Leadership on both sides needed to ensure Israeli-Palestinian peace, panel says at WEF

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Updated 23 January 2024
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Leadership on both sides needed to ensure Israeli-Palestinian peace, panel says at WEF

  • Samer Khoury said two-state solution unlikely to come to fruition while current Israeli administration was in power

DAVOS: The only way to solve the ongoing crisis in Palestine is through the implementation of the two-state solution, the former director of the Palestine Investment Fund said on Wednesday.

Speaking on a panel about potential peace between Israel and Palestine, Samer Khoury -- now chairman of the Consolidated Contractors Company -- said it was unlikely to come to fruition while the current Israeli administration was in power.

“After what happened (on Oct. 7), I think all Israelis have to realize the only way to have peace in the region is to give Palestinians their state,” Khoury said.

Agreeing with Khoury’s statement, British businessman Martin Sorrell added that peace could only be achieved with strong leadership on both sides, especially in Israel, and expressed optimism about the role regional countries could play.

“The one piece of good news over the past few weeks I see is the position of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The Arab communities, not just Saudi Arabia, need to play a key role in the negotiation of this settlement.”

Mohammed Al-Ghanim, a Kuwaiti CEO, said the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 were the result of Palestinians being denied the right to self-determination for nearly 80 years.

“You have a path-dependent approach to the Palestinians, who have been saying for 75 years, ‘We have not had our right to self-determination, we are not able to announce ourselves as a nation,’” he said.

“(The Abraham Accords have) exacerbated the Israeli-Palestinian problem much more than we believe because from the Palestinian perspective, they believe the core issue of ‘Palestine’ is being relegated and becoming secondary,” he added.

Eric Cantor, a former US congressman, agreed that strong leadership was required to enable a shift away from conflict toward peace and said that Washington’s position was in favor of a change at the top of the Palestinian side.

“I fully agree we need leadership and partners for peace,” he said. “Over the decades, the issue has been (that) the Israeli government has taken a stance it won’t (negotiate) with the Palestinian Authority, it won’t negotiate with Hamas, and look what has happened.

“The Biden administration has said the Palestinian leadership needs to be revamped and revitalized, Hamas has to go,” he added.

But Janahi was unequivocal in his response to Cantor, saying Israel was the clear aggressor in the situation 

“How can you have a war in an occupied country? There is an occupier and an occupied, one side is clearly an aggressor,” he said.

“For so many years, the one side that was supposedly bringing peace is only working for one side only,” Janahi said.

Janahi went on to call the US a “client of Israel, and the rest of Europe are poodles of the US so they have no perspective of being able to work on both sides and working for humanity.”

“They are only working for Israel,” he added.


At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says

Updated 20 May 2025
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At least 58 corpses found in Libyan hospital, ministry says

  • The corpses found on Monday are the second set of unidentified remains discovered in recent days

TRIPOLI: At least 58 unidentified corpses were found on Monday in a hospital in Tripoli that was under the control of a militia whose leader was killed last week, the interior ministry said.
The corpses were found in a morgue refrigerator in Abu Salim Accidents Hospital in the densely populated Abu Salim neighborhood, following a report from the hospital, the ministry said in a statement.
Pictures of corpses with numbers and censored faces were posted by the ministry, showing remains in various states of decomposition on steel carriers and beds. Some of the remains were burnt. An investigation was underway to establish the identities of the deceased.
“So far, 23 corpses have been examined, and all necessary legal procedures have been taken, including documenting data and collecting samples,” the ministry said.
Abu Salim was home to a militia known as the Stabilization Support Apparatus, whose chief, Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, was killed in unconfirmed circumstances last Monday.
Kikli’s killing led to the sudden defeat of the SSA by factions aligned to internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
On Tuesday, Dbeibah ordered armed groups to be dismantled, triggering the fiercest clashes Tripoli had seen in years between two armed groups. The clashes killed at least eight civilians, according to the United Nations.
The corpses found on Monday are the second set of unidentified remains discovered in recent days. On Saturday, officials said nine corpses had been found in a morgue refrigerator in Al-Khadra hospital, another SSA-controlled hospital in the Abu Salim neighborhood.
The militia had not reported the corpses to the relevant authorities, the interior ministry said.
Dbeibah said on Saturday that eliminating militias was an “ongoing project,” as a ceasefire after last week’s clashes remained in place.
The GNU posted a video on Monday showing bulldozers demolishing the so-called 77 camp, one of the biggest facilities that was under control of SSA. The camp is to be turned into a national park.
Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi. The country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.


Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas

Updated 20 May 2025
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Netanyahu says UK-French-Canada condemnation gives ‘huge prize’ to Hamas

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hit back at condemnation of his country’s military offensive in Gaza by the leaders of France, Canada and Britain saying they had given a “huge prize” to Hamas.
“By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to the October 2023 attack that set off the Gaza war.


Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel

Updated 20 May 2025
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Palestinian hospital chief calls for pressure on Israel

HELSINKI: An East Jerusalem hospital chief told AFP on Monday that Gaza was in a “catastrophic” state after weeks of a complete blockade of humanitarian aid and called on countries to act to end the suffering of civilians.
Fadi Atrash, chief executive of the Augusta Victoria-Hospital in East Jerusalem — which helps Palestinians from the occupied territories and Gaza — said he could no longer “find the words” to describe the crisis faced by people in war-torn Gaza.
“We are facing a very, very critical and catastrophic situation,” he said, with all components of the health care system destroyed, and health care workers “running out of energy.”
Augusta Victoria, which had a hospital in Gaza that has been destroyed in Israeli bombings now provides health care in Gaza with the limited resources available, Atrash said.
Atrash visited Finland — which has not recognized Palestine as a state — on Monday as part of a tour of the Nordic countries.
“My main message for the Nordic countries is to put pressure to stop the war, to stop the killing.”
Humanitarian food, medical and fuel supplies have been blocked from entering Gaza for 11 weeks, and the World Health Organization has warned that two million people face starvation.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb joined other European leaders on Monday to call on Israel to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Stubb also said “forced displacement of populations is a war crime and cannot form part of any solution,” in a post on X.
Israel this month approved an expanded military offensive in Gaza but has agreed to let limited aid into Gaza.


Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday

Updated 20 May 2025
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Gaza civil defense says 91 killed in Israeli strikes Monday

GAZA CITY: A Gaza civil defense official said that 91 people were killed in strikes and attacks throughout Monday as Israel steps up an offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The deaths had been recorded since the early hours of Monday, according to Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, an official in the civil defense agency of the Hamas-run territory. The department had earlier given a toll of 52 dead.


Yemen’s Houthis threaten Israeli port

Updated 20 May 2025
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Yemen’s Houthis threaten Israeli port

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis said Monday that they would target Haifa port in Israel as part of a “naval blockade” in response to Israeli escalation in the Gaza war.
The Houthis would “begin working to enforce a naval blockade of the port of Haifa,” said military spokesman Yehya Saree.
“All companies with ships present in or heading to this port are hereby notified that, as of the time of this announcement, the aforementioned port has been included in the target bank,” the Houthi spokesman added.
The move was “in response to the Israeli enemy’s escalation of its brutal aggression against our people and in Gaza,” he said, adding their attacks on Israel would “cease once the aggression on Gaza ends and the blockade is lifted.”
Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will “take control” of the whole of Gaza, as rescuers reported dozens killed in a newly intensified offensive.