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The European Hospital, in southern Gaza, is a dangerous place to be. 

The facility is the only remaining hospital east of the city of Rafah and an Israeli military operation has come perilously close to its doors.

It was a hazardous time then, for three British medics to begin a short placement, arriving at the hospital just a few days before the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) began its campaign.

Now they are unable to leave.

A patient is treated at the European Hospital, in southern Gaza.
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A patient is treated at the European Hospital. Pic: Fajr Scientific

We managed to speak to one of these doctors – an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from London called Mohammed Tahir.

He volunteered with a non-profit medical charity called Fajr Scientific and I asked him to describe what he has been seeing.

“In the last few days, with the intensifying of the bombing in Rafah, we are getting many blast injuries here,” he said.

“People literally, their limbs and their bodies torn to shreds. Children with mutilated faces, kids whose limbs we’ve had to amputate because of the complexity of the injuries.”

Gaza latest: Israel’s use of weapons provided by US likely violated international law – report

Mohammed Tahir, an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from London who is working at the European Hospital in southern Gaza. For Sparks piece on Fajr Scientific and three British doctors working in the hospital.
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Pic: Fajr Scientific

“When did you arrive? What date did you enter Gaza?” I asked.

“I’ll be honest with you. I mean, right now, night, day, (the) days of the week have all evaporated.

“I work from morning until night, every day. Sometimes I finish at 4am, so I’ve lost track of time. I can’t even remember what day (it is). It was circa around one and a half weeks ago.”

He accepts that he was taking a risk by travelling to Gaza when he did.

Mohammed Tahir, an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from London who is working at the European Hospital in southern Gaza. For Sparks piece on Fajr Scientific and three British doctors working in the hospital.
Image:
Pic: Fajr Scientific

“Before coming here, I was warned by several friends, do not go now, because the Rafah invasion is imminent, and you are going over a very dangerous time,” he said.

“But I was anxious, a little bit scared to come, but then I thought if not me, then who?”

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Dr Tahir has dealt with anxiety – but has had to grapple with personal distress.

This is the first time he has worked in a war zone and the nature and intensity of the work has been overwhelming.

The surgeon says he has dealt with 150 cases in the past 10 days.

Mohammed Tahir, an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from London, arrived at The European Hospital in south Gaza on a short placement just a few days before Israel began its campaign in Rafah.
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Pic: Fajr Scientific

“(There was) an airstrike, the parents were killed, there were two small children, one of whom we tried to resuscitate, but he was covered in burns from head to toe and we called it, he died,” he said.

“His sister by the side was also covered in wounds, massive wounds to our forehead. Her skull was exposed and she had a skull fracture too.

“And I’m there looking at these two children wondering: ‘What did they do?’.”

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Israel Rafah incursion explained

The staff at the European Hospital do their best to keep people alive – but their workplace has also become a refuge.

“This is a refugee camp,” said Dr Tahir.

“It is a hospital within a refugee camp. You have people, children and women sleeping on floors, in corridors, on stairs, even with makeshift tents inside, tents outside too.”

Read more from Sky News:
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There is a perception that the presence of foreign medical doctors offers a measure of security.

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“There are a lot of families here looking for shelter because they know outside of the perimeter of this hospital they can be killed,” he said.

“When they see us as people from foreign (medical) missions, they feel that we are, in effect, human shields for them against Israeli airstrikes because we are their protection.

“And when they hear that we have to be evacuated or that there is a whisper (of that), the entire population in the hospital are gripped with fear and panic that they are about to die.”

When I put it to the surgeon that the Israelis have described their operation in southern Gaza as a limited, counter-terrorism operation, he took 4 or 5 seconds to respond.

“What I see on the floor in real life is very different to that.”

The European Hospital, in southern Gaza, is a dangerous place to be. The facility is the only remaining hospital east of the city of Rafah and an Israeli military operation has come perilously close to its doors. People have taken refuge there.
Image:
People have taken refuge at the hospital

The European Hospital, in southern Gaza, is a dangerous place to be. The facility is the only remaining hospital east of the city of Rafah and an Israeli military operation has come perilously close to its doors. People are taking refuge at the hospital.
Image:
Tents have been set up on the grounds of the facility

One thing Dr Tahir cannot do is leave.

When the IDF captured the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing on the first day of their operation, they shut down the main humanitarian route in and out of the territory.

I asked the surgeon how he felt about it.

“I feel for my family, not for myself. I know that they are terrified,” he said.

“I know that my friends and family are really concerned for my wellbeing.

“And I think it hurts them more than it hurts me… but the intensity of the feeling that I have because of the tragedies that I am seeing, because of the suffering I’m seeing it.

“I just feel like it cannot stop. I have to keep going and going and going. There is no time to rest, there is no time to sleep. I don’t have that luxury right now.”

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

More on Cop29

Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

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US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

More on Russia

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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