WORLD BRIEFING: November 28, 2023

Israel-Hamas War

The Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza has been extended by two additional days, officials said Monday. Under the agreement, Hamas will release 10 hostages each day in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian detainees, a senior Israeli adviser said. The initial four-day truce, which was slated to end today, marked the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict, bringing a temporary respite to the besieged enclave and allowing humanitarian aid into the region. Hamas has so far released 69 hostages and Israel has freed 150 Palestinians from prison. Still, Israel believes there are 173 people who were taken captive on October 7 who remain trapped in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told CNN today.

Over the next two days, Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children, US national security spokesman John Kirby says. Further lorry-loads of humanitarian supplies entered the Gaza Strip on Monday with food, fuel and medicines being distributed by aid organisations - BBC

The UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says it’s currently hosting about a million displaced people in Gaza. Spokesperson Juliette Touma said one of the things that’s immediately needed after weeks of Israeli bombing is support to get the private sector operating again.

When the war began in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants, the family of Hisham Awartani decided he should remain in the U.S., where he's a student at Brown University, rather than return home for the holidays to Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On Saturday, Awartani, 20, was one of three men of Palestinian descent shot while visiting family in Burlington, Vermont. According to Price, her son was severely injured. The other two Palestinian men injured in Saturday's shooting are Kinnan Abdalhamid, a junior at Haverford College, and Tahseen Ali Ahmed, a student at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut - NPR

Ukraine War

  • British intelligence says Russia's losses over the past six weeks are the highest since the full-scale invasion began. But WSJ says this will be a difficult defensive winter for Ukraine and its position could weaken. NATO Secretary Stolenberg reconciles these views. He says: Military success can be measured in square meters gained but also in losses inflicted on the enemy. So, while there is little frontline movement, Ukraine has caused significant Russian capability losses.

  • More than 550 settlements are still without electricity in Ukraine amid a cold spell following snowstorms and heavy snowfall over the weekend, despite the fact that technicians working nonstop managed to reconnect several hundred villages and cities, the state-owned Ukrenerho power-grid operator said on November 28. "Fewer settlements remain disconnected from the power grid -- 559 as of the morning of November 28. Energy workers have been working all night and restored several hundred settlements," Ukrenerho Chairman Volodymyr Kudrytskiy told RFE/RL.

  • Some lawmakers from the ruling Servant of the People party demanded to expel MP Mariana Bezuhla from the parliamentary faction after she called for the dismissal of Ukraine's chief commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Suspilne reported on Nov. 27, citing its sources. "Most lawmakers are outraged by Bezuhla's behavior and propose excluding her. However, it is not guaranteed to be put to a vote," an MP from President Volodymyr Zelensky's party told Suspilne. A day before, Bezuhla, a deputy head of the parliament's national security committee, claimed that Zaluzhnyi had not provided a plan for Ukraine's armed forces for next year. "If the military leadership can't provide any plan for 2024, and if all their proposals for mobilization boil down to needing more people without any proposal for changes in the military system, then this leadership should step down," Bezuhla said - Kyiv Independent

Elsewhere

  • The United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals, the BBC has learned. Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations. The UN body responsible for the COP28 summit told the BBC hosts were expected to act without bias or self-interest. The UAE team did not deny using COP28 meetings for business talks, and said "private meetings are private". It declined to comment on what was discussed in the meetings and said its work has been focused on "meaningful climate action".

  • Officials in India said Tuesday they were on the verge of rescuing the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country's north, after rescuers drilled their way through debris to reach them. The workers are to be pulled out through a passageway made of welded pipes which rescuers pushed through dirt and rocks - NPR

  • Slovak truckers are threatening to block the country's main border crossing with Ukraine from December 1 unless steps are taken to limit competition from Ukrainian hauliers, the head of the country's truckers association UNAS said. The threat on November 28 comes after action by Polish truckers who have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine for three weeks to demand tougher conditions for Ukrainian peers. Polish and Slovak truckers complain they offer cheaper prices for their services and also transport goods within the European Union, rather than just between the bloc and Ukraine - RFE/RL

  • The first transatlantic flight entirely powered by what the industry calls sustainable aviation fuels is due to take off from London and head to New York today.

  • Australia is banning imports of disposable vapes, starting from January - BBC

Michael BociurkiwComment