International Glance
What future is there for Palestinians in Gaza? The announcement of the ceasefire brought profound relief, shaded by an equally deep sense of trepidation. Almost a month later, the picture looks bleaker. The Israeli offensive abated, Hamas has returned the surviving hostages and the remains of some of those who have died, and Israel has released some Palestinian detainees and the remains of others.
But more than 200 Palestinians, including children, have reportedly died in strikes that Israel says are in response to Hamas attacks. Thousands of bodies are still believed to be trapped beneath the ruins – debris which, it is estimated, would take a fleet of more than a hundred lorries seven years to shift. Aid is flowing again, but remains wholly inadequate, with NGOs warning that Israel’s new registration system is obstructing delivery. Israeli demolitions continue in the half of Gaza that its forces still hold. Unicef warned this week that the education system – in so far as it survives after two years of war and the destruction of more than 90% of school and university buildings – is on the brink of collapse. New babies are born literally in the rubble, to mothers who have neither homes nor working hospitals.
Fears about maintaining the ceasefire have not disappeared. Mediators are discussing a potential deal to give Hamas fighters safe passage out of Israeli-held Rafah if they surrender their arms, in the hope of resolving a possible flashpoint. But a senior Qatari diplomat, Majed al-Ansari, pointed to a deeper risk when he spoke to the Guardian last week: that Gaza slides towards a limbo of “no war, no peace”, in which deaths continue and reconstruction cannot occur.
The Israeli army has continued to attack various areas across the Gaza Strip, as troops carry out demolitions of buildings despite the lack of shelters amid dropping temperatures.
A high-ranking Russian lawmaker claims his government recently sent Venezuela air defense systems and could provide ballistic and cruise missiles in the future. The comments, to an official Russian media outlet, are a response to the ongoing buildup of U.S. forces in the region aimed at narco-traffickers and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
California voters approved Proposition 50, according to the Associated Press.
Israel handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians on Monday, the Red Cross said, a day after militants returned the remains of three hostages. Israeli officials identified the three as soldiers who were killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.
Ukrainian long-range drones attacked an industrial plant around 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) inside Russia, local officials said Tuesday, while Ukraine’s army remained locked in an intense battle to hold back a Russian push on the key city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region.
A fire and explosion at a convenience store in northwestern Mexico killed at least 23 people, including children, and injured 12 others, state authorities said.
