Israel Targets Gaza Militants, Fears Retaliation

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Gaza militants killed in Israeli airstrikes, the arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, and a diplomatic showdown between Canada and China.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday killed three top leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in airstrikes on homes in Gaza City and Rafah in the Gaza Strip; 10 other people were also killed—including the commanders’ wives and children as well as other civilians nearby—and 22 people were injured. The Israeli military identified the three Islamic Jihad leaders as Khalil Bahtini, Tareq Izzeldeen, and Jehad Ghanam, saying they were responsible for recent rocket attacks against Israel.

This was the IDF’s largest attack on Islamic Jihad since August 2022, when nearly three days of fighting killed 43 Palestinians, including 15 children. Now fearing retaliation, Israeli officials have warned civilians within 25 miles of Gaza to remain near designated bomb shelters. Schools, beaches, and highways in southern Israel have also closed in anticipation of violence.

Warplanes and missiles have crisscrossed the region’s skies in recent days following the death of Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan in an Israeli prison, who went on an 87-day hunger strike to protest his arrest. Violence between Gaza militants and Israeli forces ensued for hours before Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations managed to negotiate a cease-fire.

As for Tuesday’s violence, Palestinian militants have already warned that Israel must “pay the price,” with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh saying, “Assassinating the leaders with a treacherous operation will not bring security to the occupier but rather more resistance.” Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad are backed by Iran and oppose Israel’s existence.

According to The Associated Press, Israeli forces have killed 105 Palestinians since 2023 began—roughly half of whom were affiliated with militant groups. Palestinian attacks have killed at least 20 Israelis this year. The “possibility of another Palestinian intifada looms large, born of mounting frustration and anger among younger Palestinians,” Middle East experts Aaron David Miller and Daniel C. Kurtzer argued in Foreign Policy in March. “Creative thinking about peace has atrophied in recent years, and it is hard to see what political pathway can be developed that meets the minimum requirements of the two parties.”

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Pakistani firebrand arrested. Paramilitary forces arrested former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Tuesday over corruption allegations. This follows the military’s rare public rebuke of Khan on Monday for allegedly falsely accusing a senior official with attempting to assassinate him. In response, hundreds of Khan’s supporters stormed the streets of Lahore, Khan’s hometown, and blocked a major road in Karachi. Khan is expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

Once upon a time, Khan and the Pakistani military shared similar goals. The latter even backed the former cricket player’s bid for power in 2018. But when Khan faced a no-confidence vote in April 2022, the Pakistani military did an about-face. Since then, a debilitating economic crisis and dysfunctional political scene have plagued the country. According to a PTI lawyer, Khan currently stands accused of 34 crimes—and Tuesday marked his first official arrest.

Khan’s ability to avoid arrest until now suggested that “the military’s grip on politics may have loosened or that there is divided opinion about PTI within the country’s most powerful institutions,” journalist Betsy Joles reported in Foreign Policy last month.

A diplomatic tit for tat. Canadian officials are cracking down on Chinese foreign influence. On Monday, Ottawa requested that China withdraw diplomat Zhao Wei from Toronto, accusing him of intimidating and gathering intelligence on Canadian lawmaker Michael Chong and his family. Chong was allegedly targeted for his legislative efforts to declare China’s human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims a genocide—something that numerous other countries, including the United States, have already done. Beijing denied the allegations and retaliated by expelling a Canadian diplomat from its consulate in Shanghai just hours later.

The diplomatic rift caps off months of Canadian anger over alleged Chinese government efforts to manipulate Ottawa’s general elections in 2019 and 2021 to ensure Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party won. Canadian officials have denied that the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts were successful, and an independent investigation in February ruled that Chinese influence campaigns had no impact on the elections’ results.

Congo devastation. The death toll from recent mass flooding and landslides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to rise, with more than 400 people dead as of Tuesday. The almost weeklong natural disaster is Congo’s deadliest in recent history. According to local authorities, at least 5,500 people remain missing, and more than 8,000 individuals require humanitarian assistance. Congo, already struggling with poor urban planning and weak infrastructure, now faces severe transportation blockages and detrimental crop destruction.

Victory Day airstrikes. Moscow launched cruise missiles at Kyiv on Tuesday alongside Russia’s scaled-down Victory Day celebrations, which commemorate the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. No casualties or major damages were reported. The strikes occurred just one day after the Kremlin sent dozens of drones into Ukraine, killing at least three people and damaging critical infrastructure—including a runway at Kyiv International Airport and a food warehouse in Odesa.

Wine and lollipops may be unlikely items to include in a survival kit, but those two things were enough to sustain Lillian Ip, who was stranded at the base of Australia’s Victorian Alps for five days with no other food or water after her car became stuck in mud. When authorities rescued her on Friday, Ip had two requests: “water and a cigarette.”