Region

An estimated 3.2mn children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in war-torn Sudan, according to the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef).“Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Eva Hinds, Unicef Sudan’s Head of Advocacy and Communication, said ate on Thursday.Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment. Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and, according to the UN, uprooting 12mn in the world’s largest displacement crisis.Confirming to AFP that 3.2mn children are currently expected to face acute malnutrition, Hinds said “the number of severely malnourished children increased from an estimated 730,000 in 2024 to over 770,000 in 2025.” The IPC expects famine to expand to five more parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region by May — a vast area that has seen some of the conflict’s worst violence. A further 17 areas in western and central Sudan are also at risk of famine, it said.“Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access facilitating a significant scale-up of a multisectoral response, malnutrition is likely to increase in these areas,” Hinds warned.Sudan’s army-aligned government strongly rejected the IPC findings, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence. In October, experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council accused both sides of using “starvation tactics”. On Tuesday the US determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group’s leader. Across the country, more than 24.6mn people — around half the population — face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to IPC, which said: “Only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further”.

Her family had lost hope she would ever return after Islamic State fighters took her and thousands of other Yazidi women and girls as slaves for abuse from Iraq into Syria during their reign of terror.A decade later, 27-year-old Silvana Khider walked for days across Syria as president Bashar al-Assad’s rule came to an end, and was reunited with her sister in Iraq.While she was taken by IS, she spent the last years of her ordeal in Syria’s Idlib province, bastion of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that spearheaded Assad’s fall on December 8.“I am very happy, but also very sad. My father and two of my brothers are dead. My mother and another of my brothers are missing. And I have four sisters in Europe,” said Khider, who wore a black overcoat and her jet-black hair in a bun.Her story echoed that of thousands of other Yazidis whose community in northern Iraq suffered a murderous campaign in 2014 of death, mass physical abuse and enslavement that UN investigators have qualified as genocide.In August that year, IS militants murdered thousands of Yazidi men, and took into neighbouring Syria thousands of women and girls to sell them in markets as wives for militants from around the world.Militants took Khider, who was 17 at the time, from her village in Sinjar province to Tal Afar in northern Iraq.After she tried to escape, they took her to Raqa in Syria, a self-declared IS capital.She ended up in Baghuz, the militants’ last bastion in eastern Syria until their defeat in March 2019 at the hands of a US-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces.“I had no news for 10 years and six months of my sisters, and they knew nothing about me,” Khider said in broken Arabic.Forced to speak Arabic for more than a decade, her native Kurdish has also become poor.“They thought I was dead. They even laid a tomb for me,” she said.It was not entirely clear why she was unable to return home immediately after the defeat of IS in 2019.But she said she spent more than four years in Idlib province, which was ruled by HTS.She said those years were marked by “fear, hunger and aerial bombardment” of the last rebel holdout of Assad’s era.“In Idlib people helped me, there was no IS,” she said, though she added that she lived “alone in a basement”.She said the sheikh of a local mosque helped her — but gave no details on the kind of help she received. Asked whether she was forced to marry, she fell silent and then whispered: “No.” While some Yazidi victims of violence have shared their story publicly, the sheer level of trauma has made it hard for many others to disclose the details of their captivity.Equally unclear were the details of her journey home, which she made with the help of the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, an Iraqi Kurdish body.Beginning her journey during the final days of Assad’s rule, it took Khider five days to cross Syria, she said. First she went to Manbij, a flashpoint Kurdish town in northern Syria. Then she walked by night until she reached Raqa, she said.She kept walking to the Kurdish towns of Hasake and Amuda in eastern Syria, and then a car took her to the Iraqi border.MISSING RELATIVES Yazidi families have told AFP they paid traffickers thousands of dollars for information on their missing loved ones and to try to secure their release.Hussein Qaidi, who heads the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, said IS abducted 6,416 Yazidis.More than 3,500 have since been rescued in Iraq, Syria and Turkiye.One Yazidi woman was repatriated from the Gaza Strip in October. But more than 2,600 Yazidis remain missing, according to data cited by the UN in Iraq. Qaidi told AFP his team had received information on Khider in the days following Assad’s ouster, which allowed them to “contact her and to help to return”.Muluka Khider, Silvana’s sister, recalled receiving a phone call informing her that she was still alive. “A few days later, I spoke with her by phone. It was a great joy,” said Muluka.Muluka too had been kidnapped by IS and taken to Raqa where she was sold in 2018, before she and a group of women escaped.The remains of their father and two brothers were found in a mass grave, she said.“We don’t know what happened to our mother and our other brother. But I don’t think they survived,” she said.

The Qatar Press Center Friday condemned in the strongest terms the assassination of Al-Ghad TV photojournalist Saed Abu Nabhan by an Israeli sniper while covering the ongoing aggression on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, bringing the number of journalist martyrs in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023, to date to 204, including male and female journalists.The center in a statement Friday pointed out that since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, journalists have been subjected to continuous Israeli persecution, which constitutes a clear violation of international laws; in an attempt by the occupation to silence them and prevent them from conveying the facts of what is happening in the Gaza Strip to the world.The center expressed its astonishment at the continued international silence of UN, human rights and media organisations regarding the deliberate and systematic targeting of journalists and media professionals in Gaza.The Center condemned the continued assassination of journalists and media professionals by the Israeli occupation forces, and called on the international community, UN, human rights and media organizations to condemn the targeting of journalists and their families in Gaza with killing, arrest and intimidation, and to take urgent action to hold the Israeli occupation accountable before international courts, to stop the crimes of genocide and the assassination of Palestinian journalists.The Center called on the international community to pressure Israel to release journalists detained in Israeli prisons, who are suffering from dire conditions that deprive them of the most basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in international laws and conventions.Over the past months, human rights and international institutions and journalistic investigations have demanded the need to take strict measures to prevent the ongoing attacks and deliberate targeting of journalists, and stressed the need to criminalize such crimes and impose sanctions on those responsible for them, but this did not happen.The correspondent of Al-Ghad Channel from the Gaza Strip stated that the occupation forces prevented medical crews for half an hour from reaching the body of the martyr Saed Abu Nabhan.The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned in the strongest terms the targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation, calling on the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union, and all journalistic bodies in all countries of the world to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip.The statement held the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and the countries participating in the crime of genocide, such as Britain, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this brutal crime.It called on the international community, international organizations, and organizations related to journalistic and media work in all countries of the world to condemn the crimes of the occupation, deter it, and prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and bring the criminals of the occupation to justice.The statement also called for exerting serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide, to protect journalists and media professionals in Palestine in general, and in the Gaza Strip in particular, and to stop the crime of killing and assassinating them.The head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Nasser Abu Bakr condemned the occupation's targeting of Palestinian journalists."The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate is ready to file a joint complaint with Al-Ghad Channel before the International Criminal Court against the occupation," Nasser Abu Bakr said during a TV interview.The Palestinian Media Forum mourned the journalist Saed Abu Nabhan, denouncing the international failure to protect Palestinian journalists.

Several Palestinians were killed Friday in Israeli shelling that targeted,various areas in central Gaza Strip.Medical sources said that six citizens were martyred and others were injured in an Israeli drone shelling of a gathering of residents near Al Nour Mosque in Al Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, while other sources announced the martyrdom of photojournalist Saed Nabhan by Israeli army bullets while covering the ongoing aggression on Al Nuseirat camp.In a related context, Al Awda Hospital stated that it received six wounded people who fell in Israeli artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli drones on the "New Camp" area northwest of Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip.The latest statistics issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza last Thursday on the victims of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip, which has been ongoing for 462 days, indicated that 46,006 Palestinians were martyred, most of them women and children, and 109,378 others were injured.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces pounded the Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 12 people including three girls, 15 months into the war.The latest strikes came as Qatar, Egypt, and the United States mediate negotiations in Doha between Israel and Hamas for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.Three girls and their father were killed when an air strike hit their house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defence agency reported.Local paramedic Mahmud Awad said he helped transfer the bodies of two girls and their father, Mahmud Abu Kharuf to a hospital."Their bodies were found under the rubble of the house that the occupation bombed in the Nuseirat camp," Awad told AFP. He added that the body of the third girl had been found earlier by residents.In a separate strike, eight people were killed when their house was struck in the town of Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the army has focused its offensive since October 6.Several more were wounded in that strike, the civil defence agency said.Israeli air strikes and shelling continues across Gaza, even as mediators push on with their efforts to halt the fighting and secure a deal for the release of hostages still held in Gaza.On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Paris that a ceasefire was "very close"."I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," Blinken said, referring to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.But if not, "I believe that when we get that deal — and we'll get it — it'll be on the basis of the plan that President (Joe) Biden put before the world back in May."In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase plan for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.Meanwhile a report from the government media office in Gaza revealed that the Israeli occupation forces had wiped out 1,600 Palestinian families during their ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip over the past 460 days.It added that the Israeli forces expunged their names from the civil registry by murdering fathers, mothers, and the entire family members, with the total number of martyrs surging to 5,612.The Israeli forces uprooted 3,471 Palestinian families, leaving only one survivor per family, totaling 9,000 martyrs and committed 10,015 massacres, including 7,182 families, the report said, adding that the death toll of the offensive reached 46,006, with 109,274 wounded and 11,200 missing, 70% of whom were women and children.In addition, the report indicated that the number of martyrs among children reached 17,841, including 240 infants born and killed during the genocide, 858 children under one year old, and 44 who died from malnutrition.Eight people died due to harsh cold in refugee camps, seven of whom were children, with the number of female martyrs climbing to 12,298. Additionally, 1,068 medical staff, 94 civil defense personnel, 202 journalists, and 736 aid workers were killed in 149 Israeli targeted attacks, the report continued.The report stated that 35,074 children are orphaned, with 12,132 widows, while 3,500 children are at risk of starvation, noting that 6,600 Gazans were detained by the Israeli occupation forces, including 331 health workers three of them were executed in captivity, alongside 43 journalists, and 26 civil defense personnel.The ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip forced 2mn people to flee their homes, with the number of dilapidated tents reaching 110,000, in addition to entirely decimating 823 mosques, 158 severely, along with three churches and 19 cemeteries out of 60, while 2,300 bodies were snatched from multiple graves, the report highlighted.It pointed out that the Israeli offensive entirely devastated 161,600 residential units while 194,000 were partially damaged, and 82,000 rendered uninhabitable.

The Lebanese Parliament elected Army Commander Joseph Aoun as the country's new president in its second session on Thursday, ending a presidential vacuum that lasted over two years.President Aoun received 99 votes out of 128. General Aoun is Lebanon's 14th president and was elected in the presence of French Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Saudi Envoy Yazid bin Mohammed bin Fahd Al Farhan, and ambassadors from the Quintet Committee overseeing the presidential file, including US Ambassador Lisa Johnson and several other diplomats.Today's session marked the 13th attempt to elect a new president since former President Michel Aoun left office at the end of his term in October 2022.According to the constitution, Lebanon's president is elected by secret ballot with a two-thirds majority in the first round of voting, and a simple majority is sufficient in subsequent rounds.Lebanon entered a presidential vacuum on Oct. 31, 2022, after the term of President Michel Aoun ended without Parliament being able to elect a new president. Despite the constitutional deadline for the election beginning on Sept. 1, 2022, the election took place today after more than two years of vacancy, amid an Israeli aggression that left thousands of casualties and under the weight of a severe economic and financial crisis gripping the country.

The Lebanese Parliament failed to elect a new president during the first session held Thursday, pending its resumption in two hours.General Joseph Aoun received 71 votes, 37 blank ballots, 14 votes for "Sovereignty and Constitution," two votes for Shibli Mallat, and four invalid ballots.A candidate needs a two-thirds majority, or 86 votes out of 128, to win in the first round of voting. If a second round is required, the majority needed is the absolute majority, which is 65 votes.Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced a two-hour suspension of the session for additional discussions.The voting session took place today after more than two years of presidential vacancy. It began on time after the required quorum was met, with all 128 members of Parliament in attendance.The session was attended by French presidential envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, Saudi envoy Prince Yazid bin Mohammed bin Fahd Al Farhan, ambassadors from the Quintet Group involved in the presidential file, including US Ambassador Lisa Johnson, and several other diplomats. (QNA)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a Gaza ceasefire remained close, but reiterated that it may not happen before President Joe Biden hands over to Donald Trump."In the Middle East, we're very close to a ceasefire and hostage deal," Blinken told reporters in Paris."I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," said Blinken, who leaves office with Trump's inauguration on January 20. But if not, he said, "I believe that when we get that deal -- and we'll get it -- it'll be on the basis of the plan that President Biden put before the world back in May."

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday that hospitals in Gaza have become death traps.UNRWA explained that, "families are torn apart, children are freezing to death and starvation is cutting lives short," calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.UNRWA's statements come in light of the Israeli occupation's ongoing bombing and direct targeting of hospitals, as the three public hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip - Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoun and the Indonesian Hospital, have gone out of service due to the escalation of the occupation's relentless onslaughtAccording to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, only 14 hospitals (out of 36) in Gaza are partially operating, and are facing a severe shortage of supplies.The Israeli occupation's relentless genocide against the Gaza Strip, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, continues, amid complete destruction of infrastructure and services.

US, Qatar, Egypt intensify ceasefire efforts amid ongoing conflictHamas demands Israel end war, withdraw troops for hostage releaseIsrael says will not end the war until Hamas is dismantledIsraeli military strikes across Gaza killed at least 27 people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, as international mediators stepped up efforts to seal a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.An airstrike killed at least 10 people in a multi-storey house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, while another killed five in the nearby Zeitoun suburb, medics said.In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, a total of seven people were killed, they said.Later on Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians inside the public garden in Gaza City, medics said.Such mass casualties are a daily occurrence in Gaza, where more than 46,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's 15-month-long assault against Hamas, according to health officials in the enclave.As Israel continued its bombardments, the United States, Qatar and Egypt were making intensive efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, with one source close to the talks saying this was the most serious attempt to reach a deal so far.The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before President Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region view president-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 as an unofficial deadline."Things are better than ever before, but there is no deal yet," the source told Reuters.Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight he hopes to have good things to report about Israeli hostages held by the time Trump is sworn in as president. A deal would also involve the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.The Gaza Health Ministry meanwhile warned that Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital might stop operations in a few hours unless the Israelis stop restricting the flow of fuel to the hospitals.It later said it received a limited amount of fuel that would delay a complete halt of operations until Thursday unless more fuel arrives.Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza.On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains and flooding had left families living in damaged tents with up to 30 cm of water in them, "clinging on to survival without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets".Israel and Hamas both accuse the other of blocking a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal by adhering to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.On Tuesday, Hamas stood by its demand that it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the UK David Lammy discussed, in a phone call on Wednesday, the regional developments and efforts made in their regard.During the call, the two ministers also discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Israel and Hamas trade blame over lack of a ceasefire dealIsraeli strikes kill 10 Palestinians in GazaGaza hospitals appeal for fuelHamas stood by its demand on Tuesday that Israel fully end its assault on Gaza under any deal to release hostages, and said US President-elect Donald Trump was rash to say there would be "hell to pay" unless they go free by his Jan. 20 inauguration.Officials from Hamas and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now view Trump's inauguration as an unofficial deadline.But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free."Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages," the director general of Israel's foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a briefing with reporters, saying Israel was fully committed to reaching a deal.Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated the Hamas conditions of "a complete end to the aggression and a full withdrawal from lands the occupation invaded".Commenting on Trump's threat that there would be "hell to pay" unless all hostages were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: "I think the US president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements."Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister's office did not comment.In one notable step towards a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce, alongside Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.The list included female Israeli soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had so far received no confirmation about whether those on its list were still alive.Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.Israeli military strikes killed at least 10 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to maintain medical services.One of those strikes killed four people in a house in Beach camp in Gaza City, while the remaining six were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.The health ministry said hospitals were running out of fuel to operate generators and maintain medical services across Gaza because of Israeli restrictions.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the colonists' attacks by force of arms, including the burning of Palestinians' cars and property, and their continued violation of any law under the protection of the occupation army and extremist ministers.The ministry condemned the inflammatory statements issued by several Israeli officials, imposing more collective punishment and abuse of Palestinians, and destroying residential areas in the West Bank as is happening in the Gaza Strip.The ministry considered these statement a deliberate escalation of the conflict and violence, stressing that political solutions are the only way to restore calm and achieve peace.The ministry also called for real international intervention to stop the extermination and displacement, take practical steps towards implementing a two-state solution and protecting the Palestinian people, and take serious and decisive action to stop the occupation's plans to seize thousands of dunams of land and annex the West Bank. (QNA)

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a parliament session on Thursday to elect a new president.Since the end of former President Michel Aoun's term in October 2022, the Lebanese parliament has failed 12 times to elect a president as no party has a clear majority in parliament that would enable its candidate to become a president.

Saudi Arabia will host the 8th General Conference of the Arab Union of Electricity in Riyadh from February 11 to 13 under the theme "Towards a Sustainable Electrical Energy Future for the Arab World."The conference will bring together more than 1,000 figures, including government officials, decision-makers, chief executives, academics, and experts in electricity and energy, as well as major companies in the electricity and energy sector.Held under the sponsorship of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, the conference aims to exchange experiences, discuss challenges facing the electricity industry in Arab countries, and explore opportunities for cooperation.The Arab Union for Electricity (AUE) holds a General Conference every three years, serving as a leading scientific forum for the electricity and energy industry in the Arab Region. (QNA)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official said the resistance group had cleared a list of 34 captives as first to go free under a truce."We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.Blinken voiced confidence that a ceasefire deal would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20."If we don't get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I'm confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later," Blinken said on a visit to Seoul.Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them.It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.More than 100 captives are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal.The list provided by the Hamas official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Palestinian resistance movement Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.Hamas needed time to determine their condition, the group's official said."Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead," the official said. "However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead."Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported Monday that negotiations with Hamas "are approaching a crossroads, and Israeli decision makers are optimistic that a deal can be finalised within the next few days".Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 45,854 Palestinians and wounded 109,139 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said Monday.Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called Monday for a "comprehensive agreement" to secure the release of hostages.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.

The UN's World Food Programme on Monday condemned Israel's attacking of its aid convoys in the war-torn Gaza Strip, saying at least 16 bullets hit the clearly marked vehicles but no staff were injured.Condemning the "horrifying" and "unacceptable" incident, the WFP called again for "all parties to respect international humanitarian law, protect civilian lives, and allow safe passage for humanitarian aid."The "clearly marked WFP convoy was shot at by Israeli forces near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, putting the lives of our staff at tremendous risk and leaving the vehicles immobilised," the agency said in a statement."The convoy, consisting of three vehicles carrying eight staff members, came under hostile fire despite having received all of the necessary clearances from Israeli authorities.At least 16 bullets struck the vehicles," it added."Thankfully, no staff members were injured in this terrifying encounter."Gazans face dire conditions after nearly 15 months of war, with humanitarian agencies repeatedly warning not enough aid was reaching Palestinians in need due in part to looting as well as Israeli restrictions.Monday's incident came after the WFP said gunmen attacked one of its convoys in December, leaving two people dead in the looting.At that time, the agency said in recent weeks "nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting and tragic deaths due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza."It said it was still following "procedures of coordination set in place in previous months" and that it had "repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order" in the Palestinian territory.

Three Israelis were killed on Monday and several injured in a shooting attack on a car and bus near the settlement of Kedumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israel's national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) said.Monday's attack comes amid a diplomatic push for a deal to end the 15-month-old war in Gaza and return Israeli hostages home and may pose another obstacle to sealing such a deal before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the settlement where the attack took place, called for an urgent cabinet meeting "to discuss a shift in strategy and to genuinely eradicate terrorism".Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the perpetrators and anyone who aided them to justice."No one will be spared," he posted on X.There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.Hamas praised the attack as a "heroic response against the occupation's continued crimes (including) the war of genocide in Gaza". But it did not claim responsibility.The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements since Netanyahu returned at the head of a far-right nationalist coalition two years ago. During that time, a surge in settler violence has led to US sanctions.Israeli Army Radio said the military had imposed a cordon around all villages in the area to search for the suspects, who it believes fled to a nearby Palestinian village.MDA said two women in their 60s and a man around 40 years old were pronounced dead at the scene, while eight passengers were wounded including a 63-year-old male bus driver who is in serious condition.Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a post on Telegram that "Israel will never enjoy security" unless the Palestinian people also have security.Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war. Most countries consider the settlements illegal, although Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.On Sunday, Israeli forces killed a 37-year-old man in a town south of Jenin after opening fire on his home, while a 17-year-old was killed in an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus, according to Palestinian officials.

The Palestinian Non-Governmental Network (PNGO) emphasized the grave danger of the Israeli occupation forces' systematic targeting of humanitarian organizations and relief workers while they carry out humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip.In a press statement, the network said that the occupation deliberately targets relief workers to intensify its strategy of starvation, which is an integral part of the genocidal campaign it has been waging against the Palestinian people in Gaza for nearly 15 months.PNGO called on all international bodies to exert serious pressure on the Israeli authorities to stop their aggression against Palestinians and humanitarian institutions. It also urged the protection of humanitarian organizations and relief workers and ensuring the unrestricted delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip.The network also said that the occupation forces committed a crime by targeting a humanitarian aid distribution point belonging to the MA'AN Development Center in central Gaza, resulting in the serious injury of three staff members.

The Palestinian National Council warned of the serious consequences that could result from the Israeli occupation government's decision to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating in Gaza.In a statement issued Monday, the Council said that the decision, expected to enter into force by the end of January, represents a dangerous escalation against Palestinian refugees, particularly in the Gaza Strip, which has been enduring a tightened siege for more than 15 months, along with famine and a catastrophic deterioration of humanitarian conditions.The Council affirmed that this step is part of a systematic policy aimed at liquidating the Palestinian refugee issue through slow genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement, in clear violation of international laws and United Nations resolutions.It further warned that reducing or ending UNRWA's services would deprive millions of Palestinian refugees of essential services, including education, healthcare, and food assistance, exacerbating their suffering and threatening their lives and future, particularly after thousands of children and families lost their parents and breadwinners.The Palestinian National Council called on the international community and its institutions, particularly the United Nations and the Security Council, to fulfill their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and intervene immediately to stop this unjust racist decision and ensure the continuation of UNRWA's operations. It also urged donor countries to provide the necessary support to guarantee the continuation of the agency's services and protect Palestinian refugees from the occupation's policies aimed at undermining their legitimate rights.The Council stressed the need for collective action to save the Palestinian people from this impending humanitarian disaster, the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, and to ensure their right to live with dignity and freedom in their homeland, in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.