Author: Gulf News Week
In the face of global anger, Israel announces planned humanitarian pause in civilian centres to enable aid distribution.The Israeli military has killed dozens of people in Gaza as the starvation crisis in the territory deepens amid an international outcry, with more Palestinians dying of malnutrition. Medical sources told media that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Saturday, including 42 desperately seeking aid. The Ministry of Health in Gaza also said that hospitals have recorded five more deaths due to hunger caused by the Israeli blockade of the enclave, bringing the total death toll from malnutrition to…
As violence and rights abuses rage on, the coalition pledges to pursue a ‘secular, democratic’ and decentralised Sudan.A Sudanese coalition led by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has announced it is establishing an alternative government in a challenge to the military-led authorities in the capital Khartoum, with the northeastern African country’s brutal civil war in its third year. The group, which calls itself the Leadership Council of the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS), said RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo will chair the 15-member presidential council of the government, which includes regional governors. Sudanese politician Mohammed Hassan Osman al-Ta’ishi…
Many US Democrats call for aid to urgently enter Gaza, but few condemn Israel for its deadly blockade on the territory.Washington, DC – The images of emaciated children coming out of Gaza have moved some of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the United States Congress to decry the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory ravaged by Israeli-imposed starvation. Some Democratic lawmakers pointedly condemned Israel over the past few days, slamming the US and Israeli-backed GHF food distribution mechanism that has led to the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers. But others issued vague statements calling for aid to…
A Syrian official tells media Damascus emphasises the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable.Syrian and Israeli officials have held talks in Paris mediated by the United States, according to a Syrian official, in the wake of an eruption of sectarian violence compounded by Israeli military intervention in southern Syria. The meeting on Saturday was held to address recent security developments around the southern Druze-majority city of Suwayda, which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks between Bedouins and Druze fighters. Israel intervened in the conflict, striking government buildings in Damascus and government soldiers in Suwayda province,…
Israel continues to deny what aid agencies and governments are saying is the man-made starvation it is forcing on GazaOne hundred twenty-seven people, 85 of them children, have died from hunger or malnutrition as a result of Israel’s siege of Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked all aid to Gaza in March, claiming that it was to pressure Hamas into accepting a ceasefire that Israel broke unilaterally later that month. This week, the Israeli government has blamed the United Nations for the situation, even accusing its aid agency of working with Hamas to restrict…
Providing water, searching for water, drinking water, swimming in water can all get you killed.In Gaza, we see death in every aspect of life. Death has become an inseparable companion, lingering in the streets, the skies, and even in our homes. It is no longer a shock – it is a grim daily reality which we have been forced to adapt to. There are many ways to die in Gaza, although one does not have the luxury to choose. You may be killed in a bombing, or be struck by a sniper’s bullet as you try to collect food to…
UNRWA chief says aid airdrops a dangerous ‘distraction’, could kill starving Palestinians.The United Kingdom says it is working with Jordan on “forward plans” to airdrop aid into besieged Gaza and evacuate children needing medical care as Israel’s forced starvation and bombardment of Palestinians fuel global outrage. Two infants on Saturday became the latest Palestinian children to die from malnutrition. Hospitals in Gaza have now recorded five new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. The total number of starvation deaths in the territory has risen to 127, including 85 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. British…
The trailblazing artist, son of legendary Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani, was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, son of the iconic singer Fairuz and a pioneer of fusion jazz, has died at the age of 69 of a heart attack. “On Saturday at 9:00am, the heart of the great artist and creator Ziad Rahbani stopped beating,” said a statement from the hospital where he was being treated in the capital, Beirut, on Saturday. Rahbani influenced generations of Lebanese people with his songs and especially his plays, whose lines are known by heart by…
A mother and child are among those killed by gunmen who threw a hand grenade into the building in Zahedan.An attack on a courthouse in southeastern Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province has killed at least five civilians and injured 13, Iranian media report. A mother and child were among those killed on Saturday by gunmen who threw a hand grenade into the building in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, a senior police official told the state news agency IRNA. IRNA said three of the attackers were also killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).…
Protesters carry portraits of political prisoners and a cage that organisers said represented the state of political life in the country.Hundreds of Tunisian activists have protested against President Kais Saied, calling his rule since 2021 an “authoritarian regime” that has turned the country into an “open-air prison”. The protesters marched in capital Tunis on Friday, marking four years since Saied made moves to consolidate his one-man rule in a country once known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings. Chanting the slogan, “The Republic is a large prison,” they demanded the release of jailed opposition leaders, including Rached…