Foreign

UK Denies Israeli Government Delegation Access to Arms Trade Fair  

By Web News 197

                                                                                                                                               

UK says, Israeli government delegation will be invited to a global defence exhibition in London next month due to the Gaza war.

According to report, Israel’s defence ministry called the move a “deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination” and said it would be withdrawing and not setting up a national pavilion, as UK leaders have become more outspoken against Israel’s conduct in Gaza, including a recent plan to expand the war and take over Gaza City.

“There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” the UK government spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The defence expo, which is set to take place at Excel London from 9 to 12 September, is organised and run by a private company with backing from the government.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostage back to Gaza. Fifty hostages are still held there, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israeli military actions in Gaza have since killed 62,966 people, including at least 18,592 children, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The UN has said Israel has restricted aid, and UN-backed experts have confirmed famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, with more than half a million people across Gaza facing conditions including starvation.

Israel, which controls entry of goods into the territory, has denied this report and defended its military operation as a fight against Hamas.

UK leaders have become increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

In March, the UK suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country’s ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the military escalation in Gaza “morally unjustifiable”.

In recent months, Lammy said he was appalled and sickened by the plight of civilians in Gaza and called on Israel to allow in more aid.

This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Israeli strikes on a hospital that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, “completely indefensible”.

After the Labour Party came to power last year, it suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, but did not include parts for the F-35 jet, which the government said it could not prevent Israel from obtaining as they are sent to manufacturers worldwide.

These jets have been used extensively in Gaza.

BBC/Taiwo Akinola

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Foreign

Isreali Minister Outlines Proposals for Future Governance of Gaza after War

By Web News 370

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has outlined proposals for the future governance of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.

According to him, there would be limited Palestinian rule in the territory.

Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would retain overall security control, he added.

The Hamas-run health ministry says, fighting in Gaza continued alongside the plan’s publication, with dozens of people killed in the past 24 hours.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due back in the region this week. He is expected to hold talks with Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank and Israeli leaders.

His visit comes amid heigh tensions in the region following the assassination of top Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday in Lebanon’s capital Beirut. His killing has widely been blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Under Mr Gallant’s now “four corner” plan, Israel would retain overall security control of Gaza.

A multi-national force would take charge of rebuilding the territory after the widespread destruction caused by Israeli bombing.

Neighbouring Egypt would also have an unspecified role to play under the plan.

But the document adds that Palestinians would be responsible for running the territory.

“Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel,” Mr Gallant said.

Talk of the “day after” in Gaza has led to deep disagreement in Israel.

Some far right-wing members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have said that Palestinian citizens should be encouraged to leave Gaza for exile, with the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory – controversial proposals that have been rejected as “extremist” and “unworkable” by other countries in the region and by some of Israel’s allies.

While Mr Gallant’s proposals may be regarded as more practical than those suggested by some of his cabinet colleagues, they are likely to be rejected by Palestinian leaders who say that Gazans themselves must be allowed to take full control of running the territory once this devastating war is over.

Mr Netanyahu has not publicly talked in any detail about how he thinks Gaza should be governed.

He has suggested that the war in Gaza may yet last several months, with the avowed goal being to completely crush Hamas.

Mr Gallant’s plan also outlined how the Israeli military aims to proceed in the next phase of the war in Gaza.

He said the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, would take a more targeted approach in the north of the Gaza Strip, where operations will include raids, demolishing tunnels and air and ground strikes.

He said in the south, the Israeli military would continue to try to track down Hamas leaders and rescue Israeli hostages.

On Thursday, the IDF said it had hit areas in Gaza’s north and south, including Gaza City and Khan Younis.

It said it had conducted strikes on “terrorist infrastructure” and had killed people who it described as militants, who it said had tried to detonate an explosive next to soldiers.

It also announced that it had killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, Mamdouh Lolo, in an air strike.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 125 people had been killed in the past 24 hours across the Strip.

A health ministry official said 14 people – including nine children – were killed by Israeli air strikes in al-Mawasi, to the west of Khan Younis.

The small town has been designated a “safe space” by Israeli forces for displaced Palestinians. The IDF has not commented on the claims made by Hamas.

“We were sleeping at midnight when a strike hit the camp on the tents, 4×2 tents where people were sleeping, most of them children,” eyewitness Jamal Hamad Salah told Reuters news agency. “We found one body there that flew 40 metres away.”

“There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” aid agency Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said. “Camps, shelters, schools, hospitals, homes and so-called ‘safe zones’ should not be battlegrounds.”

The total number of people killed in Gaza since the start

The Hamas-run health ministry said the total number of people killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s retaliatory campaign had reached more than 22,400 by Thursday – comprising almost 1% of the enclave’s 2.3 million population, Israel’s offensive started after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage.

BBC/TAIWO AKINOLA

Lifestyle

Ife-Modakeke to Interface on Sustenance of Peace

By Web News 514

By Adenitan Akinola

Residents of the ancient city of Ile-Ife have again called for the intervention of the Federal and Osun State Government to ensure the continued maintenance of peaceful coexistence between them and the Modakeke.

The people advocated the deployment of alternative dispute resolution mechanism and the strict adherence of the two communities to the findings of several peace commissions instituted by the government to put an end to the Ife-Modakeke war.

The position of the Ile-Ife people was made public in a twelve page- address read to Journalists by the President of the Great Ife Movement,GIM, Comrade Olufemi Oyeyinka at the Oba Okunade Sijuade Memorial Hall, Enuwa Quarters Ile-Ife.

In the address, the Ife people pointed out that all the issues complained of in the press conference held last year in their memorandum and petition to the Osun State Boundary Commission still persist unabated, despite the invitation by the Commission led by Retired Justice Adekunle Adeigbe.

Parts of the complaints include “unlawful occupation and seizure of farmlands belonging to Ife by the Modakeke, forcefully sending Ife farm owners away from their ancestral farmlands, refusal of Modakeke to pay their tenancy agreements and statutory tributes known as Ishakole to their Ife landlords till date, sending away of Ooni crowned Obas, Baales and Chiefs from their domain after burning and destroying their palaces, especially in Ife North Local Government”.

The Ife people also complained of “Usurpation of Oonis power and Authority on Chieftaincy matters in Ife land by unlawfully appointing their own Baales, especially in Ife North where the Ooni had already installed Obas and Baales” and the use of the Mass media to convey sectional and provocative messages.

Others included the “blotting out of the word ‘Ile-Ife’ on signposts within Ife Metropolitan City with absolute impunity on daily bases” as done on the signpost of Urban Day Grammar School Ile-Ife located at Mayfair Area of the city.

According to Comrade Olufemi Oyeyinka, the Ife people suspected a conspiracy between the Modakeke people and the Electricity Distribution company servicing the area as the bills for some areas within the jurisdiction of Ile-Ife now carry names of Modakeke, including places like Oba Okunade Sijuade Estate on Ondo Road, Lagere and Arubidi.

He maintained that the people of Ile-Ife were peace loving and would continue to live in peace with their Modakeke neighbour, but such must be on the basis of Justice,Equity and fair play.

The people of Modakeke, however, reacted to all the issue raised, saying that they remain committed to peaceful coexistence with Ile-Ife and would not in any way infringe on their rights.

President of Modakeke Progressive Union, Professor Peter Olawuni denied all the allegations raised by the Ifes.

Professor Olawuni explained that Modakeke had not renamed anywhere belonging to Ile-Ife, adding that there should not be a misinterpretation between locational address and postal address.

Professor Olawuni said, “Ifes were the ones driving our people from their farms. We have 256 farms where the Ifes have driven away our people”.

He said steps had been taken between the two communities to make peace as representatives of both parties has already agreed where and when to meet, hence raising allegations through a press conference was unexpected.

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Foreign

Casualties forgotten in Ukraine war

By Web News 501

A woman who flew to Ukraine via Poland to rescue her paralysed brother fears “the forgotten causalities of war” are people with disabilities.

Olena Florek, from Staffordshire, travelled to Warsaw to try to get a UK visa for brother Volodymyr.

After waiting 24 hours for it to be processed, she then made her way to Lviv to meet her mother and brother.

The Home Office said its visa processes had been streamlined to enable more Ukrainians to come to the UK.

Mrs Florek’s brother requires 24/7 care as he is paralysed from the neck down.

He also has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak, after contracting meningitis as a young boy.

“When it is war, not many people talk about those with mental health [issues], people with disabilities, care homes; we don’t hear or see or know, but they are there,” said Mrs Florek.

“Nobody mentions about these people and their situation.

“Have they been abandoned? Can they drink water or [are they] just left at Russian soldiers’ mercy? We know they show no mercy,” said Mrs Florek.

In April, BBC News reported on a disabled woman who was reunited with her nephew, who lives in the UK, after volunteers stepped in to bring the woman and the man’s mother out of Ukraine.

Mother-of-two Mrs Florek, 36, left her family as she said she had no choice but to fly to Warsaw on a “whim” as she could no longer “just wait for someone’s mercy” at the Home Office, after waiting more than three weeks to hear about her brother’s visa.

“I couldn’t live with myself knowing I haven’t done everything in my power to save my close family. He is my only brother and he is precious,” she said.

She said she had been told the delays were due to her brother not having a biometric passport, which was due to his severe disabilities.

“I needed to go and help. If I didn’t help, nobody would help them,” she added.

While waiting for her brother’s UK visa to be processed in Warsaw, Mrs Florek said she had felt “broken and exhausted” after spending a day trying to interpret and translate to help others applying.

“They are people who are dealing with trauma, desperation; people who have no money; people who’ve lost loved ones; people who’ve left them; people with nothing; people trying to find a sponsor, someone who can provide shelter.”

The 36-year-old said there was “a big gap” and more needed to be done to find people who could speak fluent Ukrainian and English, adding many were relying on phone apps to communicate.
BBC/Taiwo Akinola