AFP Asia Business

Israel PM threatens to seize parts of Gaza over fate of hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Wednesday to seize parts of Gaza if Hamas did not release hostages, while the militant group warned they would return “in coffins” if Israel did not stop bombing the Palestinian territory.Just over a week since its military resumed operations following a January truce, Israel said two projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip, with one intercepted and the other landing near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.The rocket fire came as rare protests against Hamas by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were held for a second consecutive day, with demonstrators chanting slogans against the Islamist movement and calling for an end to the war.Israel’s resumption of intense bombardment and ground operations across Gaza shattered weeks of relative calm brought by a fragile ceasefire, and militants returned to launching rocket attacks days later.According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 830 people have been killed in the territory since Israel restarted its strikes on March 18. No deaths have been reported on the Israeli side.The United Nations said on Wednesday that the renewed Israeli operations had displaced 142,000 people in just seven days, and warned of dwindling supplies amid Israel’s blocking of aid.On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military would “soon operate with full force in additional areas of Gaza” and send out more evacuation orders.Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee later issued evacuation warnings for residents in several areas in and around Gaza City.”Terrorist organisations are returning to and firing rockets from populated areas… For your safety, head south of Wadi Gaza toward the known shelters,” he said in a post on X.Israeli officials say the new operations are meant to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages following a stalemate in talks with mediators on extending the truce — in which 33 Israeli captives were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Israel wanted an extension of the truce’s initial phase, while Hamas demanded talks on a second stage that was meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire.- ‘Random bombardment’ -Netanyahu told parliament that “the more Hamas persists in its refusal to release our hostages, the stronger the pressure we will exert”.”This includes the seizure of territories, along with other measures I will not elaborate here,” he added.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.”Every time the (Israeli) occupation attempts to retrieve its captives by force, it ends up bringing them back in coffins,” Hamas said in a statement.The group said it was “doing everything possible to keep the occupation’s captives alive”, but that “the random Zionist bombardment is endangering their lives”.Gal Gilboa-Dalal, an Israeli survivor of the 2023 attack whose brother was taken hostage, told AFP he “constantly” imagines their reunion.”This moment felt closer than ever and unfortunately, it’s drifting away from me again,” he said. His brother Guy Gilboa-Dalal was taken from a music festival near the Gaza border and last seen in a video shared by Hamas last month.”We are fighting here against a terrorist organisation that only understands force,” Gal Gilboa-Dalal said.”On the other hand, I am terrified that these bombings and this operation… will endanger the hostages there. There’s no way to know what the terrorists might do to them or if a missile might accidentally hit them,” he added.- ‘We are tired’ -The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 50,183 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.In northern Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinians gathered for a second day of anti-Hamas protests, chanting “Out, out, Hamas out!””We do not want Hamas! We are tired,” said protester Muayed Zahir, who took part in a rally in Gaza City. Another protest took place in nearby Beit Lahia.Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 after winning a Palestinian election the year before. No vote has been held since.Levels of discontent towards Hamas in Gaza are difficult to gauge, in part because of its intolerance for public expressions of dissent.Fatah, the movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, has called on Hamas to “step aside from governing” Gaza to safeguard the “existence” of Palestinians in the war-battered territory.

Global stocks drop ahead of Trump auto tariff announcement

Global stock markets mostly slipped Wednesday as investors readied for an announcement on auto tariffs from US President Donald Trump. In New York, all three major indices closed lower, while the CBOE Volatility Index — Wall Street’s so-called “fear gauge” — jumped seven percent, reflecting market jitters.”It’s the continuation of worries regarding the tariffs and the …

Global stocks drop ahead of Trump auto tariff announcement Read More »

Huthi media reports new US strikes in capital after wave of attacks

Huthi media said late Wednesday that new US strikes had hit the rebel-held capital Sanaa, after earlier reporting 19 American raids elsewhere in  Yemen. “A series of strikes by the US aggression have hit the south and north of the capital,” the Al-Masirah channel said, without providing further details.The station had earlier reported 17 raids by the United States “on the Saada governorate”, on top of two more on Amran.The Iran-backed rebels’ news agency, Saba, said “the American aggression targeted the Oncology Hospital building in Saada”.The hospital, which Huthi media said was under construction, was also hit last week.The rebel health ministry said two civilians were wounded in the latest hospital attack, which they described as “a full-fledged war crime”.Early on Wednesday, a Huthi military spokesperson said the group targeted “enemy warships in the Red Sea, led by the US aircraft carrier (USS Harry S.) Truman” blamed for the Yemen strikes.The rebels also claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv, but did not specify when it occurred. Israel did not report such an attack.Washington announced a military offensive against the Huthis on March 15, promising to use overwhelming force until the group stopped firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.That day saw a wave of US air strikes that officials said killed senior Huthi leaders, and which the rebels’ health ministry said killed 53 people.Since then, Huthi-held parts of Yemen have witnessed near-daily attacks that the group has blamed on the United States, with the rebels announcing the targeting of US military ships and Israel.The Huthis began targeting shipping vessels after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, but paused their campaign when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in January.Earlier this month, they threatened to renew attacks in the vital maritime trade route over Israel’s aid blockade on the Palestinian territory, triggering the first US strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.Last week, Trump threatened to annihilate the Huthis and warned Tehran against continuing to aid the group.

Fresh Yemen war chat revelations heap pressure on White House

A US magazine published Wednesday the transcript of accidentally leaked messages laying out plans for an attack on Yemen, heaping pressure on Donald Trump’s White House and boosting calls for top officials to resign.The White House insisted that Trump still had confidence in his national security team, despite revelations in The Atlantic that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had revealed details including the times of strikes in advance.The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported earlier this week that he had been mistakenly added to the chat on the commercially available Signal app in a stunning security breach.The magazine initially withheld the details of the attack plans, but finally published them on Thursday after White House had insisted that no classified details were involved and attacked Goldbeg as a liar.The Trump administration doubled down on its attacks on Wednesday.Peppered with questions at a daily press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described Goldberg as an “anti-Trump hater” who “loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes.” Leavitt would not respond directly when asked if she could definitively say that no officials would lose their jobs as Democrats called for heads to roll over the so-called “Signalgate” scandal.”What I can say definitively is what I just spoke to the president about, and he continues to have confidence in his national security team,” Leavitt told reporters.Elon Musk, the billionaire running a huge government cost-cutting drive for Trump, had “offered to put his technical experts on this” to establish how Goldberg was added to the chat, she added.- ‘Big mistake’ -Democrats in particular turned their fire on Hegseth, the former Fox News contributor and veteran who has never run a huge organization like the Pentagon before.They have also called for National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for accidentally adding the journalist to the chat, to go.Hegseth claimed the exchange about the attacks on Huthi rebels on March 15 had “No names. No targets” and said they were not “war plans.””My job… is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep everybody informed, that’s what I did,” he told reporters on a visit to Hawaii on Wednesday.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also included in the chat, admitted Wednesday that including the journalist was a “big mistake.”But calls mounted for Trump to sack officials over the breach. “The secretary of defense should be fired immediately if he’s not man enough to own up to his mistakes and resign in disgrace,” House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC.Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth said Trump should fire all the officials in the chat and called Hegseth a “liar” who “could’ve gotten our pilots killed.”The US House of Representatives discussed the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.- ‘First bombs’ -The Atlantic said the texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off to hit the Huthis — and two hours before the first target was expected to be bombed.”1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”, Hegseth writes, referring to F-18 US Navy jets, before adding that “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME.””1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”Hegseth also writes about the use of US drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles. A short time later, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”The story also threatens to cause further ructions between Washington and its allies, after Goldberg revealed disparaging comments by Vance and Hegseth about “pathetic” European nations during their chat.The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the Huthi rebels in response to constant attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US. 

After a week on the streets, Turkey protesters remain defiant

Student protesters were back on the streets on Wednesday as they marked a week since the start of Turkey’s biggest demonstrations against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since 2013.The protests erupted after the March 19 arrest of Istanbul opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as part of a graft and “terror” probe, which the main opposition CHP party slammed as a “coup”.Vast crowds have hit the streets daily, defying a protest ban in Istanbul and other big cities, with the biggest crowds gathering after dark, sparking running battles with riot police. Ahead of a major rally on Saturday, the CHP appeared to change strategy on Wednesday, urging people to applaud, honk their horns or wave flags from their windows at 1730 GMT. In Istanbul, crowds of students — many of them masked — marched through the Levent business district after a day in which many thousands had flooded the streets chanting: “Government, resign!”And in the capital, students rallied at Ankara University campus alongside medical students from Haceteppe University and a handful of lecturers from the prestigious Middle East Technical University. “The pressures exerted on members of the opposition have reached an alarming level,” said one robed lecturer who did not give his name. “In the same way, government pressure on universities, which has been going on for years, has become even worse with recent developments.”- ‘Absolutely scandalous’ -By Tuesday afternoon, police had arrested 1,418 people, the interior ministry said. Among them was AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, who was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Monday and remanded in custody a day later alongside six other journalists.The move was sharply denounced by the Paris-based news agency, which said that Akgul had been covering the protests, denouncing his jailing as “unacceptable” and demanding his immediate release.Reporters Without Borders chief Thibaut Bruttin described the arrests as “absolutely scandalous”, urging Turkey to free the journalists, including Akgul.”These journalists were only doing their job. They have no business being brought before a court. They absolutely must be released,” he told AFP. And a French foreign ministry source said Paris was “deeply concerned by reports of repression against protesters and journalists” in Turkey, noting that Akgul “was covering the protests professionally”.The UN also voiced concern on Wednesday over the court’s U-turn on the journalists’ fate. “It is a matter of concern that reportedly the initial decisions of a court in Istanbul to free the journalists were immediately reversed on the prosecutor’s intervention,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told AFP.- ‘No room left in the prisons’ -Erdogan, who has repeatedly denounced the protests as “street terror”, stepped up his attacks on the opposition with a bitter tirade against the CHP and its leader Ozgur Ozel.Most nights, the protests have turned into running battles with riot police, whose crackdown has alarmed rights groups. But there were no such clashes on Tuesday, AFP correspondents said. Addressing the vast crowds at Istanbul City Hall on Tuesday, Ozel warned Erdogan that the crackdown would only strengthen the protest movement.”Our numbers won’t decrease with the detentions and arrests, we will grow and grow and grow!” he vowed, saying the extent of the crackdown meant there was “no room left in Istanbul’s prisons”.Although the crackdown has not reduced the numbers, most students who joined a huge street rally on Tuesday had their faces covered, an AFP correspondent said. “We want the government to resign, we want our democratic rights, we are fighting for a freer Turkey right now,” a 20-year-old student who gave his name as Mali told AFP. “We are not terrorists, we are students and the reason we are here is to exercise our democratic rights and to defend democracy,” he said.Ozel has called the next major rally for Saturday in the Istanbul district of Maltepe on the Asian side of the city.

Anti-Hamas chants at new protests in Gaza: witnesses

Palestinians on Wednesday staged protests in the Gaza Strip against the territory’s Hamas rulers for the second consecutive day, calling for an end to the war with Israel, witnesses said.Demonstrators carrying banners reading “Hamas does not represent us” were seen marching in Gaza City and the town of Beit Lahia to the north, just over a week after Israel resumed its bombing campaign following nearly two months of a truce.”We do not want Hamas! We are tired,” said protester Muayed Zahir, who took part in the rally in Gaza City.After more than 17 months of devastating war, “there is no education, no food, no clothing — and all this is because of Hamas,” Zahir added.”We appeal to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu: Stop firing missiles at the sad, poor people.”Protesters also chanted “Out, out, Hamas out!” witnesses said.One demonstrator who declined to be named said that nearly “two years of destruction and extreme hardship are enough”.”Enough, Hamas, with the suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza… These are the demands of the people,” added the man, stressing that “we speak in the name of the people, we are not being controlled by anyone.”On Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians participated in a protest in Beit Lahia, the biggest rally in Gaza against Hamas since the start of the war.Hamas has been in power in Gaza since 2007.Levels of discontent towards Hamas are difficult to gauge, in part because of its intolerance for public expressions of dissent.A public opinion poll conducted in September by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, based outside of Gaza in the occupied West Bank, estimated that 35 percent of Gazans supported Hamas.According to the survey, support for Hamas in Gaza was slightly higher than for its main political rival, the Fatah movement of Ramallah-based Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, estimated at 26 percent.In Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: “More and more Gazans understand that Hamas brings them destruction and ruin… all of this proves that our policy is working.”Fatah’s spokesman in Gaza, Monther al-Hayek, on Saturday called on Hamas to “step aside from governing” the territory to safeguard the “existence” of Palestinians there.Before Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza, it had blocked in early March the entry of aid into the war-ravaged territory, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.Israeli officials said the move to block aid was aimed at forcing the militants to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Since Israel resumed its military operations on March 18, at least 830 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Israel’s military offensive since October 2023 has killed at least 50,183 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry.

Magazine publishes full US attack plan shared in Signal chat

US magazine the Atlantic on Wednesday published the full exchange of leaked messages between officials laying out plans for an attack on Yemen, as the White House fought fiercely to defend itself over the slip-up.Details including the times of strikes and types of planes used were shown in screenshots of the chat between President Donald Trump’s top officials on the commercial Signal messaging app.The story broke earlier this week after an Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to the chat, and the magazine said it was revealing full details of the attack plans now because Trump’s team insisted that no classified details were involved.The White House reacted defiantly, launching a coordinated attack in which it slammed the magazine’s journalists as “scumbags” and dismissed the story as a “hoax.””There weren’t details, and there was nothing in there that compromised, and it had no impact on the attack, which was very successful,” Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese when asked about the latest revelations.Vice President JD Vance, who was on the Signal conversation, said The Atlantic had “oversold” the story. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for accidentally adding Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, likewise insisted that the Signal chain revealed “no locations” and “NO WAR PLANS.”Goldberg revealed Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about imminent strikes against the Huthi rebels on March 15. The magazine — which initially said it published only the broad outlines about the attacks to protect US troops — said it had published the full details after the Trump repeatedly denied that any classified details had been included.The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off — and two hours before the first target was expected to be bombed.- ‘Bombs will definitely drop’ – “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”, Hegseth writes, referring to F-18 US Navy jets, before adding that “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME.””1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”Hegseth also writes about the use of US drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles missiles. A short time later, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”The full version of the chat group also revealed the informal side of the high-stakes chat, including when Waltz wrote a garbled message and Vance replied “What?” Waltz explained he was “typing too fast.”The chat included emojis of a fist, an American flag, a muscled arm and a flame.The Atlantic said its full publication Wednesday included everything in the Signal chain other than one CIA name that the agency had asked not to be revealed.It added that it had asked the government whether there would be any problem in publishing the rest of the material, given the official insistence that no secrets were shared.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had replied insisting there was no classified material involved but adding that “we object to the release,” the magazine said.The depth of detail has fueled a furious outcry from Democrats in Congress who are accusing the Trump officials of incompetence and putting US military operations in peril. The House of Representatives discussed the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.The story also threatens to cause further ructions between Washington and its allies, after Goldberg revealed disparaging comments by Vance and Hegseth about “pathetic” European nations during their chat.The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the Huthi rebels in response to constant attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US.