Manila, Oct 1:  The death toll in the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu province in the central Philippines climbed to 69, the Philippines’ Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said on Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator for the OCD, told a public briefing that 30 died in Bogo City, the epicentre of the earthquake, 10 in Medellin town, 22 in San Remigio town, five in Tabogon town, and one each in the municipalities of Sogod and Tabuelan.

He said the victims died after they were crushed by the collapsed walls of houses and buildings.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) initially reported that at least 147 people were injured.

Alejandro did not give the latest figures on injuries and the missing people, Xinhua news agency reported.

The death toll is expected to climb as emergency workers continue search and rescue operations for survivors trapped in the debris and collapsed buildings.

“We are waiting for our assessment team to complete their rapid assessment,” Alejandro said in an earlier media briefing.

The province of Cebu has declared a state of calamity, enabling the government, particularly local government units, to quickly access emergency funds (calamity funds) to provide relief and rehabilitation, as well as to impose measures such as price freezes on essential goods to protect affected residents.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology initially reported that a 6.7-magnitude offshore earthquake struck Cebu province at 9:59 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The institute later revised the magnitude to 6.9, adding that the quake struck at a depth of 5 km, approximately 19 km northeast of Bogo City.

The tremor was also felt in many neighbouring provinces in the central Philippines, as well as some regions in the southern Philippines.

The institute reported that it has recorded more than 600 aftershocks since Tuesday night.

The Philippines sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Brussels, Oct 1: Pro-Palestinian protests are shaking major European cities, and calls are growing to ban Israel from sporting and cultural events. European navies have been deployed to protect activists trying to get aid into Gaza, and a wave of countries have done the once-unthinkable and recognised a Palestinian state.

As outrage over the humanitarian catastrophe grows, more European leaders, sometimes driven by pressure from their populations, have openly condemned Israel’s war conduct and sought to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to agree to a ceasefire and allow in aid.

“There has been a ground-breaking shift in Europe where, somewhere over the last year, populations have been putting more pressure on their governments, which has helped break taboos at the top over criticism of Israel,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Chatham House think tank’s Middle East and North Africa program.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, one of Israel’s closest EU allies, said last week that she would support European Union sanctions against Israel. It was her toughest position yet, and followed a nationwide strike in Italy and pro-Palestinian protests from Palermo to Milan.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Meloni said: “Israel ended up violating humanitarian norms, causing a massacre among civilians.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched air and ground attacks on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half.

The war has also destroyed vast areas of Gaza, killed 289 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population, and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, including an outbreak of famine in Gaza City.

Pro-Palestinian protests have grown, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, which monitors worldwide conflicts. From December to April, there were 780 protests across Europe. That has grown to 2,066 in the last five months, an average of at least 15 a day, said researcher Ciro Murillo.

The protests cut across parties and include members of Europe’s large Muslim communities, an important voting bloc in countries like France and Germany.

In the past six months, there were only 51 pro-Israel protests in Europe, about half of them in Germany. ACLED data showed a steep drop in public support for Israel starting a few months after the war began.

Speaking at the UN two days after Meloni, Netanyahu seemed to acknowledge the turn.

“Sure, in the days immediately following Oct. 7, many … supported Israel. But that support quickly evaporated when Israel did what any self-respecting nation would do in the wake of such a savage attack,” he told world leaders.

Israel’s deep ties with Europe

With a shared birth in the aftermath of World War II, Israel and the European Union are intricately interwoven.

Almost all Jewish Israelis trace their heritage to either the broader Middle East or the Jewish communities of Europe laid waste to by pogroms in the Russian empire and the genocidal Third Reich of Germany.

“Israel is from Europe, and anyone who fails to admit it or understand it doesn’t really understand this country,” said Sharon Pardo, a professor at Ben-Gurion University and author of a book on European-Israeli relations, “Uneasy Neighbours.”

Strategic practicality drove Israel towards Europe, even if many considered it “a continent of murderers,” Pardo said. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, began building long-standing economic, political and cultural ties with Europe. Today, the EU is Israel’s top trading partner.

“These were the immediate markets for Israeli agriculture; this was the market for weapons for Israel,” Pardo said.

But the embrace by Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, of far-right European parties has antagonised the European political establishment.

“Netanyahu’s Israel is an anti-European Union country, a Euro-sceptic country that does its utmost to harm the European integration project,” Pardo said.

Criticism of Israel rises as war in Gaza grinds on

The shocking violence of Oct. 7, 2023, ignited an outpouring of support from European leaders.

Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s political chief, visited a still-smouldering kibbutz days later and met with Netanyahu. She pledged EU support for Israel.

But nearly two years later, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, accused her of “empowering a terrorist organisation” with her surprise call for the EU to increase pressure on Israel to halt the war.

Von der Leyen said there’s been “a more systematic shift in the last months that is simply unacceptable” in the conflict and that “Europe needs to do more.”

She was likely influenced by growing protests and by EU staff critical of her policies, said Lisa Musiol, head of EU Affairs for the International Crisis Group. She pointed to open letters criticising the EU’s Gaza policy signed by more than 2,000 current EU staffers and 390 former European ambassadors and officials.

Von der Leyen proposed increasing EU tariffs on some Israeli goods and sanctioning some Israeli settlers and two members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet. She would also sanction 10 Hamas leaders. EU leaders were to discuss the proposals on Wednesday in Copenhagen.

Major EU measures require unanimity — a likely impossibility in the 27-nation bloc — but some can be passed with a vote weighted by population. That would require Italy or Germany to join nations critical of Israel.

All eyes on Merz and Meloni

Germany’s support for Israel is second only to that of the United States. But Germany’s ruling coalition is split on Gaza, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats supporting Israel and the smaller Social Democrats more critical of the war.

Merz has spoken to Netanyahu about his growing concerns and has curbed arms sales to Israel, but said he is not considering sanctions.

Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust has shaped its postwar support for ensuring Israel’s security and combating antisemitism. Still, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday, calling for the war’s end.

More likely to swing the vote would be Meloni, who has said she supports Italy joining recent moves to recognise a Palestinian state by European neighbours France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the United Kingdom and Portugal, as well as Commonwealth nations Canada and Australia.

In contrast to Germany, Italy has a different historical relationship to Israel, said Elisabetta Brighi, a University of Westminster professor. Deeply influenced by the country’s strong trade unions and the Vatican, Italy could switch and join European efforts to pressure Israel over Gaza.

“Italy has not translated the trauma of fascism the same way that Germany has,” she said.

Italy has joined Spain in sending navy ships to protect a flotilla of boats carrying activists seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza after the activists said they were attacked by drones near Greece.

Calls have also grown to ban Israel from some sporting and cultural events, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez saying after protesters disrupted the Spanish Vuelta cycling race last month that Israel should be excluded until the “barbarity” in Gaza ends. Some countries have also threatened to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest — hugely popular in Israel and Europe — if Israel is allowed to compete.

Washington, Sep 30: US President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Tuesday that he would be able to end the war in Gaza, saying that he “got it settled” and “going to get that done.”

“We got it, I think, settled. We’ll see. Hamas has to agree. If they don’t, it’s going to be very tough on them, but it is what it is. But all of the Arab nations, Muslim nations, have agreed. Israel has agreed. Amazing thing, it just came together,” Trump said while addressing more than 800 senior military officers in Virginia.

His statement comes a day after the administration formally announced a 20-point peace plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The peace plan for Gaza outlines the establishment of a temporary technocratic government, with Israel pledging not to annex the Strip and ensuring that no residents are forced to leave. The agreement calls for an immediate end to the war if accepted, with all captives, both alive and deceased, returned within 72 hours.

Speaking to reporters before his address on Tuesday, Trump said he will wait for “three or four days” for Hamas to accept the proposal.

“We’re just waiting for Hamas, and Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a very sad end. With Hamas, we want it very simple. We want the hostages back immediately, and we want some good behaviour. And, you know, pretty, pretty simple. You don’t get simpler. Think of it. We’ve signed every country in the Middle East. This is like an impossible thing. It’s never been done before. This is more than Gaza. Gaza is mixed up, but this Gaza is a piece of it,” he added.

He reiterated his threat, warning that if Hamas refuses to sign, he will allow Israel “to do what they have to do.”

“I would let them go and do what they have to do. You know, we have killed about 25,000 Hamas. So, certainly, they paid a big price for October 7. And this is a whole new group. Their leadership has been killed three different times, so they paid a big price. We hope that they’re going to have a nice, calm life. Maybe it won’t happen, but if it does, it’ll be one of the greatest things ever to happen. We’ll have actual peace in the Middle East,” he noted.

The war in Gaza began almost two years ago, when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Around 48 people are believed to remain in captivity, and about 20 are thought to be alive.

Manila, Oct 1: An offshore earthquake of magnitude 6.9 collapsed walls of houses and buildings late Tuesday in a central Philippine province, killing at least 31 people, injuring many others and sending residents scrambling out of homes into darkness as the intense shaking cut off power, officials said.

The epicentre of the earthquake, which was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 5 kilometres, was about 19 kilometres northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where at least 14 residents died, disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press by telephone.

The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise. Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, he said.

“It’s hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer told The AP, adding some survivors were brought to a hospital.

At least 12 residents, mostly belonging to small families, died when they were hit by falling ceilings and walls of their houses, some while sleeping, in Medellin town near Bogo, Gemma Villamor, who heads the town’s disaster-mitigation office, told The AP.

In San Remigio town, also near Bogo, five people, consisting of three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child, were killed separately by collapsing walls while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game that was disrupted by the quake, the town’s vice mayor, Alfie Reynes, told the DZMM radio network.

Reynes appealed for food and water, saying San Remigio’s water system was damaged by the earthquake.

Aside from houses in Bogo, the quake damaged a fire station and concrete and asphalt roads, firefighter Rey Cañete said.

“We were in our barracks to retire for the day when the ground started to shake and we rushed out but stumbled to the ground because of the intense shaking,” Cañete told The AP, adding that he and three other firemen sustained cuts and bruises.

A concrete wall in their fire station collapsed, Cañete said. He and fellow firefighters provided first-aid to at least three residents, who were injured by falling debris and collapsed walls.

Hundreds of terrified residents gathered in the darkness in a grassy field near the fire station and refused to return home hours after the earthquake struck in Bogo. Several business establishments visibly sustained damages and the asphalt and concrete roads where they passed had deep cracks, Cañete said, adding that an old Catholic church in Daanbantayan town near Bogo was also damaged.

Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro said the extent of the damage and injuries in Bogo and outlying towns in the northern section of the province would not be known until daytime. “It could be worse than we think,” he said in a video message posted on Facebook.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines in Cebu and in the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran due to possible waves of up to 1 meter (3 feet).

Teresito Bacolcol, director of the institute, said the tsunami warning was later lifted with no unusual waves being monitored.

Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees, knocking out power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.