High level talks in Geneva have failed to reach a consensus over a legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution.
Schools shut for another week in Samoa as the country continues to battle a deadly dengue fever outbreak.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea calls on the government to increase funding to address the sky rocketing number of new HIV AIDS infections.
A traditional double hulled canoe is officially launched in Vava’u, Tonga.
And Lakapi Samoa have no plans to wind up their sevens programme.
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip. (AP)
Starvation is the slow, silent unmaking of the body. Deprived of basic sustenance, the body first burns through sugar stores in the liver. Then it melts muscle and fat, breaking down tissue to keep the brain and other vital organs alive.
As these reserves are depleted, the heart loses its strength, the immune system surrenders and the mind begins to fade. The skin tightens over the bones and breathing grows faint. Organs begin to fail in succession, vision fails and the body, now empty, slips away. It is a prolonged, agonizing way to die.
We have all seen the images of emaciated Palestinian babies and children withering away from starvation in their mothers’ arms. Yet now that Israel is intensifying its war — embarking on a new campaign to “conquer” Gaza City — thousands more Palestinian civilians may be killed, either by bombs or by starvation.
“This is no longer a looming hunger crisis,” Ramesh Rajasingham, a senior UN humanitarian official, told the UN Security Council on Aug. 10. “This is starvation, pure and simple.” Alex de Waal, an expert on famine, estimates that thousands of Gazan children are now too weak to eat, even if they had access to food. “They have got to that stage of severe acute malnutrition where their bodies just can’t digest food.”
There is a growing consensus that Israel is committing the most serious of crimes in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare. Palestinian and international human rights groups raised the alarm about this risk within months of the start of the war and it has since been echoed by states on every continent, as well as by many in Israel. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for example, has decried what he describes as war crimes in Gaza and leading Israeli human rights groups say Israel’s actions in the territory amount to genocide.
On Oct. 9, 2023, two days after Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages — itself a serious war crime — then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.” The population of Gaza was dehumanized and no distinction was made between civilians and combatants — a violation of a cardinal rule of international humanitarian law. The siege shut off all supplies into Gaza for 70 days, imposing collective punishment.
This first siege was eased only slightly when Israel allowed supplies to trickle into Gaza in early 2024. By that April, Samantha Power, then the head of the US Agency for International Development, was already warning of famine in parts of Gaza. The following month, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, announced “a full-blown famine” in northern Gaza.
Over the past 21 months, several governments and aid agencies have pleaded with Israel to let them deliver aid.
Binaifer Nowrojee
International law prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of war. As the occupying power in Gaza, Israel must ensure that the civilian population receives adequate food, water, medical supplies and other essentials. If those supplies cannot be located within Gaza itself, they must be sourced externally — including from Israel.
Over the past 21 months, several governments and aid agencies have pleaded with Israel to let them deliver aid. Granting such permission is also a legal obligation: Israel has a duty to facilitate others’ relief schemes “by all means at its disposal.” But Israel has continuously thwarted these efforts. At this very moment, it is blocking humanitarian organizations from delivering aid.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice, through legally binding decisions, ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” Two months later, it reaffirmed that order and required that the measures be taken “in full cooperation with the United Nations.”
The UN-led humanitarian system was the only one capable of preventing widespread famine in Gaza. During the ceasefire between January and March of this year, the UN and other humanitarian organizations were operating as many as 400 relief distribution sites. But after Israel broke the ceasefire in March, these were shut down and another siege was unlawfully imposed.
Israel justified the new siege by saying that it was cutting off aid to exert greater pressure on Hamas — thus acknowledging its use of starvation as a weapon. When aid resumed in May, the UN was replaced by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private food distribution arrangement organized by Israel. But since then, nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while attempting to obtain food at the foundation’s four distribution sites.
Although signs of the coming horrors were clear within months of the war’s onset, many governments averted their eyes.
Binaifer Nowrojee
Worse, the scheme was never going to work. According to a report from the Famine Review Committee last month, “our analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation, even if it was able to function without the appalling levels of violence.”
Under international law, the war crime of starvation begins at the point of deprivation. When it becomes a more expansive policy undertaken with the intent “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” it becomes genocide. Multiple senior Israeli officials have openly expressed such intent — including Gallant in October 2023, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who in August 2024 remarked that “it might be justified and moral” to “cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger,” and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister for National Security, who posted on social media that “food and aid depots should be bombed.”
Palestinians are being intentionally starved to death. Although signs of the coming horrors were clear within months of the war’s onset, many governments averted their eyes. They rationalized the restrictions on aid by arguing that it was going to Hamas — a claim that Israel now says it has no evidence for — and transferred more tonnage in weapons to Israel than they delivered in aid to Gaza. Now, they are failing in their duty to prevent and stop a genocide.
History will forever record this moment of global shame. It will archive the images of skeletal children alongside those from past episodes where the world did nothing. One can only hope that the world will act now to salvage at least a measure of our humanity, before even more children die.
• Binaifer Nowrojee is President of the Open Society Foundations.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News’ point of view
Israel’s ‘doomsday settlement’ a test for the world
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds map of an area near the settlement of Maale Adumim,a land corridor known as E1.
As the world still tries to grapple with Israel’s Gaza genocide, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bluntly declared that he feels a connection to the vision of a “Promised Land” and “Greater Israel.” This offensive statement led to condemnation from several Arab countries. However, Netanyahu has begun a systematic plan to realize this vicious vision.
While media attention is focused on the planned starvation of Gaza and while analysts are busy talking about Netanyahu’s plans to resettle Gazans, the West Bank is being quietly eaten up by settlements and settler violence. The settlers’ terrorism has brutally increased, with cover from the Israeli army, with the clear objective of driving Palestinians away from their homes in a new Nakba.
In addition to the systematic aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank, a new settlement, E1, is set to be approved in the Knesset on Wednesday. It is known as the “doomsday settlement” and will be the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution. The plan is only one pen stroke away from becoming reality. In an Aug. 6 hearing, the planning committee rejected all the petitions presented by civil rights groups and activists to stop its construction.
E1 is dangerous because of its strategic location. If it comes to fruition, a two-state solution would be practically impossible.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
The plan for the E1 settlement was proposed 29 years ago, but no prime minister — not even Netanyahu — dared to approve it. Successive Israeli governments bowed to the international community’s pressure. Now, however, Israel does not even pay lip service to the international community. It does not even pretend to be willing to allow the Palestinians to have a state of their own, nor it is willing to offer citizenship to those in the Occupied Territories. Its plan is clear ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and genocide if needed.
E1 is dangerous because of its strategic location. If it comes to fruition, a two-state solution would be practically impossible. E1 would drive a wedge between the northern West Bank of Nablus and Ramallah and the southern West Bank of Bethlehem and Hebron, with no connection between the two. The plan allows for the construction of thousands of residential units in a 12.5 sq. km area between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
It would mean there would be no possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. This would limit the Palestinians’ existence to several isolated camps, Bantustans, human islands or whatever you want to call them, surrounded by Israeli settlements. Basically, it would confine Palestinian existence to a set of open-air prisons inside Israel.
Even though the plan has been frozen for so long, Netanyahu has never given up on it. He has always been waiting for the right moment to realize it. This is not his first attempt to bring it to fruition. In November 2012, Netanyahu retaliated to the UN General Assembly’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine by giving the go-ahead for the plan. After Netanyahu gave the green light, the international community pressured Israel to stop and the plan was put aside. However, since then, the Israeli government has been quietly working toward garnering approval.
The international community should act quickly and take punitive action against Israel. Condemnation alone does not work.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
Advancing the E1 settlement is a sign of Israel’s defiance of the international community, as it comes while Saudi Arabia is using its political and diplomatic weight to push for recognition of a Palestinian state. France, Malta and Australia have announced they will recognize Palestine at September’s UN General Assembly. Canada and the UK have stated they will do the same if Israel fails to meet certain conditions.
In response, Israel hopes that advancing E1 will “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said last week. “After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem,” Smotrich said. “This is Zionism at its best — building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”
The international community should act quickly and take punitive action against Israel. Condemnation alone does not work. The more statements the international community issues, the more Israel realizes they are just empty threats, the more defiant it becomes and the more it doubles down on its criminal policies. This is a test of the international community’s claim that it is committed to the two-state solution.
Israel is now blatantly rejecting all UN resolutions. It is blatantly saying it wants to conduct ethnic cleansing and drive Palestinians out of their homes. The fig leaf has fallen. In addition to the issue of credibility, Israel’s policies are likely to result in another Nakba. Another Nakba would likely mean another wave of refugees that will ultimately reach European shores. This is why Europe should act now. The EU should suspend its trade agreement with Israel. Only when there are direct consequences will Netanyahu and Israel stop; otherwise, they will continue to act with impunity.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News’ point-of-view
Dozens of residents of a village in the occupied West Bank on Sunday laid to rest a teen killed by Israeli army fire the previous day, according to Palestinian authorities.
Mourners carried the body of Palestinian Hamdan Abu Aliya, his head wrapped in a traditional keffiyeh scarf, through the streets of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, and chanted nationalist slogans.
“With our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, martyr,” they said during the procession for the 18-year-old, waving Palestinian flags and banners of the Fatah and Hamas movements.
Late Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry announced the “martyrdom of Hamdan Musa Muhammad Abu Aliya… by (Israeli) occupation forces in the town of Al-Mughayyir”.
In response to an inquiry by AFP, the Israeli army said “terrorists” threw stones and Molotov cocktails at its troops during a security operation in the area, and soldiers “responded with fire”.
When the body of Abu Aliya arrived at the family home for a final farewell, his father Musa Abu Aliya said he had a message for the world: “Enough betrayal, enough humiliation, enough insult.”
“No matter how many they kill, time is on our side. It is impossible for us to give up our land,” the father added.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Since then, at least 971 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry.
During the same period, at least 36 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.
(Clockwise from top left) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. — Reuters
LONDON/KYIV: European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Donald Trump in Washington, they said on Sunday, seeking to shore up Zelenskiy’s position as the US president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal to end Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years.
Trump is leaning on Zelenskiy to strike an agreement after he met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Alaska and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump and Zelenskiy will meet on Monday.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Trump on Sunday promised “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA” in a social media post without specifying what this might be.
Sources briefed on Moscow’s thinking told Reuters the US and Russian leaders have discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.
Top Trump officials hinted that the fate of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region – which incorporates Donetsk and Luhansk and which is already mostly under Russian control – was on the line, while some sort of defensive pact was also on the table.
“We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, suggesting this would be in lieu of Ukraine seeking NATO membership. “The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.”
Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty enshrines the principle of collective defense – the notion that an attack on a single member is considered an attack on them all.
That pledge may not be enough to sway leaders in Kyiv to sign over Donbas. Ukraine’s borders were already meant to have been guaranteed when Ukraine surrendered a Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in 1994, and it proved to be little deterrent when Russia absorbed Crimea in 2014 and then launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The war has now dragged on for 3-1/2 years and killed or wounded more than 1 million people.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a meeting of allies on Sunday to bolster Zelenskiy’s hand, hoping in particular to lock down robust security guarantees for Ukraine that would include a US role.
The Europeans are keen to help Zelenskiy avoid a repeat of his last Oval Office meeting in February. That went disastrously, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance giving the Ukrainian leader a public dressing-down, accusing him of being ungrateful and disrespectful.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also travel to Washington, as will Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, whose access to Trump included rounds of golf in Florida earlier this year, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is an admirer of many of Trump’s policies.
“It’s important that Washington is with us,” Zelenskiy said alongside von der Leyen on a visit to Brussels, saying that the current front lines in the war should be the basis for peace talks.
“Putin does not want to stop the killing, but he must do it.”
Steel porcupine
Setting out red lines, von der Leyen said Ukraine’s allies wanted robust security guarantees for Ukraine, no limits to Ukraine’s armed forces, and a seat at the table with Trump and Putin for Ukraine to discuss its territory.
“As I’ve often said, Ukraine must become a steel porcupine, indigestible for potential invaders,” she said.
Rubio said both Russia and Ukraine would need to make concessions to reach a peace deal and that security guarantees for Ukraine would be discussed on Monday. He also said there would have to be additional consequences for Russia if no deal was reached.
“I’m not saying we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelenskiy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this,” Rubio told broadcaster CBS.
However, he said the US may not be able to create a scenario to end the war.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said in an interview with “Face the Nation.”
‘Very big power’
For his part, Putin briefed his close ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, about the Alaska talks, and also spoke with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Trump said on Friday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”
After the Alaska summit, Trump phoned Zelenskiy and told him that the Kremlin chief had offered to freeze most front lines if Ukraine ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets, a source familiar with the matter said.
Zelenskiy rejected the demand. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Trump also said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies have called for. That was a reversal of his position before the summit, when he said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.
(Clockwise from top left) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. — Reuters
Zelensky, EU leaders head to US for peace talks.
Donald Trump offers security guarantees for Kyiv.
Kyiv, Moscow trade drone strikes as fighting intensifies.
BRUSSELS: European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Monday visit to Washington to see President Donald Trump in a collective bid to find a way to end to Moscow’s invasion, with the US offering security guarantees for Kyiv.
The meeting follows a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield any breakthrough on an immediate ceasefire that the US leader had been pushing for.
Trump, who pivoted afterwards to say he was now seeking a peace deal, on Sunday posted “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!” on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Trump’s Russia envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin had agreed in their summit on “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine.
But Zelensky, on a Brussels visit on Sunday hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin’s thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,” he said.
Von der Leyen hailed the US offer to provide security guarantees modelled on — but separate from — NATO’s collective security arrangement, known as Article 5.
“We welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share,” von der Leyen said.
Hopes for ‘productive meeting’
Trump’s pivot to looking for a peace deal, not a ceasefire, aligns with the stance long taken by Putin, and which Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as Putin’s way to buy time with the intent of making battlefield gains.
Zelensky also said he saw “no sign” the Kremlin leader was prepared to meet him and Trump for a three-way summit, as had been floated by the US president.
The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the “coalition of the willing”.
They include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron,, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and von der Leyen.
Also heading to Washington will be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubbs, who get on well with Trump.
On Sunday they all held a video meeting to prepare their joint position.
Speaking to US broadcaster CNN, Witkoff said: “I’m hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we’re able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to NBC on Sunday, warned of “consequences” — including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia — if no peace deal is reached on Ukraine.
Territorial ‘concessions’
European leaders have expressed unease from the outset over Trump’s outreach to Putin, who has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join the EU or NATO. They were excluded from Trump’s summit with Putin.
Witkoff, in his CNN interview, said the United States was prepared to provide “game-changing” security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a process that would involve territorial “concessions”.
According to an official briefed on a call Trump held with Zelensky and European leaders as he flew back from Alaska, the US leader supported a Putin proposal that Russia take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others.
Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas,” an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia currently only partly controls, the source said.
In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.
Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them.
“The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine rages on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other Sunday.
Palestinians were gripped by fear and anxiety on Sunday after the Israeli military said it was preparing for the forcible displacement of 1 million people from Gaza City.
The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of the enclave’s largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm, and ahead of the IDF’s latest attacks in the Palestinian territory which Gaza’s health officials said had killed at least 40 people on Saturday including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid.
“Based on the directives of the political leadership, and as part of the Israel Defense Forces’ preparations to transfer civilians from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their safety, starting tomorrow (Sunday), the provision of tents and shelter equipment for Gaza residents will resume,” read a statement by the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT).
“The equipment will be transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing by the United Nations and international relief organizations, after undergoing thorough inspection by the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense,” it added.
Meanwhile, new recordings broadcast by an Israeli TV station showed the Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 saying that 50 Palestinians “must die” for every person killed that day, and “it does not matter now if they are children”. The channel said the undated conversations were recorded “in recent months”.
And in the US the state department announced that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.
A Palestinian woman, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelters in a tent camp in Gaza City. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Following Israel’s announcement, Palestinians in Gaza – displaced repeatedly, forced to live in tent camps or amid the ruins of their homes, stricken by hunger and deprived of medical supplies – are bracing for another humanitarian disaster as a new offensive would force them toward the south of the territory and an uncertain future.
“We are already destroyed and exhausted, physically and psychologically, from repeated displacement, from the lack of food and water,” Akram Shlabia, 85, told the Guardian from the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City. “And now they want us to go to the south! Into nothingness, into the unknown, into a place without shelter or the basic means of life, even safety.”
“We will face many problems in displacement,” said Mazen Hasaneh, 40, from al-Tuffah neighbourhood, who has been displaced six times during the war. “First, securing a way to transport the necessary items like a tent and other basics, and of course many drivers will exploit people’s desperation and raise prices, while people have no money to pay.
“The second problem is finding a place to set up the tent and settle, along with the difficulty of finding and providing water and food. Everything about displacement is suffering, especially in our current conditions.”
Some families have already begun moving south to secure shelter in anticipation of possible evacuation, while others are contacting relatives to ask about available space should the relocation plan proceed. Yet many say they will remain in Gaza City, declaring they would rather stay than face the hardships of displacement.
“If the plan is carried out, I will look for a safe place for myself and my children within Gaza, and I will not consider moving to the south of the Strip,” said Asma Al-Barawi, 34, from al-Tuffah, the mother of seven children. “I didn’t leave the first time, and I won’t leave this time. The experiences and suffering I heard from the displaced who went south were harsh and unbearable.”
“I lost everything because of this war,” she added. “I lost two of my brothers, two of my maternal aunts with their families, my cousin, and my father-in-law. And, I lost my new home, which I only left with some clothes.”
In recent days, heavy explosions have echoed from areas east of Gaza, where Israeli forces have intensified operations, including artillery barrages and the start of an incursion on the outskirts of the Sabra neighbourhood.
On Saturday a baby girl and her parents were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent in al-Muwasi, previously designated a humanitarian zone by Israel, in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said.
“Two and a half months old, what has she done?” a neighbour, Fathi Shubeir, asked. “They are civilians in an area designated safe.”
Israel’s military said it could not comment on the strike without more details.
Displaced Palestinians make their way towards the site of a humanitarian aid airdrop at the Bureij camp in Gaza on Sunday. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images
Al-Muwasi is now one of the most heavily populated areas in Gaza after Israel pushed people into the desolate area. But the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last week that Israel planned to widen its coming military offensive to include the area, along with Gaza City and “central camps” – an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.
According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and the south.
There were also another 11 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, including at least one child. That brought malnutrition-related deaths due to the Israeli blockade on aid to 251.
Meanwhile in Israel police blasted crowds with water cannons and made dozens of arrests on Sunday as thousands of protesters in Jerusalem demanded a deal to free hostages in Gaza. The demonstrators aimed to shut down the country with a one-day strike that blocked roads and closed businesses.
Groups representing families of hostages organised the demonstrations as frustration grows in Israel over plans for the new military offensive, which many fear could further endanger the remaining hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
“We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages,” protesters chanted in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war.
Protesters gathered at dozens of places including outside politicians’ homes, military headquarters and on major highways. They blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Police said they arrested 38 people.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.
BEIJING: Pakistan’s Consul General in Guangzhou, Sardar Muhammad, participated in the 2025 Southern China Book Fair to enhance cultural relations and foster literary exchange between Pakistan and China.
The event, showcasing over 1,500 publishers from around the world, served as a platform for the diplomat to engage with Chinese publishing leaders and explore opportunities for collaboration in literature and creative works.
At the fair, Sardar Muhammad was involved in the launch of the bilingual book Low-Carbon Living: Green Cuisine at Your Fingertips by documentary producer Lingling Li. The Consul General drew attention to the book’s inclusion of Pakistan’s famous dish, Biryani, noting that its vegetarian adaptations reflect the theme of sustainable living while retaining authentic flavors.
Drawing a parallel between Pakistani and Chinese culinary traditions, he compared the layered preparation of Biryani to the Chinese rice dumpling, Zongzi. “Both dishes, whether Biryani for Eid in Pakistan or Zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival in China, symbolize a shared spirit of togetherness,” he emphasized. “Diversity enriches, but shared values unite us.”
In addition to the book launch, the Consul General engaged with representatives from local media outlets, including Southern Metropolis Daily and Yangcheng Evening News, to discuss future cultural collaborations. “Our people-to-people links continue to grow stronger,” he stated.
The 2025 Southern China Book Fair, held at the Canton Fair Complex, served as a vital platform for international cultural exchange, with Pakistan’s rich literary and culinary heritage prominently featured this year.
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Dozens of people were injured after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck central Sulawesi, Indonesia, early on Sunday, the country’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said.
The quake, at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), shook the Poso Regency and was felt in the nearby areas.
Twenty-nine people were injured, two critically, the agency said in a statement.
Also Read: More than 360 hit by food poisoning after eating free school meal in Indonesian town
There were no immediate reports of deaths, BNBP added.
Indonesia sits on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends an event at the US Department of State in Washington, DC, US, July 16, 2025. — Reuters
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday warned of “consequences,” including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia, if no peace deal is reached on Ukraine, ahead of a key meeting at the White House.
“If we’re not going to be able to reach an agreement here at any point, then there are going to be consequences,” he told US broadcaster NBC.
“Not only the consequences of the war continuing but the consequences of all those sanctions continuing and potentially new sanctions on top of it as well.”
The United States will keep trying to create a scenario to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but that might not be possible, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said in an interview with “Face the Nation.”
European leaders will accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, seeking to bolster him as the US president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal after Trump’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday.
“There are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potential for progress,” said Rubio, adding that topics for discussion would include security guarantees for Ukraine.
According to sources, Trump and Putin discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.
Rubio said both sides would need to make concessions if a peace deal were to be concluded.
