Violence flares in Jerusalem Day rally
A large rally in Jerusalem - marking Israel's capture of the city's east in the 1967 war - has descended into chaos with far-right Israelis confronting and assaulting Palestinians. Israelis were heard chanting "death to Arabs" and "may your villages burn".
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News.com.au
19 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Trump says Iran 'slowwalking' as Khamenei opposes nuclear proposal
US President Donald Trump accused Tehran on Wednesday of "slowwalking" on a nuclear deal, after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the latest proposal from Washington was against the national interest. The longtime foes have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018, but sharp differences remain over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium. On Saturday, Iran said it had received "elements" of the US proposal through Omani mediators, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed. "The proposal presented by the Americans is 100 percent against" notions of independence and self-reliance, Khamenei said in a televised speech, invoking ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution. "Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America." Iran's enrichment of uranium has emerged as a major point of contention. Trump said on Monday his administration would not allow "any" enrichment, despite Tehran's insistence it is its right under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin who "suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran". "It is my opinion that Iran has been slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!" Trump said. - Low-level enrichment - Khamenei said enrichment is "key" to Iran's nuclear programme and that the United States "cannot have a say" on the issue. "If we have 100 nuclear power plants but don't have enrichment, they will be of no use to us," because "nuclear power plants need fuel" to operate, he said. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the US proposal includes "an arrangement that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels" as the US and other countries "work out a more detailed plan intended to block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon". It said the proposal would see the United States facilitating "the building of nuclear power plants for Iran and negotiate the construction of enrichment facilities managed by a consortium of regional countries". Iran has previously said it is open to temporary limits on its enrichment of uranium, and is willing to consider the establishment of a regional nuclear fuel consortium. But it has stressed that such a consortium is "in no way intended to replace Iran's own uranium enrichment programme". Iran's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said in a Wednesday post on X: No enrichment, no deal. No nuclear weapons, we have a deal." Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead. - 'Less than satisfactory' - The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in its latest quarterly report last week that Iran had further stepped up its production of highly enriched uranium. In a separate report, it also criticised "less than satisfactory" cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites. The reports came ahead of a planned IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna later this month which will review Iran's nuclear activities. Washington and other Western governments have continued to accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes only. The 2015 deal provided Iran with relief from international sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities. Trump reimposed US sanctions when he quit the agreement in 2018 and has since tightened them with secondary sanctions against third parties who violate them. Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries who were party to the 2015 deal, are currently weighing whether to trigger the sanctions "snapback" mechanism in the accord. The mechanism would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance -- an option that expires in October. Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on "forged documents" provided by its arch foe Israel.
News.com.au
14 hours ago
- News.com.au
US-backed Gaza aid centres to close temporarily after 27 killed
Aid centres in hunger-wracked Gaza will temporarily close on Wednesday, a controversial US-backed agency said, with the Israeli army warning roads leading to distribution stations "are considered combat zones". Twenty-seven people were killed in southern Gaza on Tuesday when Israeli troops opened fire near one of the centres operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel recently eased its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but the UN has said the entire population remains at risk of famine. The UN Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by the United States. The GHF said its "distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work" on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday. The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling "on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones". The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Following Tuesday's deadly incident near one of GHF's centres, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres decried the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid as "unacceptable". Israeli authorities and the GHF -- which uses contracted US security -- have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages at GHF sites. The Israeli army has said the incident is under investigation. - 'A trap' - At a hospital in southern Gaza, the family of Reem al-Akhras, who was killed in the shooting at Rafah's Al-Alam roundabout near GHF's facility, were beside themselves with grief. "She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her," her son Zain Zidan said, his face streaked with tears. Akhras's husband, Mohamed Zidan, said "every day unarmed people" were being killed. "This is not humanitarian aid -- it's a trap." The Israeli military maintains that its forces do not prevent Gazans from collecting aid. Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said the Israeli soldiers had fired towards suspects who "were approaching in a way that endangered" the troops, adding that the "incident is being investigated". UN human rights chief Volker Turk called such attacks against civilians "unconscionable" and said they "constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime". The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said "Gazans face an "unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents". - Relief boat - The United States said Tuesday that a US-backed relief effort in Gaza was succeeding in distributing meals but acknowledged the potential for improvement after the reports of shootings near the GHF centre. A boat organised by an international activist coalition was meanwhile sailing toward Gaza, aiming to deliver aid. The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily Sunday carrying a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg, along with fruit juices, milk, tinned food and protein bars. "Together, we can open a people's sea corridor to Gaza," the coalition said. But Israel's military said Tuesday it was ready to "protect" the country's maritime space. When asked about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, army spokesman Defrin said "for this case as well, we are prepared", declining to go into detail. Israel has stepped up its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to defeat the Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,240 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Apart from the aid centre incident, the civil defence agency reported 19 killed on Tuesday. The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the war to 424.
ABC News
15 hours ago
- ABC News
United Nations says Gaza aid site attacks 'may constitute a war crime'
The United Nations has questioned whether shooting attacks on Palestinians near aid distribution sites in southern Gaza could amount to war crimes, and is demanding an independent investigation into the deadly incidents. Early on Tuesday morning (local time), Palestinian authorities said Israeli forces opened fire on desperate Gazans trying to access a private aid distribution site near Rafah — the third such attack in as many days. At least 27 were killed and dozens more wounded, according to Palestinian health authorities. The International Red Cross said more than 180 people were brought to one of its field hospitals after the shooting. Israeli authorities said they were investigating the latest incident, conceding troops did fire warning shots after some Palestinians deviated from the authorised route to the aid facility. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said more shots were fired when the "suspects" failed to heed the warnings. But Israeli officials have rejected allegations they deliberately targeted civilians, and have questioned the number of dead and injured as a result. "Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable," spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Jeremy Laurence said. "The wilful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for civilians may constitute a war crime. "The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, and intolerable dehumanising rhetoric and threats by Israel's leadership to empty the Strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law." Israeli officials said warning shots were fired about 500 metres from the aid site. "The IDF is doing everything in its power to allow Gazans to get to the humanitarian aid," Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said. "The IDF is not preventing the arrival of Gazans at humanitarian aid sites — indeed, we are encouraging it. "The warning shots were fired away from the aid distribution point in response to the threats perceived by the IDF troops." Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was among the facilities which received an influx of patients after the shooting. "Unfortunately, 90 per cent of the casualties coming to an Nasser medical complex were injured in the upper parts of the body," director of nursing Dr Mohammed Saqer told the ABC. "That indicates that most of them … were in a very serious situation. "We can no longer deal with more cases because all of the hospital beds, in addition to ICU beds, are occupied now — we no longer can provide more care to patients if others came to the emergency department in the future." One of Palestinian injured in the attack was 22-year-old Motaz Alfarati. He said he had been forced to lie waiting for help for more than an hour, after a bullet ripped through his thigh and hit his pelvis. "In one moment we heard the noise of Apache helicopters, they were throwing sound grenades around us and on the asphalt, and anyone who doesn't stand and who moved was shot at by a sniper in his head, in his leg, in his stomach," he told the ABC. There are only a handful of the private aid sites in operation in Gaza — and none are running in the north of the strip. Motaz said thousands had travelled long distances to reach the site, only to be attacked. "There were thousands and thousands who came to the area in order to take aid, but there is not enough for a thousand," he said. "There were people from Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and Gaza City in order to take aid — they come from the different districts and 90 per cent don't take any." The White House said it was aware of the reports of the shootings. "We're going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. "And I suggest that journalists who actually care about truth do the same to reduce the amount of misinformation that's going around the globe on this front." The IDF blamed Hamas for the first attack on Sunday morning, which killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more. Israeli authorities said Hamas was trying to undermine the new aid distribution model and fuel chaos in southern Gaza. Senior officials and politicians, including Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel, have pointed to video purporting to show armed gunmen firing upon civilians on Sunday. But the video was recorded in southern Khan Younis, about 8 kilometres away from the aid distribution site. The organisation running the operation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), insisted food had been distributed without incident, with millions of meals provided to Palestinians. But GHF said it was only commenting on what happened within the perimeter of its facilities, and that anything outside of the fence line was the responsibility of the IDF. The three attacks happened on approach to the aid site. Meanwhile, a consulting firm which had been helping establish GHF has cut ties with the organisation. In a statement, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said it provided "pro bono support to help establish an aid organisation intended to operate alongside multilateral efforts to deliver humanitarian support to Gaza". "Unapproved follow-on work relating to Gaza lacked buy-in from multilateral stakeholders and was stopped on May 30," the company said. "BCG has not and will not be paid for any of this work. "BCG has begun a formal review of the work, and while that review continues, the partner who led this work has been placed on administrative leave."
