JERUSALEM: Israel launched celebrations on Sunday for the US Embassy’s relocation to Jerusalem, a move whose break with world consensus was underscored by the absence of most envoys to the country from a reception hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Monday’s slated opening of the new embassy follows from US President Donald Trump’s recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a decision he said fulfilled decades of policy pledges in Washington and formalized realities on the ground.
The Palestinians, who want their own future state with its capital in east Jerusalem, have been outraged by Trump’s shift from previous administrations’ preference for keeping the US Embassy in Tel Aviv pending progress in peace efforts.
Those talks have been frozen since 2014. Other major powers worry that the US move could now inflame Palestinian unrest in the occupied West Bank and on the Gaza Strip border, where Israel reinforced troops in anticipation of the embassy opening.
Most countries say the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a final peace settlement, and say moving their embassies now would prejudge any such deal.
Addressing dignitaries at the Foreign Ministry, including US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the president’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the Israeli prime minister urged others to follow Washington’s lead.
Netanyahu said that “under any peace agreement you could possibly imagine, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital.”
Jerusalem, which is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was decorated with roadside flowerbeds in the design of the US flag and posters reading “Trump make Israel great again.”
“Tragically, the US administration has chosen to side with Israel’s exclusivist claims over a city that has for centuries been sacred to all faiths,” the general delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United States said.
The US Embassy move “gives life to a religious conflict instead of a dignified peace,” it said in a statement.
Israel said all 86 countries with diplomatic missions in Israel were invited to the event, and 33 confirmed attendance. Among those present were delegates from Guatemala and Paraguay, which will open their own Jerusalem embassies later this month.
EUROPEAN RIFT
Attending the Foreign Ministry gathering were representatives from Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, but none from western European Union states — suggesting a rift within the bloc over Trump’s Jerusalem move.
No-show nations withheld comment on Sunday.
The EU mission in Israel tweeted on Friday that the bloc would “respect the international consensus on Jerusalem ... including on the location of their diplomatic representations until the final status of Jerusalem is resolved.”
Outside Jerusalem’s ancient Damascus Gate, Israelis danced in another celebration on Sunday, marking the capture of the Old City from Arab forces in the 1967 Middle East War.
Hundreds of Israeli rightists entered Al Aqsa mosque compound, an icon of Palestinian nationalism and a vestige of ancient Jewish temples. Witnesses said some prostrated themselves in Jewish prayer, violating religious restrictions at the site and sparking scuffled with Muslim worshippers.
Israeli police said several people were forcibly removed and questioned.
The US Treasury secretary called the embassy relocation “a sign of the enduring friendship and partnership between our two countries” and also referred to the US withdrawal last week from the Iran nuclear deal, a move welcomed by Israel and some US Arab allies in the Gulf but lamented by other world powers.
The Palestinians plan to demonstrate against Monday’s inauguration from Arab districts abutting the Jerusalem site.
On the border with Gaza, Palestinians have also held protests as Israel prepares to mark 70 years since its creation, an event Palestinians call the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of them were displaced from their homes.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the latest violence.
The Trump administration has sought to keep the door open to Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy by saying the embassy move did not aim to prejudge Jerusalem’s final borders. The US consulate in the city, tasked with handling Palestinian ties, will remain.
Washington has not asked Israel to initiate peace moves in exchange for the embassy relocation, US Ambassador David Friedman told reporters on Friday: “There was no give and take with Israel with regard to this decision.”
Most foreign envoys absent as Israel, US launch embassy festivities
Most foreign envoys absent as Israel, US launch embassy festivities
Israel says ‘eliminated’ 15 Palestinians in Jenin raid
- A number of Palestinian officials reported that Israel had ordered residents to leave the camp, but the military denied this
JENIN, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli military on Monday said it had “eliminated over 15 terrorists” and arrested 40 wanted people during a major raid that began last week in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The raid began two days after a truce took hold in the Gaza Strip, seeking to put an end to more than 15 months of the Israel-Hamas war that ravaged the Palestinian coastal territory.
The military said in a statement that during the Jenin operation troops seized dozens of weapons and “located an explosive device hidden inside a washing machine in one of the buildings in Jenin.”
Soldiers “also dismantled dozens of explosives planted beneath roads intended to attack troops,” it said.
During another operation, “an observation command center was located, containing gas canisters intended for manufacturing explosive devices,” it said.
Backed by bulldozers and warplanes, the military launched last Tuesday its “Iron Wall” operation in Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, militant strongholds frequently targeted in Israeli raids.
AFP images on Monday showed Israeli troops still in the area, and black smoke rising over the camp.
Salim Al-Saadi, a member of the Jenin camp’s management committee, told AFP that 80 percent of its residents had fled since the raid began.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on its website that more than 24,000 refugees were registered in the camp in 2023, though the actual population is not known.
AFP pictures on Thursday showed rows of women, men and children filing out of the camp, some of them carrying their belongings in bags, accompanied by Palestine Red Crescent ambulances.
A number of Palestinian officials reported that Israel had ordered residents to leave the camp, but the military denied this.
The Palestinian health ministry had earlier reported that the Israeli operation killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured 40 more around Jenin.
Violence has soared throughout the West Bank since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 860 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the health ministry.
At least 29 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
UN chief condemns ‘appalling’ attack on Darfur hospital
- RSF paramilitaries have captured every state capital in the vast western region of Darfur except for El-Fasher, which they have besieged since May
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” a paramilitary attack on a hospital in El-Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, that killed 70 people, his spokesman said Monday.
“This appalling attack which affected the only functioning hospital in Darfur’s largest city comes after more than 21 months of war have left much of Sudan’s health care system in tatters,” Stephane Dujarric said.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
RSF paramilitaries have captured every state capital in the vast western region of Darfur except for El-Fasher, which they have besieged since May.
“The secretary-general reiterates that, under international humanitarian law, the wounded and sick, as well as medical personnel and medical facilities, must be respected and protected at all times,” Dujarric said.
The Friday hospital attack left 70 people dead and 19 injured, according to the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom.
The war in Sudan has so far killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over 12 million and threatened millions across the country with mass starvation.
In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a UN-backed assessment.
Arab League chief rejects Trump proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza
- Ahmed Aboul Gheit says Arab position ‘does not compromise on displacing Palestinians’
LONDON: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Monday confirmed his strong support for Egypt and Jordan over their rejection of a proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.
Aboul Gheit’s remarks follow comments by US President Donald Trump at the weekend suggesting Palestinians be relocated from the enclave to Jordan and Egypt.
Critics condemned the US leader’s remarks as a call for ethnic cleansing. However, Israeli settler leaders and far-right politicians welcomed the idea.
Speaking during the Italian-Arab Business Forum in Rome, Aboul Gheit said that the “Arab position does not compromise on the issue of displacing Palestinians from their land, whether in Gaza or the West Bank.”
He said that Arab League’s support for Egypt and Jordan over their rejection of the displacement plan is “clear and unambiguous,” Emirates News Agency reported.
Israeli PM hopes to meet President Donald Trump in Washington, US officials say
- Benjamin Netanyahu could be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House since his inauguration last week
WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington as early as next week, according to two US officials familiar with preliminary planning for the trip.
Should the trip come together in that timeframe, Netanyahu could be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House since his inauguration last week. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the planning remains tentative, said details could be arranged when Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, travels to Israel this week for talks with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.
The White House had no immediate comment on the plans, which were first reported by Axios. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Omer Dostri, said Monday on the social platform X that the Israeli leader has not yet received an official invitation to the White House.
An Israeli official, however, said Netanyahu is expected to go to the White House in February but did not have a date. That official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.
Witkoff told an audience at the ceremonial opening of a New York City synagogue on Sunday that he would be traveling to Israel on Wednesday to keep focusing on the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“We have to implement the agreement in a correct way,” he said. “The execution of the agreement was important. It was the first step, but without the implementation correct, we’re not going to get it right — we’re going to have a flare-up, and that’s not a good thing. So, we’re going to watch it.”
The US officials said Witkoff is particularly interested in advancing the implementation and the release of Americans and others still held hostage by Hamas as well as shoring up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s far-right finance minister withdraws threat to quit coalition over ceasefire deal
- Hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and two other ministers from his nationalist-religious party resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet over the deal
JERUSALEM: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has withdrawn a threat to quit the government if Israel does not return to fighting in Gaza, several Israeli news sites reported on Monday.
Earlier this month, Smotrich opposed a ceasefire deal that aims to secure the release of nearly 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, arguing it endangered Israeli security and stopped Israel from achieving its war goals.
Hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and two other ministers from his nationalist-religious party resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet over the deal.
Smotrich stopped short of resigning but said if Israel agreed to a full end to the war before achieving its aims in Gaza — which include the complete destruction of Hamas — he and his party, Religious Zionism, would also leave the coalition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Smotrich to stay in the coalition to keep the right wing government intact and the finance minister agreed, Israel’s Yediot reported on Monday.
Under the multi-phase ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza will be released before negotiations begin to agree the release of the remaining 65 and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel is due to release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire deal.
Some of the families believe the second stage will not be implemented and that their relatives risk being abandoned. They have staged a series of protests against the current deal.
