Gaza’s civil defence agency on Friday said at least 13 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory.Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the territory’s residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during more than two years of war.Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, told AFP three children had died from exposure to the cold — two in Gaza City and one in Khan Yunis in the south.Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of Hadeel al-Masri, aged nine, and Taim al-Khawaja, who it said was just several months old.Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Thursday said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar had died in the nearby tented encampment of Al-Mawasi due to the cold.With most of Gaza’s buildings destroyed or damaged, thousands of tents and homemade shelters now line areas cleared of rubble.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said six people died when a house collapsed in the Bir al-Naja area of the northern Gaza Strip.Four others died when walls collapsed in multiple separate incidents, he said.In a statement, the civil defence said its teams had responded to calls from “13 houses that collapsed due to heavy rains and strong winds, mostly in Gaza City and the north”.- No dry clothes -Under gloomy skies in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinians used bowls, buckets and hoes to try and remove the water that had pooled around their tents made of plastic sheeting.Young children, some barefoot and others wearing open sandals, trudged and hopped through ponds of muddy water as the rain continued to fall.”The mattress has been soaked since this morning, and the children slept in wet bedding last night,” Umm Muhammad Joudah told AFP.”We don’t have any dry clothes to change into.”Saif Ayman, a 17-year-old who was on crutches due to a leg injury, said his tent had also been submerged.”In this tent we have no blankets. There are six of us sleeping on one mattress, and we cover ourselves with our clothes,” he said.The Hamas-run interior and national security ministry gave a preliminary toll of 14 dead due to the effects of the winter rains since Wednesday.A ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially eased restrictions on goods and aid entering into the Gaza Strip.But supplies have entered in insufficient quantities, according to the United Nations, and the humanitarian needs are still immense.The UN’s World Health Organization warned on Friday that thousands of families were “sheltering in low-lying or debris-filled coastal areas with no drainage or protective barriers”.”Winter conditions, combined with poor water and sanitation, are expected to drive a surge in acute respiratory infections,” it added.

A raft of proposed measures from Israel’s ruling coalition targeting the media has sparked outrage, with critics warning the planned reforms would deliver a blow to press freedom.Suggested changes to public broadcasting, coupled with a bid to give permanent powers to the government to ban foreign TV channels which are deemed a threat, come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to seek another term next year.Surveys show a majority of Israelis believe the premier should be held accountable for the deadly attack on the country by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.The government has also announced to much dismay the proposed closure of the widely listened-to public army radio station next year.Months before Hamas’s attack, Netanyahu’s government — one of the most right-wing in the country’s history — proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that triggered mass protests as many feared a slide towards authoritarianism.Israel’s top court struck down a key component of the overhaul in January 2024.Now, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is pushing a bill that would give the government significantly more control of public broadcasting.The government’s own legal advisor also criticised the text.- ‘Chilling effect’ -In the crosshairs herself with impeachment proceedings, attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara said the bill “endangers the very principle of press freedom”.The law if passed would create a new body to oversee public media that the government says would encourage competition and reduce bureaucracy.But Baharav-Miara warned the concentration of power in the new authority’s hands and political appointments to the body are “likely to have a chilling effect on press independence”.The Union of Journalists in Israel has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the text, which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described as “a nail in the coffin of editorial independence”.”This is not a reform. It is a campaign to incite hatred and silence the free press,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Monday, condemning “a hostile takeover of the media”.Media freedom has been deteriorating in Israel, especially since the war in Gaza began in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack, according to RSF.Israel dropped 11 places in the 2025 RSF global press freedom index, from 101st to 112th out of 180 surveyed countries in 2024.- More powers -Government critics say it is not the only draft text that has caused concern.The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is also debating whether to make permanent a temporary law passed in 2024 that gave the government the power to ban foreign TV channels if they are deemed a threat to the state.The parliament approved the law in the middle of Israel’s war in Gaza, and it was mainly aimed at Qatari news channel Al Jazeera.Using its new powers, the government banned the outlet in May 2024, alleging it has ties with Hamas, which Al Jazeera has denied.Now the current proposal would allow the government to ban a foreign TV outlet without a court order — and regardless of whether the state is at war.The author of the amendment, Ariel Kelner, a Knesset member and part of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, defended the changes.”The production line of terrorism begins in minds, and especially in the media, which publish confidential information and poison hearts with hatred and anti-Semitic propaganda,” Kelner said.But International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the law, if passed, “would be a serious blow to free speech and media freedom”.- ‘Beyond absurd’ -Like the public broadcasting bill, the Kelner amendment was approved in its first reading and faces a committee review before a final Knesset vote.Another cause for concern is Defence Minister Israel Katz’s decision to shut down the publicly funded military radio station known as Galei Tsahal, founded in 1950. It is Israel’s third most listened to station, latest figures show.The Israel Democracy Institute warned that the government’s move is “contrary to the fundamental principles of the rule of law and undermines press freedom”.Katz said the station would cease broadcasting by March 2026 after he presents it to the cabinet this month.Against this backdrop, the Israeli government continues to deny foreign journalists from independently entering the Gaza Strip, where more than two years of war have devastated the Palestinian territory.The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding independent access, has denounced the situation as “beyond absurd”.An AFP journalist sits on the FPA’s board of directors.

Iranian authorities have freed a woman who was condemned to hanging over the killing of her husband who she married while a child, in a case that sparked international concern over the plight of women sentenced to death in the Islamic republic, rights activists said on Friday. Iranian authorities confirmed the freeing of Goli Kouhkan from prison in the northern Golestan province after her death sentence was revoked earlier this week under an accord with the dead man’s family.Kouhkan, a member of the Baluch minority without documentation and now aged 25, had been set to be executed this month over the 2018 killing of her husband who according to rights groups was violently abusive towards her and their child.Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that she had been spared execution and then released after so-called blood money — diyah under Iran’s Sharia law — was raised to pay her husband’s family for the loss of life.Iranian state television quoted the chief of the judiciary in the Golestan province Heydar Asiabi as saying she had been released on Thursday. It posted a picture of her with officials in a chador with her back to the camera.UN rights experts last week urged Iran to halt the execution of Kouhkan, saying she was forced into marriage at the age of 12 to her cousin and at 13 gave birth to their son, with both mother and child suffering violent abuse from the husband.According to IHR’s current toll, Iranian authorities have executed more than 40 women this year alone. Many of those executed were convicted of killing their husband, who was in some instances abusive or a close relative.The Islamic republic has stepped up its use of capital punishment this year with at least 1,426 people hanged up until the end of November, according to IHR.The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran Mai Sato said while “we celebrate one life saved, we cannot ignore the institutional injustices that nearly killed Goli Kouhkan”. “Goli was sold into marriage as a child and subjected to domestic violence in a country where such violence is not properly criminalised,” she wrote on X.IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Unfortunately Goli’s story is not unique. So far in 2025 at least two child brides have been executed in Iran.”She was sentenced to death along with her husband’s cousin who she had called when the husband had been beating her and her son. A fight then broke out in which the husband was killed. IHR says that the cousin, Mohammad Abil, “remains on death row and at risk of execution”.