Gazans plunged back into chaos with resumption of Israeli strikes

Mourners cried over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead early on Tuesday, as a wave of Israeli strikes plunged Gazans back into chaos.”They opened the fire of hell again on Gaza,” said Ramez al-Amarin, 25, a displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southeast of Gaza City.”There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them,” he added.Amarin said he transported several of his neighbours’ children to hospital but there were no beds for them.Outside the Al-Ahli hospital, which was already functioning at reduced capacity due to Israel blocking the entry of humanitarian aid to the territory, dozens of bodies had been lined up.The bare feet of the dead protruded from under some of the shrouds, while relatives sat alongside them and held their heads in their hands and cried.Amarin said he didn’t “expect the war to return because (US President Donald) Trump said he doesn’t want wars”.Overnight, Israel unleashed its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a fragile ceasefire commenced on January 19, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 400 people killed.Israel has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until all hostages held in the Palestinian territory are returned, with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office saying the operation was ordered after Hamas’s “repeated refusal to release our hostages”.Hamas accused Netanyahu of deciding to “resume war” after an impasse in truce negotiations and warned that a return to fighting could be a “death sentence” for the hostages that Palestinian militants are still holding alive in Gaza.The initial phase of the ceasefire took effect in January, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting which devastated the Gaza Strip.The war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and triggered widespread hunger while destroying or damaging more than 69 percent of the territory’s buildings according to the United Nations.- ‘Real hell’ -Israel announced in early March that it was blocking all aid into the strip and a week later cut off electricity supplying the territory’s main water desalination plant.Gaza’s civil defence agency has for weeks said that it lacks the supplies to provide first aid to the territory’s population of some 2.4 million people.”There is bombing everywhere, today I felt that Gaza is a real hell,” said Jihan Nahhal, 43, a mother living in northwest Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.  Nahhal said she heard Israeli air force planes flying overhead as she prepared her pre-dawn meal — the bombardment came with Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan in which they fast during daylight hours.”Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war,” she said.”Everywhere there was screaming and fires raging, and most of them were children.””It is a real war of extermination,” she added, condemning Israel.In Beit Hanoun, a northern town close to the Israeli border, residents began to flee with bags and blankets piled on their heads, even before the army urged them to evacuate on Tuesday morning. In Gaza City, residents left a school that had been turned into a shelter for the displaced.Some scoured through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the strikes in search of casualties. Families in Deir el-Balah inspected the damage to their homes, as a woman held a shaken-looking young boy in her arms.”This is my grandson, he was rescued from under the rubble,” said Um Abdullah Masmah.Standing amid debris, her neighbour, Eyad Sabah, said he felt like he’d “gone back to square one, back to zero.””This night reminded us of the return of war once again,” he said.”How long will this situation continue?”

Israel strikes on Gaza spark global condemnation

Israel’s deadly strikes on Gaza drew global condemnation on Tuesday, as it said it had “no alternative” other than to resume military operations in order to bring home hostages.The strikes, by far the deadliest since a truce took effect in January, killed more than 400 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Israel vowed to continue fighting until all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants were returned, while Hamas, which has not responded militarily so far, accused it of attempting to force it to “surrender”.Netanyahu warned Hamas this month of consequences it “cannot imagine” if it did not free the hostages still in Gaza, and Israeli media has reported on a scheme aimed at ramping up pressure on Hamas dubbed the “Hell Plan”.”Without the release of our hostages, Israel has no alternative but resuming military operations,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.The White House said Israel consulted US President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the strikes, while Israel said the return to fighting was “fully coordinated” with Washington.The United Nations and countries around the world condemned the strikes, while the families of Israeli hostages pleaded with Netanyahu to halt the violence.Netanyahu’s office said the operation was ordered after “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators”.”Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement said.US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes blamed Hamas, saying it “could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war”.Hamas said Israel had “decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement”, calling it “a decision to sacrifice the occupation’s prisoners and impose a death sentence on them”.Hamas said the head of its government in Gaza, Essam al-Dalis, was among several officials killed.The group’s leader, Sami Abu Zuhri, told AFP the aim of the strikes was “to undermine the ceasefire agreement and attempt to impose a surrender agreement, writing it in the blood of Gaza”.- ‘Fire of hell’ -In the southern Gaza Strip, AFP footage showed people rushing stretchers with wounded people, including young children, to hospital. Bodies covered with white sheets were also taken to the hospital’s mortuary.Mohammed Jarghoun, 36, was sleeping in a tent near his destroyed house in Khan Yunis when he was awakened by huge blasts.”I thought they were dreams and nightmares, but I saw a fire in my relatives’ house. More than 20 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women.”Ramez al-Amarin, 25, described carrying children to hospital southeast of Gaza City.”They unleashed the fire of hell again on Gaza,” he said of Israel.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the bodies of 413 people had been received by Gaza hospitals, adding “a number of victims are still under the rubble”.A spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said at a briefing in Geneva “that many medical facilities are literally overwhelmed across Gaza”.- UN chief ‘shocked’ -Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza called for a protest in front of Netanyahu’s residence, with a campaign group accusing him and other officials of dodging meetings with them “because they were planning the explosion of the ceasefire, which could sacrifice their family members”.UN chief Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by the renewed strikes, a spokesperson said, while UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified”.Britain and France both called for the renewed hostilities to end.Hamas backer Iran denounced the wave of attacks as a “continuation of the genocide and ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territories.Russia and China warned against an escalation, while Egypt, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey condemned the violence.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a statement that the strikes were part of “deliberate efforts to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable and force the Palestinians into displacement”.Trump has floated a proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza, suggesting that Egypt or Jordan could take them in.Both countries have rejected the notion, but some right-wing politicians in Israel have embraced it.Netanyahu’s Likud movement said Tuesday that the far-right Otzma Yehudit party would rejoin the government, having withdrawn in January in protest of the truce.- Deadlock -Brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, the ceasefire took effect on January 19, largely halting the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.That first phase of the deal ended in early March, and the two sides have been unable to agree on the next steps.US envoy Witkoff told CNN on Sunday he had offered a “bridge proposal” that would see five living hostages, including Israeli-American Edan Alexander, released in return for freeing a “substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners” from Israeli jails.Hamas had said it was ready to free Alexander and the remains of four others.Witkoff said Hamas had provided “an unacceptable response”.During the truce’s first phase, Hamas released 33 hostages, including eight deceased, in exchange for Israel freeing around 1,800 Palestinian detainees.Hamas has consistently demanded negotiations for the second phase, which should lead to a lasting ceasefire.Israel had sought to extend the first phase until mid-April, cutting off aid and electricity to Gaza over the deadlock.Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 48,577 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the two sides.Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Bessent says nations may avoid US reciprocal tariffs by halting unfair barriers

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said Washington could hold off reciprocal tariffs for countries that halt practices it deems unfair, adding that officials will produce a list of levies on April 2.This is the date on which President Donald Trump has promised reciprocal duties set to affect both US allies and competitors, with tariffs tailored to each trading partner.”What’s going to happen on April 2 — each country will receive a number that we believe represents their tariffs,” Bessent told Fox Business in an interview, adding that the level could vary.”We are going to go to them and say, look, here’s where we think the tariff levels are, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression,” he added.If they stop these practices, Bessent said, “we will not put up the tariff wall.”He expressed optimism that on April 2, some duties “may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated” or because countries swiftly approach Washington for talks once they receive their number.- ‘No reason’ for recession -Bessent also told Fox Business that he saw “no reason we need to have a recession” in the world’s biggest economy, saying “the underlying economy is healthy.”But he dismissed the premise of guaranteeing there will not be a downturn.He raised the idea of “a pause” as officials transition from an “unsustainable” level of government spending, saying that the Trump administration would rein in expenditures and bring manufacturing home.Trump’s tariff plans and the uncertainty surrounding them have shaken markets in recent times, fanning fears that an economic ebb could be in the cards.The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.On Tuesday, Bessent stressed that Trump has identified “critical industries” — like steel and aluminum among manufacturing sectors — for which he hopes to bring production back to the United States.He added that “we’re going to take in substantial revenues,” pointing to these as a means to offset the government deficit.Economists note that while tariffs raise revenue for the government, they also shift demand towards domestic industries that make the protected goods.They caution that this does not always mean a net expansion of demand.Bessent also said Tuesday that the Treasury is working with Congress on further outbound investment rules: “We will make sure that our outbound investment doesn’t turn around and get used against us.”

China, Russia eager to fill void as Trump axes US-funded media

As President Donald Trump moves to axe Voice of America and other US-funded media, China and Russia are eager to fill the void.The targeting of VOA, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia not only freezes some of the most dogged reporting on countries with heavily restricted media, but it comes after years of concerted efforts by Beijing and Moscow to promote their own worldview on the global media landscape.Trump issued an executive order Friday to pare down the nearly $1 billion US Agency for Global Media, with hundreds of journalists swiftly put on leave or fired, in his latest sweeping cut to the federal government.Lisa Curtis, who was a senior official on the National Security Council in Trump’s first term and serves as board chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach behind the Iron Curtain, said that closing the service “will actually help our adversaries.””Countries like China, Russia and Iran are investing hundreds of millions of dollars pumping out anti-American propaganda and disinformation,” she said.”Why would the Trump administration want to disarm itself in this environment?” she asked.She said a pro bono legal team was challenging the authority to cut the funding, which was appropriated by Congress.- Aggressive marketing -A 2022 study by Freedom House, the democracy promotion research group which has also seen US government funding slashed by Trump, found that China has ramped up its media footprint globally.The report said China has found success by offering free or low-cost content and providing equipment and other services needed by resources-stretched outlets.While Chinese media are often formal in tone, Russia has aggressively challenged the West through government-run Sputnik and RT.After Europeans banned the outlets in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has set its sights on Africa, including through social media campaigns targeting Western health projects, according to the Global Engagement Center, the State Department’s anti-disinformation arm that also recently closed.After budget cuts in 2023 in Britain, the BBC ended long-time radio services including in Arabic. The BBC director general later said that Russian media took over the BBC Arabic radio frequency in Lebanon.Sarah Cook, a researcher who led the 2022 Freedom House report, said it was not as simple as China taking over from VOA, which did not enter into local contracts in the same way as Chinese media.But a very different sort of journalism could dominate if China rather than the United States funds reporting in the developing world.”Even if Chinese state media are doing it, the content is completely different. It’s all pro-government, even pro-local government,” she said.- ‘Lie factory’ -Observers say the impact could be greatest in countries such as Cambodia and Laos, which lack the sophisticated online censorship of China. Cambodia’s longtime former leader Hun Sen wrote on Facebook to thank Trump “for his courage to lead the world to combat fake news.”In China, the Global Times hailed the end of “lie factory” VOA, and Sputnik said VOA and RFE were behind “fakes” about Russia’s alleged massacre of civilians in Kyiv’s Bucha suburb.Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter brought to the US Agency for Global Media, described it as a “giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer” that is not “salvageable.”Trump often rails against media coverage of him, and his administration has called government-funded media outdated, as private news sources are readily available.But US-funded broadcasters ran in dozens of languages and often relied on exiles with unique sourcing in their homelands.Curtis pointed to a figure that Persian-language Radio Farda reached 10 percent of Iran’s adult population every week and to original reporting, including a 2016 RFE/RL story on a Chinese military base in Tajikistan.Radio Free Asia broadcasts in the Tibetan and Uyghur languages, a unique outlet for journalists from the minority groups to operate outside the constraints both of the Chinese government and of commercial pressure.”They are going to cover the stories that don’t get picked up by other outlets, because big media cover more broadly and don’t necessarily have as many native speakers employed,” said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who has researched Chinese media policies.Ohlberg said China began a global hiring spree in media during the 2008 financial crisis as it saw the struggles of Western commercial outlets, which have long angered Beijing with critical coverage.”They saw an opportunity — let’s offer our narrative,” she said.”That expansion is going to continue, and it would have regardless of this decision.”It just makes it easier for the narrative to take hold as there are now fewer alternatives.”

Bourses: Wall Street dans le rouge avant la Fed, l’Europe portée par l’Allemagne

Les marchés américains évoluent en recul dans les premiers échanges, dans l’attente de la réunion de la Fed, alors que l’Europe est optimiste avant l’adoption d’un plan d’investissements massifs en Allemagne.A Wall Street, le Dow Jones reculait de 0,56% à 13H50 GMT, l’indice Nasdaq cédait 1,54% et l’indice élargi S&P 500 abandonnait 0,90%.Les indices américains sont plombés par des craintes sur l’impact de certaines mesures économiques de Donald Trump, notamment celles concernant les droits de douane.Ces menaces font fuir “les investisseurs qui retirent leurs avoirs de la Bourse américaine pour des contrées plus amicales”, estime Christopher Dembik, conseiller en stratégie d’investissement chez Pictet AM.Dans ce contexte, les marchés ont les yeux tournés vers la banque centrale américaine, la Fed, qui annoncera mercredi sa décision sur l’actualisation des taux directeurs américains.Des taux directeurs à un niveau élevé, comme c’est le cas actuellement, permettent de lutter contre l’inflation, mais cela se fait au détriment de la croissance économique.Les investisseurs s’attendent à ce que la Fed maintienne les taux inchangés, mais les “signes de tension sont évidents”, estime John Plassard.Tout commentaire sur ces questions de la part du président de la Fed, Jerome Powell, sera donc scruté avec attention par les marchés.Les marchés européens sont largement plus optimistes, et ont les yeux rivés sur l’Allemagne, dont les députés vont se prononcer mardi sur le plan d’investissements géants de Friedrich Merz.Vers 13H50 GMT, Paris gagnait 0,46%, Londres 0,38% et Milan 1,04%.Francfort progressait de 0,74% après avoir battu, à 23.476 points, son record en séance qui datait du début du mois.C’est un tournant majeur pour le pays qui veut dépenser sans compter pour se réarmer en réaction à la “guerre contre l’Europe” de Vladimir Poutine, a déclaré Friedrich Merz.Le probable futur chancelier s’apprête à enterrer le dogme de l’orthodoxie budgétaire dont il a toujours été un fervent défenseur.”Avec l’accord conclu vendredi entre la CDU/CSU, le SPD et les Verts, l’essentiel du risque” que le plan ne soit pas voté “a été écarté”, soulignent des analystes de Deutsche Bank. “Toutefois, il subsiste des sources mineures d’incertitude, allant de la possibilité de députés qui font dissidence à l’absence d’une majorité de deux-tiers à la chambre haute vendredi”.”Les marchés s’attendent à ce que les dépenses supplémentaires favorisent les entreprises européennes”, explique Kathleen Brooks, de XTB.Vers 13H50 GMT, le taux d’intérêt de l’emprunt à dix ans allemand se portait à 2,83%, contre 2,81% la veille à la clôture.Sur le marché des changes, l’euro gagnait 0,12% au même moment, à 1,0912 dollar pour un euro.L’automobile en forme, portée par BYDL’action du géant chinois des véhicules électriques BYD a bondi mardi matin à la Bourse de Hong Kong (+4,10% à la clôture), après que le groupe a dévoilé la veille son système de charge capable de recharger une voiture électrique en très peu de temps.D’autres acteurs de l’automobile profitaient de cette annonce.A Paris, Renault gagnait 1,49% vers 13H50 GMT et Stellantis 2,20%, quand la holding Porsche SE, actionnaire majoritaire de Volkswagen gagnait 1,25% à Francfort et Volvo 1,28% à Stockholm.Les équipementiers en profitaient également à Paris, Forvia prenant 3,34% et Valeo 2,67%. Nouveau record de l’orL’incertitude persistante sur la guerre douanière lancée par le président américain Donald Trump favorise également l’or, valeur refuge par excellence, dont la stabilité rassure les investisseurs.Vers 13H40 GMT, le cours du métal jaune s’établissait à 3.029 dollars l’once, après avoir atteint un nouveau record à 3.036 dollars.Le pétrole tiré par les tensions au YémenLes prix du pétrole progressent mardi, sous l’effet des frappes militaires israéliennes à Gaza et des tensions en mer Rouge, qui font craindre des perturbations de l’approvisionnement de brut et de nouvelles sanctions américaines contre le pétrole iranien.Vers 13H30 GMT, le prix du baril de WTI américain gagnait 0,77% à 68,04 dollars et celui de Brent de la mer du Nord 0,68% à 71,62 dollars.Le bitcoin étaient en baisse de 3,59%, à 81.693 dollars.