RSS
PLO Official Equated Released Palestinian Teen Terrorists with Israeli Child Hostages
Mia Leimberg, a hostage who was abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, holds her dog Bella while she and others are handed over by Hamas terrorists to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in Gaza, in this screengrab taken from video released Nov. 28, 2023. Photo: Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS
In the recent exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel initially agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners — among them teen terrorists — in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages captured by Hamas during its terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Palestinians and others abroad have shockingly compared the innocent Israeli civilian hostages to the Palestinian terrorists imprisoned for terror attacks.
Thus, PLO Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, referred to Palestinian terrorist prisoners and Israeli civilian captives as one and the same thing — “hostages”:
PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot: “It is good news that hostages will be released from both sides, and while the world is hailing the release of 50 Israeli hostages — good for them — nobody is talking about the hundreds of Palestinian children that will be released, that have been taken hostage by Israel even before the 7th of October …
So this is an opportunity to expose the rotten, corrupted system of racial domination that Israel has erected in the entire occupied Palestinian territories.” [emphasis added]
[PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 23, 2023]
An interviewer with CNN challenged Zomlot’s equating Palestinian terrorist prisoners with Israeli civilian hostages:
CNN interviewer: “When we look at the pictures of how those [Israeli] people [who] were kidnapped, elderly women thrown over motorbikes screaming, taken over the border, shoved down tunnels, kept in dark — there is a quantitative and qualitative difference in the mode of detention between the two.” [emphasis added]
[CNN Arabic, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 25, 2023]
Zomlot answered by denying any responsibility by terror organization Hamas, belittling the brutal kidnappings of Israelis of all ages, and claiming they were “done by individuals” whereas the Palestinian terrorist “hostages” were “kidnapped” by “a state”:
Husam Zomlot: “I’ll tell you what’s the difference. I’ll really tell you what’s the difference. The difference is the first is done by individuals [sic., by Hamas], but the second is done by a state, by a state that sponsored an army …
It is disgraceful to even draw any equity between a state that is a member of the UN, that is Israel and its responsibility under international law, and between individuals [sic., Hamas], so in fact the lack of equity is to focus on ‘responsible’ – between parentheses – actors, that they should perform in full accordance of international law.” [emphasis added]
[CNN Arabic, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 25, 2023]
Asked about Israel’s definition of the released prisoners as “terrorists,” Zomlot responded that to Israel, “every Palestinian is a terrorist,” and every person siding with “Palestine” is too:
Sky News interviewer: “The Israelis say that some of the people, some of the women and children in that group, are terrorists. How do you react and respond to that?”
Husam Zomlot: “Well, for the Israelis every Palestinian is a terrorist. For the Israelis every human being who supports our rights, everybody who calls for the end of the occupation is an antisemite.
For the Israelis every Jewish person who supports our rights is a self-hating Jew.” [emphasis added]
[PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 23, 2023]
One such teen terrorist who Zomlot refers to as an innocent child “hostage” was Yazan Al-Hasanat, a 17-year-old member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, who was held under administrative detention from June 22, 2023, until his release in the deal.
Upon his release, Al-Hasanat praised Hamas’ “achievements” that led to his and other terrorists’ release:
Released terrorist prisoner Yazan Al-Hasanat: “We will empty the prisons. The prisoners’ situation requires resistance [i.e., terror] that will release them … The resistance is with blood, with weapons.
The prisoners do not want peaceful resistance. They want resistance that will fight so they will triumph. All the prisoners are in favor of the resistance … We are very proud of the resistance [i.e., Hamas], of the resistance’s achievements, and satisfied with what is happening in the Gaza Strip, with the abductions, the abduction of the captives [i.e., Israeli hostages].” [emphasis added]
[Quds News Network, Twitter account, Nov. 26, 2023]
At the time of the prisoner exchange for Israeli hostages, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, also referred to all imprisoned Palestinian terrorists as “hostages” who have a “right to breathe free air”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “It is the right of these brothers, sisters, and sons to breathe free air. We think that it is the right of every Palestinian to achieve his freedom and leave the Israeli prisons, because they are hostages in the hands of the occupation state ]i.e., Israel], and without a doubt it is their right to be released and their families’ right to rejoice.”
[Facebook, Nov. 24, 2023]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post PLO Official Equated Released Palestinian Teen Terrorists with Israeli Child Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.