AFP Asia Business

US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Israel over annexing the West Bank in an interview published Thursday, as visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced confidence that a US-backed ceasefire in Gaza would hold.Trump’s remarks were made to Time magazine by telephone on October 15 — just days after the Gaza truce plan he spearheaded took effect — but were only published on Thursday.”It won’t happen,” Trump said when asked about calls in Israel to annex the Palestinian West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.”He added: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, leading to condemnation Thursday from US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Israel at the time and who echoed Trump’s comments.When asked on Thursday if he was concerned by the votes, Trump told reporters at the White House: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank.”The United States remains Israel’s most important military and diplomatic supporter.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party boycotted and criticised the vote, though members of his ruling coalition support annexation.Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza — a key element of Trump’s ceasefire plan — have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.In a joint statement carried by Saudi state media on Thursday, more than a dozen such states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote.Rubio, one of a string of top US officials to visit Israel in recent days, had warned before his arrival that the annexation moves were “threatening” to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.But he expressed confidence in the truce after meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.”We feel confident and positive about the progress that’s being made. We’re clear-eyed about the challenges, too,” said Rubio, just hours after Vance wrapped up his own three-day visit.- ‘Very stupid’ -As he ended his trip, Vance hit out at the votes in Israel’s parliament in favour of examining two annexation bills, which mean they will be brought forward for further readings. “If it was a political stunt it was a very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said.”The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel, the policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel, that will continue to be our policy.”Netanyahu, standing next to Rubio after their meeting Thursday, was quick to avoid any suggestion of tension with Washington, calling the secretary an “extraordinary friend of Israel” and saying that the back-to-back visits were part of a “circle of trust and partnership”.Violence has surged in the West Bank since the war began in Gaza with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, since October 2023.Over the same period, at least 43 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have died in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, official figures show.The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.- ‘Tough task’ -The Gaza truce faced its toughest test on Sunday, when Israeli forces launched strikes in Gaza after two soldiers were killed. The strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Gaza’s Nasser Hospital said that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday in the Khan Yunis area.During his visit, Vance warned that disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza would be a “very, very tough task”.Under Trump’s 20-point peace plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would oversee Gaza’s transition as Israeli troops withdraw.Delegations from Hamas and its rival Fatah, meanwhile, met in Egypt to discuss post-war arrangements for Gaza, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported on Thursday.- ‘Not enough food’ -In Gaza, civilians displaced by two years of war continued to struggle.”We were afraid of dying during the war, and now we’re afraid of living after it,” said Maher Abu Wafah, 42.”Our lives and our children’s future are slipping away before our eyes. We just want a stable life.”The World Health Organization said on Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, lamenting that “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food”.

Oil prices jumped more than five percent Thursday after US President Donald Trump targeted Russia’s key oil industry with new sanctions in a bid to end the war in Ukraine.The surge in crude prices came as major US equity indices rebounded from the prior day’s pullback after the White House confirmed a plan for Trump to …

Oil prices surge as Trump hits Russian crude with sanctions Read More »

The company behind bringing Asian e-commerce giant Shein to a landmark Parisian department store suffered another setback Thursday as Disneyland Paris abandoned plans to open a pop-up boutique.Anger has been boiling since fast-fashion giant Shein announced earlier this month that it would open its first permanent physical store in November at BHV Marais, an iconic …

Disney drops out in latest exodus from Paris store hosting Shein Read More »

The United Nations’ expert on Palestinian rights on Thursday denounced the US sanctions brought against her for criticising Washington’s policy on the Gaza war as “mafia-style techniques” to “dirty” her reputation.In an interview with AFP, Francesca Albanese said she would present her latest report to the UN from South Africa as sanctions from Washington prevented her from travelling to New York.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July announced sanctions against the outspoken UN special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories, calling her criticism of the United States and Israel “biased and malicious”.”I cannot go to the US,” Albanese told AFP in South Africa, where she was set to deliver the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture on October 25.”My assets have been frozen. I have a US daughter, my husband works for a US-based organisation, and the entire family is paying because of it.””The sanctions that the US imposed on me are such an affront, not just against me, against the United Nations,” she told AFP.She compared the move to “mafia-style techniques” in her native Italy: “dirtying someone with mud… to dissuade him or her from keeping on engaging on justice issues”.”I keep on reminding myself this is not about me”, she said. “It’s about defending people who are being genocided right now, and I truly hope that the message will keep on being heard.”Albanese, who is mandated by the UN but does not speak on its behalf, has faced harsh criticism by Israel and some of its allies over her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.UN investigators and several human rights groups, among them Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, accuse Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, a charge that Israel has denied as “distorted and false”, while accusing the authors of antisemitism.- ‘Global complicity’ -“I don’t think I’m divisive, but of course, there are some who are very well-equipped and interested in ruining my reputation so that the message is not delivered,” Albanese said.In a first version of her new report, titled “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” and published on the UN website, the Italian expert denounced “a system of global complicity” and called on states to “immediately suspend and review all military, diplomatic and economic relations with Israel”.”Even as the genocidal violence became visible, states, mostly Western ones, have provided, and continue to provide, Israel with military, diplomatic, economic and ideological support,” Albanese wrote, adding the countries eventually “could and should be held liable”. With a fragile US-brokered truce in place under a deal to end the two-year Israel-Hamas war, Albanese said the international community and the multilateral order were being “put to the test”.”Israel has pushed the world to confront its capacity to prevent genocide, and so far we have failed. Now the question is, will we be equally unable to stop the genocide and punish the genocide?” she said.- ‘Financial architecture’ -Presenting her report from South Africa — which has laid a case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice — was “symbolic”, said Albanese, who has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the pre-1994 apartheid regime of racial segregation.But South Africa, as a top supplier of coal to Israel, was still included in her report on states’ “complicity”.That was “a revealer of the world that we live in”, she said, “where eventually getting rid of the economic and financial architecture that upholds our system and our societies is the crux of the matter.”

US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Israel over annexing the West Bank in an interview published Thursday, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the country to bolster his Gaza truce.Trump’s remarks were made to Time magazine by telephone on October 15, just days after the Gaza ceasefire plan he spearheaded took effect, but were only published on Thursday.”It won’t happen,” Trump said when asked about calls in Israel to annex the Palestinian West Bank which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.”He added: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, leading to condemnation from US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday who also echoed Trump’s comments.The United States remains Israel’s most important military and diplomatic supporter.Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting in a bid to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.In a joint statement carried on state media in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, more than a dozen Arab and Muslim states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote in favour of examining two annexation bills.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party boycotted and criticised the vote, though members of his ruling coalition support annexation.Rubio, one of a string of top US officials to visit Israel in recent days, will meet with Netanyahu later on Thursday, according to a US official. – ‘Very stupid’ -As he wrapped up his own visit to Israel on Thursday, Vance hit out at the votes in Israel’s parliament, which mean they will be brought forward for further readings in parliament. “If it was a political stunt it was a very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said.”The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel, the policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel, that will continue to be our policy.”Ahead of his arrival later on Thursday, Rubio warned that annexation moves risked undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.He said they were “threatening for the peace deal,” as he boarded a plane for Israel.Asked about increased violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, Rubio said: “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilise what we’ve worked on.”Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, where violence has surged since the war began in Gaza with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, since October 2023.Over the same period, at least 43 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have died in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, official figures show.The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.- ‘Ahead of schedule’ -As he arrived, Rubio said the fragile ceasefire deal in Gaza would face challenges.”Every day there’ll be threats to it, but I actually think we’re ahead of schedule in terms of bringing it together, and the fact that we made it through this weekend is a good sign,” Rubio said.The truce faced its toughest test on Sunday, when Israeli forces launched strikes in Gaza after two soldiers were killed. The strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Gaza’s Nasser Hospital said that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday in the Khan Yunis area.During his visit, Vance warned that disarming Hamas while rebuilding Gaza would be a challenge.”We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza,” Vance said.Under Trump’s 20-point peace plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would oversee Gaza’s transition as Israeli troops withdraw.- ‘Not enough food’ -In Gaza, civilians displaced by two years of war continued to struggle.”We were afraid of dying during the war, and now we’re afraid of living after it,” said Maher Abu Wafah, 42.”Our lives and our children’s future are slipping away before our eyes. We just want a stable life.”The World Health Organization said on Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since a ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, lamenting that “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food”.

Fewer than a hundred aid trucks operated by the UN and its partners have entered Gaza each day since a ceasefire earlier this month, a fraction of the total 600 trucks a day promised under the plan brokered by US President Donald Trump, data analysed by AFP shows.Israel has authorised an average of 1,011 tonnes of aid — or 94 trucks — to enter Gaza each day between October 10, when the ceasefire took effect, and October 21, according to preliminary data from the United Nations. This marks an increase compared to the 700 tonnes (or 62 trucks) supplied daily by the UN and partner NGOs between May 19 and October 9, though it is still far from the large-scale deliveries the UN has planned for in the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Thursday, lamenting that “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food”.The International Court of Justice said Wednesday that Israel was obliged to ease the passage of aid into famine-wracked Gaza, stressing it had to provide Palestinians with the “basic needs” to survive.The data analysed by AFP is compiled by the UN’s “2720 Mechanism for Gaza”, which has monitored and tracked humanitarian aid entering Gaza since May 19, the day after the end of Israel’s two-month blockade of Gaza which prevented humanitarian aid from entering.The program’s tracking — which relies on monitors verifying aid arrivals and collections for further distribution at Israeli checkpoints and in Gaza — excludes commercial trucks as well as some private aid groups, such as the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.The busiest day for humanitarian aid coming in through the UN2720 Mechanism was October 16, with 206 trucks entering Gaza.On October 15, UN Humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that the aid entering in the previous few days was “a fraction of what’s needed,” with just “tens of trucks on a good day rather than the hundreds of trucks required.”At least 190,000 tonnes of aid have been positioned by the UN and partner NGOs to enter Gaza as soon as possible, though much of it is still waiting for clearance by Israel. If the daily supply of aid continues at the pace it has been delivered since the ceasefire, it would take over six months for all of that aid to be delivered, according to an AFP analysis. – Food and nutrition – More than 93 percent of aid seen by the UN as it enters Gaza is food, with 1.7 percent made up of nutrition supplies — which is specific food such as high-calorie supplements given to vulnerable people like malnourished children or pregnant women.On August 22, the UN declared a famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, after experts warned 500,000 people faced “catastrophic” conditions. Since then, close to 1,000 tonnes of nutrition supplies have been sent to Gaza.The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), operating almost 70 percent of all aid trucks tracked by the UN2720 Mechanism since May, said it has delivered “enough (food) for close to half a million people for two weeks” since the ceasefire, according to a WFP spokesperson.At an average of 850 tonnes a day from October 10-21 according to UN2720, which includes aid sent by the WFP as well as other actors, the amount of food arriving in Gaza is still well below the WFP’s target of around 2,000 tonnes daily.Other types of aid sent in the past weeks include water and sanitation products, shelter supplies, solid fuels such as wood pellets used for cooking, and health-related supplies.On top of aid tracked by UN2720, an average of 164,000 litres of fuel have entered Gaza each day since the ceasefire, compared to 68,000 litres per day in the 30 days before, the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) told AFP on Tuesday.The UN has said it expects 1.9 million litres of fuel would be needed in Gaza each week (around 270,000 per day) to properly operate its post-ceasefire humanitarian relief plan.Since tracking began on May 19, UN2720 data shows much of the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza does not make it to its intented destination, with some aid reportedly intercepted “either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully [by] armed actors during transit in Gaza,” according to the UN2720 Mechanism’s website.

The World Health Organization said Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since a ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing from the UN health agency’s Geneva headquarters.Since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, there has been “no dent in hunger, because there is not enough food”, he warned.Israel repeatedly cut off aid to the Gaza Strip during the war, exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions. The United Nations said that caused a famine in parts of the Palestinian territory.Since the start of 2025, 411 people are known to have died from the effects of malnutrition in Gaza, including 109 children, Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters.”All of these deaths were preventable,” stressed Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s unit head for humanitarian and disaster action. More than 600,000 people in Gaza were currently facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity”, she added.But while the agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump provides for the entry of 600 trucks per day, Tedros said currently only between 200 and 300 trucks were getting in daily.And “a good number of the trucks are commercial”, he said, when many people in the territory have no resources to buy goods.”That reduces the beneficiary size,” he said.- 15,000 awaiting evacuation -The WHO chief hailed the fact that the ceasefire was holding despite violations, but warned: “The crisis is far from over, and the needs are immense.”Although the flow of aid has increased, it’s still only a fraction of what’s needed,” he added.Citing figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, WHO health emergencies incident manager Nabil Tabbal said 89 people had been killed and some 317 wounded since the ceasefire took hold.Gaza’s health system has been ravaged during Israel’s two-year war in the Palestinian territory following Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks.Tedros warned that “the total cost for rebuilding the Gaza health system will be at least $7 billion”.”There are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza, and only 14 out of 36 are functioning at all. There are critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment and health workers,” Tedros said.”More than 170,000 people have injuries in Gaza, including more than 5,000 amputees and 3,600 people who have major burns,” he pointed out.He said that since the ceasefire took effect, WHO had been sending more medical supplies to hospitals, deploying additional emergency medical teams and striving to scale up medical evacuations. The agency had facilitated the evacuation of 41 patients and 145 companions on Wednesday.But he warned that “there are still 15,000 patients who need treatment outside Gaza, including 4,000 children”. Tedros urged more countries to step up to receive patients from Gaza for specialised care. He called on Israel to allow “all crossings to be opened to allow more patients to be treated in Egypt, and to enable the scale-up of aid.”The delay in medical evacuation, especially for some patients, means they could die while waiting,” he warned.Since the start of the war, Tedros pointed out, “more than 700 have died while waiting for evacuation”.

A fragile ceasefire has brought respite to Gazans exhausted by two years of fighting, but even without the daily bombing they are struggling to live amid the catastrophic destruction wrought by the war. The reconstruction task ahead is enormous, given that vast swathes of the Palestinian territory were flattened during Israel’s military campaign and most of the population were displaced at least once.Many in the southern city of Khan Yunis have now been told by Israeli forces to move again to avoid the so-called Yellow Line, behind which Israeli troops are stationed under the ceasefire deal with Hamas.”I am tired of displacement, very tired. I prefer to die, just like my son. It is better for the dead,” Riyad Abu Anza said.AFP footage showed Palestinians carrying buckets, brooms and backpacks through a sandy neighbourhood of rubble and tents.Umm Mohammed Muhareb, who was displaced to the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, said that fear lingered despite the fighting largely halting.”The situation now is calmer than before,” the 45-year-old told AFP.”We don’t hear the sounds of bombing like we used to, but the fear is still in our hearts, because we never know when things might get worse again”.The truce faced its toughest test on Sunday, when Israeli forces unleashed a wave of strikes in Gaza after two soldiers were killed. The strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.There have also been violent incidents since, with Nasser Hospital reporting one person killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Khan Yunis area on Thursday.The Israeli military told AFP that it conducted a strike that killed a “terrorist who was approaching troops” after crossing the yellow line.- ‘Struggle with life itself’ -Abu Alaa Skeik, from Gaza City, said his house was completely destroyed during the gruelling war, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.The 52-year-old said that his family now lived in a tent next to what was left of his home.”At first, our struggle was with the war — we were escaping death and bombardment. But today, our struggle is with life itself,” he said.”We want to provide food, get water, rebuild our home and send our children back to school. We are exhausted,” he added.Abu Rafiq Zaqout, 47, from the Safatawi area in the northern Gaza Strip, described the territory as a “disaster-stricken area.””The rubble still blocks the streets, and there isn’t enough water reaching us,” he added, calling for border crossings to be opened so equipment could be brought in.The World Health Organisation said Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since a ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.”There are no basic means to live here,” said 26-year-old Ali Al-Ajrami, describing “extremely harsh conditions” in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.He said the biggest problem was a lack of water, adding that his local market had been bulldozed by Israeli forces during the war.Meanwhile, in a cemetery in Deir el-Balah on Wednesday, Gazans buried the bodies of 54 unidentified Palestinians which were returned by Israel under the ceasefire deal.AFP footage showed diggers carrying dozens of white body bags before they were laid in a long line in a sandy pit.str-my-eml-acc/jd/dcp

Turkey is in talks with its other countries over its potential participation in an international Gaza peacekeeping mission with its military “ready” if needed, a defence ministry source said Thursday. “We are continuing contact with our counterparts regarding our participation in the task force to be established in Gaza,” the source said. The task force will operate as part of the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) for monitoring the ceasefire, which is based in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat and was inaugurated on Tuesday by US Vice President JD Vance.”The CMCC has been established to facilitate the formation of the Gaza task force. Under this structure, an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) will be set up that will be in charge of monitoring the ceasefire and preventing conflict,” the source said.”For now, nothing is confirmed about the level of Turkey’s participation in such structures but it will probably be confirmed next week.”Asked if the Turkish military would participate, the source said it had “experience from previous peace missions” and was “ready to undertake any task assigned to it.. to establish and maintain peace”. Israel’s relationship with Turkey has nosedived since the Gaza war started in October 2023 with Israeli adamantly opposed to a Turkish presence in Gaza — but the source said as a guarantor of the ceasefire deal, Turkey had leverage. “Israel might not be willing to accept Turkey’s presence but there is an agreement and Turkey is one of the guarantors,” the source said. Speaking at the inauguration of the CMCC on Tuesday, Vance also refused to rule out a Turkish presence. “We’re not going to force anything on our Israeli friends when it comes to foreign troops on their soil. But we do think that there’s a constructive role for the Turks to play, and frankly, they’ve already played a very constructive role,” he said. – Medical rescue experts waiting -Meanwhile, Turkish disaster response specialists sent to help locate Palestinian and Israeli bodies, remained near Egypt’s border with Gaza on Thursday, awaiting Israeli authorisation to enter the territory. Asked about their status, the defence ministry source said there was “no clear information”. “Israel is not complying with its obligations and isn’t allowing in humanitarian aid, we hope they will let AFAD in to do its mission in Gaza as soon as possible,” the source said. The 81-member team from Turkey’s AFAD disaster management authority are waiting to enter with life-detection devices, trained search dogs and other search-and-rescue equipment.An AFP correspondent in Sheikh Zuweid, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the Rafah border crossing, saw several of them wearing t-shirts with the logo of Turkey’s UMKE national medical rescue team. They could be seen organising supplies in containers with the AFAD logo, some of which were marked “field hospital”.burs-bg-hmw/tw