 Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. I am Prashant and you are watching Around the World in 8 Minutes, where we bring you news from working class and popular movements across the globe. In our first story, we take you to South Africa, where a community protest was met with brutal police repression. On March 27th, community members from Bois-Poteau, Vandevjil Park, were picketing peacefully when South African Police Service opened fire at them with rubber bullets. The community had joined members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, NUMSA, and the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, SRWP, who were picketing as part of the strike against Arsalan Mittal. The crackdown was totally unprovoked and reflects the daily unseen violence unleashed on ordinary people by South Africa's capitalist ANC-led government. SAPS, being part of the state machinery, has time and again repressed working class resistance in order to maintain the rule of the capitalist elite. SRWP spokesperson, Fakamele Khlubi Majola, reports from the protest. The police have come back now. It's been two rounds of shooting, maybe more. And there have already, it seems one of our members has been injured. He's been rushed to hospital. What's really, really scary about what they're doing is there are children in this crowd. There are old people in this crowd. As I said, this was a community protest. People protesting against the fact that they've been without electricity for more than three weeks. And the violence with which the police responded is completely out of order and unacceptable. And it must be condemned. They did not do anything. They were just picketing. And if you look at how the police have been shooting, they were shooting indiscriminately. Children could have been injured. I've seen that cars were shot at. Buildings were shot at. They were just spraying the scene literally with bullets. Such is the state of South Africa under a capitalist system. When members of the working class protest, they respond with violence, with viciousness, with brutality. Thank you, Max. In our next story, we look at the detention of renewed activists and economic genres and two other food rights activists in the Indian state of Jharkhand. They were picked up by the Jharkhand police on March 28 for allegedly organizing a public meeting on the issue of right to food. The ruling right-wing government in the state of Jharkhand, headed by the Bharati Yantapati, has been accused many times of silencing activists who are speaking for people's rights. Genres is a Belgian-born Indian economist and an activist who has worked extensively on several people's issues, like hunger, famine, and gender equality. He, along with others, were released yesterday. To talk more about this, we have with us Kavita Krishnan from the CPIML Liberation. Jharkhand is a state where there have been hunger deaths and especially because of the requirement of the Aadhaar card in order to get food rations. Everyone remembers the terrible case of little Santoshi, the small girl who died crying for rice because her family did not have, she did not have an Aadhaar card and so she could not get food rations. Now, Genres and Vivek Kumar and other activists were holding an event today to basically draw attention to this big issue, this crucial issue and the Jharkhand police did not give them permission for it and they detained them, took them into custody for this. They have released them since then. But basically this shows the hostility of the Jharkhand government run by the BJP, as well as by the central government of the BJP and Mr Modi because they see activists who are talking about right to employment, who are talking about right to food, who are talking about getting rid of starvation deaths and hunger in this country, getting rid of poverty in this country. They see them as the enemy and they see them as the anti-nationals and they try to arrest them and you know try and prevent them from doing their work. Whereas they see the big corporations in Jharkhand as well as in the rest of the country who want to be grabbing land, grabbing forests, grabbing airports, grabbing private sector assets and all of that and making money, making profits, not paying their taxes, not paying their pending bank loans, all of them are the friends and the cronies of these governments and that tells us a whole lot about the character of these governments and we are weeks away from elections in India, parliamentary elections in India, which are a crucial moment to actually get rid of this government that is so hostile to people's rights and to secularism and communal harmony in this country and it's really time to, for us all to be focusing on voting this government out. So that activists like Sudha Balabhaj, activists like Jharkhand Reyes, who are the best that you know who are trying to make India the best that it can be and who are trying to improve the quality of life and the entitlements and rights of India's people so that their work can get the respect and the protection that it deserves. Thank you, Kavita for speaking to People's Dispatch. Next, we look at the recent military escalation by Israel weeks before the crucial general elections on April 9th and the killing of an 18-year-old volunteer medic, Sajid Mazeer, by Israeli forces. In a case of crimes against humanity on March 27th, Israeli forces shot and killed Mazeer while he was performing his duty as a medic and despite the fact that he was clearly marked as one. He was a volunteer with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and was shot in the abdomen while trying to save the injured protesters in the Daeshish refugee camp. Even as there were reports of a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza-based Hamas group, Israeli occupation forces were seen mobilizing en masse at the border. Tanks and troops were also reported. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Israeli forces conducted a series of airstrikes and attacks on various parts of Gaza, including Khan Yunis and Rafa. This move comes after Israeli Air Force fighter jets and drones conducted airstrikes across targets in Gaza on Monday night. One Palestinian was killed and six injured as a result of these bombings. Residents in the northern part of Gaza reported hearing explosions. There were also reports of airstrikes landing in an agricultural area east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Hospitals in Gaza were also put on high alert. The Israeli forces claimed that the airstrikes were retaliation. Conducted hours after explosive projectiles and incendiary balloons were launched from Gaza by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas. On Monday, a rocket had stuck a home in central Israel, north of Tel Aviv, entering seven Israeli civilians. The Palestinian group Hamas rejected the accusation in a statement. According to sources, Israel has been using such claims to justify its brutal blockade and occupation using military force. Regarding the reports of a possible ceasefire, Israel is set to have put forward the condition of ending the planned Friday march as part of the Great March of Return campaign. This Friday marks the first year of the campaign which saw weekly protests by Palestinians at the Gaza border against the brutal siege of Gaza and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the protests. These include children, women, paramedics and journalists. More than 4,000 people have been injured with many suffering amputations. A recent United Nations-led report has noted that Israel has possibly committed crimes against humanity during its response to the Great March of Return campaign. The violent siege of Gaza along with the Israeli bombing and the military response to the Great March of Return protests has created a situation of humanitarian catastrophe. Hospitals are under severe constraints due to lack of medical supply and electricity as Israel continues to block supplies and fuel coming into Gaza. Critical infrastructure like sewage and water has also been destroyed due to Israeli actions. That is all for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. For more stories and videos about people's movements, please check out our website, peoplesdispatcher.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.