30/06/2025

MONDAY | JUNE 30, 2025 9 France ready to help deliver food safely PARIS: France “stands ready, Europe as well, to contribute to the safety of food distribution” in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Saturday. His comments came as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centres in the territory. Such an initiative, he added, would also deal with Israeli concerns that armed groups such as Hamas were getting hold of the aid. Barrot expressed anger over “the 500 people who have lost their life in food distribution” in Gaza in recent weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu on Friday denounced as a “blood libel” a report in left-leaning daily Haaretz alleging that military commanders had ordered soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza Aid group Doctors Without Borders on Friday denounced the Israel- and US-backed food distribution effort in Gaza as “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that hungry people in Gaza seeking food must not face a “death sentence”. The Health Ministry in Gaza said since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies. – AFP TEL AVIV: Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Israel on Saturday to demand that the government secure the release of 49 hostages still held in Gaza. It was the first rally by relatives of hostages since Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran on June 24. Emergency restrictions had prevented the normally weekly rally from taking place. A crowd filled “Hostages Square” in central Tel Aviv, waving Israeli flags and placards bearing the pictures of Israelis seized on Oct 7, 2023. Twenty months and several hostage exchanges later, 49 of those seized are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead – raising pressure on DUBAI: Israel’s attack on the Evin Prison in Tehran on June 23 killed 71 people, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said yesterday. At the end of an air war with Iran, Israel struck Tehran’s most notorious jail for political prisoners, in a demonstration that it was expanding its targets beyond military and nuclear sites to aim at symbols of Iran’s ruling system. “In the attack on Evin Prison, 71 people were killed, including administrative staff, youth doing military service, detainees, family members of detainees who were visiting and residents who lived near the prison,” Jahangir said in remarks carried on the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan. – Reuters KYIV: A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet lost while repelling a Russian missile and drone attack, the Ukrainian military said yesterday. It was the third such loss of an F-16 in the war. “The pilot used all his weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the Air Force said. It said the pilot flew the jet away from a settlement but did not have time to eject. The military said Russia had launched 477 drones and 60 missiles into Ukraine on Saturday night and Ukrainian forces destroyed 211 drones and 38 missiles. – Reuters PROTESTERS RALLY AGAIN FOR HOSTAGES Netanyahu’s government. – AFP 71 KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE ON EVIN PRISON UKRAINE PILOT KILLED, F-16 FIGHTER JET LOST

Trump slams prosecutors over Netanyahu graft trial

o US president ties legal action to aid

growing rifts within Israel under Netanyahu, who has a strong support base but also staunch opponents who have demanded his departure, including over his handling of the Gaza war. Netanyahu “must go”, said the former prime minister, a right-wing leader who in 2021 joined forces with Netanyahu critics to form a coalition that ousted him from the premiership after 12 consecutive years at the helm. But the fragile coalition government Bennett had led along with current opposition chief Yair Lapid collapsed after about a year. Snap elections ensued, and Netanyahu again assumed the premiership with backing from far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. Bennett, who has taken time off from politics, has been rumoured to be planning a comeback, with public opinion polls suggesting he may have enough support to oust Netanyahu again. In his interview, Bennett claimed credit for laying the groundwork for Israel’s bombardment campaign earlier this month against Iranian nuclear sites. – Reuters/AFP

few days defending Netanyahu and calling for the cancellation of the trial went a step further to tie Israel’s legal action to US aid. “The United States of America spends billions of dollars a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Trump said. Netanyahu “right now” was negotiating a deal with Hamas, Trump said, without giving further details. On Friday, the president told reporters that he believes a ceasefire is close. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said Netanyahu must leave office. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 that aired on Saturday, Bennett said Netanyahu “has been in power for 20 years ... that’s too much, it’s not healthy”. “He bears heavy responsibility for the divisions in Israeli society,” Bennett said of

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at prosecutors in Israel over the corruption trial that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced, saying Washington, having given billions of dollars worth of aid to Israel, was not going to “stand for this”. Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. “It is insanity doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding that the judicial process was going to interfere with Netanyahu’s ability to conduct talks with Hamas and Iran. Trump’s second post over the course of a

BR I E F S

A Glastonbury visitor walks past a pro-Gaza sign at Worthy Farm in Somerset on Saturday. – AFPPIC

Irish hip-hop trio lash out at Starmer, Israel GLASTONBURY: Irish hip-hop group Kneecap led chants of “Keir Starmer” and condemned Israel in front of a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, after the British prime minister had said their appearance was “not appropriate”. After opening their set with Better Way to Live , which mixes English and Irish, another of the group’s members – Moglai Bap, known as Naoise O Cairealláin, – said Mo Chara would be back in court for a “trumped up terrorism charge”.

He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia in northern Gaza. Bassal said at least six more children died in a neighbourhood in the northeast of Gaza City, including some in an air strike near a school where displaced people were sheltering. Qatar said on Saturday that it and fellow mediators the United States and Egypt were engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from the ceasefire with Iran and work towards a Gaza truce. “If we don’t use this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost among many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again,” said Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari. Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 56,412 people, mostly civilians. – Reuters/AFP

Mo Chara told the crowd the situation over the lawsuit was stressful, but it was minimal compared to what the Palestinians were going through every day. Later in the set, Mo Chara accused Israel of committing war crimes, saying, “There’s no hiding it.” In Gaza City, Israeli forces killed 37 people on Saturday, including at least nine children who died in strikes. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 35 people were killed in seven Israeli drone and airstrikes in various locations, and two others by Israeli fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza.

Politicians and music industry bosses had called on organisers to pull the group after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who is known by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert. O hAnnaidh denied the charge. “The prime minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so ... Keir Starmer,” Mo Chara told the crowd, wearing the keffiyeh scarf associated with Palestinians. At least 30,000 people, hundreds of them with Palestinian flags, crammed into the West Holts stage in blazing sunshine to watch the trio, causing organisers to close the area.