ReportWire

Tag: Humanitarian crises

  • Israeli strikes kill over 40 people in Gaza

    CAIRO — Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health officials said Sunday, as several European countries and leading U.S. allies moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

    Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city. Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.


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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By SAMY MAGDY – Associated Press

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  • What is a famine and who declares one?

    Famine is now occurring in Gaza City, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.

    The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released an analysis Friday, saying more than more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, suffering widespread starvation and preventable deaths.

    It’s the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East, where Israel has been in a brutal war with Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

    People in Gaza rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive because Israel’s military offensive has wiped out most capacity to produce food inside the territory.

    “I am speechless that in 2025, we are facing starvation on the planet,” said Dr. Mark Manary at Washington University in St. Louis, an expert on childhood malnutrition. “It’s got to be a wake-up call.”

    Manary said if food were made widely available, it would take around two or three months for the region to recover from the famine.

    Here’s a look at what famine means and how the world finds out when one exists.

    “Famine is, in plain language, not having enough to eat,” Manary said.

    IPC, the leading international authority on hunger crises, considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or essentially are starving; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.

    Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution.

    Last year, experts said a famine was ongoing in parts of North Darfur in Sudan. Somalia, in 2011, and South Sudan, in 2017, also saw famines in which tens of thousands of people were affected.

    The short answer is, there’s no set rule.

    While the IPC says it is the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to analyze data and conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a declaration itself.

    Often, U.N. officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the IPC.

    In Gaza, the World Health Organization said malnutrition among children “is accelerating at a catastrophic pace,” with more than 12,000 children identified as acutely malnourished in July alone. That’s the highest monthly figure ever recorded.

    When people don’t have enough to eat, Manary said, the first thing that happens is the body uses up its reserves.

    “So we have about three days’ worth of carbohydrates … and sometimes even months’ worth of fat that we can keep in our body in storage,” he said. “These are used up. And then the body still needs to keep working. So it starts breaking down less essential parts of the body. So you see, like, people become very thin.”

    In a sense, he said, people’s muscles are being eaten by their own bodies to keep them going.

    “The body is eating all of itself up in order to try to survive,” he said.

    At some point, he said, that process breaks down and a stressor like an infection can kill the person.

    If they start eating, Manary said, their risk of dying drops quite a bit in just a week. But it sometimes takes a couple of months for someone to recover completely.

    When a famine is declared, governments and the international aid community, including the U.N., can potentially unlock aid and funding to help feed people en masse.

    Because this famine is human-caused, “it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading.”

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Trump makes false claims about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

    VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

    The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

    “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday.

    The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone Sunday night with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he spoke to Biden the night before.

    “The president just called me yesterday afternoon and I missed him and called him right back and he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we’ve got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said. “He offered if there are other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that.”

    In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign in which among the hardest-hit states were North Carolina and Georgia, two battlegrounds. Trump over the last several days has used the damage wrought by Helene to attack Harris, the Democratic nominee, and suggest she and Biden are playing politics with the storm — something he was accused of doing when president.

    Biden is defiant about spending time at his beach house

    While the White House highlighted Biden’s call to Kemp and others, the president faced questions about his decision to spend the weekend at his beach house in Delaware, rather than the White House, to monitor the storm.

    “I was commanding it,” Biden told reporters after delivering remarks at the White House on the federal government’s response. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it. It’s called a telephone.”

    AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Donald Trump is touring Hurricane Helene’s damage in Georgia, while blasting the Biden administration’s response to the deadly storm.

    Biden received frequent updates on the storm, the White House said, as did Harris aboard Air Force Two as she made a West Coast campaign swing. The vice president cut short her campaign trip Monday to return to Washington for a briefing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Trump, writing on his social media platform Monday, also claimed without evidence that the federal government and North Carolina’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

    The death toll from Helene has surpassed 100 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.

    Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to get a first-hand look at the devastation, but will limit his footprint so as not to distract from the ongoing recovery efforts.

    During remarks Monday at FEMA headquarters, Harris said she has received regular briefings on the disaster response, including from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and has spoken with Kemp and Cooper in the last 24 hours.

    What to know about the 2024 election:

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    “I have shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” she said. “And I’ve shared with them that I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations.”

    When asked if her visit was politicizing the storm, she frowned and shook her head but did not reply.

    Trump partnered with a Christian charity to bring supplies

    The Trump campaign partnered with the Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse to bring trucks of fuel, food, water and other critical supplies to Georgia, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

    Leavitt did not immediately respond to questions about how much had been donated and from which entity. Samaritan’s Purse also declined to address the matter in a statement.

    Trump also launched a GoFundMe campaign for supporters to send financial aid to people impacted by the storm. It quickly passed its $1 million goal Monday night.

    “Our hearts are with you and we are going to be with you as long as you need it,” Trump said, flanked by a group of elected officials and Republican supporters.

    “We’re not talking about politics now,” Trump added.

    Trump said he wanted to stop in North Carolina but was holding off because access and communication is limited in hard-hit communities.

    When asked by The Associated Press on Monday if he was concerned that his visit to Georgia was taking away law enforcement resources that could be used for disaster response, Trump said, “No.” He said his campaign instead “brought many wagons of resources.”

    Katie Watson, who owns with her husband the home design store Trump visited, said she was told the former president picked that location because he saw shots of the business destroyed with the rubble and said, “Find that place and find those people.”

    “He didn’t come here for me. He came here to recognize that this town has been destroyed. It’s a big setback,” she said.

    “He recognizes that we are hurting and he wants us to know that,” she added. “It was a lifetime opportunity to meet the president. This is not exactly the way I wanted to do it.”

    Trump campaign officials have long pointed to his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic trail derailment, as a turning point in the early days of the presidential race when he was struggling to establish his footing as a candidate. They believed his warm welcome by residents frustrated by the federal government’s response helped remind voters why they had been drawn to him years earlier.

    Trump fought with Puerto Rico and meteorologists while president

    During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornadoes and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

    It also took until weeks before the presidential election in 2020 for Trump’s administration to release $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.

    In another 2019 incident, Trump administration officials admonished some meteorologists for tweeting that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian, contradicting the then-president. Trump would famously display a map altered with a black Sharpie pen to indicate Alabama could be in the path of the storm.

    ___

    Fernando reported from Chicago, and Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Chris Megerian and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Will Weissert in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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  • Peabody lineworkers provide aid after Helene

    Peabody lineworkers provide aid after Helene

    PEABODY — Two lineworkers from the Peabody Municipal Light Plant went down to Georgia to help fix in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

    Kevin MacGregor, a supervisor and lineworker, and Ed Melo, a lead lineworker and troubleworker, left for Cordele, Georgia, on Sept. 27 in PMLP’s Truck 58, PMLP said in a statement.

    PMLP was called upon by the Northeast Public Power Association’s mutual aid network to assist the South following the storm. Once in Georgia, MacGregor and Melo helped the Crisp County Power Commission work to restore power to thousands of people.

    “Mutual aid is an important investment in public power and other municipalities around the country. We are all partners,” PMLP General Manager Joe Anastasi said in the statement. “When natural disaster or other catastrophic events happen, utilities in cities and towns do what we do best: help get power restored to customers.”

    Mutual aid is fully paid for by the requesting utility company, PMLP said.

    “Although PMLP has not requested mutual aid, being a part of this network assures that Peabody and South Lynnfield will have support should it ever face such a disaster,” according to the statement.

    Other local public power utilities who have sent aid to areas affected by Hurricane Helene include Danvers, Wakefield, Rowley, Middleton and Reading.

    By News Staff

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  • Beverly-based rescue team continues searches in NC, Florida

    Beverly-based rescue team continues searches in NC, Florida

    Members of a Beverly-based search-and-rescue team are continuing to search for victims and help with recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene. A total of 61 members of Massachusetts Task Force 1 have responded to the area, including 56 in North Carolina and five in Florida, according to Thomas Gatzunis, a planning team manager, public information officer and structures specialist for the team. Hurricane Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history and is estimated to have killed more than 150 people in six states. Massachusetts Task Force 1 is one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams in the nation. It is based at a compound next to Beverly Airport and is comprised of about 250 volunteers from all six New England states, including firefighters, police officers, doctors, paramedics, canine handlers and engineers. Here are photos provided by the team of their ongoing efforts in North Carolina.












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    Members of a Beverly-based search-and-rescue team are continuing to search for victims and help with recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

    A total of 61 members of Massachusetts Task Force 1 have responded to the area, including 56 in North Carolina and five in Florida, according to Thomas Gatzunis, a planning team manager, public information officer and structures specialist for the team.

    Hurricane Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history and is estimated to have killed more than 150 people in six states.

    Massachusetts Task Force 1 is one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams in the nation. It is based at a compound next to Beverly Airport and is comprised of about 250 volunteers from all six New England states, including firefighters, police officers, doctors, paramedics, canine handlers and engineers.

    Here are photos provided by the team of their ongoing efforts in North Carolina.







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    By News Staff

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  • The Nobel Prizes will be announced against a backdrop of wars, famine and artificial intelligence

    The Nobel Prizes will be announced against a backdrop of wars, famine and artificial intelligence

    STAVANGER, Norway — Wars, a refugee crisis, famine and artificial intelligence could all be recognized when Nobel Prize announcements begin next week under a shroud of violence.

    The prize week coincides with the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which began a year of bloodshed and war across the Middle East.

    The literature and science prizes could be immune. But the peace prize, which recognizes efforts to end conflict, will be awarded in an atmosphere of ratcheting international violence — if awarded at all.

    “I look at the world and see so much conflict, hostility and confrontation, I wonder if this is the year the Nobel Peace Prize should be withheld,” said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

    As well as events roiling the Middle East, Smith cites the war in Sudan and risk of famine there, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and his institute’s research showing that global military spending is increasing at its fastest pace since World War II.

    “It could go to some groups which are making heroic efforts but are marginalized,” Smith said. “But the trend is in the wrong direction. Perhaps it would be right to draw attention to that by withholding the peace prize this year.”

    Withholding the Nobel Peace is not new. It has been suspended 19 times in the past, including during the world wars. The last time it was not awarded was in 1972.

    However, Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, says withdrawal would be a mistake in 2024, saying the prize is “arguably more important as a way to promote and recognize important work for peace.”

    Civil grassroot groups, and international organizations with missions to mitigate violence in the Middle East could be recognized.

    Nominees are kept secret for 50 years, but nominators often publicize their picks. Academics at the Free University Amsterdam said they have nominated the Middle East-based organizations EcoPeace, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun for peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Urdal believes it’s possible the committee could consider the Sudan Emergency Response Rooms, a group of grassroots initiatives providing aid to stricken Sudanese facing famine and buffeted by the country’s brutal civil war.

    The announcements begin Monday with the physiology or medicine prize, followed on subsequent days by the physics, chemistry, literature and peace awards.

    The Peace Prize announcement will be made on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, while all the others will be announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The prize in economics will be announced the following week on Oct. 14.

    New technology, possibly artificial intelligence, could be recognized in one or more of the categories.

    Critics of AI warn the rise of autonomous weapons shows the new technology could mean additional peace-shattering misery for many people. Yet AI has also enabled scientific breakthroughs that are tipped for recognition in other categories.

    David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information, says scientists from Google Deepmind, the AI lab, could be among those under consideration for the chemistry prize.

    The company’s artificial intelligence, AlphaFold, “accurately predicts the structure of proteins,” he said. It is already widely used in several fields, including medicine, where it could one day be used to develop a breakthrough drug.

    Pendlebury spearheads Clarivate’s list of scientists whose papers are among the world’s most cited, and whose work it says are ripe for Nobel recognition.

    “AI will increasingly be a part of the panoply of tools that researchers use,” Pendlebury said. He said he would be extremely surprised if a discovery “firmly anchored in AI” did not win Nobel prizes in the next 10 years.

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  • Takeaways from AP’s report updating the cult massacre that claimed hundreds of lives in Kenya

    Takeaways from AP’s report updating the cult massacre that claimed hundreds of lives in Kenya

    In one of the deadliest cult-related massacres ever, the remains of more than 430 victims have been recovered since police raided Good News International Church in a forest some 70 kilometers (40 miles) inland from the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi.

    Seventeen months later, many in the area are still shaken by what happened despite repeated warnings about the church’s leader.

    Autopsies on more than 100 bodies showed deaths from starvation, strangulation, suffocation, and injuries sustained from blunt objects. A gravedigger, Shukran Karisa Mangi, said he believed more mass graves were yet to be discovered. At least 600 people are reported missing, according to the Kenya Red Cross.

    Here are some details about the case.

    The evangelical leader of Good News, Paul Mackenzie, is accused of instructing his followers to starve to death for the opportunity to meet Jesus. Mackenzie pleaded not guilty to charges in the murders of 191 children, multiple counts of manslaughter and other crimes. If convicted, he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Some in Malindi who spoke to The Associated Press said Mackenzie’s confidence while in custody showed the wide-ranging power some evangelists project even as their teachings undermine government authority, break the law, or harm followers desperate for healing and other miracles.

    It’s not only Mackenzie, said Thomas Kakala, a self-described bishop with the Malindi-based Jesus Cares Ministry International, referring to questionable pastors he knew in the capital Nairobi. “You look at them. If you are sober and you want to hear the word of God, you wouldn’t go to their church. But the place is packed.”

    A man like Mackenzie, who refused to join the fellowship of pastors in Malindi and rarely quoted Scripture, could thrive in a country like Kenya, said Kakala. Six detectives have been suspended for ignoring multiple warnings about Mackenzie’s illegal activities.

    Kakala said he felt discouraged in his attempts to discredit Mackenzie years ago. The evangelist had played a tape of Kakala on his TV station and declared him an enemy. Kakala felt threatened.

    Mackenzie, a former street vendor and cab driver with a high-school education, apprenticed with a Malindi preacher in the late 1990s. There, in the laid-back tourist town, he opened his own church in 2003.

    A charismatic preacher, he was said to perform miracles and exorcisms, and could be generous with his money. His followers included teachers and police officers. They came to Malindi from across Kenya, giving Mackenzie national prominence that spread the pain of the deaths across the country.

    The first complaints against Mackenzie concerned his opposition to formal schooling and vaccination. He was briefly detained in 2019 for opposing the government’s efforts to assign national identification numbers to Kenyans, saying the numbers were satanic.

    He closed his Malindi church premises later that year and urged his congregation to follow him to Shakahola, where he leased 800 acres of forest inhabited by elephants and big cats.

    Church members paid small sums to own plots in Shakahola. They were required to build houses and live in villages with biblical names like Nazareth, according to survivors. They said Mackenzie grew more demanding, with people from different villages forbidden from communicating or gathering.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, which witnesses said strengthened Mackenzie’s vision of the end times, the leader ordered more rigorous fasting that became even more stringent by the end of 2022. Parents were forbidden from feeding their children, witnesses said.

    Like much of East Africa, Kenya is dominated by Christians. While many are Anglican or Catholic, evangelical Christianity has been spreading widely since the 1980s. Many pastors style their ministries in the manner of successful U.S. televangelists, investing in broadcasting and advertising.

    Many of Africa’s evangelical churches are run like sole proprietorships, without the guidance of trustee boards or laity. Pastors are often unaccountable, deriving authority from their perceived ability to perform miracles or make prophecies. Some, like Mackenzie, can seem all-powerful.

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Echoes of a massacre: Tales from Israel’s attack on al-Tabin School

    Echoes of a massacre: Tales from Israel’s attack on al-Tabin School

    Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the Fajr prayer with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mother.

    She and the girls’ mother were off to one side when the missiles struck, one of them passing between the two girls, Abu Ajwa told Al Jazeera.

    “Suddenly, dust and fire spread everywhere, like it was Judgement Day. I started looking frantically for the girls,” she says tearfully, sitting on a bed because she has difficulty walking.

    “I found the younger girl [Retaj] and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing,” Abu Ajwa said, adding that she screamed for help, for anyone to come and save Retaj, but the scene was so chaotic nobody was able to help.

    Soon after, Retaj succumbed to her wounds.

    The search for Retaj’s big sister Nuseiba took longer.

    “I went back into the flaming prayer room over and over, looking for her, I couldn’t see her anywhere. Then someone told me that she was under the rubble so I went to look where they said.

    “When I reached her,” Abu Ajwa breaks down, “I found her and her body had been torn in two.”

    Weeping bitterly, she said she and the girls’ mother had done everything they could, through several displacements, to keep the four of them together.

    Retaj, left, and Nuseiba, were killed in Israel’s attack on al-Tabin School, which was sheltering displaced people in Gaza [Sanad/Al Jazeera]

    Abu Ajwa had discussed leaving al-Tabin with the girls, but Nuseiba had been reluctant to leave, she said, because she was attending Quran classes there and was proud of her progress in memorising the holy book.

    “She told us that if we wanted to leave that was fine, she would stay behind in the school. I told her that I had stayed with them throughout the war and wouldn’t leave them now, we’d either make it together or die together, but now they’ve gone on ahead and left us. They died before us.”

    The girls only had one wish, she added – for the war to end because they “have been scared so many times, displaced so many times, they were so exhausted and had gone hungry so many times”.

    The girls have a 14-year-old brother, Abu Ajwa said, who had been taken from them when the Israeli army raided al-Shifa Hospital where they were sheltering at the time.

    “The Israelis sent him north on his own. We were very sad then but, who knows, this may have saved him, he’s the only hope we have left.

    “Who will call me Mama Sumaya now? I crave those words so much,” Abu Ajwa sobs.

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  • Nearly a dozen inmates killed in Haiti prison break

    Nearly a dozen inmates killed in Haiti prison break

    Residents in central city of Saint-Marc have been advised by authorities to remain vigilant for escapees.

    A prison break in central Haiti has resulted in the deaths of at least 11 inmates, the authorities said, the third such incident this year amid a continuing humanitarian crisis fuelled by gang violence.

    Police said inmates broke out of a prison in the coastal city of Saint-Marc, some 88km (55 miles) north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Friday.

    Eleven suspected escaped inmates were killed in shootouts with police and one was arrested, according to Michel Ange Louis Jeune, spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, according to The Associated Press news agency.

    He did not provide further details, including how many inmates escaped.

    “The situation is under control but the results are catastrophic. All the cops’ dormitories have burnt down. The archives have burnt down. They’ve set everything on fire except their cells,” State Prosecutor Venson Francois said, the Reuters news agency reported.

    Francois warned that residents should remain vigilant and watch for escapees.

    Saint-Marc Mayor Myriam Fievre, meanwhile, said 12 prisoners were killed, according to Reuters.

    Social media footage that could not be immediately verified, appeared to show people climbing over walls and smoke streaming out of walls lined with barbed wire, a loud explosion and fire.

    Haitian prisons are severely overcrowded and pretrial detentions can stretch for years.

    Walter Montas, a local government official, said the incident spiralled from a protest as prisoners were going without food and facing poor health conditions.

    In December 2014, nearly three dozen of 500 inmates escaped from a prison in Saint-Marc after sawing through steel bars, authorities said.

    Conditions in Haiti’s prisons are squalid, with many cells filled to close to quadruple their capacity, the United Nations has said. A lack of basic necessities has killed 109 inmates so far this year.

    Prison officials had also been on strike demanding better treatment, local media reported.

    Prison breaks from Haiti’s two largest jails in March this year dwindled the imprisoned population from nearly 12,000 at that time to 7,500 in June, according to UN data.

    The government was forced to declare a state of emergency amid a surge in gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

    An uptick in attacks across Port-au-Prince eventually prompted the resignation of Haiti’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, the creation of a transitional presidential council and the deployment of Kenyan police as part of a UN-backed mission to quell the violence.

    Police have struggled to hold off gangs as the delivery of funds, personnel and equipment for the UN-backed security mission first requested in 2022 continues to lag.

    The unrest has forced about 600,000 people to flee their homes for elsewhere in Haiti and some five million people – about half the population – into severe hunger.

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  • Sudanese Olympic backstroker Ziyad Saleem of Cal looks to leave his mark on Paris Games

    Sudanese Olympic backstroker Ziyad Saleem of Cal looks to leave his mark on Paris Games

    BERKELEY, Calif. — As a boy in Milwaukee, Ziyad Saleem would walk through the house pretending to swim backstroke — arm circling backward along the right ear and over his shoulder, then the other arm doing the same on the left side.

    Some days he would also propel both arms forward as if doing butterfly. His father saw some real potential then, even out of the water.

    “I was always, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’” Mohamed Saleem recalled. “It was range of motion or trying to master how he pulls under water. I knew he was attached to it.”

    The swimming bug had hit hard, and Saleem began dreaming big.

    Little did Dad know this might actually lead to something that would mean so much to the family: The University of California swimmer is headed to the Paris Olympics to compete for Sudan, his parents’ home country and a place most of his relatives have now fled because of war and a massive humanitarian crisis.

    “It’s hard to describe the feeling,” Mohamed Saleem said of his son representing Sudan.

    Not many think about swimming and Sudan in the same breath — but it is athletes such as Saleem who are helping put the sport on the map for the country in northern Africa that has a long coastline on the Red Sea.

    When Saleem won a medal five years ago in Tunisia for one of his country’s big successes in an international meet, he received royal treatment afterward.

    So imagine the triumph in May when Saleem captured Sudan’s first swimming gold medal at an African Championships with victory in the 200-meter backstroke. Saleem treasured his moment atop the podium as the national anthem played — then he got to do it again after winning the 100 back.

    “It’s super cool being one of the first ones to medal and really be at the top of the sport in Sudan,” Saleem said. “For me, it’s more about teaching the stuff I’ve learned in the U.S. and all the training and high-level swimming I’m able to do here and kind of take it back to Sudan. I try helping out coaches at these world championships, giving them some of the tips I learned here in the U.S., and I think that’s just the biggest thing, extending what I’ve learned in the U.S. over to Sudan and hopefully those kids can learn and become better swimmers.”

    A world away from Sudan’s turmoil, Saleem relishes his new life in the diverse Bay Area swimming next to decorated U.S. Olympian Ryan Murphy in the Cal pool day after day, hour after hour, set after set.

    Once in a while, Saleem can surprise Murphy and beat him during their backstroke warmups. And that’s always fun to give the gold medalist a run for his money, even if it’s just in practice and not under competition pressure.

    “Sometimes, when he’s going easy in warmups, he’ll wait for the new set and really destroy me,” Saleem said with a smile.

    It’s hard for Saleem to believe he’s in the water alongside a former world-record holder like Murphy. This isn’t how it was supposed to go for Saleem. He committed to Iowa only to have the Hawkeyes program get cut because of COVID-19, suddenly leaving his college career path uncertain.

    “So I was left without anything, nowhere to go,” he recalled.

    But when Saleem started dropping a couple of seconds in each of his events early on as a high school senior, Cal took notice. He committed without a visit or even talking to anybody on the team.

    The program’s reputation and coaching told him all he needed to know. Not to mention the chance to share a pool with Murphy and so many other international greats.

    “I knew it would be a place I’d really enjoy just having the world-class athletes here, a person like Murph,” Saleem said. “I learn from him so much in and out of the water, what to do, his pointers. He’s a great person to have help you. When I first got here it was really surreal just seeing him in the water. But now since I’ve grown a relationship with him it’s not faded but I still admire him a lot. He’s a big reason why I chose to come to Cal just to have a world-record holder to train with every day.”

    Murphy loves swimming with Saleem, too.

    “Ziyad is awesome, one of the nicest guys I’ve trained with at Cal,” Murphy said. “He’s a happy person and hard worker.”

    Saleem was born in Milwaukee but holds dual citizenship, allowing him to compete for his parents’ homeland in the Olympics. Mohamed Saleem cherishes every chance to see his son compete for Sudan.

    “We have a decent community here in Milwaukee. They’re very proud of him, so multiply that by 50,000 times being the father,” Mohamed Saleem said. “When you say you don’t think of Sudan when it comes to swimming, they didn’t think of it either, that’s why it was a big surprise when he actually went the first time and won medals for the country. … It brought a lot of attention to swimming and the potential.”

    Saleem will be a first-time Olympian, having gained experience on the big stage at multiple world championships.

    He has secured Olympic berths in the 100 and 200 back — his best event — through each country’s one free entry, exempting him from qualifying minimums.

    “I’m just trying to get faster and (reach) semifinals, that’s the goal,” he said in the lead up to the Paris Games.

    Saleem has been to Sudan several times and met some of his Sudanese teammates just through attending meets with them. They keep in touch despite training in various parts of the world, but it’s the Americans at Cal he knows best.

    Most of his family is gone from Sudan.

    “With the war, they’ve all emigrated toward Egypt. They were all in Sudan in like (last) June and now they all went to Egypt with what’s going on there (in Sudan),” he said. “There’s some in the Middle East. There’s maybe one or two still in Sudan but everybody else left.”

    His father immigrated to the United States in the 1990s and his mother in the early 2000s.

    They can’t wait to see him compete in Paris alongside Murphy and all of the other stars.

    Might Saleem have taught Murphy a thing or two during all their training battles and hours together in the pool?

    “I don’t know if much,” Saleem said, “but I try to push my (backstroke) as much as I can and try to be a good person in and out of the water with him.”

    ___

    AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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  • The Latest | Armenia recognizes a Palestinian state, as malnutrition spreads among children in Gaza

    The Latest | Armenia recognizes a Palestinian state, as malnutrition spreads among children in Gaza

    Armenia said it would recognize a Palestinian state on Friday, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for what the Foreign Ministry described as a “severe reprimand.”

    Dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, though none of the major Western powers has done so. Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, faces growing international criticism over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza and huge cost in civilian lives.

    Also Friday, the head of a major hospital in north Gaza said his staff have seen some 250 children suffering from malnutrition, with numbers rising daily due to acute food shortages.

    Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.

    Meanwhile, Israel’s pledge to guard a new aid route into southern Gaza has fallen flat, as the U.N. and international aid organizations say a breakdown in law and order has made that route unusable.

    The Israeli military said that two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, while three were severely injured.

    Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

    Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

    Currently:

    — The fate of the latest cease-fire proposal hinges on Netanyahu and Hamas’ leader in Gaza.

    — Israel’s pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution.

    — A rare public rift appears between Israel’s political and military leadership over how the war in Gaza is being conducted.

    — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group warns archenemy Israel against wider war.

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

    Here’s the latest:

    JERUSALEM — Israel’s army said Friday that two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza.

    No information was given about the circumstances about the deaths of the two, both of whom were men in their 20s. Three other soldiers were severely injured, the army said.

    The news comes as public anger grows in Israel over the trajectory of the eight month conflict and exemptions from military service for young ultra-Orthodox men.

    Last week, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

    Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war, more than 660 Israeli troops have been killed, about half in the Israeli ground operation in Gaza, according to the latest figures from the military.

    Over 37,000 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed by Israeli fire over that same period, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures

    DEIR Al-BALAH, Gaza Strip – The head of one of the largest hospitals in north Gaza says his staff has recently registered some 250 children suffering from malnutrition and the numbers are raising daily due to acute food shortages.

    Dr. Husam Abu Safyia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, urged the international community to pressure Israel to allow an increased flow of food and other products into the Gaza Strip, warning that conditions are dire in the coastal territory.

    Abu Safyia told The Associated Press on Friday that medical authorities have sent teams from his hospital to centers housing displaced people in north Gaza to assess them for malnutrition.

    He said flour is the most available foodstuff in north Gaza, and that people need more proteins and fats to keep healthy.

    North Gaza was badly affected by the fighting during the early months of the Israel-Hamas war and continues to suffer food shortages.

    Abu Safyia added that illnesses are spreading in Gaza as trash piles grow, because authorities lack the resources to remove garbage and sewage from the streets.

    “We are facing a real disaster,” he said adding that more people could die in the coming days if food does not flow into the Gaza Strip.

    JERUSALEM — Armenia’s foreign ministry said Friday that the former Soviet republic would recognize a Palestinian state, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for a “severe reprimand.”

    A short statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry provided no further details.

    Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it joined United Nations resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire, and said “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and the ongoing military conflict” was one of the most important on the international agenda.

    “We support the ‘two-state’ solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the statement said. “We are convinced that this is the only way to ensure that both Palestinians and Israelis can fulfill their legitimate aspirations.”

    Dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, though none of the major Western powers has done so. Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially amid international outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

    Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway said they had decided to recognize a Palestinian state, and since then Slovenia and the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda have followed suit.

    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian Civil Defense authorities say an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hit a municipal garage, killing five people.

    The strike on the garage in the center of Gaza City came Friday and killed four municipal workers and one passer-by, while leaving an unknown number of others buried under the rubble of the damaged building, the Civil Defense said.

    The Gaza municipality confirmed that the strike hit its employees but did not give a breakdown on the casualties.

    Israel launched the war after Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

    Since then, the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure has suffered heavy damage, and the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

    Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

    JERUSALEM — A breakdown in law and order in southern Gaza has made a new route to deliver aid unusable, according to the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations, just days after Israel declared the safe corridor.

    With thousands of truckloads of aid piled up, groups of armed men are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media on the issue.

    The lawlessness is a major obstacle to aid distribution for southern and central Gaza. In those areas, an estimated 1.3 million Palestinians displaced from Rafah — more than half of Gaza’s entire population — are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies.

    Israel announced Sunday it would observe daily pauses in combat along a route stretching from Kerem Shalom, the strip’s only operational aid crossing in the south, to the nearby city of Khan Younis.

    The head of the U.N.’s World Food Program said Thursday that the pause has made “no difference at all” in aid distribution efforts. “We haven’t been able to get in,” said Cindy McCain in an interview with Al-Monitor. “We’ve had to reroute some of our trucks. They’ve been looted. As you know, we’ve been shot at and we’ve been rocketed.”

    The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating humanitarian aid efforts, COGAT, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    The U.N. official familiar with the aid effort said that there’s been no sign of Israeli activity along the route. The U.N. tried to send a convoy of 60 trucks down the road Tuesday to pick up aid at Kerem Shalom. But 35 of the trucks were intercepted by armed men, the official said.

    In recent days, the groups have moved closer to the crossing and set up roadblocks to halt trucks loaded with supplies, the U.N. official said. They have searched the pallets for smuggled cigarettes, a rare luxury in a territory where a single smoke can go for $25.

    The U.N. official said that 25 trucks of flour used the route Tuesday. Some private commercial trucks also got through — many of which used armed security to deter groups seeking to seize their cargo. An AP reporter stationed along the road Monday saw at least eight trucks pass by, armed security guards riding on top.

    ___

    AP writer Julia Frankel contributed.

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  • Israel’s army says it will pause daytime fighting along a route in southern Gaza to help flow of aid

    Israel’s army says it will pause daytime fighting along a route in southern Gaza to help flow of aid

    JERUSALEM — Israel’s military announced on Sunday that it would pause fighting during daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries for desperate Palestinians enduring a humanitarian crisis sparked by the war, now in its ninth month.

    The “tactical pause,” which applies to about 12 kilometers (7½ miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel’s top ally, the United States. It could help address the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged in recent weeks with Israel’s incursion into Rafah.

    The army said that the daily pause would begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and last until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) and continue until further notice. It’s aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road, the military said. The crossing has had a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May.

    COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, said the route would increase the flow of aid to other parts of Gaza, including Khan Younis, the coastal area of Muwasi and central Gaza. Hard-hit northern Gaza, an early target in the war, is served by goods entering from the north.

    The military said that the pause, which begins as Muslims start marking the Eid Al-Adha holiday, came after discussions with the United Nations and other aid agencies.

    A U.N. spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told The Associated Press that Israel’s announcement was welcome but “no aid has been dispatched from Kerem Shalom today,” with no details. Laerke said that the U.N. hopes for further concrete measures by Israel, including smoother operations at checkpoints and regular entry of fuel.

    Israel and Hamas are weighing the latest proposal for a cease-fire, detailed by U.S. President Joe Biden in the administration’s most concentrated diplomatic push for a halt to the fighting and the release of hostages taken by the militant group. While Biden described the proposal as an Israeli one, Israel hasn’t fully embraced it. Hamas has demanded changes that appear unacceptable to Israel.

    With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to press ahead with the war and many members of his far-right government opposed to the cease-fire proposal, news of the military’s pause triggered a minor political storm.

    An Israeli official quoted Netanyahu as saying the plan was “unacceptable to him” when he learned of it. The official said that Netanyahu received assurances that “there is no change” in the military’s policy and “fighting in Rafah continues as planned.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak with the media.

    Israeli television stations later quoted Netanyahu as criticizing the military: “We have a country with an army, not an army with a country.”

    But neither Netanyahu nor the army canceled the new arrangement. While the army insisted “there is no cessation of fighting” in southern Gaza, it also said the new route would be open during daytime hours “exclusively for the transportation of humanitarian aid.”

    The fighting continued. Nine people, including five children, were killed Sunday when a house was struck in Bureji in central Gaza, according to AP journalists who counted the bodies at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. A man wept over the small sheet-wrapped bundle in his arms. Two of the children had been playing in the street.

    “What did this girl do to you, Netanyahu? Isn’t this forbidden for you?” a woman cried, holding a dead child.

    Israel’s military didn’t respond to questions about the strike.

    Israel announced the names of 12 soldiers killed in recent attacks in Gaza, putting the number killed since Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza last year at 309. Hamas killed around 1,200 people during its Oct. 7 attack and took 250 hostage, Israeli authorities say. Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed.

    Israel’s military offensive has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the U.N. reporting hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine.

    Hamas’ supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, called for more pressure to open border crossings. Another crossing, the Rafah terminal between Gaza and Egypt, has been closed since Israel moved into the city. Egypt has refused to reopen the crossing as long as Israel controls the Palestinian side.

    The flow of aid in southern Gaza has declined just as need grew. More than 1 million Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced, fled Rafah after the invasion, crowding into other parts of southern and central Gaza. Most languish in tent camps, with open sewage in the streets.

    From May 6 until June 6, the U.N. received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day. That was down from 168 a day in April and far below the 500 a day that aid groups say are needed.

    COGAT says there are no restrictions on the entry of trucks. It says more than 8,600 trucks of all kinds, aid and commercial, entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day. But much of that aid has piled up at crossings.

    A COGAT spokesman, Shimon Freedman, said it was the U.N.’s fault that its cargo stacked up on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom. He said its agencies have “fundamental logistical problems,” especially a lack of trucks.

    The U.N. denies such allegations. It says the fighting often makes it too dangerous for U.N. trucks inside Gaza to travel to Kerem Shalom. It also says the pace of deliveries has slowed because Israel’s military must authorize drivers to travel to the site, a system Israel says was designed for drivers’ safety.

    The new arrangement aims to reduce the need for coordinating deliveries by providing an 11-hour uninterrupted daily window

    Because of a lack of security, some aid trucks have been looted by crowds as they moved along Gaza’s roads. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the army would provide security to protect trucks moving along the highway.

    ___

    Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Lee Keath from Cairo. Jack Jeffery contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain at least 9 UN staffers and others in sudden: Officials

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain at least 9 UN staffers and others in sudden: Officials

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — At least nine Yemeni employees of United Nations agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances, authorities said Friday, as the rebels face increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition. Others working for aid groups also likely have been taken.

    The detentions come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

    But while gaining more attention internationally, the secretive group has cracked down at dissent at home, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.

    Regional officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists, confirmed the U.N. detentions. Those held include staff from the U.N. human rights agency, its development program, the World Food Program and one working for the office of its special envoy, the officials said. The wife of one of those held is also detained.

    The U.N. declined to immediately comment.

    The Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, which similarly identified the U.N. staffers held, named other aid groups whose employees were detained by the Houthis across four provinces that the Houthis hold — Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Saana.

    “We condemn in the strongest terms this dangerous escalation, which constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations employees granted to them under international law, and we consider it to be oppressive, totalitarian, blackmailing practices to obtain political and economic gains,” the organization said in a statement.

    Many of the groups mentioned didn’t immediately acknowledge the detentions.

    One that did, Save the Children, told the AP that it was “concerned of the whereabouts of one of our staff members in Yemen and doing everything we can to ensure his safety and well-being.” The group declined to elaborate.

    Activists, lawyers and others also began an open online letter, calling on the Houthis to immediately release those detained, because if they don’t, it “helps isolate the country from the world.”

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their affiliated media organizations did not immediately acknowledge the detentions. However, the Iranian-backed rebels planned for weekly mass demonstrations after noon prayers Friday, when Houthi officials typically speak on their actions.

    It’s unclear what exactly sparked the detentions. However, it comes as the Houthis have faced issues with having enough currency to support the economy in areas they hold — something signaled by their move to introduce a new coin into the Yemeni currency, the riyal. Yemen’s exiled government in Aden and other nations criticized the move, saying the Houthis are turning to counterfeiting. Aden authorities also have demanded all banks move their headquarters there.

    “Internal tensions and conflicts could spiral out of control and lead Yemen into complete economic collapse,” warned Yemeni journalist Mohammed Ali Thamer in an analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Bloomberg separately reported Thursday that the U.S. planned to further increase economic pressure on the Houthis by blocking their revenue sources, including a planned $1.5 billion Saudi payment to cover salaries for government employees in rebel-held territory.

    The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. The Houthis’ attacks on shipping have helped deflect attention from their problems at home and the stalemated war. But they’ve faced increasing casualties and damage from U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the group for months now.

    Thousands have been imprisoned by the Houthis during the war. An AP investigation found some detainees were scorched with acid, forced to hang from their wrists for weeks at a time or were beaten with batons. Meanwhile, the Houthis have employed child soldiers and indiscriminately laid mines in the conflict.

    The Houthis previously have detained four other U.N. staffers — two in 2021 and another two in 2023 who still remain held by the militia group. The U.N.’s human rights agency in 2023 called those detentions a “profoundly alarming situation as it reveals a complete disregard for the rule of law.”

    The Houthis are members of Islam’s minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled northern Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962.

    ___

    Baraa Anwer reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

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  • Spain, Ireland and Norway will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28.

    Spain, Ireland and Norway will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28.

    Spain, Ireland and Norway said Wednesday that they would recognize a Palestinian state on May 28, a step toward a long-held Palestinian aspiration that came amid international outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s offensive.

    The triple and almost simultaneous decisions may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, deepening Israel’s isolation. Malta and Slovenia, which also belong to the 27-nation European Union, may follow suit.

    Some 140 of 190 represented in the U.N. countries have already recognized a Palestinian state.

    Here’s a look at how and why the new European announcements could be important:

    The 1948 U.N. decision that created Israel envisaged a neighboring Palestinian state, but some 70 years later control of the Palestinian territories remains divided and bids for U.N. membership have been denied.

    The United States, Britain and other Western countries have backed the idea of an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel as a solution to the Middle East’s most intractable conflict, but they insist Palestinian statehood should come as part of a negotiated settlement. There have been no substantive negotiations since 2009.

    Though the EU countries and Norway won’t be recognizing an existing state, just the possibility of one, the symbolism helps enhance the Palestinians’ international standing and heaps more pressure on Israel to open negotiations on ending the war.

    Also, the move lends additional prominence to the Middle East issue ahead of June 6-9 elections to the European Parliament, when some 370 million people are eligible to vote and a steep rise of the extreme right is on the cards.

    Diplomatic pressure on Israel has grown as the battle with Hamas stretches into its eighth month. The U.N. General Assembly voted by a significant margin on May 11 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on membership.

    The leaders of Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said in March they were considering recognizing a Palestinian state as “a positive contribution” toward ending the war.

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently said: “I do this out of moral conviction, for a just cause and because it is the only way that the two states, Israel and Palestine, can live together in peace.”

    While dozens of countries have recognized Palestine, none of the major Western powers has done so, and it is unclear how much of a difference the move by the three countries might make.

    Even so, their recognition would mark a significant accomplishment for the Palestinians, who believe it confers international legitimacy on their struggle.

    Little would likely change on the ground in the short term. Peace talks are stalled, and Israel’s hardline government has dug its heels in against Palestinian statehood.

    Israel reacted rapidly Wednesday by recalling its ambassadors to Ireland and Norway.

    The Israeli government slams talk of Palestinian independence as a “reward” for the Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the abduction of over 250 others. It rejects any move to legitimize the Palestinians internationally.

    Steps like the ones by the three European countries Wednesday will harden the Palestinian position and undermine the negotiating process, Israel says, insisting that all issues should be solved through negotiations.

    Israel often responds to foreign countries’ decisions deemed as going against its interests by summoning those countries’ ambassadors and also punishing the Palestinians through measures such as freezing tax transfers to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

    Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, more than two-thirds of the United Nations’ membership.

    Some major powers have indicated their stance may be evolving amid the outcry over the consequences of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between noncombatants and fighters in its count.

    British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said no recognition of Palestine could come while Hamas remains in Gaza, but that it could happen while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were in progress.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said in February it’s not “taboo” for France to recognize a Palestinian state.

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  • UN food agency warns that the new US sea route for Gaza aid may fail unless conditions improve

    UN food agency warns that the new US sea route for Gaza aid may fail unless conditions improve

    WASHINGTON — The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday the new U.S. $320 million pier project for delivering aid to Gaza may fail unless Israel starts ensuring the conditions the humanitarian groups need to operate safely. The operation was halted for at least two days after crowds looted aid trucks coming from the port and one Palestinian man was killed.

    Deliveries were stopped Sunday and Monday after the majority of the trucks in an aid convoy Saturday were stripped of all their goods on the way to a warehouse in central Gaza, the WFP said. The first aid transported by sea had entered the besieged enclave on Friday.

    The Pentagon said movement of aid from the secured area at the port resumed Tuesday, but the U.N. said it was not aware of any deliveries on Tuesday.

    The U.N. food agency is now reevaluating logistics and security measures and looking for alternate routes within Gaza, said spokesperson Abeer Etefa. The WFP is working with the U.S. Agency for International Development to coordinate the deliveries.

    Only five of the 16 aid trucks that left the secured area on Saturday arrived at the intended warehouse with their cargo intact, another WFP spokesperson, Steve Taravella, told The Associated Press. He said the other 11 trucks were waylaid by what became a crowd of people and arrived without their cargo.

    “Without sufficient supplies entering Gaza, these issues will continue to surface. Community acceptance and trust that this is not a one-off event are essential for this operation’s success,” Taravella said in an email. “We have raised this issue with the relevant parties and reiterated our request for alternative roads to facilitate aid delivery. Unless we receive the necessary clearance and coordination to use additional routes, this operation may not be successful.”

    The WFP also said Tuesday it has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to a lack of supplies and insecurity.

    President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military’s construction of the floating pier for deliveries of food and other vital supplies. Israeli restrictions on shipments through land borders and overall fighting have put all 2.3 million residents of Gaza in a severe food crisis since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, and U.S. and U.N. officials say famine has taken hold in the north of Gaza.

    Authorities have offered limited details of what transpired with Saturday’s aid convoy. However, Associated Press video shows Israeli armored vehicles on a beach road, then aid trucks moving down the road. Civilians watching from the roadside gradually start to clamber on top of the aid trucks, throwing aid down to people below. Numbers of people then appear to overrun the aid trucks and their goods.

    At one point, people are shown carting a motionless man with a chest wound through the crowd. A local morgue later confirmed to the AP the man had been killed by a rifle shot. At another point, shots crackled, and some of the men in the crowd are shown apparently ducking behind aid boxes for cover.

    It was not clear who fired the shots. The Israeli military is responsible for security for the aid when it reaches the shore. Once it leaves the secure area at the port, aid groups follow their own security protocols.

    Asked about the shooting, the Israeli army told the AP, using the acronym for the Israel Defense Forces: “The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organization Hamas.”

    U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Tuesday that the aid convoys do not travel with armed security. He said the best security comes from engagement with various community groups and humanitarian partners so people understand that there will be a constant flow of aid. “That is not possible in an active combat zone,” Dujarric said.

    The Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said that as of Tuesday 569 metric tons of aid has been delivered to the secured area at the Gaza port. Some of it remains there, however, because distribution agencies are working to find alternative routes to warehouses in Gaza.

    Asked if any aid from the pier had yet reached Gaza residents in need, Ryder said, “I do not believe so.” He said aid had resumed moving Tuesday from the secured area into Gaza, after what had been a two-day halt following Saturday’s disruption. He gave no immediate details.

    Etefa, the WFP spokesperson in Cairo, said she knew of no deliveries from the shore on Tuesday, however.

    Biden announced the U.S. mission to open a new sea route for humanitarian goods during his State of the Union address in March, as pressure built on the administration over civilian deaths in Gaza.

    The war began in October after a Hamas-led attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Israeli airstrikes and fighting have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians since then, Gaza health officials say.

    Many international humanitarian organizations were critical of the U.S. project, saying that while any aid was welcome, surging food through the land crossings was the only way to curb the growing starvation. Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official now leading the Refugees International humanitarian organization, called the pier operation “humanitarian theater” and said it was being done for political effect.

    The U.N says some 1.1 million people in Gaza — nearly half the population — face catastrophic levels of hunger and that the territory is on the brink of famine. The crisis in humanitarian supplies has spiraled in the two weeks since Israel began an incursion into Rafah on May 6, vowing to root out Hamas fighters. Troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which has been closed since.

    Since May 10, only about three dozen trucks have made it into Gaza via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel because fighting makes it difficult for aid workers to reach it, the U.N. says.

    Taravella said little aid or fuel — needed to run aid delivery trucks — is currently reaching any part of Gaza, and stocks of both are almost exhausted.

    “The bottom line is that humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse,” he wrote.

    ___

    Magdy reported from Cairo. Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

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  • ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu

    ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu

    JERUSALEM — JERUSALEM (AP) —

    The Hamas militant group has denounced the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request to seek the arrests of its leaders.

    In a statement, Hamas accused the prosecutor of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner.”

    It said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance.”

    It also criticized the court for seeking the arrests of only two Israeli leaders and said it should seek warrants for other Israeli leaders.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with their actions during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.

    Karim Khan said that he believes Netanyahu, his defense minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

    The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

    Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But Khan’s announcement deepens Israel’s isolation as it presses ahead with its war, and the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the chief prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel’s leaders is “a historic disgrace that will be remembered forever.”

    He said he would form a special committee to fight back against any such action and would work with world leaders to ensure that any such warrants are not enforced on Israel’s leaders.

    Both Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza as Israel tries to hunt them down. But Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Islamic militant group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.

    Benny Gantz, a former military chief and member of Israel’s War Cabinet with Netanyahu and Gallant, harshly criticized Khan’s announcement, saying Israel fights with “one of the strictest” moral codes and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself.

    “The State of Israel is waging one of the just wars fought in modern history following a reprehensible massacre perpetrated by terrorist Hamas on the 7th of October,” he said. “The prosecutor’s position to apply for arrest warrants is in itself a crime of historic proportion to be remembered for generations.

    Israel launched its war in response to an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, at least half of them women and children, according to the latest estimates by Gaza health officials. The Israeli offensive has also triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, displacing roughly 80% of the population and leaving hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation, according to U.N. officials.

    Speaking of the Israeli actions, Khan said in a statement that “the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known. … They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.”

    The United Nations and other aid agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of hindering aid deliveries throughout the war. Israel denies this, saying there are no restrictions on aid entering Gaza and accusing the United Nations of failing to distribute aid. The U.N. says aid workers have repeatedly come under Israeli fire, and also says ongoing fighting and a security vacuum have impeded deliveries.

    Of the Hamas actions on Oct. 7, Khan, who visited the region in December, said that he saw for himself “the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the unconscionable crimes charged in the applications filed today. Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability.”

    After a brief period of international support for its war, Israel has faced increasing criticism as the war has dragged on and the death toll has climbed.

    Israel is also facing a South African case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. Israel denies those charges.

    Khan’s request for warrants in the Israel-Gaza conflict comes 14 months after the court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for abductions of children from Ukraine.

    ——

    Molly Quell in Delft, Netherlands, and Mike Corder in Ede, Netherlands, contributed.

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  • Palestinians flee chaos and panic in Rafah after Israel’s seizure of border crossing

    Palestinians flee chaos and panic in Rafah after Israel’s seizure of border crossing

    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of displaced and exhausted Palestinians have packed up their tents and other belongings from Rafah, dragging families on a new exodus.

    The main hospital has shut down, leaving little care for people suffering from malnutrition, illnesses and wounds.

    And with fuel and other supplies cut off, aid workers have been scrambling to help a population desperate after seven months of war.

    As the possibility of a full-scale invasion looms, Gaza’s overcrowded southernmost city has been thrown into panic and chaos by Israel’s seizure of the nearby border crossing with Egypt.

    Families uprooted multiple times by the war were uncertain where to go: to the half-destroyed city of Khan Younis, to points even farther north, or to an Israeli-declared “humanitarian zone” in Gaza already teeming with people with little water or supplies?

    The past three days, streams of people on foot or in vehicles have jammed the roads out of Rafah in a confused evacuation, their belongings piled high in cars, trucks and donkey carts. All the while, Israeli bombardment has boomed and raised palls of smoke.

    “The war has caught up with us even in schools. There is no safe place at all,” said Nuzhat Jarjer. Her family packed on Wednesday to leave a U.N. school-turned-shelter in Rafah that was rapidly emptying of the hundreds who had lived there for months.

    Rafah had 250,000 residents before the war. Its population had ballooned to some 1.4 million as people from across Gaza fled there. Nearly every empty space was blanketed with tent camps, and families crammed into schools or homes with relatives. Like the rest of Gaza’s population, they have been largely reliant on aid groups for food and other basics of life.

    Israel on Monday issued evacuation orders for eastern parts of the city, home to some 100,000. It then sent tanks to seize the nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt, shutting it down.

    It remains uncertain whether Israel will launch an all-out invasion of Rafah as international efforts continue for a cease-fire. Israel has said an assault on Rafah is crucial to its goal of destroying Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 as hostages in Gaza.

    The United States, which opposes a Rafah invasion, has said Israel has not provided a credible plan for evacuating and protecting civilians. The war has killed over 34,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and has driven some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.

    For now, confusion has reigned. Fearing a greater assault, Palestinians fled districts other than the eastern areas they were ordered to leave. Tens of thousands are estimated to have left, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because agencies were still trying to determine precise figures.

    Tent camps in some parts of Rafah have vanished, springing up again further north along main roads. New camps have filled streets, cemeteries and the beach in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, 15 kilometers (10 miles) north, as people flowed in, said Ghada Alhaddad, who works there with the aid group Oxfam, speaking to a briefing by several humanitarian workers.

    Others made their way to Khan Younis, much of which was destroyed in a months-long Israeli ground assault.

    Suze van Meegen, head of operations for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Palestine, said the Rafah district where she is based “feels like a ghost town.”

    The Israeli military told those evacuating to go to a “humanitarian zone” it declared in Muwasi, a nearby rural area on the Mediterranean coast. The zone is already packed with some 450,000 people, according to the U.N. Few new facilities appear to be prepared, despite the military’s announcements that tents, medical centers and food would be present.

    The ground is covered in many places with sewage and solid waste, since there are few sanitation facilities, aid workers say. Clean water is lacking and dehydration is a major problem, with temperatures some days already reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).

    The water quality is “horrifically bad. We tested some of the water and the fecal content … is incredibly high,” said James Smith, a British emergency doctor volunteering at the European General Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. Acute jaundice is rampant — and probably caused by hepatitis, but there’s no capabilities to test, he said.

    The newly arrived struggle to find tents because of an extreme shortage among aid groups.

    Before his family left Rafah to the zone, Iyad al-Masry said he had to sell food received from aid groups to buy a tent for the equivalent of nearly $400.

    His family set up their tent in Muwasi, smoothing the dirt ground before setting down a cradle to rock an infant in. Al-Masri said he has been searching for water and can’t afford the three shekels — a little less than $1 — that sellers charge for a gallon of drinking water.

    “We want to eat … We are just waiting for God’s mercy,” he said.

    Nick Maynard, a surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestinians who left Gaza on Monday, said two teenage girls who had survivable injuries died last week because of complications from malnutrition.

    “They get this vicious cycle of malnutrition, infection, wounds breaking down, more infection, more malnutrition,” said Maynard.

    The number of children in Rafah who have lost one or more limbs is “staggering,” said Alexandra Saieh from Save The Children. “These people cannot just pick up and relocate.”

    Rafah’s main Youssef al-Najjar Hospital evacuated on Tuesday. Smith said staff and patients rushed out even though they weren’t under evacuation orders because they feared Israeli troops would raid, just as they did hospitals in northern Gaza and Khan Younis, which were left decimated.

    Israel claims Hamas used the hospitals for military purposes, an accusation Hamas and Gaza health officials deny.

    Israeli tank shells Wednesday hit about 300 meters (yards) from the Kuwaiti Hospital, one of the few facilities still operating, and wounded several children, according to hospital officials.

    The closure of Rafah crossing and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel has cut off the entry of food, supplies, and fuel for aid trucks and generators. Aid groups warn they have only a few days of fuel before humanitarian operations and hospitals around Gaza begin to shut down.

    Israel said Wednesday it reopened Kerem Shalom, which was shut after Hamas mortars killed four Israeli soldiers nearby, but aid groups said no trucks were entering the Gaza side. Trucks let through from Israel must be unloaded and the cargo reloaded onto trucks in Gaza, but no workers in Gaza can get to the facility to do so because it is too dangerous, the U.N. says.

    Palestinian workers trying to reach the border crossing Wednesday were shot at, and several were wounded, the Israeli military said. It did not specify who opened fire but said it was investigating. Hamas also shelled in the area of Kerem Shalom on Wednesday, saying it was targeting nearby troops.

    The U.N.’s World Food Program has been cut off from its Gaza food warehouse near the Rafah crossing, its deputy executive director Carl Skau said. It procured another warehouse in Deir al-Balah, but it’s empty until crossings reopen, he said.

    Van Meegen, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said without more supplies, “how do we even begin to prioritize the dribble of humanitarian aid we have here when almost every single person is being forced to depend on it?”

    ——

    El Deeb and Keath reported from Cairo. Associated Press correspondents Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.

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  • Israel says Hamas attacks a crossing point into Gaza, wounding 10 Israelis and forcing its closure

    Israel says Hamas attacks a crossing point into Gaza, wounding 10 Israelis and forcing its closure

    JERUSALEM — Hamas militants on Sunday attacked Israel’s main crossing point for delivering humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, reportedly wounding several Israelis and prompting Israel to close the terminal.

    The attack disrupted critical shipments of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza, and dealt a new blow to ongoing cease-fire efforts mediated by Egypt and Qatar. In another potential setback, Israel said it was shuttering the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera satellite channel, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he rejected Hamas’ latest demands and vowed to keep on fighting.

    The Israeli military reported 10 launches at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Hamas said it had been targeting Israeli soldiers in the area. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 people were wounded, three seriously.

    Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing has become the primary gateway for badly needed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The military said the crossing was immediately closed, halting deliveries of aid into hard-hit Gaza. It was unclear how long the closure would remain in effect.

    The incident comes at a time when Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, medicine and other humanitarian items.

    The attack threatened to complicate the ongoing cease-fire talks in Egypt. A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported “noticeable progress” in the cease-fire talks.

    However, Israel hasn’t sent a delegation to Cairo and a senior Israeli official downplayed prospects for a full end to the war while emphasizing Israel’s commitment to invading Rafah.

    Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the deal calls for an extended pause in fighting in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. But the sides remain at odds over whether the deal would include an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

    Netanyahu further lowered expectations on Sunday when he accused Hamas of making unacceptable demands.

    While claiming that Israel has shown willingness to make concessions, he said: “Hamas has still held to its extreme positions, first and foremost the withdrawal of our forces from the strip, the conclusion of the war and leaving Hamas intact.”

    “Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which would mean surrender; it will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved,” he said.

    Israel launched its war in response to Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. An Israeli air and ground offensive has killed over 34,500 people, according to Palestinian health officials, displaced some 80% of Gaza’s population and led to a humanitarian disaster.

    Egypt and Qatar have been working with the United States to mediate a cease-fire.

    On Sunday, Netanyahu’s Cabinet approved a measure to shutter Qatar’s Al Jazeera news channel, accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The decision threatened to further disrupt the cease-fire talks. There was no immediate comment from Qatar.

    ___

    Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press wroter Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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  • Progress reported in Gaza truce talks, but Israel hasn’t sent a delegation

    Progress reported in Gaza truce talks, but Israel hasn’t sent a delegation

    TEL AVIV, Israel — A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported “noticeable progress” in cease-fire talks for Gaza. But Israel hasn’t sent a delegation and a senior Israeli official downplayed prospects for a full end to the war while emphasizing the commitment to invading Rafah.

    Pressure has mounted to reach a deal halting the nearly 7-month-long war. A top U.N. official says there is now a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza, while the United States has repeatedly warned close ally Israel about its planned offensive into Rafah, the southernmost city on the border with Egypt, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.

    Egyptian and U.S. mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days, but chances for a cease-fire deal remain entangled with the key question of whether Israel will accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying the militant group Hamas.

    Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News TV channel said that a consensus had been reached over many disputed points but did not elaborate. Hamas has called for a complete end to the war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.

    A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, played down the prospects for a full end to the war. The official said Israel was committed to the Rafah invasion and that it will not agree in any circumstance to end the war as part of a deal to release hostages.

    Israeli media said that statement had been dictated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government could be threatened if he agrees to a deal because hard-line Cabinet members demand an attack on Rafah.

    The proposal that Egyptian mediators had put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate, six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages, and would include some sort of Israeli pullout. The initial stage would last for 40 days. Hamas would start by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    Some families of hostages accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war for his political interests. Daniel Elgert, whose brother Itzhak is held by Hamas, addressed Netanyahu at the latest rally in Tel Aviv: “Bibi, we call on you from here to announce the end of the war in exchange for the return of all the hostages. The war is effectively over, we know it’s over, you can’t fool us.”

    The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s local health officials, caused widespread destruction and plunged the territory into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

    The conflict erupted on Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, abducting about 250 people and killing around 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

    Israeli strikes Saturday on Gaza killed at least six people. Three bodies were recovered from the rubble of a building in Rafah and taken to Yousef Al Najjar hospital. A strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three people, according to hospital officials.

    In the last 24 hours, the bodies of 32 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies but says that women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

    The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 militants, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

    It has also conducted mass arrests during its raids inside Gaza. The territory’s Health Ministry urged the International Criminal Court to investigate the death in Israeli custody of a Gaza surgeon. Adnan al-Borsh, 50, was working at al-Awda Hospital when Israeli troops stormed it in December, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club.

    The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands would be “at imminent risk of death” if Israel’s military moves forward into densely packed Rafah, which is also a critical entry point for humanitarian aid. Israel has briefed U.S. officials on its plan to evacuate civilians.

    The director of the U.N. World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said Friday that trapped civilians in the north, the most cut-off part of Gaza, have plunged into famine. McCain said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential.

    A Israeli humanitarian official on Saturday called McCain’s assertion incorrect and said Israel has been facilitating the delivery of more aid. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

    Israel recently opened new crossings for aid into northern Gaza, but on Wednesday, Israeli settlers blocked the first convoy before it crossed into the besieged enclave. Once inside Gaza, the convoy was commandeered by Hamas militants, before U.N. officials reclaimed it.

    Some displaced residents of northern Gaza said they had been skipping meals and hadn’t seen vegetables for weeks.

    “You know now everything is scarce in Gaza. There are no vegetables and there is no aid or food packages. It is about once a month that we get food parcels,” Marwan Al-Zaid said.

    In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where tensions have been high since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Israeli military said it and Shin Bet had killed five fighters in Tulkarem, asserting the fighters had opened fire. Palestinian authorities said five people were killed by Israeli fire in the town of Deir al-Ghusun, roughly 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) northeast of Tulkarem.

    ___

    Jeffery reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • Chants of ‘shame on you’ greet guests at White House correspondents’ dinner shadowed by war in Gaza

    Chants of ‘shame on you’ greet guests at White House correspondents’ dinner shadowed by war in Gaza

    WASHINGTON — An election-year roast of President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday butted up against growing public discord over the Israel-Hamas war, with protests outside the event condemning both Biden’s handling of the conflict and the Western news’ media coverage of it.

    Biden, like most of his predecessors, used the glitzy annual White House Correspondents’ Association banquet to jab at his rival, Donald Trump. He followed the jokes with solemn warnings about what he said would happen if Trump won the presidency again.

    With hundreds of protesters rallying against the war in Gaza outside the event and concerns over the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the perils for journalists covering the conflict, the war hung over this year’s event. But speakers inside made only passing mention of the conflict despite some having to run a gauntlet of demonstrators. Biden’s speech, which lasted around 10 minutes, made no mention of the ongoing war or the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

    “Shame on you!” protesters draped in the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh cloth shouted, running after men in tuxedos and suits and women in long dresses who were holding clutch purses as guests hurried inside for the dinner.

    Chants accused U.S. journalists of undercovering the war and misrepresenting it. “Western media we see you, and all the horrors that you hide,” crowds chanted at one point.

    Other protesters lay sprawled motionless on the pavement, next to mock-ups of flak vests with “press” insignia.

    Ralliers cried “Free, free Palestine.” They cheered when at one point someone inside the Washington Hilton — where the dinner has been held for decades — unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor hotel window.

    Criticism of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s six-month-old military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses, with students pitching encampments in an effort to force their universities to divest from Israel. Counterprotests back Israel’s offensive and complain of antisemitism.

    Biden’s motorcade Saturday took an alternate route from the White House to the Washington Hilton than in previous years, largely avoiding the crowds of demonstrators.

    Biden’s speech before nearly 3,000 people was being followed by entertainer Colin Jost from “Saturday Night Live.” Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Hamm and Chris Pines were among other stars.

    Kelly O’Donnell, president of the correspondents’ association, opened the event by reminding the audience of the important work that journalists do but noting that the dinner is happening at “a complex moment for our nation,” and in a decisive election year.

    O’Donnell went on to list the scores of journalists who have been imprisoned across the world, including Americans Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice. The families of those journalists were in attendance as they have been at previous dinners. She briefly mentioned journalists killed in the war between Israel and Hamas.

    Biden began his roast with a direct focus on Trump, calling him “sleepy Don,” in reference to a nickname Trump had given the president previously. He went on to note that despite being similar in age, the two presidential hopefuls have little else in common.

    “My vice president actually endorses me,” Biden said. Former Vice President Mike Pence has refused to endorse Trump’s reelection bid.

    The president made a grim speech about what he believes is at stake this election, saying that another Trump administration would be even more harmful to America than his first term. “We have to take this serious — eight years ago we could have written it off as ‘Trump talk’ but not after January 6,” Biden told the audience, referring to the supporters of Trump who stormed the Capitol after Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

    Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, have instituted extra street closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said would be the “highest levels of safety and security for attendees.”

    The agency was working with Washington police to protect demonstrators’ right to assemble, Guglielmi said. However, “we will remain intolerant to any violent or destructive behavior.”

    Protest organizers said they wanted to bring attention to the high numbers of Palestinian and other Arab journalists killed by Israel’s military since the war began in October.

    More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner altogether.

    “The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering,” the letter states. “We are subjected to detentions, interrogations, and torture by the Israeli military, all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”

    One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents’ Association — which represents the hundreds of journalists who cover the president — largely has been silent since the first weeks of the war about the killings of Palestinian journalists. WHCA did not respond to request for comment.

    According to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly 100 journalists have been killed covering the war in Gaza. Israel has defended its actions, saying it has been targeting militants.

    “Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists have been paying the highest price— their lives—to defend our right to the truth. Each time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a fragment of that truth,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement.

    Sandra Tamari, executive director of Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped organize the letter from journalists in Gaza, said “it is shameful for the media to dine and laugh with President Biden while he enables the Israeli devastation and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.”

    In addition, Adalah Justice Project started an email campaign targeting 12 media executives at various news outlets — including The Associated Press — expected to attend the dinner who previously signed onto a letter calling for the protection of journalists in Gaza.

    “How can you still go when your colleagues in Gaza asked you not to?” a demonstrator asked guests heading in. “You are complicit.”

    ___ Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo, Aamer Madhani and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

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