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A Doctors Without Borders official has pleaded for countries to open their doors to tens of thousands of Gazans in dire need of medical evacuation, warning that hundreds have already died waiting.”The need is really huge,” said Hani Isleem, who coordinates medical evacuations from Gaza for the charity, known by its French acronym MSF.The numbers taken in by countries so far remains “just a drop in the ocean”, Isleem told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.The World Health Organization estimates that more than 8,000 patients have been evacuated out of Gaza since the war erupted following Hamas’s attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023.It says more than 16,500 patients still need treatment outside of the Palestinian territory.Speaking at the MSF headquarters in Geneva after accompanying seriously ill and injured Gaza children to Switzerland for treatment, Isleem said that number was based only on patients registered for medical evacuation and the true figure was higher.”Our estimate is that it is three to four times that number,” he said.To date, over 30 countries have taken patients, but only a handful, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have accepted large numbers.In Europe, Italy has taken over 200 patients, compared to France, which by the end of October had taken 27, and Germany none.- Evacuation pace slowing -Switzerland in November took in 20 Gaza children who arrived in two batches.The 13 children aged two months to 16 years whom Isleem accompanied last week included four babies with severe congenital heart disease, as well as cancer patients and children requiring complex orthopaedic surgery.Without the evacuation, some of those children would not have made it, he said, pointing out that the babies basically went straight to surgery after their arrival in Switzerland to avoid “irreversible damage”.Isleem lamented that as conditions in Gaza become more desperate, the pace of medical evacuations has slowed.Initially, some 1,500 patients left each month on average, but after Israel in May 2024 closed the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the monthly average has dropped to around 70.A US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has not seemed to speed up the process.Nor, surprisingly, has a dramatic drop in Israeli evacuation refusals.Isleem pointed out that the Israeli authorities’ denial rate had plunged from an average of around 90 percent to just five percent in recent months, adding that this was still too high.They should not “block any patients from leaving Gaza to access treatment”, he said.- Stop the ‘shopping list’ -Despite these shifts, there has been no big uptick in evacuations, with 148 carried out in October and 71 last month, with only around 30 expected to take place in December, Isleem said.The problem, he said, was the long and often “politicised” process for nations to accept Gaza’s medical evacuees.”Countries are taking a long time to decide or allocate the budget for these patients, but (they cannot) wait for this discussion to happen.”More than 900 people have died while waiting for evacuations from Gaza since October 2023 — a figure Isleem said was an underestimate.Another problem, Isleem warned, was that “99.9 percent of countries are asking for children”. “They are ignoring completely the adults (who also) need support and lifesaving aid,” he said, pointing out that three quarters of those waiting for medical evacuations were over 18. Governments also impose other criteria, including refusing patients with accompanying family members, and especially with any male siblings over 18.Isleem urged countries to “stop this selection shopping list”, and to “focus only on the needs and saving people’s lives”. 

The couples walked hand in hand, the brides in traditional embroidered Palestinian white and red dresses adorned with red ribbons, the grooms walked beside them in black suits and ties.But the backdrop told a different story: dilapidated buildings, piles of concrete and rubble — the scars of two years of conflict in the Gaza Strip.On Tuesday, 54 couples tied the knot in a mass wedding ceremony in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza — a defiant celebration of life amid the wreckage of war.”We needed a moment of happiness like this, something that could make our hearts feel alive again,” said Karam Musaaed, one of the grooms.On a red carpet laid across rubble-strewn ground, dozens of couples paraded to the beat of drums before ascending a makeshift stage. The brides in their embroidered dresses clutched bridal bouquets containing the Palestinian colours of red, white and green. The grooms walked beside them, waving small flags.The collective ceremony, accompanied by traditional music and dances, drew hundreds of spectators to a city square. Some gathered on the plaza, while others perched precariously on the ruins of surrounding buildings. The newlyweds expressed cautious optimism after two years of devastating war and a crushing humanitarian crisis.”The feeling was very beautiful — a joy we truly needed after all the suffering we went through. After the harsh life, the hunger we endured, and the loss of friends and relatives, the people dearest to us,” said Musaaed.Hikmat Usama, another newlywed, echoed his words.”It’s an indescribable feeling that after all this war, destruction, and everything we lived through, we can return to joy again and start rebuilding a new life. Thank God and, God willing, better days will come,” Usama said.The mass wedding was organised by the Al-Faris Al-Shahim Foundation, an Emirati humanitarian organisation that has delivered aid to Gaza.”We chose this place amid the rubble to say that the ‘dress of joy’ will rise again”, Shareef al-Neyrab, media officer for the organisation in Gaza, told AFP.Once more, the people of Gaza will emerge from the ruins so that Gaza may rejoice, and God willing we will restore its future and rebuild it,” he added.Gazans have slowly begun to rebuild their lives after a US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10.The truce has largely held, though Israel has launched strikes on the territory since.Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that 360 people were killed since the ceasefire took effect. 

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks Wednesday in decades, part of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism in the war with militant group Hezbollah, a source close to the talks told AFP.The meeting was taking place at the UN peacekeeping force’s headquarters in Lebanon Naqura near the border with Israel, the source said, as part of a mechanism to oversee the ceasefire that took hold in November 2024.Morgan Ortagus, the US special envoy for Lebanon, also attended Wednesday’s meeting, the source added. The United States has been piling pressure on Lebanon to rapidly disarm Hezbollah.Ortagus was a day earlier in Jerusalem where she met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. Israeli media said she also met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Until now Israel and Lebanon, which have no formal diplomatic relations, had insisted on keeping military officers in the role.The United States has pushed for direct talks between the two neighbours in a bid to stabilise the region and further weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah.Netanyahu’s office announced he was sending a civilian representative to meet officials in Lebanon, in what it called a first attempt to establish a basis for ties between the two countries.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Wednesday his delegation would be led by former ambassador Simon Karam and it had been informed that Israel would include “a non-military member in its delegation.”Lebanon has declared itself ready for negotiations with its southern neighbour.Netanyahu has repeatedly said Lebanon should join the Abraham Accords, under which a handful of Arab and Muslim countries have normalised ties with Israel.In 1983, after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, the two countries held direct talks, resulting in the signing of an agreement that would have established relations. It was never ratified.- ‘Basis for relationship’ -The Israeli prime minister “instructed the acting director of the National Security Council to send a representative on his behalf to a meeting with government and economic officials in Lebanon”, Netanyahu’s office said.”This is an initial attempt to establish a basis for a relationship and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon,” it added.The announcement came days after the first anniversary of the start of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.The ceasefire with Hezbollah ended over a year of hostilities that erupted after the militant group launched attacks in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rebuilding its military capabilities.Under a government-approved plan, the Lebanese army is set to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the river by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.Judging the Lebanese efforts insufficient, Israel has ramped up its strikes in recent weeks.Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported Tuesday that Israel has been preparing for a “significant escalation” with Hezbollah, deemed “inevitable” despite Washington’s efforts.On the anniversary of the truce, the Israeli military said it had carried out around 1,200 “targeted activities” and “eliminated more than 370 terrorists” from Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the ceasefire. After his meeting with US envoy Ortagus in Jerusalem Tuesday, Foreign Minister Saar said on X that they “had a good discussion on the situation in Lebanon”.”I said that the one violating Lebanese sovereignty is Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s disarmament is crucial for Lebanon’s future and Israel’s security,” he added. glp-mj-lma-lba/raz/ser