JERUSALEM/BERLIN/PARIS: Israel has asked foreign countries to send hospital ships to help treat wounded Palestinians who are allowed to leave the war-ravaged Gaza Strip for neighboring Egypt, the Israeli ambassador to Germany said on Thursday.
France said last week it was sending the naval vessel Tonnerre to the eastern Mediterranean on what it described as a mission to support Gaza hospitals. Egypt this week began admitting limited numbers of wounded across its Gaza border.
In an Israeli public broadcast interview on Kan radio, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, was asked whether Israel had asked France and other European countries to send hospital ships for receiving Gazan wounded at Al-Arish, an Egyptian port close to the Palestinian enclave.
Prosor described this scenario as correct, saying he had submitted such a request to Berlin.
“I don’t know yet if it is happening,” said Prosor, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “We asked for this. I suppose it is being discussed. There is a leaning, here in Europe, to help in humanitarian matters in any way possible.”
A spokesperson for the German defense ministry said Berlin was in close contact with its Israeli partners and each request would be thoroughly looked into. He declined, however, to comment on the specific request for a hospital ship.
“I ask for your understanding that I cannot comment on the content and details of confidential conversations,” he said. With that, he appeared to refer to a meeting between German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Prosor on Tuesday.
A French military source said the Tonnerre, which has about 60 beds and two operating blocs, could only be used temporarily and as back-up for a larger hospital on land.
“The medical support capacities of the ship make it possible to provide a rapid response but only temporary and only complementary to heavier hospital installations capable of treating significant flows of injured people effectively and over time.”
The source said that at this stage the Tonnerre remained off the coast of Cyprus and no decision had been made on where it could dock and how it would be used. The immediate priority for France was to provide humanitarian aid through air lifts via Egypt.
Speaking to France Info radio, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Paris had decided to send a second helicopter carrier, the Dixmude, to the region and it was being transformed into a hospital vessel.
When asked how practical it would be to bring people from land to sea, Lecornu said things were still in the planning stages and discussions were ongoing with Egyptian and Israeli authorities.
“The idea is to tell all the actors in this conflict that we cannot leave civilian populations exposed to danger and, above all, without a health care solution on a humanitarian level,” Lecornu said.
He said he hoped that France’s decision to send ships would encourage others to follow their lead.
A French diplomatic source said it was unlikely that the Tonnerre would be used as an offshore field hospital for Palestinians or foreigners from Gaza.
The source said the idea was to see how the ship, along with other vessels in the region, could eventually be used to help establish a field hospital in southern Gaza, although all that would depend on the situation on the ground and discussions with regional authorities.
Prosor said Israel also asked Italy to send a hospital ship but has yet to hear back.
Israeli diplomat sees possible foreign hospital ships for Gaza wounded
https://arab.news/r5hx9
Israeli diplomat sees possible foreign hospital ships for Gaza wounded
- France said last week it was sending the naval vessel Tonnerre to the eastern Mediterranean on what it described as a mission to support Gaza hospitals
- A spokesperson for the German defense ministry said Berlin was in close contact with its Israeli partners and each request would be thoroughly looked into
Republican House bill would jack up cost of US solar home systems, PV panel makers warn
- Proposed measure would scrap 30 percent tax credit for homeowners with solar panels
- Bill in line with Trump move to undo Biden-era clean energy program
Companies that put solar panels on US homes say a Republican budget bill advanced in Congress this week would deal a massive blow to the industry by eliminating a generous subsidy for homeowners that had buttressed the industry’s growth.
The bill would scrap a 30 percent federal credit for taxpayers who put up rooftop systems, stifling an industry that has grown ten-fold over the last decade and which now employs more than 100,000 workers, industry players said.
“It certainly is a giant setback,” said Charlie Hadlow, president of EnergySage, an online solar marketplace. “I have solar installers in our large network passing around the contact information for bankruptcy attorneys. That’s not alarmist, that’s happening.”
Many of the biggest residential solar markets are in states that voted for President Donald Trump, including Texas, Florida and Arizona, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group.
The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee voted this week to allow the 25D tax credit to expire at the end of this year, nine years earlier than planned, as part of a Republican effort to roll back subsidies from former President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
A spokesperson for Republicans on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bill still has several hurdles to clear before getting a broad package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions through Congress.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump wants to undo federal regulations and programs introduced by Biden that are aimed at expanding clean energy and combating climate change.
More than half of residential installations qualify for the 25D tax credit, according to EnergySage, which estimates that rooftop systems will be about $8,000 or $9,000 more expensive without it.
The subsidy has been critical for small installers whose customers pay cash or take out loans and then claim the credit on their tax returns.
For panels that are owned by a third party, such as a bank, and leased to homeowners, system owners are able to claim a separate tax credit that the House bill would leave in place until 2032 but start to phase out in 2029.
That market is dominated by large players like Sunrun.
“You want to just place a larger burden on the regular Joe who pays taxes? It doesn’t seem fair,” said Jack Ramsey, CEO of Altsys Solar in Tulare, California.
Ramsey anticipates cutting his nine-person staff to four or five people if the credit is eliminated.
At the end of 2024, the US boasted 36 gigawatts of residential solar capacity, up from 3 GW in 2014 and a level equivalent to a third of the nation’s nuclear power capacity.
Rooftop solar accounts for more than a third of solar industry jobs, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
Rob Kaercher, CEO of Absolute Solar in Lansing, Michigan, has 24 employees and wants to hire more, but will not if the credit goes away.
“I strongly urge the credits to be maintained, because it would do a tremendous amount for local businesses just like ours to be able to continue to hire and grow,” Kaercher told reporters.
The move to eliminate the credit caught many in the industry off guard.
Thomas Clark, the director of marketing and communications of Northstone Solar in Whitefish, Montana, met with staff from his state’s Congressional delegation in Washington earlier this year and came away from the meeting feeling the credit was safe.
“Obviously this happening so quickly after those meetings really hurts as a constituent,” Clark said.
Macron calls for peace in first talk with new pope
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he had called Pope Leo XIV and talked about efforts to reach peace in Ukraine and Gaza in his first conversation with the new pontiff.
In their “first exchange,” the pair “addressed the efforts to let the weapons fall silent wherever conflicts rage in the world, and in particular for a solid and lasting peace in Ukraine and Gaza,” Macron said on X.
“We share the ambition to reconcile the fight against poverty and the protection of the planet,” the French leader said, adding that he had “once again congratulated” the pontiff on his election as head of the Catholic Church last week.
While Macron is not scheduled to join the ranks of the world leaders attending Pope Leo’s inaugural mass in Rome on Sunday morning, France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is due to attend.
Nigeria army head vows to counter jihadist attacks
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Nigeria’s top military officer on Thursday told troops in a region battling increased jihadist unrest that the attacks would be quickly resolved.
The Islamic State West Africa Province group and its rival Boko Haram have intensified assaults on military bases in recent weeks, notably in the northeastern state of Borno, epicenter of an insurgency dating back to 2009.
According to an AFP tally, at least 10 bases have been attacked in two months. At least 100 people, including civilians, were killed in attacks in April.
“Actions have been taken to ensure that we address the series of attacks,” chief of defense staff General Christopher Musa told troops in Borno’s capital Maiduguri, promising new material was being drafted in.
Musa said conflict in the Sahel states including Mali, Chad and Niger “has put a lot of pressure on Nigeria and that’s why you see recent attacks have occurred.”
“Whatever is going on is just for a short while,” he said.
Musa suggested fencing Nigeria’s borders, saying “there are countries that have fenced over a 1,500 kilometer (930 mile) stretch” — roughly the length of the Nigeria-Niger frontier.
While violence has fallen from its 2014-2015 peak, the governor of Borno recently warned that the military was losing ground to jihadists, and the latest attacks have put the conflict back in the spotlight.
More than 40,000 people have been killed and two million displaced in northeast Nigeria since 2009, according to the United Nations.
A Multinational Joint Task Force, a coalition created by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Benin and Chad to fight cross-border armed groups, has been hampered by the withdrawal of Niger and threats by Chad to do the same.
According to a recent Nigerian intelligence report seen by AFP, there are also internal problems.
Late payment of salaries “has been a recurring problem,” particularly in the northeast, it said.
The report warned of “frustration and demotivation among security personnel, which could potentially lead to mutinies or unrest, if not urgently addressed.”
President Bola Tinubu this week called for the creation of a “forest guards” unit “to flush out terrorists and criminal gangs.”
Nigeria’s vast, often inaccessible forests have become havens for jihadist and armed criminal groups.
While the Nigerian army often works with local self-defense groups, questions remain over how the proposed forest guard be financed, work with existing security forces and even how long it would take to set up.
13 hurt when car plows into crowd before Spanish footbal match
- Police ruled case as an accident, described all injuries as "minor"
- Driver arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing injury
BARCELONA: At least 13 people were hurt when a driver lost control and plowed into a crowd gathered outside a football match between RCD Espanyol and city rivals FC Barcelona, police said on Thursday.
Police said people were hurt when the vehicle rammed into the crowd outside RCD Españyol soccer stadium in Barcelona at the start of the game.
Police added in a statement on social media site X that the incident did not present any danger to the crowd inside the stadium.
Salvador Illa, the Catalan regional president, said on Thursday all the injuries were “minor” and ruled out any deliberate attack.
The driver has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing injury.
New Royal Navy chief under renewed scrutiny over Afghanistan war crimes evidence
- Gen. Gwyn Jenkins previously accused of failing to report evidence of war crimes committed by British forces
- It is also alleged he oversaw rejection of hundreds of resettlement applications from Afghans who served alongside British troops against the Taliban
LONDON: The man chosen as the new head of the UK’s Royal Navy was previously accused of failing to report evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by British forces in Afghanistan.
Gen. Sir Gwyn Jenkins, who was appointed on Thursday, also faced allegations this week that he oversaw the rejection of hundreds of resettlement applications from former Afghan special forces members who served alongside British troops against the Taliban, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Jenkins replaces Adm. Ben Key, who stepped down last week over allegations of misconduct.
The new navy chief previously led UK Special Forces in Afghanistan during the war against the Taliban. That conflict is under renewed scrutiny in Britain following recent fresh allegations of war crimes involving members of Britain’s elite Special Air Service and Special Boat Service.
In 2023, it emerged that Jenkins had been warned in writing in 2011 that SAS troops had claimed to have executed handcuffed detainees in Afghanistan. Rather than refer this evidence to the Royal Military Police, the BBC reported at the time, Jenkins placed the documents in a safe. However, The Telegraph newspaper reported that Jenkins did pass the evidence up the chain of command at the time.
This week, an investigation by the BBC current affairs program “Panorama” revealed that Jenkins personally appointed an officer under his command to assess the Afghan resettlement applications. Thousands of former elite Afghan soldiers were rejected, despite credible evidence of their service alongside British counterparts.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said it was “not appropriate … to comment on allegations which may be within the scope of the statutory inquiry,” referring to a public inquiry underway in the UK to investigate the war crimes allegations.
There was “no evidence” that Afghan resettlement applications were rejected to prevent the former soldiers from giving evidence to the war crimes inquiry, it added.
Defence Secretary John Healey on Thursday described Jenkins as a “proven leader with a distinguished career in both the military and at the core of government.”
He added: “I know he will deliver in this pivotal role, making Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”
Sarah Atherton, a former Tory MP who sat on the Defence Select Committee, told The Telegraph: “Military personnel, especially senior leaders, are held to high ethical and behavior standards.
“If somebody is facing an allegation … I know it’s alleged, but it’s just very strange to appoint someone who is in this position, given the circumstances. That is bizarre.”
Jenkins said after his appointment that he wanted to “accelerate” the Royal Navy’s return to a “war fighting force that is ready for conflict.”
