24/09/2025

WEDNESDAY | SEPT 24, 2025

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Recognition offers no relief for traumatised Gazans

provide an opportunity for his first meeting with Trump, an important security ally, Australia did not appear among the countries listed by the White House on Monday for bilateral meetings in New York. Australian media outlets yesterday reported this as a “snub”. – Reuters 12 UN FACILITIES ATTACKED IN ONE WEEK ISTANBUL: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said yesterday that its 12 facilities in Gaza City were struck by Israel over the past week. “UNRWA confirmed either direct or indirect strikes on 12 UNRWA premises in Gaza City, including nine schools and two health centres sheltering over 11,000 individuals, between Sept 11 and 16,” the agency said. The agency’s Gaza Field Office was damaged in an indirect strike, and the only functioning health centre north of Wadi Gaza, in the northern Gaza Strip, was forced to suspend operations on Sept 13 due to damage sustained in one of the strikes, the statement said. “The massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, combined with severe disruptions to humanitarian operations and access constraints, is severely hindering the last remaining lifelines for civilians in Gaza City,” the agency said. – Bernama ESWATINI RETURNS DEPORTEE TO JAMAICA MBABANE: Eswatini has repatriated a Jamaican national deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The man, identified as Orville Isaac Etoria, was among a group of five foreign nationals who were sent to the small southern African country in July. The five, described by the United States as “barbaric” criminals, were held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison in Eswatini’s administrative capital, Mbabane. Etoria left Mbabane on Saturday and was received in his native Jamaica a day later, said acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli. The repatriation was carried out quietly, with no public announcement made at the time of Etoria’s departure. Eswatini was formerly known as Swaziland. – AFP TOGOLESE TAKE PROTESTS ONLINE PARIS: Togolese artists and activists living abroad have responded to intimidation of protesters in the country by spearheading a digital revolt to keep up pressure on President Faure Gnassingbe to leave power. Young people in the tiny west African country began taking to the streets in June to protest the arrest of critics, a rise in electricity prices and the new constitution. The latter allows Gnassingbe, who took power in 2005 following the death of his father Eyadema, to stand for election as many times as he likes. The protests began in response to calls for civil disobedience posted on TikTok and Facebook by the June 6 Movement, whose name refers to the president’s birthday and the day the protests began. The online revolt, begun by four overseas based Togolese citizens, is supported by influencers, bloggers, musicians and actors from the diaspora. – AFP

BR I E F S

we want our slaughter to end, that what we need now not declarations.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the global criticism of his military campaign and Israel’s increasing isolation, and said the war will not stop until Hamas is eliminated. President Donald Trump was scheduled to meet leaders and officials from Muslim-majority countries and discuss the situation in Gaza. Axios said Trump would present the group with a proposal for peace and post-war governance in Gaza. Washington wants Arab and Muslim countries to agree to send military forces to Gaza to enable Israel’s withdrawal and to secure funding for transition and rebuilding programmes, Axios reported. – Reuters

Israel global condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed. Despite this, Israel has begun a ground assault on Gaza City with few prospects for a ceasefire, and wants Hamas to hand over the last hostages seized in 2023. Gaza City is the capital of the Gaza Strip and used to house Hamas’ most powerful battalions before the war. “Are we now being killed as the citizens of the state of Palestine? Is that what happened?” said Abu Mustafa, hours after he fled his Gaza City home because Israeli tanks were close. “Those countries who suddenly remembered Palestine was occupied forgot that Gaza is being wiped out. We want the war to end, has drawn

o Israel weighs West Bank annexation

GAZA: Israel’s military pushed deeper towards the most populated areas of Gaza City yesterday, a painful reminder for Gazans that Western powers’ recognition of a Palestinian state does not mean an end to the horrors of war. Israel pressed on with its Gaza offensive a day after dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations to embrace a Palestinian state, a landmark diplomatic shift after nearly two years of war. Medics said at least four people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City, which Israel has advised civilians to leave for southern Gaza. “We are not steadfast, we are helpless. We don’t have money to leave to the south and we don’t have guarantees if we do the Israelis will not bomb us, so we are staying,” said Huda, a mother of two from Gaza City. “The children tremble all the time from the sounds of explosions, we do too, they are wiping out a city that is thousands years old and the world is celebrating a symbolic recognition of a state that won’t stop our killing,” she told Reuters via a chat app. Israeli forces detonated explosive-laden vehicles in the suburbs of Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa as tanks made a significant push towards the western side of Gaza City. Residents said the explosions destroyed dozens of homes and roads. Three hospitals were taken out of operation on Monday because of Israel’s ground offensive in the city, further weakening the health system and depriving residents of medical care, local authorities said. President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise Palestinian statehood at a meeting he convened with Saudi WASHINGTON: Dozens of Western nations called on Monday for the reopening of the medical corridor between Gaza and the Israeli occupied West Bank, offering to provide financial aid and medical staff or equipment to treat Gaza’s patients in the West Bank. “We strongly appeal to Israel to restore the medical corridor to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, so medical evacuations NEW YORK: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cited an Australian aid worker killed in Gaza, along with journalists and “tens of thousands of civilians”, in a speech at the United Nations where dozens of leaders met on Monday to promote Palestinian statehood. Australia was the first UN member

Arabia – a milestone that could boost Palestinian morale but appeared unlikely to change much on the ground. Israel has said such moves will undermine prospects for a peaceful end to the conflict. The two-state solution was the bedrock of the US-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords. The process suffered heavy pushback from both sides and has all but died. No such negotiations over a two state solution have been held since 2014. The most far-right government in Israel’s history has declared there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas.

Gaza City resident Nidal Daloul cries out as people try to rescue his trapped daughter, Noor, after Israeli airstrikes on Monday. – REUTERSPIC

Reopen medical corridor, occupying force urged

enough aid into the enclave. Images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage against Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced Gaza’s population and set off a starvation crisis. Rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defence. – Reuters

restrictions on deliveries of medicine and medical equipment to Gaza,”the statement said. Aid agencies said in late August that only a trickle of the aid that was needed, including medicine, had been reaching people in Gaza since Israel lifted a blockade on aid in May. The World Health Organisation said in May that Gaza’s health system is at a breaking point. Israel controls all access to Gaza and says it allows

to vote 78 years ago for the plan that made Israel’s statehood possible, and continued to stand with the Jewish people against anti-semitism, Albanese told the meeting. “The Israeli government must accept its share of responsibility” for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where tens of thousands of civilians had from Gaza can be resumed and patients can get the treatment that they so urgently need on Palestinian territory,” the countries said in a joint statement released by Canada. Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the European Union and Poland were among the two dozen signatories of the statement. The United States was not listed as a signatory. “We furthermore urge Israel to lift

Australian prime minister cites killed aid worker in speech

recognise Palestine based on commitments from the Palestinian Authority that Hamas hand over its weapons and have no role in a future state, and that elections are held, he said. Albanese is attending the UN General Assembly for the first time. Despite earlier hopes the trip would

been killed, he said. “Aid workers have been killed trying to deliver humanitarian assistance, including Australian Zomi Frankcom,” he said, noting also the journalists “killed trying to bring the truth to light”. Albanese’s centre-left Labor government had decided to