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In a hospital in Yemen’s Taiz, a 25-year-old pregnant mother of two lay immobilised after a bullet lodged in her spine while she was trapped inside her home without food or water for two days. The UN and aid agencies say health needs in the besieged city of Taiz are critical, amid acute shortages of medicine, oxygen, surgical gloves, anaesthetic and fuel. Hospitals near Yemen’s front lines are facing large influxes of patients, treating up to 700 war wounded in a single week, according to the Red Cross. Amal al-Sabri said she was injured by a sniper bullet in the village of Al-Shaqb — perched on the slopes of Mount Sabir overlooking Taiz — as an escalation in fighting between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement takes a devastating toll on civilians. Medics at Al-Thawra hospital in Taiz said they could not perform a scan because she was over four months pregnant. “The bullet entered from the side and is now lodged near the spine. They (the doctors) couldn’t remove it because of the fetus,” Sabri told Reuters. “Now I am giving up the fetus.” Taiz governorate, which hosts about half of the 281,000 people who have been newly displaced in Yemen since the start of August, has been largely isolated since October 3, with fighting preventing humanitarian supplies from entering and civilians from leaving. Taiz, Marib and the Red Sea coast are seeing some of the highest casualties, with patients arriving at hospitals with gunshot wounds and complex blast injuries, according to the Red Cross. “The healthcare system across Yemen is at a breaking point,” said Red Cross spokesperson Hachem Osseiran. Even before the latest fighting, more than 40% of hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country were already either closed or partially functioning following years of protracted conflict, he said. There are also concerns about the outbreak of disease as water runs short and rubbish accumulates on the street. Throughout Yemen, primary care for pregnant women is disrupted. In some hospitals near the front lines, maternity wards are being converted into emergency rooms, Osseiran said. 

Her Excellency Minister of State for International Cooperation Dr Maryam bint Ali Al Misnad met here on Tuesday with Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Pierre Krahenbuhl, who is visiting Qatar.The talks focused on cooperation between the State of Qatar and the ICRC and ways to strengthen joint efforts to support international humanitarian work, protect civilians and people affected by armed conflicts, and uphold the principles of international humanitarian law.The two sides also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Sudan, including efforts to ensure aid reaches people most in need.They stressed the importance of protecting civilians and humanitarian workers and reducing the suffering of people affected by conflicts.Both sides underlined the need for continued cooperation to promote respect for international humanitarian law and ensure adherence to its principles. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday welcomed the start of Hamas's release of Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, saying that with their release, "peace becomes possible for Israel, for Gaza, and for the region." "I share the joy of the families," Macron wrote on X, after seven captives were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The French president made the remarks upon his arrival in Egypt to attend a summit on Gaza. The Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit is being held today, co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump, with participation from leaders of more than 20 countries. The summit aims to mobilize broader international support for President Trump's peace plan for the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing discussions regarding post-war governance, security and reconstruction in the territory.

AFP Gaza Strip The Red Cross warned Saturday that any Israeli attempt to evacuate Gaza City would put residents at risk, as Israel's military tightened its siege on the area ahead of a planned offensive.Gaza's civil defence agency said that since dawn Israeli attacks had killed 61 people in the territory already devastated by nearly 23 months of war."It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions," International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement. The dire state of shelter, healthcare and nutrition in Gaza meant evacuation was "not only unfeasible but incomprehensible under the present circumstances".Israel is under increasing pressure to end its offensive in Gaza where the great majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine. But despite the calls at home and abroad for an end to the war, the Israeli army is readying itself for an operation to seize the Palestinian territory's largest city and relocate its inhabitants.The Israeli military has declared Gaza City a "dangerous combat zone", without the daily pauses in fighting that have allowed limited food deliveries elsewhere. The military did not call for the population to leave immediately, but a day earlier COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said it was making preparations "for moving the population southward for their protection".Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP 57 people had been killed in Israeli bombing since dawn. The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure. Bassal said 12 people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit "a number of displaced people's tents" near a mosque in the al-Nasr area, west of Gaza City.Umm Imad Kaheel, who was nearby at the time, said children were among those killed in the strike, which had "shaken the earth". "People were screaming and panicking, everyone running, trying to save the injured and retrieve the martyrs lying on the ground," the 36-year-old said.The civil defence agency said 12 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited near food distribution centres in the north, south and centre. A journalist working for AFP on the northern edge of Gaza City reported he had been ordered to evacuate by the army, adding conditions had become increasingly difficult, with gunfire and explosions nearby. Abu Mohammed Kishko, a resident of the city's Zeitoun neighbourhood, told AFP the bombardments the previous night had been "insane"."It didn't stop for a second, and we didn't sleep all night," the 42-year-old said.