Morocco floods death toll rises to 18, authorities say

A car drives through a flooded street after flooding in Morocco's region of Zagora on September 7, 2024. (AFP)
A car drives through a flooded street after flooding in Morocco's region of Zagora on September 7, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 09 September 2024
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Morocco floods death toll rises to 18, authorities say

A car drives through a flooded street after flooding in Morocco's region of Zagora on September 7, 2024. (AFP)
  • The floods destroyed 56 homes and damaged 110 roads, as well as damaging electricity, water supply and phone networks

RABAT: Floods from torrential rains killed at least 18 people in the southern Morocco provinces of Tata, Tiznit, Errachidia, Tinghir and Taroudant, authorities said in a latest death toll on Monday.
At least four others were missing after floods swamped many villages in the area on Saturday, authorities added.
The dead include three foreign nationals from Spain, Canada and Peru, it said.
The floods destroyed 56 homes and damaged 110 roads, as well as damaging electricity, water supply and phone networks. 

Earlier, interior ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi said “the volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year.”
Usually arid areas in southern Morocco and Algeria have been drenched in floods caused by massive rainfall since Friday, officials told AFP Sunday.
Areas in southern Morocco have been affected “by an extremely unstable tropical air mass,” the spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, Lhoussaine Youabd, told AFP.
This “led to the formation of unstable and violent clouds” that caused massive rainfall, he said, describing the phenomenon as “exceptional.”
As a result, the Ouarzazate region received 47 millimeters of water in three hours, and Tagounite, near the Algerian border, some 170 millimeters, according to the Moroccan weather service.
“We haven’t seen such rain for about 10 years,” Omar Gana, an Ouarzazate local, told AFP.
The heavy rains hit regions of Morocco that have been suffering from drought for at least six years.
Morocco has been experiencing severe water stress after six consecutive years of drought, shrinking dam levels to less than 28 percent of capacity by the end of August.
 

 


More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says

More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says
Updated 3 sec ago
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More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says

More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says
  • The move comes after conflict in the Middle East has intensified following Iran’s missile strike on Israel
BEIJING: More than 200 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon, China’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“These people, who have been evacuated in two batches, include three Hong Kong residents and one Taiwan compatriot,” the ministry said in a statement in response to a Reuters query on the situation.
“The Chinese Embassy in Lebanon remains firm in Lebanon and continues to assist Chinese citizens remaining there in taking security measures,” it added.
The move comes after conflict in the Middle East has intensified following Iran’s missile strike on Israel on Tuesday and Israel’s incursion into Lebanon.
On Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said more than 200 Chinese citizens had been safely evacuated from Lebanon by the government.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said three Taiwanese in Lebanon were expected to return to the island this month and that two others had opted to stay for family reasons.
The ministry added that another Taiwanese decided late last month to take a boat out of the country arranged by China, and that the de facto Taiwan embassy in Jordan was aware of that process. It did not elaborate.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and considers the island’s people to be Chinese citizens, a position the government in Taipei strongly objects to.

Hospital in southern Lebanon says it was shelled after being warned to evacuate

Hospital in southern Lebanon says it was shelled after being warned to evacuate
Updated 05 October 2024
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Hospital in southern Lebanon says it was shelled after being warned to evacuate

Hospital in southern Lebanon says it was shelled after being warned to evacuate

BEIRUT — A hospital in southern Lebanon said in a statement that it had been shelled by Israeli forces Friday after being warned to evacuate.
The statement from Salah Ghandour Hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil said the shelling “resulted in nine members of the medical and nursing staff being injured, most of them seriously,” while most of the medical staff were evacuated.
A day earlier, the World Health Organization says 28 health workers in Lebanon had been killed in the past 24 hours.
Earlier on Friday, the Israel military in a statement alleged that rescue vehicles were being used by Hezbollah to transport militants and weapons.


American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Department says

Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
Updated 48 min 40 sec ago
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American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Department says

Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
  • State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen

WASHINGTON: An American killed in Lebanon this week was a US citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the US congresswoman representing his district.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a US citizen,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”
Israel says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, who have been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began a year ago.
Its recent military campaign in Lebanon has killed hundreds and wounded thousands, according to the Lebanese government, which has not said how many of the casualties were civilians versus Hezbollah members. The Israeli bombardment has also driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes.
The governor of Michigan has urged the US government to do more to rescue Americans stuck in Lebanon, many of them from Michigan, during Israel’s military offensive in the country.

 


Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote

Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
Updated 05 October 2024
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Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote

Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
  • The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years

TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisians marched in the capital on Friday, escalating protests against President Kais Saied, two days before what they say is an unfair presidential vote in which Saied has removed most other candidates to remain in power.
Protesters, who held up banners reading “Farce elections” and “Freedoms, not a lifelong presidency,” marched to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Tunis and a focus point in 2011 protests that toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Political tensions in the North African country have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three other prominent candidates, and an independent court has been stripped of authority to adjudicate on election disputes by the parliament.
The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years.
He has been in jail since he was arrested a month ago on charges of forging electoral documents.
Saied now faces just two rival candidates, Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, who was a former Saied ally and then turned critic.
Protesters chanted slogans against Saied: “The people want the fall of the regime” and Dictator Saied ... your turn has come.”
“Tunisians are not accustomed to such an election. In 2011, 2014 and 2019 they expressed their opinions freely, but this election does not allow them the right to choose their destiny,” said Zied Ghanney, an opposition figure.

 


Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary

Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
Updated 05 October 2024
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Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary

Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
  • “The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government
  • A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation

CAIRO: The Islamist group Hamas rejected what it called “a false narrative and fabricated story” about a Yazidi woman Israel said was freed in Gaza in a secret operation involving Israel, the United States and Iraq.
The woman, whom Israeli officials have said was taken captive when she was 11 years old and sold to a Hamas member, had never been abducted or sold, and was able to leave Gaza with the knowledge of the Hamas authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Friday.
It said the 25-year old woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, was married to a Palestinian who fought alongside the Syrian opposition forces before he was killed. She later moved to live with his mother in Turkiye before traveling to Egypt, where she continued to live with her mother-in-law and later crossed into Gaza legally.
Years after she moved to live in Gaza, she married her husband’s brother before he was killed during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, Hamas said.
“She requested to contact her family because she felt increasingly unsafe in Gaza amid the intense bombing and brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation. She asked for evacuation, especially after her husband was martyred,” the Gaza government media office said.
“The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government. The occupation did not ‘rescue’ her, as falsely claimed in its statement aimed at misleading public opinion,” it added.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment on Thursday, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US Embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
“In a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” it said.
A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation.
She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told Reuters on Thursday.
Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.
“The narrative the occupation attempted to promote is entirely false. The woman traveled to Gaza through multiple airports and official border crossings,” the Hamas statement said.
“How could she pass through all these checkpoints without security noticing, only for the occupation to later claim she was kidnapped?” it added.