International
Israel operates throughout the city of Rafah and leaves more than 25 dead in attack on displaced people
The Israeli Army intensified its attacks and incursion in the heart of the city of Rafah, southern Gaza, as well as on its western side; causing, according to medical sources, at least 25 deaths in an attack on displaced people’s tents – which is not attributed – and great destruction in residential neighborhoods.
As Palestinian sources confirmed to EFE, the attacks are now concentrated in Al Auda, in the center of the city of Rafah, and in Tal al Sultan, a neighborhood in the northwest. The southern and east areas are already under their control weeks after the Israeli tanks began their incursion into the city, on May 6.
“The whole city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations,” Ahmed al Sofi, mayor of Rafah, said today in a statement released by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Telegram. “The city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside its tents due to the Israeli bombings.”
Sofi added that there is no medical center left in operation in the city and that residents and displaced people – according to UNRWA about 65,000 people, although before the military incursion there were 1.4 million Gaza refugees in Rafah – cannot meet their daily needs for food and water.
The third point of intense military activity, according to local sources to EFE, is still the so-called Philadelphia corridor, the 14-kilometer border line with Egypt that Israel aspires to control, according to military sources, in order to cut the network of tunnels that supplies Hamas and helps it both to rearm itself and to attack.
In this area, the destruction of infrastructure is being absolute, and a kind of buffer strip has been created, as in the Saudi Quarter of Rafah (west), where units of Army engineers are flying residential buildings.
Since this morning, at least 25 Gaza people died and 50 were injured after an Israeli bombing of displaced people’s stores in Al Mawasi, northwest of Rafah, according to the Ministry of Health, an event that the Israeli Army, after a preliminary investigation, claims to be unaware of but claims to be investigating.
In the northern city of Gaza, at least 17 Gazans died: ten after Israeli fighters bombed a home in Beach Camp, five municipal officials in an attack in the center of the city and two others in attacks in the Zeitun neighborhood, the Palestinian agency Wafa reported.
In addition, two more Gazazians lost their lives today north of the city of Rafah, in the neighborhood of Khirbet al Adas, according to Palestinian sources, which would increase the total number of deaths to 37,470 in eight and a half months of Israeli offensive.
In the north, the lack of food and food is still a critical issue. According to UN data from July 1 to 18, of the 61 coordinated humanitarian assistance missions in northern Gaza, only 28 – 46% – were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, details the UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“The absence of healthy food and drinking water accelerates the spread of diseases,” Hosam Abu Sfiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the northern Strip, warned today in a statement. “We have not received any essential supplies in the northern Gaza Strip, especially food for children.”
The reality in the enclave is that only a tiny minority can eat regularly, in the absence of food or unaffordable prices. Many do it once a day and there is a lack of milk and porridge, denounce organizations on the ground. In addition, the shortage of fuel forces you to burn plastic or firewood to cook.
Some diseases are re-emerging, such as hepatitis and gastroenteritis.
“All we can offer are some medical solutions for malnourished children,” Hosam Abu Sfiya continued. “We demand the entry of fuel, food and medical supplies.”
For its part, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned today of the psychological trauma that the war is causing to the children of Gaza, with some not wanting to continue living surrounded by so much death.
“What we are seeing in young children, especially, are symptoms of depression because they have lost everything. They have lost their parents, their siblings, their home, their toys, everything that made their daily life normal,” the organization said in a statement.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
Central America
Nicaraguan Exiles to Mark 7th Anniversary of 2018 Protests with Global Commemorations
The Nicaraguan opposition in exile announced on Thursday that it will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the April 2018 protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, with events in Costa Rica, the United States, and several European countries.
The commemorative activities—which will call for justice for the victims, as well as freedom and democracy for Nicaragua—will include religious services, public forums, cultural fairs, and other public gatherings, according to official announcements.
In April 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to protest controversial reforms to the social security system. The government’s violent response quickly turned the demonstrations into a broader call for the resignation of President Ortega, who is now 79 and has been in power since 2007.
The protests resulted in at least 355 deaths, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although Nicaraguan organizations claim the toll is as high as 684. Ortega has acknowledged “more than 300” deaths and maintains the unrest was an attempted coup d’état.
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