Iranian hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi has spoken by telephone to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time to discuss the Israel-Palestinian war, the state-run news agency reported Wednesday, as reported by The Associated Press:
Iran’s president talks to Saudi Arabia crown prince about war
Newslooks- JERUSALEM (AP)
Iranian hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi has spoken by telephone to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time to discuss the Israel-Palestinian war, the state-run news agency reported Wednesday.
IRNA cited an online message from an adviser to Raisi acknowledging a 45-minute call between the two men on Wednesday. There was no immediate acknowledgment from the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a Chinese-mediated détente earlier this year.
BIDEN CALLS HAMAS ATTACK DEADLIEST DAY FOR JEWS SINCE HOLOCAUST
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden called the Hamas attack on Israel “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,” and a campaign of “pure cruelty.”
Biden was addressing a roundtable with Jewish community leaders convened at the White House on Wednesday.
“This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty, against the Jewish people,” Biden said. He added: “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
Biden thanked the leaders for their efforts combating anti-Semitism in the nation, and reiterated continued U.S. support for Israel.
ISRAEL WILL ‘CRUSH AND DESTROY’ HAMAS, NETANYAHU SAYS
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Hamas beheaded soldiers and raped women in their attack on Israel, and he vowed that Israel would “crush and destroy” the militant group.
Speaking in a late-night televised address as Israeli planes pounded Gaza, Netanyahu said every Hamas member was a “dead man.”
Detailing some of the atrocities that he said had taken place during the attack, Netanyahu said boys and girls were shot in the head and that people had been burned alive.
At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the attack, which set off fierce Israeli response in the Gaza Strip.
TURKEY NEGOTIATING FOR RELEASE OF HOSTAGES HELD BY HAMAS
ANKARA, Turkey — https://www.newslooks.com/netanyahu-hamas-beheaded-israeli-soldiers-raped-women/Turkey is holding negotiations for the release of civilian hostages held by Hamas, a Turkish official said Wednesday.
The official said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had instructed Turkish officials to hold talks with Hamas for the release of the civilians. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol, could not provide further details on the negotiations.
Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization and has frequently hosted members of the group. Turkey also recently restored full diplomatic ties with Israel after the two countries fell out following a U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
UN ENVOY IN CAIRO WORKING WITH PARTNERS TO END WAR
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Mideast envoy is in Cairo working with other key regional and international partners and the Egyptian government on ending the Hamas-Israel conflict, preventing its expansion, and opening a humanitarian corridor to deliver fuel, food and water to access to Gaza which Israel has cut off.
Tor Wennesland is following up on Egypt’s offer to facilitate humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing and to make the El Arish airport available for critical assistance, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday, stressing that opening Rafah for aid deliveries requires talks with the parties. “We are working on that with a number of other parties,” he said.
Meanwhile, the U.N. humanitarian office reports that 263,000 people have been displaced in Gaza, a 40% increase since Tuesday, Dujarric said. And more than 1,000 housing units in Gaza have been destroyed and some 560 been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable in the past day.
MOURNERS FILL EUROPE’S LARGEST SYNAGOGUE TO REMEMBER VICTIMS
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Mourners filled Europe’s largest synagogue in Hungary’s capital on Wednesday in remembrance of the hundreds of people that were killed in unprecedented attacks against Israel over the weekend by Hamas fighters.
The rabbinic service and solidarity commemoration in Budapest’s Dohany Street Synagogue drew around 3,000 people, including the country’s president, its chief rabbi, the Catholic Primate of Hungary and the mayor of Budapest.
Waving Israeli flags and lighting candles following the service, those gathered listened to the names being read aloud of some of the Israelis killed so far in the war. Some wept as the names were read.
PALESTINIAN WORKERS ARRIVING IN WEST BANK FROM GAZA
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians who have been expelled from their workplaces in Israel have begun showing up in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where a temporary shelter was set up to house them.
The sudden influx of about 600 workers created an “overwhelming situation” that is bound to get worse as more arrive, Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam said Wednesday.
At the shelter where men sat on mattresses, some workers said they had been abused by Israeli soldiers.
“We were working and everything was fine, and suddenly they came to us and detained us,” said Raed Al-Moghribi. “When we told them that we are from Gaza, they started beating us.”
The workers began arriving in Ramallah on Wednesday after Israeli security forces brought them to checkpoints in the West Bank.
Khader Achour, another Gaza resident who had worked in Israel, said he wanted to return home but it had been demolished and his nephew, cousin and neighbor had all been killed.
“I wish to return to my family in Gaza to die among them,” Achour said.
Violence in the West Bank continued to flare Wednesday, with Palestinian health officials reporting that 29 Palestinians had been killed in the Israeli-occupied territory since the start of the Hamas invasion.
FAR-RIGHT PROTESTERS RIOT OUTSIDE HOSPITAL IN TEL AVIV
TEL AVIV, Israel — More than a hundred far-right protesters rioted outside one of the main hospitals in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night after hearing reports that doctors there were treating a militant from Hamas, according to Hagai Levine, Chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians.
Protesters from La Familia — a group of notoriously racist Jerusalem fans of the “Beitar” soccer team — blocked the main entrance to the emergency room for three hours, according to videos circulated by doctors on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The ultranationalist soccer fans clashed violently with police and disrupted the passage of emergency crews into the hospital.
At the time of the riot, Sheba hospital was not treating any militants from Hamas, Levine said. It’s unclear if militants have been treated in Israel’s public hospitals since the Hamas rampage on Saturday.
The protest came on the heels of a letter circulated Wednesday by Israeli health minister Moshe Arbel that barred Israel’s public hospitals from treating militants. Arbel wrote that injured militants should be referred to the Israeli military or Israel’s intelligence services.
