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Live: Arab leaders call for Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem to become unified Palestinian State
MIDDLE EAST
Issued on: 11/11/2024 – 10:09
Modified: 12/11/2024 – 02:32
1 min
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FRANCE 24
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UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan poses with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and other arab leaders in Riyadh.
UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan poses with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Riyadh on November 11, 2024. © Abdulla Al-Neyadi, AFP
Arab and Muslim leaders on Monday called for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem to become a unified Palestinian state. In a statement issued at the closing of a summit held in Saudi Arabia, the leaders also said Israel must fully withdraw from Arab territories it has occupied since 1967 to allow “comprehensive” regional peace. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
SUMMARY
The Israeli Air Force intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, the military said
Arab, Muslim leaders demand Palestinian control over Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem
Israel defence minister says ‘there will be no ceasefire’ in Lebanon
2 hours ago
Israel’s strategic affairs minister meets with Trump, Axios reports
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer met with US President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Axios reported on Monday, citing two Israeli officials and two U.S. officials.
The Sunday meeting at Trump’s Florida estate between the president-elect and Dermer, a close aide of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, preceded a meeting between the Israeli minister and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
Axios reported that Dermer passed messages from Netanyahu to Trump. He also briefed Trump on Israel’s plans for Gaza, Lebanon and Iran for the next two months before Trump takes office, according to the report.
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6 hours ago
US carried out strikes against Iranian linked targets in Syria
The US struck nine targets at two locations in Syria Monday to hit Iranian-aligned militias that had launched attacks on US personnel over the last 24 hours, US Central Command said.
No US personnel were injured in the attacks, but as of late Monday the Pentagon did not provide further details on what US sites in Syria had been attacked or what sites the US struck in return.
The US has about 900 personnel in Syria to assist partnered forces in conducting missions against Islamic State militants. In February it launched a massive attack on Iranian-backed militia sites in Syria in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US service members.
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7 hours ago
Iran nuclear facilities ‘more exposed than ever to strikes’: Israeli defence minister
Newly appointed Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday said Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities”.
“We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal – to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,” Katz added on X
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8 hours ago
Arab, Muslim leaders say Israel must withdraw from occupied territories before ‘comprehensive’ peace
Arab and Muslim leaders on Monday called on Israel to withdraw fully from Arab territories it has occupied since 1967 to achieve “comprehensive” regional peace, during a summit in Saudi Arabia.
The summit’s closing statement said that “a just and comprehensive peace in the region … cannot be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation of all occupied Arab territories to the line of June 4, 1967” – the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights – and “in accordance with … the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative” that offered Israel regional normalisation in return for Palestinian statehood.
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8 hours ago
Israeli air strike hits cafe in southern Gaza, killing 7, medics say
An Israeli air strike killed at least seven people at a cafe west of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, medics said on Monday.
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9 hours ago
Arab and Muslim leaders call for ban on arms exports to Israel
Arab and Muslim leaders on Monday called for a ban on the export of weapons to Israel, during a summit in Saudi Arabia focused on ongoing regional wars.
The assembled leaders from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation call “on all countries to ban the export of weapons and ammunition to Israel”, the summit’s closing statement said.
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9 hours ago
Lebanon says at least eight killed in Israeli strike on northern village
Lebanon said an Israeli strike on the northernmost Akkar region killed at least eight people Monday in one of the furthest attacks from the border since war erupted in September.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Ain Yaacoub in Akkar killed eight people and injured 14 others,” the health ministry said in a statement, giving what it said was a preliminary toll.
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9 hours ago
Arab, Muslim leaders demand Palestinian control over Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem
Arab and Muslim leaders Monday condemned attempts to cement Israel’s grip on Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, calling it the “eternal capital” of the Palestinian territories, during a summit in Saudi Arabia.
“We reaffirm the full sovereignty of the State of Palestine over occupied East Al-Quds, the eternal capital of Palestine, and reject any Israeli decisions or measures aimed at Judaising it and consolidating its colonial occupation of the city,” the summit’s closing statement said.
The leaders also called for the unification the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem under a Palestinian state.
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9 hours ago
Israel defence minister says ‘there will be no ceasefire’ in Lebanon
Israel’s newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that “there will be no ceasefire and there will be no break in the strikes against Hezbollah” militants in Lebanon.
But, Katz told a forum of top military generals that “if the possibility arises and a good proposal is put forward that would allow us to claim victory … we will certainly consider it very seriously”.
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10 hours ago
Israeli air strike on northern Lebanon kills 10, injures 15, mayor says
At least 10 people were killed and 15 others injured in an Israeli air strike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub on Monday, according to the town’s mayor.
The strike, the first in the town, hit a residential building, the mayor said.
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11 hours ago
Lebanon says seven killed in Israeli strike on south
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people on Monday, with state media reporting women and children among the dead.
The ministry said that an “Israeli enemy strike on Saksakiyeh… killed seven people and injured seven others in an initial toll”, with Lebanon’s official National News Agency saying the attack “targeted a house” and killed “mostly women and children”, adding that rescuers were searching for missing people under the rubble.
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12 hours ago
Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill 3,243 since Oct. 7, 2023, Lebanese health ministry says
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,243 people and injured 14,134 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Lebanese health ministry said on Monday.
It said 54 had been killed and 56 others injured on Sunday.
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12 hours ago
Iran condemns Israeli assassinations as ‘organised terrorism’
A top Iranian official condemned Israel’s assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders as “organised terrorism”, in remarks to a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit on Monday.
“The operations that are conceptualised with the deceptive phrasing of ‘targeted killing’, and during which Palestinian elites and leaders of other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but lawlessness and organised terrorism,” First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said.
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12 hours ago
Iran says ‘world waiting’ for Trump government to stop Gaza, Lebanon wars
“The world is waiting” for Donald Trump’s incoming US government to “immediately” end Israel’s wars with Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref told a summit of Arab and Islamic countries on Monday.
“The American government is the main supporter of the actions of the Zionist regime (Israel), and the world is waiting for the promise of the new government of this country to immediately stop the war against the innocent people of Gaza and Lebanon,” Aref told the joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit.
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12 hours ago
UN warns of devastating impacts of war on children in Lebanon
The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, said on Thursday that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has killed at least one child a day in Lebanon over the past month.
It warned that the “ongoing war in Lebanon is upending children’s lives” and taking a devastating physical and emotional toll on minors.
As the conflict continues, paediatricians and volunteers are reporting more cases of psychological trauma, FRANCE 24’s Carys Garland reports.
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13 hours ago
Far-right minister calls for Israeli sovereignty in West Bank in 2025
Israel’s far-right finance minister said on Monday that he hopes Israel will extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025.
At a meeting of his far-right faction in parliament on Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had instructed Israeli authorities overseeing West Bank settlements “to begin professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure” for extending sovereignty, according to a statement from his office.
Smotrich, who also wields a defence ministry supervisory role for settlers, said he hopes the incoming Trump administration in Washington will recognise an Israeli sovereignty push, the statement said.
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13 hours ago
Israel’s strategic affairs minister to meet Blinken in Washington
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in Washington, the State Department said.
The meeting comes amid hopes of a truce in Israel’s war in Gaza suffering a setback with Qatar suspending its mediation role in the negotiations. Israel separately said on Monday there was progress in talks about a ceasefire in its war in Lebanon.
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13 hours ago
Saudi crown prince says Israel must not attack Iran
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler on Monday called on Israel to respect Iran’s sovereignty and refrain from attacking Iranian soil, highlighting warming ties between the Middle East rivals.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders that the international community should oblige Israel “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands”.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have maintained high-level contact as part of efforts to contain the war that broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.
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14 hours ago
Lufthansa extends suspension of Tel Aviv flights to December 15
German airline group Lufthansa said on Monday it was extending the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv up to and including December 15, due to Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The extension applied to all airlines within the group, which includes SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings.
Previously, all of the group’s flights had been suspended up to and including November 25.
Its flights to the Iranian capital have also already been suspended until the end of January next year, while services to Lebanese capital Beirut have been suspended until the end of February.
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14 hours ago
New EU sanctions on violent Israeli settlers could happen soon, France says
France’s foreign minister said on Monday that a new round of sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers could happen soon.
“We were instrumental in setting up the (EU) sanctions regime that was already activated two times, and that might be activated a third time soon,” Jean-Noel Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum.
“We believe that those violent settlers and these intensive settlement activities are illegal, that it should stop in the interest of Israel and its security.”
Growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concern among some of Israel’s Western allies.
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15 hours ago
Lebanon’s PM warns ‘unprecedented’ crisis threatens country’s existence
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday warned that his country was suffering an “unprecedented” crisis that threatens its existence, as Israel wages war on Hezbollah.
“Lebanon is going through an unprecedented historical and existential crisis that threatens its present and future,” he told a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh.
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15 hours ago
Saudi crown prince demands immediate Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire at Arab summit
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler called for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon at a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit on Monday.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the international community must “immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon”, condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “genocide”.
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16 hours ago
Israel says there has been ‘progress’ on Lebanon ceasefire
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday said there had been progress toward a ceasefire in Lebanon, where war has raged for more than six weeks as Israel targets Hezbollah.
“There is certain progress,” Saar said in response to a question about a possible ceasefire. “We are working with the Americans on the issue,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
Israel escalated air strikes in late September targeting Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and sent in ground troops a week later, on September 30.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said the aim of the operation is to push Hezbollah north of the Litani river, which flows across southern Lebanon.
Another goal is to stop any attempt by Hezbollah to rearm.
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17 hours ago
Syria’s Homs-Damascus highway temporarily cut off after Israeli strike, SANA says
Syria’s main Homs-Damascus highway was temporarily cut off after an Israeli strike targeted an aid gathering centre for displaced Lebanese south of the city of Homs, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Monday.
SANA said earlier there were initial reports of an Israeli attack on the Chenchar area in Homs’ southern countryside in central Syria.
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17 hours ago
Israeli fire kills 11 Palestinians as tanks roll into central Gaza camp
Israeli forces sent tanks into the western side of Gaza’s Nuseirat camp on Monday in a new incursion into the enclave’s central area, and Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes had killed at least 11 people since Sunday night.
Residents said Israeli tanks opened fire as they rolled into that sector of the camp, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee sites, causing panic among the population and displaced families.
One resident, Zaik Mohammad, said the tanks’ advance was a complete surprise.
“Some people couldn’t leave and remained trapped inside their homes, appealing to be allowed out, while others rushed out with whatever they could carry as they fled,” Mohammad, 25, who lives one kilometer away from the targeted area, told Reuters via a chat app.
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19 hours ago
Taiwan individuals, firms not involved in Lebanon device blasts, say prosecutors
Taiwan investigators said Monday there was no evidence that Taiwanese individuals or firms were involved in a deadly September attack targeting Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon.
“Our investigation has verified that no nationals or domestic companies were involved in Lebanon’s high-profile pager detonation incidents,” Taiwan prosecutors said in a statement.
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19 hours ago
Iran says Trump must ‘stop continued genocide’ in Gaza
Iran on Monday said US President-elect Donald Trump must end the war in Gaza, which has dragged on for more than a year.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said during a news conference in Tehran that the incoming American president should “stop the continued genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
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19 hours ago
Israeli strike kills 3 people in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, Palestinian officials say
An Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least three people, including the parents of twins, according to Palestinian medical officials.
The strike late Sunday in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp wounded the two children, aged 10, who were being treated for serious injuries at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
The details of the casualties were listed in hospital records and an AP reporter saw two of the bodies.
Palestinians reported heavy bombing late Sunday in the western areas of Nuseirat camp.
At least 24 people were wounded and taken to the Awda hospital in Nuseirat, said Mohamed Muhareb, head of the hospital’s ambulance service.
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21 hours ago
Israeli military intercepts missile fired from Yemen
More details coming in on the fires in Jerusalem: the Israeli military said the interception of a projectile from Yemen caused fires in the Bet Shemesh area resulting from debris from that interception.
In a statement, it said: “Following the sirens that sounded in the Shfelat Yehuda, Yehuda, and Lakhish areas of central Israel, the IAF (Israeli Air Force) intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen.
“The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.”
Firefighters were working to douse the blazes, conducting scans around Beit Shemesh to rule out more fires and “damage from interceptor/missile shrapnel”, the Jerusalem region fire service said.
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21 hours ago
Jordanian gallery displays smuggled artworks by four Gaza artists
An art gallery in Amman, Jordan, is displaying smuggled artworks by four Palestinian artists in Gaza that express their responses to the harrowing reality of the conflict in the besieged territory.
For six months, they handed over paintings and other artworks to people leaving Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt until Israeli ground forces closed it in May when they took control of the frontier.
“The paintings document the brutality of war and massacres… carrying pain and sorrow, but also embodying an unwavering resolve,” said Mohammad Shaqdih, deputy director of Amman’s Darat al-Funun art gallery, which is hosting the show, “Under Fire”.
While the works themselves managed to escape the war-torn territory, the four artists who created them — Basel al-Maqousi, Raed Issa, Majed Shala and Suhail Salem — were not so lucky.
They remain trapped within the narrow coastal strip where Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, and created a humanitarian disaster.
Jordanian gallery displays smuggled artworks by four Gaza artists
A visitor at the “Under Fire” show in Amman, Jordan. (Photo: Khalil Mazraawi, AFP)
The artworks “depict the daily realities of war and the hardship these artists endure, who have been displaced and lost their homes”, said Shaqdih.
He said the gallery was already familiar with the artists on display before the war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel.
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a day ago
Blaze near Jerusalem sparked by missile or interception: firefighters
Israeli firefighters were tackling a blaze Monday west of Jerusalem which the service said was caused by missile fragments or interceptions.
“Simultaneously with the extinguishing operations, the firefighters are carrying out additional scans in the area, in order to rule out additional fires and damage from interceptor/missile shrapnel,” in Beit Shemesh, the Jerusalem region fire service said in a statement.
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a day ago
Pro-Iran factions in Iraq claim responsibility for four drone attacks on Israel
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility for four drone attacks on Monday targeting “vital targets” in Israel.
IRI fighters announced they had carried out the attacks in northern and southern Israel in a series of posts on Telegram but did not disclose specific details about the targets.
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a day ago
Air strikes target two Yemeni governorates, Houthi-backed TV says
Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi movement, said early on Monday
that a series of airstrikes targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they say were carried out by the US and Britain.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday, including two dozen killed in a strike on a residential building in the northern town of Jabalia.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he approved a deadly September attack on Hezbollah communications devices which killed 40 people in Lebanon, the first time Israel has admitted involvement.
An Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people including seven children in the village of Almat, north of the capital Beirut. Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,186 people and injured 14,078 in Lebanon since October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry said.
US warplanes staged multiple strikes overnight on Iran-backed Houthi advanced weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
