Politics
Gaza destruction risks lost generation of children, says UN official
This week Al Israa University became the latest major public building in Gaza to disappear from the map, blown up and destroyed by Israeli forces who had reportedly used it as a military base for several weeks.
The war in Gaza has already let to an unprecedented loss of life, but there’s also growing concern about the destruction of public and private buildings.
Now a senior UN official has told BBC News of his fears that the widespread damage will lead to a “lost generation” of young people.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the group led a massive attack on communities inside Israel, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking some 240 others back to Gaza as hostages.
Around 130 remain in captivity. Almost 25,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry,
The United Nations’ Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) publishes regular bulletins on the impact of the war, and they make for grim reading.
Its latest updates say that at least 60% of homes or housing units in Gaza have been “destroyed or damaged”. Nine in every 10 schools have suffered “significant damage”. Hospitals, public buildings and electricity networks have also been hit.
Amir Mohammed Al-Najjari is 22 years old. He’s originally from Jabalia in northern Gaza but has been forced with his family to move to a makeshift camp near Khan Younis in the south.
He and his siblings have seen their dreams disappear in clouds of smoke.
“My sister was studying in the third year of Al-Quds University, but it was bombed. And my brother was in his final year of school, at Khalil Al-Rahman school, but it too was bombed,” says Amir sitting outside the makeshift tent the family now calls home.
His own predicament mirrors his brother’s and sister’s.
“I have finished my degree in engineering. If there was no war, I would have a job interview and perhaps I would have been accepted. Finally, there’s my younger brother, who is in the seventh grade. He was studying in the UN school. Nothing is left of it.”
Like any society, Gaza’s future is its children. But here, they’re disproportionately victims of war and, says the UN, may lose out completely on what should be rightfully theirs
Phillippe Lazzarini is the Commissioner General for UNRWA – the UN agency with specific responsibility for Palestinian refugees. He’s just returned from his fourth visit to Gaza since the start of the war.
“There are today more than half a million children in the primary and secondary school system. How will they go back if you cannot bring people back to their homes which have been completely destroyed,” Mr Lazzarini tells me.
“And I’m afraid that we’re running the risk here of losing a generation of children.”
Images of Israeli troops cheering as educational institutions were blown up went viral on social media, including one showing the complete demolition of a distinctive blue UN school in northern Gaza.
Such incidents have led to accusations of “collective punishment” – that Israel is methodically and deliberately destroying institutions including schools in retaliation for what happened when armed Hamas gunmen stormed over the Gaza fence on 7 October.
“Cogat” is the military division that co-ordinates Israeli government activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the supervision of aid convoys entering Gaza.
When I asked a senior Cogat official why it was necessary to demolish an entire school after it had already been overrun by Israeli forces, he replied that “Hamas cynically invade and use civilian structures” (like schools) to launch attacks against Israeli troops.
The official also said it was “fact” that Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups were using medical facilities as bases and that in virtually every hospital IDF soldiers had found “terrorist infrastructure”.
Whatever the veracity of those accusations – and they’ve been regularly challenged by health officials and aid agencies – Gaza’s health system is broken.
The World Health Organization says that only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functional, many have been damaged in airstrikes. With shortages in basic medical equipment those who need treatment often go without.
Cancer patients and those requiring specialist treatment like kidney dialysis, or neo-natal babies, are especially vulnerable, says the Ocha bulletin.
Nisreen Abu Nimr is also from northern Gaza. She is married, and was a mother to two children, one of whom was killed in a bombing earlier in the war. Nisreen has also been suffering from cancer since 2016.
“I was receiving regular medical treatment for my cancer at a hospital here in Gaza. But, during the Israeli aggression, medical treatments haven’t been provided for four months,” says Nisreen.
Some prominent right-wing Israeli politicians, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, have suggested the only way to guarantee security for Israel is to “encourage” civilians to leave Gaza for Egypt or other Arab countries and to even re-establish Jewish settlements in the territory.
Israel denies accusations of deliberately turning Gaza into a wasteland, but Mr Lazzarini fears the net impact is that people might have no choice but to leave.
“The facts on the ground are indeed pointing in this direction,” he tells me, clearly anxious that the longer the fighting continues the worse the predicament for more than a million displaced Gazans will become.
“What we have seen is a breakdown in civil order,” adds Mr Lazzarini. “Virtually all infrastructure including water and electricity have been badly damaged, so basic public services in Gaza are not available any more.”
Cogat officials have disputed the scale of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and they told me Israel does not target civilians or public infrastructure, unless it is suspected of being used by armed Palestinian groups.
They also say they’re working daily in collaboration with UN agencies to get more aid into Gaza.
With other key institutions like Gaza’s parliament and a brand-new courthouse – the Palace of Justice, paid for by Qatar – also destroyed by Israeli forces, there’s very little left of Gazan society.
Israel’s prime minister insists his military campaign in Gaza will continue until “total victory” and Hamas is no longer a threat to Israel.
Official Israeli government policy is that ultimately no Israelis will remain in Gaza, but what will be left of the territory on the day when the war, eventually, ends?
© BBC News
The results of an in-depth survey conducted by African Innovation Research SA (AIRSA) point to the country’s future being in the hands of coalitions and raise concerns about voter apathy, especially among the youth.
The initial sample comprised some 5 000 participants, of whom 46% confirmed they were either not interested in voting despite being registered or had not registered.
The majority of those surveyed by the independent research company based in Cape Town were in the 18–35 age group, a generation who are increasingly disillusioned with how the country is run.
The remaining 2 700 participants, who were interviewed from across a broad section of South Africa’s nine provinces, indicated that support for the ruling ANC is in decline, dipping below the 50% mark to 43% overall.
The ANC’s strongholds remain the Eastern Cape (61% of those surveyed), 58% in the Free State and 65% in Limpopo, where its challenger is the EFF at 23.7%.
In the country’s fourth-largest economy, Mpumalanga, the ANC leads with 52.3%, the EFF at 21.7% and the DA at 19.7%.
In the North West province, it’s a similar pattern, albeit reversed, with the ANC at 48.3%, the DA at 27.7% and the EFF at 20.0%, while in the Northern Cape, the ANC leads with 47.3%, followed by the DA with 24.3% and the EFF with 15.7%.
The country’s economic engine, Gauteng, is a key player in the power dynamics. Here, the ANC garnered 38.7%, but the EFF is growing its base to 19.3%, challenging the DA’s 20% of the province’s voters.
In the Western Cape, as expected, the DA holds onto a leading margin at 46.0%, with the ANC and EFF at 22.3% and 8.7% respectively. Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA) also features in the country’s southernmost province, making a notable showing at 5%.
While former president Jacob Zuma may have been barred from becoming a member of Parliament in the Constitutional Court this week, the new uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) will play a pivotal role in KwaZulu-Natal. Results of the AIRSA survey show that while the ANC currently remains ahead with 28.7%, it’s an even race in the province with similar support for the IFP at 26.0% and MKP at 26.7%.
As experience dictates, the smaller parties will begin a series of bargaining tactics as to whose deck they end up in and call the shots.
At collectively accounting for around 20% of the upcoming vote, these potential coalition partners carry significant influence.
AIRSA also noted that voting in this sector is personality-driven as opposed to ideology.
The fragmentation of South Africa’s political landscape could also contribute to increasing dissatisfaction and disillusionment, particularly when linked to the country’s youth and increasing unemployment.
© IOL (Cape Times)
Former President Jacob Zuma has launched a scathing attack on some of the country’s top judges after he was barred from running for parliament on Monday.
In his first interview since the ban, Zuma told the BBC the Constitutional Court was wrong to decide he was unfit to run, based on his 2021 conviction for contempt of court.
“I expected that from our judges, but they are definitely wrong. Not correct,” the 82-year-old said, adding that the constitution should be changed.
Ahead of next week’s general election, Zuma had been campaigning under the banner of the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
He joined the party after falling out with the governing African National Congress (ANC), which he used to lead.
The electoral commission argued that the constitution bars anyone who was sentenced to more than 12 months in prison from serving as a lawmaker – a view backed by the Constitutional Court judges.
Zuma was convicted in 2021 for refusing to testify at an inquiry investigating corruption during his presidency.
His lawyers had insisted he was entitled to become an MP as his sentence was reduced to three months after current President Cyril Ramaphosa released him from prison in what was widely seen as an attempt to placate the former president’s angry supporters.
“The judges of the Constitutional Court have acted very funny to me – towards me in particular,” Zuma told the BBC.
“They are not taking into account the will of the people of this country, they use their own will.”
He was president from 2009 to 2018 before being forced out as leader of the ANC amid allegations of widespread corruption in his government.
The corruption, widely known as “State Capture”, saw hundreds of millions of rands of public assets taken into private hands. Zuma has always denied any direct role in corruption, but is due to face trial next year on allegations of bribery.
He told the BBC he had been wrongly stripped of his role as leader of the ANC.
“I don’t know what ‘State Capture’ means. If people say I am corrupt, what did I do? Do you have any facts about it? Am I guilty?
“I was removed before the end of my term, and nothing was produced as evidence that this was an issue.”
Zuma’s MK party had previously voiced its desire to change South Africa’s constitution, which was drawn up 30 years ago at the birth of the country’s democracy following decades of white-minority rule.
Asked about this in the light of his election ban, Zuma reiterated that the historic document needed to be changed.
“This constitution in the continent of Africa is guided by the laws from Europe, not us,” he said.
“There is nothing that has come right in this continent because we are still dominated by those who were the ones [who] slaved us, and after slavery, oppressed us, and after oppression, put their own laws to run us.
“There are details that clash with our lives.”
An Ipsos opinion poll released last month gave MK 8% of the vote, and the ANC 40% as it loses support to MK and other opposition parties.
But some analysts suggest that with the governing party stepping up its campaign in recent weeks, it could still cross the 50% mark. But if the ANC gets less than half of the vote, it would lose its majority for the first time in 30 years.
MK is expected to do especially well in Zuma’s home region of KwaZulu-Natal. Some opinion polls suggest it could emerge as the biggest party in KwaZulu-Natal, ending ANC dominance of the region.
After Zuma was jailed for contempt of court in 2021, angry supporters sparked days of deadly riots. More than 300 people were killed in the clashes.
On Wednesday Zuma said this violence demonstrated the scale of public support for him.
“This must tell you that the masses of this country loves Zuma – that’s why we had that,” he said.
When asked by the BBC if he would use this interview to call for peace and calm ahead of next week’s election, Zuma replied: “I’ve always done so.”
© BBC News
Iran’s supreme leader has presided over a funeral for the country’s late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers at Tehran University, where caskets carrying the dead were draped in Iranian flags.
President Ebrahim Raisi died alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six others in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan.
Authorities had warned against demonstrations against the funeral procession and insults posted online.
“Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but good from him,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in the standard prayer for the dead in Arabic.
Iran’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and openly wept during the service.
People then carried the coffins out on their shoulders, with chants of “Death to America” heard outside.
They loaded them onto a trailer for a procession through downtown Tehran to Azadi Square, where Raisi gave speeches in the past.
In attendance were top leaders of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one of the country’s major power centres.
Also on hand was Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the militant group that Iran has armed and supported during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Haniyeh is widely considered Hamas’s overall leader and has been a prominent member of the movement since 1980. The US Department of State designated him a terrorist in 2018.
“I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza…to express our condolences,” Haniyeh said.
He also described meeting Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month.
He said he heard the president say that “the Palestinian issue” remains the key one of the Muslim world, which “must fulfil their obligations to the Palestinians to liberate their land”.
He also claimed that Raisi called Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and 250 others taken hostage, an “earthquake in the heart of the Zionist entity”.
Also expected to attend services in Tehran were Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a delegation from the Taliban of Afghanistan, which included their Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi.
Iran’s theocracy declared five days of mourning over Sunday’s crash, encouraging people to attend the public mourning sessions.
Typically, government employees and schoolchildren attend such events en masse, while others take part out of patriotism, curiosity or to witness historic events.
For Iran’s Shiite theocracy, mass demonstrations have been crucial to demonstrating the legitimacy of their leadership since millions thronged the streets of Tehran to welcome Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution, and also attended his funeral 10 years later.
An estimated one million turned out in 2020 for processions for the late Revolutionary Guard General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Across the capital, large banners were raised hailing Raisi as “the martyr of service”, while others bade “farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged”.
Some residents in Tehran received texts urging them to attend Wednesday’s ceremonies, the AFP news agency reported.
Footage carried by state TV showed streets filled with mourners, many of whom were carrying pictures of Raisi or the Iranian flag.
Funeral rites for the men began on Tuesday in the city of Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom, where thousands of mourners attended ceremonies.
After Wednesday’s procession in the capital, Raisi’s remains will be moved to South Khorasan province, before being transferred to his home city of Mashhad in the northeast.
He will then be buried on Thursday evening in the city after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine.
Raisi, a hardline cleric, was a highly divisive figure in Iran. In the 1980s, he oversaw the execution of scores of opposition activists while working as a prosecutor.
He unleashed a brutal crackdown against demonstrators angered by the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022. She died three days after she was detained by morality police in the capital for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.
But his ultra-conservative outlook won favour with supporters of the regime, and Raisi was viewed as a possible successor to Ayatollah Khamenei.
© BBC News
Ireland will recognise a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Simon Harris said on Wednesday, adding that he expected other countries to follow in the coming weeks after talking to world leaders.
“Today, Ireland, Norway, and Spain are announcing that we recognise the state of Palestine,” Harris said at a press conference.
“In the lead up to today’s announcement, I’ve spoken with a number of other leaders and counterparts and I’m confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks,” he added.
He said a two-state solution was the only credible path to peace and security for Israel, Palestine and their peoples.
The recognition of statehood has particular resonance in Ireland given its history, Harris said.
“Taking our place on the world stage and being recognised by others as having the right to be there was a matter of the highest importance for the founders of our state,” he said.
He added that Ireland was unequivocal in fully recognising Israel and its right to exist “securely and in peace with its neighbours”, and he called for all hostages in Gaza to be immediately returned.
Ireland’s recognition of Palestine will be formally enacted on May 28, foreign minister Micheal Martin said on X.
© Reuters
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