US names four sanctioned West Bank settlers
By Staff Writers
The US State Department has moved to sanction four Israeli citizens involved in extremist settler activities following President Joe Biden’s executive order today.
The department named four people who it said were involved in settler-led attacks on Palestinians: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman and Yinon Levi.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it”.
“The United States will continue to take actions to advance the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution, and is committed to the safety, security, and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians alike,” he said.
The sanctioning follows the death of American teenager Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, who was shot and killed last month during a visit to the West Bank to learn more about his Palestinian heritage, US NBC News reported.
His family says he was the victim of settler violence.
Abdel Jabbar’s father said his son was out for a picnic with friends when witnesses told him that the 17-year-old was shot by an Israeli settler.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that at the time he was unaware of the full context but that the White House was “seriously concerned” over the teen’s death.
UK may recognise Palestine: Cameron
By Staff Writers
British Foreign Secretary David (Lord) Cameron says his country could officially recognize a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza without waiting for the outcome of what could be years-long talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution, accprding to Reuters news agency.
UK recognition of an independent state of Palestine, including in the United Nations, “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process”, Cameron told The Associated Press.
“What we need to do is give the Palestinian people a horizon towards a better future, the future of having a state of their own,” he said.
That prospect is “absolutely vital for the long-term peace and security of the region,” he said. Cameron said the first step must be a “pause in the fighting” in Gaza that would eventually turn into “a permanent, sustainable ceasefire”.
Israel ‘eliminates dozens of terrorists’ in Gaza action
By Agency Writers
Israel’s military said on Thursday local time troops had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” over the past day and destroyed a long-range missile launcher in the embattled southern city of Khan Younis.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 119 people were killed in strikes overnight.
The UN also reported heavy bombardment across Gaza, particularly in Khan Younis, and said 184,000 more Palestinians from the city had registered for humanitarian assistance.
– AFP
Lloyd Austin apologises for concealing cancer
By Agency Writers
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has apologised for concealing his prostate cancer diagnosis and hospitalisation from President Joe Biden, the rest of the government, and the American public.
Still in recovery, Austin continues to suffer from leg pain and said he used a golf cart for transportation inside the Pentagon ahead of the rare solo press conference.
The defence secretary has come under heavy political fire from Republicans over his undisclosed absence at a time when the United States faces a spiraling crisis in the Middle East.
Austin said on Thursday local time he had not considered resigning and that Biden continued to back him. However, he repeatedly apologised, blaming his naturally “private” instincts following the shock of the diagnosis.
“I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis,” he told journalists. “I have apologised directly to President Biden.”
The 70-year-old Austin was out of the public eye for weeks, beginning with minor surgery to treat prostate cancer on December 22 that saw him hospitalised until the following day.
He was readmitted due to complications including nausea and severe pain on January 1, but the White House was not informed until January 4, while Congress was not told until the following day, and Biden did not learn of the cancer diagnosis until January 9.
Austin said that he did not direct his “staff to conceal my hospitalisation from anyone” but acknowledged: “We did not get this right.”
The controversy over his health problems comes with American forces in Iraq and Syria facing near-daily attacks from Iran-backed militants – one of which killed three soldiers over the weekend – while Yemen’s Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted international shipping.
Austin is an intensely private person who eschews the spotlight, which he said played into his decision to keep the cancer diagnosis secret.
It “was a gut punch. And frankly, my first instinct was to keep it private. I don’t think it’s news that I’m a pretty private guy – I never liked burdening others with my problems,” Austin said.
The commander-in-chief “has responded with a grace and warm heart that anyone who knows President Biden would expect, and I’m grateful for his full confidence in me”, Austin said.
– AFP
New tally puts October 7 attack dead in Israel at 1163
By Agency Writers
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1160 people, mostly civilians, according to a new AFP tally based on the latest official figures available Thursday.
The tally showed the number of those killed in Israel on October 7, including members of the security forces and civilians, has risen to 1163 compared with a death toll of 1139 in mid-December.
To calculate the new figure, AFP cross-referenced data published separately by Israel’s social security agency, the army, the police, the Shin Bet security agency and the prime minister’s office.
The new count includes those taken hostage on October 7, whose deaths have since been confirmed.
The latest death toll from the attack is now 767 civilians, 20 hostages and 376 members of the security forces, giving a total of 1163. One person remains missing.
The youngest victim was a newborn baby who died 14 hours after birth, while the oldest was a 94-year-old woman.
The violence on October 7 began when armed men from the Palestinian Islamist movement broke through the militarised border with Gaza on Shabbat, the last day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Under the cover of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza, they killed indiscriminately in streets, houses, kibbutz communities and at a rave music festival.
It took more than three days of heavy fighting for the Israeli army to regain control, and left the country deeply traumatised by violence unseen since the country’s formation in 1948.
Police are still working to assess the scale of the sexual violence that was reported alongside the killings.
Israel’s military has responded to the attack with a withering offensive that has killed at least 27,019 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.-
– AFP
UN advisers alarmed at deaths of journalists in Gaza
By Agency Writers
UN rights advisers have voiced alarm at soaring numbers of journalists killed in the Gaza war, alleging an apparent “deliberate” Israeli strategy to silence critical reporting.
“Rarely have journalists paid such a heavy price for just doing their job as those in Gaza now,” the five advisers said in a statement on Thursday.
United Nations reports indicate that at least 122 journalists and other media workers have been killed and many others injured in the Gaza Strip since war erupted there following Hamas’s deadly attacks inside Israel on October 7.
The Palestinian militants also killed four Israeli journalists on October 7, while three journalists have been killed by Israeli shelling on the Lebanese side of their border.
“We are alarmed at the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Gaza, in recent months,” the advisers said.
The independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said they had received “disturbing reports that, despite being clearly identifiable in jackets and helmets marked ‘press’ or travelling in well-marked press vehicles, journalists have come under attack”.
This, they warned, “would seem to indicate that the killings, injury, and detention are a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting”.
“Targeted attacks and killings of journalists are war crimes.”
The experts, including the special rapporteurs on freedom of expression, on rights in the Palestinian territories and on extrajudicial executions, also voiced grave concerns that Israel has refused to let media from outside Gaza to enter and report unless they are embedded with Israeli forces.
“The attacks on media in Gaza and restrictions on other journalists from accessing Gaza, combined with severe disruptions of the internet, are major impediments to the right of information of the people of Gaza as well as the outside world,” they said.
– AFP
Russia ‘monitoring’ impact of Houthis on markets
By Agency Writers
Russia is closely following the spillover of tensions in the Red Sea onto the global energy market, a top Moscow official said Thursday.
The Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 30 attacks on commercial shipping and naval vessels since November 19, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
Container shipping in the Red Sea – a crucial narrow passage which links to the Suez Canal – is down by almost 30 per cent this year amid the attacks, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
Alexander Novak, Russia’s deputy prime minister who oversees the country’s energy policy, said the situation in the Red Sea had “significantly” affected “trading relations and logistics chains”.
“It is important that there is constant monitoring of the situation, so that at any moment joint decisions can be made to adjust our joint actions designed to correct and balance the market,” he said on state TV.
Novak was referring to Russia’s participation in the OPEC+ oil alliance – an agreement between some of the world’s top producers, led by Saudi Arabia, to manage oil output and exports to support prices on the global market.
Global oil prices have risen about 10 per cent since early December. Energy exports are a crucial source of revenue for Russia’s economy, especially with its invasion of Ukraine.
– AFP
Blast near ship after US targeting in Yemen
By Agency Writers
American forces have destroyed an explosives-laden uncrewed surface vessel that threatened ships in the Red Sea, the US military said.
The US Central Command also said Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched two anti-ship missiles that were possibly aimed at a cargo ship in the Red Sea, but that the missiles did not hit the vessel.
It blamed the Houthis for the bomb-rigged surface vessel, the destruction of which resulted in “significant secondary explosions” but no reports of damage or injuries.
Maritime security firm Ambrey said a commercial vessel was reportedly targeted by a missile southwest of Aden after the Houthis claimed a missile attack on an American ship in the area that they said was heading towards Israel. Ambrey did not name the ship or mention its ownership, but Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree identified the ship as “KOI”.
The attack was likely towards the M/V KOI ship in the Red Sea, the US Central Command said. “The missiles impacted in the water without hitting the ship,” it says, adding there were no injuries and no damage reported to the Liberian-flagged, Bermuda-owned cargo vessel M/V KOI, nor to the coalition ships in the area.
Strikes by the Houthis who have harassed Red Sea shipping for months, triggering reprisal attacks by the United States and Britain.
Early on Thursday in Yemen, US forces targeted a “Houthi UAV ground control station and 10 Houthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region”, a Central Command statement said, using an abbreviation for unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.
Central Command earlier announced that the USS Carney had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis towards the Gulf of Aden, and that three Iranian drones were downed less than an hour later.
It did not specify if the drones shot down by the destroyer were designed for attack or surveillance.
US forces also destroyed a Houthi surface-to-air missile on Wednesday that Central Command said posed an imminent threat to “US aircraft” – a deviation from past raids that focused on reducing the rebels’ ability to threaten international shipping.
It did not identify the type of aircraft that had been threatened or the location of the strike, saying only that it took place in “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen”.
While the US has recently launched strikes on the Houthis and other Iran-supported groups in the region, both Washington and Tehran have sought to avoid a direct confrontation, and the downing of three Iranian drones could heighten tensions.
The Houthis began targeting Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israel-linked vessels as a way to support Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
Some of the US strikes have focused on missiles that Central Command said posed an imminent threat to ships, indicating robust surveillance of Houthi-controlled territory likely to include military aircraft.
The US also set up a multinational naval task force to help protect Red Sea shipping from repeated Houthi attacks in the transit route, which carries up to 12 per cent of global trade.
In addition to military action, Washington has sought to put diplomatic and financial pressure on the Houthis, redesignating them as a “terrorist” organisation in January after previously having dropped that label soon after President Joe Biden took office.
On Wednesday, the Houthis said they fired missiles at destroyer the USS Gravely – a claim that came after Central Command said the warship downed an anti-ship cruise missile launched “from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Red Sea”.
– AFP
UN Palestinian aid agency warns of shutdown
By Agency Writers
The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that international funding cuts may force the shutdown of its operations across the region “by the end of February”.
Several major donor countries to UNRWA said they would suspend funding after Israel alleged 12 agency employees took part in Hamas’s October 7 attack.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that “if the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region”.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said after talks with Lazzarini that he “emphasised the immediate need for the international community to support UNRWA, which plays an indispensable role for Palestinian refugees, serving as a lifeline for over two million Palestinians facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.
A foreign ministry statement in Amman said that both Safadi and Lazzarini urged countries that have suspended aid to UNRWA to “reconsider their decision”.
“Any reduction in financial support provided to the agency will exacerbate the suffering of the people of Gaza, who are already on the brink of mass starvation,” the statement said.
– AFP
UK seeks calm on Lebanon-Israel border
By Agency Writers
British Foreign Minister David (Lord) Cameron met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut overnight to discuss defusing tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border as Israel’s military reported new exchanges of fire.
Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the border has seen near-daily exchanges between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Cameron and Mikati discussed “ways to restore calm in southern Lebanon, as well as the political and diplomatic solution that is needed”, the prime minister’s office said.
Cameron is the latest in a succession of Western ministers to visit Beirut amid concern that the Gaza war could spark a wider conflict involving Iranian allies around the Middle East.
A major focus of their efforts has been to reinforce the UN Security Council resolution that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Resolution 1701 called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani River, some 30km from the border with Israel, except for Lebanese state security forces and UN peacekeepers. While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since 2006, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south, where it has built tunnels and hideouts and launched missile and drone attacks into Israel.
Mikati discussed with Cameron “ways to implement UN Resolution 1701”, his office said.
Hezbollah had previously signalled its willingness to endorse a diplomatic solution, but only after Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip.
Western diplomats, including British officials, are pushing for a solution that would include “fully implementing resolution 1701 and giving new impetus” to UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a Western official said.
– AFP
Biden faces Arab American anger over Gaza
By Agency Writers
US President Joe Biden travels today to the crucial swing state of Michigan, which is also the crucible of growing Arab American anger at his pro-Israel policies.
The trip comes days after the Democratic incumbent’s campaign manager travelled to the city of Dearborn – home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States – only to be snubbed by the Detroit suburb’s mayor.
It was an ominous sign for Biden, for whom swing states such as Michigan could prove decisive in November, when he faces a likely rematch with his predecessor Donald Trump.
The White House has made clear that (local time) Thursday’s trip is purely a campaign visit, and Biden’s 2024 team has said that he will meet with members of the powerful United Auto Workers union, who endorsed him last week.
That could carry a lot of weight in Michigan, home to the US vehicle industry – but he will still have to contend with the anger of Arab Americans as Israel’s devastating war in Gaza grinds on.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that Biden was “heartbroken by the suffering of innocent Palestinians”.
On Wednesday a group of Dearborn organisations called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, had earlier written on X, formerly Twitter, that he refused to meet with Biden’s campaign manager.
“I will not entertain conversations about elections while we watch a live-streamed genocide backed by our government,” he said.
Biden is now regularly confronted by demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against “Genocide Joe,” with his speeches interrupted by protestors. He won decisively among Arabs and Muslims in 2020. But analysts have warned many could stay home or vote for a third party in 2024.
– AFP
Hostages taken in Gaza protest in Turkey
By Agency Writers
An assailant on Thursday took some people hostage at a plant owned by US cosmetics giant Procter & Gamble near Istanbul in protest at the war in Gaza, a police spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear how many people were being held at the plant, which lies on the eastern outskirts of Turkey’s largest city, the spokesman told AFP.
A union representing workers at the consumer goods plant said the assailant was holding seven people hostage, adding that the rest of the plant’s workers had been released.
The private DHA news agency published a photo widely circulated online of the alleged assailant holding a gun and what appeared to be a suicide vest strapped to his chest.
The man was standing next to a drawing of the Palestinian flag and the words “for Gaza” painted on the wall in red.
Images from the scene showed police setting up a cordon around the sprawling plant, which primarily manufactures cosmetics.
Special operation forces and medical personnel were dispatched to the scene, Turkish media reported.
– AFP
Hamas gives ‘initial positive confirmation’ on truce plan
By Agency Writers
Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met Israeli intelligence officials in Paris on Sunday where they proposed a six-week pause in the Gaza war and a hostage-prisoner exchange for Hamas to review.
“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas’ side,” Majed al-Ansari told an audience at a Washington-based graduate school.
“There is still a very tough road in front of us,” Ansari said “We are optimistic because both sides now agreed to the premise that would lead to a next pause.
“We’re hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to share good news about that,” he said.
The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.
Previously, Qatar mediated a one-week break in fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.
– AFP
US imposes sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank
By Staff Writers
The Biden administration has announced a new set of sanctions against Israeli settlers and others it deems responsible for attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, as concerns grow in Washington that the Israeli government hasn’t done enough to curb the violence.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank have doubled, according to the United Nations.
Armed settlers in uniforms have shown up in Palestinian villages threatening to kill those who don’t leave, say residents, Israeli peace activists and the U.N.
The incidents have prompted more than 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15 communities to flee their homes in the West Bank, according to the U.N. and Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem. The number is more than double the total displaced in the West Bank between the start of 2022 and Oct. 6 this year, according to B’Tselem.
The executive order clears the way for sanctions on foreign nationals engaged in actions that include the directing or participating in acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, or destroying or seizing property and acts of terrorism.
In response to President Biden’s order, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said “the absolute majority” of West Bank settlers “are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are currently fighting in mandatory service and in reserves for the defense of Israel.
Israel is taking action against people who break the law everywhere, and therefore there is no place for unusual measures in this regard.”
In December, the administration announced that it would impose visa restrictions on an unspecified group of Israeli and Palestinian officials who had undermined security. The new executive order will immediately impact four individuals, a senior administration official said. The penalties will cut them off from the U.S. banking system and prohibit them from traveling to the U.S.
Biden has “spoken about his concern about the rise in violence that we have seen in the West Bank from extremist actors — in particular the rise in extremist settler violence, which reached record levels in 2023,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“This violence poses a grave threat to peace, security and stability in the West Bank, Israel and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign-policy interests of the United States.”
Settler groups and Israeli authorities say many Palestinian hamlets in the West Bank were built without permits and are illegal. Pro-settler groups and some far-right Israeli politicians are pushing for the formal annexation of settlements in the West Bank to Israel.
– Vivian Salama /WSJ