Israel-Hamas War

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza, Liberia’s presidential election, and a refugee camp massacre in Myanmar.

The Israel Defense Forces unleashed devastating airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, flattening entire neighborhoods, reducing streets and buildings to rubble, and flooding hospitals and morgues with the wounded and dead. The air campaign is part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “complete siege” of Gaza, which he announced on Monday. Already, around 360,000 reservists have been called to the front lines.

“The dynamic right now in Gaza is that the scope of this is going to be bigger than before and more severe,” Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said at a briefing on Tuesday. “It’s not the regular, small, contained Gaza tit-for-tat.”

Israeli strikes targeted apartment buildings, mosques, and markets on Tuesday, despite Hamas pledging to kill one hostage every time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans “in their homes without warning.” The Islamist group is currently holding hostage more than 150 Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as 11 Thai citizens and numerous Americans. The Israeli military also announced on Tuesday that it had regained full control over Israeli towns near the border with Gaza that had been seized by Palestinian militants in this weekend’s assault and that it was close to resecuring the breached border. Whether Israeli forces intend to launch a ground invasion of Gaza remains an open question.

In Gaza, retaliatory strikes are sparking a mass exodus of Palestinians reminiscent of 2014, when an Israeli air and ground offensive displaced around 400,000 Gazans. Of the region’s 2.3 million residents, one-tenth of the total population is now fleeing inward to seek protection from Israeli airstrikes. More than 180,000 Palestinians are now homeless, and at least 137,000 people are seeking shelter in United Nations-run schools, making Gaza’s already dire economic and humanitarian situation even more acute.

Late on Monday, the European Union reversed its decision, announced just five hours earlier, to halt all development funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization and does not provide any funding to the group, but it does provide significant assistance to Palestinians through the PA. In the wake of Hamas’s latest assault on Israel, the EU initially announced it was suspending all aid payments to Palestinians, evidently out of concern that the funds could be misused by Hamas or other militant groups. But after several countries—including Spain, Portugal, and Ireland—objected to the aid suspension, the EU backtracked. Aid payments are now no longer suspended, but they will be “urgently reviewed.”

• What You Need to Know About the Israel-Hamas War by Daniel Byman and Alexander Palmer
• Israel Could Win This Gaza Battle and Lose the War by Stephen M. Walt
• What Is Iran’s Role in the Hamas Attack on Israel? by Danielle Pletka

Liberians vote. As many as 2.4 million Liberians went to the polls on Tuesday to select the West African country’s next president. Nineteen candidates are vying to unseat incumbent President George Weah—who is up for reelection—by capitalizing on the former soccer player’s failure to tackle corruption. If no one wins a simple majority, the top competitors will face a runoff vote in November.

Currently leading the polls alongside Weah are former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and businessman Alexander Cummings. Boakai campaigned on increasing domestic rice production, improving the country’s highway system, and tackling economic crimes. Cummings, on the other hand, has advocated a “buy Liberian” business model as well as the establishment of funds to empower women and young people.

Refugee camp massacre. Myanmar’s junta launched an artillery strike against a displaced person’s camp on Tuesday, killing 29 people, including children. The Kachin Independence Organization, an ethnic insurgent group seeking self-rule, controls the area where the refugee camp is located.

The strike was one of the deadliest attacks in Kachin state, where fighting over sovereignty has embroiled the region for 63 years. Myanmar’s ruling junta seized power in 2021 via a military coup and has increased airstrikes against opposition-controlled villages since.

South of Kachin, mass flooding displaced more than 14,000 people after heavy monsoon rains inundated towns and disrupted rail lines. Thousands of residents have sought aid at relief camps. Already this year, around 60,000 people were uprooted in July and August by floods across the country.

“Limping along.” Future economic prospects aren’t looking too hot, according to new International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections released on Tuesday. The IMF cut growth predictions for China and the eurozone, with the institution’s chief economist blaming poor COVID-19 recovery efforts, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a global energy crisis for the world’s poor forecast.

Meanwhile, Israel’s shekel plummeted to record lows on Tuesday following a weekend of intense fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas militants. This year, the country’s currency has weakened by 11 percent, signaling its worst rate since early 2016. To try stabilizing the country’s economy, the Bank of Israel announced on Monday that it would sell up to $30 billion of foreign currency.

Some thieves steal thousands of dollars to purchase luxury cars or fancy villas. Not British tax agent Robin Moss. The former chess player-turned-white-collar criminal spent more than $141,000 of his ill-gotten gains on collectible pottery. He was sentenced in abstention on Monday to 10 years in prison for tax, fraud, and theft offenses. That decorative vase better have been worth it.