Center East disaster dwell: Israel presses on with Jenin raid as Jordanian minister warns West Financial institution might ‘explode’

Maria Talal and Hala Abdullah have reported on the response to the Iraqi parliament passing a legislation allowing kids as younger as 9 years previous to marry:

Iraqi MPs and ladies’s rights teams have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a legislation allowing kids as younger as 9 years previous to marry, with activists saying it is going to “legalise child rape”.

Underneath the brand new legislation, which was agreed yesterday, spiritual authorities have been given the facility to determine on household affairs, together with marriage, divorce and the care of kids. It abolishes a earlier ban on the wedding of kids below the age of 18 in place because the Nineteen Fifties.

“We have reached the end of women’s rights and the end of children’s rights in Iraq,” mentioned the lawyer Mohammed Juma, one of the distinguished opponents of the legislation.

The Iraqi journalist Saja Hashim mentioned:

The truth that clerics have the higher hand in deciding the destiny of ladies is terrifying. I concern all the pieces that can are available in my life as a girl.”

Activists mentioned they feared the legislation would now even be utilized retroactively to circumstances filed in courts earlier than it was enacted, affecting rights to alimony and custody.

Raya Faiq, spokesperson for the feminist group Coalition 188, mentioned:

We obtained an audio recording of a girl crying her eyes out due to the passage of this legislation, together with her husband threatening to take her daughter away until she offers up her rights to monetary help.”

Little one marriage has been a longstanding situation in Iraq, the place 28% of ladies have been married earlier than they turned 18, a 2023 UN survey discovered.

Whereas marriage is introduced to some underage ladies as an opportunity to flee poverty, most of the marriages finish in failure, bringing lifelong penalties for younger girls, together with social disgrace and a scarcity of alternatives due to unfinished education.

As a substitute of tightening legal guidelines towards underage marriage and serving to ladies from poorer backgrounds to finish their schooling, the brand new legislation permits the wedding of minors in line with the spiritual sect below which the wedding contract is concluded.

Iran should make a primary step in the direction of enhancing relations with nations within the area and the US by making it clear they don’t goal to develop nuclear weapons, UN secretary-general, António Guterres, mentioned on Wednesday.

“The most relevant question is Iran and relations between Iran, Israel and the United States,” Guterres mentioned on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos.

He added:

Right here my hope is that the Iranians perceive that it is very important as soon as and for all make it clear that they’ll surrender to have nuclear weapons, on the identical time that they interact constructively with the opposite nations of the area.”

After months of negotiations, a ceasefire has paused the devastating struggle in Gaza, nevertheless it dangers collapsing on account of deep mistrust between Israel and Hamas and the multi-phased nature of the deal, stories Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Qatar, which mediated the talks together with the US and Egypt, has expressed hope the six-week truce and hostage-prisoner alternate will grow to be everlasting. Nevertheless, that final result is way from sure with the releases timetabled at a slower tempo as compared with a earlier truce settlement.

Additional complicating the ceasefire is the truth that the textual content of the settlement has not been made public, elevating dangers of last-minute snags and variations in interpretation by the events.

“Sadly, there’s a excessive threat of the truce derailing and [Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu continuing his military campaign in Gaza,” Anna Jacobs, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AFP.

The ceasefire kicked off to a rocky start, with delays in both the beginning of the truce and the first swap of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners when it went into effect on Sunday.

During a three-hour delay before the truce began, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed eight people and injured 25.

The ceasefire is being monitored by the mediators via an “operations room” in Cairo, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, told Al Jazeera.

He said they are watching to see if the delicate terms of the deal are being implemented – including the entry of aid into Gaza, the prisoner and hostage exchanges, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from densely populated areas and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes.

Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:

Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed to continue the assault in Jenin, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“It is a decisive operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the camp,” Katz said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the military would not allow a “terror front” to be established there.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency announced that, in coordination with the border Police, they had launched an operation named “Iron Wall” in the area.

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the raid aimed to “eradicate terrorism” in Jenin. He linked the operation to a broader strategy of countering Iran “wherever it sends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen,” and the West Bank.

The Israeli government has accused Iran, which supports armed groups across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, of attempting to funnel weapons and funds to militants in the West Bank.

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called for “maximum restraint” from Israeli security forces and expressed deep concern, according to his deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq.

Jenin and its refugee camp are known strongholds of Palestinian militant groups, and Israeli forces frequently carry out raids targeting armed factions in the area.

Violence has surged throughout the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on 7 October 2023. According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 848 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict began.

At least 29 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the territory during the same period, according to official Israeli figures.

A Palestinian official reported shooting and explosions in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday as Israeli forces pressed a raid that the military described as a “counter-terrorism” operation, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The situation is very difficult,” Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told AFP. “The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to the Jenin camp, and leading to the Jenin governmental hospital … There is shooting and explosions,” he added.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an operation in Jenin which Palestinian officials said killed 10 people, just days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip.

According to Abu al-Rub, Israeli forces detained about 20 people from villages near Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian militancy.

The Israeli military said it had launched a “counter-terrorism operation” in the area, and had “hit over 10 terrorists”. “Additionally, aerial strikes on terror infrastructure sites were conducted and numerous explosives planted on the routes by the terrorists were dismantled,” it said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Israeli forces are continuing the operation,” it added.

Asked about recent events in the occupied West Bank, Jordan’s foreign minister said that “maintaining the security of the West Bank” is of “top priority”, warning that otherwise it could “destabilise the whole region”.

Asked by a Palestinian delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos if there is a strategy in play with neighbouring countries to protect the West Bank, Ayman Safadi responded:

The West Bank has been on our radar since day one. As you know, we have a tremendous interest in the West Bank. It is on our border. It could destablise the whole region. And again, we’ve been working very, very hard – including directly with the Israelis, with our American friends, with our European friends [and] with the Palestinians – to make it possible for the West Financial institution doesn’t explode.

As a result of, if it does explode then I feel we’ll be speaking about [an] even broader [conflict]. There’s a second of alternative within the area proper now with all that’s taking place in Lebanon, Syria, the ceasefire, and I feel we must always not depart the destiny of the way forward for the area to some radicals, some short-termists, some idealogically pushed people and events who simply don’t see past the second.

I feel sustaining the safety of the West Financial institution, ensuring the West Financial institution doesn’t explode is one thing of prime precedence and it’s harmful what is going on there. And I feel the entire world must take a deep take a look at what is going on, and once more with the identical vigour that we’re wanting on the ceasefire, we must also be working to forestall an explosion on the West Financial institution.”

Jordan’s overseas minister, talking on the second day of the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, mentioned that there must be greater than a “short term” resolution for Gaza.

Ayman Safadi advised a room of delegates {that a} “comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes” is required, stressing that the Israel-Gaza battle has “global implications”.

Safadi mentioned:

On Gaza, we can not assume brief time period … The secret’s: can we proceed to assume brief time period and simply resolve this drawback solely to face it once more? Or do we actually assess why we’re right here and what’s it going to take to make it possible for we aren’t right here once more?

And my reply to that could be a complete resolution that addresses the basis causes of the issue; that’s there are the Palestinian peoples on the market who need their freedom and their state and there may be an Israel on the market as effectively that’s going to stay within the area and we have to work out a approach for the 2 folks to dwell collectively. None of them is leaving, so I feel once more … left to their very own they won’t resolve it.

That is [a] drawback of worldwide implications. We’ve seen the entire world dragged into this battle so I feel it’s upon all of us to agree on an answer after which implement that resolution to the extent that we are able to, as a result of aside from that, we’ll discover ourselves right here in two [or] three years.”

New York consultant Elise Stefanik endorsed Israeli claims of biblical rights to the complete West Financial institution throughout a US Senate affirmation listening to. The US president, Donald Trump, nominated Stefanik to be his UN ambassador.

The affirmation listening to highlighted very actual rifts between the US and UN over Israel coverage. Stefanik’s view is at odds with worldwide consensus relating to Israeli settlements in occupied territories, though it stays according to the Trump administration posturing.

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French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant towards ousted Syrian chief Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in struggle crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate assault on civilians, a authorized supply mentioned late on Tuesday, in line with Reuters.

The mandate was issued on 20 January as a part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian nationwide, who was killed on 7 June 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria.

That is the second arrest warrant issued by French judges, for the previous Syrian chief, who was overthrown in early December 2024 by rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

In November 2023, French judges had issued a primary warrant towards Bashar al-Assad on expenses of complicity in crimes towards humanity and complicity in struggle crimes.

It adopted a French investigation into chemical assaults in Douma and the district of japanese Ghouta in August 2013 that killed greater than 1,000 folks. Assad’s authorities has prior to now denied utilizing chemical weapons towards its opponents within the civil struggle, which broke out in March 2011.

Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators arrange Cairo hub to shore up Gaza ceasefire

Emma Graham-Harrison

Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are operating a communications hub in Cairo to guard the ceasefire in Gaza, as Donald Trump mentioned he was not assured the break in preventing would maintain.

Violations have already been reported. Medics in Gaza mentioned on Monday that eight folks had been hit by Israeli fireplace. The beginning of the ceasefire was additionally delayed when Hamas didn’t present the names of hostages to be launched.

Trump claimed credit score for the deal when his envoy helped to interrupt months of impasse to safe it earlier than his inauguration. However requested after the occasion on Monday if he thought it will final, he appeared to distance himself from the battle. “That’s not our war. It’s their war,” he advised reporters.

A prime Qatari diplomat mentioned on Tuesday that negotiators have been assured the US president would help the deal as a result of his staff had performed a vital function in securing it.

“If it wasn’t for [Trump] this deal wouldn’t be in place right now. So we are banking on the support of this administration,” mentioned Majed al-Ansari, an adviser to the Qatari prime minister and overseas ministry spokesperson. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in contact every day, he mentioned.

The primary stage of the ceasefire is scheduled to final for six weeks. Negotiations on the tougher second part are anticipated to start out in early February.

Belief on either side is negligible, so the communications hub is meant to forestall the ceasefire breaking down below accusations of violations.

Shortly after suspected Jewish settlers stormed Palestinian villages within the occupied West Financial institution late Monday, setting automobiles and property ablaze, US president Donald Trump cancelled sanctions towards Israelis accused of violence within the territory, stories the Related Press (AP).

Settler leaders rushed to reward Trump’s determination on the sanctions, which have been first imposed almost a 12 months in the past as violence surged through the Israel-Hamas struggle in Gaza. The sanctions have been later expanded to incorporate different Israelis seen as violent or radical.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, referred to as it a simply determination, saying the sanctions have been a “severe and blatant foreign intervention.” In a submit on social media platform X, he went on to reward Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel”.

At her affirmation listening to on Tuesday, Republican Elise Stefanik, Trump’s choose for US ambassador to the United Nations, mentioned Israel had a “biblical right” to the occupied territory.

The AP stories that late on Monday, dozens of masked males who’re broadly believed to be settlers marauded by way of not less than two Palestinian villages and attacked houses and companies, in line with officers in Jinsafut and al-Funduq, that are roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Crimson Crescent mentioned it handled 12 individuals who have been crushed by the boys. It gave no particulars on their situation. Israel’s navy mentioned the boys hurled rocks at troopers who had arrived to disperse them, and that it had launched an investigation.

Jalal Bashir, the top of Jinsafut’s village council, advised the AP that the boys attacked three homes, a nursery and a carpentry store positioned on the village’s predominant highway. Louay Tayem, head of the native council in al-Funduq, mentioned dozens of males had fired pictures, thrown stones, burned automobiles, and attacked houses and outlets.

“The settlers were masked and had incendiary materials,” mentioned Bashir. “Their numbers were large and unprecedented.”

On Tuesday, the charred shells of automobiles lay on the aspect of the highway in Jinsafut and residents surveyed the harm to a burned space for storing, in line with the AP.

Here’s a abstract of different key updates within the Center East:

• Qatari, US and Egyptian negotiators are operating a communications hub in Cairo to guard the ceasefire in Gaza, as Donald Trump mentioned he was not assured the break in preventing would maintain. Violations have already been reported. Medics in Gaza mentioned on Monday that eight folks had been hit by Israeli fireplace. The beginning of the ceasefire was additionally delayed when Hamas didn’t present the names of hostages to be launched.

• The UN’s secretary common, António Guterres, referred to as on Israel’s safety forces to train “maximum restraint” after a serious Israeli navy operation within the West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin. The UN chief “remains deeply concerned” in regards to the violence and “urges security forces to exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life,” a spokesperson for Guterres mentioned.

• A minimum of 9 Palestinians have been killed and 40 folks have been injured through the Israeli operation in Jenin, in line with the Palestinian well being ministry. Three nurses and two docs have been additionally injured by Israeli fireplace through the navy operation, which occurred because the Gaza ceasefire entered a 3rd day, the director of Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin mentioned.

• Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mentioned the Jenin operation was “another step towards achieving the goal we set – strengthening security in Judea and Samaria”. He mentioned it included police, navy and the Shin Guess inner intelligence company.

• Israel’s prime common Lt Gen Herzi Halevi resigned because the chief of workers of the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) on Tuesday. He cited the “terrible failure” of safety and intelligence associated to Hamas’s shock assault on Israel on 7 October 2023. The Israeli opposition chief, Yair Lapid, mentioned he saluted Halevi’s determination and likewise referred to as on Netanyahu and his authorities to resign. Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman, the top of Israel’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Gaza, additionally tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

• Hamas mentioned 4 extra feminine Israeli hostages might be freed this weekend in return for Palestinian prisoners. The subsequent group of hostages as a result of be launched is predicted to incorporate captured feminine Israeli troopers, who might be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners serving extra prolonged sentences who’re being held in Israeli jails, a few of whom might be deported to 3rd nations.

• The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, held a name along with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. No 10 mentioned Starmer advised Netanyahu that he peace course of within the Center East ought to pave the way in which for a “viable and sovereign” Palestinian state. An Israeli readout of the decision mentioned Starmer confronted strain from Netanyahu over frozen arms gross sales to Israel.

• The west ought to seize the chance to focus on the Tehran-backed Houthi management in Yemen whereas the Iranian authorities is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed authorities in Aden, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, has mentioned. Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the nation “massively weakened”, he mentioned, including: “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

• Iraq’s parliament has handed amendments to the nation’s private standing legislation that opponents say would in impact legalise youngster marriage. The amendments give Islamic courts elevated authority over household issues, together with marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Private Standing Regulation, which unified household legislation and established safeguards for girls.