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Tel Aviv Allows Gazan Traders to Enter West Bank, Israel

Fish is sold at a market in Gaza. (EPA)
Fish is sold at a market in Gaza. (EPA)
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Tel Aviv Allows Gazan Traders to Enter West Bank, Israel

Fish is sold at a market in Gaza. (EPA)
Fish is sold at a market in Gaza. (EPA)

Tel Aviv allowed on Sunday several traders in Gaza Strip to enter the West Bank and Israel through the Erez crossing, following months of being denied access.

The move is part of efforts to ease tensions that have lingered after the last round of fighting between Israel and Gaza militants that ended in May.

Israel decided to expand the fishing area in the Strip from six to 12 nautical miles. It also decided to allow Gazans to travel abroad through Palestinian and Israeli crossings. Israel will also allow the import of agriculture, food and electric goods into the Gaza Strip as of Sunday.

Other goods for medicine, fishing, and international trade will be transferred to the Strip.

The passage of Palestinians living in Gaza abroad will take place through Israel's border with Jordan, and 29 private vehicles will enter through the Erez crossing.

Rami Abu al-Rish, the director-general of trade and crossings for the Ministry of the Economy in Gaza, confirmed that the Coordination and Cooperation Committee of the General Authority of Civil Affairs in Ramallah informed them that electrical goods will be allowed into the strip on Monday.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had warned on Sunday of the shortage of raw materials to launch reconstruction in Gaza.

Director of UNRWA in Gaza, Sam Rose said in a press statement that the lack of raw materials for starting the reconstruction plan "was due to the closure of the only commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel."

"Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip has not started yet, and we, like many others, are deeply concerned over the continued Israeli closure of the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing point," he said.

"Some materials such as cement, concrete, and iron are not available in the local markets of Gaza," Rose said, adding that the shortage of raw materials stops and delays the reconstruction process.

Up to 1,200 housing units were destroyed in the last round of fighting in the Gaza Strip. Some 1,000 houses are badly damaged and not suitable for living. The reconstruction will cost about 165 million US dollars.

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Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)

Two French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, the second such move by France's judicial authorities, a source said on Tuesday.

Assad, who was ousted late last year in a lightning offensive by opposition forces, is held responsible in the warrant issued on Monday as "commander-in-chief of the armed forces" for a bombing in the Syrian city of Daraa in 2017 that killed a civilian, a source close to the case, asking not to be named, told AFP.

This mandate was issued as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabout, a 59-year-old Franco-Syrian national and former French teacher, who was killed on June 7, 2017 following the bombing of his home by Syrian army helicopters.

The French judiciary considers that Assad ordered and provided the means for this attack, according to the source.

Six senior Syrian army officials are already the target of French arrest warrants over the case in an investigation that began in 2018.

"This case represents the culmination of a long fight for justice, in which I and my family believed from the start," said Omar Abou Nabout, the victim's son, in a statement.

He expressed hope that "a trial will take place and that the perpetrators will be arrested and judged, wherever they are".

French authorities in November 2023 issued a first arrest warrant against Assad over chemical attacks in 2013 where more than a thousand people, according to American intelligence, were killed by sarin gas.

While considering Assad's participation in these attacks "likely", public prosecutors last year issued an appeal against the warrant on the grounds that Assad should have immunity as a head of state.

However, his ouster has now changed his status and potential immunity. Assad and his family fled to Russia after his fall, according to Russian authorities.