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The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two years ago.The milestone comes as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire largely holds, but with both sides accusing the other of violating the terms of the deal.In a statement, Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll from the war had risen to 70,100.The ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 354 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.Two bodies arrived at hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, the ministry said, one of which had been recovered from beneath the rubble.It noted that the spike from the last death toll was due to the fact that the data relating to 299 bodies had been processed and approved by the authorities. Despite the ceasefire, the Palestinian territory remains in a deep humanitarian crisis.The latest toll comes as the United Nations marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, on November 29 each year.”In so many ways, this tragedy has tested the norms and laws that have guided the international community for generations,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.”The killing of so many civilians, the repeated displacement of an entire population and the obstruction of humanitarian aid should never be acceptable under any circumstances,” he continued.”The recent ceasefire offers a glimmer of hope. It is now vital that all parties respect it fully and work in good faith towards solutions that restore and uphold international law.”The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.On that day, militants abducted 251 people into Gaza.At the start of the latest ceasefire, militants were holding 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 deceased captives.Hamas has since released all the living hostages and returned the remains of 26 dead hostages.In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.

A prominent Tunisian activist was arrested on Saturday as hundreds protested in the capital against the curtailing of freedoms, an AFP journalist and lawyers said.The protest in Tunis came a day after a mass appeal trial saw some 40 public figures, mainly critics of President Kais Saied, handed hefty sentences over plotting against the state.Poet and political figure Chaima Issa, who was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial on Friday, was arrested during the rally, lawyers and witnesses said.”We were marching in the protest when a group of plainclothes officers grabbed her and pushed her inside a vehicle,” Issa’s lawyer, Samir Dilou, told AFP.”They could have arrested her the day of the verdict at her home,” Dilou added. “She wasn’t going anywhere. If she wanted to go on the run, why would she be demonstrating?”The protest, called by Tunisia’s leading women rights groups the Association of Democratic Women (ATFD) and Aswat Nissa, denounced what many see as a growing clampdown on dissent and rights defenders in Tunisia.”This protest comes amid the authorities’ systematic suppression of free speech and the free voices of activists, journalists and others,” said Nadia Benhamed, a senior member of the ATFD.”We reject the suppression of freedoms,” she added. “Freedom of expression and thought is our right.”Tunisia emerged as the only democracy of the Arab Spring.But since Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, rights groups have criticised a major rollback on freedoms.Dozens of Saied critics have been prosecuted or jailed, including on terrorism-related charges and under a law the president enacted in 2022 to prohibit “spreading false news”.”We won’t give up on our gains and on our freedoms,” said Manel Othmani, another protester and activist. “We can’t surrender the freedom of speech we’ve gained since 2011.”Friday’s mass trial saw defendants sentenced to up to 45 years in prison — down from 66 in April — over charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to court documents viewed by AFP.A European Parliament vote on Thursday called for the release of “all those detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression, including political prisoners and human rights defenders” in Tunisia.But Saied condemned the resolution as “blatant interference”, saying the European Union could “learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms”.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Saturday as the country marks a year since a lightning Islamist-led offensive that eventually toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.The Islamist alliance, led by Sharaa, entered Aleppo on November 29 last year and swiftly took control of Syria’s second city.”Aleppo was reborn, and with its rebirth, all of Syria was reborn. In moments like these, a new history for all of Syria was being written, through Aleppo and its proud citadel,” Sharaa said on Saturday, addressing a crowd of hundreds from outside the city’s famous monument.Shortly afterwards, he appeared at the top of the citadel’s tower near a huge Syrian flag.Aleppo was an early venue for anti-Assad demonstrations in 2011 that spiralled into civil war.For four years the city was divided between a government loyalist sector in the west — with most of the population — and rebels in a small zone in the east.The Assad government was accused of dropping barrel bombs from helicopters and other aircraft onto rebel areas, while the insurgents fired rockets into government territory.Ally Russia came to Assad’s assistance in September 2015, helping government forces to lay siege to the rebel zone by cutting off its last supply route.Assad’s forces reclaimed complete control of the city on December 22, 2016 when a final convoy of rebels and civilians left eastern Aleppo.Sharaa’s Islamist forces launched their lightning offensive on November 27 last year.They went on to seize Damascus on December 8, toppling Assad and ending more than half a century of his family dynasty’s iron-fisted rule.

Pole-sitter Oscar Piastri won Saturday’s sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix with his McLaren teammate and title favourite Lando Norris third.Norris now leads Piastri by 22 points and the Briton can claim his maiden Formula One crown if results go his way in Sunday’s penultimate grand prix.The other title contender Max Verstappen finished fourth for Red Bull to drop 25 points behind Norris with a maximum 50 points remaining from Sunday’s race and the season-closer in Abu Dhabi next weekend.This was a return to form for Piastri after a recent slump, and the 19-lap dash could not have gone smoother for the Australian as he led from lights out to the flag, with George Russell’s Mercedes in second.”It’s been a good weekend so far, everything went smoothly in the sprint,” said Piastri, who was making his return to the podium for the first time since Monza in September.”Just need to keep it rolling,” he added.”The pace has been strong, and it is a track I have enjoyed in the past and I am enjoying it again, clearly!”Norris will have been relieved to have avoided any trouble as he edges closer to a maiden title.”I tried to go forwards (towards Russell), we got pretty close at the start but it was good,” Norris said.”It is hard to pass here, so all about qualifying. I think it will be close, I don’t think it will be an easy one,” he added.Qualifying for the race takes place at the Lusail International Circuit later Saturday.