‘Bloodbath’: Israel continues to target Gaza hospitals and civilians
Despite growing international pressure for a respite, Israel is continuing to bombard Gaza’s health facilities and residential areas. Israeli air raids on Sunday and Monday maintained the focus on hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods in the enclave, a tactic that has only encouraged further calls from around the world for a ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory as civilian causalities mount. Mass casualties have been reported following strikes on the Jabalia and Nuseirat refugee camps. Israeli artillery shelling targeted multiple residences in the Shujayea, Tuffah and Daraj neighbourhoods in Gaza City. Continuous shooting has been reported at the entrance to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. At least 26 Palestinians were killed in an attack on the hospital earlier, Al Jazeera journalists reported. The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been repeatedly targeted over the past 48 hours. An Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building on Sunday, killing a 13-year-old girl, named Dina Abu Mehsen, and injuring several others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. A bomb fell near the building but did not explode, causing a great deal of panic and injuring three people, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra denounced Israel for trying to “eliminate” the besieged enclave’s health sector. “What the occupation is doing is part of the scenario that began in northern Gaza from the Shifa complex,” he said. “Targeting Nasser Medical Complex is part of the occupation’s policy to eliminate the health sector and would bring down the health system in the southern Gaza Strip,” he added. The deadliest ever Gaza war began with attacks by Hamas, which rules the enclave, on October 7, when the group killed 1,139 people and abducted about 250, according to updated Israeli figures. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s campaign in Gaza. It said more than 100 were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, while dozens more are reported to have died so far on Monday. World Health Organization described the situation at al-Shifa Hospital – once the cornerstone of the territory’s healthcare system – as a “bloodbath” as hundreds of injured patients sheltered inside with “new patients arriving every minute”. The United Nations agency said the hospital, which was occupied by Israeli forces earlier in the war, is providing only basic trauma stabilisation, has no blood for transfusions and hardly any staff to care for a constant flow of patients, after a visit to deliver medicines and surgical supplies to the facility. Dr Rana Hajjeh, from WHO’s Cairo office, told Al Jazeera: “What they saw was a complete horror scene. The injured patients are all over the floor, they are being sutured on the floor. There are not enough beds or stretchers. There isn’t any pain medication. They’re basically just bleeding on the floor.” Thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds as a shelter during a severe shortage of water and food, Hajjeh said. ‘Extremely worried’ Israeli soldiers raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza over several days earlier in the week and killed dozens before evacuating wounded patients and medical staff to the hospital grounds, according to the health authorities in the enclave. Citing the ministry’s reports, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week he was “extremely worried” about the hospital’s situation. The WHO said it was urgently gathering information at the hospital, where Gaza authorities said Israeli forces this week used a bulldozer to smash through the perimeter of a site Israel has said was used by Hamas fighters. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used as a Hamas “command and control centre” and that soldiers had detained about 80 fighters before leaving the site on Saturday. Earlier in the week, authorities in Gaza said some 70 medical staff were detained by Israel in the raid. The group has denied using Kamal Adwan or other hospitals for activities. Israel has also said al-Shifa had been used by Hamas, before occupying it last month. Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila has called for an “urgent probe” after Israeli forces were accused of crushing Palestinians, including wounded patients, using bulldozers in the yard of the hospital. Only four hospitals of 24 working in north Gaza before the war with Israel began have even partial service, and three of those are barely functioning, WHO said. Israeli raids on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 110 Palestinians on Sunday, according to the Health ministry in the enclave. Another attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 25 people overnight, according to the Al Jazeera team at the site. Strikes and raids are reported to have continued on Monday. Calls for truce The Israeli government is under growing pressure from the international community to pause the fighting and do more to protect civilians. The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Monday on a new resolution, drafted by the United Arab Emirates, calling for a truce and delivery of aid in Gaza. The UN estimates that 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza – about 80 percent of the population – have been displaced by the war. “I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an “immediate and durable” truce on a visit to Israel on Sunday. Germany and the United Kingdom also joined the calls for a ceasefire over the weekend, and Israeli protesters demanded the government relaunch talks with Hamas on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white flag. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to press Israel to wind down major combat operations as he arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday. He will also visit Qatar, which brokered a previous
Israel accused of wielding starvation as a weapon of war against Gaza
Human Rights Watch urges world leaders to speak out against ‘abhorrent war crime’. An international NGO has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement issued on Monday that Tel Aviv is deliberately depriving Palestinians of access to food, water and other basic necessities. The use of hunger against the civilian population is a war crime, the NGO stated, calling for world leaders to act. The press release cites statements from Israeli officials, interviews with survivors, reports from aid organisations, and evidence from satellite imagery to establish that Israel is engaged in the “deliberate use of policies to deprive Palestinians of the resources necessary for daily existence”. “For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population,” he added. The statement comes as Israel faces increasing internal and external pressure regarding mounting civilian casualties resulting from its “indiscriminate” bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Israel has killed 18,787 people and injured another 50,897, according to the latest figures, while thousands are believed to be buried under the rubble. Speeches and statements from Israeli officials promoting a campaign to deliberately block access to necessary resources for the Gaza population as a strategy indicate that Israel has not made these intentions secret, HRW claimed. Even from the beginning of the Israeli offensive, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant infamously stated that Israel was “putting a complete siege on Gaza. … No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” justifying the move by describing Palestinians as “beastly people”. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies”, is a war crime, HRW said in the statement. The plight of Gaza’s 2.3 million people has become desperate amid the war, which has now persisted for over two months. Around 80 percent of Palestinians living in the enclave have been displaced by the violence, while efforts to get aid into the enclave have struggled. Images showing the massive devastation of the Gaza Strip, of desperate Palestinians raiding food banks, humanitarian aid delivery trucks and reports of deliberate destruction of agricultural land bolster the allegations. Alarmed humanitarian organisations have been fruitlessly calling for a ceasefire and denouncing the shocking cost of the catastrophic war which amounts to a collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza. The Israeli government hit back at HRW, accusing it of being an “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli” organisation. “Human Rights Watch … did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of October 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what’s going on in Gaza if they turn a blind eye to the suffering and the human rights of Israelis,” foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 73
Efforts to combat Houthi attacks and de-escalate the Gaza war are under way – here’s the latest updates. Here’s how things stand on Monday, December 18, 2023: Latest developments Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent in Asian trade as Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and lower exports from Russia stoke supply fears. The Israeli army has been detaining Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital, in an unknown location, Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said on Sunday night. The Freedom Theatre in Jenin continues to demand the immediate release of its director, Mustafa Sheta, and acting teacher Jamal Abu Joas. On Sunday, Israel’s military rejected claims that its forces “murdered” two women who were sheltering in a Catholic church in Gaza. Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had discovered the largest Hamas tunnel near what was once a busy crossing into Israel, reported The Associated Press news agency. Human impact and fighting Israeli air attacks on Jabalia refugee camp killed at least 90 people and wounded more than 100 others, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Sunday. An Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight Sunday killed 25 people, with 10 being from the same family, reported Al Jazeera Arabic. Palestinian journalist Haneen Ali al-Qutshan was killed in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat, according to the Palestinian media office. She was the 95th Palestinian journalist or media worker to be killed since the October 7 conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out. As Palestinians in the enclave face hunger and increased cold, they rummaged through aid trucks in large crowds on Sunday. Israeli forces raided at least six areas across the occupied West Bank overnight, including near Ramallah and Bethlehem, according to Wafa and Al Jazeera Arabic. A young Palestinian in Nablus and two young men in Qalqilya were injured in firing. Diplomacy United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will arrive in Israel today where he is expected to discuss de-escalating the Israel-Gaza war and announce an initiative for security in the Red Sea. French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs condemned on Sunday the Israeli bombing of a residential building in Rafah that killed one of its staff. In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the visit by the “racist extremist” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to the Psagot settlement an “act of organised state terrorism”. Adblock test (Why?)
Huge fire after explosion at Guinea fuel depot
NewsFeed A huge fire has broken out in Guinea’s capital Conakry after an explosion at a fuel depot. There are reports that dozens of injured people have been taken to two of the city’s main hospitals. Published On 18 Dec 202318 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Iraq heads to the polls to vote for powerful provincial councils
The first council elections in a decade are expected to strengthen the grip of pro-Iran groups. Iraqis are headed to the polls to elect provincial councils for the first time in 10 years, with thousands vying for seats in the powerful assemblies. Ballots will be cast in 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces on Monday. The elections are a prelude to a parliamentary vote in 2025, which will test the strength of pro-Iran groups that have been raising their profile in recent years. Overall, 285 candidates will be elected to the councils, whose duties include appointing regional governors and allocating health, transport and education budgets. Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, which includes three provinces, will decide their provincial councils next year. Turnout the ‘ultimate gage’ Monday’s vote is seen as a key test for the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who rose to power a year ago on the back of a parliamentary coalition of pro-Tehran parties. Since taking office, al-Sudani has struggled to develop public services and infrastructure ravaged by decades of conflict. He is hoping for a high turnout, which would give his administration a boost. “Turnout is the ultimate gage of satisfaction,” said Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. It will show, he said, “whether the Sudani government’s economic populism – the policy of giving out [public sector] jobs – can be successful and can capture the young population”. Voting started at 7am (04:00 GMT) on Monday under tight security and was set to continue until 6pm (15:00 GMT). Some 17 million of Iraq’s 43 million people are eligible to vote, with 6,000 candidates in the race. However, voter apathy has been on the rise among a mostly young population who feel that they have not seen the benefits of Iraq’s massive oil wealth, much of which is misdirected or stolen in a country ranked among the world’s most corrupt. Hassan Qabas, a member of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told Al Jazeera that around 1,800 international observers had been invited to participate. Boycott The vote is expected to consolidate the position of the ruling Coordination Framework coalition. The Iran-aligned bloc features Shia Islamist parties with factions of Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of former paramilitary units integrated into the regular army. However, critics say the councils are sure to be nests of corruption and enable clientelism. Influential Shia scholar and political kingmaker Muqtada al-Sadr, whose rivals blocked his bid to form a government after he emerged as a winner in the 2021 parliamentary polls, is boycotting the election. Manaf Almusawi, a member of his Sadrist movement, told Al Jazeera the boycott is intended to “voice rejection of the government’s policies” and “deprive the government of legitimacy”. A supporter of Shia scholar Muqtada al-Sadr marches with an Iraqi national flag with others during a protest calling for a boycott of provincial council elections, Najaf, Iraq, December 14 [Qassem al-Kaabi/AFP] Iraq’s provincial councils were established after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. The councils were initially abolished in late 2019 as a concession to massive antigovernment protests, but al-Sudani’s government later re-established them. To reflect Iraq’s multi-confessional and multiethnic population, 10 seats are reserved for minorities, namely Christians, Yazidis and Sabians. A 25 percent quota also ensures that 1,600 of the candidates are female. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 663
[unable to retrieve full-text content] As the war enters its 663rd day, these are the main developments.
Jimmy Lai’s security trial starts in Hong Kong, UK calls for his release
BREAKINGBREAKING, The media tycoon and democracy supporter, now 76, has been in jail for three years, accused of ‘collusion with foreign forces’. Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has gone on trial for alleged national security offences, hours after the United Kingdom joined calls for his immediate release. Lai, who has been imprisoned since December 2020, is arrived in court at 10am (02:00 GMT) where he is charged with conspiring to collude with foreign powers under the national security law imposed on the territory by China in June 2020. Journalists inside the court said the 76-year-old looked like he had lost weight, but appeared in good spirits. The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily is one of China’s most vocal critics and was arrested initially in August 2020 as police raided the newspaper’s officers. Lai and the Apple Daily also face charges under a sedition law dating from the British colonial era. In a statement late on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he was “gravely concerned” about the trial and joined the United States and European Union in calling for Lai’s immediate release. “As a prominent and outspoken journalist and publisher, Jimmy Lai has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Cameron said, noting that the security law was in breach of the commitments made to Hong Kong when it resumed sovereignty over the territory in 1997. “I urge the Chinese authorities to repeal the National Security Law and end the prosecution of all individuals charged under it. I call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release Jimmy Lai.” Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians, once vibrant civil society and media came under pressure in the wake of mass demonstrations in 2019, which began over concerns about a planned extradition bill with mainland China and evolved into calls for greater democracy. Amnesty International has described the security law as “decimating” Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms. The US also called for Lai’s immediate release and condemned the prosecution. “Lai has been held in pre-trial detention for more than 1,000 days, and Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have denied him his choice of legal representation,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We call on Hong Kong authorities to immediately release Jimmy Lai and all others imprisoned for defending their rights.” Security on Monday was tight after Secretary for Security Chris Tang warned it would be enhanced because previously, “these kinds of cases” had attracted people wanting to disrupt proceedings and harass prosecutors. People began queueing early for tickets with just 70 seats in the main venue at the West Kowloon court building open to the public. Lai has already been found guilty and jailed over separate cases related to the management of Apple Daily and his involvement in a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The final edition of the Apple Daily rolled off the presses in June 2021. Other publications critical of the administration have also folded, while elections have been overhauled to ensure only so-called “patriots” are able to hold public office in the territory. Last week’s elections for district councils saw a record-low turnout of just 27.5 percent. The number of directly elected seats was cut to just 88 compared with 462 previously, and all candidates had to secure official approval before they could stand. “Actions that stifle press freedom and restrict the free flow of information – as well as Beijing and local authorities’ changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that reduce direct voting and preclude independent and pro-democracy party candidates from participating – have undermined Hong Kong’s democratic institutions and harmed Hong Kong’s reputation as an international business and financial hub,” Miller said in his statement. Adblock test (Why?)
At least 90 killed in latest Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp
The first responders and locals are searching for the wounded as more bodies are believed to be under the rubble. At least 90 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the latest Israeli attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. The enclave’s Health Ministry said Sunday’s strikes hit a residential block belonging to the al-Barsh and Alwan families in the town of Jabalia, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Women and children were among the dead, with dozens still missing, Wafa said in its report. The first responders and locals were searching for the wounded and more bodies were believed to be under the rubble. Many of those injured, including children, were taken to nearby medical centres, which are already overwhelmed with patients. The son of Dawoud Shehab, the spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, was among the dead, an official from the group told the Reuters news agency. “We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire,” he said by phone. Medics in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, while in Rafah in the south, an Israeli air attack on a house left at least four people dead. About 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. Israel says 1,147 people were killed on its territory that day. Meanwhile, Israel has also ramped up its artillery shelling in southern Gaza, hitting the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, where the majority of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The stepping up of bombardments in the south has worsened the humanitarian situation, with starving people scrambling for food and water, grabbing them from aid trucks in desperation. Israel on Sunday said it will reopen the Karem Abu Salem Crossing in the east but it is unclear whether supplies have crossed through there yet. The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million people – about 80 percent of Gaza’s population – have been displaced by the war. “I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Adblock test (Why?)
Serbia’s ruling SNS ahead in snap election, exit polls show
Ruling populists claim sweeping victory in the parliamentary election, which was marred by reports of significant irregularities. Exit polls say the ruling right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic is in the lead in a snap parliamentary election widely regarded as a referendum on his government. According to projections by the pollsters Ipsos and CeSID on Sunday evening, the SNS won 47 percent of the vote and is expected to hold about 130 seats in the 250-member assembly. The main opposition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) alliance, a centrist coalition vying to unseat the populists who have ruled the Balkan state since 2012, won about 23 percent of votes, said the projections. The projections are based on a partial count of a representative sample of polling stations. Official results are set to be announced late on Monday. Serbs cast their vote at a polling station in the town of Raca [Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters] The election did not include the presidency but governing authorities backed by the dominant pro-government media have run the campaign as a referendum on Vucic. Two mass shootings in May, resulting in 18 deaths, including nine elementary school students, led to protests that shook Vucic and the SNS’s decade-long grip on power. The discontent was made worse by rising inflation, which hit 8 percent in November. Opposition parties and rights watchdogs also accuse Vucic and the SNS of bribing voters, stifling media freedom, violence against opponents, corruption and ties with organised crime. Vucic and his allies deny the allegations. “My job was to do everything in my power to secure an absolute majority in the parliament,” Vucic told reporters on Sunday as he celebrated what he said was the SNS’s victory. Allegations of irregularities The elections were marred by reports of major irregularities, both during a tense campaign and on the voting day. CeSID and Ipsos, which jointly monitored Sunday’s vote, reported irregularities including organised arrivals of voters at polling stations, photographing of ballots and procedural errors. The state Election Commission said election monitors from the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) watchdog were attacked in northern Serbia. “There were a lot of irregularities,” said opposition leader Radomir Lazovic, citing alleged “vote buying” and “falsification of signatures”. “We may have had the dirtiest electoral process,” he added. Posts on social media also fuelled rumours that the government was allowing unregistered voters from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina to cast ballots illegally in the election. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic dismissed the claims, accusing the reports of spreading chaos. Adblock test (Why?)
Will Israel reach a deal on captives with Hamas?
Netanyahu insists the war on Gaza will continue – despite growing anger over the Israeli army’s killing of three captives. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again declared its military campaign in Gaza will not stop until Hamas is defeated. But with more than 100 Israeli captives being held in Gaza, he is facing growing public anger – and pressure to do more to secure their release. To make matters worse, Israel’s army says it mistakenly killed three of them – one was holding a white flag – during a military offensive in the strip. That has led to thousands of Israelis protesting in Tel Aviv. The head of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad has now met senior Qataris in Europe in another attempt to secure a prisoner swap. So, can Netanyahu agree on a deal after failing to secure the release of all the captives? And how is he dealing with their families’ anger? Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault Guests Alon Liel – Former Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and adviser to the families of the Israeli captives Yossi Mekelberg – Associate fellow of the MENA Programme at Chatham House Sultan Barakat – Professor of Public Policy at Hamad bin Khalifa University Adblock test (Why?)