Multitudes pack coastal road after passage to Gaza’s north reopens

An unending stream of people marched up the coast of Gaza on Monday, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and repurposed flour sacks through the central city of Nuseirat after Israel reopened access to the territory’s north.Thousands walked up the main coastal road, while hundreds more moved along the nearby beach on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean.More than a week after a ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, Israel reopened access to the north after striking an agreement for more hostage releases, with Gazans overjoyed at the opportunity to return after being forced from their homes by the fighting. “This day feels like a holiday,” Shadi Adas told AFP, describing hundreds of people chanting “God is greatest” and slogans associated with Eid al-Adha celebrations.”Thousands of people” had gathered along the road to welcome back the displaced returnees, said Adas, who was returning to his home in Gaza City.An Israeli drone could still be heard buzzing in the sky overhead, but it was mostly drowned out by the excited chatter of the crowd.Even after the ceasefire brought a pause to 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, residents displaced from the territory’s devastated north had found themselves unable to return.Israel said it would not allow access through the so-called Netzarim corridor until Hamas released Arbel Yehud, a hostage held in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.But after Hamas agreed to free Yehud and two other hostages before Friday — in addition to the three scheduled for Saturday — Israel opened passage to the north on Monday morning.- ‘We will rebuild’ -Lamees al-Iwady, a 22-year-old resident of Gaza City who was displaced several times to Gaza’s centre and south, returned to her hometown Monday.”This is the happiest day of my life,” she told AFP. “I feel as though my soul and life have returned to me,” she continued, insisting that her neighbourhood’s destruction was not permanent.”We will rebuild our homes, even if it’s with mud and sand.”A Gaza security official told AFP that “more than 200,000 displaced people have returned to Gaza and North Gaza governorates in the first two hours”.He said that authorities were still waiting for the green light to allow the displaced to cross in their vehicles via Salah al-Din road, Gaza’s main passageway between the north and south.Gaza’s government media office said that “more than 5,500 government employees” were working “to facilitate the return of displaced people” from the territory’s centre and south to Gaza City and the north.Many who manage to return will be greeted by little more than rubble after months of bombing destroyed much of northern Gaza.The government media office said Monday that people in Gaza City and the north needed 135,000 tents and caravans.”The scale and extent of destruction caused by the occupation army in Gaza and North Gaza governorates have exceeded 90 percent,” the office said.Meanwhile, the threat of renewed fighting and bombardments has not disappeared.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Monday that the military would continue to strictly enforce the terms of the ceasefire. “Anyone who breaks the rules or threatens (Israeli) forces will pay a heavy price,” he wrote on X.

Pakistan ex-PM Khan, wife appeal against graft convictions

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi appealed against their convictions for graft on Monday, his lawyer said.Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases that he claims are politically motivated.The former cricketing star was sentenced to 14 years in jail and his wife to seven this month in the latest case to be brought against them.”We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing,” Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry told AFP outside Islamabad High Court. Khan has been convicted four times since his arrest, with two convictions overturned and the sentences in the other two cases suspended.A special graft court found the pair guilty of “corruption and corrupt practices” over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.The court hearing for the case was postponed three times and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said earlier it was being used to pressure him into cutting a deal with the government to step back from politics. Khan alleged before the conviction that he had been “indirectly approached” about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on Islamabad’s outskirts.Bibi, a faith healer who married Khan shortly before he was elected in 2018, is being held at the same jail as her husband in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, close to the capital Islamabad.- One year since elections -Khan’s popularity continues to undermine a shaky coalition government that kept PTI from power in elections last year.Even from behind bars, Khan has fired off statements through his legal team railing against the government and promising to fight his battles through the courts.Sometimes violent protests have paralysed Islamabad in recent months and the party has announced further rallies next month to mark one year since elections that were marred by allegations of rigging.Khan called off talks with the government last week aimed at easing political tensions.Ousted from power by a no-confidence vote in 2022, the former cricket star has since launched an unprecedented campaign in which he has openly criticised Pakistan’s powerful generals.Analysts say the military’s leaders are Pakistan’s kingmakers, although the generals deny interfering in politics.A UN panel of experts found last year that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.Khan was barred from standing in last February’s election and his PTI party was hamstrung by a widespread crackdown.PTI won more seats than any other party but a coalition considered more pliable to the military’s influence shut them out of power.

Chinese property giant Vanke warns of huge loss, CEO resigns

Indebted Chinese property giant Vanke said Monday that its CEO had resigned due to “health reasons”, after state-backed media reported he had been taken away by authorities.The company also warned on Monday of a net loss of approximately 45 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) last year.Chinese outlet the Economic Reporter this month cited sources as saying that Zhu Jiusheng had been “taken away by public security authorities”, but did not specify whether he had been formally detained.Vanke has not confirmed Zhu’s detention but said in a statement on Monday that he “has applied to resign… owing to health reasons”.Zhu “will no longer hold any position within the company”, the firm said.Hong Kong-listed Vanke is part-owned by the government of Shenzhen and was China’s fourth-largest real-estate firm by sales last year, according to research firm CRIC.Alongside other real estate titans, it has staggered through a years-long debt crisis, and on Monday in a filing at the Hong Kong Stock exchange warned of a net loss of approximately 45 billion yuan last year.”The Company deeply apologises for the performance loss and will make every effort to promote business improvement,” it said in a separate statement.Two other top executives — chairman of the board Yu Liang and company secretary Zhu Xu — had left their positions “due to work adjustments” but would continue in other roles, according to the company.The Economic Observer article did not specify what offences Zhu may be alleged to have committed.It reported at the time that calls and messages to Zhu and people close to him had gone unanswered.Vanke did not respond to an AFP request for comment following the publication of the article.

Trump border czar defends school, church raids as agencies target Chicago

Donald Trump’s border czar on Sunday defended raiding churches and schools as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, while six federal agencies launched a sweep aimed at “potentially dangerous criminal aliens” in Chicago. Trump began his second term last Monday with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling US immigration.His administration quickly moved to ramp up deportations, including by relaxing rules governing enforcement actions at “sensitive” locations such as schools, churches and workplaces.Asked about the rule change, Tom Homan, who was tapped to oversee Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, said Sunday it sends a clear message.”There’s consequences of entering the country illegally. If we don’t show there’s consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem,” Homan, who is also the former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told ABC News’s “This Week” program.But Trump has been unhappy with the number of arrests so far and has directed federal immigration officials to meet higher detention quotas, the Washington Post reported Sunday.It said he was ordering ICE to raise the arrest numbers from a few hundred a day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, citing people with knowledge of internal briefings.ICE later reported making 956 arrests on Sunday, the largest single-day number since Trump’s inauguration. There were no details on where the arrests were made.It had reported 593 arrests on Friday and 286 on Saturday. It averaged around 310 per day in the 2024 federal fiscal year, according to agency data.- ‘Enhanced targeted operations’ -Homan was speaking from Chicago, a Democratic stronghold and a “sanctuary city” for migrants that Homan has viewed as “ground zero” of the deportation push.ICE announced Sunday on X that it had joined five other federal agencies in “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities”.Joining ICE were the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the US Marshals Service.Fear of being swept up in the raids kept many Latinos in the region at home, the Chicago Tribune reported.Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, told CNN that state officials would assist federal law enforcement agencies in apprehending anyone accused or convicted of violent crimes but would defend “law-abiding” citizens. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats representing Illinois, rebuked Trump’s deportation raids in a joint statement Sunday, saying the efforts “go far beyond” targeting “dangerous individuals” and risk indiscriminately detaining migrants.”We stand with the immigrant community in Chicago and across the country, and our offices and caseworkers are ready to help those who are improperly caught up in these raids,” the statement said.On Thursday, leaders of three Catholic organizations blasted the rule change that allows raids on churches and schools, saying in a joint statement that “turning places of care, healing and solace into places of fear and uncertainty… will not make our communities safer.”When pressed on the Catholic opposition, Homan stood firm.”We’re enforcing laws Congress enacted and the president signed. If they don’t like it, change the law.”Vice President JD Vance, who was also asked about the Catholic pushback in an interview broadcast Sunday, accused one group of being worried about losing funds in the immigration crackdown.”I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”All eyes during Trump’s first week in office have been on immigration enforcement and deportations, though it was unclear to what extent actions have increased from predecessor Joe Biden.Homan called on Congress to pass additional funding for dealing with those arrested.”We’re gonna need more ICE beds, a minimum of 100,000,” he told ABC News.”We’re going to try to be efficient. But with more money we have, the more we can accomplish.”