WORLD BRIEFING: November 3, 2023
Israel - Hamas War
Hundreds of foreign passport holders have left Gaza for Egypt since Wednesday - a very small fraction of the two million people remaining in the Strip. At the heart of the issue is a list of people allowed to leave, but how it is compiled is unclear. There are, for instance, no Canadians on that list, while a number of citizens from other countries, including the US and the UK have crossed the border - BBC
More American statements in support of “humanitarian pauses” ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel today. “You have heard the presient say that the US government does support humanitarian pauses to enable humanitarian aid to get in for hostages to get out,” Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder has told a briefing in Washington. However, Ryder reiterated the US stance against a ceasefire, despite an international push for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza “We do not support a ceasefire, and that gives time for Hamas to regroup, which is something that … would put Israeli citizens and others in danger,” Ryder said - Al Jazeera
Amid U.S. pressure and fears than a downturn in the economic situation of West Bank residents could lead to an escalation of violence, the Israeli security cabinet has voted to transfer tax revenue collected for the Palestinian Authority. But funds bound for Hamas-ruled Gaza, where the PA helps cover public sector wages and pay for electricity, to be withheld. The transfer of the revenues amount to around $150 million per month
The Israeli Prime Minister's office said on Thursday that Benjamin Netanyahu did not agree to allow the supply of fuel into Gaza. The statement came after Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said in a briefing to reporters earlier that the military was monitoring the situation of fuel in the strip and despite warnings that it was running out, it had not yet done so. "We will know to ensure fuel reaches hospitals but does not reach Hamas," he said.
The United States has intelligence that Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militia, an air defence system, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials. The Journal said Wagner plans to supply the Pantsir-S1 system, known by NATO as the SA-22, which uses anti-aircraft missiles and air-defence guns to intercept aircraft - Reuters
Fires caused by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon have burned some 40,000 olive trees and torched hundreds of square miles of land, dealing a serious blow to a major Lebanese crop, the agriculture minister said. Fires on Lebanon's side of the border have flared daily since the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas erupted. Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorous to destroy wooded areas which Hezbollah fighters - who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas in what has become the worst flare-up of border hostilities since a 2006 war - could use as cover. The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the types of smoke-screen shell it uses do not contain white phosphorus. (Reuters)
The number of hostages known to be held by Hamas in Gaza has risen to 242, according to IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Hagari, who said Thursday morning that the families of the hostages have been notified. At the same time, he sent a message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, ahead of his expected speech on Friday, saying that the IDF "is very strongly prepared on the northern border ". (Korin Elbaz-Alush)
Gulf Arab power the United Arab Emirates warned on Friday that there was a real risk of a regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, adding that it was working "relentlessly" to secure a humanitarian cease-fire. The UAE was the most prominent Arab country to sign the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of pacts with Israel, which the latter hoped would pave the way to normalization of ties with Muslim superpower Saudi Arabia, but the war dealt those plans a blow. "As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point," Noura al-Kaabi, a minister of state for foreign affairs, told a policy conference in the capital, Abu Dhabi. "The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence." (Reuters)
Elsewhere
Russia launched dozens of air strikes overnight in Ukraine amid signs it is regrouping near the eastern city of Avdiyivka with the aim of renewing attacks on the embattled area. Meanwhile, U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Moscow is "likely" preparing for another wave of highly "attritional" infantry-led ground assaults on Ukrainian positions in the Avdiyivka area, which has been under massive shelling by Russian troops - RFE/RL
Ukraine's post-war recovery will require the return of 4.5 million of its people who fled abroad, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in an interview published by Forbes Ukraine on Nov. 2. While over 6 million people fled Ukraine during the full-scale Russian invasion, only one million have come back, according to UN figures. Their return will be key to Ukraine's economic recovery, Svyrydenko said - Kyiv Independent
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace - CBC
People in New Delhi woke up to a thick layer of toxic haze on Friday, and some schools were ordered to be shut for two days as the air quality index (AQI) entered the "severe" category in several parts of the Indian capital. filthy smog forms over Delhi every winter as cold, heavy air traps construction dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from crop stubble burning in neighbouring states, causing a surge in respiratory illnesses among the city's 20 million people - Reuters
Get ready to say goodbye to a lot of familiar bird names, like Anna's Hummingbird, Gambel's Quail, Lewis's Woodpecker, Bewick's Wren, Bullock's Oriole, and more. That's because the American Ornithological Society has vowed to change the English names of all bird species currently named after people, along with any other bird names deemed offensive or exclusionary. "Names have power and power can be for the good or it can be for the bad," says Colleen Handel, the society's president and a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska. "We want these names to be powerful in a really good way." - NPR