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Israeli forces storm shelters, detain men, as north Gaza raid deepens

Israeli forces storm shelters, detain men, as north Gaza raid deepens
TOPSHOT - Israeli soldiers disembark from a tank as they patrol along the Israel-Gaza border area on October 21, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
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Updated 21 October 2024

Israeli forces storm shelters, detain men, as north Gaza raid deepens

Israeli forces storm shelters, detain men, as north Gaza raid deepens
  • Medics at the Indonesian Hospital told Reuters that Israeli troops stormed a school and detained the men before setting the facility ablaze

CAIRO: Israeli forces blew up homes and besieged schools and shelters for displaced people on Monday as they deepened their operations in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and medics said.
They also rounded up men and ordered women to leave the camp, they said.
Medics at the Indonesian Hospital told Reuters that Israeli troops stormed a school and detained the men before setting the facility ablaze. The fire reached the hospital generators and caused a power outage, they added.
Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army, which began a new incursion into the north of the Palestinian territory over two weeks ago, to evacuate the three hospitals in the area or leave the patients unattended.
Troops remained outside the hospital but did not enter, they said. Medics at a second hospital, Kamal Adwan, reported heavy Israeli fire near the hospital at night.
“The army is burning the schools next to the hospital, and no one can enter or leave the hospital,” said one nurse at the Indonesian Hospital, who asked not to be named.
Palestinian health officials said 18 people had been killed in Jabalia and eight elsewhere in Gaza in Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said troops were continuing ground operations across the Gaza Strip. It said in a statement that over the past day, troops had dismantled militant infrastructure and tunnel shafts and killed fighters in the Jabaliya area. It did not comment on the immediate situation regarding the hospitals and camps.
Israel has intensified its campaigns both in Gaza and Lebanon days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire talks to end more than a year of conflict.
Israel has vowed to eradicate the Hamas militants who formerly controlled Gaza, but in doing so has laid waste to much of the territory and killed tens of thousands of people. More than 1.9 million people have been left homeless amid a humanitarian crisis.
Running out
Hadeel Obeid, a supervisor nurse at the Indonesian hospital, where 32 patients are currently being treated, said they were running out of medical supplies.
“Sterile gauze is going to finish and there are no medications to give them,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
Obeid said the water supply has been cut off and there was food for the fourth consecutive day. She appealed to international organizations to take action to save the wounded.
The United Nations said it had been unable to reach the three hospitals in northern Gaza. It demand access to allow aid into northern Gaza areas.
The UN Human Rights Office said it was “increasingly concerned that the manner in which the Israeli military is conducting hostilities in North Gaza, along with unlawful interference with humanitarian assistance and orders that are leading to forced displacement, may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governate through death and displacement.”
Israel says it is getting large quantities of humanitarian supplies into Gaza with land deliveries and airdrops. It also says it has facilitated the evacuation of patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Palestinians say no aid entered northern Gaza areas where the operation is active.
Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps, which it encircled by sending tanks to the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents.
“We are facing death by bombs, by thirst and hunger,” said Raed, a resident of Jabalia camp. “Jabalia is being wiped out and there is no witness to the crime, the world is blinding its eyes,“
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas. It said forces operating in northern Gaza killed scores of Hamas gunmen and dismantled infrastructure
Hamas accused Israel of carrying out acts of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” against the people of northern Gaza to force them to leave.
The Hamas armed wing said fighters attacked forces there with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire, and detonated already planted bombs against troops inside tanks and stationed in houses.
Elsewhere in the enclave, Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and four in two separate strikes in Gaza City, medics said.
Sinwar was one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7, 2003, cross-border attack on Israeli communities that killed around 1,200 people, with another 253 taken back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.


Anger at fate of Istanbul’s legendary train station

Anger at fate of Istanbul’s legendary train station
Updated 7 sec ago

Anger at fate of Istanbul’s legendary train station

Anger at fate of Istanbul’s legendary train station
Today the tracks lie silent at what was Turkiye’s busiest station, the great eastern hub of the Berlin to Baghdad railway
The picturesque railway station perched right on the water was inaugurated in 1908 at the end of the Ottoman Empire as Europe’s gateway to the East

ISTANBUL: When Senay Kartal worked at Turkiye’s most beautiful railway station, her days were filled with the rumble of locomotives and the bustle of passengers at Haydarpasa on the banks of the Bosphorus.
But gone are the days when passengers from Anatolia would walk its marble halls, suitcases in hand, marvelling at the grandiose landmark on Istanbul’s Asian waterfront.
Today the tracks lie silent at what was Turkiye’s busiest station, the great eastern hub of the Berlin to Baghdad railway.
Once immortalized in old Turkish films and portrayed in numerous novels, the station has been taken over by the Turkish culture ministry which wants to transform it into an art center.
Yet for the 61-year-old retiree, who still hears the echo of whistles and the cries of simit sellers hawking their sesame-coated bread rings, the iconic building should remain a railway station.
“People would step off the train and we had waiting halls where they could stay the night — there was no need for a hotel,” recalled Kartal.
“It was such a beautiful place, there was so much movement and energy, people were full of excitement and joy. That beauty no longer exists today,” she told AFP.
“I gave 38 years of my life to Haydarpasa, and yet even to me, its doors are closed.”

-’Personal memories’-

The picturesque railway station perched right on the water was inaugurated in 1908 at the end of the Ottoman Empire as Europe’s gateway to the East.
It has witnessed some of the most turbulent and tragic moments in Turkiye’s history, surviving the collapse of empire, World War I, the deportation of the Armenians, military coups, earthquakes and a devastating fire.
“Haydarpasa has witnessed many historic events throughout its history including the influx of migrants from rural Turkiye to Istanbul,” said Ayca Yuksel, a researcher, sociologist and author of books about Haydarpasa.
“That’s why it holds a special place in the memories of people who experienced this migration. We see reflections of this in literature, art and cinema,” she told AFP.
But today it lacks the very thing that gave it life: trains.
Since 2013, Hadarpasa has been closed — initially for restoration, then by an archaeological excavation that unearthed artifacts dating back to the fifth century BC, which is still ongoing.

-’Exploiting beauty for profit’ -

Last year the station was handed over to the culture ministry, with the first phase of the new arts center to be finished next year.
That involves emptying out the entire building, even though part of the complex is still used as housing for railway staff, who have been told they must leave.
“This isn’t just a building, it’s everything to us,” said train driver Hasan Bektas, a union member who belongs to the Haydarpasa Platform — a group of academics, urban planners and railway staff who are protesting against the government’s plans.
For Bektas, it’s clear the lucrative waterside location has whetted the appetite of investors.
“Their aim has always been the same: to turn every beautiful place into profit — to strip it of value and cash in. The public’s interests were never part of the equation. That’s what we’re against,” he told AFP.
In October 2024, Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy pledged it would continue functioning as a station.
“There will be trains... a cultural and arts center, and a public garden. But there will never be a shopping mall or hotel here,” he said.

- ‘A world-renowned icon’ -

Back in the early 2000s, there were bold plans floated for the site — it would house seven skyscrapers, a new World Trade Center, an Olympic Stadium; some even spoke of a Venice-style makeover.
“But the building itself is already a world-renowned icon. No one ever fought to keep it exactly as it was, in its original form,” said Bektas, clearly furious.
Every Sunday, protesters gather near the station shouting: “Haydarpasa is a train station and must stay that way.”
Although Nehir Guner was just a child when the station closed, the 22-year-old student would gaze at it every time she caught a ferry to university and wonder about its future, eventually joining the protests.
“Railways are so important for a city, we want this to remain a train station,” she said.
“It’s painfully clear the art center project is all for show — designed to impress, not serve any real purpose.”
Architect Gul Koksal said Haydarpasa, with its lodgings, repair workshops and nearby port, was much more than just a station and had a unique place in Turkish cultural memory.
“It’s like a jewel — but it has meaning only if it’s preserved and kept alive with everything that makes it.”

Turkiye bans French singer’s concert after protest calls over his pro-Israeli stance

Turkiye bans French singer’s concert after protest calls over his pro-Israeli stance
Updated 24 min 1 sec ago

Turkiye bans French singer’s concert after protest calls over his pro-Israeli stance

Turkiye bans French singer’s concert after protest calls over his pro-Israeli stance
  • Macias’ performance has been banned “after intense calls for protests against the concert”
  • Any protests around the concert venue in Istanbul’s Sisli district on Friday were also banned

ANKARA: Turkish authorities have banned a concert of Enrico Macias, a French singer of Algerian-Jewish origin, after calls for protest over his pro-Israeli stance.
The Istanbul governor’s office late on Wednesday said that Macias’ performance scheduled for Friday evening in the city has been banned “after intense calls for protests against the concert.”
Such protests would place protesters “in an unjust position legally, and cause grievances,” the office said in a statement.
Any protests around the concert venue in Istanbul’s Sisli district on Friday were also banned by the governor.
NATO member Turkiye has fiercely criticized Israel over its actions in Gaza and says it is committing genocide there. It has halted all trade with Israel, called for international measures against it, and has repeatedly urged world powers to stop supporting Israel.
Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza, where its offensive has killed more than 63,000, amount to genocide.


Syrian authorities arrest Assad-era war-crimes suspect

Syrian authorities arrest Assad-era war-crimes suspect
Updated 52 min 34 sec ago

Syrian authorities arrest Assad-era war-crimes suspect

Syrian authorities arrest Assad-era war-crimes suspect
  • Hussein Kalla Shukr was captured after a citizen reported his location in the Mediterranean region of Latakia
  • Investigations revealed his participation in mutilating the bodies of Syrians while serving in militias linked to the Assad regime

LONDON: Authorities in the Syrian Arab Republic arrested a suspect from the Assad era for war crimes against civilians committed during the country's civil strife after 2011.

The Internal Security Command announced on Thursday that it had arrested Hussein Kalla Shukr — a former regime member accused of involvement in war crimes — in the Mediterranean region of Latakia.

The ministry said that Shukr was captured after a citizen reported his location, and he has been referred to the Counterterrorism Directorate for further investigation pending trial.

Investigations uncovered his alleged participation in the mutilation of the bodies of Syrians while serving in militias linked to the Assad regime. After the regime collapsed in December 2024, Shukr reportedly formed a gang that was involved in drug trafficking and theft of public property, according to the ministry.


Pope Leo raises ‘tragic situation in Gaza’ in meeting with Israeli president

Pope Leo raises ‘tragic situation in Gaza’ in meeting with Israeli president
Updated 04 September 2025

Pope Leo raises ‘tragic situation in Gaza’ in meeting with Israeli president

Pope Leo raises ‘tragic situation in Gaza’ in meeting with Israeli president
  • The pontiff also called for the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, the statement said
  • Leo has in the past taken a more cautious tone than Francis when speaking about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo discussed the “tragic situation in Gaza” during a meeting on Thursday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and called for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, the Vatican said.
The pontiff also called for the release of the remaining hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the statement said, and reiterated the Vatican’s support for a two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“A prompt resumption of negotiations was hoped for ... to secure the release of all hostages, urgently achieve a permanent ceasefire, facilitate the safe entry of humanitarian aid into the most affected areas, and ensure full respect for humanitarian law,” said the statement.
Herzog had earlier thanked Leo for the meeting on Thursday in a post on X, and said he had received a “warm welcome” at the Vatican.
“Religious leaders and all who choose the path of peace must stand together in calling for the immediate release of the hostages as a first and essential step toward a better future for the entire region,” said the president.
The Vatican did not immediately release further details about the meeting and did not say how long Leo and Herzog had spent together.
The Vatican released photos of the leaders greeting each other in the Vatican’s apostolic palace. In one image, the two stand posing side-by-side, neither smiling.
Leo, elected by the world’s cardinals in May to replace the late Pope Francis, has in the past taken a more cautious tone than Francis when speaking about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Francis, who had led the Church for 12 years, had become a frequent critic of Israel. He suggested a study into whether Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian people, which sparked sharp criticism from Israeli officials.
Leo has recently stepped up his calls for a halt to the war in Gaza. Last week, he issued what he called a “strong appeal” for an end during his weekly public audience.
Thursday’s release from the Vatican was notably longer than usual for statements about the pope’s meeting with foreign leaders, which typically only offer only a few lines of information and do not give specific details about the topics discussed by the pope.


Seven dead after migrant boat stranded in Med: NGO

Seven dead after migrant boat stranded in Med: NGO
Updated 04 September 2025

Seven dead after migrant boat stranded in Med: NGO

Seven dead after migrant boat stranded in Med: NGO
  • The survivors, the majority of them Sudanese, had been at sea for six days
  • The boat left Libya on August 27 but became stranded in international waters between Tunisia and Malta.

ROME: Seven people were lost at sea and 41 others were brought to Italy’s Lampedusa island after a migrant boat got into difficulty in the Mediterranean, German NGO Sea-Watch said Wednesday.
The survivors, the majority of them Sudanese, had been at sea for six days before landing on Lampedusa late Tuesday. They were rescued by Sea-Watch’s ship Aurora after refusing help from the Tunisian authorities, the NGO said.
According to the testimony of those on board, the boat left Libya on August 27 but became stranded in international waters between Tunisia and Malta.
Seven people were lost in the water.


Tunisian authorities ordered a supply ship operating in the Miskar gas fields to rescue the 41 survivors, and the Tunisian navy turned up days later — but the migrants refused to go with them, a Sea-Watch spokesman told AFP.
“Some of these people would rather die than be forced to Tunisia,” he said.
Sea-Watch, which monitored events with its observation aircraft, said that Malta refused its requests to help but it finally received permission from Tunisian authorities to collect the migrants.
The Aurora took them to Lampedusa, located just 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the Tunisian coast.
Tunisia is a key transit country for thousands of African migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea each year.
In 2023, Tunisia signed a 255-million-euro ($290-million) deal with the European Union, nearly half of which was earmarked for tackling irregular migration.
The deal aimed to bolster Tunisia’s capacity to stop boats leaving its shore, but campaigners say migrants face discrimination, racism and violence in the country.
Italy’s hard-right government backed the Tunisia deal as part of its efforts to stop the boats, which also included restricting the activities of NGO ships.