DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

Palestinians walking among the rubble in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Monday. As the Israeli tanks started rolling near Gaza City on Monday, the whispers began to spread — terrifying in their specificity, terrifying in their vagueness. I don’t want them to go through this.”Israel has warned for weeks that civilians in northern Gaza, including those in Gaza City, should evacuate south to avoid the violence. The New York Times has verified that the video was filmed this morning south of Gaza City on Salah Al-Din Road. “They call us directly and they warn us, telling us to leave and evacuate now, but the bombardments are relentless,” Ms. ElSayed told Al Jazeera.

Persons: Motaz, hunkered, Salah Al, Youssef Al Saifi, Hamda, Mr, Israel, ” Bilal Assabti, “, Daniel Hagari, Jamal Azzam, ”, Assabti, “ We’ve, Youmna ElSayed, ElSayed, Ms, Al Jazeera, Christoph Koettl, Neil Collier Organizations: Credit, New York Times, Times, Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Al Locations: Tel, Gaza City, Gaza, Palestinian, Turkish, “, ”, Al Jazeera

☆ The fate of many Gazans lies with the Rafah crossing, and Egypt.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

On the far side of the Sinai Peninsula, about a six-hour drive from Cairo through a largely empty Egyptian desert, the Rafah crossing is a dun-colored expanse of sand, concrete and not much else. Yet over the last three weeks of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Rafah has become the focus of heated negotiations, a place where many people, both powerful and powerless, have pinned their waning hopes. Egypt highlighted that role on Tuesday, when the government took reporters on a tightly controlled trip to Rafah. Aid trucks and army tanks lined the dusty road leading to the crossing. On Tuesday, 83 trucks arrived in Gaza, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.

Persons: we’ve, Mostafa Madbouly, Wael Abu Omar, David M, ”, Israel, ’, Madbouly, Mustafa Mouftah, Mr, Satterfield, Biden, Hiba, Iyad Abuheweila Organizations: Gaza’s General Authority, ”, European Union, U.S, United Locations: Cairo, Rafah, Egypt, Gaza, Israel, North, United States, Egyptian, El Arish

☆ Israel Says Al Shifa Hospital Conceals Hamas Underground Command Centers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To people in Gaza, Al Shifa is the biggest and most advanced hospital around — a lifeline, in normal times, and now a place of refuge from relentless Israeli airstrikes. But to the Israeli military, it is a threat, and, perhaps, a target. On Friday, hours before the Israeli military stepped up its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s mass killings of Israelis three weeks ago, it held a news conference in which it said that Al Shifa conceals underground command centers for Hamas — raising fears that the military was laying the groundwork for attacking the hospital. Hamas “does its command and control in different departments of the hospital,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, speaking in English and citing intelligence sources that he did not release. He displayed an illustrated map of the hospital marking what he said were several underground Hamas installations in the complex.

Persons: Al Shifa, Al, ”, Daniel Hagari Locations: Gaza, Al, —

“There is no time to mourn — more death is on the way,” Mr. Mansour said. “The answer to the killing of Palestinian civilians is not the killing of Israeli civilians,” Mr. Mansour said. Mr. Mansour, the Palestinian representative, also directly responded to a speech the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, made at the U.N. Security Council this week. Mr. Cohen called for Israeli hostages to be brought home, but “for millions of Palestinians, there is no home to go back to,” Mr. Mansour said. “For thousands, there is no family left to embrace.”“He told you how horrible it was to kill civilians,” Mr. Mansour continued, “just before justifying the killing of Palestinian civilians by the thousands.

Persons: Riyad Mansour, —, ” Mr, Mansour, ”, Gilad Erdan, Erdan, Mr, Eli Cohen, Cohen, “, Dennis Francis of Trinidad, Jordan, Ayman Safadi, ” Anushka Patil Organizations: United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian, Islamic, . Security, Arab Locations: Gaza ., Israel, Gaza, Islamic State, Iran, Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, Jordan

☆ Gazans Release Names of 6,747 People They Say Were Killed in Israeli Strikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Also excluded were people believed to be still under the rubble and considered missing, those buried without being admitted to a hospital and those whose deaths had not been recorded by hospitals, it said, raising the possibility that the toll could be far higher. The Ministry of Health, which is part of the Hamas government in Gaza but employs civil servants who predate Hamas’s control of the territory, did not say why it had decided to publish the names of the dead. But it came after Mr. Biden said that he had “no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.” He also added, “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.”Mr. Biden did not explain his skepticism. Others have cast doubt on the soaring death toll cited in part because the Health Ministry is, ultimately, overseen by Hamas, which took control of Gaza in 2007, after winning elections there and then battling the Palestinian Authority in the streets for control. The United States has long considered the Islamist political and militant group a terrorist organization.

Persons: Biden, ”, “, Mr Organizations: of Health, Mr, Health Ministry, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, United Locations: Gaza, United States

Israel intensified its bombardment of Gaza on Tuesday. As the death toll rose, President Biden said that the pace at which humanitarian aid was getting into Gaza was “not fast enough.”Vivian Yee, The Times’s Cairo bureau chief, reports on the aid crisis and other issues converging right now at the Gaza-Egypt border, and the key role that Egypt is playing in the war. The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Persons: Israel, Biden, ” Vivian Yee Organizations: New York Times Locations: Gaza, Cairo, Egypt

PinnedTrucks appeared to be moving through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza from Egypt, according to images shown on Egyptian state television. It was not immediately clear what the trucks were carrying, and there was no immediate comment from the United Nations, which has been pushing for movement. President Biden said on Wednesday that Israel had agreed to allow food, water and medicine into the blockaded Gaza Strip. Aid trucks have been stuck waiting at the crossing for days as the powers involved haggled over the details of getting the desperately needed supplies through. As the situation in Gaza worsens, Israel is readying a ground offensive in the territory.

Persons: Trucks, Biden, Israel, Judith Raanan, Natalie Raanan Organizations: Diplomats, United, United Nations, Military, Hezbollah Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, United Nations, Israel, United States, Qatar, Chicago, Lebanon, Iran, U.S

Quantity and flow of aidIsrael would like for 20 trucks to pass into Gaza, but won’t commit on future aid flows. “What is certainly undoubtedly needed is a steady flow of much bigger quantities of humanitarian assistance,” the European Union humanitarian aid commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said in an interview on Friday. is the biggest international aid donor to the Palestinians and has dozens of tons of aid on the Egyptian side of the border waiting to be delivered. Destination of aidIsrael wants aid to be delivered to southern Gaza, not northern Gaza where it had demanded last week that civilians leave, in an apparent run-up to a ground invasion. “Humanitarian aid should go to all places where there are people who need it,” Mr. Lenarcic said.

Persons: Janez Lenarcic, Israel, ” Mr, Lenarcic, Patrick Kingsley Organizations: Union, United Nations, United Locations: Israel, Gaza, Syria, United Nations, Jerusalem

Aid convoy trucks waiting at the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. As Gaza grapples with an escalating humanitarian crisis, the prospect of getting aid through the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt has taken on particular urgency. Hopes are high that the aid trucks would be able to cross into Gaza on Friday, according to European Union officials coordinating aid from the bloc. The American, U.N. and Egyptian officials are discussing who would carry out those cargo inspections, a person directly familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak about the delicate negotiations. “All of Gaza is waiting for the aid,” Wael Abu Omar, the spokesman for Hamas’s interior ministry, said Thursday.

Persons: Biden, Israel, ”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “, António Guterres, Martin Griffiths, Samar Abu Elouf, Wael Abu Omar, Israel readies, Abood, Okal, ” Iyad Abuheweila, Yazbek Organizations: Diplomats, European Union, World Health Organization, International Committee, The New York Times, Palestinian Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Arish, Palestine, Cairo, U.S, Samar, E.U, Palestinian American, Jerusalem

On one side of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza sit more than 100 trucks packed with desperately needed food, water and medical supplies. On the other wait more than 2 million Gazans now scraping by on dwindling stocks of basic human necessities. Officials and aid workers on Thursday were hammering out the logistics of opening the gates, saying that a U.N.-led deal had laid the groundwork to allow trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt, offering the renewed promise of relief to the besieged enclave. Aid organizations were told that the crossing would open on Friday morning, according to an aid official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal, officials said, includes the U.N. flag being raised at the crossing and international observers inspecting aid trucks before they enter Gaza.

Persons: Egypt — Organizations: Israel, Hamas Locations: Egypt, Gaza, Gazan, Rafah

☆ Across Mideast, Protests Erupt Over ‘Horrific Scenes’ in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In Morocco and Bahrain, they demanded a reversal of their government’s normalization with Israel, the country they consider responsible for oppressing their Palestinian brethren. In Lebanon, they pushed toward the United States Embassy, denouncing the superpower for enabling Israel’s brutality toward civilians in the Gaza Strip. In Istanbul, 80,000 people massed outside the Israeli consulate, including some who attempted to storm the building with stones, sticks, torches and fireworks. Thousands of protesters marched in grief, fury and solidarity across the Middle East on Tuesday night and Wednesday, after hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Some Arabs have berated their governments for failing to stand up to Israel in the past, but now those governments have nearly uniformly condemned Israel for the attack.

Persons: Israel, —, ”, Khaled Mhamdi, Biden, Israel’s Organizations: United States Embassy, Islamic, Al Ahli Hospital Locations: Tunis, Cairo, Oman, Muscat ., Morocco, Bahrain, Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, Istanbul, United States, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian, Al Ahli, Jordan, Egypt

☆ Residents See Signs of a Crackdown on Dissent After Libya Floods
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Authorities in flood-devastated eastern Libya appeared to be moving to muzzle dissent over the past week, arresting protesters and activists who have demanded accountability for what they say was a botched official response to the catastrophe. Torrential rains that burst two dams unleashed a flood on Sept. 11 that swept much of the coastal city of Derna and the surrounding areas out to the Mediterranean Sea, killing thousands. At least three people who either publicly criticized the government response or participated in a protest in Derna on Monday have been detained, according to witnesses and a relative. Aid workers and journalists also say the authoritarian administration that controls the eastern half of divided Libya, where Derna is, restricted access to the city for some. On Tuesday and Wednesday, internet and cellphone services in the city were also shut down, raising questions about whether they were deliberately severed by operators.

Locations: Libya, Derna

Now she stood near the Koutoubia Mosque, where she and other Marrakesh residents once prayed regularly, filling it during the holy fasting month of Ramadan or the days of Eid. Its square had been sealed off by metal barriers and police tape while experts assessed the damage, but no final diagnosis had been made, according to a government official. “I would love to go there and pray for the dead,” said Ms. Chuegra, “but I’m afraid it might collapse.”Elsewhere in Marrakesh, several museums, as well as the 16th-century El Badi Palace (often translated as “The Incomparable”) and the late 19th-century El Bahia Palace (“The Beautiful”) were closed to visitors. Experts have judged them to be in serious condition, and what appeared to be materials for shoring up the structure of El Badi were piled outside the palace on Wednesday. Residents said the apparently untouched or lightly cracked exterior walls of the homes hid serious destruction within.

Persons: “, ”, Chuegra, El Organizations: Residents Locations: Koutoubia, Marrakesh, Bahia, El Badi, Medina, guesthouses

Prioritizing U.S. national security interests over human rights, the Biden administration has approved $235 million in military aid for Egypt that it had withheld for the past two years because of the country’s repressive policies. The decision means that the United States will withhold just a small fraction — $85 million — of the $1.3 billion in military aid earmarked annually for Egypt. Explaining the decision on Thursday, State Department officials said the United States continued to have serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, which has been ruled by a repressive military government for a decade. The officials insisted that the approval of the $235 million does not reflect any less emphasis by the Biden administration on human rights. They noted that Mr. Blinken raised the cases of political prisoners and other abuses with Egyptian leaders during a visit to Cairo in January and will continue to press those issues.

Persons: Biden, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: State Locations: Egypt, United States, Washington, Cairo

Before the tourists came to marvel at the valley cradled in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, with its arid red slopes splashed with lush green and its deep-blue lake, the only living to be made was in olive farming, and not much of a living at that. Then came the modest little hiking lodge and the luxury resort, and the quasi-palace owned by Richard Branson and the inns set up by the people of the Ouirgane Valley, many of whom are members of the Amazigh ethnic group, more commonly known as Berbers. As more and more tourists discovered over the last few decades that the area was only an hour’s drive from the city of Marrakesh, the residents of villages like Ouirgane got jobs as guides for mule riding and hiking, drivers, waiters, hoteliers, restaurateurs and more. Many were able to move back home from Moroccan cities like Marrakesh and Essaouira, where they had taken jobs to support families in their villages.

Persons: Richard Branson, Ouirgane Locations: Atlas, Marrakesh, Moroccan, Essaouira

Hopes were fading of finding survivors alive in the rubble of a powerful earthquake that struck Morocco, as rescue efforts entered a fourth day on Tuesday with the death toll creeping up to nearly 2,900 people. The quake on Friday night with a magnitude of at least 6.8 was centered in the High Atlas Mountains, not far from the major city of Marrakesh. It was the most powerful to strike that area in at least a century, flattening fragile mud brick houses in the poor, rural villages that were the hardest hit. Morocco’s government has drawn some criticism for what has been seen as a sluggish response and a seeming reluctance to accept a deluge of offers to send in expert international teams and aid. But a government spokesman pushed back against that criticism late on Sunday, saying the authorities “were working to intervene quickly, effectively and successfully.”But King Mohammad VI, who calls the shots on all the most important matters of state in Morocco, and other authorities have released little information since the earthquake struck, updating casualty figures infrequently and making few public statements.

Persons: King Mohammad VI Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh

Like almost every building in Douar Tnirt, a village high up in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the home was a rubble of broken mud bricks, its broken doorbell insisting in vain that, even after a powerful earthquake, it was still a place where humans could live. Right after the quake struck on Friday, they started search and rescue with their bare, untrained hands, eventually adding shovels and picks. By Sunday, the government had sent neither emergency responders nor aid to Douar Tnirt and several other mountain villages visited by journalists for The New York Times. “They don’t want to see them, and, well, it’s about respect for the dead,” Ms. Id al-Houcine said. “If you don’t, you don’t.”

Persons: Douar Tnirt, ”, Zahra, “, Id, Houcine, Abdessamad Ait Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Douar Tnirt, Morocco, Marrakesh, Abdessamad Ait Ihia

When the earth seized his house and shook it late Friday night, Mohamed Abarada ran outside with his 9-month-old daughter in his arms. Mr. Abarada started digging with his bare hands. He dug by day with the help of neighbors and relatives, and by night with the flashlight on his phone. But on Monday, his daughter Chaima had yet to be found. With Mr. Abarada’s shoulder injured, his fellow searchers urged him to rest while they kept sifting through what had been his house — broken bricks mingled with broken wood, bamboo roofing, couch cushions, a satellite dish and teakettles, all the flotsam of family life.

Persons: Mohamed Abarada, Abarada, Chaima, Abarada’s, — Locations: Douar Tnirt

Others tried to comfort the wounded and grieving. A lack of ambulances and other transportation from Douar Tnirt meant that some people who had been pulled alive from the rubble over the weekend died before they could be taken to Marrakesh for treatment, residents said. Others waited for hours before being driven there by private transport. Some Moroccans expressed frustration with the pace of aid efforts. “Help was extremely late,” said Fouad Abdelmoumni, a Moroccan economist.

Persons: Tnirt, “, ”, Fouad Abdelmoumni, King Mohammed VI Organizations: Moroccan Locations: Casablanca, Marrakesh, Moroccan

Residents fleeing their homes in Moulay Brahim, a village near the epicenter of the quake, outside Marrakesh, Morocco, on Saturday. “The current tectonic stresses are therefore only part of the story,” Dr. Hubbard said. Historical earthquakes offer few answers to that question, according to Dr. Hubbard. Another challenging detail to study is an earthquake’s depth, Dr. Hubbard said. The shaking from a deeper earthquakes may not be as strong, but it can be felt across a wider swath of the surface, Dr. Hubbard said.

Persons: Judith Hubbard, ” Dr, Hubbard, ”, Jascha Polet Organizations: Saturday, Earthquakes, San, Cornell University, Geological, Seismological, California State Polytechnic University Locations: Moulay Brahim, Marrakesh, Morocco, Africa, Africa’s, Pacific

“They have nowhere they can go back to,” Mr. Choula said of his family, who spent Saturday night sleeping in a field with several other families. Some are rallying together to send funds and organize shipments of supplies for survivors while others are heading home to help on the ground. But Mr. Dehy said he had received dozens of calls from Moroccans who want to immediately send help home. For Moroccans watching from afar, “the only thing that helps them is knowing that they helped, that they didn’t just stand idly by,” Mr. Dehy said. Mr. Choula, 41, said he was gathering money to send home.

Persons: Youssef Choula, “, ” Mr, Choula, ”, Latif Dehy, Dehy, —, Ella Williams, Talat N’yakoub, It’s, “ I’ve, Williams Organizations: “, French, of, British Moroccan Society Locations: Gloucestershire, England, Marrakesh, Amizmiz, Moroccan, Avignon, France, Morocco, Europe, Britain, ”

With debris and fallen rock blocking roads to Moroccan villages hit hardest by an earthquake, many residents began burying their dead and foraging for scarce supplies on Sunday as they waited for government aid. That wait may be lengthy. The most powerful quake to hit the region in a century spared neither city apartment dwellers nor those living in the mud-brick homes of the High Atlas Mountains, but many in the remote and rugged areas of Morocco have been left almost entirely to fend for themselves. Survivors, faced with widespread electricity and telephone blackouts, said they were running low on food and water. Some bodies were being buried before they could be washed as Muslim rituals require.

Locations: Morocco

☆ For a Woman Bereaved in Quake, First Came Shock and Then a Wail.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First came the news, then shock and then a scream. In the small town of Amizmiz in southern Morocco on Sunday, a woman let out a piercing cry as she absorbed the information that her two brothers had been killed in the devastating earthquake. More than 2,000 people were killed in the quake that hit Morocco on Friday night, according to the authorities. Hardest hit was the province of Al Haouz, which is home to Amizmiz, where a small crowd was growing to comfort the crying woman. Once his aunt heard what had happened to her brothers, he said, she had attempted to get as close as possible to their town.

Persons: Al Haouz, Lacher Anflouss, Anflouss Locations: Amizmiz, Morocco, Al, Atlas

Rescuers in Morocco are racing to dig survivors out of rubble after the country’s worst earthquake in a century flattened homes and buildings, killing at least 2,000 people. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck in the mountains south of Marrakesh, an ancient city that is a popular tourist destination. The quake particularly devastated communities in the Atlas Mountains, where the full extent of the damage is still unknown. Debris has blocked some of the region’s roads, making it difficult for rescue crews to reach remote communities. Frantic rescue effortsIn some remote areas, people sifted through debris with their bare hands to search for survivors.

Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh

The earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday night hit near Marrakesh, a popular tourist destination, sending both residents and visitors scrambling for safety. “We didn’t know if we had to stand up, to sit down, to run,” Mr. Ait Chari said. Ms. Lorang and hundreds of others found refuge in a courtyard, where some brought out rugs and blankets to sleep. “It was very chaotic.”Mr. Ait Chari, the tour guide, said he was supposed to pick up more clients on Sunday but was unsure flights would be maintained. Many people were still in shock, he said, but there had also been “great solidarity,” as residents cleared roads.

Persons: “, Jen Lorang, ” Ms, Lorang, “ I’ve, Mr, Ait, ”, Jean, Baptiste Guinet Organizations: Big, ”, UNESCO, Heritage, Tourism, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh, Ait Chari, Massachusetts, Seattle, San Francisco, ” Morocco, Agadir, ”, Taroudant

Search resuls for: "Vivian Yee"

25 mentions found