Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza

Israeli soldiers drive past destroyed buildings in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Sept. 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 05 November 2024
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Philippine police to probe social media posts of Filipino-Israeli soldier in Gaza

  • Department of Foreign Affairs confirms the Filipino soldier is an Israeli citizen
  • Photos shared by Israel Genocide Tracker which monitors soldiers’ social media

MANILA/DUBAI: Photos of a Filipino appearing to be a member of Israel’s troops in Gaza will be investigated by the Philippine National Police, its chief said, after the man’s social media posts went viral showing a rifle with the PNP’s logo.

Screenshots of the posts showing Justin Flores were shared last week by the X handle Israel Genocide Tracker, which scours the internet to find and publicize the actions of Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

The content shared by the X account comprises photos and videos that Israeli soldiers themselves have published online.

The posts range from selfies and pranks among the ruins of houses to blowing up buildings in Gaza, waving women’s underwear and rifling through the property of Palestinian civilians.

The photos and videos from the social media of Flores showed destroyed neighborhoods in Gaza and himself posing amid the rubble.

Another post with the line “Proud to be Israeli/Filipino” shows a rifle bearing the seal of the Philippine police on the ammunition magazine. It is attached to a belt with Hebrew writing.

“I’ll have it investigated,” PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil told Arab News in a text message on Monday evening.

“He is using a TAVOR firearm here. Not the issued rifle for the PNP.”

The weapon is an assault rifle, designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries. In 2018, the Philippine News Agency reported the acquisition of Tavor rifles for the nation’s police and coast guard.




A screenshot of an Oct. 29, 2024 post by the X account Israel Genocide Tracker shows photos from the social media of Justin Flores. (X/@trackingisrael)

While the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said it was waiting for a report from its embassy in Tel Aviv, it confirmed to Arab News that Flores was an Israeli, while his mother held dual Philippine-Israeli citizenship.

His alleged participation in Israel’s deadly war on Gaza has, however, already triggered outrage in his ancestral home and questions over how his Israeli citizenship was acquired, as according to Israel’s Nationality Law, military service streamlines the process.

“Did he acquire Israeli citizenship by serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces)? If so, it seems the IDF relies on fighters from overseas to do their dirty work,” said Renato Reyes, president of BAYAN, the Philippines’ largest alliance of grassroots groups.

“It is just shameful that a Filipino would be part of Israeli genocide against Palestinians. We were a colonized people, and we should have more in common with the Palestinians than the Israeli occupiers.”

Drieza A. Lininding, chairman of the civic organization Moro Consensus Group, said individuals joining fighting abroad should be tracked.

“Those joining the IDF and genocide against Palestinians should be treated as terrorists and must be arrested the moment they land here in the Philippines. This is in conformity with the Philippines’ vote in the UN condemning the genocide,” he told Arab News.

“The government must regard them as a threat to our national security.”

If such persons still hold Philippine citizenship, they may lose it under the Commonwealth Act 63, “by accepting commission in the military, naval or air service of a foreign country,” Attorney Farah Decano, dean of the College of Law at the Lyceum Northwestern University, told Arab News.

She said the unauthorized use of the PNP logo was also a violation. “The problem, however, is that the use is in Israel. Our criminal jurisdiction is only in the Philippines,” she said.

“It gives the impression that we are providing arms to the Israelis which the government must immediately deny. The Philippine government must request Israeli government for the confiscation of such arms.”

Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza have killed over 45,000 Palestinians and injured more than 101,000, according to Gaza Health Ministry data. But the real toll is feared to be much higher.

A study published by the medical journal The Lancet estimated in July that the true number of those killed could be more than 186,000.

The estimate took into consideration deaths as a result of starvation, injury and lack of access to medical aid as Israeli forces have destroyed most of Gaza’s infrastructure and blocked the entry of aid.


Thai police detain 2 suspects after a bomb in a border province killed 3 and injured scores

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Thai police detain 2 suspects after a bomb in a border province killed 3 and injured scores

  • Local police said at least 48 people were injured and that police have not yet pressed charges against the suspects as the investigation is ongoing
  • Local police said there was a fight between rival groups of men before the explosion and that there was no wider security threat
BANGKOK: Thai police on Saturday said two suspects were in custody as authorities investigated a bombing in the north that killed at least three people and injured dozens of others.
An explosive device was thrown into a crowd during an outdoor performance at an annual festival in Umphang town in Tak province, which borders Myanmar, on Friday just before midnight, according to the Association of the Umphang Rescue Groups.
Local police said at least 48 people were injured and that police have not yet pressed charges against the suspects as the investigation is ongoing.
Thanathip Sawangsang, a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry, said that local police said there was a fight between rival groups of men before the explosion and that there was no wider security threat. He said the forensic evidence showed that the explosive device was a homemade bomb.
Tak province has a heavy military presence in its border areas, including in Umphang.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences to the victims and their families, and ordered security personnel and relevant agencies in the area to investigate and help those who have been affected, said government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsap.

The Detroit area’s many Syrians are celebrating Assad’s overthrow and planning long-delayed visits

Updated 14 December 2024
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The Detroit area’s many Syrians are celebrating Assad’s overthrow and planning long-delayed visits

  • Nizam Abazid says he’s excited to see the country of his birth for the first time since 1998 but that he can now return without fear.

DEARBORN: Nizam Abazid is gleefully planning his first trip in decades to Syria, where he grew up. Rama Alhoussaini was only 6 years old when her family moved to the US, but she’s excited about the prospect of introducing her three kids to relatives they’ve never met in person.
They are among thousands of Detroit-area Syrian Americans who are celebrating the unexpected overthrow of the Syrian government, which crushed dissent and imprisoned political enemies with impunity during the more than 50-year reign of ousted President Bashar Assad and his father before him.
“As of Saturday night, the Assad regime is no longer in power,” Alhoussaini, 31, said through tears Tuesday at one of the Detroit-area school and day care facilities her family operates. “And it’s such a surreal moment to even say that out loud, because I never thought that I would see this day.”
It may be some time before either visits Syria. Though happy to see Assad go, many Western countries are waiting for the dust to settle before committing to a Syria strategy, including whether it’s safe for the millions who fled the country’s civil war to return.
Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who led the insurgency that toppled Assad after an astonishing advance that took less than two weeks, has disavowed his group’s former ties to Al-Qaeda and cast himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. But the US still labels him a terrorist and warns against any travel to Syria, where the US hasn’t had an embassy since 2012, the year after the war started.
But for Syrians in the US who have been unable to visit, the overthrow of the Assad government has given them hope that they can safely return, either for good or to visit.
“The end of the regime is the hope for all the Syrian people,” Abazid said this week, days after Assad and his family fled to Russia.
Abazid said he could go to Syria whenever, since he holds dual US and Syrian citizenship, but that he’ll wait a few months for things there to settle down.
Although European leaders have said it’s not safe enough yet to allow war-displaced refugees to return to Syria, Abazid said he and his brother aren’t concerned.
“When Assad’s forces were in power, my fate would’ve been in jail or beheaded,” Abazid said. “But now, I will not be worried about that anymore.”
Many Syrians who immigrated to the US settled in the Detroit area. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans of any state and is home to the country’s largest Arab-majority city, Dearborn. It also has more than 310,000 residents who are of Middle Eastern or North African descent.
As rebel forces seized control of Syria, capping a lightning-quick advance that few thought possible even a month ago, Syrians in and around Detroit — like their counterparts all over the world — followed along in disbelief as reports poured in about one city after another slipping from Assad’s grip. When news broke that Assad’s government had fallen, celebrations erupted.
Abazid, who owns a cellphone business in Dearborn, was born in Daraa, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of the Syrian capital, Damascus. He moved to the US in 1984 at age 18, and although he’s gone back a few times, he hasn’t visited since 1998 because of what he described as “harassment” by Syrian intelligence. That trip had to be heavily coordinated with US authorities, as he said Syrian authorities took him into custody and detained him for more than six months during a 1990 visit.
“When I was kidnapped from the airport, my family didn’t even know ... what it was about,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I still don’t know the reason. I have no idea why I was kidnapped.”
Abazid, 59, said his parents have died since that 1998 trip, but his five sisters still live in Syria. Each of his four brothers left Syria during the 1970s and 1980s, including one who hasn’t been back since emigrating 53 years ago, shortly after Bashar Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, rose to power.
Alhoussaini, who lives in West Bloomfield Township, said she was born in Damascus and moved to the Detroit area as a young girl, “mainly because there was nothing left for us in Syria.”
She said under the Assad family’s rule, her grandfather’s land was taken. Authorities detained him for almost a month. Her father was also detained before the family left.
“There never needed to be a reason,” Alhoussaini said. “My dad was able to return one time, in 2010. And he has not been able to go back to his home country since, mainly because we spoke up against the Assad regime when the revolution started in 2011. And we attended many protests here. We were vocal on social media about it, did many interviews.”
But with Bashar Assad gone and Syria in the hands of the rebels, “We don’t have to be afraid anymore to visit our country,” she said.
Her father, 61, is considering making a trip to Syria to see his siblings and visit his parents’ graves. Alhoussaini said she and her husband, who is from the northern city of Aleppo, want to take their kids over to visit with family and friends.
Alhoussaini’s three sisters, ages 40, 34 and 29, were also born in Syria. But none of them have been back.
Now, there is hope and amazement that people in Syria can celebrate in the streets, she said.
Alhoussaini said she thinks people who were born and raised in the US won’t be able to fully relate, because Americans enjoy a freedom of expression that people in Syria have never had.
“You can say what you want. You can go out into the street and protest whoever you want,” she said. “You will not be detained for it. You will not be killed for it.”


Ukrainian drones hit fuel storage area in central Russia, attack other areas

Updated 14 December 2024
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Ukrainian drones hit fuel storage area in central Russia, attack other areas

Ukrainian drones attacked an infrastructure facility storing fuel in central Russia’s Oryol region, sparking a fire and smashing windows in homes, regional governor Andrei Klychkov said early on Saturday.
Klychkov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said a “mass attack” on an infrastructure site caused fuel to catch fire. Fragments from downed drones smashed windows in homes, he said.
Video posted on Ukrainian military blogs showed a fire blazing at what was described as a fuel storage facility. Reuters could not independently verify reports from either side.
Drone attacks were reported in other Russian regions.
The governor of Krasnodar region, Vladimir Kondratyev, said air defenses had destroyed Ukrainian drones in several areas of the region south and east of Ukraine. One drone smashed windows in village houses, but there were no injuries.
Air defenses destroyed seven drones over Bryansk region on Ukraine’s northern border, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
And in Russia’s Belgorod region, often targeted by Ukraine’s military on the northeastern border, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian forces attacked two villages, injuring one resident and triggering a fire in a house that was quickly extinguished.


South Korea’s Yoon faces second impeachment vote over martial law bid

Updated 14 December 2024
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South Korea’s Yoon faces second impeachment vote over martial law bid

  • Growing number from president’s party support impeachment

SEOUL: A defiant South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a second impeachment vote on Saturday over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, a move that shocked the country, split his party and imperilled his presidency half way through his term.
His move to impose military rule on Dec. 3 was rescinded barely six hours later after parliament defied troops and police to vote against the decree, but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law.
Opposition parties plan to hold an impeachment vote at 4 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday, with large demonstrations planned ahead of the vote.
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party boycotted the first impeachment vote a week earlier, preventing a quorum.
Since then, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon has urged party members to vote for impeachment on Saturday, and at least seven PPP members have said they would vote to impeach.
The opposition parties control 192 of the 300 seats in the single-chamber parliament so they need at least eight PPP votes to reach the two-thirds threshold for impeachment.
Ahn Cheol-soo, a PPP lawmaker among those backing Yoon’s impeachment, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that he would vote for impeachment “for the sake of swift stabilization of people’s livelihood, economy and diplomacy.”
The PPP floor leader said on Friday, however, that the party’s stance is still to oppose impeachment.
PPP lawmakers are due to meet on Saturday morning to decide whether to change that position.
If impeached, Yoon would lose authority but remain in office until the Constitutional Court either removes or reinstates him. In the meantime, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would serve as acting president.
If the court removes Yoon or he resigns, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.
Yoon is separately under criminal investigation for alleged insurrection over the martial law declaration and authorities have banned him from traveling overseas.
He has not signalled a willingness to resign and in a speech on Thursday vowed he would “fight to the end” and defended the martial law decree as necessary to overcome political deadlock and protect the country from domestic politicians who are undermining democracy.
Yoon, president of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, hopes political allies will rally to support him, but the fiery remarks appeared to find mixed reception among PPP lawmakers.
A Gallup Korea poll on Friday had two-thirds of supporters of Yoon’s party opposing the impeachment, though three-quarters of all respondents supported it.
Elected in 2022, Yoon was widely welcomed in Washington and other Western capitals for his rhetoric defending global democracy and freedom, but critics said that masked growing problems at home.
He clashed with opposition lawmakers that he has labelled as “anti-state forces” and press freedom organizations have criticized his heavy-handed approach to media coverage that he deems negative.
The crisis and ensuing uncertainty shook financial markets and threatened to undermine South Korea’s reputation as a stable, democratic success story.
South Korean shares rose for a fourth straight session on Friday on hopes that the political uncertainty would ease after this weekend’s parliamentary impeachment vote.


Scholz says ‘integrated’ Syrian refugees ‘welcome’ to stay in Germany

Updated 14 December 2024
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Scholz says ‘integrated’ Syrian refugees ‘welcome’ to stay in Germany

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday said that well-integrated Syrian refugees are welcome to stay, as far-right and conservative politicians called for them to return to their home country after the overthrow of Bashar Assad.
“Those who work here, who are well integrated, remain welcome in Germany. That’s obvious,” the social-democrat leader said in a post on X, noting that “some declarations these past days have deeply destabilized our fellow citizens of Syrian origin.”
Around one million Syrians live in Germany, most of whom arrived in the country during the 2015 migration crisis sparked by the civil war that broke out in Syria in 2011.
Some have since obtained German nationality but the majority have not, making them more vulnerable to expulsion.
Germany, like other European countries including Austria and Sweden, on Monday announced they were suspending new asylum applications by Syrians — just a day after Assad’s government fell.
Later that day, Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said Germany’s borders “are closed, we will not accept any more.”
AfD gained a huge popularity boost over the fears created by the sudden influx of migrants.
The party is tipped to finish second in February’s elections, in which Weidel is aiming to claim the chancellorship.
The center-right opposition CDU party — currently tipped to top the polls — has also called for Syrian refugees to return home.
CDU MP Jens Spahn suggested that Berlin charter flights to Syria and offer 1,000 euros ($1,057) to “anyone who wants to return.”
A German study on Friday said that the country could face labor shortages if the Syrians returned home, particularly in the health care industry where, according to news magazine Der Spiegel, there are 5,758 Syrian doctors working in Germany.