GAZA/AMMAN: Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians and wounded 367 with live ammunition on Friday, medical officials said, as protests over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital entered a second week.
Most of the casualties were on the Israel-Gaza border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to throw stones at Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said two protesters, one of them wheelchair-bound, were killed and 150 wounded.
In the occupied West Bank, medics said two protesters were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire.
One of the dead was a man whom Israeli police said was shot after he stabbed a member of their unit.
Washington’s European allies and Russia have also voiced concern.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s decision is a “bomb” thrown at the entire Middle East, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The Jerusalem decision is a harbinger of new operations targeting the Islamic world,” he added.
“If Muslims fail to show the necessary reaction on this issue within the law, believe me there will be more to come.”
Palestinians are planning to appeal to the UN Security Council, and Erdogan said Muslim nations will ask the UN for an “annulment” of Trump’s decision.
The initiative will start at the Security Council, and if it is vetoed there, “we will work within the UN General Assembly for the annulment of this unjust and lawless decision,” he added.
Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, a Fatah spokesman for international affairs, told Arab News that the US will not be able to use its veto power on this issue because it is involved in the dispute.
The UN Charter gives the Security Council’s five permanent members veto powers with one exception: Article 27-3 states that “a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.”
But Anis F. Kassim, publisher of the Palestinian Year Book for International Law, expressed doubt over whether the world body will agree that the US is party to the dispute, or refer to it as a “situation rather than a dispute.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that Israel’s legitimacy is in question because of its failure to declare its borders.
“International law stipulates that to be recognized as a state, a country has to meet three conditions: Sovereignty, population and borders. This third condition is not declared in Israel, and I challenge it to say where its borders are… Its recognition is void,” Abbas said.
Kassim said Israel’s recognition by the UN in 1949 was conditional. “Recognition followed commitments made by its representative to honor the partition plan and the right of Palestinian refugees to return,” he told Arab News.
He said while borders are a major issue in terms of recognition, it is not a deciding factor. “Many countries have been recognized without their borders being totally clarified,” he added.
But Kassim believes that recognition of Israel was conditional on the commitments made by its then-ambassador to the UN regarding resolutions 181 of 1947 and 194 of 1948.
The 1947 partition plan (resolution 181) declared Jerusalem a corpus separatum (special entity), Kassim said.
After the 1967 war, the world recognized the east of the city as “occupied territory,” and continued to reject Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, he added.
Former Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Arab News that UN Security Council resolutions refer to all areas seized by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem, as “occupied territories.”
Resolution 476 condemned Israel’s 1980 Jerusalem Law, which declared the city its united capital, as a violation of international law, Judeh said.
He added that the resolution says the Security Council “will not recognize this law, and calls on member states to accept the decision of the council. It also called upon members states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city.”
Israeli troops kill 4, injure 367 in Jerusalem protests
Israeli troops kill 4, injure 367 in Jerusalem protests
GCC leaders call for halt to war crimes in Gaza, end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- The leaders stressed their firm support for the Palestinian cause and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital
- The ‘Kuwait Declaration,’ issued at the 45th session of the GCC Supreme Council, praised the growing role of Gulf countries in addressing regional, global challenges
RIYADH: Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Sunday called for an end to Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the displacement of the region’s population, and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The leaders stressed their firm support during a meeting in Kuwait for the Palestinian cause and its sovereignty over all Palestinian territories occupied since June 1967, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The “Kuwait Declaration,” which was issued at the 45th session of the Supreme Council of the GCC, praised the growing role of Gulf countries in addressing regional and global political, security, and economic challenges.
It also praised their contribution to resolving issues that threatened peace, security, and stability, and for enhancing international dialogue and communication between countries.
A statement said: “The Supreme Council called for an end to the killings and collective punishment in Gaza, the displacement of the population, and the destruction of civilian facilities and infrastructure, including health facilities, schools, and places of worship, in clear violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”
GCC leaders also welcomed the resolutions of the Extraordinary Arab and Islamic Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in November to enhance international action to stop the war on Gaza; achieve permanent and comprehensive peace; implement the two-state solution in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative; mobilize support for recognizing the State of Palestine; and lead the international coalition to implement the two-state solution.
They also praised Qatar’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and exchange detainees.
The leaders condemned continued Israeli aggression on Lebanon and warned against the expansion of the conflict in the region. They also welcomed the recently brokered ceasefire in the country.
The leaders also welcomed continued efforts made by Saudi Arabia and Oman to revive the political process in Yemen.
The leaders stressed the peaceful approach of GCC countries and their preference for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve all disputes in the region and beyond, in accordance with the requirements of international law and the UN Charter.
US Navy destroys Houthi missiles and drones targeting American ships in Gulf of Aden
- The Houthis claimed the attack on merchant ships in a statement and said they had targeted the US destroyers
DUBAI: US Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi militants at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported.
US Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified.
The Houthis claimed the attack in a statement and said they had targeted the US destroyers and “three supply ships belonging to the American army in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Houthi attacks for months have targeted shipping through a waterway where $1 trillion in goods pass annually over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon. A ceasefire was announced in the latter last week.
The USS Stockdale was involved in a similar attack on Nov. 12.
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
- 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.”
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
- 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.
