Top UN court orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of ordering cease-fire

The United Nations’ top court on Friday ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering Jerusalem to end the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.

In a ruling that will keep Israel under the legal lens for years to come, the court offered little other comfort to Israeli leaders in a genocide case brought by South Africa that goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. The court’s half-dozen orders will be difficult to achieve without some sort of cease-fire or pause in the fighting.

“The court is acutely aware of the extent of the human tragedy that is unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continuing loss of life and human suffering,” court President Joan E. Donoghue said.

The ruling amounted to an overwhelming rebuke of Israel’s wartime conduct and added to mounting international pressure to halt the nearly 4-month-old offensive that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, decimated vast swaths of Gaza and driven nearly 85% of its 2.3 million people from their homes.

Allowing the accusations to stand stung the government of Israel, which was founded as a Jewish state after the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fact that the court was willing to discuss the genocide charges was a “mark of shame that will not be erased for generations.” He vowed to press ahead with the war.

The power of the ruling was magnified by its timing, coming on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Later Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that the top court’s rulings are legally binding and “trusts” that Israel will comply with its orders, including “to take all measures within its power” to prevent acts that would bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people.

“Those truly needing to stand trial are those that murdered and kidnapped children, women and the elderly,” former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, referring to Hamas militants who stormed through Israeli communities on Oct. 7 in the attack that set off the war. The assault killed some 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being kidnapped.

The court also called on Hamas to release the hostages who are still in captivity. Hamas urged the international community to make Israel carry out the court’s orders.

Many of the measures were approved by an overwhelming majority of the judges. Of the six orders, an Israeli judge voted in favor of two — an order for humanitarian aid and another for the prevention of inflammatory speech.

Israeli Judge Aharon Barak said he supported those orders in the hope that they would “help to decrease tensions and discourage damaging rhetoric” while easing the ”consequences of the armed conflict for the most vulnerable.”

Such provisional measures issued by the world court are legally binding, but it is not clear if Israel will comply with them.

“We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people,” said Netanyahu, who pushed back against the ruling in two languages. In a message aimed at his domestic audience, the tone was more defiant in Hebrew, and he stopped short of overtly criticizing the court in English.

The court ruled that Israel must do all it can to prevent genocide, including refraining from harming or killing Palestinians. It also ruled that Israel must urgently get basic aid to Gaza and that the country should punish any incitement to genocide, among other measures.

The panel told Israel to submit a report on steps taken within a month.

“That’s a time that the court could come back and say, ‘You have not met the orders. You have not complied. Now we find you are in the midst of committing genocide,’” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at Notre Dame University’s Kroc Institute.

Friday’s decision was an interim ruling. It could take years for the court to consider all aspects of South Africa’s genocide allegations. The U.N. Security Council scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to follow up on the ruling.

In Israel, commentators said the decision not to order a cease-fire was received with some relief since it helped Israel avoid a collision with a top U.N. body.

Palestinians and their supporters said the court took an important step toward holding Israel accountable. The Foreign Ministry of the internationally backed Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank said the ruling “should serve as a wake-up call for Israel and actors who enabled its entrenched impunity,” an apparent reference to the United States, Israel’s chief ally.

The U.S. repeated its position that Israel must “take all possible steps” to minimize harm to civilians, increase humanitarian aid and curb “dehumanizing rhetoric.”

“We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded,” the State Department said in a statement.

The South African government said the ruling determined that “Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal.”

“There is no credible basis for Israel to continue to claim that its military actions are in full compliance with international law,” the government said in a statement.

Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But this time, it took the rare step of sending a high-level legal team — a sign of how seriously it regards the case.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its death toll, but the agency has said about two-thirds of those killed have been women and children.

The Israeli military claims at least 9,000 of the more than 26,000 dead were Hamas militants.

U.N. officials have expressed fears that even more people could die from disease and malnutrition, with at least one-quarter of the Gaza population facing starvation.

Yuval Shany, a law professor at Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the court’s decision was “not as bad as Israel feared it would be” and would not fundamentally alter the way the military conducts the war.

“The greatest fear was that the court would ask Israel to stop the war,” Shany said, describing the decision as “something that Israel can live with.”

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine committed ‘genocide’ in Donbass – Putin

Kiev’s actions in Donbass between 2014 and 2022 were nothing short of “genocide,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. The post-Maidan coup authorities in Ukraine were determined to “physically” get rid of anyone who still supported the development of good relations with Moscow, he added.

Russia cited the need to protect the people of Donbass from continued persecution by Kiev as one of the major reasons it launched its military operation in February 2022. In the wake of the 2014 Maidan coup, two former Ukrainian territories with predominantly Russian-speaking populations declared their independence from Kiev and created the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The post-coup Ukrainian government responded by launching an “anti-terrorist” operation against the two Donbass republics, sparking a protracted conflict that has raged ever since, in one form or another.

Russia initially sought to resolve the issue through the later-derailed Minsk Agreements, which envisaged a special autonomous status for the two republics within Ukraine. Moscow repeatedly accused Kiev of failing to implement the terms of the accords. In 2022, former German chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that the accords brokered by Russia, Germany, and France in 2015 were merely a strategic ploy aimed at buying Ukraine more time to prepare for a conflict with Russia.

”Everything that was happening there… was genocide,” Putin said on Friday, referring to the events that had been unfolding in Donbass between 2014 and 2022. “This cannot be called otherwise,” he said, adding that people were being “exterminated.” He also pointed to the fact that Kiev’s forces continued to fight the Donbass militias after the Minsk Agreements had already been signed.

According to the president, Russia’s “geopolitical adversaries understood that they could not just turn Ukraine upside-down with its Russian-speaking population in the southeast.” The 2014 coup opened the way for the “physical extermination of anyone who was willing to develop normal relations with Russia,” Putin said, adding that “it had become clear that we would not be allowed to build normal relations with our neighbor.”

Ukraine was being turned into an “anti-Russian” state, the president said, adding that such developments had left Moscow no choice to avoid launching its military operation.

Putin has repeatedly referred to Ukraine’s policies in Donbass as “genocide.” In June 2022, several months into the conflict with Ukraine, he said “there can be no other definition for the Kiev regime’s actions than ‘a crime against humanity’.”

In February 2022, just days before the start of the Russian campaign, the nation’s Investigative Committee reported that more than 2,600 civilians had been killed over the past eight years amid the conflict in Donbass. More than 5,500 civilians were injured over the same period, it added.

A UN report published in January 2022 put the total number of deaths linked to the Donbass conflict at that time at more than 14,000. At least 3,400 of them were civilians, including more than 150 children, it added.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin says Ukraine shot down plane, deliberately or in error

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that a Russian military plane that crashed near the border with Ukraine was shot down by Ukrainian air defences, whether on purpose or by mistake.

Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane in Russia's Belgorod region on Wednesday and killing 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers en route to be swapped for Russian prisoners of war. It has not presented evidence.

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it shot down the plane and has challenged Moscow's account of who was on board and what happened.

"I don’t know if they did it on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it," Putin said in televised comments, his first on the crash.

"In any case, what happened is a crime. Either through negligence or on purpose, but in any case it is a crime."

Ukraine disputes Russia's assertion that it was warned in advance that a plane carrying Ukrainian POWs would be flying over Russia's southwestern Belgorod region at that time.

It has also said there were discrepancies in a list published by Russian media of the 65 Ukrainians alleged to have been on the aircraft.

Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top investigative body, posted online a video it said showed Ukrainian soldiers preparing to board the Il-76 aircraft.

The video has no sound and is accompanied by a single line of explanation that it depicts Ukrainian servicemen boarding the military transport. It gave no location.

Ukrainian commentators immediately cast doubt on the video.

In his remarks, Putin said the plane could not have been brought down by Russian "friendly fire" as its air defence systems have safeguards to prevent them attacking their own planes.

"There are 'friend or foe' systems there, and no matter how much the operator presses the button, our air defence systems would not work," he said.

Putin said the missiles fired were mostly likely American or French, but this would be established in two to three days.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin's comments amounted to a "classic disinformation" campaign. Mykhail Podolyak said they were aimed at taking away Kyiv's right to secure air defence missiles from its partners.

RUSSIA SAYS DOCUMENTS, BODY PARTS RECOVERED

The Investigative Committee earlier reported that Ukrainian identity documents and tattooed body parts had been recovered from the site of the crash.

It said body parts were being collected and removed for genetic testing, and some of them bore distinctive tattoos like those worn by captured Ukrainians that Russia had interrogated.

It said the evidence collected also included "documents of Ukrainian servicemen who died in the disaster" and documents from the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia".

Russia has sole access to the crash site. Reuters could not independently verify its account of what happened and what evidence had been recovered. On Thursday the Investigative Committee said preliminary findings showed the plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile fired from Ukraine.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Intelligence Directorate, told an official group dealing with the treatment of Ukrainian POWs that Kyiv had no "credible and comprehensive information" about who might have been on board the aircraft.

"Currently, there is no information indicating that such a number of people could have been on that plane," Budanov was quoted as saying on the group's Facebook page.

Ukraine has rejected a Russian assertion that it was forewarned that a plane carrying Ukrainian POWs would be flying over Belgorod region at that time.

It has also pointed to discrepancies on a purported list of the names of 65 Ukrainians published by Russian media, saying some of these were soldiers who had returned in a previous swap.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was not aware any official list had been published. He told reporters he had no information on what would happen to the body remains.

Russia state media said the black box flight recorders from the plane had been delivered to a defence ministry laboratory in Moscow and investigators were already working on them.

RT/Reuters

The farmer waits for rain in the early months of the year. If it rains properly, not the scattered rain that deceives you to plant early, then the farmer would know it is time to plant the yam seedlings. He prays for rain, and when it comes, he prays for more rain.

Without the rain, the labour of the farmer would be in nullity. After the rain, he would plant the yam seedlings. By the time the yam seedlings are planted, he would have cleared the farm, cut and burn the bush and ensure that the farm is ready like a bride. But then, the farmer can be deceived or unlucky.

The result is the same.

After the first rain, the shoots of the yam seedlings would come out, sometimes, shyly, often with greedy enthusiasm. The seedlings can survive and become the harvest of the 2024 season if the first rain is followed by more rain in reasonable intervals.

If the rain fails to come after the shoots are out, then there would be poor or no harvest. The new shoots would be green for sometimes, but there would be no growth if the heaven persists in withholding the rain. The angry sun of January and February would consume them. The soil would burn and the delicate shoots stand no chance.

The farmer would weep and pray and weep again. Sometimes, he would weep inside like strong men are wont to do. If he lives in Ekiti State, he would be used to the circle that only God can handle. Even now, bearded spiritualists invite the farmer to vigils to help him pray for rain. It is a tough life.

In November, December and January, before the rain comes, hunters and Fulani herdsmen love to set fire to the bushes and forests of Ekiti for different purposes. The hunters are looking for games as the frightened animals run helter skelter, for safety, often abandoning their young ones to the inferno.

The hunters get the games and run to sell them at the roadsides for precious naira to rich motorists who love the taste of bush meats. After the burning, the new land would produce succulent new plants and grass that is so delicious to the cattle. The new grass is just like the shoots of the new yam.

Sometimes, the cattle prefer the shoots of the new yam. It is a perfect chemistry for conflict which would be repeated year after year until in the distant future when the herders learn to build ranches for their cattle and other herds. For now, the lean Fulani boys follow the hard life of their forefathers.

Meanwhile, in New York and other fora of the United Nations, big men and women are speaking big grammar on behalf of the farmer; they are worried about global warming, carbon emission, climate change and food security. They love the farmer only that the farmer is hardly aware of this love.

In Nigeria too, those who are speaking for the farmers live in Abuja, the glittering Federal capital of the Republic. In 2023, the Federal Government budgeted N228.4 billion for agriculture. This year, it has budgeted more than N350 billion for agriculture.

In every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, agriculture is a priority of the budget. Everyone of those big men and women speaks so passionately of the billions thrown into the direction of the farmer. It is only that the farmer is not smart enough to catch the billions. Yet there was a time when everyone knew the existence of the farmer, not just as convenient statistics, but as crucial aspect of national aspiration.

When the farmer was king, he was important in every region of Nigeria. He was the important person who provided the North with cotton, hides and skin, groundnuts and grains. He was the man who reared the cattle, the sheep and the goats. In the West, the farmer was the producer of wealth through the cocoa plantation, who tender the coffee farms and produce the timber.

In the East, he was in charge of the oil palm, the timber and the plantain. The farmer was also the Fulani herdsman and the Ijaw fisherman. In truth, the farmer runs the economy before the black gold came to power and inflicted on us the terrible dream of forgetfulness.

Yet there is no future for our country unless we discover the road to the past. We need to bring the farmer back to the centre of our national effort at greatness. We need to grow our own food, wear our own cloths made from our cotton and transform the produce of this blessed land as fit enough for international market.

In the past, one of the strongest sectors of the Nigerian economy was the furniture manufacturing industries. We use Nigerian wood and export our furniture to Europe and other parts of the world.

The late Bisi Rodipe, from his Ijebu-Ode or Ibadan base, had tentacles in different parts of Nigeria. He built first-class furniture for universities, churches and hotels. He was so successful that he had outlets in other countries, including Malaysia. Fawehinmi Furniture Factory, from its base in Lagos and Ondo, had a showroom in the heart of London. Where are we now?

Almost every Government House in Nigeria today boasts of how it is furnished with the best of Chinese and Italian furniture. Even our generals are kitted with foreign boots, foreign epaulets and uniforms made by foreign tailors.

Some years ago, the then Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, introduced to the Nigerian public the Cassava Bread. Loaves were brought to the sanctum of the Federal Executive Council chamber where the president and his ministers had a taste of the future.

Since then, that future has become a mirage. It has since been revealed that cassava can produce at least 200 items that could transform our land. It is the most important crop use for the production of industrial starch. Yet Nigeria spends valuable foreign exchange to import industrial starch!

This is time to change our story. First each state should set up its own Farmers Council, which would be made up of real representatives of farmers who could help the government to implement its agricultural programmes.

If the government is serious about saving foreign exchange and creating employment, there is no better instrument than cassava. Every village in Nigeria, no matter how remote, has been penetrated by the bread market, which is made essentially from wheat imported from the United States.

Just imagine if it is our farmers growing the cassava used to produce the flour for our bread. Think of the thousands, if not millions, of jobs that would be created and the billions of dollars that would be saved for our country. To get this done, the government has to demonstrate seriousness.

The farmers may still be king if we think less of the next election and more of the future. If we watch out for the constituency projects of our lawmakers, you will be amazed that only few of them remember the farmers. Instead, they buy motorcycles for okada riders, grinding machines for women and Keke Marwa for the not so poor.

What is clear is that the politicians don’t think the farmers’ vote is that important. Instead, they concentrate on the armies under the control of those tough boys of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and similar organisations? And they don’t need to pray for rain or disappear into the bush at the sound of the first rain.

It is tempting to think of President Bola Tinubu when you are considering the predicaments of the farmer. Actually, the governors control all the land in Nigeria, except the Federal Capital Territory which is under the President through his minister, Nyesom Wike.

It is the governors who need to remember the farmers. They need to know that the farmers hold the secret to our country’s future. No country can be truly independent when it cannot feed itself. Let us unite and restore the farmer to his throne. We can start with cassava. Let us make 2024 Year of the Cassava Bread.

Lexi Love is a busty blonde AI model designed to attract not only with her stunning physique but also by engaging her paying subscribers in 30 different languages, 24 hours a day.

The AI model business is booming, and Lexi Love is only the latest example. We’ve already written about similar projects, with Aitana Lopez and Emily Pellegrini, the ‘world’s hottest model’, being among the most popular. Love recently made international news headlines, with her creators – UK-based startup, Foxy AI – claiming that she generated around $30,000 in monthly subscriptions and that she has already gotten over 20 marriage proposals, despite only being active since June 2023. Apparently, Lexi owes her success to the fact that she was designed as more than just a pretty face and amazing body, as she is able to “flirt, laugh, and adapt to different personalities, interests, and preferences.”

“With her growing popularity, Lexi has become a lucrative source of income,” Foxy AI CEO, Sam Emara, told Jam Press. “This is a testament to her ability to deeply connect with people and provide them with a fulfilling human-like experience, despite being an AI.”

On the Foxy AI website, Lexi Love appears as a 21-year-old “sushi addict and pole dancing pro.” Her hobbies include yoga and beach volleyball. Paying subscribers can engage in text and voice messaging with Lexi, but they can also request “naughty pictures”. Apparently, some of her fans have become so enamored with the AI model that they’ve sent her marriage proposals.

Lexi’s creators claim that she was designed to be a “perfect girlfriend for many men” with “flawless features and impeccable style,” and her massive success in such a short period of time is a testament to the potential of a very lucrative, albeit controversial industry.

News of the AI model’s popularity has received some criticism online, with some labeling it as an advertisement for a “rudimentary” chatbot service. One thing is for sure, AI models are here to stay and they’ll only get more realistic in both looks and interaction as AI technology evolves.

Oddity Central

PRESS RELEASE

In what appears to be a landmark economic decision of the Bola Tinubu-led administration, the Federal Government last year, precisely on August 16, 2023 through the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) secured a $3.3 billion emergency crude repayment loan, which according to the NNPC, was to help give support to the Naira and stabilize the Foreign Exchange market.

The curious thing about this transaction is that up till now, the Federal Government continues to keep mum about it, and the only information available to the public on the mega deal is coming only through unofficial sources from the NNPC.

The deal is supposed to be a crude-for-cash loan arranged by the African Export-Import Bank.

According to information available, a Special Purpose Vehicle called “Project Gazelle Funding Limited” is driving the deal, and it was incorporated in the Bahamas.

The SPV is the borrower while the NNPC is the sponsor, with an agreement to pay with crude oil to the SPV in order to liquidate the loan at an interest rate that is a little over 12 per cent.

What is even more confounding about this deal is why the Federal Government would register a company in the Bahamas, knowing full well the recent scandal of the Paradise Papers that involved that country.

Curiously also, Nigeria’s current Barrels Produced Daily (BPD) is 1.38 million, and according to the Project Gazelle deal, Nigeria is to supply 90,000 Barrels of its daily production, starting from 2024 till it is up to 164.25 million barrels for the repayment of the loan.

Now, this is where the details get disturbing because Nigeria’s benchmark for the sale of crude per barrel in 2024 is $77.96. A simple multiplication of that figure by 164.25 will give us a whooping $12bn.

It is on this note that we are calling on the Federal Government to speak up on this shady deal.

It is inconceivable that the Federal Government will lead the country to take a loan of $3.3b with an interest rate that is not more than 12 per cent, but with estimated repayment amounting to $12bn.

That is a humongous differential of about $7b between what is in the details of the deal on paper and what indeed is the reality.

There are questions to be answered on the integrity of this deal, and we earnestly request the Federal Government to talk directly on these cloudy details behind the deal.

We therefore demand, on behalf of the ordinary people of Nigeria, that the Federal Government provides answers to the following questions.

1. Has the Federal Government accessed the loan?

2. Is the loan in the government’s borrowing plan as approved by the National Assembly?

3. Who are the parties to the loan, and what specific roles are they expected to play?

4. What are the conditions to the loan, including tenor, repayment terms, the collateral, and the interest rate?

5. And, lastly, why register an SPV in the Bahamas knowing the recent scandal of the country’s notoriety for warehousing unclean assets?

Signed:

Atiku Abubakar

Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007

25th January, 2024.

The Naira reached an unprecedented low yesterday of N1,420 marking a 4.03 per cent or N55 decline compared to Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,365 at the parallel market.

Also, the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) window experienced a decrease, concluding at N900.96 yesterday as opposed to N882.24, indicating a 2.12 per cent decline or a N18.72 weakening.

However, the daily turnover witnessed a notable 103.44 per cent surge in a single day. On Wednesday, the turnover was $56.60 million, while yesterday’s turnover reached $115.19 million.

Furthermore, the highest spot rate recorded yesterday was N1,399 compared to N1,313 recorded the previous day. Also, the lowest spot rate recorded yesterday was n789 compared to N700 recorded the previous day.

Our correspondent spoke with a parallel market operator who said there has been an increase in demand. Abdullahi said: “It looks like those people who speculate have started again because we have been getting calls of people buying in thousands causing scarcity which has made the prices go up.”

Thisday

Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the decrease in power transmission to electricity distribution companies was due to constraints experienced by thermal generating companies.

In a statement yesterday, TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs,  Ndidi Mbah, said it is, however, working with relevant stakeholders in the power sector to keep the grid intact despite the current low power generated into the system.

It stated that the decrease has “impacted the quantum of bulk power available on the transmission grid for onward transmission to the distribution load centres nationwide.”

“TCN is doing everything possible in collaboration with stakeholders in the power sector to ensure that it continues to keep the grid intact despite the current low power generated into the system.

“Consequent upon the current load on the grid, load distributed to the distribution load centres has also reduced, as TCN can only transmit what is generated,” he stated.

TCN is wholly owned by the federal government.

Daily Trust/NewsScroll

At least 30 people have been killed and several others injured in Nigeria's central Plateau state in a series of attacks around Mangu town, despite a curfew imposed by the state government, a community spokesperson said.

Farmer-herder attacks and communal conflicts are rife in central Nigeria, an ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland known as the 'Middle Belt' where a circle of violence has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.

The latest violence on Tuesday and Wednesday came after a Christmas Day attack in the area which left at least 140 people dead. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Jan. 23.

The attackers targeted several villages including Kwahaslalek, Kinat and Mairana, located on the borders of Mangu and Barkin Ladi local government areas, said Joseph Gwankat, head of the community group Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA).

"The victims had sought refuge in the house of a community leader after earlier unrest in Mangu town. The attackers surrounded the house and killed those inside," Gwankat told Reuters by phone.

Survivors reported that the gunmen indiscriminately shot at people, including women and children, and set fire to houses and property.

In a subsequent statement, the MDA blamed the attack on herders, and questioned why troops deployed by the federal government to the area since the Christmas attacks didn't intervene to stop the violence.

Nigeria defence spokesperson Tukur Gusau said the military remains neutral following allegations of partisanship in the conflict, adding that troops responded professionally and by the rules of engagement.

"They have successfully arrested criminals involved in looting and burning of properties, as well as recovered weapons," Gusau said in a statement on Thursday.

The latest attacks come amid a surge in violence in the Plateau, which has seen repeated clashes between nomadic herders and local farming communities.

Plateau governor Caleb Mutfwang condemned the attacks and called for calm as his government "is taking proactive measures to halt further destruction of lives and property," his office said on Thursday.

Reuters

Israel vows to fight Hamas all the way to Gaza's southern border. That's fueling tension with Egypt

Israel faces a growing risk of damaging its peace with neighboring Egypt as its military pushes the offensive against Hamas further south in the Gaza Strip. Already, the two sides are in a dispute over a narrow strip of land between Egypt and Gaza.

Israeli leaders say that to complete their destruction of Hamas, they must eventually widen their offensive to Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, and take control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a tiny buffer zone on the border with Egypt that is demilitarized under the two countries’ 1979 peace accord.

In a news conference last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas continues to smuggle weapons under the border – a claim Egypt vehemently denies — and that the war cannot end “until we close this breach,” referring to the corridor.

That brought a sharp warning from Egypt that deploying Israeli troops in the zone, known in Egypt as the Salaheddin Corridor, will violate the peace deal.

“Any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,” Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said Monday.

EGYPT’S CONCERNS

Egypt fears that an Israeli attack on Rafah will push a massive wave of Palestinians fleeing across the border into its Sinai Peninsula.

More than 1 million Palestinians – nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — are crowded into Rafah and its surroundings on the border, most driven there after fleeing Israeli bombardment and ground offensives elsewhere in Gaza.

If Israeli troops assault Rafah, they have nowhere to flee. Palestinians have broken through before: In 2008, early in the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover, Hamas blew open the border wall. Thousands of people stormed into Egypt.

Egypt told the Israelis that before any ground assault on Rafah, Israel must let Palestinians return to northern Gaza, a senior Egyptian military official involved in coordination between the two countries told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about the internal discussions.

Israel says it has largely driven Hamas out of northern Gaza but is likely to resist allowing Palestinians back in the near term. Israel’s bombardment and ground assault have reduced much of the north to rubble, leaving many without homes.

ISRAEL’S DILEMMA

The dispute puts Israel in a bind. If it stops its offensive without taking Rafah, it falls short on its top war goal of crushing Hamas. If its military pushes to the border, it risks undermining its peace deal with Egypt — a foundation of stability in the Mideast for decades — and upsetting its closest ally, the United States.

Israel and the U.S. are already divided over Gaza’s post-war future. The Israeli military is working to create an informal buffer zone about a kilometer (half a mile) wide inside Gaza along the border with Israel to prevent militants from attacking nearby communities. The U.S. says it opposes any attempt by Israel to shrink Gaza’s territory.

Israel vows to expunge the militants from the entire Gaza Strip and has done so by a strategy of systematic destruction, at a huge cost in civilian lives. Starting in north Gaza, it leveled large swaths of the urban landscape, saying it was eliminating Hamas tunnels and infrastructure while battling militants. It is working its way down the territory, doing the same in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Netanyahu has said Israel intends to keep open-ended security control over Gaza to ensure Hamas cannot repeat its Oct. 7 attacks that triggered Israel’s assault. He has been vague on what form that would take but said ensuring control over the Philadelphi Corridor is crucial.

“There are a few options on how we can close it, we are checking all of them, and we haven’t made a decision, except for one thing: It must be closed,” he said.

Egypt warned Israel and the U.S. that any military operations in the zone “could tear apart our peace,” a second Egyptian official said. “We will not tolerate such a move.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PHILADELPHI CORRIDOR

The corridor is a narrow strip – about 100 meters (yards) wide in parts – running the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Gaza’s sole outlet not controlled by Israel.

The corridor is part of a larger demilitarized zone along both sides of the entire Israel-Egypt border. Under the peace accord, each side is allowed to deploy only a tiny number of troops or border guards in the zone. At the time of the accord, Israeli troops controlled Gaza, until Israel withdrew its forces and settlers in 2005.

Hamas has had free rein of the border since its 2007 takeover.

Smuggling tunnels were dug under the Gaza-Egypt border to get around the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Some of the tunnels were massive, large enough for vehicles. Hamas brought in weapons and supplies, and Gaza residents smuggled in commercial goods, from livestock to construction materials.

That changed over the past decade, as Egypt battled Islamic militants in the Sinai. The Egyptian military cracked down on the tunnels and destroyed hundreds of them, saying they were being used to funnel weapons into the Sinai. It bolstered its border wall above and below ground and cleared the population from a 5-kilometer-deep (3-mile) area adjacent to Gaza where only military and police forces are allowed.

During the fight against Sinai militants, Egypt negotiated with Israel and the U.S. to allow the deployment of its military in Zone C, as the demilitarized zone is known on its side of the border.

DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE WAR

In mid-December, Israel made an official request to Egypt to deploy its forces in the Philadelphi corridor, the Egyptian military official said. Egypt rejected the request. Egypt’s main fear is that any ground operation in the area would result in thousands of Palestinians storming into Sinai, he said.

Since the war began, Egypt has pushed back hard against calls that it take in a mass exodus of Palestinians. It fears Israel won’t allow them to return to Gaza and says it doesn’t want to abet ethnic cleansing. It also warned that militants from Gaza could enter the Sinai with those fleeing, bringing the potential for cross-border exchanges with Israel that could wreck the peace accord.

Israel contends it must have control over the border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas.

Rashwan, of Egypt’s State Information Service, called Israeli claims of continued smuggling “lies” aimed at justifying a takeover of the corridor. After destroying 1,500 tunnels, Egypt has “complete control” over the border, he said.

Kobi Michael, senior researcher with Israeli think tanks Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, said the quantity of Hamas weapons found during the offensive shows smuggling continues and Israel must have power to monitor the border.

“The only way such quantities of weapons could have reached the Gaza Strip are via the Philadelphi Corridor,” he said.

But Alon Ben-David, military affairs correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 TV, said 90% of the weapons in Gaza were produced in Gaza and that Egypt’s crackdown largely shut down smuggling.

“The tunnels were really taken care of comprehensively by the Egyptians,” he said.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev ‘deliberately’ sabotaged prisoner swap – Moscow

Ukrainian troops have shot down a Russian military plane carrying Ukrainian soldiers in order to derail an upcoming prisoner swap, Moscow’s envoy told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The Il-76 cargo aircraft crashed in Russia’s border region of Belgorod on Wednesday morning, killing everyone on board. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the plane was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs slated for exchange that was to take place later that day.

“All currently available data points to a deliberate, premeditated crime,” said Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy representative to the UN. “The Ukrainian leadership was well aware about the route and means by which [the Ukrainian] soldiers would have been transported to the agreed exchange point.”

“It was not the first such operation. However, for some inexplicable reason, the regime in Kiev had decided this time to sabotage [the swap] in the most barbaric way,” the diplomat said. 

According to Polyansky, the aircraft was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile fired from the village of Liptsy in the Kharkov region of eastern Ukraine. Preliminary investigation found that Ukraine used either the US-made Patriot missiles or the German-made IRIS-T, he added.

“If this is confirmed, the Western countries that supplied [the missile] will be directly complicit in this crime, just as they are complicit in Ukraine’s shelling of peaceful neighborhoods of Russian cities using Western weapons,” Polyansky told the council.

Kiev confirmed that a prisoner swap was scheduled to take place the same day the plane was downed, while the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that it considers all Russian military aircraft legitimate targets. In his video address on Wednesday night, President Vladimir Zelensky called for an international probe into the incident. He did not say who was responsible for downing the Il-76, however.

Addressing the Security Council, Ukraine’s deputy envoy Kristina Gayovishin stopped short of directly blaming Russia for shooting down the plane carrying the POWs. At the same time, she argued that “Russia bears full responsibility for all atrocities, deaths and destruction caused by the war.”

Gayovishin added that Ukrainian troops will continue to target Il-76s and other Russian military planes, including those operating in the “Belgorod-Kharkov direction.”

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drones hit Rosneft refinery in Russia - source

Ukrainian drones attacked a Rosneft-owned oil refinery in southern Russia in the latest such strike on Russian energy infrastructure, a Ukrainian source said on Thursday.

Local officials in Russia said there was a fire overnight at the export-oriented unit in the town of Tuapse, but it was extinguished.

"The vacuum unit was on fire. According to preliminary information, there were neither casualties nor injured," Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, said on Telegram.

Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, has not commented.

The Ukrainian source said the SBU security service hit the refinery with drones and would continue attacking facilities providing fuel for Russia's nearly two-year invasion.

"The SBU strikes deep into the Russian Federation and continues attacks on facilities which are not only important for the Russian economy, but also provide fuel for the enemy troops," the source told Reuters.

Unofficial Telegram channels showed pictures of the blaze and also said drones had been responsible.

The strike would be at least the fourth on a major Russian energy infrastructure target over the past week, including an attack on a Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex at the port of Ust-Luga, which ships oil products.

Ukraine - which tranships natural gas for Kremlin-controlled Gazprom to Europe - appears to be stepping up attacks on major Russian oil production and export facilities.

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The attack will heighten concerns over global energy supplies. Oil prices rose on Thursday after a fresh attack by Houthi forces on ships off Yemen's coast.

The Tuapse plant's annual capacity is 12 million metric tons (240,000 barrels per day). It produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, and supplies fuel mainly to Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

In 2023, the plant processed 9.378 million tons of crude oil, producing 3.306 million tons of gasoil and 3.123 million tons of fuel oil.

RT/Reuters