Day: June 21, 2024

UK’s Anglo-Asian Mining Plc. (AAM), which specializes in the extraction of gold, silver, and copper in Azerbaijan, has set its sights on the Gilar deposit in the western part of the country.

Azerbaijan has embarked on an ambitious journey to transform its landscape through extensive tree planting and greening initiatives. The country has set its sights on restoring a staggering 270,000 hectares of forest lands, a commitment that showcases its

One of the key vectors of Azerbaijan and Russia’s joint efforts is to ensure regional political and economic cooperation while limiting attempts at destructive interference from outside, said Elshad Isgandarov, ambassador on special assignments of the Min

Штрафные меры вводятся в отношении 11 физических и 42 юридических лиц. Под санкции попадут “Алроса”, “Уралтрасмаш” и другие российские компании.

Российские силы ПВО за ночь уничтожили 117 украинских БПЛА и шесть безэкипажных катеров, сообщило Минобороны РФ.

Israel opposed a proposal at a recent United Nations forum aimed at rebuilding the Gaza Strip’s war-ravaged telecommunications infrastructure on the grounds that Palestinian connectivity is a readymade weapon for Hamas.

The resolution, which was drafted by Saudi Arabia for last week’s U.N. International Telecommunication Union summit in Geneva, is aimed at returning internet access to Gaza’s millions of disconnected denizens.

It ultimately passed under a secret ballot on June 14 — but not before it was watered down to remove some of its more strident language about Israel’s responsibility for the destruction of Gaza. The U.S. delegate at the ITU summit had specifically opposed those references.

Israel, for its part, had blasted the proposal as a whole. Israel’s ITU delegate described it as “a resolution that while seemingly benign in its intent to rebuild telecommunications infrastructure, distorts the reality of the ongoing situation in Gaza,” according to a recording of the session reviewed by The Intercept. The delegate further argued the resolution does not address that Hamas has used the internet “to prepare acts of terror against Israel’s civilians,” and that any rebuilding effort must include unspecified “safeguards” that would prevent the potential use of the internet for terrorism.

“Based on this rationale, Gaza will never have internet.”

“Based on this rationale, Gaza will never have internet,” Marwa Fatafta, a policy adviser with the digital rights group Access Now, told The Intercept, adding that Israel’s position is not only incoherent but inherently disproportionate. “You can’t punish the entire civilian population just because you have fears of one Palestinian faction.”

The Israeli Ministry of Communications did not respond to a request for comment.

Getting Gaza Back Online

When delegations to the ITU, a U.N. agency that facilitates cooperation between governments on telecommunications policies, began meeting in Geneva in early June, the most pressing issue on the agenda was getting Gaza back online. Israel’s monthslong bombardment of the enclave has severed fiber cables, razed cellular towers, and generally wrecked the physical infrastructure required to communicate with loved ones and the outside world.

A disconnected Gaza Strip also threatens to add to the war’s already staggering death toll. Though Israel touts its efforts to warn civilians of impending airstrikes, such warnings are relayed using the very cellular and internet connections the country’s air force routinely levels. It is a cycle of data degradation that began at the war’s start: The more Israel bombs, the harder it is for Gazans to know they are about to be bombed.

The resolution that passed last week would ensure “the ITU’s much needed assistance and support to Palestine for rebuilding its telecommunication sector.” While the agency has debated the plight of Palestinian internet access for many years, the new proposal arrives at a crisis point for data access across Gaza, as much of the Strip has been reduced to rubble, and civilians struggle to access food and water, let alone cellular signals and Wi-Fi.

The ITU and other intergovernmental bodies have long pushed for Palestinian sovereignty over its own internet access. But the Saudi proposal was notable in that it explicitly called out Israel’s role in hobbling Gaza’s connection to the world, either via bombs, bulldozers, or draconian restrictions on technology imports. That Saudi Arabia was behind the resolution is not without irony; in 2022, Yemen plunged into a four-day internet blackout following airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the Saudi resolution also called on the ITU to monitor the war’s destructive effects on Palestinian data access and provide regular reports. The resolution also condemned both the “widespread destruction of critical infrastructure, failure of telecom services and mobile phone outages that have occurred across the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression by the occupying power” and “the obstacles practiced by the occupying power in preventing the use of new communications technologies.”

In a session debating the resolution, the U.S. delegate told the council, “We have made clear to the sponsors of this resolution that we do not agree with some of the characterizations,” specifically the language blaming the destruction of Gaza and the forced use of obsolete technology on Israel. “The United States cannot support this resolution in its current form as drafted,” the delegate continued, according to a recording reviewed by The Intercept.

Whether or not the U.S. ultimately voted for the resolution — the State Department did not respond when asked — it appears to have been successful in weakening the version that was ultimately approved by the ITU. The version that did pass was stripped of any explicit mention of Israel’s role in destroying and otherwise thwarting Gazan internet access, and refers obliquely only to “​the obstacles practiced in preventing the use of new communication technologies.”

The State Department did not respond to The Intercept’s other questions about the resolution either, including whether the administration shares Israel’s terror-related objections to it.

The U.S. has taken a harsher stance on civilian internet blackouts caused by a military aggressor in the past. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing national internet disruptions it caused, the State Department declared, “the United States condemns actions that block or degrade access to the Internet in Ukraine, which sever critical channels for sharing and learning information, including about the war.”

Outdated Technology

The approved resolution also calls on ITU member states to “make every effort” to both preserve what Palestinian telecom infrastructure remains and allocate funds necessary for the “return of communications in the Gaza Strip” in the future. This proposed rebuilding includes the activation of 4G and 5G cellular service. While smartphones in the West Bank connect to the internet with 3G wireless speeds unsuitable for many data-hungry applications, Gazans must make do with debilitatingly slow 2G service — an obsolete standard that was introduced to the United States in 1992.

Fatafta, of Access Now, noted that Israel does have a real interest in preventing Gaza from entering the 21st century: surveillance and censorship. Gaza’s reliance on insecure cellular technology from the 1990s and Israeli fiber connections makes it trivial for Israeli intelligence agents to intercept texts and phone calls and institute internet blackouts at will, as has occurred throughout the war.

The resolution is “an important step, because the current status quo cannot continue,” she said. “There is no scenario where Gaza can be allowed to keep a 2G network where the rest of the world has already moved on to 5G.”

The post Israel Opposes Rebuilding Gaza’s Internet Access Because Terrorists Could Go Online appeared first on The Intercept.

Beirut — Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh cross-border fire, as fears of a regional conflict grew after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive and the Iran-backed militants vowed to blanket their foe in rockets.

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed one of the group’s operatives. Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions over the course of the day.

The Israeli military said its jets had struck two weapons storage facilities and several other sites belonging to the group, and that it had fired artillery “to remove threats in multiple areas in southern Lebanon.”

Just before midnight, the army said it had “successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon.”

And early Friday, Lebanese media reported fresh Israeli strikes in the country’s south.

Experts are divided on the prospect of a wider war, almost nine months into Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hezbollah’s ally Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, and the bellicose talk has escalated along with the strikes.

Israel’s main military backer the United States has sought to discourage any expansion of hostilities along the border.

In a meeting with visiting Israeli officials in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored “the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” according to a statement.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had warned “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” if a wider war began.

He also threatened nearby Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel “to target Lebanon.”

European Union member Cyprus houses two British bases, including an airbase, but they are in sovereign British territory and not controlled by the Cypriot government.

On Thursday, Cyprus government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis dismissed as “totally groundless” any suggestion of possible involvement in a conflict related to Lebanon.

Warplanes from the British airbase in Cyprus have, along with U.S. forces, attacked Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels who have for months been targeting Red Sea shipping.

On Thursday the U.S. military said it had destroyed several Houthi drones, a day after its forces struck two rebel sites in Yemen.

‘Urgent’ de-escalation

The October Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 37,431 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The latest toll on Thursday included at least 35 deaths over the previous day, the ministry said.

The Houthis and Hezbollah both say they are acting in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Israel’s military announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated.”

The same day, Hezbollah published a video showing drone footage it purportedly recorded over northern Israel, including parts of Haifa’s city and port.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein on a trip to the region called for “urgent” de-escalation, while the UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said there was “no inevitability to conflict” as she visited UN peacekeepers in the country’s south.

The cross-border violence has killed at least 479 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north.

Weary residents of Beirut on Thursday downplayed the chances of war in Lebanon, which political deadlock has left essentially leaderless while a five-year economic meltdown continues.

In Israel, some citizens called for action against Hezbollah, and Noam Galili, 29, said: “I know what it is like to live close to Lebanon, but it never felt as dangerous as it does now.”

The violence has already displaced tens of thousands of people, mostly in Lebanon, but also in northern Israel.

Pressures

In southern Gaza, a United Nations mission found hundreds of thousands of displaced people “suffer from poor access to shelter, health, food, water and sanitation,” a U.N. report said late Wednesday.

In central Gaza, residents said they had turned to cooking oil to power their cars.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the implementation of a cease-fire plan he outlined last month.

Hochstein and Blinken say a deal to curb fighting in Gaza would by extension help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners strongly oppose a Gaza cease-fire.

Netanyahu is also facing regular street protests demanding a deal to free the hostages and accusing him of prolonging the war.

“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all of the hostages return,” Netanyahu said Thursday to relatives of hostages killed in the territory.

“We do not have the option of giving up.”

In a separate statement, he called the war a battle for Israel’s existence.

But the viability of the war’s stated goal of eradicating Hamas has been questioned in some corners.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israel’s Channel 13 on Wednesday: “To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people’s eyes. If we don’t provide an alternative, in the end, we will have Hamas.”

Blinken last month said Washington had not seen an Israeli post-war plan, adding “the trajectory Israel is on” would still leave thousands of Hamas fighters.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Thursday that Hamas’s “final stronghold” in Rafah on the border with Egypt was systematically being taken apart.

“And we will win,” he told a press briefing.

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