Region

OCCUPIED JESRUALEM — Israel said Monday it had formally notified the United Nations of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation.

"On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"UNRWA, the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution," Katz was quoted as saying.

Israel's parliament last month approved a proposal to shut down UNRWA's operations in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite condemnation from the international community, including its ally the United States.

The ban on the UN agency -- which has provided essential aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades -- would be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if implemented, according to experts.

But Katz dismissed the argument, saying only a part of aid was being delivered into Gaza by UNRWA.

"The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel," Katz said.

In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA's Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, which sparked the deadliest war in the territory.

A series of probes found some "neutrality related issues" at UNRWA, and determined that nine employees "may have been involved" in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence for Israel's central allegations.

The ban has also raised fears UNRWA employees in the occupied West Bank could potentially face problems moving from one place to another as well as accessing east Jerusalem or Israel because they would lose their ability to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints. 

The same fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities. 

UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all the territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war.

TEHRAN — Thousands of Iranians rallied Sunday by the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the 1979 hostage crisis, burning American flags and ridiculing Joe Biden and Donald Trump just two days before the US presidential election.

"There's no difference between Biden and Trump, between the donkey and the elephant," said protester Saber Danaie, 23, of the animal mascots that represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States. 

"They both follow the same policy," said the construction worker, as a giant puppet meant to represent US President Joe Biden hung over the crowd.

A picture of his predecessor Donald Trump, who hopes to beat his rival Kamala Harris and win the American presidential election on Tuesday, lay trampled on the ground.

Sunday's rally commemorated the 1979 hostage crisis, which began nine months after the Islamic revolution led by Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Students loyal to Khomeini stormed the embassy compound and held 52 staff hostage for 444 days while demanding that Washington hand over Iran's recently toppled shah, who was being treated in the United States for cancer.

Washington officially broke off relations with Tehran in 1980, midway through the crisis, and they have been frozen ever since.

Iran celebrates the event every year in Tehran in front of the former embassy that has been transformed into a museum known as the "Den of Spies".

 'Destruction of Israel' 

"Death to America, death to Israel!" chanted crowds of Iranians, including many schoolchildren and students, as they sang revolutionary songs outside the building.

The embassy's seizure has shaped relations between the United States and Iran for decades, with Tehran considering it an act of defiance against what they describe as the "global arrogance" of the West.

Israel's war with Palestinian militants Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, two militant groups supported financially and militarily by Tehran, took centre stage at the rally.

Demonstrators brandished portraits of prominent figures, including slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut, as well as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"I am here for the destruction of Israel and America," Hassani, a 42-year-old civil servant who did not wish to give his full name, told AFP.

"Criminal America is at the root of all these wars and all this hatred" in the region, he said.

Nearby, a mural depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu digging his country's grave.

Iran does not recognise Israel and considers it an extension of the United States in the Middle East.

 Difficult relations 

Iranian leaders have made support for the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of their foreign policy since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979.

The presidential campaigns of both Harris and Trump have been closely followed in Iran.

However, most of the Iranians AFP spoke to on Sunday said the vote's outcome is unlikely to mend relations between the two countries.

"Relations between Iran and America cannot return to normal," said Mohammadi, a 40-year-old housewife, who gave only her last name.

"We have repeatedly shown America our honesty" to improve relations "but America does not care," she said, cloaked in a black chador.

Iran, subject to significant international sanctions, reached an agreement with the major powers in 2015 to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions.

But the pact was torpedoed three years later under Trump whose administration withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions.

"It doesn't matter who the next American president is," said a woman at the protest, who asked that AFP not identify her.

"We have never liked any of them and that won't change now." 

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — At least 13 people were shot dead on Sunday in an attack blamed on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Al-Jazira state south of Khartoum, a medical source told AFP.

"Thirteen people were killed as a result of the Rapid Support Forces opening fire on civilians in the town of Al-Hilaliya in eastern Al-Jazira state," about 70 kilometres  north of the state capital Wad Madani, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Sudan's Al-Jazira state has become a key battleground following the defection of RSF commander Abu Aqla Kaykal.

Kaykal recently joined the Sudanese army, along with what the military described as "a large number" of his troops, in the first high-ranking defection from the RSF. 

According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the RSF launched major attacks across eastern parts of Al-Jazira state between October 20 and 25.

The paramilitaries allegedly committed mass killings, sexual assaults, extensive looting of markets and homes and widespread farm burnings, Nkweta-Salami said.

The UN official described these "atrocious crimes" as mirroring those documented in Darfur last year, where the RSF was accused of human rights abuses such as "rape, targeted attacks, sexual violence and mass killings".

The conflict in Sudan erupted in mid-April 2023 between the regular army led by the country's de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands and displacing more than 11 million.

OCCUPPIED JERUSALEM — Senior US officials were to meet their Israeli counterparts Thursday to discuss a possible deal to end the conflict in Lebanon and secure Israel's northern border from Hezbollah attacks.

Less than a week before the US presidential election, Washington's envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk were expected in Israel and Israeli forces continued their fierce ground and air campaign against Hizbollah targets in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed optimism about a ceasefire in "the coming hours or days" and Hizbollah's new leader Naim Qassem said the group would accept a truce under certain conditions.

According to Israeli media reports citing government sources, the plan brokered by the US team would see Hizbollah forces retreat around 30 kilometres from the border, north of the Litani river.

Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and the Lebanese army would then take charge of the border, alongside UN peacekeepers. 

Lebanon would be responsible for preventing Hizbollah from rearming itself with imported weapons, and Israel would retain its rights under international law to act in self-defence.

 'Sharp conclusion' -

Diplomatic efforts are also underway to agree a short halt to fighting in Gaza, where Israel is pummelling the remnants of Hamas, more than a year after the group launched its unprecedented attack on Israel.

But on Thursday, senior Hamas official Taher Al Nunu told AFP that the group rejected the idea of a short-term pause in the fighting mooted by US and Qatari mediators.

Mediators had hoped that a short pause would create a window to bring in humanitarian aid to Gaza's desperate civilian population and to negotiate a permanent ceasefire. But Hamas rejected this.

"The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one," Nunu said.

Any deal to stabilise Israel's front with Lebanon is likely to come first, ahead of any ceasefire for Gaza. 

Last week, Israel's chief of general staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said: "In the north, there's a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion."

On Thursday, Israel pressed its onslaught in Lebanon, which analysts say has put it in a position of strength to strike a deal.

The Israeli military issued an evacuation call for civilians in several areas of southern Lebanon, including the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidieh. 

Previous such warnings in recent days have been swiftly followed by deadly air strikes, and several bombings were reported near the coastal city of Tyre shortly after it was issued.

Syrian state media and an independent war monitor reported that Israel had carried out a strike across Lebanon's border in the Qusayr area. 

Three people were killed, according to the Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, when the attack hit "a weapons depot and a fuel storage facility for Hezbollah in the industrial city of Qusayr". 

Hizbollah meanwhile kept up its rocket fire on Israel. A rocket strike in the northern town of Metula killed a local farmer and four foreign farm workers, regional council head David Azoulai told AFP.

Hizbollah named Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday, following the assassination of his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah by Israel in a massive air strike last month.

In his first speech since taking over, Qassem said Hizbollah could continue to resist Israeli air and ground attacks in Lebanon for months.

But he also opened the door to a negotiated truce, if presented with an Israeli offer.

"If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable," he said.

Air strikes 

The war in Lebanon began late last month, nearly a year after Hizbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday that the war in Lebanon has caused the death of a least one child per day and wounded an average of 10 since October 4. 

Israel's military says it has lost 37 soldiers in Lebanon since ground operations began on September 30.

AMMAN — Israel has issued an evacuation order for Baalbek and its surrounding areas in eastern Lebanon, as it prepares to conduct military operations targeting Iran-backed Hizbollah facilities in the region.

The area is home to 250,000 inhabitants and to one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the world. 

"For your safety and that of your family, you must immediately evacuate your homes and move out of the city and the villages," the Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X platform, with a map indicating the routes to take for evacuation.

This marks the first city-wide evacuation warning since Israeli strikes began on Lebanon on September 23. 

An AFP correspondent reported that panic swept through Baalbek as residents rushed to flee, their vehicles packed with mattresses and belongings. 

“The city is almost empty,” the correspondent noted, as civil defence vehicles urged immediate evacuation over loudspeakers in the city and its mosques and churches. 

The situation escalated sharply on Monday, with at least 60 fatalities reported from Israeli airstrikes across several towns in the Bekaa Valley, marking the deadliest day in over a year, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Baalbek’s Mayor Bachir Khodr condemned the violence as “the most violent day in Baalbek since the beginning of the aggression,” stating that people remain trapped under the rubble. 

Reports from Lebanese media claimed that two historical walls in the ancient city, dating back to the French Mandate and the Ottoman period, were destroyed by the bombings, marking the first time since the escalation of the conflict on October 7 that Israeli bombings have come so close to the citadel of Baalbek. 

The evacuation map includes the UNESCO-listed Roman temple complex, a major archaeological site. 

The monumental ensemble of Baalbek is considered, according to UNESCO, as one of the most impressive testimonies of Roman architecture, containing some of the largest Roman temples ever built and among the best preserved. 

Israeli strikes have increasingly approached the ancient citadel, previously hitting areas up to 700 metres away. 

The recent bombings and evacuation orders have raised concerns over the preservation of this important cultural heritage site.