Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Nakba generation relive trauma of displacement in Gaza

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Images of distressed families walking south have been evocative of what Palestinians call the catastrophe of 1948

Umm Ghadeer’s earliest memories are of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. She was three years old. Last month she was forced to abandon her home all over again, fleeing Shejaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

“I cried very hard because I relived the experience of displacement when we fled our homes in 1948. We fled. Some people were walking on the streets, some in cars, some screaming, some crying. We lost so many people,” she said. “So many awful things happened in 1948. I am now scared of the same thing.”

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Gaza’s main hospital has become a ‘death zone’, says WHO

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UN agency visits al-Shifa hospital after raid by Israeli forces who allege it is used by Hamas as a command centre

Dar al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, has become a “death zone”, the World Health Organization has said, with a mass grave at the entrance and only 25 staff left to care for 291 seriously ill patients after orders from the Israeli army to evacuate the complex.

The WHO managed to access the medical centre in Gaza City on Sunday after it was raided by Israeli forces earlier this week. Israel alleged the militant group Hamas used al-Shifa as a command centre, identifying it as a key target in its military operation despite international outcry.

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Aid charities urge Rishi Sunak to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza

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PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point

Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.

The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.

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‘It’s basically hell on earth’: Gaza City left totally bereft of healthcare

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The raid on al-Shifa hospital by Israeli forces forced out thousands of patients and medical staff

In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.

“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.

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Israeli airstrikes kill 80 in Palestinian refugee camp

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Fears mount for Gaza refugees as nowhere is deemed safe for civilians in effort to destroy Hamas

Israel-Hamas war – live update

Airstrikes on crowded UN shelters in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp killed more than 80 people on Saturday, as Israeli plans to expand operations into south Gaza deepened fears for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have sought refuge there.

Underlining the reminder that there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s civilians, an airstrike outside the southern town of Khan Younis killed at least 26 people in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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‘Just look us in the eye’: Israeli hostages’ families arrive at Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office

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Thousands had marched for five days to demand action by the Israeli prime minister to bring home the 240 people captured by Hamas

“I am wounded and bleeding. Mummy, I think I’m going to die,” were some of the last words Romi Gonen, 23, said to her mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, after Hamas stormed southern Israeli towns and kibbutzim on 7 October.

Leshem Gonen, 54, could hear shooting during the frantic 40-minute phone call but tried to comfort her daughter, who was at the Supernova music festival, saying: “Everything will be OK” and “You’ll feel better. You are not alone, you are with me, my darling.”

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Israel says it will increase military offensive in southern Gaza

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Apartment block bombed, killing 26, in area civilians were urged to flee to for their safety

Israel bombed an apartment block in southern Gaza early on Saturday, killing 26 people, soon after announcing plans to intensify operations in areas where the Israeli military had told civilians to flee for their safety.

In the north, a column of medics, patients and refugees trudged out of al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, where Israeli troops spent a fourth day searching for evidence of a Hamas command node it claimed was buried below the wards.

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Arab forces will not go to Gaza, says Jordanian minister in rebuke of Israel

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Ayman Safadi says credibility of international law at stake as he clashes with senior US official over terms for humanitarian pause

Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.

Ayman Safadi clashed with Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser on Saturday, saying a humanitarian pause should not be conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The US envoy, Brett McGurk, said the onus was on Hamas to release hostages as a pathway to humanitarian aid increasing and a pause in the fighting.

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Israel-Hamas war live: Joe Biden says Gaza and West Bank should be ‘reunited’ under Palestinian Authority; reiterates call for two-state solution

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In Washington Post on Saturday, Biden writes: ‘After this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people … must be at the center of post-crisis governance’

A Tanzanian citizen missing since the 7 October raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel has been confirmed dead while a second remains unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar Es Salaam said.

In a statement issued late on Friday, it said the family of farming student Clemence Mtenga had been notified of his death and talks were under way on repatriating his body. Searches continue for the second Tanzanian, Joshua Mollel, it added.

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More than 100 pro-Palestine rallies to take place across UK, say organisers

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Groups behind ceasefire protests attended by hundreds of thousands say local action will replace London march this week

Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday.

More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK.

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IDF evidence so far falls well short of al-Shifa hospital being Hamas HQ

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Footage to date fails to prove Gaza complex was nerve centre for attacks on Israel, as military has claimed

• Israel-Hamas war – latest updates

Prior to their capture of Dar al-Shifa hospital, the Israel Defense Forces went to great lengths to depict the medical complex as a headquarters for Hamas, from where its attacks on Israel were planned.

The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.

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Foreign Office failing to help Liverpool teacher stuck in Gaza, says husband

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Feiz Chihaoui says he was told wife Islam Alashi, Palestinian national with a visa to remain in UK, not entitled to help to leave

The husband of a teacher from Liverpool who is stuck in Gaza has criticised the Foreign Office for failing to help his wife reach safety.

Islam Alashi, who teaches English as a second language, travelled to Gaza in September to visit family. She has been stuck there amid Israeli bombardment since the conflict with Hamas began on 7 October.

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Israeli forces ‘determined to advance’, says military – as it happened

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Daniel Hagari’s comments come amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations where people have sought refuge from fighting

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has urged leaders of developing nations to unite in the face of growing challenges due to the Israel-Hamas war as he convened a virtual summit of more than 100 countries.

“This is the time when the countries of the global south should unite for the greater global good,” Modi said in a speech, referring to developing nations.

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Collapsed hospital operator NMC Health misled markets over £3.2bn of debt, says watchdog

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FCA censures former FTSE 100 company but stops short of a fine as no funds are expected to be left

The financial watchdog has found that collapsed hospital operator NMC Health committed market abuse by understating its debts by as much as $4bn (£3.2bn).

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) censured the former FTSE 100 company on Friday for misleading the market but stopped short of fining it as no funds are expected to be left at the business once outstanding debts to creditors are paid out.

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UN warns of Gaza starvation as concerns rise about safety in the south

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Israeli military expansion seen as likely alongside acute shortages of of food and water

The UN has said Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations in parts of the south where people have sought refuge from fighting.

Fuel shortages on Friday halted aid shipments and blacked out communications across the strip. The UN said its trucks could not move and it could not coordinate deliveries. Palestinian network operators said they could no longer power the phone and internet systems.

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Israel kills Hamas militants in Jenin raid as violence surges in West Bank

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Hamas says three fighters died, while Israeli military says it killed at least five, as tensions rise

Israeli security forces have mounted a major raid in the city of Jenin, destroying roads and killing between three and five Hamas militants in the latest instance of surging violence across the occupied West Bank.

Hamas said three of its fighters died in the overnight raid, which began late on Thursday night and lasted about eight hours. Israeli military officials said their forces had killed at least five.

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Local action to replace London march for Palestine this week, say organisers

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Groups behind ceasefire protests attended by hundreds of thousands say there will be events across UK

More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK this weekend, but there will be no large-scale national march in London, according to organisers.

Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday, citing the challenges of coordinating weekly national protests and growing support across the country. The next large national march in central London would be held on 25 November, they said.

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Israel says body of hostage recovered near al-Shifa hospital

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Yehudit Weiss, abducted from Be’eri kibbutz by Hamas, found dead in building next to hospital after raid

The Israeli military has recovered the body of an Israeli hostage from a building near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as soldiers continued to search the hospital complex after Wednesday’s early morning raid.

Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman, was abducted from the Be’eri kibbutz by Hamas militants during their attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage. She had been undergoing cancer treatment.

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Dozens arrested in San Francisco after ceasefire protest shuts down Bay Bridge

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Demonstration by about 200 people urging Gaza ceasefire shut down commuter route and formed a human chain between cars

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Thursday after shutting down a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge as part of a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The protest blocked all westbound traffic on the bridge – a key commuter route into the city that sees roughly 260,000 vehicles daily – as San Francisco hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. The city has seen numerous demonstrations in response to the forum from activists decrying corporate profits, environmental abuses and the Israel-Hamas war.

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IDF says it has found Hamas tunnel shaft at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza

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Israeli military also claims to have uncovered a vehicle with weapons belonging to the group

The Israeli military said late on Thursday that it uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle with weapons at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital complex.

“In the Shifa hospital, IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons,” the military said.

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