MAJOR GAZA HOSPITALS SUSPEND SERVICES AMID ISRAELI ACTIONS

Two major hospitals in northern Gaza, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, closed to new patients on Sunday due to Israeli bombardment, fuel and medicine shortages, and a lack of critical supplies. Hospitals in the blockaded region struggled to care for existing patients. Al Shifa, with 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical personnel, and 15,000 to 20,000 people seeking shelter, faced dire conditions. Israeli forces surrounded Shifa, and Israeli snipers were deployed around the hospital. Airstrikes near the facility killed three people, including a doctor.

Israel claimed that Hamas had placed command centers near hospitals, leading to their military action. Hamas denied using hospitals in this way. Negotiations for the release of hostages taken by Hamas had been suspended due to the situation at Shifa hospital. With increasing casualties and limited places to treat the wounded, hospitals like Shifa and Al-Quds struggled to provide care. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Al-Quds hospital was also out of service, facing a lack of medicine, food, and water.

As the conflict continued, hospitals and healthcare facilities faced severe challenges, leaving many in need of medical assistance without access to care.

PARIS SEES OVER 100,000 MARCH AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM

Paris saw a march against anti-Semitism with over 100,000 participants, organized amid political disagreements and rising anti-Semitic incidents in France. The march aimed to combat anti-Semitism and uphold the values of the republic. Tensions in the city had escalated due to the Hamas attack on Israel in October and subsequent Israeli actions in Gaza. France, home to a large Jewish community of around 500,000, has witnessed nearly 1,250 anti-Semitic acts following the attack. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, former presidents, and religious leaders were among the dignitaries at the march. Similar gatherings took place in Lyon, Nice, and Strasbourg with the slogan "For the Republic, against anti-Semitism."

500 WITH DUAL NATIONALITY LEAVE GAZA FOR EGYPT

Rafah, Palestinian Territories: Around 500 foreigners and dual nationals, as well as several wounded Palestinians, were evacuated from the Israeli-bombed Gaza Strip to Egypt on Sunday, reports from both sides of the border said.

Some “500 foreign nationals from 15 different countries entered Egypt,” an Egyptian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. AlQahera News, an outlet close to the Egyptian intelligence services, reported the crossing of an additional “seven wounded Palestinians” through the terminal.

Rafah is the only crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel, and had been closed on Friday and Saturday. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents are unable to escape the war, which erupted between the territory’s Hamas rulers and Israel on October 7.

SHOTS FIRED AT JEWISH SCHOOL IN CANADA

A Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire early on Sunday, making it the third time in less than a week that a Jewish school in the Canadian city was hit amid heightened tensions over the conflict between Israel and Gaza, police said, according to local media. No one was injured but the facade of Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal was struck. Bullet impact marks and bullet shells were found after residents heard gunfire early on Sunday, CBC News in Canada reported. At the two other schools in Montreal, both reported finding a bullet hole in their front doors. On Wednesday, a violent altercation at Concordia University between people aligned with opposing sides of the conflict in Israel and Gaza resulted in injuries and an arrest, according to CBC News.

BLAST KILLS THREE RUSSIAN OFFICERS

Ukraine’s intelligence directorate said on Sunday that an explosion in the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol killed at least three Russian servicemen in an attack it described as an “act of revenge” by local underground groups. The blast occurred during a meeting on Saturday of Russian officers in the town, a hub of Russian forces in the south, the directorate within the defence ministry said in a statement. There was no mention of the incident from Russian officials. Reuters was unable to verify the Ukrainian statement.

FIVE US SERVICE MEMBERS DIE IN PLANE CRASH

Washington : Five American service members were killed when a military aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean during a training exercise, the US European Command (EUCOM) said Sunday. EUCOM did not specify the type of plane or where it was flying from, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the area as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiralling into a regional conflict.“During a routine air refueling mission as part of military training, a US military aircraft carrying five service members suffered a mishap and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. All five of the service members onboard the aircraft were killed,” EUCOM said in a statement on the November 10 accident.

ICELAND VOLCANO: EMERGENCY DECLARED OVER VOLCANO FAGRADALSFJALL ERUPTION CONCERNS

The chance of a volcanic eruption in Iceland is rising, posing a threat to a now-evacuated town, experts say.

Iceland has declared a state of emergency after a series of earthquakes.

Authorities have ordered thousands of people living in the southwestern town of Grindavík to leave as a precaution.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said there was a considerable risk of an eruption.

The probability of an eruption on or just off the Reykjanes peninsula has increased since the morning, IMO says.

An eruption could start at any time in the next few days, according to the statement.

Thor Thordason, professor of volcanology at the University of Iceland, said a 15km-long (nine mile) river of magma running under the peninsula was still active.

"That's why we're talking about an imminent eruption unfortunately. The most likely eruption side appears to be within the boundary of the town of Grindavík," he told the BBC.

Thousands of tremors have been recorded around the nearby Fagradalsfjall volcano in recent weeks.

They have been concentrated in Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula, which had remained dormant to volcanic activity for 800 years before a 2021 eruption.

In a statement on Saturday the agency said a tunnel of magma, or molten rock, that extends northeast across Grindavík and some 10km further inland, was estimated at a depth of less than 800 metres, compared with 1,500 metres earlier in the day.

GRETA, ACTIVISTS TRY TO MAKE CLIMATE A CRUCIAL ELECTION ISSUE

Amsterdam : Environmental activist Greta Thunberg joined tens of thousands in the “biggest ever” climate march through Amsterdam Sunday, aimed at pushing the climate crisis up the political agenda 10 days ahead of crunch national elections.

Carrying placards reading: “Our house is on fire”, “In 2050: ‘Daddy, what are trees?’”, and “Climate Justice Now,” demonstrators packed into Amsterdam’s central square and set off through the streets. Around 70,000 people took part, smashing previous records for such a march, said organisers, a coalition of pressure groups, including Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, Oxfam, and Greenpeace. “With the crises continuing to stack up and a measly six years to achieve the Dutch climate goals in 2030, the upcoming elections are the most crucial ever,” they said in a joint statement.

Polls show the election is currently a dead heat between the centre-right VVD of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and a new party, the NSC, led by anti-corruption champion Pieter Omtzigt. A coalition of the Greens and the leftist PvdA is sitting in third place, according to the polls. This party is led by former European Commission heavyweight Frans Timmermans, the architect of the EU’s Green Deal agenda.

Surveys show the key issues of the election campaign have been the ongoing housing crisis in the Netherlands, living standards, and immigration. According to the most recent poll by I&O research, climate change came in fifth of the issues on voters’ minds.

Climate change is now considered less of a key topic than was the case at the last election in 2021, according to the I&O research poll.

DARFUR VIOLENCE SPIRALS, OVER 1K KILLED IN 2 DAYS

The European Union (EU) condemned on Sunday an escalation of violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, warning of the danger of “another genocide” after conflict there between 2003-2008 killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.

A war since April between Sudan’s regular army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary has destabilised the western region and reignited long-simmering feuds there.

The chief diplomat of EU Josep Borrell cited in a statement witness reports that more than 1,000 members of the Masalit community were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in just over two days earlier this week during attacks by the RSF and affiliated militi as. “These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur, and comes on top of the first wave of large violence in June,” Borrell said. “The international community cannot turn a blind eye on what is happening in Darfur and allow another genocide to happen in this region.”

Reutershas reported between April and June the RSF and allied Arab militias conducted weeks of systematic attacks targeting the Masalit, El Geneina’s majority tribe, as war flared with Sudan’s army. In public comments, Arab tribal leaders have denied engaging in ethnic cleansing in El Geneina.

TITANIC MENU SELLS FOR £84,000 AT UK AUCTION

London : A first-class dinner menu from the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage offering oysters, beef and mallard duck has sold for £84,0000 ($103,000), the UK auction house responsible for its sale said Sunday. The menu, for a meal served on April 11, 1912, is decorated with a red White Star Line burgee but the original gilt lettering is no longer visible. It is believed to be the only surviving copy of a first-class April 11 dinner menu and was discovered in a photo album belonging to late Canadian amateur historian Len Stephenson.

Other items in the sale included a Swiss-made pocket watch recovered from passenger Sinai Kantor, which sold for £97,000, while a tartanpatterned deck blanket likely used during the rescue operation fetched £96,000.