Region

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territories — Thousands of Palestinians fled heavy combat on Thursday between Hamas and Israel in Gaza City as Israeli and US spy chiefs met in Qatar for talks on a possible humanitarian pause in the fighting.

Washington announced Israel had agreed to a daily four-hour military halt in northern Gaza to allow civilians out after for more than a month of war sparked by the October 7 Hamas surprise attacks on Israel.

The limited pauses build on north-south "evacuation corridors" the Israeli forces had promised would remain safe and which were used by tens of thousands to flee in recent days.

CIA Director Bill Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, were in Doha for talks on a potential "humanitarian pause" that would include hostage releases and more aid for Gaza, an official told AFP.

"Talks have been progressing well towards a deal in the past few days," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While fighting raged on Thursday, crowds walked south clutching children and small bags on the road leading away from the main focus of the war in Gaza City and its surroundings.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel attacked with an aerial bombing and ground offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 10,800 people, many of them children.

Some 50,000 people fled south on Wednesday, UN and Israeli officials said, and thousands more followed on Thursday as Israel allowed several-hour windows for civilians to move away from the heaviest clashes.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Israel would implement four-hour pauses in areas of northern Gaza each day.

“We’ve been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause [and] that this process is starting today,” Kirby said.

Oda Bikhet, a witness to the consequences of the latest bombardment in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, recounted the human toll.

“All of a sudden, an air strike hit the area, and we went out to check only to find children injured,” he said. “One child lost his arm, another lost an eye. Another old person was injured.”

Movement of civilians within Gaza has increased sharply from earlier this week, after the UN had estimated some 1.5 million people were already seeking safety in the south.

But hundreds of thousands of civilians remained in battle zones in the north, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Hamas on Thursday released images of its fighters, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles, clashing with Israeli soldiers backed by armoured vehicles in the ruins of the besieged territory’s north.

The intense combat and the densely populated coastal territory being effectively sealed off have led to increasingly dire conditions for civilians.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged nations to “work towards a ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, as he opened a conference in Paris on Gaza aid.

France’s foreign ministry said the Paris talks would include work on donations of goods such as food, fuel and medical supplies, financial support and humanitarian access.

‘Just a few trucks’ 

Any promises of aid risk ringing hollow while supplies are being held up at the Gazan border.

“We’re going to ask that aid enter Gaza because for now it’s just a few trucks each day,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, told broadcaster France Inter early on Thursday.

Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing with Egypt reopened on Thursday to allow a limited number of wounded people and foreigners to flee the war, a Palestinian official told AFP.

Crossings were suspended for the second time on Wednesday due to Israel refusing to approve the list of wounded people due to be evacuated, which had been sent by the Hamas government to Egypt.

That struggle with the crossing was brought into focus by Ahmad Mhanna, doctor at Al Awda hospital in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, who said the facility’s operations were severely curtailed due to generator fuel shortages.

“Inside the operation room of Al Awda hospital work is ongoing, but using primitive means, as the doctors are using head lamps and trying to perform surgical interventions with local anaesthesia,” Mhanna said.

Football fields become graveyards 

An Israeli military official insisted Gaza was not in a humanitarian crisis, even as he acknowledged the Palestinian territory faces several challenges amid the ongoing war.

“We bury the dead in football fields and other vacant lots because the proper burial grounds are full,” said Shihteh Nasser, 48, who had helped in the burials.

Bodies have piled up outside hospitals, on roads and in parks, in refrigerated trucks and even in a repurposed ice-cream van.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territories — Negotiations are under way for the release of a dozen hostages held by Hamas, including six Americans, in return for a three-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a source close to Hamas said on Wednesday.

"Talks revolve around the release of 12 hostages, half of them Americans, in exchange for a three-day humanitarian pause, to enable Hamas to release the hostages and to enable Egypt an extended [period of time] to deliver humanitarian aid," the source said.

"There's disagreement around the time period and around the north [of the Gaza Strip], which is witnessing extensive combat operations," the source said.

"Qatar is awaiting an Israeli response," they added.

Earlier Wednesday, a separate source briefed on the talks said Qatar was mediating negotiations in coordination with the US to free "10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day ceasefire".

Fighting has raged in Gaza for over a month following Hamas' shock October 7 attack.

In Gaza, 10,569 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory has said.

Qatar has been engaged in intense diplomacy to secure the release of those held by Hamas, negotiating the handover of four hostages — two Israelis and two Americans — in recent weeks.

Following reports on the latest negotiations, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said it welcomed “the return of each and every hostage”.

Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, also hosts the political office of Hamas and is the main residence of its self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The wealthy Gulf emirate has been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and has open channels of communication with Hamas.

Amid repeated calls for a ceasefire, Qatar has lamented the escalating violence  on Gaza and its 2.4 million inhabitants, saying Israeli bombing undermines mediation efforts and de-escalation.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the Gulf state was “determined to continue its mediation”, despite difficulties “caused by the actions of the Israeli occupation”.

The G-7 grouping of economically advanced nations called on Wednesday for “humanitarian pauses and corridors” in the conflict but refrained from calling for a ceasefire during talks in Japan.

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — Sudanese police on Wednesday forcibly evicted hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering at a school in the eastern state of Gedaref, eyewitnesses said, as the army and paramilitaries battled in the capital.

A resident, Amal Hussein, said she saw “police cars surround” the school and heard people scream.

“Police came and ordered us to leave the school, based on a decision from the governor, and fired tear gas at us,” Hussein Gomaa, who had been displaced from Khartoum, told AFP.

“We are 770 people who had fled the war in Khartoum and were sheltering in this school,” Gomaa said after fleeing the makeshift displacement camp, where he said hundreds of people “had been receiving aid”.

“We don’t understand why we were driven out,” he said. “Now we’re out in the open with women and children, and we don’t know where to go.”

Gedaref currently hosts 273,000 people who have been uprooted in the conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

According to the United Nations, thousands are being housed in makeshift camps such as schools where food, clean water and healthcare are in short supply.

Barely two hours after they were forced out, Suleiman Mohammed, who had also been taking shelter at the school, said they were again “evacuated from the dormitories” of Gedaref University’s medical school.

“Police said the decision was issued by the governor,” he added.

Since April, forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan — Sudan’s de facto head of state — have been at war with the RSF commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

More than 10,000 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

After the warring sides failed to agree on a ceasefire in Saudi- and US-brokered talks this week, the fighting continued Wednesday, with a committee of volunteers reporting “intensified clashes” in a densely populated neighbourhood of northern Khartoum.

Out of 4.6 million people internally displaced within Sudan, more than three million people have fled the violence in the capital, according to UN figures.

The country is facing an “unimaginable humanitarian crisis”, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday, with most hospitals shuttered and millions in severe need of aid as the violence continues unabated.

In the vast western region of Darfur, where some of the worst fighting has taken place, the RSF has claimed control of all but one major city.

Their advance amid a communications blackout has triggered renewed fears of ethnically motivated mass killings.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a "graveyard for children," as he urged an immediate ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel conflict.

"The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour," he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"The parties to the conflict, and, indeed, the international community,  face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza," he said.

"The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity."

Israel's strikes have killed 10,222 people, including more than 4,000 children, in the densely populated and besieged Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry.

Guterres also deplored the killings of media workers. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 36 journalists and media workers have been killed.

"More journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades," Guterres said, adding that 89 UN aid workers have also been killed. 

Guterres was formally launching a recently announced $1.2 billion UN humanitarian appeal to help 2.7 million Palestinians over the entire Gaza Strip and parts of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

Aid trucks have been coming into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, but the level remains well below that of before October 7, with Israel saying it needs time for security checks of vehicles. One restriction is that they are not bringing fuel. 

"Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die," Guterres said. 

"The way forward is clear. A humanitarian ceasefire — now. All parties respecting all their obligations under international humanitarian law," he said. 

Guterres again voiced alarm about the "clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing". 

"Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law," he said. 

Guterres did not name Israel on Monday. He outraged the country’s leaders on October 24 at a Security Council meeting where he alleged violations of humanitarian law and said that the Hamas attacks “did not occur in a vacuum”, leading Israeli officials to accuse the UN chief of justifying violence. 

Security Council stalemate 

The UN Security Council, which has yet to pass any text on the conflict, met again on Monday afternoon without a resolution. 

According to diplomatic sources, there is no consensus on whether to call any interruption in fighting a “ceasefire” or “humanitarian pause”.

“We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,” US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said after the meeting. “But there are disagreements within the Council about whether that’s acceptable.”

And though all 15 members of the body recognise the “urgent humanitarian need” in Gaza, according to UAE Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, “the gaps remain on what is achievable on the ground”.

“Without a cessation of hostilities, or some kind of humanitarian truce that is immediately implemented... far too many more will continue to lose their lives,” she said, adding that the Security Council “feels enormous pressure to reach agreement”.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Hundreds of Palestinian foreign passport holders waited on Tuesday inside the war-stricken and besieged Gaza Strip to escape through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. 

While most still queued nervously, the first arrivals were seen on the Egyptian side where paramedics transferred an injured woman on a stretcher into an ambulance to rush her to a hospital.

Tuesday was set to mark the fifth day on which Gaza's sole land crossing not controlled by Israel has opened in the past week, to wounded Palestinians as well as foreigners and Palestinian dual nationals. 

AFP video footage from the Gaza side showed hundreds waiting with suitcases, bags and other scant belongings at the Rafah terminal complex. 

"We were suffering just like any Gazan resident, we waited a long time for the crossing to open," said Farid Nawasra, who holds a Russian passport. 

"We were waiting every day for our names to be added to the list, and we hope today that they allow us to pass, as they allowed other foreigners to pass." 

Departures from the Gaza Strip were expected to resume for many more on Tuesday afternoon after 500 people had received authorisation to enter Egypt, Hamas officials said. 

“Every person in Gaza is in danger,” said Myrian Abu Shaban, a resident of Gaza City. “I’m happy that we managed to make it to the border.”

NAIROBI — More than 1.6 million children aged under five will suffer from malnutrition next year in South Sudan, following a surge in waterborne diseases due to flooding, the UN’s World Food Programme said on Monday.

The world’s newest nation has endured deadly conflict, natural disasters, economic malaise and relentless political infighting since it won independence from Sudan in 2011.

As flooding becomes an annual affair in some parts of the country, people living in waterlogged areas have struggled to access food while also grappling with the spread of disease.

“More than 1.6 million children under five years of age are expected to suffer from malnutrition in 2024,” the WFP said.

In Rubkona county, where floodwaters have submerged large tracts of land, forcing entire communities to live on small islands since 2021, the cost of food staples has climbed by more than 120 per cent since April.

The county, which lies in the north of the country, is forecast to face catastrophic levels of hunger by April 2024.

‘Hunger emergency’

“This is the reality of living on the frontline of the climate crisis,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP’s country director in Juba.

“We’re seeing an extremely concerning rise in malnutrition which is a direct result of living in overcrowded and waterlogged conditions,” she said.

“The spread of waterborne diseases unravels any work humanitarian agencies do in preventing and treating malnutrition and it is young children who are suffering the impact most severely,” she added.

The crisis has been compounded by the return of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing Sudan’s brutal war, with WFP warning last month that families were facing “a hunger emergency”.

Since fighting erupted in Sudan in mid-April, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Multiple truces have failed to stop the violence that has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis engulfing the wider region.

One of the world’s poorest nations, South Sudan has spent nearly half its life at war, with some 380,000 people killed during a five-year civil war between rival leaders who share power today.

The United Nations has repeatedly criticised South Sudan’s leadership for its role in stoking bloodshed, cracking down on political freedoms and plundering public coffers.

South Sudan has large oil reserves but it remains in a “serious humanitarian crisis”, according to the World Bank.

It said in September that about 9.4 million people or 76 per cent of the population were estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023.