Author: Anadolu Agency
The UN human rights chief on Tuesday called for urgent action to stem the grave human rights crisis in Goma, a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo under the control of rebels. The M23 rebels, said to be backed by Rwanda, marched into Goma on Monday and declared the city under their control. Heavy battles between M23 fighters and Congolese government forces have led to casualties, with hospitals said to be struggling to deal with the situation. Volker Turk, in a statement, warned that the crisis in Goma has left civilians exposed to “gross human rights violations and…
US Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged Democrats on Tuesday to help pass legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC). “I hope my Democrat colleagues will join Republicans to swiftly get this legislation over the finish line into the president’s desk,” Thune said on the Senate floor. His remarks came before the Senate begins voting on whether to sanction the ICC after the Court issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month, the House of…
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday praised US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza. In the interview with Channel 14, Cohen claimed that Trump’s plan was “based on sound logic.” Last week, Trump called to “just clean out” the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt, describing the shattered enclave as a “demolition site.” Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023 and reduced the enclave to a rubble. Cohen, a former foreign minister, said Trump’s proposal would support Israel’s…
Seven people were injured on Tuesday evening in an Israeli airstrike targeting a town in southern Lebanon, marking another violation of the ceasefire agreement. “This evening’s Israeli enemy airstrike on Nabatiyeh initially resulted in seven injuries,” the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement. Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency NNA reported that “an explosion was heard in the town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa, and flames were seen rising at the site.” Meanwhile, the Israeli army confirmed in a statement that it carried out an airstrike on Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by US President Donald Trump to a meeting at the White House on February 4, the Israeli premier’s office said on Tuesday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during US President Trump’s second term,” the statement said. The Trump-Netanyahu meeting comes after the US president repeatedly claimed credit for sealing an ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which came after months of fruitless negotiations. After the ceasefire took effect, Trump touted a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, calling for Palestinians…
Qatar confirmed Tuesday that a two-state solution is the “only path” for the Palestinian people to secure their rights. “Qatar’s stance has always been clear regarding the necessity of the Palestinian people obtaining their rights,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a press conference in Doha. “The two-state solution is the only path forward to achieve this goal,” he added in response to a question about US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinian resettlement from Gaza. The two-state solution refers to the establishment of two states, Palestine and Israel, and is widely supported by the Arab world and the international…
Palestinian group Hamas said Tuesday that it discussed with Egyptian officials efforts to form a national unity government in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, Hamas said a group delegation held discussions in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad on the implementation of a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel. The discussions also addressed violations of the ceasefire deal and the need to obligate Israel “to adhere to all agreed terms without procrastination or obstruction,” the statement said. According to the statement, the talks also covered efforts to restructure the Palestinian scene, “particularly the formation of a…
Palestine called on all countries on Tuesday to publicly oppose the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza. “We urge other countries to swiftly issue clear public stances rejecting the displacement of our people, in alignment with international law and international legitimacy resolutions,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It reaffirmed “absolute rejection of the policy of resettlement,” calling it “a heinous form of ethnic cleansing that comes as part of attempts to create political and security chaos in a conflict zone and undermine the security and stability of the region and the world.” The ministry called for “the immediate initiation…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that his army forces will not withdraw from the demilitarized zone recently occupied in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and will stay there “indefinitely.” The Israeli army “will remain at the summit of the Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) and the security zone indefinitely to ensure the security of the communities of the Golan Heights and the north, and all the residents of Israel,” he said during a visit to Israeli forces in the area.
The US Senate minority leader on Tuesday slammed President Donald Trump for pausing grants, loans and other federal assistance. “Last night President Trump plunged the country into chaos. Without a shred of warning the Trump Administration announced a halt to virtually all federal funds across the country,” Chuck Schumer told reporters. His remarks came a day after a memo from the White House budget office called for a spending freeze on federal assistance by 5 p.m. Tuesday, which could affect everything from aid to nonprofits, universities, small business loans and state and local government grants. “This decision is lawless, dangerous,…