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Saturday, 18 November 2023

At a Gaza hospital, a midwife brings new life and volunteers tend to the dead

Samah Qeshta, a Gaza midwife, shared this recent picture of herself with her newborn baby and older children. Handout via REUTERS

A Palestinian medical worker holds a newborn child at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Nov. 2, 2023.

Naya, meaning “deer or “flute” in Arabic, is a baby born into war. She emerged by Caesarian section at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, in southern Gaza.

Samah Qeshta, 29, cradled her newborn and surveyed the tiny face and raven-black eyes. Then Qeshta wept, because, she later recalled, she was ashamed that “circumstances forced me to deliver at a time when I am unable to provide her with anything.”

Though a midwife herself, Qeshta is facing the same acute shortages as most other Gazan mothers. She came to the hospital with a few diapers, a packet of baby milk and a bottle of water to mix it. Shortly after giving birth, she was in a bed by the window with Naya when a house nearby was hit in an airstrike.

“I was scared and held her tight,” Qeshta said. “I was afraid that any moment we could be bombed. All I thought was to hold her close.” She later learned from hospital nurses that people died in the strike.

The Al-Helal Emirati maternity hospital where Qeshta gave birth is in the town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. It lies about 30 kilometres south of Gaza City and 20 kilometres south of an evacuation line that Israel declared. People here feel besieged, too: Towns like Rafah are being hit by airstrikes.

They – like hundreds of thousands of Gazans – have now moved south, to the town of Khan Younis, about 6 km from Rafah. It’s in Khan Younis, at the Nasser Hospital where Qeshta works, that a Reuters reporter first met the midwife as she delivered babies. A short distance from the maternity ward is the mortuary, where director Saeed Al-Shorbaji records the dead.

Midwife Samah Qeshta cares for a newborn at Nasser Hospital earlier this month. The boy is one of twins, born to the Abu Odah family. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Under blockade in Khan Younis

Khan Younis is a dusty town, dating back to the 14th century, that merges with a sprawling refugee camp by the same name. The camp was set up for Palestinians who fled when Israel was founded in 1948, and it is operated by the United Nations. Together, the town and camp stretch from the border fence with Israel to close to the Mediterranean Sea.

By night, there are explosions; some distant, others close by. By day, a constant hum like a revved-up 2-stroke engine comes from the drones – Israeli unmanned planes that circle high above, appearing here and there beneath the cloud.

And there are dangerous shortages. Israel’s blockade of fuel, power and most food to Gaza has been tight. Water is in short supply. On Friday, the U.N.’s World Food Program said civilians face the “ immediate possibility of starvation” due to a lack of food supplies.

At least 50’ dead in Israeli strike on Gaza school

The head of the UN’s Palestine relief agency (UNRWA) said it had received “horrifying” images and footage of scores of people killed and injured in an attack on “another” UNRWA school in the north of Gaza, Al-Jazeera cited AFP as reporting.

“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

Tel Aviv waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for intensified Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

According to the Palestinian authorities, at least 11,500 Palestinians, including over 4,700 children and 3,155 women, have been killed and over 29,200 others injured in the Israeli strikes.

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, UN-run schools in the refugee camps have become a place of shelter for many escaping the relentless humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of individuals are seeking shelter at these places while Israel entered offensive mode to eliminate the Hamas Islamist group.

Reports suggest that there is a scene of widespread casualties at the refugee camp, with medical teams working to evacuate the wounded.

Expressing condemnation, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, decried the strikes on UN-run schools in Gaza.

Lazzarini spoke of the severity of the situation, stating that he had witnessed "horrifying images and footage of scores of people killed and injured" in one of the agency's schools that had been providing shelter for thousands of displaced individuals. Lazzarini took to X, formerly Twitter, to assert, "These attacks cannot become commonplace; they must stop."

The Israeli army has struck the UN's Al-Fakhoura school in an attack that has left 50 people dead according to an official from Gaza's health ministry.

Earlier on Saturday the Israeli army gave the Al-Shifa hospital one hour to evacuate as concerns persist over doctors' ability to move critically ill patients southwards without the use of ambulances.

According to the United Nations, some 2,300 people remain at the hospital, many of whom are displaced persons seeking shelter from other areas of north Gaza.

The evacuation order comes as Israeli airstrikes continue to devastate central and southern Gaza, which the Israeli army has designated a non-combat zone where Gazans can flee.

Two Israeli airstrikes that struck the city of Khan Younis this morning killed 28 people, with dozens injured and buried under the rubble. Another airstrike in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza killed six, with many others wounded.

Since the start of Israel's siege and bombardment of Gaza, 12,000 people have been killed, including over 5,000 children.

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Go green, go broke - ‘Clean energy’ fails a basic economics test

Russian Market is a project by a financial blogger, Swiss journalist and political commentator based in Zurich. Follow him on X @runews.

The once-glorified clean-energy stocks are now facing their darkest days, plunging the industry into a financial abyss that threatens America’s ambitious environmental aspirations. The much-touted green revolution is looking more like a red alert as the sector hemorrhages tens of billions in market value.

Sure, we’re told that hundreds of billions is still pouring into renewable energy projects, despite the fact that the stock market seems to have declared a resounding “no thanks” to these ventures. The iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund), the poster child for the industry, has nosedived by over 30% this year and a whopping 50% since the dawn of 2021.

Not to be outdone, specific sectors are getting their fair share of punishment. The Invesco Solar ETF is down over 40% in 2023, while the First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF is witnessing losses of about 20% this year and a grim 40% since January 2021. It seems the wind has been knocked out of their sails.

Blame it on rising interest rates, the industry’s newfound nemesis. These higher rates have not only increased costs but also put a damper on consumer enthusiasm, leading to a nosedive in stock valuations for companies that once promised a green utopia but are now struggling to turn a profit.

Solar companies such as SolarEdge and Enphase Energy are feeling the burn as demand for their products dwindles. Meanwhile, wind energy giant Orsted is singing the blues, with shares plummeting after revealing potential multibillion-dollar write-downs on its offshore wind projects in the US.

In Germany, after the Nord Stream sabotage, because, you know, energy geopolitics and straightforward plans always go hand in hand, a whopping 77% of skeptics are shaking their heads, expressing disbelief that the nation will magically conjure up 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030. I guess turning skepticism into solar power hasn’t quite hit the mainstream yet.

Switzerland, the poster child for phasing out nuclear power, is now flexing its green muscles by entertaining the idea of keeping nuclear plants running longer, because who needs a clear exit strategy when you can just extend the atomic party until 2040?

Biden’s green dreams are melting faster than his favorite ice cream in the sun

In the US, the demise of two New Jersey wind projects is just the tip of the iceberg, with inflation, sky-high interest rates, and a supply chain in shambles throwing a wrench into the gears of Joe’s climate ambitions. Despite a whopping $369 billion in federal aid from his climate law, clean energy projects are dropping like flies. Even the postponement of a Kentucky EV battery plant by Ford and General Motors trimming their EV plans couldn’t escape the economic tempest. It seems the only thing rising faster than hopes for a clean energy revolution is the cost. But hey, who needs affordable, reliable energy when we’ve got grand climate goals, right? Biden’s green plans are becoming a chilling reality check, and it’s not just the polar ice caps feeling the heat.

It’s ironic, isn’t it? Not too long ago, clean energy was hailed as the savior of our planet, but now it seems the green agenda is drowning in a sea of red ink. The S&P Global Energy index, once a shining star, has seen its value halved since 2020 – a spectacular fall from grace.

Fast forward to the present, and we witness the mighty green stocks taking a severe beating. Despite the EU and US governments offering billions in tax credits and subsidies to support the so-called green transition from Russian oil and gas, investors are losing confidence faster than you can say “renewable.”

The S&P Global Clean Energy Index has experienced a gut-wrenching 30% freefall in 2023, with the biggest quarterly outflow of $1.4 billion. The once-booming sector now holds a 23% decline in total assets under management, a far cry from its heyday just a few months ago.

Blame it on the current economic climate, they say – high interest rates, soaring costs, and supply chain woes are the villains of this melodrama. And let’s not forget China, the puppet master of the solar supply chain, flooding the market with cheap alternatives, undermining the EU’s dreams of a local green market.

As utility stocks struggle to convert to green energy, the sector’s operating margins are squeezed.

The final nail in the coffin? NextEra Energy Partners cutting its growth target by half, sending shockwaves through the renewable industry. I dismiss the sell-off as overblown, but the damage is done, and confidence in renewables has hit rock bottom.

So, what’s the moral of this green tale? It turns out, going green is not just about saving the planet; it’s an expensive affair. As the renewable energy stocks hit rock bottom, analysts are left wondering: is it time to buy, or is the green dream truly over?

In a deliciously ironic plot twist, Greta Thunberg is currently sizzling in the crucible of criticism for daring to support Gaza. It seems our climate crusader is now facing a cancel-culture bonanza, much like the tweet she swiftly deleted – you know, the one prophesying Armageddon and cautioning that climate change might just “wipe out humanity” unless we magically halt fossil fuel usage by the grandiose deadline of 2023. The irony is thicker than Beijing’s smog, folks.

Seems like even the green warriors can’t escape the unforgiving reality of the market.

Rex Murphy: Go green or go broke — the Liberals' new budget does both

Like another in the fellowship of the great minds of our day, I pay no attention to monetary policy. Or to fiscal policy.

And what is a budget but a massive tool of that latter? Budgets get as much attention from “communications advisers” — the most empty phrase and occupation of our time — as they do from … people who might know something about the economy. Most likely more. Besides, budgetary promises do not stand up in time, at all.

You want an example? Recall.

In 2015, Justin Trudeau “looked straight at Canadians” (his phrase) and in that soft, hushed, mellow tone he struggles to adopt when he’s about to burst from the magma force of his urgent sincerity, promised — “being honest the way I always have” — that by 2019 (four years back for those who are counting), Canada would have a “balanced budget.”

Trudeau in 2015: "I am looking straight at Canadians and being honest the way I always have. We said we are committed to balanced budgets, and we are. We will balance that budget in 2019" It is now in the year of our Lord 2023. And our Canadian deficit is an admirable — impressive by the finest standards — more than $40 billion. Four years off target. Forty billion plus in the red. And the national debt — well that’s on a rocket somewhere far up in space.

So pay no attention to budgets. In politics, they are screenplays for movies that will never get made. Kind of like “tree-planting ” boasts (two billion promised, 10 million planted), if you want another example.

There was one part of the budget mildly worth paying attention to — the commitment (how they love that word in this context) to fighting global warming. Chrystia Freeland, with nary a scuff on her new finance minister’s shoes, projected something like $21 billion to keep the world from burning up on her watch. Just what we need.

I wonder how close that comes to the amount Germany just pledged to hand over to Qatar for natural gas. It signed a multi-billion contract mere months after being driven out of Canada because there was “no business case” — as per our green PM — for the same deal here.

Here’s a line that wasn’t in the budget I didn’t listen to. If you turn down revenues that can be produced from natural resources that you have, and spend revenues on dream projects you do not yet have, you probably should not be in finance or business. A portfolio in arts, or perhaps heritage.

Under this mesmerized government, green is god. Which ignores the present-day world (see Russia and Germany), the realities of the Canadian economy, and already existing illustrations of sublime and costly folly.

Germany went mad for green and, as just said, had to run to Qatar just to keep the home fires burning.

Ontario went mad for green, drove up electricity and fuel costs, cancelled gas plants, shut down coal — and then — had to subsidize the people for the huge household costs these same demented green policies caused. It’s still subsidizing them in the green wasteland left by Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynn. Go green; go broke. And look foolish in the attempt.

Go green; go broke. And look foolish in the attempt

Gerald Butts was the chief adviser to McGuinty during that golden period. He “owns” the vinegar “success” of Ontario’s green dreams. He went from there to Ottawa, where he could pour the same advice into more powerful and certainly more eager ears, already attuned to hear the siren call of green apocalypse and a beautiful, Edenic, net-zero new world.

Trudeau himself is — if such is possible — even more green than he is feminist, and has had around his high cabinet table the most febrile green zealots — outside of an Elizabeth May celebration dinner hosted by David Suzuki — it is possible to congregate.

So quelle surprise, as our French-Canadian citizens say, that the budget lists numerous more billions to toss down the same vain and failed alleyway?

Canada, being the linchpin and only guardian against existential global warming, must spend, spend, spend on green. What are deficits, what are debt, in the face of a total planetary extinction?

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Friday, 17 November 2023

In Gaza, Ahmad lost his family then his legs to Israel’s bombing

Ahmad Shabat and his uncle Ibrahim Abu Amsheh at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

Deir el-Balah – In the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the little boy locks his eyes on his uncle’s face.

“Juice,” he says.

His maternal uncle, Ibrahim Abu Amsheh, complies, leaning forward to carefully insert the straw in the little boy’s mouth.

That was one of the rare words that the little boy, three-year-old Ahmad Ibrahim Shabat, has said since his legs were blown off in an Israeli air attack on Monday.

His uncle Ibrahim said Ahmad is not fully aware of what has happened to him.

“He doesn’t know he lost his legs,” the 28-year-old said. “He keeps asking to go outside for a walk.

“He’s in a lot of pain, and the hospital only has Acamol [paracetamol], which you take if you have a headache not if you’ve lost both your legs.”

Abu Amsheh tends to his nephew Ahmad in the ICU of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

Ahmad is one of the earliest victims of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. His family’s home in the northern town of Beit Hanoon was directly targeted by an air raid on the first day of Israel’s assault, killing his entire family except his two-year-old brother, Mahmoud.

“I had called my sister Diana’s house, and she told me they were getting ready to leave,” Abu Amsheh recalled. “As soon as I hung up, we heard that her house had been targeted, killing all of them. Ahmad’s parents, older brother Mohammed, his grandparents, his uncles, and aunts. All gone.”

When Ibrahim went to Beit Hanoon to bury his family, he found out from neighbours that Ahmad had been taken to the Indonesian Hospital, alive.

“The force of the blast threw him in the air and he landed in one of the neighbour’s yards,” Ibrahim said. “I took him back with me to Sheikh Radwan, where I had evacuated to with my family.”

But a day later, they were forced to move again, after a house right next door to where they were staying was bombed. Spooked, they went to a United Nations-run school in the al-Nasr neighbourhood, but barely spent a night there before they were displaced for the third time.

“That morning, the Israeli military dropped leaflets on us saying that the school was not safe and for us to evacuate,” Ibrahim said. “So we went to another UN school called Abu Oreiban in Nuseirat refugee camp.”

Abu Amsheh, 28, lost his sister to an Israeli air attack on her home in Beit Hanoon on October 7, and his brother in another attack in Nuseirat refugee camp on November 13 [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

Israeli air attack

They spent a month at the school, and Ahmad grew very close to his other uncle Saleh, Ibrahim’s younger brother.

“Ahmad was very attached to Saleh, and the previous attacks made him cling to his uncle even more,” Ibrahim said. “He would wake up screaming and only be comforted by Saleh, who was going to be his legal guardian.”

Then came November 13.

Ahmad wanted to go to the shop with Saleh. As they walked out of the school, a series of explosions rocked the area. Ibrahim, still in the school, was among those who helped everyone run inside the classrooms to avoid being hit by shrapnel, until he realised his brother and nephew were outside the school.

“I ran out to see what happened to Ahmad and Saleh, and I saw Ahmad on the ground without his legs,” Ibrahim said. “I carried him in my arms and ran until an ambulance picked us up.”

At al-Awda Hospital, the doctors gave the little boy basic treatment before referring him to Al-Aqsa. Ibrahim looked among the wounded for his brother, but couldn’t find him. With dread mounting inside of him, he asked where the morgue was.

“I unwrapped the shroud from the body closest to me and saw his face,” he said, as he started sobbing quietly. “Saleh was still young, only 26 years old. He had just gotten engaged. We buried him at sunset.”

Ahmad Shabat, age three, spent three hours on the operating table [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

Long road to recovery

In the hospital in Deir el-Balah, Ahmad spent three hours on the operating table.

Dr Ahmad Ismail al-Zayyan, the orthopaedic surgeon who administered his case, said he arrived in terrible shape, with both legs severed from above the knee.

“We’ve seen from other cases of amputee children, some of whom survived and others who did not, that the type of weapons used by Israel has melted bones and connective tissue,” al-Zayyan said.

In the long run, Ahmad’s troubles are far from over, al-Zayyan said, and his biggest struggle may be getting fitted properly for prosthetics.

“His balance will also be affected since the amputation is above the knee,” he said. “And he’ll have muscle atrophy because his body still has a lot of growing to do.”

Al-Zayyan said he hopes Ahmad will get the care he needs outside Gaza. “We don’t have the resources for prosthetic parts in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “We also lack surgical instruments and anaesthesia.”

Ahmad Ismail al-Zayyan, orthopaedic surgeon at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

‘Live like other children’

In the ICU, Ahmad lies on his back, what remains of his legs heavily bandaged and splayed. Ibrahim, who has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter himself, watches him tenderly.

“This boy has experienced so much,” he said. “Ahmad survived, but he is practically like the living dead. He’s barely had time to recover from the attack on his home that killed his family.”

Ahmad was a cheeky boy and loved to play, but now he is riddled with pain and fear. He used to ask for his mother but doesn’t anymore.

“We tell him his mother loves him very much and that she’s in heaven now,” Ibrahim said, tears running down his face into his black beard.

“I wouldn’t wish on anyone what we’ve been through.”

The uncle, who will raise Ahmad as his own son, hopes the child will be able to have a semblance of a normal life.

“He had barely started nursery,” Ibrahim said.

“I know he won’t be the same boy he was before all of this began, but I just want him to have as normal a life as possible.

I implore anyone who can to help us get him prosthetics so he can live like other children.”

A nurse checks on Ahmad Shabat, whose legs were blown off in an Israeli air attack in Nuseirat refugee camp on November 12, 2023 [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

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Laman

Saturday, 18 November 2023

At a Gaza hospital, a midwife brings new life and volunteers tend to the dead

At least 50’ dead in Israeli strike on Gaza school

Donate for Palestine

Go green, go broke - ‘Clean energy’ fails a basic economics test

Biden’s green dreams are melting faster than his favorite ice cream in the sun

Rex Murphy: Go green or go broke — the Liberals' new budget does both

Go green; go broke. And look foolish in the attempt

Friday, 17 November 2023

In Gaza, Ahmad lost his family then his legs to Israel’s bombing

Israeli air attack

Long road to recovery

‘Live like other children’

Donate for Palestine

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