Foreign News
UN chief says ‘clear violations of international humanitarian law’ in Gaza
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has renewed his demand for a ceasefire in Gaza and said that international law was being violated in the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
Israel has bombarded the besieged Gaza Strip relentlessly since October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killling at least 1,400 people according to Israeli authorities.
After the attack, Israel cut off supplies of water, food, fuel and electricity to the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, an act the UN has called a form of collective punishment. It also launched an assault on the territory, killing at least 5,791 people, according to authorities in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
More than one million people have been displaced, as Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south, but Israeli air raids have continued throughout the territory.
Speaking before the 15-member UN Security Council on Tuesday, Guterres pleaded for civilians to be protected and warned that the fighting risked a wider conflagration in the region.
“It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Guterres said.
“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said.
Guterres also criticised Israel without naming it, saying “protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.”
The secretary-general’s comments drew ire from Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who called the speech “shocking”. “His statement that ‘the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum’ expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder,” Erdan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s truly sad that the head of an organisation that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views.”
In his speech, Guterres called the attack by Hamas “horrifying and unprecedented” and demanded the release of the roughly 200 people captured and held captive by Hamas.
Earlier, United Nations agencies called “on our knees” for emergency aid to be allowed unimpeded into Gaza, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed.
A small trickle of humanitarian aid has entered Gaza since Saturday from the Egyptian side, but Guterres called such limited assistance “a drop of aid in an ocean of need”.
(Aljazeera)
A court in Malta has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of masterminding the murder of prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Fenech, 44, was acquitted on Wednesday at the end of a jury trial. He had been tried on charges of complicity to murder and for the lesser charge of criminal association to commit murder.
If found guilty, Fenech could have faced life in prison.
Caruana Galizia’s family were seen weeping in the packed courtroom in Valletta after the businessman was cleared of both counts by an 8-1 margin following eight hours of deliberation by the jury.
“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” the slain reporter’s family said in a statement.
“Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne’s life. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”
Fenech’s family members were seen celebrating the jury’s decision.
The killing of Caruana Galizia in October 2017 shocked Europe’s journalist community and set off a political firestorm in Malta, focusing international attention on its police and judiciary.
Dubbed a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, Caruana Galizia had exposed corruption at the highest level in the Mediterranean island country, shining a spotlight on links between Malta’s business and political elites. She was 53 when she was killed.
Prosecutors argued that Fenech had wanted Caruana Galizia killed because she was about to reveal information about him.
Fenech has denied the accusations. His defence instead pointed fingers at his one-time friend Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a target of Caruana Galizia’s blogs.
Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, stepped down in January 2020 due to the political fallout from the assassination.
Police told the court that Schembri had never been a suspect. He has denied any role in the murder.
An independent inquiry in 2021 found that officials in Malta had failed to protect Caruana Galizia from threats to her life before her death.
[Aljazeera]
A head teacher’s quick decision to evacuate his school saved 900 pupils from deadly flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border
Rajendra Dawadi tells the BBC he was tipped off about incoming flood waters and moved students to higher ground with just minutes to spare. One pupil says she and her friends survived by just 10 seconds and watched as a nearby bazaar was swept away
Wednesday’s disaster has killed at least 794 people and more than 2,500 people are missing in Nepal, local officials say
In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing, according to Chinese state media –
[BBC]
A ferry carrying around 260 people has capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus with a search underway for survivors, according to local media.
The catamaran-style boat was travelling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, and started sinking a few kilometres off the coast of the island state on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
[Aljazeera]
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Afternoon thundershowers in the Northern, North-central, Eastern and Uva provinces in next few days, starting from today (03).
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