US criticizes Israel on Gaza civilian toll as UN to hear ceasefire demand

Update A man walks among the rubble of a building destroyed destroyed Israeli bombardment overnight in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on December 7, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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A man walks among the rubble of a building destroyed destroyed Israeli bombardment overnight in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on December 7, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Update US criticizes Israel on Gaza civilian toll as UN to hear ceasefire demand
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Israeli navy soldiers prepare ammunition and ships before setting out to the Mediterranean sea waters around the Gaza Strip, at the Israeli naval base in Ashdod, on December 7, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Update US criticizes Israel on Gaza civilian toll as UN to hear ceasefire demand
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An Israeli military fighter aircraft flies near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, December 7, 2023. (REUTERS)
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Updated 08 December 2023
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US criticizes Israel on Gaza civilian toll as UN to hear ceasefire demand

US criticizes Israel on Gaza civilian toll as UN to hear ceasefire demand
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: ‘It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection’
  • ‘And there does remain a gap between... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground’

GAZA/WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest public criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza, said there was a gap between the government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the casualties.

“As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south... it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection,” Blinken told a press conference after meeting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington on Thursday.

“And there does remain a gap between... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground.”

Israel says it must wipe out the Hamas militant group after its attack on Israel two months ago and is doing everything possible to get civilians out of harm’s way, including warnings about military operations.

US President Joe Biden spoke separately by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday. Biden “emphasized the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas including through corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities,” the White House said.

More than 17,170 Palestinians have been killed and 46,000 wounded, according to the Gaza health ministry, since Oct. 7, when Israel began bombarding Gaza in response to a cross-border rampage by Iran-backed Hamas militants, who control the enclave. The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, with 240 people taken hostage, according to Israel’s tally.

The Israeli military on Friday said 92 of its soldiers had been killed in Gaza fighting since its ground incursions began on Oct. 20.

CEASEFIRE DEMAND AT UN AS GAZA FIGHTING RAGES

Hundreds more Palestinians were killed as Israel fought Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip’s biggest cities on Thursday — 350 people, according to Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra. Israel said its forces killed a number of gunmen in Khan Younis, including two who emerged firing from a tunnel.

Arab states have renewed their push for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, with United Arab Emirates asking the UN Security Council to vote on Friday morning on a draft resolution.

The United States and ally Israel oppose a cease-fire, saying it would only benefit Hamas. Blinken is due to meet top diplomats from Arab states, including Egypt, on Friday in Washington.

The draft was amended to say both “the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law” and to “demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the five permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, France or Britain — to be adopted. The US does not support any further action by the council at this time.

As pressure mounts on Israel over the civilian toll of its war to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian Authority is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza after the war is over, Bloomberg News reported.

Citing Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, it said the preferred outcome would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“If they (Hamas) are ready to come to an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for talk. Palestinians should not be divided,” Shtayyeh said, adding that Israel’s aim to fully defeat Hamas is unrealistic.

KEREM SHALOM BORDER CROSSING TO OPEN

In a development that should help smooth the way for more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, Israel agreed to a US request to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for the inspection of trucks and their cargo, a US official said on Thursday.

Egypt, along with the United Nations, has been lobbying Israel to speed up an inspection process, which requires the vehicles to drive to Egypt’s border with Israel before looping back to Rafah. The number of trucks crossing daily has dropped to fewer than 100, from nearly 200 during a Nov. 24-Dec. 1 truce, according to the United Nations.

Kerem Shalom sits at Gaza’s southern border with Israel and Egypt and the crossing was used to carry more than 60 percent of the truckloads going into Gaza before war erupted two months ago.

With no end in sight to the fighting, a top White House national security aide, Jon Finer, said the United States had not given Israel a firm deadline to end major combat operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

There are many “legitimate military targets” remaining in south Gaza, including “much if not most” of the Hamas leadership, Finer said at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington.

Meanwhile, hostages still held by Hamas have been kept incommunicado in Gaza despite Israel’s calls on the Red Cross to arrange visits and verify their wellbeing.

Marking two months since Hamas’ attack, the start of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah was a solemn moment for many in Israel.

Idit Ohel, whose son Alon, 22, was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen from an outdoor music festival where 364 people were killed, said she was hoping for a miracle.

“He doesn’t know it’s Hanukkah. I don’t think he knows the days, what’s day, what’s night,” said Ohel. “But he’s in our hearts all the time.”


Israel says ‘senior Hezbollah operative’ seized in commando raid

Lebanese intelligence officers leave a building in Batroun, northern Lebanon, where Imad Amhaz was taken by Israeli forces.
Lebanese intelligence officers leave a building in Batroun, northern Lebanon, where Imad Amhaz was taken by Israeli forces.
Updated 21 sec ago
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Israel says ‘senior Hezbollah operative’ seized in commando raid

Lebanese intelligence officers leave a building in Batroun, northern Lebanon, where Imad Amhaz was taken by Israeli forces.
  • Lebanon condemns ‘blatant violation,’ launches urgent inquiry
  • Strikes on Baalbek, southern regions, while Hezbollah targets 10 settlements

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces on Sunday took statements from eyewitnesses after Israeli commandos abducted a man said to be a senior Hezbollah naval operative.

In one of the most dramatic raids of the current conflict, Imad Amhaz was taken from a chalet he rented with his family in the coastal town of Batroun, northern Lebanon, by Israeli special forces who escaped by speedboat in the early hours of Friday.

Amhaz’s wife and a neighbor were among those interviewed by Lebanese security forces.

The abduction was kept secret in Lebanon until leaked footage of the operation appeared showing about 20 Israeli soldiers, fully equipped, leading Amhaz away.

Israel said that the raid, which took place about 40 km north of Beirut, lasted only a few minutes.

However, Lebanon denies Amhaz has links with Hezbollah, and has said it will file an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council.

Ali Hamieh, caretaker minister of public works and transport, on Sunday described the Batroun raid as “a blatant violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

He said the government is still waiting on a detailed report into the incident, and added that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is “making contacts to neutralize the land and sea crossings from Israeli attacks.”

In a social media post and interviews with local television, Amhaz’s father, Fadel, called on the Lebanese government, navy, and UNIFIL forces to pursue his son’s case and work to have him released.

He said that his son is a civilian boat captain and had been studying in Batroun at the Marsati Institute for Marine Sciences, where he had undertaken courses since 2013.

“Imad usually works on civilian ships that transport either livestock or cars. He spends most of his time at sea. He has no connection to parties and does not interfere in politics,” his father said.

He called on the International Red Cross and UNIFIL forces to “communicate with the kidnappers to return my son to his family safely.”

Israeli Army Radio on Sunday said the naval commando operation in Batroun resulted in “the arrest of a Hezbollah leader.”

According to the military outlet, the operation had been planned for a long time, with Israeli intelligence services “waiting for an opportunity that would allow a high degree of certainty for its success.”

The radio reported that “the investigators, who speak Arabic, conducted a preliminary interrogation of the Hezbollah member who was arrested to confirm that he was the person targeted, he is a key member of Hezbollah and a figure fully involved in the party’s activities, and not an innocent Lebanese citizen as some parties in Lebanon tried to portray him.”

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued on Sunday in southern Lebanon and the Baalbek region.

A raid on a house in the town of Joya killed two people and injured several others. Raids also targeted towns in the Tyre, Nabatieh, Iqlim Al-Tuffah, Zahrani, and Sidon districts.

Three people were killed and nine injured in a raid on the town of Harat Saida, according to the Ministry of Health.

The Israeli army evacuated areas near the border town of Khiyam, according to Hezbollah, but retreated “after receiving severe blows from the party’s fighters.”

The Israeli army said that it had killed Farouk Amin Al-Asi, a Hezbollah company commander in Khiyam, while Youssef Ahmed Noun, a platoon commander in the Radwan Force in the Khiyam area, was also targeted.

A UNIFIL force and paramedics on Saturday reached Wata Al-Khiam, where dozens of civilians were believed to be sheltering in a house following clashes more than a week ago.

However, it turned out that the house had been leveled. Some bodies were recovered, while others remain beneath the rubble.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed in a post that “the Israeli army found on Sunday inside a children’s room in a house in the heart of a village in the south, which he did not name, rockets and combat equipment and destroyed them.”

Adraee said: “The forces of the 91st Division continued their specific ground activities in the south to thwart and destroy the infrastructure and eliminate Hezbollah elements.”

Israeli troops warned residents of Baalbek and the surrounding areas on Sunday to leave their homes.

The warning gave a four-hour deadline, but Israeli attacks began before the deadline expired with raids on the city of Baalbek and Douris, one of which struck the government hospital in Baalbek. 


UN experts say Houthis collaborated with Al-Qaeda to weaken Yemeni government

Supporters of Yemen’s Houthis attend an anti-Israel rally in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon in Sanaa on November 1, 2024.(AFP)
Supporters of Yemen’s Houthis attend an anti-Israel rally in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon in Sanaa on November 1, 2024.(AFP)
Updated 24 min 8 sec ago
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UN experts say Houthis collaborated with Al-Qaeda to weaken Yemeni government

Supporters of Yemen’s Houthis attend an anti-Israel rally in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon in Sanaa on November 1, 2024.(AFP)
  • UN Panel of Experts on Yemen said in report that the Houthis and Al-Qaeda agreed to put aside their differences and focus on weakening Yemeni government

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia has armed Al-Qaeda militants, provided them with a haven, and facilitated attacks on Yemeni government-controlled areas, UN experts said. The Houthis have also made millions of dollars through sea piracy.

Disclosing the strange partnership between the Houthis and Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, including Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen said in their report that the Houthis and Al-Qaeda agreed to put aside their differences and focus on weakening the Yemeni government by transferring weapons, coordinating attacks on Yemeni government forces, cooperating to smuggle weapons into Yemen, sharing intelligence information, and providing haven for the other’s fighters.

“That opportunistic alliance is characterized by cooperation in security and intelligence, offering safe havens for each other’s members, reinforcing their respective strongholds and coordinating efforts to target the Government’s forces,” the report said, adding that the Houthis also released incarcerated Al-Qaeda fighters convicted of terrorism and provided Al-Qaeda with drones and rockets.

“Since the beginning of 2024, the two groups have coordinated operations directly. They agreed that the Houthis would transfer four uncrewed aerial vehicles, as well as thermal rockets and explosive devices, and that the Houthis would provide training to AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) fighters.”

Citing deadly drone attacks by Al-Qaeda in Abyan, Yemeni military commanders have lately accused the Houthis of supplying Al-Qaeda with drones and other weapons, as well as sheltering Al-Qaeda militants who stage hit-and-run attacks on government troops.

The 537-page report, which covers the period from Sept. 1, 2023, to July 31, 2024, described Hezbollah as “one of the most important” supporters of the Houthis in Yemen, assisting them in decision-making, field military support through the use and assembly of weapons and fighting techniques, increasing their financial revenues, recruitment and brainwashing techniques, and managing Houthi media propaganda.

The Houthis have a variety of revenue sources to support their military efforts, including selling rare and valuable antiques and antiquities abroad, minting coins and printing currencies, imposing levies on telecom companies in areas under their control, confiscating assets of companies, including Yemenia airways revenues, smuggling weapons and banned pesticides, and imposing levies on oil imports to the country.

“The Houthis have been amassing substantial illegal resources through the organized smuggling of various items such as weapons, drugs, telecommunications equipment, prohibited goods such as banned pesticides, non-permissible medicines, and cultural heritage property,” the report said.

It added: “The Panel's investigations revealed that Houthi-appointed authorities collected approximately 994 billion Yemeni rials in the name of customs duties on imports of fuel through ports under their control during the period from April 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024, under the exchange rate prevailing in government-controlled areas.”

However, during the Houthi campaign against ships that the Yemeni militia claimed were in support of the Palestinian people, the Houthis have collected approximately $180 million a month from ships to allow them to sail in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden without being attacked, and a high-ranking Houthi leader facilitated the transfer of the money from the shipping agencies to the militia’s coffers.

“The sources estimate the Houthis’ earnings from these illegal safe-transit fees to be about $180 million per month. The Panel has not been able to verify this information independently.”

The UN experts also accused the Houthis of recruiting and exploiting Ethiopian migrants — who arrive in the country by the thousands each year — to fight alongside them against the Yemeni government while also facilitating drug trafficking.

The Yemeni government, as well as local and international rights groups, have previously said that the Houthis recruited thousands of African migrants to fight the Yemeni government.  

“Other sources informed the Panel that the Houthis have also recruited mercenaries from the Tigray and Oromo Ethiopian tribes, at salaries ranging from $80 to $100. The Panel has been unable to verify that information and continues to investigate,” the experts said.

The Yemeni government welcomed the findings of the UN report and urged the world to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization and cut off their financial resources. 

Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said in a post on X that the collusion between the Houthis and other terrorist organizations is intended to “weaken the Yemeni state, destabilizing security and stability in liberated areas,” thereby undermining maritime navigation security.


Israel PM vows to respond ‘firmly’ to Hezbollah in visit to Lebanon border

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a ceremony at an army base.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a ceremony at an army base.
Updated 34 min 51 sec ago
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Israel PM vows to respond ‘firmly’ to Hezbollah in visit to Lebanon border

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a ceremony at an army base.
  • Israel’s military said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Sunday
  • Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Palestinian militants Hamas

JERUSALEM: Lebanon said Sunday an air strike killed three people near Sidon in the south as more bombs hit the east and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited his country’s northern border.

The latest attacks on eastern Lebanon came after Israel warned it would again hit Hezbollah targets there.

Netanyahu’s office said the premier “visited the Lebanon border today,” his second such trip in a month.

He vowed to respond “firmly” to Hezbollah’s attacks and to prevent the group from rearming, his office said.

“I want to be clear: with or without an agreement, the key to restoring peace and security in the north, the key to bringing our northern residents back home safely, is first and foremost to push Hezbollah back beyond the Litani River, secondly to target any attempt to rearm, and thirdly to respond firmly to any action taken against us,” Netanyahu told soldiers at the border, according to a statement from his office.

It came as Israel’s military said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Sunday.
Several were intercepted, and some fell in unpopulated areas.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon have been at war since September 23, when Israel escalated cross-border air raids after a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire. A week later it sent in ground troops on “targeted raids.”
Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Palestinian militants Hamas, whose unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 last year triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on Haret Saida resulted in an initial death toll of three people killed and nine others injured,” Lebanon’s health ministry said, referring to a densely populated area near Sidon.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported another Israeli strike south of Sidon, on the town of Ghaziyeh.
That strike hit a residential building, according to an AFP correspondent, who said a child was rescued from the rubble.
NNA said other Israeli strikes hit near a hospital in Tebnine, a town in the south Lebanon district of Bint Jbeil. Tebnine’s major told AFP the hospital was significantly damaged.
Neither the Haret Saida strike nor those in Lebanon’s south were preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.
Israel’s military did issue a warning for Lebanon’s Baalbek area, which includes east Lebanon’s main city and UNESCO-designated Roman ruins, saying it would be targeting Hezbollah-linked facilities.
An AFP correspondent later reported at least three strikes in the Baalbek area, where Hezbollah holds sway and which has seen heavy air raids in the past few days.
Also on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported the recovery of five bodies from the flashpoint southern town of Khiam.
They were among 21 bodies that have been trapped under rubble in Khiam for around one week, according to the NNA.
The war has killed more than 1,930 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
Israel’s military says 38 soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon campaign since it began ground operations.
Iran and Israel have recently attacked each other directly, heightening fears of even wider conflict.
But Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said a potential ceasefire with its allies “could affect the intensity and type of our response.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had on Saturday warned Israel and the United States they “will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response.”
Israel has warned Iran against responding to its October 26 attack.
On Sunday demonstrators burned Israeli and US flags outside the former American embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis that has shaped relations between Washington and Tehran ever since.
American B-52 bombers have arrived in the Middle East, the US military said on Saturday, as part of reinforcements being deployed in a warning to Iran.
In Gaza Israel’s military again reported “dozens” of militants killed in the northern Jabalia area where, Israeli forces have since October 6 carried out a major air and ground assault to stop Hamas from regrouping.
In central Gaza on Sunday, people crowded to receive sacks of flour from a distribution point of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Deir el-Balah.
Israel’s parliament last Monday banned UNRWA — the main aid agency in Gaza — from operating in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite international objections.
If implemented, the ban would hit humanitarian work in Gaza, experts say.
The ban came after the United States on October 15 warned Israel it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to Gaza within 30 days.
Also in Deir el-Balah on Sunday, relatives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital mourned a father and son killed during Israeli bombardment.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s military response against Hamas has killed 43,341 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations consider to be reliable.


Family mourns Bangladeshi man killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon

Family mourns Bangladeshi man killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon
Updated 56 min 1 sec ago
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Family mourns Bangladeshi man killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon

Family mourns Bangladeshi man killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon
  • Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed on Saturday afternoon on his way to work in Beirut
  • Death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon has surged to nearly 3,000 people

DHAKA: The family of a Bangladeshi worker who died in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon said on Sunday that Tel Aviv was the only one responsible for his death and called for an immediate stop to the war raging in the Middle East.

There are between 70,000 and 100,000 Bangladeshi nationals in Lebanon, many working as laborers or domestic workers, according to estimates from the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry.

Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed on Saturday afternoon as he stopped at a coffee shop on the way to work in Beirut, Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Lebanon Javed Tanveer Khan said in a statement.

Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed on Saturday afternoon in Beirut. (Supplied)

“Israel is solely responsible for the death of my brother. This war should be stopped without any delay,” Nizam’s older brother, Mohammad Jalal, told Arab News.

“Since the beginning of recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, I have been worried about Nizam’s safety. But I couldn’t imagine this tragic end to my brother’s life. If I could have sensed this outcome even a little bit, I would have brought him back at any cost.”

The death toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since late September has surged to nearly 3,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. More than 13,300 people have been injured in air and ground raids, many of which have targeted civilian and medical infrastructure.

“I don’t understand how many innocent lives need to be sacrificed to satisfy the whims of the Israeli leadership. It’s simply inhuman, insane and cynical,” Jalal said.

In the wake of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, an estimated 1,800 Bangladeshis had registered for an evacuation flight home.    

The first flights, organized by the government in Dhaka with the UN’s International Organization for Migration, had already brought some of them from Beirut last month.

Nizam was not among those who registered, with Jalal saying that his younger sibling had not been home once since he started living and working in Lebanon 12 years ago.

“The last time we talked … he was talking about building a house here in his birthplace. He was planning to return home soon by the end of this year. But now all of our dreams for a happy reunion have faded away with this sudden blow,” he said.

Though a request to repatriate the body of the deceased has been made, officials have said it was not currently possible due to the ongoing war. But Nizam’s family is still hoping for an arrangement with the help of authorities.

“Now I am waiting to see my brother’s face for one last time and bury him in our village. But I have no idea whether it would be possible or not amid this war situation,” Jalal said. “I don’t know when I will be able to see his face.”


Turkiye presses UN for arms embargo on Israel in joint letter

Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 31, 2024.
Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 31, 2024.
Updated 50 min 35 sec ago
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Turkiye presses UN for arms embargo on Israel in joint letter

Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 31, 2024.
  • “We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel,” said Hakan Fidan at a press conference in Djibouti

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign ministry said Sunday it had submitted a letter to the United Nations, signed by 52 countries and two organizations, calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel.
“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” said Hakan Fidan at a press conference in Djibouti, where he was attending a Turkiye-Africa partnership summit.
“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,“” said Fidan who added that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkiye.”

Among the signatories was Brazil, Algeria, China, and Russia, with the two organisations being the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN to impose an arms embargo on Israel, which he said would be an “effective solution” to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip.