Friday 27 / December / 2024
Atlanta : A protester with a Palestinian flag set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, The Times of Israel reported citing the local police.
The protester remains in critical condition after being intervened by a security guard at the scene. The guard also sustained burn injuries while trying to save the protestor, and his condition remains uncertain, police said.
"We believe that was an act of extreme political protest," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a press conference.
The protester arrived at the building where the Israeli consulate is located and several other businesses and after pouring gasoline on herself she attempted to self-immolate, Schierbaum said.
"We believe this building remains safe, and we do not see any threat here," he added.
The FBI's Atlanta office said that it was coordinating with local law enforcement on the matter, The Times of Israel reported.
Separately, Ra'am chairman MK Mansour Abbas has become the first Arab party leader in Israel's history to publicly call on the armed Palestinian factions to demilitarise and work with the Palestinian Authority in order to establish a Palestinian state through non-violent means, The Times of Israel reported.
"In order to move forward, the Palestinian militant groups need to throw down their arms. They need to work hand in hand with the Palestinian Authority in order to realise a national movement that will aspire for a state of Palestine in a peaceful solution alongside the state of Israel," Abbas told CNN in a rare interview with international media.
Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra'am party, the initial independent Arab-majority faction in the Israeli coalition (2021-22, Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government), opens the interview by restating his disapproval of the October 7 massacres, as reported by The Times of Israel.
"Any action that is taken against innocent people -- against women, children, elderly -- is inhumane and it goes against the values of Islam as well. We categorically condemn this. This cannot be discussed or cannot be justified because it goes against all human values and religious values as well," he said.
"But at the same time, we cannot forget that there is a political struggle that is happening," Abbas continued.
"But the actions that the armed groups have decided to take and to use violence in order to achieve their means looking at the past have always failed. The victim of each and every one of those militant attempts have been the Palestinian people who were the ones who paid the price. In this current conflict, we look at the number of people killed we're talking about over 15,000 Palestinians who lost their lives," he added.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has "resumed combat operations" shortly after midnight ET on Friday and accused Hamas of breaching the truce first by firing rockets toward Israeli territory.
Israel also expanded its operations, which have until now been concentrated in northern Gaza. The IDF dropped leaflets in the southern city of Khan Younis, calling it a "fighting zone" and telling residents to "evacuate immediately," The Times of Israel reported.
