The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Israel

  • Saudi condemns Israel’s ‘continuous genocidal massacres’

    Saudi condemns Israel’s ‘continuous genocidal massacres’

    Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel’s deadly airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a Foreign Ministry statement said yesterday.

    The kingdom denounced “the continuous genocidal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people without deterrence by continuing to target the tents of defenceless Palestinian refugees in Rafah.’’

    Riyadh held Israel fully responsible “for what is happening in Rafah and across the occupied Palestinian territories.’’

    It added that Israel’s violations of international and humanitarian resolutions “exacerbate the magnitude of the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe experienced by the Palestinian people.’’

    Palestinian medics on Tuesday said dozens of people have died in fresh Israeli attacks on Rafah, two days after 45 people were reportedly killed in an airstrike which sparked international condemnation.

    The latest attacks came in the wake of a ruling last week by the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to end the operation in Rafah immediately.

  • Israeli airstrikes kill at least 35 in Rafah

    Israeli airstrikes kill at least 35 in Rafah

    Israeli air strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.

    The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”

    It took out Hamas’ chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior official behind deadly attacks on Israelis, it said.

    “The IDF is 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,” it continued.

    The spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, Ashraf Al-Qidra, said 35 people were killed and dozens others, most of them women and children, were wounded in the attack.

    The strike took place in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving an influx of casualties, and that other hospitals also were taking in a large number of patients.

    Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri described the attack in Rafah as a “massacre,” holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.

    “The airstrikes burnt the tents, the tents are melting and the people’s bodies are also melting,” said one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah.

    Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military said eight projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Rafah, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where Israel kept up operations despite a ruling by the top UN court on Friday ordering it to stop attacking the city.

    Read Also: Airstrikes kill several terrorists in Borno, Niger

    A number of the projectiles were intercepted, it said. There were no reports of casualties.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convening his war cabinet later Sunday to discuss continued operations in Rafah. Israel argues that the UN court’s ruling allows room for some military action there.

    In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”

    Rafah is located about 100 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.

    Israel says it wants to root out Hamas fighters holed up in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area, but its assault has worsened the plight of civilians and caused an international outcry.

    On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah, according to local medical services. The Gaza Health Ministry identified the dead as civilians.

    Israeli tanks have probed around the edges of Rafah, near the crossing point from Gaza into Egypt, and have entered some of its eastern districts, residents say, but have not yet entered the city in force since the start of operations in the city earlier this month.

    Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said the rockets fired from Rafah “prove that the (Israel Defense Forces) must operate in every place Hamas still operates from.”

    Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held an operational assessment in Rafah where he was briefed on “troops’ operations above and below the ground, as well as the deepening of operations in additional areas with the aim of dismantling Hamas battalions,” his office said in a statement.

    Itamar Ben Gvir, a hard-line public security minister who is not part of Israel’s war cabinet, urged the army to hit Rafah harder. “Rafah with full force,” he posted on social platform X.

    Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

    Fighting also continued in the northern Gaza area of Jabaliya, the scene of intense combat earlier in the war. During one raid, the military said it found a weapons storage site with dozens of rocket parts and weapons at a school.

    It denied Hamas statements that Palestinian fighters had abducted an Israeli soldier.

    Hamas media said an Israeli airstrike on a house in a neighborhood near Jabaliya killed 10 people and wounded others.

    Efforts to agree a halt to the fighting and return more than 120 hostages have been blocked for weeks but there were some signs of movement this weekend following meetings between Israeli and US intelligence officials and Qatar’s prime minister.

    Read Also: U.S ‘reviewing’ Gaza ceasefire proposal, opposes Rafah invasion

    An official with knowledge of the matter said a decision had been taken to resume the talks this week based on new proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and with “active US involvement.”

    However, a Hamas official played down the report, telling Reuters: “It is not true.”

    Netanyahu’s war cabinet would discuss the new proposals, his office said.

    A second Hamas official, Izzat El-Reshiq, said the group had not received anything from the mediators on new dates for resuming talks as had been reported by Israeli media.

    Reshiq restated Hamas’s demands, which include: “Ending the aggression completely and permanently, in all of Gaza Strip, not only Rafah.”

    While Israel is seeking the return of hostages, Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, is eliminated.

    (Reuters)

  • Biden pushing for two-state solution for Israel, Palestine

    Biden pushing for two-state solution for Israel, Palestine

    United States President, Joe Biden yesterday said he was working on a “lasting, durable peace” that would include the creation of a Palestinian state.

     “We’ve been working on a deal as we speak. Working around the clock to lead an international effort to get more aid into Gaza, rebuild Gaza,” he said during a speech at a graduation ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

    Biden said he was also pushing for a regional peace deal “to get a two-state solution, the only solution”.

    As the President spoke, a student in the audience unfurled a Palestinian flag and held it up.

    Read Also: NADECO-USA calls for peace in Rivers

    Other members of the graduating class showed support for Palestinians in Gaza by tying keffiyeh scarves around their shoulders on top of their black graduation robes.

    “This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about it,” said Biden.

    Student protests have swept across numerous U.S campuses, presenting political challenges for Biden in an election year where he is poised to face former president Donald Trump in a repeat of the 2020 election.

    “I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family, but most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.

  • Israel should end the slaughter in Gaza

    Israel should end the slaughter in Gaza

    These are difficult times globally. There is the ongoing brutality of the Russo-Ukrainian war leading to the death and displacement of millions of people who probably do not care where the borders between the two sisterly countries are drawn. The people there and their ancestors have lived in that place from time immemorial. The attempt by President Vladimir Putin to recreate a new Russian empire after the collapse of the USSR has led to his intervention not only in Ukraine but also in Moldova and in the Caucasus dismembering Georgia leading to the emergence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

    The genocidal conflict in the Sudan between the armed forces of the country (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and the irregular forces of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the leadership of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeddti), the man who was also the leader of the Janjaweed terrorist group responsible for killing millions of black Sudanese previously, has been going on for years and has led to the murder of millions of hapless Africans. The country has been destroyed and nobody seems to care that much. Not the Arabs, not the Africans and not the rest of the world except the puerile effusions from the United Nations’ Secretary General. War has been going on in the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the western communications and other companies particularly the EV carmakers are busy mining minerals needed for their new innovations and batteries and paying starvation wages for the poor Africans including children digging with their hands for rare minerals.

    Read Also:Tompolo mourns ex-Education Minister, Gbagi

    All across the Sahel region of Africa, wars and insurgencies against rulers working for western interests have been going on for decades while military rulers come and go and the lives of Africans are deemed expendable. There is raging insurgency war against the brutal military regime in Burma (Myanmar) which has led to millions of ethnic Rohingya expelled and millions of rebels killed in the country.

    In the Middle East, Yemenis are divided between the Houthis and the previously recognized legitimate government. Iraq has not recovered from American destruction of the country following the war to remove Saddam Hussein and its aftermath and a land of ancient civilisation has been handed over to sectarian chaotic leadership.  Syria under what is left of it under Bashar al Assad has been reduced to a shadow of its old self and the second largest city Aleppo has been bombed into Stone Age  and a glorious Arab civilisation has been brought down to a level of clannishness where a sense of nationalism is totally lost at least for now.

    Pakistan and Afghanistan do not know peace and Lebanon is virtually partitioned into two between the Christian and conservative Arab regime on one hand and militant and armed Shi’ite Hisbollah- the so-called “party of God”. It is necessary to highlight these conflicts in order not to give an impression that all other parts of the world is peaceful except Gaza where the self-inflicted conflict with Israel has been going for the past seven months with apparent Israeli determination to wipe out the Palestinians as a “final solution “to the Palestinian question. It is ironic that this kind of extermination of a people was faced by the ancestors of the Israeli people some 75 years ago.

    The breach of Israeli security by the Gaza Hamas rebels on October 7, 2023 during which about 1400 people were killed and kidnapped precipitated the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Everyone has said Israel is justified in fighting back and Israel has done this almost immediately after the surprise attack. Almost all the major powers backed Israel initially and those like Russia and China demurred, only to support on ideological basis, the Palestinians as a people fighting against colonial oppression. Even their support was tepid. 

    The Americans led by President Joe Biden virtually moved key American ministries like Defence and Foreign Affairs and the CIA to Israel to facilitate easy delivery of weapons to Israel and full deployment of American diplomacy at the service of Israel. The G7 was mobilised to support Israel and NATO’s intelligence was put at service of Israel. Even countries in Africa and Latin America at the prodding of the United States toed the American line. The Arab countries especially the big ones like Egypt and Saudi Arabia lay prostrate at Israeli feet at the behest of the United States. India and Pakistan perhaps reluctantly supported Israel. With this massive support for Israel, the Jewish state feels it could not do any wrong. It unleashed its own and cutting edge and American weapons on the Gaza Strip and sometimes the Western Palestinian territory on the Western bank of the river Jordan. By the second month of the war on Gaza, about 20 thousand Palestinians had been wiped off the face of the earth through artillery fire and aerial bombing using American weapons. By the fifth month, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered. As of today, who is counting? A figure of 36, 000 souls have been lost.

    The Israeli government of Bilyalminu Netanyahu says he wants to kill all the Hamas militants but even America says more than three quarters of those killed are children, women and the elderly. The Democratic Party in America especially its left wing is in open rebellion against President Joe Biden and the universities in America are also in uproar against American involvement with Israel in committing open murders in the glare of the whole world. President Joe Biden is definitely embarrassed and his constant hypocritical pleas with Netanyahu to spare the civilian population of Palestine have been ignored. He is now threatening to cut off the Israeli government from some type of weapons that may be used in Gaza. This is laughed off by the IDF which says it has all the weapons it needs to prosecute the war to the bitter end.

    America has completely lost all influence with the Arab and non-Arab world. Whatever it says in the future would be completely ignored by most countries. Its recent request for military facilities in Africa has been virtually ignored by every country including our own at least openly. America apart from Gaza and the Palestinians would end up as the main victims of the Israeli war on Gaza. The American renewed efforts to reconcile Israel with Saudi Arabia, if it had gotten Israeli support through its humane policies in Gaza, would have altered the course of history possibly for good in the Middle East. An Israeli – Saudi Arabian rapprochement would have facilitated Israeli opening not only to the Arabs but to the Islamic countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

    As things stand, Israel is going to make Biden lose the presidential election in November and earn Israel the hostility of the Democratic Party for years to come. The second coming of Donald J. Trump is too ghastly for many to imagine. The critical elements in global intelligentsia seem opposed to Israel probably because of the human tendency to support the underdog in this case the Palestinians, but more likely because of the ferocity of the inhumanity of Israeli attacks. The thinking is why beat up a Palestine that is down and prostrate? This is why countries like the Republics of South Africa and Ireland with their history of colonial resistance are in open arms against Israel and they are not alone; the vast majority of countries in the developing world in Asia, Africa and Latin America share the same feelings with countries openly opposed to Israel.

    The vote against Israel in the United Nations General Assembly to admit Palestine to full membership of the UN is an illustration of the support for Palestine and opposition to the bullying and oppression of the Israeli government. This is really sad because since the 1948 creation of Israel despite its complex and controversial moral foundation, Israel had always been favoured by virtually the whole world. If only for Israel to go back to some semblance of acceptability, someone should help Israel to stop the war because it has made the point that the Jewish state would rather fight to the death than surrender to any form of attack designed to destroy it. This point needs not be made at expense of the Palestinians who now face a genocidal onslaught as Israel moves to finish them off in Rafa.

  • Attack brings Israel, Iran to brink of war as leaders urge restraint

    Attack brings Israel, Iran to brink of war as leaders urge restraint

    Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack on Israel brought the two nations to the verge of war on Sunday.

    The leaders around the world called for descalation amid fears of all-out war spreading in the Middle East.

    UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has  called on the Security Council to urgently deescalate the situation in the Middle East after Iran launched a direct attack on Israel in retaliation to a suspected Israeli strike.

    “The Middle East is on the brink,” Guterres told a special session of the body in New York.

    “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.

    “Now is the time for maximum restraint.’’

    The special meeting was convened at Israel’s request a day after Tehran launched its aerial attack.

    “We have a shared responsibility to work for peace, Guterres told the Security Council.

    “Neither the region nor the world can afford more war.’’

    U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of the seven leading democratic industrialised countries (G7) condemned Iran’s attack in the strongest possible terms on Sunday and underlined their full support for Israel’s security.

    “With its actions, Iran has further stepped toward the destabilisation of the region and risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation.

    “This must be avoided,’’ they said in a statement.

    Of the 170 unmanned missiles and more than 30 cruise missiles launched by Iran, none reached Israel, according to the Israeli military, saying it successfully repelled the attack.

    The spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari, described the Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel as an unprecedented attack that was met with unprecedented defence.

    “This is the first time that such a coalition worked together against the threat of Iran and its proxies in the Middle East’’, he said of Israel’s cooperation with international allies to shoot down the missiles.

    This was led by the U.S. together with Great Britain, France and other partners.

    “We are still on high alert and assessing the situation.

    “Over the last few hours, we approved operational plans for both offensive and defensive actions,’’ Hagari said.

    Iran’s National Security Council has warned Israel of a military response to the retaliatory strikes.

    “If the Zionist regime wants to continue its malice against Iran, it will receive a response at least ten times greater than the recent attack,’’ the portal Nur News quoted a statement from the Council as saying.

    Iran had chosen the smallest form of punishment for Israel and only attacked military facilities, the statement added, referring to the direct aerial attack the previous day.

    Iran’s “Operation Truthful Promise’’ was mounted in revenge for an airstrike on its embassy grounds in Damascus on April 1.

    The two generals and others were killed. Israel is believed to have carried out the attack and has not denied responsibility.

    A 7-year-old Bedouin girl was seriously injured in the Negev desert, but otherwise there was only minor damage to property in Israel and Israeli and regional airspace reopened on Sunday morning.

    Nonetheless, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the attack a declaration of war.

    Israel is now carefully considering its next steps, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said earlier in an interview with the Israeli army radio station.

    “We have said: if Iran attacks Israel, we will attack Iran.

    “And this commitment is still valid,’’ Katz said.

    Others in Israel called for a regional coalition to counter Iran.

    Iran would be made to pay the price for its attack on Israel as and when it suits us, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said on Sunday.

    Israel’s war cabinet was weighing a response on Sunday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “we shot down, we slowed down. Together we will win,’’ in a post on X.

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) had taught a lesson to Israel and he warned against counterattacks.

    “We carried out an operation of limited scope and size against the Zionist regime,’’said Commander Hussein Salami.

    He said the IRGC had decided to deal with Israel differently in future.

    “This new equation means that from now on, whenever the Zionist regime attacks our interests, properties, individuals and citizens, we will retaliate from the Islamic Republic of Iran,’’ he said.

    Up until now, Iran has primarily relied on allied, non-state actors in Arab countries.

    Read Also: Iran launches drone attack on Israel

    Western leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned the attack.

    Beijing broke its relative silence on the conflict in the Middle East to express deep concern.

    Biden spoke to Netanyahu on the phone, condemning the attack and reaffirming Washington’s “ironclad commitment’’ to Israel’s security.

    Scholz, currently in China, condemned the attack along side German lawmakers assured Israel of their solidarity.

    Von der Leyen said the G7 would continue its efforts to stabilise the situation and said the group would also discuss further sanctions on Iran, particularly its drone and missile programmes.

    EU foreign ministers are due to meet on Tuesday for talks to further stabilise the situation.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • UN chief condemns Iran’s attack on Israel

    UN chief condemns Iran’s attack on Israel

    UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the “large-scale attack” launched in Israel by Iran.

    Guterres, in a statement, urged maximum restraint by all parties and warned that neither the region nor the world could afford another war.

    According to the latest reports, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles from its territory toward Israel, with most intercepted on Saturday.

    Several missiles reportedly struck within Israeli territory, one of which damaged an Israeli military facility in the south of the country.

    “I call for an immediate cessation of these hostilities,” he urged.

    The UN chief said that he was deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation. “I urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East.

    Read Also: Iran launches drone attack on Israel

    “I have repeatedly stressed that neither the region nor the world can afford another war,’ he said.

    Tensions have been ratcheting up in the region since Hamas’ deadly October 7 terror attack and mass hostage taking and Israel’s subsequent full-scale assault on the Gaza Strip, which has left thousands dead and pushed the population to the brink of starvation.

    For his part, the President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, also expressed deep concern about the unfolding situation in the Middle East, “involving the launch by Iran of drones and missiles against Israel.” In a separate statement, Francis noted that Iran had explained its action “in the context of article 51 of the UN Charter, following the recent Israeli attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.”

    “The Iranian response compounds the already tense and delicate peace and security situation in the Middle East,” the Assembly President said.

    He strongly called upon all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid further escalation of tension in the region.

    “This is a moment that calls for wise and prudent judgement, in which the risks and extended risks are very carefully considered. “I expect that the Iranian authorities will honour their word that by their action today, the matter can be deemed concluded.”

    Francis stressed that dialogue and diplomacy are the only way to resolve differences.

    Francis warned: “A vicious cycle of attack and counterattack will lead to nowhere, but inevitably, to more death, suffering and misery.”  (NAN)

  • Thousands rally across Israel, demand early elections, hostage swap

    Thousands rally across Israel, demand early elections, hostage swap

    Thousands protested Saturday in Israel against the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding a hostage swap deal with the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, according to media reports.

    “Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in several areas across the country to demand early elections and the conclusion of a hostage swap deal,” said the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

    The central demonstration at the Kaplan Junction in central Tel Aviv demanded a hostage swap, it said. Hundreds also demonstrated near Netanyahu’s residence in West Jerusalem, demanding accountability and his resignation, added Yedioth Ahronoth.

    In Haifa, “about 8,000 people demonstrated at the Horev Junction in the city center, chanting slogans against the government.”

    Protests across the country are expected to pick up in the coming hours, according to media reports.

    Qatar, Egypt, and the US are trying to reach a hostage swap deal and a cease-fire in Gaza, as the first pause lasted one week in November, which resulted in limited aid entering Gaza, as well as exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners — mostly women and children detained in Israeli jails.

    Read Also: New tariff: Discos get April 11 deadline to refund customers wrongly billed

    Tel Aviv holds at least 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, while there are an estimated 134 Israeli hostages in Gaza. Hamas has announced the death of 70 in random Israeli airstrikes.

    Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack in early October by Hamas killed less than 1,200 people.

    More than 33,100 Palestinians have since been killed and over 75,800 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

    Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

    The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

    Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

  • Gaza: Hamas, Israel are under pressure for truce before Ramadan

    Gaza: Hamas, Israel are under pressure for truce before Ramadan

    Israel and Hamas are coming under mounting pressure to agree to a Gaza truce that would stave off famine in the devastated Palestinian enclave, with the US now seemingly more determined than ever to secure a pause in fighting before Ramadan.

    After weeks of on-and-off negotiations, mediators from the US, Egypt, and Qatar have so far been unable to find a formula for a truce and hostage-prisoner swap acceptable to both Israel and Hamas, with the pair still at odds over several key issues.

    Read Also: Tearful Dangote immortalises Wigwe

    However, sources with direct knowledge of the latest truce talks in Egypt, which began on Sunday, said that while Egypt and Qatar are pressuring Hamas to show more flexibility, the US has also been stepping up the pressure on Israel to agree to a deal.

    “The Americans are now doing everything possible to get a truce agreed. The next step will be for America to announce a ceasefire and find the means to force both sides to observe it,”

  • Thousands demonstrate in Spain for arms embargo on Israel

    Thousands demonstrate in Spain for arms embargo on Israel

    In a show of solidarity with Palestine and condemnation of Israel’s actions, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Spain in a wave of demonstrations demanding an immediate halt to arms trade with Israel.

    Organised by left-wing civil society groups and supported by several political parties, the protests resonated with chants calling for an end to what demonstrators called the “genocide in Palestine” and urged for severing ties with Israel.

    Led by left-wing Podemos leader Ione Belarra, the rallies gained momentum as she announced plans to present a motion in parliament seeking an arms embargo on Israel.

    Belarra emphasised the need for sincerity from the government, accusing the current coalition of empty promises and no concrete action in its support for Palestine.

    “We will see the sincerity of the government in the motion we will submit to parliament to impose an arms embargo on Israel. If they really want to stop the genocide and do not want to be an accomplice to Israel, they will ban arms trade,” she said.

    Read Also: 52 states address ICJ hearing on Israel’s Palestine policies

    The protests, which drew significant attendance in the capital Madrid, featured slogans denouncing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians.

    Podemos, despite not being part of Spain’s ruling coalition, threw its weight behind the demonstrations, highlighting the unity among various factions in Spain in their support for Palestine.

    Demonstrators also criticized Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares’ claims that Spain’s weapons trade with Israel had been halted since Oct. 7, dismissing them as false.

    They cited commercial data indicating ongoing collaboration between Spanish companies and Israel in the military sector.

    “Israel continues its massacre against Palestine strongly … This is not only against Palestinians but also colonialism and human rights crimes against the whole world. We must continue to raise our voices and insist that the international community intervene,” Maria Rocas, a protester in Madrid, told Anadolu.

    The demonstrations, spanning over 100 cities and towns including Barcelona, Coruna, Malaga, and Tenerife, signify a resounding call from the Spanish populace for solidarity with Palestine and condemnation of Israel’s actions.

  • 52 states address ICJ hearing on Israel’s Palestine policies

    52 states address ICJ hearing on Israel’s Palestine policies

    Fifty two and three international bodies have provided commented on the legal consequences of  Israel’s policies and practices in Occupied Palestinian Territory.

    UN correspondent of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the states made their presentations during the public hearing at International Court of Justice, based on UN General Assembly’s request. The hearing since February 19, closes today.

    Filed before the four-month-old war in Gaza began, the case triggered heated commentary even before the court’s President, Judge Nawaf Salam, opened the hearings.

    The Assembly submitted two questions to World Court in its December 2022 request.

    The questions are: “What are the legal consequences arising from violation by Israel of the right of Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures at altering the demographic composition, character and status of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures?

    “How do the policies and practices of Israel affect the occupation, and what are the legal consequences for states and the UN from this status?”

    Palestine in its three hours presentation during the public hearing, accused Israel of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, killings and displacement of Palestinians.

    Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki began by saying, “I stand before you as 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced, as more than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are subjected to colonization of their territory and the racist violence…”

    He also said successive governments in Israel have left only three choices to Palestinians  –  displacement, subjugation or death.

    Riyad added that the choices are for them to choose ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide.

    Read Also: Greedy politicians fuelling attacks on Tinubu over hardship -Arewa Think Tank

    The foreign minister said it is of “moral, political and legal imperative” to bring “an end to Israel’s impunity”.

    “Our people are here to stay…and they will not forsake their rights,” the Palestinian foreign minister added during the submission.

    South Africa had filed a separate complaint with the ICJ in December 2023 against Israel for “genocide in Gaza” – for which the court already issued provisional measures.

    Vusimuzi Madonsela, the country’s ambassador to the Netherlands, told the court that after “decades of apartheid settler colonialism, a just solution for all who legally qualify to live in historical Palestine would need to be negotiated with the assistance of the international community”.

    Drawing a parallel between the situation in Palestine and the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, an “institutionalised regime of discriminatory laws”, he said current practices ensure “Israeli-Jewish domination”.