BAGHDAD: A Katyusha rocket landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Wednesday, the Iraqi military said, a day after a British Embassy convoy was targeted on a key highway in the city.
There were no casualties and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack — the latest in near-daily rocket assaults targeting the Green Zone and Iraqi army bases hosting US troops. The attacks have raised security concerns about armed groups outside of the state’s control.
The Green Zone is the seat of Iraq’s government and home to several foreign embassies, including the US Embassy. Wednesday’s rocket hit near a residential building in the Al-Qadisiya complex but caused no damages.
An Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the building was empty at the time of the attack. The military statement said the rocket was launched from the nearby Amel neighborhood.
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has promised to reign in armed groups acting outside of the state’s authority. The attacks surged after Al-Kadhimi traveled to the US last month to conclude strategic talks, putting pressure on his administration.
The British convoy was targeted on a Baghdad highway close to the Umm Al-Tabool Mosque, between the airport and the Green Zone, a strategic road often used by diplomatic missions.
Earlier in the week, two rockets were fired at the Green Zone late on Monday but caused to casualties; one was intercepted by the US embassy’s C-RAM defense system. That attack came after a roadside bomb targeted an convoy of vehicles carrying equipment for Americans earlier in the day on the main highway in Babylon province, south of Baghdad.
Iraqi army: Rocket hits Baghdad's Green Zone; no casualties
https://arab.news/9szuw
Iraqi army: Rocket hits Baghdad's Green Zone; no casualties
- No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack
- The building was empty at the time of the attack
Trump ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war expansion: Report
- US president said to be ‘upset’ at images of suffering Palestinian children
- He reportedly told Israeli PM via aides that he wants war to be ‘wrapped up’
London: US President Donald Trump is “frustrated” by Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war and is “upset” at images of suffering Palestinian children, White House officials have reportedly said.
Two administration officials told Axios that Trump has relayed messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via aides that he wants the war to be “wrapped up.”
One official told Axios: “The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza.”
Trump is said to be personally annoyed at Netanyahu, who “he doesn’t even like,” The Times was told.
It follows Trump’s high-profile tour of the Middle East, comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which is mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
During the trip, which notably lacked a stop in Israel, Trump “appeared genuinely concerned by the suffering of Gazans,” sources told The Times.
However, the White House is reluctant to openly criticize Tel Aviv’s actions, and officials from both countries deny that Trump is prepared to “abandon” support for Israel.
Trump last week said he wanted to help the “starving” people in Gaza. During talks with Arab leaders, he pledged to facilitate the entry of more aid to the Palestinian enclave.
His Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has presented plans for a ceasefire deal that would lead to the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
But Netanyahu’s decision to expand the Gaza war has frustrated hopes of a deal, despite his office saying he had agreed to a plan based on Witkoff’s proposals.
One Israeli official told Axios: “If the president wants a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza he needs to put much more pressure on both sides.”
A White House official told Axios that Trump believes the Gaza war is preventing him from enacting his plans for the region.
“The president sees a real chance for peace and prosperity in the region, but the war in Gaza is the last hot spot and he wants it to end,” the official said.
82 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians
- UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Gaza staff still waiting to receive aid
- Many women and one-week old baby and 14 members of the same family among latest killed as Israel prepares further onslaught
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: Israeli strikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip Wednesday, despite a surge in international anger at Israel’s widening offensive, killing at least 82 people, including several women and a week-old infant, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and area hospitals.
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need.
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian agency, said no trucks were picked up from the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, the Israeli border crossing with southern Gaza.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid had entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid would be able to continue deeper into Gaza for distribution. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said its staff had waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday.
A few dozen Israeli activists opposed to Israel’s decision to allow aid into Gaza while Hamas still holds Israeli hostages attempted to block the trucks carrying the aid on Wednesday morning, but were kept back by Israeli police.
Diplomats come under fire in Jenin
A group of diplomats came under fire while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority. The diplomats were on official mission to observe the humanitarian situation in Jenin when shots rang out.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the shooting.
An aid worker, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said a delegation of about 20 diplomats was being briefed about the situation in Jenin by the Palestinian Authority. The group of regional, European and Western diplomats were standing near the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp when they heard gunshots just before 2 p.m., though it was unclear where the shots came from, she said. No one was injured, she added.
Footage shows a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out close to the group, forcing them to run for cover.
Jenin has been the site of Israel’s widespread crackdown against West Bank militants since earlier this year.
On Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on Jenin as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, one of the largest West Bank displacements in years.
International pressure increases against Israel
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the UK, Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament.
Negotiations stalled as Israeli operation widens
Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead. Qatari leaders, who are mediating negotiations, said there was a large gap between the two sides that they had been unable to bridge.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday urged world leaders to take immediate action to end Israel’s siege on Gaza, issuing the appeal in a written statement during a visit to Beirut, where he is expected to discuss the disarmament of Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s refugee camps.
“I call on world leaders to take urgent and decisive measures to break the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said, demanding the immediate entry of aid, an end to the Israeli offensive, the release of detainees, and a full withdrawal from Gaza.
“It is time to end the war of extermination against the Palestinian people. I reiterate that we will not leave, and we will remain here on the land of our homeland, Palestine,” Abbas said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Lebanese, Palestinian presidents say era of weapons ‘outside Lebanese state control’ over
- Joint statement says two leaders expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively ‘in the hands of the Lebanese state’
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday that weapons should be under Lebanese state control, meeting in Beirut to discuss disarming Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the “belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended,” adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively “in the hands of the Lebanese state.”
Israeli army fire shots on Italian diplomats visiting West Bank
RAMALLAH: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Wednesday slammed the firing of shots on diplomats visiting the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin and called on Israel to “immediately clarify.”
“I have just spoken to Alessandro Tutino, the Deputy Consul General of Italy in Jerusalem, who is well and who was among the diplomats who were apparently shot at near the Jenin refugee camp,” Tajani said on X.
“We call on the government of Israel to immediately clarify what happened. Threats against diplomats are unacceptable,” he said.
The Israeli army said it “regrets the inconvenience” caused during the diplomats' visit.
The Palestinian Authority released a video of two soldiers aiming rifles at a group of people, condemning the attack.
It said “the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which deliberately targeted by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation to the State of Palestine during a field visit to Jenin Governorate.”
A diplomat present during the visit confirmed to AFP he had heard “repeated shots” coming from inside Jenin refugee camp.
EU review of Israel ties ‘devastatingly late’: Amnesty
- Association agreement to be examined over Gaza concerns
- ‘Emboldened by EU inaction — and even backed by some EU states — Israeli leaders have flaunted their genocidal aims’
LONDON: The EU’s decision to review trade and cooperation with Israel in light of concerns over the Gaza war is “devastatingly late,” Amnesty International has said.
On Tuesday, the European Commission agreed to conduct a review into Israel’s potential violation of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The article mandates respect for human rights and democratic principles from both parties.
Seventeen EU member states raised objections to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and demanded the review.
Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office, said: “While this is a welcome first step, it also comes devastatingly late. The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza with chilling impunity.”
The NGO has long called for a review of the EU’s association agreement with Israel. It has cited Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory as a key violation of the agreement.
Israel’s conduct in Gaza has only strengthened calls for a review into European trade with the country.
“Emboldened by EU inaction — and even backed by some EU states — Israeli leaders have flaunted their genocidal aims,” Geddie said.
“The EU’s unofficial policy of appeasement towards Israel is contrary to its member states’ obligations and will forever be judged in the annals of history.”
Geddie warned that any delay in European action would “cost human lives in Gaza.” She called for the EU to immediately suspend all trade linked to Israel’s settlement industry, which has expanded significantly amid the war in Gaza.
“The stakes are too high. If the EU fails to live up to these obligations as a bloc, and seeks to shield itself from its clear legal obligations, its member states must unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation that may contribute to violations of international law,” Geddie said.
After the EU agreed to probe ties with Israel, Amnesty said it would now focus on pushing for a “meaningful review which takes evidence and international standards into account.”
