BARRIE, Ontario: Several people were injured and many more displaced Thursday after a tornado ripped through part of a city in the south of the Canadian province of Ontario, its mayor said as he expressed relief that no lives had been lost in the destruction.
Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman said that while the tornado that hit a neighborhood in the city’s south end caused extensive property damage, as of Thursday evening, no deaths were reported and no one appeared to be unaccounted for.
“I can’t tell you how incredible it is that nobody has been killed, and I hope that as all the secondary searches are completed and the patients are treated in the hospital, that that continues to be the case,” he said.
Paramedics said eight people were taken to hospital, including four who suffered serious injuries. Seven of those hospitalized were being treated for trauma and one for a medical condition, they said.
Others who suffered more minor injuries were treated at the scene, said Andrew Robert, the chief of paramedic services.
Fire officials said up to 25 buildings suffered significant damage, with roughly 20 considered uninhabitable at this time and two or three “completely destroyed.”
Earlier Thursday, police spokesman Peter Leon said the tornado had also damaged gas lines and caused power outages.
The tornado tore through Anita Heyworth’s neighborhood, ripping up her fence and carrying her backyard trampoline away as she pulled into her driveway with her six-year-old daughter, 16-year-old son and 70-year-old mother in tow.
“I saw the funnel cloud with my trampoline in it and I saw it go down my street, and I’m yelling, ‘duck!’ because all I could see was my debris coming toward my car,” Heyworth said.
Tornado rips through Canadian city, causing heavy destruction
https://arab.news/mjeej
Tornado rips through Canadian city, causing heavy destruction
- Mayor says several people were hurt but fortunately no lives had been lost
UN chief says 37,000 West Bank Palestinians displaced in 2025; warns Gaza war threatens two-state solution
- ‘We enter 2026 with the clock ticking louder than ever. Will the year ahead bend towards peace or slip into the abyss of despair?” asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
- Illegal settlement expansions, demolitions, displacements and evictions in the West Bank are accelerating, he says
NEW YORK CITY: More than 37,000 Palestinians were displaced in the occupied West Bank during 2025, a year in which there were also record-high levels of violence committed by Israeli settlers, UN secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
The situation on the ground was rapidly eroding the prospects for a two-state solution, he warned.
“We enter 2026 with the clock ticking louder than ever,” Guterres told the opening session of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
“Will the year ahead bend towards peace or slip into the abyss of despair?”
Illegal settlement expansions, demolitions, displacements and evictions in the West Bank were accelerating, said Guterres, who described the Israeli actions as destabilizing in nature and unlawful under international law.
“The recently published tender by Israel for 3,401 housing units in the E1 area (of the West Bank), alongside continued demolitions, is profoundly alarming,” he added.
“If carried forward, it would sever the northern and southern West Bank, undermine territorial contiguity, and strike a severe blow to the viability of a two-state solution.”
Turning to the situation in Gaza, Guterres said Palestinians there continued to endure “grave suffering.” More than 500 have been killed since the truce between Israel and Hamas in October, he noted.
“I urge all parties to implement the (ceasefire) agreement in full, exercise maximum restraint, and comply with international law and UN resolutions,” he said.
He called for the rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid at scale, including through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel reopened on Monday.
Guterres criticized Israeli authorities for the continued suspension of international non-governmental organizations that provide aid, which he said “defies humanitarian principles, undermines fragile progress, and worsens the suffering of civilians.”
Regarding the future of Gaza, he said any sustainable solution must include governance of the territory and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by a unified and internationally recognized Palestinian government.
“Gaza is and must remain an integral part of a Palestinian state,” Guterres added.
He also reaffirmed his support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and condemned recent Israeli legislation and other actions he said impeded the ability of the agency to operate, including moves to demolish its Sheikh Jarrah compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
“Let me be clear: UNRWA premises are United Nations premises,” he said. “They are inviolable and immune from any form of interference.”
Guterres described public threats against UNRWA staff as “utterly abhorrent,” and said Israel was obliged under international law to respect the privileges and immunities of the UN.
He also reiterated that an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was essential.
“There is only one viable route (to peace): the two-state solution, in line with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” he said, as he called on the international community to act “with clarity, unity and determination” on the issue.
