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Azzam al-Ahmed: Egypt Exerted Unprecedented Efforts towards Palestinian Reconciliation

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah. (AP)
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah. (AP)
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Azzam al-Ahmed: Egypt Exerted Unprecedented Efforts towards Palestinian Reconciliation

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah. (AP)
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh shakes hands with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah. (AP)

Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed voiced his optimism that the latest round of Egypt-sponsored dialogue with the rival Hamas group would lead to an end to Palestinian division.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Egypt has made unprecedented efforts towards the reconciliation file due to the changing regional and international political stances.”

The dialogue between Fatah and Hamas kicked off in Cairo on Tuesday.

An informed source predicted to Asharq Al-Awsat that they will last two to three days.

Ahmed, who heads the Fatah delegation at the Cairo talks, revealed that one of his group’s priorities is enabling the Palestinian government to manage its affairs in Ramallah, Gaza and Khan Younes.

He explained however that this process will not take place overnight.

Hamas has meanwhile focused its energies on lifting Palestinian Authority (PA) “sanctions” against it in Gaza.

Hussam Badran, who is part of the Hamas delegation at the Cairo talks, said on Tuesday that the movement is keen on resolving the repercussions and negative effects of the division on Gaza.

“The Palestinians guarantee the achievement of the reconciliation. We are waiting for national factions to play their role to that end and we are communicating with all sides. We are prepared to listen to any criticism and advice,” he continued.

A Fatah official in Cairo, Samih Barzaq, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “unprecedented” measures taken by the PA against Gaza employees will be lifted “very soon”.

The PA had in the past few months cut the salaries of several Gaza employees and sacked a number of others in an attempt to pressure Hamas to return the coastal strip back under the control of the Palestinian government.

Hamas had seized control of the Gaza Strip after armed clashes with Fatah in 2007.

Hamas had declared in September its readiness for reconciliation with Fatah in a bid to end the Palestinian division. This includes holding general elections.

Barzaq said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will commit to the democratic results of the elections.

“No one inside or outside of the Palestinian territories can object to the results because whoever wins them will be a Palestinian and he would have won through the votes of his fellow citizens,” he stressed.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian cabinet held its annual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah during which it addressed his visit to Gaza last week.

The cabinet expressed its readiness to assume all duties in Gaza with the approval of concerned factions.

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Arab World

‘Shockingly High’ Number of Gaza Children Still Acutely Malnourished After Truce, UN Says 

Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
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‘Shockingly High’ Number of Gaza Children Still Acutely Malnourished After Truce, UN Says 

Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)

Thousands of children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza since an October ceasefire that was supposed to enable a major increase in humanitarian aid, the UN children's agency said on Tuesday.

UNICEF, the biggest provider of malnutrition treatment in Gaza, said that 9,300 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition in October, when the first phase of an agreement to end the two-year Israel-Hamas war came into effect.

While this is down from a peak of over 14,000 in August, the number is still significantly higher than during a brief February-March ceasefire and indicates that aid flows remain insufficient, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told a Geneva press briefing by video link from Gaza.

"It's still a shockingly high number," she said. "The number of children admitted is five times higher than in February, so we need to see the numbers come down further."

Ingram described meeting underweight babies weighing less than 1 kilogram born in hospitals "their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive."

UNICEF is able to import considerably more aid into the enclave than it was before the October 10 agreement, but obstacles remain, she said, citing delays and denials of cargoes at crossings, route closures and ongoing security challenges.

"We have seen some improvement, but we continue to call for all of the available crossings into the Gaza Strip to be open," she added.

There are not enough commercial supplies entering Gaza, she added, saying that meat was still prohibitively expensive at around $20 a kilogram.

"Most families can't access this, and that's why we're still seeing high rates of malnutrition," she said.

In August, a UN-backed hunger monitor determined that famine conditions were affecting about half a million people - or a quarter of Gaza's population.

Children were severely affected by hunger as the war progressed, with experts warning that the effects could cause lasting damage.

Arab World

Sudan’s RSF Advances Could Trigger New Refugee Exodus, UNHCR Chief Warns 

Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
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Sudan’s RSF Advances Could Trigger New Refugee Exodus, UNHCR Chief Warns 

Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)

Advances by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan could trigger another exodus across the country's borders, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told Reuters.

The RSF took over Darfur's city of el-Fasher in late October in one of its biggest gains of the 2-1/2-year war with Sudan's army. This month, advances have continued eastward into the Kordofan region and they seized the country's biggest oil field.

Most of the estimated 40,000 people that the United Nations says have been displaced by the latest violence in Kordofan - a region comprised of three states in central and southern Sudan - have sought refuge within the country, Grandi said, but that could change if violence spreads to a large city like El Obeid.

"If that were to be - not necessarily taken - but engulfed by the war, I am pretty sure we would see more exodus," said Grandi in an interview from Port Sudan late on Monday.

"We have to remain...very alert in neighboring countries in case this happens," he said.

MILLIONS HOMELESS

Already, the war has uprooted nearly 12 million people, including 4.3 million who have fled across borders to Chad, South Sudan and elsewhere, in the world's biggest displacement crisis. However, some have returned to the capital Khartoum, which is now back in Sudanese army control.

Humanitarian workers lack resources to help those fleeing, many of whom have been raped, robbed or bereaved by the violence, said Grandi, who met with survivors who fled mass killings in el-Fasher.

"We are barely responding," said Grandi, referring to a Sudan response plan, which is just a third funded largely due to Western donor cuts. UNHCR lacks resources to relocate Sudanese refugees from an unstable area along Chad's border, he said.

FAMILIES TORN APART BY CONFLICT

Most of those who trekked hundreds of kilometers from el-Fasher and Kordofan to Sudan’s al-Dabba camp on the banks of the Nile north of Khartoum, which Grandi visited last week, are women and children. Their husbands and sons were killed or conscripted along the way.

Some mothers said they disguised their sons as girls to protect them from being abducted by fighters, Grandi said.

"Even fleeing is difficult because people are continuously stopped by the militias," he said.

Grandi began his UNHCR career in Khartoum in the 1980s, when Sudan sheltered refugees from other African wars. He is on his last trip as UNHCR chief before his term ends this month. A successor has yet to be named from over a dozen candidates.

Arab World

International Court Sentences Sudanese Militia Leader to 20 Years in Prison for Darfur Atrocities

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
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International Court Sentences Sudanese Militia Leader to 20 Years in Prison for Darfur Atrocities

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)

Judges at the International Criminal Court sentenced a leader of the feared Sudanese Janjaweed militia to 20 years imprisonment Tuesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the catastrophic conflict in Darfur more than 20 years ago.

At a hearing last month, prosecutors sought a life sentence for Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman who was convicted in October of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity that included ordering mass executions and bludgeoning two prisoners to death with an ax in 2003-2004, The Associated Press said.

“He committed these crimes knowingly, wilfully, and with, the evidence shows, enthusiasm and vigor,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told judges at the sentencing hearing in November.

Abd-Al-Rahman, 76, stood and listened, but showed no reaction as Presiding Judge Joanna Korner passed the sentence.