Gaza war goes on
As the year draws to a close, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, [pictured] has vowed to continue the fight with Hamas despite pressure from the international community for a ceasefire to limit civilian casualties, Politico Europe reports. According to Hamas-run authorities in the Gaza Strip, the bombing of a refugee camp in Gaza’s northern city of Jenin and the targeted airstrikes in the central Gazan town of Deir al-balah resulted in the deaths of about 40 people. Israel confirmed this attack and also admitted to unintentionally killing three Israeli men who were among the hostages abducted by Hamas on 7 October, the report says. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the hostages were mistaken for terrorists. Despite calls from German, French and British officials to end or de-escalate the conflict last Sunday, Netanyahu stated that the fight would continue until Hamas is no longer a threat. “We will fight until the end. We will achieve all of our aims — eliminating Hamas, freeing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will not again become a centre for terrorism,” Netanyahu said. Hamas took about 250 people hostage, of which about 100 have been released in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails. About 1 200 Israelis were killed in the attack. And about 20 000 Palestinians have since been killed by the IDF.
Words of the year
In light of the many trials and tribulations experienced in South Africa this year, the inaugural South African word of the year for social media was “kuningi”, according to a press statement released by the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB) in midoctober. The word loosely translates to “it’s a lot” in isizulu and is often used to express an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion in a situation that seems too difficult to deal with. Given problems with load-shedding, overall poor service delivery and high crime rates in the country, it’s no wonder that many South Africans feel “kuningi.” Other parts of the world also had words that conveyed the popular mood, including “kitawaramba”, a Swahili word used in Kenya which translates as “it will come back to haunt you”. The word kickstarted a new life when the starvation doomsday cult leader, Paul Mackenzie, said it to people who confronted him as he was driven to court. In Australia, one of the words of the year named by The Macquarie Dictionary was “password child”, a term that refers to a child whose name is used in passwords because they’re the family favourite.