Paraguay's abundant hydropower draws crypto miners, legal and not

Hernandarias (Paraguay) (AFP) – In the Paraguayan city of Hernandarias, a data center with row upon row of supercomputers stands as a testament to a burgeoning crypto mining sector fueled by the South American country's abundance of green electricity.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

More than 60 crypto-mining sites have opened in Paraguay in the last three years 

© DANIEL DUARTE / AFP

Run purely on renewable power, the soccer field-sized site was erected by local company Penguin Group near the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant, one of the world's largest, on the Parana river.

Landlocked Paraguay, whose economy is driven by agriculture, is home to three hydropower plants.

This has helped attract more than 60 crypto mining sites in the last three years alone -- representing more than $1.1 billion in investments, Penguin spokesman Bruno Vaccotti told AFP.

Penguin, with a US partner, built its Hernandarias data center for Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence training models and cloud services as part of its vision for turning Paraguay into "Latin America's tech hub."

The only problem is that illegal crypto miners are also attracted to the country, siphoning off power and angering companies like Penguin in a country with a well-documented corruption problem.

Just this month, police and officers from the state-owned ANDE utility company announced they had dismantled a massive illegal crypto farm near Hernandarias capable of diverting some $60,000 worth of power per month.

They confiscated nearly 700 computers and a transformer, but did not say how long the site had been operating for.

In May, another 2,700 computers and five transformers were seized in Saltos del Guaira in Paraguay's south -- the largest such operation to date.

Bribes

The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant is one of the world's largest

 © DANIEL DUARTE / AFP

ANDE has conceded it loses almost a third of all the power it produces, though not exclusively to illegal crypto mining, which involves computers solving complicated equations that require enormous quantities of computing power.

Vaccotti estimates losses at nearly $3 million per month.

And this in a country where 23 percent of households still cook on wood or charcoal -- still a cheaper source of energy despite Paraguay having some of the lowest electricity prices in Latin America.

This number is almost doubled in rural areas.

And despite being a net exporter, Paraguay's population battles frequent energy cuts due to poor maintenance and lack of investment in its own network.

Opposition politician Salyn Buzarquis has accused government officials of protecting illegal crypto mines in exchange for bribes.

"Why don't they discover more (illegal mines)?" he questioned in an interview with AFP.

"They are easy to detect," he added, as they "consume the equivalent of what a whole city consumes" in electricity.
'Serious struggle'

ANDE director Felix Sosa insisted the entity was doing everything possible to expose electricity thieves.

It had opened criminal proceedings in 71 cases, and has seized some 10,000 computers and 50 transformers in operations, he said.

Companies like Penguin accuse the government of not doing enough to combat illegal crypto mining © DANIEL DUARTE / AFP

Deputy mining minister Mauricio Bejarano has described this as a "serious struggle," and last month, the Senate passed a law increasing the maximum sentence for energy thieves to 10 years in prison.

Companies like Penguin accuse the government of not doing enough, and lament a lack of "predictability" as well as a recent price increase for high energy consumption.

ANDE generates some $12 million a month from crypto mining, said Jimmy Kim of Paraguay's Digital Assets Mining Chamber (Capamad) -- yet charges the industry over 50 percent more than the conventional rate.

"Our companies are looking at Brazil," Kim told AFP, as "there is no legal security" in Paraguay.

© 2024 AFP

Profile

From Gaza to Paris: Paralympian Fadi Deeb vows to show ‘Palestine is not dying’

Shot putter Fadi Deeb, the only member of the Palestinian Olympic delegation from Gaza and the only Paralympian athlete from Palestine, will take part in the Paris Paralympics on August 30. He speaks to FRANCE 24 about training with rocks and scrap metal in war-torn Gaza – and carrying his people’s hopes and dreams at the Paris Games.


FRANCE 24 / AFP
Issued on: 29/08/2024

Palestinian shot putter Fadi Deeb celebrates winning a bronze medal in shot put at the Tunis International Athletics Meetings for the Disabled in 2009 in Tunis, Tunisia. © provided by Fadi Deeb

By:  Mariamne EVERETT

While Fadi Deeb, 39, has been diligently training in Paris in preparation for the Paralympic Games, the Gaza war is never far from his thoughts. “I am raising my flag here in Paris to show people that Palestine is not dying,” Deeb told FRANCE 24 in an interview. “We are still here, we are still fighting and we are still alive.”

Deeb – who has lost over 15 members of his family, including his brother, in the Israel-Hamas war – is the only member of the Palestinian Olympic delegation from Gaza and the only Paralympic athlete from Palestine. His presence is significant, given that about 400 athletes and supporting staff have been killed since the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, and others have been unable to train or travel due to Israeli bombing or restrictions, according to the Palestine Olympic Committee (POC).

 

Born in Gaza City’s Shuja’iyaa district in 1984, Deeb was introduced to the world of sports when he was 10 years old by his primary school gym teacher and international referee Mohammed Elshekh Khalil, during which time he learned how to play football, volleyball, basketball, tennis and volleyball. Khalil also entered him into national competitions, including with the local Shuja’iyaa club. Upon starting secondary school, Deeb became even more interested in volleyball, eventually joining the Palestinian volleyball team in Gaza when he was just 16 years old.

‘This is not the end of my life’

While Deeb was perfecting his sporting prowess and preparing to pursue his studies in computer science at Gaza's Al-Azhar University – which was hit by Israeli strikes in November – tensions were rising further between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, culminating in the Second Intifada from September 2000 to February 2005. Deeb remembers the exact day when he was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper, leaving him paralysed: October 4, 2001, when he was 17 years old.

Read more‘Our way of showing resistance’: Olympians raise Palestinian flag at Paris Games

“After I got my disability … we have an expression in the Arab language, which says ‘you must be like the water’, meaning you have to be flexible, nothing can stop you,” said Deeb. “I told myself ‘this is not the end of my life, it’s hard, but it’s not the end of my life’. You have to think positively. This powerful mentality and my religion helped me become more flexible when it comes to sport. I decided I would go from playing, for instance, table tennis and basketball to playing wheelchair table tennis and basketball.”

Following a meeting with the technical manager of the Palestinian national athletics team in 2007, Deeb also began training and competing in shot put, discus and javelin, going on to win six medals in all three events at the Tunis International Athletics Meetings for the Disabled. While Deeb said he had ventured towards athletics as there is less need for expensive specialist equipment, training in Gaza is still a challenge. “Sometimes we don’t have enough equipment [in the Gaza Strip], even like shot put or discus,” said Deeb. “So we use something that looks like and is about the same weight like a rock, the wheels of a car or a piece of metal, something like that. Some of these items are heavier than the normal disk, but it’s no problem.”

Basketball player and coach

While the Paris 2024 Paralympic Committee selected Deeb to compete in the shot put event, he is also an accomplished basketball player. Deeb has played for wheelchair basketball teams in Turkey, Greece and France, including his current first-division club Hurricane 92 Basketball, based in the Paris suburbs. He also joined the newly established Palestinian national basketball team in 2019, though Israel’s tight restrictions on travel from Gaza to the West Bank make it difficult for Palestinians to compete at home, let alone on the international stage.

Palestinian Paralympian Fadi Deeb poses for a photo during a basketball practice session at Gymnase des Poissonniers in the 18th district of Paris, France. © photo provided by Fadi Deeb

Palestinian Paralympian Fadi Deeb poses with his players and fellow coaches from the association Paris Basket Fauteuil at Gymnase des Poissonniers in the 18th district of Paris, France on August 20, 2024. © Mariamne Everett, France 24

Deeb also believes in the importance of giving back, as he coaches the fourth and fifth divisions of Paris Basket Fauteuil (PBF), a sports association created in May 2021 to help and encourage young people with disabilities to play wheelchair basketball.

“As a player, every time I have information, I share it. ... Just because I’m Palestinian doesn’t mean I only do this in Palestine, I share my information with everyone, to provide love and support to people of different cultures and religions,” said Deeb.

PBF’s outreach goes further, as Deeb regularly goes to schools and universities to teach “normal people (as Deeb calls them) about the disabled life”.

Deeb has a powerful message for those who attend his workshops: “You can use your disability to be talented … Don’t think ‘If I get my disability, I cannot do something’. Don’t look at me like I’m different, no I’m the same as you, I’m using my mind, like you, I’m using my body, like you.”

FRANCE 24 had the opportunity to watch Deeb coach a PBF practice session, during which he provided individualised feedback and encouragement to each player during the five-player matches, demonstrating a supportive and effective coaching style.

Palestinian Paralympian Fadi Deeb coaches players from the association Paris Basket Fauteuil at Gymnase des Poissonniers in the 18th district of Paris, France on August 20, 2024. 

© Mariamne Everett, France 24

Representing the people of Gaza and Palestine

The Paralympic Games officially kicked off on Wednesday and Deeb is very aware that he is not only competing on a personal level but is seen as a representative for his country and people. “I’m competing for the more than 40,000 killed and more than 90,000 injured in Gaza,” said Deeb. “I get at least 15-20 messages daily from my friends in Gaza saying, ‘try to keep going’, ‘I support you’, ‘you are our voice for the world’, ‘you are our hero’, despite their very hard situation in this genocide, they are still sending me messages encouraging me to keep going.”

In July, the head of the International Olympic Committee and French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the POC’s demand that Israel be barred from the Games over the Gaza war. Still angry over this ruling, Deeb wonders what message Israeli athletes want to convey through their participation. “What is your message to the world? What do you want to show and tell to the world? Do you want to show the genocide that has happened in Gaza?”

Read moreEight Palestinian Olympic athletes to compete in Paris under the shadow of Gaza war

Even before the Israel-Hamas war, there were more than 120,000 people with disabilities living in Gaza, according to Deeb, with 45 clubs dedicated to a wide range of sports set up under the Palestinian Paralympic Committee. “This latest genocide” has produced an additional 10,000 people with disabilities, said Deeb, necessitating even more facilities and encouragement that people with disabilities pursue sports. “The Israeli occupation in Gaza causes mass disability and death,” sports journalist Leyla Hamed told US monthly magazine The Nation. “According to Save The Children, more than 10 children per day have lost one or both of their legs since the conflict erupted. In the middle of all these atrocities, people in Gaza will see Deeb insist on making his dream come true, on representing Palestine and the Palestinian cause. It’s a message to the children whose dreams have been shattered by bombs and rockets.”

Throughout his interview with FRANCE 24, Deeb was regularly checking his phone. At one point, Deeb – feeling like he owed an explanation – shared the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death. “On December 6, after I had played a match under the French Basketball Federation and taken a shower, I looked at my phone and saw that I had four missed Whatsapp and international calls from my brother,” said Deeb, adding that there is poor internet connectivity in Gaza. “On the evening of December 7, I found out that my brother had died..and that is why I always keep my phone near me, because I never know when a conversation with someone will be my last one.” Deeb shared the message he hopes to convey through his presence at the Games. “My message as a sportsman, as an athlete, to the world is that the people of Gaza are human. We Palestinians have hopes, we have dreams, we just want to have the same human rights and have the world treat us the same as other countries.”

Deeb will take part in one of the shot put final events of the Paris Paralympics on August 30.

WWI REDUX

Russia using ‘meat-grinding’ military tactics in Pokrovsk


Issued on: 29/08/2024 - 

03:45  Video by:  Robert PARSONS

Russia has been pouring forces, using “meat-grinding” military tactics in its campaign around the strategic Donetsk city of Pokrovsk, says FRANCE 24’s Rob Parsons as he explains the strategic importance of the eastern Ukrainian transport hub.

NO SMALL VICTORY

Court rules S. Korea climate goals 'unconstitutional'

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that much of the country's climate goals were unconstitutional, handing a landmark victory to young environmental activists, who wept for joy on the court steps.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 - 

Children play in a water fountain during a heatwave in Seoul. The country's constitutional court will decide Thursday a case brought by child plaintiffs against official carbon emmission goals 

© ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP

The first such case in Asia, brought by children and teenagers who named an embryo as a lead plaintiff, claimed that South Korea's legally binding climate commitments were insufficient and unmet, violating their constitutionally guaranteed human rights.

"Just now, the Constitutional Court ruled that it is unconstitutional that there is no government goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2031 to 2050," said Yoon Hyeon-jeong, one of the young activists involved.

"It was ruled that our right to live a safe life from the climate crisis should be guaranteed," she added, barely managing to finish her sentence as she choked up with tears.

The court ruled that the government's limited climate targets "violates the Constitution as it does not sufficiently protect the basic rights of the people," the legal representatives of the plaintiffs said after the hearing.

The case -- known as "Woodpecker et al. v. South Korea" after the in-utero nickname of an embryo, now toddler, involved -- included four petitions by children.

In 2021, South Korea made a legally binding commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 290 million tons by 2030 -- and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

To meet this goal, the country needs to reduce emissions by 5.4 percent every year from 2023 -- a target they have so far failed to meet.

As a result of the ruling, Seoul will now have to revise its climate goals, said Youn Se-jong, a lawyer for the plaintiffs

"The National Assembly and the government of the Republic of Korea will have to revise regulations related to the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and present greenhouse gas reduction goals considering the rights of future generations," Youn said.

"With today's ruling, we have confirmed that climate change is a matter of our fundamental rights and that everyone has the right to be safe from it," he said.
'Wish came true'

A similar youth-led effort recently succeeded in the US state of Montana, while another is being heard at the European Higher Court.

The plaintiffs had argued that unless Seoul moved more quickly on climate goals, future generations would not only have to live in a degraded environment, but also have to bear the burden of undertaking massive greenhouse gas reductions.

This, the case claims, would mean that the state has violated its duty to protect their fundamental rights.

Similar climate cases globally have found success, for example, in Germany in 2021, where climate targets were ruled insufficient and unconstitutional.

But a child-led suit in California over alleged government failures to curb pollution was thrown out in May.

"I started this case when I was 10 years old and I'm happy and proud of today's results, like a wish came true" said 12-year-old plaintiff, Han Jeah.

"We have the right to live safely and happily even in the climate crisis. This right should be protected under any circumstances and cannot be infringed upon by anyone," Han Jeah said.

"So I wanted to show people through this lawsuit how much we (young people) know and how deeply we worry about climate change."

© 2024 AFP

Australia census plan prompts LGBTQ+ boycott threat

Sydney (AFP) – Australia's decision not to include new questions about gender and sexual orientation in the next census prompted fierce debate Thursday, and a warning that LGBTQ citizens may boycott the count.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

Australia's Pride March in early 2023. An equality group said LBGTQ Australians may boycott next year's census if questions about gender and sexuality are removed © Saeed KHAN / AFP/File

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The country's centre-left government said it scrapped tentative plans to ask Australians -- for the first time -- about their sexual and gender identity in the 2026 survey.

Supporters had hoped the questions would provide a more accurate snapshot of who Australians are and who they love.

But finance minister Jim Chalmers said Thursday that the decision was made to avoid an ugly and potentially divisive public debate.

"We've seen the way that these issues can be weaponised against members of our community, and we don't want to see that happen," Chalmers told public broadcaster ABC.

"The census isn't the only opportunity to gather that sort of data".

But some have voiced anger at the U-turn.

Independent Sydney lawmaker Alex Greenwich said not being properly counted "would be deeply hurtful" to a part of the population "who for many years have been forced into the closet".

"If this decision sticks, the government could expect LGBTQ people and our families not to participate in the next census," he warned.

Anna Brown, the CEO of Equality Australia, a rights advocacy group, said the notion that census questions would be a threat to social cohesion was "frankly, absurd".

"What the government is saying to us is that we are not worth having the hard conversations for, and they are dumping us in the too-hard basket" she said.

© 2024 AFP

Floods submerge Vietnam's dragon fruit farms

Hanoi (AFP) – Floods submerged hundreds of hectares of dragon fruit farms in south Vietnam, residents told AFP on Thursday, with many villagers forced to seek shelter on higher ground.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An aerial photo shows a flooded dragon fruit field in Binh Thuan province, Vietnam 

Thanh LONG / AFP

The flooding in Binh Thuan province was triggered by heavy rain and the discharge of water from an irrigation reservoir on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We lost all our dragon fruit and cucumber crops this year," Ho Van Trung, 66, told AFP.

Vietnam dragon fruit exports generated a record $1.8 billion in 2018, but the figure has been declining in recent years.

Binh Thuan province is home to Vietnam's biggest growing area, measuring 28,000 hectares and producing 600,000 tonnes of fruit each year.

The fiery red and green fruit with a scaly skin that gives it its name thrives in hot and dry conditions, but, as part of the cactus family, cannot stand immersion in water.

On Thursday, farmers in two villages in Binh Thuan's Ham My commune said the floods in the area were "unprecedented".

"My house and my gardens growing dragon fruit and cucumber are all submerged," Trung said.

Living close by, Dao Thi Bich Thao and her husband had to evacuate their one-storey home after it flooded.

"Water came so quickly that we could only move our TV and refrigerator and then flee," Thao said.

Around 200 households and 400 hectares of crops, mostly dragon fruit, had been flooded, a local official in Ham My commune told state news site VNExpress.

More than 70 residents moved to higher ground as their homes were temporarily uninhabitable, the report said.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather events globally are becoming more intense and frequent due to climate change.

Other parts of Vietnam have also been hit by heavy rain and floods in recent months.

The country's north has suffered through an extremely wet summer, with mountainous areas in the northwest particularly badly hit since early July.

Across the country, nearly 29,000 houses have been damaged and 90,000 hectares of crops destroyed, Vietnam's General Statistic Office (GSO) said late last month.

Floods caused around $85 million in damage in the first seven months of the year, double that of last year, according to GSO.

Ninety-one people were killed or reported missing due to adverse weather during that period, it said.

© 2024 AFP

Garcia decries online abuse after US Open defeat, cites ‘unhealthy betting’

By AFP
August 28, 2024

France's Caroline Garcia serves in her US Open first-round loss to Renata Zarazua - Copyright AFP/File Jim WATSON, Odd ANDERSEN

Former WTA world number four Caroline Garcia of France shared some of the disparaging messages she has received in the wake of recent defeats on Wednesday and cited “unhealthy betting” as a driver of social media abuse of players.

Garcia, an 11-time WTA champion who reached the US Open semi-finals in 2022, fell to 92nd-ranked Renata Zarazua in the first round at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter) she shared “just a few” of the messages she has received after defeats, including one telling her to shoot herself and another saying “I hope your mom dies soon”.

At the age of 30, she said, she’s done enough work to get past the hurtful messages.

“I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” Garcia wrote.

“It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.”

Garcia called out the practice of the sport and tournaments partnering with betting companies, wondering if it contributed to a rise in such abuse.

“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” Garcia said.

“The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.”

She continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?”

Officials in a range of sports, including tennis, have tried to shield players from abusive messages.

The French Open partnered in 2022 with a company that uses artificial intelligence to filter players’ social media accounts. Wimbledon launched a social media monitoring service to protect players from online abuse and threats.

“Many before me have raised the subject,” Garcia said. “And still, no progress has been made.”

American Jessica Pegula, ranked sixth in the world, was among players posting in support of Garcia.

“The constant death threats and family threats are normal now,” Pegula wrote. “Win or lose.”

American Frances Tiafoe said after his second round victory on Wednesday that social media attacks are par for the course.

“People are saying outlandish stuff,” he said. “You’ve got guys working all their life trying to compete at the highest level. You don’t know people’s circumstances, what they’re going through, how this affects people.”

Athens faces new dangers as forest fires edge closer

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the massive blaze raged out of control for three days towards the capital earlier this month - Copyright AFP Angelos TZORTZINIS
Anna Maria Jakubek

With the smell still lingering in its suburbs after Greece’s worst wildfire this year, floods and pollution now threaten Athens, experts say.

Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the massive blaze raged out of control for three days towards the capital earlier this month, swallowing up houses and cars and killing one woman.

Fanned by strong winds, the inferno that began at Varnavas, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Athens, reached suburbs at the foot of Mount Penteli, devastating some 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres).

With more than a third of the Mediterranean country’s population of 10 million crammed into the capital’s region of Attica, and the fires edging closer and closer to the city, experts are warning that the situation is becoming critical.

The National Observatory says 37 percent of forests around Athens have been consumed by fire over the past eight years alone.

“Attica has lost most of its forest, and now there is imminent danger for the people of Athens, in terms of polluted environment and risk of flooding” from soil erosion, said Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

“Where 100 years ago there were vigorous forests of pines, now forest vegetation is of weak and low pines and evergreen shrubs,” the professor of forest fire science told AFP.

Fire meteorologist Theodore M. Giannaros, of the National Observatory, said the situation is aggravated by the “torrential rainfalls which unfortunately we are getting quite frequently”.

He warned of soil erosion and flash floods which “I believe we will face during the coming winter”.

Dimitrakopoulos said the loss of the forests will push Greece’s already sweltering summer temperatures higher. This year the country saw its hottest June and July on record.

– ‘Repeatedly burnt’ –

Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.

“Attica can’t lose more forest,” fire ecology expert Dimitris Kazanis told AFP.

“The percentage is diminishing year by year. A solution must be found.

“In an area with so much cement, so many roads, so much noise, we need forests,” said the lecturer from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

But the frequent fires are impacting the forest’s ability to regenerate.

The Varnavas blaze struck an area covered by Aleppo pine — a species that has evolved to cope with fire but which requires at least 15 to 20 years between fires to regenerate naturally.

“The area burnt has experienced many fire events in the past, some in very frequent intervals,” said ecology professor Margarita Arianoutsou, also of the National and Kapodistrian University.

“This has already caused a serious problem. There are patches repeatedly burnt which need our intervention in order to be restored.”

Reforestation and fire prevention studies were among measures unveiled this month by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

– Pines ‘demonised’ –

Some have called for the planting of other types of trees altogether, as pines burn very quickly because of their naturally flammable resin.

But forester Nikos Georgiadis, from the World Wide Fund for Nature, said people “have demonised the pines”.

“If nature decides that the pines must be there, it’s not easy to change.”

The trick is to create a more resilient, mixed forest — with some broadleaf or less flammable species — and build green belts, said Georgiadis.

“You try to set these zones around settlements, so as to protect both forest and humans,” he added.

Rather than blame the pines, experts fault the encroachment of urban areas into forest land.

“Where trees are burned, houses grow,” said Dimitrakopoulos.

“It was very common in areas of high demand such as Athens… to burn forest in order to create land for construction,” he said.

Most Greek fires are human-caused, through arson or neglect, he added.

Investigators believe a faulty electricity pole may have sparked the Varnavas fire.

“Where there are people, there is fire,” said Dimitrakopoulos.

NAKBA II

Israel 'seems to be settling in for more West Bank raids'


Issued on: 29/08/2024 - 

Video by: Kethevane GORJESTANI

The Israeli military said on Thursday its troops killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months. France 24's international affairs editor Kethevane Gorjestani says it appears from reporting on the ground that the Israeli military is preparing for further operations in the West Bank.

On the ground in the Middle East: 'An amazing level of violence'


Issued on: 29/08/2024

Video by: Cyril PAYEN

Senior reporter Cyril Payen, who spent three years in Jerusalem as France 24's Middle East correspondent, recently revisited the region for a two-week reporting trip. He reveals what it is like reporting on the ground in the region at a time when Israel's war with Hamas is threatening to spill over into a wider conflict and violence is increasing in the occupied West Bank.

 

Israel launches deadly West Bank operation as Gaza war drags on

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Israeli soldiers operate during a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Israel launched a large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed nine Palestinian fighters, while the nearly 11-month Gaza war showed no signs of abating.

Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza war sparked by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

The war has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. It has also caused widespread destruction, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem.

Columns of Israeli armoured vehicles entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin.

By midday, they were blocking entrances to the towns and camps, AFP photographers said, with soldiers firing at the camps from which gunfire and explosions were heard.

Israeli bulldozers dug up the asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces killed at least 10 people — two in Jenin, four in a nearby village and another four in the refugee camp near Tubas. Fifteen others were wounded.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to “follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank,” Palestinian official media said.

The Israeli army said it had killed nine Palestinian “terrorists” and that so far there were no casualties on its side.

Soldiers encountered explosives and were exchanging fire with militants, said army spokesman, Nadav Shoshani. He declined to say how many were involved or how long the operation would last.

The operation, he added, was not “extremely different (from usual army activity in the area) or special”.

– ‘This is war’ –

Foreign Minster Israel Katz had a different take, however, saying the military was “operating in full force since last night” in a bid to “dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure”.

In a post on X, he accused Iran, Israel’s main foe in the region, of seeking to “establish an eastern front against Israel” based on the “model” for Gaza and Lebanon, where it backs Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively.

“We must address this threat with the same determination used against terror infrastructures in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents and any necessary measures,” he said.

“This is a war, and we must win it.”

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

During the same period, at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli officials.

But while Israeli military operations have become a daily occurrence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, it is rare for them to be carried out in multiple cities simultaneously.

In recent weeks, Israeli operations in the West Bank have focused on the north of the territory, where armed groups fighting against Israel are particularly active.

– Patients flee hospital –

Last week, the army announced it had killed a senior Palestinian militant in Lebanon, accusing him of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons” to the West Bank and collaborating with Iranian forces.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the north of the West Bank, issued a statement early Wednesday denouncing an “open war” by Israel.

“With this aggression, which aims to transfer the weight of the conflict to the occupied West Bank, the occupier wants to impose a new state of affairs on the ground to annex the West Bank,” the statement said.

Hamas, whose popularity has soared in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, late Tuesday reiterated its call for Palestinians in the territory to “rise up”.

Its statement came in response to comments by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said this week he would build a synagogue at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound if he could.

Ben Gvir, a settler himself, has openly called for the annexation of the West Bank.

In Gaza, families in distress continued to move according to the Israeli army’s evacuation orders.

One of the latest targeted the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, from which “nearly 650 patients have fled”, Doctors Without Borders said.

The medical charity has, instead, “anticipated the opening of a field hospital now that the Al-Aqsa hospital was “almost totally empty”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 12 dead, including at least one child and a woman, in new Israeli strikes.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

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Israel says it ‘eliminated’ local Palestinian commander in West Bank military operation

The Israeli military on Thursday said it had killed Mohammed Jaber and four more Palestinian militants in a major military operation in the occupied West Bank. Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was a leader of the Tulkarem Battalion, a local militant group allied to the Islamic Jihad. There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of his death.

Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier aims his rifle while positioned at a gateway during a military operation in Tulkarm in the West Bank on August 29, 2024. 

© Jaafar Ashtiyeh, AFP

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, including a well-known local commander.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier this year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.

Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Nur Shams is among several built-up refugee camps across the Middle East that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, in which around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in well over 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.

(AP)

Israel army says killed 5 Palestinian militants on day two of West Bank raids

Tulkarem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Israeli military said its forces killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in a second day of "counter-terrorism" operations that have killed 14 in total.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid on the West Bank city of Tulkarem on the second day of a major military operation in the north of the occupied territory 

© Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

"Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque" in Tulkarem on Thursday morning, the military said.

On Wednesday, the military said it killed nine militants in simultaneous raids in several West Bank cities and refugee camps.

The Palestinian health ministry reported 12 deaths since the start of the operation.

Witnesses told AFP that Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday.

An AFP photographer reported that clashes were still taking place in Jenin as he saw a drone flying overhead.

An Israeli army bulldozer strips the asphalt from a road in Tulkarem as a precaution against concealed explosives

 © Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

Israeli soldiers were also continuing to operate in Tulkarem, another AFP journalist reported.

Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

Since the start of Gaza war, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to UN figures.

At least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations in the West Bank, according to Israeli official figures.

© 2024 AFP

US slaps new sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Activists try to reach a land confiscated by Israeli settlers in the al-Makhrur area, near Beit Jala in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on August 15, 2024 - Copyright AFP/File HAZEM BADER
Shaun TANDON

The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions on West Bank settlers over violence against Palestinians, urging greater accountability efforts by its ally Israel, which responded with anger to the move.

The sanctions were announced on the same day that Israel launched a wide-scale attack on the West Bank that it said killed nine Palestinian fighters, despite warnings by President Joe Biden’s administration against expanding the war in Gaza.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank,” he said.

The latest sanction targets included Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli group that has supported the unauthorized settler outpost of Meitarim Farm in the south Hebron Hills.

Volunteers from the group earlier this year fenced off a village whose 250 Palestinian residents had all been forced to leave, the State Department said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on support from far-right politicians who advocate for the establishment of new settlements on Palestinian land, denounced the move.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Hashomer Yosh’s website, using the biblical name for the West Bank, says the group helps “various farmers throughout Judea and Samaria, who bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime.”

The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The State Department also imposed sanctions against Yitzhak Levi Filant, who was accused of leading armed settlers in setting up roadblocks and patrols with a goal of attacking Palestinians.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, Israeli forces have also stepped up operations in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

At least 640 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.

The Biden administration has repeatedly voiced concern to Netanyahu about settler violence and about the expansion of settlements, but has made little impact on the Israeli government’s decision-making.

Last month, the United States imposed sanctions on Lehava, a group of more than 10,000 members, which the State Department described as the “largest violent extremist organization in Israel.”

US sanctions generally bar targets from the US financial system, leading Israeli banks to restrict dealings with sanctioned individuals for fear of repercussions.

The Biden administration, which has been pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, has held off on imposing sanctions on government ministers leading the settlement policy.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defense ministry, earlier this month approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem, saying he wanted to “fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground.”

Pope says repelling, abandoning migrants is ‘grave sin’


By AFP

August 28, 2024


The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Pope Francis condemned Wednesday efforts to repel migrants and block their routes as a “grave sin”, as he recalled those who lost their lives, including those “abandoned” in the desert.

The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution, particularly those seeking to reach Europe from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea.

He dedicated his address at his weekly audience Wednesday to the subject, warning against “restrictive laws” and the “militarisation of borders” and calling for safe migration routes.

“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin,” he said.

He repeated that the Mediterranean — where more than 3,000 migrants went missing last year, according to UN figures — has become a “cemetery”.

“Some deserts too, unfortunately, are becoming cemeteries of migrants. And even here it is not always a question of ‘natural’ deaths. No,” he said.

“At times, they have been taken to the desert and abandoned.

“In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women and children that no-one must see. Only God sees them and hears their cry.”

He did not specify any particular country but said that his description of seas and deserts also includes oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as forests, jungles and steppes “where migrants walk alone”.

“Brothers and sisters, we can all agree on one thing: migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said.

“But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarisation of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result,” he said.

He called for “safe and legal” routes for migrants and asylum seekers, and greater international efforts to combat human trafficking.

The European Union admitted in May to a “difficult situation” after a journalism consortium said Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in the desert, using the bloc’s funds.

The 27-nation EU has struck deals with the three countries with explicit financing to boost stopping irregular migration to Europe.