Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 01 & 02/2024
The Lebanese Identity/Edmond El-Chidiac/July 02/2024
Blinken: Israel effectively lost sovereignty in North due to Hezbollah
Blinken says no one wants war but there's 'momentum' for one
Arab League denies softening stance on Hezbollah terror label - analysis
Arab League's Zaki says his remarks on Hezbollah 'misinterpreted'
Deputy head of German intelligence met with Qassem in Haret Hreik
One person killed in Israeli strike on Zalloutieh
Israeli army believes Gaza truce 'best way' to recover captives, reach deal with Hezbollah
Arab League Sends Mixed Message Over Labeling Hezbollah a ‘Terrorist’ Organization
Dangerous equipment and technologies’: Hezbollah brags about its capabilities
Should Biden let Hezbollah and the Houthis get a say in Gaza?/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Times of Israel/July 01/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 01 & 02/2024
Israel releases director of hospital it says was used as a Hamas base. He alleges abuse in custody
At least 55 Palestinians detained by Israel in Gaza released
Israel pounds Gaza after ordering Khan Younes evacuation
Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel, tanks advance in Gaza
As Iran faces a rare runoff presidential election, disenchanted voters are staying away
French left, Macron scramble to block far-right win
France's Top Court to Examine Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad
Türkiye Detains Hundreds after Anti-Syrian Riots
Iran Presidential Candidates Accuse Each Other of Having No Plan
Turkey's president accuses opposition of stoking racism after anti-Syrian rioting erupts
Pakistani court sentences Christian man to death for posting hateful content against Muslims
US military heightens the security alert at European bases due to a combination of threats

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 01 & 02/2024
The Great China Shell Game: The U.S. Must Stop Playing Sanctions Whack-A-Mole with the CCP/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/July 1, 2024
'We Don't Want Churches, We Want Mosques': The Persecution of Christians, May 2024/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 30, 2024
Why Are Hamas's Crimes Ignored by Western Media?/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./July 2, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 01 & 02/2024
The Lebanese Identity ...
Edmond El-Chidiac/July 02/2024
Lebanon's identity is not a fleeting flavor in some civilization; it is a standing civilization with its own self-sustaining elements that have endured for thousands of years. It is Lebanese, diverse, unaltered by anything other than itself. It is not a transient flavor in any Arab, Persian, Phoenician, Syrian, Islamic, or Christian civilization. It is a distinctive, pluralistic Lebanese identity that rises above all other identities like a drop of oil surrounded by water, always floating because it is different and distinguished by its diversity, openness, freedom, and culture.
This idea was eloquently expressed by the late President Sheikh Bachir Gemayel:
"The Lebanese cling to their distinctive existence in this geographical environment, like a drop of oil that maintains its size, color, shape, entity, and clarity even when mixed with any other body, regardless of its size, type, and the enlargement of other bodies. History is also full of examples of peoples who rejected occupation, resisted it, and prevented it from being more than the occupation of land and spaces without extending to the mind, heart, and soul."
Sheikh Bachir Gemayel

Blinken: Israel effectively lost sovereignty in North due to Hezbollah
Jerusalem Post/July 02/2024
Blinken said that there is a “momentum” leading to a larger war between Hezbollah and the IDF, but that the paradox was, that no one really wants to see a a larger war break out. Israel has “lost sovereignty” in the northern part of its country due to the persistent cross-border attacks Hezbollah has launched against Israel since October, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday. “People don’t feel safe to go to their homes,” he said during a public interview at the Brookings Institute in Washington. “Absent doing something about the insecurity, people won’t have the confidence to return,” he said. He spoke as close to 60,000 Israelis from northern border communities are unable to return home and the areas remain largely deserted. International concern remained high that the almost nine months of cross-border violence would escalate into a third Lebanon War.Lufthansa Group on Monday halted night flights to and from Beirut until July 31 due to the situation in the Middle East, a spokesperson for the company said. The change had begun on June 29 and daytime flights would operate as before.

Blinken says no one wants war but there's 'momentum' for one
Naharnet/July 02/2024
None of the main actors on the Lebanese-Israeli front actually wants a war, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. “Israel doesn’t want a war, although they may be well-prepared to engage in one if necessary … but they don’t want one,” Blinken said. “I don’t believe Hezbollah actually wants a war. Lebanon certainly doesn’t want a war, because it would be the leading victim in such a war, and I don’t believe that Iran wants a war,” Blinken added. “On the one hand, no one actually wants a war. On the other hand, you have forces, momentum that may be leading in that direction, which we are determined to try to arrest,” the top U.S. diplomat went on to say.

Arab League denies softening stance on Hezbollah terror label - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/July 02/2024
The Arab League clarifies it hasn't softened its stance on Hezbollah, stating previous comments were taken out of context amid rising regional tensions with Israel. The Arab League appeared to retract statements over the weekend that seemed to suggest it had softened its stance on Hezbollah.
According to Al-Ain media in the UAE, the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki, has clarified his statements and said they were taken out of context. Days ago, reports said the Arab League had shifted its stance on Hezbollah and no longer sees it as a terrorist group.
In 2016, the League had said that Hezbollah is a terrorist group. However, the region is changing. The Arab League has welcomed Syria back after years of Syrian civil war, where the Arab state had been given the cold shoulder by the League. The Syrian regime is supported by Hezbollah and Iran.
However, the Arab League's comments about Hezbollah come at a sensitive time for the region because of Israel-Hezbollah tensions. Iran wants to threaten Israel not to launch a military operation in Lebanon. The Arab League appears to want to reduce tensions and work toward a political solution in Lebanon. After Zaki traveled to Lebanon and met with political party representatives, including Hezbollah, it was reported that the Arab League had shifted its stance on the terrorist group. Now, Zaki says his words were taken out of context. The previous statements do not mean "in any way the disappearance of the many reservations and objections to Hezbollah's behavior, policies, actions, and positions, not only internally but also regionally,” the Arab League clarified.
The Arab League and Hezbollah
Zaki clarified that the “relevant decisions of the Arab League, most notably the decision on maintaining Arab national security and combating terrorism, which stipulates in one of its paragraphs refraining from providing any form of explicit or implicit support to entities or individuals involved in terrorist acts, including any militias or irregular armed groups, is a decision unanimously adopted by member states."  Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, also stressed that the General Secretariat “is always committed to the full implementation of the decisions of the countries on all issues.” This generalized statement referenced the Arab League’s “solidarity with Lebanon.” The point the Arab League is now trying to emphasize is that it is focused on the political issues within Lebanon and also concerns over a possible wider war with Israel. The League does not want to be dragged into controversy regarding Hezbollah. This is why it has tried to walk back reports that it softened its stance.

Arab League's Zaki says his remarks on Hezbollah 'misinterpreted'
Naharnet/July 02/2024
Arab League assistant secretary-general Hossam Zaki has noted that his recent remarks on Hezbollah have been “misinterpreted.”Zaki told reporters that his announcement that the League no longer views Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group “does not mean that the many reservations and objections over Hezbollah’s behavior, policies, actions and stances have ceased to exist, not only domestically but also regionally.”
Pro-Hezbollah daily al-Akhbar linked Zaki’s clarification to “pressure practiced mainly by Riyadh.”“Zaki’s remarks dismayed Riyadh and other Arab capitals and many sides in Lebanon and the region conveyed their objection to the Arab League, topped by the Gulf countries. The U.S. also was not distant from this atmosphere and this is what was stressed by the U.S. State Dept. in a statement yesterday,” al-Akhbar added. Zaki had announced from Beirut in recent days that “the League has no lists classifying the terrorist organizations,” noting that “Hezbollah’s classification as terrorist began in 2016 and was dropped in the Jeddah summit in 2023 in light of several regional evelopments.” Zaki made his remarks after he met in Haret Hreik with MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc.

Deputy head of German intelligence met with Qassem in Haret Hreik
Naharnet/July 02/2024
German intelligence vice president Ole Diehl met Saturday evening in Haret Hreik with Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday. Diehl and Qassem had met in January this year.
“The meeting was positive and the two sides demonstrated their viewpoints on the ongoing events in the region and the battle in Gaza and south Lebanon,” sources informed the meeting told the daily. “Diehl did not carry any threatening messages as Western envoys have frequently done in their meetings with Lebanese officials. He also did not carry a complete initiative,” the sources added, noting that the German official explored Hezbollah’s stance about “what can be done in south Lebanon to avoid an all-out war.” “Qassem stressed to the German envoy that the enemy’s threat of an all-out war does not scare the resistance, which is powerful and prepared,” the sources went on to say.

One person killed in Israeli strike on Zalloutieh
Naharnet/July 02/2024
One person was killed Tuesday in an airstrike on the Tyre district town of Zalloutieh. An Israeli drone also targeted al-Taybeh, damaging a power transformer in the town. Israeli planes meanwhile broke the sound barrier over Tyre, Sidon, and al-Nabatiyyeh. Escalating strikes between Israel and Hezbollah appeared at least to level off this week, offering hope of de-escalation. Nine months of violence have killed 485 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to authorities. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday he is "reassured" that a solution will be reached in the "coming days".

Israeli army believes Gaza truce 'best way' to recover captives, reach deal with Hezbollah
Naharnet/July 02/2024
Israeli army leaders are privately pushing for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, describing it as the “best way” to recover over 100 captives and to “reach a deal with Hezbollah” that would prevent the expansion of the war, according to six current and former security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the New York Times (NYT). The top generals reportedly fear being dragged into a “forever war” by a political echelon that has repeatedly sabotaged attempts at reaching a ceasefire deal. According to the officials who spoke with the NYT, the “army is short of spare parts, munitions, motivation, and even troops.” “Under-equipped for further fighting after Israel’s longest war in decades, the generals also think their forces need time to recuperate in case a land war breaks out against Hezbollah,” the report highlights. “The military is in full support of a hostage deal and a cease-fire,” Eyal Hulata, Israel’s former national security adviser, told the NYT. “They understand that a pause in Gaza makes de-escalation more likely in Lebanon. And they have less munitions, less spare parts, less energy than they did before – so they also think a pause in Gaza gives us more time to prepare in case a bigger war does break out with Hezbollah,” Hulata added. According to the report, the officials are also in agreement that “keeping Hamas in power for now in exchange for getting the hostages back [is] the least worst option for Israel."

Arab League Sends Mixed Message Over Labeling Hezbollah a ‘Terrorist’ Organization
FDD/July 02/2024
Latest Developments
Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki walked back his statement from June 28 implying that his organization no longer considers Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah to be a “terrorist” organization. Zaki initially said the label would no longer apply to Hezbollah following his meeting in Lebanon with Hezbollah’s parliamentary chief Mohammed Ra’ad. In a press statement issued on July 1, Zaki said that his apparent reversal had been taken out of context. “This does not mean in any way that the numerous reservations and objections to [Hezbollah’s] behavior, policies, actions and positions have disappeared, not only internally but also regionally,” he stated. Zaki and Ra’ad reportedly discussed the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with Zaki saying that “there should be no additional escalation.”
Expert Analysis
“We’ve seen the result of U.S. and Saudi initiatives to buy a false peace in Yemen by legitimizing and subsidizing the Houthis. Attempts to legitimize and subsidize Hezbollah in Lebanon will meet the same eventual fate: A larger threat with even more violence.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor
“The Arab League’s mixed signals on Hezbollah’s terrorist status signals a retreat from the desire of the body — and its most influential member, Saudi Arabia — to confront Iran and its regional expansionism. Absent decisive American leadership, Arab states feel they have little choice but to come to an accommodation with Tehran.” — David Daoud, FDD Senior Fellow
Change of Formula When Describing Hezbollah
According to the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper — which sides with Hamas and Hezbollah — the meeting was the first contact between the Arab League and the terrorist group in over 10 years. Zaki claimed during an interview with Egypt’s Al-Qahera network that the Arab League did not designate any organizations as “terrorist” groups but had used language in its written communications describing Hezbollah as such. In separate comments, Zaki called for the international community to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 — which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the removal of its military assets from the border with Israel.
World Seeking to Avoid Escalation
The meeting between Hezbollah and the Arab League occurred as American, Arab, and European officials pushed for de-escalation of the conflict with Israel launched one day after Hamas’s October 7 atrocities. On June 30, an armed drone launched from Lebanon struck Israel’s Merom Golan area, wounding 18 IDF soldiers, one of them seriously.

Dangerous equipment and technologies’: Hezbollah brags about its capabilities
Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/July 02/ 2024 |
Iran wants Israel and the region to believe Hezbollah is strong and ready for a possible future war. In a flurry of activity, Iranian state media websites have sought to highlight Hezbollah’s increasing capabilities. This comes in the context of the escalating tensions with Israel.
The messaging is clear. Iran wants Israel and the region to believe Hezbollah is strong and ready for a possible future war.
How does Hezbollah communicate this?
How does Hezbollah communicate this? It often makes broad claims about its abilities or relies on foreign media reports to boost its claims. This often takes the form of relying on Israeli media reports. For instance, on June 30 the Iranian state media website IRNA reported that “a former Zionist official says Hezbollah in Lebanon is one of the five superpowers in terms of the number of rockets it possesses, media outlets have reported.” This is a way for Hezbollah to boast, via Iranian media, about its capabilities. It uses the foil of Israel and Israeli quotes to boost its own claims. This is a form of laundering information that is familiar in the region, especially with Iranian media. However, the Hezbollah context of tensions with Israel is important to watch here. “The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah enjoys very dangerous military equipment and technologies, Israeli newspaper Yedioth [Ed: Yediot] Aharonot said in a report,” IRNA re-reported this week. “According to the report, the Israeli regime is facing an enemy that has a high military capability and possesses dangerous equipment and technologies such as pinpoint missiles and advanced drones,” the report said. This was part of a series of reports with headlines such as “Hezbollah’s military technologies very dangerous: Israeli paper [says].” As tensions grow with Israel, Hezbollah will increasingly try to showcase its abilities. It claimed to launch a heavy Burkan rocket yesterday toward northern Israel. It also used drones to attack Israel on June 30.
**Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Should Biden let Hezbollah and the Houthis get a say in Gaza?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Times of Israel/July 01/2024
The US administration's 'no war whatsoever' policy signals to Iran that America is toothless and that the Islamic Republic can act with impunity
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been clear: The war he launched on Israel, on October 8, has nothing to do with Lebanon and its 13 disputed border points with the Jewish state and everything to do with supporting Hamas in Gaza. He said his war will only stop when a permanent ceasefire is reached, a position that mirrors the blackmail model Iran employs in Yemen, where its Houthi proxies have put one of the world’s most strategic waterways in a chokehold, increasing global shipping costs fivefold, straining supply chains, and raising inflation, which hurts US national interests. So what will Biden do about it? The Biden administration seemed amenable to the demands of the Iran-backed militias, trying to convince Israel of the merits of a permanent ceasefire, even one that allows Hamas to regroup and retake the Strip. (In Thursday’s presidential debate, Biden maintained that rather than pressing on for Hamas’s destruction in Gaza Israel should “get Hamas like we did Ben Laden,” a hunt that lasted 10 years.) With a ceasefire, Israel could supposedly buy calm on its northern border and persuade the Houthis to stand down. Biden desperately needs to avoid crises, lagging behind his challenger four months to the US presidential election. Such thinking is also in line with Biden’s National Security Strategy, which sets “de-escalation” as the goal of his Middle East policy.
But de-escalation is a tool, not a goal. War is one of the many instruments at the disposal of governments. A “no war whatsoever” policy signals to Iran and its militias that America is toothless and that they can act with impunity. It is no wonder that since Biden took office, Iran and its militias have started at least three wars – in Gaza, Lebanon, and off the coast of Yemen. Had Tehran feared America’s reprisal, it would not have emboldened its proxies to test the limits of Washington’s patience.
The Houthi war on global shipping proved Biden’s short-sightedness. He had bet on the reasonableness of the Houthis, removing them from the terrorism list, and pressing Saudi Arabia to stop warring with them.
As many knew – except Team Biden – the Houthis were far from reasonable. The militia started hitting Biden where it hurts, the economy, and Washington had to act. It tried to assemble a global coalition, but its effort showed that America under Biden had less than a dozen friends willing to put skin in the game.
Even the Houthis’ archenemies, the Saudis and the Emiratis, refused to participate in the coalition for protecting Red Sea shipping lanes. Gulf capitals calculated that Biden was inconsistent and might change course midway, leaving them to face Houthi and Iranian wrath when Washington suddenly bails, for whatever reason. America’s Gulf allies sat out a war unfolding in their own backyard.
Gulf governments were right. America has been fighting half a war, allowing a ragtag militia to sink one ship and set another ablaze, six months into the war. Why half a war? Because it turns out that the Biden Administration believes that wiping out the Houthis would lead to mayhem.
If the Houthis are Washington’s bet for regional stability, then no wonder Biden’s Middle East policy has been one big mess, producing three wars and no solutions.
Former US president Barack Obama, one of the most anti-war presidents who went out of his way to appease Iran, would still occasionally say, whenever addressing Iranian nuclear belligerence, that “all options are on the table,” hinting that America would not shy away from using military power against Iran.
When former US president Donald Trump killed Qassem Soleimani, the move suppressed Iran’s appetite for destruction, at least while Trump remained in office: Uranium enrichment stayed at less than five percent while militia harassment of America’s friends and allies stopped.
Biden’s foreign policy philosophy is appeasement, which has been a drag on America’s allies, particularly Israel in dealing with Hezbollah. Washington has so far insisted that it opposes an all-out Israeli war, even though Hezbollah started it and shows no signs of stopping.
If the goal must be “no war,” then there will be few tools left to safeguard US national interests or those of its allies.
Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis see America’s weaknesses and are exploiting them, hoping to set precedents, such as giving Hezbollah and the Houthis a say over whatever Israel does in Gaza, and perhaps soon over whatever Israel does in the West Bank or Syria, and after that whatever America does anywhere. By then, Biden would have managed to end wars, minimizing America’s global influence, and seriously hurting America’s allies.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan organization focused on national security and foreign policy.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 01 & 02/2024
Israel releases director of hospital it says was used as a Hamas base. He alleges abuse in custody
Mohammad Jahjouh, Samy Magdy And Julia Frankel/KHAN YOUNIS/AP/July 01/ 2024
Israel released the director of Gaza's main hospital on Monday after holding him for seven months without charge or trial over allegations the facility had been used as a Hamas command center. He said he and other detainees were held under harsh conditions and tortured. The decision to release Mohammed Abu Selmia, apparently taken in order to free up space in overcrowded detention centers, sparked uproar from across the political spectrum, with government ministers and opposition leaders saying he should have remained behind bars.They reiterated allegations that he had played a role in Hamas' alleged use of Shifa Hospital, which Israeli forces have raided twice since the start of the nearly nine-month war with Hamas. Abu Selmia and other health officials have repeatedly denied those accusations, and that fact that he was released without charge or trial was likely to raise further questions about them. Abu Selmia was released back into Gaza along with 54 other Palestinian detainees, many of whom also alleged abuse. The allegations could not be independently confirmed but matched other accounts of Palestinians who have been held in Israeli custody. “Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” Abu Selmia said at a news conference after his release. “There was almost daily torture.” He said guards broke his finger and caused his head to bleed during beatings, in which they used batons and dogs. He said the medical staff at different facilities where he was held had also taken part in the abuse “in violation of all laws.” He said some detainees had limbs amputated because of poor medical care. There was no immediate response from the prison service, which has previously denied similar accusations. Israeli forces raided Shifa Hospital in November, alleging that Hamas had created an elaborate command and control center inside the facility. Abu Selmia and other staff denied the allegations and accused Israel of recklessly endangering thousands of patients and displaced people who were sheltering there. The military uncovered a tunnel beneath Shifa Hospital leading to a few rooms, as well as other evidence that militants had been present inside the medical center, but the evidence fell short of what it had claimed before the raid.
Abu Selmia was detained on Nov. 22 while escorting a U.N.-led evacuation of patients from the hospital. He said his detention was “politically motivated,” adding that he had been brought to court at least three times but was never charged or allowed to meet with lawyers.
Israel has since raided several other Gaza hospitals on similar allegations, forcing them to shut down or dramatically reduce services even as tens of thousands have been wounded in Israeli strikes or sickened in the harsh conditions of the war. The army raided Shifa a second time earlier this year, causing heavy destruction after saying that militants had regrouped there. Hospitals can lose their protection under international law if combatants use them for military purposes. The decision to release Abu Selmia drew harsh condemnations from government ministers and opposition leaders, as the various state organs responsible for detentions scrambled to shift blame.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister who controls the country's police and prison service, said the release of Abu Selmia and the others constituted “security negligence" and blamed the Defense Ministry. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Abu Selmia's release was another sign of the government's “lawlessness and dysfunction.”Gallant's office released a brief statement saying the incarceration and release of prisoners is the responsibility of the prison service and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The prison service said the decision was made by the Shin Bet and the army, and released a document ordering his release that was signed by an army reserve general. The Shin Bet said the government had decided — against its advice — to release detainees who were determined to be less of a threat in order to free up space.
“Though the Shifa Hospital Chief passed the risk assessment compared to other detainees — the matter will be internally reviewed,” it said.
Since the start of the war, Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, crowding military detention facilities and prisons. Many are being held without charge or trial in what is known as administrative detention.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 civilians and took another 250 hostage. The war has killed at least 37,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or fighters.Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, with many displaced multiple times. Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of public order have hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid, fueling widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.

At least 55 Palestinians detained by Israel in Gaza released
Euronews/July 1, 2024
At least 55 Palestinians detained in Gaza were released by Israel on Monday, including the director of its main hospital. Mohammed Abu Selmia, alongside others, was taken in November when Israeli forces raided Shifa Hospital. In video comments aired by Palestinian media following his release, Abu Selmia accused Israeli authorities of subjecting Palestinian detainees to “daily physical and psychological humiliation”, an allegation that Israeli authorities have denied. Israel accuses Hamas and other militant groups of sheltering in hospitals and using them for military purposes. Palestinian health officials say Israeli raids have forced several hospitals to shut down or dramatically reduce services, recklessly endangering civilians. Hospitals can lose their protection under international law if they are used for military purposes.Police push back protesters in Jerusalem calling for Israel government to accept Gaza truce
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Monday said around 20 projectiles were fired from Gaza at communities near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. But nearly nine months into Israel’s massive offensive into Gaza, Palestinian militants have continued to launch sporadic rocket attacks, though the intensity has been greatly reduced. Fighters have also regrouped in heavily damaged areas of Gaza where Israeli ground troops operated earlier in the war. In recent days, fighting has erupted in the north, which was largely evacuated and heavily bombed early in the war. Tens of thousands of people have fled the area in recent days, according to the United Nations. Israel launched the war after Hamas’ attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,700 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Attacker shot dead after wounding Israeli embassy guard in Belgrade. Senior Hamas official says no progress made in ceasefire talks with Israel. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine, and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.

Israel pounds Gaza after ordering Khan Younes evacuation
Agence France Presse/July 02/2024
Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes Tuesday on southern Gaza and battled militants after the army again ordered Palestinians to leave areas near the besieged territory's border with Israel and Egypt. Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city from which Israeli forces withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle. A hospital source in the city said shelling killed eight people and wounded more than 30 others. The bombardment came after a rocket barrage at southern Israel claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas. This was followed by an order to evacuate most areas east of the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, including the towns of Al-Qarara and Bani Suhaila. Bani Suhaila resident Ahmad Najjar said the Israeli order has spurred "fear and extreme anxiety", and "there is a large displacement of residents". Six consecutive days of intense battles followed a similar evacuation order issued last week for the Gaza City district of Shujaiya. An AFP correspondent reported artillery shelling in the northern area on Tuesday, and witnesses said gun battles raged on. The military said its forces were operating in Shujaiya, central Gaza and Rafah, where aircraft carried out strikes and troops "ambushed an armed terrorist squad" in a car and killed them. Over the past day, the Israeli air force "struck approximately 30 terror targets" across Gaza, said a military statement. In Shujaiya, Palestinian militants "were eliminated and dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground were dismantled, including tunnel shafts", it added.
'Downshift'
In central Gaza, witnesses said strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp where the Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least one dead, a child. Other parts of the Gaza Strip were reeling from continued fighting nearly nine months into the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. Months of on-and-off talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have meanwhile made little progress, even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared that the "intense phase" of the war was winding down. "We've heard the Israelis talk about a significant downshift in their operations in Gaza," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
"It remains to be seen."
The latest order to leave parts of southern Gaza follows an evacuation of Rafah nearly two months ago which had signaled the start of a long-feared Israeli ground offensive. The fighting since then has again uprooted many Palestinians and led to the closure of a key aid crossing. The United Nations and relief agencies have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and the threat of starvation the war and Israeli siege have brought for Gaza's 2.4 million people. Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The Palestinian militants also seized 251 captives, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the Israeli army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,900 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the territory. Israeli authorities on Monday released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital -- the territory's largest medical complex -- along with dozens of other detainees returned to Gaza for treatment. Speaking after his release, Abu Salmiya said he had suffered "severe torture" during his detention. "Several inmates died in interrogation centers and were deprived of food and medicine," he said.
'Try peace'
Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other hospitals as a cover for military operations, claims Gaza militants have rejected. Netanyahu, who has faced growing anger from protesters over his handling of the conflict as well as pressure from hardline coalition partners, criticized the release which he said had been made without his knowledge. The Israeli premier said Abu Salmiya belongs "in prison" because Israeli hostages were "murdered and held" in the now ravaged hospital he runs. Successive Israeli raids have reduced large parts of Al-Shifa to rubble. The director's return to Gaza was "a serious mistake and a moral failure", Netanyahu said. According to Abu Salmiya, Israel brought no charges against him during his seven-month detention. Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency said the release was "to free up places in detention centers."Those freed "represent a lesser danger" and were not directly involved in attacks on Israeli civilians, it said. In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Monday, thousands attended an event calling for an end to the war and "a better reality" for Israelis and Palestinians, according to activist Ibrahim Abu Ahmad.
"At any moment, we can start making peace," said Israeli historian and author Yuval Noah Harari. "We have already tried to make peace, and we weren't good at it. So what? We aren't that successful at making war either, and that doesn't stop us from trying... It's time to try peace again."

Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel, tanks advance in Gaza
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem/CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters)/July 1, 2024
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper in parts of the enclave, residents and officials said. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli communities near the fence with Gaza in response to "the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people". The volley of around 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. But the attack showed militants still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at neutralising threats against it.
Violence also flared on Monday in the Israeli occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian health ministry said a woman and a boy were killed in the city of Tulkarm during an operation by Israeli forces. A day earlier, an Israeli strike in the same area killed an Islamic Jihad member. In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago. Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said. The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there. Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs Gaza, said its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties. The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier in southern Gaza without providing details. Israel's Army Radio said the soldier was killed in Rafah in a booby-trapped house - a possible reference to the incident reported by Islamic Jihad. Also in Rafah, the Israeli military said that an airstrike killed a militant who fired an anti-tank missile at its troops. Israel has signalled that its operation in Rafah, meant to stamp out Hamas, will soon be concluded. After the intense phase of the war is over, its forces will focus on smaller scale operations meant to stop Hamas reassembling, officials say. The war began when Hamas-led fighters burst into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages, including civilians and soldiers, back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive launched by Israel in retaliation has killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but officials say most of the dead are civilians. Israel says 317 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza and that at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.
CEASEFIRE EFFORTS STALLED
Arab mediators' efforts to secure a ceasefire, backed by the United States, have stalled. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated. Israeli authorities released 54 Palestinians it had detained during the war, Palestinian border officials said. Among them was Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, arrested by the military when its forces first stormed the medical facility in November. Israel said Hamas had been using the hospital for military purposes. The military has released the hospital's CCTV footage from Oct. 7 showing gunmen and hostages on the premises and has taken journalists into a tunnel found at the complex. Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes. Abu Selmeyah rejected the allegations on Monday and said detainees had been abused during their detention, including being deprived of food and medicine, and that some had died. "I was subjected to severe torture, my little finger was broken, and I was beaten in the head until blood came out, more than once," Abu Selmeyah told a press conference at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Israel in May said it was investigating the deaths of Palestinians captured during the war as well as a military-run detention camp where released detainees and rights groups have alleged abuse of inmates. The military did not immediately comment on Abu Selmeyah's remarks.

As Iran faces a rare runoff presidential election, disenchanted voters are staying away
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) /July 2, 2024
Over 20 years ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd at Friday prayers to denounce the United States for its disenchanted electorate.
“It is disgraceful for a nation to have a 35% or 40% voter turnout, as happens in some of the nations that you see having presidential elections,” Khamenei said in 2001. “It is obvious that their people do not trust their political system, that they do not care about it and that they have no hope.”
Iran now faces what the ayatollah described.
Iran will hold a runoff presidential election Friday, only its second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after only 39.9% of its voting public cast a ballot the previous week. Of over 24.5 million votes, more than 1 million ballots were later rejected — typically a sign of people feeling obligated to head to the polls but wanting to reject all the candidates. Meanwhile, public rage simmers after years of Iran's economy cratering to new lows, along with bloody crackdowns on dissent, including over the mass protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country's morality police allegedly over not wearing her headscarf to their liking. Tensions with the West remain high as Iran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Now, hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faces the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who likely needs a widespread turnout to win the presidency. Pezeshkian's supporters warn of dark days ahead under Jalili. Meanwhile, many people are unconvinced that their vote even matters. “I did not vote and I will not, since nobody apologized because of Mahsa and later miseries that young people face, neither the reformists nor the hard-liners," said Leila Seyyedi, a 23-year-old university student studying graphic design. Iranian election law requires a candidate to get over 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff. In results released Saturday, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million votes while Jalili received 9.4 million. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came in third with 3.3 million, while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000. Most voters for Qalibaf, a former general in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and national police chief known for his crackdowns against students and for corruption allegations, likely will break for Jalili after Qalibaf endorsed him, analysts say. That has put Jalili, a 58-year-old known as the “Living Martyr” for losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, in the lead position for the runoff.
But his recalcitrant reputation among Western diplomats during negotiations over Iran's nuclear program is paired with concern at home over his views. One politician who has aligned himself with the moderates, former Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, put the choice between Jalili and Pezeshkian more starkly. “We will not let Iran fall into the hands of the Taliban,” he wrote on social platform X. But even such dark warnings seemingly failed to have an effect. On the streets of Tehran after the June 28 vote, many told The Associated Press they didn't care about the election. “I did not vote, as former presidents failed to realize their promises," said Ahmad Taheri, a 27-year-old psychology student. “I will not vote this coming Friday either.”Mohammad Ali Robati, a 43-year-old electronic engineer and a father of two, said Iranian officials' apparent indifference to people's economic pressures caused him not to vote. “After years of economic difficulties, I have no interest in politics,” Robati said, though he held out the possibility of voting Friday.
At the time of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the exchange rate for Iran's currency was 32,000 rials to $1. Today, it’s 617,000 rials to $1 — and many have found the value of their bank accounts, retirement funds and other holdings gouged by years of depreciation. It's nearing its record low of 700,000 rials, briefly reached after Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April. Meanwhile, anger over Amini’s death in September 2022 persists. Her death, in which United Nations investigators said Iran's government was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to it, sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. Less than two years later, hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy have pressed forward with a renewed hijab crackdown.
“The voter participation levels and blank ballots represented a repudiation of regime policies, particularly its crackdown on critics and women who refuse to comply with laws requiring full head covering,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis Monday. Pezeshkian has written on X that his government would resist the police enforcement of the hijab along with restrictions on the internet. However, Tahereh Namazi, a 31-year-old mathematics teacher, said she didn't vote because neither candidate made a clear pledge on those issues. Those who didn't vote and spoke to the AP described their decision as their own, not part of an organized boycott. Whether voters heed Pezeshkian on Friday remains in question. In recent days, he has repeatedly cited the story of the “selfless farmer,” a tale told to nearly every Iranian child at school about a farmer in 1961 who stripped off his own shirt and set it ablaze to warn a train about boulders blocking the tracks. Those not taking part in the election believe the train has already crashed.

French left, Macron scramble to block far-right win
Agence France Presse/July 02/2024
Candidates in France on Tuesday faced a deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron's centrist camp and a left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power. On Sunday, French people go to polls for the decisive final round of the snap election Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European elections last month. His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the first round of voting last Sunday. Macron's centrists trailed in third place behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance. Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron's camp has begun cooperating with the New Popular Front alliance which includes the hard-left France Unbowed party. The rivals are hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority. Macron has called for a "broad" democratic coalition against the far right, with the political crisis overshadowing France's preparations for the Olympic Games this summer.
'Catastrophic'
Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again urged voters not to give the far-right an absolute majority. "That would be catastrophic for the French," he said, adding that the far-right would fuel divisions in society. Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far right. The deadline to decide whether to stand down is 6 pm Tuesday. According to a provisional count by AFP, more than 150 left-wing or centrist candidates have already dropped out. "Only a strong republican front, uniting the left, center and conservatives, can keep the far right at bay and prevent France from tipping over," daily Le Monde said in an editorial. Le Pen has urged voters to give the RN an absolute majority, which would see Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN chief with no governing experience, become prime minister. But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority -- although the final outcome remains far from certain. The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote last Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the New Popular Front alliance and just over 20 percent for Macron's camp. Speaking on television on Monday night, Bardella derided efforts by Macron's camp and the left-wing coalition to put up a united front, suggesting that the "dishonorable" alliance had been formed out of desperation. He accused the French president of coming "to the rescue of a violent extreme-left movement" he himself had denounced just days ago. Macron convened a cabinet meeting Monday to decide a further course of action. "Let's not be mistaken. It's the far right that's on its way to the highest office, no one else," he said at the meeting, according to one participant.
The emotion was palpable, with several ministers dropping out of the race.
"We've known happier meetings," one minister told Le Monde.
'Against our values'
France's Euro 2024 star Jules Kounde was the latest football player to call on voters to block the far-right. "Obviously I was disappointed to see the direction our country is taking with a big level of support for a party that is against our values of unity and respect, and that wants to divide the French people," said Kounde, the 25-year-old Barcelona defender. "Nothing is decided yet, and I think it will be important to block the far right and the National Rally," he added, after France beat Belgium 1-0 in Duesseldorf to reach the Euro 2024 quarter-finals. Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos. With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round. The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided -- although a tiny number of four-way run-offs are also possible. If the RN takes an absolute majority and Bardella becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of "cohabitation" with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027. The election results fueled fresh criticism of Macron's decision to call the vote in the first place, a move he took with only a tight circle of advisors. The chaos risks damaging the international credibility of Macron, who is set to attend a NATO summit in Washington immediately after the vote.

France's Top Court to Examine Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad
Asharq Al Awsat/July 02/2024
Prosecutors said Tuesday they had asked France's highest court to review the legality of a French arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks on Syrian soil in 2013. Syrian opposition say one of those attacks in August 2013 on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus killed around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, in one of the many horrors of the 13-year civil war. Prosecutors said they had made the request to the Court of Cassation on Friday on judicial grounds, two days after an appeals court upheld the arrest order.
"This decision is by no means political. It is about having a legal question resolved," the prosecutors told AFP. France is believed to have been the first country to issue an arrest warrant for a sitting foreign head of state in November. Investigative magistrates specialized in so-called crimes against humanity, issued the warrant after several rights groups filed a complaint against Assad for his role in the chain of command for the alleged chemical attacks in the capital's suburbs on August 4, 5 and 21, 2013. But prosecutors from a unit specialized in investigating "terrorist" attacks have sought to annul it, although they do not question the grounds for such an arrest. They argue that immunity for foreign heads of state should only be lifted for international prosecutions, such as at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), lawyers' association Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and the Syrian Archive, an organization documenting human rights violations in Syria, filed the initial complaint.

Türkiye Detains Hundreds after Anti-Syrian Riots
Asharq Al Awsat/July 02/2024
Turkish authorities said Tuesday they had detained over 470 people after anti-Syrian riots in several cities sparked by accusations that a Syrian man had harassed a child. Tensions escalated from Sunday following violence in a central Anatolian city after a mob went on the rampage, damaging businesses and properties belonging to the Syrians. "474 people were detained after the provocative actions" carried out against Syrians in Türkiye, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X. A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire. In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: "We don't want any more Syrians! We don't want any more foreigners." A court in Kayseri ordered the Syrian man's arrest late on Monday, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said, adding: "The child and her family are under our state's protection".
Officials said the child was a Syrian girl, who was related to the man accused of harassing her. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday blamed the opposition for stoking tensions and condemned the anti-Syrian violence as "unacceptable". The unrest spread to several other cities late on Monday including Istanbul and authorities have often called for calm. "Let's not get provoked, let's act moderately," Yerlikaya said in an appeal to Turkish citizens. "Those who hatch these conspiracies against our state and nation will receive the response they deserve," he said. Turkish police boosted security around the Syrian consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, deploying an armored truck and patrolling the vicinity, according to an AFP journalist.

Iran Presidential Candidates Accuse Each Other of Having No Plan
Asharq Al Awsat/July 02/2024
Iran’s presidential candidates on Monday accused each other of having no solution for the country’s problems ahead of Friday's runoff election. During a more than two-hour debate on public TV, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian attacked his competitor, Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, for his lack of experience, saying: “Tell me, what single company have you ever managed to make you capable of running the country? Jalili defended himself highlighting his career and several positions held, including that of top nuclear negotiator. Pezeshkian further questioned his opponent on what plans he would have for reaching a nuclear deal, with Jalili responding he would approach it "based on strength not weakness,” without providing details. Jalili accused Pezeshkian of having no plans for managing the country, saying his presidency would drive the country to a “backward position,” as it was under relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021). Rouhani struck a nuclear deal with world powers that capped Iran's uranium enrichment in return to lifting sanctions but later, in 2018, President Trump pulled the US out from the landmark deal abruptly restoring harsh sanctions on Iran. Jalili said that “with the support of people,” Iran would achieve an economic growth of 8% a year, a promise Pezeshkian mocked, saying authorities should be allowed to “execute him if he failed” to deliver on it. Iran must implement "a dynamic foreign policy” if it wants to have a successful economy, Jalili said, adding that it should not be limited to those nations that it has a problem with — a reference to the US and the western world. Instead, he said, "Iran should look to the other 200 nations in the world where “foreign relations should be improved." Pezeshkian said his foreign policy will be based on “engagement with the world" including engaging in "negotiations for lifting sanctions.”Pezeshkian and Jalili also said the low turnout in the first round — the lowest-ever poll turnout in Iran’s history — should be probed. “It is not acceptable that some 60 percent (of voters) did not cast a ballot,” said Pezeshkian. The candidates will have their second and last debate Tuesday. The electiosn are aimed at choosing a successor for the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash.

Turkey's president accuses opposition of stoking racism after anti-Syrian rioting erupts
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)/Mon, July 1, 2024
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused opposition parties of stoking xenophobia and racism on Monday, a day after residents in a neighborhood in central Turkey set Syrian-owned shops on fire. The rioting erupted in the Melikgazi region of central Kayseri province late Sunday following reports that a Syrian refugee there had allegedly sexually harassed a 7-year-old Syrian girl. Outraged residents overturned some cars and set shops ablaze, calling on Syrians to leave. At least 67 people suspected of involvement in the violence were detained, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on the social media platform X. In a televised address on Monday, Erdogan accused opposition parties, which have advocated for the repatriation of refugees, of inciting violence. “Nothing can be achieved by fueling xenophobia and hatred of refugees in society,” Erdogan said. “One of the reasons for the tragic event that was caused by a small group in Kayseri yesterday is the poisonous discourse of the opposition.” When Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Turkey received Syrian refugees with compassion, becoming the country to host the largest refugee population globally. As the population grew and Turkey encountered escalating economic difficulties, it has seen a rise in anti-migrant sentiment. Opposition parties are calling for the repatriation of the Syrians. Officials said the alleged abuser was arrested while the girl, her siblings and mother were placed under state protection where they would receive psychological support. In 2021, similar anti-Syrian riots broke out in an Ankara neighborhood after a Turkish teenager was stabbed to death in a fight with a group of young Syrians. Hundreds of people chanting anti-immigrant slogans took to the streets, vandalized Syrian-run shops and hurled rocks at refugees’ homes. Turkey is home to 3.6 million refugees, according to government figures though some argue the real population may be significantly larger.

Pakistani court sentences Christian man to death for posting hateful content against Muslims
Asim Tanveer/MULTAN, Pakistan (AP)/July 1, 2024
A court in Pakistan sentenced a Christian man to death for sharing what it said was hateful content against Muslims on social media after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the eastern Punjab province last year, his lawyer said Monday, adding he will appeal the verdict.In August 2023, groups of Muslim men burned dozens of homes and churches in the city of Jaranwala after some residents claimed they saw two Christian men tearing out pages from Islam's holy book, the Quran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages, authorities said. The two men were later arrested. No casualties were reported at the time as terrified Christians fled their homes to safer areas. Though the police arrested more than 100 suspects following the attacks, it remained unclear if any were convicted. Ehsan Shan, though not party to the desecration, was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Quran on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press Monday. He also said he would appeal against the death sentence issued Saturday by a court in the city of Sahiwal in Punjab province. Amir Farooq, a police officer who arrested Shan, said the man shared “the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”Naveed Kashif, a local priest at a church in Sahiwal, said while he didn't excuse what Shan posted, he wondered “ why the court ordered such an extreme verdict when those linked to the attacks are yet to be punished.” Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just the accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.Earlier this month, 72-year-old Nazir Masih died after he was attacked by an angry mob in May following accusations of blasphemy.

US military heightens the security alert at European bases due to a combination of threats
Tara Copp/WASHINGTON (AP)/July 1, 2024
The U.S. military has raised the security protection measures it is taking at its bases throughout Europe, asking service members to be more vigilant and keep a lower profile due to a combination of threats it is seeing across the region. U.S. European Command said in a statement Sunday that a “variety of factors play into the safety of U.S. military community abroad.”Increasing the threat level to “Charlie” is the result of a combination of events occurring across Europe, including elections in France and the U.K., the upcoming Olympics and other major sporting events, and the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details. But they said they were not aware of any specific threat. Force protection Charlie is the second-highest level for service members and is instituted “when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating that some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely.” Raising the threat level to Charlie means additional security measures will be in place at U.S. military installations, but it's up to each commander's discretion to determine what those measures are. It also means service members and their families who are living in each community should be more aware of their surroundings and maintain a lower profile, one of the officials said.

Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 01 & 02/2024
The Great China Shell Game: The U.S. Must Stop Playing Sanctions Whack-A-Mole with the CCP
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/July 1, 2024
There is no mystery why China's big banks have run from Russia: These behemoths — the four largest banks in the world ranked by assets are Chinese — know the U.S. can effectively impose a death sentence. The Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, can designate, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, Chinese banks to be of "primary money laundering concern." Designated banks can no longer clear dollar transactions through New York, where every dollar transaction clears.
Because the dollar reigns supreme in international transactions, Section 311 designations would put the Chinese state banks out of business most everywhere outside China and even reduce their business inside that country. The Treasury Department, to great effect, imposed Section 311 on Bank of Dandong, a small Chinese bank, in 2017 for participating in prohibited transactions with North Korea.
Moreover, Washington has other tools to hit Chinese banks. In 2012, Treasury also cut China's Bank of Kunlun off from the U.S. financial system by invoking the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.
"Transactions between China and Russia will increasingly go through underground channels." The underground channels include cryptocurrency, generally banned in China. -- "[T]he head of a trade body in a southeastern province that represents Chinese businesses with Russian interests" to Reuters.
China's regime is playing Americans for fools. It is time for Washington to sanction all Chinese banks, all other Chinese financial institutions, and all Chinese corporates, treating them as one single organization.
Sanctions will work... if they are immediately applied against all Chinese entities to produce maximum shock. There is no point in imposing sanctions that never have a chance of stopping offending behavior.
China's regime is playing Americans for fools. It is time for Washington to sanction all Chinese banks, all other Chinese financial institutions, and all Chinese corporates, treating them as one single organization. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
The larger Chinese banks, in response to stern U.S. warnings, have this year been exiting transactions involving Russia.
Are America's sanctions efforts finally working?
No. Beijing is merely shifting transactions to smaller banks and non-banking channels. China, to help Russia's war effort in Ukraine, is employing a decades-old stratagem: the shell game. At best, America's sanctions are crimping the fast-growing China-Russia trade, not ending it.
Beijing, Moscow's "no-limits" partner, has provided across-the-board support for the Russian war effort since the start of the conflict. In recent months, China has been supplying machine tools, semiconductors, and other dual-use items. It has also helped out with weapons technology and satellite imagery. Reporting from last year shows that Chinese parties were selling ammunition in large quantities.
Moreover, China has lent bank support. Now, however, Chinese banking institutions have become wary of working with Russia, especially since March. "Concern over the possibility of sanctions," Reuters reported in June, "has already caused China's big banks to throttle payments for cross-border transactions involving Russians, or pull back from any involvement altogether."
There is no mystery why China's big banks have run from Russia: These behemoths — the four largest banks in the world ranked by assets are Chinese — know the U.S. can effectively impose a death sentence. The Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, can designate, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, Chinese banks to be of "primary money laundering concern." Designated banks can no longer clear dollar transactions through New York, where every dollar transaction clears.
Because the dollar reigns supreme in international transactions, Section 311 designations would put the Chinese state banks out of business most everywhere outside China and even reduce their business inside that country. The Treasury Department, to great effect, imposed Section 311 on Bank of Dandong, a small Chinese bank, in 2017 for participating in prohibited transactions with North Korea.
In addition, Washington has other tools to hit Chinese banks. In 2012, Treasury also cut China's Bank of Kunlun off from the U.S. financial system by invoking the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.
As big Chinese banks began to withdraw from Russian business, other Chinese banks moved in. "Some Chinese companies are turning to small banks at the border," Reuters reported in late April.
The move to smaller banks had to have been orchestrated in Beijing. The Chinese central government and the Communist Party tightly control the banking system, and the banks cannot do anything — especially something as sensitive as helping Russia in the middle of a major war — without approval from the top of the Chinese political system.
Beijing is clever. "So if they move their transactions into smaller banks that can be sanctioned, you know, that allows them a certain ability to let a bank fall and not be affected," Jonathan Ward, author of The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China, explained to Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business in the middle of June. Chinese officials are also trying to inoculate their banks. As "the head of a trade body in a southeastern province that represents Chinese businesses with Russian interests" explained to Reuters, "Transactions between China and Russia will increasingly go through underground channels." The underground channels include cryptocurrency, generally banned in China.
China's regime is playing Americans for fools. It is time for Washington to sanction all Chinese banks, all other Chinese financial institutions, and all Chinese corporates, treating them as one single organization. It is time for American officials to stop playing what has become sanctions whack-a-mole.
The Communist Party of China, which should also be sanctioned, runs a unitary state and demands absolute obedience from all parties in society. Banks and other enterprises operate in separate corporate shells and may have separate owners, but they are not separate.
In short, Chinese society is not organized the same way as America's.
"Speed is everything," Agathe Demarais, author of Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests, said to NPR, on how to make sanctions work. "Sanctions tend to work fast or never," she noted. "They provoke a shock within the targeted economy."
Washington, by patiently going after one sanctions-busting entity after another, gives China plenty of time to adjust and make American sanctions ineffective. Sanctions will work, applying Demarais's logic, if they are immediately applied against all Chinese entities to produce maximum shock.
There is no point in imposing sanctions that never have a chance of stopping offending behavior.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China and China Is Going to War, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

'We Don't Want Churches, We Want Mosques': The Persecution of Christians, May 2024
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 30, 2024
A raging Muslim mob attacked and savagely beat a 74-year-old Christian man, on what turned out to be a false accusation of "blasphemy". Nine days later, on June 3, Nazir Masih Gill died from his many injuries, including a smashed skull. — Morning Star News, June 3, 2024, Pakistan.
The Muslim employer of Saima Bibi, a 24-year-old Christian woman, dragged her outside and shoved her toward an electric chaff cutter—which sliced off one of her ears, cut off most of her scalp, and injured an eye. Her husband, Shahzad, who worked on the same farm and was present, said that one of their employers, Muhammad Mustafa, was angry that they were taking a break and ordered them to cut fodder for the cattle. — Morning Star News, May 15, 2024, Pakistan.
Shahid Masih, a 35-year-old Christian dairy worker, was falsely accused of theft and subjected to "merciless torture" at the hands of Muhammad Ijaz. It included forcing him to ingest acid, from which he died in the hospital 11 days later.... Last reported, authorities are refusing to prosecute Muhammad Ijaz and his murderous accomplices. — britishasianchristians.org, May 15, 2024, Pakistan.
"Christian sanitation workers work long shifts even in extreme weather conditions.... these workers are often ridiculed and mistreated because of their Christian faith.... They often face salary delays and no job security. They are discriminated against even by their Muslim colleagues, and now we are witnessing incidents of physical violence against these weak people." — Sunil Gulzar, Christian socio-political activist, Morning Star News, May 29, 2024, Pakistan.
Many other attacks on churches in France persisted throughout the month of May, including arson attacks, general desecrations, desecrations of cemeteries, defecations in churches and urination in their baptismal fonts, and bomb threats. — France.
"Imagine the uproar if it was Christians throwing rocks at a mosque? MPs and the media would be all over it screaming 'Islamophobia!'" — Tommy Robinson, British activist, x.com, May 1, 2024, England.
The Church of the Holy Trinity was vandalized with Islamic graffiti, which included "Allah Akbar," "Remove this church from here," "Only Muslims are here," "We don't want churches, we want mosques," and "Islam is the only true religion!" — orthodoxtimes.com, May 15, 2024, Kosovo.
On Sunday, May 12, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Vienna, Austria (pictured) was defaced with Islamic slogans, including "Islam will win, with you or without." (Image source: Zairon/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of May 2024.
Muslim Slaughter of and Violence against Christians
Nigeria: Some May headlines from the ongoing Muslim genocide of Christians in the African nation:
May 1: "Fulani Herdsmen Kill 12 Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria"
May 6: "Herdsmen Kill 28 Christians in Benue State, Nigeria"
May 7: "Six Christians Killed, Eight Wounded in Kaduna State, Nigeria"
May 10: "Suspected Fulani Herdsmen Attack Catholic School in Nigeria"
May 14: "Christians, Others Increasingly Targeted in Plateau State, Nigeria: Amnesty International reports 1,336 people killed in three months"
Democratic Republic of Congo: During a public speech on May 25, Pope Francis said,
"I would like to stop and thank God for the testimony of martyrdom that a group of Catholics from Congo, from North Kivu, have given in recent days. Their throats were slit simply because they were Christians and didn't want to convert to Islam."
As there have been so many massacres of Christians in the Congo, it was not immediately clear which the pope was referring to in "recent days," though it was most likely the one that occurred on May 13, in the Ituri Province, where Muslim militants slaughtered 11 Christians, kidnapped others, and set their village on fire.
Somalia: On May 5, the extended Muslim family of Mohammad Abdul, a 40-year-old man, knifed him for converting to Christianity. Earlier, after local Muslims learned that he had become Christian they began sending the apostate threatening texts:
"We are now aware that every evening you are praying in the name of Issa [Jesus] as well as reading a corrupted book [Bible] and not reading the Quran, the holy book sent to Muhammad from Allah. If you do not stop this bad way of conducting religious activities, then you risk your life."
Afterwards, things got worse—"On May 2, my younger son arrived crying that he was beaten by some boys after telling them about my reading the Bible and praying," said Mohammad. Then, in the evening of May 5, his Muslim relatives arrived at his door:
"They were shouting and yelling that they were looking for my head. The attackers forcibly entered the house and started questioning me for forsaking Islam and joining a bad religion. My wife and children looked shaken."
After a relative knifed Abdul, "The children began wailing and crying in a very loud voice, which confused the attackers. I then managed to escape through the rear door, bleeding."
An unnamed source who helped Abdul continues the narrative:
"While [Mohammad] Abdul was nursing injuries, the Muslims went back to his house and started destroying his house, and the wife and the five children went back with their people. His wife has told him that the Muslims are looking for him, and that therefore he should not go back to them."
Uganda: On May 16, Muslims savagely beat two Christian evangelists for proclaiming Christ. Samuel, 27, and Ephraim, 25, had just left an evangelistic outreach when three Muslims blocked them near a swamp. According to Samuel,
"They stopped us and asked us to renounce Jesus Christ, whom we were preaching at Naigombwa trading center for four days. At the same time, they wanted to forcefully circumcise us as per Islamic teaching for us to live. We totally refused, and they started beating us badly with sharp objects and left us unconscious in a coma in a pool of blood... My colleague, [Ephraim] suffered serious bleeding coming out of his ears, bruised face and a deep cut in his left hand, while myself I had a twisted neck, swollen face and neck."
They regained consciousness in a hospital where they learned that motorcycle passersby had rescued them.
Niger: According to a May 24 report,
"On May 2, Christians began to leave their villages and took refuge in the town of Makalondi, in the Tillabéri region (southwest of Niger). Currently, around 357 Christian families have fled. The reason for this exodus? On April 16, jihadists announced that from that day on, all men aged 15 and over who refuse to convert to Islam are required to pay Jizya, a ["protection"] tax levied on non-Muslim residents.
"This law would apply to all villages controlled by jihadists. According to our contacts, all villagers have been strongly advised to convert to Islam if they want to continue living in their villages. And those who refuse must pay a tax. If they pay, they are allowed to continue living in the village. But they will live like slaves with their families. All their property will automatically become that of the jihadists. Those who do not want to convert or pay Jizya must leave the village. But they are not allowed to take anything with them except the clothes they are wearing.
"Our partners have confirmed that to date, the jihadists control six other villages in the Tillabéri region in which they are imposing their new law. Since then, new Christian families have been leaving their villages every day."
Christians fleeing for their lives have become destitute. According to a local pastor, "We fled with nothing because we couldn't bring our food. We don't even have a shelter to stay in..."
Pakistan: The Rape, Slaughter, and Abuse of Christians
On May 16, one Muhammad Shahbaz broke into a Christian household in the middle of the night, where he raped Asma Bibi, a 35-year-old mentally handicapped Christian woman. *** On being questioned by police, Muhammad casually confessed: "I was sexually aroused, so I entered the house and raped Asma." He also named accomplices, prompting police to arrest and question several other Muslim men. As a result, according to the report,
"The Masih [Christian] family finds themselves in a harrowing situation, navigating threats and intimidation from individuals pressuring them to abandon their pursuit of justice. Since the arrest of the suspects involved, a wave of hostility has swept through the Muslim community, leaving Nasir Masih and his loved ones isolated and vulnerable. These threats, delivered with ominous warnings of impending disaster should they persist in seeking justice, cast a chilling shadow over the family's already tumultuous ordeal."
Human rights activist Juliet Chowdhry condemned the act in a statement:
"A very vulnerable woman was violently and brutally raped in her own home by a neighbor. The man shows no remorse, justifying his act as merely giving in to his urges, as if that were a valid excuse. It's appalling that Islamic Sharia law permits such crimes to be forgiven through compensation payments, which fosters a sense of impunity and only serves to exacerbate and proliferate such crimes against minority Christians."
On May 25, a raging Muslim mob attacked and savagely beat a 74-year-old Christian man, on what turned out to be a false accusation of "blasphemy" (videos and images of the graphic incident here and here). Nine days later, on June 3, Nazir Masih Gill died from his many injuries, including a smashed skull. On the day of the incident, a local mosque had loudly announced that Nazir had been seen burning the Koran in the street. A large mob consisting of hundreds of irate Muslims—including many women and children—swiftly formed and set fire to the modest shoe store of the elderly Christian man— at whom they hurled stones and bricks, beat with sticks and other objects, and, after he had collapsed to the floor, repeatedly kicked. The deceased man's son, Sultan Gill, a member of the Presbyterian Church, described the incident:
"It was around 6 a.m. when we heard shouts outside our main gate. When I went outside to enquire, I saw a group of 20-30 Muslims there who alleged that my father had burned pages of the Quran. I tried to placate them and also sought forgiveness on my father's behalf if he had indeed mistakenly did [sic] something wrong, but they refused to listen. Meanwhile, the number of the mob had grown into hundreds, and as soon as the police [who had earlier arrived] brought my family outside, some people snatched my father from the policemen and started torturing him. I tried to rescue him, but the police told me that the lives of the entire family were at serious risk, and it was important to move us to safety. They assured me that they would save my father from the mob after which I agreed to leave, but they failed to rescue him in time... [T]he entire episode has been so traumatizing for all of us that I don't think we will ever be able to resume our normal lives there.... All our valuables and belongings were looted by the mob. They also burned some rooms of our house and damaged the infrastructure."
As to what spurred the blasphemy accusation in the first place, the son said,
"Our business was flourishing, making some local Muslims jealous of our success. There have been multiple attempts to involve us in fake cases, which we faced bravely, but this time they misused religion to persecute us."
According to a May 15 report, the Muslim employer of Saima Bibi, a 24-year-old Christian woman, dragged her outside and shoved her toward an electric chaff cutter—which sliced off one of her ears, cut off most of her scalp, and injured an eye (image here). Her husband, Shahzad, who worked on the same farm and was present, said that one of their employers, Muhammad Mustafa, was angry that they were taking a break and ordered them to cut fodder for the cattle:
"I immediately got up and started to cut the fodder in the electric chaff cutter, but as soon as my wife came outside to give me tea, Mustafa started hurling abuses at her and told her to get to work. When Saima said that she'll begin work in 10 minutes, Mustafa pulled her from the hair and pushed her towards the chaff cutter, causing her to fall and hitting her head in the running machine... Blood started gushing out of Saima's head, and she screamed and cried in pain. Seeing her in a bloody mess, Mustafa fled the scene."
On May 8, Shahid Masih, a 35-year-old Christian dairy worker, was falsely accused of theft and subjected to "merciless torture" at the hands of Muhammad Ijaz. It included forcing him to ingest acid, from which he died in the hospital 11 days later. Because the impoverished Christian family lived near the dairy and heard the cries, they rushed to the scene, where, according to his wife,
"My children were also subjected to violence simply for weeping at the sight of their father's agonizing ordeal.... I too was subjected to physical assault and verbal abuse."
Seeing that they had gone "overboard" and nearly killed the Christian, Muhammad and his henchmen dropped him off at a hospital. His esophagus, lungs, and stomach were irretrievably damaged:
"For eleven agonizing days, Shahid fought for his life at Mayo Hospital, but tragically, he succumbed to his injuries on the 18th of May 2024. His untimely passing has left behind his wife, Sonia, and their six children, who now face an uncertain future without their primary provider."
Responding to this latest Pakistani injustice, the British Asian Christian Association said:
"This is a heartbreaking account of brutal violence against an innocent Christian man. The savagery with which Shahid was murdered is utterly detestable and deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law. It is a damning indictment of Pakistan that Christians remain vulnerable and face such devastating persecution due to perceived impunity. Only a concerted effort to uphold the law in this and other incidents will change the appalling mindset that treats Christians as pariahs and condones the violence meted out against them."
Last reported, authorities are refusing to prosecute Muhammad Ijaz and his murderous accomplices.
On May 25, Muslims beat Yasir Masih, a 35-year-old Christian sanitation worker, and left him chained for hours in the blistering heat. When his father-in-law Hussain found him hours later,
"Masih's entire body was badly bruised, and he was chained to a chair. When he regained some strength, he told us that Malik Khadim Hussain, a resident of Gujjarpura, his son and three others had held him hostage and tortured him for not immediately obeying their order to collect the garbage and sweep the doorstep of their house."
Masih's primary responsibility was to clean the streets, although he had usually agreed to the Muslim families' requests to clean their specific areas:
"Masih told [Malik] Hussain that he would do the needful as soon as he finished his official work and got busy. After some minutes, when Masih went to Hussain's house, he told him to go on the roof and clean it. When Masih went to the roof, Hussain, his sons and the other men attacked him with iron rods, punches and kicks."
The Muslim family then chained him to a chair:
"When they left Masih alone, he found a chance to escape, still chained to the chair. He tripped down the stairs and dragged himself out of the gate into the street, where he collapsed. Some passersby recognized him, and this is how we also got information about his whereabouts."
Discussing this incident, Christian socio-political activist Sunil Gulzar said,
"Christian sanitation workers work long shifts even in extreme weather conditions to keep the city clean. However, despite their dedicated services, these workers are often ridiculed and mistreated because of their Christian faith.... It seems that sanitary workers are children of a lesser god. They often face salary delays and no job security. They are discriminated against even by their Muslim colleagues, and now we are witnessing incidents of physical violence against these weak people."
Muslim Attacks on Churches and Other Christian Symbols
France: After knocking down a large public cross with his van, a Muslim man of Turkish origin emerged from it and, after shouting out a few "Allahu akbars," began to perform Muslim prostration prayers at the scene. Although the report ascribes his behavior to "psychological problems," it is notable that the day of the incident, May 29, is the anniversary of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople—which featured the systematic breaking of crosses to ubiquitous cries of "Allahu akbar."
Separately, on May 14, the St. Thérèse Church was set on fire in Poitiers (ironically, where Muslim invaders were first defeated by the French General Charles Martel in 732). Because a large number of fire fighters were quick to respond, the fire was put out, so that only some chairs and pews were destroyed. However, a large statue of the Virgin Mary inside the church was found beheaded (image here), apparently by the same people who had set the fire. This was the second such attack on the church in two years. In 2022, the nativity figures near the same statue of Mary were found smashed to pieces.
Another Virgin Mary statue was similarly beheaded (here) and another riddled with bullets (here).
Many other attacks on churches in France persisted throughout the month of May, including arson attacks (here, here, here, here, here), general desecrations (here, here, here, here) desecrations of cemeteries (here and here), defecations in churches and urination in their baptismal fonts (here and here), and bomb threats (here).
England: On May 1 in Bradford, a Muslim woman was videotaped hurling rocks at a church in broad daylight. Her immediate target was a large statue of the Virgin Mary. A driver can be heard yelling "Leave Mary alone!" As the British activist Tommy Robinson observed on X,
"Imagine the uproar if it was Christians throwing rocks at a mosque? MPs and the media would be all over it screaming 'Islamophobia!'"
Austria: On Sunday, May 12, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua was defaced with Islamic slogans, including "Islam will win, with you or without," and "Deen over Dunya" (religion comes before worldly affairs). According to a report,
"Some of the words have been crossed out or replaced, but the graffiti has not been removed. This is not the first time that St Anthony's Church has been the scene of a crime. Four years ago, around 50 young people stormed the church shouting 'Allahu Akbar.' ... [T]he church intruders were a group of Turkish youths who had previously organised themselves via social media. There is currently no answer as to why the graffiti has not been removed, as the parish has not yet taken a position when asked."
Kosovo: On May 15, the Church of the Holy Trinity was vandalized with Islamic graffiti, which included "Allah Akbar," "Remove this church from here," "Only Muslims are here," "We don't want churches, we want mosques," and "Islam is the only true religion!" According to the report,
"This incident is particularly troubling as it follows the decision by the Kosovo authorities to ban Serbian Patriarch Porfirije and other bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church from entering Kosovo. This prohibition prevented them from celebrating the Holy Liturgy ... [T]hese attacks on churches and private property are predominantly driven by ethnic and religious motivations, specifically targeting the Serbian community and the Serbian Orthodox Church."
Slovenia: On May 29, the walls of a chapel were discovered defaced with the word "Allah" scrawled in large letters with red paint.
Indonesia: On Sunday, May 5, in the island of Java, a Muslim mob, armed with machetes, sickles, and knives, descended on a rented home, where a group of 15 Catholic students were praying. Two young women were injured. The Muslims were angered that the Christians had dared to worship in a home, as opposed to confining it to whichever churches exist. As the report explains:
"Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, indicated that intolerant people in Indonesia mistakenly believe that gathering for worship at a house is against the law. Private worship is legal in Indonesia, but many people consider the 'private sphere' as only the five daily prayers in Islam, he said."
Similarly, on May 8, in another village in Java, a local Muslim official, with his wife and son in tow, disrupted another house during Christian prayer meeting. According to an eyewitness, the Muslim family stood outside "screaming, yelling and calling them bad names," all in an effort to force them to stop worshipping. The report adds that
"The worship was not loud and has been taking place regularly without incident for 10 years.... Indonesia, which has largest Muslim population in the world at 231 million people, has seen a stream of such disruptions of Christian worship in the past 25 years..."
Senegal: Catholic cemeteries were desecrated in the more than 97% Muslim nation. Photos in the report show broken crosses, smashed tombstones, and exhumed graves. A local authority, Cheikh Bamba Dieye, responded with strong denunciations:
"A nation of peace and harmony as tolerant and open-minded as ours cannot tolerate and/or accept this desecration of tombs in the Catholic cemetery of Saint-Louis. It is unacceptable because it undermines living together and undermines our common desire to build a Senegal of all and for all where we will live in peace with respect for others. Shame on you."
Turkey: On May 6, an ancient Christian church in Constantinople (Istanbul) was reopened with much fanfare as a mosque. Believed to have been in built in the sixth century, Chora Church, like so many other churches following the Turkic conquests of Christian lands, was converted into a mosque in the fourteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, during Turkey's secular reforms, it was, due to its many Christian frescoes (images here) turned into a museum.
In 2020, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to its transformation into a mosque—79 years after it had served as a museum. At that time, the president of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, responded by calling the move "an act of symbolic violence dictated by political arrogance," which "blatantly violates the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and brutally interrupts the long-standing intercultural dialogue between East and West.... [It is further an act of] cultural insecurity and religious intolerance, which condemns a treasure trove of Christian art and cultural nobility to obscurity." One report elaborates,
"This decision [by Erdogan], reminiscent of the conversion of Hagia Sophia in 2020, has sparked controversy both domestically and internationally. *** The Chora Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its stunning Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, has long been cherished as a cultural and historical treasure. The move to repurpose it as a mosque has drawn criticism from preservationists and religious minority groups alike, who argue that it represents a disregard for cultural heritage and religious tolerance.... Critics see the conversion as a calculated political maneuver aimed at appeasing Islamist parties, which constitute significant voting blocs supporting the ruling Turkish President's Justice and Development Party, or AKP. This shift in the status of historic Christian sites reflects a broader trend in Türkiye, where some monuments with Byzantine and Greek heritage have been repurposed in recent years."
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
*About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Why Are Hamas's Crimes Ignored by Western Media?
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./July 2, 2024
The Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments have been reminded in recent days of the reasons why entering the Gaza Strip after the war would be risky, if not impossible...
According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war.
Hamas, apparently, does not want food or medication to reach the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, particularly not via Israeli border crossings. This situation is most likely caused by Hamas's desire to prolong and aggravate the suffering of the Palestinians and create a "famine" so it can place the blame on Israel.
"Why is the media ignoring what is going on in central and southern Gaza? Hamas is assassinating Gazans, particularly tribe leaders, in order to deter anyone other than Hamas from delivering humanitarian relief and participating in Gaza." — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian social media influencer from the Gaza Strip, x.com, June 26, 2024.
Until the international community – and particularly the Biden administration – fully support Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas, unfortunately there can be no real discussion of "the day after" in the Gaza Strip.
Israel... will not be the only party to benefit from Hamas's demise. A large number of Arabs and Muslims who oppose Hamas and other Iran-backed Islamist groups will also benefit, even though it is "politically incorrect" and immensely dangerous to say so.
In reality, those advocating for a "ceasefire" are asking for Hamas to be allowed to continue ruling the Gaza Strip, rearming, and gearing up to attack Israel -- in their words, "again and again."
A ceasefire will only ignite an immediate increase in terrorist attacks against Israel. Worse, Islamists worldwide will be incentivized to launch attacks not only against Israel but also against Europe. Islamists have already attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 150 times in the region since Oct 7.
By exposing the crimes of Hamas against its own people and raising awareness of these threats -- instead of helping the terrorists cover them up -- the international media can actually help to protect their own countries against steadily increasing terrorism. At the moment, terrorists over the world can only see their efforts as victorious, glorified and rewarded.
According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war. Pictured: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists share a moment of friendship for the crowds in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
If you think that the Palestinian Authority (PA) or any Arab state would agree to take control of the Gaza Strip as long as the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas has not been totally destroyed and removed from power, you would be wrong.
Removing the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, however, unfortunately cannot be achieved as long as the Biden administration and Western countries keep exerting pressure on Israel to halt the war, which erupted after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack that resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of more than 240 others as hostages.
The Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments have been reminded in recent days of the reasons why entering the Gaza Strip after the war would be risky, if not impossible, unless Hamas's military capabilities are first destroyed and the terrorist group is completely ousted from power.
According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war.
The most recent victim of Hamas's measures to prevent the emergence of new leaders in the Gaza Strip is a prominent member of the Abu Amra clan. Earlier this week, Hamas terrorists shot and killed him in the Al-Zawaida neighborhood in the center of the Gaza Strip. The man was reportedly accused of expressing readiness to "collaborate" with Israel and other countries in distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Abu Amra clan retaliated by killing two Hamas terrorists. The feud between the Abu Amra clan and Hamas included shooting, and burning property, houses and cars. Because Hamas and the PA have reportedly been stealing most of the food and medicine for their own members, it opposes other Palestinians getting engaged in the humanitarian aid distribution process. Several Palestinians, as well as aid workers, who nevertheless defied Hamas and took part in the distribution of food and medicine in the Gaza Strip were murdered or wounded by the group's terrorists.
Hamas, apparently, does not want food or medication to reach the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, particularly not via Israeli border crossings. This situation is most likely caused by Hamas's desire to prolong and aggravate the suffering of the Palestinians and create a "famine" so it can place the blame on Israel. This plan, in fact, seems to be why Hamas terrorists have been firing rockets at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The assassination of the Abu Amra clan member and the theft of humanitarian aid are only a few of the Hamas atrocities that are often "overlooked" by the mainstream media and those in the West who describe themselves as "pro-Palestinian."
Additionally, there is almost no discussion in the media or among "pro-Palestinian" individuals and groups of Hamas's use of Palestinians as human shields in its Jihad (holy war) against Israel. Since the beginning of the war, Hamas terrorists have been firing at Israeli troops from Palestinians' rooftops, bedrooms, kitchens, backyards, balconies, schools, hospitals, kindergartens and even the displaced families' tent camps.
"Why is the media ignoring what is going on in central and southern Gaza?" asked Hamza Howidy, a Palestinian social media influencer from the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is assassinating Gazans, particularly tribe leaders, in order to deter anyone other than Hamas from delivering humanitarian relief and participating in Gaza."
Howidy's question has an easy answer: When Israel is not involved, the media turns a blind eye. Foreign journalists apparently do not care when Hamas drags Palestinians into the streets and executes them in cold blood. These journalists, it appears, do not think it is worth covering such stories because Israel is not at fault.
The most recent murder of the clan member was not the first incident of its kind. Earlier this year, Hamas terrorists beheaded the leader of the powerful Doghmush clan in the northern Gaza Strip after reports claimed that he had expressed a desire to get his family to oversee the distinction of aid to the Palestinians.
Hamas has also murdered, wounded and arrested PA security officers from the West Bank who allegedly tried to enter the Gaza Strip under cover of securing aid trucks. A senior Hamas official said that the officers belonged to the PA's General Intelligence Service, headed by Major General Majed Faraj.
Another recent Hamas crime that has gone virtually unnoticed by the international media: Hamas terrorists fired a projectile at a UNICEF humanitarian aid convoy. The aid convoy was coordinated with Israeli authorities to reunite children from the northern Gaza Strip with their families in the south. "During the coordinated activity, the Hamas terrorist organization fired a projectile at the humanitarian route near the UNICEF aid convoy and [Israeli] soldiers securing the area," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. "There were no injuries to international aid workers or IDF soldiers in the attack."
"[The attack on the] UN aid workers and the assassination of the Abu Amra tribe leader by members of Al-Qassam [Hamas's armed wing] demonstrate that Hamas is determined to destroy the humanitarian situation in Gaza and is willing to sacrifice thousands of lives in order to pressure Israel to end the war so they can survive," remarked Howidy.
Until the international community – and particularly the Biden administration – fully support Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas, unfortunately there can be no real discussion of "the day after" in the Gaza Strip.
Israel, however, will not be the only party to benefit from Hamas's demise. A large number of Arabs and Muslims who oppose Hamas and other Iran-backed Islamist groups will also benefit, even though it is "politically incorrect" and immensely dangerous to say so.
In reality, those advocating for a "ceasefire" are asking for Hamas to be allowed to continue ruling the Gaza Strip, rearming, and gearing up to attack Israel -- in their words, "again and again."
A ceasefire will only ignite an immediate increase in terrorist attacks against Israel. Worse, Islamists worldwide will be incentivized to launch attacks not only against Israel but also against Europe (see here, here and here). Islamists have already attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 150 times in the region since Oct 7.
By exposing the crimes of Hamas against its own people and raising awareness of these threats -- instead of helping the terrorists cover them up -- the international media can actually help to protect their own countries against steadily increasing terrorism. At the moment, terrorists over the world can only see their efforts as victorious, glorified and rewarded.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.