29/04/2026

WEDNESDAY | APR 29, 2026

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‘Israel using water access as weapon’ o MSF decries collective punishment

BAMAKO: Rebels in Mali have seized the key northern town of Kidal after coordinated attacks on strategic government positions, local sources said on Monday. Two days of fierce fighting between the army and groups allied with the Tuaregs have raised questions about the future of the military government running the west African country, which has seen more than a decade of violence. Defence Minister Sadio Camara has been killed, while military ruler General Assimi Goita, who led the coup in 2020 that brought the military to power, has not been seen or spoken publicly since fighting began at the weekend. Several strategic towns and areas around the capital, Bamako, were targeted in a dawn offensive on Saturday by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and an Al-Qaeda-linked group. Analysts said the latest attacks were the most serious challenge to the Malian state since a March 2012 offensive that was repelled by forces from former colonial ruler France, who DUBAI: President Donald Trump is unhappy with the latest Iranian proposal on resolving the two-month war, a US official said. Iran’s latest proposal would set aside discussion of Iran’s nuclear programme until the war, on hold following a ceasefire announced earlier this month, is ended and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved. Trump is unhappy with Iran’s proposal as he wants nuclear issues GENEVA: Israeli authorities are systematically depriving people in Gaza of the water they need to live, Doctors Without Borders warned yesterday, decrying a campaign of “collective punishment” against Palestinians. The extensive destruction of civilian water infrastructure in Gaza coupled with obstruction of access constitutes “an integral part of Israel’s genocide”, said the medical charity, which goes by its French acronym MSF. In a report entitled Water as a Weapon , MSF said the “engineered scarcity” was occurring alongside “direct killing of civilians, the devastation of health facilities, (and) the destruction of homes”. Together, this amounted to “the deliberate infliction of destructive and inhumane conditions of life on the Palestinian population in Gaza”, warned the report, based on testimonies and data MSF collected in 2024 and last year. “Israeli authorities know that without water, life ends,” MSF emergency manager Claire San Filippo said. “Yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza, while blocking water-related supplies from entering.” Despite an October ceasefire that largely halted the Gaza war, the territory remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue. The MSF report pointed to data from the United Nations, European Union and World Bank indicating that Israel had destroyed or

ISRAEL ISSUES EVACUATION NOTICE TEL AVIV: Israel’s military warned residents of more than a dozen villages and towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate and head north, saying it would respond to Hezbollah’s “violation of the ceasefire”. The military “does not intend to harm you, and out of concern for your safety, you are required to move to the Sidon District”, Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X. “Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, their facilities or their weapons is endangering their life.” All the areas listed in the post appear to be outside or on the border of the “Yellow Line” –a strip of Lebanese territory 10km deep along the border. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Hezbollah’s rockets and drones remained a threat requiring action. – AFP GERMANY’S MILITARY SHUNS PALANTIR FRANKFURT: Germany’s armed forces do not plan to award contracts to US data analytics and defence software company Palantir, a senior military officer told the Handelsblatt newspaper. “I don’t see that happening at the moment,” Thomas Daum, in charge of the German military’s cyber defence, was quoted as saying in the paper’s Tuesday edition. “As much as we are interested in the functionality for our own database, it is simply inconceivable to grant industry staff access to the national database.” Last month, Reuters reported that Palantir’s artificial intelligence system will become an official programme of record for the Pentagon, locking in long term use of the company’s weapons-targeting technology across the US military. The German army has been looking into artificial intelligence tools to analyse battlefield data more rapidly than humans. – Reuters

BR I E F S

water trucks and boreholes had been shot at or destroyed. “Palestinians have been injured and killed simply trying to access water,” San Filippo said. The charity said that besides the local authorities, it was the largest producer and main distributor of drinking water in Gaza. Last month, it provided more than 5.3 million litres of water each day, which meets the minimum needs of more than 407,000 people, or a fifth of Gaza’s population. However, “military displacement orders have locked our teams out of areas where we had provided water to hundreds of thousands of people,” the MSF said. MSF said a third of its requests to bring in critical water and sanitation supplies, including water desalination units, pumps, water tanks, insect repellent, chlorine and other chemicals to treat water, had “been rejected or left unanswered”. San Filippo said the deprivation of water, “combined with dire living conditions, extreme overcrowding, and a collapsed health system, create a perfect storm for the spread of diseases”. – AFP Organisation. That bloc includes Iran, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Central Asian states. Iran’s government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state media yesterday that Iran had prepared for maritime blockade scenarios as early as the US 2024 presidential election and made necessary arrangements. She said Tehran was using northern, eastern and western trade corridors that do not rely on Gulf ports to neutralise the blockade. – Reuters

Israeli soldiers raiding a site in Qalandya, West Bank, on Monday. – REUTERSPIC

been

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damaged nearly 90% of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza. “Desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems have

inaccessible,” it said. The charity documented several incidents where its clearly identified

Trump unhappy with latest Iranian proposal

term in office. Hopes of reviving peace efforts have receded since the president scrapped a visit planned for last weekend by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to mediator Pakistan. Iran’s Deputy Defence Minister Reza Talaei-Nik said yesterday that Tehran was ready to share defensive weapons capabilities and experiences gained from “America’s defeat” with “independent”nations including those of the Shanghai Cooperation

have since left the vast Sahel country. “The enemy’s goal was to take power by dismantling the institutions of the state,”Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga told a press conference aired by public broadcaster ORTM. He said lessons would be learnt so security could be improved and urged the public not to panic. The rebels have not said they want to seize power. They have, instead, seized Kidal, marking a major blow to Mali’s military government. “It’s the rebels who are in Kidal,” a source close to the governor said on Monday. “We have left Kidal.” Residents confirmed having seen Malian soldiers and their Russian mercenary backers leaving the town. Two loud blasts were heard on Monday evening near the airport area on the outskirts of Bamako, an AFP journalist said. It was not immediately possible to confirm the nature of the blasts, which came shortly after a convoy of pickup trucks and troop transport trucks was seen speeding towards the airport. – AFP dealt with from the outset, said a US official briefed on the president’s Monday meeting with his advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the US has “been clear about our red lines”. A previous agreement in 2015 between Iran and other countries curtailed Iran’s civilian nuclear programme. But that deal fell apart when Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in his first

Rebels control key Mali town

Tuareg rebels gathering at a roundabout in Kidal on Sunday. – AFPPIC