SATURDAY, MAY 7 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A
BY AMANDA FERGUSON
AND KARLA ADAMbelfast — Sinn Fein on Friday
was projected to become the first
nationalist party to dominate in
Northern Ireland, while Prime
Minister Boris Johnson’s Con-
servative Party lost hundreds of
seats in local elections seen partly
as a referendum on his leadership.
The final count may not be
known until Saturday or later, but
Sinn Fein was on track to win the
largest number of seats in the
Northern Ireland assembly — and
along with that the power to name
party leader Michelle O’Neill as
first minister in the regional pow-
er-sharing government.
The idea that Sinn Fein — once
the political wing of the Irish Re-
publican Army — could triumph
in these elections would have been
unthinkable a generation ago. But
the party has benefited from dem-
ographic shifts, and it has expand-
ed its appeal by focusing on bread-
and-butter issues while down-
playing its long-term aspirations
for the unification of Ireland.
Katy Hayward, a political soci-
ologist from Queen’s University
Belfast, said that if the Northern
Ireland legislature is “dominated
by a nationalist party that wants to
see, in effect, the end of Northern
Ireland, it really would be symbol-
ically significant.”
A Sinn Fein win wouldn’t have
immediate implications for unifi-
cation. Any changes to the status
of Northern Ireland would require
referendums on both sides of the
border, and public support for a
unified island isn’t yet there.
But Sinn Fein hopes it can build
support over time. Jonathan Tonge,
a politics expert at the University of
Liverpool, said the election results
certainly boost the odds.
“There won’t be a border poll on
Irish unity soon, but there will be
one day,” he said.
The more immediate question
is whether the new power-sharing
executive will actually come to-
gether. The Democratic Unionist
Party — the main unionist party,
animated by the belief that North-
ern Ireland should remain part of
the United Kingdom — has beenboycotting, citing its distress over
the post-Brexit trade arrangement
brokered between Johnson and
the European Union.
“Sinn Féin will be there on Mon-
day, ready to form an executive.
Other parties need to do the same.
No excuses. No nonsense. No time
wasting,” O’Neill told The Washing-
ton Post. “People struggling with
the cost of living are relying on us to
get on with things and do our jobs.”
Also being tallied Friday were
the results from council and may-
oral elections in England, Scot-
land and Wales. The general elec-
tion isn’t until 2024, and local
election turnout is often low. But
these midterms are often an indi-
cator of how the main political
parties are doing. And this was the
first big test for Johnson’s Con-
servatives since the emergence of
a cost-of-living crisis and a scandal
known as “Partygate.”
The government faces three on-
going investigations into boozy
gatherings that flouted pandemic
lockdown rules, while the prime
minister was urging citizens to
stay home and not mix with peoplefrom multiple households. John-
son is the first sitting prime minis-
ter found to have broken the law.
Analysts said Johnson was bad-
ly bruised but not mortally
wounded in the local elections.
“It’s not a knock out blow,” said
Will Jennings, a politics expert at
the University of Southampton. “It
hasn’t been great for the Con-
servatives, but it’s not yet bad
enough to force them into action,
so Boris lives to fight another day.”
There were some calls at the
local and regional level for John-
son to step down, but there did not
appear to be a cascade of letters
from Conservative lawmakers
pushing for a no-confidence vote.
Still, Jennings said Conserva-
tives can’t just shrug this off as
midterm blues and hope things
will improve. “Governments suf-
fer losses and can go on to make
gains, but the government is fac-
ing a very bleak economic situa-
tion,” he said.
At 10 p.m. Friday, with all but
two of 146 councils in England
declaring their results, the Con-
servatives had lost 341 seats. TheConservatives also suffered signif-
icant losses in Scotland and Wales.
Some of those losses were in
areas for Britain where Tories had
been dominant for years.
In London, the Labour Party
seized two flagship councils — the
borough of Wandsworth, a Con-
servative stronghold that was a
favorite of former prime minister
Margaret Thatcher, and the bor-
ough of Westminster, which had
voted Conservative since its crea-
tion in 1964.
Gavin Barwell, the former chief
of staff for Johnson’s Conservative
predecessor, Theresa May, called
the London results “catastrophic”
and said they should be a “wake-
up call for the Conservative Party.”
While the Tories lost ground,
the spoils were shared between
Labour, the main opposition party,
as well as the Liberal Democrats
and the Green Party. As of 10 p.m.,
Labour had gained 52 seats, the
Lib Dems 191 and the Greens 60.
The pattern of Conservatives
doing better in postindustrial
towns in the north of England and
Labour doing better in major cit-ies held. And Labour failed to
make substantial inroads in the
“red wall” of northern England
that would make it more competi-
tive in the next general election.
These are areas where, in 201 9,
Johnson’s Conservatives won
huge support from former Labour
voters who were pro-Brexit.
“We had a tough night in some
parts of the country,” Johnson con-
ceded to broadcasters. “But on the
other hand, in other parts of the
country you are still seeing Con-
servatives going forward and
making quite remarkable gains in
places that haven’t voted Con-
servative for a long time, if ever.”
Keir Starmer, the Labour Party
leader, hailed the early results as a
“big turning point for us.” Later on
Friday, British police said they
would investigate Starmer over a
potential breach of covid lock-
down rules. He has come under
pressure following footage of him
drinking a beer indoors with col-
leagues in April 2021. He denies
any rules were broken.Adam reported from London.Sinn Fein on track to win big in N. Ireland; Tories lose ground in England
BY STEVE HENDRIXjerusalem — At least three peo-
ple were killed and several others
injured during a suspected terror-
ist attack in an ultra-Orthodox
community near Tel Aviv on
Thursday evening, according to
Israeli public safety officials, mar-
ring the country’s annual
I ndependence Day celebrations.
The attacks were the latest in a
recent string of deadly assaults on
civilians.
At least two attackers wielding
an ax or knife rampaged through
a park in the town of Elad, about
eight miles east of Tel Aviv, ac-
cording to Israeli media reports.
The Magen David Adom ambu-
lance service said that in addition
to the three confirmed fatalities, it
had treated seven people for inju-
ries, including at least three it
characterized as serious.
“This was a very difficult call,”
Alon Rizkan, a paramedic, said in
a statement. Three men had been
transported to hospitals, he said.
Sheba Medical Center in Tel
Aviv said in a statement that a
20-year-old man remained in crit-
ical condition Friday with serious
ax wounds to the head.
Witnesses said they saw two
men attacking pedestrians
around a traffic circle and near a
park. One of the men was armed
with an ax, and the other with an
ax or a knife, according to police
reports.
“I saw two terrorists yelling
‘Allahu akbar’ and striking with
an ax,” Mordechai Hachmon, a
witness, told Ha’aretz newspaper.
Hachmon, who said he was in a
Torah study hall when the attack
occurred, ran outside and saw one
of the assailants “running on the
path, he took a right from the gate
and gave a blow to the head with
the ax.”
United Hatzalah, a Jerusalem-
based volunteer medical service,
said it had treated a number of
victims along Elad’s Ibn Gabirol
Street. The service said it was
dispatching additional psycho-
logical counselors and emergency
medical technicians to the scene.“Unfortunately, one of the peo-
ple injured in the stabbing inci-
dent was pronounced dead at the
scene,” volunteer EMT Moshe
Sa’adon, the head of the Elad
chapter for the organization who
was one of the first responders at
the scene, said in a statement. “We
had performed CPR on him in an
attempt to save his life but were
unsuccessful.”
Police launched a search for the
two attackers, who fled in a vehi-
cle, according to witnesses. The
men remained at large Friday
morning, but police named two
suspects, both Palestinian men in
their early 20s from the West
Bank city of Jenin.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz
said a temporary closing of cross-
ings between Israel and the West
Bank and Gaza in place for the
two-day holiday would be extend-
ed until at least Sunday.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
consulted with military and secu-
rity leaders after the attack and
pledged to find the perpetrators.
“Our enemies have embarkedon a murderous campaign
against Jews wherever they are,”
he said in a statement. “Their goal
is to break our spirit; but they will
fail.”
Palestinian Authority Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas also con-
demned the attacks.
“The killing of Palestinian and
Israeli civilians only leads to a
further deterioration of the situa-
tion, at a time when we all strive to
achieve stability and prevent es-
calation,” he said in a statement.
The killings come as tensions
have flared in recent weeks.
I sraeli police and Palestinian pro-
testers clashed repeatedly in Jeru-
salem during the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan, mostly
around the al-Aqsa Mosque that
both Jews and Muslims consider
sacred ground.
Hamas, the militant group that
governs the Gaza Strip, noted the
attack Thursday but did not claim
responsibility for it. A spokesman
for the group tied the incident to
anger at Israeli police incursions
at al-Aqsa Mosque.“The operation is part of our
people’s anger at the occupation’s
attacks against holy sites,” Hamas
spokesman Hazem Qassem said
in a statement. “The storming of
al-Aqsa Mosque cannot go un-
punished.”
Islamic Jihad, another militant
group, released a statement say-
ing that the “operation in Elad
constitutes a victory for al-Aqsa
after the occupation army and
settlers crossed the red lines.”
The ax attack came nearly a
week after the leader of Hamas
inside of Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, im-
plored the group’s followers to
take up arms against Israelis if
“violations” at al-Aqsa continued,
according to the Times of Israel.
“Let everyone who has a rifle,
ready it,” Sinwar said last Satur-
day. “And if you don’t have a rifle,
ready your cleaver or an ax, or a
knife.”
Attacks on Israeli civilians in
March and April have raised fears
that another wave of violence was
emerging in Israel and the West
Bank. At least 15 people have beenkilled in attacks that included
shootings outside a Tel Aviv bar
and in the ultra-Orthodox cities of
Hadera and Bnei Brak, along with
a car ramming in the Negev Des-
ert. Last week, a gunman killed a
guard outside the major Jewish
settlement of Ariel.
The attacks have prompted a
crackdown by the Israeli military
in several communities in the
West Bank, particularly Jenin,
where a Palestinian refugee camp
has long been a hot spot of mili-
tant activity. More than a dozen
Palestinians have been killed in
military raids, according to Israeli
media.
Israelis were on holiday Thurs-
day to celebrate the country’s In-
dependence Day. And the killings
followed annual Memorial Day
ceremonies Wednesday in which
families honor the memories of
soldiers killed in action and Is-
raelis slain in terrorist attacks.Shira Rubin in Te l Aviv and Hazem
Balousha in Gaza contributed to this
report.Attackers w ielding an ax kill a t least 3, injure 7 near T el Aviv, medics say
BY SAMANTHA SCHMIDT,
ANA VANESSA HERRERO
AND MARY BETH SHERIDANAn explosion at a historical five-
star hotel in Old Havana on Friday
morning killed at least 22 people
and destroyed much of the build-
ing, Cuban officials said.
Dozens more were injured in
the blast that rocked the Hotel
Saratoga, across from the Cuban
Capitol, around 11 a.m. Among the
dead were one pregnant woman
and one child. Firefighters and a
rescue team continued to search
the rubble for victims, the Cuban
presidency tweeted.
The cause of the explosion was
unclear, officials said, but prelimi-
nary investigation pointed to a gas
leak.
“It wasn’t a bomb or an attack,”
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said.
“It’s an unfortunate accident.”
The hotel was preparing to re-
open on Tuesday after closing two
years ago during the coronavirus
pandemic, it said in an April 28
Facebook post, the most recent on
its page. Havana Gov. Reinaldo
García Zapata said the hotel was
undergoing repairs and there
were no tourists inside, according
to the Communist Party newspa-
per Granma.
Videos and images on social
media showed the facade of the
hotel blasted away, smoke filling
the air and crowds gathering in
the street outside. A photo pub-
lished by the news agency Reuters
showed at least one body in the
street outside the hotel covered
with a sheet.
“The explosion knocked me
from my chair,” said Lester
Fernández, 25, who lives less than
a five-minute walk from the Sara-
toga. “A piece of my ceiling fell. I
quickly ran down the stairs and I
thought it was my building that
was falling,” he said, before realiz-
ing it was the hotel. “It was a
complete disaster.”
David Duque, a 30-year-old
travel blogger, was about to start a
photo shoot about five blocks from
the Hotel Saratoga when he felt
the city rumble and heard the
roaring thunder of the blast.
“We thought it was a bomb or an
attack,” Duque said. “I was so ner-
vous that my legs were shaking. I
didn’t know what to do.... In
Cuba, we’ve never felt something
like this.”
He rushed to the hotel and
found a scene of chaos and confu-
sion. He saw the bloodied faces of
elderly people who had been pass-
ing by the hotel or on nearby buses
at the time of the blast. He saw
uniformed hotel workers standing
on what was left of the upper
floors of the building and scream-
ing for help. He saw children run-
ning and others helping pull peo-
ple out of the rubble.
“I felt paralyzed,” he said. “We
were scared to get too close. Wedidn’t know what could happen
next.”
A tweet from the presidency
showed an injured child in a hos-
pital bed, a patch over one eye, as
Díaz-Canel v isited with patients. A
school is located in front of the
hotel. All of its students were evac-
uated safely, Cuban officials said.
The Saratoga, which was built
in the 1930s and renovated in
2005, has 96 rooms, two bars, two
restaurants, a spa and a rooftop
pool with panoramic view of the
Cuban capital, according to its
website. Guests have reportedly
included Beyoncé and Madonna.
The hotel explosion was the lat-
est blow to Cuba’s tourism indus-
try, which officials say is the No. 1source of hard currency for an
island heavily dependent on im-
ports and struggling through its
worst economic crisis in three dec-
ades. After the coronavirus pan-
demic started, Cuba sharply limit-
ed tourism, only fully opening the
country last November.
Officials at Cuba’s annual tour-
ism fair, held in recent days, said
313,900 foreigners visited in the
first trimester, up from 48,000 in
the same period last year — but
well below the 981,900 in 2020.
They blamed the drop on the fact
that many people were only begin-
ning to make plans to travel again.
“We are recovering little by lit-
tle,” Maria del Carmen Orellana,
Cuba’s vice-minister of tourism,said in an interview last month.
“We’re hoping for a good summer,”
she said, noting reservations were
up for coming months.
Still, the island’s tourism sector
is struggling in numerous ways.
Canadians and Europeans usually
account for the highest number of
visitors, but as winter ends in
those regions, trips to the Caribbe-
an drop. During the pandemic,
Russians had become the top
group of tourists. But since the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s
been virtually impossible for Rus-
sian flights to reach Cuba.
President Donald Trump added
sanctions to the decades-old U.S.
trade embargo, many aimed at
travel. He banned Americancruise ships from visiting Cuba,
forbade airline flights to cities out-
side Havana, the capital, and pro-
hibited Americans from staying at
hundreds of hotels, saying they
were linked to the communist gov-
ernment and its allies. Among
them is the Saratoga, the site of
Friday’s blast.
Duque, the travel blogger, lives
outside of Havana but goes into
the city almost every day to take
photos promoting its architec-
ture. By Friday afternoon, he was
still shaken by the scene at the
hotel, which he described as an
iconic piece of Cuban heritage.
He hoped the hotel wouldn’t
need to be demolished. “It would
be a great loss,” he said.At least 22 dead in explosion at luxury hotel in Havana
RAMON ESPINOSA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rooms are exposed at the five-star Hotel Saratoga, where emergency crews work after the deadly explosion that also left dozens injured.Authorities point to g as
leak as possible cause,
search rubble for victims