Earthquake: Emergency agency warns about aftershocks in New York

New York State Emergency Management has warned that  residents might experience aftershocks of the 4.8 magnitude  earthquake, which occurred in the city and New Jersey on Friday.

The North American correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the earthquake, which occurred at 10:23a.m. local time ,eight miles northwest of Bridgewater, New Jersey ,affected some areas in New York.

It rattled skyscrapers and buildings across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

The  emergency agency, in a safety alert issued , urged the public to call 911 if they were experiencing an emergency.

“ An earthquake occurred in New Jersey. The earthquake has been felt throughout New York State. Aftershocks may occur. Call 9-1-1 only if you or others are injured or have  an emergency’’

An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 is generally considered moderate, though it appears to be among the biggest earthquakes to ever affect New York City.

In addition to New York and New Jersey, the quake was felt in parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts .

New York governor Kathy Hochul said that the impact of the earthquake was being assessed.

“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.” she wrote on X .

Earthquake: Emergency agency warns about aftershocks in New York

Gaza: US Failed Resolution at UN was Biased- Envoy

By: Michael Mike

The Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdullah Shawesh has described as biased the failed United States resolution on Gaza.

Shawesh, who spoke to journalists at the weekend during his weekly briefing on the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, also alleged that Israel has violated Ramadan ceasefire agreement,

He said U.S was biased in its resolution as it failed to call for immediate ceasefire.

Shawesh said, “On Friday, March 22, the USA presented a resolution before the Security Council, which did not pass due to a veto. In this regard, and despite many other criticisms, I would like to highlight the following points:

“So all what you hear on the media about the ceasefire resolution is spout empty words. The US resolution fail to call for an immediate ceasefire that the secretary of state Blinken theorize for it on the media day before tabling it on the security council as the magic stack to put an end to the human suffering in Gaza.

“The US resolution fell short of condemning the ongoing Israeli massacre against the Palestinian people. Instead, it gave Israel the green light to continue its textbook genocide.

“The US resolution emprise and incubated all the Israeli claims about Oct 7 even before any independent fact finding mission or inquiry mission established by independent intergovernmental body to come with final report on what happened on that day.

“The US resolution mentioned the 132 Israeli hostages in Gaza but did not say a word about the more than 7,000 abducted and hostage Palestinians in Israeli concentration camps and prisons, all of whom are subjected to torture, degradation, and ill-treatment, resulting in the deaths of 12 of them so far.

“This is a clear form of racism and white supremacy, prioritizing the lives of Israelis over the lives of Palestinians.

“The US resolution deliberately did not mention any single words on the UN body, UNRWA, which is the most expert and capable body to tackle the humanitarian crises in Gaza, in clear complicity to support the Israeli occupation request to dismantle it. When it came to the humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian no one can deny the crucial role that the UNRWA played since Al-Nakba 1948.

“It is important to note that the US Congress voted not to resume funding for UNRWA until at least 2025, a move welcomed by Israel, which declared that the UN agency will not be part of Gaza’s future.

The US did not mention Israel as the occupation power except one time in the context of the two state solution.”

He also accused the Israeli authorities of not respecting UN resolution which called for ceasefire during the ongoing Ramadan.

He said, “On Monday, March 25, the Security Council adopted the Resolution 2728 calling for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan. While the ink on the resolution is not yet dry, Israeli cannon barrels are still firing and claiming more innocent Palestinian lives.

“On a practical level, this means Israel has turned its back on the Security Council. Israeli pushback on the UN ceasefire resolution, and the war minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has no moral right to stop the war in Gaza.

“The Israeli occupation authorities have continued their aggression, restrictions, and repressive measures in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

“They have deployed more than 24 military battalions there, imposed a comprehensive siege, cut off ties with partial sieges on all regions and towns, deployed over 750 checkpoints, installed more iron gates, and forced citizens to travel on bumpy roads that consume their time and money.”

He condemned the continue sales of weapons to Isreal, he said according Mary Lawlor – UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders: “There is no moral argument that justifies the continued sales of weapons to Israel. Over the past six months, Israel has unequivocally proven that it uses Western and foreign weapons indiscriminately against the Palestinian people. Why does the West continue to supply them?”

He also asked the everyone to pay attention to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres words that: “Palestinians in Gaza — children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare. Communities obliterated. Homes demolished. Entire families and generations wiped out. With hunger and starvation stalking the population. It is monstrous that after so much suffering over so many months, Palestinians in Gaza are marking Ramadan with Israeli bombs still falling, bullets still flying, artillery still pounding, and humanitarian assistance still facing obstacle upon obstacle.”

Shawesh said: “According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of Sunday, March 24, approximately 32,200 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces. Among the victims, 72% were women (around 8,800) and children (approximately 13,750). Additionally, around 74,500 Palestinians have been injured, with a majority being women and children. It is estimated that more than 8,100 people are missing under the rubble.

Gaza: US Failed Resolution at UN was Biased- Envoy

Thousands of Israelis call on Netanyahu to resign over Gaza war

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets again on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious government.

This is happening as there is no sign of a let-up in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza almost six months in.

In Tel Aviv, demonstrators called for early elections as well as the release of the remaining hostages held by the Palestinian extremist organisation Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to media reports.

Protests also took place in other cities, including Jerusalem and Haifa.

In Tel Aviv, protesters clashed with police, according to police.

Sixteen people were arrested, according to media reports.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters broke through a barrier near Netanyahu’s official residence.

Opponents of the government are planning major demonstrations in Jerusalem from Sunday onwards, which are to last for several days.

They also plan to demand the resignation of the government.

A former hostage, whose husband is still being held in Gaza, addressed the demonstration in Tel Aviv, calling on Netanyahu to “Bring them home!”

The woman called on the premier to give the Israeli negotiating team a “broad mandate” in talks on an agreement to release the remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire and a release of Palestinian prisoners.

“Don’t come home without a deal, bring our loved ones back,” she said.

The ongoing Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre committed by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

They killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took some 250 more hostage.

Israel responded by targeting densely populated Gaza with massive airstrikes and launching a ground operation in the sealed-off coastal area at the end of October.

More than 32,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed as a result so far, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, due to the very limited amounts of aid reaching the civilian population.

Some 110 hostages were released in exchange for some 400 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as part of a temporary truce agreement brokered by Qatar, the United States, and Egypt in November.

However, efforts to facilitate another ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages have stalled repeatedly.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and France on Saturday again called for an immediate ceasefire to ensure an influx of aid into the embattled Gaza Strip.

During talks in Cairo, the ministers discussed the importance of an immediate truce agreement, aid deliveries and the release of hostages kept in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri told a press conference after the meeting.

Shoukri added that he had also discussed with French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné and their Jordanian counterpart Ayman al-Safadi the risks of a planned Israeli ground offensive in Gaza’s city of Rafah near the Egyptian border.

More than one million Palestinians have taken refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the coastal strip, but in spite of mounting warnings from the international community, Israel says it is planning to go ahead with the full-scale incursion.

Séjourné said that France opposes any military action in Rafah.

France’s top diplomat also called for the opening of land crossings to give Gaza access to adequate relief aid and for the “immediate and unconditional” release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Jordanian minister accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon in the war and called for a binding UN Security Council resolution to stop what he called the “starvation crime.”

In an effort to ramp up aid deliveries, a freighter and two smaller ships carrying around 875 tons of aid for the population in the embattled Gaza Strip departed from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Saturday afternoon, Cypriot radio and the Cyprus Times news portal reported.

The port of Larnaca is around 400 kilometres from Gaza.

In what is the second delivery of this kind, the ships are expected to arrive in around 65 hours, experts estimated on Cypriot radio.

In Gaza, Israeli troops continued their operations, killing a number of fighters in the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported on Saturday.

Weapons were seized in the operation which has been continuing for almost two weeks at the hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, Hamas has re-established itself in the hospital since Israeli soldiers first cleared the area in November.

Around 200 Hamas fighters have been killed and more than 500 suspects have been arrested in the latest operation, according to the IDF.

Thousands of Israelis call on Netanyahu to resign over Gaza war