World
Washington is strengthening military bases in the Philippines to protect Taiwan
These facilities include shipbuilding, airstrip repair and military bases in the Philippines, ready to defend the Philippines and support the island of Taiwan, located north of the Philippines, in case of any Chinese invasion of the island.
Philippine request
The news came in a report by the Hong Kong newspaper “South China Morning Post” published on Monday.
- The Philippines has asked the US to help build a ship and repair an airstrip at the Camilo Osias naval base in northern Cagayan province, which is accessible to Washington under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed between the two countries in 2014.
- These bases are very close to southern Taiwan and, if strengthened and developed, could be focal points if a conflict with China erupts.
- There are plans to add a fuel storage facility and command center at Lal Lo Airport, Cagayan.
- US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. John Aquilino and Armed Forces of the Philippines Commander Romeo Browner Jr. inspected the two sites this month to discuss increasing the number of sites Americans can access under the deal.
Mutual Defense Agreement
The EDCA agreement is a joint defense agreement that allows the US military to rotate forces for long periods of time in 5 locations in the country, located across from China, separated only by the waters of the South China Sea, and allowing Washington to build and operate facilities. For American and Philippine forces.
In February, the Philippines extended an agreement to give the Americans access to four other military bases, including Camilo Osias Naval Base and Lal Lu Airport, north of the country toward southern Taiwan.
The Philippines and the United States have agreed that the Camilo Osias base and Lal Lu airport could play an important role in the event of an armed conflict between China and Taiwan. Forces operating there would have immediate access to defend Taiwan’s southern flank and prevent Chinese incursions into the Philippine Sea through the Bashi Channel.
The Philippines has been under military pressure from China, including incidents in recent months in which Chinese ships blocked Philippine Coast Guard vessels from reaching disputed islands.
Time indicators
Since August 2022, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has seen a serious crisis between Beijing and Washington, which China accuses of supporting Washington in its “separatist efforts”. It is bracing for the possibility of a US-China conflict in the region, particularly if Beijing invades Taiwan.
In light of this situation, political analyst Jasser Matar explains to Sky News Arabia the implications of recent US action in the Philippines, which is close to Taiwan and the Chinese mainland:
- The Philippines has bases closest to Taiwan, which is the gateway to the south of the island.
- The US wants to build up a military base at every point close to Taiwan. Supporting Ukraine in the event of a Chinese invasion, as it did in neighboring Poland.
- Also, the intensity of the US presence and the development of military infrastructure in the Philippines contribute to the defense of Manila, which could be vulnerable to military action if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan.
- This creates a crisis for China; The United States prepared Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines to defend Taiwan.
- Washington, for its part, is betting that increasing the armaments of these allies and intensifying its presence on their lands will deter China from attacking Taiwan. So don’t open more than one front.
- However, if a conflict breaks out in the South China Sea, it will be multilateral, not just between two countries.
The US Defense Secretary, who visited Manila last February, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the Philippines in the event of any attacks, as per the Mutual Defense Treaty.
“We have indicated that the mutual defense agreement applies to armed attacks on our armed forces, public vessels or aircraft anywhere in the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea,” he said at a news conference in Austin. With his Filipino, Carlito Galvez.
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On Friday, the Gaza Strip was subjected to a violent Israeli bombardment that claimed dozens of lives in a single day, ending a week-long ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which had once again vowed to eliminate the Palestinian movement.
International calls to resume the ceasefire continue, warning of the consequences of resuming fighting on civilians in the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis is worsening.
Shells and missiles lit up the Gaza sky after evening rain, while thick clouds of black smoke rose throughout the day from several targeted areas in the besieged region.
For their part, Palestinian factions fired missiles at Israel and sounded sirens in several areas around the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas Health Ministry announced that “the death toll from the Israeli occupation from this morning to today is 178 martyrs and 589 wounded, most of them children and women.”
The Israeli military reported bombing more than 200 targets in the Strip.
A cease-fire between Hamas and Israel came into effect on November 24 at 5:00 PM GMT.
As the strikes began, thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip began returning to hospitals and schools, as Agence France-Presse reporters in the besieged area witnessed.
Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy said “Hamas will now receive a fatal blow”, accusing the movement of not handing over a new list of hostages for release. He added, “Unfortunately, Hamas decided to end the ceasefire by not releasing all the kidnapped women.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “deep regret” over the resumption of fighting, “expressing his hope that the ceasefire will be renewed. The resumption of military operations shows the importance of achieving an effective humanitarian ceasefire.”
Despite the resumption of fighting, Qatar’s foreign ministry confirmed in a statement on Friday that “negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides continue with the aim of returning to a ceasefire” and called on the international community to “move quickly”. The fighting must stop.”
The White House also confirmed on Friday that the United States was continuing to work to extend the humanitarian ceasefire.
A National Security Council spokesman said, “We continue to work with Israel, Egypt and Qatar on efforts to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.”
The seven-day ceasefire was observed after Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented and bloody attack on Israeli territory by the Hamas movement on October 7.
The Israeli military estimates the number of people detained and held hostage in the Gaza Strip in the October 7 attack was around 240.
The ceasefire allowed the release of 80 Israeli hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners. Most Thai expatriates working in Israel were released outside the framework of the cease-fire agreement.
The Israeli military announced on Friday that it had confirmed the deaths of five hostages held in the Gaza Strip, notified their families, and recovered the body of one of them in a security operation.
Hamas had earlier announced that an Israeli bombardment of Gaza had killed nearly sixty hostages.
– “Exclusion” Zones –
On Friday, the Israeli military released a map of the so-called “exit zones” in the Gaza Strip, after an international call for Gaza residents to leave, the establishment of safe zones and a US plea to refrain from killing civilians. .
The map, written in Arabic, divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered sections and is available on the Israeli military’s website.
The military said the goal of the map was to enable residents to “evacuate specific locations for their safety if necessary.”
Warnings were sent through short text messages to residents of several parts of the Gaza Strip on Friday, warning that the army would launch a crushing military offensive on your residential area on Friday.
The message urged people to take immediate action.
The Palestinian Authority, through presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudayna, condemned what it described as “the continuation of the crime of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and attempts to displace and dissolve the Palestinian cause.”
The Hamas government media office announced on Friday that three Palestinian journalists had been killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip.
read more:
Israeli bombing of Gaza after cease-fire ends
White House: Israel to allow aid trucks into Gaza
The Israeli army has confirmed the killing of 5 hostages in the Gaza Strip and informed their families
Egypt condemns the collapse of the ceasefire and Israel’s renewed violent bombing of the Gaza Strip
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that 178 Palestinians have been killed and 500 injured in Israeli bombardment since the end of the ceasefire.
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Jerusalem / Abdel Raoub Arnaud / Anatolia
Hebrew newspaper Maariv said on Friday that Israeli army chief Herzey Halevy informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday that the war in Gaza would take more than a few weeks.
Halevy’s words came in response to Blinken’s question on the matter, the newspaper quoted two Israeli sources familiar with Thursday’s meeting with the Israeli military cabinet in West Jerusalem.
He said: “Blinken raised the issue on his own initiative, and how long the Israeli army’s operation in Gaza is expected to continue in its current scope, which includes very large ground forces.”
According to the newspaper: “Blinken explained that (US President Joe) Biden’s administration is concerned that continued Israeli military action in Gaza, especially with the scale and intensity it is currently taking, will significantly increase international pressure. On Israel and America.”
He continued: “According to the sources, Blinken asked Israel to take additional measures to ensure that the operation in the southern Gaza Strip does not cause serious harm to civilians.”
It reported that Halevy responded that “the IDF’s operation in Gaza, including in the southern region, is expected to continue for more than a few weeks.”
Maariv pointed out that the Biden administration “has yet to call for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, or demand that Israel cease military action.”
He added: “But there is deep concern in Washington about the resumption of military action in the Gaza Strip after the (temporary) ceasefire that ended on Friday morning, especially about the (anticipated) Israeli military action in the south of the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians.
He added: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Levy told Blinken that ground operations in southern Gaza would be less harmful to civilians than airstrikes.”
On Friday morning, a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip ended on November 24 with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and humanitarian aid brought into the enclave of about 2.3 million people. Palestinians.
During the pre-ceasefire round, the Israeli military repeated its messages, which asked residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move to the southern Gaza Strip, but targeted the displaced in areas and roads it said were “safe”. It committed documented massacres, which met with international and international condemnation.
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war in the Gaza Strip that has caused massive infrastructural destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to an official Palestinian official. and UN
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12/1/2023–|Last Updated: 12/1/202308:56 AM (Makkah Time)
4 Palestinians were killed and several others injured in attacks by the Israeli occupation army in different areas of Gaza.Clashes erupted on multiple axes in the area minutes after the end of a week-long humanitarian ceasefire. And its extension has not been announced.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza reported martyrs and wounded as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a house in central Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
The 4-day ceasefire that started last Friday was extended twice and ended today at 7 am local time.
The Israeli military said it had resumed operations against the Palestinian Islamist movement (Hamas) in Gaza, accusing the movement of violating ceasefire terms and firing into Israel. Gaza
The Israeli military confirmed that its warplanes were bombing all areas of the Gaza Strip, and military radio quoted a senior political source as saying, “We are back to fighting with full force and no negotiations have been held to release the abductees.”
Al Jazeera’s correspondent monitored the Israeli offensive in the northwest of the Gaza Strip and artillery attacks targeting various parts of Gaza City. He confirmed that clashes broke out between the opposition and occupation forces in more than one area in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. He said the Israeli strike targeted a site near Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The reporter confirmed that casualties were reported as a result of Israeli strikes and artillery fire in various parts of Gaza.
The government media office in Gaza announced a series of raids targeting the south of the Strip, while Gaza’s Interior Ministry confirmed that Israeli aircraft had targeted the town of Abasan east of Khan Yunis and a house in the Abu Iskandar area in the northwest. of Gaza City.
The seven-day ceasefire allowed for the exchange of prisoners from occupied prisons to Palestinian prisoners in Gaza, and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip.
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