Archives for 2024

There has been no respite from Israel’s air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.

“We hope that the war will end and that we will be able to return to our homes and live in peace”, said the 33-year-old from Khan Yunis, an epicentre of the conflict in the south of Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children — by far the heaviest death toll of any Israeli operation.

On Sunday the ministry reported numerous deaths in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Zawayda and the nearby Al-Mughazi refugee camp.

The fighting began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity.

The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside Gaza.

An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has led to dire shortages of food, safe water, fuel and medicine in Gaza, with aid convoys able to offer only sporadic relief.

The UN says more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing threat of infectious diseases and the UN says Gaza is “just weeks away” from famine.

“We will guarantee that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” he told a news conference.

As Netanyahu spoke, more than a thousand relatives and supporters of the hostages demonstrated in Tel Aviv to maintain pressure on his government to bring their loved ones home.

“I hope there’s going to be another deal, even a partial deal or some will be released. I’m trying to hold on to every shred of hope,” said Nir Shafran, 45.

Gal Gilboa-Dalal has been traumatised since the rave he attended with his brother Guy was stormed by Hamas commandos on October 7.

“I was there with him and he was taken away the minute I wasn’t with him. So I went with him and I came back without him and it’s like time has stopped ever since,” he said.

In Khan Yunis, medics at Nasser hospital described severe shortages.

“The hospital is receiving a lot more (patients) than its capacity,” doctor Ahmad Abu Mustafa said in footage shared by the WHO.

“The beds are full… and we are basically short on all sorts of medicine supplies.”

The fighting has put 23 hospitals and 53 health centres out of service, while 104 ambulances have been destroyed, the health ministry said.

In Zawayda, Palestinians pulled the body of a child from under the rubble on Saturday after an Israeli strike.

“We pulled (out) nine martyrs, who were members of a very peaceful family. Two adjacent houses were targeted,” said the area’s civil defence director, Rami al-Aidi.

International mediators — who last month brokered a one-week truce that saw more than 100 hostages released and some aid enter Gaza — continue in their efforts to secure a new pause in fighting.

US news outlet Axios and Israeli website Ynet, both citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Qatari mediators had told Israel that Hamas was prepared to resume talks on new hostage releases in exchange for a ceasefire.

A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Friday to discuss an Egyptian plan proposing renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and ultimately an end to the war, sources close to Hamas said.

Islamic Jihad, another armed group fighting alongside Hamas, said on Saturday that Palestinian factions were “in the process” of evaluating the Egyptian proposal.

A response will come “within days”, the group’s chief negotiator, Muhammad al-Hindi, said.

Asked about the negotiations on Saturday, Netanyahu said Hamas had been “giving all kinds of ultimatums that we didn’t accept”.

“We are seeing a certain shift (but) I don’t want to create an expectation.”

The Gaza war has intensified tensions across the region.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

On Saturday, the US military said one of its destroyers shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from territory controlled by the rebels.

The US Central Command described it as the “23rd illegal attack by the Huthis on international shipping” since November 19.

CENTCOM said the destroyer had also responded to a call for help from a Danish container ship that was hit in a separate strike.

Israel has also traded frequent cross-border fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

“If Hezbollah wants to extend the war, it will be dealt blows like never before, and so will Iran,” Netanyahu warned Saturday.

In Syria, at least 23 pro-Iran fighters — five Syrians, four Hezbollah members, six Iraqis and eight Iranians — were killed on Saturday in raids “likely” carried out by Israel, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

KINSHASA: Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi has won reelection with more than 70% of the vote, the country’s election commission said Sunday as opposition candidates and their supporters questioned the validity of the results.

The preliminary results of the Dec. 20 election were announced in the capital, Kinshasa, amid demands from the opposition and some civil society groups for the vote to be rerun due to massive logistical problems that they said had undermined the balloting.

Speaking from his headquarters in the capital after the results were announced, Tshisekedi thanked his supporters for giving him another five-year term.

“You believed in my commitment so that our country can find its place in the concert of nations,” he said. “You have embraced my vision of society. I will spare no effort for more jobs, more purchasing power, more access to basic services at all levels.”

About 18 million people voted in the election, which had a turnout of more than 40%, according to the election commission. The results will be sent to the constitutional court for confirmation, election chief Denis Kadima said.

Candidates opposing the results have two days to submit their claims, and the constitutional court then has seven days to decide. The final results are expected on January 10, and the president is scheduled to be sworn in at the end of that month.

Congo has a history of disputed elections that can turn violent, and there’s little confidence among many Congolese in the country’s institutions. Before the results were announced Sunday, opposition candidates, including Katumbi, said they rejected the results and called on the population to mobilize.

The logistical problems included many polling stations being late in opening or not opening at all. Some lacked materials, and many voter cards had smudged ink that made them illegible.

Voting in the election had to be extended into a second day— something local observers and civil society organizations have called illegal — and parts of the country were still casting ballots five days after election day.

“If a foreign country considers these elections to be elections, there’s a problem,” Fayulu said at a news conference in the capital Sunday before the results were announced. “It’s a farce, don’t accept (the results).”

Violence was already flaring in parts of the country before the results were announced. In the eastern city of Goma, youth barricaded some main streets demanding a revote. Earlier this week, clashes erupted between some of Fayulu’s supporters and police officers who fired tear gas at protesters who threw rocks and barricaded themselves inside the opposition headquarters.

“These elections are an example of fraud and ballot-box stuffing, flouting any transparent and credible electoral process and democracy,” said Bienvenu Matumo, a member of LUCHA, a local rights group.

Leading up to and during the vote, the election commission was accused of not being transparent enough. The East African Community said its election observer mission was not granted access to Congo, and the European Union cancelled its mission after authorities did not authorize the use of satellite equipment by EU monitors.

Congo analysts say the thousands of observers that were in the country were unable to say whether the irregularities had an impact on the overall integrity of the results, leaving it to the election commission.

Tshisekedi already has spent much of his time in office trying to gain legitimacy after a disputed 2018 election that some observers said Fayulu had actually won.

Overall, Tshisekedi’s track record has been spotty. He’s struggled to stem violence in the east, a goal he campaigned on.

Conflict in eastern Congo has raged for decades, with more than 120 armed groups fighting for power, resources and to protect their communities. But the violence has spiked during Tshisekedi’s term with the resurgence of the M23 rebels, who have displaced millions of people and seized swaths of land. The fighting prevented 1.5 million people from registering to vote.

Attempts to quell the violence with an East African Force comprised of troops from neighboring countries have failed. The force is pulling out, along with a U.N. peacekeeping mission that has been in Congo for decades.

Still, Tshisekedi’s initiatives creating free health care for pregnant mothers and babies and providing free primary education has changed the lives of some people living in remote villages.

“My brothers can go to school now without my parents paying, which allows my father to put that money to buying food for the family,” John Nlaza, a resident of a small village in Kongo Central province told The Associated Press.

Congolese analysts said it’s important to view Tshisekedi’s win with caution given the significant uncertainty of the presidential election’s validity.

“The opposition’s contesting of the results is not only a predictable reaction, but it also highlights the persistence of a deeper crisis of legitimacy at the top of the state,” Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at the Congolese research institute Ebuteli, said. “This battle will depend on (the opposition’s) ability to mobilize the Congolese people for its cause, with a view to reversing the balance of power.”