GAZA STRIP: Israel’s army dropped thousands of leaflets over war-torn Gaza City on Wednesday urging all residents to flee a heavy offensive through the main city of the besieged Palestinian territory.
The leaflets, addressed to “everyone in Gaza City,” set out designated escape routes and warned that the urban area, which had a pre-war population of over half a million, would “remain a dangerous combat zone.”
The warning came as Israeli troops, backed by tanks and aircraft, have fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the heaviest combat the city has seen in months in the war raging since October 7.
The United Nations said the latest evacuations “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times.”
“The civilians must be protected,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
An Israeli government spokesman said the aim was “to put civilians out of harm’s way” as troops battle militants “where they are.”
One woman carrying her scant belongings through the ruins, Umm Nimr Al-Jamal, told AFP on Tuesday that “this is the 12th time” her family has had to flee.
“How many times can we endure this? A thousand times? Where will we end up?“
The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement came as talks were to resume in Qatar toward a truce and hostage release deal in the war now grinding on into its 10th month.
Hamas official Hossam Badran, asked about the increased military operations, told AFP that Israel was “hoping that the resistance will relinquish its legitimate demands” in truce negotiations.
But “the continuation of massacres compels us to adhere to our demands,” he said.
Heavy fighting also raged in Gaza’s far-southern Rafah, where witnesses told AFP that Israeli tanks had rumbled into the city center and unleashed intense fire on buildings.
Across Gaza, deadly strikes have hit four schools used as shelters in four days, killing at least 49 people according to medics and officials in the Hamas-run territory, and sparking rebukes from France and Germany which both labelled the attacks “unacceptable.”
“We call for these strikes to be fully investigated,” said the French foreign ministry, highlighting a deadly strike on Tuesday on a school near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
“It is unacceptable that schools, especially those housing civilians displaced by the fighting, should be targeted.”
Israel said the strikes had targeted militants hiding in schools.
In Gaza City’s eastern district of Shujaiya, where major battles raged since an Israeli evacuation order on June 27, a spokesman for the civil defense agency said there was widespread “destruction.”
Shujaiya has become a “ghost city,” said Mahmud Bassal.
Bassal as well as witnesses said Israeli troops have withdrawn from the area, though the military told AFP its forces were “still operating” there.
Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation led by spy chief David Barnea arrived in Doha for truce talks, said a source with knowledge of the sensitive negotiations.
CIA director William Burns was also expected in the Qatari capital after holding talks in Cairo on Tuesday.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile met US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.
Netanyahu “emphasized his commitment” to a proposed truce plan, “as long as Israel’s red lines are preserved,” his office said.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war 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, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,295 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli lawmakers that 60 percent of Hamas fighters had been “eliminated or wounded” during the war.
Israel has imposed a punishing siege on Gaza’s 2.4 million people, eased only by sporadic aid deliveries.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned of “critical” shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months.
Independent UN rights experts on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign,” a claim strongly rejected by Israel.
Relatives of Israeli hostages, who have piled pressure on Netanyahu demanding swift action to rescue their loved ones, began a four-day march from Tel Aviv to the seat of government in Jerusalem.
“We want all of Israel to come out with us” and “remind Netanyahu that... he needs to sign a deal to bring them back and stop this terrible war,” said Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger who died in captivity.
Since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli forces have also traded regular fire with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, allies of Hamas, sparking fears of a broader regional conflagration.
As the cross-border clashes have intensified, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday his group would end the attacks if fighting in Gaza ends.
“If a ceasefire is reached, and we all hope for that... our front will cease fire without any discussion.”
Israeli army orders evacuation of battle-torn Gaza City
https://arab.news/pne4d
Israeli army orders evacuation of battle-torn Gaza City
- Deadly strikes have hit four schools used as shelters in four days across Gaza
- Latest evacuations ‘only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families,’ UN says
Proposed UK arms ban for Israel delayed
- Foreign secretary launched review into allegations of war crimes in Gaza
- Attorney general visited Israel last week to explain govt’s change of stance on ICC Netanyahu arrest warrant request
LONDON: The UK will delay a decision on banning arms exports to Israel until later this summer, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Britain’s new Foreign Secretary David Lammy ordered an immediate review into allegations of war crimes committed by Israel in its war on Gaza after Labour won the UK’s general election in early July.
There had been speculation that a ban could be imposed as early as this week, but The Times reported that the government needs more time in order to assess use of specific weaponry linked to war crimes.
Last week, the new UK Attorney General Richard Hermer KC visited Israel after the government dropped objections raised by its predecessor to a request for an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hermer was in Tel Aviv to explain the Labour government’s reasoning for its decision, and has gone on record in the past about his view that Israel’s “unlawful” occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank is “deeply damaging” to Israel and “wholly contrary to the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world) that I grew up with and continue to guide me.”
Last year, he was one of a number of leading Jewish lawyers in the UK to sign a letter urging Israel to show restraint in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
Philippe Sands KC, another signatory who also represented the Palestinians at the International Court of Justice, recently insisted that the UK should stop arming Israel after an ICJ opinion calling for the end of the occupation of the West Bank.
Currently, the UK government is not including the West Bank in its assessment of whether arms export licenses should be suspended.
The UK sold arms worth £18.2 million ($23.4 million) to Israel last year, including components manufactured for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet program, of which Britain is a tier-one partner with the US, creating as much as 15 percent of the parts for the aircraft.
Banning the sale of parts for the plane would cause a major diplomatic and commercial issue with both Tel Aviv and Washington.
The F-35 is thought to have been used by Israel for strikes in the war in Gaza that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local officials.
Palestinian prisoner group demands international inquiry into abuse allegations
- Head of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said on Monday there had been reports of abuse at Israeli military facility at center of investigation
RAMALLAH: The association representing Palestinian prisoners called for an international inquiry into allegations of abuse of detainees in Israeli jails since the start of the war in Gaza, following an outcry by right wing protesters over an Israeli investigation.
Qadura Fares, head of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, said on Monday night there had been multiple reports of abuse at Sde Teiman, the military facility in southern Israel at the center of the investigation.
“Every day, as we witness the massacres against our people in Gaza, we hear horrific and harsh testimonies from legal teams and detainees who are released,” he said in a statement.
He said the Israeli investigation and the detention of nine Israeli soldiers was a “farce” aimed at misleading world opinion.
The Israeli military said the investigation into the Israeli soldiers was ordered “following suspected substantial abuse of a detainee.” It provided no further details.
According to Israeli press reports, the soldiers have been accused of sexually abusing the prisoner. Reuters has not been able to independently verify those reports. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Army Radio reported that the detainee had been a member of an elite unit of Hamas who had been captured in Gaza during the Israeli offensive there that followed the group’s Oct. 7 attack.
The investigation sparked angry protests from some Israelis who said the soldiers had been doing their duty. It also underscored longstanding tensions in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between hard-line nationalist-religious parties and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the army command.
Protesters, including a number of prominent right-wing politicians, broke into two Israeli military facilities on Monday, in a move denounced by Israel’s army chief as “bordering on anarchy.”
France backs Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara
- France, as the former colonial power in the region, has walked a diplomatic tightrope between Rabat and Algiers on the issue
RABAT/PARIS: France recognizes a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty as the only way of resolving a long-running dispute over the territory, President Emmanuel Macron said in a letter on Tuesday.
The dispute, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers Western Sahara its own territory, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
France, as the former colonial power in the region, has walked a diplomatic tightrope between Rabat and Algiers on the issue. Most of France’s Western allies already back Morocco’s plan.
“For France, autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework within which this issue must be resolved,” according to the letter sent by Macron to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Our support for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 is clear and constant. For France, it now constitutes the only basis for achieving a just, lasting and negotiated political solution in line with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.”
Macron said Paris views Western Sahara as part of Morocco’s present and future sovereignty, adding that France would act according to this position domestically and internationally.
The Royal Palace in a statement welcomed the announcement as a “significant development in support of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara.”
Algeria expressed “great regret” and strongly denounced Paris’ decision, adding there would be consequences, without giving details.
Algeria has recognized the Polisario’s self-proclaimed Sahrawi republic and backed a United Nations plan for a referendum with independence as an option.
That referendum never took place due to disagreements over who should vote and how it should be conducted and recent UN Security Council resolutions have not mentioned the option, urging the parties to work together for a realistic solution based on compromise.
Spain, the former colonial power in Western Sahara, said in 2022 it backs Morocco’s autonomy plan.
The US, Israel and Arab monarchies also back Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory, where 28 mostly African and Arab countries have opened consulates in what Rabat sees as tangible support.
The Polisario in 2020 withdrew from a UN-brokered truce. But the long-frozen conflict remains of low-intensity.
Tunisia’s upcoming presidential race marred by candidacy constraints
TUNIS: Tunisia has kicked off candidacy submissions for its upcoming presidential election on October 6, amid what experts say are significant constraints on hopefuls challenging incumbent President Kais Saied.
A number of conditions and requirements to run for office have changed under Saied, 66, who was democratically elected in 2019 but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021.
To qualify to appear on the ballot, candidates are required to gather “an enormous number” of signatures, said Amine Kharrat, a political analyst at independent observatory Al Bawsala.
“The conditions have been hardened,” Isabelle Werenfels, North Africa expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told AFP.
Not to mention, a number of would-be candidates will not be able to even obtain the initial candidacy form because they are in prison.
Among them are Issam Chebbi, leader of centrist party Al Joumhouri, and Ghazi Chaouchi, head of the social-democrat party Democratic Current.
Detained for “plotting against the state,” the two politicians are among over 20 of Saied’s opponents held since a flurry of arrests in February 2023.
Abir Moussi, a vocal critic of Saied and head of the Free Destourian Party, has also been detained on similar charges since October last year.
Amnesty International labelled the arrests a “politically motivated witch hunt.”
An expert speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP “everything has been set up to push aside credible candidates who can represent a real danger” for Saied.
Candidates vs. Saied’s rule
In 2022, Saied led a revision of the constitution, concentrating executive power firmly in the presidency’s hands and reversing hard-won rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings.
Kharrat said many factors are “reducing the credibility” of the upcoming election, referring to the candidacy criteria, the delayed announcement of the election day, and a 2022 law punishing “spreading false news.”
The law, Decree 54, has been used to prosecute more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures, according to the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT).
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said last week that since Saied’s power grab, “violations that we thought part of Tunisia’s past are becoming more and more discernible and systematic.”
“Instead of the vibrant debates of a pluralist political scene, I observed government repression, fueling fear and dread about what’s to come.”
Yet many still aspire to submit their candidacies.
Key would-be candidates include Kamel Akrout, a retired military admiral, and Mondher Zenaidi, 74, a former minister who has presented his experience as an asset for debt-stricken Tunisia.
Last week, K2 Rhym, a famous 43-year-old Tunisian rapper, also announced his intention to run.
The country is meanwhile still grappling with an economic crisis that has seen many Tunisians join mostly sub-Saharan African migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
If Akrout or Zenaidi are pushed out of the race, it would be a referendum on Saied’s rule, said the anonymous expert.
The expert added that the vote “will define the nature of the (next) regime.”
“If Saied wins by a wide margin in the first round, he will become even more authoritarian. Otherwise, he will be more inclined to compromise.”
“Much will depend on the opposition and its ability to unite behind an alternative candidate to Saied,” said Werenfels.
“If one or more candidates get 15 or 20 percent of the vote, there will be a second round.”
Left-wing movements and Ennahdha, the Islamist-inspired party that had dominated Tunisian politics following the 2011 uprising, still hesitate to boycott the election, seeing it as “an opportunity to challenge Kais Saied,” said Kharrat.
It remains difficult to measure support for Saied or any other hopeful prior to the vote, amid a ban on political polls.
While Saied’s popularity among working-class Tunisians endures, experts believe he is far below the 72 percent he secured in the 2019 vote.
Recent rallies in support of Saied have seen low turnout.
I Watch, a Tunisian watchdog, said last week in a report that Saied had “failed to keep 87.5 percent of his electoral promises” over the past five years.
But Saied has stepped up his campaign, declaring that he was driven by “a sacred duty toward the homeland” when announcing his intention to seek a second term.
In the past few weeks, he has multiplied his famed surprise visits, addressing issues such as pollution and water cuts, all while blaming “conspirators” and “traitors” working under “foreign influence.”
Iran’s new president warns Israel against attacking Lebanon
- Pezeshkian, in his phone call with Macron, accused Israel of violating “all the international frameworks and laws” in its “crimes” against Palestinians
- Nasser Kanani added that Israel “does not have the least moral authority to comment” on the deaths in Majdal Shams, on the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday warned Israel against attacking Lebanon as tensions soar over a deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights blamed on Tehran-backed Hezbollah.
“The Zionist regime (Israel) will make a great mistake with heavy consequences if it attacks Lebanon,” Pezeshkian said during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the Iranian president’s website.
Pezeshkian assumed official responsibilities on Sunday after official endorsement from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, and is to be sworn in to parliament on Tuesday.
Israel vowed to hit back after the strike on a football field in Majdal Shams, a Druze Arab town in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, killed 12 youths on Saturday.
Israel accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement of being responsible for the strike, which the militant group denies.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israel in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Pezeshkian, in his phone call with Macron, accused Israel of violating “all the international frameworks and laws” in its “crimes” against Palestinians.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Sunday warned Israel that any new military “adventures” in Lebanon could lead to “unforeseen consequences” and “the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity, and war in the region.”
Kanani accused Israel of pinning the blame on Hezbollah “to divert public opinion and world attention from its massive crimes” in the Gaza Strip, where war has raged since October 7.
He added that Israel “does not have the least moral authority to comment” on the deaths in Majdal Shams, on the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations.
Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Islamic republic has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war but denied any involvement.
