Heroic Beirut nurse reunited with babies she saved from port explosion

Lebanese nurse Pamela Zeinoun, who was hailed a national hero for rescuing 3 newborns at St George Hospital University Medical Center during August 4 Beirut explosion, reunited with them on Wednesday, the blast’s first anniversary. (Supplied)
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Updated 05 August 2021
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Heroic Beirut nurse reunited with babies she saved from port explosion

  • As she hugged them a year later, Pamela Zeinoun said she felt like she gave them the same warmth as when she carried them to safety
  • The nurse said it felt great to see the children are growing up healthily, safely and away from danger

BEIRUT: A nurse hailed as a national hero for rescuing three premature babies from a hospital wrecked by the explosion at Beirut’s port a year ago was reunited with them on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the blast.
Pamela Zeinoun was working at St. George Hospital University Medical Center, less than a kilometer from the port, when the massive explosion sent a devastating shock wave through the city.
Without knowing what had happened, she instinctively scooped up a twin brother and sister and a third baby from their cots in the damaged neonatal intensive care unit on the hospital’s fourth floor and carried them to safety.

 

 

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Zeinoun told Arab News. “The feeling of holding again the babies who I had saved a year ago was indescribable — so warm and empathetic.”
The twins, Ali and Sidra, and the third baby, Noah, were brought by their families to the hospital, which was forced to close because of the damage caused by the explosion but has partly reopened, to meet Zeinoun. Noah’s family left Lebanon after the explosion
A photo of the reunion was taken at the spot where a news photographer captured one of the most enduring images of the disaster: a dust-covered Zeinoun clutching the three babies, cradling a phone with her neck.
“It was so heartwarming and emotional, especially when I tried to carry them in one go,” said Zeinoun who recalled how tiny they were 12 months ago and how they have grown since. “They looked so cute, funny and lovable to play with. I felt I was giving them the same warmness I had given them on Aug. 4 in 2020.”
She said it felt great to see the children are growing up healthily, safely and away from danger.
Zeinoun described the explosion as a “heartbreaking catastrophe” and said she sympathized with all the families and victims who lost loved ones. In her hospital alone, the blast killed 22 people.
“When I see the casualties’ families trying to find answers to what happened, I feel like their daughter … I just wish that justice would prevail and we find out who is behind what happened,” she added.
Describing the scene inside her ward after the explosion, she said the ceiling had collapsed and the room was littered with debris, furniture and toppled medical equipment.
Amid the confusion, as she held the three infants she stopped to answer a ringing telephone in the emergency room, a moment that was captured by Lebanese photojournalist Bilal Jawich. His photo went viral worldwide, appearing on news sites and TV channels and social media platforms.
A new father who was visiting his newborn baby on the day of the explosion, helped Zeinoun by lifting metal shelves that had fallen onto incubators so that she could rescue the infants. Despite all the damage, chaos and broken elevators, the nurse managed to carry the newborns down four floors and out of the hospital to safety.
She then walked with them in her arms for nearly 5km through streets littered with rubble and wreckage before the driver of a car took them to another hospital.
On Wednesday’s anniversary, the people of Lebanon mourned those who were killed and injured in what was one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history. More than 200 people died, more than 6,500 were injured and an estimated 300,000 were left homeless.

 

 

 


Syrian government and Kurdish-led force exchange prisoners in a step toward easing tensions

Updated 12 sec ago
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Syrian government and Kurdish-led force exchange prisoners in a step toward easing tensions

ALEPPO, Syria: Syrian authorities and a Kurdish-led force exchanged Monday more than 400 prisoners as part of a deal reached earlier this year between the two sides.
The exchange in the northern city of Aleppo is a step in the process of confidence- building measures between the government in Damascus and the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. A similar exchange took place in April.
Mulham Al-Akidi, the deputy governor of Aleppo province, said 470 prisoners were released by both sides adding that the exchange “aims to reduce tensions on the ground.” He added that if there are more prisoners they will be released in the near future.
Yasser Mohammed Hakim said he was detained six months ago after he drove into an SDF-controlled area by mistake. The man added that he was held in a jail where members of the Daesh group are held in Syria.
“They put us with the biggest terrorists,” Hakim told The Associated Press after his release by the SDF. “I am a civilian who took the wrong road. I lost six months of my life.”
In March, Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main US-backed force there into the Syrian army.
Since the deal was signed, the clashes between the SDF and the Syrian National Army, a coalition of Turkiye-backed groups, almost stopped in northern Syria after months of fighting that left dozens killed or wounded on both sides.
Syria’s new rulers are struggling to exert their authority across the country and reach political settlements with different ethnic and religious groups in the war-torn nation.

UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

Updated 02 June 2025
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UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

  • Antonio Guterres says he is appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid
  • Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah

GAZA: UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for an independent investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians near a US-backed aid center in Gaza after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli fire and the military denied any involvement.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near the aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, with AFP photos showing civilians at the scene carting away bodies and medics at nearby hospitals reporting a deluge of gunshot wound victims.
The Israeli military, however, denied its troops had fired on civilians in or around the center, and both it and the aid site’s administrator accused Hamas of sowing false rumors.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
The Israeli government has cooperated with the group running the site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to introduce a new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system.
The UN has declined to work with the group out of concerns about its neutrality, with some aid agencies saying it appears designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
An eyewitness from the scene in Rafah, Sameh Hamuda, 33, had told AFP he was headed toward the aid site amid a crowd of other Palestinians when “quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting.”
“Several people were killed right in front of me,” he said.
Another witness, Abdullah Barbakh, 58, also told AFP “the army opened fire from drones and tanks.”
Following the reports, the Israeli army said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
Army spokesman Effie Defrin said in a video message that “Hamas is doing its best, its utmost, to stop us from” distributing aid, and vowed to “investigate each one of those allegations” against Israeli troops.
“I urge you not to believe every rumor spread by Hamas,” he added.
GHF also denied any deaths or injuries took place, adding that “these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas.”
Israel has come under increasing international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza following a more than two-month blockade on aid that was only recently eased.
The UN has warned the entire population of the territory is facing the risk of famine.
It has also reported recent incidents of aid being looted, including by armed individuals.


Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack that triggered the war have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Militants took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
After the two sides failed to agree on a new ceasefire proposal last week, Hamas said it was ready to “immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had told the army “to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations.”
Since a brief truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas.
On Monday, Gaza’s civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 14 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza, “including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble.”
“This house has been bombed before... and people were martyred previously,” resident Mousa Al-Bursh told AFP.
“The house primarily belongs to the Al-Bursh family, but it shelters many others, more than one family, and we don’t know the number of victims inside.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

Updated 02 June 2025
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Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

  • Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza
  • The facility was damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya

LONDON: Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that nearly half of the kidney failure patients in the coastal enclave have died since October 2023 amid ongoing Israeli attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid.

Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza barred 41 percent of kidney patients from accessing life-saving dialysis treatment, resulting in their deaths, according to the Wafa news agency.

On Saturday, Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza, one of the few specialized facilities providing kidney dialysis to 160 patients.

Video footage appears to show Israeli military excavators completely demolishing the facility that was partly damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya.

“The destruction of this center is a catastrophic blow to the health system,” a Palestinian medical source told Wafa, warning of dire consequences for the remaining kidney patients in Gaza.

“This is a disaster with consequences we cannot yet fully comprehend,” they added.


Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

Palestinians react at the site of an Israeli strike on a mosque, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025.
Updated 02 June 2025
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Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

  • Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH: An Israeli strike on a residential building in the Gaza Strip on Monday killed 14 people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.
The Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying five women and seven children were among those killed.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group is entrenched in populated areas.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of the population.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned, and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. It has said it will maintain control of Gaza indefinitely and facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population.
Palestinians and most of the international community have rejected the resettlement plans, viewing them as forcible expulsion.


Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

Updated 02 June 2025
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Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

NAJAF: Iraqi authorities on Monday launched a probe into a mass die-off of fish in the southern marshlands, the latest in a string of such events in recent years.
One possible cause for the localized die-off could be a shortage of oxygen sparked by low water flow, increased evaporation and rising temperatures fueled by climate change.
Another possible reason could be chemicals used by fishermen to make it easier to catch their prey, local officials and activists told AFP.
AFP images showed large quantities of silver fish floating in the marshlands of Ibn Najm near the southern city of Najaf.
Buffaloes could be seen surrounded by dead fish, trying to cool themselves off in the water.
“We have received several citizens’ complaints,” said chief environmental officer in Najaf, Jamal Abd Zeid, adding that a technical inspection team had been set up.
An AFP photographer at the site saw a team of civil servants collecting water from the marshland.
Among the issues the team was tasked with probing, Abd Zeid said, were a shortage of water, electrical fishing and the use by fishermen of “poisons.”
For at least five years, Iraq has been hit by successive droughts fueled by climate change.
Authorities also blame the construction of dams by neighboring Iran and Turkiye for the drastic drop in flow in Iraq’s rivers.
The destruction of Iraq’s natural environment is only the latest layer of suffering imposed on a country that has endured decades of war and political oppression.
“We need lab tests to determine the exact cause” of the fish die-off, said environmental activist Jassim Assadi.
A lack of oxygen caused by low water flow, heat, evaporation and wind were all possible reasons, he said.
He said agricultural pesticides could also have led to the mass die-off.
Probes into other similar events showed the use of poison in fishing led to mass deaths.
“It is dangerous for public health, as well as for the food chain,” Assadi said.
“Using poison today, then again in a month or two... It’s going to accumulate.”