Palestinian UN ambassador pleads for rebuke of Gaza aid deaths/node/2469216/middle-east
Palestinian UN ambassador pleads for rebuke of Gaza aid deaths
“This outrageous massacre is a testimony to the fact that as long as the Security Council is paralyzed and vetoes (are) casted, then it is costing the Palestinian people their lives,” Mansour said. (AFP/File)
Palestinian UN ambassador pleads for rebuke of Gaza aid deaths
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid on Thursday
The Security Council held a meeting to discuss the morning’s events in Gaza at the request of Algeria
Updated 01 March 2024
AFP
UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinian ambassador to the UN on Thursday pleaded for the Security Council to condemn the episode in Gaza that saw Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid.
“The Security Council should say enough is enough,” Riyad Mansour told reporters ahead of a closed-door meeting by the body, which came at the request of Algeria.
The meeting was held to discuss the morning’s events in Gaza, where Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinians in a chaotic melee that the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said killed 112 people and injured 760.
An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat.”
The Israeli military said a “stampede” occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over by the lorries.
“This outrageous massacre is a testimony to the fact that as long as the Security Council is paralyzed and vetoes (are) casted, then it is costing the Palestinian people their lives,” Mansour said.
As one of five permanent members of the 15-member council, the United States — Israel’s biggest ally — has a veto that it has wielded three times so far to bar the body from calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
At Thursday’s meeting, Algeria put forth a draft declaration expressing “deep concern,” which stated that the situation was “due to opening fire by Israel forces.”
Of the Council’s 15 members, “14 members supported the text,” Mansour said after the meeting.
According to a diplomatic source, the United States opposed Israel being named, but discussions were ongoing.
“The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement,” US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said.
“The problem is that we don’t have all the facts here,” he said, adding that he wanted the wording to reflect “the necessary due diligence with regards to culpability.”
Mansour said he met earlier in the day with US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“I implored her that the Security Council has to produce a product of condemning this killing and to go after those responsible for this massacre,” he said.
If the Security Council has “a spine and determination to put an end to these massacres from happening all over again, what we need is a ceasefire,” Mansour said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation “would require an effective independent investigation,” into how the deaths occurred and who was responsible, after condemning the episode earlier in the day through his spokesman.
Thursday’s incident added to a Palestinian death toll which the Gaza health ministry said had topped 30,000, mainly women and children.
The war began on October 7 with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 Israel says are presumed dead.
How Baghdad’s first skatepark reflects renewed focus on the aspirations of Iraqi youth
The park’s opening aligns with government efforts to engage youth, including job training programs and the creation of Iraq’s first Youth Advisory Council
Iraq has one of the world’s youngest populations, with more than 50 percent aged under 25, making youth-focused initiatives critical for stability and growth
Updated 4 sec ago
Nadia Al-Faour
DUBAI: In a city long defined by conflict and uncertainty, a new skatepark in Baghdad is giving young Iraqis a space to express themselves, find community, and momentarily escape the pressures of everyday life.
The project, funded by Germany and France and supported by the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sports, reflects a growing recognition of the need to invest in the country’s youth — many of whom have spent their entire lives navigating war, economic hardship, and political instability.
The skatepark, which opened on Feb. 1, is the first of its kind in the Iraqi capital. Located near Al-Shaab International Stadium and tucked away from public view, it offers a safe haven for skateboarders, BMX riders, and inline skaters of all skill levels.
It was built by Make Life Skate Life, a Belgian-American charity that has constructed similar facilities in Morocco, India, and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s northern city of Sulaymaniyah.
“For five years, we tried to secure land for this project,” said Arne Hillernes, founder of Make Life Skate Life. “After witnessing scores of Iraqi youngsters drive six hours to Sulaymaniyah to enjoy the Suli Skatepark, I knew this was something that Baghdad needed.”
The skatepark, which opened on Feb. 1, offers a safe haven for skateboarders, BMX riders, and inline skaters of all skill levels. (AFP)
The new skatepark in Baghdad, which has been designated as the 2025 Arab Capital of Sports, is more than just ramps and rails — it represents a shift in how Iraq is catering to its younger generation.
The facility, which is free to use, provides a structured, creative outlet for young men and women in a country where public recreational spaces are limited.
For many Iraqi youth, years of war and economic struggle have left them with few opportunities. Poverty and joblessness remain significant challenges, while some young men face recruitment efforts from armed militias that promise income and status in exchange for allegiance.
For others, the daily stress of financial hardship at home is overwhelming.
“Sometimes I feel the need to escape my house,” Mehdi, a 17-year-old Baghdad local, told Arab News. “I take my younger brother with me as the situation at home can sometimes be tense. My parents don’t seem to mind. I think they believe it’s better we are out playing sports than causing trouble or pledging allegiance to one of the armed groups.”
Iraqi security forces deploy to disperse protesters during a demonstration against the government’s employment policy near the parliament building on June 7, 2022. (AFP)
The park’s appeal extends to female skaters as well, despite the lingering societal resistance to women in sports.
“Finding a place in Baghdad to build a free and public skatepark was incredibly challenging,” said Safeen Mohammed from Suli Skatepark. “It took more than five years of persistence, but finally the dream of hundreds of skaters living in Baghdad has come true. The skateboarding community in Iraq will grow from here.”
The launch of the skatepark comes at a crucial time, as Iraq’s government attempts to engage with its young population in more meaningful ways. The Ministry of Youth and Sports, which helped facilitate the project, has also been involved in initiatives aimed at improving employment prospects and civic engagement for young Iraqis.
Among these initiatives is the Job Search Club, a program launched in partnership with the UN’s International Labor Organization and Prospects, an initiative aimed at enhancing youth employability.
Additionally, the ministry has teamed up with the UN to establish Iraq’s first Youth Advisory Council, designed to ensure that young people have a voice in shaping government programs and policies.
The park’s appeal extends to female skaters as well, despite the lingering societal resistance to women in sports. (AFP)
Such efforts have been welcomed, particularly in the wake of the October 2019 protests, when thousands of young Iraqis took to the streets demanding reform.
Frustrated by high unemployment, corruption, and poor public services, these demonstrators faced violent crackdowns, with more than 500 people killed and thousands more injured.
Although the movement succeeded in forcing the resignation of former Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and securing parliamentary seats for youth-driven political parties, many of the grievances that fueled the protests remain unresolved.
Iraq has one of the world’s youngest populations, with more than half of its 42 million people under the age of 25, according to the World Bank. Despite the country’s gradual economic recovery, opportunities for young people remain scarce, with unemployment at 14.2 percent.
The situation is further exacerbated by climate pressures, which have disrupted farming livelihoods, rising living costs, and a struggling education system.
In October 2019, frustrated by high unemployment, corruption, and poor public services, thousands of young Iraqis took to the streets demanding reform. (AFP)
For years, militia groups have sought to exploit this vulnerability, recruiting disillusioned young men with promises of stability, money, and respect. Iran-backed armed groups like Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Al-Nujaba have been particularly notorious for such recruitment efforts.
The presence of a skatepark may seem like a small step in comparison to these challenges, but for many young Iraqis, it represents a much-needed alternative to a bleak and uncertain future.
“I think this is the first time I feel seen by the leaders in government,” said Mehdi. “Usually, we feel like ghosts in our own cities, but this time they have actually done something for us.”
At the skatepark’s opening, Ishtar Obaid, a member of Iraq’s Olympic Committee, highlighted its significance beyond sports.
“This will provide a safe and welcoming environment for all our youth to express themselves and engage in physical activity,” she said. “It represents more than just a place to skate — it is a space for creativity, connection, and hope.”
The presence of a skatepark may seem like a small step in comparison to these challenges, but for many young Iraqis, it represents a much-needed alternative to a bleak and uncertain future. (AFP)
Hillernes, reflecting on the project’s completion, believes the skatepark will be a launching pad for a new era of youth engagement in Iraq.
“Skateboarding is not just a sport. It builds community,” he said. “The more spaces we create like this, the more young people will have a reason to stay engaged in something positive.”
For Baghdad’s youth, this skatepark is not just a recreational facility — it is a symbol of possibility, a glimpse of a future where their needs are acknowledged, and their potential is nurtured.
As Iraq continues on its path toward stability and development, initiatives like this serve as a reminder that addressing the aspirations of young people is essential to securing a more peaceful and prosperous future for the country.
AI models supplied to Israel by tech giants contributed to deaths of innocent people
After a surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed, an investigation found
The investigation also revealed new details of how AI systems select targets and ways they can go wrong, including faulty data or flawed algorithms
Updated 43 min 53 sec ago
AP
TEL AVIV: US tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services.
But the number of civilians killed has also soared, along with fears that these tools are contributing to the deaths of innocent people.
Militaries have for years hired private companies to build custom autonomous weapons. However, Israel’s recent wars mark a leading instance in which commercial AI models made in the US have been used in active warfare, despite concerns that they were not originally developed to help decide who lives and who dies.
The Israeli military uses AI to sift through vast troves of intelligence, intercepted communications and surveillance to find suspicious speech or behavior and learn the movements of its enemies.
After a surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, its use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed, an investigation found.
The investigation also revealed new details of how AI systems select targets and ways they can go wrong, including faulty data or flawed algorithms.
It was based on internal documents, data and exclusive interviews with current and former Israeli officials and company employees.
Israel’s goal after the attack that killed about 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages was to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a “game changer” in yielding targets more swiftly.
Since the war started, more than 70,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon.
“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI.
“The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.”
Among US tech firms, Microsoft has had an especially close relationship with the Israeli military spanning decades.
Israel’s war response strained its own servers and increased its reliance on outside, third-party vendors, according to a presentation last year by Col. Racheli Dembinsky, the military’s top information technology officer.
As she described how AI had provided Israel “very significant operational effectiveness” in Gaza, the logos of Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services appeared on a large screen behind her.
DOHA: Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, said on Tuesday that Palestinians — not outsiders — must decide the territory’s future after the Israel-Hamas war.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told a Doha news conference that the issue was “a Palestinian question,” after Israel insisted on removing Hamas and the US proposed taking over the territory.
“From our perspective, this is a Palestinian question on what happens post this conflict,” said Ansari when asked about Israel’s stated objective to eliminate Hamas.
“It is a Palestinian question on who represents the Palestinians in an official capacity and also the political groups and parties in the political sphere,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said earlier on Tuesday that negotiations for the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which Qatar helped broker, would begin this week.
The second phase of the truce is meant to facilitate the release of all remaining hostages seized during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Saar said Israel demanded the “complete demilitarization of Gaza” and would “not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist groups” in the territory, ruled by Hamas since 2007.
More hostage-prisoner exchanges are expected before the end of the first phase, which has also allowed humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza.
Hamas however has accused Israel of blocking the entry of prefabricated structures and heavy machinery to clear rubble.
Ansari, the Qatari spokesman, said that “the aid that enters the Gaza Strip today is insufficient.
“Using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip in negotiations is a crime in and of itself.”
Beirut airport to close Sunday during funeral of slain Hezbollah leader
“The airport will be closed, and takeoffs and landings... will halt on February 23, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. (1000 GMT) until 4:00 pm,” the authority said
Qassem at the weekend called for broad participation as a demonstration of the group’s strength
Updated 18 February 2025
AFP
BEIRUT: Beirut airport will close for four hours on Sunday during the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanon’s civil aviation authority has announced.
“The airport will be closed, and takeoffs and landings... will halt on February 23, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. (1000 GMT) until 4:00 pm,” the authority said in a statement carried by official media on Tuesday.
Nasrallah was killed in a huge Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, as Israel scaled up its campaign against the Iran-backed group following almost a year of cross-border hostilities.
Sunday’s funeral will also be for Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah figure who had been chosen to succeed Nasrallah, before he too was killed in an Israeli raid in October.
The funeral is to begin at 1:00 p.m. at a sports stadium in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
It will include a speech by current Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, and is to be followed by a procession to Nasrallah’s burial site.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that Iran “will participate in this ceremony at a high level,” without specifying who would attend.
Qassem at the weekend called for broad participation as a demonstration of the group’s strength.
“We want to transform this funeral into a show of support and an affirmation of (Hezbollah’s) plan and approach, and hold our heads high,” Qassem said.
After decades at the helm of the group once seen as invincible, the killing of the charismatic Nasrallah sent shock waves across Lebanon and the wider region.
Hezbollah has said 79 countries would be involved in the commemoration, whether at an official or “popular” level.
Earlier this month in a security alert about the funeral, the US embassy urged its nationals to avoid the area “which includes the airport.”
Qassem has said Nasrallah would be buried on the outskirts of Beirut “in a plot of land we chose between the old and new airport roads.”
Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanun in southern Lebanon, he added.
Nasrallah had been temporarily buried elsewhere because of security concerns, Qassem said, and the group had also put off the public funeral for security reasons.
A November 27 ceasefire deal put a halt to two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah that saw the group weakened and numerous senior commanders killed.
Lebanese army deploys to border after Israeli withdrawal excludes 5 sites
Top Lebanese official to use any means necessary to liberate every inch occupied by Israel
Updated 55 min 7 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced on Tuesday that “the continued Israeli presence in any inch of Lebanese territory is considered an occupation, with all the legal consequences that entails under international legitimacy.”
They also affirmed “Lebanon’s right to use all means to ensure the withdrawal of the Israeli enemy.”
In a joint statement following Tuesday’s meeting at the presidential palace, the three leaders stressed the need for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territories, in adherence to international laws and UN resolutions, primarily Resolution 1701.
They added that Lebanon’s full commitment to this resolution came “at a time when the Israeli side continues to violate it repeatedly and disregard its terms.”
They also emphasized “the role of the Lebanese army and its full readiness to take over its duties along the internationally recognized borders, in a manner that preserves national sovereignty, protects the people of southern Lebanon, and ensures their security and stability.”
The stance came hours after Israeli forces completed their withdrawal from the last villages and towns. However, they maintained a military presence at five key points along the border — the Labouneh hills, on the outskirts of Naqoura, which overlook Rosh HaNikra, Shlomi and Nahariyya; Jabal Blat, between Marwahin and Ramyah, facing Shtula and Zar’it; the Jal Al-Deir and Jabal Al-Bat site, on the outskirts of Aitaroun, facing Avivim, Yiftah, and Malikiya; Dawawir, along the Markaba–Hula road, which faces Wadi Hunayn and the Margaliot settlement; and the Hammamis hill, which faces Metula.
A military source said the continued presence at these locations was likely for political reasons, possibly a message of reassurance to settlement residents to encourage their return.
On Monday night, Israeli forces continued to withdraw from villages in the central and eastern sectors, while the Lebanese army promptly deployed its units in the vacated areas. At dawn, residents of Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras, Blida, Mays al-Jabal, Houla, Markaba, Adaisseh, Kfar Kila, and al-Wazzani gathered to return to their homes.
The Lebanese army cleared roads and dismantled barriers raised by the Israeli army, advancing to Khirbet Yaroun, its final military outpost along the border. A moment captured on social media shows a soldier from the Lebanese army removing an Israeli flag from an electricity pole in Mays al-Jabal.
UN Interim Force in Lebanon forces conducted simultaneous patrols and established several points alongside the Lebanese Army.
Municipalities requested that residents wait until Wednesday before entering their towns to allow inspection “after the Lebanese army has completed the clearance of the areas from unexploded ordnance and shells.”
Some people, however, climbed over remaining barriers and debris to search for remaining bodies belonging to Hezbollah fighters killed during hostilities; in Kfar Kila alone, 30 are still missing.
Residents of Maroun al-Ras entered the town on foot due to excavations and earth-moving operations affecting the roads. Hezbollah supporters raised images of their leaders and the party’s flags as they did so.
Meanwhile, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft flew overhead, while a military drone dropped a sound bomb on a gathering of journalists in Kfar Shouba.
In Kfar Kila, two fighters emerged from the rubble, having survived despite being presumed dead for over three months. Their deaths had been announced by Hezbollah.
The emotional reunion with their families was shared on social media, and the two were taken to hospital with their conditions later described as “stable.”
A joint statement by UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and UNIFIL Force Commander and head of its mission Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro said: “Any further delay in the complete withdrawal contradicts our hopes for progress, particularly as it constitutes a continued violation of Resolution 1701.”
It added: “A sense of safety among communities of southern Lebanon, who are grappling with the wide-scale destruction of their villages and towns, as well as residents of northern Israel who had to leave their homes, will not be built overnight and cannot come from a continuation of military operations. Rather, sustained political commitment is the only way forward.”
The US embassy in Beirut issued a warning to its citizens, advising them to avoid the area around Bir Hassan and Beirut airport on Feb. 23 due to the funeral processions of former Hezbollah chiefs Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine. The embassy also urged citizens to be extra cautious around large gatherings and stay up to date with events through local media outlets.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport announced that all flights would be suspended on that day from noon until 4 p.m.
