Hamas pone ostacoli al piano per il cessate il fuoco🗞️ Rassegna del 13/06/2024

Israele

(New York Times) Blinken Calls Some Hamas Changes to Cease-Fire Proposal ‘Unacceptable’

• Hamas’s response to a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal for Gaza includes some changes that are “unacceptable,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that the Biden administration would continue trying to strike a deal between Israel and Hamas.

• Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, alongside Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Mr. Blinken said that “a deal was on the table that was virtually identical” to one that Hamas put forward on May 6.

• But, he said, Hamas’s response, which was received by Egypt and Qatari mediators and passed to American officials on Tuesday, makes demands that “go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”

• Mr. Blinken declined to disclose details about the Hamas counterproposal. But he suggested that the group’s changing demands called into question the sincerity of its negotiating. At some point, he said, “you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”

(New York Times) A U.N. report accuses both Israel and Palestinian groups of war crimes.

• A United Nations commission investigating the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent conflict in Gaza has accused both Palestinian armed groups and Israel of committing war crimes, and the panel said that Israel’s conduct of the war included crimes against humanity.

• The report said that Hamas’s military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups — aided in some instances by Palestinian civilians — killed and tortured people during the Oct. 7 assault on Israel in which more than 800 civilians were among the more than 1,200 killed. An additional 252 people, including 36 children, were taken hostage, the report said.

• But Israel, during its monthslong campaign in Gaza to oust Hamas, has also committed war crimes, the commission said, like the use of starvation as a weapon of war through a total siege of Gaza. It said Israel’s use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas amounted to a direct attack on the civilian population and had the essential elements of a crime against humanity, disregarding the necessity of distinguishing between combatants and civilians and causing a disproportionately high number of civilian casualties, particularly among women and children.

• The commission — which includes Chris Sidoti, an Australian expert on human rights law, and Miloon Kothari, an Indian expert on human rights and social policy — said Israel had refused to cooperate with its investigation and denied the group access to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel also did not respond to six requests for information, the panel said.

• The group based its findings on interviews with survivors and witnesses conducted remotely and in person in visits to Turkey and Egypt. It also drew on satellite imagery, forensic medical records and open source data, including photographs and video shot by Israeli troops and shared on social media.

(Guardian) Hezbollah fires big salvo of rockets at Israel after senior commander killed

• The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has launched its biggest salvo of rockets at Israel since the war in Gaza began, in apparent retaliation for the killing of a senior field commander, bringing the two sides closer to all-out conflict.

• An Israeli airstrike on the village of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three Hezbollah operatives as well as Taleb Abdallah, the most senior commander to be killed since hostilities began eight months ago.

• On Wednesday, the Iran-allied militia fired a barrage of about 50 rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, followed by another 90 fired at northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Some were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems, but summer heatwave temperatures meant the projectiles caused fires in a number of areas.

Ucraina

(Al Jazeera) Hungary to allow NATO aid to flow to Ukraine

• Hungary has agreed not to block NATO military aid to Ukraine, but it will not help either, the military alliance’s chief says. After meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Budapest on Wednesday that he “accepts” the position of the Central European country not to participate in NATO efforts for Ukraine.

• “No Hungarian personnel will take part in these activities and no Hungarian funds will be used to support them,” Stoltenberg said. “At the same time, the prime minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose these efforts, enabling other allies to move forward, and he has confirmed that Hungary will continue to meet its NATO commitments in full,” he added.

• This year, Stoltenberg announced that NATO is seeking to guarantee long-term weapon deliveries to Kyiv and establish a 100-billion-euro ($108bn) fund to pay for them. However, Hungary was quick to express its opposition. The alliance hopes to seal an agreement on the proposals at a summit next month, and NATO decisions require consensus among its 32 members.

(New York Times) Ukraine Says It Shot Down Most of a Russian Missile and Drone Barrage

• Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had drawn on stocks of antiaircraft missiles recently replenished by the United States and other allies to shoot down 29 of 30 missiles and exploding drones that Russia had fired at the country in an overnight barrage.

• It was one of the better rates of interception by Ukraine so far during the war and underscored the impact of having fresh supplies of Western weaponry to bolster a war effort that had struggled mightily in recent months.

• The cruise missiles, launched from bombers flying in Russian air space, were timed to arrive in Kyiv simultaneously with a volley of Iranian-designed Shahed exploding drones. In the overall attack, according to the Ukraine Air Force, Russia also fired three ballistic missiles, an Iskander medium-range, ground-launched ballistic missile and two air-launched Kinzhal, or Dagger missiles, which are dispatched from airplanes and fly at hypersonic speeds. Ukrainian and Western officials have said that Patriot interceptors are the only defense against the Dagger missiles.

• Ukraine shot down five of six missiles and all 24 Shahed drones, the air force said in a statement that could not be independently confirmed. The average shoot-down rate for drones for the 12 months through April was about 80 percent, data from the Ukraine Air Force shows. The interception rate for missiles had fallen in some months this year to less than 50 percent, the data indicated.

• European countries have also ramped up supplies of air-defense missiles to Ukraine. With more missiles available for short, medium and long-range systems, Ukraine could be expected to increase its ratio of interceptions during Russian missile attacks, said Valeriy Romanenko, a senior researcher at Ukraine’s National Aviation University. The attack on Wednesday showed good results in downing cruise missiles, Mr. Romanenko said, but too few were fired to ascertain whether Ukraine’s air defenses have been fully restored after the shortages. The volley was possibly a probing attack by Russia to flush out the location of Ukrainian air-defense positions, he said. The real test would come with a larger barrage. 

(Kyiv Independent) Rheinmetall, Kyiv agree to start producing Lynx armored vehicles in Ukraine in 2024

• The German arms company Rheinmetall and the Ukrainian government agreed on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin to begin production of the modern Lynx armored vehicles in Ukraine this year, officials confirmed for the media on June 12.

• "The first such vehicle will be produced in Ukraine by the end of the year," Strategic Industries Minister Alexander Kamyshin told Ukrinform in Berlin.

• The news comes shortly after Rheinmetall opened its first plant in Ukraine. The factory will repair and later also produce armored vehicles jointly with the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise Ukroboronprom.

• The location of the plant was not disclosed due to security reasons. The company previously said it plans to open at least four production plants in Ukraine.

(Kyiv Independent) G7 agrees on transfer of $50 billion in profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

• The G7 has reached an agreement to provide Ukraine with $50 billion by the end of the year using profits from frozen Russian assets, the French presidency said on June 12 in comments reported by AFP. On June 11, it was reported the G7 will create a fund to support Ukraine using the income generated from frozen Russian assets, Nikkei Asia reported.

• The fund will reportedly be created under an international organization such as the World Bank, with contributions in the form of “Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration” (ERA) loans.

• While Western countries have frozen $300 billion in Russian assets, they can only access the income generated by these funds, approximately $3.2 billion, annually. By setting up a fund with loans to be repaid using this income, countries can offer immediate support to Ukraine beyond this amount.

• The U.S. proposed seizing Russian assets outright in accordance with its recently passed REPO act, but the European Union has been more hesitant, fearing legal and fiscal pitfalls of confiscation.

Russia

(New York Times) U.S. Expands Sanctions on Russia as G7 Leaders Gather

• The Biden administration announced a series of new financial sanctions Wednesday aimed at interrupting the fast-growing technological links between China and Russia that American officials believe are behind a broad effort to rebuild and modernize Russia’s military during its war with Ukraine.

• At the heart of the new measures is an expansion of “secondary” sanctions that give the United States the power to blacklist any bank around the world that does business with Russian financial institutions already facing sanctions. This is intended to deter smaller banks, especially in places like China, from helping Russia finance its war effort.

• The Treasury Department also imposed restrictions on the stock exchange in Moscow in hopes of preventing foreign investors from propping up Russian defense companies. The sanctions hit several Chinese companies that are accused of helping Russia gain access to critical military equipment such as electronics, lasers and drone components.

• Although the measures expand the reach of the U.S. sanctions program, the Biden administration has so far held back from imposing sanctions on Chinese or European banks that it believes are helping Russia. The new measures do not restrict banks from facilitating transactions related to Russia’s energy exports, which the Biden administration has allowed to continue out of concern that restricting them could fuel inflation.

• In a separate move, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the State Department was imposing sanctions on more than 100 entities, including companies “engaged in the development of Russia’s future energy, metals, and mining production and export capacity.”

Europa

EU

(Reuters) EU hits Chinese EVs with tariffs, drawing rebuke from Beijing

• The European Commission said it will impose extra duties of up to 38.1% on imported Chinese electric cars from July, risking retaliation from Beijing which said on Wednesday it would take measures to safeguard its interests.

• Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics, said the EU decision marked a big change in its trade policy because, although it used trade defences against China often, it had not done so for such an important industry. The EU launched an anti-subsidy investigation into Chineses EVs in October.

• European policymakers are keen to avoid a repeat of what happened with solar panels a decade ago when the EU took only limited action to curb Chinese imports and many European manufacturers collapsed. 

• Shares in some of Europe's biggest carmakers which make a big portion of their sales in China, fell on fears of Chinese retaliation. Some like BMW will also now incur duties on their EVs made in China and sold in Europe.

• Beijing passed a law in April to strengthen its ability to hit back should the U.S. or EU impose tariffs on exports of the world's No. 2 economy.