In letter to AFP, Blinken says Gaza journalists must be ‘protected from harm’

In letter to AFP, Blinken says Gaza journalists must be ‘protected from harm’
Relatives and colleagues of two Palestinian journalists Hasouna Slim and Sari Mansoor, killed in an Israeli strike, mourn over their bodies during their funeral in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 19, 2023. (AFP/File)
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Updated 13 December 2023
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In letter to AFP, Blinken says Gaza journalists must be ‘protected from harm’

In letter to AFP, Blinken says Gaza journalists must be ‘protected from harm’
  • At least 63 journalists and media workers have been killed since war broke out after Oct. 7, according to Committee to Protect Journalists
  • AFP and other media groups had written to Blinken in October urging help in protecting journalists on the ground in Gaza

PARIS: The United States will always insist on the need to protect journalists reporting from Gaza during the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a letter to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
AFP and other international media groups had written to Blinken in late October urging his help in protecting journalists on the ground in Gaza after several were killed since the outbreak of fighting.
“The United States has and will continue to underscore with Israel, and with all countries, that journalists must be protected from harm,” Blinken wrote.
“We stand unequivocally for the protection of journalists during armed conflict and mourn those who have been killed or injured.”
Since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October, at least 63 journalists and media workers — 56 Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese — have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
AFP and the other media groups also urged Blinken’s help in evacuating their employees from Gaza as Israeli bombards the territory in retaliation for the attack by Hamas on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and saw around 240 hostages taken.
Israel imposed a total shutdown of the territory’s borders on October 9.
“US citizens’ and foreign nationals’ continued safe passage out of Gaza remains our top priority, and we are working with Egypt, the UN, and Israel to facilitate their ability to exit Gaza safely,” Blinken wrote.
Around 100 French lawmakers mainly from left-wing parties on Monday sent a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also calling for all possible efforts to secure the exit of AFP journalists stranded in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry on Tuesday updated its death toll since the Gaza war began to 18,412 people, mostly women and children.


Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions
Updated 55 min 43 sec ago
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Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has reiterated to his Iranian counterpart the urgency of de-escalating Middle East tensions in order to avert a regional war.

During a phone call with Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, Abdelatty discussed his country’s concerns about the possibility of a full-scale regional war amid rising tensions.

Araghchi was in Cairo last month for the first visit to Egypt by a key Iranian official in around a decade. His trip was focused on efforts to de-escalate Israel’s conflicts with Gaza and Lebanon.


Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan
Updated 04 November 2024
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Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan
  • “Ultra-light gyroplane” met accident while conducting combat operations in Sistan-Baluchestan
  • Province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and Baloch rebels

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 Baloch 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 Baloch 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.


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

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps
Updated 04 November 2024
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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 04 November 2024
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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 04 November 2024
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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.