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BEIRUT: The UN peacekeeping force on the Lebanon-Israel border said Monday its commander is in contact with officials in both countries over tensions regarding two tents set up by the militant Hezbollah group last month.
Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations in June claiming that Hezbollah had set up tents several dozen meters (yards) inside of Israeli territory.
The area where the tents were erected in Chebaa Farms and the Kfar Chouba hills were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and are part of Syria’s Golan Heights that Israel annexed in 1981. The Lebanese government says the area belongs to Lebanon.
Israeli media reported Sunday that Hezbollah evacuated one of the two tents but there has been no confirmation from the Iran-backed Lebanese group.
The head of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, “continues to be in direct contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line to resolve the situation of the tents,” UNIFIL said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. The borderline demarcated after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 is known as the blue line.
UNIFIL added: “We are looking into reports that a tent has been moved north of the Blue Line.” UNIFIL added that any unauthorized presence or activity “near the Blue Line is a concern, and has the potential to increase tension and misunderstandings.”
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad said Saturday that the tents are in Lebanon. He added, referring to Israel: “You cannot remove two tents because there is resistance and strong men in this country.”
Israel and Hezbollah fought to a draw in a monthlong war in Lebanon in 2006. Last week, Hezbollah said it shot down an Israel drone flying over a village in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has in the past claimed downing Israeli drones, and Israel’s military also has said in the past that they have shot down Hezbollah drones.
Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
IDLIB: The UN secretary general is hoping that the Security Council will vote later this month to keep a key border crossing from Turkiye to Syria’s rebel-held northwest open for critical aid deliveries for a period of one year instead of six months, a UN official said Tuesday.
Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib is home to some 4 million people, many of whom were earlier displaced during the 12-year civil war, which has killed nearly half a million people. Hundreds of thousands live in tent settlements and rely on aid that comes through the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing.
The Security Council is expected to vote in the coming days, as the current six-month opening period expires on July 10.
The situation got worse after the Feb. 6 earthquake that hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving many more homeless and in need of aid.
In the past, Russia, the main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, abstained on or vetoed resolutions on cross-border aid deliveries. It has sought to replace aid crossing the Turkish border to Idlib province with convoys from government-held areas in Syria. Since the early years of the war in Syria, Turkiye has sided with and supported the rebels.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries in 2014 from Turkiye, Iraq and Jordan through four crossing points into opposition-held areas in Syria. But over the years, Russia, backed by its ally China, has reduced the authorized crossings to just one from Turkiye — and the time frame from a year to six months.
“The UN. Secretary-General has been very clear that he would like the Security Council to renew the cross-border resolution which expires on July 10 for 12 months,” said David Carden, the UN’s Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria crisis. He spoke to journalists during a visit to Idlib.
He said a 12-month renewal was needed in order for the UN to implement early recovery projects such as durable shelters. “What we want is to get people from tents into durable shelter,” he said adding that such shelters are cooler in summer and warmer in winter, in addition to the privacy they give to families.
The February earthquake left more than 4,500 dead in northwestern Syria and about 855,000 people had their homes damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
After the earthquake, two additional border crossings between Turkiye and Syria were opened initially for three months. They were extended for a further three months in May to help the flow of aid.
JENIN: The Israeli military withdrew its troops from a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, ending an intense two-day operation that killed at least 13 Palestinians, drove thousands of people from their homes and left a wide swath of damage in its wake. One Israeli soldier was also killed.
The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the Jenin refugee camp in an operation that included a series of airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops.
But it remained unclear whether there would be any long-lasting effect after nearly a year and a half of heavy fighting in the West Bank.
Ahead of the withdrawal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out similar operations if needed.
“At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” he said during a visit to a military post on the outskirts of Jenin. “We will eradicate terrorism wherever we see it and we will strike at it.”
The Jenin raid was one of the most intense Israeli military operations in the West Bank since an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel’s open-ended occupation ended two decades ago.
Since early 2022, Israel has been carrying out near daily raids in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. It says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and said they are necessary because the Palestinian Authority is too weak.
The Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel. They also point to increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel struck the camp, known as a long-time bastion of Palestinian militants, early Monday in an operation it said was aimed at destroying and confiscating weapons.
Big military bulldozers tore through alleyways, leaving heavy damage to roads and buildings, and thousands of residents fled the camp to seek safety with relatives or in shelters. People said electricity and water were knocked out. The army said the bulldozers were necessary because roads were booby-trapped with explosives.
The military said it had confiscated thousands of weapons, bomb-making materials and caches of money. Weapons were found in militant hideouts and civilian areas alike, in one case beneath a mosque, the military said.
The withdrawal came hours after a Hamas militant rammed his car into a crowded Tel Aviv bus stop and began stabbing people, wounding eight, including a pregnant woman who reportedly lost her baby. The attacker was killed by an armed bystander. Hamas said the attack was revenge for the Israeli offensive.
Early Wednesday, militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza also fired five rockets toward Israel, which Israel said were intercepted. Israeli jets struck several sites in Gaza.
In Jenin, fighting continued until shortly before the withdrawal Wednesday morning.
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike late Tuesday targeting a group of militants in a Jenin cemetery. It said the gunmen threatened forces moving out of the camp. Israeli and Palestinian officials also reported fighting near a hospital in Jenin late Tuesday. An Associated Press reporter on the ground could hear explosions and the sound of gunfire.
Palestinian health officials said 13 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli raid and dozens were wounded. The Israeli military has claimed it killed only militants, but it has not provided details.
The large-scale raid comes amid a more than yearlong spike in violence that has created a challenge for Netanyahu’s far-right government, which is dominated by ultranationalists who have called for tougher action against Palestinian militants only to see the fighting worsen.
Over 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, and Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 25 people, including a shooting last month that killed four settlers.
The sustained operation has raised warnings from humanitarian groups of a deteriorating situation.
Doctors Without Borders accused the army of firing tear gas into a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency patients to be treated in a main hall.
The UN’s human rights chief said the scale of the operation “raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life.”
Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, said soldiers forcibly entered her home and locked the family inside.
“They took the young men of my family to the upper floor, and they left the women and children trapped in the apartment at the first floor,” she said.
She claimed soldiers would not let her take food to the children and blocked an ambulance crew from entering the home when she yelled for help, before eventually allowing the family passage to a hospital.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians observed a general strike to protest the Israeli raid.
With airstrikes and a large presence of ground troops, the raid bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. But there are also differences, including its limited scope.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
LONDON: Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad on Tuesday met with Prince William at Windsor Castle, on the sidelines of his official visit to the UK, where he lauded the over 200-year relationship between the two nations.
The crown prince conveyed greetings from King Hamad to King Charles III and the Prince of Wales, the Bahrain News Agency reported.
Prince Salman, who began his two-day visit on Monday, said there was growing cooperation between the two kingdoms and “the development and progress they are witnessing, which are based on the depth and strength of bilateral relations, and the importance of continuing to push them to reach the desired aspirations,” BNA reported.
Prince Salman also met with UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly to discuss regional and global developments.
Earlier on Saturday, the crown prince attended a business reception organized by the Lord Mayor of the City of London Nicholas Lyons, and UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch, in cooperation with leading British enterprises.
He highlighted Team Bahrain’s determination and commitment to achieving the kingdom’s wide-ranging economic and investment goals by bolstering current global partnerships.
Prince Salman commended the efforts of the Bahrain Economic Development Board to attract investment that would help to diversify the country’s economy and create quality opportunities for citizens.
The crown prince then attended a ceremony where several agreements were signed, including a deal between Minister of Finance and National Economy Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa and Badenoch, and a memorandum of understanding on biodiversity and marine pollution between Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani and the Deputy CEO of the Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Tim Green.
An agreement was signed to facilitate internships for Bahrainis in Britain by the governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Rasheed Mohamed Al-Maraj, and the chairman of Naisbitt King Group, Alastair King. There was also an agreement concluded between the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance and the London Institute of Banking and Finance on training and education, signed by the CEO of the BIBF, Dr. Ahmed Abdul Hameed Abdul Ghani Al-Shaikh, and the CEO of LIBF, Alex Fraser.
A pact to launch services for testing pearls and precious gemstones was signed by the Bahrain Institute for Pearls and Gemstones “Danat” in the UK. The agreement was inked by the CEO of Danat, Noura Jamsheer, and the managing director of MALCA-AMIT, Charles Frederick Richard Turner.
There was also an agreement reached on the provision of financial asset management services and investment opportunities between the CEO of SICO Bank, Najla Al-Shirawi, and Executive Vice President and President of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Northern Trust Teresa Parker.
There were several announcements including the UK being granted the status of an authorized partner of the Global Center for Maritime and Air Cargo Services, the launch of a British company specializing in insurance brokerage services, and the establishment of a regional services hub for PwC Middle East, which is expected to create 250 jobs. In addition, the two nations would launch a studio for financial technology projects in Bahrain, and establish an investment platform to manage student housing assets in the UK.
In a speech, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa, the finance minister, highlighted the growing ties between the two nations. He added that the GCC economies collectively grew during 2022 by 7.3 percent, to reach a total of $2 trillion.
He stressed the importance of the UK-GCC Free Trade Agreement in expanding new multi-dimensional economic prospects, and announced the full recognition of the Bahraini-British Business Forum as an official branch of the British Chamber of Commerce.
Sheikh Salman said that the kingdom has grown significantly, with 2022 economic indicators revealing that the non-oil sector now contributes 83.1 percent to the country’s GDP, the highest in the history of Bahrain. Moreover, overall GDP grew 4.9 percent at constant prices, the highest growth since 2013.
He added that the non-oil sector recorded growth of 6.2 percent in 2022 at constant prices, the highest since 2012, which he attributed to the Bahraini government’s economic planning.
Lyons, London’s lord mayor, said: “The links between the UK and Bahrain remain strong. The high number of UK business leaders attending this event demonstrates the desire to strengthen these economic links further.
“As a world leader in financial services and green finance, UK businesses are well-placed to assist Bahrain’s own Vision 2030 to strengthen the private sector and diversify the economy.”
“Focused on sustainability, fairness and competitiveness, Vision 2030 will help ensure that Bahrain’s economy continues to thrive well into the remainder of the 21st century,” he added.
JENIN, West Bank: The Israeli military began withdrawing troops from a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, security officials said, winding down an intense two-day operation that killed at least 13 Palestinians, drove thousands from their homes and left a wide swath of damage in its wake. One Israeli soldier was killed.
But heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants continued in parts of the Jenin refugee camp, delaying the planned pullout.
Just after midnight, residents in the Jenin refugee camp said the army had left the area. The army said a soldier had ben killed in the fighting, but gave no further details.
Adding to the tensions, the army said militants in the Gaza Strip launched five rockets into Israel. It said all of the rockets were intercepted, but the launches raised the risk of fighting on a second front for Israel.
The developments came hours after a Hamas militant rammed his car into a crowded Tel Aviv bus stop and began stabbing people, wounding eight, including a pregnant woman who reportedly lost her baby. The attacker was killed by an armed bystander. Hamas said the attack was revenge for the Israeli offensive.
Visiting a military post outside Jenin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the operation, one of the most intense in the territory in nearly two decades, was nearing its end. But he vowed to carry out similar operations in the future.
“At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” he said.
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike late Tuesday targeting a militant cell located in a cemetery. It said the gunmen threatened forces moving out of the camp. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Israeli and Palestinian officials also reported fighting near a hospital in Jenin late Tuesday. An Associated Press reporter on the ground could hear explosions and the sound of gunfire. Palestinian hospital officials told the official Wafa news agency that three civilians were hit by Israeli fire.
An Israeli security official confirmed that troops had begun to leave, but said the withdrawal was complicated by the fighting. He spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.
Israel struck the camp, known as a bastion of Palestinian militants, early Monday in an operation it said was aimed at destroying and confiscating weapons. Palestinian health officials said 13 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded.
Big military bulldozers tore through alleyways, leaving heavy damage to roads and buildings, and thousands of residents fled the camp. People said electricity and water were knocked out. The army says the bulldozers were necessary because roads were booby-trapped with explosives.
The military said it had confiscated thousands of weapons, bomb-making materials and caches of money. Weapons were found in militant hideouts and civilian areas alike, in one case beneath a mosque, the military said.
The large-scale raid comes amid a more than yearlong spike in violence that has created a challenge for Netanyahu’s far-right government, which is dominated by ultranationalists who have called for tougher action against Palestinian militants only to see the fighting worsen.
Over 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, and Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 25 people, including a shooting last month that killed four settlers.
The sustained operation has raised warnings from humanitarian groups of a deteriorating situation.
Doctors Without Borders accused the army of firing tear gas into a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency patients to be treated in a main hall.
The office of the U.N.’s human rights chief said the scale of the operation “raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life.”
With airstrikes and a large presence of ground troops, the raid bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
But there are also differences. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line settler leader, rushed to the scene of Tuesday’s attack in Tel Aviv.
“We knew that terror would raise its head,” Ben-Gvir said. He praised the person who killed the attacker and called for arming more citizens, as he was heckled by an angry onlooker.
The attacker was identified as a 20-year-old Palestinian man from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
The Islamic militant group Hamas praised him as a “martyr fighter” and called the ramming “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin.” Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a large presence in Jenin, also praised the assault.
It was not immediately clear if the man was dispatched by Hamas or acted on his own.
In Jenin, rubble littered the streets, and columns of black smoke periodically rose above the skyline over the camp, which has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years.
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said around 4,000 Palestinians, nearly one third of the camp, had fled to stay with relatives or in shelters.
Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, said soldiers forcibly entered her home and locked the family inside.
“They took the young men of my family to the upper floor, and they left the women and children trapped in the apartment at the first floor,” she said.
She claimed soldiers would not let her take food to the children and blocked an ambulance crew from entering the home when she yelled for help, before eventually allowing the family passage to a hospital.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians observed a general strike to protest the Israeli raid.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that the two-day death toll among Palestinians rose to 13. The Israeli military has claimed at least 10 were militants, but did not provide details. There was no immediate information on the latest deaths.
The Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank and three Arab countries with normalized ties with Israel — Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — have condemned Israel’s incursion, as did Saudi Arabia and the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel has been carrying out near daily raids in the West Bank in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks in early 2022. It says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel. They also point to increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in confrontations have also died.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
LONDON: The foreign ministers of the UK and Iraq met in London during the UK-Iraq Strategic Dialogue this week.
The meeting between James Cleverly and Fuad Hussein, who is also Iraqi deputy prime minister, reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries to work together and the two ministers agreed to develop and further co-operation on a wide range of sectors.
The Strategic Dialogue builds on the signing of the UK-Iraq Strategic Partnership in Baghdad in June 2021, which outlined UK’s commitment to the long-term security, stability and sovereignty of Iraq.
The meeting also followed the visit of the Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, Lord Ahmad, to Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region, earlier in the year.
Cleverly and Hussein discussed the importance of “building a prosperous future for the Iraqi people and the UK’s commitment to supporting Iraq, including through the Iraq Economic Contact Group, as it undertakes the bold long-term reforms needed to put Iraq’s economy and society on a stable footing,” a British government statement said.
Both sides welcomed the Iraqi government’s ambitious economic reform agenda and agreed on the necessity of rapidly delivering non-oil growth, private sector job creation and improving access to finance.
With bilateral trade between the two countries increasing, Hussein also met leading UK businesses to identify new commercial opportunities, while both sides agreed their intention to finalise the UK-Iraq Partnership and Cooperation Agreement as soon as possible and put it to their respective parliaments this year.
Ahead of COP28 later this year, the ministers agreed to increase high level engagement over the rest of 2023, and both sides welcomed the UK’s support in further developing and strengthening Iraq’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
On security, the UK and Iraq agreed on the importance of continuing to driving Daesh out of Iraqi territory and welcomed the commitment of both the UK and Iraq to support the Global Coalition Against Daesh, as well as the efforts by both sides on rehabilitation and reintegration of displaced Iraqi citizens including those returning from Al-Hol camp in North-East Syria.
“Recognizing modern threats posed by cyber, both sides agreed to deepen engagement on cyber security, including through the UK’s support of the newly established Cyber Security Directorate within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense,” the British government communique said.
The two ministers discussed the shared challenges that the UK and Iraq face in tackling serious organised crime and the drivers of migration. They reviewed areas for further cooperation to ensure safe and legal migration, including targeted programming to better understand and address the drivers of illegal migration and establish robust and trusted processes for migration cooperation, including reintegration packages.
“The UK will bolster its support to strengthen Iraq’s borders through mutually agreed programmes,” the statement added.