Algerian man missing for 26 years found captive in neighbour’s cellar
Police say that man who first went missing in 1998 was held by a 61-year-old neighbour just a few minutes from his home. An Algerian man who went missing in 1998 during the country’s civil war has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar 26 years later, according to authorities. The country’s Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday that the man, identified alternatively as Omar bin Omran or Omar B, disappeared when he was 19 years old and was long ago assumed to have been kidnapped or killed. But he was found alive earlier this week at the age of 45, after being held captive by a neighbour in a sheepfold hidden by haystacks just 200 metres from his old home in Djelfa, part of northern Algeria. The ministry said that an investigation into the “heinous” crime was ongoing and that the victim is receiving medical and psychological care. Police detained the alleged captor, a 61-year-old doorman, after he attempted to flee. The kidnapping was discovered after the suspect’s brother posted revealing information on social media, amid an alleged inheritance dispute between the siblings. “On 12 May at 8pm local time, [they] found victim Omar bin Omran, aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbour, BA, aged 61,” a court official said. The victim’s mother died in 2013, when the family still believed he was likely dead. Media outlets in Algeria reported that bin Omran told his rescuers he could sometimes see his family from afar, but that he felt incapable of calling out because of a “spell” his captor cast upon him. Bin Omran’s discovery on Sunday solves a mystery that had lingered in his community since Algeria’s bloody civil war. Relatives of war victims are still seeking justice for their missing and dead loved ones. About 200,000 people were killed in the 1990s during the war, which pitted the government against Islamist fighters. That period is sometimes referred to as Algeria’s “Black Decade”. As many as 20,000 people were believed to have been kidnapped over the course of the war, which ended in 2002. According to SOS Disparus, an Algerian association for those forcibly disappeared during the war, about 8,000 Algerians disappeared between 1992 and 1998 alone. Adblock test (Why?)
Taiwan grapples with divisive history as new president prepares for power
Taipei, Taiwan – Even as Taiwan prepares for the inauguration of its eighth president next week, it continues to struggle over the legacy of the island’s first president, Chiang Kai-shek. To some, Chiang was the “generalissimo” who liberated the Taiwanese from the Japanese colonisers. To many others, he was the oppressor-in-chief who declared martial law and ushered in the period of White Terror that would last until 1992. For decades, these duelling narratives have divided Taiwan’s society and a recent push for transitional justice only seems to have deepened the fault lines. Now, the division is raising concern about whether it might affect Taiwan’s ability to mount a unified defence against China, which has become increasingly assertive in its claim over the self-ruled island. “There is a concern when push comes to shove if the civilians work well with the military to defend Taiwan,” said historian Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang of the University of Missouri in the United States. On February 28, 1947, Chiang’s newly-arrived Kuomintang (KMT) troops suppressed an uprising by Taiwan natives, killing as many as 28,000 people in what became known as the February 28 Incident. In the four-decade-long martial law era that followed, thousands more perished. This traumatic history met its official reckoning in 2018, when the Taiwan government set up its Transitional Justice Commission modelled after truth and reconciliation initiatives in Africa, Latin America and North America to redress historical human rights abuses and other atrocities. People attend the commemoration of the February 28 Incident in Taipei [Violet Law/Al Jazeera] When the commission concluded in May 2022, however, advocates and observers said they had seen little truth and hardly any reconciliation. Almost from the first days of the commission, the meting-out of transitional justice became politicised across the blue-versus-green demarcation that has long defined Taiwan’s sociopolitical landscape, with blue representing KMT supporters and green the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). A recently published anthology entitled Ethics of Historical Memory: From Transitional Justice to Overcoming the Past explains how the way Taiwanese remember the past shapes how they think about transitional justice. And as that recollection is determined by which camp they support, each champions their own version of Taiwan’s history. “That’s why transitional justice seems so stagnant now,” explained Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu, research professor at the legal research institute Academia Sinica who contributed to and edited the book. “Whatever truth it uncovers would be mired in the blue-green narrative.” A non-partisan view, Hsu said, is to credit the DPP with codifying transitional justice and Lee Teng-hui, the first democratically elected KMT president, with breaking the taboo on broaching the February 28 Incident. The past shaping the future In February, Betty Wei attended the commemoration for the February 28 incident for the first time and listened intently to the oral history collected from the survivors. Wei, 30, said she wanted to learn more about what happened because her secondary school textbook had brushed over what many consider a watershed event in a few cryptic lines, and many of her contemporaries showed little interest. “In recent years the voices pushing for transitional justice have grown muted,” Wei told Al Jazeera. “A lot of people in my generation think the scores are for previous generations to settle.” The Transitional Justice Committee recommended the relocation of Chiang Kai-shek statues from public areas, but many remain [File: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA] In Taiwan, the past is never past, and rather it is fodder for new fights. As the DPP gears up for an unprecedented third consecutive term, the unfinished business of removing the island’s remaining statues of Chiang has resurfaced as the latest front in what Yang, the historian, described to Al Jazeera as “this memory war”. More than half of the initial 1,500 monuments have been taken down over the past two years, with the remaining statues mostly on military installations. Yang argues that is because the top brass rose through the ranks under martial law and many still regard Chiang as their leader, warts and all. For them, toppling the statues would be an attack on their history. The statues embody “the historical legacy the military wants to keep alive,” Yang said. “That’s a source of tension between the military and the DPP government.” On the eve of William Lai Ching-te taking his oath as the island’s next president, Taiwanese will for the first time mark the “White Terror Memorial Day” on May 19, the day when martial law was declared in 1949. While it is clear Taiwanese have promised to never forget, whom and how to forgive has become far murkier. As the former chairman of the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation, the first NGO advocating for the cause, Cheng-Yi Huang lauded the government’s move to take over the KMT’s private archives in recent years but lamented there had been too little truth-seeking so far. For example, under the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act, Huang said many have chosen to stay silent about their complicity because only victims get compensation. However, Taiwan’s tumultuous history means the line between victim and victimiser is rarely clear-cut. Chiang Kai-shek (centre) in 1955. Known as ‘Generalissimo’, he led a brutal military dictatorship that only ended in 1992 [Fred Waters/AP Photo] By digging into military archives, Yang has shed light on how Chinese were kidnapped and pressed into service by the KMT in the last years of the Chinese Civil War. Those who tried to flee were tortured and even murdered. And the native Taiwanese who rose up to resist KMT’s suppression were persecuted as communists. “Under martial law, the military was seen as an arm of the dictatorship, but they were also victims of the dictator’s regime,” Yang told Al Jazeera. “The transitional justice movement has missed the opportunity to reconcile Taiwanese society with the military.” To Hsu, Beijing’s belligerence demands Taiwanese of all stripes find a common cause. “As we’re facing the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, it’s imperative that we unite in forging a collective future,”
‘Living in fear’ amid relentless battle for eastern DR Congo
Kanyabayonga, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Innocent Kasereka sits in a rundown hospital in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), his neck bandaged where he was brutally slashed with a knife. The 30-year-old recounts how he was caught in the middle of the conflict between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and M23 rebels that has been raging since late 2021. The attack on Kasereka took place at a coffee plantation in the agricultural town of Kibirizi in North Kivu province at the start of May. It had been seized two months earlier by M23 and the Rwandan army, which has been fighting alongside the rebel group. “When the M23 arrived in Kibirizi they held a meeting and assured us that we were safe,” Kasereka said, forlornly, in the hospital director’s office. Instead, he said he was attacked by people “in M23 uniform”. Bloodied and traumatised, he managed to climb a hill to safety in a government-held part of the town. Innocent Kasereka sits in a hospital in Kanyabayonga, southern Lubero territory, North Kivu province [Alexis Huguet/AFP] The Congolese army, backed by a rag-tag collection of armed groups known as Wazalendo, Swahili for Patriots, launched an offensive to retake Kibirizi from the M23 at the end of April. Fighting raged in the centre of the town and FARDC mortar shells destroyed houses and killed those living there, a Congolese army colonel acknowledged. “Collateral damage,” he said. But the army failed to retake Kibirizi, leaving its inhabitants at the mercy of the M23 who began to “attack the population” when the Congolese army left, Kasereka said. The men who cut Kasereka’s neck, and sliced the throat of his friend Germain, who died, accused them of belonging to a group of militia who had ambushed them. “They suspected us of being traitors and of having facilitated the entry of the Wazalendo into the town,” Kasereka said. In 2022, more than 100 people were killed for the same reason in Kishishe, a town some 10km (6 miles) from Kibirizi. The United Nations later found that M23 was responsible for the massacre. Children watch wounded pro-government militiamen walk in the courtyard of a hospital in Kanyabayonga [Alexis Huguet/AFP] Kasereka has been recovering for about 10 days at a hospital in the town of Kanyabayonga, about 10km from where he was attacked. In the bed next to him, an 18-year-old fighter, also named Germain, lies in dirty bedsheets with bandages around his wounded arm. Germain has been fighting for four years with the FPP/AP (Front of Patriots for Peace/People’s Army), one of the largest armed groups in the area that is part of the Wazalendo. But he was wounded by rocket shrapnel during the failed bid by the Congolese army and its allies to regain control of Kibirizi. For almost two years, the FARDC and Wazalendo have not seen a single victory, as M23 continues its advance in North Kivu province. Augustin Darwin, FPP/AP spokesman, said he had no confidence in the FARDC as it failed to respect agreements with armed groups. He accused the Congolese army of “withdrawal after withdrawal” and “fleeing before the enemy”. FPP/AP fighters in North Kivu [Alexis Huguet/AFP] His soldiers have “no boots, no uniforms [and] do not receive rations”, Darwin said from the group’s headquarters in Mbavinwa, a small village about 10km from Kanyabayonga. “They are demoralised,” he added. If there were less embezzlement in the army, “the FARDC wouldn’t even need the Wazalendo”, he said. Kanyabayonga has become a refuge for tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled the fighting and abuse by M23 rebels. But the town’s mayor, Chrisostome Kasereka, worries the area could be bombed. “We are living in fear,” he said. In recent weeks, three mortar shells have fallen around Kanyabayonga, the mayor said, as his secretary showed the remnants of a projectile missile found in a field. Civil society leaders from Kibirizi, Kanyabayonga and Kishishe also say certain FARDC officers have “facilitated passage to the rebels”. The FARDC officers were summoned to the capital, Kinshasa, as part of an inquiry in mid-March, but some of them have already returned to Kanyabayonga. “Impunity is what makes things not work in our Republic,” Kasereka despaired. Congolese armed forces and Wazalendo fighters have launched a new offensive in Kibirizi. “Every day, trucks full of soldiers arrive here,” one of the town’s civil society leaders said. “If they [the FARDC soldiers] do the ‘strategic withdrawal’ thing again, we will see a fight between the Wazalendo and the FARDC … and we ourselves will take up arms,” he warned. Adblock test (Why?)
Jailed ex-PM Imran Khan appears before Pakistan top court by videolink
The court appearance of the 71-year-old leader was not livestreamed on the court’s website or aired on news channels. Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has made a virtual appearance before the Supreme Court through a videolink from prison in connection with a case regarding amendments to the country’s anticorruption law. Thursday’s hearing was the first time Khan, imprisoned since August 2023 in several cases, made an appearance before the top court. However, the court appearance of the 71-year-old leader was not livestreamed on the top court’s website or aired on the country’s news channels. Al Jazeera reached out to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar for his comments on why the hearing was not broadcast on news channels or the Supreme Court website, but did not receive any response. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) accused Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of collusion with the government for not allowing the hearing from being broadcast to the people. “Our party believes that the chief justice of the country is in connivance with the security establishment and their aim is to hurt PTI in every possible manner,” the main opposition party’s Aamir Mughal told Al Jazeera. “Establishment” in Pakistan is a euphemism for its powerful army, which has directly ruled over the country for nearly three decades and enjoys immense political power. Chairman Imran Khan’s picture from Adiala Jail pic.twitter.com/OQxVKHFrh3 — PTI (@PTIofficial) May 16, 2024 Shortly after Khan lost a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, the government that succeeded him amended the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, clipping the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s main anticorruption agency. The changes in law barred the NAB from investigating a case unless the transactional value was more than 500 million rupees ($6m) or the number of “affected individuals” in a case exceeded 100. It also said its trial against an accused must be concluded in a year and that the agency must present evidence against an individual before making an arrest. The amendments to the law saw the withdrawal of at least 22 corruption-related cases from the NAB courts. The cases involved current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, and former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani among others. In July 2022, Khan filed a petition in the Supreme Court, charging the government of protecting “influential people” and legitimising corruption through the amendments, and asking the court to scrap the changes. The top court on Thursday adjourned its hearing on the matter. Khan did not speak during his video appearance. Khan’s appearance before the top court came a day after he was granted relied by two other courts. The Islamabad High Court gave him bail in a high-profile land deal case while another court in the capital acquitted him in a 2022 case in connection with a protest march. But Khan continues to remain in jail due to his conviction in two other cases related to the leaking of state secrets and unlawful marriage. He was sentenced for 14 years in another case related to illegal sale of state gifts but the sentence was overturned by Islamabad High Court in April this year. It was in the land deal case that Khan was briefly detained on May 9 last year, triggering nationwide protests by the PTI and leading to an unprecedented government crackdown on the party, which included Khan’s imprisonment in several cases in August. PTI politician Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari told Al Jazeera he was hopeful Khan will be a “free man soon”. “We have always maintained that as these cases go to higher courts, not only will Khan get bail, but he will also win these as they are all baseless and have no factual standing,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Why Egypt backed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ
As Israel devastates Gaza, Egypt has largely had to watch on with rising concern about the developments on its border. Its border with the Palestinian enclave has been a route for aid going in and people coming out but Israel has had the ultimate say over access to the border, even if it did not have a physical presence there until last week. And it was that move – to send Israeli troops to the Rafah border crossing – that experts believe has cemented Egypt’s belief that Israel is not taking its security and political concerns seriously, and is instead “disrespecting” them. Egypt has now taken its own steps – on May 12, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel. “The significance of this move is that it is sending a signal that Egypt is not happy with what’s happening in Gaza and how Israel is behaving,” said Nancy Okail, an expert on Egypt and the president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, even as she downplayed the effect of Egypt’s decision on the ICJ’s final verdict, labelling it a “symbolic gesture”. Egypt has grown increasingly alarmed with Israel’s military operations in Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians from all over Gaza had sought refuge. [embedded content] The takeover of the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Egypt from Gaza, is particularly worrying for Cairo; the Egyptian parliament has warned that the Israeli military’s presence there was a violation of the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel. “The way Israel has acted in the last week and a half has been incredibly troubling for Egyptian officials,” said Erin A Snyder, a scholar of Egypt and a former professor at Texas A&M University. “They have been effectively showing disrespect for the relations that they have [with Egypt].” Red lines crossed? The possibility that Israel’s ultimate goal in Gaza is to force out its Palestinian population has worried Egypt since the beginning of the war in October. Early on, Israel’s intelligence ministry drafted a paper that proposed the transfer of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Although the Israeli government downplayed the report, Israeli politicians, including the far-right duo of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said they supported the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from Gaza. The repeated suggestions have set off alarm bells in Egypt, which views any such transfer of millions of Palestinians into its territory as a red line that cannot be crossed, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned Israel against any such move. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi at a news conference in Cairo, on October 25, 2023 [Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP] “Egypt has been sounding the alarm on the destabilising prospects of an Israeli military operation in Rafah and on any military action that could result in the alleged resettlement plan that emerged out of Israel last fall,” said Hesham Sallam, a scholar on Egypt and the Middle East at Stanford University. Israel has seemingly taken measures to assuage Egypt’s concern by instructing Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate to al-Mawasi, a coastal area to the west of Rafah, away from Egypt. Israel claims that al-Mawasi is a “safe humanitarian zone”, but aid groups say tens of thousands of people are crammed into the area without access to adequate food or water. Over the last week, 450,000 people have fled Rafah, according to the United Nations, and nearly a million remain. “The Israelis are intent on wrapping things up in Rafah in a way that looks similar to what they did in Khan Younis, or at least eventually,” said H A Hellyer, an expert on Middle East geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute. “That is deeply concerning to Cairo because they don’t want more escalation along the border.” Dead end talks? Egypt has hosted ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, playing a critical role in mediating between the two sides, along with Qatar and the United States. Boys watch smoke rise as Israel strikes eastern Rafah on May 13, 2024, amid Israel’s continuing war on Gaza [AFP] However, Egypt seems frustrated with Israel’s refusal to end the war in exchange for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza, according to Timothy Kaldas, an expert on Egypt and deputy director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy think tank. “The Israelis didn’t seem to take the ceasefire talks that Egypt was hosting seriously … and it’s not clear to anybody what would get Israel to agree to a ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera. “Egypt is probably pretty frustrated that this conflict has no end in sight.” Two days before Israel stormed into eastern Rafah, Egypt, Qatar and the US lobbied Hamas and Israel to sign a deal. Hamas agreed to a modified version of the ceasefire proposal presented at the talks, but Israel rejected it. Days later, Egyptian military officials cancelled a planned meeting with Israeli counterparts due to their disagreement over the Rafah operation, according to the Israeli press. “We don’t know what the meeting was supposed to be about. But certainly this move – overlapping with [joining the ICJ case] – is an indication that there is a great deal of frustration with Israel from the Egyptian side,” Sallam said. Israeli PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem on February 18, 2024 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] Another delegation of Israeli intelligence officials is said to have arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with their Egyptian counterparts over Rafah. Peace treaty in danger? Egypt has little leverage left beyond suspending its peace treaty with Israel, a move experts believe is unlikely. That step could jeopardise the $1.6bn in US military assistance Egypt receives annually as part of the peace agreement. “I generally doubt that there is any serious risk to the Camp David Accords,” said Kaldas. “The Egyptians benefit in a number of ways from maintaining that agreement.”
Wildfires spread across western Canada
NewsFeed Over 130 fires are burning in western Canada, putting thousands of people under orders to evacuate. Published On 15 May 202415 May 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Another Biden administration staffer resigns over US stance on Gaza war
Lily Greenberg Call says she cannot ‘in good conscience’ represent the US gov’t, condemns ‘disastrous’ Gaza policy. Another staffer in United States President Joe Biden’s administration has publicly resigned in protest of the US’s continued support for Israel amid its war on Gaza, The Associated Press news agency reported. Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the US Interior Department, wrote in her resignation letter that she could not “in good conscience continue to represent” the administration, AP reported on Wednesday. Call, who is Jewish, also condemned comments Biden has made since the Gaza war began in October, including one where he warned “there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe” without the existence of Israel. “He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she told the news agency in an interview. A handful of Biden administration officials and appointees – including a former US Army officer – have publicly stepped down over the US’s Gaza policy since the conflict began on October 7. The resignations have come amid widespread anger in the country about Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel, despite the mounting death toll in the Gaza Strip and accusations that Israeli forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began, and Israel’s continued assault and siege on the territory has created a dire humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced. But despite the dire toll of Israel’s military offensive, and a recent decision to pause one US weapons shipment to Israel, the Biden administration signalled this week that it plans to send another $1bn in military assistance to Israel. The news drew condemnation from rights advocates, who for months have urged Washington to suspend all weapons transfers to its top Middle East ally. A recent US Department of State report found that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to Washington’s ongoing military aid. On Wednesday, Josh Paul – a former State Department official who resigned in October over the US’s Gaza policy – said the latest Biden administration resignation signalled that “the tide is turning”. Paul noted in a post on LinkedIn that US university students, Democratic Party voters, as well as Biden’s own staff and political appointees have all made clear they are opposed to his Middle East policy. The US president, who is seeking re-election in November, faces growing disapproval among key segments of his Democratic base over his Gaza stance. Young people, progressives, and voters of colour, among others, have said they would not vote for him in the upcoming elections if he does not change tack. “How many more Palestinian lives will it take before President Biden catches up to the American electorate and ceases American support to the war crimes being committed with our funding, with our arms, by Israel?” Paul wrote. Call, the staffer who resigned from the Interior Department, also said Israel’s Gaza war and US support for it were “disastrous”. “I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call told The Associated Press. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, for his election prospects.” Adblock test (Why?)
What does Georgia’s foreign influence bill mean for its bid to join the EU?
Protesters took to the streets in Tblisi after Georgia’s Parliament approved ‘foreign agents’ law. Georgia’s Parliament has signed off on a controversial bill, sparking outrage in the capital. In April, the government announced it was reviving legislation that would require media and nongovernmental organisations to register themselves as foreign agents if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. That led to weeks of mass demonstrations. The government says the law is needed to promote transparency and preserve sovereignty. But critics say the bill drives Georgia closer to Russia. How will it affect the country’s hopes of joining the European Union? Presenter: Tom McRae Guests: Hans Gutbrod – professor of public policy, Illia State University, Georgia Ketevan Shoshiashvili – senior researcher, Transparency International Dachi Imedadze – campaign strategist, SHAME Movement Adblock test (Why?)
Is the US still shipping weapons to Israel tacit support for war on Gaza?
The idea that US President Joe Biden’s pausing heavy weapons shipments to Israel signalled some unhappiness with Tel Aviv would seem to be in question as two United States officials confirm that its latest weapons aid package, worth approximately $1bn, has been moved to the congressional review process. Biden had last week ordered the pause of a shipment, including 1,800 US-made 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs, over concerns that they would be deployed by Israel during a land invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The 2,000-pound bombs are among the heaviest in the US arsenal, with a blast radius of 365 metres (1,200ft), generating razor-sharp shrapnel capable of reducing the human body and unarmoured vehicles to shreds. A further weapons shipment, including dozens of Boeing F-15 fighter jets, is also on hold as Gregory Meeks, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee awaits further information on Israel’s planned use for the jets. Nevertheless, the approved shipment, which includes tank rounds, mortars and armoured tactical vehicles, appears to reinforce comments by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday, suggesting that US concern over the 2,000-pound bombs was more about their potential for significant fatalities rather than any concerns over Israel’s intent to launch a land assault on Rafah. [embedded content] Rafah As Israel’s assault on Gaza entered its eighth month, Rafah was the last Gaza city that had not yet been attacked by land. It was a refuge for some 1.5 million civilians – about half of them children – according to UNICEF, who had fled the destruction of other cities, like Gaza City and Khan Younis, that were levelled by Israeli forces. Aid organisations set up their bases in Rafah, which was considered the safest zone in Gaza, despite being under regular Israeli attack from the air. However, since Israel intensified its attacks on Rafah earlier this month – claiming it was a stronghold for Hamas’s remaining battalions – thousands of Palestinians fled eastern Rafah to an under-equipped “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi announced by the Israeli army. Israel’s attack on Rafah has been heavily criticised by some of its allies. However, the US pause on a single shipment of deadly ordnance has so far been the only practical expression of international disquiet. A US report into Israeli violations of international law during the war found it was “reasonable to assess” that US weapons had been involved in these breaches, given Israel’s extreme reliance on US-manufactured weapons. A report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute concluded that, over the nine years leading up to 2022, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons were provided by the US. US-made 2,000-pound bombs being moved onto an aircraft elevator on board the USS John F Kennedy, on March 2, 2002. [Jim Hampshire/US Navy photo/Handout HK/Reuters] The rest was provided by Germany and an array of Western allies. Contacted by Al Jazeera, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which is responsible for weapons exports, said that it would continue to review export licences on a case-by-case basis. The US State Department has so far declined to comment. Blurred lines While Biden has declared the full invasion of Rafah as a diplomatic “red line”, some believe that it is designed to be one that he will not have to enforce. In an interview with Israeli media on Sunday, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew stressed that Israel’s assault on Rafah had yet to cross “over into the area where our disagreements lie”. “I’m hoping we don’t end up with real disagreements,” he said of the gradual assault on the city so far. Thus far, Israel is attacking sections of the city, issuing evacuation orders to specific neighbourhoods before entering them. “So far, Israel seems intent on carrying out a campaign on Rafah in the same, rather brutal, way it did in Khan Younis and Gaza City,” H A Hellyer, an authority on Middle East security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute, said. [embedded content] “There’s nothing to say that Israel won’t just proceed with smaller munitions, anyway, and the [Israeli military] has been attacking Rafah before and after Biden’s speech,” Hellyer said. “To avoid embarrassing Joe Biden and his ‘red line’, however, the Israelis seem to be doing things more slowly, and with less reliance on massive weaponry, but the outcome is the same.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also have concerns closer to home as he tries to navigate between warnings from international allies and the urging of far-right members of his cabinet, who are pressing for an assault on Rafah, irrespective of ceasefire talks elsewhere. “My sense is that Netanyahu attaches far more importance to his government collapsing due to the far-right he’s included in his cabinet, than he does to losing Joe Biden’s support, which I still don’t see happening,” Hellyer said. Stockpiles Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – and its killing of more than 35,000 Palestinians – has been underpinned by its US weapons supply. A 10-year agreement, signed in 2016, allows for the export of military aid worth $3.3bn a year from 2018, plus a further $500m a year for air defence systems. Congress approved a further $26bn in aid to Israel last month, including $5bn to bolster air defences, as well as the “bundled” weapons shipments which fall beneath the threshold needed for congressional oversight. Palestinians wait for food aid in Rafah on November 8, 2023. Famine is imminent in northern Gaza, with hundreds of thousands struggling to avoid starvation [Hatem Ali/AP Photo] It all means that while Israel’s actions have now been openly linked to the suspension of some weapons shipments, the overall partnership remains strong. According to Senator Jim Risch, one of the senior Republicans sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, millions in military aid has been earmarked for Israel, including joint direct attack munitions (JDAMS), used to convert “dumb” bombs into precision weapons. Tank rounds, mortars and armoured tactical vehicles
Riots in French island territory New Caledonia over voting change
NewsFeed Several people have reportedly been killed in violent protests in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, after France’s parliament passed a new law granting voting rights to French residents there. Published On 15 May 202415 May 2024 Adblock test (Why?)