Gaza - The African Mirror

Oct

09

2024

‘We’re all next’: One year of covering Israel’s war in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Mohamed Soulaimane al-Astal “IN this war, my son, we’re all next. We are just built to keep on trying to skip our turn,” Naeema al-Ashour, 62, told me in August. I first met al-Ashour in June when I interviewed her for an article for The New Humanitarian about how Palestinians in the Gaza Strip feel about the global debate over whether there is a famine in the enclave as we live with the day-to-day reality of not having enough to eat. I saw her several times after that. The final time…

Oct

05

2024

By ERIC REIDY

One year of war in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Eric Reidy EVENTS in the Middle East are spinning toward a terrifying precipice with alarming speed. Following the relentless pace of expanding conflict, destruction, and death is both mind-bending and soul-crushing for anyone with some sort of connection to the region or who cares about the well-being of its people. Amid the torrent, the fact that Israel has been waging total war against the entirety of the Gaza Strip and its population for one year now is at risk of somehow – unimaginably – being overshadowed. Where is the time to…

Oct

04

2024

By NOUR ELASSY

Amid all the darkness: How kindness helped me survive one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Nour ElAssy As I watch the full moon rise above the dark skies of Gaza, all I can think of is the state of moral bankruptcy in the world that has allowed this genocide to go on for one year. Amid all of this, how do we – Palestinians still surviving in Gaza – preserve our humanity? How do we maintain our moral compass when everything around us is urging us to let it go? I keep looking at my people, and perhaps the greatest blessing throughout the entire calamity being…

Sep

25

2024

By The African Mirror

Lebanon escalation: Have we not learned anything from Gaza, UN humanitarians ask

WORLD

AS Lebanon mourns the victims of a wave of Israeli airstrikes believed to have left hundreds dead, UN humanitarians warned against a return to the “dark days of 2006” when full-scale war broke out, calling for an urgent de-escalation and the protection of civilians. Speaking from Beirut in the aftermath of Lebanon’s “worst day in 18 years”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF’s) deputy representative in the country, Ettie Higgins, insisted that “this violence has to stop immediately, or the consequences will be unconscionable”. The wide-ranging Israeli strikes conducted on Monday in retaliation to attacks by the armed group Hezbollah killed…

Sep

12

2024

By The African Mirror

Israeli strike kills at least 19 in Gaza ‘humanitarian zone’

WORLD

AT least 19 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in an Israeli airstrike on al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated so-called humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the enclave. Several missiles slammed into a crowded camp in al-Mawasi early on 10 September, leaving behind nine-metre-deep craters and causing tents to catch fire. Palestinian health officials said the number of victims is expected to rise because civil defence workers still haven’t been able to reach some victims buried under the rubble and sand. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas command centre in the camp.…

Aug

28

2024

By The African Mirror

Gaza: new evacuation orders further hamper relief operations – UN humanitarians

NEWS

IN Gaza, repeated mass evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military are radically shrinking the space in which aid workers can operate and depriving war-weary Palestinians of desperately needed relief items and health care, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA), told journalists in Geneva that since Friday, the Israeli military has issued three new evacuation orders for over 19 neighbourhoods in northern Gaza and in Deir Al-Balah, “with more than 8,000 people staying in these areas, many sheltering in displacement sites”. “That actually brings to 16 the number of mass…

Aug

27

2024

By JASMINE MITHANI and CANDICE NORWOOD

Harris walked a delicate line on Gaza. Was it enough to appeal to activists?

WORLD

HEADING into the final night of the Democratic National Convention, questions loomed over if — and how — Vice President Kamala Harris might address the Israel-Hamas war in her historic speech accepting the party’s nomination. The buildup to Gaza and Israel in her remarks was clear as she switched to discussing American foreign policy and military strength. Then, she addressed the war head-on. “The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” Harris said from the DNC stage. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and…

Aug

24

2024

By DANIEL JOHNSON

Gaza: Vital aid supplies running low as schools hit in further strikes

WORLD

THERE are enough chlorine reserves to last just one month, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, while double the amount of purifying solution needs to be used to be effective now. Children are particularly at risk of waterborne diseases, and the danger is set to rise during the winter months if Gazans continue to be forced to live in overcrowded shelters lacking adequate water and sanitation facilities, OCHA noted. Shortages of everything The UN agency added that acute shortages of soap for handwashing, laundry powder/liquid and shampoo and a lack of disinfectants, continue to allow diseases to spread easily. “Even…

Aug

23

2024

By RITA BAROUD

I have been forcibly displaced 12 times by Israel’s war in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Rita Baroud AS I write this, I’m sitting in a bare, grey room surrounded by the stifling August heat in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The sun’s harsh morning rays pierce through the windows. There are no curtains. Those, like so much else that should be mundane, have become a luxury. In fact, there are no furnishings in this room at all. Just the worn-out floor and my notebook beside me. This is the second time I have come to Deir al-Balah as a displaced person during Israel’s…

Aug

17

2024

By The African Mirror

“Horrific” attack by Israeli settlers on Jit village condemned

WORLD

ECHOING widespread condemnation internationally and within Israel of the attack reportedly by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit on Thursday which left a Palestinian man dead and about a dozen injured, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the incident as “horrific”. She noted that the killing “was not an isolated attack”, in reference to years of violence directed at Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers, maintaining that it was “the direct consequence” of Israel’s policy of occupation. Settler impunity “We have been reporting for the past years about settlers attacking Palestinian communities in their land in the West Bank with impunity and this really…