��������

LONDON: Britain and 24 Western allies, including Australia, Canada, France and Italy, declared on Monday that the war in Gaza “must end now,” arguing that civilians’ suffering had “reached new depths.”
“We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” the grouping added in a joint statement.
“Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this.”
The signatories — which also included Japan, several EU countries, Switzerland and New Zealand — added they were “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire.”
The wide-ranging statement branded the controversial Israeli-supported relief effort in Gaza as “dangerous” and said it deprives Gazans of “human dignity.”
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” the statement said.
“The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” it added, urging Israel to “comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
The statement called for the Israeli government “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively.”
The UN said last week that it had recorded 875 people who had been killed in Gaza while trying to get food via the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
It has replaced UN agencies as the main distributor of aid in the territory.
The 25-nation statement also condemned the continued detention of hostages in Gaza by Hamas militants, demanding “their immediate and unconditional release” and noting a negotiated ceasefire “offers the best hope of bringing them home.”
Meanwhile, the signatories said they “strongly oppose any steps toward territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” and said an Israeli plan to shift Palestinians into a so-called “humanitarian city” was unacceptable.
“Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law,” they warned.
The statement was also signed by EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib.

LONDON: White House officials have expressed frustration over Israel’s bombing of Syria, The Times reported.

Israel carried out a series of attacks on government targets in the Syrian Arab Republic last week, including a strike on a tank convoy and the shelling of the Defense Ministry in Damascus.

US diplomats warned Israel to cease its intervention, which it claimed to be conducting in support of Syria’s Druze minority.

Clashes between local Bedouin and Druze forces had broken out in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, with the country’s government sending troops to quell the violence.

One White House official told Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time. This could undermine what (US President Donald) Trump is trying to do.”

Trump lifted sanctions on Syria earlier this year after meeting President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who has pledged to unite his country and bring an end to more than a decade of violence.

The US brokered a ceasefire last week that appeared to stop the clashes in Sweida, where more than 1,000 people were killed over seven days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The violence was reportedly sparked by a series of kidnappings targeting members of various faiths, clans and tribal groups in the province.

Before launching strikes, Israel claimed that Syrian government forces were involved in targeting the Druze.

Israel has its own community of Druze, numbering about 130,000, and some Syrian members of the faith traveled to meet family members there to escape the violence in Sweida.

After the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime last year, Israel sent forces into Sweida to establish a buffer zone. The province borders Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Another US official told Axios: “Netanyahu is sometimes like a child who just won’t behave.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday urged Al-Sharaa to halt the violence in his country, which he described as “horrifying and dangerous.”

The “rape and slaughter of innocent people, which has and is still occurring, must end,” Rubio said on X, adding that Syrian authorities “must hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.”

White House officials also described growing consternation over Israel’s war on Gaza, especially after the shelling of the Palestinian enclave’s only Catholic church last week. The attack killed three Palestinians.

A senior American official told Axios after the church strike: “The feeling is that every day there is something new … what the f***?”

Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, also delivered surprise public criticism in the wake of an arson attack on a Byzantine-era church in the occupied West Bank over the weekend.

“To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship, it is an act of terror, and it is a crime,” he said. “There should be consequences.”

He also demanded “accountability” from Israel after a Palestinian American was killed in the West Bank last week.