Israeli aid workers under fire in South Sudan

The Foreign Ministry issues a travel warning for South Sudan due to the worsening security situation there.

Heavy fighting resumed in South Sudan’s capital Juba on Monday despite international calls for calm after deadly gun battles sent thousands of people fleeing and threatened the young nation’s shaky peace.

The United Nations expressed deep alarm over the surge in violence, which has left several hundred people dead and risks plunging the country into a new civil war.

Israeli aid workers in Juba report heavy explosions and gunfire, forcing their evacuation. The director of the IsraAID group, Shachar Zahavi, says that his team is under siege and that a neighboring hotel has been destroyed by rebel rockets.

He says IsraAID is working with the UN and other organizations to evacuate its staff.

— Raphael Ahren