International
The US warns that it cannot support the Rafah invasion without seeing Israel’s plan to protect civilians
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Monday from Riyadh that so far he has not seen any plan by Israel to guarantee the “effective” protection of civilians in the face of an invasion against the Palestinian town of Rafah, bordering Egypt.
“In the absence of a plan that guarantees that civilians will not suffer harm, we cannot support a large-scale military operation in Rafah and we have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected,” he said at the special session of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is held in Riyadh.
Israel’s potential offensive to Rafah, where about 1.4 million people displaced by the war live overcrowded, has become a red line for a large part of the international community, although this operation could be delayed in the event of a ceasefire.
The head of US diplomacy has traveled to Riyadh to coordinate with his colleagues from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), made up of six Arab countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the positions regarding the efforts to reach a pause in Gaza, and participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in the Saudi capital.
Before his speech at the Forum, Blinken addressed in a bilateral meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan, efforts to reach a truce in Gaza and increase aid to civilians in the Palestinian enclave, Saudi sources reported.
At the meeting, Blinken and Bin Farhan “dealt with the situation in Gaza and other issues of common interest,” reported the official Saudi television channel Al Ejbaria, which disseminated images of the event.
Saudi television also broadcast images of the arrival of the heads of Foreign Affairs of the GCC at the meeting with Blinken, who landed on Monday in Riyadh on his seventh visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza, last October.
Along with the situation in Gaza, the US Secretary of State dealt with the heads of the diplomacies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, the “threat from Iran” and the Shiite Houthi rebels of Yemen.
After his visit to Riyadh, he will move to Israel and Jordan and meet with humanitarian organizations.
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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