Category: 2. World

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — More than 650 days into the war with Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces is again battling the terror group in Gaza City.

Troops have pushed into the Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods three times now, but army commanders say the latest offensive is being conducted with more force, in an attempt to finally “dismantle” Hamas’s battalion there.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

The IDF, since the beginning of the war, has pushed into areas of the Gaza Strip, claiming to dismantle Hamas’s local battalions, before being ordered to withdraw. Hamas has then regrouped, regained control of the regions the IDF had entered, and set up traps for the inevitable next time forces operate there.

Earlier this week, The Times of Israel joined the 46th Armored Battalion — operating under the Nahal Infantry Brigade — on the outskirts of Daraj and Tuffah, to see the latest offensive up close.

Unlike the previous 20-odd times this reporter had entered Gaza, this time we were taken into the Strip in Merkava tanks — which are normally intended for a team of four — and not in armored personnel carriers or Humvees.

This reporter was cramped between the loader and commander as the convoy of tanks rolled into Gaza City, passing row after row of razed homes in Israel’s two-kilometer (1.2-mile) deep buffer zone.

As we arrived at an army encampment, an unarmored excavator secured by two tanks and a platoon of infantry troops was busy demolishing a building.

According to Lt. Col. Aleph — who can only be identified by his first initial for security concerns — the commander of the tank battalion, the building was suspected to have contained a booby trap, like many others in this neighborhood.

A day earlier, Aleph said troops found in a nearby building a “communications box” with wires coming out of it and a bomb hidden next to it. The same kind of box was spotted by troops using a drone in the building that was being demolished.

Another nearby building, now mostly destroyed, had contained a dud Israeli Air Force missile that Hamas had rigged up, and one more structure next to the encampment was also believed to contain a booby trap and was to be demolished next, he said.

“This is what fighting a Hamas battalion looks like. There’s a certain number of operatives tasked with defending an area. Sometimes, they will come out of tunnels to attack if they have the opportunity. However, you mainly find yourself fighting against the infrastructure that they have prepared,” the battalion commander said.

Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah Battalion “heavily relies on its infrastructure, which is mostly above ground, in the homes and yards, and a bit below ground as well,” he said. “And from here we derive our method. If you take away the infrastructure that can be used to harm your forces, you advance the mission of destroying the Hamas battalion.”

It is for this reason that the IDF says it is methodically demolishing nearly every single structure in the areas it is operating in. Not just in Daraj and Tuffah, but in 75% of the Strip that the military is currently holding. Recent army operations have seen the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis almost entirely razed to rubble.

However, there may be other reasons behind the demolitions, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly telling lawmakers in May that Israel is destroying homes in Gaza so Palestinians have no choice but to leave the Strip.

“Fighting an idea, trying to eliminate an idea, is impossible,” the commander said, referring to Hamas, “but you can kill those who hold that idea, or take away the capabilities that allow it to act effectively.”

Aleph’s forces had not yet encountered any Hamas operatives, nor any civilians, during its operations in Daraj and Tuffah. He said that they had identified, using drones, gunmen deeper within Gaza City and launched strikes on them. The troops have, of course, encountered dozens of booby-trapped homes.

But the battalion commander said he was operating under the assumption that at least 15 Hamas operatives were indeed hiding in his area of operations, inside tunnels that the forces had not yet found.

Earlier this month, the IDF announced that the latest commander of Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah Battalion was killed in an airstrike in the area. Muhammad Ghaseen was only the second commander of the battalion since the beginning of the war; his predecessor, Rifaat Abbas, was killed in October 2023.

This leaves the Daraj-Tuffah Battalion to be headed by a company commander for now. The Hamas battalion no longer has hundreds of operatives in its ranks, and Israel’s buffer zone along the border with the Strip — where every structure has also been razed — means that the threat of a wide-scale invasion by the terror group from Daraj and Tuffah is far less likely.

Yet, the IDF is pushing into the Gaza City neighborhood with even more intensity than it did the previous two times it was here, reaching areas that it had not been in before.

Aleph suggested that the IDF’s previous operations in the neighborhood had to be more restrained, as Hamas was still holding hostages there who were released in the ceasefire deal earlier this year.

Asked how long it would take to dismantle the Daraj-Tuffah Battalion (now for the second or third time), the commander said, “It depends on how long [we are given] to conduct the mission.”

“If you leave us here for another month, a month and a half, I believe the battalion will be destroyed,” he claimed. Hostage families fear that their loved ones who have been in captivity for 658 days may not have that extra time.

At the current stage, Aleph said that the goal of establishing Israel’s buffer zone in the area to defend the Gaza border communities of Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza and others was more than 90% complete. Regarding the goal of destroying the Daraj-Tuffah Battalion, “We still have work to do,” he said.

“But beyond the return of the communities to the Gaza border area, this mission has the goal of creating the conditions for the return of the hostages; we are here for a moral mission,” the commander said.

The Israeli government has long asserted that military pressure is necessary to convince Hamas to release the remaining 50 hostages, roughly 20 of whom are still alive.

But the argument is receiving mounting pushback in recent months, as hostage talks have dragged out and as more Israelis back ending the war in exchange for the captives.

“We are creating the conditions” for hostage releases, Aleph insisted. “If you tell me there’s a deal, I’ll be wherever I’m needed to be.”

The French NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of deliberately starving the Palestinians in Gaza as a weapon of war, warning that its own staff in the enclave were themselves struggling to find sufficient food.

In a statement released on Friday, the MSF reported that one out of every four children between the ages of six months and five years old, as well as one out of every four pregnant and breastfeeding women, were malnourished in the devastated enclave.

Since May 18, the number of people enrolled for malnutrition treatment has quadrupled, whereas rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks.

“This is not just hunger — it is deliberate starvation, manufactured by the Israeli authorities,” the statement read. “The weaponization of food to exert pressure on a civilian population must not be normalized.”

The organization also lambasted the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) over the nearly daily deaths of Palestinians shot by Israeli authorities near its distribution centers.

“What we are seeing is unconscionable; an entire people being deliberately cut off from food and water, all while the Israeli forces commit daily massacres as people scramble for scraps of food at distribution sites,”  says Amande Bazerolle, MSF head of emergency response in Gaza. “Any shred of humanity in Gaza has been wiped out in the ongoing genocide.”

The report noted that the scarcity of food “is no longer about what people can afford. There is barely any food available in most of the strip.”

Meanwhile, Reuters interviewed United Nations and humanitarian agency representatives, who said the enclave was on the brink of running out of the specialized therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children.

Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan told Reuters that supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed.

Recalling his own experience living under dictatorship in Portugal, Mr. Guterres told participants at the Global Assembly of the international rights charity Amnesty International on Friday that the fight for human rights is “more important than ever.”

He called on states to uphold international law and defend human rights “consistently and universally, even – or especially – when inconvenient,” urging collective action to restore global trust, dignity and justice.

‘A moral crisis’

Mr. Guterres painted a stark picture of a world in turmoil, citing multiple ongoing crises – foremost among them, the war in Gaza.

While reiterating his condemnation of the 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel, the Secretary-General said that “nothing can justify the explosion of death and destruction since.”

“The scale and scope is beyond anything we have seen in recent times,” he said.

“I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community. The lack of compassion. The lack of truth. The lack of humanity.”

UN staff ‘neither dead nor alive’

He described UN staff in Gaza as working in “unimaginable conditions,” many of them so depleted they “say they feel neither dead nor alive.”

Since late May, he noted, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food – not in combat, but “in desperation – while the entire population starves.”

“This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.”

Ready to scale up aid

Mr. Guterres said the UN stands ready to dramatically scale up humanitarian operations “as we successfully did during the previous pause in fighting,” but called for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire,” the unconditional release of all hostages and full humanitarian access.

“At the same time, we need urgent, concrete and irreversible steps towards a two-State solution,” he stressed.

He also spoke about other conflicts, including Sudan as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where he called for a “just and lasting peace” based on the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.

Rising authoritarianism

The Secretary-General warned that authoritarian tactics are on the rise globally.

“We are witnessing a surge in repressive tactics aiming at corroding respect for human rights,” he said. “And these are contaminating some democracies.”

Political opposition movements are being crushed, accountability mechanisms dismantled, journalists and activists silenced, civic space strangled, and minorities scapegoated.

Rights of women and girls in particular are being rolled back – most starkly, he said, in Afghanistan.

“This is not a series of isolated events. It is a global contagion.”

Weaponization of technology

He decried the growing weaponization of digital platforms, saying algorithms are “boosting the worst of humanity – rewarding falsehoods, fuelling racism and misogyny, and deepening division.”

He called on governments to uphold the Global Digital Compact adopted by countries at the UN General Assembly last September, and to take stronger action to combat online hate and disinformation.

Climate justice is human rights

Turning to climate, Mr. Guterres described the environmental emergency as a “human rights catastrophe,” with the poorest and most vulnerable communities suffering most.

He welcomed the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s advisory opinion this week, affirming that climate change is a human rights issue and that states have obligations under international law to protect the global climate system.

But he cautioned against a transition to clean energy that sacrifices human rights.

“We cannot accept a clean energy future built on dirty practices…We cannot accept enormous violations of human rights – many of them against children – in the name of climate progress.”

He called for urgent emissions cuts, a just transition away from fossil fuels and real financing for developing countries to adapt, build resilience, and recover from loss and damage.

A legacy of activism

The Secretary-General concluded by praising Amnesty International’s decades of activism, calling its work “indispensable” to the global human rights movement.

“When you stand for human rights, you stand with what is right,” he told delegates.

“Your courage continues to change lives. Your persistence is shifting the course of history. Let’s keep going. Let’s meet this moment with the urgency it demands. And let’s never, ever give up.”

Founded in 1961, Amnesty International is a global human rights movement that campaigns to end abuses and promote justice. The organization has long worked in collaboration with the United Nations, participating actively in the development of international human rights law and mechanisms.

Today’s speech by Mr. Guterres is first-ever address by a UN Secretary-General to Amnesty International’s Global Assembly – the charity’s highest decision-making body. The UN chief spoke via a video link to the event in Prague.

Rates of severe malnutrition among children aged under five at Médecins Sans Frontières’ Gaza City clinic have tripled in the last two weeks, the charity has said, as starvation in the Israeli-besieged strip worsens.

The global aid community has sounded the alarm as Gaza descends deeper into mass starvation, with resulting deaths being reported daily as Israel allows only a trickle of aid into the territory.

MSF said a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women it screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, with the number of people needing care for malnutrition at its Gaza City location quadrupling since May.

MSF is one of the largest medical providers in Gaza, with more than 1,000 staff in the strip providing medical services ranging from maternity care to emergency surgery.

The charity blamed what it called an Israeli “policy of starvation” for the hunger crisis, as global condemnation grows over what more than 100 aid groups say is Israel’s blockade of most aid into Gaza.

“Israeli authorities’ deliberate use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels, with patients and healthcare workers themselves now fighting to survive,” MSF said in a statement on Friday.

At least 122 people have died from starvation in Gaza, with nine more dying in the last 24 hours, according to health authorities.

The World Food Programme on Friday said nearly a third of people in Gaza were not eating for days, and that the hunger crisis had reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation”.

“Nearly one person in three is not eating for days. Malnutrition is surging, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” the WFP said in a statement.

Graph of starvation deaths in Gaza

Naji al-Qurashali, an obstetrician-gynaecologist in Gaza, said statistics appeared to underestimate the true scale of the problem, estimating that 50% of the hundreds of pregnant women he saw each day were suffering from malnutrition.

“The malnutrition situation is unimaginable. Throughout my entire medical career, I never expected, not even in my wildest dreams, that things would reach this level,” said Qurashali.

Miscarriages had increased significantly among the patients he saw as mothers struggled to find food to feed themselves, he said. Those babies that were carried to term were significantly underweight and were increasingly born prematurely or with disfigurements.

Qurashali said he lacked many of the medical supplies necessary to treat the malnourished women. He and other doctors were forced to use unsanitary medical gloves and prescribe expired medication to patients.

“As a helpless doctor, it is an incredibly painful feeling,” he said. “Many times, I leave the hospital running, because I can’t bear the fact that I can’t meet even the simplest needs of these women.”

Medical experts have said that society’s most vulnerable, children and pregnant women, are the first to die in mass hunger events.

Israel has denied it is responsible for the hunger crisis in Gaza, with the foreign ministry calling it a “deliberate foreign ploy to defame Israel”, and blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid. The UN said it was operating as well as it could under Israeli restrictions, which prevent the UN-led aid system from using its 400 aid distribution points throughout the strip.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, accused the international community of sticking its head in the sand as Palestinians starved in Gaza, lambasting what he called a “lack of humanity”.

“This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience. We will continue to speak out at every opportunity,” Guterres said on Friday.

The leaders of the UK, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Friday that the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza “must end now” and called on the Israeli government to lift restrictions on aid.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said late on Thursday that France would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly in September. The UK prime minister has come under pressure to do the same, with more than 100 MPs signing a letter demanding Keir Starmer follow suit.

Macron had previously urged the UK to recognise a Palestinian state alongside France and is expected to try to enlist other European countries to do the same. Starmer called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “unspeakable and indefensible” in a post on X on Thursday, but said nothing about recognising a Palestinian state.

Macron’s move was dismissed by Donald Trump, who was due to meet Starmer on Friday evening when he arrived in Scotland. The US president said of Macron on Friday: “He’s a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight. Here’s the good news: what he says doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything.”

Q&A

Why is it so difficult to report on Gaza?

Show

Coverage of the war in Gaza is constrained by Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists and a bar on international reporters entering the Gaza Strip to report independently on the war.

Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since 7 October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort. Reporters who join these trips have no control over where they go, and other restrictions include a bar on speaking to Palestinians in Gaza.

Palestinian journalists and media workers inside Gaza have paid a heavy price for their work reporting on the war, with over 180 killed since the conflict began.

The committee to protect journalists has determined that at least 19 of them “were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders”.

Foreign reporters based in Israel filed a legal petition seeking access to Gaza, but it was rejected by the supreme court on security grounds. Private lobbying by diplomats and public appeals by prominent journalists and media outlets have been ignored by the Israeli government.

To ensure accurate reporting from Gaza given these restrictions, the Guardian works with trusted journalists on the ground; our visual​​ teams verif​y photo and videos from third parties; and we use clearly sourced data from organisations that have a track record of providing accurate information in Gaza during past conflicts, or during other conflicts or humanitarian crises.

Emma Graham-Harrison, chief Middle East correspondent

The Israeli military announced on Friday that it had agreed to let Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdrop aid into Gaza. Each flight carrying aid is far more expensive and holds fewer supplies than lorries do. Hamas described it as a political stunt.

“The Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians,” Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters.

Amal Masri, a 31-year-old mother in Gaza who is pregnant, said finding food was near impossible. The food she did find was unsuitable for her pregnant state, and if she ate it out of desperation, she vomited.

“Most of the time I am completely exhausted, my blood pressure is very low, and I often feel like I’m suffocating, like I’m on the verge of death,” Masri said.

Her husband, like many Palestinians, has been unsuccessful at getting food from the private US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites, and arrives home injured and empty-handed. More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get food at GHF or aid sites – the GHF denies any responsibility for shootings outside its distribution sites.

As the humanitarian situation declines, ceasefire negotiations appear to have collapsed. On Thursday, Israel and the US recalled their negotiators from Qatar, where talks were being held.

Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse, accusing it of not wanting to make a deal or give up Israeli hostages. The US president said he thought Hamas leaders would be “hunted down”.

Hamas officials denied they were responsible for the end of the round of peace talks, and accused Israel of stalling.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said: “What we have presented – with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation – we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one.”

THE TIMING of the announcement on July 24th by Emmanuel Macron that France will recognise Palestine as a state at the United Nations General Assembly in September was unexpected. “Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the state of Palestine,” Mr Macron posted on X. “Peace is possible,” he added.

Dr. Mohammad Saqer is hungry. So ravenous that he sometimes struggles to keep upright while treating his desperately ill patients at the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. On Thursday, he fainted while working at the ward. And then, moments after recovering, he returned to finish his 24-hour shift.

“My fellow doctors caught me before I collapsed and gave me IV fluids and (sugar). There was a foreign doctor who had a packet of Tango juice and prepared it for me. I drank it immediately,” Dr. Saqer told CNN. “I am not diabetic – this was hunger. There’s no sugar. There’s no food.”

As Gaza’s hunger crisis deepens, the very people who are trying to keep the gravely malnourished population alive are suffering along with their patients.

Dr. Saqer said the number of his colleagues who have fainted at work has risen rapidly in recent days, with doctors and nurses across multiple departments collapsing from hunger and exhaustion.

Dr. Fadel Naim, a surgeon and the director of the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital, in the north of the Strip, told CNN that many of his colleagues have also fallen over from hunger and malnutrition, including two who collapsed during surgeries this week.

“Since I am the director of the hospital, one of my tasks is to find food for the staff … we aren’t getting enough food. If we have one meal a day, we are lucky, and most people (at the hospital) are working 24/7 – it’s very hard to continue like that,” Dr. Naim said.

The firsthand testimonies of the two doctors tally with what a group of more than 100 international humanitarian organizations said earlier this week, when they warned that they were “witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”

Dr. Saqer is the director of nursing at the Nasser Hospital, but like other medics there, he gets just one small plate of rice to eat each day.

“We are physically drained, and we are required to treat patients who are equally drained. Exhausted people treating other exhausted people, the hungry treating the hungry, the weak treating the weak,” he said.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, the director of Al-Tahrir Hospital for Pediatrics and Obstetrics at the Nasser Medical Complex said the hunger has affected the health of all doctors.

“Most of them are now suffering from depression, general weakness, inability to concentrate, and memory loss. Their energy levels are extremely low, nothing like before. Most have lost their passion for life,” he told CNN.

He said the hospital kitchen has run out of food and the international humanitarian kitchen that previously fed doctors, nurses and the families of patients has also shut down.

“Everyone working inside the hospital is without food. Doctors and nurses are working 24-hour shifts on empty stomachs,” he said.

The ward treating malnourished children at Nasser Hospital where Dr. Saqer works is full of babies that are so skinny, they no longer look human.

The bones in their faces, spines and ribcages appear to be protruding from under their skin. Their long, thin limbs resemble limp noodles, barely moving.

A CNN video filmed on Friday shows many of them crying, but some are so weak they are no longer even capable of that. They just lie in their cots or on mattresses placed on the floor and observe the world around them with eyes that look enormous on their emaciated faces. Several have bloated stomachs – the tell-tale sign of malnutrition.

The mothers desperately trying to feed them are skinny themselves. They too look exhausted and terrified.

One of them, Yasmin Abu Sultan, spoke to CNN as she was trying to feed her daughter Mona with a syringe.

“She needs fruits. We need to feed her vegetables but there’s nothing … mothers used to breastfeed. We didn’t rely on formula, now most mothers depend on it due to lack of food. It’s impossible for women to breastfeed without food,” she said.

Another mother, Najah Hashem Darbakh, said that while the doctors gave her daughter Sila Darbakh supplements, there was no formula available for her. She needs the milk because she is suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration.

“I told them I need milk. They said, you can go and try to get milk yourself if you can, but here in this room alone, four children have died from malnutrition. I’m terrified my daughter will be the fifth.”

Yet at least babies Mona and Sila Darbakh are in a hospital where they can get some medical attention – albeit not nearly enough.

Another mother who spoke to CNN, Hidaya Al Mtawwaq, lives in a tent near the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City with her son Mohammad. He is three years old and weighs just six kilograms (13 lbs) — down from nine kilograms (20lbs) just a few months ago.

“He can’t stand on his feet, and he can’t move like before, all because of the famine and lack of food,” she told CNN.

Al Mtawwaq has taken Mohammad to several hospitals and has always been told the same — he urgently needs nutritional supplements that are not available in Gaza. All she can get for his is a little bit of milk — and even that is becoming extremely difficult.

Al Mtawwaq said her husband has been killed in the war. “I struggle just to afford a can of milk for him. I’m truly exhausted. Exhausted, exhausted.”

All of Gaza’s 2.1 million people are now food insecure, without reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious and healthy food, the UN said this week. According to Gaza’s health ministry, 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition.

The situation is worsening by the hour. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that the rates of severe malnutrition in children under five in its clinics have tripled in the last two weeks alone.

Dr. Naim said children born during the war are especially vulnerable to health problems caused by malnutrition.

“Those who are two or three years old have grown up in unhealthy conditions, with weakened immunity and allergies. They suffer from problems in brain development and motor function, and these issues will persist into the future, even if they survive the hunger,” he told CNN, adding that he feels that Gaza has been abandoned by the world.

“As peaceful Palestinian people, we are being collectively punished … (US) President (Donald) Trump must take a strong stance, especially as he claims to be a man of peace and committed to achieving peace.”

Dr. Al-Farra told CNN that he was treating a little girl who developed dangerous potassium deficiency because of the hunger.

“I noticed (the girl) was listening to our conversation and asked her mother how to prevent potassium deficiency,” the doctor said, adding that the girl’s mother said eating potatoes and bananas, neither of which is available in Gaza, would help to boost the girl’s potassium levels.

“And then the girl asked her mother if there were bananas in paradise and she answered yes. The girl said ‘then let’s become martyrs so I can eat bananas and get better,’” Dr. Al-Farra recalled.

“Can you imagine a child wishing for death just to get food?”

Like all of his colleagues, Dr. Saqer said he keeps thinking about his family while treating his patients. Because in Gaza, doctors can never be sure that the next casualty coming through their door won’t be someone dear to them.

“We are working, sadly, with our minds on our families, who are starving,” he told CNN, adding that when his wife told him this week that there was no food, he went to the market, trying to buy some.

“Flour is now priced like gold in Gaza. I bought two kilograms (4.4 lb), just enough for three days, for 310 shekels ($92),” he said.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the average daily wage in Gaza was just under $13 per day in 2021, the latest available data.

Humanitarian organizations have long been warning about the risk of famine in Gaza. The territory has always been dependent on humanitarian aid, but the flows of food and other necessities have been severely restricted by Israel following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks that Hamas launched from Gaza.

There have been periods during the war when no food was allowed into Gaza and while aid is currently trickling in, there isn’t enough of it and even the little that does get through is not reaching those who need it the most.

Finding food is becoming increasingly dangerous. The UN said this week that more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when the controversial Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating.

The director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from man-made “mass starvation” because of Israel’s decision to block aid.

Israel has rejected the accusation and earlier this week, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu went as far as claiming that “there is no hunger in Gaza” – despite the overwhelming evidence. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced Eliyahu’s remarks as a “moral attack and public diplomacy disaster.”

Dr. Saqer said he had not seen his wife and children in three months, because he is needed at the hospital non-stop. Casualties can arrive any minute of any day, so he needs to be nearby even during his very limited down-time.

The situation in Gaza is now “beyond what the human mind can grasp,” he added. Amid the carnage and suffering, the doctors at Nasser have only each other to turn to.

“We try to encourage each other, reminding one another that this profession is rooted in humanity, and under no circumstances can we abandon our duty or the oath we took,” Dr. Saqer said.

Published on 25/07/2025 – 17:31 GMT+2
•Updated
18:01

Talks between Iran and the UK, France and Germany, known collectively as the E3 countries, concluded in Istanbul on Friday with both sides agreeing to continue discussions aimed at breaking the deadlock over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The four-hour meeting, held at the Iranian Consulate, marked the first formal engagement since the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel in June, which included US airstrikes on nuclear-linked sites. 

Discussions focused on the possible reimposition of international sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, which limited Iran’s enrichment activities in exchange for relief from punitive measures.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who led the Iranian delegation alongside Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, described the exchange as “serious, frank and detailed,” noting that both sides came with “specific ideas” and had agreed to further consultations.

The E3 have warned that without visible progress, sanctions could be restored under the UN’s “snapback mechanism”, a clause in the 2015 agreement allowing the automatic return of sanctions if Iran breaches the deal’s terms.

A European diplomat, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the E3 had offered Tehran a temporary delay in triggering the mechanism, on condition that Tehran re-engage diplomatically, cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and address concerns over its rapidly growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

“The snapback remains on the table,” the diplomat said.

Iran, however, insists that its enrichment activities are within its legal rights. Gharibabadi reiterated on social media that Tehran’s nuclear efforts must be respected, adding that the talks should not serve as a “platform for hidden agendas such as military action.”

He also stated that Iran’s involvement in the diplomatic process depends on “rebuilding trust,” particularly in light of the US withdrawal from the 2015 accord under former President Donald Trump.

“Iran has absolutely no trust in the United States,” Gharibabadi wrote.

In May, the IAEA reported that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity had surpassed 400 kilograms, close to weapons-grade level. Since then, Tehran has suspended cooperation with the agency. 

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, speaking in Singapore on Friday, warned that inspectors must be allowed to return soon.

“This is an international obligation of Iran,” he said, urging movement “from words to reality.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking to Al Jazeera earlier this week, maintained that the country remains committed to international law and does not intend to pursue nuclear weapons. 

The talks in Istanbul come amid rising tensions in the region. Last month, Israeli and US military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites prompted retaliatory attacks on Israel and a US base in Qatar. 

July 25, 2025

By: Patricia Clarino, Senior Manager, Newland Chase Advisory

Increasing the working hour limit for student visa holders in New Zealand is a beneficial change for international students, as it allows greater financial support and the opportunity to gain practical work experience during their studies. Employers should take note of this update and ensure accurate tracking of international students’ work hours to remain compliant with immigration regulations.

Starting from November 3, 2025, eligible secondary and tertiary students will be permitted to work up to 25 hours per week during the academic term. This is an increase from the previous limit of 20 hours. The change will apply to all new student visas approved from this date, regardless of when the application was submitted.

It is important for foreign students holding existing visas with a 20-hour limit to apply for a new visa or for a variation of conditions to be able to access the new 25-hour limit.

Most student visas already allow full-time work while on summer or scheduled breaks. For this group of foreign students, it may be best to delay applying for the change until after the break so long as the visa remains valid.

Students in Years 12 and 13 are still required to obtain both parental and school approval to work during the academic year. This requirement remains in place notwithstanding the changes to working hour limits.

Please reach out to your Newland Chase dedicated contact or submit an inquiry should you have any specific questions regarding this announcement. We are here to help.

This immigration update is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal or scenario-specific advice. Furthermore, it is important to note that immigration announcements are subject to sudden and unexpected changes. Readers are encouraged to reach out to Newland Chase for any case- or company-specific assessments.