Palestinian enclave - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

U.N. agency in Gaza says one in three children under 2 is acutely malnourished

ONE in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main U.N. agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday. "Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post. More than five months into Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' attack on October 7, much of the enclave is in ruins with most of its 2.3 million population displaced and facing a major humanitarian crisis. Hospitals in Gaza…

Feb

2024

By DAN WILLIAMS

After captivity, Israeli-Irish girl won’t say ‘Gaza’ or ‘blood’

WORLD

MORE than two months after she was freed from Gaza, Emily Hand no longer speaks in terrified whispers. But the Israeli-Irish girl who was among the youngest Hamas hostages still refuses to name her captors or the Palestinian enclave where she was held. At the temporary home she shares with her father Tom, a whiteboard lays out their lexicon for the ordeal: Foods she does not like stand in for memories the nine-year-old does not want. The Gaza Strip is "the box". Terrorists are "olives". An abducted person is "cheese", a murdered person is "cottage cheese". Blood is "watermelon". "Sometimes…

Jan

2024

By STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG, ANTHONY DEUTSCH and TOBY STERLING

At World Court, South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

NEWS

SOUTH Africa accused Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza and demanded that the U.N.'s top court order an emergency suspension of Israel's devastating military campaign in the Palestinian enclave. On the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa said Israel's offensive, which has demolished much of the coastal enclave and killed more than 23,000 people according to Gaza health authorities, aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza. "The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state," Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of…

Jan

2024

By LAILA BASSAM, NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and ARAFAT BARBAKH

Hamas leader’s killing raises fears of wider war, Israel keeps up bombardment of Gaza

WORLD

ISRAELI forces kept up their assault on the Gaza Strip and told civilians to leave a refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave after the war reached into Lebanon with the killing of the Hamas deputy leader in Beirut. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it killed Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. But military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in a high state of readiness and prepared for any scenario. The assassination was a further sign that the nearly three-month war between Israel and Hamas was spreading across…

Jan

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI, ARAFAT BARBAKH and MAAYAN LUBELL

Gaza death toll passes 22,000 with no let-up in fighting between Hamas and Israel troops

WORLD

ISRAELI forces attacked Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip with tank fire and air strikes, residents said, and Israeli ground troops and Hamas militants also battled in other parts of the shattered Palestinian enclave. Israel said its troops had killed dozens of militants in Gaza's north in the past day. Residents said Israeli tanks had shelled parts of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central area. The Gaza health ministry said 207 people had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recorded Palestinian death toll to more than 22,000 in nearly three months of warfare in…

Dec

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and ARAFAT BARBAKH

Displaced Gazans flee again as Israel launches more tank, air assaults

WORLD

TENS of thousands of newly displaced Gazans huddled under tarpaulins in the centre of the Palestinian enclave after fleeing an Israeli tank offensive, while warplanes attacking the south flattened homes and buried families as they slept. Israel is closing the year with new assaults in central and southern Gaza, unleashing a fresh exodus of people already driven from other areas, in what Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called an essential stage of its mission to destroy Hamas. Twelve weeks after Hamas militants stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, Israeli forces have laid much of the Gaza Strip…

Dec

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and EMILY ROSE

Fighting rages in northern Gaza after U.N. stops short of ceasefire call

WORLD

ISRAEL battled Hamas militants on Saturday in pursuit of its elusive interim goal of full control of northern Gaza after the U.N. Security Council appealed for more aid for the Palestinian enclave but stopped short of demanding a ceasefire. Thick smoke hung over the northern town of Jabalia - which is also home to Gaza's largest refugee camp - and residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town. Hamas' armed wing Al Qassam Brigades said it had destroyed five Israeli tanks in the area, killing and injuring their crews,…

Dec

2023

By BASSAM MASOUD and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, U.S. alarmed

WORLD

ISRAEL sharply stepped up strikes on the Gaza Strip, pounding the length of the Palestinian enclave and killing hundreds in a new, expanded phase of the war that Washington said veered from Israeli promises to do more to protect civilians. The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours - the most since a truce collapsed last week and about double the daily figures typically reported since then. With most Gazans now displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running…

Nov

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and EMILY ROSE

Medics fear for patients inside main Gaza hospital, cut off after Israelis arrive

WORLD

PALESTINIAN medics said that they are increasingly afraid for the lives of hundreds of patients and medical staff at Gaza's biggest hospital, cut off from all links to the outside world for more than a day after Israeli forces entered. Israel said its commandos were still searching through Al Shifa hospital on Thursday, more than a day after they entered its grounds as part of an offensive Israel says aims to wipe out Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave. "The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex," an Israeli official said, declining to be identified.…

Nov

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and MAAYAN LUBELL

Major Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas

WORLD

TWO major hospitals in northern Gaza closed to new patients, with staff saying that Israeli bombardment plus lack of fuel and medicine meant babies and others could die. Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said. Israel says it is homing in on Hamas militants in the area and the hospitals should be evacuated. Gaza's largest and second-largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds said they were suspending operations. With more people killed and wounded daily, there are ever fewer places for the injured to go. "My son was…