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Israeli women cover themselves with Israeli national flags as they walk inside Jerusalem’s Old City 

 

Israeli far-right nationalists began a flag-waving march through occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday that risks reigniting tensions with Palestinians and poses an early challenge for Israel’s new government.

At least six Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces, and dozens more were assaulted and forcibly removed from the Damascus Gate plaza leading to the Old City.

Metal barriers were set up by Israeli police on the roads leading to Damascus Gate, which has been sealed off to prevent the entry of Palestinians.

The so-called March of the Flags celebrates the anniversary of Israel’s 1967 occupation of the city’s eastern part.

“The right to demonstrate is a right in all democracies,” said Israel’s Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev. “The police is ready and we will do everything in our power to preserve the delicate thread of coexistence.”

Palestinians view the march as provocative as Jewish settlers flaunt their sovereignty over the occupied territory. Previous marches have included Israeli chants of “Death to Arabs” and the attacking of Palestinian homes and shops in the Old City.

Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem since the Six-Day War of 1967 is not recognised by most of the international community, which says the city’s final status should be a matter of negotiation between the two sides.

Here are the latest updates:

17 Palestinians arrested in Jerusalem

 

Israeli police removes a Palestinian woman from the area as youth from far-right Israeli groups participate in a flag-waving procession at Damascus Gate, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City June 15, 2021. [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

 

Israeli police said they arrested 17 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.The Palestinians were arrested for “disturbing the peace”, the police said, including throwing stones and assaulting Israeli forces.

Two Israeli officers were wounded and received medical attention.

Red Crescent: 33 Palestinians injured in occupied East Jerusalem

 

A Palestinian woman confronts Israeli forces outside the Damascus gate in occupied East Jerusalem, on June 15, 2021 [Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]

 

At least 33 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem. The injuries were caused by rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and physical assault by Israeli police and forces in the surrounding areas of Damascus Gate.In the occupied West Bank, several protests took place at different flashpoints and city entrances. Dozens of Palestinians suffered tear gas inhalation after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters at them.

Palestinians in Gaza protest against Israeli nationalist march

 

Palestinians raise signs that read “Jerusalem belongs to us” during a protest in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 15, 2021. [Ashraf Amra/Al Jazeera]

 

Hundreds of Palestinians protested throughout several cities and towns in the Gaza Strip against the Israeli nationalist march in occupied East Jerusalem.Some protesters burned pictures of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett, the current Prime Minister.

Al Jazeera’s Youmna El Sayed said many officials of different Palestinian factions have spoken at these protests.

“They have said that these protests are just to send a message, that while the flag march provokes Palestinians, they will not be quiet as all options are in front of the Palestinian resistance to respond to any kind of aggression by Israeli authorities towards the people of Jerusalem,” she said, speaking from Gaza City.

Palestinians in Khan Younis set fire to a poster depicting Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a demonstration protesting the Israeli nationalist march in the Old City of Jerusalem [Ashraf Amra/Al Jazeera]

 

Israeli far-right march moves to Jerusalem’s Old City

 

Israelis hold flags as they visit the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site in Jerusalem’s Old City, June 15,2021. [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

 

The so-called Flag Parade in Damascus Gate has ended, and hundreds of Israeli nationalists have moved away from the area to enter Jerusalem’s Old City through Jaffa Gate, a main thoroughfare for tourists.“Most of them were pushed out by police,” Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said.

The Flag Parade was “a provocative show of force by the ultra right-wing Jewish settlers who came here flying their flags,” she added.

The march has passed through the Jewish quarter and will end at the Western Wall, where Jews can pray.

Israeli right-wing marchers chant racist slogans

 

Israelis dance with flags by Damascus Gate just outside Jerusalem’s Old City June 15, 2021. [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Hundreds of Jewish nationalists participating in the “Flag Parade” in the Damascus Gate area were heard chanting “Death to Arabs” in Hebrew. In another anti-Arab chant, they yelled: “May your village burn.”One Israeli man shouted at Palestinians in Arabic: “A second Nakba is coming” – referring to the 1948 ethnic cleansing of at least 700,000 Palestinians by Zionist paramilitaries.

Palestinians say such chants are heard every year during the march.

According to the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronoth, the Israeli far-right member of parliament Itamar Ben-Gvir, was present during the march.

The daily also reported that four Palestinian Israeli lawmakers, Ahmad Tibi, Ayman Odeh, Osama Saadi and Sami Abu Shehada, had arrived at the Damascus Gate and criticised the decision to allow the march.

Israeli forces injure 17 Palestinians in Jerusalem

 

A member of the Israeli forces pushes away a Palestinian man in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, on June 15, 2021 [Menahem Kahana/AFP]

 

At least 17 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli forces in the surrounding area of the Old City, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.At least three of the wounded were taken to hospital, while the rest of the injuries were treated in the field.

The Red Crescent also reported that Israeli forces fired on an ambulance and halted the movement of the medical team involved.

Israeli forces prevent raising of Palestinian flag by Damascus Gate

At least two cases of a raised Palestinian flag being snatched by Israeli forces has been captured by local Palestinian journalists on video.

In the first incident, a Palestinian woman near the Damascus Gate area raised the flag for a few seconds before Israeli forces grabbed it and pushed the Palestinian woman back from the area.

Caption: They cannot stand the sight of the Palestinian flag. Israeli occupation police attack a Jerusalemite woman who raised the flag in front of Damascus Gate

A second video shows another woman raising the Palestinian flag in the face of the Israeli nationalists during their “Flag Parade”, before she was knocked to the ground by Israeli forces.

 

Israeli nationalists begin march outside Old City in East Jerusalem

 

Israelis walk while holding flags outside occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City on June 15, 2021. [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Hundreds of Jewish nationalists gathered several hundred metres from Damascus Gate near Jerusalem’s Old City.Most appeared to be young, religious men, and many held blue-and-white Israeli flags. The crowd appeared to be much smaller than during last month’s parade, which was postponed.

“Jerusalem is for all religions, but Jerusalem is in Israel. And in Israel, we must be able to go wherever we want, with our flag,” said marcher Doron Avrahami, 50, channelling right-wing frustrations with police restrictions.

Five Palestinians injured: Red Crescent

 

A Palestinian medic stands next to tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest over a flag-waving procession by far-right Israeli groups in and around occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 15, 2021. [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]

 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Jerusalem has reported five people were injured during confrontations with Israeli forces in the vicinity of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. 

Three were wounded with rubber bullets, one was physically beaten, and another was injured by a stun grenade fired by Israeli police.

The Red Crescent in Jerusalem has summoned all its employees and volunteers in anticipation of confrontations with the Israeli forces, and opened a field hospital at its headquarters in al-Sawwana neighbourhood to treat minor and moderate injuries.

At least 13 ambulances are on standby in occucpied East Jerusalem, in addition to three ambulance trailers within the Old City.

No access to Damascus Gate

Israeli forces have blocked access to the Damascus Gate and are pushing Palestinians away from the area, specifically targeting the youth who are often pushed to the ground and chased out of the vicinity.

People can neither enter or exit the Damascus Gate, one of the openings into the Old City.

In one instance, the police attempted to make a shop owner close his store. Other vendors in the area have emptied their stalls.

“I had to shut down my bread stall because of the trouble,” Abu Rafiq told Al Jazeera.

Abu Rafiq, a bread seller, had to empty his stall due to the tensions surrounding Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem [Ibrahim Husseini/Al Jazeera]

‘Major provocation’

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said the settler march will not enter through the Damascus Gate.

The area is “the heart of occupied East Jerusalem where Palestinians usually gather,” she said, speaking from the site.

The march will begin within the Damascus Gate plaza, where the “Flag Parade” will take place for about 40 minutes, she explained.

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Foreign

Israel’s War On Gaza: List of Key Events, Day 101

Published

3 years ago

on

15th January 2024

By

Israel's war on Gaza: List of key events, day 101 | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.

Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:

Latest updates and human impact

  • Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
  • This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
  • Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
  • The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
  • The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.

Diplomacy

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
  • The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
  • Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
  • Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.

West Bank raids and violence

  • Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
  • Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
  • The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
  • The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
  • Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
  • Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
  • “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.

 

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Foreign

Hamas Says Will Kill Hostages if Israeli Attacks On Gaza Civilians Continue

Published

3 years ago

on

10th October 2023

By

Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023

Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.

The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.

The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.

Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.

As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.

Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.

A mourner carries the body of Palestinian boy Saad Lubbad, who health officials said was killed in Israeli strikes, during his funeral in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
A mourner carries the body of Palestinian boy Saad Lubbad, who health officials said was killed in an Israeli attack, during his funeral in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 9, 2023 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.

UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.

Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.

Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.

“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.

Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.

“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.

On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.

Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.

The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

INTERACTIVE_DEATH_TOLL_INJURED_ISRAEL_PALESTINE_OCT10_2023_0415
They said they would remain “united and coordinated” to ensure Israel can defend itself.

But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.

Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Western Leaders Accused of Hypocrisy Over Response To Palestine, Ukraine

Published

3 years ago

on

10th October 2023

By

US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023

Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.

After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.

He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”

Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”

Accusations of Western ‘double standards’

Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.

Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.

Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.

https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.

https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”

It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.

Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.

“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.

Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:

“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”

Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”

Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.

https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.

Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.

Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.

After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.

Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
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