Blinken meets Palestinian leader as Israel keeps bombing Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Jan. 10, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Jan. 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 10 January 2024
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Blinken meets Palestinian leader as Israel keeps bombing Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank.
  • Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke with Blinken of the need “to stop the Israeli aggression against Palestinian people” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank

GAZA STRIP: US top diplomat Antony Blinken on Wednesday met the head of the Palestinian Authority and traveled to Bahrain on his Middle East tour aimed at stopping the Israel-Hamas war from escalating.
The Israeli military said it killed dozens of “terrorists” and hit another 150 targets in Hamas-run Gaza, where the health ministry said 147 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war has raged since the unprecedented Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and killed more than 23,000 people in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to its health ministry.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke with Blinken of the need “to stop the Israeli aggression against Palestinian people” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, which has also been torn by deadly unrest, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Blinken told Abbas that Washington supports “tangible steps” toward the creation of a Palestinian state — a long-term goal which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has opposed.
The secretary of state reiterated the US position that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
As Blinken arrived under tight security at Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah, protesters held up signs reading “Stop the genocide,” “Free Palestine” and “Blinken out.” Some scuffled with Palestinian security forces in riot gear.
In Bahrain, Blinken said Abbas was “committed” to reforming the Palestinian Authority to provide “effective” governance for his people.
Blinken was in the Gulf state for talks with King Hamad on preventing a regional escalation of the war, according to the State Department.
Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the Jordanian city of Aqaba to discuss with King Abdullah II a “push for an immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, Jordan’s royal palace said.
Washington sees a future in Gaza for the PA, whose ruling Fatah faction is a rival of Hamas. But Netanyahu has long sought to weaken the semi-autonomous body.
Since the Gaza war started, fears have grown of a widening conflict between Israel and Iran-backed armed groups, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah but also groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Yemen’s Houthi militia have carried out numerous attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a vital artery for international trade.
The United States has set up a multinational naval task force to protect shipping from the attacks, which Blinken on Wednesday said were “aided and abetted” by Iran.
On Tuesday, the rebels “launched a complex” attack, US Central Command said, adding that US and British forces had shot down 18 drones and three missiles, with no casualties or damage reported.
The Houthis later said they had fired a “large number” of missiles and drones at a US ship, with an adviser telling AFP it was the largest such attack since their campaign started.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned the Houthis of “consequences” if they continued their “illegal attacks.”
The war started when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 23,357 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The Israeli army says 186 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an Israeli strike on an ambulance in central Gaza killed four medics and two other passengers on Wednesday, as the territory’s health system collapses during Israel’s siege and bombardment.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced inside the territory that had already endured years of blockade and poverty before the war triggered an acute humanitarian crisis.
Blinken — while voicing continued US support for top regional ally Israel — has urged steps to reduce the suffering.
Dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine mean the “daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly children, is far too high,” Blinken said Tuesday.
The World Health Organization called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “indescribable” on Wednesday and pleaded Israel to allow more aid deliveries.
Desperate Gazans on Tuesday climbed onto one truck carrying flour and canned goods and tossed the food to the crowd below, AFP footage showed.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari has said Israel was “ready and willing to facilitate as much humanitarian aid as the world will give.”
One of the many displaced Palestinians, Hassan Kaskin, 55, said: “We have lost our money, our houses, our jobs. We are losing our youths as well.
“We’ve sacrificed our children for our homeland.”
Blinken is on his fourth tour of the Middle East since the outbreak of the war, and was due to head to Egypt, after earlier stops in Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Washington has floated a post-war scenario in which a reformed Palestinian Authority governs Gaza as well as towns and cities in the West Bank.
A post-war plan outlined by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant envisions local “civil committees” governing Gaza after Israel has dismantled Hamas.
Hamas seized sole control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, ousting Abbas’s Fatah party, with which it had shared power after sweeping parliamentary elections.
The United States and European Union have blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organization.
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh said last week he was “open to the idea” of a single Palestinian administration in Gaza and the West Bank.


Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers
Updated 14 sec ago
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Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers
  • Practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court
  • The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention
JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defense ministry announced Friday.
The practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court, and is often used against Palestinians who Israel deems security threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions.”
But, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now, it is one of only few effective tools that Israeli authorities to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank over the past year.
Katz said in a statement issued by his office that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said authorities use administrative detention “extensively and routinely” to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that eight settlers were held under the same practice in November.
Yonatan Mizrahi, director of settlement watch for Peace Now, said that although administrative detention was mostly used in the West Bank to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence through detention.
“The cancelation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalizes escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war,” the group said in a statement, referring to a spike in settler attacks throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict over the past 13 months.
Western governments, including Israel’s ally and military backer the United States, have recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler organizations over ties to violence against Palestinians.
On Monday, US authorities announced sanctions against Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 
Updated 11 min 12 sec ago
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UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 
  • Emily Thornberry: Britain has ‘obligation under Rome Convention’ to arrest Israeli PM if he enters country 
  • Court: ‘Reasonable grounds to believe’ Netanyahu responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity in Gaza

LONDON: The UK will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, a senior British politician has said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Thursday for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, alongside his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pertaining to the Gaza war.

Emily Thornberry — Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, and former shadow foreign secretary and shadow attorney general — told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“(It is) not really a question of should — we are required to, because we are members of the ICC.”

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to be drawn on whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot on British soil, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment.”

She told Sky: “We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process.

“What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is the first to be issued against the premier of a major Western ally by an international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His office denounced the warrant as “anti-Semitic,” adding that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

US President Joe Biden called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous,” adding: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he plans to invite Netanyahu to visit Budapest, adding that the arrest warrant will “not be observed” by his government.

The Italian and French governments, however, have indicated that Netanyahu will be arrested if he visits either country.

The ICC said on Thursday it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The court also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel says Al-Masri, believed to have been the mastermind behind the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The ICC said it issued the warrant for his arrest because of insufficient evidence to prove his death.


Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92
Updated 16 min 33 sec ago
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Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92
  • Wednesday’s Israeli attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups
  • Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country

BEIRUT: A Syria war monitor said on Friday that Israeli strikes on the city of Palmyra this week killed 92 pro-Iran fighters, after a United Nations representative said they were likely the deadliest to date.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday’s attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups that also involved commanders from Iraq’s Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The toll has risen to “92 dead: 61 Syrian pro-Iran fighters,” 11 of them working for Hezbollah, “and 27 foreign nationals mostly from Al-Nujaba, plus four from Hezbollah,” the Observatory said.
The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had previously reported 82 dead, while the Syria defense ministry on Wednesday said 36 people were killed.
The UN deputy special envoy to Syria, Najat Rochdi, told the Security Council on Thursday that the raid was “likely the deadliest Israeli strike in Syria to date.”
The Observatory said the strikes also targeted “a weapons depot near the industrial area” in Palmyra, a modern city adjacent to globally renowned Greco-Roman ruins.
Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since almost a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into full-scale war in late September.


Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel
Updated 22 November 2024
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Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel
  • Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami calls the ICC warrant ‘a welcome move’
  • Salami adds it is a ‘great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements’

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic.
Israel and its allies criticized the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant on Thursday for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The move drew angry reactions from Netanyahu, who denounced it as antisemitic and from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, but was welcomed by rights groups including Amnesty International.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”


Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.