UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinians and Israel clashed over the future intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far right-wing government at a UN Security Council meeting Wednesday, with the Palestinian UN ambassador pointing to an Israeli minister’s statement “denying our existence to justify what is to come.”
Israel’s UN ambassador countered that the minister had apologized, and accused the Palestinian leadership of regularly inciting terrorism and erasing Jewish history.
The council’s always contentious monthly meeting on the Mideast was even more acrimonious in the face of comments and actions by Israel’s new coalition government, which has faced relentless protests over its plan to overhaul the judiciary and strong criticism of Tuesday’s repeal by lawmakers of a 2005 act that saw four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank dismantled at the same time that Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Security Council the statement by firebrand Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claiming there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian people wasn’t part of “a theoretical exercise” but was made as Israel’s unlawful annexation of territory the Palestinians insist must be part of their independent state “is more than underway.”
While not all Israeli officials go as far as denying the existence of Palestinians, some deny Palestinian rights, humanity and connection to the land, Mansour said.
Last year was the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank, with the past three months “even worse,” he said. So far this year, 85 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, and Palestinian attackers have killed 15 Israelis, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Nonetheless, with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the approach of the Jewish holiday Passover and Christianity’s Easter observance, Mansour said the Palestinians decided to be “unreasonably reasonable” and leave no stone unturned to prevent bloodshed.
The Palestinian envoy urged the Security Council and the international community to mobilize every effort “to stop annexation, violence against our people, and provocations.” Everyone has a duty to act now “with every means at our disposal, to prevent a fire that will devour everything it encounters,” he said.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called his country “unquestionably the most vibrant liberal democracy in the Middle East” and accused the Palestinians of repeating lies, glorifying terrorists who spilled innocent Israeli blood and “regurgitating fabrications” that are not going to solve the decades-old conflict.
“To the Palestinian representative, I say: ‘Shame on you. Shame on you.’ It is so audacious that you dare condemn the words of Israeli minister who apologized and clarified what he meant, while your president and the rest of (the) Palestinian leadership regularly, regularly incite terrorism, never condemn the murders of Israeli civilians, praise Palestinian terrorists, and actively attempt to rewrite facts and the truth by erasing Jewish history,” he said.
Erdan accused the Palestinians of being “dead set on encouraging more violence” while Israel has taken significant steps to de-escalate the current tensions by sitting down with Palestinian officials in Jordan in February and on Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
In a joint communique afterward, the two sides had pledged to take steps to lower tensions ahead of the sensitive holiday season — including a partial freeze on Israeli settlement activity and an agreement to work together to “curb and counter violence.”
The Palestinians seek the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war. Since then, more than 700,000 Israelis have moved into dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — which most of the world considers illegal and an obstacle to peace.
But Netanyahu’s government has put settlement expansion at the top of its agenda and has already advanced thousands of new settlement housing units and retroactively authorized nine wildcat outposts in the West Bank.
The repeal of the 2005 act on the four West Bank settlements came after Sunday’s agreement, and a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two Israelis in the West Bank underscored the difficulties in implementing the joint communique. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, criticized the repeal, summoning Israel’s US ambassador, and other countries were also critical.
Netanyahu appeared to back down Wednesday, saying his government has no intention of returning to the four abandoned settlements.
Ambassador Erdan echoed him, saying “the state of Israel has no intention of building any new communities there,” but he said the new law “rights a historic wrong” and will allow Israelis to enter areas that are “the birthplace of our heritage.”
Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions
https://arab.news/r429b
Palestinians and Israelis clash at UN over Netanyahu actions
- Ambassador Riyad Mansour takes issue with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denying the existence of Palestinians as a people
- Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan hits back, accusing the Palestinian leadership of regularly inciting terrorism and erasing Jewish history
What to know about bunker-buster bombs and Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility
Such a bomb would have to be dropped from an American aircraft, which could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump’s desired talks on its nuclear program. Israeli officials have also suggested that there are other options for it to attack Fordo as it seeks to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
But aside from a commando attack on the ground or a nuclear strike, the bunker buster bomb seems the most likely option.
What is the bunker-buster bomb?
“Bunker buster” is a broad term used to describe bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding. In this case, it refers to the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 30,000 pound (13,600 kilogram) precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the US Air Force.
It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.
The bomb carries a conventional warhead, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. However, Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said.
How tough a target is Fordo?
Fordo is Iran’s second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz, its main facility. So far, Israeli strikes aren’t known to have damaged Natanz’s underground enrichment hall, nor have the Israelis targeted tunnels the Iranians are digging nearby.
Fordo is smaller than Natanz, and is built into the side of a mountain near the city of Qom, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. Construction is believed to have started around 2006 and it became first operational in 2009 — the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence.
In addition to being an estimated 80 meters (260 feet) under rock and soil, the site is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Those air defenses, however, likely have already been struck in the Israeli campaign.
Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of attacking Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear program, which he described as an existential threat to Israel, and officials have said Fordo was part of that plan.
“This entire operation ... really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, told Fox News on Friday.
Why does the US need to be involved?
In theory, the GBU-57 A/B could be dropped by any bomber capable of carrying the weight, but at the moment the US has only configured and programed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force.
The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman.
According to the manufacturer, the B-2 can carry a payload of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms) but the US Air Force has said it has successfully tested the B-2 loaded with two GBU-57 A/B bunker busters — a total weight of some 60,000 pounds (27,200 kilograms).
The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) without refueling and 11,500 miles (18,500 kilometers) with one refueling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman.
Whether the US would get involved is another matter.
At the G7 meeting in Canada, Trump was asked what it would take for Washington to become involved militarily and he said: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
In a weekend interview with ABC News, Israeli Ambassador Leiter was asked about the possibility of the US helping attack Fordo and he emphasized Israel has only asked the US for defensive help.
“We have a number of contingencies ... which will enable us to deal with Fordo,” he said.
“Not everything is a matter of, you know, taking to the skies and bombing from afar.”
Israel’s offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone says Jordan’s King to EU parliament
AMMAN: Israel’s expanded offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone, said Jordan’s King Abduallah II to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
“There is no telling where the boundaries of this battleground will end… the attacks on Iran threaten a dangerous escalation in our region and beyond,” he said.
“If our global community fails to act decisively we become complicit in rewriting what it means to be human. If Israeli bulldozers continue to illegally demolish Palestinian homes, olive trees and infrastructure, so too will they flatten the rails that defy moral grounds,” he added.
He reiterated the need for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state and the importance of granting Palestinians the right to freedom and statehood.
“Global security won’t be assured until the global community acts to end the three-year war in Ukraine and the world’s longest and most destructive flashpoint, the eight-decade-long Palestinian Israeli conflict,” said AlHussein.
The King cited the failure of international law and intervention in Gaza and said what was considered an atrocity 20 months ago has now become routine.
“Weaponizing famine against children, targeting of health workers, journalists and children have all become normalized after the failure of the international community,” he said.
Europe’s leadership will be vital in choosing the right course of history, said the King and assured Jordans position in its support to the EU.
“This conflict must end and the solution is rooted in international law. The path to peace has been walked before, and it can be walked again if we have the courage to choose it and the will to walk it together,” he concluded.
On Tuesday morning, Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the middle of Iran’s capital as Israel’s air campaign on Tehran appeared to broaden on the fifth day of an intensifying conflict.
Israel on Friday said it targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military operation on Iran would “continue for as many days as it takes” to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”
Since then, Iran has launched retaliatory attacks on TelAviv with some missiles intercepted before impact and some striking buildings in Israel.
Health authorities reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.
The conflict has also forced most countries in the Middle East including Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to close their airspace. Dozens of airports have stopped all flights or severely reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and others unable to flee the conflict or travel home.
Jordan's King to deliver speech at the EU parliament
STRASBOURG: Jordan's King Abdullah II is set to deliver a speech at the European Union parliment in Strasbourg France on Tuesday.
In his address, he is expected to focus on a range of issues, including the devastating war in Gaza and its consequences.
This will be King Abdullah's sixth visit to the European Parliament, following his previous visits in 2002, 2007, 2012, 2015 and 2020.
The king is also scheduled to meet European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
UAE coast guard evacuates 24 people from oil tanker following crash east of Strait of Hormuz
- Emirati coastguard deployed search and rescue boats to the site, 24 nautical miles off the country's coast
- The crew was evacuated to the port of Khor Fakkan
DUBAI: The UAE Coastguard has evacuated 24 crew members from an oil tanker Tuesday after a collision between two ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Coastguard of the National Guard carried out today, Tuesday, an evacuation mission involving 24 crew members of the oil tanker ADALYNN, following a collision between two ships in the Sea of Oman,” read a statement on WAM News Agency.
The statement said the Emirati coastguard deployed search and rescue boats to the site, 24 nautical miles off the country's coast, and that the crew was evacuated to the port of Khor Fakkan.
British maritime security firm Ambrey had earlier said that the incident was not security-related, as the days-long conflict between Israel and Iran, which is just across the Strait of Hormuz from neighboring Oman, continued to unfold.
The strait is the strategic maritime entryway to the Arabian Gulf and sees about a fifth of the world’s oil pass through it, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
(with AP)
Israeli tank shelling kills 45 people awaiting aid trucks in Gaza, ministry says
- Medics said residents said Israeli tanks fired shells against crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks
CAIRO: Israeli tank shellfire killed at least 45 Palestinians as they awaited aid trucks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said, adding that dozens of others were wounded.
Medics said residents said Israeli tanks fired shells against crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks along the main eastern road in Khan Younis, expecting the number of fatalities to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition.
A ministry statement added that the Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were rushed to, had been overwhelmed by the number of deaths and injuries.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on the incident.
World Health Organization officials said that it had received reports of a mass casualty incident on Tuesday near a food distribution site in Gaza
“This is again the result of another food distribution initiative,” said Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer, without giving further details.
“There's a constant correlation with the positions of the four announced food distribution sites and the mass casualty incidents,” he added, saying the trauma injuries in recent days were mostly from gunshot wounds.
