Hundreds march in West Bank against killings of medics
The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the 'protection for medical and humanitarian workers'. In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023 — including 30 who died while performing their duties.
Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Zionist entity military for over a year. Some 1,400 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war and dozens of medical personnel working in Gaza were detained while performing their humanitarian duties, ,according to the statement.
It highlighted a particularly deadly attack in March in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, when the Zionist entity forces killed 15 first responders including eight Red Crescent paramedics. The first responders were answering distress calls after Zionist air strikes. The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk. A Zionist entity military investigation, the results of which were published, acknowledged 'professional failures' and 'violations of orders' during the shooting. — AFP
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Kuwait Times
15 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Gazans mourn as Zionists kill Al Jazeera journalists
GAZA: Gazans gathered on Monday for the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in a Zionist airstrike, with Zionist entity calling one of them a 'terrorist' affiliated with Hamas. Dozens stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital to pay their respects to Anas Al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent aged 28, and four of his colleagues, killed on Sunday. A sixth journalist, Mohammed Al-Khaldi who worked as a freelance reporter, was also killed in the strike that targeted the Al Jazeera team, according to the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya. Their bodies, wrapped in white shrouds with their faces exposed, were carried through narrow alleys to their graves by mourners including men wearing blue journalists' flak jackets. Zionist entity confirmed it had targeted Sharif, whom it labeled a 'terrorist' affiliated with Hamas, saying he 'posed as a journalist'. Al Jazeera said its employees were hit in a tent set up for journalists outside the main gate of a hospital in Gaza City. The four other staff members killed were Mohammed Qreiqeh, also a correspondent, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. 'Anas Al-Sharif served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organization and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against civilians and IDF (Zionist) troops,' the military said in a statement. 'The IDF had previously disclosed intelligence information and many documents found in the Gaza Strip, confirming his military affiliation to Hamas,' it said. It published a graphic showing what it said was a list of Hamas operatives in northern Gaza, including Sharif's name, as well as an image of him emblazoned with the word: 'Eliminated'. It also published a list it said showed Sharif had been paid $200 by Hamas after an injury, as well as a list it said was a Hamas battalion's phone directory that included Sharif's number. Sharif was one of the channel's most recognizable faces working on the ground in Gaza, providing daily reports on the now 22-month-old war. 'One of the bravest' A posthumous message, written in April in case of his death, was published on his account on Monday morning saying he had been silenced and urging people 'not to forget Gaza'. According to local journalists who knew him, Sharif had worked at the start of his career with a Hamas communication office, where his role was to publicize events organized by the militant group that has exercised total control over Gaza since 2006. Following online posts by Zionist entity's Arabic-language military spokesman Avichay Adraee on Sharif, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called in July for his protection, accusing Zionist entity of a 'pattern' of labeling journalists militants 'without providing credible evidence'. It said the military had leveled similar accusations against other journalists in Gaza earlier in the war, including other Al Jazeera staff. 'International law is clear that active combatants are the only justified targets in a war setting, so unless the IDF can demonstrate that Anas Al-Sharif was still an active combatant, then there is no justification for his killing,' Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ's chief executive, told AFP. AFP has contacted the military for comment. Al Jazeera called the attack that killed Sharif 'a desperate attempt to silence voices exposing the occupation', as it described Sharif as 'one of Gaza's bravest journalists'. It also said it followed 'repeated incitement and calls by multiple Zionist officials and spokespersons to target the fearless journalist Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues'. Reporters Without Borders says nearly 200 journalists have been killed in the war so far. International reporters are prevented from travelling to Gaza by Zionist entity, except on occasional tightly controlled trips with the military. The strike on the journalists came with criticism mounting over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand the war in the Gaza Strip. The security cabinet voted last week to conquer the remaining quarter or so of the territory not yet controlled by troops, including much of Gaza City and Al-Mawasi, the area designated a safe zone by Zionist entity where huge numbers of Palestinians have sought refuge. The plan, which Zionist media reported had triggered bitter disagreement between the government and military leadership, drew condemnation from protesters in Zionist entity and numerous countries, including Zionist allies. Notably, the plans caused Germany, a major weapons supplier and staunch ally, to suspend shipments to Zionist entity of any arms that could be used in Gaza. Recognizing Palestine Australia and New Zealand said they would join a growing list of Western nations in recognizing a Palestinian state. Australia will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday. 'A two-state solution is humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,' he told reporters in Canberra. 'Until (Zionist entity) and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary. 'Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own. We will work with the international community to make this right a reality.' According to an AFP tally, at least 145 of the 193 UN members now recognize or plan to recognize a Palestinian state, including France, Canada and Britain. 'There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it,' Albanese said. He said that Australia's decision was predicated on reassurances from the Palestinian Authority that there would be 'no role for the terrorists of Hamas in any future Palestinian state'. The Palestinian Authority, however, does not have a presence in Gaza, which has been governed by Hamas for nearly two decades. Zionist ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said the decision was symbolic, rather than 'genuine progress towards peace'. 'Let us be clear: this decision will not change the reality on the ground,' Maimon said in a statement on social media. 'Australia elevates the position of Hamas, a group it acknowledges as a terrorist organization, while weakening the cause of those working to end violence and achieve genuine, lasting peace.' Just hours earlier, Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized international calls to recognize Palestinian statehood, saying it would 'not bring peace, it will bring war'. 'To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it and buy this canard is disappointing, and I think it's actually shameful,' he said. International concern is growing about the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation. Albanese further criticized the Zionist government on Monday, saying it continued to defy 'international law and deny sufficient aid'. As the global movement to recognize a Palestinian state grows, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country would carefully consider whether to do the same over the next month. He added that New Zealand's recognition of a Palestinian state was a 'matter of when, not if'. 'The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is rightly at the forefront of the global agenda,' he said. - AFP
Kuwait Times
2 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Zionist military kills five journalists in Gaza, bringing tally to 237
GAZA: Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian, killed in an overnight Zionist military strike, ahead of a group funeral outside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on August 11, 2025. — AFP RAMALLAH: The Zionist entity's war machine killed five Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip late Sunday, bringing the total of news personnel covering the genocidal war to 237. The Gaza media office said in a press statement that Al-Jazeera network correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues were targeted by the Zionist military while residing in their tent near Al-Shifa hospital. GAZA: Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif reports near the Arab Ahli (Baptist) Hospital in Gaza City on October 10, 2024. Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said on August 11, 2025, that five of its journalists were killed in an Zionist military strike, including a prominent reporter. — AFP The assault resulted in the injury of several other journalists, it added. The office insisted that the targeting of journalists in the Gaza Strip was intended to suppress the coverage of the war crimes committed by the Zionist entity, calling on regional and international news outlets and organizations to condemn this heinous crime against the freedom of speech and journalism. — KUNA
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Kuwait Times
London police arrest hundreds for backing pro-Palestine group
LONDON: Police in London arrested 466 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws. The Metropolitan Police said it had made the arrests, thought to be one of the highest number ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for 'supporting a proscribed organization'. It also arrested eight people for other offences including five for alleged assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added. The government outlawed Palestine Action in early July, days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft. The group said its activists were responding to Britain's indirect military support for Zionist entity amid the war in Gaza. Britain's interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday's protests that Palestine Action was also suspected of other 'serious attacks' that involved 'violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage'. But critics, including the United Nations and groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have condemned the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech. A group called Defend Our Juries, which organized Saturday's protests and previous demonstrations against the ban, said 'unprecedented numbers' had risked 'arrest and possible imprisonment' to 'defend this country's ancient liberties'. 'We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September,' it added. Attendees began massing near parliament at lunchtime bearing signs saying 'oppose genocide, support Palestine Action' and other slogans, and waving Palestinian flags. Psychotherapist Craig Bell, 39, was among those holding a placard. For him, the ban was 'absolutely ridiculous'. 'When you compare Palestine Action with an actual terrorist group who are killing civilians and taking lives, it's just a joke that they're being prescribed a terrorist group,' he told AFP. As police moved in on the demonstrators, who nearly all appeared to offer no resistance, attendees applauded those being arrested and shouted 'shame on you' at officers. 'Let them arrest us all,' said Richard Bull, 42, a wheelchair-user in attendance. 'This government has gone too far. I have nothing to feel ashamed of.' However, interior minister Yvette Cooper insisted late Saturday Palestine Action had been outlawed 'based on strong security advice' and following 'an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre that the group prepares for terrorism'. 'Many people may not yet know the reality of this organization,' she said, adding it 'is not non-violent'. 'The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organization.' Police forces across the UK have made scores of similar arrests since the government outlawed Palestine Action on July 5, making being a member or supporting the group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with supporting Palestine Action following their arrests at a July 5 demo. - AFP
