Saudi FM arrives in Moscow on official visit
Prince Faisal is expected to discuss Saudi-Russian relations and ways to strengthen them.
Important international and regional issues and matters of common interest will also be discussed, the ministry said.
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Arab News
17 minutes ago
- Arab News
Pakistan PM pledges sustained diplomatic push to end Gaza aid blockade
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday vowed to continue diplomatic efforts to challenge Israel's aid and humanitarian blockade in Gaza, as he spoke by phone with Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, which has been actively supporting deliveries of basic necessities to Palestinians. In recent weeks, Gaza has faced a worsening humanitarian crisis, as Israel's blockade, imposed since the beginning of March, has drastically restricted access of food, water and medical supplies. The United Nations and aid groups have warned of mass starvation and malnutrition, especially among children, with only a few aid trucks allowed to enter Gaza, which is home to about two million inhabitants. 'Pakistan will continue vigorous diplomatic efforts to end Israel's suspension of aid to Gaza and restore delivery of food and essential supplies to starving Palestinian brothers and sisters,' Sharif said, as per a statement shared by his office. He also reaffirmed Pakistan's moral and diplomatic support for the people of Palestine, commending JI and its charitable arm, Al-Khidmat Foundation, for their domestic campaigns to raise and send relief aid to Gaza. The JI chief urged Sharif to lobby the international community to help facilitate a ceasefire and humanitarian corridor into Gaza, saying that Palestinians and the entire Muslim world look to Pakistan for leadership.
Arab News
17 minutes ago
- Arab News
‘Humanitarian city' and ‘voluntary migration' are inhumane and involuntary
The Oxford Dictionary defines 'euphemism' as 'a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.' Wars and conflicts that cause unbearable suffering have also become fertile ground for irritating euphemisms. After all, individuals or groups involved in inflicting pain and misery on others are trying to hide their sense of shame, embarrassment, guilt, or accountability by using 'creative' and 'imaginative' euphemisms in order to deflect from their responsibility for their ill-doings. For example, one of the most used, though scorned, euphemisms from recent military history is 'collateral damage,' a term first used during the Vietnam War. In reality, this refers to death, injury, or damage to property inflicted on noncombatants — sometimes unintended, but very often recklessly — during military operations. Two more examples are 'extraordinary rendition' and 'friendly fire.' The first refers to seizing terror suspects and whisking them away to remote places in order to use illegal interrogation techniques, including torture; while the second refers to being shot accidentally by your own side — and there is nothing friendly about that. New wars bring with them new euphemisms or the dusting off of old ones, and in recent months Israel has increasingly been using two that are infuriating, but worse, pose a danger that if translated into reality are most likely to result in the committing of further war crimes. Let us start with the increasing use of 'voluntary migration' regarding the people of Gaza. Nothing is voluntary in what is being suggested by Israeli officials. Cabinet ministers began floating this idea just weeks after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7. The ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads one of the religious ultra-nationalist parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, and happens also to be a prominent settler in the occupied West Bank, declared in November 2023: 'I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world, as the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza.' As the war continued, Netanyahu joined the chorus of supporters and endorsed this despicable idea, encouraged by the US president's suggestion to push the entire Gaza population out of the enclave, while calling it 'a remarkable idea,' and one that 'should be really pursued.' To translate this idea into a practical plan, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the establishment of a new directorate in the Defense Ministry tasked with enabling Palestinians to 'voluntarily' leave the Gaza Strip. The use of the world 'voluntary' is deliberately misleading because those who are plotting the operation are well aware that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits 'individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or to that of any other country, occupied or not.' Gaza's more than 2 million people were living in the world's biggest open-air prison even before the war broke out. Yossi Mekelberg The only exception is for the purpose of ensuring the security of the people displaced, and even the current Israeli government would find it impossible to convincingly advocate that this is their intention. Instead, experts in international law suggest that the constant displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and attempts to move them altogether out of the enclave are in breach of international law, and for the rest of us represent a cruel and immoral act of immense proportions, with serious political implications across the region. Those who toy with 'voluntary migration' know that they abuse the term voluntary, as it suggests doing something of one's own free will. Gaza's more than 2 million people were living in the world's biggest open-air prison even before the war broke out, and since then have been experiencing a living hell. Most have already been forcefully displaced several times, suffering from extreme shortages of food, water, medical help, shelter, and other basic needs. They are also traumatized by what they have experienced and witnessed in nearly two years of a war that hardly distinguishes between combatants and noncombatants, while every day they live in the constant fear that this might be the last for themselves and their loved ones. And despite that, most do not want to leave what is their home, even if it is a devastated one. Who could blame them if in the face of this cruel reality, and with no end in sight, they did wish to leave? But fleeing from the horrors of a death trap hardly constitutes voluntary migration. If this situation does not scare them enough to make them run for the border, the Israeli government has come up with the even more sinister idea of building a 'humanitarian city' on the ruins of Rafah. One wonders what sick brains have been brewing this evil plan to cram at least 600,000 souls into a new encampment on the border with Egypt, in a location that is already one of the most densely populated territories in the world. Audaciously, Israel's defense minister made no attempt to hide the true intention of this huge camp, openly declaring that those who move there will be free to leave, but only to go to another country — once again this doublespeak of 'free will' and 'completely voluntarily.' For the rest of us, this is a plan to transfer as many Palestinians as possible out of Gaza. The international community must not fall into the trap of these euphemisms, and must call out these horrific ideas for what they are — cruel and inhumane, and aimed at pushing out of Gaza as many as Palestinians as possible, and leaving the place under Israeli control, along with the idea being floated of building settlements there for Israelis. Those who supported Israel, and rightly so, after Oct. 7, should be brave and use what leverage they have to remove from the agenda any forced displacement or the building of what one former Israeli prime minister has called a concentration camp. The anger directed at Hamas for the hostages still held in captivity must not continue to be directed at innocent civilians as a justification for committing atrocities, and Israeli society must wake up and acknowledge this. After all, it is being done in their name. A good start would be to call a spade a spade, and call out 'voluntary migration' for what it is: an attempt to force the residents of Gaza out of their homes and push them into an inhumane camp and not a so-called 'humanitarian city.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Gunfire and Strikes Kill at Least 42 in Gaza as Many of the Dead Sought Aid
Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 42 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as starvation deaths continued and ceasefire talks appear to have stalled. Gunfire killed at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd "in response to an immediate threat" and it was not aware of any casualties. A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was Israel's tanks. That's when the army started firing, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle was among those killed. "We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed," he said. Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. Another Israeli strike killed at least eight people, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in the city of Khan Younis in the south, according to the Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. Also in Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire and killed at least nine people trying to get aid entering Gaza through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital's morgue records. There was no immediate comment from Israel's military. Stalled ceasefire talks Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering "alternative options" to ceasefire talks. A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and described the recall of the Israeli and US delegations as a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which mediate alongside the United States, called the pause temporary and said talks would resume. They did not say when. "Our loved ones do not have time for another round of negotiations, and they will not survive another partial deal," said Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, one of 50 still in Gaza from Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Mor spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv. Children starving to death The United Nations and experts say Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine. And now children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death. "We only want enough food to end our hunger," said Wael Shaaban at a charity kitchen in Gaza City as he tried to feed his family of six. While Israel's army says it's allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the trucks that can enter, the UN says it is hampered by military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. The Hamas-run police had provided security for safe aid delivery, but it has been unable to operate after being targeted by airstrikes. Israel on Saturday said over 250 trucks carrying aid from the UN and other organizations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks entered per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. The Zikim shootings came days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the crossing, one of the deadliest days for aid-seekers in the war. Israel faces growing international pressure. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near the new aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office says. The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food. "Stand for Gaza, for silence is a crime, and indifference is a betrayal of humanity," said Father Issa Thaljieh, a Greek Orthodox priest at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, as religious figures and the mayor gathered to call for prayers to end the war. Turning to airdrops, with a warning For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by neighboring Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops mainly will be food and milk formula. Britain plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said Saturday. The office did not give details. But the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are "expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians" and won't reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion. More than 59,700 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between fighters and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
