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Israel has asked the International Criminal Court to dismiss its arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant while ICC judges reconsider complex jurisdictional questions.In a 14-page document dated May 9 but posted on the ICC website on Monday, Israel argued the warrants issued in November were null and void while judges weigh a previous Israeli challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction in the case.In a ruling that made headlines around the world, the ICC found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the war in Gaza.The court also issued a war crimes warrant against top Hamas commander Mohammed Deif over the October 7 attacks that sparked the conflict. The case against Deif was dropped in February after his death.Israel, not one of the ICC’s 125 members, challenged the court’s jurisdiction but judges on the ICC’s “Pre-Trial Chamber” dismissed the bid and issued the arrest warrants.But last month, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber ruled the Pre-Trial Chamber was wrong to dismiss the challenge and ordered it to look again in detail at Israel’s arguments.Israel says now that the arrest warrants should not stay in place while this complex and lengthy process is ongoing.”Unless and until the Pre-Trial Chamber has ruled on the substance of the jurisdiction challenge… the prerequisite jurisdictional finding does not exist,” Israel argued.”It follows that the arrest warrants issued on 21 November 2024 must be withdrawn or vacated pending the Pre-Trial Chamber’s determination of Israel’s jurisdictional challenge.”Israel and its allies reacted furiously to the warrants issued on November 21, Netanyahu describing it as an “anti-Semitic decision” and then US president Joe Biden slamming it as “outrageous.”Technically, any member of the ICC is required to arrest Netanyahu if he travels there, although the court has no independent power to enforce warrants.Israel argued in its submission that Netanyahu could theoretically be arrested while the court was still weighing whether it had jurisdiction in the case.”Depriving persons of their liberty on the basis of an arrest warrant issued in the absence of the necessary legal pre-conditions is an egregious violation of fundamental human rights and of the rule of law,” Israel argued.Allowing the warrants to stay in place during the deliberations “is unlawful and undermines the legitimacy of the court,” said Israel.

Gaza is at “critical risk of famine”, with 22 percent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian “catastrophe” after more than two months of an aid blockade by Israel, a food security monitor warned Monday.Gaza’s entire population of around 2.4 million people is at risk of a food crisis “or worse” by September, the UN- and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a report.”Nineteen months into the conflict, the Gaza Strip is still confronted with a critical risk of famine,” the IPC said.It said there had been a “major deterioration” in the food security situation since its last assessment in October 2024.”Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people — one in five — facing starvation,” it said.The consortium, which has developed a five-level famine warning system, found that from April 1 to May 10, 244,000 people in Gaza were in the most critical food security situation — level five, or “catastrophe/famine”.It classified another 925,000 as level four, or “emergency”.The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned that Gaza faced “imminent risk of famine”, saying agriculture was “on the brink of total collapse”.It called for the “immediate” lifting of the blockade, saying aid like animal feed and veterinary supplies was urgently needed to maintain precious production of items such as milk and eggs, often the last remaining food.Israel, which launched its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023 attacks led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, imposed its current aid blockade on March 2.Last week, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to expand the military operation, including the “conquest” of Gaza and the displacement of its population.”Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” said the UN World Food Programme’s executive director, Cindy McCain.”It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.”

Saada Arbane has lived without a voice since her throat was slit during the Algerian civil war. But now, the 31-year-old woman has vowed to make herself heard after she said a best-selling novel plagiarised her life.Kamel Daoud’s novel “Houris” — banned in Algeria and awarded France’s top literary prize Prix Goncourt last year — tells the story of a child who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat during the 1990s war.Last November, Arbane took the literary world by storm when she announced on Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the novel’s main character was based on her experiences without her consent.She said the book’s details were too similar to the personal stories she had narrated during years of treatment with her psychotherapist, Aicha Dahdouh — who is Daoud’s wife.Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane’s life, but the woman who is suing him both in France and Algeria has vowed to “defend (her) integrity”.Court hearings have begun in the French case, while according to Paris’s foreign ministry, Algerian authorities have issued two arrest warrants against Daoud following Arbane’s complaint.Speaking through a breathing tube, Arbane was barely audible in a video call with AFP from Algeria. She later answered questions in written responses.She said she had been a victim as a child when she lost relatives, including both of her parents, during the attack in 2000.”But now, I am an adult, a woman, a mother who knows how to say stop, even if I no longer have a voice,” she wrote.- ‘Betrayed’ -“The novel draws directly from the most intimate parts of my life, which I shared in a medical setting,” she said.”I felt betrayed, humiliated,” she added. “Clearly, what I read in that novel amounts to a violation of medical confidentiality and of my privacy.”Now married and a mother, she said her therapy sessions had been “highjacked to become literary material”.”It’s not just a mistake,” she added. “It’s a professional, legal, human and ethical failing.”Filed complaints outlined several alleged similarities between Arbane and Aube, the novel’s protagonist: the breathing tube, a slashed throat, identical scar and tattoos, and a hair salon both she and Aube owned.Daoud has denied modelling the novel on the content of her therapy sessions. He said in December “everyone” knew the story in Algeria. “It’s public knowledge.”But she disagrees.For him to say that, Arbane told AFP, “amounts to dispossessing me a second time of my truth and voice. This is an attempt to make light of something very serious.””My story has never been public,” she said.- ‘Terrible dispossession’ -Daoud also suggested that Arbane was being manipulated by the Algerian government in what his publisher described as “violent defamatory campaigns” against him.”To say I’m being used by the Algerian authorities is just a cowardly attempt to discredit my words by politicising them,” she responded.Arbane said her main ordeal now was “reawakened traumas”.”I felt a terrible sense of dispossession, the impression that what I had lived through was banal, that I was at the mercy of anyone — a killer, like the first time, or a man, an author,” she said.She said Daoud’s wife, with whom she later developed a friendship, had repeatedly approached her asking if she would allow the author to write about her life — and each time, she said, she turned down the proposal.”I launched these legal proceedings in France and Algeria to defend my integrity and to say that… forgotten stories deserve respect,” she said.”I’m not trying to censor a writer. I’m trying to have a real and very serious harm acknowledged.”

The Israeli and German presidents hailed the enduring friendship between their countries on Monday, 60 years after the launch of bilateral relations, but also acknowledged differences over the war in Gaza.Israel’s president, Issac Herzog, was visiting Berlin before he and the German head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, were due to tour Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday along with their wives.Steinmeier, receiving Herzog with full honours at Bellevue Palace, said that the establishment of relations in 1965 was “a gift that we Germans could not have expected after the horrors of the Second World War”.Standing alongside him at a joint press conference, Herzog said that the “process of dialogue and reconciliation” between the two nations over the past six decades was “a source of hope”.Herzog praised Germany’s contribution to Israel’s security and prosperity and its steadfast backing after the Hamas attack in Israel of October 7, 2023, a stance which he said had demonstrated “moral clarity”.Steinmeier stressed that Israel must “defend itself against Islamist terrorism” but also said he feared that “the suffering experienced by the people in Gaza is deepening the divide, and that worries me, like many others”. He added that “everything must be done to prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.Later on Monday, the two heads of state were meeting participants in bilateral youth exchanges and visiting a memorial at a Berlin railway station from which the Nazis sent trains to concentration camps.The two presidents were on Tuesday to embark on their unprecedented joint tour of Israel to highlight a friendship that a grateful Berlin often labels “a miracle”, and meet young people, politicians and kibbutz residents.While Berlin, now led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, says support for Israel remains a core principle, relations have come under strain in recent years, over the Gaza war and other issues.- ‘Humanitarian obligations’ -Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following the October 7 attack has sparked charges from many countries and rights groups that its response has been disproportionate.The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on May 12 the Israeli military offensive on the besieged territory had killed at least 52,862 people there, most of them civilians.The International Criminal Court last year issued warrants for alleged war crimes for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif. Germany meanwhile has seen the surge of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leading figures have questioned the country’s “remembrance culture” to atone for Nazi crimes.Germany has also voiced deep concern about a rise in anti-Semitism, be it from the far right, the far left or immigrants from Arab and Muslim countries.As the Gaza war has drawn increasing international condemnation, Germany has been at pains to carefully calibrate its response.It has insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself but has also called for it to lift its total blockade of Gaza, a Palestinian territory whose occupation by Israel the United Nations says is illegal under international law.Aid groups say the Israeli blockade has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.Last Tuesday, the day he took power, Merz said “Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed”.”But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip,” he said.- Netanyahu arrest warrant -Herzog said on Tuesday that Israel acts as a “protective wall of freedom, democracy, humanity and humaneness” and a “bulwark of the West”, especially against its arch foe Iran.During his visit to Israel, Steinmeier is also expected to meet Netanyahu.Merz, before his inauguration, suggested he was open to a Netanyahu visit to Germany, despite the ICC arrest warrant.This would present Germany with a dilemma, a former president of Germany’s Constitutional Court, Andreas Vosskuhle, told the Handelsblatt daily. “Normally, he would have to be arrested,” Vosskuhle said.But he added: “It should be obvious that the Germans, given their own history, are reluctant to arrest the Israeli prime minister.” “I therefore hope that Netanyahu will be wise enough not to come here and spare himself and us this situation.”When asked about the issue, Steinmeier said: “I assume and hope that both sides are clever enough to ensure that a decision never has to be taken on whether to enforce an international arrest warrant against an Israeli prime minister in Germany”.

US President Donald Trump’s Gulf tour this week will take him to Saudi Arabia, which he would like to see recognise Israel, and the neighbouring UAE which has benefitted from Israeli ties but also paid a price.During his first term, Trump oversaw a series of normalisation deals between close ally Israel and several Arab countries, stunning public opinion in the Arab world and breaking with the long-held convention that a just resolution to the plight of Palestinians must precede relations with Israel.Nearly five years since the UAE joined the US-brokered Abraham Accords, along with Gulf neighbour Bahrain and North African kingdom Morocco, these relations have endured despite outrage in the region over the devastating Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.”If the Gaza war did not put an end to that, nothing will,” said Emirati analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla.While recognising Israel brought economic and strategic windfalls for the UAE, its standing in the Middle East took a hit, experts said.And although the UAE and Saudi Arabia are both oil-rich Gulf states, reputational risks at home and across the Arab and Muslim worlds weigh heavier on Riyadh as Trump seeks to persuade it to take the epochal step of normalising ties with Israel.- Trade boost -The Abraham Accords of 2020 gave the UAE “significant political capital in Washington”, said Karim Bitar, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Paris’s Sciences Po university.But since the Gaza war began in October 2023, “what the UAE won in terms of leverage in the United States… it lost in the Arab world” where ties with Israel have become “extraordinarily unpopular”, Bitar added.Trade has grown consistently, rising 43 percent last year to $3.24 billion, said Israel’s consul general in Dubai, Liron Zaslansky, noting that the figure excludes software and services.Nearly 600 Israeli companies have set up in the UAE, while around one million Israeli tourists visited the country in 2024, Zaslansky told AFP.The number of Emirati tourists in Israel is “much lower,” according to Zaslansky, “especially since October 7”, when Hamas’s 2023 attack started the war.Cooperation in technology and intelligence sharing have helped the UAE counter the influence of regional rivals like Iran — Israel’s sworn enemy — or Islamist movements that are deemed a threat.The biggest win for the UAE was the special attention and support of the United States, Israel’s staunch ally.The UAE was made a major US defence partner last year, even though the sale of cutting-edge weaponry announced in the wake of the Abraham Accords, including 50 F-35 stealth fighters, has never been finalised.Today, the Emiratis are “more interested in AI and technology” said Abdulla, topics that are expected to be central to Trump’s stop in Abu Dhabi.- ‘Think twice’ -Riyadh is keenly aware that recognising Israel has affected the UAE’s reputation in the Arab world, where many remain hostile to normalisation.A public opinion poll published by US think tank the Arab Center Washington DC in January 2024, about three months into the Gaza war, suggested that a majority of Saudis opposed recognising Israel.In a similar survey in 2022, only 38 percent expressed an objection.The UAE, accused of “treason” by the Palestinians at the time, claimed that in return for normalisation it had obtained an Israeli pledge to freeze plans to annex the occupied West Bank.However Israel’s actions during the Gaza war have demonstrated the UAE’s limited influence over its new ally.Abu Dhabi says normalisation has helped it get aid into Gaza throughout the war, and according to Abdulla, nearly all Emiraties “trust the government” to promote national interests even as the vast majority of Arabs, including in the UAE, “hate what Israel is doing in Gaza”.Before the war, Saudi Arabia had engaged in preliminary discussions with Washington about establishing ties with Israel in exchange for a security agreement and support for a civilian nuclear programme.But the kingdom has since clarified its position, saying it would not agree to normalisation without a Palestinian state.Sanam Vakil of the Chatham House think tank said the Abraham Accords are “a case study for Saudi Arabia”, showing benefits in trade, investment and US ties but “limitations” on the Palestinian issue and people-to-people links.Unlike Saudi Arabia, the vast majority of people in the UAE are foreigners, minimising the risk of destabilisation through popular discontent.Saudi Arabia’s status as the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites also raises the stakes and “makes normalisation far more politically sensitive,” said Bitar.”I think Saudi Arabia will probably think twice before following the path of the UAE.”

Hundreds of Palestinian Red Crescent staff marched in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to protest the killing of medical workers in Gaza over the past 19 months of war.Gathering in the city’s Clock Square, medical personnel, support staff and volunteers wore white and orange vests and waved flags bearing the Red Crescent’s emblem. The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the “protection for medical and humanitarian workers”.In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, 2023 — including 30 who “were killed while performing their humanitarian duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem”.Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Israeli army for over a year.Some 1,400 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the statement, which added that “dozens of medical personnel working in Gaza… were detained while performing their humanitarian duties.”It highlighted a particularly deadly attack in March in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, when 15 first responders including eight Red Crescent paramedics were killed by the Israeli army.The first responders were answering distress calls after Israeli air strikes.The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.An Israeli military investigation, the results of which were published, acknowledged “professional failures” and “violations of orders” during the shooting. 

A creeping Israeli presence is nothing new for the Bedouins who inhabit the arid hills east of Jerusalem, but a recently approved road in the area means the spectre of annexation now looms large. Israeli authorities in March green lit the construction of a separate route for Palestinian vehicles to bypass a central stretch of the occupied West Bank –- one of the territory’s most disputed parcels of land.Israel has promoted the project as a way to further facilitate settlement expansion in the area near Jerusalem, which it considers its “eternal and indivisible” capital.But Palestinians warn the move threatens to further isolate their communities and undermines hopes for a contiguous future state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”If they open a road there, that’s it, this area will be annexed,” said Eid Jahaleen, who lives in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar.The village, a cluster of shacks and tents some 10 kilometres (6 miles) from Jerusalem’s Old City, sits surrounded by Israeli settlements.”It’s going to be hard to reach out to the outside world. No Palestinian services will be allowed to get in here,” he said. – Territorial continuity –”If you want clothes, food for your home, (Israel) will be the one to open the gate.”Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.Outposts — unauthorised structures under Israeli law that often precede the establishment of a settlement — have spread rapidly across the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, leading a hardline, pro-settler coalition.After a new outpost appeared just 100 metres away, Jahaleen said he has “settlers on all sides”.Israel heavily restricts the movement of West Bank Palestinians, who must obtain permits from authorities to travel through checkpoints to cross into east Jerusalem or Israel.Far-right ministers have in recent months openly called for Israel’s annexation of the territory.The alternative bypass would mean Palestinian vehicles driving north-south through the West Bank could travel directly between Palestinian towns rather, without passing the large Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.Israel has hailed the move as enabling settlement development between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem on a super-sensitive land corridor known as E1.Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometres, but the international community has repeatedly warned it could deal a fatal blow to a future Palestinian state.Maale Adumim’s Mayor Guy Yifrach said the Palestinian bypass would reduce congestion on the current highway between the settlement and Jerusalem and “allow for a natural urban continuity” between the two.Plans exist to build 4,000 housing units, schools, health clinics and a country club on E1, Yifrach said, but added they had not yet been approved. Khan al Ahmar, E1 and Maale Adumim all lie within a planned section of Israel’s separation barrier for which construction has been frozen for years.Israel says the barrier -– made up of ditches, roads, razor wire, electronic fences, checkpoints and concrete walls –- is necessary to prevent Palestinian attacks. For Palestinians, the structure further separates them and drastically reduces their freedom of movement.- Isolated enclaves – Aviv Tatarsky, from the Israeli anti-settlement organisation Ir Amim, said that once the road is built, Israel could go ahead with constructing the barrier as planned.”They want to create this de facto annexation, which means take the space around Maale Adumim and make it an integral part of Jerusalem, of Israel,” he said.By creating an alternative route for Palestinians to travel through the West Bank, Israel could argue that expanding Jewish settlements in the area would not compromise the contiguity of Palestinian territory, Tatarsky added.For Mohammad Matter, from the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the road “has nothing to do with making life easier for Palestinians”.The bypass will trace the northern edge of Matter’s village of Al Eizariya, and he fears it will further squeeze Palestinians into isolated enclaves, connected only through transport corridors.”They (Israel) are realising their vision: Israelis walk up high and Palestinians walk through valleys or tunnels,” he said.

Hamas’s armed wing said it would release on Monday a US-Israeli hostage held in Gaza since October 2023, even as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed an “intensification” of fighting in the war-ravaged territory.The Palestinian militant group on Sunday said it would release US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump to the region, and as the group revealed it was engaged in direct talks with Washington towards a ceasefire.On Monday Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had “decided to release the Zionist soldier holding American citizenship, Edan Alexander, today”, spokesman Abu Obeida said on Telegram.Netanyahu had earlier said that “Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists but only to a safe corridor that will allow for the release of Edan”.Negotiations for a possible deal to secure the release of all hostages would continue “under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting”, Netanyahu added.An Israeli official said the military was “preparing” for the return of Alexander, “who will be transferred by a special unit to the initial reception facility in Re’im” near the Gaza border in southern Israel.- ‘Opportunity to breathe’ -Hamas had said Alexander, the last living hostage in Gaza with American citizenship, would be released “as part of efforts towards a ceasefire” and the reopening of aid crossings.A source close to the militant group told AFP on Monday that Hamas had decided not to hold a public ceremony for the handover.A Hamas source meanwhile said that mediators informed the group that Israel would pause military operations for the handover of the 21-year-old soldier.”Hamas was informed that at exactly 9:30 am, Israel began halting its reconnaissance, drone, and warplane flights, as well as combat operations, to create a safe corridor for the transfer and handover of Edan,” the source said.The pause offered a much-needed respite for residents of the war-battered territory.Somaya Abu Al-Kas, 34, who had been displaced to the southern city of Khan Yunis, said that “a little while ago, calm settled over Gaza, there was no shelling, and no nearby aircraft, which is very rare”.”We are tired of the shelling, and any ceasefire, even if temporary, we consider it an opportunity to breathe and gather ourselves,” said the 34-year-old But Um Mohammed Zomlot, also displaced in Khan Yunis, said that “despite the calm, we are cautious”. “Everyone is afraid that the shelling might resume suddenly after the prisoner is released,” said Zomlot, 50.Gaza’s civil defence agency had earlier reported at least 10 killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people.- ‘Good faith gesture’ -The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the largest grouping of hostages’ relatives in Israel, called for a gathering at the plaza dubbed Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, ahead of Alexander’s anticipated release.”We must not leave anyone behind!” the group said in a statement.Trump, who is due in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hailed the “monumental news” of Alexander’s release in a post on social media, describing it as a “good faith gesture”.”Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict,” he added.Egypt and Qatar, who along with the US have mediated talks between Hamas and Israel, also welcomed the development, describing it in a joint statement as a “a gesture of goodwill and an encouraging step toward a return to the negotiating table”.Earlier, two Hamas officials told AFP that talks were ongoing in Doha with the United States and reported “progress”.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel ended a two-month ceasefire on March 18, ramping up its bombardment of the territory.Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved plans to expand its Gaza offensive, with officials talking of retaining a long-term presence there.Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 2,749 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,862.burs-fec-acc/jsa