Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
09-11-2025
JERUSALEM/ GAZA STRIP: Negotiations are under way to allow about 150 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels in southern Gaza behind Israel’s “yellow line” to hand over their weapons and walk free.
President Donald Trump says he expects a US-coordinated international stabilization force to be on the ground in Gaza “very soon”, adding despite repeated Israeli violations the ceasefire “is working out very well”.
Israel’s defence chief orders the army to “destroy all terror tunnels in Gaza” as air strikes and artillery fire pound southern Khan Younis despite the US-brokered truce.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 68,875 Palestinians and wounded 170,679 since October 2023. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks and about 200 taken captive.
Waste build-up in Gaza causing more disease
With no reliable rubbish collection and hazardous waste from bomb sites, Palestinians in Gaza say pollution has created a putrid atmosphere rife with environmental and health risks.
“The scale of the waste problem in Gaza is huge,” said Alessandro Mrakic, head of the Gaza office of the UN development agency UNDP. “We’re talking about 2 million tons of waste, untreated, all across Gaza.”
People in the war-battered enclave are reporting higher rates of gastric diseases and skin complaints, from diarrhea to rashes, sores, lice and scabies, conditions doctors blame on pollution.
“Skin diseases have spread a lot because of overcrowding in tents and the tents are next to garbage dumps,” Sami Abu Taha, a dermatologist at the Kuwaiti field hospital in Khan Younis, was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
“I don’t smell any fresh air. I smell a foul odor in my tent. I can’t sleep. My children wake up in the morning coughing,” added Mahmoud Abu Reida, a resident in the southern city.
Talks ongoing to get dozens of Hamas fighters
Negotiations are under way to allow about 150 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels in southern Gaza behind Israel’s “yellow line” to hand over their weapons and walk free.
Securing safe passage for the Hamas soldiers in Israeli-controlled territory is a serious issue seen as a risk to the month-old Gaza truce, news reports quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Egyptian mediators have proposed that, in exchange for safe passage, fighters still in Rafah surrender their arms to Egypt and give details of tunnels there so they can be destroyed, an Egyptian security official told media.
Israel and Hamas have yet to publicly accept mediators’ proposals. Far-right ministers in Israel’s government including hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are vehemently opposing any deal, the Financial Times reports.
Israeli attacks in Rafah spiraled into some of the worst violence since the ceasefire took hold on October 10, with three Israeli soldiers killed, prompting further Israeli attacks that killed nearly 150 Palestinians.
The UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory has urged Israel not to follow through on demolition orders it issued for “11 homes and vital community infrastructure” in the village of Umm al-Khair.
In a statement, the UN office said the mass demolition orders in Hebron governorate are “emblematic of an ever-escalating wave of Israeli steps to consolidate annexation of the West Bank”. (Int’l News Desk)
