• Red Cross head says Gaza war ‘ruptured’ shared humanity

    Geneva, Switzerland - The war in Gaza has "ruptured any sense of a shared humanity," the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday. ICRC head Mirjana Spoljaric called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel and Hamas must respect international law and protect civilians caught...
  • Blinken in Israel voices hope for Gaza truce deal to free hostages

    "There's a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted" after a week-long truce in November, he said. The US top envoy, on his fifth Middle East tour since...
  • Hamas postpones hostage release until Israel sticks to ‘terms of agreement’

    Hamas said that it was delaying the release of a second group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners until Israel complies with a truce agreement. The Palestinian group's armed wing said the issues of aid deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip and the selection criteria for prisoner releases...
  • 39 Palestinians freed in exchange for 13 Israeli hostages as truce sets in

    Weeks of talks involving Israel, Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and the US saw three girls and a boy, aged from two to nine besides six women aged over 70 arrive in Israeli territory.
  • Israeli troops arrest chief of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza

    An official in the Hamas-run health ministry specified to AFP that one other doctor and two nurses had been detained, as well as the hospital director. In a statement, Hamas said it "strongly denounces" the arrest of Salmiya and his colleagues, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross...
  • Close to reaching truce deal with Israel: Ismail Haniyeh

    Qatar's prime minister said that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on "minor" practical issues. Under the tentative deal, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel. In exchange, about 300 Palestinians would...
  • Derna counts the cost of Libya flood disaster

    Derna was home to about 100,000 people, and many of its multi-storey buildings on the banks of the riverbed collapsed, with people, their homes and cars vanishing in the raging waters. With global concern about the disaster spreading, several nations offered urgent aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred...
  • Red Cross warns death toll may surge as 10,000 missing in Libya floods

    The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned. Officials in Libya have said at least 150 people were killed in the sudden flooding on Sunday afternoon after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Bulgaria, Greece...
  • Deadliest quake in decades kills over 2,000 in Morocco; rescue bid is on

    Following the devastating earthquake in Morocco on Saturday that killed more than 2,000 people so far, the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria and Israel along with several other countries offered condolences, support, and assistance. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan emphasized solidarity with Morocco and ordered critical relief...
  • Kyrgyzstan repatriates 95 from Syria rebel camps

    Kyrgyzstan has already twice taken back its citizens from Syria or Iraq. In March 2021, 79 children were repatriated while in February this year another 59 women and children were returned. Thousands of people from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia -- Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan --...
  • Migrants stranded on Tunisia-Libya border moved: NGO

    Racial tensions flared into violence against migrants from sub-Saharan African countries in Tunisia's port city of Sfax last week, with hundreds fleeing or being pushed to inhospitable southern desert border areas. "All of the 500 to 700 migrants who were at the Libyan border have been transferred elsewhere," Salsabil Chellali...
  • Flight carrying humanitarian aid from Red Cross lands in Sudan

    KHARTOUM, SUDAN -  A first Red Cross plane laden with humanitarian aid on Sunday landed in Sudan, where deadly clashes between rival generals' forces have entered their third week. "The eight tonnes of humanitarian cargo includes surgical material to support Sudanese hospitals and volunteers from the Sudan Red Crescent Society," the...
  • Saudis among scores of Yemen war prisoners freed on day two of swap

    The first flight of the day took off from the southern Saudi city of Abha before 9:00 am (0600 GMT), headed for Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa with 120 Houthi rebel prisoners, ICRC public affairs and media adviser Jessica Moussan said. It was followed by a flight from Sanaa to Riyadh...
  • Red Cross to cut 1,500 jobs over funding crunch

    GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The Red Cross announced Tuesday that it would cut 1,500 jobs over the next 12 months in a drive to slash costs due to a funding crunch. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said an expected drop in humanitarian assistance budgets over the next two years...
  • ‘Heatwave to make human life unsustainable in certain areas’

    GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - Heatwaves will become so extreme in certain regions of the world within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, the United Nations and the Red Cross said Monday. Heatwaves are predicted to "exceed human physiological and social limits" in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and...
  • ‘The Rock’ diamond goes under the hammer

    The Rock, currently in the hands of an unnamed owner from North America could break records at a sale in Geneva.
  • Red Cross chief Mardini on Iran visit talks Afghans’ plight

    More than one million Afghans have sought refuge in Iran since the Taliban returned to power in August, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA.
  • Senior officer among five Yemen soldiers killed as bomb explodes in Aden

    Some 80 percent of Yemen's population of about 30 million people depends on aid for survival, after years of a conflict that has killed almost 380,000 people, directly or indirectly, according to the UN.
  • Thousands of mourners take part in rabbi’s funeral in Israel

    An estimated three quarters of a million ultra-Orthodox Jews attended the funeral Sunday of influential rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, known to followers as the "Prince of Torah", with Israeli authorities warning of dangers from massive overcrowding.
  • Kuwait Red Crescent Society, ICRC to support relief program for Rohingyas

    Kuwait Red Crescent Society and International Committee of the Red Cross will support and implement a relief medical program for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The two organizations signed a cooperation agreement regarding the same on Wednesday. Chairman of KRCS's Board of Directors Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer stressed the importance of...
  • Saudi Arabia denies targeting Yemen prison

    The spokesman of Saudi led coalition also said the facility was not on the OCHA no-target list.
  • Red Cross hacked

    Hackers seized data of more than 515,000 extremely vulnerable people.
  • Palestine football team eyes Amputee World Cup

    The team is training at the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  • Four dead as forest fires rage in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey

    The fire in Syria spread from Lebanon, while Turkey saw a separate series of blazes; in all, four people have been reported dead.
  • Dubai Islamic Bank donates $1.77 million of Zakat money to ERC programs

    The Dubai Islamic Bank has donated Zakat money worth AED6.5 million to support the program and projects of the Emirates Red Crescent Both sides signed a cooperation agreement to coordinate the distribution of the donation to those eligible to receive Zakat The Emirates Red Crescent, the Islamic world’s equivalent of...