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Japan to restart funding to UN Palestinian refugee agency
Tokyo, Japan--Japan is preparing to resume funding to the UN's crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said. Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000...
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Israeli troops shoot dead three Palestinians in West Bank
Residents told AFP that Israeli forces entered Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp just after midnight (2200 GMT on Tuesday) and raided several houses. The area in the northern West Bank is a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the frequent target of Israeli military incursions. -
Israeli troops bulldoze, desecrate Palestinian graves in Gaza
Palestinian Territories - Even the dead are not spared by the Hamas-Israel war raging in Gaza, with bodies dug up by Israeli troops and hurried burials happening in hospitals and even a school. In Gaza City's Al-Tuffah district, shrouded corpses of Palestinians torn from their graves lay atop muddied earth.... -
Two Tunisian teenage migrants die in shipping container
Last week, the national guard announced the disappearance at sea of about 40 Tunisians who left from Sfax province, on Tunisia's central coast, who were trying to reach Italy, whose island of Lampedusa lies around 150 kilometers (90 miles) away. In 2023, more than 155,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy,... -
Gaza death toll tops 21,507 as Israel continues bombing
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 21,507 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since war with Israel broke out nearly 12 weeks ago. The figure includes 187 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said. It added that 55,915 people have been wounded... -
Israeli troops shoot two Palestinians dead in West Bank
A resident from the camp told AFP that troops stormed the camp from its southern and northern entrances. "The two men were killed just outside their homes," he said, asking to remain anonymous over security concerns. -
Israeli evacuation diktat leaves Gaza without safe zone, says UN body
Israel's latest evacuation order for civilians in the central Gaza Strip would force them to relocate to areas "where there are ongoing air strikes", the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said. In the evacuation order, the Israeli army instructed residents in the Bureij refugee camp and surrounding areas to head... -
Gaza refugee camps: born during first Arab-Israeli war
Over 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is referred to by Palestinians as the "Nakba" (catastrophe in Arabic). Around 180,000 fled to Gaza, with the rest scattered across the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries, specifically Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. -
Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kill 15 Palestinians, says Hamas
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 15 people were killed when a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians was hit by an Israeli strike. "The massacre at the Al-Fakhura school committed by the occupation (Israel) left 15 martyrs and 70 wounded," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told... -
Aid groups urge Gaza safe zones amid Israeli invasion threat
Jerusalem - International aid groups and major powers have pleaded with Israel to set up safe zones in Gaza where thousands struggled on Saturday to get out of the north of the Palestinian territory, under threat of attack. With thousands of Israeli troops massed around Gaza's borders, uncertainty over when... -
Israeli forces kill two Palestinian fighters in occupied West Bank
Tulkarem, Palestinian Territories - Israeli forces killed two Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the Israeli army confirmed its soldiers had been engaged in a shootout. The army also said five Israeli police officers were wounded by an explosive device in a... -
Palestinian fighters in Lebanon camp agree on truce
SIDON, LEBANON - Palestinian fighters agreed a new ceasefire on Thursday after more than a week of deadly violence in Lebanon's largest refugee camp, two Palestinian officials told AFP. At least 17 people have been killed and around 100 wounded in the fighting in Ain al-Helweh refugee camp, on the outskirts... -
Syria’s ancient adobe houses threatened by war, displacement
"Village Umm Amuda Kabira in Aleppo once had 3,000 to 3,500 residents and some 200 mud houses," said Mahmud al-Mheilej, standing beside deserted homes with weeds growing out of the roofs. "Everyone left" after the region saw heavy fighting and was overrun by Islamic State group jihadists. -
EU official denounces Israel for attacking West Bank refugee camp
A European envoy blasted Israel over the "proportionality" of the force it uses, as international envoys toured Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank following this week's deadly raid. His remarks echoed UN chief Antonio Guterres who had said, "there was an excessive force used by Israeli forces" in... -
KSA, US confirm direct talks between Sudan factions
However, fighting continues in the Sudanese capital, where the conflict has already claimed around 700 lives and displaced nearly 450,000 civilians, reports suggest. -
Home demolitions for road widening sparks anger in Gaza
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories--Ramadan Abu Saif looked on as bulldozers ploughed into his neighbor's Gaza City home, knowing his could be next as an infrastructure project surges forward in the impoverished Palestinian enclave. Last month, Hamas that governs Gaza began demolishing 62 houses at Al-Shati refugee camp as they widen the... -
Anger among Palestinians spreads after Israel raid that killed nine
The operation, which Israel said targeted Palestinian fighters planning an attack, killed nine people and for Palestinians recalled the bloodshed of the second intifada or uprising between 2000 and 2005, when Jenin was plagued by fighting. -
UN agency for Palestinian refugees needs $1.6 bn for vital works in 2023
The agency warned that most Palestinian refugees now live below the poverty line and a growing number are dependent on UNRWA for assistance, sometimes for their "sheer survival". -
Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran ‘against’ Ukraine war
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that "we are against the war in Ukraine, just as we are against the war in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Iraq, or in any other part of the world. -
Lebanon tells military to probe deadly migrant boat capsize
Families have reported at least 23 still missing, all women and children while Lebanese govt asked armed forces to investigate the deadly boat capsize. -
Ship rescues 128 migrants, finds two dead In Mediterranean
Migrants from African countries ravaged by war and poverty, make desperate bids to reach Europe through Mediterranean sea which is the world's deadliest migration route. -
Ukraine invasion shows democracy is shaking: Artist
What Ai Weiwei calls the current "crisis of human rights and freedom of speech" is portrayed in a life-size replica of the cell where he was held after his 2011 arrest by the Chinese police. -
Warsaw seeks NATO ‘peace mission’ to help Ukraine
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki again called on the EU to "very quickly give Ukraine candidate status". -
Deadly strikes rock Ukraine despite talks with Russia
With Russia threatening to take ‘full control’ of several major cities in Ukraine, the fourth round of talks failed to deliver a breakthrough on the 19th day of the invasion, even as the US tried to talk down China from helping its neighbor. -
Russia invasion of Ukraine risks displacing over 7 million: EU
According to the UN, if the war continued, there will be around 18 million Ukrainians that will be affected in humanitarian terms. -
Cyprus minister blames Turkey for migration ’emergency’
Around 4.6 percent of the country's population now are asylum seekers or beneficiaries of protection, the highest ratio in the EU. -
Norway vows to increase funding for UNRWA
Norway's Minister has called on other donors as well to increase their funding for UNRWA. -
UNHCR partners with Qatari climber for refugee welfare
The UNHCR announced the partnership with Qatari athlete Sheikha Asma Al-Thani in a statement on its official website. -
Lebanon residents join migrant flow to EU as economy spirals
Lebanon, a country of around 6 million people, is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is on a scale usually associated with wars. The currency has crashed, people's purchasing power has plummeted, and the monthly minimum wage is now worth $22. -
Qatar Charity signs $500k UNHCR deal to support Yemen refugees
After more than six years of the conflict in Yemen, it remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with over 20 million people in need of aid. -
UNRWA calls for long-term funds to help refugees in Palestine
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has acknowledged that stagnating donor funding for close to a decade remained below the amount needed to provide quality services. At the same time, as the refugee population continued to grow, poverty and vulnerabilities skyrocketed. -
Iraq works with Belarus to drop fines on refugees stranded on border
The feat is said to have been achieved due to efforts from Iraq’s embassy in Moscow and ‘in coordination’ with Belarus. -
Iraq economy outlook bleak after droughts and war, says study
The United Nations says about one-third of Iraq's population lives in poverty, despite the country's oil wealth. The effects of low rainfall have been exacerbated as the levels of the country's two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, drop because of upstream dams in neighboring Iran and Turkey. -
Qatar Red Crescent Society and Jordan to treat Syrian refugees, underprivileged
Hammadi talked about Boosting joint efforts in terms of mobilizing resources and support in Qatar to contribute to the treatment of these patients. -
HRW urges Lebanon to extend school registration deadline for Syrian kids
Lebanon's Education Ministry should extend the December 4, 2021, school registration deadline for Syrian children and end policies that are blocking Syrian refugee children’s access to education, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Thousands of Syrian refugee children have been out of school, blocked by policies that require certified educational... -
Climate change a double blow for oil-rich Mideast: experts
The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unlivable extremes. -
Jordan talks economic cooperation with Denmark
Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nasser Shraideh, have held discussions with Danish Minister of Development Cooperation Flemming Mortensen and his accompanying delegation to increase cooperation that may increase the volume of joint trade between the two countries. -
Abdulrazak Gurnah wins literature Nobel Prize
The Nobel Committee said the theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout the work of Gurnah, and he was awarded the prize ‘for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.’ -
Syrian workers head home as Lebanon collapses
The World Bank has already called Lebanon’s economic crisis one of the worst in the world since the mid-1800s. -
UAE agrees to temporarily host 5,000 Afghans
The move comes following a request from the United States to help out Afghan evacuees.