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Iranians mark the anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy takeover while calling for a cease-fire in Gaza

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Iranians mark the anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy takeover while calling for a cease-fire in Gaza

Tehran (AP) — Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They condemned Washington’s support of Israel as it strikes the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas.

The rally — which was called for by the state — came as the Israel-Hamas war entered its fourth week. About 1,400 people in Israel were killed and over 240 taken hostage after Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct.7. The Israeli retaliatory operation has killed over 9,000 people in the Gaza Strip.

People assembled outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, with some burning American and Israeli flags.

Protesters stomped on images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden. Others carried banners calling the U.S., “Great Satan.” The banner on the main podium read: “We trample America under our feet.”

The parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, addressed the crowds while criticizing U.S. support of Israel.

“We consider the criminal U.S. a principal culprit in all these crimes,” in Gaza and against Palestinians, he said.

Qalibaf claimed that the Hamas attack on Israel has caused “irreparable” intelligence and security damage to the Israeli state.

In a statement published on behalf of the protesters at the end of the commemoration, they called for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza and warned the U.S., Britain, and France that the crisis might expand in the region. The statement ended with a vow that Iranians would stand by Palestine “until final victory.”

The demonstration began in Palestine Square in central Tehran. Protesters walked for nearly two kilometers (1.32 miles) till they reached the former U.S. Embassy compound. State TV showed footage of similar rallies in other Iranian cities and towns.

The annual rally is a venue for anti-Western sentiments and usually draws angry crowds.

On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized the U.S. for its support of Israel, saying Israel would have been paralyzed without American support.

He called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war and for Muslim-majority nations to halt economic cooperation with the Jewish state.

Iran is a known backer of anti-Israeli militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the 44th anniversary of the embassy takeover.

“We are grateful to our diplomats who served in Tehran and to all the American diplomats who work every day to advance our interests in dangerous situations around the world,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Miller also said that “we condemn Iran’s continued detention of foreign citizens for use as bargaining chips.

“We condemn the Iranian regime’s ongoing support for Hamas and other terrorist groups across the Middle East region that engage in the abhorrent practice of hostage-taking,” he said.

Suspect in California Jewish protester’s death cooperating with police

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Suspect in California Jewish protester’s death cooperating with police

(Reuters) – A suspect in the death of a Jewish man who fell and hit his head during dual pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests in California had called 911 to report the fall and waited at the scene and answered investigators’ questions, authorities said on Tuesday.

Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said at a press conference that the unnamed person, the only suspect so far, has not been arrested. Investigators are seeking video and photos from the public to help them learn what caused Paul Kessler, 69, to fall and hit his head during Sunday protests in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles (65 km) west of Los Angeles.

“What exactly transpired prior to Mr. Kessler falling backward isn’t crystal clear right now,” Fryhoff said.

Kessler’s death has been ruled a homicide by medical examiners, with the cause of death listed as blunt force trauma to his head. Officials emphasized that a death being ruled a homicide means that another person was involved, but does not indicate if anything criminal took place.

Authorities have not ruled out that other people were involved.

Kessler was conscious when taken to the hospital and spoke with investigators while there, the sheriff said. He declined to say what Kessler told officers.

Witnesses have provided conflicting accounts about who was the aggressor in the incident, the sheriff said. The medical examiners office said Kessler had non-lethal injuries to the left side of his face, which could indicate he was hit before falling, but that it was not certain that was the case.

U.S. officials and civil rights groups have warned of increased threats against Jews, Muslims and Arab Americans following the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in which Israel says 1,400 were killed and more than 240 taken hostage, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where Palestinian health authorities say more than 10,000 people have been killed.

Fryhoff said his deputies have increased patrols around mosques and synagogues because of Kessler’s death.

Last month, an Illinois man was charged with hate crimes for stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy to death and wounding his mother in an attack that officials said targeted them for their religion in a response to the war.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles identified the victim at Sunday’s protest as a Jewish man and said the incident was the fourth act of antisemitic violence in the Los Angeles area this year, and the second since Oct. 7.

The dual protests in Thousand Oaks on Sunday drew about 100 people from each side, Fryhoff said, and no other incidents were reported. Law enforcement occasionally drove by the scene of the protest prior to Kessler’s fall and saw nothing that alarmed them, he added.

Rabbi Noah Farkas, the leader of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, citing conversations with local government officials, earlier said a pro-Palestinian protester had struck the victim on the head with a megaphone. Fryhoff said he could not confirm that took place, but that it was possible.

The Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, expressed grief on Monday over what it called a “tragic and shocking loss,” while also asking people to “refrain from jumping to conclusions” or “sensationalizing such a tragedy for political gains.”

Germany releases aid for Palestinians, gives extra 20 mln euros

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Germany releases aid for Palestinians, gives extra 20 mln euros

(Reuters) – Germany has decided to release 71 million euros ($75.80 million) in aid as part of an ongoing review of its support for Palestinians, and has pledged an additional 20 million euros in new funding, the development ministry said on Tuesday.

Germany responded to Hamas militants’ bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7 by temporarily suspending its development aid to the Palestinian Territories pending review.

“Due to the fragile situation in the region, the review has not yet been fully completed,” a statement from the ministry said.

However, it said the review has focused on continuing support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), given the needs of people in the Gaza Strip and the increasingly unstable situation in neighbouring countries.

The total sum of 91 million euros will go towards providing basic services for displaced people in the Gaza Strip and assistance for Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

Israel’s campaign to annihilate the Hamas Islamists who launched the attack has devastated the enclave.

The UNRWA activities funded by Germany will focus on the permanent provision of drinking water as well as hygiene and sanitation in emergency shelters for internally displaced people in Gaza, the ministry said.

Analysis: Israel targets Hamas tunnels in new phase of Gaza war

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Analysis: Israel targets Hamas tunnels in new phase of Gaza war

Reuters

A fighter appears from one tunnel shaft, fires a rocket propelled grenade and then disappears, only to appear at another tunnel entrance and attack again

Israel’s military is starting the next phase of its war against Hamas, targeting the Islamist group’s labyrinth of tunnels and command structures in northern Gaza in an operation that may take months to complete, security sources said.

Israeli forces have pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the coastal enclave into two, in an offensive launched after Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in a cross-border attack on Oct. 7. In recent days, Israeli troops have surrounded Gaza City and battled Hamas fighters as they pushed deeper into its streets.

With casualties in Gaza topping 10,000, according to Palestinian health officials, Israel has come under mounting diplomatic pressure for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved on Monday further operational plans for military action in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have declined to comment on the details.

Five Israeli security sources told Reuters that locating and disabling the vast tunnel network running beneath swathes of northern Gaza would be a fundamental part of the next phase of the offensive, which would take time.

With Israeli tanks advancing towards the heart of Gaza City, they have faced heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnel network to launch ambushes, two sources with Hamas and separate militant group Islamic Jihad said.

A fighter appears from one tunnel shaft, fires a rocket propelled grenade and then disappears, only to appear at another tunnel entrance and attack again, the Palestinian sources said.

Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that Israel’s combat engineering corps were using explosive devices to destroy the tunnels and operations had destroyed more than 100 shafts.

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and a negotiator during the first and second intifadas that took place in the late 1980s and early 2000s, said IDF troops were working through a structured plan to locate tunnels, destroy rocket launching sites, and kill Hamas commanders and fighters.

“It’s about eliminating the military spine,” he said. “It would be very reasonable to say that we’re looking at something that could take months.”

Spiders Web

Hamas, which has controlled the coastal enclave since 2007, has built a tunnel city stretching beneath Gaza for hundreds of kilometres, up to 80 metres deep in parts. One hostage held in the network before being freed by Hamas last month described it as ‘a spiders web’.

The Israeli military has said that many of Hamas’ tunnels, command centres and rocket launchers lie adjacent to schools, hospitals and humanitarian institutions in northern Gaza, including the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the region’s largest.

Despite appeals from Washington for a humanitarian pause, the Israeli security sources said the presence of troops on the ground inside Gaza City made a temporary cessation of hostilities risky and unlikely at this stage.

Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed international pressure for a ceasefire. Israel says hostages taken by Hamas should be released first; Hamas insists it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.

How long Washington maintains its backing for the operation may determine how much freedom of action Israel has. Israel’s leaders insist they are not working to a “diplomatic ticking clock”, Benny Gantz, a former defense minister who is now in Netanyahu’s war cabinet, said on Oct 28.

Hamas is estimated to have a force of between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters, according to Israeli security sources. Hagari said that Israel was seeking to target Hamas field commanders to undermine Hamas capabilities to carry out counter attacks.

Hamas has not reported how many fighters have been killed but funerals have taken place for some political and military leaders. Amongst the most important was Ayman Nofal, a member of the higher military council of Hamas’ armed wing.

Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, said on Tuesday that dozens of Hamas commanders had been killed, without providing specific details.

Some 348 Israeli soldiers have also been killed since Oct. 7, according to IDF data. “This is a complex and difficult war, and unfortunately, it has costs,” Finkelman said.

Robots, Sniffer Dogs

Lior Akerman, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Israel’s Reichman University and a former senior Shin Bet official, said the ferocious aerial bombardment was meant to immobilise as much of Hamas’ military infrastructure as possible before troops turned to battles underground in the tunnels.

Security sources said troops on the ground were also trying to gather more intelligence on the tunnel network without necessarily having to enter them.

Robots and sniffer dogs were being deployed to locate tunnel entrances and also probe areas inside them before possible action by specialist ground troops that include commandos from the elite Yahalom unit of the combat engineers. Soldiers are using bulldozers to destroy parts of tunnel entrances.

Shalom Ben Hanan, another former top official in the Shin Bet security service, said operations in the tunnel network would need to proceed more slowly because of the presence of Israeli hostages believed to be held there.

Security sources said some intelligence was being gathered from Gaza residents fleeing south about the concentration of the tunnels.

Israel has for weeks focused attention on the al-Shifa hospital, accusing Hamas of using it as a shield for underground operational centres.

Ben Hanan said incursions around the hospital posed significant risks for Israeli forces given they may need to evacuate civilians still inside the complex, even after they were given warnings to leave.

“They (Hamas) will shoot at us and will fight with us from the hospital,” he said. “We will pay a high price for it.”

More questions than answers as Israeli PM Netanyahu seeks security control over Gaza

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More questions than answers as Israeli PM Netanyahu seeks security control over Gaza

Jerusalem (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration this week that Israel would take control of security in Gaza for an indefinite period has added to uncertainty over the future of the besieged enclave, more than a month into the war.

Israeli officials have since tried to make clear they do not intend to reoccupy Gaza, from which Israeli forces withdrew in 2005, but there has been no clarity on how to ensure security without maintaining a military presence in the territory.

Only one thing has been stressed repeatedly – Hamas, the Islamist movement which launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed some 1,400 people and saw militants drag more than 240 Israelis and foreigners into captivity, must be destroyed.

“They cannot be here,” former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu in an emergency unity government last month, said on Wednesday. “We can come up with any mechanism we think is appropriate, but Hamas will not be part of it.”

Gantz, who said Hamas presented an existential threat to Israel, told reporters Israel would have to ensure “security superiority” around Gaza but the specifics remain vague in the absence of any coherent idea of the political future.

Ron Dermer, one of Netanyahu’s closest aides, who like Gantz is in the inner war cabinet, said Israel would have to play an active role in the oversight of Gaza, but much would depend on how the enclave was governed in future.

“Will there be a force that will prevent terrorism from emerging there? Will there be a Palestinian force that will build and govern Gaza the way it should for the people of Gaza, and not just to destroy Israel? That remains to be seen,” he told U.S. network NBC on Tuesday.

With more than 10,000 Palestinians killed in the relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli jets, according to Palestinian officials, the war is already among the bloodiest episodes in decades of conflict.

Whole swathes of the densely populated coastal strip have been flattened and more than 1.5 million people, some two thirds of the population, have been forced from their homes, according to United Nations figures.

Rebuilding the physical infrastructure and reconstructing the governance of the area will present a colossal challenge which will force Israel to work with the Palestinians, diplomats say, despite the bitter enmity on both sides.

As the war has ground on, there have been calls from Western countries, including the United States, for a renewal of stalled efforts to agree a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

“Now, the reality is that there may be a need for some transition period at the end of the conflict, but it is imperative that Palestinian people being central to governance in Gaza and in the West Bank as well,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Tokyo.

“It’s also clear that Israel cannot occupy Gaza,” he said.

Challenges Ahead

Israel originally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, drawing the wrath of hardline settlers who were forced to leave with the army when former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided the costs of maintaining a presence were too high.

The challenges that are likely to confront any reshaped Israeli security mechanism have already been clearly demonstrated during more than 18 months of increasingly violent clashes in the nearby occupied West Bank.

Some diplomats have mooted the possibility of a reshaped Palestinian Authority (PA) – the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords 30 years ago – playing a role in the administration of Gaza, if Israel succeeds in its aim of dismantling Hamas.

The PA used to run both Gaza and the West Bank, but was forcibly ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007, and now only governs sections of the West Bank, which is dotted with ever-growing Jewish settlements.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently told foreign reporters that the PA would not return to Gaza “on the back of an Israeli tank”, throwing serious doubt on speculation that Israel will seek to off-load responsibility for the day-to-day running of the enclave onto its previous masters.

In any case, the PA has long struggled to impose its authority even in the West Bank, where it is in theory responsible for order but is mistrusted by both Israel and large sections of the Palestinian population.

In its place, the Israeli army has largely taken the job of combating militant activity.

Over the past 18 months, Israeli troops have killed hundreds of Palestinians – hardened militant fighters, stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians – and made thousands of arrests across the West Bank. In the same period, dozens of Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.

Cities such as Nablus and Jenin, which earlier this year was the scene of a two-day battle involving hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopter gunships, have become strongholds for militant groups including Hamas.

Dermer said that while Israeli troops had physically entered West Bank towns, they had essentially been absent from Gaza for the last 17 years. “Obviously, we can’t repeat (this). So after Hamas is removed from power … Israel is going to have to retain overriding security responsibility indefinitely.”

Jordan’s former deputy prime minister, Marwan Muasher, told Reuters he had seen no convincing initiative on how Gaza might be governed once the conflict ended.

“I don’t think that there is any clear thinking yet about what to do with the day after,” said Muasher, who is vice president for studies at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Fierce fighting in Gaza City; US says Palestinians must govern Gaza post-war

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Fierce fighting in Gaza City; US says Palestinians must govern Gaza post-war

Washington/Gaza/Jerusalem (Reuters) – Street battles raged in Gaza City with Hamas fighters using tunnels to ambush Israeli forces, as the United States said Palestinians must govern Gaza post-war, countering Israeli comments that it would control security indefinitely.

The Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza City, Hamas’ main bastion and the biggest city in the seaside enclave, while the Islamist group said its fighters had inflicted heavy losses.

Hamas’ armed wing on Wednesday released a video that appeared to show intense street battles alongside bombed out buildings in Gaza City.

Israeli tanks have met heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using underground tunnels to stage ambushes, according to sources with Iran-backed Hamas and the separate Islamic Jihad militant group.

Israel struck Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

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Palestinian officials said 10,569 people had been killed as of Wednesday, 40% of them children. Israel says 33 of its soldiers have been killed.

PALESTINIAN-LED GOVERNANCE

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its second month, Washington has begun discussing with Israeli and Arab leaders a future for the Gaza Strip without Hamas rule.

While a plan has yet to emerge, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined Washington’s expectations for the besieged coastal territory.

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“No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza,” Blinken said on Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo.

Blinken said there may be a need for “some transition period” at the end of the conflict, but post-crisis governance “must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

On Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will “for an indefinite period” have security responsibility for the enclave after the war.

Israeli officials have since tried to clarify they do not intend to occupy Gaza after the war, but they have yet to articulate how they might ensure security without maintaining a military presence. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, says Gaza, where Hamas has ruled since 2007, is an integral part of what it envisions for a future Palestinian state.

Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ leadership, told the New York Times that the group’s assault on Israel was intended to shatter the status quo and open a new chapter in its fight against Israel.

“We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm,” he said, according to the newspaper on Wednesday.

Saleh al-Arouri, an exiled Hamas commander, told Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV on Wednesday that its fighters are determined to inflict losses on Israeli forces in ground battles in Gaza. “The more (Israel) spreads and expands on the ground, the deeper its losses will become”, he said.

A clip from the Hamas video released on Wednesday showed fighters in Gaza running past piles of debris and stopping to fire shoulder-propelled missiles at Israeli tanks. Another showed them shooting rifles from perches behind buildings and dumpsters. Reuters was not able to authenticate the footage.

ISRAEL BOMBS TUNNELS

Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that “Hamas has lost control in the north” of Gaza.

Israel’s combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy Hamas’ tunnel network that stretches for hundreds of kilometres (miles) beneath Gaza, he said. The military said it had destroyed 130 tunnel shafts so far.

Israel has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying that it is using Gazans as human shields and hiding arms and operations centres in residential areas.

Israeli troops took foreign reporters to the edges of Gaza City on Wednesday. Journalists saw a devastated landscape where every building within sight was scarred by battle.

Walls were blown away while bullet holes and shrapnel dotted the facades and palm trees were shredded and broken.

Lieutenant Colonel Ido, deputy commander of the 401st Brigade, who did not give his last name, said that by the time soldiers reached these buildings, all the families had left.

“So we know that everyone here is our enemy. We have not seen any civilians here. Only Hamas,” he said, standing in a badly damaged children’s bedroom that was painted pink.

Soldiers on the press tour said that beneath the family apartment were two floors of workshops used to make weapons, including drones discovered in five wooden boxes. It was not possible to verify the claim.

50,000 PALESTINIANS HEAD SOUTH

Some 50,000 Palestinian civilians left the north on Wednesday, Hagari said, during a four-hour window of opportunity announced by Israel.

The Israeli military has repeatedly told residents to evacuate the north or risk being trapped in the violence. At least 19 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house near a hospital in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday, the enclave’s interior ministry said.

There was no immediate Israeli comment or details on the reported attack, which if confirmed would be the third on Gaza’s largest refugee camp in a week.

U.N. officials and G7 world powers stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the war to assist civilians in Gaza, where necessities including food, medicine and fuel are running out.

Negotiations mediated by Qatar, where several Hamas political leaders are based, are trying to secure the release of 10 to 15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day humanitarian pause in Gaza, a source briefed on the talks said on Wednesday.

Mideast conflict dims prospect of more Egyptian LNG exports to Europe

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Mideast conflict dims prospect of more Egyptian LNG exports to Europe

London/Cairo (Reuters) – The prospect of the EU receiving more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Egypt in the short and medium term looks unachievable due to tight gas balances and reduced imports form Israel, Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES) said.

Egypt shipped 80% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe last year as the continent sought to replace Russian pipeline gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union has in June last year signed a framework deal between the bloc, Israel and Egypt that would allow Cairo to maintain “relatively high volumes” of LNG deliveries to Europe.

Due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Chevron (CVX.N) in October shut the Israeli Tamar gas field amid the military conflict in the country and suspended exports through the subsea EMG pipeline, which runs from Ashkelon in southern Israel to Egypt.

Gas balances at the most populous Arab country, which faces growing demand for gas from its population of 105 million, were already under pressure before the conflict erupted on Oct. 7 as gas production had declined to a three-year low this year.

The country has grappled with power cuts that started in the summer and extended to October as heatwaves have driven up demand for cooling. High summer demand resulted in very low or zero LNG exports in May-September.

Despite resuming LNG exports in October and November, the report and other analysts believe that the conflict will keep Egypt’s LNG exports under pressure.

“With tight gas balances and reduced imports from Israel, the prospect of the EU receiving more LNG from Egypt in the short and medium term looks unachievable,” OIES said in a report.

“The June 2022 Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt, Israel, and the EU, committing to higher supply, is now probably undeliverable,” it added.

Israel’s gas exports to Egypt are part of Egypt’s supply mix and therefore support Egyptian LNG exports.

Cairo imports about 7 billion cubic feet per year of natural gas from the Tamar and Leviathan developments, helping meet domestic demand and power liquefaction plants, according to Rystad Energy.

Rystad Energy estimated that Egypt exported 3.7 million tonnes of LNG between October 2022 and January 2023, with the highest amount being just less than 1 million tonnes in December 2022.

According to data from consultancies ICIS and Kpler, Egypt has exported two cargoes in October and November, but volumes were nearly one-third of what it exported in April.

Alex Froley, LNG analyst at ICIS, said that during October-December 2022 Egypt loaded 42 cargoes compared to only two in that period so far this year.

“Egypt’s LNG exports look set to remain low to zero over winter,” Froley said.

Egypt’s petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Few expectations as France seeks tangible results at Gaza conference

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Few expectations as France seeks tangible results at Gaza conference

Paris (Reuters) – Some 80 countries and international organisations meet in Paris on Thursday to coordinate aid and assess how to help the wounded in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, although expectations for concrete results are low without some pause in fighting.

France offered support for Israel after a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas Islamists, yet Israel’s retaliatory bombardment has raised concerns as civilian casualties have soared. Thousands have been killed, wounded and displaced in Gaza.

“It’s not a secret for anybody that access is difficult today in Gaza for basic necessities, medicines, water, etc… So the object is really to work with all the participants and also with Israel … to allow improved access,” a French presidential official told reporters ahead of the conference.

The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister will be present, but Israel was not invited. French officials said Israel was being kept informed of developments.

The conference brings together regional stakeholders such as Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab countries as well as Western powers and G20 members except for Russia. International institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Gaza, such as Doctors Without Borders, are also due to attend.

However, few heads of state, government or foreign ministers will attend, and NGOs have been critical that there is not more pressure at the conference for a ceasefire.

“It will be an exercise in repeating the national positions, saying what each state has given and will give, that civilians have to be protected and international humanitarian law kept to,” said one European diplomat.

French officials hope it will lay the groundwork for a swift international response when there is an actual pause in the fighting.

There will be some effort to mobilise financial resources with several sectors identified for emergency support based on U.N. assessments of the $1.1 billion of immediate needs and the opening of strictly humanitarian crossing points into Gaza.

France is due to announce an increase in its commitments.

Re-establishing the supply of water, fuel and electricity would be under discussion, while ensuring accountability processes to ensure aid was not diverted to Hamas.

There will be a discussion to set up a maritime corridor to use sea lanes to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza and see how ships could be used to help evacuate the wounded.

Talks will also assess the prospect for establishing field hospitals, although diplomats have said Egypt is reluctant to host a multitude of hospitals on its territory while setting them up in Gaza seems difficult without a humanitarian pause or ceasefire.

Without buy-in from Israel or Hamas for a pause there is little prospect of things moving quickly.

“We expect that the conference on humanitarian issues in Gaza will certainly raise the issue of the 241 Israeli hostages, who are in Gaza, including babies, children, women and the elderly,” an Israeli official told Reuters.

“This is a first rate humanitarian issue and the international community has to discuss this topic as part of a humanitarian discussion on Gaza.”

The French presidency official said the issue would be on the table.

Turkey says EU is ‘unjust and biased’ on membership bid

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Turkey says EU is ‘unjust and biased’ on membership bid

Ankara (Reuters) – The European Commission’s annual report on Turkey’s long-stalled EU membership bid is “unjust and biased”, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

The report by the European Union’s executive arm on Wednesday criticised Turkey’s “serious backsliding” on democratic standards, the rule of law, human rights and judicial independence.

“We categorically reject unfounded claims and unjust criticisms, particularly on the political criteria and the Chapter on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Commission also said Turkey did not comply with the principles of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms in its fight against terrorism.

The Turkish ministry said the allegations were unfair and highlighted “the insincerity of EU’s approach and a clear double-standard”, adding that fundamental rights issues were contentious even among EU member states.

The Commission’s report is meant to update Turkey’s progress towards meeting standards for EU membership, and could strain ties that are already troubled over immigration and, more recently, the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group in Gaza.

Turkey’s bid to join the EU has been frozen for years after having launched membership talks in 2005.

Qatar wealth fund eyeing investment opportunities in China’s retail, tech sectors

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Beijing (Reuters) – Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority is examining opportunities to invest in China’s retail, healthcare, tech and logistics sectors, said Abdulla Al-Kuwari, head of the fund’s unit Qatar Investment Authority Advisory (Asia Pacific).

Those opportunities could involve public and private companies, Al-Kuwari said on Thursday during the Caixin Summit in Beijing.

Middle East investor activities in China have picked up as countries such as Saudi Arabia aim to cut oil dependence and boost new industries through partnerships with Chinese companies.

Buyers from the Gulf have announced 13 acquisitions of Chinese targets so far this year, compared to just one during the same period last year and more than any other year since at least 1980, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Chinese funds are also seeking new capital sources in the Middle East, as headwinds including diplomatic tensions drive many U.S. investors out of the country. Several China equity funds, including hedge funds and mutual funds, have told Reuters they visited the Middle East this year to raise money.

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