All posts by Luis Moreno

Moreno Luis - is a business and economics reporter based in Barcelona. Prior to joining the BNE24 he was economics editor of the BBC Spaine and worked as an economics and political reporter for Murcia Tuday.
ECONOMY

Temporary employment is entrenched in a public sector that loses more workers than the hospitality industry in September

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The labor market in September usually has two faces: that of job creation due to the hiring of teachers for the return to school and, at the same time, that of the decrease in hospitality workers, due to the end of the summer season.. However, this year the destruction of jobs has exceeded the most tourist sectors and has also affected public administrations, which in the last month have lost more workers even than the hospitality industry.. September has been a particularly bloody month in terms of employment for a public sector in which temporary employment remains entrenched: one in three workers are temporary.

Social Security gained an average of 18,295 affiliates in the ninth month of 2023 compared to August, according to data released this week by the Ministry of Inclusion. The positive growth in the volume of workers, up to a total of 20.72 million, has been fundamentally due to the push of education, which added 85,817 new jobs. This increase compensated for the destruction of 40,024 jobs in the commerce sector and 32,223 in hospitality, declines in membership that are usually common in the month of September, coinciding with the final blows of the summer.. In the ninth month of 2022, for example, both sectors lost 36,279 and 33,442 workers respectively.

However, commerce and hospitality were not the only sectors where occupancy decreased in September. Also notable is the drop in membership compared to August of 39,503 people in the Public Administration, including the Defense sector, but not public employees in Education or Health, for example.. In fact, another 9,800 additional jobs were destroyed in the health sector.

The September decrease in the number of Public Administration workers is the largest in at least fifteen years and even exceeds that recorded in hospitality. According to Inclusion data, since 2009, employment has decreased in the public sector in the months of September on 14 occasions – in the entire period, except in 2017, when 1,138 jobs were created compared to August – but it has always in a much more modest way. Until the mark recorded in the last month, the average fall in employment in the Public Administration in the months of September was around 12,230 workers, well below the almost 40,000 jobs destroyed on this occasion.

“Never has a month of September been so devastating for public employment,” say CSIF, who after learning the data this Tuesday demanded an “urgent” meeting with the Ministry of Finance and Public Function to evaluate the situation.. From the union they deny to 20minutos that the Department headed by María Jesús Montero has responded to their request and they are concerned. “We want to sound the alarm, because something like this has never happened before, not even during the 2008 crisis.. Something is happening,” they warn.

According to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, 26.8% of the fall in employment in the Public Administration in September has been concentrated in the province of Barcelona, where 10,573 Social Security affiliates have been lost.. They are followed by Girona and Zaragoza, with respective decreases of more than 4,600 people, while in Huesca and Toledo they are around 2,000. This contrasts the behavior of Madrid, where the Administration gained an average of 1,690 workers in September.

Within the public sector, the Social Security affiliation statistics do not make a distinction by levels of government, so the data does not allow us to identify whether the drop in employment has been focused on the state, regional or local level, since each It has its own organizations and employees. The Personnel Statistical Bulletin counts 2.7 million people working in the public sector, of which 18.87% correspond to the state level, 59.21% to the regional level—increased by Health and Education personnel—and the 21.92% to the premises.

From the Ministry of Finance and Public Function they point out to 20minutos that in the General State Administration (AGE) there has been “little variation” in the volume of employees. In any case, they frame the fall in membership in the “usual” dynamics of employment, pointing to retirements and the end of interim contracts.. “The General Administration of the State has an aging and stressed workforce in fundamental areas and organizations, which makes it difficult to provide citizens with quality public services,” denounces CSIF.. The union also points to retirements and the dismissal of interim workers as possible explanations for the drop in employment and highlights that temporary employment is one of the great burdens of employment in the public sector.

31.1% temporary

According to the Active Population Survey (EPA), 31.1% of the 1.1 million workers in public administrations are temporary, a percentage that doubles the temporary employment rate in the private sector, where 13.9% of The employees are hired under this modality. In the administrations there are proportionally more temporary workers, and they also remain in these conditions longer: 75.1% of public employees on an interim basis or under a temporary contract have been in that situation for more than a year —compared to 55.6%. in the private sector—, while 2.7% have been there for less than a month—18.1% in the private sector—.

The proportion of workers with temporary contracts in private companies has been progressively falling after the entry into force of the labor reform, which precisely sought to prioritize permanent contracts. However, in the public sector, temporary employment refuses to decrease, weighed down by the proportion of interim officials, especially in the regional and local administration.. Overall, according to EPA data, there are communities in which temporary employment in the public sector exceeds 40%, as is the case in the Basque Country (49.4%) and Asturias (41.7%), while others such as Extremadura and Navarra are around that threshold. Only La Rioja, Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid are below 30%.

Spain has committed to reducing the temporary employment rate in the public sector below 8% by the end of 2024, a goal for which public administrations have launched employment stabilization processes framed in voluminous public employment offers, with the objective of reducing the number of interim workers and improving the quality of employment. “The public employment offers in recent years, although they have been large, must be complemented with a short and medium-term employment plan to guarantee the sustainability of the system,” CSIF claims.. The union also demands “transparency”, streamlining of processes, strengthening of internal promotion and creation of net employment. “Either the processes are accelerated or we fear that the 8% objective will not be met,” they warn.

ECONOMY

Spaniards and Portuguese cross the line in their battle against inflation: "Many neighbors cross the border to have cheap oil"

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Inflation gives no respite to certain basic goods for the consumer, who struggles to acquire them at a good price.. Gasoline, for example, although it has given a very slight respite in the last week, is paid at a higher price than when the Government discounted it at the pumps, while oil continues its drastic increase.

In the Spanish towns bordering Portugal there is now a strange case because just a few kilometers have a great impact on the pocket. Marga, owner of a food store in Cedillo—a small town in the province of Cáceres with 432 inhabitants on the border with Portugal—says that in the neighboring country oil is cheaper than here, at around seven euros.. The consequence is obvious: “I work in the store with the best quality Spanish oil, but many in the town take the opportunity to buy it there.”

The Portuguese-Spanish border, also known as “the stripe”, 1,214 kilometers long, is the longest between two states of the European Union. The multiple bordering towns, called “rayanas”, share several historical, cultural and economic elements.

Food prices are generally slightly lower in Portugal.. It is explained by Nuno Cunha, a Portuguese citizen who, for personal reasons, travels from the north of the country to La Coruña frequently.. “Things in Spain are more expensive because salaries are higher. But I don't notice that there is that much difference either,” says Cunha.

Nuno Cunha, Portuguese who regularly crosses 'the line'. Loaned

Cunha's statements are supported by data: the GDP per capita in Spain is €28,280, while in Portugal, this figure is €23,530 per person.. Likewise, there are differences in salaries. The average Spanish salary is €28,360 per year, compared to €21,606 in Portugal; and the minimum interprofessional salary reaches €1,260 per month in Spanish territory, much more than €886.70 in Portugal.

According to data from August 2023, the CPI was higher in Portugal, although very slightly: 3.7% compared to 3.5% in Spain. Even so, Cunha recognizes a specific product that is cheaper in Spanish territory: gasoline.

“The majority of the customers are Portuguese, they come regularly from the surrounding towns,” a gas station employee in the Huelva town of Ayamonte, which borders Portugal in the south of the Peninsula, tells 20minutos. “Diesel is 15 cents (per liter) more expensive in Portugal,” says another gasoline professional from Ayamonte, who adds that it is totally normal to see “how they arrive with drums and fill them.”

They are citizens of Vila Real de Santo António or Castro Marim, neighboring Portuguese towns, who usually buy diesel and gas in large quantities. “It's obvious, because someone who is passing through is not going to take as much,” says the second worker interviewed.. “They take a lot of butane cylinders: in Portugal they cost 29.75 and here only €15. They save half of what it would cost them there,” he says.

Life on the border

“The border, for us, does not exist,” says Beti Rey, journalist and host of the Municipal Radio of Tui, a town in the south of the province of Pontevedra divided in two by the Miño River: one bank is Spanish and the other, Portuguese, called Valença do Minho. “There are people who go to Valença to have a coffee, to their English class; while there are other Portuguese who come to Tui to walk the dog or eat out. We never think that we are going to another country,” he says by phone.

Faced with a drastic change in prices, citizens on both sides of the river cross the bridge normally. But there was a strange moment where traffic came to a complete standstill.. “The closure of the borders with the pandemic was very shocking. Suddenly, we couldn't meet with our neighbors, our friends or our teachers,” he tells 20minutos.

However, the Extremaduran town of Cedillo presents a unique and surprising anomaly.. Although they are only 13 kilometers from the Portuguese town of Montalvao, the presence of an Iberdrola hydraulic power plant on the Tagus River forces the residents of Cedillo to make a 120-kilometer detour for safety reasons.. When the plant closes on weekends, it does allow citizens from both sides of the border to cross a bridge.

“An acquaintance who lives in Portugal shops in our town,” says Marga. “But obviously he has to come pick her up on the weekends. We leave it here for him and he comes for it.”

Nuno Cunha tells 20minutos that, in recent years, the great differences between Spain and Portugal have been drastically diluted. “Years ago, there were several products that we could only get from one side or the other of the border. I remember the fruits in syrup, which did not exist in Portugal. But, nowadays, you can get everything at a similar price,” says Cunha, who notes that several of the trucks that supply his usual supermarket “have Spanish license plates.”

“I don't quite understand it,” he confesses.. “Many Portuguese or Spaniards are looking to save a little on their purchases, but with the price of traveling by car it is no longer worth it.. They don't realize it,” says this Portuguese citizen.. Marga, from Cedillo, shares the same reflection: “Many go to the city of Cáceres, but they spend at least 20 euros on gasoline. Except in very exceptional cases, it doesn't make much sense.”

ECONOMY

Spain reduced gas imports from Russia by more than half in August and made China the second destination for its exports

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Spain reduced its imports of natural gas from Russia by more than half last August, when total consumption of this energy source fell and 3,322GWh of Russian gas arrived, less than half of the 8,764 – 40% fewer – who had arrived in July and the lowest number for at least six months. In terms of exports, France continued to be the main destination for the output of natural gas from Spain, while in second place, and in an unprecedented way in recent months, was China, to which 1,130 GWh were shipped, an amount that It corresponds approximately to one shipment and which industry sources attribute to a delivery that stopped in Spain before leaving for the Asian country.

According to statistics published this Monday by the Corporation for Strategic Reserves of Petroleum Products (CORES), in August net imports of natural gas decreased by 7% compared to the same month last year.. The amount of gas that arrived via gas pipeline also decreased and the amount of liquefied natural gas, brought by ship, increased.

Between one and the other, this explains why the United States continued to be the main source of natural gas that entered Spain in August -by ship-, with 10,985 GW.. The second position was occupied by Algeria, which sent 7,800 GWh of gas by gas pipeline and 490 GWh of liquefied natural gas by ship.. The third place of importers is occupied by Nigeria, where 6,857 GWh of gas arrived in August.

Russian gas

In fourth position by origin of imports was Russia, although with a much smaller quantity than the previous month and with the smallest figure since at least the month of February, according to CORES statistics.. In August, 3,322 GWh of Russian gas – liquefied by ship – arrived in Spain, less than half of the 8,764 in July and a lower quantity than the 7.74 in June or the 9,663 GWh in May. It is the lowest figure since at least February, when 5,465 GWh of Russian gas arrived in Spain. According to Cores statistics this Monday, Russian gas imports since January amount to 53,231 GWh and since August of last year, 74,320.

In the middle of the war in Ukraine, with the supply of gas by gas pipeline practically interrupted and with EU sanctions, among other products, on oil and coal, the fact that Spain continues to be one of the main importers of gas from Russia is inconsistent with Government support for Ukraine. They are also France or Belgium, a circumstance that the sector explains is due to the fact that these three countries have enough space to store it in their ports, which makes operators choose them to keep it there until other operations to carry it close. that Russian gas to other countries. The information on gas inputs and outputs from Spanish ports is confidential, but in the gas ecosystem it is assumed that the majority of these operations have their final destination in countries other than Spain.

For its part, the explanation that the Ministry of Ecological Transition has given for months about the arrival of Russian gas is that it is due to previously signed purchase agreements, to which is added that these operators do not have an express prohibition by the EU to break these agreements, which would also assume the payment of huge compensations. Added to this is that Russia is trying to find an outlet for this energy by selling it cheaper.. As the months passed without the Russian gas stopping arriving, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, has gone from calling on operators to stop buying it to admitting that “it is very difficult” to combat these imports that, at least in August Like the past, with less need for gas, they experienced a notable downward trend.

Gas to China

Regarding the export of natural gas from Spain, it stands out that in August China became the second buyer, when this country had not appeared in Cores statistics at least since February. Specifically, the figure that Cores collects on the gas that arrived from Spain in August is 1,130 GWh, an amount that sources in the sector do not hesitate to relate to a single shipment, a single vessel of liquefied natural gas that, they suggest, would probably have arrived from a producing country, either to make a stopover or waiting for an agreement to sell it, in this case, to the Asian country.

France was the main destination, because Spain sold 1,170 GWh of gas by gas pipeline and 1,143 of liquefied natural gas, by ship.. Then comes China, to which an unprecedented 1,130 GWh were exported in August.

In third position is Morocco. 958 GWh of natural gas went there, in application of one of the points that accompanied the agreement because last year the Government assumed the Moroccan theses on Western Sahara, which opened a channel through which Morocco would buy liquefied natural gas from third parties. countries, which would arrive at a Spanish port to recover its gaseous state and be transported to the neighboring country through the part of the Maghreb gas pipeline that runs through its soil.. Its origin is in Algeria, which has warned Spain on several occasions that it will not allow a single molecule of its gas to end up in Morocco.

Also among neighbors, Portugal was the fifth importer of gas from Spain in August – 470 GWh of gas per gas pipeline. Ahead, Spain exported 867 GWh to Puerto Rico, in this case liquefied, by ship.

INTERNATIONAL

This is how Hamas infiltrated 20 kilometers into Israel, which has already recovered all the occupied areas.

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It was an unprecedented offensive. Breaking the fence, crossing the maritime border and using motorized paragliders, the Islamic group Hamas carried out this weekend the largest attack on Israel in its entire history by land, sea and air, occupying more than 15 towns and three Israeli military bases.. The furthest area of them – Ofakim – located more than 22.5 kilometers east of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian area from where the militants left.

Hamas carried out a complex and coordinated infiltration that consisted of crossing the 60-kilometer fortified border that Israel has been building for years as a security measure – and which did not take long to be knocked down by the Arab group in some of its sections -, to recover what they denounce as an “occupied” territory.

The Palestinian organization crossed the border with Israel on both sides (north and west) and forced Israel to activate the emergency in the entire territory close to 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.. Hamas propaganda images and others spread by Gazan users show how the militants brought down the separation fence between the two regions using multiple methods.

One of the most shocking videos was the one that showed the use of an excavator, which managed to knock down the fence, leaving the way clear for a huge group of armed soldiers entering Israeli territory.

At Kerem Shalom, the southernmost border crossing in Gaza, the Palestinians managed to break the wire fence, drilling a hole through which dozens of motorcycles and pickup trucks driven by armed men headed to regions such as Sufa or Holit crossed.

They also crossed through the air. The armed wing built motorized paragliders propelled by a propeller. In fact, the same organization has boasted about this operation in a video where several of its members appear flying over the separation walls and setting foot in Israel shooting with their weapons.

The Hamas air force shows how its air infiltration into Israel was carried out.
The Hamas air force shows how its air infiltration into Israel was carried out.

In northern Gaza, the Islamic jihadist group carried out an incursion by sea, in the only border area of this type, although with less success than the land advances. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed having repelled two attempts by Hamas to cross into Israel by sea, bypassing the underwater border.

Also in northern Gaza, militants blew up the concrete border wall at the Erez checkpoint. Once the pass was open, they took this checkpoint and advanced towards regions such as Netiv HaAsara, Ashkelon or Zikim, where they took an Israeli defense base.

Hamas causes an explosion at the Erez border crossing to enter Israel.
Hamas causes an explosion at the Erez border crossing to enter Israel.

Thanks to these successful raids, Hamas was able to dominate at least 17 towns and three Israeli military bases: in Zikim, Re'im and Nahal Oz.. The third of these regions is the place where the music festival was located in which the Hamas military intervention left 260 bodies and dozens of kidnappings towards Gaza.

Two days after the Hamas infiltration, the Israeli army claims to have regained control of all the assaulted towns, preparing an offensive and blockade of the Gaza area, while a rocket exchange takes place between both forces that reaches Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, the most populated city in Israel.

The infiltration on multiple sides has given rise to a new episode of tension between both territories, which has already left more than 1,200 dead in 48 hours and hundreds missing, including two Spaniards.

INTERNATIONAL

"A thousand Hamas terrorists entered like crazy on motorcycles, in vans, with a large number of weapons. And they shot everyone"

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Feigele Salomon, Argentine (75 years old), lives in Hatzerim, a kibbutz (agricultural commune), located 30 kilometers from the Gaza border, near Beer Sheva and next to an Israeli air base.. Grandmother of six grandchildren, she has lived with her husband Adash in Hatzerim since 1967 and in the early hours of Sunday morning she woke up there before the alarms sounded because the ground began to shake from the rockets.. “It felt like 'Boom, boom, boom!'” he says.. This is how he learned about the beginning of Hamas's worst attack on Israel.

At the request of their children, Adash and Feigele went to take refuge on Sunday at the home of a daughter and her 10-year-old grandson, within the same kibbutz, because it has its own bunker.. This Monday they have already returned to their home, from where they say, by telephone, that the family is fine, but they are still in a state of paralysis and do not remember having lived through such a brutal situation in sixty years, with hundreds of dead, dozens kidnapped. missing and more than 5,500 rockets launched in a day and a half.

“Many times they shoot rockets, it's not something new. This time, at six-thirty on Sunday morning I woke up, before the sirens began to sound, blaring every two minutes,” says Feigele.. “I heard them (the rockets) fall and everything shook, sometimes it was Israel's systems to intercept them, which managed to bring them down along the way. It felt 'boom!', 'boom!. “They threw away a terrible amount.”

And he continues: “In my population we have not experienced what in other kibbutzim that are attached to the border with Gaza. A thousand Hamas terrorists entered there like crazy, on motorcycles, in trucks, with a large amount of weapons.. They shot everyone, it was a civilian population. They went house to house killing people. “People went into their shelters, but they beat them and set fire to their houses to make them come out and kill them.”

“They went house to house killing people, people went into their shelters, but they beat them, they burned houses so that people would come out and kill them”

Feigele and Adash stay informed of what is happening at the border through the testimonies of survivors on television news. But Feigele is convinced that they are not showing them all the images there are: “The terrorists recorded their atrocities and they do not show them in all their crudeness.”

This Argentine living in Israel breaks down when she remembers the drama of a music festival in nature, where 260 bodies have already been found. “They took the boys down (killed them) as if they were ducks at a fair. It's awful”.

This electronic music party in nature that ended in tragedy was attended, precisely, by a 21-year-old young man from another kibbutz, Samar, where Yuuval has resided, an Israeli who for security reasons gives a fictitious name and explains that the family still still doesn't know anything about his whereabouts. “I know the boy well and the situation his family is going through is terrible, complaining on social media about misinformation,” explains Yuvaal from his town, 200 kilometers away from Gaza.. Yuuval says there are about 2,000 injured people in hospitals and his neighbor's family hopes they can find him there.

Feigele, the Argentine from Hatzerim, is also very affected by the case of the kidnapping of an 85-year-old woman. “What does it mean to take an 85-year-old woman? It means not having any morals or ethics, it is not a war of soldiers, it is one of terrible violence and cruelty.”

For Yuuval, the situation is a consequence of the recent bombings to regain control of the Gaza Strip, and he hopes that the “revenge” that the Government of Israel has promised does not put more lives in danger, especially because there are still “children , elderly, Israeli men and women kidnapped in the area”.

Feigele has a neighbor whose daughter lives in another kibbutz next to the border, in Sderot, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists along with 50 other people in a dining room.. Hours later they managed to be rescued, but there are still missing people in that Kibbutz. “They don't know what happened, it's been two days and everything is too uncertain”. Those rescued, for their part, left the community without clothes or shoes.. At the Feigele Kibbutz, the neighbors have organized to send clothes and groceries. Although there have been recent political differences in the community, especially over judicial reforms, the attacks, he says, have brought everyone together to lend a hand to those who have been left with nothing.

The precedent of Yom Kippur (1973)

Feigele looks back and says that the closest thing to what they are experiencing would be the attack on Yom Kippur, the holiday of October 6, in 1973.. That year her husband was called up to the reserves. It was six months, and she was raising two babies alone. “But that was a war on the front, with soldiers, not with so many terrorists in the manner of an invasion, we had never seen this before.”

The peculiarity is that now suicide bombers have attacked the civilian population and are promised paradise if they die killing, where virgins await them, explains Feigele.. “And so they go…. It's crazy and they commit any atrocity. Which, on the other hand, is something that has nothing to do with religion or the law of Islam,” he laments.

In the Kibbutz where he lives, it is thought that the reaction of the Government of Israel will be strong, because the aggression was very great.. “The Government says that this is going to be long, hard and that we must have patience and strength.”

He describes the situation in the towns bordering Gaza as “hell”, with areas without water or electricity, looking for what to eat and how to avoid attacks.. While further in, where they live, the situation is one of total paralysis. Nobody goes to school or work, and they have been told to stay safely at home. “Now they hardly fire rockets, but there is no work, there are instructions to stay close to home, stay next to the shelters, everything is paralyzed.”

The couple has plane tickets to travel to Madrid on Wednesday, October 11, in two days. They want to come visit Adash's sister, but they don't know if they will fly. “The problem is getting to the airport and having flights. The situation changes every minute. I don't know what can happen. I have the clothes next to the suitcase, but I haven't put them inside yet. We'll see”.

“(We try to give children information that they are able to understand and that does not cause them stress”

They worry about how their children and grandchildren are left. “It's normally one's fear, what the TV shows of the parents of the kids at the nature festival, who still don't even know where their children are.. It's something terrible. It's something that disarms you.” Regarding how his grandchildren, the youngest in the family, between 10 and 18 years old, are experiencing the new war, he explains that since they were born in Israel, it is not entirely new to them.

Feigele explains that young people have been educated “to master their fears and not feel insecurity”. It can be difficult to explain, he acknowledges, “but my children try to carry, even locked up at home, a certain normality.”. My daughter plays ball inside the house with her 10-year-old son, monopoly, with the cat…. “We also try to give them information that they are able to understand and that does not cause them stress.”. Feigele, however, remembers that other families have had worse luck.. “Here we are further away, it is not like those who live next door, that is hell: they have killed entire families, one next to the other…. terrible”.

For his part, Yuuval, after condemning “this dirty, crazy and inhuman war” perpetrated by Hamas, asks to frame it in several decades of conflict and considers that international intervention is “more necessary than ever to achieve, if not peace, then an agreement.” lasting development that benefits both communities.

INTERNATIONAL

The Spaniards missing in the Hamas attacks are a Basque who lived in a kibbutz and a Sevillian woman enlisted in the Israeli army

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that two Spanish citizens are “affected” by the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas on Israel last weekend. Minister José Manuel Albares announced it this Monday, although he did not want to comment too much on the matter for reasons of discretion.

However, shortly after diplomatic sources confirmed that the two Spanish citizens are missing, since their families have not been able to establish contact with them.. These are two people with dual Spanish and Israeli nationality.

One of them is Maya Villalobo Sinvany, 19 years old and with Spanish and Israeli nationality.. At the time of the attack he was at the Nahal Oz base, also near the border with Gaza, doing military service.

The other missing Iván Illarramendi Saizar, 46 years old, a native of the Guipuzcoan town of Zarautz, where he stopped being registered in 1986.

According to various media, Illarramendi lives in Israel with his wife in a kibbutz located two kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Minister has confirmed that the authorities have contacted the families of the missing and has asked the media for discretion.

INTERNATIONAL

This is the Gaza Strip, the key Palestinian territory in the war between Israel and Hamas

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Israel has launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas following the Islamist group's attack this weekend. It is the first episode of a new war in the Middle East that has already left more than 1,100 dead and a hundred hostages.. The Israeli response, which has declared a state of war, has been numerous bombings of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

This geopolitical enclave, an area of land measuring 360 square kilometers and where more than two million people live, is key to understanding the dynamics between Israel and Palestine and the role of Hamas in a conflict that has its roots in the history of the region. .

A geopolitical enclave controlled by Hamas

Located off the Mediterranean coast, the Gaza Strip shares a border with Israel and Egypt. It is a very densely populated territory (more than 5,000 inhabitants per square kilometer), flat, without high elevations, with an arid climate and sensitive to droughts, with crops and the Habesor River, in addition to natural gas, being the main source of resources. of its inhabitants. Its main city and capital is Gaza, the most populated city in the Palestinian territories, with more than 600,000 inhabitants.

The Gaza Strip is one of the two territories under the Government of the Palestinian National Authority, along with the West Bank, according to the 1993 Oslo agreements.. However, since 2007, the area has remained under the de facto control of Hamas, a Palestinian paramilitary organization that defends armed struggle as a strategy to achieve recognition of the sovereign and independent State of Palestine, whose capital would be in East Jerusalem.

Gaza is one of the two Palestinian territories

Gaza has been the subject of territorial disputes throughout history. Territory of several historical empires such as the Egyptian, Assyrian and Roman, it belonged to the Ottoman Empire before passing into British hands in the 20th century.. During the first half of the 20th century, the British Mandate of Palestine governed the enclave, at which time there was an arrival of Jewish immigration from Europe to the region, which caused tensions between the Arab community settled there and the new Jewish community.

With the end of World War II, the United Nations resolved to create a Jewish state in territory formerly occupied by the British: a partition plan that divided Palestinian territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state.. Gaza came under Egyptian control after the war between the newly formed Israeli state and its Arab neighbors, leading to an Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The area has witnessed numerous conflicts, such as the Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973). In the first, Israel occupied the territories of the Gaza Strip, a territory it liberated in 2005 but maintained. a military blockade on the area, which in 2007 came under de facto control by the Islamist militia Hamas, unlike in the West Bank, where the Palestinian National Authority still maintains control through the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a coalition led by the Fatah party and in favor of diplomatic relations with Israel instead of armed struggle, according to The World Order.

Israel attacks Hamas targets in the Strip

Israel is now focusing its retaliation for the Hamas attacks on Gaza, the territory controlled by the Palestinian militia, and where the escalation of war has already left 413 Palestinians dead from the bombings, while it is estimated that the fatalities from the Hamas attacks on Israel They already exceed more than 700. More than a thousand dead in just two days, to which is added the taking of Israeli hostages by Hamas in what is already the largest escalation of violence in the area since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

INTERNATIONAL

The chilling video that shows several people hiding under the brush during the Hamas attack on the music festival

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Chilling video shows the moment terrified Israeli attendees at the attacked music festival were forced to hide in undergrowth to avoid a hail of bullets from Hamas gunmen in a massacre that has left some 260 civilians dead.

Survivors of the attack posted clips of the ordeal on social media, showing how they were forced to hide under bushes and record soft farewell messages to their loved ones as they watched victims being killed one by one.

a surprise attack

Many stood motionless, terrified, for more than five hours before hearing the sound of Israeli armed forces speaking in Hebrew.

The Palestinian militant group stormed the Supernova Festival being held near Kibbutz Re'im near the Gaza Strip as part of its surprise attack launched on Saturday.

More than 200 people were killed by Palestinian terrorists at a trance music festival in Israel.
More than 200 people were killed by Palestinian terrorists at a trance music festival in Israel.
INTERNATIONAL

Tsunami alert of up to one meter activated on the Pacific coast of Japan due to an earthquake

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The meteorological authorities of Japan activated this Monday the tsunami warning of up to one meter in the Izu Islands, south of Tokyo, and in other points of the Pacific coast, where an earthquake occurred, and without any damage being reported. the moment.

The earthquake occurred at 5:25 local time (20:25 GMT on Sunday) in waters near the island of Torishima, at shallow depth, and with an undetermined magnitude, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Following the earthquake, the JMA warned of the risk of tsunamis of around one meter in the Kochi prefecture (southwest) and on the coast of Chiba, east of Tokyo.

After 7:25 local time (22:25 GMT on Sunday), sea rises of 60 centimeters were observed on the island of Hachijojima (about 290 kilometers south of Tokyo), the southernmost among the main islands of the Izu archipelago and with a population of about 8,000 inhabitants.

In Chiba and Kochi, the tsunami reached heights of around one meter. Minor floods were observed on other Izu islands, an archipelago administratively dependent on Tokyo, as well as on the Ogasawara islands, where a tsunami warning was also issued.

Japan's meteorological agency urged the population to leave all affected coastal areas due to the risk of continued sudden changes in sea level.

The Government of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area reported that no reports of damage caused by the tsunami have been received at this time, and noted that it continues to analyze the situation with the Coast Guard and meteorological authorities.

The earthquake and this Monday's alert come after another earthquake of magnitude 6.6 was recorded last Thursday in the Pacific south of the Izu Islands, which also led the authorities to warn of the risk of a tsunami.

INTERNATIONAL

Tragedy at a festival in Israel: Hamas kills 260 people

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More than 260 bodies have been recovered at the venue where an electronic trance music concert was being held near Kibbutz Reim, in the middle of the Negev desert, according to the latest report.

The Disaster Victim Identification Service (ZAKA), a volunteer organization recognized by the Israeli Government that is in charge of removing the bodies of the deceased, has given this figure in statements to the Israeli press.

The hundreds of attendees at the Nova Music Festival witnessed the rockets launched early on Saturday by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza and later armed individuals arrived at the scene, causing the participants to flee en masse while the electronic music was still playing. .

The festival was organized to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.. It began at 11:00 p.m. on Friday and lasted all night with thousands of attendees, mostly Israelis between 20 and 40 years old.

Testimonials

“We were alerted by a 'red siren'. Chaos ensued, especially as vehicles attempted to exit. Then the shooting started and we started running. We are still hiding and waiting for rescue,” said Daniel, one of those present.

A woman named Esther said in an interview that, while she was trying to flee with a friend, several people shot at her car and left it completely destroyed.. The woman and her partner received help from a man who had a jeep. However, shortly after, the driver was shot and the jeep fell into a hole.. Esther and her friend decided to play dead at least until some soldiers took them to a health center.

Another partygoer said he and his friend were trapped in a vehicle for three hours after being injured.. “He saw his friend die before his eyes,” said the young man's mother.