21 Israeli troops are killed in the deadliest attack on the military since the Gaza offensive began

Palestinian militants carried out the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces in Gaza since the Hamas raid that triggered the war, killing 21 soldiers, the military said Tuesday, a significant setback that could add to mounting calls for a cease-fire.

Hours later, the military announced that ground forces had encircled the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest, and thick, black smoke could be seen rising over the city as thousands of Palestinians fled south. Witnesses said Israeli tanks and troops had also moved into Muwasi, a nearby coastal area that the military had previously declared a safe zone for Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the Israeli soldiers, who died when the blast from a rocket-propelled grenade triggered explosives they were laying to blow up buildings. But he vowed to press ahead until “absolute victory,” including crushing Hamas and freeing more than 100 Israeli hostages still held by the militants.

Israelis are increasingly questioning whether it’s possible to achieve those war aims.

In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, outraged Israelis set aside long simmering political differences and rallied behind the war. More than 100 days later, divisions are re-emerging, and anger is growing over Netanyahu’s conduct of the war. Families of the hostages have called for Israel to reach a deal with Hamas, saying time is running out to bring their relatives home alive.

A senior Egyptian official said Israel has proposed a two-month cease-fire in which the hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.

The official, who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas rejected the proposal and insists no more hostages will be released until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. Israel’s government declined to comment on the talks.

Egypt and Qatar — which have brokered past agreements between Israel and Hamas — were developing a multistage proposal to try to bridge the gaps, the official said.

‘ONE OF THE HARDEST DAYS’ FOR ISRAEL

Israeli reservists were preparing explosives Monday to demolish two buildings outside central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, near the Israeli border, when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby. The blast triggered the explosives, collapsing both two-story buildings onto the soldiers.

Israeli media said the troops were working to create an informal buffer zone, about a kilometer wide (0.6 miles) along the border to prevent militants from attacking Israeli communities near Gaza. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the mission was to clear buildings to “create the conditions” that would allow the residents of the south to return to their homes.

The United States has said it would oppose any attempt by Israel to shrink Gaza’s territory.

Throughout the war, Israeli troops have used controlled detonations to destroy structures that the military says hide Hamas tunnels or have been used by militants as firing positions — one reason for the massive destruction wreaked by the ground offensive. Blasts have destroyed entire city blocks, apartment complexes, government buildings and universities, fueling Palestinians’ fears that the territory will left unlivable.

At least 217 soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began in late October, including three killed in a separate event Monday, according to the military.

Netanyahu acknowledged on social media that it was “one of the hardest days” of the war but vowed to keep up the offensive.

“We are in the middle of a war that is more than justified. In this war, we are making big achievements, like the encircling of Khan Younis, and there are also very heavy losses,” he later said in a video statement.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas crossed the border Oct. 7, killing over 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others. More than 100 were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire.

The offensive has caused widespread death and destruction, killing at least 25,490 people — the majority women and children — and wounding another 63,354, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. An estimated 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes in a humanitarian crisis that has left one-quarter of the population facing starvation.

TROOPS IN THE “SAFE ZONE”

With fighting raging in neighboring Khan Younis city, witnesses said that in the past few days Israeli troops and tanks had entered parts of Muwasi. Previously, the military had told Palestinians to take refuge in the tiny rural area on the Mediterranean coast, saying it would be spared military operations.

On Monday, troops stormed Al-Khair Hospital inside the zone and struck the nearby Al-Aqsa University where displaced people were sheltering, according to health officials.

The advance sent families who had fled to the area from fighting elsewhere fleeing once more, said one witness, Aseel al-Muqayed. One main street “had been very crowded with displaced people, you could hardly find a place without a tent. Now the area is almost empty,” she said, adding that she had seen tanks now stationed nearby.

The 21-year-old al-Muqayed has already been displaced multiple times since her family evacuated from northern Gaza. They moved repeatedly, fleeing bombardment — her younger brother and a cousin were killed in a strike that hit one of their refuges — and eventually ended up in Khan Younis. She came to Muwasi several days ago, learning there was electricity there to charge her mother’s phone, and now was afraid to move.

“For two nights, we have not been able to sleep as the sounds of tanks, gunfire and explosions are very close,” she said.

Inside Khan Younis, heavy fighting raged around the two main hospitals. Shelling hit the fourth floor of Al-Amal Hospital, where a shell hit the fourth floor, killing one person and wounding 10 others, according to Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent rescue service which runs the facility.

Shelling on Monday also hit a U.N. school in the city sheltering displaced people, killing at least six people, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Israel’s offensive has focused for weeks on Khan Younis and several urban refugee camps in central Gaza, after the military claimed to have largely defeated Hamas in the north.

Israel believes Hamas commanders may be hiding in tunnels beneath Khan Younis, the hometown of the group’s top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, whose location is unknown.

PRESSURE FOR A CEASE-FIRE

The growing death toll and dire humanitarian situation have led to increasing international pressure on Israel to scale back the offensive and agree to a path for the creation of a Palestinian state after the war. The United States, which has provided crucial military aid for the offensive, has joined those calls.

But Netanyahu, whose popularity has plummeted since Oct. 7 and whose governing coalition is beholden to far-right parties, has rebuffed both demands.

Instead, he has said Israel will need to expand operations and eventually take over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt — an area where some 1 million Palestinians are packed into overflowing U.N.-run shelters and sprawling tent camps.

That drew an angry protest from Egypt’s government, which rejected Israeli allegations that Hamas smuggles in weapons across the heavily guarded frontier.

Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said Monday that any Israeli move to occupy the border area would “lead to a serious threat” to relations between the two countries, which signed a landmark peace treaty over four decades ago. Egypt is also deeply concerned about any potential influx of Palestinian refugees into its Sinai Peninsula.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities kill 18, Zelenskiy says

Russian missiles hit Ukraine's two largest cities, killing 18 people, injuring more than 130 and damaging homes and infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said as Moscow's war approaches its third year.

The eastern city of Kharkiv suffered three waves of attacks. There were strikes on Kyiv and in central Ukraine and the southern region of Kherson, subject to constant shelling.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Russia had launched nearly 40 missiles of different types in "another combined strike to try to circumvent our air defence system".

More than 200 sites were hit, including 139 dwellings, with many deaths in "an ordinary high-rise apartment building. Ordinary people lived there," he said.

Kharkiv's mayor and the governor of Kharkiv region said eight people had been killed in the city, which has been subjected to repeated attacks in 23 months of war.

Ukraine's Emergency Services posted online a video of teams sifting through a shattered apartment building. Police said search operations were suspended before midnight as there was a danger of debris falling on rescue squads.

Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said more than 100 high-rise blocks had been damaged in the first two attacks. He said there were three hits in the evening on an apartment block and other infrastructure, injuring seven.

Ukraine's General Staff said the country's armed forces had destroyed 22 of 44 missiles of various types. Nearly 20 had been shot down over Kyiv, the city's military administration said.

The strikes coincided with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov telling the latest international ministerial meeting on Kyiv's defence needs that Russia was stepping up missile attacks.

Over the past two months, he said, Russian forces had used more than 600 missiles and more than 1,000 drones.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said after the meeting that Berlin would send six "Sea King" helicopters to Ukraine later this year, the first delivery of its kind.

WOUNDED IN KYIV

In Kyiv, emergency services said 22 people, including four children, had been wounded across at least three districts. At one site, rescuers tended to dazed and groaning victims as workers swept away debris and broken glass.

"There was a very loud bang, and my mother was already running outside, shouting that we need to leave. We all went to the corridor," said Daniel Boliukh, 21.

"Then, we went on the balcony to have a look, and saw all these buildings were on fire."

Emergency services said apartment buildings, medical and educational institutions were damaged in Kyiv. Some of the damage occurred next to the United Nations office, resident coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement.

The Kremlin, asked to comment on the strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv, said the Russian military does not target civilians.

Kherson regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian aircraft had pounded his region throughout the day. Officials said two people had died. One person was killed in the southeastern city of Pavlohrad, the regional governor said.

The attacks damaged a gas pipeline in Kharkiv and thousands were left without power after infrastructure was hit.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on cities and civilian infrastructure far behind the front lines since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Its troops, meanwhile, are attacking along the sprawling eastern front and seeking to seize the initiative, Ukraine's military says.

Russian forces have increasingly employed a mix of air- and land-based missiles that are more difficult to shoot down.

Moscow accused Kyiv on Sunday of shelling the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, killing 27 people. Ukrainian forces said Russia bore responsibility for the attack.

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday it had struck enterprises producing missiles, explosives and ammunition.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian strikes on Kiev and Kharkov not retaliation for Donetsk – Kremlin

Russian missile strikes on Kiev and Kharkov on Tuesday morning were not retaliation for the recent Ukrainian attack on a busy market in Donetsk, which killed over two dozen civilians, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. 

His statement came after the Russian Defense Ministry reported carrying out a large series of high-precision missile strikes on military targets in Ukraine, particularly sites producing rockets and other munitions. 

Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday, however, that residential buildings in Kharkov and Kiev had sustained damage and that several dozen people had been injured in the attacks. The Ukrainian military also claimed to have shot down 21 out of 41 missiles fired by Russia. However, it was unclear where those projectiles landed and if they could have been the cause of the damage sustained in residential areas in the two Ukrainian cities.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov stated that the Russian attack was not a response to Kiev’s assault on Donetsk, stressing that it was only part of Moscow’s ongoing operation. He also insisted that Russian forces “do not target social infrastructure, residential areas or civilians, unlike the Kiev regime.” 

”This is what fundamentally distinguishes our military from the military of the Kiev regime,” Peskov emphasized. 

Tuesday’s missile strikes follow the shelling of the Russian city of Donetsk on Sunday. The attack, which targeted a busy local market and shops, left 27 civilians dead and several dozen others seriously injured, including children. Moscow condemned the attack as “barbaric” and a “heinous act of terrorism,” also suggesting it was carried out with Western support.  

”The Kiev regime continues to show its savage face, they strike at civilian infrastructure, at people, at the civilian population,” Peskov said following the incident, adding that Moscow will do everything possible to prevent any repeat in future.  

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Sunday’s attack on Donetsk but refused to assign blame, instead calling for a general cessation of any hostilities toward civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Reuters/RT

Vincent Deary, psychologist, fatigue specialist and author, has been telling me what an “anxious creature” he is. He barely slept last night. The hotel room was unfamiliar and noisy. Worse, the prospect of an interview and of meeting someone new made his arrhythmic heart race.

It’s racing now as we sit together in a London hotel. We’re here to discuss his new book, How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living, an exploration of our varying responses to the corrosive pressures of daily life, especially work, and an assertion of the vital necessity of rest, recovery and the lost art of convalescence. The book is the second in a trilogy by Deary, a professor of psychology at Northumbria University and a clinical fatigue specialist at the Cresta Fatigue Clinic, a role from which he has just retired. The NHS clinic, which is closing later this year, is unique in the UK for taking a multi-disciplinary approach to disabling fatigue. Deary goes on to share something else with me: he dreads the intimacy of dinner parties and hates surprises, before adding that his partner of 10 years recently threw a surprise party for his 60th birthday – and he loved it. Proof, it seems, that people can change.

Well yes and no. Deary believes we can make changes, if circumstances allow, and we can adapt, but we can’t fundamentally change the self we were born with. First, there’s our genetic makeup. Then, he says, there’s our constitution, which is encoded with memories of previous generations and sometimes by intergenerational trauma; the body remembers, it keeps score. Deary offers himself up as a good example of this, and there are three other case histories in the book, including that of his late mother.

When he hit 40, long since amicably divorced, Deary left his job as an NHS therapist, sold up in London, moved back to Scotland, and corralled material for the first book. Five years later, he became a single parent when his 16-year-old daughter came to live with him. The finished book cowered in a drawer, Deary lacking the confidence to seek publication. How to Live, the first book in the trilogy, was finally published when he was 50. Now he was an author, too, an acclaimed one. Lots of changes there then.

But who he is, fundamentally, has not changed, he says. “I still have social anxiety.” What he has managed to change is his relationship with this anxiety: “I recognise that it is part of me, that it’s going to show up, so I now literally bring it along with me as a companion. And that’s OK. It might mean I am hyper and talk a lot, but that can be quite useful.”

For Deary, arriving at this place of self-acceptance and self-love has been a project, it’s been work and that’s also OK, because we each have to work on the self we are born with in order to survive, or thrive. Some, like Deary, won’t be a good fit for their environment, which means “some of us are harder work for ourselves than others”. We “tremble” as we encounter the turbulence of life, including the changes we have to navigate but, again, some of us tremble more than others. In turn, holding steady in the face of change, what’s known as the allostatic load, becomes too much, “There’s no wriggle room and we break,” as Deary himself did while writing his new book.

As part of his work on himself, Deary has traced the reach and roots of his anxiety, as he does for his patients in the fatigue clinic. Early on, he “meets” an effeminate child growing up in a working-class culture on the west coast of Scotland and sees what “a misfit” he was. He ran with the “rejects and the freaks”.

“I was visibly different from my peers,” he tells me, “very gentle, soft-spoken. I was little and timorous by nature. That’s not necessarily great in a working-class comprehensive in the 70s in Scotland. There was bullying. I was called either snobby or poofy. I was neither.” He had a big nose and was called Concorde. “My body remembers the early threats; I am still easily frightened.”

So was his mother. Gentle and open-minded, she had a punitive upbringing and, like her son, had an “anxious constitution”. Deary was an “unexpected pregnancy,” he writes, his mother already dealing with a large family and the wear and tear of poverty and a difficult marriage. “I was born alarmed,” he writes. But home was good. “I had quite an exceptional mother,” he says, “and an exceptional home life. We were enculturated into art, literature, theatre very early on and so that marked us out as different. I did not come from a typical west coast Scottish family.”

He shares his story in the book, not “to say I had a really difficult time, but because I wanted people to find resonance – I wanted them to see that when you don’t fit in, you’re given back to yourself as work because you need to learn to manage that not fitting. You need to learn to manage the difficult feelings coming out of that and you need to learn to manage yourself.”

Key to that self-management is not only understanding and self-love, but rest. Deary has a mantra: work needs rest and rest takes work. We need to take time out to rest in order to heal from extreme exhaustion, chronic illness, or unexpected life events, what Deary terms “biographical disruption”. We also need to take a rest from work and free ourselves from an “audit culture” that pushes us, sometimes to breaking point. But first, we need to learn how to rest. “It’s a skill,” he says, one that nowadays has to be acquired.

“One of the things I noticed in the fatigue clinic is that tired people can often do the things they need to do, but a lot of them really struggle with switching off. We often associate our worth and our value in terms of productivity and output. Both within academia and the NHS there are whole mini-industries dedicated to evaluating your productivity and your output, often telling you that you could do better and, actually, could you do better with less, please. It’s very easy to buy into that narrative that your work equals your productivity. So, for people who are exhausted and can’t be productive, it’s very easy to go, I don’t deserve to rest, I am worthless, I have done nothing to earn this.

“But we need to allow ourselves to rest, to nap, to enjoy, to deliberately switch on to joy and nourishment and the stuff that actually fills the tank. I wrote this book to understand myself, but also because, in the last few years, I saw friends, family, colleagues, society, to an extent, just become overwhelmed, or exhausted, or hopeless or joyless. Ordinary people going through ordinary suffering. Some of them crossed the clinical line into physical or mental health systems, but most of them were just struggling to get on with life. Often the first casualty of stress is joy. Deliberately leaning into that joy and finding out the stuff that restores you is really key to recovery.”

Some GPs have started handing out joy as a “social prescription”. But how do we identify what brings us joy? “The clue is in our everyday language: ‘That really lifted my spirits,’ or ‘I got a lot out of that.’ It’s the stuff that cheers us up or energises us.” A meal with loved ones is often high up on the list. Deary’s academic research looks at the challenges faced by head and neck cancer survivors. “It’s not the food they miss,” he says, “it’s the sharing. They were mourning the connection. It’s what we call commensality: that social magic which comes when you’re sharing food. Our research with food and head and neck cancer and other conditions highlighted that pleasure is a necessity; being deprived of it is literally depressing and demoralising.”

One day, halfway through writing How We Break, Deary discovered this for himself. He woke up “in a state of exhaustion. I had no real ability to get out of bed. When I finally took myself for a walk, I was wiped out the next day. I was in a state of hopeless exhaustion. My mood went down as well. I was completely disengaged from life. It was a very difficult time.”

To recover he did “what I help people in the fatigue clinic do, which is, gradually get back into things at my own pace and do a combination of physical and emotional rehab. Incremental engagement with life. I think that is what true convalescence is. It’s not just rest and it’s not just activity, it’s that mixture of both: it’s acknowledging that there is a deep need for rest and recovery. It’s like Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain where they are all sitting about in the sanatorium: there’s the beauty, there’s the connection, there’s the food. There’s the joy” – even in an interview. “A joyful encounter!” was Deary’s verdict, glad that he came, proud of himself and proof that a little self-love goes a long way to ease the wear and tear of life.

The Guardian, UK

Northern Senators Forum (NSF) has condemned the relocation of some departments in the Central Bank of Nigeria and the headquarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos State.

The senators called on the federal government to consider reversal of the relocated departments or ready to face legal actions.

Suleiman Kawu, spokesperson of NSF, made the call in a statement on Monday.

The CBN in an internal memo last week announced plans to transfer some of its departments to Lagos on the ground that its headquarters in Abuja is congested with staff.

Similarly, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo also announced the relocation of the FAAN headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.

Kawu, a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), representing Kano South in the upper chamber, explained that northerners are not satisfied with the relocation of the two federal government agencies to Lagos.

He said the northern senators have started engaging with their colleagues from other geopolitical zones in order to ensure that the relocated departments in the two federal agencies are reversed to Abuja.

The senator urged the aggrieved northerners to exercise patience with the inconveniences they might have faced due to the relocation of the agencies to Lagos.

“First and foremost, let us assure our constituents that we have taken their concerns seriously and are actively engaging with our colleagues in order to address these matters effectively. We firmly believe in the power of open dialogue and collaboration to bring about positive change for our nation.

“We urge our constituents to remain patient as we diligently explore avenues for dialogues, engage in peaceful negotiations, and deploy legal measures where necessary.

“Rest assured, our actions align with the constitutional framework and the laws of the land, as we endeavour to uphold justice and fairness,” he said.

Kawu said the forum’s members will discuss with the federal government, leadership of the Senate and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that the offices are returned to Abuja.

“It is our belief that through effective communication, mutual respect, and a shared vision, we can forge a path that leads to positive change. We will engage the executive branch of the government and the leadership of the Senate and the relevant stakeholders to actively listen to the concerns of Nigerians and provide updates on our progress.

“We encourage everyone to participate in these channels of communication, ensuring that their voices are heard and their perspectives valued.

“In conclusion, we, as representatives of the people, are fully committed to resolving the pressing issues at hand. We ask for your continued support, trust, and patience as we work towards delivering positive outcomes for our constituents and upholding the values enshrined in our Constitution.”

This is the third time that a Northern group will be condemning relocation of the two federal government agencies since it was made public.

The Northern Elders Forum and Arewa Consultative Forum had earlier condemned the relocation of the offices, claiming that the decision was to further underdevelop the northern part of the country. 

PT

The 16 members of the Plateau house of assembly sacked by the court of appeal have resolved to resume legislative duties on Tuesday (today).

In November 2023, the legislators who were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were sacked by the appeal court over a lack of party structure.

The election of Caleb Mutfwang, governor of the state, was also nullified by the court for the same reason.

However, Mutfwang’s sack was reversed by the supreme court on January 12. The apex court had ruled that the appeal court erred in its judgment.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, the sacked legislators claimed that they were only on recess and ready to resume.

Ishaku Maren, spokesperson of the group, said the sacked legislators were duly elected in their various constituencies.

Maren, who was the majority leader of the assembly before the appeal court judgment, said the court’s ruling was a miscarriage of justice.

“It was even in the words of the supreme court that the appeal court judgment was a miscarriage of justice,” Maren said.

“I want to also state that even in law, it says that if there is an injury, there will certainly be a remedy.

“Our constituents are willing and ready to accompany us to the assembly tomorrow because they voted for us, and they are not ready to compromise that.”

The Cable

The Canadian government has announced a two-year cap on study permits to limit its number of international students.

Marc Miller, the minister of immigration, on Monday, disclosed what he described as principal measures to improve programme integrity and maintain a sustainable level of presence among international students coming into the North American country.

He said the Canadian government will cap the number of student visas to be granted over the next two years.

Miller said Canada will approve 364,000 undergraduate study permits in 2024, a reduction of 35 percent from 2023.

He said each province and territory will be allotted a portion of this total, with permits to be distributed by population.

“It is the latest in a series of measures to improve programme integrity and set international students up for success to maintain a sustainable level of temporary presence in Canada as well,” he said.

“We will continue to work closely with those provinces to put these measures in place as they will be responsible for determining how the cap is distributed between its designated learning institutions that they have jurisdiction over.”

In addition to the cap, Miller said Canada will also now require international students applying for a study permit to provide an attestation letter from a province or territory.

The immigration minister also announced changes to the post-graduation work permit programme.

He said international students who begin a programme that is part of a curriculum licensing arrangement will no longer be eligible for a post-graduation work permit starting from September.

The Cable

Gunmen suspected to be bandits dressed in military uniforms have kidnapped 31 villagers in a coordinated attack carried out in Tashar Nagule village of Batsari local government area of Katsina State.

A credible source in the area disclosed that the armed men in large numbers appeared in military uniforms inside the community on Sunday night and seized both women, children and men, numbering 31.

He explained that the assailants had first besieged the community before sending some of their men through the main entrance to kidnap the villagers, while their motorcycles were left outside the community.

“I was sitting outside with some of my friends around 9pm when we first heard gunshots. We stood up to run from the place but the terrorists shouted that we should stop because they were security agents sent to protect us.

“They knew that when they said they were policemen or soldiers sent to protect us, we will believe them, and that was what happened,” the source narrated.

The source reiterated that residents were deceived and began to gather at the village square, not knowing that the intruders, some of whom wore military camouflage, were not security operatives but bandits.

He said, “When the terrorists had circled the residents, they told them to follow them into the forest. That was when I knew they were not security agents. I slipped out of the group and ran back into my house.

“As of now (Monday morning), we have counted 31 people who had been taken away. Some of them were abducted when they ran outside into the bush because several terrorists were stationed outside the village to lay ambush.”

Batsari LGA and its environs have been under constant attacks of bandits recently, forcing many residents of the area to flee their homes to seek refuge elsewhere in more urban centres.

Meanwhile, Katsina State Police Command was yet to make any official statement regarding the latest attack as the time of this report.

Leadership

Families of hostages held in Gaza storm Israel's parliament meeting demanding deal for release

Dozens of family members of hostages held by Hamas stormed a committee meeting in Israel’s parliament Monday, demanding a deal to win their loved ones’ release, as European foreign ministers joined growing international calls for Israel to negotiate on the creation of a Palestinian state after the war.

The developments showed the increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has dug in on both fronts. He has insisted to the Israeli public that pursuing the devastating offensive in Gaza is the only way to bring the hostages home. At the same time, he has rejected the United States’ vision for a postwar resolution, saying he will never allow a Palestinian state.

The dispute over Gaza’s future pits Israel against its top ally and much of the international community. It also poses a major obstacle to plans for postwar governance or reconstruction of the coastal territory, large parts of which have been left unlivable by Israeli bombardment.

As fears grow that Israel’s war in Gaza will spark a wider regional conflict, the U.S. and British militaries bombed eight locations in Yemen used by the Houthi rebels. It’s the eighth time the U.S. has bombed Houthi sites since Jan. 12, U.S. officials said late Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation. The Iranian-backed Houthis have attacked shipping in the region’s waterways, saying they aim to end the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes and shelling intensified in and around the city of Khan Younis, sending Palestinian families fleeing south in pickup trucks and donkey carts loaded with possessions.

In the city, which has been a battle zone for weeks, people dug graves for the dead inside the yard of Al-Nasser Hospital as staff struggled to deal with dozens of newly killed and wounded, including children. Health care workers said strikes hit at least four schools sheltering displaced people on the city’s western edges, including two inside a coastal strip that Israel had declared a safe zone for people fleeing.

Gaza’s internet and phone networks collapsed again Monday for the 10th time during the war. The repeated blackouts severely hamper distribution of aid that’s essential for the survival of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, U.N. officials said. The loss of service also prevents Palestinians from communicating with each other and the outside world.

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until “complete victory” over Hamas and to return all remaining hostages after the Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel that triggered the war. In that attack, some 1,200 people were killed and Hamas and other militants abducted around 250 people.

Israelis are increasingly divided on the question of whether it’s possible to do either.

Around 100 hostages were freed under a weeklong cease-fire deal in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Around 130 remain captive, but a number have since been confirmed dead. Hamas has said it will free more captives only in exchange for an end to the war and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu has ruled out such an agreement, but anger is rising among hostages’ families. Relatives and other protesters set up a tent camp outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, vowing to remain until a deal is reached.

On Monday, dozens of family members of the hostages stormed into a gathering of the Knesset’s finance committee, holding up signs and yelling, “You won’t sit here while they are dying there!”

“These are our children!” they shouted. Some had to be physically restrained, and at least one person was escorted out.

OVER 25,000 KILLED IN GAZA

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 25,295 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 60,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says around two-thirds of those killed were women and children.

Residents in Khan Younis reported bombardment on all sides of the city. At Nasser Hospital, Ayman Abu Abaid, the head of surgery, told Al Jazeera TV early Monday that at least 50 dead and more than 100 wounded had been brought to the facility.

Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Health Ministry, said Israeli troops had stormed Al-Khair Hospital and detained the medical staff, the latest hospital that troops have seized during the conflict. The hospital is just inside the safe zone at Muwasi, a rural coastal strip west of Khan Younis, where the Israeli military had said it would not carry out operations.

Volunteers with the Red Crescent said strikes hit four schools west of Khan Younis — two of them inside the Muwasi zone — causing an unknown number of casualties. They said the organization’s ambulances couldn’t reach the sites.

Families streamed out of Khan Younis along the coastal highway, some walking, some loading blankets and possessions into vehicles. They headed toward Rafah, the tiny sliver at the extreme southern end of Gaza where well over 1 million people are already crowded, many living in tents that have filled the streets.

As he fled Khan Younis with his family, Ahmad Shurrab said he had been displaced multiple times. “Where should I go? Should I go to Rafah? Rafah is like one street. What do they want from us?” he shouted.

Some 85% of the Gaza population has been driven from their homes by the war. U.N. officials say 1 in 4 people in Gaza is starving as the fighting and Israeli restrictions hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid. Only 15 bakeries are working across the Gaza Strip, all of them in either Rafah or the central town of Deir al-Balah, the U.N. said.

The Israeli military says it has killed around 9,000 militants in its offensive, without providing evidence, and blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it operates in dense residential areas.

The war has also stoked tensions across the region, with Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israeli and U.S. targets.

NETANYAHU UNDER MOUNTING PRESSURE

Netanyahu, whose popularity has plummeted since Oct. 7, faces pressure from the U.S. to shift to more precise military operations and do more to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The United States is also calling for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war and for negotiations to start on a two-state solution. The authority currently governs pockets of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was ejected from Gaza in 2007 when Hamas took power.

Netanyahu has rejected both the entry of the Palestinian Authority and the creation of a Palestinian state. His governing coalition is beholden to far-right parties that want to step up the offensive, encourage the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and reestablish Jewish settlements there.

At a meeting in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers added their voices to the calls for a Palestinian state, saying it was the only way to achieve peace.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Sejourne said Netanyahu’s rejection of statehood was “worrying. There will be a need for a Palestinian state with security guarantees for all.”

“Which are the other solutions they have in mind?” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of Israel. “To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill them off?”

In an interview with CNN late Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said the kingdom will not normalize relations with Israel or contribute to Gaza’s reconstruction without a credible path to a Palestinian state. His comments were notable because before the war, the U.S. had been trying to broker a landmark normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The Palestinians seek a state including Gaza, the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Peace talks broke down nearly 15 years ago.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's Zelenskiy hails diaspora, proposes dual citizenship

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Ukrainians abroad on Monday for their support during Russia's invasion, and proposed changing the constitution to allow dual citizenship.

Zelenskiy said he was submitting legislation to parliament on dual citizenship, in what appeared a symbolic gesture on Unity Day, the anniversary of the shortlived 1919 unification of eastern and western Ukrainian lands in an independent state.

Zelenskiy also marked the day by issuing a decree protecting the rights and identity of some 4 million ethnic Ukrainians in Russia -- by far the largest diaspora group.

Ukraine's constitution does not give Ukrainian citizens the right to dual citizenship, so millions of people of Ukrainian origin who live abroad are unable to hold Ukrainian passports.

"Today I am submitting to the Verkhovna Rada a key draft law that will allow the adoption of comprehensive legislative amendments and the introduction of multiple citizenship," Zelenskiy said in a video address.

"And it will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants from around the world to have our citizenship. Of course, except for citizens of the aggressor country."

Ukrainian officials often refer to Russia as the aggressor country following its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 2022 and occupation of swathes of Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskiy has frequently underlined the need for unity as Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, with Kyiv heavily dependent on military and financial aid from abroad.

Thanking the diaspora for its support, including those who had come to fight for Ukraine, Zelenskiy said the words "I am Ukrainian" carried a special meaning, and hailed the "indomitability of our people."

Changes to the constitution need the approval of parliament, a process that could take about a year, and the authorisation of the Constitutional court.

The presidential decree applying to ethnic Ukrainians in Russia called for an action plan to help preserve their identity, documentation of "crimes" committed against them and efforts to counter "misinformation" aimed at them.

The decree listed parts of Russia deemed to be historically populated by Ukrainians, including regions along the joint border and areas in and near Krasnodar on the Black Sea coast.

Official figures show up to 4 million ethnic Ukrainians -- both permanent and temporary residents -- living in Russia, making it by far the largest diaspora group.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin condemns Kiev’s deadly attack on Donetsk market as 'monstrous act of terrorism'

The Kiev regime continues to demonstrate its savageness by carrying out strikes against civilians, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, referring to Sunday’s shelling attack on a public market in Donetsk.

"The Kiev regime continues to demonstrate its savage face; they are striking civilian infrastructure, striking people, civilians," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"The strike perpetrated yesterday on a marketplace in Donetsk is a monstrous act of terrorism because indiscriminate weapons are being used, which caused casualties on such a scope," Peskov emphasized.

He pointed out that Russia strongly condemns the attack. "Of course, the special military operation will continue in order to protect our people against this danger," Peskov said.

He also noted that "the [Russian] Defense Ministry, air defense systems, and other relevant agencies are taking the necessary measures to ensure protection against this kind of terrorist attack."

A market in Donetsk came under artillery shelling by Ukrainian troops on Sunday. Ukrainian forces used 152 mm and 155 mm artillery systems, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Head Denis Pushilin said. According to the latest updates, 25 people were killed and at least 20 were injured, including two children. Shortly after the strike, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said that Ukraine’s strike on Donetsk would be discussed at a Russia-requested meeting of the UN Security Council.

Reuters/Tass

Nigeria beat Guinea-Bissau 1-0 to progress to the last 16 of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations at Stade Felix Houphouet Boigny yesterday. 

Nantes winger Moses Simon powered down the left flank before playing a cross in search of Victor Osimhen, but the pass was intercepted by Opa Sangante, who then sent the ball into the roof of his own goal to give Nigeria a 1-0 win.

Nigeria had the ball in the back of the net a second time through Osimhen, but the goal was ruled out for a handball after the Napoli striker appeared to handle the ball just before tapping home.

Osimhen had the clearest chance of the second half but failed to convert from a pin-point Ola Aina cross, sending his header just wide of goal.

Guinea Bissau thought they had secured an equaliser against the run of play when Franculino Dju beat Stanley Nwabali with a powerful effort, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

The same fate befell Nigeria seconds later, as Ola Aina had the ball in the net following a saved shot by Osimhen, but the goal was also ruled out as the Napoli forward was offside.

Jose Peseiro’s side finished second in Group A behind Equatorial Guinea, who beat hosts Ivory Coast 4-0.

The Super Eagles will face the second-placed side from Group C, which will be Senegal, Guinea or Cameroon, in the last 16 on Saturday.

Daily Trust