Author: Steven Sahiounie

BEIRUT: The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah met with top leaders of the Palestinian militant factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to a report by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, saying they had assessed what their alliance must do to “achieve a real victory for the resistance” in Gaza. The meeting grouped Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, with Hamas deputy chief Saleh Al-Arouri, and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Al-Nakhala, Al-Manar reported. “The meeting … assessed the positions taken internationally and what the Axis of Resistance must do,” a headline on Al-Manar said, referring to an alliance of Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, Lebanon’s Hezbollah…

Jenin: More than 100 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since war erupted between Israel and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas on October 7, the health ministry said Wednesday. Violence had already spiralled in the West Bank before the Gaza war, with the highest death toll in the Palestinian territory since at least 2005.Many of the Palestinian deaths came in raids by Israeli troops, but there has also been a rise in violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers which has seen civilians as well as fighters killed on both sides. Since October 7, killings have surged in the…

GAZA STRIP: The main UN aid agency in besieged Gaza warned it will have to stop operations by the end of Wednesday because it is running out of fuel as Hamas said the death toll from Israeli strikes had surged by more than 700 in a single day. Alarm has grown about the spiralling humanitarian crisis in the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip where one doctor said he was forced to perform emergency surgery on the wounded without anaesthetic. Israel has cut off impoverished Gaza’s usual water, food and other supplies, and fewer than 70 relief trucks have entered since the…

LONDON: Palestinian Christians have slammed the Archbishop of Canterbury for his remarks on the Israel-Gaza war, accusing him of “relegating” their plight behind “British domestic political and ecumenical considerations.” Justin Welby spent four days in Jerusalem over the weekend to show solidarity “with the Christian community in the Holy Land” after Israel reportedly bombed the Anglican-run Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Before leaving the UK, Welby issued a statement calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas as well as for humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter Gaza. “The evil and heinous terror attacks by Hamas on people in…

BEIRUT: Lebanon risks “plunging into the abyss” amid fears of a wider war over the Israel-Hamas conflict, a senior Lebanese business leader has warned. Mohammed Choucair, head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that stockpiling of food is threatening supplies, while industrial activity in the country has been cut by more than a third because of a fall in domestic and international orders. He appealed to “all political forces and officials to take necessary measures to prevent the national economy and the country from plunging into the abyss, as a result of the possibility of the war in…

GAZA STRIP: With so many bodies, Palestinians in Gaza are burying the unidentified dead in mass graves, with a number instead of a name, residents say. Now some families are using bracelets in the hope of finding their loved ones should they be killed. The El-Daba family has tried to reduce the risk of being struck down during the heaviest-ever Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Ali El-Daba, 40, said he had seen bodies ripped apart by the bombing and were unrecognizable. He said he decided to divide his family to prevent them from all dying in a single strike. He said his…

CHICAGO: The scale of humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip has reached unprecedented levels as Israeli airstrikes continue to lay waste to large swaths of the territory, according to Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN Relief and Works Agency. During an appearance on the Ray Hanania Radio Show, she painted a grim picture of the situation on the ground, saying: “UNRWA is overwhelmed at the moment in Gaza. The needs are growing by the hour. We do not have supplies. We do not have enough fuel to continue delivering assistance.” The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that…

DUBAI: Jordan’s Queen Rania on Tuesday criticized the world’s “glaring double standard” and “deafening silence” in the face of Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip. Queen Rania emphasized, during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, that despite the prevalent Western media narrative, “this conflict did not begin on October 7th.” “Most networks are covering the story under the title of ‘Israel at War.’ But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall and the barbed wire, war has never left. This is a 75-year-old story; a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people,”…

GAZA: Israel is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday while Israeli shelling killed more Palestinian civilians and international pressure grew to deliver aid and to safeguard hostages held by Hamas. US President Joe Biden, in remarks looking beyond the war that broke out with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants, said the future should include a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.Israel should be integrated among its Arab neighbors, he said. “Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and in peace,” Biden…

Iran’s foreign minister has written to the UN rights chief, asking him to help bring the Israeli regime to account for committing war crimes against people in the besieged Gaza Strip. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk that the regime is currently perpetrating “flagrant and systematic violations” of the rights of the Palestinian people. The Iranian minister said the fact that Israel’s atrocities go unpunished has emboldened the regime to commit even more crimes against the Palestinian people. Iran “expects you and other UN rights mechanisms to take action to immediately stop the Zionist regime’s…