Under the new ceasefire, the Turkish ship, the Akdeniz, is sailing to Egypt’s El-Arish port with desperately needed food supplies for the people of Gaza.
Turkiye dispatches ship with 900 tonnes of food for Gaza
Dozens hospitalised in Tunisia’s Gabes amid environmental crisis
Dozens of people have been hospitalised in Tunisia’s southern city of Gabes, whose residents have blamed pollution from a nearby chemical factory for causing respiratory distress and other health issues.
Tunisia’s state-run TAP news agency reported that children experiencing breathing difficulties from the fumes were admitted to Gabes University Hospital on Tuesday.
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A local official cited by AFP news agency said more than 120 people had been hospitalised in the city, while an education official cited by the Diwan FM radio channel said dozens of students were admitted to hospital.
On top of respiratory problems, some patients suffered from “leg pain, numbness, and loss of mobility”, said local defence deputy chief Ghofrane Touati.
Resident Tawfik Dhaifallah said his little sister was “suffocating because of the fumes” emanating from the city’s industrial zone. “That happens every two or three days.”
The latest hospitalisations are part of spike in reported cases of respiratory problems that residents blame on fumes from the Tunisian Chemical Group’s (CGT) phosphate headquarters – a site authorities pledged to gradually close in 2017 but have yet to follow through on.
Protests
Years of frustration over the site’s emissions erupted on October 11, when residents stormed the complex demanding its closure.
“Gabes has turned into a city of death, people are struggling to breathe, many residents suffer from cancer or bone fragility due to the severe pollution,” Khaireddine Dbaya, one of the protesters, told the Reuters news agency.
The protest turned violent as police fired tear gas and chased demonstrators through the city streets, Reuters reported. Some protesters tried to set fire to a branch office of the CGT’s administration, while others blocked roads in the city, according to local media.
The Gabes local council on Sunday said it supported the “legitimate” demands of the protesters and called for the “dismantling of polluting chemical plants”, while also criticising “acts of vandalism and violence”.
The Tunisian League of Human Rights also backed the protesters and called for “the dismantling of polluting units and the establishment of an alternative regional development model to slow death and pollution”.
The protests underscore mounting pressure on President Kais Saied’s government, already grappling with a deep economic and financial crisis, to balance public health demands with the production of phosphate, Tunisia’s most valuable natural resource.
In an effort to ease public anger, Saied met late on Saturday with the ministers of environment and energy, urging them to send delegations to Gabes to carry out necessary repairs at the phosphate acid unit of the complex. He said he wants “a green Tunisia free of all pollution”.
Phosphate is Tunisia’s principal natural resource, but for years, activists have warned about the pollution caused by the GCT, which dumps its gaseous and solid waste directly into the environment.
In 2017, authorities pledged to dismantle the Gabes complex and replace it with a facility that meets international standards, acknowledging that its emissions posed a danger to local residents. However, the plan has yet to be implemented.
Osimhen hat-trick sends Nigeria to playoffs as South Africa reach World Cup
South Africa became the latest African nation to qualify for the 2026 World Cup after beating Rwanda 3-0 to top its qualifying group, with Nigeria forced to settle for second spot – and the playoffs – despite a Victor Osimhen hat-trick against Benin.
South Africa were docked three points by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for fielding an ineligible player in earlier games in the qualifying stages, but recovered to claim top spot from Benin, who were beaten 4-0 in Nigeria to eventually finish third as the group was settled on Tuesday.
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The Super Eagles, who trailed Benin by three points going into the match and needed to overturn a deficit of two on goal difference, had a two-goal lead at the break at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, Nigeria thanks to Osimhen.
The Galatasaray striker, who was one of the most sought-after talents by Europe’s club teams last summer, completed his hat-trick six minutes into the second half. But Nigerian nerves were not settled until Frank Onyeka’s injury-time strike.
Nigeria will now have to qualify through the CAF playoffs with the three other best second-placed sides in the nine first-round qualifying groups.
Those best runners-up will play in a semifinal-final format, with the winners competing in a FIFA interconfederation playoff for a potential 10th African World Cup spot. The second round of CAF qualifying to reach that stage will take place November 10-18.
South Africa’s victory means it will be the team’s first appearance at a World Cup since qualifying automatically as the host in 2010.
Thalente Mbatha and Oswin Appollis gave Bafana Bafana a two-goal cushion by the 12th minute of their match against already-eliminated Rwanda in Mbombela before Evidence Makgopa added the third in the second half.
Palestinians see a long road to normalcy as ceasefire unfolds in Gaza
While Israeli bombardment has largely stopped, Palestinians in Gaza are careful to not feel overly optimistic as they see the challenges that still lie ahead.
Palestinians see ‘new Nakba’ in West Bank villages as demolitions return
Khallet al-Daba, occupied West Bank – At nine o’clock on a Monday morning in May, the quiet of Khallet al-Daba was shattered by the sound of bulldozers and other demolition vehicles approaching. Accompanying them were Israeli soldiers pouring into the village, forcing families out of their homes and driving livestock into the open.
By the end of May 5, the small community in the heart of Masafer Yatta had been reduced to rubble. It was just one of at least four mass demolitions conducted by Israeli forces this year. For residents, the repeated demolitions are nothing less than a “new Nakba” – an echo of the mass displacement and ethnic cleansing Palestinians suffered in 1948.
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Dozens of military vehicles, armoured carriers and jeeps sealed off the village as the demolitions took place in May, according to locals. Women carrying infants, men still dazed from being forced suddenly from their homes, and children screaming in fear stood under the burning sun for six hours. Behind them, the walls of their houses were turned into rubble.
Families have since been attempting to adapt to a life uprooted. Some have sheltered in underground caves dug years ago as makeshift refuges. Others have crowded into fragile tents that cannot withstand either the scorching summer or the freezing winter.
“This demolition destroyed the lifelines of Khallet al-Daba: water, electricity, solar energy, drinking wells, sewage tanks, and even street lighting,” said Mohammed Rabia, who is the head of the nearby at-Tuwani village council, and deals with Bedouin issues throughout Masafer Yatta. “We’ve returned to the Stone Age, living in caves and tents without the necessities of life… but no one has left the village.”
Military training zones
Khallet al-Daba lies at the heart of Masafer Yatta, a cluster of 12 Palestinian villages spread across rolling hills south of Hebron, in the southern West Bank.
The United Nations has previously reported that 1,150 people live in Masafer Yatta, but Rabia says the true number is about 4,500 people. They mostly herd sheep and farm wheat and barley, which produces the majority of the income for the Palestinian population in this region.
But, as with approximately 20 percent of land in the West Bank, Israel declared part of the area a military training zone – ‘Firing Zone 918’ – in the 1980s and has been trying to empty it of Palestinians ever since.
The Israeli military has previously justified the May 5 demolition as necessary because of the location of the village in the military training zone.
The practice of declaring areas of the West Bank military training zones was revealed by an Israeli-Palestinian research group, Akevot, as a tactic to expel Palestinian villagers proposed in 1981 by then-Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became Israel’s prime minister in the early 2000s.
Homes here are repeatedly demolished under military orders. Residents say the justifications vary – construction without permits, proximity to military training areas, or land claimed for settlement outposts – but the goal is the same: displacement.
A press release last week from Frederieke van Dongen, the humanitarian affairs manager of the aid organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF), agreed with that conclusion, calling Israel’s actions in Masafer Yatta “part of a broader policy of ethnic cleansing, aimed at forcibly transferring Palestinians from the area”.
‘If I leave, I will die’
Among those who were forced to watch their homes collapse this spring was 65-year-old Samiha Muhammad al-Dababseh, a mother of eight who has lived in the village her whole life. Her weathered face carries the strain of decades of hardship.
“I screamed, ‘The army is here!’” she recalled. “Within minutes, soldiers were storming the houses, forcibly removing us without allowing us to take anything – not food or clothes. They pushed me violently and told me, ‘This is not your land. You will not have a home or shelter left.’”
Samiha’s family had already endured three demolitions prior to May. After their stone house was destroyed in May, they were forced to return to a cave that Samiha had dug out by hand and turned into a shelter with her late husband. The women and children slept inside the cave, while the men spread out on the ground outside its entrance.
But then, on September 17, even the cave was destroyed in yet another Israeli attack, which also targeted residential tents, water tanks, and mobile bathrooms, according to the villagers.
“If one tree remains in Khallet al-Daba, I will stay in its shade,” Samiha said. The land is my soul. If I leave, I will die.”
Samiha said that she was now living under a tree. “We live in fear of settler attacks, ” she explained. “Despite everything, we will not leave.
Living in fear
Samiha’s youngest son, 31-year-old Mujahid al-Dababseh, shares a cave with his wife and three children – as well as 11 other relatives. The farmer says that nights in the cave can be long and frightening.
“The children suffer from nightmares of bulldozers and settler attacks,” he said. “I fear [they will be attacked by] snakes, insects, or from thirst due to the lack of water. Our lives are very difficult; there is no electricity, no food, no safety.”
Mujahid remembers placing stones with his father when they built their home. Watching it collapse was like losing “a piece of my life”, he said.
“The [Israeli] occupation has turned Khallet al-Daba into a second Gaza – they wiped out everything above ground, leaving only rubble,” Mujahid said. “But they failed. No Palestinian child will ever emigrate from here.”
The village is home to just 120 people, a third of them children, all members of the extended Dababseh clan. Its name recalls the hyenas (daba in Arabic) that once roamed the valleys. Today, residents say, it is settlers and soldiers who stalk their land.
For many here, the repeated demolitions are not just about homes, but about erasing life itself – water wells, solar panels, sewage systems, even street lighting. Each time, residents rebuild what they can. Each time, they vow not to leave.
Khallet al-Daba is now a patchwork of caves, rubble and tents. Yet it remains a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness, residents say, rooted in a struggle that has lasted more than seven decades.
“This is an ongoing Nakba,” said Rabia. “But the people have chosen to resist with their presence. Four times, the houses fell. Four times, the people stayed.”
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Israel’s World Cup qualifier against Italy in Udine was played under heavy security and protests just days after a Gaza ceasefire took effect. A pro-Palestinian march in the city center was expected to attract more people than the match itself.