Category: 2. World

LONDON: Official recognition of a Palestinian state would end legal ambiguities over the Gaza Marine gas field and secure the Palestinian Authority’s right to develop its most valuable natural resource, according to energy expert Michael Barron.

Barron, author of “The Gaza Marine Story,” estimates the field could generate $4 billion in revenue at current prices, with the PA reasonably earning $100 million annually for 15 years, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

“The revenues would not turn the Palestinians into the next Qataris or Singaporeans, but it would be their own revenue and not aid, on which the Palestinian economy remains dependent,” he said.

Gas was discovered in 2000 in the Gaza Marine field, a joint venture between BG Gas and the Palestinian Consolidated Contractors Co.

Despite initial hopes of ending energy shortages in the Gaza Strip, the project has been repeatedly stalled over ownership disputes, lack of sovereignty, and political instability.

“The Oslo Accords agreed in 1993 clearly give the Palestinian National Authority jurisdiction over territorial waters, the subsoil, power to legislate over oil and gas exploration and to award licenses to do so,” Barron said.

“Control over natural resources was an important element of (the) state-building agenda of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israeli exploitation of Palestinian resources was and remains a central part of the conflict,” he added.

Israel has historically blocked development over concerns that revenue could reach Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. An Israeli court once ruled the waters a “no-man’s water” due to the PA’s lack of sovereignty, and Israel has long claimed any license 20 miles off the Gaza coast should be seen as a gift, not a right.

Barron said that if Palestine were recognized as a state, particularly by countries where major oil firms are based, it would “effectively end the legal ambiguity” and allow the PA to develop the field and achieve energy independence from Israel.

A separate controversy has emerged over Israeli-issued gas licenses in a disputed area known as Zone G.

Lawyers acting for Palestinian human rights groups recently warned Italian energy firm Eni not to proceed with exploration, saying “Israel cannot have validly awarded you any exploration rights and you cannot validly have acquired any such rights.”

Eni has since told Italian campaigners that “licenses have not yet been issued and no exploratory activities are in progress.”

Activist group Global Witness also argues the East Mediterranean Gas pipeline, which passes through waters claimed by Palestine, is unlawful and does not provide any revenue to the PA.

The 56-mile pipeline transports gas from Ashkelon in Israel to Arish in Egypt for export.

The issue has gained new attention following a UN report by Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

She warned corporations of their potential legal liability for supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, citing international court rulings.

Her report concluded companies have a “prima facie responsibility ‘to not engage and/or to withdraw totally and unconditionally from any associated dealings with Israel, and to ensure that any engagement with Palestinians enables their self-determination.’”

Israel has rejected the report in full.

Barron argues that, with Israel now self-sufficient in gas, “so long as a Palestinian state with unified governance is recognized, Israel will have no motive or legal right to block Palestine exploiting its single greatest natural resource.”

By&nbspEuronews&nbspwith&nbspAP

Published on
20/07/2025 – 19:28 GMT+2

Torrential rainfall that slammed South Korea for five days has left 17 people dead and 11 others missing, the government said on Sunday.

One person was killed after their house collapsed during heavy rain and another person was found dead after being swept away by a swollen stream in Gapyeong, a town northeast of Seoul, according to the Interior and Safety Ministry.

The ministry said 10 people were discovered dead and four others were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong over the weekend after heavy downpours caused landslides, house collapses and flash floods there.

A ministry report said that one person died in the southern city of Gwangju. It said that seven others remain missing in Gwangju, Gapyeong and elsewhere.

Earlier last week, a person was also killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain. Three others were found dead in a submerged car, a swollen stream and a flooded basement in southern South Chungcheong province.

As of 4 pm local time on Sunday, about 2,730 people remain evacuated from their homes, the ministry report said. The rain has since stopped in most of South Korea, and heavy rain alerts have been lifted throughout the country.

Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters of rain, according to the ministry report.

President Lee Jae Myung expressed deep sympathy to those who lost their loved ones and suffered financial damage. Lee said the government will push to designate areas hit hard it by the downpours as special disaster zones. The designation would provide them with greater financial and other recovery support from the government.

Video editor • Malek Fouda

MAZRAA, Syria — MAZRAA, Syria (AP) — Syria’s armed Bedouin clans announced Sunday they had withdrawn from the Druze-majority city of Sweida following weeklong clashes and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as humanitarian aid convoys started to enter the battered southern city.

The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition. Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.

The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins.

A series of tit-for-tat kidnappings sparked the clashes in various towns and villages in the province, which later spread to Sweida city, the provincial capital. Government forces were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted Thursday, before withdrawing again.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has been perceived as more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying that they “cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country’s affairs and restoring security.”

“We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state’s orders,” he said in an address broadcast Saturday.

Dozens of armed Bedouin fighters alongside other clans from around the country who came to support them remained on the outskirts of the city and were cordoned off by government security forces and military police. They blame the clashes on the Druze factions loyal to spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and accuse them of harming Bedouin families.

“We will not leave until he turns himself in alongside those with him who tried to stir sedition. And only then will we go home.” Khaled al-Mohammad, who came to the southern province alongside other tribesman from the eastern Deir al-Zour province, told The Associated Press.

The Bedouins’ withdrawal brought a cautious calm to the area, with humanitarian convoys on their way. The Syrian Red Crescent said Sunday it sent 32 trucks loaded with food, medicine, water, fuel and other aid, after the fighting left the province with power cuts and shortages.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that the convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, but accused al-Hijri and his armed Druze supporters of turning back a government delegation that accompanied another convoy.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement said the convoy accompanying the delegation had two ambulances loaded with aid provided by local and international organizations.

Al-Hijri did not directly respond to the accusations but said in a statement that he welcomes any assistance for Sweida and slammed what he claims were distorted campaigns against him.

“We reaffirm that we have no dispute with anyone on any religious or ethnic basis,” the statement read. “Shame and disgrace be upon all those who seek to sow discord and hatred in the minds of young people.”

The U.N. International Organization for Migration said 128,571 people were displaced during the clashes, including 43,000 on Saturday alone.

Washington’s special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said the clashes and atrocities “overshadowed” an initial cautious optimism about the country’s post-war transition and the international community’s lifting of sanctions.

“All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,” Barrack said on X. “Syria stands at a critical juncture — peace and dialogue must prevail — and prevail now.”

Among those killed in the weeklong fighting were dozens of Druze civilians slain in a series of targeted attacks in the city at the hands of Bedouin fighters and government forces. Videos surfaced online of fighters destroying portraits of Druze religious officials and notables in homes, and shaving the mustaches of elderly Druze, seen as an insult to culture and tradition. Druze militias in return attacked Bedouin-majority areas in the outskirts of the province, forcing families to flee to neighboring Daraa province.

More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

Syria’s Druze largely celebrated the downfall of the Assad family that ended decades of tyrannical rule. While they had concerns about Al-Sharaa’s de facto Islamist rule, a large number wanted to approach matters diplomatically. Al-Hijri and his supporters, though, have taken a more confrontational approach with Al-Sharaa, contrary to most other influential Druze figures. Critics also note al-Hijri’s previous allegiance to Assad.

However, the recent clashes and sectarian attacks on the minority community have made a growing number of Druze in the area more skeptical about Damascus’ new leadership and more doubtful of peaceful coexistence.

——

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

CNN
 — 

Four-year old Razan Abu Zaher gave up her fight for life on Sunday.

She died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by hunger and malnutrition, according to a medical source. Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone.

At least 76 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since the conflict began in October 2023, as well as ten adults, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization, most of these occurred since Israeli authorities imposed a blockade at the beginning of March.

Razan was one of at least four children to succumb in the last three days, the youngest just three months. Over the past 24 hours, 18 deaths have been recorded due to famine in Gaza, the health ministry says, reflecting a deepening crisis in the territory.

CNN first met Razan a month ago. She was already weak with hunger and pitifully thin. Her mother, Tahrir Abu Daher, said then that she had no money to buy milk, which was in any case rarely available.

“Her health was very good before the war, but after the war, her condition began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. There is nothing to strengthen her.”

That was on June 23. Razan had already been in hospital for 12 days. She clung on to life for another 27 days.

Razan died amid growing starvation in Gaza, with the flow of humanitarian aid severely reduced since the beginning of March, when Israeli authorities banned convoys from entering Gaza.

That ban was partially lifted at the end of May, but aid agencies say the amounts reaching the territory far too little to sustain the population.

Israel said it was halting shipments of aid into Gaza because Hamas was stealing and profiting from it – an allegation Hamas denies. Israeli agencies also say the United Nations has not picked up aid ready to move into Gaza. The UN in turn has said that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within Gaza, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in.

Gaza was heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before the conflict began in October 2023, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since.

The scarcity of food since March has sent a rapidly growing number of people to already overwhelmed hospitals.

“Gaza is witnessing the worst phase of famine, which has reached catastrophic levels amid unprecedented international silence,” said Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, the spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital on Sunday, where Razan died.

Al-Daqran said the infants who were now dying had been robbed of their childhood twice, “once by bombing and killing, and again by depriving them of milk and a piece of bread.”

The health ministry said Saturday that an “unprecedented number of starving citizens of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in severe states of exhaustion and fatigue.”

“Hundreds whose bodies have been severely weakened are now at risk of imminent death due to hunger and their bodies’ inability to endure any longer,” the ministry added.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights – an NGO working in Gaza – reported Sunday that one of its team in Gaza had said: “Our faces have changed and our bodies have wasted away. We no longer recognize each other from extreme emaciation, as if we are slowly fading away and dying.”

Dr. Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Kuwait field hospital in Khan Younis, told CNN that people arriving there were in “dire need of food before medicine, as their bodies have reached a point beyond endurance and are all at risk of death.”

“Today, the World Central Kitchen stopped sending meals for the medical staff, they used to send us only rice. Doctors are working 24 hours a day with no food, neither at home nor at the hospital. People are dying of hunger,” Al-Hams said Sunday.

World Central Kitchen confirmed its Gaza teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals.

“We served 80,000 meals yesterday [Saturday], emptying the last of our replenished stocks while aid trucks remain stuck at the border.

“This is the second time lack of access to aid has forced our kitchen operations to pause,” it added.

In their desperation, thousands of people risk their lives every day to find something to eat. More than 70 people were reported to have been killed Sunday in northern Gaza as they desperately sought food aid, according to the health ministry, which said they had been shot by Israeli troops.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops in the area “fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them. The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined.”

“An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said that “a significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, are arriving in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition.”

Nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

During that period, OHCHR recorded the killings of 798 people, 615 of whom were killed near sites of the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It added that 183 others were killed “on the routes of aid convoys” without giving details on who had been running those convoys.

Dozens more have been killed since, according to the health ministry, including more than 30 in southern Gaza on Saturday.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the UN Security Council on Thursday that food was running out in Gaza. “Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families.”

He said that starvation rates among children had reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday it was receiving “deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with little resources available to treat them properly.”

On Saturday, Sarmad Tamimy, a plastic surgeon volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians, told CNN: “Honestly, I feel the lucky ones get killed immediately because [of] the horrible horrors that they’re going to face with their extensive injuries, with inadequate nutrition, inadequate medical supplies, infections, maggots, [and] hospital-acquired infections.”

The Israeli military has killed at least 67 people waiting for UN aid lorries in northern Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had “fired warning shots” to remove “an immediate threat”. It disputed the number of reported deaths.

Six more people were killed waiting for aid elsewhere in Gaza and more than 150 people were injured, some seriously, the ministry said.

On Saturday it warned that extreme hunger was increasing in Gaza and growing numbers of people were arriving at its facilities “in a state of extreme exhaustion and fatigue”.

There have been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking food since late May. On Saturday at least 32 people were killed by Israeli gunfire near two aid distribution points in southern Gaza, according to the ministry.

Many of the incidents have taken place near sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which uses private security contractors to distribute aid from sites in Israeli military zones, but some have taken place near aid brought in by the UN.

Meanwhile the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for a crowded part of central Gaza where it has not launched a ground offensive during its 21 months of war against Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the city of Deir al-Balah should evacuate immediately and move towards al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast.

The evacuation demand, which could signal an imminent attack, has caused widespread panic among tens of thousands of Palestinians, as well as the families of Israeli hostages who fear their relatives are being held in the city.

The IDF has conducted air strikes in the area, but it has not yet deployed ground troops.

On Sunday, the Israeli military dropped leaflets from the sky ordering people in several districts in southwest Deir al-Balah to leave their homes and head further south.

“The (Israeli) Defense Forces continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area,” the military said, adding that it had not yet entered these districts during the war.

The affected neighbourhoods of Deir al-Balah are crowded with displaced people living in tents.

Israeli sources told Reuters news agency that the reason the army has stayed out of these districts so far is because they suspect Hamas might be holding hostages there.

At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to still be alive.

Most of the Strip’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during Israel’s war with Hamas, with repeated Israeli evacuation calls covering large parts of the territory.

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called for an “immediate end to the barbarity of the war” and urged against “indiscriminate use of force”.

His comments came days after a deadly Israeli strike hit Gaza’s only Catholic Church, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country deeply regretted.

Meanwhile, the UN has said civilians are starving in Gaza and called for an urgent influx of essential goods.

Israel launched its war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 others being taken hostage.

Israeli attacks have since killed more than 58,895 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry’s figures are quoted by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.

Pope Leo XIV has condemned the “barbarity” of the war in Gaza and the “indiscriminate use of force” as Gaza’s health ministry said at least 73 Palestinians had been killed queueing for food.

The ministry said on Sunday that the victims had been killed in different locations, mostly in northern Gaza.

It said 67 of the dead had been killed by Israeli fire while waiting for UN aid trucks entering through the northern Zikim crossing with Israel.

The UN World Food Programme said that shortly after entering Gaza, a WFP convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid encountered “massive crowds of hungry civilians” who then came under gunfire.

“WFP reiterates that any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable,” it said in a statement.

The director of al-Shifa hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Associated Press that since Sunday morning the hospital had received 48 people who were killed and 150 wounded while seeking aid from lorries expected to enter Gaza at the Zikim crossing. He could not say whether the dead had been killed by the Israeli army, armed gangs or both.

Israel’s military said soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who it claimed posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. It did not immediately comment on the incident in the south.

There was new alarm as Israel’s military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located. In central Deir al-Balah, residents said Israeli planes struck three houses in the area and dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings, Reuters reported.

Before these reports emerged, the pope called for “an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict” at the end of the Angelus prayer at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence near Rome.

The pope also spoke of his anguish over the Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church last week, which killed three people and injured 10. Among the injured was the parish priest, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis.

Israel has expressed “deep sorrow” and opened an investigation into the strike on the church, which was sheltering about 600 displaced people, most of them children and many with special needs.

“This act, unfortunately, adds to the ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” the pope said on Sunday.

“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations.”

On Sunday the UN’s agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, said Israeli authorities were “starving civilians in Gaza”, including 1 million children. “Unrwa has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses,” it said in an earlier social media post that included photos of a warehouse in Arish, Egypt. “Open the gates, lift the siege, allow Unrwa to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children,” the agency said.

Unrwa said last week that babies were dying from “severe acute malnutrition”.

Israel banned all cooperation with Unrwa in Gaza and the West Bank, accusing the agency of having been infiltrated by Hamas, although an independent review found Tel Aviv had failed to provide evidence of its claims that Unrwa employees were members of terrorist organisations. The agency had been the main distributor of aid in Gaza and provider of basic services, including health and education, to Palestinians across the region.

Since May aid has been largely distributed by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in place of the traditional UN-led system. Food has become scarce, and very expensive, since Israel imposed a blockade on 2 March.

The UN has said that as of 13 July, 875 people had been killed in recent weeks trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of GHF sites. The remaining 201 victims were killed on the routes or close to aid convoys run by the UN or its partners. Children have been killed fetching water for their families.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Sunday in areas of central Gaza packed with displaced Palestinians, a sign of an imminent attack on neighbourhoods in Deir al-Balah, which has alarmed the families of Israeli hostages, who fear their relatives are being held there. “Can anyone [promise] to us that this decision will not come at the cost of losing our loved ones?” the families said in a statement.

The Israeli military dropped leaflets from the sky ordering people in several districts in south-west Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza have been sheltering, to leave their homes and head south.

“The [Israel] Defense Forces continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area,” the military said.

Israel’s forces have not yet entered these districts during the current conflict because they suspect that Hamas may be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed still to be alive.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage.

At least 58,895 Palestinians have been killed and 140,980 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.