Middle East
Beauty in Gaza: Noor’s tent salon in the rubble | Israel-Palestine conflict
Gaza City – Amani Dweima has come to the salon with her 16-year-old daughter, Aya.
The 39-year-old wants her eyebrows shaped, and Aya wants a full face of makeup; there’s a wedding planned for that evening after iftar.
“My niece’s wedding,” Amani says. “We’re celebrating the bride with a small family gathering before the groom takes her to their tent.”
Noor’s Salon
The salon is a small blue tent with a single table inside topped with a damaged mirror, depilation tools, moisturisers, and some makeup.
Outside the tent in al-Shujaeya east of Gaza City, a white handwritten sign reading: “Noor’s Salon” hangs near the curtained entrance.
This is Noor al-Ghamari’s salon, a dream project for the young woman who quit nursing college to pursue her love of hair and makeup.
She set it up about three weeks ago on a destroyed pavement, the only option available when she and her family returned to the north from their displacement to the south.
After greeting Amani and Aya, she starts softening a small piece of sugaring paste, gently kneading it in her hands, and begins working.
“Since I opened, so many women have come to me with heartbreaking stories … about losing their families and loved ones. They arrive exhausted, their faces drained of light,” Noor said.
The idea of a beauty salon in the midst of war may seem odd, Amani and Noor agree, but the act of self-care can help women.
“Women come to me from tents, overcrowded schools, or the ruins of their destroyed homes.
“I try to offer them a moment of comfort, a small escape. My main goal is for them to leave feeling even just a little lighter, a little happier.”
Amani, who was displaced to Deir el-Balah and has recently returned to the north, as well, didn’t think about going to a beautician at all in the early days of the war.
Eventually, she came across a similar salon in Deir el-Balah and started to go as regularly as she could.
“Looking after myself changes my mood, especially when I see my reflection in the mirror. I always want to look presentable.
“The tragedies around us never end. Visiting a beauty salon is … a small escape from all the hardships around us,” she adds.
Back in the north, she was “thrilled” when she saw Noor’s Salon and immediately spread the good news to her neighbours and relatives.
Beauty amid war
Noor believes the war has been particularly cruel to women in Gaza – stripping them of their homes and security and of their capacity for self-care as they poured their energy into survival.
“I saw many women whose skin was completely burned by the sun from living in tents, constantly cooking over wood fires, washing clothes by hand, and carrying heavy water containers,” she says.
“On top of that, they have no privacy in the overcrowded displacement camps, not to mention the fear, bombings, and all the horrors of war.”
And yet, she says, she has had clients of all ages who feel that self-care is essential for them.
“I met many women who couldn’t stand a single stray hair on their face or eyebrows. Some came to me every week, others regularly or occasionally,” Noor says.
She recalls a client she got once, a woman in her early 30s who had been through a huge trauma when her parents and all her siblings were killed in an Israeli air raid.
Coping with her loss meant the woman lost all desire to do anything.
“I felt so deeply for her,” Noor says.
“I gave her a full treatment – threading, eyebrow shaping, a haircut, even a free face massage and masque.
“When she looked in the mirror, her eyes filled with happy tears.”
Holding on to dreams
Israel’s war on Gaza began right as Noor was dreaming, laying out the plans for her own – bricks-and-mortar – salon.
Like everyone in Gaza, her life and plans were turned upside down as she, her parents and her eight siblings were forced to flee south after Israeli evacuation orders.
For the first two months, her only thoughts were of survival and helping her family, she says.
“But after the initial months, when we settled in a displacement camp in the south, I heard women say things like: ‘If only there were a hairdresser or a salon nearby so we could take care of ourselves a little.’
“I would respond: ‘I’m a beautician!’” Noor laughs.
“The women would grab me like they had just found a treasure, and I would start working immediately.”
Some women came to her, while she went to others in their tents – depending on their needs.
Now, her work has become an essential source of income for her and her family during the war, even though she can’t charge her five to eight customers a day much.
“I live here, I understand the reality,” she says, explaining why she keeps her prices low.
‘War aged us’
Amani seems restless as Noor finishes threading her face.
She asks if Noor can dye her hair, but Noor can’t.
“There’s no water in this area,” she explains. “Dyeing needs running water, and my tent is on the pavement, surrounded by destruction – there’s no water, no electricity, nothing.
“I make do with the simplest equipment and only offer basic services.”
Amani sighs, running her fingers through her greying hair beneath her hijab.
“I only used to have a few grey hairs. But now, it’s everywhere. This war aged us,” she says with a sad smile.
Noor shifted her attention to Aya, discussing the colour of her dress to choose matching makeup.
“I brought my daughter today so she could take care of herself a little – as a way to lift her spirits,” Amani said, smiling at her daughter, whose eyes are closed for eyeshadow application.
“I want her to grow up knowing that she should always take care of herself, no matter what.
“I also want to bring her some joy. What we’ve seen during this war has been beyond devastating.”
As Noor adds her final touches to Aya’s makeup, she talks longingly about her dreams.
“More than anything, I want this war to end so I can expand my business, move to a proper salon, and offer more services.
“But my message to all women is this: Take care of yourselves, no matter what. Life is short.”
The United States says a new Israeli-approved organisation – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – is the key to resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, but it already is receiving its fair share of criticism.
The GHF says it is going to start operations before the end of May. United Nations officials and humanitarian groups say it will not have the ability to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s two-month-long blockade.
Instead, the aid groups that have been working in Gaza point out that they have the capacity to bring in food and other humanitarian supplies – if only Israel would let them.
So what is the GHF, and why is the situation in Gaza so desperate? Here’s everything you need to know:
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Officially independent, the GHF is an Israeli- and US-backed body that plans to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip.
One in five people in Gaza currently face starvation due to the Israeli blockade of food and aid while 93 percent are experiencing acute food shortages, according to a UN-backed assessment released last week.
Under increasing international pressure to allow in aid, Israel has sought to find a solution that it says prevents aid from falling into the hands of the Palestinian group Hamas. Humanitarian organisations say the vast majority of food and other supplies reaches Gaza’s civilian population and is not diverted to fighters.
The GHF will be overseen by Jake Wood, a US military veteran who ran Team Rubicon, an organisation that distributed humanitarian aid during natural disasters.
What’s the plan for delivering the aid?
Through the GHF, Palestinians in Gaza would receive a “basic amount of food”.
The initial plan was announced last Wednesday with a timeline of about two weeks before it was up and running.
It’s still unclear how the GHF will be funded, but the foundation says it will set up “secure distribution sites” to feed 1.2 million people in Gaza before expanding to feed every Palestinian in the territory.
It says it will coordinate with the Israeli military while security would be provided by private military contractors.
Why is the GHF being criticised?
The GHF initiative has been widely panned by aid groups and the UN.
The UN and humanitarian aid agencies say they already have the means to distribute desperately needed aid and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The GHF, on the other hand, is seen by critics as a way of politicising aid and not having the experience or capacity to bring aid to more than two million people.
The GHF “restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet”, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said at the Security Council last week. “It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
The UN and aid groups say the GHF plan violates basic humanitarian principles.
“We are concerned by the proposed aid mechanism for Gaza and are deeply worried that it will not allow for humanitarian aid to be distributed in a manner consistent with core humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity, and independence,” a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. “The ICRC cannot work under any mechanism that doesn’t allow us to uphold the principles and our modalities of work.”
Eleven humanitarian and human rights organisations signed a statement in which they “unequivocally reject the establishment” of the GHF, calling it:
“A project led by politically connected Western security and military figures, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain under total siege. It lacks any Palestinian involvement in its design or implementation.”
That lack of Palestinian involvement, coupled with Israel’s approval for the project and the planned presence of the Israeli military “on the perimeter” of the distribution sites, according to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, raises Palestinian suspicions that the establishment of the GHF will give even more power to Israel over aid distribution in Gaza.
Why is aid not reaching Gaza?
Israel is blocking it.
Israel began preventing the entry of all food and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza on March 2 during a ceasefire, which it unilaterally broke on March 18.
Even before the blockade, Israel restricted the amount of aid that could come in, and some Israeli protesters also blocked and destroyed aid.
The situation has reached dire levels with the World Food Programme saying 70,000 children need urgent treatment for “acute malnutrition”.
How would the GHF displace Palestinians?
The UN said the GHF would weaponise aid by threatening the mass displacement of Palestinians.
Initial aid distribution sites would operate only out of southern and central Gaza, which the UN warned could lead to the displacement of Palestinians in northern Gaza as they are forced to move south for food and other aid.
“Humanitarian aid should not be politicized nor militarized,” the ICRC statement said. “This erodes the neutrality required to ensure assistance is delivered based solely on need, not political or military agendas.”
The initiative has also been labelled by many in the humanitarian sector as insufficient.
“Even if implemented, the plan’s proposed aid volumes fall short of the immense scale of needs in Gaza,” according to the ICRC. “The level of need right now is overwhelming, and aid needs to be allowed to enter immediately and without impediment.”
Gaza currently has 400 distribution points, and the ability and know-how to distribute aid effectively exists. With only a few distribution points under the GHF, people may be forced to walk long distances and carry heavy rations.
“The Problem is Not Logistics,” the statement from the 11 humanitarian groups read. “It Is Intentional Starvation.”
Enough. We demand rapid, safe, and unimpeded access to starving civilians in Gaza.
We have a plan. We have thousands of trucks of food at the border. Let us in. Let us work.https://t.co/J55f8shIEU pic.twitter.com/bTmcAMbG0e
— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) May 16, 2025
People with disabilities or who are injured would struggle to navigate the terrain and reach distribution points. The roads in Gaza have been badly damaged over the past 19 months of war, and the intensity of Israel’s latest military operation in Gaza is only making things more difficult for Palestinians there.
Furthermore, the GHF’s assertions that it is independent and transparent have been criticised by aid groups.
“Despite branding itself as ‘independent’ and ‘transparent,’ the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be wholly dependent on Israeli coordination and operates via Israeli-controlled entry points, primarily the Port of Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing,” the statement by the 11 aid groups read.
While Hanan Salah, Human Rights Watch’s associate director for the Middle East and North Africa, didn’t comment specifically on the GHF, she said allowing “a basic amount of food” into the Gaza Strip was “complicity in using starvation as a method of warfare”.
Middle East
Lithuania files case against Belarus at ICJ over alleged people smuggling | European Union News
The Baltic nation is seeking damages, including compensation for border reinforcement costs.
Lithuania has initiated legal proceedings against Belarus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbour of orchestrating a refugee and migrant crisis by facilitating the smuggling of people across their border.
“The Belarusian regime must be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of illegal migration and the resulting human rights violations,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement on Monday.
“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law.”
The case, submitted to the ICJ in The Hague, centres on alleged violations by Belarus of the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said attempts to resolve the issue through bilateral talks failed and it has evidence showing direct involvement by the Belarusian state in organising refugee and migrant flows, including a surge in flights from the Middle East operated by Belarusian state-owned airlines.
After landing in Belarus, many of the passengers were escorted to the Lithuanian border by Belarusian security forces and forced to cross illegally, Lithuanian officials said.
Lithuania also accused Belarus of refusing to cooperate with its border services in preventing irregular crossings and said it is seeking compensation through the ICJ for alleged damages caused, including costs related to border reinforcement.
Tensions between the two countries have simmered since 2021 when thousands of people – mostly from the Middle East and Africa – began arriving at the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia from Belarus.
Belarus had previously deported Middle Eastern refugees and migrants with more than 400 Iraqis repatriated to Baghdad on a charter flight from Minsk in November 2021.
That same year, a Human Rights Watch report accused Belarus of manufacturing the crisis, finding that “accounts of violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and coercion by Belarusian border guards were commonplace”.
European Union officials have also accused Minsk of “weaponising” migration in an effort to destabilise the bloc. The claims are strongly denied by Belarus.
In December, the EU approved emergency measures allowing member states bordering Belarus and Russia to temporarily suspend asylum rights in cases in which migration is being manipulated for political ends.
Middle East
Palestinian journalist among two killed in Israeli attack on Gaza hospital | Israel-Palestine conflict News
Hassan Eslaih has been killed in Nasser Hospital during treatment for injuries sustained in the previous Israeli attack.
Israel’s army has admitted to carrying out “a targeted attack” on the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing two people, including Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih.
Gaza’s Government Media Office on Tuesday confirmed the killing of Eslaih, who was receiving treatment at the hospital’s burn unit for severe injuries sustained during an April 7 Israeli strike on a media tent located next to the hospital.
The AFP news agency footage from Nasser Hospital after Tuesday’s strike showed smoke rising from the facility as rescuers searched through the rubble by the light of torches.
A hospital worker who gave his name as Abu Ghali said the Israeli bombardment “does not differentiate between civilians and military targets”.
“This is a civilian hospital that receives injured people around the clock,” he told AFP.
Eslaih was the director of the Alam24 News Agency and a freelancer who contributed to international news organisations, including photos of the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
Israel has claimed Eslaih was a Hamas fighter who participated in the October 7 attack, an allegation he vehemently denied.
Dozens of journalists killed
At least 178 journalists and media workers have been killed in Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Gaza’s Government Media Office put the death toll at 215.
Israel’s military said in a post on Telegram that the strike targeted a Hamas “command and control complex” at the hospital – the largest in southern Gaza – without providing further evidence.
“The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and [military] troops,” the post said, in what appeared to be a reference to Eslaih and Hamas.
Gaza’s Health Ministry on Tuesday condemned “the repeated targeting of hospitals and the pursuit and killing of wounded patients inside treatment rooms”, saying it “confirms Israel’s deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the healthcare system”.
Hospitals in Gaza have been a frequent target of Israeli attacks since the war began in October 2023, although attacking health facilities, medical personnel and patients is illegal under the 1949 Geneva Convention.
According to officials in Gaza, Israel has bombed and burned at least 36 hospitals across the enclave since the war erupted.
-
Education5 hours agoHarvard’s ‘cheap’ copy of the Magna Carta turned out be from 1300
-
Asia1 day agoBuilding fire kills 17, injures others in southern India
-
Education1 day agoOklahoma high school standards push 2020 election misinformation
-
Sports10 hours agoAngel Reese responds to WNBA investigation of alleged fan abuse