Gaza fighting rages after Israel vows to intensify Rafah offensive

Gaza fighting rages after Israel vows to intensify Rafah offensive
TOPSHOT - Palestinians who fled Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip arrive with their belongings to Khan Yunis on May 15, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by AFP)
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Updated 17 May 2024
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Gaza fighting rages after Israel vows to intensify Rafah offensive

Gaza fighting rages after Israel vows to intensify Rafah offensive
  • Fierce battles overnight in and around the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip
  • Israeli warships launched strikes on Rafah, on the border with Egypt

RAFAH: Fighting raged Friday in Gaza after Israel vowed to intensify its ground offensive in Rafah despite international concerns for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the southern city.
With Gazans facing hunger, the US military said “trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore via a temporary pier” it set up to aid Palestinians in the besieged territory.
Witnesses reported fierce battles overnight in and around the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
Israeli helicopters carried out heavy strikes around Jabalia while army artillery hit homes near Kamal Adwan hospital in the camp, they said.
The bodies of six people were retrieved and several wounded people were evacuated after an air strike targeted a house in Jabalia, Gaza’s Civil Defense agency said.
Rescue teams were trying to recover people from under the rubble of the Shaaban family home on Al-Faluja Street in the camp, it added.
Witnesses said Israeli warships launched strikes on Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where more than 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that it “targeted enemy forces stationed inside the Rafah border crossing... with mortar shells.”
The war broke out after the October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Out of 252 people taken hostage that day, 128 are still being held inside Gaza, including 38 who the army says are dead.
Israel vowed in response to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive on Gaza, where at least 35,303 people have been killed since the war erupted, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run territory.
Intensified ground operations
Israel has vowed to “intensify” its ground offensive in Rafah, in defiance of global warnings over the fate of Palestinians sheltering there.
Israel’s top ally the United States has joined other major powers in appealing for it to hold back from a full ground offensive in Rafah.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday said “additional forces will enter” the Rafah area and “this activity will intensify.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Thursday that the ground assault on Rafah was a “critical” part of the army’s mission to destroy Hamas and prevent any repetition of the October 7 attack.
“The battle in Rafah is critical... It’s not just the rest of their battalions, it’s also like an oxygen line for them for escape and resupply,” he said.
The Israeli siege of Gaza has brought dire shortages of food as well as safe water, medicines and fuel for its 2.4 million people.
The arrival of occasional aid convoys has slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control last week of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.


Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria

Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria
Updated 3 sec ago
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Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria

Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria
  • Human Rights Watch: Country ‘in desperate need of reconstruction and Syrians are struggling to survive’
  • Current sanctions were imposed on regime of Bashar Assad who was deposed in December

LONDON: Sanctions imposed on the regime of former Syrian President Bashar Assad by the West are harming the country’s recovery, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Sanctions put in place by the US, the UK, the EU and others are “hindering reconstruction efforts and exacerbating the suffering of millions of Syrians,” and have no clear removal mechanism, HRW added.

Hiba Zayadin, HRW’s senior Syria researcher, said the country “is in desperate need of reconstruction and Syrians are struggling to survive. With the collapse of the former government, broad sanctions now stand as a major obstacle to restoring essential services such as health care, water, electricity, and education.”

HRW said the country’s long-running civil war has left its economy and infrastructure devastated, with millions of people having fled and 90 percent of the remaining population living in poverty.

Around 13 million are unable to access sufficient food, and 16.5 million are reliant on humanitarian aid.

The organization said sanctions, some of which have been in place for almost half a century but which were ramped up by the West in 2011 after the outbreak of the conflict, are making it harder to alleviate this suffering and to deliver aid despite humanitarian exemptions.

HRW said sanctions should be lifted to allow “access to basic rights,” including “restoring Syria’s access to global financial systems, ending trade restrictions on essential goods, addressing energy sanctions to ensure access to fuel and electricity, and providing clear legal assurances to financial institutions and businesses to mitigate the chilling effect of overcompliance.”

US sanctions hinder nearly all trade and financial transactions with Syria, while the Caesar Act sanctions foreign companies doing business with the government, “particularly in oil and gas, construction, and engineering,” HRW said.

EU and UK sanctions focus largely on Syrian crude oil exports, investments, and the activities of Syrian banks.

Western powers have proposed changes to the sanctions regime since Assad’s ouster in December, but the head of the Syrian Arab Republic’s Investment Agency, Ayman Hamawiye, said earlier this year that the only concrete changes — tweaks to US sanctions affecting energy remittance payments — were “inadequate” so far. 

“Rather than using broad sectoral sanctions as leverage for shifting political objectives, Western governments should recognize their direct harm to civilians and take meaningful steps to lift restrictions that impede access to basic rights,” Zayadin said.

“A piecemeal approach of temporary exemptions and limited waivers is not enough. Sanctions that harm civilians should immediately be lifted, not refined.”

HRW said Syria requires at least $250 billion to begin its reconstruction, focusing on essential infrastructure.

It highlighted the crumbling water network and overwhelmed healthcare system as two examples in desperate need of financial help, as well as the education sector, with around 2 million Syrian children out of fulltime school.

HRW said sanctions should not “have a disproportionately negative impact on human rights or create unnecessary suffering,” and “should not be punitive, but should instead be designed to deter and correct human rights abuses.”

It added: “To be effective, sanctions must be tied to clear, measurable, and attainable conditions for their removal, with regular monitoring to assess progress.

“The Caesar Act in the United States was designed to punish the Assad government, but in a post-Assad world, its broad and indefinite restrictions risk harming civilians without advancing clear human rights objectives.”


Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt

Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt
Updated 2 min 53 sec ago
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Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt

Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt
  • The meeting was called in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip

CAIRO: An extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza, initially set for next week, has been postponed to March 4, host Egypt said on Tuesday.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the new date was agreed with Arab League members as part of “substantive and logistical preparations” for the summit.
The meeting was called in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia is set to host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to present their own plan for Gaza’s reconstruction while ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land.
Trump’s Gaza plan has sparked outcry across the Arab world, prompting a rare show of unity among Arab nations to block it.


UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war

UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war
Updated 18 February 2025
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UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war

UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war
  • UN: ‘Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006)’

BEIRUT: The UN’s Lebanon envoy and peacekeeping force on Tuesday warned Israel’s delayed withdrawal from the country violated the UN resolution that ended the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war and formed the basis for a recent truce.

“Today marks the end of the period set for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces... and the parallel Lebanese Armed Forces deployment to positions in southern Lebanon,” the joint statement said, adding: “Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006).”

Israeli troops withdrew from all but five points in south Lebanon on Tuesday, allowing displaced residents to return to border villages largely destroyed in more than a year of hostilities.

“The entire village has been reduced to rubble. It’s a disaster zone,” said Alaa Al-Zein, back in Kfar Kila after the delayed withdrawal deadline expired Tuesday morning under an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.

Unable to reach Kfar Kila by car because of the rubble and army restrictions, residents had parked at the entrance of the village and returned on foot.

Many were returning to destroyed or heavily damaged homes, farmland and businesses, after more than a year of clashes that included two months of all-out war an ended with a November 27 ceasefire.

Israel had announced just before the pullout deadline that it would keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border, and on Tuesday its defense minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the deployment and vowed action against any “violation” by militant group Hezbollah.

On Tuesday, Lebanon said any Israeli presence on its soil constituted “occupation,” warning it would refer to the UN Security Council to push Israel to withdraw and that its armed forces were ready to assume duties at the border.

Lebanon’s army announced it had deployed in 11 southern border villages and other areas from which Israeli troops have pulled, starting Monday evening.

In a joint statement, UN envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force said that at “the end of the period set” for Israel’s withdrawal and the Lebanese army’s deployment, any further “delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen” and a violation of a 2006 Security Council resolution that ended a past Israel-Hezbollah war.

Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at US think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Israeli army spokesman, said that once Lebanon’s army was “fully deployed” in the south, the Israeli army “will likely complete its withdrawal... as long as Hezbollah continues to adhere to the agreement.”

In Lebanon, the cost of reconstruction is expected to reach more than $10 billion, while more than 100,000 people remain displaced, according to the United Nations.

But despite the devastation, Zein said villagers were adamant on returning.

“The whole village is returning, we will set up tents and sit on the ground” if needed, he said, striking a defiant tone.

Others were going south to look for the bodies of their relatives under the rubble.

Among them was Samira Jumaa, who arrived in the early hours of the morning to look for her brother, a Hezbollah fighter killed in Kfar Kila with others five months ago.

“We have not heard of them until now. We are certain they were martyred,” she said.

“I’ve come to see my brother and embrace the land where my brother and his comrades fought,” she added.

Further south, dozens of cars were waiting at a Lebanese army checkpoint to be allowed into the southern villages of Taybeh and Odaisseh, an AFP photographer saw.

Nearby, women were carrying pictures of relatives who died fighting for Hezbollah in the war, while others raised the Iran-backed group’s yellow flag.

Hezbollah strongholds in south and east Lebanon as well as Beirut suffered heavy destruction during the hostilities, initiated by Hezbollah in support of ally Hamas in the wake of the Gaza war.

Under the ceasefire, brokered by Washington and Paris, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was extended to February 18.

Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure there.

Since the cross-border hostilities began in October 2023, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the health ministry.

On the Israeli side of the border, 78 people including soldiers have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, with an additional 56 troops dead in southern Lebanon during the ground offensive.

Around 60 people have reportedly been killed since the truce began, two dozen of them on January 26 as residents tried to return to border towns on the initial withdrawal deadline.

On Monday, Lebanon’s government said the state should be the sole bearer of arms, in a thinly veiled message on Hezbollah’s arsenal.

Calls for the group’s disarmament have multiplied since the end of the war that has weakened the group.


Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says

Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says
Updated 18 February 2025
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Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says

Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s new government will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a new program and will work to deal with the country’s financial default and public debt, according a policy statement approved by the cabinet late on Monday.
The statement, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said the government would work for an economical revival that could only be achieved through restructuring the banking sector.
The statement did not include language used in previous years that was seen to legitimize a role for the Iran-backed Hezbollah in defending Lebanon, saying instead “we want a state that has the decision of war and peace.”


UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan

UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan
Updated 18 February 2025
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UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan

UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan
  • Fighting broke out between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and “armed youth” in Nassir in Upper Nile state

Nairobi: The United Nations on Tuesday reported deadly clashes in northern South Sudan which killed civilians and left a peacekeeper wounded.
The oil-rich but impoverished nation, which only achieved independence in 2011, is plagued by instability with frequent clashes and political infighting.
Fighting broke out between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and “armed youth” in Nassir in Upper Nile state — which borders Sudan — on February 14 and 15, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement.
It did not identify the armed groups clashing with the SSPDF, a national military force led by President Salva Kiir, head of the country’s unity government.
The statement said some fighters used “heavy weaponry which has, reportedly, resulted in deaths and injuries to civilians as well as armed personnel.”
It did not give any details on the number of people hurt, but added that a UN peacekeeper on a scheduled patrol was wounded during mortar shelling.
Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS, urged restraint and condemned violence toward the UN peacekeepers.
The UN statement also warned of “persistent tensions” in Western Equatoria — on the other side of the country — between “organized forces.” It did not give details.
Haysom said that the situation in both locations underscored the need for the full deployment of South Sudan’s unified armed forces.
The country endured a vicious five-year civil war between Kiir and his bitter rival, Vice President Riek Machar.
A 2018 peace deal required the unification of armed forces, ahead of repeatedly delayed elections.
UNMISS has said the unification of the army has yet to be achieved.