Israel refutes South Africa’s accusation that its Gaza military campaign is a genocidal act against Palestinians.
In its latest appeal, South Africa has called on the United Nations’s top court for urgent measures to order a halt to Israel’s assault on Rafah.
Since early this month, Israeli forces have been pounding the southern city where more than 1.5 million Palestinians had taken shelter after escaping from other parts of Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands are being forced to flee again. Israel says its operation is limited and aimed at targeting the last stronghold of Hamas in Rafah.
South Africa calls it a genocidal act.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered some provisional measures since South Africa first filed a case in January.
Nearly 800,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since Israel launched its offensive against the southern Gaza city last week, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said.
Lazzarini decried the repeated displacement of Palestinians in the statement on Saturday.
“Since the war in Gaza began, Palestinians have been forced to flee multiple times in search of safety that they have never found, including in UNRWA shelters,” Lazzarini said.
“When people move, they are exposed, without safe passage or protection. Every time, they are forced to leave behind the few belongings they have: mattresses, tents, cooking utensils and basic supplies that they cannot carry or pay to transport.
“Every time, they have to start from scratch, all over again. ”
Saturday saw intense fighting across Gaza – not just in Rafah – with Israeli attacks killing dozens of Palestinians.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said early in the day that 83 Palestinians had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
Later on Saturday, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Alghoul reported that 40 bodies had reached the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp. At least 15 people were killed in one attack.
Once again, nearly half of the population of Rafah or 800,000 people are on the road, having been forced to flee since the Israeli Forces started the military operation in the area on 6 May. In response to evacuation orders demanding people to flee to so-called safe zones,…
The Wafa news agency also said four Palestinians were killed during Israel’s bombing of Khan Younis, north of Rafah, and three others were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The violence throughout the territory underscores humanitarian advocates’ warnings that there is nowhere safe for people in Rafah to flee to.
Israel has faced international warnings, including by its top ally the United States, against invading Rafah. But the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be ignoring those calls and proceeding with the assault.
Last week, Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing that links Gaza to Egypt. The gate, which had served as a major artery for life-saving aid and an entry and exit point for humanitarian workers, has been closed since May 7.
The closure of the Rafah crossing has trapped thousands of sick and injured Palestinians who may have had a chance to leave Gaza to receive treatment abroad.
Before the assault began, Rafah was home to 1.5 million people, most of whom had been displaced from other parts of Gaza.
Throughout the war, Israel has ordered Palestinian civilians in Gaza to move south as it invaded the territory from the north.
Many residents were first displaced to the middle part of the enclave and then moved to the southern city of Khan Younis. They were ultimately forced to flee again to Rafah. Now people from Rafah are fleeing northward.
Netanyahu has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold in the territory. But as the Israeli army invades the city, fighting is raging in Jabalia and the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north of the enclave.
Israel said in January that it had dismantled Hamas’s “military framework” in the north.
On Saturday, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, claimed several attacks against Israeli forces, including targeting military vehicles with rocket propelled grenades in Rafah and Jabalia. The group also said it killed 20 Israeli soldiers in two separate operations in Rafah.
For its part, the Israeli military announced that it recovered the remains of Israeli captive Ron Binyamin, whom it said was killed during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Israel had said a day earlier found the bodies of three other captives based on new intelligence.
But Hamas appeared to play down the significance of the Israeli announcement.
“The enemy’s leadership is pushing its soldiers into the alleyway of Gaza to return in coffins, so they can look for the remains of some captives that it [Israel] targeted and killed earlier,” Abu Obaida, the Qassam Brigades spokesperson said in a statement.
Israel’s war cabinet member Benny Gantz has threatened to quit the government of Benjamin Netanyahu should the prime minister fail to present a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.
Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Gantz called on the cabinet to agree to a six-point plan laying out a vision for the besieged strip’s governance once the conflict is over.
The Israeli politician, a former defence minister, said that if his demands were not met, he would withdraw his centrist party from the emergency unity government formed last year to oversee the war on Gaza.
Gantz is seen as Netanyahu’s main political rival in Israel. He was a leading figure in the opposition before joining the war cabinet.
His ultimatum deepened the cracks within the Israeli government and added to the mounting pressure against Netanyahu amid increasing domestic and international criticism of his policies in Gaza.
Gantz’s plan calls for releasing Israeli captives in Gaza, demilitarising the territory and forming an international coalition with “American, European, Arab and Palestinian elements” to oversee its civil affairs.
Echoing Netanyahu’s position, Gantz said neither Hamas nor Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas can rule Gaza after the war.
Demilitarising Gaza would require completely dismantling Hamas’s military wing, which the Israeli military has failed to achieve after 225 days of fighting. The position also matches Netanyahu’s frequent calls for “total victory”.
Still, Gantz took a thinly veiled swipe at the prime minister and his far-right allies. “If you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss – we will be forced to quit the government,” he said.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people and destroyed much of the besieged enclave. More than 100 Israeli captives remain in the territory.
Talks to reach a captives and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas appear to have stalled, with the Netanyahu government rejecting the Palestinian demand to end the war on Gaza.
In a previous agreement – brokered by the United States and Qatar – about 134 captives were released in November; Israel also released dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including children.
Gantz’s request is one of the strongest manifestations of the mounting tension within the war cabinet. In another rare public dispute, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had also said on Thursday Israel should not be involved in governing Gaza once the fighting ends.
“What we’re seeing more and more of in the past few days is that there is a huge amount of disagreement amongst war cabinet members about the plan going forward for Gaza,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Jamjoom.
“And this echoes also the concerns by US government that has said repeatedly that Netanyahu needs to try to figure out a plan for a post-war Gaza scenario,” he added.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chided Israel for the lack of a plan in some of his strongest public criticism.
“One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven’t seen. Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza is over, and we still haven’t seen that,” he said.
In addition to opposition within his own government, Netanyahu is also facing growing demonstrations in cities across Israel.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv to demand the resignation of the prime minister citing his failure to bring the captives back and his handling of the war.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also attended the protests on Saturday, pledging to work towards the fall of Netanyahu’s government and the return of Israeli captives. In a social media post, Lapid – a former prime minister himself – later called the current cabinet “the worst government in the country’s history”.
Family members of the captives gathered outside the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv and called on Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief of staff and a current member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, to replace the prime minister.
“How much more blood will be shed because you lack the courage to do the right thing? It is your duty to expose the truth, it is your moral obligation to swiftly remove Netanyahu from power, because he is abandoning the hostages to their deaths” Hareetz newspaper reported, citing the families at the news conference.
“The only way to rescue all of the hostages is by stopping this war, as part of a signed comprehensive agreement for a hostage release deal,” the group added.
Search and rescue operations under way while five suspects have been arrested, Tunisian National Guard says.
At least 23 people are missing off the Tunisian coast, local authorities have said, as search and rescue operations are under way.
Tunisia’s National Guard said in a statement on Saturday that it had been notified of “unauthorised sailing operations” from several areas along the Tunisian coast. Five suspects in organising the crossing have been arrested, it added.
The National Guard said families of the missing individuals had lost contact with them and notified the authorities. The statement did not identify the nationality of the missing people.
The state-run news agency TAP said a vessel departed from the town of Korba in the northeastern Nabeul governorate.
Both Tunisia and neighbouring Libya are key departure points for those looking to travel irregularly by boat to Europe.
Migrants seeking to travel to Europe often arrive on Tunisia’s coasts from across the globe, particularly from impoverished and conflict-stricken areas of sub-Saharan Africa. More than 12,000 people are registered as refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Tunisian nationals have also sought to migrate to Europe via sea to escape poverty and search for employment opportunities. As of 2023, the unemployment rate in Tunisia was more than 16 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Some 17,000 irregular Tunisian arrivals landed in Italy in 2023, many from working-class areas where refugees stay, like the industrial areas around Sfax, 278km (172 miles) south of Tunis on the coast.
In February, 17 Tunisians went missing after setting sail towards Italy on a fishing boat.
The central Mediterranean Sea is one of the world’s deadliest migration routes. About 3,000 migrants and asylum seekers are known to have drowned while crossing it since 2023, according to the International Organization For Migration (IOM).
In the first 11 months of 2023, Tunisia’s National Guard intercepted almost 70,000 irregular migrants and asylum seekers. Of those, 77.5 percent had travelled to Tunisia from across Africa.
Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical juncture, amid the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The global response to Gaza, across many states, peoples and international institutions, shows that there is a strong will to uphold international norms on protecting civilians and a strong will to address the underlying political injustices of the conflict itself, rather than seeing it merely as a problem of security and terrorism. The international failure to translate this will into concrete action is appalling but sadly not unprecedented.
The state of Sri Lanka, 15 years after the end of the armed conflict there, shows what happens when mass atrocities are unaddressed and the political fault lines that led to them in the first place remain unresolved and are arguably exacerbated. There are also striking and unavoidable similarities between the events still unfolding in Gaza and those that took place in the Vanni, the area of northern Sri Lanka where the war ended.
In the final months of the conflict, the Sri Lankan military besieged and bombarded a civilian population of 330,000 along with an estimated 5,000 Tamil Tiger fighters, corralling them into ever thinner strips of land in the Vanni. The offensive was brutal and unconstrained. It destroyed and defeated the Tamil Tigers’ armed group LTTE but also made a raging bonfire out of international humanitarian law, the laws of war and basic norms of civilian protection.
The Sri Lankan military bombed and shelled food distribution centres, hospitals and civilian shelters even though it had received the precise coordinates of these from the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross. It ordered civilians into ever-shrinking “no-fire” zones that it would then relentlessly attack using unguided artillery shells and multi-barrelled rocket launchers, firing hundreds and sometimes thousands of shells a day.
The last of the no-fire zones was a mere 2-3 square kilometres and the death toll often reached 1,000 civilians a day, sometimes more. Sri Lanka also limited the supply of food and essential medicines including anaesthetics in moves calculated to compound and exacerbate the humanitarian distress.
Subsequent UN investigations concluded that the Sri Lankan military’s campaign amounted to the “persecution of the Vanni population”. At least 40,000 people were reported killed in the fighting, but some estimates based on population figures suggest the death toll could be as high as 169,000.
At the end of the war, the Sri Lankan authorities summarily executed LTTE cadres and others who surrendered and herded the remaining civilians into barbed wire-ringed internment camps, allegedly for “processing”. The government only released them after immense international pressure.
Sri Lanka justified its campaign as the only way to defeat “terrorism” and proclaimed its “victory” over the LTTE as a military model that other countries could follow. It has consistently and vehemently rejected international demands for meaningful accountability and has also refused to implement political changes that would ensure real political equality for the Tamils and address the root causes of the conflict.
Yet, Sri Lanka’s trajectory after 2009 shows that mass atrocities and the “victory” they secure entail consequences that rebound and not just for the Tamil population. After the war ended, Sri Lanka simply doubled down on its repression of Tamils.
The high-intensity bombardment turned into a suffocating and all-pervasive de facto military occupation that continues to this day. Five out of seven of the army’s regional commands are stationed in the northern and eastern provinces and in some districts, there is one soldier for every two civilians.
The military is also participating in the ongoing process of “Sinhalisation” and “Buddhisisation” of the northeast. Military personnel accompany Buddhist monks and Sinhala settlers as they violently seize Tamil lands and places of worship so that they can be converted into Sinhala ones.
Finally, military personnel exercise a constant surveillance of everyday Tamil social, cultural and political activities that has a chilling effect on everyday life and makes meaningless any talk of “reconciliation” or even a return to “normalcy”.
Yet Tamils in the former war zones and the now extensive diaspora have not been cowed into submission. They have worked to keep alive the struggle for justice and accountability. These efforts have kept Sri Lanka on the back foot internationally with repeated UN investigations and resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lankan officials also have to live with the ever-present danger of sanctions and possible prosecutions for their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The war and its aftermath empowered the Rajapaksa family and their unvarnished form of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. From 2005 until 2022, they dominated the Sinhala electorate, lauded as the leaders who had finally vanquished the Tamil separatists. Yet, their reckless and nepotistic approach to the economy and international politics brought financial ruin and increasing isolation.
Colombo sought to play off the geopolitical rivalries of India, China and Western states but this failed to secure any tangible material benefits and also could not avert the escalating debt crisis. In April 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt amid acute shortages of food, fuel and essential medicines. The outrage and roiling protests triggered by the economic meltdown ousted the last Rajapaksa president but Sri Lanka is yet to find a viable or stable post-Rajapaksa settlement.
Meanwhile, the same militarisation and repression used against Tamils are now being deployed against other communities. Sri Lanka has used “high security zones” extensively in the Tamil-speaking areas to confiscate land, displace civilians and militarise public space. This same tactic has now been deployed to restrict protests in the capital city of Colombo. The anti-terrorism measures that were normally reserved for use against Tamils are now being deployed against other dissidents and critics.
In the years after the end of the war, Muslim and Christian communities have also become targets of violence and hatred. Buddhist monks have led attacks on Muslim homes and businesses and on churches. They have led campaigns against Halal meat and the headscarf. During the pandemic, Muslims who had died as a consequence of COVID-19 infection were forcibly cremated for spurious “public health” reasons.
The impunity with which Sri Lanka’s security forces operate is now a threat to all communities on the island. There is no better illustration of this than Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s ongoing campaign calling for an international investigation into the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed 250 people.
Cardinal Ranjith had previously been a staunch Rajapaksa ally and had opposed Tamil demands for international accountability for the crimes committed at the end of the war. He is now calling for an international investigation because he is convinced, like many on the island, that elements of Sri Lanka’s security state were aware of the plans for the appalling Easter Sunday attacks but did not take action in order to bolster the eventually successful 2020 presidential campaign of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The effects of Sri Lanka’s massacres have extended well beyond May 2009 and the killing fields of the Vanni. They are evident in the ongoing de facto occupation of the Tamil-speaking areas by a military that eats up the scarce resources of a now effectively bankrupt state. They are evident in the political instability and growing repression in Colombo. They are also evident in security forces who have become such a power unto themselves that they have been accused by a formerly loyal cardinal of allowing brutal terrorist attacks to take place to secure electoral victory for their preferred candidate.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has rightly brought international attention and focus on the need to uphold and defend humanitarian law. Sri Lanka shows what happens when states that commit mass atrocities are allowed to go scot-free.
Remembering and effectively addressing the Vanni atrocities is not just about the past, it is also about the future. Most immediately, it is about Sri Lanka’s future. But it is also about re-building and securing the viability and integrity of international humanitarian law and the possibility of securing genuine and lasting peace, security and prosperity.
The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
As Israel’s bombing of Gaza intensifies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a rift in his war cabinet and growing international pressure. And yet, this is a war that the vast majority of Israelis continue to support – thanks in no small part to one-sided coverage by Israeli media.
Contributors:
Yael Berda – Associate professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dalia Fahmy – Associate professor of political science, Long Island University Tahani Mustafa – Senior Palestine analyst, International Crisis Group Michael Omer-Man – Director of research for Israel-Palestine, DAWN
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South Africans are voting this month and, for the first time in 30 years, the ruling African National Congress’s majority is under threat. Meenakshi Ravi reports on the ANC’s attempts to interfere with the public broadcaster.
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India’s elections are under way, and deepfakes are proliferating all over social media. Johanna Hoes looks at how the technology enables politicians to make fake content look convincing, and dismiss genuine content as fake.
Featuring:
Henry Ajder – Co-founder, Latent Space Divyendra Singh Jadoun – Synthetic media artist Mitali Mukherjee – Director of journalist programmes, Reuters Institute
Lebanon and the Lebanese people are still suffering a debilitating economic crisis that has gripped the country since 2019.
The pound has plummeted to less than 10 percent of its value before the crisis, savings have disappeared both in terms of exchange rates and actual deposits as banks announce they have no cash to release, and more and more people worry about simply staying alive.
About 80 percent of the population is below the poverty line and 36 percent is below the “extreme poverty line”, living on less than $2.15 a day.
A recent deal worth 1 billion euros ($1.06bn) with the European Union may have been seen as a godsend in such circumstances, but it has brought to the fore even more problems.
‘Shameful’
EU grants over the past three years are not purely to help Lebanon’s economy.
Rather, they are mostly to “ensure the wellbeing of host communities and Syrian refugees”, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. Nearly three-quarters of the package is earmarked for that in hopes that refugees will be dissuaded from heading for Europe.
Lebanon has taken in millions of Syrian refugees who have fled their country’s 13-year war.
The EU package was strongly criticised by human rights workers and analysts, who said the deal rewards the state’s financial mismanagement and mistreatment of the Syrian community.
More than 300 Syrians have returned – or been returned – to their home country in what Lebanese authorities call a “voluntary return” programme.
But rights groups have panned the initiative, which comes off the back of 13,000 forced deportations of Syrians in 2023 alone, violence towards refugees in Lebanon and ongoing conflict in Syria itself.
“Human Rights Watch has documented the summary deportation of thousands of Syrians in 2023 and [the] deportation of opposition activists and army defectors this year,” Ramzi Kaiss, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division at the right group, told Al Jazeera.
“Among those documented deportations were Syrians who were attempting to flee Lebanon by sea and returned to Lebanon by the Lebanese armed forces and subsequently deported.
“The fact that the EU would provide funds to encourage that behaviour is shameful.”
‘Asking people to starve’
Another enduring issue in Lebanon renders the assistance less than helpful.
Syrian children play at a refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley [File: Ali Hashisho/Reuters]
“The biggest problem is the total absence of accountability,” Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint Joseph’s University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “Even the Lebanese minister of finance acknowledged that local corruption could be a major [issue].”
The country’s poor do not benefit from money coming into the country, left to fend for themselves.
“In this country, we live by the blessing of God Almighty, … and people help each other,” Abu Omar, the owner of a clothing shop in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest and poorest city, told Al Jazeera.
“Everything is very expensive, and the economic situation is very bad. There’s no money and very little work and lots of taxes.”
Lebanon’s Parliament passed a new budget in January aimed at cutting its significant deficit, which the World Bank says is 12.8 percent of its gross domestic product.
The new budget increased the value-added tax and decreased progressive taxes on things like capital gains, real estate and investments – hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest, according to economists.
“With this kind of strategy to curb the deficit, people can’t meet basic needs of health, food, shelter and education,” Farah Al Shami, the social protection programme leader at the Arab Reform Initiative, told Al Jazeera.
“They’re just asking people to starve and to die.”
‘Nothing new under the sun’
International financial institutions like the World Bank have been pushing Lebanon’s leaders to introduce reforms to increase “transparency, inclusion and accountability” as a condition for releasing aid packages.
The International Monetary Fund has been sitting on a badly needed $3bn package that would, in theory, help the state’s many near-bankrupt, paralysed institutions get up and running again.
Lebanon’s political elite has avoided implementing reforms, worried that transparency may reveal corruption among a leaders focused on protecting their business monopolies, according to Leila Dagher and Sumru Altug, writing for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
The alternative, according to some observers, has been to wait and hope that the international community will eventually feel that it is to its benefit to prop up even a failing governing structure as long as it helps hold back some refugees.
The EU has given Lebanon more than 3 billion euros ($3.3bn) since 2011, half of which was to help with the fallout from the war in Syria – money that was supposed to help refugees become self-sufficient and help the Lebanese host community.
Another 860 million euros ($934m) has gone to humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable in Lebanon, including refugees and the poor.
Expectations that the latest EU package will have a different impact this time around are unrealistic, analysts said.
“There is nothing new under the sun [in this deal],” according to Bitar.
Politics supersedes all
Much of the money provided by foreign governments and international bodies to Lebanon since 2011 is assumed to have found its way into the pockets of corrupt bankers, businessmen and politicians.
But that has not stopped the EU from growing closer to the Lebanese ruling class and prioritising its political considerations.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has been coordinating with caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati over migration as the economy and local hostility push more Syrians and Lebanese to attempt the sea crossing to Europe.
Von der Leyen, who recently announced her re-election bid, was the smiling face of the latest aid package as she stood beside Mikati and Christodoulides.
“Unfortunately, there is nothing positive we can expect from her,” Bitar said, “neither on the Lebanese dossier nor on the Syrian refugee file.”
During her tenure as European Commission president, von der Leyen has focused heavily on migration, securing deals with North African countries to reduce refugee flows to Europe despite heavy criticism from rights groups and some EU member states.
“This is just the latest in a series of bad migration deals with Turkey, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, so it’s following a trend in Europe of really abdicating responsibilities for migrants and refugees,” Adriana Tidona, a European migration researcher at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera.
“Europe is risking becoming complicit in very serious human rights violations.”
A shirtless Fury eyeballed the Ukrainian and then pushed him angrily, sparking a brief melee on stage, before hurling a series of swear words at his opponent on Friday.
“We’re ready to rock and roll, so fireworks tomorrow night. I’m going knock [him] spark out,” raged the 35-year-old Brit, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“I’m coming for his heart, that’s what I’m coming for. [Forget] his belts. I’m coming for his heart, he’s getting it tomorrow, spark out!”
Fury weighed in at 118.8 kilos (262 pounds), more than 6.8kg (15 pounds) lighter than his last outing, while Usyk was 105.9kg (233.5 pounds), significantly heavier than his customary 100.2kg (221 pounds).
Ukraine’s Usyk, when asked what he had said to Fury, replied: “Don’t be afraid, I won’t leave you tomorrow.”
He said he was able to remain so calm “because that’s my plan. If I’m nervous, I won’t win”.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are both undefeated in their professional boxing careers. That streak will come to an end for one of these competitors on Saturday night in Riyadh [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters]
Promoter Frank Warren called it the “most important fight of the 21st century”.
“It’s the fight we’ve been waiting for – the two best heavyweights in the world, both undefeated,” he said on a sweltering Thursday evening.
“This is something special. Fights like [this] come along once in a generation.”
Opinions are split over the outcome, with some tipping the rangy, street-smart “Gypsy King” Fury and others backing the supreme skills and fitness of Usyk.
“Tyson Fury should win on points,” Lewis told the BBC. “The bigger guy has longer arms, great movement.”
However, Tony Bellew, Usyk’s final victim at cruiserweight, warned: “He is the purest and best boxer Fury will ever face in his life.”
“The guy is on another platform. There are boxers and then there is Usyk,” Bellew added.
The final build-up has been explosive at times, including when Fury’s father headbutted a member of Usyk’s entourage and was seen with blood streaming down his face.
However, both fighters were taciturn during the final news conference on Thursday, with Fury promising to pray for Usyk and the Ukrainian scribbling down a poem.
Fury tipped the scales at a bulky 125.9kg (277.7 pounds) against MMA convert Francis Ngannou in October, when he looked sluggish and was knocked down before winning a split decision.
The “Gypsy King” was 112kg (247 pounds) for his biggest victory to date, upsetting Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. His career-lightest weight was 111.3kg (245.5 pounds) for Vinny Maddalone in 2012.
Usyk, a former cruiserweight, had previously been remarkably consistent during his heavyweight career, weighing in at 100.2kg (221 pounds) for his 2021 and 2022 wins over Anthony Joshua, and 99.7kg (220 pounds) against Daniel Dubois last year.
Tales of his training are legendary, including 10-kilometre (6-mile) swims, four-minutes-plus breath-holds, juggling – and catching – six coins at once to demonstrate his reflexes.
With little to choose between them, it may come down to whoever can stay smart and adapt over the 12 scheduled rounds.
Israeli forces have continued to bombard the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israel’s military offensive is deepening a humanitarian crisis in the already ravaged part of the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas said on Friday that its fighters were battling invading Israeli troops in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia – the Gaza Strip’s largest refugee camp – in some of the fiercest confrontations since soldiers returned to the area a week ago.
Israeli forces have stepped up their attacks on northern Gaza in recent days, displacing more than 100,000 people, according to United Nations figures.
Residents said Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles had moved deep into the heart of Jabalia while bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Palestinian Civil Defence said at least 93 bodies were recovered within 24 hours from the “streets and the alleyways” of Jabalia.
“They are saying there are still more bodies in areas that they are unable to reach,” Mahmoud said.
Meanwhile, fighting between Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli military was also reported in other parts of the coastal territory.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, said on Friday that their fighters shelled an Israeli “command post” in the south part of Gaza City.
The spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, also said in a rare statement that Hamas fighters had targeted 100 Israeli army vehicles across all “fighting fronts” over the past 10 days and had inflicted casualties.
Lack of humanitarian supplies
Israel’s intensifying bombardment of Gaza comes as the United Nations and human rights advocates continue to call for a lasting ceasefire to end the war, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians since early October. The war began after Hamas carried out attacks in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people.
Gaza faces dire shortages of food, water, medicine and other critical supplies because Israel has impeded aid deliveries.
This month, the Israeli army seized and shut down the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt – a vital entry point for aid in southern Gaza.
On Friday, the US military announced that the first trucks began making deliveries to Gaza of aid arriving at a temporary pier set up by the country off the coast of Gaza.
The US military’s Central Command said “trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore” via the pier a day after it was anchored to a Gaza beach.
“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature,” it said.
The aid is being transported from Cyprus, the European Union’s easternmost member, about 360km (225 miles) from Gaza. The first shipment included 88,000 cans of food from Romania, the 27-member bloc said.
Pier ‘not a replacement’
But the UN and other observers have said the pier is not a solution. Instead, they have urged Israel to allow aid into Gaza through land crossings.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Friday that the UN had agreed to help receive aid and arrange for its dispatch to Gaza from the floating pier “as long as … the neutrality and independence of humanitarian operations” are respected.
But Haq said aid deliveries by land remain the most effective way to combat the humanitarian crisis impacting 2.3 million people in Gaza.
“Given the immense needs in Gaza, the floating dock is intended to supplement existing land crossings of aid into Gaza, including Rafah, Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem] and Erez [Beit Hanoon]. It is not meant to replace any crossings,” Haq said.
That was echoed by White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, who told Al Jazeera on Friday that the pier “is an additive, not an alternative, to ground crossings”.
“It is not a replacement,” said Kirby, who added that the US is hoping to increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza in the next “72 hours or so”.
Still, Kirby said the pier itself “will not be enough all on its own to get the food, water and medicine that the Palestinians living in Gaza so desperately need”. “We have to get those land crossings open as soon as possible,” Kirby said.
Israel says captives’ bodies retrieved
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said on Friday that it had retrieved the bodies of three captives from the Gaza Strip.
Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari identified the three as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter, who he said “were murdered by Hamas while escaping the Nova music festival on October 7 and their bodies were taken into Gaza”.
Hagari did not say where the bodies were found.
The Israeli government had confirmed the death of German-Israeli Louk, a 23-year-old tattoo artist, in late October. But the family of 57-year-old Gelernter was “in total darkness” about his fate until Friday, his daughter, Yarden Pivko, told Channel 12 News.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the military operation in a statement on Friday and reiterated a pledge to return all the captives, “the living and the deceased alike”.
In response to the announcement, the Qassam Brigades said it was “sceptical” of Israel’s claim. It added that the only way for the remaining captives to return alive was through a truce.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are displaced, their homes turned to rubble and their futures indefinitely on hold. Al Jazeera’s Urooba Jamal recounts speaking to a young student, a father of three and an artist about how this war is deferring their dreams.
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![Syrian refugee children play together at a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon in 2020 [File: Ali Hashisho/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-11-11T000000Z_492780908_RC2X0K9O1WL0_RTRMADP_3_SYRIA-SECURITY-ASSAD-REFUGEES.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C519)
