While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 4
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Palestinian children riding their bicycles along a street devastated by Israeli bombardment, in Gaza City, on May 3, 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
Hamas accuses Israel PM of trying to derail Gaza truce deal
A top Hamas official accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 3 of trying to derail a proposed Gaza truce and hostage release deal with his threats to keep fighting the Palestinian militant group.
“Netanyahu was the obstructionist of all previous rounds of dialogue... and it is clear that he still is,” senior Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP, by telephone.
Foreign mediators have waited for a Hamas response to a proposal to halt the fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, which its chief Ismail Haniyeh has said the group was considering in a “positive spirit”.
A major stumbling block has been that, while Hamas has demanded a lasting ceasefire, Mr Netanyahu has vowed to crush its remaining fighters in the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.
Cameron statement on arms for Ukraine a ‘direct escalation’
The Kremlin called British Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s statement that Ukraine could use British weapons against targets inside Russia if it wanted to a direct and dangerous escalation of tensions around the conflict.
Mr Cameron promised £3 billion (S$5 billion) of annual military aid for Ukraine for “as long as it takes” on May 2, adding that London had no objection to its weapons being used inside Russia.
“Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself,” Mr Cameron told Reuters, during a visit to Kyiv.
Brazil rains kill at least 37, more than 70 still missing
Heavy rains battering Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, local authorities said on May 3, and the death toll is expected to rise as dozens still have not been accounted for.
More than 70 people were still missing and at least 23,000 had been displaced in the state bordering Uruguay and Argentina, which had nearly half of its 497 cities affected, according to Rio Grande do Sul’s civil defence.
In several towns, streets essentially turned into rivers, with roads and bridges destroyed.
Remains of suspected hostage found in Israel, says army
The remains of Eliakim Libman, who was thought to have been taken hostage by Hamas during its Oct 7 attack, have been found in Israel, the army and his family said on May 3.
Libman, a 24-year-old who was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival in southern Israel when the Palestinian militants carried out their unprecedented attack, “was murdered in the October 7 massacre”, the army said, in a statement.
Libman, who until May 3 had been counted among the around 250 people taken captive during the attack, was “found in Israeli territory”, it said.
Star Wars legend Hamill gives Biden The Force for election
Joe Biden faces a tough reelection battle this November, but for one day at least The Force was with him.
Legendary Star Wars actor Mark Hamill made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on May 3 after meeting the US president.
Hamill, 72, who played the powerful Jedi knight Luke Skywalker in the film series and is a vocal Biden supporter, took the podium wearing a pair of the president’s trademark aviator sunglasses.
