World

ROME — The population of the Gaza Strip is suffering "unprecedented" levels of "near famine-like conditions" as the Hamas-Israel war drags on, the UN's agriculture agency said Monday.

Some 550,000 people are now likely facing catastrophic food insecurity levels, while the whole population is in crisis mode, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

"There are unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, hunger, and near famine-like conditions in Gaza," FAO Deputy Director General Beth Bechdol said in an interview published by the Rome-based agency.

"We are seeing more and more people essentially on the brink of and moving into famine-like conditions every day," she said.

All 2.2 million people in Gaza are in the top three hunger categories, from level three, which is considered an emergency, to level five, or catastrophe, she said.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) rates hunger levels from one to five.

“At this stage, probably about 25 per cent of that 2.2 million are in that top-level IPC five category,” Bechdol said.

Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, has become a last refuge for fleeing civilians.

Many are sleeping outside in tents and makeshift shelters amid mounting concern about lack of food, water and sanitation during an Israeli siege.

Before the conflict, the people of Gaza had “a self-sustaining fruit and vegetable production sector, populated with greenhouses, while there was also a robust backyard small-scale livestock production sector”, Bechdol said.

“We’ve recognised from our damage assessments that most of these animal inventories, but also the infrastructure that is needed for that kind of specialty crop production, are virtually destroyed,” she said.

The Hague — The Netherlands must stop delivering parts for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in the Gaza Strip, after a Dutch court Monday ruled there was a “clear risk” the planes would be involved in breaking international humanitarian law.

The Appeals Court in The Hague sided with a group of human rights organisations that argued the parts contributed to violations of law by Israel in its war with Hamas.

“The court therefore orders the State to put an end to the further export of F-35 parts to Israel within 7 days,” said the ruling.

“There is a clear risk that serious violations of humanitarian law of war are committed in the Gaza Strip with Israel’s F-35 fighter planes,” added the judge.

The US-owned F-35 parts are stored at a warehouse in The Netherlands and then shipped to several partners, including Israel, via existing export agreements.

In December, the District Court in The Hague had said that supplying the parts was primarily a political decision that judges should not interfere with.

“The considerations that the minister makes are to a large extent of a political and policy nature and judges should leave the minister a large amount of freedom,” the court ruled at the time.

But the appeals court overturned this ruling, saying the Netherlands “must prohibit the export of military goods if there is a clear risk of serious violations of the humanitarian law of war”.

“Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences for the civilian population when conducting its attacks,” said the court.

The attacks in Gaza “have caused a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, including thousands of children”.

The war was launched in response to the unprecedented attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7.

Those attacks resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel says around 130 are still in Gaza, though 29 are thought to be dead.

Israel has responded with a relentless offensive in Gaza that the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says has killed at least 28,340 people as of Monday, mostly women and children.

‘Close its eyes’

Dutch authorities had said it was not clear whether they even had the power to intervene in the deliveries, part of a US-run operation that supplies parts to all F-35 partners.

Government lawyers also argued that if the Dutch did not supply the parts from the warehouse based in The Netherlands, Israel could easily procure them elsewhere.

Export licences were granted in 2016 for an unlimited time, but the court ruled the situation had radically changed since then and the government had to take that into account.

“The fact that the licences are concluded for an unlimited time does not mean that the State can close its eyes to what happens afterwards,” said the court.

International law experts have told AFP that human rights violations are likely being carried out by both parties to the conflict.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, which rules on disputes between states, has said Israel must do everything possible to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.

That ruling “strengthens our confidence in a positive ruling in our case”, said PAX Netherlands, one of the rights groups involved in the appeal.

“This positive ruling by the judge is very good news. Especially for the civilians in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, head of Oxfam Novib, another group involved in the appeal.

Vatican City — Pope Francis and Argentina’s President Javier Milei are due to hold their first official talks on Monday, as the two leaders seek to mend fences amid the explosive economic situation in their native country.

The political newcomer is on his first visit to Rome since being elected in October on a wave of anger over decades of economic crisis.

He plans to meet Monday morning with the pontiff — whom he has lambasted in the past — with meetings to follow during the day with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella.

The 53-year-old libertarian economist and self-described “anarcho-capitalist” had sharp words for his compatriot during his election campaign, including calling him an “imbecile”.

But the two men were all smiles Sunday during a brief meeting following a papal mass at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica to canonise Argentina’s first female saint, where Milei gave the 87-year-old a bear hug.

The president’s meeting with the pope comes against the backdrop of major political uncertainty in Argentina, where Milei has embarked on massive economic deregulation by presidential decree.

Some 40 per cent of the country falls under the poverty line, while crippling inflation soars over 200 per cent.

But throughout his papacy, Francis has railed against the inequalities generated by free markets, calling for the protection of society’s most vulnerable.

Since his election, Milei has devalued the peso, cut state subsidies and scrapped hundreds of rules.

His reform package hit a roadblock last week, however, when parliament sent it back to committee for a rewrite, prompting Milei to lash out at his opponents, calling them “criminals” and “traitors”.

During their meeting Monday, the president and pontiff — both of whom were born in Buenos Aires — will likely discuss a possible papal trip to Argentina.

After accusing the pope last year of interfering in politics, Milei softened his tone after the pontiff called to congratulate him on his election win, encouraging Francis to return to Argentina for the first time since becoming pope in 2013.

During Sunday’s mass, at which 18th-century missionary Mama Antula was canonised, Francis again made a plea on behalf of society’s most marginalised.

“How many suffering men and women do we meet on the sidewalks of our cities,” he lamented during his address.

Mama Antula, a consecrated Jesuit laywoman born Maria Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, is considered a champion of human rights from the period when Argentina was a Spanish colony.

She was beatified in 2016.

Milei, who made an official visit to Israel before coming to Italy, is travelling with his spiritual adviser, a rabbi.

Although from a Catholic family, he has expressed his fascination with Judaism and has been studying the Torah.

VATICAN CITY — Argentina’s top political and religious leaders — President Javier Milei and Pope Francis — met for the first time on Sunday in Rome, amid the explosive economic situation in their native country.

The two men with sharply diverging views on how to eradicate the poverty gripping Argentina met briefly before and after a Papal mass, during the 53-year-old economist’s first official visit to Rome as president.

Milei, a libertarian and free-market champion who once called the 87-year-old Pope from Buenos Aires an “imbecile” who “promotes communism”, attended the ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica to canonise Argentina’s first female saint.

Following the mass, Francis, in a wheelchair, stopped briefly to shake hands and share a few words with Milei amid the congregation, who gave the pontiff a hug.

The Vatican said they also met briefly beforehand.

An official audience comes on Monday, when Milei also plans to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The meeting between the two men comes amid major political uncertainty in Argentina, where newcomer Milei is engaged in a controversial, massive deregulation of Argentina’s economy by presidential decree.

Milei and Francis radically disagree over how to tackle poverty, which affects 40 per cent of the population of Argentina, where inflation soars over 200 per cent.

Francis has railed throughout his papacy against the inequalities generated by the free markets, calling for protection of the most vulnerable in society.

Milei, who calls himself an “anarcho-capitalist”, won a resounding election victory in October on a wave of anger by Argentines furious with decades of economic crisis.

Alternately labelled far-right, anti-establishment or libertarian, Milei has devalued the peso, cut state subsidies and scrapped hundreds of rules in deregulation efforts.

But the passage of his reform package hit a roadblock on Tuesday when parliament sent it back to committee for a rewrite.

Milei, on a visit to Israel, responded to the first crisis of his presidency by lashing out at opponents, calling them “criminals” and “traitors”.

Invitation home 

Relations between Milei and the Pope have improved after the former Jorge Bergoglio congratulated the president on his election.

Milei in turn invited Francis to pay a visit to Argentina, to which the Pontiff has not returned since becoming Pope in 2013.

Last year, Milei accused the Pope of interfering in politics, and failing to condemn dictators such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

But the Pope has brushed off the criticism as rhetoric in the heat of an election campaign.

On Sunday, Milei sat with his entourage during the mass to canonise 18th century missionary Mama Antula, considered a human-rights pioneer from when Argentina was a Spanish colony.

Like Francis, the consecrated Jesuit laywoman born Maria Antonia de Paz y Figueroa and beatified in 2016 dedicated herself to marginalised communities.

While in Israel, Milei announced moves to shift his country’s embassy to Jerusalem -- sparking delight from his hosts but anger from Hamas.

WASHINGTON — White House hopeful Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated the collapse of legislation targeting the migrant crisis on the US-Mexico border, while vowing that, if reelected, he would carry out a massive “deportation operation” on his first day in office.

The death of the bipartisan bill in the US Senate this week highlights the ex-president’s iron grip on the Republican Party, as its lawmakers acceded to his desire to deny Biden a win on immigration.

“Let’s not forget that this week we also had another massive victory that every conservative should celebrate. We crushed crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous open borders bill,” Trump declared at a rally in South Carolina.

“The whole group did a great job in Congress. We crushed it.”

Under pressure from Trump, who wants to exploit Biden’s perceived weakness on immigration, Republican lawmakers appeared to decide that they would prefer stopping any border reforms until after November’s election. 

Trump — whose first presidential campaign featured a central plank of building a “big, beautiful wall” on the US-Mexico border — on Saturday declared that deporting migrants would be one of his first tasks.

“On day one I will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. We have no choice.”

The Senate border bill had included aid for Ukraine and Israel, with lifelines for the US allies appearing dead in the water after Republicans rejected it on Wednesday.

The upper chamber is now considering a foreign aid package that decouples the aid from the border issue entirely.

The $95 billion package set to be debated next week includes funding for Israel’s war against Hamas fighters and for key strategic ally Taiwan. The lion’s share, however, would help pro-Western Ukraine restock depleted ammunition supplies, weapons and other crucial needs as it enters a third year of war.

‘Pay your bills’ 

Amid gnawing concerns over Russian aggression and regional security, the Republican Party led by Trump is increasingly turning its back.

Trump has voiced misgivings about Ukraine aid and NATO, frequently saying it’s unfair to commit the United States to defending other members of the 31-nation alliance.

On Saturday, he went even further, saying he would “encourage” Russia to attack any member nation that had not met its financial obligations.

Recounting an unspecified NATO meeting, Trump described a conversation with a fellow head of state.

“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?’”

“No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

At the rally Trump also needled Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador who is also seeking the Republican Party’s nomination, though her bid is almost certainly doomed as she badly trails her ex-boss in the race.

Addressing voters in Haley’s home state, Trump questioned the whereabouts of her husband Michael, who has not been seen on the campaign trail as he is on a yearlong military deployment to the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti.

“Where’s her husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away. What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband,” he said, raising his voice for dramatic effect. 

“Where is he? He’s gone. He knew. He knew.”

Haley clapped back on social media platform X.

“Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about. Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief,” she said.

BORDEAUX — Ecological activist Greta Thunberg on Sunday joined a protest in the southwest of France against eight planned oil wells, which in theory will be banned in the country by 2040.

The “Stop Petrole Bassin d’Arcachon” group, which opposes oil drilling in the area around the seaside resort of Arcachon, claimed 3,000 showed up for the protest, but police said there were 1,200.

“The exit from fossil fuels must begin now by rejecting this project,” said Natalie Herve, a spokeswoman for the group.

Thunberg was in the region after making an appearance on Saturday at a demonstration against a local highway, where on Sunday police used tear gas to clear protesters who were blocking a railway.

The internationally known Swedish activist, wearing a pink raincoat and Palestinian keffiyeh, didn’t speak at the anti-oil protest on Sunday but danced and shouted slogans in French and English against the fossil fuel industry.

The wells would be drilled by Canada’s Vermilion Energy, which has a concession near Arcachon until the start of 2035. The field has been in production since the 1960s and about 50 wells today produce a total of 1,500 barrels a day.

Opponents are hoping to block authorisation for the project, which has yet to be approved.

In 2017, the French government voted to stop domestic oil production by 2040.

At the beginning of December, the ecological transition minister Christophe Bechu said that as long as France needs oil, it is “not so bad that it comes from here instead of the other end of the world”.

ISLAMABAD — Police fired tear gas to disperse supporters of jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday after his party urged protests outside election offices where they said rigging had taken place in last week's national vote.

Clashes were reported in Rawalpindi city, south of the capital, and Lahore, in the east, while dozens of other protests were held across the country without incident.

Police warned earlier they would come down hard on illegal gatherings. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the protests.

Independent candidates — most linked to Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party — took the most seats in the polls, scuppering the chances of the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to win a ruling majority.

However, independents cannot form a government and the country faces weeks of political uncertainty as rival parties negotiate possible coalitions.

PTI leaders claim they would have won even more seats if not for vote rigging.

A nationwide election-day mobile telephone blackout and the slow counting of results led to suspicions the military establishment was influencing the process to ensure success for former premier Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N.

“Throughout Pakistan, elections were manipulated in a subtle way,” PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan told a news conference on Saturday, calling on supporters to “protest peacefully” on Sunday.

Authorities warned they would take strict action, saying so-called Section 144 orders were in place — a colonial-era law banning public gatherings.

“Some individuals are inciting illegal gatherings around the Election Commission and other government offices,” a statement from Islamabad’s police force said on Sunday.

“Legal action will be taken against unlawful assemblies. It should be noted that soliciting for gatherings is also a crime,” it said.

A similar warning was also issued in Rawalpindi, while dozens of police equipped with riot gear assembled near Liberty Market in Lahore.

In Rawalpindi, AFP staff saw police fire tear gas at a crowd of dozens of PTI supporters after they refused orders to stop picketing an office used to collect constituency election results.

Another gathering of around 200 PTI supporters in Lahore dispersed quickly when police moved in with riot shields and batons.

Local media said several people were detained in Karachi, in the south, when they refused orders to clear the area.

Uncertain future 

Imran Khan’s party defied a months-long crackdown, which crippled campaigning and forced candidates to run as independents, to emerge as the winners of Thursday’s vote.

Final results were announced on Sunday, with independents winning 101 seats, PML-N 75, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 54, and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement 17.

Ten minor parties mopped up the remaining 17 seats, with two remaining vacant.

“The results have clearly indicated that no single party possesses a simple majority to establish a government,” said Zahid Hussain, a political analyst and author.

“The political future of the country from this point onward is highly uncertain.”

Still, PTI leaders insist they have been given a “people’s mandate” to form the next government.

“The people have decided in favour of Imran Khan,” party Chairman Gohar Ali Khan told Arab News in an interview.

A coalition between the PML-N and the PPP — who formed the last government after ousting Imran Khan with a no-confidence vote in April 2022 — still seems the most likely outcome.

Pakistan’s military chief told feuding politicians on Saturday to show “maturity and unity”.

“The nation needs stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarisation which does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people,” Gen. Syed Asim Munir said in a statement.

The military looms large over Pakistan’s political landscape, with generals having run the country for nearly half its history since partition from India in 1947.

The military-backed PML-N, founded by three-time prime minister Sharif, declared victory as the party with the largest number of seats, but to form a government he will be forced to cut deals with rivals and independents.

Imran Khan was barred from contesting the election after being handed several lengthy prison sentences in the days leading up to the vote.

TURIN, Italy — A funeral mass for the head of the House of Savoy drew royals from across Europe on Saturday, who paid their respects to Prince Vittorio Emanuele, son of Italy’s last king.

But despite the royal pedigree of many of the guests, the funeral for the controversial crown prince who died last week at age 86 in Geneva was met with relative indifference in Turin, the historical seat of the Savoy dynasty.

Under rainy skies, Vittorio Emanuele’s widow Marina Doria and son Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy were seen entering the Duomo of Turin for the private ceremony, along with guests including Sofia of Spain, Albert II of Monaco and Jean of Luxembourg.

A small crowd of about 200 onlookers gathered outside the cathedral, adorned with funeral wreaths, as pallbearers carried inside the coffin draped by a flag bearing the House of Savoy’s red and white coat of arms.

Vittorio Emanuele will later be laid to rest in the family’s crypt within the Basilica of Superga overlooking Turin.

A scion of the thousand-year-old House of Savoy that ruled a united Italy from 1861 to 1946, Vittorio Emanuele lived for most of his life in exile in Switzerland, enjoying a jetset lifestyle including ski weekends and beach holidays.

But the claimant to the Italian throne was a controversial figure embroiled in numerous scandals — including a manslaughter charge for which he was ultimately acquitted — who did little to endear himself to his native country.

Born in Naples in 1937, he was the son of Umberto II, who briefly reigned in 1946 before Italy abolished the monarchy, and the grandson of Vittorio Emanuele III, who collaborated with Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime.

Although the House of Savoy put an indelible royal stamp on the northern city of Turin, including a sumptuous 17th century palace that is now a museum, the city’s mayor and other local authorities snubbed Saturday’s funeral. The deceased prince’s grandfather, “handed over Italy to Mussolini. His grandson deserves no public tribute”, the Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted Turin’s former mayor, Valentino Castellani, as saying. On Friday however, the senate speaker, Ignazio La Russa, co-founder of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy Party, paid his respects during a viewing.

Emanuele Filiberto told journalists Friday his father wanted to be buried in “the city he loved”.

“He was a father, a friend, a teacher,” he said, calling his father “an extraordinary person who treated everyone equally, from the most humble to the most important”.

Vittorio Emanuele left Italy with his parents in 1946 at age nine, when Italy voted for a republic in a historic referendum and barred the return of the royal family discredited by its association with Fascism.

He did not return to Italy until 2002, after the Italian parliament ended a constitutional ban on the dynasty’s male heirs, a visit in which he swore loyalty to the republic.

The prince’s reputation was severely damaged in 1978 when he was accused of having accidentally killed a 19-year-old German, Dirk Hamer, after shooting twice at a dinghy anchored in a Corsican port near his family’s summer estate.

Finally put on trial in France over a decade later, he was acquitted in 1991 of manslaughter, but convicted of possession of an unauthorised rifle for which he received a six-months suspended sentence.

Vittorio Emanuele always maintained his innocence in Hamer’s death.

The episode became the subject of a 2023 Netflix documentary, “The King Who Never Was”.

The series revealed a 2006 wiretapped prison conversation while Emanuele Vittorio was in jail over a separate racketeering scandal — for which he was similarly acquitted — in which he is heard telling his cellmate that he had “conned” the French judges in the Hamer case.

In 2007, he and Emanuele Filiberto demanded 260 million euros in damages from the Italian state over the family’s exile and the return of the royal family’s property.

After a public outcry, they renounced the claim.

Vittorio Emmanuele married his wife Marina Doria, a Swiss former waterskiing champion, in 1971. Their son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy — who is married to French actress Clotilde Courau — was born in 1972 in Geneva.