Record gold prices revive older West Australian mines
Photo shows Aid 'not enough' for Gaza: Man in high vis and man in military uniform stand beside a truck with palettes of supplies.
Has Video Duration: 3 minutes 16 seconds .
3 m
16 s
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week
Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French nationals held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat, France's foreign minister said Wednesday, as an Israeli NGO said one of the French campaigners was briefly put in solitary confinement. The announcement came as France's prime minister accused activists aboard the boat -- who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza -- of capitalising on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention. The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X. They were among 12 people on board the Madleen sailboat which was carrying food and supplies for Gaza before it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday. Four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately. The remaining eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily, according to Adalah, an Israeli rights NGO representing most of the activists. All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years. Adalah said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had placed French MEP Hassan and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila in solitary confinement, with Hassan later removed. - 'Abandoning French prisoners' - "Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers -- the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan -- to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement," Adalah said in a statement. The NGO later said that Hassan had been moved back to Givon prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, while Avila remained in isolation. When asked for comment, Israel's prison authority referred AFP to the foreign ministry, which said it was checking the reports. Adalah said Hassan was put in isolation after writing "Free Palestine" on a prison wall. The NGO said Brazilian activist Avila was placed in isolation "due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago." "He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault," it added. The leader of Hassan's LFI party in parliament, Mathilde Panot, said France's prime minister Francois Bayrou had failed to condemn Israel's actions. The party's boss, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accused Bayrou of "abandoning the French prisoners", and called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in. "These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it's a form of instrumentalisation to which we should not lend ourselves," Bayrou responded in the National Assembly. It's "through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution" to the conflict, he added. Foreign Minister Barrot also rejected Panot's criticism, saying "the admirable mobilisation" of French officials had made a rapid resolution of the situation possible "despite the harassment and defamation that they have been subjected to". - Mounting pressure - France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps towards recognising a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict. Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, whose entire population the United Nations has warned is at risk of famine. Israel's defence minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Egypt to block a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian activist convoy from reaching Gaza, as the group arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Oil prices rise after US evacuates officials in the Middle East over Iranian threat
CommSec's Tom Piotrowski has analysed the key drivers of increasing oil prices after they rose by more than four per cent amid tensions in the Middle East. 'There have been directives from the US government to evacuate officials in the Middle East from different jurisdictions, and this turns around some threats that have been made by the Iranian leadership,' he told Sky News Australia. 'That has contributed to that unease when it comes to the Middle East in particular.'
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Bodies of two hostages recovered from Gaza, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu says
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the bodies of two hostages have been recovered from Gaza by the military and the domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday, local time, that the body of hostage Yair Yaakov had been retrieved, along with that of another whose identity has not been cleared for publication. The Israeli military said militants from the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad abducted and killed Mr Yaakov during the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel. Militants also took Mr Yaakov's partner, Meirav Tal, and two of his children, Or and Yagil, hostage but later released them, the military said. Mr Yaakov was 59 at the time of his death. The military said it notified the family of the second hostage whose body it recovered, adding that it retrieved the bodies in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the bodies were retrieved in a "complex" operation without disclosing details. There are 53 hostages still being held in Gaza, with fewer than half believed to be alive. The latest recovery brings to five the number of hostage bodies retrieved by Israeli forces so far this month. Hamas and other militants from Gaza abducted 251 people during the 2023 attack in which about 1,200 people in Israel were killed. "Along with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost their most precious loved ones," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement. Israel's retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The Gaza Health Ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians, because they operate in populated areas. The ministry says 55,104 people have been killed since the start of the war and 127,394 wounded. Many more are believed to be buried under the rubble or in areas that are inaccessible to local medics. The Health Ministry is part of Gaza's Hamas-run government, but staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records. Its tolls from previous conflicts have largely aligned with those of independent experts, though Israel has questioned the ministry's figures. Israeli forces have destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90 per cent of its population and in recent weeks have transformed more than half of the coastal territory into a military buffer zone that includes the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah. ABC/wires
