Australians from Gaza aid boat still in Israeli detention
Tan Safi and Robert Martin are still in detention in Israel - where lawyers were due to face a tribunal last night, to argue for their release.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
39 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Trump envoy to visit Gaza as pressure mounts on Israel
President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Israel on Thursday ahead of a rare US visit to aid distribution sites in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire food shortages have sparked an international outcry. Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader's office said. On Friday he is to visit Gaza, the White House announced. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Witkoff, who previously visited Gaza in January, would "inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground". Gaza's civil defence agency reported at least 58 Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy -- the latest in a spate of near-daily shootings of desperate aid seekers. The Israeli military said troops had fired "warning shots" as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks. An AFP correspondent saw stacks of bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital. Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after "people saw thieves stealing and dropping food and the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some". Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha. Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. - International pressure - Trump criticised Canada's decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war. "The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!" declared Trump, one of Israel's staunchest international supporters. Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu's insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces "real starvation". UN-backed experts have reported "famine is now unfolding" in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing international outrage. Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters. Germany's top diplomat Johann Wadephul, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, warned before setting off that: "Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority". Wadephul noted that Germany's European allies increasingly favour recognising Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes. After the meeting, Saar's office said he had told his German guest that countries queueing to recognise Palestinian statehood were merely rewarding Hamas. And he insisted "a Palestinian state will not be established for the simple reason that Israel will not be able to forfeit its own security." The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- the core of any future Palestinian state. - 'This is what death looks like' - The Hamas attack that triggered that war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military. The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun. The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people. "Enough!" cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza. "We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?" Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that "this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives". "If the crossings were opened... food could reach us. But this is nonsense," Zaqot said of the airdrops. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Terrified by Trump raids, LA's undocument migrants hide at home
For over a month, Alberto has hardly dared to leave the small room he rents in someone's backyard for fear of encountering the masked police who have been rounding up immigrants in Los Angeles. "It's terrible," sighed the 60-year-old Salvadoran, who does not have a US visa. "It's a confinement I wouldn't wish upon anyone." To survive, Alberto -- AFP agreed to use a pseudonym -- relies on an organization that delivers food to him twice a week. "It helps me a lot, because if I don't have this... how will I eat?" said Alberto, who has not been to his job at a car wash for weeks. The sudden intensification of immigration enforcement activity in Los Angeles in early June saw scores of people -- mostly Latinos -- arrested at car washes, hardware stores, on farms and even in the street. Videos circulating on social media showed masked and heavily armed men pouncing on people who they claimed were hardened criminals. However, critics of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps say those snatched were only trying to earn a meagre wage in jobs that many Americans don't want to do. The raids -- slammed as brutal and seemingly arbitrary -- sparked a wave of demonstrations that gripped the city for weeks, including some that spiraled into violence and vandalism. Alberto decided to hole up in his room after one such raid on a car wash in which some of his friends were arrested, and subsequently deported. Despite being pre-diabetic, he is hesitant to attend an upcoming medical appointment. His only breath of fresh air is pacing the private alley in front of his home. "I'm very stressed. I have headaches and body pain because I was used to working," he said. In 15 years in the United States, Trump's second term has turned out to be "worse than anything" for him. - 'Ghost town' - Trump's immigration offensive was a major feature of his re-election campaign, even winning the favor of some voters in liberal Los Angeles. But its ferocity, in a place that is home to hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers, has taken the city by surprise. Faced with mounting raids, migrants are limiting their movement as much as possible. In June, the use of the public transportation system -- a key network for the city's poorer residents -- dropped by 13.5 percent compared to the previous month. "As you're driving through certain neighborhoods, it looks like a ghost town sometimes," said Norma Fajardo, from the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a non-profit organization that supports these workers. It has joined forces with other groups to deliver hundreds of bags of food every week to those afraid to step outside. "There is a huge need for this," said the 37-year-old American. "It's very saddening and infuriating. Workers should be able to go to work and not fear getting kidnapped." In June, ICE agents arrested over 2,200 people in the Los Angeles area, according to internal documents analyzed by AFP. About 60 percent of them had no criminal record. Given the colossal resources recently allocated to ICE by Congress -- nearly $30 billion to bolster immigration enforcement, including funding to recruit 10,000 additional agents -- Fajardo says she is not expecting any let up. - 'New normal' - "It seems like this is the new normal," she sighed. "When we first heard of an ICE raid at a car wash, we were in emergency crisis mode. Now we are just really accepting that we need to plan for the long term." Food assistance has also become essential for Marisol, a Honduran woman who has been confined to her building for weeks with 12 family members. "We constantly thank God (for the food deliveries) because this has been a huge relief," says the 62-year-old Catholic, who has not attended Mass in weeks. Marisol -- not her real name -- has hung up curtains on the windows at her home entrance to block any view from outside. She forbids her grandchildren from opening the door and worries enormously when her daughters venture out to work a few hours to provide for the family's needs. "Every time they go out, I pray to God that they come back, because you never know what might happen," she said. Marisol and her family fled a Honduran crime gang 15 years ago because they wanted to forcibly recruit her children. Now, some of them wonder if it's worth continuing to live in the United States. "My sons have already said to me: 'Mom, sometimes I would prefer to go to Europe.'" rfo/hg/aks
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Canada intends to recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly: Carney
Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a major policy shift that drew an angry response from US President Donald Trump and was rejected by Israel. Carney said the move was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a long-standing Canadian goal that was "being eroded before our eyes." "Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025," the prime minister said. This makes Canada -- a G7 nation -- the third country, following recent announcements by France and the United Kingdom, to signal plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. Carney said the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left "no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace." Israel blasted Canada's announcement as part of a "distorted campaign of international pressure," while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa may not proceed smoothly. "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine," the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform. "That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them." Asked by reporters if there was a scenario where Canada could change its position before the UN meeting, Carney said: "there's a scenario (but) possibly one that I can't imagine." Canada's intention "is predicated on the Palestinian Authority's commitment to much-needed reforms," Carney said, referring to the body led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which has civil authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Carney said his plans were further predicated on Abbas's pledge to "hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state." - 'Historic' decision - With Wednesday's announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move. The Israeli embassy in Ottawa said "recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023." The PA's Abbas welcomed the announcement as a "historic" decision, while France said the countries would work together "to revive the prospect of peace in the region." Canada's plan goes a step further than this week's announcement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer said the UK will formally recognize the State of Palestine in September unless Israel takes various "substantive steps," including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza. - Two-state solution - Carney stressed that Canada has been an unwavering member of the group of nations that hoped a two-state solution "would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority." "Regrettably, this approach is no longer tenable," he said, citing "Hamas terrorism" and the group's "longstanding violent rejection of Israel's right to exist." The peace process has also been eroded by the expansion of Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, Carney said. The prime minister said a two-state solution was growing increasingly remote, with a vote in Israel's parliament "calling for the annexation of the West Bank," as well as Israel's "ongoing failure" to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. He framed his decision as one aimed at safeguarding Israel's future. "Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state, and one that recognizes Israel's inalienable right to security and peace," Carney said. bs-cdl/dhc
