Alaska Natives increasingly prefer to be known by the names they use in their own languages, such as Inupiaq or Yupik.
"Inuit" is now the current term in Alaska and across the Arctic, and "Eskimo" is fading from use.
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Egypt to present 'vision' to rebuild Gaza without displacement
Egypt has said it is working on a "comprehensive vision" for the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip that guarantees Palestinians the right to stay on their land, unlike the proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said it hoped to co-operate with the Trump administration to reach "a just settlement of the Palestinian cause".
It followed Trump's meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday, where he doubled down on his plan for the US to take over Gaza and permanently move the two million Palestinians living there to Jordan, Egypt and other locations.
Abdullah said every Arab state rejected the idea, and that Egypt would present an alternative.
The UN has warned that any forced displacement of the territory's population would be illegal under international law and "tantamount to ethnic cleansing".
It comes amid growing concern that the fighting in Gaza could resume, after Israel's prime minister warned Hamas it would end the ceasefire if the Palestinian armed group "does not return our hostages by Saturday".
Benjamin Netanyahu issued the ultimatum after Hamas said it was postponing freeing more hostages until further notice, claiming Israel had violated the terms of the ceasefire deal.
Sitting alongside King Abdullah at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said there had been "great progress" on his proposal to take over Gaza.
"With the United States being in control of that piece of land... you can have stability in the Middle East for the first time," he told reporters. "And the Palestinians, or the people that live now in Gaza, will be living beautifully in another location."
When pressed by the reporters to comment on the plan to force the Palestinians to relocate to Jordan, King Abdullah said: "We have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries."
Later, the king wrote on X that he had "reiterated Jordan's steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank" during the meeting, adding: "This is the unified Arab position."
Trump had said before the meeting that he could "conceivably" halt aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused to co-operate with his plan and take in displaced Gazans.
Not long after the king's remarks, Egypt's foreign ministry said it hoped to co-operate with the Trump administration to reach "a just settlement of the Palestinian cause".
"In this context, Egypt affirms its intention to present a comprehensive vision for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, in a manner that ensures the Palestinian people stay on their land, and in line with the legitimate and legal rights of this people," it added, without giving any details.
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also told Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a phone call on Tuesday that the reconstruction of Gaza must happen "without displacing Palestinians", his office said.
It was not immediately clear when Egypt would present its alternative Gaza plan.
Cairo is due to host an emergency Arab summit to discuss the "serious" developments for Palestinians on 27 February, while King Abdullah said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had invited Arab leaders to Riyadh at an unspecified date.
Sisi was also given an open invitation by Trump to visit the White House during a phone call earlier this month. However, Egyptian security sources told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that Sisi would not travel to Washington if the agenda included Trump's plan.
Abeer Barakat, a Palestinian teacher in Gaza City, told the BBC she believed Trump's plan was "impossible to achieve" but that it had infuriated people.
"We worry that Jordan and Egypt are going to bend from Trump's threats," she said.
Palestinians fear a repeat of the Nakba - the Arabic word for "catastrophe" - when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes before and during the war that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the occupied West Bank, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN.
Asked by reporters on Monday if the US would force Palestinians to leave Gaza, Trump replied that "they're all going to want to leave". He also said in an interview that Gazans would have no right of return because he was "talking about building a permanent place for them".
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
More than 48,220 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times, almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
#news #Israel #Gaza #Egypt #Palestinian #territories #DonaldTrump #Jordan #UnitedStates
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Toddler who has just days to live evacuated from Gaza for urgent medical care
A Palestinian toddler forced to wait weeks for permission to leave Gaza for life saving medical treatment has finally arrived in Jordan. The girl is now in hospital receiving critical medical treatment.
Two-year-old Habiba al-Askari left the besieged Palestinian enclave after a mammoth effort at the “highest level” in Amman, a Jordanian official familiar with the negotiations told CNN. Jordan decided to evacuate her following a CNN report on her story.
Israel initially approved Habiba’s treatment abroad last month, before it denied authorization for medical evacuations for more than two weeks, according to international aid groups.
Doctors believe Habiba has protein C deficiency – a rare but highly treatable genetic condition, which causes excessive blood clotting – and warned that the child will likely lose her right leg and possibly arms.
But thousands of children like Habiba cannot access life-saving care in Gaza, where more than 15 months of Israel’s siege and bombardment has paralyzed the medical system.
Following a CNN report on Habiba last month, Jordan decided to evacuate her to Amman for urgent medical treatment. Israel then delayed the mission, Jordanian officials told CNN last week. Israeli authorities did not respond to CNN’s repeated requests for comment at the time.
On Thursday, Habiba was admitted into intensive care in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital with a lung infection. Her heart stopped twice, according to her mother and health workers who resuscitated her. On Sunday, Israel further delayed clearing the evacuation – postponing the urgent mission and refusing to allow her mother Rana to accompany her daughter.
In CNN video from the hospital over the weekend, Rana, 37, sobbed and embraced her daughter at her bedside. In one scene, Habiba, who is too young to understand her mother’s pain, leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheeks.
“Oh Lord I pray to you for a miracle, but if this is your will, I will accept it,” Rana cried before collapsing to the floor. Habiba, sitting up in her bed, stared quietly at the nurses who rushed to pick up her mother.
Jordanian officials worked behind the scenes to obtain Israeli approval for Rana to escort Habiba and the girl’s brother Soheib.
To spare Habiba a long and perilous journey, Jordan had requested an airlift by its military from the Israel-Gaza border, but Israel denied that request, according to a senior Jordanian official, who told CNN Israeli authorities would only approve a land movement.
On Sunday, Israel then authorized Soheib’s journey – before revoking its permission at the last minute, according to Jordanian officials. The official told CNN that they finally obtained approval for the whole family to leave Gaza early Monday.
The senior official described the mission to evacuate Habiba as unnecessarily difficult. “We worked relentlessly, daily, to get Habiba out. It was followed at the highest levels in Jordan,” the official said.
COGAT, the Israeli aid agency, told CNN on Monday: “Israel has approved Habiba Mahmoud Abd al-Nasser Askari’s departure to Jordan for medical treatment, accompanied by her mother and her 10-year-old brother.”
Approvals for the departure of children and their family members for medical treatment were “subject to a security review by relevant authorities before their entry into Israel’s sovereign territory,” COGAT said on January 14.
Israel’s military campaign since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks has erased entire families, spawned starvation and disease, and decimated medical infrastructure in Gaza. After a fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas materialized on January 19, Palestinians say they are struggling to reconcile the psychological trauma and physical destruction wrought by more than a year of war.
‘The stakes are a child’s life’
On Monday, the toddler and her family were first transferred in an ambulance by Gaza’s health ministry to the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel and handed over to a Jordanian medical team.
Habiba was then taken through Israel and into Jordan via the King Hussein Bridge, also known as the Allenby Bridge crossing, where a medical team dispatched at the order of King Abdullah II was waiting in a helicopter to take her to a hospital in Amman.
A CNN team on the ground at the Jordanian side of the border heard sirens and saw blue and red ambulance lights illuminating a path leading to the helicopter. Three military medics met Rana and her two children inside the emergency vehicle Monday evening before the family were transferred into the chopper. The toddler lay swaddled in a blanket with a red fluffy toy as Rana gazed out the window, her eyes weary with exhaustion after her first time leaving Gaza.
Military medics monitored Habiba’s oxygen levels throughout the ten-minute flight to Amman before they arrived at the Queen Rania Al Abdullah Hospital for Children. Habiba was then seen to by medical workers at the facility. Habiba lay in bed and beamed up at her older brother.
COGAT previously told CNN that it has enabled 24 medical evacuations from Gaza through Israel to other countries “in recent months,” for 1,075 Gaza residents seeking medical care. Between 12,000 to 14,000 people still require medical evacuation from Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
At least 37 patients and 39 companions left Gaza from Rafah, WHO said on Saturday, after the crossing re-opened.
Like Habiba, 2,500 other children in Gaza require urgent medical evacuation, according to the UN. But for those waiting for a lifeline, there is no such promise, according to a humanitarian worker in the region.
Arwa Damon, the founder of the relief organization INARA, told CNN that Israel’s process for facilitating children’s medical evacuations from Gaza is “never clear.” INARA was not involved in Habiba’s evacuation mission.
“It’s like trying to navigate a twisted reality TV show… where the rules for survival are… constantly shifting and the stakes are a child’s life,” Damon said Monday. “What we have faced trying to get Habiba out is not unique to her, it’s the status quo.”
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