Iran protests: Trump says ‘HELP IS ON ITS WAY’ as death toll hits 2,000

(NEW YORK) — With a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in effect, many questions about the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip remain. It may take decades, not years, to rebuild Gaza due to the massive destruction, an expert from the Brookings Institute told ABC News.

Under the ceasefire agreement, the Gaza Strip is set to be redeveloped for the Palestinian people. Jaco Cilliers, an official from United Nations Development Programme, said at a press conference on Tuesday that it had already cleared some 81,000 tons of rubble from the Gaza Strip and was continuing to do so.

However, it is unclear when reconstruction will begin and who will finance the effort, the Brookings Institute expert, Hady Amr, told ABC News.

“I don’t think there’s any modern comparison to what’s going to need to happen in the Gaza Strip right now,” Amr, the former U.S. representative for Palestinian affairs from 2022 until 2025, said. “The level of destruction and devastation is just absolutely immense.”

About 83% of all buildings in Gaza City alone were damaged as of Sept. 23, according to the United Nations Satellite Center. About 40% of those buildings were destroyed. 

“Imagine not just your house was destroyed, your block was destroyed, your neighborhood was destroyed, but 80 to 90% of the universe that you have access to,” Amr said.

Schools, hospitals, as well as water and electricity infrastructure have all been devastated during the two-year war from Israel’s extensive military campaign on the Gaza Strip, Amr said.

“It’s just going to be incredibly difficult for people to just even continue to survive while the reconstruction takes place,” Amr said.

Israel has faced heavy criticism and condemnation over its military action in Gaza from humanitarian rights groups and aid groups.

In September, the International Association of Genocide Scholars — the world’s largest group of academic scholars studying the topic — passed a resolution saying Israel’s “policies and actions” in Gaza “meet the legal definition of genocide,” established by the U.N. in 1948.

Israel has denied that it is committing a genocide in Gaza and denied claims that it has targeted civilian infrastructure. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has agreed to allow into Gaza higher volumes of much needed aid.

Recovery
Significant amounts of equipment and supplies will be needed to begin recovery, another expert said.

“With the rubble and the massive destruction, there is also concern that there are a number of victims, of bodies, that are buried in that rubble — they would also need to be exhumed,” Mona Yacoubian, the director and senior adviser of the Middle East Program at the bipartisan, nonprofit think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News. 

Before reconstruction can begin, there need to be areas that are safe and cleared of unexploded ordnance, Yacoubian said. Amr echoed this point, noting that removing unexploded ordnance and removing rubble will both be a “massive issue” that could take years.

There needs to be a restoration of services like running water and electricity in the meantime, according to Yacoubian.

“There’s going to need to be a massive scale up of life saving assistance just to ensure that people are getting food and medical assistance and also shelter, so perhaps tents, and all the kinds of things that are required,” she said.

The ceasefire agreement ensures humanitarian aid can resume entry into Gaza immediately at a larger scale.

“At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the January 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads,” the agreement released by the White House said.

Since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, it’s unclear how much additional humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza, though Israel has long maintained they have always allowed enough aid into Gaza.

The UN and other international aid organizations have reported they are able to move more freely around Gaza in areas where the IDF has withdrawn, but additional border crossing points have yet to open.

Challenges ahead
Many challenges lie ahead, starting with whether this is really the end of the conflict, according to Amr.

“The central challenges today are ending the war, getting Israel to end its military occupation, and then we need to get to a situation where there can be a security force that comes in to provide basic security. Once that happens, that’s when reconstruction can start,” Amr said.

He highlighted another issue in the reconstruction.

“Freedom of movement of people and goods, that is the central challenge. Palestinians have the skills and knowledge and in fact, much of the Persian Gulf was built with Palestinian knowledge, know-how and manpower. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have long worked in Israel as construction workers,” Amr said. 

“It’s just a question of getting access to having the basic freedom to import what they need to get going,” he added.

Who will pay?
It will take about $70 billion to rebuild Gaza, according to an operational damage and needs assessment conducted jointly by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank.

European and Arab nations, Canada and the U.S. appear willing to contribute to the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, the UN official said on Tuesday.

“We’ve heard very positive news from a number of our partners, including European partners… Canada” regarding their willingness to help, the official, Cillers, told a press conference, adding that there were also discussions with the U.S. 

Oil-rich Arab Gulf states will likely be willing to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, according to Amr and Yacoubian. Egypt could also provide a “logistical base,” he noted.

“United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, I think, are all poised to potentially fund this. Turkey, I think has a great interest in doing it, but their relations with Israel ar. … at a low point,” Amr said.

However, Yacoubian expressed her belief that more progress towards Palestinian statehood needs to be achieved before countries will commit.

“I think that we could certainly see Gulf countries funding it, but they have signaled that they will not fund reconstruction in Gaza in the absence of a longer-term solution to the conflict. And in particular, they are looking to see demonstrated progress on a path toward Palestinian statehood,” Yacoubian said.

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(PARIS) — Several people disguised as construction workers broke into the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday, cracking open display cases and stealing jewelry that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife, officials said.

At least nine pieces of jewelry of “inestimable heritage and historical value” were taken in the brazen heist before the thieves made their getaway on motorcycles, two ministers said.

“Investigations have begun, and a precise list of the stolen items is underway,” the museum said in a statement.

Four thieves pulled off the apparently well-planned heist, according to authorities.

The theft took place around 9:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, just before the museum was set to open to the public, the Paris Police Prefecture said in a statement.

The team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a “mobile freight elevator” equipped with a metal ladder on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.

“They deployed the freight elevator, securing the surroundings with construction cones, before accessing the second floor, in the Apollo gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder,” according to the police statement. “Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry.” 

Two of the thieves arrived at the museum in the mobile freight elevator, one wearing a yellow vest and the other an orange vest, according to police. Two accomplices arrived at the museum at the same time on what police described as “T-max vehicles” or sports motorbikes.  

“The staff on site, upon seeing what was happening, took to safety,” according to the police statement. “An alarm was triggered at 9:37 a.m. The perpetrators exited through the window by going back down the freight elevator before fleeing on the two motorbikes at 9:38 a.m.”

Following the heist, police found two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, and a crown at the scene. Police also found a yellow vest that was apparently dropped by one of the fleeing perpetrators at the corner of Pont de Sully and Avenue Henri IV, several blocks from the Louvre, police said.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez in an interview on local radio said the value of the items would be “inestimable.”

The alleged robbery took about seven minutes, he said.

A notification posted on the Louvre’s website shortly afterward said, “The Louvre Museum will remain closed today for exceptional reasons. We thank you for your understanding.”

The decision to close the museum was made jointly by its management, the police and the Ministry of the Interior, museum officials said in a statement. The doors were closed as “a security measure and to preserve traces and evidence for the investigation,” the statement said.

Kaci Benedetti, who was visiting Paris from the United States, told ABC News she was standing in line to enter the museum on Sunday when a commotion began. Police were running along the courtyard where Benedetti and her family were waiting, she said.

She watched as the officers attempted to enter the building through a side door, but “could not because they were locked,” she said.

“We could see people inside running and some were banging on the glass doors to get out, but could not because they were locked,” Benedetti said. “Then police and military police arrived. After about an hour they announced the Louvre was closed for today.”

The news of the robbery came first from French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who said on social media, “A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum.”

Dati added, “No injuries to report. I am on site alongside the museum teams and the police. Investigations underway.”

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(LONDON) — A month after a massacre that was reported in a war-ravaged city of Sudan shocked the world, the United Nations and others are warning that there’s nowhere near enough humanitarian aid being provided to the tens of thousands of residents who fled.

Many thousands more are believed to still be trapped inside El Fasher, the besieged capital of the Darfur region in Sudan’s west. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the powerful Sudanese paramilitary group that took over the city last month, is allegedly preventing people from leaving and stopping lifesaving supplies from coming in.

The U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Denise Brown, who returned from the Darfur region last week, said the amount of aid they were able to currently provide to the survivors from El Fasher wasn’t close to what is needed.

“We do not have enough food, we do not have enough of anything,” Brown told ABC News in a telephone interview last Friday. “The international community has to step up.”

Sudan has been embroiled in a brutal civil war since 2023, when fighting erupted in the capital of Khartoum between forces loyal to rival military leaders. It was the culmination of weeks of tensions between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the head of the RSF. The two men were once allies who had jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 that dissolved Sudan’s power-sharing government and derailed its short-lived transition to democracy, following the ousting of a long-time dictator in 2019.

Officially formed in 2013, the RSF evolved out of the notorious Janjaweed militias used by the Sudanese government to crush an armed rebellion in the Darfur region in the 2000s. Sudanese forces and the Janjaweed were accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.

Ultimately, the International Criminal Court charged Sudan’s former dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir with genocide. The reported atrocities in El Fasher are seen by experts as a continuation of that genocide.

Sudan’s civil war has since become “one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century,” according to the U.N., with tens of thousands of people killed and millions more displaced. In January, the U.S. Department of State said both sides had committed war crimes and concluded “that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan,” citing the systematic murder of civilians, sexual violence and denial of humanitarian aid for civilians caught in the conflict.

El Fasher was the last stronghold of the Sudanese army and its allied militias in the wider Darfur region, under total siege for over a year and a half before falling to the RSF in late October. At least 80,000 people are estimated to have fled El Fasher and sought refuge in a massive displacement camp in the town of Tawila, with most making the 35-mile journey on foot. The camp was already home to around 600,000 displaced people, according to humanitarian aid workers.

Many of those from El Fasher bring with them horrific accounts of atrocities allegedly carried out by the RSF, including summary executions, gang rape and killing anyone who tries to flee the city. The U.N. believes as many as 50,000 people may still be trapped in El Fasher, considered to be detained there by the RSF, according to Brown.

An analysis of satellite imagery by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab found evidence of continuing mass killings in the days after the RSF took control of El Fasher, with blood-stained sand and piles of bodies apparently visible from space. Moreover, a U.N.-backed monitor for food security declared earlier this month that famine had taken hold in El Fasher and surrounding areas.

Brown said the U.N.’s capability to respond to the crisis is limited by a yawning shortfall in funding from countries and donors.

“We are 28% funded,” she told ABC News. “So what would the international community like me to do to respond to the needs of the people who are traumatized?”

Despite having less than a third of the funding needed, Brown said: “We’re one of the best funded humanitarian responses in the world, at 28%, and there have been cuts across the board by donors. So it’s a cumulative effect of those cuts.”

The United States has long been the U.N.’s largest donor but, under President Donald Trump, has recently withdrawn from several U.N. agencies, frozen funding for others and clawed back $ 1 billion in previously approved funds for the U.N.

“Everyone is calling and asking how can we help? Well, here is how you can help,” Brown told ABC News. “Money is not the solution to what’s going on in Sudan, but money is surely going to help our humanitarian response.”

In particular, Brown said, the U.N. was currently unable to provide enough care or psychological support for women and girls in the Tawila camp who had suffered sexual violence. The U.N. has hundreds of documented cases of gang rape and other sexual violence in the Darfur region, but that is believed to be just “the tip of the iceberg,” according to Brown.

The U.N. has been trying to negotiate with the RSF to allow humanitarian access into El Fasher — so far, unsuccessfully.

The head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, traveled with Brown to Darfur last week to meet with the RSF, requesting complete access throughout Sudan for humanitarian operations and providing the U.N.’s conditions for such an agreement.

“We need safe passage. We want a small team, no presence of any armed militia,” Brown told ABC News. “We need to go to the sites which we have identified as important. We need to be able to evacuate the injured and access to detainees.”

“And so far,” she said, “the answer is no.”

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