CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said on Wednesday, as the military said troops continued to target militants and seize weapons and ammunition.
As last-ditch diplomatic efforts continued to halt the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.
It said troops killed dozens of armed fighters and captured weapons including explosives, grenades and automatic rifles.
The military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.
The evacuation orders, which the military said were needed to clear civilians from what had become “a dangerous combat zone,” were soon followed by tank fire with at least one person killed and several wounded by machine gun fire, medics and residents said.
The conflict churned on as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his latest visit to the Middle East with no clear sign over whether a deal to end the fighting is in sight.
At stake in the talks Blinken had with leaders of ceasefire mediators, Egypt and Qatar, as well as in Israel, is the fate of tiny, crowded Gaza, where Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people since October according to Palestinian health authorities, and of the remaining hostages being held there.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 last year when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
For the displaced left exposed in Deir Al-Balah, the lack of progress toward a ceasefire compounded the misery as they searched for space away from the fighting.
“Where will we go? Where will we go?” said Aburakan, 55, a displaced person from Gaza City in the territory’s north who has had to change refuge five times since October.
“We feel they are closing in. I live a few hundred meters from the threatened areas, and I have been searching since the early morning in vain for a space in western Deir Al-Balah, Khan Younis, or Nuseirat,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
“Unfortunately, we may die before we see an end to this war. All ceasefire talk is a lie.”
Palestinian and United Nations officials say most of the 2.3 million population have become internally displaced by Israel’s ongoing military offensive and bombardment that have also flattened swathes of built-up areas across the enclave.
Israeli airstrikes across Gaza kill at least 50 Palestinians in past 24 hours
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Israeli airstrikes across Gaza kill at least 50 Palestinians in past 24 hours
- Military issued new evacuation orders in heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al-Balah where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering
- Conflict churned on as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his latest visit to the Middle East with no clear sign over deal to end the fighting
Erdogan says Turkiye will deepen ties with East while still facing West
“That is the approach that lies behind our country’s will to expand the basis of dialogue with all of them, from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to BRICS and ASEAN“
ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Türkiye would not stop deepening ties with the East, including the BRICS group of nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), even as it continued to face West.
Türkiye, a NATO member, has in recent months voiced interest in joining the BRICS and SCO groups, both of which include China and Russia. This has stirred US and European fears that Türkiye may be pivoting away from its traditionally Western geopolitical orientation, despite repeated denials from Ankara.
Speaking at an event in Ankara, Erdogan said debates over an “axis shift” were unfounded, but that Türkiye had to adapt to new “centers of power” forming in the fields of economy, production, and technology, while keeping itself open to opportunities with every structure and actor.
“That is the approach that lies behind our country’s will to expand the basis of dialogue with all of them, from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to BRICS and ASEAN,” Erdogan said.
“Of course, our face is turned to the West, but this certainly does not mean that we will turn our backs on the East, that we will ignore the East, or not improve our ties with the East,” he added.
BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. China and Russia, in particular, want to expand the group further as they seek to counter Western economic dominance.
The SCO is a security, political and economic club launched by Moscow, Beijing and Central Asian states in 2001 as a counterweight to Western alliances.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Türkiye would not stop deepening ties with the East, including the BRICS group of nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), even as it continued to face West. (AFP/File)
UN rights chief demands accountability for Lebanon pager blasts
- “Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals … violates international human rights law,” Volker Turk said
GENEVA: Those responsible for a deadly wave of explosions across Lebanon targeting paging devices used by members of the Hezbollah militant group “must be held to account,” the UN rights chief said Wednesday.
“Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
Blinken says Sudan progress threatened by new RSF offensive in Al-Fashir
- Progress in Sudan is threatened by RSF’s new offensive in Al-Fashir
CAIRO: The progress in Sudan is threatened by a new offensive by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the southwestern city of Al-Fashir, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday during a visit to Cairo.
Egypt won’t accept security changes on Gaza border, foreign minister says
- Security on the border, and whether Israel will maintain a troop presence along a 14-km (9-mile) buffer zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor, have become a focal point of months-long talks
- Israeli troops entered the buffer zone in May as they pursued an offensive around Rafah
CAIRO: Egypt will not accept any changes to the security arrangements that were in place on its border with Gaza before war broke out between Israel and Hamas last October, the Egyptian foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Security on the border, and whether Israel will maintain a troop presence along a 14-km (9-mile) buffer zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor, have become a focal point of months-long talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Israeli troops entered the buffer zone in May as they pursued an offensive around Rafah.
Egypt, which is a mediator in ceasefire talks, says Israel must withdraw and that a Palestinian presence needs to be restored at the Rafah crossing between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Gaza.
“Egypt reiterates its position, it rejects any military presence along the opposite side of the border crossing and the aforementioned (Philadelphi) corridor,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters during a press conference in Cairo with US counterpart Antony Blinken.
Abdelatty also said that any escalation, including blasts that wounded Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon on Tuesday, would create hurdles for the completion of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
Taiwan, Hungary firms deny making Hezbollah pagers
- Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT
- BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told US broadcaster NBC News that her company worked with Gold Apollo but did not make pagers
BUDAPEST: A Taiwanese company and its Hungarian partner on Wednesday reportedly denied making pagers that exploded while being used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon.
The New York Times, citing American and other anonymous officials, reported that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo.
Taiwanese prosecutors launched an investigation.
Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT.
Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang said the pagers were “100 percent not” made in Taiwan.
“They are not our products from beginning to end. How can we produce products that are not ours?” Hsu told reporters in Taipei.
The company said in a separate statement that it has established a “long-term partnership” with the Hungarian company to use its trademark and the model mentioned in media reports “is produced and sold by BAC.”
But BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told US broadcaster NBC News that her company worked with Gold Apollo but did not make pagers.
“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” NBC cited Barsony-Arcidiacono as saying on the phone.
Barsony-Arcidiacono did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The explosions in Lebanon killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack.
At BAC Consulting’s registered postal address in a Budapest suburb, a woman there told reporters that the two-story semi-detached building belongs to a company providing virtual business addresses.
Barsony-Arcidiacono appears to be the only employee of the company founded in 2022, according to legal documents consulted by AFP, which also report an annual revenue of 210 million forints ($590,000) and profit of around 18 million forints.
On an archived version of a currently inaccessible website, the consultancy described itself as “agents of change with a network of consultants,” while Barsony-Arcidiacono touted her experience as a “strategic adviser” for international organizations.
The Times reported about 3,000 pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, mostly its AR924 model.
“Our company only provides the brand trademark authorization and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product,” Gold Apollo said.
The company declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations.
“We have assigned the case to the chief prosecutor of the national security team to actively investigate. Our office will clarify the facts of the case as soon as possible,” Taipei’s Shilin District Prosecutors Office said in a statement.
“If there is any illegality involved, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law,” the office added.
Taiwan’s economic affairs ministry said Gold Apollo’s pagers made in Taiwan only have “a receiving function” and the capacity of their built-in battery “is about that of an ordinary AA battery that is not possible to explode to cause death or injury.”
“After reviewing media reports and pictures, we think it’s very questionable that (the model used) is the company’s product,” the ministry said, adding that there is no record of the company directly exporting to Lebanon.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, previously told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source.”
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions.
