30/05/2026

SATURDAY | MAY 30, 2026

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Netanyahu orders military to control 70% of Gaza

prisoners of war, who provided testimony following their release. Drawing on data from the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the report cites 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, genital mutilation and electric shocks, committed overwhelmingly against men. Ukraine, while not included on the list, still faces criticism. The report notes 31 cases of sexual violence committed by Ukrainian security forces, particularly against prisoners of war. However, most of the incidents occurred prior to 2025, the report stated, adding that the government has strengthened legislation and permits the UN to conduct investigations. The report also deplores a “marked” increase in conflict-related sexual violence in 2025 compared with 2024. – AFP Russian drone hits Romanian building BUCHAREST: A Russian drone struck an apartment building in Nato-member Romania, its defence ministry said yesterday, wounding two individuals in a city near the Ukrainian border. Nato-member nations that border the warring sides are facing increasing risks as overnight air barrages intensify, with Latvia’s government collapsing in recent weeks due to scrutiny of its defence capacities following a stray Ukrainian drone incursion. “During the night of May 28 to 29, the Russian Federation resumed drone attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, near the river border with Romania,“ the Romanian defence ministry said. “One of the drones entered Romanian airspace, was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of the city of Galati, and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, with the impact triggering a fire.“ Emergency services said two individuals with abrasions required medical treatment and that the fire had been extinguished. Drone incursions in Romania have been detected dozens of times since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in 2022, but the latest incident was the first time one had hit a residential building. Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the drones were detected in Romanian airspace, the defence ministry said. A nationwide air raid alert had been issued in neighbouring Ukraine in anticipation of Russian strikes, with at least two wounded in the attack in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities. Nato-member states bordering Ukraine or Russia, including Romania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland are increasingly exposed to incursions into their territory by drones from both warring sides. Latvia, which borders Russia, appointed a new government on Thursday, two weeks after the collapse of the previous administration due to a row over stray Ukrainian drone incursions, which exposed weaknesses of the country’s air defences. The former Latvian prime minister had accused her defence minister of not deploying anti-drone defences fast enough to parry two wayward Ukraine attack drones, which are thought to have been knocked off course by Russian jamming. The drones caused minimal damage but sparked widespread concern in the former Soviet republic, which is now a member of Nato and the European Union. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered to send experts to Latvia to help it boost its air defences. Diplomatic efforts to end the four-year war have stalled since Washington’s attention was diverted in February to its conflict with Iran. – AFP

o Seized territory described as ‘buffer zones’

escalates its attacks in Gaza that it says target senior Hamas leaders. On Tuesday, Israel killed the armed wing chief of Hamas, ten days after killing his predecessor. Gaza health officials said an additional strike on Wednesday that Israel said targeted two Hamas leaders had killed at least 10 individuals, including five children, and wounded 18 others. That strike came as Palestinians were observing the Muslim holiday festival of Eid al-Adha, which many in Gaza celebrated by gathering together in tent encampments and in bombed-out buildings. Etidal Al-Za’im said she was with her family inside their tent during the holiday when suddenly rubble from a strike targeting the building next to them fell on top of them. “We came out to the sound of a bang, we sat for an hour before we could come out through the (rubble) and find a way out of the tent,” she said. Another man who witnessed Wednesday’s Israeli strike, who identified himself as Abu Azam, said a “person in Gaza has no safety at all.” – Reuters

deeper into Hamas-controlled territory. Maps issued by the military in March showed an even bigger restricted area that analysts say cordons off about 64% of Gaza’s territory in total. Netanyahu has repeatedly said in public remarks that the military controls more than 60% of Gaza. Speaking to a conference in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli leader said even more of Gaza would be taken. “We were at fifty, we moved to sixty. My directive is to move to ... let’s go step by step. “First of all, seventy. Let’s start with that. We’re pressing them (Hamas) from all sides. We’ll deal with the remnants.” Netanyahu described the territory Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as “buffer zones” that could stave off potential militant attacks. Palestinians view Israel’s widening Gaza buffer zone as a part of a strategy to permanently displace them, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defence chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage “voluntary migration” from Gaza. Netanyahu’s directive comes as Israel

TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he had directed Israel’s military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70% of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny strip of land along the coast. Israel effectively controls an estimated 64% of the tiny coastal strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault. Under an October 2025 US-brokered truce that has failed to halt Israeli attacks or secure the disarmament of Hamas, Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a “Yellow Line” demarcating the extent of their control. Marked on military maps, that line put Israel in control of some 53% of Gaza, with Hamas ruling the rest. Reuters has reported that Israel has unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line on the ground

RUBBLE AND RUIN ... Residents examining a damaged building at the site of an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon. – AFP

Israel, Russia added to UN sexual violence blacklist UNITED NATIONS: Israeli and Russian security forces have been added to a United Nations blacklist on sexual violence in conflict, according to a report reviewed on Thursday by AFP. members of the Israeli military, security forces and prison services.

according to the report, seen by AFP before its circulation among Security Council members. Regarding Israel, “in 2025, patterns of sexual violence against Palestinians detained in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory continued to be documented,“ the report stated. It added that the cases verified by the UN are indicative of multi-year trends but are not “comprehensive” given the denial of access to Israeli detention centres. Consequently, in 2025, the UN confirmed multiple cases dating back to 2023 of sexual violence, “including as a form of torture,“ against 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. These violations include rape with an object, gang rape, physical violence against the genitals, forced nudity and body searches conducted “without apparent security justification.” The perpetrators are identified by the UN as

On Thursday, Israel denounced the “shameful and absurd” decision by Guterres, calling it an attempt to “create a fake symmetry” with Hamas, which is already on the list. “We are done with this secretary-general,“ declared Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, in a post on X, signaling a “freeze” in Israel’s relations with the secretary-general’s office until the end of Guterres’s term on Dec 31. He also denied UN investigators had been denied access, asserting that its representatives had been invited to conduct investigations in Israel but “chose not to come, they chose to continue with the campaign against Israel.” Regarding Russia, the report highlights sexual violence in occupied Ukrainian territories and within Russia, perpetrated by armed forces and prison services, particularly against

Published annually by the UN, the list includes dozens of state and non-state groups credibly suspected of having engaged “systematically” in sexual violence in countries such as Sudan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Syria and Mali. In August 2025, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Israel and Russia of their possible inclusion on the list. Despite the warning, the report stated “incidents and patterns of sexual violence continued to be documented by the United Nations” in the war in Ukraine and in the occupied Palestinian territories. UN investigators faced “continued denial of access” from authorities in both countries,