Wait for Iran’s retaliation against Israel ‘could be long’, Revolutionary Guards spokesperson says

People walk past a banner featuring a picture of the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an attack while in Iran, in Tehran on August 20, 2024. (AFP)

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Updated 20 August 2024

Reuters

August 20, 2024 14:35

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Wait for Iran’s retaliation against Israel ‘could be long’, Revolutionary Guards spokesperson says

People walk past a banner featuring a picture of the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Middle East has been bracing for Iran’s avowed retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31
“Time is in our favor and the waiting period for this response could be long,” Naini said

Updated 20 August 2024

Reuters

August 20, 2024 14:35

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DUBAI: There could be a long wait for Iranian retaliation against Israel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said on Tuesday.
The Middle East has been bracing for Iran’s avowed retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing.
“Time is in our favor and the waiting period for this response could be long,” Naini said, referring to potential retaliation against Israel.
He said “the enemy” should wait for a calculated and accurate response.
Iranian leaders were weighing the circumstances and the Islamic Republic’s response might not be a repeat of previous operations, he added, according to Iranian state media.
Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
The United States has asked allies that have ties with Iran to persuade it to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region to push for progress toward a Gaza ceasefire.
Naini said that Tehran supported any move that led to an end to the war in Gaza and helped its people, but added: “We do not consider the US actions sincere. We consider the US to be a party to the (Gaza) war.”

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Topics: War on Gaza Iran Israel Ismail Haniyeh

UN urges Israel to restore Gaza aid as Hamas sees ‘coup’ against truce

Updated 48 sec ago

March 02, 2025 18:37

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UN urges Israel to restore Gaza aid as Hamas sees ‘coup’ against truce

Updated 48 sec ago

March 02, 2025 18:37

JERUSALEM: The United Nations on Sunday called on Israel to immediately allow aid into Gaza, hours after it suspended humanitarian deliveries into the war-battered territory as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse.
With uncertainty looming over the truce, both Israel and Palestinian sources reported Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip which the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said killed at least four people.
The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close, and early on Sunday Israel announced a truce extension until mid-April that it said US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed.
Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favoring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase that could bring a permanent end to the war.
The Palestinian group, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the fighting, said the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement.”
In a statement posted online, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for “humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately,” urging “all parties to make every effort to prevent a return to hostilities” and militants to release “all hostages.”
The head of the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, Thomas Fletcher, said in a post on X that “Israel’s decision to halt aid into Gaza is alarming” and may be in violation of international law.
Following the announcement of the aid suspension, AFP images showed trucks loaded with goods lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
“Since the morning we haven’t seen any trucks entering,” said Umm Mohammad Abu Laia, a resident of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border.
She warned of a “crisis” as the prices of basic commodities surged “as soon as the merchants heard about the closing of the crossing.”
The first phase of the truce, which took effect on January 19, saw an increase of aid into Gaza, where the war destroyed or damaged most buildings, displaced almost the entire population and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, asked by reporters about the risk of starvation, dismissed such warnings as “a lie.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended.”
It said there would be “consequences” for Hamas if it did not accept the temporary truce extension, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
On a sandy street in Gaza City, Mays Abu Amer, 21, expressed hope the ceasefire can continue “forever.”
“We have so much destruction, we need a lot of time for reconstruction,” she said.
Mediator Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have appealed for the truce to be maintained.
Militant group Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally, accused Israel of “sabotaging” the ceasefire.
According to Israel, the truce extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
In Israel, mourners who turned out to farewell Shlomo Mansour, 85, whose body militants had held in Gaza and returned to Israel on Thursday, said more should be done to get the remaining captives home.
“Return all of them immediately,” said Vardit Roiter.
Under the first phase of the truce, Gaza militants handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies, including Mansour’s, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
Israelis in Jerusalem welcomed the decision to block aid, describing it as a way to pressure Hamas into making concessions.
Neria, a 27-year-old teacher who only gave his first name, told AFP it was a “smart move” that could “push forward new things, the release of more hostages and the end of the war.”
In southern Gaza on Sunday, the civil defense agency reported shelling and gunfire “from Israeli tanks,” which the army said it was “unaware of.”
The Palestine Red Crescent said Israeli drone strikes killed one person in the same area and another in a nearby town.
The military said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza targeting suspects it said had “planted an explosive device” near its troops.
Including the deaths on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry has recorded 116 people killed by Israel’s military since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, substantially reducing violence.
The 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed more than 48,300 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.

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Israeli settlers stormed Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound 20 times in February — report

Updated 02 March 2025

Arab News

March 02, 2025 20:15

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Israeli settlers stormed Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound 20 times in February — report

Israeli authorities repeatedly blocked calls to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
Awqaf documents Israeli violations against several West Bank mosques during military operations

Updated 02 March 2025

Arab News

March 02, 2025 20:15

LONDON: Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem’s Old City almost 20 times in February, according to a monthly report by the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

The ministry also reported that the number of Israeli settlers touring the Al-Aqsa compound under police protection increased in February. During the same period, Israeli authorities blocked calls to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron a total of 44 times.

Israeli authorities prevented some employees from accessing the mosque in February following the removal of the mosque’s director, Sheikh Moataz Abu Sneineh, from the site, the ministry said.

Access to the mosque, located in Hebron’s Old City, is possible only through an Israeli military checkpoint that surrounds the area.

The ministry condemned the Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and Hebron as Israel announced new restrictions on access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, which began on Saturday. It said that measures introduced at Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque were an attempt to “empty the mosque of its people and employees.”

Israeli violations were also documented against several West Bank mosques during night raids and military operations in February. These included Barqa Mosque, northwest of Nablus, and Salah Al-Din Mosque in the town of Abu Dis, in East Jerusalem.

In Kasra village, south of Nablus, the ministry said Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters in front of the town’s mosque during the Maghreb call to prayer, causing difficulty in breathing for some worshippers inside the mosque.

The ministry urged international organizations to halt Israeli violations in order to preserve religious, heritage, and historical sites in Palestine, according to a statement.

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Syria forms committee to draft transitional constitutional declaration

Updated 02 March 2025

AFP

March 02, 2025 16:46

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Syria forms committee to draft transitional constitutional declaration

New authorities are focused on rebuilding Syria and its institutions after Assad’s removal in December
Presidency announced the formation of a committee of experts tasked with drafting a constitutional declaration

Updated 02 March 2025

AFP

March 02, 2025 16:46

DAMASCUS: The interim President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, announced on Sunday the formation of a committee to draft a constitutional declaration for the country’s transition after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad.
The new authorities are focused on rebuilding Syria and its institutions after Assad’s removal on December 8, ending more than half a century of his family’s iron-fisted rule and 13 years of devastating war.
The presidency announced “the formation of a committee of experts,” including one woman, tasked with drafting “the constitutional declaration that regulates the transitional phase” in Syria.
The seven-member committee would “submit its proposals to the president,” it said in a statement, without specifying a timeframe.
In late January, Sharaa, leader of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded Assad’s overthrow, was appointed interim president for an unspecified period.
Syria’s new authorities have repealed the Assad-era constitution, and Sharaa has said rewriting it could take up to three years.
In late January, Sharaa promised a “constitutional declaration” to serve as a “legal reference” during the country’s transitional period.
Sunday’s announcement came “based on the Syrian people’s aspirations in building their state based on the rule of law, and building on the outcomes of the Syrian national dialogue conference,” said the presidency.
It also came “with the aim of preparing the legal framework regulating the transitional phase,” it added.
A national dialogue conference held this week in Damascus set out a path for the new Syria.
Who are the committee's members?
The committee includes Abdul Hamid Al-Awak, who holds a doctorate in constitutional law and lectures at a university in Turkiye, and Yasser Al-Huwaish, who was appointed this year as dean of Damascus university’s law faculty.
It also includes Bahia Mardini — the sole woman — a journalist with a doctorate in law who has been living in Britain, and Ismail Al-Khalfan, who holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law, and who this year was appointed law faculty dean at Aleppo university.
Another committee member, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law from Idlib university, where he graduated in 2023.
The final statement of this week’s dialogue conference called for “a constitutional committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the country that achieves balance between authorities, sets the values of justice, freedom and equality, and establishes a state of law an institutions.”
Syria’s conflict broke out in 2011 after Assad brutally repressed anti-government protests.
It spiralled into a complex conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more domestically and abroad and battered the economy, infrastructure and industry.
In December, a caretaker government was appointed to steer the country until March 1, when a new government was due to be formed.

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Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound 20 times in February: report

Updated 02 March 2025

Arab News

March 02, 2025 19:28

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Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound 20 times in February: report

Israeli authorities repeatedly blocked calls to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
Awqaf documents Israeli violations against several West Bank mosques during military operations