RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: France and Britain granted 19.7 million dollars (18 million euros) in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to help fund health and education services in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges” due to the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s withholding of customs revenue, Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Wael Zaqout said.
“This financing is part of the emergency fund framework to guarantee the continuity of vital services in education and health,” he told a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank to keep the Palestinian economy afloat.
The PA has faced a serious budget crisis in recent years that has made it unable to pay salaries in full to public sector employees.
The problems worsened after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which led Israel to invade the territory.
In recent months, several senior Palestinian officials including the minister of the economy have warned about the risk of the West Bank economy collapsing.
“France remains committed to help build a viable Palestinian state, able to exercise its sovereignty over all its territories, including Gaza,” France’s consul-general in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, said in a statement.
The funds would “address the most essential and urgent needs of the Palestinian people,” he added.
British Consul-General Diane Corner said that her country’s contribution aimed to “support the salaries of 8,200 doctors, nurses and other employees in the health sector.”
The financial help “comes at a critical time and advances mutual priorities,” said Stefan Emblad, World Bank director in the Palestinian territories.
He added that the aid came on top of a recent $30 million grant from the World Bank, also to the emergency fund.
France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
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France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
- The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges“
- The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank
Hamas receives Israeli response to US Gaza proposal and is reviewing it
- Hamas: Israeli response fails to meet any of the Palestinian “just and legitimate demands”
Daesh claims first attack on Syrian government forces since Assad’s fall
- Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa
- Daesh was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled
BEIRUT: The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army to be adopted by the extremists since the fall of Bashar Assad.
In two separate statements issued late Thursday, Daesh said that in the first attack, a bomb was detonated targeting a “vehicle of the apostate regime,” leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded. It said the attack occurred “last Thursday,” or May 22, in the Al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida.
Daesh said that the second attack occurred this week in a nearby area during which a bomb targeted members of the US-backed Free Syrian Army, claiming that it killed one fighter and wounded three.
There was no comment from the government on the claim of the attack and a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by Daesh against Syrian forces since the fall of the 54-year Assad family’s rule in December.
Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once the head of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and fought battles against Daesh.
Over the past several months, Daesh has claimed responsibility for attacks against the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.
Daesh was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled. Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria.
In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria’s post-Assad government thwarted a plan by Daesh to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus.
Al-Sharaa met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month during which the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged Al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the US stop any resurgence of the Daesh group.
Israel far-right minister says ‘time to go in with full force’ in Gaza
- Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Friday it was time to use “full force” in Gaza, after Hamas said a new US-backed truce proposal failed to meet its demands
JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Friday it was time to use “full force” in Gaza, after Hamas said a new US-backed truce proposal failed to meet its demands.
“Mr Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses,” Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel. “The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.”
Macron: France may toughen stance on Israel if it continues blocking Gaza aid
- French leader: ‘The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground’
- Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago
SINGAPORE: France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said at a joint press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
“And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” Macron said, adding that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.
“But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has hit back at growing international pressure over the war in Gaza, the deadliest fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Macron was in Singapore on a state visit and he will also deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, which runs this year from May 30-June 1.
Deep differences between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.
Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago. It has allowed a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues — the United Nations or the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The French president said Paris is commaitted to working toward a political solution and reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Macron is leaning toward recognizing a Palestinian state, diplomats and experts say, a move that could infuriate Israel and deepen Western splits.
French officials are weighing up the move ahead of a United Nations conference, which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting between June 17-20, to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel’s security.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The war since then has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say, more than in any other of the countless rounds of fighting between the two sides.
China, Japan close to resuming seafood imports after Fukushima ban
- In 2023, Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean
- The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing
BEIJIG: China and Japan said Friday they were moving closer to ending a years-long dispute over Tokyo’s handling of nuclear wastewater that prompted Beijing to ban imports of Japanese seafood.
In 2023, Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned Japanese seafood imports as a result.
China indicated on Friday that it was edging closer to lifting the ban, saying talks with Japanese officials in Beijing this week had “achieved substantial progress.”
“So far this year, the two sides have carried out several rounds of technical exchanges,” Beijing’s customs administration said in a statement, without giving further details.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Beijing and Tokyo had “reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China.”
“Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed,” Hayashi said on Friday.
“We regard this as a major milestone,” he told a press conference.
China previously said it had found no abnormalities in seawater and marine life samples it independently collected near the Fukushima plant in February, but indicated more tests were needed before revoking the ban.
In 2011, a huge earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami that swamped the Fukushima nuclear facility and pushed three of its six reactors into meltdown.
China, whose ties with Japan have long been strained by Tokyo’s imperial legacy, vociferously opposed the release of the treated wastewater, casting it as environmentally irresponsible.
