Arab leaders toughen denunciations of Israel as it ramps up Gaza bombing
BAGHDAD, May 17 (Reuters) - Arab leaders at a summit in Baghdad called on Saturday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, accusing Israel in starker language of trying to drive the Palestinians out of the enclave altogether after it ramped up its bombing campaign.
Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians since Thursday in one of the deadliest waves of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March, even as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up a Middle East tour on Friday.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, whose country is one of the main mediators in Gaza peace talks, described Israel's actions as "systematic crimes" aimed at "obliterating and annihilating" the Palestinians and "ending their existence in the Gaza Strip".
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the summit's host, said Israel was engaged in genocide.
U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the summit, said "nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people".
After a six-week ceasefire, Israel imposed a total blockade of Gaza and resumed its military campaign in March. It blames Hamas fighters for harm to civilians for operating among them, which Hamas denies.
Israel's declared goal is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages.
The military campaign has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, pushing nearly all its 2.3 million inhabitants from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel faces growing international pressure to resume ceasefire talks and allow food and medical supplies into Gaza. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher asked the Security Council this week if it would act to "prevent genocide".
Iraq's prime minister announced the creation of a fund to help reconstruct Arab states after war, with an initial pledge of $20 million each for Gaza and Lebanon, where swathes of the south were destroyed last year in an Israeli campaign against the Hezbollah group.
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Reuters
30 minutes ago
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Iran says it obtained sensitive Israeli nuclear documents
DUBAI, June 7 (Reuters) - Iranian intelligence agencies have obtained a large trove of sensitive Israeli documents, some related to the nuclear plans and facilities of Tehran's arch enemy, Iran's state media reported on Saturday. There was no immediate official comment from Israel and it was not clear whether the report was linked to a reported, opens new tab hacking of an Israeli nuclear research centre last year that Tehran is choosing to divulge now amid heightened tensions over its nuclear programme. "Although the operation to obtain the documents was carried out some time ago, the sheer volume of materials and the need to transport them safely into Iran necessitated a news blackout to ensure they reached the designated protected locations," state-run PressTV reported, quoting unnamed sources. "(Sources familiar with the matter) also noted that the abundance of documents is so vast that reviewing them, along with viewing images and videos, has consumed a significant amount of time," PressTV added, without giving details of the documents. In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli agents had seized a huge "archive" of Iranian documents showing Tehran had done more nuclear work than previously known. U.S President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with bombing if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear programme. But Trump in April reportedly blocked a planned Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites in favour of negotiating a deal with Tehran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100%" against the country's interests, rejecting a central U.S. demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
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The cult of Greta proves that the loony Left has gone mainstream
It was a sight so uncannily ghoulish I felt repelled and fascinated in equal measure. I was watching the coverage of Greta Thunberg and a band of other mouth-frothing young Palestine activists board the Madleen, a yacht that left from the Sicilian port of Catania last weekend, sailing, to our shame, under a British flag (though it is the Palestinian flag that blows aggressively from the prow). The Madleen is heading for Gaza with 'aid'. Say hello to the 'freedom flotilla' on which Swedish climate-turned-Palestine activist Thunberg is joined by the Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, the Irish Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, and Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian European Parliament member. I used to think nautical adventures were romantic, full of derring-do: this one makes me feel more vomitous than even the highest of seas. The website for the Madleen's voyage uses exactly the same tone and tactics as Thunberg's horrible climate stunts did: extreme, unbending, threatening, self-loving and bratty all at once. 'We sail until Palestine is free' runs the banner. The site explains: 'Since 8 October 2023, Israel has escalated its genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza in an attempt to destroy all forms of life. The Israeli military has murdered tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands.' You almost have to laugh. It's not clear whether any of these activists, drunk on their love of themselves, are even aware of October 7 or Hamas. And 'all forms of life'? Are they saying Israelis murder plants and pets too? At any rate, Thunberg and co do not mean freedom from Hamas, against whom thousands of brave Gazans have been protesting. They mean from Israel. Not just Israeli military action but, in accordance with the rest of their playbook of slogans, from the proximity of the Jewish state full stop. Anti-Israel chanting, stickering, posturing and boycotting has been a mainstay of Lefty life for as long as I've been alive. But since October 7, a new normal has spread and spread; a kind of slow-release pogrom, if you will. The loony Left, once possibly to ignore, is now everywhere, and everything. This flotilla is a prime example. Instead of being ignored as wacky trouble-making, it is instead taken seriously, hailed as heroic by millions who should know better. The Palestine solidarity mob peddles lies rooted in the anti-Semitic blood libel of Jewish bloodlust for innocents. It claims, without a single piece of self-awareness or verification, that Israeli forces have 'murdered' hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. For these folks, context is colonialism, racism, murder – of a type that only Israel is capable of – so there is no understanding or desire to understand the cause of anything that has happened, or what has actually been going on with aid and food. In fact, flotilla wisdom is riddled with so many evil falsehoods there is no space to refute even half of them here. Now that the loonies have taken over, the flotilla is just an emblem of the new normal rather than considered fringe or extreme, or a curiosity. This is because the boundary between the wackiness of grassroots activism and the sobriety of government and the prestige mainstream media – both of which are expected to at least look into facts, verify claims and consider bias – has evaporated. Raw anti-Israel feeling has simply taken over. Some of it is done terribly respectably. A study by Andrew Fox of the Henry Jackson Society found that 98 per cent of the world's media, including The New York Times and CNN, simply repeated Hamas's casualty figures. Meanwhile, the goings-on of the likes of the Madleen is legitimised by statements made by our government. When Keir Starmer and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, publicly call into question the motives of Israel and Gaza, insult the valiant Jewish State as 'appalling' and 'monstrous', threaten to halt trade with its ally, and act like Israel is exactly what Thunberg and friends say it is, then what's the difference? We might as well all be sailing on that flotilla. Thunberg's power seemed likely to fade away; nobody so niche, I used to comfort myself, can stay at the forefront for long. Times change, trends move on. But the reality is even grimmer than I anticipated. All the climate loonies have just migrated to the cause of Palestine. Just Stop Oil has laid down arms to focus on 'Palestine', which it calls the next all-consuming cause for the world, as urgent as saving the planet from global warming. A thousand new grassroots, student and cultural campaign groups and coalitions have sprouted up to wage war on Israel and celebrate terrorists. Fossil Free Books led debilitating boycotts of British literary festivals last year, deviously and also perplexingly linking sponsors' tangential investments in fossil fuels with support for alleged Israeli criminality. Youth Demand, another group of anti-Israel fanatics, does the same. Its ghastly red website screams: 'The government is engaging in absolute evil. They are enabling genocide in Palestine by sending money and arms to Israel. They are contributing to the murder of billions to keep the fossil fuel profits flowing' and urges people to 'join the resistance'. It's barking mad, nightmarish conspiratorial nonsense. And so, under the frenzy of anti-Israel passion, bolstered by years of woke and trans madness, our society has lost decorum, professional standards, and, it often feels, any sphere at all that remains free of the politics of Israel hatred. Even the hushed plush corridors of Harley Street aren't safe. A Jewish friend texted me: 'Went to see a specialist, hadn't realised I'd get a thorough indoctrination treatment thrown in for free … Palestine badges on lanyards and prominently displayed items wherever you look.' She described the experience as 'chilling' and expressed gratitude her kids weren't there. 'No way I'd dare wear a Star of David there. How twisted is that?' Indeed. As I looked at the pictures she sent through, the menacing black, green and red badges on backpacks demanding freedom for Palestine, I too felt chilled, but only in a way that has become utterly familiar. I live in a mixed area that is, traditionally, also a bastion of the secular Jewish community. Yet I face a constant barrage of vandalism and graffiti disfiguring the area, from 'F--- Israel' sprayed on shop fronts and hoardings to 'Free Gaza' scrawled over my street sign. Out walking with my toddler last week, a car cruised past us, with three Middle Eastern looking men in it who rolled down the windows and sang in a slow, taunting tone: 'Free, free Pal-es-tine' on repeat, deliberately, it seemed, baiting the Jews of the neighbourhood. Yet nobody batted an eyelid. It's everywhere, all the time. No amount of last-minute professional sacrifice and rudeness is off limits: feminist icon Caryl Churchill has pulled her play from the Donmar because the theatre receives support from Barclays. Like most normal, ethical banks, Barclays is said to provide financial services to some defence companies supplying Israel. The defining feature of a totalitarian regime is, well, total. It pervades everything on pain of death. Since October 7 Britain – and other countries in the West – are starting to feel eerily similar where Israel discourse is concerned. Except unlike the totalitarian regimes of historical fame, we aren't being forced: we're embracing the madness of our own free will, and that is unforgivable.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Why so many Thai nationals are among the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
Israel has announced the retrieval of the body of Nattapong Pinta, a 35-year-old Thai national taken hostage during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Pinta was among 31 Thais abducted during the assault that triggered the ongoing conflict. Thailand's foreign ministry confirmed Pinta's death in a statement on Saturday, noting that he was the last Thai hostage held in Gaza. The ministry added that the bodies of two other Thais killed in the conflict have yet to be recovered. According to the foreign ministry, 46 Thais have died since the start of the war. Thai citizens comprised the largest group of foreign nationals held captive by Hamas, and were among tens of thousands of Thai workers residing in Israel at the time of the attack. Why are there so many Thais in Israel? Israel once relied heavily on Palestinian workers, but it started bringing in large numbers of migrant workers after the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, known as the first Intifada. Most came from Thailand, and Thais remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today, earning considerably more than they can at home. Thailand and Israel implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago to ease the way for workers in the agriculture sector. Israel has come under criticism for the conditions under which the Thai farm laborers work. A Human Rights Watch report in 2015 said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodation and 'were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions and denied their right to change employers.' A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage. How many Thai nationals work in Israel? There were about 30,000 Thai workers, primarily working on farms, in Israel prior to the attack by Hamas. In the wake of the attack, some 7,000 returned home, primarily on government evacuation flights, but higher wages than those available at home have continued to attract new arrivals. The Thai ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, recently said there are now more than 38,000 Thai workers in the country. What happened after some left? Faced with a labor shortage in the wake of the exodus, Israel's Agriculture Ministry announced incentives to try to attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas. Among other things, it offered to extend work visas and to pay bonuses of about $500 a month. Thailand's Labor Ministry granted 3,966 Thai workers permission to work in Israel in 2024, keeping Israel in the top four destinations for Thais working abroad last year. Thai migrant workers generally come from poorer regions of the country, especially the northeast, and even before the bonuses, the jobs in Israel paid many times what they could make at home.
