Nawaz Sharif, the fugitive former prime minister of Pakistan, has returned to the South Asian nation after nearly four years in self-exile, stirring up the country’s already fraught political scene as it awaits what is expected to be a tumultuous national election.

Sharif, who has served as Pakistan’s prime minister three times and was once ousted in a military coup, landed at Islamabad airport on Saturday, according to airport officials.

Sharif was the former head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or the PML-N, one of two dynastic parties that have traditionally dominated the country’s politics.

He was disqualified from holding office in a Supreme Court ruling concerning corruption allegations in 2017.

The following year he was sentenced to seven years’ prison for corruption, charges he denied, but the sentence was suspended on medical grounds, allowing him to travel overseas for treatment on the condition that he return within four weeks – a requirement he then flouted.

His arrival back in Pakistan comes just days after an Islamabad court granted him protective bail, meaning he cannot be arrested before appearing in court.

The development raises the stakes ahead of what is already shaping up to be a fraught election. The South Asian nation has been in a state of political turmoil since the ouster of another prime minister, Imran Khan, a former rival of Sharif.

In recent months, protests have frequently erupted in the streets over Khan’s removal, rising prices, and contempt toward the country’s powerful military – which Khan’s supporters claim played a role in his ouster, though the military denies this.

Sharif, too, previously blamed his downfall on the military, which has ruled Pakistan for extended periods since its independence in 1947 and retains significant influence. Before the 2017 ruling that ended his third spell in power he had been ousted in a coup, in 1999, and removed as prime minister by a military-backed president in 1993.

Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz, welcomed the news of his brother’s bail, writing on Twitter that it was a “fundamental right.”

“The elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified based on a fictitious and fabricated story,” Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“He was implicated in absurd cases and subjected to mistreatment. Any fair hearing would have established his innocence.”

Shehbaz Sharif was appointed prime minister in 2022, and remained in the position until August this year, when his government was replaced by a caretaker administration upon the dissolution of parliament ahead of the national election due early next year.

He came to power after the ouster of Khan, who is now behind bars on corruption charges.

Shehbaz Sharif took charge at a time of crippling inflation, soaring fuel and food prices and a struggling economy – problems that have dented the popularity of the PML-N party. Nawaz Sharif is expected to head its election campaign.

Lit by the ghostly glow of a rapidly depleting mobile phone light, Mahmoud Shalabi says conditions in northern Gaza have become “really dire” without adequate access to medicine, clean water, electricity or safe passage after nearly two weeks of Israeli bombardment.

For Shalabi, a local aid worker, a working phone is one of his most vital possessions.

But the drain on the battery was worth it, he said, if he could show people around the world what is happening in northern Gaza, the half of the enclave that Israel’s military has told civilians to evacuate but where many nonetheless remain.

“With regards to the humanitarian situation right now, it’s really dire,” Shalabi, senior program manager of Medical Aid for Palestinians, stressed.

Gaza’s 2.2 million people, half of whom are children, have been under sustained Israeli airstrikes since Hamas gunmen streamed out of the enclave on October 7 for an unprecedented murder and kidnapping rampage.

Some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the worst single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. More than 200 people, including women, children and foreign nationals, were taken hostage by Hamas.

Israel’s retaliation has been devastating for Gazans.

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health says more than 4,100 people have been killed, including hundreds of women and children – even as Israel claims it is only targeting Hamas locations.

Israel has also cut off supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel to the Palestinian enclave in a siege that has been described by UN rights experts as “unspeakably cruel.”

Northern Gaza, which contains the heavily populated Gaza City, has been hit especially hard and Israel’s military has told civilians to evacuate south ahead of an expected ground offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and the many tunnels it controls under the enclave.

The shortage of food and power could “kill many, many people”, a senior aid official warned on Friday, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called the evacuation of 1.1 million in northern Gaza “simply not possible.”

Shalabi, a father of three, has been peppered with tough questions from his 9-year-old son about what their fate might hold.

“He asked me the other day and was crying, ‘Dad, if I die, will I go to heaven or hell?’,” Shalabi recalled. “I really couldn’t answer. I choked for a few seconds and I said we will all go to heaven, my son.”

Shalabi has decided to stay in the north, to continue trying to distribute what little aid his organization still has.

“We don’t have electricity, we don’t have fuel, we don’t have water. You can’t buy simple things for the kids, like you can’t buy crisps or sweets, no fruits, no vegetables for the children,” he said, adding that he had been queuing for two hours just to get 10 pieces of bread for his family, which also includes his parents.

“For the medicines as such, unfortunately it can’t be done because there’s nothing left in the local market,” he said.

He added that the situation has been made worse by the lack of safe corridors and passages to warehouse stores.

“It’s really difficult for us. We barely are working, but we are one of the very few organizations that are still functioning inside of the Gaza strip right now,” he said.

Aid workers say they are a fraction of what’s needed, with the World Health Organization saying Gaza requires 100 trucks a day to meet demands.

Hospitals across Gaza

Maintaining contact with hospitals has also been a challenge, Shalabi said, two days after a deadly blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City killed many civilians sheltering there.

The cause of the blast remains a point of contention, with Israel laying out what it said was evidence to show the explosion was caused by the militant group Islamic Jihad misfiring a rocket. Palestinian officials and several Arab leaders, meanwhile, have accused Israel of hitting the hospital amid its airstrikes.

The death toll cannot be independently verified, but the Ministry of Health in Gaza said more than 400 had died.

Scenes of chaos grip other hospitals across Gaza.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Friday that hospitals in Gaza are “on the brink of collapse,” a situation made even worse because 60% of primary healthcare facilities have already shut down in Gaza.

The number of patients treated or waiting to be treated is at 150% of the hospitals’ capacity, and people are lying on the floors and corridors, OCHA added.

“We were playing in the garden and suddenly a missile landed on us,” Mahmoud Al-Aloul said, adding that he was hit by a tree, while his grandfather, parents and brother were also injured.

Another boy, Abdurahman, 10, still does not know that the strike that injured him killed his mom, dad and three sisters. His aunt is the only one left to comfort him.

“I am worried about him, the shock when he wakes up and finds out that his mother and father are gone,” she said.

Over the last week, a secret delivery of American weapons and a cross-river raid have injected much-needed energy into Ukraine’s largely stalled counteroffensive.

In the east, Ukrainians claim to have inflicted massive losses on Russian forces trying to encircle an embattled city.

Meanwhile in the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian parliamentarians are looking to expunge Russian influence from the church.

Here is what you need to know.

Surprise arrival of US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS)

A secret US delivery of long-range ATACMS missiles pounded airfields in occupied Berdiansk on the coast of the Azov Sea and in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, destroying Russian helicopters and a munitions depot.

A video posted by commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, showed the powerful missile batteries firing, with a caption thanking Ukrainian soldiers “for their service” and partners “for their support.”

At a time when US funding for Ukraine remains precarious, the arrival of the ATACMS was a welcome development both on the battlefield and for public morale.

Ukraine has been asking for the missile system for months. It’s still unclear when the weapons were delivered or when the decision to supply them was made.

With a 100-mile range, the powerful missiles are likely to disrupt Russian positioning, with most analysts predicting Moscow will be forced to station aerial assets further afield, limiting operational capacity.

For Ukrainians, the move was seen as a strong message of support from the US. “Ukrainians are greatly encouraged by the delivery of ATACMS, and our warriors are putting them to good use on the battlefield,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet after a call with US President Joe Biden.

Battles in the east

Fierce fighting has been raging in Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, as Russia continues to encircle the city and Ukraine claims it has delivered massive blows to Russian military personnel and equipment.

Russian forces have launched waves of attacks repelled by the Ukrainian troops who are heavily entrenched in the area.

Analysts say the Russian aim is to encircle the city and take over an area of high ground near an industrial facility which would give Russia effective fire control over Ukrainian supply routes.

Avdiivka is no stranger to Russian assaults and has been on the front line of the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

More than 1,600 civilians remain in the embattled city, according to local officials.

Cross-river operation in Kherson

Official details of Ukraine’s latest cross-river operation are scant. But Ukrainian troops appeared to have crossed the Dnipro River into the Russian-occupied Kherson region, according to pro-Kremlin military bloggers.

Popular Russian military blogger WarGonzo said Friday that fighting on the eastern bank of the Dnipro had continued near the coastal village of Krynky, speculating, “Ukrainian troops are trying to gain a foothold and pull up reserves to develop their initiative on the Dnipro bank controlled by the Russian army.”

Earlier in the week, Russian bloggers claimed Ukrainian military units had crossed the river, breaking through some Russian defenses and pushing into the villages of Poyma and Pishchanivka on the eastern bank.

Kyiv has not officially commented on cross-river operations in the region.

Ukraine has previously carried out raids on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson. Ukrainian forces first established a bridgehead on the Russian-controlled bank of the river near the Antonivsky Bridge in June and have carried out other raids over the summer.

Church matters

Ukrainian lawmakers have given the initial green light for a bill that seeks to eliminate Russian influence on religion.

The aim of the proposed law is “to prevent religious organizations from operating in Ukraine whose governing center is located outside Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine.”

The bill passed its first reading with 267 votes for and 15 votes against.

While the bill does not specifically name the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the implications are clear. Kyiv considers the UOC to be an extension of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and of Moscow’s influence in Ukraine.

UOC claims to have cut ties with the Moscow-based church since the full-scale invasion. But a Ukrainian government panel of experts “did not find any documents or actions that would indicate the transformation of the UOC into a religious organization independent of the ROC.”

A UOC cleric called the draft bill “scandalous” and accused lawmakers of exploiting religion for “political intrigues.”

The Ukrainian parliament “did not ban anyone today. It adopted a truly scandalous bill that contains many provocative provisions that contradict the Constitution,” a UOC representative, Metropolitan Klyment, said in a statement.

For the draft to become law, it will need to be voted on a second time in parliament and signed by Zelensky.

The first trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Saturday, two weeks after Israel launched a complete siege of the enclave in response to deadly attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas.

People on the Egyptian side of the border – where aid organizations had waited for days to be given the green light – were jubilant as the crossing opened, celebrating with ululations and chants.

According to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah crossing, 13 trucks were carrying medicine and medical supplies, five were carrying food and two trucks had water.

European commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, called it an “important first step that will alleviate the suffering of innocent people.”

However, while these supplies are desperately needed, aid workers say they are a fraction of what’s required for the 2.2 million people crammed into Gaza under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.

Martin Griffiths, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the delivery followed “days of deep and intense negotiations,” adding that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “has reached catastrophic levels.”

Conditions have grown more dire each day, with hospitals on the verge of collapse and Gazans fast running out of food, water and other critical supplies amid near-constant bombardment by Israel.

World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that “the needs are far higher” than the aid people in Gaza have received.

The WHO said it is working with the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent societies to ensure the safe passage of supplies to health facilities, adding shortages have left hospitals in Gaza at “breaking point.”

A lack of fuel is also a concern. Wael Abu Mohsen, head of communications for the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, told Saudi state media Al Hadath TV Saturday that fuel was not delivered, “despite fuel supplies running dangerously low at hospitals and schools in Gaza.”

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed that none of the trucks were carrying fuel.

The arrival of aid comes as world leaders gathered in Cairo, Egypt, for the Cairo Peace Summit on Saturday.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi initiated the peace summit on Gaza in a bid to de-escalate the situation and protect civilians in the enclave. Representatives from 34 countries, including the Middle East, Africa and Europe, and the UN are in attendance, according to organizers.

Two hostages released

On Friday, two American hostages were released from Gaza, the first since Hamas’ October 7 attacks – but their freedom also deepened questions about the fate of other hostages should Israeli troops go into the enclave. The IDF said Saturday that it believes 210 people are being held hostage in Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, handed over the hostages at the border on Friday, with Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan now on their way to be reunited with loved ones.

For their family, the release marked the end of a nightmare that began on October 7 when Hamas members carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, killing more than 1,400 people and abducting scores back to Gaza.

So far at least 4,127 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children – even as Israel claims it is only targeting Hamas locations.

“We are ready to start this incredible journey of healing and trauma relief for her,” said Ben Raanan, Natalie’s brother.

But, he pointed out, the nightmare continues for countless others.

“There are families all over in Gaza and in Israel that are experiencing a loss that I can’t even imagine,” he said.

Many of those Israeli families attended a ceremony in Tel Aviv on Friday, where a Shabbat dinner table was laid with 200 empty place settings to represent the hostages. Shabbat, a holy day of rest and reflection each week, is often a time when Jewish families gather for meals and prayer.

A Hamas spokesperson claimed on Friday that the two US hostages had been released “for humanitarian reasons” and to “prove to the American people and the world” that claims made by the United States government “are false and baseless.”

And while the release has been welcomed by world leaders, including those in the United States, United Kingdom and France, those in Israel have voiced skepticism about Hamas’ motivations and have promised to continue their blistering counterattack.

“Two of our hostages are home. We will not ease the effort to bring back all abductees and those missing. Simultaneously, we keep fighting until a victory is reached,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement on social media on Friday.

Others have suggested the release could be an attempt by Hamas to buy time, as speculation swirls of a potential ground incursion by Israeli forces, who have massed by the border and warned Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza.

Israeli officials have not publicly shared details about their plans, besides saying the goal is to eliminate Hamas and its infrastructure, much of which consists of heavily reinforced tunnels underground the densely populated cities.

“Hamas is really under great pressure, and it is trying every trick in the book, and they will try many more as we go along, to stop the Israeli maneuver into the Gaza Strip,” said Rami Igra, former division chief of the hostages and MIA unit with the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.

“They are trying to postpone this. They are trying to ease the pressure on them, and they will use anything they can in order to get a ceasefire,” he added.

Aid trucks waiting at border

Yet every day the civilian deaths in Gaza mount, fueling anger in the Middle East and beyond.

The enclave, which was already under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt for the past 17 years, became further isolated after the latest war broke out and Israel declared a complete siege.

The electricity blackout and ban on fuel imports have had “devastating consequences” on the healthcare system and access to clean water, warned the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday.

It added that about 1.4 million people had been displaced in Gaza – more than 60% of the entire strip’s population of 2 million.

More than 544,000 people are staying at UN-designated emergency shelters “in increasingly dire conditions,” with many at risk of infectious disease due to unsafe water, the OCHA added in its statement.

While Egypt agreed earlier this week to let the first aid trucks into Gaza through the Rafah crossing – the only entry point into the enclave not controlled by Israel – the opening was beset with delays, frustrating aid organizations waiting to be given the green light.

But the 20 trucks that entered Gaza on Saturday, while desperately needed, aren’t nearly enough for the scale of the crisis

Tamara Alrifai, the director of communications at the UN’s relief body for Palestinian refugees, echoed this sentiment, saying: “What is needed is a continuous flow of aid. This is not about a one-off, sending 20 trucks and then nothing.”

When 20-year-old Aya Najame, an Arab Muslim, was a little girl growing up in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, she would go on cultural exchange trips to Jewish schools to learn about the Jewish way of life. Jewish children would do the same, visiting Najame’s school to learn about her life.

Arab citizens and permanent residents in Israel make up just over 20% of the country’s population. The roughly 2 million people are distinct from Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza – but they are far from a uniform group.

Most are Muslims, but there is also a large Christian Arab minority. And while around 1.5 million hold Israeli citizenship, many of those living in Jerusalem have only permanent residency status and are not full citizens. Some identify as Arabs, some as Palestinians, some as Druze, a religious sect spread throughout Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

Some speak fluent Hebrew and live in mixed communities such as Haifa, while others reside in segregated towns and say they feel like second-class citizens due to discrimination from Israeli authorities. Several hundred chose to serve in the Israeli military each year, even though they are exempt from compulsory service. Many have family in the West Bank and Gaza.

Haifa is not like the rest of Israel, Najame says.

“Haifa is the most comfortable place,” Najame said. “As soon as you leave Haifa you start feeling more uncomfortable, it’s (a) little hard to describe it, it’s just an uncomfortable feeling.”

Ashraf Ashkar, a 35-year-old Arab Israeli, works in a restaurant in Haifa’s Arab Wadi Nisnas neighborhood. He said he has friends who serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and friends who were in the areas of Israel that the Palestinian militant group Hamas brutally attacked earlier this month. “I speak to them all the time, I have a friend, an Arab, who joined the reserves last week,” Ashkar said, adding that Israel is his home.

But he is also acutely aware of his own family history. His ancestors were evacuated from Iqrit, a village north of Haifa, by Israeli forces during the 1948 war. They were told they would be able to come back in a few weeks, but ultimately were not allowed to, Ashkar said. Israel’s Supreme Court later ruled the eviction was illegal and said the families of Igrit should be allowed to return to their land – but before they were able to do so, the IDF razed the village to the ground in the 1950s.

“It’s complicated when you are not sure where you belong. I try to avoid thinking about it too much,” Ashkar said.

The Hamas terror attacks, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people in Israel on October 7, and the subsequent heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which Palestinian officials say has killed more than 4,100 in the enclave so far, have significantly ramped up tensions at a time when relationships between some groups were already fraught.

Since December, Israel has been governed by the most right-wing government in its history. Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some opposition leaders joined an emergency war cabinet to manage the war. The government’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir is an extremist who has been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism. The finance minister is Bezalel Smotrich, who supports abolishing the Palestinian Authority and annexing the West Bank – neither are part of the war cabinet, although they are maintaining their ministerial roles.

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said that the rhetoric from Gvir and Smotrich has emboldened extremists and led to an increase in attacks on Palestinians, especially by right-wing groups and Israeli settlers. As of mid-September, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 216 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank that resulted in injuries, and 582 incidents that resulted in property damage.

“The settlers have been making it clear that they want to go after us. The general environment is one in which we’re always made to feel as though we’re the next target. And to be honest, we are the next target,” said Diane Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who lives in Haifa and has previously served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian side in peace negotiations.

Buttu said that as a Palestinian in Israel, she feels like she is by default considered a threat. “The only way that I’m not part of the human animal group is if I denounce (terrorism) first. I have to prove my humanity to them… but I never ask Jewish people to denounce the settlers’ violence, to denounce those attacks,” she said. “I never ask them to prove that they are not settlers.”

Naim Khoury can relate to a feeling of being watched with mistrust. The 39-year-old lawyer, who lives in Haifa, said the fallout from the brutality of October is being felt even there, in a city usually considered a case study of successful coexistence.

Khoury said that he has many friends who serve in the military and the police, and yet even they sometimes face similar suspicion.

“In Haifa, we always try to preserve the good relations and to have this coexistence and so it’s very sad that every time anything to do with security happens, Jews are automatically asking me, ‘What do you think about it as an Arab, are you okay with this?’” he said.

‘What rights?’

Abu Nader has been running a small cafe in Jerusalem’s Old City for 49 years, in the same building where he was born and has lived his entire life.

Nader has seven children – five daughters and two sons – and 24 grandchildren, some of whom live in other parts of the city, which means they are sometimes not allowed to come and visit him. When tensions rise, as they often do in Jerusalem, Israeli police sometimes restrict access to the Old City, only allowing in Palestinians who have a permanent address there or are over a certain age.

Buttu said that the restrictions on the movements of permanent residents are just one example of discrimination — adding that even those who hold citizenship can be targeted.

“There are all these laws that either directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship, including laws that prevent me and others from moving into certain towns,” she said, referring to an Israeli law that allows villages and towns in certain regions to operate “admission committees.” They have the power to bar people from moving in if they are deemed to be “not suitable” to the community’s “social-cultural fabric.”

The law was expanded this year and now applies to settlements of 700 households, up from 400 previously. Adalah, an NGO that focuses on the rights of the Arab minority in Israel, said the expanded version of the law covers 41% of all localities and 80% of the state’s territory.

“As a Palestinian living in this country, your whole existence is either carving out a safe space where you live and work in an area that you know, where you’re safe, where you can speak Arabic, where your political views are known and where you don’t have to measure your words, or you totally assimilate to the other side. Anywhere in between is the space of total discomfort,” Buttu said. “But even when you totally assimilate, there’s still a question mark.”

The coffee Nader serves in his cafe is strong and very sweet, made in cezve, traditional long-necked copper pots.

“Some people call it Turkish coffee, some call it Jerusalem coffee or Palestinian coffee or Israeli coffee … when I am in the mood, I call it Palestinian coffee,” he said, watching a spoonful of sugar bubble up from the bottom of the pot. “When I am not in the mood, I call it Jerusalem coffee … to avoid the politics”

If you are looking for a spectacular show this weekend, look up to find the Orionid meteor shower shining bright through Saturday and Sunday night.

The shower is expected to peak at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, but visible meteors are expected to streak across the sky all weekend long at a rate of 10 to 20 per hour, according to EarthSky, and can be seen from all parts of the world during the night.

The best time to spot a meteor will be in the early hours of the morning, when the radiant, or the point where the meteors appear to originate from — in this case constellation Orion — is at its highest at around 2 a.m. in any time zone, but Dr. Ashley King, a planetary science researcher with the Natural History Museum in London, said that meteors will start appearing as soon as it gets dark.

This weekend, the moon will be in its first quarter phase and will set near midnight, according to the American Meteor Society. That means its luminosity will slightly interfere with meteor visibility, King said.

“You’ll want to wait for the moon to set,” he said. “Even if you’re in a city, you should be able to see a few meteors — it’s really just a case of looking at the sky and being patient.”

To have the best chance of spotting a meteor, King suggests going outside for at least 10 to 20 minutes before stargazing to let your eyes adjust to the low light. If possible, it is ideal to get away from light pollution and find a spot with a clear view of the dark sky, King said.

Dust grains from Comet Halley

The Orionid meteors come from one of the most famous comets, Halley, which is currently near the middle of its 76-year orbit around the sun. While the comet won’t make its appearance in Earth’s night sky until 2061, it leaves a trail of debris behind that our planet passes through every year, resulting in the Orionids.

In early May, Earth passes through a different section of Halley’s orbit trail, resulting in the meteor shower known as the Eta Aquariids.

“What you’re seeing are little comet dust grains that are traveling really quickly,” King said. “When they enter the atmosphere, they get heated up and vaporize, and you get that bright streak — and that’s what we call a meteor.”

The Orionids tend to be bright and fast-moving, 148,000 miles per hour (238,183 kilometers per hour), according to NASA. Because of this high speed, the Orionids often make long trails in the sky — visual evidence of the dust being released by the meteors as they are heated up, King said.

Occasionally, meteor showers can have an unexpected spike in their meteor rates. From 2006 to 2009, the Orionids saw anywhere between 50 to 75 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society. Normal rates are expected this year, but there is always the possibility of a surprise, the organization notes on its website.

“Not only are they spectacular — it’s exciting to see the bright streaks across the sky, and it’s not something you see every day — but this is dust grain that formed just over 4.6 billion years ago,” King said. “This is dust from the birth of the solar system.”

Meteor showers

After the Orionids peak, the hourly rate of visible meteors will begin to slow down until the shower ends on November 22. If you miss the peak this weekend, there are five other meteor showers left to catch this year:

● Southern Taurids: November 5-6

● Northern Taurids: November 11-12

● Leonids: November 17-18

● Geminids: December 13-14

● Ursids: December 21-22

Full moons

There are three full moons remaining in 2023, according to the Farmers’ Almanac:

● October 28: Hunter’s moon

● November 27: Beaver moon

● December 26: Cold moon

Lunar and solar eclipses

On October 14, people across North, Central and South America were able to encounter an annular solar eclipse. During the event, the moon passed between the sun and Earth creating a “ring of fire” in the sky. It was the last solar eclipse event until 2024.

A partial lunar eclipse, however, will take place on October 28 and will be viewable in Europe, Asia, Australia, parts of North America and much of South Africa. This eclipse occurs when part of the moon passes into Earth’s shadow, allowing the shadow to be visible on the moon for a short period of time.

Khulood Khaled was woken up by the sound of Israeli airstrikes as she slept next to her son last week. Black smoke filled the room, making it difficult for her to breathe. She felt a sense of panic setting in, followed by pain in her abdomen. She thought she was going into early labor.

Eight months pregnant and worried about her unborn child, the 28-year-old decided to leave her home in the al-Karama district of the northern Gaza Strip the next day as the bombing continued.

Khulood eventually made it to the southern city of Khan Younis, but she is now surviving on “a dry piece of bread,” as the territory faces a food shortage and no electricity or running water. “I don’t know if the bread will be available tomorrow,” she said.

Around 50,000 women in Gaza are pregnant, 10% of whom are expected to give birth in the coming month, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Gaza residents have faced Israeli airstrikes in several rounds of conflict over the past few years. But this time it’s different. Israel has vowed “mighty vengeance” after the Hamas militants that control the territory launched an attack on October 7, killing 1,400 in Israel.

Between October 7 and 12, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on the enclave – that’s equivalent to the total number of airstrikes on Gaza during the entire 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, which lasted 50 days. It now appears to be preparing for a ground operation into the enclave.

Israel has also imposed what it calls a “complete siege” on the territory, blocking supplies of water, electricity, goods and fuel. Human rights organizations have condemned the move as “collective punishment” and “a war crime.” Locals say that Khan Younis is still being targeted by Israeli strikes.

Many Gazans have heeded Israel’s call to evacuate from northern Gaza, with hundreds of thousands making their way south. But moving hasn’t been easy for everyone, including the sick, elderly and pregnant.

Fear of what the future holds

Nardeen Fares is nine months pregnant with her first child. Following the call by the Israeli military for civilians to flee the 27-year-old traveled Friday with her husband from the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City to Khan Younis – roughly 16 miles away or a 40-minute drive.

With her due date rapidly approaching, Fares says she fears what the future holds.

“As a woman who is in her last month of pregnancy, God knows when it will happen and what the situation will be like then,” Fares said. “Bombardment, no bombardment, you don’t know what will happen then.”

She’s concerned that hospitals in Khan Younis won’t be equipped to treat her if she goes into labor given the sheer number of people that are descending on the city. Khan Younis had a population of just over 400,000 before the war. Given the city’s proximity to the Egyptian border, it’s the destination of choice for many of those fleeing the north.

Israel on Sunday said that 500,000 residents are estimated to have left northern Gaza for the south.

She says she has heard that hospitals in the city are barely operational and medical services are “almost gone” amid a fuel shortage.

The World Health Organization warned last week that the health system in the entire strip is at a breaking point, adding that the impact would be devastating for the most vulnerable patients, including the injured who need lifesaving surgery, patients in intensive care units, and newborns depending on care in incubators.

Allen of the UNFPA said pregnant women in Gaza are “facing unthinkable challenges,” saying the stories he has heard coming out of Gaza’s are “harrowing.”

“Imagine going through that process in those final stages and your last trimester before giving birth, with possible complications, without clothing, without hygiene, support, and not sure about what the next day, next hour, next minute will bring for themselves and for their unborn child,” Allen said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that Gaza’s humanitarian situation is reaching catastrophic levels, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning Sunday that the Middle East was “on the verge of the abyss.”

‘Brink of famine’

Mona Ashour, seven months pregnant, has stayed in the north of the Strip, but not by choice.

Ashour has reduced her nutrition to the bare minimum as food and water supplies dwindle due to Israel’s blockade. She knows this could be affecting her unborn child, and that’s causing her a lot of stress.

Ashour has two daughters, and the family lives in a house that has a makeshift roof made of tin panels, leaving them exposed to shrapnel from potential Israeli missiles.

“I need a lot of nutritional supplements,” she said, adding that her husband, who used to work on a daily wage before the war, cannot afford them anymore.

The Palestinian Authority’s media office said Monday that Gaza is “on the brink of a real famine as goods in stores are running out, and no aid is coming in,” adding that over half a million people have been displaced in the enclave.

Relief groups and the UN are calling for aid to get into Gaza, some of which has arrived in Egypt’s north Sinai but is yet to cross into Gaza through the Egypt-controlled Rafah crossing.

After meeting the Egyptian president amid a whistle-stop tour of the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the crossing – which is the sole remaining route into or out of Gaza – “will be open.” He didn’t say when.

On Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said there has been no progress in efforts to open the crossing, and blamed Israel for its continued closure.

Khulood, who fled northern Gaza, said she won’t know where to go when it’s time for her to give birth.

Additional reporting by Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Chloe Liu and Niamh Kennedy

Protests erupted around the Arab world on Friday as the Gaza war raged and an Israeli ground operation with the potential to displace millions of Palestinians loomed.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the West Bank after Islamic Friday prayers to protest Israel’s actions in its war on Hamas.

The war has so far killed 4,127 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. It was launched by Israel in retaliation for an October 7 attack on the country by Gaza’s Hamas rulers – Israeli authorities say 1,400 people were killed and around 200 were taken hostage.

Israel’s strikes and calls for Gazans to evacuate the north of the strip have prompted more than a million people to flee the area, raising concern about the prospect of displacement of millions of the enclave’s Palestinians, most of whom are already registered as refugees as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Those fears have been heightened amid charged rhetoric by Israeli officials, who say Gaza will no longer be the same after Hamas is eliminated. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US was in talks with Egypt and Israel about establishing a humanitarian corridor at the Egypt-controlled Rafah border crossing for Americans and other civilians in Gaza to flee.

In a sign of the growing anger over the Israeli operation in Gaza, Egypt sanctioned its first major nationwide protest in a decade. Hundreds of protesters gathered Friday near downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square in support of Palestinians, and demonstrations occurred in other Egyptian cities

Some of the Cairo protesters chanted, “Where is the Arab army?” and, “Here they are, the Zionists,” referring to Egypt’s riot police, who pushed demonstrators into nearby Bab el-Louk Square and closed access to Tahrir.

In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, several hundred people took to the streets to denounce the Israeli offensive. Many waved the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, along with the flags of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its political ally in Lebanon, Amal. Young protesters burned the American flag, decrying Washington’s support for Israel.

Hundreds of Iraqis, mostly supporters of Iran-backed militias, staged a sit-in Friday at Iraq’s main border crossing with Jordan. Others protested in Baghdad, not far from the fortified Green Zone that houses the United States embassy.

In Jordan’s capital, Amman, some 6,000 protesters marched in support of Gazans. Some chanted slogans urging Hamas to intensify its strikes on Israel, Reuters reported.

The protests signal growing anger on the Arab street and frustration among regional leaders with the war as the Palestinian death toll climbs, and with the US’ perceived unwillingness to put restraints on Israel’s actions.

US President Joe Biden visited Israel this week, pledging continued backing for Israel. But he said that it would be a “mistake” for Israel to try reoccupying Gaza.

Rhetoric against Israel has been particularly heated from the governments of Jordan and Egypt, two US-allied countries that border the Jewish state and were the first Arab nations to sign peace treaties with it. Amman and Cairo have sounded alarms over what they perceive as a plan to transfer Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to Egypt and Jordan. While Israel has not announced any such plans, both countries have warned such a move could pull them into war.

That point was made clear by Egypt’s parliament on Thursday when, in an emergency meeting, it authorized President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to take “necessary measures” to protect national security, secure the country’s borders, and support the Palestinians.

‘Declaration of war’

Ayman Mohsab, undersecretary of the Arab Affairs Committee in the parliament, said Sisi has been authorized to take measures, “even if they include waging war.”

Egypt’s constitution stipulates that the president must seek approval from parliament before declaring war.

Sisi has suggested that Israel’s calls for the evacuation of more than a million people from northern Gaza may be part of a larger plan to rid the entire area of Palestinians.

“The displacement or expulsion of Palestinians from the (Gaza) Strip into Egypt simply means that a similar situation will also take place – namely the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan,” Sisi said, adding that there will be no point in discussing a Palestinian state, as “the land will be there, but the people won’t.”

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Wednesday told Al Jazeera that any attempts to displace Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan would be considered a declaration of “war.”

Israel captured both the West Bank and Gaza, where millions of Palestinians live, in the 1967 war and began settling Jews there. It withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but continues to blockade the territory. The West Bank, however, remains occupied and the previous right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would advance plans to extend its jurisdiction to the West Bank. Netanyahu formed an emergency government with National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz on October 11.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Egypt has pushed back against pressure for it to act, with the foreign ministry spokesman on Friday slamming Western media for “targeting Egypt, promoting the (Gaza) displacement scenario and holding it (Egypt) responsible” for the closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Israel.

Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday canceled a planned summit on the Gaza war with US President Joe Biden less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to be held, with Jordan suggesting it was a futile effort that would be unlikely to end the war.

Instead, Egypt has organized its own Cairo Peace Summit, to be held on Saturday, according to state media, with several countries taking part, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Italy and Greece, as well as the Palestinian Authority and the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Egyptian television on Friday showed live footage of demonstrations in several cities in support of Gaza and in protest at the potential displacement of its population.

The protests follow a warning by Sisi on Wednesday that he could mobilize Egypt’s entire population of 105 million to take to streets in support of his position regarding the Palestinian issue.

“If it comes to a point where I am asking the Egyptian people to go out (onto the streets) and express their refusal of this idea, then you will see millions of Egyptians,” he said during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Protests are rare in Sisi’s Egypt, where strict restrictions on demonstrations have been in place since he ousted a democratically elected government in a 2013 military coup. There have been no large-scale protests in Egypt since 2013, with the exception of rare and scattered demonstrations that took place in September 2019, leading to a massive crackdown and hundreds of arrests.

Shortages of food, fuel and electricity in Gaza “are going to kill many, many people,” a senior aid official warned Friday, as Israel’s siege and bombardment of the enclave approached the two-week mark, while life-saving aid was again stuck in Egypt for another day.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday that seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers had been rendered “out of service,” and 64 medical staff have been killed, as Israel continues its airstrikes on Gaza.

Among those trapped in Gaza are the hostages captured by Hamas during its brutal terror attack on October 7. In an update Friday the Israel Defense Forces said the majority of the hostages are alive. It said the number of missing is between 100-200, and more than 20 of the hostages are under the age of 18.

Two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, are being released for humanitarian reasons, a person familiar with the negotiations for their release and a diplomatic source said Friday. It’s unclear whether they will go to Egypt or Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders have rallied troops ahead of a potential ground incursion. The IDF has mobilized more than 300,000 reservists as it seeks to “destroy” Hamas and prevent it from launching further attacks on Israeli soil.

In a speech from the Oval Office Thursday, US President Joe Biden reiterated his government’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas, casting it as vital to America’s national security. But he cautioned the Israeli government not to be “blinded by rage” and drew a clear distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people, calling for civilians in Gaza to be protected.

Any Israeli ground incursion will come amid a growing chorus of outrage across the Arab world, where mass anti-Israel protests have broken out earlier in the week and on Friday in support of 2.2 million Palestinians who remain trapped in Gaza.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Middle East had entered “a moment of profound crisis… unlike any the region has seen in decades.”

Aid supplies in limbo

Around 200 trucks carrying vital aid destined for Gaza remain stuck in Egypt, despite a frantic diplomatic effort to open the Rafah crossing. Negotiations continued through Thursday as workers filled dangerous road craters from Israeli bombing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.

“We need to be able to have the assurance that we can go in at scale everyday – deliberately, repetitively and reliably,” Griffiths said.

Guterres traveled to the Rafah crossing on Friday as part of the UN’s efforts to help aid reach Gaza.

“Behind these walls, we have two million people that are suffering enormously. So, these trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline. They are the difference between life and death,” Guterres said at a press conference held on the Egyptian side of the border.

As well as the trucks, a plane carrying World Health Organization supplies for Gaza landed in Egypt’s Al Arish airport Friday morning, the WHO regional office wrote on X. It said the package included “surgical supplies and instruments for 1000 medical operations, water tanks and tents.”

But how much difference the initial deliveries will be able to make for the more than 2 million people living in Gaza is unclear. A group of UN independent experts accused Israel of committing “crimes against humanity” in its current campaign.

“The complete siege of Gaza coupled with unfeasible evacuation orders and forcible population transfers, is a violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. It is also unspeakably cruel,” the UN Human Rights Office said Thursday in a press release.

Doctors Without Borders said Thursday Gaza’s main medical facility, the Al-Shifa Hospital, only had enough fuel to last 24 hours.

“Without electricity many patients will die,” said Guillemette Thomas, the group’s medical coordinator for Palestine, based in Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians are using Al-Shifa hospital as a safe haven from constant bombing, he added.

Many supermarkets have no more food to sell, and everyday tasks have become grueling for residents who queue for hours for food and water under the roar of airstrikes.

The population of southern Gaza has swelled in recent days after the Israeli military told around 1 million residents to leave northern Gaza ahead of the expected Israeli ground incursion.

Israeli troops will soon see Gaza ‘from the inside’

Israel’s sustained assault on Gaza follows Hamas’ murderous rampage on October 7 that killed an estimated 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, in what has been described as the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

In the days since, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,100 people in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

The violence has spread beyond Gaza: The ministry said at least 81 people had been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. Israel also arrested more than 60 suspected Hamas operatives in the West Bank early Thursday.

Among those detained during raids was Hamas spokesperson Hassan Yousef, Israeli authorities confirmed Friday. Yousef is a leading Palestinian political figure serving as the official Hamas spokesperson in the West Bank and holding a seat on the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Meanwhile, Israel appears set to launch its ground offensive into Gaza. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered not far from the Gaza Strip on Thursday that they will “soon see” the enclave “from the inside.”

Protests in the Middle East

Any Israeli incursion will further inflame the outrage that has spread across much of the Arab world. Huge protests broke out in several Middle Eastern countries this week after an explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in southern Gaza, which Hamas officials said was caused by an Israeli airstrike that had killed 500 people.

Thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Tunisia. Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq issued statements condemning Israel and accusing its military of bombing the hospital.

But Israel has since presented evidence that it said shows the blast was caused by a misfire by militant group Islamic Jihad. US President Joe Biden backed Israel’s explanation, citing US intelligence.

But the subsequent revelations have done little to quell the rage across the Middle East.

Fresh protests began Friday, with thousands taking to the streets in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the West Bank after Islamic Friday prayers.

The protests began in the wake of a separate explosion at Gaza’s oldest church. St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in central Gaza City said its compound was hit by an Israeli airstrike Thursday night.

The footage from the ground also shows people working to search through rubble for any bodies. At one point, a group can be seen dragging a body wrapped in a blanket out of the rubble and through a small crowd, as many pull out their cameras and phones to record the moment. Other people can be seen grieving and crying.

Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, on Friday nearly two weeks after launching a deadly attack in Israel and abducting around 200 people.

The US citizens were handed over at the border with Gaza and are now in the care of the Israel Defense Forces, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday. They are currently on their way to an Israeli military base to be reunited with family, according to the office for Israel’s prime minister.

The Raanans are from Chicago and had been visiting relatives in Nahal Oz, a farming community in southern Israel, when they were taken hostage on October 7, according to their family.

During the attack, Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and soldiers, according to Israeli authorities. It was the most deadly attack by militants in Israel’s 75-year history and revealed a staggering intelligence failure by the country’s security forces.

Israel has since responded by enacting a blockade on Gaza and launching a barrage of airstrikes into the Palestinian enclave, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than 4,100 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

They were released on “humanitarian grounds” because the mother is in poor health, the same source said. The release was the result of negotiations between Qatar and Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said: “In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.” 

Qatar confirmed the release of the two American hostages and said they will “continue dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hope of releasing all civilian hostages from every nationality,” the spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majid Al-Ansari said in a statement.

President Joe Biden said he is “overjoyed” that the two US citizens will “soon be reunited with their family,” and called for their privacy. Biden reiterated that his administration has been “working around-the-clock” to free Americans held hostage by Hamas.

“Jill and I have been holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted for Americans,” he said. “And, as I told those families when I spoke with them last week—we will not stop until we get their loved ones home. As President, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world.”

The news came after US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flocked to Israel in recent days, amid growing pressure on world leaders to secure the release of the hostages.

A number of foreign nationals were among those kidnapped by Hamas, including people from the US, Mexico, Brazil and Thailand.

Information about the status, location and identity of all the hostages remains scarce. Some have been identified by families who recognize them from online videos, sparking desperate pleads for their return.

In a statement on Friday, Hamas said it is working with mediators in Egypt, Qatar and other “friendly countries” to release foreign nationals.

“This commitment remains resolute as we endeavor to enact our decision to release individuals of foreign nationalities under temporary custody, as and when security circumstances permit,” the statement said.

Representatives of the hostages have welcomed the release of the two Americans.

“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing.”

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens

An Israeli blockade of food, water, fuel and electricity is “going to kill many, many people” in Gaza, a senior aid official warned Friday, as Israel’s siege and bombardment of the enclave approached the two-week mark.

Relentless airstrikes have killed more than 4,100 people in Gaza, including at least 1,660 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 13,000 have been injured and there are growing fears that millions of Palestinians could be permanently displaced.

Seventeen people were killed in the airstrike, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Former Michigan Congressman Justin Amash said several of his relatives were among the dead.

In a statement, the Patriarchate said that “targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past thirteen days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored.”

The IDF on Friday acknowledged that “a wall of a church in the area was damaged” as a result of an IDF strike.

Meanwhile, seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers had been rendered “out of service,” and 64 medical staff have been killed, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday.

The administration of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza said on Friday that the Israeli military has demanded the immediate evacuation of the hospital in preparation for a nighttime airstrike

The IDF said that it requested residents in the northern area of the Gaza Strip to evacuate “in order to mitigate civilian harm.” But according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Al-Quds Hospital currently houses over 400 patients and approximately 12,000 displaced civilians who have sought refuge there as a safe haven.

Amnesty International has said Israel’s “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians for Hamas’ attack amounts to a war crime.

Meanwhile, around 200 trucks carrying vital aid destined for Gaza remain stuck in Egypt, despite a frantic diplomatic effort to open the Rafah crossing. Negotiations continued through Thursday as workers filled dangerous road craters from Israeli bombing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.

Deputy United Nations spokesperson Farhan Haq said Friday that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants sustained delivery operations to Gaza.

Haq said the Secretary-General “wants to make sure that UNRWA, the relief and works agency, has fuel on its side so it can distribute humanitarian aid to the population.”

“It is no use dropping off aid on the other side and then leaving it there because the trucks simply do not have enough fuel on that side to give it to the people who need it,” he added.

Guterres traveled to the Rafah crossing on Friday as part of the UN’s efforts to help aid reach Gaza.

“Behind these walls, we have two million people that are suffering enormously. So, these trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline. They are the difference between life and death,” Guterres said at a press conference held on the Egyptian side of the border.

The population of southern Gaza has swelled in recent days after the Israeli military told around 1 million residents to leave northern Gaza ahead of the expected Israeli ground incursion.

Palestinians brace for potential IDF ground operation

Israeli forces are preparing for the “next stages” of their attack, IDF spokesperson Hagari said in a news conference Friday. “As we speak, the crossings are closed and no equipment (aid) is getting into the strip,” he added.

His comments come on the heels of similar sentiments shared by Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday. Gallant told troops gathered not far from the Gaza Strip that they will “soon see” the enclave “from the inside.”

He said that potentially transferring so many Palestinians is a national security issue for Egypt as well as for Jordan. “If that is going to happen in Egypt, then who will prevent the Israelis from pushing us here in the West Bank to be forcefully transferred to Jordan?” He added that this is an existential issue for Palestinians.

Protests across the Middle East

Protests have erupted in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, enveloping much of the Arab world this week. Thousands of people took to the streets following Islamic Friday prayers.

Protesters marched in Yemen on Friday to condemn Israel’s airstrikes, the official Houthi news agency SABA reported.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which controls most of northwestern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, organized the demonstration in “mobilization and in support of the Palestinian people and the mujahideen in Gaza,” SABA said.

“The mass crowds denounced the brutal massacres of the Zionist-American enemy, the crimes and genocidal war it is committing against the Palestinian people, and the prevention of the entry of humanitarian and medical aid in full view of the world,” the agency added.

In Beirut, several hundred people gathered to denounce the Israeli operation. Many waved the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, along with the flags of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its political ally in Lebanon, Amal. Young protesters burned the American flag, decrying Washington’s support for Israel.

Hundreds of Iraqis, mostly supporters of Iran-backed militias, staged a sit-in Friday at Iraq’s main border crossing with Jordan. Others protested in Baghdad, not far from the fortified Green Zone that houses the United States embassy.

Thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered in Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Tunisia as well, as regional leaders grow frustrated with the rising Palestinian death toll and the US’ apparent unwillingness to restrain Israel’s actions.

In Egypt and Jordan, both US allies who have signed peace treaties with Israel, officials have sounded alarms over what they perceive as a plan to transfer Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to Egypt and Jordan. While Israel has not announced any such plans, both countries have warned such a move could pull them into war.

This story is developing and being updated.