Russia Threatens Retaliation Amid Rising Tensions
Amid escalating tensions over comments made by Western officials regarding potential deeper involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, Russia issued a warning on Monday. The threat included possible strikes on British military facilities and the simulation of battlefield nuclear weapons drills.
Response to Provocative Statements
Following the summoning of the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow cautioned that any Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory using U.K.-supplied weapons could result in retaliatory strikes against British military assets in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Drills and Strategic Significance
The announcement coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming inauguration for a fifth term and the approaching Victory Day celebrations. The drills involving tactical nuclear weapons were revealed as a response to what the Defense Ministry described as provocative statements from Western officials.
Concerns and Reactions
The move marked the first public acknowledgment of drills involving tactical nuclear weapons by Russia. The Kremlin's actions were seen as a warning to Ukraine's Western allies against deepening involvement in the conflict, which has already strained relations between Russia and the West.
International Responses
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron's remarks regarding potential military support for Ukraine were met with criticism from the Kremlin. The situation was deemed as a new round of escalation, prompting special measures from Russia.
Global Concerns
Sweden's Foreign Minister expressed concerns over the nuclear exercises, emphasizing the need for stability in the current security environment. The Deputy Head of Russia's Security Council warned of the risks associated with escalating tensions in the nuclear-armed world.
Recent Developments
Recent incidents, including alleged computer hacks and drone attacks, have further heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The ongoing conflict has seen both sides resorting to long-range firepower to target each other's infrastructure.
Continued Strain
The conflict has led to significant disruptions, including power outages in Ukraine's northern region of Sumy. Both sides have engaged in military actions, with Russia targeting Ukrainian power grids and Ukraine launching drone attacks on Russian territory.
For more updates on the situation in Ukraine, visit AP's coverage.
Russian Warning: Nuclear Drills and Concerns Over Western Involvement in Ukraine
Israeli Forces Begin Evacuating Civilians from Hamas Stronghold in Rafah
Israeli military spokesman Abihai Adrai took to social media to urge residents in eastern Rafah to evacuate to the “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawash on the coast.
The spokesman, Adray, said, “Al-Mawasi has a field hospital, a tent camp, food, water, medicine, etc.” and said that information about civil evacuation will be provided through leaflets, SMS, phone calls, as well as Arabic media.
Israel informed the US of its position that it had no choice but to attack Rafah because Hamas had rejected the ceasefire.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense reported that Minister Yoav Gallant conveyed this situation in a telephone call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Hamas demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as conditions for a ceasefire in the talks that began in Cairo, Egypt on the 4th with the mediation of the United States, Egypt, and Qatar, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that this demand could never be accepted.
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Israeli Forces Begin Evacuating Civilians from Hamas Stronghold in Rafah
Firm exchanges between Macron, Von der Leyen and Xi
Israel launched an operation on Monday aimed at evacuating tens of thousands of Palestinian families from the east of the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The army is preparing a major offensive in its war against Hamas.
Despite international condemnations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to launch this offensive, which he believes is essential to destroy the last battalions of the Islamist movement in the Palestinian territory.
“Residents are evacuating in terror and panic,” Ossama al-Kahlout, a Palestinian Red Crescent official in eastern Rafah, told AFP, adding that the designated areas were home to around 250,000 people.
The army confirmed that it had “begun an operation of limited scale to temporarily evacuate people residing in eastern Rafah”, estimating the number of people concerned at “around 100,000”.
Residents told AFP they learned the news when they woke up, after a night of anxiety punctuated by around ten Israeli strikes. Some were packing their belongings, in their tents flooded by heavy rain, or piling them into trailers.
Talks for a truce
After nighttime bombings which left 16 people dead in two families, according to rescuers, Civil Defense announced Monday that the army was intensifying its strikes on two of the neighborhoods affected by the evacuations.
Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, has been transformed into a gigantic refugee camp housing, according to the UN, 1.2 million Palestinians, or half of the territory’s population, most of them displaced people.
Benjamin Netanyahu promised to launch this offensive regardless of the outcome of indirect negotiations led by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, aimed at imposing a truce associated with the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for prisoners Palestinians.
A round of talks ended Sunday in Cairo without progress. Hamas continues to demand a definitive ceasefire while Israel promises to destroy the Islamist movement in power in Gaza since 2007, author of an unprecedented attack on its soil on October 7, which sparked the war.
This evacuation order “portends the worst: more war and famine. This is unacceptable. Israel must renounce a ground offensive” in Rafah, said Monday the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell. .
“Where to go?”
Leaflets dropped Monday morning on the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah warn that “the Israeli army is preparing to act forcefully against terrorist organizations.” “For your safety, the Israeli army asks you to immediately evacuate to the expanded humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi”, about ten kilometers from Rafah, it is indicated.
According to the army, “field hospitals, tents and an increasing volume of food, water, medicine and others” are set up in this area.
But residents and humanitarian organizations describe areas already overpopulated or destroyed after seven months of war. “My family and I, 13 people, don’t know where to go,” confides Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, a 36-year-old man. This area lacks “place to pitch tents or schools to shelter us”, “there is no hospital”, he assures.
An official from the NGO Action Against Hunger, Jean-Raphaël Poitou, described a place where “everything is damaged”. “The infrastructure, in all the areas that would be reopened, everything has been flattened. People will have to go on debris or in small areas,” in the desert or on the beach, he said.
“Balled negotiations”
The army claimed that this evacuation “was part of plans to dismantle Hamas”, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
This operation comes after the death on Sunday of four soldiers killed by rockets fired from eastern Rafah around Kerem Shalom, the main entry point for humanitarian aid from Israel to Gaza.
The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the shots, which led Israel to close the crossing, while international aid trickles into the besieged territory, where the UN fears widespread famine. This bombing caused “negotiations to bog down” with a view to a truce, said Egyptian media Al-Qahera News, close to intelligence, on Monday.
“Every time there is a rupture, the violence increases,” said Joost Hiltermann, analyst for the International Crisis Group. “This means Netanyahu is saying: ‘The negotiations are not leading to the agreement I want, so I’m going to start invading Rafah,’” the analyst told AFP.
Hamas for its part “knows that Israel will not change its position (…) so they fire rockets to show that the price to pay will be high”, he added. In parallel with the negotiations, “Israeli troops are massing at the border to invade Rafah and Hamas is firing rockets in their direction,” notes Mr. Hiltermann.
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