Israel issues new threat on Gaza City, kills 46 across Strip
At least 900 people arrested at London Palestine Action protest
Monitoring Desk
GAZA: Israel issues new forced displacement orders for Gaza City, saying it will soon destroy another high-rise building, the second such threat in 24 hours. At least 46 people have been killed in strikes on a school, tents and houses across Gaza on Sunday.
Two people were injured after a drone launched from Yemen hit an airport in southern Israel.
Families and supporters of Israeli captives take to the streets, demanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a deal to secure the release of their loved ones.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,368 people and wounded 162,776 others since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that moves by the UK, France and other countries to recognise a Palestinian state was a “tremendous mistake” that would make it harder to reach peace in the Middle East. “It will destabilise the region. It will push Israel also to have unilateral decisions,” he added.
Several countries, including France and Britain, have pledged to recognise a Palestinian state on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly this month.
Franco-Israeli relations have been particularly strained since French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country’s plans and co-hosted with Saudi Arabia a conference on the two-state solution at the UN in July.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last month said the UK would follow suit in recognising a Palestinian state if Israel failed to agree to a truce in the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
“States like France and the UK that pushed the so-called recognition had made a tremendous mistake,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a joint press conference with his visiting Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
Following through on the plans would make it “harder to get to the peace”, he added.
“It will destabilise the region. It will push Israel also to have unilateral decisions.”
Saar’s remarks come after Israel approved a slew of new West Bank settlements, including a major project just east of Jerusalem known as E1, which the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, British police said that at least 900 protesters had been arrested in London over a demonstration a day earlier in support of Palestine Action, and the government appealed for people to stop demonstrating in support of the” banned campaign group”.
Britain proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged military planes.
That followed vandalism and incidents targeting defence firms in Britain with links to Israel. The group accuses Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
