Day: May 18, 2021

The Israeli occupation forces Tuesday dawn continued launching their violent airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, targeting homes, institutions and infrastructure.

Palestinian sources said that Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed a house in Abasan al-Kabira town, and a resistance post in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza.

The occupation jets fired a number of missiles at a residential building near the Islamic University west of the strip, destroying it and causing damage to neighboring houses. The aircrafts also bombed a house in the Al-Nasr neighborhood in northwestern Gaza, and a building that includes an office for prisoners’ affairs in addition to the Ansar government compound.

Also today, the Israeli warplanes violently shelled agricultural lands and infrastructure in the areas of Al-Tawam, Al-Khazandar, Maqousi, Jabal Al-Rayes and Sheikh Zayed, causing heavy damage to property.

Meanwhile, the occupation boats bombed with a large number of shells the shores west of Khan Yunis, and Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Six Grad-type rockets were fired from Adaisseh and Markaba villages in southern Lebanon towards Israel, a Lebanese security source announced late Monday.

Israeli raid sirens blared in some settlements along the Lebanese-Israeli border, while Israeli forces fired artillery shells at the Kfarchouba in Lebanon, the source added.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Four international agreements between Jordan and Ukraine entred into force as of early May.

A statement issued on Tuesday by the Ukrainian embassy in Amman said that Jordan and Ukraine will now have more tools for effective legal cooperation.

In early May, four intergovernmental agreements between Ukraine and Jordan entered into force, regulating a number of issues related to consular cooperation. These are: the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil Matters, which entered into force on 14 May, the Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, entered into force on 7 May, the Agreement on the Extradition of Offenders, in force since 13 May, and the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, which entered into force on 14 May.

These documents were signed during the visit of the Minister of Justice of Jordan to Ukraine in November 2019 and ratified by the parliaments of both countries in late 2020 and early 2021.

The entry into force of these agreements allows to regulate the issues of mutual international cooperation in civil and criminal cases, extradition and transfer of convicted persons.

Further implementation of these agreements creates conditions for the widest mutual cooperation of the relevant authorities of both states during the trial of civil cases, investigation and trial of criminal cases. These documents will provide the possibility of extradition of persons accused or convicted of crimes for criminal prosecution or for the execution of a sentence and the transfer of convicted persons to serve their sentences in the state of their citizenship.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Jordan Food and Drug Administration’s (JFDA) monitoring and inspection teams carried out 5,177 inspections in various areas across the Kingdom within its inspection campaign during the holy month of Ramadan.

In a statement on Tuesday, the General Director of the JFDA Nizar Muhaidat revealed that the administration shut down 27 alimentation facilities, suspended 197 facilities, and gave a warning to 3,560 other across the Kingdom over violations of the JFDA’s health requirements and standards.

The JFDA called on citizens to contact it if they have any observation, inquiry or complaint via the toll-free complaints line 117114, e-mail info@jfda.jo, and through the “WhatsApp” application on the number 0795632000 available around the clock.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Chinese ambassador Chen Chuandong said Tuesday that the Jordanian people have through hard work over the generations achieved national independence and other key accomplishments during their century-old state.

In an article entitled “The beauty of spring after rain and wind … starting again towards a new centenary”, which was published by the Chinese embassy on Tuesday, the envoy stated that Jordan and China are cooperating and joining forces in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, which points to the value of the strategic partnership and deep-rooted relations between the two countries.

The Chinese people, he said, will never forget that since the outbreak of the pandemic, Jordanian friends, businessmen and students in China have offered valuable materials and moral support to Hubei province and the city of Wuhan.

The Chinese returned the favor by providing assistance to Jordanians for more than a year, including masks, testing kits, personal protective equipment, temperature screening devices, ventilators and other medical supplies that the Kingdom needed, he added.

On COVID-19 vaccine testing, Chen pointed to bilateral cooperation in the field of clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine, noting that Jordanians took part in the trials, and praising the efficiency and safety of the Chinese vaccine.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday said that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression has risen to 213, more than half of them civilians.

In the latest update, the ministry said that among the victims were 61 children, 36 women and 16 elderly people, adding that around 1,442 people were injured in the aerial, land and sea bombardment.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Two people were killed Tuesday when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck a factory in an Israeli settlement in the western Negev, according to Israel Radio.

It said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired rockets on western Negev settlements this afternoon, killing two workers in a packaging factory, and also fired mortar shells at the Erez border crossing, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier.

Two mortars also fell in the Eshkol Regional Council area in the north-western Negev, causing material damage but no injuries, it said.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Jordan National NGOs Forum (JONAF) and other civil society institutions and human rights activists Tuesday appealed to the international community to protect women, children and men in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories from ongoing Israeli attacks.

“Members of the JONAF coalition and the Jordanian National Commission for Women, along with many human rights activists and civil society organizations in Jordan, call upon the international community and supporters of women’s rights to activate immediately Article 9 of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) to protect the rights of women, children and men in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories,’ the forum said in a press release.

“As innocent civilians are being killed by excessive retaliatory measures by the Israeli military, let us be reminded that Article 9 of UNSCR 1325 calls upon all parties to an armed conflict to respect fully international law applicable to the rights and protection of women and girls, especially as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol thereto of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” it stated.

“UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security is based on four main pillars: participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. For the past 73 years, we have seen our Palestinian sisters facing oppression every day, getting beaten up and arrested for practicing their right to peaceful protests to protect themselves and their families from displacement,” said the statement.

UNSCR 1325 also stresses the need to include – and thus empower – local women in conflict resolution, it noted, adding that “as the conflict and occupation continue, and the suffering of Palestinian refugees worsens, it is essential to recognize resistance as a human right and as a means to achieve comprehensive and just peace based on women’s and men’s political agency. It is time to do more than just having nominal women representation, with no real participation. To achieve just solutions, the value of women leading the resistance against systematic oppression must be acknowledged.”

The statement called on donor nations, the UN secretary general and the Security Council to adopt consistent and gender sensitive approaches enabling accountability and ensuring the protection of human rights of women and children in Palestine, in accordance with the protection principles enshrined in UNSCR 1325.

“Conflicts are not a choice for civilians who endure them, and do not distinguish among nationalities,” it said, warning that without a serious commitment to protect the rights of women and children in Palestine, the credibility of UNSCR 1325 and its national iteration through JONAP is at risk.

The statement called on the international community to work toward ending conflicts and occupation, and preserving the safety and security of Palestinians, and to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law, war crimes and the discrimination and ethnic cleansing committed against Palestinians since 1948.

Source: Jordan News Agency