Jazeera

Former US diplomat Nabeel Khoury says Israel’s latest attack on southern Lebanon follows the same flawed logic and pattern as its assault on Gaza.

Tens of thousands of people in Sudan have fled el-Fasher and the advance of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the Darfur region. Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reports from a camp for displaced civilians in the neighbouring Northern State where people are in desperate need of assistance.

Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, talks about the mixed messaging coming from the White House over the Gaza ceasefire.

Oxfam’s Chris McIntosh explains Israel’s war on Gaza has left Palestinians there with little purchasing power, as aid trucks remain stalled at the border despite a ceasefire.

Soldiers from a Madagascar army unit have declared support for the youth-led anti-government protests, urging police to disobey ‘unlawful orders.’ President Andry Rajeolina says an ‘attempted illegal seizure of power’ is under way.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud and Ibrahim al Khalili followed Palestinians making their way back to northern Gaza after a ceasefire deal was announced.

Sami Al-Arian, a professor at Istanbul Zaim University, talks about the Gaza ceasefire deal and the key conditions required for it to hold.

Al Jazeera Director General Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal Al Thani says ‘protecting journalists is protection of the truth.’

The Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network has stressed the importance of protecting journalists working in conflict zones and called for more solidarity between media organisations and human rights groups.

In his first public address since he was appointed director general of the Doha-based network last month, Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal Al Thani said on Wednesday that Al Jazeera has made the protection of journalists a firm priority and the network conducts training and mentorship of its journalists to ensure this.

“The press has never been a party to the conflict, but has been a tool for getting information to the people,” Sheikh Nasser told the Conference on The Protection of Journalists in Armed Conflicts, a two-day event held in Doha, Qatar.

He said it is critical to ramp up measures to safeguard journalists in war zones. “Otherwise, war crimes will remain unwritten” about.

He called for the implementation of human rights regulations and enhanced solidarity among media organisations and human rights organisations.

“Silencing free speech will not stop the truth,” Sheikh Nasser said. “Protecting journalists is protection of the truth itself.”

‘Journalists are being killed’

The first day of the conference comprised several sessions, where speakers included journalists who had reported in conflict zones, such as Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, who was wounded in an Israeli attack on Gaza in late 2023.

Dahdouh has campaigned to raise awareness of the unsafe conditions for journalists working in Gaza since Israel launched its war on the Palestinian territory on October 7, 2023.

At least 300 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza during the two-year war, according to the Shireen Abu Akleh Observatory. This includes 10 journalists from Al Jazeera.

“Journalists are being killed and genocide is being committed against them,” Dahdouh told the conference.

Other speakers included legal experts and workers associated with nonprofit organisations that work for the safety of journalists, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). A spokesperson for the International Criminal Court (ICC) also spoke at one of the sessions.

The discussions focused on attacks against journalists and the imprisonment of journalists in Gaza and around the world.

Several speakers throughout the day highlighted the importance of treating journalists like civilians. Speakers added, however, that international law provisions that lay down safeguards for civilians might not apply similarly to journalists. They pressed on the need for international laws that specifically focus on safeguarding journalists and media organisations.

“The civilian can go away from the combat field but the journalist has to stay. To assimilate the war journalist with the civilian is not right,” Omar Mekky, the regional legal coordinator for the Near and Middle East Region for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said.

Speakers also asserted the importance of countries stepping in and putting pressure on the governments that are targeting journalists.

The conference will continue for its second day on Thursday.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reflects on the two years since Israel’s war on Gaza began, sharing a personal story of displacement, loss, and suffering.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told Al Jazeera the Gaza ceasefire plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump presents “challenges and opportunities” when it comes to ending the war and preventing the displacement of Palestinians.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays challenged UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about why he has not referred to Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide. On Tuesday a UN commission of inquiry concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili saw the aftermath of an Israeli attack on one of the tallest residential towers in Gaza City. The Israeli military has levelled at least 50 multi-storey buildings in recent weeks.

Fatma Ali and her children find hope after reuniting with husband and father Shamoun Idris amid Sudan’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.

A Sudanese father who had lost contact with his wife for 18 months has been reunited with his family after recognising them in an Al Jazeera news report.

Shamoun Idris lived with his wife, Fatma Ali, and their children in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, until the city became a battleground between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in August 2023, a few months after the war in Sudan started.

As the war intensified and shelling increased near their home, the couple decided that Fatma would try to escape Khartoum with their children. Shamoun would stay behind and protect the house as RSF forces advanced, looting homes and attacking civilians.

“I decided that they should leave,” Shamoun told Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, who reported on the initial story featuring Fatma and their children. “I stayed behind to guard the house. We thought the war would end soon and they would be able to return.”

But soon after, and with the violence in the capital increasing, Idris was also forced to flee. In the process, both Shamoun and Fatma lost their phones and were unable to contact each other, with no knowledge of where the other was.

The couple became two of the 7,700 Sudanese people searching for missing relatives, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“I kept telling the children he was somewhere, just unable to reach us, but, in fact, I was completely at a loss, and I was wondering what really happened to him. I couldn’t focus on the children or on him being missing,” said Fatma.

Reunion

Fatma and the children eventually reached Sennar, south of Khartoum, where they sheltered in a school.

Meanwhile, Shamoun searched for them in vain, until he eventually saw an Al Jazeera news report from February about missing relatives.

In the report was his wife, Fatma.

“I said, ‘Man, this is my family!’ I said, ‘I swear, it’s my family.’ It was such a huge surprise,” Shamoun said.

As Fatma listened to her husband tell the story of their recent reunion, she began to cry, overwhelmed with the emotion of Shamoun’s absence.

She said her hope now is for the family to rebuild their lives. “I hope we can go back and return to our previous life. I knew my children would be OK as long as I was with them, but for their father to be gone, that was a real problem.”

“Our children went to school and were very happy. Not one of our children was out of school; they even went to private schools, not public ones,” she said. “Now, it’s been more than two years since they saw the inside of a classroom, except as somewhere to shelter.”

Since being reunited, Shamound has found a small plot of land in Sennar, where he has built a little shack for the family.

It has no door to keep out rain, wind or sun, but thousands of other displaced people in Sudan do not have any shelter at all.

For now, Shamoun and Fatma are grateful for the little privacy and freedom it provides, and for being together.

Video shows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posing for photographs while placing a note in the Western Wall alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rubio is reportedly ‘seeking answers’ from officials after Israel’s strike on Qatar upended efforts to end the Gaza war.

The sound of an Israeli bomb interrupted Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud during a live broadcast as he explained that fighter jets have been striking buildings in Gaza City every 10–15 minutes since this morning. Israel says its forces are “increasing the pace of attacks” on the city.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reports from inside the main UNRWA warehouse in Gaza City, showing the completely empty shelves where food aid used to be stored. The UN officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday with Israeli-imposed food insecurity and starvation having reached critical levels.

A Hamas source told Al Jazeera the group has agreed terms for a ceasefire in Gaza, as a step towards ending the war. The plan calls for a 60-day pause in fighting and the release of half of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Al Jazeera’s Hamda Salhut reports.