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BRUSSELS: EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Saturday called for a probe into deadly shelling that damaged an office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza.
“The EU condemns the shelling which damaged the ICRC office in Gaza and led to dozens of casualties. An independent investigation is needed and those responsible must be held accountable,” Borrell wrote on X.
CAIRO: A senior United Nations official on Friday called for more international attention to “the forgotten crisis” in Sudan, where more than a year and a half of war pushed the African country to the brink of famine.
The appeal by Ted Chaiban, deputy head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF, came as the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces rampaged through villages and towns in east-central Gezira province, looting and vandalizing public and private properties, according to a doctors’ union and a youth group. Dozens of people were reported killed.
Chaiban said the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF, created “one of the most acute crises in living memory” with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes, making Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.
“We’ve never in a generation seen these types of numbers,” he told The Associated Press in an interview, referring to the displaced people, as well as the 8.5 million people who are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, and 775,000 others who are facing famine-like conditions.
“The whole country has been dislocated,” he said. “And yet, despite that, the country and the crisis is forgotten.”
The war came four years after a pro-democracy uprising forced the military’s ouster of the country’s longtime dictator Omar Al-Bashir that was followed by a short-lived transition to democracy. It has killed more than 24,000 people so far, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group monitoring the conflict since it started.
Chaiban spoke to the AP after he and Raouf Mazou, assistant high commissioner for operations at the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, visited eastern Sudan earlier this week. They met with local authorities and visited displaced people in a sprawling camp hosting over 4,000 people in the eastern province of Kassala.
They called for unimpeded access to people in need across the country, and advocated for more global attention to what Chaiban described as “one of the critical generational crises we’re facing.”
Global attention has been shifted to the Middle East since the militant group Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel in October last year, triggering a war that has killed about 42,000 people in Gaza. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza does not differentiate between militants and civilians but say more than half of the dead were women and children. Hamas’ attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Now, international efforts are focusing on the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon amid mounting concerns about a regional war between Israel and Iran.
“We have done everything to respond to the war in Gaza and the war in Lebanon. … Sudan also needs this level of attention,” he said.
The Sudanese military has been pursuing a major offensive since September to retake RSF-controlled areas in and around the capital, Khartoum. The military also earlier this month captured Jebel Moya, a strategic mountainous area in Gezira province, in a major setback for the RSF, which also lost other areas in Gezira and nearby Sinnar province.
Also in October, a top RSF commander, Abu Aqlah Keikel, the de facto ruler of Gezira province, defected and surrendered himself to the military.
Local media reported that Keikel’s surrender was a coordinated operation. The military said in a statement that Keikel had “decided to fight alongside our army, abandoning the lines of the rebels after discovering the falsehood of the claims of the terrorist Dagalo militia.”
The RSF, which is led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, downplayed Keikel’s defection. The commander had supported the military at the beginning of the war but switched sides in August last year, according to the Sudan War Monitor, a group tracking the conflict.
RSF fighters were furious and went on a rampage through multiple towns and villages east and north of Gezira, as well as the city of Tamboul, killing dozens of civilians and displacing thousands of others.
In one town, Sariha, RSF fighters killed at least 50 people and wounded 200 others, according to the Resistance Committees, a network of youth groups tracking the war. In the village of Saqiaah, at least 12 people were killed, it said.
The Doctors’ Union in Sudan on Thursday said the RSF attacks turned areas in eastern Gezira into “a brutal war zone.”
RSF fighters have committed “systemic sexual crimes, burned houses and properties, and attacked health care facilities along with systemic looting and forced displacement,” the union said in a statement on Thursday.
The war has been marked by atrocities such as mass rape and ethnicity motivated killings. The United Nations and international rights groups say these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the western region of Darfur, which has been facing a bitter onslaught by the RSF.
The conflict pushed the country to the brink of famine, which was already confirmed in July in the Zamzam camp for displaced people, which is located about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from North Darfur’s embattled capital of Al-Fasher, according to global experts from the Famine Review Committee. About 25.6 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — are expected to face acute hunger this year, they warned.
JENIN: Israeli raids have left wrecked roads, bullet-riddled buildings, and debris-strewn streets in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, preventing ambulances from reaching those in desperate need of care.
“It is not only difficult but also unsafe to reach the hospital during clashes,” said Wissam Baker, the director of Jenin’s hospital.
Patients needing dialysis, chemotherapy, or maternity care are particularly vulnerable, he said, as delays in treatment could be life-threatening.
Yet their lives are also at risk when trying to get treatment.
“During any incursion, those people have difficulty reaching the hospital,” Baker said.
Israeli forces have mounted several raids over the past year, which they call “counter-terrorism operations,” targeting Jenin’s refugee camp, known as a stronghold for militant groups.
Since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7 last year, the frequency and intensity of these raids have escalated. At least 711 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the UN.
Ambulances have come under army fire and are invariably searched, health workers and locals said, while roads leading to the hospital are frequently blocked.
Hazem Masarwa, a paramedic with decades of experience, pointed to bullet holes in his ambulance.
“Before Oct. 7, the obstacles were minor,” he said, referring to the day Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel, triggering war in Gaza.
But now, “with every raid they carry out, they close the entrances to hospitals ... it has become routine,” he said.
Masarwa has witnessed two patients die from a lack of access to health care in the past year.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported 804 violations of its medical missions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over that period.
It said at least 14 people “died because they were kept from receiving the emergency medical services that they needed.”
On the night of Sept.1-2, during a 10-day Israeli raid in Jenin, Umaima Awadin feared for her life as she went into labor.
She spent four hours navigating army orders as contractions grew closer together.
“It really was a situation where you feel between life and death,” she said, still in shock.
“I kept on asking myself, ‘Who will take care of my children?’“
When she finally reached a hospital and gave birth to a boy, both experienced complications.
In her neighborhood, roads are torn up, and buildings bear the scars of bullet holes.
Nearby, a few young men loiter by destroyed houses, rifles strapped to their chests.
When patients reach the hospital, their shoes are caked in mud and rubble dust, said an emergency nurse.
The smell of sewage from damaged pipes torn up by army bulldozers lingers.
“Can we live like this?” asked Najet, whose husband, a dialysis patient, has been receiving only partial treatments for months.
“Israel continues to attack the West Bank at the same time as Gaza, not only with weapons but also by keeping people from getting their treatment,” she said.
“My husband could die if he doesn’t get dialysis.”
Baker said his team has been transferring patients to other hospitals, particularly Nablus, about an hour away.
Non-governmental organizations have stepped in, offering people first aid training, though few expect the situation to improve.
Umm Akram, who fled during an August raid, left to protect her daughter, who suffers from high blood pressure. She feared she would go “10 days without medicine.”
Upon her return, the house had been ransacked and “turned upside down,” and her garden destroyed by an explosion.
To Umm Akram, it was a price to pay for her daughter’s health.
Beirut is a city that holds so much of my personal past. I lived and worked here many times between 2019 and 2021, and its streets and people became deeply connected with my memories; now those memories are clouded by the people’s suffering.
The war has upended lives, turning schools into temporary shelters for families forced to flee their homes.
Once lively classrooms now hold children and parents struggling against the cold and the weight of uncertainty.
The children sleep on the floor, wondering why they cannot return to their homes, while parents fear the next airstrike and its consequences.
Each day I visit these shelters, offering what help we can.
But the people I meet do not want just aid, they want to return to a life of peace.
They dream of a home where their children can be safe, away from the constant fear that shadows their days.
Despite our best efforts, true relief for them is not in temporary support, but in the hope of a peaceful tomorrow.
In September, I met a friend whose life had fallen apart; his wife and mother sleeping on the streets with nowhere left to go. It was a painful reminder of my own journey from Syria in 2014, when I crossed into Turkiye under cover of darkness searching desperately for safety. I spent months moving between shelters in Turkiye and Iraqi Kurdistan, never sure where I would find refuge next.
I became a doctor because I believed in treating and saving lives.
But after more than 10 years of responding to crises, I have seen lives beyond repair in ways I never imagined. With the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres I have been deployed to many conflicts and emergencies that most people hear about only in the news, including Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Lebanon. Each mission, each new crisis, has become a chapter in a long story of resilience amid unbearable pain.
But that resilience is wearing thin, not just for those I serve, but for me as well. I am tired — tired of witnessing suffering, and tired of the systems that perpetuate it.
Nevertheless, amid this heartbreak, I find reminders of why I cannot turn away. Even when the path is difficult, even when hope feels distant, I know that our humanitarian efforts can make a difference, offering a small light in the darkness.
My journey of displacement began in Aleppo in 2012.
It was once my home, a place where I studied medicine, loved, built relationships, and made plans for my future.
But the war ripped those plans apart, forcing me and millions of other to illegally cross borders in search of a place of safety.
Even now, after all these years, I struggle to put into words what it feels like to be uprooted from everything familiar, everything you’ve ever known.
Leaving Aleppo did not just take away my home: It took my life and my sense of peace.
The constant displacement, the uncertainty about the future — it chips away at you, slowly.
It’s not just the physical exhaustion; it’s the mental and emotional toll that settles deep into your bones. Every move is haunted by the question of when the next tragedy will strike.
The exhaustion I carry is also reflected in the faces of the people I meet. In camps in Iraq, temporary shelters in Lebanon, and overcrowded hospitals in South Darfur, I see people who are beyond tired — they are broken.
They have survived bombs, violence, outbreaks, natural disasters, and displacement, and the psychological scars have left them shadows of who they once were.
For more than a decade, I have been part of MSF’s team, going where there is the most need. From treating severe malaria in South Sudan, to providing care for survivors of sexual violence in Ethiopia and managing a malnutrition crisis in South Darfur, I’ve poured everything I have into this work. But every mission has reminded me of the fragility of life and the limitations of humanitarian aid.
We heal wounds and provide humanitarian relief, but the root causes of many crises remain unaddressed.
I’ve sat at negotiation tables with armed groups many times, trying to secure access for lifesaving aid, only to watch bureaucratic red tape or political agendas stall the help we are desperate to deliver. The constant struggle to provide healthcare in the face of political resistance is a kind of exhaustion that no amount of rest can ease.
I am tired of seeing children die from preventable diseases.
I am tired of watching families flee their homes, only to find themselves with no safe place to go.
I am tired of walking through cities reduced to rubble and wondering how many more generations will grow up in the shadow of destroyed schools instead of classrooms.
The psychosocial trauma is not just something I witness in others; it’s something I carry within myself. I remember the faces of patients and friends I could not save in Kobani in Syria, all the children whose lives were cut short by conflicts. These memories stay with me, a constant reminder of the limitations of what we can do. No matter how hard we try, we cannot fix the broken systems that allow this suffering to continue.
But in those darkest moments, there are also moments of humanity that keep me going. A mother’s grateful smile after I treated her ill child: an elderly woman who, despite losing everything, thanked me as I handed over her diabetes medicine. These small acts of resilience and gratitude are what keep me pushing forward, reminding me that there is still light amid the darkness.
Although I am tired, I am not defeated. Throughout my 10 years with MSF, I’ve witnessed the enduring impact that humanitarian work can have, even when it feels like only a drop in the ocean.
I’ve seen people rise, despite overwhelming odds, and I’ve seen how solidarity, even in little doses, can make a difference. My tiredness is not just personal, it’s collective. It’s the exhaustion of every humanitarian worker, nurse, midwife and doctor who has stood on the front lines, doing their best in a world that often feels indifferent. It’s the exhaustion of a world that has watched too much suffering, with too little change.
What I hope for, more than anything, is not just an end to my own fatigue, but an end to the need for humanitarian workers like me to work in war zones.
I dream of a world where families, including my family, are not torn apart by violence, where children can grow up in peace, where doctors like me can focus on curing people — not just surviving.
I dream of a world where I can finally be with my son, with the love of family and friends, in a place where peace is no longer just a hope.
Yes, I am tired. But as long as there is work to be done, as long as there are lives to be saved, I will continue. And I hold on to the hope that one day, the world will no longer be so exhausted.
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Friday that a strike that killed three journalists in south Lebanon was “under review,” maintaining that it had targeted Hezbollah militants.
“Earlier today, following intelligence information, the IDF (army) struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement to AFP.
“The strike was carried out while the terrorists were located inside the structure,” it added.
“Several hours after the strike, reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike. The incident is under review.”
Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said a cameraman and broadcast engineer were killed in the strike in Hasbaya, which according to the Pro-Iran network targeted a journalists’ residence.
Another TV outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said one of its video journalists was also killed.
After the strike, a car bearing a “press” marking was crushed under debris.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of intentionally targeting the journalists in what he called a “war crime” that “aims to terrorize the media to cover up crimes and destruction.”
Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon last month, after nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s attack, launching a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country and sending in ground troops on September 30.
GENEVA: The UN rights chief said the “darkest moment” of the conflict in Gaza was unfolding in the north of the territory, warning Friday that Israel’s actions could amount to “atrocity crimes.”
Volker Turk pointed out that already “more than 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded or missing in Gaza” since the war there erupted just over a year ago.
“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day,” he said.
“My gravest fear is, given the intensity, breadth, scale and blatant nature of the Israeli operation currently underway in North Gaza, that number will rise dramatically.”
Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that Israel’s policies in northern Gaza “risk emptying the area of all Palestinians.”
“We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
He called on the world’s leaders to act, stressing that all states are obligated under the Geneva Conventions to ensure respect for international humanitarian law.
His statement stressed the urgency of the situation, warning that “today the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip, where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation.”
“The bombing in North Gaza is non-stop,” he said.
At the same time, “the Israeli military has ordered hundreds of thousands to move, with no guarantees of return. But there is no safe way to leave,” he warned.
The UN rights chief cautioned that there was “extremely limited access to this part of Gaza, (and) next to no aid has reached the area in weeks, with unlawful restrictions remaining.”
“Many are now facing starvation.”
At the same time, he said, “the Israeli military is striking hospitals, and staff and patients have been killed and injured or forced to evacuate simultaneously.”
Turk’s statement pointed out that Palestinian armed groups also reportedly continue to operate among civilians, including in places of shelter, putting civilians in harm’s way “which is totally unacceptable.”
