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Tunisia Records Highest Covid Deaths in Two Months

Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
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Tunisia Records Highest Covid Deaths in Two Months

Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui

Tunisia reported the highest number of Covid deaths in two months, reporting 20 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

The death toll reached 26,271, the Health Ministry said, adding that the total number of hospitalized cases reached 1,042. According to the ministry, 191 patients are in intensive care and 52 under life support.

Night curfew has been effective in Tunisia since Jan. 13 to counter the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Deaths spiked in the past few weeks from 3-4 cases per day to more than 13 deaths daily.

Moez Hammami, a specialist in quantitative risk assessment, expected Tunisia to record up to 40 death cases per day, noting that the country is currently witnessing its sixth wave.

Hammami further said that the next ten days will represent the peak in critical and death cases.

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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.