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2025 March wk4 -- March wk3P2 -- March wk3 -- March wk3P3 -- March wk2P2 -- March wk2 -- March wk1P3 -- March wk1P2 -- March wk1 -- Feb wk4P2 -- Feb wk4 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2025
2024 Dec wk5 -- Dec wk4 P2 -- Dec wk4 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024

Updates March and earlier, 2025-'24 Actual: The arrest of Makmoud Khalil and aftermath & Inside the Ramallah hotel housing Gaza’s cancer patients & Beauty in Gaza: Noor’s tent salon in the rubble   Earlier: Why is America afraid of ‘No Other Land’?... & For Israel, ceasefire is a continuation of war by other means... Opinion: & Netanyahu’s plan to deprive and rule in Gaza will fail again & Ramadan in Gaza: Ruins and unshakable faith & Overview special reports

November 28 - 24 and earler stories, 2024 Is Netanyahu immune from ICC arrest warrant-NO!   TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

Shireen Abu Akleh In commemoration of Shireen Abu Akleh, the 'voice of Al Jazeera' killed while revealing the true face of israel Updated: December 6, 2024: Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

March 23 - 20, 2025 Food for thought: A jewish saying: if you kill one human being you kill humanity. How true. And even morseo: they're to become no.1 in the worldbook of records. Read why below. March 20 - 17, 2025 Read more about idf atricities here and Gaza is being starved and bombed again. Why are we allowing it? And 'I was a human shield' and March 10 - 12, 2025 Release Mahmoud...

March 20 - 18, 2025 Israel resumed its relentless bombing of Gaza Read more about "The unmistakable sounds of genocide" i.e. acts of inhumanity of the idf nazis and their co-killers of the innocent. March 15 - 13, 2025 Food for thought: 'genocidal' targeting of reproductive facilities in Gaza Remember mengele and ask yourself: who are the 'non-humans'? Or does your 'collective memory' censors yours? Read more here

March 13 - 11, 2025 Food for thought: Nobody interrupts the psychopaths whom keep bombing; killing civilians and with it also of Palestinian women who only want to give birth to a new generation. Gino d'Artali Read more and decide for yourself and March 11 - 9, 2025 <<Starvation as a weapon... Question: who really are The non-humans? Read more and decide for yourself

When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.




Illustration- Jawahir Al-Naimi-Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera - March 23, 2025 - By Lujayn
<<As children, we dreamed of our futures. Then an Israeli bullet took Malak’s
My best friend blushed easily, loved our Gaza neighbourhood, and hoped to become a nurse to look after sick children.
Malak was like a sister to me.
We were nine years old when we met at the Hamama School for Girls in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City. It was 2019 and Malak’s family had just moved into an apartment three buildings away from mine. When she joined the school, I introduced myself, and from that day onwards, we would walk to and from school together every day. Back then, Sheikh Radwan seemed like our entire world. We had beautiful buildings and shops where we’d buy sweets. Families knew each other. Children played together. We knew all our neighbours and called the adults among them aunts and uncles. At first, I thought Malak blushed easily because she was new to our school. But as time passed, I understood this was part of who she was. Malak was shy and quiet, gentle and caring. Her name means “angel”. It suited her. She cared about our classmates and whenever one of them was upset, Malak would comfort them. I often saw her helping other children with their homework. I was closer to Malak than to the other girls at school because we both liked the same subjects: maths, physics and music. I have a passion for physics, while she excelled at maths. We both played the piano. I specialised in classical music, while she loved the traditional music of Palestine. Sometimes, we played music out of tune. I remember once joking that she should stick to her dream of becoming a nurse rather than a professional musician. She laughed and agreed with me. We often made each other laugh. But behind Malak’s smile, there was a sadness as if she were carrying a burden, a sorrow she kept to herself.
‘Why this sadness, Malak?’
One day in September 2023 we were sitting in the schoolyard, as we often did in breaks between classes, talking about our dreams for the future. We had just finished a maths test. The school day hadn’t ended, but I could see that Malak wanted to go home. She was holding back tears. “Why this sadness, Malak?” I asked her. She looked first at the sky and then to me and replied. “My brother Khaled was born with a congenital heart defect. He’s just one year older than me, and he’s very sick.” I had visited Malak’s home many times, and I knew that her brother was weak and often ill. But I didn’t know how serious his illness was. When she told me that he might die, I put my hand on her shoulder. “Who knows, Malak?” I said. “Maybe we will leave this world before he does. Death does not care about age or illness.” I never imagined that my fleeting words would soon become a brutal truth. That day in the schoolyard, we spoke for hours. Malak talked about becoming a nurse and returning to Ramla, her ancestral home, from where her family had been displaced during the Nakba. She told me she wanted to care for sick people, especially children. I thought that she would make a perfect nurse because of her kind nature. When the war began, we each sought safety with our families and lost contact. I was displaced with my family more than 12 times. We were forced to leave our home in Gaza City and fled to other places twice in the same city. Then to Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah, Bureij refugee camp, al-Mawasi, and now Rafah, from where I write these words. Throughout these displacements, I tried to reach Malak, but I could never get through. Both her and her mother’s phones were out of service. Our school was turned into a shelter for displaced people before it was destroyed by Israeli air raids on August 3, 2024. Even after this terrible news, I could not reach Malak.
Finding each other again
After more than a year of being unable to contact my friend, one morning in January 2025, while in our shelter in Rafah, I received a call from an unknown number. I was overjoyed when I heard Malak’s voice. She was happy and excited to speak to me, but she sounded exhausted. I asked her how she and her family were and about her brother Khaled, remembering he needed medication. She told me they were living in a tent in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, just a few kilometres from where my family was sheltering. Malak was eager to talk. She shared how her family had been repeatedly displaced across Gaza. Our conversation also took us back to the good days in Sheikh Radwan – to our homes, our school and everything we used to do before the war. Before ending the call, I promised to visit and bring Malak and her family to our shelter. I thought it would be safer for them to be in the same shelter as ours because our building is made of stone whereas Malak was living in a tent. Two days later, on January 8, I made plans with my mother to visit Malak. I called her to confirm. Malak’s younger sister Farah answered, crying bitterly. “Malak is gone,” she sobbed. “She was martyred at dawn by a bullet while she was sleeping in our tent.” I couldn’t hear. Or maybe I didn’t want to believe what Farah was saying. My heart ached beyond words. I hung up the phone, feeling choked by my tears. I turned to my mother. “Malak is gone.”
Together, in death
The next day, my mother and I went to visit Malak’s family to offer our condolences. We found their tent torn apart by bullet holes. But no one was there. Their neighbours, who were also in tents, told us that Khaled had passed away that morning. His illness had worsened without access to medicine, and grief over his sister’s death had broken his spirit. The family had gone to bury him. I remembered my words from our schoolyard conversation. I never imagined Malak could die and that Khaled would follow her so soon after. They were buried side by side. Even in death, Khaled would not be parted from her. Who fired that lethal bullet at Malak? Why did they kill her? Was she a threat to the soldiers while she slept? Did they fear her dreams of returning to Ramla? Farewell, my dear friend. I will never forget you. I will plant an olive tree in your name, and I will bring those who remain from your family to be with us and care for them as you would have done.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>> https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/23/as-children-we-dreamed-of-our-futures-then-an-israeli-bullet-took-malaks

Al Jazeera - March 23, 2025 - By Nils Adler and Stephen Quillen
<<Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 50,000 Palestinians since October 2023
Number of people killed tops 50,000 as Israel intensifies attacks on blockaded Gaza, causing further suffering to Palestinians.
The number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 has crossed 50,000, according to health officials. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday that at least 50,021 Palestinians have been killed and 113,274 wounded since Israel began attacking the besieged territory following an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed and some 250 were taken captive in the attack in southern Israel. The ministry said at least 41 people were killed over the past 24-hour reporting period as Israel ramps up its attacks on Gaza after its refusal to enter the second phase of a ceasefire deal it had signed with Hamas in January. Entering phase 2 would have required Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza – a condition it agreed to in the deal mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Even during phase 1, which took effect on January 19 and saw the release of captives in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, Israel killed more than 150 Palestinians in Gaza. Reporting from Gaza City in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the announced death toll is a “very grim, horrifying milestone”. “For the record, the 50,000 figure is only a conservative estimate. These are only the people who have been registered at health facilities across the Gaza Strip. There are so many others buried without being registered or who have gone missing, trapped under piles of rubble,” Mahmoud said. “Of the more than 50,000 killed, 17,000 are children. A whole generation has been wiped out. These children would have affected how their society would have progressed – politically, economically and intellectually,” he added. The confirmed death toll does not include more than 11,000 who are missing and are presumed dead, according to the Gaza media office, while a study published last July in the Lancet journal said the accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people. Israel has repeatedly claimed that its attacks carefully target members of Hamas, but the number of civilians killed tells a different story, analysts say. “Israel has been making these types of baseless claims throughout the past 17 months, which are totally unsupported by the evidence on the ground,” Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera. “If anything, the evidence often points to deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, which accounts for the massive death toll for children.”
Forced evacuations
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Sunday called on residents in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to forcibly evacuate as its troops began operations in the area. It said Israeli troops had surrounded Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood. Israel has been accused of repeatedly targeting so-called “safe zones” where it forced people to take shelter. The Israeli military also announced that it was conducting operations in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza.
Last week, Israel resumed its attacks, shattering the ceasefire after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would pursue a military path to pressure Hamas into accepting a deal to release remaining captives, who were not exchanged in the January ceasefire agreement. Hamas reiterates it is ready to release all the captives if Israel agrees to enter phase 2 of the earlier truce deal. Since Tuesday, Israel has killed more than 600 people, including more than 200 children. Earlier, Hamas announced that its official Salah al-Bardawil was killed in an Israeli attack on his tent in Khan Younis in the early hours of Sunday. The Israeli military offensive comes as Gaza is reeling from a total blockade by Israel since early March that has caused a severe shortage of food, water, medicine and fuel in the territory. Rights group Amnesty International said cutting off electricity supply to a desalination plant in Gaza was “cruel and unlawful”. Rights groups, aid agencies and a number countries including France, Germany and the United Kingdom have called on Israel to allow humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/23/israeli-offensive-in-gaza-has-killed-50000-palestinians-since-october-2023


Video screenshot footage - Palestinians after forced Gaza displacement and killings
Al Jazeera - March 23, 2025 - By Nils Adler and Stephen Quillen
<<LIVE: Israel fire kills fleeing Palestinians after forced Gaza displacement
Israeli’s army continues attacks across the Gaza Strip – killing at least 35 people in pre-dawn raids, including senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil and his wife who were sleeping in a tent.
The US bombs Yemen again, raiding an airport and port in Hodeidah as well as the central province of Marib and northern governorate of Saada, according to Yemeni media.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/23/live-israel-bombs-lebanon-and-syria-kills-at-least-32-in-gaza


Video screenshot footage - Israel kills senior Hamas official
Al Jazeera - March 23, 2025
<<Senior Hamas leader among 23 killed in Israeli strikes in southern Gaza
Hamas says the death of Salah al-Bardawil will fuel the ‘battle of liberation and independence’ in Gaza. A senior Hamas leader has been killed in a predawn strike in southern Gaza, as Israel has intensified attacks across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 634 Palestinians since breaking the ceasefire deal on Tuesday. Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, was killed on Sunday along with his wife while praying in their tent shelter in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian group, which accused Israel of assassinating him. “His blood, that of his wife and martyrs, will remain fueling the battle of liberation and independence. The criminal enemy will not break our determination and will,” the group said in a statement. Israeli officials had no immediate comment to offer. Several senior Hamas leaders have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive last week. At least 23 people were killed in predawn raids on Sunday, with the Israeli military issuing evacuation orders for Tal as-Sultan in Rafah. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel has launched “fierce and extensive air attacks” on Gaza over the past few hours.
“The situation here remains critical,” Abu Azzoum said.
“There has been a clear escalation in Gaza since Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire and launched attacks on heavily populated neighbourhoods, hospitals, schools and mosques, too,” he explained, adding that there had been no confrontation between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters so far.
Renewed attacks
Before Israel resumed bombardment of Gaza last week, it had blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut electricity supply since March 1. On Wednesday, it also relaunched a ground offensive, sending its troops to areas it had retreated from during the nearly two-month ceasefire. Israeli forces violated the ceasefire multiple times since it came into effect on January 19. Israeli troops have killed nearly 50,000 people since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, following deadly attacks on Israel led by Hamas. At least 1,139 people were killed in southern Israel in the attack, and some 250 were taken captive, most of whom have since been released through negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the renewed military offensive was aimed at forcing Hamas to give up the remaining captives it holds. However, Hamas has accused Israel of sacrificing the captives with the attacks and blamed Netanyahu for breaking the ceasefire agreement by refusing to begin negotiations to end the war and withdraw its troops from Gaza. On Friday, the group said it was studying a US bridging proposal to restore the ceasefire into April after the end of the month of Ramadan and the Jewish celebration of Passover, to allow for negotiations to end the war.
Israel launches attacks on Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel launched a second wave of strikes in response to a rocket attack from across the border on Saturday, threatening to unravel the November 2023 ceasefire with the Hezbollah group. Israel said it carried out attacks on the cities of Tyre and Touline, targeting what it called Hezbollah positions. The military said six rockets, three of which were intercepted, were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. Hezbollah denied its involvement in the attack and said Israel’s accusations were “pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon”. The group added that it stands “with the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous Zionist escalation on Lebanon”. At least seven people have been killed and 40 others injured since Israeli strikes began on Saturday.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/23/senior-hamas-leader-among-23-killed-in-israeli-strikes-in-southern-gaza

Al Jazeera - March 22, 2025
<<Thousands of Israelis protest Shin Bet chief’s dismissal, for captives
Prime Minister Netanyahu says he has lost confidence in Ronen Bar, who has led Shin Bet since 2021.
Thousands of people in Israel have gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service and resume fighting in Gaza. Netanyahu said this week that he had lost confidence in Ronen Bar, who has led Shin Bet since 2021, and intended to fire him effective April 10, prompting three days of protests. On Saturday, the Israeli leader said the country will remain democratic despite the security chief’s dismissal. In Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, protesters waved blue and white Israeli flags and called for a deal that would see the release of the remaining Israeli captives being held in Gaza. “The most dangerous enemy of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu,” protester Moshe Haaharony, 63, told the Reuters news agency. “Benjamin Netanyahu for 20 years doesn’t care about the country, doesn’t care about the citizens.” Netanyahu has dismissed accusations the decision was politically motivated, but his critics have accused him of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel’s democracy by seeking Bar’s removal. Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Friday, temporarily freezing the dismissal. Netanyahu and Bar have been at loggerheads for months amid tensions over a bribery investigation focused on the prime minister’s office and recriminations over the failure to prevent the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
Bar said in a letter that his ouster was motivated by a desire to halt the “pursuit of truth” about the events leading up to October 7. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a general strike on Saturday if Netanyahu refuses to heed the Supreme Court’s ruling freezing Bar’s firing.
“If the October 7 government decides not to obey the court’s decision, it will become an outlaw government that day,” Lapid told protesters in Tel Aviv. “If this happens, the entire country must shut down,” he said, stressing that “the only system that must not shut down is the security system.”
Some Israelis are denouncing what they see as an autocratic shift by Netanyahu, who is convening his cabinet on Sunday to launch impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another critic of the prime minister. Baharav-Miara, who also serves as the government’s legal adviser, warned Netanyahu that the Supreme Court’s decision temporarily “prohibits” him from appointing a new Shin Bet chief. A protest against the attorney general’s dismissal is also planned for Sunday outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and near the prime minister’s private residence in West Jerusalem. At Saturday’s rally, protesters held up placards reading, “No more bloodshed,” “How much more blood must be shed?” and “Stop the war, now!” to ensure the return of 59 captives still being held in the Gaza Strip. Israel returned to war in Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that saw the exchange of captives being held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and brought a respite to the battered and besieged enclave. Since the start of the war, there have been regular protests by families and supporters of captives seized by Hamas during the October 7 attacks that have sometimes also criticised the government. “We are a year and a half later after we had very fierce fighting in Gaza, and Hamas is still in power,” protester Erez Berman, 44, told Reuters. “It still has tens of thousands of fighters, so the Israeli government actually failed in getting its own goals out of the war.” With the resumption of Israel’s war in Gaza, the fate of the captives, as many as 24 of whom are still believed to be alive, remains unclear, and protesters said a return to war could see them either killed by their captors or by Israeli bombardments.
Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, said military pressure pushed Hamas to accept the first truce in November 2023, in which about 80 captives were returned. He argued this was also the surest way to force the release of the remaining captives.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/22/thousands-of-israelis-protest-shin-bet-chiefs-dismissal-for-captives

Al Jazeera - March 22, 2025
<<Israel blows up Gaza’s only specialised cancer hospital in massive blast
‘Deliberate’ destruction of Turkish-Palestinian hospital has been condemned as being part of Israel’s ‘systematic state terrorism’. Israel has blown up Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, as well as an adjacent medical school, drawing condemnation for again targeting a medical facility, which is banned under international humanitarian law. Friday’s explosion flattened central Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli air strikes since October 2023. Footage posted online showed a massive ball of fire and smoke rising from the location after the Israeli military carried out the demolition. It came as Israel announced that it was expanding its operation in the so-called Netzarim Corridor near the hospital, and blocked all movement on Salah al-Din Street. Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is reporting from Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, said the destruction has left thousands of patients in the besieged territory with nowhere to go for cancer treatment, amid the resumption of the deadly Israeli military operation. The third floor of the hospital was previously hit in an Israeli air strike on October 30, 2023.
Fuel shortages forced the hospital to shut down on November 1, 2023, with the UN warning the lives of 70 patients were at risk. It later emerged that four patients died at the hospital due to a lack of medical care. “The hospital was being used as a command centre by Israeli forces during their previous military assault in central and northern Gaza,” Al Jazeera’s Abu Azzoum said. “It was blown up completely after having been rebuilt with a Turkish donation of $34m in 2017,” he added. Israel later confirmed it destroyed the cancer hospital, claiming it was used by Hamas – without providing any evidence.
‘State terrorism’
In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the “deliberate” destruction as “part of Israel’s policy aimed at rendering Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.” “We call on the international community to take concrete and deterrent measures against Israel’s unlawful attacks and systematic state terrorism,” the ministry added. Gaza Ministry of Health also condemned Israel’s “criminal behaviour”, which it said is “in line with the systematic destruction of the health system and the completion of the episodes of genocide”. The hospital was considered the largest cancer treatment facility in Gaza, and was the only hospital accredited to treat up to 30,000 cancer patients a year. Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, five children were declared dead upon arrival at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, following an air strike in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, who is reporting from Gaza City on Saturday. “There have been almost nonstop air strikes across northern Gaza and Gaza City within the past five hours, with two massive air strikes targeting more residential buildings,” he said. As Israeli bombardments continue, Hamas said it is considering the United States “bridge” proposal to restore the ceasefire, the Reuters news agency reports, quoting an unnamed official from the group. Germany, France and Britain are pressing the US to support an immediate restoration of the Gaza truce and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged enclave. But President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff remained vague about a ceasefire. In an interview with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, he said Trump’s plan for Gaza is to achieve “stability”, while noting that “stability in Gaza could mean some people come back … some people don’t”.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/22/israel-blows-up-gazas-only-specialised-cancer-hospital-in-massive-strike

Al Jazeera - March 21, 2025
<<Israeli military blows up Gaza’s Turkish hospital and medical school
Video captured the moment Israeli forces blew up Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital and an adjacent medical school over what the military claims was a Hamas presence.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/3/21/israeli-military-blows-up-gazas-turkish-hospital-and-medical-school

France24 - March 21, 2025
<<'This is the key moment to bring peace to Gaza and the Middle East': UNOPS chief
The EU is adapting to a new security situation, not just on its own continent, but also in the Middle East. Hopes of a more peaceful Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad have so far been dashed, with sectarian massacres happening on the Syrian coast earlier in March – killings that have triggered an exodus of thousands of people across the border into Lebanon. Lebanon itself remains extremely fragile, economically and socially. And the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is clearly far from over, despite a ceasefire that was announced in January. The EU is working with the United Nations to address the challenges of humanitarian aid and reconstruction in this volatile region, and our guest has a lot of first-hand experience in that domain. Jorge Moreira da Silva is the executive director of UNOPS, the United Nations agency dedicated to implementing humanitarian and development projects. He is a former Member of the European Parliament, a former senior official at the OECD in Paris, and a former minister of environment and energy in the Portuguese government. Asked about the Israeli air strikes on Gaza, Moreira da Silva says: "What is happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable. It's very unfortunate that we return to escalation. During the ceasefire in the last few weeks, we could provide support to the people (of Gaza). And now, with the strikes, with the conflict again, all aid has been stopped and we are seeing the direct impact on civilians, but also on the UN. I’ve been informed that the UN compound has been hit, and we are obviously following very carefully what is happening. I really hope that we can go back to where we were with the ceasefire and restart the political discussions. It’s the key moment to bring peace to Gaza and to the Middle East." On the recent sectarian massacres of civilians on the Syrian coast, and the implications for Syria's post-Assad transition, Moreira da Silva states: "There was a clear call from the international community (at the recent Syria conference organised by the EU in Brussels), and a clear response from the minister of foreign affairs of Syria, committing precisely to ensure that there is a thorough investigation of what happened, and that those who perpetrated those crimes will be held to account." But, Moreira da Silva adds, nobody used the violence "as a pretext to delay action. That’s why I think there was a breakthrough in progress when donors stepped in to provide €6 billion to the people in Syria. I visited Damascus a few weeks ago, and Syria is still at the brink. It's in the middle of an immense humanitarian crisis, with almost 90 percent of the population living in need, in extreme poverty." On the issue of Syrian refugees potentially returning home – a topic that EU member states are debating – Moreira da Silva suggests that "nobody will return if there is no security and no economic development. It's important that the donor community provides all the support that is needed in Syria, and that will be a way to get Syrians to come back. Not because we went them to come back, but because it’s important for them to go back to the places where they were happy." Moreira da Silva also discusses UN and Western support to Ukraine. "We are doing early recovery, repairing infrastructure, rehabilitating entire neighbourhoods, rehabilitating energy and water networks. And this is what UNOPS is doing. We are supporting the Ukrainians, building schools, and doing mine action, which is removing unexploded ordnance." But he emphasises that aid should not be a "zero-sum game," in which resources might be shifted from Africa to Ukraine. "We need to support Africa. We need to support Ukraine. We need to support fragile states. That's why I'm very worried about cuts in overseas development assistance. I'm very worried about the cuts in solidarity globally. This is the moment when we need to raise the bar. It's not the moment to cut, but to bring more."
Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown>>
Video: https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/talking-europe/20250321-this-is-the-key-moment-to-bring-peace-to-gaza-and-the-middle-east-unops-chief


Video screenshot footage - ethnic cleansing continues
Al Jazeera - March 20, 2025 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<Israel targeting West Bank refugee camps is ethnic cleansing, analyst
Israel’s targeting of refugee camps to “end the Palestinian refugee issue” is part of a plan to ethnically cleanse the occupied West Bank of Palestinians, an analyst has told Al Jazeera.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/3/20/israel-targeting-west-bank-refugee-camps-is-ethnic-cleansing-analyst

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