UK charity group urges public to donate to ‘save lives’ in Gaza

UK charity group urges public to donate to ‘save lives’ in Gaza
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Updated 26 sec ago

UK charity group urges public to donate to ‘save lives’ in Gaza

UK charity group urges public to donate to ‘save lives’ in Gaza
  • Disasters Emergency Committee, comprising 15 charities, cites ‘catastrophic levels of need’
  • DEC has begun to scale up operations in Palestinian enclave following ceasefire

LONDON: A group of 15 charities in the UK has appealed for donations from the British public for the people of Gaza to address its “catastrophic levels of need.”

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, announced last week, has seen an increase in aid supplies into the Palestinian enclave, where much of the population faces the threat of famine.

However, the 15 charities comprising the Disasters Emergency Committee say more is needed to meet demand.

The DEC said it has begun to scale up operations in Gaza, with several of its members — including the British Red Cross and Plan International UK — confirming that aid trucks have reached their destinations. 

The group, which raised more than £50 million ($67.19 million) since launching the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal a year ago, has asked for further donations, saying £10 could provide blankets for two people, and £50 could feed five families for a week.

“Your support could save lives,” the DEC said on its website, adding that it is providing cash to residents to use as markets return, as well as handing out food, clean water and medical resources.


Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region
Updated 41 min 30 sec ago

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

JERUSALEM: Israel will achieve all goals of the Gaza war it had set out to accomplish, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Speaking at a state ceremony for fallen soldiers during the two-year conflict with militant group Hamas, Netanyahu also said Israel’s enemies learned that anyone who lifts a hand against it will pay a heavy price. 


Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies
Updated 16 October 2025

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies
  • Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of the US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza

Jerusalem: An Israeli group campaigning for the return of all hostages held in Gaza on Thursday demanded that the government delay implementing the next stages of the truce if Hamas fails to return the remaining captives’ bodies.
In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government to “immediately halt the implementation of any further stages of the agreement as long as Hamas continues to blatantly violate its obligations regarding the return of all hostages and the remains of the victims.”
According to the framework, outlined by US President Donald Trump, the next phases of the truce include offering amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of the US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza.
It came after Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach the rest of the bodies promised under the agreement.
“As long as Hamas breaches the agreements and continues to hold 19 hostages, there can be no unilateral progress on Israel’s part,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“Any political or military action that does not ensure their immediate return abandons the citizens of Israel,” it added.
Since Monday, under a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, the Palestinian Islamist group has handed back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
It has also returned the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages — along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.


Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers
Updated 53 min 34 sec ago

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers
  • No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is known to be home to sleeper cells of Daesh

DAMASCUS, Syria: A bomb exploded Thursday on a Syrian Defense Ministry bus in the country’s east, killing and wounding several soldiers, state TV reported.
State-run Al-Ikhbariah TV said the explosion occurred on the road linking the eastern cities of Deir Ezzor and Mayadeen. The report did not give details, only saying that a number of soldiers were killed or injured.
The report said the soldiers’s job was guarding an oil facility in the oil-rich region that borders Iraq.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is known to be home to sleeper cells of Daesh that was defeated in Syria in 2019.
Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once the head of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and fought battles against Daesh.


Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son
Updated 16 October 2025

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son
  • The Rafah crossing remains closed with indications that it could be opened next week
  • The father of 18-year-old Hassan who says his son was shot in the head over two months ago in Gaza while out seeking food hopes that the reopening of the Rafah border point will save him

KHAN YOUNIS: The father of 18-year-old Hassan who says his son was shot in the head over two months ago in Gaza while out seeking food hopes that the reopening of the Rafah border point will save him.
“The Rafah crossing is our lifeline, for patients and for the Gaza Strip,” Ibrahim Qlob told Reuters in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis where Hassan lies motionless in bed, his eyes covered with bandages.
“I’m waiting. One day passing for me feels like a year.”
The injury caused a brain haemorrhage, necessitating the removal of part of his skull. A later infection caused him to lose sight in his right eye, his father said.
Now that a fragile ceasefire is taking hold between Israel and Hamas after two years of war, Hassan is just one of 15,600 Gazan patients waiting evacuation, including 3,800 children, according to the World Health Organization.
Many like him suffer from injuries sustained during the conflict. Others have chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease which the decimated health system cannot cope with.
Israeli officials have said the Rafah crossing previously used for patients to exit via Egypt would reopen for transfers.
Two sources told Reuters people could start crossing on Thursday. COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, said on Wednesday the date for reopening for people will be announced later.
NOWHERE TO GO
During the conflict more than 7,000 patients have been evacuated from Gaza, with Egypt taking over half of them.
The rate of transfers slowed, however, when Rafah shut in May 2024 and Israel seized control. Since a previous ceasefire collapsed in March, fewer than four patients have exited daily, meaning it would take over 10 years to finish the list, WHO data shows.
“What we need is more countries to accept patients from Gaza, and we need the restoration of all the medical evacuation routes,” the WHO’s Tarik Jasarevic told reporters this week.
Mohammed Abu Nasser, 32, who survived a strike on his home in Zeitoun, Gaza City with severe injuries to both legs, said he has been on the waiting list over a year.
“My condition is getting worse every day,” he said from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
DYING CHILDREN
Hundreds have already died waiting, medical groups and Palestinian health authorities say. The WHO, which took over management of the process last year, said 740 people including 137 children on the list have died since July 2024.
One of them was a girl called Jana Ayad who died from severe acute malnutrition in September, the WHO told Reuters, saying no country accepted her.
Médecins Sans Frontières project coordinator Hani Isleem said that 19 of its patients on the transfer list had died during the war, including 12 children.
“Seeing those patients’ files, being in direct touch with these children, and then you know that you lost them because of all these challenges and difficulties, that is really painful,” he said.
Israeli rejections have sometimes prevented transfers, Isleem added. COGAT did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said that approvals are subject to security checks.
“The mortality rate is tragically rising, as would be expected given the decimation of health systems and infrastructure on the ground,” said Kate Takes, a solicitor with Children Not Numbers, a UK-based charity working in Gaza and overseeing cases of children needing evacuation.
For Hassan, there are worrying signs. His malnutrition is worsening and he now weighs just 40 kilograms (88 lbs), or nearly half his former body weight, his father said.
“If things stay like this, it will be too late for him.”


Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages
Updated 16 October 2025

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages
  • Defense Minister Israel Katz extended his condolences to the families “on behalf of the entire defense establishment” in a post on X

Jerusalem: The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it had identified the remains of hostages, Inbar Hayman and Mohammad Al-Atrash, whose bodies had been returned to Israel the previous evening by Hamas.
“Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine... (Israeli military) representatives informed the families of Inbar Hayman and Sergeant Major Mohammad Al-Atrash that their bodies had been returned for burial,” an army statement said.
Inbar Hayman, a graffiti artist from Haifa known by the pseudonym “Pink,” was 27 when she was killed at the Nova music festival. Her remains were taken to Gaza. The remains of Sergeant Major Mohammad Al-Atrash, a 39-year-old soldier of Bedouin origin who was killed in combat on October 7, were also taken to the Palestinian territory.
Defense Minister Israel Katz extended his condolences to the families “on behalf of the entire defense establishment” in a post on X.


“Inbar was abducted from the Nova festival and assassinated by Hamas murderers on October 7, and Mohammad fell in battle after defending the division’s soldiers with supreme heroism,” he added.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government “shares in the deep sorrow” of the two families and all the families of the fallen hostages.
“The Hamas terrorist organization is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return (the hostages) as part of the implementation of the agreement. We will not compromise on this,” the statement added.
Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of a US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza.
It came after Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach the rest of the bodies promised under the agreement.