Germany on Wednesday criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over remarks that he would push for the eviction of the West Bank community of Khan al-Ahmar following reports of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant request.
“We have, of course, taken note of these statements with the utmost concern, and we firmly reject them. We have also spoken out on this issue on several occasions in the past. There must be no expulsions. We call on the Israeli government to abandon these plans,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Josef Hinterseher told journalists in Berlin.
He stressed that the German government’s position was “clear and unchanged,” adding: “Unilateral measures -- as part of a broader intensification of settlement policy, into which the entire situation in the West Bank is embedded -- violate international law, pose a risk of further instability in the region and in the West Bank itself, and significantly stand in the way of a two-state solution.”
British news outlet Middle East Eye reported Monday that a request had been submitted to the ICC seeking secret arrest warrants against Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Hezbollah’s drone capabilities are limiting 80 percent of Israeli assaults on southern Lebanon, according to a report by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
Irish author Sally Rooney, whose stance in support of Palestine has earned international attention, has confirmed that her latest book Intermezzo will be published in Hebrew, causing mixed reactions on social media.
The images coming out of Moscow in recent days speak for themselves: Ukrainian drone strikes on targets in Moscow have brought the war to the heart of state power and exposed the limits of Russia’s air defenses.
Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.
A sinkhole was discovered at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Wednesday, shutting down a runway while emergency crews sought to determine its cause and how to fix it.
Thousands of Mississippians, along with allies from other southern states, gathered at the state’s War Memorial Building auditorium on Wednesday in support of voting rights. It was the latest in a series of actions protesting the supreme court’s recent decision gutting the provision of the Voting Rights Act preventing racial discrimination, and held on a site integral to the state’s history of Black disenfranchisement.
Detained activists from a 
President Trump on Wednesday attacked the Senate parliamentarian, accusing her of issuing reviews of Senate rules that have treated Republicans unfairly and calling for Republicans to end the filibuster.
