BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit the Middle East next week, Berlin said Friday, as the Gaza war grinds on and fears grow of a wider regional conflict.
Baerbock will travel to Israel Monday immediately after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
On arrival in Israel, Baerbock — who has visited the region several times since the start of the Israel-Hamas war — will give a speech at the Herzliya Security Conference.
On Tuesday, she will hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Baerbock will also meet with the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem.
Subsequently, Baerbock will travel to Lebanon for talks with officials in Beirut, including the migration minister.
Baerbock’s discussions with officials would focus on “the war in Gaza and the continuing catastrophic humanitarian situation,” as well as “the question of what a future could look like that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live together in safety,” the ministry spokeswoman said.
“In the Palestinian territories, the situation in the West Bank will also be a focus, as will the reform efforts of the Palestinian Authority,” the spokeswoman said.
“The particularly tense and dangerous situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon,” would also be discussed on the trip.
More than eight months of war, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, have led to dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory and repeated UN warnings of famine.
The October Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 37,431 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
German FM to travel to Middle East next week
https://arab.news/c9ajr
German FM to travel to Middle East next week
- On Tuesday, she will hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa in Ramallah
- Baerbock will travel to Lebanon for talks with officials in Beirut, including the migration minister
Palestinians flee as Israeli forces return to Gaza’s north
GAZA STRIP: Palestinians fled eastern Gaza City on Thursday under heavy bombardment as the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the area it had previously declared clear of Hamas militants.
The flare-up in the northern Gaza Strip’s Shujaiya district, which witnesses and medics said caused numerous casualties, comes as fears grow of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to Washington to discuss the Gaza crisis and ways to avoid broader conflict in the Middle East, said Israel did not want war but warned fighting on a massive scale would send Lebanon “back to the Stone Age.”
In Gaza, fighting has ground on despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “intense phase” of the war — now nearing its 10th month — was winding down.
Officials and medics in the Hamas-run territory said Israeli strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least six people in northern Gaza, and the Israeli military said it had “attacked terrorists” in Khan Yunis,” in the south.
In Gaza City, a witness in Shujaiya who declined to be named told AFP the situation was “frightening” as Israeli military vehicles approached amid air strikes and shelling.
“Residents are running through the streets in terror... wounded and martyrs lie in the streets.”
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told residents and displaced Gazans in the Shujaiya area to leave “for your safety,” in a message posted on social media.
They were asked to head south, to a declared “humanitarian zone” about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away.
An AFP photographer saw many leaving on foot, carrying their belongings as they walked through rubble-strewn streets.
Hamas in a statement said Israeli forces were “starting a ground incursion,” reporting “several” dead as “thousands flee under relentless bombing.”
Muhammad Ghurab, a doctor at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli hospital, said the facility had received seven “martyrs including four children” and dozens who were wounded “as the Israeli forces advanced to the east of Shujaiya neighborhood.”
Shujaiya resident Omar Sukar said he saw strikes as Gazans were collecting drinking water, which has been in limited supply due to an Israeli siege.
“The water truck had just arrived when the shelling began,” he told AFP.
A displaced Gazan woman, who asked not to be named, told AFP she was “devastated” by the violence and destruction.
“We lost our children and homes, and we keep fleeing from place to another.”
Beyond the evacuation order announced by Adraee, the military declined to comment on the fighting.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.
Israel in early January announced it had dismantled “Hamas’s military framework” in Gaza’s north, which saw the most intense fighting in the early stages of the war, but militants have since regrouped.
The war and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, with Gaza hospitals struggling to function, and basic supplies hard to come by as the vast majority of the territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced.
UNICEF announced Thursday an agreement with Israel to restart a power line that could return a key water desalination plant in Khan Yunis to full operating capacity.
“This is an important milestone, and we are very much looking forward to seeing it implemented,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the United Nations children’s fund.
In a rare medical evacuation from Gaza, 21 cancer patients left through the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Israeli border, a medical source in Egypt said.
It was the first evacuation since the closure of the Rafah border crossing — a key conduit for aid into Gaza — when Israeli forces took over its Palestinian side in early May.
Months of talks toward a truce and hostage release deal have so far failed as Israel has rejected Hamas demands for a permanent end to fighting and full troop withdrawal.
Israeli protesters have piled pressure on Netanyahu’s government,with thousands gathering in front of Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Thursday to call for a hostage release deal, according to an AFP reporter.
US officials have voiced hope a Gaza ceasefire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have traded near daily cross-border fire since early October.
Tensions have surged as Israel said this month that its war plans were ready, sparking threats from Hezbollah that, in the event of all-out war, none of Israel would be safe.
Germany and Canada have advised citizens in Lebanon to leave.
In the latest clashes on Thursday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at an Israeli military base and sent drones in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon, one of which killed a fighter.
Israel said its air defenses “intercepted most of the launches,” reporting no casualties.
Israel meanwhile dismissed a UN-backed report that said nearly half a million Gazans faced “catastrophic” hunger.
Government spokesman David Mencer said “claims regarding starvation” were designed to “exert pressure on Israel.”
US targets petrol tankers over Iran nuclear ‘escalation’
WASHINGTON: The US on Thursday announced sanctions against shipping companies for transporting Iranian oil, saying it was a response to Tehran’s nuclear “escalation,” on the eve of presidential elections in the Islamic republic.
“Over the past month, Iran has announced steps to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
He said the United States was imposing the sanctions “in response to these continued nuclear escalations,” saying, “We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome.”
The State Department announced sanctions on three shipping companies for allegedly transporting Iranian oil as well as 11 associated vessels.
The sanctions block any assets of the companies in the US and criminalize US transactions with them.
The United States already has a sweeping unilateral ban on other countries buying Iranian oil, imposed by former president Donald Trump when he withdrew from a nuclear deal.
President Joe Biden’s administration initially said it would restore the 2015 deal but gave up after exhaustive negotiations with Tehran, major protests inside Iran and, more recently, tension over Iran’s support for Palestinian militants Hamas.
The UN nuclear watchdog said earlier this month that Iran is further expanding its nuclear capacities, with Tehran informing the agency that it was installing more cascades at enrichment facilities.
Iran’s cleric-led government denies seeking a nuclear weapon. Iran on Friday holds elections for president after conservative Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.
Hezbollah fires rockets at Israeli base, says four fighters killed
BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it fired “dozens” of rockets Thursday at a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon, announcing four of its fighters had been killed.
Fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah have risen in recent weeks as threats have intensified between the sides, which have traded regular cross-border fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas ally Hezbollah said that “in response to the enemy attacks that targeted the city of Nabatiyeh and village of Sohmor,” its fighters bombed “the main air and missile defense base of the (Israeli) northern area command... with dozens of Katyusha rockets.”
It said in separate statements that four of its fighters, one from eastern Lebanon’s Sohmor, had been killed, and claimed two other attacks on Israeli troops and positions, including one with drones.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “approximately 35 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon.”
Air defenses “successfully intercepted most of the launches. No injuries were reported,” it added.
It said air strikes “eliminated” three Hezbollah operatives, one in the Sohmor area and two in the country’s south.
The military also said that “two UAVs (drones) that were identified crossing from Lebanon fell” in northern Israel, reporting no injuries.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli attacks in several areas of south Lebanon on Thursday, and said a strike a day earlier in Nabatiyeh wounded “more than 20” people when a two-story building was targeted.
Fears have grown the Gaza war could become a regional conflagration if the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which so far has been largely limited to the border area, expands.
France’s foreign ministry said Thursday that Paris was “extremely concerned” about the fighting, calling “all sides to exercise the greatest restraint.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to Washington on Wednesday that his country did not want war in Lebanon, but could send it back to the “Stone Age” if diplomacy failed.
Amid Western diplomatic efforts to dial down tensions in recent months, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday visited Beirut and cautioned that “miscalculation” could trigger all-out war, also urging “extreme restraint.”
The violence has killed 485 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to authorities.
Israeli anti-government protesters march on Netanyahu’s home
- “We’ve been abandoned — Elections now!” read one sign that rose above the crowd
- Many in the crowd also chanted their support for reaching a deal to free Israeli hostages
JERUSALEM: Anti-government protesters gathered in Jerusalem on Thursday and converged on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home, lighting a bonfire on the street outside and calling for his resignation.
“We’ve been abandoned — Elections now!” read one sign that rose above the crowd. Demonstrators yelled through megaphones, waved flags and banged on snare drums while police officers stood at barricades.
Such demonstrations have grown more frequent as the war against Hamas in Gaza rages on and fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon threatens to escalate, but they have not reached the fever pitch of a year ago when Netanyahu’s government tried to overhaul Israel’s justice system.
Many in the crowd, which appeared to number in the thousands, also chanted their support for reaching a deal to free some 120 Israeli hostages being held by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
As the sun began to set, protesters blocked traffic and lit a large bonfire on the central Jerusalem street. But there were no reports of major scuffles and police did not use a water cannon to control the crowd, as they have during more rowdy demonstrations.
The protest movement has yet to change the political landscape, and Netanyahu still controls a stable majority in parliament.
Gazans struggle to feed their children under Israeli campaign
KHAN YOUNIS: Famine approaches slowly for Gazans, who spend hours in queues for a few ladles of cooked food and the chance to fill plastic containers with drinkable water after nearly nine months of Israel’s military campaign in the enclave.
Sometimes, there is nothing to queue for in the shattered streets and crowded schools that have been turned into shelters for the vast majority of Palestinians displaced by bombardment.
In a UN-run school in Khan Younis that has been turned into a shelter for displaced people, Umm Feisal Abu Nqera sat on the floor between mattresses, preparing a small meal for herself and her six children.
She cut tomatoes into a bowl, stirred a small pan of beans, and crushed ingredients in a mortar and pestle. Her young daughters lay nearby, playing listlessly.
Her husband fed a baby liquefied lentils from a bottle.
“If the charity kitchen did not come here for one day, we would wonder what we would eat that day,” she said.
The beans came from the kitchen. Food prices in Gaza are very high, and her family has had no income since the war began.
“We are living the worst days of our lives in terms of famine and deprivation,” she said. “Today, your son looks at you, and you bleed from within because you cannot provide him with his most basic rights and the simplest needs for his life,” she said.
