التصنيف: أخبار

Pregnant women are having C-sections without anaesthetic while others are forced to use scraps of tents in place of period products, aid workers say.

Babies are being “delivered into hell”, without their mothers having any anaesthetic, according to UNICEF communications specialist Tess Ingram.

With more than 1.9 million Gazans displaced since 7 October, a tent “city” of almost two square miles has been set up in Rafah, south of the strip.

No food or medical supplies are allowed to enter the territory, including sanitary towels, tampons and contraceptive pills that could stop or delay periods.

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Riham Jafari, an ActionAid worker based in Bethlehem, said: “Imagine having to manage your period with no period products, toilet paper or soap, and no chance of being able to wash yourself.

“This is the reality for hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Gaza right now.

“Some women cut part of towels to use on their periods – this is not healthy.

“They are using parts of the tents or fibres. They cut off part of it to use as pads and some of them are using their extra clothes as pads.”

Using unclean materials as sanitary products can cause a risk of infection and potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.

Ms Ingram added: “Seeing newborn babies suffer while some mothers bleed to death should keep us all awake at night.”

Women and girls have made up roughly 70% of the 25,000 people killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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One ActionAid Palestine worker, who asked to remain anonymous, added: “There was no water available for me to get clean during my period. I had no sanitary pads for my own needs.”

A woman called Adara, who was forced to flee her home with her four children, said they “suffer a lot whenever we want to go to the bathroom” and have to “stand in line for a long time”.

With clean running water incredibly sparse in Gaza, people there are falling well short of the 15 litres needed per person per day.

According to estimates from the UN’s agency for Palestine, only one of the three water pipelines between Israel and Gaza is functional, and there is only one toilet per 486 people.

ActionAid is calling for a ceasefire to allow more aid into the territory.

Two explosions and a fire were reported at a site run by Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer on Sunday.

The blasts, where a gas tank is thought to have exploded, were reported at Novatek’s chemical storage facility at Ust-Luga port, 100 miles southwest of St Petersburg, according to local media.

A statement given by the company to media outlet RBC said they were the result of “external influence” and that operations at the site had been paused.

A separate local news outlet reported two drones flying towards St Petersburg on Sunday morning. Kyiv has not commented.

Yuri Zapalatsky, head of Kingisepp, the district where the port is based, said there were no casualties, but the area has been placed on high alert.

Sky News could not independently verify the reports.

According to the Russian defence ministry, there has been no drone activity reported in the district, but four Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Smolensk, Oryol and Tula regions.

There was also a Ukrainian drone shot down on the outskirts of St Petersburg on Thursday.

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Over the border in Ukraine, 25 people died on Sunday after shelling at a market in the city of Donetsk.

Twenty people, including two children, were also injured in the strike in Tekstilschik, according to occupying Russian authorities in the region.

Today we launch a new show – The World with me, Yalda Hakim.

From Monday to Thursday, between 9pm and 10pm, we’ll be sharing with you the most important stories of our times – exploring not just the headlines of the day but also what’s happening behind them.

And what a time to be launching our programme. This is a moment of conflict, division, polarisation, and distrust. At times, it feels as if the idea of truth itself is vanishing.

I hope that we can, together, rise above all of that.

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This show will take the time to dive deep into the events and forces that are shaping our world – affecting all of our lives and the future of our loved ones.

I’ll be doing this by talking to world leaders, asking tough questions and holding them to account. But also, we’ll be hearing from ordinary people – giving voice to those who too often are voiceless.

I want this show to be a conversation and to inspire dialogue. We’ll be having discussions that you might have with friends or family at the dinner table.

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Each night we’ll have a panel to get into the topics of the day – to understand them, to debate them, and to put on the table all the perspectives we need to hear.

Of course, I’ll be helped by the world-class journalists we have at Sky bringing me their original journalism from both live in the studio and wherever they might be in the world.

I can’t wait for the first show. There’s a lot to talk about. We’ll see you tonight at 9pm.