Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli protesters expressed concern for the hostages in Gaza on Saturday, after Qatar said it was pausing as a key mediator for a cease-fire that would help bring the captives home. Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv holding signs reading "400," the number of days since the hostages were taken when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Efforts to broker a truce in the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel have proven fruitless, and on Saturday Qatar put its mediation on hold until the two sides showed "willingness and seriousness" in talks. Protester Ruti Lior said she was unsure how much sway Qatar had, but was still "very, very worried" by their decision to pull back from negotiations. "This is further proof for me that there really is no seriousness, and these deals are being sabotaged," the 62-year-old psychotherapist told AFP. Saturday's rally featured an installation of masks representing Netanyahu along with signs bearing the word "Guilty." Other placards read "Hostage deal now" and "Drop your weapon, stop the war." "How many more tears must fall and how much more blood must be shed before someone does what needs to be done and brings our children home?" Niva Wenkert, mother of hostage Omer Wenkert, was quoted as saying in a statement released by campaign group Hostage and Missing Families Forum. In the October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead. Hamas has been designated a terror group by the United States, the U.K. and other Western countries. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Israelis have been protesting weekly to pressure their government to do more to secure the captives' release. Qatar, which has hosted Hamas's political leadership since 2012 with U.S. blessing, has been involved in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war in Gaza. But the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly hit snags since a one-week truce in November 2023 -- the only one so far -- with both sides trading blame for the impasse. 

JERUSALEM — With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives to search for cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes. Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City, where they find the situation little better. "We are being starved to force us to leave our homes," said Mohammed Arqouq, whose family of eight is determined to stay in the north, weathering Israel's siege. "We will die here in our homes." Medical workers warn that hunger is spiraling to dire proportions under a monthlong siege on north Gaza by the Israeli military, which has been waging a fierce campaign since the beginning of October, saying it's rooting out militants. Hamas militants, who are still holding hostages inside Gaza, have regrouped in the area and have been carrying out hit-and-run attacks from tunnels and bombed-out buildings. The military has severed the area with checkpoints, ordering residents to leave. Many Palestinians fear Israel aims to depopulate the north long-term. On Friday, experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening. The growing desperation comes as the deadline approaches next week for a 30-day ultimatum the Biden administration gave Israel: raise the level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. The U.S. says Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying food and other supplies. Israel has fallen far short. In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, according to figures from Israel's military agency overseeing aid entry, known as COGAT. In the first week of November, the average was 81 a day. The U.N. puts the number even lower — 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October. It says Israeli military operations and general lawlessness often prevent it from collecting supplies, leaving hundreds of truckloads stranded at the border. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel had made some progress by announcing the opening of a new crossing into central Gaza and approving new delivery routes. But he said Israel must do more. "It's not just sufficient to open new roads if more humanitarian assistance isn't going through those roads," he said. A trickle of food has reached Gaza City, but as of Thursday, nothing entered the towns farther north for 30 days, even as an estimated 70,000 people remain there, said Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, speaking from Gaza City. The Israeli government acknowledged in late October that it hadn't allowed aid into Jabaliya because of military "operational constraints" in response to a petition by Israeli human rights groups. On Saturday, COGAT said it allowed 11 trucks of food and supplies into Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya. But Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said Israeli troops at a checkpoint forced the convoy to unload the food before it could reach shelters in Beit Hanoun. It was not clear what then happened to the supplies. Palestinians in the north described to The Associated Press a desperate daily struggle to find food, water and safety, as strikes level buildings, sometimes killing entire families. Arqouq said he goes out at night to search bombed-out buildings: "Sometimes you find a half-empty package of flour, canned food and lentils." His family relies on help from others sheltering at a Jabaliya school, he said, but their food, too, is running low. "We are like dogs and cats searching for their food in the rubble," said Um Saber, a widow. She said she and her six children had to flee a school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya when Israel struck it. Now they live in her father-in-law's home, stretching meager supplies of lentils and pasta with 40 others, mostly women and children. Ahmed Abu Awda, a 28-year-old father of three living with 25 relatives in a Jabaliya house, said they have a daily meal of lentils with bread, rationing to ensure children eat. "Sometimes we don't eat at all," he said. Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutrition specialist at Gaza City's Patient Friend Benevolent Hospital, said she sees about 350 cases of moderate to severe acute malnutrition daily, most from the north but also Gaza City. "The bone of their chest is showing, the eyes are protruding," she said, and many have trouble concentrating. "You repeat something a number of times, so they can understand what we are saying." She cited a 32-year-old woman shedding weight in her third month of pregnancy — when they put her on the scale, she weighed only 40 kilograms. "We are suffering, facing the ghost of famine that is hovering over Gaza," Soboh said. Even before the siege in the north, the Patient Friend hospital saw a flood of children suffering from malnutrition — more than 4,780 in September compared with 1,100 in July, said Dr Ahmad Eskiek, who oversees hospital operations. Soboh said staff get calls from Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya pleading for help: "What can we do? We have nothing." 

washington — The U.S. military said Monday that it had carried out strikes against nine targets associated with Iranian groups in Syria.  In a statement, the U.S. military said the strikes were made against two locations in Syria and were a response to several attacks on U.S. personnel in Syria in the past 24 hours.  The U.S. has occasionally carried out strikes against targets linked to Iran in both Iraq and Syria. In February, the U.S. launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias it backs, in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops.  "These strikes will degrade the Iranian backed groups' ability to plan and launch future attacks on U.S. and coalition forces," the U.S. military said after the most recent strikes.  The U.S. has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries but was later defeated.  The U.S. has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on October 7, 2023, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups from getting involved in the conflict.  U.S. forces have also helped shoot down projectiles that Iran launched toward Israel this year. 

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Over 971 Nigerians abducted in October 2024 – Report

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Judges of the Federal High Court of Nigeria are to proceed on 2024 Christmas Vacation on Monday December 16, this year. According to a circular signed by the Chief Judge of the Court, Hon. Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, the Judges are to return to work on Monday January 6, 2025. However, normal court sitting would […]

Federal High Court of Nigeria Judges begin Christmas Vacation Dec 16