25/03/2025

TUESDAY | MAR 25, 2025

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Russia sticks to moratorium despite Kyiv attacks MOSCOW: The Kremlin said yesterday that a Russian moratorium on striking energy infrastructure in Ukraine remained in place despite reports of continued Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure targets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was monitoring the situation and that the United States was able to do the same and come to its own conclusions. President Vladimir Putin agreed in a call with President Donald Trump on Tuesday last week to observe a 30-day ceasefire on Ukrainian energy targets. “So far, there have been no other orders from the president,” Peskov said when asked if Russia intended to maintain its moratorium or not. “Our armed forces are following all instructions of the supreme commander-in-chief, but of course we are monitoring the situation very closely. Our American interlocutors are also able to monitor the situation and draw the appropriate conclusions.” Kyiv, which accused Russia of flouting its moratorium almost immediately, said it would need to sign a formal document to suspend its own attacks, something which has not happened. Firefighters toiled yesterday for a fifth day to try to put out a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, ignited last week by a drone attack that the authorities blamed on Ukraine, the regional administration said. – Reuters POPE RENEWS CALL FOR END TO VIOLENCE ROME: Pope Francis renewed his call for peace, urging an end to the violence in Gaza and other conflict areas. He also expressed his gratitude for the international efforts aimed at fostering dialogue. In his first public appearance after five weeks of treatment, Pope Francis addressed over 3,000 people gathered in the courtyard of the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Sunday. He called for an immediate ceasefire and for the courage to resume dialogue, so that all hostages may be freed and a final ceasefire agreement reached, emphasising the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. – Bernama ISRAEL PM BERATES SECURITY CHIEF TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday accused Israel’s internal security chief, whose dismissal was blocked by the supreme court, of investigating far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir without his consent. “The claim that the prime minister authorised Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to gather evidence against minister Ben Gvir is yet another exposed lie,” Netanyahu said in a statement. He was responding to a report that Bar’s agency had spent months investigating far right infiltration of the police and its links to Ben Gvir. On Friday, Israel’s supreme court froze the government’s unprecedented decision to sack Bar. – AFP

Palestinians taking cover during an airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday. – REUTERSPIC

21 killed in Gaza airstrikes

“Contacts the neighbourhood are cut off and the fate of (people) is unknown. Families are trapped among the ruins, with no water, no food, no medicine, amid a total collapse of healthcare services,” it said in a statement. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 50,000 residents remained trapped in Rafah. The Israeli military said troops had encircled Tel Al-Sultan to dismantle “terror infrastructure sites and eliminate terrorists”. Palestinian officials on Sunday put the death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict at over 50,000. In Ramallah, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced the “extremely precarious” situation of Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military operation in the West Bank. According to the United Nations, some 40,000 residents have been with In a court brief dated Sunday, the government outlined its arguments for keeping Khalil in custody while his removal proceedings continue, arguing first that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction. The brief also says Khalil “withheld membership in certain organisations” which should be grounds for his deportation. It references a March 17 document in his deportation case that informed Khalil he could be removed because he failed to disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023. The UN said in August an investigation found nine of the agency’s 32,000 staff members may have been involved in the Oct 7 attacks.

displaced since Jan 21, when the Israeli army launched an operation targeting armed groups. The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law. The Israeli operation started two days after a truce agreement came into effect in the Gaza Strip. The situation is “extremely precarious”, said MSF, which is operating in the area. Palestinians “are without proper shelter, essential services and access to healthcare”, the NGO said. “The mental health situation is alarming.” The Israeli military said in a statement it follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals. – Reuters/AFP The court notice also accuses Khalil of leaving off his visa application that he worked for the Syria office in the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Attorneys for Khalil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One attorney, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the legal clinic CLEAR, was quoted in the New York Times as saying the new deportation grounds were “patently weak and pretextual”. “That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives,” Kassem said. – Reuters

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CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 21 Palestinians, authorities said yesterday, as Israeli forces operated in Rafah near the border with Egypt, escalating a new week-long aerial and ground offensive. Health officials said Israel has killed nearly 700 Palestinians since it resumed attacks on Gaza last Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after a ceasefire in January. It said the deaths included at least 400 women and children. Hamas said several of its senior political and security officials had also been killed. Israel says it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza. It says it does its best to reduce WASHINGTON: The US government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he worked for a UN Palestinian relief agency in his visa application, saying that should be grounds for deportation. The UN agency known as UNRWA provides food and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has become a flashpoint in the Israeli war in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the attack on Oct 7, 2023, leading the US to halt funding of the group. The administration on March 8 detained Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestine campus protests that rocked the New York City campus last year, and sent him to Louisiana in an attempt to remove

harm to civilians and has questioned the death toll by health authorities in the enclave. Israel’s defence minister said his country was fighting against Hamas and not Gaza civilians. “But when Hamas fights in civilian dress, from civilian homes, and from behind civilians, it puts civilians in danger and they pay a horrible price. That is why we are urging Gazans to evacuate combat zones,” Katz said on X. Hamas denies using the civilian population and property for military purposes.

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In Rafah, the municipality said thousands of people were trapped inside the Tel Al-Sultan area, where the Israeli military had sent some of its forces. New grounds cited for deportation of student

him from the United States. The case has drawn attention as a test of free speech rights, with supporters of Khalil saying he was targeted for publicly disagreeing with US policy on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner. The US alleges Khalil’s presence or activities in the country would have serious foreign policy consequences. A judge has ordered Khalil not to be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court. Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to become a permanent resident last year.