"I heard that America expect that Israel will hand over Gaza to America. We cannot do that because we don't own it: Gaza is not ours. Gaza is Palestinian." -Ehud Olmert, Former Israeli PM
Read more from BBC News Live online By John Ringer
Reporting from Washington DC
Thursday, 06 February 2025, 23:17 GMT - full copy:
Former Israeli PM: 'Gaza is not ours. Gaza is Palestinian.'
A former Israeli prime minister has rejected Trump's proposal to "take over" Gaza, telling the BBC the plan is unworkable because the territory isn't Israel's to give away.
Ehud Olmert tells the BBC's World News America programme he'd welcome US help in reconstructing Gaza, but only if it's being rebuilt by and for Palestinians.
Olmert was a member of current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party for over 30 years. But in 2006 he and then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon broke from the party in order to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza.
NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Following the inauguration of POTUS Donald Trump on Jan 20, he ordered the US to withdraw its membership of many organisations that require members to adhere to international law, humanitarian and human rights law and help provide assistance to the most vulnerable people in need. The decline of the US, its weak moral compass, hatred of foreigners and cruelty towards fellow man means that the US cannot be trusted. The UK and EU should expel US from the UN and NATO.
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Three related reports:
From BBC News online
By Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC News, White House
Dated Thursday, 6 February 2025, 22:21 GMT - full copy:
Trump sanctions International Criminal Court, calls it 'illegitimate'
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Trump previously sanctioned ICC officials during his first term in office in 2020.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing it of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel".
The measure places financial and visa restrictions on individuals and their families who assist in ICC investigations of American citizens or allies.
In January, the US House of Representatives voted to sanction the ICC after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes allegations in Gaza, which Israel denies. The ICC also issued a warrant for a Hamas commander.
At the time, the ICC said it "regrets any attempts to undermine the court's independence, integrity and impartiality".
The US is not a member of the ICC and has repeatedly rejected any jurisdiction by the body over American officials or citizens.
The order says that the ICC's recent actions "set a dangerous precedent" that endanger Americans by exposing them to "harassment, abuse and possible arrest".
"This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel," the order says.
The White House accuses the Hague-based ICC of creating a "shameful moral equivalency" between Hamas and Israel by issuing the warrants for the Israeli leaders and a Hamas commander at the same time, according to a fact sheet circulated by the White House earlier.
The White House believes the ICC is placing constraints on Israel's right to self-defence, while accusing the body of ignoring Iran and anti-Israel groups.
Trump has repeatedly criticised the ICC, and took several steps to sanction the body during his first term in office.
At the time, he also imposed sanctions on ICC officials who were investigating whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
The order allowed the US to block the assets of ICC employees and stop them from entering the US.
In response, the ICC said that the sanctions were an "unacceptable attempt to interfere with the rule of law".
Founded in 2002 - in the wake of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide - the ICC was formed to investigate alleged atrocities.
The court can only deal with crimes committed after July 2002, when the Rome Statute - which formed the ICC - came into effect.
Over 120 countries have ratified the statute, while another 34 have signed and may ratify in the future.
Neither the US nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute. The order states that "both nations are thriving democracies with militaries that strictly adhere to the laws of war".
The ICC is a court of last resort and it is meant to intervene only when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.
Media caption,
Watch [Video 00:14]: Netanyahu gifts Trump a golden pager during US visit
Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, also criticised the ICC's warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, calling the move "outrageous" and saying there was no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.
Trump's signing of the executive order comes as Netanyahu visits Washington.
In a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister this week, Trump said the US could "take over" Gaza, which he said could become the "Riviera of the Middle East".
He again made the claim on his Truth Social social media platform.
"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," Trump said on Thursday.
He repeated his belief that the idea would mean resettling Palestinians, and that no American soldiers would be deployed.
His post did not make clear whether the two million residents of the Palestinian territory would be invited to return, leaving officials scrambling to explain.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that any displacement would be temporary, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Gazans would leave for an "interim" period while reconstruction took place.
Arab leaders, human rights organisations and the UN have condemned the idea.
From Times Radio - Video report Dated Thursday, 6 February 2025
Trump's plan for Gaza 'unviable' and cannot be implemented
"There not a chance that this is something that would be implemented soon." Trump's plan for Gaza is unfounded and simply part of 'flooding the zone' with ideas, says President of the Middle East Policy Council Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley.
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Trump 🇺🇸 gifts to Netanyahu 🇮🇱 a ‘key to the Whitehouse’
•Over 61,709 Palestinians murdered in Gaza 🇵🇸 •Over 17,000 children murdered •Over 111,588 injured •Over 6,000 kidnapped & tortured
Read the full report, 27 January 2025: Fortieth report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to the United Nations Security Council pursuant to Resolution 1593 (2005)
ICC prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for those accused of atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur region
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Monday that his office will be seeking arrest warrants for those accused of atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur region, which has seen reported ethnic cleansing by paramilitary forcesthat have been fighting government forces for 19 months.
Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council that crimes are being committed in Darfur “as we speak and daily” and are being used as a weapon of war. He said that conclusion is the result of “a hard-edged analysis” based on evidence and information collected by his office.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast western Darfur region.
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
Khan told the council in January there were grounds to believe both government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, which was born out of the Janjaweed, may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.
The Biden administration, just before it left office this month, determined that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide in Sudan’s civil war. And the ICC prosecutor told the council Monday that there are “very clear echoes” in the current conflict of what happened 20 years ago.
“The pattern of crimes, the perpetrators, the parties, tracked very closely with the same protagonists, the same targeted groups as existed in 2003” and led the Security Council to refer Darfur to the ICC, Khan said. “It’s the same communities, the same groups suffering, a new generation suffering the same hell that has been endured by other generations of Darfuris, and this is tragic.”
Human Rights Watch in a major report last May said the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias carried out attacks against the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, from April to June 2023, with attacks intensifying that November.
At least thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced during the attacks, according to the report by the leading rights group.
“I can confirm today that my office is taking the necessary steps to put forward applications for warrants of arrest in relations to crimes we allege are being committed and have been committed in West Darfur,” Khan told the council on Monday.
He gave no details on the specific crimes or the people the ICC wants arrested. But he did say his office is particularly concerned about a stream of allegations of gender crimes against women and girls, which he said were “a priority” for the ICC.
He said the last six months have seen “a tailspin into deeper suffering, deeper misery for the people of Darfur,” with famine present, conflict increasing, children targeted, girls and women subjected to rape and the whole landscape “one of destruction.”
Khan had a simple message for those on the ground in El Geneina in West Darfur, the city of El Fasher in North Darfur, which is besieged by RSF forces, and elsewhere in Darfur: “Now, better late than never, for goodness sake, comply with international humanitarian law, not as a charity, not out of some political necessity, but out of the dictates of humanity.”
Khan told the council he made efforts to engage with the RSF to obtain information relevant to the ICC’s investigations, and members of his office met with representatives of the paramilitary force last week.
“I do expect, and hope, and require swift and meaningful action, and will be monitoring that,” he said.
This builds on the doubling of UK aid in November to address the humanitarian emergency in Sudan to £226.5 million. These UK funds are providing emergency food assistance to nearly 800,000 displaced people, of whom over 88% are women and children, as well as improving access to shelter, drinking water, emergency health care and education.
Meanwhile, US freezes nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately, days after President Donald J Trump issued a sweeping executive order Monday to put a hold on such aid for 90 days. The new orders specifically exempted emergency food programs, such as those helping to feed millions in a widening famine in warring Sudan.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said:
“Sudanese people are facing violence on an unimaginable scale. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world.
“Millions have already fled their homes – in the face of a struggle for power that has led to abhorrent atrocities against civilians and famine on an unconscionable scale.
“The international community must wake up and act urgently to avoid this horrific death toll escalating further in the coming months, driving instability and irregular migration into Europe and the UK. Under this government’s Plan for Change, we are addressing upstream drivers of migration to secure UK borders.
“The UK will not let Sudan be forgotten. To do so would be unforgivable.”
Meanwhile, the US has frozen nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately, days after President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order Monday to put a hold on such aid for 90 days.
It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States. Exempted are emergency food programs, such as those helping to feed millions in a widening famine in warring Sudan.
Associated Press report 25 January 2025 - "The US State Department ordered a sweeping freeze Friday on new funding for almost all US foreign assistance, making exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s order, delivered in a cable sent to US embassies worldwide, specifically exempted emergency food programs, such as those helping to feed millions in a widening famine in warring Sudan."
