French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce

Update French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce
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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh (R) meets with the visiting French FM Catherine Colonna (L) at his headquarters in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 17, 2023. (AFP)
Update French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce
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French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna (L) and spokesperson of the Israeli army Colonel Olivier Rafowitcz speak to the press as they visit the Shura army base near Ramle in Israel's central district on December 17, 2023. (AFP)
Update French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce
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French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna (C) meets with Palestinian olive growers in a small village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 17, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 18 December 2023
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French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce

French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce
  • Warns that violent acts by settlers could “destabilize” the West Bank and “undermine” any chance of a two-state solution
  • Adds that France and its allies were weighing a response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea

TEL AVIV: French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Sunday pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the Gaza war, saying “too many civilians are being killed” in the Palestinian territory.

Israel has come under growing international pressure for a cease-fire in Gaza, where its war against Hamas militants has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas government.
The offensive comes in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks in southern Israel in which 1,139 people were killed, mostly civilians, and about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Meeting her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv, before holding talks with Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Colonna stressed that the victims of Hamas’s attacks must not be forgotten, including those subjected to sexual violence.
“Needless to say, France believes the word of these women victims... those who had to witness these rapes and mutilations, these desecrations,” she said in Tel Aviv.
She also addressed concerns that the war could spread.
There have been regular cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Cohen said Israel “has no intention to start another front on our northern border” and that France could play a “positive and significant role” in preventing an all-out war.
But he warned that ensuring the security of Israelis near the border meant pushing Hezbollah “north of the Litani River.”
“There are two ways to do that: either by diplomacy or by force,” Cohen said.
Colonna, who is due to visit Lebanon on Monday, called on all parties to “de-escalate” along the border.
“If things were to spiral out of control, I don’t think anyone would benefit, and I say this to Israel too,” she said.

Colonna also said France and its allies were weighing a response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Major shipping firms have suspended passage following attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at pressuring Israel over the Gaza war.
“These attacks cannot go unanswered, and we are studying several solutions,” including a “defensive role to prevent this from happening again,” the minister said.
She later met separately with the families of French hostages still held in Gaza, and with senior Palestinian officials at the headquarters in Ramallah of the Palestinian Authority which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
In a rural community near the West Bank city, the French foreign minister condemned violence in the West Bank. More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, health officials in the territory say.
She said violent acts by settlers “are grave actions” that could “destabilize” the West Bank and “undermine” any chance of a two-state solution.
Colonna also met Palestinian olive growers who told her they had been threatened and chased from their land by settlers and were unable to harvest olives this year.
For Palestinians, the hardy olive trees, which thrives in tough conditions and can live for hundreds of years, is a symbol of their rootedness in the territory, where an estimated 10 million trees grow.


Israel hits Beirut’s southern suburbs for first time in days, Reuters witnesses say

Israel hits Beirut’s southern suburbs for first time in days, Reuters witnesses say
Updated 19 sec ago
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Israel hits Beirut’s southern suburbs for first time in days, Reuters witnesses say

Israel hits Beirut’s southern suburbs for first time in days, Reuters witnesses say
BEIRUT: Israel carried out air strikes early on Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses said, the first strikes there in nearly a week.

At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry

At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry
Updated 01 November 2024
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At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry

At least 46 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, hospital hit, says Gaza ministry
  • Strike on hospital torches medical supplies, officials say
  • Israel says militants were hiding in hospital

CAIRO: At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.
Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the charge.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on two houses in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least 16 Palestinians, medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the camp told Reuters. The dead included a paramedic and two local journalists, they added.
Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled Hamas’ command structure, is currently the main focus of the military’s assault in the enclave. Earlier this month it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya to flush out militants it said had regrouped.
Eid Sabbah, director of nursing at Kamal Adwan — which is in Beit Lahiya — told Reuters some staff suffered minor burns after the Israeli strike hit the third floor of the hospital.
There were no reports of any casualties at the hospital, which Israeli forces stormed and briefly occupied last week. Israel said it had captured around 100 suspected Hamas militants in that raid. Israeli tanks are still stationed nearby.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip called for all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.”
The Israeli military has said its forces are operating in the hospital area based on intelligence about the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the vicinity.
“During the operation, it was found that dozens of terrorists were hiding in the hospital, with some even posing as hospital staff,” said the military in a statement following Thursday’s strike.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”
The Gaza war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.


Iraq tries to avoid regional fight as militias fire at Israel

Iraq tries to avoid regional fight as militias fire at Israel
Updated 01 November 2024
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Iraq tries to avoid regional fight as militias fire at Israel

Iraq tries to avoid regional fight as militias fire at Israel
  • Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful of the armed factions, said Israel and the US would have to pay a price for Israel’s strikes on Iran last week

BAGHDAD: Nervously watching Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, Iraq is working to avoid being drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iran-backed armed groups launch attacks on Israel from Iraqi soil, sources familiar with the matter say.
Two decades after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is experiencing relative stability with high revenue from oil sales funding a service-based agenda that has turned much of the country into a construction site.
Iraq does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s government is wary of regional conflicts that could affect its delicate balancing act between Washington and Tehran, both states it is allied with.
Spillover from regional conflict resulted in months of tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in Iraq and the region that only subsided after Iran intervened in February.
But Sudani’s government has not been successful in a push to convince the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — a coalition of Iran-backed armed groups — to stop firing rockets and drones at Israel, according to four sources in Iran-backed armed groups and two government advisers.
Two visits to Iran by Iraq’s top security officials in the past two months, seeking Tehran’s help to rein in its allied Iraqi factions, failed, the sources said.
“The Iraqi delegation received a cold reception in Tehran ... The answer was: those groups have their own decision and it is their call to decide how to support their brothers in Lebanon and Gaza,” said a senior Iraqi security official briefed on the visits.
Baghdad turned to Washington, asking US officials to intervene with Israel to prevent retaliation for the attacks, including one that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 20 on Oct. 4, the sources said, the first time such an attack has been reported to cause fatalities.
“Washington was understanding of the repercussions of possible Israeli strikes in Iraq and pledged to help,” said an Iraqi foreign ministry official.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Four militia sources said the Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba groups, which are leading the attacks on Israel, have warned the prime minister against pressuring them to halt their actions and vowed to continue their attacks as long as Israel continued its Gaza and Lebanon operations.
The issue has divided parties in Iraq’s ruling coalition, all of whom are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and view Israel as an enemy, though some differ over how involved Iraq should be in the regional confrontation.
Shiite leaders discussed the risk of repercussions from attacks on Israel and possible Israeli retaliation during two meetings in October, said Ahmed Kenani, a Shiite lawmaker from the ruling alliance.
Key players in the Shiite coalition view direct confrontation with Israel as counterproductive and potentially damaging to Iraq, according to four Shiite lawmakers.
“Those groups who have the rockets and drones should go to Gaza and Lebanon to fight Israel rather than pushing Iraq toward destruction,” said Iraqi PM adviser Abul Ameer Thuaiban.
Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful of the armed factions, said Israel and the US would have to pay a price for Israel’s strikes on Iran last week.
Senior Iraqi security sources told Reuters ahead of that attack that any strike by Israel against Iran outside what the sources called the established rules of engagement could prompt pro-Iran armed groups to significantly expand their attacks on Israel and US assets in the region.


Blinken says ‘good progress’ made toward Lebanon ceasefire deal

Blinken says ‘good progress’ made toward Lebanon ceasefire deal
Updated 31 October 2024
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Blinken says ‘good progress’ made toward Lebanon ceasefire deal

Blinken says ‘good progress’ made toward Lebanon ceasefire deal
  • Said that Washington “working very hard” on concluding arrangements on a deal
  • US has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

WASHINGTON DC: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that negotiators have made “good progress” toward a deal that would bring a ceasefire in Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
The top US diplomat said that Washington was “working very hard” on concluding arrangements on a deal that would include the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border region with Israel.
“Based on my recent trip to the region, and the work that’s ongoing right now, we have made good progress on those understandings,” Blinken told reporters.
“We still have more work to do,” he said, calling for a “diplomatic resolution, including through a ceasefire.”
Two senior US officials, Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, met Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that any deal on Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s security.
Unlike in the year-old war in Gaza, the US has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and has largely backed Israeli strikes against Hezbollah, while voicing concern for the fate of civilians.
Blinken called again for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, dating from 2006, which calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon and a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.
“It’s important to make sure that we have clarity, both from Lebanon and from Israel, about what would be required under 1701 to get its effective implementation — the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the border, the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces, the authorities under which they’d be acting, an appropriate enforcement mechanism,” Blinken said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking alongside Blinken and their South Korean counterparts, said there was an “opportunity” in Lebanon.
“We’re hopeful that we will see things transition in Lebanon in a not too distant future,” Austin said.


Israel says another rocket barrage from Lebanon kills 2 in Israel, hours after 5 were killed

Israel says another rocket barrage from Lebanon kills 2 in Israel, hours after 5 were killed
Updated 31 October 2024
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Israel says another rocket barrage from Lebanon kills 2 in Israel, hours after 5 were killed

Israel says another rocket barrage from Lebanon kills 2 in Israel, hours after 5 were killed
  • The attack came as senior US diplomats were in the region to push for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza

TEL AVIV: Israel’s rescue service said projectiles fired from Lebanon on Thursday killed two more people in northern Israel, raising death toll there to seven in what’s been the deadliest rocket barrage since the Israeli military’s invasion of southern Lebanon.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said its medics confirmed the deaths of a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman in a suburb of the northern city of Haifa. They also treated two other people who suffered mild injuries and were hospitalized.
The Israeli military said that roughly 25 rockets crossed into Israel from Lebanon as part of the volley that struck an olive grove where people had gathered for the harvest.
The deadly attack came just hours after officials in Metula, in northern Israel, said that five people were killed, including four foreign workers, in a rocket barrage Thursday that struck an Israeli agricultural area.
The back-to-back attacks made Thursday one of the deadliest days for civilians in Israel since the Israeli military invaded southern Lebanon on Oct. 1 as part of a widening campaign against the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group.
The attack came as senior US diplomats were in the region to push for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration’s final months.
The Hezbollah militant group has been firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran.
The conflict along the border escalated into a full-blown war last month, when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces pushed into Lebanon at the start of October.
The Metula regional council reported Thursday’s attack, without detailing the number or type of projectiles used. The nationalities of the workers were also not immediately known.
Metula, Israel’s northernmost town which is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides, has suffered heavy damage from rockets. The town’s residents evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remain.
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.
Agricultural areas along Israel’s border, where much of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military areas that can only be entered with official permission.
Hezbollah’s newly named top leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in a video statement Wednesday that the militant group will keep fighting Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable. He said it has recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies that was widely blamed on Israel.
“Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate from more areas of southern Lebanon, as airstrikes in different parts of the country killed eight people, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Israel has warned people to evacuate from large areas of the country, including major cities in the south and east. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced since the escalation in September.
Thousands of people have fled from Baalbek, the main city in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, and surrounding areas after Israeli evacuation warnings and aerial bombardment on Wednesday.
Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir Al-Ahmar region, some 17 kilometers (10 miles) to the southeast, said the main highway “turned into a parking lot.” He said around 12,000 displaced people are staying in the area, with most being hosted in private homes.
At one of the shelters, families with luggage were still arriving on Thursday.
“Our homes were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing — no clothes or anything else — and took shelter here.”
More than 2,800 people have been killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Lebanon since the conflict began last year, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
In Israel, rockets, missiles, and drones launched by Hezbollah have killed at least 68 people, about half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis from towns and cities along the border have been evacuated from their homes for more than a year.