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Rescuers say 100 dead as Israel launches fresh Gaza offensive

The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” as part of a fresh offensive in Gaza, after rescuers reported 100 people killed in the besieged Palestinian territory.The army said on Telegram it had begun the “initial stages” of the offensive, known as Operation Gideon’s Chariots.The operation was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”, it said in a post in Arabic.A separate statement in English said the army was “mobilizing troops to achieve operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip”.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday, while the army said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.The latest operation comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade on Gaza, as NGOs warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.The return to fighting since March 18 has drawn international condemnation, with the UN’s rights chief on Friday denouncing the renewed attacks — and what he described as an apparent push to permanently displace the population.- ‘Ethnic cleansing’ -“This latest barrage of bombs… and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Volker Turk said in a statement.The main Israeli campaign group representing the families of hostages said that by extending the fighting, Netanyahu was missing a “historic opportunity” to get their loved ones out through diplomacy.Hamas on Friday demanded the United States press Israel to lift the aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group.Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, was freed last week after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid”.Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war. – ‘People are starving’ -US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.”We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.The Arab League is to meet in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss regional crises, with Gaza expected to be high on the agenda.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.

Arab League to meet in Baghdad to discuss regional crises

The Arab League is meeting in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss Gaza and other regional crises, but some key leaders are expected to miss the talks that come straight after US President Donald Trump’s Gulf tour.Trump sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that America would take over Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, prompting Arab leaders to come up with a plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was the first Arab leader to arrive in Baghdad Friday.But a diplomatic source said that most Gulf countries will attend at a ministerial level.The war in Gaza is expected to dominate the agenda, especially after Israel approved plans to expand its offensive and spoke of the “conquest” of the territory.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Baghdad summit will endorse decisions that were made in Cairo’s meeting in March to support Gaza’s reconstruction as an alternative to Trump’s widely condemned proposal.Trump on Thursday reiterated from Qatar that he wanted the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.- Syria, Iran -Iraq has only recently regained a semblance of normalcy after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders view the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.In an op-ed about the summit earlier this month, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani wrote: “Today, we are not just rebuilding Iraq, we are also reshaping the Middle East through a balanced foreign policy, a wise leadership, development initiatives, and strategic partnerships.”Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, amid domestic tensions and at the start of the war in neighbouring Syria, which only six months ago entered a new chapter after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.In Riyadh, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.Sharaa, who was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion, will miss Baghdad’s summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani will represent Damascus instead.The summit also comes amid Iran’s ongoing nuclear talks with the United States.Trump has pursued diplomacy with Iran as he seeks to stave off a threatened military strike by Israel on Iran — a desire shared by many of the region’s leaders.On Thursday, Trump said a deal was “getting close”, but by Friday, he was warning that “something bad is going to happen” if the Iranians do not move fast.

Israel threatens Huthi leaders after striking Yemen ports

Israel threatened to target the leadership of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels after the air force struck two rebel-held ports on Friday, following repeated Huthi missile attacks in recent days.The Huthis agreed earlier this month to stop firing on international shipping in the Red Sea after the United States stepped up air strikes on rebel-held areas with British support.But the rebels vowed to keep up their strikes on Israel despite the deal and fired three missiles in as many days this week that triggered air raid warnings in major cities.The Huthis’ Al-Masirah television reported strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, a key entry point for aid, as well as the port of Salif further north.An AFP correspondent in Hodeida reported hearing several loud explosions.The Huthi-run health ministry said at least one person was killed and nine wounded in the strikes.The Israeli military said 15 fighter jets dropped over 30 munitions on Huthi targets in the air force’s eighth round of strikes in Yemen.It said the ports were “used to transfer weapons” and that prior warnings had been issued to Yemeni civilians to evacuate.The Huthi administration said the strikes “will be met with a painful response”, according to the Huthi-run Saba news agency.The Huthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, began firing at Israel-linked shipping in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.They later broadened their campaign to target Israel, saying it was in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Huthi leadership there was “more to come” after Friday’s strikes.”We are not willing to sit on the sidelines and let the Huthis attack us. We will hit them far more, including their leadership and all the infrastructure that allows them to hit us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Huthi leaders that if the missile attacks continued, they would face the same fate as Hamas leaders slain by Israel in Gaza.- UN scales back aid -“If the Huthis continue to fire, we will also hit the heads of the terror groups, just as we did to (slain Hamas military chief Mohammed) Deif and (the) Sinwars (Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed Sinwar) in Gaza,” Katz said in a post. “We will also hunt down and eliminate the Huthi leader, Abd al-Malek al-Huthi.”In early May, a Huthi missile struck an area at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people in a rare penetration of Israeli air defences. Israel retaliated by striking the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that exchange marked a “dangerous escalation” and was a reminder that the war-torn country is “ensnared in the wider regional tensions.”The United Nations meanwhile announced that it was scaling back its humanitarian aid goals in Yemen in the latest fallout from a drastic drop in funding from member states.It said the cuts are putting millions of lives at risk around the world.In January, the UN launched an appeal for $2.4 billion to help 10.5 million people in war-torn Yemen this year, far below the 19.5 million people it deems as being in need of assistance.But with funding down, the global body and its humanitarian aid partners established new priorities so as to be able to help at least the neediest.Now the focus in Yemen will be on 8.8 million people with a forecast budget of $1.4 billion, said Stephanie Tremblay, a spokeswoman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.UN agencies are scaling back operations and staffing around the world as they grapple with big cuts in contributions from member states, in particular the United States under President Donald Trump.bur-ml-acc-fa/kir/jsa/fec/tym

Trump reshapes US Mideast policy. Can deals work instead?

President Donald Trump proclaimed a decisive break with decades of US interventionism during his Middle East tour, promising a new American foreign policy based instead on his beloved art of the deal.Trump vowed during his swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that there would be no more “lectures on how to live”, saying the region had achieved a “modern miracle the Arabian way.”In an extraordinary rupture with his predecessors, Trump then lambasted what he called the “neo-cons” that oversaw bloody US military interventions in the region and beyond.”In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump told an investment forum in Riyadh, the first stop on his tour of the Gulf.”Far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins.”Trump did not name them but the targets were clear. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden tried to tie US support to the promotion of human rights and the maintenance of the international order. And Republican George W. Bush in the early 2000s launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.- ‘Consequential shift’ -“Trump’s Riyadh speech marked a clear and consequential shift in US policy toward the Middle East,” said Sina Toossi, from the Center for International Policy. “By rejecting the legacy of military intervention and nation-building, he signaled a move toward realism and restraint. This shift resonates deeply in a region exhausted by war and foreign meddling.”But for Trump, that also means ignoring democracy and human rights issues and embracing the leaders of oil-rich monarchies with often autocratic tendencies.His Saudi host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was for example found by US intelligence to have ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. But there was no mention of that in Riyadh.Instead, Trump preached the same brand of gold-plated, transactional politics that he does at home.Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates showed him the money, signing a host of huge business and investment deals with the United States during his trip.In return they got the glitz of Trump’s first major foreign trip and praise as being examples of what the region could become.Conversely, Trump’s visit also shook one of the longest-standing pillars of US policy in the Middle East — its support for Israel.The US president not only bypassed Israel on the trip but appeared to sideline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on key issues including Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s war in Gaza, and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.This showed mounting tensions behind the scenes, particularly on Iran, with Israel far keener than Trump on a military option.- ‘American power’ -But Trump’s deal-making approach to foreign policy could soon have its limits tested.He has shown willingness to seek a deal with Iran over its nuclear program — saying that Tehran’s case “I have never believed in having permanent enemies.”But at the same time Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not reach an accord.Trump also left the Middle East with no progress towards a deal to end the war in Gaza despite his pledges to end the conflict — although he made a rare reference to the fact that people were now “starving” in the besieged enclave.Further afield, Trump tried to coax Russia’s Vladimir Putin to talks in Istanbul during his trip to discuss an end to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but his efforts came to nothing.Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine also has its contradictions. On a visit to a huge US air base in Qatar he said that “my priority is to end conflicts, not start them.” But then he immediately added: “I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners.”

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 100 as Hamas makes a plea to lift blockade

Rescuers said Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 100 people on Friday, as Hamas demanded the United States press Israel to lift a sweeping aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group.In early March, shortly before the collapse of a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas, Israel reimposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies have warned of critical shortages of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicines.US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.”We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from militant group Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war. Hamas on Monday freed Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid”.Nunu’s remarks come a day after Hamas had warned Trump that Gaza was not “for sale”, responding to the US president again suggesting he could take over the Palestinian territory and turn it into “a freedom zone”.On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 100 people on Friday.Umm Mohammed al-Tatari, 57, told AFP that she was awoken by a pre-dawn attack.”We were asleep when suddenly everything exploded around us,” she said.”Everyone started running. We saw the destruction with our own eyes. There was blood everywhere, body parts and corpses.”Ahmed Nasr, 33, also from northern Gaza, said: “There is no safety. We could die at any moment.”At the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, AFPTV footage showed mourners crying over the bodies of their loved ones.”They were innocent people,” said Mayar Salem. “Only their remains are left… They were my sisters and daughters.”- ‘Historic opportunity’ – Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.Israeli media reported that the military had stepped up its offensive in line with a plan approved by the government earlier this month, though there has not been any formal announcement of an expanded campaign.The military said that its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.The main Israeli campaign group representing the families of hostages said that by extending the fighting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was missing an “historic opportunity” to get their loved ones out through diplomacy.A rival group, the Tikva Forum, called for more military pressure “coordinated with diplomatic pressure, a complete siege, cutting off water and electricity”.For weeks, UN agencies have warned of severe shortages in Gaza.The 46-member Council of Europe said on Friday the territory was suffering from “deliberate starvation”.And seven European countries, including five that have recognised a Palestinian state — Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, Spain and Norway — issued a joint statement condemning what they called “the man-made humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place” and calling on Israel to halt military operations and lift the blockade.In a statement of its own, Hamas said it “highly values the humanitarian and courageous stance” adopted by the seven countries.The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-supported NGO, has said it will begin distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month after talks with Israeli officials.But the United Nations on Thursday ruled out involvement with the initiative, citing concerns about “impartiality, neutrality (and) independence”.

Libya’s Tripoli back to calm after bout of deadly violence

Flights resumed on Friday at Tripoli airport as businesses and markets reopened after days of deadly fighting between armed groups in the Libyan capital.”Last night, for the first time since Monday, residents of the capital were able to sleep without hearing explosions or gunfire,” an interior ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.After the bout of violence that pitted armed groups aligned with the Tripoli government and rival factions it seeks to dismantle, the official said: “We believe the situation is moving toward a ceasefire.”Security forces were out in force for an anti-government demonstration joined by around 1,000 people from various parts of the capital, AFP journalists reported.But there were no immediate reports of any disturbances.Ahead of the demonstration, the UN Support Mission in Libya, UNSMIL, had underlined “citizens’ right to peaceful protest” and warned against “any escalation of violence”.Authorities have deployed teams to clear the streets of barricades, burned-out vehicles and rubble caused by the violence, the latest outburst in Libya which has remained deeply divided since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.The country is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east controlled by the family of military strongman Khalifa Haftar.The violence in Tripoli was sparked by the killing of Abdelghani al-Kikli, head of the Support and Stability Apparatus (SSA) faction, by the Dbeibah-aligned 444 Brigade.A second wave of clashes pitted the 444 Brigade against another group, the Radaa force, which controls parts of eastern Tripoli and several key state institutions.A string of executive orders had sought to dismantle Radaa and dissolve other Tripoli-based armed groups, excluding the 444 Brigade.UNSMIL said on Thursday there was a “truce” in Tripoli, calling on “parties to take urgent steps to sustain and build upon it through dialogue”.It said that “at least eight civilians” were killed in the clashes, “which drew armed groups from outside the city and subjected heavily populated neighbourhoods to heavy artillery fire”.The interior ministry source said authorities were patrolling key parts in Tripoli, as “armed groups’ vehicles” withdrew from flashpoint areas.”It’s a positive thing, and it indicates good intentions,” said the source.Human rights group Amnesty International demanded that “militia leaders (be) held to account after the outbreak of violence in Tripoli”. It said for years, groups including the SSA “terrorised people in Tripoli through enforced disappearances, torture, and other crimes under international law”. The International Criminal Court announced on Thursday that Libya had recognised its jurisdiction over allegations of war crimes committed in the North African country since 2011.