Palestine
At least 21 people have been killed and several injured after a fire swept through a residential building in the packed Jabalia refugee camp in the occupied Gaza strip. Media reports said that candles for a birthday cake had caused the blaze in the four-story apartment building. Israel has maintained an air, sea and land blockade on the Palestinian enclave since 2007 and Gaza, often referred to as the world’s largest open-air prison, has become one of the most densely-populated places on the planet.
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Egypt
The family of jailed British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah today said they had finally been allowed to see him in prison for the first time since he held a high-profile hunger strike and that his condition had “deteriorated severely.” It was their first time seeing him in a month. Abd el-Fattah went on the strike, during which he refused even water, to highlight his case as world leaders attended the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. Though several publicly expressed concern, they were careful to use relatively muted and diplomatic language. Abd el-Fattah, who became an icon of the 2011 Arab uprisings, has spent most of the last decade behind bars.
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Pakistan
Pakistan’s government has overturned a ban on a movie centered on a love story between a man and a transgender woman, which is the country’s official entry for the Academy Awards. The film, Joyland, had initially been banned by the information ministry for containing “highly objectionable material.” The decision not to show it had attracted a huge backlash on social media. Joyland has been widely critically acclaimed, winning several international awards. Transgender Pakistanis are ostracized and, according to Amnesty International, at least 18 transgender people were killed in the country between October 2021 and September 2022.
More from Al Jazeera here.