WORLD BRIEFING: November 8, 2023
Israel-Hamas War
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 10,328 people have been killed - including more than 4,100 children - in the territory since Israel launched its campaign. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that an average of 160 children are being killed every day
Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant says their troops are "in the heart of Gaza City.” He says the Israel Defense Forces "stormed" the city from the north and south in coordination with land, air and sea troops. The IDF have not commented on the strikes - but said they took control of a Hamas stronghold in northern Gaza in recent fighting - BBC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address Tuesday evening that "we have eliminated thousands of terrorists above and below the ground. Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places it never thought we would reach."
Palestinian rights groups say about 1.5 million people are displaced in Gaza amid unrelenting Israeli bombardments, warning threat of being pushed out “imminent”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday evening that it is deeply troubled that its humanitarian convoy in Gaza City came under fire. The convoy of five trucks and two ICRC vehicles was carrying lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities, including to Al Quds hospital, when it was hit by fire. Two trucks were damaged, and a driver was lightly wounded. “These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza. “We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”
Elsewhere
An investigation by the Government Accountability Project finds 100 high-profile actors linked to passports obtained through citizenship by investment (CBI) programs in the Caribbean island, Dominica. It’s quite the VIP list: Iranian Revolutionary Guard-linked money launderers using CBI passports to move money, dozens of criminal fugitives, Russian oligarchs, blood gold smugglers, Saddam Hussein’s former nuclear weapons chief, and high-ranking politicians from across the Middle East. The findings and timing are especially relevant in the Israel-Hamas war as Dominica’s golden passports program facilitates money laundering by Hamas’s allies in the Iran Revolutionary Guard.
Voters in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and several other U.S. states headed to the polls Tuesday to decide key races that could provide a critical look into the issues that are motivating the American electorate a year away from Election Day 2024.
Russian forces in the occupied parts of the Kherson region have been laying mines and explosives near gas lines, electrical substations and other forms of critical infrastructure, the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) says. HUR emphasised that it is likely that in doing so, the Russian forces are intending to destroy critical infrastructure in the event of their full withdrawal from the region. Russia currently occupies most of the region east of the Dnipro River after retreating from the regional capital of Kherson in November 2022. Residents of the liberated area are subject to routine attacks. Nearly one-third of Ukraine’s territory has been mined since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with nearly 250 people having been killed and over 500 injured by mines since February 2022, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko
Canada’s main opposition party is objecting to the text of the renegotiated Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement over its reference to a carbon tax. It’s rare to see a partisan split in Parliament on matters related to Ukraine – a matter where the Liberals and Conservatives have traditionally agreed. The Conservative Party has made fighting a carbon tax – any fuel surcharges arising from carbon pricing – a central focus of their work as Official Opposition. The text of the updated trade deal says both sides are expected “to promote carbon pricing and measures to mitigate carbon leakage risks.” The revised treaty will replace the original Canada-Ukraine trade deal that was signed in 2016 and took effect in 2017 - Globe and Mail