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ABC News
03-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
Israelis accused of firing on Gaza aid centre
Samantha Donovan: First this evening to Gaza, where Israeli forces have reportedly again fired on people waiting for aid in the town of Rafah in the enclave's south. There are reports more than 20 people have been killed. Matthew Doran is the ABC's Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem. Matthew, what's known about this incident so far? Matthew Doran: Well, Sam, the details are still coming through. But what we know is that as Palestinians were waiting to access this aid distribution site in Rafah in southern Gaza, local authorities are saying that Israeli forces opened fire. There are differing accounts at this early stage as to exactly what has happened there. But certainly all of the Palestinian media outlets and the Palestinian authorities are definitely saying Israeli forces were involved here. We are seeing some figures, and I must stress that these are unconfirmed at this stage, that at least 24 people have been killed so far. And we are seeing some reports that more than 200 have been wounded in this incident. There are reports in Palestinian media saying that this is not only a case of Israeli soldiers opening fire, but we are also seeing some reports of Israeli shelling being involved in this incident as well. What happens at these sites is that they open quite early in the morning. Palestinians are told to arrive to go through the screening processes. They then go into these sites and they pick up the supplies that they can access and that they can carry back to their families. It is quite a controlled process. We know that the Palestinians are told to take certain roads, for example, to enter these sites. And it appears that, again, this is an incident of a third in as many days where there has been a shooting attack near one of these sites. Samantha Donovan: This appears to have happened quite early in the morning. And I imagine a lot of these people queuing up have had to walk great distances. Matthew Doran: They certainly have because there aren't that many of these aid distribution sites actually operating across Gaza. The main ones that we are hearing a lot about in the last few days are in the south of Gaza and around the area of Rafah. This is an area which is totally controlled by the IDF. It has been for a number of weeks now after they cleared the Palestinian population out of there. So people are making a trek through an IDF-controlled area. There are no distribution points in the north at this stage. So if you imagine not only people having to travel from central regions of Gaza, but also northern areas if they want to try to access this aid, it is a very long journey for many of these people. Samantha Donovan: So, Matthew, what has the Israeli military had to say about these reports that more than 20 people have been killed and perhaps hundreds injured? Matthew Doran: So they haven't commented specifically on those figures. What the IDF has said, they have confirmed that there has been an incident at one of these sites where Israeli forces fired some warning shots at what they are describing as Palestinian suspects who deviated from that agreed access route. When those individuals didn't change course, more shots were fired. And it says that this happened around 500 metres or so from where the aid distribution site is, not actually within the confines of it, but from where that site, outside of where that site is. It says it's investigating this incident and we may well hear more details throughout the day here. It is still fairly early in the day here in the Middle East. Very, very particular wording being used at this stage. And it appears there's still a lot of confusion as to exactly what's happened there, even though the Palestinian authorities say it's very clearly the work of Israel. Samantha Donovan: Matthew Doran is the ABC's Middle East correspondent. He was speaking to me from Jerusalem.
Jordan Times
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Trump and Hugo's tilted 'Justice' in 'Les Misérables'
'A poor boy steals a loaf of bread' to fight starvation. The tilted justice sends him to prison where he could "eat for free". This surreal scene triggered Victor Hugo's timeless gem 'Les Misérables' back in mid-19 century. Today, US President Donald Trump's whimsical stunt to force the migration of war-stricken Gazans revives a tailored 'Justice' on earth, where the victims must bear the brunt of the culprit's genocide. Recipe for regional upheaval Trump appears bent on shifting the penalty of the longest occupation in recent history from the myopic rightwing rulers of Israel to Jordan and Egypt; Washington's strategic bedrock allies in this volatile region. Moreover, they are virtually amongst the rare stable countries outside the Gulf States orbit, and the only two Arab states bound by peace treaties with Israel. Trump's seemingly off-the-cuff statement during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a recipe for turmoil across the region. It recalls a similar slide in US foreign policy back in 2004, when Republican President George W. Bush pledged a serious of anti-peace concessions and far-fetched 'guarantees' to Israeli Prime Minister then Ariel Sharon. Crisis management His Majesty King Abdullah rushed to contain the damage then by prodding the Bush Administration into reconsidering his irrational statement. The King cautioned the US that any oversight to the peace pillars rooted in international legitimacy would set the region on fire. Bush retracted his statement and took part in Aqaba summit – with Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli leaders – under the King's auspices. The summit put the peace process back on track then - with the creation of a quadripartite committee - until Netanyahu's destructive policies drove the region again into a deadly stalemate. The King asked the US Administration then for 'guarantees' that Sharon's declared plan to withdraw from Gaza and evacuate trivial West Bank settlements must be part of a roadmap towards the creation of Palestinian state alongside Israel. Reminiscence The King is due to present Jordan's strong argument when he meets Trump on February 11, for the first time since mid-2018. Armed with his in-depth networking with the deep state policy-making circles, King Abdullah is expected to explain the repercussions of evicting 2 million bereaved Gazans from their homeland, 70 per cent of them already the grandchildren of refugees chased away from their Palestinian towns and villages back in 1948 and beyond. King Abdulllah lands in Washington with a collective Arab stance, having coordinated steps notably with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Kuwait and the Palestinian Authorities. The Arab voice alerts Trump to the risk of irreversible mayhem across the shaky region should he insist on relocating the indigenous people of Palestine. Damage control The deep state in the US has rushed to alleviate the shocking reverberations of Trump's remarks across a region steeped in instability for decades. Secretary of State Mike Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to explain that the planned deportation of Gazans would only be 'temporary.' Leavitt argued 'it is evil to suggest that people (of Gaza) should live in such dire conditions." She must have forgotten, however, how Gaza turned into "a demolition site" – in her words – after Israel showered this densely-populated strip of 340 km2 with heavy US bombs for 15 months. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to walk back Trump's bombshell by explaining Wednesday: Gazans would live somewhere else in the 'interim' as the enclave is rebuilt. 'Interim?' 'Temporarily?' Are you folks joking at the White House and the State Department? Irreversible schemes A few months after the West Bank fell under Israeli Occupation in 1967, a bitter Prince Hassan Ben Talal – Crown Prince then – protested against setting up a Palestinian Camp in Beqaa, the richest water basin in central Jordan. 'It is only temporarily, as the refugees/ displaced will return to their homeland in a few weeks,' came the hideous answer from Western and UN officials then. After nearly six decades, Beqaa camp has swelled to a quarter million dwellers; the third or fourth generations of the uprooted Palestinians. Similar circumstances surround the hosting of 1.5 million Syrian refugees on rich water basins; Za'atri and Azraq. Two months after the downfall of the Assad Regime, only 20 thousand of the Syrians opted to return. Decades of lies and procrastinations have submerged this region into endless cycles of violence and instability. Yet, peoples of the region still chase a phantom on the hope of final peace and stability, as much as 'les Misérables' seek real justice in Hugo's iconic novel.
