Gli scontri a Rafah continuano, attacco aereo in Ucraina🗞️ Rassegna del 09/05/2024

Israele

(Reuters) Battles rage around Rafah after US halts some weapons to Israel

• The United States, which aims to stave off a full Israeli invasion of Rafah, said it believes a revised Hamas ceasefire proposal may lead to a breakthrough in an impasse in negotiations, with talks resuming in Cairo on Wednesday.
• Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route and the only exit for the evacuation of wounded patients.
• A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah and as a result paused a shipment consisting of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
• This would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its "ironclad" support to Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Washington is Israel's closest ally and main weapons supplier.

(AP News) Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing after a rocket attack but the UN says no aid has entered

• The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel was closed over the weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby, and on Tuesday, an Israeli tank brigade seized the nearby Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, forcing its closure. The two facilities are the main terminals for entry of food, medicine and other supplies essential for the survival of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians.
• With the seizure of Rafah, Israel now controls all of Gaza’s crossings for the first time since it withdrew troops and settlers from the territory nearly two decades ago, though it has maintained a blockade with Egypt’s cooperation for most of that time. The Rafah crossing has been a vital conduit for humanitarian aid since the start of the war and is the only place where people can enter and exit. Kerem Shalom is Gaza’s main cargo terminal.
• COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said the Kerem Shalom crossing reopened early Wednesday and released video of what it said were aid trucks entering the 1-kilometer-long (half-mile) area of the crossing. The video then showed their cargo being unloaded. Typically, Palestinian drivers from the other side of the crossing must pick up the aid after it is unloaded and drive it to distribution destinations within Gaza. The video did not show the aid being picked up.
• Juliette Touma, the director of communications for UNRWA, said no aid had entered as of late afternoon Wednesday and that the U.N. agency had been forced to ration fuel, which is imported through Rafah.

Israele - Libano:

(REUTERS) Israel, Hezbollah trade fire, Israeli minister warns of ‘hot summer’ at Lebanon border

• Israel carried out heavy airstrikes in south Lebanon and Hezbollah said it had launched explosive drones and rockets at Israeli targets on Wednesday as Israel's defence minister warned of a "hot summer" in the border region.
• The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has rumbled on since October in parallel to the Gaza war, uprooting tens of thousands of people on both sides of the frontier and fuelling concern of a bigger war between the heavily-armed adversaries.
• Hezbollah said it had launched explosive drones at a military headquarters in the Israeli border town of Ya'ara, and fired its powerful Burkan rockets at a barracks in Biranit, among at least 10 attacks announced by the group on Wednesday.
• The Israeli military said in April it had completed another step in preparing for possible war with Hezbollah that centred on logistics, including preparations for a broad mobilisation of reservists.

Ucraina

(REUTERS) Russia's biggest airstrike in weeks piles pressure on Ukraine power grid

• Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Wednesday, causing serious damage at three Soviet-era thermal power plants and blackouts in multiple regions, officials said.
• Ukraine's air force said it shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 attack drones used for the attack, which piles more pressure on the energy system more than two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
• Galushchenko said power generation and transmission facilities in the Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions were targeted.
• Russia's defence ministry said it struck Ukraine's military-industrial complex and energy facilities in retaliation for Kyiv's strikes on Russian energy facilities.

EU-Russia:

(REUTERS) EU envoys agree to use profits from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

• Ambassadors from European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to use windfall profits from Russian central bank assets frozen in the EU for Ukraine's defence, the Belgian government said.
• The Group of Seven countries (G7) froze around $300 billion worth of Russian financial assets soon after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, the EU and other G7 countries have debated how and whether to use the funds to help Ukraine.
• As part of the deal, EU countries that do not give arms to Ukraine - such as neutral Austria - will abstain from the vote to allocate 90% of the funds to military aid, diplomats said.
• The EU has estimated that windfall profits from the assets held in the bloc will total between 15 billion and 20 billion euros ($37.6 billion) by 2027. (...) That includes around 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) this year, the first $1 billion of which could be disbursed as soon as July, von der Leyen previously said.

Europa

Ungheria-Cina:

(AP News) China’s Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments

• Xi is set to spend two nights in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he will meet with Orbán and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok. Talks will center on future Chinese investments in the Central European country, which has courted deep economic ties with Beijing even as mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit its reach on the continent.
• Orbán, a nationalist populist whose illiberal policies have pushed him to the fringes of the European Union, made his country the first in the 27-member bloc to participate in Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. Hungary has straddled a middle ground between its membership in the EU and NATO and a willingness to establish diplomatic and trade relationships with autocratic governments outside those groupings.
• Szijjártó called the visit “historic,” and pointed out that China had provided more foreign investment to Hungary than any other country in 2023. He added that some of the agreements to be signed would involve expansion of Belt and Road in Hungary, and could include investments in infrastructure and energy. 
• Xi’s arrival in Budapest came after a two-day visit to Serbia’s capital Belgrade, where he signed an agreement on building a “shared future” with the Balkan country which, like Hungary, is considered friendly to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

USA-Philippine:

(AP News) US and Philippine forces sink a ship during largescale drills in the disputed South China Sea

• U.S. and Philippine forces, backed by an Australian air force surveillance aircraft, unleashed a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes Wednesday and sank a mock enemy ship as part of large scale war drills in and near the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing.
• More than 16,000 military personnel from the United States and the Philippines, along with a few hundred Australian troops and military observers from 14 countries, were participating in annual combat-readiness drills called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder. The drills, which started April 22 and end Friday, include a scenario of a foreign invasion of the Philippine archipelago.
• China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard ships with powerful water cannons, a military-grade laser, blocking movements and other dangerous maneuvers in the high seas near two disputed South China Sea shoals. They have led to minor collisions that have injured several Filipino navy personnel and damaged supply boats.
• China has accused the Philippines of setting off the hostilities in the disputed waters by encroaching in what it says are its offshore territories, demarcated by 10 dashes on a map. It says the Chinese coast guard and navy have been forced to take action to expel Philippine coast guard and other vessels from those areas.
• Philippine military officials said the drills were not directed at any country. China has opposed military drills involving U.S. forces as well as increasing U.S. military deployments in the region, which it warned would escalate tensions and endanger regional stability.