WHO: Around 80,000 people die on migration journeys since 2014

December 19, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Migrants depart by boat from Petit-Fort-Philippe Beach and head towards United Kingdom in Gravelines, France on January 17, 2025. 

[Joanna Chichelnitzky – Anadolu Agency]

Nearly 80,000 people have died while trying to migrate since 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN agency said that “Most remain unidentified, leaving families in endless uncertainty.”

The announcement was made on Thursday to mark the International Migrants Day, observed on 18 December.

The organisation stressed that no journey should end in tragedy” and called for “safe, regular, dignified migration.”

In its statement on X, the World Health Organization added: “Let us protect their rights to health, prevent more deaths.

Nvidia to build $1.5B AI campus in Israel, calls it “second home”

December 18, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

In this photo illustration, Nvidia logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen in Ankara, Turkiye on November 28, 2023.

 [Berke Bayur – Anadolu Agency]

Nvidia has confirmed it will establish a major new R&D campus in Kiryat Tivon, northern Israel, affirming the country’s role as a strategic “second home” for the company. The multiyear project represents an investment of several billion shekels and is anticipated to have a substantial impact on local employment, housing, and regional growth.

Construcgtion to begin in 2027, the campus is scheduled to open in 2031. Spanning 22 acres, it will feature roughly 160,000 square meters of building space, integrating laboratories, collaborative hubs, and extensive green areas. Inspired by Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, the design is intended to drive innovation internally and bolster Israel’s broader technology ecosystem.

NAKBA II

Israel carries out ethnic cleansing in West Bank, displacing 44,000 Palestinians

December 18, 2025

Middle East Monitor 

Israeli soldiers close the main entrance to the camp, preventing citizens from reaching the demolition site, as Palestinians react to the demolition decision of Israeli army for 25 more buildings in the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarm, in Tulkarm, West Bank on December 15, 2025.

 [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

Israel has been accused of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the illegally occupied West Bank, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in a sweeping military operation aimed at permanently altering the demographic and geographic reality of the territory, according to a detailed report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Since the launch of “Operation Iron Wall” in January 2024, Israeli forces have forcibly evacuated over 44,000 Palestinians, including 22,000 from the Jenin area and 22,000 from Tulkarm and its Nur Al-Shams camp alone, under the pretext of dismantling “terrorist infrastructure.”

In reality, local officials, aid agencies and residents describe a policy designed to render key refugee camps uninhabitable and eliminate the right of return for generations of displaced Palestinians.

The demolitions have particularly targeted the Jenin and Nur Al-Shams refugee camps, where multi-storey buildings have been flattened and critical infrastructure destroyed. According to UNRWA’s West Bank director Roland Friedrich, 48 per cent of all homes in Nur Al-Shams have been damaged or destroyed, making return impossible without full-scale reconstruction.

“This is a serious violation of international law, with grave humanitarian and political consequences,” said Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin. He told Haaretz that some 800 buildings—nearly 40 per cent of all structures in the camp—have been levelled. “Thousands of families have been living in complete uncertainty for months, scattered across villages and towns, unable to return,” he said.

In Tulkarm’s Nur Al-Shams camp, the situation is similarly dire. Governor Abdallah Kamil said that at least 9,000 people had been displaced, and 1,514 families lost their homes entirely, while a further 2,200 homes were partially damaged, most of them now uninhabitable.

“These are not security operations,” Kamil insisted. “This is an intentional policy by the Israeli government to eliminate the camps and prevent the displaced from returning.”

The Israeli military has continued to issue new demolition orders, with plans announced this month to raze 25 additional buildings in Nur Al-Shams, some outside the official boundaries of the camp. Israeli forces have blocked access to displaced residents trying to protest the demolitions and raised Israeli flags inside the camp, a move seen by locals as a deliberate provocation.

One displaced resident, Abu Anas, told Haaretz that “there’s no explanation for the destruction except collective punishment.” He noted that no armed fighters had been seen in the camp for months.

Observers say the Israeli government’s goal is not security but demographic engineering—an attempt to erase the Palestinian refugee presence in key areas of the occupied West Bank.

Several Palestinian officials explicitly describing the displacement as ethnic cleansing. Kamil says that the purpose is to “alter the geographic and demographic reality” and eliminate the refugee question altogether.

These developments have drawn comparisons to the Nakba of 1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland and more than 500 villages destroyed to make way for the establishment of the Israeli state.

Israel’s current military strategy, human rights advocates warn, is part of a wider apartheid policy rooted in Jewish supremacy, where the displacement of Palestinians, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Jerusalem, is justified as a matter of “demographic balance.”

UNRWA’s Friedrich has warned that unless halted, Israel’s demolition campaign could result in permanent displacement for tens of thousands. “This is not about security,” he stated. “This is about long-term control.”

“This is not just a war on buildings,” said Abu Ahmed, displaced from Jenin. “It’s a war on our right to exist.”

Over $2.5 million raised for Syrian man who stopped Bondi Beach attacker

GO FUND ME 

Rudaw

19-12-2025

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - More than $2.5 million has been raised for Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Syrian-born Australian who tackled and disarmed an attacker during the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia that killed 15 people.

GoFundMe campaign initiator Zachery Dereniowski visited al-Ahmed in hospital on Wednesday, presenting a cheque totaling $2,533,585. “Ahmed, the world loves you,” Dereniowski wrote on Instagram.

Al-Ahmed, a Muslim father of two and fruit shop owner, was hailed as a hero after footage of him confronting the attacker went viral. He was shot twice in the arm by a second gunman during the incident.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited al-Ahmed at St George Hospital in Sydney on Tuesday, praising his bravery.

“It was a great honour to meet Ahmed al-Ahmedi. He is a true Australian hero,” Albanese said. “He represents the best of our country.”

Ahmed has also been praised by international leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who described him as “a very, very brave person.”

“We’re seeing an outpouring of love for Ahmed al-Ahmed following his heroic actions at Bondi Beach,” GoFundMe said.

The attack occurred around on Sunday during a Hanukkah celebration attended by about 1,000 people.

Police said the suspects were a father and son; the father was killed at the scene, while the son is being treated in hospital.

Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the shooting was a “terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State.”

‘Stand with each other:’ Global hero Ahmed calls for embracing humanity after Australia shooting

December 19, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Ahmed al-Ahmad, a Syrian man who disarmed a gunman during a shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, at the St. George Hospital where he is being treated in Sydney, Australia on December 16, 2025. [Governor-General of Australia – Anadolu Agency]

Global hero Ahmed Al Ahmed called for “forgetting everything bad” and embracing humanity in the wake of Bondi beach shooting in Australia, Anadolu reports.

“Stand with each other, all human beings,” Ahmed said in a message to people across the world who donated to him some 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.65 million). “And forget everything bad (in the past).”

Ahmed made global headlines and won hearts across the globe for his courage after he pounced on one of the two shooters last Sunday along Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia’s largest city by population and the capital of New South Wales.

Fifteen people were killed in the attack, and one of the two shooters was shot dead while the other is critically wounded and being treated in hospital.

Ahmed’s act was hailed for saving lives.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared Syrian-born Ahmed “the best of our country.”

Ahmed, who moved to Australia in 2006 and is father of two daughters, was shot four to five times in his left shoulder and is receiving treatment at Sydney’s St. George Hospital.

Canadian social media influencer Zachery Dereniowski handed Ahmed a check of $1.65 million in public donations raised through GoFundMe on Thursday, according to a video of their meeting shared on Instagram.

“(Do) I deserve it?” Ahmed asked Dereniowski, who is also known as MDMotivator. “Every penny,” Dereniowski stressed.

Some 43,000 people made donations to support Ahmed and his family.

“Keep going to save lives,” Ahmed said in his message.

“When I… save(d) the people, I… (did) it from the heart,” Ahmed said. “Everyone was happy,” he said. “They deserve to enjoy (things). And it’s their right.”

Australia is “best country in the world,” said Ahmed, 43.

According to GoFundMe, the donations page for Ahmed saw “an outpouring of love… following his heroic actions at Bondi Beach.”

“You are an absolute hero,” Dereniowski told Ahmed, recovering in his hospital bed.

US intelligence chief faces criticism over linking Sydney attack to claims of ‘Islamising Australia’

December 19, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

  


Tulsi Gabbard [Adam J. Dewey – Anadolu Agency]

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has faced wide criticism after linking the terrorist attack in Sydney to what she described as an attempt to “Islamise” Australia.

Writing on her account on X on Tuesday, Gabbard said: “The tragic Islamist terror attack against those at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia sadly should not come as a surprise to anyone.”

She added: “This is the direct result of the massive influx of Islamists to Australia. Their goal is not only the Islamization of Australia but the entire world—including the United States.”

Gabbard went on to say: “Islamists and Islamism is the greatest threat to the freedom, security, and prosperity of the United States and the entire world. It is probably too late for Europe—and maybe Australia. It is not too late for the United States of America. But it soon will be.”

Thanking the US President, she concluded by saying: “Thankfully, President Trump has prioritized securing our borders and deporting known and suspected terrorists, and stopping mass, unvetted migration that puts Americans at risk.”

In response, artificial intelligence expert Farooq Zafar, an American of Pakistani origin, cited information published by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He commented: “This is a false claim, Director Gabbard. Your own administration and many federal government agencies confirm that Muslims make up 1 per cent of domestic terrorists in the United States, while 75–80 per cent of terrorist attacks are attributed to white men.”

Opinion...

The unmasking of an illusion: Britain’s reckoning and America’s last stand

December 19, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Palestinians during a demonstration on the anniversary of Britain’s Balfour Declaration in West Bank city of Nablus on 2 November 2017 [JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty Images]

by Jasim Al-Azzawi


The masks are off. Eight decades of American support to maintain the myth of a virtuous Israel have finally come crashing down. September 2025 marked a new stage in this brutal saga when Britain, the original sinner behind the Balfour Declaration, took a tangible step of admitting its guilt by recognising the State of Palestine.

Britain’s move was not a diplomatic gesture. In reality, this marked a pivotal moment in history. As confessed by Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, “We are acting with ‘the hand of history on our shoulders,’ mindful of Britain’s central role in the 1917 Balfour Declaration,”

One power stands alone in political delusion. The United States, which puts the support of evangelical Christian Zionists above human rights, remains the frantic defender of a nation that, according to international bodies, acts in a manner consistent with genocide. This policy keeps this region in a state of constant instability and renders America an accomplice to a “war without limits,” according to UN officials.

The first grand illusion: ‘A land without a people’

A comforting fiction was offered in place of the truth: “Jews fleeing from persecution settled in a desert land, ‘a land without a people for a people without a land.” This comforting fiction allowed Western countries to sponsor this colonialism without being forced to assess its moral implications or shoulder its guilt.

Palestine was not a land devoid of people. At the time of the Balfour Declaration, the indigenous population already accounted for more than 90 percent of the population. A living culture with a productive peasantry and a history dating back thousands of years existed in this society.

The phrase encapsulates Terra Nullius ideology—the colonial mentality where lands not worked in a “modern” way were deemed to be empty and ripe for colonization. In his 1974 speech at the UN, Yasser Arafat said: ‘It pains our people greatly to see this legend proliferate: “Their homeland was a desert until they were forced to make it bloom with the efforts of settlers from other lands,” a land without a people.”

The Balfour Declaration: Colonial arrogance

Lord Curzon, who sat in the 1917 British cabinet which authorized the declaration, alone predicted a future in which there would be “decades of Arab–Jewish hostility.” Curzon described this commitment “as perhaps the worst which has fallen to our lot in the Middle East and a striking contrast to our publicly declared principles.”

The colonial arrogance embodied in the Balfour Declaration is breathtaking. The document was issued on November 2, 1917, a whole month before British troops occupied Jerusalem on December 11, 1917.

As noted by Professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University: “This document not only gave this project the imprimatur of the preeminent international organization of its time but elevated a colonial ambition into a ‘legal document.”

The second grand illusion: Israel as “strategic asset”

The delusion that Israel is a strategic asset has reduced America’s foreign policy to its knees. The reality would be far more incriminating in pointing out that America had a liability in her obligations towards Israel because this relationship has precipitated a great measure of anti-Americanism in the world.

The USS Liberty: Contempt for American lives

The USS Liberty, a US Navy technical research vessel, was deliberately attacked on June 8, 1967, in international waters by Israeli troops, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171. The ship had a US flag painted on it, with its identification numbers prominently displayed. An inquiry conducted by Israel established that their naval headquarters knew of the vessel’s US identification at least three hours before the attack. Such an attack wasn’t a tragic mistake but a blatant act of betrayal by a self-proclaimed friend.


The Pollard Affair: Theft of America’s secrets

Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy intelligence analyst, delivered a variety of state secrets to Israel, including a ten-volume manual on NSA signal intelligence operations and the names of thousands of intelligence cooperators. Based on a 1987 CIA damage assessment, the US intelligence community thought a good part of this intelligence could have gotten into the hands of the Soviet Union. In 1998, Israel admitted paying Pollard.

The 1973 oil embargo

After President Nixon’s plea for emergency assistance of $2.2 billion to aid Israel during the 1973 October War, the Arab members of OPEC imposed an oil embargo, which led to a staggering increase in oil prices from $2.90 to $11.65 per barrel. Gasoline prices rose from 34 cents to 84 cents a gallon. The disastrous oil embargo plunged America into stagflation, with ripple effects that hurt the economy in the latter part of the 1970s.

Marshall’s prophetic warning: “The greatest living American” ignored

Secretary of State George C. Marshall strongly advised President Truman that “grave obligations” in a never-ending war with a hostile state were in store for America if a Jewish state were recognized. At a very contentious May 12, 1948, cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marshall, “whom Truman considers ‘the greatest living American, advised Truman very directly: “If the President were to follow Mr. Clifford’s advice, and if I were to vote in the election, I would vote against the President.”

Marshall stated, “The transparent dodge to win a few votes would not, in fact, achieve this purpose. The great dignity of the office of the president would be seriously damaged.”

The path forward: Breaking the unholy alliance

The bell rang. The world awoke. Yet the war without limits continues. The acknowledgment by Britain, in tandem with Canada, Australia, and more than 140 other nations worldwide, underscores that a philosophy of American exceptionalism cannot prevent the course of history.

Trump, the last holdout, puts the survival of his political fortunes and those of Christian Zionist evangelicals above the lives of an entire people and the moral credibility of the United States. As for those who have finally seen the light and those whose heads were in the sand but whose eyes have now opened, there can be only one course: an all-out struggle to make up for eighty years of misery and brutal injustice. While the exact timing is uncertain, history suggests the current unholy alliance will inevitably end.

Marshall was right. The alliance he rejected has produced precisely the despair and destruction he foresaw. The question is whether successive U.S. administrations will continue to disregard his counsel and recognize that sound foreign policy can never be made a tool of domestic politics.

History will hold in deep disgrace those nations and institutions that facilitated atrocities recorded by international and human rights bodies as crimes against humanity. The masks are removed; illusions have shattered. What remains is a moral reckoning that cannot be postponed or dodged.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Gaza commitments

Editorial 

Published December 20, 2025  

DAWN

QUESTIONS are again being raised about Pakistan’s possible contribution to the so-called International Stabilisation Force in Gaza, after reports in the media suggested the US wanted this country to commit troops.

The Foreign Office has said that Pakistan has not been asked to send personnel, nor has the country taken a decision yet. The issue resurfaced after reports began circulating that Field Marshal Asim Munir was due to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington in the near future, with Gaza deployment to feature in the talks.

The FO contradicted these reports, while a White House official also said no such meeting was on the cards. Earlier, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had said that Pakistan could not take a decision until the ISF’s terms of reference were clear, adding that disarming Hamas was “not our job”.

Perhaps it is time that the state took a decision about the ISF deployment. Like most grand schemes of the Trump administration, the Gaza plan is high on hyperbole, and low on substance. Critically, the US State Department’s reported vision for foreign troops in Gaza to dismantle “terrorist infrastructure” and decommission weapons “used by terrorists” — euphemisms for disarming Hamas — is incredibly problematic, especially for Arab and Muslim states.

Mr Trump’s scheme seeks to put Muslim states on a collision course with Hamas and other resistance groups, and attempts to do what Israel failed. It is our view that no Muslim state should be fighting Palestinian groups, essentially doing Israel’s dirty work. It is perhaps because of this unsavoury aspect of the Gaza plan that so many states have refused to commit troops.

As per reports, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states have all said that in the current conditions, they will be unable to send troops to the occupied Palestinian territory. Pakistan must not break with this consensus, and its own stated principles, by sending troops to confront Palestinian resistance groups.

The state has taken difficult decisions such as this in the past. For example, despite significant Saudi pressure, through the collective wisdom of parliament the state preferred neutrality and refused to commit forces to the war on Yemen’s Houthis. In hindsight, this was the correct decision.

Israel cannot be trusted, and has already indicated that it intends to remain in significant parts of occupied Gaza. Muslim and Arab states, thus, should not become accessories in the US-Israeli plan to perpetuate the occupation. Hamas is willing to lay down arms, but only if there is a visible pathway for a Palestinian state.

Tel Aviv abhors the idea of a viable Palestinian state, and the implementation of the ceasefire’s second phase looks doubtful. Pakistan should, therefore, stay away from any half-baked plans to commit troops to an occupied war zone.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2025

Over 1,000 patients have died awaiting evacuation from Gaza since July 2024: WHO

AFP Published December 19, 2025

Medics evacuate injured people and cancer patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024. — AFP/File



More than 1,000 patients have died while waiting for urgent medical evacuation from war-ravaged Gaza in the last year and a half, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the UN agency and its partners had “evacuated over 10,600 patients from Gaza with severe health conditions, including over 5,600 children” since the start of the war more than two years ago.

But he warned that “many more patients remain in Gaza awaiting evacuation to receive appropriate healthcare”.

Citing numbers from the health ministry in Gaza, Tedros said that 1,092 patients were known to have died while awaiting medical evacuation just between July 2024 and November 28, 2025.

“This figure is likely underreported,” he warned, calling on “more countries to open doors to patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored”.

“Lives depend on it.”

The WHO has previously estimated that more than 16,500 patients still need treatment outside of Gaza, while a top official with the charity Doctors Without Borders told AFP earlier this month the actual number was likely “three to four times that number”.

Up to December 1, over 30 countries had taken patients from Gaza, but only a handful, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, had accepted large numbers.

A US-sponsored ceasefire has halted fighting in Gaza, which began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

But the deal, in effect since October 10, remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.

Conversation

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

@DrTedros

Since October 2023,

@WHO

and partners have evacuated over 10,600 patients from Gaza with severe health conditions, including over 5600 children, each one in need of critical advanced treatment. Yet, many more patients remain in Gaza awaiting evacuation to receive appropriate health care. According to Ministry of Health, 1092 patients have died while awaiting medical evacuation between July 2024 and November 28, 2025. However, this figure is likely underreported. WHO calls on more countries to open doors to patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored. Lives depend on it.

12:00 AM · Dec 19, 2025

·

16.3K

Views

Together For Palestine’s charity single ‘Lullaby’ raises £70,000 in first week

The song debuted at number five on the UK Singles Chart, the highest-ever by an Arabic song.

Images Staff
Updated 20 Dec, 2025
DAWN


After their hugely successful concert at London’s OVO Arena that raised over $2 million for organisations working in Palestine, British collective Together For Palestine (T4P) is back with its next fundraising project — a reimagining of one of the most iconic songs of resistance to come from the occupied territory.

‘Lullaby’ and its music video released on December 12, with T4P requesting supporters to stream it as much as possible and buy it on iTunes and Amazon Music for themselves and as gifts for friends and family.

A week after its release, the song has raised £70,000 from sales, all of which is to be donated to Taawon, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Palestine Medical Relief Service, who are all working on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank.


The song is an adaptation of the Arabic song ’Yamma Mwel El Hawa’ (Mother, Sing to the Wind) performed by Palestinian and British singers. Artists credited on the single include Amena, Brian Eno, Celeste, Bastille’s Dan Smith , Kieran Brunt, Lana Lubany, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Mabel, Nadine Shah, Nai Barghouti, Neneh Cherry, Sura Abdo, TYSON, Yasmeen Ayyash and Ysee. They are joined by the London Community Gospel Choir. The cover art was made by Gazan painter Malak Mattar.

Speaking to The Guardian, Barghouti said, “It has a very special place for a lot of people,” adding, “It’s basically saying that I would rather die in dignity than live a life without freedom. That’s the main theme of the song, we want to live a dignified life that we deserve as Palestinians, where we can share the beauty of our identity.”Cover art for ‘Lullaby’ designed by Malak Mattar. Photo: Together 4 Palestine/Instagram.

T4p was hoping for the song to debut atop the British Singles’ Chart, it ended up at number five, carving out its place among an assortment dominated by Christmas songs. It the best performance ever by an Arabic song on British charts, the collective said.

The Arabic lyrics for ‘Lullaby’ are taken from the works of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. English lyrics for the single were penned by British songwriter Peter Gabriel.

The music video for the song has gathered over 100,000 views on YouTube and has been shot in Gaza and Jerusalem. With scenes showing people people taking part in everyday activities — boys skateboarding, girls brushing each other’s hair, people sitting by the beach — with the backdrop of destroyed buildings and displacement camps, it captures the spirit of resilience which defines the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom.

T4P has also released a recording of their November fundraiser on YouTube, with performances from Eno, Bastille, Benedict Cumberbatch and Saint Levant, and powerful speeches from figures such as journalist Mehdi Hasan and Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Palestine.

Cover photo: Together 4 Palestine/YouTube.