Jordan says Israel’s Al-Aqsa mosque restrictions in Ramadan pushing toward ‘explosion’

Ramadan started on Monday in most Muslim countries. (AP)

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Updated 12 March 2024

Reuters

March 11, 2024 11:20

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Jordan says Israel’s Al-Aqsa mosque restrictions in Ramadan pushing toward ‘explosion’

Foreign minister Safadi said Jordan, which overviews holy site, rejected Israel’s announced move to limit access during Ramadan

Updated 12 March 2024

Reuters

March 11, 2024 11:20

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AMMAN: Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Monday restrictions imposed by Israel on Muslim worshippers’ access to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan was pushing the situation toward an “explosion.”
In remarks on state media, Safadi said his country, which overviews the holy site, rejected Israel’s announced move to limit access during Ramadan, citing security needs with war raging in Gaza.
“We warn that desecrating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire,” Safadi said in a joint news conference with the Vatican’s foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The compound, the third holiest shrine in Islam, is also the site of the most sacred place for Jews who know it as Temple Mount. It has been a longstanding flashpoint for trouble.
Jordan echoes the Palestinian view that such restrictions on Muslim worshippers, already facing war and hunger in Gaza, were an attack on freedom of worship.
After hard-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said recently he wanted tougher restrictions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the numbers admitted would be similar to last year.
“Not allowing worshippers to perform their religious duties and their rituals in this holy month and restricting freedom to enter the Aqsa mosque, all that pushes torwards an explosive situation which is what we are warning about,” Safadi added.
Israel was also risking wider violence in the Israeli occupied West Bank by what Safadi said were unilateral Israeli measures to change the status quo citing accelerated Jewish settlement building on Arab land and what he termed as stepped up “terror attacks by armed settlers on Palestinian villagers.
“The West Bank is boiling,” Safadi added.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has since the Gaza war seen a surge of confrontations, with around 400 Palestinians killed in clashes with security forces or Jewish settlers.
Most world powers view as illegal settlements Israel has built on land it captured in a 1967 war with Arab powers.
The holy month of Ramadan came at a time when Palestinians in the enclave were dying of hunger with Israel using food as a weapon of war, Safadi said.
“Ramadan comes with Gaza bombed by Israel and women unable to find food for their children and five months that have passed with the world failing to preserve human digintiy,” Safadi said.
Israel’s relentless campaign in Gaza has caused increasing alarm across the world as the growing risk of famine threatens to add to a death toll that has already passed 31,000.
Israel denies it is responsible for the wider hunger or waging war on civilians.

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US targets Syrian company with sanctions over IRGC, Houthi funding

Updated 36 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 20:30

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US targets Syrian company with sanctions over IRGC, Houthi funding

Some 26 companies, individuals and vessels associated with the company were targeted in Thursday’s action

Updated 36 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 20:30

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Thursday on companies, individuals and vessels associated with a Syrian conglomerate that Washington said was funding Iran’s Quds Force and Yemen’s Houthis.
The Syrian conglomerate, the Al-Qatirji Company, is responsible for generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Quds Force and the Houthis through the sale of Iranian oil to Syria and China, the department said in a statement.
“Iran is increasingly relying on key business partners like the Al-Qatirji Company to fund its destabilizing activities and web of terrorist proxies across the region,” said department official Bradley Smith said.
The Al-Qatirji Company had already been under sanctions for its role in facilitating the sale of fuel between the Syrian regime and Daesh, the department said. Some 26 companies, individuals and vessels associated with the company were targeted in Thursday’s action, it added.

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Topics: Syria Iran Yemen Houthis IRGC US US Treasury

Hezbollah should abandon arms to end Israel war, Lebanese Christian party head says

Head of the Lebanese Forces Party Samir Geagea speaks during an interview with Reuters in Maarab, Lebanon November 14, 2024.

Updated 3 min 12 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 17:08

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Hezbollah should abandon arms to end Israel war, Lebanese Christian party head says

Hezbollah’s critics in Lebanon, such as Geagea, say it unilaterally pulled Lebanon into a new war after it began firing at Israel in solidarity with Hamas

Updated 3 min 12 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 17:08

MAARAB: The head of Lebanon’s largest Christian party said Iran-backed Hezbollah should relinquish its weapons as quickly as possible to end its year-long war with Israel and spare Lebanon further death and destruction.
Samir Geagea, Hezbollah’s fiercest political opponent in Lebanon, spoke to Reuters on Thursday at his mountain home and party headquarters in Maarab, north of Beirut, as Israel carried out waves of strikes on areas Hezbollah holds sway.
“With the destruction of all of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and its warehouses, a big part of Lebanon is also being destroyed. That’s the price,” he said.
Hezbollah’s critics in Lebanon, such as Geagea, say it unilaterally pulled Lebanon into a new war after it began firing at Israel in solidarity with Palestinian group Hamas following the Oct. 7 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah says it is defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression and has vowed to keep fighting, saying it will not lay down its arms or allow Israel to achieve political gains on the back of the war.
The intense pressure of Israel’s military campaign, which has escalated and expanded since late September to include ground incursions into southern Lebanon, presented an opportunity to get the country back on track, Geagea said.
“If the challenges and the prices paid are so big, then we can take advantage of them to get the situation back to normal,” he said, calling on Hezbollah and the Lebanese state to swiftly implement local accords and international resolutions disbanding armed factions outside the control of the state.
“That is the shortest way to end the war. It’s the least costly way for Lebanon and for the Lebanese people,” he said.
Faltering diplomatic efforts on a ceasefire have centered on United Nations Resolution 1701, which brought an end to Hezbollah’s last deadly conflict with Israel in 2006.
Israel has insisted that this time around, it wants to keep carrying out strikes against Hezbollah threats even if a truce is agreed.
Geagea said he was opposed to granting Israel that option but said Lebanon had little power to stop it, especially if an excuse remained in the form of Hezbollah’s armed presence.
Arms race
Lebanon’s population is a mosaic of more than a dozen religious sects, with political representation divided along sectarian lines. Religious divisions fueled the 1975-1990 civil war, which left some 150,000 people dead and drew in neighboring states.
Geagea’s party, the Lebanese Forces, was one of the main warring factions during the civil war and aligned itself with Israel, including when Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon reached Beirut, and its leader, Bashir Gemayel, was elected president.
Gemayel was assassinated before he could assume office, and Geagea said he saw no parallels with that period today.
The Lebanese Forces relinquished its weapons in line with the Taef Accord, which ended the civil war and called on all militias to disband.
Hezbollah did not, saying it needed them to fight Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon. But the group refused to disarm when Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, citing ongoing threats.
Despite his decades-old opposition to Hezbollah, Geagea, 72, said he opposed the Lebanese army forcefully disarming the group.
He said he does “not see the possibility of any civil war” breaking out and said that his party “categorically” did not want one to start.
Still, he noted that the mass displacement of mostly Shiite Muslim Lebanese into Sunni and Christian-majority areas could spark “problems here or there” in a country that was already suffering an economic crisis before the war.
They include thousands who have fled into areas that are strongholds of Geagea’s party. In Beirut, Lebanese Forces flags were put up overnight in neighborhoods where the group has strong support, but no clashes have been reported.
More than 1.2 million people have fled heavy Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south, eastern Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In recent weeks, Israeli troops carrying out incursions into southern Lebanon have laced entire villages with explosives and detonated them, leaving border towns in ruins.
Hezbollah says it has managed to keep Israeli troops at bay by preventing them from holding any ground in south Lebanon.
But Geagea disputed that reading, saying Israel’s “new military doctrine” was to enter areas, carry out operations, and leave, and that the war’s next phase could see villages deeper into Lebanon being hit.
He said Israel’s military and economic strength would always give it an advantage over Hezbollah, even if the group re-armed.
“Do you have the ability to enter this arms race?” he said.

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Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Samir Geagea Hezbollah

Israel’s warfare in Gaza consistent with genocide, UN committee finds

Updated 50 min 34 sec ago

Ephrem Kossaify

November 14, 2024 19:29

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Israel’s warfare in Gaza consistent with genocide, UN committee finds

Committee’s report states ‘Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life’
It raises ‘serious concern’ about Israel’s use of AI to choose targets ‘with minimal human oversight,’ resulting in ‘overwhelming’ casualties among women and children

Updated 50 min 34 sec ago

Ephrem Kossaify

November 14, 2024 19:29

NEW YORK: Israel’s methods of warfare in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a weapon, mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions deliberately inflicted on Palestinians in the territory, are consistent with the characteristics of genocide, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices said in a report published on Thursday.

“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life: food, water and fuel,” the committee said.

Statements from Israeli authorities and the “systematic and unlawful” blocking of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza make clear “Israel’s intent to instrumentalize life-saving supplies for political and military gains,” it added.

The committee, the full title of which is the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, was established by the UN General Assembly in 1968 to monitor the human rights situation in the occupied Golan heights, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It comprises the permanent representatives to the UN from three member states, currently Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, who are appointed by the president of the General Assembly.

Its latest report, which covers the period from October 2023 to July 2024, mostly focuses on the effects of the war in Gaza on the rights of Palestinians.

“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the committee said.

The “extensive” Israeli bombing campaign has wiped out essential services in Gaza and caused an “environmental catastrophe” that will have “lasting health impacts,” it adds.

By early 2024, the report says, more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives, equivalent to two nuclear bombs, had been dropped on Gaza, causing “massive” destruction, the collapse of water and sanitation systems, agricultural devastation and toxic pollution. This has created a “lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come,” the committee said.

The report notes “serious concern” about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence technology to choose its targets “with minimal human oversight,” the consequence of which has been “overwhelming” numbers of deaths of women and children. This underscores “Israel’s disregard of its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths,” it adds.

In addition, Israel’s escalating censorship of the media and targeting of journalists are “deliberate efforts” to block global access to information, the committee found, and the report states that social media companies have disproportionately removed “pro-Palestinian content” in comparison with posts inciting violence against Palestinians.

The committee also condemned the continuing “smear campaign” and other attacks on the reputation of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and the wider UN.

“This deliberate silencing of reporting, combined with disinformation and attacks on humanitarian workers, is a clear strategy to undermine the vital work of the UN, sever the lifeline of aid still reaching Gaza, and dismantle the international legal order,” it said.

It called on all states to honor their legal obligations to stop and prevent violations of international law by Israel, including the system of apartheid that operates in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and to hold Israeli authorities accountable for their actions.

“Upholding international law and ensuring accountability for violations rests squarely on member states,” the committee said.

Failure to do this weakens “the very core of the international legal system and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing atrocities to go unchecked.”

The committee will officially present its report to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

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Topics: War on Gaza United Nations (UN) Palestinians

UN to bolster UNIFIL for post-truce support in Lebanon, peacekeeping chief says

Updated 57 min 49 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 19:29

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UN to bolster UNIFIL for post-truce support in Lebanon, peacekeeping chief says

“I think that has to be very clear. Implementing the 1701 is the responsibility of the parties,” said Lacroix
Lacroix said the peacekeeping mission would work with the Lebanese army to “support the implementation of a settlement

Updated 57 min 49 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 19:29

BEIRUT: The United Nations intends to bolster its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon to better support the Lebanese army once a truce is agreed but would not directly enforce a ceasefire, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Thursday.
The peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the demarcation line with Israel, an area that has seen more than a year of hostilities between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have centered on UN resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between the two heavily-armed foes in 2006 and requires Hezbollah to remove fighters and weapons from areas between the border and the Litani River, which runs about 30 km (around 20 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.
Israel has for years accused UNIFIL of failing to implement the resolution, and now says peacekeepers must get out of the way as Israeli troops fight Hezbollah. UNIFIL troops have refused to leave their posts, despite repeated Israeli attacks that have wounded peacekeepers.
“I think that has to be very clear. Implementing the 1701 is the responsibility of the parties,” said Lacroix, speaking to reporters on a three-day visit to Lebanon. “UNIFIL has a supportive role, and there is a lot of substance in that supporting role.”
Lacroix said the peacekeeping mission would work with the Lebanese army to “support the implementation of a settlement” and was already in discussions with contributing nations to assess UNIFIL’s needs, including with advanced technology, without necessarily increasing troop numbers.
Following a truce, UNIFIL’s capacities could be expanded to include clearing explosive devices and reopening roads.
“We don’t necessarily think in terms of numbers, we think in terms of what would be the needs and how could they be fulfilled,” he said.
Lacroix said the UN and several member states have repeatedly called on all parties to ensure the safety of peacekeepers and that while incidents had not stopped, they had not increased following international condemnation.

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Topics: Battlefield Lebanon UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Israel Jean-Pierre Lacroix

Israel hits Beirut again, ceasefire terms in focus

Updated 17 min 16 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 14:28

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Israel hits Beirut again, ceasefire terms in focus

An Israeli minister indicated that a ceasefire was closer than at any point since the war began
Senior Lebanese official Ali Hassan Khalil, speaking to Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, said Lebanon was ready to “precisely” implement UN Security Council resolution 1701

Updated 17 min 16 sec ago

Reuters

November 14, 2024 14:28

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: A senior Lebanese official has signalled that Hezbollah is ready to pull its forces away from the Lebanese-Israeli border in any ceasefire, while rejecting Israel’s demand for freedom to act against the Iran-backed group in Lebanon in the future.
An Israeli minister indicated that a ceasefire was closer than at any point since the war began, though he said a sticking point was ensuring Israel retains freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated.
Pressing its offensive against the Iran-backed group, Israel launched airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Thursday, keeping up its unusually intensive bombardment of the area for a third consecutive day.
Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows since launching its offensive in late September, escalating the conflict that had rumbled on in parallel to the Gaza war for a year. Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into Israel and its fighters have been battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.
A World Bank report estimated the cost of physical damage and economic losses due to the conflict in Lebanon at $8.5 billion — a massive price for a country still suffering the effects of a financial collapse five years ago.
Senior Lebanese official Ali Hassan Khalil, speaking to Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, said Lebanon was ready to “precisely” implement UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Its terms require Hezbollah to remove fighters and weapons from areas between the border and the Litani River, which runs about 30 km (around 20 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.
Asked whether Hezbollah had informed him of a readiness to withdraw to the Litani, Khalil — a close Hezbollah ally and top aide to Lebanon’s parliament speaker — said the group had expressed its commitment to Resolution 1701.
The resolution, he added, “contained a clear set of provisions.” “Yes, the party is committed to what is stated in these texts,” he said, referring to Hezbollah.
The United States and other powers say a ceasefire must be based on Resolution 1701.
Israel long complained it was never implemented, pointing to Hezbollah weapons and fighters at the border. Lebanon in turn accused Israel of violating the resolution, with Israeli warplanes regularly violating its airspace.

STICKING POINT
Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters: “I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war.”
A key sticking point for Israel, he said, is ensuring it retains freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas. “We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act,” he said.
Earlier this week, White House envoy Amos Hochstein, who has led several fruitless attempts to broker a ceasefire, told Axios he thought “there is a shot” at a truce in Lebanon soon.
It points to a last-ditch effort by the outgoing US administration to seal a Lebanon deal, with diplomacy to end the Gaza war adrift.
Khalil said that Lebanese negotiators had reached agreement on “a certain text” with Hochstein during his last visit to Beirut.
Hochstein had been due to communicate this to the Israeli side and then send any remarks back to Beirut, Khalil said. “We are waiting, and God willing, soon there will be the draft that he has reached,” he said.
Khalil said Lebanon had no objection to US or French participation in overseeing ceasefire compliance.

’GOD HELP US’
Plumes of smoke rose over the southern Beirut suburbs known as Dahiyeh, where Israel’s latest strikes destroyed five buildings, sources familiar with the damage said. Israeli raids on the area have largely been taking place at night but this week have been happening in the morning too.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets carried out a series of attacks in the southern Beirut area, targeting weapons warehouses, military headquarters and other infrastructures used by Hezbollah.
“We say God help us ... because it seems that things are developing, it is getting worse, and I don’t even know if there is a solution now,” said Ayat, a 33-year-old Lebanese woman.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said five people were killed in airstrikes on the towns of Bazourieh and Jmaijmeh in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike in Baalbek killed another three people.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,365 people and wounded 14,344 across Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the last year, according to Israel.

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Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Israel Lebanon Hezbollah Baalbek Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen

Jordan says Israel’s Al-Aqsa mosque restrictions in Ramadan pushing toward ‘explosion’

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Jordan says Israel’s Al-Aqsa mosque restrictions in Ramadan pushing toward ‘explosion’

Jordan says Israel’s Al-Aqsa mosque restrictions in Ramadan pushing toward ‘explosion’

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