aid groups

A man transports a box of humanitarian aid, supplied by the World Food Program, back to his home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 18, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Israel has banned qualified doctors from entering the Gaza Strip to offer their services at local hospitals, as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since August, requests from eight organizations seeking to send more than 50 qualified doctors have been rejected due to the blockade imposed by Israel on the Palestinian enclave, the WHO reported on Thursday.

The Israeli army has deployed more forces to the northern parts of the occupied West Bank, with its deadly raids entering the second week.

The Israeli army pushed military reinforcement into certain areas in Jenin and Tulkarem, amid fire exchange with Palestinian fighters.

The head of the UN migration agency said Thursday it has taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding and diversified its donor base - an announcement that comes as aid groups have struggled to get needed money.

Aid groups are warning that Sudan's "man-made famine" could be even worse than feared, with the most catastrophic death toll the world has seen in decades, without more global pressure on warring generals.

A U.N.-backed study said Thursday that 755,000 people are on the brink of starvation in Sudan, a death toll not seen since the 1980s when famine in Ethiopia shocked the world.

Three bodies have been recovered near the site of a migrant shipwreck between Italy and Greece from which more than 60 people were reported missing, a spokesperson for the Italian coast guard said on Tuesday.

Israel's military said Sunday it would "pause" fighting around a south Gaza route daily to facilitate aid deliveries, following months of warnings of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.

War, climate change and man-made shortages have brought Sudan — a nation already facing a litany of horrors — to the shores of a water crisis.

"Since the war began, two of my children have walked 14 kilometres (nine miles) every day to get water for the family," Issa, a father of seven, told AFP from North Darfur state.

More armed conflicts took place worldwide in 2023 than any other year since the end of the Second World War, according to a Norwegian study published Monday.

Last year saw 59 conflicts of which 28 were in Africa, the the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) showed.

But the number of countries which experienced conflicts declined from 39 in 2022 to 34.

A massive landslide struck Papua New Guinea's highlands Friday, local officials and aid groups said, with many feared dead.

The disaster hit in Kaokalam village, in Papua New Guinea's remote Enga province at around 3:00 am local time.

Provincial governor Peter Ipatas told AFP that a big landslide had caused "loss of life and property".