Netanyahu: pronti allargamento conflitto; Kyiv, colpita centrale elettrica🗞️Rassegna del 12/04/2024

Israele

(REUTERS) Hamas leader says group is still seeking hostage deal after three of his sons killed

• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday his Palestinian militant group was still seeking a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release after an Israeli strike killed three of his sons in an attack in Gaza. 
• Speaking in Qatar while receiving condolences, Haniyeh said "the interests of the Palestinian people are placed above everything" when asked if the strike would affect the talks on a truce and hostage release.
• Israel's Walla news agency reported that neither Netanyahu nor Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had been told in advance of Wednesday's strike on Haniyeh's sons, which was coordinated by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service. Quoting senior Israeli officials, it reported that the three adult sons, Amir, Mohammad and Hazem Haniyeh, had been targeted as fighters and not because they were the sons of Hamas's political leader.
• Hamas is demanding an end to the Israeli offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli forces and permission for Gaza's displaced Palestinians to return to their homes. Israel wants to secure the return of the hostages but says it will not end the war until Hamas is destroyed as a military force, and that it is still planning to assault the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge.

(REUTERS) Netanyahu says Israel preparing for scenarios in other areas than Gaza

• Israel is keeping up its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other areas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, amid concern that Iran was preparing to strike Israel in response for the killing of senior Iranian commanders.
• Netanyahu made his comments as Israeli troops and warplanes started an operation in central Gaza overnight which the military said was aimed at destroying infrastructure of armed Palestinian groups. Most Israeli troops have been pulled out of Gaza, in preparation for an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, but fighting has continued in various areas of the enclave.
• The fighting in Gaza, now in its seventh month, has overshadowed the increasingly tense situation further north where Israeli troops have engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militia fighters across the border in Lebanon.
• On Thursday, the military said Israeli jets hit Hezbollah military targets in the areas of Meiss el Jabal, Yarine, and Khiam, as well as a Hezbollah observation post in the area of Marwahin and another compound in Al-Dahira in southern Lebanon.

Israele - Iran:

(REUTERS) Iran aims to contain fallout in Israel response, won't be hasty, sources say

• Iran has signalled to Washington that it will respond to Israel's attack on its Syrian embassy in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and it will not act hastily, as Tehran presses demands including a Gaza truce, Iranian sources said.
• Iran's message to Washington was conveyed by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian during a visit on Sunday to the Gulf Arab state of Oman, which has often acted as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, the sources said.
• A source familiar with U.S. intelligence was not aware of the message conveyed via Oman but said Iran has “been very clear” that its response to the attack on its Damascus embassy compound would be “controlled” and “non-escalatory” and planned “to use regional proxies to launch a number of attacks on Israel.”Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be", saying it was tantamount to an attack on Iranian soil. Israel has not confirmed it was responsible, but the Pentagon has said it was.
• The sources said Amirabdollahian, in his Oman meetings, signalled Tehran's willingness to de-escalate on condition demands are met, including a permanent Gaza ceasefire - something Israel has ruled out as it seeks to crush Hamas.

Ucraina

(REUTERS) Major Russian air strikes destroy Kyiv power plant, damage other stations

• Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defenses. The major attack [...] completely destroyed the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the facility told Reuters.
• Kyiv's appeals for urgent air defence supplies from the West have grown increasingly desperate since Russia renewed its long-range aerial assaults on the Ukrainian energy system last month.
• The attacks, which hammered thermal and hydroelectric power plants, have caused fears about the resilience of an energy system that was hobbled by a Russian air campaign in the war's first winter. Ukraine's air force commander said air defences took down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 drones. The attack used 82 missiles and drones in total, the military said.
• The destroyed power plant outside Kyiv, a major power supplier for the capital and Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, is the third and last facility owned by state-owned energy company Centrenergo. [...] was built to have a capacity of 1,800 megawatt hours, more than the pre-war needs of Ukraine's biggest city.
• On Thursday afternoon, Russian forces attacked a thermal power station in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine with guided bombs. The scale of damage was not immediately clear, though the regional administration said there were no casualties. The strikes also attacked two underground storage facilities where Ukraine stores natural gas, including some owned by foreign companies, energy company Naftogaz said. The facilities continued to operate, it added.

(Associated Press) Ukraine’s parliament passes a controversial law to boost much-needed conscripts as war drags on

• Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial law Thursday that will govern how the country calls up new soldiers at a time when it needs to replenish depleted forces who are increasingly struggling to fend off Russia’s advance. The law — which was watered down from its original form — will make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country, where many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.
• Under the law, men aged 18 to 60 will be required to carry documents showing they have registered with the military and present them when asked [...] Also, any man who applies for a state service at a consulate abroad will be registered for military service. The law also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car [...]
• It’s not clear how many conscripts the law might lead to — and it’s also unclear that Ukraine, with its ongoing ammunition shortages, has the ability to arm large numbers of new soldiers without a fresh injection of Western aid. In total, 1 million Ukrainians are in uniform, including about 300,000 who are serving on front lines.
• Lawmakers dragged their feet for months over the mobilization law, and it is expected to be unpopular. It comes about a week after Ukraine lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25. The law will become effective a month after Zelenskyy signs it — and it was not clear when he would. It took him months to sign the law reducing conscription age.

Europa

Ungheria:

(Associated Press) Hungary will impose new restrictions on agricultural imports from Ukraine

• Hungary’s government will place new restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, the country’s agricultural minister said Thursday, a move designed to protect Hungarian farmers from market fluctuations caused by cheaper Ukrainian imports.
• Agricultural Minister István Nagy told a news conference that a 2022 European Union decision to allow for duty-free imports from Ukraine, meant to help keep its economy afloat after Russia’s invasion, had led to “severe oversupply and significantly low prices” in the European agricultural market.
• He blamed the EU and its executive commission for failing to protect European farmers who could not compete with the cheaper imports, and said Hungary would pass additional protections “in its national competence.”

UE: 

(Euronews)The European Parliament has voted in favour of including access to abortion in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.

• The European Parliament has voted in favour of including access to abortion in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. The proposal was approved by 336 votes to 163 against, with support mainly coming from left-wing and centrist members. 
• However, the vote is largely symbolic. The resolution is non-binding, and a full-fledged right to abortion access would require the backing of all 27 member states to be included in the EU's charter.
• Abortion remains heavily restricted in a few member states, which would likely veto efforts to declare it a right.
• Polish lawmakers on Thursday opened a debate on liberalising their country's abortion laws, which were drastically tightened under the previous right-wing government, but splits in the ruling coalition made the outcome uncertain.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

Corea del sud:

(Associated Press) South Korea’s prime minister and top presidential officials offer to resign after election defeat

• South Korea’s prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign Thursday after their ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections in a blow to conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol. The results of Wednesday’s elections mean the liberal opposition forces will prolong their control of parliament until after Yoon completes his single five-year term in 2027. That will likely set back Yoon’s domestic agenda and weaken his grip on the ruling party as he faces the opposition’s intensifying political offensive during his remaining three years in office, experts say.
• With all the votes counted, the main opposition Democratic Party and its satellite party won a combined 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. Another small liberal opposition party obtained 12 seats under a proportional representation system, according to the National Election Commission. Yoon’s People Power Party and its satellite party won 108 seats, the election commission said.
• The final voter turnout for South Korea’s 44 million eligible voters was tentatively estimated at 67%, the highest for a parliamentary election since 1992, according to the election commission.
• Yoon has pushed hard to boost cooperation with the United States and Japan as a way to address a mix of tough security and economic challenges. But he has been grappling with low approval ratings at home[...] Yoon’s critics have accused him of failing to resolve livelihood issues such as soaring prices, refusing to quickly fire some top officials implicated in scandals, and lacking efforts to communicate with opposition leaders for policy coordination.

Vietnam:

(Associated Press) Vietnam sentences real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death in its largest-ever fraud case

• Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced Thursday to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said.
• The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP.
• Despite mitigating circumstances — this was a first-time offense and Lan participated in charity activities — the court attributed its harsh sentence to the seriousness of the case, saying Lan was at the helm of an orchestrated and sophisticated criminal enterprise that had serious consequences with no possibility of the money being recovered, VnExpress said.
• Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam has been trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to pivot their supply chains away from China.