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Gaza rescuers say 40 mostly displaced people killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency said Thursday that a rash of Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive in the Palestinian territory.The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said that internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, “most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded”.After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked there seeking refuge from bombardment, but the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed encampment zone that set multiple tents ablaze.”We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God’s protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing — and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,” Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP.”This is supposed to be a safe area in Al-Mawasi,” Abu al-Rus said. “We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning.” Bassal said Israeli strikes on two other encampments of displaced Gazans killed a further nine people — seven in the northern town of Beit Lahia, and a father and son near Al-Mawasi.Separately, the civil defence reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabalia — one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed six people at a school being used as a shelter — as well as Israeli shelling in Gaza City that killed two.The military later announced it had carried out a strike in Jabalia on what it said was a Hamas “command and control” centre.- ‘Starvation as a weapon’ -Israel said Wednesday that it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone in the widening offensive it resumed in March, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month that the military was leaving Gaza “smaller and more isolated”.The United Nations said half a million Palestinians have been displaced since the offensive resumed, triggering what it has described as the most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.”Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive,” the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.The leader of Qatar, which along with Egypt and the US helped mediate the January ceasefire deal, blamed Israel on Thursday for its collapse.”As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said during a visit to Moscow.- New truce offer -Hamas accused Israel on Thursday of attempting to starve Gaza’s 2.4 million people after Katz said the day before that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the territory.”This is a public admission of committing a war crime, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the denial of basic necessities such as food, medicine, water, and fuel to innocent civilians for the seventh consecutive week,” the group said in a statement.In parallel to the Gaza offensive, Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators that would include the release of dozens of hostages.The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.Two Hamas officials said Thursday that internal discussions on the truce proposal were nearly complete, with one telling AFP “the group will send its response to the mediators once they finish” — possibly on Thursday. “Every time they say truce and just as we begin to catch our breath, the occupation resumes its bombings — even more brutally than before,” said Nidal Wresh Agha, a resident of Rafah.”We pray that this time it is real.”The International Committee of the Red Cross, said it was “outraged” that an explosive hit one of its bases in Gaza on Wednesday, the second such strike in three weeks.It said the strikes “highlight the risks to which civilians, medical staff and humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip are exposed today”.Israel’s renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

UN nuclear chief says Iran, US running out of time to secure deal

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Thursday that Iran and the United States were running out of time to secure a deal as they prepare to hold fresh nuclear talks this weekend.Iranian and US delegations are to gather in Rome on Saturday for a second round of Omani-mediated negotiations, a week after the longtime foes held their highest-level talks since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord in 2018.In March, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks and warning of possible military action if Iran refused.”We are in a very crucial stage of these important negotiations. We know we don’t have much time. This is why I am here… to facilitate this process,” Grossi said on a visit to Tehran.”We are working hard and we want to succeed,” he told a joint news conference with Iran’s atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami, acknowledging that the effort to secure a deal was “not an easy process”.On Wednesday, Grossi met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the first round of talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday.  Araghchi said he had a “useful” meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency chief.”The IAEA can play a crucial role in peaceful settlement of the Iranian nuclear file in the coming months,” he said. Araghchi called on the IAEA chief to “keep the agency away from politics” in the face of those seeking to “derail current negotiations”. He did not elaborate.Oman’s foreign ministry confirmed it would again mediate the talks, which it said will be in Rome “for logistical reasons.”- ‘Not far’ from possessing bomb -Before heading to Iran, Grossi told French newspaper Le Monde that Tehran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.A year after Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran began rolling back its own commitments under the agreement, which gave it relief from sanctions in return for IAEA-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.In its latest report, the IAEA said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms (605 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent.That level far exceeds the 3.67 percent enrichment ceiling set by the 2015 deal, but still falls short of the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear warhead.Since he returned to office in January, Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” policy, imposing punishing economic sanctions against Iran. On Thursday Trump said he is “not in a rush” to take military action against Iranian nuclear facilities, “because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country”.Trump did not confirm a New York Times report that he had blocked an Israeli plan to strike Iranian nuclear facilities in favour of seeking a negotiated deal.Israel did not directly comment on the report, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.”The prime minister has led countless overt and covert actions in the battle against Iran’s nuclear programme, without which Iran would today possess a nuclear arsenal,” Netanyahu’s office said.There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the remarks.- ‘Conflicting positions’ -Khamenei has cautioned that while the talks with the United States had started well, they “may or may not yield results.”  On Wednesday, Araghchi said Iran’s enrichment of uranium was not up for discussion after Witkoff called for a halt.Witkoff had previously demanded only that Iran return to the 3.67 percent enrichment ceiling set by the 2015 deal.Araghchi said he hoped to start negotiations on the framework of a possible agreement, but that this required “constructive positions” from the United States.Araghchi was in Moscow on Thursday on a “pre-planned” visit to the Tehran ally, where he met with President Vladimir Putin.”Our regular exchanges with Russia and China have allowed us to align our positions,” Araghchi said on arrival in the Russian capital.Meanwhile, the Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Salman travelled to Tehran and delivered a message from the Saudi king to Khamenei, according to the leader’s official website. During his first term, Trump attempted to forge an alliance between Israel and the Gulf Arab states against Iran.But in 2023 Tehran and Riyadh restored ties in a Chinese-brokered rapprochement. 

Iran challenges four countries in UN court over jet it downed in 2020

Iran on Thursday filed a challenge at the International Court of Justice against Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain over a UN aviation body’s ruling against it related to the shooting down of a passenger plane in 2020.The four countries had citizens on a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 that was downed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020. All 176 people on board were killed.Three days later, Iran admitted that its military fired two surface-to-air missiles at the Kyiv-bound plane but said it was by mistake.Iran is appealing a March decision of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) over the jet’s downing.The Montreal-based ICAO decided it had jurisdiction to rule on a case brought by the four countries against Iran, that accuses Tehran of “using weapons against a civil aircraft in flight”.Iran called on the ICJ to rule that ICAO did not have jurisdiction and to quash its decision.Tehran said in its application to the ICJ that its military had downed flight PS752 “unintentionally and due to human error”.”The Iranian military had misidentified and targeted the flight by two missiles without obtaining authorisation, contrary to mandatory military regulations,” Iran told the court.Tehran added that its military had been in “a period of heightened military alert… in anticipation of a possible attack by US military forces”.Tensions between Iran and the United States had been soaring at the time the airliner was shot down.Iranian air defences were on high alert for a US counterattack after Tehran fired missiles at a military base in Iraq used by American forces.- ‘Accountability’ sought -Britain’s foreign ministry had welcomed ICAO’s March decision, saying it took the countries “a step closer to holding Iran to account for its illegal downing” of the plane.”We will now proceed to the next phase in our case against Iran at ICAO…. We remain committed to seeking justice, transparency, and accountability for the 176 innocent victims and their families,” the UK ministry said.In a separate case, the four countries dragged Iran before the ICJ in 2023 asking the court to make Tehran pay “full compensation” to the families.In 2020, Iran offered to pay “$150,000 or the equivalent in euros” to each of the victims’ families.Ukrainian and Canadian officials strongly criticised the announcement, saying compensation should not be settled through unilateral declarations.The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between UN member states.

Libyans grapple with fresh currency devaluation

Already worn down by years of political turmoil and economic hardships, Libyans are now facing a sharp deterioration in their purchasing power after a sudden devaluation of the Libyan dinar.Experts have said the national currency’s exchange rate decline came as a consequence of ballooning public expenditures by the country’s rival governments in recent years.Libya has Africa’s most abundant hydrocarbon reserves, but it is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.It is divided between a UN-recognised government in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east backed by general Khalifa Haftar, with the division exacerbating the country’s economic woes.The Libyan central bank earlier this month devalued the dinar by 13.3 percent, the second such move in five years.The exchange rate went up to 5.56 dinars to the US dollar from 4.48 — while on the black market it jumped to 7.80 dinars to the US dollar from 6.90.The impact was immediate, with small business owners and wholesale traders, who rely heavily on the parallel market to obtain foreign currency for imports, seeing their costs surge.”The currency keeps going down,” said Karim Achraf, a 27-year-old engineer and father of three living in the capital, Tripoli.”It has become hard to keep up with our needs for food, medicine, transportation, education and bills,” he said.”We can’t trust our governments with our economy and safety.”- ‘Urgent measures’ -Despite its vast oil reserves, output remains below pre-2011 levels and the country lacks a robust industrial and agricultural sector.It is almost entirely dependent on imported food, medical supplies and consumer goods, with oil exports its main source of revenue.The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has expressed alarm following the sudden devaluation, urging both administrations to take “urgent measures to stabilise the national economy”.”Swift action is essential to reduce the negative impact on the Libyan people, including rising costs of living, declining purchasing power and the erosion of public trust in state institutions and leaders,” it said in a statement.Central bank governor Naji Issa met with leaders of the two rival administrations about “reforms serving to counter the crisis”, the bank said.It said on Thursday that Oussama Hamad, who heads the eastern government, was ready to meet Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah of the Tripoli-based administration “to give priority to the interests of the nation and alleviate the citizens’ suffering”.In Tripoli, dozens of protesters recently gathered outside the central bank headquarters to voice their anger.But while much of the criticism has been aimed at the bank, some believe it is unfairly blamed for problems stemming from political deadlock and fiscal mismanagement.Mahmoud El-Tijani, a Libyan economist, said the central bank was “a victim of the executive branch’s failure and division”.He said it was “forced to make the decision to protect what remained of the dinar’s strength”.Amid falling oil revenues, the devaluation of the dinar was used as a “last-chance measure to avoid bankruptcy and external debt”, he added.Libya’s institutions, including its central bank, have for a decade found themselves caught between the rival governments.Until 2023, the bank was split in two, with an internationally recognised headquarters in the capital and another in the east, each printing bills signed off by their respective governors.Last year, the then-governor of the bank fled amid violent tensions surrounding the institution. The United Nations stepped in to broker a deal under which the new governor, Issa, was appointed.- ‘Scapegoat’ -Jalel Harchaoui, a senior fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said the central bank was “simply confronting the inevitable consequences of the political choices made by Libya’s ruling factions”.”These enormous expenditures are highly political, arbitrary, and unsustainable,” he said.”They are not decided by the central bank, which is a technocratic institution without the military or sociopolitical clout of Libya’s leaders.””Blaming the central bank is pure populism,” Harchaoui added, describing the bank as “a scapegoat”.Anwar al-Turki, a banker in Tripoli, said the central bank was being “mistreated” by political leaders who had authorised “the highest public spending in modern Libyan history”.He said the decision-makers had little regard for “good governance, financial compliance, or anti-corruption”.

57 killed in Sudan’s Darfur as trapped civilians fear bloodbath

Clashes between Sudanese paramilitaries and the army have killed at least 57 civilians in the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, medical and activist sources said Thursday, with civilians fearing a looming bloodbath as fighters close in.The local resistance committee, a grassroots aid group, said the civilians were killed on Wednesday in clashes following an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023.The violence came just days after the RSF killed more than 400 people in attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, as well as nearby displacement camps, according to the United Nations.Mohamed, an aid coordinator who fled to El-Fasher to escape the RSF’s bloody takeover of the nearby famine-hit Zamzam camp on Sunday, said Thursday that the “shelling has not stopped” since.”A hundred shells fall in the city centre every single day,” he told AFP, giving only his first name out of fear for his safety.The United Nations, international leaders and aid groups have long warned of the carnage a full-scale RSF attack would bring on the beleaguered city and its environs, where UNICEF warns that at least 825,000 children are trapped in “hell on earth”.El-Fasher, which the RSF has besieged for nearly a year, is the last major urban stronghold in Darfur still under army control.Following the army’s recapture of the capital Khartoum last month, the paramilitary has redoubled its efforts to seize the city, in an apparent last stand to consolidate its hold on Darfur.The war, which entered its third year on Tuesday, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.It has effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the centre, north and east while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, along with its allies, parts of the south.- ‘Nowhere left to go’ -In an earlier statement, the army put Wednesday’s death toll at 62, including 15 children aged three to 10, and said dozens more were wounded.It said it had repelled the “fierce” assault on the city’s east in a coordinated response with “allied armed movements, intelligence services, the police” and volunteer fighters.El-Fasher has been defended in large part by a coalition of army-allied groups known as the Joint Forces, which have for months intercepted RSF supply lines but could see their defences overcome by a full-scale attack.According to experts, the battle for El-Fasher is an existential one for both the RSF and the Joint Forces, who fear renewed mass ethnic violence at the hands of the paramilitaries.The RSF on Sunday announced it had taken full control of the Zamzam displacement camp just south of El-Fasher, which aid sources say had sheltered up to a million people and was the first place famine was declared in Sudan last year.According to the UN’s migration agency, by Monday about 400,000 people had been displaced from Zamzam, from which the RSF appears to be preparing to launch more aggressive attacks on El-Fasher.As of Wednesday, 400 RSF vehicles were positioned inside the camp, according to satellite imagery analysed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which has warned of an “imminent large-scale assault” on El-Fasher.The United Nations has warned that many of Zamzam’s residents remain trapped inside the camp, prevented from fleeing by the RSF.Mohamed, the aid coordinator who survived the attack, was shot in the leg in the fighting and carried to El-Fasher two days later.With nearly all of the city’s health facilities shut down, he is being treated — along with hundreds more he says arrived with similar injuries — in private homes with meagre supplies.”If the attack on El-Fasher happens, we will have nothing to do but shelter in these homes, we have nowhere left to go.””We will end up like our brothers and sisters in Zamzam,” he said, recalling “the sight of the bodies we left behind as we fled”.