5 Reasons You Can’t Afford To Miss ‘Chamak’, The Biggest Musical Web Thriller
The series has already generated significant buzz with its trending music and an impressive ensemble cast of musicians and actors.
Iran executes 2022 protester for murder
Human rights advocates criticise Mohammad Ghobadlou’s conviction, saying he did not get a fair trial. Iran has executed a man who ran over and killed a policeman, and injured five other people, during nationwide protests in 2022. Mohammad Ghobadlou was executed on Tuesday after being found guilty of the killing during mass protests two years ago, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. However, human rights advocates criticised his conviction, saying he did not get a fair trial. “After being upheld by the Supreme Court, the death penalty against defendant Mohammad Ghobadlou has been implemented early this morning,” Mizan reported. The policeman was killed amid the huge protests that followed the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. Ghobadlou was initially sentenced to death in November 2022 after being convicted of “corruption on earth” for attacking police in Tehran with a car. The Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution in February 2023, and later ordered consideration of his mental health, according to Mehr news agency. Mizan reported on Tuesday that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence, which was carried out under Iran’s Islamic law of retribution. Hundreds died during the 2022 protests, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands were arrested over what officials labelled as foreign-instigated “riots”. Ghobadlou is the eighth person executed after being convicted of murder or other violence against security forces during the demonstrations. ‘Unfair sham trials’ However, human rights group Amnesty International said the 22-year-old’s right to a fair trial was violated, and his bipolar condition was not taken into consideration by the judicial system. “Ghobadlou received two death sentences after grossly unfair sham trials marred by torture-tainted ‘confessions’ and failure to order rigorous mental health assessments despite his mental disability,” Amnesty said. However, Mizan said claims of mental disability were wrong. Ghobadlou, it noted, had allegedly rejected the suggestion during his trial. Earlier this month, dozens of people, including Ghobadlou’s family, demonstrated in front of a prison in the Iranian city of Karaj against his sentencing as well as that of another young man. “My child is sick, he has a medical file, but they don’t want to accept,” Ghobadlou’s mother shouted in one video of the event at that time, which was verified by Al Jazeera. Iran executes more people per year than any other country except China, according to Amnesty, and usually does so by hanging. Adblock test (Why?)
Turkey’s parliament set to vote on Sweden’s NATO bid this week: Reports
Turkey endorsed Finland’s membership bid in April but, along with Hungary, has kept Sweden waiting. The Turkish parliament is set to debate Sweden’s NATO membership bid after months of delays that have strained Ankara’s ties with its Western allies, with a vote expected this week. The debate in the Grand National Assembly is due to take place on Tuesday, state media reported, with a vote likely the same day. The AFP news agency reported that the vote could be held on Thursday. Turkey’s ratification would leave Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and its neighbour Finland began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. However, on Tuesday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he had invited his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, for a visit to negotiate his country joining the military alliance. Today I sent an invitation letter to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson @SwedishPM for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s NATO accession. — Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) January 23, 2024 Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April. Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and substantially strengthened the defences of three small Baltic nations that joined the bloc following the Soviet Union’s collapse. Sweden and Finland pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War era confrontation between Russia and the United States. However, Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour set off Europe’s biggest and most brutal land battle since World War II, upturning geopolitical calculations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s resistance to Sweden’s NATO accession reflected his more nuanced stance towards Moscow. Ankara has profited from maintaining – and even expanding – trade with Russia while at the same time supplying Ukraine with drones and other essential arms. Erdogan has also been one of the few NATO leaders to hold regular meetings and phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Turkish media reported that Putin could make his first wartime visit to Turkey next month. US fighter jets Erdogan’s objections to Sweden’s bid initially focused on Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorists”. Sweden has responded by tightening its antiterrorism legislation and taking other security steps demanded by Erdogan over the members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the European Union and the United States also list as a “terrorist” group. Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax Turkey’s arms export policies. The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved the Swedish bid last month after Erdogan forwarded it to parliament in October. However, Erdogan has since demanded that Washington follow through on its pledge to deliver a batch of F-16 fighter jets for Turkey’s ageing air force. Erdogan last month discussed his demands by telephone with US President Joe Biden. US officials argued that Turkey’s request could win the required congressional approval if Sweden’s NATO accession goes through – a position reaffirmed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a visit to Istanbul this month. “We have not parsed words about how ready we are for Sweden to formally join the alliance,” said US Department of State deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel after news emerged that Turkey was finally ready to ratify the Swedish candidacy. “We have long felt that [Sweden] has met its commitment and we look forward to this process moving forward.” Adblock test (Why?)
Watch: Congress workers, police clash during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Assam
Earlier, a clash broke out between Police and Congress workers in Assam’s Guwahati, during Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
California Senate candidates gang up on lone Republican on stage during debate: ‘Always a Dodger’
Three California Democrat candidates for U.S. Senate took aim at the lone Republican on stage during the state’s first debate of the blanket primary season. “Once a Dodger, always a Dodger,” Rep. Katie Porter quipped after accusing Steve Garvey, a legendary former baseball player in the state who split time between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres and the debate’s lone Republican representative, of dodging questions about whether he supports former President Trump during Monday’s primary debate. Porter was joined by Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., in taking shots at the political newcomer, who has been evasive about who he plans to vote for in the 2024 presidential election. ADAM SCHIFF ENDORSED FOR SENATE AS ‘TEAM PLAYER’ BY LA TIMES: ‘PRACTICED IN THE ART OF COMPROMISE’ The jabs came as Garvey looked to gain momentum in California’s blanket Senate primary, which in March will send the top two candidates to a runoff in November’s general election. Garvey, who used several baseball references throughout the evening, accused his opponents of engaging in identity politics and likened their behavior to the infamous Houston Astros cheating scandal. “You’re banging on that trash can, just like the Astros did,” Garvey said as all three of his opponents took shots in his direction. ADAM SCHIFF FACT-CHECKED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER CLAIMING HOUSE SPEAKER COUNTS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL VOTES Schiff currently leads most of the polling in the race, while Garvey, Porter and Lee have fought to position themselves in second place. Only two of the candidates can move on to November’s general election, regardless of party. Porter and Lee also sought to highlight their progressive credentials in the dependably blue state, attacking Schiff as a Washington and corporate insider. “Representative Schiff may have prosecuted big oil companies before he came to Congress, but when he got to Congress he cashed checks from companies like BP, from fossil fuel companies,” Porter said of Schiff during one exchange on climate change. “I have delivered results on climate in my few years in Congress.” That attack earned a quick retort from Schiff, who argued Porter had no problem accepting his financial support during her own run for office. “First of all, I gave that money to you, Katie Porter… and the only response I got was thank you,” Schiff shot back. “At the end of the day, it’s about what have you gotten done? I didn’t hear anything from Representative Porter about anything she’s actually accomplished. I’ve taken on oil companies and prosecuted them. I’ve gotten mass transit built. I’ve worked on bipartisan legislation to expand open space. At the end of the day, what California needs more than anything else is not more talking points. They need action, and they need action in particular on climate.” The four candidates are looking to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who passed away last year after serving in the Senate for three decades. Voting in California’s primary closes on March 5, with voting centers opening for early in-person voting on Feb. 24. California residents can also vote by mail, with ballot drop-off locations opening on Feb. 6.
New Hampshire primary clash: Can Nikki Haley slow down Donald Trump’s push for the GOP presidential nomination
Nikki Haley, telling supporters at a rally in Salem, New Hampshire, on the eve of the first primary in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said that “we’ve got a lot on the line here.” Former President Trump, a couple of hours later and some 60 miles north of Haley in Laconia, New Hampshire, emphasized to the crowd at his rally that “tomorrow is the day that each and every one of you is going to cast the most important vote of your entire life.” After a convincing 30-point victory in Iowa’s low-turnout GOP presidential caucuses a week ago, Trump is aiming for an encore performance in the Granite State as he tries to bring the Republican nomination race to an early ending. For Haley, a former two-term South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, the New Hampshire primary may be her best and possibly last chance to slow down or derail the former president’s march towards renomination. HALEY PLEDGES ‘I’M IN THIS FOR THE LONG HAUL’ IN RACE AGAINST TRUMP Haley was down by double digits in most of the final public opinion surveys to the former president, who is the commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run. Pointing to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of his campaign on Sunday – which left Trump and Haley as the last major Republican candidates in the GOP race – Trump highlighted that “now we’re down to two people. And I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow…now is the time for the Republican Party to come together.” HALEY REVEALS HER PITCH TO DESANTIS SUPPORTERS However, New Hampshire – where independent voters who make up roughly 40% of the electorate can vote in either major party’s contest and have long played an influential role in the state’s storied presidential primary – may be fertile ground for Haley. The final surveys indicated Trump dominating among registered Republicans, with Haley grabbing majority support among independents. However, there are likely more Republicans than independents who will vote in Tuesday’s GOP primary. Haley, publicly brushing off the polls, made a last minute pitch, telling her supporters to “go to the polls tomorrow and take five people with you.” DOWN AND OUT: WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE DESANTIS CAMPAIGN Haley also pledged in a couple of Fox News interviews that she’s moving on to her home state regardless of her finish in New Hampshire. South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary is the next major contest on the GOP nominating calendar following Tuesday’s showdown in New Hampshire. “This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. The political and media elite say everybody needs to coalesce around Donald Trump,” Haley told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Monday in Franklin, New Hampshire. “We don’t believe in coronations in this country. We believe in democracy. I’m in this for the long haul. Longtime New Hampshire-based Republican strategist Dave Carney said the Granite State is Haley’s “only shot.” “We have a highly educated, high-income electorate. We’re one of the few primaries that allow independents to vote. And if she can’t make it here, she can’t make it anywhere,” argued Carney, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns. Mike Biundo, another Republican consultant who’s based in New Hampshire, noted that “Nikki Haley is fully committed to this state. It is her best and only opportunity to challenge Donald Trump, given our state’s significant undeclared voting population.” Carney said “all indications are that Trump is going to dominate the election.” “But New Hampshire voters have a history of breaking late,” Carney added. “And polling in the New Hampshire primary, because of independents, is particularly difficult.” Biundo, a veteran of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign who was consulting for Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy this cycle, predicted that “facing a potential embarrassing defeat in her home state of South Carolina, I anticipate that a double-digit loss in New Hampshire will force Haley to withdraw from the race by Friday.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Hunter Biden’s business associates to appear for closed-door testimonies with lawmakers this week
Hunter Biden’s business associates are gearing up to testify behind closed doors at the House Oversight and Judiciary committees later this week as part of the House impeachment inquiry against his father, President Biden. First up is Mervyn Yan, who was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last year for financial records related to his business dealings with Hunter Biden. Yan worked with Hunter Biden through Chinese energy company CEFC and Hudson West III. HUNTER BIDEN DEPOSITION SCHEDULED FOR NEXT MONTH AFTER RISK OF BEING HELD IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS Yan is set to appear before both committees on Thursday for closed-door transcribed interviews. Next is Rob Walker, who was also subpoenaed last year. He is expected to appear for his closed-door transcribed interviews before both committees on Friday. Financial records subpoenaed by the committee revealed that members of the Biden family, including Hallie Biden and Sara Biden, received more than $1 million in payments from accounts related to Walker and his Chinese business ventures with Hunter. FLASHBACK: COMER SUBPOENAS HUNTER BIDEN ART DEALER, BUSINESS ASSOCIATES FOR TESTIMONY AS PART OF ONGOING PROBE Walker worked on a joint venture called Sinohawk Holdings, which was meant to be a partnership with Chinese energy firm CEFC. Multiple Biden family accounts, including those belonging to Hunter, Hallie Biden and an unnamed Biden, also received approximately $1.038 million from the same Walker LLC account after Bladon Enterprises, which reportedly belonged to Gabriel “Puiu” Popoviciu, a Romanian tycoon, deposited more than $3 million between November 2015 to May 2017. According to a 2017 email from Walker, which was obtained by the Senate Finance Committee, Walker viewed himself as a “surrogate” for Hunter and his uncle, Jim Biden, when “gauging [business] opportunities.” The transcribed interviews with Yan and Walker this week come after the committees announced last week that they had confirmed a new date for Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition. FLASHBACK: HOUSE OVERSIGHT SUBPOENAS HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN, ROB WALKER FOR TESTIMONY AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY Hunter Biden had initially defied a subpoena to appear for a deposition and was at risk of being held in contempt of Congress. The committees said Hunter Biden’s attorneys confirmed that he would appear for a deposition on Feb. 28, thus pausing all contempt of Congress proceedings. Hunter Biden’s deposition will come after his business associates share testimony with the committees. The House Oversight and Judiciary committees plan to hear testimony from other Hunter Biden business associates like Eric Schwerin on Jan. 30, Tony Bobulinski on Feb. 5, and more.
Dean Phillips says he’s ‘resisting the delusional DNC’ by primary challenging ‘unelectable’ Biden
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota says President Biden should be on the ballot in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Democrat presidential primary. And Phillips, who in October launched a long-shot primary challenge against the president, is taking aim at the Democratic Party for keeping him off the ballot in some upcoming primaries. Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, launched his campaign for the White House in late October and is focusing most of his time and resources on New Hampshire, where the president’s name won’t be on the ballot Tuesday in the state’s unsanctioned Democrat primary. Top Democrats in the state have launched a write-in campaign on the president’s behalf. Phillips says he’s invested $5 million of his own money in his White House bid. “A lot more than I intended,” he noted in an interview with Fox News Digital. But he said his investment may be starting to pay off as “grassroots donors are really starting to pop up.” His ads are playing on New Hampshire airwaves in an effort to improve his name recognition. Asked where he needs to finish in New Hampshire’s primary, Phillips said, “[W]e started at zero just 10 weeks ago. My name is not yet well known. And I think getting in the 20s would be an extraordinary accomplishment.” PHILLIPS SAYS IT WILL BE ‘GAME ON’ WITH BIDEN IF HE SURPRISES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE That appears to be a lowering of expectations from a few weeks earlier, but the latest poll in the Granite State’s Democrat primary indicates Phillips is far short of that goal. He stands at 10% in a University of New Hampshire/CNN poll conducted Jan. 16-19, a point ahead of bestselling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who is making her second straight White House run. Sixty-three percent of those questioned in the survey said they’d write in Biden’s name. “I think what people should really be paying attention to is how strong is the incumbent president. When Bill Clinton was reelected as the incumbent in New Hampshire, he got 84%. When Barack Obama was reelected, he got 81%. So, I think those should be the benchmarks. What does Joe Biden earn in New Hampshire?” Phillips said. And he argued that “if I get in the 20s, and he’s somewhere in the 50s or something, that is an extraordinary challenge for an incumbent to overcome. And I think that’s really the story here. I believe he’s unelectable. Polls are showing he’s unelectable. Now I think voters will show that he’s unelectable.” PHILLIPS TAKES AIM AT BIDEN ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL While the president is the commanding front-runner for his party’s 2024 nomination, polls indicate that many Americans – including plenty of Democrats – don’t want the president to seek a second term in the White House. Those same surveys spotlight that voters are not thrilled with the likely prospect of a rematch between Biden and the candidate he defeated in 2020: former President Trump. The president more than a year ago proposed a nominating calendar for the 2024 election cycle that booted New Hampshire from its traditional leadoff primary position and replaced it with South Carolina, a much more diverse state where Black voters play an outsized role in Democrat politics. Biden came in a dismal fifth in the 2020 New Hampshire primary, but a few weeks later he won South Carolina in a landslide. The victory boosted the former vice president toward the Democrat nomination and eventually the White House. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) a year ago overwhelmingly approved the calendar change proposed by the president. But New Hampshire leapfrogged South Carolina to honor a longtime state law that mandates the state holds the first primary. With the state holding an unsanctioned Democrat contest, the president’s reelection campaign last autumn announced that Biden wouldn’t file to place his name on the New Hampshire ballot. Phillips, interviewed by Fox News on Friday at his New Hampshire campaign headquarters in Manchester, said, “I’m better positioned to beat Donald Trump, and over the coming weeks and months, I’ll demonstrate that.” “If it is Joe Biden – somehow he recovers, which I do not think is possible – of course I would support him. And I think it’s not unlikely that perhaps someone else appears that might be in a position to win. But right now, I intend to be that person. I believe that we must stop a very dangerous man from returning to the White House.” Trump, at the start of his large rally Saturday night in Manchester, urged New Hampshire Democrats to vote for Phillips to send a signal to Biden that “you don’t abandon us.” The former president bragged that due to his comment, Phillips “probably just picked up a lot of votes.” Phillips has been taking aim at his party over the move by the Florida and North Carolina Democrats to keep him off the primary ballot in their states, as they listed only Biden’s name. Some Republican state parties made similar moves in the 2020 cycle when Trump, as the incumbent president, was running for reelection. “The state of Florida Democratic Party decided that Joe Biden won the primary election and that there did not need to be any votes cast, disenfranchising 4 million voters or so. The state of North Carolina did the same thing. The state of Massachusetts Democrats attempted the same thing, but the secretary of state intervened,” Phillips told Fox News. And he argued that “when you’re trying to suppress voters, suppress candidates, and not even agree to debate, yeah, I think we have a problem with democracy, so I would ask of the president before I condemn him specifically: answer the questions. Why don’t you ask him that question?” Asked if he had proof that Biden was actively involved in the efforts to keep Phillips off the ballot in certain states, the candidate responded, “I have no proof of that. I also have not seen one member of the
Newly appointed Republican environment committee chairman outlines climate goals
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital in his first interview since being appointed to chair a key environment subcommittee that he would use the position to combat climate change, an issue that has divided Republicans for years. Carter — who House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., appointed to lead the panel’s Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee — said climate change is a serious issue, pointing to rising sea levels in his coastal Georgia district. However, he argued that fossil fuels will be needed in the coming decades and the U.S. must onshore green energy supply chains. “I think it’s very important for conservatives to have a place at the table, a seat at the table,” Carter told Fox News Digital. “For instance, I went to COP28, and I’m glad I went. I won’t kid you, there was a little bit of tribulation there at first because there are people in our party who are climate deniers — they don’t believe in climate change.” “Now, I don’t believe that if we don’t have this resolved by the day after tomorrow, we’re all going to fry. But I do believe in climate change. vI believe that it’s real. And I believe that it is impacted by man. And I believe it is cyclical and that we are going through one of those cycles,” he continued. “If we are just going to stick our head in the sand, we’re going to miss the boat, we’re not going to have an opportunity to be involved at all.” WHITE HOUSE INTERVENED TO GRANT ‘QUASI-REGULATORY AUTHORITY’ TO FOREIGN GREEN GROUPS In December, Carter, who also serves as a vice chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus, traveled to COP28, the annual climate summit hosted by the United Nations. While U.S. representation at U.N. climate conferences has historically been dominated by Democrats and federal officials like President Biden’s climate czar John Kerry, Carter said the event presented an important opportunity for conservatives to join the conversation. For example, the Georgia Republican said COP28 created progress on advancing a pathway for future nuclear energy permitting, adding that Democrats acknowledged during the summit that they are beginning to favor an expansion of nuclear. During the summit, the Biden administration signed a pledge alongside more than 20 other nations to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. TOP HOUSE COMMITTEE PROBES JOHN KERRY’S COORDINATION WITH ECO GROUPS PUSHING COAL POWER SHUTDOWN Among Carter’s priorities leading the Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee will be to advance nuclear, a zero-carbon and dispatchable power source that faces a burdensome regulatory regime in America. Reforming nuclear regulations has long been a heated topic on Capitol Hill, but it has recently been pursued in bipartisan legislation. In addition, Carter said another top priority of the subcommittee under his leadership will be clawing back green energy supply chains from China. “We need to beat China. Let’s face it, China is the OPEC of critical minerals. My district is one of the few districts in America that is mining critical minerals right now, and we need to do more of that,” he told Fox News Digital. “This attitude of ‘not in my backyard,’ we’ve got to get past that. We’ve got to have reliable supply chains.” “The Biden administration’s approach to this is dismal at best,” Carter continued. “It has not been good at all. They have really just turned a blind eye to the fact that we are too dependent on China and our adversaries for essential, critical minerals that we’re going to have to have.” EXPERTS RAISE ALARM AFTER BIDEN STRIKES AGREEMENT WITH CHINA TO SHUT DOWN FOSSIL FUELS He said major green energy projects in the U.S., such as the $5 billion Rivian electric vehicle plant in his home state of Georgia, are reliant on pro-growth policies such as those in Georgia. He also noted a wide range of environmental regulations potentially blocking the U.S. from competing on producing and processing critical minerals required for green energy. “We’re not doing the processing here in America, they’re doing it over in China. And they don’t have regulations in China, they don’t have an EPA in China. They just do whatever they have to do to get [it] done,” he continued. “Of course, we’re more responsible than that and so are our allies. So, that’s why we’ve got to take a balanced approach to this. But if we don’t do processing here in America, then we’re not going to be successful.” In addition, Carter said fossil fuels shouldn’t be demonized, adding that they will be vital to ensuring the U.S. can adopt green energy sources like solar and wind. And he noted that U.S. carbon emissions have significantly declined in the past several years, thanks in large part to technological progress made by the fossil fuel industry. “I believe in an all-of-the-above type energy strategy,” Carter told Fox News Digital. “Listen, I wish we could go to total solar and total wind and be done with it. But we can’t, and it’s naive of anyone to think that we can. But if we take an all-of-the-above type energy strategy, then I think we can achieve what everyone wants to achieve.”
How doctors in Gaza persevere amid Israel attacks
“No doctor wakes up in the morning and says: ‘I’m going to amputate a child’s leg without anaesthesia.’” “You don’t want to watch children suffer,” Dr Amber Alayyan with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, tells Al Jazeera. The measured cadences of the voice of the charity’s deputy programme manager for Palestine suggests just how inconceivable it is for her, as a doctor and a mother, to cause pain to a patient and to a child. Yet it is the moral conflict her colleagues in Gaza face daily, minute by minute, as they try to treat unprecedented numbers of injured people flooding into the Gaza Strip’s barely functioning hospitals. Your natural instinct is to take care of people… to protect people. … You’ve been trained over and over and over and over for years. by Dr Amber Alayyan As doctors in Gaza are forced to make split-second decisions on who to save and who to let die, on whose pain to relieve and whose they do not have time to, it is that innate instinct and their Hippocratic oath that is assailed by decisions they never thought they’d have to make. Burdened with personal losses and struggling to operate under unrelenting Israeli bombardments, this is the story of how medical workers are fighting to keep Gaza’s healthcare system going. How Gaza’s healthcare system has been destroyed It is nearing midnight in Gaza and Mohamed S Ziara, a Palestinian doctor, is on a WhatsApp call to Al Jazeera. His tone is soft and unaffected by the rumbling explosions and pop of gunfire that can be heard in the background. The plastic surgeon is working 12- to 14-hour shifts, six days a week at the European Gaza Hospital (EGH) in Khan Younis, where he treats up to 15 cases a day. Ziara describes the healthcare situation as “catastrophic”. “It doesn’t match anything I’ve seen before, even with previous escalations and war,” says Ziara, who has worked during Israel’s assaults on Gaza since 2014. He has been posting about Israeli attacks near the EGH and the conditions inside on his Instagram account. The widespread damage caused by Israeli attacks since October 7, following Hamas’s surprise attacks on Israel, has led to a shortage of medical staff and supplies and an urgent need for fuel, electricity and water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 15 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional – nine in the south and six in the north. From October 7 to November 24, there were 74 Israeli assaults on health facilities with 30 hospitals attacked in Gaza, according to Insecurity Insight, a humanitarian association that collates data on threats facing people in dangerous environments. Northern Gaza, including Gaza City, has borne the brunt of attacks on the healthcare sector, but as the war has progressed, previously designated safe areas south of Wadi Gaza have come under Israeli fire. The map below summarises the Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare sector during the first seven weeks of the war. The hospitals that have been attacked most often include: al-Shifa Hospital – attacked 12 times al-Quds Hospital – attacked nine times Indonesian Hospital – attacked nine times Nasser Hospital – attacked three times Insecurity Insight documented at least 26 other hospitals from across the Gaza Strip that were attacked by Israeli forces over the same period. These repeated attacks came during an Israeli order on October 13 that instructed all 22 hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south within 24 hours. The WHO described the order as “impossible to carry out” and “a death sentence for the sick and injured”. Israel’s raid on al-Shifa Hospital One of the first hospitals to come under fire was al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, located in the Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City, where Ziara worked before EGH. “I remember that I was watching TV, and the spokesman of the [Israeli] army was asked twice about the possibility of bombing the hospital, and he replied that everything is possible,” Ziara says. Israeli soldiers flanked al-Shifa Hospital on three sides on November 15 and then stormed the complex after Israeli accusations that it was serving as a Hamas command centre. “We have never seen any military action or military activity inside the hospital,” Ziara says, adding that he thought the threat to the hospital was merely propaganda from the Israeli army. “We never thought that they would reach the hospital and that we’d evacuate patients and the injured.” Several doctors, including Norwegian Mads Gilbert, who has worked in Gaza for several years, have said they had not seen any evidence of military activity at the hospital during the war. After the storming of al-Shifa Hospital, a number of United Nations missions were carried out in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to evacuate patients and healthcare workers. The same exercise has been attempted more recently at hospitals in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south – namely Al-Aqsa, Nasser and EGH – due to ongoing hostilities nearby. Ziara says he witnessed drone attacks on al-Shifa Hospital. “They were shooting at people. They injured many. They shot a missile at the hospital garden and killed about four people staying there who had evacuated or were refugees,” he says. This satellite image shows al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding neighbourhood in Gaza City on November 11, 2023 [Maxar Technologies via AP] Healthcare attacks and ‘war crimes’ Assaults such as those seen on al-Shifa Hospital have raised questions about the legality of attacks on healthcare facilities. International humanitarian law, based on the Geneva Conventions, stipulates that hospitals are considered “civilian objects” and receive de facto protection. Despite that prohibition, Israel has continued to target healthcare structures and workers. “The UN has been very clear that hospitals, civilians and healthcare workers should be protected, and we continue to call for their protection. They’re not a target,” Dominic Allen, the UN Population Fund’s representative for Palestine, tells Al Jazeera. Human Rights