Leaders around the world expressed concern about the escalating violence in Gaza, calling on both sides to show restraint….reports Asian Lite News
The UAE will host a virtual emergency meeting of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque.
The meeting will include speeches by speakers and representatives of Arab parliaments, and a closing statement.
The development comes as the cross-border violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem intensified exponentially over the last several hours.
More than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the last day, including several children. Three Israelis died from Gaza rocket fire on Tuesday, DPA news agency reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Gaza, which have targeted some 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions since Monday, would intensify.
Israel-Gaza violence spirals
“This operation will take time, but we will bring security back to the citizens of Israel,” he said late Tuesday.
Hamas, which rules the coastal strip, would “receive blows it did not expect,” Netanyahu had said hours earlier in remarks after a meeting with military officials.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 20 members from the two groups have been killed so far in Gaza, including senior officials, and some 150 missile-launchers had been destroyed.
The severe violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in years…reports Asian Lite News
Hundreds of rockets were fired upon Israel from Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip throughout Tuesday, as Israel pummelled the tiny coastal territory with airstrikes and the death toll mounted on both sides.
The cross-border violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in years.
More than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the last day, including several children. Three Israelis died from Gaza rocket fire on Tuesday, DPA news agency reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Gaza, which have targeted some 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions since Monday, would intensify.
“This operation will take time, but we will bring security back to the citizens of Israel,” he said late Tuesday.
Hamas, which rules the coastal strip, would “receive blows it did not expect,” Netanyahu had said hours earlier in remarks after a meeting with military officials.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 20 members from the two groups have been killed so far in Gaza, including senior officials, and some 150 missile-launchers had been destroyed.
Many of the targets were located in places where civilians reside, spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said, so civilian casualties could not be ruled out, though the army was trying hard to avoid them.
Rocket warning sirens were a persistent sound across Israeli communities.
The greater Tel Aviv area was in the cross-hairs of Palestinian militants, who sent a barrage of rockets towards the coastal metropolis, marking the heaviest attack the city has faced so far.
The rocket fire prompted flights to be halted at Israel’s main international airport outside of the city.
The Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was closed to landings and departures due to the attacks; flights were diverted to Cyprus.
One person was killed on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in rocket attack. According to media reports, a woman was killed in the town of Rishon Lezion when she was hit directly. The Zaka aid organization also confirmed her death.
The rockets were fired toward Tel Aviv after the Israeli army destroyed a building containing offices of members of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip.
Residents of the building were warned by Israeli forces before the attack and told to leave, witnesses said.
A Hamas spokesman had earlier threatened a “harsh” rocket attack on Tel Aviv if the Hanadi Tower building was destroyed.
In the southern city of Ashkelon, two women were killed when their homes were struck, according to the Zaka aid organization. Impacts were also reported on residential buildings in Ashkelon as well as a school where no lessons were being conducted.
In total, Gaza militants aimed around 480 rockets towards Israel over 24 hours. Of these, some 200 were intercepted and 150 failed to properly launch, the Israeli military said Tuesday evening.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which it said were in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on a high-rise residential building in the western part of the Gaza Strip. The apartment belonged to a member of Islamic Jihad, according to witnesses.
In total, the Gaza Health Ministry put the death toll in the latest round of violence at 28, including 10 children. More than 100 people were injured, it said.
According to local media and witness reports, three children were killed by Israeli airstrikes and others by misdirected rockets fired by extremists.
Israel said it was targeting rocket production, storage and training facilities as well as military posts.
The airstrikes and rocket attacks followed violent clashes in recent days at Jerusalem’s holy site known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.
Demonstrations continued on the ground in Israel on Tuesday between police and Israeli Arabs in numerous cities throughout Israel. Stones were thrown at police officers and several cars were set on fire.
In the city of Lod, a 25-year-old Arab man was shot and killed during the riots. Media reported that a 34-year-old arrested after the event was a Jewish resident of the city.
The Islamist Hamas movement had issued a Monday night ultimatum telling Israel to withdraw settlers and police from the Jerusalem holy site, parts of which had been cordoned off, and from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
Shortly after the deadline expired, mass rocket attacks began, with sirens wailing in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said the militants crossed a “red line” by directing missiles towards Jerusalem, and Israel in turn shelled targets in Gaza.
Leaders around the world expressed concern about the escalating violence, calling on both sides to show restraint.
“This spiralling escalation must cease immediately,” a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
“The Arab countries and US haven’t sent any financial aid during 2020 until now”, said Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye…reports Asian Lite News
Palestine has not received financial aid from any Arab country for more than one year, Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said.
“Due to lack of Arab funds, the deficiency in the Palestinian budget climbed to $1 billion,” Xinhua news agency quoted Ishtaye as saying at a press conference here on Wednesday.
“The Arab countries haven’t sent any financial aid during 2020 until now. In addition, the US has suspended its financial support, which amounted to $500 million,” he said.
At the conference on the coronavirus crisis in Palestine, Ishtaye said the government is ready for austerity and reducing its running cost.
“This will not be at the expense of the health, the safety and security of the citizen and the education in Palestine,” he said.
The Prime Minister added the economic establishments, whether it is large, medium, or small, have all been affected by the repercussions of coronavirus crisis.
“The unemployment rate in the West Bank rose to 19 per cent, while the situation in the Gaza Strip is much worse,” Ishtaye said.
Biden hailed Jordan and underscored the importance of King Abdullah II’s leadership to the United States and the region…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to voice US support for his leadership and affirmed the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Biden expressed “strong US support for Jordan and underscore the importance of King Abdullah II’s leadership to the United States and the region,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The two leaders also discussed bilateral ties, Jordan’s important role in the region, and strengthening cooperation on political, economic, and security issues.
“The President also affirmed that the United States supports a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the statement added.
AMMAN, May 25, 2019 (Xinhua) — Jordan’s King Abdullah II (C) reviews the Royal Guard of Honor during the ceremony of the 73rd anniversary of the Independence of Jordan in Amman, Jordan, May 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Mohammad Abu Ghosh/IANS)
The phone call came as Jordan returns to stability from a royal rift over the weekend. King Abdullah II said on Wednesday that Prince Hamza, who was accused of being part of a plot to destabilize Jordan by authorities, was in the king’s care.
In a letter to the nation published by the Royal Hashemite Court, the king said the “sedition has been nipped in the bud” and Jordan is safe and stable.
The Biden administration on the same day announced plans to restore US assistance for the Palestinian people.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement introduced a US $235 million package of economic, development, and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, a large portion of which will go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Former US President Donald Trump cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Palestinians, and during his administration, diplomatic contacts with Palestinians came to a virtual halt.
After Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in December 2017, the Palestinian Authority broke off all official relations with the White House and the State Department, though security cooperation continued.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council last month that Washington will “re-open diplomatic channels of communication” with Palestinians that has been cut off under the previous administration.
A Palestinian boy sits on sacks of flour at a United Nations food distribution center in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City
Our administration will take steps to re-open diplomatic channels of communication that were halted during the last administration,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield…reports Asian Lite News
The US will “re-open diplomatic channels of communication” with Palestine that had been cut off by the administration of former President Donald Trump, Washington’s Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council.
“Since January, our diplomatic engagement has been guided by the premise that sustainable progress toward peace must be based on active consultations with both sides,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday during a virtual briefing on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
“To that end, our administration will take steps to re-open diplomatic channels of communication that were halted during the last administration,” the envoy added.
US President Joe Biden
“Our engagements all have the same aim: to build support for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Thomas-Greenfield, while expressing her country’s “continued support for Israel”, noted that the US wishes to “see both Israelis and Palestinians take steps toward a two-state solution”.
On the two-state solution, the ambassador said, “under President (Joe) Biden’s leadership, the US has recommitted to the vision of a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state”.
“We believe this vision is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state, while upholding the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield noted that Biden is restoring US assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.
“Specifically, the US is pleased to announce today $15 million in humanitarian assistance to support the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank and Gaza,” she added.
Trump cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Palestinians, and during his administration, diplomatic contacts with Palestinians came to a virtual halt.
After Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in December 2017, the Palestinian Authority severed all official relations with the White House and the State Department, though security cooperation continued.
It said electoral lists have been asked to submit the names of their candidates to the commission’s headquarters in Ramallah and Gaza…reports Asian Lite News
The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (PCEC) has started receiving nomination applications for the upcoming legislative election.
In a statement, the PCEC said it started receiving applications from Saturday and it will continue until March 31, reports Xinhua news agency.
It said electoral lists have been asked to submit the names of their candidates to the commission’s headquarters in Ramallah and Gaza.
Only electoral lists of candidates, not individuals, will be accepted, as stipulated in the recently-amended elections law, and an electoral list should have no less than 16 names of candidates and no more than 132, which is the number of seats of the unicameral Palestinian Legislative Council, according to the statement.
“Each nomination request will be studied within five days to make sure that the electoral list meets the legal terms of candidacy. After that, the PCEC will decide whether the electoral list is approved or not,” it said.
In January, President Mahmoud Abbas announced the 2021 general elections will include the legislative elections on May 22, the presidential elections on July 31, and the elections of the Palestinian National Council, the highest decision-making body of the Palestine Liberation Organization, on August 31.
Palestine starts technical meetings over preparations for polls(IANS)
The last Palestinian presidential elections were held in March 2005, and the legislative elections in January 2006.
The internal Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah began in 2007 when Hamas forcibly took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah.
Since then, the Palestinian territories have been split into a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and a Fatah-dominated West Bank.
