Three Hezbollah members killed in Israeli attacks

CAIRO/RAMALLAH: With fighting in Gaza paused, Palestinians are appealing for billions of dollars in emergency aid — from heavy machinery to clear rubble to tents and caravans to house people made homeless by Israeli bombardment.
One official from the Palestinian Authority estimated immediate funding needs of $6.5 billion for temporary housing for Gaza’s population of more than two million, even before the huge task of long-term reconstruction begins.
US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff estimated last week that rebuilding could take 10-15 years. But before that, Gazans will have to live somewhere.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has moved quickly to reassert control of Gaza after a temporary ceasefire began last month, says Gaza has immediate needs for 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.
In addition, it says there is an urgent need for heavy digging equipment to begin clearing millions of tons of rubble left by the war, both to clear the ground for housing and to recover more than 10,000 bodies estimated to be buried there.
Two Egyptian sources said heavy machinery was waiting at the border crossing and would be sent into Gaza starting Tuesday.
World Food Programme official Antoine Renard said Gaza’s food imports had surged since the ceasefire and were already at two or three times monthly levels before the truce began.

'Dual use' goods face impediments
But he said there were still impediments to importing medical and shelter equipment, which would be vital to sustain the population but which Israel considers to have potential “dual use” – civilian or military.
“This is a reminder to you that many of the items that are dual use need also to enter into Gaza like medical and also tents,” he told reporters in Geneva.
More than half a million people who fled northern Gaza have returned home, many with nothing more than what they could carry with them on foot. They were confronted by an unrecognizable wasteland of rubble where their houses once stood.
“I came back to Gaza City to find my house in ruins, with no place else to stay, no tents, no caravans, and not even a place we can rent as most of the city was destroyed,” said Gaza businessman Imad Turk, whose house and wood factory in Gaza City were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war.
“We don’t know when the reconstruction will begin, we don’t know if the truce will hold, we don’t want to be forgotten by the world,” Turk told Reuters via a chat app.
Countries from Egypt and Qatar to Jordan, Turkiye and China have expressed readiness to help, but Palestinian officials blame Israel for delays. Egypt and Qatar both helped broker the ceasefire that has, for now, stopped the fighting.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to a request for comment.

LONDON: The attorney general for England and Wales contributed to a handbook on combating Israeli apartheid during his time as a lawyer working in private practice, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Lord Hermer wrote a chapter in the book on ways that Palestinian victims could use British courts to sue weapons firms that sold arms to Israel.

Lawyers in the UK were in a “much better position” to take action on the matter than those in the US, he wrote in the book “Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation,” published in 2011.

Lord Hermer, now legal chief to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was working at Doughty Street Chambers as a lawyer at the time.

The book’s introduction says: “It is our hope that this book will prove useful in the fight against Israeli war crimes, occupation and apartheid.” It compiles commentary and contributions from pro-Palestinian lawyers and academics.

In the book, Lord Hermer criticizes British “export licences for weapons used by Israel in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

He provides a list of “proactive steps that the UK could take” to punish firms that sell weapons to Israel that could be used to violate human rights law.

Last year, Lord Hermer played a key role in the UK government’s decision to suspend 30 arms export licenses to Israel.

He also called on the government to abide by the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lord Hermer’s chapter in the book explains how a Palestinian could use English courts to sue Israeli arms firm Elbit.

“If the company that was producing the drones or the missiles has a factory here, that’s sufficient (to bring legal action),” he said.

In a transcript attached to the chapter, detailing a question-and-answer session, Lord Hermer argued that the British legal system was more favorable to Palestinians than that of the US.

“There’s a much better position here than in the US. In the states, a whole host of important human rights cases have been closed down simply because they touch upon issues of foreign relations,” he said.