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Desperation grows among Palestinians trapped with little aid as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza
Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge.
United Nations officials say there are no safe places in Gaza nearly a week after Israel widened its offensive into the southern half of the territory. Heavy fighting in and around the city of Khan Younis has displaced tens of thousands of people and cut most of Gaza off from aid deliveries. More than 80% of the territory's population has already fled their homes.
Two months into the war, the grinding offensive has triggered renewed international alarm. U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe," and Arab and Islamic nations called for a vote Friday on a draft Council resolution demanding a humanitarian cease-fire.
Also read: Divides over trade and Ukraine are in focus as EU and China's leaders meet in Beijing
Gutteres explicitly cited Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the secretary-general to bring to the council's attention any matter that he believes threatens international peace and security. The power has only been used a handful of times in the history of the world body.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, appears likely to block any U.N. effort to halt the fighting. Still, U.S. concern over the devastation was growing. Before the southern offensive, U.S. officials told Israel it must limit civilian deaths and displacement, saying too many Palestinians were killed when it obliterated much of Gaza City and the north.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said casualties are still too high in a call with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a senior State Department official said. Blinken told Dermer that Israel must also do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic discussion.
Also read: UN chief uses rare power to warn Security Council of impending 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza
Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Blinken said it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection.
"And there does remain a gap between exactly what I said when I was there (last week) between the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground," he said.
Israel says it must crush Hamas' military capabilities and remove it from power following the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war.
In photos and video published Thursday, at least 100 Palestinian men are seen sitting in rows on a street in northern Gaza, stripped down to their underwear with their heads bowed as they are being guarded by Israeli troops. The Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet said its correspondent Diaa Al-Kahlout was among those detained and had been taken to an unknown location.
The images were the first showing such detentions in the Israeli-Hamas war. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops have detained and interrogated hundreds of people in Gaza suspected of militant links.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WORSENS
In a sign of the growing desperation, thousands of Palestinians crushed together Thursday waiting to receive aid at a U.N. distribution center in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, the crowds growing more frantic as they swelled. Rami Ashour, one those waiting, said he left when it seemed hopeless his turn would come to pick up a ration of flour.
Residents said the chaotic scene has become common in Deir al-Balah, where a trickle of humanitarian aid is met by hordes of hungry and exhausted families sheltering in U.N. schools or with relatives. The World Food Program has warned of a "catastrophic hunger crisis."
"There are 8,000 people in this shelter, and any vegetables disappear before I see them because people seize everything so fast," said Mazen Junaid, a father of six from northern Gaza.
Deir al-Balah is trapped between ground fighting in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis to the south, and it has continued to come under bombardment. Another 115 bodies arrived at the town's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital over the past 24 hours, the international aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
Also read: No prospect of safe, sustainable return of Rohingyas: UN rights chief
"The hospital is full, the morgue is full," the group said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Only a few trucks have managed to reach central Gaza in recent days because fighting has largely prevented aid groups from distributing beyond the area of Rafah, at Gaza's far southern end by the Egypt border, the U.N. said. Meanwhile, entry of aid from Egypt has slowed.
Rafah is part of the rapidly shrinking area where civilians can seek shelter, and tens of thousands of people have flowed into it from Khan Younis and elsewhere.
The town, normally home to around 280,000 people, was already hosting more than 470,000 displaced people. Shelters and homes have overflowed, and many people have been sleeping in tents or in the streets. Across Gaza, 1.87 million people — over 80% of the population of 2.3 million — have been driven from their homes.
Even in Rafah, safety has proven elusive. Several strikes hit late Wednesday and early Thursday, sending a wave of wounded and dead streaming into a nearby hospital.
The Israeli military accused militants of firing rockets from open areas near Rafah. It released footage of a strike Wednesday on what it said were launchers positioned outside the town and a few hundred meters (yards) from a U.N. warehouse.
Israel's campaign has killed more than 17,100 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war and resulted in the taking of some 240 people hostage. An estimated 138 hostages remain in Gaza, mostly soldiers and civilian men, after 105 were freed during a cease-fire in late November.
BATTLES IN NORTH AND SOUTH
Troops have pushed into Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city, which Israeli officials have portrayed as Hamas' center of gravity — something they previously said was in Gaza City and its Shifa Hospital.
In the afternoon, a strike in the center of Khan Younis left a large field of rubble, and survivors said many people were believed buried underneath. Rescuers pulled bloodied women and children from the shells of gutted buildings.
The military said Thursday that it struck dozens of militant targets in Khan Younis, including a tunnel shaft from which fighters had launched an attack.
Heavy fighting was also still underway in the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, even after two months of bombardment and encirclement by ground troops. The Israeli military said troops raided a militant compound, killing a number of fighters and uncovering a network of tunnels.
The military reported "close-quarter combat" in the nearby district of Shujaiya, including militants found in a tunnel under a school. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
In the evening, a seven-story building in Gaza City's Rimal district was leveled with dozens of people inside, but with medical services collapsed in the north, no ambulances arrived, a neighbor said.
Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas, accusing it of using them as human shields in residential areas. But Israel has not given detailed accounts of its individual strikes, some of which have destroyed entire city blocks.
Israel says some 5,000 militants have been killed, without saying how it arrived at that count. The military says 87 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.
An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon into northern Israel killed an Israeli man, the emergency services said. Hezbollah said its fighters attacked Israeli military posts along the border. Israel responded with intense strikes with helicopters, tanks and artillery, the military said.
Hezbollah and other militants in Lebanon have been exchanging fire nearly daily with Israeli forces over the border. Visiting a northern base Thursday, Netanyahu warned that if Hezbollah escalates to all-out war, Israel's response will be to "turn Beirut and southern Lebanon … into Gaza and Khan Yunis."
Climate talks shift into high gear. Now words and definitions matter at COP28
The mood is about to shift, the hours grow longer and the already high sense of urgency somehow amp up even more as the United Nations climate summit heads into its final week.
Every sentence, every word — especially those about the future elimination of planet-warming fossil fuels — will matter at the U.N. conference in oil-built Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Professional negotiators who have been working on getting options into shape will turn over their work to senior national officials, many at minister levels, who will have to make the tough political choices.
"We're heading into quite a political process, less access into the negotiating rooms, negotiations will go deep into the night, a number of nights," said David Waskow, international climate initiative director for the World Resources Institute.
Also read: UN chief uses rare power to warn Security Council of impending 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza
The central question of the talks: What to do about the fossil fuels that are causing climate change. Activists, experts and many developing nations say they must be phased out quickly in favor of clean energy alternatives that can avert the worst damage on a warming planet. They accuse big energy companies and oil-rich nations of dragging their feet by supporting a slower and ambiguous "phase down."
Even with the hard work to come, some of those who are about to do it have this sense of optimism, especially because everyone has the day off on Thursday.
"We had a pretty damn good week here in Dubai already. Now, obviously, there are some complicated issues to still resolve. We all know that. Nobody is ducking and nobody is going to pretend about that," U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry said. "The negotiators are basically trying to put together in each section a relevant a set of options. And then we ministers will have the fun and pleasure next week of kind of noodling through those options."
Also read: COP28 ministerial meeting begins Friday; success hinges on outcome of the meeting
Multilateral negotiations — involving in this case nearly 200 parties — are much different and often more difficult than the horse-trading two countries can do in bilateral talks, said veteran diplomat Adnan Amin, the COP28 CEO.
The key document is called Global Stocktake. It's the first of its kind in U.N. climate negotiations, saying how far the world has come from the 2015 Paris agreement — where nations agreed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times — and what it has to do next. A draft came out late Monday and negotiators have been poring over it. Next, officials like Amin will get "a very clear sense by the end of the week where people stand on the text."
Amin said there's a rhythm to these climate talks.
Also read: COP28: PM’s climate change envoy Saber Chowdhury calls for universal and inclusive financing mechanism
"You start off very hopeful, euphoria," Amin said. "Things are happening. Then the negotiations get hard and people start spreading rumors and conjecture and a little bit of depression, and then things start to come up again. And the clarity of the negotiation process becomes clearer. Then you have the political engagement, and that's where the real intensity and excitement comes."
This is all going the way it should, even if it seems overwhelming, said German special climate envoy Jennifer Morgan.
"There's now a text with many, many brackets (choices), 30 different groups of options for the global stocktake that now needs to be consolidated so that ministers next week can start getting into each of those topics and finding solutions," Morgan said. "There's this moment when one thinks, oh, my gosh, so many texts, so many brackets. But I think, actually the process is going along as it should."
EU negotiators say the core document is in pretty good shape and are confident the key issues are clearly defined. Options remain open for ministers taking over the negotiations which is not often the case at this stage of these difficult multilateral talks.
Also read: Bangladesh wins Global Center on Adaptation Award for local climate leadership at COP28
They expect a new text with the latest amendments to be issued in the early hours of Friday morning, for talks to begin in earnest on Friday at a ministerial level and for a presidential-led process similar to talks Glasgow or Paris.
EU countries, along with small island countries — oft-victimized by climate change — and some progressive Latin American countries are aligned on calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels, negotiators said. While there will be strong resistance to this measure, officials are confident references to fossil fuels will appear in the final text for the first time and within a timeline compatible with U.N. science reports.
Representatives for poor nations and climate advocates are putting a lot of pressure on negotiators for the fossil fuel sections.
"The success of COP28 will not depend on speeches from big stages," said Uganda climate activist Vanessa Nakate. "It will depend on leaders calling for a just and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels without exceptions and distractions."
Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union climate commissioner said the bloc will make a big push on the issue, "giving it our all."
A phase-out "will cost money," Avinash Persaud, climate envoy for Barbados said, asking who'll pay. "I don't understand why they are pushing for it to be global. United States and Canada are two of the richest countries and largest producers of fossil fuels. Why don't we have phase-out there? It's the cheapest place to phase-out and will have the biggest impacts."
Kerry said he gets that.
"There has to be a fairness in the air here," Kerry said. "You know, we don't want people just coming ... feeling maybe, you know, punched a little bit here."
And it's not just fossil fuel language.
"One way or another, next week is going to be really difficult," said Power Shift Africa policy adviser Amy Gillian-Thorpe. "I think we're leaving the lights on the second week. And that's really unfortunate that we haven't been able to move forward, particularly on adaptation issues."
Kerry said the sense of urgency will win out.
"I'm not telling you that everybody's going to come kumbaya on the table," Kerry said. "But I am telling you we're going to make our best effort to get the best agreement we can to move as far as we can, as fast as we can, and that's what people in the world want us to do. It's time for adults to behave like adults and get the job done."
Divides over trade and Ukraine are in focus as EU and China's leaders meet in Beijing
A top European Union official told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday that China and the EU must address both the imbalances in their trading relationship and Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The two are divided on both issues. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meeting Xi in the Chinese capital, said they need to manage their differences responsibly.
Read: China says a US Navy ship 'illegally intruded' into waters in the South China Sea
“China is the EU’s most important trading partner,” von der Leyen said in opening remarks posted on the commission's website. “But there are clear imbalances and differences that we must address.”
Xi said that China and the EU should handle their differences through dialogue, and pushed back against what his government sees as a shift in European policy on China toward a more strident and competitive approach.
The two sides “should not regard each other as rivals because of different systems, reduce cooperation because of competition, and confront each other because of differences,” he said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The meeting comes a day after EU member Italy announced it was withdrawing from Xi's signature “Belt and Road" initiative that aims to build a global network of Chinese-financed roads, ports and power plants.
Italy became the first G7 country to sign on to the initiative in 2019, when the government at the time promoted it as a way of increasing trade with China while getting investments in major infrastructure projects.
Read: Leaders of four major global wire services meet to discuss cooperation in times of change
Neither outcome materialized. In the intervening years, Italy’s trade deficit with China has ballooned from 20 billion euros to 48 billion euros ($21.5 billion to $51.8 billion.)
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin defended the initiative and appeared to imply that Italy had been influenced by forces hostile to China.
“China firmly opposes smearing and undermining cooperation in building the Belt and Road and opposes stoking bloc confrontation and divisions” Wang said at a daily briefing Thursday.
Von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the president of the EU Council, met Xi in the morning and were meeting with China's No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, later in the day. Von der Leyen, as commission president, heads the day-to-day business of the EU, while Michel chairs the summits of EU leaders.
The European Union is calling on China to improve market access for products from its 27 member countries to address an annual trade imbalance of more than $200 billion. China exported $458.5 billion worth of goods to the EU in the first 11 months of this year and imported $257.8 billion, according to Chinese customs data released Thursday.
The EU has angered China by launching an investigation into the latter's subsidies for electric vehicles to determine whether they give manufacturers in China an unfair competitive advantage in European markets.
“China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus,” spokesperson Wang said ahead of the summit. He noted recent import and supply chain expos that he said encourage foreign companies to sell to the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people.
Wang also took aim at possible EU restrictions on technology exports to China. “I’m afraid it’s unreasonable if the EU imposes strict restrictions on the export of high-tech products to China while expecting a significant increase in exports to China,” he said.
The EU is looking for better market access for a range of products including cosmetics, infant formula, wine and other alcoholic beverages.
Read: WHO asks China for more information about rise in illnesses and pneumonia clusters
China has angered the EU by taking a neutral stance in what most European countries see as a Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The EU is calling on China to use its influence with Russia to end the invasion, ensure that exports from or via China are not aiding Russia's war effort and support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace formula.
Von der Leyen said the EU and China have global responsibilities as major powers and a shared interest in peace and security.
“That is why it is essential to put an end to the Russian aggression against Ukraine and establish a just and lasting peace consistent with the U.N. Charter,” she said.
Xi said China and the EU should promote political settlements of international hot-spot issues, according to CCTV, which did not include any specific mention of the wars in Ukraine or Gaza.
UN chief uses rare power to warn Security Council of impending 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council on Wednesday of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
His letter to the council's 15 members said Gaza's humanitarian system was at risk of collapse after two months of war that has created “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma,” and he demanded civilians be spared greater harm.
Guterres invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which says the secretary-general may inform the council of matters he believes threaten international peace and security. “The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis," he said.
Netanyahu says Israel must retain control of security in Gaza after the war
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he expects the secretary-general to address the Security Council on Gaza this week and to press for a humanitarian cease-fire.
A short draft resolution circulated to council members late Wednesday by the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council, would act on Guterres’ letter under Article 99. It demands “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” and expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population.”
Earlier Wednesday, the 22-nation Arab Group at the U.N. strongly backed a cease-fire.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said it is essential that the U.N.’s most powerful body demand a halt to the conflict.
Israel moves into Gaza's second-largest city and intensifies strikes in bloody new phase of the war,
But the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has veto power in the Security Council and has not supported a cease-fire.
On Tuesday, U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters that the role of the Security Council in the Israeli-Gaza war “is not to get in the way of this important diplomacy going on on the ground … because we have seen some results, although not as great results as we want to see.”
A Security Council resolution at this time, he said, “would not be useful.”
Mansour said a ministerial delegation from Arab nations and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be in Washington on Thursday to meet U.S. officials and press for an immediate cease-fire.
Israel strikes in and around Gaza's second-largest city in a bloody new phase of the war
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the secretary-general invoked Article 99 to pressure Israel, accusing the U.N. chief of “a new moral low” and “bias against Israel.”
“The secretary-general’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza,” Erdan said in a statement. “Instead of the secretary-general explicitly pointing to Hamas’ responsibility for the situation and calling on the terrorist leaders to turn themselves in and return the hostages, thus ending the war, the secretary-general chooses to continue playing into Hamas’ hands.”
In his letter, Guterres denounced “the abhorrent acts of terror” and brutal killing of more than 1,200 people in Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and the abduction of some 250 people in the attack that started the war. He urged the immediate release of more than 130 still held captive.
But Guterres noted the worsening state of Gaza under Israel’s ongoing military action, which it says is aimed at obliterating Hamas. More than 16,200 people have been killed, and some 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced into increasingly smaller areas.
“Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible,” Guterres warned.
A total collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, he said, would have “potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”
Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, told reporters earlier that invoking Article 99 was “a very dramatic constitutional move by the secretary-general." The only previous mention of Article 99 was in a December 1971 report by then Secretary-General U Thant to the council expressing his conviction that the situation in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and the Indian subcontinent threatened international peace and security, Dujarric said.
“One doesn’t invoke this article lightly,” Dujarric said. “I think given the situation on the ground and the risk of complete collapse, not only of our humanitarian operations but of civil order, it’s something that he felt needed to be done now.”
No prospect of safe, sustainable return of Rohingyas: UN rights chief
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Wednesday said the situation of Rohingya Muslims is ever more protracted, with no prospect of safe and sustainable return.Many are taking to dangerous journeys in the region by sea, he observed.The UN rights chief said there must be intensified efforts by the international community for an end to the violence and the peaceful restoration of an inclusive and representative government."The Myanmar military has lost critical ground since the end of October as a result of coordinated attacks by Ethnic Armed Organizations and anti-military armed groups," he said, noting that civilian casualties and internal displacement have been rising at a rapid rate.Now, as ever, the UN human rights chief said, it is necessary that all parties ensure that the civilian population is adequately protected.In Myanmar, the human rights crisis caused by the military continues to inflict an unbearable toll on civilians."To date, credible sources have verified that military forces have killed over 4,232 civilians since the coup," Turk said at a press conference in Geneva ahead of the UN Human Rights Day that falls on December 10.He said civilians have suffered countless violations – facing airstrikes, artillery shelling, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, as well as sexual violence, displacement, denial of humanitarian assistance and the burning of their homes, fields and villages.
Iran says it sent a capsule capable of carrying animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Read: Israel moves into Gaza's second-largest city and intensifies strikes in bloody new phase of the war
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say if any animals were in the capsule.
He told state TV that Iran plans to send astronauts into space by 2029 after further tests involving animals.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other space crafts. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
Read: World Insights: Media outlets of developing countries call for louder voice of Global South
Reports said the country’s Defense Ministry built and launched the Salman rocket while the capsule was built by the Iranian civil space agency. Media reports did not say where the launch took place. Iran usually makes launches from Imam Khomenei Space Center in northern Semnan province.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The U.S. and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.
In 2020, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it put the Islamic Republic’s first military satellite into orbit, unveiling what experts described as a secret space program.
Generation after generation, Israeli prison marks a rite of passage for Palestinian boys
For all Palestinian parents, Marwan Tamimi said, there comes a moment they realize they're powerless to protect their children.
For the 48-year-old father of three, it came in June, when Israeli forces fired a large rubber bullet that struck the head of his eldest son, Wisam. A week later, Marwan said, soldiers came for the 17-year-old, dragging him out of bed with a fractured skull.
Wisam was charged with a range of offenses he denied — throwing stones, possessing weapons, placing an explosive device and causing bodily harm — and sent to prison. Last Saturday, after six months behind bars, he returned home with 38 other Palestinians in exchange for Israeli hostages — part of a temporary cease-fire in the war that started after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
His parents said they hadn't seen or heard from him in two months, since the war started. Wisam said he stayed in an overcrowded cell, was beaten and interrogated, and lacked food and medication.
Read: In a rare action against Israel, US says extremist West Bank settlers will be barred from America
“I yelled, ‘No, he’s my boy, you can’t take him, he’s injured,’” Marwan Tamimi said. “If I stop them, they will put his life in danger.”
Wisam's homecoming last week, along with the release of his well-known activist cousin, Ahed Tamimi, touched every home in Nabi Saleh, a village where prison is a grim rite of passage for Palestinian boys.
People clapped. Tears fell. Wisam hugged loved ones. But the euphoria spoke to pain as much as joy in the West Bank, where the U.N. estimates 750,000 Palestinians have been arrested since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.
The competing claims of Palestinians and Israelis have left scars on Nabi Saleh, home to activists, journalists and lawyers. Once an idyllic village on a hilly stretch of farmland, it's now a powerful example of how Israeli prison over decades of war has crushed families, constrained lives and stamped out popular resistance.
Israel's security service didn't respond to questions about Wisam’s case. The military defended large-scale arrests of Palestinians, including minors, to prevent militant attacks. In a statement, the army said it aims to “preserve the rights and dignity" of suspects and that convicting a minor “requires a burden of proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt."
Read: After visiting Israel and Ramallah, the ICC prosecutor says he will intensify investigations
IN EVERY HOUSE, A STORYMost of Nabi Saleh's 550 residents are related by blood or marriage. Nearly all share the surname Tamimi. Most boys — like their fathers and grandfathers — have landed in prison at some point, as the close-knit village became known for its protests.
“We live in a village of resistance,” Wisam said. "Every house has its own story."
Before Israel and Hamas resumed their war Friday, the militant group had pushed for the release of high-profile prisoners in exchange for remaining Gaza hostages.
But the vast majority of Palestinians passing through Israeli prisons, experts say, are teenage boys and young men who mostly go unnamed, plucked from bed in the middle of the night for throwing stones and firebombs or associating with militants in towns and refugee camps near Israeli settlements. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal.
Under the weeklong cease-fire agreement, Israel released 240 Palestinian minors and women. Most of the the 14- to 17-year-olds freed were detained for investigation and not convicted, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, based on Israeli Prison Service data. Over that same week, Israel arrested 260 other Palestinians, the group said.
Yearly, the Israeli military court sentences hundreds of minors to prison, mostly for throwing stones, according to Military Court Watch. Most are 16 or 17. Israel says stone-throwing can be dangerous and deadly.
‘THE CRACKDOWN'The conviction rate for security offenses in the West Bank is more than 99%. Lawyers often encourage young clients to plead guilty to avoid lengthy trials and detentions. Some are never formally charged or tried, held under a practice known as “administrative detention.”
Israel has arrested 3,450 Palestinians across the West Bank since the war erupted. An all-time high of 2,873 Palestinians are in administrative detention, according to Israeli rights group HaMoked.
“The crackdown in a way contradicts our intention not to open another front in the West Bank,” said Ami Ayalon, former director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service. “We understand the more people killed and arrested, the more hatred rises. But on the other hand, we don't want to pay the price in terrorist attacks.”
The intensifying violence and constraints on Palestinian freedom of movement have generated fear in Nabi Saleh. It's the latest chapter in the tumultuous history of a village once at the center of a spirited protest movement that began in 2009 and made global headlines. Each week, residents rallied over the loss of their ancestral lands and freshwater spring to the fast-growing Israeli settlement across the road.
Israel says troops responded only after protesters started throwing stones and trying to enter a military zone.
Read:Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
Troops sent protesters fleeing with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, blasts of noxious liquid and live fire. They carried out nighttime raids, arresting mostly young men, and killed six Palestinian villagers during protests, all young men, residents said.
PARENTAL PLEAS AND THE ‘RESISTANCE’Marwan Tamimi begged his sons to stay away from what Palestinians call the “muqawama,” or resistance.
“All of us here, we care so much about our children. We tell them, ‘Look, don’t go and throw stones, you don’t need to prove yourself,’” he said.
Wisam lost 12 kilograms (26 pounds) in prison, where he said he shared meals of undercooked chicken and stale bread with 11 others, an account supported by prisoner rights groups. They were packed into a cell that held half that number pre-war, he said.
The Israeli Prison Service denied authorities crowded cells or reduced meals. But national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has promoted harsh disciplinary treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Parliament temporarily approved prisons filling beyond legal capacity.
For Wisam, solitary confinement was the real torment. Authorities blasted air conditioning and his only human contact came as punches during interrogations, he said.
The Prison Service said Palestinians are detained according to law.
A week after his release, Wisam winces at the sight of his home's grated door. He takes driving classes in hopes of avoiding arrest even for traffic offenses.
“This is what I was trying to prevent,” said Marwan Tamimi, who moved his family to Ramallah at the height of the Nabi Saleh protests in 2014. The family returned in 2021, after the military’s response brought the rallies to an end. An uneasy calm prevailed.
But beneath the surface, pressure builds. More minors pass through Israel's jailhouse door.
“I expected to die in there,” Wisam said. “I don’t want to go there ever again."
Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Saudi Arabia and UAE, host of COP28 climate talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday will visit both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as Dubai hosts the United Nations' COP28 climate talks — despite facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war in Ukraine.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE has signed the ICC founding treaty, meaning they don't face any obligation to detain Putin over the warrant accusing him of being personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine during his war on the country.
However, the visit comes as armed U.N. police patrol a portion of Dubai's Expo City now considered international territory for the talks, again highlighting the Emirates' expansive business ties to Russia that have exploded in the time since grinding Western sanctions have targeted Moscow. Ukrainians on hand for the event expressed outrage over Putin being in the country at the same time they described him as committing environmental crimes in their country.
Read: Putin to discuss Israel-Hamas war during a 1-day trip to Saudi Arabia and UAE
“It is extremely upsetting to see how the world treats war criminals, because that’s what he is, in my opinion,” said Marharyta Bohdanova, a worker at the Ukrainian pavilion at COP28, wiping away tears. "Seeing how people let people like him in the big events, ... treating him like a dear guest, is just so hypocritical in my opinion.”
Officials at Russia's pavilion declined to speak to The Associated Press.
A readout on Putin's trip from the state-run Tass news agency published early Wednesday offered no suggestion Putin might come to the COP28 site, instead quoting Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov saying he'd land and have a “meeting at the palace” and one-on-one talks with Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The visit comes after COP28 saw a parade of Western leaders including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and others backing Ukraine speak at the summit. So did Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, long a Putin ally.
Read: Putin begins visit in China underscoring ties amid Ukraine war and Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change's spokesperson Alexander Saier said at a press conference that he is “not aware that Mr. Putin will come to the conference, but I would also need to check the host country with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” He declined to immediately answer whether U.N. police would be obligated to make an arrest.
The Emirati organization committee for COP28 referred questions to the UAE's Foreign Ministry, which did not immediately respond. The UAE repeatedly feted the now-deposed Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir in the past despite an ICC warrant seeking his arrest over charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Putin last visited the UAE in 2019, receiving a warm welcome from Sheikh Mohammed, then the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In the time since, however, the world has greatly changed.
The Russian president isolated himself during the coronavirus pandemic. He launched an invasion targeting Ukraine in February 2022, a grinding war that continues on today and has been a topic for Ukrainian diplomats at the COP28 talks.
“I’m talking about his crimes and this person is literally right now here, somewhere near me," said Alina Abramenko, another worker at the Ukrainian pavilion that highlights the environmental damage wrought by the war. "You know, it’s really strange.”
Meanwhile, the Israel-Hamas war remains a major concern for the Mideast, particularly the UAE, which reached a diplomatic recognition with Israel in 2020. Recent attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also threatens commercial shipping in the Red Sea as Iran's nuclear program continues it rapid advances since the collapse of the 2016 nuclear deal.
Read: Russia not just building a nuclear power plant but also creating a peaceful atomic industry in Bangladesh: Putin
Putin is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday for what Ushakov has described as “a rather lengthy conversation.” The two countries have been discussing ways to get around the Western sanctions targeting them.
Putin will travel onto Saudi Arabia and meet with powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the one-day trip, Ushakov said. Those discussions likely will focus on Moscow's other major concern in the Middle East — oil.
Russia is part of OPEC+, which is a group of cartel members and other nations that have managed production to try and boost crude oil prices. Last week, the group expanded some output cuts into next year and brought up-and-coming oil supplier Brazil into the fold. Benchmark Brent crude traded Wednesday around $77 a barrel, down from nearly $100 in September, over concerns about a weakening economy worldwide.
29 dead after bus plunges off cliff in central Philippines
At least 29 persons were killed on Tuesday when a passenger bus plunged off a cliff in Antique province in central Philippines, local authorities said.
The bus, carrying 53 passengers, was traveling west from Iloilo City to San Jose de Buenavista in Antique province when it crashed into a concrete road barrier before plunging into a ravine of 15-meter depth around 4:30 p.m. local time in Hamtic town.
Read: 3 more Rohingya men shot dead in Cox’s Bazar camp, death toll now 4
Junlee Saylo, head of the antique provincial information office, told a radio interview that 25 died on the spot and four others died at a local hospital.
The deaths include the bus driver and his collector, local news web ABS-CBN reported.
Read: Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 15,200
Quoting the Antique provincial government, Panay News, a regional newspaper, reported that two critically wounded passengers, including a male from Kenya, were taken to a hospital in Iloilo City for treatment.
Emergency workers have been rescuing the survivors and retrieving the bodies of the people in the ravine.
Netanyahu says Israel must retain control of security in Gaza after the war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military would have to retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war against Hamas ends.
The remarks came as Israel's military said its troops had entered Gaza's second-largest city in its its pursuit to wipe out the territory's Hamas rulers. The war has already killed more than 15,000 Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, who are running out of safe places to go.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 16,248, with more than 42,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which mediated an earlier cease-fire, say they are working on a longer truce. Hamas said talks on releasing more of the scores of hostages seized by militants on Oct. 7 must be tied to a permanent cease-fire.
GAZA DEATH TOLL PASSES 16,000
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 16,248 Palestinians have been killed and more than 42,000 wounded since the Israel-Hamas war broke out two months ago.
The ministry said Tuesday evening that the death toll included more than 6,000 children and more than 4,000 women. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The figures show a sharp rise in deaths since a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed late last week. Since the resumption of fighting on Friday, more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed, according to the Health Ministry.
Last week, the United States urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians as its air and ground campaign shifted to southern Gaza, particularly in and around Khan Younis, the territory’s second largest city.
LIMITED HUMANITARIAN AID IS GOING TO GAZA
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations says limited humanitarian aid is being delivered only to the Rafah region in southern Gaza because of intense hostilities. It also says that all telecom services have shut down due to cuts in the main fiber routes.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that only 100 aid trucks with humanitarian supplies and 69,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday, about the same amount as Sunday.
That is well below the daily average of 170 trucks and 110,000 liters of fuel that entered Gaza during the humanitarian pause from Nov. 24-30, he said.
Dujarric quoted Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, saying “shelters have no capacity, the health system is on its knees, and there is a lack of clean drinking water, no proper sanitation and poor nutrition.”
He reiterated that there are no safe places in Gaza and that “those places that fly the U.N. flag are not safe either.”
Dujarric said the main telecommunication provider in Gaza announced the shutdown of all telecom services Monday night..
NETANYAHU, BIDEN SPEAK OUT ABOUT RAPE ALLEGATIONS
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused international human rights groups of turning a blind eye to rapes that Israel says were committed by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 cross-border rampage.
Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the attack, though the extent of the sexual violence remains unknown.
Experts have been piecing together evidence in recent weeks in a case that is complicated because there are no known victims to testify and limited forensic evidence.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Netanyahu accused the international community of playing down the attacks and even ignoring them. He said he expects "all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity.”
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, U.S. President Joe Biden called on the world to condemn the acts by Hamas “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
He also stressed that “Hamas’ refusal to release the remaining young women” is what ended a temporary truce and hostage agreement that the U.S. helped broker.
HOSTAGES' RELATIVES MEET WITH NETANYAHU
JERUSALEM — Family members of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza held a tense meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet Tuesday. Participants said the meeting ended after nearly half the room had left in disappointment with the government’s efforts to return their loved ones.
It was the first time the war cabinet had heard directly from recently released hostages. At least five shared harrowing details of their experience in Gaza and called on the government to do more to bring home some 138 still in captivity.
A group representing the hostages’ families said one recently freed hostage testified during the meeting to Hamas “touching” female hostages. Another hostage, according to the group, told the war cabinet the militants shaved off a male hostage’s body hair to humiliate him. Others said they were deprived of water.
Witnesses and medical experts have said Hamas militants raped women during the Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that triggered the war. The Associated Press has not been able to verify reports that hostages were sexually abused in captivity.
Some 110 hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong cease-fire that ended Friday. The Israeli army says 138 people remain in captivity in Gaza.
ISRAEL CONSIDERS FLOODING GAZA TUNNELS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s army chief has confirmed that Israel is considering flooding Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza with seawater to destroy the militant group’s underground network. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the army has assembled a system of large pumps that could flood the approximately 300 miles of Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Asked about the report, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said flooding the tunnels could be a “good idea” and that it was “one of a number of options we are considering.” Hamas is believed to have a sprawling network of tunnels it uses to move fighters, weapons and supplies throughout Gaza. Israel has said it already has destroyed hundreds of tunnel sections during the war. It is unclear if flooding the tunnels with seawater could threaten Gaza’s already overtaxed underground freshwater aquifer or potentially damage soil with salt and hazardous materials.
US PROMISES MORE AID FOR GAZA
EL-ARISH, Egypt — The United States has pledged an additional $21 million in humanitarian assistance for Gaza to help establish a field hospital.
The aid was announced Tuesday by Samantha Power, who heads the U.S. Agency for International Development, during a visit to the Egyptian city of el-Arish.
The city is some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Gaza’s western border and has become the drop-off point for international aid before it’s packed in trucks and transported to the besieged enclave. The war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has forced many of the territory’s hospitals to close.
Power also reiterated that the U.S was committed to boosting aid and protecting civilians as Israel presses ahead with its offensive.
“Military operations need to be conducted in a way that distinguishes fighters from civilians,” Power said.
The U.S., a close ally of Israel, has backed Israel’s offensive but urged Israel to reduce civilian casualties. It has also called for humanitarian pauses to ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
A weeklong cease-fire that ended Friday saw an uptick in aid enter Gaza, including fuel. Since Oct. 7., a trickle of aid has flowed intermittently into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing.
US ORGANIZES AID FLIGHT TO GAZA
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — White House Principal Deputy Secretary Olivia Dalton said Tuesday the U.S. had organized a second aid flight into Gaza with 36,000 pounds (16,329 kilograms) of food and medical supplies.
An Air Force C-17 aircraft delivered the items to Egypt, where they were to be transported into Gaza and distributed by United Nations agencies, Dalton said.
The aid came as USAID administrator Samantha Power arrived in Egypt to meet with local officials and Egyptian and international humanitarian organizations.
Dalton spoke as President Joe Biden traveled to Boston for a series of fundraisers for the 2024 campaign.
ISRAELI SHELLING KILLS A LEBANESE SOLDIER, ARMY SAYS
BEIRUT — Israeli shelling hit an army post in south Lebanon on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding three others, the Lebanese army said.
It was the first report of a death of a Lebanese army soldier during the clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the border against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. The Lebanese army has not been an active party in the conflict.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the Lebanese soldiers were not the intended target of the strike, which it said was launched in “self-defense to eliminate an imminent threat.” It added that the Israeli army “expresses regret over the incident.”
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had fired guided missiles at a group of Israeli soldiers in Manara in northern Israel in retaliation for the killing. The militant group also claimed an earlier drone attack on an Israeli position in Metula.
Hezbollah started attacking Israeli positions on Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war began, in the disputed Chebaa Farms area along the
RULER OF QATAR ACCUSES ISRAEL OF GENOCIDE
CAIRO — The ruler of Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating between Israel and Hamas, has accused Israel of carrying out “crimes of genocide” in Gaza.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani lashed out at Israel at a summit of Gulf Arab leaders in Doha on Tuesday.
He said “all religious, ethical and humanitarian values have been violated in occupied Palestine through crimes the occupation forces are committing against humanity.”
Israel says it is acting in self-defense after Hamas launched an attack deep into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and capturing scores of men, women and children.
Qatar’s emir said self-defense “doesn’t permit the crimes of genocide that Israel is committing.”
The war has killed over 15,000 people in Gaza, 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel says it makes every effort to spare civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields.
Qatar has long hosted a Hamas political office, and some of the group’s top leaders are based there.
In an audio recording released this week, Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, threatened to target Hamas leaders everywhere, including in Qatar.
TURKISH PRESIDENT SAYS NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT IS ENDANGERING REGION'S SECURITY
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Israel should not be allowed to “get away” with alleged crimes committed in Gaza.
In an address Tuesday to a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, Erdogan also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is entangle in legal troubles, of putting the entire region at danger for his alleged political survival.
“The Netanyahu administration is endangering the security and future of our entire region in order to extend its political life,” Erdogan said in televised comments.
“The loss of life of 17,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, is a crime against humanity and a war crime. Israel should not get away with these crimes,” he said.
A vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Erdogan has repeatedly called for Netanyahu to be put on trial for alleged war crimes.
FRANCE FREEZES HAMAS LEADER'S ASSETS
PARIS — France froze all assets belonging to Hamas’ top leader in Gaza starting Tuesday and lasting six months.
Yehya Sinwar is considered the mastermind of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. A decision published in the Official Journal of the French Republic said that “funds and economic resources owned, held or controlled” by Yehya Sinwar were being frozen. The total value of Sinwar’s assets in France was not provided.