02/06/2025

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Israeli gunfire kills 22 near aid site

Gulf labourers at risk as temperatures soar BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said yesterday that migrant workers in the Gulf were at risk from extreme heat, urging countries to extend protections for labourers exposed to soaring temperatures. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, where migrants represent a sizable share of the workforce, lie in one of the planet’s hottest regions where summer temperatures often edge towards 50° Celsius. “Summer aggravates the occupational health and safety catastrophe for the millions of migrant workers dangerously exposed to extreme heat,” said Michael Page, HRW’s deputy Middle East director. “Because Gulf states are dragging their feet on evidence-based labour protections, migrant workers are unnecessarily dying, experiencing kidney failure, and suffering from other chronic illnesses.” The wealthy Gulf states rely heavily on migrant workers particularly in construction, the majority of whom hail from India and Pakistan. To protect labourers, the states ban work under direct sunlight and in open-air areas at peak heat hours from mid-June until mid September as part of a longstanding “midday break” policy. HRW said “these extreme heat conditions are now more frequent and earlier, in May”, before the midday break comes into effect. A electrician in Kuwait interviewed by the New York-based rights group said he would feel “dizziness, vomiting, head pain, and blurry vision many times”, working during the summer months and “many people fall down because of heat”. HRW urged authorities and businesses to move away from “calendar-based midday bans”, to risk-based measures to gauge occupational heat stress. – AFP LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday he will “restore Britain’s war-fighting readiness” as his government warned of “growing” Russian aggression ahead of a major defence strategy review. “We will restore Britain’s war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces,” Starmer wrote in The Sun daily, including by ramping up weapons production capacity. His government’s Strategic Defence Review , due to be published today, will assess threats facing the UK, amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and pressure from US President Donald Trump for Nato allies to bolster their own defences. Starmer wrote that It will serve as “a blueprint for strength and security for decades to come”. Defence Secretary John Healey warned of “growing Russian aggression”, including through “daily” cyberattacks on the UK’s “defence system”. “We’re in a world that is changing now ... and it is a world of growing threats,” Healey told the BBC on Sunday. “It’s growing Russian aggression. It’s those daily cyberattacks, it’s new nuclear risks, and it’s increasing tension in other parts of the world as well.” The defence review will recommend “creating an ‘always on’ munitions production capacity in the UK” allowing the scaling up of weapons production if needed, according to the Ministry of Defence. The document also urges the government to create conditions in industry to boost munition stockpiles. In February, Starmer committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, up from its current 2.3%, and to further raise it to 3% by around 2029. His Labour administration has said it would cut British overseas aid to help fund the spending. – AFP UK to restore ‘war fighting readiness’

o Truce talks falter

Displaced Beit Lahia resident Sameh Hamuda, 33, said he had walked from Gaza City and spent the night with relatives in a tent near Rafah before heading to the aid centre around 5am to wait among a crowd of people. “They began distributing aid, but suddenly quadcopter drones opened fire and tanks started shooting. Several people were killed right in front of me,” he said. “I ran and survived. Death follows you as long as you’re in Gaza.” Abdullah Barbakh, 58, described “chaos, screaming and overcrowding” at the scene. “The army opened fire from drones and tanks. Chaos broke out. I don’t understand why they call people to the aid centres and then open fire. What are we supposed to do?”he said The Israeli military said it was “unaware of injuries caused by IDF (army) fire within the Humanitarian Aid distribution site. The matter is still under review.” Separately, Bassal said one person was killed and many others wounded by Israeli gunfire near another aid point in central Gaza. Nearly 20 months into the war, negotiations for a ceasefire and a deal to free the hostages have failed to produce a breakthrough since the last brief truce collapsed in March. Israel has since intensified its operations to destroy Hamas. The group said on Saturday that it had responded positively to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but had emphasised the need for a permanent ceasefire. Washington’s main negotiator on Gaza,

RAFAH: Gaza rescuers said Israeli gunfire killed at least 22 Palestinians near a US backed aid distribution site yesterday, shortly after Washington rejected Hamas’ response to a ceasefire proposal as “totally unacceptable”. International critics, including some allies, have condemned Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the United Nations has warned the entire population faces famine after a more than two-month blockade on aid. Israel recently introduced a revamped aid delivery mechanism in cooperation with a newly formed US-backed organisation, bypassing the longstanding UN-led system. The organisation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says it has distributed hundreds of thousands of meals since operations began last week, but the rollout has been marked by chaotic scenes at the limited number of distribution centres, as well as reports of casualties from Israeli fire nearby. Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli fire near one of the centres in the southern city of Rafah yesterday morning had killed “at least 22, with more than 120 wounded, including children”. Images from the scene showed some civilians transporting bodies on donkey carts, as others carried away boxes and bags of aid under the low, early-morning sun. The casualties were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Bassal said. A highway bridge over a railway in Bryansk was blown up on Saturday night just as a passenger train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath, Russian investigators said. Four hours later, a railway bridge over a highway was blown up in the neighbouring Kursk region showering the road with parts of a freight train, the investigators said. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crime, linked the incidents and said both bridges were blown up. In Bryansk, social media pictures and videos showed passengers trying to climb out of smashed carriages in the dark. Part of the train was shown crushed under a collapsed bridge and wrecked carriages lay beside the lines. “The bridge was blown up while the Klimovo-Moscow train was passing through with 388 passengers on board,” said Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz. The regions bordering Ukraine have been subject to attacks by Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Both sides accuse the other of targeting civilians. There was no comment from Ukraine on the incidents, which took place just a day before the United States wants Russia and Ukraine to meet in Istanbul to discuss a possible end to a war which, according to Washington, has killed and injured at least 1.2 million people. Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency said a blast had derailed a Russian military train hauling cargo and fuel trucks near Yakymivka, in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

A mourner is overwhelmed by emotion during the funeral of Palestinians killed in strikes in Khan Younis yesterday. – REUTERSPIC envoy Steve Witkoff, criticised Hamas’ reply as “totally unacceptable”, an assessment echoed by Israel, which on Friday had warned Hamas to either accept the deal “or be annihilated”. Witkoff urged the group to “accept the framework proposal we put forward”. “That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have ... substantive negotiations in good faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire,” he added in a post on X. Of the 251 hostages taken during the Oct 7, 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. – AFP

Russian bridges blown up before peace talks MOSCOW: At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when two bridges were blown up in regions bordering Ukraine ahead of planned peace talks aimed at ending the three-year-old war in Ukraine, Russian officials said yesterday.

Workers clearing the site of a collapsed bridge in Bryansk yesterday. – REUTERSPIC The agency did not attribute the explosion to anyone, though Ukraine has in the past claimed a series of attacks deep into Russia. Russian politicians blamed Ukraine, saying it was clearly sabotage aimed at derailing the peace talks.

US President Donald Trump has demanded the sides make peace and has threatened to walk away if they do not – potentially pushing responsibility for supporting Ukraine onto the shoulders of European powers. But as politicians talk of negotiations, the war is heating up, with swarms of drones launched by Russia and Ukraine and Russian troops advancing at key points along the front in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has not committed to attending the talks in Turkiye, saying it first needed to see Russia’s proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be “hit hard” by new US sanctions. – Reuters

“This is definitely the work of the Ukrainian special services,” said Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the defence committee of the lower house of the Russian parliament. “All this is aimed at toughening the position of the Russian Federation and stoking aggression before the negotiations.” President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the bridge blasts, the Kremlin said.