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Spanish Ship en Route to Gaza with Desperately Needed Aid

A Palestinian youth keeps an injured relative company in hospital following an Israeli strike in Gaza - AFP
A Palestinian youth keeps an injured relative company in hospital following an Israeli strike in Gaza - AFP
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Spanish Ship en Route to Gaza with Desperately Needed Aid

A Palestinian youth keeps an injured relative company in hospital following an Israeli strike in Gaza - AFP
A Palestinian youth keeps an injured relative company in hospital following an Israeli strike in Gaza - AFP

A Spanish aid boat was en route to Gaza on Wednesday, opening a new maritime corridor intended to allow deliveries of desperately needed food to the Palestinian territory ravaged by months of war between Israel and Hamas.

In a sign of worsening humanitarian conditions, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry says 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

A weeks-long diplomatic push had sought to bring about a ceasefire and increase aid deliveries before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, but key mediator Qatar said Tuesday that the warring sides were not close to striking a deal.

Fresh bombardments could be heard in southern Gaza, an AFP journalist said early Wednesday, and the health ministry reported another 70 people killed in overnight strikes.

With land shipments into the territory severely curtailed, the international community has sought to diversify routes for delivering aid, including via air drops and the new Cyprus maritime corridor.

The Open Arms ship that left the port of Larnaca on Tuesday is towing 200 tonnes of relief goods roughly 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the Mediterranean to Gaza, with US charity World Central Kitchen saying work was "underway" on a jetty to unload the shipment.

Cyprus said a second vessel was also being prepared.

Gaza has experienced dire shortages of food and other essentials since Israel imposed a siege at the outset of the war, and prices have shot up for what food there is.

"Today, there are many things in the market that are not available; even if they are available, they are at astronomical prices," said dentist and Gaza City resident Baher Hassouna, one of the 1.5 million Gazans displaced to the southern border city of Rafah.

Four US Army vessels also departed a base in Virginia on Tuesday carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza's coast to facilitate aid shipments.

The new facility -- which will consist of an offshore platform and a pier to bring aid ashore -- is expected to be up and running "at the 60-day mark", US Army Brigadier General Brad Hinson told journalists.

Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in besieged Gaza for weeks, and the United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory's north for deliveries of food and other humanitarian supplies.

The UN aid coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, and head of the United Nations Office for Project Services, Jorge Moreira da Silva, said in a joint statement they "welcome the opening of a maritime corridor" while cautioning it may not be enough.

"For aid delivery at scale there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza," they said.

The Israeli army on Tuesday night announced a pilot project for delivering aid directly into the north, saying six World Food Program (WFP) aid trucks had entered through a new crossing.

Israel has maintained strict control over supplies entering the Gaza Strip, and aid workers have blamed cumbersome screenings for the severity of the current shortages.

Israel blames problems on the Palestinian side for inadequacies in aid delivery.

Without specifically mentioning the new overland route, the WFP wrote on social media platform X that it had "delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in (the) first successful convoy to the north since 20 February".

"With people in northern #Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day," it added.

Morocco, meanwhile, sent a plane loaded with 40 tonnes of relief supplies directly to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, a diplomatic source said, a bid to bypass bottlenecks on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called on Tuesday for an immediate ceasefire, labelling the conflict "a war on children".

In a post on X, Lazzarini cited UN and Gaza health ministry figures that suggest more children have been killed in Gaza between October and February "than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world combined".

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Arab World

Israel Demolishes Gunmen’s Homes in West Bank Operation That Has Displaced Thousands

Smoke, dust and debris rise as the Israeli army demolishes two houses with explosives in connection with an Oct. 23 shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP)
Smoke, dust and debris rise as the Israeli army demolishes two houses with explosives in connection with an Oct. 23 shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Demolishes Gunmen’s Homes in West Bank Operation That Has Displaced Thousands

Smoke, dust and debris rise as the Israeli army demolishes two houses with explosives in connection with an Oct. 23 shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP)
Smoke, dust and debris rise as the Israeli army demolishes two houses with explosives in connection with an Oct. 23 shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP)

Israel demolished on Friday the homes ‌of the assailants who killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron last week, part of an ongoing operation that has forcibly displaced over 3,000 Palestinians.

After the October 23 attack, in which both gunmen were killed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to launch a large-scale operation in areas near the checkpoint, triggering protests by Palestinian residents.

Palestinian officials have accused Netanyahu of using the operation to drum up support ahead of a general election in Israel on Tuesday. Israel's government says its operation is a response to the attack ‌on its soldiers.

In ‌a statement announcing the demolitions, Israel's military said it ‌would "continue ⁠to operate proactively ⁠and offensively" to thwart attacks in the West Bank and "protect residents in the area".

The homes demolished on Friday had been occupied by the wives and children of the gunmen before the military forced Palestinians to leave the area over the past week, according to local residents.

The military has also demolished other homes as well as shops, roads, and factories in Hebron since ⁠the attack, according to local officials, though the exact ‌scale of the demolitions is unclear.

It has ‌closed most entrances to the city, severely curtailing freedom of movement for Palestinians, including people ‌in need of medical attention.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk ‌said this week that the displacement of residents raised "grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force" and that "threats to empty and erase entire neighborhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing."

Netanyahu's government has presided over a rapid expansion of settlements, deemed ‌illegal by UN bodies and most countries, though Israel disputes this.

Under Netanyahu's right-wing coalition there has also ⁠been a surge of ⁠militant settler violence against Palestinians.

In Kafr Malik near Ramallah on Friday, Reuters witnesses documented militant Israeli settlers shoving Palestinians and preventing farmers from harvesting their olives, while the Israeli military was present.

The Israeli military said it had responded to reports from Israeli settlers that Palestinians were throwing stones at them, and had arrested two Palestinians.

It did not address the reports of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians. A Reuters witness present during the incident did not observe the Palestinians throwing stones.

Attacks have surged during the Palestinian olive harvest, which starts at the end of September and ends in November. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din reported at least 135 physical attacks on the olive harvest as of October 23.

Arab World

First Algerian Troops Arrive in Niger Where Extremists Threaten Stability

Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, has traditionally regarded stability in ‌the Sahel-Sahara ‌as an important regional security ‌priority. (Getty Images)
Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, has traditionally regarded stability in ‌the Sahel-Sahara ‌as an important regional security ‌priority. (Getty Images)
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First Algerian Troops Arrive in Niger Where Extremists Threaten Stability

Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, has traditionally regarded stability in ‌the Sahel-Sahara ‌as an important regional security ‌priority. (Getty Images)
Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, has traditionally regarded stability in ‌the Sahel-Sahara ‌as an important regional security ‌priority. (Getty Images)

An Algerian army ‌convoy has arrived in Niger in Algeria's first foreign troop deployment since it sent forces to support Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Niger, like other countries in West Africa's Sahel region, is battling insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, has traditionally regarded stability in ‌the Sahel-Sahara ‌as an important regional security ‌priority.

⁠Energy is an ⁠important focus for Algeria in Niger, where Algerian state-run oil and gas firm Sonatrach has investments.

One major project, the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline with Niger and Nigeria, aims to deliver African gas to Europe ⁠and other international markets.

Reuters spoke ‌to 10 people ‌who said the first Algerian military convoy had ‌reached Arlit, a uranium mining town ‌in the country's northwest.

Algeria has said the decision to deploy troops was taken to protect the country's energy and economic interests, without disclosing ‌the size of the force or the timetable for their arrival.

Military ⁠officers ⁠have ruled Niger, which has uranium, oil and gold resources, since the July 2023 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, which Algeria initially opposed.

Arab World

Houthis Suspected of Recruiting Children, Young Men Amid Surge in Disappearances in Sanaa

Human rights reports accuse the Houthis of recruiting more children. (Local media)
Human rights reports accuse the Houthis of recruiting more children. (Local media)
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Houthis Suspected of Recruiting Children, Young Men Amid Surge in Disappearances in Sanaa

Human rights reports accuse the Houthis of recruiting more children. (Local media)
Human rights reports accuse the Houthis of recruiting more children. (Local media)

Disappearances of children and young men have surged in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa and its outskirts in recent weeks, fueling accusations that the Houthis are luring them into military camps, training them for combat and sending them to battlefronts without their families' knowledge or consent.

The cases have also raised fears among families of possible extortion, as authorities face accusations of failing to investigate the disappearances or disclose the fate of those missing.

Local human rights sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the unexplained disappearances have left residents increasingly alarmed, with children and young men vanishing from schools, streets and residential neighborhoods, sometimes without a trace.

Families have been left to search for their missing relatives on their own, turning to social media to appeal for information as Houthi-controlled security authorities ignore their reports, the sources said.

About 13 children and young men have disappeared from different parts of Sanaa since the start of October, the sources said. Most were aged between 15 and 23, and some were later found at Houthi military camps or on battlefronts after being lured into combat training without their families' knowledge or approval.

Hundreds of disappearances involving children and young men have been reported in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled cities since the beginning of the year, the sources said. Some families remain in the dark about their missing relatives' whereabouts.

The sources accused Houthi security authorities of ignoring families' reports and appeals, compounding their distress and leaving those missing vulnerable to exploitation and recruitment.

The latest cases, reported over the past two days, involve Amjad Noman al-Sarouhi, 16, who vanished from the al-Ansi neighborhood in central Sanaa's Maeen district, and Mukhtar Abdullah Hassan al-Rifai, 22, who went missing near the Haziz market on the capital's outskirts.

Lured into military camps

Families' accounts have deepened fears that disappearances are being used to funnel children and young men into Houthi military camps, amid accusations that Houthi supervisors and recruitment brokers are exploiting their social and economic hardships to draw them into combat.

In one case, a family spent five days searching neighborhoods and hospitals for a minor who disappeared from Sanaa two months ago, only to learn from a Houthi supervisor that he was at a military camp north of the city.

A relative told Asharq Al-Awsat that the supervisor confirmed Houthi members had lured the boy into the camp and put him through combat training without his family's knowledge.

The relative described five days of fear and anguish as the family searched for the boy, worried he might have been harmed, before discovering he had been taken to a Houthi camp and subjected to military training without their consent.

For Mujeeb, a Sanaa resident and father of four, the disappearances have turned even routine outings into a source of fear.

"We live in constant fear for our children. We no longer feel at ease even when one of them steps out to run a simple errand," he said.

"We fear a Houthi member or supervisor could lure them away or exploit their needs and difficult living conditions, leaving us facing a situation we are powerless to change."

Mujeeb said families wanted their children kept safe and allowed to pursue their education and lead normal lives, free from recruitment and being sent to battlefronts.