PARIS/WASHINGTON: Thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world on Saturday demanding an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the wider Middle East as the start of Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.
About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila, Cape Town and New York City. Demonstrations were also held near the White House in Washington, protesting US support for its ally Israel in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Protesters at Times Square in New York City wore the black-and-white keffiyeh scarf and chanted slogans like: “Gaza, Lebanon you will rise, the people are by your side.” They held banners demanding an arms embargo against Israel.
The latest bloodshed in the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
“Unfortunately, in spite of all our good will, the Israeli government does not take any notice, and they just go ahead and continue their atrocities in Gaza, now also in Lebanon and in Yemen, and also probably in Iran,” said protester Agnes Kory in London.
“And our government, our British government, unfortunately is just paying lip service and carries on supplying weapons to Israel,” she added.
In Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, at least 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Sunday morning near the US embassy demanding that Washington stop supplying weapons to Israel.
In London, counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags as pro-Palestinian marchers walked by. There were 15 arrests on the sidelines of the protests, according to police, who did not specify whether those detained were from either group.
In Rome, police fired tear gas and water cannons after clashes broke out. Around 6,000 protesters defied a ban to march in the city center ahead of the Oct. 7 anniversary of Hamas’ attack.
In Berlin, a protest drew about 1,000 demonstrators with Palestinian flags, who chanted: “One Year of Genocide.”
German demonstrators also criticized what they called police violence against pro-Palestinian protesters. Israel supporters in Berlin protested against rising antisemitism. Scuffles broke out between police and pro-Palestinian protesters.
Over the past year, the scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza has drawn some of the biggest global protests in years, including in the US, that saw weeks of pro-Palestinian college campus encampments.
Advocates have raised concerns over alarming antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter-protests related to the conflict. Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Muslims and Jews around the world.
Israel’s supporters have expressed offense over some slogans that they say question Israel’s right to exist as a nation. Pro-Palestinian protesters point to violence such as an incident in which a mob in California attacked an encampment of demonstrators in April.
The war in Gaza has spread through the region, drawing in Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. Israel has sharply escalated a campaign in recent weeks in Lebanon that has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million. Israel says it is attempting to dismantle Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel this week to which Israel has not yet responded. Israeli operations have also escalated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
In Paris, Lebanese-French protester Houssam Houssein said: “We fear a regional war, because there are tensions with Iran at the moment, and perhaps with Iraq and Yemen.” Houssein added: “We really need to stop the war because it’s now become unbearable.”
Israel has faced wide international condemnation over its actions in Gaza, and now over its bombarding of Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government is acting to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and Washington says it supports Israel’s right to self-defense.
US government agencies warned on Friday that the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks may motivate individuals to engage in violence. Officials in some states, including New York, raised security measures out of caution.
In Manila, activists clashed with anti-riot police after they were blocked from holding a demonstration in front of the US embassy in the Philippine capital against Washington’s support for Israel.
International diplomacy backed by the US has so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Hamas wants an agreement that ends the war while Israel says fighting can end only when Hamas is eradicated.
Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct. 7 anniversary nears
https://arab.news/zqqqf
Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct. 7 anniversary nears
- 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in London
- Protesters oppose Israel’s Gaza actions, worry about spreading conflict
Trump administration takes first steps in easing sanctions on Syria
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions Friday in a big first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country devastated by civil war.
The measures from the State and Treasury departments waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019 and expanded US rules for what foreign businesses can do in Syria, now led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former militia commander who helped drive longtime leader Bashar Assad from power late last year.
It follows President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the US would roll back heavy financial penalties targeting Syria’s former autocratic rulers — in a bid to give the new interim government a better chance of survival after the 13-year war.
The congressional sanctions, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, aimed to isolate Syria’s previous ruling Assad family by effectively expelling those doing business with them from the global financial system.
If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out
Marco Rubio
“These waivers will facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The President has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities.”
Syrians and their supporters have celebrated the sanctions relief but say they need them lifted permanently to secure the tens of billions of dollars in investment and business needed for reconstruction after a war that fragmented the country, displaced or killed millions of people, and left thousands of foreign fighters in the country.
The Trump administration said Friday’s announcements were “just one part of a broader US government effort to remove the full architecture of sanctions.” Those were imposed on Syria’s former rulers over the decades because of their support for Iranian-backed militias, a chemical weapons program and abuses of civilians.
A welcome US announcement in Syria
People danced in the streets of Damascus after Trump announced in Saudi Arabia last week that he would be ordering a “cessation” of sanctions against Syria.
“We’re taking them all off,” Trump said a day before meeting Al-Sharaa. “Good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
Rubio told lawmakers this week that sanctions relief must start quickly because Syria’s transition government could be weeks from “collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”
But asked what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: “Incremental.”
Syria’s interim leaders “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio told lawmakers. The group that Al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, was originally affiliated with Al-Qaeda, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
But Al-Sharaa’s government could be the best chance for rebuilding the country and avoiding a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out,” Rubio said.
Debate within the Trump administration
While some sanctions can be quickly lifted or waived through executive actions like those taken Friday, Congress would have to permanently remove the penalties it imposed.
The congressional sanctions specifically block postwar reconstruction. Although they can be waived for 180 days by executive order, investors are likely to be wary of reconstruction projects when sanctions could be reinstated after six months.
Some Trump administration officials are pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting conditions. Doing so could substantially slow — or even permanently prevent — longer-term relief.
That would impede the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild Syria after the war, critics say.
Proposals were circulating among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all the action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to a US official familiar with the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week proposes a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.
Removing “Palestinian terror groups” from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.
Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a US-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.
To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.
Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel. Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.
NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group
GENEVA: Swiss authorities should investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US-backed group preparing to move aid into the Gaza Strip, justice watchdog TRIAL International said on Friday.
Describing the foundation as a private security company, it said aid distribution should be left to UN organizations and humanitarian agencies.
“The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza requires an immediate response,” TRIAL International’s executive director, Philip Grant, said in a statement.
“However, the planned use of private security companies leads to a risky militarization of aid,” he added.
That, he argued, “is not justified in a context where the UN and humanitarian NGOs have the impartiality, resources, and expertise necessary to distribute this aid without delay to the civilian population.”
TRIAL International said it had filed legal submissions calling on Switzerland, where GHF is registered, to check that the group was complying with its own statutes and the Swiss legal system.
FASTFACT
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
The GHF has said it will distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.
But the UN and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, which some have accused of working with Israel.
On Thursday, the UN cited concerns about “impartiality, neutrality, and independence.”
Aid began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid mounting condemnation of an Israeli blockade that has sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.
Israel launched its war on Gaza after the October 2023 attack.
On Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
UN chief says Gaza war in ‘cruelest phase’ as aid trucks looted
- Antonio Guterres demands Israel 'allows and facilitates humanitarian deliveries
- World Food Programme says15 of its trucks were looted in southern Gaza
GAZA CITY: The United Nations chief said Friday that Palestinians were enduring “the cruelest phase” of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.
Aid was just beginning to trickle back into the war-torn territory after Israel announced it would allow limited shipments to resume as it pressed a newly expanded offensive aimed at destroying Hamas.
Gaza civil defense agency official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP at least 71 people were killed, while “dozens of injuries, and a large number of missing persons under the rubble have been reported as a result of Israeli air strikes” on Friday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict,” adding that Israel “must agree to allow and facilitate” humanitarian deliveries.
He pointed to snags, however, noting that of the nearly 400 trucks cleared to enter Gaza in recent days, only 115 were able to be collected.
“In any case, all the aid authorized until now amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” he added in a statement.
“Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction,” he said.
The World Food Programme said Friday that 15 of its “trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries.”
“Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN body said in a statement, calling on Israeli authorities “to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster.”
Aid shipments to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicine.
“I appeal to people of conscience to send us fresh water and food,” said Sobhi Ghattas, a displaced Palestinian sheltering at the port in Gaza City.
“My daughter has been asking for bread since this morning, and we have none to give her.”
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday.
But Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Friday that the UN had brought in 500 to 600 per day on average during a six-week ceasefire that broke down in March.
“No one should be surprised let alone shocked at scenes of precious aid looted, stolen or ‘lost’,” he said on X, adding that “the people of Gaza have been starved” for more than 11 weeks.
The Israeli military said that over the past day, its forces had attacked “military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts” in Gaza.
“In addition, the (air force) struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,” it added.
The military said on Friday afternoon that air raid sirens were activated in communities near Gaza, later reporting that “a projectile that crossed into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.
In Gaza’s north, Al-Awda hospital reported Friday that three of its staff were injured “after Israeli quadcopter drones dropped bombs” on the facility.
The civil defense agency later said it had successfully contained a fire at the hospital.
An AFP journalist saw large plumes of smoke billowing above destroyed buildings in southern Gaza after Israeli bombardments.
“Have mercy on us,” said a distraught Youssef Al-Najjar, whose relatives were killed in an air strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
“We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger — enough!“
Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending the ceasefire that began on January 19.
On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas
- France dismisses Israeli leader's accusations and said there needs to be a lasting peace solution for Israel and and Palestine
- Israel fears more European countries will officially recognize a Palestinian state
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, Britain and Canada of wanting to help the Palestinian militant group Hamas after they threatened to take “concrete action” if Israel did not stop its latest offensive in Gaza.
The criticism, echoing similar remarks from Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday, was part of a fightback by the Israeli government against the increasingly heavy international pressure on it over the war in Gaza.
“You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader, facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza, has regularly criticized European countries as well as global institutions from the United Nations to the International Court of Justice over what he says is their bias against Israel.
But as the flow of images of destruction and hunger in Gaza has continued, fueling protests in countries around the world, Israel has struggled to turn international opinion, which has increasingly shifted against it.
“It’s hard to convince at least some people, definitely on the far left in the US and in some countries in Europe, that what Israel is doing is a war of defense,” said former Israeli diplomat Yaki Dayan.
“But this is how it is perceived in Israel and bridging this gap is sometimes an impossible mission,” he said.
Israeli officials have been particularly concerned about growing calls for other countries in Europe to follow the example of Spain and Ireland in recognizing a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution to resolve decades of conflict in the region.
Netanyahu argues that a Palestinian state would threaten Israel and he has framed the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington on Tuesday by a man who allegedly shouted “Free Palestine” as a clear example of that threat.
He said “exactly the same chant” was heard during the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
“They don’t want a Palestinian state. They want to destroy the Jewish state,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X.
“I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others,” he said, adding that any moves by Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state would “reward these murderers with the ultimate prize.”
Instead of advancing peace, the three leaders were “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever,” he said.
The Israeli leader, whose government depends on far-right support, said Hamas, which issued a statement welcoming the move, had thanked French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney over what he said was their demand for an immediate end to the war.
The leaders’ statement on Monday did not demand an immediate end to the war, but a halt to Israel’s new military offensive on Gaza and a lifting of its restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel had prevented aid from entering Gaza since March, before relaxing its blockade this week.
“By issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” Netanyahu said.
“And they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France, which like Britain and Canada designates Hamas as a terrorist organization, was “unwaveringly committed to Israel’s security” but he said it was “absurd and slanderous” to accuse supporters of a two-state solution of encouraging antisemitism or Hamas.
French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said France did not accept Netanyahu’s accusations, adding: “We need to de-escalate this rising tension between our two states and work to find lasting peace solutions, for Israel and for Palestine.”
Asked about Netanyahu’s remarks, Britain’s armed forces minister Luke Pollard said London stood with Israel in their right to self-defense. “But that self-defense must be conducted within the bounds of international humanitarian law,” he said.
“At this moment, we stand fast against terrorism, but we also want to make sure that the aid is getting into Gaza,” Pollard told Times Radio.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza was launched in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attack, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage into Gaza. It has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians and devastated the enclave, where wide areas have been reduced to rubble.
Lebanese army to begin disarming Palestinians in Beirut camps in mid-June
- The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan “to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June,” the source told AFP
- By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps
BEIRUT: The joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee, which convened on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, agreed to begin implementing the directives outlined in the joint statement issued by the Lebanese-Palestinian summit held on Wednesday in Beirut, in terms of restricting weapons to the hands of the Lebanese state.
A source in Salam’s office told Arab News: “June 16 will mark the beginning of the Lebanese army’s deployment to Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, namely Shatila, Mar Elias and Burj Al-Barajneh camps, to take control of the Palestinian factions’ weapons.
“This will involve Lebanese army patrols inside these camps, followed by subsequent phases targeting camps in the Bekaa, northern Lebanon and south, particularly Ain Al-Hilweh, the largest, most densely populated and factionally diverse Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, encompassing factions affiliated or non-affiliated with the liberation organization.
The source said the “implementation date will be communicated to all Palestinian factions, including Hamas,” and that “the factions will convene to agree on the mechanism, and that pressure will be applied to any group that refuses to relinquish its weapons.”
Addressing Hamas’s earlier stance linking the surrender of its weapons to that of Hezbollah, the source said “there is no connection between the two issues. Once the disarmament process begins, neither Hamas nor any other faction will be able to obstruct or impede it.”
The source said that Arab and regional actors are actively supporting Lebanon in facilitating the disarmament process.
Salam welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to “resolve the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps,” noting the “positive impact of this decision in strengthening Lebanese-Palestinian relations and improving the humanitarian and socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees.”
He affirmed Lebanon’s “adherence to its national principles.”
Salam called for “the swift implementation of practical steps through a clear execution mechanism and a defined timeline.”
According to a statement, both sides agreed “to launch a process to hand over weapons based on a set timetable, accompanied by practical steps to enhance the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees, and to intensify joint meetings and coordination to put in place the necessary arrangements to immediately begin implementing these directives.”
A statement issued after talks between Abbas and Joseph Aoun, Lebanon’s president, reaffirmed “their commitment to the principle that weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state, to end any manifestations that contradict the logic of the Lebanese state, and the importance of respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.”
Since the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, and the suppression of their political rights — Lebanon has had 12 Palestinian refugee camps.
According to the Population and Housing Census in the Palestinian Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon, 72.8 percent of Palestinians in the camps face dire living conditions. The rest are Syrians, Lebanese, and other foreigners, the majority of whom are foreign workers.
Abbas, during his visit, reiterated that “the refugee camps are under the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and the Lebanese army, and the presence of weapons in the camps outside the state’s authority weakens Lebanon. Any weapon that is not under the command of the state is weakening Lebanon and endangering the Palestinian cause.”
Hisham Debsi, director of the Tatweer Center for Strategic Studies and Human Development and a Palestinian researcher, characterized the Lebanese-Palestinian joint statement as “a foundational document that functions as a political, ethical, and sovereign framework. Opposition to its declared positions would be tantamount to rejecting the Lebanese government’s oath of office and ministerial declaration.”
Debsi said: “The joint statement has blocked any potential maneuvering by Hamas to retain its weapons, since the declaration provides the Lebanese state with complete Palestinian legitimacy to remove protection from any armed Palestinian individual. Abu Mazen (Abbas) has reinforced this position repeatedly throughout his Beirut meetings.”
In his assessment, “no faction can now challenge both Lebanese and Palestinian authority given this unified stance.”
Debsi highlighted “a fundamental division within Hamas’s Lebanon branch, with one camp advocating transformation into a political party with the other supporting maintaining ties to Iranian-backed groups.”
He added: “Those opposing Hamas disarmament will face political and security consequences, particularly as camp residents seek to restructure their communities beyond armed resistance, which has become obsolete and must evolve into peaceful advocacy.”
