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🔴 Live: Norwegian pension fund blacklists Caterpillar over Gaza fears
Norway’s largest pension fund said Wednesday it had divested from US industrial group Caterpillar because of the risk its equipment was being used by the Israeli army in Gaza.Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Issued on: 26/06/2024 – 07:21
2 min
File photo: A man stands in front of a shop selling US Caterpillar construction equipment in the Al-Jadriya neighbourhood in Baghdad on May 30, 2024.
File photo: A man stands in front of a shop selling US Caterpillar construction equipment in the Al-Jadriya neighbourhood in Baghdad on May 30, 2024. © Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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FRANCE 24
Summary:
Norway’s largest pension fund said Wednesday it had divested from US industrial group Caterpillar because of the risk its equipment was being used by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Senior UN officials have told Israel they will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers from Israeli strikes and to curb growing lawlessness hindering aid efforts.
Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during Hamas’s October 7 attack are suing the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, claiming it has helped finance the militants by paying agency staffers in US dollars and thereby funnelling them to money-changers in Gaza who allegedly give a cut to Hamas.
Gaza remains at high risk of famine as war between Israel and Hamas continues and access to aid is restricted, though delivery of supplies had limited the projected spread of extreme hunger in northern areas, a global monitor said on Tuesday.
More than 6,800 metric tons, or 15 million pounds, of food and aid has flowed through the US military-built pier in Gaza. However, the US says very little of it has left the storage area and is stacking up on the beach due to security concerns among the aid agencies who deliver it throughout Gaza.
At least 37,658 Palestinians have been killed and 86,237 injured in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
LIVE
an hour ago
Gaza war looms over NY’s most expensive US House primary
A pro-Israeli candidate beat a pro-Palestinian rival in New York on Tuesday in the most expensive House primary ever, a vote which exposed the Democratic Party’s internal divisions over the war in Gaza.
George Latimer, backed by former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, ousted incumbent Jamaal Bowman, who has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and advocated for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Latimer, 70, is a supporter of Israel and has called for the return of hostages captured by Hamas before any eventual ceasefire.
The election for New York’s 16th district was also the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history, with an estimated $23 million spent on campaigning.
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2 hours ago
Suspected Houthi attack targets a ship in the Gulf of Aden
Suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels early Wednesday targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden, while a separate attack claimed by Iraqi militants allied with the rebels targeted the southern Israeli port city of Eilat, authorities said.
The attacks follow the departure of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower after an eight-month deployment in which the aircraft carrier led the American response to the Houthi assaults. Those attacks have reduced shipping drastically through the route crucial to Asian, Middle East and European markets in a campaign the Houthis say will continue as long as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Houthis faced allegations they seized commercial aircraft that brought back pilgrims from the Hajj amid a widening economic dispute between the rebels and the country’s exiled government.
The ship attack happened off the coast of Aden, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The captain “of a merchant vessel reported a missile impacted the water in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO said. “The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.”
The UKMTO did not say if the ship had been damaged.
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3 hours ago
Norwegian fund blacklists Caterpillar over Gaza fears
Norway’s largest pension fund said Wednesday it had divested from US industrial group Caterpillar because of the risk its equipment was being used by the Israeli army in Gaza.
“For a long time, Caterpillar has supplied bulldozers and other equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure to clear the way for Israeli settlements,” Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP, said in a statement.
“It has also been alleged that the company’s equipment is being used by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in connection with its military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7 last year,” she added.
Because of this, there is a “risk that the US company may be contributing to human rights abuses and violation of international law in the West Bank and Gaza,” KLP said.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel not to open a second front against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, saying the ongoing fighting could “easily become a regional war” as he met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Israel’s Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for military service, a ruling that could split Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
The Gaza civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike early on Tuesday killed 10 members of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s family. Israel’s military said its forces had targeted militants overnight in Gaza City who had been involved in the planning of attacks on Israel.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(France 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
