Arab nations are putting to a vote a UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, knowing it will be vetoed by the United States but hoping to show broad global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The Security Council scheduled the vote on the resolution at 10 am EST (1530 GMT) Tuesday. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the Biden administration will veto the Arab-backed resolution because it may interfere with ongoing US efforts to arrange a deal between the warring parties that would bring at least a six-week halt to hostilities and release all hostages taken during Hamas' surprise Oct 7 attack in southern Israel. In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the United States circulated a rival UN Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions would help to create the conditions
Israel's foreign minister said on Monday that Brazil's president would not be welcome in Israel until he apologises for comments he made comparing Israel's war in Gaza to the Holocaust, accusing him of a very serious antisemitic attack. On Sunday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn't been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. Lula made the comments while speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia. Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel's national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem on Monday for a reprimand. The things that Lula said when he compared the righteous war of the State of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred the Jews, and Hitler and the Nazis is shameful and unacceptable, Katz said. On Monday evening, Lula recalled Brazil's ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to the country
Washington traditionally shields its ally Israel from UN
The Palestinian foreign minister on Monday accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations' top court to declare that Israel's occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive. The remarks came at historic hearings into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation. The case opened against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which immediately became a focal point of the day even though the hearings were meant to centre on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem. Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the International Court of Justice that 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced. "More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are subjected to colonisation of their territory and ...
The federation, which has representatives at 11 of the country's 12 major ports, said that loading and unloading these weapons helps provide organisations with the ability to kill innocent people
The Red Sea falls in an important transit route from Mediterranean Sea to Arabian Sea through Suez Canal
"The contraction of the economy in the fourth quarter of 2023 was directly affected by the outbreak of the Iron Swords War on October 7," the statistic bureau said
Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday that 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. That brings the total number of fatalities to 29,092 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records, but says most of those killed were women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Historic hearings are opening on Monday at the United Nations' top court into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state. Palestinian representatives will speak first as the International Court of Justice begins hearing legal arguments following a request submitted by the UN General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel's policies in the occupied territories. Though the case opens at the court's Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem. The Palestinian legal team will tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians' right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid. We want to hear new words from the court, said Omar ..
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In his remarks, Jaishankar stated that a large number of nations, particularly those in the Global South, believe that terrorism shouldn't be justified
India maintained for many decades that there should be a two-state solution to the Palestine issue and an increasing number of nations are now not only endorsing it but considering it as "more urgent" than before, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday amid concerns over the prevailing situation in Gaza. Jaishankar made the remarks at an interactive session at a security conference in Munich in presence of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The external affairs minister described the October 7 attacks on Israeli cities by Hamas as "terrorism" but at the same time, referring to Tel Aviv's response, said Israel has an international obligation to observe the humanitarian law. Jaishankar said it is important that Israel should have been very mindful of civilian casualties. Explaining New Delhi's position on the conflict, he said there are different dimensions to it, and broadly classified them into four points. "Number
Egypt is building a wall and is leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Israeli offensive targeting the border city of Rafah, satellite images analyzed Friday by The Associated Press show. Egypt, which has not publicly acknowledged the construction, repeatedly has warned Israel not to forcibly expel the over 1 million Palestinians now displaced in Rafah across the border into its territory while it battles the militant group Hamas for a fifth month. However, the preparations on the Egyptian side of the border in the Sinai Peninsula suggest Cairo is preparing for just that scenario, something that could threatened its 1979 peace deal with Israel that's been a linchpin for regional security. The Egyptian government did not respond to requests for comment Friday from the AP. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Feb. 11 issued a statement warning Israel over its possible Rafah offensive and its displacement of the Palestinian people. The satellite images, taken
One of the sources said Egypt was optimistic talks to clinch a ceasefire can avoid any such scenario, but is establishing the area at the border as a temporary and precautionary measure
The Singapore Police Force has reiterated its stance on not allowing events related to the Israel-Hamas war to be held, amid online calls for a weekend march at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a sprawling park in the diplomatic conclave close to the British and the US embassies. Police said on Thursday that they are aware of calls on social media to gather for an event called Walk-Out Singapore' to demonstrate views related to the Israel-Hamas conflict". The SPF said that they contacted the organiser on Thursday and advised her on the matter. "A police permit is required for such activities," Channel News Asia reported, citing the SPF. Police said organising or participating in such an event is an offence. Earlier this week, the authorities also said that they were aware of calls to protest against Israel at the Singapore Airshow and have warned that organising or participating in a public assembly or procession without a permit is illegal. The Israeli defence contingent is ...
His elimination was carried out in an Israel Air Force strike on a military structure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Nabatieh, southern Israel
The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported on Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest in more than four months of cross-border exchanges. Israel's military said it killed a senior commander with the militant Hezbollah group's elite Radwan Force, Ali Dibs, who it says played a role in an attack inside Israel last year that unnerved Israelis, as well as other attacks directed at Israel over the past four months. It said Dibs was killed on Wednesday along with his deputy Hassan Ibrahim Issa, as well as another Hezbollah operative, in a strike in the southern city of Nabatiyeh. Hezbollah confirmed three of its fighters were killed and released photos of Dibs and Issa without giving information about their roles in the group. A Lebanese security official said Dibs escaped a drone strike in Nabatiyeh last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate
Israeli forces fired into the main hospital in southern Gaza early on Thursday, killing a patient and wounding six others, according to medics, as the army sought to evacuate thousands of displaced people from the medical complex that has been largely cut off by fighting for weeks. Israeli airstrikes meanwhile killed at least 13 people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, 10 civilians mostly women and children and three fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. The strikes came just hours after a rocket attack from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier in what was the deadliest of daily exchanges of fire along the border since the October 7 start of the war in Gaza. It also underscored the risks of a broader conflict. Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza appear to have stalled, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and scores of hostages taken during the October 7 attack that sparked the wa
The White House has announced that Palestinians living in the US will be shielded from deportation as the Israel-Hamas war continues, citing significantly deteriorated conditions on the ground in Gaza. Palestinians will be covered under what's known as deferred enforced departure, an authority used at a president's discretion. The directive signed by President Joe Biden effectively allows Palestinian immigrants who would otherwise have to leave the United States to stay without the threat of deportation. That protection will last 18 months, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, and will give Palestinians who qualify a temporary safe haven. "While I remain focused on improving the humanitarian situation, many civilians remain in danger," Biden wrote in the memorandum that accompanied the announcement. Biden's decision comes after more than 100 Democratic lawmakers called on the White House to use either deferred enforced departure or a similar authority, called temporary ...
Palestinians have begun evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics on Wednesday. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it. The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth month, has devastated Gaza' health sector, with less than half of its hospitals even partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover. Khan Younis is the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza' southernmost city of Rafah. Some 1.4 million people over half the territory's population are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in the town on the Egyptian border. The videos showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital