The only thing that trumps the mocking viral videos of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, are the live footages of the State House of Assembly being demolished on Wednesday morning by a dozen bulldozers in what appeared like a scene from Gaza.

Reporters were even warned to steer clear. It was no longer renovation as planned; it was a full-blown war zone.

Happening on Wike’s 56th birthday, it was the most unlikely birthday present from the government of Siminalayi Fubara that he installed six months ago in Rivers, Nigeria’s richest South-South state. If there was any hope that the attempt by President Bola Tinubu to reconcile the warring parties might succeed, the bulldozers crushed them.

The question is: what next?

A few days before the dozers were deployed to flatten the partially burnt House of Assembly with the furniture, fittings, files and whatever was inside, something else was trending.

Twenty-seven of the 32 members of the House of Assembly loyal to Wike had announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), trading the umbrella for the broom and excitedly waving the APC flag on the streets of Port Harcourt.

They had defected they said, not out of choice, but out of necessity to escape a divided party following the refusal of the party’s National Secretary to intervene in the crisis after the fire outbreak. Also, they claimed that in obedience to their constituents, they would keep their seats, a rampant habit among politicians of straining out the insect but swallowing the camel.

Of malaria and cancer

The defections stirred the social media, washing up old videos of Wike in his heyday as the tormentor of the APC.

In both the English and pidgin versions of the videos he spitefully dismissed the idea that he would leave his “malaria-infected PDP” for the “cancerous ruling APC”. Yet, after he fell out with the PDP over his shabby treatment, he supported APC’s Tinubu for the presidency, while rallying the state to vote PDP in the governorship election.

Suggestions that Wike might eventually join the APC are not new. In an article I wrote in September last year entitled, “Anatomy of Wike’s Endgame,” I said, “What is Wike’s Endgame? To avenge his displacement from within while securing the positions of his allies who are already carrying the PDP flag into the next election. His destination – if not by words, but by his conduct – is APC. Everything in-between is in translation.”

Politics rewards expediency, not constancy. That was why black congressman William Clay famously said in the game of politics, there are not permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests.

When, for example, a video of the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, rallying support for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda was exhumed three years ago, the minister blamed his indiscretion on youth. “I was young, then”, he said. “Now, I’m older and wiser.” Wike might also argue that he said what he said out of exuberance.

The more surprising thing in the drama out of Rivers State has been the speed with which Wike and Fubara fell out. Power tussle between governors and their benefactors or godfathers is not new. It is such a regular feature of transitions in our political landscape that current beneficiaries who start by despising godfathers soon become godfathers themselves. They invariably become what they hate.

Whether it is Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy Philip Shauib in Edo or the even more complicated version in Ondo between Rotimi Akeredolu and now acting Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, it’s the same old story, only in more scandalous latter-day versions.

In Rivers, however, the speed, depth and extent of the fallout have been spectacular. It was not supposed to be this way. Wike was, in a sense, like the biblical David who couldn’t build a house for God because he fought too many bloody wars but left it for his son, Solomon.

Whether it was checkmating the tyranny of federal agencies, containing meddlesome Abuja politicians, showing up when federal agents descended on the state at night to arrest Supreme Court justices, or helping to rebuild the opposition as a vital force in what was fast becoming a one-party democracy, Wike never shied away from a fight.

Blame game

Although he lost the war to become the PDP’s presidential candidate in 2023, he won the battle to keep his state, leaving behind rich spoils of projects and a strategic alliance that paved a highway to Abuja, all supposed to secure a peaceful reign after him. In fact, as a seal, he ended the 16-year hegemony of the Ikwerre ethnic group in Rivers State by choosing an Ijaw man as his successor.

He seemed to have left his house in order, until October, when the first cracks appeared. Some have laid the blame on Wike, accusing him of leaving the chair, but taking its legs. He has been accused of running the state from Abuja and even asking the governor for the key to the treasury.

None of these accusations has come directly from Fubara himself. But it’s either the governor is enjoying the mudslinging or has become captive to forces in PDP, nPDP, APC and sundry Wike foes desperate to exploit the division and hijack him. There appears to be too many people around the governor egging him on to a war he does not need at an inauspicious time, and at a cost the state cannot afford.

What is the point, for example, of demolishing a multi-billion naira complex built by former Governor Peter Odili about 15 years ago under Rotimi Amaechi’s supervision as Speaker, when the government already has a High Court judgement forbidding the pro-Wike lawmakers to meet there?

Abuja as warfront

After the demolition of the House of Assembly, pro-Fubara lawmakers used a golden mace in storage in the Government House, as against the silver mace in the demolished complex, to receive the appropriation bill inside Government House, in defiance of an existing Supreme Court judgement in Hon. Muyiwa Inakoju & 17 Ors v Abraham Adeolu Adeleke & 3 Ors (SC 272/2006)[2007] NGSC (12 January 2007) that lawmakers cannot meet outside the House. Yet, if two wrongs don’t make a right, Fubara appears ready to try a third.

Wike has said Fubara’s attempt to tamper with his political structure, like a neonate dragging its mother’s womb and umbilical cord at the same time, was at the heart of the current conflict. He knows what he’s talking about, especially with local government elections coming up in February 2024.

If Wike was good enough to carry the governor through the dark, difficult days of their trials together when some of the governor’s ardent supporters today didn’t know him from Adam, the governor should be the last person to hang his benefactor out to dry so quickly.

The bigger challenge for Wike, however, is not Fubara or his army of snippers. It is not even about his legacy of projects in the state that would be hard to beat or his political structure which he can reinvent. It is how he would find the presence of mind to face his new assignment in Abuja, a city desperately in need of salvation.

Nearly overwhelmed with filth, pot-holed roads, street urchins, poor water supply and unlit highways, Abuja has become the warfront that Chinua Achebe was afraid of. It is the wayward place that Obafemi Awolowo would have gladly handed over to Walt Disney as a franchise.

This broken city needs attention 24/7. Wike will not be judged by his conquests in Rivers State; so Fubara may level the entire Port Harcourt if he chooses. The FCT minister will be judged by what he does in Abuja, a city in danger of decay in the face of a combined severe threat of livability malaria and malignant cancer.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. More: azuishiekwene.com

Emma Beddington

It’s hard not to feel personally attacked by some research (does that make me a raging narcissist? Probably). With crisps and now sitting downrecently ruled empirically bad, it seems science is coming for everything I hold dear. Now, my one true love is being targeted: staring at my phone.

A new study, discussed in the excellent Techno Sapiens newsletter, explored how using your phone to avoid stranger awkwardness makes you feel “worse than if you didn’t”. For the research, 395 strangers were split into groups and asked to wait together for a (pretend) test. Half had phones, half not, and participants assessed how they felt at five-minute intervals. The researchers’ theory was that non-phone people would enjoy their time more, but that the digital comfort blanket would feel better in the short term. That was wrong. “Phones failed to confer any detectable benefits.” Even in the first five minutes, non-phone users were happier. “People may be acting against their own best interest when they use phones in social situations,” the study concluded.

I do this constantly: waiting in shop queues, for buses or for choir to start. Rather than experience momentary awkwardness, I assume my best “I must deal with this” face and poke my phone with an air of importance. There’s a particular kind of shame in these moments because absolutely nothing I do is important. Nothing bad will happen if I delay answering the handful of work emails I get each day; I’m not running a power plant or a stroke ward. I’m mainly reading messages from the tireless Dutch Royal Mint flogging commemorative coins and companies trying to sell me perimenopause-appropriate athleisure; maybe a vegan protein powder company speculating what the royal family eats at Christmas. If you see me typing urgently, I’m commenting on a video of my best friend’s cat.

But technology gave us the option of staring at something instead of interacting – and we’ve seized it gratefully. A 2015 survey from the Pew Research Centre found that 73% of Americans have used their phones “for no particular reason, just for something to do”, while a 2018 survey found that 45% of teens have pretended to text (I reckon 100% of adults).

I’m not anti-phone; I worship my black rectangle of delight. I also think there’s a distinction between situations with reasonable scope for interaction, and those without: standing on a train station platform not looking at your phone feels genuinely suspect; when I’m out of battery, I worry I’ll be rounded up by the British Transport Police in a See it. Say it. Sorted operation. But if you could be talking to someone who might be receptive, surely it’s ruder not to try? A sad if unsurprising finding from a 2021 study from the University of Pisa was that phone use appears to be contagious: when one person started, others followed. By caving in to our desire to avoid awkwardness, we might be undermining not just our own wellbeing, but other people’s.

So I left my phone in my coat at pilates last week. The first minutes, when other people in the room were already in conversation, felt arduous. What if a distant acquaintance had posted a picture of a bird? Maybe someone on NextDoor needed me to weigh in on an inconsiderately parked car? What if – and that’s the crux of it, of course – no one wanted to talk to me? It was fine. A woman said she had trained her cat not to scratch things and I couldn’t resist asking her how (she shouted at it until it stopped). By the time we had cleared that up, the class was starting. The next day, engaging my seatmate on a packed bus in conversation (complaining about the packed bus, obviously), barely felt transgressive at all. Did I feel good? I felt less pathetic, that’s for sure.

So I’m keeping it up, and if I get shunned, it’s OK. I’ve decided that the true power move is not looking importantly at your phone anyway; it’s looking beatifically happy with your own thoughts, as if the internet can’t possibly compete with the richness therein. I’ll only be thinking about Dutch commemorative gold ducats or a stranger’s pet, but no one need ever know.

** Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

The Guardian, UK

Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped in November, data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has shown.

Oil production from the 13 members of the organisation averaged 27.84 million barrels per day (mb/d) in November 2023, lower by 57 thousand barrels per day (tb/d), month-on-month, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report released Wednesday.

The report also noted that crude oil output increased mainly in Venezuela, Libya and Kuwait, while production in Iraq, Angola and Nigeria decreased.

Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to 1.37 million barrels per day in November, from 1.38 million bpd in October 2023, an OPEC survey, which cites secondary data sources, said.

However, according to the oil cartel’s direct communication data, Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to 1.25 million barrels per day from 1.35 million in October 2023.

OPEC indicated it gets its crude oil production figures mainly from two sources, either as direct communication by member countries or by information released by secondary energy intelligence platforms.

The recent drop in the country’s crude production comes at a time when the country is faced with a heavily disrupted crude sector plagued by oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

In November, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) said oil thieves vandalised over 5,000 kilometres of oil pipelines connecting different parts of the country.

Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, who disclosed this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) said the continuous vandalisation of the pipelines was causing a huge loss to NNPC Ltd while describing the situation as a ‘national calamity’.

“Over 5,000 kilometres of oil pipelines in the country are not working as a result of pipeline vandalism.

“Ten million litres of oil was lost from the volume pumped from Aba to Enugu at a time. The company has been unable to pump oil from Warri to Benin within the last 22 years and cannot connect to Ore.

“There is no amount of security measures that had not been taken to curb the crime without success, which to us in NNPC Ltd, is substantially a national calamity,” he said.

PT

The African Group of Negotiators is calling for an outcome that allows Africa to exploit its fossil fuels including coal, oil and gas to eradicate poverty while also funding renewable energy projects.

This comes amid demands to end fossil fuels from climate change activists and other leaders around the world.

Even the Global Stocktake text, a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement of 2015 used to monitor its implementation and evaluate the collective progress, released on Monday was heavily criticised for not containing a clear language on the phasing out of fossil fuels.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai on Tuesday, African Group of Negotiators chair Collins Nzovu said it must be understood that Africa would need to exploit its natural resources and renewable energy endowments to achieve universal access to energy.

“The Global Stocktake outcome must promote equity and fairness in the allocation of policy space, and ensure that the energy transition will be just, equitable and orderly, as such the transition should be premised on differentiated pathways to net zero and fossil-fuel phasedown,” said Nzovu, Zambia’s Minister of Green Economy and Environment.

“It should also recognize the full right for Africa to exploit its natural resources sustainably and in line with sustainable development and poverty eradication needs.”

African governments are arguing that they should be allowed to invest in fossil fuels, a key foreign currency earner, given that the continent emits less than 4 percent.

Africa is the least electrified in the world with over 50 percent of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa having electricity access rates below 50 percent, while 600 million people are without access to electricity which is central for the provision of basic services, including primary health, clean water, education.

Africa holds 6 percent of known global reserves of oil and gas and accounts for about 12 percent of global production.

Africa is the second largest exporting region with 16 percent of total exports, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Crude oil production in Africa is estimated at almost 10 million barrels per day, representing about 10 percent of global crude oil production according to the African Energy Commission (AFREC).

Nzovu said these resources are crucial to Africa’s development as a means of earning foreign exchange and a positive balance of payments.

“Therefore, significant concessional financial support for our transition is essential, if we are to move away from the exploitation of fossil fuels,” he said.

“Many African countries are also developing national energy transition plans with a mixed energy portfolio that includes the use of natural gas as a transitional fuel while seeking to increase energy produced from renewable energy.”

Beatrice Anywar Atim, a Ugandan minister of State for Environment said her country plans to use funds generated from fossil fuels to finance renewable energy projects.

“Uganda’s energy transition plan requires $7 billion while fossil fuel development in Uganda will bring $47 billion,” she said adding countries like Uganda whose energy mix is green energy must be allowed to develop their natural resources to get money to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Speaking at the same press conference, Balarabe Lawal, Nigerian minister of environment, said the West African nation is not phasing out fossil fuels.

“Science has established that if you stop breathing without life support you will die. To ask Nigeria or Africa to phase out fossil fuels is asking us to stop breathing without life support. It is unacceptable,” he said.

“Nigeria is committed to tripling renewable energy. Tripling renewable energy requires resources, transfer of technology and capacity building.”

Next year’s COP will be held in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, and in 2025 it will be in Belém, in Brazil’s Amazon region.

NewsDay

Benchmark index of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, All-Share Index rose by 0.55 per cent on Wednesday at 72,299.79 points, thus crossing the 72,000 basis points for the first time in history.

This was as trading activities on the NGX entered the fourth day of positive trading, which resulted in an N415bn gain for equity market investors.

On November 1, the ASI  crossed the 70,000 mark milestone to close at 70,581.76. This had followed days of sustained bullish trading. Thus far, the year-to-date gain of the ASI has risen above 40 per cent.

At the close of trading on Wednesday, market capitalisation rose by 0.55 per cent to close at N39.563tn; meaning N215bn was added to investors’ wealth.

Analysts have been projecting a Santa-Claus rally as the year comes to an end and a repositioning in sound stocks by investors ahead of the next earning season.

Market Breadth which is the measure of investors’ sentiments was positive, resulting in 34 gainers and 16 losers.

Transaction volume increased to 433.180 million from 319.56 million trades valued at N8.08bn from 6,650 deals executed. The number of stocks traded at the end of Wednesday’s trading session closed at 119.

Sectoral performance was a mixed bag, with two of the five tracked indexes ending in the green, two remaining relatively flat, and one posting losses. The Banking and Consumer goods indexes led the gainers, advancing by 0.94 per cent and 0.07 per cent, respectively. In contrast, the Insurance sector faced a decline, plummeting by 1.80 per cent, while the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indexes held steady compared to the previous session.

Atop the gainers chart were the stocks of SCOA, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, AccessCorp, Cornerstone Insurance and Transcorp Hotel which gained 9.88 per cent, 9.86 per cent, 8.09 per cent, 7.41 per cent and 6.83 per cent to close at N1.78, N2.34, N22.05, N1.45 and 46.90 per unit respectively.

The losers were led by University Press Plc, Sunu Assurance, Regency Alliance Insurance, Eterna and Flour Mills with -9.82 per cent, -9.38 per cent, -8.11 per cent, -8.03per cent, and 4.57 per cent loss each.

The volume and value drivers of the day’s market trend were led by banking stocks, AccessCorp, GTCO, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Sterling Financial Holdings. NAHCO shares also made it to the top turnover table.

Punch

African e-commerce firm Jumia Technologies will close its food delivery business in all seven countries in which the unit operates by the end of the year to focus on growing its core online retail business, it said on Wednesday.

Jumia is aggressively cutting costs in order to turn profitable, including head count reductions, exiting everyday grocery items and reducing delivery services not related to its e-commerce business.

The move is in line with Jumia's "strategy to optimize its capital and resource allocation and to continue its path to profitability," the retailer said, adding that Jumia Food is not suitable to the current operating environment and macroeconomic conditions.

Jumia Food represents about 11% of Jumia's general merchandise value for the nine months ended Sept. 30, and has not been profitable since its inception.

"It's a segment that's very difficult across the world, with very challenging economics and big losses. It's also a segment that is extremely competitive across the world and Africa," Chief Executive Officer Francis Dufay told Reuters.

"The economics are tough in this market because the costs are very high and there is plenty of competition so there is downward pressure on the commissions that we make and upward pressure on marketing costs because everyone is fighting for customers."

Jumia currently operates its food delivery business in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Ivory Coast

The first Africa-focused tech start-up to list on the New York Stock Exchange said a number of employees currently dedicated to the food delivery business will transition to the core e-commerce business in these countries.

Jumia has been trimming its losses, with the latest figures showing that it reduced its third-quarter losses by 67% from a year earlier.

Reuters

Federal executive council (FEC) has approved the removal of public tertiary institutions from the integrated payroll and personnel information system (IPPIS).

Mohammed Idris, minister of information, spoke to journalists on Wednesday at the end of the FEC meeting at the presidential villa.

Idris said the development means that members of staff of public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education have been taken off IPPIS.

The minister said authorities of tertiary institutions will now be paying their personnel from their own end rather than relying on IPPIS.

“Today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated payroll and personnel information system,” the minister said.

“You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.

“Today, the council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics, and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.

“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS.”

The federal government, in October 2006, introduced the IPPIS as one of its reform initiatives for the effective storage of personnel records, transparency, and accountability.

In 2020, there were 696 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAS) on the IPPIS platform.

However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) kicked against the enrollment of public university lecturers on the software.

The academic union said it wanted University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS).

UTAS, the lecturers argued, accounts for the unique elements of university employment such as sabbatical leave, adjunct engagements, part-time engagements, and contractual obligations.

IPPIS has also been accused of being fraught with irregularities and discrepancies.

The Cable

Rivers State Government has attributed the demolition of the House of Assembly complex to structural defects arising from explosion and fire outbreak.

Joseph Johnson, the state’s commissioner for Information, said this in a statement on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.

Johnson said that the incident rendered the building unfit for human use, saying that there were visible cracks on the walls and the entire structure looked frail and unsafe for legislative business.

He said that professional advice was sought on the integrity of the building, after Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s inspection visit to determine the level of damage.

“After the assessment of the integrity of the complex, experts warned the government that continuing to use the building in its present state would be disastrous.

“The government had tried all cost-saving measures towards the repair of the complex until it bowed to the superior view of rebuilding the complex to a more befitting edifice.

“In the interim, the Rivers Government has provided an alternative venue for the House of Assembly to conduct its affairs pending the rebuilding of the complex,” Johnson said.

The assembly was attacked in October, after an attempt by some lawmakers to initiate impeachment proceedings against the governor.

The assembly crisis was triggered by the feud between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is now the minister of the FCT.

Twenty-seven of the lawmakers loyal to Wike recently defected from the PDP to the APC while the five who are loyal to Governor Fubara got a court order which paved the way for them to control the state assembly.

Governor Fubara presented the state’s 2024 budget proposal to the four-member assembly which had their sitting in the Rivers Government House while the demolition of the assembly complex was going on.

PT

Three persons have been reportedly killed in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, following an armed robbery attack on two banks in the state on Wednesday.

The robbers were said to have attacked Access Bank and Wema Bank branches in the town.

The robbers reportedly used dynamites to blow up the security doors leading inside the banking halls to gain entry.

Details of the robbery were still sketchy as of the time of filing this report.

However, the robbers were said to have carted away an unspecified amount of money after operating for about 45 minutes.

A witness said the robbers attacked the Amotekun post in the town before heading to the banks.

He said a farmer was among those shot dead by the robbers.

“They first went to Amotekun post and attacked them, before heading to the bank,” the witness said.

“A farmer who lived nearby had just returned from his farm and was riding towards his house when the robbers shot him, thinking he was coming to attack them.”

According to the witness, the police cordoned off the banking areas because they believe some yet-to-explode dynamites dropped by the robbers were still at the banks’ premises.

Viral videos on social media showed the robbers shooting into the air while driving away.

Our correspondent contacted Sunday Abutu, the police spokesperson in the state, to confirm the incident but the calls were unanswered.

The Cable

9 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza City ambush in sign that Hamas resistance is still strong

Palestinian militants carried out one of the deadliest single attacks on Israeli soldiers since the Gaza invasion began, killing at least nine in an urban ambush, the military said Wednesday, a sign of the stiff resistance Hamas still poses despite more than two months of devastating bombardment.

The ambush in a dense neighborhood came after repeated recent claims by the Israeli military that it had broken Hamas’ command structure in northern Gaza, encircled remaining pockets of fighters, killed thousands of militants and detained hundreds more.

The tenacious fighting underscores how far Israel appears to be from its aim of destroying Hamas — even after the military unleashed one of the 21st century’s most destructive onslaughts. Israel’s air and ground assault has killed more than 18,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health officials. Gaza City and surrounding towns have been pounded to ruins. Nearly 1.9 million people have been driven from their homes.

The resulting humanitarian crisis has sparked international outrage. The United States has repeatedly called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians, even as it has blocked international calls for a cease-fire and rushed military aid to its close ally.

Israeli troops are still locked in heavy combat with Palestinian fighters in and around Gaza City, more than six weeks after invading Gaza’s north following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack.

Clashes raged overnight and into Wednesday in multiple areas, with especially heavy fighting in Shijaiyah, a dense neighborhood that was the scene of a major battle during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

“It’s terrifying. We couldn’t sleep,” Mustafa Abu Taha, a Palestinian agricultural worker who lives in the neighborhood, said by phone. “The situation is getting worse, and we don’t have a safe place to go.”

The ambush took place Tuesday in Shijaiyah, where Israeli troops searching a cluster of buildings lost communication with four soldiers who had come under fire, the military said. When the other soldiers launched a rescue operation, they were ambushed with heavy gunfire and explosives.

Among the nine dead were Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the most senior officer to have been killed in the ground operation, and Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, a battalion commander.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “very difficult day,” but he rejected international calls for a cease-fire.

“We are continuing until the end, there is no question. I say this even given the great pain and the international pressure. Nothing will stop us, we will continue until the end, until victory, nothing less,” he said in a talk with military commanders.

SUFFERING IN THE SOUTH

Heavy rainfall overnight swamped tent camps in Gaza’s south, where Israel has told people to seek refuge, even as that region has also come under daily bombardment.

In the central city of Deir al-Balah, the storm brought cold winds and flooded a shelter area behind a hospital, sending torrents of water coursing between the tents. “The situation is catastrophic,” said Ibrahim Arafat, a father of 13 who fled Shijaiyah.

Because of the fighting and Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of the territory, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people.

Israel invaded southern Gaza nearly two weeks ago, and heavy fighting has continued in its first target — the city of Khan Younis. Israeli strikes overnight hit two residential buildings in and around the city, and the dead included three children, two women and an elderly man, according to relatives and hospital records.

A strike Wednesday evening in the southern city of Rafah killed 19 people from two families, according to hospital records.

The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high toll on Hamas because it conceals fighters, tunnels and weapons in residential areas.

DISTANT WAR AIMS

Anger over the war’s toll appears to have brought a surge in support among Palestinians for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and touts itself as resisting Israeli occupation.

A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 44% of respondents in the occupied West Bank said they supported Hamas, up from just 12% in September. In Gaza, the militants enjoyed 42% support, up from 38% three months ago.

Though Hamas’ backing remains a minority, the poll showed overwhelming rejection of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with nearly 90% saying he must resign. Many Palestinians view the octogenarian leader’s administration as corrupt, autocratic and ineffective.

The findings signal more difficulties ahead for the American administration’s postwar vision for Gaza and raise questions about Israel’s stated goal of ending Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.

The U.S. wants Abbas’ internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, to also govern Gaza, which Hamas seized from it in 2007. It also wants to revive the long-defunct peace process to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s government is firmly opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Late Wednesday, Hamas’ supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh said any plans for Gaza that do not involve Hamas are an “illusion and mirage,” though he said the group is open to halting the fighting. Speaking to Al-Masira TV, a channel linked to Yemen’s Houthi militant group, he claimed Hamas had dealt a “resounding blow” to Israel. Haniyeh lives in exile in Qatar, but it was not clear where he was when he made those comments.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he told Netanyahu that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing.”

“Israel doesn’t seem to be anywhere near achieving its military objective,” Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst with the International Crisis Group, wrote on X, pointing to Tuesday’s deadly ambush.

“With Biden already signaling loss of patience, with no signs of a hostage release and Israel’s economy overstretched, and with a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in Gaza, Israel could find itself in a much worse position the day after, with a lot of losses and no win,” she wrote.

While the Israeli public appears to overwhelmingly support the war against Hamas, that sentiment could change if the death toll among Israeli soldiers continues to rise.

Deaths of soldiers are an emotional topic in Israel, a small country of 9 million people where military service is compulsory for most Jews. Virtually every family knows a relative, friend or co-worker who has lost a family member in war. The names of fallen soldiers are announced at the top of national newscasts.

In Israel, attention is still focused on the atrocities carried out on Oct. 7, when some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and some 240 people were taken hostage, around half of whom remain in captivity. The military says 115 soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.

There has been little media coverage or public discussion of the plight of civilians in Gaza, even as international outrage has mounted.

Despite U.S. calls to reduce civilian casualties, the toll has continued to mount at a dizzying rate.

When it released the latest Gaza death toll of 18,600, the Gaza Health Ministry did not specify the number of women and minors, but they have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead. The toll is likely higher because thousands are believed buried under rubble. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

AP