The Gaza Strip braced for more violence yesterday after three Israeli soldiers and 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency, were killed in a helicopter-backed incursion.
Hamas has vowed to avenge Wednesday’s assault on the impoverished territory, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Islamist movement bears “direct responsibility” for the fighting.
Reacting to Wednesday’s violence, which also saw the deaths of five Palestinians under the age of 15, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said that “all options are open to repel this aggression against our people.”
In an Internet statement Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel “in every place and with all means available.”
The threats came after the deadliest day in the Hamas-ruled territory in weeks and as Israeli troops continued to strike Palestinian militants, killing two Islamic Jihad fighters in a pre-dawn operation in the northern West Bank.
Yesterday also highlighted the dangers to non-combatants and the press. Hundreds of people marched in Gaza City at the funeral for 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming. That blast also killed three other people, including two boys on a bicycle.
Shana had been standing next to a jeep clearly marked with “TV” and “Press” stickers, Reuters said. A videotape found in the camera shows a wide shot with the tank on the horizon seconds before it fired the shell that killed him.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary