Japan, UAE FMs discuss Israel-Palestine conflict – Arab News

  • November 6, 2023
  • November 6, 2023
  • 12 min read

https://arab.news/mz4mp
DUBAI: Japan’s Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko had a telephone conversation with her UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Oct. 10 to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Kamikawa, who is currently in Vietnam, stated that she has been paying close attention to the situation and is devastated by Hamas and other Palestinian militant attacks, which have caused the deaths of many civilians.
She shared that Japan heavily condemns the kidnapping of innocent civilians and stressed the importance of releasing them. Additionally, she stated that Japan has been in contact with both parties to deescalate the situation.
Sheikh Abdullah said he is very concerned about the situation and explained the diplomatic efforts that the UAE has been taking since the events started, which Kamikawa showed her appreciation for.
The Japanese minister said that Tokyo is very interested in working with the UAE to prevent the situation from escalating further. The two leaders agreed on maintaining close cooperation.
AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Yemen’s internationally recognized government has slammed an Israeli minister’s remark about dropping a nuclear bomb on the Palestinian city of Gaza.
The Yemeni government said that the minister’s “radical” remark posed a significant threat to Palestinians and demonstrated the hostility that had engulfed the Israeli leadership.
The Yemeni government said in a statement carried by the official news agency on Sunday that the remark “represents a serious threat and incitement to murder that reflects unprecedented levels of hatred and extremism.”
It urged the international community to end “racist and inflammatory speeches and daily crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Amichay Eliyahu, Israel’s heritage minister and an ultranationalist politician, suggested on Sunday that a nuclear weapon be dropped on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack inside Israel.
The Yemeni government’s comments came as thousands of its people flocked to the country’s major cities and localities, including Taiz, Aden, Abyan, and Sanaa, to demonstrate their support for Palestine and condemn the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Schools, universities, and other public and private educational institutions have organized sit-ins and events to highlight the suffering of civilians in Gaza, while preachers and powerful individuals have encouraged the public to protest at the rising number of civilian casualties.
Yemenis have united across social media in their denunciation of Israel’s military actions, while demanding the protection of Palestinian civilians.
Yemen has been engulfed in war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis seized land in a conflict that, according to the UN, has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.
The Houthi militia declared last week that it had launched missiles and drones with explosives at targets in Israel in retaliation for the action in Gaza.
The Houthis’ assertion that the arms were fired in support of Palestine is contested by Yemeni and international experts, who contend that the militia attacked Israel to bolster its domestic support and gain favor in Tehran.
In a paper on the repercussions of the Gaza conflict on the Middle East, including Yemen, the International Crisis Group said on Saturday that the Houthis had raised domestic public support by launching attacks against Israel, capitalizing on support for the Palestinian cause.
“Given the widespread sympathy for the Palestinians in Yemen, the movement sees taking the lead in defending that cause as a way to broaden its popular support,” the ICG said.
It added that the militia also wanted to bolster its position within the so-called “axis of resistance,” which comprises Iran-backed armed groups, before showing its military power to adversaries at home and opponents abroad.
It said: “The Houthis are underscoring to both domestic and international audiences that their military power is growing.”
Yemeni political analyst Ali Al-Fakih agrees that one of the goals of the Houthis is to win hearts and minds in Yemen. He added that the militia was operating on behalf of its paymaster Iran, which wanted to convey a message to the US.
Al-Fakih told Arab News: “The Houthis and other Shiite factions are Iran’s guns in the region, via which Iran sends messages to the US because it cannot openly defy the US because of the consequences.”
GAZA: Palestinian nurse Abdelsalam Barakat was inside an ambulance trying to transport patients with skull and chest fractures out of north Gaza when explosions struck at various times.
“The ambulance was shaking so much,” he said of the terrifying Israeli airstrikes on Friday that hit around him and his charges from Al-Shifa Hospital. 
“It placed them between life and death, but we could not do anything about it.”
One of the attacks, among so many on the Gaza Strip for the last month, targeted an ambulance carrying fighters of Hamas, according to Israel, which accuses its foe of shielding itself at medical facilities.
However, the Gaza Health Ministry, a hospital director and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society all said the convoy of five ambulances was evacuating wounded to supposedly safer south Gaza before possibly crossing the border to Egypt.
The first strike, at a roundabout a few minutes away from the hospital, injured a paramedic and a passenger in one of the ambulances, Barakat said.
The second, near the hospital gate as the convoy was returning there having abandoned the attempt to drive south, hit an ambulance ahead of his, killing a paramedic and others nearby, he added.
With bodies lying in pools of blood, Barakat’s vehicle fled the chaos and headed for the central ambulance station, about 1.2 km away, other strikes shaking them en route.
Eventually, they took the patients back to Al-Shifa — no nearer evacuation and in a worse state than before.
Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmeyah said 15 people had been killed and 60 injured in the strike at the hospital gate.
The UN secretary general and aid agencies working in Gaza condemned the attack 
“This is a new low in an endless stream of unconscionable violence,” said Doctors Without Borders.
Hamas has invited international verification of Israeli accusations of using hospitals.
Barakat was back at work on Monday, treating seriously injured patients with no power and scarce resources.
“There is a huge lack of medical equipment and electricity and very high humidity in the building,” he said, shortly after disinfecting a man’s long, stitched-up abdominal wound with what looked like a small antiseptic wipe.
Ashraf, a resident of Gaza City sheltering in Al-Shifa for three weeks with his wife and four children, said he ran outside when the ambulance convoy was hit.
 
BEIRUT: UNIFIL warned on Monday potential military escalation in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah must be stopped.
It came after an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon killed a woman and three children.
Andrea Tenenti, a UNIFIL spokesperson, said: “Any civilian death is a tragedy. No one wants to see more people hurt or killed.”
Tenenti added: “We urge everyone to cease fire now to prevent more people from being hurt.”
The Israeli attack led to the death of Samira Abdel Hussein Ayoub and her three granddaughters, Remas Mahmoud Shor, 14, Talin Mahmoud Shor, 12, and Layan Mahmoud Shor, 10.
At the request of the Education Ministry, Lebanese students observed a minute’s silence in their schools on Monday as a tribute to the slain children.
The Israel Defense Forces reportedly targeted two civilian cars with a drone on a road between the towns of Aitaroun and Aainata.
The girls’ mother, Hoda Abdel-Nabi Hejazi, who was driving the first car, is in hospital after undergoing surgery to treat her injuries.
Her brother — a journalist — was injured in the second car.
UNIFIL witnessed intense firing across the Blue Line on Sunday, Tenenti said.
“We have heard tragic reports of four civilians, three young girls, and a woman being killed in the vicinity of Aitaroun in south Lebanon.
“We remind all the parties involved that attacks against civilians are a violation of international law that may amount to war crimes.”
Lebanese leaders condemned the “massacre of children and civilians,” and Beirut filed a complaint with the UN Security Council over the killings.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said: “This is a heinous crime and a new disgrace on the global conscience that turns a blind eye to what the Israeli occupation is doing in southern Lebanon and Gaza.”
Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said: “It is a war crime that reflects Israel’s policy of deliberately targeting families, children, medics, and journalists.”
A correspondent in the border area told Arab News: “The shelling targeted an ordinary road on which civilian cars pass in a place whose residents are considered well-off given the mansions and villas built there.
“The road is exposed to Israeli positions, but it is far from the Blue Line.
“It is incomprehensible why the two cars were targeted, especially since today, Monday, there is traffic on the same road, and no car was targeted.”
While the displacement of Lebanese civilians from the southern border areas toward areas north of the Litani River continued, UK authorities decided to reduce the number of embassy staff in Lebanon.
The evacuation of foreign and dual nationals from Lebanon continued after 30 days of war in the Gaza Strip and tension in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah responded to the killing of the Lebanese family by targeting the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona with Grad rockets.
Hezbollah stressed in a statement that it “will never tolerate any harm or aggression against civilians. The retaliation will be resolute and powerful.”
Hezbollah targeted Israeli military sites with guided missiles on Sunday night.
The IDF responded with artillery fire in the vicinity of the missile launch areas. Israeli shelling also struck the border town of Naqoura on Monday morning.
Since Oct. 8, the Blue Line has witnessed military operations during which Hezbollah targeted Israeli positions.
The IDF shelled Lebanese border villages and towns, violating the Litani Line in its aggression, extending its raids, artillery, and drone flights northwards.
Before Sunday’s assault, there had been an Israeli attack on ambulances near the town of Qabrikha early on Sunday, injuring four members of the Civil Defense who were inside.
These incidents could potentially escalate the confrontation in southern Lebanon. The rules of engagement agreed upon after the issue of the UN Resolution 1701 in 2006 stipulate that “any response will be met with a similar response.”
An IDF spokesperson, however, told Reuters last month that “the rules of engagement stipulate that anyone approaching the border shall be fired upon.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel in his recent Friday address to “restore the equation of a civilian for a civilian.”
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “What happened confirms beyond doubt that Israel, at the military and political levels — not to mention its heritage minister, who called for the use of a nuclear bomb against the Palestinian people in Gaza — all fall within a single context that represents an example of organized state terrorism.”
GENEVA: A convoy of four ambulances transporting patients from Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza arrived at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt on Monday. They were accompanied by two International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles.
“It is an immense relief to know that these patients are safe and will receive urgent medical care,” said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC office in Gaza.
“I can’t emphasize enough how crucial it is that hospitals, medical personnel and patients are protected amid this violence. There are thousands of critically injured people in Gaza. It is an obligation under international humanitarian law to spare them from harm.”
Other than the Rafah crossing, entry points into Gaza have been blocked since the conflict between Hamas and Israel began last month. While there has been a steady increase in the amount of humanitarian aid entering the besieged territory, the UN World Food Program warned on Sunday it is nowhere near enough to meet needs that are growing exponentially.
As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to rapidly deteriorate, the ICRC issued an urgent call for all involved in the conflict to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and do everything in their power to avoid any harm to medical personnel, facilities and vehicles.
Thousands of critically wounded civilians are no longer able to access medical care because hospitals are increasingly unable to function due to damage from the fighting and a lack of supplies as a result of the blockade, it added.
“Accepting violence against healthcare facilities now, when their role is so critical, will come at an unacceptable cost in human life,” Schomburg said. “The wounded and sick must be protected in all circumstances.”
RIYADH: Masam, a Saudi project to clear landmines in Yemen, in the first week of November dismantled 835 mines planted by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
Overseen by Saudi aid agency KSrelief, the project’s special teams destroyed 703 unexploded ordnance, 112 anti-tank mines, and 20 anti-personnel mines.
The devices, planted indiscriminately by the Houthis across Yemen, pose a significant threat to the lives of innocent people, including children, women and the elderly.
Masam is one of several initiatives undertaken by Saudi Arabia on the orders of King Salman to help the Yemeni people, clearing routes for humanitarian aid to reach the country’s citizens.
The demining operations took place in Marib, Aden, Jouf, Shabwa, Taiz, Hodeidah, Lahij, Sanaa, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhale and Saada.
A total of 420,832 mines have been cleared since the start of the project in 2018, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.
The project trains local demining engineers and provides them with modern equipment. It also offers support to Yemenis injured by the devices.
In June, the project’s contract was extended for another year at a cost of $33.29 million.

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