Canada must do more to bring an end to the unconscionable death and destruction in Gaza
Israel has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the best estimates, including some 18,500 children. Israel's devastating bombardment has destroyed or damaged some 90 per cent of the territory's homes. The hospitals are gone. The schools are gone. The journalists, artists, academics — many, if not most, are gone. Millions of Palestinians, so many of them children, now find themselves without access to water, food or medical care. Pictures of emaciated toddlers, desperate and starving, will haunt the world for decades to come. As will reports of Israeli soldiers killing hungry Palestinians as they scrabbled for scant aid.
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Winnipeg Free Press
15 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Turkish foreign minister meets Syrian interim president in the aftermath of sectarian violence
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa Thursday in Damascus, as Syria's new government struggles to unify and assert control over the country. Syria's state-run news agency SANA said only that the 'two sides discussed regional and global developments and ways to enhance joint cooperation in various fields.' Ankara has been a strong backer of the interim government in Damascus since former Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December. Syria last month requested Turkey's support to strengthen its defense capabilities following sectarian violence that increased tensions in the country and drew Israeli intervention. Clashes erupted last month between members of Bedouin tribes and armed factions from the Druze religious minority in Syria's southern Sweida province. Government forces that intervened, ostensibly to quell the fighting, ended up siding with the Bedouins. Israel then launched strikes on government convoys in Sweida and on the Defense Ministry headquarters in Damascus, saying it was acting to protect the Druze. Turkey has been vocally critical of Israeli intervention in Syria and also wants to curb the influence of the Kurdish groups controlling northeastern Syria. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has been a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group, but Ankara regards the SDF as a terrorist group because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. In March, the SDF and Damascus reached an agreement to merge their forces, but its details were vague and the deal has not been implemented. Turkish defense ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, accused the SDF Thursday of not following through on its commitment, adding that Ankara remains 'committed to supporting the Syrian administration's fight against terrorist organizations and to providing the requested training, advisory, and technical assistance to strengthen its defense and security capacity.' ____ Fraser reported from Ankara.
CBC
16 minutes ago
- CBC
Netanyahu to convene Israeli security meeting on taking control of more territory in Gaza war
Social Sharing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to meet with a small group of senior ministers on Thursday to discuss plans for the military to take control of more territory in Gaza, despite mounting criticism at home and abroad over the nearly two-year-old war there. Netanyahu will convene the security cabinet following a three-hour meeting this week with the head of the military, which Israeli officials described as tense, saying the military chief had pushed back on expanding the campaign. Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages. Netanyahu's government has insisted on total victory over the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel. The idea of Israeli forces pushing into areas they does not already control in the shattered Palestinian enclave has generated alarm in Israel. The mother of one hostage on Thursday urged people to take to the streets to voice their opposition to expanding the campaign. "Someone who talks about a comprehensive deal doesn't go and conquer the Strip and put hostages and soldiers in danger," Einav Zangauker wrote on X in comments directed at Netanyahu. : Israel expanding Gaza operations risks 'catastrophic consequences,' UN official says 24 hours ago The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose expanding the war and called on the government to accept a deal that would bring the war to an end and free the remaining hostages. Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the military would carry out the government's decisions until all war objectives were achieved. Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas be disarmed and have no future role in a demilitarized Gaza and that the hostages be freed. The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming" if true. There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom Israeli officials believe 20 are alive. Most of those freed so far came about as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Talks toward a ceasefire that could have seen some hostages released collapsed in July. A senior Palestinian official said Hamas had told Arab mediators that an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza would lead to a resumption in ceasefire negotiations. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of seizing aid to hand out to its fighters and to sell in Gaza markets to finance its operations, accusations that the militant group denies. Last month, U.S. analysis found no evidence of widespread Hamas theft of Gaza aid, challenging the main rationale that Israel and the U.S. give for backing a new armed private aid operation. Videos released last week of two living hostages showed them emaciated and frail, triggering international condemnation. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but now controls only parts, insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war. Israel says the group has no intention of going through with promises to give up power afterwards. 'What's left?' Palestinian says The Israeli military says it controls about 75 per cent of Gaza. Most of Gaza's population of about two million has been displaced multiple times over the past 22 months, and aid groups are warning that the enclave's residents are on the verge of famine. "Netanyahu's government is already carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," 59-year-old Rafiq Al-Masry told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife Thursday in Gaza City. "Expanding the military operation will only increase the number of martyrs ... and the destruction of houses and shelters." "What's left for [Israel] to do?" Najla Abu Jarad, 60, told CBC News. "My plan is to never leave. I will die in front of this tent camp. Death is more honourable than for them to forcibly displace us from one place to the next." Close to 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, nearly half of whom were children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The director general of the World Health Organization said on Thursday that Gaza has seen its highest monthly figure of acute malnutrition in children. In July, nearly 12,000 children under five were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza — the highest monthly figure ever recorded, according to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he also faces internal pressure from within his coalition to continue the war. Some far-right allies in his government have pushed for a full occupation of Gaza and for Israel to re-establish settlements there, two decades after it withdrew. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters Wednesday that he hoped the government would approve the military taking control over the rest of Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages taken to Gaza in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities. More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's assault on Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which said 98 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
Winnipeg Free Press
44 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
The Latest: Netanyahu facing opposition to reported plan for reoccupation of Gaza
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scheduled a meeting with security officials to discuss a possible expansion of Israel's military operation in Gaza after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month. The meeting could result in an order for the full reoccupation of Gaza for the first time since Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers two decades ago. Such a move would be aimed at boosting Israel's security, but is fraught with humanitarian and diplomatic risks. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday evening, but it is not clear if it will lead to any immediate decision. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in an Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They still hold 50 hostages, around 20 of them believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Here's the latest: Indonesia offers help to Palestinians Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, is preparing Galang, an uninhabited island on the northwest side of the country, to treat around 1,000 wounded people from the Gaza Strip. The announcement was made Thursday by Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like other Indonesians uses one name only. Indonesia's president first announced in April a plan to temporarily house and treat wounded Palestinians, particularly women and children. The country's top clerics have criticized the plan due to a lack of guarantees that evacuated Gazans would be able to return home, something they worry could partly enable the depopulation of Gaza. Wounded Palestinians would be taken to a medical facility where COVID-19 patients and Vietnamese refugees have been treated in the past. Thursday's announcement marks the first time the location was named, but no other details were given. The relatives of hostages protest Almost two dozen relatives of hostages being held in Gaza set sail from southern Israel on Thursday towards the maritime border with Gaza, where they broadcast messages of protest from loudspeakers. The families denounced Netanyahu's reported plan to expand military operations. Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his government and to prevent it from collapsing. 'Netanyahu is working only for himself,' he said, pleading with the international community to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war and save his son. More death in Gaza At least 29 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals. Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 12 of the fatalities were from people attempting to access aid near a distribution site run by a U.S. and Israeli-backed private contractor. At least 50 people were wounded, many from gunshots, the hospital said. Neither the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation nor the Israeli military, which helps secure the group's sites, immediately commented on the strikes or shootings. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating in densely populated civilian areas. Palestinians receive body of a slain activist and mourn him Israeli authorities returned the body of a Palestinian activist allegedly killed by an Israeli settler last week, after female Bedouin relatives launched a hunger strike to protest the authority's decision to hold his body in custody. The hunger strike was a rare public call from Bedouin women who traditionally mourn in private. Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video last month. Israeli authorities said they would only return the body if the family agrees to certain conditions that would 'prevent public disorder.' Despite dropping some of their demands, family members said Israel set up checkpoints and prevented many mourners from outside the village from attending.
