Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at day two of Israel’s military operation in the West Bank, press freedom concerns in Hong Kong, and Namibia’s efforts to combat a devastating drought.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at day two of Israel’s military operation in the West Bank, press freedom concerns in Hong Kong, and Namibia’s efforts to combat a devastating drought.
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West Bank Raids
Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank entered its second day on Thursday with the deaths of five alleged militants whom the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said had been hiding in a mosque in Tulkarm. Among those killed was Mohammed Jaber, a commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local branch. The militant organization confirmed his death later on Thursday; a municipal official in Tulkarm said Jaber and the others were killed while hiding in a home next to a mosque.
The IDF said Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, was involved in “numerous terror attacks,” including the murder of an Israeli civilian in the West Bank city of Qalqilya in June. Jaber gained popularity in April after the Israeli military announced that he had been killed during a raid on the Tulkarm camp, only to emerge alive three days later at a funeral for other Palestinians killed during that same attack.
This week’s raids are part of the first stages of an operation to counter militants in the West Bank, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Hundreds of troops accompanied by drones first pushed into the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm on Wednesday in one of the largest assaults on the region in more than a year.
This is a Gaza-style operation meant to root out “Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” Katz said, accusing Tehran of trying to establish an eastern front against Israel to assist Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both of which are also backed by Iran. Israeli officials have denounced Tehran for supplying Palestinian militants in the West Bank with weapons.
At least 17 people have been killed in this week’s raids thus far, according to local media. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had lost contact with emergency medical services in Jenin as Israeli troops surrounded the city’s main hospital with checkpoints and earth mounds. And the entirety of the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm reported having no water or sewage services due to Israeli forces bulldozing the streets in what the military says is a necessary step to counter explosive devices under the roads.
Israel’s raids in the West Bank are “deeply concerning,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, and he called for an immediate end to all operations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the operation, and Hamas reiterated its calls for Palestinians in the West Bank to join the militant group’s fight against Israel. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Israel to implement temporary “area-specific humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to allow polio vaccines to enter the enclave. The pauses will begin on Sunday and occur in three-day shifts: first in central Gaza, then southern, and finally northern. WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn said additional days may be needed to complete the vaccinations, which aim to help around 640,000 children younger than age 10.
An Israeli official said some sort of tactical pause will occur but that these are not cease-fires between Israel and Hamas. Truce and hostage release negotiations remain ongoing in Cairo.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Landmark sedition trial. A Hong Kong court convicted two journalists of sedition on Thursday for publishing articles about pro-democracy activists. Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam were both top editors at Stand News, a pro-democracy media outlet active in Hong Kong before the passage of a national security law in 2020 forced the company to eventually shut down in 2021. Chung and Lam were arrested in December 2021 and pleaded not guilty to “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications.” Each of them could face up to two years in prison and a fine of roughly $640.
Their sedition trial was the first involving a media organization in Hong Kong since the semi-autonomous city returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Judge Kwok Wai-kin accused Stand News of posing a threat to national security for criticizing the Chinese and Hong Kong governments during mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. Rights organizations such as Reporters Without Borders condemned the court’s ruling as undermining press freedom in a city where many outlets already self-censor for fear of government crackdowns.
Food insecurity crisis. Namibia authorized the killing of more than 700 animals this week to help feed its population, nearly half of whom are facing acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations. The Environment, Forestry, and Tourism Ministry announced that hunters will cull 300 zebras, 100 wildebeests, 100 eland antelopes, 83 elephants, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, and 30 hippos “sourced from national parks and communal area with sustainable game numbers.”
Namibia is facing its worst drought in 100 years due to this year’s record-breaking El Niño, which flooded some African countries and left others with extreme temperatures and drought. In May, the southern African country declared a state of emergency for the more than 1 million people struggling to obtain food and water. The drought has also caused high inflation and rising unemployment rates in Namibia as most households depend on crop and livestock farming.
Climate protections. South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the country’s climate change measures were insufficient and therefore did not protect basic human rights. This was the first high court ruling on climate issues in Asia and could potentially set a precedent for the region. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Taiwan and Japan.
More than 250 plaintiffs—many of whom were young people—argued that the government’s greenhouse gas reduction targets were inadequate to manage climate change’s impacts. The court did not rule in favor of all of the plaintiffs’ arguments, but it said that South Korea’s 2010 Carbon Neutral Act failed to specify carbon emission reduction targets for 2031 to 2050, when the country is expected to achieve carbon neutrality. The National Assembly now has until the end of February 2025 to amend the law.
South Korea is not the first country to receive a court ruling in favor of stronger climate protections on the basis of human rights. In 2021, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ordered stronger actions to minimize climate change, and in April of this year, Europe’s top human rights court ruled that the Swiss government violated its citizens’ human rights by failing to adequately counter climate change.
Odds and Ends
The streets of Buñol, Spain, ran red … with tomato juice. Around 22,000 fruit-flinging enthusiasts celebrated the town’s annual Tomatina festival on Wednesday. Wearing white clothes and armed with overripe tomatoes, merrymakers engaged in an hourlong tomato fight, which commenced once one of the participants snagged a leg of ham hanging off the top of a pole lathered in soap. Tomatina originated in 1945 but was briefly outlawed during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
The post Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Militant Commander in West Bank appeared first on Foreign Policy.
