Boakai sworn in as Liberia president
THE Israeli army bombarded Khan Yunis, the latest epicentre of the war in Gaza, yesterday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected what he said were Hamas conditions for the release of hostages, even amid mounting pressure from their families.
Witnesses reported deadly strikes overnight in Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza, and fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported yesterday that more than 120 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
“Artillery shelling has not stopped since 5am,” said Yunis Abdel Razek, 52, who was sheltering with his family at the city’s Al-aqsa University. “We can’t leave the university ... it’s dangerous and I fear for the little ones,” he said.
“They said the Al-mawasi area was safe but they lied,” he added, referring to a coastal strip west of Khan Yunis.
Mahdi Antar, 21, meanwhile said he feared forces would “storm” Al-nasr Hospital where he was sheltering with his family.
While fighting is concentrated in the south it has not ended in the north, where Hamas authorities reported shelling in the Gaza City area and witnesses heard explosions.
The strikes came after Hamas on Sunday issued a 16-page report in which they admitted to “some faults” but defended the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of about 1 140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, launching a relentless offensive that has killed at least 25 295 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll issued yesterday by Gaza’s health ministry.
Hamas said in its first public report on the events that triggered the war that if civilians were targeted “it happened accidentally”, and called for an end to “Israeli aggression” in Gaza.
The October 7 attacks were a “necessary step” against Israeli occupation
DOZENS of scarecrows stood outside Britain’s parliament yesterday as UK fruit and vegetable farmers protested against “unfair” treatment by the country’s six largest supermarket chains.
The demonstrators placed 49 scarecrows opposite the British legislature in London to represent the 49% of farmers who say they are on the brink of leaving the industry.
Supermarkets are “bringing British farming to its knees”, Guy Singh-watson, of Palestinian territories and a way to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners, said the report, issued in English and Arabic.
US intelligence agencies have estimated that the Israeli campaign has killed “around 20% to 30%” of Hamas fighters and is still far from its goal of destroying the Islamist movement, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In a video statement issued after the Hamas report, Netanyahu said that “in exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands an end to the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza”, the release of Palestinian prisoners and guarantees that Hamas would stay in power.
“If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain”, and security would not be guaranteed, Netanyahu said.
The US co-ordinator for the Middle East, Brett Mcgurk, was due to meet top officials in Cairo yesterday, followed by a trip to Qatar, in a bid to secure a new hostage exchange deal, US media said.
Netanyahu is under intense pressure to secure the return of the captives and account for security failings surrounding
founder of fruit and veg box delivery firm Riverford Organic and one of the protest organisers, said.
Singh-watson, whose company initiated a petition that has received 112000 signatures, says government policies have failed to provide adequate support for farmers and were rarely enforced.
“It is really up to our politicians to accept responsibility and have some sort of policy rather than just abdicating policy to our big retailers who are the October 7 attacks.
Hamas militants seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 remain in besieged Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
Relatives and supporters of the hostages again rallied, on Sunday night near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence.
“We are asking our government to listen, to sit down at the negotiating table and decide whether to accept this agreement or any other that would suit Israel,” said Gilad Korenbloom, whose son is a hostage in Gaza.
The 27 foreign ministers of the EU were expected to hold separate talks with their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts in Brussels yesterday.
Ahead of the talks, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Israel it couldn’t build peace “only by military means”, describing Netanyahu’s rejection of a two-state solution involving Palestinian sovereignty as “unacceptable”.
UN agencies have warned of famine and disease as Gazans, at least 1.7 million of whom are displaced, contractually bound to act in the interests of their shareholders,” he added.
The farmers want the supermarkets to adhere to “fair” purchasing agreements, including buying agreed quantities and paying the agreed amount on time “without exception”.
They say unfair purchasing agreements by the chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl will drive many of them out of business in the next 12 months. The protest was held as MPS debated a petition by the struggle with shortages of water, medical care and other essentials during daily bombardment.
Abdelrahman Iyad, wounded in Gaza and now being treated aboard the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, docked in Egypt, said he did not have time to leave his house before it was hit.
“I was with my parents, my brother, my sister, my second sister and her husband and their daughter.
“They all died. I’m the only survivor,” he said.
Rising tensions and violence across the Middle East – involving Iranbacked groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – have stoked fears of a wider conflagration.
Sirens were heard overnight in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said, where there have been near daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Several areas of southern Lebanon were hit overnight, killing one Hezbollah fighter, according to a source in the Hamas-aligned group. farmers to overhaul the grocery supply chain code of practice.
The petition asks the government to ensure that retailers “buy what they agreed”, “pay what they agreed” and to pay on time. “The continued pressure from retailers to produce food at cheaper prices ... (is) just unsustainable for farmers,” said farmer Ben Andrews.
Emily O’brien, from the Green Party, warned that the disappearance of farmers coulgd have serious consequences for Britain’s food supply. | AFP
JOSEPH Boakai was sworn in yesterday as Liberia’s president after his election victory over former football star George Weah, with the challenge of tackling poverty and corruption.
The 79-year-old narrowly beat former Ballon d’or winner Weah in November’s run-off poll with 50.64% of the votes to 49.36%.
The investiture ceremony in parliament was attended by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-addo and US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-greenfield. Boakai, who will be steering Africa’s oldest republic for six years, has 40 years of political experience behind him.
He was vice-president from 2006 to 2018 under Africa’s first elected female head of state Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, before being soundly beaten by Weah in the 2017 election.
November’s poll in the West African country was peaceful in a region that has seen a succession of military coups in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger.
But the small nation of 5million has been plagued with corruption, high levels of poverty and a weak justice system, after years of back-toback civil wars and an Ebola outbreak.
Impunity related to crimes committed during those civil wars is another unresolved issue. Boakai aligned himself with local barons during his election campaign, including former warlord Prince Johnson.
Johnson backed Weah in 2017. Johnson was also famously seen drinking a beer in a video while his men tortured to death former president Samuel Doe.
He has nominated one of his associates, Jeremiah Koung, as Boakai’s vice-president. Johnson himself is under US sanctions. Liberians expect Boakai to create jobs, improve the economy, strengthen institutions and fight corruption, which was one of his key campaign pledges.
“Expectations of Boakai’s presidency are high,” said Larry Nyanquoi, a former local official in Nimba County. Boakai is “seen as somebody who has not engaged in corruption and has tried to live the simplest possible life”.
Liberians also expect Boakai to ensure a stable supply of electricity and water, and to improve the road infrastructure to attract investment.
The outgoing government did not live up to its commitment to ensure the rule of law was upheld, to establish a war and economic crimes court, and to end impunity in the country. The mysterious deaths of four government auditors also raised suspicions.
Boakai now faces the tricky challenge of accommodating all those who supported his election when he starts distributing jobs.
He is believed to have several people in his inner circle with presidential ambitions of their own.