Region

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that US policy on Israel depends on the protection of civilians in Gaza, in his strongest hint yet of possible conditions to Washington's military aid.

The warning from the White House came after Israel's killing of seven aid workers unloading food in famine-threatened Gaza on Monday sparked international outrage and calls for Israel to rein in its offensive, now nearing its seventh month.

In Britain, which counted three nationals among the aid workers, a letter signed by more than 600 lawyers piled new pressure on the government to suspend arms export licences to Israel.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza's healthcare system, describing scenes of carnage that no hospital in the world would be able to handle.

"You get crush injuries to the abdomen, to the thorax; amputations are required for the legs and arms; and on top of that, patients suffer severe burns," its deputy programme manager of the Middle East, Amber Alayyan, said.

In his first call with Netanyahu since the deaths of the employees of US-based charity World Central Kitchen, Biden described the Israeli strike as "unacceptable and called for an "immediate ceasefire".

Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers", a White House statement said.

"He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps."

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington expected to see action from Israel within the "coming hours and days" but added that US support for Israel's defence remained "iron-clad".

"What we are looking to see and hope to see here in the coming hours and days is a dramatic increase in the humanitarian assistance getting in, additional crossings opened up, and a reduction in the violence against civilians and certainly aid workers," Kirby said.

Democrat Biden is facing growing pressure in an election year over his support for Israel’s Gaza war -- with allies pressing him to consider making the billions of dollars in military aid sent by the United States to its key ally each year dependent on Netanyahu listening to calls for restraint.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin too expressed “outrage” at the aid workers’ killings — which Israel has admitted to — in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.

The bodies of the six foreign staff of WCK — Australian, British, Polish and US-Canadian citizens — were repatriated from Gaza via Egypt on Wednesday, while the Palestinian employee was laid to rest in Gaza.

‘Concern’ over Rafah plan

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas, including in the south Gaza city of Rafah, while pledging to move the more than 1 million civilians in the city out of harm’s way first.

Austin said the aid charity “tragedy reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, specifically focusing on the need to ensure the evacuation of Palestinian civilians and the flow of humanitarian aid”.

The Israeli army said Gallant and Austin had also “discussed the threat posed by Iran and its proxy activities”, after Israel was blamed for a Monday air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed in a social media message that “with God’s help we will make the Zionists repent of their crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus”.

The Israeli military said that, after a “situational assessment, it was decided to increase manpower and draft reserve soldiers”.

The army also said “leave will be temporarily paused for all combat units”.

As Netanyahu has fought the war, he has faced intense domestic pressure from the families and supporters of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

War Cabinet member Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival of Netanyahu, has demanded that a snap election be held in September, a call rejected by the premier’s right-wing Likud Party.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war began with Hamas’ October 7 sudden attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Amid the heightened tensions, Israeli security services said they had foiled a plot to kill the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power Party, and to strike other targets.

‘Food for our families’

In besieged Gaza, where vast areas have been reduced to rubble, 2.4 million Palestinians have struggled on under bombardment while enduring dire shortages of food, water, fuel and other basic supplies.

The charity Oxfam said that people in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day — less than a can of beans, and a fraction of the recommended average daily 2,100 calorie intake per person.

In Gaza City, Palestinians spent the night near an aid delivery spot, hoping to secure a bag of flour.

“We sleep on the streets, in the cold, on the sand, enduring hardship to secure food for our families, especially our young children,” one man told AFP. “I don’t know what else to do or how our lives have come to this.”

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — The bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in an Israeli strike were on Wednesday taken out of Gaza to Egypt for repatriation, a security source said, as Israel faced a chorus of outrage over their deaths.

The Israeli military killed seven staff of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on Monday in an attack that UN chief Antonio Guterres labelled "unconscionable" and "an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted".

The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were taken in ambulances to the Rafah crossing to Egypt, where they were handed over to representatives of their respective countries, the security source said on condition of anonymity.

Israel's armed forces chief Herzi Halevi called the attack a "grave mistake", which he blamed on night-time "misidentification", adding in a video message that "we are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK".

The seven deaths piled more pressure on Israel, whose war since the Hamas sudden attack of October 7 has brought devastation and mass civilian casualties to Gaza, where the UN warns the population of 2.4 million is on the brink of famine.

US President Joe Biden said he was "outraged and heartbroken" by the deaths and charged that Israel "has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians".

 'Anger and concern' 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had voiced his "anger and concern" to Netanyahu, while Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador and demanded "full accountability".

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X to Netanyahu and Israel’s ambassador, saying the deaths were straining ties and that “the tragic attack against volunteers and your reaction are generating an understandable anger”.

Pope Francis also voiced “deep sorrow” and renewed his appeal for access to aid for the “exhausted and suffering civilian population” of Gaza, and for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas.

The charity said it was mourning the loss of its seven “heroes” and “beautiful souls”.

It said they had been killed in a “targeted attack” that was launched despite the group having coordinated its movements with Israeli forces.

It named those killed as Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25; Australian Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43; Britons John Chapman, 57, James (Jim) Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47; Pole Damian Sobol, 35; and US-Canadian Jacob Flickinger, 33.

After their deaths, the charity suspended operations and a ship that had carried food aid from Cyprus to Gaza turned back towards the Mediterranean island with around 240 tonnes of supplies that had not been unloaded.

Mass protests 

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas’s October 7 sudden attack, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,975 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The army said its forces had “killed and apprehended a number of terrorists” in fighting near the Al Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where they had also located numerous weapons.

Palestinian militants also seized around 250 hostages on October 7. Israel believes about 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

Talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal have stalled, with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh accusing Israel of procrastinating.

The families of the captives have staged four straight nights of mass protests, joined by a resurgent anti-government movement.

Thousands gathered in front of parliament Tuesday, with former prime minister Ehud Barak blaming Netanyahu for the October 7 “disaster” and demanding new elections.

The UN Human Rights Council will on Friday consider a draft resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.

The draft “condemns the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects by Israel in populated areas in Gaza” and of “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”.

There are 47 countries serving on the Human Rights Council — among them 18 states which brought forward the draft resolution. Twenty-four votes are needed for an outright majority, or possibly fewer if there are abstentions.

Israel has long accused the Human Rights Council of being biased against it.

TAMBOUL, Sudan — On a street corner in the Sudanese town of Tamboul, dozens of people tap feverishly on their phones, calling loved ones and moving money through online apps.

At the centre of their huddle is a bright white dish that connects to the internet via Starlink, the satellite system owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company.

Starlink has become a lifeline for some in a country where the internet has gone down regularly since war erupted last April between Sudan's army and paramilitary force.

But the system, which can bring connectivity where there is no land-based network, is not officially available in Sudan.

Instead, the kits have made their way into the country "illegally via Libya, South Sudan and Eritrea", one device reseller told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The cost for dishes and subscriptions can run into the hundreds of dollars, well out of reach for most Sudanese.

The fees are paid by Sudanese overseas or entrepreneurs like Mohamed Bellah, who runs an internet cafe in a village some 120 kilometres  south of Khartoum.

"You can make your money back in three days," he told AFP, saying the investment was worth every penny.

Anxious wait 

The conflict between the army of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has displaced millions and killed many thousands.

The banking system has collapsed and millions can now access money only via the Bank of Khartoum's app, Bankak.

Officials have not offered an explanation for the blackouts, though a near-total shutdown in February was widely blamed on the RSF.

Now people like Issam Ahmed, huddled around the dish in Tamboul, some 140 kilometres southeast of Khartoum, are reliant on Starlink.

He has been anxiously waiting for family news and financial support from his son, who works in Saudi Arabia.

"He sent me money through the bank app and I just transferred it to a currency dealer who will give me cash," Ahmed told AFP.

Starlink, which is available in more than 70 countries, allows users on high-cost tariffs to take their dishes with them across national boundaries.

Musk made a big play of deploying the system in war-torn Ukraine and during protests in Iran in 2022.

But he has made no such gesture on Sudan and none of the tariffs advertised on Starlink’s website would allow the kind of usage seen there. SpaceX has not responded to AFP’s requests for clarification.

RSF profiting 

The Sudanese government, which is loyal to the army, banned Starlink devices in December.

But by that stage, the RSF had already started exploiting the business opportunities.

In Qanab Al Halawein, a village southeast of Khartoum, RSF forces charge for access to their own dish.

They “set up the dish in the square every morning and leave in the evening with all the money they have made”, one resident told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An internet cafe owner in another village said RSF personnel came “every day” and took 150,000 Sudanese pounds ($140 for currency dealers) in exchange for allowing the cafe to offer Starlink.

The army caught on and partly backtracked on its ban, announcing in late February it would donate some Starlink dishes to residents in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.

Stiff commissions 

But the vast region of Darfur in Sudan’s west, home to around a quarter of its 48 million people, has been particularly hit by the war-time blackout.

Huge areas have been without any connection for nearly a year and use of the dishes has spread rapidly in a region largely controlled by the RSF.

“Without [Starlink] we could have never figured out how to receive money,” Mohammed Beshara told AFP via text message from the Otash camp in South Darfur.

But for Beshara and thousands like him, it takes money to get money.

He pays roughly $3 an hour for the connection and currency dealers take commissions for every Bankak transaction.

For desperate Tamboul residents like 43-year-old Arij Ahmed, paying commissions is a necessary sacrifice.

She walks five kilometres with her 12-year-old son to the Starlink dish “every week, when my husband in Qatar gets his pay cheque and he sends us a transfer”, she told AFP.

And every week, she hopes to get enough money to survive until her next connection.

CAIRO — Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi was sworn in on Tuesday before parliament for his third term in office as leader of the Arab world’s most populous country.

In power for the past decade, Sisi is set to remain president until 2030, after winning a December election with 89.6 per cent of the vote.

The oath also marked the inauguration of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, located in the desert east of Cairo, local media reported.

Sisi was elected president in 2018, both times with around 97 per cent of the vote.

For the past two years, his administration has struggled to contain the fallout of a punishing economic crisis that has seen the currency lose two-thirds of its value and inflation soar to a record 40 per cent last year.

In the first quarter of 2024, however, Egypt saw an influx of over $50 billion in loans and investment deals, which Cairo has said will ease dire foreign currency shortages and revitalise the economy.

GAZA  STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on Tuesday that Israel’s military had “unintentionally” killed seven aid workers with a US charity in an air strike in Gaza.

World Central Kitchen had earlier said a “targeted attack” by Israeli forces on Monday had killed the group, which included Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian employees.

Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador to London to hear its “unequivocal condemnation” of the strike, with three of those killed British, and demanded “full accountability”.

Netanyahu said it was a “tragic case” that would be investigated “right to the end”.

AFPTV footage showed the roof of a vehicle emblazoned with the group’s logo had been punctured, alongside the mangled wreck of other vehicles.

The White House was “heartbroken”, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on X, stressing that aid workers “must be protected”.

And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington urged “a swift, thorough and impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened”.

Israeli strikes continued throughout the territory with the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza saying 71 people were killed between Monday and Tuesday.

The Israeli military on Monday ended a two-week operation around Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, which left the complex in ruins and killed hundreds.

And regional tensions have surged after Israel was blamed for a deadly air strike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Tehran — which backs Hamas and other groups fighting Israel and its allies across the region — has vowed revenge against its long-time foe.

‘Catastrophic’ hunger 

Netanyahu has promised to push on with the war to destroy Hamas despite nightly street protests at home demanding he step down.

He has also faced some pushback from staunch ally the United States.

The White House said in a statement on Monday it had once again expressed concerns to Israel about a planned offensive in Gaza’s crowded southern city of Rafah, which is crowded with 1.5 million people, most of them displaced by the war.

Israel pledged to “take these concerns into account”.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

After ending its two-week operation at Al Shifa Hospital, the Israeli military said its troops had killed 200 enemy fighters in the battle.

A spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency said 300 people had been killed in and around the hospital.

Military spokesman rear admiral Daniel Hagari said there were “more terrorists in the hospital than patients or medical staff”, with 900 suspects detained, of whom over 500 were “definitely” fighters.

Hamas has repeatedly denied operating from hospitals.

Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since the start of the war, with the United Nations accusing Israel of preventing humanitarian aid deliveries and warning of “catastrophic” hunger.

The World Bank on Tuesday released an interim assessment that said the war had caused about $18.5 billion worth of damage to Gaza’s critical infrastructure.

That was equivalent to 97 percent of the combined economic output of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank in 2022, it said.

‘Heartbroken’ by deaths 

US-based WCK has been working to unload food brought to Gaza by sea from Cyprus.

The group’s CEO Erin Gore said: “I am heartbroken and appalled that we — World Central Kitchen and the world — lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the [Israeli army].”

The aid group said the team was travelling in a “de-conflicted” area in a convoy of “two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo” and another vehicle at the time of the strike.

“Despite coordinating movements with the [Israeli army], the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir Al Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” it said.

Cyprus said on Tuesday that the ship, the Jennifer, was returning to the Mediterranean island with around 240 tons of aid that had not been unloaded.

The Israeli military said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident”, adding it had been “working closely with WCK”.

The UN condemned what it said was Israel’s “disregard” for humanitarian law.

Iran vows revenge 

The Gaza war has ramped up tension between Israel and bitter foe Iran, as well as the groups it backs including Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Violence has also flared in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Monday’s strike in Damascus killed 13, including seven Iranians and six Syrians, according to reports on Iranian state TV.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven of its members were killed, including two commanders of the Quds Force — its foreign operations arm.

Israel has not commented but Iran has blamed its foe for the attack, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying the “evil Zionist regime will be punished” for the “crime”.

The UN Security Council was to discuss the strike later Tuesday at a meeting requested by Russia, an ally of Syria’s government.

ISTANBUL — Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents may have celebrated on Sunday’s local election hammering for the Turkish president as if they’d unseated him, but the “reis” (chief) still has at least four years of power ahead.

It was a rare knockback for 70-year-old Erdogan, in power for 21 years and confirmed in the post last May with over 52 per cent of the vote — albeit after fighting his first-ever run-off.

The president personally poured energy into the municipal election campaign in the ultimately vain hope of re-taking Istanbul, leaving voters to identify his party’s failures with Erdogan himself.

The Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) controls none of Turkey’s major cities and has even lost provinces and municipalities once thought impregnable to the secular, centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Nevertheless, “as a seasoned politician, [Erdogan] will adjust”, said Oxford University political scientist Dimitar Bechev, noting that “co-existence with mayors is already tried and tested”.

Some observers had prematurely predicted his political exit when AKP lost the Istanbul and Ankara mayorships in 2019.

Erdogan himself said on Sunday evening that “we will work with the mayors who have won” and called on his own camp to engage in “self-criticism”.

The president’s calm speech to a crowd of shaken supporters surprised observers, as he straightforwardly accepted the opposition surge, calling it a “turning point” for the AKP.

He later swatted aside speculation that he could call early elections to cling on to his presidential mandate for a little longer.

“Turkey has more than four years’ worth of treasure ahead of it. We cannot waste this period with discussions that will waste the time of the nation and the country,” Erdogan said.

‘Bet on nationalism’

With 265 seats, AKP remains by far the strongest force in the 598-seat parliament, and its alliance with far-right party MHP brings its seats in parliament to 314.

There are limits to the majority’s power: it lacks the numbers to revise the constitution to allow Erdogan to stand for president again in 2028.

Neither would there be much interest in Erdogan’s parliamentary allies dissolving the chamber for fresh elections as the leader “has lost the ability to attract voters from outside his ranks”, said Ahmet Insel, a Turkish political scientist living in exile. For now, Erdogan is likely to play the international statesman, he predicted, with an upcoming visit to Joe Biden’s White House on May 9.

“He’ll be able to keep things afloat until 2028, but beyond that it’s compromised... there’ll probably be a transfer of power” to the opposition, said Bayram Balci of Paris’ Sciences Po university, adding that “without Erdogan, there’s not much to the AKP”.

On the other hand, in a volatile region between Europe and the Middle East, “there’s a lot that could happen with Syria, Iraq or Russia” over the coming four years, “including on the internal security front”.

Erdogan was already talking tough late Sunday, warning that he “will not allow a ‘Terroristan’ on (Turkey’s) southern borders,” Insel pointed out.

The president may “bet on nationalism and the vital battle against terrorism, which the CHP will find hard to oppose”, he added.

Turkish warplanes were on Monday bombing positions of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, a group branded as terrorists by Ankara, Turkey’s western allies and now Baghdad.