International
Dozens of bodies found in Gaza City neighbourhood, Palestinian rescuers say
Dozens of bodies found in Gaza City neighbourhood, Palestinian rescuers say
The bodies of dozens of Palestinians have been retrieved from the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood after Israeli forces withdrew from parts of Gaza City, Palestinian rescue workers have said.
“The Gaza civil defence teams moved in to rescue survivors. They found dozens killed. Most of those killed are families, women, and children. Some bodies were eaten by dogs,” Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said on Friday.
“At least 60 bodies were counted. Some bodies were buried on the spot. Others were taken to nearby hospitals.”
Israeli forces had entered the neighbourhood this week after ordering civilians to evacuate on Monday.
“Many bodies are still under the rubble. The Israeli forces are stationed nearby and the rescue efforts are interrupted regularly,” Basal said.
The discovery has come after Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood. On Thursday, Basal said civil defence teams recovered dozens of bodies from there, as well, adding that the neighbourhood has become uninhabitable.
“Documented testimonies” have been taken that Israeli forces opened fire on residents in the neighbourhood despite being located on designated evacuation routes, he said.
Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was largely razed to the ground in late 2023, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to homes in the ruins before Israel once again ordered them to leave.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, accused Israeli forces of “atrocities” and called for international accountability. In a statement, the group accused Israel of committing “heinous abuses” in Gaza City.
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“The atrocities revealed after the terrorist occupation army’s withdrawal from Tal al-Hawa in southwest Gaza City, after days of incursion and intense bombing that targeted all aspects of life, are war crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Hamas said.
It called on the UN and international community to take immediate steps to end a “war of extermination” that Israel is waging against Palestinians.
‘Stalling’ ceasefire talks
As Israeli forces step up attacks in Gaza’s north, they have also continued targeting areas in the besieged enclave’s south.
In Khan Younis, an Israeli air raid killed at least four aid workers from UK humanitarian organisation Al-Khair Foundation.
They were “targeted in a distribution point where they were preparing to distribute aid in Khan Younis,” Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said.
“Al-Khair Foundation has been working in the Gaza Strip since day one, trying to provide people with food assistance, and with a lot of other commodities, and we lost another four aid workers today,” Khoudary said.
This is not the first time that Israeli forces have targeted aid workers. In April, seven people working with the United States-based NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli air raid in Gaza.
At the time, Israel’s military said the attack on the WCK team’s convoy was a “grave mistake” and pledged to protect aid workers.
Mediators are still trying to reach a ceasefire deal that would free Israeli captives in return for Palestinians jailed by Israel.
On Friday, a senior Hamas official blamed Israel for a failure to build on the momentum created when the group dropped a key demand in the US-drafted ceasefire offer a week ago to clear the way for a deal.
“Israel hasn’t given a clear stance over Hamas proposal,” the official, who asked not to be named, told the Reuters news agency, accusing Israel of “stalling and wasting time”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he remained committed to the Gaza ceasefire framework and accused Hamas of making demands that contradicted it, without saying what those demands were.
Two Egyptian sources said on Thursday that talks had made progress but security arrangements and ceasefire guarantees were still being worked on.
Dozens of bodies found in Gaza City neighbourhood, Palestinian rescuers say
International
Canada denies 13,000 Nigerians refugee status
Canada denies 13,000 Nigerians refugee status
Over 13,000 Nigerians who applied for refugee protection in Canada from January 2013 to December 2024 were rejected.
According to data from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, this figure includes 811 Nigerians whose applications were turned down in 2024.
The board placed Nigeria among the top five countries with the most rejected claims.
Mexico tops the list with 2,954 rejections, followed by India and Haiti, which have 1,688 and 982 rejected claims, respectively.
Colombia is in fourth place with 723 rejected claims, while Nigeria is in fifth place with 13,171 rejections.
In Canada, asylum seekers get refugee protection if the RPD satisfactorily confirms that their claims meet the United Nations definition of a Convention refugee.
In its definition of the Status of Refugee, the 1951 UN Convention states refugees are persons who have a substantiated fear of persecution because of their race, nationality, religion, political ideology or membership in a particular social group, which can include sexual orientation, gender identity, being a woman and persons living with HIV/AIDS.
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However, in Canada, asylum seekers are expected to show evidence that they are in danger of torture, risk to their life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment if they return to their country of nationality.
According to the Refugee Board’s application guideline, if an applicant’s “claim is eligible, it is sent to the RPD to start the claim for refugee protection process.”
The breakdown of the rejections showed that 127 Nigerian claims were rejected in 2013, 241 in 2014 and 248 in 2015.
Canada denies 13,000 Nigerians refugee status
International
Nurse punished in UK for addressing convicted transgender paedophile as ‘Mr’
Nurse punished in UK for addressing convicted transgender paedophile as ‘Mr’
A senior nurse in the UK is battling to save her career after facing disciplinary action for refusing to refer to a convicted child sex offender as a woman.
Jennifer Melle, 40, from Croydon, was working at Epsom and St Helier University Hospital Trust when she declined to use female pronouns for a paedophile known as ‘Mr X,’ per report from the London Standard.
The offender, currently serving time in a high-security male prison, was jailed for grooming boys online while posing as a teenage girl.
Following her refusal, Melle claims she was subjected to racial abuse and physical threats.
She was, reportedly, then issued a final written warning and referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for allegedly breaching professional standards.
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NHS lawyers argued that Melle’s Christian belief—that people are born male or female—was “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
An internal investigation found she had violated the NMC Code of Conduct by failing to respect the patient’s “preferred identity” and uphold the Trust’s core value of “Respect.”
As a result, Melle has been moved to another ward, which she says is a demotion, and has had her name removed from internal hospital systems, preventing her from applying for additional shifts.
Now, with the backing of the Christian Legal Centre, she has launched legal action against the Trust, alleging harassment, discrimination, and breaches of her human rights.
The case comes amid growing controversy over gender policies in public institutions.
A recent report, the Sullivan Review, revealed that UK police forces have been allowing criminals to self-identify their gender on official records, sparking nationwide debate.
Nurse punished in UK for addressing convicted transgender paedophile as ‘Mr’
International
Gaza: Iran begins talks with S’Arabia, Egypt as Israel renews attacks
Gaza: Iran begins talks with S’Arabia, Egypt as Israel renews attacks
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Saturday exchanged views with his Saudi Arabian and Egyptian counterparts on Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza.
In a phone conversation with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Araghchi strongly condemned Israel’s attacks in Gaza, and urged other countries in the region to take collective action, said the Iranian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
For his part, Faisal reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s condemnation of Israeli aggressions and emphasized regional coordination to prevent further escalation.
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In a separate phone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Araghchi condemned Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza as well as obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery to the Palestinian coastal enclave “in flagrant violation” of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
The Egyptian foreign minister underscored the need for consultations and diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.
Both Egyptian and Iranian ministers agreed to maintain consultations on regional developments.
Gaza: Iran begins talks with S’Arabia, Egypt as Israel renews attacks
Xinhua
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