Palestinians split over president’s next move after talks with US, French leaders

Israeli forces clash on July 22, 2022, with demonstrators protesting the expropriation of Palestinian land in Kfar Qaddum village, occupied West Bank. (AFP)
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Updated 23 July 2022
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Palestinians split over president’s next move after talks with US, French leaders

  • Ties boost with EU, China, Russia could help in Palestinian diplomacy: Analyst

RAMALLAH: Political analysts were on Friday split over the next diplomatic moves for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following his recent talks with the leaders of France and America.

Abbas held discussions with US President Joe Biden in Bethlehem on July 15 and then spoke to President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on July 20.

General disappointment with the outcome of the Biden talks saw the Palestinian leadership turn its attention toward the EU.

During his meeting with Abbas, Biden reportedly said that the conditions were not currently suitable to relaunch the Palestine-Israel peace process. As a result, he failed to propose any plan to end the Israeli occupation and took no position on the matter of the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Macron, meanwhile, promised Abbas that he would help revive the stalled peace track between the Palestinians and Israelis, and pressure Israel to stop its settlement activities in the West Bank, while providing political and financial support for the Palestinians to overcome a UN Relief and Works Agency financial crisis, and the impact of international food shortages.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Macron in the French capital on Wednesday, Abbas said: “We count on President Macron’s role in launching the necessary initiatives and moves to push peace efforts in our region forward, in cooperation with the concerned European and Arab parties.”

And Macron urged the need for, “the resumption of direct political dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is a difficult road, full of bumps, but we have no alternative to reviving our efforts for peace.”

However, with 87-year-old Abbas still considered by some experts to believe that the cards for a solution to the Palestinian issue remain in the hands of the US only, his next diplomatic move is proving difficult to predict.

Mustafa Barghouthi, a Palestinian politician, told Arab News that any Palestinian attempt to search for a solution through Europe and wait for the help of others may not work.

He said: “We must end the internal Palestinian division, hold free elections, unite on the strategy of activating popular resistance, review the functions of the Palestinian Authority, strengthen the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and rebuild the movement of international solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

He pointed out that while strengthening relations with the EU, China, and Russia could be helpful, the most crucial factor was, “the change in the balance of power on the ground and the escalation of popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.”

Ghassan Al-Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst, felt that Abbas’ approach to France and other EU countries was an important step because Palestinian diplomacy should not allow the US to continue monopolizing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On Biden, he told Arab News: “He did not fulfil his promises to the Palestinian Authority during his election campaign, and this must reflect itself in the Palestinian foreign relations with the European Union, Russia, and China.”

George Noll, head of the Palestinian Affairs Unit at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, on Thursday told Palestinian journalists in Ramallah that Abbas had presented a long list of demands to Biden during their meeting. In response, according to a senior US official, the American president said: “These are things that need Christ, the miracle-maker, to accomplish.”

Al-Khatib said: “The statement of the US official is rude because what President Abbas requested is related to the application of the rules of international legitimacy, such as ending the occupation, stopping settlements, and helping Palestinian refugees through the UNRWA.”

He noted that, if true, such a stance by the Biden administration belittled the internationally legitimate demands regarding the Palestinian cause.

“This means that the US has put itself in Israel’s pocket about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and this is enough reason for the Palestinian Authority to consider the US as an unfair sponsor and is looking for supporters with global influence such as the European Union, Russia, and China,” he added.

The EU has expressed its concerns over the announcement of settlers’ plans to establish several new outposts in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement on Thursday, it said that 150 illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank often contributed to the establishment or expansion of Israeli settlements and were a potential direct source of increased violence by settlers toward Palestinians.

It added that the settlements and outposts were illegal under international law and constituted a significant obstacle to achieving a two-state solution.

On Thursday, the Palestinian Applied Research Institute said that the Israeli occupation authorities had published three new plans for more settlements in different locations in the West Bank, under which an area of ​​733.6 dunums (181.2 acres) of Palestinian land would be seized.

The Israeli settlements occupy ​​201 square kilometers (3.6 percent of the occupied West Bank) and are inhabited by around 700,000 Israeli settlers.


Israel says struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon

Updated 26 sec ago
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Israel says struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon

  • Israeli military said Thursday’s strike targeted medium-range rocket launchers in the Nabatieh area

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon on Thursday, despite a fragile ceasefire with the militant group.
The truce, which took effect on November 27, has been marked by mutual accusations of violations from both sides.
The Israeli military said Thursday’s strike targeted medium-range rocket launchers in the Nabatieh area.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported at least three Israeli strikes in the area.
“Prior to the strike a request was sent to the Lebanese armed forces to neutralize the launchers that posed a threat to Israeli civilians and... troops,” the military said in a statement.
“The launchers were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese armed forces.”
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah is to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.
In late December, the UN peacekeeping force expressed concern at the “continuing” damage done by Israeli forces in south Lebanon.
On Thursday, the Israeli military insisted it was acting to remove any threat to Israel “in accordance with the ceasefire understandings.”


Israeli forces withdraw from Naqoura, advance into other Lebanese villages

Updated 02 January 2025
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Israeli forces withdraw from Naqoura, advance into other Lebanese villages

  • French foreign minister meets Berri, heads to Damascus to meet Al-Sharaa

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army was preparing to enter the southern coastal town of Naqoura on Thursday to retake its positions after observing the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area.

The army is paving the way for its redeployment by conducting an initial engineering survey of the town to remove unexploded ordnance.

This is the third withdrawal of Israeli forces from towns into which they advanced during the ground war in Lebanon launched by Israel on Oct. 1. The ceasefire agreement, effective since Nov. 27, stipulated that Israel would complete its withdrawal from the border areas it had entered within 60 days.

On Thursday, Israeli forces were seen withdrawing from neighborhoods in Naqoura toward Ras Naqoura and Alma Al-Shaab, conducting sweeps with machine guns during the retreat.

The area of Israeli incursion remains devoid of residents — under Israeli orders — until further notice.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army prohibits citizens from returning to the towns until the army assumes control, seizes any weapons found, and dismantles any Hezbollah assets, in line with UN Resolution 1701.

The Lebanese army had repositioned in the town of Khiam about 10 days ago and in the town of Chamaa shortly before the end of the year.

Concurrently, Israeli Merkava tanks continued to shell homes in an area between the towns of Yater and Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district.

An Israeli patrol, reinforced with tanks and a bulldozer, advanced into the area on Thursday.

Israeli forces are still demolishing homes, bulldozing roads, and destroying facilities, rendering the border area from Naqoura in the west to Shebaa in the east an uninhabitable, scorched zone for years to come.

A security source said that “Israeli forces advanced for the first time since the start of the ground war to the outskirts of Beit Lif, where soldiers searched some homes and wooded areas.”

An Israeli unit also advanced from the town of Ramyah, while another unit, equipped with two bulldozers, moved toward the town of Majdal Zoun, simultaneously targeting homes and neighborhoods with artillery shelling.

Israeli reconnaissance planes continued to intrude into Lebanese airspace, flying at low altitude to the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Security reports indicated that Israeli forces set fire to several homes in the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district on Wednesday night.

The secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said that he had given “the Lebanese state an opportunity to prove itself and take responsibility for ensuring Israel’s exit from Lebanon.”

In a speech on the first day of the new year, he affirmed that “the resistance has regained its strength,” referring to Hezbollah’s military wing.

In the same context, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized “the daily Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement in many forms. The areas that the Israeli army could not reach during the aggression are now being accessed in many villages following the ceasefire, under the watch of the quintet committee and international public opinion,” he said.

There are 23 days left for the Israeli army to completely withdraw from the south under the agreement. However, a political observer expressed concern that “Hezbollah will be free to respond to Israeli violations after the end of the deadline, with a calculated response that does not breach Resolution 1701.”

On the political and diplomatic front, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday met with US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the supervisory committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire, in the presence of US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who is in Beirut, met with Berri and is scheduled to travel to Damascus on Friday to see Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader, before returning to Beirut and leaving from the city’s Rafic Hariri International Airport to France.

Barrot and French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu spent New Year’s Eve with UNIFIL French contingent peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Lecornu returned to France the next day.


Ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow — report

Updated 02 January 2025
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Ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow — report

  • Assad reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December
  • Account believed to be run by former Russian spy says Assad’s condition said to be stabilized by Monday

LONDON: An assassination attempt by poisoning has been made on former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, The Sun reported.

The ousted leader reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December.

Assad, 59, requested medical help then began to “cough violently and choke,” according to online account General SVR, which is believed to be run by a former top spy in Russia.

“There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made,” it added.

Assad was treated in his apartment, and his condition is said to have stabilized by Monday. He was confirmed to have been poisoned by medical testing, the account said, without citing direct sources.

There has been no confirmation of the event from the Russian government.


Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow: Report

Updated 02 January 2025
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Bashar Assad poisoned in Moscow: Report

  • Ousted Syrian dictator requested medical help then began to ‘cough violently and choke’
  • ‘There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made’

LONDON: An assassination attempt by poisoning has been made on former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, The Sun reported.

The ousted leader reportedly fell ill on Sunday in Moscow, where he has resided since fleeing Syria in early December.

Assad, 59, requested medical help then began to “cough violently and choke,” according to online account General SVR, which is believed to be run by a former top spy in Russia.

“There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made,” it added.

Assad was treated in his apartment, and his condition is said to have stabilized by Monday. He was confirmed to have been poisoned by medical testing, the account said, without citing direct sources.

There has been no confirmation of the event from the Russian government.


Gaza’s Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life

Updated 02 January 2025
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Gaza’s Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life

  • One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying

DUBAI: An Israeli hostage held by Gaza’s Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday.
One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage’s identity or current condition.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Militants led by Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in an attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the assault.
The military campaign that Israel launched in response has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the coastal enclave.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the hostage had tried to take his own life three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into more details.
Abu Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of setting new conditions that had led to “the failure and delay” of negotiations for the hostage’s release.
The man had been scheduled to be released with other hostages under the conditions of the first stage of an exchange deal with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the man had been scheduled to be released or under which deal.
Arab mediators’ efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages in return for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing had issued a decision to tighten the security and safety measures for the hostages, Abu Hamza added.
In July, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it started treating them in what it said was the same way that Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.
“We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at that time. Israel has dismissed accusations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners.