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Gaza war deepens Israel’s divides

As it grinds on well into its twenty-second month, Israel’s war in Gaza has set friends and families against one another and sharpened existing political and cultural divides.Hostage families and peace activists want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to secure a ceasefire with Hamas and free the remaining captives abducted during the October 2023 Hamas attacks.Right-wing members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, meanwhile, want to seize the moment to occupy and annex more Palestinian land, at the risk of sparking further international criticism.The debate has divided the country and strained private relationships, undermining national unity at Israel’s moment of greatest need in the midst of its longest war.”As the war continues we become more and more divided,” said Emanuel Yitzchak Levi, a 29-year-old poet, schoolteacher and peace activist from Israel’s religious left who attended a peace meeting at Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square. “It’s really hard to keep being a friend, or family, a good son, a good brother to someone that’s — from your point of view — supporting crimes against humanity,” he told AFP. “And I think it’s also hard for them to support me if they think I betrayed my own country.”As if to underline this point, a tall, dark-haired cyclist angered by the gathering pulled up his bike to shout “traitors” at the attendees and to accuse activists of playing into Hamas’s hands.- No flowers -Dvir Berko, a 36-year-old worker at one of the city’s many IT startups, paused his scooter journey across downtown Tel Aviv to share a more reasoned critique of the peace activists’ call for a ceasefire.Berko and others accused international bodies of exaggerating the threat of starvation in Gaza, and he told AFP that Israel should withhold aid until the remaining 49 hostages are freed.”The Palestinian people, they’re controlled by Hamas. Hamas takes their food. Hamas starts this war and, in every war that happens, bad things are going to happen. You’re not going to send the other side flowers,” he argued.”So, if they open a war, they should realise and understand what’s going to happen after they open the war.”The raised voices in Tel Aviv reflect a deepening polarisation in Israeli society since Hamas’s October 2023 attacks left 1,219 people dead, independent journalist Meron Rapoport told AFP.Rapoport, a former senior editor at liberal daily Haaretz, noted that Israel had been divided before the latest conflict, and had even seen huge anti-corruption protests against Netanyahu and perceived threats to judicial independence.Hamas’s attack initially triggered a wave of national unity, but as the conflict has dragged on and Israel’s conduct has come under international criticism, attitudes on the right and left have diverged and hardened. – Political motives -“The moment Hamas acted there was a coming together,” Rapoport said. “Nearly everyone saw it as a just war. “As the war went on it has made people come to the conclusion that the central motivations are not military reasons but political ones.”According to a survey conducted between July 24 and 28 by the Institute for National Security Studies, with 803 Jewish and 151 Arab respondents, Israelis narrowly see Hamas as primarily to blame for the delay in reaching a deal on freeing the hostages.Only 24 percent of Israeli Jews are distressed or “very distressed” by the humanitarian situation in Gaza — where, according to UN-mandated reports, “a famine is unfolding” and Palestinian civilians are often killed while seeking food.But there is support for the families of the Israeli hostages, many of whom have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war artificially to strengthen his own political position. “In Israel there’s a mandatory army service,” said Mika Almog, 50, an author and peace activist with the It’s Time Coalition. “So these soldiers are our children and they are being sent to die in a false criminal war that is still going on for nothing other than political reasons.”In an open letter published Monday, 550 former top diplomats, military officers and spy chiefs urged US President Donald Trump to tell Netanyahu that the military stage of the war was already won and he must now focus on a hostage deal.”At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,” said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service.The conflict “is leading the State of Israel to lose its security and identity”, he warned in a video released to accompany the letter.This declaration by the security officers — those who until recently prosecuted Israel’s overt and clandestine wars — echoed the views of the veteran peace activists that have long protested against them.- ‘Awful period’ -Biblical archaeologist and kibbutz resident Avi Ofer is 70 years old and has long campaigned for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He and fellow activists wore yellow ribbons with the length in days of the war written on it: “667”.The rangy historian was close to tears as he told AFP: “This is the most awful period in my life.””Yes, Hamas are war criminals. We know what they do. The war was justified at first. At the beginning it was not a genocide,” he said.Not many Israelis use the term “genocide”, but they are aware that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is considering whether to rule on a complaint that the country has breached the Genocide Convention.While only a few are anguished about the threat of starvation and violence hanging over their neighbours, many are worried that Israel may become an international pariah — and that their conscript sons and daughters be treated like war crimes suspects when abroad.Israel and Netanyahu — with support from the United States — have denounced the case in The Hague.

Five years after Beirut port blast, Lebanese demand justice

The loved ones of those killed in a catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port five years ago gathered to demand justice on the anniversary of the blast Monday, as Lebanon’s president vowed to hold those responsible to account.The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions, and devastated swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring over 6,500.Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Hundreds gathered in Beirut on Monday afternoon to mark the anniversary, some brandishing signs reading “No compromises on justice” and “The crime of August 4 was not an accident”.Georgette Khoury, 68, was there to honour the memory of three of her loved ones who perished in the blast.”Five years have passed, but it still feels like the explosion just happened. It’s a gaping wound in the heart of every Lebanese person,” she said, attending the commemoration for the first time.”We demand justice, and if it is not delivered here, it will be served above.”A few steps away, Youssef Romanos, 44, raised a photo of his neighbour, a nun killed in the explosion.”We are waiting for justice to take its course,” he said. “It will not bring back our martyrs but it will be a relief.”- ‘Transparency’ -Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the blast this year as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted following a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign for Bitar’s resignation.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that the state was “committed to uncovering the whole truth, no matter the obstacles or how high the positions” involved.”The law applies to all, without exception,” he added.”The blood of your loved ones will not be in vain,” the president told victims’ families, adding: “Justice is coming, accountability is coming.”After resuming work following a more than two-year impasse, Bitar has finished questioning defendants and suspects, a judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Those questioned include former prime minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials, while several former ministers did not appear for questioning, the official said.Bitar is waiting for some procedures to be completed, including receiving responses from several Arab and European countries following a request for “information on specific incidents”, the official added, without elaborating.The judge will then finalise the investigation and refer the file to the public prosecution for its opinion before he issues an indictment, the official said.President Aoun said “we are working with all available means to ensure the investigations are completed with transparency and integrity”.Officials named in the investigation had filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to prevent it from going forward.Nobody is currently in custody in relation to the case.- ‘Chain of responsibility’ -Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement on Monday that “despite the resumption of the investigation, the road to justice remains littered with political and legal challenges”.They urged authorities to ensure a comprehensive, unobstructed investigation that establishes “the facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion, encompassing the full chain of responsibility”, whether domestic or international.Mariana Fodoulian from the association of victims’ families said that “for five years, officials have been trying to evade accountability, always thinking they are above the law”.”We’re not asking for anything more than the truth,” she told AFP.”We won’t stop until we get comprehensive justice.”On Sunday, Culture Minister Ghassan Salame said the port’s gutted and partially collapsed wheat silos would be included on a list of historic buildings.Victims’ families have long demanded their preservation as a memorial of the catastrophe.”The silos are the only witness to what happened on August 4,” said Fodoulian.

Israeli PM says to brief army on Gaza war plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Monday to update Israel’s Gaza war plan, a day before a UN Security Council meeting on the fate of hostages still held in the Palestinian territory.Addressing a cabinet meeting with the war well into its 22nd month, the Israeli leader told ministers that later in the week he would instruct the military on how “to achieve the three war objectives we have set”. Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 and the Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted officials in Netanyahu’s office saying that the “updated strategy” would be to re-occupy all of Gaza, including areas in Gaza City where the military believes hostages are being held.The cabinet would meet on Tuesday to endorse the plan, the reports said.There was no immediate official confirmation, but the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry denounced what it called a “leaked” plan and urged the international community to intervene to quash any new military occupation.    Netanyahu is facing mounting domestic and international pressure to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home and allow much more aid into the starving territory.Israel — backed by the United States and Panama — is preparing to convene a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday to highlight the fate of the hostages.Netanyahu on Monday reiterated that Israel’s three war goals remained “the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel”.His statement came after hundreds of retired Israeli security chiefs wrote to US President Donald Trump to urge him to convince Netanyahu to end the war.- ‘Immediate mortal danger’ -Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said ahead of the UN meeting that “the world must put an end to the phenomenon of kidnapping civilians. It must be front and centre on the world stage”.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.The UN session was called after Palestinian militant groups last week published three videos showing hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David appearing weak and emaciated, causing shock and distress in Israel.Netanyahu said he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide food and medical treatment to the Israeli captives.Hamas’s armed wing said it was willing to allow access to the hostages in exchange for opening aid corridors into all of Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned famine is unfolding.Netanyahu’s government has faced repeated accusations by relatives of hostages and other critics that it has not done enough to rescue the captives.”Netanyahu is leading Israel and the hostages to ruin,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.”For 22 months, the public has been sold the illusion that military pressure and intense fighting will bring the hostages back.”The truth must be said: expanding the war endangers the lives of the hostages, who are already in immediate mortal danger.”- ‘Only through a deal’ -Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a truce.Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials including former heads of intelligence agencies have urged US President Donald Trump to pressure their own government to end the war.”It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,” the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media on Monday.The war “is leading the State of Israel to lose its security and identity”, said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service, in a video released to accompany the letter.The letter argued that the Israeli military “has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas’s military formations and governance”.”The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all the hostages home,” it added.- ‘We are starving’ -The October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of official figures.Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,933 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which are deemed reliable by the UN.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire on Monday killed at least 19 Palestinians, including nine who were waiting to collect food aid from a site in central Gaza.In Gaza City, Umm Osama Imad was mourning a relative she said was killed while trying to reach an aid distribution point.”We are starving… He went to bring flour for his family,” she said. “The flour is stained with blood. We don’t want the flour anymore. Enough!”UN rights chief Volker Turk on Monday said “the images of people starving in Gaza are heart-rending and intolerable. That we have reached this stage is an affront to our collective humanity.”He called on Israel to urgently allow aid into the territory, adding that denying it “may amount to a war crime”.He also described the videos of hostages as “shocking”, calling for the ICRC to be allowed immediate access to them.

UK couple held in Iran moved to ‘worst’ prisons: son

A British couple detained in Iran for seven months on espionage charges have been moved to separate prisons in and near Tehran, heightening fears for their welfare, their son told AFP on Monday.Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52 and who previously split their time between southeast England and Spain, were seized in Kerman, in central Iran, in early January while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.Their family has known little about their whereabouts since then, but say they learned Sunday via the UK Foreign Office that Lindsay has been transferred to Qarchak women’s prison near the capital.It has a dubious reputation, with human rights groups repeatedly criticising dire conditions reported there.”It’s one of the worst prisons in the world,” Lindsay’s son Joe Bennett said in an interview Monday near his home in Folkestone, southeast England.Meanwhile, his stepdad Craig has been moved to Tehran’s infamous central prison, also known as Fashafouyeh, which is about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the capital and has similar notoriety.Bennett, who has yet to talk to his parents since they were detained more than 200 days ago, called the developments “unbelievably tough”.”Because of where they are, I’m worrying more than I was ever,” he added, urging Iranian authorities to allow British officials fresh access to the couple and to let his parents call home.”You’re just thinking, ‘is she OK’,” he said of the seven-month ordeal, adding “it’s like you feel sick all the time”.- Fears -“I do have confidence in their resilience, they are mentally strong,” Bennett told AFP. But the 31-year-old sales manager, who used to speak to his mum nearly daily, fears overcrowding at their new prisons and that they may be abused, as well as a fallout from their enforced separation.”I believe they will be, together, as strong as possible, but now they’ve been separated… that lifeline has been taken.”The couple, who were on a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip, entered Iran from Armenia and had only intended to stay four days before crossing into Pakistan.The UK government advises against all travel to Iran, after a string of British and UK-Iranian dual nationals have been detained over the last decade.Western governments have accused Tehran of using them as bargaining chips amid perpetually fraught relations between Iran and the West.Bennett noted the family — which includes three other siblings — were confident they “knew what they were doing” given they are “experienced travelers”.He said the couple took “every means possible” to travel safely and compliantly through the country, including getting tourist visas, hiring  tour guides, keeping to main roads and staying in hotels.Relatives first realised something was wrong when the couple stopped communicating but their messages on WhatsApp and other platforms showed as having been read.Iran then said in February that the Foremans were accused of entering Iran “posing as tourists” to gather information.It claimed to have established links between the couple and foreign intelligence services and that they were being held on “espionage charges”.- ‘Crazy’ -Bennett dismissed the claim that his parents are spies as “crazy”.”They’re not spies or political players. They are just two people who are traveling around the world.”He also renewed his criticism Monday of the UK government, saying it felt like ministers and officials were just going “through the motions” in their response.A Foreign Office spokeswoman said it was “deeply concerned” at Iran’s espionage allegations and that it continues to raise the case “directly with the Iranian authorities”.”We are providing them with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members,” she added.But Bennett claimed the family’s letters to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy had gone unanswered, while meetings with junior ministers left them feeling underwhelmed.”If you’re not taking accountability for two UK citizens abroad, and you’re not acknowledging us as a family, we don’t feel like we’re getting supported in the right way,” he said.Bennett said the family had been receiving support and advice from former British detainees in Iran and their relatives, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held there for several years, and her husband Richard Ratcliffe.Ratcliffe mounted a years-long campaign for his wife’s release, which eventually occurred in 2022.

Jordan sees tourism slump over Gaza war

Jordan has seen a decrease in the number of tourists visiting its famed ancient city of Petra and other sites since the Gaza war began in October 2023, according to officials.Although Jordan does not border the Gaza Strip, it has been among several countries across the region impacted by the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Figures released by the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority and reported Monday by the official Al-Mamlaka TV showed the number of visitors dropped by around 61 percent from 1,174,137 in 2023 to 457,215 last year.”We feel the repercussions of the aggression on Gaza every day, especially for providers of tourism services,” Abdul Razzaq Arabiyat, the director of the national tourism board, told Al-Mamlaka on Friday.He said incoming tourism from Europe and North America has hit a record low, dealing a devastating blow to the hotel industry and tour operators around Petra, in Jordan’s south.According to figures from the Petra tourism authority carried by official media, 32 hotels have had to shut down and nearly 700 people have lost their jobs.Petra, famous for its stunning temples hewn from rose-pink cliff faces, is a UN World Heritage site.The Jordanian economy relies on revenues from the kingdom’s tourism sector, which accounts for 14 percent of gross domestic product.

Five years after Beirut port blast, Lebanon president promises justice

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday vowed justice and accountability five years after a catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port, as the investigating judge finished questioning defendants, a judicial official said.Nobody has been held accountable for the August 4, 2020 blast — one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions, which devastated swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring over 6,500.Authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation this year as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted following a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign for Bitar’s resignation.Aoun said the Lebanese state “is committed to uncovering the whole truth, no matter the obstacles or how high the positions” involved.”The law applies to all, without exception,” Aoun said in a statement.Monday has been declared a day of national mourning, and rallies demanding justice are planned later in the day, converging on the port.”The blood of your loved ones will not be in vain,” the president told victims’ families, adding: “Justice is coming, accountability is coming.”- ‘Transparency’ -After resuming work following a more than two-year impasse, Bitar has finished questioning defendants and suspects, a judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Those questioned include former prime minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials, while several former ministers did not appear for questioning, the official said.Bitar is waiting for some procedures to be completed, including receiving responses from several Arab and European countries following a request for “information on specific incidents”, the official added, without elaborating.The judge will then finalise the investigation and refer the file to the public prosecution for its opinion before he issues an indictment, the official said.President Aoun said that “we are working with all available means to ensure the investigations are completed with transparency and integrity”.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a former International Court of Justice judge, said on Sunday that knowing the truth and ensuring accountability were national issues, decrying decades of official impunity.Aoun and Salam took office earlier this year, in the wake of the Israel-Hezbollah war, with both leaders pledging to uphold judicial independence.Officials named in the investigation had filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to prevent it from going forward.Nobody is currently in custody over the case.- ‘Chain of responsibility’ -Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement on Monday that “despite the resumption of the investigation, the road to justice remains littered with political and legal challenges”.They urged authorities to ensure a comprehensive, unobstructed investigation that establishes “the facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion, encompassing the full chain of responsibility”, whether domestic or international.Mariana Fodoulian from the association of victims’ families said that “for five years, officials have been trying to evade accountability, always thinking they are above the law.””We’re not asking for anything more than the truth,” she told AFP.”We won’t stop until we get comprehensive justice.”On Sunday, Culture Minister Ghassan Salame said the port’s gutted and partially collapsed wheat silos would be included on a list of historic buildings.Victims’ families have long demanded their preservation as a memorial of the catastrophe.”The silos are the only witness to what happened on August 4,” said Fodoulian.United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, on Monday urged authorities to “take all necessary action to expedite progress in judicial proceedings related to the explosion”.The US, British and French embassies in Lebanon urged justice and accountability in statements on X.The European Union on Sunday welcomed recent steps “that have enabled progress in the investigation”, noting that “ending impunity is essential for Lebanon’s recovery.”