WASHINGTON: The United States rejected the inflammatory and irresponsible statements from Israeli Ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir and clarified there should be no mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
Far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich said this week that Israel should “encourage emigration” from the coastal enclave, home to an estimated 2.3 million Palestinians.
“If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after [the war ends] will be totally different,” Smotrich said on Sunday, calling for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians.
The Israeli army has said it is “prepared for any scenario” after a strike in Beirut that killed Hamas’s deputy chief, stoking fears the war in the Gaza Strip could boil over into wider regional conflict.
A high-level security official in Lebanon told foreign news agency that Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in a strike by Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement’s shock October 7 attacks.
A second security official confirmed the information, while Hamas TV also reported Israel had killed Aruri in Lebanon.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on the killing, but said afterwards that the military was in “very high state of readiness in all arenas, in defence and offence. We are highly prepared for any scenario.”
Israel has previously announced the deaths in Gaza of Hamas commanders and officials during the war, but Aruri is the most high-profile figure to be killed, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.
The strike adds to widespread fears that the nearly three-month-old Israel-Hamas war could become a wider regional conflagration.
Hamas said Aruri’s death would not lead to its defeat, while its Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah vowed the killing would not go unpunished, calling it “a serious assault on Lebanon… and a dangerous development”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killing and said it “aims to draw Lebanon” further into the war.
Aruri, who lived in exile, is accused by Israel of masterminding numerous attacks.
Following his death, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said that a movement “whose leaders fall as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeated”.
Hamas’s bloody October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians.
Militants also took around 250 hostages back to Hamas-ruled Gaza, of whom 129 remain in captivity, according to Israeli figures.
After the attack, the worst in its history, Israel began a relentless bombardment and ground offensive that has killed at least 22,185 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
– Red Crescent struck –
Israel’s army said soldiers in Gaza had killed “dozens of terrorists” in fighting on Tuesday, and had also raided a weapons storage compound in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
In the aftermath of a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinians rushed to rescue victims and retrieve bodies from the rubble.
“There are about 12 martyrs until now, mostly children. What was their fault? Among them my one-month-old son, what did he do to Israel?” asked Ghazi Darwish. “My other son is five years old, he was also martyred.”
Further south in Khan Yunis, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel had twice struck its headquarters, resulting in “five casualties and three injuries” among displaced people who had sought refuge there and at a nearby hospital.
“They told us to go to the south, which is safe, but they are liars,” shouted Fathi al-Af, pointing to his wounded dau…
[6:26 pm, 03/01/2024] Pt Boss: @Manal Jaffery (Abrar)
[6:26 pm, 03/01/2024] Pt Boss: Appellate tribunal orders RO to approve nomination papers of PTI’s Umair Niazi
RAWALPINDI, Jan 03 (INP): An appellate tribunal on Wednesday set aside the decision of returning officer (RO) regarding rejection of nomination papers of PTI’s Umair Niazi in National Assembly constituency NA-89 and NA-90 and ordered inclusion of his name in the list of candidates.
Umair filed appeals against the rejection of his nomination papers from both the constituencies from Mianwali.
Appellate tribunal judge Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz while hearing the appeals, wondered why the returning officer rejected papers on petty grounds.
The tribunal ordered the returning officer to approve the nomination papers of Umair and add his name to the list of candidates.
Barrister Lamia Niazi and Advocate Jawwad Asghar represented Umair before the tribunal.
