Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

-
By Nidal Al-Mughrabi Reuters  The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against  Hamas , as U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to the  war  amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. “Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,”  Trump  posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages. But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. offi...
Post a Comment

Which countries recognise Palestinian state?

-

By Marie Julien and Clare Byrne AFP

Israel’s more than seven-month war in Gaza since the October 7 attack has revived a global push for Palestinians to be given a state of their own.

Norway, Spain and Ireland all announced plans on Wednesday to recognise a State of Palestine, breaking with the long-held position of Western powers that a Palestinian state can only come as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

According to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the occupied West Bank, 142 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations already recognise a State of Palestine.

They include many Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries, but not the United States, Canada, most of western Europe, Australia, Japan or South Korea.

In April, the United States used its veto at the UN Security Council to prevent a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member state.

Here is a quick recap of the Palestinians’ quest for statehood:

– 1988: Arafat proclaims state –

On November 15, 1988, during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally proclaimed an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

He made the announcement in Algiers, at a meeting of the exiled Palestinian National Council, which adopted the two-state solution as a goal, with independent Israeli and Palestinian states existing side by side.

Minutes later, Algeria became the first country to officially recognise an independent Palestinian state.

Within weeks, dozens of other countries, including much of the Arab world, India, Turkey, most of Africa and several central and eastern European countries had followed suit.

The next wave of recognitions came in late 2010 and early 2011, at a time of crisis in the Middle East peace process.

A host of South American countries including Argentina, Brazil and Chile answered calls by the Palestinians to endorse their statehood claims.

This came in response to Israel’s decision to end a temporary ban on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

– 2011-2012: UN recognition –

In 2011, with peace talks at a standstill, the Palestinians decided to push ahead with a campaign for full UN membership for a State of Palestine.

The quest failed but, in a groundbreaking move on October 31 of that year, the UN cultural agency UNESCO voted to accept the Palestinians as a full member.

The decision triggered a furious reaction from Israel and the United States, which suspended their funding of the Paris-based body.

They quit UNESCO outright in 2018, although the United States rejoined last year.

In November 2012, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations in New York after the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to “non-member observer state”.

Three years later, the International Criminal Court also accepted Palestine as a state party.

– 2014: Sweden first in western Europe –

In 2014, Sweden, which has a large Palestinian community, became the first EU member in western Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

The move followed months of almost daily clashes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

A state of Palestine had earlier been recognised by six other European countries — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Israel reacted angrily to Stockholm’s move, with then foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman telling the Swedes that “relations in the Middle East are a lot more complex than the self-assembly furniture of IKEA”.

– 2024: New push in Europe –

Israel’s relentless offensive in Gaza, which has left at least 35,647 people dead, according to the territory’s health ministry, in retaliation for Hamas’s killing of more than 1,170 people in Israel, has revived support in Europe for Palestinian statehood.

Norway, Spain and Ireland said they would recognise a Palestinian state by May 28, defying threats from Israel, which recalled its envoys from Ireland and Norway for discussions over the move.

Malta and Slovenia in March also expressed “readiness to recognise Palestine” when “the circumstances are right”.

Australia recently too has floated the possibility of unilaterally endorsing Palestinian statehood.

President Emmanuel Macron has also said the question of recognising a Palestinian state without a negotiated peace is no longer “a taboo for France”.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/dheSls0

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israel-Hezbollah attacks continue despite international pressure for ceasefire

-
By Timour Azhari and James Mackenzie Reuters  Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war. Despite Israel’s stance, the U.S. and France sought to keep prospects alive for an  immediate 21-day  truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York. An Israeli warplane struck the edges of the capital Beirut, killing two people and wounding 15, including a woman in critical condition, Lebanon’s health ministry said. That took deaths overnight and on Thursday to 28 and over 600 since Monday. The strike killed the head of one of Hezbollah’s air force units, Mohammad Surur, Hezbollah said, the latest senior Hezbollah commander to be targeted in days of assassinations among the group’s top ranks. On t...
Read more

Bolivia wildfires burn record area, scorching homes and farms

-
Image
By Monica Machicao and Daniel Ramos Reuters Wildfires in Bolivia have burned through more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, mostly in the country’s tropical east, smashing records for its worst-ever fire season and scorching an area the size of Iceland or Cuba. The new figures released on Monday by non-governmental organization Tierra Foundation represent the equivalent of nearly 19 million American football fields. Fires in recent months have propelled Bolivia past devastating fire years in 2010 and 2019. Santa Cruz, a wealthy farming region in the country’s eastern lowlands near Brazil, has been the hardest hit, accounting for almost 7 million hectares of the total, followed by the nearby department of Beni, with 3 million hectares. “What’s happened in recent months in eastern Bolivia, and will continue to occur at least through October, is a disaster of a magnitude unprecedented in the country,” Juan Pablo Chumacero, researcher at the Tierra Foundation, to...
Read more