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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 12 people on Saturday, including eight who had gathered near aid distribution sites in the Palestinian territory suffering severe food shortages.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed by gunfire from Israeli forces while waiting to collect aid in the southern Gaza Strip.In a separate incident, Bassal said five people were killed in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.The Israeli army told AFP it was “looking into” both incidents, which according to the civil defence agency occurred near distribution centres run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.Its operations began at the end of May — when Israel eased a total aid blockade that lasted more than two months — but have been marred by chaotic scenes and neutrality concerns.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Saturday that 450 people had been killed and 3,466 others injured while seeking aid in near-daily incidents since late May.The Israeli blockade imposed in early March amid an impasse in truce negotiations had produced famine-like conditions across Gaza, according to rights groups.Israel’s military has pressed its operations across Gaza more than 20 months since an unprecedented Hamas attack triggered the devastating war, and even as attention has shifted to the war with Iran since June 13.Bassal told AFP that three people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City in the north, and one more in another strike on the southern city of Khan Yunis.Israeli forces also demolished more than 10 houses in Gaza City “by detonating them with explosives”, he added.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities.Earlier this week, the UN’s World Health Organization warned that Gaza’s health system was at a “breaking point”, pleading for fuel to be allowed into the territory to keep its remaining hospitals running.The Hamas attack in October 2023 that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.

Israel’s rescue services said Saturday that an Iranian drone had struck a residential building in the north of the country following a wave of attacks reported by the military.”A drone strike hit a two-storey residential building in northern Israel”, the Magen David Adom said in a statement, referring to an impact site in the Beit She’an valley by the northeastern border with Jordan.Israel’s sophisticated air defences have intercepted more than 450 missiles fired at the country by Iran, along with around 400 drones, since the start of the war on June 13, according to official figures.  The locations of strikes in Israel are subject to strict military censorship rules and are not always provided in detail to the public.  The National Public Diplomacy Directorate, which is overseen by Israel’s prime minister, has acknowleged 50 impact sites.At least 19 people were injured in Haifa on Friday following a strike on a building by the city’s docks.The northern Israeli port has been frequently targeted along with coastal hub Tel Aviv and southern Beersheba. AFP photographs from the scene of the drone strike in Beit She’an on Saturday showed a hole torn in the side of the building next to a crater and mounds of earth that appeared to have been thrown up by the drone’s explosives. Magen David Adom said its rescue teams found no visible casualties as they arrived at the scene.In separate statements, the Israeli military reported several drones had been sighted and intercepted at locations in northern Israel mid-morning on Saturday after a barrage of 40 drones overnight.A total of 25 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the war, according to official figures. 

Water levels at Iraq’s vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic metres of water out of a possible seven billion. That is “about 24 percent” of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years. Satellite imagery analysed by AFP shows the lake’s surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a “shortage of rainfall” explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimetres (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimetres.- ‘Harvest failed’ -Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained. Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves. Baghdad has criticised these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighbouring Turkey, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.At the end of May, the country’s total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest — cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans — would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.”The harvest failed because of the lack of rain,” he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.”I can’t make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river,” he added.- ‘Stricter rationing’ – The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighbouring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.The latest shortages are forcing even “stricter rationing” and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water networkIn the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimise the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.”If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share,” Karim said.burx-str-tgg/feb/csp/tc/jsa

Israel claimed on Saturday it has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by at least two years, a day after US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran has a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes.Trump has been mulling whether to involve the United States in Israel’s bombing campaign, indicating in his latest comments that he could take a decision before the two week deadline he set this week.Israel said Saturday its air force had launched fresh air strikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing its rival from developing nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has denied.”According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday.Saar said Israel’s week-long onslaught would continue. “We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild.Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel’s attacks.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said “we invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for.”But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues.” Trump was dismissive of European diplomacy efforts, telling reporters, “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”Trump also said he’s unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.”If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally busting markets largely abandoned on Friday.- 450 missiles – A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday based on its sources and media reports that at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.Iran has not updated its tolls since Sunday, when it said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.Since Israel launched its offensive on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 wounded, including one person in a serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo.Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases.- ‘Madness’ -Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.The agency’s chief Rafael Grossi told CNN it was “pure speculation” to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons.Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the conflict was at a “perilous moment” and it was “hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation”.Araghchi arrived in Istanbul on Saturday according to the Tasnim news agency, for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict.Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-ser/ami/kir/gv/acb/tc/mtp

Israel’s war with Iran has entered its second week with the Israeli military chief warning of a “prolonged campaign”.Here are the latest developments:- Delayed by ‘two or three years’ -Israel’s foreign minister said its strikes on Iran have delayed Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon by at least two or three years.”According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in an interview.Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment.The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.- ‘Prolonged campaign’ -Israel’s armed forces chief Eyal Zamir warned that his country should be “ready for a prolonged campaign” against Iran.”We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude, against such an enemy. We must be ready for a prolonged campaign,” Zamir said in a video statement to Israelis.Israel launched attacks against Iran on June 13 which have combined targeted assassinations of key military personnel with strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities.He said Israelis needed to brace for more difficulties, as the country comes under daily attack from Iranian ballistic missiles.In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar said Israel believes it has set back Iran’s nuclear programme by “two to three years” but said the strikes would continue in order “to remove this threat.” – Geneva meeting -As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva.Referring to nuclear negotiations with Washington that had been derailed by the war, Araghchi said Iran is ready to consider diplomacy “once the aggression is stopped”.Tehran did “support the continuation of discussion with” the European countries and was willing “to meet again in the near future”, Araghchi told reporters.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot urged Iran to resume negotiations with all sides “without awaiting the cessation of strikes”.- Trump says Iran wants talks -Trump said the Europeans were “not going to be able to help” end the war.”Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us,” he said.He also said Iran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier.- New day of strikes  -Israel said Saturday it’s air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran.A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the death toll in Iran at 657 people including at least 263 civilians, citing Iranian sources and reports.Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Authorities have not issued an updated toll since.Iran launched two salvoes of missiles at Israel on Friday. At least 19 people were injured in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, a local hospital said.At least 25 people have been killed in Israel since the war began, according to Israeli authorities.- Diplomats quit Tehran -Britain said it had withdrawn its embassy staff from Iran, while Switzerland announced the temporary closure of its embassy.”Our embassy continues to operate remotely,” the British foreign ministry said.Switzerland cited the “highly unstable situation on the ground” for its decision. It said it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-kir/ami/gv/acb/tc

AI deepfakes, video game footage passed off as real combat, and chatbot-generated falsehoods — such tech-enabled misinformation is distorting the Israel-Iran conflict, fueling a war of narratives across social media.The information warfare unfolding alongside ground combat — sparked by Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership — underscores a digital crisis in the age of rapidly advancing AI tools that have blurred the lines between truth and fabrication.The surge in wartime misinformation has exposed an urgent need for stronger detection tools, experts say, as major tech platforms have largely weakened safeguards by scaling back content moderation and reducing reliance on human fact-checkers.After Iran struck Israel with barrages of missiles last week, AI-generated videos falsely claimed to show damage inflicted on Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport.The videos were widely shared across Facebook, Instagram and X.Using a reverse image search, AFP’s fact-checkers found that the clips were originally posted by a TikTok account that produces AI-generated content.There has been a “surge in generative AI misinformation, specifically related to the Iran-Israel conflict,” Ken Jon Miyachi, founder of the Austin-based firm BitMindAI, told AFP.”These tools are being leveraged to manipulate public perception, often amplifying divisive or misleading narratives with unprecedented scale and sophistication.”- ‘Photo-realism’ -GetReal Security, a US company focused on detecting manipulated media including AI deepfakes, also identified a wave of fabricated videos related to the Israel-Iran conflict.The company linked the visually compelling videos — depicting apocalyptic scenes of war-damaged Israeli aircraft and buildings as well as Iranian missiles mounted on a trailer — to Google’s Veo 3 AI generator, known for hyper-realistic visuals.The Veo watermark is visible at the bottom of an online video posted by the news outlet Tehran Times, which claims to show “the moment an Iranian missile” struck Tel Aviv.”It is no surprise that as generative-AI tools continue to improve in photo-realism, they are being misused to spread misinformation and sow confusion,” said Hany Farid, the co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.Farid offered one tip to spot such deepfakes: the Veo 3 videos were normally eight seconds in length or a combination of clips of a similar duration.”This eight-second limit obviously doesn’t prove a video is fake, but should be a good reason to give you pause and fact-check before you re-share,” he said.The falsehoods are not confined to social media.Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard has identified 51 websites that have advanced more than a dozen false claims — ranging from AI-generated photos purporting to show mass destruction in Tel Aviv to fabricated reports of Iran capturing Israeli pilots.Sources spreading these false narratives include Iranian military-linked Telegram channels and state media sources affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, NewsGuard said.- ‘Control the narrative’ -“We’re seeing a flood of false claims and ordinary Iranians appear to be the core targeted audience,” McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with NewsGuard, told AFP.Sadeghi described Iranian citizens as “trapped in a sealed information environment,” where state media outlets dominate in a chaotic attempt to “control the narrative.”Iran itself claimed to be a victim of tech manipulation, with local media reporting that Israel briefly hacked a state television broadcast, airing footage of women’s protests and urging people to take to the streets.Adding to the information chaos were online clips lifted from war-themed video games.AFP’s fact-checkers identified one such clip posted on X, which falsely claimed to show an Israeli jet being shot down by Iran. The footage bore striking similarities to the military simulation game Arma 3.Israel’s military has rejected Iranian media reports claiming its fighter jets were downed over Iran as “fake news.”Chatbots such as xAI’s Grok, which online users are increasingly turning to for instant fact-checking, falsely identified some of the manipulated visuals as real, researchers said.”This highlights a broader crisis in today’s online information landscape: the erosion of trust in digital content,” BitMindAI’s Miyachi said.”There is an urgent need for better detection tools, media literacy, and platform accountability to safeguard the integrity of public discourse.”burs-ac/jgc

Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention center.Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation.”This shouldn’t have taken three months,” Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana hours after a federal judge ordered his release.”(President Donald) Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” he said. “There’s no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.”The Department of Homeland Security criticized District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s ruling Friday as an example of how “out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining our national security.”Under the terms of his release, Khalil will not be allowed to leave the United States except for “self-deportation,” and faces restrictions on where he can travel within the country.Khalil’s wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, said her family could now “finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Maumoud is on his way home.””We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” added Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple’s first child while her husband was in detention.- Visas revoked -Since his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s campaign to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, Khalil was a prominent leader of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Following his arrest, US authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to the detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.Farbiarz ruled last week that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil poses a national security threat.The government has also alleged as grounds to detain and deport Khalil that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency.Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is among the groups representing Khalil, welcomed the release order.”This is an important step in vindicating Mr Khalil’s rights as he continues to be unlawfully targeted by the federal government for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights,” Sinha said.