Category World News

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, five Thai citizens and three Israelis who were held captive by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza are scheduled to be released on Thursday.

Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday said Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Moses would be released on Thursday along with five Thai nationals, whose names were not released.

The implementation of Israel’s and Hamas’s ceasefire agreement, which went into effect on January 19, depends on the exchange of Palestinians imprisoned by Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Hamas has so far released seven captives, with 290 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange.

Bittersweet homecoming

On Wednesday, thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from their homes continued to live there. In the past 72 hours, more than 500,000 Palestinians have traveled to northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office, which opened crossing points for Israel.

“I’m happy to be back at my home”, Saif al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his house, told the AFP news agency.

Although Mona Abu Aathra has yet to fully understand the impact of the war on her home, she was able to travel from Gaza City to the center of the country.

“We returned to Gaza City with nothing, and there’s no drinking water. Most streets are still blocked by the rubble of destroyed homes”, said the 20-year-old.

Abu Aathra expressed gratification over her family’s reunion.

“It’s the first night we’re together again, me, my mother and my father. We gathered in Gaza City last night with my three brothers.

Hani Mahmoud, a journalist from Gaza City, reported on the reports of many families who had returned to severely damaged homes.

In the face of the heartbreaking and disappointing situation, “the joy of returning to northern Gaza has faded.”

“There are no lifelines]in northern Gaza]. Water and food are only available in very limited quantities, not enough]to provide for the] large number of people making their way back to their destroyed homes”, he added.

Aid accusations

Truckloads of aid have also been permitted by Israel to enter Gaza’s war-torn region since the ceasefire ended.

But two senior Hamas officials have accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries, with one citing items key to Gaza’s recovery such as fuel, tents, heavy machinery and other equipment.

“According to the agreement, these materials were supposed to enter during the first week of the ceasefire”, one official said.

Hamas’ accusations are “totally fake news,” according to an Israeli spokesman for the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which regulates civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

Between Sunday and Wednesday, “3, 000 trucks entered Gaza”, the spokesperson said. “The agreement says it should be 4, 200 in seven days”.

A Turkish ship arrived at Egypt’s El Arish port according to the AFP news agency, containing 871 tonnes of humanitarian aid, 300 power generators, 20 portable toilets, 10, 460 tents and 14, 350 blankets.

Despite the hundreds of truckloads of aid that have been flown into Gaza during the ceasefire, aid workers claim that it is still far behind on meeting the population’s needs.

Meanwhile, Israel is set to implement a ban on the operations of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Israel on Thursday. The offices and employees of UNRWA in Israel, including those in Gaza, are crucial in providing Palestinians with healthcare and education.

Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan said the ban could have a “devastating” impact on the agency’s operations in Gaza.

“According to the analysts, the most devastating consequences will be in Gaza. More than a million tons of aid are already awaiting shipment into the Gaza Strip from Gaza, she claimed.

Within Gaza, UNRWA offers free primary and secondary education to 294, 086 children in Gaza, or half of all students in the enclave.

After Google changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for US users of its map service, Mexico’s president announced that her country would file a complaint with Google. She added that they will ask for a new name for Mexico after North America.

Goma, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has seen a major blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in the years-long conflict that has resulted in hundreds of people being killed and millions of people being internally. The rebels, supported by Rwanda-backed M23, have tightened their hold on the country.

On Sunday, March 23 Movement (M23) fighters entered Goma and claimed to have taken control of the city the following day. More than 100 people have been killed and nearly 1, 000 have been wounded in Goma as a result of three days of fighting between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the armed Congolese army.

On Wednesday, while fighting in the city had largely eased, intermittent gunfire continued in the Goma’s northern areas, including Katoyi, Mabanga, Majengo, Kibwe and Turunga, where the situation “remains tense”, according to local DRC media outlets.

In a post on X, Bertrand Bisimwa, the head of M23’s political wing, said the group’s fighters were in the process of bringing “the last pockets of insecurity]in Goma] … under control”.

According to Bisimwa, “Our army is working hard to ensure total security, complete tranquility, and definitive peace, as is the case for all of their fellow citizens living in liberated zones.”

Residents of Goma discovered that Rwandan troops and the M23 armed group had taken control of the airport and the majority of the city center and neighborhoods as they walked out of their homes on Wednesday.

“After days of heavy fighting, there’s no audible sound of gunfire in the city centre and the streets normally packed with cars during rush hour and the bustling markets are relatively empty”, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said, reporting from Kenya, citing Goma residents.

Rwanda’s regional ambassador Vincent Karega stated in a phone interview with AFP that the armed group would continue to attack Goma.

“They]M23] will continue into South Kivu, because Goma cannot be an end on its own, unless in between they get good dialogue and negotiation with the government in Kinshasa, which I doubt”.

He added that it is “possible” M23 fighters could press beyond eastern DRC because DRC’s “forces and military capabilities” are “concentrated in Goma”.

According to five diplomatic and security sources, M23 fighters were heading southward on Wednesday, heading for Bukavu, South Kivu’s capital.

The report could not be independently verified.

Humanitarian crisis

The United Nations has warned of potential mass displacement, severe food shortages, overburdened hospitals, and disease outbreaks, as well as several international aid organizations.

The team at Kyeshero Hospital, according to a statement from Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), is also continuing to treat the influx of injured patients there.

“At Kyeshero Hospital, a bullet pierced the roof of the operating theatre during an operation”, said Virginie Napolitano, MSF’s emergency coordinator in North Kivu.

“Many of our equipment and medicine stocks have been looted, putting in a strain on our medical assistance both inside and outside of Goma. Our Goma colleagues have also been impacted by armed looting. One of them was shot in the head during an attack at home.

The “devastating” impact of the fighting in and around Goma on civilians also sprang to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“We are receiving a lot of calls from people who feel abandoned and alone,” according to the company. Humanitarian workers must have safe access to meet people’s most urgent needs, such as food, healthcare, electricity and safe drinking water”, said Francois Moreillon, head of the ICRC’s delegation in the DRC, calling on the parties to the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law.

According to Shelley Thakral, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme, “the supply of food into the city could be significantly hampered depending on the length of the violence.”

In the eastern DRC, there are dozens of armed organizations. Rwanda has been accused of supporting the organization by the DRC, the UN, and a number of other nations, a claim that Kigali denies.

The organization claims to be fighting for the rights of the minority Tutsi population in the DRC. It emerged in 2012 after a group from the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC) broke away, complaining of ill-treatment.

After putting mounting international pressure on Rwanda, including the suspension of aid from the United States and the United Kingdom, the M23 captured Goma and held it for about a week before handing it over to the M23.

However, the DRC faced a resurgence of M23 violence in 2022. Since then, the group has advanced in Goma, seizing territory from the Congolese army and conducting two peacekeeping operations, SADC and UN.

Rwandan troops are active in Goma, according to the DRC and the UN peacekeeping mission’s leader, and they back M23. Without addressing directly whether Rwanda’s troops have crossed the border, Rwanda has asserted that it is defending itself from the threat of Congolese militias.

Growing calls for ceasefire

While some nations, including Belgium, have also issued DRC travel advisories, the US and other European countries have called for a ceasefire. Rwanda should stop supporting M23, according to the UN.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and “urged for an immediate ceasefire” in the region.

Kagame acknowledged the need to end the conflict’s root causes and ensure a ceasefire in the eastern DRC.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, however, will not attend an emergency virtual meeting with Kagame that had been scheduled for Wednesday, according to Congolese state media.

According to state broadcaster RTNC, he is instead scheduled to address the audience on Wednesday, making his first public address since M23 entered Goma.

According to Al Jazeera’s Webb, Goma citizens will continue to struggle until the fighting is over.

“Over the last couple of days, thousands of people have crossed to Gisenyi, the adjoining city in neighbouring Rwanda. Many others have remained in Goma”, he said.

He noted that the internet has been shut down in the majority of locations and that the electricity has been off for at least five days.

“Certainly for many people … times are very tough”, he added.

A statement on the violence in eastern DRC was also released by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a global think tank dedicated to bringing an end to deadly conflict. It claimed that negotiations are urgently needed to stop bloodshed from spreading.

“Left unchecked, the fighting could spread throughout the Great Lakes region, recalling the horrors of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when millions died amid a multi-country war in the Congo”, it said.

A raid in the occupied West Bank was carried out by an Israeli soldier wearing women’s lingerie. As troops raid homes and fire on Palestinians in the area, Israeli military operations there have grown.