Israeli forces storm besieged Nasser Hospital in Gaza
NewsFeed Israeli forces storm Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, forcing everyone inside to evacuate and flee for their lives. Published On 15 Feb 202415 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
‘Catastrophic situation’ at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital amid Israeli raid
There have been scenes of chaos and panic at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as Israeli forces stormed the medical facility in the southern Gaza Strip and Palestinians tried to evacuate. The Israeli army has besieged the facility for weeks, isolating thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced families – many of whom remain trapped inside. Verified video footage showed those who tried to flee on Thursday came under attack after leaving the hospital. Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Israeli troops were forcing 95 medics, 191 patients and 165 displaced people into an old building at the medical centre under “harsh conditions” without water, food or milk for the children. “The Nasser Medical Complex is witnessing a catastrophic, worrying situation because of the dwindling medical capacity as fuel is set to run out in the next 24 hours, which directly threatens the lives of patients, including six on respirators in intensive care and three children in incubators,” al-Qudra said in a statement. The Israeli army accused Hamas of using the medical compound to hold captives, but it hasn’t provided evidence for the claim. The Palestinian group, which governs Gaza, has vehemently denied it. The raid has displaced patients and medical workers who spoke of terrifying and strenuous conditions. “I left with my husband, who is blind. I was doing kidney dialysis. They destroyed the walls surrounding us as well as the doctor’s room. They ordered us to leave and fired at us, fired bombs and rockets on our heads from the top,” patient Rasmeya Saleem Abu Jamoos told Al Jazeera. “They demolished the building. We left from the door, and we walked through sewage along with my husband. The Israelis then took my husband, and I lost my two bags. I cannot find them,” she said. The Israeli military, which used drones and loudspeakers to tell people to leave Nasser Hospital, said it opened “a secure route” to allow civilians to exit while medics and patients could remain inside. However, witnesses and the medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said those sheltering inside were afraid to leave after reports that people were shot at on their way out. The Israeli army also fired on people inside the hospital, including a doctor and a nurse. MSF described a “chaotic situation” in the hospital after it was shelled early on Thursday. “Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” MSF said on X. It said one of its employee is unaccounted for and another was detained by Israeli forces. 🔴 Gaza update: Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, was shelled in the early hours of this morning, despite Israeli Forces having told medical staff and patients they could remain in the facility. Thousands of displaced people were ordered to evacuate it on 13 February…🧵 — MSF International (@MSF) February 15, 2024 The Israeli army damaged two ambulances in the medical compound on Thursday, the Health Ministry said. Israeli soldiers have also stormed the maternity ward and were “sweeping” the area, it added. Israeli soldiers “threatened those inside with killing and with direct gunfire”, the ministry said. Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the head of plastic surgery at Nasser Hospital, recorded a message from inside the facility when Israel’s evacuation orders came in. “[The Israeli army] sent a hostage with cuffed hands into the hospital asking him to tell us that we should evacuate. And when people started really evacuating, they opened fire, and they shot at the people, and they killed the hostage as well,” he said. Speaking to Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, he said thousands of people, including critically ill patients, are being delayed at Israeli checkpoints as they try to flee the area. He also described the situation at the hospital as “dangerous”. Nasser Hospital, the largest health facility in southern Gaza, has been under siege for around three weeks. The bodies of several people killed by Israeli sniper fire in the hospital compound have been lying on the ground for days because it is too unsafe for staff to reach them. Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip have repeatedly besieged and raided hospitals, alleging that the facilities are being used as command centres by Hamas fighters. Hamas denies the accusation and the Israeli military has shown no concrete proof of such command centres. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described Nasser Hospital as a critical facility “for all of Gaza”, where only a minority of hospitals are even partly operational. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that he was “alarmed” by reports from Nasser Hospital, which he described as the “backbone of the health system in southern Gaza”. In October, in the first 36 hours of the assault on Gaza, Israel targeted Nasser Hospital as well as the Indonesian Hospital and al-Quds Hospital, killing dozens of healthcare workers. By the end of November, 30 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been hit by Israeli rockets. Currently, only six of Gaza’s hospitals remain partially functional. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said at least 28,663 people have been killed in Israel’s attacks since October 7, and at least 68,395 have been wounded. Israel began the assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters from the territory led attacks on southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli figures. Adblock test (Why?)
Venezuela orders suspension of UN rights office, gives staff days to leave
Earlier this week the UN agency expressed ‘deep concern’ over the detention of prominent rights activist, Rocio San Miguel. Venezuela has ordered the local office of the United Nations human rights body to suspend operations and given its staff 72 hours to leave, accusing it of promoting opposition to the South American country. Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil announced the decision at a news conference in the capital Caracas on Thursday. He said the office – the local technical advisory office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – had been used by the international community “to maintain a discourse” against Venezuela. The move came two days after the UN agency expressed “deep concern” over the detention of prominent rights activist Rocio San Miguel and called for her “immediate release”. Gil said the UN rights office had taken on an “inappropriate role” and had become “the private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorists who permanently conspire against the country”. He said the decision would remain in place until the agency “publicly rectify, before the international community, their colonialist, abusive and violating attitude of the United Nations Charter”. In a statement, Venezuela’s government said it decided to suspend the activities of the UN rights office and “carry out a holistic revision of the technical cooperation terms”. It said the review would take place over the next 30 days. It was not immediately clear if the Venezuelan government had notified the UN directly of its order to close the office. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during his daily briefing on Thursday that he had just been made aware of the decision and would get back to members of the press. The UN human rights office has operated in Venezuela since 2019. Rights activist detained San Miguel, 57, was arrested last Friday in the immigration area of an airport in Caracas, sparking an international outcry. Prosecutors have accused her of taking part in the latest alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, which the government has said was backed by the United States. Authorities said in January that they had uncovered five plots to assassinate Maduro, implicating rights activists, journalists and soldiers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday expressed “deep concern” over San Miguel’s detention. In a post on the social media platform X, the office urged “her immediate release” and respect for her right to legal defence. Shortly before Gil’s Thursday announcement, the UN agency called for the respect of “due process guarantees, including right to defence” in her case. The detention of San Miguel comes in a crunch election year that has already seen Maduro block his main opposition rival, prompting the US to threaten to reimpose recently eased oil sanctions. San Miguel is the founder of an NGO called Citizen Control, which investigates security and military issues, such as the number of citizens killed or abused by security forces. She has detailed military involvement in illegal mining operations, and a recent femicide in the army. International rights groups see in the arrests a coordinated plan to silence government critics and perceived opponents. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Enough is enough’: Australian PM denounces US, UK legal pursuit of Assange
Anthony Albanese takes stand against attempts to extradite Australian to US ahead of court ruling next week. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed the years-long United States and British legal pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ahead of a court ruling on his appeal against extradition next week. Albanese said on Thursday that the country as a whole shared the view that “enough is enough”. Assange, 52, is an Australian citizen. Speaking in parliament after backing a motion on Wednesday calling for an end to Assange’s prosecution so that he can return to his family in Australia, Albanese said, “This thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely”. Judges at London’s High Court are due to rule on Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States at a hearing on February 20 and 21. He has spent five years in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, battling extradition to the US, where he is wanted on criminal charges over the release of confidential military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. Washington says the release of the documents had put lives in danger. Assange was arrested after spending seven years in Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault, which were later dropped. Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said that his supporters fear that Assange could essentially be “put behind bars for the rest of his life”. “What they’re essentially saying is that it is really the last chance for … Assange to be able to be granted any sort of freedom,” she said at a press conference held by Assange’s supporters. They said it would be a “terrible thing” for the notion of press freedom, Gallego reported, in essence, “setting a precedent for those who’ve been tried under the Espionage Act to essentially be pawns in the system”. Geoffrey Robertson, a former legal adviser to Assange, said the whistleblower had suffered enough. “He’s published details that were available to three million servicemen and officials about American policy and about war crimes that America committed. And this is what he’s got for it,” he told Al Jazeera. Australia’s parliamentary motion was a “wake-up call” for Washington, he said. He expected that the case would drag on after next week’s ruling. Assange, he said, would eventually have the option of taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights to request an interim order that could halt his extradition. ‘Standing as one’ Albanese said that the Australian government had a duty to lobby for its citizens and that he had raised the issue “at the highest levels” in Britain and the US. Australia should not interfere in the legal processes of other countries, he said. “But it is appropriate for us to put our very strong view that those countries need to take into account the need for this to be concluded.” Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, MP Andrew Wilkie, who authored the parliamentary motion, said that it sent a powerful message that Australia stood “as one” on the matter, he said. “Regardless of what you might think of Mr Assange, justice is not being served in this case now,” he said. Pleased to see @AlboMP give his strongest, clearest and most detailed statement on Julian Assange in the Federal Parliament today in response to my question. Please see full question and response at https://t.co/ZBZiBuP39h. #FreeAssangeNOW #auspol #politas — Andrew Wilkie MP (@WilkieMP) February 15, 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Bay FC break women’s football transfer record to sign striker Kunhananji
Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji becomes the most expensive female footballer as she signs for US side Bay FC. Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji has become the most expensive player in the history of women’s football after signing for National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) expansion team Bay FC. The US club, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, signed the 23-year-old from Spanish club Madrid CFF for a fee of $788,000. Bay FC will play in the NWSL for the first time this year, becoming the league’s 14th team. The regular season starts on March 16. The deal also represents the first time an African player, male or female, has broken a world transfer record. Kundananji has signed a four-year contract with an option for a fifth year with the signing coming just two weeks after Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala, who won the African Footballer of the Year award for the sixth time in December, signed from Barcelona. The Copper Queen @KKundananji has arrived! 👑 The Zambian forward joins #BayFC from @MadridCFF. Read the announcement at: https://t.co/S5koi2QcV6#WeCameToPlay pic.twitter.com/xqNt4YN7zw — Bay Football Club (@wearebayfc) February 13, 2024 ‘A natural ability to score’ Kundananji played for Zambia in last year’s Women’s World Cup. Overall, she has 10 goals in 18 games with her national team. She scored 33 goals in 43 Liga F games since joining Madrid CFF in 2022. “Racheal has a composure in front of goal and a natural ability to score with different types of finishes and from various locations,” Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton said in a statement. “We believe she will continue to grow and develop at our club, showcasing her skillset and adding to the array of exciting attacking talent we have here.” Kundananji arrived at Madrid CFF from Sociedad Deportiva Eibar and quickly became one of the club’s top players. “[She] improved with our club to become a great forward and we hope for the best in her next professional adventure,” the Spanish club said. “Madrid CFF once again demonstrates that it is one of the best clubs in attracting and incubating talent and will continue working with that goal in the future.” Kundananji’s arrival with the team is pending the approval of her visa and international transfer certificate. The transfer tops the reported fee of nearly $500,000 that Chelsea paid last month to Spanish club Levante for Maya Ramirez. Adblock test (Why?)
Which countries have stopped supplying arms to Israel?
EXPLAINER As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow. The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week. Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales. Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation from humanitarian and civil society groups in the form of statements, protests and lawsuits filed against countries alleged to be providing military support to Israel. Some countries are responding to this pressure. On Monday, the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, commented on US President Joe Biden’s description of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “over the top”. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters. So which countries continue to send weapons to Israel and which are taking steps to suspend supply? Who supplies arms to Israel? According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfers database, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 came from the US. The US military also stockpiles weapons on the ground in Israel, presumably for use by the US army itself. However, the US has allowed Israel to make use of some of these supplies during the Gaza war. Besides the US, Israel also receives military imports from other nations. Weapons imported from Germany make up 28 percent of Israel’s military imports. Germany’s military exports rose nearly tenfold in 2023 compared with 2022 after it increased sales to Israel in November, according to figures from the German Economic Ministry. Germany primarily supplies Israel with components for air defence systems and communications equipment, according to the German press agency dpa. The United Kingdom has licensed at least 474 million pounds ($594m) in military exports to Israel since 2015, Human Rights Watch reported in December 2023. These exports included aircraft, missiles, tanks, technology and ammunition, including components for the F-35 stealth bomber used in Gaza. In Canada, dozens of civil society groups have recently urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end arms exports to Israel. The government says it does not send full weapons systems to Israel, but these civil society groups claim it is downplaying the amount of military support it provides. “Canadian companies have exported over $84m [114 million Canadian dollars] in military goods to Israel since 2015,” said Michael Bueckert, vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an advocacy group, adding that the government has continued to approve arms exports since the start of the war. Australia’s foreign affairs minister has said the country has not provided weapons to Israel since the start of the war. However, The Australian Greens party’s defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has asked for the government to be more transparent about exactly what items have been exported to Israel, adding that the country has one of the most secretive weapons export systems in the world. Amnesty International has also called on Australia to halt arms sales to Israel and claims the country has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years. In France, a pro-Palestine demonstration on February 7 called on French companies, including Dassault Aviation, to stop selling arms to Israel. Demonstrators said, according to the Anadolu news agency, “all French companies that sell arms to the Tel Aviv administration are complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza”. Demonstrators condemn Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, near the southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, January 14, 2024. Lawyers say weapons sales to Israel could render other countries ‘complicit’ in war crimes in Gaza [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo] Which countries are stopping arms supplies to Israel? In the Netherlands, a court on Monday gave the government one week to block all exports of parts for the F-35 fighter jet, which Israel is using to bomb the Gaza Strip. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by Dutch humanitarian organisations Oxfam Novib, PAX Netherlands Peace Movement Foundation and The Rights Forum against the government. The concerns laid out in this lawsuit overlap with the issues the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is considering in South Africa’s apartheid case against Israel. “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the court ruling stated. In Belgium, a regional government said it suspended two licences for the export of gunpowder to Israel on February 6. It was reported that the regional government cited the ICJ interim ruling which found Israel may “plausibly” be committing genocide in Gaza. Japanese company Itochu Corporation announced on February 5 that it will end its partnership with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems by the end of February. Itochu chief financial officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura told a news conference that the suspension of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Elbit Systems was based on a request from Japan’s Ministry of Defense and “not in any way related to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine”. However, he added: “Taking into consideration the International Court of Justice’s order on January 26, and that the Japanese government supports the role of the Court, we have already suspended new activities related to the MOU, and plan to end the MOU by the end of February.” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on January 20 that Italy had suspended all shipments of weapons systems or military material to Israel since the outbreak of the war on October 7. This was in response to Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein’s calls on
Will Israel release Marwan Barghouti, the ‘Palestinian Mandela’?
Marwan Barghouti’s supporters call him the Palestinian Mandela. Like the South African leader who was imprisoned by the apartheid regime for 28 years, the Fatah politician has been in jail for more than two decades. Now, despite growing calls for his release — including from Hamas, a longtime rival of Fatah — his incarceration appears poised to continue. On Wednesday, Israel’s extreme right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced that Barghouti had been placed in solitary confinement. Al Jazeera has independently confirmed this. Barghouti was a prominent leader in the first and second Intifadas and was convicted by an Israeli court on five counts of murder in 2004, two years after he was jailed. His imprisonment by Israel has been among the most high profile and his release has long been a key aim of several of the groups opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Protesters wave banners of Marwan Barghouti under a statue of Nelson Mandela, at a rally supporting hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, in Ramallah, May 3, 2017 [Nasser Nasser/AP Photo] Israel accused Barghouti of having founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the early 2000s and indicted him on 26 charges of murder and attempted murder attributed to the Brigades. He was sentenced by an Israeli court to five cumulative life sentences, plus 40 years for attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organisation. Barghouti offered no defence, refusing to recognise the authority of the Israeli court and saying only that he supported the armed resistance but opposed the targeting of civilians. Israeli reluctance Barghouti’s absence from Palestinian politics has done little to dampen his popularity. According to a wartime poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian leader, with support for him outstripping Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the Western-backed Mahmoud Abbas, whose resignation 90 percent of those polled called for. His son, Arab Barghouti, and those around him have heard nothing to suggest the elder Barghouti’s release might be imminent, but he remains optimistic, especially with Hamas demanding his release early in February. “Hamas wants to show to the Palestinian people that they are not a closed movement. They represent part of the Palestinian social community,” Qadoura Fares, who heads the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in the occupied West Bank told The Associated Press. “From a Palestinian perspective, the timing for his return is especially auspicious,” Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute said. “Barghouti is a highly respected figure by all sides. Moreover, he’s a unifying figure and that’s what the Palestinians need. That, or even the promise of that,” he added. Hamas understands that, in the wake of October 7, it cannot be the public face of the Palestinian national movement, Elgindy added. But, analysts have said, Israel will be very reluctant to release a man who can mobilise so many people. Barghouti, his son Arab tells Al Jazeera, “knows he can be the guarantee for unifying the Palestinian people and political partnerships, and that’s what Israel is scared of.” Ironically, it may well be Barghouti’s commitment to a two-state solution that presents the most significant threat to an Israeli government seemingly determined to backtrack upon the agreements it undertook in Oslo in the 1990s, analysts have suggested. Barghouti was one of the authors of the 2006 Palestinian Prisoners’ Document, an extraordinary achievement that not only recognised Israel but had a broad range of signatories whose factions lent their names to the document. In it, members of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for the establishment of two states, with resistance to Israeli occupation limited to military targets within the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war. “Israel has every reason to keep him in prison,” Elgindy said, “It’s the old colonial strategy of divide and rule … Netanyahu is going to be very keen on keeping the West Bank separate from Gaza and Abbas, with all his shortcomings, in place,” he added. Pragmatism Allied to the potential difficulties of having to deal with a unified Palestinian front is Barghouti’s reputation as a noted resistance fighter and someone Israel convicted for his past actions. “Releasing Barghouti is going to take a degree of pragmatism that appears beyond Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet, or Netanyahu himself for that matter,” Elgindy said. “From what we’ve seen, they have no interest beyond playing to their base, and their base’s basest instincts.” International support for Barghouti’s release may also be uncertain. “For the Biden administration, it’s an option,” Elgindy cautioned, “but I don’t know if there’s enough pragmatism in that government to deal with Barghouti,” a man routinely lambasted in the Israeli media and convicted on five counts of murder. Retaining his seat on Fatah’s Central Committee, Barghouti is understood to retain his belief in drawing the various Palestinian factions together and ending much of the factionalism that has held since Hamas’s 2006 election victory and fighting between the group and Bargouthi’s own Fatah party. That Barghouti has retained his influence on the Palestinian population was apparent in December when Quds Press published a statement it said it received from him, calling on all the Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank to rise up and fight the Israeli occupation. The purported call spread like wildfire and the prisoner was thrown into solitary confinement where, lawyers say, prison authorities removed his mattress and bedding, blocked his access to basic hygiene facilities and subjected Barghouti to speakers blasting out the Israeli anthem for 12 hours a day. “No one’s been able to visit him since October,” Arab said, “How anyone could claim to have got a statement out of him I don’t know. It’s been a full-time job to get him a new lawyer.” Since October 7, there have been numerous reports and testimonies by prisoners about the mistreatment and abuse they faced from Israeli prison authorities. Questioned by British
World leaders warn Israel against ‘catastrophic’ Rafah ground offensive
Australia, Canada, New Zealand say ‘there is nowhere else for civilians to go’ and urge Israel to ‘listen to its friends’. World leaders are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to abandon its plans for a ground offensive in Rafah as an exodus from the southern Gaza city once declared a “safe zone” which shelters more than half the enclave’s population is under way. As Israel stepped up its air strikes and artillery fire, Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a joint statement on Thursday, calling for an “immediate” humanitarian ceasefire”, warning that Israel’s planned operation would have a “devastating” impact on the Palestinians taking refuge in the area. “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go,” said the prime ministers of the three countries, Anthony Albanese, Justin Trudeau and Christopher Luxon, adding that Israel “must listen to its friends”. The leaders pointed out that many of their own citizens and families were among the estimated 1.4 million displaced Palestinians, who have been driven into makeshift camps in Gaza’s southernmost city by Israel’s relentless bombardment across the Strip. Joint statement with @JustinTrudeau and @chrisluxonmp. pic.twitter.com/Egqy6ZyrtZ — Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 15, 2024 Spain and Ireland also applied pressure on Israel on Wednesday, asking the European Commission to urgently review whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in Gaza. In a joint letter, Pedro Sanchez and Leo Varadkar, the prime ministers of Spain and Ireland respectively, said that attacking Rafah posed “a grave and imminent threat that the international community must urgently confront”. ‘Stop and think seriously’ On Monday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Israel should “stop and think seriously” before launching its ground invasion of Rafah. Asked whether Israel had breached international law, he said: “We think it is impossible to see how you can fight a war amongst these people. There’s nowhere for them to go.” Alexander De Croo, the prime minister of Belgium, said any Rafah operation could generate an “unmitigated humanitarian catastrophe”, as did Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister of Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest allies. Displaced Palestinians stand outside their tents in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 14, 2024 [Said Khatib/AFP] United States President Joe Biden, who faces widespread condemnation for his unconditional support of Israel’s war on Gaza, is reportedly expressing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind closed doors. Recalling Biden’s comments last week that Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the current conflict had been “over the top”, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Washington should cut arms supplies to Israel. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU development aid ministers in Brussels. Despite pressure from foreign governments and aid agencies to halt its planned Rafah operation, Israel insists it must push into the city near the border with Egypt and eliminate Hamas battalions. “We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday. Should the assault go ahead, the risk of atrocities is “serious, real and high”, said the United Nations’ special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,576 Palestinians and wounded 68,291 since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139. Adblock test (Why?)
Could a Southern African military force help bring stability to DRC?
South Africa is deploying thousands of troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help the country resist rebel attacks which are driving one of Africa’s most serious humanitarian crises. On Thursday, the South African military said two of its soldiers had been killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb that landed inside a military base. “As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] suffered two fatalities and three members sustained injuries. The injured were taken to the nearest hospital in Goma for medical attention,” it said in a statement. In the past week, fighting between DRC armed forces and the M23 rebel group has forced thousands of people to pack up what belongings they can carry and flee – often on foot – to safer areas such as the regional capital, Goma, even though the rebels are closing in on the city. On Wednesday, the South African government said that 2,900 SANDF soldiers were being mobilised for its part in a regional push by the South African Development Community (SADC) to support DRC’s forces against the armed group. The new effort comes after a separate regional military mission to combat the M23 by East African countries, which the DRC government perceived as a failure and which ended last year. However, speculation remains as to whether the South African soldiers will be able to make any more progress than their East African counterparts did. People fleeing the ongoing conflict between DRC government forces and M23 rebels reach the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma on February 7, 2024 [Moses Sawasawa/AP] Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening in DRC and how SADC might perform. What is the conflict in the DRC over? The DRC has been fighting a host of rebel groups in its resource-rich eastern region – around 100 of them in all – for decades, following regional wars in the 1990s that erupted as Rwanda pursued genocidaires responsible for the 1994 mass killings of Tutsis into Congolese territory. Most of the groups are seeking control over natural resources like cobalt and copper, both of which are materials crucial for manufacturing electronics. Among them is the fearsome M23 group – or the March 23 Movement, named after a March 23, 2009 peace treaty that integrated a precursor armed group (the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP) into the Congolese army. M23 rebels broke away from the army in 2012. It operates in the hills close to the Rwandan border and says it is fighting in defence of ethnic Congolese Tutsis who, it claims, face tribal discrimination in the DRC. The United Nations and the DRC, however, say the group is being funded by Rwanda to control Kinshasa’s minerals, causing a serious diplomatic rift in the region. The armed group went quiet after it was pushed out of DRC in 2013, but resurfaced again in 2021, possibly because of renewed Rwandan support. In March 2022, M23 launched a major bombing and heavy artillery offensive against army forces and any civilians caught in their way. Since then, the violence in the volatile eastern DRC has only worsened, with fighting continuing through general elections in December which saw President Felix Tshisekedi sworn in for a second term. M23 fighters have also seized at least four towns in the eastern North Kivu province, and are advancing towards Goma, the provincial capital which is home to two million people. Last week, M23 fighters attempted to take Sake, a strategic town 25km (16 miles) from Goma. On Tuesday, a local official told AFP that the rebels are now occupying a part of Sake, while government forces remain in the other areas of the town. The humanitarian toll of the fighting has been severe: Dozens have died and thousands have been displaced by the violence this year alone, adding to a previously displaced population of 2.4 million in North Kivu, and a combined seven million uprooted during various conflicts across the DRC. Many of the displaced are living in informal, makeshift camps where there is little food or protection. Many say they suffer from hunger and aid organisations are struggling to reach those in need. “Just getting sufficient food to eat is a major challenge for people with all roads to Goma having been cut off by the fighting,” Eric Batonon of the Norwegian Refugee Council told reporters on Thursday. Why have military interventions failed to reign in the rebels? Two separate military missions have attempted to support the Congolese forces, but have now pulled out of the country or are in the process of doing so, seen as failures by the government and the Congolese people. Troops from the regional economic bloc, the East African Community (EAC) which the DRC is part of, were deployed in July 2022. The aim of the 12,000-strong force, led by Kenya, was to see a 2022 ceasefire arrangement through and ensure the withdrawal of multiple rebel groups from eastern DRC, including M23. However, the mandate was interpreted differently by both sides. While the Congolese government pressed for more offensive action from the troops, and demanded that EAC troops attack and push back M23 rebels, the soldiers mostly operated defensively. In the early days of their deployment, the troops did force some militia groups out of the area, but new offensives since then by M23 fighters have seen those gains reversed. When the EAC forces mandate expired in December 2023, Kinshasa refused to renew it. Separately, a UN peacekeeping force, MONUSCO (the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), has been present in the DRC for more than 25 years. Its 13,500-strong force was supposed to help quell insecurity in the region but has become deeply unpopular in recent years due to its inability to hold back rebel groups. Congolese have questioned why the force has not protected them from the M23 and other violent rebel groups, and those frustrations have spurred
‘He was nameless’: Orphaned children lose family, identity in Gaza
Khan Younis, Gaza – Lying on a bed at the European Hospital in southern Gaza, hidden behind bandages that enveloped his disfigured face, five-year-old Ahmed Abu Zariaan remained unidentified for more than a week. The injured boy was one of a growing number of children in the war-torn enclave to be registered as “unknown”, or under the acronym WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. Ahmed’s family was wiped out in an Israeli air raid as they travelled southwards along Salah al-Din Street, a route Israel designated for safe passage from northern Gaza, in early November. Heeding the Israeli army’s order for residents in the northern part of the enclave to evacuate to the south, the family of five left Beit Hanoon on a donkey cart and headed for Rafah, on the border with Egypt. A strike targeting a nearby house along the way killed the whole family but spared the five-year-old. Nour Lafi, a 28-year-old nurse at the European Hospital, said the boy was in intensive care for two weeks after sustaining severe injuries and burns. “His face was not visible at all and no one recognised him. He was nameless,” she said. “None of his family were there. I could hear him moaning in pain. We tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t say a word.” Doctors examine an injured child brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in Deir el-Balah on December 6, 2023 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images] The boy was recognised 10 days later by his grandmother. UNICEF, the UN agency for the protection of children, estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or have been separated from their immediate relatives since the beginning of the conflict on October 7 – about 1 percent of the overall displaced population of 1.7 million people. In Gaza, where Israel’s brutal war has passed the four-month mark, parents have long resorted to writing their children’s names on their bodies so they can be identified if killed or injured. When no indication of their identity is immediately available, hospitals send out alerts on social media networks in the hope that relatives come forward. Yet, sometimes a child’s injuries are so severe that their own families would struggle to recognise them. In the course of the conflict, NGO Save the Children found, more than 10 children a day lose one or both of their legs. ‘Missiles destroy people outside and inside’ Samira Abu Zariaan, 60, is still in shock that her daughter was killed but she has taken on caring for her grandson, whose physical and psychological wounds are life-altering. [embedded content] “His emotional state is still very difficult,” Samira told Al Jazeera. “He hasn’t talked much. His voice trembles with fear. He’s scared of any sounds near him.” Ahmed has asked about his mother, but Samira could not bring herself to tell him the truth. “He doesn’t know she was killed. I told him she’s injured and needs to rest.” “I don’t know how Ahmed will overcome his shock. These missiles destroy people outside and inside,” she said. “He turned from a cheerful, impish, chattering child to a silent, still child.” The UN estimates that some 40 percent of the people in Gaza have lost their identification cards and other documents, making it harder to identify unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families. “Forced separation exposes children to various dangers and heightened risks of exploitation, neglect, and abuse,” Ammar Ammar, spokesperson for UNICEF, told Al Jazeera. A 2022 assessment by Save the Children found that the psychosocial well-being of children in Gaza had reached alarming levels due to protracted conflicts, a global pandemic and a crippling blockade. The needs are now “unimaginable”, Soraya Ali, a regional spokesperson at Save the Children, told Al Jazeera. “Children have an increased sense of anxiety and depression after going through conflict and this leads to long-term consequences.” Injured children often have to deal with the loss of their families as well as the pain of their wounds. Pictured here is a child at the Kuwaiti Hospital after an Israeli attack on al-Ghoul family home in Tal as-Sultan, Rafah on January 25, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu] By UNICEF’s estimate, about 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza before the assault began. Today, it estimates that the number has doubled to more than one million children – as a result of what it describes as “a war on children” that has made the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. More than 28,000 people have been killed, including more than 12,000 children, during Israel’s war on Gaza. Life-threatening shortages As children face a mental health crisis, critical medical and food supplies remain largely unable to enter Gaza. Aid convoys carrying lifesaving supplies have come under fire from Israeli forces, despite being clearly labelled. According to the latest UN assessments, 13 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, operating at several times their capacity while facing critical shortages of basic supplies and fuel. Humanitarian organisations have called for an end to the hostilities to allow the humanitarian aid trickling in to be scaled up. “UNICEF can scale up its support, but we urgently need full access to communities and families to properly identify, register, provide temporary care arrangements and conduct family tracing and reunification services for children,” Ammar said. “An immediate and long-lasting ceasefire is the only way to end the killing, injuring and separation of children and their families.” Save the Children has also been calling for a permanent ceasefire, Ali said, “so that we can go into Gaza and start providing the mental and psychosocial support that is desperately needed”. (Federica Marsi reported from Italy for this article.) [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)