The Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia, President Vladimir Putin said.
In a televised address to the country, the Russian president warned that U.S. air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said flies at ten times the speed of sound and which he called the Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree. He also said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are used to attack Russia.
“We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against military facilities of the countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities,” Putin said in his first comments since President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the green light this month to use U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike at limited targets inside Russia.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that Russia’s missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate range missile based on it’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.
“This was new type of lethal capability that was deployed on the battlefield, so that was certainly of concern,” Singh said, noting that the missile could carry either conventional or nuclear warheads. The U.S. was notified ahead of the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels, she said.
New details have emerged in the case of the Palestinian surgeon who was tortured to death and sexually abused by Israeli forces. Meanwhile, the health situation in Gaza remains dire.
New reports have surfaced regarding the death of Palestinian surgeon Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, who was abducted by Israeli armed forces in December 2023 during an attack on Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. His case sheds further light on the abuse endured by health workers in Israeli prisons and detention camps. Palestinian prisoner associations had previously reported that Dr. Al-Bursh died as a result of torture. Now, testimonies from other detainees reveal that his abuse included sexual abuse.
These reports indicate that Israeli soldiers subjected Al-Bursh to exceptionally harsh treatment as soon as they identified him at Al-Awda Hospital. Dr. Khalid Hamouda, another physician detained by Israeli forces, recounted the severe injuries Dr. Al-Bursh sustained during his imprisonment in Sde Teiman concentration camp. At one point, Dr. Al-Bursh had difficulty walking or using the toilet without help, and feared his ribs had been broken in the beatings. Dr. Hamouda described meeting him in this state before Dr. Al-Bursh was transferred to Ofer prison.
When Dr. Al-Bursh was transferred to the new facility, fellow prisoners described his state as “deplorable.” They recounted visible injuries across his body, evidence of severe assault, and reported that he had been left naked “in the lower part of his body.” Soon after, he died.
“A doctor. A stellar surgeon. The embodiment of Palestinian ethics. Likely raped to death,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote on X following the release of the new reports. She condemned the lack of reaction to the atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers, stating, “The racism of Western media who are not covering this, and Western politicians who are not denouncing this, together with the thousand other testimonies and allegations of rape and other forms of mistreatment and torture that Palestinians have suffered in Israeli jails, is absolutely sickening.”
Accounts of torture and abuse similar to what Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh endured have been shared by other health workers recently released from Israeli detention. Many have highlighted that health workers represent a significant proportion—up to one quarter in some camps—of the total number of detainees held by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). This supports reports that the IOF systematically targets health workers in an effort to undermine Palestinian resistance and destroy any prospects for rebuilding.
Among those who described their imprisonment is Dr. Khaled Al Serr, a doctor originally employed at the Nasser Medical Complex, who spent six months in detention. He described following a similar path to Dr. Al-Bursh, being transferred from Sde Teiman to Ofer prison, where he endured regular beatings, including to intimate areas. “It was humiliating, but worse than that, they treated us like criminals,” he said in recent interviews. “We were just doctors trying to save lives.”
Despite targeted attacks and the acute shortage of medical supplies, nurses, doctors, and other health workers in Gaza continue to provide care under dire circumstances. Recent efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies finally succeeded in reaching the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza to facilitate medical evacuations and deliver some essential supplies, including fuel, food, and medicine. However, these missions were obstructed by Israeli soldiers, who blocked parts of the deliveries. This has led to even more uncertainty about how much longer these facilities can remain operational.
The consequences of shortages and ongoing attacks in Gaza are escalating by the day. Hunger is spreading rapidly, with health and nutrition experts warning that signs of famine in the northern regions are becoming increasingly alarming. They are urgently calling for the immediate delivery of food across the Strip and an end to Israeli obstructions of humanitarian aid, emphasizing that delays will have fatal outcomes. People will die of hunger even before a famine is officially declared, and this would have “irreversible consequences that can last generations,” warned Rein Pulsen of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The number of people hospitalized due to hunger, including many children, is rising, with their health further deteriorated by critical living conditions. Infectious diseases are spreading, compounded by the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure. Most forcibly displaced people are living in makeshift tents and are forced to rely on improvised absorption trenches for sanitation. These trenches, mostly dug by the displaced themselves, pose severe risks: children have fallen into them, collapses caused by oversaturation are not uncommon, and they have become breeding grounds for diseases like cholera. “We relieve ourselves in a pit that smells and certainly causes us disease, but we have no choice but to use it,” Abdul Salam Al-Aswad, one of the displaced, told The Electronic Intifada.
The impact on chronic diseases in Gaza is equally worrying. Cancer patients are being denied access to lifesaving care, while Israeli bombardments have exposed thousands of pregnant women to toxic materials found in explosives. Doctors have noted a troubling increase in infants born with congenital conditions, such as underdeveloped lungs, limbs, and other severe abnormalities, warning of correlations with the use of white phosphorus. Without adequate medical care in Gaza and with medical evacuations systematically denied, many of these children die.
As an immediate ceasefire is the only true solution to the destruction of healthcare in Gaza, health workers and activists are urging more international pressure on Israel. This pressure is essential not only to stop the attacks, but also to ensure the entry of medical supplies and, critically, food into the besieged Strip, offering at least some immediate relief.
People’s Health Dispatchis a fortnightly bulletin published by thePeople’s Health Movementand Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, clickhere.
A lifeguard hut rests on its side after Hurricane Milton, October 11, 2024, at Clearwater Beach, Fla.
RICH countries received strong criticism at the Cop29 conference in Azerbaijan today for wanting to spend more on wars and weapons than on preventing climate change.
“Global military spending stands at $2.5 trillion (£1.9trn) annually,” Panamian climate envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez told delegates at the faltering annual talks sponsored by the United Nations.
“For some, $2.5trn dollars to kill each other, it’s not enough, but $1trn to save lives is unreasonable.”
“Causing our own extinction is the most ridiculous thing. At least the dinosaurs had an asteroid. What is our excuse?”
Palestinian Environment Quality Authority chairwoman warned that Israel is committing “ecocide” after over a year of bombardments in Gaza.
“Protection of the environment is actually not an ancillary issue, it is not a secondary option, it is a basic right that is related to all of us as human beings,” she said.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged developed nations to consider moving their 2050 emission goals forward to 2040 or 2045.
“The G20 is responsible for 80 per cent of greenhouse-effect emissions,” he said. “Even if we are not walking the same speed, we can all take one more step.”
Meanwhile, a new scientific study has found that climate change has made Atlantic hurricanes about 18mph stronger in the last six years.
PENSIONER anger erupted at Labour as government figures conceded that 100,000 older people risk being pushed into poverty by the cut in winter fuel payments.
The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) renewed demands that ministers do a U-turn on the controversial cut, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves shortly after assuming office.
NPC general secretary Jan Shortt said she was “gravely concerned” by figures included in an analysis revealed by the Department for Work and Pensions this week.
These showed that the removal of the benefit will plunge around 50,000 pensioners into relative poverty next year, and the same number again by the end of the decade.
Ms Shortt said: “We find it completely unacceptable that an extra 50,000 to 100,000 older people will fall into poverty as a result of the decision to means-test the winter fuel payment.
“The message to older people is that the government is happy to accept them as collateral damage. The government must know these older people are not the ‘broadest shoulders’ they keep saying must pay to fix the economic deficit.
Palestine Action activists occupying the site of Elbit Ferranti in Oldham, Greater Manchester in 2021
COUNTER-TERRORISM police have arrested 10 more Palestine Action activists in connection to a protest at a “research hub” belonging to Israel’s largest weapons firm Elbit Systems.
Another 10 had already been detained when the action took place on August 6.
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Despite being arrested under the Terrorism Act, which allows police to detain suspects up to 14 days without charge, the activists were all charged with non-terror offences, such as criminal damage and aggravated burglary.
Police confirmed that 10 more were arrested under the Terrorism Act on Tuesday in connection with the incident.
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A spokesperson for the group accused the British state of “acting to protect the interests of a foreign genocidal regime, over the rights and freedoms of its own citizens.”
They added that the real terrorists were “those assisting and arming Israel’s genocide.”
It comes a month after counterterrorism police raided the home of Asa Winstanley, a journalist covering the occupation of Palestine.
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Cage International head of campaigns Naila Ahmed said: “The British government continues to build an infrastructure of authoritarian laws.
“This is beyond a question of complicity; the UK police are now acting as an extension of a genocidal entity, abusing and exploiting any and every power at their disposal to intimidate and crush resistance to the mass killing of humans in Gaza.”
