Israeli military orders one million in Gaza to evacuate south
Some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should move to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has told the United Nations (UN), the body said late on Thursday. “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” he said.
Israel Hamas war
- Varadkar accuses Israel of breaching international law in Gaza siege: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has accused Israel of engaging in “collective punishment” in cutting off power and water to the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip.
- ‘Everything you can imagine and worse’ awaits Israeli army in Gaza: Eyal was 26 when the army sapper first entered Gaza, sent in by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to help dismantle the extensive tunnels that Hamas had dug to hide its fighters and sneak into Israeli territory.
- Kim Damti funeral: ‘We stand with you,’ Irish ambassador tells mourners: More than 1,000 people came to the cemetery in the central Israeli town of Gedera on Thursday to pay their last respects to Kim Damti (22), the Israeli-Irish woman killed in the Hamas terror attack on Saturday morning.
- Her death ‘is best of the possibilities I knew’, says Irish father of girl (8) killed in Israel: A father has described the moment that rescue teams told him that they had recovered the body of his eight-year-old daughter in Israel after Hamas militants stormed their kibbutz.
Top News Stories
- Tina Satchwell murder suspect questioned after body found in Cork house: A man arrested on suspicion of murdering missing woman Tina Satchwell following the discovery of human remains in a house in Youghal, Co Cork, was continuing to be questioned by gardaí last night.
- Fears Peter McVerry Trust crisis will have ‘contagion effect’: Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has been warned that the financial and governance crisis engulfing the Peter McVerry Trust could have a “contagion effect” and impact public trust in other housing charities.
- Plea deal could avert new US trial over killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett: A potential new plea deal which could avoid a retrial of Molly and Tom Martens over the killing of Limerick businessman Jason Corbett is understood to have been discussed in legal circles in the US.
- Garda to accept recruits aged up to 50 under new changes: The Garda will now accept new recruits up to the age of 50 years under a new rule change aimed at increasing the size of the force and creating a more diverse skills and ethnicity mix in Irish policing.
- Doctor who forged letter from Blackrock Clinic to stay at luxury hotel during pandemic found guilty of professional misconduct: A doctor who forged a document from the Blackrock Clinic in order to stay at an upmarket boutique hotel in Dublin “for essential purposes” during the Covid-19 pandemic has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
- RTÉ will be insolvent without multimillion euro bailout by next spring, PAC hears: RTÉ will be insolvent if it does not receive a bailout of tens of millions of euro by next spring, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard.
- Ireland’s weather today: Rain in Munster and Leinster will gradually clear eastwards. Bright or sunny spells for the rest of the day. There will be showers in Ulster and Connacht. Cool and breezy with highest temperatures of 11 to 14 degrees and moderate to fresh, gusty northwest winds.
- Happening today: A Garda Graduation Ceremony will take place at Templemore today, attended by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, while the Esri will host a post budget briefing.
The Big Read
- Disputes among national watchdogs over Big Tech fines are ‘no problem’ - Europe’s chief data regulator: Ireland’s outsize role as the main enforcer of EU data law is divisive. Privacy investigations into social media giants Facebook and TikTok have sparked bitter disputes with regulators in Germany and beyond, prompting repeated claims that the Dublin authorities are ineffective, which they are quick to deny, writes Arthur Beesley.
The best from Opinion
- Two wrongs do not make a right, they make a vortex of horror: During the slaughter at the Nahal Oz kibbutz last Saturday, terrified residents hiding from Hamas killers pleaded for help on their WhatsApp group. When their phones started pinging with messages in Hebrew telling them the attack was over and it was safe to come out, and they duly did, the gunmen were waiting outside to mow them down. It transpired the killers had used the phones of earlier Israeli victims to lure the people to their deaths.
Life & Style highlights
- ‘A lot of people feel very detached from the Irish language, there is a sense of resentment’: I never imagined I’d be a teacher, especially not an Irish teacher. I grew up in Dalkey in Dublin. We’d have the cúpla focail at home, but my grandmother was a Gaeilgeoir and she really inspired me. I got kicked out of the Gaeltacht when I was 13. I said one sentence in English – it was very strict. I went back and became cinnire and then príomh cinnire, so I did have a good level of Irish. I did well in the Leaving Cert, but I never really connected with Irish on a deep level.
Top Sports news
- ‘His abilities to catch and kick and run were superb’ - when Beauden Barrett played GAA: Around Ballinacree they still remember when a flock of future All Blacks arrived, because at that time clumps of green and gold fertiliser-bag bunting continued to flutter steadfastly in north Meath.
- Stephen Kenny on his guard before showdown with ‘streetwise’ Greece: For what it’s worth, battle lines have been drawn in advance of a European Championship qualifier of enormous importance to Greek football.
Today's Business
- Budget to boost incomes by 2%, insulating households from inflation – ESRI: Budget 2024 will insulate most households in the State from the impact of rising prices next year, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
- Online and mobile banking thrives as decline of cheques gathers pace - BPFI: Cheque transaction volumes have fallen to their lowest level since at least 2008 while the popularity of online and mobile banking has continued to grow, the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) has said.
Martyn Turner
Letters to the Editor
Israel and Hamas – war in the Middle East: A chara, – As we witness the terrible suffering of people in Israel and in Gaza, let us remember that several things can be true at the same time. Nobody can deny that Hamas have committed unimaginable atrocities and that Israel has the right to defend itself from such acts of terrorism. It is also true that the Palestinians have suffered a great deal for decades (both as a result of actions by the state of Israel and because their best interests have not always been served by their own leadership) and Israel does not have the right to target innocent civilians in Gaza or threaten them with starvation. – Is mise,
KAY CHALMERS, Douglas, Cork.
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Podcast Highlights
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Review of the day
- Big Brother reboot: you’ll be familiar with this concept from the Dublin rental market: In Tuesday’s episode of the revived Big Brother (Sunday-Friday, Virgin Media 2) a thoughtful housemate named Matty explains the plot of a George Orwell novel to an assortment of housemates who are seemingly ignorant of the provenance of the Big Brother concept. “This guy, George Orwell, in the 1940s wrote a book, a fiction book, about a prediction of what 1974 would be like in 30 years’ time,” says Matty. “He pictured this dystopian society ... He made the phrase ‘Big Brother is always watching you’. So everything you do is regulated. They know where you shop, they know what food you like, they know how much you weigh, they know everything about you and then they control you,” writes Patrick Freyne.
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