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German Defense Minister Cancels Iraq Trip over Protests

Protesters wave national flags during a protest outside the to the fortified Green Zone where the Danish embassy is, located in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of a holy Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. (AP)
Protesters wave national flags during a protest outside the to the fortified Green Zone where the Danish embassy is, located in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of a holy Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. (AP)
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German Defense Minister Cancels Iraq Trip over Protests

Protesters wave national flags during a protest outside the to the fortified Green Zone where the Danish embassy is, located in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of a holy Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. (AP)
Protesters wave national flags during a protest outside the to the fortified Green Zone where the Danish embassy is, located in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of a holy Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. (AP)

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has cancelled a planned trip to Iraq and Jordan, a ministry spokesperson said on Sunday, citing security concerns after the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad was set alight last week in a protest over burnings of the holy Quran.

On Saturday, several thousand Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad over the recent burning or damaging of the Quran during anti-Islam protests in Sweden and Denmark.

The cancellation of Pistorius' trip, which was supposed to last for several days, was also in response to violent protests against a Danish non-governmental organization in Iraq, the spokesperson said.

This, along with the risk of further protests in coming days, prompted German security forces to advise on cancelling the trip, the spokesperson said, adding it would take place at a later date, possibly during the fourth quarter of the year.

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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.