GAZA: The Israeli army said it took control on Wednesday of a vital Gaza-Egypt corridor suspected of aiding weapons smuggling as it intensified its offensive against Hamas in the border city of Rafah.
The UN Security Council was set to meet for a second day of emergency talks after a strike at the weekend ignited a fire that Gaza officials said killed 45 people and injured about 250.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was among the many leaders to voice revulsion at the bloodshed, demanding that “this horror must stop.”
Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, however, that the war could go on until the year’s end.
“We may have another seven months of fighting to consolidate our success and achieve what we have defined as the destruction of Hamas’s power and military capabilities,” Hanegbi said.
An Israeli military official later told reporters the army had taken “operational control” of the strategic, 14-kilometer (8.5-mile) Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The corridor had served as a buffer between Gaza and Egypt, but since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, there were fears it was being used to channel weapons to armed groups in the Palestinian territory.
Its seizure comes weeks after Israeli forces took the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which alleged Wednesday Israel was using claims of cross-border tunnels as cover for its Rafah offensive.
“Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” a high-level Egyptian source was quoted as saying by state-linked Al-Qahera News.
In besieged Rafah, witnesses reported escalated fighting with helicopters intensifying attacks, supported by artillery and smoke grenades.
Hamas’s military wing said it was firing rockets at Israeli troops.
AFPTV footage showed Palestinians with bloodied midriffs and bandaged limbs after being wounded in strikes near Khan Yunis, close to Rafah, being taken to the European Hospital on makeshift gurneys.
“The rockets fell directly on us. I was hurled three meters (yards)... I don’t know how I managed to get up on my feet,” said one who did not give his name.
Gaza’s civil defense said three bodies were recovered from a Khan Yunis house after it was shelled.
The United States has been among the countries urging Israel to refrain from a full-scale offensive into Rafah, the last Gaza city to see ground fighting, because of the risk to civilians.
However, the White House said Tuesday that so far it had not seen Israel cross President Joe Biden’s “red lines,” with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying: “We have not seen them smash into Rafah.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel to quickly devise a post-war strategy for Gaza, stressing: “In the absence of a plan for the day after, there won’t be a day after.”
A steady stream of civilians has been fleeing Rafah, the new hotspot in the gruelling war, many carrying belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.
Before the Rafah offensive began on May 7, the United Nations had warned that up to 1.4 million people were sheltering there. Since then, one million have fled the area, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sunday’s strike and ensuing fire a “tragic accident.” The army said it had targeted a Hamas compound and killed two senior members of the group.
Israel’s military said it was investigating the strike, and its spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that “our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.”
Gaza civil defense agency official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir said 21 more people were killed in a similar strike Tuesday “targeting the tents of displaced people” in western Rafah.
The army denied this, saying it “did not strike in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” an area it had designated for displaced people from Rafah to shelter.
New fighting also hit other areas of the besieged Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.
In the north, Israeli military vehicles unleashed intense gunfire east of Gaza City, an AFP reporter said, and residents reported strikes on Jabalia.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Nearly eight months into the deadliest Gaza war, Israel has faced ever louder opposition and cases before two Netherlands-based international courts.
At the UN Security Council, Algeria has presented a draft resolution that “demands an immediate ceasefire respected by all parties” and the release of all hostages.
Algeria’s UN ambassador Amar Bendjama has not specified when he hopes to put the draft to a vote.
Chinese ambassador Fu Cong expressed hope for a vote this week as President Xi Jinping told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Beijing he was “deeply pained” by the situation in Gaza.
French UN ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said “it’s high time for this council to take action. This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of emergency.”
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, when asked about the draft resolution, said: “We’re waiting to see it and then we’ll react to it.”
Brazil, whose ties with Israel have soured over the war, on Wednesday recalled its ambassador, further raising tensions between the two.
Meanwhile, the World Central Kitchen nonprofit organization said it was stopping its operations in Rafah because of “ongoing attacks” in the southern city.
Israel says it seizes key Gaza-Egypt corridor
https://arab.news/2bqw4
Israel says it seizes key Gaza-Egypt corridor
- “Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” Egyptian source said
- Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, however, that the war could go on until the year’s end
Rats, dogs and torn clothes amid the ruins of Gaza homes
- Much of the rest of Gaza City also lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting
- Like many displaced Palestinians, Al-Harsh faces uncertainty as she tries to salvage what remains
JABALIA, Gaza: The rats and dogs scavenging amid the ruins of her neighborhood in northern Gaza make Manal Al-Harsh’s return to her wrecked home even more miserable.
Despite the respite from Israeli bombardments that a ceasefire has brought, she still fears for her family’s security. They have trouble sleeping at night.
Even trying to find her children’s clothes amid the rubble of their house in Jabalia is a forlorn task.
Al-Harsh, 36, has erected a makeshift tent from salvaged blankets to provide shelter for her and her children.
“We are staying here, but we are afraid of rats and everything around us. There are dogs. There is no place to settle. We have children. It is difficult,” Harsh, 36, said as she stepped cautiously over the debris.
She said she had returned from the south of the Palestinian enclave when the ceasefire took effect but found her house destroyed.
Much of the rest of Gaza City also lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting and waves of Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages that left it a shell of the bustling urban center it was before the war.
“We are practically sleeping here, but we don’t sleep. We are afraid someone might come upon us. We are sleeping and scared,” she said.
“I want to retrieve some clothes for the children to wear. We came with nothing. Life here is expensive, and there is no money to buy anything.”
Many of those returning, often laden with what personal possessions they still have after months of being moved around as the battlegrounds shifted, had trekked 20 km (12 miles) or more along the coastal highway north.
Like many displaced Palestinians, Al-Harsh faces uncertainty as she tries to salvage what remains. She had managed to pick some clothes from the rubble but they were in a sorry state.
“It’s all torn. Nothing is good. As much as we do, as much as we retrieve, it is all stones,” she said.
“Death is better,” Al-Harsh said, her voice heavy with despair.
Sudan paramilitary chief admits setbacks, vows to expel army from Khartoum
- Dagalo acknowledged setbacks in the capital but urged his troops “not to think of the army entering the General Command or the Signal Corps... “
- Two weeks before its gains in Khartoum the army reclaimed the Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani
PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in a rare video address on Friday, acknowledged setbacks in the capital Khartoum but vowed to expel the army from the city again.
The war since April 2023 between Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, according to the United Nations, and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
After months of apparent stalemate in Khartoum, the army one week ago broke an almost two-year RSF siege of its Khartoum General Command headquarters. On the same day, the army reported reclaiming its Signal Corps base in Khartoum North, and expelling the RSF from Jaili oil refinery north of Khartoum.
In his address on Friday, Dagalo — commonly known as Hemeti — acknowledged setbacks in the capital but urged his troops “not to think of the army entering the General Command or the Signal Corps... or taking control of Al-Jaili or Wad Madani.”
Two weeks before its gains in Khartoum the army reclaimed the Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, securing a key crossroads just south of the capital.
The RSF last week said army statements claiming they had broken the sieges and seized Jaili refinery were rumors intended to sway public opinion.
But on Friday, Dagalo promised his fighters that the army “will not enjoy the General Command for long, nor will they enjoy the Signal Corps.”
“We must think of what we intend to take,” he added.
Appearing behind a desk in military fatigues, with a camouflage scarf wrapped around his neck, the RSF leader said “we expelled them (from Khartoum), and we will expel them again.”
Dagalo has remained out of sight for most of the war, with his rare addresses usually delivered via voice message on social media.
His troops early in the war conquered much of Khartoum and pushed south. They still control almost all of Sudan’s vast western Darfur region.
Army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan — Dagalo’s former ally before they fell out in a power struggle — on Sunday visited his troops at the General Command, which is near central Khartoum and the airport.
His push into RSF-controlled Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, enabled the army’s biggest victory since it regained Omdurman, the third district of the capital, around a year ago.
According to an army source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, fighting continued Friday for the Kafouri neighborhood in eastern Bahri.
This month, the United States sanctioned both Hemeti and Burhan, accusing the former of genocide and the latter of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
Istanbul opposition mayor slams ‘judicial harassment’
- Ekrem Imamoglu: ‘We are experiencing the highest level of judicial harassment in Istanbul’
- He is accused of threatening, insulting and targeting an official and attempting to influence fair trial
ISTANBUL: Istanbul’s powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, condemned on Friday what he described as “judicial harassment” targeting him, as thousands of supporters demanded justice outside the court.
Imamoglu, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, spoke after giving a statement in connection with two investigations opened against him earlier this month.
He is also fighting several other legal cases.
“We are experiencing the highest level of judicial harassment in Istanbul,” he told the crowds, standing on the roof of a bus after leaving Istanbul’s Caglayan court.
Imamoglu, who belongs to the main opposition CHP party and was re-elected mayor last year, vowed not to give up.
“We will keep on fighting against injustice,” he said.
His statement on Friday was in connection with two investigations into remarks he made about Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor and about a court-appointed expert witness involved in cases against CHP-run local councils.
He is accused of threatening, insulting and targeting an official and attempting to influence fair trial.
In his statement to the prosecutor, a copy of which was seen by AFP, Imamoglu denied all the allegations, saying he was simply exercising his right to free speech.
“There was no threat or targeting in my words. What I said was freedom of expression,” he said.
“Freedom of expression is a constitutional right… (which) includes the right to criticize judicial authorities and the way they function,” he said.
Addressing the huge crowd, Imamoglu said there was a “conspiracy” against him.
Ankara’s opposition mayor Mansur Yavas, who was there to support him, accused the government of turning Turkiye into an “open prison.”
Turkish authorities regularly target journalists, lawyers and elected political representatives, especially since the failed 2016 coup.
An Istanbul court on Thursday ordered the arrest of an opposition TV journalist for broadcasting an interview the authorities allege was conducted without the consent of the interviewee — none other than the court-appointed expert Imamoglu had criticized.
Among the crowd, some supporters wore Imamoglu face masks while others waved banners. There was a significant police presence.
“The government is trying to limit the space for opponents, including journalists, and intimidate them with unfair accusations,” said Fethi Kocaer, 71, holding a banner reading: “We will fight together.”
“Mayor Imamoglu’s courage and strong stance will help unite us. We will not give up but will step up the fight against injustice,” he said.
Fevziye Yalcin, 57, said the cases against Imamoglu were meaningless.
“It just makes us even stronger in our desire to fight them. We will hold the government to account at the ballot box,” she said defiantly.
“Imamoglu will never walk alone.”
EU restarts Rafah border crossing mission, says foreign policy chief Kallas
- ‘The EU’s civilian border mission deploys today to the Rafah Crossing at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis’
- The crossing would now be run by members of the Palestinian Authority and European monitors
BRUSSELS: The European Union has restarted its civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, a key entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday.
Kallas announced on Monday that there was broad agreement among member states’ foreign ministers that the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) could play a “decisive role” in supporting the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas group that administers Gaza.
“The EU’s civilian border mission deploys today to the Rafah Crossing at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis. It will support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” she posted on X.
Palestinian and Hamas officials said the crossing would now be run by members of the Palestinian Authority and European monitors.
It will be opened for 50 injured militants and 50 wounded civilians, along with individuals escorting them, according to the officials, who said a further 100 people, most likely students, would be allowed through on humanitarian grounds.
A civilian EU mission to help monitor the crossing began work in 2005 but was suspended in June 2007 as a result of Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip.
In its standby mode, the mission had 10 international and eight local staff.
Italy has said it will send seven paramilitary Carabinieri officers to join the Rafah mission in addition to two Italians already there, while Germany’s interior and foreign ministries are discussing sending a German contingent.
Any forced halt of UNRWA’s work would jeopardize Gaza ceasefire, agency says
- For now, its work in Gaza and elsewhere continues despite an Israeli ban that was due to take effect on Jan. 30
GENEVA: The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said on Friday that if its humanitarian work in Gaza is forced to halt, it would put a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas at risk.
The agreement has paused a 15-month-old war between Israel and Gaza’s rulers Hamas that has decimated the Gaza Strip, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destabilized the Middle East.
The deal has allowed for a surge in humanitarian aid and enabled the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails.
“If UNRWA is not allowed to continue to bring and distribute supplies, then the fate of this very fragile ceasefire is going to be at risk and is going to be in jeopardy,” Juliette Touma, director of communications of UNRWA, told a Geneva press briefing.
For now, its work in Gaza and elsewhere continues despite an Israeli ban that was due to take effect on Jan. 30, she added.
However, she said that its Palestinian staff located in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are facing difficulties, citing examples of stone-throwing and hold-ups at checkpoints.
“They face an exceptionally hostile environment as a fierce disinformation campaign against UNRWA continues,” she said.
