BRUSSELS: The EU pressed Thursday to bolster reform of the Palestinian Authority as part of the plan to end the Gaza war, as Brussels hosted 60 delegations to discuss reconstruction and governance.
The 27-nation bloc, the biggest financial backer of the Palestinians, is looking to play a more prominent role after being left largely on the sidelines of US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war.
“Our aim is to strengthen governance, build a more resilient economy, stabilize finances, improve services for the population, and create conditions for future effective governance across all territories,” said EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica.
As part of the efforts a handful of EU countries signed contributions of more than 80 million euros ($92 million), part of broader support by the bloc worth some 1.6 billion euros over three years that has already been announced.
“Our financial support is linked to the Palestinian Authority reform agenda, which of course, they committed to implement,” Suica said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) insists that it must play a key part in running Gaza after the United States brokered an end to fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The authority has not had a role in Gaza’s governance since Hamas militants seized control of the territory in 2007, though it still provides some services in the territory.
Trump’s plan suggests allowing a role for the PA in running Gaza once it has completed a set of reforms.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but rejected the option of the Ramallah-based PA ruling over post-war Gaza.
“We were clear today, as we have always been, that Gaza and the West Bank are one political and geographical unit, inseparable parts of the state of Palestine,” Mohammad Mustafa, the PA’s prime minister said.
“Reunifying the two under one legitimate government, one law and one administration is not a slogan. It’s the only workable path to stability.”
The EU — riven by divisions among its member states — has struggled to wield influence throughout the conflict in Gaza.
As part of its push to play a greater role in Trump’s plan, the bloc also says it wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip.
EU pushes Palestinian Authority reform to help end Gaza war
https://arab.news/jsjgp
EU pushes Palestinian Authority reform to help end Gaza war
- The PA has not had a role in Gaza’s governance since Hamas militants seized control of the territory in 2007
- Trump’s plan suggests allowing a role for the PA in running Gaza once it has completed a set of reforms
Mass shooting at a South African bar leaves 11 dead, including 3 children
- Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital
- The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl
CAPE TOWN: A mass shooting carried out Saturday by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital left at least 11 people dead, police said. The victims included three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital, according to a statement from the South African Police Services. Police didn’t give details on the ages of those who were injured or their conditions.
The shooting happened at a bar inside a hostel in the Saulsville township west of the administrative capital of Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday. Ten of the victims died at the scene and the 11th died at the hospital, police said.
The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they were searching for three male suspects.
“We are told that at least three unknown gunmen entered this hostel where a group of people were drinking and they started randomly shooting,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe told national broadcaster SABC. She said the motive for the killings was not clear. The shootings happened at around 4.15 a.m., she said, but police were only alerted at 6 a.m.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, authorities say.
There have been several mass shootings at bars — sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa — in recent years, including one that killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
Mathe said that mass shootings at unlicensed bars were becoming a serious problem and police had shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
Recent mass killings in South Africa have not been confined to bars, however. Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province in September last year.
Seven men were arrested for those shootings and face multiple charges of murder, while police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they believe were used in the shootings.
