JERUSALEM: Turkiye must face pressure from world powers to stop attacks on Kurds in northern Syria, a senior Israeli foreign ministry official said on Tuesday.
"The international community must call on Turkey to stop these aggressions and killing. The Kurds must be protected by the international community," foreign ministry director general Eden Bar Tal told reporters.
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Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds
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Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds
France, UK mull migrant swaps in bid to stem Channel crossings
- France and Britain have pledged to step up the fight against people smugglers who enable the sometimes deadly crossings
PARIS: Paris and London are discussing a trial to deport undocumented migrants from the United Kingdom to France in exchange for allowing others to join family in Britain, France’s interior ministry said Thursday.
The United Kingdom is seeking to crack down on migrants crossing the Channel from France to England on flimsy rubber dinghies in search of a better life.
France and Britain have pledged to step up the fight against people smugglers who enable the sometimes deadly crossings.
Both sides are discussing “a trial,” France’s interior ministry said.
It would be carried out “on a one-for-one basis of a legal entry for family reunification in exchange for (France) readmitting undocumented migrants who managed to cross” the Channel to the United Kingdom.
“Setting up legal routes, as well as re-entries (to France) to discourage migrant smuggling networks, are part of possible solutions,” it added.
Asked for comment, the British Home Office said the United Kingdom, France and other European countries were “exploring fresh and innovative measures to dismantle the business models of the criminal smuggling gangs.”
Last year, more than 36,800 people crossed the Channel, up 25 percent from 2023, according to British figures.
According to French authorities, 78 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach England aboard small boats, a record since the start of the trend in this area in 2018.
The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands in December agreed to boost cooperation against irregular migration.
Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to mark Passover holiday
- Settlers entered the site through the Mughrabi Gate in groups and performed Jewish prayers
- Israeli forces implemented strict security measures, preventing Palestinians from entering
LONDON: Thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Compound in the Old City of East Jerusalem to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover on Thursday.
The Jerusalem Governorate, a body affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, said that Israeli settlers entered the site through the Mughrabi Gate in groups and performed Jewish prayers at the site. Settlers also toured Bab Al-Rahma on the eastern wall of the compound, which was a site of conflict between Israeli police and Muslim worshippers in 2019.
Passover is observed from April 12 to 20, when Jewish communities commemorate the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.
Far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot, from the Religious Zionism Party, performed in Al-Aqsa the Talmudic ritual known as “epic prostration,” in which the worshipper bows low to the ground in a display of humility and reverence.
Thousands of Jewish worshippers performed the Priest’s Blessing at the Western Wall, a plaza outside the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the fifth day of Passover.
Israeli forces implemented strict security measures, turning the Al-Aqsa area into a military zone and preventing Palestinians from entering, the Wafa news agency reported.
On Tuesday, Israeli authorities closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, south of the occupied West Bank, as part of security measures during Passover.
The closure meant Palestinians were barred from accessing the site for two days as Israeli settlers celebrated Passover, Wafa added.
Clashes in Sudan’s El-Fasher kill 57: medical source
- The violence came just days after the RSF killed over 400 people in attacks on El-Fasher
- The RSF has ramped up its attacks on the Darfur city following the army’s recapture of Khartoum
PORT SUDAN: Clashes between Sudanese paramilitaries and the regular army have killed at least 57 civilians in the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, a medical source and a volunteer aid group said Thursday.
The local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group, said the civilians were killed on Wednesday in clashes and shelling of the city by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the army since April 2023.
The violence came just days after the RSF killed over 400 people in attacks on North Darfur’s capital of El-Fasher and nearby displacement camps, according to the United Nations.
El-Fasher, which the RSF has besieged for nearly a year, is the last major urban stronghold in Darfur still under army control and a strategic target for the paramilitary.
The RSF has ramped up its attacks on the Darfur city following the army’s recapture of the capital Khartoum last month.
The war, which entered its third year on Tuesday, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also fractured the country in two, with the army holding the center, north and east while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, along with its allies, parts of the south.
Mediator Qatar says Israel ‘did not abide’ by Gaza truce deal
- Israel had converted 30 percent of the Gaza Strip into a buffer zone in the widening air and ground offensive
MOSCOW: Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said Thursday that Israel had failed to respect January’s ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement,” said the ruler of Qatar, a key mediator of the deal.
A truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar with Egypt and the United States, came into force on January 19, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting triggered by Palestinian militants’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The inital phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps. Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of aid.
Israel said Wednesday that it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone in the widening offensive.
Sheikh Tamim said Qatar would “strive to bridge perspectives in order to reach an agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza.”
Putin recognized Qatar’s “serious efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict” and called deaths in the conflict “a tragedy.”
“A long-term settlement can only be achieved on the basis of the UN resolution and first of all connected to the establishment of two states,” he added.
Israel’s renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike in south
- The health ministry said: “the raid carried out by the Israeli enemy on the locality of Aitaroun left one dead“
- Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the ceasefire
BEIRUI: Lebanon reported Thursday that one person was killed by an Israeli air strike in the country’s south, hours after Israel said it had attacked sites there belonging to Hezbollah.
The health ministry said: “the raid carried out by the Israeli enemy on the locality of Aitaroun left one dead,” a day after Israeli strikes in the same region killed two people.
The Israeli military said earlier that it had struck “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites” in southern Lebanon overnight, without offering details.
The military added that it would “operate against any attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild or establish a military presence under the guise of civilian cover.”
Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.
Rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel has also been reported since the truce was struck, although no group has claimed responsibility for the launches.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese army said it had arrested several people suspected of firing rockets at Israel from Lebanon.
A security official told AFP that three of those detained were members of Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas.
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