Arab Parliament describes Israeli assault on Gaza hospital as ‘war crime’
Attack is latest in ‘ongoing series of atrocities’ against Palestinians, it says
Body calls for end to ‘international silence,’ as crisis worsens
Updated 28 December 2024
Arab News
LONDON: The Arab Parliament has denounced Israel’s burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday as “a new war crime,” following reports that patients, injured civilians and medical staff were forced to evacuate under perilous conditions.
According to witnesses, Israeli troops stormed the hospital, setting large sections ablaze, detained its director and ordered the evacuation of hundreds to the nearby Indonesian Hospital.
The displaced individuals were left in dire conditions, lacking food, water, electricity and medical supplies, witnesses said.
The assault rendered the facility “useless,” worsening Gaza’s already severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory’s health officials said on Saturday.
In a statement on Saturday, the Arab Parliament described the incident as “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” and called for those responsible to be brought before international courts.
“This crime is added to an ongoing series of atrocities by the occupation forces against Palestinian civilians,” it said.
The Arab Parliament accused Israel of systematically targeting Gaza’s already fragile health infrastructure and said the international community’s silence had emboldened these actions.
“The persistence on the total and complete destruction of the dilapidated health system in the Gaza Strip is a direct result of international silence on its crimes,” it said.
The statement urged the UN Security Council and broader international community to take action, calling for an immediate ceasefire, accountability for alleged war crimes and measures to prevent further humanitarian catastrophes in Gaza.
Pro-Turkiye Syria groups reduce presence in Kurdish area
Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the Daesh group in Syria in 2019
Updated 4 sec ago
DAMASCUS: Pro-Turkiye Syrian groups have scaled down their military presence in a historically Kurdish-majority area of the country’s north which they have controlled since 2018, a Syrian defense ministry official said on Tuesday. The move follows an agreement signed last month between Syria’s new authorities and Kurdish officials that provides for the return of displaced Kurds, including tens of thousands who fled the Afrin region in 2018. The pro-Ankara groups have “reduced their military presence and checkpoints” in Afrin, in Aleppo province, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. Their presence has been “maintained in the region for now,” said the official, adding that authorities wanted to station them in army posts but these had been a regular target of Israeli strikes. After Islamist-led forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, the new authorities announced the disbanding of all armed groups and their integration into the new army, a move that should include pro-Turkiye groups who control swathes of northern Syria. Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area. The United Nations has estimated that half of the enclave’s 320,000 inhabitants fled during the offensive. The Kurds and rights groups have accused the pro-Turkiye forces of human rights violations in the area. Last month, the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration that controls swathes of northern and northeastern Syria struck a deal to integrate its civil and military institutions into those of the central government. The administration’s de facto army, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the Daesh group in Syria in 2019, with backing from a US-led international coalition. A Kurdish source close to the matter said the people of Afrin were “waiting for all the checkpoints to be removed and for the exit of pro-Turkiye factions.” Requesting anonymity as the issue is sensitive, the source told AFP that in talks with Damascus, the SDF was pushing for security personnel deployed in Afrin to be from the area. The SDF is also calling for “international organizations or friendly countries from the international coalition” to supervise collective returns, the source added. Syria’s new leadership has been seeking to unify the country since the December overthrow of longtime president Bashar Assad after more than 13 years of civil war. This month, Kurdish fighters withdrew from two neighborhoods of Aleppo as part of the deal. Syrian Kurdish official Bedran Kurd said on X that the Aleppo city agreement “represents the first phase of a broader plan aimed at ensuring the safe return of the people of Afrin.”
UAE’s foreign minister discusses crisis in Gaza with Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts
They call for intensified efforts to restore ceasefire agreement, secure the release of hostages, and enhance humanitarian efforts to help the population of the territory
Updated 9 min 23 sec ago
Arab News
LONDON: The UAE’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, discussed the urgent need to resolve the crisis in Gaza during meetings in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts.
Sheikh Abdullah and Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, Badr Abdel Ati, emphasized the need for intensified efforts to restore the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and to secure the release of remaining hostages. In addition to the latest developments in the territory, they discussed other matters of regional and international interest.
In a separate meeting, the Emirati minister and Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, talked about the latest developments in the Middle East and ways in which regional stability might be enhanced.
In particular, they reviewed strategies for improving the humanitarian response in Gaza to ensure the urgent, safe and unobstructed delivery of adequate aid to its suffering inhabitants, the Emirates News Agency reported. They also reaffirmed their commitment to continued coordination between their countries on responses to regional crises and challenges.
US trade mission to Iraq is the largest in the more than 100-year history of the US Chamber of Commerce
Updated 34 min 3 sec ago
AFP
BAGHDAD: A US trade delegation representing 60 companies was visiting Iraq to sign economic cooperation agreements with the private sector, Washington’s embassy in Baghdad said Tuesday.
The three-day visit, which began on Monday, comes amid fears of an international recession after US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on numerous countries, which included 39 percent duties on Iraqi imports.
The US delegation consists of 101 members from 60 companies in the energy, technology and health sectors, who are set to meet with senior Iraqi officials and sign agreements, said an embassy statement.
It is the largest US trade mission to Iraq in the more than 100-year history of the US Chamber of Commerce, the embassy added.
In a post on X, the US mission said that a “pivotal memorandum of understanding to strengthen ties between the US and Iraqi private sectors” was signed on Monday between the US Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce.
“This partnership will foster long-term economic collaboration,” it said.
According to the office of the US trade representative in Iraq, total goods trade with the oil-rich country reached $9.1 billion in 2024, with US exports amounting to $1.7 billion.
US goods imports from Iraq totaled $7.4 billion.
During the visit, Iraq is expected to sign a “landmark agreement” with General Electric to develop a high-efficiency power plant, according to Farhad Alaaldin, foreign policy adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani.
Last year, during Sudani’s visit to Washington, Iraq and the US signed several memoranda of understanding in the energy sector, including one with General Electric to ensure the maintenance of the Iraqi electricity grid.
Iraq’s power plants are currently highly dependent on gas imported from Iran, which provides about a third of its neighbor’s energy needs.
But Tehran has often cut supplies, exacerbating regular power outages.
Baghdad has repeatedly stressed the need to diversify energy sources to reduce its dependence on Iran.
Iraq has been trying to move past decades of war and unrest, including a sectarian struggle after the US-led invasion 2003 toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.
Yemen's Houthis say four killed in US strikes on west
The Houthis’ TV channel said there had been “deaths and wounded" in strikes on the Al-Hawak district in Hodeida
Updated 39 min 10 sec ago
AFP
HODEIDAH, Yemen: Yemen’s Houthis on Tuesday said US strikes on the western province of Hodeida killed four people and wounded 13 others, a day after the group said it targeted Israel and US warships.
“Four killed and 13 wounded in a preliminary toll of the victims of the flagrant American aggression,” the militant's health ministry spokesman Anis Al-Asbahi said in a post on X.
The Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV channel had reported earlier on Tuesday “deaths and wounded in the US enemy’s targeting” of the Al-Hawak district in Hodeida.
It added that civil defense teams had rushed to the site and were working on putting out the fires and rescuing any survivors.
An AFP journalist near the site of the strike heard the sound of three violent blasts in succession.
Al-Masirah also reported a US strike on the communications network in the Amran province north of Sanaa, without providing further details.
Houthi-held areas of Yemen have seen near-daily strikes blamed on the United States since Washington launched an air campaign on March 15 to force them to stop threatening vessels in key maritime routes.
Since then, the Houthis have also launched attacks targeting US military ships and Israel, claiming to be acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The rebels began targeting ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli territory, after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, pausing the attacks during a January ceasefire.
Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the start of March, and resumed its offensive on the Palestinian territory on March 18, ending the short-lived truce.
The new US campaign followed Houthi threats to resume attacks on vessels over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
The Houthi attacks had crippled the vital Red Sea route, which normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies to make a much longer detour around the tip of southern Africa
NEW YORK CITY: The UN secretary-general evoked several provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention on Tuesday to remind Israeli authorities of an occupying power’s “unequivocal” obligations under international law.
The obligations Antonio Guterres highlighted included ensuring the welfare of the civilian population, the supply of food and medicine, and the maintenance of public health services.
“None of that is happening today,” he said. “No humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza. At the crossing points, food, medicine and shelter supplies are piling up and vital equipment is stuck.”
Speaking in New York to reporters, the UN chief described Gaza’s current path as a dead end that is “totally intolerable” in the eyes of international law and history.
He also warned that the situation in the West Bank could spiral into a similar crisis unless urgent steps are taken to protect civilians, end dehumanization and restore peace.
Guterres called for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and full humanitarian access to be restored. It has been more than a month since aid entered the territory, he added, exacerbating an already devastating humanitarian crisis.
“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza,” he said. “No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies. As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened.”
A Palestinian girl struggles as she and others try to get donated food at a distribution center in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. (AP)
Guterres condemned proposals by Israeli authorities to introduce “authorization mechanisms” for the delivery of aid that risk further controlling and “callously limiting aid, down to the last calorie and grain of flour.”
He said the UN “will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.”
He warned that “the situation in Gaza has become a killing field” and civilians are trapped in an “endless death loop” as a result of the blockade on food, medicine, fuel and other essential supplies.
“Ceasefires work,” Guterres said. “During that ceasefire (between January and March this year), humanitarian organizations successfully delivered critical aid, including food and medical supplies, to Gaza. Guns fell silent, obstacles were removed, looting ended and we were able to deliver lifesaving supplies to virtually every part of the Gaza Strip.
“That all ended with the shattering of the ceasefire. Hope sank for Palestinian families in Gaza and families of hostages in Israel.”
Guterres expressed deep concern about the continuing detention of hostages by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. He met the families of the hostages on Monday and reiterated his call for their immediate release.
“With crossing points into Gaza shut and aid blockaded, security is in shambles and our capacity to deliver has been strangled,” he continued.
He reiterated the declaration made by UN humanitarian organizations on Monday, who said in a joint statement that “assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.”
Guterres said: “We must stick to our core principles. It is time to end the dehumanization, protect civilians, release the hostages, ensure lifesaving aid and renew the ceasefire.
“The world may be running out of words to describe the situation in Gaza but we will never run away from the truth.”
