GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched in the capitals of Iran and Iraq on Friday to mark “Jerusalem Day,” in an annual protest against Israeli rule over the holy city and show of support for the Palestinians. Some burned Israeli flags and effigies of President Donald Trump.
Later on Friday, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were to head to the perimeter fence with Israel to stage the latest in a series of mass protests against the blockade of their territory by Israel and Egypt.
Friday’s protest was also being held to mark Jerusalem Day, instituted by Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A large turnout was expected in Gaza, raising concerns about renewed bloodshed. At least 115 Palestinian protesters have been killed and close to 3,800 have been wounded by Israeli army fire since the marches began in late March.
Earlier on Friday, organizers urged Gaza residents to head to the perimeter fence with Israel after Muslim noon prayers. The call was issued through mosques and loudspeakers mounted on cars that toured Gaza neighborhoods.
Previous border protests have drawn thousands of people, most gathering at sit-in tent camps several hundred meters (yards) from the fence. Smaller groups have approached the fence, throwing stones, burning tires or sending kites with incendiary materials attached toward Israel with the aim to set fields there on fire. Others have thrown fire bombs or tried to damage the fence. Israeli soldiers, including snipers perched behind earthen berms, have fired live bullets and tear gas.
On Friday morning, Israeli army drones dropped incendiary materials on piles of old tires to make them unusable for the later protests, Gaza organizers said.
Israel’s use of potentially lethal force against the protesters, the vast majority of them unarmed, has drawn international criticism. Rights groups have said Israel’s open-fire rules are unlawful.
Israel has accused Gaza’s ruling group, the Islamic militant Hamas, of trying to carry out attacks and damage the fence under the guise of the protests. Hamas leaders have threatened possible mass border breaches, raising concerns in Israel that communities near Gaza might be at risk.
The Jerusalem Day protests are being held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The day is known in Arabic as “Al Quds Day,” a reference to the city’s historic Arabic name.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it to its capital, a move not recognized by most of the international community. Israel’s current government has said it will not accept a partition of the city as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
The eastern sector houses major shrines revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, is built on the spot where tradition says the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The compound sits on the ruins of biblical temples and is revered as the holiest site of Judaism.
In Iran’s capital of Tehran, thousands joined a Jerusalem Day march on Friday, chanting “Death to Israel” and burning a Trump effigy.
Iran and Israel are implacable foes. Iran does not recognize Israel and supports militant groups, including Hamas, the smaller Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
In Iraq, thousands of Iran-backed Shiite militiamen in uniform marched through the streets of the capital of Baghdad on Friday, setting an Israeli flag on fire and carrying posters of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Anti-Israel marches in Iraq, Iran to mark ‘Jerusalem Day’
Anti-Israel marches in Iraq, Iran to mark ‘Jerusalem Day’
- Friday’s protest was being held to mark Jerusalem Day, instituted by Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution
- The Jerusalem Day protests are being held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan
Child malnutrition at ‘emergency levels’ in Sudan: UN
“The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition“
ROME: Three UN agencies warned Thursday of a “significant deterioration” in the nutrition situation of children and mothers in war-torn Sudan, calling for “urgent action.”
“The lives of Sudan’s children are at stake and urgent action is needed to protect an entire generation from malnutrition, disease and death,” the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement.
Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town, according to UN experts.
Nearly nine million people have been forced from their homes.
“The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition,” the agencies said.
“These include a lack of access to nutritious food, safe drinking water and sanitation, and increased risk of disease,” they added.
“Sudan is facing an ever-increasing risk of conflict-induced famine that will have catastrophic consequences including the loss of life, especially among young children.”
The agencies said the conflict “is also severely impacting the delivery of humanitarian supplies, leaving countless women and children without access to vital food and nutritional support... (while) growing violence and bureaucratic procedures impede access to conflict affected areas.”
Child malnutrition in Sudan is “at emergency levels,” the statement said.
In Central Darfur, acute malnutrition is estimated to be at 15.6 percent among children under five, while at the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur state it is close to 30 percent.
“We need immediate and safe access to deliver the humanitarian assistance that they so desperately need,” said WFP head Cindy McCain.
“Millions of lives are at stake and the international community must act now or we risk losing an entire generation of children,” she said.
The agencies warned: “The window to avert the worst is rapidly closing.”
Three UN agencies warned Thursday of a “significant deterioration” in the nutrition situation of children and mothers in war-torn Sudan, calling for “urgent action.” (AP/File)
Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 12 Palestinians, Gaza medics say
- Officials say Israeli strike occurred as they tried to recover body of civilian in southern Gaza city
- Israel says more fighting in central, northern and southern Gaza
- Head of UNRWA calls for end to Israeli attacks on staff and buildings
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said.
Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza’s entire land frontier.
It said the buffer zone’s capture had cut off a route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle arms into Gaza during more than seven months of war, which has laid waste to much of the territory and raised fears of famine.
Gaza medical sources said the 12 Palestinians, whom it said were civilians, had been killed and an unspecified number of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike as they tried to recover the body of a civilian in the center of Rafah.
Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, the medics said.
Israel reported clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not immediately comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians took refuge earlier in the war.
Israel has kept up raids on Rafah despite an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN court, to halt its attacks. Israeli forces say they are trying to root out Hamas fighters and rescue hostages being held there, and the ICJ also called for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and land war in Gaza, with 53 of those killed in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military said a soldier had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to 292 Israel’s combat losses since its first Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 20.
TUNNELS, ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
In an overnight call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant underlined the continuing importance of Israeli operations in the Rafah area “due to concrete information regarding hostages held there.”
“Minister Gallant detailed IDF activities in the Rafah area where 20 terror tunnels have been identified,” the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement on the overnight call.
The Israeli military also said in a statement that tunnels used by Hamas for smuggling and moving fighters underground had been discovered during the latest raids, as well as large amounts of arms and explosives.
The Israeli statements did not say where the smuggling tunnels ran from. An Israeli official said on May 15 there were 50 tunnels connecting Rafah to the Sinai in Egypt, and voiced concern that Hamas could use them to smuggle senior operatives or hostages into Egyptian territory. Egypt on Wednesday denied the existence of any such tunnels.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday but said it did not believe such an operation was under way.
The US has, with Egypt and Qatar, been involved in efforts to mediate indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on arranging a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages. Those talks have stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.
As the war drags on, malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, and the United Nations has warned of incipient famine.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), also called for an end to what he said were Israeli attacks on UNRWA staff and buildings in Gaza.
In article for the New York Times, he said Israeli officials were “delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization,” and he described a “dangerous precedent of routine targeting of UN staff and premises.”
His comments followed allegations by Israel in January that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel did not immediately respond to his remarks.
The Gaza war has also stoked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.
Israel said two soldiers were killed in an overnight hit-and-run by a Palestinian motorist in the West Bank city of Nablus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian factions.
Israel yet to respond to French Lebanon proposals, French ministry says
- The written proposal also looks at long-term border issues
PARIS: Israel has not given a response to France on Paris’ proposals to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, France’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in escalating daily cross-border strikes over the past months — in parallel with the war in Gaza — and their increasing range and sophistication has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
France has historical ties with Lebanon and has proposed written proposals to both sides that would see Hezbollah’s elite unit pull back 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt strikes in southern Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne went to both Lebanon and Israel in April to push France’s efforts, and Israel’s foreign minister was in Paris earlier this month. Lebanon’s foreign minister was in Paris for talks on Wednesday.
“We have had a relatively positive response from the Lebanese, but I think we have not had any return from Israel at this point,” Christophe Lemoine told reporters in a daily briefing.
The written proposal also looks at long-term border issues and had been discussed with partners including the United States, which has its own efforts to ease tensions and exerts the most influence on Israel.
The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has amassed a formidable arsenal since a 2006 war with Israel and since October thousands of people on both sides of the border have been displaced by the clashes.
US envoy condemns attacks on Western-linked brands in Baghdad
- A stun bomb exploded at 1:20 am in front of a dealership of the US construction equipment company Caterpillar
- Ten minutes later, a blast went off in front of the Cambridge Institute in nearby Palestine Street
BAGHDAD: The US ambassador to Iraq denounced attacks Thursday targeting Western-linked brands in Baghdad this week, as anger grows across the Middle East over Israel’s war in Gaza.
A stun bomb exploded at 1:20 am in front of a dealership of the US construction equipment company Caterpillar in the Jadriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, the Iraqi security forces said.
Ten minutes later, a blast went off in front of the Cambridge Institute in nearby Palestine Street, which a resident identified as a likely Iraqi-owned language learning center.
On Sunday, a makeshift bomb was thrown at a branch of the US fast-food chain KFC, causing minor damage. The next night, masked men broke into another branch, smashing glass.
“We condemn recent violent attacks against US and international businesses,” the US ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, said on social media platform X.
She urged the Iraqi government to “conduct a thorough investigation, bring to justice those who are responsible, and prevent future attacks.”
“These attacks endanger Iraqi lives and property, and could weaken Iraq’s ability to attract foreign investment,” the US diplomat added.
The Iraqi security forces said Thursday’s attacks, whose motives remained unknown, did not cause any damage or injuries, adding they were a “desperate attempt to harm Iraq’s reputation.”
After the KFC attacks, security forces said they had arrested several suspects.
Since the war in Gaza started in October, a boycott movement spearheaded by pro-Palestinian activists has targeted major Western brands, such as Starbucks and McDonald’s.
Iraq does not recognize Israel’s statehood, and all of its political parties support the Palestinian cause.
Earlier this week, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr renewed his calls to close the US embassy in Baghdad “through diplomatic means without bloodshed,” after an Israeli strike killed dozens of civilians in a camp in Gaza.
Syria’s main insurgent group blasts the US Embassy over its criticism of crackdown on protesters
- The group said Washington should instead respect protesters at American universities who have demonstrated against the war in Gaza
- The statement by the US Embassy in Damascus came after months of protests against Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
IDLIB, Syria: The main insurgent group in rebel-held northwest Syria blasted the US on Thursday over its criticism of a crackdown on protesters in areas outside government control.
The group said Washington should instead respect protesters at American universities who have demonstrated against the war in Gaza.
The statement by the US Embassy in Damascus came after months of protests against Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province by people opposed to the rule of the group that was once known as the Nusra Front, the Syria branch of Al-Qaeda. The group later changed its name several times and distanced itself from Al-Qaeda.
Anti-HTS sentiments had been rising for months following a wave of arrests by the group of senior officials within the organization.
Earlier this month, HTS members attacked protesters demanding the release of detainees with clubs and sharp objects outside a military court in Idlib city, injuring several people. Days later HTS fighters fired into the air and beat protesters with clubs, injuring some of them as protests intensified to demand the release of detainees and an end to the group’s rule.
The rebel-held region is home to more than 4 million people, many of them displaced during the conflict that broke out in March 2011 and has so far killed half a million people.
The conflict began with protests against President Bashar Assad’s government before turning into a deadly civil war that left large parts of the country in ruins.
The US Embassy in Damascus posted on the social media platform X on Wednesday that it supports “the rights of all Syrians to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including in Idlib.”
It added that “we deplore Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham’s regime-style intimidation and brutality against peaceful protesters as they call for justice, security, & respect for human rights.”
HTS responded in a statement saying that “liberated areas enjoy a safe environment for the expression of opinion” as long as they don’t aim to destabilize the region and spread chaos. It added that the US Embassy should back the Syrian people aiming to achieve “freedom and dignity against a criminal regime.”
“The rights of university students in the United States should be preserved and their demands in supporting the Palestinian people and Gaza should be respected,” HTS said in a statement.
