US’s Blinken says ‘every indication’ Golan rocket fired by Hezbollah

US’s Blinken says ‘every indication’ Golan rocket fired by Hezbollah
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, attend their Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo, Japan. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 28 July 2024
Follow

US’s Blinken says ‘every indication’ Golan rocket fired by Hezbollah

US’s Blinken says ‘every indication’ Golan rocket fired by Hezbollah
  • Blinken said Washington in talks with Israel to avoid conflict escalation

TOKYO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that there was “every indication” that Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was behind a rocket strike in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 young people.

“Every indication is that indeed the rocket was from Hezbollah. We stand by Israel’s right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks,” Blinken told reporters in Japan.

The Israeli military said the young people were struck on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket carrying a 50-kilogram warhead that Iran-backed Hezbollah fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike.

“We are determined to bring the Gaza conflict to a close. It’s gone on for far too long. It’s cost far too many lives. We want to see Israelis, we want to see Palestinians, we want to see Lebanese live free from the threat of conflict and violence,” Blinken said.

“We’re in conversations with the government of Israel. And again, I emphasize its right to defend its citizens and our determination to make sure that they’re able to do that,” he said in Tokyo.

“But we also don’t want to see the conflict escalating. We don’t want to see a spread. That has been one of our goals from day one, from October 7 on, and we’ll continue to do that.

“But again, the best way to do that in a sustained way is to get the ceasefire in Gaza that we’re working so hard on virtually every minute of the day,” he said.


Trump says there could be a Gaza deal next week after Hamas gives ‘positive’ response

Trump says there could be a Gaza deal next week after Hamas gives ‘positive’ response
Updated 46 min 43 sec ago
Follow

Trump says there could be a Gaza deal next week after Hamas gives ‘positive’ response

Trump says there could be a Gaza deal next week after Hamas gives ‘positive’ response

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday it was good that Hamas said it had responded in “a positive spirit” to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal.

He told reporters aboard Air Force One there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week but that he had not been briefed on the current state of negotiations.

Hamas said Friday it has given a “positive” response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but said further talks were needed on implementation.

It was not clear if Hamas’ statement meant it had accepted the proposal from Trump for a 60-day ceasefire. Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war, now nearly 21 months old. Trump has been pushing hard for a deal to be reached, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal.

The Hamas statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid.

The UN human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations, it said.

Efforts ongoing to halt the war

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the US would “work with all parties to end the war.” He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.

In its statement late Friday, Hamas said it “has submitted its positive response” to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

It said it is “fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.” It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation.

A Hamas official said the ceasefire could start as early as next week but he said talks were needed first to work out how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce. Hamas has said it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the response with the press.

The official also said that negotiations would start from the first day of the truce on a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of remaining hostages. He said that Trump has guaranteed that the truce will be extended beyond 60 days if needed for those negotiations to reach a deal. There has been no confirmation from the United States of such a guarantee.

Previous rounds of negotiations have run aground over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the destruction of the militant group.

“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to know over the next 24 hours,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.

20 killed Friday while seeking aid

Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least three Palestinians were killed Friday while on the roads heading to food distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza.

Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centers. To reach the sites, people must walk several kilometers (miles) through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road.

The Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops. The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel’s military.

On Friday, in reaction to the UN rights agency’s report, it said in a statement that it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid. It said it was working at “minimizing possible friction between the population” and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes.

Separately, witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the UN or other aid organizations not associated with GHF.

On Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital said.

Three survivors told the AP they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military “red zone” in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones.

It was a “crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,” said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. “There was direct firing.”

Airstrikes also hit the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes are sheltering in tent camps. Of the 15 people killed in the strikes, eight were women and one was a child, according to the hospital.

Israel’s military said it was looking into Friday’s reported airstrikes. It had no immediate comment on the reported shootings surrounding the aid trucks.

UN investigates shootings near aid sites

The spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.

In a message to The Associated Press, Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related,” meaning at or near its distribution sites.

In a statement Friday, GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures, accusing the UN of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry”and of trying “to falsely smear our effort.”

Shamdasani, the UN rights office spokesperson, told the AP that the data “is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organizations.”

Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization, said Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital operating in the south, receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day, most coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than 20 times in the previous months by mass casualties, most suffering gunshot injuries while on their way to the food distribution sites.

Also on Friday, Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza, one in the north and one in the south. Over 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began, including more than 400 during the fighting in Gaza.

The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders Friday in northeast Khan Younis in southern Gaza and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area. The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces by the coast.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is run by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government, and its numbers are widely cited by the UN and international organizations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

 


IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
Updated 21 sec ago
Follow

IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
  • Tehran has passed law to suspend cooperation with IAEA
  • Iran’s stock of near-bomb-grade uranium unaccounted for

VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.

Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.

Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.

“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.

Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.

Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.

IAEA wants talks

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“(Grossi) reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.

The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tons of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60 percent purity, a short step from weapons grade.

That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.

As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.

“We cannot afford that .... the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week. 


Settlers and Palestinians clash in West Bank village

Settlers and Palestinians clash in West Bank village
Updated 05 July 2025
Follow

Settlers and Palestinians clash in West Bank village

Settlers and Palestinians clash in West Bank village
  • Several Israeli military jeeps arrived at the scene and soldiers fired a few shots in the air, causing Palestinians to withdraw back to the village

SINJIL, Palestinian Territories: Dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians clashed Friday in the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil, where a march against recent settler attacks on nearby farmland was due to take place.

AFP journalists saw local residents and activists begin their march before locals reported that settlers had appeared on a hill belonging to the village.

Palestinian youths marched toward the hill to drive away the settlers, setting a fire at its base while the settlers threw rocks from the high ground.

Local Palestinians told AFP that settlers also started a fire.

Several Israeli military jeeps arrived at the scene and soldiers fired a few shots in the air, causing Palestinians to withdraw back to the village.

Anwar Al-Ghafri, a lawyer and member of Sinjil’s city council, told AFP that such incidents are not new, but have intensified in recent days in the area, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“A group of settlers, with support and approval from the Israeli army, are carrying out organized attacks on citizens’ land,” he told AFP.

“They assault farmers, destroy crops, and prevent people from reaching or trying to reach their land,” he said, describing the events that had prompted Friday’s march.

The settlers involved in Friday’s clashes could not be reached for comment.

Israeli authorities recently erected a high fence cutting off parts of Sinjil from Road 60, which runs through the entire West Bank from north to south, and which both settlers and Palestinians use.

Mohammad Asfour, a 52-year-old resident, told AFP that the fence was isolating his community, like other Palestinian cities and towns that recently had gates erected by Israel to control access to the outside.

“Sinjil is suffering greatly because of this wall. My house is near it, and so are my brothers’ homes. The settler has the right to come to Sinjil — but the sons of Sinjil aren’t allowed to climb up this hill,” Asfour said.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 2023 triggered the Gaza war.

Since then, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 947 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to Israeli figures.

 

 


Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires

Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires
Updated 05 July 2025
Follow

Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires

Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires
  • “Our teams recorded losses in the orchards due to the widespread spread of the forest fire in several areas of the Latakia countryside,” the civil defense added, calling on citizens to report anyone they suspect of starting fires

DAMASCUS: Syrian rescuers evacuated residential areas in Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said on Friday.

Fires have spreading across large parts of Syria, particularly on the coast, for several days, with firefighters struggling to control them due to strong winds and a drought.

Abdulkafi Kayyal, director of the Directorate of Disasters and Emergencies in Latakia province, told the state SANA news agency that fires in the Qastal Maaf area had moved close to several villages, prompting the evacuations.

Syria’s civil defense warned residents of “the spread of rising smoke emissions to the northern section of the coastal mountains, the city of Hama, its countryside, and southern Idlib areas.”

“Our teams recorded losses in the orchards due to the widespread spread of the forest fire in several areas of the Latakia countryside,” the civil defense added, calling on citizens to report anyone they suspect of starting fires.

Syrian minister of emergency situations and disasters Raed Al-Saleh said on X that he was following events and “we will exert our utmost efforts to combat these fires.”

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has been battered by heatwaves, low rainfall and major forest fires.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization told AFP that Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years,” noting that an unprecedented drought was on course to push more than 16 million people into food insecurity.

The country is also reeling from more than a decade of civil war leading up to the end of the iron-fisted rule of Bashar Assad in December.

Kayyal said the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance was hindering the work of rescuers, along with strong winds spreading the fires.

 


Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor

Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor
Updated 04 July 2025
Follow

Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor

Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor
  • Imamoglu denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power
  • His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper

ANKARA: Turkish prosecutors charged Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Friday with falsifying his university diploma, a new case threatening more years in prison for President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival, already jailed pending corruption charges he denies.

Imamoglu, at the center of a sprawling legal crackdown on the main opposition party, has been jailed since March 23 pending trial. He denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power.

His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper, which said prosecutors were seeking eight years and nine months of prison time for the new charges. Reuters could not immediately obtain the document.

On March 18, Istanbul University said it had annulled Imamoglu’s diploma. He was detained a day later on the corruption charges, triggering Turkiye’s largest protests in a decade, and later jailed pending trial.

His detention has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties and some foreign leaders, who call the case politically motivated and anti-democratic. The government denies the case is political.

Imamoglu is the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in any future election. He won re-election as mayor in March last year by a wide margin against a candidate from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party.