Gaza, May 1

 The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 34,535, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a press statement.

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 47 Palestinians and wounded 61 others, bringing the total death toll since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war to 34,535 and injuries to 77,704, Xinhua news agency reported.

Some victims remain under the rubble amid heavy bombardment and a lack of rescue crews, said the statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army reported attacking 24 targets in Gaza, including tunnel entrances and a missile launch platform, according to Israeli public radio.

The General Directorate of Civil Defence in Gaza estimated that there were more than 10,000 individuals in total still missing beneath the rubble of the demolished buildings in the Strip.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. AGENCIES

Cairo, May 1

 Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani have pledged to resume efforts to end the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

During a phone conversation, the two leaders discussed the latest developments and joint efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Presidency said on Tuesday in a statement.

They also discussed efforts to exchange hostages and detainees and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid and relief in sufficient and adequate quantities into Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two leaders confirmed their commitment to continuing joint efforts and engaging with the various parties to end the war, protect the region from the ramifications of the expansion of the conflict, and restore security and stability in the region.

Egypt and Qatar, along with the US, are spearheading regional mediation talks to end the conflict and expedite humanitarian aid into the war-torn territory via Egypt.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 34,535, the Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement on Tuesday. AGENCIES

Amman, May 1

 King Abdullah II of Jordan has stressed the necessity of an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

At the meeting, the king highlighted the need for urgent action to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and called for protecting innocent civilians, the state-run Petra news agency reported on Tuesday.

He emphasised the significance of consistently providing sustainable humanitarian, relief, and medical aid to the region through all possible means, Xinhua news agency reported.

Cautioning against any military action in Rafah city in southern Gaza, the king warned that the catastrophic effects of the Gaza conflict could extend to the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the broader region.

Meanwhile, the king stressed the significance of supporting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, considering it the lifeline for around two million Palestinians in Gaza.

The king also called upon the US to play a role in finding a political horizon to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution, viewing the solution as the only way to ensure the security of Palestinians, Israelis, and the entire region.

On Tuesday, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Blinken discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation in the region and prevent any Israeli attack on Rafah.

They discussed the dangerous deterioration and escalation in the West Bank and the need to start implementing a comprehensive plan to end the Israeli occupation and achieve a just and comprehensive peace within the framework of the two-state solution, Petra reported. AGENCIES

Jerusalem, May 1

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to launch a ground attack on Rafah “with or without” a deal with Hamas.

Speaking in a meeting with families of hostages, Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has begun the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from Rafah, according to his office as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

“We will enter Rafah and eliminate Hamas battalions there, with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory,” he added.

Israel considers Rafah as Hamas’s last major stronghold in the Palestinian enclave.

Rafah is Gaza’s southernmost city, where about 1.2 million Palestinians have been seeking shelter.

The remarks were made as Israeli and Hamas negotiators were in Egyptian-brokered talks on a deal for a ceasefire for the nearly seven-month-long Gaza conflict, that will secure the release of hostages. AGENCIES

Cairo/Tel Aviv, May 1

 During the ongoing negotiations in Cairo on a ceasefire in the Gaza war, details have emerged about a proposal for an agreement submitted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing Egyptian officials, that the proposal – which Israel was involved in drafting but has yet to approve – envisages two stages.

The first stage would involve the release of at least 20 hostages within three weeks in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. The duration could be extended by one day for each additional hostage, it said.

A second stage would include a 10-week ceasefire in which Hamas and Israel would agree to a more extensive release of hostages and a longer pause in fighting that could last up to a year.

“Israel has gone above and beyond in showing flexibility to reach a deal,” the Times of Israel newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying on Tuesday. For example, the number of hostages to be released by Hamas in the first step has been reduced.

Israel is also open to the possibility of Palestinians who fled the fighting into the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip returning to the north without Israeli security checks, it said.

One of the options currently being examined is for Egypt to take over the security checks, the Israeli newspaper continued.

The Israeli government is expecting a response from Hamas to the latest offer on Wednesday evening, the newspaper quoted the Israeli official as saying.

Israel is prepared to send a delegation to the indirect negotiations in Cairo in the coming days, the Wall Street Journal quoted Israeli and Egyptian officials as saying.

Israel sees the latest proposal as a “last chance.” If an agreement with Hamas is not reached soon, the planned ground offensive in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza will begin, Israeli media recently quoted senior officials as saying.

Preparations for an offensive in Rafah are continuing, one official told the Wall Street Journal.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that Israel was negotiating in good faith and Hamas should accept the proposal.

Hamas insists on an end to the war, which Israel rejects. The two sides are not negotiating directly but via Egypt, Qatar and the US acting as mediators. AGENCIES

Tehran, May 1

 An Iranian nuclear official has said that Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, would visit Iran in the coming days, according to media reports.

Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said the IAEA Chief is scheduled to attend the International Conference on Nuclear Sciences and Technologies held in the central Iranian province of Isfahan from May 6 to 8 and hold talks with Iranian officials, including AEOI President Mohammad Eslami, Xinhua news agency reported.

The AEOI Chief earlier this month reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to nuclear activities that align with its cooperation with the IAEA, while addressing the agency’s concerns over “ambiguities” in the country’s nuclear programme, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

Eslami also stressed Iran’s adherence to the safeguards agreement and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the report said.

Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, accepting restrictions on its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. However, the US withdrew from the agreement in May 2018, reinstating sanctions and prompting Iran to scale back some of its nuclear commitments.

Efforts to revive the JCPOA commenced in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria, but despite multiple rounds of negotiations, no substantial progress has been reported since the last talks in August 2022. AGENCIES

Berlin, May 1

 German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has denied having suppressed concerns within government authorities during the decision-making process on the country’s nuclear phase-out.

Nothing had been concealed in the debate about the nuclear phase-out, adding that all files would be made available to the responsible Bundestag committee, Habeck told the German TV programme Markus Lanz late on Tuesday.

In a piece published over the weekend, the magazine Cicero alleged that key government ministries sought to block the public release of internal reports raising concerns about the final shut-down of reactors and suggested that operations could be extended at some nuclear power plants.

Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, both members of the Green Party, denied the allegations raised by the magazine and defended the handling of the nuclear phase-out at their ministries on Friday.

A Cicero journalist fought for the release of the files in court – and received two thick dossiers.

Until then, Habeck’s ministry had only handed over part of the requested documents, justifying this with the confidentiality of the adviser’s discussions.

Habeck said on the Markus Lanz programme that now that a court had clarified the matter, the files would be released.

The minister rejected the accusation that he would have proceeded differently had he read internal reports raising concerns about the final shut-down of reactors and suggesting that operations could be extended at some nuclear power plants.

The planned closure of Germany’s final nuclear plants became a major political debate in 2022 since it came amid an energy crisis in Germany after Russia cut off shipments of natural gas. AGENCIES

Rome, May 1

 Environment Ministers from the G7 nations committed themselves to phase out the use of coal by 2035 as part of a wider effort to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of fossil fuels.

Climate, Energy, and Environment Ministers gathered on Tuesday in Reggia di Venaria, just outside the northern Italian city of Turin, for the latest working session for the G7, which is headed by Italy this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ministers agreed to a host of energy and climate-related goals, including encouraging the development of renewable energy sources, increased collaboration on energy from nuclear fusion, a reduction in emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, and to “break away” from Russian imports of natural gas.

The participants of the two-day summit focused on measures to eliminate the use of coal and later phase out all fossil fuels. These measures are part of the nations’ commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Though the agreement says countries will eliminate coal use by the “first half of the 2030s” — in other words by 2035 — it did allow for that deadline to be changed if it remained on “a timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature rise within reach”.

That caveat is aimed at giving more flexibility to countries highly reliant on coal power, such as G7 member states Germany and Japan.

The 1.5-degree target compared to pre-industrial levels, which the United Nations target has imposed to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, was again reiterated last year at the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties in Dubai. AGENCIES

London, May 1

 More protests have been held outside factories across the UK by campaigners against military arms being sent to Israel.

Organisers said more than 1,000 workers and trade unionists demonstrated outside BAE Systems sites, as well as the London offices of the Business and Trade department.

They said the aim was to show solidarity with Palestinian workers.

The Workers for a Free Palestine group said it was escalating its tactics by targeting BAE Systems and the government department on the same day.

Members of the group protested outside factories in Glasgow, South Wales and Lancashire.

Tania, a trade unionist and organiser for Workers for a Free Palestine taking part in the London protest – who did not want to give her full name, said: “Our movement forced the issue of an arms embargo onto the table and polling shows the majority of the British public want to see arms sales to Israel banned, yet the government and also the Labour Party continue to ignore the will of the people.”

“The government has sought to play down the scale of its arms supplies to Israel, but the reality is UK arms and military support play a vital role in the Israeli war machine, and evidence that three British aid workers were killed by a drone partly produced in the UK shows the extent of British complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

Today’s protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations outside factories in recent months. AGENCIES

Islamabad, May 1

 Danesh Kumar, a Senator in Pakistan’s upper house has gained the attention of all during the ongoing Senate session for highlighting the forced abductions and conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

“Daughters of Hindus are not a booty that someone should forcibly change their religion. Hindu girls are being forcibly converted to Islam in Sindh. It has been two years since innocent Pooja Kumari was abducted. The government does not take action against these influential people,” Danesh said while addressing the Senate session.

He stated that the forced abduction and conversion of Hindu girls is being done by influential people and religious groups, who enjoy the support of the political powers that continue to target religious minorities, especially Hindu minority girls.

Abducted and forcibly converted to Islam, they are married off to Muslim men.

Danesh mentioned that all of this is being done under the pretext that teenage Hindu girls are converting as per their free will.

“For many influential religious groups, such conversions and marriages are celebrated considering it to be a devotion to Islam. However, the teaching of Islam preaches otherwise. The law/Constitution of Pakistan does not allow forced religious conversions and neither does the Holy Quran,” he said.

Danesh has raised an issue that has been haunting Pakistan for years as many global bodies have raised serious reservations and concerns over Islamabad’s inability to put an end to the ongoing suffering of religious minorities.

There have been innumerable cases of girls from the minority Hindu community being forcibly abducted, converted and married off to Muslim men, most of them twice their age or even more.

The United Nations (UN) recently slammed Pakistan over what it termed as an “alarming situation” at the continuing lack of protection of young women and girls belonging to minority communities in the country.

“Christian and Hindu girls continue to remain vulnerable to forced religious conversion, abduction, trafficking, child, early and forced marriage, domestic servitude and sexual violence,” read a UN statement.

“The exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations and the impunity of such crimes can no longer be tolerated or justified,” it added.

Highlighting the legislative and judicial failures to protect vulnerable underage girls, the UN experts have underlined that early and forced marriage cannot be justified on religious or cultural grounds, adding that consent is irrelevant when the victim is a child under the age of 18.

“The matter is not limited to only forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls; it is being validated by the courts, who invoke religious laws and justifying keeping victims with their abductors rather than allowing them to return to their parents,” said Hafeez Tunio, a local journalist from Sindh province.

“Perpetrators often escape accountability, with police dismissing crimes under the guise of love marriage,” he added.

While the matter of forced conversions is pivotal and needs immediate and urgent attention of the government, experts say non-application of relevant provisions of Pakistan Penal Code, coupled with failure of the parliament of Pakistan to adopt further legislation to address the issue of forced conversions and marriages of minority women and girls, has further encouraged influential religious groups to continue with their vicious agenda, which they shelter under the facade of religious teachings and its spread. AGENCIES