Tag: #palestine

  • Spain, Ireland and Norway recognise Palestinian state

    Spain, Ireland and Norway recognise Palestinian state

    Madrid (AFP) – Spain, Ireland and Norway are formally recognising a Palestinian state on Tuesday in a decision slammed by Israel as a “reward” for Hamas more than seven months into the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

    The three European countries believe their initiative has strong symbolic impact, which is likely to encourage others to follow suit.

    “Recognition of the State of Palestine is not only a matter of historic justice… It is also an essential requirement if we are all to achieve peace,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said before meeting his cabinet.

    The move, he said, was “not against anyone, least of all Israel”.

    “It is the only way to move towards the solution that we all recognise as the only possible way to achieve a peaceful future — that of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with the state of Israel in peace and security.”

    Sanchez also said the decision reflected Spain’s “outright rejection of Hamas, which is against the two-state solution” and whose October 7 attacks led to the Gaza war.

    The plans were unveiled last week in a coordinated announcement by the prime ministers of the three countries.

    Both the Spanish and Irish cabinets were meeting to formally approve the step on Tuesday morning, while Norway informed Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa its recognition would also take effect the same day.

    Entering the cabinet meeting, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said it was “an important moment”.

    He said it sent “a signal to the world is that there are practical actions you can take as a country to help keep the hope… of a two-state solution alive”.

    ‘Incitement to genocide’

    The decision has provoked a furious response from Israel and further exacerbated diplomatic tensions, notably with Spain.

    Last week, Sanchez’s far-left deputy Yolanda Diaz hailed the move saying: “We cannot stop. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”, which Israel’s Madrid envoy denounced as a “clear call for the elimination of Israel”.

    The slogan refers to the British mandate borders of Palestine, which stretched from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean before Israel was created in 1948.

    On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz went even further.

    “Sanchez, as long as you don’t fire your deputy and you recognise a Palestinian state, you are participating in the incitement to commit genocide and war crimes against the Jewish people,” he wrote on X.

    On Sunday, Katz posted a video on X splicing footage of the October 7 attacks with flamenco dancing, saying: “Sanchez: Hamas thanks you for your service”.

    Spain condemned the post as “scandalous and revolting”.

    On Monday, Katz ordered the first of a series of “preliminary punitive measures”, ordering Spain’s Jerusalem consulate to stop offering consular services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

    Differences within the EU

    Recognising Palestinian statehood has provoked sharp disagreement within the 27-nation European Union.

    For decades, formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Washington and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement on thorny issues like the status of Jerusalem and final borders.

    The Gaza bloodshed has revived calls for Palestinians to be given their own state.

    Ever more European countries are expressing a desire to do so, although others remain reticent.

    France, for example, believes it is not the right time to do so, while Germany only envisages recognition following negotiations between the two sides.

    Tuesday’s move will mean 145 of the United Nations’ 193 member states now recognise Palestinian statehood.

    In 2014, Sweden became the first EU member to recognise a Palestinian state.

    It followed six other European countries that took the step before joining the bloc — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

    Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.

  • Israel PM Netanyahu says Rafah strike a ‘tragic accident’

    Israel PM Netanyahu says Rafah strike a ‘tragic accident’

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a deadly strike that hit a displacement camp in Gaza’s Rafah was a “tragic accident” that his government was investigating.

    “In Rafah, we evacuated a million uninvolved residents and, despite our best efforts, a tragic accident happened yesterday,” Netanyahu told parliament.

    He added that “we are investigating the case and will draw the conclusions” after Gaza’s health ministry reported 45 dead as the strike late Sunday sparked a fire that tore through a tent city for displaced Gazans.

    The ministry in the Gaza Strip also said that 249 people were wounded.

    Israel faced a wave of international condemnation on Monday over the Rafah strike, including from across the region as well from the European Union, France, and the United Nations.

    The Israeli military said it had launched a probe into the strike which it said was carried out based on “precise intelligence information” about two Hamas militants who it said were killed.

    It also said “the strike did not occur in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, to which the IDF (army) has encouraged civilians to evacuate” since the ground operation began in Rafah.

    Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in his Knesset address while being heckled by relatives of hostages held in Gaza, and vowed to keep up the battle to destroy Hamas.

    “There is no substitute for absolute victory” in Gaza, he told the chamber.

    Netanyahu denounced pressure, both internal and external, that he said his government has faced since the war in Gaza began.

    “They pressured us then,” said Netanyahu, before listing calls to refrain from military operations which Israel carried out anyway.

    “Don’t enter Gaza. We entered! Do not enter Shifa! We entered! Do not enter Khan Yunis! We entered! Do not enter Rafah! We entered!” he said.

    “I don’t give up and I won’t give up! I stand up to pressures from home and abroad.”

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza has caused the death of 36,050 Palestinians.

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Gaza officials say 40 killed as Israeli strikes set tents of displaced Palestinians on fire

    Gaza officials say 40 killed as Israeli strikes set tents of displaced Palestinians on fire

    Gaza’s civil defence agency said Monday that many bodies were “charred” after the strikes triggered a fire that ripped through a displacement camp in northwest Rafah.

    “The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded,” said agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir.

    “We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs … We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly.”

    Footage released by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic night-time scenes of paramedics in ambulances racing to the fiery attack site and evacuating the wounded, including children.

    “We had just done with the evening prayers,” recalled one survivor, a Palestinian woman who declined to be named.

    “Our children were asleep … suddenly we heard a loud sound and there was fire all around us. The children were screaming … the sound was terrifying.”

    Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impacts of Israel’s siege on the territory amid the over seven-month-old conflict.

    “There is a fuel shortage … there are roads that have been destroyed, which hinders the movement of civil defence vehicles in these targeted areas,” he said. “There is also a shortage of water to extinguish fires.”

    The ICRC said that one of its field hospitals was receiving an “influx of casualties seeking care for injuries and burns” and that “our teams are doing their best to save lives”.

    AFP images after sunrise showed the charred remains of makeshift tents and vehicles as Palestinian families looked at the blackened destruction.

    Israeli occupation forces on the other hand said the air strikes late Sunday, hours after a rocket attack had targeted Tel Aviv, had killed two senior Hamas operatives. However, it will investigate the reports of civilians killed in a fire..

    It added that it was “aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.”

    ‘Dangerous violation’

    The Israeli attack sparked strong protests from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and from Qatar which warned it could “hinder” budding steps to revive stalled truce and hostage release talks in the Israel-Hamas war raging since October 7.

    Egypt

    Egypt deplored the “targeting of defenceless civilians” and labelled it part of “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable”.

    Jordan

    Jordan also expressed its condemnation, accusing Israel of committing “ongoing war crimes”.

    Kuwait

    Kuwait charged the attack exposed Israel’s “blatant war crimes and unprecedented genocide to the whole world”.

    Qatar

    And Qatar condemned the Israeli bombing as a “dangerous violation of international law”.

    Israel’s top ally the United States has strongly urged all sides to resume truce talks, with efforts underway in recent days toward new talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

    After the latest violence, Qatar’s foreign ministry voiced “concern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation efforts and hinder reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire”.

    Hamas attack on Tel Aviv

    The strike came hours after Hamas had on Sunday, for the first time in months, launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and other areas of central Israel, sending people running into bomb shelters.

    Although Israeli air defences took out most of the rockets and no casualties were reported, the attack was seen as an effort by Hamas to signal that it remains undefeated.

    Hamas’s armed wing said it had targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians”.

    Israel invaded Gaza in late October, but its ground forces are still battling Hamas in northern and central areas where Hamas has regrouped, as well as around Rafah.

    Hamas said, after the overnight strikes, that Palestinians must “rise up and march”.

  • Israel official says ‘intention’ to renew Gaza talks ‘this week’

    Israel official says ‘intention’ to renew Gaza talks ‘this week’

    An Israeli official said Saturday the government had an “intention” to renew “this week” talks aimed at reaching a hostage release deal in Gaza, after a meeting in Paris between US and Israeli officials.

    “There is an intention to renew the talks this week and there is an agreement,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    The Israeli official did not elaborate on the agreement, but Israeli media reported that Mossad chief David Barnea had agreed during meetings in Paris with mediators CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on a new framework for the stalled negotiations.

    Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said.

    Talks aimed at reaching a hostage release and truce deal in the Gaza Strip ground to a halt this month after Israel launched a military operation in the territory’s far-southern city of Rafah.

    The current war in Gaza has caused the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

    Meanwhile, Israel has carried out a massacre of 35,903 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.

  • Israel army says retrieved bodies of three Gaza hostages

    Israel army says retrieved bodies of three Gaza hostages

    The Israeli military said Friday its forces had retrieved the bodies of three hostages in an overnight operation in the northern Gaza Strip’s Jabalia.

    The bodies of Israeli hostage Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux “were rescued overnight” and their families were notified after forensic identification, the military said in a statement.

    Both Yablonka, 42, and Hernandez Radoux, 32, were abducted from a music festival when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, triggering the ongoing war.

    Nisenbaum, a 59-year-old resident of the Israeli town of Sderot near Gaza, was last contacted on his way to an army base on the border to pick up his granddaughter on the day of the attack.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under increasing domestic pressure to secure the release of remaining hostages, said in a statement Friday that “together with the Israeli people, my wife Sara and I bow our heads in deep sorrow and embrace the grieving families in their difficult time”.

  • Israel recalls its envoys to Ireland, Norway, Spain

    Israel recalls its envoys to Ireland, Norway, Spain

    Israel recalled its ambassadors to Ireland, Norway and Spain on Wednesday and also summoned their envoys in protest at the three governments’ recognition of a Palestinian state.

    Foreign Minister Israel Katz charged that all three countries were rewarding the Palestinian group Hamas for their October 7 attack which sparked the Gaza war.

    “The twisted step of these countries is an injustice to the memory of the 7/10 victims,” he said in a statement.

    Israel’s envoys were being recalled from Dublin, Oslo and Madrid for “urgent consultations” and threatened “serious consequences”, the minister added.

    Katz said that the three countries’ ambassadors were also being summoned for a “conversation that would rebuke” their governments’ decision to recognise a Palestinian state by May 28.

    Israeli genocide against Palestinians has killed at least 35,647 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

    Katz said he would show the three ambassadors a video of the kidnapping of female Israeli soldiers during the Hamas attack.

    “They decided to award a gold medal to the murderers and rapists of Hamas,” Katz said. “We will demonstrate to them what a twisted decision their governments took.”

    mod-jd/fz

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Spain, Norway, Ireland recognise Palestine state in historic move

    Spain, Norway, Ireland recognise Palestine state in historic move

    Spain, Norway and Ireland have officially recognised the Palestinian state on Wednesday, paving the way for other European countries to do the same.

    The momentous development comes as yet another setback to Israel after the ICC announced this week that it will seek arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gallant for war crimes.

    “Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing that we recognise the state of Palestine,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris announced at a news conference, adding that other countries will join them within a few weeks.

    Israel reacted by announcing that it has recalled its ambassadors to Norway and Ireland. The occupying country’s ambassador to Spain had already been recalled in November last year.

    During the news conference, Harris said that he viewed the two-state solution as the only viable pathway for peace and security for the peoples of Israel and Palestine.

  • Austria to resume aid to UN agency for Palestinians

    Austria to resume aid to UN agency for Palestinians

    Austria said on Saturday that it will restore its funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after suspending it over allegations that staff were involved with the Hamas.

    Israel alleged in January that some United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees may have participated in the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that triggered the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

    In the weeks that followed, numerous donor states, including Austria, suspended or paused some $450 million in funding.

    Many, including Germany, Sweden, Canada and Japan, had since resumed funding, while others have continued to hold out.

    “After analysing the action plan in detail” submitted by UNRWA “to improve the functioning of the organization,” Austria has decided to “release the funds,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    A total of 3.4 million euros ($3.7 million) in funds have been budgeted for 2024, and the first payment is expected to be made in the summer, the statement said. 

    An UNRWA staff member checks a burned area at a school housing displaced Palestinians that was hit during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on May 17, 2024. (Credit: AFP)

    “Some of the Austrian funds will be used in the future to improve internal control mechanisms at UNRWA,” it added.

    Austria said it will “closely monitor” the implementation of the action plan with other international partners, noting that “a lot of trust had been squandered.”

    The Alpine country said it has substantially increased support for the suffering Palestinian population in Gaza and the region since Oct. 7, making 32 million euros ($34.8 million) in humanitarian aid available to other international aid organizations.

    Israel’s has massacred at least 35,303 people, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the health ministry in the Gaza territory.

  • Five Israeli soldiers killed by their own tanks in Gaza

    Five Israeli soldiers killed by their own tanks in Gaza

    Israel said Thursday that five of its troops were killed by friendly fire in Gaza, as a rift emerged inside the war cabinet on how the Palestinian territory should be ruled in future.

    The army said that the five soldiers were killed when two Israeli tanks mistakenly fired shells at the building they were in during operations in the northern Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday.

    “Five soldiers of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion were killed last night in a mass casualty incident as a result of fire by our forces,” the military said, adding that seven other troops were wounded.

    AFP reporters, witnesses and medics said Thursday that Israeli warplanes again targeted areas across Gaza overnight, including in Gaza City and its southern Zeitun area, Jabalia and the Nuseirat refugee camp.

    The military’s main focus has been Rafah near the Egyptian border, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an offensive in defiance of US warnings that more than a million civilians sheltering there could be caught in the crossfire.

    Netanyahu on Wednesday argued that “we have to do what we have to do” and insisted that mass evacuations there had averted a much-feared “humanitarian catastrophe”.

    Washington — long Israel’s main political, diplomatic and military supporter — has repeatedly urged its ally to take greater steps to protect and aid civilians, and to make a post-war plan for Gaza to avoid being mired in a long counter-insurgency campaign.

  • Famous Italian chef Rubio attacked by Zionists for supporting Palestine

    Famous Italian chef Rubio attacked by Zionists for supporting Palestine

    Italian Chef Gabriele Rubini was attacked by Zionist supporters of Israel outside his home after he publicly expressed support for Palestine.

    He posted a video of himself, face drenched in blood, explaining how he was attacked just outside his home. The caption of the video said, “Terrorists. They waited for me outside my house, six of them, and cut the gate wires to massacre me.”

    A large group of his followers extended their heartfelt wishes to him and showed solidarity with him in a march. He thanked them by writing, “Thanks girls, thanks guys. We smile in the face of terrorists and continue straight until the liberation of Palestine”.

    The Chef later posted a selfie with a swollen eye and making a victory sign. The post said, “Thank you all for the support”. It went on to explain, “In the end, stitches on my head where they gave me the hammer, cuts and abrasions where they hit me with bricks, fracture of the facial orbit where the 60 targeted punches ended up.” He pledged to not stop talking about the oppression faced by Gazans, “And we start again”, he asserted, “A hug to the Jewish community.”