Region

CAIRO — The Sudanese government rejected on Sunday a report backed by the United Nations which determined that famine had spread to five areas of the war-torn country.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review, which UN agencies use, said last week that the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had created famine conditions for 638,000 people, with a further 8.1 million on the brink of mass starvation.

The army-aligned government "categorically rejects the IPC's description of the situation in Sudan as a famine", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement called the report "essentially speculative" and accused the IPC of procedural and transparency failings.

They said the team did not have access to updated field data and had not consulted with the government's technical team on the final version before publication.

The IPC did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

The Sudanese government, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been based in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan since the capital Khartoum became a warzone in April 2023.

It has repeatedly been accused of stonewalling international efforts to assess the food security situation in the war-torn country.

The authorities have also been accused of creating bureaucratic hurdles to humanitarian work and blocking visas for foreign teams.

The International Rescue Committee said the army was "leveraging its status as the internationally recognised government (and blocking) the UN and other agencies from reaching RSF-controlled areas".

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted over 12 million people, including millions who face dire food insecurity in army-controlled areas.

Across the country, more than 24.6 million people, around half the population,  face high levels of acute food insecurity.

GAZA STRIP, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Gaza's civil defence agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility.

"Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City," a civil defence agency statement said.

Israel's military said it had carried out a "precise strike" targeting members of Hamas's aerial defence unit operating from a "command and control centre in a building that served in the past as the Al-Wafaa hospital".

"The building does not currently serve as a hospital," the military said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

"The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities," the ministry's director general, Munir al-Barsh, told AFP.

"The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by Israeli shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days," he said.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza; an assault the World Health Organisation reported left the facility empty of patients and staff.

The military also detained the hospital's chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas militant.

Since October 6, Israel's operations in the Palestinian territory have focused on northern Gaza, where it says its land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

However, the military has also carried out air strikes and shelling in other areas of Gaza as it presses on with its campaign against the militants.

SANAA — A fresh air strike hit Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Friday, the Iran-backed Huthis said, after they claimed to have carried out new attacks on Israel amid mounting hostilities.

The strike comes a day after Israeli air raids hit Sanaa international airport and other targets in Yemen, as the head of the UN's World Health Organization was preparing to fly out from the Huthi-held capital and injuring a UN crew member.

"I heard the blast. My house shook," one Sanaa resident told AFP late Friday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest strike, but Yemen's Huthi rebels blamed it on "US-British aggression".

There was no immediate comment from Israel, the United States or Britain.

In addition to targeting Israel with missiles and drones, the Huthis have also attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade route, in a solidarity campaign with Palestinians after war erupted in Gaza in October 2023.

Their attacks prompted reprisal strikes against Huthi targets by the United States and sometimes Britain.

Earlier Friday, the Huthis said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv and launched drones at the city and a ship in the Arabian Sea.

Israel's military said a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted "before crossing into Israeli territory."

Sirens sounded because of possible falling debris after the interception, it said.

The Huthis have stepped up their attacks against Israel since late November's ceasefire between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli "aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people", a Huthi statement said Friday.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Sanaa Friday to protest against the Israeli strikes and express solidarity with Palestinians.

"The equation has changed and has become: [targeting] airport for airport, port for port, and infrastructure for infrastructure," Huthi supporter Mohammed al-Gobisi said.

"We will not get tired or bored of supporting our brothers in Gaza."

Airport damaged 

Despite the damage at Sanaa airport, flights resumed at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) on Friday, Huthi Deputy Transport Minister Yahya Al Sayani said.

"The airport tower has been directly hit in addition to the departure lounge and airport navigation equipment. The attack resulted in four dead until now and around 20 wounded from staff, airport and passengers", Sayani said.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they knew at the time that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was there.

The strikes left the top of the control tower a bombed-out shell, and large windows in the airport building were shattered.

Sanaa airport, which reopened to international flights in 2022 after a six-year gap, offers a regular service to Jordan's capital, Amman, on the Yemenia airline.

Israel's attack came a day after the rebels claimed they fired a missile and two drones at Israel.

In his latest warning to the Huthis, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would "continue until the job is done".

"We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil," he said in a video statement.

Yemenis depend on aid 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the escalation in hostilities, and said bombing transportation infrastructure threatened humanitarian operations in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population depends on aid.

Tedros was in Yemen to seek the release of UN staff detained for months by the Huthis, and to assess the humanitarian situation.

On Friday he said that a member of the UN's Humanitarian Air Service "who was injured yesterday due to the bombardment underwent successful surgery and is now in stable condition".

He later posted on X that he had safely reached Jordan with his team, including the injured colleague who he said needs further treatment.

A witness told AFP that Thursday's raids also targeted the adjacent Al-Dailami air base. Strikes also targeted a power station in Hodeida, on the rebel-held coast, a witness and Al-Masirah TV said.

Following previous rebel attacks on Israel this year, Israeli strikes twice hit Hodeida, a major entry point for humanitarian aid to the country ravaged for years by its own war.

On December 19, after the rebels fired a missile towards Israel and badly damaged a school, Israel struck targets in Sanaa for the first time. 

Huthi media said those strikes killed nine people.

 'Iranian weapons' 

Israel's latest targets included "military infrastructure" at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida, as well as other facilities at Hodeida, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports, an Israeli statement said.

Huthis used the targeted sites "to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials", the statement said.

Similar strikes in September followed a rebel claim to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport. At the time Israel also said it targeted sites used to "transfer Iranian weaponry".

On December 21, Israel's military and emergency services said a projectile fired from Yemen wounded 16 people in Tel Aviv.

The Huthis control large parts of Yemen after seizing Sanaa and ousting the internationally recognised government in September 2014.

DAMASCUS — A senior official from Libya's UN-recognised government met Syria's new leader Ahmed Al Sharaa on Saturday and discussed issues including diplomatic relations, energy and migration.

"We expressed our full support for the Syrian authorities in the success of the important transitional phase," Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told reporters after the meeting.

"We emphasised the importance of coordination and cooperation... particularly on security and military issues," he said, while they also discussed cooperation "related to energy and trade" and "illegal immigration".

Syrians fleeing war since 2011 and seeking a better life have often travelled to Libya in search of work or passage across the Mediterranean on flimsy boats towards Europe.

Ellafi said they also discussed "the importance of raising diplomatic representation between the two countries".

"Today the charge d'affaires attended the meeting with me and we are seeking a permanent ambassador," he added.

Power in Libya is divided between the UN-recognised government based in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar who also controls the south.

Representatives of Haftar's rival administration in March 2020 opened a diplomatic mission in Damascus.

Before that, Libya had not had any representation in Damascus since 2012, following the fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising. 

It was not immediately clear whether the charge d'affaires had been appointed since Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) and allied factions toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive.

Also on Saturday, images published by Syrian state news agency SANA also showed Sharaa meeting Bahrain's strategic security bureau chief Sheikh Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khalifa.

No details of the discussions were provided.

On December 14, top diplomats from eight Arab countries including Bahrain called for a peaceful transition in Syria with United Nations and Arab League support following Assad's overthrow.

A day earlier, the official BNA news agency reported that Bahrain's King Hamad had told Sharaa that his country was ready to "continue consultations and coordination with Syria".

Damascus's new authorities have received envoys from across the Middle East and beyond since taking control as countries look to establish contact with Sharaa's administration.

SANAA — Yemen's Huthi rebels said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile and drones at Israel, days after an attack on Tel Aviv wounded 16 people.

Israel's military said it intercepted the missile before it entered Israeli territory, but did not immediately comment on the drone attacks which the Huthis said hit their targets.

"The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations" targeting Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Huthi military statement said.

The missile was also aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Huthis said. The Israelis reported it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.

A Huthi military statement said the attack was carried out "using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2".

The Iran-backed Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians since the war in Gaza erupted more than a year ago.

Most have been intercepted, but on Saturday an attack that hit Tel Aviv wounded 16 people, prompting a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We will act against the Huthis... with force, determination and sophistication," he said in a video statement on Sunday.

In the missile attack on Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded over a wide swathe of central Israel as a precaution against falling debris.

"A missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory," the military said in a statement.

No injuries were reported, according to Israel's emergency medical services.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen.

In July, a Huthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Huthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes by US and sometimes British forces.

DAMASCUS — Syria's new authorities launched an operation in a stronghold of ousted president Bashar Al Assad on Thursday, with a war monitor saying three gunmen affiliated with the former government were killed.

Assad fled Syria after an Islamist-led offensive wrested from his control city after city until Damascus fell on December 8, ending his clan's five-decade rule.

After 13 years of civil war sparked by Assad's crackdown on democracy protests, Syria's new leaders from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) face the monumental task of safeguarding the multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic country from further collapse.

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al Qaeda, HTS has moderated its rhetoric and vowed to ensure protection for minorities, including the Alawite community from which Assad hails.

With 500,000 dead in the war and more than 100,000 missing, the new authorities have also pledged justice for the victims of abuses under the deposed ruler.

On Thursday, state news agency SANA said security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad militias in the western province of Tartus, "neutralising a certain number" of armed men.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, three gunmen linked with Assad's government were killed in the operation.

It comes a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes in the same province when forces tried to arrest an Assad-era officer, according to the Observatory.

The Britain-based monitor said the wanted man, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, was a military justice official who had "issued death sentences and arbitrary judgements against thousands" of detainees at the notorious Saydnaya prison complex.

Hate or revenge

The Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomised the atrocities committed against Assad's opponents.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of his rule.

During the offensive that precipitated Assad's ousting, rebels flung open the doors of prisons and detention centres around the country, letting out thousands of people.

In central Damascus, relatives of some of the missing have hung up posters of their loved ones, in the hope that with Assad's ouster, they may one day learn what happened to them.

World powers and international organisations have called for the urgent establishment of mechanisms for accountability.

But some members of the Alawite community fear that with Assad gone, they may be at risk of attacks from groups hungry for revenge or driven by sectarian hate.

On Wednesday, angry protests erupted in several areas around Syria, including Assad's hometown of Qardaha, over a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine that circulated online.

The Observatory said that one demonstrator was killed and five others wounded "after security forces... opened fire to disperse" a crowd in the central city of Homs.

 'We want peace'

The transitional authorities appointed by HTS said in a statement that the shrine attack took place early this month, with the interior ministry saying it was carried out by "unknown groups" and that republishing the video served to "stir up strife".

On Thursday, the information ministry introduced a ban on publishing or distributing "any content or information with a sectarian nature aimed at spreading division and discrimination".

In one of Wednesday's protests over the video, large crowds chanted slogans including "Alawite, Sunni, we want peace".

Assad long presented himself as a protector of minority groups in Sunni-majority Syria, though critics said he played on sectarian divisions to stay in power.

In Homs, where the authorities imposed a nighttime curfew, 42-year-old resident Hadi reported "a vast deployment of HTS men in areas where there were protests".

"There is a lot of fear," he said.

In coastal Latakia, protester Ghidak Mayya, 30, said that for now, Alawites were "listening to calls for calm", but putting too much pressure on the community "risks an explosion".

Noting the anxieties, Sam Heller of the Century Foundation think tank told AFP Syria's new rulers had to balance dealing with sectarian tensions while promising that those responsible for abuses under Assad would be held accountable.

"But they're obviously also contending with what seems like a real desire on the part of some of their constituents for what they would say is accountability, maybe also revenge, it depends on how you want to characterise it," he said.

Since HTS and its allies swept to power earlier this month, a bevy of delegations from the Middle East, Europe and the United States have visited Damascus seeking to establish ties with the country's new rulers.

A delegation from Iraq met with the new authorities Thursday to discuss "security and stability needs on the two countries' shared border", Iraqi state media said, while Lebanon, which has a fraught history with Syria, said it hoped for better ties with its neighbour going forward.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Hamas accused Israel on Wednesday of imposing "new conditions" that it said were delaying a ceasefire agreement in the war in Gaza, though it acknowledged negotiations were still ongoing.

Israel has made no public statement about any new conditions in its efforts to secure the release of hostages seized on October 7, 2023.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, have taken place in Doha in recent days, rekindling hope for a truce deal that has proven elusive.

"The ceasefire and prisoner exchange negotiations are continuing in Doha under the mediation of Qatar and Egypt in a serious manner... but the occupation has set new conditions concerning withdrawal [of troops], the ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of displaced people, which has delayed reaching an agreement," the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

Hamas did not elaborate on the conditions imposed by Israel.

On Monday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament that there was "some progress" in the talks, and on Tuesday his office said Israeli representatives had returned from Qatar after "significant negotiations".

Last week, Hamas and two other Palestinian militant groups -- Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- said in a rare joint statement that a ceasefire agreement was "closer than ever", provided Israel did not impose new conditions.

Efforts to strike a truce and hostage release deal have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks.

Despite numerous rounds of indirect talks, Israel and Hamas have agreed just one truce, which lasted for a week at the end of 2023.

Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since then, with the primary point of disagreement being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

Another unresolved issue is the governance of post-war Gaza.

It remains a highly contentious issue, including within the Palestinian leadership.

Israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow Hamas to run the territory ever again.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Netanyahu said: "I'm not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas."

He added Israel is "not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It's not going to happen."

Netanyahu has also repeatedly stated that he does not want to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel along Gaza's border with Egypt.

Ninety-six of them are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead.

Israel's campaign has killed at least 45,361 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon expressed concern on Thursday at the "continuing" damage done by Israeli forces in the country's south despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.

The warring sides have since traded accusations of violating the truce.

Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days.

UNIFIL said in a statement on Thursday that "there is concern at continuing destruction by the IDF (army) in residential areas, agricultural land and road networks in south Lebanon".

The statement added that "this is in violation of Resolution 1701", which was adopted by the UN Security Council and ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.

The UN force also reiterated its call for "the timely withdrawal" of Israeli troops from Lebanon, and "the full implementation of Resolution 1701".

The resolution states that Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah exerts control, and also calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanese territory.

"Any actions that risk the fragile cessation of hostilities must cease," UNIFIL said.

On Monday the force had urged "accelerated progress" in the Israeli military's withdrawal.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Thursday "extensive" operations by Israeli forces in the south.

It said residents of Qantara fled to a nearby village "following an incursion by Israeli enemy forces into their town".

On Wednesday the NNA said Israeli aircraft struck the eastern Baalbek region, far from the border.