International
Pedro Sánchez will visit a Palestinian refugee camp on his tour of the Middle East
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will visit a Palestinian refugee camp on his tour of the Middle East to learn first-hand about their situation and symbolize Spain’s full support for the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
Sánchez begins this Tuesday a trip that will take him to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to address with the leaders of those countries the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the need for a ceasefire to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe that Gaza is experiencing.
The objective of the trip, according to the Government, is to transfer Spain’s willingness to serve as a bridge between the EU and the Arab countries to advance in the search for definitive solutions that Sánchez considers can only go through the coexistence of two states, Israel and Palestine.
The tour will also have an economic component, especially in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to probe new investments from those countries in Spain and the opportunities they offer to Spanish companies.
In that economic context, the announcement of the Saudi company STC to take over 9.9% of Telefónica is framed, an issue that, according to government sources, Sánchez does not plan to raise in Saudi Arabia on his own initiative but could be addressed if the Saudi side does.
Nor is it planned to discuss with the Saudi authorities on this trip respect for human rights, which the cited sources emphasize is constantly done by Spain in the appropriate forums.
Sánchez will arrive in Amman on Monday night, but his agenda in Jordan will not begin until Tuesday and he will do so with that visit to the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabal el Hussein.
It is one of the four camps established after 1948 to accommodate refugees from Palestine who left as a result of the war between Arabs and Israelis.
The camp was established in 1952 for 8,000 refugees in an area of 421,000 square meters northwest of Amman, but currently, according to official figures from the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the population is almost 30,000 people.
In that camp, Sánchez plans to have a chat with a group of Palestinian children and then meet with refugees living in this camp.
The visit, emphasizes the Executive, aims to give visibility to the work carried out by UNRWA, which it considers irreplaceable in the region in support of Palestinian refugees, as well as Spain’s support for this UN body.
The president of the Government will then visit the Citadel of Amman, rebuilt with funds from Spanish cooperation, and will then meet with the king of Jordan, Abdalah II.
Sánchez will move on Tuesday to Yeddah, the city of Saudi Arabia where he will develop his agenda in this country, where he will first see a group of Spanish businessmen and then he will be received by the crown prince and strong man of the country, Mohamed bin Salman.
The trip will conclude in Doha on Wednesday with a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who will invite Sánchez to the ‘iftar’ of that day, the moment when the fast is broken in the period of Ramadan.
The Government emphasizes precisely the fact that the three countries have shown their willingness to visit Sánchez in the middle of Ramadan.
In Doha there will also be a meeting of Sánchez with Spanish businessmen, a meeting with women from Qatar who stand out in various areas of society and an interview with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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