��������

LONDON: A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid distribution points “almost like a game of target practice,” allegations the Israeli military have strongly denied.

Dr. Nick Maynard, a veteran of humanitarian missions in Gaza over the past 15 years, spent four weeks working at Nasser Hospital in the south of the Strip.

that the population is suffering from “profound malnutrition” and described the medical crisis facing patients and healthcare workers.

Speaking to The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News, Maynard said: “I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage — and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed.

“There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital — and there will be many, many more deaths unless the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.”

Maynard, who has now visited Gaza three times since the war began, said the paediatric unit is relying on sugar water to feed children due to a lack of baby formula.

“They’ve got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,” he said.

The effects of the crisis have also been severe on his colleagues.

“I saw people I’d known for years and I didn’t recognise some of them,” he said.

“Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they’re all hungry.

“They’re going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.”

In the most serious allegation, Maynard claimed civilians were being shot by Israeli forces while they were collecting food at aid points.

“Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points almost like a game of target practice,” he said.

Israel’s military “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians, particularly in the manner described. For the sake of clarity, the army’s binding orders prohibit forces operating in the area from intentionally firing at civilians,” it said.

“We are aware of reports of casualties among those who arrived at the aid distribution sites. These incidents are under examination by the relevant (military) authorities. Any allegation of a violation of the law or regulations will be thoroughly investigated, including taking appropriate action if necessary.”

The military said it was “working to facilitate and ease the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at the designated distribution centres, as well as through other international actors. These efforts are being conducted under difficult and complex operational conditions.”

Maynard claimed to have operated on boys as young as 11 who had been shot while collecting food at distribution sites run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,” he said. “I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.”

He also alleged a disturbing pattern in the injuries observed during his time at the hospital.

“What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days,” he said.

“One day they’d be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the chest, another day to the abdomen.

“Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so. This is not coincidental.

“The clustering was far too obvious to be coincidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice. I would never have believed this possible unless I'd witnessed this with my own eyes.”

KHARTOUM: Stalked by war and hunger for two years, more and more Sudanese civilians are desperately seeking safety in Europe, braving perilous crossings of the Libyan desert and the Mediterranean Sea.

More than four million Sudanese have fled abroad since the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in 2023. Over 10 million more have been displaced inside the country, according to UN figures.

The Mixed Migration Center, a research and policy organization, reported a 20 percent increase in the number of Sudanese trying to reach Europe via Libya this year.

AFP has gathered firsthand accounts from those scattered along the route — some still waiting for a way out, others stuck in Libya and a few who have reached the relative safety of Europe but remain haunted by what they left behind.

Ibrahim Yassin, 20, left eastern Sudan in December 2023, “hoping to reach Libya, and then Europe.”

“The journey across the desert was hellish... extreme thirst and entire days without food.”

In Libya, smugglers demanded $3,000 to continue his journey. Unable to pay, he fled to Tripoli, “hoping to find another opportunity.”

In Tripoli, a second group offered a sea crossing for $3,500, which his relatives sent after selling the family home in Sudan.

“We sailed for eight hours, before the Libyan coast guard caught us and put us in jail.”

Another $1,000 secured his release. His second attempt ended the same way.

Now, he is stranded in Tripoli — broke, undocumented and out of options.

“Now I’m lost,” he said. “No papers, no way back to Sudan and no way to reach Europe.”

Naima Azhari, 35, was living with her husband and daughter in Soba, south of Khartoum, when the war erupted.

“I thought it would last a week or two. But when the RSF took control of Khartoum, we realized there was no hope.”

In August 2023, they set out for Libya. The 10-day journey was fraught with danger.

“At every checkpoint, you pay a bribe or they threaten you. We went from one militia zone to another.”

But Tripoli offered no relief. “No stability. No jobs. Libya was even harder than the war itself.”

Naima considered returning to Sudan, but there was no safe route.

In October 2024, the family moved again — this time to Egypt, where they finally found “a better life.”

Until June 2023, Hassan, a 40-year-old civil servant, lived quietly with his wife and three children in the Darfur city of Geneina.

But then the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began targeting the Masalit ethnic minority to which he belongs.

“They assassinated governor Khamis Abakar, who I was close to,” Hasan recalled, asking that his real name be withheld for safety reasons.

He said he and others were detained when they spoke out.

“We were beaten and tortured. They said: ‘Slaves, we have to get rid of you’.”

In January, the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” in Darfur with their “systematic” targeting of ethnic minorities including the Masalit.

Hassan escaped across the desert into Libya, where he was held for two months in “an overcrowded place where migrants are exploited, insulted and beaten.”

He eventually boarded a boat and spent two days at sea before landing in Italy.

From there, he made his way to France, where he sought political asylum. Now employed in a factory, he is trying to locate his children.

“Someone on Facebook told me they were in a refugee camp in Chad. I started the process of bringing them here, but unfortunately they have no documents.

“I can’t return to Sudan, I have to bring them here. That’s my only goal now.”

Abdelaziz Bashir, 42, once lived a modest but stable life in the city of Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum.

“Everything changed in an instant,” forcing him to flee to the eastern city of Gedaref with his family.

Though now technically safe, “I’m just sitting around, there’s no work, and the economic situation gets worse every day.”

Unable to provide for his family, he has set his sights on reaching Europe.

“I know the road is dangerous, that I could die in the desert or at sea, but I have no other choice.

“It’s my only hope. If I succeed, I can change my family’s life. If I fail, at least I will have tried.”