JERUSALEM: Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, an ultranationalist Israeli politician, has asked for rubbish not to be collected from the French consulate after Paris barred Israeli firms from an arms show.
Organizers of the Eurosatory trade show just outside Paris said last month French authorities had banned Israeli firms, with the French defense ministry attributing the decision the Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah city.
Deputy Mayor Arieh King posted on social media platform X a letter he had addressed to the municipal sanitation department, asking “to instruct Jerusalem municipal maintenance workers to cease immediately garbage removal service from the French consulate building.”
A City Hall statement said King’s request would not be implemented.
In his letter, he denounced “traitorous and anti-Israeli conduct” by French President Emmanuel Macron, who King said aimed “to harm the State of Israel and Israeli industry,” in an apparent reference to the French expo move.
“As the City Hall of Israel’s capital, we must not stand idly by and accept the French president’s decision to stand alongside the Hamas terrorist organization,” King wrote.
France has an embassy in the coastal city of Tel Aviv and a consulate in Jerusalem which also serves Palestinians in the city’s Israeli-annexed east as well as the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the future capital of an independent state, while Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital.
The Jerusalem City Hall told AFP in a statement that garbage collection would continue at the French consulate.
“The Jerusalem municipality removes trash from all parts of the city on a professional basis and provides the best service to all its residents,” it said.
A municipal official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the press, told AFP King has no authority to decide on such a move.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu has told French media it was inappropriate to host Israeli weapons manufacturers and defense firms at the expo given Macron’s calls for an end to the fighting in Rafah, which went unheeded.
Israel, which has vowed to crush Hamas militants in Gaza following the group’s October 7 attack, sent ground troops into the far-southern city in early May despite widespread concern for Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
Seventy-four Israeli firms were set to take part in the Eurosatory event which opened on Monday. Organizers said about 10 of them were planning to exhibit weapons.
“By decision of the government authorities, there will be no stand for the Israeli defense industry at the Eurosatory 2024 fair,” Coges Events had said in a statement confirming the ban.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week condemned “hostile policies against Israel” by France, in remarks rejected by other senior officials.
Jerusalem official takes on French consulate after Israel arms show ban
https://arab.news/yxqz5
Jerusalem official takes on French consulate after Israel arms show ban
- Organizers of the Eurosatory trade show just outside Paris said last month French authorities had banned Israeli firms
- A City Hall statement said King’s request would not be implemented
Libya suspends work of ‘hostile’ international NGOs: security agency
TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities announced on Wednesday a decision to suspend the work of 10 international humanitarian groups, accusing the NGOs of a plan to “settle migrants” from other parts of Africa in the country.
“The plan to settle migrants of African origin in Libya is seen as a hostile act, which is aimed at altering the demographic composition of the country and threatens Libyan society,” said Salem Gheith, spokesman for the North African country’s Internal Security Agency.
Israeli airstrike targets Barzeh neighborhood in Syria’s Damascus
- Israel spent years carrying out airstrikes on Syria during former President Bashar Assad’s rule
DAMASCUS: An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday targeted the vicinity of the scientific research building in the Syrian neighborhood Barzeh in the capital Damascus, Syrian state news agency (SANA) said.
Israel spent years carrying out airstrikes on Syria during former President Bashar Assad’s rule, targeting what they said were Iran-linked military installations and weapons transfers from Tehran intended for the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Israel PM says seizing more of Gaza to force Hamas to free hostages
- The military is “dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages,” Netanyahu said
- Netanyahu added that Israel will keep applying military pressure until Hamas frees the remaining hostages
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the military was “dissecting” the Gaza Strip and seizing territory to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages still held in the territory.
It came as rescuers said 34 people were killed in continued Israeli strikes on the territory, including on a UN building.
The military is “dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement, adding that Israel “is seizing territory, striking terrorists, and destroying infrastructure.”
He added that the army is “taking control of the ‘Morag Axis’,” a strip of land that is expected to run between the southern governorates of Khan Yunis and Rafah.
The name of the axis refers to a former Israeli settlement that was evacuated when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said Israel would bolster its military presence in the Palestinian territory to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
The operation would “seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones,” he said in a statement, without specifying how much territory.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike that targeted a UN building “housing a medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp” killed at least 19 people, including nine children.
The Israeli army said it struck Hamas militants “inside a command and control center” in north Gaza’s Jabalia. It separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the occupied West Bank, condemned the “massacre” at the clinic run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and called for “serious international pressure” to halt Israel’s widening offensive.
Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
Israel also carried out deadly air strikes in southern and central Gaza on Wednesday. The civil defense said dawn strikes killed at least 13 people in Khan Yunis and two in Nuseirat refugee camp.
In February, Katz announced plans for an agency to oversee the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from the territory.
That followed Israel’s backing of a proposal from US President Donald Trump for the United States to take over the territory after relocating its 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants. The proposal outraged Gazans and drew widespread international condemnation.
Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 before launching a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire.
An Israeli group representing the families of hostages still held in Gaza said they were “horrified” by Katz’s announcement of expanded military operations.
“Has it been decided to sacrifice the hostages for the sake of ‘territorial gains?’” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum asked in a statement.
At least 1,066 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed military operations, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
That took the overall toll to at least 50,423 since the war began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to Israeli figures.
Hunger loomed in Gaza City as bakeries closed due to worsening shortages of flour and sugar since Israel blocked the entry of supplies from March 2.
“I’ve been going from bakery to bakery all morning, but none of them are operating, they’re all closed,” Amina Al-Sayed told AFP.
On Sunday, Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded the group abandon its arms.
Hamas has signalled willingness to cede power in Gaza but calls disarmament a “red line.”
Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to broker a new ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
A senior Hamas official said Saturday the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal, while Netanyahu’s office said Israel had submitted a counteroffer. The details remain undisclosed.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday.
The visit drew condemnation not only from Hamas but also from neighboring Jordan, which acts as custodian of the holy site, as well as Qatar and other governments.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly challenged the longstanding convention that Jews may visit but not pray at the compound, stoking Palestinian fears about Israeli intentions.
US sanctions Russia-based network for helping Yemen’s Houthis
- The operatives helped senior Houthi official procure millions of dollars
- “The Houthis remain reliant on Sa’id Al-Jamal and his network,” said Bessent
WASHINGTON: The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Russia-based people and entities working to help procure weapons and commodities — including stolen Ukrainian grain — for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, the Treasury Department said.
The operatives, who included Russia-based Afghan businessman Hushang Ghairat and his brother, Russia-based Afghan businessman Sohrab Ghairat, helped senior Houthi official Sa’id Al-Jamal, procure millions of dollars’ worth of commodities from Russia for shipment to Houthi-controlled Yemen, Treasury said.
The goods included weapons and sensitive goods, as well as stolen Ukrainian grain, the department said in a statement.
“The Houthis remain reliant on Sa’id Al-Jamal and his network to procure critical goods to supply the group’s terrorist war machine,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Today’s action underscores our commitment to degrading the Houthis’ ability to threaten the region through their destabilizing activities.”
UK says ‘does not support’ Israel’s expansion of Gaza offensive
- UK minister said Israel’s aid blockade poses 'a serious risk' of breaching the international humanitarian law
LONDON: Britain does not support Israel’s expansion of military operations in Hamas-run Gaza, a UK minister said on Wednesday.
“We are deeply concerned about the resumption of hostilities in Gaza. The UK does not support an expansion of Israel’s military operations,” junior foreign office minister Hamish Falconer, told parliament.
There is a “serious risk Israel is not simply acting in its own legitimate self defense,” he added.
When asked about Israel’s aid blockade, Falconer said that “we have determined that there is a serious risk of breaches of international humanitarian law by the Israeli government. We will continue to press them on these points.”
