UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing shock and anger at the “heartbreaking” devastation, visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and made thousands homeless.
Israel had withdrawn most of its force before US President Barack Obama was inaugurated — Israeli leaders seemed eager not to cloud the start of a new era in a key alliance. Obama’s predecessor, former president George W. Bush, had endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket fire by Gaza’s ruling Islamists.
Since a ceasefire — though nothing like a peace accord — took hold on Sunday, Hamas has demonstrated it remains in charge in the coastal enclave.
It held “victory” rallies to coincide with Ban’s visit. Some speakers urged him and Western powers to end their boycott of Hamas, which won the last Palestinian election.
“I have seen only a fraction of the destruction. This is shocking and alarming,” Ban said, condemning an “excessive use” of force by Israel as well as Hamas’ rocket fire into Israel.
“These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” he told a news conference held against a backdrop of still smoldering food aid in a UN warehouse set ablaze by Israeli gunfire on Thursday.
Ban called the attack “outrageous” and demanded an inquiry and, if need be, the guilty to be held to account.
Ban, on a Middle East tour, was the most senior diplomatic figure to visit the territory in years.
Later, visiting a southern Israeli town that for years was a target for militants in Gaza, he called the Palestinian rocket fire at the Jewish state “appalling.”
PHOSPHORUS
Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza described on Tuesday how they had struggled to treat dozens of patients with terrible and unusually deadly burns consistent with white phosphorus weapons, during Israel’s three-week war in Gaza.
Nafiz Abu Shabaan, head of the burns unit at Shifa hospital and the most senior burns surgeon in Gaza, said between 60 and 70 patients had died in his unit during the war from severe burns that were unlike any injury he had seen before.
Patients with relatively small burn injuries, which ought to be survivable, were dying unexpectedly.
His account, along with evidence from survivors, corroborates mounting evidence from groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the Israeli military fired phosphorus shells into populated areas of Gaza in direct violation of international humanitarian law. Amnesty said it believes Israel is guilty of a war crime.
The use of white phosphorus in civilian areas is prohibited by UN conventions.
The Israeli military has at times denied using white phosphorus and at other times said only that it uses weapons “in compliance with international law.”
Israel’s Maariv newspaper said yesterday that Israel had admitted to using phosphorus munitions, but only in open areas.
WITHDRAWAL
The last Israeli soldier withdrew from Gaza yesterday, an Israeli army spokesman said.
“However the army remains deployed all around the Gaza Strip to meet any eventuality,” the spokesman said
The Israeli navy fired sporadic salvoes into the northern Gaza Strip during the morning, Palestinian witnesses said. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing shock and anger at the “heartbreaking” devastation, visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and made thousands homeless.
Israel had withdrawn most of its force before US President Barack Obama was inaugurated — Israeli leaders seemed eager not to cloud the start of a new era in a key alliance. Obama’s predecessor, former president George W. Bush, had endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket fire by Gaza’s ruling Islamists.
Since a ceasefire — though nothing like a peace accord — took hold on Sunday, Hamas has demonstrated it remains in charge in the coastal enclave.
It held “victory” rallies to coincide with Ban’s visit. Some speakers urged him and Western powers to end their boycott of Hamas, which won the last Palestinian election.
“I have seen only a fraction of the destruction. This is shocking and alarming,” Ban said, condemning an “excessive use” of force by Israel as well as Hamas’ rocket fire into Israel.
“These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” he told a news conference held against a backdrop of still smoldering food aid in a UN warehouse set ablaze by Israeli gunfire on Thursday.
Ban called the attack “outrageous” and demanded an inquiry and, if need be, the guilty to be held to account.
Ban, on a Middle East tour, was the most senior diplomatic figure to visit the territory in years.
Later, visiting a southern Israeli town that for years was a target for militants in Gaza, he called the Palestinian rocket fire at the Jewish state “appalling.”
PHOSPHORUS
Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza described on Tuesday how they had struggled to treat dozens of patients with terrible and unusually deadly burns consistent with white phosphorus weapons, during Israel’s three-week war in Gaza.
Nafiz Abu Shabaan, head of the burns unit at Shifa hospital and the most senior burns surgeon in Gaza, said between 60 and 70 patients had died in his unit during the war from severe burns that were unlike any injury he had seen before.
Patients with relatively small burn injuries, which ought to be survivable, were dying unexpectedly.
His account, along with evidence from survivors, corroborates mounting evidence from groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the Israeli military fired phosphorus shells into populated areas of Gaza in direct violation of international humanitarian law. Amnesty said it believes Israel is guilty of a war crime.
The use of white phosphorus in civilian areas is prohibited by UN conventions.
The Israeli military has at times denied using white phosphorus and at other times said only that it uses weapons “in compliance with international law.”
Israel’s Maariv newspaper said yesterday that Israel had admitted to using phosphorus munitions, but only in open areas.
WITHDRAWAL
The last Israeli soldier withdrew from Gaza yesterday, an Israeli army spokesman said.
“However the army remains deployed all around the Gaza Strip to meet any eventuality,” the spokesman said
The Israeli navy fired sporadic salvoes into the northern Gaza Strip during the morning, Palestinian witnesses said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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