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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday that a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its unrelenting military offensive in the Palestinian territory.The Israeli military did not immediately comment, but said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, “most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded”.Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed encampment that set multiple tents ablaze.”We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God’s protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing — and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,” Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP.”This is supposed to be a safe area in Al-Mawasi, and the place just exploded. We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning.” After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to its sand dunes along the Mediterranean coast seeking refuge from Israeli bombardment.But the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes, which have exacted a heavy civilian death toll.Bassal said that Israeli strikes on two other encampments of displaced Gazans killed a further nine people — seven in the northern town of Beit Lahia, and a father and son near Al-Mawasi.Separately, the civil defence agency reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabalia — one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed three people at a school being used as a shelter.The agency also reported two people killed by Israeli shelling in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.- ‘Starvation as a weapon’ -Israel said Wednesday that it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone in the widening offensive it resumed in March, ending a two-month ceasefire.Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month that the military was leaving Gaza “smaller and more isolated”.The United Nations said half a million Palestinians have been displaced since the offensive resumed, triggering what it has described as the most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.The Israeli military said its air strikes had hit “approximately 1,200 terror targets” since March 18, and “more than 100 targeted eliminations have been carried out”.Hamas accused Israel on Thursday of attempting to starve Gaza’s 2.4 million people after Katz said the day before that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the territory.”This is a public admission of committing a war crime, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the denial of basic necessities such as food, medicine, water, and fuel to innocent civilians for the seventh consecutive week,” the group said in a statement.Israel halted the entry of aid on March 2, exacerbating the territory’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.”Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” the defence minister said.- New truce offer -In parallel to the Gaza offensive, Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators that would include the release of dozens of hostages.Netanyahu met hostage negotiators and security chiefs on Wednesday and “issued directives for the continuation of the steps to advance the release of our hostages”, his office said.The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, the militant group said. A senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told AFP that the group’s “weapons will not be subject to any negotiations”.Two Hamas officials said on Thursday that internal discussions on the truce proposal were nearly complete, with one telling AFP “the group will send its response to the mediators once they finish”. “It’s expected the talks will wrap up soon — possibly even today,” the official said.Israel’s renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi met the head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Mohammad Eslami, on Thursday ahead of a fresh round of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.Iranian and US delegations are to gather in Rome on Saturday for a second round of Omani-mediated negotiations, a week after the longtime foes held their highest-level talks since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord in 2018.There were no immediate details on Grossi’s meeting with Eslami, but Iran’s reformist Shargh newspaper described his visit as “strategically significant at the current juncture”.On Wednesday, Grossi met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the first round of talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday.  Araghchi said he had  a “useful” meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency chief.”The IAEA can play a crucial role in peaceful settlement of the Iranian nuclear file in the coming months,” he said. Araghchi called on the IAEA chief to “keep the agency away from politics” in the face of “spoilers” seeking to “derail current negotiations”. He did not elaborate.Grossi said their meeting was “important”. “Cooperation with IAEA is indispensable to provide credible assurances about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme at a time when diplomacy is urgently needed,” he said on X.- ‘Not far’ from possessing bomb -Before heading to Iran, Grossi told French newspaper Le Monde that Tehran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.A year after Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran began rolling back its own commitments under the agreement, which gave it relief from sanctions in return for IAEA-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.In its latest report, the IAEA said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilogrammes (605 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent.That level far exceeds the 3.67 percent enrichment ceiling set by the 2015 deal, but still falls short of the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear warhead.Since he returned to office in January, Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” policy of punishing economic sanctions against Iran. In March, he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks and warning of possible military action if Iran refused.On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Trump had blocked an Israeli plan to strike Iranian nuclear facilities in favour of seeking a negotiated deal. – ‘Conflicting positions’ -On Tuesday, Khamenei cautioned that while the talks with the United States had started well, they could yet prove fruitless. “The negotiations may or may not yield results,” he said. On Wednesday, Araghchi said Iran’s enrichment of uranium was not up for discussion after Witkoff called for a halt.Witkoff had previously demanded only that Iran return to the 3.67 percent enrichment ceiling set by the 2015 deal.Araghchi said he hoped to start negotiations on the framework of a possible agreement, but that this required “constructive positions” from the United States.”If we continue to (hear) contradictory and conflicting positions, we are going to have problems,” he warned.On Thursday, Iran’s top diplomat was in Moscow on a “pre-planned” visit to the Tehran ally.”Our regular exchanges with Russia and China have allowed us to align our positions,” Araghchi said on his arrival in the Russian capital. The Kremlin said that Russia stood ready to do “everything” in its power to help resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.Meanwhile, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Salman had travelled to Tehran for talks on Thursday. During his first term, Trump attempted to forge an alliance between Israel and the Gulf Arab states against Iran.But in 2023 Tehran and Riyadh restored ties in a Chinese-brokered rapprochement, while the outbreak of the Gaza war later the same year soured relations between all Arab states and Israel. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin met a Russian-Israeli man freed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas after more than a year in captivity and promised to help free other hostages.The Kremlin leader thanked Hamas for releasing the man and said it was the result of Russia’s strong relations with the Palestinian people.”Thank God you are alive and well and you are here,” Putin told Alexander Trufanov, 29, late Wednesday. Trufanov said he had been held prisoner for 498 days.Trufanov, identified by Israel as Sasha Trupanov was released in February.His partner, grandmother and mother Yelena were also captured and released in the war’s first truce in November 2023, but his father, Vitali Trupanov, died in the October 7 attack.The Trupanov family immigrated to Israel from Russia in the late 1990s.The family’s surname is rendered differently in Hebrew and Russian, where it is spelt Trufanov.Trufanov asked Putin to help secure the release of other hostages still in captivity, calling them “brothers.””For me, when they are there, it’s as if half my heart is still there in Gaza. It will be very hard for me to return to my ordinary life while they are there,” Trufanov said in the televised meeting.”Mr Putin, I really ask you to continue what you did for me and before (with other prisoners)… so that they can also be free and happy like I am now.””We will be working on this, definitely,” Putin replied.The president told Trufanov that his release was “the result of the fact that Russia has stable, many-year relations with the Palestinian people”.”I think it’s necessary to express words of gratitude to the leadership, to the political wing of Hamas that they acted on our request and committed this action, a humanitarian act, and released you,” Putin said.Trufanov was released on February 15, days after a Russian deputy foreign minister urged Hamas to keep “promises” to free him.Russia has also called for the release of Maxim Herkin, a 35-year-old Russian-Israeli citizen abducted at a music festival.Herkin was shown alive in a video released by Hamas in April.

Taiwanese chipmaking titan TSMC reported on Thursday a surge in net profit for the first quarter and forecast robust demand for artificial intelligence technology, despite the spectre of US tariffs on the critical sector.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the world’s largest contract maker of chips that have become the lifeblood of the global economy, powering …

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Signature flamboyance is on the menu when the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest opens next month in Basel — but looming large over the festivities is Israel’s participation in the event.Switzerland’s third-biggest city of Basel hosts this year’s extravaganza, which is one of world’s biggest annual live television events.The contest, nearly 70 years old, will bring together 37 countries, and conclude with the final on May 17.Israel has taken part since 1973, because its public broadcaster was in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).But with the widespread anger over Israel’s devastating military actions in Gaza — and taking into account Russia being booted out of the EBU in 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine — there is controversy over Israel being allowed to perform in this year’s competition.Spain’s public broadcaster last week asked the European Broadcasting Union to open a “debate” on the appropriateness of Israel taking part.More than 10,000 people have also signed a petition in Finland urging the country’s public broadcaster to push for Israel to be barred.The EBU, which oversees Eurovision, counts public broadcasters from across Europe, as well as Israel and Australia, as members.The Geneva-based organisation on Friday noted “concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East,” but stated that all its members were eligible to compete.The war in Gaza already clouded last year’s contest, when thousands of demonstrators protested Israeli competitor Eden Golan in the Swedish city of Malmo. Yuval Raphael, a singer who survived Hamas’s deadly attack inside Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza, will represent Israel in Basel, with the song “New Day Will Rise”.- ‘Offensive’ -Other controversies are roiling this year’s glamfest.In Italy, there have been protests over the Estonian submission, “Espresso macchiato”, which some argue shows cultural insensitivities.Italian consumer association Codacons has slammed Tommy Cash’s catchy song, which draws on a number of Italian stereotypes, as “offensive” and demanded it be excluded.But the song, which features lyrics like “Mi money numeroso, I work around the clocko. That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso”, remains in the running.Finland’s contribution, by 32-year-old Erika Vikman and entitled “Ich komme” in German, or “I come”, has meanwhile drawn allegations of bordering on the pornographic.Vikman puts on an energetic show celebrating undisciplined female sexual liberation and pleasure, mixing Finnish disco tunes and electronic music.She is seen in videos wearing a tight black latex corset with bare buttocks showing as she sings: “I am Erika, you have stamina, hit me again, grab my butt, and when you want love again, scream ‘encore’, yes baby, ich komme.” At the EBU’s resuest, Vikman says she has toned down some of the sexual attributes of the performance and will be wearing an outfit less revealing than originally planned.”There is a bit of butt coverage,” she told Finnish public broadcaster Yle. – ‘Rough edges’ -Online betting sites suggest the most likely winner will be Sweden’s act — in fact performed by a Swedish-speaking comedy trio from Sweden’s neighbour Finland.The Finnish group KAJ is due to perform “Bara bada bastu” (Just have a sauna) in Swedish.On stage, the three men wear suits in a mock sauna surrounded by dancers in towels and wool hats, and armed with bouquets of birch branches, used by sauna enthusiasts to whip up their blood circulation.The unusual track, with its comic chorus, is quite different from the polished, glossy tunes typically heard from Sweden, which fielded ABBA in 1974 . “Today, it seems the public is more open to rough edges, originality and singularity,” Fabien Randanne, a journalist at 20 Minutes and Eurovision specialist, told AFP.Sweden, which has seven prior Eurovision triumphs to its name, currently ties with Ireland as the country holding the most wins.Its last victory dates back to 2023, with the more conventional pop song “Tattoo” by Loreen, who also won the competition in 2012.Online betting sites currently give the Austrian submission the second-best odds.”Wasted Love”, sung by 23-year-old Austrian-Filipino countertenor Johannes Pietsch, fuses pop and lyrical elements in a crescendo that flows into techno sounds.The song’s opera-infused genre-blending style has drawn comparisons to “The Code” — Swiss non-binary vocalist Nemo’s 2024 Eurovision victory song in Malmo, Sweden, which gave Switzerland the right to host this year’s edition.