Hamas calls for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza
Hamas calls for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza/node/2548431/middle-east
Hamas calls for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza
Update
Palestinians look on near damages, after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Gaza City, following a ground operation, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City, July 12, 2024. (REUTERS)
Hamas calls for independent Palestinian government in post-war Gaza
Negotiations occurring in Doha, Qatar and Cairo with aim of bringing about ceasefire in Gaza
Netanyahu demanded Israel retain control of Philadelphi corridor along border with Egypt
Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
GAZA: Hamas is suggesting during ceasefire negotiations that an independent government of non-partisan figures run post-war Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s political bureau said Friday.
“We proposed that a non-partisan national competency government manage Gaza and the West Bank after the war,” Hossam Badran said in a statement about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas with mediation from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
“The administration of Gaza after the war is a Palestinian internal matter without any external interference, and we will not discuss the day after the war in Gaza with any external parties,” Badran added.
A Hamas official told AFP the proposal for a non-partisan government was made “with the mediators.”
The government will “manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the initial phase after the war, paving the way for general elections” said the official, who did not want his name disclosed.
Badran’s remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Israel retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, Gaza territory along the border with Egypt. This condition conflicts with Hamas’s position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that control of the Philadelphi corridor is part of efforts to prevent “weapons to be smuggled to Hamas from Egypt.”
The negotiations are occurring in Doha, Qatar and Cairo, Egypt with the aim of bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza as well as the return of hostages still held there by Hamas.
The war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza
Thousands of Moroccans protest after Hamas leader’s killing
Ismail Haniyeh was a leader of Palestine. He is a symbol that motivates us to protest
Updated 30 sec ago
AFP
RABAT: Thousands of Moroccans protested in Rabat on Saturday in support of Palestinians and to condemn normalization with Israel, holding portraits of killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, AFP journalists reported.
Hamas called for a “day of rage” on Friday for the burial of its chief Ismail Haniyeh, killed two days earlier in a strike in Iran which the Islamist movement and Tehran have blamed on Israel.
Waving Palestinian flags, and brandishing pictures of Haniyeh and a cardboard coffin adorned with his image, thousands of people marched to the parliament building with black and white keffiyeh scarves, which are symbols of the Palestinian cause, draped across their shoulders.
“Greetings from Rabat to our Gazan friends and to the Al-Qassam (Brigades),” the crowd chanted, referring to the armed wing of Hamas.
“The people want the end of normalization,” they also chanted, a message also carried on their placards, the AFP journalists reported.
Some in the crowd burnt an Israeli flag, the journalists saw.
“Ismail Haniyeh was a leader of Palestine, he is a symbol that motivates us to protest,” said Halima Hilali, 64.
The war in Gaza “is a shame for humanity,” she added.
Nabil Nasseri, 42, who traveled from the neighboring city of Sale, said, “Demonstrating is the least we can do to help our Palestinian brothers, I think all Muslims should do it.”
“We cannot have relations with a group of criminals, we want the end of relations” with Israel, he added.
The rally was organized by the National Action Group for Palestine, which brings together leftist groups and the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, several large demonstrations have taken place in Morocco calling for the end of normalization, while open opposition to diplomatic ties had previously been limited.
Morocco established official ties in Israel in 2020 as part of the US-led Abraham Accords.
Morocco has officially called for “the immediate, complete and permanent halt to the Israeli war on Gaza,” but has not publicly discussed undoing normalization.
Hamas and Tehran have promised to avenge the death of Haniyeh, who was in Iran for the inauguration of the country’s new president, raising fears of a flare-up in the region amid the war in the Gaza Strip.
How social media sites failed to avoid censorship, curb hate speech and disinformation during Gaza war
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza, social media has been inundated with content related to the war
Meta, TikTok, X, and Telegram have promised to create a safer, less toxic online environment, but the process lacks transparency
Updated 10 min 19 sec ago
GABRIELE MALVISI JEFF LATZKE | AP
LONDON: Tech giant Meta recently announced it would start removing social media posts that use the term “Zionist” in contexts where it refers to Jewish people and Israelis rather than representing supporters of the political movement, in an effort to curb antisemitism on its platforms.
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company previously said it would lift its blanket ban on the single most moderated term across all of Meta’s platforms — “shaheed,” or “martyr” in English — after a year-long review by its oversight board found the approach was “overbroad.”
Similarly, TikTok, X and Telegram have long promised to step up efforts to curb hate speech and the spread of disinformation on their platforms against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza.
Activists accuse social media giants of censoring posts, including those providing evidence of human rights abuses in Gaza. (Getty Images)
These initiatives are intended to create a safer, less toxic online environment. However, as experts have consistently pointed out, these efforts often fall short, resulting in empty promises and a worrying trend toward censorship.
“In short, social media platforms have not been very good at avoiding censorship or curbing hate speech and disinformation about the war on Gaza,” Nadim Nashif, founder and director of 7amleh, a digital rights and human rights activist group for Palestinians, told Arab News.
“Throughout the conflict, censorship and account takedowns have jeopardized efforts to document on-the-ground human rights violations as well.”
Nashif says hate speech and incitement to violence remain “rampant,” particularly on Meta’s platforms and X, where antisemitic and Islamophobic content continues “to spread widely.”
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza, social media has been inundated with content related to the war. In many instances it has served as a crucial window into the dramatic events unfolding in the region and has become a vital source of real-time news and accountability for Israeli actions.
Profiles supporting the actions of both Hamas and the Israeli government have been accused of sharing misleading and hateful content.
FASTFACT
1,050
Takedowns and other suppressions of content on Instagram and Facebook posted by Palestinians and their supporters, documented by Human Rights Watch during October-November 2023 period.
Even so, none of the social media platforms — including Meta, YouTube, X, TikTok, or messaging apps such as Telegram — has publicly outlined policies designed to mitigate hate speech and incitement to violence in relation to the conflict.
Instead, these platforms remain flooded with war propaganda, dehumanizing speech, genocidal statements, explicit calls to violence, and racist hate speech. In some cases, platforms are taking down pro-Palestinian content, blocking accounts, and sometimes shadow banning users voicing their support for the people of Gaza.
On Friday, Turkiye’s communications authority blocked access to the Meta-owned social media platform Instagram. Local media outlets said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the recent killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The previous day, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim accused Meta of cowardice after his Facebook post on Haniyeh’s killing was removed. “Let this serve as a clear and unequivocal message to Meta: Cease this display of cowardice,” wrote Anwar, who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and its actions in the occupied West Bank, on his Facebook page.
Screenshot of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's post denouncing Meta's censorship of his post criotical against Israel's assassination policy.
Meanwhile, footage of Israeli soldiers purportedly blowing up mosques and homes, burning copies of the Qur’an, torturing and humiliating blindfolded Palestinian detainees, driving them around strapped to the bonnet of military vehicles, and celebrating war crimes remain freely available on mobile screens.
“Historically, platforms have been very bad at moderating content about Israel and Palestine,” said Nashif. “Throughout the war on Gaza, and the ongoing plausible genocide, this has simply been exacerbated.”
A report by Human Rights Watch titled “Meta’s Broken Promises,” published in December, accused the firm of “systematic online censorship” and “inconsistent and opaque application of its policies” and practices that have been silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook.
The report added that Meta’s behavior “fails to meet its human rights due diligence responsibilities” due to years-long failed promises to address its “overbroad crackdowns.”
Jacob Mukherjee, convenor of the political communications MA program at Goldsmiths, University of London, told Arab News: “I’m not sure to what extent you can really even call them efforts to stop censorship.
“Meta promised to conduct various reviews — which, by the way, it has been promising for a good couple of years now since the last upsurge in the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2021 — before Oct. 7 last year.
“But as far as I can see, not a great deal has changed, substantially speaking. They have had to respond to suggestions that they’ve been engaged in censorship, of course, but that’s mainly been a PR effort in my view.”
Between October and November 2023, Human Rights Watch documented more than 1,050 takedowns and other suppressions of content on Instagram and Facebook posted by Palestinians and their supporters, including content about human rights abuses.
Of these, 1,049 involved peaceful content in support of Palestine that was censored or otherwise unduly suppressed, while one case involved the removal of content in support of Israel.
However, censorship appears to be only part of the issue.
7amleh’s violence indicator, which monitors real-time data on violent content in Hebrew and Arabic on social media platforms, has recorded more than 8.6 million pieces of such content since the conflict began.
Nashif says the proliferation of violent and harmful content, predominantly in Hebrew, is largely due to insufficient investment in moderation.
This content, which has primarily targeted Palestinians on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, was used by South Africa as evidence in its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Meta is arguably not alone in bearing responsibility for what has been described by South Africa’s lawyers as the first genocide livestreamed to mobile phones, computers, and television screens.
X too has faced accusations from both supporters of both Palestine and Israel of giving free rein to handles known for spreading disinformation and doctored images, which oftentimes have been shared by prominent political and media personalities.
“One of the major issues with current content moderation systems is a lack of transparency,” said Nashif.
“When it comes to AI, the platforms do not release clear and transparent information about when and how AI systems are implemented in the content moderation process. Policies are often opaque and allow a great deal of leeway for the platforms to do as they see fit.”
For Mukherjee, the issue of moderation happening behind a smoke screen of murky policies is strongly political, requiring these companies to adopt a “balanced” approach between political pressure and “managing the expectations and desires of the user base.”
He said: “These AI tools can kind of be used to insulate the real power holders, i.e. the people that run the platforms, from criticism and accountability, which is a real problem.
“These platforms are private monopolies that are essentially responsible for regulating an important part of the political public sphere.
“In other words, they’re helping to shape and regulate the arena in which conversations happen, in which people form their opinions, from which politicians feel the pressure of public opinion, and yet they are completely unaccountable.”
Although there have been examples of pro-Palestinian content being censored or removed, as revealed by Arab News in October, these platforms made clear, well before the Gaza conflict, that it is ultimately not in their interest to take down content from their platforms.
“These platforms are not made for reasons of public interest or in order to ensure that we have an informed and educated populace that’s exposed to a range of perspectives and is equipped to properly make decisions and form opinions,” said Mukherjee.
“The fact (is) that the business models actually want there to be lots of content and if that’s pro-Palestine content, then so be it. It’s ultimately still getting eyeballs and engagement on the platform, and content that provokes strong sentiment, to use the industry’s terms, gets engagement, and that means data and that means money.”
Foreign embassies announce precautionary measures amid fears of all-out Israel-Hezbollah war
Israel resumes killing of Hezbollah members and pursues them to the Syrian border
The Egyptian statement came as the US and UK urged their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately
Updated 55 min 38 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Foreign embassies in Lebanon continued to take precautionary measures on Saturday amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed his country’s “deep concern over the dangerous escalation” in the region in a phone call with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib. Abdelatty confirmed Egypt’s support for Lebanon in “confronting the threats surrounding it,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The Egyptian statement came as the US and UK urged their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately.
Despite flight suspensions and cancelations, “commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon remain available,” the US Embassy said.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said tensions “are high, and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.”
The Swedish Embassy recently announced that it would relocate its staff to Cyprus due to security concerns.
In light of the escalating tension, several airlines have canceled or extended the suspension of their flights to Beirut. The Netherlands’ Transavia Airlines extended the suspension of its flights to and from Beirut until Tuesday, as did Air France. Kuwait Airways will suspend flights to and from Beirut starting Monday.
The Israeli army resumed its assassinations of Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon and on the Beirut-Damascus road on Saturday, as Israel awaits Hezbollah’s response to the killing of its top military commander, Fuad Shukr, on Tuesday.
One Israeli raid targeted a residential building in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing seven civilians and an Israeli military drone targeted a car on Tyre’s Al-Bazuriyya road, setting it on fire and killing its driver. Hezbollah identified the victim as Nazih Abed Ali from the southern village of Aitit. The victim was reportedly the brother of a paramedic — Mahmoud Abed Ali — who rushed to the attack site. Videos circulating on social media showed Mahmoud at the site, a few kilometers from Aitit, saying that “crying is forbidden” and that he would collect the remains of his brother, “who is a father of three.”
The Public Health Emergency Operations Center confirmed that the attack killed one person and injured two others.
A few hours later, the Syrian Observatory announced the death of a person in an Israeli raid that targeted a car on the Damascus-Beirut road.
Israel also expanded its hostilities toward the Lebanese-Syrian borders on Friday night and Saturday morning. Israeli warplanes targeted the surroundings of Al-Qusayr and the military Al-Dabaa airport.
Israeli forces also raided the Matraba crossing — an illegal crossing used by Hezbollah to transport trucks and members from Lebanon to Syria and vice versa.
Israel also targeted a truck convoy in the surroundings of the Hosh Al-Sayyid Ali area, killing a Syrian driver, according to AFP.
Israeli shelling targeting houses in frontier villages including Rab Al-Thalathin, Houla, Tayr Harfa, Aita Al-Shaab, and Mays Al-Jabal led to destruction of property but no further casualties.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said they had targeted Israeli military positions with missiles including “the Al-Assi site, the Al-Summaqah site in the occupied Kfarshuba Hills, a military force in the Avivim settlement, and a building used by Israeli soldiers in the Mattat settlement.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed at Shukr’s funeral to take “decisive action” and warned Israelis that they would be “left in tears instead of laughter.”
Multiple security sources reported that Hezbollah had evacuated sites in the southern suburbs of Beirut, including homes inhabited by party officials, as a precautionary measure.
Since the commencement of hostilities on Oct. 8, the total number of casualties among Hezbollah, its allies, and civilians, both Lebanese and non-Lebanese, is 521.
Israeli media on Saturday reported an “unusual incident in northern Israel, specifically in the settlement of Liman in Upper Galilee, where a man attempted to infiltrate into Lebanon.” The man’s identity was not disclosed.
Air France, Transavia halt Beirut flights until Tuesday
“Any resumption of operation will be subject to a renewed evaluation on the ground,” a spokesman said Saturday
Flights to Tel Aviv will continue as normal
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
PARIS: Flights to Beirut by Air France and low-cost carrier Transavia France will remain suspended until at least Tuesday due to “security” concerns in the region, parent company Air France-KLM said.
The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route on Monday, a day after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
“Any resumption of operation will be subject to a renewed evaluation on the ground,” a spokesman said Saturday, adding that passengers with reservations could rebook at no extra cost.
Flights to Tel Aviv will continue as normal, he added.
The rocket attack on the Golan Heights sparked fears that fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel would escalate.
When those fears subsided somewhat the airlines announced on Tuesday that flights would resume on Wednesday.
But Israel then struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut on Tuesday evening, targeting a senior commander it blamed for the rocket strike on the Golan Heights.
This development sparked an extension of the flight suspension until Saturday, which has now been prolonged again.
Iran said earlier on Saturday it expects Hezbollah to hit deeper inside Israel and no longer be confined to military targets.
Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces.
German carrier Lufthansa has suspended flights until August 12.
UK agency reports explosion near ship east of Yemen’s Aden
UKMTO initially said the incident happened southwest of Aden
“An armed security team observed a small explosion near the vessel,” the UKMTO advisory said
Updated 03 August 2024
Reuters
CAIRO: Britain’s marine security agency on Saturday reported a small explosion near a vessel 170 nautical miles east of Yemen’s Aden, an area where Houthi militants have been targeting commercial ships in solidarity with Palestinians.
UKMTO initially said the incident happened southwest of Aden.
“An armed security team observed a small explosion near the vessel,” the UKMTO advisory said, quoting the master of the MV Groton, who said there was no damage and all crew members were safe.
If the Houthis claim responsibility, the incident would be their first since Israel carried out a
retaliatory airstrike
against the group in the port of Hodeidah.
International shipping in the region has been disrupted by Houthi attacks since November. The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
