Iran on the rack: Demonstrations in Beirut over crackdown in Iraq

Iraqis kept up anti-government protests in Baghdad and the south on Saturday, dissatisfied with the premier’s vow to quit and insisting on the overhaul of the system. (AFP)
Updated 01 December 2019
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Iran on the rack: Demonstrations in Beirut over crackdown in Iraq

  • Protesters in two countries unite to denounce Tehran’s violent repression of dissent

BEIRUT: Iran faced anger on two fronts on Saturday as demonstrators in Lebanon took to the streets of Beirut to support protesters in Iraq.

Tehran has orchestrated a violent crackdown on Iraqi protests in which more than 420 people have been killed, and its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon has been accused of complicity in attacks on protesters demonstrating there against corruption and financial hardship.

Demonstrators staged a candlelit vigil outside Iraq’s embassy in Beirut on Saturday to denounce the violence in Baghdad and southern Iraq. They held up photos of Iraqi protesters who have been killed, and one woman wrapped an Iraqi flag around her shoulders.

“The uprising in Iraq and the uprising in Lebanon are one,” said vigil organizer Layal Siblani. “A protester killed there is a protester killed here.” 

Another demonstrator in Beirut said: “We have to stand in solidarity with our Iraqi counterparts who are being arrested and killed on a daily basis.”

Elsewhere in Beirut, the mothers of activists targeted by opponents of the protests marched under banners declaring “nothing divides us” as they voiced their anger over violent attacks on protesters.

A group of mothers in Tabaris, a largely affluent Christian neighborhood, marched to Khandak El Ghamik, a poorer area with a large number of Amal Movement and Hezbollah supporters.

One woman urged residents of the area not to attack protesters. “Politicians disagree in the day and agree in the evening, and we should not be dragged into incitement,” she said.

Protesters also organized a demonstration outside a barracks of the Internal Security Forces in Beirut, in protest at the arrest of activists.

Meanwhile in Iraq protesters burned tires and surrounded a police station in the southern city of Nassiriya on Saturday. Demonstrations also continued in Baghdad, but there were fewer reports of casualties than on the previous two days.

Security forces have used live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades against protesters for nearly two months, and dozens have been killed in the past few days in Nassiriya and Najaf.

Iraq’s Cabinet on Saturday approved the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, which is expected to be confirmed by Parliament on Sunday.


Israel army says shelling Syria after projectiles launched

Updated 6 sec ago
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Israel army says shelling Syria after projectiles launched

  • Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombardments had hit farmland in the province, without reporting casualties

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it was shelling targets in Syria on Tuesday in response to a pair of projectile launches, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying he held Syria’s leader “directly responsible.”
A military statement said that “two projectiles were identified crossing from Syria into Israeli territory, and fell in open areas,” adding in a subsequent statement that its “artillery struck in southern Syria” following the launches.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported shelling “targeting the Yarmuk Basin, in the west of Daraa” province.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombardments had hit farmland in the province, without reporting casualties.
“Violent explosions shook southern Syria, notably the town of Quneitra and the Daraa region, following Israeli aerial strikes” overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, the monitor said in a statement.
Israel said it had targeted weapons belonging to Syrian authorities following the launch of the projectiles.
There were no reports of casualties or damage on the Israeli side due to the projectiles, which the military said triggered air raid sirens in parts of the southern Golan Heights, a territory Israel conquered from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said in a statement released by his office that “we view the president of Syria as directly responsible for any threat or fire directed at the State of Israel.”
“A full response will follow shortly,” he added.
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, led the Islamist group that spearheaded the offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
Israeli media said Tuesday’s projectiles were the first fired from Syria into Israeli territory since Assad’s fall.
Following his overthrow, Israel moved its forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights, and has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.
Israel says the strikes aim to stop advanced weapons reaching Syria’s new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.
In a statement on Sunday, Israel’s military said its troops were continuing “defensive operations in southern Syria” to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and protect the residents of the Golan Heights.”
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948.
 

 


Israel army confirms shot Palestinian teen in West Bank

Updated 04 June 2025
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Israel army confirms shot Palestinian teen in West Bank

  • A statement from the local municipality also said Faqha died after being shot by Israeli forces

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s military confirmed on Tuesday it had “neutralized” a Palestinian who threw rocks in the occupied West Bank, where authorities said the slain victim was 14 years old.
In a statement on Monday, the Palestinian Authority announced “the martyrdom of 14-year-old boy Yousef Fouad F aqha, who was shot by Israeli forces in the town of Sinjil” in the central West Bank.
A statement from the local municipality also said Faqha died after being shot by Israeli forces.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military told AFP on Tuesday that during an operation around Sinjil a day earlier, its forces had “identified a terrorist who had hurled rocks toward a transportation route and thrown two bottles containing hazardous material toward the forces.”
“Immediately after identifying the threat, the forces opened fire and neutralized the terrorist,” it added.
The military later confirmed to AFP that the target was Faqha.
Sources close to the family said that Israeli authorities were still holding onto the body.
In a similar incident in April, a teenager who held US citizenship was shot dead in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, with the Israeli military saying it had killed a “terrorist” who threw rocks at cars.
Sinjil and Turmus Ayya are located next to each other on either side of a main road running through the West Bank.
The Israeli military has recently surrounded Sinjil with a large metal fence that cuts the town off from the road.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has soared since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
The West Bank is home to about three million Palestinians, but also some 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 938 Palestinians — many of them militants, but also scores of civilians — in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
At least 35 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.
 

 


US-backed Gaza aid group names evangelical as chairman

Rev. Dr. Johnnie Moore. (X @JohnnieM)
Updated 04 June 2025
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US-backed Gaza aid group names evangelical as chairman

  • Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states

UNITED NATIONS: The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Tuesday named as its executive chairman an American evangelical Christian leader who has publicly backed President Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Palestinian enclave.
The appointment of Rev. Dr. Johnnie Moore, a former evangelical adviser to the White House during Trump's first term in office, came as health officials said at least 27 people died and more than 150 were injured trying to reach a GHF aid site.
"GHF is demonstrating that it is possible to move vast quantities of food to people who need it most — safely, efficiently, and effectively," Moore said in the foundation statement. "GHF believes that serving the people of Gaza with dignity and compassion must be the top priority."

HIGHLIGHTS

• GHF says it has delivered some 7 million meals in Gaza

• UN refuses to work with GHF, says aid distribution militarized

• Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid, Hamas denies it

The GHF began operations one week ago under a distribution model criticized by the United Nations as the militarization of aid. The GHF says so far it has given out seven million meals from so-called secure distribution sites. It uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get aid into Gaza.
The U.N. and aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not a neutral operation. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has said it "makes aid conditional on political and military aims" and uses starvation as "a bargaining chip."
The appointment of Moore could fuel U.N. concerns, given his support for the controversial proposal Trump floated in February for the U.S. to take over Gaza and develop it economically. After Trump proposed the idea, Moore posted video of Trump's remarks on X and wrote: "The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future."

'BAD GUYS'
The U.N. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the appointment of Moore, who has accused the U.N. of ignoring "bad guys" stealing aid in Gaza. The U.N. has long-blamed Israel and lawlessness in the enclave for impediments getting aid into Gaza and distributing throughout the war zone.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. In a reference to the new GHF-led aid model, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said Israel was "taking control of food distribution" in Gaza.
"The @UN & others should clean up their act & work with America," Moore posted on May 26. "Surely, these old U.S. & E.U.-funded humanitarian orgs won't let people starve in exchange for being 'right' when they know what they have done hasn't worked & has, in fact, made a terrible war worse?"
The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, and Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Moore visited Israel about three months after the 2023 Hamas attack and wrote: "Never have I seen such horror."
Just a couple of weeks later, he posted a video titled "Come visit beautiful Gaza," which sought to portray Gaza as a tourist destination if it wasn't for Hamas militants. Trump has said Gaza has the potential to be "The Riviera of the Middle East."
The United Nations has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.

 


Israel army vows to ‘protect maritime space’ as aid boat sails for Gaza

Updated 04 June 2025
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Israel army vows to ‘protect maritime space’ as aid boat sails for Gaza

  • The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily on Sunday and is carrying around a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it was ready to “protect” the country’s maritime space on Tuesday, after a boat organized by an international activist coalition set sail for Gaza aiming to deliver aid.
The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily on Sunday and is carrying around a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.
“The (Israeli military) is prepared to defend the citizens of the State of Israel on all fronts — in the north, the south, the center and also in the maritime arena,” army spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
“The navy operates day and night to protect Israel’s maritime space and borders at sea,” he added at a televised press conference.
“For this case as well, we are prepared,” he said in response to a question about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, declining to go into detail.
“We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, launched in 2010, is a non-violent international movement supporting Palestinians, combining humanitarian aid with political protest against the blockade on Gaza.
The “Madleen” is a small sailboat reportedly carrying fruit juices, milk, rice, tinned food and protein bars.
“Together, we can open a people’s sea corridor to Gaza,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition wrote on X on Tuesday.
In early May, a Freedom Flotilla ship called the “Conscience” was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack.
Israel recently eased a more than two-month blockade on the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, but the aid community has urged it to allow in more food, faster.


Gaza relief effort ‘succeeding’ but can ‘improve,’ Washington says after deaths

Updated 04 June 2025
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Gaza relief effort ‘succeeding’ but can ‘improve,’ Washington says after deaths

  • The Red Cross said that 27 people were killed in southern Gaza near an aid center of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund as Israeli troops opened fire

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday that a US-backed relief effort in Gaza was succeeding in distributing meals but acknowledged the potential for improvement after the Red Cross reported 27 deaths.
“They’re succeeding in getting the meals distributed. And in the meantime, we’re going to obviously be determining how that’s working and how we can further improve perhaps,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
The Red Cross said that 27 people were killed in southern Gaza near an aid center of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund as Israeli troops opened fire.
The foundation has faced persistent criticism from the United Nations and aid groups, which say it goes against long-standing humanitarian principles by coordinating relief efforts with a military belligerent.
Bruce complained that President Donald Trump’s administration had been “harangued” by criticism on accounts of hunger in Gaza and that the foundation was getting in food.
She blamed the presence of Israeli troops on the lack of a surrender by Hamas, which Israel has been battling since the armed group’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.
“The dynamics are dangerous and there are seven million meals that have been distributed. I can’t stress enough that that is the story,” she said.
“In the meantime, hopefully things will be refined,” she said, adding there would be another environment “if Hamas actually behaved like human beings.”
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Monday attacked media outlets that, quoting witnesses, had reported on injuries in Gaza aid delivery, saying they were “contributing to the anti-Semitic climate” that has led to two attacks in the United States.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked about the Red Cross account of deaths on Tuesday, said that the Trump administration was “aware of those reports, and we are currently looking into the veracity of them.”
“Because unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth,” she said.