BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior government ministers from Ireland, Luxembourg and Belgium took a very public swipe at Hungary on Tuesday, raising questions about whether Prime Minister Vitkor Orbán’s stridently nationalist cabinet respects European Union values and standards.
Hungary took over the 27-nation bloc’s rotating presidency in July. Orbán immediately made a surprise trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, angering several of his EU counterparts, who insisted that the Hungarian leader did not represent them.
“I will ask also my colleague (European Affairs Minister János Bóka) if tomorrow he plans a trip to Moscow, because this seems to be a habit for Hungarian politicians,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said at a meeting in Budapest.
Beyond its ties with Russia, Orbán’s government has irritated its EU partners by promoting hostility to migrants and LGBTQ+ rights, and by controlling public media. Millions of euros in EU funds have also been frozen over concerns about democratic backsliding in Hungary.
Bettel, his Belgian counterpart Hadja Lahbib and Irish European Affairs Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeill said that they had held joint meetings with members of the Hungarian media, civil society and LGBTQ+ representatives ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, which Bóka chaired.
“This is extremely important to us in Ireland: human rights, fundamental freedoms, rule of law,” Carroll McNeill said. “I’m pleased to be here with my colleagues to just further discuss the rule of law and the concerns that we have and as they relate to the future of Europe.”
The ministers made their statements directly to a Hungarian TV camera, without prompting from reporters. It was an unusual and potentially embarrassing public display for Hungary, given that EU member countries rarely criticize each other in public.
Lahbib said she would send a message that “the Hungarian presidency should be ambitious, that it works to unite, to build bridges between the 27 European Union member states.” She urged Budapest to lift its veto on EU funds helping to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Many EU countries have been sending lower-level officials to meetings hosted by Hungary in protest at its conduct. Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also used his convening powers to shift a gathering of the bloc’s foreign ministers from Budapest to Brussels.
At Tuesday’s meeting, things were taken to a new level.
“For me it was important to be in Budapest today. You know, big questions: do we come, don’t we come, should we come, is it good to come, is it better to boycott,” Bettel mused. “Not being here would, I think, be an error. But being here means also to be loud.”
Bóka played down the tensions, saying that the ministers had informed him of their meetings and that he saw no problem with this.
He said that more than half of the member countries were represented at senior level, although he conceded that the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, had not sent one of its policy commissioners as it usually does.
“The atmosphere of today’s council reflected a sense of cooperation, and a willingness on the part of member states to cooperate with the Hungarian presidency, and I welcome this,” Bóka told reporters after the meeting had concluded.
Hungary’s mandate at the EU helm ends on Dec. 31.
European Affairs Minister Janos Boka of Hungary speaks during the informal meeting of the EU General Affair council in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says there is a “high probability” that three hostages found dead months ago were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The army on Sunday announced the conclusions of its investigation into the deaths of Cpl. Nik Beizer, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano.
It said investigations had determined that the three were likely killed in a November airstrike that also killed a senior Hamas militant, Ahmed Ghandour.
All three of the hostages were kidnapped in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Their bodies were recovered in December, but the cause of death was only recently determined.
In its report, the army said there was a “high probability” they were killed in the strike, based on where the bodies were recovered, pathological reports and other intelligence. But it said, "it is not possible to definitely determine the circumstances of their deaths."
The conclusions could add pressure on the government to strike a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Critics say it is too difficult and dangerous to try to rescue them.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
JERUSALEM (AP) —
A missile fired by Yemen's Iran-backed rebels landed in an open area in central Israel early Sunday and triggered air raid sirens at its international airport, in the latest reverberation from the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. Israel hinted that it would respond militarily.
There were no reports of casualties or major damage, but Israeli media aired footage showing people racing to shelters in Ben Gurion International Airport. The airport authority said it resumed normal operations shortly thereafter.
A fire could be seen in a rural area of central Israel, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fragment from an interceptor that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin.
The Israeli military said it made several attempts to intercept the missile using its multitiered air defenses but had not yet determined whether any had been successful. It said the missile appeared to have fragmented midair, and that the incident is still under review. The military said the sound of explosions in the area came from interceptors.
The Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea.
In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including the port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at a similar response in remarks at a Cabinet meeting after Sunday's attack.
“The Houthis should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us," he said. “Anyone who needs a reminder is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah.”
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the rebels, said they fired a ballistic missile targeting “a military target” in the area of Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, in what the rebels portray as a blockade on Israel in support of the Palestinians. Most of the targeted ships have no connection to Israel.
On Sunday, a European Union naval mission operating in the Red Sea said salvagers had begun towing a tanker that had been on fire for weeks after a Houthi attack. Operations Aspides said the Greek-flagged Sounion was being taken to a “safe location.”
The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, has rippled across the region, with Iran and allied militant groups attacking Israeli and U.S. targets and drawing retaliatory strikes from Israel and its Western allies. On several occasions, the strikes and counterstrikes have threatened to trigger a wider conflict.
International carriers have canceled flights into and out of Israel on a number of occasions since the start of the war, adding to the war's economic toll on the country.
Iran supports militant groups across the region, including Hamas, the Houthis and Lebanon's Hezbollah, its most powerful ally, which has traded fire with Israel on a near-daily basis since the war in Gaza began. Iran and its allies say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The military said around 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday, with most intercepted or falling in open areas.
In a separate incident, Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the Lebanese border town of al-Wazzani calling on residents to evacuate. The military later said there were no such evacuation orders, and that a local commander had acted without the approval of his superiors. It said the incident was under investigation.
It was not clear if anyone had evacuated the town, or if any message had been conveyed to residents that the leaflets were dropped in error.
The strikes along the Israel-Lebanon border have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides. Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a wider military operation against Hezbollah to ensure its citizens can return to their homes.
“The status quo will not continue,” Netanyahu said at the Cabinet meeting. “This requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border. We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes.”
Hezbollah has said it would halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza. The United States and Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on lasting Israeli control over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, which Israeli forces captured in May. He has said Hamas used a network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allegations denied by Egypt, which along with Hamas is opposed to any lasting Israeli presence there.
An Israeli military official said late Saturday that of the dozens of tunnels discovered along the border, only nine entered Egypt, and all were found to have been sealed off. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said it was not clear when the tunnels were sealed.
The discovery appeared to weaken Netanyahu’s argument that Israel needs to keep open-ended control of the corridor to prevent cross-border smuggling.
Egypt has said it sealed off the tunnels on its side of the border years ago, in part by creating its own military buffer zone along the frontier.
Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
A crater is seen after the military fired interceptors at what the Israeli army says is a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A police officer inspects the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A police officer inspects the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A firefighter works in the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A police officer inspects the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises from a fire in central Israel after the Israeli army said a missile fired from Yemen landed in an open area on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
