Fireworks lit up skies across the world as crowds gathered to welcome 2024, but airstrikes marred the year’s earliest hours in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine, while fear gripped Japan which experienced a powerful earthquake and tremors that triggered tsunami warnings. The shaken nation was next shocked by news of a major plane collision at Tokyo International Airport in Haneda, one of the world’s busiest airports.
Many around the world were hoping to shake off global tumult and disasters this year, which heralds elections for half the planet’s population of more than eight billion in Russia, Britain, the EU, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, the US and Venezuela.
Yet as the new year started there were already ominous signs this week.
Middle East
Israel continued to pound the densely populated Gaza Strip, where the UN says 85% of people have fled their homes.
Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, the Israeli Defence Force has reduced vast areas of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 22 000 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health
