Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to halt its military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Above, a protester outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on May 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Short Url

https://arab.news/yxwn5

Updated 25 May 2024

Agencies

May 25, 2024 11:19

Follow

Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

Spanish government: Ruling by the International Court of Justice is legally binding
British government says ruling would strengthen Palestinian Islamist group Hamas

Updated 25 May 2024

Agencies

May 25, 2024 11:19

Follow

MADRID/LONDON: The Spanish government demanded on Saturday that Israel comply with an order by the top UN court to immediately stop its bombardment and ground assault on the Gazan city of Rafah.
It stressed that the ruling on Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was legally binding.
“The precautionary measures set out by the ICJ, including that Israel should cease its military offensive in Rafah, are compulsory. Israel must comply with them,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares wrote on X.
“The same goes for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and access for humanitarian aid (to Gaza),” he said.
“The suffering of the people of Gaza and the violence must end.”
The British government, meanwhile, has criticized the World Court order, saying the ruling would strengthen Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“The reason there isn’t a pause in the fighting is because Hamas turned down a very generous hostage deal from Israel. The intervention of these courts — including the ICJ today — will strengthen the view of Hamas that they can hold on to hostages and stay in Gaza,” a UK foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Friday.
“And if that happens there won’t be either peace, or a two-state solution.”
In a case brought by South Africa alleging the Israeli assault on Gaza amounts to “genocide,” the ICJ ordered Israel on Friday to “immediately halt” the ground and air offensive in Rafah.
The operations began on May 7 despite international fears for the safety of the 1.4 million civilians trapped in the city.
The Hague-based ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also ruled that Israel must keep open the key Rafah crossing with Egypt to allow “unhindered” humanitarian aid into Gaza.
And it urged the “unconditional” release of hostages taken by Hamas fighters during their October 7 attack in Israel.
Israel responded on Saturday by bombing Rafah and other parts of the densely populated Gaza Strip.
Spain is one of the European countries to have been most critical of Israel over the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Spain, Ireland and Norway said their governments would recognize a Palestinian state from next week.
Israel summoned their envoys to “reprimand” them for the decision and on Friday said it would ban Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem from helping Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Some 252 people were taken hostage, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,857 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Follow

Topics: War on Gaza Spain Israel UN Britain

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 04:43

Follow

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

UN officials have voiced mounting concern about the dire conditions in Darfur and across Sudan

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 04:43

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Shelling by Sudanese paramilitary forces on Saturday killed at least 12 people in the north of the vast Darfur region that is almost completely under their control, activists said.
Five people were also wounded in the bombardment by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the regular army since April last year, according to the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country.
RSF fighters took three people captive after the bombardment north of the town of Kutum, the committee added.
The region’s governor, former rebel leader Mini Minawi, who is close to the regular army, said the paramilitaries had torched some 20 villages in the area.
The army has largely been confined to the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher since the paramilitaries swept through the rest of the region last year.
RSF fighters have laid siege to the city of some two million people since May and famine has already been declared in the Zamzam camp for the displaced to its south.
UN officials have voiced mounting concern about the dire conditions in Darfur and across Sudan.
“The people of Sudan are living through a nightmare of violence — with thousands of civilians killed, and countless others facing unspeakable atrocities, including widespread rape and sexual assaults,” UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Security Council late last month.

Follow

Topics: Sudan war Darfur

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 03:53

Follow

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

Hundreds of farmers have been driven off their once-fertile lands and those who have managed to remain face tremendous hardships
Warring sides accused of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians and aid groups warned that families are resorting to eating leaves and insects

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 03:53

GEDAREF, Sudan: Ahmed Othman’s farm has been spared from the deadly fighting that has spread across Sudan, but the war’s toll on the economy and labor market has still reached him.
“I had to sell two vehicles” to afford to harvest this season’s crops, he told AFP from his large sesame farm in eastern Sudan’s Gedaref state.
A year and a half of war in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and devastated harvests.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organizations warned of a “historic” hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
Hundreds of farmers have been driven off their once-fertile lands and those who have managed to remain face tremendous hardships.
Gedaref state is key to Sudan’s corn production, a crucial crop for a population the World Food Programme warns is nearing famine — a condition already declared at a displacement camp in the country’s western region of Darfur.
“The first challenge we faced was securing funding as banks are experiencing a cash crunch due to the war,” said Othman.
Cash shortages have occurred even in army-controlled Gedaref since the RSF took over the capital Khartoum and banks were ransacked.
The farmer said that without selling two out of his three vehicles he could not have afforded fuel for farm machinery or to pay workers to prepare the fields and tend to the crops.
“The second problem is the scarcity of farm workers due to the war, which has limited their movement across states,” he added.
Most workers in Gedaref previously came from the adjacent states of Blue Nile and Sennar, as well as from Kordofan further away.

However, the war has restricted inter-state movement, leaving farm owners like Othman with only a small workforce.
Another local farmer, Suleiman Mohamed, said “the shortage of workers has driven up wages, so we are relying on those already in the area, mainly Ethiopians” who have long resided in Sudan’s east as refugees.
War began in April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Disruptions to the harvest this season could exacerbate the hunger crisis, made worse by restrictions on aid entry.
European and North American nations issued a joint statement last month that accused the warring sides of “systematic obstruction” of aid efforts. They said both sides should urgently admit the assistance to millions of people in dire need.
In southern Gedaref, another farmer, Othman Abdelkarim, said many have already given up on this year’s season.
“Most of us have relied on ourselves for financing, and some simply opted out and didn’t plant,” he said, pointing to an unplanted field west of his farm.
“This crisis will delay the harvest and affect its quality,” he added.
The state’s agriculture ministry reported that nine million acres (3.6 million hectares) were cultivated in Gedaref this year — five million with corn and the rest with sesame, sunflowers, peanuts and cotton.
That is less than half of the roughly 20 million acres planted annually before the war.
Farmer Suleiman Mohamed fears there is no hope for this season’s crop.
“With fewer workers and delayed harvesting, we’ll face losses, and part of the crop will be lost,” he said from his farm in eastern Gedaref.

Follow

Topics: Sudan conflict

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:53

Follow

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

There are about 172,000 Palestinian-Americans in the US, according to a 2022 census survey, with many from swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:53

TURMUS AYA, West Bank: As Palestinian American entrepreneur Jamal Zaglul stood by his olive press at the end of the harvest season in the occupied West Bank, his mind was far away from this week’s US election.

Like other US passport holders living in Turmus Aya, where they form the majority, he was skeptical that the ballot would bring change to the region.

“Here we have problems. Nobody (in the US) cares about us,” said the businessman in his 50s.

Violence in the West Bank — occupied by Israel since 1967 — has surged since the Gaza war erupted after militants’ unprecedented Oct.7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Zaglul spoke fondly of former US President Bill Clinton, under whose administration the landmark Oslo Accords were signed, creating arrangements between the Palestinians and Israel.

“This time, we need to start changing. We have to have another party, a separate party, independents,” Zaglul said. “The other ones, they’re not helping us.”

Fellow dual national Basim Sabri planned to vote for a third-party candidate in protest after “eight years of miserable administration.”

The Minnesota-based native of the northern West Bank did not mince words about the current White House occupant, sharply criticizing Joe Biden.

He was equally critical of Biden’s predecessor and current Republican contender, Donald Trump, calling him a “racist.”

Sabri said he would vote for Jill Stein, the perennial Green Party candidate on the ballot in nearly every battleground state this presidential cycle.

Stein ran in 2012 and 2016, securing just 0.4 percent and one percent of the vote, respectively.

Deeply shocked by the Gaza war, Sabri hopes the US will push more for peace.

“It’s the only country in the world that’s vetoing the decision of the majority of the world to stop the war and condemn Israel,” he said.

California resident Odeh Juma, who returns to Turmus Aya several times a year, pointed bitterly to US military support for Israel.

“As Palestinians, we feel our concerns — like ending wars globally, in Palestine or Ukraine — are overlooked in favor of the politicians’ electoral interests,” he said.

Juma planned to watch election night coverage but would not cast a ballot.

“If we don’t vote now, it will highlight the importance of the Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim voices for future elections,” he said.

There are about 172,000 Palestinian-Americans in the US, according to a 2022 census survey, with many from swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Thousands of Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a community shaken by the killings of an American and two dual citizens this year.

Juma’s son Adam said that “people tend to be scared to vote for anybody, especially for Trump.”

He recalled that during Trump’s first presidential run, some hoped he would be “different,” but he dealt numerous blows to Palestinians once elected.

Trump’s administration notably broke with US precedent by declaring it did not see Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.

These settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Adam Juma has been following the election but will not vote, believing the US no longer influences global conflict resolution.

“It won’t change anything if we vote for anybody ... It’s not like how it used to be,” he said.

Ramallah resident Leila said she voted for Stein.

“The ongoing genocide is at the top of my mind, and Harris has done absolutely nothing to win my vote in that regard,” she said.

Sanaa Shalabi, a Palestinian American, also planned to sit out the election.

“Here, no one cares about us... There is an American embassy here, but it does nothing,” she said.

“They do not stand with us. Israel is the one that controls America.”

Follow

Topics: West Bank Palestinian American

‘Stop the war’, say Israelis demanding return of Gaza hostages

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:41

Follow

‘Stop the war’, say Israelis demanding return of Gaza hostages

Some at the rally — organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group — brought up the plight of Israel’s soldiers, who are exhausted more than a year into the Gaza war

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:41

TEL AVIV: Hundreds of Israeli protesters in Tel Aviv voiced their frustration with the government on Saturday for failing to secure a truce deal to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home.
Flag-waving demonstrators in the country’s commercial hub held placards with slogans including “Deal now,” “Stop the war” and “We won’t abandon them,” and beat drums and chanted: “Why are they still in Gaza?“
“There have been countless opportunities to end this crisis and each one was torpedoed by the government,” said demonstrator Zahiro Shahar Mor, a 52-year-old bank employee from Tel Aviv.
“The cycle of violence is escalating week after week and we see no end,” added Mor, whose uncle Avraham Munder was killed in captivity in Gaza, and who is campaigning for the release of others’ loved ones.
Critics have questioned why a truce has still not materialized now that Israel has achieved many of its war aims, including last month’s killing of Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar.
Israeli and US officials as well as some analysts have said Sinwar was an obstacle to reaching a truce deal in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Ifat Kalderon, a prominent anti-government protester afraid for her cousin still held in Gaza, blamed Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
“Each hostage deal they start to talk about, he sabotages. He always blamed Sinwar, but now there is no Sinwar. But every time he finds another reason,” the 50-year-old stylist told AFP.
“It’s a bloody war, we need to stop it. Enough. So many soldiers are dying. And ordinary citizens,” she said, referring to civilians from both sides of the conflict paying with their lives.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023 after Palestinian militants attacked Israel, resulting in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,314 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.
During the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of them are dead.
Some at the rally — organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group — brought up the plight of Israel’s soldiers, who are exhausted more than a year into the Gaza war.
Others hoped for international intervention, including from the United States, which holds a presidential election on Tuesday.
“I hope whoever wins will be adult enough to take the kids in the Middle East by the ear and force them to the negotiating table,” said protester Mor.
He said he was “disappointed, frustrated and angry” at the lack of a hostage deal but was “keeping the hope for the people who are still alive” in Gaza.
Sinwar’s killing had spurred hope that fresh life could be breathed into months of fruitless negotiations for a truce with hostage and prisoner releases.
The talks have been mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
A Hamas official said Friday the group received a proposal from Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce in Gaza but had rejected it.
He said the group had responded by restating its position that “what the Palestinian people want is a complete, comprehensive and lasting ceasefire.”
Protester Simone Spak Safran said she believed the Israeli government “couldn’t care less” about the hostages.
A few “times an agreement was not reached, and not only because of Hamas. I don’t expect anything from this government,” the 77-year-old from Herzliya told AFP.

Follow

Topics: War on Gaza Israelis Gaza hostages

Turkiye’s president sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for alleged slander

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:29

Follow

Turkiye’s president sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for alleged slander

The charge has been widely used to silence Erdogan’s political rivals, as well as journalists, human rights defenders, and members of the public

Updated 03 November 2024

AFP

November 03, 2024 01:29

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sued the main opposition leader and Istanbul’s mayor for alleged slander in a forceful legal blow against his political rivals.

The two separate lawsuits targeted Ozgur Ozel, head of the Republican People’s Party or CHP, and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, also a top party official.

The lawsuit reveals that one or both could be prosecuted for insulting the president under Article 299 of the penal code, which carries a maximum four-year prison term.

The charge has been widely used to silence Erdogan’s political rivals, as well as journalists, human rights defenders, and members of the public.

Court documents cited by Anadolou accused Ozel of “publicly insulting the president” and “clearly committing a crime against the reputation and honor of the office of the presidency.”

The second alleged that Imamoglu had made “unfounded accusations, including slander, that violated Erdogan’s rights” and had “acted with the aim of humiliating the president in front of the public.”

Each lawsuit claims 1 million Turkish lira ($30,000) in damages from the accused.

The legal action centers on remarks the pair allegedly made on Thursday at a demonstration in the Istanbul district of Esenyurt after its opposition mayor was arrested for alleged links to the banned Kurdish PKK militant group.

The move against two top opposition figures comes as Turkiye’s strongman is widely believed to be seeking ways to amend the constitution so he can run again in the 2028 presidential race.

It was not immediately clear which remarks prompted the legal action but Ozer, who took over as CHP leader just a year ago, quickly hit back.

Erdogan “pretends to have been insulted without any insult being made, and tries to make himself the victim... as if it was not he who insulted and victimized Esenyurt” by arresting its mayor, he told reporters.

Asked whether he thought the authorities would try and topple Imamoglu as they did with the mayor of Esenyurt, Ozel said it was unclear.

But if they did, the opposition would put up a fight: “We will challenge them,” he vowed.

Imamoglu, elected Istanbul mayor in 2019, is often portrayed as Erdogan’s biggest political rival and is widely expected to run in the 2028 presidential race.

He is seen as one of Turkiye’s most popular politicians.

Two years ago, Imamoglu was sued for defamation after describing Istanbul election officials as “idiots” during the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election.

A court found him guilty of insulting a civil servant and sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in jail, barring him from politics for the duration of the sentence and prompting an international outcry.

Although Imamoglu appealed, the lawsuit meant it was too risky for him to contest the 2023 presidential election.

But he has continued to serve as mayor while the appeal court mulls its decision.

At the time, Erdogan insisted he had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

The 70-year-old Turkish leader launched his political career in the 1990s by being elected mayor of Istanbul.

Follow

Topics: Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

Top UN court orders Israel to halt military operation in Rafah, Israel is unlikely to comply

Israel strikes Rafah after top UN court orders it to halt offensive

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

Dead or alive? Scores missing after paramilitary group’s attacks in Sudan’s Al-Jazira state

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event

How the US election works, from how ballots are counted to when we will know the result

‘Stop the war’, say Israelis demanding return of Gaza hostages

‘Stop the war’, say Israelis demanding return of Gaza hostages

Wealthy Israelis offer rewards for release of Gaza hostages

Israelis rally to pressure government on hostage release

Turkiye’s president sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for alleged slander

Turkiye’s president sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for alleged slander

Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK

Turkiye to pursue campaign against Kurdish group in Iraq, Syria

Latest updates

Win the vote but still lose? Behold America’s Electoral College

Moldova holds presidential runoff election amid claims of Russian meddling

Joint sea drills with Russia signal start of Indonesian foreign policy shift

Ukraine ‘holding back’ powerful Russian offensive, Kyiv top commander says

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

Recommended

Why both Harris and Trump have Michigan’s Arab and Muslim endorsements

How Saudi cities are enhancing quality of life, while responding to environmental challenges

How AI and fintech are redefining the banking landscape in Saudi Arabia

Search form

Print Edition

Search form

Search form

You are here

Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah, Britain criticizes order

Related

Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists

Related

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan

Related

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

Related

‘Stop the war’, say Israelis demanding return of Gaza hostages

Related

Turkiye’s president sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for alleged slander

Related

Latest updates

Recommended

Search form

Print Edition