Taiwan’s Gen Z voters want something new in Saturday’s election
Kaohsiung, Taiwan – On ‘Super Sunday’ as Taiwan’s three leading political parties converged on the southern city of Kaohsiung, 28-year-old Vivian and her nervous dog Kimmy stood together on the fringes of a rally for presidential candidate Ko Wen-je. Ko was once a mayor of Taipei, but he and his small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has never held national office. That is no concern for his supporters. “I think that although Ko is a brand-new choice, judging from his policies and the debate, you can understand his logic,” Vivian told Al Jazeera, standing in a spill-over section at the crowded rally on January 7. “It makes it easy for me to understand what he wants to do.” Four years ago in the 2020 presidential election, Vivian, who did not want to share her full name, says she voted for the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). So did many other young people, who turned out in their droves and helped President Tsai Ing-wen win a second term in a landslide. But this time it is different. Vivian wants a change from the usual two-party competition between the DPP and Kuomintang (KMT), and that could be a worrying sign for this year’s DPP presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te. Some young people see the DPP and its candidate William Lai as part of the establishment [Daniel Ceng/EPA] Its appeal to young people – voters must be 20 or over in Taiwan – is the latest challenge for a political party that previously had to contend with problems like martial law, the once powerful KMT, which headed Taiwan from the 1940s until the year 2000, and several years in the political wilderness following the 2008 arrest of its first president, Chen Shui-bian on corruption charges. The DPP’s fortunes were revived by 2014’s Sunflower Movement, a pivotal student protest against a controversial trade deal that would have given Beijing more leverage over Taiwan. When the DPP absorbed many Sunflower activists and policy platforms, the party earned itself lasting popularity with many Millennials and eight years in the presidential palace. The party also learned a thing or two about marketing from its young supporters, rebranding technocrat Tsai into an “iron cat lady”, standing up to China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, while flanked by her various photogenic pets. Now a decade later, Taiwan’s next generation of Gen Z and younger Millennial voters born in the late 1990s and early 2000s are emerging as a political force, and they see the DPP not as the party of outsiders who can bring change, but as part of the establishment. The next generation steps up Some DPP members even have a name for this group of young voters: the mingzhu fuerdai or “second generation democracy”. The term is a play on fuerdai, a Mandarin Chinese word for people who grew up with inherited wealth – often the children or grandchildren of a hardworking entrepreneur. Ko Wen-je was once the mayor of Taipei, but some worry about his lack of political experience and leadership at a national level [Ann Wang/Reuters] In Taiwan, mingzhu fuerdai grew up long after the end of martial law in 1987 or the 1990 White Lily student movement that led to the island’s first democratic elections. These voters, from the minimum age of 20 to 29, make up more than 14 percent of the electorate, according to the Central Election Commission, with 2.8 million eligible voters out of the total of 19.5 million. They are followed by voters aged 30 to 39, who make up a slightly larger 16.5 percent, born shortly before Taiwan’s first democratic elections in 1996 or earlier, according to government data. Voters over 40 make up nearly 70 percent of the electorate. “Younger people don’t have experience fighting for democracy. The history of democracy in Taiwan is just in the textbook; they learn from it, but they don’t know how people like our president and actually many [others] fought for this,” 30-year-old DPP legislative candidate Huang Jie told Al Jazeera from her campaign office in Kaohsiung. Huang wondered whether this slight feeling of apathy might also be a sign of the success of Taiwan’s democracy; that people no longer have to fight for their political and civic freedoms. “Maybe it’s a good thing for the younger generation because they can enjoy freedom and democracy and they don’t need to think about it,” she said. This year’s campaign is being fought on mostly domestic issues, says Huang, while the regional and global events that shaped the 2020 election, such as Hong Kong’s democracy protests, have retreated into the background. The protests gave Taiwanese voters, however briefly, a glimpse of what a future could look like under Chinese rule, with images of young protesters battling riot police or being arrested afterwards. Many were fearful about what they saw. Supporters of Ko Wen-je, the Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate, say he represents a change to the established two-party system [Ann Wang/Reuters] Daily life concerns trump others Many of the concerns of young Taiwanese are similar to the problems faced by young people elsewhere in the world, like the rising cost of living in major cities and a housing market that favours the older generation over first-time buyers. Al Jazeera interviewed six people under 40 attending last Sunday’s political rallies in Kaohsiung, and all named affordable housing as a key concern – something the DPP has failed to resolve over the past eight years. Others may yearn for something different to Taiwan’s longstanding two-party system. “Many young people are tired of the old political culture based on the blue and green party culture,” said 31-year-old Huang Ching-in, a prominent member of the TPP and a Taipei City councillor, using common nicknames for the “blue” KMT and “green” DPP. “With the TPP, they see a different political model,” she said. Ko’s supporters on Sunday spoke of how they liked his direct communication style and his use of social media, particularly sites like YouTube that
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 687
As the war enters its 687th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, January 11, 2024. Fighting Two Russian S-300 missiles struck a hotel in the centre of northeastern Kharkiv injuring 11 people, including journalists, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. Several other buildings, including two apartment blocks, were also damaged. At least one person was killed in a Russian-guided bomb attack on the village of Olkhovatka in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region, according to Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the regional military administration. At least 10 private homes, a shop and a school were damaged, he added. Authorities in Belgorod evacuated some 392 children from the Russian border city after weeks of shelling from Ukrainian forces. Some 300 residents have already left the city, one of the biggest civilian evacuations on Russian soil since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia and Ukraine reported intense battles along the front line in the south and east around Avdiivka, Mariinsky, Kupiansk and Kherson. Russia claimed Ukraine had lost at least 450 soldiers in the confrontations, while Ukraine claimed it had killed 800 Russian troops. Ukraine announced a new online service which will allow Russians whose relatives are soldiers missing in Ukraine to find out whether they have been confirmed killed or are being held as POWs. Politics and diplomacy Speaking in Lithuania, at the start of an unannounced visit to the three Baltic states, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Western hesitation on aid was emboldening Russia and that Ukraine needed to strengthen its air defences and replenish its supplies of ammunition. “He [Russian President Vladimir Putin] won’t finish this [war] until we all finish him together,” Zelenskyy said after talks with his Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda. “Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova may be next.” United Nations agencies will next week ask for $3.1bn to finance humanitarian assistance for Ukraine in 2024. Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the UN Security Council that the war had driven “high levels of humanitarian need” and that financial support had to be sustained. Pope Francis expressed concern that international attention was shifting away from Ukraine. In a letter to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Francis said he was sorry that “in an increasingly tragic international situation, the war in Ukraine risks becoming a forgotten one”. Weapons NATO allies said they would continue to provide Ukraine with major military, economic and humanitarian aid and outlined plans to provide “billions of euros of further capabilities” in 2024 to Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance strongly condemned Russia’s attacks and would boost Ukraine’s air defences. Authorities in Russia’s Belgorod said they had sent 392 children away from the city following alleged Ukrainian shelling attacks [Olga Maltseva /AFP] The UN Security Council discussed Russia’s alleged use of North Korean weapons in Ukraine. Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Western states had called the session an exercise in “anti-Russian propaganda” but stopped short of making an unequivocal denial that Moscow had fired North Korean missiles at Ukraine. South Korea’s UN envoy Hwang Joon-kook said Russia’s use of North Korean missiles gave Pyongyang “valuable technical and military insights” and enabled North Korea to use Ukraine as a “test site of its nuclear-capable missiles”. Lithuania approved a package of long-term military assistance to Ukraine, totalling 200 million euros (nearly $220m). President Nauseda said the country would send ammunition, generators and detonation systems this month, and M577 armoured personnel carriers in February. NATO members Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania are expected to sign on Thursday a preliminary agreement on demining the Black Sea, the AFP news agency reported, citing officials. The Russian navy mined Ukraine’s Black Sea coast in the early stages of its invasion. The UK’s Sky News, citing security sources, said Iran had developed a new attack drone for Russia to use in Ukraine and appears close to providing Moscow with surface-to-surface missiles. Adblock test (Why?)
South Africa takes Israel to the ICJ claiming genocide in Gaza
NewsFeed South Africa is taking Israel to the International Court of Justice accusing it of crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Nabila Bana explains what’s behind South Africa’s case against Israel. Published On 10 Jan 202410 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
‘Still no endgame’ as Blinken concludes latest Middle East tour: Analysts
As the United States’ top diplomat concludes his fourth tour of the Middle East since the war in Gaza began, foreign policy analysts are questioning whether the visit was an act of diplomacy — or an exercise in “damage control”. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled from Israel to the West Bank and then Bahrain. The stops were part of a tour that included visits to Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with a final stop in Egypt on Thursday. Much of the attention was on the US’s continued support of Israel, as it continues its months-long military campaign in Gaza. An estimated 23,357 Palestinians have died in that offensive, amid mounting concerns over human rights violations. At a Tel Aviv news conference on Tuesday, Blinken ran through oft-repeated themes: that the administration of US President Joe Biden “continues to stand” with Israel but that civilian casualties in Gaza remain “far too high”. Analysts described the latest tour as an attempt at “face-saving”, as Blinken sought to walk a fine line between exerting influence over Israel and failing to publicly exercise any real leverage. “We want this war to end as soon as possible,” Blinken told reporters on Tuesday. But three months into the war, an “endgame” remains elusive, said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, the director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). “There’s still no plan,” he told Al Jazeera. He cast doubt on Israel’s stated mission of eliminating the Palestinian group Hamas as part of the war. “Israelis are still living in fantasyland, in that they think they can accomplish the impossible, and the Americans are still in fantasyland [thinking] that they can bring Israelis around to something that’s acceptable to the world,” Omer-Man explained. Critics warned that the US and Israel are also articulating different visions for the path forward after the war. On his visit to Tel Aviv, for example, Blinken called on Israel to accept a two-state solution for Palestine, something he again discussed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. But Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected any moves towards a two-state solution and has said Israel will maintain security control over Gaza for an indefinite period after the war. Two far-right Israeli officials — Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — have also voiced a desire for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of Gaza, something critics have interpreted as a push for ethnic cleansing in the enclave. The latest rhetoric underscored the “yawning gap” between Washington’s vision for a post-war Gaza and what Israel’s government is willing to accept, according to Joshua Landis, the director of the Center of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Netanyahu, who has said numerous times that America is easy to manipulate and who has done end runs around one president after the next, is doing an end run around Biden,” Landis told Al Jazeera. “He’s getting all the arms he wants, and he’s continuing to do this massive damage in Gaza, and he’s not moderating his government officials, who are constantly spouting out this hate messaging, which is embarrassing America in front of the world,” he said. ‘Preempt’ ICJ hearings Still, Blinken sought to claim some victories during the trip. He announced, for instance, that US and Israeli officials had agreed on a plan for a United Nations assessment mission in northern Gaza to “determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely to homes in the north”. That announcement came before the World Health Organization (WHO) cancelled its latest aid mission to northern Gaza, saying Israeli approval and security assurances had not been granted. Blinken also hailed Israel’s announcement that it would begin to shift some troops out of Gaza, describing it as a transition to a “lower-intensity phase” in the enclave. On Monday, in interviews with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said his country would move from the “intense-manoeuvring phase of the war” to “types of special operations”, in an effort to reduce civilian casualties. However, intense fighting would continue in the centre and south of Gaza. Hours later, speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina, Biden said in unscripted remarks that he had been “quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza”. But far from acquiescing to US pressure, DAWN’s Omer-Man said talk of a strategic shift was more likely a response to South Africa’s proceedings against Israel at the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ). South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and requested a provisional injunction that would, in theory, order Israel to stop its operations. Preliminary hearings are set to take place on Thursday and Friday. Israel’s rhetoric about shifting tactics is “absolutely designed so they can tell the ICJ that any interim measures are not relevant any more because major military operations have ended”, Omer-Man explained. “I think a big part of this is the US and Israel trying to preempt [the ICJ hearings] in some way.” For his part, speaking in Tel Aviv, Blinken dismissed the charge of genocide as “meritless”. Israel-Lebanon ‘escalatory trend’ Blinken’s latest trip through the Middle East has also coincided with increased fighting along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where there have been a string of high-profile assassinations in recent days. Those include the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, which Israel has yet to claim or deny, as well as the killing of Hezbollah commander Wissam Hassan al-Tawil on Monday. Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, described the killings as part of an “escalatory trend” fuelled by Israeli officials pledging to “change the status quo” in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed movement, and fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border has fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict erupting, with Iran and
UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea shipping attacks
Resolution backed by 11 members also calls for the immediate release of the seized Galaxy Leader’s multinational crew. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding Yemen’s Houthis end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and free the Japanese-operated Galaxy Leader that was seized last year. Eleven members of the council voted on Wednesday for the measure calling on the Iran-aligned Houthis to “immediately cease all attacks, which impede global commerce and navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace”. Four members – Algeria, China, Mozambique and Russia – abstained. None voted against. As permanent members of the council, China and Russia have vetoes but chose not to use them. “The world’s message to the Houthis today was clear: Cease these attacks immediately,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement after the vote. The US sponsored the resolution alongside Japan. “With this resolution, the Council has lived up to its responsibility to help ensure the free flow of lawful transit through the Red Sea continues unimpeded,” Thomas-Greenfield added. The US says the Iran-backed Houthis have carried out 26 attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea since commandeering the Galaxy Leader and its 25-strong multinational crew on November 19. The Houthis claim they are targeting Israeli-linked or Israel-bound vessels in protest against the ongoing war on Gaza, but many of the ships have had no discernible link with the country, and many lines have begun to avoid the area altogether. The key provision of the resolution noted the right of United Nations member states, in accordance with international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms”. The provision amounts to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval task force, including the United Kingdom and Norway, that was established in December to defend commercial shipping from Houthi attacks. Norway has one of the world’s largest merchant shipping fleets, and its vessels have been targeted by the Houthis. Earlier on Wednesday, the US military said that it had shot down 21 Houthi missiles and drones that were part of a “complex attack” on southern Red Sea shipping lanes. The UK, which worked with the US to thwart the Houthi attack, said it was the largest in the area so far. The US accuses Iran of providing critical support for the Houthi attacks, including advanced missiles and drones, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Tehran denies the allegations. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee in Yemen, dismissed the UN resolution as a “political game” and claimed the US was the one violating international law. The Red Sea links the Middle East and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal and its narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Nearly 10 percent of all oil trade and an estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait every year. At the time of its hijack, the Galaxy Leader – although ultimately owned by a firm linked to an Israeli businessman – was being operated by a Japanese shipping line with a crew from Bulgaria, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania and Ukraine. The Houthis have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2014. Adblock test (Why?)
Some companies want to bet on US elections. Not everyone agrees.
Tarek Mansour spent several years working in finance at firms like Goldman Sachs and Citadel before launching the groundbreaking fintech startup Kalshi. Using his background in finance, he built the first regulated exchange, running what are called “event contracts” or ways to trade on current affairs like national elections. With the upcoming 2024 United States presidential election, increasingly razor-thin Republican control in the House of Representatives and the contentious GOP primaries, Kalshi and platforms like it – including PredictIt, Polymarket and Smarkets – are in the spotlight for allowing financial bets that critics worry could sway voters. Event contracts are comparable to trading on the stock market. Like the speculative nature of Kalshi’s offerings, its product is more closely aligned with commodity trading – hedging on the future price of oil, natural gas, wheat or coal. “We focus on events that are of economic and social value,” Mansour told Al Jazeera. Like trading on the stock market, a given company’s share price could rise and fall based on current events. For instance, if there is an escalation in COVID-19 cases, Moderna’s stock could be affected. But Kalshi allows consumers to trade event contracts on COVID-19 itself. Mansour says that trading on events in a speculative nature is comparable to insurance. There are also event contracts on Kalshi that allow users to wager on the likelihood of natural disasters. There are, for instance, two listings on its homepage for disasters hitting cities like Columbus in Ohio and Houston in Texas – the fourth-most-populous city in the US, which was decimated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Individual event contracts on Kalshi are less than a dollar but that can really vary across the sector. On Smarkets for example, as of January 9, the last traded minimum price on [US President] “Joe Biden to serve full term” was $1.05. Across the sector, there is nothing stopping users from buying a lot of that, much like they would for shares in a company. Proponents argue this is no different than insurance companies factoring in whether or not to provide flood insurance to a home. In the last year alone, several insurance companies including Farmers announced they will no longer offer flood insurance to Florida homeowners because of the increased risks of climate change. “There are all these commercial and financial risk management needs out there that financial markets over time accommodate,” said lawyer Robert Zwirb, who served as the counsel for two former chairpersons of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). “Things that are considered revolutionary today, in 30 years won’t be,” Zwirb added. [Screen grab/Smarkets.com] Not everyone thinks predictive betting is a good thing, especially when it comes to elections. Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, there are serious concerns about the precedent it sets. Last year, Kalshi requested approval to trade contracts during elections. The backlash that followed was primarily from progressives. Several Democratic senators feel the same way. Senators Chris Van Hollen (Maryland), Jeff Merkley (Oregon) Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), Ed Markey (Massachussetts), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), and the late Dianne Feinstein (California) – all Democrats – called on the CFTC to reject Kalshi’s proposal. In an August release, the group of senators said: “There is no doubt that the mass commodification of our democratic process would raise widespread concerns about the integrity of our electoral process. Such an outcome is in clear conflict with the public interest and would undermine confidence in our political process – we urge the CFTC to deny Kalshi’s proposal.” ‘Financial incentive to voting’ “Electoral betting is really dangerous because it makes a huge financial incentive to voting,” said Sydney Bryant, the author of a piece calling out Kalshi last year for the Center for American Progress. While election betting is frowned upon in the US, it is allowed under specific circumstances. Companies like Kalshi have made efforts to move the goalposts. “This isn’t the Kentucky Derby. Our Democracy is not a stakes race,” Bryant added. Election betting is frowned upon in the US but is allowed under certain situations [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters] The CFTC shared those concerns and rejected Kalshi’s proposal in September. The agency said: “The contracts would have been cash-settled, binary contracts based on the question: Will <chamber of Congress> be controlled by <party> for <term>?” which is “contrary to the public interest”. There were more than 1,300 public comments on the matter. Many of them echoed the think tank and the group of progressive senators. Jennifer Venar, one of the public commenters, wrote: “Allowing bets to be placed on the outcome of elections is a truly horrendous idea. At best it further delegitimize[s] the voting process by making it a game and at worst, it encourages further tampering in elections. Please! Do no[t] do this.” Another commenter, named Ken Bell said: “This is absolutely insane. It would greatly contribute to the continued deterioration of our tenuously held democracy by encouraging and rewarding intervention in the political process for monetary gain.” In November, Kalshi filed a lawsuit challenging the agency’s decision. For now, Kalshi will not trade on individual congressional races, which can often come down to slim margins. “We are not looking through the small congressional elections; we are looking at who is going to control the House or the Senate,” Mansour says. Slim margins a deciding vote Representative George Santos was recently expelled from the House [File: Amr Alfiky/Reuters] But a small congressional race could very well be the deciding factor for who controls the US House of Representatives. That’s thanks to several recent changes in the House, including the expulsion of controversial member George Santos amid a scathing ethics report that found several alleged campaign finance violations. Kevin McCarthy, who was removed as House speaker, announced he would also leave Congress, making Republicans’ already razor-thin majority that much more vulnerable. There were several congressional races in 2020 with very slim margins. Such races, argue experts including Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress, have the power to
‘Threatened with rape’: Lama Khater recalls horrors while in Israeli jails
Hebron, occupied West Bank – Lama Khater sits quietly, ready to talk but seemingly exhausted. The mother of five’s face is pale and her lips dry, but an air of relief hangs around her. The 47-year-old had just been released from prison at the end of November, part of the sixth batch of Palestinian prisoners Israel released in exchange for Israeli captives released from Gaza by Hamas. Khater had been in prison for about a month, an exceptionally painful one, it seemed. She was one of hundreds of Palestinians who had been arrested after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians there to date. After Israeli forces stormed her home in Hebron and arrested her, she was shuttled from one detention centre to the other, unsure of what she was charged with or what would happen to her next. Dirty and cramped A writer and journalist who has covered crimes and violations committed by the Israeli occupation – and who has been in Israeli jails herself – Khater found herself subjected to pain and indignities all over again. She had been detained in the past for 13 months but said her detention after October 7 was “incomparable” to the previous jail time. Writer Lama Khater with four of her children, clockwise from left, Yaman, Osama, Bissan and Yahya [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] “Handcuffed” with plastic zip ties that dug painfully into her wrists, Khater was thrown on the floor of the army jeep and taken to the Kiryat Arba settlement camp. She could not see the face of her husband Hazem al-Fakhouri or her five terrified children – Osama, 26, Bissan, 23, Yaman, 18, Izz al-Din, 15, and Yahya, 7 – as she was driven away. Her interrogation began in Kiryat Arba, and during the first session, the Israeli officers threatened her with rape, among other things, she said. “They threatened to kill me, my family, burn my house down,” Khater recalled. They also, she added, threatened to deport her to Gaza and more, telling her that she was a prisoner of war and they could do whatever they wanted. From there, Khater was moved for four days to Hasharon Prison, where she was held with five other Palestinian women in a tiny cell built for one prisoner and “extremely dirty”, she said. They did not have access to water to clean the cell either, she added, explaining that their water supply was cut off for eight hours a day. There was so little room that the six women had to take turns to sit and sleep. [embedded content] After Hasharon, she was moved to Damon Prison in northern Israel, where she was strip-searched and insulted. She also saw other prisoners being “badly beaten”. Missing her family, suffering in prison Sentenced to six months of administrative detention – which allows Israeli authorities to hold people indefinitely without charge – Khater resigned herself to her fate and wondered how her children and husband were doing without her. But then she met a woman from Hebron who had just been rounded up in the Israeli dragnets and the woman told her that her husband had also been arrested, taken from their home on November 8 two weeks after she had been taken and also held under administrative detention since. That meant that their five children were alone, probably even more worried and scared now that both their parents had been taken. Khater couldn’t help but wonder if the raid into their home frightened her children, especially seven-year-old Yahya. “A Shabak officer came to gloat at me, smiling and saying: ‘Your kids are now alone’,” Khater said. Twenty-three-year-old Bissan told Al Jazeera that she had to leave her job and become “both a mother and father” to her siblings because the three youngest are in school and need constant care and attention. Khater did not worry much about the Israeli officers’ threats; she was too happy to be going home [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] She would take care of their food and clothing and tend to their emotional needs, she added. “Yahya used to ask me and my father about my mother – whether she was eating, if she was okay, and when she’s coming home,” Bissan said. The questions became even harder to answer when al-Fakhouri was also arrested, she said. During that time, Khater was shocked at the level of inhumane treatment the Damon guards meted out to the women. Sometimes they would use pepper spray point-blank against the women for any perceived slight. They would also put prisoners in solitary confinement, severely limit their access to food and canteens to buy necessities, and deny them sanitary pads, she said. Finally, she was moved to Ofer Prison at the end of November, to wait in a cold cell for hours with neither food nor water until she was freed at dawn. Up to the very last minute, the officers and guards were threatening her. “They told me that any celebration is prohibited and that I was forbidden from receiving any well-wishers upon my release,” she said, adding that the Israeli officers also warned her not to publish on social media. Bissan, 23, had to leave her job and become ‘mother and father’ to her siblings [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] “They said they would re-arrest me if their ‘rules’ were broken,” she said. But she was not so concerned, as she was filled with “joy and happiness” at the thought of seeing her children. “Everyone knows that the most difficult thing for a mother is being away from her children.” Like all the other prisoners freed in the deal, Khater felt happiness overshadowed by the massacres being committed against Palestinians in Gaza, she said. Since October 7, Israeli authorities have arrested nearly 6,000 people in the occupied West Bank while Israeli forces or settlers have killed more than 270 Palestinians during that time in individual attacks and near-nightly raids, which
WHO facing ‘near insurmountable challenges’ in Gaza aid delivery
The UN health agency has deplored the lack of access to Gaza for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance, amid intense bombardment in the southern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave. “Delivering aid to Gaza continues to face near insurmountable challenges,” the World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a news conference on Wednesday in Geneva. “We have the supplies, the teams and the plans in place. What we don’t have is access,” he said, stressing that the UN and its partners remained “completely ready” to deliver assistance to Gaza Palestinians. Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to allow UN aid teams to deliver desperately needed humanitarian relief inside Gaza, effectively cutting off hospitals and residents from lifesaving medical supplies. “We call on Israel to approve requests from WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid,” Ghebreyesus said. Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, has repeatedly blamed the world body for failing to deliver supplies at a fast enough pace. Moshe Tetro, head of COGAT, on Wednesday denied any bottlenecks on the Israeli end preventing aid from reaching the enclave. “The problem lies with the international organisations processing and receiving the aid,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, claimed instead that the UN has been operating within a “shrinking humanitarian space”. “There should be more avenues to get into Gaza, but also to work within Gaza,” he said, adding that humanitarian corridors were to be expected even in the absence of a ceasefire. The UN health agency said six humanitarian missions to northern Gaza – where the situation is most dire amid a total collapse of the healthcare system – have been cancelled since December 26 due to the lack of necessary permissions to proceed safely. “If you do not get a permission, you cannot move, and our requests were repeatedly rejected,” Peeperkorn said. Only about a third of Gaza’s hospitals are functioning totally or partially WHO officials on Tuesday voiced concern about the possible collapse of hospital provision in southern and central Gaza, as fighting intensifies and hundreds of medical staff and patients flee medical facilities. “The international community must not allow this to happen in the middle and southern areas,” Peeperkorn said. Three hospitals located near evacuation zones – European Gaza Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Aqsa – are providing a lifeline to about two million people. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera correspondents reported explosions in front of the Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. The area around the compound has come under intense fire in recent days. Sean Casey, WHO emergency medical teams coordinator in Gaza, warned on Tuesday that Gaza cannot afford to lose more medical infrastructure. “We cannot lose these health facilities. They absolutely must be protected. This is the last line of secondary and tertiary healthcare that Gaza has – from the north to the south, it’s been dropping, hospital after hospital,” he said. At least 23,357 people have been killed and more than 59,410 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian authorities. Significant damage has been inflicted upon critical infrastructure, including water purification systems. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s infectious disease epidemiologist expert, said the organisation detected a number of indicators – including respiratory illnesses and diarrhoea – that point to the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza. “These are a manifestation of multiple diseases, but we can’t get to the bottom of it because we don’t have access to testing,” Van Kerkhove said. “By the time we identify the disease, it will be at a late stage,” she added. Adblock test (Why?)
Family of woman shot dead on Gaza ‘safe route’ calls for justice
NewsFeed The family of a Palestinian woman shot dead while fleeing on a designated ‘safe route’ in Gaza has told Al Jazeera they want help getting justice. Video shows Hala Khreis walking with her grandson, who was holding a white flag. Published On 10 Jan 202410 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Former Nepal cricket captain Lamichhane sentenced to eight years for rape
Lamichhane, convicted of raping a woman in a Kathmandu hotel in 2022, will fight the ruling in a higher court. A court in Nepal has sentenced the country’s highest-profile cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane to eight years in prison after he was convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman. The former captain’s lawyer said he would launch a higher court appeal against the jail term. Lamichhane, 23, has been the face of cricket in Nepal and the only player from the Himalayan country to take part in prominent Twenty20 leagues in India, Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies. The leg-spinner’s onfield success had boosted the sport’s profile in the Himalayan republic. In 2022, he was accused of raping a young woman in a Kathmandu hotel and taken into custody after police issued an arrest warrant for him. He was later freed on bail and returned to the squad to compete in international tournaments. Lamichhane was found guilty of rape last month after a repeatedly delayed trial. His lawyer said before the sentencing that Lamichhane would appeal against his conviction. Kathmandu district court official Chandra Prasad Panthi said Lamichhane should also pay about $3,770 as a fine and compensation to the victim. “We are not convinced about the decision of the court … The court has whimsically declared Sandeep to be a convict. Sandeep will go to the higher court for justice,” lawyer Saroj Ghimire told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Lamichhane, who is not in custody, was not in court for the sentencing and has consistently denied the charge against him and enjoyed strong public support despite the accusation. When authorities issued an arrest warrant, Lamichhane initially failed to return from Jamaica, where he was playing in the Caribbean Premier League. The leg-spinner was suspended as Nepal’s captain but was free to continue his sporting career. This allowed him to remain on the national team, including for the World Cup qualifiers and the 2023 Asia Cup. Hundreds of cheering cricket fans welcomed him when he first returned to the field in February last year. But his continued playing career has also sparked anger and caused numerous Nepalis to disavow the team. Scotland’s cricketers refused to shake hands with him after their matches during an international tournament in Dubai. Adblock test (Why?)