AFP Asia Business

UN, media groups condemn Israel’s deadly strike on Al Jazeera team in Gaza

Condemnations poured in from the United Nations, the EU and media rights groups Monday after an Israeli strike killed an Al Jazeera news team in Gaza, as Palestinians mourned the journalists and Israel accused one of them of being a Hamas militant.Dozens of Gazans stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to pay their respects to Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent aged 28, and four of his colleagues killed on Sunday.Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya said a sixth journalist, freelance reporter Mohammed Al-Khaldi, was killed in the strike that targeted the Al Jazeera team.Mourners including men wearing blue journalists’ flak jackets carried their bodies, wrapped in white shrouds with their faces exposed, through narrow alleys to their graves.Israel confirmed it had targeted Sharif, whom it labelled a “terrorist” affiliated with Hamas, alleging he “posed as a journalist”.Al Jazeera said four other employees — correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa — were killed when the strike hit a tent set up for journalists outside the main gate of Al-Shifa.An Israeli military statement accused Sharif of heading a Hamas “terrorist cell” and being “responsible for advancing rocket attacks” against Israelis.The military released documents alleging to show the date of Sharif’s enlistment with Hamas in 2013, an injury report from 2017 and the name of his military unit and rank.According to local journalists who knew him, Sharif had worked at the start of his career with a Hamas communication office, where his role was to publicise events organised by the group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006.Sharif was one of Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces working in Gaza, providing daily reports on the now 22-month-old war.Media freedom groups have condemned the Israeli strike on journalists, which the UN human rights agency called a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”.The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday that “the EU condemns the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists.”- ‘Attempt to silence’ -A posthumous message, written by Sharif in April in case of his death, was published online saying he had been silenced and urging people “not to forget Gaza”.In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for his protection following online posts by an Israeli military spokesman.The group had accused Israel of a “pattern” of labelling journalists militants “without providing credible evidence”, and said the military had levelled similar accusations against media workers in Gaza including Al Jazeera staff.”International law is clear that active combatants are the only justified targets in a war setting,” Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive, told AFP.Unless Israel “can demonstrate that Anas al-Sharif was still an active combatant, then there is no justification for his killing.”Al Jazeera called the attack “a desperate attempt to silence voices exposing the Israeli occupation”, and described Sharif as “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”.The Qatari broadcaster also said the strike followed “repeated incitement” and calls by Israeli officials to target Sharif and his colleagues.Reporters Without Borders says nearly 200 journalists have been killed in the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attack on Israel.Israel prevents international reporters from entering Gaza, except on occasional tightly controlled trips with the military.The strike on the news team in Gaza City came days after the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to send troops into the area, a decision met with mounting domestic and international criticism.- ‘Another calamity’ -Netanyahu on Sunday said the military will conquer the remaining quarter or so of the territory not yet controlled by Israeli troops — including much of Gaza City and Al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated safe zone where huge numbers of Palestinians have sought refuge.The plan, which Israeli media reported had triggered bitter disagreement between the government and military leadership, drew condemnation from protesters in Israel and numerous countries, including Israeli allies.Notably Germany, a major weapons supplier and staunch ally, announced the suspension of shipments of any arms that could be used in Gaza.Australia said it would join a growing list of Western nations in recognising a Palestinian state.Netanyahu has remained defiant, telling journalists Sunday that “we will win the war, with or without the support of others.”The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have condemned the planned offensive, which UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca said “will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza”.UN agencies warned last month that famine was unfolding in the territory, with Israel severely restricting aid entry.Israel’s offensive has killed at least 61,499 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the United Nations says are reliable.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Iraq announces nationwide power outage amid ‘record’ heat

Power was out across Iraq on Monday as scorching summer temperatures pushed electricity grid demand to unprecedented levels, authorities said.The outage came amid a heatwave that Iraqi meteorological services expect to last more than a week, with temperatures climbing as high as 50C in parts of the country.Mitigating the grid interruption was the fact that most households rely on private generators, acquired to compensate for daily power cuts to public electricity.The electricity ministry said the grid suffered a “total outage” after two transmission lines were shut down “due to a record rise in temperatures, increased consumer demand, and increased electrical load in the provinces of Babylon and Karbala, which are experiencing an influx of millions of pilgrims” for a major Shiite Muslim religious commemoration.The shutdown caused “a sudden and accidental loss of more than 6,000 megawatts on the grid”, the ministry added, with power plants also halting operations.”Our teams are currently mobilised on the ground to gradually restore the grid over the next few hours,” the ministry said.The northern Kurdistan region was spared. The autonomous territory has worked to modernise its power sector and was able to provide round-the-clock state electricity to a third of its population.Authorities later announced that power was being restored in stages in the southern provinces of Dhi Qar and Maysan, with the strategic port city of Basra expected to have electricity back by dawn on Tuesday.Electricity shortages are a frequent complaint in Iraq, which is sometimes rocked by protests when outages worsen in the hot summer months.- ‘More intense’ -Heatwaves in Iraq are “more intense and more frequent” than they were in the 20th century, meteorological service spokesman Amer al-Jaberi told AFP, blaming climate change and human factors.He said gas emissions and fumes from private generators “contribute to the rise in temperatures”, and called for the creation of a “green belt” around Baghdad “so the city can breathe a little”.In July 2023, a fire at a transmission station in the south caused a widespread power outage.While the vast majority of Iraqis rely on private generators, they often cannot power all household appliances, especially air conditioners.Even without a nationwide blackout, Iraq’s poorest endure the intense heat daily.”It’s hot, we don’t have electricity, it comes on for two hours and then we can sleep a little and rest,” said Haider Abbas, a 44-year-old day labourer, in his concrete-walled home on Sunday.Originally from the town of Al-Qassim in Babylon province, central Iraq, the father of five cannot afford an air conditioner and relies instead on an air cooler that he constantly refills with water bottles.”When I was little, we didn’t have these (high) temperatures,” he recalled. “At 52 degrees Celsius, I can’t work.”To avoid outages during peak demand, Iraq would need to produce around 55,000 megawatts of electricity. This month, for the first time, the country’s power plants reached the 28,000-megawatt threshold.

Trump says Nvidia to give US cut of China chip sales

President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed reports that semiconductor giant Nvidia would pay the United States 15 percent of its revenues from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China.Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump argued that Nvidia’s “H20” chips are “obsolete,” despite previously being targeted for export restrictions.He said that to lift …

Trump says Nvidia to give US cut of China chip sales Read More »

Al Jazeera journalists hold vigil for staff slain in Gaza

Al Jazeera staff gathered at the news network’s Doha headquarters on Monday for a televised memorial for five colleagues killed by Israel overnight in Gaza.Anas al-Sharif, a recognisable face on the channel, correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were killed in the Israeli attack on Sunday.  Scores congregated in an Al Jazeera Arabic studio and newsroom in the Qatari capital to condemn the killings, promising to continue their reporting on the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.Some held pictures of the journalists killed in a strike on their tent in Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory. Among those present in Doha were Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, whose wife and children were killed in Israeli strikes, and camera operator Fadi Al Wahidi who was left paralysed by a gunshot wound to the neck while reporting in the territory.”Every time we lose a loved one and a colleague, we lose a part of this… family of journalists. This is something extremely difficult and painful,” Al-Dahdouh told AFP following the vigil. “We stand in solidarity… and we take whatever action we can, but blatant attacks against international law and against everything continue,” he added.The Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out the attack on Al-Sharif, alleging that he was a “terrorist” who “posed as a journalist”. Tamer Almisshal, a senior presenter at Al Jazeera overseeing coverage in Gaza, told AFP the Israeli assertions were “fabricated” and “baseless”, adding that it was not the first time the Qatar-based channel’s journalists in Gaza had been accused of being affiliated with militant groups after being killed. “Israel, by killing and targeting our correspondents and our team in Gaza, they want to kill the truth,” Almisshal added.In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Al-Sharif’s protection and accused the Israeli military of carrying out online attacks on the reporter by claiming that he was a member of Hamas.With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world, including AFP, depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by Palestinian reporters.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began, including several Al Jazeera journalists.Al-Dahdouh explained those journalists still in Gaza “face attacks, murder, fear, hunger, displacement, thirst… after a while, we couldn’t recognise many of our colleagues because they had simply lost half their body weight”. “Their love for this profession… keeps them connected and carrying out this duty,” he added.Â