Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Gaza’s 37m tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert

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Top UN demining official outlines scale of devastation as Egypt officials fly into Israel in attempt to revive ceasefire talks

Israel’s war in Gaza has created 37m tonnes of debris, much of it laced with unexploded bombs, which could take more than a decade to remove, a top UN demining official said.

Nearly seven months into the war, there is an average 300kg of rubble a square metre of land in Gaza, Pehr Lodhammar, the former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, told a news conference.

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Middle East crisis: it could take 14 years to clear Gaza Strip of rubble and unexploded bombs, says UN official – as it happened

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War has left estimated 37m tons of debris in area, requiring years of work with ‘100 trucks’, says Pehr Lodhammar

A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday.

Associated Press reports Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her.

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‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

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University and colleagues condemn detention of law professor, the first time an academic has been held over speech related to work

The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate.

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Palestinian baby rescued from dead mother’s womb dies in Gaza hospital

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Infant dies five days after caesarean delivery following death of mother in Israeli airstrike in Rafah

A premature Palestinian baby rescued from her mother’s womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike has died, the baby’s uncle has said.

Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, Rami al-Sheikh said on Friday.

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US troops begin construction of Gaza aid pier as questions remain over distribution

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About 1,000 US troops will support the military construction efforts, but Joe Biden has ordered them not to set foot on the Gaza shore

US troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory, the Pentagon has said, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the aid will be delivered.

“I can confirm that US military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters.

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Leaders of 18 countries urge Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza

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UK and US leaders among those calling for release, as families renew pressure on Netanyahu to restart negotiations

The leaders of 18 countries including the US and the UK have called on Hamas to free Israeli and dual-national hostages held in Gaza.

“The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern,” they said. “We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home.”

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Global heating and urbanisation to blame for severity of UAE floods, study finds

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World Weather Attribution group says intensified El Niño effects caused torrential rain, but rules out cloud seeding as cause

Fossil fuels and concrete combined to worsen the “death trap” conditions during recent record flooding in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, a study has found.

Scientists from the World Weather Attribution team said downpours in El Niño years such as this one had become 10-40% heavier in the region as a result of human-cased climate disruption, while a lack of natural drainage quickly turned roads into rivers.

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Oil price could exceed $100 a barrel if Middle East conflict worsens, World Bank warns

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Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high

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A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher.

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Middle East crisis: US and other countries link ‘immediate ceasefire’ to hostages’ release – as it happened

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White House releases joint letter signed with 17 other countries saying such a deal would lead to the ‘credible end of hostilities’

Here are some of the scenes in Jerusalem, where people, including Israeli interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been worshipping during the Passover holiday.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, states that two people have been killed there by drone strikes. He writes for the news network:

A surge in attack drones flying over Rafah has taken place over the past couple of hours. At least two people have been hit in what appear to be targeted killings – one in the western part of the city and the other in the east. They were killed when the drones fired missiles about half an hour apart. The tragedy keeps unfolding. The destruction is overwhelming. Everywhere you go, you see rubble-filled roads.

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Israel thought to be preparing to send troops into Rafah

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Two reservists brigades mobilised for Gaza missions while rows of tents put up in Khan Younis

Israel appears to be readying to send troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that two reservist brigades had been mobilised for missions in Gaza, while video that circulated online appeared to show rows of square white tents going up in Khan Younis, 3 miles (5km) north of Rafah, which was decimated in a months-long Israeli air and ground campaign. A spokesperson for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said Israel was “moving ahead” with a ground operation, but gave no timeline.

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Biden signs $95bn foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

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President says legislation is ‘going to make the world safer’ after months of congressional gridlock threatened support for Kyiv

Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.

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Biden praises Congress for foreign aid bill and says he will sign it immediately

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The $95bn package allots funds to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, which desperately needs munitions for its war with Russia

Joe Biden praised congressional leaders and lawmakers for what he called an effort “to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point” after the US Senate voted resoundingly in a bipartisan majority on Tuesday to approve $95bn in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The Senate passed the bill in a sweeping 79 to 18 vote, after similarly lopsided approval in the House last weekend. The president, who had pushed Congress for months to deliver the foreign aid measure, said he would sign it into law on Wednesday and immediately begin the process of sending badly needed weapons to Ukraine as early as this week.

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Iranian women violently dragged from streets by police amid hijab crackdown

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Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new draconian campaign against women and girls

Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.

A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

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Dozens arrested in California and Texas as campus administrators move to shut down protests – as it happened

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More than 60 people, including a journalist, arrested at University of Southern California and University of Texas at Austin. This blog is now closed.

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will visit Columbia University today to speak to Jewish students and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses”, his office has said.

New York House Republicans have called on Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to resign immediately for failing to end the protests.

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Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups

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The TikTok investor is also linked to funding challenges to progressive politicians and against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16m in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.

Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46m thus far.

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Middle East crisis: Germany to resume working with Unrwa after UN report finds Israel yet to supply evidence to back terror claims – as it happened

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Government to resume cooperation with UN agency for Palestinians in Gaza after report finds Israel had yet to back up accusations on employees having terror ties

An Israeli government minister has said if he were American he would rather vote for the Republicans than Joe Biden in the forthcoming US presidential election.

Speaking to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, Amichai Chikli, who is the diaspora affairs minister and a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Biden is “subject to very heavy pressure that influences him, and causes real damage to relations” between the US and Israel.

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Germany to resume funding of Unrwa aid operations in Gaza

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Berlin restores ties with UN agency after review says Israel has provided no evidence of terrorist links

Germany has said it will restore cooperation and funding to Unrwa operations in the Gaza Strip after an independent review said Israel had not provided evidence to back up claims that hundreds of employees of the UN agency for Palestinians were members of terrorist organisations.

Berlin’s foreign and development ministries said in a joint statement on Wednesday that following Monday’s publication of the review, conducted by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, the German government would soon resume cooperation with the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).

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Sudan had largest number of people facing extreme food shortages in 2023, UN report shows

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The African country accounted for two-thirds of the additional 13.5m people needing urgent help as displacement drove food insecurity globally

Sudan had the world’s largest number of people facing extreme food shortages in 2023 as conflict and displacement drove food insecurity globally, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The war between rival generals meant Sudan accounted for two-thirds of the additional 13.5 million people needing urgent help last year, while conflict also plunged Gaza into the world’s most severe food crisis with its entire population facing high levels of food insecurity.

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At least 21 migrants dead after boat capsizes off coast of Djibouti

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Children among those killed in second fatal incident in two weeks close to the Horn of Africa, says UN agency

At least 21 people have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN’s migration agency has said.

It was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off the Horn of Africa nation, which lies on the perilous so-called eastern migration route from Africa to the Middle East.

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UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals

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Spokesperson says some bodies allegedly had their hands tied while others were bound and stripped

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he was “horrified” by reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies at two of Gaza’s largest hospitals.

Palestinian civil defence teams began exhuming bodies from a mass grave outside the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis last week after Israeli troops withdrew. A total of 310 bodies have been found in the last week, including 35 in the past day, Palestinian officials have said.

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