File photo: Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting
Israel said Wednesday it would shut down its embassy in Paraguay.
Israel will close its embassy in Paraguay and recall the ambassador to discuss the issue, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.
The move comes after the Latin American country announced it would relocate its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said Wednesday said the embassy, which previously been moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, would be relocated to Tel Aviv.
"In a bid to assure a wide, fair and permanent peace in the Middle East, Paraguay wants to contribute to the regional diplomatic efforts," the top diplomat said.
After the U.S. and Guatemala, Paraguay on May 21 moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israel's intelligence minister said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of close ally U.S. President Donald Trump ever ordering the killing of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.A new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, "Fear: Trump in the White House", says Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017.The book said James Mattis, the defense secretary, told Trump he would "get right on it" but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.Trump tweeted that quotes attributed to Mattis were "made up frauds, a con on the public". Mattis dismissed the book as "a uniquely Washington brand of literature"."I do not know of any such instruction. He (Trump) is also denying it, by the way," Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM."In any event, what can be said is that in the framework of the coordination between the United States and Israel ... the subject of the Syrian regime is certainly part of the discussions. Israel did not take a decision to topple Assad."While formally neutral on the 7-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, Israel has carried out scores of air strikes against suspected attempts by Assad's Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies to set up permanent posts or advanced arms.Under decades of Assad family rule, Syria has maintained a Cold War-style hostility toward Israel. Katz said Israel did not see a better alternative to Assad among Syrian opposition groups."Of course his (Assad's) actions are terrible actions, and something that we abhor and condemn. Those opposing him, Daesh and others, are not a side that we think are better. We took care to preserve our interests," Katz said.Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a number of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions.For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, said the Washington Post, which published excerpts from the book on Tuesday.
Israeli minister: no knowledge of Trump ordering Assad killed
An Israeli court on Wednesday rejected an appeal against the eviction of the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Khan al-Ahmar in east Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said.“The Supreme Court ruling allows the eviction of residents and demolition of their structures within seven days,” Walid Assaf, the head of an anti-settlement commission affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Anadolu Agency.Assaf reiterated the rejection of the court verdict by residents of Khan Al-Ahmar hamlet and the Palestinian Authority.On July 5, Israeli bulldozers destroyed a number of tents and other structures in Khan al-Ahmar, triggering clashes with local residents.There are 46 Bedouin communities scattered across Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem inhabited by some 3,000 residents.Under the 1995 Oslo agreement between Israel and Palestine, the West Bank was divided into A, B and C zones.The administrative and security authority of area A was given to Palestine while the administration of area B was given to Palestine but its security to Israel, while in area C, both administration and security authority went to Israel.Khan al-Ahmar is located in area C.
Israeli court orders demolition of Bedouin hamlet
Israel on Wednesday closed the Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military.In a statement, the army said the terminal was closed due to damage to infrastructure caused by “riots” on the Palestinian side of the crossing.The crossing will be reopened once the damage has been repaired, the statement said.It remains unclear for how long the terminal will be closed.Hundreds of Palestinians staged a rally near the crossing on Tuesday as part of ongoing protests against Israel’s decades-long occupation and an 11-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, which gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of basic commodities.Blockaded by Israel -- by air, land and sea -- since 2007, the Gaza Strip has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world.Six of these, including the Erez crossing, are controlled by Israel, while the seventh – the Rafah crossing -- is controlled by Egypt, which keeps it tightly sealed for the most part since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in a 2013 military coup.Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in June 2007 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas wrested control of the strip from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
Israel shuts Erez crossing with Gaza
Israel's top court cleared the way on Wednesday for the demolition of a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank whose fate has become a focus of Palestinian protests and international concern.The Supreme Court, in a decision released by a court spokesman, rejected petitions against the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar and said a temporary injunction that had put a hold on the move would lapse in a week.Around 180 Bedouin, raising sheep and goats, live in tin and wood shacks in Khan al-Ahmar. It is outside Jerusalem between two Israeli settlements and was built without Israeli permits, which Palestinians say are impossible to obtain.Palestinians decry US decision to end funding for UNRWAIsrael said it plans to relocate the residents to an area about 12 km (seven miles) away, near the Palestinian village of Abu Dis.But the new site is next to a landfill, and rights advocates say that a forcible transfer of the residents would violate international law applying to occupied territory.The European Union had publicly urged Israel to cancel the evacuation plan.Feisal Abu Dahouk, a resident of Khan Al-Ahmar called the court's ruling "a racist decision", telling Reuters by telephone "there is no place we can go".Israel breaks up demo for detained Palestine journalistIsraeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman hailed the decision."Khan al-Ammar will be evacuated! I congratulate the Supreme Court justices on their brave and called-for decision, in the face of the orchestrated hypocrisy of Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), the left and European states," Lieberman wrote on Twitter.Ayman Odeh, head of the United Arab List in Israel's parliament, said on Twitter the villagers had "fallen victim to the destructive policies of a rightist government that is broadening settlement blocs at the cost of Arab communities".Israel plans new settlement homes in JerusalemMost countries consider settlements built by Israel on land it captured in the 1967 Middle East War as illegal, and an obstacle to peace. They say they reduce and fragment the territory Palestinians seek for a viable state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.Israel disputes this and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the land, as well as security needs. Video: Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Bedouin houses in Jabal al-Baba area
Israel's top court clears way for razing of Bedouin village in West Bank