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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.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with riot police in Basel as the Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday, AFP journalists at the scene witnessed.Protesters demonstrating against Israel’s participation in the contest while it ramps up its war in Gaza clashed briefly with police in the centre of the city shortly before Israel’s Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael took to the stage at the St. Jakobshalle venue across town.Blows were exchanged and police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck as they strived to block demonstrators from marching through the centre of the northern Swiss city, thronging with Eurovision fans.According to Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS, the confrontation began when police intervened to stop an altercation after two men rushed towards the protesters waving Israeli flags.Israel’s National Security Council issued a warning to Israelis in Basel about the demonstration, advising them to “avoid confrontations with demonstrators and to keep Israeli identifiers low-profile in public spaces”.Amid a sea of Palestinian flags, hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, carried signs stating: “No Music for Murder”, “Stop Genocide”, and “Singing while Gaza Burns”.Some of the protesters burned giant Israeli and US flags, while others set off red and green smoke in the air.One woman, her face smeared with red, cradled a seemingly bloody bundle representing the children dying in the war raging in the Gaza Strip as police in riot gear looked on.At a time when Israel is dramatically ramping up the brutal war in Gaza, the protesters were demonstrating against the participation of the Israeli act, which is among the favourites in Saturday’s final.Raphael survived the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, hiding beneath dead bodies as Hamas gunmen attacked a music festival, killing hundreds.During her performance of her song “New Day Will Rise” on Saturday, loud whistles could be heard in the arena, according to an AFP photographer in the hall.There have been a number of smaller protests against Israel throughout Eurovision week in Basel, and demonstrators interrupted Raphael’s act during a dress rehearsal for one of the semi-finals.Earlier this week, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said it had filed a police complaint after filming a protester apparently making a “throat-slitting gesture” at the country’s delegation during the Eurovision opening ceremony parade on Sunday.Israel launched an intensified offensive in Gaza on Saturday aimed at “the defeat of Hamas”, the Islamist militant group that launched a deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.The stepped-up campaign in the war that has already left tens of thousands dead came amid growing international concern over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where an Israeli aid blockade continues to restrict aid.

With its golden sand and blue waters, the beach front in central Israel looks much like any other stretch of Mediterranean coast, but a closer look reveals something unusual peeking through the rippling surf: black shark fins.The sharks are attracted to this patch of water in Hadera during the cold season because of the warmth generated by the turbines of a nearby power station.This has provoked an adrenaline-filled coexistence between the increasingly bold ocean predators and the curious, sometimes even careless, humans who come to swim.Last month, a man who got a little too close was mauled to death as spectators on the beach screamed in terror.All that was left were his bones, rescuers told AFP.Now, bathers, authorities, and environmental and shark experts are asking how such an event, never seen before in Israeli waters, happened and what can be done to prevent it in the future.”Sharks do not harm and never normally attack unless they feel either threatened or if somebody’s getting into their territory,” Irene Nurit Cohn, a member of rescue agency Zaka’s scuba unit and a seasoned diver, told AFP. “I’ve been diving since 1982. I’ve seen many sharks in my life, it has been thrilling and beautiful to watch sharks… but they’re not, and I repeat, they’re not dangerous,” she said.Cohn, who was part of the team that searched for the remains of Barak Tzach, a 45-year-old father of four, added that it was the people visiting the unique site who were “not behaving as they should.””People were touching them and disturbing them,” she said, adding that recent media coverage had drawn even more people to the beach.- ‘It’s dangerous’ -Immediately after the deadly attack, the local authority erected metal fences with “danger” signs and blocked an access road into the adjacent nature reserve with a cement barrier. Two weeks later, those had been removed, and life at the beach was back to normal.Friends Einav and Carmel, teenagers from a nearby town, appeared largely undeterred by the recent death. They had come specifically to see the sharks.”Sharks are my favourite animals and so I really wanted to see them, but we said that we will not go inside (the water) because it’s dangerous,” said Carmel.Matan Ben David, a spear-fishing and diving instructor who said he has continued to enter the water, said swimmers should keep a distance and adhere to the rules of the sea.”Sharks are part of nature, something we have to respect, we have to respect the ocean, we’re just visitors here,” he said, describing how he had witnessed people crowding the sharks and taking photographs.”Sharks are an incredible animal, very majestic but they’re an alpha predator and, at the end of the day, a lot of people do not always follow best practices,” Ben David noted.Like all unsupervised beaches in Israel, the one where the fatal attack took place was off-limits to swimming — a ban that is widely flouted.- Human-wildlife conflict -Leigh Livine, a shark researcher who has been monitoring this area for the past four years, said that initially, research showed “the sharks were staying away from direct conflict with the humans entering the water.”But “you have a very, very small space that you see this human-wildlife conflict really coming out at certain times of the year.”Livine said the sharks were a combination of Dusky and Sandbar sharks and that they were present in the area between November and May. But with temperatures rising each year due to climate change, “you have a lot more bodies in the water coming into conflict with the sharks.”Livine said she was shocked by last month’s attack but, with interaction between the sharks and humans increasing, was surprised “that something hasn’t happened sooner.””It usually comes down to a conflict of space, either food resources, space resources, and we’ve been seeing humans harass the sharks, really provoking them,” she said.

Three Iranian men appeared in a London court Saturday charged with spying for Iran’s intelligence services, as the UK interior ministry said they had arrived “by irregular means including small boats”.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to boost national security powers following the charges, which come amid heightened concerns about Iranian activities on UK soil.In October, the head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service revealed that since 2022 the UK had uncovered 20 Iran-backed plots posing “potentially lethal threats”.”Iran must be held to account for its actions,” Cooper said.The UK needed to “strengthen our powers to protect our national security as we will not tolerate growing state threats on our soil”, she added.The three men were all remanded in custody following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.The BBC reported they were accused of targeting UK-based journalists working for the Farsi-language Iran International television news network, an independent media organisation based in London. Iran has labelled the outlet a terror organisation.The Home Office said the suspects were all irregular migrants having arrived by small boat or other means, such as hidden in a vehicle, between 2016 and 2022.They were arrested on May 3 and named as Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, all living in London. The alleged spying activity took place from August 2024 to February 2025, according to police. “These are extremely serious charges,” said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter-Terrorism command, adding it had been a “very complex and fast-moving investigation.” All three were charged with “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between 14 August 2024 and 16 February 2025,” the police said.”The foreign state to which the charges relate is Iran,” the police added in their statement.- ‘State threats’ -Sepahvand was also charged with “surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research… intending to commit acts, namely serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom.”Manesh and Noori were also charged with “surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom, would be committed by others.”A fourth man was arrested on May 9 as part of the investigation, but has now been released without charge, the police added in their statement.The National Security Act gives law enforcement greater powers to disrupt “state threats” including foreign interference and espionage.In March, Iran became the first country to be placed on an enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which aims to boost the UK’s national security against covert foreign influences.The measures, due to come into place later this year, will mean that all people working inside the UK for Iran, its intelligence services or the Revolutionary Guard would have to register or face jail.Five Iranian nationals were also arrested on May 3 in a separate investigation.Police said on Saturday four of the men — who had been held on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act — had been released, although the investigation “remains active and is ongoing”. The fifth was earlier bailed to an unspecified date in May.