Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Gaza hospital director being held at notorious Israeli prison, say family

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Hussam Abu Safiya feared injured as Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza shut down after 11 weeks under siege

One of the few doctors still working in northern Gaza has been taken to an Israeli prison and his hospital shut down, his family believe.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp, was initially taken to the Sde Teiman detention camp, according to his son, who has been told that the doctor’s leg was badly injured during a raid on the hospital by Israeli soldiers.

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Israel orders remaining residents of Beit Hanoun to leave

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Order triggers new wave of displacement and there are reports of damage to two more Gaza hospitals

Israel has issued new evacuation orders for all remaining civilians to leave Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza as part of a blistering three-month-old campaign that Israel denies is aimed at depopulating a third of the Palestinian territory, amid reports Israeli attacks have damaged two more struggling hospitals in Gaza City.

The Israeli army forcibly evacuated Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, leaving the northern third of the strip, which is cut off from the rest of Gaza, with just one small functioning medical centre, al-Awda, in nearby Jabalia. On Sunday, everyone remaining in Beit Lahia was ordered to leave after Palestinian militants launched five rockets from the area that targeted Israeli territory.

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Italian journalist’s arrest in Iran alleged to be reprisal for detention of suspected arms dealer

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Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained in Tehran three days after US warrant used to hold Swiss-Iranian businessman in Milan

The arrest of a renowned Italian journalist in Iran is reportedly in retaliation for the detention of a Swiss-Iranian businessman and suspected arms dealer in Italy three days earlier, according to media reports quoting the US state department.

Cecilia Sala, 29, a war correspondent and reporter who works for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was detained on 19 December while reporting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and held in solitary confinement for a week.

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WHO ‘appalled’ by Israel attack on northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital

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Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia was partially destroyed and critical patients are at grave risk, the UN body says

The World Health Organization says it is “appalled” by an Israeli raid which it said had shut down and partly destroyed the last major hospital still functioning in northern Gaza.

Israel’s “systematic dismantling of the health system” combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip over the past 80 days “puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk”, the WHO said.

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Last major health facility in north Gaza ‘out of service’ after Israeli attack

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Gaza officials say staff at Kamal Adwan hospital, including its director, have been detained as WHO reports Israeli forces burned and destroyed key departments

The last major health facility in northern Gaza has been put out of service, the World Health Organization has said, and its director detained according to Gaza officials after an Israeli military operation targeting sites near the Kamal Adwan hospital.

“Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X.

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Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef

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UN humanitarian body warns that dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the ‘new normal’

Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN.

The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, said on Saturday that the percentage of children living in conflict zones around the world has doubled from about 10% in the 1990s to almost 19%, and warned that this dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the “new normal”.

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Italian journalist arrested and held in solitary confinement in Iran

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Il Foglio war correspondent Cecilia Sala taken in by police while reporting in Tehran, says Italy’s foreign ministry

An Italian journalist has been arrested while reporting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and held in solitary confinement for a week, according to Italy’s foreign ministry.

Cecilia Sala, 29, a war correspondent and reporter who works for the newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was detained on 19 December, the ministry said, but her arrest was only made public on Friday.

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Sudan: first aid convoy reaches besieged Khartoum area since start of civil war

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Deliveries of vital food and medical supplies will help 200,000 families, say aid groups and local volunteers

An aid convoy has reached a besieged area of Khartoum for the first time since Sudan’s civil war broke out in April 2023, bringing food and medicines in a country where half of the people are at risk of starvation.

The 28 trucks arrived in southern Khartoum on 25 December, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), which provided 22 trucks loaded with 750 tonnes of food.

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Officials claim Israeli military ‘burning’ Kamal Adwan hospital after forced evacuation of patients – Middle East crisis live

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Israel says Gaza hospital is ‘Hamas terrorist stronghold’ and it made efforts to facilitate evacuation of those inside

An estimated 730,000 people living in tents in camps for the displaced in northwest Syria are experiencing dire conditions this winter including from flooding, the UN humanitarian office has said.

The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said yesterday that more than 200 family tents in camps in Idlib and northern Aleppo were damaged by flooding from heavy rainfall on 23 December.

“Since the start of 2024, flooding and strong winds have damaged more than 8,800 family tents – including nearly 2,000 that were fully destroyed – across 260 camps,” OCHA said.

In early December, the UN said about 1.1 million people had been displaced since Syrian rebels launched the offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad. Among those displaced were more than 100,000 people who have fled into Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria amid escalating factional fighting and fears of retaliatory attacks.

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Officials claim Israeli military ‘burning’ Kamal Adwan hospital after forced evacuation of patients – Middle East crisis live

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Israel says Gaza hospital is ‘Hamas terrorist stronghold’ and it made efforts to facilitate evacuation of those inside

An estimated 730,000 people living in tents in camps for the displaced in northwest Syria are experiencing dire conditions this winter including from flooding, the UN humanitarian office has said.

The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said yesterday that more than 200 family tents in camps in Idlib and northern Aleppo were damaged by flooding from heavy rainfall on 23 December.

“Since the start of 2024, flooding and strong winds have damaged more than 8,800 family tents – including nearly 2,000 that were fully destroyed – across 260 camps,” OCHA said.

In early December, the UN said about 1.1 million people had been displaced since Syrian rebels launched the offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad. Among those displaced were more than 100,000 people who have fled into Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria amid escalating factional fighting and fears of retaliatory attacks.

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UN voices alarm after WHO chief caught up in deadly Israeli strike on Yemen airport

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UN secretary general decries escalatory actions on both sides after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he was just metres from airport strike

The United Nations chief has denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming” after it came under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.

Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a. Houthi media said at least six people were killed.

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UN voices alarm after WHO chief caught up in deadly Israeli strike on Yemen airport

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UN secretary general decries escalatory actions on both sides after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he was just metres from airport strike

The United Nations chief has denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming” after it came under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.

Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a. Houthi media said at least six people were killed.

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Five Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli strike on van in Gaza

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Men were asleep in marked press vehicle, say witnesses, as renewed hostage negotiations reach impasse

Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in central Gaza, their employer has said, while Israel has also struck several areas in Houthi rebel-controlled Yemen in air raids.

Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Lada’a were sleeping in their broadcasting truck, marked as press, when it was targeted in a direct strike by the Israeli military, witnesses told Palestinian media. Another 32 people were killed in other Israeli pre-dawn strikes across the territory, the local health ministry said.

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17 reported killed in Syrian clashes after attempted arrest of former prison officer

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Security personnel and three armed men killed in clashes in Tartus province, a former Assad stronghold, say monitors

Fourteen security personnel from Syria’s new authorities and three armed men were killed in clashes in Tartus province after forces tried to arrest an officer linked to the notorious Sednaya prison, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group said the clash broke out in Tartus, a stronghold of the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, on Wednesday, and was sparked by the attempted arrest of the former prison official.

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Baby girl freezes to death in Gaza while Israel and Hamas argue over ceasefire

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Three-week-old Sila is the third baby to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, according to doctors

A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

The three-week old baby was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said.

The deaths underscore the squalid conditions there, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

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Middle East crisis: one child killed every hour in Gaza, UN says – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our coverage of the Middle East here

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man in a dawn raid on a refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said the man was killed in a “counter-terrorism” operation that resulted in 18 arrests, Reuters reports. Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem died after snipers shot him and fired on ambulance crew. We have not yet been able to independently verify any of this information. Meanwhile, medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civil emergency service, were killed in four separate Israeli airstrikes across the territory today.

At least 45,338 Palestinian people have been killed and 107,764 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Syrian family left in limbo over Christmas as UK halts asylum claims

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Decisions on fate of 6,500 Syrian asylum seekers suspended amid push to repatriate refugees after fall of regime

A Syrian family say they are “fearing for their future” this Christmas after having an imminent decision on their asylum application stopped by the UK government.

Bilal*, 39, worked as a bank manager in Damascus, and has been living in Sheffield with his wife and four children for the past year. He had his second interview about his asylum application in November and had been told by the Home Office that a decision on his case was “very close”.

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UAE becomes Africa’s biggest investor amid rights concerns

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Activists alarmed at emirati companies’ poor record on labour rights and fear projects may fail to address environmental concerns

The United Arab Emirates has become the largest backer of new business projects in Africa, raising hopes of a rush of much-needed money for green energy, but also concerns that the investments could compromise the rights of workers and environmental protections.

Between 2019 and 2023, Emirati companies announced $110bn (£88bn) of projects, $72bn of them in renewable energy, according to FT Locations, a data company owned by the Financial Times.

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Islamist rebels seize strategic city of Hama from Syrian regime forces

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Fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group rout government troops after five-day battle amid sweeping offensive

Islamist insurgents have entered the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country.

Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad.

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Syrian rebels surround strategic city of Hama after Aleppo takeover

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Rebels within kilometres ‘on three sides’ of city, seen as crucial to Assad regime’s defence of the capital, Damascus

Syrian rebels encircled the key central city of Hama “from three sides” on Wednesday, a war monitor said, despite a counteroffensive launched by government forces to retain control of the city.

Hama is strategically located in central Syria and, for the army of Bashar al-Assad, is crucial to safeguarding the capital and seat of power, Damascus. The fighting around Hama follows a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels who in a matter of days wrested swathes of territory, most significantly Syria’s second city, Aleppo, from the president’s grasp.

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