Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Iran’s Mahsa Amini awarded EU’s Sakharov human rights prize

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Top MEP says Iranian woman’s death in police custody last year ‘triggered a movement that is making history’

Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been awarded the EU’s top human rights prize.

The award, named for the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honour individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel peace prize laureate, died in 1989.

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MSF suspends surgery at Khartoum hospital after Sudanese military blocks supplies

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Charity says that medication and materials at Bashair teaching hospital have run out and surgical team is being withdrawn

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières has suspended life-saving surgery at a hospital in Khartoum after the Sudanese military blocked medical supplies from entering the city.

MSF said it had been refused permission to transport supplies from warehouses in Wad Madani, in Al Jazirah state, to hospitals in the south of the capital since 8 September. The charity said on Thursday that medication and materials at Bashair teaching hospital have now run out and the team could no longer perform trauma surgery or caesarean sections.

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Aid convoy set to enter Gaza a ‘drop in the ocean of need’ says WHO

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Twenty trucks preparing to enter Gaza through Rafah crossing, but Israel says aid will halt if seized by Hamas

Aid agencies have warned that the help set to arrive in Gaza could be too little too late for many of the territory’s desperate population, as preparations were being made for a small convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza on Friday, under a deal between the US, Israel and Egypt.

The US president, Joe Biden, brokered an agreement during his one-day visit to Israel on Wednesday for an initial convoy of 20 trucks to pass through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza on Friday. Under conditions demanded by the Israelis, further consignments of relief supplies would be dependent on whether the first delivery was distributed without Hamas involvement.

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Israel defence minister tells troops they will soon see Gaza – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. You can find the latest Israel-Hamas war news and updates here.

Egypt and Jordan flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively. Both have have been reticent to allow displaced Palestinians in.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to … migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.

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Australians told ‘do not travel’ to Lebanon – as it happened

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No move on paying super to people on paid parental leave

But so far, the government has not moved on paying superannuation to parents (mostly women) on paid parental leave.

Super, of course, is really important and it’s something we would very much like to look to in the future when the budget can afford it. But this is a very big step forward, the current arrangements, but we’ll continue to look around superannuation into the future and consider it in each budget context.

I think with the reserved period as well, we’re going to see an increase in shared care, both parents taking some time out, which is really, really important if we want to get a more equal burden of, you know, of that share of care.

So that is really important as well.

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Australian ministers say Palestinians are being ‘collectively punished’ for Hamas barbarism

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Ed Husic backed by fellow Labor frontbencher Anne Aly who says Israel ‘could be investigated’ for alleged war crimes

Palestinians are being “collectively punished for Hamas’s barbarism”, senior federal minister Ed Husic has said, in the strongest condemnation yet of Israel’s reprisals in Gaza by a member of the Australian government.

Fellow Labor frontbencher Anne Aly immediately backed Husic saying it was “difficult to argue” that Palestinians, including 1,000 children who had been killed, were not being “collectively punished”. Aly, the early childhood education minister, suggested Israel could be investigated over whether it had committed war crimes.

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Mohamed Salah makes donation and calls for aid to be allowed into Gaza

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  • Striker said to have made significant donation
  • ‘The people of Gaza need food and supplies urgently’

Mohamed Salah has appealed for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza after making a donation to help those affected by Israeli air strikes.

The Egypt and Liverpool striker, one of the highest-profile Muslim footballers in the world, made the donation to the Egyptian Red Crescent on Sunday. The amount was undisclosed but is said to be significant.

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Biden tells Israel not to ‘repeat mistakes’ made by US after 9/11

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President reaffirmed US support but urged Israel not to be ‘consumed by rage’ as Netanyahu promises to allow aid into Gaza

Joe Biden has appealed to Israel not to be “consumed” by rage in its response to the attack by Hamas, as the US president pledged stalwart support for Israel for its self-defence and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to allow aid into Gaza via Egypt.

Speaking in Tel Aviv towards the end of his one-day visit to the region, which did not include any meetings with leaders from the Arab world, Biden compared Israel’s predicament after the massacre of more than 1,300 of its citizens to the US’s crisis 22 years ago after the 9/11 attacks. His country had “sought and got justice”, but also “made mistakes”, he said.

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Egypt’s president agrees to open the Rafah crossing – as it happened

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The UN Security Council scheduled the vote on a resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict for Wednesday morning.

The resolution initially condemned “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas” on Israel as well as all violence against civilians, while calling for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver desperately needed aid to millions in Gaza.

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Rishi Sunak urges MPs not to rush to judgment over Gaza hospital blast

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Sunak says British intelligence is working at pace to ‘get to the bottom’ of explosion at al-Ahli hospital

Rishi Sunak has urged MPs not to rush to judgment over the blast at a hospital in Gaza, as he was repeatedly urged by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to remind Israel to respect international law.

Sunak said British intelligence was working at pace to analyse evidence and “to get to the bottom” of the explosion al-Ahli hospital, which was reported to have killed hundreds of civilians.

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Israel faces blame from regional allies over Gaza hospital deaths

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Several Arab states condemn Israel for explosion, which it blames on failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Israel is using media and diplomatic channels to try to convince leaders of Arab countries that Tuesday’s blast at a Gaza hospital was caused by a misfiring jihadist missile, after even its regional allies rushed to blame it for the explosion.

Tuesday’s explosion, which killed hundreds, was blamed by Palestinian officials on an Israeli airstrike. Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.

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More protests expected across Middle East after Gaza hospital blast

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Hezbollah calls for ‘day of rage’ as both sides in war continue to trade blame for deadly explosion

Further furious rallies and protests are expected across the Middle East and north Africa on Wednesday after the blast at a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead and injured.

Hamas has blamed Tuesday’s explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military says the hospital was hit by a rocket barrage launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which has denied responsibility.

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Biden backs Israel’s stance on deadly blast at Gaza hospital

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US president tells Benjamin Netanyahu evidence suggests ‘the other team’ is responsible for Tuesday night explosion

Joe Biden has backed Israel’s stance on the devastating blast at a Gaza hospital during a one-day visit to Israel intended to mitigate the humanitarian impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict and prevent it escalating into a regional war.

In remarks to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president said the evidence he had seen suggested it was “the other team” that was responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday night, which caused hundreds of casualties.

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‘They believed it was safe’: death toll rising after blast at Gaza hospital

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Health officials say blast killed hundreds as footage shows fire engulfing medical centre owned by Anglican church

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in a massive explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, in the biggest single loss of life in the blockaded territory in all the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007.

The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people were killed on Tuesday night in what it said was an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi, also known as the Baptist hospital. A spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence put the number of killed at about 300.

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Nice suspend Youcef Atal for social media post on Israel-Hamas war

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  • Club suspend defender Atal ‘until further notice’
  • El Ghazi also suspended by Mainz for pro-Palestinian post

Youcef Atal was suspended by Nice for a social media post about the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ligue 1 club said on Wednesday.

The Algerian international, who has been at the Ligue 1 side since 2018, has since deleted the post. He had been on international duty and was summoned to speak with the club as soon as he returned.

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US and UK spy chiefs warn Middle East crisis could raise domestic terror threat

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Heads of MI5 and FBI say Jewish communities and other groups may face danger from lone actors, Iran or militants

The heads of MI5 and the FBI have issued an unprecedented joint warning that the threat of a domestic terrorist attack could rise as a result of the crisis in the Middle East.

The counter-terror chiefs said Jewish communities and organisations, as well as other groups, may face a heightened danger from lone actors, Hamas militants and Iran on British or US soil.

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US president’s visit to Jordan cancelled – as it happened

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Japan will provide $10 million in emergency aid for civilians in Gaza, foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Tuesday.

Japan is the current president of the Group of 7 developed nations and Kamikawa said it was monitoring the situation in Gaza “with concern”, adding that Japan expects the situation to be calmed down as soon as possible.

Kamikawa said she was also making final preparations for talks with her Iranian counterpart.

More from that AP analysis now:

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Hundreds feared dead after blast at Gaza hospital as Biden set to fly in

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Health ministry run by Hamas says more than 500 were killed, while civil defence official puts figure at above 300

Hundreds of people are reported to have died in a massive explosion at a hospital in Gaza City, on the eve of Joe Biden’s arrival for a visit that was intended to fend off the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and prevent the conflict escalating into a regional war.

The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, claimed that more than 500 people had been killed an Israeli airstrike on the al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital which, if confirmed, would make it the deadliest single bombing of all the five wars Israel and Hamas have fought over Gaza.

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Hundreds of Israeli bodies remain unidentified 10 days after Hamas attack

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Forensic anthropologists say many of the 350 human remains they are examining may never be identified

On a table, a jumble of bones and fragments are laid out carefully, some grey, others charred black. A skeleton hangs at the side of the room for reference.

Three forensic anthropologists peer over them with the intent focus of professionals trying to solve the most tragic of puzzles. Their job is to identify some of the most badly damaged remains of victims of the Hamas massacres of 7 October.

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Australian citizens in Palestine raise fears about Dfat efforts as rescue buses cancelled

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Buses had been scheduled to take Palestinian Australians from Ramallah in West Bank to Jordan but they did not go ahead

Palestinian Australians in the West Bank who fear a surge in violence have raised concerns over the Australian government’s efforts to help them escape the region, after rescue buses to Jordan were cancelled.

With no airport in the West Bank, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) had scheduled buses to take Australian citizens from the Palestinian city of Ramallah over the border into Jordan, due to concerns about the ability of these dual nationals to access flights out of Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

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