Have you missed the news a bit in the last two days? We summarize the main news for Saturday October 21 and Sunday October 22.
After fifteen days of war between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian convoys entered the Gaza Strip, under Israeli blockade, on Saturday and Sunday. These trucks crossed the Rafah terminal, a border town with Egypt, opened exceptionally for this humanitarian operation. A first convoy of around 20 trucks arrived in Gaza on Saturday, but, according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 100 trucks per day are needed. On Sunday, a second convoy of seventeen trucks passed through Rafah. Furthermore, six tanker trucks transported fuel there on Sunday, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Rocket fire from Palestinian groups targeting Israel continues to respond to Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave where, according to the United Nations, 1 million people have fled bombings in the north to mass in the south, near the border with Israel. ‘Egypt. The situation is “catastrophic”, five UN agencies said on Saturday. Cairo, meanwhile, was the scene of a “peace summit,” which failed to forge an “international consensus” to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza war and respect for international law. The summit, attended by heads of state, ministers and diplomats, mainly European and Arab, closed without a joint final communiqué.
The Israeli army also announced on Saturday that it was intensifying its strikes on the Gaza Strip as part of preparations for the next phase of Operation Iron Swords, which consists of investing the Palestinian territory, controlled by Hamas, in order to “wipe out” the Islamist movement. Tensions are not easing on the border between Israel and Lebanon either. Residents are fleeing border areas as exchanges of fire increase between the Israeli army and pro-Iranian Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Thousands of opponents of the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres demonstrated on Saturday on the outskirts of Castres. The mobilization ended on Sunday after the police dislodged opponents from the construction site in the locality of La Crémade, east of Castres, where they were organizing themselves into a zone to defend (ZAD). Nine people were arrested, six members of the police were slightly injured and the organizers reported around thirty minor injuries, without the SDIS or SAMU being contacted.
The day before, the demonstration had brought together more than 10,000 people, according to organizers. The prefecture, for its part, reported 2,400 demonstrators in the main procession, and “2,500 violent individuals”, who attacked two companies, the Carayon cement factory and a construction company, Bardou et fils, all two engaged on the A69 construction site, according to the Atosca concessionaire.
During a press conference at the end of the day on Sunday, the prefect of Tarn reported around 150 people still present around the evacuated site, in a neighboring field. But “the majority of them put away their tents and dismantle the tents,” according to the prefect. “There is no longer (…) any form of aggression towards the gendarmerie forces,” he assured.
At least six people were killed and seventeen were injured Saturday by Russian missile attacks on a postal depot in the suburbs of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, local officials reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video on social media of what appears to be a badly damaged warehouse next to debris and a container bearing the logo of Ukrainian private postal operator Nova Pochta.
The six people killed and the injured were “employees of the company who were inside the Nova Pochta terminal,” Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synehoubov said. “The victims, aged 19 to 42, were injured by shrapnel and blast [from the explosions],” he added.
Englishman Bobby Charlton, world champion in 1966 and former Manchester United star, has died at the age of 86, the English club and his family announced on Saturday. “Manchester United is in mourning following the death of Sir Bobby Charlton, one of the greatest and most loved players in the club’s history,” Manchester United wrote in a statement.
Born in Ashington, a working-class town in the north-east of England on October 11, 1937, Bobby Charlton joined United at the age of 15. Renowned for his formidable strikes, he had also become, over the course of his career, the symbol of elegance and sportsmanship.
South Africa, defending champion, will defend its world crown against New Zealand in a week, after having forced the lock of a locked semi-final on Saturday against England (16-15). “We are in the final, that’s all that matters,” said the colossal second row Eben Etzebeth at the end of a match where the Springboks were trailing for seventy-eight minutes.
In the final, it will therefore be a remake of the 1995 final between the first two in the World Rugby rankings: the Springboks against the All Blacks. At the time, South Africa won painfully (15-12, ap) thanks to the play at the foot of their opener Joël Stransky. Twenty-eight years after their first home title, the South Africans therefore have the opportunity to become the first to sew a fourth star on their jersey (after 1995, 2007 and 2019), a quest that the New Zealanders are also pursuing (1987, 2011 and 2015).
