By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the suspension of U.N. aid shipments into Gaza, an undersea earthquake in the Philippines, and U.S.-Mexico talks at APEC.
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No Fuel, No Aid
Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled Israeli bombardments in the northern Gaza Strip, walk between tents in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, on Nov. 15.Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
The United Nations suspended humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza on Friday due to a widespread communications blackout that began Thursday resulting from fuel shortages. According to the U.N. World Food Program, Palestinians in Gaza face the “immediate possibility of starvation” if aid transports do not resume.
The decision comes just two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet allowed the first fuel deliveries into Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah border crossing. The fuel was only to be used for transporting goods, not to power hospitals or water pumps. Israeli officials have accused Hamas of hording fuel supplies for military use.
But Netanyahu is facing growing internal dissent for allowing even small shipments of fuel into the region. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded on Friday that Netanyahu change his war cabinet’s composition to include the heads of all of Israel’s coalition parties. He said the prime minister’s fuel decision was contrary to the full cabinet’s wishes, making its delivery into Gaza illegal. Netanyahu has struggled to juggle appeasing his opposition partners, who co-lead the country’s war cabinet, and acquiescing to his far-right coalition partners’ demands.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces dropped leaflets into southern Gaza overnight Thursday, telling residents of eastern Khan Younis to evacuate. “Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted,” the leaflets said. Four southern Gaza neighborhoods—Abasan, Bani Suheila, Khuzaa, and al-Qarara—were named.
The evacuations suggest that Israeli military ground operations in the area are soon to come. The last time evacuation leaflets were dropped near Khan Younis, Israeli forces engaged in tank shelling near the city’s eastern neighborhoods. Leaflets were also used last month in northern Gaza prior to Israel’s ground offensive, instructing residents to evacuate south of Wadi Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinian civilians have fled northern Gaza in recent weeks, with many seeking safety near Khan Younis. Two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced since Oct. 7, and at least 11,470 Palestinians have been killed, health authorities in the West Bank reported on Thursday. With hospitals under siege and humanitarian supplies paused, U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk warned of “massive outbreaks of infectious disease and hunger,” adding that if fuel supplies run out entirely, Gaza would likely see the collapse of its sewage system and health care.
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What We’re Following
Ring of Fire. An undersea earthquake hit the southern Philippines on Friday, with early estimates measuring the magnitude between 6.7 and 7.2. No tsunami warning was issued, and no casualties have been reported, but local authorities are still investigating the area. The nation’s location along the so-called Ring of Fire makes quakes commonplace, with the Philippines’ last earthquake measuring a 6.4 magnitude on Oct. 4.
As Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addresses the nation’s latest earthquake, he also signed a historic nuclear deal with the United States on Friday at this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco. Marcos has long advocated for expanding the nation’s nuclear energy capabilities, which Washington is now prepared to assist with by allowing nuclear technology exports.
U.S.-Mexico face-off. In more high-profile APEC meetings, U.S. President Joe Biden met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday to discuss curbing fentanyl trafficking. Biden secured a major win on Wednesday when Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to crack down on Beijing’s export of fentanyl-producing compounds, and Washington continued that track record with Mexico City after López Obrador promised to improve efforts to block imports of fentanyl-making chemicals. López Obrador also agreed to deepen anti-drug cooperation with China on Thursday, FP’s Catherine Osborn reported in Latin America Brief, but his poor track record, including regressive drug policies, make future meaningful cooperation difficult to imagine.
For his part, López Obrador pressured Biden to remove sanctions on Cuba and consider reinstating diplomatic relations with Havana. Both sides also discussed migration concerns, with Biden worried that a poor immigration track record could hurt his polling in the presidential election next year.
Sánchez round two. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez secured a second term on Thursday in a 179-to-171 parliamentary vote. The showdown occurred less than four months after the conservative People’s Party defeated Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in an inconclusive snap election. The People’s Party was unable to form a governing coalition with Spain’s far-right Vox party and other right-wing groups.
Sánchez has faced increased criticism in recent weeks after he proposed a law granting amnesty to Catalan separatists as part of a deal that would provide him with enough parliamentary support to establish a ruling coalition. Thousands of Spaniards protested the bill last week, arguing that Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum was a breach of Madrid’s democratic principles. “The legal thicket will be ugly, and it will take time to play out,” journalist Albert Guasch Rafael argued in Foreign Policy.
What in the World?
As of Friday, Ukrainian forces had established multiple strategic positions in which war-torn region of their country?
A. Mariupol
B. Crimea
C. Kherson
D. Kharkiv
Odds and Ends
New York Rep. George Santos dropped his reelection bid on Thursday after a U.S. House of Representatives ethics report accused him of using campaign funds for personal expenses, including Botox treatments, Sephora products, and purchases on OnlyFans, a subscription-based website often used to share explicit photos and videos. Santos has a long history of lying to the public, such as falsely claiming that his grandparents fled the Holocaust, that his mother died on 9/11, and that he graduated from Baruch College. Quite the resumé.
And the Answer Is…
C. Kherson
Michael McFaul argues that reducing or withdrawing support for Ukraine at this critical moment—when its military is finally making advances against Russian forces—would be a huge mistake.
To take the rest of FP’s weekly international news quiz, click here, or sign up to be alerted when a new one is published.
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