UN official says it could take 14 years to clear debris in Gaza
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Israel’s military campaign against Gaza’s ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has reduced much of the narrow, coastal territory of 2.3 million […]
Gazans mourn baby who dies after rescue from dead mother’s womb
Rafah, Gaza Reuters Relatives gathered by a tiny sandy grave in Gaza on Friday, where they had buried a baby girl, who lived just a few days after doctors delivered her from the womb of her dying mother following an Israeli airstrike. The baby had been given the names Sabreen, after her dead mother, and […]
US, 17 other countries urge Hamas to release hostages, end Gaza crisis
Washington DC, US Reuters The United States and 17 other countries on Thursday issued an appeal for Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis in Gaza, but Hamas vowed not to relent to international pressure. “We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in […]
Postcards: Shawarma restaurant in Cairo brings taste of home for displaced Palestinians
NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and FARAH SAAFAN, of Reuters, report on the Restaurant of Rimal Neighbourhood…
Israel intensifies airstrikes on Gaza’s Rafah before ground operation
Cairo, Reuters Reuters Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies’ warnings this could cause mass casualties. Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, […]
US House Speaker Johnson heckled and booed at Columbia, centre of Gaza protests
New York/Los Angeles Reuters Columbia University students heckled House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday as he visited the flashpoint of nationwide student demonstrations over the Israeli war in Gaza, even as the New York school agreed to 48 more hours of negotiations to end a protest encampment. Johnson’s visit, which he said was meant to […]
Israel says Rafah assault looms; massive Gaza airstrikes end weeks of relative calm
Cairo, Egypt/Jerusalem Reuters Israeli warplanes pounded the northern Gaza strip for a second day on Wednesday in a fierce assault that has shattered weeks of comparative calm, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah in the south. After an abrupt Israeli pullback at the start of this […]
Israel steps up strikes across Gaza, orders new evacuations in north
Reuters Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the enclave, warning civilians they were in a “dangerous combat zone”. Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and […]
Israel yet to show evidence UNRWA staff are members of terrorist groups, review finds
United Nations/Beirut, Lebanon Reuters Israel has yet to provide evidence for its accusations that hundreds of staff with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are members of terrorist groups, according to a review of the agency’s neutrality released on Monday that could prompt some donor countries to review funding freezes. The United Nations appointed […]
Israeli troops storm back into eastern Khan Younis; bodies recovered in hospital ruins
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip/Cairo, Egypt Reuters Israeli troops fought their way back into an eastern section of Khan Younis in a surprise raid, residents said on Monday, sending people who had returned to abandoned homes in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip’s main city fleeing once more. Elsewhere in Khan Younis, scores more bodies […]