Author: Gulf News Week
Hezbollah has called for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory before any discussion on disarmament.Hezbollah supporters have gathered in the Lebanese capital to protest against the group’s disarmament ahead of a government cabinet meeting on the issue.The demonstrations occurred in Beirut on Monday night amid pressure by the United States on Lebanon to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms.Hezbollah emerged weakened from a war with Israel last year that eliminated most of the group’s leadership, killed thousands of its fighters, and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.In recent months, the US and Lebanon have…
Netanyahu’s war cabinet set to approve military operations across entire enclave, according to Israeli media.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to announce plans to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, Israeli media have reported.Netanyahu’s decision will see the Israeli military expand its operations across the entire enclave, including areas where Hamas’s captives are being held, i24NEWS, The Jerusalem Post, Channel 12 and Ynet reported on Monday.“The decision has been made,” Amit Sega, chief political analyst with Channel 12, quoted an unnamed senior official in Netanyahu’s office as saying.“Hamas won’t release more hostages without total surrender, and we won’t surrender. If…
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australian recognition of Palestinian statehood ‘a matter of when, not if’, but makes no commitment.Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong has told the country’s media that “there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise”, amid Israel’s devastating war on Gaza and increasing violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Wong, who did not indicate that Australia plans to change its stance and recognise Palestinian statehood, made her comments in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ( ABC) on Tuesday morning, where she responded to questions about a mass protest…
Johnson becomes the highest-ranking US official to visit an illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory.Mike Johnson, the top legislator in the United States Congress, has visited an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the trip by the speaker of the US House of Representatives on Monday a “blatant violation of international law”.Johnson, who is next in line for the US presidency after the president and vice president, is the highest-ranking US official to visit a West Bank Israeli settlement.His trip comes amid escalating settler violence against Palestinian communities that killed…
Baharav-Miara at loggerheads with PM Netanyahu over corruption charges, his ‘judicial coup’, and sacking of Shin Bet chief.The High Court of Israel has issued a temporary order freezing an attempt by the government to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in the latest instance of the far-right coalition closing ranks.The court’s decision on Monday came immediately after the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously to fire Baharav-Miara, the country’s most senior legal official, who has been leading the prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his corruption trial.Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced the cabinet’s decision and addressed a letter to Baharav-Miara saying…
The Syrian Democratic Forces allege that Damascus-linked factions attacked four of its positions early on Monday.The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have said that armed factions associated with the country’s security forces have attacked some of its positions in the northern province of Aleppo, as efforts by Syria’s fledgling government to unify the nation have been hit on several fronts.In a post on X, the group, which controls much of northeastern Syria, claimed the incident took place early on Monday morning in the Deir Hafer area.The allegation comes just months after the SDF and the Syrian interim government signed a…
What does starvation do to the body? And is famine inevitable in Gaza?Aid agencies say the limited amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza in the last week is unlikely to avert the famine experts have warned about for months.While at first most of the starvation-related deaths were among children and infants, increasingly, older people are succumbing to the hunger that Israel has imposed upon the enclave since March.On Sunday, six more adults died from malnutrition, bringing the number of adults to die from hunger in Gaza to 82 over the last five weeks, when such deaths were first…
A deadly cholera outbreak adds to the misery in a region that has witnessed fighting between the army and the rebels.People in Sudan’s North Darfur region are forced to eat animal fodder to survive as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues to lay siege to el-Fasher – the last urban centre in the region under army control.“We are suffering, world. We need humanitarian aid – food and medicine – whether by airdrop or by opening ground routes. We cannot survive in this condition,” Othman Angaro, from a displacement camp in el-Fasher, told media.Angaro described how he and his family rely on…
From war to capitalism, sleep deprivation is taking a toll on humans.When I was a freshman at Columbia University in 1999, the professor of my Literature Humanities course shared some personal information with my class, which was that she slept exactly three hours per night. I forget what prompted the disclosure, though I do recall it was made not to elicit pity but rather as a matter-of-fact explanation of the way things were: sleeping more than three hours a night simply did not allow her sufficient time to simultaneously maintain her professorship and tend to her baby.This, of course, was before the…
The group’s letter says the Israeli army has already achieved its objectives and the release of Israeli captives can be achieved only through a deal.More than 600 former Israeli security chiefs have urged United States President Donald Trump to bring an end to Israel’s war on Gaza as deaths of dozens of Palestinians from Israeli-induced starvation have caused global outrage.The appeal was made in a letter sent to Trump on Sunday. Its signatories include former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon and former deputy Israeli army chief Matan Vilnai. They called for pressure on Prime Minister…