JERUSALEM: Israel reopened its only crossing for people with the Gaza Strip on Monday, a week after shutting it over violence along the border with the Palestinian enclave.
The reopening, following days of relative calm, comes as Egypt holds talks with Palestinian officials as part of efforts to reach a long-term truce with Israel.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli defense ministry unit that oversees the Erez crossing confirmed it had opened as planned on Monday morning.
On Sunday night, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the crossing was being reopened due to “calm that has been maintained over the past week.”
Israel closed the crossing except to humanitarian cases on August 19, after another round of protests and clashes on the border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
It has enforced an air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but grants permission to a limited number of people to cross for various reasons.
An average of around 1,000 Gazans cross through Erez each day, mostly those in need of medical care but also businesspeople, students and others, Israeli authorities say.
A second crossing with Israel, Kerem Shalom, is for goods.
There have been months of tension along the border and several military-flare ups, but recent weeks have seen relative calm.
Egyptian and United Nations officials have been mediating indirect talks on a long-term truce between Israel and Islamist movement Hamas, which have fought three wars since 2008.
Egyptian officials have held talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah this week in a renewed bid to reconcile the movement with Hamas.
The two factions have been deeply divided for more than a decade and Abbas is opposed to any truce with Israel that bypasses his Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank.
Mass protests and clashes erupted on the Gaza border on March 30 and have continued at varying levels since.
At least 172 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests began. One Israeli soldier has been killed during that time.
Gaza’s only other border is with Egypt, but the Rafah crossing with the enclave had largely been kept closed in recent years. Cairo opened it in mid-May and it has mostly remained so since.
Israel reopens people crossing with Gaza Strip
Israel reopens people crossing with Gaza Strip
- Egypt is holding talks with Palestinian officials as part of efforts to reach a truce with Israel
- A spokeswoman for the Israeli defense ministry unit that oversees the Erez crossing confirmed it had opened
UN says Gaza death toll still over 35,000 but not all bodies identified
- Haq said those figures were for identified bodies — 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly, and 10,006 men — adding: “The Ministry of Health says that the documentation process of fully identifying details of the casualties is ongoing”
UNITED NATIONS/GENEVA: The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the Israel-Hamas war is still more than 35,000, but the enclave’s Ministry of Health has updated its breakdown of the fatalities, the United Nations said on Monday after Israel questioned a sudden change in numbers.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said the ministry’s figures — cited regularly by the UN its reporting on the seven-month-long conflict — now reflected a breakdown of the 24,686 deaths of “people who have been fully identified.”
“There’s about another 10,000 plus bodies who still have to be fully identified, and so then the details of those — which of those are children, which of those are women — that will be re-established once the full identification process is complete,” Haq told reporters in New York.
Israel last week questioned why the figures for the deaths of women and children has suddenly halved.
Haq said those figures were for identified bodies — 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly, and 10,006 men — adding: “The Ministry of Health says that the documentation process of fully identifying details of the casualties is ongoing.”
Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday accused Palestinian militants Hamas of manipulating the numbers, saying: “They are not accurate and they do not reflect the reality on the ground.”
“The parroting of Hamas’ propaganda messages without the use of any verification process has proven time and again to be methodologically flawed and unprofessional,” he said in a social media post.
Haq said UN teams in Gaza were not able to independently verify the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) figures given the ongoing war and sheer number of fatalities.
“Unfortunately we have the sad experience of coordinating with the Ministry of Health on casualty figures every few years for large mass casualty incidents in Gaza, and in past times their figures have proven to be generally accurate,” Haq said.
The World Health Organization “has a long-standing cooperation with the MoH in Gaza and we can attest that MoH has good capacity in data collection/analysis and its previous reporting has been considered credible,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris.
“Real numbers could be even higher,” she said.
Five Iraqi soldiers killed in Daesh attack on army post in eastern Iraq, two security sources say
- Iraq’s defense ministry issued a statement mourning the loss of Col. Khaled Nagi Wassak “along with a number of heroic fighters of the regiment as a result of their response to a terrorist attack”
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi commanding officer and four soldiers were killed and five others injured on Monday in an attack by Daesh militants on an army post in eastern Iraq, two security sources said.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells that remain active years after Iraq declared final victory over the terrorist groups in 2017.
Iraq’s defense ministry issued a statement mourning the loss of Col. Khaled Nagi Wassak “along with a number of heroic fighters of the regiment as a result of their response to a terrorist attack.”
Security forces repelled the attack but many casualties fell in the process, the statement added.
UAE president presents Indonesia’s defense minister with Order of Zayed
- Subianto receives UAE’s highest civil honor in recognition of his contribution to improved bilateral cooperation
DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Monday presented Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo Subianto, with the Order of Zayed, the UAE’s highest civil honor, in recognition of his contribution to the enhancement of cooperation between the countries.
During the meeting in Abu Dhabi, Subianto conveyed greetings from Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and expressed his desire for the continued advancement and prosperity of the UAE, the Emirates News Agency reported. Sheikh Mohammed responded with similar wishes for Indonesia.
The president and defense minister also discussed the relationship between their countries, particularly as it relates to defense and military affairs, and ways in which it might be enhanced in the interests of both countries, and reviewed regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Sheikh Mohammed said he was keen to leverage the strong strategic ties between the UAE and Indonesia to deepen cooperation so that both nations benefit from shared opportunities for development and prosperity.
Kuwaiti emir, Omani sultan meet for official talks
- Leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah hosted Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tareq at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City on Monday for official talks.
The leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries and explored avenues for enhancing cooperation in various sectors, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
They also addressed strategies for the advancement of the Gulf Cooperation Council, matters of shared interest and various regional and international affairs.
The meeting came during the sultan’s two-day state visit to Kuwait and was followed by a banquet held in his honor.
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and other officials from the two countries also attended the meeting.
US doesn’t believe ‘genocide’ occurring in Gaza: White House
- White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with Hamas
- Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments
WASHINGTON DC: The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said Monday.
As ceasefire talks stall and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with militant group Hamas.
“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.
The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, Sullivan added.
Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to “take a step back” and set out the Biden administration’s position on the conflict, amid criticism from both ends of the US political spectrum.
Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.
The US president believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?’” Sullivan added.
This would avoid Israel “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.”
