International
Netanyahu slams US for ‘withholding’ weapons to Israel
Netanyahu slams US for ‘withholding’ weapons to Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the administration of US President Joe Biden for “withholding weapons” to Israel in recent months as it presses its war on Gaza.
Netanyahu said in a video statement on Tuesday that it was “inconceivable” that the United States had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” in recent months.
“Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case,” Netanyahu said, referring to talks the top US diplomat held in the country last week.
Washington provides $3.8bn in military assistance to Israel annually, and in April, Biden signed a law granting the US ally $17bn in additional aid amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Biden and his top aides often stress their commitment to Israel, but Washington confirmed last month holding up a single shipment of 900kg (2,000 pound) bombs to the Israeli military over concerns about civilian casualties in Israel’s assault on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Since then, the Biden administration has authorised further weapons sales to Israel, according to US media accounts, including a package worth $1bn last month.
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The Washington Post also reported on Monday that the Biden administration pressured top Democratic lawmakers to sign off on the $18bn sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Blinken stressed that the US is committed to Israeli security and continues to move arms transfers to Israel through its system on a “regular basis”. But he said the hold on the heavy bombs remains in place.
“We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said. “That remains under review. But everything else is moving as it normally would move.”
The White House also denied Netanyahu’s claim that the US has been withholding weapons to Israel for months, stressing that the US has only paused a one shipment of bombs.
“We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. There was one particular shipment of munitions that was paused,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We continue to have these constructive discussions with Israelis for the release of that particular shipment… There are no other pauses – none.”
The Biden administration has been facing pressure to halt its military aid to Israel due to growing reports of Israeli abuses in Gaza, including allegations of targeting civilian infrastructure, using starvation as a weapon of war and torturing detainees.
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After months of strong support, Biden seemed to draw a red line for Israel in May, warning the country against invading Rafah. He told CNN that the US would not provide bombs and artillery to be used in a major Israeli offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city.
Israel launched its assault on Rafah later in May despite US and international warnings, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians – many of whom had already fled other parts of Gaza.
Israeli forces seized and closed the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which had served as a major gateway for humanitarian aid.
As Israeli forces continue to press their offensive in Rafah, the Biden administration has argued that the military assault does not amount to a “major” operation.
“We still have not yet seen them launch what looks like a full-scale major military operation – certainly not in the size, scope, or scale of the operations in Khan Younis, in Gaza City, elsewhere in Gaza. It’s been a more limited operation,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said last week.
Netanyahu slams US for ‘withholding’ weapons to Israel
International
Minister arrested over alleged witchcraft
Minister arrested over alleged witchcraft
A high-ranking politician in the Maldives has been arrested and detained, reportedly on suspicion of casting spells against the country’s president.
Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem, State Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Energy, was taken into custody along with her ex-husband and two other accomplices.
The group has been ordered to remain in jail for a week pending an investigation.
The arrests have sent shockwaves through the political landscape of the Maldives, a nation known more for its idyllic beaches and tourism than for allegations of sorcery at the highest levels of government.
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The Maldives police have not officially stated the reasons behind the arrest of the minister. However, they have declined to confirm or deny media reports suggesting that the charges involve ‘black magic’ directed at President Mohamed Muizzu.
The accusations have sparked widespread speculation and concern among the public and within political circles.
Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem has been a prominent figure in the government, actively involved in shaping policies related to climate change and sustainable development.
Her sudden arrest on such unusual charges has raised many questions about the underlying political dynamics at play.
Minister arrested over alleged witchcraft
International
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
The Israeli military has arrested 28 Palestinians in a series of raids across the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian rights group.
The overnight raids, part of Israel’s increasingly violent assault on the occupied territories, targeted the governorates of Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and el-Bireh, Nablus and Jerusalem, said the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society on Thursday.
Israeli forces had doled out “severe beatings” and made threats against detainees’ families, said the group, which keeps a daily tally of arrests.
Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before Israel’s current war on Gaza erupted in October, has since escalated with frequent army raids on Palestinian groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and deadly Palestinian street attacks.
Reporting from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the Israeli military had “dramatically” increased its operations, conducting about 38 raids a day, with an uptick in detentions. Home demolitions have gone up by 25 percent since last year, displacing more than 1,000 Palestinians.
In Jenin, where nine Palestinians were arrested, armed confrontations broke out in the city and its refugee camp in the early hours of Thursday.
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Palestinian media said Israeli forces had raided a pharmacy near Jenin Government Hospital, on the outskirts of Jenin refugee camp, transferring detainees to an unknown destination.
A resident said Israeli bulldozers destroyed infrastructure inside the camp and in the city of Jenin.
During the raid, Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli armoured vehicles with explosive devices, killing one soldier and wounding 16.
“There were two explosions. The first one caused injuries. The second, that’s where the death happened,” said Odeh.
“According to preliminary Israeli investigations, the devices were buried or located a metre and a half into the ground, so deeper than the Israeli military vehicles usually dig to be able to find those improvised devices,” she said.
The Israeli military confirmed the death. The soldier “fell during operational activity in the area of Jenin”, it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Wafa news agency reported that four Palestinians were arrested in an overnight swoop on Hebron.
Israeli forces had stormed the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron, arresting three people, including a female university student. Another man was arrested in the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron.
The Israeli military also arrested a man after shooting him in the foot in the Qalandiya refugee camp, while another man was taken into custody in Deir Ghassana village, northwest of Ramallah.
Since October 7, Israel has carried out a total of 9,430 arrests in the West Bank in near daily raids.
The United Nations’ human rights chief Volker Turk warned this month that the situation in the West Bank was “dramatically deteriorating”, saying earlier that people there were being “subjected to day after day of unprecedented bloodshed”.
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
International
Palestinians in Lebanon ready to fight if Israel starts war with Hezbollah
Palestinians in Lebanon ready to fight if Israel starts war with Hezbollah
Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, Lebanon – Palestinians in Lebanon have watched Israel’s assault on Gaza with simmering anger and are now facing the prospect of a similar fate if Israel wages an all-out war against the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began engaging Israel almost immediately after the latter began its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people and uprooted almost the entire population.
The Lebanese group has repeatedly said it would stop its attacks on Israel once a ceasefire took hold in Gaza and Israel stopped its bombardment on the people living there.
Israel’s assault followed a Hamas-led surprise attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 taken captive.
Ready to go home
In the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, many people involved in resistance movements told Al Jazeera that they’re not scared, and would fight to support Hezbollah and the wider “axis of resistance” in the region against Israel.
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But they fear for their families and civilians, worrying that Israel would deliberately target densely populated residential areas in Lebanon, like the Palestinian camps, where tens of thousands of people live packed tightly together.
“The Israeli army has no ethics. They don’t abide by human rights or consider the rights of children,” said Ahed Mahar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command [PFLP-GC] in Shatila.
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