Author: Steven Sahiounie

The sanctions, imposed under an executive order, targeted nine individuals and one entity based in Gaza WASHINGTON – The Biden administration issued sanctions on Wednesday aimed at disrupting Hamas’ funding, targeting what it said was “a secret Hamas investment portfolio,” a financial facilitator tied to Iran and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange, among others. The sanctions, imposed under a terrorism-related executive order, targeted nine individuals and one entity based in Gaza and elsewhere including Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, and Qatar, the U.S. Department of Treasury said in a statement. “The United States is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s…

The deaths brought the toll of Palestinians killed in the latest flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence to at least 64 in the West Bank RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near Ramallah in the West Bank on Wednesday after protests against Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. The deaths brought the toll of Palestinians killed in the latest flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence to at least 64 in the West Bank, a sharp uptick in fatal clashes with the army and settlers. Israel is preparing a ground assault in the Gaza Strip in response…

After an extraordinary meeting in Muscat, the bloc’s foreign ministers pledged “an urgent humanitarian relief operation” with “relief aid worth $100 million” The Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday announced $100 million in emergency aid for the Gaza Strip, as Israel bombards targets in the enclave during its war against Hamas militants. After an extraordinary meeting in Muscat, the bloc’s foreign ministers pledged “an urgent humanitarian relief operation” with “relief aid worth $100 million”. The top diplomats of the six GCC countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — met as at least 200 people…

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states to impose political and economic sanctions on Israel and set up a tribunal to prosecute Israeli leaders for their war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip. The top Iranian diplomat made the appeal at a Wednesday emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where participants discussed the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict after an Israeli attack on the Anglican-run al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, in central Gaza that killed at…

By Press TV Website The Israeli regime’s “deliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate” targeting of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip goes against all norms of civility and violates international law, says Pakistani ambassador to Tehran. In an interview with the Press TV website on Tuesday, hours before an Israeli air raid on a Gaza hospital killed more than 700 Palestinians, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu said the “conscience of humanity has been shaken” by the unrelenting massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. “The conscience of humanity has been shaken by watching innocent civilians, children, older people, pregnant woman being killed; building being razed to…

China and Russia have issued condemnations of a bombing that targeted a crowded hospital in the small blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza, with Moscow challenging the Israeli regime to provide facts to prove its claims it was not involved in the attack. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that the attack on al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza a day earlier was shocking and “an act of dehumanization.” Zakharova said, however, that Israel should prove its claims that it was not behind the attack that killed at least 500 people, mostly women and children, by providing unedited satellite…

Angry demonstrations have hit countries around the world following an Israel airstrike that killed hundreds of Palestinians at a Gaza hospital. People in Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Iraq and the Israeli-occupied West Bank took to the streets to vent their anger, with more planned on Wednesday following calls for a “day of rage” across the region. Turkish protesters clashed with police overnight and Israel told its citizens to leave Turkey immediately amid fears of reprisal attacks. In Iran, thousands of people protested outside the French and British embassies in the capital Tehran. Waving the flags of…

By:Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator On October 7, Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, launched a rare surprise attack on Israel that led to massive retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza and other punitive measures, including power outages. Huge casualties and humanitarian disaster This new round of Hamas-Israeli conflict has pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 2,200, with over 8,700 injuries, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on October 14. The Israeli fatalities since October 7 have reached around 1,300, while nearly 3,400 were injured, Israeli media reported on October 13, citing official sources. The Israeli response has been…

The United States has blocked a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that would have established humanitarian pauses in the ongoing Israeli war on the blockaded Palestinian Gaza Strip. The US on Wednesday vetoed the resolution that had been drafted by Brazil and had sought to broker aid access to Gaza amid the incessant Israeli airstrikes and shelling against people in the tiny strip of land. Representatives of 12 countries in the 15-member UNSC voted in favor of the resolution while Britain and Russia abstained. A UNSC resolution needs the approval of all five veto-wielding members of the body, including the…

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says the Israeli regime is only accelerating its demise by killing innocent Palestinian women and children in besieged Gaza. “Every drop of Palestinian blood brings the Zionists closer to downfall, and the Zionist regime cannot compensate for its defeats with these atrocities,” the president declared on Wednesday while addressing a massive gathering of people in Tehran. “Which human being accepts this heinous crime? Killing women and children, attacking hospitals—this marks the end for the Zionist regime,” he added. President Raeisi noted that in addition to a military defeat, the Israelis have recently suffered “security and intelligence…