WORLD BRIEFING: November 18, 2023

Israel - Hamas War

Israel's war cabinet has agreed to allow 140,000 litres of fuel into Gaza every two days after a request from Washington, amid acute shortages that threatened aid deliveries and communications in the besieged strip, US officials said on Friday. Earlier, Israel said it had agreed to allow two fuel tankers a day into the territory. Aid agencies have been lobbying for more fuel to enter Gaza in order for them to able to distribute humanitarian supplies. A US State Department official has said that Israel has committed to allowing 120,000 litres of fuel every 48 hours for the UN's Palestinian aid agency to power its trucks and run other essential services. The agreement also outlines that a further 20,000 litres would be allowed to power the telecoms companies to prevent further blackouts - BBC

Context: the move by Israel to allow substantially more fuel than it had committed to shows the power of US pressure. It could also be a result of pressure from other allies, loud calls from UN agencies and growing concern within the Israeli government that its losing the PR battle, especially amid the very dire scenes emerging from the Gaza Strip

The body of a second female Israeli hostage abducted by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel has been found near to Gaza's besieged Al-Shifa Hospital. The body of Israel Defense Forces soldier, Corporal Noa Marciano, was recovered by troops from a building near the strip's largest hospital in Gaza City and returned to Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said in a news release - UPI

Ukraine War

  • Russia has likely started using its valuable early warning planes in its war in Ukraine to give its air defenses a boost, indicating Moscow may be worried about Kyiv deploying Western fighter jets in the near future, according to Western intelligence. Britain's defense ministry wrote in a Friday intelligence update that Russia is thought to have deployed its A-50 Mainstay D aircraft to identify targets over Ukraine for its prized SA-21 long-range ground-based air defense missile system, more commonly known by its Russian name: the S-400 Triumf. "This adds to Mainstay's core mission of co-ordinating fighter aircraft," the intelligence update said - Business Insider

  • Russia has lost a staggering 302,000 soldiers killed or wounded in Ukraine, Britain’s Minister of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, said in response to a parliamentary inquiry this week. Yesterday, the Ukrainian government’s daily tally hit 315,620 Russian dead or wounded. Either set of figures indicates that Russia has lost in 21 months more than four times the 68,700 Soviet soldiers killed or wounded during the Soviet Union’s decade in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had 288 million people — nearly double Russia’s population today. Ukraine’s losses are about half of Russia’s, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Book of Memory project. This Ukrainian NGO lists 24,500 dead Ukrainians soldiers by name. In addition, it believes that most of the 15,000 missing Ukrainian soldiers are dead. Using 40,000 combat deaths as a base, an estimated 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been wounded. Russia has four times Ukraine’s population. Yet the human toll of the war of choice seems to be finally impacting Russia’s population - NY Sun

Elsewhere

  • OPEC+ is set to consider whether to make additional oil supply cuts when the group meets later this month, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters after prices dropped by almost 20 percent since late September. Oil has slid to around $79 a barrel for Brent crude from a 2023 high in September near $98. Concern about demand and a possible surplus next year has pressured prices, despite support from the OPEC+ cuts and conflict in the Middle East.

  • A boat carrying 250 Rohingya refugees landed in Indonesia from Bangladesh on Thursday, a local official told AFP, bringing the number of such arrivals over the past week to nearly 600. The mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. Thursday’s arrivals were waiting in the water about 100 metres from a beach in the country’s westernmost province of Aceh, according to Mukhtaruddin, village head of Pulo Pineung Meunasah. Some villagers were preventing the refugees from getting off the boat, said the official. Rohingya refugee Manzur Alam told AFP the boat had departed from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh — home to almost a million Rohingya refugees — 20 days ago with 249 people on board, including 54 infants and children, 79 men and 108 women. “There are many babies, little children [on the boat], please protect them, they are very hungry because they didn’t get anything,” the 23-year-old said.

Michael BociurkiwComment