The three column, six inch-deep headline on page 1 of the Daily Telegraph caught my eye: “Doors open to thousands more skilled migrants.”

Given the anti-immigrant rhetoric I had heard in Rome and elsewhere in Europe, the headline was refreshing. Even more noticeable was the name of the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, the third-highest ranked member of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet who had reversed policy with the statement which formed the headline.

The 48-year-old son of Pakistani migrants who started business with a 500 pound bank loan had already established his “clubability” with the Conservative Party when he became Managing Director of Deutsche Bank.

Of comparable agility in the political race is the high profile Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, of the Labour party. He is only 41 but has already graduated through a stint in the cabinet as Transport Minister. “I am the first Muslim in Britain to have attended cabinet meetings,” Khan said with pride.

One of the obstacles in the way of Donald Trump making a state visit in 2017, a banquet with the Queen et al, was the Conservative Party’s very bipartisan objection: How can we host a US President who has imposed restrictions on citizens of Muslim countries? “We have a Muslim mayor and therefore a state visit by Trump is out of the question.”

“There are two Muslims in this country who are positioned to make a bid for the Prime Minister’s post,” said Lord Meghnad Desai. He was chairing a discussion on “India at 70: Nehru to Modi” in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords. Instantly a question surfaced: Can a Muslim nurse such aspirations back home where he has a history for a 1,000 years?

Last year, at a similar seminar at King’s College, London, someone pointed to the presence of four Muslims in the English cricket team. This time I find that even the ever-present Moeen Ali, with a beard longer than W.G. Grace’s, is not in the squad. This waxing and waning is itself proof of a consistent quest for merit. It is not just a blanket upward mobility that Muslims have acquired: A process of distillation is taking place.

The post-9/11 war on terror which distorted most democracies by transferring extraordinary powers to the Deep State did not leave Britain unscathed. But persistent reliance on the Rule of Law has kept prejudice from taking root at an institutional level. The brief travel I have undertaken from London to Manchester has been something of an eye-opener.

A distinguished psychiatrist with the National Health Service married to my sister has been bed-ridden with a stroke he suffered three years ago. The care he has received in hospitals has to be seen to be believed. He is under 24/7 observation. The four very English “carers” who visit him round the clock have virtually become members of the family. It would be malicious to put it down to the aromatic cuisines my sister rustles up every time the carers arrive.

One evening I was invited to a “All Faith”, post-Iftar talk on a theme which surprised me because of its incongruity: “Wave of Populism in Europe”. It was all very graceful.

Earlier, in London, I had seen Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the local Rabbi and Priests of various churches breaking bread with their hosts at a “street Iftar Party” outside Finsbury Park mosque. The enthusiastic white, English participation in the event was heartwarming.

The war on terror with its random targets did cast the Muslim in an unfortunate image, particularly during the Tony Blair years. But excesses of those years also filled the ordinary people with a sense of guilt and compassion.

This somewhat exclusive focus on the Muslim in Britain must not obscure the overall south Asian profile in the country. A recent study produced a very negative image of Pakistanis among the public. A total of 1,668 British adults were asked last month to indicate the extent to which Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis made a positive or negative contribution to life in UK. The image of Indians was by far the most positive. 25 percent of those asked thought that Indians made a positive contribution. When positive and the negative figures were placed side by side for Bangladeshis and Pakistanis their score was -4 (minus four) and -3 (minus three), respectively.

Obviously proportionate to their population in the country, there are fewer Muslims in the high aspirational bracket than there are Indians, mostly Hindus in diverse careers. This imbalance can be traced to India’s social history. The majority community took to western education in late 19th century itself while Muslims remained anchored to feudal nostalgia and their rich Urdu culture.

I, in my earlier years, have seen this country rattled by Enoch Powell’s anti-immigrant speech in 1968, exactly 50 years ago: “Like the Roman, I see the Tiber foaming with blood.” The Liberal press reached out for Powell’s jugular and for a while Powellism appeared to be receding. But soon enough the country experienced another bout of street racism. “Paki bashing” became the war cry in the run-down parts of the country. But such upheavals never unhinged Britain from its basic anchor: The Rule of Law. It is this anchor which has been the primary enabling factor in Sajid Javid and Sadiq Khan’s rise.

It may be instructive for us in India that Britain is a very resilient Protestant monarchy which overseas secularism tied with hoops of steel to the Rule of Law.

It would be absurd to compare apples and oranges. The bewildering variety of our civilisational tapestry is unique. Even so our trajectory could have borne some resemblance to “genuine equal rights”, a phenomena Britain can boast of. Instead our politicians dissembled at the very outset leading us into a messy path. I shall explain.

by Jaclynn Ashly, Al Jazeera

Ramallah, occupied West Bank: “Exile is like death,” Ahmad Attoun, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), told Al Jazeera. “I can’t explain my relationship to Jerusalem. It is part of my soul.”

“Jerusalem is now just a few metres away from me, but I can’t enter. There are no words to describe the pain we are feeling,” he said.

Attoun, along with PLC members Mohammad Totah, Mohammad Abu Teir and former Palestinian minister Khaled Abu Arafeh, were forcibly deported from occupied East Jerusalem in 2011 after Israel’s interior minister revoked their Jerusalem residencies over allegations of “breaching loyalty” to the Israeli state.

Attoun’s deportation from the city wreaked havoc on his life. He only sees his family on weekends when they travel to Ramallah, where he now resides. His eight-year-old daughter has never experienced living with her father.

“I wish I could see her just once in her school uniform when she comes home,” Attoun said, noting that his family has continued to reside in Jerusalem despite his expulsion.

“Despite the suffering, in my heart I know we are right. In the natural order, I must return to Jerusalem.”

On April 29, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri upheld the deportation of the four parliamentarians, after Israel’s parliament passed a law in March granting the interior minister full power to revoke the Jerusalem residencies of Palestinians over allegations of “breaching allegiance” or “loyalty” to the Israeli state.

Rights groups have raised serious concerns over the new law, noting that the legislation is a clear breach of international law and threatens the basic rights of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians fear the legislation will speed up the expulsion of Palestinians from the city, and be used to target Palestinians who criticise the Israeli state.

‘You will never return to Jerusalem’
Israel occupied and subsequently annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 – a move which was not accepted by the international community – with the exception of US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Israeli control over the occupied city in December 2017.

Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem following Israel’s occupation were not granted Israeli or Palestinian citizenship, but were instead issued Jerusalem residency ID cards, which can be revoked by Israel at any time.

Last year, Israel revoked the residency of 35 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, including 17 women and four minors, according to Israeli rights group Hamoked.

Since 1967, almost 15,000 Palestinians have had their Jerusalem IDs revoked, mostly for failing to prove to Israeli authorities that Jerusalem or Israel was the centre of their life.

Attoun and the other Palestinian parliamentarians were targeted by Israel in 2006, after being elected to the PLC on the list of the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform Movement in Jerusalem.

Israel considers Hamas, one of the most popular Palestinian political parties, a “terrorist” organisation.

Abu Arafeh was appointed the Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs.

Following the elections, then Israeli interior minister Roni Bar-On initiated the process of revoking their Jerusalem residencies over allegations of being “disloyal” to the Israeli state, owing to their membership to the PLC.

The four were subsequently sentenced to prison. Attoun, Totah and Abu Teir all spent four years behind bars, while Abu Arafeh served three years.

Upon their release in 2010, they received an official deportation notice from Israeli authorities, notifying them that they had just 30 days to leave Israel’s territory.

The parliamentarians decided to fight the decision.

Attoun, Totah and Abu Arafeh launched a nonviolent movement inside the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, where they erected tents and lived inside the building in protest of Israel’s decision for a year and a half. Abu Teir was arrested by Israeli forces two days prior to the action.

However, in September 2011, members of Israel’s special police unit, disguised as lawyers, entered the ICRC headquarters, and violently dragged Attoun out of the building. Totah and Abu Arafah were arrested in similar fashion a few months later.

Attoun spent four months in Israel’s Al-Moscobiyeh detention in Jeursalem, before being forcibly transferred to Ramallah.

On that December day, he was told by an Israeli soldier at Israel’s Qalandiya checkpoint, standing between him and his home: “Now you are in the West Bank, and you will never return to Jerusalem.”

‘Leaving Palestinians stateless’
The exiled parliamentarians won an appeal against the interior minister’s decision in the Israeli Supreme Court last year. However, the Israeli government was given a six-month period to formulate legislation that could uphold their decision.

The new “breach of loyalty” legislation also applies to cases in which Palestinians provided false information to acquire their Jerusalem residences or have committed crimes.

Danny Shenhar, head of the legal department at Hamoked, told Al Jazeera that there were two other cases in which Palestinians had their Jerusalem residency status revoked owing to allegations of “breaching loyalty” or “allegiance” to the state.

One of the cases was Abed Dawiyat, a teenager who threw stones at an Israeli vehicle in Jerusalem in late 2015, resulting in the death of the driver. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The two other teens who were with Dawiyat at the time were also facing the revocation of their Jerusalem residencies after being accused of abetting the crime. However, their cases are still pending.

Shenhar said that the decision to retroactively apply the “breach of loyalty” law to these cases that occurred years ago “contravenes any idea of the rule of law”.

Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as an occupying power, cannot demand allegiance from an occupied population. However, “this is exactly what Israel is doing,” Shenhar noted.

“We adamantly oppose this law,” he added. “The decision is flawed on so many grounds.”

Palestinians in East Jerusalem are considered protected persons, and under international law their forcible transfer from the city is prohibited.

“Through this decision, Israel is leaving Palestinians stateless,” Shenhar told Al Jazeera.

Israel’s interior ministry did not reply to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the matter.

Munir Nuseibah, the director of the Community Action Center in East Jerusalem – which provides legal support to Palestinians who have lost their Jerusalem residency status, said that the law also punishes the perpetrators twice for the same crime, noting that Palestinians already face heavy sentences in Israeli courts and controversial punitive policies targeting their families.

Following the stone-throwing incident, Dawiyat’s family was displaced from their home after Israel ruled to shutter the premise as a punitive measure against the family- a common Israeli policy condemned by rights groups as a form of “collective punishment”.

Far-reaching consequences
Owing to the ambiguity of what exactly constitutes a breach of loyalty or allegiance to the Israeli state, Palestinians and rights groups fear that the new law will have far-reaching consequences for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

“If you leave such a draconic law with this much ambiguity surrounding it, then you give the state very strong powers to erode people’s basic rights,” Shenhar said.

In the case of the deported parliamentarians, Shenhar said the implications were “frightening to think about”.

“If the state uses this legislation to fight the [Palestinian] population, then you’re looking at a very problematic situation of mass residency revocations.”

The targeting of the parliamentarians has raised fears among Palestinians that the legislation could be applied to Palestinian activists in East Jerusalem, or worse, all Palestinians.

“Every Palestinian holds principles against the occupation and against the Israeli state,” Nuseibah said. “No one knows how far Israel will go with this law, but it’s clearly very dangerous.”

The legislation “gives Israel more control over Palestinian politics and activism, because the possibility of being kicked out of the city scares us,” he continued. “It will give Israel another opportunity to displace more Palestinians from the city.”

According to Nuseibah, even lawyers are at a loss as to how to defend Palestinians who could be targeted with the new law.

“How do you defend someone who is being accused of breaching allegiance to the Israeli state?” Nuseibah stated.

“Do we tell the judge he will kiss the Israeli flag every morning?”

by Al Jazeera

Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia’s next leader following his stunning election victory over the ruling coalition that had governed the Southeast Asian nation for six decades.

Dressed in traditional Malay dress, Mahathir took the oath of office at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Malaysia’s constitutional monarch, King Sultan Muhammad V, administered the oath.

At 92, Mahathir became the world’s oldest head of state.

As he was sworn in, fireworks lit up in the night sky across Kuala Lumpur.

Hundreds of Malaysians lined the road leading to the palace, waving party flags and cheering the veteran politician who previously ruled for 22 years until his retirement in 2003.

Addressing a news conference after the ceremony, Mahathir thanked supporters and said, “Right away, we will have to do a lot of work tomorrow.”

Mahathir’s alliance of four parties, the Pakatan Harapan or Alliance of Hope, trounced the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had ruled the country since its independence from the British.

Voters appeared to punish defeated Prime Minister Najib Razak who has been embroiled in a massive corruption scandal for years and also implemented a highly unpopular sales tax.

Earlier in the day, Najib, who ruled Malaysia for nearly a decade, said he accepted the “verdict of the people”. He did not attend the swearing-in ceremony at the palace.

The opposition won 121 seats, one more than required for a simple majority, and BN has 79 in the 222-member parliament, according to official results.

Mahathir said he had been assured of support from a raft of parties that would give his government 135 members of parliament.

“This upset ranks up there with Brexit and the Trump election,” said Aninda Mitra, a senior sovereign analyst at BNY Mellon Investment Management.

Corruption downfall
Mahathir decided to take on Najib in the wake of the financial scandal and joined the opposition, with many old foes during his previous rule, to defeat him.

The US Department of Justice says $4.5bn was looted from the 1MBD investment fund by associates of the former prime minister between 2009 and 2014, including $700m that landed in Najib’s bank account.

Najib denies any wrongdoing.

Mahathir told reporters he will try to make the ringgit currency as steady as possible, and return the billions lost in the 1MDB scandal.

“We believe that we can get most of the 1MDB money back … We have to increase the confidence of investors in the administration,” he said.

The new government will also repeal a goods and services tax introduced by Najib, review foreign investments and abolish “oppressive and unfair” laws, he added.

What’s next?
Few had expected Mahathir to prevail against a coalition that has long relied on the support of the country’s Malay ethnic majority.

Khoo Ying Hoi, a professor of international and strategic studies at the University of Malaya, said the election “has proved to us that we moved beyond racial politics”.

“It’s really people power through the ballot,” said Khoo.

Mahathir joined hands with jailed political leader Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy with whom he fell out in 1998, and together their alliance exploited public disenchantment.

Mahathir said one of his first actions would be to seek a royal pardon for Anwar. He said he would step aside within the next two years so Anwar could become prime minister.

Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is to be deputy prime minister.

Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysians were still taking stock of the unexpected elections results.

“At the moment, there is a sense of euphoria here,” she said. “There has been disillusionment with the previous government with the rise in the cost of living, corruption allegations, so they feel like they have mobilised some kind of change.”

by Al Jazeera

Iran has denied Israel’s allegations that it launched rocket attacks on its forces in the occupied Golan Heights, calling the claims “fabricated” and “baseless”.

On Thursday, Israel launched a wave of attacks on what it called Iranian targets in Syria in response to alleged Iranian attacks that targeted the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory of Golan Heights for the first time. It was the most extensive military exchange ever between the two adversaries.

“The Zionist regime’s frequent attacks on Syria under fabricated and baseless excuses is a breach of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and in defiance of all international laws and regulations,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasem said.

Israel says it hit dozens of Iranian military targets, as well as five Syrian anti-aircraft installations in response to Iranian forces allegedly launching 20 rockets in the occupied Golan Heights.

Syrian state media reported that Syrian air defences had intercepted most of the incoming rockets over the capital, Damascus, but also confirmed that a radar station and a weapons storage site were struck.

Iranian state television reported that Syria had given a “crushing response”.

Qasem on Friday also condemned the international community’s silence over Israel’s attacks in Syria.

“Iran strongly condemns … [Israel’s] attacks on Syria. The international community’s silence encourages Israel’s aggression. Syria has every right to defend itself,” Iranian state TV quoted Qasemi as saying.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran, said that it’s important to note what wasn’t mentioned in the statement.

“[There was] no specific reaction to the specific allegations by Israel that it hit a large numbers of Iranian targets inside Syria and no specific response to Israeli allegations that Iran was behind the cross-border fire that happened and that it was Iran who shot first, so they are still holding their cards close to the chest here in Tehran.”

‘Iran crossed a red line’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened with further action in Syria, warning that the Israeli military will attack any nation targeting his country including preemptive strikes.

“Iran crossed a red line; our response was appropriate,” Netanyahu said during a press conference.

“The Israeli army carried out a broad strike, a very broad strike against Iranian targets in Syria. I send a clear message to the Assad regime that our actions are aimed at Iranian targets inside Syria but if the Syrian army will act against us, we will act against it.”

WATCH: Israel responds after Iran ‘fires rockets’ at occupied Golan (2:43)
Israel has long warned of a growing Iranian threat inside Syria. The country’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at a press conference that Israeli forces had destroyed nearly all of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday.

“They must remember that if it rains here it will pour over there and I hope that we finish this chapter and that everyone got the message,” Lieberman said.

Al Jazeera’s Basravi said that the Iranian foreign ministry was pushing a very different narrative with their statement.

“[The statement] also went so far as to suggest that Israel, as part of its strategic depth in Syria, was backing groups like the Islamic State and the al-Nusra front. We have had reactions like that from leaders in Iran in the past with regards to Israel’s involvement in the country.”

As tensions between Israel and Iran continued to rise, the United Nations, Russia, France, Germany and Britain urged the two countries to avoid any further escalation.

US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate halt to “all hostile acts” to avoid “a new conflagration” in the Middle East.

Israel has called on the UN Security Council and secretary-general to condemn Iran’s attack, but the Security Council remains deeply divided over Syria and is highly unlikely to issue a statement. As of Friday morning, no council member has asked for a meeting.

Israel and Iran have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange, each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate.

by Al Jazeera

The Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) has blasted Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for sending two cycling teams to participate in the 101st Giro d’Italia cycling competition, which kicked off on Friday in Jerusalem.

For the first time in its history, a competitive leg of the world-famous race was held this year outside of Europe.

After starting in Jerusalem, the 21-day race continued over the weekend from Haifa to Tel Aviv and from Be’er Sheva to Eilat in the south. The event, which features 176 cyclists from 22 teams, is now set to continue in Italy where it will conclude in the capital, Rome.

However, the decision to kick off the event in Jerusalem was met with widespread condemnation from Palestinian officials and activists who accused organisers of “whitewashing Israel’s ongoing crimes”.

In a statement on Sunday, the POC also urged the UAE and Bahrain national committees to withdraw their participants from an event it described as “a disgrace to anyone who stands behind it or participates in it”.

The committee called out the Arab cyclists for their “disloyalty” and for participating in a “free service for the [Israeli] occupation that does not recognise international laws, resolutions and charters of the United Nations on the rights of the Palestinian people and continues to deny the right of the Palestinian Arab people to establish their independent state on their land with Jerusalem as its capital”.

Activists created a website, outlining Giro d’Italia’s route that passed by ruins of historic Palestine, where more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleansed during or following the Nakba, when Israel was created in 1948.

“Israel is reportedly paying 10m euro ($11.9m) to host the Giro as part of its propaganda efforts, mimicking those of the apartheid regime in South Africa, to use sports to hide, or sportswash, its decades-long military occupation and apartheid system imposed on the Palestinian people,” reads a statement from the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) website.

‘Sportswash effect’
The event took place just kilometres away from the Gaza Strip where dozens of unarmed Palestinians have been killed over the past few weeks by Israeli forces while taking part in the Great March of Return protests to demand the right to return to their homes seized by Israel 70 years ago.

About 7,000 Palestinians have also been wounded since the demonstrations began on March 30.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International UK also echoed similar concerns, noting that the race started off right next to East Jerusalem where Palestinians regularly face house demolitions, illegal settlement building and restrictions of movement.

“The authorities in Jerusalem may have thought that the glitz of Giro d’Italia might have a ‘sportswash’ effect, removing some of the stain of Israel’s human rights record. Instead, it’s likely to bring it back into focus yet again,” said Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK.

“The Jerusalem launch inevitably means Israel’s dismal human rights record is going to be in the spotlight.”

by Al Jazeera

Air raids have targeted the presidential office in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa, killing at least six people and wounding 30 others, according to medical sources.

Witnesses said fighter jets bombed Sanaa several times at midday on Monday, with rebel-controlled Al-Masirah television blaming the Saudi-led coalition for the raid.

Residents said they heard two explosions hit the building, which is located near a hotel, a bank and several shops, and not far from the central bank, according to AFP news agency.

Witnesses said the office, used by the Houthi rebel administration, is normally bustling with employees.

“We were working next door to the presidential offices and heard a plane, and then an explosion,” Ahmed Dehashir, a first responder, told AFP at the scene of the attack.

“Some people rushed to the scene and saw the destruction and people caught under the rubble. We tried to dig out the dead and wounded from under the debris, and then there was a second strike,” he said.

“There are a lot of people trapped under the rubble,” Dehashir added.

The Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention in Yemen in 2015 with the goal of rolling back the Houthis and restoring the internationally recognised government to power.

‘Houthi missiles intercepted’
The raid came hours after Saudi Arabia’s air defence systems intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi rebels towards the south of the kingdom on Sunday, according to coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Malki.

He said the rockets were launched from northern Yemen towards “populated areas” of Saudi Arabia but were intercepted overnight without any casualties or damage.

Since November of last year, rebels have intensified missile attacks into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The conflict in Yemen has left nearly 10,000 people dead, tens of thousands wounded, and millions on the brink of famine in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

by Al Jazeera

At least 29 people, including nine journalists, have been killed and dozens wounded after two explosions hit Kabul, according to Afghan health officials.

The blasts went off during rush hour on Monday morning in the Shash Darak area of the Afghan capital.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the first explosion, a suicide bomber in a motorcyle detonated himself close to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the main Afghan intelligence agency, TOLOnews quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying.

In the explosion that followed 20 minutes later, a second suicide bomber targeted emergency medical workers and journalists who had arrived at the scene.

Al Jazeera’s Glasse said the second suicide bomber was dressed as a journalist.

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported that nine journalists who rushed to cover the aftermath of the first explosion were killed in the second blast.

A spokesperson for the Afghan health ministry said the attacks killed at least 29 people and wounded 49 others, according to TOLOnews.

TOLOnews also reported that its cameraman, Yar Mohammad Tokhi, who had worked for the company for 12 years, was among those who were killed in the attack.

Meanwhile, AFP news agency reported that its chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was also killed.

At least 29 people, including nine journalists, have been killed and dozens wounded after two explosions hit Kabul, according to Afghan health officials.

The blasts went off during rush hour on Monday morning in the Shash Darak area of the Afghan capital.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the first explosion, a suicide bomber in a motorcyle detonated himself close to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the main Afghan intelligence agency, TOLOnews quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying.

In the explosion that followed 20 minutes later, a second suicide bomber targeted emergency medical workers and journalists who had arrived at the scene.

Al Jazeera’s Glasse said the second suicide bomber was dressed as a journalist.

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported that nine journalists who rushed to cover the aftermath of the first explosion were killed in the second blast.

A spokesperson for the Afghan health ministry said the attacks killed at least 29 people and wounded 49 others, according to TOLOnews.

TOLOnews also reported that its cameraman, Yar Mohammad Tokhi, who had worked for the company for 12 years, was among those who were killed in the attack.

Meanwhile, AFP news agency reported that its chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was also killed.

As was two staff members of Azadi Radio, the Dari language service of Radio Free Europe.

Radio Free Europe identified the two journalists who died as Abadullah Hananzai and Moharram Durrani. A third staffer, Sabwoon Kakar, was injured.

An Al Jazeera photographer, Seyyed Nasser Hashemi, was also hurt in the incident. He is currently in the hospital recovering from his injuries, Al Jazeera’s Glasse said.

TOLOnews also reported that two other journalists were wounded in the second blast.

The death of the nine journalists is considered as the worst attack on Afghan media in modern history, Glasse said.

“It’s a very grim morning here,” she said describing the situation in the Afghan capital.

She added that there are many fortified streets near the site of the attack.

“There’s a lot of security in that area – it’s not far from NATO headquarters – and security has been beefed up around the Afghan capital, but clearly they haven’t been able to stop these kinds of attacks.”

The explosions on Monday come just a week after a blast hit a voter registration centre in Kabul, killing at least 57 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Attacks have multiplied in recent days in advance of the long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections scheduled for October 20 this year.

“The series of attacks here in Kabul have made the Afghan capital most dangerous place in Afghanistan to be,” Al Jazeera’s Glasse said.

by Al Jazeera

An estimated 60 percent of Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp for Palestinians has been destroyed as government forces and their allies escalate a military offensive against armed groups in the Damascus-area camp, according to a watchdog group.

Citing an eyewitness, the UK-based Action Group for Palestinians of Syria said on Friday that the destruction has largely been caused by barrel bombs, missiles and shelling.

The group said that “families were buried under the rubble of their homes” in Yarmouk, where an estimated 3,000 people still reside.

On Wednesday, Palestinian refugee Salah al-Abayat was killed by Syrian government air strikes on the camp, bringing the total number of people killed to 31 since April 19, when the latest bout of fighting started.

On April 19, the Syrian government and allied Palestinian armed groups launched a renewed military offensive against armed groups – including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) – in the besieged refugee camp.

On Thursday, Palestinian political party Hamas issued an appeal to all sides involved in the fighting to reach a truce.

That same day, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned of “catastrophic consequences” of the intensified violence in Yarmouk and the surrounding areas, including al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yalda.

“Yarmouk and its inhabitants have endured indescribable pain and suffering over years of conflict,” Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned about the fate of thousands of civilians, including Palestine refugees, after more than a week of dramatically increased violence.”

‘Under fire’
The UN group said that there are no hospitals currently operational in the camp, which has been blockaded by government forces on the one hand, and armed opposition groups on the other for several years.

“The intense bombing and shelling has reportedly damaged thousands of homes,” UNRWA said in its statement, calling for “immediate granting of safe passage for civilians wishing to leave the camp and surrounding areas”.

UNRWA added: “There is no more running water and very little electricity.”

An estimated 200,000 people – Palestinian refugees, Syrians and others – lived in Yarmouk before Syria’s war started in March 2011.

Since 2013, government forces and armed groups loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have imposed a harsh siege on Yarmouk, restricting the flow of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods into the camp.

As the siege wore on, residents of Yarmouk were reduced to eating grass and stray animals to survive, according to reports at the time.

In March 2015, the situation in Yarmouk worsened when ISIL invaded the camp and took control of most of its territory.

On April 22, Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, the Palestinian Return Centre, the France-based Democratic Republic Studies Centre and the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression published a joint report detailing the grim situation in Yarmouk.

According to that report – Yarmouk Set on Fire (PDF) – the camp had been bombed twice every 90 seconds since the start of the latest military offensive on April 19.

Last Sunday alone, Yarmouk was bombarded with 140 Syrian and Russian air strikes, 78 barrel bombs and 98 surface-to-surface missiles, the report said.

Killed, missing or detained
Upwards of 430,000 Palestinian refugees still live in Syria, many trapped in besieged or hard-to-reach areas, according to UNRWA.

Action Group for Palestinians of Syria says at least 3,729 Palestinian refugees have been killed during Syria’s civil war, while 309 are considered missing and another 1,674 are currently detained.

SANA, the Syrian government’s state media outlet, said on Friday that government forces were advancing in several areas in southern Damascus, including al-Hajar al-Aswad, the neighbourhood situated adjacent to Yarmouk.

Many Palestinian refugees from Yarmouk have been displaced to al-Hajar al-Aswad.

Friday’s report came just one day after SANA reported that government forces had killed “dozens of terrorists” in the area.

Throughout seven years of war in Syria, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled Syria or are displaced within the country’s borders.

by Al Jazeera

Ahmad Abu Hussein, a Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces while covering a mass demonstration along the Gaza border earlier this month, has died of his wounds, according to Palestinian officials.

The 24-year-old, who was shot in the abdomen during a protest near Jebaliya on April 13, is the second Palestinian journalist to have been killed by Israeli soldiers since a wave of demonstrations known as the “Great March of Return” began on March 30.

Health officials in Gaza said Hussein died on Wednesday in Israel’s Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv.

His body arrived later in the day at Al-Andalusi hospital in the Gaza Strip, according to Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the health ministry.

Hussein was originally treated in Gaza, before being moved to a hospital in Ramallah on April 15 and then to Tel Hashomer four days later.

Vest marked with ‘PRESS’
According to eyewitnesses, Hussein, a photographer for the Gaza-based Voice of the People radio station, was wearing a protective vest marked “PRESS” at the time he was shot.

“Protective gear that clearly indicates individuals are members of the press should afford them extra protection – not make them targets,” said Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The death of Ahmed Abu Hussein underscores the need for Israeli authorities to urgently scrutinise its policies toward journalists covering protests and take immediate, effective action.”

Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, died on April 7 as a result of wounds sustained when shot by Israeli forces the previous day.

Murtaja, 30, was hit in the stomach despite also wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “PRESS” while covering a protest in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip.

‘The Great March of Return’
The “Great March of Return” has seen tens of thousands of Palestinians take to the border area to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees driven from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nakba.

Around 70 percent of Gaza’s two million population were forced from their homes and now live in a territory of about 360sq km.

At least 40 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,000 wounded since the demonstrations began, according to Palestinian officials.

Israel has drawn sharp criticism for its open-fire orders along the border.