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NGO says starving Gaza children too weak to cry

The head of Save the Children described in horrific detail Wednesday the slow agony of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so weak they do not cry.Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the president of the international charity, Inger Ashing, said famine — declared by the UN last week to be happening in Gaza — is not just a dry technical term.”When there is not enough food, children become acutely malnourished, and then they die slowly and painfully. This, in simple terms, is what famine is,” said Ashing.She went on to describe what happens when children die of hunger over the course of several weeks, as the body first consumes its own fat to survive and when that is gone, literally consumes itself as it eats muscles and vital organs.”Yet our clinics are almost silent. Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there, emaciated, quite literally wasting away,” said Ashing.She said aid groups have been warning loudly that famine was coming as Israel prevented food and other essentials from entering Gaza over the course of two years of war triggered by the Hamas attack of October 2023.”Everyone in this room has a legal and moral responsibility to act to stop this atrocity,” said Ashing.The United Nations officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming what it called systematic obstruction of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.A UN-backed hunger monitor called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory including Gaza City.The IPC projected that the famine would expand to cover around two-thirds of Gaza by the end of September.Israel on Wednesday demanded that the IPC retract the report, calling it “fabricated.”After Wednesday’s Security Council meeting 14 members — all but the United States, Israel’s main ally — issued a joint declaration expressing “profound alarm and distress” over the declaration of famine and saying they trusted the IPC’s work and methodology.”The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the declaration says.

Iran says return of IAEA inspectors not full resumption of cooperation

Iran said Wednesday that the return of UN nuclear inspectors did not represent a full resumption of cooperation, which was suspended in the aftermath of June attacks by Israel and the United States.Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency began work at the key nuclear site of Bushehr in southwestern Iran, the nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said, the first team to enter the country since Tehran formally suspended cooperation with the UN agency last month.”No final text has yet been approved on the new cooperation framework with the IAEA and views are being exchanged,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, quoted by state television.The agency’s inspectors left Iran after Israel launched its unprecedented attack on June 13, striking nuclear and military facilities as well as residential areas and killing more than 1,000 people.Washington later joined in with strikes on nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks that killed dozens in Israel. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24.Iran subsequently suspended its cooperation with the IAEA, citing the agency’s failure to condemn the Israeli and US attacks.But on Wednesday Grossi said the inspectors were “there now”, adding: “Today they are inspecting Bushehr.”Under the law suspending cooperation, inspectors may access Iranian nuclear sites only with the approval of the country’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.Tehran has said repeatedly that future cooperation with the agency will take “a new form”.The spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the IAEA inspectors would oversee the replacement of fuel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.He made no mention of whether inspectors would be allowed access to other sites, including Fordo and Natanz, which were hit during the war.- ‘Litmus test’ -Grossi, on a visit to Washington, said discussions about inspecting other sites were underway with no immediate agreement.”We are continuing the conversation so that we can go to all places, including the facilities that have been impacted,” he said.He said that Iran cannot restrict inspectors only to “non-attacked facilities.””There is no such thing as a la carte inspection work.”The return of inspectors came after Iranian diplomats held talks with counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Tuesday.Their second round of talks since the Israeli attacks included discussion of European threats to trigger the reimposition of UN sanctions against Iran before they are permanently lifted in mid-October.The window for triggering the so-called “snapback mechanism” of a moribund 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers closes on October 18.During their previous meeting with Iran in July, the three European powers suggested extending the snapback deadline if Tehran resumed negotiations with the United States and cooperation with the IAEA, the Financial Times reported.Iran later dismissed the Europeans’ right to extend the deadline, and said it was working with its allies China and Russia to prevent the reimposition of sanctions.Iran’s deputy foreign minister Karim Gharibabadi on Wednesday said that if the snapback is triggered, “the path of interaction that we have now opened with the International Atomic Energy Agency will also be completely affected and will probably stop.”On Tuesday, Russia circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution aimed at pushing back the deadline for triggering snapback sanctions by six months, according to the text seen by AFP.The Russian proposal does not set preconditions for the deadline extension.Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said that the updated proposal was designed to “give more breathing space for diplomacy”, adding that he hoped it “will be acceptable”.”It will be kind of a litmus test for those who really want to uphold diplomatic efforts, and for those who don’t want any diplomatic solution, but just want to pursue their own nationalist, selfish agendas against Iran,” he told media.

Venice Film Festival opens with star power, and Gaza protesters

The Venice Film Festival kicked off Wednesday with Hollywood royalty arriving for Italy’s glitzy movie showcase where a strong line up of star-packed films will vie with protests about the Gaza war for public attention. Julia Roberts and George Clooney are some of the biggest names at the 82nd edition of the world’s longest-running festival, with top directors from Kathryn Bigelow to Jim Jarmusch all due on the sandy Lido across the Venice lagoon.The main event in Wednesday evening’s opening ceremony was Francis Ford Coppola awarding a Lifetime Achievement award to German director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”, “Fitzcarraldo”) for his canon of more than 70 films.Herzog, who said he always searched for the “sublime” in his films, will showcase his latest documentary, “Ghost Elephants”, about a lost herd in Angola, on Thursday.Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia” — about an Italian president grappling with doubts over whether to sign a euthanasia bill into law — was the first main in-competition movie presented on Wednesday.”Dwelling on doubt and then allowing that doubt to mature into a decision is something that is increasingly rare,” Sorrentino told journalists.”Mother”, a film depicting Mother Teresa as a sometimes ruthless figure struggling to reconcile her views on motherhood and abortion, opened the secondary Orizzonti section. Eyes were set to quickly turn to Hollywood’s favourite leading man, Clooney, who stepped off a water taxi in Venice with his wife Amal on Tuesday.On Thursday, he will be seen in the premiere of Netflix-produced comedy “Jay Kelly”, directed by Noah Baumbach, in which he plays a top Hollywood actor with an identity crisis.On the same night is the premiere of sci-fi comedy “Bugonia” from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, which stars Emma Stone as a pharmaceutical executive kidnapped by people who mistake her for an alien.Roberts, meanwhile, will appear at Venice for the first time on Friday in the out-of-competition cancel-culture drama “After the Hunt”, from Italy’s Luca Guadagnino.Winners of the festival’s prestigious Golden Bear top prize often go on to Oscar glory, such as “Nomadland” or “Joker” in previous years.- Pro-Palestinian protest -Though the festival and this year’s jury president Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) were keen to focus on the roster of movies making their world premieres in the next 11 days, world events dominated their day-one press conference.Protesters held up a “Free Palestine” banner in front of the festival’s main building, while a group of Italian film professionals have called on organisers to openly condemn Israel’s invasion and siege of Gaza.A demonstration to condemn Israel and the war in Gaza has been called for Saturday in Venice by hundreds of local political and rights groups. The festival had already declared “huge sadness and suffering vis-a-vis what is happening in Gaza and Palestine”, its director Alberto Barbera told reporters. But he ruled out rescinding invitations to pro-Israeli actors.Israel’s nearly two-year bombardment of Gaza also featured prominently during the Cannes film festival in May where hundreds of movie figures signed a petition saying they were “ashamed” of their industry’s “passivity” about the war.The festival has selected a film about the war for its main competition — “The Voice of Hind Rajab” by Franco-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, which reconstructs the death of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab who was killed last year by Israeli forces.- ‘Frankenstein’ -The flurry of premieres to be screened in Venice also include Guillermo del Toro big-budget remake of “Frankenstein”, starring Oscar Isaac, or Bigelow’s political thriller “A House of Dynamite”, starring Idris Elba.In one of the boldest casting choices, British actor Jude Law will try his hand at Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’s “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson portrays mixed martial arts champion Mark Kerr in much-hyped “The Smashing Machine” from Benny Safdie.Jarmusch marks his first time in Venice’s main lineup with “Father Mother Sister Brother”, bringing together Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits, while Taiwan-born model and actress Shu Qi makes her directorial debut with “Nuhai (Girl)”.

Israel ups pressure on Gaza City as Trump eyes post-war plan

The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump prepared to host a White House meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory.Israel is under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end its almost two-year campaign in Gaza, where the United Nations has declared a famine.Mediators have circulated a truce proposal which has been accepted by Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack triggered the devastating war. But Israel has yet to give an official response.On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire on Wednesday killed at least 38 people, including 16 in Gaza City.The Israeli military, which is preparing to conquer Gaza City, said troops were operating on the outskirts of the territory’s largest city “to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites”.As aid groups have warned against expanding the Israeli offensive, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on X that Gaza City’s evacuation was “inevitable”.The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war.In Jabalia, just north of Gaza City, resident Hamad al-Karawi said he had left his home after a message broadcast from a drone ordered people to evacuate immediately.”We scattered out onto the streets with no place or home to take refuge in,” he told AFP.The UN estimates that nearly a million people currently live in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surroundings in the north of the territory.- ‘Death follows you’ -Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US president would host top officials at the White House later on Wednesday to thrash out a detailed plan for post-war Gaza.”It’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together,” Witkoff told Fox News, without offering more details.Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and redevelop it as seaside real estate.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal which sparked a global outcry.In Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood on Wednesday, residents reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight.”Warplanes struck several times, and drones fired throughout the night,” said Tala al-Khatib, 29.”Some neighbours have fled… But wherever you flee, death follows you,” she said.AFP footage showed thick smoke rising into the sky following air strikes on parts of Gaza City.Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday to destroy the city if Hamas does not agree to end the war on Israel’s terms.Zeitoun resident Abdel Hamid al-Sayfi, 62, said he had avoided going outside for more than 24 hours.”Whoever steps outside is fired upon by the drones,” he told AFP by telephone.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.- Stalled negotiations -Days after a UN-backed monitor said famine was present in Gaza governorate, Israel on Wednesday called on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) to retract the report, arguing it was “fabricated”.The United Nations has blamed the famine on “systematic obstruction” of humanitarian deliveries by Israel, which has insisted it was allowing sufficient aid into Gaza.Last week, Netanyahu said he ordered immediate negotiations aimed at securing the release of all remaining captives, while also doubling down on the plan to seize Gaza City.Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Key mediator Qatar said on Tuesday it was still “waiting for an answer” from Israel on the latest ceasefire proposal, which would see the staggered release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody over an initial 60-day truce.Witkoff in his interview accused Hamas of having “slow-played” the negotiations process, a claim dismissed by Izzat al-Rishq, a senior official from the Palestinian group who said the US envoy was echoing “Netanyahu and his government of war criminals”.The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,895 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Israel demands UN-backed monitor retract Gaza famine report

Israel on Wednesday called on UN-backed hunger monitor the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) to immediately retract a report which determined that famine was present in parts of Gaza.”Israel demands that the IPC will retract immediately its fabricated report and publish a notice,” the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a press conference.He said Israel would share “evidence” of misconduct in preparing the report with IPC’s donors if the organisation fails to heed “within a short time”.Bar Tal called the IPC a “politicised” institute that is “working for an evil terror organisation”, referring to Palestinian militant group Hamas whose 2023 attack on Israel triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.The United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.The Rome-based IPC said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory including Gaza City.The IPC projected that the famine would expand to Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of September, covering around two-thirds of Gaza.Israel has severely restricted aid allowed into Gaza and at times completely cut it off during the war.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the IPC’s findings as an “outright lie”.He said Israel “does not have a policy of starvation”, citing figures on aid it had allowed into Gaza.COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body which oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, has argued that the IPC’s findings relied on “partial data and unreliable sources”.Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the UN World Food Programme’s food security analysis, defended the IPC, saying it was the “gold standard” for these kind of assessments.

Israel army launches operation in West Bank’s Nablus

Dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, with the Red Crescent reporting at least seven people wounded in the raid.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military confirmed that its forces were conducting an operation in the northern West Bank city, without specifying its purpose.The raid began at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), residents said, with soldiers in armoured vehicles storming several neighbourhoods of Nablus’s old city, which has a population of around 30,000 people.It came a day after Israeli forces carried out a relatively rare raid on Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, targeting a currency exchange in the city centre and leaving dozens of Palestinians wounded, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told AFP that Wednesday’s “assault… is merely a show of force with no justification”.One witness, who declined to give his name, reported that soldiers had expelled an elderly couple from their home.Israeli troops “are storming and searching houses and shops inside the old city, while some houses have been turned into military posts”, said Ghassan Hamdan, head of the Palestinian Medical Relief organisation in Nablus.AFP footage showed Israeli forces and military vehicles deployed on the streets, with some troops taking position on a rooftop.Daghlas said the army had informed Palestinian authorities that the raid would last until 4:00 pm.Local sources said clashes broke out at the eastern entrance to the old city, where young people threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live ammunition.- ‘Escalation’ -The Red Crescent said its teams treated five people wounded by rubber bullets, one person hit by live bullet shrapnel and another following “physical assault”.One more person was injured in a “fall” during the raid, the medical organisation added, and at least 27 others suffered from tear gas inhalation.Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa, slammed “the Israeli escalation in cities and refugee camps”, calling a recent uptick in raids “dangerous, condemned and unacceptable”.The old city of Nablus has been the focus of several major Israeli raids, including in 2022 and 2023 during large-scale operations targeting a local grouping of armed fighters, as well as in 2002 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.In early June 2025, an Israeli military operation there resulted in two Palestinians killed.Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, violence has surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 972 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, since the beginning of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority figures.In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in attacks or during military operations in the territory, according to Israeli figures.