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Israel Says it is Expanding West Bank Operation to Nur Shams, Pregnant Palestinian Killed

Residents of the Al-Far'a Camp, West Bank, evacuate their homes as the Israeli military continues its operation in the area, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Residents of the Al-Far'a Camp, West Bank, evacuate their homes as the Israeli military continues its operation in the area, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
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Israel Says it is Expanding West Bank Operation to Nur Shams, Pregnant Palestinian Killed

Residents of the Al-Far'a Camp, West Bank, evacuate their homes as the Israeli military continues its operation in the area, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Residents of the Al-Far'a Camp, West Bank, evacuate their homes as the Israeli military continues its operation in the area, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israeli security forces have expanded a military operation to Nur Shams in the West Bank, a military spokesperson said on Sunday.

The military, police and intelligence services launched a so-called "counter-terrorism operation" in Jenin on January 21, described by officials as a "large-scale and significant military operation.”

The Israeli military said several militants had been killed and a number of wanted suspect detained in the operation.

A pregnant 23-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli security forces on Sunday in the Nur Shams refugee camp, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant, was struck by Israeli gunfire, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the fetus also did not survive and that Shalabi's husband was critically injured.

The Palestinian state news agency cited eyewitnesses as saying that Shalabi and her husband were shot by Israeli forces as they were trying to leave their home.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled West Bank homes in the wake of the military campaign in the West Bank and the widespread destruction.
Palestinians have said the Israeli campaign is one of the most destructive in recent memory. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. 
 

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Arab World

Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
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Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File

The world's only research center on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.

Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.

It is often characterized by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands, AFP said.

"The center and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP.

"We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose center had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.

"It's difficult to bear."

Since April 15, 2023, Sudan's army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the northeast African country.

The MRC is located in the Khartoum area, which the army last month reclaimed from the RSF during a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Sudan's health care system has been left at the "breaking point", according to the World Health Organization.

Among the conflict's casualties is now the MRC, established in 1991 under the auspices of the University of Khartoum. It was a rare story of medical success in impoverished Sudan.

A video provided by the global Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) shows collapsed ceilings, shelves overturned, fridges open and documents scattered about.

AFP was not able to independently verify the MRC's current condition.

The center had grown to include 50 researchers and treat 12,000 patients each year, Fahal said.

Mycetoma is listed as a neglected tropical disease by the WHO.

The organisms that cause mycetoma also occur in Sudan's neighbors, including Chad and Ethiopia, as well as in other tropical and sub-tropical areas, among them Mexico and Thailand, WHO says.

For herders, farmers and other workers depending on manual labor to survive, crippling mycetoma infections can be a life sentence.

Drawing on the MRC's expertise, in 2019 the WHO and Sudan's government convened the First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, in Khartoum.

"Today, Sudan, which was at the forefront of awareness of mycetomas, has gone 100 percent backwards," said Dr. Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, DNDi's head of mycetoma.