Region

WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday denounced controversial comments by two Israeli ministers who said Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate from Gaza and for Zionist settlers to return to the besieged territory.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington "rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza".

"This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible," added Miller, who reiterated the "clear, consistent, and unequivocal" US position that "Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel".

Ben Gvir, Israel's firebrand national security minister, had called on Monday for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents".

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the territory's borders.

The government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested it has any plans to evict Gazans or to send Zionist settlers back to the territory since the current war broke out on October 7.

But Ben Gvir argued that the departure of Palestinians and re-establishment of Israeli settlements “is a correct, just, moral and humane solution”.

“This is an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza’s residents to emigrate to countries around the world,” he told a meeting of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power”, party.

His comments came the day after Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, equally saying Israel should “encourage” the territory’s approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to leave.

With heavy combat raging on, 85 per cent of people in the besieged Gaza Strip have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations.

BEIRUT — A large hole is gaping in a three-storey building and debris litters the street amid charred cars in south Beirut where a strike blamed on Israel killed the deputy leader of Hamas.

The day after loud blasts ripped through the district from the drone attack that killed Saleh Al Aruri, armed men of Hizbollah were standing guard in the mainly Shiite Muslim area that is their stronghold.

Local residents said they were surprised to learn that their busy street in the Lebanese capital housed the secretive Hamas bureau in a non-descript building next to a pharmacy and a sweets shop.

Israel has not claimed the deadly attack but Hamas, the group behind the October 7 sudden attack and Lebanese officials have no doubt it was Israel who killed Aruri and six Hamas operatives.

Beirut's southern suburbs have long been a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hizbollah armed group, but it is also an overcrowded residential area packed with civilians, shops and restaurants.

"No one knew that there was a Hamas office here," said Ahmed, 40, who works in the nearby sweets shop. "I heard three explosions, at first I thought it was thunder," he told AFP in disbelief.

Shopkeepers were sweeping glass shards off the road near the impact site on Hadi Nasrallah street, named after Hizbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah's late son, who was killed in fighting with Israel in 1997.

The Lebanese army cordoned off the perimeter and Hizbollah militants dressed in black civilian clothing kept watch nearby.

"Three Israeli drone strikes targeted the building," said a Hizbollah official who requested anonymity citing security concerns.

Rescuers affiliated with Hizbollah rummaged through the remains of cars damaged or charred by the strikes, in an empty lot facing the building.

“I was at the dentist’s, a few metres away,” said resident Mohammad Burji, 46, who lambasted Israel for striking “in the middle of a residential area”.

Beirut’s southern suburbs have “been caught in the past in a war of annihilation, just like Gaza”, he said, referring to heavy bombing during the 2006 war between Hizbollah and Israel.

Aruri, one of Hamas’s main military strategists, was the first senior official of the movement killed during the Gaza war, in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.

Israel has accused him of masterminding numerous attacks.

After spending nearly two decades in Israeli prisons, Aruri was freed in 2010 on the condition he went into exile.

Local police captain Ali Farran said residents who have lived through the 2006 war “are now expecting the worst”, adding that the predominantly Shiite Muslim area is home to 800,000 people.

Several exiled Hamas leaders have found refuge in Lebanon, under the protection of their ally Hizbollah.

‘Serious assault’ 

On Tuesday, Hizbollah warned that Aruri’s killing in their stronghold was “a serious assault on Lebanon” that “will not go unanswered or unpunished”.

Nasrallah was expected to give a highly anticipated television address later Wednesday.

Amid the Gaza war, Israel and Hizbollah have traded near-daily cross border fire.

More than 160 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hizbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, at least five civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.

BEIRUT — UN peacekeeping forces in on Lebanon warned on Wednesday that increased hostilities could prove "devastating", a day after a presumed Israeli strike killed Hamas's deputy leader in a Hizbollah stronghold in Beirut.

"We are deeply concerned at any potential for escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides," said UNIFIL deputy spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel.

"We continue to implore all parties cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint."

The strike on Tuesday killed Saleh Al Aruri, deputy head of Hamas, in Beirut's southern suburbs, two Lebanese security officials told AFP, blaming Israel.

Hamas, at war with Israel in Gaza for almost three months, confirmed Aruri's death, which Lebanese state media said came in an Israeli drone strike that also killed six others.

Hamas said Aruri would be buried on Thursday in Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp.

The attack marked an escalation in the nearly three-month-old war.

Hizbollah has been exchanging near-daily border fire with Israel since the Hamas-Israel war broke out on October 7.

More than 160 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hizbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.

Aruri, one of Hamas’s principal military strategists, was the first senior official of the movement killed during the war.

The strike was also the first on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah group, a Hamas ally, warned that the killing “will not go unanswered or unpunished”.

The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was set to give a much-awaited televised speech on Wednesday.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters amid the ruins of the heavily-bombed Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the war raging for almost three months piled new miseries on Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry said 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the past 24 hours during Israeli raids.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel had struck its headquarters in Khan Yunis, "resulting in several fatalities", and the health ministry said four people were killed including an infant.

UN agencies have voiced alarm over Gaza's spiralling humanitarian crisis as 2.4 million people live under siege and bombardment, most of them displaced and many huddling in shelters and tents amid dire food shortages.

Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the past 24 hours during Israeli raids.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel had struck its headquarters in Khan Yunis, “resulting in several fatalities”, and the health ministry said four people were killed including an infant.

UN agencies have voiced alarm over Gaza’s spiralling humanitarian crisis as 2.4 million people live under siege and bombardment, most of them displaced and many huddling in shelters and tents amid dire food shortages.

“Living conditions... are just hopeless,” said Mostafa Shennar, 43, who fled Gaza City, now a largely devastated urban combat zone, and has been living in the crowded southern border town of Rafah.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and warned the war may continue “throughout 2024” as efforts toward a ceasefire have so far yielded no results.

Army probes prisoner death 

The Israeli forces says 173 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in the battle against Hamas.

The Israeli forces said on Tuesday it was investigating a soldier suspected of shooting dead a Palestinian captured in the Gaza Strip.

Throughout its bloodiest ever Gaza war, Israel has had the backing of its key ally the United States, which has however also urged greater restraint to spare civilian lives.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which includes far-right and hardline nationalist groups, has said repeatedly it will keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

As 2024 started, a long-running political dispute flared again after setting off mass street protests last year against what is considered the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

The supreme court overruled a key plank of a judicial reform package that Netanyahu has defended as rebalancing the powers of politicians and judges, but which protesters have labelled a threat to Israel’s liberal democracy.

The setback on the so-called reasonableness clause dealt a political blow to the wartime government already under fire over the intelligence failure leading up to October 7.

Some reservists to go home 

The Israeli forces said on Monday it would soon rotate out some of the more than 300,000 reservists called up after October 7, in part to prepare them for many more months of war ahead.

It said reservists from two brigades, which have some 4,000 troops each, will start returning home this week.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also said some residents “will soon be able to return home” to towns and villages near Gaza that were attacked by Hamas and then evacuated.

The government has so far refused to specify its plans for post-war Gaza and how it will be rebuilt and governed.

US news outlet Axios, citing unnamed Israeli sources, said Hamas had presented Israel with a proposal on Sunday for a new hostage exchange deal via Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The official told Axios the proposal had been deemed unacceptable by the Israeli war cabinet, but suggested progress could be made towards a more amenable plan in future.

Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank, where at least 321 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers since the Gaza war began, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.

In the latest clash Tuesday, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, the ministry said.

MOGADISHU — Somalia vowed on Tuesday to defend its territory by "any legal means" and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia after Addis Ababa struck a controversial deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Mogadishu branded Monday's surprise pact that gives Ethiopia long-sought access to the Red Sea a "clear violation" of its sovereignty and appealed to the international community to stand by its side.

The Addis Ababa deal was announced only days after Somalia's central government had agreed to resume dialogue with the separatist northern region after years of stalemate.

Somaliland has been seeking full statehood since claiming independence from Somalia in 1991, a move fiercely opposed by Mogadishu and not recognised internationally.

The "historic" memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi gives Ethiopia access to the Red Sea port of Berbera and a military base.

“Somaliland is part of Somalia under the Somali constitution so Somalia finds this step to be a clear violation against its sovereignty and unity,” the Somali Cabinet said in a statement.

It said the agreement was “null and void with no legal basis and Somalia will not accept it”.

“In response to this, the Somali government has recalled its ambassador in Ethiopia for consultation.”

The government also said it was appealing to the United Nations, African Union, the Arab League and regional East African grouping IGAD among others “to stand with the right for Somalia to defend its sovereignty and force Ethiopia to adhere to international laws”.

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Barre called for the people of Somalia to stay calm.

“I want to assure you that we are committed to defending the country, we will not allow an inch of land, sea and skies to be violated,” he said.

“We will defend our land with any legal means possible... We must unite and forget about our differences to defend our land, integrity and sovereignty.”

There was no immediate comment from the Ethiopian government to Somalia’s reaction. 

The deal comes months after Abiy said his country, Africa’s second most populous, would assert its right to access the Red Sea, sparking concerns among its neighbours.

Ethiopia was cut off from the coast after Eritrea seceded and declared independence in 1993 following a three-decade war.

Addis Ababa had maintained access to a port in Eritrea until the two countries went to war in 1998-2000, and since then Ethiopia funnels most of its trade through Djibouti. 

Ethiopia’s economy has been constrained by its lack of access to the Red Sea, a narrow strip of water between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

On the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, the port of Berbera offers an African base at the gateway to the Red Sea and further north to the Suez canal. 

Abiy’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein said Ethiopia would have access to a leased military base on the Red Sea as part of the agreement. 

It was not clear when the pact would take effect. 

In 2018, Ethiopia acquired a 19-per cent stake in the Berbera Port, according to Dubai-based DP World, which manages the port’s operations.

The company itself holds a 51-per cent stake, while Somaliland has the remaining 30 percent.

On Friday, Somalia and Somaliland agreed to resume dialogue after two days of talks mediated by Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh, the first of their kind since 2020 when similar negotiations stalled.

The deal was welcomed by IGAD, which Somalia joined only in November, and the British embassy which described it as a “vital step towards reconciliation”.

Somaliland, a former British protectorate with 4.5 million people, prints its own currency, issues its own passports and elects its own government.

Although Somaliland has often been seen as a beacon of stability in the chaotic Horn of Africa region, its quest for statehood has gone unrecognised internationally, leaving it poor and isolated.

Political tensions also surfaced there last year, spilling over into deadly violence.