South Korea hails successful launch of homegrown rocket

ICBM BY ANY OTHER NAME

Issued on: 25/05/2023 - 

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea said Thursday it had successfully launched its homegrown Nuri rocket and placed working satellites into orbit, hailing a key step forward for the country's burgeoning space programme.

South Korea launched its homegrown Nuri rocket on Thursday, officials said, a day after it was forced to postpone due to a technical glitch 

© Handout / Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)/AFP

It was the third launch of the Nuri, which successfully put test satellites into orbit last year after a failed 2021 attempt saw the rocket's third-stage engine burn out too early.

The three-stage rocket, more than 47 metres (155 feet) long and weighing 200 tonnes, soared into the sky at 6:24 pm (0924 GMT) from the Naro Space Center in South Korea's southern coastal region, leaving a huge trail of white smoke.

"We report to the public that the third launch of Nuri, which was independently developed to secure domestic space transportation capacity, has been successfully completed," said Lee Jong-ho, minister of science and technology.

The main satellite made communication with South Korea's King Sejong Station in Antarctica, he said, adding that the launch confirmed "our potential for launch services for various satellite operations and space exploration".

South Korea will carry out three more launches of Nuri by 2027, Lee added.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hailed Nuri's launch, saying it will give the country a competitive edge in the global space race.

"The success of Nuri's third launch is a splendid achievement that declares South Korea has joined the G7 space powers," he said in a statement.

The launch came a day after initial plans were called off over a computer communication error which was resolved by Thursday.

In previous tests, the rocket carried payloads mainly designed for verifying the performance of the launch vehicle.

This time, the rocket was topped with eight working satellites, including a "commercial-grade satellite", according to the science ministry.

More than 200,000 viewers were watching the livestream of the launch on YouTube, with one commenting: "Fly high Nuri! Let's go to space!"
Space race

South Korea has laid out ambitious plans for outer space, including landing spacecraft on the Moon by 2032 and Mars by 2045.

In Asia, China, Japan and India all have advanced space programmes, and the South's nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea was the most recent entrant to the club of countries with their own satellite launch capability.

Ballistic missiles and space rockets use similar technology and Pyongyang claimed to have put a 300-kilogram satellite into orbit in 2012 in what Washington condemned as a disguised missile test.

The South Korean space programme has a mixed record -- its first two launches in 2009 and 2010, which in part used Russian technology, both ended in failure.

The second one exploded two minutes into the flight, with Seoul and Moscow blaming each other.

Eventually, a 2013 launch succeeded, but still relied on a Russian-developed engine for its first stage.

Last June, South Korea became the seventh nation to have successfully launched a one-tonne payload on their own rockets.

The three-stage Nuri rocket has been a decade in development at a cost of two trillion won ($1.5 billion).

Sierra Leone’s historic tree, a symbol of freedom, lost in rainstorm

A before and after photo shows Sierra Leone's “Cotton Tree” damaged in storm.

 (Twitter)

Reuters
Published: 25 May ,2023

A giant tree that towered over Sierra Leone’s capital for centuries and symbolized freedom to its early residents came down overnight during a heavy rainstorm.

President Julius Maada Bio called the toppling of the famed tree “a great loss to the nation” as crowds gathered to look at the wrecked trunk.

The “Cotton Tree” was the most important landmark in the West African country which was founded by freed American slaves.

It is believed that when those slaves arrived by boat in the late 1700s, they gathered under its branches to offer prayers before moving into their new home.

“It was regarded as a symbol of liberty and freedom by early settlers,” the president wrote on Twitter.

“We will have something at the same spot that bears testament to the great Cotton Tree's place in our history. All voices will be brought together for this.”

The kapok tree stood in the middle of a roundabout in central Freetown near the national museum and the president’s office.

Passerby Victor Tutu Rogers told Reuters he saw the tree fall around 9:40 p.m. (2140 GMT) on Wednesday.

“The wind was blowing, the rain got heavy. I dashed round the cotton tree on my way from work, because I feared the branches might fall,” he said.

“Shortly after that there was a heavy lightning and I heard a heavy bang - the sound of the tree falling behind me.”

By Thursday, the branches and debris had been cleared away, leaving only a stump.

“As a municipality it was very much symbolic, the place where we hold our annual thanksgiving every November to offer prayers and for many other events,” the city’s Chief Administrator, Festus Kallay, said.

“The Freetown skyline will hardly be the same again.”

Sierra Leone's iconic Cotton Tree destroyed by storm


The centuries-old tree that towered over the skyline of Freetown was a symbol for the country's resilience. The President of Sierra Leone has vowed to erect a monument in its place

A giant, 400-year-old tree that served as a symbol of freedom in Sierra Leone has been destroyed in a storm, authorities said on Thursday.

Lovingly referred to as "Cotton Tree," the 70-meter (230-foot) tall, 15-meter (50-feet) wide Ceiba pentandra has long been a symbol of the country.

It is believed that the enslaved people who won their freedom by fighting with the British in the American War of Independence prayed under the tree when they eventually settled in West Africa in the end of the 18th century.

"All Sierra Leoneans will pause for thought at the loss of such a prestigious national symbol as Cotton Tree," President Julius Maada Bio said on Thursday.

Workers cleared rubble from the Freetown intersection on Thursday

TJ Bade/AP/picture alliance

"For centuries, it has been a proud emblem of our nation, a symbol of a nation that has grown to provide shelter for many," he added.

Freetown residents continued to pray beneath the tree in the decades that followed as it towered over a busy roundabout near the national museum, the central post office and the country's highest court.
An icon of Freetown

Cotton Tree has appeared on bank notes, is celebrated in children's nursery rhymes, and was visited by Queen Elizabeth II to mark the country's independence in 1961.

Government press agency Zabek International compared the loss to the fire that destroyed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in 2019.

After diggers cleared the wreckage on Thursday, all that was left behind was a stump.

"The Freetown skyline will hardly be the same again," said Freetown's Chief Administrator Festus Kallay.

Cotton Tree towered above the skyline of Freetown for centuries

 Michael Duff/AP/picture alliance

Preserving the spirit of Cotton Tree

Bio promised to include "all voices" to create a new monument at the same spot, and also discussed preserving remnants of the tree.

"There is no stronger symbol of our national story than the Cotton Tree, a physical embodiment of where we come from as a country," Bio told the Associated Press.

"Nothing in nature lasts forever, so our challenge is to rekindle, nurture, and develop that powerful African spirit for so long represented."

zc/lo (Reuters, AFP, AP)

French Olympic Committee in turmoil as president resigns

Issued on: 25/05/2023 - 

03:41

Sports Minister Amelie Oudea Castera on Thursday called on the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to rally together after their president Brigitte Henriques quit her post only 14 months before Paris hosts the Olympic Games.Henriques' dramatic resignation at the committee's general assembly comes after a year-and-a-half of internal squabbling and a very public disagreement with her predecessor Denis Masseglia.

Meandering along the river Seine: France's roving plastic rubbish


Isabel MALSANG et Madeleine PRADEL
Thu, 25 May 2023 

An item of plastic waste can roam through the river system for years

The scrap of red plastic in among the waterside reeds in northern France could be any fragment of the throwaway consumerism piling up across the planet, flowing into rivers, choking animals, even seeping into our bloodstreams.

But this otherwise unremarkable litter caught in the foliage not far from the mouth of the river Seine has both a name -- EF56308 -- and a history.

It was tossed into the water on September 26, 2018, in Rouen, 70 kilometres upstream.

Romain Tramoy should know. He threw it.

Tramoy, a specialist in sediments, tours the riverbanks making an inventory of the plastic that now splashes garish colours in landscapes once beloved of impressionist painters.

Sometimes he marks the plastics with pink or fluorescent yellow paint so he can perhaps find them again one day, somewhere else on their journey towards the sea.

"No waste goes to the sea in a linear way," he told AFP, along a riverside strewn with litter.

They can hang around "for years", flowing from one bank to another, where they snare in the foliage.

The scientist, who works at the Water Environment and Urban Systems Laboratory, has spent years studying the life of plastics in the Seine, trying to trace the origins of the trash, how these items can make their way to the sea and how much there is.

The Seine River begins its life on the Langres plateau in eastern France before flowing to Paris, where it waters the feet of the Eiffel Tower before wending its way to the city of Rouen and ultimately spilling out into the English Channel.

With plastics tossed around by the currents over long periods, the estuary is "a machine for manufacturing microplastics", he said.

- Global scourge -

Concern is growing around the world about the potential impacts of this persistent rubbish on ecosystems, people and animals.

Microplastic fragments have now been found from the deepest oceans trenches to the top of Mount Everest. In humans, they have been detected in blood, breast milk and placentas.

Next week, France will host negotiators from nearly 200 countries for a new round of talks in Paris aimed at reaching a historic, legally binding agreement by next year to end plastic pollution.

Global production of the mainly fossil-fuel-based material has doubled in 20 years, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which predicts production could triple again by 2060 without action.

France has an advantage over poorer countries when dealing with plastics, Tramoy said.

Refuse collection is highly organised and the sewage system is largely effective, other than when there are overflows linked to storms.

"We find much less plastic in the rivers than in countries without collections, and with steep gorges, like in South-East Asia for example," Tramoy said.

The Seine is also cleaned, notably by the Vinci Construction Maritime et Fluvial group, which collects floating waste. Other organisations focus on shoreline cleanup.

But still the plastic gets through.

- 'Everywhere' -

As a result of experiments between 2017 and 2020, Tramoy's team estimated that some 100 to 200 tonnes of plastic per year reach the sea along the Seine.

That was much fewer than his initial assumptions but it is still enough to keep him busy.

Tramoy has placed nets at the exit of storm overflow pipes, which can disgorge into the river after heavy rains.

The contents are washed, dried, weighed and listed in his laboratory.

This yields an array of plastics -- drinks bottles and cigarette butts thrown onto the streets and washed into the sewage system, as well as items flushed directly into toilets.

Like an archaeologist of the Anthropocene, the researcher uses certain common products to date the flows of rubbish.

One is the small plastic applicator for the single-dose laxative "microlax". Enough people flush them down their toilets to make these abundant in the river rubbish and they are each marked with a telltale expiry date.

One day in February this year, Tramoy showed AFP some of his earlier finds on a stony bank on the river’s edge, tossed up by the tides among driftwood and branches.

Detergent bottles, cans, yoghurt pots, sweet wrappers, lids, sandals. The items are an inventory of modern consumption.

Macro plastics, microplastics, even nanoplastics.

"We find them everywhere," he said.

im/klm/mh/gil

Children in quake-hit Syria learn in buses turned classrooms

Jindayris (Syria) (AFP) – In a dusty Syrian camp for earthquake survivors, school pupils line up and wait for a colourful bus to pull up. Since the disaster hit, they go to a classroom on wheels.

Issued on: 25/05/2023 

Pupils board a bus turned into a travelling classroom in northwest Syria © Rami al SAYED / AFP

School bags on their backs and notebooks in hand, the children took off their shoes before entering the bus, then sat down along rows of desks fitted inside.

A teacher greeted them in the mobile classroom, decorated with curtains bearing children's designs, before they broke into a song for their English class.

The February 6 quake killed nearly 6,000 people in Syria, many of them in the war-torn country's rebel-held northwest, and also left tens of thousands dead in Turkey.

The region was hit by a devastating earthquake more than three months ago 

© Rami al SAYED / AFP

The Syrian town of Jindayris, in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, was among the worst hit, with homes destroyed and school buildings either levelled or turned into shelters.

"We were living in Jindayris and the earthquake happened... and then we didn't have homes anymore," said 10-year-old Jawaher Hilal, a light pink headscarf covering her hair.

"We came to live here and the school was very far away," said the fifth-grader now staying with her family at the displacement camp on the outskirts of town.

As relief services were set up, she told AFP, "the buses came here and we started to study and learn. The buses are really nice, they teach us a lot."

In northwest Syria alone, more than 450 primary and secondary schools sustained quake damage, says the UN humanitarian agency OCHA © Rami al SAYED / AFP

The travelling classrooms are a project of the non-profit Orange Organisation and service more than 3,000 children at some 27 camps, said education officer Raad al-Abd.

"The mobile classrooms offer educational services as well as psychological support to children who were affected by the quake," he said.

'Desperate conditions'

More than three months after the quake, 3.7 million children in Syria "continue to face desperate conditions and need humanitarian assistance", says the United Nations children's agency UNICEF.
According to UNICEF, some 3.7 million children in Syria still 'face desperate conditions and need humanitarian assistance' following the earthquake © Rami al SAYED / AFP

"Almost 1.9 million children have had their education disrupted, with many schools still being used as shelters," it added in a statement this month.

In northwest Syria alone, "a minimum of 452 primary and secondary schools" were reportedly damaged to varying degrees, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said weeks ago.

"More than 1 million school-aged children need education support and are at risk of being out of school," it said, adding that at least 25,000 teachers are also in need of help, including "mental health and psychosocial support".

The deadly earthquake also disrupted schooling for almost 1.9 million children © Rami al SAYED / AFP

On another bus, boys and girls enthusiastically interacted with the teacher, balloons hanging from the ceiling, for lessons that included Arabic, math and science.

Outside in the bare dirt, children sang in a circle and clapped along with the educators.

As the buses left, pulling out through the road running between the camps' tents, adjacent structures and trees, the children yelled out and waved goodbye.

The Syrian town of Jindayris, in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, was among the worst hit, with homes destroyed and school buildings either levelled or turned into shelters © Rami al SAYED / AFP

Jawaher's father Ramadan Hilal expressed relief and gratitude for the initiative.

"After the earthquake there were no more schools or anything else," he said. "Even though they wanted to establish schools, they are far away."

Turkey kicks off Syria housing project for refugee returns

AFP
Thu, May 25, 2023

Anti-refugee sentiments have been running high in Turkey, with both presidential candidates vowing to boost returns

Turkey has launched the construction of nearly a quarter million housing units to resettle refugees in rebel-held northern Syria, Turkish media said, as repatriation efforts loom large in Turkey's presidential runoff.

An AFP correspondent on Wednesday saw builders working and heavy machinery being used at the side on the outskirts of the town of Al-Ghandura, in the Jarabulus area near the Turkish border.

"Syrian refugees living in Turkey will settle in the houses... as part of a dignified, voluntary safe return," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Wednesday at the launch of the project, according to private Turkish news agency IHA.

He said that "240,000 houses will be built" in the region, expressing hope that the project would be completed in three years, IHA added.

Since Syria's war broke out in 2011, neighbouring Turkey has taken in more than three million people who fled the fighting.

Most have "temporary protection" status, leaving them vulnerable to a forced return.

Anti-refugee sentiments have been running high in Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hardened his once-accepting stance towards people displaced by war as he fights for re-election in a presidential runoff this weekend.

Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has pledged to send "all the refugees home" if he wins.

The construction site Soylu visited was formerly an air strip.

On a billboard, "Project for safe, voluntary and honourable returns" was written in Arabic and Turkish, while the names of organisations including Turkey's relief agency AFAD and the Qatar Fund for Development featured on the sign.

"Qatari emir (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad) Al-Thani and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have taken a big step toward addressing one of the world's most important issues," Soylu said, according to the IHA report.

Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Assad, and Ankara maintains a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers Damascus.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

Its troops and their Syrian proxies hold swathes of the border, and Erdogan has long sought to establish a "safe zone" 30 kilometres (20 miles) deep the whole length of the frontier.

"To date, there have been 554,000 voluntary returns," Soylu said. "There is a serious demand for a voluntary and dignified return to this safe area."

Earlier this month, Erdogan pledged to build some 200,000 homes in 13 locations in Syria, aiming to resettle some one million refugees, local media reported.

In November, Soylu paid a visit to open 600 basic homes in Syria's rebel-held Idlib region, saying 75,000 houses had been constructed in the previous two years.

str-lar/lg/ami

OPPORTUNIST RIGHT TURN

Turkish anti-migrant party backs Erdogan's rival in presidential runoff

Issued on: 25/05/2023 -

01:42
A hard-line, anti-migrant party on Wednesday threw its weight behind opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in this weekend’s runoff presidential race. The backing from the far-right Victory Party came in exchange for Kilicdaroglu promising to expel millions of migrants from the country.

Turkey election: Immigration to the fore as voters weigh up runoff choice
Issued on: 25/05/2023 -

03:46
Turkish voters will head to the polls in three days' time to elect a new president, choosing between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a closely fought runoff. One issue that could sway the vote is immigration, with the leader of a minor right-wing party backing Kilicdaroglu in exchange for a deal that could see millions of immigrants, mostly from Syria, sent home.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party keeps faith in Erdogan rival

Dmitry ZAKS

AFP
Thu, 25 May 2023 

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu's alliance with a far-right party alarmed Turkey's Kurds

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party decided Thursday to continue backing the main opposition leader despite his overtures to far-right parties in the runup to this weekend's historic presidential runoff.

Secular candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu alarmed his leftist Kurdish supporters by starting to court staunchly nationalist voters after losing to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the first round on May 14.

Kilicdaroglu put together the opposition's best performance of Erdogan's two-decade era in what is widely seen as Turkey's most consequential election of its post-Ottoman era.

But the 74-year-old still enters Turkey's first runoff vote Sunday trailing the conservative incumbent by nearly five points.

The pro-Kurdish HDP party and its green allies -- the third-largest voting bloc in the new parliament -- expressed particular alarm when Kilicdaroglu joined forces with a fringe far-right group this week.

Kilicdaroglu also unsuccessfully courted the endorsement of Sinan Ogan -- an ultra-nationalist who finished a distant third in the presidential ballot and threw his support behind Erdogan on Monday.

Turkish media reported that some HDP members wanted to call for a boycott of the second round in protest at Kilicdaroglu's tactics.

But HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan told reporters that staying away from the polls would only help Erdogan secure another five-year term.

"Erdogan is not an option for us," Buldan said.

"On May 28, we will complete the work that we left unfinished on May 14. In the face of those who try to prevent this demand for change, we will definitely go to the polls."

- Nationalist surge -

Kilicdaroglu's more overtly nationalist tone contrasts sharply with the inclusive campaign he ran in the first round.

The former civil servant tried to focus on healing Turkey's social divisions and pledged to defend Kurdish interests.

The long-repressed group represents up to a fifth of Turkey's 85-million-strong population and plays an important role in particularly close elections.

They broadly backed Erdogan when he and his Islamic-rooted party lifted some of the social and linguistic restrictions imposed on Kurds by staunchly secular governments in the past century.

But they turned against him when Erdogan broke off peace talks with Kurdish insurgency leaders and unleashed a sweeping crackdown in the wake of a failed 2016 coup.

Right-wing and nationalist parties emerged as the big winners of this month's parallel parliamentary polls.

Kilicdaroglu began to pledge to fight "terrorism" -- a Turkish euphemism for Kurdish groups that have been waging a bloody fight for broader autonomy since the 1980s.

He has also promised to immediately expel millions of Syrian and other migrants that have settled in Turkey since Erdogan came to power in 2003.

Buldan bluntly criticised Kilicdaroglu's new approach.

"It is wrong to score political points off immigrants or refugees," Buldan said.

"We will not back down from our stance under any circumstances."

But she added that her main goal on Sunday was ending Erdogan's "one-man regime".

zak/fo/imm

Animal rights activists take sheep from King Charles’ Sandringham Estate in Norfolk

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
Thu, May 25, 2023 

Three Animal Rising protesters pictured with the sheep they removed from a farm on the royal Sandringham Estate (@AnimalRising/Twitter)

Animal activists have taken three sheep from a farm on the King’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

The lambs were taken by protesters from group Animal Rising on Wednesday evening, before the three women involved in the stunt handed themselves in to the police.

Animal Rising on Thursday shared photos of the women removing lambs, which it claims “would have otherwise shortly been sent for slaughter”, from Appleton Farm.

The group says the lambs are now “safe and with animal experts who will care for them and allow them to live happily”.

“Three lambs have been rescued from a royal farm on Sandringham Estate,” the group wrote on Twitter.

In an update posted around 10am, it said the women - named as Rosa Sharkey, Sarah Foy, and Rose Patterson - had handed themselves in to police.

“They did this because rescuing animals from harm is the right thing to do,” wrote the group.

“These women have acted out of compassion and they stand by the belief that a jury of ordinary people will take the side of care and freedom.

Animal Rising campaigners are pictured carrying a lamb from a farm on the Sandringham Estate (@AnimalRising/Twitter)

“This is how we fix our broken relationship with animals.”

It added that the activists had tried to rescue a mother sheep but “despite our best efforts, this time it wasn’t possible”.

“We take solace in knowing that we have done our best by these babies, saving them from slaughter and helping them to a long life of freedom,” the group said.

It also urged people to sign a public statement in support of the trio’s actions, which has so far attracted 200 signatures.

Thursday’s action comes after a high-profile stunt in December saw Animal Rising free 20 beagles from an animal testing facility in Cambridgeshire, two of which were later returned to the centre by police.

The 20,000-acre Sandringham Estate is a much-loved country retreat that has been in the royal family for more than a century. It is now owned by King Charles III.

The late Queen Elizabeth II formerly frequently stayed there from Christmas until mid-February, with close members of the royal family joining her for the festive season.

Grade-II listed Sandringham House and its gardens are also open to visiting members of the public, along with its sprawling parkland.

The Sandringham Estate has been approached by the Standard for a comment.

https://libcom.org/article/beasts-burden-antagonism-and-practical-history

Beasts of burden - Antagonism and Practical History | libcom... 

Mar 26, 2017 ... Beasts of burden - Antagonism and Practical History ... An attempt to rethink the separation between animal liberationist and communist politics.

Romanian Teachers Go on Nationwide Strike to Demand Higher Pay

Andra Timu and Irina Vilcu
Mon, May 22, 2023 

Romanian teachers chant anti-government slogans during a union protest in front of government headquarters in Bucharest on May 10.

(Bloomberg) -- Romanian teachers held a nationwide strike for the first time in two decades, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

Over 150,000 teachers walked out of the classrooms and urged parents to keep children home weeks ahead of final exams. Union leaders are demanding an almost 50% wage hike for young teachers and progressive increases across the board at meetings with government officials.

Weekend negotiations yielded no result as teachers rejected a cabinet proposal over bonus payouts. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said it’s hard to swiftly accommodate educators’ request because of budget constraints.

Romanian teachers protesting in front of the Romanian Government headquarters in Bucharest on Thursday © Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP

“We need to see a credible solution from the government, with clear perspectives to end this strike,” said Marius Nistor, an education union leader.

The government in Bucharest is grappling with plans to cut spending and meet a budget-deficit target of 4.4% of gross domestic product.

The country’s ruling coalition is now wrangling over the details of a planned transition to a new prime minister in a power-sharing deal, even as a cost-of-living crisis and the war in neighboring Ukraine undercut the economy and inflation is stuck in double digit.

Palestinians push for release of seriously ill detainee

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Palestinian Prisoners' Club pressed Thursday for the release of a seriously ill detainee, held for decades by Israel.

Issued on: 25/05/2023 

Supporters of Walid Daqqa, a Palestinian jailed for decades for the kidnap and murder of an Israeli soldier, rally for his early release on medical grounds
© HAZEM BADER / AFP

Walid Daqqa, a Palestinian serving time for the kidnap and murder of an Israeli soldier, has cancer, the advocacy group said.

"He is now on artificial ventilation and his lungs and kidneys are in great distress," it said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service told AFP that Daqqa is currently at Shamir Medical Centre in central Israel.

Daqqa identifies as Palestinian although he holds citizenship from Israel, which would consider him Arab-Israeli.

Palestinians gathered in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday for a rally in solidarity with Daqqa and other Palestinians held by Israel.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said it delivered a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Hebron and nearby Bethlehem, calling for the organisation to intervene in Daqqa's case.

An ICRC spokeswoman told AFP it had received the letter and the organisation had previously visited Daqqa.

Daqqa, 61, was diagnosed in December with a rare form of blood cancer -- myelofibrosis -- the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said.

The organisation said he was also diagnosed with leukaemia in 2015 and is currently due to be freed in March 2025.

Judicial authorities in Israel did not immediately respond to an AFP request regarding Daqqa's appeals for early release on medical grounds.