International roundup: Deadly storm hits Central America 

Hundreds of people are feared dead after Tropical Storm Eta ripped through Central America and Mexico. 

Guatemala has been particularly badly hit—a landslide caused by downpours is feared to have killed at least 150 people.

The storm hit the country last Saturday. 

Rescuers were still searching for survivors as Socialist Worker went to press.

Eta is one of the deadliest storms to hit Central America in recent years, and “catastrophic flooding” will continue, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.

“We have been without food for two days, waiting to be evacuated,” said William Santos, who was sheltering on the roof of a banana packing plant with 300 other people in Honduras. 

Extreme weather, which devastates lives in some of the world’s poorest places, is on course to dramatically worsen under rapidly advancing climate catastrophe. 

Storm Eta is a dramatic reminder of what is to come and the horrors unfolding around the world today.

Sarah Bates

Israel destroys more homes

Israel’s army demolished homes of nearly 80 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday of last week.

Half of those made homeless were children, according to Israeli anti-occupation organisation B’tSelem.

Israel said the village, in the Jordan Valley, had been built “illegally” in a military-controlled zone.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since it invaded in 1967. 

It still uses military laws to control Palestinians and push them off of their land. Its government wants to annexe the entire Jordan Valley.

Abdelghani Awada, left homeless by the operation, told the AFP news agency that the Israelis gave people “10 minutes to evacuate our homes”.

“Then, they started bulldozing,” he said.

He said his family had lived in the area for generations and accused Israel of trying to “empty the Jordan Valley of its Palestinian population”.

Nick Clark