Tag: Conflict

  • Sudan facing ‘inferno’ of violence, crushing aid holdups: UN

    Sudan facing ‘inferno’ of violence, crushing aid holdups: UN

    Residents of conflict-hit Sudan are “trapped in an inferno of brutal violence” and increasingly at risk of famine due to the rainy season and blocked aid, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the country warned Wednesday.

    Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

    “Famine is closing in. Diseases are closing in. The fighting is closing in and there’s no end in sight,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a press conference.

    The grim situation is only expected to worsen, with “just six weeks before the lean season sets in, when food becomes less available, and more expensive.”

    Noting that more than four million people are facing potential famine, Nkweta-Salami added that the onset of the country’s rainy season means that “reaching people in need becomes even more difficult.”

    The area’s planting season also “could fail if we aren’t able to procure and deliver seeds for farmers,” she said.

    And “after more than a year of conflict, the people of Sudan are trapped in an inferno of brutal violence.”

    “In short, the people of Sudan are in the path of a perfect storm that is growing more lethal by the day,” Nkweta-Salami warned, adding that the humanitarian community needs “unfettered access to reach people in need, wherever they are.”

    The United Nations has expressed growing concern in recent days over reports of heavy fighting in densely populated areas as the RSF seeks control of El-Fasher, the last major city in the western Darfur region not under its control.

    “Right now the humanitarian assistance they rely on can’t get through,” Nkweta-Salami said.

    More than a dozen UN trucks loaded with medical equipment and food, which left Port Sudan on April 3, have still not reached El Fasher, she said, “due to insecurity and delays in getting clearances at checkpoints.”

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israeli military proposes ‘plan for evacuating’ Gaza civilians

    Israeli military proposes ‘plan for evacuating’ Gaza civilians

    Palestinian Territories – Israel’s military proposed a plan for evacuating civilians from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Monday, after he said a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory’s southern city Rafah was necessary for “total victory”.

    Foreign governments and aid organisations have repeatedly expressed fears that such an operation will inflict mass civilian casualties.

    More than 1.4 million Palestinians – most of them displaced from elsewhere – have converged on the last Gazan city untouched by Israel’s ground troops.

    It is also the entry point for desperately needed aid, brought in via neighbouring Egypt.

    Israel’s military “presented the War Cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan”, a statement in Hebrew from Netayahu’s office said Monday.

    The statement did not give any details about how or where the civilians would be moved.

    The announcement comes after Egyptian, Qatari and US “experts” met in Doha for talks also attended by Israeli and Hamas representatives, state-linked Egyptian media reported, the latest effort to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Israel’s ally the United States said ongoing mediation efforts produced “an understanding” towards a ceasefire and hostage release, while a Hamas source said the group insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

    But Netanyahu – who has dismissed the withdrawal demand as “delusional” – said a ground invasion of Rafah would put Israel within weeks of “total victory” over Hamas.

    “If we have a (truce) deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen,” he said of the ground invasion in an interview with CBS Sunday.

    “It has to be done because total victory is our goal and total victory is within reach — not months away, weeks away, once we begin the operation.”

    Amid a spiralling humanitarian crisis, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians urged political action to avert famine in Gaza.

    Dire food shortages in northern Gaza are “a man-made disaster” that can be mitigated, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

    “Famine can still be avoided through genuine political will to grant access and protection to meaningful assistance.”

    The UN has said it faces restrictions, particularly on aid deliveries to northern Gaza.

    ‘No aid’

    Nearly five months into the war, desperate families in Gaza’s north have been forced to scavenge for something to eat.

    “We have no food or drink for ourselves or our children,” Omar al-Kahlout told AFP, as he waited near Gaza City for aid trucks to arrive.

    “We are trapped in the north and there is no aid reaching us — the situation is extremely difficult.”

    Hundreds of Palestinians headed south whichever way they could, walking down garbage-strewn roads between the blackened shells of bombed-out buildings, said an AFP correspondent.

    Israeli forces continued striking targets across the Palestinian territory and battling militants in heavy urban combat centred on the southern city of Khan Yunis, near Rafah.

    The Israeli military campaign has killed at least 29,692 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

    The war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack, which killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

    ‘Expanding the conflict’

    Mediators have voiced hope that a temporary truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange can be secured before the start of Ramadan on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned fighting during the holy month “will increase the threat of expanding the conflict”, according to a royal statement.

    Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country hosts Hamas leaders and had helped broker a one-week truce in November, is due in Paris this week, the French presidency said.

    Media reports suggest the warring parties are weighing a six-week halt to fighting and the initial exchange of dozens of female, underage and ill hostages for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

    Hezbollah threat

    Across from overcrowded Rafah, neighbouring Egypt has kept its border closed, saying it will not help facilitate any operation to push Palestinians out of Gaza.

    But satellite images show it has built a walled enclosure next to Gaza, in an apparent effort to brace for the possible arrival of large numbers of refugees.

    Inside Israel, pressure has grown on Netanyahu from families of hostages demanding swifter action, and resurgent anti-government protests.

    Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let-up in action against Hamas’s powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whose militants have traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since early October.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Emirates suspends flights to Israel for an indefinite period

    Emirates suspends flights to Israel for an indefinite period

    Emirates announced the suspension of flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice on Wednesday, citing concerns related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. This marks the first instance of Emirates indefinitely halting operations to Tel Aviv.

    An Emirates spokesperson while talking to Gulf News stated, “We are closely monitoring the situation in Israel and are in close contact with the relevant authorities. Customers with onward connections to Tel Aviv on Emirates flights will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin until further notice.”

    The airline initially cancelled its Tel Aviv flights on October 12 due to safety concerns amidst the conflict, subsequently extending the suspension multiple times, with the latest extension lasting until November 30.

    In June 2022, the inaugural Emirates flight departed from Dubai International Airport to Tel Aviv, carrying 335 passengers. This milestone marked the initiation of a daily service connecting the two cities, a development spurred by the signing of the Abraham Accords.

    Separately, in a welcoming development, Israel and Hamas have brokered a four-day truce through the mediation of Qatar. As part of this agreement, 50 women and children held in Gaza will be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children currently detained in Israeli jails.

  • Al-Quds hospital under threat, thousands of people in danger: What we know about day 25

    Continuous attacks near Al-Quds Hospital

    The Palestine Red Crescent Society has been updating about the incessant artillery and air strikes in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza in the area where Al-Quds Hospital is situated.

    “The building is trembling and the displaced civilians and the working crews are experiencing fear and panic,” they reported on social media.

    Hundreds of patients and more than 12,000 displaced Gazans are being sheltered in Al-Quds.

    Israel has called for the evacuation of the hospital as they are likely to attack it — which human rights experts deem as a blatant war crime.

    Israel using white phosphorus in attacks in South Lebanon: Amnesty

    Rights group, Amnesty International has confirmed that “the Israeli army indiscriminately, and therefore unlawfully, used white phosphorous in an attack on Dhayra, in south Lebanon, on October 16.”

    “The attack must be investigated as a war crime,” Amnesty International posted on X.

    Countries in conversation

    Saudi defence minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud stressed the need for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza” as he met with US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington on Monday.

    The White House, on the other hand, reportedly said Sullivan “confirmed President [Joe] Biden’s commitment to support the defence of US partners against threats from state and non-state actors, including those backed by Iran”.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani about increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza on an emergency basis.

    So far, at least four captives have been released from Gaza through Qatari mediation.

    According to the Axios news, the head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, visited Doha, to discuss the possible release of more hostages.

    31 journalists killed

    The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 31 journalists have been killed in Israel-Palestine escalation.

    Among the killed are 26 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese.

    Eight journalists have been said to be injured, nine journalists are reported missing or detained.

    As per the report, more journalists have died in the current escalation than in any other conflict since 1992.

    300 targets attacked in Gaza

    About 300 targets have been attacked overnight in Gaza, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly claimed.

    60 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank

    At least 60 Palestinians have been arrested across the occupied West Bank, according to the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Society Prisoner’s Club.

    Al Jazeera quotes that they have claimed “Arrests are accompanied with torture and abusive attacks against detainees and their families, as well as the policy of collective punishment, destroying property,”

    Since October 7, 1,740 arrest cases have been documented in the occupied West Bank.

  • 3,324 children killed in Gaza since October 7: What we know about day 24

    3,324 children killed in Gaza since October 7: What we know about day 24

    Children in Gaza

    Save the Children has reported that more children have died in Gaza in the past three weeks than the annual total killed in conflicts across the globe every year since 2019.

    Their report, issued on Sunday, revealed that at least 3,324 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7 and 36 in the occupied West Bank.

    Reports from the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict have stated that a total of 2,985 children were killed in 24 countries in 2022; 2,515 in 2021, and 2,674 in 2020 across 22 countries.

    3,195 children killed in #Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019. We are calling for an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/vrEQ846tPB— Save the Children International (@save_children) October 29, 2023

    Israel’s ground operation in Gaza

    Al Jazeera has highlighted the news briefing of an Israeli army spokesperson which reveals that their army has proceeded with ground operation with additional forces and tanks, while infantry goes further into the Gaza Strip. Additionally, ground forces are supported by air raids.

    Dozens of alleged Hamas fighters have reportedly been killed overnight.

    This ground offensive is said to escalate with time.

    Large number of arrests in occupied West Bank:

    Israeli air raid targeted “several” alleged Hamas fighters in refugee camp in Jenin, arresting dozens belonging to armed groups.

    700 people, who are said to be Hamas fighters, have reportedly been arrested in the occupied territories since October 7.

    As of yet, a total of at least 1,070 suspects have been taken into custody.

    Al-Quds hospital in danger

    Al-Quds hospital in Gaza is currently under threat of an Israeli attack.

    According to Al Jazeera Arabic, medical staff and patients at al-Quds Hospital.

    While everyone is expected to evacuate the premises, the staff does not have a place to go to. They add that there are no available hospitals to transfer patients to, especially amid continuous Israeli attacks.

    Al-Quds hospital is sheltering 12,000 displaced Gazans and catering to hundreds of patients.

  • New York police arrest hundreds at Jewish protest urging Gaza ceasefire

    New York police arrest hundreds at Jewish protest urging Gaza ceasefire

    Hundreds of people were arrested Friday when police broke up a large demonstration of mostly Jewish New Yorkers who had taken over the main hall of Grand Central station in protest of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, police and organizers said.

    The New York Police Department said at least 200 people had been arrested, while protest organizers put the number at more than 300.

    Photos from the scene showed long lines of young people standing in handcuffs and wearing black sweatshirts with the words “Not In Our Name” and “Cease Fire Now” printed in white.

    The massive sit-in was called by the group Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City, which said thousands of its members had attended the protest, blocking the main concourse of the city’s central rail station.

    Pictures showed the terminal packed with protesters who held up banners reading “Palestinians should be free” and “Mourn the dead, fight like hell for the living.”

    Organizers called the peaceful sit-in “the largest civil disobedience New York City has seen in 20 years.”

    Rabbis launched the event by lighting Shabbat candles and reciting the Jewish prayer for the dead, known as the kaddish.

    “While Shabbat is typically a day of rest, we cannot afford to rest while genocide is unfolding in our names,” said Rabbi May Ye, in a statement released by organizers.

    “The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are intertwined, and safety can only come from justice, equality, and freedom for all,” the rabbi said.

    Israel launched its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on 7 October, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

    The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday that Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, more than 3,000 of them children.

  • ‘Soon many more will die’: What do we know about day 21

    ‘Soon many more will die’: What do we know about day 21

    At least 480 killed in Israeli attacks in past 24 hours

    More than 481 people have been killed in the last 24 hours alone as Israel continues air raids, reports Gaza’s health authority.

    In total 7,028 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the latest conflict, 66 per cent of them women and children, according to the authority.

    More information on Israel’s ground raid in Gaza

    The Israeli army’s spokesperson has said that during the past day, infantry, armoured and engineering forces, with air support, conducted a concentrated raid in the centre of the Gaza Strip as part of preparations for the “next stages of the war.”

    “The raid began yesterday in broad daylight, and all the forces I mentioned participated in it as combat forces, and it ended successfully in the hours of this morning,” the spokesperson said, adding that there were no casualties among Israeli forces, who exited Gaza after the conclusion of the operation.

    10 doctors, 10 trucks enter Gaza

    10 foreign doctors and 10 trucks carrying water, food and medicine have been sent to Gaza through the Rafah border.

    This means that 84 trucks have been sent to Gaza since the allowance of aid after October 7 – which authorities consider as a mere “drop in the ocean”.

    Hospital workers still require medical supplies and fuel on urgent basis to operate generators while thousands of injured await medical aid.

    ‘Soon many more will die’ from Gaza siege: UN

    The United Nations has warned that “many more will die” because of Israel’s “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip as medical services are “crumbling”.

    “People in Gaza are dying – they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege imposed on the Gaza Strip,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

    “Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage.”

    1,000 unidentified bodies under Gaza debris

    According to estimates received by the World Health Organization, at least 1,000 unidentified people, who have not been added to the death toll, are still buried under the rubble of the destroyed building in Gaza.

    “We also get these estimates that there are still 1,000 plus people under the rubble which have not been identified yet,” said the UN health agency’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Peeperkorn.

    As of yet, more than 7,000 have been killed in Israeli air raids since October 7.

  • Israel picks fight with United Nations: What do we know about day 19

    Israel picks fight with United Nations: What do we know about day 19

    Israel versus the United Nations

    Israel has refused to issue visas to United Nations officials after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obliquely condemned Israeli orders to evacuate Gazans from the north to the south. Above all, he also said Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 did not happen “in a vacuum” as the Palestinians have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.

    According to Al Jazeera’s reporter Gabriel Elizondo, Israel was “furious” and its officials called on the UN chief to resign.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was at the debate, “was so upset”, said Elizondo, “that he cancelled a meeting with the secretary-general that was supposed to happen Tuesday afternoon”.

    Additionally, the UN had been raising concerns over the lack of fuel in Gaza and the potential pause in its operations. In response to one of the UN’s posts on Tuesday, the Israeli military suggested the UN should approach Hamas for fuel supplies.

    The Israeli military claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that Hamas has more than 500,000 litres of fuel in tanks inside Gaza.

    “Ask Hamas if you can have some,” the military wrote.

    103 killed in occupied West Bank

    Increasing Israeli raids since October 7 in the occupied West Bank have resulted in 103 deaths.

    Syrian army attacked by Israel

    The Israeli military claims to have targeted Syrian army infrastructure and mortar launches, asserting that it was a response to Syrian aims at Israel.

    “Lebanon was never an aggressor”: Ambassador

    During the UN Security Council meeting, Lebanon’s ambassador, Hadi Hachem, stated that his country “is exerting every effort to disassociate” from this “bloody conflict”.

    He added that Lebanon was never an aggressor.

    “It has always been a victim of aggression by Israel since the [1960s].”

    Referring to Gazans, he said “There is no law or doctrine that justifies the systematic killing of a population that lives in an open-air prison for more than a half a century.”

    Hachem also shed light on the killings of 13 journalists in Gaza (including the killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon) because of Israeli attacks, “proof” of Israel’s “policy to suppress freedoms”.

    Earlier in the debate, the US accused Iran and its proxies of destabilising the region, claims the Iranian ambassador categorically rejected.

    600,000 Palestinians displaced

    The UN is reportedly sheltering nearly 600,000 Palestinians who have been internally displaced in 150 facilities whereas at least 40 UNRWA installations have been affected following Israeli attacks.

    “Our shelters are four times over their capacities. Many people are sleeping on the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed,” the agency said in a post shared on X.

  • More than 2,000 children have been killed in Israeli air strikes since Oct 7: What do we know about day 18

    More than 2,000 children have been killed in Israeli air strikes since Oct 7: What do we know about day 18

    704 Palestinians killed in last 24 hours

    The health ministry in the besieged enclave reports that Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours have killed 704 in Gaza.

    More than 19,000 displaced in Lebanon after border clashes

    The Israel-Palestine escalation has spread beyond borders. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported the displacement of 19,646 people while the United Nations has also estimated that more than 19,000 have been internally displaced in Lebanon after October 7 amid cross-border attacks.

    Friction between Hezbollah and the Israeli military is also feared to escalate.

    Killing of children

    Among the 5,087 people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, more than 2,000 of them are children, the health ministry in the besieged enclave states.

    Between Sunday and Monday alone, 182 children were killed among the total of 436 Palestinians.

    Six more UN staff killed in Israeli bombing

    The UN Relief and Works Agency has lost six more staff members in Israeli bombing of Gaza, taking the death toll to 35.

    Occupied West Bank

    96 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces since October 7 and settlers while at least 1,800 have been wounded.

    Israel claims to have detained 500 Palestinians, allegedly linked to Hamas.

    Similarly, almost 1,500 people are trapped under the rubble in Gaza and rescue teams are unable to rescue all as Israel continues to target medical teams while authorities lack necessary equipment.

    Gaza not receiving enough relief supplies

    According to the UN, only 54 trucks with relief supplies have been allowed into Gaza since Saturday.

    Tamara al-Rifai, communications chief of the United Nations Palestine refugee relief agency UNRWA, deemed it as a drop in the ocean.

    He also highlights that fuel for generators has not been sent in the shipments whereas rice and lentils delivered cannot be cooked without the water and gas which are needed for cooking.

    Obama on Israel

    Former President Obama issued a new statement on Israel-Palestine escalation.

    In his statement, Obama condemns the October 7 attacks launched by Hamas, calling it an “unspeakable brutality” and supports Israel’s right to defend itself but under “international law.”

    “But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters. In particular, it matters — as President Biden has repeatedly emphasized — that Israel’s military strategy abides by international law, including those laws that seek to avoid, to every extent possible, the death or suffering of civilian populations,” Obama wrote.

    Obama also warns that blocking supplies into Gaza can put support for Israel at risk.

    “The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” he wrote.

    Obama further stresses on dismissing antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian narratives. And while he believes that Israel has “every right to exist,” he also notes that Palestinians have “also lived in disputed territories for generations.”

    “But if we care about keeping open the possibility of peace, security and dignity for future generations of Israeli and Palestinian children — as well as for our own children — then it falls upon all of us to at least make the effort to model, in our own words and actions, the kind of world we want them to inherit,” he concluded.

    Macron arrives in Israel on ‘solidarity’ visit

    The French president Emmaneul Macron also paid a visit to Tel Aviv to “express” France’s “solidarity” with Israel.

    Referring to October 7 attacks by Hamas, the President stated that “what happened will never be forgotten.”

    On the other hand, Israeli President Isaac Herzog asserts that his country is committed to “destroying” its adversaries, adding that, “We demand the immediate release of all our citizens,”

    Shedding light on Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, he stated that “We are following very closely the situation,”, adding that Lebanon was “playing with fire”.

    “If Hezbollah drags us into a war it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price”.

    Credits: Al Jazeera

  • COAS Gen Asim Munir meets Ambassador of Palestine

    COAS Gen Asim Munir meets Ambassador of Palestine

    Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir met the Ambassador of Palestine to Pakistan, Ahmad Jawad Rabei, at General Headquarters today.

    COAS offered his condolences on the loss of Palestinian lives in the ongoing war Israel has declared on Gaza.

    According to the official statement, “COAS expressed grave concern over unabated violence and willful, indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by the Israeli Defence Forces in the war. Incessant attacks on civilian population, schools, universities, aid workers, hospitals and the forced exodus of Palestinians from Gaza are manifest crimes against humanity.”

    He also reasserted the need to call for immediate cessation of hostilities, open a humanitarian corridor to Gaza, protect civilians and adhere to the International Humanitarian Law.

    COAS also highlighted Pakistan’s “principled support for an independent, viable and contiguous state of Palestine established on the basis of pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital”.

    “Pakistan believes that the fresh spate of violence in Gaza is the result of unabated repression, continued human rights violations and state-sponsored sacrilege of Al Aqsa mosque. Conflating this war with terrorism would be naïve; taking a narrow and self-serving view of the issue as an isolated attack, obscures brutal oppression spanning decades that has led to this outcome” he said.

    “At this critical juncture, it is imperative that the international community mobilizes to put an early end to unfolding human tragedy due to disproportionate and unlawful use of force by Israeli Defence Forces and desist from encouraging them to continue perpetrating atrocities in manifest violation of all norms of civility and humane conduct”.