December 28, 2023

China’s embassy in Myanmar has asked its citizens to leave a border district in Myanmar as soon as possible, citing security risks. The call on Thursday to evacuate the Laukkai area in the Kokang region, along the countries’ shared border, came as Myanmar’s military government has been battling ethnic minority rebel groups in what has become its biggest challenge since it seized power in a 2021 coup. end of list Clashes have raged since October across Myanmar’s northern Shan State after the Arakan Army (AA), the Mandarin-speaking Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) launched Operation 1027, an offensive against the military. The rebel groups have seized several towns and border hubs vital for trade with China. Myanmar has witnessed its most significant escalation in hostilities across the country since the start of Operation 1027. “The conflicts in Laukkai district of Kokang, northern Myanmar continue, and safety risks have escalated for people stranded there,” the embassy said on Thursday on its WeChat account. “The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar once again reminds Chinese citizens in Laukkai district to evacuate as soon as possible.” The MNDAA has vowed to recapture Laukkai town, which is notorious for gambling, transnational human trafficking and online scams. Advertisement AD This month, Beijing said it had mediated talks between the military and the three armed groups and reached an agreement for a “temporary ceasefire”. China has previously called for an immediate ceasefire in Myanmar’s restive north, where a billion-dollar rail line is planned under Beijing’s $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative. In November, the rebel groups seized the border town of Chinshwehaw, a key conduit for the $1.8bn in annual trade between China and Myanmar. Analysts say Beijing maintains ties with ethnic armed groups in northern Myanmar, some of whom share close ethnic and cultural ties with China and use Chinese currency and phone networks in the territory they control. Beijing is also a major arms supplier and ally of the military, but ties have been strained in recent months over the military’s failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar that Beijing says target Chinese citizens. Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/28/china-asks-citizens-to-evacuate-myanmar-border-area-over-security-risks

Fifty Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, Khan Younis and Maghazi areas on Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 10 people have been killed and 12 injured in an attack near El Amal City Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces raid Ramallah and other cities across the occupied West Bank. The World Health Organization says tens of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing central Gaza and Khan Younis, attempting to escape Israeli attacks. In Gaza, at least 21,110 people have been killed and 55,243 injured in Israeli attacks since October 7. The death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at 1,139. Gaza’s health system needs an urgent international intervention: Doctor Dr Hani Hamada, director of operations at the Ministry of Health and Coordinator of Field Hospitals in Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera about the health system breakdown in the Gaza Strip. “Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis is now besieged and cannot be reached to provide all services,” Hamada said from the Indonesian field hospital in Rafah. “And in the central area, there is only the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, while the European Hospital is all beds full of cases and waiting lists are high for this purpose.” He said that about 1.6 million people in Rafah need medical care and health services. He added that cancer patients have had scheduled operations interrupted. “The situation is very dangerous and needs rapid and urgent intervention, and we appeal to all international institutions and Arab and foreign countries to save the residents of the Gaza Strip from this fierce Israeli attack.” Click here to share on social media Israel offers new prisoner exchange deal: Report Israel, via the United States, has proposed a new prisoner exchange deal to mediator Qatar, according to Israel’s Channel 13. The deal would first see Israel withdraw its troops from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip and allow far more aid to enter the enclave, the channel reports. In the second phase, Hamas would release female Israeli captives, including female soldiers and the bodies of dead Israelis, as Israel retreats further into areas to be hashed out via Qatari and US mediation. The media outlet said Hamas has “so far rejected this proposal” as it does not call for a full ceasefire while hostages are exchanged. Click Key events on day 83 of the war on Gaza It’s day 83 of the war, and this is where things stand: A large fire broke out in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah after an Israeli strike targeted tents with displaced people in the Tal az-Zohour neighbourhood. Raids continued all over the occupied West Bank, with fierce clashes reported at al-Manara Square in the centre of Ramallah. At least seven civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli shelling on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The UN reported that 22 Israeli soldiers were killed over Tuesday and Wednesday in Gaza, bringing the total number of Israeli forces killed in the Palestinian territory to 162 since the outbreak of violence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler, drawing parallels between the Gaza war and the genocide in Nazi Germany. More on strike near El Amal Hospital A video from the Palestinian Red Crescent shows the aftermath of a strike near El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis that killed at least 10. Among those wounded is a child who is seen being rushed into an ambulance for treatment. ‘End unlawful killings’ in occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem: UN tells Israel UN rights chief Volker Turk has said that the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is rapidly deteriorating, citing a new UN report that details Israeli violence in the Palestinian territory. “The use of military tactics and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling,” he said in a statement. The statement also said the UN Human Rights Office had verified the deaths of 300 Palestinians from October 7 to December 27 – including 79 children – in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Of these, Israeli military forces killed at least 291 Palestinians, illegal Israeli settlers killed eight, and one Palestinian was killed either by Israeli troops or settlers. Prior to October 7, 200 Palestinians had already been killed in the area this year – the highest number in a 10-month period since the UN began keeping records in 2005. Click Wrong munition led to high death toll at Maghazi camp: Report Israel’s military used the wrong type of munition to strike the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza earlier this week, compounding the death toll, The Times of Israel quoted an Israeli military official as saying. “The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage which could have been avoided,” said the official. At least 90 people were killed late Sunday when Israel struck the small refugee camp in Deir el-Balah, in one of the war’s deadliest attacks. Palestinians carry away a body out of the rubble of a destroyed building in Maghazi refugee camp [Adel Hana/AP Photo] Click here to share on social media At least one killed in al-Wafiya neighbourhood, Khan Younis An Al Jazeera correspondent has reported that at least one Palestinian has been killed and a number of others injured in an Israeli bombing in the al-Wafiya neighbourhood in Khan Younis. Meanwhile, huge explosions were heard in the northern suburbs of Gaza City amid continued Israeli artillery shelling, a correspondent said. Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/28/israel-hamas-war-live-israel-kills-palestinians-in-central-gaza-attacks Click here to share on social media