Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Saturday in retaliation for the targeted killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut this week amid mounting fears of a larger regional war, according to media reports.
Hezbollah said in a statement Saturday that it targeted an Israeli air surveillance base in northern Israel with 62 missiles as an “initial response” to the suspected Israeli strike on January 2 that killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. The Israeli military said around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at its territory.
Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said earlier this week that the killing of al-Arouri will “not go unpunished.”
Israel’s military said it responded to the Hezbollah rocket attacks with a drone strike on “the terrorist cell responsible for the launches toward the area of Metula.”
The escalation comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on his fourth diplomatic tour of the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war reaches its three-month mark and amid growing international criticism of Israel’s strategy. Yemen’s Houthi militants have also increased their attacks on cargo ships and fuel tankers in the Red Sea.
Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday. U.S. officials said Blinken was seeking Turkish buy-in, or at least consideration, of potential monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multi-national force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory, the Associated Press reported.
Turkey has been harshly critical of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the prosecution of the war and the impact it has had on Palestinian civilians.
In addition, officials said, Blinken will stress the importance Washington places on Ankara ratifying Sweden’s membership in NATO, a long-delayed process that the Turks have said they will complete soon. Sweden’s accession to the defense alliance is seen as one critical response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was in Lebanon on Saturday, warned that it was imperative to avoid the Israel-Hamas war growing into a regional conflict.
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, some of whom have been released.
Israel has for the last three months bombed the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, resulting in nearly 23,000 people dying and around 59,000 others being injured, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities.
In another warning, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that Gaza has become “uninhabitable” for its nearly 2.3 million inhabitants and repeated that “a public health disaster is unfolding” in the enclave.
John Dickerson reports on the death of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon, the resignation of Harvard’s president, and how the brain processes misinformation.
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An explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh al-Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and several others, officials with Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah said.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the blast was carried out by an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment. Tuesday’s blast shook a residential building in the Beirut suburb of Musharafieh. Reports differed on the death toll, but Hamas said six other members of the group were also killed, including two military commanders.
If Israel is behind the attack it could mark a major escalation in the Middle East conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who has previously vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon, said on local television, “We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment.”
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said many people were injured in the explosion, which he called “a crime” and said was meant “to drag Lebanon into a new phase of confrontation with Israel.”
Multiple deaths were reported after an explosion in southern Beirut on January 2, 2023.
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed to The Associated Press that al-Arouri was killed in the blast. A Hezbollah official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations also said al-Arouri was killed.
Al-Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, had headed the group’s presence in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Oct. 7.
The United States government had previously offered a reward of up to $5 million for information on al-Arouri, saying he had “been linked to several terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings.”
The explosion shook Musharafieh, one of the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs that are a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas and one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state military forces.
The explosion came during more than two months of heavy exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and members of Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border. Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting there, and Israel has evacuated thousands of civilians from border communities.
The fighting has mainly been concentrated a few miles from the border, but on several occasions Israel’s air force hit Hezbollah targets deeper in Lebanon. Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out several attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border targeting Israeli military posts.
Israeli war cabinet member and former defense minister Benny Gantz said late last month that, if the Hezbollah attacks did not stop along the border, Israel’s military would work to push the armed group back inside Lebanon.
As war in Gaza rages, Israel is continuing its campaign against Syrian military and Hezbollah targets, sparking fears of regional spillover.
Israel has launched attacks on positions in Syria and Lebanon, as part of its ongoing campaign against opposing militaries and armed forces in the Middle East.
“The [Israeli army] struck military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian Army,” the Israeli military said in a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
“[Israeli military] fighter jets also struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon,” it added, promising it would “continue to operate against any threat to Israel’s sovereignty”.
Israel’s military has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah and has launched repeated air raids on Syria since its war on Gaza began on October 7, raising fears of the conflict spilling over into the wider region.
In response to yesterday’s launches toward Israeli territory, the IDF struck military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian Army.
IDF fighter jets also struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon.
The latest attacks, which occurred between Monday and Tuesday, marked a spike in tensions between Israel and neighbours it has said have links to its enemy, Iran.
Earlier on Tuesday, Syrian state news agency SANA said pre-dawn Israeli attacks came from the direction of the Golan Heights.
The air raids targeted “a number of sites in the Damascus countryside”, SANA reported, citing an unnamed military source as saying only “material damage” had been caused.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that one position targeted near the town of Kanaker housed members from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the AFP news agency reported.
Parts of the southern Lebanese city of Yaroun also came under fire, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, after Hezbollah announced it had fired on Israeli units near the northern Israeli village of Sarit.
Iran links
“What Israel is facing at the moment is fighters in various countries in the region that are mostly backed by Iran,” said Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat, reporting from Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Syria and Iran are regional allies, with President Bashar al-Assad having received staunch support from Tehran during the war in Syria. Since its formation in 1982, Iran-backed Hezbollah has grown into a powerful “state within a state” in Lebanon, and has also backed Hamas in Gaza.
“Of course the biggest threat so far has been from the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon that has been firing every single day,” Khairat said. “This is just showing that despite [Israel’s] continued war in Gaza, these attacks are going to continue.
“Certainly there has been a call amongst those in the [Israeli] military to start to look to redirect their efforts especially along that northern border, with Israel itself saying that if diplomatic efforts don’t work then it wouldn’t be afraid to consider other military action against Lebanon,” our correspondent added.
Tuesday’s attacks follow closely on the heels of an Israeli air raid near Aleppo at the end of December, which caused some material damage, according to the Syrian Ministry of Defence.
Since the Syrian war began, Israel has launched hundreds of air raids on Syrian territory, both on Syrian military and Hezbollah targets. Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
In December, an Israeli air raid outside Damascus killed Razi Moussavi, a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.
Reports from Iran’s news agency INRA said that Mousavi had been part of an entourage accompanying IRGC General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport when he was killed by a US drone attack almost exactly four years ago.
The Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah are continuing to trade blows along Lebanon’s border with Israel, leading to concerns that the northern border may become a second front amid the war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli citizens are calling for the release of all remaining hostages taken on Oct. 7. Ian Lee has more from Israel.
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Beirut, Lebanon – When Hamas put out a call for recruitment in Lebanon on December 4, several mainstream Lebanese political parties and officials denounced the move, accusing the Palestinian group of violating their country’s national sovereignty, while recalling memories of the bloody civil war.
But the recruitment for a parallel armed force might end up serving the interests of Hezbollah, according to analysts, due to the Lebanese group’s military hegemony, particularly in southern Lebanon. Hamas is believed to be recruiting in Lebanon through announcements in the country’s Palestinian refugee camps and the mosques there.
“Hezbollah is trying to enlist the support of Sunni groups [like Hamas in Lebanon] in its fight against Israel from southern Lebanon,” Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera. But any other actors won’t be able to act independently because “Hezbollah fully controls the border situation.”
After Hamas’s attacks in southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 civilians and military personnel, according to Israeli officials, Israel has continuously bombarded Gaza, with only a brief pause in fighting at the end of November. More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there.
In neighbouring Lebanon, more than 100 people have died since Hezbollah first targeted Israel with missiles on October 8. Most of the dead are Hezbollah fighters who have engaged Israel’s military in what they say are efforts to prevent their opponent’s full force from coming down on Hamas.
The ‘Axis of Resistance’ in Lebanon
Relations between Hamas and Hezbollah have resumed in recent years after a schism over the civil war in Syria. Members of Hamas’s leadership left their previous base in Damascus in 2012 after condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on protests.
From 2017 onwards, some Hamas members returned to Lebanon, including Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of the Hamas Political Bureau; Khalil al-Hayya, the leader of Hamas’s Arab and Islamic relations; and Zaher Jabarin, in charge of issues concerning Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Last year, the Hamas leadership revealed the existence of “a joint security room” for the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – an Iranian-affiliated military coalition that includes Hamas and Hezbollah among other groups. Some analysts believe it could be based in Lebanon. And in April 2023, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh visited Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Analysts believe it is unlikely that Hamas would call for an expansion in Lebanon without having first consulted Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has maintained dominance in south Lebanon for decades. But Israeli officials have recently said they can no longer accept the presence of the group, or their elite al-Radwan unit, on Israel’s northern border. That’s why Hamas’s growing presence in Lebanon could be a tactical decision that also serves Hezbollah, according to some analysts.
“Hezbollah is searching for local allies in the post-war period because its military component will come into question as Israel wants it out of the south Litani,” Khashan said. After the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, calling for a demilitarised zone from the Litani River, Lebanon’s longest river that runs from the southern seaside city of Tyre into the Bekaa Valley, to what is known as the “Blue Line”, which
But the expansion of Hamas in Lebanon would not only be beneficial to Hezbollah. As Hamas is under siege in Gaza, its popularity in the West Bank has grown, according to a recent opinion poll. In Lebanon, the group could be looking to play on their increased popularity and muscle out their political rivals Fatah.
By growing their cadre in Lebanon, “Hamas can say we strengthened our political position everywhere we exist”, Drew Mikhael, an expert on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “No political actor or party doesn’t want more power.”
A return to ‘Fatahland’
Still, the announcement caused a stir among some communities in Lebanon.
“We consider any armed action originating from Lebanese territory as an attack on national sovereignty,” Gebran Bassil, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, a predominantly Christian party, said, rejecting the creation of what he called a “Hamas-land”.
It was a reference to “Fatahland”, a throwback to a time when the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) under Yasser Arafat operated as a state within a state in southern Lebanon from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The PLO used southern Lebanon to launch attacks against Israel and became an active member in Lebanon’s civil war in 1975.
Other condemnations also arrived from figures like Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati; the chief of the right-wing nationalist Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea; a former police chief and current MP, Ashraf Rifi; and Samy Gemayel, who leads the Kataeb, a traditional Christian party that has attempted to rebrand itself as a centre-right nationalist party in recent years, among others.
While the warning was sounded by politicians across the sectarian spectrum, the reference to a return to “Fatahland” was evoked by multiple Christian leaders in particular. Resentment against Palestinians for the role of the PLO and other factions in the civil war is still common in Lebanon, particularly among parts of the Christian community, even if many empathise with the current suffering in Gaza.
‘Complete Christian marginalisation’
With the world’s eyes on Gaza, Lebanon’s Christian leaders may be using the announcement to play inter-sectarian politics and get a leg up on opponents in Lebanon, say analysts.
“Bassil’s entire career has been an effort to ramp up rhetoric on an ethnonational discourse,” Mikhael said. “Most of the time he doesn’t speak to a national audience. It’s an internal fight with Geagea.”
Bassil and Geagea lead the two biggest Christian parties in Lebanon. But despite their stature, both are divisive figures, deeply unpopular outside their immediate support base.
The internal jockeying is indicative of a Christian retreat from national politics in Lebanon, according to Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
“There is a complete Christian marginalisation on most issues today,” Young told Al Jazeera. “When it comes to issues of national discussion, they are seemingly becoming more and more parochial. Christians don’t really pay attention to Palestinian politics and are almost mentally divorced from the Lebanese state.”
BRUSSELS — Western leaders are grappling with how to handle two era-defining wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. But there’s another issue, one far closer to home, that’s derailing governments in Europe and America: migration.
In recent days, U.S. President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak all hit trouble amid intense domestic pressure to tackle immigration; all three emerged weakened as a result. The stakes are high as American, British and European voters head to the polls in 2024.
“There is a temptation to hunt for quick fixes,” said Rashmin Sagoo, director of the international law program at the Chatham House think tank in London. “But irregular migration is a hugely challenging issue. And solving it requires long-term policy thinking beyond national boundaries.”
With election campaigning already under way, long-term plans may be hard to find. Far-right, anti-migrant populists promising sharp answers are gaining support in many Western democracies, leaving mainstream parties to count the costs. Less than a month ago in the Netherlands, pragmatic Dutch centrists lost to an anti-migrant radical.
Who will be next?
Rishi Sunak, United Kingdom
In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from members of his own ruling Conservative party who fear voters will punish them over the government’s failure to get a grip on migration.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Dover on June 5, 2023 in Dover, England | Pool photo by Yui Mok/WPA via Getty Images
Seven years ago, voters backed Brexit because euroskeptic campaigners promised to “Take Back Control” of the U.K.’s borders. Instead, the picture is now more chaotic than ever. The U.K. chalked up record net migration figures last month, and the government has failed so far to stop small boats packed with asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Sunak is now in the firing line. He made a pledge to “Stop the Boats” central to his premiership. In the process, he ignited a war in his already divided party about just how far Britain should go.
Under Sunak’s deal with Rwanda, the central African nation agreed to resettle asylum seekers who arrived on British shores in small boats. The PM says the policy will deter migrants from making sea crossings to the U.K. in the first place. But the plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in London, and Sunak’s Tories now can’t agree on what to do next.
Having survived what threatened to be a catastrophic rebellion in parliament on Tuesday, the British premier still faces a brutal battle in the legislature over his proposed Rwanda law early next year.
Time is running out for Sunak to find a fix. An election is expected next fall.
Emmanuel Macron, France
The French president suffered an unexpected body blow when the lower house of parliament rejected his flagship immigration bill this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on June 21, 2023 | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
After losing parliamentary elections last year, getting legislation through the National Assembly has been a fraught process for Macron. He has been forced to rely on votes from the right-wing Les Républicains party on more than one occasion.
Macron’s draft law on immigration was meant to please both the conservatives and the center-left with a carefully designed mix of repressive and liberal measures. But in a dramatic upset, the National Assembly, which is split between centrists, the left and the far right, voted against the legislation on day one of debates.
Now Macron is searching for a compromise. The government has tasked a joint committee of senators and MPs with seeking a deal. But it’s likely their text will be harsher than the initial draft, given that the Senate is dominated by the centre right — and this will be a problem for Macron’s left-leaning lawmakers.
If a compromise is not found, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally will be able to capitalize on Macron’s failure ahead of the European Parliament elections next June.
But even if the French president does manage to muddle through, the episode is likely to mark the end of his “neither left nor right” political offer. It also raises serious doubts about his ability to legislate on controversial topics.
Joe Biden, United States
The immigration crisis is one of the most vexing and longest-running domestic challenges for President Joe Biden. He came into office vowing to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and build a “fair and humane” system, only to see Congress sit on his plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
U.S. President Joe Biden pauses as he gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa on July 15, 2019 | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The White House has seen a deluge of migrants at the nation’s southern border, strained by a decades-old system unable to handle modern migration patterns.
Ahead of next year’s presidential election, Republicans have seized on the issue. GOP state leaders have filed lawsuits against the administration and sent busloads of migrants to Democrat-led cities, while in Washington, Republicans in Congress have tied foreign aid to sweeping changes to border policy, putting the White House in a tight spot as Biden officials now consider a slate of policies they once forcefully rejected.
The political pressure has spilled into the other aisle. States and cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, are pressuring Washington leaders to do more in terms of providing additional federal aid and revamping southern border policies to limit the flow of asylum seekers into the United States.
New York City has had more than 150,000 new arrivals over the past year and a half — forcing cuts to new police recruits, cutting library hours and limiting sanitation duties. Similar problems are playing out in cities like Chicago, which had migrants sleeping in buses or police stations.
The pressure from Democrats is straining their relationship with the White House. New York City Mayor Eric Adams runs the largest city in the nation, but hasn’t spoken with Biden in nearly a year. “We just need help, and we’re not getting that help,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.
Olaf Scholz, Germany
Migration has been at the top of the political agenda in Germany for months, with asylum applications rising to their highest levels since the 2015 refugee crisis triggered by Syria’s civil war.
The latest influx has posed a daunting challenge to national and local governments alike, which have struggled to find housing and other services for the migrants, not to mention the necessary funds.
The inability to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
The inability — in a country that ranks among the most coveted destinations for asylum seekers — to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure. In the hope of stemming the flow, Germany recently reinstated border checks with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, hoping to turn back the refugees before they hit German soil.
Even with border controls, refugee numbers remain high, which has been a boon to the far right. Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party has reached record support in national polls.
Since overtaking Scholz’s Social Democrats in June, the AfD has widened its lead further, recording 22 percent in recent polls, second only to the center-right Christian Democrats.
The AfD is expected to sweep three state elections next September in eastern Germany, where support for the party and its reactionary anti-foreigner policies is particularly strong.
The center-right, meanwhile, is hardening its position on migration and turning its back on the open-border policies championed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among the new priorities is a plan to follow the U.K.’s Rwanda model for processing refugees in third countries.
Karl Nehammer, Austria
Like Scholz, the Austrian leader’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive thanks to concerns over migration. Austria has taken steps to tighten controls at its southern and eastern borders.
Though the tactic has led to a drop in arrivals by asylum seekers, it also means Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades.
Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades | Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
The far-right Freedom Party has had a commanding lead for more than a year, topping the ruling center-right in polls by 10 points. That puts the party in a position to win national elections scheduled for next fall, which would mark an unprecedented rightward tilt in a country whose politics have been dominated by the center since World War II.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made her name in opposition, campaigning on a radical far-right agenda. Since winning power in last year’s election, she has shifted to more moderate positions on Ukraine and Europe.
Meloni now needs to appease her base on migration, a topic that has dominated Italian debate for years. Instead, however, she has been forced to grant visas to hundreds of thousands of legal migrants to cover labor shortages. Complicating matters, boat landings in Italy are up by about 50 per cent year-on-year despite some headline-grabbling policies and deals to stop arrivals.
While Meloni has ordered the construction of detention centers where migrants will be held pending repatriation, in reality local conditions in African countries and a lack of repatriation agreements present serious impediments.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni at a press conference on March 9, 2023 | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
Although she won the support of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her cause, a potential EU naval mission to block departures from Africa would risk breaching international law.
Meloni has tried other options, including a deal with Tunisia to help stop migrant smuggling, but the plan fell apart before it began. A deal with Albania to offshore some migrant detention centers also ran into trouble.
Now Meloni is in a bind. The migration issue has brought her into conflict with France and Germany as she attempts to create a reputation as a moderate conservative.
If she fails to get to grips with the issue, she is likely to lose political ground. Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini is known as a hardliner on migration, and while they’re officially allies for now, they will be rivals again later.
Geert Wilders, the Netherlands
The government of long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was toppled over migration talks in July, after which he announced his exit from politics. In subsequent elections, in which different parties vied to fill Rutte’s void, far-right firebrand Geert Wilders secured a shock win. On election night he promised to curb the “asylum tsunami.”
Wilders is now seeking to prop up a center-right coalition with three other parties that have urged getting migration under control. One of them is Rutte’s old group, now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz.
Geert Wilders attends a meeting in the Dutch parliament with party leaders to discuss the formation of a coalition government, on November 24, 2023 | Carl Court/Getty Images
A former refugee, Yeşilgöz turned migration into one of the main topics of her campaign. She was criticized after the elections for paving the way for Wilders to win — not only by focusing on migration, but also by opening the door to potentially governing with Wilders.
Now, though, coalition talks are stuck, and it could take months to form a new cabinet. If Wilders, who clearly has a mandate from voters, can stitch a coalition together, the political trajectory of the Netherlands — generally known as a pragmatic nation — will shift significantly to the right. A crackdown on migration is as certain as anything can be.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland
Even in Ireland, an economically open country long used to exporting its own people worldwide, an immigration-friendly and pro-business government has been forced by rising anti-foreigner sentiment to introduce new migration deterrence measures that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Ireland’s hardening policies reflect both a chronic housing crisis and the growing reluctance of some property owners to keep providing state-funded emergency shelter in the wake of November riots in Dublin triggered by a North African immigrant’s stabbing of young schoolchildren.
A nation already housing more than 100,000 newcomers, mostly from Ukraine, Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia, according to the most recent Department of Integration statistics.
Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia | Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images
Even newly arrived families face an increasing risk of being kept in military-style tents despite winter temperatures.
Ukrainians, who since Russia’s 2022 invasion of their country have received much stronger welfare support than other refugees, will see that welcome mat partially retracted in draft legislation approved this week by the three-party coalition government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Once enacted by parliament next month, the law will limit new Ukrainian arrivals to three months of state-paid housing, while welfare payments – currently among the most generous in Europe for people fleeing Russia’s war – will be slashed for all those in state-paid housing.
Justin Trudeau, Canada
A pessimistic public mood dragged down by cost-of-living woes has made immigration a multidimensional challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A housing crunch felt across the country has cooled support for immigration, with people looking for scapegoats for affordability pains. The situation has fueled antipathy for Trudeau and his re-election campaign.
Trudeau has treated immigration as a multipurpose solution for Canada’s aging population and slowing economy. And while today’s record-high population growth reflects well on Canada’s reputation as a desirable place to relocate, political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals.
Political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals | Andrej Ivanov/AFP
Since Trudeau came to power eight years ago, at least 1.3 million people have immigrated to Canada, mostly from India, the Philippines, China and Syria. Handling diaspora politics — and foreign interference — has become more consequential, as seen by Trudeau’s clash with India and Canada’s recent break with Israel.
Canada will double its 40 million population in 25 years if the current growth rate holds, enlarging the political challenges of leading what Trudeau calls the world’s “first postnational state”.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe from the south: Once they make it across the land border, the Continent can easily be accessed by ferry.
Transit via the land border that separates the European territory from Morocco is normally kept in check with security measures like high, razor-topped fences, with border control officers from both countries working together to keep undocumented migrants out.
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe | Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP
But in recent years authorities in Morocco have expressed displeasure with their Spanish counterparts by standing down their officers and allowing hundreds of migrants to pass, overwhelming border stations and forcing Spanish officers to repel the migrants, with scores dying in the process.
The headaches caused by these incidents are believed to be a major factor in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to change the Spanish government’s position on the disputed Western Sahara territory and express support for Rabat’s plan to formalize its nearly 50-year occupation of the area.
The pivot angered Sánchez’s leftist allies and worsened Spain’s relationship with Algeria, a long-standing champion of Western Saharan independence. But the measures have stopped the flow of migrants — for now.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece
Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people entered Europe via the Aegean islands. Migration and border security have been key issues in the country’s political debate.
Human rights organizations, as well as the European Parliament and the European Commission, have accused the Greek conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis of illegal “pushbacks” of migrants who have made it to Greek territory — and of deporting migrants without due process. Greece’s government denies those accusations, arguing that independent investigations haven’t found any proof.
Mitsotakis insists that Greece follows a “tough but fair” policy, but the numerous in-depth investigations belie the moderate profile the conservative leader wants to maintain.
In June, a migrant boat sank in what some called “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea. Hundreds lost their lives, refocusing Europe’s attention on the issue. Official investigations have yet to discover whether failures by Greek authorities contributed to the shipwreck, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In the meantime, Greece is in desperate need of thousands of workers to buttress the country’s understaffed agriculture, tourism and construction sectors. Despite pledges by the migration and agriculture ministers of imminent legislation bringing migrants to tackle the labor shortage, the government was forced to retreat amid pressure from within its own ranks.
Nikos Christodoulides, Cyprus
Cyprus is braced for an increase in migrant arrivals on its shores amid renewed conflict in the Middle East. Earlier in December, Greece sent humanitarian aid to the island to deal with an anticipated increase in flows.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management, and is contending with a surge in violence against migrants in Cyprus. Analysts blame xenophobia, which has become mainstream in Cypriot politics and media, as well as state mismanagement of migration flows. Last year the country recorded the EU’s highest proportion of first-time asylum seekers relative to its population.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Legal and staffing challenges have delayed efforts to create a deputy ministry for migration, deemed an important step in helping Cyprus to deal with the surge in arrivals.
The island’s geography — it’s close to both Lebanon and Turkey — makes it a prime target for migrants wanting to enter EU territory from the Middle East. Its complex history as a divided country also makes it harder to regulate migrant inflows.
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Tripoli, Lebanon – When the humanitarian pause started in Gaza, Fatmeh Abu Swareh hadn’t heard from her daughter Wafaa in nearly two weeks.
“I’m not sleeping. I sit here at 3am and cry. I cry all night… all day,” she said a few days before the pause in her living room in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp northeast of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city.
She feared the worst for her daughter and four grandchildren. Once the pause was implemented, Wafaa finally got through to her mother, but things are still tough.
“My daughter doesn’t have food or anything to drink,” she said. “Even with the truce, they’re scared of the [Israeli] planes.”
More than 15,000 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, including at least 6,000 children. The Israeli assault was ostensibly in retribution for a Hamas-led attack into Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured more than 200.
Fatmeh Abu Swareh hasn’t been able to sleep for weeks [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
The Palestinian death toll is certainly higher than 15,000 as there are likely thousands of people still missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Checking for new ‘martyrs’ daily
Some 210,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, most still in the refugee camps set up for their forebears who arrived during the Nakba in 1948, fleeing violent Zionist gangs.
Beddawi has about 20,000 people living in it, all of them transfixed by the news coming out of Gaza since October 7.
The news has deeply impacted everyone, with physical and emotional signs of stress proliferating. It has also boosted national pride, with a huge uptick in sales of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
Everyone is suffering, but especially those with family in Gaza. Ducking into a clothing shop to get away from the noisy street outside, Ossama Najjar, 47, stood with his back to the enticingly stacked jeans.
Ossama Najjar has lost count of the family members killed in Gaza [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
He’s not interested. He has lost count of the family members lost in Gaza, he said.
“Every day, I look online for the Ministry of Health lists with names of people from the Najjar family who were martyred,” he said. Among the dead were a cousin and an uncle.
Mustafa Abu Harb worries often about his own uncle and cousin in Gaza. The clean-shaven Fatah official for north Lebanon sits in his office with framed photos of Yasser Arafat and his successor as Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, over his shoulders.
“I’m talking to you here but my heart is there with my uncle and cousin,” he said from behind his desk, slumping slightly in his crisp blue shirt and grey blazer.
“They’re killing the future generations of Palestine,” he said, fighting back tears.
Fatah member Ahmad Hasan Alaaraj, also in the office, lost six family members in Gaza since October 7.
Mustafa Abu Harb, Fatah official, at his office in Baddawi [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
He was overcome by emotion several times while Abu Harb spoke and was only able to add: “Most people here have someone [in Gaza].”
Generational communal pain, solidarity
On a normal day, Najjar works in aluminium. But since October 7, “No one is working,” he said animatedly, his brow covered in sweat despite the sun beginning to set on this cool autumn afternoon.
“All our attention is on Gaza. Everything on Facebook is Gaza.”
While many others in Beddawi have lost relatives, even those without family in Gaza are suffering.
Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Red Crescent director in north Lebanon, said the constant news barrage of death and destruction in Gaza was impacting his patients. From his office in the Safad Hospital, he said many patients now had high blood pressure while others reported increased psychological distress.
Wehbe doesn’t have family in Gaza but has colleagues he studied with overseas and are now on the ground there, and he worries about them.
Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Red Crescent director in north Lebanon, at Safad Hospital [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
“We were in touch but then the electricity went out,” he said.
The feelings of helplessness have also manifested in an uptick in national solidarity.
At a small bridal shop in the camp, Nadia Mahmoud Moussa stood next to a tapestry shaped like Palestine, each region embroidered in a pattern representing local traditions.
Moussa pointed to a turquoise section, decorated with flowers and small pink, grey, blue and orange lozenges. “Here’s Gaza,” she said.
Before October 7, Moussa sold bridal dresses and hired out musical troupes to perform Palestinian traditions like the dabkeh, a Levantine folk dance, or zaffeh, an animated singing, drumming and dancing procession performed at weddings.
Black dresses embroidered in traditional Palestinian tatreez still hang from racks in her shop but now her big sellers are keffiyehs and Palestinian flags as people sought to express their solidarity by displaying national symbols.
A map of historic Palestine in stitches at Nadia Mahmoud Moussa’s shop [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
“We’re all living this pain,” she said. “We pray for patience and resilience. From kids to the elderly, we are now learning what it means to be martyrs.”
Back in Abu Swareh’s living room, she wipes away tears between pained sentences. Her daughter has already had at least one brush with death, she said, when the house next to hers was hit by an Israeli attack.
“It destroyed the whole house,” Abu Swareh said.
Even if her daughter and grandchildren survive the attacks, there is an extreme lack of food and water, which has led her daughter and her family to resort to drinking saltwater.
A less-than-ideal ceasefire
On Friday, November 24, a humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas went into effect. As Israel and Hamas traded captives and prisoners, the pause has been extended twice, most recently on Wednesday evening.
A mural on a building in Beddawi was painted during the first intifada. Renovations avoided painting over it to keep it intact [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
Asked if the pause provided any relief, Najjar was dismissive. “There’s supposed to be aid coming in but there’s still no food or water or help on the ground,” he said. “And with the winter conditions, it’ll only get worse.”
Najjar said the images he’s seen in the media recall other humanitarian catastrophes like Yemen and Somalia.
“I hope the Arab countries, the West, and the rest of the world start to genuinely support Gaza,” he added. “Right now, it’s all talk.”
Back at the Abu Swareh residence on Thursday, Fatmeh knew her relief counted for little as the fighting could restart at any moment. Furthermore, the acts of aggression haven’t entirely stopped, she said. “Today, they shot at them from [Israeli] ships in the sea.”
Reports from Palestinian media said Israeli navy boats shot missiles at the coast of Gaza.
Nearby, sat Fatmeh’s son, Mohammad. He sat quietly until his mother encouraged him to speak. He started, but laboured over his words, choosing them carefully.
“This ceasefire is meaningless,” he eventually said. “It’s a ceasefire without a ceasefire.”
On the morning of Friday, December 1, fighting resumed in Gaza.
Additional reporting by Rita Kabalan in Beirut.
Clogs with the Palestinian tatreez at Nadia Mahmoud Moussa’s shop [Rita Kabalan/Al Jazeera]
Looking for the must-try restaurants in Lebanon, TN? Look no further than this Redfin article. From mouth-watering pizza and authentic Mexican cuisine to finger-licking BBQ and delectable Italian dishes, Lebanon has it all. Get ready to tantalize your taste buds and discover your new favorite spot. Let’s dive into the culinary delights that Lebanon has to offer.
1. Painturo’s Pizza
Cuisine Type: Pizzeria Location: 522 W Main St Ste B, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Painturo’s Pizza
Painturo’s Pizza is a popular pizzeria offering a variety of delicious pizzas with fresh ingredients and a crispy crust. Whether you’re a fan of classic margherita or prefer unique toppings like buffalo chicken, Painturo’s Pizza has something for everyone.
Los Compadres Mexican Restaurant is a must-visit for Mexican food lovers. From sizzling fajitas to mouth-watering enchiladas, their menu is filled with authentic Mexican dishes that will satisfy your cravings. Don’t forget to try their homemade salsa for an extra kick of flavor.
3. Whitts Barbecue
Cuisine Type: BBQ Joint Location: 401 S Cumberland St # 3905, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Whitts Barbecue
Whitts Barbecue is a beloved BBQ joint known for their tender and smoky meats. From pulled pork to ribs, their menu offers a wide range of barbecue options that will leave you wanting more. Make sure to try their signature barbecue sauce for a tangy and flavorful experience.
4. Town Square Social
Cuisine Type: Dining and Drinking Location: 145 Public Sq, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Town Square Social
Town Square Social is a vibrant dining and drinking establishment located in the heart of Lebanon. With a diverse menu featuring dishes from various cuisines, you can enjoy everything from burgers to sushi. The lively atmosphere and friendly staff make it a great place to gather with friends and family.
Demos’ Restaurant is a popular Italian restaurant offering a wide range of classic Italian dishes. From hearty pasta dishes to flavorful pizzas, their menu is sure to satisfy any Italian food lover. Don’t miss out on their famous garlic rolls, a perfect accompaniment to any meal.
6. Smiths Catering
Cuisine Type: Caterer Location: 104 N College St, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Smiths Catering
Smiths Catering is a trusted caterer in Lebanon, known for their exceptional food and service. Whether you’re planning a wedding, corporate event, or private party, they offer a wide range of menu options to suit any occasion. From elegant hors d’oeuvres to delicious main courses, Smiths Catering will make your event memorable.
7. Belle’s Little Country Kitchen
Cuisine Type: Diner, American Restaurant Location: 210 W High St, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Belle’s Little Country Kitchen
Belle’s Little Country Kitchen is a charming diner and American restaurant. Their menu features classic comfort food dishes like fried chicken, meatloaf, and homemade pies. With its cozy atmosphere and friendly staff, Belle’s Little Country Kitchen feels like a home away from home.
El Molino is a popular Mexican restaurant known for its authentic flavors and vibrant atmosphere. From sizzling fajitas to flavorful tacos, their menu offers a wide range of Mexican dishes made with fresh ingredients. Don’t forget to try their refreshing margaritas for the perfect accompaniment to your meal.
9. Wildberry
Cuisine Type: Café, Deli, American Restaurant Location: 120 N Greenwood St, Lebanon, TN 37087 Website:Wildberry
Wildberry is a delightful café, deli, and American restaurant. Their menu features a variety of sandwiches, salads, and homemade desserts. Whether you’re looking for a quick bite or a leisurely meal, Wildberry offers a cozy and inviting atmosphere for all to enjoy.
For some people, animals are family members, things of beauty and even preferable to humans. But to others, they are a nuisance or not thought of at all.
Animal cruelty and neglect are a concerning, regular occurrence throughout the world, and not all are as lucky as Kiri the cat. She was rescued by Sandra Mouawad, who runs the Paws Crossed rescue center in Lebanon.
“Kiri used to live in Bekaa in Lebanon, where she and some other cats would get fed and cared for by the neighbors,” Mouawad told Newsweek. “As I was told, some of the neighbors didn’t care for cats, and one day one of the children was seen throwing stones at her and apparently laughing as if she was just a toy.”
Mouawad said Kiri’s back was broken in half.
In a video posted to the rescue center’s TikTok account, @pawscrossedle, with over 1.8 million views, Kiri, a fluffy ginger and white cat, can be seen dragging her immobile back legs across the ground. Mouawad shared pictures of Kiri’s broken back and said surgery will give her a 60 percent chance of walking again.
“A fellow rescuer asked me if I can help her find someone to help this cat because she is overwhelmed and can’t pay $1,500 for MRI and surgery,” Mouawad said. “I didn’t want to take a new case because the shelter is full, but I ended up taking her in.”
After CT scans, surgery, physiotherapy ultrasound, electrotherapy and “a lot of love,” Kiri is recovering well.
While she now dedicates her life to rescuing animals, Mouawad wasn’t always an animal person.
“I was never overly fond of animals at first,” she said, “but after we adopted our first family dog I began to truly understand the pure love they can bring to your heart, and I couldn’t witness so much hate towards them and do nothing.”
Animal welfare is arguably not high on many people’s list of priorities in Lebanon.
“Due to the combined impact of the economic crisis, the absence of the government, the Covid-19 pandemic and the explosion that happened in Beirut in August 2020, pet owners are struggling more and more to afford to keep their pets while rescue organizations in Lebanon are facing a steep increase of pets being abandoned,” writes Florence Massena in The New Arab.
Kiri, who suffered a broken back, was rescued by Sandra Mouawad in Lebanon. Sandra Mouawad
Similarly, in some countries dealing with economic and social unrest, animal welfare is considered a Western indulgence.
“There’s so much ignorance here,” said Mouawad. “People don’t think that cats and dogs have feelings, and there are very few consequences for the evil actions against them here. New laws are coming to in to protect them, but people don’t take it seriously. They hit and run, poison and abuse when they’ve had enough of them or ended up with a breed they can’t handle, it’s crazy.”
Users on TikTok were full of support for Mouawad and Kiri.
“Why can’t people teach their kids to be KIND to animals. They are the best things on this earth,” said one user.
Another said: “How awful I’m so sorry I’m gonna interact as many times as I can to help.”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Last winter, Europeans faced exorbitant energy bills as the Continent rapidly weaned itself off Russian gas. This year the EU is better prepared — but now a second war also threatens to roil its energy markets.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens to disrupt Europe’s relationships with the Middle East, or even draw Iran into direct confrontation with Israel and its Western partners. While markets are relatively calm for now, either of those scenarios could cause chaos.
Nevertheless, Europe is “equipped to face oil and diesel global market tightness,” Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson told POLITICO in an interview. Officials have learned lessons from Russia’s war on Ukraine, and are working to build “a good understanding of all our vulnerabilities to best address them and how we can be prepared for any incidents or emergencies.”
EU officials have held a slew of meetings with oil-producing nations in recent weeks, both old friends like Norway and emerging partners such as Algeria and Nigeria, to get ahead of any potential disruptions, she said.
“After the Gaza crisis unfolded, we are faced with two conflicts in the European neighborhood. The Eastern Mediterranean is an important theater for European energy security, as Europe’s energy transition is still entangled in geopolitical uncertainties,” Simson said, attributing the lack of drama in the markets to “the preparedness and crisis management that the EU put in place to respond to Russia’s energy blackmail.”
Fighting in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has had only a limited impact on oil markets. Prices initially rose on the news of the attack by Hamas militants on October 7 and Israel’s massive response, but key crude benchmark Brent dropped back by 4.2 percent this week to around $81 per barrel, around the levels seen before the start of the violence.
Markets have avoided a repeat of 1973, when the Yom Kippur War between Israel and its neighbors prompted the big Arab producers, led by Saudi Arabia, to embargo their exports to Israel’s allies. Gulf country relations with Israel have improved markedly in the past 50 years: The UAE and Bahrain recognized its sovereignty under the 2020 Abraham Accords, while Saudi Arabia is in negotiations to do the same.
Traders are therefore betting that as long as the conflict doesn’t expand, supplies of oil will remain more or less stable, said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at energy intelligence firm Kpler.
The risk stems more from Iran, he said. In the worst case, an expansion of the conflict could cause Iran to disrupt shipping from Gulf Arab countries through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s own crude oil, while sanctioned by the West, is exported in large quantities to China. “If Israel starts to strike the Iranian territory and Iran as a consequence needs to export less, then China doesn’t have enough crude and needs to buy from somewhere else,” sending global prices rocketing, Katona said. “It’s an entire spiral that gets triggered immediately.”
While Iran’s theocratic leadership has consistently vowed to destroy the state of Israel and publicly endorsed Hamas’ attacks last month, it denies involvement in their planning and execution. The Israel Defense Forces say they have carried out strikes on militant groups in Syria with close links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but have so far stopped short of hitting targets inside Iran itself.
Lessons learned
Gas markets felt a more immediate impact from the war. Israel turned off the taps at its Tamar offshore gas field in the hours following Hamas’ surprise attack, amid reports that it was a target for rocket attacks. While Israel produces only relatively small quantities of natural gas — around 21 billion cubic meters last year, compared to Russia’s 618 billion — it is a key exporter to neighboring Egypt, and the downtime worsened regular rolling power outages there. The flow has since been resumed, albeit in smaller quantities.
Any escalation with Iran could affect gas as well as oil markets, given a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and a sixth of its oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. “If things stay as they are there’s no problem, but if there’s a war where Iran was included and they [block trade through] the Hormuz strait then prices will go up for sure,” said one EU diplomat with knowledge of internal energy strategy talks, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
However, “all the big players want to avoid escalation, Iran wants to avoid this” because of threat of sanctions, the envoy insisted.
Absent that dire scenario, the impact on EU gas markets is likely to be limited, says Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at commodities intelligence company ICIS — but more because of the last conflict than the most recent one.
“From a European gas pricing perspective, we’re still looking relatively OK and that’s been driven largely by weak demand. Many industrial consumers continue to use noticeably less gas than they did prior to the energy crisis last year, so consumption in Europe has remained low,” he said.
According to the European Commission, member states collectively shaved almost 20 percent from their natural gas use in the run-up to last winter, with industry slowing output and renewable power playing a much larger role in electricity generation. Despite that, consumption actually rose in October for the first time since the start of the war, in an early sign that businesses could be tentatively trying to restore lost productivity.
But even though the bloc’s gas reserves are more than 99 percent full ahead of schedule, prices have still remained stubbornly high across the Continent compared to other regions. That means Europeans are more at risk of short-term spikes in the cost of energy, with industry potentially having to slow down again if bills become unaffordable.
“We are in a much better situation than in 2022,” said Georg Zachmann, a senior fellow at the Bruegel energy think tank. “We have more heat pumps, power plants are back in the picture that we didn’t have available last year, and we’ve built more liquified natural gas terminals.” However, he warned, if member states lose focus on reducing demand and try to give their own industries a head start with subsidies, that could spark a wasteful race “that is essentially to everyone’s detriment.”
At the same time, winter in Europe isn’t what it used to be. Record-breaking temperatures have been recorded across the globe for the past four months, according to an EU Copernicus satellite monitoring report published this week, while last winter was the second-warmest ever recorded on the Continent. While that might be good news for conflict-prone fossil fuel supplies in the short term, it’s probably bad news for just about everything else in the not-so-much-longer term.
Germany has floated that the United Nations could take control in Gaza once the Israel-Hamas war is over, according to a document seen by POLITICO.
However, both the Palestinians and some EU diplomats have serious doubts about the feasibility of the idea, with a senior Palestinian figure in Europe calling it “unacceptable.”
Israel has been striking the densely populated Gaza Strip in reaction to an attack by Hamas on October 7, during which the militant group killed around 1,200 Israelis. According to data from the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli strikes have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians.
Discussions are ongoing about how to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and how to stop the fighting. But there are also increasing discussions on scenarios for after the war.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern Gaza but offered no indications on how to make it “effective” or overcome Israeli opposition. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stated earlier that his country would take “overall security responsibility” for Gaza “for an indefinite period.”
That is a no-go for the EU and the United States.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Monday stressed that Israel cannot stay in Gaza after the war, when he presented his vision for what happens post conflict ahead of a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Healsosaid, “we believe that a Palestinian authority must return to Gaza,” stressing he meant “one Palestinian authority, not the Palestinian Authority.”
Blinken has also warned that Israel cannot reoccupy Gaza after its war with Hamas ends.
The German proposal — a two-page, nonofficial document (or non-paper in EU-speak) — is dated October 21, so before Israel’s decision to launch the second phase of its military operation against Gaza at the end of October.
Berlin, one of Israel’s staunchest allies within the EU, writes that “Israel’s goal is a goal we share: never again should Hamas be in a position to terrorize Israel and its citizens.” Yet at the same time, “it is clear that these goals are hard to achieve with military means only … Its radical ideology and agenda cannot be fought by military means.”
It floats five different scenarios about the future of the Gaza Strip, including Israeli re-occupation of Gaza, and either the Palestinian Authority (PA) or Egypt taking control.
The U.N scenario is also on the list. In Berlin’s words, the scenario means an “internationalization of Gaza under the umbrella of the United Nations (and regional partners)” with “a carefully organized transition” toward Palestinian self-administration, “ideally” through elections “and in combination with an international coalition that provides necessary security.”
The document described this scenario as one that “could offer a political perspective since neither the PA nor Egypt are willing or able to take over and a return to the status quo ante or an Israeli re-occupation are politically not desirable.”
But Berlin also warned that “this scenario would require significant investment of political capital and financing as well as an international coalition to engage on security issues alongside the U.N.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern Gaza but offered no indications on how to make it “effective” or overcome Israeli opposition | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The document says that “the EU should take over a pro-active role in shaping this [the post-war] discussion” and it ends by emphasizing that the situation in the Gaza Strip “can only be sustainably stabilized through a relaunch of the Middle East Peace Process.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed the U.N.idea in her speech last week to EU ambassadors, saying that after the conflict the world has to ensure Gaza is no longer a safe haven for terrorists. To ensure that, von der Leyen said “different ideas are being discussed on how this can be ensured, including an international peace force under U.N. mandate.”
But several diplomats — granted, like others in this article, anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject — said that theGerman suggestion didn’t go far enough. It came in the very early stages of the conflict, it was not circulated among all member countries and was not intended to be discussed by foreign ministers.
When German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated Berlin’s line more recently, she said that “Gaza must not be occupied, but ideally be placed under international protection” without explicitly mentioning a U.N. role.
One EU diplomat described the document as “stillborn.”
Palestinian no-go
The German suggestion has angered Palestinian officials, already unhappy at EU statements that don’t mention a cease-fire in Gaza.
When German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated Berlin’s line more recently, she said that “Gaza must not be occupied, but ideally be placed under international protection” without explicitly mentioning a U.N. role | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
That feeling extends across Muslim countries. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — which has 57 Muslim countries as members — held a press conference in Brussels on Monday morning, at the same time as EU foreign ministers were meeting, to argue that they don’t want to talk about the future of the Gaza Strip as long as there’s no cease-fire.
The 27 EU member countries have agreed on a call for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” but there’s no unanimity on a cease-fire, which is being pushed by Spain but objected to by the likes of Germany and Austria for several reasons, including that it could put Israel and Hamas on the same level, as the former is a country and the latter classed as a terrorist organization by the bloc.
For Abdalrahim Alfarra, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, the U.N taking control of Gaza would be “unacceptable.”
He told POLITICO that a U.N role in providing international protection at the borders — like the blue helmets in the south of Lebanon — to protect the frontier between two future countries, Israel and Palestine, is “what we need.”
The problem with the German document is that it doesn’t talk about U.N protection at the borders but rather about U.N “control of Gaza,” he said.
Alfarra said that the Palestinian Authority has not been consulted about the document and also criticized it for not mentioning any form of cease-fire before addressing the future of the region.
“They didn’t talk about how we’re going to protect the men and women now. Right away: the future of Gaza,” he said.
At Lebanon’s border with Israel, residents of a Christian village are hoping war can be avoided even as they prepare for the possibility of worsening hostilities between the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and Israel.
Located just a couple of kilometres from the frontier, the village of Rmeich has already suffered fallout from three weeks of clashes along the border between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, the dominant force in southern Lebanon.
The village, along with the rest of Lebanon, is feeling the turbulence unleashed by the conflict raging some 200km (124 miles) away between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, an ally of the heavily armed Hezbollah.
Those who remain in Rmeich appear reluctant to discuss the politics of the crisis that has brought conflict to their doorstep, trying to preserve some normalcy in the village whose 18th-century church still holds a mass three times a day.
“I won’t say we’re feeling safe but the situation is stable,” village priest Toni Elias, 40, said as a military drone buzzed overhead.
“If we don’t hear the drone, we think something odd is going on. We’re used to it every day, 24/7,” Elias said.
ISRAEL made use of its Arrow 3 “missile-killer” for the first time as it downed a rocket allegedly launched by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.
The lethal long-range air defence system is able to intercept ballistic missiles from thousands of miles away and blast them out of the sky.
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The Arrow 3 ‘missile killer’ was launched by Israel for the first timeCredit: IAI
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The long-range air defence system can target incoming missiles from thousands of miles awayCredit: Newsflash
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IDF said its troops are in ‘fierce battles’ with Hamas in GazaCredit: IDF
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The giant machine can down ballistic missiles in just three steps
Israel’s military said its forces “successfully intercepted” a “surface-to-surface missile” fired towards Israel from the area of the Red Sea using its Arrow 3 system.
It is thought to be the world’s first operational and stand-alone defence system that can be used against tactical ballistic missiles.
The powerful state-of-the-art piece of kit detects, tracks and then fires a hit-to-kill warhead to intercept the incoming missile.
It can cleanly blast the incoming warheads out of the sky, therefore preventing damage to buildings and civilians.
read more on israel-hamas
The fearsome anti-missile launcher can be used to defend Israel in conjunction with the “Iron Dome” – dubbed the “guardian of the skies” as well as the “Iron Sting” and “Iron Beam” weapons systems.
Today, the IDF said that Arrow intercepted the missile – believed to have been sent from Yemen – “at the most appropriate operational time and location.”
Footage showed a large trail of smoke after the Arrow was launched and residents reported hearing a large blast, The Times of Israel reports.
The IDF also claimed this morning to have used fighter jets to intercept “hostile targets” flying in from the Red Sea this morning.
“All the threats were intercepted outside the territory of the State of Israel. No intrusion into Israeli territory was detected,” the IDF added.
After Israel’s announcement, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels took responsibility for the aerial assault and claimed to have fired “a large number” of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel today.
In a video statement, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed it was the third attack they had launched at Israel and vowed there would be more to come.
He warned the attacks would continue until “Israeli aggression” stopped, referring to Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, are part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” which encompasses Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
Last week, Israel accused the Houthi movement of sending drones that caused explosions in two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea, arguing they were intended to strike Israel.
And on October 19, a US warship was forced to fire its first shots in the defence of Israel when it downed a missile believed to have been launched by the Houthis.
An official said the USS Carney shot down15 drones and four cruise missiles fired by the militia group in a nine-hour onslaught.
The IDF claimed to have made “significant progress” in their ground offensive as they continued advancing deeper into the besieged enclave.
It said that ground and air forces hit Hamas positions and anti-tank guided missile squads, and footage revealed Israeli troops marching through Gaza after reportedly hitting 300 targets overnight.
It comes as:
IDF soldier Ori Megidish was rescued after she was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists
Israeli PM Netanyahu rejected all calls for a ceasefire saying “this is a time for war”
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis continues to worsen as aid trucks struggle to enter and Palestinian authorities claim thousands have been killed
Israel said today that troops attacked Hamas gunmen inside Gaza’s vast tunnel network – where the terror group is believed to be hiding hostages.
The tunnels are a key objective for Tel Aviv as it enters its ” “second stage of war,” inside Gaza to wipe out Hamas following the terrorist’s bloody October 7 attacks that saw 1,400 Israelis slaughtered.
Speaking to The Sun, the former British military commander Colonel Richard Kemp said that Israel has made “significant progress”.
He told The Sun: “I think the IDF moved into the Gaza strip in significant military strength, with tanks, infantry engineers supported by artillery attack, helicopters and UAVs.
“And they’re making quite significant progress, there have been reports today that they have destroyed a great deal of the Hamas infrastructure inside Gaza, killed around four senior Hamas leaders.
“As far as I’m aware, there have been either none or very limited Israeli casualties, but that hasn’t yet been confirmed. So I think it’s so far progressing pretty well.”
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Rows of Israeli tanks lined up as they are deployed into Gaza
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Israeli troops were pictured pushing deeper into Gaza after striking 300 targetsCredit: IDF
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USS Carney fired its first shot in defence of Israel as it downed a suspected missile launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on October 19Credit: AFP
The leader of the Hezbollah militant group has thrown his backing behind Palestinian militants and praised the attacks that killed more than a thousand Israeli civilians, in his first public appearance since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas last month.
In a televised speech broadcast on Friday from an unknown location, Hassan Nasrallah praised the “martyrs” who have died fighting Israeli troops, denied the Hamas attacks had been coordinated by Iran, and said fighters loyal to him were “prepared to make unlimited sacrifices” in supporting their cause.
“This operation is great; this sacred operation was 100 percent Palestinian, and was implemented by Palestinians,” he said.
However, he stopped short of explicitly declaring war on Israel and opening a second front in the conflict, despite predictions that he could seek to escalate tensions dramatically.
Nasrallah has led Hezbollah since 1992, when his predecessor was killed by Israeli forces. While the group maintains it is comprised of both a political party and a separate military wing, Hezbollah has been designated as a terrorist organization in its entirety by Israel, the U.S., the U.K., the Arab League and a number of EU member states. It has close ties to Iran, which also backs Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and paramilitaries in Iraq and Yemen — all of which are vehemently opposed to Israel and its Western partners.
Hezbollah maintains a tight hold over southern Lebanon, effectively ruling the region independently from the Middle Eastern nation’s elected government. Its fighters have carried out attacks and drone strikes on Israeli positions across the line of contact in recent days amid a sharp spike in violence across the region, with Israeli officials ordering the evacuation of citizens from 42 communities in the surrounding area.
Ahead of Nasrallah’s speech, schools and government buildings throughout Lebanon closed and crowds gathered in the capital of Beirut as well as in other Middle Eastern countries to watch the address. While many in the tiny nation — home to just five and a half million people — fear a renewed conflict with Israel, Hezbollah is effectively able to operate entirely independently from the state and retains high levels of support from the Shia Muslim community.
The Israel Defense Forces earlier Friday said it was on “very, very high alert” along its northern border with Lebanon.
Southern Lebanon was effectively occupied by Israeli forces from 1985 until 2000, fighting a series of military offensives and running battles with militant groups during and after the country’s 15-year civil war. Hezbollah and Israel also fought a brief but bloody war in 2006, with hundreds killed on both sides and no decisive result.
French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu was in Beirut Friday afternoon, declaring that his country “will continue to provide support to the Lebanese Armed Forces … because the stability of Lebanon is key for the country and for the region.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel amid growing calls for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting to allow Palestinian civilians to flee as Israel steps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip. Blinken reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself and said “no country would, or should, tolerate the slaughter of innocents.” However, he did call for greater protection for Palestinians amid the worsening military confrontation.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel amid growing calls for a “humanitarian pause” | Jonathan Ernst/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza claims that 9,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict last month, while Israeli troops have taken control of key strategic points in and around Gaza City, telling non-combatants to leave their homes and seek safety in southern Gaza — which has also been targeted by air strikes.
More than 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side of the border since Hamas launched its major offensive, with fighters infiltrating the country by land, air and sea.
East Jerusalem — Israeli troops were inside the Gaza Strip Monday, waging what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the “next stage” of his country’s war against Hamas militants in response to the brutal terror attack they launched on October 7. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video showing soldiers entering Gaza from the north after another weekend of intense airstrikes.
Health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave said Monday that more than three weeks of relentless Israeli artillery and missile strikes had left over 8,300 people dead, including more than 3,400 children. Israel insists it’s only targeting Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza, and that the blame for all civilian casualties rests entirely with Hamas for sparking the war and hiding amongst Gaza’s civilian population.
Israel says the initial Hamas attack and ongoing rocket fire from Gaza have claimed more than 1,400 lives since October 7.
Determined to show he’s in full control of the war, Netanyahu visited some of his troops over the weekend, telling them they were “surrounded by a sea of love.”
Grainy IDF video showed Israeli soldiers carrying out a clean, clinical operation, with tanks rolling into Gaza as ground operations increased. The military claimed to have killed dozens of Hamas militants who’d barricaded themselves inside buildings in the densely-packed strip of land — and in a vast network of tunnels dug underneath them, from which they attempted to attack the troops.
But many in Israel take a very different view of their country’s war, including Reoma Kedem, who lost her daughter and grandchildren in the gruesome terror attack when Hamas gunmen stormed into their community near the Gaza border.
Over the weekend, Kedem joined a small protest in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where she came to voice her rage at her own government and the man who leads it, Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“How long will we continue with this bloodshed?” She asked. “If this man does not go, we won’t have a solution.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center-left, visits troops at a naval base in Ashdod, southern Israel, Oct. 29, 2023, amid his country’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli government handout via Reuters
Despite the IDF’s promise that the war with Hamas will usher in a “new security reality” for Israelis, many in the country believe Netanyahu and his far-right leadership coalition are an impediment to finding the peace that has eluded the country since its creation in 1948, not a government intent on working toward it.
Tension has also been mounting fast in the larger Palestinian territory of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Four Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces over the last 24 hours, and there have been regular protests in solidarity with those trapped in Gaza.
The Health Ministry run by the Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed administration in the West Bank, said Monday that almost 330 Palestinians had died in clashes with Israeli forces since October 7.
Palestinian teenager Yazan Najjar was among those voicing his outrage over the weekend. He told CBS News he believed the children of Gaza had been forgotten.
Palestinian Yazan Najjar speaks with CBS News at a protest in Ramallah, West Bank, in solidarity with those trapped in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 29, 2023.
“It makes me sick that the world is turning its back on us and it’s not doing anything to protect us,” he said.
As Israel pounds Gaza, there is nowhere safe to hide for the roughly 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the narrow strip of land on the Mediterranean coast, and they’re running out of everything, including the most basic necessities of food, water and medicine. Aid agencies say the truck convoys that have been allowed to cross into Gaza over its southern border with Egypt over the last week are entirely insufficient, and they have continued to call for a wider opening of the border.
The desperation has grown so severe that people broke into a United Nations warehouse over the weekend to grab anything they could get their hands on.
CBS News producer Marwan Al-Ghoul is among those trapped in Gaza, and he drove through what’s left of the northern part of Gaza City over the weekend. He saw children looking around in the rubble of a house that had just been destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, searching for victims. A woman’s body was visible under the crushed concrete and twisted steel.
Ambulances rushed from one hellscape to another all weekend in Gaza, trying to rescue the critically injured.
Many civilians have taken shelter in hospitals, which have been ordered repeatedly by the Israeli military to evacuate.
The IDF accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s hospitals as bases, placing weapons, fighters and even command centers in tunnels under the buildings and in the buildings themselves — and using the medics and civilians all around them as human shields.
The Red Crescent says it can’t evacuate the hospitals as if they try to move the hundreds of patients in intensive care, they’ll die.
As Israel ramps up its war on Hamas, the pleas from within Gaza — and for Gaza from around the world — are growing louder, with many calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
While U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a personal call for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” neither the U.N. Security Council nor the full General Assembly, nor the U.S. government, have gone that far.
The U.S. and the U.N. have both urged Israel to prioritize the protection of civilians.
CBS News’ Pamela Falk at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Reporters Without Borders says ‘unlikely’ that Issam Abdallah and six other journalists were mistaken for combatants.
A Reuters journalist killed in strikes near the Israel-Lebanon border was deliberately targeted along with six other media workers injured in the attacks, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said.
Video journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed in southern Lebanon on October 13 while covering fighting between Israel’s military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Six other journalists, including Al Jazeera cameraperson Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, were wounded when two rounds of munitions hit the village of Alma al-Shaab in quick succession.
“Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting,” RSF said on Sunday, citing the preliminary results of an investigation based on video footage and ballistic analysis.
“It is unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants, especially as they were not hiding: in order to have a clear field of vision, they had been in the open for more than an hour, on the top of a hill. They were wearing helmets and bullet-proof waistcoats marked ‘press’. Their car was also identified as ‘press’ thanks to a marking on the roof, according to witnesses.”
While RSF did not directly attribute responsibility to Israel, the press freedom advocacy organisation said journalists had witnessed Israeli military helicopters near the scene and the strikes had come “from the direction of the Israeli border”.
The Al Jazeera Media Network has accused Israel’s military of deliberately targeting the journalists to silence the media, condemning the attacks as part of a pattern of “repeated atrocities” against journalists.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel’s military has not acknowledged responsibility for the attacks but a spokesperson previously said officials were “very sorry” for Abdallah’s death and were “looking into it”.
Last week, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement that it condemned the “indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family and countless others.”
Israeli officials earlier this year apologised for killing Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after admitting there was a “high possibility” she had been struck by an Israeli soldier’s bullet. Israel has declined to pursue charges against any individual over the veteran Palestinian-American reporter’s death.
At least 34 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli air attacks since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
At least four Israeli journalists were killed and one retired journalist captured in Hamas’s surprise attack on communities in southern Israel, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Israel expanded ground operations in Gaza on Friday, nearly three weeks after Hamas launched an attack on the country. CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata, David Martin and Nancy Cordes have the latest.
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It’s as if one front in the Israel-Hamas war is playing out on the streets of Berlin.
The main battleground has been an avenue lined with chicken and kebab restaurants in Neukölln, a neighborhood in the south-east of the city that’s home to many Middle Eastern immigrants. Some pro-Palestinian activists have called for demonstrators to turn out almost nightly, and, as one post put it, turn the area “into Gaza.”
On October 18, hundreds of people, many of them teenagers, answered the call.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” chanted many in the crowd as a phalanx of riot police closed in on them. Berlin public prosecutors say the slogan is a call for the erasure of Israel, and have moved to make its utterance a criminal offense.
While similar scenes have played out across much of the world, for Germany’s leaders, they are profoundly embarrassing and strike at the heart of the nation’s identity, on account of the country’s Nazi past.
Germany’s “history and our responsibility arising from the Holocaust make it our duty to stand up for the existence and security of the State of Israel,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a visit to Israel on October 17 intended to illustrate Germany’s solidarity.
The difficulty for Scholz is that far from everyone in Germany sees it his way.
German leaders across the political spectrum expressed outrage when, after the Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, dozens of people assembled in Neukölln to celebrate. One 23-year-old man, a Palestinian flag draped over his shoulders, handed out sweets.
A community on edge
Since then, tensions in Berlin and in other German cities have rapidly escalated. A surge in antisemitic incidents has left many in the country’s Jewish community on edge and German police have stepped up security at cultural institutions and houses of worship.
At the same time, German police have moved to ban many pro-Palestinian demonstrations, saying there is a high risk of “incitement to hatred” and a threat to public safety. Demonstrators have come out anyway, leading to violent clashes with police.
Some in Germany, particularly on the political left, have questioned whether the bans on pro-Palestinian protests are an overreach of the state, arguing that they stifle legitimate concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza stemming from Israel’s retaliatory strikes.
But Berlin authorities say, based on past experience, the likelihood of antisemitic rhetoric — even violence — at prohibited pro-Palestinian demonstrations is too high.
Protesters demanding a peaceful resolution to the current conflict in Israel and Gaza demonstrate under the slogan “Not in my name!” in Berlin | Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Many on the far-left have joined those protests that do take place.
On Wednesday night, around the same time demonstrators assembled in Neukölln, a group of a few hundred leftist activists showed up at a planned vigil for peace outside the foreign ministry.
“Free Palestine from German guilt,” they chanted in English. Germany, the argument went, should get over its Holocaust history, at least when it comes to support for Israel. The irony is that there is much sympathy for this view on the far right.
One recent poll showed that 78 percent of supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany disagreed with the idea that the country has a “special obligation towards Israel.” Extreme-right politicians have also called on Germany to get over its “cult of guilt.”
For many in the country’s Jewish community — which in recent years has grown to an estimated 200,000 people, including many Israelis — the conflagration in the Middle East has made fear part of daily life.
Molotov cocktails
In the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, two people wearing masks threw Molotov cocktails at a Berlin Jewish community hub that houses a synagogue. The incendiary devices hit the sidewalk, and no one was hurt. But the attack stoked profound alarm.
“Hamas’ ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany,” said the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s largest umbrella Jewish organization.
Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, several homes in Berlin where Jews are thought to live have been marked with the Star of David.
“My first thought was: ‘It’s like the Nazi time,’” said Sigmount Königsberg, the antisemitism commissioner for Berlin’s Jewish Community, an organization that oversees local synagogues and other parts of Jewish life in the city. “Many Jews are hiding their Jewishness,” he added — in other words, concealing skullcaps or religious insignia out of fear of being attacked.
It remains unclear who perpetrated the firebombing attack and Star of David graffiti. But historical data shows a clear correlation between upsurges in Middle East violence and increased antisemitic incidents in Europe, according to academic researchers.
In the eight days following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, there were 202 antisemitic incidents connected to the war, mostly motivated by “anti-Israel activism,” according to data compiled by the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center.
Fears within the Jewish community were particularly prevalent after a former Hamas leader called for worldwide demonstrations in a “day of rage.” Many students at a Jewish school in Berlin stayed home. Two teachers wrote a letter to Berlin’s mayor to express their dismay that, as they put it, the school was nearly empty.
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator displays a placard during a protest against the bombing in Gaza outside the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on October 18, 2023 | John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images
“This means de facto that Jew-haters have usurped the decision-making authority over Jewish life in Berlin,” they wrote. The teachers then blamed Germany’s willingness to take in refugees from war-torn places like Syria and Lebanon. “Germany has taken in and continues to take in hundreds of thousands of people whose socialization includes antisemitism and hatred of Israel,” they wrote.
Day of rage
Surveys show that Muslims in Germany are more likely to hold antisemitic views than the general population. Politicians often refer this phenomenon as “imported antisemitism,” brought into the country through immigration from Muslim-majority nations.
At the same time, it was a far-right attacker who perpetrated some of the worst antisemitic violence in Germany’s recent history. That came in 2019, when a gunmen tried to massacre 51 people celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, in a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle. Two people were killed.
German neo-Nazis have praised Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel. One group calling itself the “Young Nationalists” posted a picture of a bloodstained Star of David on social media next to the slogan “Israel murders and the world watches.”
During the Neukölln demonstration, officers arrested individual protestors one by one, picking them out from the crowd and dragging them off by force.
The atmosphere grew increasingly tense. Demonstrators lobbed fireworks and bottles at the police. Dumpsters and tires were set alight. By the end of the night, police made 174 arrests, including 29 minors. Police said 65 officers were injured in the clashes.
At one point amid the chaos, a 15-year-old girl with a Palestinian keffiyeh — a black and white scarf — wrapped around most of her face emerged amid the smoke and explosions to pose for a selfie in front of a row of riot police.
She said she was there to demonstrate for “peace.” When asked how peace would be achieved, she replied: “When the Israeli side pisses off our land, there will be peace. Won’t there?”
