Shahjahan Never Constructed Taj Mahal: PIL In Delhi HC, Seeking Removal of “Wrong Historical Facts” Related to Its Construction
New Age Islam News Bureau
03 November 2023
Taj Mahal
----
India
·
Lecture On Palestine Conflict
at Haryana University Sparks Row; BJP Leaders Allege the Event Was in Support
of The Hamas
·
BJP Leader Calls
Masjid-Gurdwara Growth ‘Problematic’, SGPC Condemns
·
India Stands with Israel
Against Hamas Terror, With Palestine for 2-State Solution, Says Jaishankar
·
Gyanvapi survey complete, ASI tells
Varanasi court
·
Three Years On, Vellore Jail
Mosque Opens Doors to Inmates
·
Admn roping in Imams to fight
drug menace in Kashmir
-----
Pakistan
·
Govt Exempts Afghan Children,
Women from Verification
·
IHC issues notices to govt in
Imran’s appeal against jail trial
·
Deportees from KP fear ‘alien
life’ in Afghanistan
·
NAB court summons Zardari in
another graft case
·
Siraj wants Pak-Afghan joint
strategy for repatriation of illegal immigrants
------
North America
·
Students Walk Out of Hillary
Clinton’s Class To Protest Columbia University’s ‘Shaming’ Of Pro-Palestinian
Supporters
·
US military bases in northern
Iraq, eastern Syria targeted by explosive-laden drones
·
US flying drones over Gaza in
search of hostages
·
House approves nearly $14.5
billion in US military aid for Israel without humanitarian aid for Gaza
·
Top US Diplomat Lands in Israel
to Press for Pauses in Gaza War
------
Europe
·
Spanish MP Confirms What
Happening In Gaza Genocide, Calls For Sanctions Against Zionist Officials
·
French defence minister fears
‘untenable situation’ for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon
·
‘Come Dine for Palestine’
Fundraising Gala To Take Place In London
·
Umrah agents to discuss
transformation of services offered to pilgrims from UK
------
Mideast
·
Jordan's King Visits Qatar,
Bahrain, UAE To Discuss Gaza War
·
Hezbollah leader set to weigh
in on Middle East war
·
Israeli strike near UN school
in Jabaliya kills dozens after hospital carnage
·
Gaza: Death toll rises to 9061,
Bahrain cuts ties with Tel Aviv
·
Bahrain 'halts' economic
relations with Israel over war on Gaza: Parliament
·
Gaza Strip: Israeli ground
troops meet Hamas resistance, Palestinian death toll mounts
·
UAE warns against risk of
regional spillover from Gaza war
·
Thousands of Muslims in Serbia
hold rally in solidarity with Palestine
·
Zionist forces kill several
Palestinians across occupied WB
·
Supreme Committee for
Supporting Al-Aqsa calls for widespread participation in the solidarity marches
with Gaza, on Friday
·
Thousands of Gazan workers sent
back from Israel
·
Israeli diplomat sees possible
foreign hospital ships for Gaza wounded
·
Turkiye ready to take cancer
patients from Gaza hospital
------
Africa
·
Dozens Of Burkina Localities
Besieged by Armed Jihadist Groups: Amnesty
·
Wike Approves Funds for
Maintenance of Nat’l Mosque, Christian Centre
·
Lagos riverine community
decries alleged incursion, harassment, looting by police, land grabbers
·
‘Horrible suffering’ in Sudan
only growing as more displaced: UN official
·
Ethiopia: CBE Says Providing
Muslim Community with Auxiliary Banking Service
------
Arab World
·
Saudi Arabia Launches
Fundraising Campaign To Aid Palestinians In Gaza
·
Saudi Arabia Participates in AI
Safety Summit in London
·
UN special representative for
children and armed conflict received in Riyadh
·
Saudi, Colombian foreign
ministers discuss Gaza conflict during call
·
Islamic Forum for Halal
Accreditation Bodies Holds 1st Meeting in Makkah
·
SDAIA President, British AI
Minister Discuss Enhancing Cooperation at AI Safety Summit
------
South Asia
·
Pakistan's Expulsion of Afghan
Refugees Continues to Spark Intl Reactions
·
Islami Andolan Bangladesh rally
underway in Dhaka
·
Acting Defence Minister warns
Pakistan ‘sow as much as you can reap’
·
Aid Organizations report
concerns about expelled Afghan migrants from Pakistan
·
More Than 3,000 Afghan migrants
return home from Iran
------
Southeast Asia
·
Amid Accusation ofIsrael Endorsement,
PKR Denies Being Part OfLiberal International
·
In forum, Singaporean Muslims
ponder ‘sense of helplessness’ in Gaza and boycott of Israel-linked firms
·
Verdict in Isa Samad’s appeal
against graft conviction, jail sentence on Nov 28
·
Govt monitoring US Bill
regarding sanctions against foreign supporters of Hamas
·
Malaysians' boycott of
Israeli-linked businesses earns praise from Palestinian ambassador
Compiled by
New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/shahjahan-pil-historical-taj-mahal/d/131041
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Shahjahan Never Constructed Taj Mahal:
PIL In Delhi HC, Seeking Removal of “Wrong Historical Facts” Related to Its
Construction
Taj Mahal
----
November 2, 2023
New Delhi: A Public Interest Litigation
(PIL) has been moved in the Delhi High Court, seeking the removal of what is
claimed to be “wrong historical facts” related to the construction of the Taj
Mahal by Shah Jahan from history books used in schools and colleges.
“To issue writ of mandamus commanding
the respondents to remove wrong historical facts related to construction of Taj
Mahal by Shahjahan from the books of history and text books referred in the
schools, colleges, universities and other institutions,” the PIL urges the
court.
Surjit Singh Yadav, the President of the
NGO Hindu Sena S, has sought court’s direction to the Respondent to bring in
public domain the correct historical facts relating to the existence of the
palace of Raja Man Singh on the land where Taj Mahal exists and also to
incorporate the correct historical fact that “Shahjahan never constructed Taj
Mahal except carried out the renovation of the palace of Raja Man Singh.”
He has argued that there is no
historical evidence supporting the demolition of Raja Man Singh’s palace and
the subsequent construction of the Taj Mahal on the same site.
The PIL by Yadav seeks a court direction
for the Archaeological Survey of India to investigate the age of the Taj Mahal
and the existence of Raja Man Singh’s palace as of December 31, 1631, and to
submit a report to the court.
“To issue direction to the Archeological
Survey of India to carry out investigation about the age of Taj Mahal including
existence of palace of Raja Man Singh… on the site of Taj Mahal, in Agra and to
file a report before this Hon’ble Court.”
Furthermore, the petitioner requests
that the Central Government publish the correct history of Raja Man Singh’s
palace, which was allegedly renovated by Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1638,
citing the book “Padshahnama” authored by Abdul Hamid Lahori and Qazwini.
“… to publish the correct history of the
palace of Raja Man Singh (which had been renovated by Shahjahan w.e.f. 1632 to
1638) and these facts can be culled out from the book namely Padshahnama
authored by court chroniclers historian Abdul Hamid Lahori &Qazwini
respectively,” PIL says.
Yadav claims that the information
presented in the plea is derived from public records, RTI applications,
websites, and historical books.
The plea argues that people have a right
to know the true historical facts about the construction of the Taj Mahal, and
any non-disclosure or dissemination of incorrect information would violate
Article 21 and Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
The petitioner also disputes the
information provided by the Archaeological Survey of India on its website,
asserting that it took approximately 17 years to complete the Taj Mahal in
1648, while claiming that the Tomb of Mumtaz Mahal was nearly complete by 1638.
Therefore, the PIL contends that the
commonly propagated historical fact about the 17-year construction period of
the Taj Mahal is factually incorrect.
The respondents in the PIL include the
Central Government, the Archaeological Survey of India, the National Archives
of India, and the State of Uttar Pradesh. — IANS
Source: muslimmirror.com
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https://muslimmirror.com/eng/shahajhan-never-constructed-taj-mahal-pil-in-delhi-hc/
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Collection, Utilisation of Islamic
Donations: Non-Profit Associations Asked to Obtain ‘Fatwa’ from Shariah Advisor
Securities
and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
---
November 03, 2023
ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange
Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has directed the charitable/non-profit
associations to obtain a Shariah opinion in the form of a Fatwa from a
registered Shariah Advisor for collection and utilization of Islamic donations.
The SECP has issued an SRO 1513(I)/2023
to amend Associations with Charitable and Not for Profit Objects Regulations,
2018 here on Thursday.
According to the SECP’s revised
regulations, it shall be the responsibility of the company to arrange a Shariah
opinion in the form of a Fatwa from a Shariah Advisor registered with the
Commission for collection and utilisation of such Islamic donations, which
shall be duly annexed with the audited financial statements of the company.
The company shall not exploit or offend
the religious susceptibilities of the people and ensure that Islamic donations,
including but not limited to Zakat, Sadaqah or in any other form, shall not be
received, invested, or utilized by it in any way that is contrary to the
Shariah principles.
The company shall clearly disclose its
policy for receipt, investment and utilization of Islamic donations in the
financial statements and shall also disclose amount of such donations and
avenues where utilized, SECP added.
Source: brecorder.com
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the full text of the original
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40271465/collection-utilisation-of-islamic-donations-charitable-bodies-npas-asked-to-obtain-fatwa
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US Intelligence Thinks Russia’s Wagner
Mercenary Plans to Send Air Defence System To Hezbollah — WSJ
Russia's
Wagner mercenary group
-----
November 03, 2023
MOSCOW: The United States has
intelligence that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah,
the Iranian backed Lebanese militia, an air defense system, The Wall Street
Journal reported, citing unidentified US officials.
The Journal said Wagner plans to supply
the Pantsir-S1 system, known by NATO as the SA-22, which uses anti-aircraft
missiles and air-defense guns to intercept aircraft.
Wagner Group, which was funded by the
Russian state and has been brought firmly under Kremlin control since an
aborted mutiny by its former leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in June, did not reply
to a request for comment from Reuters.
One unidentified US official quoted by
the Journal said that Washington had not confirmed that the system had been
sent. But US officials are monitoring discussions involving Wagner and
Hezbollah, the Journal said.
The Journal said that the Pantsir system
would be provided to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russia propped up President
Bashar Assad by entering the civil war there in 2015.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded
Hezbollah in 1982, in the middle of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. It was part of
Iran’s effort to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution around the region and fight
Israeli forces after their 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been exchanging
fire with Israeli forces across the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas in
Gaza and Israel went to war on Oct. 7.
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the full text of the original
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402551/middle-east
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Britain's Biggest Mosque, Baitul Futuh
Mosque, To Unite Faiths in Prayer for Peace in The Wake of The War on Gaza
An injured
Palestinian boy cries as rescuers try to pull him out of the rubble of a
destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza
Strip, November 2, 2023
------
NOVEMBER 2, 2023
BRITAIN’S biggest mosque is uniting
faiths and communities in London this weekend to pray for peace in the wake of
the war on Gaza.
The national event on November 5 at the
Baitul Futuh Mosque will see a focus on interfaith solidarity and prayers for
justice and humanity.
It will bring together Jews, Christians,
Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others including people of no faith.
The event will send out a powerful
message that peace is the core of all faiths and that true believers are united
in saving lives regardless of creed, organisers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community UK said.
National president Rafiq Hayat said:
“What Hamas did was completely against the teachings of Islam.
“The action taken by Israel is also
exceeding all limits and we are seeing the unfolding of a humanitarian tragedy.
“By coming together, we reinforce
[inter-faith values of peace] and call upon those in power to promote these
values thereby bringing to an end this horrific conflict.”
The event will also call for an
immediate ceasefire, provision of humanitarian aid and a de-escalation.
Source: morningstaronline.co.uk
Please click the following URL to read
the full text of the original
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britains-biggest-mosque-unite-faiths-prayer-peace
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US, Allies Sacrificing Intl. Peace,
Human Rights For Sake Of Israel’s Interests: Iran
Iran's
foreign ministry spokesman
-----
03 November 2023
The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign
Ministry has strongly condemned the deadly Israeli airstrike against Bureij
refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, stating that the United States and its allies
have sacrificed international peace and human rights for the sake of Israel’s
interests.
“It is glaringly evident that the United
States, alongside a limited number of countries, has effectively taken hostage
the #UnitedNations and the Security Council, prioritizing the interests of the
racist and criminal Israeli regime at the expense of international peace,
security, and #HumanRights,” Nasser Kan’ani wrote in a post published on X,
formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday evening.
Gazan authorities say at least 15 people
have been killed in a Thursday Israeli air strike on the Bureij camp, located
in the center of the Gaza Strip. A spokesperson for Gaza Civil Defense said the
strike hit a residential building, and residents reported scores of people
trapped beneath the rubble.
The air strike came as the regime
continues relentless attacks that have so far claimed the lives of at least
9,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip.
Kan'ani stressed that supporters of
Israel are complicit in its "war crimes" in Gaza. “The culpability of
the authorities within these governments is as substantial as that of the
Zionist regime in the perpetration of these egregious war crimes in Gaza,
necessitating their accountability.”
The top Iranian diplomat highlighted
that the Israeli strike on Bureij refugee camp, marking the third bombing of a
camp in as many days, “vividly showcases the depth of the atrocities and loss
of life.”
Hamas says the Israeli regime is engaged
in committing "massacre of the century" in the Gaza Strip.
“The overwhelming majority of countries,
governments, and global nations are calling for an immediate cessation of
hostilities and an end to the wanton and destructive assaults perpetrated by
the Zionist regime against the defenseless Gazans.
“Notably, this plea is echoed
universally, save for the American government and a select few European
governments, persistently engaging in interventions under the false pretext of
championing human rights,” Kan’ani said.
Bureij refugee camp situated in central
Gaza is home to about 46,000 Palestinian refugees, who are registered with the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
This comes as the US House of
Representatives has passed a plan to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel,
despite Democrats in the Senate saying it had no chance of passing, and the
White House promising to veto it.
The plan passed by 226 to 196, with
mostly Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against. It was the
first major legislation to be brought forward under new Republican Speaker Mike
Johnson.
President Joe Biden has asked Congress
to approve a wider $106bn emergency package including funding for Israel,
Taiwan and Ukraine. However, Republican lawmakers were keen to separate the
issue of aid to Israel.
Over 20,000 injured Palestinians trapped
in Gaza with ‘limited access to healthcare’: Report
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer,
majority leader of the Senate, said he would not bring the bill up for a vote.
The $14.3bn in funds include billions
for Israel's military, including $4bn for procurement of Israel's Iron Dome and
David's Sling defense systems to counter Palestinian retaliatory rocket
attacks.
The brutal war that the Israeli regime
has been waging against the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7 has so far
claimed the lives of nearly 9,061 people, including 3,700 children and more
than 2,300 women.
The regime launched the war after Gaza's
resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation
against the occupying entity in years.
Source: presstv.ir
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the full text of the original
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/11/03/713914/US-allies-have-sacrificed-intl-peace-human-rights-for-sake-of-Israel%E2%80%99s-interests-Iran-FM-spox
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India
Lecture On Palestine Conflict at Haryana
University Sparks Row; BJP Leaders Allege the Event Was in Support of The Hamas
November 2, 2023
New Delhi: A lecture on the
Israel-Palestine conflict organised at a private university in Haryana’s
Sonepat triggered a controversy on Wednesday with some BJP leaders sharing
video clips of it to allege that the event was in support of the Hamas.
A spokesperson of the O P Jindal Global
University rubbished the allegation, saying “the videos have been taken out of
context”. The lecture was titled “History and Politics of the Palestinian
present”.
Sharing video clips of the lecture on
‘X’, formerly Twitter, Mumbai BJP spokesperson Suresh Nakhua said, “An event in
support of Hamas, a terrorist organisation, was organised in O P Jindal Global
University.”
“During this event, concerns were raised
regarding the potential targeting of Hindu culture, Hinduism, Hindutva, RSS,
BJP & Indian Army which reportedly caused discomfort among some students
and faculties,” he added.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)
national vice president Abhivav Prakash posted on X, “Shameful event at the O P
Jindal University glorifying Hamas and suicide attacks while slandering Hindus
and India.” ( with PTI inputs )
Source: muslimmirror.com
Please click the following URL to read
the full text of the original
https://muslimmirror.com/eng/lecture-on-palestine-conflict-at-haryana-university-sparks-row/
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BJP Leader Calls Masjid-Gurdwara Growth
‘Problematic’, SGPC Condemns
SHANKER ARNIMESH
03 November, 2023
New Delhi: Taking exception to BJP
leader Sandeep Dayma calling an increase in the number of mosques and gurdwaras
in the country “problematic”, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
(SGPC) — which manages gurdwaras in the country — has alleged that such
speeches were a “conspiracy by BJP leaders to defeat the thought of Guru Nanak
Dev, which was done in the olden times also”.
Dayma has since apologised, but the SGPC
condemned his clarification as well.
The controversy started Wednesday during
Dayma’s address at a rally in Tijara, Rajasthan, in support of the party’s
candidate from there, Baba Balaknath, after the latter had filed his nomination
papers.
In his speech, Dayma said, “If the
Congress candidate wins from this constituency, the number of masjids and
gurdwaras will rise and that will be problematic for people living here.” He
added that these would be uprooted once his party came to power.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath also addressed the rally in Tijara, where protests broke out soon
after with members of the Sikh community allegedly burning effigies of BJP
leaders. The news reached party national secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa who
informed the party high command, said party sources. Dayma was then asked to
apologise.
Meanwhile, the SGPC issued a statement
by its president, Harjinder Singh Dhami, on X Thursday, which said that “for
the anti-Sikh statement during the rally in Rajasthan, including the UP CM Shri
Adityanath, the organiser of the rally and the person who made the statement
should immediately apologise to the Sikh community and the BJP should also
clarify its position in this regard.”
Later, in a video apology the same day,
shared by the SGPC on X, Dayma said: “During an election rally, I uttered wrong
words…I wanted to say masjid-madrasa but somehow said gurdwara. I apologise to
the entire Sikh community. The community has saved Hindus and Sanatana Dharma…I
don’t know how I have made such a mistake.”
Attaching its reaction to the apology,
the SGPC said on X, “Leaders like Sandeep Dayma should be ashamed of issuing
(such) a clarification as speaking against the religious place of Muslims is
equally condemnable as doing so against gurdwaras.”
Speaking to ThePrint Friday, Dayma said
he had apologised for “the slip of tongue”. “It was not deliberate,” he said.
“I didn’t mean to hurt sentiments of the Sikh community.”
BJP Alwar district president Umed Singh
said to ThePrint Friday, “The party took cognisance of Dayma’s statement and
was asked to apologise, which he has done. He even went to a local gurdwara to
offer an apology.”
‘Doors of gurdwaras open to all’
The SGPC president’s statement said,
“…history is a witness that the Congress also attacked Sikh shrines under the
same thinking, and today the BJP is also seen walking on the same path.” He
said that the doors of gurdwaras are always open to everyone and such a
small-minded conspiracy of BJP leaders can never succeed.
It also pointed out that Yogi Adityanath
was present at the rally and could have opposed the statement being made.
“At the time of this BJP rally, the
Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Shri Yogi Adityanath was also present
on the stage, and it was his responsibility to oppose such a hateful statement
on the spot. But it is sad that even as the CM of a state; Shri Adityanath has
also become a part of this phenomenon.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Source: theprint.in
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the full text of the original
https://theprint.in/politics/bjp-leader-calls-masjid-gurdwara-growth-problematic-says-meant-masjid-madrasa-as-sgpc-condemns/1830381/
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India stands with Israel against Hamas
terror, with Palestine for 2-state solution, says Jaishankar
KESHAV PADMANABHAN
03 November, 2023
New Delhi: Urging the world to find a
balance, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar has said that condemning the
Hamas terror attack and standing with Israel over the issue, while also
supporting Palestine for its rights, are two different positions and cannot be
intertwined.
Speaking at the joint secretary session
of the Italian Senate’s External Affairs and Defence Commission during his
visit to Rome Thursday, Jaishankar called for a two-state solution to resolve
the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“What happened on 7 October [a reference
to the Hamas attack on Israel], this big act of terrorism and the subsequent
happenings after that, this has taken the entire region into a very different
territory. But surely it must be everybody’s hope that eventually… conflict
cannot be the normal of that region,” said Jaishankar.
He added: “We have to find a balance
between different issues because there is no question — if there is an issue of
terrorism and we all find terrorism unacceptable, we have to stand up on
terrorism. But there is also the issue of Palestine. There has to be a solution
to the problems faced by the Palestinian people,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of
the first leaders to condemn Hamas’s attack on Israel as a terrorist attack.
The Indian position was further reinforced at the UN General Assembly, where
New Delhi abstained from voting on a resolution calling for a “truce” in the
ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict as it did not condemn the Hamas attack.
On 7 October, Hamas — Palestinian
militant group in control of the Gaza strip since 2007 — launched an aerial and
ground attack on Israel, in which at least 1,400 Israelis were reported to have
died and over 200 taken into captivity.
In retaliation, Israel launched an
aerial bombardment on Gaza followed by a ground invasion. According to the
health authorities in Gaza, the death toll of Palestinians currently stands at
over 9,000.
Jaishankar pushes for two-state solution
Jaishankar asserted that a solution to
the current crisis cannot be found through “conflict and terrorism” and only
via “dialogue and negotiation”.
“Our [India’s] view is that it has to be
a two-state solution. If you have to find a solution, you have to find it
through dialogue and negotiation. You cannot find a solution through conflict
and terrorism,” he said.
The foreign minister emphasised that
international humanitarian law must be respected by “everybody”. He pointed out
that it was important to get the “balance” right in a complicated situation,
such as the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
The external affairs minister is on a
two-day visit to Italy, from 2 to 3 November.
Apart from addressing the joint session,
Jaishankar met with Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Antonio Tajani, and Italian Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto.
Jaishankar said he held a discussion on
the situation in the Middle East, the conflict in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific
landscape with Tajani, in a post on social media.
“Conversed about deepening our strategic
partnership. Agreed that potential in agro-tech, innovation, space, defence and
the digital domain should be explored,” he said.
The minister also highlighted the
signing of two agreements with Italy — Mobility and Migration Partnership
Agreement and Cultural Exchange Program.
India and Italy also agreed to take
forward their “renewed” defence and security partnership during discussions
between Crosetto and Jaishankar.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Source: theprint.in
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https://theprint.in/world/india-stands-with-israel-against-hamas-terror-with-palestine-for-2-state-solution-says-jaishankar/1830281/
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Gyanvapi survey complete, ASI tells
Varanasi court
November 2, 2023
Varanasi : The Archaeological Survey of
India on Thursday told a Varanasi court that it has “completed” the survey of
the Gyanvapi mosque complex and is granted additional time till November 17 to
submit its report.
The ASI was to submit the report of the
survey by November 6.
Accepting the ASI request for more time
to submit the report, District Judge A K Vishvesh passed the order on Thursday,
Central government counsel Amit Srivastava said.
The court was informed that the ASI has
completed its survey, but it may take some more time for compiling the report
along with the details of the equipment used in the survey work, Srivastava
said.
On October 5, the court granted four
more weeks to the ASI and said that the duration of the survey would not be
extended beyond this.
The Varanasi court, on August 4, had
granted the ASI an additional month to complete the survey, extending its
original deadline (from August 4) to September 4. The court provided another
extension of four weeks for the survey work on September 6.
The ASI carried out a scientific survey
of the Gyanvapi mosque premises, next to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, to
determine whether the 17th century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing
structure of a Hindu temple.
The ASI survey had begun after the
Allahabad High Court upheld a Varanasi district court order and ruled that the
step is “necessary in the interest of justice” and would benefit both the Hindu
and Muslim sides.
During an earlier hearing, the mosque
management committee had presented its objection, alleging the ASI was digging
in the basement as well as other places of the Gyanvapi complex without
permission and accumulating debris on the western wall of the structure, which
risks collapse of the structure.
The ASI team was not authorised to
survey the premises by removing debris or garbage, the mosque panel had said.
The Gyanvapi committee had also moved
the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s order. The apex court had
on August 4 refused to stay the high court’s order on the ASI survey.
In its order, the bench of Chief Justice
D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, asked the
ASI not to carry out any invasive act during the survey. This ruled out any
excavations, which the Varanasi court had said can be conducted, if necessary.
( with PTI inputs )
Source: muslimmirror.com
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https://muslimmirror.com/eng/gyanvapi-survey-complete-asi-tells-varanasi-court/
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Three years on, Vellore jail mosque
opens doors to inmates
03rd November 2023
VELLORE:
After three years, the doors of the mosque on the Vellore Central Prison
compound have finally been opened to Muslim inmates. Yet, the high-security
ward’s detainees have still not got permission to enter the mosque.
According to sources, the prison
officials at Vellore have recently granted approval for Muslim inmates to carry
out prayer rituals in the mosque situated in the prison’s sixth block. They
said on Fridays, a select group of approximately 20 out of 50 Muslim inmates
from ordinary cell blocks have been granted access to the mosque.
Furthermore, collective prayers are not
permitted in the prison for Muslim inmates. Only a maximum of two individuals
are allowed to pray during designated times.
Before the report was published in TNIE, the mosque remained locked and
was inadequately maintained.
The development follows TNIE’s report
last month that highlighted the unavailability of the Vellore jail mosque for
Muslim inmates. The issue gained the attention of AIADMK General Secretary
Edappadi K Palaniswami, who issued a statement expressing concerns for the
Muslim detainees.
Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu Prison
Department refuted allegations of restricting mosque access for Muslim inmates
at the jail. According to the department, inmates are indeed allowed to worship
inside the mosque, with the sole restriction being related to group prayers.
Nonetheless, TNIE’s report emphasised that individual inmates have faced
difficulties in accessing the mosque over the past three years.
Source: newindianexpress.com
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Admn roping in Imams to fight drug
menace in Kashmir
Nov 03, 2023
Dozens of Imams were sensitised against
drug menace in Kashmir at a training programme organised by Civil Society Forum
Kashmir in collaboration with Crime Branch of Police, Auqaf and Youth
Development and Rehabilitation Centre (YDRC) at Government Polytechnic College
in Srinagar.
Owing to the growing menace of drug
addiction in Kashmir valley, the authorities and civil society are roping in
Imams (those who lead prayers in mosques) to fight against drug abuse in the
valley.
Dozens of Imams were sensitised against
drug menace in Kashmir at a training programme organised by Civil Society Forum
Kashmir in collaboration with Crime Branch of Police, Auqaf and Youth
Development and Rehabilitation Centre (YDRC) at Government Polytechnic College
in Srinagar.
Dr Muzaffar Khan, head of YDRC which is
the largest drug de-addiction centre in Srinagar run by police, said the
programme aimed at taking the fight against drug abuse outside of de-addiction
centres.
“The initiative aims at taking this
movement against drug de-addiction outside the centres into society and connect
it with Imams and mothers,” said Khan, who is a clinical psychologist.
Some 40 Imams and other members of the
society took part in the awareness programme.
Khan, who informed that they would
attempt to continue such programmes, said that the position of Imams in society
makes them central in raising awareness among the families.
“The Imams are an important part of our
society and no one among us matches their status in the community or home.
There is acceptance of their word in the community. That is why all the Imams
in Srinagar or in rural areas need to be empowered and trained to understand
drug addiction and how it is identified. And they also need to be told what
advice they would give to those mothers and parents whose homes have been
affected by drug abuse,” he said.
Officials say that drug abuse among
youth has reached alarming proportions in Jammu and Kashmir owing to the inflow
of drugs from Line of Control and states like Punjab.
Earlier this year, the ministry of
social justice and empowerment, quoting one of their surveys of previous year,
informed Lok Sabha in response to a question that there are nearly 10 lakh drug
addicts in Jammu and Kashmir. The ministry stated that estimated 1,08,000 males
and 36,000 females were found using cannabis in Jammu and Kashmir while as
5,34,000 males and 8,000 females were found using opioids and 1,60,000 males
and 8,000 females were found using sedatives of different kinds
Khan said that women face the most when
any youth takes to drugs in a family. “It has been seen that if we empower
them, help them identify drug addicts in their homes and how to find people at
an early stage of addiction- that will help a lot,” he said.
He said that taking the movement outside
the de-addiction centres and connecting it with people will help vulnerable
youth from falling prey to the drug menace. “There are youth who are not
involved in this, but they are vulnerable, and they need to be saved. They can
be saved by these programmes,” he said.
He added that more such programmes were
needed. “For the past two years, we have been organising awareness programmes
in colleges and schools. But there is a need to increase these awareness
programmes in number and every section of society has to come forward -
education, health or religious sector,” he said.
Source: hindustantimes.com
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Pakistan
Govt exempts Afghan children, women from
verification
November 3, 2023
Umer Farooq | Saleem Shahid
PESHAWAR/QUETTA: As border managers
buckle under the influx of Afghan refugees being sent back to Afghanistan, the
federal government on Thursday eased one condition to facilitate the
undocumented immigrants, particularly women and children, who are now exempted
from data entry at the Nadra counters set up at the border crossings.
So far, 148,267 Afghan immigrants have
left for Afghanistan during voluntary repatriation. On Thursday, a total of
19,344 undocumented immigrants left via Torkham.
The decision was taken a day after the
officials feared the situation could go out of control after the influx at the
Torkham border overwhelmed the border management facilities and the authorities
struggled to process the deportation of immigrants.
“The interior ministry issued directions
that female and children below the age of 14 will not be scanned for entry by
Nadra. Only male adults would be scanned during the voluntary repatriation,” a
senior official told Dawn.
The official added the federal
government ordered to maintain only a ‘head count’ of Afghan women and children
going to Afghanistan.
With the fresh directions exempting
women and children, the border management authorities overcame the situation
ending the backlog, officials said.
They added that even the number of
illegal immigrants at the border was slightly lower on the second day of the
expiry of the deadline for voluntary repatriation as compared to Wednesday.
Apart from Torkham, officials at the
border crossing in Angoor Adda in KP’s South Waziristan district said that 294
Afghan immigrants, including 129 children, voluntarily left for Afghanistan on
Thursday.
In Quetta, the police took at least 572
refugees into custody and shifted them to the holding centres.
However, 200 were sent back after they
produced valid documents, caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai told Dawn
on Thursday.
About 384 people who did not have valid
documents were sent to Chaman for deportation, he said, adding that a portal
had been established in which immigrants could register their complaints in
case of any issues.
According to the deputy commissioner of
Quetta, Saad bin Asad, at least 1,176 Afghan people volunteered a day earlier
to reach the Chaman border on their own.
Afghan refugees minister
Authorities on the Afghan side of the
border have been overwhelmed by the scale of the exodus as they attempt to
process those returning — some of whom are setting foot in Afghanistan for the
first time in their lives.
“We are constantly in contact with them
[Pakistani authorities] asking for more time. People must be allowed to return
with dignity,” the Taliban government’s refugees minister Khalil Haqqani told
AFP in Torkham. “They should not give Afghans a hard time, they should not make
more enemies,” he said at a temporary processing centre, which opened overnight
Wednesday.
Taliban authorities set up the centre
several kilometres from a border crossing, as well as camps for families with
nowhere to go, after a bottleneck there sparked an “emergency situation” for
thousands of stranded people, an official said.
Source: dawn.com
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IHC issues notices to govt in Imran’s
appeal against jail trial
November 3, 2023
Malik Asad | Mohammad Asghar
ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the
Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued notices to the authorities
concerned on the hearing of an appeal seeking trial of former prime minister
Imran Khan in the cipher case in an open court.
The IHC division bench, comprising
Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, was hearing
the former prime minister’s intra-court appeal against a single-member bench’s
decision that had approved Mr Khan’s jail trial and the appointment of the
judge for the Special Court of the Official Secrets Act.
Initially, the division bench,
comprising Justice Aurangzeb and Justice Babar Sattar, took up the appeal.
However, Justice Sattar recused himself, saying his stance on the custody of
the under-trial prisoner is different.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq reconstituted
the bench, including Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir. But Justice Tahir also
recused himself from the case for the same reason.
Subsequently, the matter was placed
before the bench comprising Justice Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz.
During the hearing, the bench perused
the summary for the appointment of Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain as judge of
the Special Court of the Official Secrets Act.
The court was told that the federal
cabinet on June 27, 2023 empowered Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Zulqarnain to
hear the cases related to the Official Secrets Act.
Barrister Salman Akram Raja, the counsel
for Mr Khan, argued that the appointment of the judge for the special court
could have been made with prior consultation with the IHC chief justice but the
existing appointment had been done by the federal government without consulting
the chief justice.
Justice Aurangzeb remarked that the IHC
registrar might be asked regarding the consultation.
Barrister Raja argued that, since this
matter related to the central government, the consultation of the chief justice
of Pakistan was also required.
He further argued that Mr Khan’s family
and media are not allowed to witness the court proceedings which are being
conducted in a tiny cell of Adiala jail.
He pointed out that the under-trial
prisoner had certain rights that are not being observed in this case.
Justice Aurangzeb remarked that this
is 2023, and this is an era of transparency and openness. He also questioned
the consequences of the verdict in jail trial.
The court adjourned hearing till Nov 6.
Meanwhile, the Special Court (Official
Secrets Act) allowed the application seeking transfer of former foreign
minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to hospital due to infection in the gallbladder.
JIT visits Adiala jail
Separately, a joint investigation team
(JIT) led by Rawalpindi police recorded Mr Khan’s statement in Adiala jail in
cases related to the May 9 violence.
According to sources, police officials
from Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Kasur also visited the Adiala jail to record
the PTI chairman’s statements.
According to sources, a police team led
by the SP investigation of Rawalpindi police, along with senior superintendent
operation, SP Potohar, and investigating officers from Newtown police station,
RA Bazar police station, and Civil Line police station, reached Adiala jail to
record the PTI chairman’s statement in cases registered with Rawalpindi police
regarding the May 9 cases.
Mr Khan’s lawyers were present to
provide him legal support, the sources added.
The PTI chairman denied the allegations
mentioned in the FIR, and the JIT left the jail about an hour and a half.
It’s worth noting that the main case is
related to the GHQ gate attack in Rawalpindi.
Source: dawn.com
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Deportees from KP fear ‘alien life’ in
Afghanistan
November 3, 2023
Umer Farooq
PESHAWAR: As authorities crack down on
‘illegal’ migrants, undocumented Afghan refugees born and bred in Pakistan but
facing deportation fear that they’ll live like “aliens” in Afghanistan.
Most of these foreigners are leaving the
country voluntarily but many imprisoned in the country over “petty crimes” are
being transported to the border for repatriation.
Fifty-one such prisoners, mostly aged
under 40, have been freed from the Peshawar Central Prison and seven from a
prison in Lower Dir district.
Law-enforcement agencies shifted them
all to Peshawar’s “holding area” put up in the Jumma Khan village for “scanning
and collection of particulars.”
Younas, 21, told Dawn that though he was
going to his “own” country, he would live there like an alien in absence of a
home and loved ones.
He insisted that all his family members
lived in Pakistan lawfully and his sisters were married to Pakistani nationals.
Looking at the huge “holding area” from
inside a passenger van he boarded for Afghan border, the young refugee said he
didn’t know how long Pakistan would take to issue him a visa to return.
He’d never expected deportation from
Pakistan.
“I have no place to go and live there
[Afghanistan]. Living there has never been an option for me. I will come back
on a valid visa,” he said.
The refugee said his family belonged to
Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
He was held by Pakistani police on
return from Dubai, where he was employed, on leave for allegedly illegally
entering the country two months ago.
Mr Younas spent two months behind bars.
Like others, Nadra officials collected
his details and secured his fingerprints. He was later transported to a
Pak-Afghan border crossing for deportation.
With undocumented Afghans continuing to
return voluntarily, officials said it wasn’t an option for them to arrest
illegal aliens, who wanted to leave the country.
“We will hold only those, who have gone
into hiding and are refusing to follow orders to return,” a senior official
told Dawn.
Officials said over 129,000 Afghan
nationals without documentation had left the country.
They said as the border crossings were
flooded with people wanting to cross into Afghanistan, the government had
exempted women and children under the age of 14 years from biometric tests and
scanning to facilitate their return.
Source: dawn.com
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NAB court summons Zardari in another
graft case
November 03, 2023
Khalid Iqbal
ISLAMABAD. The Accountability Court,
Islamabad, has issued notices to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif
Ali Zardari and 19 others to appear in the Park Lane reference case. The court
directed them to appear on December 20.
According to the reference, Asif Ali
Zardari and other accused acquired Rs1.5 billion loan in the name of Park Lane
Estates company. The loan was obtained in 2009 and was to be repaid in 2011,
but not a single penny was paid back.
In 2012, the amount was restructured and
enhanced through Privately Placed Term Finance Certificates (PPTFC) to Rs2.8
billion (initial facility and its mark-up) plus Rs800 million enhancement.
These collusive actions caused a loss of Rs3.777 billion.
Arshad Tabrez, a former high court
judge, was the counsel of Zardari in the reference. He argued that Zardari
resigned from the company before becoming the president and sold his shares,
and he had nothing to do with the financial facility in this reference.
Accountability Court Judge Muhammad
Bashir said: “We’re issuing notices to all accused for now and you can argue in
the next hearing on December 20.”
The reference is on misuse of authority
of Zardari as president of Pakistan and it was sent to the NAB from Supreme
Court of Pakistan on 07-09-2019. The reference was authorised by the-then DG
NAB on 22-02-2019.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Raja
Pervaiz Ashraf, along with co-accused, has also been sent notices on rental
power references by NAB.
Source: thenews.com.pk
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Siraj wants Pak-Afghan joint strategy
for repatriation of illegal immigrants
November 03, 2023
Yousaf Ali
PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami emir Sirajul
Haq has urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to evolve a joint strategy for the
return of the illegal Afghan expatriates.
Addressing a news conference on Thursday
the JI chief said, “The ill-planned crackdown launched against the Afghans
staying in Pakistan will widen the trust deficit between the two countries. The
matter should be resolved tactfully in consultation with the Afghan
government.”
Afghanistan has become a stable country
where peace and economic conditions are also far better. If any Afghan national
living in Pakistan wants to return to his homeland voluntarily, it should be
welcomed but sending them back forcibly is inappropriate, said Siraj.
He said that the situation arising after
the government’s ill-planned strategy to expel the ‘illegal foreigners’ was
deplorable. “Women and children have been suffering for days on the way from
Karkhano Market till Torkham border without having any food or other
necessities of life. This is against the basic principles of humanity,” he
said.
Sirajul Haq hailed the announcement of
general elections’ date. He lauded the Chief Justice Supreme Court for bringing
the nation out of confusion.
Deliberating upon the situation in Gaza,
the JI chief urged the Muslim rulers, including Pakistan, to convene an early
meeting of OIC heads of states and announce full financial and military support
for the Palestinians.
He said that Pakistan and other Muslim
countries were demonstrating silence over the massacre of Muslims, including
women and children, in Palestine owing to the fear and pressure from the US.
Sirajul Haq rejected the unprecedented
hike in the gas tariff after the increase in the power and petroleum products
prices by the caretaker government.
He said that it was beyond the mandate
of the caretaker government to increase prices of daily commodities.
The JI chief also expressed reservation
over the political and economic crisis in the country and held the previous
rulers responsible for the mess, adding that the previous rulers pushed the
country towards the slavery of the IMF.
Source: thenews.com.pk
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North America
Students Walk Out Of Hillary Clinton’s
Class To Protest Columbia University’s ‘Shaming’ Of Pro-Palestinian Supporters
November 3, 2023
About 30 students of Columbia University
walked out of a class taught by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in
New York on Wednesday to protest against their school’s alleged role in the
“shaming” of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Nearly 300 students were seated at the
university for a two-hour lecture on women’s involvement in peace processes
delivered by Clinton and Keren Yarhi-Milo, the dean of Columbia’s School of
International and Public Affairs.
Not even halfway through the class,
about 30 students stood up and gathered their computers and backpacks, as part
of a planned student walkout, New York Times reported.
They joined several dozen other
protesters congregating near the lobby of the building.
The demonstrators, who sat quietly in a
common area in the International Affairs Building were unhappy with the
school’s role in publicly shaming students who blamed Israel for the war in
Gaza.
The students’ photographs appeared last
week on the video screen panels on a truck seen near campus. The screens showed
the faces of students beneath the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.”
According to the students, the
photographs were taken from a “private and secure” online platform for students
at the School of International and Public Affairs.
They were demanding “immediate legal
support for affected students” and “a commitment to student safety, well being
and privacy.”
The students whose images appeared on
the video panels were members of groups that had signed a statement about the
war in the Middle East that said, in part, “The weight of responsibility for
the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government.”
As Dr. Yarhi-Milo and Mrs. Clinton’s
class was finishing around 4 p.m., the demonstrators shushed themselves into
silence, anticipating that the dean and the former secretary of state would
soon walk past the gathered students. That time never came. Word spread that
Dr. Yarhi-Milo and Mrs. Clinton had left the building through a side door.
A spokeswoman for Columbia said the
university had no comment.
Source: saharareporters.com
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US military bases in northern Iraq,
eastern Syria targeted by explosive-laden drones
03 November 2023
Two military facilities occupied by US
forces in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Syria’s northeastern
province of Hasakah have come under separate attacks by explosive-laden drones,
the latest in a series of strikes on American forces in the two neighboring
countries.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an
umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, in a statement published on its
Telegram channel claimed responsibility for the early Friday morning attack on
US forces based near the Erbil International Airport.
It noted that the base was targeted by
two drones, linking the assault to the US support for Israel's bloody military
campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The brutal war that the Tel Aviv regime
has been waging against the besieged Palestinian enclave since October 7 has so
far claimed the lives of nearly 9,061 people, including 3,700 children and more
than 2,300 women.
The regime launched the war after Gaza's
resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation
against the occupying entity in years.
Simultaneous attacks target three
military bases housing US occupation forces in Syria.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat
Ryder confirmed during a press briefing that American troops were targeted in
Erbil.
“We are aware of an attack today against
US forces at Erbil air base in Iraq,” he said, adding that the strike was
“unsuccessful.”
“No casualties [but] some minor damage
to infrastructure,” Ryder noted.
Later in the day, a military base, where
occupying American forces and allied Takfiri militants are stationed, was
targeted by an unmanned aerial vehicle in northeastern Syria.
Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen
television news network, citing local sources, reported that the drone hit the
facility in al-Shaddadi town, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of
Hasakah.
A series of large explosions have been
heard inside military bases housing US occupation troops in Syria
According to the Pentagon spokesman, US
military forces have been attacked at least 16 times with drones and rockets in
Iraq and Syria between October 17 and 26.
“Between October 17 and 18, Eastern
Time, 21 US personnel received minor injuries due to drone attacks at al-Asad
air base in Iraq and al-Tanf garrison in Syria,” Ryder said.
“At Tanf garrison, during these two
days, there were 17 US personnel who sustained minor injuries, 15 of whom were
diagnosed with TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury. At al-Asad air base, four
personnel were diagnosed with TBI but no other injured and again in all cases
members returned to duty,” he noted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on
Monday urged Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani to pursue the
attackers of US bases and troops in Iraq, according to the State Department.
Source: presstv.ir
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US flying drones over Gaza in search of
hostages
November 03, 2023
WASHINGTON: The United States has been
flying surveillance drones over Gaza in search of hostages taken by Hamas when
the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, two US officials said
on Thursday.
The two US officials, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, said the US was flying intelligence gathering drones
over Gaza to assist with hostage location efforts. One of the officials said
they had been carrying out the drone flights for over a week.
US officials have said 10 Americans who
remain unaccounted for may be among the more than 200 people taken as hostages
into Gaza, where they are believed to be held in Hamas’ extensive tunnel
network.
Israeli forces on Thursday encircled
Gaza City — the Gaza Strip’s main city — in their assault on Hamas, which
resisted with hit-and-run attacks from underground tunnels.
The city in the north of Gaza has become
the focus of attack for Israel, which has vowed to annihilate the Islamist
group’s command structure and has told civilians to flee to the south.
Hamas fighters launched a surprise
attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according
to Israeli officials, in the deadliest day of the nation’s 75-year history.
Israel’s retaliation bombardment and
ground offensive of the small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million has killed at
least 9,061 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402406/world
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House approves nearly $14.5 billion in
US military aid for Israel without humanitarian aid for Gaza
November 03, 2023
WASHINGTON: The House approved a nearly
$14.5 billion military aid package Thursday for Israel, a muscular US response
to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson
that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden.
In a departure from norms, Johnson’s
package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government
spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative
leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into
one dividing Democrats and Republicans. Biden has said he would veto the bill,
which was approved 226-196, with 12 Democrats joining most Republicans on a
largely party-line vote.
Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the
Republican package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend
itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the militant Palestinian
group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible
spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”
Democrats said that approach would only
delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned
that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances in the Senate.
The first substantial legislative effort
in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for
nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along
with US efforts to counter China and address security at the border with
Mexico.
It is also Johnson’s first big test as
House speaker as the Republican majority tries to get back to work after the
month of turmoil since ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker.
Johnson has said he will turn next to aid for Ukraine along with US border
security, preferring to address Biden’s requests separately as GOP lawmakers
increasingly oppose aiding Kyiv.
The White House’s veto warning said
Johnson’s approach “fails to meet the urgency of the moment” and would set a
dangerous precedent by requiring emergency funds to come from cuts elsewhere.
While the amount for Israel in the House
bill is similar to what Biden sought, the White House said the Republican
plan’s failure to include humanitarian assistance for Gaza is a “grave mistake”
as the crisis deepens.
Biden on Wednesday called for a pause in
the war to allow for relief efforts.
“This bill would break with the normal,
bipartisan approach to providing emergency national security assistance,” the
White House wrote in its statement of administration policy on the legislation.
It said the GOP stance “would have devastating implications for our safety and
alliances in the years ahead.”
It was unclear before voting Thursday
how many Democrats would join with Republicans. The White House had been
directly appealing to lawmakers, particularly calling Jewish Democrats, urging
them to reject the bill.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients,
counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and other senior White House staff
have been engaging House Democrats, said a person familiar with the situation
and granted anonymity to discuss it.
But the vote was difficult for some
lawmakers, particularly Democrats who wanted to support Israel and may have
trouble explaining the trade-off to constituents, especially as the large AIPAC
lobby and other groups encouraged passage. In all, two Republicans opposed the
bill.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill, who voted
against the package, said: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.”
To pay for the bill, House Republicans
have attached provisions that would cut billions from the IRS that Democrats
approved last year and Biden signed into law as a way to go after tax cheats.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says doing that would end up
costing the federal government a net $12.5 billion because of lost revenue from
tax collections.
Republicans scoffed at that assessment,
but the independent budget office is historically seen as a trusted referee.
Backers said the package would provide
support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, procurement of advanced
weaponry and other military needs, and help with protection and evacuations of
US citizens. CBO pegged the overall package at about $14.3 billion for Israel.
As the floor debate got underway,
Democrats pleaded for Republicans to restore the humanitarian aid Biden
requested and decried the politicization of typically widely bipartisan Israel
support.
“Republicans are leveraging the
excruciating pain of an international crisis to help rich people who cheat on
their taxes and big corporations who regularly dodge their taxes,” said Rep.
Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York described
hiding in a stairwell with his wife and children while visiting Israel as
rockets fired in what he called the most horrific attack on Jews since the
Holocaust.
Nevertheless, Goldman said he opposed
the Republican-led bill as a “shameful effort” to turn the situation in Israel
and the Jewish people into a political weapon.
“Support for Israel may be a political
game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” the Democrat said. “But
this is personal for us Jews and it is existential for the one Jewish nation in
the world that is a safe haven from the rising tide of antisemitism around the
globe.”
The Republicans have been attacking
Democrats who raise questions about Israel’s war tactics as antisemitic. The
House tried to censure the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in Congress, Rep.
Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, over remarks she made. The censure measure failed.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said he was
“so thankful there is no humanitarian aid,” which he argued could fall into the
hands of Hamas.
In the Democratic-controlled Senate,
Schumer made clear that the House bill would be rejected.
“The Senate will not take up the House
GOP’s deeply flawed proposal, and instead we’ll work on our own bipartisan
emergency aid package” that includes money for Israel and Ukraine, as well as
humanitarian assistance for Gaza and efforts to confront China.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky is balancing the need to support his GOP allies in the House while
also fighting to keep the aid package more in line with Biden’s broader
request, believing all the issues are linked and demand US attention.
McConnell said the aid for Ukraine was
“not charity” but was necessary to bolster a Western ally against Russia.
In other action Thursday, the House
overwhelmingly approved a Republican-led resolution that focused on college
campus activism over the Israel-Hamas war. The nonbinding resolution would
condemn support of Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist organizations at institutions
of higher education.
Source: arabnews.com
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Top US Diplomat Lands in Israel to Press
for Pauses in Gaza War
November 3, 2023
(Reuters) - The United States' top
diplomat Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on Friday to push for humanitarian
pauses in the Gaza war as Israel said it had surrounded the Palestinian
enclave's biggest city and the focus of its drive to annihilate Hamas.
Blinken, on his second trip to Israel in
a month, is due to discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other
Israeli leaders concrete steps to minimise harm to civilians in besieged Gaza,
where food, fuel, water and medicine are scarce.
The White House, meanwhile, said any
pauses in fighting should be temporary and localised, and insisted they would
not stop Israel defending itself.
"When I see a Palestinian child – a
boy, a girl – pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in
the gut as much as seeing a child from Israel or anywhere else," Blinken
told reporters before leaving for Israel. "So this is something that we
have an obligation to respond to, and we will."
Newly appointed U.S. ambassador to
Israel Jacob Lew traveled with Blinken to Tel Aviv.
Gaza health authorities say at least
9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the
enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for deadly attacks by Hamas
militants on southern Israel.
Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people,
mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages in the attacks on Oct. 7, the
deadliest day of its 75-year-old history.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said the military
had encircled Gaza City, the enclave's biggest, and was advancing. The Israel
Defense Forces, in a statement on Friday, said its jets, artillery and navy had
struck Hamas targets overnight, killing several militants including Mustafa
Dalul, a Hamas commander it said had directed combat in the Gaza Strip.
There was no immediate confirmation from
Hamas.
Mounting casualties among Palestinian
civilians, along with acute shortages of basic supplies, have intensified calls
by global leaders for a pause in fighting or a ceasefire.
The United Arab Emirates, one of a
handful of Arab states with diplomatic ties to Israel, said on Friday it was
working "relentlessly" for an immediate ceasefire, warning that the
risk of regional spillover and further escalation was real.
Israel has dismissed these calls, saying
it targets Hamas fighters whom it accuses of intentionally hiding among the
population and civilian buildings. The White House has also rejected calls for
a ceasefire.
Blinken is due to meet Jordan's Foreign
Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman on Saturday. In a statement, Safadi said Israel
must end the war on Gaza, where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing
civilians and imposing a siege.
With the conflict at the end of its
fourth-week, over a third of Gaza's 35 hospitals are not functioning, with many
turned into impromptu refugee camps.
"The situation is beyond
catastrophic," said the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, describing
packed corridors and many medics who were themselves bereaved and homeless.
A group of independent United Nations
human rights experts warned that Palestinians in Gaza are at "grave risk
of genocide".
The Israeli mission to the U.N. in
Geneva called the UN rapporteur's comments "deplorable and deeply
concerning" and blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths. Stéphane Dujarric,
spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said a determination
of genocide could only be made by a relevant U.N. judicial body.
Source: tolonews.com
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Europe
Spanish MP Confirms What Happening
InGaza Genocide, Calls For Sanctions Against Zionist Officials
[03/November/2023]
MADRID November 03. 2023 (Saba) -
Spanish MP and Member of the European Parliament Edoya Villanueva has confirmed
that what is happening in Gaza is “a real genocide in 2023 with complete
impunity and complicity from the international community, the United States and
the European Union as well.”
Villanueva said in a statement last
Thursday that “The ongoing atrocities and war crimes committed by the colonial
state, Israel, against the occupied population are considered a war crime, and
all of this is done in the dark.”
She explained, "Cutting off
supplies, electricity, water, and fuel exacerbates the situation and causes
more harm to the civilian population. This is another crime against
international humanitarian law, and causes hospitals to stop working and massive
loss of life."
Villanueva added "The attempted
forced displacement of the population is also a war crime and contravenes
international humanitarian law. A few days ago, communications and the Internet
were cut off, all in an attempt to carry out this genocide."
The Spanish representative called on the
international community to do much more than that, saying “It is unfortunate
that the European Union is lost in the maze of expressions and words to call
for a ceasefire.”
She called for coercive measures such as
an arms embargo and exemplary sanctions against officials in the Zionist
entity, as well as the suspension of European funds to Zionist arms companies
that currently contribute to these systematic human rights violations.
Villanueva went so far as to demand
"suspension of the Association Agreement between the European Union and
Israel due to these crimes and violations, as well as accountability before the
International Criminal Court, and moving forward with recognition of the State
of Palestine, all in order to put pressure - in some way - on Israel."
She concluded by saying, "If the
international community and Europe do not take action and put an end to this
genocide, they will be subjected to a horrific stigma."
Source: saba.ye
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French defense minister fears ‘untenable
situation’ for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon
November 03, 2023
PARIS: France has passed messages to
Hezbollah and Israel to not destabilize the United Nations’ Lebanon
peacekeeping force UNIFIL and said that any broadening of the Hamas-Israel war
to Lebanon would plunge the country “into an abyss.”
France has sought to use its historical
relationship with Lebanon to try to defuse tensions between Israel and
Iran-backed Hezbollah, but violence has spiked. Some 700 French soldiers are
part of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) established in 1978 following
violence on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“It is clear that we must not put UNIFIL
in an untenable situation in which it will not be able to carry out the mission
that the United Nations has given it,” Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu told
France Info radio.
“This is the message we are sending to
the various actors, on the Lebanese side as well as on the Israeli side.”
Speaking after meeting the French
contingent in Lebanon and ahead of a much-anticipated speech by Hezbollah
leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, Lecornu said all of Lebanon’s leaders
needed to understand the risk of going to war.
“The war here in Lebanon would plunge
part of the Middle East into an abyss, into an abyss which we would have
difficulty collectively to get back up from,” Lecornu said.
President Emmanuel Macron appointed a
former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in June to try to come up with a
method to convince Lebanon’s political elite to put rivalries aside and appoint
a new head of state after more than a year of blockage to carry out economic
reforms and unlock vital foreign aid.
However, that has led to nowhere.
“It’s clear that in the difficulties we
are experiencing, not having a contact person for over a year now makes no
sense. This weakens Lebanon even more,” Lecornu said.
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with
Israeli forces across the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Palestinian
militant group Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7, in the deadliest
violence at the frontier since a 2006 war.
Source: arabnews.com
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‘Come Dine for Palestine’ fundraising
gala to take place in London
November 03, 2023
LONDON: The charity Medical Aid for
Palestinians will benefit from a fundraising gala titled “Come Dine for
Palestine 2023” on Nov. 12, an event it describes as a night of “hope and
solidarity” for the Palestinian people.
The ticketed event, at Eternity Hall in
the Walthamstow area of London, was organized by British Pakistani human rights
activist Arifa Nasim and “promises to be a remarkable gathering filled with
entertainment, inspiring guest speakers and an auction, all in support of MAP’s
vital work.”
MAP is a UK-based charity with offices
in London, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza City. It describes itself as working
for the health and dignity of Palestinians, and says that “in the face of
unprecedented challenges and uncertainties” it has “continued to be a beacon of
hope for Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees.” It adds that it
responds swiftly to crises and works hand-in-hand with communities on long-term
health and well-being initiatives.
“Our unwavering commitment to the health
and dignity of the Palestinian people remains at the core of our mission,” the
charity said. “The year 2023 has proven to be one of the most demanding and
trying periods for Palestinians. The need for access to essential healthcare
has never been more critical.
“It is in these challenging times that
the support of compassionate individuals and organizations like Arifa Nasim and
‘Come Dine for Palestine 2023’ becomes a lifeline for countless Palestinian
families.”
MAP added that the funds raised during
the gala next week will play a pivotal role in its efforts to provide essential
medical supplies, mattresses, blankets and hygiene kits to people in need in
Gaza and across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In the face of the current conflict, as
the relentless Israeli bombardment of the besieged territory continues,
hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed, short of medical supplies and often lack
electricity. So far it has reportedly killed at least 9,060 Palestinians,
including 3,760 children, with many more injured and 1.4 million displaced.
“MAP is proud to be an independent,
non-political, non-sectarian international humanitarian organization,” the
charity said. “We operate with a steadfast commitment to alleviating the
suffering of Palestinians and ensuring their access to essential healthcare
services, regardless of their background or circumstances.
“Medical Aid for Palestinians extends
its deepest gratitude to Arifa Nasim for her unwavering dedication to our
cause. Her tireless efforts in organizing this fundraising event will make a
significant impact on the lives of Palestinians facing adversity.”
The keynote speech at the fundraiser
will be delivered by Swee Chai Ang, MAP’s co-founder, and will be hosted by
British-Pakistani TV presenter Tahreem Noor.
“We call upon all who believe in the
importance of health, dignity and compassion to join us in supporting the ‘Come
Dine for Palestine 2023’ dinner,” the charity added.
“Your participation and generosity will
be instrumental in helping MAP continue its mission to provide essential
healthcare and support to those in need.”
Source: arabnews.com
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Umrah agents to discuss transformation
of services offered to pilgrims from UK
November 02, 2023
LONDON: British travel agents and
businesses will come together in London on Sunday to drive innovation in the
Umrah sector and enhance products and services aimed at pilgrims from the UK.
The Umrah+ Connect business to business
event will bring together industry leaders, professionals, and visionaries from
around the world to help improve and expand the experience of pilgrims visiting
the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
The event, to be held on the eve of the
World Travel Market, will offer an opportunity to network, collaborate, and
share knowledge within the travel industry to streamline services offered to
pilgrims and create opportunities for them to explore the wider Kingdom outside
the holy cities.
Umrah+ Connect CEO Rashid Mogradia told
Arab News: “We are excited to announce the third annual Umrah+ Connect 2023
business to business event, and we look forward to bringing together industry
leaders, professionals, and visionaries from around the world.
“In partnership with Nusuk, the official
gateway to Makkah and Madinah, this event promises to be a transformative
experience.
“Join us in London on Nov. 5, 2023, for
a day of inspiration, insights, and building the future of Umrah travel
together.”
Nusuk is the first official planning,
booking and experience platform where pilgrims can create their Umrah itinerary
to Makkah, Madinah, and other areas of the Kingdom. Pilgrims from all over the
world can organize their visit via the platform.
Sponsors of this year’s event include
Dur Hospitality, Makarem Hotels, Makkah Hotel & Towers, Saudia, Mawasim, DS
Car Rental, and Saudi Arabia Railways.
Source: arabnews.com
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Mideast
Jordan's king visits Qatar, Bahrain, UAE
to discuss Gaza War
Nov 3, 2023
TEHRAN, Nov. 03 (MNA) – Jordan’s King
Abdullah II discussed the international community's role in pressing for an
immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war during a regional tour covering Bahrain,
Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
King Abdullah met with Qatar Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the capital Doha on Wednesday, the Jordan News
Agency reported.
During the meeting, Abdullah stressed
that a military or a security solution would not succeed in resolving the
Palestinian issue.
He also “warned against the expansion of
the cycle of violence into the region” and renewed Jordan’s rejection of
attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians in Gaza or cause their internal
displacement.
The two leaders also stressed the
importance of protecting civilians and allowing uninterrupted delivery of
humanitarian aid to Gaza.
King Abdullah met with King Hamad bin
Isa Al Khalifa during his visit to Bahrain, stressing "the importance of
enabling the work of international humanitarian organizations there to proceed
without impediments" and "warned against the continuous deterioration
of the situation in Gaza.”
The two leaders called for stepping up
regional and international diplomatic efforts preventing the forced
displacement of Gazans and stopping the escalation.
During his visit to the UAE, King
Abdullah met with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They discussed
the ongoing escalation in the region in addition to enhancing bilateral
relations in various fields.
The two leaders also discussed the
deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the need for urgent
international efforts to stop the dangerous military escalation and to provide
full protection to civilians.
Source: mehrnews.com
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Hezbollah leader set to weigh in on
Middle East war
November 03, 2023
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah will on Friday make his first public comments since the Palestinian
group Hamas and Israel went to war, a speech that will be scrutinized for clues
on how the group’s role in the conflict might evolve.
A formidable military force backed by
Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the border, where 55 of
its fighters have been killed in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war
with Israel in 2006.
On the eve of the speech, Hezbollah
mounted what appeared to be its biggest attack yet in more than three weeks of
fighting, saying it launched 19 simultaneous strikes on Israeli army positions
and using explosive drones for the first time.
Israel responded with air strikes along
with tank and artillery fire as the fighting on the border escalated.
However, with the clashes so far mostly
contained to the frontier, Hezbollah has still only drawn on a fraction of the
firepower with which Nasrallah has been threatening Israel for years.
Many people in Lebanon are anxiously
awaiting the 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) speech, rattled for weeks by fear of a
catastrophic conflict. Some say they are not making plans beyond Friday,
believing his remarks will signal the chances of escalation.
The speech is also being anticipated
more widely. Nasrallah is a leading voice in a regional military alliance
established by Iran to counter the United States and Israel.
Known as the “Axis of Resistance” it
includes Shiite Muslim Iraqi militias which have been firing at US forces in
Syria and Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthis, who have waded into the conflict by firing
drones at Israel.
Wearing the black turban of a sayyed, or
a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shiite clerical robes, Nasrallah is
one of the most prominent figures in the Arab world.
Recognized even by critics as a skilled
orator, his speeches have long been followed closely by friend and foe alike.
He is deemed a terrorist by adversaries including the United States.
His fiery speeches during the 2006 war
elevated his profile, including one in which he announced Hezbollah had struck
an Israeli naval vessel with an anti-ship missile, urging viewers to “look to
the sea.”
Overseeing the battle
While Nasrallah has stayed out of the
public eye since Oct. 7, other Hezbollah officials have indicated the group’s
combat readiness. But they have not set any red lines in the conflict with
Israel.
Asked on Oct. 22 why he had yet to
speak, Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said Nasrallah was following the
situation in Gaza “moment by moment and hour by hour” and overseeing the battle
in Lebanon. Not speaking in public was “part of his management of the battle,”
he said.
The speech will be broadcast to coincide
with rallies called by Hezbollah to honor fallen fighters.
Mutual threats of destruction have
deterred Israel and Hezbollah from waging war across the Lebanese-Israeli
frontier since 2006. Syria has meanwhile served as an arena for their conflict.
Sources familiar with Hezbollah’s
thinking say the group’s attacks so far have been measured to avoid a big
escalation, while keeping Israeli forces busy at the border.
Lebanon can ill afford another war with
Israel. Many Lebanese are still reeling from the impact of a catastrophic
financial collapse four years ago.
Israel has said it has no interest in a
conflict on its northern frontier with Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
warned Hezbollah against opening a second war front with Israel, saying that
doing so would bring Israeli counter-strikes of “unimaginable” magnitude that
would wreak devastation upon Lebanon.
Source: arabnews.com
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Israeli strike near UN school in
Jabaliya kills dozens after hospital carnage
02 November 2023
The health ministry in Gaza says at
least 27 people have been killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the
Jabalia refugee camp.
"The bodies of 27 martyrs were
recovered and a large number of wounded," said ministry spokesman Ashraf
al-Qudra.
The bombing came after 43 rabbis issued
a religious decree to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it is
religiously acceptable and permissible to bomb Palestinian hospitals in the
besieged Gaza Strip.
A document signed by the rabbis states
that there was no religious or moral objection to striking hospitals when
civilians are allegedly used as shields and hidden behind them, Israel's
Channel 14 television news reported on Thursday.
The message had now been conveyed to
military units, the prime minister and cabinet members, the report added.
The greenlight came after Israeli
military spokesperson Daniel Hagari alleged that Hamas was using Shifa Hospital
as a shield and conducts attacks from hospitals.
Regarding the possibility of Shifa
Hospital being targeted in Gaza, Hagari stated, "In this war, all options
are on the table."
In Gaza's biggest hospital, al-Shifa
doctors are faced with a massive influx of casualties, added to the thousands
of displaced civilians taking shelter there.
On October 18, at least 500 civilians
were killed by Israeli airstrikes on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
At least 9,061 people have been killed
since October 7, including 3,760 children and 2,326 women, Gaza's health
ministry. At least 32,000 people have been wounded.
Around 2,000 people are still missing in
Gaza, including 1,100 children. The vast majority of these people are believed
to be dead and buried under rubble.
“135 medical staff have been killed, and
25 ambulances destroyed” since the start of the war, the health ministry said,
adding 16 hospitals are out of service in Gaza, and 32 medical care facilities
are out of operation.
It’s now the 27th day since Israel
launched its war on the Gaza Strip. The regime is pounding the besieged
territory from the ground, sea and air as fighting is underway between
resistance groups and Israeli troops.
The UN chief decried the regime’s raids.
Antonio Guterres said he is appalled by the killing of Palestinians, including
women and children, in Israel’s airstrikes on Jabalia.
Subhi Skaik, the director of the
Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, said the hospital, which mainly treats
cancer patients, had used up its fuel and was now out of service.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila
confirmed that the hospital had ceased functioning after being attacked by the
Israeli military.
"The Turkish Friendship Hospital in
Gaza has stopped functioning after being shelled by Israeli forces on Monday
and Tuesday, and due to a complete depletion of fuel supplies," she said.
She said the hospital is the only
facility dedicated to treating cancer patients in the Gaza Strip.
She cited serious threats to the lives
of 70 cancer patients within the hospital, with approximately 2,000 cancer
patients in the Gaza Strip as a whole.
"Al-Shifa Medical Complex will also
cease its operations in less than 24 hours due to fuel depletion," she
added.
The Gaza Health Ministry earlier issued
an urgent final call for assistance as the al-Shifa Hospital and Indonesian
Hospital faced a critical shortage of fuel on Tuesday evening. It emphasized
the urgent need for intervention from the international community to save the
lives of those in the hospitals.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have
repeatedly targeted hospitals, residences, mosques, and churches. Under the
Geneva Convention, attacks on hospitals are strictly prohibited.
On Thursday, footage surfaced showing
Israeli warplanes dropping white phosphorus bombs, which are internationally
banned, on an UNRWA school located at al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza. The
chemical can cause severe burns.
On the ground, heavy fighting is
underway northwest of Gaza City. Israeli forces reportedly carried out raids
into the Shati refugee camp, the Nasr neighborhood and Sheikh Radwan on
Thursday.
Gaza Medical staff describe apocalyptic
scenes where they have to make life-or-death decisions to rescue those wounded
by air strikes.
The Qassam Brigades said it had targeted
an Israeli air base as well as tanks and bulldozers in northwestern Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli
settlers attacked Palestinians setting fire to their vehicles and stores.
Videos showed the aftermath of the
settler assaults in the village of Deir Sharaf near Nablus after the
Palestinian health ministry reported the killing of three more people by
Israeli troops.
At least three Palestinians were killed
in separate raids in the cities of Qalqilya and Bireh.
In Bireh near the seat of the
Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, two Palestinians, Ayham al-Shafei, 14, and
Yazan Shiha, 24, were killed and two others wounded when Israeli troops opened
fire during a raid.
A 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Quran,
was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Qalqilya in the northern West
Bank, according to the ministry.
And a young Palestinian succumbed to
injuries he sustained days ago during an Israeli incursion into a village near
the city of Nablus. The ministry reported the death of 14-year-old Hamdan
Hamdan of wounds sustained Monday by Israeli fire in a village near the
occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
In the meantime, an Israeli soldier was
killed in a Palestinian shooting operation in the West Bank. The Israeli
military confirmed the killing near Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm.
For several months, the West Bank has
seen increasing Israeli army raids, and attacks on Palestinians by extremist
Israeli settlers.
Israeli forces and settlers escorted by
the regime troops have killed around 130 Palestinians in the West Bank since
October 7.
Source: presstv.ir
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Gaza: Death toll rises to 9061, Bahrain
cuts ties with Tel Aviv
November 03, 2023
Israeli forces have surrounded Gaza city
and pressing forward despite international calls for ceasefire.
The city in the north of the Gaza Strip
has become focus of attack for Israel, which has told civilians to flee to the
south.
Meanwhile, Israel continued deadly air
attacks on Gaza early this morning even as the number of people martyred in the
Palestinian enclave rises to at least 9,061.
Bahrain has recalled its Ambassador to
Israel and suspended economic ties with Tel Aviv.
A statement published on the Bahraini
parliament website said the decision to
recall its envoy and suspend economic relations is based on the kingdom’s solid
and historical stance that supports the Palestinian cause and the legitimate
rights of the Palestinian people.
Source: radio.gov.pk
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Bahrain 'halts' economic relations with
Israel over war on Gaza: Parliament
02 November 2023
Bahrain's lower house of parliament has
said the country has halted its economic relations with the Israeli regime over
Tel Aviv's ongoing war against the Gaza Strip that has claimed thousands of
Palestinians.
"Economic relations with Israel
have been halted," said a statement from the Council of Representatives on
Thursday.
The chamber also "confirms that the
Israeli ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain has left Bahrain, and the Kingdom
of Bahrain decided to return the Bahraini ambassador from Israel to the
country," it noted.
The move was "in support of the
Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian
people," the statement read.
Abdulnabi Salman, the Bahraini
legislature's first deputy speaker, confirmed the decision to AFP, saying the
"ongoing conflict in Gaza cannot tolerate silence."
Bahrain's National Communication Center,
the government's media arm, said the "priority at this stage must be
focused on protecting the lives of civilians" in the besieged Palestinian
territory.
The brutal war that the Israeli regime
has been waging against the coastal sliver since October 7, has so far claimed
the lives of nearly 9,061 people, including 3,700 children and more than 2,300
women.
Hamas says the Israeli regime is engaged
in committing "massacre of the century" in the Gaza Strip.
The regime launched the war after Gaza's
resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation
against the occupying entity in years.
Bahrain and the regime established
diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of United States-brokered Abraham Accords.
Back in 2021, Bahrain’s main opposition
group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, denounced Manama’s normalization
of relations with Israel as “a crime,” emphasizing that the ruling Al Khalifah
regime’s policies did not conform to the will of the Bahraini nation.
Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq
condemns the Al Khalifah regime’s normalization with Israel as a crime, saying
the move doesn’t reflect public will.
The country has witnessed numerous
protests ever since the rapprochement, condemning the detente as an instance of
"treason."
Source: presstv.ir
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Gaza Strip: Israeli ground troops meet
Hamas resistance, Palestinian death toll mounts
03.11.23
Israeli tanks and troops pressed towards
Gaza City on Thursday but met with fierce resistance from Hamas militants using
mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels as the Palestinian death toll from
nearly four weeks of bombardments mounted.
The war is closing in on the Gaza
Strip’s main population centre in the north, where the Islamist group is based.
Israel has been telling people to leave the area as it vows to annihilate Hamas
once and for all.
“We are at the gates of Gaza City,”
Israeli military commander Brigadier General Itzik Cohen said.
Fighters of Hamas and its ally Islamic
Jihad were emerging from tunnels to fire at tanks, then disappearing back into
the network, residents said and videos from both groups showed, in
guerrilla-style operations against a far more powerful army.
“They never stopped bombing Gaza City
all night, the house never stopped shaking,” said one man living there, asking
not to be identified by name. “But in the morning we discover the Israeli
forces are still outside the city, in the outskirts and that means the
resistance is heavier than they expected.”
Israeli officers have stressed the
difficulties of fighting in an urban environment. For now, their strategy
appears to be concentrating large forces in the northern Gaza Strip rather than
launching a ground assault on the entire territory.
The latest war in the decades-old
conflict began when Hamas fighters broke through the border on October 7.
Israel says they killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200
hostages in the deadliest day of its 75-year history.
Israel’s ensuing bombardment of the
small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people has killed at least 8,796
people, including 3,648 children, according to Gaza health authorities.
Although Western nations and the US in
particular have traditionally supported Israel, harrowing images of bodies in
the rubble and hellish conditions inside Gaza have triggered appeals for
restraint and street protests around the world.
Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu knows, however, that his career and legacy depend on
crushing Hamas.
‘Hamas prepared well’
Residents reported mortar fire around
Gaza City and said Israeli tanks and bulldozers were sometimes driving over rubble
and knocking down structures rather than using regular roads.
The south of Gaza was not spared either,
with three Palestinians dead from tank shelling near the town of Khan Younis
and an air strike killing five outside a UN school in a beach refugee camp,
Gaza health officials said.
Brigadier General Iddo Mizrahi, chief of
Israel’s military engineers, told Army Radio troops were in the first stage of
opening access routes in Gaza.
“This is certainly terrain that is more
heavily sown than in the past with minefields and booby traps,” he said. “Hamas
has learned and prepared itself well.”
After a total blockade of Gaza for more
than three weeks, foreign passport holders and some severely wounded people
were being allowed out at the southern end.
Palestinian border official Wael Abu
Mehsen said 400 foreign citizens would leave for Egypt via the Rafah crossing
on Thursday, after some 320 on Wednesday. Another 60 critically injured
Palestinians would be crossing too, Mehsen added.
Israel’s latest strikes have included
the heavily populated area of Jabalia that was set up as a refugee camp in
1948.
Gaza’s Hamas-run media office said at
least 195 Palestinians were killed in the two hits on Tuesday and Wednesday,
with 120 missing and at least 777 people hurt.
“It is a massacre,” said one person on
the scene as people desperately hunted for trapped victims.
Israel, which accuses Hamas of hiding
behind civilians, said it killed two Hamas military leaders in Jabalia.
“We are fighting on all fronts and
hitting Hamas wherever it is found,” Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz
said, warning of a long and complex fight. “We will hunt them down through
night and day, in their cities and in their beds.”
With Arab nations increasingly vocal in
their outrage at Israel’s actions, the UN high commissioner for human rights
also expressed concern that Israel’s “disproportionate attacks” may constitute
war crimes.
Israel says it has lost 17 soldiers and
killed dozens of militants since ground operations were expanded on Friday.
Violence has also spread to the occupied
West Bank, with Israeli military raids to arrest suspected militants touching
off confrontations with gunmen and people throwing stones.
Palestinian medics and the health
ministry said three teenagers and a 25-year-old were killed there in clashes on
Thursday. Israel’s army had no immediate comment.
Separately, the military and medics said
Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank. There was no
claim for that from Palestinian factions.
Hospitals ‘beyond catastrophic’
As international calls for a
“humanitarian pause” in hostilities go unheeded, Palestinians are suffering
shortages of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine. Sewage is leaking, some
are drinking salt water and the trickle of aid permitted by Israel is a tiny
proportion of what is needed.
Source: telegraphindia.com
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UAE warns against risk of regional
spillover from Gaza war
Nov 3, 2023
ABU DHABI: Gulf Arab power the United
Arab Emirates warned on Friday that there was a real risk of a regional
spillover from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, adding that it was working
"relentlessly" to secure a humanitarian ceasefire.
The UAE was the most prominent Arab
country to sign the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of pacts with Israel, which
the latter hoped would pave the way to normalisation of ties with Muslim
superpower Saudi Arabia, but the war dealt those plans a blow.
"As we continue working to stop
this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the
regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point," Noura al-Kaabi,
a minister of state for foreign affairs, told a policy conference in the
capital, Abu Dhabi.
"The risk of regional spillover and
further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take
advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in
cycles of violence."
A leading oil power, the UAE views
groups such as Hamas, which was tied to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, as an
existential threat to the Middle East.
The UAE supported Egypt's current
president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, when he toppled the Muslim Brotherhood
president Mohamed Mursi in 2013.
"Every effort must be made to
protect civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict," Kaabi
added.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Thousands of Muslims in Serbia hold
rally in solidarity with Palestine
03.11.2023
Talha Ozturk
Thousands of Muslims gathered in the
Serbian city of Novi Pazar on Thursday to take part in a rally in support of
Palestine, denouncing Israel's attacks on Gaza.
More than 15,000 demonstrations gathered
in the city center to express their solidarity with the Palestinian enclave and
condemn Israel for the ongoing violence in the region.
They chanted slogans affirming their
unwavering support for Palestine, including "Freedom for Palestine,"
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Stop
the genocide.”
Palestinian flags and photos of the
suffering in Gaza were displayed and pamphlets were distributed calling for a
boycott of Israeli products.
Azra Semsovic, one of the organizers,
said they refuse to remain silent over what is happening in Gaza.
"We cannot sit and watch Israel's
genocide against civilians. If we cannot do anything, we can at least take to
the streets and shout that we are against the genocide,'' said Semsovic.
Another organizer, Fejzo Radoncic, said
that courage is standing on the side of good, truth and justice.
"Tonight we stand next to each
other. We can say that Novi Pazar has brave, truthful and compassionate people.
We are here to support the Palestinians -- Muslims and Christians -- and to say
that we will never forget the innocent children of Gaza and Palestine. We
condemn any terror against innocent civilians, no matter who they are,"
said Radoncic.
The demonstration ended after prayers
for the Palestinian people.
The Israeli military has expanded its
air and ground attacks in Gaza, which has been under relentless airstrikes
since the Palestinian group. Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Oct. 7
that has killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
Nearly 10,600 people have since been
killed in the conflict, including at least 9,061 Palestinians.
Basic supplies are running low for
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents due to Israel's "full siege," in
addition to the large number of casualties and displacements.
Source: aa.com.tr
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Zionist forces kill several Palestinians
across occupied WB
Nov 3, 2023
TEHRAN, Nov. 03 (MNA) – Israeli regime's
forces have killed four Palestinians and wounded at least 12 others, according
to medical sources, in an overnight raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which
lasted for around nine hours.
The Israeli regime has been waging a
barbaric war against Gaza since October 7, when Hamas-led Palestinian
Resistance groups launched their biggest operation against the Zionist regime
in years. The sneak attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, came in response to
the regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.
The Israeli war has so far claimed the
lives of over 9,000 innocent Palestinians and left upwards of 32,000 others
wounded.
The United Nations General Assembly
overwhelmingly passed a resolution, calling for the implementation of an
immediate "humanitarian truce" in Gaza. The Israeli regime has
rejected all calls for a ceasefire, claiming it would benefit Hamas.
The following are the latest updates:
Two Zionist forces injured in Hezbollah
drone attack
Israeli regime's military spokesperson
on Friday said that two of the regime's forces were injured following a drone
attack carried out by the Lebanese Resistance movement Hezbollah on their camp
in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
UN experts warn Palestinians face ‘risk
of genocide’ amid constant Israeli bombardment
A group of United Nations experts have
warned time is running out to “prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe”
in Gaza, expressing their deep frustration with the Israeli regime’s refusal to
halt plans to decimate the besieged Gaza Strip.
“We remain convinced that the
Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide,” the experts said. “The time
for action is now. Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to
prevent its disastrous course of action,” they said in a joint statement on
Thursday.
Zionist forces kill several Palestinians
across occupied WB
Israeli regime's forces have killed four
Palestinians and wounded at least 12 others, according to medical sources, in
an overnight raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which lasted for around nine
hours.
In al-Fawwar refugee camp south of
al-Khalil, Zionist forces killed two Palestinians and wounded at least five
others, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
In the Qalandiya refugee camp by
Ramallah, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and wounded several others.
Another Palestinian has died of wounds
he sustained on Wednesday during an Israeli regime's raid on Nablus.
At least 141 Palestinians have been
killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
Protests worldwide calling for end to
Israeli bombing of Gaza
UAE says risk of regional spillover is
real
The United Arab Emirates’ minister of
state for foreign affairs has warned that the regional temperature “is
approaching a boiling point”.
The risk of regional spillover and
further escalation is real, Al Jazeera quoted Noura al-Kaabi as saying a policy
conference in Abu Dhabi.
“Every effort must be made to protect
civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict,” al-Kaabi added.
Source: mehrnews.com
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Supreme Committee for Supporting Al-Aqsa
calls for widespread participation in the solidarity marches with Gaza,on
Friday
[03/November/2023]
SANA'A November 03.2023 (Saba)-The
Supreme Committee of the National Campaign to Support Al-Aqsa called for
widespread participation in the marches that will begin today after Friday
prayers in the capital, Sana'a, in solidarity with Gaza.
In Al-Thawra District, the solidarity
march with Gaza begins from the Airport Line, Interpol Street in Tunis
neighborhood, and in Shu’ub District from the main street next to Al-Firdaus
Mosque, Al-Haffa Mosque Square, Airport Line, after Friday prayers.
In Al-Safiya District, the solidarity
march begins from 30th Street, the intersection with Taiz Street, while the
Solidarity March with Gaza begins in Azal District from Al-Rayyan, Okaz Market
in Masikneighborhood after Friday prayers.
In Ma'in District, the Solidarity March
will start from Rabat Street, 60th Street in front of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, an altar in front of the Public Prosecutor's Office, and in Al-Sabeen
District from the east of the People's Mosque, May 22nd Street, in front of
Haddah Post Office, 24th Street in front of Tuberculosis Hospital after Friday
prayers.
In the Tahrir District, the solidarity
march with Gaza begins from Tahrir Square, Al-Kabsi Mosque Square in
Ziraaneighborhood, after Friday prayers.
Source: saba.ye
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Thousands of Gazan workers sent back
from Israel
November 03, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israel on Friday began
sending thousands of Palestinian workers back to Gaza who had been stranded
inside Israel since its war with Hamas erupted, a Gaza border official said.
“Thousands of workers who were blocked
in Israel since October 7 have been brought back,” Hisham Adwan, head of Gaza’s
crossings authority, told AFP.
AFPTV footage shot early on Friday
showed groups of workers arriving through the Karem Abu Salem crossing between
Israel and southern Gaza, which is normally only used for goods.
Israel said late on Thursday it would
start deporting the workers back to Gaza.
“Israel is severing all contact with
Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza,” the Israeli
security cabinet said in a statement.
“Those workers from Gaza who were in
Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza,” it
added, without specifying how many people would be sent back.
Before the war started, some 18,500
Gazans were holding Israeli work permits, according to figures provided by
COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs.
COGAT did not immediately respond to a
request for the number of Gazans who were working inside Israel on October 7,
when Hamas militants stormed across the border and killed at least 1,400
people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Following the onslaught, Israel struck
back hard with a relentless bombing campaign that has killed more than 9,000
people, mainly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Source: arabnews.com
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Israeli diplomat sees possible foreign
hospital ships for Gaza wounded
November 02, 2023
JERUSALEM/BERLIN/PARIS: Israel has asked
foreign countries to send hospital ships to help treat wounded Palestinians who
are allowed to leave the war-ravaged Gaza Strip for neighboring Egypt, the
Israeli ambassador to Germany said on Thursday.
France said last week it was sending the
naval vessel Tonnerre to the eastern Mediterranean on what it described as a
mission to support Gaza hospitals. Egypt this week began admitting limited
numbers of wounded across its Gaza border.
In an Israeli public broadcast interview
on Kan radio, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, was asked whether
Israel had asked France and other European countries to send hospital ships for
receiving Gazan wounded at Al-Arish, an Egyptian port close to the Palestinian
enclave.
Prosor described this scenario as
correct, saying he had submitted such a request to Berlin.
“I don’t know yet if it is happening,”
said Prosor, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “We asked
for this. I suppose it is being discussed. There is a leaning, here in Europe,
to help in humanitarian matters in any way possible.”
A spokesperson for the German defense
ministry said Berlin was in close contact with its Israeli partners and each
request would be thoroughly looked into. He declined, however, to comment on
the specific request for a hospital ship.
“I ask for your understanding that I
cannot comment on the content and details of confidential conversations,” he
said. With that, he appeared to refer to a meeting between German Defense
Minister Boris Pistorius and Prosor on Tuesday.
A French military source said the
Tonnerre, which has about 60 beds and two operating blocs, could only be used
temporarily and as back-up for a larger hospital on land.
“The medical support capacities of the
ship make it possible to provide a rapid response but only temporary and only
complementary to heavier hospital installations capable of treating significant
flows of injured people effectively and over time.”
The source said that at this stage the
Tonnerre remained off the coast of Cyprus and no decision had been made on
where it could dock and how it would be used. The immediate priority for France
was to provide humanitarian aid through air lifts via Egypt.
Speaking to France Info radio, Defense
Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Paris had decided to send a second helicopter
carrier, the Dixmude, to the region and it was being transformed into a
hospital vessel.
When asked how practical it would be to
bring people from land to sea, Lecornu said things were still in the planning
stages and discussions were ongoing with Egyptian and Israeli authorities.
“The idea is to tell all the actors in
this conflict that we cannot leave civilian populations exposed to danger and,
above all, without a health care solution on a humanitarian level,” Lecornu
said.
He said he hoped that France’s decision
to send ships would encourage others to follow their lead.
A French diplomatic source said it was
unlikely that the Tonnerre would be used as an offshore field hospital for
Palestinians or foreigners from Gaza.
The source said the idea was to see how
the ship, along with other vessels in the region, could eventually be used to
help establish a field hospital in southern Gaza, although all that would
depend on the situation on the ground and discussions with regional
authorities.
Prosor said Israel also asked Italy to
send a hospital ship but has yet to hear back.
Source: arabnews.com
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Turkiye ready to take cancer patients
from Gaza hospital
November 3, 2023
ANKARA: Turkiye is ready to take in
cancer patients from Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, which went
out of service on Wednesday after running out of fuel, Health Minister
Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.
Health officials said that the hospital,
which was the only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip, had to shut
down amid Israel’s bombardment of the enclave.
In a statement on social messaging
platform X, Koca said that if the necessary coordination was done Turkiye was
ready to bring both cancer patients and others in need of emergency help to
Turkiye to continue their treatment.
“As Turkiye… we are ready to provide any
and all support in continuing the treatment of cancer patients who were
forcibly discharged from the hospital due to a lack of resources,” Koca said.
Earlier the United Arab Emirates said it
planned to treat 1,000 Palestinian children from Gaza, without saying how they
would leave the enclave for the Gulf state.
In addition, Saudi Arabia said it was
launching a fundraising campaign for Palestinians. In this campaign, Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has donated 20 million Saudi riyals (roughly $5.3
million), the state-affiliated channel Al Ekhbariya reported.
The campaign “comes within the framework
of the Kingdom’s well-known historic role in standing with the brotherly
Palestinian people,” said Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, head of the King Salman
Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, according to the official Saudi Press
Agency.
In an update by Medical Aid for
Palestinians, Dr Marwan Abusada, chief of surgery at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital,
said the situation was “beyond catastrophic” at hospitals in Gaza.
“We are almost out of fuel… The
consumption needs are immense due to the influx of injuries and the thousands
of people who are displaced and seeking refuge in the hospital,” Abusada said,
adding Al Shifa had more than 800 injured people, far beyond its capacity.
He said many displaced people were
living in the hospital courtyard and inside the building, including its
corridors, and that there was a high chance of pandemics spreading between the
patients and displaced.
“The ER rooms are beyond full. We have
zero capacity to treat all the injured people. Every hour we have tens of
injured that come for treatment. We are facing a real catastrophe.”
Source: dawn.com
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Africa
Dozens of Burkina localities besieged by
armed jihadist groups: Amnesty
Nov 2, 2023
Armed jihadist groups are holding at
least 46 locations across Burkina Faso under siege in July, preventing access
to food and drinking water and abducting women, Amnesty International said
Thursday.
Amnesty said the tactic had increasingly
been used since last year by the armed groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State group.
Armed groups prevent the besieged
populations from getting access to "food, drinkable water and health –-
forcing people to displace", the rights group said in a report.
Checkpoints are set up on main exit
routes, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid to limit traffic and
occasional attacks carried out against civilians, soldiers and supply convoys,
it added.
"Amnesty International collected
information on cases of abductions of women by armed groups in the context of
besieged localities," the report said.
It said the cities, towns and villages
were spread across the West African country but that the northern Sahel and
western Boucle du Mouhoun regions were particularly affected.
It defined a locality under siege as
having the army and/or Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a
civilian force that supports the military, present -- but where armed groups
prohibit or restrict free access by people, goods and services.
Burkina Faso saw Islamists sweep in from
Mali in 2015.
More than 17,000 people have died in
attacks since then, more than 6,000 just since the start of this year,
according to a count by monitoring group the Armed Conflict Location and Event
Data Project (ACLED).
More than two million people have been
forced to flee their homes.
The country underwent two coups last
year -- both triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem the raging
jihadist insurgency.
Amnesty also warned of the severe
humanitarian consequences from the brutal sieges.
Some 373 health centres had been closed
as of June due to the conflict, affecting medical access for 3.5 million
people, it said in the report.
However, it added that, despite efforts
to respond to humanitarian needs, "the Burkinabe government has put
measures in place which have created difficulties for the work of humanitarian
organisations, and in the access of civilians in need to humanitarian
relief".
Source: africanews.com
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Wike Approves Funds For Maintenance of
Nat’l Mosque, Christian Centre
Nov 3, 2023
Toyin Adebayo
ABUJA – Nyesom Wike, the Minister of
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has approved funding for the maintenance of the
National Mosque and the National Christian Centre.
Wike gave this approval following a
routine inspection of both Abuja religious centres on Thursday in Abuja.
Despite the contractors’ first work halt
owing to additional work that needed to be done, Wike stated he was happy
with the work completed at both the National Mosque and the Christian centre.
He said the Christian Centre had
requested funds for Phase 2 of the renovation, noting however that if the FCT
did not have the funds to complete the project, he would meet with President
Bola Tinubu for more funds.
He said: “Jobs were awarded for the
maintenance of the two national monuments, which are the Mosque and the Church,
and the jobs stopped because there were additional works that ought to be
done.”
Source: independent.ng
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Lagos riverine community decries alleged
incursion, harassment, looting by police, land grabbers
November 3, 2023
Some residents of IbasaIjegun-Egba, a
riverine community in Oriade Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos, on
Thursday, decried the invasion of the community by police officers and land
grabbers.
The residents told journalists that
since 27 October, peace had eluded the town and its markets as it had allegedly
been overrun by the police and hoodlums.
Tajudeen Ibikunle, the traditional ruler
of the IbasaIjegun-Imore community, said he was sleeping in his house on 27
October when some police officers and hoodlums came to arrest him.
“They took me and some other residents
to the Police Command in Onikan and locked us inside a cell.
“I was released on Saturday with the
help of Oba Afeez Oriyomi Shittu, the traditional Ruler of Ijegun-Egba land,
who came to bail some of us who were in the cell.
“When I got back on Saturday, I
discovered that these hoodlums had taken over all axes of my community in
Ijegun and were disturbing the peaceful atmosphere.
“They had blocked everywhere and were
beating and harassing residents, claiming to have taken over the community.
“We are appealing to the government to
intervene now because I cannot even access my palace now because of their
presence,” Mr Ibikunle said.
Omolara Alebiosu, a resident of
Ijegun-Egba, said she was arrested with her three children in front of their
house without any reason.
“About 50 hoodlums, some of them wearing
masks, beat up me and my children and forced us to enter their vehicle.
“We were taken to Ikeja before someone
phoned them to come to Zone 2 Onikan. Even though they didn’t know the way to
the command, one of the police officers came to lead them to the place.
“They locked us up in a cell on Friday
while the traditional ruler came on Saturday to bail some of us while others
were released the following Monday.
“Now that we are back home, we
discovered that the land grabbers are everywhere in the community, harassing
us, telling us that the town belongs to them,” Mrs Alebiosu said.
What triggered issues
Shedding more light on the incident,
Kareem Idowu, the Youth Chairman, of IbasaIjegun-Egba Youth Satellite
Community, said someone had written a petition against the community.
According to him, in the petition, the
petitioners claimed that youths in the community were involved in bunkering,
and malicious damage to property and were threatening marketers with guns.
Denial of allegations
The youth chairperson said all these
were lies, adding that he expected the Police to do a proper investigation
before invading the community.
“There is nothing like bunkering in our
community because one can’t even go near the pipeline because of the presence
of naval personnel.
“The community was trying to rebuild the
Ogun shrine to give it a befitting status during the forthcoming festival and
this belongs to us.
“Also no youth carries guns to market in
Ijegun-Egba, we are law-abiding citizens.
“The police should have done their
findings before invading our community, now many people have been arrested and
detained till now.
“Again, we don’t understand why land
grabbers should be involved in this issue, because many thugs have been
tormenting the residents claiming that they have taken over our property in
Ijegun-Egba.
“We are lawful people and we have a
paramount ruler installed by the Lagos State Government.
“Currently, nobody can go out or go to
the market, this has affected the economic situation of the area.
“We are appealing to the Lagos State
Government to intervene and restore normalcy to our communities as we are now
living in fear,” Idowu said.
Invasion, looting
Bukky Ishola, a resident and the
daughter of the Iyaloja General of Ijegun-Egba market said the market was
invaded by hoodlums who took advantage of the situation to steal, harass and
beat many people at the market.
Kazeem Salami, a meat seller, said they
were not allowed to sell their meat as some of the hoodlums beat and sent their
customers away.
Mr Salami called for government
intervention so that peace could return to the market and the community.
Contractor affected
Tunde Sanni, a contractor handling the
construction of the Ijegun-Egba market, said the hoodlums seized their tools
and other materials and sent workers away from the project.
According to him, it took the
intervention of the chairperson of Ori-Ade Local Council Development Area
(LCDA) before their tools were released.
“Up until now, our workers have not
returned to the site because those hoodlums are still around tormenting the
market and the town,” Mr Sanni said.
Police reaction
When contacted, Superintendent Hauwa
Idris-Adamu, the Police Public Relations Officer for Zone 2 Onikan, said she
was not aware of the incident.
She, however, promised to find out the
department in charge of the case and resolve the conflict. (NAN)
Source: premiumtimesng.com
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‘Horrible suffering’ in Sudan only
growing as more displaced: UN official
November 03, 2023
United Nations: As fierce fighting in
Darfur once again pushes thousands of Sudanese to flee their homes, more must
be done to alleviate the suffering of the millions already displaced, a UN
official tells AFP.
“Six months and six million people
forced to move, that’s an average of one million per month, it’s horrible
suffering,” said Mamadou Dian Balde, the top regional official for the UN’s
refugee agency (UNHCR).
The war between troops loyal to Sudanese
army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhane and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of
General Mohamed HamdaneDaglo has left more than 9,000 dead since April,
according to a UN report.
Of the nearly six million who have fled,
1.2 million have left the country, “very proud people who find themselves
begging” and whose lives have been “totally disrupted,” the UN official said.
He warned that while the world’s
attention has been shifted to the war in Gaza, the number of people fleeing
their homes in Sudan had started to rise again, as RSF forces advance toward
Nyala, the country’s second city in the heart of Darfur.
Another UN official in the region,
Dominique Hyde, said on social media Thursday she had witnessed “dramatic
scenes at the border with Sudan.
“10,000 people seeking safety have
arrived in the last three days,” she said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
meanwhile said he was “deeply troubled” at information about an “imminent
large-scale attack” by Sudan’s paramilitary forces in El-Facher, the capital of
North Darfur.
More and more people from Darfur are
being pushed south, first to Chad in recent weeks and now to South Sudan.
Mamadou Dian Balde said the priority was
for a cessation of hostilities, noting that ongoing negotiations in Saudi
Arabia’s Jeddah need to “succeed in stopping the fighting.”
Talks between the warring parties
resumed at the end of October. Previous attempts at mediation only resulted in
brief truces, which were systematically violated.
In the meantime, “we must alleviate the
suffering (of refugees) by providing resources to these people whose numbers
are only increasing,” he said.
The UN’s humanitarian response plan in
August called for around $1 billion in funding, anticipating a number of 1.8
million refugees by the end of 2023.
That plan has only received 38 percent
of the funding required, while “the needs are growing,” said the UN official,
noting that most refugees were going to the poorest parts of South Sudan and
southern Chad, where local communities cannot absorb them.
That means the UN will need to build new
camps.
“It’s the last thing we want to do,”
said the UN official, but “we need to create new camps, because the populations
are at the border” and in “extremely miserable conditions.”
He also called for helping the local
communities.
“We want development. We have to invest
in these places because if we only give support to refugees, it will create
tensions and tensions can translate into violence.”
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402531/middle-east
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Ethiopia: CBE Says Providing Muslim
Community With Auxiliary Banking Service
3 NOVEMBER 2023
-CBE Noor facilitates access to interest
free banking service
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) stated
that CBE Noor has helped all Muslim community members, who are away from
banking services due to interest access to banking services.
Speaking at the occasion for celebrating
the 10th anniversary of CBE Noor, an interest-free banking service launched in
2013, yesterday, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia President Abie Sano said that CBE
Noor has enabled customers, predominantly the Muslim community, who are away
from banks due to interest to benefit out of the banking services.
He said: "The service has been
widely accepted by the society over the last 10 years and is significantly
expanding. CBE Noor has facilitated unbanked customers to enjoy banking and
satisfying demand using as an alternative scheme in addition to interest-based
banking services; interest- free banking services are currently widely
accepted, expanded and grown."
CBE Noor Service has embraced the
society who moved away from banking services ten years ago, and continues
benefiting customers by implementing procedures compatible with principles of
Sharia, which in turn fit the teachings of the religion, he added.
As to President Abie, there are some
reasons to the establishment of CBE Noor interest free services, like the
government had the responsibility to providing alternative banking services to
the Muslim community and banks have to accommodate the interest of citizens
instead of merely serving those who would like to enjoy having interest-based
banking services.
Vice president of CBE Noor with
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Nur Hussein on his part said that CBE Noor service
has been providing the community with reliable service by opening 153 branches
in different parts of the country.
As to him, currently, the number of CBE
Noor customers has reached 6.4 million and the capital has reached 98.2 billion
Birr.
CBE will continue strengthening efforts
to make all segments of society benefitted out of modern banking services. It
is to be recalled that the CBE Noor service was launched in 2013 at Abakoran
and Anwar branches.
Source: allafrica.com
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https://allafrica.com/stories/202311030215.html
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Arab World
Saudi Arabia launches fundraising
campaign to aid Palestinians in Gaza
November 02, 2023
RIYADH — Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed bin
Salman have issued directives to launch a fundraising campaign on the Sahem
platform affiliated with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center
(KSrelief) to aid the brotherly Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
King Salman has donated SR30 million and
Crown Prince donated SAR20 million to the fundraising campaign.
In a press statement, Advisor to the
Royal Court and Supervisor General of KSrelief Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah noted
that this fundraising campaign is part of the historical role of the Kingdom in
supporting the brotherly Palestinian people in various crises. The Saudi
humanitarian and development support has never stopped reaching the Palestinian
people, he added.
Al Rabeeah pointed out that the Kingdom
is at the top donor countries in providing support to the Palestinian people,
expressing gratitude and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
and the Crown Prince for their support to help the brotherly Palestinian
people.
Donation to the campaign can be made via
the Sahem platform through the following link https://sahem.ksrelief.org/Gaza,
or through the Sahem mobile app via Apple Store and Google Play. Donors can
also send their contributions directly to the campaign bank account
(SA5580000504608018899998) at Al Rajhi Bank.
Source: saudigazette.com.sa
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https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/637318/SAUDI-ARABIA/Saudi-Arabia-launches-fundraising-campaign-to-aid-Palestinians-in-Gaza
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Saudi Arabia Participates in AI Safety
Summit in London
02 Nov, 2023
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety
Summit 2023 kicked off Wednesday in London with the participation of President
of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), Dr. Abdullah
bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi, several ministers and high-ranking officials from
commissions specialized in AI technologies worldwide.
The summit brings together government
officials, leading AI companies, civil-society groups, and experts in the first
global gathering of its kind to discuss the future of AI and mechanisms to
address its through internationally coordinated action.
The summit aims at arriving at a common
understanding of the risks associated with AI and laying down the foundations
of international cooperation to ensure its safety as well as outlining the
necessary measures individuals and organizations need to take to increase the
safety of using AI technologies.
Source: alriyadhdaily.com
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http://alriyadhdaily.com/article/074ec708cea34283a250aecde80a7e93
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UN special representative for children
and armed conflict received in Riyadh
November 02, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi Vice Minister of Foreign
Affairs Waleed Elkhereiji received the special representative of the United
Nations secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba de
Potgieter, in Riyadh on Thursday.
During the meeting, the pair discussed
topics of common interest.
Earlier this week, the minister met with
the ambassador of Benin to the Kingdom, Adam Bagoudou Zakari.
They discussed bilateral relations
between their countries and ways to enhance them in all fields.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402286/saudi-arabia
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Saudi, Colombian foreign ministers
discuss Gaza conflict during call
November 02, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan has thanked his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Leyva
Duran for his support of the UN resolution issued on Friday, aimed at an
immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the establishment of an urgent humanitarian
truce.
The comments were made during a phone
call the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The two discussed developments in Gaza
and its surroundings, in light of the continuing military escalation and the
danger it poses for civilians, the ministry said in a statement.
They also discussed the need for the
international community to fulfil “its responsibility to stop all military
actions and return to the path of just and comprehensive peace for the
Palestinian issue, in a way that achieves international peace and security,”
the statetment added.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402236/saudi-arabia
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Islamic Forum for Halal Accreditation
Bodies Holds 1st Meeting in Makkah
02 Nov, 2023
The General Assembly of the Islamic
Forum for Halal Accreditation Bodies (IFHAB) has held its first meeting in
Makkah to discuss a number of items on the agenda, form the Executive
Committee, and adopt the temporary statute of the forum. The meeting was attended
by 24 national accreditation bodies from member states of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The forum came at the initiative of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to become one of the institutions affiliated with and
hosted and funded by the OIC; it aims to enhance mutual understanding and
effective communication between accreditation bodies to support the halal
industry at various levels.
Source: alriyadhdaily.com
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http://alriyadhdaily.com/article/c75b9f8aed164e7fbd8f3947fa83a069
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SDAIA President, British AI Minister
Discuss Enhancing Cooperation at AI Safety Summit
02 Nov, 2023
President of the Saudi Data and AI
Authority (SDAIA) Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi discussed enhancing
Saudi-British cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) with British Minister
for AI and Intellectual Property Viscount Camrose.
Al-Ghamdi and Camrose met on the sidelines of
the AI Safety Summit 2023, which kicked off on Wednesday at Bletchley Park in
Buckinghamshire, England.
During their meeting, they discussed
AI-related topics and reviewed cooperation efforts between Saudi Arabia and the
United Kingdom in this field.
They also discussed the summit’s activities
and the international agreement on the Bletchley Declaration to ensure safe
development and use of AI technologies.
Source: alriyadhdaily.com
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http://alriyadhdaily.com/article/ae12aa5d50a84853a33f45ce44cfebff
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South Asia
Pakistan's Expulsion of Afghan Refugees
Continues to Spark Intl Reactions
November 2, 2023
The forced deportation of Afghan
immigrants from Pakistan has sparked worldwide reactions.
The US Department of State's spokesman,
Matthew Miller, in reaction to the forced deportation of Afghans, asked
Pakistan to uphold its obligations in the treatment of refugees and respect the
principle of non-refoulement.
“So we join all of our partners in
urging every state, including Pakistan, to uphold their respective obligations
in their treatment of refugees and asylum [seekers], and to respect the
principle of non-refoulement. We strongly encourage Afghanistan’s neighbors,
including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection
and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations to provide
humanitarian assistance,” Miller said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said that
the organization is concerned about this forced deportation of Afghan refugees
from Pakistan.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the
Secretary-General, in a press conference, said: “we’re very concerned about
this forced movement of people, many of whom are very likely refugees to a
country that by most accounts isn’t ready to welcome them back, in a sense; and
given the state of not only the humanitarian situation, but of course, first
and foremost, the human rights situation.
But, I know this is an issue that our colleagues in UNHCR [Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] and other humanitarian
organizations are engaging with the Pakistani authorities.”
"The government of Sindh has issued
a letter to the Sindh Ministry of Interior calling on police to not harass
those Afghans who have POR, ACC and Passport,” said Abdul Jabar Takhari,
consulate of Islamic Emirate in Karachi.
In the meantime, the Afghan Refugee
Council in Pakistan noted that Afghan immigrants in Pakistan live with fear and
stress and cannot leave their homes freely.
“We cannot explain that situation we are
in by words. It is a very chaotic situation. It is an extremely critical state,
full of fear and house arrests, the majority of people are suffering from a
mental illness,” said Mir Ahmad Rauf, head of the council.
"The mass deportations of
immigrants from Pakistan are against international conventions,” said Asefa
Stanikzai, an expert on refugee issues.
Dawn news outlet, quoting the Ministry
of Interior of Pakistan, said that the arrest of illegal Afghan immigrants has
started all over the country, and more than 100 Afghan immigrants were arrested
in the suburbs of Quetta alone.
According to the latest statistics, from
November 1 until now, more than 4,000 Afghan immigrants have been deported from
Pakistan, and now they are in a chaotic situation.
Source: tolonews.com
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https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-185848
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Islami Andolan Bangladesh rally underway
in Dhaka
Nov 3, 2023
Leaders, activists and followers of
Islami Andolan Bangladesh are gathering at Suhrawardy Uddyan in large numbers
today for a rally called by the party.
Visiting the area, UNB correspondent saw
several thousand activists of the party already occupied a part of the venue
long before formal start of the rally due in the afternoon.
They were singing Islamic songs and
gajals to cheer up the gathering.
Organisers hope that the crowd will
swell after Juma prayer.
The party shared their demands at press
conference yesterday.
The demands are dissolution of the
parliament, fair and impartial election under a national government,
introduction of proportional election system and the abolition of the current
Election Commission.
Source: thedailystar.net
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Acting Defense Minister warns Pakistan
‘sow as much as you can reap’
November 3, 2023
Referring to the mistreatment of Afghan
refugees by the Pakistani authorities, Acting Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqub
Mujahid has warned the neighboring country to weigh the consequences of its
actions.
“We ask the Pakistani regime not to
oppress Afghans, not to take their personal property, not to confiscate their
property, under no law can it do this. This work will be investigated. We will
do our best to prevent this. We will not allow anyone to confiscate and steal
the personal property of our Afghan brothers,” Mujahid said in an audio clip
released by RTA on Friday.
Mujahid said that Afghans are being
treated cruelly while returning from Pakistan, which should be stopped as soon
as possible.
He also called on the international
organizations to ask Pakistan to stop the mistreatment of Afghan refugees.
“If Pakistan returns the refugees to
their country, they should return with dignity. The Pakistani regime should
weigh the consequences of everything it does and sow as much as it can reap,”
Mujahid warned.
Source: ariananews.af
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Aid Organizations report concerns about
expelled Afghan migrants from Pakistan
Fidel Rahmati
November 3, 2023
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the
Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) have
expressed their deep concern through a joint statement regarding the situation
of hundreds of returning migrants from Pakistan. They emphasize that these
migrants have nowhere else to go and need urgent attention to their plight.
On Thursday, these international relief
organizations issued a joint statement, shedding light on the uncertain fate of
hundreds of thousands of returning migrants from Pakistan. Their report
highlights the challenging circumstances these individuals face and underscores
the situation’s urgency.
In their joint statement, these
organizations have urged neighbouring countries to continue supporting
vulnerable migrants until sustainable, safe, and voluntary conditions are
established for the return of Afghans to their homeland.
The Organization for the Protection of
Children reports that hundreds of Afghan children enter Afghanistan from
Pakistan daily, lacking a place to live and the means to afford food.
According to their statistics, more than
120,000 Afghan citizens, including children, have returned to the country in
the past six weeks.
The United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) added that Afghanistan is currently enduring one of the worst
humanitarian crises in recent history.
This comes as the Pakistani government,
despite international calls to prevent the expulsion of Afghan migrants, has
expelled hundreds of thousands of migrants and issued warnings that
undocumented migrants in the country will be detained after a specified
deadline.
Source: khaama.com
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https://www.khaama.com/aid-organizations-report-concerns-about-expelled-afghan-migrants-from-pakistan/
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More Than 3,000 Afghan migrants return
home from Iran
Fidel Rahmati
November 2, 2023
Simultaneously with the return of Afghan
refugees from neighbouring countries, the Ministry of Refugees and
Repatriations of Afghanistan has reported that over 3,000 Afghan migrants have
come back to their homeland from Iran.
On Thursday, the Ministry stated on its
official social media platform X that as of November 2nd, approximately 3,676
individuals of Afghan descent have returned to the country, both forcibly and
voluntarily.
The border officer of Islam Qala has
stated that among these, 303 families have been identified as needing
assistance and have been referred to the office of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) for support.
This development coincides with an
announcement made by the Ministry in a separate news release yesterday.
According to the release, as of November 1, more than 4,000 Afghan migrants
were forcefully returned from Pakistan.
This situation highlights the ongoing
challenges and complexities faced by Afghan migrants in the country as
governments grapple with managing refugee and migrant populations.
Recently, the situation of Afghan
migrants in Iran and Pakistan has become a heated and widespread topic of
discussion.
Source: khaama.com
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https://www.khaama.com/more-than-3000-afghan-migrants-return-home-from-iran/
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Southeast Asia
Amid accusation of Israel endorsement,
PKR denies being part of Liberal International
By Anis Zalani
03 Nov 2023
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — PKR has today
denied that it is a member of the global coalition called Liberal
International, which has been accused of being an ally to Israel.
In a statement, PKR information chief
Fahmi Fadzil stressed that it has never been associated with, nor held
membership or affiliation with the worldwide organisation of liberal political
parties.
“Recently, there have been deliberate
attempts to associate PKR with a coalition of political parties known as
Liberal International.
“I confirm that PKR is not and has never
been a member or affiliate of Liberal International,” the communications and
digital minister said.
Despite his clarification, PKR is listed
in Liberal International's website as an “observer member party”, along with
Perikatan Nasional component Gerakan.
This comes as some political detractors
dug up the link, and accused Liberal International of being funded by Israel.
The group has also backed Israel amid the increasingly bloody war with
Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In response, Fahmi said that PKR stands
in full solidarity with the Palestinian people and strongly condemns and
denounces the severe atrocities committed by the Zionist regime of Israel,
which continues to oppress, persecute, and kill the Palestinian population.
Based in the United Kingdom, Liberal
International is the world federation of liberal political parties that
connects liberal and progressive political parties and groups from around the
world.
The organisation is said to bring the
political parties together to share ideas, work on common issues which also
backs democracy, human rights, and global cooperation.
The political organisation was
established in Oxford in 1947 and has grown to be the leading global network
for liberal parties dedicated to promoting liberalism worldwide.
Source: malaymail.com
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In forum, Singaporean Muslims ponder
‘sense of helplessness’ in Gaza and boycott of Israel-linked firms
03 Nov 2023
SINGAPORE, Nov 3 — A sense of
helplessness amid a desire to do more to help the victims of the humanitarian
crisis in Gaza, as well as whether youths should boycott certain products and
quit their jobs at companies with reported links to Israel are among concerns
and issues raised by Islamic religious teachers at a forum on Thursday (Nov 2).
In turn, top Islamic leaders here
emphasised the need for asatizahs — or Islamic religious teachers — to empower
the Muslim community to respond to these concerns constructively and in an
engaged manner.
These include contributing to
humanitarian aid, fulfilling their family obligations and playing their part in
strengthening the intercommunal relationships here.
The forum, attended by about 120 Islamic
religious teachers, was organised by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore
(Muis), in partnership with the Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious
Teachers Association (Pergas), Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) and
Asatizah Youth Network (AYN).
The religious bodies and networks gave
presentations on various topics relating to the conflict in Gaza, including
discussing on religious advisory and guidance for the community here, as well
as how extremists can exploit the occurrences of such conflicts to lure people
to their course.
The three-hour forum, which was also
attended by Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development
Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, capped off with a closed-door panel discussion.
Speaking to the media after the forum,
Singapore’s Mufti Nazirudin Mohd Nasir was asked by TODAY about the key
concerns raised by the participants during the closed door discussions.
The Mufti, who oversees religious
rulings for Muslims in the country, said two main concerns were brought up:
What else can the local community do to help the victims of the conflict, and
how to tackle the conflicting narratives seen online.
“The sense of helplessness is very real,
but we need to be able to help them with that sense of helplessness,” said
Nazirudin, on the desire of the local community to do more to help the victims
of the war.
Hence, it was important for the
religious leaders and teachers to provide guidance on how the community can
play their part to help the victims of the conflict — such as by praying for
peace and by contributing to humanitarian efforts.
Another concern raised by the audience,
said the Mufti, was the myriad of narratives from various online sources
surrounding the conflict.
“And these could cause confusion in the
Muslim community as to what their responsibilities are, and what they should do
as Muslims in the current conflict,” he said.
Again, the religious leaders play an
important role to guide the community in navigating such issues and dealing
with how the conflict is affecting the local community here spiritually and
emotionally.
In this regard, the Office of the Mufti
under Muis is currently refining an irshad or religious advisory on the matter.
The religious teachers had also discussed the irshad, to be released at a later
date, during the forum.
Nazirudin said the irshad is meant to
help the Muslim community look at how such conflicts impact “our religiosity,
and how to best manage that in a wise, constructive and positive way”.
This can be done by strengthening
spirituality, as well as channeling efforts towards humanitarian aid for the
victims and to continue strengthening inter-communal relations here, he added.
Israel has been bombarding the Gaza
Strip for about four weeks, killing almost 9,000 Palestinians, the majority of
whom are children and women, according to the Gaza health ministry.
This was in response to an incursion on
October 7 by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which according to Israeli
officials led to the killing of 1,400 people and taking of more than 230
hostages.
International bodies have described the
situation in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis, in light of the high fatality and
much higher number of displaced civillians.
Many nations have condemned Hamas’
terrorist attack on Israel and supported Israel’s right to defend itself. At
the same time, as the civilian toll in Gaza mounted, there has also been calls
for Israel to respect and uphold international law.
On October 27, Singapore voted in favour
of a United Nations resolution to protect civilians and uphold legal and
humanitarian obligations amid the conflict.
The Singapore Government in October said
it would contribute S$300,000 towards relief operations through the Singapore
Red Cross, in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory
of the Gaza Strip.
Ustaz Muhammad Tarmizi Abdul Wahid,
president of Pergas, told reporters that one of the “common” questions that
religious teachers receive from youths is whether they should boycott products
from Israel.
A Palestinian-led movement called
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions targeting Israeli goods and companies was
founded in 2005 to rally the international community “to pressure Israel to
comply with international law”, according to the movement’s website.
“We hear stories of the young quitting
their jobs in certain companies just because they feel like there is a strong
affiliation (between their employer and Israel),” said Ustaz Muhammad Tarmizi.
However, he said that doing that may
result in them neglecting their responsibilities to their families or
themselves.
“They need alternative advice, but they
also need an alternative way to express their support,” he said, adding that it
was important that the youth “feel they are contributing” to address the
humanitarian crisis.
Ustaz Muhammad Tarmizi also said
religious teachers here play a range of important roles with regard to guiding
the local community’s response to the ongoing conflict.
These would include being an outlet for
members of the community to express their feelings and refer questions to,
especially given the “bombardment” of information that they are exposed to on
social media, as well as to guide their followers to contribute towards the
unity and harmony among the wider community.
As such, organising such forums as well
as the issuing of a guidance by Muis are “important” to empower the religious
teachers to perform these roles.
Validating the community’s feelings
Ustazah Nadia Hanim Abdul Rahman, a
representative from AYN, told reporters that religious teachers here have
received a “spectrum” of questions from youths about the conflict in Palestine.
But among the recent ones they have
heard is surrounding the concept of jihad, which was asked by youths who have
seen social media videos of people in other countries leaving their families
behind to fight for the Palestinians.
Jihad in Islam refers to striving or
struggling towards goodness. However, it is commonly misrepresented by
extremist groups, for example, as justification for armed struggle and violence
to support the groups’ cause.
People in such videos showed pride to
leave their families behind to fight in Palestine and claim to be “more
religious” for doing so, which led some youths to ask if they were less pious
for not doing so as well, she said.
“And that’s when our asatizahs play an
important role to actually guide them, to tell them that that’s not the case,”
said Ustazah Nadia.
She added that there are other religious
narratives in Islam which disallow Muslims to forsake their responsibilities
here to take up armed struggle elsewhere, and such narratives are “more
relevant to our context”.
Ustaz Mohamed Ali, co-chairman of the
RRG, said that many members of the community here — both Muslims and
non-Muslims — are “full with sentiments” of frustration and anger observing the
humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Not validating these sentiments and
feelings could potentially lead to some individuals becoming self-radicalised,
he said.
“And we have had cases in Singapore in
the past where individuals, young people, they got radicalised and the trigger
was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Mohamed.
Hence, there is a “dire need” for the
young ones especially, to have a full understanding of the conflict and be
guided in dealing with the sentiments arising from witnessing the conflict, he
said. —TODAY
Source: malaymail.com
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Verdict in Isa Samad’s appeal against
graft conviction, jail sentence on Nov 28
03 Nov 2023
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed
Nov 28 to deliver its verdict on the appeal by former Felda chairman Tan Sri
Mohd Isa Abdul Samad against his conviction and six years’ jail and the
RM15.4mil fine on nine counts of corruption involving RM3.09mil over the
authority’s purchase of a hotel in Kuching, Sarawak.
Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam
Abdul Aziz, when contacted, confirmed the decision date for the appeal, saying
that the defence had filed its additional submissions and the prosecution had
also filed its reply submission as requested by the court.
On Oct 14, this year, the appellate
court's three-member bench comprising Justices Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Ahmad
Zaidi Ibrahim and S.M.Komathy Suppiah reserved their decision on the appeal
after they completed hearing submissions from the defence and prosecution.
Mohd Isa, 73, was found guilty by the
High Court on Feb 3, 2021, on nine bribery charges amounting to RM3mil in the
Felda acquisition of Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites in Kuching, Sarawak.
The offences allegedly took place on the
49th Floor of Menara Felda, Platinum Park, No 11, Persiaran KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
between July 21, 2014, and Dec 11, 2015.
High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd
Ghazali (now Court of Appeal judge) handed down a sentence of six years for
each offence with a cumulative total of 54 years imprisonment term and a fine
of RM15.45mil or 18 years imprisonment in lieu of the fine.
The High Court ordered the sentence to
run concurrently, which means Mohd Isa is to serve only six years.
Mohd Isa, who is also the former Negri
Sembilan menteribesar, filed the notice to appeal on Feb 4, 2021.
He was also allowed bail of RM1.5mil
pending disposal of his appeal, but required to report to the nearest police
station on the 1st of every month until the appeal is settled.
During the appeal proceedings, Mohd
Isa’s lawyer Datuk Salehuddin Saidin submitted that his client should be
acquitted and discharged on all the charges as the facts of the case showed
there was no evidence showing that he (Mohd Isa) received the monies.
He also said the judge failed to give
proper attention to all the evidence before the court and he also did not
assess the overall evidence before arriving at a conclusion.
Afzainizam, however, argued Mohd Isa
intended to get the gratification, and although he (Mohd Isa) did not deal
directly with businessman Ikhwan Zaidel in any of the transactions by which the
sum was paid, the money was handed by his former aide Muhammad Zahid Arip in a
discreet manner.
He said the gratification was paid for
fear that Mohd Isa may use his influence to cancel or delay payment for the
acquisition of the hotel, adding that Felda’s subsidiary Felda Investment
Corporation SdnBhd had previously rejected a proposal to purchase the hotel. –
Bernama
Source: thestar.com.my
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Govt monitoring US Bill regarding
sanctions against foreign supporters of Hamas
03 Nov 2023
KUALA LUMPUR: The government is
currently monitoring the decision of the United States House of Representatives
to pass a Bill regarding restrictions on foreign entities that support Hamas
and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry
Abdul Kadir (pic) said the ministry will thoroughly examine the content of the
Bill before taking further actions.
"The situation in Palestine has
worsened and as of today the death toll reported is over 8,700 people and this
is highly disappointing. Moreover, the number of people who have lost their
homes or are displaced has reached 1.4 million individuals in total and this is
extremely saddening.
"On one side, continuous bombing
are taking place, and on the other side they are not pursuing the best path to
resolve the issue. Instead, they are further complicating the situation, making
it difficult to achieve a positive outcome that would allow us to immediately
halt these attacks and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance,” he
said.
He told this to reporters after
attending the Diploma in Diplomacy graduation ceremony at the Institute of
Diplomacy and Foreign Relations here Thursday (Nov 2).
He said the first shipment of
humanitarian aid for the Palestinians in Gaza is to be sent to Al-Arish
International Airport, Egypt via a special chartered cargo flight today.
"We thank the Egyptian authorities
because in a short time, they allowed help from Malaysia to arrive. Normally
for other countries to reach Al-Arish airport it takes days, approximately five
or six days but in the context of Malaysia, we get the response in just 36
hours.
"This allows us to make
preparations for delivery to the airport, from there the Egyptian authorities
will take follow-up actions to deliver goods to Rafah," he said.
Zambry added that Wisma Putra is also
trying its best to get a Malaysian, Nurul Ain Haron and her husband who have
been in Gaza since Oct 1 out with the cooperation of a third country.
"We have also received feedback
about the possibility that the route in Rafah will be opened to allow people
from abroad and those who have dual nationality to leave," he said. –
Bernama
Source: thestar.com.my
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Malaysians' boycott of Israeli-linked
businesses earns praise from Palestinian ambassador
Hakim Mahari
November 3, 2023
KUALA LUMPUR: The Palestinian ambassador
to Malaysia has commended the public's commitment to boycotting businesses and
products allegedly linked to Israel.
Ambassador Walid Abu Ali emphasised that
the measures taken by Malaysians play a significant role in increasing
awareness and expressing a resolute stance against what he referred to as
Zionist oppression.
"Any measures supporting Palestine
and its people are deeply valued. The boycott of Israeli products and
franchises supporting Israel serves to minimise the suffering of Palestinians.
"Whatever is done in Malaysia
towards all those (businesses) who support Israel is very appreciated," he
told reporters when met at the embassy here today.
The call for boycotting
Israeli-affiliated products was initially led by the local community, with
comprehensive lists disseminated on social media.
They include many household names, such
as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and IBM, with alleged Zionist links. Food and beverage
franchises like KFC, McDonald's, and Starbucks have also been identified as
pro-Israeli sympathisers.
Walid also called on Malaysians to
continue their efforts in spreading awareness about the ongoing war crimes
between Israel and Palestine, especially through boycotting.
"I encourage Malaysians,
Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and anyone upholding human rights and democracy
to engage in the minimum action of boycotting products supporting Israel.
"If you go and buy a Starbucks
coffee, you indirectly support an Israeli soldier shooting or killing a
Palestinian.
"Similarly, when you go to
McDonald's and you buy a cup of coffee or take a hamburger, you are actually
supporting Israel," he said.
Walid expressed confidence that these
public efforts will have an initial impact on Israel's current economy.
"Israelis benefit from numerous
global brands, but recent economic effects over the past three weeks suggest
they are vulnerable.
"This could exert pressure on the
current Israeli government, which has been accused of engaging in acts of
terrorism against Palestine, compelling them to recognise the economic
consequences of their actions," he added.
Source: nst.com.my
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/shahjahan-pil-historical-taj-mahal/d/131041