Author: ALJAZEERA

US military says it was responding to a large-scale attack by the Iran-aligned group that posed an ‘imminent threat’.United States Navy ships and aircraft have shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea area. The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday that the US-led naval coalition was responding to a large-scale attack by “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists” launched into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between 4am and 6:30am (01:00-03:30 GMT). The uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) presented “an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships in the region,” the military…

Fighting has forcibly displaced more than eight million people, with millions more in need of food and humanitarian aid.The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire in Sudan to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and allow aid to get to 25 million people in desperate need of food with the humanitarian response at breaking point. Fourteen countries on the 15-member council on Friday backed the resolution proposed by the United Kingdom, with only Russia abstaining on the vote that called on “all parties to the conflict to seek a sustainable resolution to the conflict through…

Report by UN fact-finding mission says Iran’s brutal suppression of 2022 protests amounted to crimes against humanity.Iran has condemned a report by United Nations experts who concluded the Islamic republic’s violent crackdown in 2022 on peaceful protests and the specific targeting of women and girls were serious rights violations, with many amounting to crimes against humanity. The report was built on “baseless claims” and “false and biased information, without a legal basis”, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Saturday. Demonstrations swept across Iran following the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian…

Israeli forces have struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, residents said, stepping up pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet invaded and where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The 12-floor Burj al-Masri building, located some 500 metres (1,640 feet) from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the air raid early on Saturday morning. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. One of…

Tel Aviv/West Jerusalem – In 2015, Maya, a Jewish Israeli, travelled to Greece to help Syrian refugees. At the time, she was an exchange student in Germany and she had been deeply moved by the pictures she saw of desperate people arriving there in small boats. That was where she met Palestinians who had been born in Syria after their parents and grandparents fled there during the founding of her own country in 1948. They told her about the Nakba – or “catastrophe” – in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make way for the newly established…

First payment of $20m to be disbursed after Sweden gets assurances of the UNRWA’s checks on spending and personnel.Sweden has said it is resuming aid to the cash-strapped United Nations agency for Palestinians with an initial disbursement of $20m after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, faced an unprecedented funding crisis after its major international donors led by the United States cut its funding over “terror” allegations. Like several other countries, Sweden suspended aid to the…

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As millions of people took to the streets to denounce Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, demanding justice and peace, support for Israel emerged from a surprising quarter: Iranian monarchists. They are supporters of Reza Pahlavi, son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s last shah who was toppled by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. At pro-Israel rallies, they have waved the old Iranian flag and chanted praise of Israel and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. Their confrontations with pro-Palestinian protesters, whom they accuse of being government proxies, reveal their stark divergence from the mainstream Iranian…

Investigation by outside law firm into Altman’s firing finds his conduct ‘did not mandate removal.’OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman will return to the company’s board of directors after a probe into his brief sacking and subsequent rehiring. An investigation by law firm WilmerHale found that Altman’s conduct “did not mandate his removal” last year, OpenAI said in a blog post on Friday. Altman’s firing was instead due to a “breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust” between the 38-year-old entrepreneur and the previous board, the company said. OpenAI said it had “full confidence” in Altman’s ongoing leadership at the…

Three more children die of malnutrition in Gaza as US President Biden says ceasefire by Ramadan ‘looking tough’.Here’s how things stand on Saturday, March 9, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Three more children died of malnutrition and dehydration at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, Palestinian officials said, bringing the confirmed toll from starvation to 23. The United States military has denied responsibility for an airdrop of humanitarian aid that Gaza officials say killed five people and injured several others. At least 20 people were killed in Israeli attacks on residential buildings in central and southern Gaza on Friday, with many more wounded and…