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Maldives Ban Israelis to Protest Gaza War 

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010. (Getty Images/AFP)
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Maldives Ban Israelis to Protest Gaza War 

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010. (Getty Images/AFP)
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010. (Getty Images/AFP)

The Maldives announced Tuesday it was banning the entry of Israelis from the luxury tourist archipelago in "resolute solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday.

"The ratification reflects the government's firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," his office said in a statement.

"The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause."

The ban will be implemented with immediate effect, a spokesman for Muizzu's office told AFP.

The Maldives, a small Islamic republic of 1,192 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded white sandy beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways.

Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals.

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010.

Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been pressuring Muizzu to ban Israelis as a statement of opposition to the Gaza war.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged its citizens last year to avoid travelling to the Maldives.

The Gaza war broke out after Palestinian group Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,613 Palestinians had been killed since March 18, when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,983.

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More Than 83 Million People Internally Displaced Worldwide, Says Monitor 

A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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More Than 83 Million People Internally Displaced Worldwide, Says Monitor 

A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)

Raging conflicts, disasters and worsening climate change displaced tens of millions of people within their own countries last year, a new record, monitors said Tuesday.

An unprecedented 83.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2024 -- equivalent to the entire population of Germany -- amid mass displacement from conflicts in places like Sudan and Gaza, as well as floods and giant cyclones.

That is more than double the number from just six years ago, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in their annual joint report on internal displacement.

"Internal displacement is where conflict, poverty and climate collide, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest," IDMC chief Alexandra Bilak said in a statement.

The monitors highlighted that nearly 90 percent of the world's IDPs, or 73.5 million people, were displaced by conflict and violence -- an 80-percent increase since 2018.

Some 10 countries each counted more than three million IDPs from conflict and violence at the end of 2024, with civil war-ravaged Sudan alone home to a staggering 11.6 million IDPs -- the most ever recorded in a single country, the report showed.

Some two million people, nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip, was also displaced at the end of last year, even before fresh mass displacements since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire on March 18, ramping up its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Worldwide, close to 10 million people were displaced within their countries at the end of last year, after being forced to flee by disasters -- more than double the number from five years ago, the monitors said.

A full 65.8 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2024, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, Tuesday's report showed.

Conflict was responsible for 20.1 million of those fresh displacements, while a record 45.8 million people fled their homes to escape disasters.

Faced with several major hurricanes like Helene and Milton, which prompted mass evacuations, the United States alone accounted for 11 million disaster-related displacements -- nearly a quarter of global total, the report said.

Weather-related events, many intensified by climate change, triggered 99.5 percent of all of last year's disaster displacements.

The number of countries reporting both conflict and disaster displacement had meanwhile tripled in 15 years, with more than three-quarters of people internally displaced by conflict living in countries that are very vulnerable to climate change.

Often, the drivers and impacts of displacement "are intertwined, making crises more complex and prolonging the plight of those displaced", the report said.

The stark numbers come as humanitarian organizations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.

Many of the sweeping cuts are being felt by IDPs, who typically garner less attention than refugees, who have fled into other countries.

"This year's figures must act as a wake-up call for global solidarity," NRC chief Jan Egeland insisted in the statement.

"Every time humanitarian funding gets cut, another displaced person loses access to food, medicine, safety and hope," he warned.

The lack of progress towards reining in displacement globally, he said, "is both a policy failure and a moral stain on humanity".