A manhunt has begun for a Belgian soldier and far-right terror suspect, who is thought to be heavily armed and who has been missing since reportedly threatening a pro-vaccine virologist three days ago.
Army personnel have joined police using tracker dogs in the search for Jurgen Conings.
The soldier, 46, has not been seen since he had made threats against Belgian institutions and celebrities, a federal prosecutor said, without giving details.
Image:Jurgen Conings went missing after reportedly threatening a virologist
Image:Police and army personnel with search dogs
Coning is believed to be heavily armed as weapons including anti-tank rocket launchers and ammunition, taken from a military base, were found in his abandoned car near Dilsen in west Belgium.
As well as armoured vehicles, the army deployed de-mining equipment to help police searching Hoge Kempen, a 12,000-hectare (30,000 acre) park of woodland, lakes and dunes.
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A highway through the area, located 65 miles (104km) east of Brussels, was closed.
Image:Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said he was threatened
The Belgian government said earlier this week that Conings was on a list of potential terrorists due to far-right tendencies.
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Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, speaking to the Belga news agency, said: "The question is how someone active in the defence service - who is on a security list as a person with extremist ideas and who has already made threats - gained access to weapons and was able to take them away."
Image:A Belgian soldier searches for Jurgen Conings near the entrance of National Park Hoge Kempen in Maasmechelen, Belgium
Local media linked Conings to Marc van Ranst, a COVID-19 expert supportive of vaccines and social restrictions who has advised the Belgian government during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Van Ranst told Belga that he had lodged a complaint after death threats were made against him on the website of the Viruswaanzin (Virus Insanity) organisation, a group that has held protests against COVID-19 curbs.
The virologist said he and his family had been moved to a safe location.
The EU will reach its vaccination targets "without sealing itself off from the world", the EU Commission president has said - in what has been interpreted as a snipe at the UK and US.
Ursula von der Leyen said critics of the EU vaccination campaign should keep in mind that the EU had exported 220 million jabs, almost as many as it has used for its own citizens.
She added: "Others are keeping their entire vaccine production all to themselves, but the EU will reach its vaccination targets without sealing itself off from the world."
The dispute, which at one point saw the EU controversially threaten to override the Brexit agreement with the UK over the Irish border, came after AstraZeneca said the initial number of doses it could supply to the EU would be lower than first thought, due to manufacturing issues.
But, after Ms von der Leyen vowed she was "ready to use whatever tool we need" to ensure "Europe gets its fair share", the EU managed to accelerate its vaccination programme, reaching 100 million doses last month, and preparing to go further.
She said on Thursday: "We aim to have offered a jab to 70% of all adults by the end of July... this is almost the same target as the one the US has set."
The Commission on Thursday finalised a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech for an additional 1.8 billion doses of their COVID-19 shot to be delivered in the coming two years.
The EU's executive arm said the deal, on behalf of all 27 EU countries, will allow the buying of 900 million doses of the current shots and of a serum adapted to the virus's variants, with an option to purchase an extra 900 million shots.
Hungary is the only EU country to opt out, an EU spokesman said.
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First dose vaccination rates in Europe vary from around 10% in Bulgaria to around 65% in Malta, according to Our World In Data (OWID), with most countries in between 20% and 40%. OWID says the EU as a whole has so far given out first doses to about 32% of its citizens.
A HEAVILY armed soldier is being chased down by hundreds of special force troops after threatening to kill several people - including Belgium's top virologist.
Trained sniper Jurgen Conings disappeared on Monday and is on the run after swiping four missile launchers, a machine gun and a pistol from a barracks he worked at.
Jurgen Conings is being hunted down after threatening a top Covid scientist
Hundreds of cops and soldiers were sent to Hoge Kempen forest, where Conings is thought to beCredit: Getty
Belgian soldiers patrol at an entrance of Nationaal Park Hoge Kempen in Maasmechelen, Northern BelgiumCredit: AFP
Hundreds of officers have been sent to the park to search for ConingsCredit: Reuters
Conings vanished after threatening leading Covid scientist Marc Van Ranst - forcing him and his family to move to safety.
"Being against health measures and vaccines and against the coronavirus too often coincides with a glorification of violence and brutal racism," Van Ranst wrote on Twitter.
"Let one thing be clear: such threats do not impress me."
Belgian police then launched a huge manhunt for the anti-lockdown soldier, and on Tuesday a number of weapons were uncovered in his car near Dilsen in western Belgium.
"There are indications that he is violent and, in the last 24 hours, evidence has emerged that the man poses an acute threat," Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told VTM Nieuws.
He added that Conings - dubbed 'Rambo' - was on a list of potential terrorists compiled by OCAM, an organisation responsible for assess the threat of terrorism in Belgium, because of far-right tendencies.
A manhunt was launched this week after Conings vanishedCredit: Getty
Conings disappeared on Monday, sparking a huge manhunt
A Belgian police helicopter flies above Hoge KempenCredit: AFP
Members of the Belgian army are hunting for the soldierCredit: Reuters
Conings - who has served in Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan - is thought to be on the run in the Hoge Kempen forest, with some 250 cops and soldiers deployed to the area near the Dutch border on Wednesday to search for him.
He reportedly left notes, including one to his family that said he "could no longer live in a society where politicians and virologists have taken everything away from us."
He warned that he "would join the resistance and would not surrender" in a final message.
The park was locked down on Wednesday and shots were reportedly heard as teams of armed officers stormed it, with helicopters on standby, reports the Mail.
Conings is believed to be armed with a handgun and an FN P90 semi-automatic submachine gun, which can pierce bullet proof vests, reports The Times.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo branded it "unacceptable" that he had been allowed access to weapons.
"The real question is of course how is this possible," he said.
"Someone who has already made threats in the past - that this man within defence has access to weapons and can even take those weapons with him.
When Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu took up a job in the private sector on being voted out of office in 1999, one 56-year-old US senator kept in touch.
The senator was Joe Biden, and the correspondence helped sustain ties that have lasted for years. As president of the US, Israel’s main ally, he is in a stronger position than any other foreign leader to influence the course of this month’s deadly resurgence of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
After initially endorsing air strikes by Washington’s closest regional ally, Biden has begun to toughen his line during regular calls with Netanyahu as attacks continued into a second week.
While speculation grew on Thursday that a ceasefire could be agreed in the coming days, Israel continued to launch strikes against Hamas. After Biden told Netanyahu on Wednesday that he expected de-escalation, the Israeli prime minister said he was “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met”.
Biden is now facing a mounting political backlash at home as the death toll rises, including accusations from some in his own political party that he is enabling Netanyahu.
At least 230 Palestinians, including 104 women and children, have been killed since the conflict began on May 10, according to Gaza health officials. Twelve Israelis have been killed, including two children. The ties between the two men are under a spotlight.
After Biden took office, there was much speculation about whether he would take a tougher stance towards Israel than his predecessor Donald Trump, who pursued unabashedly pro-Israeli policies, infuriating and sidelining the Palestinians as he upended years of US convention and developed a cosy relationship with Netanyahu.
Biden has recalled first becoming “close friends” with Netanyahu in 1982 when he was posted to Washington as an Israeli diplomat. In those early days, Biden even signed a picture for the young Netanyahu with the words: “Bibi, I don’t agree with a damn thing you say, but I love you.”
During the Obama administration, a fractious period for US-Israeli relations, the then-US vice-president was called in to smooth over ruptures, said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator. In 2010, after Israel infuriated the White House with its ambition to expand its settlements programme in the occupied West Bank, Ross said he heard Biden speak to Netanyahu with an easy familiarity.
“‘Listen, old buddy, we gotta find a way out of this’,” Ross recalls Biden telling the Israeli prime minister. “It just cast it in a different light.”
Yet in 2015, during another period of friction over Iran policy, Biden conspicuously failed to attend an address Netanyahu gave to a joint session of US Congress.
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US during the Obama administration, said the pair had a rapport and could talk “candidly” to one another, but he warned against overstating their warmth.
“It’s not that they were drinking buddies, they saw each other occasionally and had a cordial, good relationship,” he said.
Some observers suggest that Biden’s connection allows him to deliver blunt messages with a soft edge. “Biden is willing to push harder with those he already has a relationship with,” Ross said.
Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think-tank, said Biden had seen how putting pressure on Netanyahu in public could backfire. Barack Obama’s decision to press for a ceasefire early and publicly during a similar 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas quickly made him “an irrelevant factor” and the war continued for 52 days, with more than 2,000 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead, he said.
“I think the president, by not projecting the level of sympathy and understanding for Israel’s predicament, sort of negotiated himself out of being an effective player in bringing about the end of the conflict,” he said. “What we’re seeing now is a different approach by this administration. Early on they decided publicly, they’re going to be very supportive and sympathetic . . . with considerable private discussions all along.”
The Biden administration has several times blocked statements from the UN security council about this month’s violence. Some analysts argue the fact that Israel has continued with air strikes gives little indication that Biden has privately leaned on Netanyahu to stop.
Biden visited Israel a few months after becoming a US senator in 1973, meeting Prime Minister Golda Meir on the eve of the Yom Kippur war in what he has described as “one of the most consequential meetings” of his life. He recalled her saying that Israelis had a secret weapon in their conflict with the Arabs: “We have nowhere else to go.”
Aaron David Miller, a former Arab-Israeli negotiator in several US administrations, said Biden’s support for Israel was unwavering, but his relationship to Netanyahu was between one politician and another.
“They don’t trust each other,” Miller said. “Biden is very much aware that Netanyahu is a politician; that his primary objective is to maintain himself in power.”
For his part, Netanyahu also understands Biden cannot afford to overlook powerful domestic politics in the US, said analysts based in Washington. This week he expressed support for a ceasefire and immediate de-escalation after receiving criticism from progressive Democrats and some in the pro-Israel lobby in the US.
Although Israel still draws strong bipartisan support in the US, a quarter of Americans now sympathise more with Palestinians than Israelis, up from 16 per cent in 2001, according to Gallup. Only a third of Democrats in 2008 thought the US should pressure Israelis to make compromises rather than Palestinians, but now that figure is 53 per cent.
Biden has begun to acknowledge losses suffered by Palestinians. On Tuesday he told Rashida Tlaib, a progressive congresswoman and vociferous critic of his policies on Israel, that he admired her concern for others and would keep her family in the West Bank safe.
However, Satloff argued Biden’s publicly supportive approach to Israel was more likely to bring an end to fighting. “My sense is that having that position has provided the administration with more standing to be effective in bringing about a halt to the conflict,” he said. “Whether it’s going to happen tomorrow or this hour or that hour, it’s not going to be 52 days long.”
The biggest iceberg in the world has broken loose from an ice shelf in Antarctica, the European Space Agency has confirmed.
The iceberg, dubbed "A-76", is 109 miles (175km) long and 16 miles (25km) wide, making it larger than the Spanish island of Majorca and surpassing the now second-largest iceberg, which is 3,380sq km.
British Antarctic Survey first spotted the iceberg in the Weddell Sea after it had sheared from the Ronne Ice Shelf.
Details were confirmed by the US National Ice Center using imagery from Copernicus Sentinel-1, two polar-orbiting satellites that provide a year-round view of remote regions like Antarctica.
Icebergs periodically break free from ice shelves in a natural process known as "calving".
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Ice melt around the world, which contributes to sea level rise, has been accelerated by climate change.
More on Antarctica
Sky News has launched the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.
The Daily Climate Show is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.
Hosted by Anna Jones, it follows Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.
Palestinian Eyad Salha, 33, his wife of same age Amani, and their daughter Nagham were getting ready to eat lunch when a missile struck their home.
An Israeli air raid on a Gaza family home has killed a Palestinian man with disabilities, his pregnant wife and their three-year-old daughter, according to relatives and authorities.
Eyad Salha, 33, his wife of the same age Amani, and their daughter Nagham were getting ready to eat lunch on Wednesday when a missile tore through the seaside building’s facade and destroyed all three rooms in their Deir el-Balah flat, in the central Gaza Strip.
The family’s living room was blasted to bits, and the mangled remains of a child’s red bicycle lay amid the wreckage. Inside their toppled fridge, grey dust covered a bowl of fresh red tomatoes.
Distraught at the morgue, Omar Salha, 31, said his brother Eyad had been unable to walk for 14 years and was not an armed fighter.
“What did my brother do? He was just sitting in his wheelchair,” he told AFP news agency. “What did his daughter ever do? What did his wife do?” asked the younger brother, who was with neighbours when the attack hit.
“They were just getting ready to have lunch.”
Gaza's children are paying the heaviest price amid Israel's deadly bombardment of the besieged enclave ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZWMcpRx7gh
Israeli air raids have killed 227 people, including 64 children, in the besieged coastal enclave since May 10, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups have killed 12 people, including two children, in Israel in that same period, Israeli police have said.
Omar Salha weeps at the morgue where his brother’s body was taken [Said Khatib/AFP]Omar Salha said his brother was unemployed and shared the flat with his mother and three brothers.
Like many others in the impoverished coastal enclave, they relied on aid from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Umm Eyad was not at home either when the raid killed her son. She had left two days earlier to stay with her brother, thinking his home would be safer during Israel’s ongoing bombardment.
“He would pray for the situation to calm down,” the 58-year-old said of her late son. “He died while waiting for a newborn.”
Dr. Ashraf Al Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health
The Israeli forces killed three members of Salha's family in a bombing in Deir Al-Balah today. The bombing killed Salha's handicapped father, his pregnant wife, and his daughter.#GazaUnderAttack
— Palestinian Ministry of Health- Gaza (@mohenglish3) May 19, 2021
The Gaza health ministry on Wednesday reported the killing of a “disabled man, his daughter and pregnant wife”.
Yousef Abu al-Rish, deputy health minister, expressed outrage, saying killing innocent people in their homes “is a crime”.
“How many more dead must there be for the world to grow a conscience?” he told AFP.
The Israeli army did not provide specific comment on Wednesday’s hit.
Israel’s army has said it seeks to avoid “collateral damage” from strikes that are aimed at military targets. It has also repeatedly said that misfired rockets from Palestinian groups which have landed inside Gaza Strip could be responsible for civilian deaths in the enclave, although there was no immediate indication a Palestinian rocket caused the family’s death.
Israeli fighter jets continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several more as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied calls for a de-escalation.
At least 227 Palestinians, including 64 children, have been killed in 11 days of violence.
On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed.
Joe Biden, the president of the United States, on Wednesday discussed the events in Gaza with Netanyahu, telling the caretaker leader that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire”.
But shortly after Biden’s phone call, Netanyahu said he was “determined” to continue bombarding Gaza until Israel’s “aim is met”.
The UN Security Council’s efforts for a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers remain stalled, meanwhile, with the US continuing to veto action on the issue.
Here are the latest updates:
Thousands of dollars raised for Gaza bookstore destroyed in Israeli attack
A GoFundMe page that has been set up to help the owner of the Samir Mansour bookshop rebuild his store has raised over $70,000.
The bookshop, destroyed after Israel targeted the Kuhail building in Gaza City on Monday, was known and beloved by many Palestinians. Images of tattered books lay in the street, their covers ruined.
Following the Israeli bombardment of the Kahil building on Al-Thalathini Street, the "Samir Mansour Library" was founded beneath these rubble. The library, which smiled at passers-by and readers and was loved by all, became a relic in the blink of an eye; praise be to Allah 🙏🏼.. https://t.co/unLULbJ2Dd
— Marah Qoud| مَرَحْ قُعُدْ 𓂆 (@QoudMarah) May 19, 2021
Shaaban Aslem, the owner, was interviewed in the aftermath and fought back tears as he said he lost his dream.
“I’ve gone without many meals to make this dream come true,” he said.
Israeli air raid kills disabled man, pregnant wife, child
A brother weeps in front of the corpses at the morgue, where Eyad Salha, a 33-year-old disabled Palestinian man on a wheelchair, killed in his house along with his pregnant wife and their 3-year-old daughter during an Israeli air strike were transported, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on May 19, 2021. [Said Khatib/AFP]An Israeli air raid on a Gaza family home has killed a Palestinian man with disabilities, his pregnant wife and their three-year-old daughter, the Gaza health ministry.
Eyad Salha, 33, his pregnant wife of the same age Amani, and their daughter Nagham were getting ready to eat lunch on Wednesday when a missile tore through the seaside building’s facade and destroyed all three rooms in their Deir el-Balah flat, in the central Gaza Strip.
Four children wounded in missile attack in Gaza City
Seven civilians, including 4 children, were injured in a missile strike on a house belonging to the Isleem family in al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza City, local Palestinian agencies reported.
Israeli air attacks continued to target the Gaza Strip, destroying a house in al-Mashtal area northwest of Gaza City.
The Saftawi area, north of the city, has been targeted with a number of missiles. The entrance to the Nuseirat refugee camp was bombed, and a house in al-Bureij refugee camp was targeted.
Israel has also fired dozens of artillery shells towards homes and agricultural lands in the eastern and northern border areas of the Strip.
Israel, Hamas ceasefire could ‘come as early as Friday’, says WSJ
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could “come as early as Friday”, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing US and foreign officials involved in the discussions.
Egyptian officials have made headway in negotiations with Hamas’ leadership, the newspaper said, while the Israeli military has privately conceded that it is nearing the completion of its objectives.
An unnamed US official told the WSJ a mechanism was in place for a cease-fire and that the “only issue is timing”.
The official also noted members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based armed group, remained a wild card.
Hamas official predicts a truce ‘within a day or two’
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas political official, has predicted a ceasefire within days in the Israeli-Gaza escalation.
“I think that the ongoing efforts regarding the ceasefire will succeed,” he told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV. “I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or two, and the ceasefire will be on the basis of mutual agreement.”
An Egyptian security source told Reuters the sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire after help from mediators but details were still being negotiated in secret.
One Palestinian woman killed in Gaza
At least one Palestinian was killed and 13 others were wounded in the latest Israeli air attacks on Gaza, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Huda al-Khuzindar, 32, was killed after Israeli warplanes targeted a neighbouring house belonging to the Khawaldeh family in Khan Younis.
A Wafa correspondent in Gaza said Israeli fighters jets carried out a minimum of 30 air raids that targeted roads and homes in Gaza City, Jabalia and Khan Younis.
Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike at Gaza City on May 20, 2021 [Mohammed Abed/ AFP]The raids caused “significant destruction” to the Saftawi highway, which links Gaza City to northern areas of the enclave, and damaged power, water and sanitation networks, the agency reported.
Palestinian groups ‘fire 80 rockets overnight’
Palestinian groups in Gaza fired 80 rockets and mortar shells towards southern Israel between 7pm on Wednesday and 7am on Thursday, the Times of Israel reported, citing the Israeli military.
The Israeli air defence system intercepted a majority of the rockets and there were no reports of injuries, according to the website.
The last rocket was launched at 1am local time, it added.
Streaks of light are seen as Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon May 19, 2021 [Amir Cohen/ Reuters]
US opposes France’s draft UN resolution
Washington has opposed a proposed UN Security Council resolution, drafted by France, that urged a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to the Associated Press news agency.
A spokesperson for the US mission to the UN reiterated Washington’s stance that a public statement could interfere with Biden’s efforts to end the hostilities.
“We’ve been clear and consistent that we are focused on intensive diplomatic efforts under way to bring an end to the violence and that we will not support actions that we believe undermine efforts to de-escalate,” the spokesperson told AP on the condition of anonymity.
Diplomats said the rest of the 15-member body supported the French draft.
US Democrats urge Biden to facilitate Israel-Palestine truce
More than 130 Democratic members of the US House of Representatives called on Biden to “facilitate the immediate cessation of violence” between Israel and Hamas and to “press both sides to quickly negotiate a ceasefire”.
“The alternative is an unfolding human tragedy of unimaginable dimensions,” the letter said.
Alongside over 130 members of Congress, I am urging @POTUS to demand an immediate cease-fire in Israel & Palestine.
Omar Salha weeps at the morgue where his brother’s body was taken [Said Khatib/AFP]
Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike at Gaza City on May 20, 2021 [Mohammed Abed/ AFP]
Streaks of light are seen as Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon May 19, 2021 [Amir Cohen/ Reuters]