United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have held further talks as regional leaders gathered in Doha to denounce the unprecedented Israeli attack on Qatar last week, which Netanyahu reiterated Israel takes “full responsibility” for, and the punishing war on Gaza.
The two officials had a three-hour meeting at Netanyahu’s west Jerusalem office on Monday, after which they held a joint news conference in which Netanyahu said Israel and the US will continue to act together to protect the two countries. “Rubio’s visit is a clear message that America stands with Israel in face of terror,” Netanyahu said
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Rubio leaned heavily into the Israeli narrative on the war, saying, ” Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten peace and security in the region. ”
The show of unity on Monday comes a day after Rubio and Netanyahu visited the Western Wall along with US envoy Mike Huckabee and praised strong bilateral relations.
The United Nations Human Rights Council announced on Monday that it will host an urgent debate on Tuesday regarding Israel’s “recent military aggression” in Qatar.
The council said it received two official requests for the debate, one from Pakistan on behalf of member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the other from Kuwait on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The meeting will mark the council’s 10th urgent debate since its creation in 2006.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed the findings and resolutions of the council on Israeli abuses, including a resolution last year that urged all states to cease selling or transferring arms to Israel given the carnage in Gaza. Both Israel and US boycotted the UN council earlier this year.
Israeli-induced famine in Gaza
In Gaza on Monday, four fetuses and three premature babies died in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis due to Israeli siege and manmade starvation.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 422 people, including 145 children, have died due to the ongoing hunger crisis. Since the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month that officially declared famine in parts of Gaza, at least 144 deaths have been recorded, including 30 children.
Israeli bombs continue to rain down over Gaza City in the north and its residential buildings as well, with dozens more Palestinians killed on Monday as Israel carries on with systematically destroying the area and seizing it.
Israel’s far right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday he wants to build a luxurious seashore neighbourhood with high-rise buildings for Israeli police officers over the ruins of Gaza.
“We will finish the mission, occupy Gaza, encourage voluntary emigration,” he said, according to Israeli media outlets.
The families of Israeli captives held in Gaza on Monday requested an urgent meeting with army chief Eyal Zamir after he said Netanyahu has kept the military in the dark about next steps after seizing Gaza City, and that occupying the area would not lead to the political and military surrender of Hamas.
‘Stop Trade With Settlements’ campaign
Amid Israel’s advancing plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, UK-founded Oxfam International was among 80 civil society organisations that launched a new “Stop Trade With Settlements” campaign on Monday, demanding countries to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, including by major multinational companies like Maersk, Siemens, and Barclays.
The organisations said in a statement that their campaign targets settlement trade specifically “because of Israel’s ongoing and escalating oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), fragmentation of its economy, and undermining of the viability of a future Palestinian state“.
During his visit to Israel, Rubio is expected to attend the inauguration of a controversial tunnel project for religious tourists that goes underneath the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan to the holy sites.
The project has stirred fears among Palestinian residents that it could further dilute their presence and possibly putting at risk the physical foundations of their homes.
Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency that Rubio should instead come see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians see as a targeted campaign to erase them.
“Instead of siding with international law, the US is going the way of extremists and the far right and ignoring our history,” he said.
Source: Aljazeera
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