Gaza health ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms

Gaza health ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (REUTERS)
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Updated 29 February 2024
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Gaza health ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms

Gaza health ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms
  • Mediators say a truce deal between Israel and Hamas could be just days away
  • Children died “due to malnutrition, dehydration and widespread famine” at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital

Gaza Strip: The Hamas-run health ministry said Thursday more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war between the militant group and Israel began nearly five months ago.
While mediators say a truce deal between Israel and Hamas could be just days away, aid agencies have sounded the alarm of a looming famine in Gaza’s north.
Children have died “due to malnutrition, dehydration and widespread famine” at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, said the health ministry, whose spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra has called for “immediate action” from international organizations to prevent more of these deaths.
Citing the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, USAID head Samantha Power said Israel needed to open more crossings so that “vitally needed humanitarian assistance can be dramatically surged.”
“This is a matter of life and death,” Power said in a video posted on social media platform X.
The latest overall toll for Palestinians killed in the war came after at least 79 people died overnight across the war-torn Gaza Strip, the health ministry said Thursday.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been seeking a six-week pause in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which in response vowed to eliminate the Palestinian Islamist group that rules in Gaza.
Negotiators are hoping a truce can begin by the start of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month that kicks off March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.
The proposals reportedly include the release of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
Short of the complete withdrawal Hamas has called for, a source from the group said the deal might see Israeli forces leave “cities and populated areas,” allowing the return of some displaced Palestinians and humanitarian relief.
US President Joe Biden is “pushing all of us to try to get this agreement over the finish line,” said his secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
The crucial southern Gaza city of Rafah is the main entry point for aid crossing the border from neighboring Egypt.
But the World Food Programme said no humanitarian group had been able to deliver aid to the north for more than a month, accusing Israel of blocking access.
Neighbouring Jordan has coordinated efforts to air-drop supplies over southern Gaza.
“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” the World Food Programme’s deputy executive director Carl Skau said.
Israeli officials have denied blocking supplies, and the army on Wednesday said “50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid” had made it to northern Gaza in recent days.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has left hundreds of thousands displaced, with nearly 1.5 million people now packed in Rafah.
In a sign of growing desperation among Gazans over living conditions, a rare protest was held Wednesday by residents over the soaring prices of commodities.
“Everyone is suffering inside these tents,” said Amal Zaghbar, who was displaced and sheltering in a makeshift camp.
“We’re dying slowly.”
Israel has repeatedly threatened a ground offensive on Rafah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a truce would only delay it, as such an operation was needed for “total victory” over Hamas.
Egypt — which borders Rafah — says an assault on the overcrowded city would have “catastrophic repercussions.”
While Israel’s plans for post-war Gaza exclude any mention of the Palestinian Authority, its top ally the United States and other powers have called for a revitalized PA, which governs the occupied West Bank, to take charge of the territory.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki said a “technocratic” government without Gaza’s rulers Hamas was needed to “stop this insane war” and facilitate relief operations and reconstruction.
His government, based in the West Bank, resigned this week, with prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh citing the need for change after the war ends.
A government that includes Hamas — longtime rivals of president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, which controls the PA — would “be boycotted by a number of countries,” Al-Maliki told a news conference in Geneva.
On Thursday, Palestinian factions — including Hamas and Fatah — were expected to arrive in Moscow for a meeting at Russia’s invitation.
“The central goal is how to unite the Palestinian ranks,” Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative — a civilian political party — told Qatar state TV from Moscow.
In Israel, Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure to bring the hostages home.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant insisted the government was “making every effort.”
A group of 150 Israelis started a four-day march from Reim, near the Gaza border, to Jerusalem, calling for the government to reach a deal.
“No one should be left behind,” said Ronen Neutra, father of captive Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier who is also a US citizen.


Pakistan needs additional $191.8 billion for low-carbon transition by 2050 — ADB

Pakistan needs additional $191.8 billion for low-carbon transition by 2050 — ADB
Updated 3 min 23 sec ago
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Pakistan needs additional $191.8 billion for low-carbon transition by 2050 — ADB

Pakistan needs additional $191.8 billion for low-carbon transition by 2050 — ADB
  • Pakistan, one of 10 most vulnerable nations to climate change, faces challenges such as floods and extreme heat waves
  • Under its updated Nationally Determined Contributions, Pakistan has pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will need an additional $191.8 billion between 2020-2050 to transition to a low-carbon energy system and meet its international climate commitments, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released this month said.
The report outlines a detailed pathway to help the South Asian nation reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while maintaining sustainable economic growth. It distinguishes between low-carbon and business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios, with the former focusing on deploying renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and transitioning to cleaner fuels in sectors like power, transport and industry.
“The low-carbon scenario would require an additional investment of $191.8 billion (in 2022 prices) between 2020 and 2050 over the BAU scenario, so the investment commitment is substantial,” the report said.
“Achieving such an ambitious investment program will be challenging,” it added, emphasizing that a significant portion of the required financing would need to come from private sector investments and international financial assistance.
Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, aims to become an upper-middle-income economy by 2047, its centenary year of independence. However, it also remains one of the 10 most vulnerable nations to climate change, facing challenges ranging from devastating floods to extreme heatwaves. 
Under its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted in 2021, Pakistan has pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030, compared to 2015 levels. Of this, 15% is unconditional, while the remaining 35% is contingent upon receiving adequate international financial support.
The ADB report identifies the energy sector as central to Pakistan’s climate transition. 
Investments in hydropower ($153 billion), nuclear power ($103 billion), wind ($62 billion) and solar energy ($51 billion) are necessary to shift away from coal and other fossil fuels. An additional $22 billion is required for modernizing transmission and distribution networks to ensure grid stability.
“The energy sector will need to evolve on a different path,” the report said, highlighting that energy-related emissions could be reduced by 23% by 2030 and 36% by 2050 under the low-carbon scenario compared to the BAU approach.
The report also noted that Pakistan’s renewable energy potential is vast, particularly in solar and wind, given the country’s high sunlight levels and favorable wind conditions. However, achieving these targets would require policy reforms, technological advancements and substantial foreign investments.
The ADB publication emphasized that the low-carbon scenario would involve a shift to cleaner fuels, including natural gas, nuclear power and renewables, as well as the electrification of transport and residential sectors.
By 2050, renewables could account for 61% of electricity generation under this scenario, compared to 17% under the BAU approach.
“Electrification and energy efficiency improvements will play a critical role in reducing demand and emissions,” the report noted, pointing to opportunities such as transitioning from coal to gas in industry and using electricity instead of gas for cooking.
To meet these goals, the report called for strengthening the investment climate, aligning incentives for private sector engagement and enhancing regulatory frameworks.


Pakistan says ‘ready to assist’ as Bangladesh deaths from dengue cross 400

Pakistan says ‘ready to assist’ as Bangladesh deaths from dengue cross 400
Updated 10 min 50 sec ago
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Pakistan says ‘ready to assist’ as Bangladesh deaths from dengue cross 400

Pakistan says ‘ready to assist’ as Bangladesh deaths from dengue cross 400
  • Around 78,595 patients have been admitted to hospital nationwide in Bangladesh, official figures show
  • Dengue is endemic to Pakistan, which experiences year-round transmission with seasonal peaks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday extended assistance to Bangladesh as it battles its worst outbreak of dengue in years, with more than 400 deaths as rising temperatures and a longer monsoon season drive a surge in infections, leaving hospitals struggling to cope.
Around 78,595 patients have been admitted to hospitals nationwide in Bangladesh, the latest official figures show. By mid-November, 4,173 patients were being treated, with 1,835 of them in Dhaka, the capital, and 2,338 elsewhere.
Dengue is an illness that spreads through vectors, carried by the bite of an infected mosquito. There is currently no cure or vaccine for dengue fever, which in its most severe form can lead to fatalities. People affected by dengue go through intense flu-like symptoms including high fever, intense headache, muscle and joint pain, and nausea and vomiting, typically persisting for approximately a week.
“Deeply saddened by the loss of precious lives due to the dengue outbreak in Bangladesh,” Sharif said in a message on X. “Pakistan stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh at this difficult time and we stand ready to assist in whatever way we can.”
Dense populations in cities exacerbate the spread of the disease, usually more common in the monsoon season from June to September though it has spilled beyond that window this year.
A rise in temperatures and longer monsoons, both linked to climate change, have caused a spike in mosquito breeding, driving the rapid spread of the virus in Bangladesh.
Last year was the deadliest on record in the current crisis, with 1,705 deaths and more than 321,000 infections reported.
The growing frequency and severity of outbreaks strains Bangladesh’s already overwhelmed health care system, as hospitals battle to treat thousands of patients.
Bangladesh health officials have urged precautions against mosquito bites, such as mosquito repellents and bed nets, while experts want tougher measures to eliminate the stagnant waters where mosquitoes breed.
Dengue fever is endemic to Pakistan, which experiences year-round transmission with seasonal peaks.
With inputs from Reuters


Defiant Lebanese harvest olives in the shadow of war

Defiant Lebanese harvest olives in the shadow of war
Updated 53 min 17 sec ago
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Defiant Lebanese harvest olives in the shadow of war

Defiant Lebanese harvest olives in the shadow of war
  • A World Bank report this month said that “the disruption of the olive harvest caused by bombing and displacement is expected to lead to $58 million in losses” in Lebanon

KFEIR: On a mountain slope in south Lebanon, agricultural worker Assaad Al-Taqi is busy picking olives, undeterred by the roar of Israeli warplanes overhead.
This year, he is collecting the harvest against the backdrop of the raging Israel-Hezbollah war.
He works in the village of Kfeir, just a few kilometers (miles) from where Israeli bombardment has devastated much of south Lebanon since Israel escalated its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in September.
“But I’m not afraid of the shelling,” Taqi said, as he and other workers hit the tree branches with sticks, sending showers of olives tumbling down into jute bags.
“Our presence here is an act of defiance,” the 51-year-old said, but also noting that the olive “is the tree of peace.”
Kfeir is nine kilometers (six miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in the mixed Christian and Druze district of Hasbaya, which has largely been spared the violence that has wracked nearby Hezbollah strongholds.
But even Hasbaya’s relative tranquillity was shattered last month when three journalists were killed in an Israeli strike on a complex where they were sleeping.
Israel and Hezbollah had previously exchanged cross-border fire for almost a year over the Gaza conflict.
The workers in Kfeir rest in the shade of the olive trees, some 900 meters (3,000 feet) above sea level on the slopes of Mount Hermon, which overlooks an area where Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli-held territory meet.
They have been toiling in relative peace since dawn, interrupted only by sonic booms from Israeli jets breaking the sound barrier and the sight of smoke rising on the horizon from strikes on a south Lebanon border village.
Hassna Hammad, 48, who was among those picking olives, said the agricultural work was her livelihood.
“We aren’t afraid, we’re used to it,” she said of the war.
But “we are afraid for our brothers impacted by the conflict,” she added, referring to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the fighting.
Elsewhere in south Lebanon, olive trees are bulging with fruit that nobody will pick, after villagers fled Israeli bombardment and the subsequent ground operation that began on September 30.
A World Bank report this month said that “the disruption of the olive harvest caused by bombing and displacement is expected to lead to $58 million in losses” in Lebanon.
It said 12 percent of olive groves in the conflict-affected areas it assessed had been destroyed.
Normally, the olive-picking season is highly anticipated in Lebanon, and some people return each year to their native villages and fields just for the harvest.
“Not everyone has the courage to come” this time, said Salim Kassab, who owns a traditional press where villagers bring their olives to extract the oil.
“Many people are absent... They sent workers to replace them,” said Kassab, 50.
“There is fear of the war of course,” he said, adding that he had come alone this year, without his wife and children.
Kassab said that before the conflict, he used to travel to the southern cities of Nabatiyeh and Sidon if he needed to fix his machines, but such trips are near impossible now because of the danger.
The World Bank report estimated that 12 months of agriculture sector losses have cost Lebanon $1.1 billion, in a country already going through a gruelling five-year economic crisis before the fighting erupted.
Areas near the southern border have sustained “the most significant damage and losses,” the report said.
It cited “the burning and abandonment of large areas of agricultural land” in both south and east Lebanon, “along with lost harvests due to the displacement of farmers.”
Elsewhere in Kfeir, Inaam Abu Rizk, 77, and her husband were busy washing olives they plan to either press for oil or jar to be served throughout the winter.
Abu Rizk has taken part in the olive harvest for decades, part of a tradition handed down the generations, and said that despite the war, this year was no different.
“Of course we’re afraid... there is the sound of planes and bombing,” she said.
But “we love the olive month — we are farmers and the land is our work.”


Iraqis face tough homecoming a decade after Daesh rampage

Iraqis face tough homecoming a decade after Daesh rampage
Updated 19 November 2024
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Iraqis face tough homecoming a decade after Daesh rampage

Iraqis face tough homecoming a decade after Daesh rampage
  • Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of the displacement camps, with the country having attained a degree of comparative stability in recent years

HASSAN SHAMI: A decade after Daesh group extremists rampaged through northern Iraq, Moaz Fadhil and his eight children finally returned to their village after languishing for years in a displacement camp.
Their home, Hassan Shami, is just a stone’s throw from the tent city where they had been living, and it still bears the scars of the fight against Daesh.
The jihadists seized a third of Iraq, ruling their self-declared “caliphate” with an iron fist, before an international coalition wrestled control from them in 2017.
Seven years on, many of the village’s homes are still in ruins and lacking essential services, but Fadhil said he felt an “indescribable joy” upon moving back in August.
Iraq — marred by decades of war and turmoil even before the rise of Daesh — is home to more than a million internally displaced people.
Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of the displacement camps, with the country having attained a degree of comparative stability in recent years.
Most of the camps in federal Iraq have now been closed, but around 20 remain in the northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which according to the United Nations house more than 115,000 displaced people.
But for many, actually returning home can be a difficult task.
After getting the green light from Kurdish security forces to leave the camp, Fadhil moved his family into a friend’s damaged house because his own is a complete ruin.

“Water arrives by tanker trucks and there is no electricity,” said the 53-year-old.
Although the rubble has been cleared from the structure he now lives in, the cinder block walls and rough concrete floors remain bare.
Across Hassan Shami, half-collapsed houses sit next to concrete buildings under construction by those residents who can afford to rebuild.
Some have installed solar panels to power their new lives.
A small new mosque stands, starkly white, beside an asphalt road.
“I was born here, and before me my father and mother,” said Fadhil, an unemployed farmer.
“I have beautiful memories with my children, my parents.”
The family survives mainly on the modest income brought in by his eldest son, who works as a day laborer on building sites.
“Every four or five days he works a day” for about $8, said Fadhil.
In an effort to close the camps and facilitate returns, Iraqi authorities are offering families around $3,000 to go back to their places of origin.
To do so, displaced people must also get security clearance — to ensure they are not wanted for jihadist crimes — and have their identity papers or property rights in order.
But of the 11,000 displaced people still living in six displacement camps near Hassan Shami, 600 are former prisoners, according to the UN.
They were released after serving up to five years for crimes related to membership of IS.

For them, going home can mean further complications.
There’s the risk of ostracism by neighbors or tribes for their perceived affiliation with Daesh atrocities, potential arrest at a checkpoint by federal forces or even a second trial.
Among them is 32-year-old Rashid, who asked that we use a pseudonym because of his previous imprisonment in Kurdistan for belonging to the jihadist group.
He said he hopes the camp next to Hassan Shami does not close.
“I have a certificate of release (from prison), everything is in order... But I can’t go back there,” he said of federal Iraq.
“If I go back it’s 20 years” in jail, he added, worried that he would be tried again in an Iraqi court.
Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq’s migration ministry, said that those who committed crimes may indeed face trial after they leave the camps.
“No one can prevent justice from doing its job,” he said, claiming that their families would not face repercussions.
The government is working to ensure that families who return have access to basic services, Abbas added.
In recent months, Baghdad has repeatedly tried to set deadlines for Kurdistan to close the camps, even suing leaders of the autonomous region before finally opting for cooperation over coercion.
Imrul Islam of the Norwegian Refugee Council said displacement camps by definition are supposed to be temporary, but warned against their hasty closure.
When people return, “you need schools. You need hospitals. You need roads. And you need working markets that provide opportunities for livelihoods,” he said.
Without these, he said, many families who try to resettle in their home towns would end up returning to the camps.


Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine

Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine
Updated 19 November 2024
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Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine

Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine
  • In a statement, the G20 called for “comprehensive” ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon
  • On Sunday, Biden, who is attempting to ringfence support for Ukraine before Trump’s return to power, gave Kyiv the green light to use long-range US missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory

RIO DE JANEIRO: G20 leaders failed on Monday to break a deadlock in UN climate talks at a summit in Rio that was dominated by divergences over the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.
Ahead of the meeting, the UN had implored the leaders of the world’s richest economies to rescue stalled climate talks in Azerbaijan by boosting funding for developing countries struggling with global warming.
G20 members, who are divided on who should pay, did not make such commitments, saying only that the trillions of dollars needed would come “from all sources.”
“The leaders are kicking the can back to Baku,” said Mick Sheldrick, co-founder of the advocacy group Global Citizen, referring to the capital of Azerbaijan where the UN climate talks are taking place.
“This is probably going to make it harder to achieve an agreement,” he told AFP.
The risk of an escalation in the war in Ukraine and the prospect of a return of US President-elect Trump’s isolationist “America First” policies also dominated the talks in Brazil.
US President Joe Biden is attending the summit, but as a lame duck eclipsed by China’s Xi Jinping, who has cast himself as a protector of the international order in the new Trump era.
Xi, who held back-to-back meetings with other leaders, warned the world faced a new period of “turbulence” and said there should be “no escalation of wars, and no fanning of flames.”
In a statement, the G20 called for “comprehensive” ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon.
The summit was riven with divisions over Ukraine, however.
On Sunday, Biden, who is attempting to ringfence support for Ukraine before Trump’s return to power, gave Kyiv the green light to use long-range US missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.
Biden’s move — a major policy shift by the US — threatens to escalate a war Trump has vowed to quickly end.
Russia on Monday warned of an “appropriate response” if its territory was hit.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would not follow Biden’s lead with his country’s Taurus missiles, but French President Emmanuel Macron praised a “good” move by Biden.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attempted to put issues close to his heart, such as fighting hunger and climate change, at the top of the agenda.
At the opening of the summit, he launched the centerpiece of his G20 presidency: a Global Alliance against Poverty and Hunger backed by 82 countries that aims to feed half a billion people by 2030.
He won further praise from campaigners by garnering support for a bid to make billionaires pay more tax.
The summit statement included a pledge to “engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed,” and to devise mechanisms to prevent them dodging tax authorities.
“Brazil has lit a path toward a more just and resilient world, challenging others to meet them at this critical juncture,” anti-poverty group Oxfam said in a statement.
But Lula’s progressive social agenda met some resistance from Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei, an ardent fan of Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Milei said he opposed points in the summit declaration, including increasing state intervention to combat hunger and regulating social media but saved Brazil’s blushes by nonetheless signing up to the joint statement.
The meeting comes in a year marked by another grim litany of extreme weather events, including Brazil’s worst wildfire season in over a decade, and the opening of a new front in Israel’s wars with its Arab neighbors.
“Today the world is on a knife edge,” EU Council President Charles Michel warned.
The get-together caps a diplomatic farewell tour by Biden that took him to Lima for a meeting of Asia-Pacific trading partners, and then to the Amazon in the first such visit for a sitting US president.
Conspicuously absent from the summit was Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose arrest is sought by the International Criminal Court over the Ukraine war.