The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce
- Well-equipped rebels advance in eastern Congo - U.N.
- Saudi King has successful back operation - royal court
| Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce Posted: 17 Nov 2012 07:22 PM PST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed militant targets in Gaza for a fifth straight day on Sunday, launching aerial and naval attacks as its military prepared for a possible ground invasion, though Egypt saw "some indications" of a truce ahead.
Forty-seven Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 12 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens. Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday, killing a leading militant of the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza and rejects Israel's existence, with the declared goal of deterring gunmen in the coastal enclave from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years. The Jewish state has since launched more than 950 air strikes on the coastal Palestinian territory, targeting weaponry and flattening militant homes and headquarters. The raids continued past midnight on Sunday, with warships bombarding targets from the sea. And an air raid targeted a building in Gaza City housing the offices of local Arab media, wounding three journalists from al Quds television, a station Israel sees as pro-Hamas, witnesses said. Two other predawn attacks on houses in the Jebalya refugee camp killed one child and wounded 12 other people, medical officials said. These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida, who told a televised news conference. "This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning." The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel's blows Hamas "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy." An Israeli attack on Saturday destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border. Casualties there were averted however, because Israel had fired non-exploding missiles at the building beforehand from a drone, which the militant's family understood as a warning to flee, and thus their lives were spared, witnesses said. Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters. Among those killed in air strikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding motorcycles, and several civilians including a 30-year-old woman. ISRAELI SCHOOLS SHUT Israel said it would keep schools in its southern region shut on Sunday as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days. Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system destroyed in mid-air a rocket fired by Gaza militants at Tel Aviv on Saturday, where volleyball games on the beach front came to an abrupt halt as air-raid sirens sounded. Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for the attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it had fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza. In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt. Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defence, but there was also a growing number of calls from world leaders to seek an end to the violence. British Prime Minister David Cameron "expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides," in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron said. The United Kingdom was "putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate," the spokesman said, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu "to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end." Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believes Israel has a right to self-defence. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees." Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unravelled with recent violence. A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope," but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed. In Jerusalem, an Israeli official declined to comment on the negotiations. Military commanders said Israel was prepared to fight on to achieve a goal of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has plagued Israeli towns since late 2000, when failed peace talks led to the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising. Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting. POSSIBLE GROUND OFFENSIVE Israel, though, with tanks and artillery positioned along the frontier, signalled it was still weighing a possible ground offensive into Gaza. Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Friday to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000 and around 16,000 reservists have already been called up. Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely." "We have a plan. ... It will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added. Another senior commander briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said Israel had scored "good achievements" in striking at nearly 1,000 targets, with the aim of ridding Hamas of firepower imported from Libya, Sudan and Iran. A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favourite to win a January national election. Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year's period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict. But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders. One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's manoeuvring room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979. (Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Todd Eastham)
Arab ministers back Egypt truce efforts over Gaza Weary Gazans have learned to expect the worst Gaza hospitals stretched, need supplies to treat wounded-WHO Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Well-equipped rebels advance in eastern Congo - U.N. Posted: 17 Nov 2012 07:05 PM PST KINSHASA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. attack helicopters hit rebel positions in eastern Congo on Saturday after insurgents equipped with sophisticated night-vision equipment and mortars gained ground in heavy clashes with government troops and took control of a town, the U.N. said. The clashes to the south of the town Kibumba meant the rebels have advanced to within 30 km (18 miles) of Goma, the closest they have been to North Kivu's provincial capital since a rebellion exploded in the eastern provinces eight months ago. North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku said the army retreated to the southern outskirts of the town after M23 rebels - a group of soldiers who mutinied in April - advanced with support from neighbouring Rwanda. A Congolese government statement said 4,000 Rwandans had crossed the border, although Kinshasa later reduced that estimate to 3,500. Rwanda rejected the accusations, the latest in a string of charges by the Congolese government in Kinshasa. The Rwandan government called on Congo's army and the rebels to halt the fighting as shells were landing in its territory. "Kibumba has fallen into the hands of the M23," a spokesman for the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations said in an email. "Latest reports indicate that the FARDC (Congo's army) and MONUSCO (U.N.) forces are attempting to hold off a possible M23 advance toward Goma at Kibati, some 20 km north of Goma." "We are not in a position to confirm direct Rwandan involvement in the M23 attacks," the spokesman said. "However, we are very concerned by reports that the M23 attacking forces appear to be well-equipped and supplied." U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters that the M23 rebels have sophisticated equipment. "They have night vision equipment which is precisely what allowed them to launch their offensive at 4 a.m. this morning against the FARDC," he said. "They also have ... 120 mm mortars, which they did not have not so long ago." The peacekeeping spokesman said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Congo's foreign minister, Raymond Tshibanda, to voice support for Kinshasa, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame to urge him to "use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain the M23 from continuing their attack." SECURITY COUNCIL URGES M23 TO HALT ADVANCE French Ambassador Gerard Araud called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York. The council issued a unanimous statement that condemned the M23 attacks and demanded an end to "all outside support and supply of equipment to the M23." The statement said the 15 council members "express their intention to apply additional targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23 and those acting in violation of the sanctions regime and the arms embargo." The council also called on M23 to halt "any further advances towards the city of Goma." U.N. experts have said in reports they have evidence that Rwanda has supported the M23 rebels in mineral-rich eastern Congo. They have called on the Security Council to impose sanctions on Rwandan officials in response. Earlier this week the council's Congo sanctions committee add M23 leader Sultani Makenga to its sanctions list. The council statement did not explicitly name Rwanda as a supplier of M23. More than 5 million people are estimated to have died from violence, hunger and disease in wars in Congo since 1998, which would make it the deadliest conflict since World War Two. The peacekeeping spokesman said the humanitarian impact of the fighting was devastating. He added that U.N. troops in Goma and at its airport were on high alert. The United Nations has about 6,700 MONUSCO forces in North Kivu, with about 1,400 troops in Goma and the surrounding area. "The Rwandan army came across the border behind our troops, that's why our troops withdrew," Paluku told Reuters by telephone. "The (rebels) are just a few kilometres away, so of course Goma is under threat, we can't hide that," he said, adding that government troops were regrouping at Kilimanyoka, 12 km (7 miles) north of the city. Rebels said they had no immediate plans to attack Goma. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said army units had come under heavy weapons fire since early on Saturday morning, forcing civilians to flee. U.N. attack helicopters were dispatched to strike rebel positions south of Kibumba. "So far ten missions have been carried out by our attack helicopters," a U.N. statement said. The United Nations has a mandate to protect civilians and support government troops when they need it. No casualty figures have been given by any force. Rwanda's army has repeatedly sent soldiers into Congo during nearly two decades of conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region, but Kigali has strongly denied Congolese and U.N. accusations of support for the M23. "These are absolutely false allegations. They are very tired, and very old. Whenever DRC (the Democratic Republic of Congo) is defeated on the battlefield, it's meant to be (Rwanda's army)," Rwandan army spokesman Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita told Reuters. "Rwanda has called on (Congo's army) and M23 to stop this useless war ... Rwanda is being violated by constant bomb shells on our territory," he added. More than three-quarters of a million people have fled their homes since the fighting began, and regional efforts to find a solution have so far failed. M23 spokesman Vianney Kazarama told Reuters the rebels would not advance past Kibumba to Goma. (Additional reporting by Jenny Clover in Kigali, Louis Charbonneau in New York; Writing by David Lewis and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Doina Chiacu) Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Saudi King has successful back operation - royal court Posted: 17 Nov 2012 05:57 PM PST RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has undergone successful back surgery at a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, to tighten a loose ligament, the royal court said in a statement carried by state media on Sunday. The stability of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a key U.S. ally, is of global concern. The kingdom holds more than a fifth of world crude reserves and is the birthplace of Islam. "A surgery was performed on the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, at the National Guard's King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh on Saturday ... where a loose ligament in the upper back was tightened," the statement, carried on state television and the SPA news agency, said. "With God's help, the surgery ended at 0315 on Sunday morning ... and thanks be to God it was successful," it added in Arabic. The king, in his late 80s, underwent an operation to tighten ligaments around his third vertebra in October of last year and had two rounds of back surgery in the United States in 2010 after suffering a herniated disc, leading to a three-month recuperation period outside the kingdom. His heir apparent and brother, Crown Prince Salman, normally acts as his deputy in his absence. King Abdullah, who took power in 2005 after the death of King Fahd, named Salman heir apparent in June after the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz. Prince Salman is 13 years younger than Abdullah. Unlike in European monarchies, the line of succession does not move directly from father to eldest son, but has moved down a line of brothers born to the kingdom's founder, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, who died in 1953. While it faced some protests from minority Shi'ite Muslims in its Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia avoided the kind of unrest that toppled leaders across the Arab world last year after it introduced generous social spending packages and issued a religious edict banning public demonstrations. (Reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo,; Writing by Sami Aboudi in Dubai; Editing by Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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