Archive for ‘Middle East’

01/10/2024

Gaza: Israeli Attacks Devastate Lives of Children with Disabilities

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Explosive Weapons, Unlawful Blockade Inflict Profound Trauma, Suffering

A woman holds her young son in her lap
Muhammad Haitham Hammad, a 6-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, and his mother, Marwa Atef Khalil Hammad, 27, in a tent after they were displaced, following the Israeli military’s order directing civilians to evacuate from the north of Gaza to the south, September 5, 2024. Muhammad experiences recurrent seizures and was not getting regular access to his medication. © 2024 Ahmad AL lulu for Human Rights Watch

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government’s attacks and unlawful blockade against Gazahave inflicted profound trauma and suffering on Palestinian children, especially those with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 30 September 2024.

.The Israeli military’s extensive use of explosive weapons has caused serious injuries resulting in permanent disabilities and lifelong scarring for children in Gaza.

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01/10/2024

Losing Out on School: How Conflict and Hunger Rob Children of Their Futures

Human Wrongs Watch

By World Food Programme*

Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah
Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah

In her village in Sudan’s West Darfur region, Samar once eagerly attended class, especially math, her favorite. Today, she lives in a teeming refugee site just across the border in Chad, fetching water and milling sorghum so her family can survive.

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01/10/2024

Lebanon: Over One Million People Uprooted by Ongoing and Deadly Israeli Airstrikes, amid Fears of a Full-Scale Invasion

Human Wrongs Watch

By Daniel Johnson

(UN News)* — More than one million people across Lebanon have been uprooted by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, including one reported early Monday [] morning in a residential area of central Beirut, adding to fears of a full-scale invasion. 

People gather around a bombed building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
© UNICEF/Dar Al Mussawir | People gather around a bombed building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
 
In a situation update published on Monday the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 11 health workers had been killed and 10 injured between 17 and 28 September.
 
Some 37 health centres have been forced to close due to the fighting out of 317 in total, and three hospitals treating patients have been evacuated.
30/09/2024

It’s Time for Rich Polluters to Pay for the Climate Crisis They Created

Human Wrongs Watch

NEW YORK, Sep 30 2024 (IPS)** The world is standing at a critical juncture. Climate change is not just a future threat—it’s here, and it’s already devastating lives. From record-breaking heat waves to floods and landslides, the planet is sending us clear signals that we cannot afford to ignore.
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Nakabuye speaks to a crowd of over one thousand at the Youth Climate Strike rally in New York City on September 20, 2024.

But for many of us in the Global South, this crisis is not new. It is a daily reality that we have been living with for years, despite contributing almost nothing to the problem.

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29/09/2024

Italian Authorities Punish Geo Barents Rescue Ship with Two Detention Orders

Human Wrongs Watch

Rotation 66 - Geo Barents

ROME, 25 September 2024 – The Italian authorities imposed yet another punitive measure on the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for performing its legal and humanitarian duty to save lives at sea.

This time, the vessel received two separate detention orders, immediately after the Geo Barents had finished disembarking 206 survivors in Genoa, in northern Italy.

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28/09/2024

EU President Overlooks Rights in New Commissioners’ Mandates

Human Wrongs Watch

By Philippe Dam, EU Director, Advocacy | Human Rights Watch*

Von der Leyen’s Neglect of Rights Persists as She Addresses the Incoming EU Executive

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, holds a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on March 22, 2024.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, holds a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on March 22, 2024. © 2024 Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via AP Photo

26 September 2024 — There is a stand-alone article in the European Union’s founding Treaty that puts human rights at the core of EU foreign policy.

There are authoritative guidelines and a comprehensive action plan on human rights and democracy, adopted by EU governments, to guide the bloc’s external actions.

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28/09/2024

Tanzania’s Maasai Women Adopt Climate-Smart Solutions To Tame Drought

Human Wrongs Watch

 
MVOMERO, Tanzania, Sep 24 2024 (IPS)* In the scorching sun of Mikese village in Tanzania’s eastern Mvomero district, 31-year-old Maria Naeku tirelessly tends to her small vegetable patch. Each time she pulls a weed, the red soil stains her hands as she guides the trickle of water from a maze of pipes through an elevated bed to nurture her plants. In a drought-stricken area, Naeku’s small garden is a lifeline for her family, giving them food and income.
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Maria Naeku, a Maasaiwoman in Mikese village in Mvomero district tends to her vegetable garden.Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

Maria Naeku, a Maasaiwoman in Mikese village in Mvomero district tends to her vegetable garden.Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

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27/09/2024

‘Tragedy Upon Tragedy’ in Lebanon as Death and Displacement mount – UNICEF

Human Wrongs Watch

The intensity of the present conflict in Lebanon has already claimed the lives of more children per day than the 2006 conflict.

On February 22, 2024, friends of Hassan Al Durr, a 5-year-old girl killed in an airstrike, visit the aftermath of the deadly airstrike that claimed her life. Majdal Zoun, Southern Lebanon.
UNICEF/UNI561764/SánchezOn February 22, 2024, friends of Hassan Al Durr, a 5-year-old girl killed in an airstrike, visit the aftermath of the deadly airstrike that claimed her life. Majdal Zoun, Southern Lebanon.

BEIRUT, 26 September 2024 (UNICEF)* – The average number of children killed per day in Lebanon this week is more than double the number of children killed per day during the country’s devastating 2006 conflict.

An estimated 400 children, or about 12 children per day, were killed during the 33-day 2006 conflict[1].

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27/09/2024

Lebanon: 90,000 Displaced in 72 Hours

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — A new humanitarian crisis is unfolding at Lebanon’s border with Syria as thousands of people flee Israeli shelling linked to the war in Gaza, UN humanitarians said on Thursday [], just as Israel premier Benyamin Netanyahu arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly.

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Smoke billows from a site targeted by shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Zaita.
© UNICEF/Dar Al Mussawir | Smoke billows from a site targeted by shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Zaita.
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Only hours earlier, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council that “hell is breaking loose in Lebanon” along the UN-patrolled line of separation, with exchanges of fire greater in “scope, depth and intensity” than previously.
27/09/2024

Gaza: A Million Palestinians in Need of Shelter Aid Before Winter

Human Wrongs Watch

By the Norwegian Refugee Council*

With the amount of aid Israel is currently allowing into Gaza, it will take humanitarian agencies more than two years to deliver the kits needed to prepare tents, makeshift shelters and damaged homes south of Wadi Gaza for this coming winter, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council-led Shelter Cluster in Palestine.

Makeshift site in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photo credit: Alison Ely / Palestine Shelter Cluster

25 September 2024 — At least 25,000 sealing-off kits, the equivalent of 25 truckloads, must be delivered per week to southern Gaza before the end of November, to meet the vast needs.

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