Blinken urges Palestinian reforms in call with Abbas

Blinken urges Palestinian reforms in call with Abbas
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, left, meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, in Ramallah in the West Bank. (AP/File)
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Updated 02 April 2024
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Blinken urges Palestinian reforms in call with Abbas

Blinken urges Palestinian reforms in call with Abbas
  • The United States has warned Israel against an assault but has also maintained its support for Israel including shipments of weapons

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for further Palestinian reforms after the naming of a government in a call with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas, as Washington seeks a post-war solution in Gaza.
Blinken told Abbas that the United States “looks forward to working with the new PA cabinet to promote peace, security and prosperity and urged the implementation of necessary reforms,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“Secretary Blinken emphasized that a revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.
Abbas last week approved a new government led by Mohammed Mustafa, his long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, with representation also for women and Palestinians from Gaza.
Since the war broke out in October, the United States has been pressing for the Palestinian Authority to root out corruption and bring in new faces in hopes that the PA, which has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, can take charge of Gaza as well following a defeat of Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long fought against a Palestinian state, and his hard-right government have made clear they are not interested in a role for the Palestinian Authority.
But Miller said Blinken “underscored the US commitment to the realization of the creation of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.”
Blinken spoke to Abbas shortly after the top US diplomat joined a virtual meeting with Israeli leaders on a planned offensive on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population has taken shelter since the war.
The United States has warned Israel against an assault but has also maintained its support for Israel including shipments of weapons.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war erupted when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 32,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

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Syria state media report Israel strikes on town near Lebanon border

Syria state media report Israel strikes on town near Lebanon border
Updated 8 sec ago
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Syria state media report Israel strikes on town near Lebanon border

Syria state media report Israel strikes on town near Lebanon border

DAMASCUS: Syrian state media said Israeli strikes hit the town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border on Thursday, the latest in a series of raids in the area.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the Qusayr area in the southern Homs countryside,” causing “material damage to the industrial city and some residential neighborhoods,” the official SANA news agency said.


Doctors Without Borders surgeon detained by Israel in north Gaza hospital raid

Doctors Without Borders surgeon detained by Israel in north Gaza hospital raid
Updated 11 min 51 sec ago
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Doctors Without Borders surgeon detained by Israel in north Gaza hospital raid

Doctors Without Borders surgeon detained by Israel in north Gaza hospital raid
  • Mohammed Obeid, an MSF orthopaedic surgeon working at Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza, was detained during an Israeli military raid on the site on Oct. 26, MSF said

GENEVA: Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors working in a north Gaza hospital has been detained by Israeli forces.
Mohammed Obeid, an MSF orthopaedic surgeon working at Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza, was detained during an Israeli military raid on the site on Oct. 26, MSF said.
“We are extremely alarmed by the detention of our colleague,” it said.
“We call for the safety and the protection of our colleague, and for all medical staff in Gaza who work under impossible conditions and are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”


Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel

Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel
Updated 23 min 11 sec ago
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Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel

Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel
  • Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling

DUBAI: Israel’s military said on Thursday it shot down a drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli officials have said during the war in Gaza that Palestinian armed group Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms.
Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.
Earlier in October, the Israeli military also said it foiled a weapon smuggling attempt from Egypt after downing a drone carrying guns and bullets.


Israeli couple arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran: police

Israeli couple arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran: police
Updated 31 October 2024
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Israeli couple arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran: police

Israeli couple arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran: police
  • Israeli police charge Goliev couple carried out surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites

JERUSALEM: Israeli police said Thursday they had arrested an Israeli couple on suspicion of spying for Iran, barely a week after two groups allegedly working for Tehran were detained.
“The thwarting of Iran’s efforts to recruit Israelis continues,” said a statement from the police and Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet.
The two Israelis, a couple from the central city of Lod, had been involved in gathering intelligence on “national infrastructures, security sites and tracking a female academic,” the statement alleged.
“Rafael and Lala Goliev... residents of Lod, were arrested after they carried out tasks on behalf of an Iranian cell that recruits Israelis from the Caucasus countries in Israel.”
Police charged that the couple were recruited by Elshan (Elhan) Agayev, an Azerbaijani national acting on behalf of Iranian officials. It was unclear if Agayev is based in Israel.
They alleged that the Golievs carried out surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites, including the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, and collected intelligence on an academic working at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Thursday’s announcement comes little more than a week after Israeli security services said they had uncovered two other suspected spy rings.
On October 22, Israeli police said they had arrested a group of seven Palestinians from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem they suspected of planning attacks for Iran.
A day earlier, police said they had arrested seven Israeli citizens from the city of Haifa on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of spy missions on Iran’s orders.
The previous week, two other Israelis were charged with various offenses after they were allegedly approached by Iranian agents and asked to carry out spy missions.
In September, an Israeli identified as Mordechai Maman from the coastal city of Ashkelon, was arrested on suspicion of being recruited by Iran to plot the assassination of top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel is currently engaged in a multi-front conflict with Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.


Lebanon source says one dead in Israel strike on car near Beirut

Lebanon source says one dead in Israel strike on car near Beirut
Updated 47 min 51 sec ago
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Lebanon source says one dead in Israel strike on car near Beirut

Lebanon source says one dead in Israel strike on car near Beirut
  • Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees

Beirut: A Lebanese security source said one person was killed Thursday by an Israeli strike on a road where a Hezbollah van carrying munitions was hit the previous day.
The drone strike hit the Araya-Kahhale road which links the capital Beirut to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
It targeted a Mercedes vehicle, killing the driver, the source said, without identifying the victim.
The official National News Agency said a “hostile drone” targeted the car on the key road that passes through the town of Araya.
On Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a Hezbollah van carrying munitions on the same highway, according to the security source, who said the attack killed the driver.
The same day, municipal authorities in Araya and Kahhale called on the Lebanese army to “intervene immediately” to to stop the road being used to transport weapons or fighters.
The seemingly targeted strikes have grown in frequency since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on September 23.
Also on Thursday, an Israeli drone strike hit a motorbike near the coastal town of Naqura, NNA said.
Another motorbike was hit in the eastern Bekaa Valley, it added.
Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon

The Israeli army issued an evacuation call for several areas of south Lebanon Thursday, including a Palestinian refugee camp, warning it was poised to hit Hezbollah targets in those areas.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist activities force the IDF (army) to act forcefully against it in these areas, and we do not intend to harm you,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees.

The war has killed at least 1,784 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.