Gaza left without power ahead of expected Israeli ground offensive
Israel has formed an emergency war cabinet and unity government as it tightens its siege of the Gaza Strip in advance of an expected ground offensive.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu struck the deal on Wednesday with Benny Gantz, head of the centre-right opposition National Unity party, in the wake of Saturday’s deadly attack by Hamas.
The agreement came as the siege brought down Gaza’s power supply, leaving residents alarmed they would soon lose contact with the outside world and as Israel sent tens of thousands of army personnel to the border with the enclave.
Israel-Hamas Conflict
- Death of Irish-Israeli woman Kim Damti (22) in Hamas attack confirmed by family: The death has been confirmed of Kim Damti, the 22-year-old Irish-Israeli woman who had been missing since a Hamas attack on an outdoor music festival at the weekend in Israel, near the Gaza border.
- ‘Tiocfaidh ár lá,’ Sinn Féin councillor tells pro-Palestinian rally in Dublin: A Sinn Féin councillor used the slogan “tiocfaidh ár lá”, long associated with militant republicanism, while addressing a demonstration in Dublin on Wednesday evening in support of Palestine. Daithí Doolan, a Sinn Féin councillor on Dublin City Council, was one of a number of politicians who addressed the rally on O’Connell Street.
- ‘Madness, rage and inhumanity’: A scene of utter destruction at Kibbutz Be’eri: Kibbutz Be’eri, a few miles drive from the Gaza border, has become a symbol of what Israelis are calling the Hamas massacres, which occurred when more than 1,000 people – the vast majority civilians – were killed on Saturday in more than 20 communities close to the Gaza border. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) opened the kibbutz farming community to the foreign media on Wednesday to see the carnage at first hand. The first thing that strikes you is the stench. It was a smell I wasn’t familiar with: it was the smell of death, writes Mark Weiss in Be’eri.
- EU response to the Israel-Hamas conflict is an ugly mess: Analysis: Late on Tuesday a significant warning was sent to billionaire Elon Musk by the European Commission. The letter said X, formally known as Twitter, was being used to spread both illegal and “manifestly false or misleading information”.
- Gaza hospitals are already overwhelmed. They must not become targets: Opinion: The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; the hospitals are overwhelmed. The number of wounded is extremely high – there is a constant influx into all the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The medical teams are exhausted, working around the clock to treat the wounded. The bombardments are very intense. Entire buildings are being destroyed, including one last night right next to the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) office.
Top News Stories
- Dublin city developers fail in all appeals against new land hoarding tax: Dublin city developers and landowners have lost every appeal against the new land hoarding tax so far determined by An Bord Pleanála, new figures show.
- Intruder caught at Department of the Taoiseach wanted to complain directly to Leo Varadkar: An internal Garda review is under way to determine how a significant breach of security occurred at the Department of the Taoiseach on the day of the budget.
- Concerns raised over ‘potential mismanagement’ of Peter McVerry Trust donations: The chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust has raised concerns about the “potential mismanagement” of donations made to the homelessness charity, as well as “repeated and long-standing governance failings” over several years.
- Health and social services workers to strike after budget fails to provide pay solution: Unions representing around 5,000 health and social services workers say they expect an indefinite strike due to start on Tuesday will go ahead with no suggestion of additional funding having been allocated in the budget to address the issue of pay in the voluntary organisations at the heart of the dispute.
- Simeon Burke among almost 50 graduates called to the Bar in Supreme Court ceremony: Simeon Burke, a brother of jailed schoolteacher Enoch Burke, was among a cohort of newly qualified barristers called to the Bar on Wednesday, at a ceremony in the Supreme Court.
- Ireland’s weather today: Largely dry today with a mix of cloud and sunny spells. Cloud will thicken from the south this afternoon with outbreaks of rain and drizzle developing in southern parts this evening. Highest temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees in light southwesterly or variable breezes.
- Happening today: The funeral of Irish-Israeli woman Kim Damti, whose death was confirmed yesterday by her family, takes place today. RTÉ will appear before the Public Accounts Committee, and gardaí will this morning make a fresh appear for information on the murders of Una Lynskey and Martin Kerrigan in 1971.
Explainer
- Mortgage interest relief – who is not getting it and why? The decision by the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath, to limit mortgage interest relief measures to those on tracker and variable rates has been described as “bizarre” and of help only to people who “enjoyed rock-bottom interest rates for many years”.
Today’s Business
- Mortgage interest and cost of living package dominate readers’ budget questions: The prospect of help with surging mortgage interest rates was the topic that grabbed the imagination of Irish Times readers in Budget 2024.
- RTÉ will receive public funding this year but only if broadcaster sets out reforms: Additional funding for RTÉ will be addressed only when the broadcaster brings forward its new reform plan to the Government, the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said on Tuesday night.
- The global economy is resilient but limping: Opinion: The last four years have brought three huge shocks: Covid; post-Covid supply disruption; and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent surges in commodity prices. Is this series of vast shocks now over? The deadly assault on Israel and conflict in Gaza suggests that the answer may be “no”. Recent turmoil in bond markets is another mark of persistent lack of predictability.
Top Sports news
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Edward Luce: Donald Trump has a mandate to overhaul the US in unimaginably disruptive ways
Gordon D’Arcy: The haka needs to be answered or else it becomes one-sided pageantry
- Ireland v New Zealand: Andrew Porter mentally prepared to go into that All Black place: The Ireland team operate in pairs at this Rugby World Cup. It makes it easier to tackle the questions when they come as non sequiturs and there’s a chance to offload, passing the microphone with a raised eyebrow.
- Joe Schmidt helped Ireland topple the All Blacks, and now he’s helping to build them back up: The contrast between Schmidt’s profile as the All Blacks’ assistant/attack coach in New Zealand and his previous role when presiding over a golden time for Leinster and Ireland could hardly be more stark.
- Dominic Foley’s sojourn to Greece another pin in the map of a unique career: Nestled among the mounted memorabilia on a wall in Dominic Foley’s home is a framed PAOK Thessaloniki zebra striped jersey. After a night of mulish defiance in northern Greece, he made sure not to leave Toumba Stadium without one.
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- Heart disease: What is it - and what does the future hold with improving treatments?: Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in Ireland, accounting for about one in four deaths here in 2022. Coronary heart disease (CHD) occurs when there is a blockage of blood flow due to the build-up of fatty substances in the arteries
Letters to the Editor
Sir, – Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty was obviously reading a script when he described Michael McGrath’s efforts as a “budget for landlords”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
For me, the initial saving of €600 for 2024 represents the difference between one month’s rent I receive on one property (torturously held down due to rent pressure zone legislation), compared to one month’s market rent for that same property.
Yet this “tax break”, coming as it does with terms and conditions, is supposedly designed to encourage landlords to stay in the market.
It won’t go anywhere towards doing that.
This weak and insufficient effort is merely a confirmation that the Government continues to look over its shoulder at populist parties, abandoning its traditional supporters in favour of those it hopes to gain, but never will.
The disconnect between landlords and legislators is palpable and after years of promises, it is clear that our current administration no longer view property investors as being part of the housing solution. We are being forced out of the market while real-estate investment trusts enjoy tax rates of which the smaller landlord can only dream. – Yours, etc,
NEVILLE SCARGILL, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Video & Podcast Highlights
- Inside Politics: Budget shows Government ‘misunderstands the anger and outrage of decent people’, says Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty
Review of the day
- Lost Lear director Dan Colley: ‘Go with a person’s reality. Step into their world’: “There tends to be a track of theatre-making in Ireland of which I’m not really considered a part,” Dan Colley says. “Somebody’s doing an Ibsen, they’re going to call 10, 20 people before they call me.” It sounds like disarming honesty, especially when Colley adds, “I know the limits of my creative talents in front of a typewriter and a blank page.”
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