Live Updates: Nearly 70 ex-US officials urge Biden to take hard line on Israel

Thursday, March 21, 2024

03:44 GMT — Nearly 70 ex-US officials urge Biden to take hard line on Israel

Nearly 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers have urged President Joe Biden to warn Israel of serious consequences if it denies civil rights and basic necessities to Palestinians and expands illegal Zionist settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

"The United States must be willing to take concrete action to oppose" such practices, the group said in an open letter to Biden, "including restrictions on provision of [US] assistance [to Israel] consistent with US law and policy."

Among the signatories were more than a dozen former ambassadors, as well as other retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, including Anthony Lake, a national security adviser to former president Bill Clinton.

03:22 GMT — '17 Israeli soldiers' killed in attacks by Hezbollah since Oct.7

At least 17 Israeli soldiers have been killed in attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah group since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza in early October, an Israeli media outlet has said.

"17 Israeli soldiers were killed, the majority of them falling victim to anti-tank missiles and drones launched by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, since the start of confrontations," said the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Israeli authorities typically do not announce the deaths of soldiers in ongoing confrontations at the northern border of Israel.

03:02 GMT — Programme to bring besieged Palestinians to Canada a 'failure'

A programme to grant temporary visas for Palestinians with families in Canada has been a "failure," Immigration Minister Marc Miller said.

Canada opened the door for up to 1,000 Palestinians, but as of Monday, only 14 had been approved out of 984 applicants because the latter cannot leave Gaza to undergo a screening step in Egypt.

"This is a programme that we knew from the get-go could be a failure," Miller said. "Up to now, it is a failure, and it's something I think we need to recognise."

02:45 GMT — Pro-Palestine protesters heckle Scholz at book fair

Pro-Palestine protesters have heckled and interrupted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he tried to give a speech at the opening of the Leipzig Book Fair.

Several loud cries could be heard as Scholz began his speech at Germany's second-largest book fair after Frankfurt.

The Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper said the protesters appeared to be pro-Palestinian activists and one person could be heard calling, "It's not a humanitarian disaster, it's a genocide".

02:14 GMT — Business leader says Israel needs Palestinian workers

Israeli managers are "generally in favour" of the return of Palestinian employees whose work permits were cancelled after Hamas' unprecedented attack, an Israeli business community leader has told the AFP news agency.

The president of the Israeli Federation of Bi-national Chambers of Commerce, Dan Catarivas, called for a discussion on this question which has serious consequences for Israel's economy, where entire sectors such as construction relied on Palestinian labour.

Some 120,000 Palestinians, the majority from the occupied West Bank, had permits before the war in Gaza to enter Israel to work — but those were cancelled.

For our live updates from Tuesday, March 19, click here.