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The head of Gaza’s largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while Israel pressed a devastating assault.Gaza’s population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.”Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip,” Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told reporters.Abu Salmiya said new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza’s remaining functioning hospitals “every moment”, warning there could be “alarming numbers” of deaths due to starvation.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a “horror show” in a speech on Tuesday, with “a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2 this year, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted to enter at a trickle in late May.However, stocks accumulated during the ceasefire have gradually depleted, leaving the territory’s inhabitants experiencing the worst shortages since the start of the war in October 2023.Chaotic scenes have become frequent at aid distribution areas since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation effectively sidelined a vast UN aid delivery network in Gaza. The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations in late May, with most near the foundation’s sites.Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani posted a video online on Tuesday evening, showing what he said was “950 trucks worth of aid currently waiting in Gaza for international organisations to pick up and distribute”.”This is after Israel facilitated the aid entry into Gaza,” he wrote on X.The US State Department said later that President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was heading to the Middle East for talks aimed at finalising a “corridor” for aid to Gaza, without giving further details. – Latest attacks -Earlier Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said Israel attacked its facilities amid its expanding ground operations.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City had killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50.Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp — on the Mediterranean coast — hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters.Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard “a massive explosion” at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away.”I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming,” Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP.Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church’s most senior cleric in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”.Pizzaballa spent three days in Gaza after an Israeli strike on the territory’s only Catholic church last Thursday which killed three people.- New ground operations -WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused Israeli troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint.Israeli forces meanwhile expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday.The civil defence agency’s Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah.The Israeli military said later its troops “identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated”.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe.Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites.OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.Despite what Guterres described as “devastation… upon devastation”, Israeli far-right leaders met in Jerusalem to discuss plans for redeveloping Gaza as a tourist-friendly “riviera”, with a permanent Jewish presence.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas’s 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants.Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted.Some have even had to cut back on their coverage of the war, now in its 22nd month, with one journalist saying “we have no energy left due to hunger”.The United Nations in June condemned what it claimed was Israel’s “weaponisation of food” in Gaza and called it a war crime, as aid agencies urge action and warnings about malnutrition multiply.Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.Witnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency, however, have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers, with the UN saying the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May.- ‘We have no energy’ -Bashar Taleb, 35, is one of four AFP photographers in Gaza who were shortlisted for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. He lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.”I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones,” he said. “I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally.”I’ve tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail.”Another Pulitzer nominee, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife’s family’s home after his own apartment was destroyed.”I’m exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances,” he said. “We can’t even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food.”Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties.The constant headaches and dizziness he has suffered due to lack of food and water have also afflicted AFP contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, who said he has even collapsed because of it.”Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilos (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,” he said.  “I used to finish news reports and stories quickly. Now I barely manage to complete one report per day due to extreme physical and mental fatigue and near-delirium.”Worse, though, was the effect on his family, he said.”They’re barely hanging on,” he added.- ‘Hunger has shaken my resolve’ -Eyad Baba, another photojournalist, was displaced from his home in Rafah, in the south, to a tent in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where the Israeli military this week began ground operations for the first time.But he could not bear life in the sprawling camp, so he instead rented an apartment at an inflated price to try to at least provide his family some comfort.Baba, 47, has worked non-stop for 14 months, away from his family and friends, documenting the bloody aftermath of bullets and bombs, and the grief that comes with it.Hardest to deal with, though, is the lack of food, he said.”I can no longer bear the hunger. Hunger has reached my children and has shaken my resolve,” he added. “We’ve psychologically endured every kind of death during our press coverage. Fear and the sense of looming death accompany us wherever we work or live.”Working as a journalist in Gaza is to work “under the barrel of a gun”, he explained, but added: “The pain of hunger is sharper than the fear of bombing.”Hunger robs you of focus, of the ability to think amid the horrors of war.”- ‘Living the catastrophe’ -The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, warned on Tuesday that Gaza was heading towards “alarming numbers of deaths” due to lack of food, revealing that 21 children had died from malnutrition and starvation in the last three days.AFP text journalist Ahlam Afana, 30, said an exhausting “cash crisis” — from exorbitant bank charges and sky-high prices for what food is available — was adding to the issue.Cash withdrawals carry fees of up to 45 percent, said Zanoun, with high prices for fuel — where it is available — making getting around by car impossible, even if the streets were not blocked by rubble.”Prices are outrageous,” said Afana. “A kilo of flour sells for 100–150 shekels ($30-45), beyond our ability to buy even one kilo a day. “Rice is 100 shekels, sugar is over 300 shekels, pasta is 80 shekels, a litre of oil is 85–100 shekels, tomatoes 70–100 shekels. Even seasonal fruits now — grapes, figs — cost 100 shekels per kilo. “We can’t afford them. I don’t even remember how they taste.”Afana said she keeps working from a worn-out tent in intense heat that can reach more than 30C, but going days without food and only some water makes it a struggle.”I move slowly, unlike before,” she said. “The danger isn’t just the bombing. Hunger is slowly killing our bodies and threatening our ability to carry on.”Now, I’m not just reporting the news. I’m living the catastrophe and documenting it at the same time.”- ‘I prefer death over this life’ -Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on July 8 that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.Video journalist Youssef Hassouna, 48, said the loss of colleagues, friends and family had tested him as a human being “in every possible way”.But despite “a heavy emptiness”, he said he carries on. “Every frame I capture might be the last trace of a life buried beneath the earth,” he added.”In this war, life as we know it has become impossible.”Zuheir Abu Atileh, 60, worked at AFP’s Gaza office, and shared the experience of his journalist colleagues, calling the situation “catastrophic”.”I prefer death over this life,” he said. “We have no strength left; we’re exhausted and collapsing. Enough is enough.”bur-strs-az-phz/acc/smw

The Nasdaq retreated from a record ahead of earnings from Google parent Alphabet and other tech giants, while European markets fretted over an August 1 deadline for the EU to avert steep tariffs from US President Donald Trump.Both the Dow and S&P 500 finished higher, but the Nasdaq dropped 0.4 percent to snap a six-day …

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France’s foreign minister urged Israel on Tuesday to allow international journalists into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza to “bear witness” to the situation after 21 months of war.The United Nations and human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million people face famine-like conditions, with near-daily deaths of people queueing for food aid.”I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness,” Barrot told France Inter radio.Jean-Noel Barrot spoke after the AFP news agency said it was concerned about “the appalling situation of its staff in the Gaza Strip”, warning that the lives of its freelancers were in danger and urging Israel to allow them and their families to leave the occupied coastal territory.Asked if France would help these journalists leave Gaza, Barrot said that France was “addressing the issue” and hoped to be able to evacuate some freelancers working with French journalists “in the coming weeks”.Israel accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering in the war, which started after the Palestinian militant group carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Israel’s foreign ministry on Monday accused Hamas of “deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid”.It was responding after Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries on Monday said that the war “must end now”, as the “suffering of civilians in Gaza” had “reached new depths”.- ‘No energy left’ -AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that chronic food shortages were affecting their ability to work.Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said that desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted.”We have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food,” SAID Omar al-Qattaa, a 35-year-old photographer shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.AFP contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, said that he suffered from constant headaches and dizziness due to lack of food and water, and he had even collapsed because of it.”Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,” he said.On Monday, a staff association at AFP called the Societe des Journalistes (Society of Journalists) sounded the alarm, urging “immediate intervention” to help reporters working with the agency in Gaza.The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it was “receiving desperate messages of starvation” from its Gaza staff, as the Palestinian territory experiences surging levels of hunger.With food scarce or unaffordable, doctors, the civil defence agency and medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have reported a spike in malnutrition cases in recent weeks.The head of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa Medical Complex, on Tuesday said that 21 children had died due to “malnutrition and starvation” in the Palestinian territory in the past three days.The civil defence agency on Sunday reported at least three infant deaths from “severe hunger and malnutrition” in the previous week.Israel on Monday said there was “no ban or restriction on the entry of baby formula or baby food into Gaza”.- ‘No longer any justification’ -AFP evacuated its eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024.The agency said the situation of its freelancers had now also become “untenable”.”Since October 7, Israel has blocked access to the Gaza Strip for all international journalists. In this context, the work of our Palestinian freelancers is crucial to informing the world,” it said.”But their lives are in danger, so we urge the Israeli authorities to allow them to evacuate immediate along with their families.”Barrot said there was “no longer any justification for the Israeli army’s military operations in Gaza”.”This is an offensive that will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation and cause new forced displacements of populations, which we condemn in the strongest terms.”EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib on Tuesday also urged Israel to allow journalists into Gaza.”Israel must allow the press to do its work and guarantee its access. Journalists and civilians cannot, and must not, be targets,” she said.

France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a member of European Parliament, a judicial source told AFP Tuesday.Dati, a 59-year-old who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was charged in 2019 on suspicions she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan carmaking group while at the European Union institution. She denies the allegations.Dati is accused of accepting 900,000 euros ($1.06 million at current rates) in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not really working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019.Investigations have sought to determine whether she was in fact lobbying in the European Parliament for the carmaker, an activity that is forbidden.French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the ex-tycoon of Renault-Nissan, be tried, the judicial source said.The 71-year-old, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has also rejected the charges against him.A hearing on September 29 will decide on the date of the trial, the source said.According to another source following the case, the trial could be held after the Paris municipal elections, which will be held in March next year.Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, has repeatedly sought without success to have the charges against her quashed.Ghosn, the former chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan’s board in a unanimous decision.He jumped bail late the following year and made a dramatic escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, landing in Beirut, where he remains as an international fugitive.Both Japan and France have sought his arrest.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks, eyeing an extension to a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels.Bessent told Fox Business that he will be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round …

US Treasury chief eyes China tariff deadline extension in talks next week Read More »