JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense minister on Tuesday reprimanded the country’s military chief over appointments made without his approval, as tensions simmered between the military and the executive ahead of a planned expansion of the war in Gaza.
A statement from the defense minister Israel Katz’s ministry said that deliberations conducted by chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on military appointments “took place... without prior coordination or agreement” with the minister.
The statement added that this was “in violation of accepted procedure” and that Katz therefore “does not intend to discuss or approve any of the appointments or names that were published.”
In an army statement published shortly afterwards, Zamir responded that he was “the sole authority authorized to appoint officers from the rank of colonel upwards.”
“The chief of staff makes the appointment decisions — after which the appointment is brought to the minister for approval,” the statement added.
Tensions have been simmering for two weeks between the chief of staff and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over the next steps in the military operation in Gaza, aimed at freeing the remaining hostages and defeating Hamas.
Israeli media reported that Zamir was opposed to a plan approved by the security cabinet on Friday to take control of all of densely populated Gaza City.
Israeli media reported that Zamir favored encircling Gaza’s largest city, rather than conquering it.
The Israeli army controls around 75 percent of the Palestinian territory which has been devastated by 22 months of war.
Zamir, who was appointed in March after his predecessor was dismissed, said last week that he would continue expressing the military’s position “without fear, in a pragmatic, independent, and professional manner.”
Katz meanwhile said that the army chief could “express his views,” but that the military would ultimately have to “execute” any government decisions on Gaza.
New row between Israel defense minister and military chief
https://arab.news/89agg
New row between Israel defense minister and military chief
- Statement from Katz’s ministry said deliberations conducted by Zamir on military appointments “took place... without prior coordination or agreement” with minister
Trial opens in Tunisia of NGO workers accused of aiding migrants
- Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticized what it called “the relentless criminalization of civil society”
TUNIS: Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticized what it called “the relentless criminalization of civil society” in the country.
Six staff members of the Tunisian branch of the France Terre d’Asile aid group, along with 17 municipal workers from the eastern city of Sousse, face charges of sheltering migrants and facilitating their “illegal entry and residence.”
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
Migration is a sensitive issue in Tunisia, a key transit point for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe each year.
A former head of Terre d’Asile Tunisie, Sherifa Riahi, is among the accused and has been detained for more than 19 months, according to her lawyer Abdellah Ben Meftah.
He told AFP that the accused had carried out their work as part of a project approved by the state and in “direct coordination” with the government.
Amnesty denounced what it described as a “bogus criminal trial” and called on Tunisian authorities to drop the charges.
“They are being prosecuted simply for their legitimate work providing vital assistance and protection to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in precarious situations,” Sara Hashash, Amnesty’s deputy MENA chief, said in the statement.
The defendants were arrested in May 2024 along with about a dozen humanitarian workers, including anti-racism pioneer Saadia Mosbah, whose trial is set to start later this month.
In February 2023, President Kais Saied said “hordes of illegal migrants,” many from sub-Saharan Africa, posed a demographic threat to the Arab-majority country.
His speech triggered a series of racially motivated attacks as thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia were pushed out of their homes and jobs.
Thousands were repatriated or attempted to cross the Mediterranean, while others were expelled to the desert borders with Algeria and Libya, where at least a hundred died that summer.
This came as the European Union boosted efforts to curb arrivals on its southern shores, including a 255-million-euro ($290-million) deal with Tunis.
