Buckling Gaza health service turns to volunteers

Palestinians wounded in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip wait for treatment in a hospital in Rafah on Monday. Concern has surged about the fate of hospitals in the war zone. (AP)
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Updated 30 October 2023
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Buckling Gaza health service turns to volunteers

GAZA CITY: Gaza medical chiefs are turning to volunteers to help run an emergency service buckling under Israel’s offensive as ambulances struggle to reach bomb sites past rubble-strewn roads and with ever-depleting supplies of fuel.

Medical and emergency staff have worked with little rest and are deployed in the most dangerous areas, witnessing the horror of violent death, terrible injuries, and grief.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has called on all trained paramedics to help staff hospitals and call-out teams, but though dozens have responded, the system is still in dire need of more workers, it said.

“I have not gone home since the first day of the war. I shower here, sleep here, and eat here,” said Loay Al-Astal, a volunteer emergency worker in Khan Younis, south of the enclave.

Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say Israeli air and artillery strikes have killed more than 8,000 people since Oct. 7.

After Israel began ground operations on Friday, many Gaza residents fear the destruction will intensify.

Israel has ordered civilians to leave the northern half of the Gaza Strip for the south but has continued an intense bombardment across the enclave, and many people are refusing to leave.

Shelling on Gaza’s main north-south road on Monday meant the enclave was all but cut in two, with any attempts to flee south risking bombardment.

The Health Ministry said 116 medical staff had been killed in the bombardment since Oct. 7, along with 18 civil emergency department rescuers.

Astal, the volunteer who had trained at university to be a paramedic but was unemployed when the war began, described an incident in which some of his colleagues had nearly been killed by an air strike that blew out the windows of their ambulance.

“The glass was smashed and some of our volunteers were wounded,” he said.

He is haunted by the memory of trying to save a woman who was buried up to her neck in rubble from an air strike. “There was a cut on her head and I rushed to treat the wound,” Astal, 33, said.

She asked him to free her from the rubble so she could find her son, but she died minutes later, still trapped, he said. “I felt bad I couldn’t save her,” he said.

‘Where should we go?’

The head of the Khan Younis ambulance service, Naseem Hassan, said the department was overwhelmed and needed trained medics. “We opened the door for volunteers and many young people answered that call and have been on duty since the war began,” he said.

Along with the bombardment, Israel has imposed a blockade on the enclave, home to 2.3 million people, cutting supplies of electricity and fuel. Limited food and medical aid deliveries have entered Gaza since last week after international pressure on Israel.

“Ambulances are about to go out of operation because we have minimal fuel left. We have problems with communications. We lose touch with the ambulances that leave here,” said volunteer driver Sari Al-Najjar.

Without reliable power supplies, many residents could not charge phones, adding to the difficulties for ambulance crews trying to locate and coordinate rescues.

Thousands of people have gathered at hospitals in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, many sheltering in makeshift tents hoping for some safety from the bombardment.


Fifty-four children swim from Morocco to Spanish enclave Ceuta

Updated 50 min 2 sec ago
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Fifty-four children swim from Morocco to Spanish enclave Ceuta

  • The children, who were mostly Moroccan, were taken to temporary centers in Ceuta
  • On Aug. 26 last year, hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to Ceuta from neighboring Morocco

MADRID: At least 54 children and about 30 adults swam from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in rough seas and fog, Spanish television reported on Saturday.

Video footage on Spanish television channel RTVE showed Civil Guard launches making repeated rescue attempts to bring some of the swimmers to safety, while others swam across to the enclave.

The children, who were mostly Moroccan, were taken to temporary centers in Ceuta, where authorities called for help from the central government in dealing with the latest arrivals.

“Don’t leave us alone. This is a matter of state. This has to be resolved,” Juan Rivas of the Ceuta regional government told reporters on Saturday.

On August 26 last year, hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to Ceuta from neighboring Morocco, local police said. In 2021, one boy was seen floating on empty plastic bottles in his attempt to reach Ceuta.

Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.

Moroccan nationals detained during the crossings are immediately sent back to Morocco unless they are underage or seeking asylum.

People from other nationalities are taken to special centers where they are given shelter and released after a few days.

Three years ago, at least 23 people died in a stampede when about 2,000 migrants tried to storm into Melilla, pushing down the border fence.


Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

Updated 26 July 2025
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Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

  • The UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid

LONDON: British Prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said.

“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” a statement said.


Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

Updated 26 July 2025
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Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

  • Al-Abed said: “These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records“
  • The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority”

TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities detained on Saturday some 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in a raid on a neighborhood housing them east of the capital Tripoli, an AFP reporter saw.

“Saturday’s inspections uncovered housing units where undocumented foreign workers were living,” Libyan labor minister Ali Al-Abed, who was present during the raid, told reporters.

“These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records.”

Libya has been gripped by conflict since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

The country remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s government based in Tripoli and a rival administration based in the east.

With Italy some 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, Libya has become a key launchpad for tens of thousands of migrants who risk their lives at sea trying to reach Europe.

The area targeted in the sweep east of Tripoli housed makeshift encampments surrounded by high walls and a large gate.

Hundreds of migrants — mostly Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans — were said to have lived there.

Inside the compound, an AFP journalist saw a small grocery store, a butcher shop and vegetable vendors.

The labor minister said the site had “unregulated housing that fails to meet basic requirements for decent accommodation, health and workplace safety.”

The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, and legal proceedings will be initiated against them according to national regulations,” Abed said.

It remained unclear whether the migrants would be immediately deported.

Earlier this month, a European Union commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were in Libya to discuss irregular migration from the North African country.

Migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities, including in international waters before reaching the Italian coast, are forcibly returned to Libya and held in detention under harsh conditions frequently condemned by the United Nations.


Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

Updated 9 min 42 sec ago
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Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

  • Jaish Al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account
  • Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion

At least nine people were killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish Al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchistan province on Saturday, including three of the assailants, state media reported.

Another 22 were injured, according to the report.

Jaish Al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Baluchistan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion.

A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province’s judiciary told IRNA. He did not identify the sixth dead person. He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.

Jaish Al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces. It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.

“We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchistan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution,” the group said in its statement.

It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.

The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges’ chambers.

Sistan-Baluchistan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy. Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.


Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

Updated 26 July 2025
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Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

  • Jaish Al-Adl group, operating from borderlands between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, claimed the attack
  • The region has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, various militant outfits

TEHRAN: Gunmen killed five civilians during a “terrorist attack” on a judiciary building in southeast Iran on Saturday before being killed themselves, state media reported.

“Unknown gunmen attacked the judiciary center in Zahedan,” the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the judiciary’s Mizan Online said.

“Five people have been killed and 13 injured in this terrorist attack,” the report said while adding that the counts are “preliminary” and the toll may rise.

Separately, the official IRNA news agency reported that three of the attackers were killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to Alireza Daliri, deputy police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, the attackers attempted to enter the building disguised as visitors.

The assailants threw a grenade into the building, Daliri said, killing several people inside, including a one-year-old baby and the child’s mother.

Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for ‘Army of Justice’), a Baloch militant group operating from the borderlands between Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, mainly the Sistan-Balochistan triangle, but active inside Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the restive province shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The area has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers.

In one of the deadliest incidents in the region, ten police officers were killed in October in what authorities also described as a “terrorist” attack.