Headline

Israel Bombs Gaza, Fights Hamas Around Hospitals

Published

1 year ago

March 27, 2024

Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday in the war sparked by the October 7 attack and fought Hamas around several hospitals despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.

Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal, involving US and Egyptian mediators, have brought no result so far, with Israel and the Palestinian militant group blaming each other.

Tensions have risen between Israel and its top ally the United States over the soaring civilian death toll and dire food shortages in Gaza, and Israeli plans to push its ground offensive into the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.

In heavy overnight bombardment, Israeli strikes again hit Gaza City and Rafah, where a fireball lit up the sky over the city crowded with up to 1.5 million people, most of them displaced by the war.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 66 people were killed in overnight bombardment and combat.

Israeli forces have battled militants in and around three Gaza hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.

Fighting has raged for nine days around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, and more recently near two hospitals in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, Al-Amal and Nasser.

The army and Shin Bet security service said they were “continuing to conduct precise operational activities” in both cities “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment”.

The army said “Troops continued to eliminate terrorists and locate terror infrastructure and weapons” around Al-Shifa.

“Thus far, hundreds of terrorists have been apprehended and dozens of terrorists have been killed in the area of the hospital,” it said.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser Hospital, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched.

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that thousands were trapped inside and “their lives are in danger”. The Israeli army has yet to comment on the situation in and around the hospital.

UN warns of ‘man-made famine’
Gaza has endured almost six months of war and a siege that has cut off most food, water, fuel and other supplies, and the UN has warned that its 2.4 million people are on the brink of a “man-made famine”.

The flow of aid trucks from Egypt has slowed amid the war and due to lengthy Israeli cargo inspections.

Donor governments have airdropped food into Gaza where desperate crowds have rushed towards aid packages drifting down on parachutes. At least 18 people have been reported killed in stampedes or drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

Hamas has urged an end to the airdrops and called for stepped-up road deliveries instead. The United States said it would keep airdropping humanitarian supplies while also pushing for more overland deliveries.

The war broke out when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel says that, after an earlier truce and hostage deal, about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,414 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

Israel also charges that Palestinian militants sexually assaulted October 7 victims and hostages.

The New York Times published a report on the first Israeli woman to speak publicly about having been sexually abused, 40-year-old lawyer Amit Soussana.

Soussana, who was abducted from a kibbutz on October 7 and released in November, said she was repeatedly beaten and sexually assaulted at gunpoint by her guard inside Gaza.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that her abuse “is a wake up call to the world to act. To do everything and pressure Hamas. To free our hostages. To bring our hostages home.”

Death toll ‘far too high’
The UN Security Council on Monday passed its first resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of the captives.

The United States, which had blocked previous resolutions, abstained, drawing an angry rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The right-wing premier cancelled an Israeli delegation’s planned visit to Washington, although Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was already there.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin stressed, before meeting Gallant, that “the number of civilian casualties is far too high, and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low” in Gaza.

Despite the tensions, Rear Admiral Hagari said security cooperation was closer than ever, “encompassing the entire US military and the US intelligence services”.

Israeli and Hamas envoys have engaged in weeks of indirect talks aimed at halting the fighting, but both sides said this week the talks were failing.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari has said that, although the CIA and Mossad chiefs had left Doha, the talks were “ongoing” at a technical level.

Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad charged that Israel “is being intransigent and wants to keep the war going, despite international positions and in defiance to UN Security Council’s decision to cease fire during Ramadan,” the ongoing Muslim holy month of fasting.

“There hasn’t been any progress in ceasefire talks or negotiations for prisoners’ exchange,” he said. “The Israeli government’s procrastination is just a way to gain time and keep their aggression going.”

Amid the bloodiest-ever Gaza conflict, Israel has also exchanged daily cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah based in southern Lebanon.

The hostilities, in which Israel has also targeted Hamas militants, have raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war in 2006.

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel Wednesday killing a civilian, after Israel carried out a deadly pre-dawn strike in south Lebanon.

AFP

Headline

Argentina’s President Suffers Crushing Defeat In Provincial Elections

Published

2 hours ago

September 8, 2025

Editor

Argentina’s President Javier Milei vowed Sunday to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections.

The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023.

He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the centre-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse.

A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda.

“We will deepen and accelerate it,” he said at a muted election night event in the resort of Mar del Plata, where he took the stage in silence, in marked contrast to his usual dramatic entrance to rock music.

With 91 percent of the votes counted, the centre-left Fuerza Patria coalition had taken over 47 percent of the vote against nearly 34 percent for Milei’s ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA), official results showed.

Buenos Aires’s votes are telling as a bellwether for Argentina. The province contributes more than 30 percent of Argentina’s GDP and accounts for 40 percent of all eligible voters.

The 13-point gap between Milei’s party and the left was far greater than opinion polls had predicted.

Turnout in the election was high, at around 63 percent.

The result poses major concerns for Milei, coming just six weeks before the midterm elections.

Some members of his party downplayed the extent of the defeat, pointing out that the LLA had nonetheless increased its share of legislators in Buenos Aires.

The government went into the election under a cloud following a corruption scandal at the National Disability Agency involving the president’s sister and right-hand woman, Karina Milei.

In a sign of the anger among many Argentines over the affair, Milei and his sister were pelted with stones on the campaign trail outside Buenos Aires in late August, with skirmishes breaking out among supporters and opponents.

The ruling party’s election drubbing comes three days after Milei suffered a major setback when Congress overturned his veto of a law increasing allowances for disabled people.

On the economic front, the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” is struggling also, despite success in fighting inflation and erasing a fiscal deficit.

Last week, his government began selling treasury dollars to stem the depreciation of the local currency, the peso, which had been accelerating in recent weeks despite high interest rates.

“We must learn from this (election defeat),” LLA candidate Diego Valenzuela told AFP, claiming that the result “was due to not engaging in economic populism, which is new in Argentina.”

His remarks were aimed at the Peronists, accused by Milei of leading South America’s second-biggest economy to ruin through excessive spending and protectionism.

Headline

Trial For South Korean Woman Accused Of ‘Suitcase Murders’ Starts Today

Published

2 hours ago

September 8, 2025

Editor

The trial of a South Korean woman accused in New Zealand of killing her children, stuffing their bodies in suitcases and leaving them in a storage locker began on Monday.

The case caused widespread shock in New Zealand when the bodies of Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8, were found in an abandoned storage locker by an Auckland family in August 2022.

Police believe Hakyung Lee killed her children in June or July 2018, a year after her husband’s death, and then returned to South Korea.

She was extradited from South Korea in November 2022 at the request of the New Zealand police.

Appearing before the Auckland High Court on Monday morning, New Zealand media reported Lee refused to answer Justice Geoffrey Venning’s calls for a plea.

Despite the silence, Venning said he took Lee’s actions to be a not guilty plea, and continued with the case. He told jurors he expected an insanity defence to be presented.

Lee has elected to represent herself in the trial.

Two defence lawyers, Lorraine Smith and Chris Wilkinson-Smith, are serving as standby counsel.

The prosecution is expected to open its case on Tuesday.

Headline

Generation Z Protests In Nepal Over Social Media Ban, Corruption

Published

2 hours ago

September 8, 2025

Editor

Thousands of young Nepalis marched in the capital Kathmandu on Monday, demanding that the government lift its ban on social media platforms and end the culture of corruption pervading the country.

Several social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube, and X, have been inaccessible in Nepal since Friday after the government blocked 26 unregistered platforms, leaving users angry and confused.

Popular platforms such as Instagram have millions of users in Nepal who rely on them for entertainment, news, and business.

Waving national flags, Generation Z demonstrators started the protest with the national anthem before unleashing chants against the social media prohibitions and corruption.

“We were triggered by the social media ban, but that is not the only reason we are gathered here,” said student Yujan Rajbhandari, 24.

“We are protesting against corruption that has been institutionalised in Nepal.”

Another student, Ikshama Tumrok, 20, said she was protesting against the “authoritarian attitude” of the government.

“We want to see change. Others have endured this, but it has to end with our generation,” she told AFP.

Since the ban, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which is still operating.

“There have been movements abroad against corruption, and they (the government) are afraid that might happen here as well,” said protester Bhumika Bharati.

The cabinet decided last month to give the affected companies seven days to register in Nepal, establish a point of contact, and designate a resident grievance handling officer and compliance officer.

The decision came after a Supreme Court order in September last year.

In a statement on Sunday, the government said it respected freedom of thought and expression and was committed to “creating an environment for their protection and unfettered use”.

Nepal has restricted access to popular online platforms in the past.

The government blocked access to the Telegram messaging app in July, citing a rise in online fraud and money laundering.

It lifted a nine-month ban on TikTok in August last year after the platform agreed to comply with Nepali regulations.
AFP