North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital

Update North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital
Victims are treated inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip, following a Israeli strike that hit the medical complex on Dec. 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 06 December 2024
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North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital

North Gaza air strikes bring chaos to nearby hospital
  • Beit Lahia has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation for the past two months
  • The Israeli army has stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of their offensive nearly 14 months ago

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s civil defense agency Friday reported deadly air strikes around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the territory’s north as well as “direct fire” on the health facility, which the Israeli army firmly denied.
Several witnesses described intense bombings in the vicinity of the hospital.
“There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” said hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh, adding that four staff were killed.
The Israeli military on Friday denied claims it had struck or entered Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying it was operating next to the facility.
“Contrary to the reports made over the past day, the (military) did not strike the Kamal Adwan Hospital or operate within it,” it said in a statement.
It said it would “continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists” in northern Gaza, including “adjacent to” the hospital.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 29 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday by Israeli shelling in north Gaza, “especially around Kamal Adwan,” one of the area’s last functioning health centers.
The agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP that the Israeli army entered the hospital, evacuated patients and arrested several Palestinians.
Abu Safieh said that following the latest raid, no surgeons were left.
Beit Lahia has been the site of a major Israeli military operation for the past two months that has again escalated in recent days, forcing thousands to flee, the civil defense agency said.
Israeli forces have stormed Kamal Adwan on several occasions since the start of the war nearly 14 months ago.
The hospital said its intensive care unit director Ahmad Al-Kahlut was killed in an air strike late last month.
The latest strikes came just days after the World Health Organization said an emergency medical team had reached the hospital for the first time in 60 days.
Dr. Faradina Sulistiyani, a surgeon on the team, told AFP from Gaza City that all seven of her team members left the premises on foot as the bombing went on.
The UN agency’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters he had “extremely concerning information” from the Kamal Adwan.
He said the Israeli army was first spotted outside the hospital at 4:00 am (0200 GMT).
He said that the international medical team said that “panic caused by the bombing and shelling, along with the panicked crowd inside the hospital” caused Gazans and the team to leave the hospital despite there being “no official evacuation order.”
Peeperkorn said that a “substantial amount” of people including patients and staff remained in the hospital, which is still “minimum operational.”
With little to no aid reaching the hospital since the start of the Israeli operation in early October, the hospital had run out of most supplies, including fuel.
The Israeli army said Friday that it is “in continuous contact with the hospital in order to deliver supplies, food and medical equipment.”
The Israeli army says its operation in the far north aims to keep Hamas militants from regrouping there.
Human rights groups have accused it of pursuing a plan to evacuate or starve all those remaining there, a goal which Israel denies.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that displaced Palestinians would not be allowed to move back to Gaza’s north as long as the military operations are ongoing.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s surprise October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,612 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.


Lebanese and Egyptian presidents discuss regional challenges

Lebanese and Egyptian presidents discuss regional challenges
Updated 25 sec ago
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Lebanese and Egyptian presidents discuss regional challenges

Lebanese and Egyptian presidents discuss regional challenges
  • Abdel Fattah El-Sisi underlines Egypt’s support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and stability
  • Joseph Aoun says Lebanon is dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations with Syria

LONDON: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun discussed regional challenges and the strengthening of ties with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo on Monday.

El-Sisi reaffirmed Egypt’s strong support for Lebanon's sovereignty and stability, condemning ongoing Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon, according to the official National News Agency.

Aoun confirmed Lebanon’s full commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. He urged the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw entirely from Lebanese territory it has controlled since September 2024.

The Lebanese president said that Lebanon is dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations with Syria and supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

El-Sisi emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and the delivery of humanitarian aid, while reaffirming Cairo’s opposition to the displacement of Palestinians.

He called for the recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and condemned ongoing Israeli breaches of Syrian sovereignty.

Both presidents agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in various sectors. El-Sisi concluded by affirming Egypt’s commitment to assist Lebanon in its reconstruction and economic revitalization, the NNA added.


Five Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza

Five Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza
Updated 19 May 2025
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Five Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza

Five Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza
  • 28 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Monday
  • The school west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has stopped offering full-time education

LONDON: Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike overnight in a school-turned-humanitarian shelter in the central Gaza Strip after Israel launched an extensive military operation to occupy the coastal enclave.

Medical sources reported that at least five people were killed and several others injured, mostly children, in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Hasayna School, which had been converted into a shelter for displaced families.

The school west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has stopped offering full-time education, and it belongs to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which was spared from extensive destruction or damage from the war.

According to Wafa news agency, 28 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Monday, including 16 in Khan Yunis.

Since late 2023, the war in Gaza has displaced around 1.9 million Palestinians — about 90 percent of the population — with many facing multiple displacements. According to a UN report, schools have suffered severe damage due to Israeli actions, with 501 out of 564 schools requiring either full reconstruction or significant rehabilitation to be functional again.

In early May, an Israeli airstrike targeted a UN-run school in Al-Bureij, central Gaza, killing at least 30 people who were sheltering there. The facility had accommodated 2,000 displaced individuals.


Sudan’s army chief names former UN official Idris as new premier

Sudan’s army chief names former UN official Idris as new premier
Updated 19 May 2025
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Sudan’s army chief names former UN official Idris as new premier

Sudan’s army chief names former UN official Idris as new premier
  • Idris, a career diplomat and past presidential candidate, was the director general of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan appointed on Monday former UN official Kamil Idris as the country’s new prime minister, more than two years into a brutal war.

Idris, a career diplomat and past presidential candidate, was the director general of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization and has also served in Sudan’s permanent mission to the UN.

“The chairman of the sovereignty council issued a constitutional decree appointing Kamil El-Tayeb Idris Abdelhafiz as prime minister,” a statement from Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council read.

In 2010, Idris ran in the presidential elections against longtime Islamist-military ruler Omar Al-Bashir.

Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has pitted Burhan’s army forces against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Idris replaces veteran diplomat Dafallah Al-Hajj Ali, who was appointed by Burhan at the end of April and served less than three weeks as acting prime minister.

Burhan had earlier said that he would form a technocratic wartime government to help “complete what remains of our military objectives, which is liberating Sudan from these rebels.”

In April, the RSF announced it would form a rival government, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.

The move has raised international fears that Sudan would be permanently divided between the two sides, both of which have been accused of war atrocities.

The conflict has already carved up Sudan, with the army holding the north, east and center while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.


Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’

Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’
Updated 19 May 2025
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Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’

Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’
  • Amnesty International called on the U.S. to investigate a deadly airstrike on a migrant detention center in Yemen that killed 68 African migrants, citing potential violations of international humanitarian law
  • The strike, part of the U.S. campaign against the Houthis, targeted a known detention site, prompting Amnesty to demand a transparent and independent inquiry into the civilian deaths

DUBAI: Rights group Amnesty International urged the United States on Monday to investigate possible violations of international law in a deadly strike on a migrant detention facility in Yemen.
Last month’s attack, which prompted international alarm and was part of the US bombardment campaign against the Houthis, killed 68 people held at a center for irregular migrants in Saada, the rebel authorities said at the time.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said that “the US attacked a well-known detention facility where the Houthis have been detaining migrants.”
The dead were all migrants from African countries, the Houthis had said.
To Callamard, “the major loss of civilian life in this attack raises serious concerns about whether the US complied with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
“The US must conduct a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into this air strike,” she added.
A US defense official had told AFP in the aftermath of the strike that the military launched “battle-damage assessment and inquiry” into “claims of civilian casualties related to the US strikes in Yemen.”
Amnesty cited people who work with migrants and refugees in Yemen and visited two hospitals that treated the victims, saying that they had seen “more than two dozen Ethiopian migrants” with severe injuries including amputations.
The morgues at both hospitals had run out of space, the witnesses told Amnesty.
In mid-March, the United States began an intense, near-daily military campaign against the Houthis after they had renewed threats to attack vessels in the vital Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping lanes.
The campaign ended with a US-Houthi ceasefire agreement earlier this month.
The Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen, began firing on Israel and Israeli-linked shipping in November 2023, weeks into the Gaza war triggered by an attack by the Yemeni rebels’ Palestinian ally Hamas.
Amnesty said it had analyzed satellite imagery and footage from the site of last month’s strike on Saada, in Yemen’s north.
The group said it was “unable to conclusively identify a legitimate military target” within the targeted prison compound, citing Houthi restrictions on independent investigations.
“Any attack that fails to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and legitimate military targets on the other, even within the same compound, constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a violation of international humanitarian law,” Amnesty said.


Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets

Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets
Updated 19 May 2025
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Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets

Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets
  • The tablets were seized in the key port city of Latakia — the coastal heartland of deposed president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities on Monday announced that they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle out four million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-like narcotic that has flooded the region.
The interior ministry said in a statement that authorities seized “over four million captagon tablets that were tightly hidden inside industrial equipment designed for manufacturing flour used for human consumption.”
It said they had acted on “accurate information received from our sources about a shipment of drugs hidden inside industrial equipment prepared for smuggling outside the country.”
The tablets were seized in the key port city of Latakia — the coastal heartland of deposed president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority.
Under Assad’s rule, captagon became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011 and a key source of illicit funding for his government.
Since Assad’s ouster last December, the new Islamist authorities have discovered millions of captagon pills in warehouses and on military bases.
The interior ministry said those involved in the latest operation have been “arrested, the equipment containing the drugs has been seized, and the arrested individuals have been referred for investigation based on a decision issued by the public prosecution.”
Last week, Syrian authorities announced the seizure of around nine million captagon tablets that were headed for Turkiye, after a month-long operation.
Drug smuggling has persisted in Syria despite the new rulers’ efforts, with neighboring countries occasionally seizing large quantities of captagon.
Iraqi security forces seized more than a ton of captagon smuggled from Syria via Turkiye in March, and Jordan thwarted a smuggling attempt from Syria in April, confiscating “hundreds of thousands” of captagon tablets.