Ex-Fatah leader says US complicit in ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians in Gaza

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Updated 20 November 2023
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Ex-Fatah leader says US complicit in ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians in Gaza

  • Also blamed White House and administration of President Joe Biden for failure to demand ceasefire

LONDON: Ex-Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan has condemned the US as complicit in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in Gaza during an interview with Hadley Gamble for TIME magazine.

He also blamed the White House and the administration of President Joe Biden for a failure to demand a ceasefire and said history would judge the US as having escalated the conflict.

“(Biden) is a participant in the war, he gave (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu the license to kill children,” he said.

“Today, he and his secretary of state gave permission to Netanyahu to storm Al-Shifa Hospital as it was a headquarter. What headquarter?

“They think that Hamas is like the Central Command of the US Army, that they have a leadership and are sitting under a hospital. It was the US that gave the green light to this crime,” he added.

In a clip released on X by Gamble on Sunday, Dahlan also accused Secretary of State Antony Blinken of turning the war in Gaza into a religious conflict.

“When we see the US secretary of state standing up to say ‘I came here, not as the American secretary of state, but as a Jew,’ are you calling for (Osama) bin Laden and his likes to stand up and say, ‘We are with the Muslims’ and turn this conflict from a national conflict to a religious one?”

He continued: “Do Americans like this? No. The US administration is a full partner in this crime.”

Dahlan said leaders in European countries, including France and the UK, were also partners “in varying degrees” for not acting against Israeli actions in Gaza.

In the full interview, the former Fatah leader, who was ousted in the 2006 elections in Gaza, told Gamble that Israel’s extensive bombardment was breeding the next generation of Palestinian militants. He said its actions in Gaza were potentially condemning Israeli citizens to long-lasting insecurity.

Speaking about Israeli military figures “boasting” about victories over buildings and taking revenge against Palestinian civilians, he asked: “If Israel, a stable country, is considering revenge, what do you expect from children now in Al-Shifa Hospital when they grow up?”

When Dahlan was asked by Gamble if he condemned Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, he said Palestinians were not “warmongers” and that they would defend themselves “bravely” to the end.

“We are not the ones calling for killing others, but if others come to kill us, we have the right to defend ourselves,” he said.

Dahlan said any successful peace between Israel and Arab neighbors was wholly reliant on a satisfactory resolution to the plight of Palestinians.

“No peace can succeed with any Arab country without Palestinian rights. This is the result of Oct. 7 and earlier. We understood that, but others were not interested in it,” he said.

“I believe if Israel makes peace with the whole world and does not make peace with the Palestinian people, it will not have security … It will not achieve stability. It will not obtain it.

“They will not find the Palestinian people giving in to their will. Rather, we will enter a continuous cycle of resistance that has no end,” he added.

Dahlan was asked if Hamas’ attack was worth it given how many Palestinians were suffering in the Israeli retaliation as a result, to which he responded by telling Gamble she had never experienced living under occupation.

He predicted that more resistance would come from Palestinians living in the West Bank.

“Occupation destroys you from within, it means you cannot read freely, it means you cannot go to university freely, it means you cannot marry if one of you lives in Gaza and the other lives in the West Bank, it means many things that you don’t know, we know it and have lived it,” he said. 

“This conflagration is but the natural result of that, the next conflagration will happen in the West Bank,” he added.

 


Turkiye, Britain sign accord allowing Ankara to be a user of Eurofighter jets

Updated 57 min 55 sec ago
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Turkiye, Britain sign accord allowing Ankara to be a user of Eurofighter jets

  • Turkiye has been in talks to purchase 40 of the jet

ISTANBUL: Turkiye and Britain have signed a memorandum of understanding to allow Ankara to be a user of Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, in a big step toward securing the procurement of the jets over which Turkiye has been negotiating for years.
Turkiye has been in talks to purchase 40 of the jets, which are built by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, represented by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
Earlier, the Spiegel magazine reported that Germany had also cleared the way for the delivery of 40 jets to Turkiye, following a positive decision by the federal security council.


Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 21 people, health authorities say

Updated 23 July 2025
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Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 21 people, health authorities say

  • Health authorities say Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people. More than half of those killed late Tuesday and early Wednesday reportedly were women and children

GAZA: Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday. More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said.
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and nearly two-year offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said Tuesday.
More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Here is the latest:
Overnight strikes kill at least 21
One Israeli strike hit a house Tuesday in the northwestern side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
The dead included six children and two women, according to the Health Ministry’s casualty list.
Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal Al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said.
A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighborhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
Human rights groups and charities demand more Gaza aid
In the letter issued Wednesday by 109 human rights and charity groups, they warned of a dire situation pushing more people toward starvation. They said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”
The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory. It lamented “massacres” at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen.
“The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,” the letter said.
The letter called for aid to be scaled up as well as for a ceasefire. `
Israel says that it has allowed the entry of thousands of trucks since May and blames aid groups for not consistently delivering goods.


Egyptian activist locks nation’s embassy gates in The Hague to protest Gaza siege

Updated 23 July 2025
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Egyptian activist locks nation’s embassy gates in The Hague to protest Gaza siege

  • Anas Habib accuses Cairo of Rafah crossing closure that prevents aid reaching starving Palestinians

AMSTERDAM: An Egyptian activist on Tuesday locked the outer gates of his country’s embassy in The Hague to protest Cairo’s alleged closure of the Rafah crossing which has prevented aid from entering Gaza for besieged Palestinians.

Livestreaming his actions, content creator and social media personality Anas Habib locked two sets of gates at the embassy with what appears to be bike locks.

Habib said his actions were symbolic and he wanted to draw attention to the ongoing siege of Gaza that was resulting in the starvation of Palestinians.

“It’s been two years of us hearing this same excuse, it’s closed from their side and not ours, they couldn’t handle a lie and a siege for one second, imagine how everyone in Gaza is feeling hearing your lies every day for the past two years,” he said.

“I’ll stay standing here until the police arrive, because I won’t open it until Gaza is opened. Let them break the lock themselves,” Habib said.

There has been no response yet from the Egyptian government to Habib’s actions and the video which has gone viral on social media.

Egypt has reportedly in the past pointed out that the Rafah crossing has been closed on the Gaza side by the Israeli military.


UN urges peaceful settlement of disputes as UN chief points to ‘the horror show in Gaza’

Updated 23 July 2025
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UN urges peaceful settlement of disputes as UN chief points to ‘the horror show in Gaza’

  • In urging greater efforts to pursue global peace, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council: “Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law” as well as the UN Charter

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council urged the 193 United Nations member nations on Tuesday to use all possible means to settle disputes peacefully. The UN chief said that is needed now more than ever as he pointed to “the horror show in Gaza” and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.
The vote was unanimous on a Pakistan-drafted resolution in the 15-member council.
In urging greater efforts to pursue global peace, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council: “Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law” as well as the UN Charter.
It is happening at a time of widening geopolitical divides and numerous conflicts, starting with Gaza, where “starvation is knocking on every door” as Israel denies the United Nations the space and safety to deliver aid and save Palestinian lives, Guterres said.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and blames UN agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in.
In conflicts worldwide, “hunger and displacement are at record levels” and security is pushed further out of reach by terrorism, violent extremism and transnational crime, the secretary-general said.
“Diplomacy may not have always succeeded in preventing conflicts, violence and instability,” Guterres said. “But it still holds the power to stop them.”
The resolution urges all countries to use the methods in the UN Charter to peacefully settle disputes, including negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, referral to regional arrangements or other peaceful means.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who chaired the meeting, cited “the ongoing tragedies” in Gaza and between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, one of the oldest disputes on the UN agenda, that need to be resolved peacefully.
“At the heart of almost all the conflicts across the globe is a crisis of multilateralism; a failure, not of principles but of will; a paralysis, not of institutions but of political courage,” he said.
The Pakistani diplomat called for revitalizing trust in the UN system and ensuring “equal treatment of all conflicts based on international law, not geopolitical expediency.”
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the Trump administration supports the United Nations’ founding principles of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war and working with parties to resolve disputes peacefully.
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, she said, the US has delivered “deescalation” between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Congo and Rwanda.
The US calls on countries involved in conflicts to follow these examples, Shea said, singling out the war in Ukraine and China’s “unlawful claims” in the South China Sea.
The war in Ukraine must end, she said, and Russia must stop attacking civilians and fulfill its obligations under the UN Charter, which requires all member nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every other country.
“We call on other UN member states to stop providing Russia with the means to continue its aggression,” Shea said.

 


Palestinian teen succumbs to wounds from Israeli gunfire near Jenin

Updated 22 July 2025
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Palestinian teen succumbs to wounds from Israeli gunfire near Jenin

  • Ibrahim Majed Ali Nasr was shot by Israeli live ammunition when forces entered the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city
  • His killing raises the Palestinian death toll in Jenin governorate to 43 since the Israeli military assault began on Jan. 21

LONDON: A 16-year-old Palestinian died from injuries sustained earlier on Tuesday evening after being shot by Israeli forces during a raid in the northern occupied West Bank.

Ibrahim Majed Ali Nasr was shot by Israeli live ammunition when forces entered the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city.

The teenager was shot in the chest, suffering a life-threatening injury, while another young man was injured in the leg, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Nasr was later declared dead at the hospital in Jenin.

Israeli forces raided a house, with no detentions reported, in Qabatiya on Tuesday evening.

Nasr’s killing raises the Palestinian death toll in Jenin governorate to 43 since the Israeli military assault began on Jan. 21. Dozens more have been injured or detained, the Palestine News Agency reported.