region. The circle of violence risks escalating into a wider conflict. We call on all parties, both state and non-state actors, to deescalate and refrain from any further retaliatory actions,” he added.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood echoed this and told the council that it was “imperative that even as facts emerge about the latest incidents — in which I reiterate, the US played no role — all parties refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war.”
He added that Washington expected all parties to the conflict to “comply with international humanitarian law and take all reason steps to minimise harm to civilians.”
Lebanon FM accuses Israel of ‘terrorism’ after device blasts
Updated 4 min 11 sec ago
AFP
NEW YORK: Lebanon’s foreign minister on Friday called the detonation of hand-held communication devices this week a “terror” attack which he blamed on Israel.
The blasts that killed dozens across Lebanon over two days is “an unprecedented method of warfare in its brutality and terror,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told the United Nations Security Council, calling the attack “nothing but terrorism.”
Footage shows Israeli soldier pushing body off roof in West Bank
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel
Updated 34 min 29 sec ago
AFP
QABATIYAH: Footage of an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank showed a soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop in what the army described on Friday as a “serious incident.”
AFPTV footage of the operation in the town of Qabatiyah, near Jenin, on Thursday showed an Israeli soldier using his foot to roll the body toward the edge of the roof and then pushing him over while at least two other soldiers looked on.
Qabatiyah is in the northern West Bank, where the military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian Health Ministry says have left dozens dead.
Israel’s military said in a statement on Friday that four militants were killed “in an exchange of fire” in Qabatiyah, while three were killed in an air strike on a vehicle.
Asked about the footage showing a soldier pushing a body off a rooftop, the military said the action conflicted with its values.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with (the Israeli army) values and the expectations from Israeli soldiers. The incident is under review,” it said.
The White House on Friday described the footage as “deeply disturbing” and said it had demanded an explanation from Israel.
“We’ve seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it’s proven authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Since that attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 682 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Since the large-scale raids began in late August, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have claimed at least 14 of the dead as their members.
The military said that one of those killed in Qabatiyah was Shadi Zakarneh and identified him as “responsible for directing and carrying out attacks in the northern West Bank area.”
It said he was “the head of the terrorist organization” in Qabatiyah but did not specify which group he belonged to.
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Sept. 9.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but residents say the current raids are an escalation.
10 years into Houthi rule, some Yemenis count the cost
Since the militia took power in Sanaa in 2014, the country has gone 'back 50 years,' say distressed residents
Updated 20 September 2024
AFP
DUBAI: With a floundering economy and growing restrictions on personal freedoms, 10 years of Houthi rule has left its mark on Yemen’s ancient capital, Sanaa, where some quietly long for how things once were.
The Houthis, a radical political-military group from Yemen’s northern mountains, have imposed strict rule over the large swath of Yemen under their control, covering two-thirds of the population.
Since the militia took power in Sanaa in 2014, after long-running protests against the government, the country has gone “back 50 years,” sighed Yahya, 39, who, like many, prefers not to share his full name for fear of reprisals.
“Before, we thought about how to buy a car or a house. Now we think about how to feed ourselves,” added Abu Jawad, 45.
Yemen, mired in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, remains divided between the Houthis and the government, now based in the port city of Aden.
The Houthis have tightened their control over many aspects of daily life.
Sanaa once had “political parties, active civic organizations, NGOs ... coffee shops where males and females can sit together,” said researcher Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.
Before, we thought about how to buy a car or a house. Now we think about how to feed ourselves.
Abu Jawad, Sanaa resident
“Now the social and political atmosphere has become very closed,” she added.
Men and women are segregated in public, and Houthi slogans like “Death to Israel!” are plastered everywhere, alongside photos of Houthi leaders, Deen said.
Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of activists, journalists, and political opponents who were convicted on “trumped-up” espionage charges.
A wave of arrests in June targeted aid workers, including 13 UN staff who are still detained.
Majed, the director of a Yemeni non-governmental organization, said he fled Sanaa for Aden before taking refuge with friends in Jordan, leaving behind his wife and three children.
“I decided without overthinking. Leaving was a risky choice, but it was the only one,” the 45-year-old said from Amman, where he hopes to find a job.
According to Deen, a Yemeni based outside the country, it is now difficult to go against the ruling authorities or even fail to show support.
“At the very beginning, being silent was an option. Now, it’s not even an option,” she said.
“You have to show that you are loyal to the Houthi ideology.”
The Houthis are adept at using social and traditional media, such as their Al-Masirah TV station, to spread propaganda, and have even revised school textbooks and changed the calendar.
The traditional holiday of Sept. 26, which celebrated the 1962 revolution against the former imam, has been moved to Sept. 21, the day the Houthis took power.
Some Yemenis chafe at the change. “Even if they forbid us from celebrating officially, we will celebrate it in our hearts,” said Abu Ahmed, 53, a Sanaa resident.
However, support for the Houthis’ attacks since November against Israel and ships in the Red Sea, in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war, seems to be unanimous.
“The Yemenis have always been pro-Palestinian,” said author and Yemen specialist Helen Lackner, highlighting the hundreds of thousands of people who join the Houthis’ weekly demonstrations in Sanaa.
Despite their popularity among ordinary people, the maritime attacks have halted negotiations to end the war.
Rim, 43, who has lived with her family in Saudi Arabia for nine years, has not been able to return to Sanaa to bury her father or attend the weddings of her brothers and sisters.
“I dream of getting my life back,” said the 43-year-old. In the meantime, she is content to talk to her children about her country.
“I don’t want them to forget that they are Yemeni.”
Tunisian presidential candidate vows to campaign from prison
Saied’s two most prominent critics, the right-wing Free Destourian Party’s Abir Moussi and the Ennahda’s Rached Ghannouchi, have also been in prison since last year
Updated 20 September 2024
AP Reuters
One of the candidates challenging Tunisian President Kais Saied in the country’s presidential election next month has been sentenced to prison on fraud charges that his attorney decried as politically motivated.
Two weeks after his arrest, a court in the city of Jendouba handed down a 20-month sentence for Ayachi Zammel on Wednesday evening after convicting him of falsifying the signatures he gathered to file the candidacy papers needed to run for president.
Zammel faces more than 20 charges in jurisdictions throughout Tunisia, including four that will be heard on Thursday.
The little-known businessman and head of Tunisia’s Azimoun party is one of two candidates challenging Saied in the North African nation’s Oct. 6 election.
His attorney, Abdessattar Messaoudi, said Zammel planned to conduct his campaign behind bars.
FASTFACT
A court in Jendouba has handed down a 20-month sentence for Ayachi Zammel.
“This is no surprise. We expected such a ruling given the harassment he has been subjected to since announcing his candidacy,” said Messaoudi.
Zammel is among a long list of Saied’s opponents who have faced criminal charges and prosecution in the volatile period leading up to October’s election.
In July, a court sentenced presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison on vote-buying charges and banned him from politics.
Last month, courts sentenced two candidates — Nizar Chaari and Karim Gharbi — on similar signature fraud charges.
After a court required Tunisia’s election authority to reinstate three candidates who had been ruled ineligible to run, one of them — Abdellatif El-Mekki — was arrested on charges that stemmed from a 2014 murder investigation that critics have called politically motivated.
Saied’s two most prominent critics, the right-wing Free Destourian Party’s Abir Moussi and the Ennahda’s Rached Ghannouchi, have also been in prison since last year.
Civil liberty advocates have decried the crackdown as a symptom of Tunisia’s democratic backslide.
Amnesty International this week called it “a clear pre-election assault on the pillars of human rights and the rule of law.”
Political tensions have risen since an electoral commission disqualified three prominent candidates this month.
The commission approved only the candidacies of the incumbent president, Zammel and Zouhair Magzhaoui, who was seen as close to Saied, defying Tunisia’s administrative court, the highest judicial body in election-related disputes.
