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Jumat, 14 Mei 2021

Death toll rises as violence rocks Gaza, Israel and West Bank - CNA

GAZA: Israeli planes renewed air strikes in Gaza early on Saturday (May 15) and Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth night and United States and Arab diplomats sought an end to the violence.

Palestinian medics said at least four people were killed in one of several air strikes in northern Gaza. Residents said Israeli naval boats fired shells from the Mediterranean though none may have hit the strip.

The Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli planes destroyed a mosque. A military spokesman said the army was checking the report.

Sirens sounded in two major southern Israeli cities warning of incoming fire from Gaza. Hamas claimed responsibility for launching rockets.

With no sign of an end to the fighting, casualties spread further afield, with Palestinians reporting 11 killed in the occupied West Bank amid clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Israel Palestinians — Palestinian relatives mourn over the bodies of four brothers from the Tanani family that were found under the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2021. (Photo: AP/Khalil Hamra)

At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.

Hamas said a woman and a boy were among four people killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a home belonging to the Abu Hattab family in Gaza City's Beach refugee camp. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike.

Among eight dead in Israel were a soldier patrolling the Gaza border and six civilians, including two children, Israeli authorities said.

Ahead of a session of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday to discuss the situation, Biden administration envoy Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, flew in on Friday.

READ: UN Security Council to meet on Israel-Palestinian violence after US delay

The US Embassy in Israel said the aim was "to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm".

Israel launched day-long attacks on Friday to destroy what it said were several kilometres of tunnels, launch sites and weapons manufacturing warehouses used by the militants in an effort to halt the rocket attacks.

APTOPIX Israel Palestinians — Palestinians inspect their destroyed houses following overnight Israeli airstrikes in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2021. (Photo: AP/Khalil Hamra)

Across central and southern Israel, from small towns bordering Gaza to metropolitan Tel Aviv and southern Beersheba, people have adjusted to sirens wailing, radio and TV broadcast interruptions and the beeps of cellphones bearing red alerts that send them rushing for cover.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have been accompanied by violence in mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel. Synagogues have been attacked and street fights have broken out, prompting Israel's president to warn of civil war.

DIPLOMATIC FLURRY

Egypt was leading regional efforts to secure a ceasefire. Cairo was pushing for both sides to cease fire from midnight on Friday pending further negotiations, two Egyptian security sources said, with Egypt leaning on Hamas and others, including the US, trying to reach an agreement with Israel.

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan discussed efforts to end the Gaza confrontation and to prevent "provocations" in Jerusalem, Egypt's foreign ministry said.

"The talks have taken a real and serious path on Friday," a Palestinian official said. "The mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations are stepping up their contacts with all sides in a bid to restore calm, but a deal hasn't yet been reached."

The United Arab Emirates on Friday called for a ceasefire and negotiations while offering condolences to all victims of the fighting, citing the promise of September accords that made the UAE and Bahrain the first Arab states in a quarter century to establish formal ties with Israel.

Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, launched the rocket attacks on Monday, in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said more than 2,000 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the start of the conflict, around half of them intercepted by missile defence systems and 350 fell into the Gaza Strip.

Civil unrest between Jews and Arabs in Israel itself dealt a strong blow to efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents to unseat the Israeli leader after a series of inconclusive elections, giving rise to expectations Israelis will go to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time in just over two years.

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2021-05-15 00:42:22Z
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Death toll rises as violence rocks Gaza, Israel and West Bank - CNA

The Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli planes destroyed a mosque. A military spokesman said the army was checking the report.

Sirens sounded in two major southern Israeli cities warning of incoming fire from Gaza. Hamas claimed responsibility for launching rockets.

With no sign of an end to the fighting, casualties spread further afield, with Palestinians reporting 11 killed in the occupied West Bank amid clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.

Among eight dead in Israel were a soldier patrolling the Gaza border and six civilians, including two children, Israeli authorities said.

READ: UN Security Council to meet on Israel-Palestinian violence after US delay

The US Embassy in Israel said the aim was "to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm".

DIPLOMATIC FLURRY

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan discussed efforts to end the Gaza confrontation and to prevent "provocations" in Jerusalem, Egypt's foreign ministry said.

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Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine rollout begins in India - CNA

NEW DELHI: India on Friday (May 14) started deploying Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country as it reels from an explosion in cases and deaths.

Sputnik in mid-April became the third vaccine to be approved by New Delhi along with the AstraZeneca shot - made in India - and the homegrown Covaxin of Bharat Biotech.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which helped finance the jab, said vaccination started in the southern city of Hyderabad on Friday, making Sputnik V the "first foreign-made vaccine that is used in India".

"RDIF stands ready to support our partners in India to launch a full-scale vaccination with Sputnik V as soon as possible," the fund's CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.

The first token batch of Sputnik vaccines - reportedly 150,000 of them - arrived on May 1 and a second delivery is expected in the next few days.

But a number of leading India-based drugmakers, including Virchow Biotech and Hetero Biopharma, have agreements for local production of Sputnik V with the aim to produce over 850 million doses of the jab a year.

EXPLODING CASES

In recent days India has been adding roughly as many new COVID-19 cases as the rest of the world put together.

More than 260,000 Indians have died, according to official figures. Experts believe the true death toll could be more than a million.

READ: India 'on war footing' as COVID-19 infections pass 24 million

The pandemic has eased slightly in recent days in major cities in New Delhi but appears now to be raging in India's vast rural hinterland where two-thirds of people live.

Health care facilities are poor in rural areas and many locals rely on unqualified amateur doctors who are misdiagnosing COVID-19 patients.

More than 100 bodies have washed up on the banks of the Ganges in northern India in recent days while dozens of shallow graves have been found by the river.

FALTERING

India began vaccinating its huge population of 1.3 billion people in early 2021 but it has faltered.

So far it has administered about 180 million jabs but only around 40 million people are fully vaccinated - around three percent of the population.

On May 1 it expanded the programme to cover all adults. Previously only those over 45 or certain groups like health care workers could get a jab.

But because of dire shortages and confusion over prices, many Indian states have been unable to meet demand.

Technical problems have meant that those under 44 have struggled to make appointments on government apps.

Those without smart phones - who make up a large chunk of the population - have largely been excluded altogether.

READ: India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh to spend up to US$1 billion to buy COVID-19 vaccines

India is known as the "pharmacy of the world" and is home to the Serum Institute, the largest vaccine maker in the world by volume.

Until cases exploded, India was exporting millions of doses of the AstraZeneca jab to dozens of countries, including under the Covax initiative for poorer countries.

But Serum as well as Bharat Biotech have struggled to meet demand and they and the government are scrambling to hike production.

Serum is making 60 million to 70 million AstraZeneca doses per month, and is aiming for 100 million by July. Bharat is aiming to produce 10 million a month and targets 60 million to 70 million.

Besides Sputnik, Indian firms have agreements to make other vaccines including that of Johnson & Johnson, but it could be months until these are deployed.

SOFT POWER

According to the RDIF, Russia's vaccine, which is named after the Soviet-era satellite, has been registered in 65 countries.

It has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Some Western countries have been wary of Sputnik V over concerns the Kremlin would use it as a soft-power tool to advance its interests.

Moscow registered the jab in August before large-scale clinical trials, but leading medical journal The Lancet has since said it is safe and more than 90 per cent effective.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2021-05-14 15:03:50Z
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Taiwan sees another record jump in community transmission of Covid-19 cases - The Straits Times

TAIPEI - Taiwan saw a record rise in community transmission of Covid-19 cases on Friday (May 14), with 29 new cases, including 16 linked to a cluster involving teahouses in Taipei's red-light district.

This was a second record jump in a week, after 16 new cases were reported across the island on Wednesday.

The increases have alarmed Taiwanese who, fearing a possible lockdown, have rushed to stock up on essentials.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je has said that bars, dance clubs, karaoke lounges, nightclubs, saunas and Internet cafes as well as hostess clubs and teahouses will close from Saturday until further notice.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference on Friday that many of the 29 new cases were connected to a cluster which arose from teahouses in Taipei's Wanhua district.

Hostesses and patrons were among the confirmed cases, said the Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) and some of those infected had also visited temples, restaurants and markets in central and southern Taiwan.

Dr Chen called for everyone who believed that they may have come into contact with an infected patient to get tested at rapid testing stations set up around Wanhua.

"The sooner testing happens, the sooner the chain of transmission can be broken," he said.

The island, which has been praised for its highly effective Covid-19 response, has been hit with a string of clusters since late April.

The surge in infections began with several China Airlines crew members and their families, and this later spread to staff at a hotel being used for quarantine at Taoyuan International Airport. Hotel staff consequently infected family members.

In northern Taoyuan, the city government has decided to shut down entertainment venues from Saturday to June 8.

Another cluster began in north-eastern Taiwan's Yilan county on Wednesday, centred on an amusement arcade, with one customer and several arcade employees infected.

A further cluster was detected in Luzhou district in New Taipei city, involving members of the Lions Club International organisation. One member in particular infected 20 of his friends.

Those in the Yilan, Luzou, China Airlines and quarantine hotel clusters were infected with the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain, which National Taiwan University public health professor Chen Hsiu-hsi said was "extremely infectious or about three times more so than that of the strain first detected in Wuhan in China".

On Tuesday, the authorities announced stricter measures for gatherings, dining at restaurants and taking public transportation and the tough measures are scheduled to last until June 8.

"I think it might be mid-June before things get better," said Prof Chen.

The island has so far recorded 1,290 confirmed cases, with 12 deaths.

People queueing to buy face masks at a store in Taipei on May 12, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

Mounting infections have led to renewed interest in vaccinations as concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine - the only one available on the island now - take a back seat.

The number of people getting vaccinated in a day went from 3,690 on April 30 - 10 days after the airline cluster erupted - to over 10,000 a day on Thursday. Nearly 130,000 doses have been administered, which is roughly 41 per cent of what Taiwan has obtained.

President Tsai Ing-wen told a news conference on Thursday that a domestic vaccine was expected to become available to the public starting late July.

Taipei closes entertainment venues as COVID-19 outbreak spreads - CNA

TAIPEI: Taiwan's capital on Friday (May 14) announced an indefinite closure of entertainment venues in the wake of a widening outbreak of local COVID-19 infections.

The self-ruled island has been hailed as a global leader in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, with just 1,290 confirmed cases, 12 deaths and minimal social distancing needed once the initial outbreak was quelled.

But an outbreak first detected among pilots has spread into the community and forced the reimposition of restrictions in a place that has so far weathered the pandemic unscathed.

The Taipei city government's decision, effective from Saturday, covers bars, dance clubs, karaoke lounges, nightclubs, saunas and Internet cafes as well as hostess clubs and teahouses.

Municipal facilities including libraries and sports centres will also be closed.

READ: Taiwan premier says no need to raise COVID-19 alert level for now

The move came after Taiwan reported 29 locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases on Friday - a single-day high - including 16 cases linked to a cluster involving hostess teahouses in the city.

The source of seven of the local infections was still pending investigation, health authorities said.

"The outbreak continues to widen so we have to upgrade the pandemic prevention measures," mayor Ko Wen-je told reporters.

"But we urge residents not to panic ... We had kept the pandemic under control effectively in the past year but we may have become too relaxed. We need to be vigilant again and we can still bring it under control."

Taiwan raised the coronavirus alert level and banned large gatherings earlier this week after the latest cluster spread in Taipei and other cities.

READ: Taiwan's China Airlines says pilot quarantines to impact freight operations

In northern Taoyuan, where there was a cluster involving staff members at an airline and an airport hotel, the city government has also decided to shut down entertainment venues from Saturday to Jun 8.

A similar cluster centred around a hospital led to the suspension of large-scale Lantern Festival events during the Chinese New year in February. That outbreak was quickly brought under control.

Last year Taiwan recorded 253 straight days without any local infections.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2021-05-14 10:58:23Z
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China reports first local COVID-19 cases in more than 3 weeks - CNA

SHANGHAI: China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on May 13, including its first local transmissions in more than three weeks, the country's national health authority said on Friday (May 14).

Two of the new cases were local infections in the eastern province of Anhui, the National Health Commission said in a statement.

The cases were the first local transmissions since Apr 20, when China recorded two local infections in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where a city on the border with Myanmar reported a new cluster in late March.

China's official Xinhua news agency reported that one of the local cases, surnamed Li, had travelled to Anhui on May 1 from Dalian, a port city in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

The other case, surnamed Zhang, was in close contact with Li during a training class Li led in the city of Luan, near Anhui's provincial capital Hefei, Xinhua reported.

Another local infection was newly reported on Friday in Feixi county, under Hefei's jurisdiction, according to the city government. The case, surnamed Lu, had shared a hotel room with Li.

Two areas in Luan city and one part of Feixi county were declared "medium-risk" regions by local authorities in response to the cases. State media reported mass testing being carried out in main urban area in Luan and some areas in Hefei.

The other five cases announced Friday were imported infections originating overseas. The health commission had reported nine cases a day earlier, all imported.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 22 from 14 cases a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mainland China now stands at 90,815, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.

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Kamis, 13 Mei 2021

Israel fires artillery into Gaza, Palestinian rocket attacks persist - CNA

GAZA: Israel fired artillery and mounted more air strikes on Friday (May 14) against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip amid constant rocket fire deep into Israel's commercial centre.

As hostilities entered their fifth day, with no sign of abating, the Israeli military said in a statement shortly after midnight that air and ground forces were attacking the Hamas-run enclave. This was confirmed by the army's spokesperson.

But two hours later the army published a clarification saying there were "no soldiers" in Gaza, blaming an "internal communication" problem for the confusion.

Rocket barrages from Gaza swiftly followed.

Israeli military affairs correspondents who are briefed regularly by the armed forces also said it was not a ground invasion, and that troops were firing artillery from Israel's side of the border.

Residents of northern Gaza, near the Israeli frontier, said they had seen no sign of Israeli ground forces inside the enclave but reported heavy artillery fire and dozens of air strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the campaign "will take more time". Israeli officials said Hamas, Gaza's most powerful militant group, must be dealt a strong deterring blow before any ceasefire.

The sound of explosions echoed across northern and eastern parts of Gaza. Witnesses said many families living in areas near the border quit their homes, some seeking shelter at United Nations-run schools.

Violence also spread to mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel, a new front in the long conflict. Synagogues were attacked and fighting broke out on the streets of some towns, prompting Israel's president to warn of civil war.

At least 109 people were killed in Gaza, including 29 children, over the previous four days, Palestinian medical officials said. On Thursday alone, 52 Palestinians were killed in the enclave, the highest single-day figure since Monday.

Seven people were killed in Israel: A soldier patrolling the Gaza border, five Israeli civilians, including two children, and an Indian worker, Israeli authorities said.

UN MEETING DELAYED

Worried that the region's worst hostilities in years could spiral out of control, the United States was sending in an envoy, Hady Amr.

Truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had yet to deliver a sign of progress.

The UN Security Council will hold a virtual public meeting on Sunday to address the soaring violence, diplomats said on Thursday.

The United States, which had blocked an originally scheduled Friday session and proposed a meeting early next week, agreed to move the session - requested by Tunisia, Norway and China - to Sunday, the same sources said.

The US said earlier on Thursday it wanted to give time for diplomacy.

US President Joe Biden called on Thursday for a de-escalation of the violence, saying he wanted to see a significant reduction in rocket attacks.

"PREVENTING POGROMS"

Militants fired rocket salvoes at Tel Aviv and surrounding towns on Thursday, with the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting many of them. Communities near the Gaza border and the southern desert city of Beersheba were also targeted.

Five Israelis were wounded by a rocket that hit a building near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Netanyahu said Israel has struck a total of close to 1,000 militant targets in the territory.

READ: Israel-Palestinian conflict escalates as rockets fly, riots flare

READ: UN Security Council to meet on Israel-Palestinian violence after US delay

The heavy bombardments coincided with the start of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, and saw the faithful pray at mosques and amid the rubble of Gaza's collapsed buildings.

Three rockets were also fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, landing in the Mediterranean Sea, Israel's army said.

A source close to Israel's arch-enemy Hezbollah said the Lebanese Shia group had no link to the incident.

The military escalation was triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

The disturbances, in which riot police had repeatedly clashed with Palestinians, has been driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem.

The surging tensions sparked clashes in many of Israel's mixed towns where Jews live alongside Arabs, who make up about 20 per cent of the country's population.

Nearly 1,000 border police were called in to quell the violence, and more than 400 people were arrested.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said inter-communal violence in multiple towns was at a nadir not seen for decades, and that police were "literally preventing pogroms".

"TWO-FRONT BATTLE"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said police were increasing their use of force, warning of the "option" of deploying soldiers in towns.

Israeli far-right groups have clashed with security forces and Arab Israelis, with television footage Wednesday airing footage of a far-right mob beating a man they considered an Arab in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, leaving him with serious injuries.

In Lod, which has become a flashpoint of Arab-Jewish clashes this week with an Arab resident shot dead and a synagogue torched, a gunman opened fire Thursday at a group of Jews, wounding one.

Netanyahu said the violence was "unacceptable".

"Nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews, and nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs," he said, adding Israel was fighting a battle "on two fronts".

Amid the rocket fire, Israel's civil aviation authority said it had diverted all incoming passenger flights headed for Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport to Ramon airport in the south.

Hamas announced it had also fired a rocket at Ramon, in a bid to stop all air traffic to Israel.

Israeli media said the rocket missed its target, but a number of international airlines cancelled flights amid the aerial onslaught.

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2021-05-14 00:56:07Z
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Jumat, 14 Mei 2021

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Kamis, 13 Mei 2021