Air Campaign on Gaza Continues as Border Passage for Aid Remains Closed |
Diplomatic efforts to allow for hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and foreign nationals to exit through Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt had yielded no progress (Reuters) as of midday local time Monday. The United Nations warned earlier today that hospitals in Gaza are expected to run out of fuel within twenty-four hours, while food and water across the territory are dwindling. Though Israel is believed to be preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a televised interview yesterday that such an invasion would be “a big mistake” (NYT).
Meanwhile, multipronged diplomacy continues in the hope of preventing the war from spreading. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in Israel today after visiting several countries in the region over the weekend. Israeli officials announced that they have now identified at least 199 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas. |
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“The United States cannot force Israel to forgo a massive ground invasion or to curtail one soon after launching it, but U.S. policymakers can and should try,” CFR President Emeritus Richard Haass writes for Foreign Affairs. “And they must look beyond the crisis, pressing their Israeli counterparts to offer Palestinians a viable peaceful path to statehood.”
“Blinken and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s most urgent joint priority seems to be deterring Hezbollah in southern Lebanon,” Dartmouth University’s Bernard Avishai writes for the New Yorker. “The great danger is that it will add its rockets and missiles to those already coming from Gaza.”
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.
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Polish Opposition Parties Appear Poised to Take Majority |
Three opposition parties that have vowed to form a coalition earned more combined votes (Politico) in Poland’s general election yesterday than the ruling Law and Justice party, according to exit polls. The Law and Justice party has ruled for eight years and has been accused of backsliding on the democratic rules of the European Union.
Russia/Ukraine/Qatar: Qatar brokered a deal to allow four Ukrainian children to return to their families after they were separated in Russia during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. Backchannel talks on family reunification continue regarding thousands of other Ukrainian children who have been separated from their relatives during the war.
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Center-Right Party Defeats Ruling Labour in New Zealand Elections |
The ruling Labour Party lost its majority in Saturday’s polls, but it is not immediately clear (The Guardian) whether the center-right National Party, the largest vote-getter, will be able to govern without support from the populist New Zealand First party.
Australia: In a referendum Saturday, Australians rejected a proposal (The Guardian) that would recognize Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and create an Indigenous advisory body within the legislature. |
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Four Reported Dead as Another Major Earthquake Hits Afghanistan’s Herat Province |
Sunday’s quake was the fourth quake measuring 6.3-magnitude (AP) in the same area in just over a week, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Aid group Save the Children said 153 people have been reported injured so far and several villages have been destroyed.
Afghanistan/China: Officials from Afghanistan’s Taliban government will attend this week’s Belt and Road forum in China, a spokesperson for the group told Reuters. No government has yet officially recognized the Taliban administration since it took over Afghanistan in 2021.
This Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland looks at Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Syria Says Israeli Air Strikes Target Aleppo Airport |
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Nigeria to Seek $1.5 Billion World Bank Loan |
Authorities in Nigeria are reportedly seeking the funding (ThisDay, Bloomberg) as the current government implements a series of economic reforms that include unifying the country’s exchange rates. Servicing its debt obligations consumed 96 percent of Nigeria’s government revenue in 2022.
Uganda: The World Bank will seek to ensure that Ugandans in the LGBTQ+ community do not face discrimination in programs it funds before it resumes financing to the country, a bank official told Reuters. The bank halted new funding to the country in August over a law that applies the death penalty for some same-sex acts.
This article by CFR’s Mariel Ferragamo and Kali Robinson explores Africa’s struggle toward inclusive LGBTQ+s laws.
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Center-Right Noboa Wins Ecuador’s Election |
Center-right businessman Daniel Noboa Azin has won 52 percent of votes (NYT), beating leftist candidate Luisa González’s 48 percent in yesterday's presidential runoff election with more than 94 percent of votes counted. González said her party would work with Noboa’s bloc in congress.
Colombia/Israel: Israel announced yesterday that it is halting military exports to Colombia (AFP, Times of Israel) after President Gustavo Petro made a string of comments on social media criticizing Israel’s recent military actions in the Gaza Strip. These included comparing Israel’s efforts to eliminate the Palestinian militant group Hamas to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
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Man Who Killed Chicago-Area Palestinian American Boy Charged With Hate Crime |
The Will County Sheriff’s Office said a six-year-old boy who was stabbed to death and his mother, who was wounded in the attack, were targeted (AP) “due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict between Hamas and the Israelis.” U.S. police and federal authorities say they have been on high alert for hate crimes since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
On The President’s Inbox podcast, CFR experts Elliott Abrams and Steven A. Cook discuss the Israel-Hamas war.
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