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Beberapa hari ini, warganet dihebohkan dengan pemberitaan Jakarta yang sudah kehilangan status ‘ibu kota negara’ sejak 15 Februari 2024 lalu – banyak yang berasumsi, masyarakat Indonesia sementara waktu ini sedang tak punya ibu kota, meskipun kenyataan lain mengatakan warga masih punya ibu negara.

Spekulasi liar lainnya, warga Jakarta secara umum pun sudah tidak bisa lagi menganggap diri mereka sebagai warga ibu kota… atau mungkin nanti mereka menyebut diri sebagai warga Heru Budi Hartono?

Mereka yang menjadi pesohor dan tinggal di Jakarta pun akan gusar dengan berita ini, karena tak bisa lagi mengklaim diri sebagai ‘artis ibu kota’.

Di tengah situasi genting ini mendorong canda dari warga Bekasi, Bogor, Tangerang sampai Cimahi untuk segera mendeklarasikan wilayah mereka sebagai ‘ibu kota darurat’.

Tapi balik lagi ke persoalan utamanya: Dari mana asal-usul kegaduhan ini? Ada apa di balik narasi ini? Dan, mengapa publik perlu tahu lebih mendalam dari sekadar guyon Jakarta kehilangan ‘ibu kota negara’?

Dari mana kehebohan ini dimulai?

Berakhirnya status Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota (DKI) untuk Jakarta disampaikan Ketua Badan Legislasi Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, Supratman Andi Agtas kepada wartawan, Selasa (05/03).

Ia bukan pembuat keputusan itu. Tapi merujuk pada Undang Undang tentang Ibu Kota Negara (IKN) yang mulai berlaku pada 15 Februari 2024. Dalam Pasal 41 ayat (2) disebutkan begini:

“Paling lama 2 (dua) tahun sejak Undang-Undang ini diundangkan, Undang-Undang Nomor 29 Tahun 2007 tentang Pemerintahan Provinsi Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota Jakarta sebagai Ibu Kota Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia diubah sesuai dengan ketentuan dalam Undang-Undang ini.”

Apakah otomatis Jakarta sudah bukan lagi ibu kota negara?

Ada pasal lain dalam UU IKN yang menyatakan status ibu kota negara Jakarta baru bisa diganti dengan IKN di Kalimantan Timur melalui keputusan presiden (Keppres).

Hal ini juga dipertegas dalam Pasal 39 dalam regulasi yang sama, bahwa kedudukan, fungsi, dan peran ibu kota negara tetap berada di Jakarta sampai dengan tanggal ditetapkannya pemindahan ibu kota negara dari Jakarta ke IKN dengan Keppres.

Lalu kapan Keppres ini dikeluarkan?

Masih belum jelas waktunya, semua tergantung dari kewenangan penuh presiden.

Apa yang mendasari Jakarta masih menjadi ibu kota negara?

Selain belum ada Keppres resmi tentang pemindahan ibu kota negara ke IKN, Jakarta masih berpegang pada Undang Undang No.29/2007 tentang Pemerintahan Provinsi Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota Jakarta.

Ke depan – tentunya setelah Keppres terbit dan ibu kota negara sudah resmi jadi milik IKN – Jakarta rencananya akan menjadi wilayah khusus.

Oleh karena itu, saat ini DPR dan pemerintah sedang menyoroti Rancangan Undang Undang Daerah Khusus Jakarta (RUU DKJ) agar bisa segera disahkan.

Motif di balik narasi Jakarta akan kehilangan status ibu kota?

Menurut Ketua Badan Legislasi Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, Supratman Andi Agtas, dengan ketentuan UU IKN dan mengatasi hilangnya status ibu kota negara pada Jakarta, maka pihaknya harus segera membahas RUU DKJ.

“Dalam waktu seminggu sampai sepuluh hari kerja, harus selesai karena DKI sudah kehilangan status per 15 Februari kemarin,” ujar Supratman seperti dikutip dari Kompas.

Namun, Direktur Eksekutif Komite Pemantauan Pelaksanaan Otonomi Daerah (KPPOD), Herman Suparman melihat narasi di balik ini sebagai landasan ketergesa-gesan untuk mengesahkan RUU DKJ.

“Seharusnya wacana ini harusnya jauh-jauh hari, dari dua tahun lalu. Bahwa setelah UU IKN disahkan, dua tahun ke depan Jakarta harus punya undang undang yang baru.

Seharusnya DPR dan pemerintah sudah melempar wacana itu ke publik, sehingga publik juga memberikan catatan dan masukan,” kata Armand, sapaan Herman Suparman.

Mengapa publik perlu mengawal isu status ibu kota Jakarta?

Jakarta masih akan memperoleh kekhususan meski nanti sudah tidak lagi jadi ibu kota negara.

Musababnya, Jakarta memiliki kedudukan sebagai pusat perekonomian nasional, kota global, dan kawasan aglomerasi – Kabupten Bogor, Kabupaten Tangerang, Kabupaten Bekasi, Kabupaten Cianjur, Kota Bogor, Kota Depok, Kota Tangerang, Kota Tangerang Selatan dan Kota Bekasi.

Hal ini nantinya akan dirumuskan dan kemungkinan disahkan dalam UU DKJ.

Persoalannya, RUU DKJ juga bukan tanpa polemik. Salah satunya, soal ketentuan jabatan gubernur Jakarta yang ditunjuk langsung presiden.

Akhir tahun lalu, isu ini baru ramai dibicarakan dan banyak suara-suara yang menentang.

KPPOD salah satu yang menolak tegas ketentuan ini, kata Herman Suparman.

Alasannya, klausul ini melanggar konstitusi karena kepala daerah harus dipilih secara demokratis sesuai Undang Undang Dasar 1945.

Kedua, penunjukkan langsung gubernur Jakarta oleh presiden bertentangan dengan cita-cita otonomi daerah yang semestinya membuka ruang partisipasi publik dalam memilih kepala daerahnya.

“Oleh karena itu penunjukkan oleh presiden terhadap gubernur jakarta itu sudah melanggar, membatasi dan mencoreng tujuan dari otonomi daerah itu,” kata Armand.

Ia melanjutkan, dengan narasi mendesak agar RUU DKJ ini segera disahkan jangan sampai publik terkecoh lagi sebagaimana pengalaman Undang-undang Cipta Kerja, yang minim partisipasi publik dan digarap secara ‘ugal-ugalan’.

“Dengan ketergesaan ini kita khawatir banyak substansi yang tidak diperhatikan. Termasuk soal yang krusial itu. Kita perlu mengawal itu jangan sampai ada pasal-pasal yang diselipkan,” jelas Armand. https://merujaksore.com/

Laduma Ngxokolo can pinpoint the exact moment he became a man – and how it inspired his unique sense of fashion.

In 2004, he spent a month in the wilderness with a troop of young men from his community – all part of a coming-of-age ritual traditionally observed by South Africa’s Xhosa ethnic group.

As per the tradition, Ngxokolo and his fellow initiates were supposed to re-enter society with fresh clothes after their month away.

“It was a British-style, gentleman type of look. So your typical look would be a hunter cap or a hat and a jacket,” Ngxokolo tells the BBC.

But Ngxokolo decided to fashion his own outfits from scratch, ones more reflective of Xhosa culture.

An outlier among his fellow “amakrwala”, as initiates are called, he emerged from boyhood donning “an accent colour around the calf, around the neck, around the chest… and lots of stripes”.

Having personally witnessed the lack of Xhosa-inspired high-end clothing companies, Ngxokolo began to develop MaXhosa Africa – a designer brand dominated by knitwear and colourful Xhosa patterns.

Since then, MaXhosa has been endorsed by Beyoncé, worn by US musician Alicia Keys, featured in Vogue and will be presenting a new collection at Paris Fashion Week on Sunday.

And Ngxokolo’s not alone – in recent years several African luxury designers have burst onto the global fashion scene.

Since 2019, three South Africans – Thebe Magugu, Lukhanyo Mdingi and Sindiso Khumalo – have bagged the prestigious LVMH Prize for emerging talent. The following year, Beyoncé’s Africa-centred Black Is King film showcased the continent’s leading brands to a Western audience.

Vogue has also increasingly been promoting fashion from Africa – in 2022 a cover story shot in Ghana with actress Michaela Coel went viral.

Africa “holds all the cards to become one of the next world fashion leaders”, according to a 2023 report from the UN’s cultural body Unesco.

This past month goes some way to backing up Unesco’s forecast. Alongside MaXhosa, brands from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon have been launching new collections at the industry’s “big four” fashion weeks – Paris, Milan, London and New York.

After his show in Paris, ballet dancer-turned-designer Imane Ayissi tells the BBC “there’s been a “noticeable increase” in African showing at Europe’s fashion weeks.

“Six years ago, there were no designers from Africa in official Western fashion weeks,” he says.

Ayissi, the son of a Cameroonian champion boxer and a beauty queen, sent his models down the Paris runway wearing layers of taffeta and satin, into which he incorporated kente (a handwoven Ghanaian textile) along with traditional fabric from Burkina Faso.

“The main inspiration is the way women, in a lot of different African countries, mostly in Western and Central Africa, use simple pieces of fabrics and drape them around their hips to create a kind of skirt, sometimes with several levels,” the designer says.

But why have African styles and textiles like this seen such a rise in popularity recently?

There are a variety of reasons, one being the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, says Frederica Brooksworth, chief executive of the Council for International African Fashion Education (CIAFE).

“For once, because everything was happening online and not many people were able to do things like fashion weeks, it was an amazing opportunity for Africa’s voice to actually be heard,” she tells the BBC.

She also points to the dizzying rise of the Afrobeats genre, the growth of successful fashion shows within Africa – like Lagos Fashion Week – and the impact of creatives in the diaspora.

Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, breakout designer Tolu Coker was among the handful of diasporans showcasing their heritage at London Fashion Week last month.

Her latest collection pays homage to the tenacity of West Africa’s street hawkers, who sell goods from kiosks or brave traffic to reach passing drivers.

“My mother used to hawk when she was younger… that’s a really big part of her story,” says Coker, whose fans include Rihanna and Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage.

Coker’s models marched down the Mayfair runway sporting razor-sharp tailoring, raffia bags and, in one instance a chic, multi-coloured suitcase – “a nod to the businesswoman”.

While championing Nigerian culture, Coker notes that diaspora designers like her are “privileged” and enjoy opportunities that their counterparts on the continent often cannot access.

Poor infrastructure, as well as a lack of formal education and investment are among the challenges faced by designers working in Africa, Unesco says.

Laduma Ngxokolo

African luxury fashion is a very lonely space to operate in”Laduma Ngxokolo
South African designer

Ngxokolo attests to this assessment – he tells the BBC that “African luxury fashion is a very lonely space to operate in”.

“Initially, I didn’t feel supported. I went to banks, I went to government funding agencies – most of the funding packages are for people that are into mining, the food business, farming.”

Bobby Kolade, founder of Ugandan brand Buzigahill, and who has presented his collections at Berlin Fashion Week, has similar gripes.

“I don’t think that our governments and our leaders see the value of small business. If we were creating 3,000 jobs at once, then they’d be on our side,” says Kolade, whose melding of fashion and activism piqued the interest of global media publications.

Africa does have an increasing market for luxury clothes at it has a growing middle-class – though its designer brands are currently only accessible to a “small, wealthy percentage”, Unesco says.

And some African governments are taking steps to support their designers. For instance, Kenya’s government helped to launch the Kenyan Fashion Council, while an initiative from the Central Bank of Nigeria funds some designers there.

There are also other upsides, Kolade stresses.

To him, Uganda’s capital, Kampala, is a wellspring of inspiration.

Buzigahill’s latest collection drew from the city’s security guards, tree surgeons and farmers who, according to Kolade, “don’t know how much swag they have”.

His words reflect a common ethos among Africa’s designers – that of planting their cultures at the centre of their work, while still drawing the attention of the Western-led global fashion industry.

Two decades on from his amakrwala fashion debut, Ngxokolo is putting the final touches to his Paris Fashion Week show while also preparing to open his first New York store.

But, Ngxokolo insists, South Africa has always been his “priority”.

“The loyalty and the love that your people give you is great,” he says. “It’s a form of great sustainability for the business.” https://merujaksore.com/

People living in the isolated north of Gaza have told the BBC that children are going without food for days, as aid convoys are increasingly denied permits to enter. Some residents have resorted to grinding animal feed into flour to survive, but even stocks of those grains are now dwindling, they say.

People have also described digging down into the soil to access water pipes, for drinking and washing.

The UN has warned that acute malnutrition among young children in the north has risen sharply, and is now above the critical threshold of 15%.

The UN’s humanitarian coordination agency, Ocha, says more than half the aid missions to the north of Gaza were denied access last month, and that there is increasing interference from Israeli forces in how and where aid is delivered.

It says 300,000 people estimated to be living in northern areas are largely cut off from assistance, and face a growing risk of famine.

A spokesman for the Israeli military agency tasked with coordinating aid access in Gaza said in a briefing last month that there was “no starvation in Gaza. Period.” The agency, Cogat, has repeatedly said it does not limit the amount of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza.

The BBC spoke to three people living in Gaza City and Beit Lahia, and viewed footage and interviews filmed by local journalists in Jabalia.

Mahmoud Shalabi, a local medical aid worker in Beit Lahia, said people had been grinding grains used for animal feed into flour, but that even that was now running out.

“People are not finding it in the market,” he said. “It’s unavailable nowadays in the north of Gaza, and Gaza City.”

He also said stocks of tinned food were disappearing.

“What we had was actually from the six or seven days of truce [in November], and whatever aid was allowed into the north of Gaza has actually been consumed by now. What people are eating right now is basically rice, and only rice.”

The World Food Programme (WFP) told the BBC this week that four out of the last five aid convoys into the north had been stopped by Israeli forces, meaning a gap of two weeks between deliveries to Gaza City.

‘Serious risk of famine’

“We know there is a very serious risk of famine in Gaza if we don’t provide very significant volumes of food assistance on a regular basis,” said the WFP regional chief, Matt Hollingworth.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said there had been a sharp increase in the number of aid missions denied access to northern Gaza: with 56% of deliveries denied access in January, up from 14% in October to December.

It also said the Israeli military “at times required justifications” for quantities of fuel destined for health facilities, and “imposed reductions on the volume of assistance, such as the quantity of food”.

The BBC asked Israel’s army for a response. They directed us to Cogat, which told us to address our questions to the army.

Duha al-Khalidi, a mother of four in Beit Lahia, told the BBC two weeks ago that she walked six miles (9.5km) to her sister’s house in Gaza City, in a desperate search for food, after her children had not eaten for three days.

“I don’t have any money, and even if I did, there’s nothing in the town’s main market,” she said. “[My sister] and her family are also suffering. She shared with me the last amount of pasta in her house.”

“We feel that death has become inevitable,” her sister, Waad, said. “We lost the top floor of our house, but we are still living here despite the fear of collapse. For two weeks, we can’t find anything in the market; and if some products are available, they are 10 times their normal price.”

A famine risk assessment, carried out by several UN agencies, estimated that almost a third of residents in northern areas could now be facing a “catastrophic” lack of food, though restrictions on accessing the area make real-time measurements very difficult.

Families in northern areas are also struggling to find reliable water supplies.

“Many of us are now drinking unpotable water. There are no pipes; we have to dig for water,” explained Mahmoud Salah in Beit Lahia.

Video filmed in the Jabalia neighbourhood north of Gaza City shows residents sitting among the rubble of bombed out streets, digging down into the earth to tap large underground water pipes.

“We get water here once every 15 days,” Yusuf al-Ayoti said. “The water is dirty. Our children are inflamed and their teeth are eroded from the dirty water. There is sand in it, and it’s very salty.”

After four months of war, the makeshift solutions for bridging the hunger gaps are wearing thin. And there are few ways to restock Gaza’s larder.

The territory was reliant on food aid before the war; now much of its agricultural industry has been ruined or abandoned.

‘The destruction is vast’

New figures from the UN suggest that more than half the agricultural land in the central region of Deir al-Balah has been damaged. This includes an olive press and farmland belonging to Bassem Younis Abu Zayed.

“It looks like the aftermath of an earthquake,” he said. “The destruction is vast, covering neighbouring buildings and farm animals. Even if we manage to restore the mill, 80-90% of the olives have gone. It’s not just a loss for this year, it’s a loss for the next several years.”

Further south, in the border town of Rafah, more than a million people displaced by the fighting elsewhere now jostle for space with the town’s 300,000 residents.

Kendati Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) sudah memfasilitasi pemilih disabilitas netra dengan menyediakan template braille, masih saja ada yang kurang dalam pelaksanaannya. Apa yang bisa dilakukan untuk perbaikan ke depan?

“Pak, jangan nyontek ya, Pak,” gurau petugas tempat pemungutan suara (TPS) kepada M. Hamid Basuki, seorang tunanetra, sebelum dia menunaikan hak pilihnya dalam Pemilu 2024 pada 14 Februari silam.

Hamid, 47 tahun, yang berprofesi sebagai guru musik di sekolah luar biasa (SLB) Lebak Bulus, berjalan ke TPS bersama istrinya, Mareti Dewi Pamungkasih (47), dan putri semata wayang mereka, Farida Nurdina yang berusia 17 tahun.

Hamid dan Mareti sama-sama tunanetra. Di komplek perumahan Vila Gading Emas di Depok, Jawa Barat, keduanya mengaku sudah membaur dengan lingkungan setempat. Oleh karena itu, sapaan dan candaan ringan bagi mereka sudah menjadi sesuatu yang biasa.

Dua remaja di Distrik Dekai, Kabupaten Yahukimo, Papua Pegunungan, ditangkap aparat TNI/Polri, Kamis (22/02). Mereka ditangkap tak lama setelah aparat menembak mati seorang milisi pro-kemerdekaan. Kejadian ini adalah rentetan dari penembakan pesawat Wings Air oleh Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat (TPNPB), 17 Februari lalu.

Foto-foto penangkapan dua remaja di Yahukimo itu beredar luas. Dalam sebuah foto dua remaja laki-laki berusia 15 tahun itu berada dalam posisi menelungkup, sementara tangan mereka diikat ke belakang.

Di sekitar mereka terdapat tiga tentara berseragam, salah satunya menjulurkan lidah ke arah pemotret.

Pada foto lainnya, dua remaja laki-laki itu berada dalam posisi duduk bersila, dengan tangan diikat ke belakang. Sejumlah luka tampak pada tubuh mereka. Dua tentara berseragam dan bersenjata berdiri di belakang dan mengawasi mereka.

Angin gasing raksasa ‘tornado’ yang berdampak terhadap lima kecamatan di Jawa Barat, diharapkan jadi bahan penelitian lebih luas mengenai dampak perubahan iklim.

Sebanyak 534 bangunan mengalami rusak ringgan hingga berat akibat bencana ‘tornado’ yang terjadi Rabu sore (21/02) di Kabupaten Sumedang dan Kabupaten Bandung, Jawa Barat.

Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Jawa Barat juga melaporkan, sebanyak 835 keluarga terdampak, dan 33 orang luka menjalani perawatan di rumah sakit.

Banyak video yang tersebar di media sosial menggambarkan angin kencang telah merobohkan pepohonan, kendaraan roda empat terguling, dan material bangunan terangkat ke angkasa. https://merujaksore.com/

Police say they have “grave concerns” over a TV presenter and his boyfriend who disappeared in Sydney in suspicious circumstances.

Possessions belonging to ex-Network 10 presenter Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, were found on Wednesday in a bin in a suburb of the capital.

Police are seeking a man identified by local media as a police officer who once dated Mr Baird to aid inquiries.

But the force told the BBC it could not confirm the person’s identity.

In a statement, New South Wales Police Force said detectives would “continue to look at all past relationships and associations”.

Officers found blood and moved furniture at Mr Baird’s home in the Paddington area, around 28km (17 miles) from Cronulla, the suburb where a worker found the couple’s belongings in a bin.

Blood-stained clothes, a phone and credit cards were among the items found.

Police believe the couple were in Paddington on Monday. CCTV footage obtained by 7NewsAustralia shows what it says appears to be the couple going into Mr Baird’s flatshare.

CCTV footage showing a white van in the area was also being looked at by police, the news outlet said.

Flight attendant Mr Davies has not been in contact with his family or attended work since Monday, according to police.

Det Supt Jodi Radmore said all lines of inquiry were being investigated and told reporters: “We do believe, from the crime scene at Paddington and from property located at Cronulla, that there has been some sort of incident.”

She added that had given the force “great concerns for one, possibly both their safety”.

“Witnesses described a verbal argument,” she continued, “but it wasn’t reported to police at the time … it was only reported to police yesterday [Monday morning] during canvassing.” https://merujaksore.com/

When Israeli special forces rescued two of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas, there was relief for their families and a boost for national morale. But the rescue on 12 February has left angry feelings in Gaza, where more than 70 people were reported killed on the night.

Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.

Nawara al-Najjar was asleep in the tent that had been her family’s home in Rafah for the last five weeks, just a few hundred metres away from the site of the rescue raid.

Lying on the ground were Nawara, who is six months pregnant, her six children – ranging in age from 13 to four – and her husband Abed-Alrahman.

They had fled from their home in Khan Younis, about 9km (6 miles) north, following the instructions of the Israel Defense Forces who said Rafah was a safe area.

Before falling asleep, the couple discussed what to do about two of their children who had been injured. Their son had been burned by scalding food, and their daughter was recovering from facial paralysis caused by trauma in the early stages of the war.

Before they became refugees, Abed-Alrahman did whatever work he could find to support his family, often as a labourer on farms.

They were a strong couple who always tried to solve problems together.

“My husband was anxious, thinking about how he would find a way to treat them and where to take them,” Nawara says. “Our neighbours said they wanted to take my daughter to a doctor for treatment… So, we decided that he would be in charge of our son, and I would be in charge of my daughter.”

Then something unusual happened. Nawara usually slept surrounded by the children. But that night, Abed-Alrahman asked to change the arrangement. “Before he went to sleep, he asked me to come and sleep next to him. It was the first time he said, ‘Come sleep with me’.”

They fell into the exhausted sleep of refugee life. Then shortly before 02:00 (00:00 GMT), Nawara woke to the sound of shooting.

Abed-Alrahman said he would go out and see what was happening.

Nawara says: “Our oldest son was telling him, ‘Dad, please don’t go out’. [Abed-Alrahman] was trying to reassure him that nothing would happen; my son was telling him not to go out, that he would die.”

Then she felt a searing pain in her head. Shrapnel from an explosion had ripped into the tent.

Nawara started screaming. At first she could not see anything. After some minutes her vision returned in time to see Abed-Alrahman in his death throes. She remembers the “rattle” of his final breaths.

“When my children first saw him, they were screaming, ‘Oh, father, oh father, don’t leave us, don’t leave us’. I told them, ‘Stay away from your father. Just pray for him’.”

Daughter Malak, aged 13, was hit in the eye by a splinter of shrapnel. Four other children sustained minor wounds. They also endured the trauma of what they heard and saw – the explosions and their father being carried away to hospital. Later that night, in a hospital filled with other victims, it was confirmed to Nawara that Abed-Alrahman was dead.

Weeping, she asks: “What was his sin? What was his children’s sin? What’s my sin? I became a widow at 27.

Malak says she was taken to three different hospitals to try and get treatment, but she lost her eye.

“I was not treated immediately. Only after three days was my surgery performed. I was injured in the eye and I was also shot in my waist. I’m in pain, pain, pain.”

Then Malak became distraught, and cried out: “I lost my dad. Enough!”

According to the health ministry, run under the direction of the Hamas government in Gaza, at least 74 people were killed during the raid in the early hours of 12 February.

It is not possible to say precisely how many of the dead were civilians and how many were fighters. But witnesses and medical sources suggest a high proportion of the dead were non-combatants. The independent Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza, using details obtained from hospital lists, says 27 children and 22 women were among those killed.

Mohammed al-Zaarab, 45, a father-of-10 from Khan Younis, also fled to Rafah believing it would be safe. He remembers being woken in his tent by the intensity of the assault. “They were shelling with helicopters, with F-16 jets …My son was shot in his hand. Our neighbour was shot in the head.”

The following day, Mohammed’s elderly father felt unwell. He took him to the doctor, but soon after the old man died of a heart attack. “I buried him. Today is the third day in his grave. Why is this happening to us?” he asks.

The International Medical Corps – which provides emergency aid in crisis zones around the world – runs a field hospital near the scene. Dr Javed Ali, a surgeon from Pakistan, was jolted awake by the first strikes and went to shelter in a safe room in the staff quarters near the hospital.

“Aside from the air strikes, we were hearing tanks in the background, there was active exchange of fire from small firearms, as well as a helicopter gunship that was going over the hospital fighting and firing in all directions. So, it was very, very scary. We thought that this was it.”

Hearing the sound of ambulances, the medics decided to leave the safe room and help. Along with the wounded came women and children seeking shelter.

“The hospital itself is a tent structure. So there were a lot of concerns. Obviously, if there is any strike towards the hospital it will be devastating, but we had to make a decision to save as many patients as possible.”

Many of the dead were thought to be still lying under the rubble of destroyed houses. Another doctor – from the international agency Médecins Sans Frontières – sent a series of anguished voice messages to colleagues in London after sunrise on 12 February.

She described lying across her children’s bodies to protect them as shrapnel flew through the windows of the room where they were sheltering. The doctor has given the BBC permission to quote the messages but wants to remain anonymous.

Her account of what she found after the raid is harrowing.

“At our home when we were checking, I found pieces of human flesh. We found a whole lower limb belonging to a human that we don’t know who he is. When I saw the pieces of flesh on the floor, I cried.”

Since the beginning of the IDF incursion into Gaza, the military has accused Hamas of using the civilian population as human shields, and using medical facilities to conceal military operations and hide hostages.

The rescue of two hostages – Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70 – in Rafah this month was a rare success for the Israeli teams searching for more than 130 people, including two children, still believed to be held captive.

In a statement to the BBC about the events of 12 February, an IDF spokesman said it was “committed to mitigating civilian harm” during military operations. Military lawyers advised commanders so that strikes complied with international legal obligations.

The statement says: “This process is designed to ensure that senior commanders have all reasonably available information and professional advice that will ensure compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict, including by providing ‘Target Cards’ which facilitate an analysis that is conducted on a strike-by-strike basis, and takes into account the expected military advantage and the likely collateral civilian harm, amongst other matters. https://merujaksore.com/

“Even where circumstances do not allow for a targeting process involving this level of deliberate pre-planning and pre-approval, IDF regulations emphasise that commanders and soldiers must still comply with the Law of Armed Conflict.”

The US has proposed a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

It has also warned Israel against invading the overcrowded city of Rafah.

The US has previously avoided the word “ceasefire” during UN votes on the war, but President Joe Biden has made similar comments.

However, the US plans to veto another draft resolution – from Algeria – which calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

More than a million displaced Palestinians, who represent about half of Gaza’s population, are crammed into Rafah after being forced to seek shelter there.

The southern city, which borders Egypt, was home to only 250,000 people before the war.

Many of the displaced are living in makeshift shelters or tents in squalid conditions, with scarce access to safe drinking water or food.

The UN has issued its own warning that a planned Israeli offensive in the city could lead to a “slaughter”.

Israel launched its operations in Gaza following an attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 others taken hostage.

The Israeli military campaign has killed 29,000 people in the Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

Washington has come under immense international pressure to use its leverage to rein in Israel’s devastating operations, having spent much of the war emphasising its ally’s right to self-defence.

While it has vowed to block the Algerian draft, its rival text does register opposition to Israel’s plans.

Talks will begin on the US draft this week, but it is not clear when or if the proposal might be put to a vote. Under the UN charter, members “agree to accept and carry out” decisions made by the Security Council – in contrast with decisions made at the General Assembly, which are non-binding.

It is the first time the US has called for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza at the UN, having vetoed previous resolutions using the word.

The US draft also states that a major ground offensive in Rafah would result in more harm to civilians and their further displacement, including potentially into neighbouring countries – a reference to Egypt.

It also says such a move would have serious implications for regional peace and security.

The draft resolution calls for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, echoing remarks by President Joe Biden in his conversations with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

Mr Netanyahu has so far resisted international pressure to reconsider the plan – vowing to rescue remaining hostages and defeat Hamas throughout Gaza. https://merujaksore.com/

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has warned the manoeuvre will be launched unless Hamas frees all its hostages by 10 March. The date marks the start of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

The Arab group of nations says the Security Council cannot turn a deaf ear to the pleas of the international community demanding a ceasefire.

UK Special Forces blocked Afghan troops they had fought alongside from relocating to the UK after the Taliban seized power, BBC Panorama can reveal.

Leaked documents show special forces rejected applications despite some containing compelling evidence of service alongside the British military.

Afghan commandos accompanied British special forces on some of the most dangerous missions of the conflict.

The Ministry of Defence said it was conducting an independent review.

When the Taliban swept to power in August 2021, members of Afghan Special Forces units CF 333 and ATF 444 – known as the “Triples” – were among the groups most at risk of reprisal, having supported UK Special Forces in their fight against the Taliban.

They were eligible to apply for resettlement to the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, but hundreds had their applications rejected. Dozens have reportedly been beaten, tortured, or killed by the Taliban since.

The Armed Forces Minister, James Heappey, has now announced a review of about 2,000 applications after admitting that the decision-making process behind some rejections was “not robust”.

The documents seen by Panorama include a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) document showing that since at least 2023 all Triples applications reaching a basic threshold were sent to UK Special Forces for approval or denial of sponsorship.

The SOP document, which was obtained by the investigative newsroom Lighthouse Reports and shared with Panorama, shows that if UK Special Forces denied sponsorship, the applicant was automatically deemed ineligible and a rejection letter was sent out.

Panorama has also seen internal Ministry of Defence emails in which civil servants administering the relocation scheme describe being unable to challenge special forces’ rejections, even when they believed there was a strong case for resettlement.

Former members of the SAS, the army’s elite special forces regiment, have now told Panorama that they believe the veto outlined in the SOP document represents a clear conflict of interest for UK Special Forces.

The veto gave special forces decision-making power over applications at a time when a public inquiry in the UK was investigating allegations that SAS soldiers had committed war crimes on operations in Afghanistan where the Triples units were present.

The public inquiry has the power to compel witnesses who are in the UK, but not non-UK nationals who are overseas. If the Afghan Special Forces members were in the UK they could be asked to provide potentially significant evidence.

“It’s a clear conflict of interest,” said one former UK Special Forces officer.

“At a time when certain actions by UK Special Forces are under investigation by a public inquiry, their headquarters also had the power to prevent former Afghan Special Forces colleagues and potential witnesses to these actions from getting safely to the UK.”

Another former UK Special Forces officer who spoke to the BBC said: “At best it’s not appropriate, at worst it looks like they’re trying to cover their tracks.”

A spokesperson for the public inquiry team told Panorama that it could not comment on specific witnesses but was “aware of the recent press articles about the Triples” and would “continue to ask anyone with relevant information to come forward”.

Panorama has spoken to former members of the Triples who had their relocation applications rejected in 2023 and say they witnessed or reported what appeared to them to be war crimes committed by UK Special Forces.

We have also seen the documents submitted by two former Triples officers along with their applications to the Arap scheme. They include:

• An official invitation to SAS headquarters in Hereford to give a talk about the Triples
• Letters from the British embassy regarding pay
• Photographs with two directors of UK Special Forces and a British ambassador
• Photographs with Gen David Petraeus, commander of the Nato coalition and all US forces in Afghanistan
• A letter from a British officer describing an applicant as part of the “UK mentored Afghan SF” unit
• Previous visas to enter the UK

The officers behind these applications were both denied entry to the UK.

They told Panorama they are now in hiding in Afghanistan, moving from house to house, unable to stay with their families or to work.

One said he had been interrogated and beaten by the Taliban before he went on the run, the other said he had escaped first but that he heard the Taliban had gone to his home looking for him.

“I’m living in a very bad situation. I am in hiding and mostly my family can’t live together and we cannot go out and we cannot work,” he said. https://merujaksore.com/

“I was sure that my British colleagues and friends, who we worked for several years alongside, would help me to evacuate to safety. Now I feel that the sacrifices I made have been forgotten.