Gaza, DR Congo, Cuba
Today's three stories you should know
Gaza
A man, his wife and and their 6-year-old daughter have been killed in an airstrike on Gaza, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest Israeli violation of a ceasefire agreed with Hamas in October. Omar Abu Qassem, his wife, Asma, and their daughter, Habeeba, were killed in the attack on their apartment building, medics said. Their 3-year-old son, Sami, was the only survivor of the strike but was wounded. Israel said it had targeted a Hamas member. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded since the ostensible ceasefire began, most of them women and children.
More from Reuters here.
Episode 7 of The Proximities Podcast is live. I spoke to investigative journalist Mohamed Gabobe about a U.S. drone strike in Somalia that killed 12 civilians, including eight children. But the U.S. military, which has been waging a covert war in Somalia for decades, will not admit that a single civilian was killed that day.
It’s on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.
DR Congo
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has passed 2,000, according to government figures, as the fastest-growing outbreak in history continues to spread. The figures showed that 754 people have now died. On Tuesday, though, the U.N. health agency said the outbreak was much worse than official data suggests. "The scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found," WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said. Efforts to fight the outbreak have been hampered by challenges, including the epicenter’s location in a conflict zone. Health workers at Bunia General Hospital walked off the job today in a dispute over pay, following staff members at other clinics who have done the same.
More from AP here.
Cuba
A power grid collapse left about 10 million people without power in Cuba as a continuing U.S. oil blockade worsened fuel shortages and piled pressure on the island’s power system. It was the third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the blockade shortly after Washington’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela had long been Cuba’s main supplier of subsidized oil, and under U.S. pressure, Mexico also stopped shipping fuel to the island. Speaking at a U.N. debate last week, U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz blamed Cuba’s leaders for the blackouts. “Change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people,” he said.
More from Al Jazeera here.