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The United Nations warned Monday that Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began, with no aid entering the territory for weeks and conditions rapidly deteriorating after the collapse of a ceasefire.The UN’s alarm came as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and French President Emmanuel Macron called for an “urgent” ceasefire in Gaza.Israel resumed its intense military offensive in the Palestinian territory after a ceasefire deal that came into effect on January 19 fell apart two months later over differences regarding its next phase.Hundreds of thousands of people have since been displaced, with Israel blocking the entry of humanitarian aid from March 2, before the truce disintegrated.Medical supplies, fuel, water and other essentials are in short supply, the UN says.”The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).In a statement, OCHA said no supplies had reached Gaza for a month and a half.”Due to the closure of the crossings compounded by restrictions within Gaza, dwindling supplies have forced them (aid workers) to ration and reduce deliveries to make the most of the remaining stocks,” OCHA said.At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Dr. Ahmed al-Farah said the medical team was working non-stop.”We have a shortage in drugs, we have a shortage in the medical supplies, we have a shortage in everything in the hospitals,” he said, a stethoscope draped over his scrubs.- ‘Urgent need’ -In a phone call, Macron and Abbas “emphasised the urgent need for a ceasefire, the acceleration of humanitarian aid delivery (and) the rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land”, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.Following their conversation, Macron said on X that “France is fully mobilised for the liberation of all hostages, a return to a durable ceasefire and immediate access for humanitarian aid into Gaza”.He also advocated “reform” of the Palestinian Authority as part of a plan that would see the Ramallah-based body, which currently has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, govern a post-war Gaza without Hamas.Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu indicated that the group was willing to release all hostages in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel would end the war.”The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war”.Speaking after the group held talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, he said Hamas would not relinquish its arms.”The weapons of the resistance are not up for negotiation,” Nunu said.Israeli news website Ynet reported on Monday that under a new ceasefire proposal put to Hamas, the group would release 10 living hostages in exchange for US guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News, citing unnamed sources, said Cairo had received and passed on to Hamas an Israeli proposal for a temporary ceasefire, “and is awaiting its response as soon as possible”. It did not offer details about the content of the proposal.- France hopes others follow -The first ceasefire phase, which began on January 19, included multiple hostage-prisoner exchanges before it unravelled. Israel had sought to extend the first phase, while Hamas insisted that negotiations be held for the second phase under the deal, as outlined by former US president Joe Biden.Macron announced last week that Paris could recognise a Palestinian state within months, leading to sharp criticism in Israel.On Monday he said he hoped French recognition would encourage others to follow suit, and that countries which do not recognise Israel should do so.”What we want to trigger is a series of other recognitions,” Macron said.Nearly 150 countries recognise a Palestinian state but France would be the most significant European power to do so.Israel insists such moves by foreign states are premature.”President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land — a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Monday in Doha, where they supported creating a Palestinian state. The two leaders “emphasised the centrality of the Palestinian cause as the foremost Arab issue”.

Sudan’s civil war has displaced 13 million people, the United Nations reported Monday, as the conflict between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces enters a third year.”The conflict has provoked the displacement of 13 million people, including 8.6 internally displaced people and 3.8 million refugees,” said Abdourahouf Gnon-Konde of the UN refugee agency in an interview with AFP.The war, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has left tens of thousands dead, pushed parts of Sudan into famine and fractured the country into warlord-run territories.On the eve of the war’s second anniversary, nowhere are the stakes more evident than in Darfur, where the RSF launched a new offensive last week to capture El-Fasher — the last major city in the vast western region still under army control.The assault began Thursday and raged until Sunday morning, targeting El-Fasher and nearby displacement camps, including Zamzam and Abou Shouk both of which have been struck by famine. The UN, citing “credible sources”, said more than 400 people have been killed in the latest violence.By Sunday, RSF forces claimed control over Zamzam. Since then, around 400,000 people have been displaced from the camp, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said.Doctors Without Borders said about 10,000 people fled to Tawila, nearly 70 kilometres (43 miles) west of El-Fasher, within 48 hours to escape shelling.The civilians, mostly women and children, arrived “in an advanced state of dehydration and exhaustion and reporting horrific violence”, said the international medical charity.- ‘Relentless nightmare’ -The RSF stepped up its attacks on El-Fasher shortly after the army regained control of Khartoum, about 1,000 kilometres to the east, last month.The war has effectively divided Sudan in two, with the army holding the north and east while the RSF controls much of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, described the conflict as “the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time,” highlighting the widespread destruction, starvation and sexual violence.”Entire regions have been destroyed, hundreds of thousands of families are fleeing, millions of people are starving, and women and children are being subjected to the most horrific sexual violence,” she added.Baerbock’s remarks came ahead of an international conference in London on Tuesday to discuss the war’s devastating impact.Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said civilians in Sudan were “trapped in a relentless nightmare of death and destruction” after two years of war.The UN Fact-Finding Mission warned “the darkest chapters of this conflict have yet to unfold”, amid rising ethnic violence and reprisals across the country.”As Sudan enters into its third year of conflict, we must reflect on the catastrophic situation in Sudan and honour the lives of all Sudanese who have been lost or changed forever,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the mission’s chair.

An immigration judge ruled Friday that a pro-Palestinian student protester, a US permanent resident detained by the Trump administration, can be deported, his lawyer said.Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans, based in the state of Louisiana, said the federal government had met its burden to prove it had grounds to deport Mahmoud Khalil, according to a statement by his attorney.”Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent. This is not over, and our fight continues,” Khalil’s attorney Marc van der Hout said in the statement.Khalil is not yet scheduled for deportation, and the judge gave his attorneys until April 23 to seek a waiver, the statement added.The Columbia University student, a prominent face of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, is married to a US citizen.He was arrested and taken to Louisiana, sparking protests. Several other foreign student protesters have been similarly targeted.Comans had ordered the government to spell out its case against Khalil, who the government is seeking to deport on the grounds that his protest activities are a threat to national security.In a letter to the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that Khalil’s activism could hurt Washington’s foreign policy.But he declined to argue formally that the Algeria-born Palestinian student was Hamas-aligned, as officials have told journalists.- ‘Campaign of terror’ -The undated letter instead referred to Khalil’s “participation and roles” in allegedly “anti-Semitic protests and disruptive activities which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”It made no reference to any alleged crime.”I would like to quote what you said last time, that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness. Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present,” Khalil told the court according to his legal team.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted to X following the ruling that “when you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists… and harass Jews… you should not be in this country.”The judge in a separate New Jersey case, brought by Khalil’s lawyers to contest his detention, held a hearing immediately after the Louisiana proceeding.Khalil’s lawyers will seek to challenge the Louisiana ruling once it has been issued in its entirety, the court heard.Dozens of high-profile lawyers have joined the case on Khalil’s side, framing the proceeding as a test case for freedom of speech and the limits of Trump’s power.Khalil’s arrest has triggered outrage from Trump opponents, free speech advocates and some on the political right, who say the case will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.”The Trump administration’s actions against universities, their researchers and their students have no recent precedent in US history,” said Columbia University law professor David Pozen at a teach-in event Friday.”American democracy is in crisis.”Ramya Krishnan, a senior staff attorney at Columbia’s Knight First Amendment Institute, said “the administration has unleashed, to put it bluntly, a campaign of terror on immigrants in this country. And it seems that no one is safe.”Immigration officers have similarly detained and sought to deport a Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia student Yunseo Chung who is a US permanent resident originally from South Korea. Their deportations have been blocked for now by courts.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, inviting him to visit Beirut during a trip aimed at rebooting ties between the two neighbours.Salam and his foreign, defence and interior ministers made the first trip to Damascus by senior Lebanese officials since a new government was formed in Beirut in February, two months after an Islamist-led alliance ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.Salam met with interim President Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and invited them “to visit Lebanon”, his office said in a statement.Salam’s visit sought to turn “a new page in the course of relations between the two countries based on mutual respect, the restoration of trust… preservation of our countries’ sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs”, according to the statement.Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve ties since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty for decades exercised control over Lebanese affairs and is accused of assassinating numerous officials in Lebanon who expressed opposition to its rule.The latest discussions touched on “controlling the border and crossings, preventing smuggling”, and “demarcating the land and sea borders”, the statement from the premier’s office said.Talks on border issues began last month in Saudi Arabia, where the Lebanese and Syrian defence ministers signed an agreement to address security and military threats along the frontier after clashes left 10 dead.- Refugees, detainees -Lebanon and Syria share a porous, 330-kilometre (205-mile) border that is notorious for the smuggling of goods, as well as people and weapons.The two sides emphasised the importance of “strengthening security cooperation, which preserves both countries’ stability”, the premier’s statement said.They agreed to form a committee involving the foreign, defence, interior and justice ministries “to follow up on issues of shared interest”, it added.Salam’s office said the talks also addressed “facilitating the safe and dignified” return of Syrian refugees “with the help of the United Nations” and the international community.Lebanese authorities say their small, crisis-hit nation hosts some 1.5 million Syrians who fled their country’s civil war since 2011, while the UN refugee agency says it has registered some 750,000 of them.The issue of Lebanese nationals who were detained and disappeared in Syria’s notorious prisons under the Assad dynasty’s iron-fisted rule, as well as Syrians detained in Lebanese prisons whose release Damascus has requested, was also discussed, according to the statement.Lebanese officials have requested Syria’s assistance “in a number of judicial cases and to hand over wanted persons” to Lebanese authorities, the statement added.Syria became the dominant power in Lebanon after former president Hafez al-Assad intervened in its 1975-1990 civil war, and his son Bashar al-Assad only withdrew troops in 2005 following mass protests triggered by the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri.In January, former Lebanese premier Najib Mikati met with Sharaa, in the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since Syria’s own civil war erupted with Assad’s bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in 2011.In December, Sharaa said his country would not negatively interfere in Lebanon and would respect its neighbour’s sovereignty.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and French President Emmanuel Macron called for an “urgent” ceasefire in Gaza Monday, as Hamas said it is prepared to free all hostages provided it receives guarantees Israel will end the war.Since the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in mid-March, Israel has launched an intense military offensive in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people have since been displaced and Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid.In a phone call, Abbas and Macron “emphasised the urgent need for a ceasefire, the acceleration of humanitarian aid delivery (and) the rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.”Both leaders reiterated the necessity of advancing a two-state solution based on international legitimacy”, and for the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility in the Gaza Strip after the war ends, it added.Macron, following his conversation with Abbas, said on X that “France is fully mobilised for the liberation of all hostages, a return to a durable ceasefire and immediate access for humanitarian aid into Gaza”.He also advocated “reform” of the Palestinian Authority as part of a plan that would see the Ramallah-based body, which currently has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, govern a post-war Gaza without Hamas.”It is essential to set a framework for the day after: disarm and sideline Hamas, define credible governance and reform the Palestinian Authority,” Macron said.- ‘No negotiation’ over weapons -Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu indicated that the group was willing to release all hostages in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel would end the war.”The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war”.”Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation (Israel) to uphold the agreement,” he added after the group held talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo.However, he said Hamas will not give up its arms.”The weapons of the resistance are not up for negotiation,” Nunu said.Israeli news website Ynet reported on Monday that a new ceasefire proposal had been put to Hamas, under which the group would release 10 living hostages in exchange for US guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.The first phase, which began on January 19 and included multiple hostage-prisoner exchanges, lasted two months before disintegrating. Israel had sought to extend the first phase. Hamas insisted that negotiations be held for the second phase under the deal, as outlined by former US president Joe Biden.Macron announced last week that Paris could recognise a Palestinian state within months, triggering sharp criticisms in Israel.”We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron said in a television interview.- ‘Gravely mistaken’ -Nearly 150 countries recognise a Palestinian state but France would be the most significant European power to do so.Such formal recognition by Paris would mark a major policy switch and risk antagonising Israel, which insists such moves by foreign states are premature.”President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land — a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.Israeli teacher Nurit Sperling told AFP, in French, that Macron “absolutely shouldn’t have done that”.”I think we saw on October 7 that it’s not feasible. We can’t live like this, next to them, in this way,” she said, referring to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which began the Gaza war.The United States has also long resisted recognition of a Palestinian state.Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met in Doha where they supported creating a Palestinian state. The two leaders “emphasised the centrality of the Palestinian cause as the foremost Arab issue”.

Beijing on Monday warned against “politicising” the rescue of Chinese-owned British Steel, as the UK government raced to secure raw materials to keep the country’s remaining steelmaking blast furnaces running. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has swooped in to prevent the closure of British Steel’s main plant in Scunthorpe, northern England, after its owner, the Chinese …

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday called on his country and Vietnam to “oppose unilateral bullying”, Beijing’s state media reported, during a regional tour as leaders confront US tariffs.Xi is in Vietnam for the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour, with Beijing trying to present itself as a reliable alternative to an erratic US …

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