World
‘Shocking and brutal massacre’: World reacts to Israel’s al-Mawasi attack
![‘Shocking and brutal massacre’: World reacts to Israel’s al-Mawasi attack](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024-07-13T095842Z_574575936_RC29U8A2K2KE_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-1720866651.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440)
The United Nations and countries across the Middle East have denounced Israel after its military attacked a designed humanitarian safe zone in Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians and wounding 300 others.
Israel said the target of Saturday’s attack in al-Mawasi was Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not certain if the fighter had been killed. Hamas rejected the premise of the assault as “false”, saying that “defenceless civilians” were killed in the attack.
Photos and videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency showed Palestinians sifting through debris and what appeared to be remnants of tents at the location of the attacks.
Here’s how world leaders have responded:
Jordan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack on “displaced persons’ tents in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, in an area that Israel had previously classified as safe, which resulted in the death and injury of dozens of Palestinians”.
Spokesperson Sufyan Al-Qudah said Jordan called for the international community to act to bring an end to Palestinian suffering amid Israel’s repeated violations of international law.
Egypt
In a statement, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israel’s “ongoing violations against the rights of Palestinian citizens” add serious “complications” to achieving a ceasefire deal.
Egypt has been among the countries working to mediate such an agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli raids on the al-Mawasi area,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Qatar
Doha has also been working as a mediator in ceasefire negotiations. On Saturday, it called the “shocking and brutal massacre” at al-Mawasi “a new chapter in the ongoing series of crimes” committed by Israel against Palestinians.
It warned the attack would further undermine efforts for a lasting peace, “thereby expanding the cycle of violence in the region and threatening international peace and security”.
Turkey
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the attack “a phase of the Netanyahu government’s effort to annihilate the Palestinians entirely”.
“The fact that Israel once again opted for bloodshed when it was expected to respond to Hamas’s positive response to the ceasefire [proposal] is evidence that the Netanyahu government is trying to prevent negotiations for a permanent ceasefire,” the ministry said.
It called on countries supporting Israel to put an end to the “barbarism”.
Iran
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani called the attack on al-Mawasi the “latest crime in the series of crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist regime”.
“The Zionists have once again brutally shown that in order to compensate for the defeats suffered on the battlefield with the resistance, they do not recognise any humane and moral red line towards the defenceless residents of the Gaza Strip, but they must know that insisting on this path is nothing but a wider global hatred,” Kanaani said in a post on X.
Palestinian Authority
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the attack was a “continuation of the genocidal war against our people, and the US administration bears responsibility for the continuation of the massacres.”
In a statement carried by the Wafa news agency, Abu Rudeineh added: “Without blind and biased American support, this occupation would not have been able to continue its bloody crimes against our people, and to defy international laws and the decisions of international courts that have demanded an end to the onslaught and protection for our people.”
United Nations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked and saddened” by the Israeli air raids which killed at least 90 Palestinians.
“The [Israeli military] stated that they were targeting two senior members of Hamas,” Guterres said in a statement. “The Secretary General underlines that international humanitarian law including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack must be upheld at all times.”
Hezbollah
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah decried Israel’s attack and said the Lebanese group’s attacks against Israeli targets fulfil the “duty” to support Palestinians and are not a “favour”.
“Today, the occupation carried out a large massacre against displaced people in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis. Then it justified it by saying it wanted to target [Hamas] leaders,” he said. “Are there worse injustices and oppression in the world?”
Saudi Arabia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for “activating international accountability mechanisms” against Israeli abuses.
“The Foreign Ministry condemns in strongest terms the continuation of genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli war machine, the latest of which was the targeting [of] displaced people’s camps in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
Organisation for Islamic Cooperation
The OIC said it strongly condemned Israel’s “heinous massacres” in al-Mawasi as well as in the Shati refugee camp.
The organisation said it considers the attacks an “extension of the crime of genocide that the Israeli occupation continues to commit against Palestinian civilians, in blatant defiance of” UN resolutions and the orders of the International Court of Justice.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE denounced Israeli abuses in Gaza, including “the most recent targeting of camps for displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, which led to numerous deaths and injuries to dozens of innocent civilians”.
The country’s Foreign Ministry also “reaffirmed the need for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life, reiterating the importance of protecting civilians and civilian institutions, according to the international law including international treaties”.
Oman
Oman said the Israeli attack was “an explicit act of terrorism and new evidence of the policy of deliberate extermination… towards the Palestinian people”.
The country’s foreign minister said in a statement that the raids, which targeted “unarmed civilians”, were in clear breach of international law.
UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday, Francesca Albanese said that Israel likely violated international law by striking in a designated humanitarian zone.
“I’m disgusted by the tolerance of Israel’s impunity which is enabling the genocidal war,” Albanese said.
In March, Albanese issued a report listing “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
United States
While the administration of US President Joe Biden has yet to respond to Saturday’s attack, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, “We must do more to stop this.”
Writing on X, Jayapal said, “Israel is continuing a horrific assault on Gaza, forcing the closure of medical facilities and even restricting the entry of medical equipment.”
She called for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire to release the hostages and save lives”.
Colombia
President Gustavo Petro decried what he called “the greatest injustice”.
“I am even more outraged because this destruction of international human law is a prelude to the barbarism they want to unleash on all the oppressed people of the earth,” he said in a post on X.
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World
Grenade thrown at Ukrainian military draft office
![Grenade thrown at Ukrainian military draft office](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/Administrative-Services-Center-Kyiv.jpg)
- An unidentified individual threw a grenade at a military draft office in Busk, Ukraine.
- The grenade exploded but no one was wounded, police said on Monday.
- The incident comes as Ukraine increases its efforts at drafting civilians into its military, while some men flee to avoid service.
An unidentified individual threw a grenade at a military draft office in the western Ukrainian town of Busk overnight, causing an explosion but not hurting anyone, police said on Monday.
The police said in a statement they were investigating the incident, which comes as Ukraine is stepping up its effort to draft civilians into the armed forces more than 28 months since Russia invaded.
UKRAINE’S DRONE STARTUPS CREATE AFFORDABLE AIR, LAND AND SEA ROBOTS IN SECRET TO FIGHT RUSSIA
Ukrainian conscripts wait outside the Administrative Services Center to update their registration data on July 12, 2024, in Kyiv, Ukraine. According to a new Ukrainian law, all conscripts must update their registration data by July 16. As resistance to Ukraine’s military draft persists, an unidentified individual threw a grenade at a military draft office in the western Ukrainian town of Busk. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Police in the western Lviv region said the explosion damaged the facade of the draft office and its windows. The individual had fled after throwing the grenade, they said.
There have been persistent cases of men fleeing Ukraine to avoid military service throughout the war. In recent months there have also been Ukrainian media reports of violence directed at draft offices and draft officers.
Asked if they were concerned, Ukraine’s military told Reuters that maintaining public trust was an “important component of the activities of the (armed forces), without which it will be extremely difficult to achieve victory over the enemy.”
World
Who is Roberta Metsola, the EU Parliament chief eyeing re-election?
![Who is Roberta Metsola, the EU Parliament chief eyeing re-election?](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/57/73/40/1200x675_cmsv2_b3f1b694-86d8-50c6-bfc9-e9b12102f564-8577340.jpg)
Metsola’s re-election bid is expected to draw consensus from across the parliament’s often-fractious political divides.
As the newly-elected European Parliament gathers in Strasbourg for its inaugural sitting on Tuesday, its first task will be to elect its president.
That vote is looking unlikely to be contentious, with current president Roberta Metsola set to cruise through to a second term unchallenged.
Although the Left has fielded a challenger candidate, Spain’s Irene Montero, her bid is merely symbolic and will not obstruct the incumbent’s path to re-election.
That’s because Metsola has managed to draw consensus from across the parliament’s fractious political divides at a time when ideological rifts seem deeper than ever in the parliament’s hemicycle. It means she’s tipped to comfortably secure the needed absolute majority of ballots cast.
A Conservative Christian-democrat belonging to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), Metsola is credited with steering the parliament through one of the most tumultuous periods in its 70-year history – including the eruption of war on Europe’s doorstep and the most explosive corruption scandal to ever hit the institution.
Several parliamentary sources told Euronews that her performance over the past two years has seen her brush off initial qualms about her candidature, which were mainly centred around her anti-abortion views.
“At the beginning of her term, I was sceptical because of her stance against abortion rights. I was afraid we would have a very Conservative lady in the presidency,” a Green MEP re-elected to the chamber in June’s European election said.
“But she has proven to be a well-intentioned president, with an impressive attention to detail,” the MEP added.
“She has managed to make parliament more visible and stronger during her last mandate,” another MEP from the Green group added. “She is a great ambassador for the European Parliament in the world.”
“Metsola is the right person to lead this parliament,” a Socialist lawmaker said.
Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election as president of the EU’s powerful executive – to be decided in a vote on Thursday – is meanwhile looking much more shaky, prompting some to question whether Metsola herself would be a more palatable candidate for the role.
A spokesperson for the Left group conceded that despite fielding its own candidate, it was not whipping its members to vote against Metsola – as it will do in the case of von der Leyen – adding that some members could support Metsola because of her strong tenure.
A presidency of firsts
In 2022, Metsola became the youngest person to preside over the European Parliament at the age of 43, when she took over following former president David Sassoli’s death. She was also the first Maltese to take the parliament’s helm, and the first woman in two decades.
Since then, her time in office has been marked by many firsts. In April 2022, she became the first EU leader to visit Kyiv after Russia launched its illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Other historic milestones during her time in office have been tougher to grapple with.
In December 2022, she became the first president to participate in a police raid on a fellow lawmaker when she accompanied officers to the home of Socialist MEP Marc Tarabella as part of the so-called Qatargate corruption probe that has since become one of the most sordid stains on the parliament’s reputation.
In response to allegations Qatari, Moroccan and Mauritanian officials had paid elected lawmakers to influence EU legislation, Metsola said that the European Parliament had come “under attack.” “Enemies of democracy” had “weaponized” Members of the European Parliament, she said.
Metsola, who has made fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law a core tenet of her political career, has since vowed to futureproof her institution against corruption with a raft of reforms designed to ramp up transparency and ethics rules.
But for some lawmakers, the reforms steered by the president have simply not been sufficient.
“We welcome that she has followed many of our calls in the wake of Qatargate, but there is still much to be done in the Parliament on transparency, accountability, and preventing undue influence. We hope to see further action from her in this mandate,” a spokesperson for the Green group said.
A bulwark against the far right
Lawmakers are also satisfied with the way Metsola has defended mainstream political forces against the surge of the far right, by sanctioning radical right-wing lawmakers prone to disrupting the parliament’s plenary session.
Ahead of June’s European elections, Metsola criss-crossed the continent in a bid to encourage voters to cast their ballots while promoting the achievements of the bloc, calling on voters to put their trust in pro-European parties in the centre-ground in a bid to fend off rising populist forces.
In contrast, her counterpart in the EU’s executive, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was slated for her open overtures to the hard-right grouping of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the run-up to July’s election.
It sparked outrage among her traditional allies. While she has since rowed back on her suggestions she would integrate parts of the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in a future coalition, left-leaning lawmakers are still nervous her EPP party could be lured to rely on right-wing votes to push through legislation in the upcoming term.
“Von der Leyen has promised there will be no structured alliances with the ECR and the far-right, but it’s for me still not 100% clear what this means,” an MEP for the Greens group said, adding that Metsola’s conduct rejecting far-right populists has been more clear-cut.
Breaking the glass ceiling
A source close to Metsola from the EPP described her as one of many “powerful women” that have led Europe in recent decades, alongside Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen.
Metsola has always tirelessly encouraged women and girls to break the glass ceiling in politics, and has championed equal rights across sectors.
But despite her steadfast support for women’s rights, she also has a track record of voting against abortion rights.
Several left-leaning and centrist lawmakers cited these ideologies as the only drawback in her re-election bid. But since assuming the presidency of the European Parliament, she has vowed to respect the hemicycle’s majority opinion on abortion, putting her own personal stance to one side.
Even for lawmakers that have constantly fought for abortion rights – including with a resolution in April calling to include the right in the EU Fundamental Rights Charter – Metsola has done enough to assure that she will not assert her own views on abortion as part of her role as president.
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