JABALYA –  Israel’s military says it has encircled Jabalya, northern Gaza and launched a new ground operation, after seeing signs of Hamas rebuilding, despite nearly a year of fighting and strikes in the territory.

Despite attention shifting to Lebanon after Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the Hezbollah militant group, Israel continues to operate across Gaza and is again focusing on an area it previously said was rid of Hamas.

Elsewhere in Gaza, at least 25 people are confirmed dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school in the center of the territory, hospital officials say. Israel said Hamas was embedded in both buildings.

Israel carried out airstrikes overnight Saturday into Sunday in northern Gaza including against what the military said were “weapons storage facilities, underground infrastructure sites, terrorist cells, and additional military infrastructure sites.”

In a statement, the military said it had detected the presence of Hamas members there, as well as efforts by them “to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area,” and was moving forward with the operation to “dismantle.”

Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said it was engaged in “fierce fights” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

Dozens of families in the area have packed up their belongings and fled once again after warnings from the Israeli military of the fresh ground operation in Jabalya, which is home to Gaza’s biggest refugee camp.

The Israeli military issued a fresh evacuation order for residents in northern Gaza, adding it had expanded the scope of the “humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi.

“People left their homes this morning, and they don’t know where to go, carrying some simple belongings. There are no means of transportation”,  Abu Alaa Asaf, a resident of Beit Lahiya, told CNN.

“We heard the sounds of explosions all night long as if the war started today”,  Asaf said. Some residents of northern Gaza are refusing to move, saying there is no safe place left in the enclave.

Mohammad Ibrahim, 36, from Jabalya, told CNN: “I, along with my two sons, have stayed in Jabalya and will not go anywhere. There is no safe place in Gaza, and death is the same here or there.” (CNN)…[+]

RWANDA – Rwanda is fighting its first outbreak of the “highly virulent” Marburg virus which was first reported in late September. As of Thursday, 11 people were reported to have died of the virus in Rwanda. The health minister announced the country will begin clinical trials of experimental vaccines and treatments. Marburg is from the same family as Ebola, namely the Filoviridae family (filovirus) of viruses. It has been described as more severe than Ebola.

It causes a haemorrhagic fever, which is a type of fever that can damage the walls of blood vessels, according to information from the Mayo Clinic. Other diseases which produce this type of fever include dengue and yellow fever. According to the Mayo Clinic, a haemorrhagic fever causes internal bleeding, which can be fatal. The virus was first identified in 1967 in a town in Germany called Marburg, from which it gained its name. Simultaneously, it was identified in Belgrade, Serbia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the case fatality rate to be between 24 and 88 percent. On average, about half of all those who contract the virus die from it. After a person is exposed to the virus, it can take between two and 21 days for symptoms to show, according to the WHO. “Fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple areas,” the website says, adding that the onset of bleeding can occur within five to seven days.

Bleeding in vomit or faeces is often accompanied by bleeding from the nose, gums and vagina, WHO’s website says. In severe cases, death can occur eight or nine days after symptoms start to show. “Those with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to severe illness and death from this virus,” infectious disease expert Amira Roess told Al Jazeera. Roess is a global health and epidemiology professor at George Mason University’s College of Public Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Marburg virus symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, appetite loss, bleeding and gastrointestinal symptoms. Some people have contracted the Marburg virus after coming in contact with Rousettus bats, a type of fruit bat found in mines and caves, that carry the virus. The source of the Rwanda outbreak remains unclear, however. (Al Jazeera)

THAILAND – Flash floods swept through a popular elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand on Thursday, killing two elephants and forcing the evacuation of about 100 more alongside dozens of tourists, amid urgent pleas for help. Dramatic video and images from the Elephant Nature Park near the city of Chiang Mai showed dozens of elephants wading through belly-deep water to find safety on higher ground.

“It was the biggest evacuation we have ever done to save their lives, the water rose rapidly,” Saengduean “Lek” Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, told CNN, calling the floods the most severe the park has ever experienced. Video showed park staff who work with elephants, known as mahouts, shouting, “Go go, keep going” as they urged the huge pachyderms out of their pens and through the high floodwaters. While many of the animals found shelter on a nearby mountain overnight Thursday, come morning, Saengduean said the danger was far from over.

“There are some animals we could not evacuate yesterday. Thirteen adult elephants are still trapped in their quarters. They are panicking,” said Saengduean. One of the two elephants which died was Ploy Thong, who was blind, Saengduean said on Saturday. Two others are still missing. “My heart is broken. They were swept away by floodwaters before my eyes,” Saengduean told CNN. Northern Thailand has suffered severe flooding and landslides in recent weeks due to torrential rains brought by Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, which left dozens dead as it swept across the region in mid-September.

Authorities in Chaing Mai, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, have issued alerts for potential flooding as water levels along the Ping River, which runs through the city, reach dangerous levels. With extensive flooding around the park and waters still rising, the sanctuary’s founder said they are facing the unwelcome prospect of having to evacuate the animals a second time. “The situation is a lot worse than yesterday,” she said, adding that she has requested urgent help from Thai authorities. A priority is getting hold of boats so the mahouts can stay with the remaining elephants at the park to keep them calm, she said.

“We urgently need volunteers and animal cages as we must move the animals to the mountains due to the roads being completely cut off in both directions,” the park said in a post on Facebook. About 30 foreign volunteers are also trapped at the sanctuary, including five Americans, some of whom have been working at the park for several weeks, Saengduean said. (CNN)

WASHINGTON DC – The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the use of the first diagnostic test for mpox that will provide immediate results. This will increase testing capabilities in countries facing outbreaks, it says. The WHO announced on Friday that it had approved the “real-time PCR test”, Alinity m MPXV assay, which enables the detection of the virus by testing swabs of skin lesions.

Currently, patients have to wait days for results. This test will help health workers confirm suspected cases more “efficiently”, the WHO said. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the epicentre of the current outbreak, only 37 percent of suspected cases have been tested this year, the United Nations health agency noted.

This test’s approval “will be pivotal in expanding diagnostic capacity in countries facing mpox outbreaks, where the need for quick and accurate testing has risen sharply,” it added in a statement. Mpox, which is transmitted by human-to-human contact and contact with infected animals, has been detected in 16 African countries this year.

According to the African Union’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 800 people across the continent have died from the disease, which causes fever, aches and skin lesions. “By detecting DNA from pustular or vesicular rash samples, laboratory and health workers can confirm suspected mpox cases efficiently and effectively,” the WHO said. “Limited testing capacity and delays in confirming mpox cases persist in Africa, contributing to the continued spread of the virus,” it added. (Al Jazeera)