In Italy, gov’t issues largest crackdown on mafia in decades
Italian police arrested around 150 affiliates to the Sicilian Mafia on Tuesday for crimes including extortion, drug trafficking and attempted murder, marking the country’s largest crackdown on the group since 1984.
The operation took place in Palermo and involved about 1,200 officers total, with videos of overnight raids depicting hundreds of police waiting to enter houses as helicopters circled the area. The effort resulted in issuance of 183 warrants, 36 of which were for already imprisoned individuals.
“The fight against the mafia has not stopped and will not stop,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.
During the operation, law enforcements also discovered that mafia families used encrypted mobile phones, smuggled into prisons so that they could maintain control over their operations. A lieutenant colonel who oversaw the investigation had said the group had reinvigorated “new energy and new strength,” prompting the law enforcement’s escalation.
After nearly two years of probing the mafia, police found that the group Cosa Nostra collaborated with mobsters in other parts of Sicily and on the Italian mainland in drug trafficking, often targeting suburbs with high youth populations and fewer work opportunities. The group also exerted control over large areas of the island, including taking over businesses in two seaside villages.
In the UAE, gov’t proposes cease-fire in Sudan
On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates proposed a cease-fire for Sudan’s civil war to last throughout Ramadan. The call was quickly rejected by the Sudanese army, which said it would not comply until “the siege is broken on all cities and areas that are besieged.”
“As we approach the holy month of Ramadan, a time of mercy and compassion, the UAE calls on all parties to honour this sacred period with a humanitarian ceasefire,” an Emirati official said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
In September, the Sudanese government claimed the UAE provided weapons to Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese militant group that split from the government following a coup in 2019 and has waged major conflict within the country since. UAE officials denied this accusation, alleging that the government has never provided any forms of support “to either of two belligerent warring parties in Sudan.”
The Sudanese civil war erupted in April 2023 between the government-backed military and RSF in the capital of Sudan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said the war created the world’s largest displacement crisis, and it has caused around 150,000 deaths.
In occupied Palestine, Israeli prime minister threatens to break cease-fire deal
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that he will terminate the first phase of the cease-fire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and resume “intense fighting” if the group does not release its scheduled three hostages by Saturday.
The day before the announcement, Hamas accused Israel of violating the cease-fire deal and announced it would delay its next hostage release as a result. A spokesperson for the group said Israel prevented hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid including food, tents and mobile homes from entering Gaza, and that Israeli forces killed three Palestinians on Sunday in eastern Gaza.
In the fifth hostage release, originally set to take place at noon on Saturday, Israel would release 183 Palestinians in exchange for three hostages held by Hamas.
“The resistance leadership monitored the enemy’s violations and their non-compliance with the terms of the agreement,” Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, said. “Meanwhile, the resistance fulfilled all its obligations.”
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israel’s military agency that supervises aid deliveries into Gaza, refuted the accusations and stated that Israel would “not tolerate violations by Hamas.”
Last month, the cease-fire deal established a three-phase, six-week agreement for both sides to pause on all military operations in Gaza. Throughout the three phases, Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages and Israel said it will return 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
