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Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, dressed in black, rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday to protest against military conscription, an issue that has caused major strain in Israel’s right-wing ruling coalition.The vast crowd were protesting against the absence of a law guaranteeing their right to avoid Israel’s mandatory military service — a pledge long promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Crowds of men, many wearing black hats, set fire to pieces of tarpaulin as hundreds of police officers cordoned off several roads across the city, AFP correspondents reported.Carrying placards denouncing conscription, demonstrators marched along main roads leading into Jerusalem.The mass demonstration follows a recent crackdown on ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, with thousands of call-up notices sent in recent months and several deserters imprisoned.Under a ruling established at the time of Israel’s creation in 1948, when the ultra-Orthodox were a very small community, men who devote themselves full-time to the study of sacred Jewish texts are given a de facto pass.This exemption has come under mounting pressure since war erupted in Gaza in October 2023, as the military struggles to fill its ranks.Whether the exemption should be scrapped has been a long-running point of contention in Israeli society, with Netanyahu pledging that his government would pass a law enshrining the waiver.But he has so far failed to deliver.Responding to the call of two ultra-Orthodox parties — one of which forms a key part of the ruling coalition — men travelled from all over Israel on Thursday to demand the continuation of their exemptions.The police closed roads to Jerusalem and announced the mobilisation of 2,000 officers in the city.In June 2024, the supreme court ruled that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox men, declaring their exemption had expired.- Vital support for coalition -A parliamentary committee is now discussing a bill expected to end the exemptions and encourage young ultra-Orthodox men who are not studying full-time to enlist.The issue has placed Netanyahu’s coalition — one of the most right-wing in the country’s history — under severe strain.In July, ministers from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party resigned from the cabinet over the issue, though the party has not formally left the coalition.The other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, has already quit both the government and the coalition.The Sephardic Shas, which holds 11 seats in the 120-member Knesset, has warned that it will withdraw support unless military service exemptions are anchored in law —– move that could topple Netanyahu’s fragile coalition, now down to 60 seats.Some ultra-Orthodox rabbis fear that conscription will make young people less religious, but others accept that those who do not study holy texts full-time can enlist. Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 14 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, or about 1.3 million people, and roughly 66,000 men of military age currently benefit from the exemption.According to an army report presented to parliament in September, there has been a sharp increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews enlisting despite opposition from their leaders, but the numbers still remain low, at a few hundred over the past two years.

Families hid in trenches, bodies lay in the streets and children were killed in front of their parents as Sudanese paramilitaries advanced into the western city of El-Fasher, survivors told AFP.More than 36,000 civilians have fled the city since Sunday, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the army’s last stronghold in the Darfur region, triggering warnings from the UN and humanitarian groups of possible mass killings and ethnic cleansing.Some have sought refuge in Tawila, a town around 70 kilometres (43 miles) to the west that is already sheltering some 650,000 displaced people.In satellite phone interviews with AFP, three survivors who reached Tawila described scenes of terror and loss during their escape from a city besieged by the RSF for 18 months, cut off from food, medicine and other aid.Their accounts echoed those of survivors of the mass killings in Darfur in the early 2000s, when Janjaweed militias — the forces accused of genocide there which later became the RSF — burned villages, killed some 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million more. Emtithal Mahmoud, a survivor of the earlier Darfur killings now based in the United States, recounted to AFP a harrowing moment when she recognised her cousin, Nadifa, in a video shared by RSF accounts, lying dead on the ground.The survivors’ full names have been withheld for their safety.- Hayat, mother of five: ‘They killed my 16-year-old son’ -“On Saturday at 6 am, the shelling was extremely heavy. I took my children and hid with them in a trench. We haven’t heard from my husband for six months. “After about an hour, seven RSF fighters entered our house. They took my phone, searched even my undergarments, and killed my 16-year-old son. We fled with many people from our neighborhood. “On the road between El-Fasher and Garni (a village northwest of the city), we saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn’t carry them. Along the way, we were robbed again and the young men travelling with us were stopped. We don’t know what happened to them.”- Hussein, survivor wounded by shelling: ‘Bodies in the streets’ -“We left El-Fasher early Saturday morning. The road was exhausting — hunger, thirst and constant checkpoints. Before Garni, we were stopped for three hours. They said I must have been fighting because I was injured. If it wasn’t for a family passing by with a donkey cart carrying their mother, I wouldn’t have reached Garni. They helped me get there. “The situation in El-Fasher is so terrible — dead bodies in the streets, and no one to bury them. We’re grateful we made it here, even if we only have the clothes we were wearing. Here, we finally feel some safety. I went to the clinic and they checked my leg.”- Mohamed, father of four: Corpses ‘turned to bones’ -“I used to live in the Zamzam camp (for displaced people). When the RSF entered the camp, I fled to El-Fasher and stayed in the Abu Shouk neighborhood. The fighting on Saturday was extremely heavy — my four daughters, their mother and I spent the entire day hiding in a trench until dawn on Sunday. “We left before sunrise and walked toward Garni. On the way, they robbed me of my money and stopped the young men to take them. I saw dead bodies, some already turned to bones. “They beat me on my back with sticks, and I already had shrapnel in my leg from a shell that fell near our home in Zamzam. “We reached Tawila at sunset on Tuesday. Now, we have nowhere to stay. My daughters, their mother and I are sleeping in the open without any covers. Aid workers gave us some food, but no tents or blankets. “We just want the war to end so we can go back to our homes.”- US-based Emtithal Mahmoud, 32: ‘Recognised my cousin from a video’ -“It is almost impossible to describe the feeling that we’re feeling right now as people from Darfur. A lot of our family members are still trapped in the city. We don’t know who’s dead or alive. “We have videos and reports of people being killed. It’s so terrible because even in the videos that the RSF is sharing, gloating as they commit a continuation of the genocide since the early 2000s, we’re recognising our family members and friends. We found out that one of our cousins was killed because of a video that was circulating.”In the video circulated by her killers, the RSF, you can see her corpse on the ground. And you can hear the RSF person saying, ‘Get up if you can.’ And so they’re taunting her corpse and it’s another form of torture. “She was a volunteer for quite some time and when the siege happened she joined the resistance. She’s one of the women warriors.”

The Israeli military on Thursday killed a municipal worker in a raid in southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such incursions.Israel’s military confirmed the raid, saying it was operating against Hezbollah infrastructure when its forces fired on a “suspect”.Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular air strikes.An AFP journalist saw bullet holes in the walls and windows of the municipal building in Blida.Early in the day, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli troops “stormed the Blida municipality building, where employee Ibrahim Salameh was sleeping, and enemy soldiers proceeded to kill him”.Lebanon’s health ministry confirmed the death.In the room where Salameh had been sleeping, the floor, blankets and mattress were stained with blood, with the victim’s glasses, papers and cigarettes scattered around.Salameh had been sleeping in the building because he was on duty, said the mayor of Blida, where most houses were destroyed during last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.”We heard Israeli soldiers shout, then there were gunshots,” Hisham Abdel Latif Hassan, Salameh’s nephew, told AFP.After Israeli soldiers withdrew, “we found him dead near his mattress”.- ‘Confront any Israeli incursion’ -Village residents cited by NNA said the raid lasted several hours, and that Israeli forces withdrew at dawn.The state-run outlet called the raid “unprecedented”.Aoun instructed the military to “confront any Israeli incursion into liberated southern territory, in defence of Lebanese territory and the safety of citizens”, during a meeting with the army chief, according to a statement from the presidency.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the incursion as “a flagrant aggression against Lebanese state institutions and sovereignty”.The Israeli military said that during an operation to “dismantle Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the Blida area in southern Lebanon, the troops identified a suspect inside the structure”.It added that “an immediate threat against the troops was identified, and they fired to remove it”, noting the “incident is under review”.The military accused Hezbollah of using the building “for terrorist activity under the guise of civilian infrastructure”.In a statement, Hezbollah condemned the “cold blooded” killing of Salameh and commended Aoun for instructing the army to confront such raids.- New strike -In the nearby border village of Adaisseh, NNA reported that Israeli forces also blew up a hall for religious ceremonies at dawn.Israeli drones were also flying over Beirut at low altitude on Thursday, according to the NNA.Hezbollah first began launching cross-border fire at Israel following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, kicking off a more than year-long conflict that culminated in two months of open war before last year’s ceasefire was agreed.Israel, however, has never stopped carrying out air strikes on Lebanon — usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions — and has stepped up the attacks in recent days.Its military announced another strike on Thursday, saying it targeted “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure, including a launcher and tunnel shaft in the area of Mahmudiyah in southern Lebanon”.The NNA reported a strike near Mahmudiyah and another on Labbouneh, near the eastern side of the border with Israel.On Tuesday, the spokesman for the UN rights commission, Jeremy Laurence, said Israeli forces had killed 111 civilians in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect.Hezbollah was badly weakened during the war, and the United States has intensified pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the Iran-backed group.On Wednesday, during a meeting of the ceasefire’s monitors in the Lebanese border city of Naqoura, US envoy Morgan Ortagus said Washington welcomed the “decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year”.The Lebanese army “must now fully implement its plan”, she added.

The Israeli military on Thursday carried out a deadly raid in southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such incursions.Israel’s military confirmed the raid, saying it was operating against Hezbollah infrastructure when its forces fired on a “suspect”.Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular air strikes.Aoun instructed the military to “confront any Israeli incursion into liberated southern territory, in defence of Lebanese territory and the safety of citizens”, during a meeting with the army chief, according to a statement from the presidency.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the incursion as “a flagrant aggression against Lebanese state institutions and sovereignty”.Early in the day, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli troops “stormed the Blida municipality building, where employee Ibrahim Salameh was sleeping, and enemy soldiers proceeded to kill him”.Lebanon’s health ministry confirmed the death.An AFP journalist saw bullet holes in the walls and windows of the municipal building in Blida.In the room where Salameh had been sleeping, the floor, blankets and mattress were stained with blood, with the victim’s glasses, papers and cigarettes scattered around.Salameh had been sleeping in the building because he was on duty, said the mayor of Blida, where most houses were destroyed during last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.Village residents cited by NNA said the raid lasted several hours, and that Israeli forces withdrew at dawn.The Israeli military said that during an operation to “dismantle Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the Blida area in southern Lebanon, the troops identified a suspect inside the structure”.It added that “an immediate threat against the troops was identified, and they fired to remove it”, noting the “incident is under review”.The military accused Hezbollah of having used the building “for terrorist activity under the guise of civilian infrastructure”.- New strike -In the nearby border village of Adaisseh, NNA reported that Israeli forces also blew up a hall for religious ceremonies at dawn.Hezbollah first began launching cross-border fire at Israel following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, kicking off a more than year-long conflict that culminated in two months of open war before last year’s ceasefire was agreed.Israel, however, has never stopped carrying out air strikes on Lebanon — usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions — and has stepped up the attacks in recent days.Its military announced another strike on Thursday, saying it targeted “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure, including a launcher and tunnel shaft in the area of Mahmudiyah in southern Lebanon”.On Tuesday, the spokesman for the UN rights commission, Jeremy Laurence, said Israeli forces had killed 111 civilians in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect.Hezbollah was badly weakened during the war, and the United States has intensified pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the Iran-backed group.On Wednesday, during a meeting of the ceasefire’s monitors in the Lebanese border city of Naqoura, US envoy Morgan Ortagus said Washington welcomed the “decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year”.The Lebanese army “must now fully implement its plan”, she added.