International
The Israeli Army withdraws all its troops from the south of the Gaza Strip
The Israeli Army withdrew all its ground troops from the south of the Gaza Strip last night, and there is only one brigade left in the enclave, a military source confirmed to EFE on Sunday.
The withdrawal comes after four months of fighting in the Jan Yunis area and six months after the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where more than 33,100 Palestinians have already died, most of them women and children.
Currently there is only one Israeli brigade left in the Palestinian enclave that is responsible for securing a corridor between the south of Israel and the Gaza coast, blocking the passage to the north of the Strip and facilitating operations in the center and north of the territory.
The two main hospitals of this southern city, Al Amal and Naser, have been devastated and inoperative after the siege of the Hebrew troops during these months under the thesis that there was the presence of alleged fighters in these complexes.
“Dozens of suspects have been delivered to Shin Bet and Unit 504 of the Directorate of Military Intelligence to be further interrogated,” the Army said in a statement on April 2.
Likewise, the Israeli Army reported on Sunday that, before its withdrawal, its combat units have carried out the last operations in the Al Amal neighborhood to finish “dismantling the terrorist infrastructure.”
In a message in X, former Israeli Minister of Justice Gideon Sa’ar criticized the withdrawal of troops, assuring that “the continuous decrease in the size of the Israeli forces” in Gaza “has distanced us from achieving the objectives of the war.”
Israel’s next target in Gaza seems to be the already announced military incursion into Rafah, in the south of the enclave, where 1.4 million displaced people live and there are still, according to the Army, four battalions from Hamas; an incursion opposed by the United States, Israel’s main military ally.
The official death toll in the Gaza Strip reached 33,175 this Sunday, six months after the start of the devastating Israeli war offensive.
More than 14,000 of those deaths, or 42%, are children, while 9,220 would be women, according to the same source. The total number of injured is 75,886, to which must be added about 7,000 bodies that are estimated to remain under tons of debris.
“The Israeli occupation committed 4 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, causing 38 deaths and 71 injuries in hospitals during the last 24 hours,” the Gazazi Ministry of Health said today in a statement.
Egypt decided to increase the number of trucks with food, medical aid and emergency supplies for the Gaza Strip to at least 300 trucks per day as of this Sunday, the head of the Egyptian State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, reported in a statement.
This decision, values the note. part of “the directives of President Abdelfatah al Sisi” to increase the humanitarian aid that enters the Palestinian enclave from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the only one that does not control Israel, despite the fact that it inspects each cargo that enters from it.
In fact, Egypt denounced on numerous occasions the delays and traffic jams of trucks in northern Sinai due to Israeli inspections and rejections of certain products, which has forced the Arab country to launch aid by air to appease the humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict.
According to the latest report of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), “since the beginning of April, an average daily of 169 aid trucks have entered Gaza through the land crossings of Kerem Shalom and Rafah. This figure is still well below the operational capacity of both crossings and the target of 500 trucks per day.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated this Sunday, when it is six months of war in the Gaza Strip, that there will be no truce agreement if the 133 hostages still in the hands of Hamas do not return home, adding that Israel will not give in to the “extreme demands” of the Islamists.
“I made (something) clear to the international community: there will be no ceasefire without the return of the kidnapped. It just won’t happen,” Netanyahu said today in a speech before meeting with his cabinet, and recalled that the Administration of U.S. President Joe Biden shares his same opinion.
He added that Israel does not oppose a truce agreement and blamed Hamas for “extreme demands” whose objective is to end the war “to guarantee its survival, its rehabilitation, (and) its ability to endanger” Israeli citizens and soldiers again.
This same night a massive anti-government demonstration has been called in Jerusalem, in which not only activists but also some of the relatives of the captives will participate, who blame Netanyahu for being more concerned about his political survival than about returning his family home.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, assured on Sunday that Israel has completed preparations to face “any scenario” against Iran, which has been threatening for days to retaliate for an alleged Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus (Syria).
Gallant made these statements after the meeting held today with the head of the Israeli Army Operations Directorate, Oded Basiuk, and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, according to a statement from the authorities.
Israel is on alert after the attack that took place last Monday, April 1, against the Iranian embassy in Damascus, the capital of Syria, in which at least 19 people died, including the highest-ranking commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohamed Reza Zahedi.
Iran insisted, after celebrating Zahedi’s funeral yesterday, that this attack will not be “unpunished” and that there will be a response against Israel, whom he accuses of being behind him.
The Israeli press maintains that the Iranian authorities would be planning an attack with drones and cruise missiles against the Jewish State, but also against US targets in the region. Iran considers the White House to be “accomplice” of the attack.
The fear that this attack will reach Israeli territory begins to permeate its citizens, who in recent days have made food.
The concern of the international community that the conflict in Gaza, which is now six months old, goes beyond its borders has been constant during this time, due to the clashes that have taken place between Israel and some Arab countries, which their relationship is more tense than ever in recent decades.
The Lebanese Shiite group Hizbulá announced on Sunday that it has launched a flay of rockets against military bases on Israeli territory in response to an attack by the Jewish State against northeastern Lebanon.
“In response to the enemy’s attacks in the Bekaa region (northeast), the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted at 11.10 (local time, 8.10 GMT)” two military bases, one that of Yoav, and another identified as “Kila”, in the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, “with dozens of ‘Katyusha’ type rockets,” the movement said in a brief statement.
The Israeli Army announced that it attacked this morning Hizbulah’s anti-aircraft defense infrastructure in the Baalbek area, northeastern Lebanon, “in response” to a shooting down of an Israeli drone claimed by the Lebanese group after infiltrating its territory, something that happens on a daily basis.
Hizbulah, a close Iranian ally, and the Jewish State have been in intense border clashes since October 8, a day after the outsh of the Gaza War.
International
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.
The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.
In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.
The number of displaced people reaches 700,000
In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.
This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”
Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.
What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?
The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.
However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.
International
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.
Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.
The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.
Prison for two cases of rape in Norway
The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.
According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.
In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.
“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.
HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.
Three arrests since August
Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.
His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.
According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.
It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.
Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.
The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case
The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.
“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.
The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”
Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.
International
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
The Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives did not make public this Wednesday due to lack of agreement the report of its investigation into Matt Gaetz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, to be the next attorney general and investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior and drug use.
The president of that commission, Republican Michael Guest, told the press at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting at the Capitol that there was no consensus among the members when making that document public.
That body was going to put its decision to a vote last Friday, but Gaetz’s resignation from his seat two days earlier, after being appointed by Trump, delayed that scrutiny and effectively ended the investigations into him.
Although with the departure of the Florida representative of Congress, the commission was left without jurisdiction to investigate him, the publication of the conclusions of his investigation opened in 2021 for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, irregular use of campaign funds, acceptance of bribes and drug use was still in the air.
Committee interviews
The committee interviewed two women who testified that Gaetz, nominated for attorney general, paid them for having sex at a party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal.
According to the women’s lawyer to the NBC News channel, Joel Leppard, one of them also testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor, although he said that he did not think he knew that he was 17 years old at the time.
Gaetz has denied those accusations and Trump’s transition team considers them unfounded and recalls that the Department of Justice closed a parallel investigation without charges.
Review of the report
Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, had said that they wanted to review that report before the Judicial Committee of the Upper House examines Gaetz’s nomination next year and then the plenary of that hemicycle validates or stops it.
The authorization of the positions of the future cabinet depends on the Senate, but until then Gaetz has the support of Trump, who has stated that he does not question his own decision, and also of the future vice president, JD Vance, who accompanied him to Congress this Wednesday.
Report on Gaetz next attorney general has had leaks
However, although the House Committee on the House of Representatives stopped the dissemination of the report, there have already been leaks in the national press.
The lawyer of the two women indicated that they provided that committee with numerous photos related to the time they spent with the Republican, who according to that lawyer paid 6,000 dollars to one and 4,000 to another to sleep with them.
The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, had wanted to stay out of the committee’s decision, but at the same time he did not consider it appropriate for it to disseminate his investigation: “That would open Pandora’s box and I don’t think it’s something healthy for the institution,” he said.
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
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