Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
The vast majority of eastern Rafah has been destroyed, Palestinian authorities said on Wednesday after dozens were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight.
Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, has experienced a brutal Israeli ground offensive that began last month. The city was harbouring more than half of the enclave's 2.3 million population, who now have nowhere to go. A million people have left the area since the military operation started, the UN has said.
“The Israeli army has destroyed more than 90 per cent of the eastern areas of Rafah governorate and it is still sweeping,” Gaza’s media centre said in a statement, adding that Israel has targeted areas stretching from the east to the sea in the southern city.
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes continued to target areas across the Gaza Strip as mediators continue pushing towards brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
“The army has forced medical teams in Rafah Governorate to stop their services after targeting them,” said the media centre statement. “They are planning to destroy all of the city following severe damage to its infrastructure.”
A UN commission also called for an end to Israel's offensive in Rafah in an inquiry report which found that war crimes were being committed in Gaza.
“Israel must immediately stop its military operations and attacks in Gaza, including the assault on Rafah, which has cost the lives of hundreds of civilians and again displaced hundreds of thousands of people to unsafe locations without basic services and humanitarian assistance,” said Navi Pillay, chairman of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
A ceasefire proposal put forward by the US is still on the negotiating table as mediators push for Hamas and Israel to accept and commit to it. However, fighting continues despite the continuing discussions.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it has been targeting fighter cells, weapons depots, launch sites and other military infrastructure in Rafah and central Gaza.
The military said its forces have destroyed several fighter cells and booby-trapped structures during the last 24 hours.
Air strikes have also pounded central Gaza, with Israel's military claiming to have targeted an armed fighter cell and weapons depot.
Overnight air strikes killed dozens of civilians when they hit two homes in Gaza city, in the north of the enclave, Gaza authorities said in a statement.
In central Gaza city, at least eight people were killed when strikes targeted a family home in the Daraj neighbourhood.
An additional six people were killed from the Fayomi family after their home came under Israeli strikes in the city's Shujaiya neighbourhood.
In Khan Younis, a child was killed and members of the Shaat family were injured after their home in the Miraj neighbourhood was targeted.
Gaza's health ministry said on Wednesday that the only oxygen station in Gaza city, hospitals and health centres are at a risk of running out of fuel and shutting down.
“This exposes the lives of dozens of sick and wounded people to inevitable death,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that medicine stored in refrigerators will be damaged due to a lack of diesel to operate generators.
“We appeal to all relevant international and humanitarian institutions to intervene quickly to bring in the necessary fuel, in addition to the electric generators and spare parts needed for maintenance,” said the ministry.
Hospitals across Gaza have been appealing for urgent help as they run out of medical supplies and fuel. Some have stopped working due to the continuing Israeli attacks and blockade.
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
Muguruza's singles career in stats
WTA titles 3
Prize money US$11,128,219 (Dh40,873,133.82)
Wins / losses 293 / 149
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Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE squad
Men's draw: Victor Scvortov and Khalifa Al Hosani, (both 73 kilograms), Sergiu Toma and Mihail Marchitan (90kg), Ivan Remarenco (100kg), Ahmed Al Naqbi (60kg), Musabah Al Shamsi and Ahmed Al Hosani (66kg)
Women’s draw: Maitha Al Neyadi (57kg)
The specs: 2019 Audi A8
Price From Dh390,000
Engine 3.0L V6 turbo
Gearbox Eight-speed automatic
Power 345hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy, combined 7.5L / 100km
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The Specs
Price, base Dh379,000
Engine 2.9-litre, twin-turbo V6
Gearbox eight-speed automatic
Power 503bhp
Torque 443Nm
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
