GAZA – “Higher,” the little girl demands, her eyes bright with excitement. “Higher, higher.”

Zeina’s being pushed on a swing in a small playground in the suburbs of the northern Italian city of Padua.

A normal scene anywhere in the world.

But Zeina, two, can’t move her head properly. And the right side of her face, neck and scalp are marked with deep, still angry, scars.

Right now, though, she’s safe and fed. And she feels like she’s flying.

Zeina is one of the 5,000 people who have been allowed to leave Gaza for specialist treatment abroad since the war broke out in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on 7 October in southern Israel.

The World Health Organization says more than 22,000 Gazans have suffered life-changing injuries as a result of the conflict – but very few have been allowed to leave the strip since the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was closed in May.

“It was a day of nightmares,” says Zeina’s mother, Shaimaa, describing the moments leading up to her daughter’s injury as she was playing in their family’s tent in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, on 17 March.

The family had already fled twice from their home in Khan Younis, first to Rafah and then to the sprawling “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, where they thought they would be safe.

Zeina and her four-year-old sister Lana had been playing together, hugging and telling each other “I love you, I love you” – Shaimaa recalls – when there was a huge air strike nearby.

Zeina, terrified, ran clutching at her mother, who was holding a pot of boiling soup which spilled all over her daughter.

“Her face and skin were melting in front of me,” Shaimaa says. “I picked her up and went barefoot into the street.”

Medical services were stretched, she says, but Zeina was eventually treated by Red Cross doctors at Gaza’s European hospital, where she underwent a skin graft from her father’s leg, followed by a more successful graft from the skin on her own leg after she reached Egypt.

Earlier this month she was flown from Egypt to Italy to access more specialised treatment.

Zeina was joined by Alaa, a 17-year-old who was severely injured in an air strike on her home in Gaza City late last year. When the two girls met, they formed a bond straight away.

“I took to her immediately,” Alaa says. “She’s endured so much pain for such a small child. I’m older and sometimes the pain was too much for me. So what about her?”  (BBC) …[+]

GUYANA – A whopping US$34 million in interest alone was paid by the state to service its debt during the first six months of 2024, a burden this country would not have had if government had executed better strategies in the management of the petroleum sector.

This is according to Publisher of Kaieteur News and businessman, Glenn Lall. The advocate in a recent public message emphasized that the climbing interest rates could force Guyana to fork out another USD 35 million in interest for the remaining months of the year, taking the total interest on debt service to USD 70M by December.

The country’s debt service reached USD 85.2M in the first six months of 2024, with USD 34M alone paid in interest. Although the country’s total debt climbed from USD 4.5B at the end of December 2023 to USD 5B at the end of June 2024, the Bank of Guyana (BoG) in its 2024 Half Year Report revealed that Guyana’s total debt service, during the period under review, decreased by 7.7 percent to USD 85.2 million.

Lall was adamant that the USD 5B debt that currently hangs over the head of each Guyanese “like a dark cloud” would not have been present had the oil sector seen prudent management over the last five years.

The businessman reasoned that since Guyana began producing oil in December 2019, consecutive governments have failed to prevent the wanton abuse of the country’s resources by foreign companies.

He said, “Five years into pumping oil, and we still haven’t capped the interest rates or equity charges on the oil companies’ investments, nor have we ring-fenced any of the oil projects…had the government and opposition simply ring-fenced these oil projects, Guyana could’ve paid off its debts by now.”

A ring-fencing provision would ensure only costs related to one project are paid off from those revenues. In this way, more money would be available to share as profits between the government and Exxon, after the co-venturers recover the cost of the project. Presently, Guyana could have been receiving a greater share of profit from the three projects producing oil- Liza One, Liza Two and Payara. This, as Exxon has since recovered over USD 19B from the Stabroek Block, well above the cost for the three projects.

To this end, Lall said, “Guyana would be on a development drive unmatched in the region, with our people already enjoying the wealth from our resources. But no, instead, we’ll be heading back to those same overseas banks next year, borrowing more money and paying more interest, while boasting about “development” financed by loans.”.  (Kaieteur News) …[+]

TEL AVIV – On October 7, Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-styled image as “Mister Security” seemed irrevocably shattered by the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The Jewish homeland and its leader had failed to protect the people. How could he possibly survive?

The polls told us as much. He had formed an extremist coalition government in November 2022 on the back of the 32 seats his Likud party secured in the 120-seat Knesset. After Hamas’ attack, a string of opinion polls suggested that were elections held, Likud would get just 17 seats, putting the government’s long-term survival in jeopardy.

Nearly a year later, Netanyahu has staged a remarkable turnaround. Though Likud would still struggle to form a government were elections held today, a brutal campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon and assassinations across the Middle East in recent weeks have buoyed the prime minister to heights unimaginable in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ attacks almost a year ago.

A poll released Sunday by Israel’s Channel 12 showed that Likud would win 25 seats were elections to be held today, making it the largest party. Netanyahu enjoys 38% support, according to the survey.

“The regional confrontations are good for Netanyahu,” veteran pollster and analyst Dahlia Scheindlin told CNN. “They seem quite clearly to be the contributing factor to his recovery.”

Israel’s aggressive military maneuvers against its enemies, she said, have helped restored a sense of agency and strength destroyed by Hamas’ October 7 attack. The war in Gaza is popular in Israel, but it brings with it complex questions around long-term occupation, relations with the Palestinians, and most importantly for Israelis, the fact that 101 hostages are still held there.

Israel’s military attacks elsewhere are seen at home as more black and white. “It’s clear enemies of Israel,” she said, referring to those whom Israel says it is targeting. “There’s no ambiguity around this question of occupation, et cetera.”

The aggressive military campaign began in April, when an airstrike on Iran’s embassy complex in Syria killed a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. Israel did not comment but was widely understood to be responsible. That was followed by a July airstrike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s most senior military official, Fu’ad Shukr. The next day, an explosion in a Tehran government guest house killed Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. (CNN) …[+]