Arab League summit calls for UN peacekeepers in Palestinian territories

Arab League summit calls for UN peacekeepers in Palestinian territories
In this handout photograph, taken and released by the Saudi Press Agency on May 16, 2024, Arab leaders gesture for a group photograph at the 33rd Arab Summit in Manama, Bahrain. (SPA)
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Updated 17 May 2024
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Arab League summit calls for UN peacekeepers in Palestinian territories

Arab League summit calls for UN peacekeepers in Palestinian territories
  • The declaration also called for ‘all Palestinian factions to join under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization’
  • Arab League said it considered PLO, dominated by ruling Fatah movement, ‘sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people’

MANAMA: The Arab League on Thursday called for a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Palestinian territories at a summit dominated by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The “Manama Declaration” issued by the 22-member bloc called for “international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories” until a two-state solution is implemented.
The declaration also called for “all Palestinian factions to join under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” which is dominated by the ruling Fatah movement, and added that it considered the PLO “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”
It also called for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza and an end to forced displacement in the Palestinian territory.
“We demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a halt to all attempts at forced displacement, an end to all forms of siege and allowing full and sustainable access to aid,” the final communique said.
It further “strongly condemned the attacks on commercial ships,” saying they “threaten freedom of navigation, international trade, and the interests of countries and peoples of the world,” and reiterated the Arab League’s commitment to “ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea” and surrounding areas.
The King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, opened the summit by calling for an international conference for peace in the Middle East.
The king, as the summit’s host, also reaffirmed his country’s support for the full recognition of a Palestinian state and the acceptance of its membership in the United Nations.
He stressed that the establishment of a Palestinian state will reflect positively on the region.
Last week, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member and called on the UN Security Council to reconsider the request.
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the US vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.
“What the Palestinians are facing requires a unified international stance,” the King of Bahrain said.
During his opening remarks at the summit, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called for the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state.
The prince was among the Arab delegates who arrived in Manama on Thursday for the Arab League Summit.
During his speech, the prince highlighted the Kingdom’s efforts in alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reiterating Saudi Arabia’s support for issues of the Arab world.
He urged the international community to back ceasefire efforts and halt the aggression on Palestinian civilians.
It is the first time the Arab leaders come together after Riyadh hosted an extraordinary summit in November where the bloc condemned Israel’s “barbaric” actions in Gaza.
The one-day summit was set to discuss events in Gaza, propose a ceasefire and push for a Palestinian state.
“The Kingdom calls for conflict resolution through peaceful means,” the prince said.
Palestinian leader slams Hamas
The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas for giving Israel the ‘pretext to attack’ Gaza with the Oct. 7 attack.
“Hamas’ rejection of ending the division serves Israel’s interest in ending the two-state solution,” he noted, pointing to the long-standing tensions between the Palestinian Authority and the militant group governing Gaza.
He said the Palestinian government has not received the financial support it had expected from international and regional partners, noting that Israel is still withholding the funds and creating a dire situation.
The Palestinian leader called on Arab countries for financial support and the US to pressure Israel into releasing the funds.
“It has now become critical to activate the Arab safety net, to boost the resilience of our people and to enable the government to carry out its duties,” Abbas added.
He also urged the international community to start immediately with the implementation of the two-state solution and reiterated ‘full rejection’ of the displacement of Palestinians, who just marked the 76th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba.
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid, Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad were among the attendees on Thursday.


Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon including refugee camp

Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon including refugee camp
Updated 23 sec ago
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Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon including refugee camp

Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon including refugee camp
  • Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees
JERUSALEM: 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.

Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK

Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK
Updated 30 min 10 sec ago
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Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK

Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK
  • President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Thursday ordered the arrest of a mayor from Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over alleged militant ties.
A deputy governor of Istanbul has replaced Ahmet Ozer as CHP mayor of Istanbul’s immigrant-heavy Esenyurt district after he was accused on Wednesday by the chief prosecutor’s office of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Ozer denies the terrorism-related claims, while his party said it would defend him against the “unfounded allegations.”
President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality.
The court order comes days after the PKK claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on Turkish defense company TUSAS that killed five people in Ankara.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the arrest was based on “abstract allegations” and was intended to harm the will of the people.
“We will undoubtedly...defeat this vile mind that does not recognize the nation and does not respect the people’s choices, and will thwart this disgusting plan,” Ozel said in a post on X.
The CHP’s central executive committee will meet on Thursday at CHP Esenyurt headquarters, and Ozel has called on residents to gather around Esenyurt municipality to protest against the decision.
The PKK has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkiye for four decades, with more than 40,000 people killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies.


Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3

Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3
Updated 41 min 7 sec ago
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Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3

Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3
  • The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire

RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials said Thursday that an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire. The Israeli military said its forces were targeting militants in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has seen repeated battles in recent months. The military said it eliminated a Hamas militant in the area who was involved in planning attacks on Israelis.
Meanwhile, mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict.
Hezbollah’s newly named leader, Naim Kassem, said the militant group will keep fighting in its war with Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.
The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.


Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says

Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says
Updated 31 October 2024
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Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says

Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says
  • Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the laws are “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves”
  • Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated the agency

RIYADH: The head of the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further instability in Gaza and the West Bank.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview — the first since the laws were passed — that the legislation is “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves,” effectively denying them a functioning provider of lifesaving services, education and health care.
UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency for survival amid Israel’s nearly 13-month-old war with the militant Hamas group.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in UNRWA-run schools. Other aid groups say the agency’s strong, decades-old infrastructure across Gaza is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has put forward no plan for getting food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s population in UNRWA’s absence.
Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and taking aid — claims for which it has provided little evidence. The laws, passed by parliament this week, sever all ties with UNRWA and ban its operations in Israel.
And since the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must go through Israeli authorities, the laws threaten to close its activities there as well. The laws are expected to come into effect in three months.
If the Israeli decision is implemented “this would be a total disaster, it is like throwing (out) the baby with the water,” Lazzarini told the AP, speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he is attending a conference to discuss the Mideast conflict.
“This would create a vacuum. It would also feed more instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Having UNRWA ending its activities within the three months would also mean more people will die in Gaza.”
He said the agency is looking for “creative ways to keep our operation going.” He appealed for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to keep providing services and called on Israel to rescind the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel has not officially communicated with the agency following the adoption of the laws.
For decades, UNRWA has operated networks of schools, medical facilities and other services around Gaza and the West Bank — as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza especially, it plays a major role in maintaining social services and the economy, as the territory’s largest single employer and the source of education and health care for much of the population.
The laws threaten to shut down all those operations, impacting the education and welfare of hundreds of thousands of children well into the future, he said.
“We have today 1 in 2 persons in Gaza below the age of 18, among them 650,000 girls and boys living in the rubble, deeply traumatized at the age of primary and secondary school,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way to tell these children that you will have no future. We are just sacrificing your education. Education is the only thing which has never, ever been taken away from the Palestinians.”
UNRWA was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It now offers support to the refugees and their descendants, who number some 6 million around the region.
Lazzarini said the Israeli laws are the “culmination of years of attack against the agency.” He said “the objective is to strip the Palestinian from refugee status.”
International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel has refused to allow their return, saying it would end the Jewish majority in the country. Israel has said the refugees should be taken in by their host countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians’ hopes for return alive.
In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said the Israeli laws and campaign against the agency “will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s services, but will severely harm their lives and future.”
Israel claims hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen employees took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the latest war.
The UN has fired nine staffers after internal investigations found they may have participated in the attack. UNRWA has nearly 30,000 staff around the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, most of them Palestinians. Israel also says Hamas fighters operate in UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza — and has hit many of them with airstrikes.
UNRWA denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.
Lazzarini said Israel has not responded to inquiries from UNRWA for details about other allegations, including that the agency’s premises are used by militant groups.. With the continued fighting, the agency has been unable to verify the claims, he said and called for an independent investigation.
At least 237 UNRWA staff have been killed in the war in Gaza, a toll among UN staff not seen in any other conflict. Over 200 UNRWA facilities have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 560 people sheltering there.
Lazzarini spoke on the sidelines of the conference by the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, a Saudi government-created initiative attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.
“If we want to be successful in any future political transition, we need an agency like UNRWA taking care of education and the primary health of the Palestinian refugees” until there is a viable functioning state or administration to do so, he said.


Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal

Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal
Updated 31 October 2024
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Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal

Hamas says will discuss any Gaza truce plan that leads to Israel withdrawal
  • Hamas official says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing truce efforts to push an agenda of ‘genocide, ethnic cleansing and displacement’

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A Hamas official said Wednesday that the group would discuss any ideas for a Gaza ceasefire that included an Israeli withdrawal, but had not officially received any comprehensive proposals.
“We have not officially received any comprehensive proposal. We are prepared to engage with any ideas or proposals presented to us, provided they ultimately lead to an end to the war and a withdrawal by the army from the (Gaza) Strip,” the official said.
The official, who preferred to remain anonymous, added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing truce efforts to push an agenda of “genocide, ethnic cleansing and displacement” made possible by the absence of US pressure.
“We have told the mediators that Hamas is ready if (Israel) agrees to a proposal for a ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, return of displaced people to their homes in Gaza including the north, entry of sufficient aid for our people and a serious prisoner exchange deal,” he said, referring to ceasefire conditions Hamas has repeatedly brought to negotiations.
He said that Egypt and Qatar continue to work as mediators in consultations between Hamas and Israel.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meanwhile told troops in Gaza that they must apply military pressure to guarantee the return of hostages held in the Palestinian territory for over a year.
“The central issue here is to continue exerting as much pressure on Hamas as possible, in order to create the conditions necessary to ensure the return of the hostages,” his office reported him saying, suggesting Israel is pushing its advantage to guarantee better ceasefire conditions.
On Tuesday evening, Hamas had confirmed in a statement that some meetings had been held regarding the mediators’ request to discuss “new proposals for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.”
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced he had not received a proposal for a two-day truce and hostage release deal.
He said Israel “has not received a proposal for the release of four hostages in return for a 48-hour ceasefire in Gaza. If such a proposal had been raised, the prime minister would have accepted it immediately,” his office said in a statement.
The statement was referring to a proposal revealed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying for months to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, aid access and talks on longer-term peace.
Israel’s spy chief David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani held their latest round of talks in Doha on Sunday and Monday.
They focused on a “short-term” truce of “less than a month,” a source with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday
“US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.