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Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Omar Fateh's Minneapolis mayoral run sparks anti-Black, Islamophobic backlash
Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh has faced a wave of racist and Islamophobic attacks after prominent right-wing social media accounts questioned the 35-year-old's citizenship and falsely claimed he was not American. Fateh, a Minnesota state senator since 2020, launched his mayoral run on 2 December 2024 but began facing a deluge of racist abuse earlier this week when conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of the non-profit organisation Turning Point USA, wrote on X that: "Muslims [are] commanded to take over the government in the land they live." "The attempted Islamic takeover of America is made possible thanks to mass migration," Kirk said in the same post. Turning Point USA says it "empowers citizens of all ages to Rise Up against the radical Left in defense of freedom, free markets, and limited government". Kirk, an activist who repeatedly attacks the religion of Islam and previously called George Floyd, the Black man killed by a white police officer in 2020 a "scumbag", continued to launch attacks on Fateh and called for an end to "third world immigration" to the US. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Following Kirk's initial post, several conservative social media users then began attacking Fateh's mayoral bid, with some asking, "how can we send them [Somalis] BACK?" "We need to be writing an extensive paper showing just how it came to be that there are thousands and thousands of Somalis in Minnesota," one post on X with nearly nine thousand likes reads. "Who are these people? How did they get there? Who funded it? And most importantly - how can we send them BACK." Fateh took to his personal X account to respond to the sudden spike in hate and the city of Minneapolis being criticised for being "too diverse". "Minneapolis is a beautifully diverse city that stands firm in our progressive values," Fateh wrote. "The hate I've seen today - and most days - is not who we will ever be." Minneapolis is a beautifully diverse city that stands firm in our progressive values. The hate I've seen today – and most days – is not who we will ever be. I'm running for Mayor to work with you to achieve the affordable city we know Minneapolis can be. — Omar Fateh (@OmarFatehMN) July 15, 2025 Racist social media users also began sharing fake images and memes saying that Fateh was a Somali pirate in the Hollywood blockbuster film Captain Phillips. Others then began targeting Fateh over his connection to his brother-in-law, Muse Mohamud Mohamed, who was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury for abusing the process of submitting absentee ballots for other voters during Minnesota's primary election in August 2020. Meanwhile, several users attacked Fateh for simply being a Black Somali man. In contrast to the widespread hate, many social media users came to the defence of the Minnesota senator and celebrated his campaign as mayor. Responding to Kirk's initial post on X, which has garnered over 4.1 million views and 61,000 likes, Palestinian-American academic Omar Baddar lashed out at the conservative figure's "anti-Muslim bigotry". "How do you go from rightly insisting that antisemitism should have no place in America to propagating the most disgusting anti-Muslim bigotry imaginable as a core tenet of your worldview?" Baddar wrote. How do you go from rightly insisting that antisemitism should have no place in America to propagating the most disgusting anti-Muslim bigotry imaginable as a core tenet of your worldview? — Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) July 14, 2025 One social media user on X wrote: "The reason why MAGA Republicans are outraged over Omar Fateh running for Mayor, is because his skin color offends them and they're Islamophobic." Most of the posts, however, focused on disputing claims about Fateh's birthplace rather than confronting the Islamophobic or anti-Black attacks. Omar Fateh was born in the United States. — Micah Erfan (@micah_erfan) July 14, 2025 "Senator Omar Fateh is a proud American who is running because, like me, he loves Minneapolis," one social media user posted on X. "I'm proud that Minneapolis is a place where he can run for mayor against me on his own merits - and that this kind of bigotry is widely rejected across our great city."
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Jordan targeting Gaza solidarity in largest arrest campaign in decades
Over the past two months, Jordan's intelligence agency has detained and interrogated hundreds of people who have shown solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in what is the largest arrest campaign to have taken place in the kingdom in decades. According to information obtained by Middle East Eye from multiple sources in Jordan, a widespread campaign led by the General Intelligence Department (GID) is targeting activists and anyone who has sent financial donations or other kinds of support to the victims of Israel's war on Gaza. One detainee, who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, said: 'The investigation was done purely for the sake of Israel. Jordan had nothing to do with it.' A Jordanian political source, who also requested anonymity for security reasons, said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were two other forces driving the arrest campaign, with Jordan hoping to get financial aid from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in return. Those targeted are being arrested and interrogated without legal charges being brought against them. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters According to multiple detainees, most of arrested are interrogated and then released without anyone knowing what has happened to them. Intelligence officers have, the sources said, threatened those they arrest and told them not to say anything about what has happened to them. They are told that if they do reveal anything, they will be re-arrested. According to those arrested who spoke to MEE, the intelligence officers also told them not to say that their disappearance was due to their arrest. Aside from the hundreds of people who have been arrested, others are told to voluntarily report for interrogation in daylight hours. At the end of the day, they are told to report back again the next day, with the process often continuing for several days. According to multiple sources, most, if not all, of the detainees were interrogated about their solidarity with Gaza. The investigations focused on sending donations, financial support or in-kind aid to the war's victims in the Palestinian enclave. Largest crackdown in decades An arrest campaign of this size has not occurred in Jordan since the 'democratic transition' of 1989, when King Hussein ended the state of emergency, which the government had used as a pretext for committing human rights violations, including extrajudicial arrests. Alongside this new wave of arrests, there is a growing sense of anger among the Jordanian public. Hundreds of detainees are being held in intelligence prisons without access to the outside world, lawyers or trial. Behind each detainee is a family, and sometimes a large tribe, upset about the disappearance of their loved one and the lack of information about them. Why did Jordan ban the Muslim Brotherhood? Read More » Last week, tribesmen from the city of Tafilah gathered and organised a sit-in near the intelligence headquarters in Amman to demand the release of 72-year-old Ahmed al-Zarqan, a former mayor of the southern Jordanian city. The event was unprecedented. Al-Zarqan is the deputy general supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was recently banned in the Hashemite kingdom. Security forces arrested him in late April. To date, Zarqan has not been charged, referred to court, or allowed to contact a lawyer. His family has not been allowed to visit him. Khaled al-Juhani, head of the Islamic Action Front bloc in the Jordanian parliament and another prominent political activist, was also arrested in April. In September, the Islamic Action Front received 32 percent of the votes in Jordan's parliamentary elections, winning 31 seats. Hamza Bani Issa, a political activist, was arrested months ago for participating in peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza. His eyesight was impacted after he was severely beaten on the head. His story only came to light after his mother, Arwa al-Tal, broke her silence, recording a video statement in which she said that what had happened to her son set a 'dangerous precedent'. She said her son had lost his sight following the assault by security forces and that he was subsequently accused of assaulting them. The 'armed group' making weapons for Palestine In May, as part of the same campaign of arrests, Hamza Khader, the head of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Jordan, was arrested. He was detained for several weeks and then released after intelligence officers asked him to remain silent and not reveal what happened to him during his detention. In a further sign of the widespread targeting of opposition groups and political Islam in Jordan – which the Jordanian political source said was instigated by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel - Jamil Abu Bakr, the 74-year-old deputy secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front was also detained for 48 hours and subjected to prolonged interrogation before being released. Jordan targets organisations over alleged links to Muslim Brotherhood Read More » The campaign of arrests followed the announcement in mid-April by the GID of the arrest of an 'armed group' consisting of 16 individuals who were allegedly intending to provide support and assistance to Palestinian resistance groups in the occupied West Bank. According to the intelligence report, three of these 16 individuals had established an underground missile factory in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, while three others intended to manufacture military drones. This story quickly became a popular topic of conversation among Jordanians, although many remained unconvinced. The government was subsequently forced to issue a ban on publication or discussion of the case, whether in the media or on social media. Several social media accounts made fun of the idea that three young men had established a missile factory in Jordan. One wrote: 'This number is not enough to establish a popular cafe on the highway between Amman and Zarqa.' Others ridiculed the claim that three young men, including a university student in his twenties, were manufacturing drones for military purposes.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be ‘destroyed'
The British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was warned in May that if arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be 'destroyed". The warning was delivered to Karim Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court who told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu's legal advisor and, according to a note of the meeting lodged on file at the ICC and seen by Middle East Eye, was 'authorised' to make him a proposal that would allow Khan to 'climb down the tree'. He told Khan to apply to the court to reclassify the warrants and underlying information as 'confidential'. This, it was suggested, would allow Israel to access the details of the allegations, which it could not do at the time, and challenge them in private – without the outcome being made public. But Kaufman warned that if it emerged the chief prosecutor was applying for more arrest warrants, for far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over their promotion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, then 'all options would be off the table". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Kaufman told Khan: 'They will destroy you and they will destroy the court.' Khan and his wife, who also attended the meeting, both understood this to be a threat, according to the note of the meeting seen by MEE. Kaufman told MEE: 'I do not deny that I told Mr Khan that he should be looking for a way to extricate himself from his errors. I am not authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government nor did I.' Kaufman said he had told Khan he feared that bringing more arrest warrants would encourage further US sanctions that would risk destroying the court, and that adopting a policy like 'Samson' and bringing the whole court down on him and its employees would not serve the purpose for which the court was conceived. Netanyahu's office did not respond to requests for comment. At the time of the meeting, Khan was facing investigation over sexual misconduct claims. Two weeks later Khan stepped down on indefinite leave following the publication by the Wall Street Journal of new and more serious sexual assault allegations. This followed a failed attempt to have him suspended, with a United Nations probe into the allegations ongoing – and just as he was reportedly preparing to seek arrest warrants for more members of the Israeli government. Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him. Middle East Eye can exclusively reveal details of the prosecutor's meeting with Kaufman on 1 May this year at a hotel in The Hague, the Dutch capital which hosts the ICC. Kaufman is an ICC defence lawyer whose current work includes representing Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines currently in ICC custody and facing trial on a charge of crimes against humanity over the deaths of thousands of people during Duterte's so-called 'war on drugs'. The meeting came as Khan faced mounting pressure over his investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, which had led to the court issuing warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024. 'Snakes in the grass' According to the note seen by MEE, Kaufman texted Khan at 10.48pm on 26 April, to offer to meet up with him to share 'an insight into the Israeli mentality regarding the current state of litigation'. Kaufman told Khan he had been contacted by a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. He said he had refused to cooperate but he did talk to the reporter extensively about Palestine because the reporter had heard that Kaufman had been 'informally/indirectly advising Gallant'. Kaufman said that he was not interested in discussing the 'scandalous allegations people raise' and said it was sad that he had 'to deal with the snakes in the grass in your own office'. 'I felt myself at liberty to tell him my personal views on the Palestine situation and the case against the Israeli officials which I felt had brought the court into serious disrepute' - Nicholas Kaufman He asked to meet the following week and Khan agreed. Kaufman told MEE he is not advising Gallant. He said he had spoken to the Wall Street Journal journalist but had told him that he knew nothing about allegations that Khan had sexually harassed a woman in his office. He said he had told Khan he was not interested in discussing the allegations. He said by 'snakes in the grass', he was referring to people at the court who were joking about the allegations and whose conduct he considered to be scandalous. He told MEE he had offered Khan a meeting "because as an Israeli ICC lawyer, who had experienced the shock of 7.10.23, I was well placed to understand the matter', and because he knew that Khan was 'under fire' over the Palestine investigation. He said: 'As friends, we had known each other for years, so I felt myself at liberty to tell him my personal views on the Palestine situation and the case against the Israeli officials which I felt had brought the court into serious disrepute.' On the evening of Tuesday 29 April, Kaufman told Khan he had spoken that afternoon to Roy Schondorf, Netanyahu's legal advisor. According to the note, Khan agreed to meet him for a coffee while he was out with his family. They met, joined by Khan's wife, Shyamala Alagendra, at 6.30pm on Thursday at the Hotel Des Indes. The Hotel Des Indes in The Hague on 13 October 2017 (Wikimedia Commons) According to the note, Kaufman told Khan he considered him a friend and said he had his differences with Netanyahu. However, he continued, that in his view Khan should have 'gone for lower level suspects' because, he said, by indicting Netanyahu and Gallant he had 'basically indicted Israel'. Kaufman also mentioned he was in contact with Netanyahu's adviser, Schondorf, and knew Khan had also met him. Khan told Kaufman that he would neither confirm nor deny 'any meetings I may have'. 'Well I know you have,' Kaufman replied. Kaufman confirmed to MEE that he had spoken to Schondorf. US threatens ICC: Drop Israel war crimes probe or 'all options on the table' Read More » He said: 'Roy Schondorf, like me, is an Israeli lawyer and extremely knowledgeable of ICC affairs. In fact, he is one of a handful of Israeli lawyers who knows how the court works. We gossip frequently about the ICC and I told him that I would be meeting Karim Khan.' Schondorf did not respond to a request for comment. According to the note, Kaufman then made a proposal that 'he said he was authorised to make' – a way, as he put it, for Khan to 'climb down the tree'. He told Khan to apply to the court to reclassify the warrants and underlying information as 'confidential'. This, it was suggested, would allow Israel to access the details of the allegations, which it could not do at the time, and challenge them in private – without the outcome being made public. Kaufman asked Khan if a recent report that he was preparing warrant applications for Israeli suspects related to the West Bank was true. The conversation took place before it was reported that Khan's office was preparing further arrest warrants for far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over their promotion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Khan did not respond to Kaufman's question but asked why Israel did not 'proceed with complementarity', which would entail investigating the alleged war crimes in the domestic courts. He said the Israeli attorney general 'can easily look into this'. Kaufman said this was impossible, but told him there could be a 'non-criminal, non-investigative process' and Khan could give the evidence he had to that 'Israeli process'. But he warned that these options would be 'off the table' if it emerged that Khan had applied for more warrants. According to the note, Kaufman also told Khan that if the existing warrants were not withdrawn, or if he applied for more warrants, 'they will destroy you and they will destroy the court'. The note records that after the meeting, Khan's wife, who is also a lawyer, said to him, 'That was a clear threat.' Khan agreed. Kaufman told MEE: 'There was absolutely no threat.' He said that he had no authority to make any proposals to Khan on behalf of Netanyahu's office. UK lobbying US against sanctioning ICC over Israel war crimes probe Read More » 'I have no authority to make any offers such that I can take them off the table. Clearly Mr Khan thinks that I am more powerful than I am.' Kaufman confirmed to MEE that he had suggested to Khan that he should reclassify the warrants as confidential so that Israel could challenge the substance of the case. He said he believed Khan was 'clearly afraid to do so. He would have agreed if he was sufficiently confident of his evidence.' Kaufman told MEE he had not suggested to Khan that he could give evidence to a 'non-criminal, non-investigative process' in Israel and said this did not make legal sense. He said: 'What I did say was that Karim Khan should trust Israel's civil society to fight for accountability in the local courts.' The meeting took place less than two weeks before the Wall Street Journal published allegations that Khan was accused of sexual assault. Until then reported allegations against Khan had been of harassment – including Khan 'sexually touching' the complainant, putting his hand in the complainant's pocket and demanding to be let into her hotel room in the middle of the night. Khan has denied all allegations. There is no suggestion of any connection between the Kaufman-Khan meeting and the publication of the Wall Street Journal allegations. Sanctions and threats The revelations about the warning delivered to Khan by Kaufman come with the prosecutor and the court facing unprecedented pressure from the US over the ICC's investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. Khan was sanctioned by the US in February, and four ICC judges were sanctioned in June over their role in issuing the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. In comments to Israel's Kan public broadcaster last month, Kaufman described the sanctioning of the judges as a 'further warning shot across the bows' of the ICC which he said was 'meant to be designed to encourage the dropping of the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defence minister Gallant'. Numerous reports in the US and British media have claimed that Khan sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on 20 May 2024 to win support in the context of sexual misconduct allegations against him. The Wall Street Journal claimed in an editorial on 16 May this year that Khan had used the arrest warrants to 'distract from his own behaviour'. It described the ICC's case against Netanyahu as 'tainted'. Exclusive: David Cameron threatened to withdraw UK from ICC over Israel war crimes probe Read More » But in fact, as previously reported by MEE, the prosecutor's decision to apply for warrants was made six weeks before allegations were made against him in late April. MEE has been told by multiple sources that on 16 March 2024, Khan's extensive team of lawyers and researchers had decided they would be in a position to apply for warrants by the end of April. On 25 March, Khan informed the US administration of his decision and forewarned them the warrants would be applied for by the end of April. Over the following two months, pressure on Khan mounted. On 23 April David Cameron, then the British foreign secretary, threatened in a phone call with Khan that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Last month MEE revealed details of the call, in which Cameron told Khan applying for the warrants would be like 'dropping a hydrogen bomb'. The British Foreign Office and Khan both declined to comment in response to the report, while Cameron did not respond to multiple requests by MEE for comment. Khan faced more pressure from other sources. In a virtual meeting with ICC officials in May, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham threatened sanctions against them if Khan applied for the warrants, according to British barrister Andrew Cayley, who oversaw the ICC's Palestine investigation. These threats would not dissuade Khan from applying for the warrants. It was on 29 April 2024, over a month after the decision to apply for warrants was made, that one of Khan's staff made harassment allegations against him. The allegations were referred to the court's Internal Oversight Mechanism (IOM), its investigative body, on 3 May. But an investigation was closed days later after the woman said she did not want to cooperate with it. This means that when Khan announced he was applying for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on 20 May, there was no investigation against him. Months later, in October, as speculation began to increase that ICC judges would soon issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, an anonymous account on social media platform X began circulating details of the sexual misconduct allegations against Khan. UN urged to take legal action at ICJ to uphold Francesca Albanese's immunity Read More » According to the Wall Street Journal, an anonymous source also sent information about the allegations to journalists in an email that contained the phone numbers of the complainant and an advisor to Khan, Thomas Lynch, next to the Hebrew word for telephones. The IOM then opened another investigation, which was closed in early November. Two investigations into the allegations had been opened and closed when the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) opened its own external investigation, which is ongoing. Since being subjected to sanctions by the US in February, Khan has had his American visa revoked and his wife and children have been banned from travelling to the country. His bank accounts have also been frozen in the UK. Khan declined to comment on the matters raised in this article. He has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The ICC also finds itself in a precarious position. In a further threat to the court last week, the US State Department's legal advisor Reed Rubinstein warned that 'all options remain on the table' unless all arrest warrants and the investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes are dropped. The US also last week imposed sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who it said had 'directly engaged' with the ICC. If the US sanctions the court as an institution, as some experts believe it might, it would prevent many banks and software companies from dealing with it – potentially crippling the ICC's ability to function.
Middle East Eye
4 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Egypt: Fifteen detainees attempt suicide within two weeks at notorious prison
Rights groups have reported a spike in suicide attempts by detainees at Egypt's notorious Badr 3 prison complex. The complex is renowned for its rights violations against detainees, with prisoners subjected to solitary confinement and denied visits and medical treatment, prompting detainees to launch a hunger strike in June last year. But in recent weeks, rights monitor Committee For Justice (CFJ) warned that the situation has "deteriorated dangerously,' with 15 prisoners attempting suicide in just two weeks. On 4 July alone, three detainees attempted suicide, including a doctor who tried to take his life in front of surveillance cameras, but was stopped at the last minute. The CFJ also reported that some prisoners had raised their suicide attempts in court and even attempted to kill themselves in court, and had been met with indifference by the presiding judge. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters On 12 July, a detainee who was facing life imprisonment tried to kill himself inside the courtroom cage during a pleading session. 'The court did not react when it saw the detainee bleeding inside the cage,' Usame Mehmetoglu, UN and Regional Communications Officer at the Committee for Justice, told Middle East Eye. 'Those present made primitive attempts to stop the bleeding without any immediate medical intervention'. They added that the presiding judge Hamada El-Sawy simply rescheduled the trial, issuing no order to transfer the detainee to a hospital or to investigate the incident. 'It was as if the incident were merely a passing scene in a routine hearing and not a glaring alarm signaling a grave humanitarian and legal disaster,' Mehmetoglu said. On 5 July, several detainees attempted to inform the Criminal Court of their suicide attempts, but according to CFJ, the court 'refused to listen, in a manner that flagrantly contradicts its legal and constitutional responsibilities'. A systematic policy CFJ emphasised that the suicides are not isolated incidents but the result of a 'systematic policy to dehumanise and psychologically and physically break detainees'. While abuse and rights violations of detainees are rife across the Egyptian prison system, Badr prison has seen successive waves of hunger strikes by prisoners over its poor conditions and escalating abuses. Rights groups have documented a slew of prisoner deaths and suicide attempts at the facility, detailing abuses such as visitation bans, 24-hour exposure to fluorescent lights, medical negligence and torture, including by electrocution and being chained to walls. In May 2024, the prison suffered an eight-day-long power outage, knocking out ventilation systems amid soaring temperatures. Egypt prison deaths a 'warning sign' as conditions deteriorate sharply Read More » In April MEE reported that at least 13 detainees had died in Egyptian prisons in 2025 - most of them were held at Badr. According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) "medical negligence" is cited as the cause of death in the majority of cases. The group notes that 86 percent of the detainees who died this year were political prisoners. Since then, the situation seems to have only worsened, with several political detainees launching a fresh hunger strike in June over rapidly deteriorating conditions. The CFJ reported 'an increase in fainting episodes and diabetic comas' among detainees, who tend to be older and more vulnerable given the lack of medical care. Ten full years of isolation Mehmetoglu explained that the situation is particularly dire at Badr, as many of the detainees are former leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, some of them former ministers, members of parliament and advisors to former President Mohamed Morsi, who was deposed in 2013 by the military coup that swept current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power. Ahmed Amin's father is a Badr prison detainee who has spent the last decade in solitary confinement. Amin Elserafy served as former President Mohamed Morsi's secretary and was arrested alongside him on 3 July 2013, and sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of espionage for Qatar, despite the court finding him not guilty. He has been held at Badr prison for three years - before that, he was detained at the high-security Al-Aqrab, "Scorpion" prison. Amin described his father's cell as 'a narrow, dark space with no sunlight, no fresh air, and completely lacking the basic conditions for a dignified life'. He has not seen his father for ten years or even heard his voice, as Elsafry has been denied visitation rights and any communication with the outside world. He had managed to see him four times during the early period of his detention, but since then all communication has been completely barred. Egypt: Six detainees die in one week at detention centre Read More » Even during court sessions, he said that he was placed in a soundproof glass cage 'to prevent anyone from hearing his voice'. 'We know nothing about him except for the news that appears on television screens or on social media. Ten full years of isolation,' Amin told MEE. Amin said his father had once objected to his treatment, but was beaten by the prison authorities, leaving him with wounds and fractures. 'Instead of being taken to a hospital for urgent treatment, he was transferred to a disciplinary cell - while still injured and bleeding. He was left to suffer alone, without medical care, and without being seen by a doctor,' Amin said.
Middle East Eye
5 hours ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
'Biggest disaster': Gaza infants' lives at risk amid fuel shortages
Palestinian infants reliant on incubators in Gaza are fighting for their lives amid a critical fuel shortage, exacerbated by Israel's increasingly stringent blockade on aid and essential supplies. For several days, hospitals and humanitarian agencies in Gaza have issued urgent appeals for international intervention to secure fuel deliveries, as shortages continue to paralyse vital services for over two million Palestinians. Multiple healthcare centres have warned that operations may grind to a halt, with Israel maintaining restrictions on fuel entering the besieged territory, further straining an already overwhelmed healthcare system. Mohammed Tabaja, head of the paediatric ward at al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City, said the facility is '100 per cent dependent on the generator'. His department is responsible for the intensive care of newborns weighing less than 1.5 kilograms, as well as infants suffering from oxygen deprivation and congenital abnormalities, all of whom require uninterrupted electricity. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'We have a problem in the nursery ward: there is no uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The motor shuts down every two hours due to the fuel shortage. When that happens, the electricity cuts out,' he explained, noting that the hospital currently relies entirely on generators. 'This impacts the babies' lives, as we must restart the ventilators and CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] machines, all of which require electricity. We've been requesting a UPS for three months, but there are no batteries available in Gaza,' he told MEE. Incubators in the ward are still operating, however, the paediatric department is severely overcrowded, with 12 incubators used for at least 22 cases - an occupancy rate exceeding 180 percent (MEE/Ahmed Dremly) Tabaja said that while the incubators in the ward remain operational for now, the department is severely overcrowded and operating beyond capacity, with 12 incubators being used for at least 22 cases, an occupancy rate of more than 180 percent. The paediatric specialist notes a significant increase in premature births and underweight infants as a consequence of the ongoing war. He explained that the extreme stress of the situation has led to growing levels of malnutrition among pregnant women, resulting in a higher incidence of premature deliveries. 'The department faces persistent issues with oxygen, air, and electricity supplies, all of which directly affect the lives of the children. Last month and the month before, we lost infants due to these shortages,' he said. 'Our fear is that we will reach the point where there's no electricity' - Mohammed Tabaja, head paediatric, al-Helou Hospital 'Fuel is critical, as electricity is not available 24 hours a day. We do not have an oxygen generator and instead rely on manually operated oxygen cylinders. "This places an enormous burden on staff and creates further shortages. If a cylinder runs out, it could endanger a child's life,' he added. Dr Ziad al-Masry, a fellow paediatrician at al-Helou Hospital, warned that the lives of 22 infants are currently at risk due to the fuel shortage, which has caused power outages that disrupt artificial respiration and modern monitoring systems. 'Without this equipment, caring for the children becomes extremely difficult - and in some cases, impossible - as many are directly connected to ventilators,' he said. In a joint statement issued on Sunday, municipal authorities in central and southern Gaza announced the suspension of essential public services due to what they described as 'the complete interruption of fuel' required to operate vital equipment. The halted services include 'water well operations, sanitation, waste collection, rubble removal, and the use of heavy machinery to open roads. 'The occupation's continued refusal to allow the entry of fuel, despite repeated appeals, has brought municipal services to a standstill, even as local authorities attempt to maintain a minimum level of operations under extraordinary circumstances,' the statement concluded. Manual intervention and lack of aid Last week, the UN confirmed that Israel permitted a limited shipment of fuel into Gaza, the first in over four months. However, the 75,000-litre delivery was far from sufficient, failing to cover even a single day's needs. Moreover, Israel has been severely limiting the flow of life-saving aid delivery into the besieged enclave - including nutritional relief and medical supplies. Why Israel is waging war on Palestinian children Read More » Tabaja said that the paediatric ward is facing critical shortages of oxygen, compressed air, electricity, infant formula, and nappies. 'The Ministry of Health used to provide eight nappies per child per day. Now we receive just one or two, meaning we're forced to keep a child in the same nappy for 24 hours," he explained. "Our fear is that we will reach the point where there's no electricity supply for the department at all, and that would be the biggest disaster," he added. Masry echoed the urgent need for essential supplies to enter Gaza. He stated that repeated requests for fuel had been made to international organisations, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), but to no avail. 'The siege has only worsened over the past two months. No fuel or baby formula has reached our hospital in nearly four months.' Due to the fuel crisis, the paediatric unit has been forced to increase staffing and rely on manual respiratory support to keep newborns alive, a method he stressed is not a substitute for mechanical ventilation. "We are relying on manual intervention until fuel is restored, and this has had a significant impact on the lives of the infants."
