Israeli air strikes kills two people in Syria’s capital: State media
The attack took place in Damascus’s Kafr Sousa area near a large, heavily guarded complex used by security agencies. At least two people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the Syrian capital, Damascus, state media reported. The attack on Wednesday took place in Kafr Sousa, an area that is home to a number of security and military headquarters, the news agency SANA reported. Israel has not confirmed the strikes. Videos on social media verified by Al Jazeera showed an apartment on fire in a multistorey building. Windows were shattered in nearby buildings and dozens of parked cars were damaged in the area. An empty bus for the nearby Al-Bawader Private School was damaged and people were seen rushing to fetch their children. The neighbourhood also has residential buildings and Iranian cultural centres. Witnesses heard several back-to-back explosions and ambulances rushed to the area, the Reuters news agency reported. Syrian state TV did not say who was killed. Rami Abdulrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said the two killed were inside an apartment but did not give any clues about their identities. Abdulrahman said that the strike was similar to last month’s killing in Beirut, Lebanon, of Saleh al-Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian group Hamas. Two people were killed inside an apartment [Firas Makdesi/Reuters] SOHR said the blasts in Damascus were “a result of a new Israeli targeting of Syrian territory”. Since the start of the year, the group said it has documented 13 Israeli attacks on Syrian territory – eight air strikes and five rocket attacks by ground forces, which destroyed nearly 31 targets and left 31 fighters dead and 13 others injured. Eight civilians, including a woman, were also killed in the Israeli strikes this year, according to SOHR. The United States and Israel have for years carried out attacks against what they describe as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it backed President Bashar al-Assad in the war that erupted in 2011. The attacks renewed in intensity since October 7 when Hamas fighters stormed communities in southern Israel killing more than 1,100 people and taking about 240 captive. The unprecedented assault triggered a ferocious response by Israel which has killed more than 29,000 people in the Gaza Strip. Last month, an Israeli strike on the Syrian capital’s western neighbourhood of al-Mezzeh destroyed a building used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), killing at least five Iranians. In December, an Israeli air strike on a suburb of Damascus killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the IRGC in Syria. Israel has also targeted members of Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups in Syria over the past years. Adblock test (Why?)
German champions Bayern to part ways with coach Tuchel at end of season
Struggling German champions will take ‘new direction’ with a different coach next season, club says after announcing Tuchel’s departure. German club Bayern Munich will part ways with coach Thomas Tuchel at the end of a disappointing season, the Bundesliga champions have said in a statement. Tuchel’s contract, which was signed less than a year ago and runs until 2025, will be terminated at the end of the current season. Bayern lost their last three games in all competitions, including a 3-0 defeat to league leaders Bayer Leverkusen and have now dropped eight points behind them in the Bundesliga. Tuchel had taken over in March 2023 from Julian Nagelsmann but despite leading them to the Bundesliga title last season on the final matchday, they have not shown the form this season that saw them dominate German football for the past decade. Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said there would a “a new direction” next season with a new coach. “In a good, open discussion, we came to the decision to end our working relationship by mutual agreement in the summer,” Dreesen said on Wednesday. “Our goal is to pursue a new footballing direction with a new head coach for the 2024/25 season.” “Until then, every individual at the club is expressly called upon to achieve the maximum possible in the Champions League and Bundesliga. I also explicitly hold the team accountable in this regard.” New direction for the new season: FC Bayern and Thomas Tuchel to end their working relationship in the summer. 🔗 https://t.co/nKsSeKx3kk pic.twitter.com/1q22LRSMcy — FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) February 21, 2024 Tuchel, who in the past had been in charge at Borussia Dortmund and Paris St Germain, and also won a Champions League title with Chelsea in 2021, said his remaining time in Munich would be focused on the remaining goals in the Bundelsiga and the Champions League. His first full season at Bayern had been hit by a string of injuries to key players and by what he had said was a relatively thin squad at the start of the campaign despite the arrival of Bundesliga record signing Harry Kane. “We have agreed that we will end our working relationship at the end of this season,” Tuchel said. “Until then, I will of course continue to do everything I can with my coaching staff to achieve maximum success.” Bayern’s next game is against RB Leipzig who beat Bayern the last two times in Munich. The club’s last season without a title was in 2011-12. They have won all 11 Bundesliga titles since then, four German Cups, and two Champions Leagues to clinch trebles in 2013 and 2020. Now they trail Leverkusen by eight points, were beaten in the German Cup by a third-division side and have to overcome the deficit against Lazio to stay alive in Europe. Leverkusen are coached by Xabi Alonso who as a former Bayern player could be a top candidate for them in summer. But he is also linked with another ex-club, Liverpool, where Jurgen Klopp is leaving in summer. Klopp, for his part, has been seen as a future Bayern coach but said he wants to take time off after leaving Anfield. Adblock test (Why?)
Police fire tear gas at protesting Indian farmers marching to New Delhi
Police have fired tear gas at thousands of Indian farmers who resumed their protest march to the capital, New Delhi, after talks with the government failed to end an impasse over their demands for guaranteed crop prices. The protests come at a crucial time for India, where national elections are due in the coming months and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is widely expected to secure a third successive term in office. The farmers began their protest last week but were stopped some 200km (125 miles) from the capital. The authorities are determined to contain the protests, which have renewed the movement from more than two years ago when tens of thousands of farmers had camped out on the outskirts of the city for more than a year. At the time, the farmers pitched tents, bought food supplies and held out in the sit-in until they forced Modi to repeal new agriculture laws in a major reversal for his government. This time around, the authorities have barricaded the highways into New Delhi with cement blocks, metal containers, barbed wire and iron spikes to prevent the farmers from entering. On Wednesday, the farmers arrived at the barricades with bulldozers and excavators to try and push through. Last week, the farmers had paused their protest and hunkered down near the town of Shambhu, close to the border between the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, as unions engaged in discussions with government officials. They rejected a proposal from the government that offered them five-year contracts of guaranteed prices on a set of certain crops, including maize, grain, legumes and cotton, and the farmers resumed their march on Wednesday. Adblock test (Why?)
Sudanese refugees face gruelling wait in overcrowded South Sudan camps
A new truck arrives in the South Sudanese town of Renk, packed with dozens of elderly men, women and children, their exhausted faces betraying the strain of their traumatic journey out of war-ravaged Sudan. They are among more than half a million people who have crossed the border into South Sudan, which is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals. Renk is just 10km (6.2 miles) from Sudan, where fighting broke out in April last year between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Since then, Renk’s two transit centres run by the United Nations have been overwhelmed by an uninterrupted influx of frightened people, fleeing for their lives. The journey is rife with danger, said Fatima Mohammed, a 33-year-old teacher who escaped with her husband and five children from El-Obeid city in central Sudan. “The bullets were entering our house. We were trapped between crossfire in our own street. So we understood that we needed to leave for the good of our kids,” she said, describing the situation in Sudan as “unsustainable”. It took them five days to make their escape, with Sudanese soldiers and RSF fighters “making [it] difficult for us to leave the country”. “They took all our phones at one checkpoint, a lot of our money [at] another one. We saw abuses happening at those checkpoints,” she said. Sudanese refugees line up during a cash assistance programme at a transit centre for refugees in Renk [Luis Tato/AFP] ‘Stuck here’ Since the start of the conflict, nearly eight million people, half of them children, have fled Sudan. Around 560,000 of them have taken refuge in South Sudan, according to the UN, which estimates that around 1,500 new arrivals turn up in the country every day. Many spend months waiting in the transit camps, hopeful that someday soon they will be able to return home. Iman David fled fighting in Sudan’s capital Khartoum with her then three-month-old daughter, leaving her husband behind. “It was supposed to be a short stay, but I am still stuck here in Renk after seven months,” said the 20-year-old. “My hope is to go back to Khartoum and reunite with my husband but I don’t know his fate.” Thousands of civilians were killed in the war, according to UN figures. Some 25 million people, more than half of Sudan’s population, need humanitarian assistance, while an estimated 3.8 million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition, the UN says. Sudanese refugees and ethnic South Sudanese families who have fled the war in Sudan gather after crossing the border while waiting to be registered by the authorities at the Joda border crossing point, near Renk [Luis Tato/AFP] ‘Better than Khartoum’ While many in Renk long to return home, others hope to travel onwards to the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state, which is also hosting a huge number of refugees. At Renk port, hundreds of people lined up under the oppressive glare of the midday sun, waiting hours to hop aboard the metal boats which make the trip at least twice a week. As she waited, Lina Juna, a 27-year-old mother of four, said her final destination was the South Sudanese capital, Juba. “I have nothing to do in Juba, no family members or friends, no business or work to take care of because I have spent all my life in Sudan,” she said. “But I still expect Juba to be much better than Khartoum,” she added, recalling days spent struggling to find food as heavy fighting rocked the city. Several hours later, she managed to board a boat, one of two carrying some 300 people each. “Today is a good day for us,” said Deng Samson, who works for the International Organization for Migration. “Some weeks we have seen ourselves completely overwhelmed,” said Samson, adding that the approaching monsoon made him nervous. “We are truly afraid of what will happen when the rainy season comes, with waters rising from the river and disrupting the normal functioning of the port.” With up to 10 trucks and buses arriving in Renk every day, the UN is trying to mobilise the international community, launching an appeal for $4.1bn this month to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs. Adblock test (Why?)
‘We want dignity’: Indian farmers defy pellets, drones to demand new deal
Shambhu border, India — Balvinder Singh lies on his side, writhing in pain, on a hospital bed in the northern Indian state of Punjab. When Singh, 47, was hit by a volley of piercing objects while marching towards New Delhi with thousands of other farmers, he did not know what had struck him. But his body is pockmarked with telltale black scars from iron pellets fired by security forces to prevent farmers from crossing over from Punjab into the state of Haryana, which borders New Delhi. Haryana is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, whose federal policies the farmers are protesting against. Singh, a farmer from Faridkot district in Punjab, who was admitted at Rajindra Hospital in the city of Patiala, was hit when he was calming the angry young farmers at the front of the protest site, metres away from the border on February 14, a day after the protests began. “I was calming down the protesters when I was hit,” Singh says, his left eye bloody from a pellet injury. “I could not understand whether it was a bullet or something else that hurt me.” Singh says he had never heard of iron pellets being used as ammunition by security forces against civilian protesters. In the past, such pellets have been mostly used in Indian-administered Kashmir as a crowd-control mechanism. Pellet guns have blinded scores of people in Kashmir. Balvinder Singh, his eye bloodied by a wound from an iron pellet fired by police, in a hospital in Patiala, Punjab [Md Meherban/Al Jazeera] Now, they are part of the intensifying confrontation between farmers and the government. The government in Punjab, which is ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party that is in opposition nationally, has said that three farmers have lost their eyesight after being hit with the Haryana police pellets and a dozen others have also suffered pellet injuries. Critics of the farmers, meanwhile, argue that the central government cannot allow the protests to escalate the way they did in 2021, when clashes broke out on the streets of New Delhi. Some protesters reached the Red Fort – from where the prime minister delivers the Independence Day speech – and were accused of yanking down the national flag. A security crackdown followed. Yet, days after this latest agitation kicked off, there are growing signs of a repeat of the kind of escalation in tensions that India witnessed three years ago. Thousands of farmers in their tractor trolleys, small trucks, on foot, and scooters have travelled from rural areas of Punjab and gathered on the Punjab-Haryana highway waiting to march on the capital city. They are hoping to press the BJP government for demands including a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for their crops and loan waivers, among others. In Haryana, the government has been criticised for using drones to drop tear gas shells on the protesting farmers. The state’s police have sealed the border with heavy cemented blocks, iron nails and barbed wire. Singh, who owns a four-acre plot where he grows rice and wheat, says there is no guarantee of price in the fluctuating market for other crops. “We spend more on cultivation [when growing other crops] and there is no earning,” he says. “Now, we are also facing water shortages for even growing these two crops [rice and wheat]. We are in deep stress.” At present the government buys rice and wheat from farmers for public distribution, and offers them a minimum support price for these grains. But other agricultural commodities do not receive this price protection. That, farmers say, has in turn led to the overproduction of rice and wheat. Paddies in particular, are water intensive, leading to depleted groundwater levels. “If I want to diversify to other crops, there should be financial security for me that I will get a good price – that is what we are asking. We are asking for our rights,” says Singh, from the hospital, where eight other farmers, some aged above 60, are also being treated. One of them, Mota Singh, 32, from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, said that he was hit by a rubber bullet on his hand. To Mota, something even more fundamental is at stake than crop prices. “Farmers are demanding dignity, we cannot be poor forever,” says Mota, when asked why he was protesting. Female farmers listen to a speech by a farming leader at the protest site on the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab [Md Meherban/Al Jazeera] Why are farmers again on the roads? More than 250 farmers’ unions have supported the protest that is being organised from Punjab. Up to two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion population are engaged in agriculture-related activities for their livelihoods and the sector contributes nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product. Farmers say that their main demand – minimum support price legislation – would ensure that the rates of their crops are sustainable and provide them with decent earnings. At present, the government protects wheat and rice against the price fall by setting a minimum purchase price, a system that was introduced more than 60 years ago, to ensure food security in India. Development economist Jayati Ghosh says that if other crops were also brought under the MSP regime, it would help provide sustainable financial support to the farmers. This wouldn’t mean that the government would need to buy large volumes of these crops, says Ghosh, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It’s only when the price drops below the MSP that the government would need to step in and buy just enough that the price rises above the minimum set bar, she says. “It’s a market intervention that makes sure that farmers have this other option,” Ghosh says. In India, experts say that agriculture has been going through a severe crisis due to increasing extreme weather combined with a lowering water table, affecting yields and pushing farmers deep into debt. Thousands of farmers take their own lives each year.
In Gaza City, death and famine take hold amid Israel’s war
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – More than four months of Israel’s war on Gaza have left it unrecognisable. In the streets, famine is a reality for nearly all the besieged population while the smell of death is ever-present. With nearly no access to medical care, many are suffering from disease, while infection awaits tens of thousands of men, women and children injured by Israeli attacks. Famine Hunger has taken a heavy toll on everyone. With businesses and banking services either destroyed or unable to operate, there is no cash, no income and little to nothing to meet the cost of feeding their starving families. With Gaza’s ability to produce its own food decimated by Israeli bombs, a hungry population looks for food from outside the Strip, provisions increasingly limited by Israel’s continuing blockade. Agriculture is in ruins. Fertile areas such as Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia lie neglected, as winter rains, vital to farmers, fall unheeded. Poultry and livestock have also been destroyed, victims either directly or indirectly of the Israeli bombs. [embedded content] Fish is a luxury lost to the coastal enclave’s population. Famine is a growing reality. Few supplies are left and malnutrition is growing. The international aid that does make it in can barely meet the needs of a hungry population, or prevent the situation from deteriorating. Since the beginning of Israel’s ground offensive, many humanitarian agencies, like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have halted operations, meaning hundreds of thousands of people cannot access any aid. The endless waves of bombing have destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, razing or shuttering the factories producing and processing food. About half the population of Gaza now faces daily shortages of bread, clean water and the basic ingredients for life. In the east of Gaza, canned goods were once processed and bakeries seemed to stand on every street, they are now simply memories for the starving population. As are meat and dairy. What food can be found is either extremely expensive or greatly reduced in quantity, often both. Palestinian child crying amid a crush of children in line to receive food prepared by volunteers for Palestinian families displaced to southern Gaza by Israeli attacks, on February 10, 2024 [Belal Khaled/Anadolu Agency] The struggle extends beyond food. Water has become so scarce that contaminated drinking water has become the norm. As more people, especially children, consume polluted water, severe bacterial illnesses have thrived. For those willing to risk falling buildings or bombs, firewood to boil water can be found, but cooking gas is a distant memory. Disease With uncooked food common, parents, desperate to feed their starving children, feel they have no option but to give them raw food, despite the consequences of doing so. Across the Strip, infrastructure and sewage systems have been destroyed, resulting in a free flow of sewage that contributes to growing respiratory problems as a population weakened by hunger keeps breathing. Added to that is the smell of the dead, decomposing bodies of people and animals lying scattered in the streets or under rubble, polluting the air and raising the risk of disease transmission. Medical facilities in Gaza have nearly all been destroyed, leaving those injured by Israeli attacks isolated and those with more complex or chronic needs, such as prenatal care or treatments like dialysis, without proper care. An injured Palestinian child on her mother’s lap on the floor because there is nowhere else for her t wait for medical attention; in Nasser Hospital after Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis on January 22, 2024 [Belal Khaled/Anadolu Agency] In and around Gaza City, there are only two functioning hospitals: al-Shifa Hospital and Ahli Arab Hospital. In addition to struggling with many of the same circumstances as the rest of the Strip, they struggle with the demands of hundreds of thousands of injured and sick people calling for help. The outcome is predictable. Thousands are slowly dying. Without electricity, large numbers of the injured, the sick, premature newborn babies and those lying in intensive care units (ICUs) must all depend on oxygen pumped by machines reliant on generators, whose fuel supply is uncertain. Everyone is at risk. Prenatal care units are out of service, increasing the risk of babies being born with health problems or complications. Inevitably, as the bombing continues, the incidence of disease and the ever-present need for amputations rarely recedes. All the while, the cold bites, affecting all. Each day begins with a challenge of reaching its end. In Gaza, sadly, that’s enough. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
Two men charged with murder in shooting at Kansas City Super Bowl parade
Dominic Miller and Lyndell Mays face charges of second-degree murder in the shooting that left one person dead and more than 20 injured. Two men in the United States have been charged with murder for a gunfight on the fringe of a Super Bowl victory rally in Kansas City, which killed one person and wounded more than 20 others, according to prosecutors and court documents. Prosecutors in the state of Missouri told reporters on Tuesday that Lyndell Mays and Dominic Miller were charged with second-degree murder and several weapons counts in the shooting, which began in a quarrel over eye contact. The arrests of Mays and Miller brought to four the number of people facing prosecution in the Valentine’s Day shooting. Two teenagers were also taken into custody last week and charged as juveniles in family court with firearms offences and resisting arrest. Prosecutors have said they would seek to also charge the two minors as adults and that the investigation was continuing. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the investigation showed the violence on February 14 stemmed from an argument between Mays and another person who was a stranger to him. Baker told reporters their quarrel “very quickly escalated,” with Mays pulling out a pistol, followed by others in the vicinity “almost immediately” drawing their weapons. Police clear the area after shots were fired after the celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVIII [David Rainey/Reuters] While both Mays and Miller are charged with murder, Baker said the evidence shows it was a bullet fired from Miller’s weapon that struck and killed Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan, 43, a radio personality. Police have previously said she was one of 23 people struck by gunfire, including at least nine children, but court documents filed against Mays put the total number of known gunshot victims at 25, including Lopez-Galvan. Mays told detectives he began firing after someone in the other group said, “I’m going to get you,” which he took to mean they would try to kill him, according to affidavits. He said he chose a random person from the other group to shoot at as that person was running away, the document says. Miller initially told investigators that he and his friends began running after hearing gunfire and that he was shot in the back, one affidavit says. When investigators told Miller they had video of him chasing someone in Mays’s group and shooting, Miller admitted to firing four to five shots, the affidavit said. Authorities did not release the ages of either man but court records show that Mays is in his early 20s and Miller is 18 or 19. The shooting unfolded following a parade and rally near the city’s landmark Union Station, where police said upward of a million fans had gathered as the Kansas City Chiefs were celebrating their Super Bowl triumph over the San Francisco 49ers. The broadcast of the NFL championship game on February 11 drew a record television audience, in part due to the heightened media attention surrounding the romance between the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift. She attended the Super Bowl but was not present for the rally. Probable-cause statements filed by prosecutors in conjunction with the criminal complaints lodged against Mays and Miller said that both men were themselves hospitalised by gunshot wounds they sustained during the violence. A conviction for second-degree murder in Missouri is punishable by a prison sentence of 10 to 30 years or life. The incident was at least the 48th mass shooting in the US in 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive organisation, which counts those in which four or more people are shot, not including a perpetrator. This year, so far, it has registered 55 mass shootings. Adblock test (Why?)
World condemns US’s latest UN Security Council veto on Gaza ceasefire
The United States has again vetoed a draft UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Israel’s war in Gaza, prompting widespread criticism from rivals and allies alike. The move on Tuesday was the third US veto of a UNSC resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, and came a day after Washington circulated a resolution that would support a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of all Israeli captives from the Palestinian enclave. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining, reflecting the strong support from countries around the globe for ending the devastating conflict that has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians. Here’s how countries and world leaders responded. China Zhang Jun, China’s envoy to the UN, expressed “strong disappointment and dissatisfaction” with the US, according to the Xinhua news agency. “The US veto sends a wrong message, pushing the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one,” said Zhang, adding that objection to a ceasefire in Gaza is “nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter”. “Only by extinguishing the flames of war in Gaza can the world prevent the fires of hell from engulfing the entire region,” Xinhua quoted him as saying. Russia Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said the US veto marked “another black page in the history of the Security Council”. He accused the US of trying to play for time so that Israel could complete its “inhumane plans” for Gaza, namely to squeeze the Palestinians out of the territory and completely “cleanse” the enclave. He added that no matter how bitter the “aftertaste” of the vote may be, “we are not in the mood to give up”. France France’s UN envoy Nicolas de Riviere expressed regret that a UNSC ceasefire resolution “could not be adopted, given the disastrous situation” in Gaza. De Riviere added that France, which voted for the resolution, would continue to work towards all captives being released and for a ceasefire to be “implemented immediately”. France regrets that the 🇩🇿 resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza could not be adopted, given the disastrous situation on the ground. All hostages must be released now and a ceasefire must be implemented immediately. France will remain committed at the UNSC to that end. pic.twitter.com/dqwSWwgVQZ — Nicolas de Rivière (@NDeRiviere) February 20, 2024 Algeria Algeria’s envoy said the UNSC has “failed once again” and warned the move could have profound consequences for the Middle East as a whole. “Our message to you today is that the international community should respond to the calls for ending the killing of Palestinians by calling for an immediate ceasefire. All those impeding such calls should review their policies and their calculations because wrong decisions today will have a cost on our region and our world tomorrow. And this cost will be violence and instability,” Amar Bendjama said. “So ask yourselves, examine your conscience. What will your decisions today cause? How will history judge you?” Hamas The Palestinian group said the administration of US President Joe Biden’s decision to block Algeria’s draft resolution benefits the agenda of the Israeli occupation, which aims to “kill and displace” Palestinians. “President Joe Biden and his administration bear direct responsibility for derailing the resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement. “The American position is considered a green light for the occupation to commit more massacres and kill our innocent people through bombing and starvation.” Palestinian Authority The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US veto defied the international community and gave Israel “an additional green light for the Israeli occupation to continue its aggression against the people of Gaza and to launch a bloody assault against Rafah”. The Palestinian presidency also said that it holds the US administration responsible for “supporting and providing protection” to Israel’s “barbaric attacks” against children, women and the elderly in Gaza. “This policy makes the United States a partner in the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the war crimes Israeli forces are committing,” the office said. Qatar Qatar’s UN Ambassador Alya Ahmed Saif Al Thani said she regretted the UNSC’s failure to adopt the Algeria-drafted resolution and pledged to continue facilitating efforts to secure a truce in Gaza. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry expressed “regret” at the veto and stressed the “need now more than ever to reform the Security Council to carry out its responsibilities in maintaining peace and security with credibility and without double standards”. #Statement | The Foreign Ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s regret over the veto of the draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the #Gaza Strip and its surroundings, which Algeria submitted to the Security Council on behalf of the Arab countries. pic.twitter.com/6S0COWbERD — Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) February 20, 2024 Norway Norway’s mission to the UN said it “regrets” that the council was not able to adopt a resolution on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. “It is imperative to end the horror in Gaza,” it added. Norway regrets that the #UNSC yet again was unable to adopt a resolution on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in #Gaza. It is imperative to end the horror in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/9Sh3ntIQty — NorwayUN (@NorwayUN) February 20, 2024 Cuba Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez blasted the US, saying its veto made it complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians. “The US has just vetoed again the UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the forced displacement of the Palestinian population,” Bermudez said in a social media post. “They are accomplices of this genocide of Israel against Palestine.” Amnesty International Agnes Callamard, the director of the human rights group, said that Washington had a chance to protect Palestinian civilians but chose “the opposite path” at the UNSC. “And yet again… when the US could do the right thing: protect Palestinians against serious risks of genocide; respect international law and universality; prevent massive killings and sufferings – it chose the opposite path,” Callamard
Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 138
The US vetoes a supported UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, while ICJ hearings continue. Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, February 21, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said the Israeli military has bombed a shelter hosting MSF staff in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. In the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, 103 Palestinians were reported killed and 142 injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The World Food Programme said it has paused deliveries of food to isolated northern Gaza because of attacks and the breakdown of civil order in the region. The weakening of the aid operations threatens to deepen misery across the territory, where Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 29,000 Palestinians. Regional tensions and Diplomacy The US vetoed an Arab-backed and widely supported UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. Before the vote, Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama said: “A vote in favour of this draft resolution is a support to the Palestinians’ right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted against them.” China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said that the US’s veto “stifles” an “overwhelming consensus” among the UNSC’s members on a ceasefire in Gaza. Separately, South Africa argued at the United Nations’ top court that Israel is responsible for apartheid against the Palestinians and that Israel’s occupation of land sought for a Palestinian state is “inherently and fundamentally illegal”. Israel rejects such claims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has described Israeli soldiers’ reported looting of homes in Gaza as a “symptom of genocide and ethnic cleansing”. And in Yemen, the Houthi rebels claimed they struck an Israeli cargo ship, the MSC Silver, in the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea with a number of missiles. At today’s session, Amb. Dr. Riyad Mansour condemned the Security Council’s failure to call for a #ceasefire in #Gaza “By the time this session ends, over 25 #Palestinians will be dead due to the Council’s inaction, It means more babies will be murdered.” @AlgeriaUN @UN #UNSC pic.twitter.com/J9d0LT3bvs — State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) February 21, 2024 Violence in the occupied West Bank Israeli forces destroyed infrastructure and fired live rounds in Jenin, as raids on dozens of homes continue in the city in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The Israeli military said it had targeted a “terrorist cell” with an air strike in Jenin, killing three people. Palestinian armed groups said they had responded by using explosive devices against Israeli military vehicles. Israeli forces also arrested a minor in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem. Adblock test (Why?)
Putin says Russia has no intention of putting nuclear weapons in space
Last week, the White House claimed that Moscow had obtained ‘troubling’ anti-satellite weapon capability. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the US. Putin’s statement on Tuesday follows the White House claim last week that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said it would violate the international Outer Space Treaty, but declined to comment on whether the weapon was nuclear-capable. The treaty, signed by more than 130 countries – including Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner”. The White House said it would look to engage the Russians directly about the concerns. “Our position is quite clear and transparent: we have always been and remain categorically opposed to the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Putin said. “Just the opposite, we are urging everyone to adhere to all the agreements that exist in this sphere.” He called the accusations part of a “clamour being raised in the West”. Putin said Russia has “many times suggested to strengthen joint cooperation in the [space] sphere but for some reason, in the West, this topic has not come up again”. Speaking during a meeting with his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, Putin noted that Russia has only developed space capabilities that “other nations, including the US, have”. “And they know it,” he said. “We haven’t deployed any nuclear weapons in space or any elements of them to use against satellites or to create fields where satellites can’t work efficiently,” Shoigu said. Shoigu alleged that the White House could have made the allegations of a new Russian space capability to force Congress to support aid for Ukraine and also encourage Moscow to re-enter nuclear arms control talks that Russia has suspended amid the tensions with the US over Ukraine. Putin did not rule out possible future contacts with the US, but reaffirmed his view that Washington’s push for Russia’s defeat in Ukraine makes such a scenario impossible for now. “The US and the West, for one thing, are calling for Russia’s strategic defeat, while, on the other hand, they would like to have a dialogue on strategic stability, pretending that those things aren’t connected,” he said. “It won’t work.” Adblock test (Why?)