USA vs South Africa- T20 World Cup Super Eight: Teams, pitch, weather, form
Who: USA vs South AfricaWhat: ICC T20 World Cup Super EightsWhen: Wednesday, June 19, 10:30am (14:30 GMT)Where: Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua and BarbudaHow to follow: Al Jazeera’s live coverage begins at 11:30 GMT The Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup opens with an unexpected competitor. Team USA have entered the Caribbean leg of the tournament as a surprise package and are determined not to bow out any time soon. “We are not going to go down without a fight,” coach Stuart Law told Al Jazeera after the USA’s qualification for the Super Eights was confirmed. The diverse USA squad includes two players of Caribbean origin who have played the game in the region in the past, and one of them, Aaron Jones, believes his side will get good support from the crowd in the West Indies. “Me and Steven [Taylor] have a lot of support in the Caribbean, so we will definitely have some support tomorrow,” Jones said on Tuesday in his pre-match news conference. The USA vice captain, who hit the joint highest number of sixes (13) in the group stage, said his team are excited to rub shoulders with the biggest sides in the world. “The boys are excited to play against the best teams in the world. We wanted to do that. We’ve been speaking about that over the last couple of years. And here we are now, so we’re just going to enjoy our cricket and, as I said, play fearless cricket all the time.” South Africa will be wary of the threat the Americans pose, and captain Aiden Markram agreed that his side will have to “be on their best game” against the co-hosts in Wednesday’s game. “A lot of the people will say [the USA are one of the] smaller nations, but they are not, and they have proved it,” Markram told reporters. With the Super Eight games spread across multiple venues in the Caribbean, Markram said it will be vital for his side to gather as much information as they can about each ground. HISTORY IN THE MAKING!!! 🇺🇸🔥🙌 For the first time ever, #TeamUSA have qualified for the Super 8 stage of the @ICC @T20WorldCup! 🤩✨ Congratulations, #TeamUSA! 🙌❤️ pic.twitter.com/tkquQhAVap — USA Cricket (@usacricket) June 14, 2024 Pitch condition The Antigua pitch has produced a mix of low- and high-scoring matches, but conditions remain favourable for batting, and the pitch is vastly different from the one in New York, where all team struggled to score. There will still be some assistance for bowlers, especially wrist spinners and bowlers with high accuracy and control. Weather forecast The forecast for this week is cloudy and humid with negligible chances of rain. Head-to-head The teams have never met in any format of the game. Form guide While the USA lost their last completed match of the tournament against India, they would have gained confidence from their competitive display against the South Asian powerhouse. The debutants showed plenty of grit and control in their historic super over win against Pakistan. South Africa are one of the four unbeaten sides in the tournament so far, but were nearly at the receiving end of a huge upset against Nepal in their last group match. USA: L W W L WSouth Africa: W W W W L 🏏 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐃𝐀𝐘 | #SAvUSA It’s Super 8 Time! ⚡️ Watch the Proteas take on the USA as they aim to get their Super 8 campaign started with a “W”. 🗓️ 19 June🏟 Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua🕚 16:30 CAT📺 SuperSport Grandstand (Channel 201)#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt… pic.twitter.com/idEmdFMQef — Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 19, 2024 USA team news The USA will welcome back their captain, Monank Patel, who missed the match against India, and left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, who showed plenty of control with the ball against Pakistan. Squad: Monank Patel (captain), Shayan Jahangir, Aaron Jones, Andries Gous, Nitish Kumar, Steven Taylor, Harmeet Singh, Corey Anderson, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Jessy Singh, Saurabh Netravalkar, Nosthush Kenjige South Africa team news The Proteas may look to play two spinners and call up the wily Keshav Maharaj in place of one of their three pace bowlers. Squad: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Bjorn Fortuin, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi Adblock test (Why?)
Novak Djokovic to play at 2024 Paris Olympics: Serbia Olympic Committee
If Serbia’s Olympic authority is correct, then Djokovic will join Rafael Nadal as another huge name in Paris. Former tennis world number one Novak Djokovic will play at the Summer Olympics Games in Paris, according to the Olympic Committee of Serbia. “Novak Djokovic and Dusan Lajovic have fulfilled the conditions according to ATP ranking and confirmed their participation at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024”, the Serbian committee said on their website on Tuesday. Djokovic has not yet publicly confirmed the announcement. At the start of June, the 24-time Grand Slam winner withdrew before his Roland Garros quarterfinal against Casper Ruud after a scan revealed a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. Two weeks ago, Djokovic confirmed he had undergone an operation on his knee and that it “went well”, but gave no timeframe for his return. Djokovic has long said he will prioritise the Olympic Games this summer as he chases an elusive singles gold. In October last year, he said winning Olympic gold next year is one of his main ambitions, while before the clay tournaments this year, he reiterated his goal. “The Paris Olympics are very important. The Olympics have always been a priority for me,” Djokovic said in April in advance of the clay swing in Monte Carlo. He has played in four Olympic tournaments and won a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008. He has since twice come close to another medal He lost the bronze-medal match to Juan Martin del Potro in London in 2012. He lost again to the Argentinian four years later in the first round in Rio. At the last Games in Tokyo, Djokovic lost the bronze-medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta from Spain. At the same tournament, he pulled out of the mixed doubles bronze medal match with a shoulder injury. After his early exit at the Rolland Garros, Djokovic has slipped to third in the ATP rankings. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia’s Putin and Kim Jong Un embrace at beginning of North Korea visit
NewsFeed Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he arrived in Pyongyang for his first visit there in 24 years. Ties between the two are deepening as the nuclear-armed countries face growing international isolation. Published On 18 Jun 202418 Jun 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Is a nuclear conflict possible?
A report finds nuclear powers have increased spending on a scale never seen before. A report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows spending on such munitions has ballooned. Nearly $100bn has been spent by the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations in a single year. Nuclear warhead stockpiles have reduced since the peak of the Cold War. But soaring new expenditures beg the questions of why these countries are willing to spend such incredible sums of money on atomic weapons – and whether they are making the world any safer. Presenter: Neave Barker Guests: Nikolai Sokov – Senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Gary Samore – Professor at Brandeis University Victor Gao – Vice president of the Center for China and Globalization Adblock test (Why?)
Jayson Tatum, Celtics defeat Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship
The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the NBA Finals to win their first championship since 2008. Jayson Tatum recorded 31 points and 11 assists as the Boston Celtics locked up their league-record 18th championship with a 106-88 blowout of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Tatum also had eight rebounds while Jaylen Brown added 21 points, eight boards and six assists for Boston, which celebrated the 16th anniversary of its most recent title by completing a 16-3 playoff run. The Celtics knocked off the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 Finals, and those two teams shared the league record with 17 championships apiece before Monday’s result. Jrue Holiday had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Derrick White chipped in 14 points as Boston wrapped up the best-of-seven series on its second opportunity. Brown was selected as the Finals MVP (most valuable player) after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and five assists. Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) was named NBA Finals’ most valuable player (MVP) [Peter Casey/USA TODAY Sports] Luka Doncic paced the Mavericks with 28 points and 12 boards, but he committed seven turnovers. Kyrie Irving finished with 15 points and nine assists for Dallas, and Josh Green netted 14 points. After Dallas called a timeout with 3:11 left in the second quarter, trailing by 11 points, Boston completely broke the game open. The Celtics scored 17 of the next 24 points, six of which came from Brown. Payton Pritchard capped the outburst in jaw-dropping fashion, canning a 49-foot heave from half-court at the buzzer to send Boston into the break with a 67-46 cushion. Holiday’s layup pushed the Celtics’ lead to 78-52 with 9:10 to go in the third quarter. Green then converted a putback and knocked down a 3-pointer as part of a 10-2 run that got the Mavericks within 80-62. Dallas later got the deficit down to 17, but Boston took an 86-67 lead into the fourth. The Celtics were on top by at least 18 the rest of the way. A three-point play from Tatum put the Celtics up 46-31 with 7:08 remaining in the first half, but Dallas then took over down low. The Mavericks scored all of their points in the paint during an 8-2 spurt to get within nine before Al Horford stemmed the tide with a hard-nosed layup. Horford’s bucket came just before the Mavericks’ timeout that preceded Boston’s game-changing run. Boston came to life in the final 1:39 of the first quarter, ripping off nine unanswered points to take a 28-18 lead into the second. The Celtics wound up shooting 42.7 percent from the floor. Dallas shot 44.9 percent overall but was outscored by 10 points at the foul line and committed 13 turnovers to Boston’s nine. It was Boston’s first NBA championship in 16 years. Boston Celtics centre Kristaps Porzingis (centre) and forward Jayson Tatum (right) celebrate after winning the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks [Elsa/Pool Photo/USA TODAY Sports] Adblock test (Why?)
‘Week of disruption’: Arrests, injuries in Israel antigovernment protests
Thousands more to participate in nationwide demonstrations over Gaza war and the failure to negotiate the release of captives. Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government. At least nine people have been arrested during antigovernment protests in Jerusalem, with more demonstrations expected in the coming days amid Israel’s war on Gaza and fighting with Hezbollah. Police clashed with protesters near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night, with Israeli media reports indicating one of the detainees was a family member of an Israeli captive held in Gaza. The demonstrators have been calling for new elections, a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as a deal for the release of captives being held in the Palestinian enclave. “Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives,” read one sign carried by protesters, with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints. Police used water cannon against demonstrators, with three people reportedly sent to hospital for treatment, including a medic wearing a vest who was injured in the eye. Israelis have been gathering in Tel Aviv every Saturday night since the start of the current conflict in October, but this week tens of thousands descended on Jerusalem. Demonstrators in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, were joined by opposition leader Yair Lapid. Police forcibly removed several people from the protest [Saeed Qaq/Anadolu Images] Organisers of the antigovernment protests called for a “week of disruption”. They also called on local authorities and business leaders to join the protests, with the aim of holding elections before the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7. Earlier on Monday, families of Israeli captives participated in one of the committees inside parliament, saying they are fed up with the absence of leadership and decision-making. Pressure is building on Netanyahu, who dissolved the war cabinet on Monday after his rival Benny Gantz left it along with former army chief Gadi Eisenkot over the lack of a future plan for Gaza. Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said protesters are also demonstrating against the prolonged conflict with Hezbollah in the north, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Israelis for months. “Both sides have picked up the rate of their attacks in the last few weeks. The Israelis say they’re not afraid to enter a full-blown conflict with Hezbollah. However, evacuated people who live in northern Israel have now had their date of return pushed back to the end of August,” she said. “Demonstrations from those people against the government are now happening with protesters saying there’s no plan to deal with the relentless border fire,” Salhut said. A man holds a sign that reads in Hebrew ‘passport control’, and below him a sign depicting a Lebanese national flag, protesting against the expansion of conflict to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, during an antigovernment demonstration in Tel Aviv [File: Jack Guez/AFP] Amir Oren, a columnist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said anger against the government is increasing from Israelis displaced in the north because of eight months of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. “Public sentiment is now against the Netanyahu government, some three-quarters of the public has had enough of Netanyahu. They want him out. But there’s no way to convert it into parliamentary power because he still has his 64-seat member coalition intact,” Oren told Al Jazeera. “Until such time there are fissures in this coalition, the cries of the hostage families and [northern Israel] dislocated will have no effect.” Adblock test (Why?)
Nothing ‘out of the box’ about Italy’s asylum offshoring deal with Albania
Imagine for a moment that you are a racist Western government plagued by an influx of asylum seekers, many of them dark-skinned. Wouldn’t you dream of packing them off to a distant land to be dealt with out of sight and out of mind? Well, that dream is now becoming a reality for Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party is overseeing an agreement with the Balkan nation of Albania to open two processing centres for seaborne asylum seekers intercepted en route to Italian shores. Located in the northern Albanian towns of Shengjin and Gjader, the centres are expected to hold up to 36,000 people per year. The scheme will cost Italy at least 670 million euros ($720m) for the initial five-year period – but the price tag is apparently worth it in terms of racking up xenophobic nationalist points for the government. Meloni, who rode to power on an array of fascist-friendly promises including a pledge to curb immigration, travelled to Albania on June 5 to visit the migrant penal colonies – pardon, asylum processing centres – which she says will be up and running by August. The visit was timed to coincide with the eve of European Union elections, in which Fratelli d’Italia fared spectacularly. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has praised the Italy-Albania agreement as an “important initiative” that constitutes an “example of out-of-the-box thinking, based on fair sharing of responsibilities with third countries in line with obligations under EU and international law”. Never mind that the deal is in fact a violation of international law governing rescues at sea as well as a breach of the prohibition on automatic detention. It is also not clear why Albania, a country that was itself a short-lived colony of Italy and played no role in the catastrophic European colonial enterprise that set the stage for current migration patterns, should be responsible for “sharing” the burden of dealing with refugees. Recall that Italy’s 20th century exploits in Africa entailed conducting genocide in Libya and terrorising Ethiopia. But heaven forbid any present-day Africans think themselves entitled to, you know, come look for work or a better life in Italy. Nor, to be sure, is the practice of offshoring asylum processing quite as novel and “out of the box” as von der Leyen suggests. On and off since 2001, for example, Australia has deflected incoming asylum seekers onto the Pacific island nation of Nauru as well as Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island – an arrangement that has proved physically and psychologically destructive and has resulted in numerous suicides and suicide attempts by refugees among other forms of self-harm. Rendering the panorama all the more sadistic is the obscene expense of Australia’s offshore operations. In 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that detaining a single asylum seeker on Nauru or Manus Island cost about 1.8 million British pounds ($2.3m) per year. Britain, meanwhile, is threatening to finally implement in July its long-awaited plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda thousands of kilometres away – which despite its dismal human rights record has been determined to be just the place for United Kingdom-bound refugees. Then, of course, there is the United States’s preferred approach to asylum, which is to dismantle the concept altogether. Offshore precedents notwithstanding, the Italy-Albania agreement is unique in one respect: The processing centres in Shengjin and Gjader will be under Italian rather than Albanian jurisdiction. Sounds sort of colonial. In a January report on the deal, Amnesty International noted that Italy has been a “trailblazer for the externalisation of border control”, having collaborated for the past two decades with Libya – another former Italian colony – in thwarting the movement of asylum seekers. Over the years, Italian contributions to the partnership have included facilitating Libya’s interception at sea of thousands upon thousands of refugees who were then returned to Libyan detention centres to face an assortment of perils, ranging from enforced disappearances to torture and killing. Tunisia, too, has received an Italian helping hand in cracking down on migration, an arrangement that has fuelled human rights abuses but has solidly failed to deter Europe-bound asylum seekers. And while Meloni has advertised the Albania scheme as an “extraordinary deterrent against illegal migrants trying to reach Italy and Europe”, it will no doubt prove to be just another costly forum for politically expedient human rights violations. As Amnesty International pointed out, Shengjin is located more than 500 nautical miles (926km) from the area in the central Mediterranean Sea where most refugees are rescued, meaning it would take two or three days to transport shipwreck survivors there – as opposed to more proximate locations in Italy or Malta. These are people who are “often traumatised” for various reasons, from having experienced torture in captivity to having witnessed loved ones drown. The report determined: “In such situations, unnecessarily forcing them to spend days onboard rescue ships, where crews cannot fully cater to their needs, constitutes a violation of international standards on search and rescue, and may in itself amount to illtreatment.” Once on Albanian soil – or is it Italian soil again? – these same people will be indefinitely swallowed up by a neocolonial detention apparatus, safely out of sight and out of mind. According to Meloni, the Italy-Albania agreement is a “model” that could be “replicated in many countries” and could even “become part of the structural solution” of the EU. But if this is “out-of-the-box thinking”, it’s time to get back in the box. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Team preview: Can Ronaldo win UEFA Euro 2024 for Portugal?
⚽ Portugal – Key Euros Stats ⚽ Euro appearances: 18Euro titles: 1Best finish: Winners (2016)Euros record: W19 D10 L10Goals scored: 56Biggest win: 3-0 (most recent vs Hungary in Euro 2020)Player to watch: Bruno FernandesWorld ranking: 6thTeam nickname: Os Navegadores (The Navigators)Group fixtures: June 18: Portugal vs Czech Republic (Leipzig Stadium, Leipzig, 9pm local/19:00 GMT) June 22: Turkey vs Portugal (BVB Stadion, Dortmund, 6pm local/16:00 GMT) June 26: Georgia vs Portugal (Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen, 9pm local/19:00 GMT) How to follow our Euro 2024 coverage: UEFA Euro 2024 on Al Jazeera It only took six short years for the Euro 2016 champions Portugal to hit rock bottom at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The devastating defeat to Morocco in the World Cup quarterfinal left them with the unenviable record of just one win in the knockout stages of a major competition since that spectacular Euro 2016 triumph. In the aftermath of their World Cup exit, coach Fernando Santos called time on his stint with the national team. As the tears streamed down Cristiano Ronaldo’s face as he walked down the player’s tunnel in Qatar, you felt as though he would follow suit. Portugal’s darkest moment. A benched Cristiano Ronaldo and coach Fernando Santos look dejected after the match as Portugal are eliminated from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 by Morocco [Paul Childs/Reuters] Santos’s final act as Portugal manager – even before his side fell to Morocco at the quarterfinal stage – had seen him drop Ronaldo from the starting lineup for each of Portugal’s knockout matches at the Qatar World Cup. That his replacement, Goncalo Ramo, went on to score a hat-trick against Switzerland in the round of 16 felt like the final nail in the coffin of the superstar’s long and illustrious international career. But it hasn’t proved to be the final act with the now 39-year-old Ronaldo set to play in a record sixth European football championship at Euro 2024 in Germany. One of the first things Roberto Martinez is reported to have done after taking over as Portugal manager was to meet every member of the 26-man side that had been picked for the World Cup in Qatar. All of them, Ronaldo included, expressed their desire to continue with the national team. Of those 26 players, 21 have been named in Martinez’s squad for Germany. Among them is 41-year-old defender Pepe, who’s been picked more for his importance off the pitch than on it. “Pepe’s role in the locker room is important, the way he represents the national team shirt,” Martinez said. “When he is fit, he is a very important player. We have a very interesting dressing room because we have players from different generations. We have a good mix of experience and youngsters. It’s a list of 26 players that will give a good response.” Manager Roberto Martinez was brought in to instill a winning mentality in the Portugal players after the disappointment of losing at the quarterfinal stage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 [Pedro Nunes/Reuters] A new beginning While the personnel change has been minimal, the energy emanating from the team is hugely different to what it was in Qatar. A strong qualification campaign has played a role in this – albeit against weak opposition. Portugal went unbeaten across their 10 Euro 2024 qualifiers, scoring the most goals, 36, of any team and conceding the fewest, two. Martinez isn’t lacking for firepower in a front line that includes players of the pedigree of Bernardo Silva, Diogo Jota, Goncalo Ramos, Joao Felix and Rafael Leao. But crucially, he has opted to remain with Portugal’s most famous player, Ronaldo, as the talisman of the attack. Since Martinez took over in January 2023, Ronaldo has started 10 games out of a possible 12 matches, only missing the other two fixtures due to suspension and load management protocols. The former Real Madrid superstar’s impressive 10 goals in Euro 2024 qualification put him second on the goalscoring charts behind only Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku. Ronaldo will remain the focus of Portugal’s forward line at Euro 2024, despite being 39 years old [Borut Zivulovic/Reuters] Questions remain When assessing Portugal’s chances at Euro 2024, the only caveat is that the highest-ranked team in Portugal’s qualification group was Slovakia at world number 48, making any prospective form evaluation against the top contenders a difficult exercise. At the Euro 2024 group stage, they will face a much sterner test with matches against the Czech Republic, ranked 36, Poland, ranked 28, and Turkey, ranked 40. After a year in Saudi Arabia with Al Nassr, all eyes will be transfixed on Ronaldo and how well he will fare against top-ranked opposition upon his return to Europe’s premier nations competition. Martinez’s debut tournament with Portugal at Euro 2024 is of equal intrigue. During his time as Belgium boss, Martinez guided the team to a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup – the highest in their history. In Euro 2020, Belgium coincidentally knocked out Portugal in the round of 16 but suffered a quarterfinal exit at the hands of eventual winners Italy. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the lowest point of Martinez’s reign, with the Belgians crashing out at the group stage. The jury is still out on Martinez’s Belgium tenure and whether or not he underachieved with them. But the one thing he did successfully do with the national side was instill a winning mentality; the Spaniard helped transform Belgium’s reputation from plucky underdogs to serious contenders. Martinez now finds himself facing a similar task with his current team at Euro 2024. Many commentators believe the time has come for Portugal to shed the “dark horse” tag they have saddled themselves with in major tournaments. This established – and talent-stacked – squad enters Euro 2024 with the players to win it all but still faces questions about whether they possess the necessary self-belief that was characteristic of the victorious Euro 2016 Portugal side. ⚽ Portugal’s final squad for Euro 2024 ⚽ Captain:
US envoy meets with Israeli leaders as tensions with Hezbollah escalate
A senior United States diplomat has met Israeli leaders and will later visit Lebanon as part of a push by Washington to defuse tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. US envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel on Monday and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant’s office said the minister “provided a situation assessment of developments on Israel’s northern border, emphasizing the daily attacks conducted by Hezbollah against Israel’s northern communities and detailing the [Israeli military’s] efforts to thwart Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure”. “Minister Gallant and Mr Hochstein discussed the security situation at length and its impact on the region,” it added. Hochstein’s visit comes amid growing fears of an all-out war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah that could potentially lead to an even wider regional conflict. Hezbollah had stepped up attacks against Israel in the past week after the killing of one of its top commanders in an Israeli air raid on southern Lebanon. But the Iran-aligned group, which has been targeting Israeli military positions nearly daily since the war in Gaza broke out, has not announced a new attack against Israel since Saturday evening. It is not clear whether the lull, which coincided with the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, is linked to Hochstein’s visit to the region. On Monday, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah member in a drone strike, describing him as a “central operative” in the group’s rockets division. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Hochstein is holding indirect talks with Hezbollah, which is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Washington, through Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of the group. The sides are discussing a “preliminary agreement” to end the hostilities, according to the newspaper. Later on Monday, the administration of President Joe Biden stressed that it does not want to see escalation at the Lebanon-Israel border and suggested that the US is advancing a proposal to avert a large-scale conflict. “There is a diplomatic framework that we believe is reachable that would resolve this conflict without a full-on war,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Hochstein’s official title is special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security. But after he helped broker a deal in 2022 to resolve a maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel over oilfields in the Mediterranean Sea, he became a de facto US envoy for the two countries. He has visited the region frequently in past months. The US has said it wants a diplomatic resolution to the crisis at the Lebanon-Israel border. Hezbollah has said it will not halt its attacks until the war on Gaza ends. The Lebanese organisation started attacking military bases in northern Israel the day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian armed groups. Israel responded by bombing villages across southern Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah positions. Despite the frequent violence, the confrontations have largely been limited to the border area. Israeli officials have promised to push Hezbollah back from their country’s northern borders. “We want this to be resolved either diplomatically or militarily,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said on Monday. “The current state of affairs is not a sustainable reality – 5,000 rockets raining down on our north, making the north uninhabitable.” The violence has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border, piling pressure on Netanyahu’s government, which is struggling to deter Hezbollah and achieve its war aims in Gaza. Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet on Monday, eight days after his political rival Benny Gantz quit the emergency government that was formed to oversee the war in Gaza. Some Israeli officials have been calling for a more forceful response to Hezbollah’s attacks. For its part, the US has been pushing for a truce in Gaza that it said would pave the way to restoring calm between Hezbollah and Israel. “Our assessment of the situation continues to be that the best way to get a diplomatic resolution in the north – which we think all sides ultimately prefer – is to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said. Last week, Gallant rejected a French proposal for Israel, France and the US to form a working group to help avoid war at the Lebanese border. “As we fight a just war, defending our people, France has adopted hostile policies against Israel,” Gallant said in a statement. “In doing so, France ignores the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli children, women and men. Israel will not be a party to the trilateral framework proposed by France.” Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza fighting continues despite Israeli ‘pauses’ announcement: UNRWA
Israeli forces battled with Palestinian groups in Rafah and elsewhere in southern Gaza despite the Israeli military’s announcement on Sunday of tactical pauses in operations to allow humanitarian aid to enter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticised plans announced by the military to hold daily pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into the besieged Palestinian enclave that has been under relentless Israeli bombardment for more than eight months. Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main organisation delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, said that there had been no pause in the fighting. “There has been information that such a decision has been taken, but the political level says none of this decision has been taken,” Lazzarini told a press conference on Monday. “So for the time being, I can tell you that hostilities continue in Rafah and in the south of Gaza. And that operationally, nothing has changed yet.” The Israeli military said on Monday that its forces were continuing operations in the Rafah area, which included ground fighting. Residents said Israeli forces were advancing deeper into the central and western areas of Rafah. Hamas forces were fighting from close range inside the Shaboura camp in the heart of Rafah, according to the group’s armed wing and residents, who reported hearing sounds of non-stop explosions and gunfire. The Israeli military had announced at the weekend the daily pauses from 05:00 GMT until 16:00 GMT in the area from the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards. It later clarified that operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its ongoing assault in southern Gaza. International humanitarian officials have repeatedly said that Israeli inspections, ongoing fighting, and looting by desperate residents have impeded aid deliveries. Israeli ground troops have been operating in the southern city of Rafah since early May. They have since sealed shut the vital Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Before the Rafah ground operation, there was already an inadequate flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip’s south stood in the hundreds – not nearly enough to sustain the daily needs of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million. ‘Hell on earth’ “As we have reiterated, humanitarian operations in Gaza must be fully facilitated, and all impediments must be lifted,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told The Associated Press on Monday. “We need to be able to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza.” With the Israeli assault on Gaza in its ninth month, Haq said, displaced Palestinians in the territory urgently need food, water, sanitation, shelter and healthcare, “with many living near piles of solid waste, heightening health risks”. He said Israel needs to ensure that the movement of aid convoys and staff members through checkpoints is expedited, that all roads are operational, and that fuel – which is in critically short supply – enters Gaza regularly. Meanwhile, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an opinion piece in The New York Times that the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip has been turned into “hell on earth” as famine looms. He said humanitarian aid is obstructed and politicised while hunger and disease spread, “and humanitarian workers, health care workers, and journalists have all endured unacceptable losses”. Echoing his remarks, Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel and the United States of “purposefully” worsening famine-like conditions in Gaza by “withholding humanitarian aid as a tool for political pressure”. In a statement on Monday, the media office accused Israel and the US administration of “deliberately aggravating the humanitarian situation” in Gaza to achieve political goals. Separately on Monday, Norway said that it was increasing its funding to UNRWA by 100 million kroner ($9.3m). UNRWA was plunged into a crisis in January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel. The allegations prompted several countries, including top donor the US, to suspend funding to the agency, though many have since resumed payments. “UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” Norway’s Minister for International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim said in a statement. “The war, accusations made by Israel, continuous attacks on the organisation and funds withheld by major donors have put UNRWA in an extremely difficult financial situation,” she said. An independent review of UNRWA, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” but said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its main allegations. Adblock test (Why?)