Spain cancels contract for anti-tank missiles built by Israeli subsidiary
The decision will affect the purchase of 168 SPIKE LR2 anti-tank missile systems with an estimated value of 285 million euros ($325 million). The systems would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a subsidiary of Israel's Rafael Advance Defense Systems, according to local press.
The Spanish goverment approved the project on Oct. 3, 2023, four days before an insurgent assault led by Hamas on southern Israel that sparked a devastating war in Gaza.
Spain's leftist government says it stopped exporting arms to Israel as of Oct. 2, 2023, but there where reports some shipments slipped through.
In May last year, Spain formally recognized a Palestinian state in a coordinated effort with Norway and Ireland.
Israel faces legal action at two international courts in The Hague, Netherlands.
South Africa has filed a case at the top United Nations court, the International Court of Justice, alleging genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel strongly denies the charge.
Judges at the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Joav Gallant. The warrants allege crimes against humanity, claiming they used 'starvation as a method of warfare' in Gaza. Netanyahu said Israel 'rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions' by the court.
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Los Angeles Times
2 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Druze demand self-determination in largest protest held since deadly clashes in Syria
BEIRUT — Hundreds of people demonstrated in Syria's southern city of Sweida and elsewhere Saturday to demand the right to self-determination for the Druze minority, in the largest protests to take place since deadly clashes in the area last month. Some of the protesters waved Israeli flags to thank Israel for intervening on their side during heavy clashes in mid-July between Druze militias and armed Bedouin tribal groups alongside allied government forces. Saturday's demonstration comes as Syria grapples with deep ethnic and religious divisions after the collapse of the Assad family rule in December. The transition has proved fragile, with renewed violence erupting in March along the coast and in July in Sweida, a city with a mostly Druze population, highlighting the continued threat to peace after years of civil war. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitor, said the protesters expressed their rejection of the interim central government in Damascus and demanded that those responsible for atrocities against Druze be brought to justice. The observatory said some of the protesters called on Israel to intervene to support their demand of self-determination. Rayyan Maarouf, who heads the activist media collective Suwayda 24, said that Saturday's demonstration in Sweida was the largest since last month's clashes and that there were similar rallies in areas including the nearby towns of Shahba and Salkhad. He added that this is the first time people protested under the theme of self-determination. 'This is an unprecedented change for the Druze in Syria,' Maarouf told the Associated Press. Clashes erupted July 13 between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes in Sweida. Government forces then intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up essentially siding with the Bedouins against the Druze. Israel intervened in defense of the Druze, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and striking the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus. Atrocities were committed during the clashes that left hundreds of people dead. The new interim government set up a committee last month tasked with investigating attacks on civilians in the sectarian violence in the country's south. It is supposed to issue a report within three months. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
NBC News
3 minutes ago
- NBC News
Israel planning to move Palestinians to southern Gaza as the country plans offensive
NAHARIYA, Israel — Israel announced Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said the supply of tents to the territory would resume on Sunday. The military said it had no comment on when the mass movement of Palestinians would begin, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media that 'we are now in the stage of discussions to finalize the plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza.' Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a 'nationwide day of stoppage' in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of war. Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages speaking under duress and pleading for help and food. The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war — a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks. A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. 'Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,' it said in a statement. 'I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,' said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity. She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv, along with Pushpa Joshi, sister of kidnapped Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, a student seized from a kibbutz. 'I miss my best friend,' Pushpa said. Airstrike kills a baby girl and her parents An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area. 'Two and a half months, what has she done?' neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). 'They are civilians in an area designated safe.' Israel's military said it couldn't comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas' military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians. Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen the coming military offensive, along with Gaza City and 'central camps' — an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza. Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Elsewhere, an official at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the Zikim area of northern Gaza, as well as four people killed in shelling. 11 more deaths related to malnutrition Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said Saturday, with one child among them. That brings malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251. The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza. A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' died Friday after being transferred from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday. The U.N. and partners say getting food and other aid into the territory of over 2 million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians. The U.N. human rights office says at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and Wednesday. It says 766 were killed along routes of supply convoys and 994 in the vicinity of 'non-U.N. militarized sites,' a reference to the Israeli-backed and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza. The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
UPI
34 minutes ago
- UPI
State Department halts Gazan visitors' visas amid review
The State Department on Saturday announced a halt in visa approvals for Gazans after podcaster Laura Loomer on Friday questioned their arrivals in locations across the United States. File Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI | License Photo Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A review of medical-humanitarian visa processing temporarily has stopped the State Department from approving visitors' visas for Gazans as of Saturday. The State Department announced the halt in visa processing for Gazans after podcaster Laura Loomer on Friday questioned flights that carry injured Gazans needing medical care into the United States, Politico reported on Saturday. Loomer reported "flights of Gazans arriving at airports all across" the United States, and the State Department reported the halt in visa processing for Gazans on Saturday. "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," State Department staff posted on X on Saturday morning. Neither the State Department nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided additional information regarding the decision. The State Department's decision comes after the Trump administration in June increased its vetting of visa applicants to include social media posts and other online activities by respective applicants. Officials in France likewise suspended the evacuation of Gazans to France after a female student identified as a "Palestinian" allegedly circulated a social media post depicting former German dictator Adolf Hitler calling for the killing of Jews, according to Fox News. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told media the woman must leave France and said no further evacuations of Gazans will occur while the matter is investigated to learn how she obtained a student visa. In the United States, Kent, Ohio-based non-profit HEAL Palestine is sponsoring the evacuation of injured Gazans to obtain medical care in the United States. HEAL Palestine says it has evacuated 148 Gazans, including 63 children, and brought them to the United States for medical care. The evacuees are being treated in locations across the nation, including Atlanta, Boston, San Antonio and Seattle and will return to Egypt upon completion of their medical care, the non-profit says. HEAL Palestine was founded in 2024 and says it primarily helps children between ages 6 and 15, but its numbers show it has brought more adults to the United States than children.
