Israel Wants US, Egypt, Qatar to Press Abbas for Calm

A Palestinian child plays with a toy pistol during the funeral of Hamad Mustafa Abu Jeldah in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank (AFP)
A Palestinian child plays with a toy pistol during the funeral of Hamad Mustafa Abu Jeldah in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank (AFP)
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Israel Wants US, Egypt, Qatar to Press Abbas for Calm

A Palestinian child plays with a toy pistol during the funeral of Hamad Mustafa Abu Jeldah in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank (AFP)
A Palestinian child plays with a toy pistol during the funeral of Hamad Mustafa Abu Jeldah in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank (AFP)

Israel wants Egypt and Qatar to pressure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to activate the security forces and prevent armed operations during the upcoming Jewish holidays.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel is responsible for the ongoing escalation, saying it regularly targets Palestinian citizens with the worst forms of persecution and oppression without being held accountable.

The Foreign Ministry added in a press statement Sunday that the Israeli government and its various military branches, including the settlers' militias, organizations, and terrorists, are part of an Israeli strategy to escalate the conflict.

"The Israeli government is fully and directly responsible for the escalation."

The Ministry noted that the Israeli government's policy aims to keep the situation very tense to block any opportunity for the resumption of the peace process that had been stalled since 2014.

It denounced that more than one Israeli official held the Palestinian side responsible for the escalation and its repercussions in an attempt to evade responsibility and as part of Israel's official misleading campaigns.

The Ministry accused Israel of adopting a military-security approach in dealing with the Palestinian issue as an alternative to political solutions to the conflict.

Political sources in Tel Aviv revealed that the Israeli government sought Cairo, Doha, and Washington to pressure Abbas to activate the Palestinian security services to carry out arrest campaigns against Palestinian militants in the West Bank, especially in Jenin and Nablus.

According to Haaretz, Israel is facing difficulty finding goodwill initiatives and restoring confidence between the two parties or taking economic steps that could reduce security tension in the West Bank.

Tel Aviv claimed several serious warnings that the Palestinians are preparing for dozens of armed operations during the Jewish holidays in September and October.

The newspaper noted that the Fatah movement is among the organizations preparing for the operations, not just Palestinian opposition factions.

Israeli forces are carrying out the most significant arrests throughout the West Bank daily since the formation of the cabinet led by Naftali Bennett and then Yair Lapid, which has so far included more than 1,500 detainees.

Each arrest is carried out with a massive military campaign, with the participation of hundreds of soldiers, armored cars, and sometimes drones.

Haaretz reported that the Israeli political leadership is anxious that Abbas's expected speech at the United Nations General Assembly will escalate the situation.

According to the newspaper, Abbas's visit to Cairo last Monday focused on this issue.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, also tried to pressure the Palestinians in this direction during her meeting with Minister Hussein al-Sheikh and intelligence chief Majed Faraj.

Leaf called on the Palestinians to withdraw their request for the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a member state, claiming that this would lead to an escalation in the West Bank. Abbas refused to meet Leaf.

An Israeli source familiar with the matter claimed that Abbas does not realize the depth of the problem.



Sudan War Moves Closer to Ethiopian Border

Sudanese refugees at Ura camp in Assosa, Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region (AFP)
Sudanese refugees at Ura camp in Assosa, Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region (AFP)
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Sudan War Moves Closer to Ethiopian Border

Sudanese refugees at Ura camp in Assosa, Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region (AFP)
Sudanese refugees at Ura camp in Assosa, Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region (AFP)

Days after tensions rose along Sudan’s western border with Chad, the war’s fallout has edged closer to its eastern frontier with Ethiopia.

Fighting has intensified in Blue Nile state, where the army said it shot down drones that came from the direction of Ethiopian territory. The Rapid Support Forces and its allies also said they had seized strategic positions in the border state.

The developments bring two of Sudan’s neighbors — Chad to the west and Ethiopia to the east — increasingly close to a war now in its fourth year. They have also fueled fears that expanding military operations near the borders could increase the risk of regional spillover.

N’Djamena raised its alert level along the Sudanese border after accusing the Sudanese army of carrying out a strike inside Chad that targeted a vehicle convoy. Khartoum rejected holding the army responsible without an independent investigation.

Advance in Blue Nile

On the eastern front, the RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, said they seized the Sirkam and Bakori bases near the Ethiopian border after fierce fighting with the army.

RSF spokesperson al-Fateh Qurashi said forces from the Sudan Founding Alliance, known as Tasis, captured the two bases, inflicted losses on the army and its allied forces, and seized combat vehicles, tanks, weapons and ammunition.

The RSF released videos that it said showed its fighters inside the army’s Sirkam military base. Its full account and the scale of the reported losses could not be independently verified.

Local sources, however, said the army had repelled an attack on Bakori. Control of the area remained disputed, with no detailed army statement clarifying the situation on the ground.

Sirkam and Bakori are militarily important because of their location on routes that could allow attacking forces to push north towards Damazin, the capital and political, military and administrative center of the Blue Nile region.

The escalation came a day after the army said it shot down what it described as a “hostile strategic drone” that entered from the direction of Ethiopian territory. It said the aircraft was the third drone it had downed in less than a week.

No independent investigation has established where the drones were launched or who operated them.

The RSF and its ally, the SPLM-N, seized the strategic areas of Kurmuk and Geissan on the Ethiopian border in early August. The advance triggered large waves of displacement and made the Blue Nile one of the war’s most active fronts.

Drone Strikes Kill Civilians

At least eight people were killed and dozens of civilians wounded in two drone attacks in the Sharu area, north of Sodari locality in North Kordofan state, as fighting continued in Blue Nile.

Emergency Lawyers, a group that documents wartime violations, said a drone targeted civilians before striking again as people tried to help the wounded. Four civilian vehicles were also destroyed.

The group did not identify who was responsible. Neither the army nor the RSF commented.

Emergency Lawyers called for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable. It said the targeted area was civilian and had no visible military presence.

Drone use in the war has risen sharply in recent months. Strikes have hit military positions, civilian areas, and energy and water facilities, particularly in the Kordofan region.

The shift in fighting between Sudan’s western border with Chad and its southeastern frontier with Ethiopia underscores the war’s widening geographical reach.

It has also raised fears that border areas could turn from routes for supplies and displaced people into battlefields, increasing friction with neighboring countries.

 

 


Barrack Congratulates Syria on Week of ‘Historic Accomplishments’

US Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack (AP) 
US Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack (AP) 
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Barrack Congratulates Syria on Week of ‘Historic Accomplishments’

US Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack (AP) 
US Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack (AP) 

US Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack congratulated Syria on a week of “historic accomplishments” after meeting Syrian Chargé d’Affaires in Washington Mohammad Qanatri.

“Great meeting with Syrian Chargé d’Affaires Mohammad Qanatri,” Barrack said on X Friday, adding: “Congratulations on a week of historic accomplishments for Syria.”

The United States removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday.

On Tuesday, Mazloum Abdi announced the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as an independent military force following its integration into Syrian army brigades, describing the move as a transition toward peace, stability and building a new Syria.

 

 

 


Smotrich Announces Plan to 'Judaize the Galilee and Negev'

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
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Smotrich Announces Plan to 'Judaize the Galilee and Negev'

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, announced a broad plan to “Judaize” the Galilee and the Negev under the slogan “Yes. We Judaize!”

The plan targets the Arab presence in the north and south, the two regions with large Arab populations. It includes the establishment of dozens of Jewish communities and farms and the expansion of existing settlements.

It also calls for the cancellation of development plans for Arab communities, in what critics describe as an openly discriminatory policy targeting Israel’s Arab citizens.

Speaking at an election rally, Smotrich said that following what he described as initial results showing the success of his “Decisive Plan” for the West Bank, his party would demand, in the next government, control of the Planning Administration and the Israel Land Authority in order to impose sweeping changes on planning policy and land allocation.