UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce
military operations had resumed in Gaza after the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas. (AP)
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Updated 01 December 2023
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UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

GENEVA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he regretted that military operations had resumed in Gaza after the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas.
“I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza,” Guterres wrote on the X social media platform.
“The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian cease-fire.”


Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
Updated 23 sec ago
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Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, the Spanish Interior Ministry said
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks

RABAT: Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control.”
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.
Ceuta and Melilla — two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean — have long been targeted by migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe. Many attempt to climb over barbed wire fences encircling the autonomous cities or reaching the exclaves by sea.
Nationwide, Moroccan security forces stopped more than 45,000 migration attempts from January to early September, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In August alone, more than 11,000 migration attempts were prevented in the region around Ceuta and another 3,000 in the area around Melilla, it said in a statement.
Last month, thousands of migrants attempted to cross into Ceuta, including hundreds of young people who tried to swim their way around controls, according to Spanish authorities.

Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women

Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women
Updated 6 min 49 sec ago
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Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women

Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women

PARIS: Jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Monday urged the international community to act to end the “oppression” of women in Iran, two years after the start of a women-led protest movement.
“I call on international institutions and people around the world... to take active action. I urge the United Nations to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid,” she said in a letter written in Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday and published by her foundation on Monday.


Turkish drone kills PKK member in northern Iraq

Turkish drone kills PKK member in northern Iraq
Updated 22 min 53 sec ago
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Turkish drone kills PKK member in northern Iraq

Turkish drone kills PKK member in northern Iraq
  • Turkiye regularly carries out airstrikes on PKK militants in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD: A Turkish drone strike killed one member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and wounded two others in northern Iraq on Monday, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said.
“The Turkish strike targeted a meeting of PKK members in the Makhmour camp, killing one and wounding two others including a senior PKK official,” the statement added.
Turkiye regularly carries out airstrikes on PKK militants in northern Iraq and has dozens of outposts in the Iraqi territory.
The PKK launched an insurgency against Ankara in 1984 with the initial aim of creating an independent Kurdish state. It subsequently moderated its goals to seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in southeast Turkiye.


Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they downed another US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they downed another US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone
Updated 56 min 7 sec ago
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they downed another US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they downed another US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone
  • The Houthis have exaggerated claims in the past in their ongoing campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Monday that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground.
The US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthis’ claimed downing of a drone over the country’s southwestern Dhamar province. The Houthis have exaggerated claims in the past in their ongoing campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
However, the online video bolstered the claim, particularly after two recent claims by the Houthis included no evidence.
Other videos showed armed rebels gathered around the flaming wreckage, a propeller similar to those used by the armed drone visible in the flames. One attempted to pick up a piece of the metal before dropping it due to the heat.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, identified the drone as an MQ-9, without elaborating on how he came to the determination. He said it was the third downed by the group in a week, though the other two claims did not include similar video or other evidence. The US military similarly has not acknowledged losing any aircraft.
Saree said the Houthis used a locally produced missile. However, Iran has armed the rebels with a surface-to-air missile known as the 358 for years. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in seaborne shipments heading to Yemen despite a United Nations arms embargo.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA over Yemen for years.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Those attacks include a barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea. Salvagers have begun towing away the burning oil tanker, hoping to avoid a catastrophic leak of its 1 million barrels of oil on board.


Gaza rescuers say at least 18 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say at least 18 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 16 September 2024
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Gaza rescuers say at least 18 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say at least 18 killed in Israeli strikes
  • The deaths include five women and four children
  • Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling have continued relentlessly amid an impasse over a ceasefire deal

GAZA STRIP: Gaza rescuers and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 18 people across the Palestinian territory overnight, including five women and four children on Monday morning.

One of the Israeli strikes killed 10 in one house.
The 10 were killed and 15 others were injured when an air strike hit the home of the Al-Qassas family in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a medic at Al-Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought, told AFP.
Gaza’s civil defense agency confirmed the death toll, with its spokesman Mahmud Bassal saying the strike took place on Monday morning.
The agency said six Palestinians were killed in a similar air strike during the night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood, a regular target of Israeli military raids since the war began in October.
Two people were killed in another overnight air strike in Rafah that targeted a house belonging to the Abu Shaar family, the agency said.
Several people were also wounded in these strikes, medics and rescuers said.
Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling have continued relentlessly amid an impasse over a ceasefire deal to facilitate the release of remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
The war in Gaza erupted after the October 7 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,206 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.