Fireworks ban in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

• Published date: 31 December 2023
• Publication title: Sunday Tribune

The government has urged people to instead “observe simplicity”

In a televised address to the nation on Thursday, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said that owing to the situation in Gaza, the government had “completely banned all kinds of events regarding the New Year celebrations”.

“The entire Pakistani nation and the Muslim Ummah were deeply saddened by the genocide of the oppressed Palestinians, especially the massacre of innocent children, in Gaza and the West Bank,” Kakar said

New Year’s Eve is usually marked in a boisterous fashion in Pakistan with fireworks and aerial gunfire as well as a bank holiday on January 1.

Sharjah, an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, has also banned New Year’s Eve fireworks. The ban was “a sincere expression of solidarity and humanitarian co-operation with our siblings in the Gaza Strip”, Sharjah police said in a Facebook post.

Drawing lessons from the riots and attacks on emergency personnel on New Year’s Eve last year, Germany’s emergency services are prepared to be present in large numbers during the year-end festivities across the country.

“We are going into action together so that you can celebrate New Year’s Eve safely and to help you if you need us,” the police and fire departments in Berlin said in a joint video published on the social media platform X. “Don’t attack us.”

Last year, police officers, firefighters and paramedics became the target of attacks with firecrackers, with at least 30 of them being seriously injured in Berlin alone.

Wars

In the Middle East, fighting continued to rage between Israel and Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military continued to pound south and central Gaza on Friday as Egypt was to host a high-level Hamas delegation for talks to try to end the nearly 12-week war that has devastated the besieged Palestinian territory.

Although Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip has received greater attention, the UN has cited numerous abuses in the occupied West Bank territory, Sputnik reported.

The UN released a report this week urging Israel to end “unlawful killings” in the West Bank, citing a “rapidly deteriorating human rights situation”.

The report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the use of heavy-handed tactics by security officials leading to “arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinians” as well as “discriminatory movement restrictions”.

Additionally, Israeli military incursions were blamed for “extensive damage to civilian objects and infrastructure” in densely-populated areas, something also observed in Israel’s operation in Gaza where at least...