Banjir buruk di Malaysia, ribuan penduduk berpindah

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Okt – Malaysia kini dilanda banjir besar di beberapa negeri terutama Perak dan Pahang, dengan jumlah penduduk terjejas semakin meningkat.

Hujan lebat juga telah menyebabkan banjir kilat di Kuala Lumpur yang mengakibatkan gangguan ketara termasuk penutupan jalan-jalan utama.

Di Perak, lebih daripada 1,600 orang telah dipindahkan, manakala di Pahang, lebih daripada 1,200 orang kini berlindung di pusat pemindahan sementara (PPS).

Situasi banjir di kawasan ini kekal kritikal, manakala negeri-negeri seperti Kedah dan Melaka menunjukkan sedikit penurunan dan penduduk-penduduk sudah mula kembali ke kediaman masing-masing untuk proses pembersihan.

Amaran ribut petir dan hujan lebat telah dikeluarkan untuk beberapa negeri, dan usaha pengurusan banjir serta bantuan sedang giat dijalankan.

Pemimpin dunia mesti hentikan penyaluran senjata kepada Israel ketika kekejaman semakin meningkat di Gaza

Kekejaman terkini yang dilakukan oleh Israel ke atas Gaza harus menjadi sempadan terakhir bagi pemimpin dunia yang menyokong Israel untuk segera menghentikan semua penjualan senjata kepada Israel, kata Islamic Relief Worldwide. Dalam beberapa jam yang lalu, serangan Israel telah mengakibatkan kanak-kanak dibakar hidup-hidup dalam khemah mereka, kemusnahan ke atas lokasi vaksinasi polio, dan membunuh ibu-ibu yang sedang kelaparan ketika mereka beratur untuk mendapatkan makanan. Pada masa yang sama, keluarga-keluarga di Gaza terpaksa menderita kebuluran di rumah mereka apabila Israel memutuskan semua bekalan makanan dan bantuan lain ke utara Gaza.

Penjualan senjata ini dilihat membantu dan menyokong kekejaman, serta boleh diklasifikasikan sebagai jenayah perang, dan pemimpin mana-mana negara tidak boleh berkomplot dalam menyokong kekejaman ini.

Dengan perhatian global yang semakin beralih dari Gaza, Israel telah meningkatkan serangan terhadap rakyat Palestin di seluruh wilayah tersebut. Di tengah Gaza, pagi ini kanak-kanak telah dibakar hidup-hidup selepas tentera Israel melakukan pengeboman ke atas hospital al-Aqsa di Deir al Balah. Petugas perubatan melaporkan jeritan kesakitan memenuhi udara dan puluhan wanita dan kanak-kanak dengan luka terbakar tahap tiga yang teruk sedang dirawat di hospital akan tetapi mereka tidak mempunyai kelengkapan yang baik. Lebih daripada 1 juta orang kini terperangkap dalam keadaan tidak berperikemanusiaan dan berbahaya di zon ‘kemanusiaan’ yang kecil di tengah Gaza, antara Deir al Balah dan al Mawasi, dan kini Israel telah memaksa lebih ramai orang ke sana sambil berusaha mengosongkan utara Gaza.

Di Jabalia, utara Gaza, Israel meningkatkan perancangan untuk menggabungkan wilayah dan memaksa rakyat Palestin melarikan diri dengan melakukan pengeboman tanpa henti dan kebuluran yang berterusan. Puluhan orang awam telah terbunuh di sana dalam beberapa hari lalu dan Israel telah memperketatkan kepungan dan menghalang sebarang bekalan makanan baru memasuki utara Gaza selama 2 minggu yang lalu. Pagi ini, serangan bom dilakukan ketika aktiviti pengedaran makanan di Jabalia sedang dijalankan lalu membunuh ibu bapa dan kanak-kanak yang kelaparan ketika mereka beratur untuk mendapatkan sisa makanan.

Walaupun Israel mengarahkan orang di utara untuk bergerak ke selatan, ramai juga penduduk Palestin yang melaporkan telah ditembak oleh penembak tepat Israel ketika cuba untuk menyelamatkan diri. Banyak keluarga kini terperangkap dalam zon pengeboman dan penembak tepat tanpa ada tempat untuk melarikan diri. Namun, orang awam yang tidak meninggalkan Gaza utara tidak hilang hak mereka untuk mendapatkan perlindungan dan bantuan di bawah undang-undang antarabangsa.

Pengeboman yang semakin meningkat dan pemindahan paksa orang awam telah menyukarkan usaha untuk memberikan vaksin polio kepada kanak-kanak kecil, dengan kesan berpotensi yang boleh dirasai hingga ke generasi akan datang. Pusingan kedua kempen vaksinasi polio dijadualkan bermula hari ini, bertujuan memberikan dos vaksin kedua yang amat penting kepada hampir 600,000 kanak-kanak di bawah umur 10 tahun. Namun, rancangan ini dalam bahaya apabila sekurang-kurangnya satu sekolah yang dijadikan lokasi vaksinasi telah dibom dalam tempoh 24 jam yang lalu, mengorbankan ramai orang awam yang berlindung di situ.

Gaza sedang dimusnahkan di hadapan mata dunia. Walaupun Israel terus menghalang akses media antarabangsa ke Gaza dan melakukan serangan yang menyasarkan wartawan, pemimpin tidak boleh mengatakan bahawa mereka tidak tahu mengenai kekejaman ini. Mereka mesti mengambil tindakan yang lebih berani dan memastikan tindakan perlu diambil di atas  pelanggaran undang-undang antarabangsa yang telah dilakukan oleh Israel. Islamic Relief Worldwide menggesa pemimpin dunia untuk menghentikan semua pemberian senjata dan menuntut dengan tegas agar pengilhakan Israel dan pemindahan paksa rakyat Palestin di Gaza utara mesti dihentikan dan mendesak Israel untuk mematuhi perintah Mahkamah Keadilan Antarabangsa (ICJ) bagi mencegah genosid.

Krisis di Lubnan Memuncak, Penduduk Semakin Menderita

Sekurang-kurangnya 2,141 orang terkorban, manakala 10,099 lagi cedera berikutan ketegangan yang memuncak di Lubnan dengan serangan paling dahsyat pada 23 September 2024.

Lebih satu juta penduduk hilang tempat tinggal dan terpaksa menjadi pelarian di dalam negara sendiri.

Lebih 400,000 orang dikatakan telah melarikan diri ke Syria.

Serangan berbalas antara kedua pihak bertelagah dijangka meningkat.

Setiausaha Agung Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), Antonio Guterres, dalam laporan berita Xinhua, menyatakan kebimbangannya bahawa konflik yang semakin meruncing dan serangan berterusan mungkin menyebabkan Lubnan menghadapi nasib yang sama seperti Gaza.

Lebih 77 kawasan kampung dan bandar di Selatan Lubnan diarahkan berpindah, namun serangan udara tetap terus dilancarkan.

Kini, ratusan ribu orang berlindung di kawasan sekolah yang dijadikan pusat penempatan sementara, namun ia tidak cukup untuk menampung keseluruhan jumlah penduduk yang terjejas.

Keadaan menjadi sesak dan padat, hingga ada yang terpaksa tidur di luar bangunan sekolah atau taman permainan.

Lebih 100 orang berkongsi satu tandas dan ada yang tiada kemudahan bilik mandi.

Dianggarkan 100,000 orang terpaksa tidur di jalanan, selain berlindung di dalam khemah yang didirikan di kawasan pantai.

Setakat 10 Oktober 2024, Islamic Relief Lubnan telah mengedarkan 11,737 pek makanan, 500 pek daging, 2,273 kit kebersihan, 1335 selimut dan tilam serta 17,609 alatan perubatan bagi membantu penduduk terjejas di Lubnan.

Gaza’s year of massacre and misery

“I have changed during these months. I used to think the future would be bright but now I do not think so: our future is very dark.”

In May 2024, we published these words from an 8-year-old girl in Gaza. Yomna described how her life had become “like a nightmare” since the previous October.

Now, life has only gotten more challenging for Yomna and the more than 2 million others living under bombardment in Gaza. A future which seemed bleak 5 months ago, has gotten even darker as Palestinian families reflect on a year of horror, with still no end in sight.

It’s difficult to describe the loss, destruction and devastation the Israeli bombardment is having on Gaza. The numbers are overwhelming.

More than 41,000 people have been killed – including over 11,300 women and 16,750 children. At least 96,000 more people have been injured.

Only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still functional – and all only partially. Shortages of fuel, medicine and essential supplies are hampering efforts to treat the wounded and care for the chronically ill.

Around 90% of Gaza’s population is now displaced, with many having to flee again and again in search of safety, but there is nowhere safe for them to go. Diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters and famine conditions are spreading

Many have no home to return to as bombing has left more than 60% of Gaza’s residential buildings damaged or destroyed.

Supporting the people of Gaza

In a new report, Islamic Relief outlines how our dedicated staff and partners in Gaza have been supporting people in desperate need over the last year, even as they face great hardship themselves.

With the exception of our Orphan Sponsorship Programme, which has expanded considerably, Islamic Relief’s regular programmes have been suspended for the safety of our staff, partners and the communities we serve. Instead, we have focused on responding to the emergency.

Over the last year, we have helped feed people displaced people in shelters with hot meals, food packs, vegetables and vouchers. We have also distributed desperately needed clean water and nutritional supplements to people in shelters. To help combat the spread of disease, we’ve set up portable toilets and provided hygiene kits to displaced people.

We have organised games and performances for children to help support their mental health and provide a momentary distraction from the hardship they’re enduring.

Prior to October, Islamic Relief supported 8,750 orphans in Gaza through our Orphan Sponsorship Programme. Now, more than 16,400 children are receiving a monthly stipend, as well as food parcels and gifts at Ramadan and Eid. While the programme has expanded, we are heartbroken that 118 of the children and young people we have cared for have been killed since the crisis began.

Ceasefire now

The generous support of our donors is putting aid into the hands of families in desperate need in Gaza. But so much more is needed. Humanitarian organisations can ease the suffering of Palestinian families, but we cannot bring it to an end –and, devastatingly, world leaders have repeatedly failed to act as international law is violated every single day.

The dire conditions inside Gaza are a stain on the conscience of the world, which has watched on as children are bombed, families are displaced repeatedly, women give birth without medical care, and hope is stripped from ordinary people.

Now, after almost one year of unfathomable loss, and as Israel’s bombing spreads across the region, Islamic Relief is clearer than ever that this nightmare must end. We continue to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the region. International law must be upheld, and anyone found to have committed violations must be held to account. We are calling for Israel to end its attacks and the forced displacement of civilians, and to end the siege so that sufficient humanitarian aid can enter Gaza to alleviate the suffering of its people.

Read more in our new report A year of massacre and misery: Israel’s nightmare campaign against Palestinian families in Gaza.

Help Islamic Relief continue supporting vulnerable people in Gaza. Donate to our Palestine Appeal now.

One year on, the world has failed civilians in Gaza, with terrifying global consequences

The world’s complete failure to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza over the past year is doing irreparable damage to international law, with terrifying global consequences, Islamic Relief warns as the wider Middle East region stands on the precipice of disaster.

Over the past year we have seen international law violated every day with total impunity. Israel’s indiscriminate and relentless attacks have killed and wounded civilians at a faster rate than anywhere this century. Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon of war, blocking food from reaching starving children. Families are ordered from one area to another like pawns on a chessboard, then bombed in the schools and tents where they are told to shelter. Entire neighbourhoods are now rubble, and schools, hospitals and religious sites have all come under unprecedented attack. More humanitarian workers, medics, teachers and journalists have been killed in Gaza than anywhere else. Warnings of ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes continue to be ignored as each day brings new horror and families are squeezed into ever-shrinking areas. Gaza’s entire society is being destroyed.   

International Humanitarian Law (IHL), or ‘the law of war’, was established to protect civilians all over the world from the impact of conflict. If these laws are not upheld consistently and are allowed to be violated so blatantly, there is even less chance of holding warring parties to account and protecting civilians elsewhere. Millions of lives affected by conflicts all over the world are at stake.  

Now as the crisis spreads, Islamic Relief continues to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire across the region. International governments must use all their leverage to demand an end to attacks on civilians and violations of international law, including by ending all arms sales that fuel the violence. Ultimately Islamic Relief wants to see a lasting peace where all Palestinians and Israelis can live in safety and dignity, and have their same fundamental human rights upheld. We believe that this will not ultimately be possible until there is an end to the Israeli Occupation.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is virtually unparalleled. An Islamic Relief aid worker in Gaza, whose name is withheld for his safety, says:  

“This has been a year of torture, famine, loss and annihilation. After one year I still don’t see any ceasefire on the horizon and Israel blocks aid with impunity as the world watches. 

“Almost everyone is displaced. My own house is damaged and uninhabitable, my sisters and brothers have lost their homes, and all my colleagues at Islamic Relief have lost theirs.  

“Our Islamic Relief office is gone, as are my children’s schools, the mosque I used to pray at, the hospital where my kids were born, the restaurants I liked, and my Christian neighbours’ church. Israel is systematically destroying our lives.  

“We search everywhere for medicine for my mum’s diabetes but can’t find it anywhere. My friend is suffering so badly from kidney stones that they can hardly move, but there is no treatment. I can’t even find paracetamol and Israel blocks wounded people from leaving Gaza for treatment.” 

Despite the enormous challenges, Islamic Relief staff and local partners have delivered aid almost every single day over the past year. This includes cooking and distributing more than 40 million hot meals for displaced families who have nothing else to eat, providing water to 110,000 people a day, supplying nutritional supplements to 35,000 pregnant women and young children every 2 weeks, and running psychosocial support sessions for over 94,000 children.  

But the scale of the crisis is almost incomprehensible. One in every 16 people in Gaza are now killed or wounded, with more than 41,000 people killed and 96,000 injured. Around 1.9 million people – 90% of the population – are now displaced from their homes, most of them having to move multiple times as nowhere is safe. 60% of homes and 68% of roads are damaged or destroyed, and more than half of hospitals and health facilities have been forced to shut down. 85% of schools have been bombed, hundreds of teachers killed, and 625,000 children have now been out of school for a whole year, with enormous implications for future generations. The relentless crisis is having a devastating psychological toll.  

Almost all civilians are facing severe shortages of food, with young children at immediate risk of starvation and facing long-term impacts of malnutrition such as stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.   

This year-long massacre must not be allowed to continue for a moment longer.

Timba Ilmu Bersama

Dalam ketegangan situasi yang berlaku di Gaza, Islamic Relief terus proaktif menyalurkan bantuan dan menyantuni rakyat Palestin.

Terbaharu, kakitangan Islamic Relief bersama rakan kerjasama kami telah menjalankan program Menimba Ilmu Bersama melibatkan kanak-kanak dan remaja di Gaza.

“Alhamdulillah, program ini memberi makna besar buat mereka. Walaupun dalam situasi konflik yang masih belum reda, mereka sangat gembira kerana program ini dapat mewujudkan kembali suasana pembelajaran seperti di sekolah dahulu.

“Berkat sokongan dan sumbangan anda semua, kami dapat merealisasikan projek pendidikan ini meski masih dalam fasa kecemasan,” kata salah seorang kakitangan Islamic Relief Palestine.

Serangan yang dilancarkan ke atas Gaza sejak 7 Oktober lalu telah mengakibatkan kira-kira 625,000 kanak-kanak tidak dapat meneruskan persekolahan.

Dalam tempoh 11 bulan ini, lebih 9,500 pelajar meninggal dunia dalam serangan.

Bangunan sekolah yang menjadi tempat perlindungan penduduk setempat turut diserang tanpa belas ihsan.

Lebih 85 peratus sekolah-sekolah di Gaza rosak dan musnah dalam siri pengeboman yang dilancarkan.

Selain bantuan pendidikan, Islamic Relief turut menyalurkan bantuan lain hampir setiap hari merangkumi agihan makanan, air bersih, alatan pembersihan bagi pusat perlindungan sementara, aktiviti psikososial, rawatan perubatan dan suplimen lipid-based nutrient untuk kanak-kanak serta ibu mengandung dan menyusu.

Setakat 30 September, angka korban di Gaza mencecah lebih 41,595 orang, manakala 96,251 lagi cedera.