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Items by Reuters
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Gaza's amputees face life in a war zone with little treatment, and even less hope
Farah Abu Qainas hoped to become a teacher, but an Israeli air strike last year injured her so badly that she lost her left leg, throwing all her future plans into doubt and adding the 21-year-old to a list of thousands of new amputees in devastated Gaza. Still living...
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6 weeks since Israel imposed its total Gaza blockade, food is running out
The bombs still haven’t killed Rehab Akhras and her family. But if the border crossings that Israel has sealed off since the start of March are not opened soon, she says that hunger surely will. Six weeks since Israel completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million Palestinian residents...
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Trump's remarks on plan to take over Gaza, displace Palestinians
President Donald Trump has proposed a US takeover of Gaza while also suggesting a permanent displacement of Palestinians from the enclave. The plan has been condemned globally, with Palestinians, Arab nations, the UN and rights experts saying it was tantamount to the war crime of “ethnic cleansing.” Following is a timeline...
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The uneasy ties between Palestinians and Arab states
Arab states formally support the Palestinian cause but security, regional and sectarian tensions have strained their ties with the Palestinians scattered across the Middle East, leading to political and military crises. Jordan Jordan was one of the countries to receive large numbers of Palestinian refugees when at least 700,000 Palestinians fled...
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Which countries are quitting a key landmine treaty and why?
NATO members Poland, Finland and all three Baltic states have queued up over the past few weeks to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia. The moves threaten to reverse decades of campaigning by activists who say...
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What is the International Criminal Court?
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Israel has rejected the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by anti-Semitism. Here are some facts about the ICC: When was the ICC set...
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'There is no blank cheque': Syria leader told to rein in jihadis
Syria’s President, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has a lot to prove to win over Western powers. If the first few week of his rule are anything to go by, he may be heading in the wrong direction. The West is watching Syria’s leaders closely to ensure they rein in the Islamist jihadis who killed...
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Turkiye could be a vital partner as Europe and Ukraine seek a new security framework
Turkiye has emerged as a key potential partner in restructuring European security, diplomats and analysts say, as Europe scrambles to bolster its defence and find guarantees for Ukraine under any forthcoming ceasefire deal urged by the United States. European countries have been unsettled by US President Donald Trump’s plan to...
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The wife of detained Palestinian Columbia student says she was naive to believe he was safe from arrest
The wife of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student who was forcibly taken by ICE from his New York City home on 8 March, described his arrest as 'a kidnapping', which has left her and their family devastated. Eight months pregnant, she has called...
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What is driving the bloodshed in Syria?
Syria has suffered its worst bloodshed since Bashar Al-Assad was ousted in December, with more than 1,000 people reported killed in violence that has swept the coastal region of the country since Thursday. The violence has pitted the Islamist-led government’s security forces against fighters from Assad’s Alawite minority. The dead...
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Israel's settler pressure on West Bank villages stirs annexation fear
Just metres from the last houses in Bardala, a Palestinian village at the northern end of the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army has been bulldozing a dirt road and ditch between the community and open grazing land on the hills behind it. The army told Reuters that the works...
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How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M’s is smuggled from war-torn Sudan
Gum arabic, a vital ingredient used in everything from Coca-Cola to M&M’s sweets, is increasingly being trafficked from rebel-held areas of war-torn Sudan, traders and industry sources say, complicating Western companies’ efforts to insulate their supply chains from the conflict. Sudan produces around 80 per cent of the world’s gum...
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Who is Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish militant leader urging peace with Turkiye?
The 75-year-old militant leader Abdullah Ocalan has spent a quarter of a century in jail after leading his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to take up arms against the Turkish state to fight for a Kurdish homeland. Now he is calling for peace. On Thursday, Ocalan called on the PKK from...
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EXPLAINER - Why Trump's proposal on Gaza is ringing alarm bells in the region
US President Donald Trump has infuriated the Arab world by saying that Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive. From the earliest days of the Gaza war, Arab governments, particularly Egypt and Jordan, have...
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'No forgetting': Turks lament reconstruction delays two years after deadly earthquake
Two years after the deadliest and most destructive earthquake in modern Turkish history, hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, with many still living in temporary housing, as rebuilding efforts lag behind initial targets. Residents of Antakya, the city hardest hit, gathered at 4:17 am (0117 GMT) on Thursday with...
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EXPLAINER - How Trump's Gaza proposals could violate international law
US President Donald Trump said he wants to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan, demolish remaining buildings to make way for a Riviera-style development project and place the Occupied Territory under US “ownership”. Forcing people to leave their land and taking over territory are prohibited by long-standing treaties....
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'No to Trump's plan!' Palestinians vow to stay in Gaza
Gazans slammed US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians elsewhere, vowing to never leave the ruins of their homes in the coastal enclave that Trump wants to turn into a “Riviera of the Middle East“. “Trump can go to hell, with his ideas,...
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QUOTES - Global reaction to Trump's Gaza Strip takeover plan
President Donald Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. Here are some global reactions to the announcement. Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry “Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land. Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has affirmed the Kingdom’s position in ‘a...
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Bereaved Gazans dig out bodies from city ruins, give them graves
Guns may have fallen silent in Gaza, but for Mahmoud Abu Dalfa, the agony is not over. He is desperately searching for the bodies of his wife and five children trapped under the rubble of his house since the early months of the war. Abu Dalfa’s wife and children were...
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FACTBOX - Who are the most prominent Palestinians held in Israeli jails?
Under the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel has agreed to release Palestinians held in Israeli jails in return for freeing hostages taken by the Hamas group in their 7 October, 2023 attack. There is no final agreement on which prisoners will be released in return for hostages, in part because it is unclear how...
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FACTBOX - War-ravaged Gaza faces multi-billion dollar reconstruction challenge
Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza after the war between Israel and the Palestinian group, Hamas, according to assessments from the United Nations. Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in the enclave and swap Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the agreement...
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FACTBOX - Who's in the frame to be Lebanon's next president?
Lebanon’s parliament will attempt to elect a new head of state on Thursday, with officials seeing better odds of success in a political landscape shaken by Israel’s assault on Hezbollah and the toppling of the group’s ally, Bashar Al-Assad, in Syria. The post, reserved for a Maronite Christian in the sectarian power-sharing...
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Syria new leaders face economy decimated by war, sanctions
Syria’s economy has been decimated by more than a decade of civil war and sanctions that have severed it from the global financial system. Below is a round-up of the current state of the economy and how the conflict has reshaped trade and government finances. What is the state of Syria’s...
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards extend control over Tehran's oil exports, sources say
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have tightened their grip on the country’s oil industry and control up to half the exports that generate most of Tehran’s revenue and fund its proxies across the Middle East, according to Western officials, security sources and Iranian insiders. All aspects of the oil business have come...