JERUSALEM: Thousands of protesters massed in Jerusalem on Wednesday, chanting slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who they accuse of undermining democracy and resuming Gaza strikes without regard for hostages.
Protesters shouted “You are the head, and you’re to blame” as well as “The blood is on your hands” at the demonstration near parliament, the largest to take place in Jerusalem for months.
The demonstration was organized by anti-Netanyahu opposition groups protesting the premier’s move to sack Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency.
Following Netanyahu’s announcement to dismiss Bar, which threatened to trigger political crisis, Israel launched a wave of overnight strikes on Gaza, by far the deadliest since the start of a fragile ceasefire in January.
Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem.
“We hope all people from Israel will join this movement and we will not stop until we restore democracy and freedom for the hostages,” said Zeev Berar, 68, from Tel Aviv.
“At this rate we won’t have a country left, not a democratic one. It will be a dictatorship,” student Roni Sharon, 18, told AFP.
Some in the crowd brandished banners reading: “We are all hostages.”
Relatives of the hostages in the Gaza Strip have said the decision to resume strikes could “sacrifice” their loved ones.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the unprecedented October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The demonstrators in Jerusalem also accuse Netanyahu of using the war against Hamas to distract from domestic political concerns.
The prime minister has so far refused to set up a national commission of inquiry into Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, while his bid to dismiss Bar threatened to plunge Israel back into deep political crisis.
Netanyahu’s government recently also moved to oust Israel’s attorney general and government judiciary adviser, Gali Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence.
A 2023 judicial reform project aimed at curbing the supreme court’s powers fractured the country and sparked major protests — before coming to an abrupt halt with Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“The last two years have been a nightmare for us,” said Yael Baron, 55, from the city of Modiin.
“I feel as though we are in the 99th minute and time is running out to save the country, the oxygen is running out for us, like democracy is running out.”
Thousands join anti-government rally in Jerusalem
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Thousands join anti-government rally in Jerusalem
- Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem
Israeli forces have demolished 600 Palestinian houses in Jenin since January offensive
- Shops, houses and infrastructure in Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf neighbourhoods sustain heaviest damage
- Forces arrest a prisoner who was released during Israel-Hamas truce in November 2023
LONDON: Israeli forces have demolished nearly 600 Palestinian houses in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the town municipality, where Israel has been carrying out military operations for the past 118 days.
On Sunday, forces intensified dredging and destruction operations in the Jenin refugee camp, causing significant damage to its water and electricity infrastructure and main roads, while continuing to block access to the area.
The Jenin Municipality has documented the total destruction of 600 houses in the camp, while others were either partially damaged or have been abandoned by residents since Israel launched a major offensive in January.
The neighborhoods of Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf sustained the heaviest damage — to shops, houses and infrastructure — the Wafa news agency reported.
Also on Sunday, Israeli forces arrested Yasmeen Shaaban at her home in Al-Jalameh village, north of Jenin. Shaaban, who spent 21 months in prison, was released in November 2023 during the first temporary truce and captive-exchange arrangement between Israel and Hamas.
The municipality reported that 22,000 people are displaced in Jenin as Israeli forces increase enforcement in the town and its refugee camp. The military operation has caused heavy losses to businesses in Jenin, leading to many shop closures and a decrease in shopper footfall from nearby villages, with an estimated loss of $300 million.
Since Israel launched its offensive on January 21 in Jenin, at least 40 people have been killed, while hundreds have been arrested and injured.
Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war
- The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now”
RAFAH: Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre,” Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.
The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now,” “End illegal occupation” and “Stop arming Israel.”
“There should be a complete embargo on weapons to and from Israel and a stop to trade with illegal settlements,” Strada said.
The protesters laid toys on the ground in solidarity with Gaza’s children, who the UN warns face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” more than two months into a total Israeli aid blockade.
At least 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, according to the United Nations.
Israel has faced mounting pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.
It resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Saturday Israel announced an expanded military campaign, killing dozens of people in new strikes.
“We hear the bombs right now,” Walter Massa, president of Italian non-profit organization Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, told AFP near the crossing.
“The Israeli army continues to do what it believes is right in the face of an international community that does not intervene, and in Gaza, beyond the Rafah crossing border, people continue to die,” he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now.”
Italy’s government on Saturday reiterated its calls to Israel to stop attacking Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.
Lebanon says soldier among two wounded in Israeli strike
BEIRUT: Lebanon said two people including a soldier were wounded in an Israeli strike Sunday in the country’s south, where the army has been deploying after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“A soldier was moderately wounded due to the Israeli enemy targeting of a vehicle... at the Beit Yahun checkpoint” in Bint Jbeil district, an army statement said.
Beit Yahun is around eight kilometers (around five miles) from the border.
The health ministry said two people including a soldier were wounded in the strike, which it said was launched by an “Israeli enemy drone” and targeted a vehicle.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reported strike.
Israel has continued to launch raids on its neighbor despite a November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of all-out war.
Lebanon has reported four deadly strikes this week in the south, with Israel saying it targeted Hezbollah operatives.
Under the ceasefire, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Last month, President Joseph Aoun said the army was deployed in more than 85 percent of the south, and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions.”
Also in April, Lebanon’s military said a munitions blast in the south killed three personnel, days after an explosion killed another soldier as the force was dismantling mines in a tunnel.
Israel airstrikes kill at least 130 in Gaza as negotiators seek ceasefire
- Overnight airstrikes on Gaza hit as Israel prepares for a new ground offensive aimed at achieving “operational control” in parts of Gaza
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli strikes killed at least 130 Palestinians across Gaza overnight, health officials said on Sunday, as Israel said talks with Hamas included a proposal to end the war but sources on both sides said there had been no progress in the talks.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the latest indirect talks in Doha included discussions on a truce and hostage deal as well as a proposal to end the war in return for the exile of Hamas militants and the demilitarization of the enclave, terms Hamas has previously rejected.
The substance of the statement was in line with previous declarations from Israel, but the timing, as negotiators meet, offered some prospect of flexibility in Israel’s position. A senior Israeli official said there had been no progress in the talks so far.
A Hamas official told Reuters: “Israel’s position remains unchanged, they want to release the prisoners (hostages) without a commitment to end the war.”
He reiterated that Hamas was proposing releasing all Israeli hostages in return for an end to the war, the pull-out of Israeli troops, an end to a blockade on aid for Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The overnight airstrikes on Gaza hit as Israel prepares for a new ground offensive aimed at achieving “operational control” in parts of Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 464 Palestinians were killed in the week to Sunday as a result of Israel’s escalated bombardment. The deaths of at least 130 Palestinians overnight are in addition to that figure.
“Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by (overnight) Israeli bombardment,” Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the casualties.
Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March to try to pressure Hamas into freeing Israeli hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza strip and controlling aid.
“Hospitals overwhelmed”
Reports in Israeli and Arab media that Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar may have been killed could potentially complicate the Doha talks, which began on Saturday.
Hamas neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Israel’s Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.
Gaza medics said contrary to earlier reports Zakaria Al-Sinwar, a history lecturer at a Gaza university and the brother of Hamas’ leader, was alive but in critical condition.
He was placed in the morgue earlier with his three children, before medics realized he was still breathing and moved him to an intensive care unit.
“Hospitals are overwhelmed with a growing number of casualties, many are children,” health ministry spokesman Deqran said.
In Israel, Einav Zangauker, the mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, said Netanyahu was refusing to end the war in exchange for Hamas releasing the remaining hostages because of his political interests.
“The Israeli government still insists on only partial deals. They are deliberately tormenting us. Bring our children back already! All 58 of them,” Zangauker said in a post on the X social media platform.
Tents ablaze
One of Israel’s overnight strikes hit a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing women and children, wounding dozens and setting several tents ablaze.
Later on Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said the Indonesian Hospital, one of the largest partially functioning medical facilities in north Gaza, had ceased operating because of Israeli fire near and at the vicinity.
Israel’s military said its troops were operating against “terrorist infrastructure sites” in northern Gaza, including in the area adjacent to the Indonesian hospital.
Gaza’s health care system is barely operational because of repeated Israeli bombardment and raids on hospitals. The blockade on aid supplies has compounded its difficulties, and worsened widespread hunger. Israel blames Hamas for stealing aid, which Hamas denies.
Staff at Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, urged people to donate blood. Hospital officials said they received 40 dead and dozens of wounded overnight because of continued Israeli strikes.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 75 percent of its ambulances had stopped operating because of fuel shortages. It warned that unless fuel is allowed in within 72 hours, all vehicles may stop.
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.
The Israeli military campaign has devastated the enclave, pushing nearly all residents from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Morocco unveils policies it hopes bolster the care and management of stray dogs
EL AARJATE: A mutt with a blue tag clipped to her ear whimpers as she’s lifted from a cage and carried to a surgery table for a spay and a rabies vaccine, two critical steps before she’s released back onto the streets of Morocco’s capital.
The “Beldi,” as Moroccan street dogs are called, is among the hundreds taken from Rabat to a dog pound in a nearby forest. As part of an expanded “Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return” program, dogs like her are examined, treated and ultimately released with tags that make clear they pose no danger.
“We have a problem: That’s stray dogs. So we have to solve it, but in a way that respects animals,” said Mohamed Roudani, the director of the Public Health and Green Spaces Department in Morocco’s Interior Ministry.
Trying to balance safety and animal well-being
Morocco adopted “Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return,” or TVNR, in 2019. One facility has opened in Rabat and more are set to be launched in at least 14 other cities, aligning Morocco with recommendations from the World Organization for Animal Health. The government has spent roughly $23 million over the past five years on animal control centers and programs.
Roudani said Morocco’s updated approach balanced public safety, health and animal well-being. Local officials, he added, were eager to expand TVNR centers throughout the country.
Though population estimates are challenging, based on samples of marked and tagged stray dogs, Moroccan officials believe they number between 1.2 to 1.5 million. Some neighborhoods welcome and care for them collectively. However, others decry their presence as a scourge and note that more than 100,000 Moroccans have needed rabies vaccinations after attacks.
A draft law is in the works that would require owners to vaccinate pets and impose penalties for animal abuse.
Inside the center
On a visit organized for journalists to a TNVR center in El Aarjate, enclosures for dogs appear spacious and orderly, with clean floors and the scent of disinfectant. Food and water bowls are refreshed regularly by staff who move between spaces, offering gentle words and careful handling. Some staff members say they grow so attached to the dogs that they miss them when they’re released to make space to treat incoming strays.
Veterinarians and doctors working for the Association for the Protection of Animals and Nature care for between 400 and 500 stray dogs from Rabat and surrounding cities. Dogs that veterinarians deem unhealthy or aggressive are euthanized using sodium pentobarbital, while the rest are released, unable to spread disease or reproduce.
Youssef Lhor, a doctor and veterinarian, said that aggressive methods to cull dogs didn’t effectively make communities safer from rabies or aggression. He said it made more sense to to try to have people coexist with dogs safely, noting that more than 200 had been released after treatment from the Rabat-area center.
“Slaughtering dogs leads to nothing. This TNVR strategy is not a miracle solution, but it is an element that will add to everything else we’re doing,” he said, referring to “Treat, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return.”
It’s designed to gradually reduce the stray dog population while minimizing the need for euthanasia.
It’s a program that Morocco is eager to showcase after animal rights groups accused it of ramping up efforts to cull street dogs after being named co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup last year.
Animal rights groups protest
Animal rights groups routinely use large sporting events to draw attention to their cause and similarly targeted Russia in the lead-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup there.
Citing unnamed sources and videos it said were shot in Morocco, the International Animal Welfare and Protection Coalition claimed in January that Morocco was exterminating 3 million dogs, particularly around cities where stadiums are being built. The allegations, reported widely by international media lacking a presence in Morocco, triggered anti-FIFA protests as far away as Ahmedabad, India.
“These dogs are being shot in the street, often in front of children, or dragged away with wire nooses to die slow, agonizing deaths,” Ian Ward, the coalition’s chairman, said in a statement.
Moroccan officials vehemently deny the claims, say they’re implementing the very programs that activists propose, including TNVR. They rebuff the idea that any policy is related to the World Cup. Still, critics see their efforts as publicity stunts and are skeptical such programs are as widespread as officials claim.
Instances of mistreatment and euthanasia by gunshot have been reported in local media but Moroccan officials say, despite international attention, they’re isolated incidents and don’t reflect on-the-ground reality nationwide.
