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GAZA CITY, Palestine — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh warned on Sunday against a planned march by Jewish nationalists through Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, saying that the Palestinian Islamist group would use "all possibilities" to confront it.

The controversial so-called "flag march" is due to take place next week to mark Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the occupation of the city after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The route, provisionally approved by Israeli authorities, allows marchers to enter the Old City through the Damascus Gate, heavily used by Palestinians, en route to the Western Wall.

Israeli authorities have not approved a route that would see the march entering the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, and this has never happened in the past.

At a speech marking a year since an 11-day flare-up in the conflict between Israel and the group that rules Gaza, the Hamas leader alleged there had been "calls to storm Al Aqsa Mosque and hold a march of flags".

“I warn the enemy against committing such crimes,” Haniyeh continued, adding that “the resistance... in Jerusalem and the West Bank will not allow or accept that such Jewish nonsense passes at Al Aqsa”.

“We will confront it with all possibilities and we will never allow the Al Aqsa Mosque to be violated,” he said.

Al Aqsa Mosque Compound is Islam’s third holiest site, while the Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray.

His remarks come after more than 70 Palestinians were wounded last week in confrontations with Israeli forces at a Jerusalem funeral, according to Palestinian medics, in unrest that Israeli forces said included “violent riots” which threatened officers’ lives.

This came days after Israeli Israeli forces stormed a funeral procession of Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist who was killed during an Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

Al Jazeera and Palestinians say Israeli forces killed Abu Akleh, while Israel says she may have been killed by Palestinian gunfire or a stray shot from an Israeli soldier.

By long-held convention, Jews are allowed to enter Al Aqsa Compound but not to pray there.

Confrontations in Jerusalem last year precipitated the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas that saw 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, killed.

Israel has imposed a crippling air and sea blockade on Gaza since Hamas took power in the Palestinian enclave in 2007.

SFAX, Tunisia — Three rescued loggerhead turtles were released into the Mediterranean off Tunisia on Sunday, one with a tracking beacon glued to its shell to help researchers better protect the threatened species.

The main risks to sea turtles in Tunisia are linked to fisheries, since they become entangled in nets — including the three that were released into the wild.

The migratory species, which can live to as old as 45, are listed as “vulnerable” in the Red List of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The turtles’ release was watched by a crowd of some 50 people, many of them children, carried out by a specialised care centre in Tunisia’s eastern port of Sfax.

Some 35 turtles have been cared for at the centre in the past year as part of the Mediterranean-wide Life Med Turtle project.

Environmental activists helped carry the heavy turtles down the beach, before the animals crawled the final distance towards the sea.

All of them were tagged, but one of them also had a phone-sized tracking beacon glued to its hard shell, which will track its progress as it moves across the sea.

“This beacon, given to us by the University of Primorska in Slovenia, will allow us to follow this turtle in its movements,” said Imed Jribi, a science professor from the University of Sfax and a coordinator of the Life Med Turtle project.

“Identifying wintering, grazing and migration routes plays an important role in protecting this endangered species,” Jribi said.

As well as loggerhead turtles, two other turtle species are found in the Mediterranean, the green and leatherback turtle.

BEIRUT — Fearing visa hassles could cost him his job in Dubai while an economic collapse had dashed any homecoming options, Lebanese executive Jad splurged around $135,000 on a new citizenship for himself and his wife.

Within a month of making the payment last year, the 43-year-old businessman received a small package in his mailbox.

Inside were two navy blue passports from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis — his ticket to visa-free access to more than 150 countries, including in Europe.

This was a major upgrade from the Lebanese passport, which is ranked among the worst in the world and has become nearly impossible to renew because the cash-strapped state is running out of stocks.

“Three years ago, I would not have imagined I would buy a passport,” said Jad, who had previously grappled with lengthy visa procedures for business trips.

“But now because of the situation in Lebanon — and because we can afford it — we finally did it,” he said, asking for his full name to be withheld for privacy reasons.

A Saint Kitts passport ranks 25th in the world while Lebanon languishes at 103rd on the Henley passport index for freedom of travel.

With a population of under 55,000, it started selling citizenships a year after gaining independence in 1983.

Citizenship by investment schemes have become a booming business internationally, attracting the well-to-do from volatile countries like Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

Some EU member states, including Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta, have also operated “golden passport” schemes, but they have run into opposition from the European Commission over the back door they offer to EU citizenship.

Wealthy Lebanese, mostly living in Gulf or African nations, are now among those hunting for passports that offer easier travel and a safety net from the economic crisis at home.

‘Nice country’

Commonwealth Caribbean nations are particularly attractive because of their long-standing schemes offering citizenship within months in exchange for a lump sum.

Applicants are not even required to visit.

When Jad first went to Paris as a Kittitian, officers at passport control told him: “You come from a nice country.”

“But actually I have never been there,” he said.

Jad’s Lebanese friends in the Gulf were also shopping for “island passports” or investing in real estate in Greece and Portugal to obtain residency as part of so-called “golden visa” schemes, he said.

“This is not just a trend. It’s a solution.”

Lebanese expatriates in Gulf Arab states have long borne the brunt of political bickering and rifts between their capitals.

Last year, several Gulf countries cut diplomatic ties with Beirut for months after a Lebanese minister criticised a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.

Kuwait limited the number of visas granted to Lebanese, and many in the diaspora worried other Gulf states would follow suit.

“That made me think: I have a problem here, I don’t want to jeopardise my work in the Gulf,” said Dubai-based businessman Marielli Bou Harb.

The 35-year-old bought Saint Kitts passports for his family of four last year, encouraged by a hefty discount as the COVID-19 pandemic beleaguered the island nation’s tourism-dependent economy.

A single passport usually costs around $150,000, a sum funnelled into a sustainable growth fund for the country, which only installed traffic lights in its capital Basseterre in 2018.

Other Caribbean islands including Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia also sell passports.

‘Buying their freedom’

Few people can afford such a purchase in Lebanon, a country in an economic crisis that has seen the currency nosedive, banks freeze deposits and most of the population fall into poverty.

Yet, demand for foreign citizenship has spurred a boom in passport consultancy, with firms advertising on social media, billboards and even inside Beirut’s airport.

Among them is Global Pass, converted in 2020 from a real estate company after Lebanese started complaining of higher visa rejection rates.

“Our business has grown by at least 40 per cent from 2020 to 2021,” said founder Ziad Karkaji.

Even international firms are raking in a profit.

Jose Charo, who heads the Beirut office of Swiss-based Passport Legacy, said Lebanese now account for one-quarter of the company’s clientele.

Their number has grown fivefold due to the economic crisis that was made worse by a devastating explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020, Charo said.

Having Grenadian citizenship makes applying for a US investor visa easier for businesspeople, he said, while those looking to retire or settle abroad can invest around a quarter of a million dollars in Greece or Portugal to secure permanent residency.

“The industry will keep on growing, unfortunately for this country but fortunately for us,” Charo said.

“They are buying their freedom.”

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court on Sunday adjourned for two weeks the trial of a Briton and a German man accused of trying to smuggle antiquities after a defence lawyer called for more investigations.

James Fitton, 66, a retired British geologist, and Volker Waldmann, 60, a Berlin psychologist, have been in custody since they were arrested on March 20 at Baghdad airport as they wound up their holiday.

According to statements from customs officers and witnesses, Fitton’s baggage contained 10 stone fragments, pieces of pottery or ceramics. Waldmann allegedly had two pieces, but denied they were his.

The two men did not know each other before they travelled to Iraq on an organised tour, and both say they had no intention of breaking the law.

The trial was adjourned until June 6 to allow time for further investigations, at the request of Waldmann’s defence lawyer, Furat Kuba.

During initial investigations, “certain important aspects were not examined”, Kuba said, citing the report of an expert committee that said the fragments found with the men were antiquities.

“We don’t have any more details: what site do these pieces come from? What era, what civilisation do they date back to?” Kuba asked, adding there were also outstanding questions relating to the site where the fragments were collected.

“Is it fenced and protected?” Kuba asked. “Are there signs indicating that these are ancient pieces that it is forbidden to collect?”

Kuba said he wanted the tour guide or an Iraqi official who had been present at the site to give evidence in court as to whether the tourists had received instructions prohibiting them from picking up fragments.

Their trial comes with the war-ravaged country, whose tourism infrastructure is almost non-existent, timidly opening to visitors. 

Iraq has also been trying to recover antiquities that were looted over a period of decades from the country whose civilisation dates back thousands of years.

The judge told the accused they were charged under a 2002 law which provides for sentences up to the death penalty for those guilty of “intentionally taking or trying to take out of Iraq an antiquity”.

Fitton, at the start of the trial, when asked why he tried to take the artefacts out of Iraq, cited his “hobby”, saying he was interested in “geology and ancient history and archeology”, and was not aware that taking the fragments was illegal.

Waldmann has denied the pieces allegedly found in his luggage were his, but they belonged to Fitton.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese security forces killed one protester on Saturday during renewed demonstrations against a military takeover that derailed a transition to civilian rule last year, medics said.

The victim, who was not identified, died as a result of "a bullet to the chest" in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, the pro-democracy Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said in a statement.

The latest death brings to 96 the toll from a crackdown on anti-coup protests which have taken place regularly since the October 25 military putsch led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the committee said.

Saturday's protests came after thousands took to the streets Thursday to oppose the power grab, mainly in Khartoum but also elsewhere, renewing demands for civilian rule.

About 100 people were injured during Thursday's demonstrations, according to the doctors' committee.

At the same time two leading anti-coup figures from Sudan's Communist Party were arrested. They were released on Friday.

The United Nations, along with the African Union and regional bloc IGAD, have been pushing to facilitate Sudanese-led talks to resolve the crisis after the latest coup in the northeast African country, one of the world's poorest.

But civilian forces have refused to enter negotiations involving the military, while Burhan has repeatedly threatened to expel UN envoy Volker Perthes, accusing him of "interference" in the country's affairs.

In late March Perthes said Sudan was heading towards "an economic and security collapse" unless its civilian-led transition was restored.