Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment

Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment
A wounded Palestinian girl, Hanan Akel, who suffered burn injuries in an Israeli strike, lies on a bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza Strip on Jun. 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 19 June 2024
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Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment

Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment
  • Hanan was out walking in Al-Bureij refugee camp where the family had taken shelter after leaving their home when she was caught in Israeli shellfire
  • Instead of spending the Eid Al-Adha festival playing with friends, she has spent it in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital being treated

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: The disfiguring facial burns of 10-year-old Hanan Akel show how Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is not only causing thousands of deaths but terrible injuries afflicting both old and young.
Hanan lay in a hospital cot in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, struggling to move her mouth as she spoke and with her eyes partly shut, patches of her forehead still raw and stitched scars across her nose and lips.
When her mother Walaa Akel tried to clean her, she wailed.
Israel has been at war in Gaza for more than eight months saying it wants to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group that attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and grabbing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
The ground and air assault on Gaza has killed more than 37,396 people and injured 85,523 according to Palestinian health authorities, while driving nearly all the tiny territory’s people from their homes with massive bombardments.
Hanan was out walking in Al-Bureij refugee camp where the family had taken shelter after leaving their home when she was caught in Israeli shellfire, her mother Walaa said.
Instead of spending the Eid Al-Adha festival playing with friends, she has spent it in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital being treated for second and third degree burns on her face and limbs.
“I used to go with my friends. Play, buy things, eat and celebrate Eid. We were happy. We used to play on the swings and we used to wear our Eid clothes. We used to wear nice new shoes,” she said.
Now she hopes for treatment and for her face to heal.
“I want to go back to what I was like before,” she said.
Since Israel expanded its offensive last month to include the southern city of Rafah, where the border post to Egypt is located, the frontier has been closed and Gaza residents have been unable to go abroad for medical help.
Doctor Mahmoud Mahani, the plastic surgeon treating Hanan at the hospital, said she needs urgent treatment somewhere with more advanced equipment.
Walaa Akel said her daughter used to be “as beautiful as the moon.” Now, Hanan often wants to look at videos and pictures of what her face was like before.
“She says to me ‘mama, I wish I could walk. Mama, I wish I could stand. I wish I could play with my siblings’,” said Walaa.


120 civilians killed in artillery shelling in Sudan

120 civilians killed in artillery shelling in Sudan
Updated 5 sec ago
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120 civilians killed in artillery shelling in Sudan

120 civilians killed in artillery shelling in Sudan
PORT SUDAN: At least 120 civilians were killed in artillery shelling of western Omdurman on Tuesday as fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces escalated again.
Rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat “a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries” in the capital Khartoum’s twin city just across the Nile River.
Sudan has been at war since April 2023 between the forces of rival generals. Most of Omdurman is under army control, while the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces hold Khartoum North and some other areas of the capital.
Greater Khartoum residents on both sides of the Nile regularly report shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel often hitting homes and civilians. Both the army and the paramilitaries have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks. Port Sudan, the seat of Sudan's army-aligned government, was without power after a drone attack by the paramilitaries hit a hydroelectric dam in the north.
The war has killed up to 150,000 people, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed many Sudanese to the brink of famine.

Israelis, Gazans anxiously awaiting truce deal

Israelis, Gazans anxiously awaiting truce deal
Updated 23 min 37 sec ago
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Israelis, Gazans anxiously awaiting truce deal

Israelis, Gazans anxiously awaiting truce deal
  • The attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures

JERUSALEM: Israelis and Gazans on Tuesday anxiously awaited a long-sought truce deal, with relatives of hostages calling for their release, and displaced Palestinians praying for a chance to return home.
Multiple officials from mediating countries involved in the negotiations have said a deal on a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange is closer than ever, with Qatar saying negotiations were in their “final stages.”
In Israel, since the early morning, the families of hostages and their supporters gathered outside the parliament and the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand that every effort be made to secure a deal after months of disappointment.
“Time is of the essence, and time does not favor the hostages,” said Gil Dickmann, cousin of former hostage Carmel Gat, whose body was recovered from a Gaza tunnel in September.
“Hostages who are alive will end up dead. Hostages who are dead might be lost,” Dickmann said at a rally in Jerusalem. “We have to act now.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Dickmann and several other relatives of hostages still being held in Gaza met with Netanyahu to press him to agree to a deal.
“If we stop the war, we will receive all the hostages immediately,” said Eli Shtivi, father of former hostage Ilan Shtivi.
“So, that is what needs to be done.”
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, of whom 94 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has since killed 46,645 people, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
The extensive military offensive has left much of Gaza in ruins, displacing most of its residents during the course of more than 15 months of war.
The longing to end the war is deeply felt in Gaza as well.
“I’m anxiously awaiting the truce. I will cry for days on end,” said Umm Ibrahim Abu Sultan, a resident of Gaza City now living in Khan Yunis after being displaced along with her five children. “We lost everything.”
She expressed disbelief at the possibility of reuniting with her husband, who remained in Gaza City.
“I’m waiting for the announcement of the agreement. I just want to go back to my home, my area, and my family. It feels like we’re coming back from the dead,” she said.
Displaced Gazan Hassan Al-Madhoun said he had been waiting for 15 months for a deal.
“I can’t even imagine how I’ll feel when we return to Jabalia and to our destroyed home,” he said.
“It will take time to process the extent of the loss. The martyrs are still buried under the rubble.”
Back in Israel, however, not everyone was in favor of a ceasefire.
“They (Hamas) need to raise their hands and say, ‘That’s it. We’re giving you the hostages back because you won,’ and that’s not what’s happening,” said Barbara Haskel at a rally protesting the proposed deal.


Palestinian health ministry says Israeli air strike kills 6 in West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says Israeli air strike kills 6 in West Bank
Updated 21 min 43 sec ago
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Palestinian health ministry says Israeli air strike kills 6 in West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says Israeli air strike kills 6 in West Bank
  • The Israeli military did not offer details
  • Israeli forces carry out frequent raids on Palestinian towns

JENIN, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that an Israeli air strike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed six people, with the Israeli military confirming it carried out an attack in the area.
“There are six martyrs and several injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of Jenin refugee camp,” the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli military did not offer details but said it had carried out “an attack in the Jenin area.”
Israeli forces make frequent raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Violence in the territory has soared since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 831 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the health ministry.
Palestinian attacks in the territory have killed at least 28 Israelis over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

 


Israeli foreign minister sees a majority in government to support Gaza agreement

Israeli foreign minister sees a majority in government to support Gaza agreement
Updated 14 January 2025
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Israeli foreign minister sees a majority in government to support Gaza agreement

Israeli foreign minister sees a majority in government to support Gaza agreement
  • Gideon Saar said a majority in the Israeli government will support a hostage deal

JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday he believed there would be a majority in the government to support a Gaza hostage deal if one is finally agreed, despite vocal opposition from hard-line nationalist parties in the coalition.
“I believe that if we achieve this hostage deal, we will have a majority in the government that will support the agreement,” he said in a press conference in Rome with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.


Kuwaiti emir visits UK for first time as monarch

Kuwaiti emir visits UK for first time as monarch
Updated 14 January 2025
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Kuwaiti emir visits UK for first time as monarch

Kuwaiti emir visits UK for first time as monarch
  • Sheikh Meshal visited UK 4 times as crown prince
  • British-Kuwaiti ties date back to 1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement

LONDON: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited the UK on Tuesday for the first time since becoming head of state in December 2023.

Sheikh Meshal accepted a personal invitation from King Charles III to visit the UK, marking another milestone in the 125-year relationship between the two countries, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

It is Sheikh Meshal’s first visit to the UK as a monarch; however, he traveled to the UK four times as crown prince.

In September 2022, he represented the late Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in offering condolences on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

He attended the coronation ceremony of King Charles III in May 2023, and in August, he met former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak during the 70th anniversary celebration of the Kuwait Investment Office in London.

The emir’s visit highlights the strong historical ties between Kuwait and the UK, which date back to the 1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement, as well as mutual respect, shared interests and cooperation on regional and global issues, KUNA added.