High-Ranking Hamas Commander Killed in Gaza, White House Says |
An Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip last week killed (NYT) senior Hamas commander Marwan Issa, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed for the first time yesterday. Issa was a presumed mastermind behind the group’s October 7 attack on Israel; his death makes him the most senior Hamas official killed so far during the war. The news comes as U.S. President Joe Biden asked (Times of Israel) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to send an interagency team to Washington to discuss Israel’s plans to carry out a military operation in the populous southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Israeli military leaders have argued that invading Rafah is crucial for taking down more of Hamas’s leadership, while the White House has repeatedly warned of its humanitarian costs. Yesterday, a UN World Food Program report warned that famine will be “imminent” in two parts of northern Gaza by May, where around three hundred thousand people remain trapped. Some three hundred trucks of food per day are needed in the enclave to meet basic food needs, the report said.
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“Israeli officials have characterized the strike [that killed Issa] as a breakthrough in their campaign to wipe out the Hamas leadership in Gaza. But experts cautioned that his death would not have a devastating effect on Hamas’s leadership structure,” the New York Times’ Adam Rasgon writes.
“Israel should bring an end to major military operations, including the planned assault on Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and the home now of well over a million desperate Palestinian refugees,” CFR President Emeritus Richard Haass writes for the Wall Street Journal. “Ceasing major military operations would not be the same as a total cease-fire—Israel must be able to go after those responsible for Oct. 7 or anyone planning new attacks—but it would give civilians in Gaza a respite from bombing and make it easier to provide them with much-needed food, medicine and other supplies.”
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.
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Japan’s Central Bank Raises Interest Rates for First Time Since 2007 |
The Bank of Japan decided to raise (FT) interest rates to 0.1 percent in a closely watched decision today. The country’s loose monetary policy had previously consisted of negative interest rates for eight years to avoid an economic slowdown. Bankers have detected a recent uptick in the country’s economy through slowing inflation, higher wages, and increasing investor confidence.
For the Follow the Money blog, Alex Etra and CFR expert Brad W. Setser outline how Japan’s raised interest rate could play out on global markets.
U.S./Philippines: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised (Reuters) the “extraordinary” expansion of U.S. defense ties with the Philippines during a visit to Manila today. Blinken’s trip comes as ties between China and the Philippines have grown strained over a series of incidents in the South China Sea. Last week, the U.S. Commerce Secretary said U.S. firms are expected to announce more than $1 billion worth of investments in the country.
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UN Leader Voices Alarm at Reports of Military Strikes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State |
Residents told AFP that the air strikes on villages in the western Myanmar state killed more than twenty people yesterday. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “alarmed” at the reports. Violence has rattled the area since a rebel group ended an effective cease-fire with the government in November that had been in place since the military’s 2021 coup.
Armenia/Azerbaijan: Armenia could face “war” (Reuters) if it does not return four disputed villages to Azerbaijan as part of a peace settlement, Armenia’s prime minister said today. Ongoing talks to redraw boundaries between the countries following Baku’s incursion last year into the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave have been mired in tensions. Armenia has held control of these villages since the early 1990s.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Armed Clashes Cause Shutdown of Libya-Tunisia Border |
Tunisian state television and Libyan officials reported the closure of a major border crossing known for trade and medical tourism. Libya’s interior ministry said today that “outlaw groups” had attacked (Reuters) the border, though it gave no additional details. |
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Gambia Advances Bill to Reverse Ban on Female Genital Cutting |
The bill cleared a watershed hurdle (NYT) in Gambia’s legislature, gaining forty-two out of forty-seven national assembly members’ approval yesterday. The ban has been in place since 2015; it now goes to a committee for consideration before a final vote. If it passes, Gambia would be the first country to reverse protections against female genital cutting.
Nigeria: Armed groups kidnapped at least one hundred people in two northern Nigerian villages over the weekend, residents and a local official told the Associated Press yesterday. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu did not immediately comment on the abductions.
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FT: EU Leaders Plan to Impose Tariffs on Russian, Belarusian Grain |
The European Commission is due to announce the tariffs in the coming days after months of demands from Poland and the Baltic states to impose restrictions, the Financial Times reported. Farmers in Poland said cheap imports from Russia and Ukraine were affecting domestic prices, but until now the European Union (EU) has been wary of steps it said would disrupt global food markets. The European Commission did not comment on the matter.
This article by CFR’s Sabine Baumgartner, Noah Berman, and Mariel Ferragamo explores how global grain markets are affected as Ukraine overcomes Russia’s grain blockade.
Bulgaria: The president tapped (AP) Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel of a center-right coalition to form a new government yesterday. The leadership transition is part of a power-sharing deal that saw a previous coalition lead the government for nine months.
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New Studies Find No Evidence of Brain Injury in Havana Syndrome Cases |
Two studies conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant evidence (WaPo) of brain injury among people suffering from health incidents previously referred to as Havana Syndrome. The studies did not dispute the symptoms of the health incidents nor seek to identify their cause.
Haiti: Gang attacks killed (AP) at least twelve people yesterday in part of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and left four power stations completely dysfunctional. A nighttime curfew is in effect through March 20.
The Center for Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker traces developments in Haiti.
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Nikkei: At Least Five Suppliers to Top Chipmakers Have Delayed U.S. Facilities |
The firms Chang Chun Group, KPPC Advanced Chemicals (Kanto-PPC), LCY Chemical, Solvay, and Topco Scientific have delayed their plans to build facilities in Arizona over concerns including high costs of labor and a shortage of workers and materials, Nikkei reported. These firms supply the world’s top two chipmaking companies, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which have made their own multi-billion dollar investments in Arizona.
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