Recognising Palestinian state could trigger ‘unilateral’ action, Israel warns
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
DA secures World Bank backing for $70-million climate risk shield
The Department of Agriculture said it has secured the backing of the World Bank for its five-year $70-million initiative. The program will utilize a co-insurance pool, with the public and private insurers sharing the risk of climate-triggered disasters. The loan arrangement is scheduled to be rolled out in 2026, and will benefit 750,000 small farmers and fisherfolk by 2030.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) over the weekend said it has secured the backing of the World Bank for its five-year $70-million initiative to establish a co-insurance pool for the Philippine agriculture sector amid escalating climate-related risks.
According to the DA, the loan arrangement is scheduled to be rolled out in 2026, and will benefit 750,000 small farmers and fisherfolk by 2030.
“The World Bank plans to leverage its loan to mobilize between $300 million and $500 million in climate protection for farmers, fisherfolk, and agri-based MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises),” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement.
“This will allow our producers to bounce back faster after climate shocks and resume production with minimal delay,” he added.
The program will utilize a co-insurance pool, with the public and private insurers sharing the risk of climate-triggered disasters including droughts and floods. The Department of Finance (DOF) will serve as the borrower, while the DA will implement the project.
“A stronger insurance framework reduces the risk in agricultural lending. This encourages banks to provide more credit, helping farmers invest in technology, adopt climate-smart practices, and boost productivity,” Tiu Laurel said.
“When our farmers are better protected, our food supply becomes more stable. And that is critical in our mission to feed every Filipino family,” he added. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA Integrated News
Israel warns recognizing Palestinian state could trigger ‘unilateral’ action
Several countries, including Canada, France and Britain, have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly later this month. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said such recognition “will destabilize the region” and would make it “harder to get to the peace” Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured from Syria, both seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law. The Israeli government has approved new settlement projects in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, including one east of Jerusalem known as E1, which would nearly bisect the area.
JERUSALEM, Undefined — Israel’s foreign minister branded an international push to recognize Palestinian statehood a “mistake” on Sunday and warned it could trigger an unspecified unilateral response, after reports that Israel plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Several countries, including Canada, France and Britain, have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly later this month.
Israel’s relations with France have been particularly strained since President Emmanuel Macron announced his country’s plans and co-chaired a conference in July with Saudi Arabia to call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Britain said it would recognize a Palestinian state if Israel failed to agree to a truce in the Gaza war, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas’s October 2023 attack.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Sunday that such recognition “will destabilize the region” and would make it “harder to get to the peace.”
“It will push Israel also to have unilateral decisions,” Saar said at a joint press conference with his visiting Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
“States like France and the UK that pushed the so-called recognition had made a tremendous mistake,” he added.
Rasmussen said Denmark does not plan a similar move.
“We will never… recognize a Palestinian state which is ruled by Hamas or any other terrorist organization,” he said.
“And therefore it comes with a lot of preconditions—a disarmed Palestinian state recognizing Israel, transparency, democracy… That is our position.”
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said recognizing a Palestinian state would be “disastrous.”
“Unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is a violation of the Oslo Accords that everybody thought would lead to a Palestinian state,” he told the BBC in an interview.
West Bank annexation
Saar did not specify what Israel’s reaction might entail, but his remarks came after the government approved new settlement projects in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
A major development just east of Jerusalem, known as E1, would nearly bisect the West Bank, and according to Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
Smotrich, who himself lives in a settlement, said on Wednesday that Israel should annex parts of the West Bank to “take the idea of dividing our tiny land and establishing a terrorist state at its center off the agenda once and for all.”
The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II affirmed on Sunday “Jordan’s absolute refusal of any Israeli measures to annex the West Bank and displace Palestinians, and of any plans for the future of Gaza that involve displacing its population or separating it from the West Bank,” a Jordanian royal court statement said.
Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured from Syria, both seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Most of the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over these areas.
Throughout the Gaza war, the West Bank has been rocked by a surge in violence including settler attacks and Israeli military raids. — Agence France-Presse
Israeli strikes hit school, tents in Gaza
21 killed; 5 more Palestinians, including three children, die of starvation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army is “deepening’ its assault in and around the city. Israeli settlers have assaulted a Bedouin family near the village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah. Two Palestinians were injured by settler gunfire during another attack on the Khallet al-Eis area in the town of Ash-Shuyukh, northeast of Hebron. Israeli army said two projectiles were launched yesterday from the Gaza Strip. Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which caused no casualties or damage, the army said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the war in Gaza could end if hostages were released and Palestinian group Hamas laid down its weapons.
Smoke and flames rise as an Israeli airstrike hits a house in Gaza City yesterday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army is “deepening” its assault in and around the city. Photo: Reuters
Islamic Jihad launch two rockets at Israel
Israel warns recognising Palestinian state could trigger ‘unilateral’ action
Two hurt as Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli forces yesterday continued to bombard Gaza, killing at least 21 people in strikes on a school, tents and a home, as five more Palestinians, including three children, starved to death in 24 hours.
Sohaib Foda was sleeping on a mattress in Gaza city’s Al-Farabi School when the attack took place. “I heard a thud, and a block fell on my face. My cousin’s daughter, who was sleeping here, got injured and fell beside me. Another block then fell on her head,” Foda said.
Mohammed Ayed, who witnessed the attack, said the school was hit by two rockets. He said teams were still working in the rubble to rescue missing people or recover their remains. “We have recovered two hands so far,” he said.
A number of Palestinians have been wounded when Israeli forces bombed a tent housing displaced people near Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza city, an ambulance and emergency source said.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers have assaulted a Bedouin family near the village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, after setting up a new illegal outpost in the area.
Two Palestinians were injured by settler gunfire during another attack on the Khallet al-Eis area in the town of Ash-Shuyukh, northeast of Hebron, reports Al Jazeera online.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said two projectiles were launched yesterday from the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, which caused no casualties or damage.
“Two projectiles were identified crossing from the central Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” the army said in a statement, adding that air raid sirens sounded in the area of Netivot, a town about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Palestinian territory.
The military statement said “one projectile was intercepted, and one fell in an open area”.
In a separate development, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said yesterday that the war in Gaza could end if hostages were released and Palestinian group Hamas laid downs its weapons, reports AFP.
Saar branded a recent international push to recognise Palestinian statehood a “mistake” and warned it could trigger an unspecified unilateral response, after reports that Israel plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
His statements during a press conference with his Danish counterpart in Jerusalem come a day after Hamas reiterated its long-standing position that it would free all hostages if Israel agreed to an end to the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza City.
On Saturday, Israeli army carried out a strike that flattened a high-rise in the city — the second in as many days — and dropped thousands of leaflets on western neighbourhoods calling on residents to evacuate, witnesses and an AFP journalist said.