News & Announcements

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to The Middle East to press the Israelis, Palestinians, and regional players to build on last week’s Gaza cease-fire by laying the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks.

President Joe Biden announced Blinken would depart on Monday for a short visit to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt for what will be the Biden administration’s highest-level in-person meetings on the crisis that erupted earlier this month.

In a statement, Biden said Blinken will also work with regional partners to ensure “the coordinated international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza.”

The administration had been roundly criticized for its perceived hands-off initial response to the deadly violence, including from Democratic allies in Congress who were demanding it take a tougher line on Israel and its response to rocket attacks from Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.

The administration has defended its response by saying it engaged in intense, but quiet, high-level diplomacy to support a cease-fire, which was ultimately arranged last week after Egyptian mediation.

Blinken said Sunday that the behind-the-scenes effort led by Biden paid off, securing a truce after 11 days.

“President Biden leading this effort made the judgment that we could be most effective in doing that. And ultimately, after this intensive effort across the government, we got to where everyone wanted to be, which was to end the violence,” he said in an interview with CNN.

“But now, as the president said, I think it’s incumbent upon all of us to try to make the turn to start to build something more positive and what that means at heart is that Palestinians and Israelis alike have to know in their day-in and day-out lives equal measures of opportunity, of security, of dignity,” Blinken said.

He said the time is not right for an immediate resumption in negotiations between the two sides but that steps could be taken — mainly humanitarian initiatives — to repair damage from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure and deaths.

“I don’t think we’re in a place where getting to some kind of negotiation for what ultimately, I think, has to be the result, which is the two-state solution is the first order of business,” he said. “We have to start building back in concrete ways and offering some genuine hope, prospects, opportunity in the lives of people.”

Japan mobilized military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka on Monday as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics.

Report from AP has it that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a one-year delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country’s 36 million elderly people by the end of July, despite scepticism, it’s possible. Worries about public safety, while many Japanese remain unvaccinated, have prompted growing protests and calls for cancelling the games, set to start on July 23.

Suga’s government has repeatedly expanded the area and duration of a largely voluntary request-based virus state of emergency since late April and has made its virus-fighting measures stricter. Currently, Tokyo and nine other areas that are home to 40% of the country’s population are under the emergency and a further extension are deemed unavoidable.

With COVID-19 cases still high, Suga now says vaccines are key to getting infections under control. He has not made vaccinations conditional for holding the Olympics and has arranged for Pfizer to donate its vaccine for athletes through the International Olympic Committee while trying to speed up Japan’s inoculation drive as anti-Olympic sentiment grows.

Suga, speaking to reporters after a brief visit to the Tokyo centre, said accelerating the vaccine rollout is an “unprecedented challenge.”

“We will do whatever it takes to accomplish the project so that the people can get vaccinated and return to their ordinary daily lives as soon as possible,” he said.

At the two centres, staffed by about 280 military medical staff and 200 civilian nurses, the aim is to inoculate up to 10,000 people per day in Tokyo and 5,000 per day in Osaka for the next three months.

In hardest-hit Osaka, where hospitals are overflowing, with tens of thousands of people becoming sicker or even dying at home, dozens began lining up before the inoculation centre opened early Monday. In Tokyo, some vaccine recipients said they took taxis or shuttle buses to get to the centre to avoid packed commuter trains.

People inoculated at the two centres were the first in Japan to receive doses from Moderna Inc., one of two foreign-developed vaccines Japan approved on Friday.

Previously, Japan had used only Pfizer Inc., and only about 2% of the population of 126 million has received the required two doses.

Japan began vaccinating health care workers in mid-February after delays resulting from its decision to require additional vaccine clinical testing inside Japan — a decision many experts said was medically meaningless and only slowed the inoculation process.

Vaccinations for the next group — the elderly, who are more likely to suffer serious COVID-19 effects — started in mid-April but have been slowed by reservation procedures, unclear distribution plans and shortages of medical staff to give shots.

The completion of Japanese-developed vaccines is still uncertain, but government officials hope the approvals Friday of Moderna and AstraZeneca will accelerate inoculations.

 “Speeding up the rollout makes us feel safer because it affects our social life and the economy,” said Munemitsu Watanabe, a 71-year-old office worker who got his first shot at the Tokyo centre. “If 80-90% of the population gets vaccinated, I think we can hold the Olympics smoothly.”

That goal seems impossible to meet. Those currently eligible are 65 years or older, and some officials say it may take until next March before younger people are fully vaccinated.

Japan also has a dire shortage of medical staff who can give shots since only doctors and nurses can legally do so — and they are already busy treating COVID-19 patients.

Under pressure, Suga’s government has allowed dentists and retired nurses to perform inoculations, and on Monday asked for pharmacists’ help. Suga said he is also considering adding paramedics and clinical laboratory technicians to create a pool of “several tens of thousands” of medical personnel. There are worries, however, that loosening the criteria may increase vaccine hesitancy in the public.

Also Monday, Tokyo’s downtown Sumida district organized a one-time inoculation event at the Kokugikan sumo arena, a venue for Olympic boxing, to attract elderly people with a lottery to win sumo-themed souvenirs.

Several other local governments, including Aichi in central Japan and Gunma near Tokyo and Miyagi in the north, also were to open their own large vaccination centres on Monday.

President Joe Biden of the United States has condemned violence against Jewish communities in the United States and abroad on Monday after a string of attacks amid the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Physical or verbal assaults were reported against Jews in New York City, Los Angeles and South Florida during the 11 days of fighting in the region.

“The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop. I condemn this hateful behaviour at home and abroad – it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbour,” Biden wrote in a Twitter post.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, tweeted his thanks in response and said he hoped the assailants were swiftly brought to justice and hate crimes deterred.

“The demonisation of Israel is clearly sparking this rise in antisemitism. It must be stopped,” Erdan wrote.

Reuters reports that five major Jewish groups urged Biden on Friday to call out antisemitism and recommended specific actions, including fighting hate on college campuses and enhanced security for religious institutions.

In a letter, the groups said there have been numerous anti-semitic incidents around the world and in the United States, including on social media, since the Gaza conflict began.

“The perpetrators of these attacks deliberately targeted Jewish institutions and individuals for no other reason than their religion, justifying it with age-old anti-semitic tropes, exaggerated claims and inflammatory rhetoric,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah, Jewish Federations of North America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

Joseph Borgen, 29, said he was attacked in New York’s Times Square on Thursday night by a group of people who shouted anti-semitic slurs at him. A video of the attack on Borgen, who wore a Jewish skullcap, was broadcast repeatedly on cable news television at the weekend.

“As long as more and more awareness can be brought to this issue, hopefully, some positive change can be made,” he told CNN on Monday.

A man was arrested and several others were being sought in connection with the attack.

An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held into a fourth day on Monday. Medical officials said 248 people were killed in Gaza during the 11 days of fighting.

Medics said rocket fire and a guided missile attack killed 13 people in Israel.

An Australian hoarder killed a burglar and kept the corpse for 15 years, using more than 70 air fresheners to mask the smell, local media reported on Thursday.

AFP reports that a coronial inquest heard that Sydney man Bruce Roberts shot intruder Shane Snellman during an attempted home robbery in 2002 and kept the body in his house, public broadcaster ABC reported.

After Roberts himself died in 2017 of natural causes, neighbours alerted emergency services, who found his body slumped over a heater.

After Roberts himself died in 2017 of natural causes, neighbours alerted emergency services, who found his body slumped over a heater.

But Snellman’s remains were not discovered amid piles of rubbish in the house until cleaners were hired to clear the estate about a year later.

The body was surrounded by more than 70 bottles of air freshener used to mask the smell, the coroner’s court reportedly heard.

Roberts was said to be an extreme hoarder who rarely left his home, where more than a dozen firearms were also found.

Ethiopia’s poll body has said twice-delayed national elections will now be held on June 21, kicking off a fresh countdown to a key test of democratic reforms under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Africa’s second-most populous country was first due to hold the polls last August, but officials pushed them to June 5 of this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Then last weekend electoral board chairwoman Birtukan Mideksa announced a new delay was needed because of logistical woes related to tasks like training electoral staff and printing and distributing ballot papers.

The new date of June 21 was revealed on Thursday at a press conference by electoral board spokeswoman Solyana Shimeles, following meetings with Abiy’s government, opposition parties and regional officials.

Solyana said she did not expect any further delays, citing the upcoming rainy season which begins in June and can wreak havoc with infrastructure.

“We’re trying to [hold] it before the rainy season,” she said.

The logistical challenges promise to be daunting even with the delay and Solyana estimated on Thursday the board would need to hire more than 100,000 additional staff and train them on voting day procedures and tabulating results.

Staff shortages have been especially apparent so far in Afar and Somali regions, where registration started late, she said.

Abiy came to power in 2018 on the back of several years of anti-government protests and promised to break from Ethiopia’s authoritarian past in part by holding the most democratic elections the country had ever seen.

His reform agenda earned him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, but his tenure has been marred by security challenges, most prominently the six-month-old war in the northern Tigray region, which will not participate in the June 21 polls.

About 36 million Ethiopians had registered to vote as of last weekend, though no registration had occurred in several constituencies rocked by ethnic violence, including in the country’s most populous regions, Oromia and Amhara.

Solyana said it would be “very difficult” to include these conflict-hit constituencies on June 21.

But she said she expected voters in those areas to be able to cast ballots before a new parliamentary session begins in early October.

The elections will choose national and regional parliamentarians. The national MPs elect the prime minister, who is head of government, as well as the president – a largely ceremonial role.

The ruling coalition that preceded Abiy claimed staggering majorities in the two previous elections, which observers said fell far short of international standards for fairness.

A more open contest in 2005 saw big gains for the opposition but led to a lethal crackdown on protests over contested results.

This year some opposition parties, notably in Abiy’s native Oromia region, have opted to boycott, complaining that their candidates have been arrested and their offices vandalised.

The Nigerian Chief of Army Staff Ibrahim Attahiru has been killed in a plane crash in Kaduna, it has been gathered.

The incident occurred on Friday in Kaduna as the aircraft he was inside crashed minutes after taking off.

A statement by Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Army has revealed that the immediate cause of the crash is still being ascertained.

Palestinian journalist Yusef Abu Hussein has been killed in an Israeli air raid that struck his house in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to his family and colleagues.

Hussein, a broadcaster for the the local Voice of Al-Aqsa radio station, was among the four Palestinians killed in the early hours of Wednesday as Israel continued its relentless bombardment on the besieged enclave.

The journalist’s father, Muhammed Abu Hussein, Aljazeera reports, said the family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood was targeted by a missile, followed by two more strikes.

“We were able to get out of the house. But my boy, Yusef … was killed,” he said.

The news of Hussein’s killing sparked an outpouring of grief and calls for the Israeli government to be held accountable.

The Voice of Al-Aqsa radio station said in a statement it mourned the loss of its “son and employee” and called for a vigil at 5 pm at al-Shifa hospital

“We also document, in front of the world, this heinous crime committed by the Israeli enemy, including targeting civilians in their homes and attacking the press and media personnel,” it said.

“Let us affirm that the Voice of Al-Aqsa Radio will continue to be a voice of truth that exposes the crimes of the Israeli occupation. We will remain a platform for Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian right until our people obtain their right to freedom and live in dignity.”

Salama Maarouf, head of the ministry of government information in Gaza, offered “warm condolences” to Hussein’s family, loved ones and colleagues.

“Occupation crimes against journalists and civilians remain a stain on the international community in general and international organizsations and institutions concerned with freedom of opinion and expression in particular. When will you act? And when can it seek to curb the aggression of the Israeli occupier, put an end to its crimes, and hold it accountable?”

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate also offered its deepest condolences to Hussein’s family and said it held the “Israeli occupation responsible for this crime”

The International Federation of Journalists reported Hussein’s killing in the air raid, with General Secretary Anthony Bellanger writing on Twitter: “The Israeli government must be held responsible.”

The air raid came days after Israel bombed to the ground a Gaza building that housed residential apartments and the offices of international news organisations, including Al Jazeera and The Associated Press news agency.

Press freedom advocates sharply condemned the May 15 destruction of al-Jalaa tower as a brazen attempt to “silence” journalists covering the Israeli military’s ongoing offensive. Israel justified the attack by saying the building contained military assets of Hamas, the group running the Strip. It has not provided any evidence for its claim, which was vehemently rejected.

On May 11 and 12, Israeli fighter jets had also bombed and destroyed the al-Jawhara and al-Shorouk office buildings in Gaza City, which housed more than a dozen international and local media outlets.

“It is utterly unacceptable for Israel to bomb and destroy the offices of media outlets and endanger the lives of journalists, especially since Israeli authorities know where those media outlets are housed,” said Ignacio Miguel Delgado, Middle East and North Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Israeli authorities must ensure that journalists can do their jobs safely without fear of being injured or killed.”

At least 219 Palestinians, including 63 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israeli air raids on the coastal Palestinian territory began on May 10. More than 1,500 others have been wounded.

Twelve people in Israel, including two children, have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza, which came after days of protests of the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and resulting crackdowns and raids at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

United States President Joe Biden’s visit to an electric vehicle plant in Michigan has been met with boos as hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied to condemn his administration’s stance on Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Biden was also criticised on Tuesday for joking about running over a reporter who seemingly wanted to ask about the violence during a trip to the Ford Motor Company facility in Dearborn, a city at the heart of Michigan’s large Arab-American community.

As Biden pulled up in front of journalists while test driving a Ford electric truck, a reporter asked if she could make a question about Israel.

“No, you can’t,” said Biden. “Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it. I’m only teasing.”

He continued: “Okay, here we go ready?” he said before speeding away in the truck.

At a rally in Lapeer Park, more than 1,000 people gathered a few kilometres away from Biden’s event and booed at mentions of the Democratic president’s name.

“Joe Biden is going to hear from us today, one way or another,” lawyer Amer Zahr told the crowd, who chanted, “free, free Palestine”.

“He is funding the murder of our families,” Zahr said. “It’s ethnic cleansing. It’s that simple. This is not very complicated.”

Protesters also gathered at the Dearborn Police station and at the American Moslem Society mosque in Dearborn and marched through residential neighourhoods.

The Biden administration has come under increasing pressure to take a harder line against Israel during the ongoing bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, which has destroyed infrastructure and hundreds of Palestinian homes and what critics say amounts to collective punishment.

To date, 219 Palestinians, including 63 children, have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the escalation began on May 10.

Twelve people in Israel, including two children, have been killed by rockets fired by armed groups from Gaza, which came after days of protests of the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and resulting crackdowns and raids at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

On Monday, after days of public, largely unequivocal support for Israel, and silence on a ceasefire, Biden “expressed his support for a ceasefire” during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Nevertheless, the administration has three times blocked a United Nations Security Council Joint Statement calling for a ceasefire, with the US saying it is working towards a resolution through its own diplomatic channels and a US envoy who has been sent to Israel.

In a speech during his visit to the plant, Biden made only passing mention of the conflict, addressing Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first woman of Palestinian descent to be elected to US Congress, as she sat in the audience.

Biden said he would pray that her grandmother and other relatives were well in the occupied West Bank.

“I promise you I’m going to do everything to see that they are,” Biden said.

Tlaib is part of a small group of progressive legislators within Biden’s party to vocally condemn US support of Israel, with several accusing Israel of abuses and “apartheid” – allegations rarely made by US legislators against the close ally – in recent days.

The US provides about $2.8bn in aid annually to Israel as well as millions of dollars in arms sales.

During his trip, Biden met Tlaib and fellow Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell.

Tlaib told Biden that “Palestinian human rights are not a bargaining chip and must be protected, not negotiated,” according to an account provided by an ally of the congresswoman to Reuters

Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza Saturday to allow 10 ambulances to transport Palestinians seriously wounded in Israeli air strikes to Egyptian hospitals, medical officials said.

AFP says an official at the Gaza border said the opening was “exceptional” because it is usually closed during public holidays including Eid al-Fitr, this year running from Wednesday to Sunday in Egypt.

The Egyptian public health authority said Friday that the holiday was being suspended for some Egyptian doctors and nurses in preparation to receive “those coming from the Gaza Strip”.

The Rafah border crossing is usually open on working days.

Medical officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes have killed 139 people, including 39 children, since Monday. Around 950 people have been wounded.

Rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups have killed nine people in Israel, including a child and a soldier.

The strikes were retaliation for the Palestinian group Hamas launching rockets on Israel, after Israeli police moved in on Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque and cracked down on protests against planned Israeli expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in annexed east Jerusalem.

The grand imam of Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar mosque and university, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, late Friday launched a campaign on social media in “support the Palestinian people”.

“Stop the killing,” he said.

At least twenty-six persons lost their lives in separate incidents of communal clashes and road attacks in some parts of South Sudan. This is according to a local report.

Local media reported that the violence on Friday night saw civilians killed in an orgy of attacks.

A cattle rustling incident in Kuac County of Unity State left at least eleven people dead while a similar incident in Reweng Administrative Area on the same day left at least six people killed.

Meanwhile, in the Equatoria region, road ambushes in the Western and the Central Equatoria States left a total of nine people killed as well.

One incident, AFP reports, involved an ambush on the Central Equatoria governor’s envoy, where two of his guards were killed by armed men said to be part of a rebel group.

Authorities in Western Equatoria also accused the same rebel group, the National Salvation Front (NAS), of being an incident in Maridi County that claimed five lives.

Reacting to the occurrences, Malir Peter Biar, who heads Christian Agency for Peace and Development – a civic education, human right advocacy and peacebuilding organisation – blamed the continued attacks on slow implementation of the 2018 peace accord.

“The agreement mandated all parties to it to engage with the public by carrying out dialogues and sensitising them on the peace deal. It also stipulated unification of all forces and disbarment, but none of this has been done,” said Mr. Biar.

“You can also see the slow formation of State Governments, which are supposed to handle local issues related to gun violence. These gaps are aiding the killings, which [signal] a big failure of the unity government.”

He advised the presidency to immediately come up with a road map which clearly states how it will tackle insurgency across the country.

Last month, a report by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) attributed the continued grassroots conflicts and insecurity to the presence of arms in the hands of civilians.

In July last year, President Salva Kiir launched a disarmament campaign across the country in an attempt to end the cycle of violence in restive states.

The campaign targeted armed civilians in Lakes, Terekeka, Warrap and Jonglei, among other areas.

But a survey released recently by a national civil society organisation, working to reduce and prevent gun violence across the country, said some communities rejected President Kiir’s conflict resolution initiative, saying it leaves some communities vulnerable to others.

According to consultations by the South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms, communities say it is not sensible for some to be left armed.

This, they say, can leave some communities vulnerable to others as those unreached in the disarmament efforts will use the opportunity to steal cattle and other belongings, and put their lives in danger.

Communities in Jonglei, Lakes, Eastern Equatoria and Warrap States recommend the destruction of arms and ammunition collected from the public in order to avoid their flow back to civilians’ hands.

They also appealed to the government to create mechanisms that monitor, document, report and bring to justice members of forces that may abuse civilians during the process of civilian disarmament.

The armed civilians further said that for the disbarment exercise to be successful, there is a need for plans to register, store and dispose of the recovered arms to ensure they don’t spill back to communities.