Israel’s destruction of fertility clinics in its genocidal war in Gaza has left thousands of Palestinians mourning children who were never born. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum met a couple in Gaza City who were stripped of their chance to become parents.
Hungarian prosecutors have charged Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony over his role in arranging last year’s gay pride march in the capital city, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people despite a ban.
Prosecutors have “filed charges and seek a fine against the mayor of Budapest, who organised and led a public gathering despite a police ban”, their office said in a statement announcing the case on Wednesday.
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“The district prosecutor’s office proposed that the court impose a fine on the defendant in a summary judgement without a trial,” the statement added without including the amount of the fine sought against Karacsony.
Since returning to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been tightening his grip over the country and has targeted groups advocating for human rights.
Orban’s conservative government has also pushed for legislation promoting traditional family values and steadily rolled back LGBTQ rights.
In 2025, his Fidesz party amended laws and the constitution to ban the annual pride march, drawing protests from critics and the European Union.
After the ban was imposed last year, Budapest City Hall stepped in to co-organise the annual event to try to sidestep the regulations, but police still issued their objections, and Orban warned organisers and attendees of “legal consequences”.
On Wednesday, Karacsony reacted to the charges by saying he went from a “proud suspect to a proud defendant”.
“They don’t even want a trial … because they can’t even comprehend that here in this city, we have stood up for freedom in the face of a selfish, petty, and despicable power,” he said on Facebook.
In a post on X, Ciaran Cuffe, cochairman of the EU’s European Greens party, called the charges “outrageous”.
In a separate post, the European Greens said the party stands with Karacsony, who is a member of Dialogue, the Greens’ party affiliate in Hungary.
Despite the ban on the march, it became “the biggest freedom march in decades”, proving that “love can’t be banned”, the party added.
Karacsony could face up to one year in prison for organising and urging participation in a banned rally.
Participants could also face fines of up to 500 euros (nearly $600) for attending Budapest Pride although police announced in July they would not take action against the marchers.
Organisers of the June march estimated that up to 200,000 people took part in the 30th annual Budapest Pride.
The rally began at Budapest City Hall and wound through the city centre before crossing the Erzsebet Bridge over the Danube River.
The crowds waved rainbow flags and carried signs mocking Orban.
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
President Donald Trump has revived the threat that the United States is ready to launch a military attack against Iran as he demanded that Tehran make a deal over its nuclear programme.
“A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose,” he said in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
The US president added that “hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL!”
In an apparent reference to the US bombing of three of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, Trump warned that should Tehran fail to agree a deal, the next attack would be “far worse”.
Trump’s outburst came shortly after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country would not restart negotiations as it is threatened with an attack.
Her video diary shares her two-year journey of escaping to Beirut, followed by the difficulties of trying to return home.
24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic says he felt “disrespectful” after being asked how he felt “chasing” Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, after previously “chasing” Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal during the early parts of his career.
While diplomatic circles welcome the recovery of the last Israeli captive’s remains in Gaza and the imminent partial reopening of the enclave’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a quieter, darker reality is taking shape on the ground.
According to comments by retired Israeli General Amir Avivi, who still advises the military, Israel has cleared land in Rafah, an area in the southern Gaza Strip that it had already flattened in more than two years of its genocidal war, to construct an enormous facility to entrench its military control and presence in Gaza for the long term.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday, Avivi described the project as a “big, organised camp” capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people, stating it would be equipped with “ID checks, including facial recognition”, to track every Palestinian entering or leaving.
Corroborating Avivi’s claims, exclusive analysis by Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigations Team confirms that ground preparations for this project are already well under way.
Satellite imagery captured from December 2 through Monday reveals extensive clearing operations in western Rafah. The analysis identifies an area of about 1.3sq km (half a square mile) that has undergone systematic levelling.
According to the investigation, the operations went beyond mere debris removal and involved the flattening of land previously devastated by Israeli air strikes.
The cleared zone is located adjacent to two Israeli military posts, suggesting the new camp will be under direct and immediate military supervision. The satellite evidence aligns with reports that the facility is to act as a controlled “holding pen” rather than a humanitarian shelter.
To analysts in Gaza, no humanitarian intent is behind this projected high-tech infrastructure, which they say is in fact a trap for Palestinians.
“What they are building is, in reality, a human-sorting mechanism reminiscent of Nazi-era selection points,” Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It is a tool for racial filtering and a continuation of the genocide by other means.”
The reopening of the Rafah crossing, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, according to The Jerusalem Post, comes with strict Israeli conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on full “security control”.
For Palestinians hoping to return to Gaza, this means submitting to what Afifa describes as “human sorting stations”.
“This mechanism is designed to deter return,” Afifa said. “Palestinians will face interrogation, humiliation and the risk of arrest at these Israeli-run checkpoints just to go home.”
By leveraging facial recognition technology confirmed by Avivi, Israel is creating a high-risk ordeal for returnees, he said. Afifa argued it will force many Palestinians to choose exile over the risk of the “sorting station”, serving Israel’s longstanding goal of depopulating the Strip.
The Rafah camp is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Israel in effect occupies all of Gaza with a physical military presence in 58 percent of the Gaza Strip. Its forces directly occupy an area within the “yellow line”, a self-proclaimed Israeli military buffer zone established by an October ceasefire.
“We are witnessing the re-engineering of Gaza’s geography and demography,” Afifa said. “About 70 percent of the Strip is now under direct Israeli military management.”
This assessment of a permanent foothold is reinforced by Netanyahu’s own remarks to the Knesset on Monday. By declaring that “the next phase is demilitarisation”, or disarming Hamas, rather than reconstruction, Netanyahu signalled that the military occupation has no end date.
“The talk of ‘reconstruction’ starting in Rafah under Israeli security specifications suggests they are building a permanent security infrastructure, not a sovereign Palestinian state,” Afifa added.
For the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, the hope that the return of the last Israeli captive would bring relief has turned into frustration.
“There is a deep sense of betrayal,” Afifa said. “The world celebrated the release of one Israeli body as a triumph while two million Palestinians remain hostages in their own land.”
Afifa warned that the international silence regarding these “sorting stations” risks normalising them. If the Rafah model succeeds, it would transform Gaza from a besieged territory into a high-tech prison where the simple act of travel becomes a tool of subjugation, he said.