Daily Report
Israeli strikes hit aid convoy in Gaza
An Israeli air-strike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza on the night of Aug. 29, reportedly killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). Israel says it was attacking "armed assailants" who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a "humanitarian deconfliction" program intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to the World Food Program, which said it was pausing staff operations in Gaza until further notice. WFP head Cindy McCain said, "This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP's team in Gaza… The current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer." Israel's assault in Gaza has made 2024 the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers.
Russian fighters leave Burkina Faso for Kursk front
Russia is withdrawing 100 of its paramilitary troops from Burkina Faso to assist in the war with Ukraine, reports indicate. The troops are part of a contingent of some 300 fighters from the Medvedi or Bear Brigade—one of the Russian private military companies operating in West Africa—who arrived in Burkina Faso in May to support the country's ruling military junta. In a statement, the group said its forces would return home to support Russia's defense of Kursk oblast against Ukraine's recent cross-border offensive. There are fears the pull-out could embolden jihadist insurgents in Burkina Faso, who recently killed up to 300 people in one of the biggest attacks in years. (BBC News, Kyiv Post)
Israel's new West Bank operation assailed by UN
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Aug. 29 called for an "immediate cessation" of Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, saying that the latest "dangerous developments" are "fuelling an already explosive situation" there. The appeal came one day into Israel's new "counter-terrorism operation," the largest in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, with hundreds of troops raiding the city of Jenin and other areas of the territory. At least 14 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, either by air-strikes or gun battles on the ground. In the dark hours of the night, Israeli bulldozers moved into Tulkarm, tearing up roads, followed by an armored convoy. In a raid on a Tulkarm mosque, the IDF said local commander Muhhamad Jabber AKA Abu Shujaa was killed, said to have been a leader of a militant network based in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp. Air-strikes were also carried out on targets in the town of Tubas. The total now killed on the West Bank since Oct. 7 stands at over 640. (UN News, UN News, NewsHour, The Guardian, The Telegraph, NBC)
Anti-Semitism versus anti-Zionism: beyond parsing II
With anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence in the US both rising since Israel began its campaign of genocide in Gaza, it is incumbent upon Palestine solidarity activists not to play into this dynamic by engaging in rhetoric and tactics that demonize Jews as the "other." Cynical weaponization of the accusation of anti-Semitism by Zionist propaganda increases rather than decreases our responsibility to be clear about recognizing and opposing actual anti-Semitism. Alas, in cases from Chicago to Seattle to Philadelphia to Washington DC, activists have failed to make this critical distinction—not only providing propaganda ammo to Israel's supporters, but displaying a paradoxical point of convergence with the MAGA right. In Episode 241 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg rises to the odious task of calling them out.
Unrecognized Libya government suspends oil exports
The head of Libya's unrecognized eastern government, Osama Hammad, announced Aug. 27 the suspension of oil exports in response to attacks on employees of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) amidst a struggle for control between rival factions.
Escalation in East China Sea
Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese Y-9 surveillance plane "violated the territorial airspace" of the Danjo Islands in the East China Sea, Tokyo's Ministry of Defense said Aug. 26. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi called the breach "utterly unacceptable" and summoned a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo in protest. The incident constituted the first intrusion of Japanese airspace by a People's Liberation Army aircraft "since we began anti-airspace incursion measures," Hayashi said. A Chinese foreign ministry representative responded that the PLA had "no intention of invading the airspace of any country," and that the incident is under review.
Russia, Mongolia hold joint military exercise
The Russian and Mongolian militaries completed the main phase of a joint exercise Aug. 26—marking the first time Mongolia has hosted drills involving a foreign army within its territory. The maneuvers, dubbed Selenga 2024, were centered around the eastern city of Choibalsan, near the border with China. Armaments including drones, MiG-29 and Su-25 warplanes, Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, and Grad rocket launchers were deployed in the main phase of the drill, which simulated a "joint Russian-Mongolian group of troops" retaking a settlement that had been seized by "illegal armed groups," according to the Russian military.
Turkish drone strike slays two journalists in Iraq
A Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq's Kurdish region evidently killed two female journalists, Hero Baha'uddin and Golestan Tara, on Aug. 23. Both journalists worked for local Kurdish media outlet Sterk TV and were traveling near the village of Teperash in Sulaimaniyah province when the strike hit, according to local reports. The strikes targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK, a Kurdish separatist organization, has engaged in an armed conflict with Turkey since the 1980s. Northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) confirmed that the strike killed a PKK official, along with his guard and their driver. It remains unclear whether the journalists were in the same vehicle as the PKK members or if multiple vehicles were involved. In addition to the fatalities, the attack also injured six other journalists.
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