Hamas-Israel War: Gaza Becoming ‘Graveyard for Palestinian Children’, Says UN
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Monday urgently appealed for a humanitarian ceasefire for Gaza, which he said is becoming a “graveyard” for hundreds of Palestinian children each day.
“The way forward is clear,” he told reporters at the United Nations. “A humanitarian ceasefire. Now.”
He said all parties must also respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and that no party to an armed conflict is above it.
“This means the unconditional release of the hostages in Gaza — now,” he said of the 240 men, women and children Hamas abducted during their October 7 terror attack inside Israel.
“I will never relent in working for their immediate release,” he added.
Guterres said respecting international humanitarian law also means the protection of civilians — including not using civilians as human shields — hospitals, UN facilities, shelters and schools in Gaza and the scaling up of aid and fuel to the besieged territory.
“None of these appeals should be conditional on the other,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been emphatic that there will be no humanitarian pauses unless all the hostages are released.
Pro-Palestinian Protest at Air Base Housing US Troops in Turkey
Turkish police used tear gas and water cannons as hundreds of people at a proPalestinian rally Sunday tried to storm an air base that houses US troops, hours before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due in Ankara for talks on Gaza.
Turkey, which has stepped up its criticism of Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened, supports a two-state solution while hosting members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Since the Israel-Hamas war started, protests have erupted across the country.
Earlier this week, the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, an Islamist Turkish aid agency, organized a convoy to travel to the Incirlik air base in the Adana province in southern Turkey to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and US support for Israel.
Incirlik, which has been used to support the international coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, also houses US troops. IHH’s protest called for Incirlik to be closed.
Footage from the protests showed police firing tear gas and using water cannons to disperse crowds waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting slogans. Protesters toppled barricades and clashed with police in riot gear.
France Delivers Three Planes of Aid to Gaza; French Vessels in Mediterranean
Three French planes delivering 54 tonnes of aid for Gaza arrived in Egypt this weekend and France has three naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean ready to respond to the evolving situation, senior officials said on Sunday.
The announcements came as French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an “immediate humanitarian truce” during a trip to Doha and warned against allowing the conflict to spread in the region.
Israel has rebuffed repeated international calls for a ceasefire in the four weeks since fighters from Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, burst over the border, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage.
Israel has since struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault, stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave and, Gaza officials said on Sunday, killing more than 9,770 Palestinians.
The French aid was delivered over the weekend by two Airbus A400M planes, which are partially armoured, the French army said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu later said a third A400M plane filled with aid had arrived.
Ukraine Hopeful Talks on Its EU Accession Will Start Soon
Ukraine is hoping to receive a “positive” European Union appraisal of its progress toward eventual EU membership, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told Reuters Monday.
Stefanishyna said that Kyiv has implemented all the reforms required of it. It is expected that the report coming out Wednesday will signal the beginning of talks on Ukraine’s accession into the EU, starting in December.
“I would say that the assessment would definitely be positive because we have been in permanent contact with the European Commission, discussing the steps and negotiating the steps we managed to implement,” Stefanishyna said.
EU membership talks take years, as candidates must meet extensive legal and economic criteria before joining. The EU, which has 27 member states, is also unwilling to take in a country at war.
In Poland, an EU country, Polish truckers blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine Monday, protesting what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Trump Testifies at Fraud Trial That Property Estimates Were Inaccurate
Donald Trump on Monday testified that his company did not provide accurate estimates of many of his properties in a rambling and defiant performance on the witness stand in a civil fraud trial in New York.
The former US president said his company undervalued his Mar-a-Lago estate and Doral golf course in Florida and overvalued his Trump Tower apartment, among other assets, but sought to minimize the importance of the estimates, which state lawyers said were inflated to win better financing terms.
“It wasn’t important. You’ve made it important, but it wasn’t,” Trump said of the estimates.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled those estimates to be fraudulent. New York state lawyers argued in their lawsuit that the estimates misled lenders and insurers, earning him $100 million and exaggerating his wealth by $2 billion.
Trump has repeatedly said the case is a “witch hunt” and has accused Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James of being politically biased against him.
He kept up those complaints on the witness stand, where he accused legal authorities of paying unduly close attention to his business after he won the 2016 presidential election.
Polish President to Appoint New Prime Minister After Opposition Coalition’s Election Win
Polish President Andrzej Duda will appoint a new prime minister in a national address on Monday, an aide said.
The announcement will trigger the process of forming a new government after general elections last month in which the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party lost its parliamentary majority to three allied opposition parties but emerged as the single biggest vote-getter. This has fed speculation over Duda’s choice.
“Following consultations and after deep consideration, President Andrzej Duda has taken his decision regarding the so-called first step” [in forming a government], presidential aide Marcin Mastalerek said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He said the decision is “final” and not subject to pleas from politicians, whom he advised to “calmly watch the evening address.”
An ally of the current government, Duda has said the two candidates for prime minister are the current conservative premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, and former prime minister and main opposition leader Donald Tusk, an ex-European Union top figure.
New Delhi to Restrict Number of Vehicles on Roads to Curb Air Pollution
India’s Delhi city will restrict the use of vehicles next week to curb rising pollution as air quality in the capital remained dangerously unsafe for a third consecutive day despite mitigation efforts.
New Delhi ranks among the world’s top polluted cities every year ahead of winter when calm winds and low temperatures trap pollutants from sources, including vehicles, industries, construction dust, and crop residue burning in nearby fields.
A thick smog shrouded the federal secretariat and president’s palace in the heart of the city early on Monday and lowered visibility in other parts as public outrage over hazardous air quality grew and the city extended the closure of primary schools until November 10.
The local government said that it will impose the “odd-even” vehicle rule from November 13-20 to mitigate pollution levels that are expected to rise after the Hindu festival of Diwali on November 12, when firecrackers are often set despite a ban.
The rule will allow vehicles with odd registration numbers on the road on odd dates and, similarly, vehicles with even numbers on alternate days.
Gunmen Kill at Least 20 in PreDawn Attack in Cameroon, Official Says
Gunmen opened fire on people as they slept in a town in western Cameroon early on Monday, leaving at least 20 dead, a local government official said.
The attackers struck before dawn and set houses on fire in Mamfe, the administrative head of the surrounding Manyu division said. The town in Cameroon’s South West region is less than 50 km (30 miles) from the border with Nigeria.
Seven people were in hospital and security forces were searching the area, the official Viang Mekala told Reuters. “The situation is under control and the population should not panic,” he said.
Separatists in the minority Englishspeaking parts of Cameroon have been fighting to carve out an independent state called Ambazonia since 2017.
Armed groups have carried out attacks, kidnappings and killings in the North West and South West regions of the predominantly French-speaking African country.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.
At Least 29 Dead as Floods Devastate Somalia, Kenya
At least 29 people have been killed and more than 113,000 displaced following heavy rains and flash flooding in Kenya and Somalia.
The Somali federal government declared a state of emergency Monday after floods caused the deaths of 14 people. Emergency rescuers were working to reach an estimated 2,400 people still trapped by flood waters in the Luuq district of southern Somalia’s Jubaland state.
The UN had called for evacuating people living along the entire stretch of the Juba River, warning of a high risk of flooding there and along the Shabelle River.
In Kenya, the Red Cross said 15 people had died as a result of flooding. It said floods also destroyed 97 hectares of agricultural farmland and killed 1,067 animals.
Kenyan weather forecasters have been warning the country since September to expect heavy precipitation between October and December, the country’s rainy season. Weather experts were contradicted by Kenyan President William Ruto, who predicted “there would be no devastating El Nino flooding.”
El Nino, a naturally occurring weather phenomenon, causes surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific to warm, affecting weather patterns worldwide.
Blinken Heads to Japan for G7
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed Monday that the United States maintains its focus on the Indo-Pacific region despite concurrent global challenges, such as the Israel-Hamas conflict.
At the Ankara airport, after concluding a two-and-a-half-hour discussion with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken said, “Even as we intensely focus on the crisis in Gaza, we are equally engaged in the vital work in the Indo-Pacific and other parts of the world to advance American interests.”
The top US diplomat will arrive in Tokyo on Tuesday for the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meetings and bilateral talks.
Blinken said he plans to debrief his counterparts from G7 about the recent Middle East visit.
Japan chairs this year’s G7. Supporting Ukraine’s economic recovery and energy needs, as well as regional security, are on the agenda in Blinken’s bilateral meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minster Yoko Kamikawa.