ReportWire

Tag: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  • Israel revokes licences of dozens of aid groups

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    Despite protests, Israel has revoked the licences of dozens of international aid organizations.

    The Israeli authorities have demanded registration for work from Thursday, January 1, which many organizations reject as unlawful.

    According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they must cease their activities by March. This also affects operations in the Gaza Strip, largely destroyed by the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist militia Hamas.

    A total of 37 organizations are affected, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam.

    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described Israel’s actions as “outrageous.”

    The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the registration is intended “to prevent the involvement of terrorist elements and to protect the integrity of humanitarian work.”

    Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, justified the actions in a post on the platform X.

    She wrote that 104 organizations had duly applied for registration, of which only nine were rejected. The 37 affected organizations had not completed the process because they refused to provide a list of their local staff, she said.

    Israel accuses MSF of having at least one employee involved in terrorist activities.

    “The 37 organizations are more than welcome to complete the process as other organizations did,” wrote Rosenzweig-Abu.

    The affected organizations had not brought aid supplies into the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire, and even before that, their contribution amounted to only 1% of the total aid volume, she posted.

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  • Seven Italian climbers missing in Nepal as storms, avalanches leave 9 dead

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    Seven Italian climbers are missing in Nepal’s Himalayan mountains after heavy snowstorms and avalanches have killed at least nine people in recent days.

    Three Italian climbers were among five foreigners and two Nepali guides who were confirmed killed on Monday when a huge avalanche smashed through a base camp near the summit of Mount Yalung Ri in Nepal’s Himalayan range, according to reports.

    Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday that local authorities had confirmed the deaths of the three Italian climbers, but there “remains no news of seven other Italian nationals” who have been reported missing.

    “In recent days, several areas of the Nepalese Himalayas have been affected by a series of avalanches that have struck numerous mountaineers, including Italian citizens,” the ministry said.

    “Communication between local authorities, rescue teams, and the diplomatic missions of the countries involved continues to be extremely challenging,” the ministry added.

    Nepal’s Department of Tourism director, Himal Gautam, said there was no immediate information about the fate of the seven people reported missing.

    Nepal’s Himalayan Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that the bodies of an Italian and a French climber were recovered from the site of the avalanche that struck a group of 12 people at their base camp on Mount Yalung Ri on Monday.

    The seven people killed at the camp included three Italians, two Nepalis, a German and a French climber and, according to the newspaper, five others were rescued, including three Nepalis and two French nationals.

    French survivor Isabelle Solange Thaon, 54, who lost her husband, Christian Manfred, in the avalanche on Yalung Ri, told The Associated Press news agency that she was lucky to have survived with another French climber, Didier Armand.

    “We were lucky,” Thaon said from her hospital bed in the capital Kathmandu, adding that she had jumped over rocks and swam in the snow of the avalanche until help arrived to pull them out.

    “Unfortunately, Christian died … because rocks hit his head,” she said of her late husband.

    Mount Yalung Ri, located in the Rolwaling Valley of northeastern Nepal, is a 5,600-metre (18,370-foot) peak considered suitable for novice mountaineers.

    On Friday, in western Nepal, contact was lost with two Italian climbers, who were later confirmed to have died while attempting to scale the 6,887-metre (22,595-foot) Panbari mountain.

    Nepal was hit last week by unseasonal rains and heavy snow due to the impact of Cyclone Montha, which left many trekkers and tourists stranded on popular Himalayan trekking routes.

    Nepalese authorities have issued alerts to trekkers and climbers in the country, which is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and which are visited by many foreign and local trekkers and climbers each year.

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  • Egypt, Qatar condemn Netanyahu remarks on displacing Palestinians in Gaza

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    Egypt and Qatar have expressed strong condemnation over remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the displacement of Palestinians, including through the Rafah crossing.

    In a statement on Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the comments as part of “ongoing attempts to prolong escalation in the region and perpetuate instability while avoiding accountability for Israeli violations in Gaza”.

    In an interview with the Israeli Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, Netanyahu claimed there were “different plans for how to rebuild Gaza” and alleged that “half of the population wants to leave Gaza”, claiming it was “not a mass expulsion”.

    “I can open Rafah for them, but it will be closed immediately by Egypt,” he said.

    Egypt’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its “categorical rejection of forcibly or coercively displacing Palestinians from their land”.

    “[Egypt] stresses that these practices represent a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes that cannot be tolerated,” the ministry added.

    The statement affirmed that Egypt will never be complicit in such practices nor act as a conduit for Palestinian displacement, describing this as a “red line” that cannot be crossed.

    ‘Collective punishment will not succeed’

    Qatar’s Foreign Ministry also fiercely criticised Netanyahu’s remarks, calling them an “extension of the occupation’s approach to violating the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people”.

    “The policy of collective punishment practised by the occupation against the Palestinians … will not succeed in forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land or in confiscating their legitimate rights,” it said in a statement.

    It stressed the need for the international community to “unite with determination to confront the extremist and provocative policies of the Israeli occupation, in order to prevent the continuation of the cycle of violence in the region and its spread to the world”.

    The war of words comes as Egypt and Qatar continue to lead mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, seeking to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave.

    Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, said Netanyahu’s comments were “incredibly controversial” since it’s the Israeli government which has outlined that “it wants the Palestinians out of Gaza”.

    “The condemnation from both Qatar and Egypt is essentially telling Israel this is all a part of its larger plan, that Israel is the one that waged war on the Gaza Strip, that the continuation of crimes against the Palestinian people and the total closure of the Rafah border crossing is the reason why they’re imprisoned in Gaza, not because of anything else,” she said.

    “It is Israel that single-handedly created this policy.”

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