UAE strongly condemns Israeli decision to occupy Gaza Strip
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the UAE urged the international community, the United Nations, and the UN Security Council to take immediate and decisive action. The Ministry emphasised that such actions by Israel violate international law and must be halted.
Inalienable rights must be respected
The UAE reaffirmed that defending the rights of the Palestinian people is not a matter of political discretion but a moral, humanitarian, and legal responsibility. The Ministry reiterated its complete rejection of any attempts to displace Palestinians or violate their fundamental rights.
Urgent call to prevent escalation
The UAE called for swift and concrete measures to halt the ongoing escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning of the danger of a wider regional conflict. It urged all parties to intensify efforts to protect civilians and prevent further violence and instability.
Support for two-state solution
The Ministry reaffirmed the UAE's historic and unwavering stance in supporting Palestinian rights, and stressed the need to find a serious political path forward. It reiterated the importance of establishing an independent Palestinian state, highlighting that lasting regional stability can only be achieved through a two-state solution.
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Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
India has sent 20,000 workers to Israel to replace Palestinians since Gaza war began
More than 20,000 Indian workers have moved to Israel to replace Palestinian workers since the war on Gaza began, the Indian government has revealed. Responding to a question posed by a lawmaker in parliament last week, Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state in the Ministry of External Affairs, said that between November 2023 and July 2025, at least 20,000 workers had made their way to Israel. Singh noted that 6,730 construction workers and 44 caregivers had arrived under the bilateral framework agreement signed between the two countries in November 2023. Additionally, 7,000 others in the caregiving sector and 6,400 construction workers arrived through what he described as "private channels". The disclosure last Thursday is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the transfer of Indian workers to Israel and underscores how New Delhi continues to play a pivotal role in helping Israel sustain its economy, even as it faces growing calls for isolation in the international arena over its continued war in Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, including more than 18,430 children and has been recognised by several countries, as well as leading rights groups and experts, as an act of genocide. Hundreds of thousands of others have been injured, and the entire population of Gaza is now facing famine as Israel continues to impose conditions leading to starvation across the besieged territory. Labour shortage in Israel In Israel, the war effort has battered the country's economy. The cancellation of the work permits of more than 70,000 Palestinians has also led to a labour shortage across several sectors. The construction sector, in particular, was quickly brought to a standstill with labour shortages triggering higher costs. Reacting to the labour shortage, the Israeli Builders Association urged its government in November 2023 to recruit workers from India. 'In the past, Israel had depended on Palestinian and migrant workers from other nations, but the political situation has left a big vacuum' - Dynamic Staffing Services In the intervening months, thousands of Indian construction workers stood in long queues outside recruitment centres across various states around the country, desperately hoping to get a job. The desperate scenes at recruitment sites, economists said, revealed India's economic growth as a mirage for the country's poor. Despite being among the fastest-growing economies on the planet, a 2024 study from the World Inequality Lab concluded that income inequality in India was now among the highest in the world, often culminating in a shortage of full-time employment. The effort to hire Indian workers to replace Palestinian labour during Israel's bombardment of Gaza led the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) to call on workers to reject the recruitment drive. "We call upon all workers to reject such 'suicidal projects' that would befall immense hardship and risk to their life!" the union said. According to Dynamic Staffing Services, an Indian recruitment agency that claims to have brought thousands of construction workers to Israel, workers were drawn by wages that were up to three times the amount they would earn in India. It also described India's role in Israel's reconstruction as "crucial". "In the past, Israel had depended on Palestinian and migrant workers from other nations, but the political situation has left a big vacuum," the agency said in a statement in February. 'Migration from desperation': Why thousands of Indian workers want to go to Israel Read More » "As a result of this urgent requirement, Israel has sought help from India, and this relationship is steadily forming the basis of the nation's reconstruction process," the agency added. The Indian government said around 220 Indian workers who travelled to Israel over the past two years via private channels returned home "primarily due to skill mismatch and language barriers". One agricultural worker was killed during the Israel-Lebanon conflict in March 2024, the government said. It said the worker was killed in an attack from Lebanon in March 2024. "Three Indian nationals were injured, one in rocket fire from Gaza on 7 October 2023 and two more in an attack from Lebanon in March 2024," the government said. Over the years, thousands of Indians have travelled to Israel to work as caregivers, diamond traders and IT professionals. In 2022, Indians made up the highest share of foreign students in Israel.
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza journalists report through their grief once again at slain friends' funeral
With press vests laid atop their bodies, six more Palestinian journalists targeted and killed by Israeli forces were laid to rest on Monday. It was a scene that had played out devastatingly frequently over the past 22 months: reporters with the word "press" proudly displayed on their jackets gathering to grieve and pray for slain colleagues. Anas al-Sharif, Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi were the latest names among 238 journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. Their media tent, set up outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, was deliberately targeted late on Sunday night. Medhat al-Sawalha, whose own tent is metres away, saw the aftermath of the attack. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'I went out to buy something from a stall,' he told Middle East Eye, adding that he returned to see Sharif and his colleagues' tent on fire. 'I didn't hear the sound of the explosion, but at home they told me they heard it.' He rushed over, only to find Sharif and several others dead and dismembered. 'Anas, may God have mercy on him, I carried him in my hands,' said Sawalha. 'I carried him in my hands.' He said he saw another body next to Sharif's, which he couldn't identify. The body was missing a head. 'We were closer than family' Hours after the attack, Palestinian journalists returned to the encampment. The structure of the tent had been completely blown off, with mattresses and destroyed belongings strewn across the floor. The reporters mourned and documented - a familiar blurring of the personal and professional that Palestinian journalists have endured since the war on Gaza began. It's a feeling that Mohammed Abu Namous, a broadcast journalist in Gaza, is used to. 'Imagine, yesterday when I arrived at the targeted site in the middle of the night, I went live on air,' he told MEE. 'With one hand I was speaking to the channel live on air. With the other hand, I was trying to reassure my family through text messages on WhatsApp that I'm fine.' 'Imagine, yesterday when I arrived at the targeted site in the middle of the night, I went live on air' - Mohammed Abu Namous, broadcast journalist Addressing journalists around the world, Abu Namous said the least they could do was protect their Palestinian colleagues from Israeli attacks. 'What is the difference between a foreign journalist and a journalist in the Gaza Strip?' he asked. 'In the eyes of the Israeli occupation, all Palestinians are the ones who must be killed at any moment.' Ramadan Abu Sakran was a colleague and close friend of Sharif, Qreiqeh and Zaher. 'We were closer than family because we slept in the same place, in the same surroundings, and shared our food and drink,' he told MEE. 'We lived through the same fear, the same atmosphere of being targeted. We used to cover the same targeted sites together, and we would console each other about the scenes we saw daily in the places we covered together.' He said Sharif was full of laughter and jokes, often trying to lift the spirits of his friends and fellow reporters. He even joked, after Israel's army issued a threat last year stating that it would target him and fellow Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat, that his friends should stay away from him. 'We'd say, 'If we're going to die, we'll die together.' That's how we used to comfort each other,' said Abu Sakran. Unsubstantiated Israeli claims Shabat was killed in March, in an attack which deliberately targeted his vehicle in northern Gaza. The Israeli military claimed, without providing any credible evidence, that it killed Sharif because he "served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation". Israel has routinely made such claims about journalists, which have been strongly rejected by the Committee to Protect Journalists. It made the same claims about Shabat in March. Al Jazeera, for whom Sharif was one of the most prominent on-screen reporters based in Gaza, described him as 'one of Gaza's bravest journalists". It said the attack was "a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza". A photojournalist surveys the wreckage a day after Israeli forces targeted a media tent, killing six journalists near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City (Mohammed al-Hajjar/MEE) 'These journalists were the ones who conveyed the clear truth without embellishment or distortion to the entire world,' Tamer Daloul, a correspondent for Al-Ghad TV in Gaza City, told MEE. 'It should be noted that Anas and Mohammed Qreiqeh remained steadfast in northern Gaza during the displacement and division between the north and the south,' he added. 'They insisted on staying inside the Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, in a tent, and later moved to al-Shifa medical complex, in the well-known tent [where they were killed].' Daloul said the Israeli targeting of these journalists, among the over 200 others, leaves him fearful - not just for himself, but for his family too. 'It left us honestly not knowing, should we continue covering, should we stop, should we keep going live, are we protected?' he said. 'We no longer sleep at our families' homes for fear of being targeted. 'And yet, despite all this, we try to keep going and continue doing everything we can.'
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Mohammed Qreiqeh: The brave MEE contributor who never lost hope
Mohammed Qreiqeh was well-known for his eloquent way of speaking, a skill he displayed to the world in a live TV report just moments before Israel killed him. The 33-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent was one of six Palestinian journalists killed in a direct and deliberate Israeli strike on their media tent beside Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital on Sunday. His last moments on air were spent reporting on the dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where months of Israeli siege have left two million Palestinians starving. Born in 1992 in Gaza City's Shujaiya, Qreiqeh was a graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza. Qreiqeh contributed to several publications, including Middle East Eye, before he began working at Al Jazeera. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters MEE journalist Maha Hussaini recalled working alongside him for several months after Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, and being impressed by his bravery and commitment. "I was forcibly displaced in southern Gaza, while he remained in the north, refusing to evacuate or abandon his responsibilities there," she explained. "Mohammed would go into the field to gather testimonies and eyewitness accounts in places I couldn't reach due to the Israeli separation of the north from the south, and he even felt responsible for informing me about crimes that the media had not yet learned about. He felt it was his duty to expose what was happening." Israel has killed 238 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the Gaza government media office, and Qreiqeh knew many of his slain colleagues. In one clip recently aired, Qreiqeh was seen making a tribute to Ismail al-Ghoul, a journalist killed a year earlier. Qreiqeh read a heartfelt poem, wearing his late friend's press helmet. Qreiqeh died near al-Shifa hospital - the same place his mother was killed a year ago. He discovered his mother's remains in early April last year, following Israel's two-week assault on the hospital. The Palestinian journalist Mohammed Qraqe'a whose mother was killed by the Israeli occupation forces whist attacking the Shefa hospital in Gaza. Mohammed found his mother following the withdrawal of occupation forces after two weeks of attacking the hospital. — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) April 3, 2024 In one clip, he revisits his mother's resting place, where she was killed by Israeli forces, and speaks to eyewitnesses of the brutal invasion. Four months later, Qreiqeh would lose his brother, who succumbed to wounds in an Israeli assault. Much like other journalists working under the stress of Israeli attacks, Qreiqeh had been separated from his family for months, with one widely shared video showing him weeping as he listens to his daughter's voice. War on Gaza: Survivors recount harrowing Israeli field executions Read More » Shortly before his killing, Qreiqeh spent some of his final moments inside a car answering questions about the Gaza war during a livestream. Commenting on the recent Israeli announcement that it would totally take over Gaza, he expressed some rare hope: "God willing - and I am optimistic - that the coming days will bring news of at least ending this massacre and exhausting misery." "God willing, the coming days will be filled with peace, calm and happiness, and the war ends. We have all lost something... I'm not talking about the loss of our homes. The one who built a stone is able to rebuild it, there's no problem. God will always give back," he added. "However, we have all suffered from losses in Gaza... Each of us has a story, and each story is more difficult than the other. In the end, it is God's plan and we should surrender to God's will." His final words to followers watching his livestream were words of appreciation and apologies for not responding to all of his comments.
