Afghanistan crisis ‘stands for decades of neglect of human rights’, Jolie says
Angelina Jolie has said the crisis in Afghanistan is “not a slip-up” and that her thoughts are with women and girls across the country.
Jolie, who works as a special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, says she does not believe the Taliban can “turn back the clock” so Afghanistan is as it was 20 years ago.
Speaking to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, she said she believes the situation there is “not an isolated case” and represents a failure of the international community.
Jolie meets a family at their makeshift home near Kabul in 2011
“Afghanistan is not a slip-up or an isolated case, it stands for a pattern,” she said.
“It stands for decades of neglect of human rights… the lack of well-thought-out human rights-based interventions and the collapse of the international system.”
The 46-year-old actress also expressed her concerns for women’s rights and freedoms, which the Taliban has claimed to guarantee within the context of Islam.
“I’m thinking of all the women and girls who don’t know now if they can go back to work or school. And I’m thinking of the young Afghans who are worried that they will lose their freedom,” she added.
On Saturday, women marched in the streets of Kabul for a second day calling for their education and jobs to be guaranteed.
Jolie is seen greeting young girls in Afghanistan in 2011
They laid a wreath in memory of Afghan soldiers who died fighting the Taliban before they began their protest march.
Social media footage showed Taliban fighters wading into the crowds of activists, some firing weapons into the air.
Witnesses also claimed the special forces used tear gas and Tasers, but this has not been confirmed.
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There have already been reports of Islamists using violence against women, despite their promises to the Afghan people and the international community.
Foreign powers, including the UK, have been criticised for saying they will negotiate with the Taliban.
Jolie, who has visited Afghanistan in her UN role, spoke out against former US president Donald Trump during his 2020 negotiations with the Taliban in Doha.
Jolie is a special envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Pic: AP
They resulted in the agreement to withdraw US troops from the country, which triggered the crisis at Kabul Airport last month.
“America should never have taken part in negotiations in which Afghan civil society and Afghan women were almost completely excluded,” the star said.
At least 47 passengers have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in South Korea, officials have said.
Rescuers are attempting to pull people from the wreckage of the plane after it veered off a runway at Muan International Airport and crashed into a wall, becoming engulfed in flames.
The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when it attempted to land, but its landing gear was said to have not fully opened.
Pic: Reuters
Firefighters and rescue team members work in the aftermath of the crash.
Pic: Lee Young-ju/Newsis/AP
Yonhap News Agency reported that a collision with a bird may have caused the malfunction – citing officials.
Footage aired by YTN television showed the moment the plane slammed into the wall at the airport and burst into flames, after skidding off the runway without its landing gear deployed.
Further photos shared by local media showed smoke and flames engulfing much of the plane.
Officials said the blaze has been brought mostly under control and South Korea’s transport ministry said the incident happened at 9.03am local time on Sunday (shortly after midnight in the UK).
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was on its way back from Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the crash.
South Korea’s emergency office said two people had been safely rescued, one passenger and one crew member.
Among those on board were 173 South Koreans and two Thai people, local media reported.
So far almost 50 people are said to have died.
Pic: Reuters
A rescue team prepares at Muan Airport after the crash.
Pic: Maeng Dae-hwan/Newsis/AP
Thick smoke above the airport after the crash.
Pic: Reuters
All domestic and international flights from Muan International Airport have been cancelled in light of the fatal crash.
Acting President Choi Sung-mok ordered a rescue effort, his office said.
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World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
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