LONDON: Arab nations criticized Israel during a heated meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday that focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Representatives of several Arab states spoke out against the actions of Israeli forces against Palestinians, especially violence over the weekend in East Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel criticized the UNSC for ignoring the activities of Palestinian terror groups and the rising threat from Iran.

Tor Wennesland, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said 23 Palestinians — including three women and four children — were killed in clashes with Israeli forces, and 541 had been injured by police and settlers.

Twelve Israelis — including two women — and three foreign nationals had been killed by Palestinians, and 82 had been injured. 

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s permanent observer to the UN, said Israel had “resorted to its favorite justification — security” for the violence carried out by its forces.

“It is the one-size-fits-all justification: Security to justify illegal occupation, security to justify forcible displacement, security to justify inhumane blockade, security to justify killing children on their way to school, security to justify bombing entire neighborhoods, security to justify attacking our people, our land and our holy sites,” he added.

“They labeled our worshippers ‘terrorists’ — the distortions are endless, offensive and dangerous.”

Gilad Erden, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said Israel found itself in the midst of a “terror wave” of attacks.

He criticized the UNSC for failing to raise the issue of Iran, its activities in Lebanon and its nuclear program, which he labeled “a true threat to regional security.”

Hezbollah “has multiplied its arsenal in Lebanon tenfold,” he said, adding that it “represents only one tentacle of terror belonging to an even more menacing threat: Iran.

“Hezbollah is one of six terror proxy armies that Iran funds and arms, and Iran, as the world’s number-one state sponsor of terror, uses these armies to spread death and chaos across the region.”

Erden said: “As we speak, advanced Iranian centrifuges continue to spin. The ayatollahs’ regime is now mere weeks away from enriching enough uranium for a nuclear bomb. 

“How is it possible that the body tasked with global security does not dedicate the majority of this debate on the Middle East to the Iranian nuclear threat?”

He added: “Try to imagine what the Middle East will look like when Iran’s terror proxies can operate under a nuclear umbrella.

“How much bolder will the Houthis’ attacks on international trade routes and civilian infrastructure get once they have nuclear backing?”

Other nations, however, criticized Israel for its actions against the Palestinians in recent days. Algeria reminded the UNSC that the session came just days before the 74th anniversary of the dispossession of the Palestinian people when Israel was created in 1948, “a people whose only fault was the rejection of an occupation of its land, and calling for the right to self-determination.”

Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon and the UAE also criticized Israel, calling on it to de-escalate the situation.

The UAE called the moment “a critical juncture” and condemned “the repeated incursions by Israeli forces into Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the assault carried out by settlers in the courtyards of Al-Haram Al-Sharif.”

Richard Mills Jr., deputy US ambassador to the UN, warned that the situation in Gaza had also become desperate and required international assistance.

“In Gaza, the need for humanitarian relief, reconstruction and recovery remains acute,” he said. “We encourage all member states to provide concrete assistance, including financial contributions … to help meet the needs of ordinary Palestinians.”

RIYADH: The Houthi militia in Yemen announced the release of the crew of an Emirati vessel called Rwabee, the group’s spokesman said on Monday.
Yemen’s Houthis say the Emirati cargo vessel that they seized in the Red Sea in January had been carrying military hardware, but the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen says the ship had been carrying medical equipment.

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah agreed with US President Joe Biden on the need to prevent a repeat of recent confrontations in Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites that sparked concerns of wider conflict, state media said.
In a phone call on Monday, Abdullah was quoted as saying the cornerstone of peace was a comprehensive Arab Israeli settlement based on a two-state solution whereby a Palestinian state would emerge alongside Israel.
“Both his Majesty and President Biden stressed the importance of continued coordination and work on all levels to prevent a repeat of attacks on the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites and its people that would derail the chances of achieving peace and push toward more tensions,” Petra state news agency said.
Abdullah, whose Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of Muslim and Christian sites in the Old City, has spearheaded a diplomatic offensive to put pressure on Israel, whom he blames for the escalation at the Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
The confrontations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that have coincided with Passover have raised religious passions amid international concerns about a slide back into a wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jordan and fellow Arab states accused Israel in a meeting on Thursday in Amman of restricting the right of worship of Muslims while allowing ultra-nationalist Jews under police protection to enter the mosque compound.
Israel, which denies it was responsible for the escalation in violence, said on Thursday it was enforcing a long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque, rejecting an Arab League accusation that it was allowing such worship to take place.
As in previous years, Israel halted Jewish visits during the final days of Ramadan.
Al-Aqsa sits atop the Old City plateau of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that has not received international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of their hoped-for future state.

AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthis continue to mobilize heavy military reinforcements outside Yemen’s central city of Marib, exploiting the absence of the Arab coalition warplanes during the UN-brokered truce, a military official and local media reports said.  

Hundreds of Houthi fighters, tanks and heavy artillery were repositioned on the western and southern edges of the strategic city from other Houthi-controlled areas, with the militia preparing to resume its push to seize control of Marib, the Yemeni government’s last major urban bastion in the northern half of the country.

“The Houthis have moved hundreds of fighters and heavy equipment to west and south of Marib exploiting a cessation of Arab coalition airstrikes,” a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Arab News, adding that government troops stuck to the truce and were prepared to push back any attacks by the Houthis.  

The Houthis also launched an explosive-laden drone and a missile at the government-controlled Malla, south of Marib, an area that hosts dozens of internally displaced people, the official said. 

Under the UN-brokered truce that came into effect on April 2, warring factions in Yemen agreed to halt fighting on battlefields and launch cross-border attacks on neighboring countries.

The Arab coalition also announced a halt to its airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.  

Since early last year, the Houthis have been aggressively attacking the city of Marib from the west and south, an offensive that claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and combatants and displaced thousands of people.

Yemen’s army said that the Houthis have violated the truce hundreds of times in many provinces by moving troops, launching drones and missiles and fortifying their positions.

Similarly, the US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, urged the Yemeni parties to adhere to their pledges to stop fighting for two months and voiced his disappointment over the postponement of the first commercial flight from the Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport.

“We’re disappointed the 1st commercial flight from Sana’a was postponed, depriving Yemenis of an important opportunity to travel. We urge the parties to work together to resume flights as soon as possible & maintain their commitment to the truce for Yemenis,” Lenderking said on Twitter on Sunday.  

Yemen’s government on Sunday announced that the first commercial flight from Sanaa airport to Amman was postponed after the Houthis insisted on adding dozens of passengers with unauthorized passports, accusing the Houthis of seeking to smuggle foreign military experts and fighters out of Yemen, using fake documents.

Only passengers with passports issued by the Yemeni government would be allowed to board planes from Sanaa airport, the government said. 

Separately, unidentified men on Sunday evening blew up a pipeline that carries gas from Marib to Balhaf LNG Plant in the province of Shabwa.

Residents said that the attack took place in a desert area in Mayfa district in Shabwa and triggered a huge explosion and a giant plume of fire that turned night into day.

“The attackers blew up the pipeline with remotely controlled landmines. We do not know if they are Al-Qaeda or local tribesmen,” a resident, who preferred to be unknown, told Arab News by telephone.

The flow of gas and oil from Marib’s fields has largely been halted since late 2014 when the Houthis militarily seized power, forcing companies into deserting the country. Residents said that the attacked pipeline in Shabwa is used for supplying a power station and Balhaf LNG plant with gas.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a request to reopen an investigation into the deaths of four Palestinian children who were killed by an Israeli airstrike while playing on the beach in the Gaza Strip during a 2014 war.
In its ruling, the court upheld earlier decisions by Israeli military investigators and legal authorities determining the incident was a tragic mistake.
“With all of the sorrow and heartache over the tragic and difficult outcome of the event in this petition, I did not find that the petitioners pointed to a flaw in the decision of the attorney general,” said Sunday’s ruling, signed by the court’s president, Esther Hayut, and approved unanimously with two other justices.
The cousins from the Bakr family, all between 10 and 11 years old, were playing soccer on the beach when they were killed during the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The incident drew widespread international attention, in part because many foreign journalists staying in nearby hotels witnessed the incident. Images showed the children desperately running away from a jetty as a missile falls, and then the boys falling to the ground one after another.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was filed by three human rights organizations — the Israeli group Adalah and the Gaza-based Al-Mezan and Palestinian Center for Human Rights — who were seeking a criminal investigation into the incident.
In a joint statement, the groups said Sunday’s decision “is further evidence that Israel is unable and unwilling to investigate and prosecute soldiers and commanders for war crimes against Palestinian civilians.”
Critics have long accused Israel and its military of whitewashing wrongdoing by its troops. Last year, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories, including actions during the 2014 war. Bakr family members delivered testimony to the court during a preliminary inquiry.
Israel has rejected the ICC case, saying its legal system is capable of investigating the military and accusing the court of antisemitism.