Israel threatened yesterday to kill Hamas leaders and launch a ground offensive in Gaza unless international pressure was brought on the ruling Islamist group to halt cross-border rocket attacks.
Asked if Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was on Israel's hit-list, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: "There is no one in the leading, commanding circle of Hamas who has immunity."
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said in response in Gaza: "Any harm to Prime Minister Haniyeh or any Hamas leader would mean a change in the rules of the game and the occupier [Israel] must be ready to pay an unprecedented price."
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, meeting the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, called on the international community to take action immediately to try to persuade Hamas to stop launching the makeshift rockets.
Abu Zuhri said Israel must first stop all its attacks on Palestinians before the group and other factions could consider halting their own strikes.
The Israeli army said about 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in a week in which Hamas, which had been battling the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, turned to attacks against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of aiding its rival.
A woman was killed on Monday in the Israeli town of Sderot, the first fatality in a Palestinian rocket attack since November.
Israeli air strikes over the past week have killed at least 34 Palestinians, medical officials said in Gaza. Militant groups said 23 of the dead were fighters.
"Now this is a test for European diplomacy. It is a test for US diplomacy. It is a test for the diplomacy of the free world. If the rockets do not stop, we will not stop," Peretz said, with Solana at his side.
"We have been acting very, very patiently. We have been biting our lip and trying not to get to a situation whereby we have to enter into a ground operation," he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique