Ethiopia, India, Israel-Palestine.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jun 04, 2024

Ethiopia

There is a “reasonable basis to believe” that Ethiopian government forces committed acts amounting to genocide during a civil war that ravaged the north of the country from 2020-2022, according to a new report. The report, from the US-based New Lines Institute, said there was sufficient evidence that government forces and their allies targeted civilians in mass killings and used starvation tactics. The report said Ethiopia’s military as well as the military of neighboring Eritrea, which supported Ethiopia in its conflict with Tigrayan rebels, “possessed the intent to destroy Tigrayans as an ethnic group.”

India

India’s election results have proven such a surprise that one pollster broke down on live TV apparently wracked with guilt over getting it so wrong. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will return to power but the BJP is set to lose its outright majority in parliament for the first time in a decade despite almost all polls predicting a landslide win. Modi will now need the support of several other parties to pursue his agenda - a personal blow that will introduce uncertainty to the legislative process. More than 640 million votes were cast over six weeks in what was the biggest election in world history.

Israel-Palestine

As talks between Israel and Hamas on a potential ceasefire remain stalled, Israeli forces are reported to have invaded the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Troops pushed into the camp backed by air power and hospital officials said at least 11 Palestinians, including three children and a woman, had been killed in an air strike on a home. At least two men were killed in a strike on a building in the neighboring Maghazi refugee camp, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Israel said it was conducting a “precision operation” in the camps.