French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce

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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh (R) meets with the visiting French FM Catherine Colonna (L) at his headquarters in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 17, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 18 December 2023
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French top diplomat calls for ‘immediate and durable’ Gaza truce

  • Warns that violent acts by settlers could “destabilize” the West Bank and “undermine” any chance of a two-state solution
  • Adds that France and its allies were weighing a response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea

TEL AVIV: French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Sunday pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the Gaza war, saying “too many civilians are being killed” in the Palestinian territory.

Israel has come under growing international pressure for a cease-fire in Gaza, where its war against Hamas militants has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas government.
The offensive comes in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks in southern Israel in which 1,139 people were killed, mostly civilians, and about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Meeting her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv, before holding talks with Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Colonna stressed that the victims of Hamas’s attacks must not be forgotten, including those subjected to sexual violence.
“Needless to say, France believes the word of these women victims... those who had to witness these rapes and mutilations, these desecrations,” she said in Tel Aviv.
She also addressed concerns that the war could spread.
There have been regular cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Cohen said Israel “has no intention to start another front on our northern border” and that France could play a “positive and significant role” in preventing an all-out war.
But he warned that ensuring the security of Israelis near the border meant pushing Hezbollah “north of the Litani River.”
“There are two ways to do that: either by diplomacy or by force,” Cohen said.
Colonna, who is due to visit Lebanon on Monday, called on all parties to “de-escalate” along the border.
“If things were to spiral out of control, I don’t think anyone would benefit, and I say this to Israel too,” she said.

Colonna also said France and its allies were weighing a response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Major shipping firms have suspended passage following attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at pressuring Israel over the Gaza war.
“These attacks cannot go unanswered, and we are studying several solutions,” including a “defensive role to prevent this from happening again,” the minister said.
She later met separately with the families of French hostages still held in Gaza, and with senior Palestinian officials at the headquarters in Ramallah of the Palestinian Authority which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
In a rural community near the West Bank city, the French foreign minister condemned violence in the West Bank. More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, health officials in the territory say.
She said violent acts by settlers “are grave actions” that could “destabilize” the West Bank and “undermine” any chance of a two-state solution.
Colonna also met Palestinian olive growers who told her they had been threatened and chased from their land by settlers and were unable to harvest olives this year.
For Palestinians, the hardy olive trees, which thrives in tough conditions and can live for hundreds of years, is a symbol of their rootedness in the territory, where an estimated 10 million trees grow.


Gaza’s starvation crisis fuels deadly race for survival

Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza City, June 21, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 5 sec ago
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Gaza’s starvation crisis fuels deadly race for survival

  • Palestinians say they are forced into a competition to feed their families

KHAN YOUNIS: Each day, Palestinians in Gaza run a deadly gauntlet in hopes of getting food. Israeli troops open barrages of gunfire toward crowds crossing military zones to get to the aid, they say, and knife-wielding thieves wait to ambush those who succeed. Palestinians say lawlessness is growing as they are forced into a competition to feed their families.
A lucky few manage to secure some packets of lentils, a jar of Nutella, or a bag of flour.
Many return empty-handed and must attempt the ordeal again the next day.
“This is not aid. It’s humiliation. It’s death,” said Jamil Atili, his face shining with sweat as he made his way back last week from a food center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed private contractor.
He had suffered a knife cut across his cheek amid the scramble for food and said a contractor guard pepper-sprayed him in the face. Still, he emerged with nothing for his 13 family members.

I have nothing to feed my children. My heart is broken.

Jamil Atili, Gaza resident

“I have nothing to feed my children,” he said, nearly crying. “My heart is broken.”
Israel began allowing food into Gaza this past month after cutting it off completely for 10 weeks, though UN officials say it is not enough to stave off starvation.
Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates four food distribution points inside Israeli military zones. A trickle of aid goes to the UN and humanitarian groups.
Both systems are mired in chaos.
Daily gunfire by Israeli troops toward crowds on the roads heading to the GHF centers has killed several hundred people and wounded hundreds more in the past weeks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
At the same time, in past weeks, hungry crowds have overwhelmed most of the UN’s truck convoys and stripped away the supplies. Israeli troops have opened fire to disperse crowds waiting for trucks near military zones, witnesses say — and on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed, according to the ministry.
“I don’t see how it can get any worse, because it is already apocalyptic. But somehow it does get worse,” said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian affairs office.
Thousands of people must walk miles to reach the GHF centers, three of which are in the far south outside the city of Rafah. Palestinians said the danger begins when the crowds enter the Israeli military zone encompassing Rafah.
Mohammed Saqer, a father of three who risked the trip multiple times, said that when he went last week, tanks were firing over the heads of the crowds as drone announcements told everyone to move back.
It’s like it was "Squid Game,” Saqer said, referring to the dystopian thriller TV series in which contestants risk their lives to win a prize. Just raising your head might mean death, he said.
He and others crawled forward, then left the main road.
A shot rang out nearby, and they ducked, he said. They found a young man on the ground, shot in the back.
The others assumed he was dead, but Saqer felt his chest — it was still warm, and he found a pulse.
They carried him to a point where a car could pick him up.
Saqer said he stood for a moment, traumatized by the scene. Then people shouted that the site had opened.
The mad dash
Everyone broke into a crazed run, he said. He saw several people wounded on the ground. One man, bleeding from his abdomen, reached out his hand, pleading for help. No one stopped.
“Everyone is just running to get to the aid, to get there first,” Saqer said.
Omar Al-Hobi described the same scene four times when he went last week.
Twice, he returned empty-handed; once, he managed to grab a pack of lentils. On the fourth day, he was determined to secure flour for his three children and pregnant wife.
He said he and others inched their way forward under tank fire. He saw several people shot in the legs. One man fell bleeding to the ground, apparently dead, he said.
Horrified, Al-Hobi froze, unable to move, “but I remembered I have to feed my children.”
He took cover in a greenhouse, then heard the announcement that the center was open and began to run.
Avoiding thieves
At the center, food boxes are stacked on the ground in an area surrounded by fences and earthen berms. Thousands rush in to grab what they can in a frantic melee.
You have to move fast, Saqer said. Once supplies run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving. He swiftly tore open a box and loaded the contents into a sack — juice, chickpeas, lentils, cheese, beans, flour and cooking oil.
Then he took off running. There’s only one route in and out of the center. But, knowing thieves waited outside, Saqer clambered over a berm, running the risk of being fired on by Israeli troops.
“It all depends on the soldiers’ mood. If they are in a bad mood … they will shoot at me. If not, they will let me be,” he said.
Heba Jouda said she saw a group of men beat up a boy of 12 or 13 years old and take his food as she left one of the Rafah centers.
Another time, she said, thieves attacked an older man, who hugged his sack, weeping that his children had no food.
They sliced his arm with a knife and ran off with the sack.
Al-Hobi said he was trampled in the scramble for boxes.
He managed to grab a bag of rice, a packet of macaroni.
He snagged flour — but much of it was ruined in the chaos.
At his family tent outside Khan Younis, his wife, Anwaar Saleh, said she will ration it all to make it last a week or so.
“We hope he doesn’t have to go back. His life is the most important thing,” she said.
Al-Hobi remains shaken — both by his brushes with death and the callousness that the race for food has instilled in everyone.
“No one will show you mercy these days. Everybody fends for themselves.”

 


Iran president says will not halt nuclear activity ‘under any circumstances’

Updated 21 June 2025
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Iran president says will not halt nuclear activity ‘under any circumstances’

  • “We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities,” said Pezeshkian

TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday his country will not halt nuclear activity “under any circumstances” amid ongoing fighting with Israel which hit nuclear sites.

“We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities, however, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances,” said Pezeshkian during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official IRNA news agency.


Cyprus arrests British man on suspicion of terror-related plot, police say

Updated 21 June 2025
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Cyprus arrests British man on suspicion of terror-related plot, police say

  • The man appeared before a district court on Saturday
  • Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a post on X that an Iranian attempt to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus was thwarted

NICOSIA: Police in Cyprus have arrested a British man on suspicion of terror-related offenses and espionage, authorities said on Saturday, with Israel accusing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of trying to attack Israeli citizens on the island.

The man appeared before a district court on Saturday, which ordered an eight-day detention pending inquiries.

Police gave no further details, citing national security.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a post on X that an Iranian attempt to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus was thwarted, “thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in cooperation with Israeli security services.”

He gave no more details about the nature of the attack, and there was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.

A spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed the individual’s nationality, saying it was in contact with local authorities.

“We are in contact (with) the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest of a British man,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

Several Cypriot news outlets reported the suspect was a man of Azeri ethnic descent and had been arrested in the Zakaki suburb of the coastal city of Limassol. The suspect was thought to have had a British RAF military base in nearby Akrotiri under surveillance, as well as Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou Air Base in the western region of Paphos since mid-April, Cyprus’s ANT1 news portal reported.

Cyprus lies very close to the Middle East and has in recent days been used as a transit point for people either leaving or going to the region amid the conflict between regional foes Israel and Iran.

Terror-related offenses on the island are very rare.


IAEA says centrifuge workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site hit

Updated 21 June 2025
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IAEA says centrifuge workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site hit

  • “There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” Grossi said

VIENNA: The UN nuclear agency confirmed on Saturday that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site had been hit, in the latest strike amid Israel’s bombing campaign.


“A centrifuge manufacturing workshop has been hit in Esfahan, the third such facility that has been targeted in Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear-related sites over the past week,” the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement quoting its chief Rafael Grossi.

“We know this facility well. There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” Grossi was quoted as saying.


Turkiye says Israel leading Middle East to ‘total disaster’

Updated 21 June 2025
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Turkiye says Israel leading Middle East to ‘total disaster’

  • “Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster,” Fidan said
  • He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran

ISATANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday accused Israel of leading the Middle East toward “total disaster” by attacking Iran on June 13.

“Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster by attacking Iran, our neighbor,” he told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.

“There is no Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni or Iranian problem but there is clearly an Israeli problem,” Fidan said.

He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran.

“We must prevent the situation from deteriorating into a spiral of violence that would further jeopardize regional and global security,” he added.

Speaking after Fidan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western leaders of providing “unconditional support” to Israel.

He said Turkiye would not allow borders in the Middle East to be redrawn “in blood.”

“It is vital for us to show more solidarity to end Israel’s banditry — not only in Palestine but also in Syria, in Lebanon and in Iran,” he told the OIC’s 57 member countries.

The OIC, founded in 1969, says its mission is to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.”