Human Crisis

To pick up a weak data signal for his phone, Hussein Owda had to stand a bit too close to a group of women and girls waiting in line for their turn to use the communal bathrooms. The wait for the bathrooms can take hours on some days, Owda tells Al Jazeera over messaging, but the reward is worth it.

Like many around the world, I am emotionally drained.  I spend most of my waking hours scanning the news, reading about one tragedy after the other,  and yearning for a lasting end to the relentless war in Gaza. I am also physically worn out. My weekends are spent marching, driven by a desperate hope that maybe, if enough of us consistently take to the streets and speak up, our collective voice could urge our leaders to finally call for a permanent ceasefire.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the enclave.

Eight years after the image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying facedown on a beach in Turkey shocked the world, pictures of asylum seekers’ lifeless bodies washed up on the coast of Italy’s Calabria region in February once again stirred global outrage.

Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women – either her death or that of her child.

Aid missions to supply Gaza have become increasingly difficult amid reports of continued heavy bombing of the Strip overnight by the Israeli military and intense clashes “in most areas” with Hamas fighters, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday.

Israel kills 250 Palestinians and wounds 500 others in 24 hours, Palestinian Health Ministry says, as Pope Francis issues strongly worded message on Christmas, saying children dying in wars, including in Gaza, were "little Jesuses of today".

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths reiterated deep concerns for the people of Gaza on Monday, amid reports of intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza City and Jabalia in the north of the Strip, and in Khan Younis in the south, while Israeli bombardment of the enclave has continued. 

Fighting has escalated in Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis as Israeli air strikes rain down throughout the enclave, forcing Palestinians to flee to increasingly crammed pockets of the territory’s southern edge where there is no promised security, as the war enters its third month.

A representative for the organisation in the occupied Palestinian territories urges the need for a sustained ceasefire in the region.