Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the centre of Gaza City was sheltering thousands of people who had been forcibly displaced by Israel before a air strike killed hundreds on Tuesday night.
Palestinian officials said Israel was responsible for the strike, with the Palestinian Authority's health minister accusing Israel of a massacre.
Israel blamed the blast on a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which denied responsibility.
MedGlobal, a non-profit medical organisation that works in Gaza, denounced the attack as a "war crime" that "compounds trauma in the Gaza Strip, sending the message that nowhere is safe, not even inside a hospital".
“The bombing of the [Al Ahli] Baptist hospital is the worst attack on a medical facility in the 21st century,” said MedGlobal president Zaher Sahloul.
Where is Al Ahli Arab hospital?
Al Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as Mamadani Hospital, is Gaza’s only independent Christian-led medical facility.
The 80-bed hospital handles about 3,500 outpatient visits a month, according to the website of the Diocese of Jerusalem, the local branch of the Anglican Communion that runs the hospital.
According to the hospital’s records, doctors at Al Ahli Arab handle about 300 operations and 600 radiology cases a month.
“The devastation witnessed, coupled with the sacrilegious targeting of the church, strikes at the very core of human decency. We assert unequivocally that this is deserving international condemnation and retribution. An urgent appeal resonates for the international community to fulfil its duty in protecting civilians and ensuring that such inhumane, horrific acts are not replicated,” the Diocese of Jerusalem said.
The hospital was founded in 1882, according to the Jerusalem diocese’s website and also ran a free programme for breast cancer detection.
It also provided free medical care and food to people in nearby towns and villages.
“In addition to its hospital facility, Al Ahli provides free mobile clinics to villages across Gaza and offers specialised support for different community groups such as free clinics for elderly women, free care for burn injuries and underweight or malnourished children, screening programmes for early detection of breast cancer among women and essential psychosocial support,” the Amos Trust, a pro-Palestine NGO group, said.
What has happened at the hospital during Israel-Gaza war?
The World Health Organisation said the hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip that faced evacuation orders from the Israeli military in recent days.
"The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced," the WHO said.
During Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, the hospital opened its doors to family members of the injured who were seeking refuge and shelter from the Israeli strikes. Hospital staff provided them with food, beds and support.
During that war in 2014, hospital staff at the hospital said they treated more than 45 severe burns cases a day on average, about half of which were children.
Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Dr Ashraf Al Qudra said rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Wednesday morning.
Before the deadly hospital strike, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel's 11-day bombardment that began after Palestinian militants launched an assault that caught Israel by surprise and led to nearly 200 people being taken to Gaza as hostages.
CREW
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
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Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Match info
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