NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Saturday, November 11, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
-- ECO members stress ease of goods transit via Iran: Raisi
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that at the meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the transit of goods through the Islamic Republic of Iran was emphasized, adding that half of the ECO members emphasized that Iran is a cheap way to transport goods and save time.
After a two-day trip to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, President Raisi returned to Tehran on Thursday night with the welcome of the First Vice President and the Deputy for International Affairs of the Office of the Leader, IRNA reported.
Regarding the results and achievements of the trip to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, he said that ECO is an important organization for communication between ECO members, and in this summit, at first, they presented a report on what has been done in the past and plans for future actions were proposed.
He went on to point out that transit and trade facilitation, especially for intra-regional trade, was one of the important issues raised in this summit, and noted that the issue of customs facilitation was one of the other issues raised in this summit.
“Environment and attention to science and new technologies and tourism were also among other topics and all the member countries expressed their views on economic issues,” he added.
The Iranian president stated that in this meeting, the cooperation of the members was emphasized more than in the past, and the transit of goods through the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Half of the members mentioned in their speeches that Iran is a cheap route and saves time,” he added.
Meetings with counterparts
The president went on to say that the visit to Tajikistan was a strategic document and 18 cooperation agreements were signed.”
He said that the people and the government of Tajikistan, due to their common civilization and culture, have the will to cooperate with Iran in various fields.
Referring to his meetings with the participating presidents on the sidelines of this summit, Raisi said: “We had meetings with the presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Although bilateral relations were discussed in the working meeting with Mr. Erdogan, the issue of Palestine overshadowed other issues.”
He continued, “Mr. Erdogan’s positions on Palestine in the ECO summit were good and I emphasized that these positions are not enough and should be implemented and should have preventive measures. For deterrence, I mentioned the Leader’s solution, which is aimed at cutting ties with the Zionist regime.”
In a meeting in Tashkent on Thursday, the Iranian and Turkish presidents discussed relations between their countries, with Raisi describing them as developing.
The Iranian president pointed the oil and gas sector as one of the two countries’ preferred areas of cooperation, adding that Iran enjoys very good capabilities in the energy sector, so the two countries could take more effective steps in this area.
In another meeting with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the Iranian president said that Iran-Azerbaijan relations are beyond political and neighborly ties, and are based on a deep and inseparable bond.
Officials of the two countries are also determined to further expand those relations in different fields, he added.
Raisi also emphasized Iran’s support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, noting that the two countries are expanding their ties despite plots by enemies and ill-wishers, which have failed.
Aliyev said that it is of key importance that officials of the two countries are determined to deepen bilateral ties, adding that attempts by certain states to create problems in Tehran-Baku relations have failed.
He also expressed gratitude towards Iran for its support of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Iran’s 2024 chairmanship
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Secretary General of ECO Khusrav Noziri announced that Iran will head the organization in 2024.
The next meeting of the heads of member states of the organization will be held in Azerbaijan in 2025, Noziri added.
The ECO secretary general prioritized new initiatives that directly contribute to the regional connectivity.
“These are, namely, Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey (TUTIT) multimodal corridor, and the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan- Iran-Turkey (KUTIT) corridor that will hopefully contribute to the development of transport relations in the region,” he explained.
ECO is a successful and promising regional organization, and Iran, as one of the founding countries of the organization, has a serious interest in strengthening intra-regional cooperation and promoting the position of ECO as an effective regional mechanism for economic connectivity.
The international position of the organization, established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, with the aim of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation between the member countries, is growing.
-- 18m traveled by air during H1
Reza Nakhjavani, the CEO of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company (IAC) stated that more than 18.6 million air passengers have been dispatched and received from the country’s airports during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21).
During the period, 165,747 landings and take-offs were conducted at the country’s airports and also more than 17.16 million domestic passengers were dispatched and received from the country’s airports through approximately 151,000 domestic flights, according to IRNA.
Mehrabad International Airport, with the dispatch and reception of nearly 6 million passengers and 53,000 flights, Mashhad International Airport, with over 3.8 million passengers and 29,255 flights, and Shiraz International Airport, with approximately 1.33 million passengers and over 12,000 flights, have secured the first to third positions among the country’s airports in terms of passenger numbers and flights.
Among the airports in the country that operate weekly flights, Zanjan Airport, Parsabad Airport, Bam Airport, and Tabas Airport have recorded the highest growth in the number of passengers and flights in the first six months of the year. Among the international airports, Zahedan Airport (31%), Kerman Airport (30%), and Tabriz Airport (9%) have experienced the highest growth in flight arrivals and departures.
-- Raisi to attend OIC summit over Israeli onslaught
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is scheduled to leave for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday to attend a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
On the early days of the conflict in Gaza, Iran repeatedly called for an emergency meeting of the OIC.
The OIC summit on Sunday will focus on ways to stop Israel’s savage war machine against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Raisi on Thursday warned that the conflict would expand in the region if the emergency meeting of the OIC failed to help and save Palestinians, as “the region’s nations will realize that their governments are unable to help the Palestinian people.”
He made the remarks during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of an Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Uzbekistan. The Iranian president urged the Muslim nations to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Tel Aviv, describing such action as “an effective and deterrent measure to stop Israel’s crimes against the oppressed people of Palestine.”
He also slammed “the deadly silence” of international organizations and self-proclaimed advocates of human rights on Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
“Now, Muslim nations, including Iran, Turkey, and Egypt are facing a divine test to confront this unprecedented crime through their timely actions.”
-- Expansion of Gaza war ‘inevitable’: Iran
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Thursday that expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict has become “inevitable” due to the expansion of the intensity of Israel’s war against Gaza’s civilians.
“Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza’s civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” Amir-Abdollahian said in a telephone conversation with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. He had earlier warned about the spread of the war in the region.
On October 13, Amir-Abdollahian warned that opening other fronts in the Israel-Hamas war was a “real possibility”.
There are widespread concerns in the region and beyond that the conflict could spread in the region. Since the beginning of the conflict on October 7, there have been deadly clashes in the northern part of the occupied territories at the border with Lebanon between Israel forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance fighters. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Armed Forces have also conducted several rounds of drone and ballistic missile attacks against targets lying inside the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s unbridled aggression against Gaza.
Attacks on US bases
At the same time, the strikes on US military positions in Iraq and Syria have increased amid rising anti-US sentiment in the region over Washington’s all-out support for the Israeli onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Pentagon said US fighter jets conducted an airstrike on what it called a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and affiliated groups on November 8.
A senior US defense official claimed that the Nov. 8 strikes in eastern Syria were in response to ongoing threats and attacks directed at US bases in both Syria and Iraq by the IRGC and Iran-aligned groups.
But, Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations in an interview aired on Thursday evening rejected the allegations that the country has been involved in the recent series of strikes on US military troops.
“We have said very clearly that Iran is not involving in any attack against the United States forces in the region,” Amir Saeid Iravani said. Iran supports resistance groups in the region but does not direct any of those operations, he said, likening Iran’s role to that of the US in assisting the Israeli regime.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Iravani said that Tehran “has never been involved in any attack or action against US forces in Syria and Iraq.”
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Thursday that the US forces have been attacked 46 times since October 17. That includes 24 attacks in Iraq and 22 in Syria, she added.
-- ‘Deadly Israeli strikes hit Gaza hospitals’ WHO: Twenty hospitals out of action entirely
Palestinians said Friday Israel’s deadly strike hit Gaza’s largest hospital compound as heavy fighting between Hamas and Israel has sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing their homes.
Gaza’s Hamas government, which reported a toll of 13, and the director of the Shifa hospital, blamed Israeli troops for the strike at the facility sheltering people trying to flee the
fighting.
“Thirteen martyrs and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on Al-Shifa compound today” in central Gaza City, a statement said. While journalists have not yet been able to verify the claim, an AFP journalist reported seeing at least seven covered bodies outside the hospital.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said that the biggest hospital in the besieged strip and another with children on life support was coming under bombardment.
Twenty hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely, it said.
Asked about the Gaza Health Ministry’s blaming of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Shifa hospital, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said, “I haven’t got the detail on Al-Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment.”
Also, Palestinian officials said other strikes had damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Rantissi paediatric and cancer hospital in the northern part of the strip, where Israel claims Hamas fighters, who attacked it on October 7, are concentrated.
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al-Quds and Nasser Children’s hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there, medical staff said.
“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Shifa hospital, told Reuters.
Israel did not immediately comment but claims it does not target civilians and goes to great lengths to avoid hitting them. It claims Hamas fighters have hidden command centers and tunnels beneath Shifa and other hospitals, allegations which Hamas denies.
With Palestinian officials reporting more than 11,000 dead, including 4,506 children, Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-old war on Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday gave one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian death toll in Gaza.
“Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks,” Blinken said at a press availability in the Indian capital of New Delhi. He added that more needs to be done to “minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”
No safe place in Gaza
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces announced a six-hour long window Friday for an evacuation corridor along Salah Eddin Street for people to flee south from northern Gaza.
The top UN human rights official on Friday raised doubts over Israel’s unilateral establishment of “safe zones” in Gaza, saying that nowhere within the territory was safe for civilians. “Demands for civilians to relocate to an Israeli Defense Force(s)-designated ‘safe zone’ are also very alarming,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.
As the Palestinian territory remained under bombardment, France hosted a conference Thursday on humanitarian aid for Gaza with President Emmanuel Macron saying, “In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a cease-fire”.
‘Stop arming Israel’
Also in southeast England, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the entrances to a BAE Systems factory on Friday, targeting Britain’s biggest military supplier to call for an end to arms sales to Israel.
Holding up a sign saying, “Stop Arming Israel,” and waving Palestinian flags, about 50 people stood in front of one entrance at the Rochester, Kent, site, where BAE tests and assembles electronic equipment used on military aircraft and in surveillance systems.
BAE said it does not directly export any equipment to Israel, but the group is a tier-one supplier on the US-made F-35 fighter jets which are flown by Israel.
‘The New York War Crimes’
Also in the US, pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza while accusing the media of showing a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the war.
The latest in a series of near-nightly demonstrations since the start of the war saw thousands march through Midtown Manhattan to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
They remained for over an hour, reading off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began. They scattered editions of a mock newspaper – “The New York War Crimes” – that charged the media with “complicity in laundering genocide” and called on The Times’ editorial board to publicly back a cease-fire.
AFP, AP, Reuters, and CNN contributed to this report.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- Raisi to Head to Saudi Arabia for Emergency OIC Meeting
President Ebrahim Raisi will travel to Saudi Arabia Saturday to take part in an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) focusing on ways to stop Israel’s savage war machine against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Participants at the OIC summit will also discuss ways to dispatch humanitarian aid to the oppressed people of Gaza. Since October 7, President Raisi has held phone talks and meetings with heads of Muslim countries, calling for an OIC emergency session to pressure Israel to stop the carnage.
-- Hezbollah Hits Israeli Merkava Tanks, Infantry Force
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has announced striking several targets across the northern part of the occupied territories in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have come under a relentless Israeli war. “In the first operation, the resistance fighters targeted two Merkava tanks in the ‘Metulla’ Israeli base using guided missiles, confirming that the tanks’ crews were either killed or wounded in the process,” it said. “In the other, an Israeli infantry force in the occupied Lebanese town of Tarbikha came under attack, also confirming direct hits.”
-- ECO Vows to Expand Regional Economic Alliance
An economic bloc that includes several ex-Soviet nations along with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey held a summit Thursday, with presidents vowing to further expand trade and economic ties.
Members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), who met in Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent, discussed plans for speeding regional economic integration.
They also talked about the need for increasing the ECO’s global profile through fostering regional and global partnerships.
“Our vast region, which is home to half a billion people, has a great potential for developing cooperation in trade, economy, industry, investment, innovation and transport,” the summit’s host, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, said in a speech at the summit.
He said it was important to “fully utilize the potential of transcontinental transport corridors that pass through our territories and link us with major markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the need to develop trade routes across the Caspian Sea region, which includes several of the countries. He said the grouping’s participants must “continue to work in coordination and improve the functionality of the corridor, which is to the benefit of us all of us.”
Erdogan noted “we are one step closer to permanent peace in our region” after ECO’s member Azerbaijan in September quickly reclaimed the separatist region of Karabakh that had been controlled by local Armenian forces backed by Armenia for more than 30 years.
The summit’s participants also urged the international community to come up with a “more serious and fruitful response” to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip amid a brutal Israeli war and called for increased humanitarian assistance to people in Afghanistan.
President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran “unconditionally” supports the ECO as the most relevant and mature mechanism of economic cooperation in the region.
In his address to the 16th ECO summit, Raisi said Tehran is determined to mobilize more resources and energy for the improvement of cooperation under the Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization.
“Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the support and cooperation of many independent countries and its international partners, is working to establish a just system on the basis of respect and deepening multilateral convergence,” he said.
“The positive trend of cooperation in the ECO, and the growing interest of member states in enhancing relations within the framework of the ECO, strengthen our long-standing belief that the organization is still the most relevant and mature economic cooperation mechanism in our region.”
The Iranian president said the ECO has a rare capacity built on solid foundations such as
growing populations, abundant natural resources, and above all, a culture that breeds.
Headquartered in Tehran, the ECO was established by the Islamic Republic, Pakistan, and Turkey in 1985 to promote economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among the member states.
“The firm will of all ECO members to create a safe, stable, and prosperous region and the resolve to play an effective role in international arenas are valuable assets shared by the member states. International systems are now more than any other time in the contemporary period exposed to change. We firmly believe this change must be aimed at boosting the discourse of justice and freedom from the system of domination and coercion. Multilateralism has now clearly lined up against unbridled unilateralism,” Raisi stated.
“I would like to reiterate the unconditional support of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the ECO organization and its activities. We are determined to mobilize more resources and energy for the development of cooperation in ECO.”
President Raisi met with ECO presidents on the sidelines of the summit, including with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling on Muslim nations to cut diplomatic and economic ties with the Zionist regime.
The Iranian president slammed “the deadly silence” of international organizations and self-proclaimed advocates of human rights on Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
“Now, Muslim nations, including Iran, Turkey, and Egypt are facing a divine test to confront this unprecedented crime through their timely actions,” he said.
Raisi also expressed his concern over the slow flow of aid into Gaza and complained that humanitarian aid shipments from Iran and several other Muslim countries are stopped at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
For his part, Erdogan condemned the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and vowed to help the Palestinian nation and exert pressure on the Zionist regime.
-- Norwegian Doctor: Can You Hear Screams in Gaza?
Friday marked another bloody day in Gaza after the occupying regime of Israel targeted hospital facilities and a school where people are seeking refuge in the besieged enclave.
In the early hours of Friday, Zionists forces shelled the courtyard of Al-Shifah Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza.
The attack, which hit the outpatient clinic and maternity ward, left several people martyred and wounded, according to health officials.
Israeli tanks then encircled three other hospitals, trapping thousands of patients and displaced people inside.
In the afternoon, Zionist snipers opened fire at a fifth hospital in the city, martyring at least one person and wounding others, including children.
Additionally, Israeli fire hit a school and displaced people fleeing on the so-called “safe corridor”, martyring scores of them.
The director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, Muhammad Abu Selmeyah, said at least 20 Palestinians had been martyred after Israel struck the Al-Buraq school in Gaza City.
Thousands of people have been travelling on foot along the Salah al-Din Road towards southern Gaza amid dire humanitarian conditions in the north, caused by a month-long Israeli blockade, shelling and ground attacks.
Several people were martyred or wounded in the bombing on Friday, according to initial media reports.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military martyred 260 Palestinians in the past 24 hours on Friday.
This takes the death toll to 11,078 people martyred since October 7, including 4,506 children, 3,027 women and 678 elderly people. At least 27,490 people have been wounded.
Around 2,700 people are still missing in Gaza, including 1,500 children. The vast majority of these people are believed to be dead and buried under rubble.
Additionally, Zionist forces and settlers have martyred at least 174 Palestinians in the West Bank in the same period - a sharp rise from the monthly death toll in the occupied territory.
Zionist forces detained two ambulance drivers heading to northern Gaza. They were detained despite coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross about their movement, Ashraf al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesperson, said.
Israeli ground troops have been in control of the two main roads connecting Gaza’s north to south for over a week.
The spokesperson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described life in northern Gaza as “hell on earth” as the occupying regime of Israel deepens its blockade and bombardment.
Jens Laerke expressed his frustration that no aid had reached northern Gaza in over one month.
“We cannot drive to the north at the current point, which is of course deeply frustrating because we know there are several hundred thousand people who remain in the north,” Laerke said.
“If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” he added. “It is a life of fear by day and darkness at night. And what do you tell your children in such a situation, it’s almost unimaginable - that the fire they see in the sky is out to kill them?”
The World Health Organization said Friday 20 hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely.
Asked about the Palestinian health ministry’s reports of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said: “I haven’t got the detail on Al-Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment”.
Asked to elaborate, she said there was “intense violence” at the site, quoting colleagues on the ground.
Palestinian families have been sheltering at the hospital, the territory’s largest, which is inside Gaza City encircled by Israeli troops.
A Norwegian doctor who previously volunteered in Gaza sent an impassioned message to the United States president on Friday asking him to stop the Israeli targeting of hospitals.
“Can you hear the screams from Al-Shifa hospital? Can you hear the screams of innocent people? Refugees sheltering, trying to find a safe place, being bombed by the Israeli attack forces this morning?” Mads Gilbert said in a video posted on X.
He addressed his message to U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with the sound of screaming Palestinians heard in the background following Israeli bombing on hospitals in Gaza on Friday.
The Zionist regime appeared to play down U.S. claims that it would begin implementing four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in northern Gaza, with extremist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and Israeli military officials casting doubt over Washington’s announcement.
Earlier on Thursday, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that there would be two “humanitarian corridors” for Palestinians to flee northern Gaza to the south and that Israel would not carry out military operations in those areas for periods lasting four hours.
However, an hour later, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said the ferocious bombing in Gaza would “continue and there will not be a ceasefire before the hostages are released”.
-- Ansarullah Downs U.S. MQ-9, Fires Missiles at Zionist Targets
A U.S. drone was shot down by Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters on Thursday, according to the resistance movement’s military arm and a senior U.S. military official.
The Ansarullah said it was an MQ-9 Reaper drone that was in Yemeni airspace and was shot down by air defenses. The senior U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, said the military was still analyzing the episode, including whether the drone was in international airspace or over Yemen.
The Ansarullah says it has fired at least four batches of drones and missiles toward southern Israel since Oct. 7. The movement administers the capital and much of northern and western Yemen where the majority of the county’s population lives.
Yemen’s Al-Masirah television, citing a statement issued by the country’s armed forces, said the aircraft was struck while carrying out a “hostile espionage” operation within the framework of the United States’ military support for the Israeli regime.
“Yemen’s Armed Forces lay emphasis on their legitimate right to defend the country and confront all hostile threats,” said military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree.
“These hostile maneuvers do not serve to prevent the Yemeni Armed Forces from conducting military operations against the Zionist regime and in support of the Palestinian nation,” he added.
Saree also announced yet another military operation against the Zionist regime, acting on their pledge of keeping up the strikes as long as the regime sustains its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
The operation saw the Yemeni armed forces launching a batch of ballistic missiles at various sensitive targets lying across the southern part of the occupied territories on Thursday, he said. Those included military targets in the Umm al-Rashrash area in the city of Eilat.
Saree said the operation had successfully achieved its objectives and led to direct casualties.
On Tuesday, the forces said they had launched a large-scale drone strike against “sensitive” targets in the occupied territories in a show of support for Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
On October 31, they launched a “large batch of ballistic and winged missiles, and a large number of drones” against Israeli targets.
Speaking in an interview with Press TV, the prime minister of Yemen’s National Salvation Government based in Sanaa, Abdulaziz bin Habtour, said defending the Palestinian people and fighting Israel is “a sacred duty for every Muslim and Arab.”
He said Sanaa is ready to defend Palestinians against Israeli atrocities even if that hampers peace talks with the Saudi-led coalition waging a war on Yemen since 2015.
“We are fully aware that any position we take has consequences, but our people in Palestine and their interests, and their defense are the top concerns for the Republic of Yemen, Sana’a. If they want an Arab-Arab or Arab peace with the U.S., we have declared it clearly, some time ago, that we are ready,” he said.
“But today a brutal aggression is being launched against our people in Gaza with the assistance of the U.S. And it’s not just assistance, they (Americans) participate in the operations room that manages the genocide in Gaza, and they bring their ships, submarines, and planes and all the mercenaries; now they have brought mercenaries from Kiev, Ukraine, to the occupied Palestine.”
-- UN: Zionist War on Gaza ‘Devastating’ Palestine Economy
The socioeconomic “shock” of the Zionist regime’s war on Gaza will force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into poverty, a United Nations report on the conflict’s possible long-term effects on Gaza and the occupied West Bank warned.
As the war passed the one-month mark this week, poverty had increased by 20 percent and gross domestic product declined by 4.2 percent, according to the report released by the UN Development Programme and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
The level of economic impact outstrips that of the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, or any previous war waged by the Zionist regime, the agencies said.
At least 10,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than two-thirds of the 2.3 million population have fled their homes since the Zionist regime blockaded the enclave and unleashed a campaign of air strikes and a ground assault. At least 182 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,250 injured as violence spreads across the West Bank.
Should the war persist for a second month, the UN projects that Palestinian GDP, which previously totaled $20.4bn annually, will drop by $1.7bn, or 8.4 percent.
The economy is likely to shrink by 12 percent, with losses of $2.5bn and more than 660,000 people pushed into poverty, if the conflict stretches into a third month, the report projects.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned of the rapid spread of infectious diseases in the Gaza Strip due to the Zionist regime’s air bombardments that have disrupted health, water, and sanitation systems.
The WHO in a statement said that as deaths and injuries in Gaza continue to rise, intense overcrowding and disrupted health, water, and sanitation systems pose an added danger that is “the rapid spread of infectious diseases,” warning that “worrying trends are already emerging.”
It warned that the lack of fuel in the densely-populated territory has led to the shutting down of desalination plants, significantly increasing the risk of bacterial infections like diarrhea spreading as people consume contaminated water.
The lack of fuel has also disrupted the collection of solid waste, which the UN health agency said created an “environment conducive to the rapid and widespread proliferation of insects, rodents that can carry and transit diseases.”
The WHO said more than 33,551 cases of diarrhea had been reported since mid-October, the bulk of which among children under five-- a significant increase compared to an average of 2,000 cases monthly in children under five throughout 2021 and 2022.
It added that it was “almost impossible” for health facilities to maintain basic infection prevention measures, which increased the risk of infection caused by trauma, surgery and childbirth.
“Disrupted routine vaccination activities, as well as lack of medicines for treating communicable diseases, further increase the risk of accelerated disease spread,” the statement said.
The health organization also said that limited internet connectivity and phone system functioning further constrains their ability to detect potential outbreaks early and respond effectively.
“As people face food shortages, malnutrition, and impending colder weather, they will be even more susceptible to contracting diseases. This is especially concerning for the more than 50,000 pregnant women and approximately 337,000 children under the age of five currently in Gaza,” the WHO also warned.
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- Raisi due to attend Islamic summit on Gaza in Riyadh on Saturday
Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia in order to participate in an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over the assault on Gaza by the Israeli regime. President Raisi will depart Tehran for Riyadh on Saturday. Along with the heads of state of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the president of Iran will discuss ways to cease the Zionist regime’s atrocities against the Palestinian people, remove the blockade of Gaza, and provide aid to those living in the beleaguered enclave. On Thursday, high-ranking officials held a meeting in Riyadh in preparation for the upcoming extraordinary summit. During the preliminary meeting, delegations from OIC countries discussed the draft final communiqué, which will be submitted for consideration to the preparatory Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and then to the Summit for adoption.
-- Pro-Palestinian protesters demand ceasefire in Gaza
Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in downtown Milwaukee, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday, Nov. 9. The group walked from Milwaukee City Hall to the Manpower headquarters. In a relevant story, tensions were high in Boca Raton on Thursday when demonstrators on both sides of the ongoing war involving Israel held a rally. The protest was held along South Rogers Circle and involved dozens of people, who were pro-Israeli and proPalestinian, lining the roadway on opposite sides. Organizers in support of Palestine said they were rallying against a company in Boca Raton that they say is profiting from the conflict. Also, a group of protesters gathered at the Center City of Philadelphia for a pro-Palestine rally on Thursday evening. The rally took place at City Hall at the corner of 15th and Market Streets. Participants were mostly local healthcare workers under the “Shut Down! For Palestine” campaign
-- Did Israelis kill Israelis on October 7?
In the immediate aftermath of the al-Aqsa Storm operation carried out by Hamas on October 7, when the Zionist regime was still in a state of shock from a massive military and intelligence failure, Israeli media offered interesting insight. In the days after October 7, the regime failed in its PR campaign, which it later revised and fabricated further by releasing selective information to justify its bombardment of Gaza. Many Israeli political and military leaders gave a disturbing account of alleged atrocities committed by the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam brigade. But in the days after Hamas’ retaliatory operation, senior Israeli military officers gave Western media a tour of some settlements where they made unsubstantiated allegations. In one instance, an Israeli military officer gave a TV interview standing in front of a destroyed concrete home at an Israeli settlement near the Gaza Strip.
-- President urges Muslim nations to sever ties with Israel
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has urged Muslim countries around the world to refrain from engaging with Israel and sever all diplomatic ties with the regime in response to its relentless killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Raisi made the call on Thursday, during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of the 16th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. During the meeting, The Iranian president said the cessation of economic and political ties with the Israeli regime can act as an effective tool to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people. He stressed that the issue of Palestine and the Zionist regime’s crimes in Gaza is the biggest problem the Islamic world is facing today. Raisi said it is important for all regional countries, including Iran, Turkey, and Egypt, to address the situation in a timely manner and work towards upholding the rights of defenseless Palestinians who are being callously killed in the face of the international community’s silence.
-- Iran calls on Islamic nations to form Doctors Without Borders to help Gaza
Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has asked member countries of the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) to form a Doctors Without Borders organization of Islamic countries to provide essential medical services to Palestinians in Gaza. Einollahi made the remarks while attending the extraordinary meeting of health ministers of the member countries of the WHO EMRO titled ‘Intensification of conflicts in the occupied Palestinian territories’ on Thursday. The meeting was held virtually with the presence of health ministers of 22 countries, IRNA reported. Condemning the actions of the notorious Zionist regime, especially the bombardment of hospitals and the killing of sick and defenseless patients and wounded in medical centers, he called for the formation of a Doctors Without Borders organization of Islamic countries to provide relief and humanitarian medical care for the victims of the war in Gaza. Addressing the health ministers of 22 member countries of the WHO EMRO, he said, “According to the information received, hospitals are overwhelmed and low on fuel and electricity.” “Also, drinking water and food for sick and pregnant women are not sufficient in Gaza,” he added.
NOURNEWS