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The Israeli army announced “extensive ground operations” Sunday as part of its newly expanded campaign in the Gaza Strip, where rescuers reported dozens killed in a wave of Israeli strikes.The announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled Israel was open to striking a deal with Hamas that involved “ending the fighting” in the besieged Palestinian territory.The military said that over the past day, troops had “begun extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”, adding they had “eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure… and are currently being deployed in key positions”.Israel says its ramped-up campaign is aimed at freeing hostages and defeating Hamas, but as the early stages of the operation got underway Saturday, Israel and the group were entering indirect talks in Qatar aimed at hammering out a deal.In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that “the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal — whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting”, referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in previous discussions.Such a deal, according to Netanyahu’s statement, “would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip”.Ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough.Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas’s total defeat, while Hamas has balked at the prospect of handing over its weapons.Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said on Saturday that the talks in Doha had kicked off “without any preconditions from either side”.A Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said that “Egyptian and Qatari mediators, along with the American side, are making efforts to bridge the gaps on the disputed issues”. – ‘No one left’ -On the ground, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 50 people had been killed Sunday “as a result of ongoing Israeli air strikes since the early hours”.He said 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip.AFPTV footage showed people sifting through what was left of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.”All my family members are gone. There is no one left,” said a distraught Warda al-Shaer standing amid the wreckage.”The children were killed as well as their parents. My mother died too, and my niece lost her eye.”There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military.Israel’s intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to a blockade on aid imposed on March 2.UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.- Hospitals ‘out of service’ -Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza’s health ministry, told AFP that since the blockade began, “57 children have died in Gaza as a result of famine, but in the coming days, this number will increase due to the depletion of available food supplies”.AFP was not able to independently verify the figure.The UN had warned of the risk of famine in Gaza long before the aid blockade was imposed, and doctors at Kamal Adwan hospital told a WHO team last year that at least 10 children had starved to death.The ministry also accused Israel on Sunday of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, cutting off the arrival of patients and staff, and “effectively forcing the hospital out of service”.With “the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service”, it said.Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Hamas also took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.

Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.”Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre,” Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now”, “End illegal occupation” and “Stop arming Israel”.”There should be a complete embargo on weapons to and from Israel and a stop to trade with illegal settlements,” Strada said.The protesters laid toys on the ground in solidarity with Gaza’s children, who the UN warns face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” more than two months into a total Israeli aid blockade.At least 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, according to the United Nations.Israel has faced mounting pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.It resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack on Israel.On Saturday Israel announced an expanded military campaign, killing dozens of people in new strikes.”We hear the bombs right now,” Walter Massa, president of Italian non-profit organisation Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, told AFP near the crossing.”The Israeli army continues to do what it believes is right in the face of an international community that does not intervene, and in Gaza, beyond the Rafah crossing border, people continue to die,” he said.UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.Italy’s government on Saturday reiterated its calls to Israel to stop attacking Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.””We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said. Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.

Hasan Hadi, the first filmmaker from Iraq to be selected for the prestigious Cannes Festival, said that economic embargoes like those imposed in his childhood under Saddam Hussein do not work.”Sanctions empower dictators,” he told AFP, claiming that they concentrate scant resources in their hands and only make them “more brutal”.”In the history of the world, there was no one time when they (imposed) sanctions and the president couldn’t eat.”Hadi’s first feature film, “The President’s Cake”, has received very good reviews since premiering on Friday in the Directors’ Fortnight section, with Variety calling it a “tragicomic gem”.Deadline said it was “head and shoulders above” some of the films in the running for the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize, and “could turn out to be Iraq’s first nominee for an Oscar”.The film follows nine-year-old Lamia after she has the misfortune of being picked by her school teacher to bake the class a cake for the president’s birthday, or be denounced for disloyalty.It is the early 1990s and the country is under crippling UN sanctions. She and her grandmother — with whom she shares a reed home in Iraq’s southern marshlands — can barely afford to eat.As they set off into town to hunt down unaffordable ingredients, with Lamia’s pet cockerel and their last meagre belongings to sell, the film plunges into the social reality — and everyday petty corruption — of 1990s Iraq.The near-total trade and financial embargo imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait “demolished the moral fabric of society”, Hadi said.It sent the country “hundreds of years back”.- ‘Selling their door frames’ -The filmmaker said he did not taste cake until he was in his early teens, after the US-led invasion in 2003 toppled Saddam and sanctions were lifted.Instead, with processed sugar and eggs out of reach, there was “date cake” — whose main ingredient was squished dates, sometimes with a candle on top.”As a kid you’re sad that you’re not getting your cake,” he said. But as you grow up, you realise what your parents must have gone through to put food on the table.”Not only my family, but all of these people had to sell literally everything,” he said. “There were people that were even selling their door frames.”Hadi and his team shot the film entirely in Iraq.It beautifully captures the ancient wetlands in the south of the country, listed as a World Heritage Site since 2016 and reputedly the home of the biblical Garden of Eden.Saddam drained them in the 1990s, trying to flush out rebels hiding in the reeds.But after the US-led invasion, authorities opened up the valves and the wetlands flourished again — even if they are now threatened by climate change.Hadi said he chose the location partly to make the point that “the marshes stayed and Saddam went away”.- Infamous eatery -To re-create the Iraq of his youth, Hadi and his crew paid close attention to detail, amassing vintage clothes and bringing a barber on set to trim the hair and moustaches of everyone down to the extras.They scouted out the best locations, shooting one scene in a small eatery reputed to have been frequented by Saddam himself.They chose non-actors to play ordinary Iraqis under the ever-present eyes of the president in posters, picture frames and murals.Hadi said that hearing US President Donald Trump say recently that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after Islamists toppled former president Bashar al-Assad last year was “amazing”.”I don’t think the sanctions helped in any way to get rid of Bashar, but definitely empowered him to kill more people, and torture more people,” he said.

Israel signalled Sunday that it was open to striking a deal with Hamas that included “ending the fighting” in Gaza, where rescuers reported dozens killed a day after Israel stepped up its offensive.Israel’s military has said the expansion of its campaign is aimed at “achieving all the war’s objectives” including releasing hostages and “the defeat of Hamas”.But as the intensified operations got underway, Israel and Hamas were entering indirect talks in Qatar that the Palestinian group said were aimed at ending the war.In a statement on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that “even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal — whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting,” referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff who has been involved in previous discussions.Such a deal, according to Netanyahu’s statement, “would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip”.Ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough.Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas’s total defeat, while Hamas has balked at the prospect of handing over its weapons.Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said on Saturday that the talks in Doha had kicked off “without any preconditions from either side”.A Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said that “positions are being exchanged by both sides in an attempt at bridging perspectives”, adding the group was approaching the talks with “great flexibility”.- ‘No one left’ -On the ground, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Sunday that 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip.AFPTV footage showed people sifting through the wreckage of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.At a hospital in nearby Khan Yunis city, young men mourned over the shrouded bodies of loved ones laid out on the ground outside.”All my family members are gone. There is no one left,” said a distraught Warda al-Shaer standing amid the wreckage in Al-Mawasi.”The children were killed as well as their parents. My mother died too, and my niece lost her eye.”Bassal said that the “series of violent Israeli air strikes” across Gaza overnight and in the early morning resulted in a total of “at least 33 martyrs, more than half of whom were children”.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.Israel’s intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to a blockade on aid imposed on March 2.UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.The summit’s final statement urged the international community “to exert pressure to end the bloodshed”.- Hospitals ‘out of service’ -In Tel Aviv, demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest against Netanyahu’s government and demand it strike a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”Instead of bringing them all home by agreeing to the deal that is on the table, Netanyahu is dragging us into a needless political war that will lead to the death of the hostages and soldiers,” said protester Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israel of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where it said “a state of panic and confusion is prevailing”.The ministry later said Israel had cut off the arrival of patients and staff, “effectively forcing the hospital out of service”.With “the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service”, it said.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 33 people, more than half of them children, a day after Israel announced an expanded military campaign in the besieged territory.Israel’s military has said the expansion of its operations is aimed at “achieving all the war’s objectives” including releasing hostages and “the defeat of Hamas”.The intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to an Israeli aid blockade since March 2.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Sunday that 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip.AFPTV footage showed people sifting through the wreckage of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.At a hospital in nearby Khan Yunis city, young men mourned over the shrouded bodies of loved ones laid out on the ground outside.In northern Gaza, Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a house in Jabalia, while the Al-Awda hospital in the same area reported damage.Four more deaths were recorded in the central area of Al-Zawayda and in Khan Yunis in the south, according to Bassal.He said that the “series of violent Israeli air strikes” across Gaza overnight and in the early morning resulted in a total of “at least 33 martyrs, more than half of whom were children”.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.- ‘Ceasefire, now’ -The announcement of Israel’s stepped-up campaign drew international criticism on Saturday.UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.The summit’s final statement urged the international community “to exert pressure to end the bloodshed”.Italy urged Israel to stop the strikes, while Germany said it was “deeply concerned”. European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “shocked by the news from Gaza”.Israel resumed its operations in the territory on March 18, ending a two-month truce in the war.In Tel Aviv, demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and demand it strike a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”Instead of bringing them all home by agreeing to the deal that is on the table, Netanyahu is dragging us into a needless political war that will lead to the death of the hostages and soldiers,” said protester Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.- Doha talks -Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said Saturday that new talks on ending the war had begun in Doha “without any preconditions from either side”.Previous negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States failed to secure a breakthrough, but the talks have been ongoing.Netanyahu’s Likud party said he had been “in continuous contact” with the Israeli delegation and had ordered the negotiators “to remain in Doha for the time being”.Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir argued against a deal, saying “now is not the time to pull back”.Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, said that the situation there was “catastrophic” amid nearby attacks and “a severe shortage” of supplies.On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israel of laying siege to the hospital, where it said “a state of panic and confusion is prevailing… severely hampering the provision of emergency medical care”.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,131 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,272.

Syria on Saturday announced the formation of a national commission for missing persons and another for transitional justice, more than five months after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.Syria’s new authorities have pledged justice for victims of atrocities committed under Assad’s rule, and a five-year transitional constitution signed in March provided for the formation of a transitional justice commission.The fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others who went missing remains one of the most harrowing legacies of Syria’s conflict, which erupted in 2011 when Assad’s forces brutally repressed anti-government protests, triggering more than a decade of war.A decree signed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and released by the presidency announced the formation of an independent “national commission for missing persons”.The body is tasked with “researching and uncovering the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared, documenting cases, establishing a national database and providing legal and humanitarian support to their families”.A separate decree announced the formation of a national commission for transitional justice to “uncover the truth about the grave violations caused by the former regime”.That commission should hold those responsible to account “in coordination with the relevant authorities, remedy the harm to victims, and firmly establish the principles of non-recurrence and national reconciliation”, according to the announcement.The decree noted “the need to achieve transitional justice as a fundamental pillar for building a state of law, guaranteeing victims’ rights and achieving comprehensive national reconciliation”.Both bodies will have “financial and administrative independence” and act over all of Syrian territory, according to the decrees signed by Sharaa.In December, an Islamist-led coalition toppled Assad after five decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule and nearly 14 years of brutal war that killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more.Tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured in the country’s jails, while Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons against his own people.Rights groups, activists and the international community have repeatedly emphasised the importance of transitional justice in the war-torn country.In March, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration for a five-year transitional period.It stipulated that during that period, a “transitional justice commission” would be formed to “determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors” of the former government’s misdeeds.This week, prominent Syrian human rights lawyer Mazen Darwish told AFP that lasting peace in Syria depended on the country building a strong judicial system giving justice to the victims of all crimes committed during the Assad era.

Israel launched an intensified offensive in Gaza on Saturday aimed at “the defeat of Hamas”, with rescuers in the Palestinian territory reporting at least 32 killed by new Israeli strikes.The stepped-up campaign came amid growing international concern over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza as an Israeli aid blockade wore on, and as a new round of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel got underway in Doha.Israel’s military said the operation marked “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”.UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.The summit’s final statement urged the international community “to exert pressure to end the bloodshed” and let in aid.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 32 deaths had been recorded Saturday, more than half of them women and children.Spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP some people were still buried under rubble after the strikes, and that there were also reports of deaths and injuries elsewhere but rescuers were unable to reach the areas due to ongoing shelling.In Deir el-Balah, displaced Gazans sifted through belongings, some stained with blood, for whatever could be salvaged after overnight strikes hit their tents.”We woke up at half past two in the morning to the sound of a loud explosion that shook the entire area,” said Umm Fadi Quzaat.”There was blood and body parts everywhere.”Italy urged Israel to stop the strikes, while Germany said it was “deeply concerned”. European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “shocked by the news from Gaza”.Israel resumed its operations in the territory on March 18, ending a two-month truce in the war.- Protests -Thousands protested in London on Saturday against the war.”The situation in Gaza is worsening and worsening,” said one demonstrator, who gave his name as Laurens, adding that “more organisations and agencies are talking about genocidal violence”.While the Eurovision Song Contest final took place in Basel, Switzerland, pro-Palestinian protesters in the city upset at Israel’s participation clashed with police just before the country’s entrant took the stage.Israel’s Yuval Raphael, singing “New Day Will Rise”, survived the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war.In Tel Aviv, crowds of supporters and family members of Israeli hostages in Gaza turned out for a protest demanding a deal for the captives’ return.Levy Ben Baruch — the uncle of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who was recently released after direct talks between Hamas and the United States — said his nephew’s freedom offered a lesson for Israel’s leaders.”Edan’s return is a miracle — but also a reminder… that war is not needed to return (the hostages)! That we can talk. That we can bring everyone back,” he said in a statement released by the main organisation representing hostages’ families.- Doha talks -Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said Saturday that new talks on ending the war had begun in Doha “without any preconditions from either side”.Previous negotiations failed to secure a breakthrough, but the talks have been ongoing.The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the renewed offensive had brought Hamas back to the table.Both sides have insisted on certain conditions in past talks, with Hamas saying disarmament was a red line and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unwilling to agree to a deal that would leave the group intact.Netanyahu’s Likud party said he had been “in continuous contact throughout the day with the negotiating team”, as well as with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and had ordered the negotiators “to remain in Doha for the time being”.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Saturday about “the situation in Gaza and their joint efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages”, a spokeswoman said.Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, however, argued against a deal, saying “now is not the time to pull back”, but rather to go in “with full force and finish the job — conquer, seize the territory, crush the enemy, and free our hostages”.- ‘Catastrophic’ -Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, said the situation was “catastrophic after its surroundings were targeted again this morning”.The hospital was “unable to receive any more critical cases” amid “a severe shortage” of blood units, medicine and supplies, he said.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 3,131 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,272.