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Johannesburg — “Kenya is not IMF’s lab rat,” was just one of many slogans condemning the International Monetary Fund that was seen this week on demonstrators’ placards at protests in Kenya against proposed tax hikes.  The protests, fueled by tech-savvy youth on social media, were sparked by the Kenyan government’s plans to significantly raise taxes to pay off its enormous debt.  The government did a U-turn after things turned deadly Tuesday when protesters broke into parliament in Nairobi and police opened fire, killing over 20 people, according to rights groups.  Embattled President William Ruto announced he was listening to the protesters’ concerns and was scrapping his controversial finance bill. He said he would instead introduce budget cuts and austerity measures to try to shore up the country’s finances.    But the chaotic events in one of Africa’s major economies, also a key U.S. ally, have led to questions about the debt choking many developing countries, and who is to blame.  International financial institutions   Kenya owes $80 billion in domestic and foreign debt. Its debt stands at 68 percent of GDP, well above the World Bank and IMF’s recommended maximum of 55 percent.  The tax hikes in Ruto’s unpopular bill were aimed at avoiding default and came after an agreement earlier this month between Kenya and the IMF on a comprehensive reform package.    Most of Kenya's debt is owed to international bondholders, while its biggest bilateral creditor is China, to which it owes $5.7 billion.     Washington frequently accuses Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” — unscrupulous lending that leaves developing countries overly burdened. China, which has undertaken large infrastructure projects across Africa under President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative, vehemently rejects the allegations.  Experts have different takes on whether China or Western monetary institutions are to blame for Kenya’s current woes. Kenya owes billions of dollars to Western countries and the IMF as well as China.  “The key culprit is the lack of a well-functioning global financial safety net,” said Kevin P. Gallagher, director of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.   “Programs from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank made the situation worse, rather than better, and the flaws in the G20 Common Framework to work out debt problems were seen as too risky for Kenya to enter into,” he said, referring to the debt restructuring mechanism that other indebted African countries like Zambia and Ghana have been using.  China’s role  Gallagher said China’s loans to Kenya have decreased in recent years, according to his university’s data, and it has little to do with the East Africa country’s debt woes.  “Indeed, the Kenyan case disproves accusations of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ on the part of China. If China was doing debt trap diplomacy it would be seizing Kenyan assets, instead Chinese capital has been the most patient during these rough times,” Gallagher told VOA.  David Shinn, a former U.S. diplomat, said the blame couldn’t be placed on any one factor.  “China is the largest bilateral lender, but its loans are quite modest when compared to the international financial institutions and holders of Eurobonds,” he told VOA.  “All of these players share the blame for too much debt. The Kenyan government should not have allowed itself to take on so much debt and those who offered loans should have been more circumspect,” he continued.   Alex Vines, director of the Africa Program at Chatham House, was also even-handed, saying, “China is part of the debt burden, but private equity is also contributing to the overall burden.”   Aly-Khan Satchu, a Kenya-based economist, said Kenya was “in a perfect debt storm.”   “You know you’d get whiplash for looking at Kenya’s politics. From a period of looking east, we’re back to looking west again … and therefore a big decision has been made to wrestle Kenya away from the Chinese orbit, with the support of the World Bank and the IMF.”  However, Satchu said, one of the problems is that Kenya has had to reroute some of the IMF and World Bank’s money in order to pay its debts to China, particularly for a Chinese-built railway.   Harry Verhoeven, a senior researcher at Columbia University, told VOA neither China nor the IMF is uniquely responsible for Kenya’s problems.  “I think the IMF is not wrong in its diagnosis that there’s not enough revenue being raised, I think that’s certainly right,” he said. “Where you can be more critical of the IMF is, so far at least, that it hasn’t spoken up very much … about the distributional effects of how that revenue should be raised, or what the government has proposed to raise it.”  Other factors  Analysts note it wasn’t just loans that got Kenya into its fiscal predicament. The country was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has also suffered from the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine — which has seen global food and energy prices rise. Climate change-induced floods have also hurt the country’s economy.  Samuel Misati Nyandemo, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said the Kenyan government, having withdrawn the controversial finance bill, now has a tough road ahead.   “The government should try to balance between raising revenues and address the cost of living and doing business in the midst of entrenched corruption, impunity and wastage of public resources,” he said.  Kenya, he warned, might not be the last African country where frustrations boil over and citizens take to the streets.   In impassioned remarks in April, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “the world cannot afford to continue throwing developing countries’ plans and futures onto a raging bonfire of debt.”  He said around 40% of the world’s population now live in countries that spend more on interest payments than health or education.

DUBAI — Iranians voted for a new president Friday following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, choosing from a tightly controlled group of four candidates loyal to the supreme leader at a time of growing public frustration and Western pressure. The election coincides with escalating regional tension because of the war between Israel and Iran's allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear program. While the election is unlikely to bring a major shift in the Islamic Republic's policies, its outcome could influence the succession to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader, in power since 1989. Khamenei called for a high turnout to offset a legitimacy crisis fueled by public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedom. "The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on people's presence," Khamenei told state television after casting his vote. "High turnout is a definite necessity." The next president is not expected to usher in any major policy shift on Iran's nuclear program or support for militia groups across the Middle East, since Khamenei calls all the shots on top state matters. However, the president runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran's foreign and domestic policy. A hardline watchdog body made up of six clerics and six jurists aligned with Khamenei vetted candidates and approved six from an initial pool of 80. Two hardline candidates subsequently dropped out.  Three candidates are hardline conservatives Three candidates are hardliners, and one is a low-profile comparative moderate, backed by the reformist faction that has largely been sidelined in Iran in recent years. Critics of Iran's clerical rule say that low and declining turnouts in recent years show the system's legitimacy has eroded. Just 48% of voters participated in the 2021 presidential election and turnout sank to a record low of 41% in a parliamentary election in March. State television showed queues inside polling stations in several cities. Polls were extended for two hours because "people are still waiting to vote," state TV said. Voting is often extended as late as midnight. Authorities said the result would be announced on Saturday. If no candidate wins at least 50% plus one vote from all ballots cast, including blank votes, a run-off between the top two candidates is held on the first Friday after the result is declared. Prominent among the remaining hardliners are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliament speaker and former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator who served for four years in Khamenei's office. All four candidates have vowed to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement, state corruption and sanctions reimposed since 2018, after the United States ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers. "I think Jalili is the only candidate who raised the issue of justice, fighting corruption and giving value to the poor. ... Most importantly, he does not link Iran's foreign policy to the nuclear deal," said Farzan Sadjadi, a 45-year-old artist in the city of Karaj. One candidate is comparatively moderate The sole comparative moderate, Massoud Pezeshkian, is faithful to Iran's theocratic rule but advocates detente with the West, economic reform, social liberalization and political pluralism. "We will respect the hijab law, but there should never be any intrusive or inhumane behavior toward women," Pezeshkian said after casting his vote. He was referring to the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, in 2022 while in custody of the morality police for allegedly violating the mandatory Islamic dress code. The unrest sparked by Amini's death spiraled into the biggest show of opposition to Iran's clerical rulers in years. Pezeshkian's chances hinge on reviving the enthusiasm of reform-minded voters who have largely stayed away from the polls for the last four years as a mostly youthful population chafes at political and social curbs. He could also benefit from his rivals' failure to consolidate the hardline vote. "I feel Pezeshkian represents both traditional and liberal thoughts," said architect Pirouz, 45, who said he had planned to boycott the vote until he learned more about Pezeshkian's plans. In the past few weeks, Iranians have made wide use of the hashtag #ElectionCircus on X, with some activists at home and abroad calling for a boycott, saying a high turnout would only serve to legitimize the Islamic Republic. "The youth were punished ... young girls were killed on the streets. ... We can't easily move on from that. ... After all that happened, it's unconscionable to vote," said 55-year-old writer Shahrzad Afrasheh. In the 2022-23 protests, more than 500 people, including 71 minors, were killed, hundreds were injured, and thousands were arrested, rights groups said.

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will expand deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 309,000 Haitians in the country already, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday.   The administration will expand access to the Temporary Protected Status program to Haitians through February 2026 because of violence and security issues in Haiti that limits access to safety, health care, food and water, the department said. The expanded program will be available to Haitians in the U.S. on or before June 3.  About 264,000 Haitians in the U.S. were already covered by the program, according to the U.S. government.   U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking another term in the November 5 elections, has walked a political tightrope when it comes to immigration, both trying to step up security at the U.S.-Mexico border and take a more humane approach to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.  In a presidential debate on Thursday, Biden's Republican challenger, former president Donald Trump, criticized Biden for failing to stem high levels of illegal immigration.  Gang wars in Haiti have displaced over half a million people and nearly 5 million are facing severe food insecurity. Armed groups, which now control most of the capital, have formed a broad alliance while carrying out widespread killings, ransom kidnappings and sexual violence.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to federal regulatory power on Friday by overturning a 1984 precedent that had given deference to government agencies in interpreting laws they administer, handing a defeat to President Joe Biden's administration. The justices ruled 6-3 in favor of fishing companies that challenged a government-run program partly funded by industry that monitored overfishing of herring off New England's coast. It marked the latest decision in recent years powered by the Supreme Court's conservative majority that hemmed in the authority of federal agencies. The precedent that the court overturned arose from a ruling involving oil company Chevron that had called for judges to defer to reasonable federal agency interpretations of U.S. laws deemed to be ambiguous. This doctrine, long opposed by conservatives and business interests, was called "Chevron deference." The decreasing productivity of Congress – thanks to its gaping partisan divide – has led to a growing reliance, especially by Democratic presidents, on rules issued by U.S. agencies to realize regulatory goals. The 1984 precedent, set in a ruling involving oil company Chevron, has called for judges to defer to federal agency interpretations of U.S. laws that are deemed to be ambiguous. This doctrine, long opposed by conservatives and business interests, is called "Chevron deference." Democratic President Joe Biden's administration had defended the National Marine Fisheries Service regulation at issue and the Chevron deference doctrine. The fish conservation program was started in 2020 under Republican former President Donald Trump. The regulation called for certain commercial fishermen to carry aboard their vessels U.S. government contractors and pay for their at-sea services while they monitored the catch.   The companies – led by New Jersey-based Loper Bright Enterprises and Rhode Island-based Relentless Inc – in 2020 sued the fisheries service, claiming the monitoring program exceeded the Commerce Department agency's authority. The bid by the fishermen was supported by various conservative and corporate interest groups including billionaire Charles Koch's network. The litigation is part of what has been termed the "war on the administrative state," an effort to weaken the federal agency bureaucracy that interprets laws, crafts federal rules and implements executive action. The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has signaled skepticism toward expansive regulatory power, issuing rulings in recent years to rein in what its conservative justices have viewed as overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies. The fish conservation program aimed to monitor 50 percent of declared herring fishing trips in the regulated area, with program costs split between the federal government and the fishing industry. The cost to commercial fishermen of paying for the monitoring was an estimated $710 per day for 19 days a year, which could reduce a vessel's income by up to 20 percent, according to government figures. The Biden administration said the program was authorized under a 1976 federal law called the Magnuson-Stevens Act to protect against overfishing in U.S. coastal waters. It said in court papers the program was suspended for the fishing year starting in April 2023 due to insufficient federal funding. The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled in favor of the government. The Biden administration said Chevron deference among other things "gives due weight to the expertise that agencies bring to bear" and promotes national uniformity in the administration of federal law. An attorney for the commercial fishermen said Chevron deference "incentivizes a dynamic where Congress does far less than the Framers [of the U.S. Constitution] anticipated, and the executive branch is left to do far more by deciding controversial issues via regulatory fiat." The Supreme Court has issued other rulings this term involving the scope of agency powers, including two rulings on Thursday. It rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house enforcement of laws protecting investors against securities fraud. It also blocked an Environmental Protection Agency regulation aimed at reducing ozone emissions that may worsen air pollution in neighboring states. The justices on May 16 upheld the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding mechanism in a challenge brought by the payday loan industry.

The Supreme Court made an about-face on June 14, holding that immigration judges may order noncitizens deported if they do not appear for their immigration hearings even if the government never provided them with a Notice to Appear (NTA) with the date and time of their immigration hearing. Under Campos-Chaves v. Garland, so long as […]

The post Supreme Court Allows Deportations Without Adequate Notice, Backtracking on Previous Rulings appeared first on Immigration Impact.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Friday anti-camping laws used by authorities in an Oregon city to stop homeless people from sleeping in public parks and public streets — a ruling that gives local and state governments a freer hand in confronting a national homelessness crisis.  The justices ruled 6-3 to overturn a lower court's decision that found that enforcing the ordinances in the city of Grants Pass when no shelter space is available for the homeless violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishments. Various jurisdictions employ similar laws.  The court's conservative justices were in the majority, while its three liberal members dissented.  Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the ruling, wrote, "Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. At bottom, the question this case presents is whether the Eighth Amendment grants federal judges primary responsibility for assessing those causes and devising those responses. It does not."  Homelessness remains a multifaceted problem for public officials in the United States as many municipalities experience chronic shortages of affordable housing. On any given night, more than 600,000 people are homeless, according to U.S. government estimates.  The case focused on three ordinances in Grants Pass, a city of roughly 38,000 people in southwestern Oregon, that together prohibit sleeping in public streets, alleyways and parks while using a blanket or bedding. Violators are fined $295. Repeat offenders can be criminally prosecuted for trespassing, punishable by up to 30 days in jail.  Advocates for the homeless, various liberal legal groups and other critics have said laws like these criminalize people simply for being homeless and for actions they cannot avoid, such as sleeping in public. They point to a 1962 Supreme Court ruling that the Eighth Amendment barred punishing individuals based on their status rather than their conduct.  A point of contention during the Supreme Court's arguments in the case in April was whether homelessness can be deemed a status that would prohibit enforcing local laws.  President Joe Biden's administration agreed with the plaintiffs that Grants Pass cannot enforce an "absolute ban" on sleeping in the city — which effectively criminalizes homelessness — but suggested the rulings by the lower courts against the city were too broad and should be reconsidered.  Proponents including various government officials have called such laws a necessary tool for maintaining public safety.   The case, which began in 2018, involved three homeless people who filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the measures impacting them in Grants Pass. One of the plaintiffs has since died.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke ruled that the city's "policy and practice of punishing homelessness" violates the Eighth Amendment and barred it from enforcing the anti-camping ordinances. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Clarke's injunction against the ordinances.  The city had defended itself in the case in part by noting that homeless people have alternatives outside the city, including nearby undeveloped federal land, county campsites or state rest stops. The judge said that argument "sheds light on the city's attitude towards its homeless citizens" by seeking to drive them out or punish them if they stay.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will celebrate Independence Day this year by welcoming approximately 11,000 new citizens in more than 195 naturalization ceremonies between June 28 and July 5.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Nigeria and Cameroon said Thursday they would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their disputed border. Rather, the two nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes. The nations share about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast. Leonardo Santos Simao, chairperson of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission set up by the United Nations to solve the countries’ territorial disputes, said he is delighted the two countries decided to resolve their disputes without long and expensive processes at the International Court of Justice. The agreement to peacefully resolve border disputes before the end of 2025 was made at a meeting of the Mixed Commission on Wednesday and Thursday in Yaounde. Simao called it a milestone. The two countries agreed to visit disputed territories in Rumsiki and Tourou in northern Cameroon and Koche in eastern Nigeria before the end of 2024. Nigerian Justice Minister Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, who is the leader of the West African state's delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, confirmed that the countries have agreed to complete the project within 12 months. "It's a consensus between Cameroon and Nigeria. By the end of 2025, this project should be concluded,” he said. “We have so admirably and maturely handled the situation in such a way that there is hardly any dissent. We are satisfied with the outcome of the two-day meeting, and we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel." Cameroon and Nigeria say the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They say that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue. The two states say they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages. The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission was established in 2002 at the request of President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the then-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo to facilitate the implementation of an October 10, 2002, International Court of Justice ruling that ceded Bakassi, an oil-rich border peninsula, to Cameroon. Nigeria initially rejected the verdict, with its senate arguing that the ruling, based on a colonial era agreement, was unfair and should be appealed. But Nigerian officials said the verdict should be respected.

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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians voted in parliamentary elections on Friday, with the ruling party widely expected to win despite deepening public anger over corruption and the state of the economy. People across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million, sandwiched between China and Russia, are voting to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural. Polls opened at 7 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday) and will close at 10 pm, with preliminary results expected later in the night. Tsagaantsooj Dulamsuren, a 36-year-old cashier pregnant with her fourth child, told AFP that Friday's poll offered her a chance to "give power to the candidates you really want to support". "I want lawmakers to provide more infrastructure development... and more jobs in the manufacturing industry for young people," she said outside a polling station at a hospital near the capital Ulaanbaatar. Analysts expect the ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP), led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016 and govern the country for another four years. They say the party can credit much of its success to a bonanza over the past decade in coal mining that fuelled double-digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living, as well as a formidable party machine and a weak, fractured opposition. Yet there is deep public frustration over endemic corruption, as well as the high cost of living and lack of opportunities for young people who make up almost two-thirds of the population. There is also a widespread belief that the proceeds of the coal-mining boom are being hoarded by a wealthy elite -- a view that has sparked frequent protests. Broad spectrum Preliminary results are expected to come within a few hours of polls closing despite Mongolia's vast size, thanks to assistance from automated vote counting. The streets of Ulaanbaatar, home to almost half the population, have been decked out with colourful campaign posters touting candidates from across the political spectrum, from populist businessmen to nationalists, environmentalists and socialists. Parties are required by law to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates are women in a country where politics is dominated by men. Long lines snaked around corridors at a polling station in a school in downtown Ulaanbaatar, with many voters wearing traditional clothing. Oyun-Erdene also voted in a kindergarten in Ulaanbaatar, an AFP reporter saw. The prime minister told local TV after casting his ballot that he hoped Friday's vote would "open a new page of trust and cooperation between the state and citizens". However, many younger, urban voters are not convinced by the MPP's pitch, while the failure of the established opposition Democratic Party to provide a credible alternative has helped fuel the rise of minor parties. Batsaikan Battseren, a 45-year-old community leader dressed in traditional Mongolian deel clothing, said he was urging people to vote. "Our area's average participation is 60 percent," the former herder said at a polling station in rural Sergelen, an administrative division more than an hour's drive from the capital. However, "young people from 18 to 30 years old don't go to vote", he said. 'Social contract' Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index under Oyun-Erdene's premiership. It has also fallen in press freedom rankings and campaigners say there has been a notable decline in the rule of law. Some fear that, should it win a new mandate, the ruling party will tighten Oyun-Erdene's grip on power and erode the democratic freedoms of ordinary Mongolians. "I'll describe this election as a referendum on... Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene and whether he will manage to get a mandate to rewrite Mongolia's social contract," Bayarlkhagva Munkhnaran, political analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP. The MPP is the successor to the communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years. It remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling, nationwide campaign apparatus. "Their appeal is 'look, we've done well, we've managed well'," Julian Dierkes, a professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert on Mongolian politics, told AFP. He said concern about corruption was widespread, even though "there's no real distinction" among the opposition parties. "The extent to which that'll resonate with voters, we'll know tonight sometime. It's really hard to guess," Dierkes said.

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Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories — Israel's military on Friday said it was conducting raids backed by air strikes in northern Gaza, killing "dozens" of militants in an area where it had declared the command structure of Hamas dismantled months ago. The operation in Shujaiya, on the edge of Gaza City, caused numerous casualties, witnesses and medics said on Thursday when it began. Renewed fighting in Gaza's north followed comments on Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said the "intense phase" of the war was winding down after almost nine months. Experts say they foresee a potentially prolonged next phase. Omer Dostri, a military expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said he expects the army to reduce its ground presence and to increasingly use drones and fighter jets "to further dismantle Hamas." On Friday in the Shujaiya area an AFP correspondent witnessed an air strike and saw smoke rising. Artillery fire boomed. In a statement, Israel's military said that, overnight Thursday, troops "started to conduct targeted raids" in the Shujaiya area as part of an operation that began earlier in the day. Intelligence had indicated "the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Shujaiya," the military said, in its first details of the operation. 'Significant strikes'  As troops went in, warplanes struck dozens of Hamas targets, it said, following other "significant" strikes that killed "dozens" of militants in the north. On Thursday a military spokesman told residents and displaced Gazans, in a social media message, to leave "for your safety." They were asked to head south, to a declared "humanitarian zone" about 25 kilometers away. An AFP photographer saw many Palestinians leaving on foot, carrying their belongings through rubble-strewn streets. Hamas said Israeli forces were "starting a ground incursion," reporting "several" dead as "thousands flee under relentless bombing." The war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. On Friday the military announced the death of another soldier, aged 19, during combat in southern Gaza. This brings to 314 the number killed since ground operations began in the territory. Elsewhere in the coastal strip, paramedics on Friday reported three people killed in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. AFP images showed the municipal building had been destroyed. Colleagues prayed over the bodies of four civil defense volunteers killed during bombardment of the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp, other AFP images showed. Orange work vests lay on top of their white-shrouded bodies. Witnesses on Friday reported artillery fire in Nuseirat. 'Milestone'  Fighting in Gaza comes alongside growing fears of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. The two sides have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began. Such exchanges have escalated this month. U.S. officials have voiced hope a Gaza cease-fire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on Israel's northern border, but months of on-off mediation, also involving Egypt and Qatar, have not brought a deal. On Thursday, Hezbollah said it fired "dozens" of rockets at a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Hezbollah said four of its fighters had been killed. Israel's military said air strikes killed three Hezbollah operatives. In Gaza, most of the population has been uprooted and much of the territory's infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving residents struggling to survive. A UN-backed assessment this week said almost half a million people in Gaza are still experiencing "catastrophic" hunger. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, on its website, says it was created "precisely to supersede potential political interferences through technical neutrality," and that its parameters are based on international standards. An Israeli government spokesman dismissed the report, partly because "it's based upon data from Hamas's own health institutions." UNICEF, the UN children's fund, said Thursday that Israel had agreed to restore power to a desalination plant in southern Gaza. The "important milestone" could provide much-needed water to a million displaced people, it said. In another hopeful development, 21 cancer patients left Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing for treatment in the United Arab Emirates, a medical source in Egypt said. Netanyahu's announcement that intense fighting is winding down comes with his right-wing coalition under a range of pressures. Thousands of protesters again gathered in front of his Jerusalem residence on Thursday to call for a hostage release deal, an AFP reporter said. In the Tel Aviv area, mounted police dispersed ultra-Orthodox men protesting a Supreme Court ruling that they must be drafted for military service.

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