OSLO: The Norwegian government Tuesday proposed 1 billion kroner ($92.5 million) in aid to Palestinians this year as humanitarian agencies warn of a looming famine in the Gaza Strip.
Figures in the revised budget presented on Tuesday, show a roughly quadrupling of the 258 million kroner provided in the initial finance bill adopted last year.
“The urgent need of aid in Gaza is enormous after seven months of war,” Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, said in a statement.
“The food situation in particular is critical and there is a risk of famine,” she added, criticizing “an entirely man-made crisis” and an equally “critical” situation in the West Bank.
According to the draft budget, Norway intends to dedicate 0.98 percent of its gross national income to development aid this year.
The figures are still subject to change because the center-left government, a minority in parliament, has to negotiate with other parties to get the texts adopted.
For his part, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide again warned Israel against a large-scale military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the besieged Gaza Strip.
“It would be catastrophic for the population. Providing life-saving humanitarian support would become much more difficult and more dangerous,” Barth Eide said.
He added: “The more than 1 million who have sought refuge in Rafah have already fled multiple times from famine, death and horror. They are now being told to move again, but no place in Gaza is safe.”
As part of the response to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is determined to launch an operation in Rafah, which he considers to be the last major stronghold of the militant organization.
Many in Rafah have been displaced multiple times during the war, and are now heading back north after Israeli forces called for the evacuation of the city’s eastern past.
On May 7, Israeli tanks and troops entered the city’s east sending desperate Palestinians to flee north.
According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “almost 450,000” people have been displaced from Rafah since May 6.
Norway aims to quadruple aid to Palestinians as famine looms
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Norway aims to quadruple aid to Palestinians as famine looms
- “The urgent need of aid in Gaza is enormous after seven months of war,” Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, said
- Norway intends to dedicate 0.98 percent of its gross national income to development aid this year
Kidnapping of Yemeni UN employees by Houthis widely condemned
- Houthis also reportedly abducted Yemeni workers in other Yemeni provinces under their control
AL-MUKALLA: Human rights groups on Saturday strongly denounced the Houthis’ abduction of scores of Yemenis working for the UN and for US organizations in Yemen.
Yemeni Human Rights Minister Ahmed Arman said on Friday that the Iran-backed militia had kidnapped around 50 Yemeni personnel from various UN agencies, the US Embassy, US-funded NGOs, and other foreign organizations in Sanaa after storming their residences.
The Houthis also reportedly abducted Yemeni workers in other Yemeni provinces under their control.
On Saturday, Arman told Arab News that the Houthis had resumed their raids on residences in Sanaa and abducted more Yemenis working for foreign organizations, but did not provide the names of those people or the organizations they work for.
In a joint statement, 118 Yemeni human rights organizations said the Houthi intelligence and security services had conducted simultaneous raids on the homes of Yemenis working for the UN and other international organizations in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Saada, and Amran, abducting them and taking their mobile phones and laptops.
“The Houthi militia’s continued crimes constitute a blatant breach of national and international laws and standards, as well as a manifest disrespect for all international and regional attempts aimed at restoring peace in the country,” the Yemeni groups said in their statement.
The Houthis have not provided an official explanation for their campaign, but they have previously accused Yemeni workers employed by foreign embassies or organizations of collaborating with their enemies.
When asked by Arab News to comment on reports that the Houthis were continuing to target Yemeni UN agencies’ personnel, Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said: “We have nothing new to report.”
The Houthi raids occurred as the US military said it had intercepted a fresh barrage of Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait.
The US Central Command said on Friday night that the Houthis had fired four ballistic missiles from regions under their control over the Red Sea in the previous 24 hours, none of which hit any navy or commercial ships.
CENTCOM forces destroyed four drones and two ballistic missiles in Yemeni areas controlled by the Houthis before they reached their targets on international shipping routes.
The US military also destroyed one Houthi drone launched into the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and a Houthi boat in the Red Sea.
Houthi media said on Friday that US and UK planes had carried out four airstrikes on the airport in the western province of Hodeidah, and another on the province’s Al-Salif port.
Four more US and US airstrikes hit a military base north of Sanaa on Friday, according to the Houthis.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea announced on Friday that their forces had launched drones and missiles at two ships in the Red Sea for allegedly breaching their ban on sailing to Israel.
According to ship-monitoring apps, one of the ships, the Elbella, is a Malta-flagged container ship heading from Jeddah to Egypt, while the other, the Aal Genoa, is a Cyprus-flagged general cargo ship sailing from Poland to the UAE.
Since November, the Houthis have sunk one ship, seized another, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at international naval and commercial ships in what the Yemeni militia claims are actions in support of the Palestinian people intended to force Israel to end its assault on Gaza.
Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi absent as new trial opens: lawyer
- “The hearing of Ms Narges Mohammadi was held today without her presence at the 29th Branch” of the Revolutionary Court in the capital Tehran, said lawyer Mostafa Nili
- Nili said his client was “accused of propaganda against the state“
TEHRAN: A new trial against jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi opened Saturday in her absence, said a lawyer for the women’s rights activist who has refused to attend hearings.
Mohammadi, 52, has been jailed since November 2021 over several past convictions relating to her advocacy against the obligatory hijab for women and capital punishment in Iran.
“The hearing of Ms Narges Mohammadi was held today without her presence at the 29th Branch” of the Revolutionary Court in the capital Tehran, said lawyer Mostafa Nili on social media platform X.
Nili said his client was “accused of propaganda against the state” over “her remarks on Dina Ghalibaf and on the boycott of legislative elections” held in March.
Rights groups have said Ghalibaf, a journalist and student, was arrested after accusing security forces on social media of putting her in handcuffs and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station. She has since been released.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website said on April 22 that Ghalibaf “had not been raped” and that she was being prosecuted for making a “false statement.”
Mohammadi’s family quoted her last month as saying that the latest trial should be held in public so “witnesses and survivors can testify to the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic republic regime against women.”
The Nobel laureate in March shared an audio message from prison, in which she decried a “full-scale war against women” in the Islamic republic.
Iranian police in recent months have intensified enforcement of the country’s Islamic dress code for women, notably making use of video surveillance.
Under rules adopted shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, women in Iran are required to cover their hair and dress modestly in public spaces.
Two dead, fires in south Lebanon after Israeli strikes
- Hezbollah, Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in eight months since Gaza war began
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on Saturday killed two people and sparked wildfires in southern Lebanon, state media said, with Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah announcing the death of one fighter.
Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in the eight months since the Gaza war began, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack.
The deadly clashes have intensified in recent weeks, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday that “an Israeli drone carried out an air attack with two guided missiles, targeting a cafe in Aitarun and killing the cafe’s owner, Ali Khalil Hamad, 37, and a young man named Mustafa A. Issa.”
The agency also reported a “violent airstrike” on the border village of Khiam.
Shortly after, Hezbollah said it launched Katyusha rockets on a town across the border “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks against southern villages and safe houses, and the targeting of civilians, notably in Aitarun where two people were killed.”
The Shiite Muslim movement later announced that one of its fighters was killed by Israeli fire. It identified him as Radwan A. Issa, without providing further details.
The Israeli army said in a statement that “one of its planes struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Aitarun region,” adding that they also struck targets in the area of Khiam.
More than eight months of border violence, which began on October 8, has killed 458 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including about 90 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side of the border, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.
“Israeli artillery bombarded today the outskirts of the town of Alma Al-Shaab with incendiary phosphorus shells, causing fires in the forests that spread to the vicinity of some homes,” NNA reported earlier on Saturday.
It added that the fire had reached “large areas of olive trees.”
Lebanese authorities and several international rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus rounds in its strikes on its northern neighbor.
White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used as an incendiary weapon.
Its use as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is allowed for illuminating battlefields and can be used as a smokescreen.
Rescuer Ali Abbas of the Risala Scout association, affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement, told AFP that “Israel deliberately bombs forested areas with phosphorus with the aim of starting fires.”
According to him, rescuers on the grounds have been struggling to extinguish the flames, while the Lebanese military avoids sending helicopters to assist for fear of more Israeli attacks.
Further east, the NNA reported that “a large fire broke out at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL,” the UN peacekeeping mission, in the area of the border village of Mais Al-Jabal.
It is located near the UN-demarcated Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel.
A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that fires broke out near military positions but have not reached them or caused any casualties.
The UN peacekeepers in a statement reported a “bushfire near one of their positions in Hula,” which was put out with help from Lebanese troops and civil defense forces.
“The fire didn’t cause any damage to UNIFIL assets or personnel,” it said.
The NNA said “several land mines exploded, and firefighting operations are still continuing” in the area.
Lebanon arrests 20 over attack on US embassy: source
- Syrian man arrested Wednesday after shooting at the embassy
- US “conducting full investigation with Lebanese authorities into actual motivations”
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities have arrested 20 people after a shooting near the US embassy in Beirut said to be in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, a judicial source told AFP Saturday.
A Syrian man was arrested Wednesday after the shooting at the embassy, and a judicial official said at the time that the assailant carried out the attack “in support of Gaza.”
The US embassy said on X that “small arms fire was reported in the vicinity of the entrance” and that “thanks to the quick reaction” of the Lebanese army, security forces “and our embassy security team, our facility and our team are safe.”
The judicial source on Saturday said “the number of people arrested over the attack on the American embassy has risen to 20, including the Syrian assailant Qais Farraj, who is receiving care at the military hospital in Beirut.”
“Among those arrested are his father, his brother, clerics who gave him religious lessons and those with whom he was in continuous contact,” added the source, who supervises preliminary investigations by intelligence services.
The source added that more people could be arrested or released based on the outcome of the investigation, which is seeking to determine whether any of the suspects had links to an Daesh group cell or any other militant groups.
But the source said existing evidence suggested it was unlikely the attack was part of an organized operation.
A security official told AFP at the time of the attack that the gunman acted “alone,” adding that a Lebanese national working for the embassy suffered light injuries to his eye.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller later said Washington was aware the person arrested appeared to be wearing “ISIS insignia,” referring to the Daesh group.
The US, he said, was “conducting a full investigation with the Lebanese authorities into the actual motivations.”
Muslim-majority allies urge world to up pressure on Israel
- The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated Palestinian territory
- Denouncing an “ongoing genocide and grave violations of international law,” the group called on states to contribute to and join legal proceedings against Israel
ISTANBUL: An alliance of mostly Muslim-majority countries including Turkiye, Egypt and Iran on Saturday demanded full Palestinian membership of the United Nations and greater international pressure on Israel amid the Gaza war.
The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, which also includes Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan, called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated Palestinian territory, where Israel has been battling Hamas militants for more than eight months.
Foreign ministers from the group meeting in Istanbul called on the United States to lift its veto on full Palestinian UN membership and on all countries to “exert diplomatic, political, economic and legal pressure” on Israel.
They also urged states to ensure Israel complies with the International Court of Justice’s decisions, withdraws from the southern Rafah governorate and guarantees the safe entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Denouncing an “ongoing genocide and grave violations of international law,” the group called on states to contribute to and join legal proceedings against Israel at international courts.
The eight countries also demanded an end to arms and ammunition deliveries to Israel and that all measures be taken to protect Palestinian civilians, rejecting any attempted forced displacement.
They advocated a two-state solution based on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital and a guarantee mechanism to protect a future settlement.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,801 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
