Tag: Gaza

  • Prisoner in American jail donates all his wages for working for 136 hours to Gaza

    Prisoner in American jail donates all his wages for working for 136 hours to Gaza

    Hamza, a prisoner incarcerated in an American jail and working as a janitor, donated all of his earnings to the people suffering in Gaza. The story has been widely shared across social media.

    Filmmaker Justin Mashouf first shared on his socials that his incarcerated friend Hamza had asked him to help him by donating his wage money to help civilians in Gaza.

    “An incarcerated brother I am in correspondence with donated $17.74 for relief efforts in Gaza. This donation is the sum of 136 hours of his labor in the prison working as a porter/janitor,” Mashouf wrote.

    The selfless act left not just Mashouf but also the people on Twitter and Instagram stunned.

    As Mashouf shared Hamza’s prison pay stub on social media, users raised more than $102,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. This money was intended to go to the 56-year-old Hamza who has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years and is set to be paroled this month, reports The Washington Post.

    Mashouf first contacted Hamza in 2009, when he was working on his documentary “The Honest Struggle.”

    The Washington Post did not publish Hamza’s legal name — “Hamza” is a chosen name — because Mashouf said Hamza feared he would be risking his parole status by seeking attention.

    Legal records show that Hamza was convicted of one count of second-degree murder in 1986 and sentenced to 15 years to life. He pleaded guilty to the murder when he was a teenager, records show.

    Mashouf told the Washington Post that Hamza had been convicted of the murder of an uncle.

    “Hamza accidentally fired a gun at a loved one … leading to his imprisonment for over four decades,” says GoFundMe page.

    At the time of his conviction, the judge told Hamza that he would be released on adult parole. However, Hamza appealed against the denial of his parole in 2013.

    Records show that Hamza has appeared in front of the court multiple times but has always been denied parole.

    The GoFundMe page also laid out how Hamza converted to Islam in 1989 and how he would be spending his money once released: health care, housing, clothing, food, a job search and training. Hamza has already decided, however, that some of the donations meant for him will go to others in need, Mashouf said.

    After Mashouf told Hamza that the funds were in the thousands, Hamza asked him to disable donations.

    “He said whatever has already been donated is sufficient for him,” Mashouf said. “And that he didn’t want to distract people from those who were suffering more than him.”

    Moreover, in an update on the GoFundMe page, Hamza said he was eager to start his new life.

    “I look forward to the promise of life, happiness, struggles, and dreams, to soar and spread my wings, to be a man, a human being once again now that I know the preciousness and the incalculable value of Life,” he wrote.

    Mashouf said that Hamza is a qualified electrician but would need computer and technological training to get up to speed before he joins the workforce outside prison.

    Hamza will also be donating his March paycheck to civilians in Gaza, one that he hopes is his final check from prison.

    Prisoners in California make between 8-37 cents per hour for their labour. This is a part of forced labour permitted by the constitution. Prison labour provides $ 11 billion per year to the country’s revenue, reported AJ+ in an explainer.

  • Gaza detainees released by Israel ‘traumatized,’ report abuse: UNRWA

    Gaza detainees released by Israel ‘traumatized,’ report abuse: UNRWA

    United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back “completely traumatized” upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said Monday.

    Detainees reported being subjected to a “broad range of ill treatment” including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a media briefing.

    The comments follow reporting by the New York Times on an internal investigation compiled by UNRWA staff documenting the state of returning detainees at the Kerem Shalom border.

    “We have seen these people coming back from detention, some of them for a couple of weeks, some of them for a couple of months, and most of them coming back (are) completely traumatized by the ordeal they have gone through,” Lazzarini said.

    “A number of people have been… debriefed about their ordeal, and we have indeed (compiled) an internal report about their experiences.”

    The report had been shared with rights groups specializing in detention, he added.

    Lazzarini’s comments capped a tumultuous day during which Israel and UNRWA have traded accusations, with Israel accusing the agency of having employed more than 450 “terrorists.”

    Ahead of Lazzarini’s comments, meanwhile, UNRWA said Israeli authorities had “detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip,” who later described abuses in custody.

    “Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse and sexual exploitation,” UNRWA said in a statement to AFP.

    “Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to sign confessions under torture and ill-treatment” while being asked about Hamas’s October 7 attack.

    Israel in Gaza has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Gaza health ministry.

  • Israel broadly agrees Gaza truce, US official says, ahead of talks

    Palestinian Territories – Israel has “more or less accepted” a proposal for a ceasefire in its attacks in the Gaza Strip, a US official said Saturday as Palestinian negotiators were expected in Cairo.

    Mediators have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which begins on March 10 or 11, eyeing an end to the almost five-month conflict that has ravaged Gaza.

    In a sign of the dire humanitarian conditions as violence rages on, the besieged territory’s health ministry reported more than a dozen child malnutrition deaths in recent days.

    The US official told reporters on condition of anonymity that “there’s a framework deal” for a ceasefire which “the Israelis have more or less accepted”.

    “Right now, the ball is in the camp of Hamas,” the official said.

    A source close to Hamas told AFP a delegation from the group was headed from Qatar to Egypt on Saturday.

    Israel has yet to confirm that it has accepted the truce plan.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Hamas would deliver its “official answer” to the plan, which resulted from talks with Israeli negotiators in Paris late last month.

    The mediators “will resume negotiations for a Gaza truce in Cairo on Sunday,” Egypt’s AlQahera News reported.

    Earlier the United States, which provides ally Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, said it began airdropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

    The start of the US relief operation came a day after President Joe Biden announced the move and spoke of the “need to do more” to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.

    But parachuting aid cannot replace “the fundamental need to move assistance through as many land crossings as possible”, the US official said.

    ‘Unjustifiable’ shooting

    Gaza has faced dwindling deliveries of relief supplies across its land borders, which aid groups blame at least in part on Israeli restrictions.

    US Central Command, in a post on social media platform X, said the air operation was conducted jointly with Jordan and saw planes drop “over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid”.

    Several Arab and European governments have carried out air drops over Gaza since November but Tuesday’s operation was the first involving the United States.

    At least 13 children have died from “malnutrition and dehydration”, the Gaza health ministry said Saturday, two days after a desperate rush for aid from a convoy of trucks in Gaza City ended in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians.

    The health ministry said Israeli forces shot civilians but the Israeli army insisted most died in a stampede or crush.

    A United Nations team that visited Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital reported seeing “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Palestinians in the aftermath of the aid truck storming.

    Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the city’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, said all the casualties it admitted were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from occupation forces”.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell joined calls for an “impartial international investigation” into the “tragic event” early Thursday.

    The shooting “against civilians trying to access foodstuff is unjustifiable”, he said.

    The health ministry said 116 people were killed and more than 750 wounded in the chaotic scenes, which drew widespread international condemnation.

    The aid convoy deaths helped push the number of Palestinian war dead in Gaza to 30,320, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    ‘Destruction is everywhere’

    Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, said on Friday that “a famine is almost inevitable”.

    Laerke cited the near-total closure of commercial food imports, the “trickle of trucks” coming in with food aid, and the “massive access constraints” to moving around inside Gaza.

    The International Rescue Committee said the very fact airdrops were “being considered is testament to the serious access challenges”.

    The group said parachuting aid mostly distracts “time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale”.

    AFPTV images showed people running and pedalling fast on bicycles past bomb-damaged buildings on a rutted dirt road to reach aid floating down to Gaza City.

    Hisham Abu Eid, 28, of Gaza City’s Zeitun area, said he got two bags of flour from an aid distribution and gave one to his neighbours.

    “Aid that is getting into Gaza is rare and not enough for even a small number of people. Famine is killing people,” Abu Eid said.

    As mediators seek a deal that may include more aid into Gaza and the release of hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under increasing domestic pressure over the fate of the remaining captives.

    Israelis protesters reached Jerusalem on Saturday, capping a four-day march from the Gaza border to pressure the government to secure the hostages’ release.

    The US official said a six-week ceasefire was on the table, “starting today if Hamas agrees to release the defined category of vulnerable hostages… the sick, the wounded, elderly and women”.

    In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the war have sought refuge, Israeli bombardment that hit a makeshift camp killed at least 11 people, the Gaza health ministry said.

    The strike near a hospital also left “about 50 injured, including children”, it added.

    The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

    An AFP journalist saw wounded people being rushed on stretchers to another Rafah hospital.

    “Destruction is everywhere and there are many martyrs,” said resident Belal Abu Jekhleh.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Arab singers’ songs shine light on genocide in Gaza

    Arab singers’ songs shine light on genocide in Gaza

    Songs written by Arab singers from across the Middle East in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza are making the Palestinian issue a major topic of conversation in Arab popular culture again, Express Tribune has reported.

    In Cairo, a well-liked Egyptian wedding singer named Rudy is now singing songs with new words that praise Abu Obaida, the military spokesperson for Hamas. These songs mix feelings of defiance, helplessness, and anger because of the war between Israel and Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip.

    “Abu Obaida, O Lion-Hearted … set them all ablaze,” she belts out to a percussive beat.

    In Jordan, artists from different Arab states came together in October to record a song dreaming of Palestinians going back to the lands occupied by Israel. This song has been watched by millions on social media.

    The increasing popularity of songs that sympathize with Palestinians or support Hamas, even from artists who usually stay away from politics, shows frustration over Israel’s attacks on Gaza, its control over Palestinian land, and the support it gets from the U.S. and Europe for its military actions.

    It also shows the support among Arab people for Hamas and for armed resistance as Israel tries to eradicate the group.

    Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in an attack on Israel on October 7, according to Israeli reports. Gaza health officials say nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel’s military retaliation.

    The conflict has caused division around the world and led to broader cultural disagreements.

    At the annual Eurovision Song Contest, meant to be non-political, there has been controversy over Israel’s entry mentioning the October 7 attack.

    In the United States, heated debates on university campuses have affected some staff members’ careers, with students accusing each other of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

    In Israel, artists have created songs about October 7. Some focus on the victims’ suffering, while others express revenge.

    One music video shows a survivor of a Hamas attack at a music festival on October 7. Another, by Israeli rapper Subliminal, depicts Gaza neighborhoods being destroyed by airstrikes while Israeli tanks and snipers prepare for war.

    KEYS AND KUFFIYAHS

    In Arab societies, many people believe that the war is supported by Western countries and is aimed at harming Palestinian civilians.

    Wedding singer Rudy said watching Israeli attacks left her feeling helpless and wanting to sing in support of Hamas.

    At weddings where she performs, guests often ask her to sing about Gaza. One of her songs praises Abu Obaida, a Hamas spokesperson, whom many see as a hero defending children from Israeli attacks.

    “Abu Obaida – we see him as a hero who stands up against Israel. There are children dying and he is standing up to defend them,” Rudy said.

    Lebanese rapper Jaafar Touffar also raps about Abu Obaida and the Aqsa Flood – the name Hamas gave its October 7 assault – and says ‘more is coming’ to Israel.

    A poll by the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies found that 67 percent of 8,000 respondents viewed the October 7 attack as a justified act of resistance against occupation.

    Before October 7, the Palestinian cause was often overlooked as Gulf countries normalized relations with Israel and stopped pushing for a Palestinian state.

    Now, these issues are at the forefront of regional discussions, from social media to everyday conversations.

    In a music video by Kuwaiti singer Humood Al Khuder, symbols like keys representing homes lost in the Nakba of 1948, the black-and-white kuffiyah headscarf, and a refugee child called Handala are used to show solidarity with Palestinians.

    ‘NEVER FORGET WHAT’S HAPPENING’

    Lebanese musician Zeid Hamdan said he now focuses his music on the war and its impact on Lebanon where Israel and the militant group Hezbollah often fight each other with rockets and airstrikes.

    “I don’t perform anymore just to become famous as an artist. I’m on stage to wake people up and send an urgent message. I’m going from one fundraiser to another to protest,” he said.

    Arab musicians understand that their music might not change the war’s course or influence Arab leaders.

    Ghaliaa Chaker, who recorded the song ‘Returning’ with 24 other Middle Eastern artists in Jordan, says her goal is to keep the suffering in Gaza in people’s minds.

    “I really hope they (Gazans) know they’re in our prayers,” she said. “That’s the best we can hope for … to keep talking about it. Never forget what’s happening.”

  • Israel forces kill more than 110 civilians rushing for food aid

    Israel forces kill more than 110 civilians rushing for food aid

    Israeli forces in Gaza opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid in a chaotic melee on Thursday that the health ministry said killed more than 100 people.

    The Israeli military said a “stampede” occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over by the lorries.

    An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.

    Gaza’s health ministry condemned what it called a “massacre” in Gaza City in which 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded.

    Türkiye accused Israel of committing “another crime against humanity” and condemning Gazans to “famine” as civilians scavenge for dwindling supplies of food.

    “The fact that Israel… this time targets innocent civilians in a queue for humanitarian aid, is evidence that (Israel) aims consciously and collectively to destroy the Palestinian people”, the Turkish foreign ministry  said in a statement.

    “We therefore call on all those with influence over the Israeli government to stop the ongoing violence in Gaza.”

    The incident adds to a Palestinian death toll from the war that the ministry said had topped 30,000, and dampens hopes a truce deal between Israel and Hamas militants could be just days away.

    There were conflicting reports on what exactly unfolded in the hours before dawn.

    A witness in Gaza City, declining to be named for safety reasons, said the violence began when thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks at the city’s western Nabulsi roundabout, with soldiers firing at the crowd “as people came too close” to tanks.

    Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had fired “a few warning shots” to try to disperse a crowd that had “ambushed” the aid trucks.

    When the crowd got too big, he said the convoy tried to retreat and “the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured”.

    Aerial images released by the Israeli army showed what it said were scores of people surrounding aid trucks in Gaza City.

    Ali Awad Ashqir, who said he had gone to get some food for his starving family, told AFP he had been waiting for two hours when trucks began to arrive.

    “The moment they arrived, the occupation army fired artillery shells and guns,” he said.

    Hagari later denied Israeli forces carried out any shelling or strikes at the time.

     ‘Another day from hell’ 

    U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the incident, while a State Department spokesman said the United States had been in touch with Israel and was “pressing for answers” on what happened.

    The incident would complicate efforts to broker a truce, Biden said, later admitting that any deal was unlikely to happen by Monday — the timeline that he had predicted earlier this week.

    The U.S. president spoke with Qatari and Egyptian leaders in separate phone calls, the White House said, saying he discussed both the ceasefire and the “tragic and alarming” aid incident.

    The U.N. Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting on the incident.

    The U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood condemned the incident before entering the meeting, calling it a “tragic day”.

    Saudi Arabia strongly condemned what it called the “targeting” of unarmed civilians, while Kuwait and the UAE also issued condemnations.

    Qatar warned that Israel’s “disregard for Palestinian blood… (will) pave the way for an expanding cycle of violence”.

    French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “strongest condemnation”, while Spain’s foreign minister described the events as “unacceptable”.

    European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell also denounced the “carnage”.

    Looting of aid trucks has previously occurred in northern Gaza, where desperate residents have taken to eating animal fodder and even leaves to stave off starvation.

    The chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that no U.N. agency had been involved in Thursday’s aid delivery, and called the incident “another day from hell”.

  • Israel minister says Arab trade ties unphased by Gaza war

    Israel minister says Arab trade ties unphased by Gaza war

    Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Israel’s economy minister on Tuesday said trade relations with Arab states had not been affected by the Gaza war, the cost of which he added his country was able to bear.

    “There is no change at all” in trade relations, Nir Barkat told journalists on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi.

    “Things are very stable… I think the leadership understands we have the same goal, which is to collaborate in a peaceful way.”

    When asked about Israel’s economic losses due to the war, Barkat said it could add “anywhere between 150 to 200 billion shekels ($42-55 billion)” to the country’s national debt.

    “That’s not something Israel cannot bear mid- to long-term,” he said.

    In January, Israel’s cabinet approved an additional 55 billion shekels ($15 billion) to meet the cost of the war, while the mobilisation of reservists and the displacement of communities on the borders with Gaza and Lebanon have disrupted the economy.

    The war began when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and responded with a relentless offensive in Gaza. ccording to health ministry, at least 29,878 people, mostly women and children, have been killed.

    Confronted with the conflict, Arab countries that have normalised relations with Israel in recent years have been forced to balance diplomacy with fiercly pro-Palestinian Arab public opinion.

    They include the United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

    Barkat said the Gaza war could help Israel boost sales of military technology, noting there is “high interest” from many countries, without specifying if Arab states were among them.

    “Especially after this war we are probably going to be leading many, many initiatives… of how next-generation warfare is going to look like,” he said.

    “Anybody that thinks they are threatened by regimes of Iran then they would have to tap us to better understand what we have learnt and what the solutions and security challenges are,” he added.

    “We are way ahead of everyone.”

    apo-ho/dcp/dv

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Biden hopes for ceasefire in Gaza by next week, lasting through Ramadan

    Biden hopes for ceasefire in Gaza by next week, lasting through Ramadan

    US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week, adding that Israel was ready to halt operations during the Muslim month of Ramadan as part of any deal.

    Amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and others have acted as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas, seeking a halt to the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

    Asked during an election campaign trip to New York when such an agreement might start, Biden replied: “I hope by the end of the weekend.”

    “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden told reporters.

    Biden, 81, gave more details of what a deal could look like when he spoke on the issue in an interview with late-night US television show host Seth Meyers.

    “There is a path forward, with difficulty,” he told Meyers when asked about how to end the conflict.

    Mediators have been hoping to get a deal in place before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in about two weeks.

    “Ramadan’s coming up and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said.

    Biden has previously spoken of a six-week ceasefire.

    ‘Temporary ceasefire’

    The US president said such a deal “gives us time to begin to move in directions that a lot of Arab countries are prepared to move” in terms of normalizing relations with Israel.

    “I think that if we get that temporary ceasefire, we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic,” he said.

    Biden has firmly supported Israel despite the soaring death toll in its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

    But he has been increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit civilian casualties, particularly in Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah.

    Israel had “made a commitment” to evacuate significant parts of Rafah before they “go and take out the remainder of Hamas,” Biden added.

    But overall Biden warned that the “only way Israel ultimately survives” was to reach a deal that gives “peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.”

    Amid mounting tensions with Netanyahu, Biden told Meyers that if Israel continued with its “incredibly conservative government they have… they’re going to lose support from around the world.”

    Biden’s comments come after his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday that representatives from several parties — although not Gaza’s rulers Hamas — met in Paris over the weekend and reached an understanding about the “basic contours” of a temporary ceasefire.

    Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 29,782 people in Gaza since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the ministry.

    dk/ssy

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    The League of Arab States on Monday called Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories an “affront to international justice”, saying failure to end it amounted to “genocide”.

    The International Court of Justice entered its last day of week-long hearings after a request from the United Nations, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel’s occupation.

    “This prolonged occupation is an affront to international justice,” the 22 Arab-country bloc’s representative told judges in The Hague.

    “The failure to bring it to an end has led to the current horrors perpetrated against the Palestinian people, amounting to genocide,” Abdel Hakim El-Rifai said, reading a written statement.

    Most speakers during the hearings have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967.

    But last week the United States said Israel should not be legally obliged to withdraw without taking its “very real security needs” into account.

    Speakers on Monday warned a prolonged occupation posed an “extreme danger” to stability in the Middle East and beyond.

    “If left unchecked, it runs the risk of not only threatening regional, but also global peace and security,” Turkey’s representative Ahmet Yildiz said.

    Zambia’s representative however told judges that both sides had a duty to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

    “Both Israel and Palestine have a duty to respect international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Marshal Mubambe Muchende said.

    He said any settlement of the conflict should not be “one that puts the blame squarely on one party, but rather one that advances a negotiated solution which culminates in a two-state solution”.

    ‘Prejudicial’

    The UN has asked the ICJ to hand down an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

    The court will probably deliver its opinion before the end of the year but it is not binding on anyone.

    Israel is not taking part in the oral hearings. It submitted a written contribution, in which it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious”.

    The hearings began a week ago with three hours of testimony from Palestinian officials, who accused the Israeli occupiers of running a system of “colonialism and apartheid”.

    The case before the court is separate from one brought by South Africa against Israel for alleged genocide during its current offensive in Gaza.

    In that case, the ICJ ruled that Israel should do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow in humanitarian aid.

    Israeli’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 29,782 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

    jhe/rlp

    © Agence France-Presse

  • West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, says he has submitted his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday that he had handed his West Bank government’s resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Shtayyeh added that he resigned last Tuesday but handed in the written resignation on Monday.

    What the Palestinian prime minister said

    “I submit the government’s resignation to Mr. President,” Shtayyeh said. He added that it came in the wake of the “developments related to the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

    Shtayyeh said he was resigning to allow Palestinians to form a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements amid Israel’s war against Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, in Gaza.

    The US has been pressuring Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank. This comes amid international efforts to stop the war and work toward a political structure to govern Gaza afterward.

    Abbas has yet to accept the resignation, and he may ask the Palestinian prime minister to stay in the role until a replacement is found.

    In a statement to the Cabinet, Shtayyeh said the next stage would “require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus.”

    He added that “the extension of the [Palestinian] Authority’s authority over the entire land, Palestine,” is another requirement.

    The Palestinian Authority lost control over the Gaza Strip following a struggle with Hamas in 2007. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, and Israel.

  • Yemen Announces First Civilian Death In US-UK Strikes

    Yemen Announces First Civilian Death In US-UK Strikes

    Yemen’s Houthis have reported the first civilian death in US and British air strikes after the latest round of joint raids over the weekend.

    One person was killed and eight wounded, the Houthi’ official news agency said late on Sunday, a day after US and British forces said they fired on 18 targets across the country.

    The US-British strikes were in response to dozens of Houthi drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping since November, which the group says are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

    “The American-British aggression on the district of Maqbana in the governorate of Taiz has left one civilian dead and eight wounded,” the Houthi’ Saba agency said, citing a statement from the health ministry.

    The Houthi have previously reported the death of 17 of their fighters in the Western strikes targeting military facilities.

    The Houthi attacks have had a significant effect on traffic through the busy Red Sea route, forcing some companies into a two-week detour around southern Africa. Last week, Egypt said Suez Canal revenues were down by up to 50 percent this year.

    Washington, Israel’s vital ally, gathered an international coalition in December to protect Red Sea traffic. It has launched several rounds of strikes as well as four joint raids with Britain, which began last month.

    The Houthi initially said they were targeting Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea and adjoining Gulf of Aden, but then declared that US and British interests were also “legitimate” targets.

    © Agence France-Presse