World

China carried out fresh military drills around Taiwan Monday, Beijing said, defying calls to end its largest-ever exercises encircling the island in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Beijing has raged at the trip by Pelosi — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan in decades — ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defence.

It has also deployed fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles in what analysts have described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of the self-ruled democratic island that China claims as its territory.

Those drills had been expected to draw to a close on Sunday, but China said Monday they were still ongoing.

“The eastern theatre of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army continued to carry out practical joint exercises and training in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island,” the military said.

The exercises, the PLA’s Eastern Command said, were “focusing on organising joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations”.

Taipei condemned Beijing for extending the drills.

“China’s provocation and aggression have harmed the status quo of the Taiwan Strait and raised tensions in the region,” the island’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Beijing was also set to carry out live-fire drills on Monday in parts of the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea.

– Taipei defiant –

Taiwan has remained defiant throughout the Chinese drills.

Its military said it would hold anti-landing exercises in Taiwan’s south on Tuesday and Thursday.

“We will practise counter moves against simulated enemy attacks on Taiwan,” Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for the Eighth Army Corps, told AFP. 

They will include the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzer guns, the military said.

Taiwan has insisted that no Chinese planes or ships have entered Taiwan’s territorial waters during the drills.

But to show how close it came to Taiwan’s shores, the Chinese military released a video of an air force pilot filming the island’s coastline and mountains from his cockpit.

The Eastern Command also shared a photo it said was of a warship on patrol with Taiwan’s shoreline visible in the background.

Ballistic missiles were fired over Taiwan’s capital during the exercises last week, according to Chinese state media.

The scale and intensity of China’s drills — as well as its withdrawal from key talks on climate and defence — have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Washington is “determined to act responsibly” to avoid a major global crisis.

– ‘Issuing a warning’ –

But Beijing on Monday defended its behaviour as “firm, forceful and appropriate” to American provocation. 

“(We) are only issuing a warning to the perpetrators,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing, promising China would “firmly smash the Taiwan authorities’ illusion of gaining independence through the US”.

“We urge the US to do some earnest reflection, and immediately correct its mistakes.”

Experts say the drills have revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military capable of carrying out a gruelling blockade of the island and obstructing US forces from coming to Taiwan’s aid.

“In some areas, the PLA might even surpass US capabilities,” Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and a former US Navy officer, told AFP.

“If the battle is confined to the area right around Taiwan, today’s Chinese navy is a dangerous opponent — and if the Americans and Japanese do not intervene for some reason, things would be difficult for Taiwan.”

Shell-shocked Gazans on Monday sifted through the rubble of three days of deadly conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants as a truce held and life slowly returned to normal with power restored.

The sole power plant in the blockaded enclave “started working to generate electricity” after a two-day shutdown, distributor spokesman Mohammed Thabet told AFP, hours after fuel trucks for the plant entered Gaza.

A ceasefire reached late Sunday has raised hopes of ending the intense fighting that killed 44 people according to Gaza’s health ministry, with 15 children among the dead.

The power shutdown on Saturday had sparked concern about the impact on hospitals treating casualties and on other vital services, amid the worst fighting in Gaza since an 11-day war last year.

The Israeli military said roads would slowly reopen in the border area.

“It was decided to gradually lift the restrictions,” which have seen Israelis living near Gaza remain close to their bomb shelters, the army said.

Across areas hit by air strikes in Gaza, Palestinians tried Monday to salvage belongings from the rubble of shattered homes and to start clearing the debris.

Mohammed Alai, who lives east of Gaza City, described the situation as “tragic and tough”. 

“We have a lot of martyrs and wounded, and devastation and destruction, but Gaza is tending to its wounds,” he said.

– Hundreds wounded –

US President Joe Biden welcomed the ceasefire and thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for his country’s role in brokering it.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office late Sunday thanked “Egypt for its efforts” as it agreed to the truce, but said that “if the ceasefire is violated”, Israel “maintains the right to respond strongly”.

Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed group designated as a terrorist organisation by several Western nations, also accepted the truce but said it too “reserves the right to respond” to any aggression.

Tehran said it will always “defend the active resistance”.

“A ceasefire was established because the Zionists (Israel) only understand the language of power,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Instagram.

Starting on Friday, Israel had launched a heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza, leading the militants to fire hundreds of rockets in retaliation.

In addition to those killed, Gazan health officials said 360 people were wounded in the Palestinian enclave, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas.

A senior Israeli diplomatic official said Monday that “most of the civilians that were killed in Gaza were killed by Islamic Jihad rockets” that fell short or misfired.

The militant group on Monday said 12 of its leaders and members had been killed.

Three people in Israel were wounded by shrapnel, while 31 others were lightly hurt while running for safety, emergency services said.

Islamic Jihad member Mohammad al-Hindi said the ceasefire deal “contains Egypt’s commitment to work towards the release of two prisoners”.

They were named as Bassem al-Saadi, a senior figure in the group’s political wing who was recently arrested in the occupied West Bank, and Khalil Awawdeh, a militant also in Israeli detention.

– ‘Sleep peacefully’ –

In the Israeli city of Asheklon, north of Gaza, beachgoers returned to the shore.

Sitting in a cafe, Eitan Casandini said residents were feeling “very good”.

“After we destroy them we can sleep peacefully,” he told AFP. “I don’t think Jihad will do anything again in the next three or four years.”

Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas but often acts independently. Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict in May last year.

Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation against Islamic Jihad, while the diplomatic official said the group had been planning an attack by sniper fire or with anti-tank missiles.

The army has killed senior leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, including Taysir al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour.

The senior Israeli diplomatic official said Islamic Jihad had been dealt “a very serious blow” which had “taken them back decades”.

bur-rsc/pjm/fz

China carried out fresh military drills around Taiwan Monday, Beijing said, defying calls for it to end its largest-ever exercises encircling the democratic island in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Beijing has raged at the trip by Pelosi — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan in decades — ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defence.

It has also deployed fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles in what analysts have described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of the self-ruled island that China claims as its territory.

Those drills had been expected to draw to a close on Sunday, but neither Beijing nor Taipei confirmed their conclusion, though Taiwan’s transport ministry said it had seen some evidence suggesting at least a partial drawdown.

China then said Monday they were ongoing, reporting “the eastern theatre of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army continued to carry out practical joint exercises and training in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island”.

The exercises, the Chinese military’s Eastern Command said, were “focusing on organising joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations”.

Beijing is also set to carry out live-fire drills on Monday in parts of the South China Sea and Yellow Sea.

– Taipei defiant –

Taiwan has remained defiant throughout days of drills by Beijing and will hold anti-landing exercises in its southernmost county of Pingtung on Tuesday and Thursday, Taipei’s army said.

“We will practise counter moves against simulated enemy attacks on Taiwan,” Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for the Eighth Army Corps, told AFP. 

They will include the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzer guns, the military said.

Taipei on Monday condemned Beijing’s exercises but insisted that no Chinese planes or ships had entered Taiwan’s territorial waters.

To show how close it has come to Taiwan’s shores, the Chinese military released a video of an air force pilot filming the island’s coastline and mountains from his cockpit.

The Eastern Command also shared a photo it said was of a warship on patrol with Taiwan’s shoreline visible in the background.

Ballistic missiles were fired over Taiwan’s capital during the exercises last week, according to Chinese state media.

The scale and intensity of China’s drills — as well as Beijing’s withdrawal from key talks on climate and defence — have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Washington is “determined to act responsibly” to avoid a major global crisis.

– ‘Issuing a warning’ –

But Beijing on Monday defended its behaviour as “firm, forceful and appropriate” to American provocation. 

“(We) are only issuing a warning to the perpetrators,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing, promising China would “firmly smash the Taiwan authorities’ illusion of gaining independence through the US”.

“We urge the US to do some earnest reflection, and immediately correct its mistakes.”

Experts say the drills have revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military capable of carrying out a gruelling blockade of the island and obstructing US forces from coming to Taiwan’s aid.

“In some areas, the PLA might even surpass US capabilities,” Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and a former US Navy officer, told AFP.

“If the battle is confined to the area right around Taiwan, today’s Chinese navy is a dangerous opponent — and if the Americans and Japanese do not intervene for some reason, things would be difficult for Taiwan.”

Fuel trucks entered Gaza as an Egypt-brokered truce between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants held Monday, raising hopes that the intense conflict that left dozens of Palestinians dead has ended.

An AFP journalist at the goods crossing to southern Gaza saw trucks loaded with fuel enter the enclave, ending a severe shortage which had prompted the only power station there to shut down Saturday.

The arrival of vital supplies follows the start of a ceasefire late Sunday to stem the worst fighting in Gaza since an 11-day war last year devastated the Palestinian coastal territory.

Gaza’s health ministry said 15 children were among 44 people killed in three days of intense fighting.

Despite a flurry of strikes and rocket attacks in the run-up to the truce, neither side had reported any major violations of the agreement overnight.

The Israeli military said roads would gradually reopen in the border area on Monday.

“It was decided to gradually lift the restrictions,” which have seen Israelis living near Gaza remain close to their bomb shelters, the army said.

– Hundreds wounded –

US President Joe Biden welcomed the ceasefire and thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for his country’s role in brokering it.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office late Sunday thanked “Egypt for its efforts” as it agreed to the truce, but said that “if the ceasefire is violated”, Israel “maintains the right to respond strongly”.

Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed group designated as a terrorist organisation by several Western nations, also accepted the truce but said it too “reserves the right to respond” to any aggression.

Tehran said it will always “defend the active resistance”.

“A ceasefire was established because the Zionists (Israel) only understand the language of power,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Instagram.

Starting on Friday, Israel had launched a heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza, leading the militants to fire hundreds of rockets in retaliation.

In addition to those killed, Gazan health officials said 360 people had been wounded in the Palestinian enclave, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas.

A senior Israeli diplomatic official said Monday that “most of the civilians that were killed in Gaza were killed by Islamic Jihad rockets” that fell short or misfired.

The militant group on Monday said 12 of its leaders and members had been killed.

Three people in Israel were wounded by shrapnel, while 31 others were lightly hurt while running for safety, emergency services said.

Islamic Jihad member Mohammad al-Hindi said the ceasefire deal “contains Egypt’s commitment to work towards the release of two prisoners”.

They were named as Bassem al-Saadi, a senior figure in the group’s political wing who was recently arrested in the occupied West Bank, and Khalil Awawdeh, a militant also in Israeli detention.

– ‘Sleep peacefully’ –

Across areas hit in Gaza, Palestinians tried to salvage belongings from the rubble and remove debris.

Mohammed Alai, who lives east of Gaza City, said the situation was “tragic and tough”. 

“We have a lot of martyrs and wounded, and devastation and destruction, but Gaza is tending to its wounds,” he said.

In the Israeli city of Asheklon, north of Gaza, beachgoers returned to the shore.

Sitting in a cafe, Eitan Casandini said residents were feeling “very good”.

“After we destroy them we can sleep peacefully,” he told AFP. “I don’t think Jihad will do anything again in the next three or four years.”

Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas but often acts independently. Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict in May last year.

Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation against Islamic Jihad, while the diplomatic official said the group had been planning an attack by sniper fire or with anti-tank missiles.

The army has killed senior leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, including Taysir al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour.

The senior Israeli diplomatic official said Islamic Jihad had been dealt “a very serious blow” which had “taken them back decades”.

bur-rsc/pjm/fz