WHO says level of suffering in Israel-Gaza war hard to comprehend
Level of death and suffering ‘hard to fathom’, says WHO
The “level of death and suffering” in the Israel-Gaza war is “hard to fathom”, the World Health Organization has said.
Speaking in Geneva, the organisation’s spokesman Christian Lindmeier said there had been more than 100 strikes on health facilities since the conflict began,
He noted the death tolls of more than 1,400 in Israel, and said the figure of more than 10,000 people killed in Gaza was “a half percent of the population”.
“An average of about 160 children are killed every day. Nothing justifies the horror being endured by the civilians in Gaza.”
Earlier, Lindmeier said people in Gaza were having operations, including amputations, without anaesthesia.
- Earlier, dozens were reported killed by Israeli air strikes in the southern Gazan cities of Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir al-Balah
- The Israel Defense Forces have not commented on the strikes – but said they took control of a Hamas stronghold in northern Gaza in recent fighting
- In Israel, people across the country are marking one month since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, which saw 1,400 people, mostly civilians, killed, and more than 200 people taken hostage
- More than 10,300 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas-run health ministry, including more than 4,100 children
Gaza: who lives there and why it has been blockaded for so long
Most people in the strip, once part of Palestine, are refugees or their descendants, expelled during the creation of Israel in 1948
The Gaza Strip, a narrow slice of land on the Mediterranean Sea, is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, inhabited by approximately 2.3m Palestinians.
Historically part of the geographical region of Palestine, it was a vital coastal location for centuries, linking Asia with Europe, and has been controlled by the Ottoman and then the British empires and, more recently, been under Egyptian and Israeli military occupations.
Where is Gaza?
The strip is wedged between the sea to the west, Israel to the north and east, and Egypt’s Sinai peninsula to the south. Gaza is geographically disconnected from the other Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, and Palestinians cannot freely travel between the two.
Report: Saudi Arabia-ATP talks could change men’s tennis
The association that runs men’s tennis, the ATP, is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia to launch a tournament that would send the world’s top players to Riyadh just before the Australian Open.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is reportedly in discussions with Saudi Arabia to engineer a dramatic change to the start of the men’s tennis season.
According to British newspaper, The Times, Saudi Arabia is keen to host a new Masters 1000 tournament just a week before the Australian Open. It would likely have a profound impact on the first Grand Slam of the year.
Masters series events are considered the second-most important tier of tournaments behind the Grand Slam majors. A new January Masters event would undoubtedly see warm-up tournaments in Australia lose most of the top names in men’s tennis, and much of their ability to draw fans as a result.
French-Algerian activist sentenced in absentia for fleeing to France
An Algerian court on Tuesday sentenced French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui to 10 years in prison, media reported, in a case that sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Bouraoui, who fled to France through Tunisia in February, was sentenced in absentia for an “illegal exit from the territory”, one of the defence lawyers told Algerian media.
Journalist Mustapha Bendjama, who was accused of helping her escape, was also sentenced to six months in prison — time he had already served, following his arrest in February.
Bendjama was due to be released on Tuesday after having already served nine months of “arbitrary detention“, said Khaled Drareni, the North Africa representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
25 alleged fraudsters detained in Cambodia to be extradited to Japan
Twenty-five Japanese nationals detained in September in Cambodia for allegedly running a phone scam operation out of a Phnom Penh apartment will soon be extradited to Japan for arrest, investigative sources said Tuesday.
Investigators from several Japanese prefectural police authorities were dispatched to the Cambodian capital to facilitate the transfer which will take place on Wednesday at the earliest. Damage from the alleged fraud scheme is thought to run to at least hundreds of millions of yen, the sources said.
The Japanese nationals detained by Cambodian authorities are men ranging from 20 to 42 years old. Investigators are trying to uncover the full extent of the operation including the group’s hierarchy, the sources said.
Developing countries owe China at least $1.1 trillion – and the debts are due
Developing countries owe Chinese lenders at least $1.1 trillion, according to a new data analysis published Monday, which says more than half of the thousands of loans China has doled out over two decades are due as many borrowers struggle financially.
Overdue loan repayments to Chinese lenders are soaring, according to AidData, a university research lab at William & Mary in Virginia, which found that nearly 80% of China’s lending portfolio in the developing world is currently supporting countries in financial distress.
For years, Beijing marshalled its finances toward funding infrastructure across poorer countries – including under an effort that Chinese leader Xi Jinping branded as his flagship “Belt and Road Initiative,” which launched a decade ago this fall.
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