Biden again tells Netanyahu that Rafah civilians must be protected
US President Joe Biden warned Netanyahu by phone on Thursday against launching an operation in Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe
Israel sent troops into a hospital in war-torn Gaza on Thursday
Health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza called the situation at Nasser hospital “catastrophic,”
Updated 16 February 2024
Agencies
Gaza Strip: US President Joe Biden on Thursday again told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he should not proced with military action in Rafah without a credible and executable plan to protect Palestinian civilians, the White House said.
The call between the two leaders on Thursday was the second time in less than a week that Biden warned Netanyahu about moving into the southern part of the Gaza Strip without a plan to ensure the safety of some 1 million people sheltering there.
They also spoke about ongoing hostage negotiations and Biden pledged to continue to work around the clock to help free the hostages, who have spent 132 days in Hamas captivity, according to the White House read out of the call.
Earlier this month, Biden said Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip had been “over the top“ and expressed grave concern over the rising civilian death toll in the Palestinian enclave.
The war began on Oct. 7 when Iran-backed Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, crowded Gaza, killing 28,663 people, also mostly civilian, according to health authorities, and forcing nearly all its more than 2 million inhabitants from their homes.
Israel sends troops into 'besieged' Gaza hospital
Israel sent troops into a hospital in war-torn Gaza on Thursday where it said hostages may have been held, as medics warned the key medical facility was operating in “near impossible” conditions.
The raid came after days of intense fighting between troops and Hamas militants around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis — one of the largest medical sites in southern Gaza, and one of the territory’s few hospitals that are still operational.
Israel, which has accused Hamas militants of using hospitals for military purposes, said it was carrying out a “precise and limited operation” at the facility with “no obligation” for patients or staff to evacuate.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said there was “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including released hostages, indicating that Hamas held hostages at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and that there may be bodies of our hostages” there.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza reported that thousands of people who had sought refuge in the complex, including patients, have been made to leave in recent days.
It has called the situation at Nasser “catastrophic,” with staff unable to move bodies to the morgue because of the risks involved.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described a “chaotic situation” in the hospital after it was shelled early Thursday, killing and wounding multiple people.
“Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” MSF said, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Israeli forces.
The World Health Organization has described Nasser Hospital as a critical facility “for all of Gaza,” where only a minority of hospitals are even partly operational.
Netanyahu insist for a “powerful” operation into Rafah
Roughly 130 hostages are still believed to be in Gaza after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Dozens of the estimated 250 hostages seized during the attack were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long truce in November. Israel says 30 of those still in Gaza are presumed dead.
At least 28,663 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory, according to the health ministry.
Israel launched more deadly strikes on southern Gaza on Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted it would push ahead with a “powerful” operation in the overcrowded city of Rafah for “complete victory.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven into Rafah, seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border.
The city now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population, with displaced people “crammed” into less than 20 percent of the territory, according to UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
“We were displaced from Gaza City to the south,” said Ahlam Abu Assi. “(Then) they told us to go to Rafah, so we went to Rafah.
“We can’t keep going and coming,” she added. “There is no safe place for us.”
US President Joe Biden warned Netanyahu by phone on Thursday against launching an operation in Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe, the White House said.
Britain, meanwhile, joined Australia, Canada and New Zealand in warning Israel not to launch a ground offensive in the city.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Netanyahu in a telephone call that Britain was “deeply concerned about... the potentially devastating humanitarian impact of a military incursion into Rafah,” his office said.
Macron says would be ‘mistake’ for Israeli PM to ‘refuse’ Lebanon ceasefire
Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
MONTREAL: French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday it would be “a mistake” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refuse a ceasefire in Lebanon, and that he would have to take “responsibility” for a regional escalation.
“The proposal that was made is a solid proposal,” Macron said at a news conference in Montreal, specifying that the plan supported by the United States and the EU had been prepared with Netanyahu himself.
Russia in weapon transfer talks with Yemen’s Houthis, says US envoy
Updated 26 September 2024
AFP
NEW YORK: The US has accused Russia of discussing weapon transfers with Houthis, whose attacks on Red Sea shipping are holding hostage a vital commercial waterway.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said Moscow was “cutting its deals” with the Houthis to allow their ships to sail through the Red Sea unharmed.
“We have confirmation that the Russians and the Houthis are in dialogue about ways to cooperate,” including on weapon transfers, Lenderking said.
“We don’t know that weapons are being transferred as we speak, but it’s come to the point that we’re all sounding the alarm bell to ensure this does not happen,” he added.
If the weapon transfers were to materialize, it “could potentially change the conflict in a significant manner,” Lenderking said, warning of “an escalation” that would derail already stalled efforts to end Yemen’s war.
“The notion that the Russians would provide the Houthis with lethal weapons is deeply alarming to the countries of the region,” he said.
Russia has been stepping up military relationships with Iran and North Korea, both under heavy sanctions, as it seeks to bolster its arsenal in its war in Ukraine.
Russia’s relationship with the US has deteriorated sharply since the invasion of Ukraine, with Washington leading the West in slapping sanctions on Moscow and arming Kyiv.
The Houthis have been firing drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, saying they are targeting vessels linked to Israel, the US, and Britain in a show of solidarity with Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The Houthi campaign has killed at least four sailors and sunk two ships.
One vessel — the Galaxy Leader — was hijacked in November and continues to be held by the Houthis along with its 25 international crew.
Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school
Updated 26 September 2024
AFP
GAZA STRIP: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “seven martyrs, including children, and many wounded following an Israeli missile attack that targeted Al-Faluja School in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”
The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja School.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
A strike on the UN-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on Sept. 11 drew an international outcry.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel to halt the bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza, singling out the US.
Abbas said that Washington continued to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza despite the mounting death toll there, now at 41,534 according to the Health Ministry in the Strip.
“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” Abbas told the UN General Assembly.
“The US alone stood and said: ‘No, the fighting will continue.’ It did this by using the veto,” he said, referring to the veto repeatedly wielded to thwart censure in the UN Security Council of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
“It furnished Israel with the deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children, and women.
“This further encouraged Israel to continuous aggression,” he added, saying that Israel “does not deserve” to be in the UN.
UN Security Council must reform to ‘reflect realities of modern world’: Kuwait crown prince
Sheikh Sabah reiterates support for Palestinian people, sovereignty of Lebanon and Sudan
Praises Saudi Arabia for helping to alleviate humanitarian crises in Syria, Libya, Yemen
Updated 26 September 2024
Arab News
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council must reform to “reflect the realities of the modern world” and so it is equipped to deal with current and future challenges, Kuwait’s crown prince told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah also said it is vital that the international community maintain the UN’s effectiveness, especially amid current escalating global crises.
He stressed that global challenges such as conflicts, inequality and financial instability require “innovative and collective” solutions from key international institutions, including the UN.
Kuwait, he added, believes strongly in the importance of making the UNSC more representative and democratic.
Sheikh Sabah also reiterated Kuwait’s “unwavering” support for the Palestinian people and their struggle to establish an independent state based on the 1967 borders, and for Lebanon’s sovereignty.
“We condemn the illegal and inhumane actions of the Israeli occupation forces, including the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and the forcible displacement of Palestinian citizens, particularly in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he said.
“We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and put an end to the violations and injustices suffered by the Palestinian people under the ongoing Israeli occupation.
“We also condemn Israel’s continued violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, including its repeated military incursions and violations of Lebanese airspace, which destabilize the region and disregard international law.”
Sheikh Sabah praised Saudi Arabia for its role in alleviating the humanitarian crises in regional countries such as Syria and Libya, and its support for the UN-recognized government in Yemen.
“We commend Saudi Arabia’s efforts in the political process in Yemen, and their leadership in supporting the legitimate government and promoting peace,” he said.
“We believe that the Saudi-led coalition’s efforts will pave the way for a political solution that ensures Yemen’s security and stability.”
The crown prince said Kuwait remains committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Sudanese people, and it is working closely with international organizations to ensure the delivery of necessary assistance.
He called for urgent international action to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and urged all parties to respect the country’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
He urged Iran to respect international law and the sovereignty of its regional neighbors, adding that peaceful relations between countries in the Middle East are critical for stability.
“Kuwait fully supports the international community’s efforts to address concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.
“We urge Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and abide by international agreements to ensure the security and stability of the Gulf region.”
Sheikh Sabah congratulated Saudi Arabia on its successful bids to host the World Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup as a victory for the Kingdom and the region as a whole, which would highlight its “significant progress and its role on the international stage.”
All eyes on Iran’s balancing act as IRGC’s Middle East proxies face Israel’s onslaught
Tehran’s strategic restraint amid repeated blows signals a shift in its regional approach, some analysts suggest
Debate grows over President Pezeshkian’s conciliatory tone at the UNGA as Israel-Hezbollah tensions escalate
Updated 46 min 42 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ decision-making Political Bureau, was killed in the heart of Tehran.
As a prominent negotiator of an eagerly awaited ceasefire deal with Israel, Haniyeh would have made an unlikely target for an Israeli government looking to bring an end to the months of indiscriminate death and destruction being suffered in Gaza.
However, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom critics accuse of maintaining the impetus of perpetual war as a guarantee of clinging on to power, the audacious killing appeared to be a calculated provocation of Tehran, designed to escalate the war in Gaza into a regional conflict.
According to this line of thinking, other than vowing to avenge Haniyeh for the “cowardly action,” Tehran refused to play ball.
Israel’s “desperate barbarism” in Lebanon, Pezeshkian said, must be halted “before it engulfs the region and the world.” (Reuters)
In much the same way, Iran’s reaction to the Israeli missile attack on an Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus in April, in which senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed, was unexpectedly muted. Iran’s response — a wave of missiles and drones that constituted its first direct attack on Israeli soil — was largely gestural, planned, telegraphed and executed deliberately to cause minimum damage and casualties.
This week, following the deadly pager-bomb attacks — widely believed to be carried out by Israel’s spy agency Mossad targeting Hezbollah operatives — and airstrikes, as Israeli troops massed on the border with Lebanon, critics said Netanyahu was poised once again to try to provoke Iran into a regional escalation.
And, once again, Tehran is exercising restraint.
Haniyeh could have been killed anywhere, at any time, but the timing and location of his death was chosen carefully. The former Palestinian prime minister was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian — a moderate whose election and approval by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen by some commentators as a sign that Iran might be entering a new, conciliatory era, anathema to an Israeli leader dependent on perpetual conflict for his political survival.
The day before the killing of Haniyeh, Pezeshkian spoke in his inauguration speech of his determination to normalize his country’s relations with the rest of the world — an ambition underlined by the presence of Enrique Mora, the European Union’s chief nuclear negotiator.
This week, even as Israel is bombarding Lebanon and hitting Hezbollah hard, Iran has kept its finger off the trigger. (AFP)
This week, even as Israel is bombarding Lebanon and hitting Hezbollah hard, Iran has kept its finger off the trigger.
Not only that, but in an unprecedented and lengthy press conference with Western media at the UN in New York earlier this week, Pezeshkian spelled it out for anyone who had not already noticed the extent to which Iran has exercised restraint in the face of repeated provocation.
“What Israel has done in the region and what Israel tried with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was to drag us into a regional war,” he said. “We have exercised restraint so far, but we reserve the right to defend ourselves at a specific time and place with specific methods.”
But, he added: “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the region.”
According to a report last month by the media outlet Iran International, citing sources “familiar with the subject,” in the wake of Haniyeh’s killing, Pezeshkian made the case for restraint directly to Ayatollah Khamenei, clashing with senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who wanted to launch attacks against Israel.
INNUMBERS
• 200,000 Rockets and missiles of various ranges believed to be in Hezbollah’s arsenal.
But the most remarkable evidence that Pezeshkian may be seeking a new path for Iran came on Tuesday, when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.
Predictably enough, he condemned the “atrocities” carried out in Gaza by Israel, which “in 11 months has murdered in cold blood over 41,000 innocent people, mostly women and children.”
Israel’s “desperate barbarism” in Lebanon, he added, must be halted “before it engulfs the region and the world.”
And then came the real message he had flown to New York to deliver: “I aim to lay a strong foundation for my country’s entry into a new era, positioning it to play an effective and constructive role in the evolving global order,” he said.
Deadly pager-bomb attacks are widely believed to be carried out by Israel’s spy agency Mossad. (AP)
“My objective is to address existing obstacles and challenges while structuring my country’s foreign relations in cognizance of the necessities and realities of the contemporary world.”
Echoing the words of Iran’s equally new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, Pezeshkian indicated that Tehran was keen to reopen the nuclear negotiations from which former US president Donald Trump unexpectedly walked away in 2017.
He also made the case for ending sanctions, “destructive and inhumane weapons … endangering the lives of thousands of innocent people (and) a blatant violation of human rights.”
Iran, he added, “stands prepared to foster meaningful economic, social, political and security partnerships with global powers and its neighbors based on equal footing.”
Faced with Iran’s seemingly conciliatory new president, offering an olive branch at a time when Iran might normally be expected to be reaching for weaponry, experts are divided over whether or not Tehran is truly on a new course and set to defy expectations of its response to events in Lebanon.
“Pezeshkian and Araghchi receive their orders from Ayatollah Khamenei and from the National Security Council in Tehran and they thus don't have a mandate for some sort of a grand change in Iranian policies that would help end its pariah status,” said Arash Azizi, visiting fellow at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and author of the 2021 book “The Shadow Commander — Soleimani, the US, and Iran's Global Ambitions.”
“But they do have a mandate for lessening tensions, negotiating with the West, including the US, over Iran’s role in Ukraine and its nuclear program, and trying to get to some sort of a rapprochement that could help alleviate pressure on Iran and fix its economy.”
He added: “Any success Iran has in this path will strengthen the pro-reform factions in Iran and affect the trajectory of the country's future, especially a future after Khamenei dies.”
Pezeshkian made the case for restraint directly to Ayatollah Khamenei. (AFP)
Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and author of the book “Political Succession in The Islamic Republic of Iran,” believes Pezeshkian is uniquely positioned to effect change.
“Iranian President Pezeshkian presides over a cabinet composed of capable technocrats, who also happen to represent different factions among the ruling elites of the Islamic Republic,” he said.
“This rare combination of skills and representation not only provides Pezeshkian with the opportunity to engage in effective diplomacy, but also lessens the risk of domestic factional sabotage of his diplomatic efforts.”
Certainly, when it comes to events in Lebanon, Ali Vaez, Iran Project director with the International Crisis Group, said: “Iran is going to stand behind, not with, Hezbollah. Tehran’s forward defense strategy has always been based on projecting power beyond its borders and deterring, not inviting, strikes against its own territory.”
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He added: “Iran seems convinced that expansion of the conflict now will benefit Israel, and it’s following a basic rule that what’s good for Israel can’t be good for Iran.”
Iran, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, was trying to keep two doors open at once.
“It needs to open negotiations with the West to manage its domestic economic crisis, but on regional issues it also needs to keep the Axis of Resistance alive. It’s a hard balance to strike, which is leading to challenges and changes in perception,” he said.
But the reasons behind Iran’s current diplomatic offensive remain “intriguing,” said Ahron Bregman, former Israeli soldier, author and senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Middle East peace process.
On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ decision-making Political Bureau, was killed in the heart of Tehran. (AFP)
“Iranian diplomats excel at tightrope walking,” he said.
“Are they trying to end their pariah-state status, or is there a hidden agenda behind their somehow soft diplomatic approach? Does Iran genuinely want to reach an agreement with the West regarding its nuclear ambitions, or is it just trying to kill time?”
Either way, he added: “I believe that Iran doesn’t want to become directly involved in Lebanon, not least because they can see how destructive Israel’s air power is. I’m pretty sure that Iran was taken aback by the ferocity of the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, from the ‘James Bond’ pagers operation to the precise air attacks on Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal.
“But Iran reckons that Israel will struggle if the current campaign in the north turns into a war of attrition with Hezbollah, particularly if Israel invades Lebanon, where it will lose its advantages — the terrain in south Lebanon makes it difficult to use tanks and airpower.”
Urban Coningham, a RUSI research fellow specializing in the security and geopolitics of the Middle East, particularly in the Levant, is skeptical that President Pezeshkian is the face of genuine change.
“I don’t think that we can take this as evidence that Iran is willing to become a reliable security partner and actor in the region,” he said.
Critics said Netanyahu was poised once again to try to provoke Iran into a regional escalation. (AFP)
“Iran and its Axis of Resistance are in a uniquely weak position as one of their key members, Hezbollah, is under intense attack. Iran’s statement of willingness to come to the negotiation table is really its last tool of applying pressure upon Israel.
“This diplomatic pressure will be applied to Israel’s key allies, principally the US, to persuade Western policymakers that Iran and its network do not pose a threat and to dissuade Israel from continuing to escalate the conflict and isolate Netanyahu.”
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London and author of the book “What is Iran?,” takes a more generous view of Tehran’s current stance.
“By virtue of its historical weight, strategic position and national resources, Iran will always be a central nodal point for the politics of the region and beyond,” he said.
“The reformist administration of President Pezeshkian follows a realistic and largely prudent assessment of this geopolitical centrality, which attempts to harness all the dividends that the power of Persia could bring about.”
In concrete terms, he added, “this approach has seriously restrained Iran’s responses to the onslaught spearheaded by the Netanyahu administration.
“As opposed to the rationale of maximum escalation that Netanyahu pursues with so much brutal desperation, Iran has been recurrently and consistently restrained in its responses, certainly relative to the offensive capabilities that the country possesses.
“Of course, Iran has its right-wing extremists, too. But in contrast to the situation in Israel, they are currently marginalized and the Iranian government around President Pezeshkian is composed of pragmatists and diplomats.”
It was, he added, to be regretted that, as yet, “the world has not taken advantage of this chance for peace, exactly because the Netanyahu administration has plunged the region, and indeed Israelis themselves, into the abyss of a horrendous inferno.”
For now, though, cynicism about Iran’s motives persists among seasoned Western diplomats.
“Iran is playing its usual mind games,” said Sir John Jenkins, a former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, and consul-general in Jerusalem.
In New York, Pezeshkian spelled it out for anyone who had not already noticed the extent to which Iran has exercised restraint in the face of repeated provocation.
Talk of returning to the nuclear deal, he said, “in the eyes of some makes Iran look reasonable when it’s anything but, so it’s a niche bit of trolling.”
There are, he added, “no signs Tehran will abandon the militias, the Houthis, Hamas, let alone Hezbollah. Iran doesn’t want a hot war with Israel because it believes it can win a war of attrition, so persuading everyone that de-escalation is the answer is a victory in itself.
“If Israel degrades Hezbollah’s capabilities to the extent that it poses no credible threat to Israel, or if it looks as if that is achievable, then Iran may think again. But it wants to avoid the choice. Hence this blackly comic diplomatic farce.”
