Category World News

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Israel’s 15-month war against Gaza, as well as the severe restrictions it placed on the flow of humanitarian aid, and Israeli forces’ attacks on health facilities and its targeting of healthcare workers, have created “life-threatening danger” for pregnant women and babies.

The group noted in the report released on Tuesday that despite the ongoing ceasefire, the precarious conditions in which Gaza’s women are giving birth are unlikely to improve because Israeli legislation that targets the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and effective this week is expected to severely restrict the flow of humanitarian aid to the devastated region.

Women in Gaza were sometimes rushed out of overcrowded hospitals within hours of giving birth to make room for war-torn patients. The al-Helal al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, which has had the fewest incubators and most premature babies, has also had a significant impact on newborn care, with one doctor claiming that the hospital’s doctors had to place “four or five babies in one incubator.”

“Most of them don’t survive”, the doctor added.

In the freezing temperatures, several babies have died from lack of protection.

In the 56-page report, HRW concluded that Israel — as the occupying power in Gaza — has violated the rights of pregnant women and girls, including the right to dignified care in pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, as well as the right to newborn care.

The group also emphasized that two pieces of legislation signed by the Israeli Knesset last year and set to go into effect on Tuesday are likely to “further exacerbate the harm to maternal and newborn health.” Effectively, UNRWA cannot obtain permits for its staff and provide desperately needed aid to Gaza because of the bills, which prohibit UNRWA from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem and the Israeli government from speaking with the organization.

The reality is that these upcoming weeks may cause pregnant women and newborns to suffer even more than they already already have, according to Belkis Wille, HRW’s associate crisis, conflict, and arms director, Al Jazeera.

Wille added that “the provisions of the ceasefire don’t really address any of the key requirements that the report specifies.”

According to the report, as of this month, emergency obstetric and newborn care is only available at seven out of 18 partially functioning hospitals across Gaza, four out of 11 field hospitals, and one community health centre.

“Unsanitary and overcrowded conditions” and severe shortages of essential healthcare supplies, including medicines and vaccines, are the main issues at all medical facilities in Gaza. Additionally, the report adds that medical professionals are “hungry, overworked, and occasionally under military attack” who are also working to treat victims of attacks and treat countless cases of waterborne and other communicable diseases.

HRW spoke with Gazan women who were pregnant while they were living there during the war, with Gazan medical professionals, and with international medical personnel who worked for international humanitarian organizations and organizations with teams of international humanitarian organizations.

The impact of the war on access to basic care while pregnant and giving birth is horrifyingly depicted in the interviews.

Little information is available on the survival rate of newborns or the number of women experiencing serious complications or dying during pregnancy, birth, or postpartum, HRW notes. However, the group draws attention to testimony from maternity health experts, who claimed that since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, the rate of miscarriage in Gaza has increased by up to 300 percent. Additionally, it made reference to UN reports that at least eight newborns and infants perished from hypothermia as a result of a lack of basic shelter.

Israel’s war has led to an unprecedented displacement of some 90 percent of Gaza’s residents, many of whom were displaced multiple times. According to the report, this has made it difficult for pregnant women to access health services safely, noting that both mothers and newborns have largely had no access to postnatal care.

In a different report released late last year, Human Rights Watch came to the conclusion that Israel was engaging in “acts of genocide” by denying Gaza’s Palestinians access to clean water. It also found that Israel’s use of “starvation as a method of warfare” led to severe food insecurity.

Pregnant women’s lack of access to food and water has had a significant impact on both their health and fetal development. According to the report, many pregnant women reported being unable to wash themselves or having dehydration.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has made it known that he will sign an executive order directing the construction of an “Iron Dome” missile defense program.

Trump made a pledge to bolster US military assets with executive action in the evening at his south Florida golf resort, the Trump National Doral Miami, on Monday during a retreat for Republican lawmakers.

“We have to have a strong, strong defence”, Trump said from the podium. “And in a little while, I’ll be signing four new executive orders”.

The first, he explained, was to “immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defence shield, which will be able to protect Americans”.

Two more orders, he added, would be aimed at removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and getting “transgender ideology the hell out of our military”.

Additionally, a fourth order would reinstate service members who had been fired for breaking COVID-19 mandates. Between August 2021 and January 2023, approximately 8, 000 members had been discharged for that reason.

Trump argued that the actions were necessary to give the US “the most lethal fighting force in the world.”

A flood of executive orders

The executive actions Trump has taken since returning to the White House on January 20 were yet another ripple in the wave of executive actions.

According to officials, Trump signed a record number of executive actions on his first day in office, amounting to a total of 42 orders, memorandums and proclamations.

Many of those initial orders&nbsp, pertained to immigration and social issues. For instance, he made a move to end birthright citizenship, a constitutionally protected right that endows anyone born in the US with citizenship.

However, some of his earlier executive orders merged with those that were made public on Monday.

He called for the end of government DEI programmes, which he accused of perpetrating “illegal and immoral discrimination”. Additionally, he signed a second law that says the gender identities of men and women are “not interchangeable.”

However, the most recent wave of orders directly affects the US military’s strategic priorities.

Monday’s orders, for example, echo a “transgender military ban” that Trump pursued in 2017, during his first term in office. President Joe Biden later reversed that ban in 2021.

An estimated 8, 000 service members identify as transgender, though more may be reluctant to reveal their gender in public.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first day at the Pentagon also coincided with the executive orders Trump unveiled.

Hegseth, a veteran and former Fox News host, has previously criticized what he called the “woke” ideology that is roiling the military and questioned whether women should serve in combat roles.

Hegseth, who is also the head of the Pentagon, has pledged to oversee a significant overhaul of the military’s leadership and to establish a “warrior culture” within the armed forces.

Hesgeth overcame allegations of abuse and alcoholism to receive Friday confirmation from 50 Republican senators.

Three Republicans, including former Senate party leader Mitch McConnell, opposed his nomination.

Creating an “Iron Dome”

The Republican leader made a promise on the campaign trail by putting an “Iron Dome” in Trump’s executive order to create one.

A US-funded air defense system in Israel that detects and intercepts incoming rockets is known as the “iron dome.”

In his campaign for re-election in 2024, Trump had repeatedly stated that he wanted to lead Israel’s Iron Dome system.

He revealed his plans to build “the best Iron Dome in the world” in an August broadcast on the social media platform X.

And in July, he added the Iron Dome proposal to the Republican Party’s official platform.

But military experts have repeatedly questioned whether such a system is necessary, or even feasible, for the US.

Israel’s current defense system only guards against rockets and mortars with a low-power. And Israel itself is only about the size of New Jersey, one of the US’s smaller states.

Given the advanced firepower of potential adversaries like Russia and China, experts claim that building a similar system across the vast US mainland would be prohibitive, not to mention potentially ineffective.

Additionally, Observers point out that the US already has programs in place for missile defense, including those aimed at the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program and the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system.

Trump’s Iron Dome project’s future is also uncertain because it almost certainly will need congressional approval for funding.

“You know, we protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves”, Trump said on Monday.

After three days of detention, Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah has confirmed that Swiss authorities have detained and released him.

In a social media post on Monday, Abunimah, the executive director of the publication Electronic Intifada, suggested that Switzerland had detained him because of his support for Palestinian rights.

“My ‘ crime’? Being a journalist who supports and defends Israel’s genocide, settler-colonial savagery, and those who support and abet it, he wrote.

Abunimah was detained in Zurich on Saturday, just before he was scheduled to deliver a speech there, causing outrage from Palestinian rights advocates.

The Swiss embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

According to a report from the Reuters news agency on Sunday, the Swiss police cited a visa ban and other immigration-related measures as the reasons for Abunimah’s arrest.

The Palestinian American journalist claimed that when police interrogated him, they accused him of “offending against Swiss law” without making any specific charges.

He claimed that he was “locked up in a cell for 24 hours a day” and was unable to contact his family. He continued, noting that his phone was only returned at the airport gate for the flight to Istanbul.

Abunimah noted that Switzerland welcomed Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the World Economic Forum in Davos during the time he was imprisoned as a “dangerous criminal.”

Herzog has sparked controversy for his stance on Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 47, 000 Palestinians. He&nbsp, previously said that there are no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.

Abunimah said, “This ordeal lasted three days, but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endured years and months of imprisonment in the genocidal oppressor.”

More than ever, I am aware that all of our debts must be free and that they must continue to be our main priorities because we can never repay them.

I’m free! I posted this immediately after I touched down on the plane in Istanbul. I was handcuffed, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van, and was then led by police all the way to the airport on Monday evening. This is after three days and two… pic. twitter.com/S4BF2eEYYQ

Abunimah’s arrest was deemed an assault on free speech by experts at the UN.

Irene Khan, a UN special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, described Abunimah’s arrest as “shocking news” on Saturday and urged his release.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, also called for an investigation into the incident.

In a social media post, Albanese wrote that “the climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic.”

Abunimah’s arrest comes as a result of the UN’s review of the Gaza War, which some experts have characterized as a genocide, as a result of an increased clampdown on pro-Palestine voices in Europe.

German authorities detained British doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah, who had worked in Gaza, and blocked him entry in a conference held in April.

German authorities have also been accused of repressing protests throughout the conflict by activists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claimed that the British counterterrorism police carried out a “disturbing pattern of weaponizing counter-terrorism laws against reporters” when they raided Asa Winstanley’s home in October 2024.

Months earlier, British authorities held journalist Richard Medhurst, who is vocally critical of Israeli policies, for 24 hours as he arrived in London.

The “terrorism” investigation against him was extended until May, according to Medhurst on Saturday.

More than a dozen prosecutors have been fired from the administration of US President Donald Trump because of their involvement in the investigation and prosecution of the Republican leader while he was in office.

Monday’s terminations were effective immediately and applied to employees in the Department of Justice, according to anonymous sources within Trump’s government.

According to an official, acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, believed that the prosecutors could not be relied on to faithfully carry out the president’s agenda because of their significant impact on the prosecution of the president.

The action echoed Trump’s threats to demand retribution for his behavior, and it shook established precedents that career government employees shouldn’t be held accountable for performing duties under a previous administration.

Trump took office on January 20 for a second term as president, after serving previously from 2017 to 2021.

Prosecutors who had collaborated with former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who conducted two investigations into Trump before resigning, were among those whose careers were affected by the firings on Monday.

One focused on Trump’s retention of hundreds of classified documents at his private residence, despite a subpoena in 2022 for their return.

The other zeroed in on his behaviour before, during and after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump was charged with trying to rig the election results, which he falsely claimed were the result of widespread voter fraud.

Both investigations resulted in federal criminal indictments: the first in Florida and the second in Washington, DC.

Trump was the first US president, past or present, to face criminal charges. In addition to the federal cases, he was also charged in two state-level indictments.

One, in Georgia, also pertained to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In New York, Trump was charged with falsifying business records to conceal an adult film actress’s illicit income during his 2016 presidential campaign.

In that case, Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, though he was sentenced to an “unconditional discharge” — wherein he was released with no penalties.

Trump has accused the prosecution of leading a “witch hunt” motivated by his denial of wrongdoing in all four cases.

While the state-level cases were prosecuted by local district attorneys, the federal cases were overseen by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice.

However, Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, was appointed as a special counsel to lead the investigations in order to maintain the independence of the investigations.

Neither of Smith’s cases against Trump made it to trial. Smith dropped both cases after Trump won the re-election in November 2024, citing a long-standing Justice Department rule against prosecuting presidents who are currently in office. Additionally, he resigned from his position as special counsel.

Smith did, however, release a report about one of the two indictments, underscoring the strength of the prosecution’s case.

The Office determined that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and support a conviction at trial in light of Mr. Trump’s election and his imminent return to office, according to the report.

Trump has reorganized federal government buildings since taking office on January 20.

For instance, on January 24, it was reported that he had fired a dozen inspector general, who were allegedly responsible for overseeing important government bodies.

Some experts claim that their terminations were infringed on federal law, which required a 30-day advance notice to an inspector general’s removal, as well as a compelling justification.

On the day of his inauguration, Trump teased the widespread dismissal of “Biden bureaucrats” at a rally with his supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.

The majority of those bureaucrats are being fired, according to the report. They’re gone. Should be all of them, but some sneak through”, he said.