KABUL: A suicide attack at a celebration marking a short truce between the Afghan government and Taliban militants killed at least 19 people in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, the day after more than 30 people were killed in a similar strike.
The latest attack happened near the headquarters of the governor, in the heart of Jalalabad, where several hundred people, including civilians, Taliban fighters and government troops, were gathered to celebrate the bilateral truce observed for the Eid period.
“It was another suicide attack as people had gathered to celebrate the truce,” Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor said in a telephone interview. He said that more than 30 people had been wounded in the attack.
Foreign media reported that Daesh had claimed responsibility for the two attacks on Saturday and Sunday.
Early in the day, it was reported that the Taliban leadership had urged the foot soldiers to withdraw from the cities and towns they had entered days back as part of the truce in the face of Saturday’s attack.
On Saturday Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani offered to extend the truce with the Taliban and showed readiness to hold discussions with the group in the presence of the foreign troops in the country.
But today the militants declared that they were not prepared for the truce, which is set to expire late on Sunday local time, to be prolonged.
Suicide blast kills 19 in Jalalabad Eid truce
Suicide blast kills 19 in Jalalabad Eid truce
- Foreign media reported that Daesh had claimed responsibility for the two attacks
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
