Albanese: Israel, West Must Pay For Gaza Rebuild

The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories said Friday that Israel should pay for the reconstruction of Gaza together with the US and other main arms provider countries.

Speaking at an event in London on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese noted that there should be a full assessment of complicity over the genocide in Gaza, stressing that not just Israel but all the states aiding genocide should face sanctions.

“States must cut ties with Israel, must stop aiding and assisting a state that maintains an unlawful occupation,” said Albanese.

Touching on the accountability, the special rapporteur said that Israel should pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, together with the US, Germany, and Italy, who are the main weapons providers according to Anadolu.

She went on to say that there should be a robust investigation into the UK’s complicity with this genocide through its services that have been provided from Cyprus bases.

“If Israel do not want to be accused of colonial practices, it should not behave as a colonial power, as a colonial entity, taking land, displacing the people,” she added.

Saying that the two years of genocide in Gaza is “the combination of 60 years of impunity,” she noted that it is not going to stop “unless things change in London or in Rome, or in Berlin, or in Paris.”

‘No robust response against sanctions’

Touching on US sanctions against her, Albanese said that with the sanctions, Albanese herself, International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, or Palestinian human rights groups are “considered like criminals.”

“There has not been robust enough for response, or a robust enough response to this to have the sanctions lifted,” she said.

Saying that since she is banned from traveling to the US, she cannot present her reports to the UN General Assembly, while also adding that she also cannot open a bank account.

UN experts in August warned that US sanctions on Albanese threaten the human rights system, a month after the US announced it imposed sanctions on the special rapporteur for her “efforts to prompt” ICC action against US and Israeli officials.

In August, the US also sanctioned four ICC officials for authorizing the arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing both officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

About 250,000 families are currently living in displacement camps across the Gaza Strip, many facing cold weather and flooding inside fragile tents, according to the Civil Defense.

Although a ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, living conditions in Gaza have not improved, as Israel continues to impose strict restrictions on the entry of aid trucks, violating the humanitarian protocol of the agreement.

Israel has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023, which have continued despite the truce.

Continue reading
Houthi Missiles, Trump and The Israeli depth

The Houthis are back firing at the heart of the Israeli depth. The military escalation is increasing despite US President Donald Trump’s warning that the Yemeni group, also called Ansar Allah, are set to be destroyed. But there is no proof of that as yet!

Ever since Israel restarted its military campaign on Gaza on 19 March, exactly two months after it ceased its military operations on the enclave, the Houthis reinitiated its trajectories, drones and hypersonic missiles on Israel. It adopted an eye-for-eye point of view — that is as long as Israel stops humanitarian aid to Gaza, Houthi missiles would continue on the Zionist state. 

The latest Houthi ballistic missiles were fired Wednesday during the day, a first-time shocker for these trajectories are delivered in the middle of the night. It was reported by the Hebrew media that millions hurried to underground shelters where sirens went off in 250 cities, towns, and settlements to the chagrin of many Israelis whose lives were turned upside down in the war on Gaza.

Wednesday will be remembered as a hard day for many as the ballistic missiles, which according to the Israeli army were intercepted and shot down from the air by counter trajectories. Such a series of Israeli military actions sent an intense amount of debris hurling down across a wide area of central and southern Israel including in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Analysts are saying it’s back to the old days of attempting to readdress the strategic equilibrium of Houthis and Hezbollah missiles targeting the Israeli depth. While Hezbollah is on the border with Lebanon, the Houthi missiles, and their success in reaching their targets, were fired all the way from Yemen, 2000 kilometers away into Israel.

This time, and like before during the course of 2024 where hundreds of trajectories were fired on the Zionist entity, the hypersonic missile was meant for the Ben-Gurion Airport, a busy hub for international travelers. Because of the timing of the trajectories it was reported that a significant number of the incoming planes had to be diverted and re-routed to Larnaca in Cyprus as a stopover and wait for the calm to set in.

Again this is a first-time development because the disruption usually lasted for no more than 30 minutes whilst this time around it paralyzed the airport and its aviation systems and meant to send a Houthi signal to the Israelis and their American allies especially, that this would be the status quo from now on unless the onslaught on Gaza is stopped and humanitarian aid allowed in the enclave.

Today, the incoming missiles on the different parts of Israel have been almost daily, at least for the last one week. This is seen as a signal that a new and forceful strategic approach is being adopted by the Houthis who are daring the Americans despite their daily military strikes on Yemen that Israel would continue to be a legitimate target.

The American navy through its USS Harry Truman destroyer in the Red Sea is striking Yemen with such force and vehemence whilst assuring the Israelis that they will do the job and end the Houthi presence.

But this is not having the military effect the Americans would like it to have for Yemen is a big country with its harsh setting and difficult geographical terrain that makes such strikes seem like ‘bee stings” rather than painful blows. On Tuesday, the US struck different locations in Yemen 17 times and before that the strikes were carried out with the same level of intensity.

But the Houthis are not being brought to their knees, a proving fact that has cost the preceding Biden administration an estimated $2 billion to attempt to rein in the Houthis but with no apparent success despite the level of destruction inside the country for Yemenis, across-the-board, and not just the Houthis, have proven to be a formidable force over the years.

It’s still too early to see for how long Trump will follow in the footsteps made by former US president Joe Biden. This is bearing in mind that the new man in the White House doesn’t like to spend US money and therefore will likely lose steam as the days pass bye and especially because the Houthis started to target the US destroyer and any other ships going to Israel with the group determined to continue to upset the international trading system unless their is a reprieve on Gaza.

The above-analysis is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

Continue reading
Greek Cypriots Protest UK Bases Role in Israeli Genocide on Gaza

Hundreds of Greek Cypriots protested against the role British bases have played in Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Gaza strip, according to local media.

Lining up outside the base of Akrotiri to demand that the Greek Cypriot administration take action to prevent military action launched from British installations on the East Mediterranean island, protesters held up pro-Palestinian banners and flags.

They chanted, “Out, out, out, British bases out,” and “Freedom in Palestine,” according to the daily Cyprus Mail as reported by Anadolu.

“We are here, right outside the British Air Force airport in Akrotiri, because from here, British spy planes are assisting the occupying Israel in gathering information on the ‘operations’ in Gaza.

“Because, hundreds of tons of bombs and ammunition have passed through here to aid the total destruction of Gaza,” Haris Karamanou, a official of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), told protesters.

In response, a spokesperson for British bases said: “We are deeply concerned by the rising tensions and civilian casualties in Lebanon. No RAF (Royal Air Force) flights have transported lethal cargo to the Israeli Defense Forces.”

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,600 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 96,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

Continue reading