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DUBAI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the turnout in the country’s first round of presidential elections was “lower than expected,” semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
CAIRO: Egypt has warned of the dangers of opening a new war front in Lebanon.
In a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates, Cairo warned of the dangers of expanding the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, in light of the recent events in Majdal Shams village in the occupied Golan Heights.
Egypt emphasized the importance of supporting Lebanon, its people, and its institutions, and sparing it from the ravages of war.
It also called on international actors to intervene immediately to prevent the people of the region from facing the catastrophic consequences of expanding the conflict, which could pose a threat to international peace and security.
Furthermore, Egypt reiterated its warning about the dangers of Israel continuing its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, calling for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire to end the humanitarian suffering in the enclave as soon as possible.
This would also enable the international community to contain the negative repercussions of the crisis on the Palestinian people and on security and stability in the region.
LONDON: Nearly 3,000 Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza have been identified by an independent monitor.
UK-based organization Airwars, which assesses the impact on civilians in conflicts worldwide, analyzed almost 346 incidents in the first 17 days of the war, naming 2,993 victims of Israeli attacks.
It included 65 people killed in an airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp on Oct. 9, the most deadly event of the campaign’s early days.
Investigators used evidence including social media posts to identify the dead, including 19-year-old Imad Hamad after his father Ziyad posted on Facebook that his son had died while out buying bread.
“To lose my son, to lose my house, to sleep on the floor of a classroom? My children are wetting themselves, of panic, of fear, of cold. We have nothing to do with this. What fault did we commit? I raised my child, my entire life, for what? To see him die while buying bread,” Ziyad posted.
Emily Tripp, director of Airwars, said: “Militaries often tell us it is impossible to know who has been killed and how — but one of our key messages is to show that it is possible. The only thing holding us back is the size of our teams.”
She added: “Our job is to act as a bridge between chaos and justice, to serve civilian victims of military action around the world. We see what we are doing as essential initial work before further investigations can be done.”
As well as the attack on Jabalia, Airwars identified several other high-casualty attacks, including at Al-Taj and the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“Prior to this conflict, it was very rare to find cases where there were more than 10 civilians killed,” Tripp said.
“But here, suddenly, we found that in a third of our cases, there were reports of 10 civilians killed.” She added: “We know how and when each person was killed.”
In total, 37.7 percent of recorded victims were children and 23.5 percent were women.
In the early days of the war, Gaza’s health authorities said as many as 7,000 people were killed by Israeli attacks, which Airwars said it believes to have been reasonably accurate.
Tripp said: “It is possible to believe the (Ministry of Health) figures, and you don’t have to wait many years to be sure.”
However, as the war has endured, the ability of authorities to tally casualties has broken down as infrastructure comes under ever-increasing strain, with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed.
Airwars says it has logged over 4,450 incidents since the start of the war, but has only been able to asses 550 so far, with its team of investigators numbering just 10-15.
LONDON: The UK should stop arming Israel after the International Court of Justice said member states should not “render aid or assistance” for the occupation of Palestinian territories, a British lawyer representing Palestine at the ICJ has said.
Philippe Sands KC said the ICJ advisory opinion will cause issues for the UK, which has failed to halt arms exports since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed around 40,000 Palestinians.
“The most immediate issue is the obligation in the advisory opinion on the states, which includes the United Kingdom, not to aid or assist in the maintenance of the current situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including (East) Jerusalem,” Sands told The Guardian.
“That legal obligation precludes sales of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Sands, a professor at University College London and a visiting professor at Harvard, said the ruling is not binding but it is likely that a vote will follow at the UN General Assembly on whether to adopt the position, and until then it will be “recognised as an authoritative statement of the law and one that the UN and its specialised agencies will follow as law.”
He added: “How does the UK vote on that? Will it vote against, or will it abstain? If the government is true to its word on respecting international law, given the nature and detail of the ICJ advisory opinion, you would expect them, at the very least, not to vote against.
“This could well be an early issue in relations with the United States, which will almost certainly vote against, despite the fact that the US judge was part of the large majority.”
He said it will also affect imports from Israeli settlements to the UK, adding: “Anything that is produced in the occupied territories, such as food, or that is sold there over the internet, is in principle subject to the international prohibition, if it can be said to aid or assist in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the new Labour government is holding a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law,” with arms exports expected to be a focus of the review.
Labour also pledged in its recent election manifesto to recognize a Palestinian state, but has set no timeline on when that would happen.
In its advisory opinion, the ICJ cited “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including its right to an independent and sovereign state.”
Sands said: “Ultimately, the recognition of a state is a political matter, not a legal obligation, so there is a discretionary element.
“Nevertheless, the ICJ judges have clearly stated that self-determination means that the Palestinian people ‘have the right to an independent and sovereign state.’
“About 150 states (out of nearly 200) have recognised Palestine as a state, the UK is part of a small and diminishing group that refuses to do so.”
On July 19, the previous UK Conservative government responded to the ICJ’s opinion by saying it was “considering it carefully before responding.”
In 2023, it submitted a 43-page legal opinion opposing the ICJ’s investigation into the Israeli occupation.
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have seized a Togo-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf and arrested its nine-person crew over alleged fuel smuggling, the military force said Monday on its Sepahnews website.
“On Friday morning, an oil tanker named Pearl G, carrying the flag of the African country of Togo... was seized by judicial order,” said the Guards’ statement.
The vessel is “owned by an Iraqi resident of Dubai, United Arab Emirates,” and it was carrying 700,000 liters of fuel, the statement added.
The Guards’ naval forces captured it near the Arash oil field “while loading smuggled fuel from Iranian barges,” it said.
“This oil tanker along with its nine crew members who are of Indian nationality have been transferred to Imam Khomeini harbor and are under surveillance.”
It is the second such seizure in less than a week.
On July 22, the Guards seized another Togo-flagged oil tanker and arrested its 12 crew members, also over alleged fuel smuggling.
The fate of both the vessel and the crew remains unclear.
Iranian naval forces regularly announce the detention of vessels transporting fuel in the Gulf.
In late January, Iran seized a vessel carrying two million liters of allegedly smuggled fuel.
In May, Iran released seven crew members from a Portuguese-flagged container ship, seized on April 13, after accusing them of links to its arch-foe Israel.
Fuel prices in Iran are among the lowest globally, increasing the profitability of smuggling operations.
BERLIN: The German government has called on all parties to the Middle East conflict, in particular Iran, to prevent an escalation after a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers last week, a spokesperson said on Monday.
Berlin “assumes with certainty” that the deadly attack on a football field in the Golan Heights was conducted by Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a regular press conference.
Recent actions by the Yemen-based Houthi militia, also backed by Iran, had also contributed significantly to instability in the region in recent weeks, he added.
The strike over the weekend has raised fears of a wider conflict in the region, where tensions have intensified due to Israel’s war in Gaza, which began more than nine months ago.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has talked to several people including her Lebanese counterpart in an effort to “mitigate the situation and prevent it from escalating,” the spokesperson said.
German citizens in Lebanon, of which there are estimated to be about 1,300, are “urgently advised” to leave the country while still possible, the spokesperson said.
“We are very concerned about the situation of the Germans on the ground and are preparing what needs to be prepared,” he added.
