Israel was scaling back its 17-day offensive in the Gaza Strip yesterday, after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon heeded the army's warning that an extended stay in crowded Palestinian areas is too risky and the US called for a quick Israeli pullout.
Sharon's decision came just hours after he told legislators Thursday that "Operation Days of Penitence," meant to stop Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli communities, would continue and even be expanded.
The prime minister's apparent zig-zag reflected his dilemma: continued Palestinian rocket attacks undermine support for his planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year, while a major military offensive invites international criticism because of heavy Palestinian casualties and does not stop the rocket fire entirely.
Since the Sept. 29 start of the Israeli campaign, triggered by a deadly rocket attack on the Israeli border town of Sderot, 108 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded. Among the dead were dozens of civilians, including 18 minors.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left behind a wide swath of destruction in northern Gaza, damaging houses, tearing up water pipes and knocking down electricity poles as they charge through narrow alleys of densely populated areas.
In an 18-page report obtained by reporters on Thursday, the UN wrote that Israel has engaged in "massive and wanton destruction of property" in Gaza. The report, written before the current Gaza operation, said that while some of Israel's actions can be explained by security concerns, many cannot.
The Israeli government said the report, to be presented to the UN General Assembly later this month, does not address the actions of Palestinian militants, including smuggling weapons into Gaza and sending suicide bombers into Israel.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday that the US hopes that Israel can end the Gaza operation "as soon as possible."
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS