Friday May 31, 2024

Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.

Israel launched its military incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the safety of civilians sheltering in the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt.

A strike that sparked a fire and killed dozens in a displacement camp at the weekend drew a wave of fresh condemnation.

Witnesses said Friday Israeli strikes hit the Rafah area as well as central Gaza’s Nuseirat, and an AFP correspondent reported intense bombardment in the north.

Strikes on two separate locations killed a total of 11 people overnight, medical sources at a hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp reported.

The Israeli military said its troops “continue… operational activities” in the Rafah area, and found rocket launchers, weapons and “tunnel shafts” in the city center.

An air strike “targeted and eliminated” a militant in that area, it added.

In central Gaza, further air strikes “eliminated several terrorists who operated near” troops, the military said without elaborating.

Israel, which has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, said on Wednesday its forces had taken over the 14-kilometer Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, where it alleges weapons were being smuggled.

Egypt, a longtime mediator in the conflict, has yet to officially comment on the Israeli takeover, which officials have previously said could violate the two countries’ 1979 peace deal.

Amid stalled diplomatic efforts towards a ceasefire, Hamas said it had informed mediators it would only agree a “comprehensive” truce agreement including a hostage-prisoner swap if Israel halts its “aggression.”

On Thursday, Israel said its forces had killed about 300 Palestinian militants in Rafah since launching its military operation in the city.

A stream of civilians fled Rafah, taking their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.

Aid at sea

Before the Rafah offensive began, the United Nations said up to 1.4 million people were sheltering in the city. Since then, 1 million have fled the area, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said.

The United Nations has warned of looming famine in Gaza.

The Israeli seizure of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people and effectively shuttered the territory’s main exit point.

However, Israel said at the weekend that aid deliveries had been stepped up, including through its Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza.

Cyprus, the European Union’s easternmost member, said humanitarian aid shipped to Gaza was being kept at sea off the territory’s coast, after a U.S.-built pier was damaged in bad weather.

In an interview on French channel LCI, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “anti-Semitic slander” accusations Israel was deliberately targeting and starving Gazan civilians.

Netanyahu, who has often spoke to foreign media during the war but largely avoided interviews with Israeli outlets, said the ratio of militants to civilians killed so far in the Israeli offensive was “the lowest rate we have seen in an urban war.”

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied late Thursday outside the offices of private broadcaster TF1, LCI’s parent company, in Paris’s western suburbs, to protest the broadcast.

Wearing black and white keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, the protesters chanted: “Gaza, Paris is with you.”

Car, house hit

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,224 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

A medical official at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah said eight people, including two children, were killed in an air strike that hit a house in Al-Bureij refugee camp.

Another source at Nuseirat’s Al-Awda Hospital reported three deaths in a strike on a car.

An AFP correspondent saw Israeli military vehicles southwest of Gaza City, in the territory’s north.

Sunday’s Israeli strike and resulting fire at the Rafah displacement camp killed 45 people, according to Gaza officials, and prompted two days of discussions at the U.N. Security Council.

Israel has said it targeted a Hamas compound and killed two senior members.

After the strike, Algeria presented a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council demanding an immediate cease-fire and the release of all hostages, but it was unclear when it would be voted on.

Amid the fighting, Israeli war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s centrist party submitted a bill to dissolve parliament for an early election, drawing criticism from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party.

Friday 31 May 2024 {HMC}  Somalia is set to secure a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2024-2025 term, running unopposed for the African Group seat. The vote is scheduled for June 6 during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

Along with Somalia, Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama are running for the five available seats. All five candidates have previously served on the Council, including Pakistan seven times, Panama five times, Denmark four times, and Greece twice.

It will be Somalia’s second term on the Security Council, having last served from 1971 to 1972.

Somalia’s candidacy has received strong backing from the African Union (AU). At the 44th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council in February 2024, Somalia was endorsed as the sole candidate for the African seat.

This endorsement led to the withdrawal of other contenders, including Mauritius and Madagascar.

In its campaign, Somalia has emphasized the importance of conflict prevention, sustainable development, and humanitarian assistance to address the root causes of conflict.

The country also plans to prioritize the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agendas, stressing the involvement of civil society.

Somalia’s dual membership in the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) positions it as a strategic mediator in regional conflicts.

The country aims to foster dialogue among diverse groups, drawing on its unique regional ties.

During its previous Security Council term, Somalia supported global decolonization efforts and presided over a historic high-level meeting in Addis Ababa, the first to be held in Africa. Somalia plans to advocate for enhanced UN-AU cooperation and support the implementation of resolution 2719, which authorizes UN funding for AU peace support operations.

The election process requires formal balloting, even for uncontested seats. Somalia needs a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly vote, or at least 129 affirmative votes if all 193 UN member states participate.

The election will fill five seats on the Security Council: one for the African Group, one for the Asia-Pacific Group, one for the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and two for the Western European and Others Group.

The new members will take up their seats on January 1, 2025, and will serve until December 31, 2026.

The UN Security Council consists of 15 members, including five permanent members and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms.

The Council is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, making decisions on sanctions, the use of force, and peacekeeping missions.