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Tag: Palestine

Celebrations in Gaza as Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire takes hold
Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Gaza, while loud-speakers in Mosques hailed “victory of the resistance over the occupation”. Israel also claimed victory.
The ceasefire came into effect at 2am Jerusalem time after being validated by the Israeli government’s security cabinet.
Each side said it was ready to retaliate for any violations, with a Hamas official warning its hands were still “on the trigger”.
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Paris, Simon Seroussi, told France Info radio: “We will resume hostilities if we are attacked again.”
Cairo said it would send two delegations to monitor the truce.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden said the deal brought “genuine opportunity” for progress, also promising humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where most deaths occurred.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to travel to the Middle East “in the coming days”, where he would meet with Israeli, Palestinian, and regional leaders.
Medical officials in Gaza said more than 100 women and children were among its casualties. On the Israeli side, authorities said two children were among 12 people killed.
May 21, 2021
Gaza: Egypt sends ambulances to evacuate wounded Palestinians
Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza Saturday to allow 10 ambulances to transport Palestinians seriously wounded in Israeli air strikes to Egyptian hospitals, medical officials said.
Egypt “exceptionally opened the Rafah crossing to allow 10 Egyptian ambulances into the Gaza Strip to transport wounded Palestinians… to be treated in Egypt,” a medical official said.
An official at the Gaza border said the opening was “exceptional” because it is usually closed during public holidays including Eid al-Fitr, this year running from Wednesday to Sunday in Egypt.
The Egyptian public health authority said Friday that the holiday was being suspended for some Egyptian doctors and nurses in preparation to receive “those coming from the Gaza Strip”.
The Rafah border crossing is usually open on working days.
Medical officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes have killed 139 people, including 39 children, since Monday. Around 950 people have been wounded.
Rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups have killed nine people in Israel, including a child and a soldier.
The strikes were retaliation for the Palestinian group Hamas launching rockets on Israel after Israeli police moved in on Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque and cracked down on protests against planned Israeli expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in annexed east Jerusalem.
The grand imam of Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar mosque and university, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, late Friday launched a campaign on social media in “support the Palestinian people”.
“Stop the killing,” he said.
“Enough with silence and double standards if we are really working towards peace.”
May 15, 2021
US Appeal to Israel To Spare Civilians In Showdown With Palestine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a US envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions as he implored Israel to avoid civilian deaths.
Hady Amr, the deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Israeli and Palestinian affairs, was leaving Wednesday and will meet both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, US officials said.
“He will urge on my behalf and on behalf of President Biden a de-escalation of violence,” Blinken told reporters.
In the latest high-level interaction, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz, and backed Israel’s “legitimate right to defend itself and its people” while also urging steps to restore calm, the Pentagon said.
A senior US official separately said to expect further high-level contacts, including with Jordan and Egypt, although Washington does not speak to Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group.
Blinken described scenes of dead Palestinian civilians, including children, as “harrowing” but defended Israel’s assault on Gaza in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants.
“I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties, even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people,” Blinken said.
But Blinken said there was a “very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets — in fact, targeting civilians — and Israel’s response defending itself.”
President Joe Biden’s administration earlier appealed to ally Israel to reroute a flashpoint parade in Jerusalem and prevent evictions of Palestinians in the holy city, the immediate trigger for the new round of violence.
Taking more nuance after the militantly pro-Israel administration of Donald Trump, Blinken renewed US support for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state.
“This violence takes us further away from that goal,” Blinken said.
“We believe Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live with safety and security and will continue to engage with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional partners to urge de-escalation and to bring calm.”
May 12, 2021
Israeli, Palestinian trade dispute winds down as both sides lift bans
Israeli Defence Minister, Naftali Bennett, on Thursday said that a ban on Palestinian agricultural exports has been lifted, meaning the end of a trade dispute that has lasted for months.
Bennett said the decision was made in response to the Palestinian Authority agreeing to lift a ban on importing Israeli-produced meat that drastically hurt Israeli cattle breeders.
The Palestinian Agriculture and Economy Ministries in Ramallah confirmed that the import of livestock from Israel had resumed.
Earlier, Israel had banned the export of Palestinian agricultural products in response to the Palestinian Government’s decision to expand its ban beyond calves and sheep and stop importing Israeli products including fruit juices and mineral water.
Israel controls the import and export of goods into and out of the Palestinian Territories, including along the border with Jordan.
According to the Israeli Globes business daily, Israeli exports to the Palestine in 2019 amounted to close to four billion dollars.
However, Palestine had in October declared that it would seek to disengage its economy from that of Israel amid absent peace negotiations.
The defused trade situation comes just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East plan which foresees Israel extending its sovereignty over 30 per cent of the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians reject the plan, fearing that it would recognize Israeli claims to parts of the West Bank that they were proposing for a future state.(dpa/NAN)
February 20, 2020