22
Fri, Sep

A girl looks out a damaged window at a house Israeli soldiers demolished at the Asker camp for Palestinian refugees east of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, early on August 8, 2023. The Israeli army demolished the house of Abdel Fatah Khroushah accused of an attack which killed two Israelis in the occupied West Bank at the end of February. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Starters

The escalating violence and illegal land takeovers by Israeli settlers have resulted in the displacement of almost 500 Palestinians from seven communities in the past 20 months. This distressing trend continues, with twelve families from the Ras At-Tin Bedouin community, located northeast of Ramallah, forced to flee their homes this week.

The situation has raised concerns among humanitarian organizations, with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) condemning the displacement.

Photo: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Starters

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has received distressing reports from its field teams detailing the violent eviction of displaced families from a settlement in Kabul. Approximately 280 families have been left homeless as a result of this demolition. Shockingly, during the traumatic evacuation process, two young lives, a 4-year-old and a 15-year-old, were tragically lost. Bulldozers were deployed early yesterday morning, reducing the camp to rubble by day's end.

This aerial view shows makeshift structures of people displaced by drought at the Ladan internally displaced people (IDP) camp in Dolow on May 1, 2023. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Starters

Statement by Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Secretary General, on the new global displacement figures.

“This has been a dark decade. Every year, the world watches the number of displaced people increase, and then does too little to protect and assist the displaced. There is a reason for the dramatic increase in refugees and internally displaced: we fail to prevent war and violence, and national and international leaderships fail in conflict resolution where we have protracted emergencies.

A seven-year-old girl pours water on her father’s head to help him relieve the summer heat. IOM, through its partners, regularly supplies water to IDP camps in northwest Syria. Photo Credit IOM

Starters

The Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), António Vitorino, is raising alarm over the scarcity of funding for humanitarian operations required to support millions of Syrians and their host communities in Syria and neighbouring countries.

Attended by the IOM Director General, the Brussels conference taking place on 14-15 June, represents a significant opportunity to collectively show solidarity and commitment to the people most affected by the Syria crisis.

Man in Cox's Bazar refugee camp. Photo: Jessica Wanless / NRC

Starters

The excruciating new cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will have a deadly impact, warned the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

According to the World Food Programme (WFP) the UN agency has again been forced to make additional cuts to already dwindling food assistance due to critical funding gaps.

Photo: Abdulkadir Mohamed / NRC

Starters

A toxic mix of conflict, severe drought and devastating floods has forced more than 1 million people in Somalia to flee their homes in just 130 days – a record rate of displacement for the country.

The figures recorded by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), show that conflict was among the main causes of displacement between 1 January and 10 May this year, while over 408,000 people were displaced by floods sweeping across their villages and another 312,000 people were displaced by ravaging drought.

LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Starters

Afghanistan remains one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters as Human Rights Watch in a recent report on Afghanistan said that two-thirds of the country's population is food insecure, reported Tolo News.

"Afghanistan has largely disappeared from the media, but it remains one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters," said the HRW report.

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets launched from Gaza City, on May 10, 2023. Israel's army and Gaza militants traded heavy cross-border fire on May 10, with 22 Palestinians killed over two days amid the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal territory in months. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Starters

Statement by the Norwegian Refugee Council on the recent escalation in the Gaza Strip:

“Renewed conflict in Gaza shows that the international community has failed in preventing Israel from using unnecessary lethal force against civilians and ensuring basic needs for the population it occupies,” said Caroline Ort, NRC’s country director for Palestine.

Column

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has arrested Gonzalo Lira, a US-Chilean national living in Kharkov, on suspicion of pro-Russian sympathies. This is the second time Lira has been taken into custody by the SBU. Lira, a writer and filmmaker who moved to Kharkov several years ago and is married to a Ukrainian, was previously detained in April 2022 but was released after a week, with no charges pressed.

More News

Books in the Finnish bookstore in Helsinki. LEHTIKUVA

Afghan burqa-clad women beg for alms in the middle of a street during rainfall on the outskirts of Kabul on March 30, 2023. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

A quiet grocery store in the city of Khost. Afghanistan’s economic collapse and the impact of international sanctions has cascaded a range of major challenges for local businesses, which stand empty amidst people’s inability to purchase goods. Photo: Ingebjørg Kårstad/Norwegian Refugee Council

Mother kissing her child in Gaza, Palestine.

Typography

The undersigned Members of the Finnish Parliament are deeply disturbed by the high numbers of civilians, in particular children, killed and injured in the latest escalation of violence in Gaza from 5-7 August 2022.

According to the UN Human Rights Office the ‘pre-emptive’ strikes by Israeli army in Gaza killed 48 Palestinians of whom 22 were civilians, including 17 children. Of 360 Palestinians reported injured, nearly two-thirds were civilians, including 151 children, 58 women and 19 older people.

Palestinian armed groups also fired hundreds of indiscriminate rockets into Israel injuring 70 Israelis and causing damage to residential and other civilian structures in Israel.

Whereas we condemn all violence and indiscriminate attacks as a breach to the international humanitarian law, we stress that there is no possible justification for children being killed or injured. The seriousness of the killings of Palestinian children is still aggravated by the fact that they are committed by an occupying power that has, in contravention of international law, besieged Gaza for fifteen years, causing humanitarian crisis and endless suffering to the people living on the area.

We call on the international community to carry out a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into recent incidents and to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions to ensure that these violations do not continue.

We also reiterate our call on all parties to the conflict and on the international community to support a just resolution to the conflict that is firmly rooted in international law and respect of human rights.

Helsinki, 22 August 2022

Ms. Veronika Honkasalo, Chairperson, MP – Left Alliance
Mr. Suldaan Said Ahmed, MP – Left Alliance
Ms. Aino-Kaisa Pekonen, MP – Left Alliance
Ms. Heli Järvinen, MP - The Greens
Mr. Jussi Saramo, MP – Left Alliance
Mr. Hussein al-Taee, MP - Social Democratic Party
Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, MP - Social Democratic Party
Ms. Satu Hassi, MP - The Greens
Mr. Johan Kvarnström, MP - Social Democratic Party
Ms. Pia Lohikoski, MP – Left Alliance
Ms. Mai Kivelä, MP – Left Alliance

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