The Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, expressed this Saturday his “outright” rejection of the “despicable call by the United Nations for a ceasefire” in Gaza, following the resolution approved in the General Assembly in that regard at the initiative of the Arabian countries.

“I categorically reject the despicable UN call for a ceasefire. “Israel intends to act to eliminate Hamas as the world acted against the Nazis and ISIS (Islamic State),” the head of Israeli diplomacy said in a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The General Assembly approved this Friday, with 120 votes in favor and 14 against, a non-binding resolution to call for “the cessation of hostilities” and “an immediate, sustainable and lasting truce” in Gaza.

After the vote, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan – who on Tuesday called for the resignation of Secretary General António Guterres for his alleged pro-Palestinian bias – issued disqualifications against the UN, an institution “that no longer has a shred of legitimacy or relevance”.

“Today is a dark day for the UN and for humanity because the majority of the international community has shown that it prefers to defend the Nazi terrorists of Hamas rather than the State of Israel, which follows the laws to defend civilians,” the ambassador asserted.

This Friday marks 20 days of conflagration in the Gaza Strip, where intense Israeli bombing has claimed the lives of more than 7,300 Gazans, according to Hamas.

More than 1,400 people have died in Israel, including more than a thousand civilians murdered in the brutal attack perpetrated by the armed wing of Hamas on October 7 that triggered the current war, the worst that has pitted Israeli troops against the Islamist militias in Gaza.

A lightning strike that fell in a rural area of the department of Canindeyú, in eastern Paraguay, caused the death of 80 cows and two horses, local media reported this Friday.

The animals remained in a corral in the middle of the rain and hailstorm that affected the settlement of Ybyrarobaná, when the electric shock occurred, according to a report from the NPY television channel.

In addition, the storm left at least twenty houses without roofs and affected the local health center building, the newspaper ABC reported.

The strong winds also caused about twenty power line poles to fall.

The Directorate of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) predicted rain with thunderstorms for this Friday in much of the country, which will continue until Saturday.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has strongly condemned the attacks on the press by the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and recalled this Friday that freedom of expression is a fundamental right. The last of these criticisms of the press by Boric took place last Wednesday, within the framework of the 2023 Annual Industry Meeting, when the Chilean president questioned the work of certain newspapers in that country with the following statements: “When I read newspaper headlines (…). In truth, I read the newspapers little at this point.. But the desire to prefer the bad news is impressive.. I don't know how those who continue reading El Mercurio, La Tercera, La Segunda, remain with their hearts afterwards, because, in truth, it is as if we lived in a hellish country.. And we are not in that,” Boric said.

Given these words, the WAN-IFRA association has appealed to article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes freedom of expression as a fundamental right, which “includes the right not to be disturbed because of one's opinions, to investigate and receive information and opinions, and to disseminate them, without limitation of borders, by any means of expression”.

For this reason, they continue, statements such as those of the president of Chile “contravene this right and threaten the freedom of the press, the basis of any democracy, its social work and the control of the media.”. This is a very serious fact that we wish to denounce and urge the eradication of such threats by certain politicians,” they stated in a statement in which they expressed their full support and solidarity with the Chilean National Press Association (ANP). and to the indicated media: El Mercurio, La Tercera and La Segunda.

“We will continue to ensure that undemocratic practices do not silence the vital work of journalists”

For his part, Fernando de Yarza, president of WAN-IFRA, recalled that “journalism is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy and reprehensible behavior like that of Boric violates the fundamental rights of citizens.”

In this sense, adds the also president of the Henneo Group, “we will continue to ensure that undemocratic practices do not silence the fundamental work of journalists and try to manipulate public opinion to impose a single message by populist politicians – such as Boric, Trump or Maduro—who have proven to be the ultimate enemies of press freedom, of journalism exercised with nobility and ethics, and of democracy,” De Yarza has warned.

The Chilean Press Association joins the condemnation

The National Press Association (ANP) of Chile has spoken in the same terms, which has also condemned the words spoken by Boric. The organization has responded to the president's statements with a statement in which they express that they “trust” that Boric “will not join that list of rulers such as Donald Trump, Nicolás Maduro, Andrés López Obrador or Cristina Fernández, who have received complaints international organizations for their mistreatment of the press.

“Freedom of the press is the foundation on which democracy is based”

The association also recalled that this is not the first time that the president has said something against the press and that on one occasion he even had to apologize publicly for this reason.. “Freedom of the press is the foundation on which democracy is based,” they have insisted.

The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel announced this Friday the “complete cutoff” of communications, telephone and internet services in the Gaza Strip, due to the intense bombings on the enclave.

“The cut is due to the heavy bombing in recent hours that has damaged the international lines that connect Gaza and has caused it to be out of service,” the company confirmed in a statement.

Paltel, the only operator that provides service in the enclave, explained that the absolute blackout of telecommunications is due to the “continuous aggression” of Israel and that it is also affected by the damage suffered to the connection lines by the attacks of previous days. .

Paltel's confirmation comes shortly after numerous users on the networks began to warn of the impossibility of establishing communications within the Strip.

Expansion of operations

The complete cutoff of communications comes shortly after the spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, announced that they are going to expand ground operations located within the enclave, in parallel with the intensification of bombings.

“The Israel Defense Forces are working intensively in all dimensions to achieve the objectives of the war,” he added, marking twenty days of conflagration in the Gaza Strip, where intense Israeli bombing has claimed the lives of more than 7,300. Gazans and destroyed extensive civil infrastructure.

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that it has “completely” lost contact with its operations room in the enclave and with all its teams working there and accused Israel of “cutting off all fixed, mobile and internet communications.”

“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially as this interruption affects the central emergency number 101 and makes it difficult for ambulances to reach the injured and wounded,” they explained.

The organization also said it was concerned about the “safety” of its teams inside the Strip, as “the continued intense 24-hour Israeli airstrikes indicate that Israeli authorities will continue to commit war crimes while isolating Gaza from the outside world.” “.

“We urge the international community to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to provide immediate protection to innocent civilians, medical facilities and our own,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.

Total isolation. After 21 days of war between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza Strip was left without internet or telephone service late this Friday under endless angry bombings.. Shortly before, Israel announced that it will immediately intensify the ground offensive that it has been announcing for days.. The spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari, indicated that the Air Force was attacking underground infrastructure used by “terrorists”. “We are prepared for defense in all areas (land, sea and air),” he added.

“It is an attempt to darken Gaza,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayé, who asked the world to act.. “It will result in a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions that history will judge,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who described the conflict as “senseless slaughter.”

In the early hours of Thursday and Friday, the Israeli Army carried out a sort of rehearsal in “selective raids” against Hamas targets, which responded with several missiles, some of them hitting residential buildings in Tel Aviv.. Meanwhile, the Arab countries attached to Gaza are already stepping on the accelerator and preparing for total war. Territories like Lebanon could become important pieces of a broader board involving several countries in the region and US objectives.

The spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, warned this Friday that the small-scale operations that had been carried out in the Strip were a rehearsal for a large “raid”. These days have not been the first time that Netanyahu's soldiers entered the Palestinian enclave. On October 14, in the middle of the 24-hour period for the population to move to the south of the Strip, the tanks crossed the border to recover hostage bodies.. Now, things change and the war intensifies.

Israel is not the only country that is already prepared. Gaza residents remain on alert in case they have to intervene. All eyes are on the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and the possibility that Lebanon will become a second open front in the conflict, but in parallel other pro-Iranian militias have also begun to attack US bases in Iraq or Syria, as well as Israeli territory itself.

These are the first calls for attention from the so-called Islamic Resistance, an informal alliance led by Iran that, along with the Palestinian factions themselves, also includes Hezbollah, Syria and a myriad of armed formations based in Iraq or Yemen.

With the intention of deterring a regional escalation, the United States announced this Friday the mobilization of 900 troops in the Middle East to reinforce the protection capacity of its troops, while attacking facilities related to Iran's Revolutionary Guard in Syria.

A ceasefire

For its part, the terrorist group Hamas asked this Friday for a ceasefire to be able to free the Israeli hostages, an idea that the United States supports.. Around 224 people were kidnapped in the attack on October 7 that began at the tragic music festival. “Hundreds of citizens and dozens of fighters from various Palestinian factions entered the occupied territories in 1948 and captured dozens of people, most of them civilians.. “We need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and free them,” said Abu Hamid, a member of a Hamas delegation that visited Moscow on Thursday. “Israeli bombing has killed 50 prisoners so far,” he added.

Hamid's announcement of the death of prisoners is not in vain. Israel's response against Gaza is, for part of the international community, “excessive”. The United Nations Office for Human Rights warned this Friday that Israel's “collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza” is a war crime that must “end immediately.” “For almost three weeks, Palestinian civilians have suffered incessant bombardments from Israel by air, land and sea; thousands of them have died, some among the remains of destroyed homes, mosques or bakeries,” the office spokesperson said at a press conference. of the UN Ravina Shamdasani.

In turn, more than 600 NGOs joined together to call for an “immediate” ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave. “The events of the last week have brought us to the precipice of a humanitarian catastrophe and the world can no longer wait to act. “It is our collective responsibility,” the organizations said in a statement.

In this sense, the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, expressed from Brussels his “legitimate doubt” that Israel is currently complying with International Law after seeing the “suffering” of the people of Gaza, in accordance with what was expressed with European authorities such as Charles Michel or Josep Borrell. The leader of the Executive insisted that we must work to “avoid a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.”

UN Secretary General António Guterres spoke again this Friday after Israel broke all relations with him and demanded his resignation. “The Gaza Strip is suffering an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering in the face of humanitarian aid that is arriving in dribs and drabs and for which everyone must assume their responsibilities,” he asserted. “It is the moment of truth. History is judging us all,” he added.

Humanitarian aid from Rafah

Furthermore, this Friday a first team of ten foreign doctors from the Red Cross loaded with water, food and medicine entered through the Egyptian Rafah crossing in the direction of the Strip along with a convoy made up of another ten trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, but without fuel, various sources reported.

Israel has systematically rejected the entry of fuel into Gaza despite appeals made in recent days by various actors in the international community, due to the collapse of essential services such as electricity and water.

So far, there are 84 trucks that have been able to access Gaza with help. Although nothing is enough. The number of victims in Palestinian territory has already reached 7,326, there are also 18,967 injured, according to figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health.. Among the deceased are 3,038 minors, 1,726 women and 414 elderly since the conflict broke out.

To the death toll due to Israel's bombings in Gaza, more than one hundred deaths are added in the West Bank due to the operations carried out by the Israeli Army and the Israeli deaths now exceed 1,400 and the hostages are 229.

The European Union and Senegal have signed an agreement this week for the development of the African country, and the signing coincides with a very significant increase in the arrival of boats to the coasts of the Canary Islands, with more than 700 migrants in the last few hours and some 17,000 so far this year, many of them from the African country.

And this Wednesday at the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, the EU and Senegal signed new agreements that promote the digital economy, urban mobility, vocational training, food security and a clean environment in Senegal as part of the Economy Initiative Green – Team Europe, through which the EU, the European Investment Bank, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain support the green and digital transitions in Senegal.

Additionally, Senegal will benefit from an additional €25 million of EU funding for the Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa.

“These new agreements demonstrate how the EU's Global Investment Package for Africa, which we launched last year in Dakar, covers both hard and soft infrastructure.”. From sustainable transport solutions to capacity building, our actions benefit the Senegalese people and respect the highest social and environmental standards,” summarized Jutta Urpilainen, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships.

The EU, summarizes the Commission, supports Senegal on its path towards economic growth, in line with the Plan Sénégal Emergent and the Programme d'Urgence Jeunesse of Senegal and with the EU's Global Gateway strategy. The association's actions “are based on Senegal's commitment to the green and digital transitions and its ambitions in the key sectors of pharmaceutical production, agricultural industrialization and urban development”. Senegal also plays a key role in the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan strategic transport corridor that is being developed as part of the Global Portal's EU-Africa investment package.

The Global Gateway, adds the Community Executive, represents the European Union's effort to reduce the disparity in investments on a global scale and promote smart, clean and safe connections in the digital, energy and transport sectors, as well as to strengthen the systems health, education and research. It offers sustainable investment opportunities to increase the prosperity and security of both our global partners and Europe.

The strategy “embodies a collaborative approach that brings together the European Union, EU Member States and European development finance institutions”. The conclusion drawn by Brussels is clear: “Together, we aim to mobilize up to €300 billion in public and private investments from 2021 to 2027, creating essential links instead of dependencies and closing the global investment gap”. And the ultimate goal is for the Union to expand its sphere of influence in competition with China and Russia.

In recent hours, Israel's armed forces once again carried out a small-scale ground incursion into the center of the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, in which they attacked targets of the Islamist group in the center of the Palestinian enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces reported in a statement that ground troops were supported by fighter jets and drones in the Shuyaiya area.

They said they have hit “dozens” of Hamas targets, including anti-tank launchers, an operations center and other control centers.

“The troops left the area at the end of the activity,” indicates the text, which emphasizes that there were no injuries in the Israeli ranks.

This is the second consecutive day that the Israeli Army makes a limited incursion into Gaza, although it had already carried out similar ones after the Hamas attack on October 7 against Israeli soil, which left 1,400 dead.

Yesterday, Israeli tanks entered the northern part of the Strip and destroyed Hamas infrastructure and tunnels in a limited raid, which army spokesman Richard Hecht described on Thursday as the largest to date.

Preparing the ground operation

The spokesperson warned that this type of operations are a rehearsal for a large land incursion in the future and that there will be more.

He avoided using the word incursion to refer to this type of actions and preferred to refer to them as “raids.”

Israel is preparing a major ground incursion into Gaza in retaliation for the attack on October 7 and, meanwhile, bombs the Strip daily, which has left more than 7,000 Palestinians dead since the start of the war.

The United States Army has reported that a Chinese fighter jet came within just three meters of a US Air Force B-52 bomber this Tuesday, which was flying over the South China Sea.

Both countries published the images this Thursday. Using them as evidence, they accuse each other of carrying out provocative maneuvers in the aforementioned sea and its surroundings and of further straining the rope of the river conflict.

The Pentagon reports that the Asian troops have advanced at an “excessive and uncontrolled speed, flying below, in front of and over 10 feet of the B-52, putting both planes at risk of a collision.”

The United States has blamed the driver for having flown “in an unsafe and unprofessional manner”, demonstrating “poor aerial skill.” “We are concerned that this pilot was not aware of how close he came to causing a collision,” lamented the Indo-Pacific Command in a statement this Thursday.

The event occurred at night, with limited visibility, and according to the command, it contravened international air safety rules and regulations. The military institution maintains that since autumn 2021, there have been 180   “interactions” like this.

The Chinese version

Although China has not yet defended itself against the US accusation, in previous maritime tensions with the Westerners, the accusations are always crossed. T he spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, Wu Qian, in statements reported by CNN, called the North American country “the real provocative, risk-taking and disruptive side.”

Furthermore, Wu threatened to take action against the Americans if the excessive American presence around the South China Sea continued: “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty.”

This new episode coincides with the meeting of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, in Washington, to try to channel the relationship between both powers and prepare a possible meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November.