US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are pictured during a joint press conference, on January 30, 2023 in Jerusalem. (AFP file photo)
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are pictured during a joint press conference, on January 30, 2023 in Jerusalem. (AFP file photo)
Palestinian Civil Defence members and relatives comfort eleven-yaer-old Ahmed -- the son of their colleague Bilal Ramadan Farhan, 42, who died of injuries sustained in Israeli bombing of al-Mawasi area two days earlier -- during his funeral at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 15, 2024, amid the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP)
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Palestinian Civil Defence members and relatives comfort eleven-yaer-old Ahmed -- the son of their colleague Bilal Ramadan Farhan, 42, who died of injuries sustained in Israeli bombing of al-Mawasi area two days earlier -- during his funeral at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 15, 2024, amid the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP)
US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes
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A wounded Palestinian child is treated at the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee Camp after the Israeli military bombardment of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) run Abu Araban school, turned shelter, where internally displaced Palestinians are living, in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip on July 14, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP)
US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes
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Relatives and Palestinian Civil Defence members mourn by the body of their colleague Bilal Ramadan Farhan, 42, who died of injuries sustained in Israeli bombing of al-Mawasi area two days earlier, while comforting his son Ahmed, 11, during his funeral at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 15, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP)
US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes
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Palestinians surround the corpse of a child in front of the morgue of the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 13, 2024, one of the health establishments to which casualties were rushed after an Israeli strike killed at least 71 people at the Al-Mawasi camp for the war displaced in the south of the Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. (AFP)
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Updated 16 July 2024
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US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes

US voices concern to Israeli officials after Gaza strikes
  • The visit comes several few days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address the US Congress on July 24
  • Israel has killed at least 38,584 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Gaza health ministry

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with two senior Israeli officials Monday and voiced worry over recent deadly strikes by Israel in the Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.
The Israeli army has launched several deadly attacks in recent days including on a refugee camp and a UN-run school that was being used as a shelter. In response, Hamas said it was pulling out of ceasefire negotiations, causing prospects for a truce and hostage release deal to dwindle.
Blinken received Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in the Al-Mawasi camp near Khan Yunis, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said. In May, the camp was declared a safe humanitarian zone by the Israeli military, which told civilians to evacuate to it.
Israel said it had been targeting Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, one of Israel’s most wanted men for decades, and Rafa Salama, the Islamist movement’s commander in Khan Yunis, believed by Israel to be one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack that triggered the current war.
A Hamas official said Sunday that Deif was “well and directly overseeing” operations, though doubts remained. The two Israeli officials told Blinken that “they do not have certainty yet” about Deif’s fate, according to Miller.
The discussions also focused on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian aid for Gaza and post-war plans, he said.
The visit comes several few days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address the US Congress on July 24.
“We continue to hear from Israel directly that they want to reach a ceasefire and that they’re committed to the proposal that they put forward,” Miller said.
The United States has strongly defended Israel’s right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, in which 1,195 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
During the attack, Hamas militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.
But Biden has been under mounting political pressure over the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 38,584 people, also mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Gaza health ministry.
 

 


US, France, Germany, UK urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria: joint statement

US, France, Germany, UK urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria: joint statement
Updated 56 min 35 sec ago
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US, France, Germany, UK urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria: joint statement

US, France, Germany, UK urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria: joint statement

WASHINGTON: The United States and its allies France, Germany and Britain called Sunday for “de-escalation” in Syria and urged in a joint statement for the protection of civilians and infrastructure.
“The current escalation only underscores the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution to the conflict, in line with UNSCR 2254,” read a statement issued by the US State Department, referencing the 2015 UN resolution that endorsed a peace process in Syria.

 


Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference

Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference
Updated 02 December 2024
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Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference

Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference
  • Aid organizations accuse Israel of preventing trucks from entering Gaza in large enough numbers to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory

LONDON: Britain will provide an additional 19 million pounds ($24 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the international development minister said Monday, calling for Israel to give greater access ahead of a key conference on the conflict.
“Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter,” the minister, Anneliese Dodds, said in a statement as she headed for a three-day visit to the region, including an international conference in Cairo Monday on the Gaza Strip’s aid needs.
“The Cairo conference will be an opportunity to get leading voices in one room and put forward real-world solutions to the humanitarian crisis,” she added.
“Israel must immediately act to ensure unimpeded aid access to Gaza.”

Anneliese Dodds. (AFP file photo)

Aid organizations accuse Israel of preventing trucks from entering Gaza in large enough numbers to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory.
The new UK funding will be split into 12 million pounds for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP), and seven million pounds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the statement said.
UNRWA announced Sunday it had halted the delivery of aid through the key Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza because of safety fears, saying the situation had become “impossible.”
Britain has committed to spending a total of 99 million pounds this year in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories, the government said.
After Dodds’s Cairo stop, the minister is to travel to the Palestinian territories and Israel.
Islamist militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 44,429 in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
 

 


Airstrikes in northwestern Syria kill 25 people, says Syria’s White Helmets

Airstrikes in northwestern Syria kill 25 people, says Syria’s White Helmets
Updated 02 December 2024
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Airstrikes in northwestern Syria kill 25 people, says Syria’s White Helmets

Airstrikes in northwestern Syria kill 25 people, says Syria’s White Helmets
  • The Syria offensive began Wednesday, the same day a truce between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah came into effect

DAMASCUS: The Syrian rescue service known as the White Helmets said early on Monday on X that at least 25 people have been killed in northwestern Syria in airstrikes carried out by the Syrian government and Russia on Sunday.

 


In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension

In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension
Updated 02 December 2024
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In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension

In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension
  • The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militants groups attacking both government forces and Kurdish YPG fighters in and around the northern Aleppo province over the weekend, a Syrian war monitor said

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s top diplomat and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday about the “rapidly developing” conflict in Syria where militants have made gains.
Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed by telephone “the need for de-escalation and the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure in Aleppo and elsewhere,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The call came after Syrian militants and their Turkish-backed allies launched their biggest offensive in years, seizing control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
According to a Turkish foreign ministry source, Fidan told Blinken Ankara was “against any development that would increase instability in the region” and said Turkiye would “support moves to reduce the tension in Syria.”
He also said “the political process between the regime and the opposition should be finalized” to ensure peace in Syria while insisting that Ankara would “never allow terrorist activities against Turkiye nor against Syrian civilians.”
The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militant groups attacking government forces and Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) fighters in and around Aleppo, a Syrian war monitor said.
Turkiye sees the YPG as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
The Syria offensive began Wednesday, the same day a truce between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah came into effect.
More than 400 people have so far been killed in the offensive, most of them combatants, a Syrian war monitor said.
The State Department said the two also discussed “humanitarian efforts in Gaza and the need to bring the war to an end” as well as efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Fidan said Israel “should keep its promises in order for the Lebanon ceasefire to become permanent” and called for a ceasefire in Gaza “as soon as possible.”
The pair also discussed Ukraine and South Caucasus, the source said.

 


Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces

Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces
Updated 02 December 2024
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Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces

Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces
  • Russia launched airstrikes on militant targets in Aleppo for the first time since 2016

MOSCOW: Russia on Sunday said it was helping the Syrian army “repel” armed insurgents in three northern provinces, as Moscow seeks to support the government led by its ally Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamist-dominated militant alliance launched an offensive against the Syrian government on Wednesday, with Syrian forces losing control of the city of Aleppo on Sunday, according to a war monitor.
“The Syrian Arab Army, with the assistance of the Russian Aerospace Forces, is continuing its operation to repel terrorist aggression in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo,” the Russian military said in a briefing on its website.
“Over the past day, missile and bombing strikes were carried out on places where militants and equipment were gathered,” it said in the same briefing, without saying where or by whom.
It said at least “320 militants were destroyed.”
Russia announced earlier this week that it was bombing militant targets in the war-torn country, with Russian warplanes striking parts of Aleppo — Syria’s second city — for the first time since 2016, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Moscow is Syrian leader Assad’s most important military backer, having turned the tide of the civil war in his favor when it intervened in 2015.