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The United States will merge the U.S. Consulate General, which serves Palestinians, with its new embassy into a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday.
"This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations," Pompeo said in a statement. "It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip."
The consulate-general in Jerusalem is the top mission for Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem for their capital.
"We will continue to conduct a full range of reporting, outreach, and programming in the West Bank and Gaza as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem through a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside U.S. Embassy Jerusalem," Pompeo said.
The UN has recently signed agreements worth tens of millions of Israeli shekels with Israeli security companies headquartered in Africa, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday. According to the newspaper, the UN issued an emergency tender with a view to purchasing defense systems for UN bases and facilities. The UN reportedly approached firms from around the world specialized in making remote sensors capable of detecting precision-guided munitions. “Three of the five companies contacted by the UN were Israeli,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported.Russia and Turkey give more time for Idlib deal in Syria: UNAccording to the paper, the contract was ultimately won by Israeli company MER, with which the UN signed an $8-million deal for the next three years. Israeli water-treatment technology company Odis, meanwhile, reportedly won a separate UN tender worth $42 million. According to Israeli figures, Israeli companies sold a total of $52 million worth of products and services to the UN last year -- and this amount is reportedly expected to rise further in the coming period.Israeli company executives were reportedly introduced to UN officials by Israel’s delegation to the UN headed by Ambassador Danny Danon, who had organized several events to promote Israeli acquisition deals. The ongoing Gaza rallies and Palestine’s unsung heroes"Diplomacy offers numerous opportunities for the advancement of Israel and Israeli industry," Danon was quoted as saying by Yedioth Ahronoth. "I am proud of these Israeli companies for joining forces with the UN and becoming an integral part of the organization's activities worldwide," Danon asserted. There has been no comment from the UN regarding the newspaper’s assertions. The reported acquisition deals come as Israel tries to enhance its ties with African states in hopes of preempting African support for Palestinian statehood in UN forums. Israel frequently accuses the world body of harboring an "anti-Israel", "pro-Palestine" bias.
UN signs agreements with Israeli security firms: Report
He said the Trump administration was committed to a peace effort between Israel and the Palestinians.
U.S. President Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and stoked international concern by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians and Palestinian leaders accused Trump of sowing instability by overturning decades of U.S. policy.
Palestinians, with broad international backing, seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they want to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel regards all of the city, including the eastern sector it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, as its "eternal and indivisible capital," but that is not recognized internationally. The Trump administration has avoided that description, and noted that the city’s final borders should be decided by the parties.
Scores of Palestinian demonstrators have been killed near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone within the last six months, but the stories of these intrepid protesters -- who insist on defying Israel’s decades-long occupation -- remain largely unknown.Men, women, boys, girls: they come from all over the Gaza Strip. One young girl runs from side to side, trying to avoid the deadly hail of Israeli bullets and clouds of teargas.The trademark black-and-white Palestinian keffieh wrapped around her neck, she advances ever closer to the frontline: the heavily-fortified buffer zone separating blockaded Gaza from Israel.Egypt brokers de-escalation deal in Gaza: SourceShe finds herself beside a number of other Palestinian protesters -- other children like her and several elderly people -- all of whom have converged on the buffer zone to express their rejection of the status quo.Since the demonstrations began on March 30, more than 200 Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire.Protesters demand the right to return to their homes in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.Palestinian gov’t condemns Israeli attacks in GazaDefianceFrequently at the frontline, Saadiyeh Haniyeh, a 54-year-old Palestinian medic, provides treatment to a young demonstrator suffering from teargas exposure.“Even though Israeli occupation forces use teargas and bullets against us, we will continue to demonstrate to demand our rights,” Haniyeh told Anadolu Agency.She went on to urge the international community -- especially the Arab states -- to take action against Israel’s crippling blockade.Protester Reda al-Banna, 43, says she will continue to take part in the almost-daily rallies until all the demonstrators’ demands are realized.“We are participating in these demonstrations as a means of defending our land -- and our rights -- which the occupation stole from us,” she told Anadolu Agency.Israel using Saudi statements on Khashoggi: OfficialSolidarityNear the buffer zone’s northernmost segment, one young protester braves the teargas and gunfire with a Palestinian flag wrapped around his face. Carrying a bag full of stones to throw at Israeli soldiers, he gradually approaches the frontline.But before he gets there, he is clipped by an Israeli bullet and abruptly falls to the ground. With the help of a friend, he is put aboard a Palestinian ambulance and whisked off to a nearby hospital for treatment.Almost immediately afterward, several more young Palestinian protesters set several tires ablaze near the site where their friend was injured.Dubbed the “Kushuk Unit”, these young protesters specialize in setting fire to car tires, the thick black smoke from which obscures the vision of Israeli snipers deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.Palestinian factions slam rocket fire into Israel Resistance on high seasThe ongoing rallies along the buffer zone have been accompanied by similar protests off Gaza’s coast, where Palestinian activists have staged demonstrations near Gaza’s maritime border with Israel.One such protest was held on Oct. 8, when more than 20 Palestinian vessels -- bearing dozens of activists -- approached the maritime border in defiance of the Israeli Navy.Naval forces eventually opened fire, however, leaving at least 29 activists suffering injuries, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.Israel first imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006 after resistance movement Hamas -- which supports armed resistance to Israel -- swept Palestinian legislative polls.Israel tightened the blockade the following year (while Egypt, too, sealed its border with Gaza) after Hamas seized the entire strip -- which it still holds today -- from rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
The ongoing Gaza rallies and Palestine’s unsung heroes