Israeli protesters keep up pressure for Gaza hostage deal

Israeli protesters keep up pressure for Gaza hostage deal
People march through streets as they attend a protest against the government and to show support for the hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel September 14, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 15 September 2024
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Israeli protesters keep up pressure for Gaza hostage deal

Israeli protesters keep up pressure for Gaza hostage deal
  • Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages

TEL AVIV: Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza.
Of 251 captives seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war, 97 are still held in the Gaza Strip including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages.
Protest organizers say crowd sizes have swelled this month after an announcement by Israeli authorities that six hostages whose bodies were recovered by troops had been shot dead by militants in a southern Gaza tunnel.
One of the six was Alexander Lobanov, whose wife Michal on Saturday addressed the crowd in Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, asking why the government did not “do everything” to bring him back alive.
“It was possible to save them, to rescue them through a deal,” she said, according to excerpts of her remarks provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.
“True, it’s not as heroic as a military rescue, but it’s a different kind of bravery.”
Thousands of people joined the rally in Tel Aviv and another in Jerusalem, seat of the Israeli parliament, AFP correspondents said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing rising anger from critics who accuse him of not doing enough to secure a truce deal that would see hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The vast majority of the hostages freed so far were released during a one-week truce in November. Israeli forces have rescued alive just eight.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 41,182 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas have stalled for months.
Demonstration organizer Noa Ben Baruch, 48, told AFP in Tel Aviv that “the urgency is unparallelled. It’s not only the hostages, it’s everything.”
As the war rages on for more than 11 months with no end in sight, “there is no point to it anymore,” she said.
“This war has to end yesterday. It’s futile.”
Around her members of the crowd waved Israeli flags and signs that read “Bring them home,” “Seal the deal,” “End the bloodshed” and “They trust us to get them out of hell.”
A group of women wore black t-shirts and jeans stained with fake blood, recreating a widely circulated picture of soldier Naama Levy taken when she was abducted on October 7.
In both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the names of hostages were read out on loudspeakers.
Tel Aviv resident Ran Eisenberg, 77, said rescuing them should be the government’s top priority.
“The fact that it doesn’t happen really makes me very frustrated,” he said.


Iran slams US deployment of B-52 bombers as ‘destabilising’

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Iran slams US deployment of B-52 bombers as ‘destabilising’

Iran slams US deployment of B-52 bombers as ‘destabilising’
  • The US military announced on Saturday the deployment of B-52 bombers to the Middle East as a warning to Iran which has vowed to respond to Israeli strikes on its military sites on October 26
Tehran: Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday criticized what he called the United States’ “destabilizing presence” after the deployment of B-52 bombers in the region.
“We have always believed that the presence of America in the region is a destabilising presence,” said Baghaei told a news conference in response to a question about the deployment, adding that it “will not deter (Iran’s) resolve to defend itself.”
The US military announced on Saturday the deployment of B-52 bombers to the Middle East as a warning to Iran which has vowed to respond to Israeli strikes on its military sites on October 26.
Israel’s attack was in retaliation for an October 1 Iranian missile barrage, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
At least four soldiers were killed in the strikes which also caused “limited damage” to a few radar systems, officials said at the time. Iranian media also reported that a civilian was killed.
Baghaei said Iran’s response would be “definite and decisive.”
He added that Iran supported “all initiatives and efforts” to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, where Israel is at war with the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah armed groups, respectively.
Israel said its October 26 attack targeted Iran’s defense capabilities and missile production, but Tehran said its missile production remained intact.
On Monday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran had missiles so Israel “wouldn’t dare attack us.”
During the news conference, Baghaei said Iran’s official position against changing the nuclear doctrine and pursuing atomic weapons remained the same.
Citing a recent speech by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Baghaei said the Islamic republic would be “equipped with everything necessary to defend” itself.

Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions
Updated 04 November 2024
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Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has reiterated to his Iranian counterpart the urgency of de-escalating Middle East tensions in order to avert a regional war.

During a phone call with Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, Abdelatty discussed his country’s concerns about the possibility of a full-scale regional war amid rising tensions.

Araghchi was in Cairo last month for the first visit to Egypt by a key Iranian official in around a decade. His trip was focused on efforts to de-escalate Israel’s conflicts with Gaza and Lebanon.


Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan
Updated 04 November 2024
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Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan
  • “Ultra-light gyroplane” met accident while conducting combat operations in Sistan-Baluchestan
  • Province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and Baloch rebels

TEHRAN: An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot were killed in a helicopter crash during an anti-terror operation in the country’s restive southeast, state media reported on Monday.

The “ultra-light gyroplane” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “had an accident while conducting combat operations” in a border area, IRNA news agency said.

It said the crash happened in Sirkan, a city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, and identified the dead as General Hamid Mazandarani, the commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province, and Hamed Jandaghi, a pilot of the IRGC ground forces.

Iran’s armed forces have been mounting an operation in the region since October 26, when 10 police officers were killed in an attack claimed by Sunni Muslim militants.

They have killed several militants and arrested others during the operation, according to Iranian media outlets.

Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is one of the most impoverished provinces in the Islamic republic.

It is home to a large number of the Baloch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who practice Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.

The province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baloch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.

Helicopter accidents are a rare sight in Iran, but former president Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his helicopter crashed into a mountainside in May, triggering snap elections in the country.

The ultra-conservative president was accompanied by then foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other people who were all killed.


Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps
Updated 04 November 2024
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Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps
  • Israel’s actions against UN workers condemned by Jordan, other officials

AMMAN: Jordan’s Department of Palestinian Affairs and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East held talks on Sunday to address the growing needs and challenges of the displaced and vulnerable in camps across the country.

During the meeting, Department of Palestinian Affairs Director-General Rafiq Khirfan condemned what he described as a “systematic campaign and political assassination” aimed at weakening UNRWA’s role, according to reports.

He pointed to Tel Aviv’s recent actions, including a decision by the Israeli Knesset to restrict UNRWA activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as East Jerusalem, and to withdraw diplomatic privileges from its staff.

Khirfan said the measures were a violation of international law and an attempt to undermine UNRWA’s mission of supporting Palestinian refugees, advocating for their right to return, and compensation.

Despite these challenges, Khirfan underscored Jordan’s continued commitment to backing UNRWA at regional and international levels, recognizing the agency’s critical role in providing services and stability for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA’s Jordan Affairs Director Olaf Becker thanked Amman for the ongoing support of the agency’s work in the refugee camps.


Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
Updated 04 November 2024
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Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike
  • Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.
Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area,” the military said in a statement.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed on Monday, the latest attack in more than a month of war.
Hezbollah fighters launched a “big rocket salvo” at the city, the group said in a statement.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.
Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.