[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Over 38,000 women, girls killed in Gaza war by end of 2025: UN

Over 38,000 women and girls were killed in the Gaza war by the end of 2025, the UN estimated Friday, amounting to over half of the 71,000 deaths recorded by the territory’s health ministry. “Between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza -- the...

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Over 38,000 women, girls killed in Gaza war by end of 2025: UN

AFP
Geneva
Published: 17 Apr 2026, 20: 10

Smoke rises following explosions in Gaza City after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a U.S. plan to end the war, as seen from central Gaza Strip 4 October, 2025. Reuters

Over 38,000 women and girls were killed in the Gaza war by the end of 2025, the UN estimated Friday, amounting to over half of the 71,000 deaths recorded by the territory’s health ministry.

“Between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza -- the result of Israeli air bombardment and land military operations,” the UN Women agency’s spokeswoman Sofia Calltorp told a press briefing in Geneva.

“This includes over 22,000 women and 16,000 girls, amounting to an average of at least 47 women and girls killed every day.”

“On top of a staggering death toll, nearly 11,000 women and girls in Gaza have sustained injuries so devastating that they survive only with lifelong disabilities,” said Calltorp.

She said the war had reshaped Palestinian families, with tens of thousands of Gaza households now headed by women, who having lost their husbands, were now having to sustain their families “without income, without support, or access to essential services”.

Nearly a million women and girls have been repeatedly displaced during the conflict, while nearly 790,000 women and girls having experienced crisis-level or catastrophic-level food insecurity.

She said the Middle East war, which erupted with the US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February, had escalated the difficulties in Gaza, “as border crossing closures and humanitarian access constraints further reduce access to life-saving support”.​

 

[Saif]

EU highlights backing for Palestinians amid ME War

European backers put on a show of support for the Palestinian Authority and the push for a two-state solution Monday, as the US-Israeli war with Iran has dragged focus away from Gaza...

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EU highlights backing for Palestinians amid ME War
Agence France-Presse . Brussels, Belgium 20 April, 2026, 22:13

A Palestinian woman reacts towards Israeli security forces as they forcibly remove Palestinians trying to reach their land after Israeli settlers reportedly attacked local farmers working on their land, spraying them with pepper spray, near the Palestinian village of Halhoul, south of the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on April 17, 2026. | AFP file photo

European backers put on a show of support for the Palestinian Authority and the push for a two-state solution Monday, as the US-Israeli war with Iran has dragged focus away from Gaza.

The efforts to bolster the Palestinian Authority come as US president Donald Trump has side-lined it in his plans for Gaza and the ‘Board of Peace’ initiative.

‘We meet in the middle of a storm. But we cannot abandon the compass,’ said Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot at the start of a meeting of the ‘Global Alliance for the Two-State Solution’.

‘We must hold the course, because the Israeli-Palestinian issue is affecting the Middle East as a whole and also the rest of the world.’

The European Union is the biggest financial backer of the Palestinians and — despite having reservations about the Ramallah-based authorities — believes they have a key role to play in post-war Gaza.

‘We can and must do more to ensure respect for human rights and accountability, to protect the Palestinian people and to put the two-state solution solidly on the table again,’ EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

Attending the Brussels conference, Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa said it was happening ‘at a moment defined by both immense tragedy and a narrow, but real opportunity to move from war toward a just and lasting peace’.

Mustafa insisted that post-conflict Gaza remained an ‘integral part of the state of Palestine’ and that governance should eventually be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

The United States in October struck a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas aimed at ending the Gaza war.

In January, Washington announced that the ceasefire had moved into its second phase under the peace plan brokered by Trump.

This phase envisages the disarmament of Hamas and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The plan also foresees that the daily governance of Gaza will eventually be handed over to a technocratic committee of Palestinians.

The show of backing for the Palestinians, comes as the position among some European states has also hardened towards Israel over its war in Lebanon and the deteriorating situation in the occupied West Bank.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said his country will re-up its demand for the EU to suspend a cooperation with Israel at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers on Tuesday.

Diplomats said however that the move seemed unlikely to go through as other EU states were unwilling to risk impacting a truce deal in Lebanon announced last week.​

 

[Saif]

$71b needed over next decade to rebuild Gaza: UN, EU

More than $71 billion will be needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction in war-ravaged Gaza, according to an EU-UN assessment published Monday.

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$71b needed over next decade to rebuild Gaza: UN, EU
Agence France-Presse . Geneva, Switzerland 21 April, 2026, 04:01

More than $71 billion will be needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction in war-ravaged Gaza, according to an EU-UN assessment published Monday.

In their final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, the United Nations and the European Union said that more than two years of war in the Palestinian territory ‘has led to unprecedented loss of life and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis’.

‘Recovery and reconstruction needs are estimated at around $71.4 billion,’ said the assessment, developed in coordination with the World Bank.

Much of Gaza — including schools, hospitals and other civic infrastructure — has been reduced to rubble by a withering Israeli military offensive following the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

The final assessment determined that $26.3 billion would be required in the first 18 months to restore essential services, rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.

‘Physical infrastructure damages are estimated at $35.2 billion, with economic and social losses amounting to $22.7 billion,’ a joint statement said.

Gaza is under a fragile ceasefire agreed last October, which followed two years of devastating conflict sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people Israel, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures tallied by AFP. Palestinian militants also abducted 251 hostages.

The retaliatory Israeli military campaign has killed more than 72,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.

According to the RDNA, some 3,71,888 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than 50 per cent of hospitals in the territory are non-functional and nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged.

At the same time, 1.9 million people — nearly Gaza’s entire population — have been displaced, often multiple times, and more than 60 per cent of the population had lost their homes, the assessment found.

Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84 per cent, it said.

‘The scale and extent of deprivation across living conditions, livelihoods/income, food security, gender equality, and social inclusion, have pushed back human development in the Gaza Strip by 77 years,’ the assessment said.​