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Items by Reuters
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Gaza teen amputee recalls nightmare of losing arms in Israel strike
Teenager Diaa Al-Adini was one of the few Palestinians who found a functioning hospital in war-ravaged Gaza after he was wounded by an Israeli strike. But he did not have much time to recuperate after doctors amputated both of his arms. Al-Adini, 15, suddenly had to flee the overwhelmed...
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What’s behind the war that has driven Sudan to famine?
A civil war that erupted in Sudan in April last year has unleashed waves of ethnic violence, created the world’s largest internal displacement crisis and pushed at least one area in Darfur into famine. What triggered the violence? Tensions had been building for months before fighting between Sudan’s army...
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Somalia’s bomb disposal experts face down fear to save lives
Wearing a bulky protective suit and helmet, Mohamed Ahmed inches towards the truck where explosives wired to a mobile phone have been planted in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Fortunately for Ahmed, a police officer, this is a training exercise and the device is a dummy. Bombings using this technique, or...
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Girls in Gaza cut off their hair for lack of combs
When girls complain to Gaza paediatrician Lobna Al-Azaiza that they have no comb, she tells them to cut off their hair. It’s not just combs. Israel’s blockade of the territory, ravaged by ten months of war, means there is little or no shampoo, soap, period products or household cleaning...
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Haniyeh’s last words: ‘If a leader leaves, another will come’
As if he knew his time had come, Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh’s last words to Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Ali Khamenei, before he was assassinated in Tehran were a Koranic verse about life, death, immortality and resilience. It is Allah who gives life and causes death. And Allah is all-aware...
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Khaled Meshaal, who survived Israeli assassination attempt, tipped to be new Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal, tipped to be the new Hamas leader, became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The hit against a key senior figure of the Palestinian...
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Hamas leaders and operatives: assassinations and attempted assassinations
The head of the Hamas Political Bureau, and former Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran early on Wednesday, said the Palestinian resistance movement, drawing fears of wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon. Israel has sought...
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Haniyeh was the pragmatic leader of Hamas
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was assassinated in what the group said was a “Zionist raid” in Iran, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli air strike. But despite...
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Olympics – At Paris 2024, Israeli and Palestinian athletes joust over Gaza war
As Israeli and Palestinian judoists hit the tatami mats at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, the war raging in their homeland was at the front of their minds, Reuters reports. Two athletes – one from each side – fought and lost to separate opponents. But, once defeated, they gave...
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Calculating Gaza’s death toll
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes. The official Ministry of Health announced today that 39,175 Palestinians had been killed in Israel’s offensive. How is...
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Tougher tone on Israel, steady on NATO: how a Harris foreign policy could look
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to stick largely to Joe Biden’s foreign policy playbook on key issues such as Ukraine, China and Iran but could strike a tougher tone with Israel over the Gaza war if she replaces the President at the top of the Democratic ticket and wins the US...
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Who are Yemen’s Houthis?
An apparent drone attack – claimed by Yemen’s Houthi group – hit central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, killing one man and slightly wounding four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said. The explosion, which did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the...
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Israel plans ‘energy islands’ to build resilience in times of war
Maale Gilboa is a remote kibbutz on a rocky hilltop in northern Israel, and was an unlikely spot to build a farming community let alone the future of Israel’s energy supply. However, its experience in adopting renewable energy and building energy storage solutions has put it at the forefront...
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Squeezed by Israel, Palestinian Authority role fades in West Bank
Roads torn up months ago by Israeli army bulldozers in Jenin Refugee Camp remain impassable because the Palestinian Authority cannot afford to fix them. Government employees are being paid a fraction of their salaries, and health services are collapsing. These are all signs of a deep financial crisis that...
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FACTBOX – How much has US-built Gaza aid pier helped get aid into Gaza?
A US-built pier designed to increase flows of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip has been beset by challenges and is now expected to be permanently dismantled. US officials have said they will attempt to reinstall the pier to clear a backlog of Gaza-bound aid in Cyprus, and that...
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Pagers and drones: How Hezbollah aims to counter Israel’s high-tech surveillance
Coded messages. Landline phones. Pagers. Following the killing of senior commanders in targeted Israeli airstrikes, the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, has been using some low-tech strategies to try to evade its foe’s sophisticated surveillance technology, informed sources told Reuters. It has also been using its own tech – drones –...
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ICC Prosecutor opted for warrants over visit to Gaza
On 20 May, the same day International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Karim Khan, made a surprise request for warrants to arrest the leaders of Israel and Hamas involved in the Gaza conflict, he suddenly cancelled a sensitive mission to collect evidence in the region, eight people with direct knowledge of...
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Feeding Gaza: Traders run a gauntlet of bullets, bombs and bribes
Mohammed describes a delivery job from hell. “I get screwed on every shipment,” the Palestinian trader told Reuters. He said that he has to fork out more than $14,000 for each truck of food he brings into the besieged Gaza Strip to pay for sky-high transport costs, bribes to...
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Israel’s next problem: who will run post-war Gaza?
The plan for post-war Gaza that Israel has pitched to its US allies is to run the Strip in cooperation with powerful local Palestinian clans. However, there’s a problem: in a place where Hamas still wields ruthless influence, nobody wants to be seen talking to the enemy. Israel is...
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FACTBOX – US officials who have resigned in protest over Biden’s Gaza policy
President Joe Biden’s support for Israel during its nearly nine-month war in Gaza has spurred at least nine US administration officials to quit, with some accusing the US President of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian enclave. The Biden administration denies this, pointing to its criticism of civilian casualties in Gaza...
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FACTBOX – Shipping firms respond to Houthi attacks in Red Sea
Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by the Houthis have disrupted a shipping route vital to east-west trade, with prolonged rerouting of shipments pushing freight rates higher and causing congestion in Asian and European ports. Below are actions taken by some shipping companies (in alphabetical order): CMA CGM The French...
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UK campaigners seek to harness Gaza anger among Muslim voters
Shanaz Saddique is one of a surge of pro-Palestinian candidates hoping to mobilise Muslim votes at Britain’s 4 July General Election by tapping into discontent over the two main political parties’ positions on Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza. She is standing as a candidate to be elected...
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Lebanon Hezbollah reveals more of its arms in risky escalation
Hezbollah is drawing on more of its arsenal in its conflict with Israel, even as it declares no interest in a full-scale war, an escalation that analysts believe aims to deter Israel from a wider confrontation but which could also risk igniting one. Sparked by the Gaza war, the...
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Qatar is treating some of the Palestinians wounded in Gaza
Shahed Al-Kotati, one of a number of Palestinians wounded in Israel’s war in Gaza who are receiving medical care in Qatar, hopes that by next year, she’ll be able to walk on her own using a prosthetic limb. Al-Kotati’s home in Gaza was bombed in October. She and her...