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Associated Press
3 days ago
- Climate
- Associated Press
Photos of displaced people in Gaza battling stifling amid food and water shortages
Blistering heat deepens suffering for displaced people in Gaza, where thousands are battling shortages of food and water. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
For Gaza students, big ambitions replaced by desperate search for food
GAZA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Student Maha Ali was determined to become a journalist one day and report on events in Gaza. Now she and other students have just one ambition: finding food as hunger ravages, opens new tab the Palestinian enclave. As war rages, she is living among the ruins of Islamic University, a once-bustling educational institution, which like most others in Gaza, has become a shelter for displaced people. "We have been saying for a long time that we want to live, we want to get educated, we want to travel. Now, we are saying we want to eat," honours student Ali, 26, said. Ali is part of a generation of Gazans - from grade school through to university - who say they have been robbed of an education by nearly two years of Israeli air strikes, which have destroyed the enclave's institutions. More than 60,000 people have been killed in Israel's response to Palestinian militant group Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on its southern communities, according to Gaza health authorities. Much of the enclave, which suffered from poverty and high unemployment even before the war, has been demolished. Palestinian Minister of Education Amjad Barham accused Israel of carrying out a systematic destruction of schools and universities, saying 293 out of 307 schools were destroyed completely or partially. "With this, the occupation wants to kill hope inside our sons and daughters," he said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or foreign ministry. Israel has accused Hamas and other militant groups of systematically embedding in civilian areas and structures, including schools, and using civilians as human shields. Hamas rejects the allegations and along with Palestinians accuses Israel of indiscriminate strikes. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that according to the latest satellite-based damage assessment in July, 97% of educational facilities in Gaza have sustained some level of damage with 91% requiring major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction to become functional again. "Restrictions by Israeli authorities continue to limit the entry of educational supplies into Gaza, undermining the scale and quality of interventions," it said. Those grim statistics paint a bleak future for Yasmine al-Za'aneen, 19, sitting in a tent for the displaced sorting through books that have survived Israeli strikes and displacement. She recalled how immersed she was in her studies, printing papers and finding an office and fitting it with lights. "Because of the war, everything was stopped. I mean, everything I had built, everything I had done, just in seconds, it was gone," she said. There is no immediate hope for relief and a return to the classroom. Mediators have failed to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which triggered the conflict by killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Instead, Israel plans a new Gaza offensive, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he expected to complete "fairly quickly" as the U.N. Security Council heard new demands for an end to suffering in the Palestinian enclave. So Saja Adwan, 19, an honours student of Gaza's Azhar Institute who is living in a school turned shelter with her family of nine, recalled how the building where she once learned was bombed. Under siege, her books and study materials are gone. To keep her mind occupied, she takes notes on the meagre educational papers she has left. "All my memories were there, my ambitions, my goals. I was achieving a dream there. It was a life for me. When I used to go to the institute, I felt psychologically at ease," she said. "My studies were there, my life, my future where I would graduate from."
Khaleej Times
09-08-2025
- General
- Khaleej Times
Watch: ‘I want to eat'; elderly Gazan thanks UAE for aid after 3 months of living on bread, water
An elderly Palestinian with a frail body recites the adhan amid the tents of displaced people in the Gaza Strip—another witness to the devastating effects of the war that has been raging in the enclave for nearly two years. Salim Asfour is a Gazan old man whose neighbours are accustomed to hearing the call to prayer in his beautiful voice, though this voice has waned and his features have changed due to severe hunger. A global hunger monitor has said a famine scenario is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with starvation spreading, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access to the embattled enclave severely restricted. And the warnings about starvation and malnutrition from aid agencies keep coming. Images of hungry children clutching empty pots and pleading for food spread online, but the war's toll on the enclave's elderly is proving to be just as severe. In an online video, Salim appears shirtless, revealing the alarming toll of hunger on his body. He laments his dire situation, saying, 'I want to eat. I have no teeth to chew bread, so I soak it in water to help me chew and digest it… I've been living like this for three months.' Watch the video here shared by Al Khamisa News Network on Facebook: 'Thank you to Sheikh Mohamed' Salim's plea, however, did not go unanswered, and the UAE's Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, aimed at helping Gazans, stepped in to assist him. UAE relief workers quickly assessed his condition and visited him. In a filmed interview with Diaa Abu Zaid, a member of the operation, Salim appeared with thin arms and legs, and a chest where his ribs were visible from extreme hunger. The footage then shows Diaa and other relief workers carrying bags and boxes of aid supplies into Salim's tent. They contain all kinds of vegetables and fruits available in the market, along with flour, oil, and other essentials. Diaa is then seen feeding Salim by hand. Salim responds: 'I extend my thanks to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and his family, and to the people of the UAE. I offer them my gratitude and respect. May God bless you, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, your people, your country, and your loved ones.' Watch the full interview here: Ù�سط Ù�سÙ�Ø© اÙ�جÙ�ع Ù�ذدÙ�Ù�ر ØاÙ�Ø°Ù� اÙ�صØÙ�Ø©Ø� عÙ�Ù�Ù�Ø© اÙ�Ù�ارس اÙ�Ø´Ù�Ù� 3 ذذدخÙ� Ù�Ù�ساÙ�دة رجÙ� Ù�سÙ� Ù�عاÙ�Ù� صØÙ�اÙ� Ù�Ù� آثار اÙ�Ù�جاعةØ� Ù�Ø°Ù�دÙ� Ù�Ù� Ù�ا Ù�Ù�زÙ� Ù�Ù�ذخÙ�Ù�Ù� Ù�Ù� Ù�عاÙ�اذÙ� #اÙ�Ù�ارس_اÙ�Ø´Ù�Ù�3 â�© â�§ #اÙ�Ø¥Ù�اراذ_اÙ�عربÙ�Ø©_اÙ�Ù�Ø°Øدة â�© â�§ #ذزة â�© â�§ #Ù�ØÙ�د_بÙ�_زاÙ�د_رجÙ�_اÙ�Ø¥Ù�ساÙ�Ù�Ø© â�© â�§ #اÙ�Ø¥Ù�اراذ_Ù�Ø·Ù�_اÙ�Ø¥Ù�ساÙ�Ù�Ø© â�© â�§ #Ù�Ù�سطÙ�Ù� â�¦ — اÙ�Ù�ارس اÙ�Ø´Ù�Ù� 3 (@alfaresalshahm3) August 9, 2025 Diaa then helps Salim put on a robe on his weak body, walks with him outside the tent, and kisses his head—a gesture of compassion that offers hope for an end to the suffering. The UAE has been delivering aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and land for nearly a month. On Friday, the nation carried out its 66th airdrop of humanitarian aid over the enclave, in cooperation with Jordan and with the participation of Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Italy. This brought the total amount of airdropped aid to more than 3,873 tonnes — a clear testament to the UAE's unwavering commitment to standing by the brotherly Palestinian people and supporting international humanitarian efforts. With this tri-modal delivery system, the initiative has enabled the UAE to constitute 44 per cent of total international aid to Gaza to date, according to UN reports.
News24
08-08-2025
- General
- News24
A Sudanese city is starving: What can be done to help?
Warnings have been coming for months. Last December, the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported famine in two camps near the northwestern Sudanese city of El Fasher, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Even then, they warned Sudan's ongoing civil war could see famine spread into the city by May. The warning was prescient. El Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur, has now been under siege for over a year now. This week, the United Nations and a number of its agencies warned that approximately 300 000 people trapped inside the city face starvation. 'WFP [the World Food Program] has not been able to deliver food assistance to El Fasher by road for over a year as all roads leading there are blocked,' the UN aid programme said in a statement on Tuesday. 'The city is cut off from humanitarian access leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left.' 'In El Fasher, there was only bombing and hunger.' 8-year-old Sondos fled. But 300,000 people are still trapped, cut off from food, water, and medicine. WFP needs urgent safe passage into El Fasher. Lives hang in the balance. 🔴Press release: — WFP Sudan (@WFP_Sudan) August 5, 2025 Many residents are resorting to eating hay or animal fodder. Food that is available in the city costs significantly more than elsewhere in Sudan, making it unaffordable for most people. 'What we really need now is for a humanitarian pause to be agreed upon so that we can safely transport urgent food and nutrition supplies into the city,' Leni Kinzli, a WFP spokesperson based in Sudan, told DW. Why is this happening? Sudan's civil war began in early 2023 when two rival military groups - the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) - started fighting for control. The SAF, with about 200 000 personnel and led by the country's de facto leader Abdel-Fattah Burhan, operates like a regular army. Burhan's government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is recognised as Sudan's government by the UN. AFP The RSF is estimated to have 70 000 to 100 000 fighters and headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. It functions more like a guerrilla force and includes the infamous Janjaweed militias, notorious for their brutality in Darfur in the early 2000s. Both sides have been accused of war crimes. El Fasher remains the only urban centre in the Darfur region not controlled by the RSF. If the RSF wins here, they would control almost all of western Sudan. The SAF-aligned militias inside El Fasher, known as the Joint Forces, prevent a complete RSF victory. This is why the RSF has laid siege to the city since April 2024, digging trenches and regularly launching attacks on it. AFP The situation worsened this past April when the RSF attacked two camps near El Fasher sheltering over 500 000 displaced people. Many fled into the city or nearby towns. Siege on El Fasher has tightened As the Joint Forces inside El Fasher lose ground, the RSF has tightened the siege in recent moments, said Shayna Lewis, senior adviser on Sudan for the US-based group PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities). 'The Rapid Support Forces have besieged the city for over a year at this point,' she told DW in a televised interview. 'But it's particularly in the past few months that they've tightened that blockade. Nothing is coming in and out. We used to have donkey carts that carried food into the city but now barely anything is able to even be smuggled in.' AFP Locals have said the RSF aims to starve out SAF-allied forces. There are also reports that some of the forces inside the city are preventing civilians from leaving, using them as a protective buffer. 'They attacked us; it was exhausting,' Enaam Mohammed, a Sudanese woman who fled El Fasher for the nearby town of Tawila, told journalists this week. Tawila, around 40km away, has seen a massive influx of around 400 000 displaced people since April. Diseases like cholera and measles are now spreading there. '[They asked us] 'Where are the weapons? Where are the men?'' Mohammed continued, describing her experience with the RSF. If they find someone with a mobile phone, they take it. If you have money, they take it. If you have a good, strong donkey, they take it. Enaam Mohammed Mohammed said she also saw the RSF killing people and raping women. What can be done? Currently, the conflict is at what analysts have described as a 'strategic stalemate'. Alongside other smaller groups, the RSF controls much of western Sudan, while the SAF controls the east. Earlier in July, the RSF set up their own civilian government, effectively splitting Sudan in two. There is no credible peace process and heavy fighting is also ongoing in other parts of Sudan. 'Both parties view the conflict through a zero-sum lens,' analysts at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) wrote earlier this year. 'The victory of one side is entirely dependent on the defeat of the other.' Neither side wants to negotiate, observers say. AFP Exacerbating that situation is foreign backing for the different fighting groups. In July, the US postponed a meeting about Sudan that would have brought together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The Saudis and Egyptians are thought to support the SAF and the UAE, the RSF - all deny providing military aid to Sudanese groups. The meeting is now rumoured to be rescheduled for September. This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called SAF leader Burhan to ask for a weeklong ceasefire that would allow aid into El Fasher. Burhan agreed, but the RSF has yet to consent. The impact of the war also goes well beyond the besieged city of El Fasher, the WFP's Kinzli pointed out. The UN regularly calls what is happening in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies estimate that around 12 million people of Sudan's 46-million-strong population have been displaced by the conflict and that around 150 000 people have died as a result of it. There are famine conditions and infectious diseases in other parts of the country too. 'What we need from the international community is two things,' Kinzli said. 'One, of course, is funding - because the scale of needs in Sudan is just so high. We're looking at 25 million people who face acute hunger and that's a moderate estimate. The resources we have available are just not able to meet that level of need.' The second thing aid agencies like the WFP would like to see is 'increased attention and engagement' with Sudan from the international community, she argued. 'Primarily to help bring an end to this conflict by bringing all parties to the table, but also to join us in our calls for unfettered humanitarian access.' 'What needs to happen in Sudan is that the flow of aid needs to be larger than the flow of weapons,' Kinzli concluded.
Washington Post
30-07-2025
- Washington Post
Cambodians return to scenes of destruction after fleeing border fighting with Thailand
O'SMACH, Cambodia — Shattered glass, torched motorcycles and a burned bust of Buddha awaited 63-year-old Soth Sim as he returned to his home in Phrong village near the Cambodia-Thailand border where fighting raged just a few days ago. As thousands of displaced people in both Cambodia and Thailand begin to venture home, some are discovering the personal cost of the nearly week-long clash which has resulted in the deaths of at least 41 people and displaced more than 260,000 others.
