4/09/2025

THURSDAY | SEPT 4, 2025

9

‘Recognition key step to two-state solution’

o Meaningful role for UK, says envoy

UN PEACEKEEPERS REPORT DRONE ATTACK BEIRUT: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said that Israeli drones dropped four grenades close to peacekeepers who were working to clear roadblocks hindering access to a UN position on Tuesday morning. “This is one of the most serious attacks on Unifil personnel and assets since the cessation of hostilities agreement of last November,” the Unifil said in a statement yesterday. One grenade impacted within 20m and three within 100m of UN personnel and vehicles. The Unifil said that the Israeli military had been informed in advance of Unifil’s road clearance work in the area, southeast of the village of Marwahin. Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously extended the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until the end of 2026, after which a year-long orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal will commence. Established in 1978, Unifil patrols Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. – Reuters WAR GRIEF FEATURES IN NEW FILM VENICE: A new film about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl by Israeli forces in Gaza last year was screened at the Venice Film Festival, after drawing backing from Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix. The Gaza conflict has been a major talking point at the Italian cinema extravaganza, with thousands of protesters marching to the gates of the event on Saturday, shouting: “Stop the genocide!” An open letter calling on festival organisers to denounce the Israeli government has gone unheeded, but has been signed by around 2,000 cinema insiders, according to the organisers. The screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab yesterday will showcase one of the most hotly awaited and political movies in the running for the top prize at the 11-day event. Director Kaouther Ben Hania said: “At the heart of this film is something very simple, and very hard to live with. I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes.” – AFP ‘KETAMINE QUEEN’TO PLEAD GUILTY LOS ANGELES: A drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” was due in court to plead guilty to charges that she supplied the dose of the prescription drug that killed Friends star Matthew Perry. Jasveen Sangha, 42, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors last month to plead guilty to five felony counts stemming from Perry’s overdose death in 2023. Sangha, a dual US British citizen, could face a prison term of up to 65 years when she is sentenced. She is the last of the five suspects charged in the case to plead guilty rather than stand trial. Her four co-defendants – two physicians, Perry’s personal assistant and another man who admitted to acting as an intermediary in selling ketamine to the actor – are also awaiting sentencing. Sangha has agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, plus three counts of illegal distribution of ketamine and one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death. – Reuters

LONDON: The recognition of a Palestinian state by leading Western nations will trigger a sprint towards a two-state solution, the head of the Palestinian mission in London said on Tuesday. Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium have all said they will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly later this month, although London could halt the process if Israel eased the humanitarian crisis in war shattered Gaza and committed to a long-term peace process. The moves are designed to put pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza and curtail the building of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but some question whether recognition is merely symbolic. “I think it will be the starting gun for what we hope to be a sprint, not even a march, towards implementing the two-state solution and we are hoping for an active, effective, meaningful role by the United Kingdom,” said Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission in London. CAIRO: The Israeli military moved deeper into Gaza City yesterday, with soldiers and tanks pushing into Sheikh Radwan, one of the urban centre’s largest and most crowded neighbourhoods. In recent weeks, Israeli forces have advanced through Gaza City’s outer suburbs and are now just a few kilometres from the city centre despite international calls to halt the offensive. Gaza City residents said the military had destroyed homes and tent encampments that had housed Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war. At least 24 Palestinians, some of them children, were killed by the military across Gaza yesterday, most of them in Gaza City, according to health officials. “Sheikh Radwan is being burnt upside-down. The occupation destroyed houses, burnt tents, and drones played audio messages ordering people to leave the area,” said Zakeya Sami, 60, a mother of five, referring to the Israeli military. “If the takeover of Gaza City isn’t stopped, we might die, and we are not going to forgive anyone who stands and watches without doing anything to prevent our death,” she told Reuters. The military dropped grenades on three schools in the Sheikh Radwan area that had been used to shelter displaced Palestinians, setting tents ablaze, according to residents, who said the Palestinians fled before the bombing. The military also detonated armoured vehicles laden with explosives to destroy homes in Sheikh Radwan’s east and bombed a medical clinic, destroying two ambulances, according to witnesses. The Israeli military said in a statement yesterday it would continue to operate ... in Gaza and to

BR I E F S

territories and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible. Israel’s right-wing

Jewish people in Palestine” in 1917. He said it was not too late to achieve a two-state solution, and that he hoped the

A two-state solution is the idea that the two sides could co-exist in peace alongside each other – a Palestinian state on territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, with the Gaza Strip and West Bank linked by a corridor through Israel. But the proposal has become less viable over time, as Israel has accelerated the building of Jewish settlements in occupied territory, while the two sides stick to uncompromising positions on core issues including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. Zomlot said the move by Britain was significant due to its role in endorsing a “national home for the

government rules out a Palestinian state and says the territories where settlements have expanded are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands. It cites biblical and historical ties to those lands. – Reuters

momentum being built at the UN would lead Israel to dismantle its settlements. “Once we create sufficient pressure – meaningful pressure – I assure you, it is absolutely possible,” he said. The United Nations’ highest court said last year Israel’s occupation of Palestinian

Israel, facing a global outcry over its conduct in the Gaza war, has reacted angrily to recognition gestures, saying the gestures would reward Hamas. One million Palestinians at risk of displacement Husam at Chatham House on Tuesday. – REUTERSPIC

West Bank who could then be deployed to Gaza. The attack on Gaza City threatens to displace one million Palestinians, almost half the population of Gaza. The Israeli military in recent weeks has ordered the civilian population to leave their homes. Over 63,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the war started in October 2023. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis across the territory, with health officials in Gaza reporting that 367 people, including 131 children, have so far died of malnutrition and starvation caused by acute food shortages. – Reuters

climbed the roof of Israel’s national library, displaying a banner that read ‘You have abandoned and also killed’. “We need our soldiers back home. We need our hostages back home now. It’s been too long for them to stay there. Stop the war now,” said Ravid Vexelbaum, 50, from Tel Aviv. Tens of thousands of reservists reported for duty on Tuesday to support the offensive, forces that a military official told reporters last month were mostly expected to take on non-combat roles, such as in intelligence, or take over from combat soldiers in places like the

“remove any threat” posed to the State of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to take the city, which he describes as the last stronghold of Hamas. Israel’s military has urged the country’s political leadership to instead reach a ceasefire agreement, warning that the assault would endanger hostages held in Gaza and soldiers carrying out the offensive, Israeli officials previously said. In Israel, public sentiment is largely in favour of ending the war in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages. In Jerusalem yesterday, protesters

The grandmother of three-year-old Ibrahim al-Mabhuh, who survived an Israeli air strike on a house that killed his parents and two sisters, cradles him in Gaza City yesterday. – REUTERSPIC