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Middle East and North Africa aid project set to kick off in Morocco

Middle East and North Africa aid project set to kick off in Morocco
In September of 2023, Morocco was stricken with a deadly earthquake that left thousands injured and homeless. (Supplied)
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Updated 15 July 2024
Dalal Awienat
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Middle East and North Africa aid project set to kick off in Morocco

Middle East and North Africa aid project set to kick off in Morocco
Updated 15 July 2024
Dalal Awienat
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DUBAI: UAE’s latest humanitarian project will kick off in Morocco to provide medical relief for over 25,000 people a year in earthquake stricken areas across the Middle East and North Africa. 
Asterians United, a mobile medical service unit, was recently launched by Aster Healthcare in collaboration with UAE Red Crescent. The first group of aid vehicles left UAE on Friday and is en route to Taroudant, Morocco.
Each team vehicle will have one doctor, a minimum of one nursing staff and a driver. The mobile medical vans will provide consultations, first-aid treatment and other essential medical services directly to communities in need.
The project will run for 10 years and is subject to renewal, according to a memorandum of understanding between Moroccan authorities and UAE Red Crescent officials.
Other aid missions will eventually be launched in the region, after the initial outreach activities in Morocco.
Morocco was hit by a deadly earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale, in September 2023 which left thousands injured and still battling the lack of stable shelter, clean water and essential sanitation facilities.

Topics: Middle East North Africa Morocco

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Blinken says Netanyahu confirmed truce support, presses Hamas

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Updated 5 sec ago
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Blinken says Netanyahu confirmed truce support, presses Hamas

Blinken says Netanyahu confirmed truce support, presses Hamas
  • Blinken says Netanyahu promised Israel would send team to talks scheduled to resume this week
  • Israel has relentlessly pounded Gaza, killing over 40,000 Palestinians since October last year
Updated 5 sec ago
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TEL AVIV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured him of support for a US proposal to bridge gaps on reaching a Gaza ceasefire, and pressed Hamas to agree.

Following three hours of talks with the prime minister in Jerusalem, Blinken said that Netanyahu promised Israel would send a team to talks scheduled to resume this week, mediated by Egypt and Qatar.

“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal. He supports it. It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken told reporters later in Tel Aviv.

“What I would say to Hamas and to its leadership is, if it genuinely cares about the Palestinian people that it purports to somehow represent, then it will say ‘yes’ to this agreement, and it will work on clear understandings about how to implement it,” Blinken said, a day after Hamas accused Netanyahu of obstructing the mediation efforts.

Hamas had called on mediators to implement a framework outlined in late May by US President Joe Biden. The movement said the bridging proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators.”

But Blinken said: “The single quickest, best, most effective way to relieve the terrible suffering of the Palestinians that was instigated by Hamas’s attack on October 7 and the war that ensued is to complete this agreement.”

Blinken said he would travel Tuesday to both Egypt and Qatar and meet with the leaders of the two Arab nations, which have worked with the United States on a ceasefire plan.

He said he hoped to hear from the Arab partners the latest on Hamas’s position and he played down the militants’ criticism of the bridging proposal.

“We’ve seen public statements before where they don’t fully reflect where Hamas is,” Blinken said.

Senior Hamas official criticizes Blinken’s Gaza proposal claim

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Updated 20 August 2024
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Senior Hamas official criticizes Blinken’s Gaza proposal claim

Senior Hamas official criticizes Blinken’s Gaza proposal claim
Updated 20 August 2024
Reuters

CAIRO: Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan criticized US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an updated proposal, saying it “raises many ambiguities” because it is “not what was presented to us nor what we agreed on.”
Hamdan told Reuters that Hamas has already confirmed to mediators that “we don’t need new Gaza ceasefire negotiations, we need to agree on an implementation mechanism.”

Topics: War on Gaza Osama Hamdan Antony Blinken

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Egypt extends term of central bank governor for a third year

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  • Abdalla’s appointment was renewed in 2023
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CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has extended the term of acting central bank governor Hasan Abdalla for a third year, the official gazette said on Monday.
Abdalla, who was head of Cairo-based Arab African International Bank for 16 years, was appointed for an initial year in August 2022 after the surprise resignation of long-serving Tarek Amer. Abdalla’s appointment was renewed in 2023.

 

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UN says Houthis have returned its rights office in Yemen

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  • UN rights chief Volker Turk, who announced the seizing of the office last week, called it “a serious attack on the ability of the UN to perform its mandate”
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UNITED NATIONS, United States: Yemen’s Houthi rebels have returned the United Nations Human Rights Office in Sanaa, which they had seized earlier this month, a UN spokesman said Monday.
On August 3, the Iran-backed group sent a delegation to the UN Human Rights Office’s premises and forced staff to hand over the keys.
“The office was handed back today to our resident coordinator in Yemen,” said Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman for the secretary-general.
According to the coordinator “the office appears to be in its original state, but an inventory is currently underway,” Dujarric said.
UN rights chief Volker Turk, who announced the seizing of the office last week, called it “a serious attack on the ability of the UN to perform its mandate.”
The UN on Monday called again for the release of 13 of its staff and dozens of NGO and embassy employees who have been held by the Houthis for more than two months.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the well-being” of the detainees, Dujarric said, adding that he called for their “immediate and unconditional release.”
“The UN and its partners should never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their mandates,” Dujarric added.
The Houthis claimed they arrested “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations — allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.
The Houthis are engaged in a long-running civil war that has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than half of the population is dependent on aid in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.
Fighting has significantly decreased since the negotiation of a six-month truce by the UN in April 2022, although the truce has officially ended.
 

 

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As polio reemerges in Gaza, a mother fears for her child’s health

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As polio reemerges in Gaza, a mother fears for her child’s health

As polio reemerges in Gaza, a mother fears for her child’s health
  • Polio was detected in sewage in Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates, Dr. Hamid Jafari, a polio specialist at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Aug. 7, adding it was possible the virus had been circulating since September
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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: In Gaza, a mother worries that her month-old son, Mohammed, could be infected with polio after the Palestinian health ministry confirmed the first case in the enclave on Friday, ending a 25 year period in which the Strip was polio-free.
Just three days after his birth, Ghada Al-Ghandour’s son Mohammed started developing skin rashes.
“He had skin rashes as if he was burnt,” she said.
A doctor told her there were no creams to treat her child.
She later brought him to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to seek a diagnosis and treatment.
The rash fueled his mother’s fears that other symptoms and diseases could follow due to a lack of hygiene and medical supplies in Gaza after more than 10 months of conflict.
In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed the first case of polio in the city of Deir Al-Balah had been detected in a 10-month-old baby who had not been vaccinated.
Likewise, Mohammed has not received a polio vaccine.
“My son was deprived of the first vaccine in his first month,” his mother said.
Polio was detected in sewage in Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates, Dr. Hamid Jafari, a polio specialist at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Aug. 7, adding it was possible the virus had been circulating since September.

’YET ANOTHER THREAT TO CHILDREN’
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
Children under 5 are most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under 2 since normal vaccination regimens have been disrupted by the war.
“If the occupation (Israeli forces) continues to close the (border) crossing and denies access to vaccines, it will lead to a health disaster,” said Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Israel announced on Sunday that it would facilitate the transfer into Gaza of polio vaccines for around one million children.
More than 43,000 vials of the vaccine were expected to arrive in Israel in the coming weeks and would be sent to Gaza, according to a statement from COGAT, the Israeli defense agency that coordinated civilian matters with the Palestinians. This would be enough for two rounds of doses for over a million children, it said.
But Al-Daqran of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said a vaccination campaign could not happen without a pause in fighting.
The reemergence of polio “represents yet another threat to the children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries,” the WHO said on Aug. 16.
Nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are under the age of 18 and around 15 percent are children under the age of 5, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Aside from the resurgence of polio and the threat of other diseases, Palestinians face a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water inflicting suffering every day.
The war in Gaza started after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The death toll of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military campaign has exceeded 40,000, according to Gaza authorities.

 

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza Polio US

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