Gaza - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

South Africa asks World Court for more measures against Israel

SOUTH Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order additional emergency measures against Israel, which it says is breaching the measures already in place, the U.N.'s top court said. In its application, South Africa warned that Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation and asked the court to order that all parties cease hostilities and release all hostages and detainees. In a statement issued Wednesday the South African presidency warned that the people of Gaza cannot wait. "The threat of all-out famine has now materialised. The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively…

Mar

2024

By JEFF MASON

Kamala Harris calls out Israel over ‘catastrophe’ in Gaza

WORLD

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris bluntly called out Israel for not doing enough to ease a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza as the Biden administration faces increasing pressure to rein in its close ally while it wages war with Hamas militants. Harris, speaking in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where state troopers beat U.S. civil rights marchers nearly six decades ago, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept a deal to release hostages in return for a 6-week cessation of hostilities. But she directed the bulk of her comments at Israel in…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Iran’s president discusses Gaza with Algerian counterpart, Algeria’s presidency says

NEWS

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi discussed bilateral relations, energy cooperation, trade and Gaza with Algeria's leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune in a one-day state visit, according to Algeria's presidency. Algeria, a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, backs the Palestinian cause and has called several times for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

South Africa condemns Israel over deaths of Palestinians awaiting aid

NEWS

SOUTH Africa said that the killing of Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza breached the World Court's provisional orders in a legal case in which Pretoria has accused Israel of committing genocide in the coastal enclave. Gaza health authorities said on Thursday Israeli forces had killed over 100 Palestinians trying to reach a relief convoy. Israel blamed most of the deaths on crowds that swarmed around aid trucks, saying most victims were trampled or run over though an Israeli official said Israeli troops had "in a limited response" later fired on crowds they felt posed a threat. "South Africa condemns the massacre of 112…

Feb

2024

By SAMIA NAKHOUL, JONATHAN SAUL and HUMEYRA PAMUK

Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war

WORLD

ISRAEL expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said. Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely. There is little chance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will heed international criticism to call…

Feb

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel bombards Gaza, with biggest functioning hospital under siege

WORLD

GAZA'S largest functioning hospital was under siege in Israel's war with Islamist group Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos, as warplanes struck Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in the enclave, officials said. Israeli forces said on Thursday they had raided the medical complex as footage showed shouting and gunfire in dark corridors in an incursion that raised fresh alarm over the fate of hundreds of patients and medical workers and the many displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter there from the fighting. Israel's military called the raid on Nasser Hospital "precise and limited" and said it was based on information…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Gaza post-war reconstruction estimated at $20 billion: UN trade body

WORLD

GAZA will need a new "Marshall Plan" to recover from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a U.N. trade body official said, adding that the damage from the conflict so far amounted to around $20 billion. Speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting in Geneva, Richard Kozul-Wright, a director at trade body UNCTAD, said the damage was already four times that endured in Gaza during the seven-week war in 2014. "We are talking about around $20 billion if it stops now," he said. Kozul-Wright said the estimate was based on satellite images and other information and that a more…

Feb

2024

By SAMIA NAKHOUL and ANDREW MILLS

Exclusive: Hamas proposes three-stage ceasefire over 135 days, leading to end of war

WORLD

HAMAS has proposed a ceasefire plan that would quiet the guns in Gaza for four-and-a-half months leading to an end to the war, in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and Israel. According to a draft document seen by Reuters, the Hamas counterproposal envisions three phases lasting 45 days each. The proposal would see militants exchange the remaining Israeli hostages they captured on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners. The reconstruction of Gaza would begin, Israeli forces would withdraw completely, and bodies and remains would be exchanged. U.S. Secretary…

Feb

2024

By BASSAM MASOUD and IBRAHEEMABU MUSTAFA

Gaza doctor describes ordeal of detention

WORLD

A Palestinian doctor says Israeli forces in Gaza detained him when they overran a hospital and subjected him to abuse during 45 days of captivity including sleep deprivation and constant shackling and blindfolding before releasing him last week. Doctor Said Abdulrahman Maarouf was working at al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City when it was surrounded by Israeli forces in December. He described having his hands cuffed, his legs shackled and his eyes masked for the nearly seven-week duration of his imprisonment. He said he was told to sleep in places that were covered with pebbles without a mattress, pillow or…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

UN genocide ruling won’t change Israel’s behaviour: three reasons why

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the latter’s military operation in Gaza, which South Africa calls acts of genocide. The excessive bombing campaign and wilful destruction of property, life and limb is hardly in dispute. Israel calls it legitimate acts of self-defence, following Hamas’s murderous incursion from Gaza on Israeli terrain on 7 October 2023. Hamas, shorthand for the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military organisation founded in 1987. It has governed the Gaza Strip of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories since 2007. ANTHONI VAN NIEUWKERK, Professor of International and…