Middle East

Israeli settlers stab Palestinian man in al-Khalil

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The still image taken from video shows Israeli settlers during a raid on al-Khalil (Hebron), in the occupied West Bank, September 16, 2023.

A group of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli forces, have raided the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), stabbing a young Palestinian man in the back.

The man, identified as Abdullah Ragheb Abu Eisha, suffered knife injuries after the settlers attacked Palestinians and their homes in al-Khalial’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood on Saturday evening, Palestinian media reported.

During the violent raid, some Israeli settlers pelted Palestinians with stones and bottles and shattered the windows of their houses.

Also on Saturday, Israeli settlers celebrated after taking over a Palestinian house near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of al-Khalil.

Roughly 160,000 Palestinians live in al-Khalil. The city is also home to about 500 Israeli settlers, who frequently commit brutal assaults against the local Palestinians.

Settler violence against Palestinian people and their property has long become routine in the occupied West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by the Tel Aviv regime.

On the same day, dozens of Palestinians were injured in a raid by Israeli troops on the town of Beita following confrontations with the raiding Israeli forces.

Residents told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that Israeli forces raided Beita in the early hours of the day, broke into several houses, and violently ransacked them before firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately in a number of neighborhoods.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank over the past year, with the Israeli military conducting near-nightly raids.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territories since the start of the year at the hands of the occupation soldiers.

Middle East

Hamas slams Israel’s repeated ‘fascist’ calls for settlers to carry guns

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In this file picture, Israeli settlers are seen with assault rifles in the occupied West Bank. (Photo by AFP)

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement has censured the Israeli regime’s police officers for repeated “fascist” calls for settlers to carry guns while commemorating the Rosh HaShanah holidays for the Jewish New Year.

In a statement on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem, said the renewed calls on settlers to bear firearms are a public incitement to murder that encourages the Jewish extremists to commit further crimes against Palestinian people.

“This fascist call and other similar calls by Zionist officials require clear condemnation from the international community, and taking measures to hold them accountable before international courts,” he said.

Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warned about increasing calls for Israeli settlers to carry guns, terming it “a racist incitement against Palestinians.”

The ministry said in a Friday statement that it “views the calls by the commander of Moriya police station in al-Quds for Israeli settlers to carry guns as an extreme danger.”

The statement went on to consider such calls as “An official incitement to carry out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians and an authorization for fanatics to take the law into their own hands motivated by their dark agenda.”

The Palestinian foreign ministry held the Israeli regime, particularly far-right minister Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for the fallout of these moves.

Official data has shown that more than 160,000 Israelis carry guns, in addition to the police, security personnel and the army.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 280 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued illegal settlement expansion.

Middle East

Health Ministry: Gaza dialysis services collapsing amid Israeli blockade

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The Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry has issued a stern warning about the imminent collapse of dialysis services at hospitals due to Israel’s brutal blockade of the Palestinian territory. 

According to the Palestinian Information Center, Alaa Helles, director of the ministry’s hospital pharmacy department, sounded the alarm on Saturday, warning that patients needing dialysis are in extreme danger amid pending depletion of necessary medical supplements and dialysis equipment.

At present, the besieged territory’s hospitals serve 1,100 patients with kidney failure, including 38 children, with 13,000 dialysis sessions every month, he said.

“The central warehouses are completely empty of medical consumables for dialysis services, including blood filters, cannulas, and blood tubes,” Helles said, adding that the current supply would only be sufficient to provide dialysis services for just 10 more days.

The official called on the relevant authorities to “take urgent action to provide medical consumables for the needs of kidney failure patients, which means continuing service to them and preserving their lives.”

Israel has been imposing an all-out land, aerial, and naval siege against Gaza since 2007, controlling Gazans’ access to their most basic necessities through the blockade.

Earlier in July, the ministry said 50 percent of cancer patients do not receive treatment due to Israel’s blockade.

Speaking in a press conference, the ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf al-Qidra, warned of the “dangerous consequences” of the severe shortage of medicines needed for cancer patients, calling on the international community “to move to save the lives of cancer patients and to provide the treatment and services that they deserve.”

A leading international humanitarian organization also said in September that Israel had deprived hundreds of Palestinian children of life-saving healthcare in the Gaza Strip during the first half of 2023.

The UK-based Save the Children said nearly 400 children in Gaza, at least two children per day, were denied permits to travel to the West Bank and receive critical treatment in the first six months of the year.

In the report, entitled, ‘I Can’t Run, Play, or Get Treatment’, the organization explained that “nearly 100 children’s applications to Israeli authorities were denied or left unanswered in the month of May alone,” during the Israeli aggression against Gaza.

During the same month, at least seven children were among 33 Palestinians killed in Israel’s attack on the Gaza  Strip between May 9 and 13.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been devastated by 16 years of Israeli blockade and recurrent military attacks and is currently facing immense challenges, with the entry of vital medical supplies, equipment and medications severely restricted by the regime.

Middle East

Houthi: Zionist lobby seeking to alienate Muslims from Holy Qur’an

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Leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, delivers a televised speech on September 16, 2023. (Photo via social media)

The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says the Zionist lobby and its cohorts around the world are seeking to alienate Muslim nations from the Holy Qur’an as well as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in order to advance their own agendas.

Speaking in a televised speech broadcast from the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on Saturday evening, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi highlighted the US government’s waning power at home and overseas, calling on the Muslim community to embrace Islamic teachings and divine values more than before.

“The more conspiracies are developed against Muslims, the more we must draw on our Islamic principles and turn challenges into opportunities. Takfiris and Zionists leave no stone unturned to distance Muslims from their sources of dignity and piety,” Houthi stated.

“Currently, arrogant powers intend to mislead human societies. They are morally corrupting peoples around the world so that they can dominate them. They are doing this by estrangement of Muslims from sanctities,” the Ansarullah said.

On August 12, Houthi urged the Muslim community to take a categorical position against desecration of sanctities, especially sacrilegious acts against the Holy Qur’an. Houthi made the remarks following recurrent cases of insult to the holy book in Sweden and Denmark.

A number of Muslim countries have condemned the insult to Muslims’ sanctities and summoned Danish and Swedish envoys in protest at the desecration. Iran, in turn, has said it will not send a new ambassador to Sweden and will not accept Stockholm’s new envoy.

The Ansarullah leader said, “The Western governments oppose any criticism of Zionists, which proves the influence of pro-Israel lobbies” within those governments.

Houthi also slammed certain Arab and Muslim countries for refraining from cutting ties with countries where the Qur’an was insulted, saying such a behavior proves those countries take Islam for granted.

Middle East

Israeli troops injure dozens of Palestinians in raid into West Bank town

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An Israeli soldier aims a weapon at Palestinians during a raid near Tubas in the occupied West Bank on September 1, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)

Dozens of Palestinians have been injured in a raid by Israeli troops into a town in the occupied West Bank, as the situation remains volatile in the wake of ramped-up military incursions by the regime.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced in a statement that its paramedics treated more than 60 people in the town of Beita following confrontations with the raiding Israeli forces on Saturday.

Two of the Palestinians had sustained bruises and one had got burns, while the rest suffered breathing difficulties as a result of inhaling excessive tear gas used by Israeli forces to suppress protesting crowd.

Residents told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli forces raided Beita in the early hours of the day, broke into several houses and violently ransacked them before firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately in a number of neighborhoods.

Locals said more than 100 military vehicles rolled into the town, closing its entrances and preventing either entry into or exit from it.

Israeli forces launch raids on various cities of the West Bank almost on a daily basis under the pretext of detaining what the regime calls “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed this year in the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza. The majority of these fatalities have been recorded in the West Bank.

Those figures indicate that 2023 is already the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations began keeping track of fatalities in 2005.

Previously, 2022 had been the deadliest year with 150 Palestinians killed, of whom 33 were minors, according to the United Nations.

Middle East

Russian ambassador tells US to remove sanctions barriers to restore Black Sea grain deal

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Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has reiterated that if the United States truly wants to restore the Black Sea grain initiative it should remove the sanctions in this regard.

The door to restoring the Black Sea grain initiative is open, Antonov said on Saturday, adding, that the United States should switch to actually removing the sanctions barriers, and not duplicate empty insinuations.

In July, Russia withdrew from the deal, which had been brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, blaming Kiev’s attack on a Russian base in the Black Sea for the move.

Antonov said that he recalled that the international grain negotiations and the eventual agreements included “not only the “Ukrainian” part, but also the no less important Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federation and the Secretariat of the United Nations on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets.”

“Local officials, engaged in myth-making, are once again shifting from a sick head to a healthy one. Russia has repeatedly, primarily at the highest level, emphasized that the door to restoring the work of the “Black Sea Initiative” remains open. It is only necessary to ensure the legitimate demands of the Russian Side for strict implementation of the interconnected Istanbul agreements,” the diplomat said as quoted in the embassy’s Telegram Channel.

Earlier, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States now does not see the possibility of a prompt return to the Black Sea grain deal, as Moscow is changing its requirements in this area.

According to Sullivan, this indicates a “basic lack of willingness on their part to allow grain to flow freely” to world markets.

“The White House, if it really cares for the interests of those in need, should have long ago moved from duplicating empty insinuations to actually removing sanction barriers,” Antonov noted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already pointed out that Moscow is ready to return to the deal if the West meets its obligations with regard to the nation’s own grain exports.

Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s key agricultural producers. The two are influential players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed, and sunflower oil markets.

More than 24.1 million tons have been exported under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, according to the United Nations.

Middle East

Hezbollah expresses solidarity with Iranian media outlets following US sanctions

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The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement has voiced solidarity with a number of Iranian media outlets, including the English-language Press TV news network, after the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on them.

The movement said in a Saturday statement that the US administration and its cohorts in the world hypocritically pretend to be advocating freedom of speech, thought and opinion, and they propagate such issues as long as they are consistent with their interests, policies and beliefs.

“They stifle the freedom of expression of anyone, who opposes them through all available means and specifically lambastes sanctions as the coercive measures expose the falsehood of their claims about freedom, equality as well as equal opportunities,” the statement pointed out.

Hezbollah went on to highlight that the new US sanctions against the Iranian media outlets and their officials confirm Washington’s defeat in the intellectual confrontation, and its inability to convince the international community to adopt the Western cultural model which has its roots in arrogance and hegemony.

The Lebanese resistance movement also expressed solidarity with all institutions and individuals to whom the sanctions have applied, and hailed their constructive role in the fight against the Israeli occupation and in supporting resistance and the rights of regional nations to freedom and independence.

On Friday, the United States has imposed a new round of sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian individuals and entities, including the English-language Press TV news network, over groundless accusations of “human rights abuses” on the eve of the anniversary of Western-backed riots in the country.

The US Department of Treasury announced in a press release on its website on Friday that the bans targeted 29 individuals and entities in connection with what it claimed was “violent suppression of nationwide protests” following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman of Kurdish descent who lost her life in police custody in the capital Tehran September last year.

The sanctions were levied against 18 top members of Iran’s security forces, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the police as well as the head of the Iranian Prisons’ Organization. The bans were also imposed on three individuals and one company in connection with Iran’s telecoms ministry.

The Tehran-based Press TV news channel and the two media outlets of Fars News and Tasnim and three of their senior officials were also targeted with sanctions.

Middle East

Turkey could 'part ways' with EU if necessary: Erdogan

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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara may “part ways” with the European Union, signaling the country’s frustration with the bloc’s assessment process to include Turkey as its member. 

Speaking to reporters ahead of his trip to the United States, Erdogan said, “The European Union is trying to distance itself from us.”

 “We will carry out our own assessment of the situation and we also could take another direction.”

Endogen made the remarks in response to a question about a recent report adopted by the European Parliament, which stated that Turkey’s “accession process cannot resume under the current circumstances, and calls on EU to explore ‘a parallel and realistic framework’ for EU-Turkiye relations.”

Earlier this week, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said that the report contained unfounded allegations and prejudices and took “a shallow and non-visionary” approach to the country’s ties with the EU.

The ministry also affirmed Turkey’s resolve to join the EU and urged the bloc to take courageous steps to advance its bid.

Turkey applied to join the bloc 24 years ago. Accession talks, which began in 2005, were put on hold indefinitely in 2016 over Turkey’s crackdown on opponents following a failed coup attempt in the same year.

Tensions have recently risen between Turkey and its Western allies over Sweden’s bid for NATO membership.

Stockholm needs Ankara’s consent to join NATO, of which Turkey is an old member. 

Erdogan had previously conditioned his approval of Sweden’s NATO bid on Stokholm’s dropping of its support for Kurdish opposition groups that are considered terrorist outfits by Ankara.

He even upped the ante earlier on Monday by securing a pledge from the EU to resurrect the membership talks in exchange for lifting its blockade of Sweden’s drive to join NATO.

After months of objections, Erdogan agreed at a NATO summit in July to forward Sweden’s NATO bid to the Turkish parliament for ratification. However, the timing of the Turkish parliament’s green light for Sweden remains unclear.

Middle East

Sabra, Shatila massacre an indelible stain on Zionists, US

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In a post on his X account on Saturday, Nasser Kan’ani marked the 41st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre by the Zionist regime.

He said the Zionists and their mercenaries that ruthlessly massacred thousands of innocent and defenseless men, women, and children in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps have outperformed all criminals throughout history.

The killing has created an indelible stain on the Zionist regime, its sponsors, and the fake self-proclaimed advocates of human rights, specifically the US and the UK, that will never be removed, he said.

The Iranian spokesman described the massacre as only one example of the “performance of the organized terror machine of the criminal Israeli regime” against the Palestinian people.

“Such crimes have continued to be committed by the occupier Zionists for several decades with the support of the US and Europe,” Kan’ani added.

September 16 marks the anniversary of the three days of crimes that resulted in an atrocious and inconceivable slaughter of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in southern Beirut at the hands of the Zionist regime and its accomplices, which wasn’t the false regime’s first or final crime, either.

It was one of the most harrowing massacres committed in the Lebanese civil war, a conflict known for its brutality.

Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp, and the adjacent neighborhood of Sabra are located southwest of Lebanon’s capital city Beirut.

The refugees were victims of the 1948 Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, fleeing the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias as the Israeli regime was formed.

But between September 16 and 18, 1982, the refugees, now living in Shatila and Sabra, along with Lebanese civilians, were attacked by a right-wing Lebanese militia, in coordination with the Israeli army.

Between 2,000 and 3,500 people were killed.

MNA/TSN

Middle East

Sabra and Shatila massacre brought utter disgrace on Israel, allies: Tehran

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This file picture shows the aftermath of the 1982 massacre of thousands of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.

Iran has denounced the massacre of civilians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982 at the hands of the Israeli-backed Phalange militia as an indelible stain in the history of the Tel Aviv regime and its allies.

Spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry Nasser Kan’ani in a post on his X account on Saturday commemorated the 41st anniversary of the ruthless carnage of thousands of innocent and defenseless men, women and children, stating that the “Zionists and their mercenaries” have outperformed all criminals throughout history by this act of butchery.

Kan’ani went on to describe the Sabra and Shatila massacre as only one example of “the performance of the organized terror machine of the criminal Israeli regime” against the Palestinian people.

“Such crimes have continued to be perpetrated by occupying Zionists for several decades with the support of the United States and Europe,” he added.

The Iranian diplomat stressed that the mass killing will remain a dark stain for the sponsors of the Israeli regime as well as fake advocates of human rights, particularly the US and the United Kingdom.

On September 16, 1982, following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Phalangist militias stormed the refugee camps in west Beirut and began a massacre of mostly Palestinian civilians.   

Around 3,500 people, including many women and children, were brutally murdered in a depraved three-day killing spree by Christian Phalangist militias, with the cooperation of Israeli forces.

The Israelis fired flares throughout the night to light up the killing field – thus allowing the militias to see their way through the narrow alleys of the camps.  

After the Phalangists had finished their orgy of killing, the bodies of dead children littered the streets like discarded dolls, with bullet holes in the back of their heads.

As the bloodbath concluded, Israel supplied bulldozers to dig mass graves. In 1983, Israel’s investigative Kahan Commission found that Ariel Sharon, the then-Israeli minister of war affairs, bore “personal responsibility” for the slaughter.