GAZA: The United States warned Israel Thursday that it risks “disaster” if it sends troops into Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The warning came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.
Israel’s armed forces stepped up its air strikes on the city on Thursday as fears of ground fighting grew among the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced from other parts of Gaza who are now sheltering in tents and bombed out buildings.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that a military push into Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”
Heavy fighting raged on despite international efforts toward a ceasefire in the bloodiest ever Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Washington had “yet to see any evidence of serious planning” for a Rafah ground operation.
Noting that Rafah is also a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid destined for Gaza, Patel said such an assault was “not something we’d support.”
“To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought... would be a disaster.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed Washington’s concerns to Netanyahu directly during their talks on Wednesday in Jerusalem, Patel said.
Publicly, the US top diplomat warned that any “military operation that Israel undertakes needs to put civilians first and foremost.”
Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in fighting, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started.
AFP journalists reported that Israel carried out at least seven air strikes overnight in the Rafah area, terrifying civilians crowded into shelters and makeshift camps.
“These strikes are proof there is no safety in Rafah,” said resident Umm Hassan, 48, whose home was damaged in the shelling of the nearby house of a local police chief.
“Look at the residential unit they just blew up,” he said. “Regarding Netanyahu’s threat to invade Rafah, we are people of faith. We are not worried. Life is one and God is one.”
Strikes and ground combat continued across the Hamas-ruled territory, now in its fifth month of war, where the health ministry said another 130 people were killed in 24 hours.
Blinken ended his fifth tour of the region, where US forces have been drawn into related conflicts from Iraq to Yemen.
On the ceasefire talks, Blinken insisted he still saw “space for agreement to be reached” to halt the fighting and bring home hostages.
Egypt was set to host new talks with Qatari and Hamas negotiators hoping to achieve “calm” in Gaza and a prisoner-hostage exchange, an Egyptian official said.
The Israeli prime minister had rejected what he labelled Hamas’s “bizarre demands” in the talks.
Blinken told reporters that Hamas’s counter-proposal had at least offered an opportunity “to pursue negotiations.”
“While there are some clear non-starters in Hamas’s response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached, and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there,” he said.
Hamas said a delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, a leading member of the group’s political bureau, was traveling to Cairo.
A Gaza-based Palestinian official close to the militant group later told AFP: “We expect the negotiations to be very complex and difficult.
“But Hamas is open to discussions and the movement is keen to reach a ceasefire,” added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.
Months of bombardment and siege have deepened a humanitarian crisis, especially in southern Gaza.
“Their living conditions are abysmal,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. “They lack the basic necessities to survive, stalked by hunger, disease and death.”
UN rights chief Volker Turk charged that Israel was committing a “war crime” with its reported destruction of buildings to create a “buffer zone” along the border inside Gaza.
Israel’s “extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime,” he said in a statement.
The Gaza war has sparked a surge in violence across the region by Iran-backed groups operating in solidarity with Hamas, drawing retaliatory attacks from Israel and the United States and its allies.
A US air strike in Iraq on Wednesday killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group who US Central Command said was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces.”
The strike came after Washington last week launched a wave of attacks on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria following the killing of three US troops in neighboring Jordan.
The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted a commander of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that it held responsible for recent rocket fire into Israel from south Lebanon.
In other diplomatic attempts to end the war, Jordan’s King Abdullah II left on a tour of the United States, Canada, France and Germany, the royal court said.
US warns Israel of ‘disaster’ if it sends troops into Gaza’s Rafah
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US warns Israel of ‘disaster’ if it sends troops into Gaza’s Rafah
- Israel’s armed forces stepped up its air strikes on the city on Thursday
- Heavy fighting raged on despite international efforts toward a ceasefire
Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah
- Israeli forces continue violations of ceasefire agreement, carrying out demolition operations in Naqoura
BEIRUT: On Saturday, the Lebanese army took control of several strategic sites previously held by Palestinian factions.
The factions had been affiliated with Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime, which fell 13 days ago, and subsequently with Hezbollah, and had posed a threat to Lebanon’s eastern sector.
The army took over the Sultan Yaacoub site in western Bekaa from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the General Command and the Halwa camp from Fatah Al-Intifada, and the Hechmech site, located between Qousaya and Deir El Ghazal in central Bekaa, from both factions.
Army command said the forces took over the sites in addition to “seizing quantities of weapons and ammunition and military gear.”
It added that the army “continues to take control of positions previously occupied by Palestinian groups within Lebanon as part of efforts to maintain security and stability and enforce state authority in various areas.”
The camps had remained outside of the Lebanese state’s control for around 40 years, refusing to surrender their weapons under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which stated that all weapons should be surrendered to the Lebanese State, except for firearms in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which were considered Syrian-protected areas.
Hisham Debsi, director of the independent Palestinian center Tatweer for Strategic Studies and Human Development, told Arab News: “The Syrian regime had launched 13 Palestinian organizations, forming its own system that subsequently served its own policies and those of Hezbollah. With the collapse of Hezbollah, these organizations, which are located in Bekaa, became unprotected, and with the collapse of the Assad regime, the last shield for these organizations — who can be called mercenaries — has fallen.
“They were a disgrace to the Palestinian cause because they would speak in its name when, in fact, they were tools used by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah,” he continued.
These Palestinian factions aimed to “marginalize Fatah and abolish independent Palestinian decision-making,” said Debsi, adding that the Lebanese army taking control of these sites restored “normalcy.”
Regarding the fate of Palestinian militants affiliated with these factions, he said: “As individuals, if they have families in the Lebanese camps, they can join them. However, most of them are Palestinian refugees from Syria, and they can go wherever they wish in Syria.”
Debsi claimed that most Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon during the 2011 protests had since left for Europe, with only a small number remaining in Lebanon’s camps.
In the recent conflict in Lebanon, Israel did not directly target sites associated with Palestinian factions, which were bombarded in the 2006 war. For years, reports have alleged that these sites housed weaponry, but there has never been concrete evidence to support such claims.
In line with security measures enforcing UN Resolution 1701, the Lebanese army reported on Saturday that its intelligence unit had arrested six individuals and seized weapons during raids on three Palestinian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley.
In southern Lebanon, invading Israeli forces continued their violations of the ceasefire agreement, carrying out further demolition operations in the town of Naqoura. They also set up a permanent military checkpoint in place of a Lebanese army post near the town’s fishing harbor and razed citrus groves near the UNIFIL headquarters.
An Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the border, an area that residents of the south are prohibited from approaching or traversing.
In the southern suburb of Beirut, the General Directorate of Civil Defense released a statement saying that search and rescue teams had successfully recovered the bodies of four victims from the rubble of the Ayoub building in the Haret Hreik area, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the residence of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.
The bodies will undergo DNA testing to confirm their identities, along with three other bodies discovered on Friday in the same area, the statement added.
Hamas, two other Palestinian groups say Gaza ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’
- Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha
CAIRO: Hamas and two other Palestinian militant groups said on Saturday that a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel is “closer than ever,” provided Israel does not impose new conditions.
Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha, rekindling hope of an agreement.
“The possibility of reaching an agreement (for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal) is closer than ever, provided the enemy stops imposing new conditions,” Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a rare joint statement issued after talks in Cairo on Friday.
A Hamas leader told AFP on Saturday that talks had made “significant and important progress” in recent days.
“Most points related to the ceasefire and prisoner exchange issues have been agreed upon,” he said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
“Some unresolved points remain, but they do not hinder the process. The agreement could be finalized before the end of this year, provided it is not disrupted by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s new conditions.”
He said that if an agreement is reached it will be implemented in phases, ending with “a serious prisoner exchange deal, a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from Gaza.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “hopeful” for a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would actually materialize.
“I don’t want to hazard a guess as to what the probability is,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It should happen. It needs to happen. We need to get people home,” he said, referring to the release of hostages under a ceasefire deal.
Palestinian militants led by Hamas abducted 251 hostages during their attack on Israel on October 7 last year. Of those, 96 are still held in Gaza, including 36 the Israeli military says are dead.
Efforts to strike a truce and hostage release deal have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks.
Despite numerous rounds of indirect talks, Israel and Hamas have agreed just one truce, which lasted for a week at the end of 2023.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since then, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he does not want to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Another unresolved issue is the governance of post-war Gaza.
It remains a highly contentious issue, including within the Palestinian leadership.
Israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow Hamas to run the territory ever again.
16 injured after Israel hit by Yemen-launched ‘projectile’
- The projectile fell in Bnei Brak town, east of Tel Aviv
- Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack on central Israel
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Saturday it had failed to intercept a “projectile” launched from Yemen that landed near Tel Aviv, with the national medical service saying 14 people were lightly wounded.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, one projectile launched from Yemen was identified and unsuccessful interception attempts were made,” the Israeli military said on its Telegram channel.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the missile attack in central Israel on Saturday, in a statement the Houthis said they had “targeted a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of” Tel Aviv using a ballistic missile. Israeli rescuers earlier reported 16 wounded in the attack.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missile attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago, most of which have been intercepted.
In return, Israel has struck multiple targets in Yemen — including ports and energy facilities in areas controlled by the Houthis.
“A short time ago, reports were received of a weapon falling in one of the settlements within the Tel Aviv district,” Israeli police said Saturday.
According to Israeli media, the projectile fell in the town of Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s emergency medical service said 14 people had been injured.
“Additional teams are treating several people on-site who were injured while heading to protected areas, as well as those suffering from anxiety,” a spokesman said.
The Houthi rebels say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and last week pledged to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”
On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.
In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by US and sometimes British forces.
The rebels said Thursday that Israeli air strikes that day killed nine people, after the group fired a missile toward Israel, badly damaging a school.
While Israel has previously hit targets in Yemen, Thursday’s were the first against the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
“The Israeli enemy targeted ports in Hodeida and power stations in Sanaa, and the Israeli aggression resulted in the martyrdom of nine civilian martyrs,” rebel leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said in a lengthy speech broadcast by the rebels’ Al-Masira TV.
Israel said it struck the targets in Yemen after intercepting a missile fired from the country, a strike the rebels subsequently claimed.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said they had fired ballistic missiles at “two specific and sensitive military targets... in the occupied Yaffa area,” referring to the Jaffa region near Tel Aviv.
Qatar embassy reopens in Damascus with flag raising
DAMASCUS: Qatar reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, 13 years after it was closed early in Syria’s civil conflict, as foreign governments seek to establish ties with the country’s new rulers.
An AFP journalist saw Qatar’s flag raised over the mission, making it the second nation, after Turkiye, to officially reopen its embassy since Islamist-led militants drove president Bashar Assad from power earlier this month.
Unlike several other Arab governments, Qatar — which supported opposition groups during Syria’s civil war — did not attempt to rehabilitate Assad before his toppling.
Earlier on Saturday, workers were busy sweeping the pavement, cleaning the area and removing graffiti from the building’s walls. One of the workers had placed the Qatari flag at the base of the flagpole.
Doha sent a diplomatic delegation to Damascus several days ago to meet with the transitional government. The mission expressed “Doha’s full commitment to support the Syrian people,” a Qatari diplomat said.
On Tuesday, the European Union said it was ready to reopen its diplomatic mission in Damascus, while Britain, France and the United States have all sent delegations to the Syrian capital since Assad’s overthrow.
The French flag was raised over Paris’s embassy in Damascus on Tuesday, although the country’s special envoy to Syria said the mission would remain closed “as long as security criteria are not met.”
Meanwhile, the United States on Friday dropped a $10 million bounty it had issued years earlier on Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria’s new leader and the head of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham Islamist militant group that spearheaded the ouster of Assad.
HTS has its roots in Al-Qaeda, but has sought to moderate its image in recent years.
Syria’s new rulers name Asaad Al-Shibani as foreign minister, state news agency says
Syria’s new rulers have appointed a foreign minister, the official Syrian news agency (SANA) said on Saturday, as they seek to build international relations two weeks after Bashar Assad was ousted.
The ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
No details were immediately available about Shibani.
Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has actively engaged with foreign delegations since assuming power, including hosting the UN’s Syria envoy and senior US diplomats.
Sharaa has signaled a willingness to engage diplomatically with international envoys, saying his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development. He has said he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
