Mindless Israel Bans UNRWA in Palestine
CrossFireArabia- October 29, 2024
The WHO chief has warned that the Israeli ban against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) will have “devastating consequences” as the agency is an “irreplaceable lifeline.”
“UNRWA is an irreplaceable lifeline to the Palestinian people. And it has been for the past seven decades,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late Monday on X.
“Today’s decision by the Israeli parliament barring UNRWA from its life-saving and health-protecting work on behalf of millions of Palestinians will have devastating consequences. This is intolerable,” Tedros said according to Anadolu.
He stressed that it contravenes Israel’s obligations and responsibilities, and threatens the lives and health of all those who depend on UNRWA.
Despite objections from around the world, Israeli lawmakers passed on Monday the bill 92-10, banning UNRWA from working in Israel and occupied territories.
Israel has accused UNRWA employees of complicity in the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border incursion by Hamas. UNRWA, however, denies the accusations.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza and created famine-like conditions across the blockaded territory.
The law, to take effect within three months, would end contact between UNRWA and Israeli officials, preventing the agency from providing life-saving support to Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The agency was established by the General Assembly in December 1949 to carry out relief and works programs for Palestine refugees. It began its operations on May 1, 1950.
Sheikh Naim Qassem Officially Hezbollah Chief
- CrossFireArabia
- October 29, 2024
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has named Sheikh Naim Qassem as their Secretary-General, succeeding the movement’s long-running leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated in a targeted Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month.
Hezbollah has appointed its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem as chief on Tuesday to succeed his predecessors Hashem Safieddine and Hassan Nasrallah who were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
Qassem, a longtime deputy to Nasrallah, has served as the group’s acting leader since Nasrallah’s death.
Who’s Naim Qassem?
The 71-year-old is Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, and has often been referred to as the movement’s “number two”.
He was born in the Nabatieh governorate’s Kfar Kila, a southern Lebanese village that has suffered through many Israeli attacks, especially since last October.
Qassem was elected deputy secretary-general in 1991, under then-Secretary-General Abbas al-Musawi, who was also assassinated by Israel.
He has played an important public-facing role in Hezbollah over the years, and is also a member of the group’s Shura Council.
He famously published a book called, Hezbollah, the Story from Within, in 2005, which was translated into several languages.
Qassem has long been one of the leading spokesmen for Hezbollah, conducting many interviews with foreign media according to the Al Quds News Network.
Israel Kills 1000 Palestinians in North Gaza
- CrossFireArabia
- October 28, 2024
The Israeli army has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza, forced half of the population to flee from bombardments, and left the other half trapped without water or food for nearly three weeks, the Palestinian Civil Defense announced on Sunday.
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Palestinian Civil Defense, said in a video shared on social media that the Israeli army has killed over 1,000 Palestinians during its three-week-long military offensives in northern Gaza, which are still ongoing.
“More than 100,000 Palestinians in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia are suffering from an Israeli siege and bombardment, while the other half of the population, which numbered around 200,000, has been forcibly displaced towards Gaza City, the closest governorate to the north,” Bassal told Anadolu.
He continued: “The Israeli army is killing anyone who tries to provide aid to the Palestinians trapped in the northern Gaza Strip, who are suffering from a lack of water, medicine, and food.”
“The Israeli occupation is practicing a policy of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza amid international silence,” Bassal lamented according to Anadolu.
He urged international and humanitarian organizations “to work immediately and urgently to save the Palestinians in northern Gaza.”
The Israeli army has continued a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Nearly 43,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 100,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
