World
At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on homes, camps in Gaza
At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza, Palestinian medics say, as Israeli tanks push into northern parts of the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza.
Medics said at least 20 people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on Wednesday on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. The Palestinian Civil Defence said the attack set several tents housing displaced families ablaze.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the death toll was expected to rise.
Patients who are in the hospital were “expected to lose their lives simply because there is no medical care, medical supplies and insufficient medical staff,” Mahmoud said.
“This is not the first time we’ve seen this happening. There’s a growing frustration among the displaced population in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone,” he said. “The Israeli military ordered them in the initial weeks of this genocidal war to evacuate in order to avoid being bombed, but they repeatedly find themselves the victims of these unpredictable attacks.”
At least 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit three houses in Gaza City, the Civil Defence said. Many victims were still trapped under the rubble with rescue operations under way.
Medics said 11 people were killed in three air strikes on areas in central Gaza, including six children and a medic. Five of the dead had been queueing outside a bakery, they said.
A further nine Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah near the border with Egypt, medics said.
‘Extremely urgent’
Israeli forces also fired on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza for the fifth straight day, hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya said. Three of his medical staff had been wounded, one critically, on Tuesday night, he said.
“Drones are dropping bombs filled with shrapnel that injure anyone that dares to move,” Abu Safiya said. “This situation is extremely urgent.”
He said more than 100 patients inside the besieged hospital are at risk of death and Israeli forces are preventing access to the nearby al-Awda Hospital.
Residents in the north’s main three towns – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon – said Israeli forces have blown up dozens of houses.
Palestinians said Israel’s army is trying to drive people out of the northern edge of Gaza by issuing threats that if residents do not flee, they risk death and by carrying out bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military has besieged the area since it began a renewed ground offensive there nearly two months ago.
The siege has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis amid a looming famine.
Hamas said the bombings of homes in Beit Lahiya and the targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital are “an insistence on the ongoing war” and “genocide” in Gaza.
The group said in a statement that Israel is showing it plans to keep disregarding international law “in light of the shameful failure of the international system to put an end to these horrific crimes”.
Hamas said Israeli actions “are carried out under the full cover and protection of the American administration and some Western capitals”.
In the Khan Younis area, residents told the Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks advanced a day after the military issued new evacuation threats, saying there had been rocket launches by Palestinian groups from the area.
With shells crashing near residential areas, families left their homes on Wednesday and headed westwards towards al-Mawasi, which was designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone” but has since repeatedly come under attack.
Palestinian and United Nations officials said there are no safe areas left in Gaza and almost all of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, injured many others and reduced much of the enclave to rubble since it began in October last year.
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that has halted most fighting in a conflict that has unfolded in Lebanon in parallel with the Gaza war.
But the war in Gaza has ground on with only a single ceasefire more than a year ago that lasted for one week.
World
Georgians vow to continue pro-EU protests 'until victory'
Police have reportedly resorted to more heavy handed tactics in a bid to clamp down on the unrest with more than 400 protesters, including opposition leaders and activists, detained and more than 100 people treated for injuries.
Police in Georgia have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds as mass protests sparked by the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union continue for a ninth night.
Police have reportedly resorted to more heavy handed tactics in a bid to clamp down on the unrest with more than 400 protesters, including opposition leaders and activists, detained and more than 100 people treated for injuries.
One 22-year-old protester was placed in an induced coma after he was allegedly hit with a tear gas capsule.
In a post on X, Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zourabichvili condemned what she called “brutal terror and repression” and accused security forces of “gross violations of human rights”.
More than 50 journalists have also been injured in the protests so far.
The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed 26 October election, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations.
The opposition have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with the help neighbouring Russia to keep the Moscow-friendly ruling Georgian Dream party in power.
But the protests against the election became angrier and spread beyond the capital Tbilisi after the Georgian Dream’s decision last Thursday to put EU accession talks on hold until at least 2028.
“Georgian citizens are in the streets defending Article 78 of the Constitution, which states that each governmental entity must support European integration. Angry citizens have taken to the streets. The force the regime is using against peaceful demonstrators closely resembles that of the Russian regime. Therefore, we are fighting against it,” said protester, Giorgi Natroshvili.
The decision to suspend accession talks was in response to a European Parliament resolution that criticised the elections as neither free nor fair.
It said the election represented another manifestation of Georgia’s continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.”
International observers say they saw instances of violence, bribery and double voting at the polls, prompting some EU lawmakers to demand a re-run.
“People continue coming because, day by day the government is becoming worse. They’re getting more and more violent and they’re shifting towards authoritarianism,” said protester, Luka Andguladze.
“So people believe that with our strong will, they will crumble, they will tire, the West will support us, and there will be a time when they will step aside and they will fulfil our request, which is new fair elections under fair laws.”
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but Brussels put that process on hold earlier this year after the passage of a controversial ‘foreign influence’ law, which was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
Critics have also accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
World
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World
Turkey’s Erdogan encourages Islamist rebels to continue advances as Assad regime scrambles to survive
JERUSALEM — After Turkey-backed radical Islamist forces seized the pivotal Syrian city of Hama on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cheered the astonishing military advance of his allies.
“I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues,” Erdogan said on Friday, according to a Reuters report.
He added that the capital city of Damascus, where Syrian dictator Bashar Assad resides, is the objective. “The target is Damascus.”
Erdogan continued, “However, while this resistance there with terrorist organizations is continuing, we had made a call to Assad,” referring to his approach to Assad earlier this year to meet and normalize ties after more than a decade of animosity.
ISLAMIST REBELS IN SYRIA CATCH ASSAD, PUTIN, IRAN REGIMES OFF GUARD GIVING US NEW MIDEAST HEADACHE
“These problematic advances continuing as a whole in the region are not in a manner we desire, our heart does not want these. Unfortunately, the region is in a bind,” he said, without elaborating.
Erdogan’s comment about terrorist entities within the ranks of the insurgency are an apparent reference to the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Islamist Al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel force.
Turkey is a member of the American-led NATO alliance. Turkey’s reported support of terrorist groups like Hamas and its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has triggered outrage among many U.S. lawmakers.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which tracks the civil war in the fractured Syrian Arab Republic, HTS is now within striking distance of the pivotal crossroads city of Homs.
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