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U.S. sanctions Israeli group for damaging humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians
Washington — The State Department sanctioned an Israeli extremist group that it said has been mounting attacks aimed at thwarting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, it announced Friday.
The U.S. accused members of the group, called Tsav 9, of blocking, harassing and damaging convoys carrying assistance to Palestinians in Gaza for several months. The group has blocked roads along a route from Jordan to Gaza, damaged aid trucks and thrown food supplies onto the ground, according to the State Department.
Tsav 9 members were also accused of looting and setting fire to two trucks carrying aid near the West Bank city of Hebron last month.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan condemned those attacks, calling them a “total outrage.” He said then that the Biden administration was examining ways to respond and had raised concerns with the Israeli government.
“It’s something we make no bones about,” Sullivan told reporters last month. “We find it completely and utterly unacceptable.”
Ibrahim Hamad/Anadolu via Getty Images
In announcing the sanctions, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller underscored the importance of getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza to prevent the crisis there from worsening and to mitigate the risk of famine.
He said the Israeli government has a responsibility to ensure that humanitarian convoys heading to Gaza can move throughout Israel and the West Bank safety and securely.
“We will not tolerate acts of sabotage and violence targeting this essential humanitarian assistance,” Miller said. “We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to promote accountability for those who attempt or undertake such heinous acts, and we expect and urge that Israeli authorities do the same.”
The Times of Israel newspaper described Tsav 9 as a “right wing organization” that opposes the provision of aid to Gaza while Hamas continues to hold hostages taken during the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. The group has posted images and videos of their blockades to social media and vowed to stop assistance from getting into war-torn Gaza until all hostages are released.
Humanitarian groups have warned the assistance getting to Palestinians in Gaza is insufficient and blamed the Israeli government for making it difficult for legitimate goods to reach the Hamas-controlled territory.
The head of the World Health Organization said this week that a “significant proportion of Gaza’s population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-line conditions.” Two United Nations agencies warned in a report this month that more than 1 million people in Gaza — nearly half its population — are expected to face death and starvation by mid-July.
“In the absence of a cessation of hostilities and increased access, the impact on mortality and the lives of the Palestinians now, and in future generations, will increase markedly with every day, even if famine is avoided in the near term,” the report from the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated.
Margaret Brennan and Camilla Schick contributed reporting.
The world’s oldest mummies have been around longer than the mummified pharaohs of Egypt and their ornate tombs — but the ravages of time, human development and climate change are putting these relics at risk.
Chile’s Atacama Desert was once home to the Chincorro people, an ancient population that began mummifying their dead 5,000 years ago, two millennia before the Egyptians did, according to Bernando Arriaza, a professor at the University of Tarapaca.
The arid desert has preserved mummified remains and other clues in the environment that give archaeologists information about how the Chincorro people once lived.
The idea to mummify bodies likely came from watching other remains naturally undergo the process amid the desert’s dry conditions. The mummified bodies were also decorated with reed blankets, clay masks, human hair and more, according to archaeologists.
While UNESCO has designated the region as a World Heritage Site, the declaration may not save all of the relics. Multiple museums, including the Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum in the ancient city of Arica, put the Chincorro culture on display. Some mummies and other relics are safely ensconced in those climate-controlled exhibits, but the remains still hidden in the arid desert remain at risk.
“If we have an increase in sea surface temperatures, for example, across the coast of northern Chile, that would increase atmospheric humidity,” said Claudio LaTorre, a paleo-ecologist with the Catholic University of Chile. “And that in turn would generate decomposition, (in) places where you don’t have decomposition today, and you would lose the mummies themselves.”
Other clues that archaeologists can find in the environment may also be lost.
“Human-induced climate change is one aspect that we’re really worried about, because it’ll change a number of different aspects that are forming the desert today,” said LaTorre.
Arriaza is working to raise awareness about the mummies, hoping that that will lead to even more preservation.
“It’s a big, big challenge because you need to have resources,” Arriaza said. “It’s everybody’s effort to a common goal, to preserve the site, to preserve the mummies.”
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NEW YORK – The man accused of killing three people when drove drunk into a crowd on the Lower East Side on July 4th was arraigned on a host of charges Saturday.
Daniel Hyden of Monmouth Junction, N.J. is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, manslaughter, assault and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated charges. Hyden was driving with a suspended license, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Hyden, 44, drove a Ford F-150 pickup truck into the crowd at Corlears Hook Park just before 9 p.m. local time. He allegedly ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Water and Cherry Streets, drove up onto the sidewalk, slammed through the chain link fence, and into the crowd.
Eleven people were killed or injured, prosecutors said. The three people killed have been identified as Lucille Pinkney, 59, and her son Herman Pinkney, 38, and Ana Morel, 43. Another person was critically injured, and seven others hospitalized. The youngest victim was 11, according to prosecutors.
Responding police officers say they found Hyden on the ground next to the driver’s-side door, wearing pants but no shirt or shoes. He had bloodshot eyes, was stumbling and there was “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.”
“I hope we get justice”
Photos provided
On Friday, Family members of the victims returned to the scene, some breaking down in tears.
“I hope we get justice for my brother and my mother,” Diamond Pinkney said. “Herman, I love you. I’m going to do you proud.”
“We’re all devastated with this. It breaks my heart, and I’m so sad about it,” neighbor Nereida Garcia said.