World roundup: October 30 2024

Stories from Lebanon, North Korea, Haiti, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

October 30, 1270: The Eighth Crusade reaches an ignominious end outside the walls of Tunis. French King Louis IX, a Crusading icon despite the less than successful outcomes of both of the expeditions he led, was convinced by his brother, Charles of Anjou, that besieging Tunis would be the first step toward defeating Mamluk Egypt and securing the Holy Land. Charles of course had personal reasons for wanting to attack Tunis, whose ruler was a wayward vassal of Charles’ Sicilian kingdom. Unprepared for the hot Tunisian environment, Louis’ army was ravaged by dysentery and the king himself died in August. Charles took command and eventually agreed to lift the siege in return for trade concessions.

The Death of Saint Louis, by 15th century French painter Jean Fouquet (Wikimedia Commons)

October 30, 1340: What would prove to be the final Muslim attempt to halt the Christian conquest of Iberia ends in failure at the Battle of Río Salado outside the town of Tarifa. An army from Marinid-ruled Morocco had arrived in Iberia earlier in the year and besieged Tarifa as part of an overall effort to relieve the beleaguered Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim polity on the peninsula. A joint Castilian and Portuguese relief force was able to cut off the Marinid-Granadan supply lines and then decisively defeat the besieging army.

October 30, 1918: Ottoman leaders sign the Armistice of Mudros, ending the empire’s involvement in World War I and ultimately consigning it to extinction.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Revelations that the Biden administration is ignoring evidence of Israeli human rights abuses have taken on a “dog bites man” character, but on Wednesday The Washington Post reported a new one:

The Biden administration has received nearly 500 reports alleging Israel used U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that caused unnecessary harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims, according to people familiar with the matter.

At least some of these cases presented to the State Department over the past year probably amount to violations of U.S. and international law, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

The reports are received from across the U.S. government, international aid organizations, nonprofits, media reports and other eyewitnesses. Dozens include photo documentation of U.S.-made bomb fragments at sites where scores of children were killed, according to human rights advocates briefed on the process.

Yet despite the State Department’s internal Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which directs officials to complete an investigation and recommend action within two months of launching an inquiry, no single case has reached the “action” stage, current and former officials told The Washington Post. More than two-thirds of cases remain unresolved, they said, with many pending response from the Israeli government, which the State Department consults to verify each case’s circumstances.