peace initiatives

Palestine

Gaza: aid agencies reject Israel’s ‘humanitarian’ plan

Amid growing warnings of starvation, the Israeli military allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time in more than 11 weeks. The first trucks were permitted to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing after the UK, France and Canada threatened to sanction Israel if it did not allow in assistance. UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher welcomed the move, but said it was a “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.” In an open letter issued the same day the first trucks were allowed in, nearly a dozen international aid and human rights groups warned that a US-backed organization set up to take over aid distribution in Gaza is “a dangerous, politicized sham.” They charged that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been launched without Palestinian involvement, while the population in Gaza remains under siege. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Greater Middle East

PKK resolves to dissolve at 12th Congress

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) held its 12th Congress in the Medya Defense Zones of northern Iraq, where delegates voted to dissolve the group’s organizational structure and end the armed struggle against the Turkish state that it has waged since 1984. The congress was convened in response to the “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society” issued in February by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999. The statement called for his followers to lay down arms and pursue a civil struggle for Kurdish rights. However, Turkey continued to carry our air-strikes on the Medya Defense Zones right up to the very eve of the congress, and even in the days after it concluded. Turkey has also continued its campaign of air-strikes on the Rojava region of northern Syria, where PKK-aligned Kurdish forces have established an autonomous zone. (Image of PKK flag: Wikipedia)

Palestine

Israeli cabinet approves ‘conquest’ of Gaza

The Israeli government unveiled a new military plan for the Gaza Strip, an operation forebodingly dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” after an Old Testament conqueror. Approved unanimously by the security cabinet, the plan calls for the “conquering of Gaza” and retaining the territory indefinitely, an official said. The plan also includes concentrating the Palestinian civilian population in a “sterile area” in the south of the Strip. The official said Israel will give Hamas until the end of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming trip to the Middle East to agree to a hostage deal. Otherwise, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots will begin with great force and will not end until all its objectives are achieved.” The military is already calling up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for the new operation. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Tatar Mejlis opposes betrayal of Crimea

The representative body of the Crimean Tatar people has vowed to oppose any international recognition of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The Tatar Mejlis, now sitting in exile in Kyiv, said that any move to recognize Crimea as Russian territory would violate international law. Refat Chubarov, the body’s chairman, asserted in a statement: “Crimea is the homeland of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and an integral part of Ukraine. Accordingly, no one can decide the fate of Crimea under any circumstances, except for the Ukrainian state and the Crimean Tatar people.” The statement comes amid reports that the Trump White House is pressuring Kyiv to accept a peace formula that includes formal US recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea. (Photo: Crimean Tatar Mejlis)

Africa

Trump prepares arms-for-minerals deal with DRC

Former Blackwater CEO and and mercenary boss Erik Prince is to lead a team helping the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) secure and tax its extensive mineral wealth, news reports reveal. The deal, reached before the M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January, was just confirmed to Reuters by Congolese officials and diplomats. M23 has since January seized the eastern DRC’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, and is threatening to march on Kinshasa, the capital. The Prince-led initiative runs parallel to a broader minerals-for-security deal being negotiated between the DRC and the Trump White House. (Photo: Abel Kavanagh/MONUSCO via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Lebanon ceasefire —real or fiction?

The ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah is on shaky ground following an Israeli air-strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. It was the first strike on Lebanon’s capital since a pause in hostilities came into effect in November last year. Israel—which has bombed southern Lebanon almost daily despite the ceasefire—said it was retaliating for a rocket attack into northern Israel. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned that if Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, and the Lebanese government does not act to stop it, then his organization will take matters into its own hands. (Image via Flickr)

Greater Middle East

Trump launches air-strikes on Yemen, Iraq

President Donald Trump ordered a series of air-strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. Houthi authorities said 13 civilians were killed in the strikes. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the capital, have said they will resume attacks on ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s renewed blockade on aid to Gaza. Following the January Hamas-Israel ceasefire, the Houthis had paused their campaign of attacks on shipping, which they depict as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians (although many targets are not linked to Israel). Days before the strikes on Sanaa, a US air-raid in Iraq’s Anbar province reportedly killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, the second-highest ranking ISIS leader. (Photo: CENTCOM)

Africa

Chaos in Congo as M23 seize Goma

In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 rebels seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu province on the Rwandan border. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of sending hundreds of troops across the border to support the M23. The DRC is calling for an arms embargo on Rwanda, and sanctions on its mineral exports. The fall of Goma has sparked protests in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, with foreign embassies vandalized and set on fire, including those of Rwanda, South Africa, the US, Belgium and France. Amid the turmoil, President Felix Tshisekedi has promised a counter-offensive to retake Goma. The DRC’s reliance on foreign mercenaries in the war in the east has drawn sharp criticism. Reports indicate that around 2,000 mercenaries, mostly from Eastern European countries such as Romania, have been hired to fight the M23. (Map: PCL)

South Asia

Pakistan: truce follows weeks of sectarian clashes

A ceasefire agreement was reached between two warring tribes in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following weeks of clashes that left 130 people dead in Kurram district, along the border with Afghanistan. A Grand Jirga of tribal leaders was called to mediate the truce. The violence exploded when a convoy of Shi’ite pilgrims traveling to a shrine in Peshawar was ambushed by armed assailants, killing at least 42. The ensuing clashes pitted members of the mostly Shi’ite Bagan tribe against their Sunni neighbors, the Alizai, with shops and homes ransacked and whole villages displaced. A land dispute between the two tribes had also caused clashes that led to 50 fatalities in September, and ended when some 100,000 local residents marched for peace. (Map: USAID via ReliefWeb)

Syria

Syria: rebel forces launch new offensive on Aleppo

In the most significant escalation in Syria since a 2020 ceasefire instated under emergency conditions during the COVID pandemic, rebel forces in northwestern Idlib province launched a surprise offensive on the country’s most populous city, Aleppo. The rebel advance is said to have penetrated the perimeter of the city, which had been held for years by rebel forces before it was retaken by the regime with the help of Russian air power in 2016. Russia has responded to the new offensive with fresh air-strikes on Idlib, which has been coming under intermittent Russian bombardment for years. At least 225 fatalities are reported in the new fighting, including some 25 civilians killed in Russian air-strikes. (Photo: Syrian Observer)

Africa

Russia vetoes UN resolution on Sudan ceasefire

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at protecting civilians in Sudan amid the country’s ongoing conflict. The resolution, which called on the warring factions to cease hostilities and engage in dialogue in good faith, was blocked despite widespread support—including from China, which frequently votes in a bloc with Russia. Introduced by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, the draft resolution demanded that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) honor and fully implement their pledges in the “Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan,” which was signed by both sides in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May 2023. Russia said the resolution did not sufficiently respect Sudan’s sovereignty in justifying its veto, which was assailed by international human rights organizations. Sudan’s government rejected the resolution for failing to condemn the United Arab Emirates for backing the RSF—an accusation the UAE has consistently denied. (Photo: Roman Deckert via Wikimedia Commons)

North America

Vote for ‘Killer Kamala.’ It’s important.

With UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations warning of an “apocalyptic” scenario in North Gaza, the Biden administration faces a lawsuit charging complicity with genocide. The “pause” that the White House has imposed on some arms shipments to Israel by no means absolves the administration of moral (or legal) culpability. However, it may have had the effect of restraining Benjamin Netanyahu’s maximalist plans to cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians altogether. President Trump meanwhile recognized Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and launched the “Abraham Accords“—predicated on betrayal of the Palestinians by the Arab leadership. His 2019 executive order officially embraced the propagandistic conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and he now calls for complete repression (including by the military) of Palestine solidarity protests. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who was his Middle East pointman, is now openly backing the cleansing of Gaza of all Palestinians, while his ultra-Zionist former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is an open advocate of Israeli annexation of the West Bank and destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque. As Trump accuses Biden of “holding back” Israel, it is clear that Netanyahu and his most hardline cabinet members like Itamar Ben-Gvirare openly rooting for him—as is the Israel Lobby in DC. In Episode 250 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that the Abandon Harris campaign, however laudable its professed aims, can at this point only abet a Trump victory and is therefore inimical to Palestinian survival. (Photo: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder via Oklahoma Voice)