‘Ground shaking’ in hospital amid Israeli attack

Israeli forces, advancing deep into western Khan Younis in Gaza’s bloodiest fighting of the new year so far, stormed one hospital and placed another under siege on Monday, cutting the wounded off from trauma care, Palestinian officials said.

At least 65 Palestinians were killed in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Monday as Israel intensifies attacks on the city.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) reports that staff in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis say they can feel the “ground shaking” as Israeli bombardments close in, with a “sense of panic” among staff, patients and displaced people in the building.

Troops advanced for the first time into the al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean Coast, west of Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza. There, they stormed the Al-Khair hospital and were arresting medical staff, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra told Reuters.

There was no immediate word from Israel on the situation at the hospital. The military spokesperson’s office had no comment.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said tanks had also surrounded another Khan Younis hospital, al-Amal, headquarters of the rescue agency, which had lost contact with its staff there.

Qidra said at least 50 people were killed overnight in Khan Younis, while the sieges of medical facilities meant dozens of dead and wounded were beyond the reach of rescuers.

“The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis,” he said.

The Israeli military spokesperson’s office had no immediate comment on the situation at Al-Khair hospital.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals, which Hamas and medical staff deny.

“Hamas embeds its operation within and under hospitals and other medical facilities,” said Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry branch that coordinates with the Palestinians. “A particular effort led by a dedicated team has been put on making sure that civilians have access to medical care.”

Residents said bombardment from air, land and sea was the most intense in southern Gaza since the war began in October, as Israeli tanks surged across Khan Younis from the east towards the Mediterranean coast.

Video filmed from afar showed scattered civilians wandering a ghost city, crowded with tents with abandoned laundry flapping on lines, as gunfire rattled and columns of smoke rose into the sky.

Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

The newest phase of the war has brought fighting deep into the last corners of the enclave now packed with those who fled bombardment. At least 25,295 Gazans have been killed since Oct. 7, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday.

The majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now penned into Rafah just south of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah just north of it, crammed into public buildings and vast camps of tents made from plastic sheets lashed to wooden frames.

Buried in hospital grounds

At Nasser Hospital, the only major hospital still accessible in Khan Younis and the largest still functioning in Gaza, video showed the trauma ward overwhelmed with wounded being treated on a floor splashed with blood. Relatives wailed, surrounding small wounded children being treated several to a bed.

Men were digging graves inside the hospital grounds because it was no longer safe to venture out to the cemetery. Authorities said 40 people were buried in the hospital grounds. A man placed the tiny body of a toddler wrapped inside a white shroud into a shallow hole in the sand.

“It’s very difficult to leave the complex and go to any cemetery and bury them because we’re under siege and anyone who leaves the complex is targeted,” said Abdelkarim Ahmad, participating in the burials.

“Last night we lived through a horrifying night - the shelling wouldn’t stop for even one minute. Buildings would shake with us inside, shrapnel would fall on us.”

The Israeli military made no mention of the huge battle in Khan Younis in a morning update, giving details of combat only in other areas.

The storming of western parts of Khan Younis is the culmination of a battle that Israeli officials have depicted as their last large-scale ground assault before they shift to more targeted operations to eradicate Hamas.

Sami al-Zuhri, head of Hamas’ political unit in exile, told Reuters on Monday Hamas was open to “all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete withdrawal” from Gaza.

At least 25,295 people have been killed and 63,000 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attack stands at 1,139.

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Airlangga - Bantuan Pangan Disalurkan Akan Menopang Daya Beli Masyarakat

Menko Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto/Ist

Menjadi salah satu unsur untuk menekan harga beras di tingkat konsumen serta turut menjaga level inflasi nasional, program penyaluran bantuan pangan beras terus dilanjutkan Pemerintah.

Penyaluran Bantuan Pangan pada tahun ini merupakan kelanjutan penyaluran Bantuan Pangan yang telah diberikan sejak tahun 2023. Program ini sesuai dengan arahan Presiden Joko Widodo yang telah memutuskan untuk memperpanjang penyaluran Bantuan Pangan hingga Juni 2024.

Untuk memastikan kelancaran dan ketepatan sasaran penyaluran bantuan tersebut, Menteri Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto melakukan peninjauan langsung proses penyaluran Bantuan Pangan kepada Penerima Bantuan Pangan (PBP) di wilayah Kelurahan Sukagalih, Kecamatan Tarogong Kidul, Kabupaten Garut, Jawa Barat, pada hari Sabtu, 20/01/2024.

"Bantuan pangan ini tentu menjadi bagian dari penanganan El Nino akibat dari panen yang berubah, mundur. program ini dilakukan oleh Pemerintah untuk menjaga daya beli masyarakat," ujar Airlangga.

Secara nasional, berdasarkan data Pensasaran Percepatan Penghapusan Kemiskinan Ekstrem (P3KE), penerima bantuan pada tahun 2024 tercatat sebanyak 22 juta PBP yang masing-masing mendapatkan beras sebanyak 10 kg per bulan. Jumlah ini meningkat dibandingkan tahun 2023 yang tercatat sebanyak 21,3 juta PBP.

Dalam kesempatan tersebut, Airlangga juga berdialog dengan para PBP dan menyerahkan bantuan secara simbolis kepada 5 PBP dari 150 PBP yang hadir.

Sementara itu, jumlah alokasi Bantuan Pangan beras di Kabupaten Garut tercatat sejumlah 296.885 PBP di tahun 2024.

"Dengan penyaluran bantuan pangan ini, kita juga menopang daya beli masyarakat yang pada gilirannya kalo inflasi rendah, daya belinya bisa kuat, maka itu bisa menumbuhkan pertumbuhan ekonomi," tuturnya.

"Jadi saya katakan bahwa bansos itu memang hal yang kita dorong untuk juga memulihkan perekonomian nasional," pungkasnya.

Vitali Klitschko - Ukraine Transforming Into Authoritarian and Totalitarian State Under Zelensky

©AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

While Ukrainian forces continue to suffer setback after setback on the battlefield, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also finds his position within the country under attack from both his fellow Ukrainian politicians and his sponsors in the West.

Ukraine is becoming more and more autocratic under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told media.

During an interview with the Globe and Mail last week, Klitschko expressed his concerns about Zelensky’s critics in Ukraine being silenced by Ukrainian authorities, arguing that he cannot regard the tendencies he sees in the country as democratic.

Meanwhile, the United States seeks to have dozens of high-ranking Ukrainian officials from Zelensky’s government fired and replaced with figures loyal first and foremost to the US, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service’s head Sergey Naryshkin revealed.

If Zelensky does not cave in to these demands, the US threatens to release damning evidence of corruption that would deal a terrible blow to the Ukrainian president and his entourage, Naryshkin suggested.

Washington’s new rhetoric in the dialogue with Zelensky highlights the fact that the Ukrainian leader and the DC policymakers pursue different goals in the Ukrainian conflict, explained political analyst Bogdan Bezpalko, member of the Russian Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations.

Whereas the United States seeks to achieve “certain geopolitical dominance” in the Eastern Hemisphere, Zelensky’s primary goal is to remain in power, Bezpalko explained, noting that Washington does not really need Zelensky to continue the Ukrainian conflict the way the US wants.

“It is possible that during the election in Ukraine, which is supposed to take place in March, a new leader who does not have blood on their hands would be elected, who might agree to peace talks and to freezing the conflict, which would fit into the United States’ current goals and long-term planning,” he said.

While the United States would welcome such reprieve, allowing as it would to rebuild and rearm Ukraine and then throw it again at Russia “like a battering ram,” Zelensky does not want this scenario to occur, Bezpalko noted.

“Because for him [Zelensky], the conflict means salvation. While the conflict continues, he is on top, he controls the flow of money and energy, he controls the flow of arms, and he remains the person who, at least nominally, controls the situation,” the analyst explained.

According to Bezpalko, the United States likely has “loads” of dirt not only on Zelensky but also on other Ukrainian government officials, including evidence of embezzlement of government funds and information about their offshore accounts and property abroad.

Regarding the remarks made by Klitschko, the analyst argued that Kiev’s mayor was likely acting as a speaker for a certain political faction in Ukraine whose members are not too thrilled with Zelensky’s leadership.

He did note, however, that Klitschko is unlikely to become Ukraine’s next president – assuming, of course, that there will be a presidential election in Ukraine in the near future.

“There are many politicians in Ukraine who have a much more respectable image than Zelensky and who may become a president of Ukraine,” Bezpalko said. “This is still a largely puppet position, and everyone perfectly understands that, but it is a well-paid position.”

He also expressed skepticism about the prospects of democracy in Ukraine as long as the country is essentially being directly controlled from Washington DC.

“There is no democracy there, no competition between politicians, between representatives of different parts of the political spectrum. Because there is only one spectrum – the nationalist one,” he said. “Klitschko obviously appeals to ‘democracy’ as a concept, to the word that could discredit Zelensky and once again highlight his authoritarianism. Yes, Ukraine today is indeed an authoritarian, even a totalitarian state.”

What India’s Controversial Ram Temple Means for Hindus and Muslims

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, culminating a four-decade campaign to build the temple by Hindu far-right groups.

The temple, popularly known as Ram Mandir, is being constructed on the land where a 16th-century mosque stood until 1992, when Hindu far-right mobs demolished it, triggering a nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots that killed more than 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.

Hindus claim the Babri Masjid was built on the site of a temple during the first Mughal ruler Babar, on land that was the birthplace of their chief deity Ram. Muslims offered prayers until 1949 when idols were placed inside the mosque allegedly by Hindu priests.

Modi, dressed in a traditional kurta tunic, led the opening ceremony as Hindu priests chanted hymns inside the temple’s inner sanctum, where a 1.3-meter (4.3-foot) stone sculpture of Lord Ram was installed last week. A conch was blown by a priest to mark the temple’s opening and Modi placed a lotus flower in front of the black stone idol, decked in intricate gold ornaments and holding a golden bow and arrow. He later prostrated before the idol.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The idol represents Ram as a five-year-old child, as many Hindus consider the temple site to have been the deity’s birthplace and where he spent his childhood.

As the temple replaces a 16th-century Mughal-era mosque razed by radical Hindu groups in 1992, many Indians hail it as a sign of Hindu reawakening from centuries of foreign subjugation, including rule by Muslim dynasties such as the Mughals.

Analysts say Modi's leadership of the ceremony symbolises for supporters of his Hindu nationalist party that India is finally ready to end what they call appeasement of minorities and move towards their goal of building a Hindu-first nation.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF THE NEW TEMPLE?

Construction began in 2020, with Modi laying the foundation stone of the temple to one of Hinduism's principal deities on a 2.7-acre (one-hectare) plot within a complex that sprawls over 70 acres (28 hectares).

Supervised by a panel headed by Modi's former chief of staff Nripendra Misra, construction cost an estimated 15 billion rupees ($181 million), funded by contributions amounting to more than twice that from 40 million people in India.

WHAT WAS THE RELIGIOUS DISPUTE ABOUT?

The Indian epic, the Ramayana, mentions Ayodhya, a town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh nearly 700 km (435 miles) east of New Delhi, as the birthplace of Ram, whom Hindus believe to be a physical incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The razed mosque dating from 1528, during the rule of Babur, India's first Mughal emperor, is believed by many Hindus to have been built on the spot where Ram was born, following the demolition of an earlier temple there.

In Dec. 1949, authorities seized the mosque after Hindu activists placed idols of Ram inside the disputed structure. Court orders barred removal of the idols, and use as a mosque effectively ceased. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Hindu and Muslim groups filed separate claims over the site and the structure. In 1989, a high court ordered the maintenance of status quo.

HOW WAS THE MOSQUE RAZED?

Hindu and Muslim groups tried unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute through talks, before Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a nationwide campaign in 1990 to build the temple.

Lal Krishna Advani, the president of the party at the time, embarked on a cross-country journey on a truck fitted out to resemble an ancient chariot.

It whipped up Hindu fervour, deepening rifts with Muslims but also catapulting the party to national prominence.

The BJP campaign climaxed in a rally in Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992, when a mob climbed the mosque and smashed its domes with axes and hammers, levelling the entire structure.

The event triggered sectarian riots in several parts of India, killing about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Muslims are a minority in mainly Hindu India, making up about 14% of its 1.42 billion people.

As a foot soldier of the party at the time, Modi helped organise the chariot's journey, which began in his home state of Gujarat.

He rode to the office of prime minister in 2014 on a Hindu nationalist platform that included the promise to build the temple. Temple construction began after the Supreme Court permitted it in 2019 on condition that Muslims received another plot for a mosque.

BNPB minta warga waspadai bahaya lava dan awan panas Merapi

Petugas BPBD membagikan masker kepada warga di Boyolali, Jawa Tengah, hari Minggu, 21/01/2024, menyusul erupsi Gunung Merapi. (ANTARA/HO-BPBD Kabupaten Boyolali)

Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) meminta warga untuk mewaspadai bahaya guguran lava dan awan panas akibat erupsi Gunung Merapi di beberapa bagian wilayah Provinsi Jawa Tengah.

Menurut siaran pers BNPB di Jakarta, Senin, Gunung Merapi pada Minggu (21/1) pukul 14.12 WIB mengalami erupsi, yang menyebabkan hujan abu vulkanik di bagian wilayah Kabupaten Boyolali dan Klaten, Provinsi Jawa Tengah.

Hujan abu vulkanik melanda wilayah Desa Majengan dan Tegalmulyo di Kabupaten Klaten serta Kecamatan Selo dan Cepogo di Kabupaten Boyolali.

"Tim gabungan terus berkoordinasi dan melakukan pendataan serta pemantauan di wilayah terdampak erupsi Gunung Merapi," kata Kepala Pusat Data, Informasi, dan Komunikasi Kebencanaan BNPB Abdul Muhari.

Guguran lava dan awan panas dari Gunung Merapi bisa berdampak ke sektor selatan-barat daya yang meliputi Sungai Boyong, Bedog, Krasak, dan Bebeng serta sektor tenggara yang mencakup Sungai Woro dan Gendol.

Bila terjadi letusan eksplosif maka lontaran material vulkanik dari Gunung Merapi dapat berdampak pada area dalam radius tiga kilometer dari puncak gunung.

BNPB menganjurkan penghentian kegiatan penambangan di alur sungai yang berhulu di Gunung Merapi di dalam kawasan rawan bencana III yang bisa kena dampak guguran awan panas, aliran lava, serta lontaran batu (pijar) dan material vulkanik lainnya.

Selain itu, pelaku wisata dan warga diminta tidak melakukan kegiatan di daerah yang dapat terkena dampak abu vulkanik dan lahar dari Gunung Merapi.

"BNPB mengimbau masyarakat tetap tenang dan tidak menyebarkan informasi yang belum bisa diverifikasi kebenarannya. Harap selalu mengikuti arahan dan imbauan dari pemerintah daerah setempat," kata Abdul.

PVMBG ungkap erupsi Marapi masih berpotensi kembali terjadi

Manajemen kesiapsiagaan potensi erupsi Gunung Merapi dilaksanakan oleh Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Kabupaten Boyolali, BPBD Kabupaten Klaten, BPBD Kabupaten Magelang, BPBD Kabupaten Sleman, BPBD Provinsi DI Yogyakarta, dan BPBD Provinsi Jawa Tengah. Tim gabungan terus berkoordinasi dan melakukan pendataan serta pemantauan di wilayah terdampak Erupsi Gunung Merapi.

Berdasarkan hasil kajian BPPTKG, pemerintah mengeluarkan beberapa rekomendasi antara lain:

1. Potensi bahaya saat ini berupa guguran lava dan awanpanas pada sektor selatan-barat daya meliputi Sungai Boyong sejauh maksimal 5 km, Sungai Bedog, Krasak, Bebeng sejauh maksimal 7 km. Pada sektor tenggara meliputi Sungai Woro sejauh maksimal 3 km dan Sungai Gendol 5 km. Sedangkan lontaran material vulkanik bila terjadi letusan eksplosif dapat menjangkau radius 3 km dari puncak.



2. Penambangan di alur sungai yang berhulu di Gunung Merapi dalam KRB III direkomendasikan untuk dihentikan.



3. Pelaku wisata direkomendasikan tidak melakukan kegiatan pada daerah potensi bahaya dan bukaan kawah sejauh 5 km dari puncak Gunung Merapi.



4. Masyarakat agar tidak melakukan kegiatan apapun di daerah potensi bahaya dan mengantisipasi gangguan akibat abu vulkanik dari erupsi Gunung Merapi serta mewaspadai bahaya lahar terutama saat terjadi hujan di seputar Gunung Merapi.

Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) menghimbau masyarakat untuk tetap tenang dan tidak menyebarkan informasi yang belum bisa diverifikasi kebenarannya. Harap selalu mengikuti arahan dan imbauan dari pemerintah daerah setempat.

Pemberitahoean tentang roemah2 di lingkoengan Menteng

Arsip foto - Museum Proklamasi Menteng, Jakarta Pusat. ANTARA

Djakarta, 11/1/1946 - Djawatan Penerangan Pemerintah Kota mengoemoemkan pemberitahoean sebagai dibawah ini:

Pendoedoek Indonesia jang bertempat tinggal dilingkoengan Menteng, teroetama Menteng Baroe, diminta soepaja lekas memberi keterangan2 tentang roemah jang ditinggali kepada Kantor Oeroesan Roemah Indonesia di Gambir Timoer 18 (Gedoeng Djawatan Pengadjaran Kota) seperti berikoet:

1. Nama dan pekerdjaan jang menempati,



2. Djalan dan nomor roemah,



3. Djoemlah dan besarnja kamar tidoer,



4. Berapa dan besarnja kamar tidoer,



5. Menjewa dari siapa,



6. Bila moelai menjewa,



7. Roemah dipergoenakan oentoek apa.

Keterangan2 hendaknja ditoelis dan disampaikan pada kantor terseboet diatas setjepat moengkin, selambat-lambatnja hari Senin tg.15 Djanoeari 1946.

Barang siapa tidak memenoehi permintaan ini, kami tidak dapat mengoeroes kalau roemahnja diminta Pemerintah Serikat.

Amanat 5 September 1945

Bergaboengnja Jogjakarta dengan NKRI

Melaloei dekret keradjaan yang diseboet Amanat 5 September 1945, Sri Soeltan Hamengkoe Boewono IX dan Kandjeng Goesti Pangeran Adipati Arjo Pakoe Alam VIII menjatakan wilajah Keraton Ngajogjakarta Hadiningrat dan Kadipaten Pakoealaman bergaboeng dengan NKRI.

Kemoedian pada 6 September 1945, pemerintah poesat memberikan Piagam 19 Agoesties 1945 jang meroepakan bentoek penghargaan atas bergaboengnya Jogjakarta dengan RI. Selain itoe djuga menyematkan statoes istimewa kepada Jogjakarta.

Fact Check - Are There French Mercenaries in Ukraine?

©AFP 2023/OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE

Francois Mauld d’Aymee, a French officer-turned Donbass People’s Militia volunteer, told Sputnik on Thursday about mercenaries from France and Canada fighting for the Kiev regime in Ukraine.

Paris has rejected a recent statement by Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) explaining that a Russian airstrike destroyed a building in Ukraine hosting French mercenaries, among others.

“France has no mercenaries either in Ukraine or anywhere else,” the French Foreign Ministry argued, calling the MoD’s statement "another clumsy Russian manipulation."

Why do the French claims hold no water? Sputnik explores.

Mercenaries Issue Discussed Through Diplomatic Channels

Normally, discussions about the destruction of a foreign mercenary hideout in Kharkov in which French citizens were affected would be held through diplomatic channels.

Nonetheless, no such requests for high-level talks have been received, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

On Thursday, the French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the incident.

"There is a conversation going on through our diplomats. There were no proposals to hold a conversation at the highest level. We have stated repeatedly that many foreign mercenaries are fighting on Kiev's side, and each time our statement is confirmed again," Peskov told reporters.

Kremlin Has Proof - Russian MP

The fact of Ambassador Levy being summoned indicates that French mercenaries were among those killed in the Kharkov facility, Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Upper House’s International Affairs Committee, said in an interview with Russian media.

"I think that when the ambassador is summoned to the Foreign Ministry, it means that they have precise evidence that there was a base of French mercenaries in that building," Dzhabarov said.

He recalled that even though mercenary activities are prohibited in France, the country’s hirelings took part in all mercenary operations, including in Africa and Ukraine, where they “really profiled themselves.”

Donbass Volunteer Opens Up

A separate insight came from Francois Mauld d’Aymee, a French officer-turned-Donbass People’s Militia volunteer, who recently opened up about French-speaking mercenaries in Ukraine.

Mauld d’Aymee described the hired guns as “sports enthusiasts [and] drug addicts" in an exclusive interview with Sputnik.

"Representatives of the French mercenary movement vary greatly. French-speaking Canadian mercenaries are worth mentioning. They, by and large, come from radical nationalist circles, and see the conflict as an opportunity to realize their pathetic dreams of replaying the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War. In other words, they’re openly Nazis, Hitlerites, and freely organize the dispatch of new militants from training centers which they own in Paris and Lyon," Mauld d’Aymee said.

He added that a "very small number" of those mercenaries “actually fight because their level of Ukrainian or Russian is too basic," which is why they’re “mostly kept in reserve.” According to Mauld d’Aymee, most of those hirelings on the front line have been wounded or killed.

520 Foreign Mercenaries on Ukrainian Soil

The Russian Investigative Committee reported in November that more than 520 foreign mercenaries fighting for Ukraine from 44 countries, including France, became involved in criminal cases.