Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israel issues forced displacement orders amid fears of full occupation in Gaza

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Israeli military leaders reportedly oppose Netanyahu’s plans as the country faces growing diplomatic isolation

The Israeli military has put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders amid fears that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing to order the full occupation of the Palestinian territory later this week.

Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet on Thursday evening and sign off on plans for an expanded operation despite reported serious misgivings from senior military officers.

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‘Healthocide’: experts warn of rise in targeting of health services in conflict

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Principle of medical neutrality threatened as doctors and hospitals deliberately attacked, particularly in Gaza

Targeting medics and hospitals in acts of war should be called “healthocide”, academics have urged, amid an increase in such attacks in recent years.

Health services are increasingly deliberately under attack and medics are facing violence and abuse in conflict zones around the world – in particular in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and El Salvador.

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Son of British woman held in Iran speaks to her for first time in 213 days

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Joe Bennett says Lindsay Foreman sounded in good spirits despite her and husband being charged with espionage

The son of a British woman being held in Iran on espionage charges has said speaking to her on the phone for the first time in 213 days felt like “five birthdays and 10 Christmases at once”.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52, were arrested on 3 January in Kerman, southern Iran, while travelling through the country from Armenia to Pakistan on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

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Israeli cabinet meeting postponed as tensions rise over Netanyahu’s occupation plan

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Officials say prime minister planning offensive to fully occupy Gaza, but resistance reveals splits in government

An Israeli security cabinet meeting, which had been expected to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the “full occupation” of Gaza, has been postponed amid mounting tensions over whether the plan is feasible.

Amid a stalling of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Israeli officials had briefed local and international media that the prime minister was considering an expansive offensive, aimed at taking full control of the Palestinian territory after 22 months of war against the militant group Hamas.

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100 Gaza children hope to be evacuated to UK for urgent medical care

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Charities urge government to move quickly after it announced scheme to help critically ill and injured children

More than 100 critically ill and injured children in Gaza hope to come to the UK as soon as possible after the government announced a scheme to provide those in severe need with NHS care.

The government announced on Sunday that it would evacuate children from Gaza to the UK for treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.

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Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers

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Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’

Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.

The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.

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British couple held in Iran moved to separate prisons heightening welfare concerns

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Lindsay and Craig Foreman were detained seven months ago on espionage charges while on global motorbike trip

A British couple detained in Iran for seven months on espionage charges have been moved to separate prisons in and near Tehran, heightening fears for their welfare, their son said on Monday.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52 and who previously split their time between south-east England and Spain, were seized in Kerman, in central Iran, in early January while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

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Scores dead as boat carrying more than 150 people capsizes off Yemen

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Shipwreck in Gulf of Aden leaves only 32 survivors so far, with the rest missing and presumed dead, says UN agency

A boat has capsized off Yemen’s coast leaving 76 people dead and 74 others missing, the UN’s migration agency said.

Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden in what a senior official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) described as “one of the deadliest” shipwrecks off Yemen this year. The UN migration agency said 157 people were onboard.

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UK to evacuate ill and injured children from Gaza to receive NHS care

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Government to announce taxpayer-funded initiative after three children were brought to UK under private scheme

The UK government will evacuate seriously ill and injured children from Gaza to the UK for NHS treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.

Ministers will enable children in severe need to receive taxpayer-funded care. Three children were brought to the UK this year through a private scheme by the charity Project Pure Hope.

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Hamas releases second video of Israeli hostage and says it will not disarm until Palestinian state established

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Family of Evyatar David condemn video as protesters in Tel Aviv call for a deal to be made to return hostages

Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established, as the group released its second video in two days of an Israeli hostage.

Responding to one of the key Israeli demands to end the war in Gaza, Hamas – which has dominated the territory since 2007 – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.

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Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

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UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

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UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

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UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise

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UN says 859 have died near GHF sites since May while hospitals report growing number of hunger-related deaths

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory.

The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Continue reading...

Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

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Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

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Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

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Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

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‘We are dying slowly, save us’: starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones

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Parents watch children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer, as experts confirm famine is currently playing out

The people of Gaza did not need this week’s official confirmation from UN-backed hunger experts that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding there. For months they have watched as their children waste away.

“All my children have lost nearly half of their body weight,” said Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza. “My daughter, who is five years old, now weighs only 11kg. My son Mohammad has become just skin and bones. All my children are like this.

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‘We are dying slowly, save us’: starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones

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Parents watch children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer, as experts confirm famine is currently playing out

The people of Gaza did not need this week’s official confirmation from UN-backed hunger experts that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding there. For months they have watched as their children waste away.

“All my children have lost nearly half of their body weight,” said Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza. “My daughter, who is five years old, now weighs only 11kg. My son Mohammad has become just skin and bones. All my children are like this.

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Israeli author David Grossman says his country is committing genocide in Gaza

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Writer says for many years he has refused to use word but now must ‘with immense pain and with a broken heart’

The award-winning Israeli author David Grossman has described his country’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide and said he now “can’t help” but use the term.

“I ask myself: how did we get here?” the celebrated writer and peace activist told the Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.

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Israeli author David Grossman says his country is committing genocide in Gaza

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Writer says for many years he has refused to use word but now must ‘with immense pain and with a broken heart’

The award-winning Israeli author David Grossman has described his country’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide and said he now “can’t help” but use the term.

“I ask myself: how did we get here?” the celebrated writer and peace activist told the Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.

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