International
Israeli forces pound north and south Gaza, battle Hamas in Rafah
Israeli forces pound north and south Gaza, battle Hamas in Rafah
CAIRO: Israeli forces pounded several areas across Gaza on Wednesday, and residents reported fierce fighting overnight in Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Residents said fighting intensified in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, where tanks were also trying to force their way north amid heavy clashes. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.
Since early May, ground fighting has focused on Rafah, abutting Egypt on Gaza’s southern edge, where around half of the enclave’s 2.3 million people had been sheltering after fleeing other areas. Most have since had to flee again.
Israel says that it is close to destroying the last remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, after which it will move to smaller scale operations in the enclave.
Medics said two Palestinians were killed in one Israeli missile strike in Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement its forces killed a Hamas militant who had been involved in the smuggling of weapons through the border between Rafah and Egypt. It said jets struck dozens of militant targets in Rafah overnight, including fighters, military structures and tunnel shafts.
Later on Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians and wounded others near the northern Jabalia camp, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, medics said.
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Residents and Hamas media said the casualties were among a group of people who gathered outside a store to get an Internet signal to communicate with relatives elsewhere in the enclave.
In Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, tank shells struck an apartment, killing at least five people and wounding others, medics said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Hostage deal plea
Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli offensive in retaliation has so far killed 37,658 people, of them 60 in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday, and has left the tiny, heavily built-up Gaza Strip in ruins.
The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but officials say most those killed have been civilians. Israel has lost 314 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.
More than eight months into the war, international mediation backed by the US has failed to yield a ceasefire agreement. Hamas says any deal must bring an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Orly Gilboa, whose 20-year-old daughter Daniela is being held hostage in Gaza, called on Israeli leaders to accept the deal and on the international community to pressure Hamas to do the same.
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“The deal is there to be signed and implemented. I’m asking my own government to stand behind its own proposal, to be brave as our girls are, to save them, to save us. Time is running out,” she told a press conference in Tel Aviv.
Severe food shortage
In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians complained of a severe lack of food and soaring prices, and health officials said thousands of children were suffering from malnutrition that has already killed at least 30 since Oct. 7.
“There is only flour and canned food, there is nothing else to eat, no vegetables, no meat, and no milk,” said Abu Mustafa, who lives in Gaza City, with his family.
Their house was struck in the past week by an Israeli tank, that destroyed most of the upper floor.
“Apart from the bombing, there is another Israeli war taking place in northern Gaza, starvation. People meet in the street and many can’t recognize one another because of weight loss and older looks,” Abu Mustafa told Reuters via a chat app.
Gaza remains at high risk of famine, though delivery of some aid has limited the projected spread of extreme hunger in northern areas, a global monitor said on Tuesday.
More than 495,000 people across the Gaza Strip are facing the most severe, or “catastrophic,” level of food insecurity, according to an update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) a global partnership used by the United Nations and aid agencies.
Wrapping up a visit to Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting against Hamas, not the people of Gaza.
“We are committed, and I am personally committed, to facilitating the delivery of essential humanitarian aid to Gaza. We only fight those who seek to harm us,” Gallant said in a video statement.
Israeli forces pound north and south Gaza, battle Hamas in Rafah
Arabnews
International
19 killed in Mexican gang fight
19 killed in Mexican gang fight
Mexican officials investigating footages shared on social media showing bodies in a dumper truck have found 19 corpses in La Concordia, in the southern state of Chiapas.
The victims were all male, clad in black, and wearing tactical vests similar to those worn by Mexico’s strong criminal organisations.
The majority of the dead were recovered inside the truck’s rear, with three more discovered on a nearby dirt track. Everyone had bullet wounds.
Crime gangs have infiltrated the region, which is crisscrossed by transit routes used by migrants making their way north to the United States.
Criminal groups extort money from migrants and utilise the routes to transfer firearms, ammunition, and drugs from adjacent Guatemala into Mexico.
Officials discovered Guatemalan identity papers on four of the deceased. Members of the Chiapas prosecutor’s office were alerted to a video posted on social media on June 28.
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In it, individuals acting as Sinaloa cartel members reveal the victims in the truck, alleging they are from a rival group operating on the Guatemala-Mexico border.
The next day, neighbours discovered the dead near the village of La Concordia and reported their whereabouts to the police.
The Chiapas prosecutor’s office stated that the deceased were likely part of an organisation known as the “Chiapas and Guatemala cartel.”.
The terrible discovery comes amid a spate of gang-related violence in La Concordia and surrounding areas. Last month, gunmen shot and killed a woman campaigning for mayor of La Concordia, along with five other individuals.
Locals have recalled having to hide in their homes for days as gun battles raged on the streets as different gangs competed for territory.
Hundreds have left their houses. The Mexican government says it has sent members of the National Guard and the army to the area.
However, people have previously stated that they feel abandoned and that the cartels will return as soon as the federal forces depart.
19 killed in Mexican gang fight
International
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
At the centre of the claim is the allegation the UK government and BA received a series of warnings during the night but did not act on them.
It is alleged that one reason for this was the desire of the government to insert a special forces team who could carry out reconnaissance within the country.
Stephen Davis wrote a book about the incident and says he has interviewed members of the team anonymously.
He believes the authorities did not expect the airport to fall to invading Iraqi forces so quickly and the intention was for the men to disembark before the plane went on to its next destination.
The BA cabin services director on the flight previously told the BBC that a British man in military uniform greeted him at the plane’s door on arrival in Kuwait.
The man said he had come to meet 10 men on the flight who had boarded at Heathrow. They were brought to the front, disembarked and were never seen again. But by then, it was too late for the plane to leave.
A UK official serving in the Kuwait embassy at the time previously said he believed there had been a “deniable” operation to hastily put boots on the ground without the full knowledge of the embassy.
Anthony Paice was responsible for political intelligence, a role widely assumed to be cover for MI6.
“I am convinced that the military intelligence exploitation of British Airways Flight 149 did take place, despite repeated official denials,” he told the BBC in his first interview in 2021.
In November 2021, the Foreign Office admitted that Parliament and the public were misled for decades about Flight 149.
Newly released files revealed the British ambassador in Kuwait did warn the Foreign Office about the invasion, but BA was not told.
However, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated earlier denials that the flight was being used for a secret intelligence mission.
“There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience,” said Matthew Jury, from the law firm behind the claim, McCue Jury and Partners.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government did not comment on ongoing legal matters. BA did not respond to a request for comment.
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
BBC
International
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.
For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.
She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.
“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.
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