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Worldnews

Israeli Attacks Kill 32 In Gaza, Destroy Bulldozers For Recovering The Dead

UNRWA says Gaza has become ‘a land of desperation’ as Israel continues to pound the strip and block humanitarian aid. Israeli forces have killed at least 32 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn, including 11 people who burned to death inside their home in Khan Younis, and carried out air strikes that destroyed equipment used to retrieve the dead from under rubble. Seven members of a family were also killed on Tuesday by an air raid on the home where they were sheltering in western Gaza City. Three civilians, including two girls, were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of people in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Later, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that the Israeli military shelled the ICU at Al-Durra Children’s Hospital in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City at around midnight. An Israeli air strike also targeted solar panels at the facility, the ministry said in a post on Telegram. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned that more than two million people – mostly women and children – were being collectively punished. “Gaza has become a land of desperation,” he said on X. Nearly 3,000 trucks of UNRWA supplies and humanitarian aid remained stuck outside Gaza, unable to enter while food and medicine inside the strip are quickly running out. “Hunger is spreading,” Lazzarini warned. “Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip – a weapon of war.” The UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, warned that withholding humanitarian aid constitutes a war crime. “This action would further aggravate conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian population of Gaza.” Hamas slammed Israel’s ongoing blockade, which began on March 2. “The Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” the group said in a statement, citing severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. It added that the siege as well as daily attacks on shelters, hospitals and residential areas amount to a “premeditated crime” by the Israeli leadership. Hamas also blamed the situation on a “political, moral, and humanitarian failure” on the part of the international community and called on the UN and other institutions to pressure Israel to lift the blockade on aid. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said: “The situation is unfolding rapidly here on the ground. What we are seeing is truly extraordinary in terms of very huge momentum of air strikes and artillery bombardments that have been seen over the course of the past 24 hours.” “What we understand is that the Israeli military has launched huge and heavy waves of air strikes with the latest targeting a group of Palestinians – three were confirmed killed in the strike, including two girls under the age of 14,” he added. “It has been quite obvious that these attacks are focused on eradicating entire families (as in Khan Younis attack) – we’re talking about four generations being wiped out – and also a more systematic escalation has been taking place on targeting heavy machinery that has been allowed to enter Gaza during the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal,” Abu Azzoum said. Gaza’s Civil Defence said Israel also targeted bulldozers used in humanitarian operations, including rubble removal and the recovery of bodies. Nine bulldozers brought into Gaza from Egypt during a six-week ceasefire that Israel ended on March 18 were destroyed in Israeli attacks on the Jabalia al-Nazlh municipality garage in northern Gaza, according to Civil Defence official Mohammed el-Mougher. “An agreement had previously been reached with the Egyptian-Qatari committee regarding the location of the bulldozers’ shelters,” he said, noting that their coordinates had been shared with Israel. “The targeting of municipal headquarters by Israeli occupation aircraft and the bombing of heavy equipment designated for rescue and rubble removal, including bulldozers and other machinery, is a criminal continuation of the war of extermination,” the group added in a statement. The Israeli army claimed heavy equipment destroyed in overnight attacks on Gaza was used “for terror purposes”. Thirty rights groups including Oxfam, Medical Aid for Palestinians and ActionAid issued a statement saying Israel has intensified its violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank despite the UN General Assembly having demanded in September an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory within 12 months. World leaders must act urgently to “uphold their legal and moral responsibilities”, the statement said. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Worldnews

Trump Backs Off Threat To Fire Fed Chair Powell, As Stock Market Surges

Wall Street rallies after US Treasury Secretary says trade war with China ‘unsustainable’. United States President Donald Trump has backed off his threat to fire the head of the US Federal Reserve, after his broadsides against the central bank boss prompted a plunge in the stock market and the dollar. Trump’s comments on Tuesday appeared to rule out any imminent plans to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom the US president has repeatedly criticised for not moving faster to lower interest rates. “The press runs away with things. I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. This is the perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn’t, is it the end? No, it’s not.” US stock futures, which are traded outside of regular market hours, surged following Trump’s comments, with contracts linked to the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 rising more than 1.70 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. The US dollar rose more than 1 percent against major currencies. Wall Street rallied earlier on Tuesday after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told an investors conference that a trade war with China was “unsustainable” and he expected the sides to de-escalate tensions and reach a deal at some point. Following Bessent’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was “setting the stage for a deal with China” and “doing very well” in making progress towards an agreement. The S&P 500 closed up more than 2.5 percent, while the Nasdaq finished more than 2.7 percent higher. Asian markets opened higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI up about 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, in early trading. The US and China are locked in an effective trade embargo after Trump imposed a 145 percent tariff on most Chinese goods, and China slapped a 125 percent duty on US exports in retaliation. Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that the tariff on China was “very high” and said the rate would “come down substantially”. Trump’s repeated attacks on Powell have unnerved financial markets in light of the overwhelming economic consensus that the Federal Reserve’s independence is crucial to the health of the US economy. Wall Street suffered some of its steepest losses of the year on Monday after Trump branded Powell a “major loser” and “Mr Too Late” for not backing cuts to the benchmark interest rate, which influences borrowing costs across the economy. Trump’s comments came after he last week declared that Powell’s termination “cannot come fast enough” and his top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said the administration was studying the possibility of his removal. The Federal Reserve, which last cut the benchmark rate in December, has expressed caution about lowering borrowing costs in the near term amid concerns that Trump’s sweeping tariffs will stoke inflation. Trump has dismissed concerns that his trade war will lead to higher prices, contrary to the views of most economists, and argued that the central bank’s cautious stance risks slowing the economy. Powell, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and tapped to serve another four-year term by former US President Joe Biden, has said he would not resign if asked and stated that he can only be dismissed for malfeasance. The heads of independent federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve can only be removed for “cause” under legal precedent set by the US Supreme Court, though the Trump administration is challenging that norm in court in a case involving the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board. Any move to remove Powell before the end of his term would likely send shockwaves through financial markets given the longstanding expectation that the Federal Reserve should make its decisions free of political considerations. “I would expect to see a dramatic fall in the stock and bond markets,” Erasmus Kersting, an economics professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, told Al Jazeera. “The ‘sell USA’ strategy would become mainstream. This would also have an impact on the real economy, leading to a recession.” Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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LIVE: Israel Bombs Gaza School-turned-shelter, Sparking Fire And Killing 10

Israeli air strike hits El Dorra Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City as health officials raise alarm over the suspension of a UN-backed polio vaccination campaign. Israeli blockade on Gaza: Food and aid supplies running out across the strip Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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UN Food Agency Cites Funding Gap As It Halts Aid To 650,000 In Ethiopia

Aid to 3.6 million Ethiopians overall is at risk unless new support is sourced, the World Food Programme warns. The World Food Programme (WFP) said it is suspending aid for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia due to a lack of funding. The UN agency warned on Tuesday that 3.6 million people in Ethiopia overall are at risk of losing access to food aid in the coming weeks unless new financial support can urgently be sourced. “WFP is being forced to halt treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children in May due to insufficient funding,” the UN agency said in a statement. The agency said it had planned to reach two million mothers and children with life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025 but will fall short due to a predicted funding shortfall of $222m between April and September. “Cash and in-kind food assistance for up to one million refugees will stop in June if additional funding is not received,” the agency warned. Like many aid agencies, the WFP is caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts instituted by the administration of United States President Donald Trump. Shortly after his inauguration in January, Trump signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid. Conflict, instability and drought are key reasons why more than 10 million of Ethiopia’s 130 million people face the threat of hunger, the UN agency said. The East African country is recovering from two years of brutal civil war between federal forces and rebels in the northern region of Tigray, which ended in November 2022 and killed at least 600,000 people. Tensions are again mounting between longtime foes Ethiopia and Eritrea over Addis Ababa’s quest for maritime access, causing fears of yet another conflict in the Horn of Africa barely seven years after the two neighbours restored ties. Continued violence and instability in Ethiopia’s Amhara region are also obstructing humanitarian operations, the WFP said, adding that below-average rainfall forecast through May in southeastern Ethiopia could further exacerbate conditions. Follow Al Jazeera English:...