Category World News

As Israel continues to impose its ban on aid supplies and fires at people who are compelled to seek food at contentious United States-backed aid sites, which Israel has referred to as “death traps,” a Palestinian baby has died in Gaza from starvation.

Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that the 35-day-old infant had malnourished at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. One of two people who died in the facility on Saturday was the unnamed infant.

The deaths occurred as the Gaza-based Ministry of Health issued a warning that the hospital emergency rooms were overflown with starving patients. According to officials, 17, 000 children in Gaza are currently in severe malnutrition.

At least 116 people have been killed across the Strip since dawn, including 38 who were shot dead while visiting aid sites run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to medical sources who have reported the Israeli military has been pounding the area.

According to spokesman for the civil defense agency, Mahmud Bassal said the deaths occurred close to a site in southern Gaza southwest of Khan Yunis and another location northwest of Rafah, attributing the deaths to “Israeli gunfire.”

Since the foundation started distributing aid in late May, the Health Ministry claims that almost 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and private military contractors close to dangerous GHF sites, opening four new locations for the organization’s nearly 400 centers, which are currently run by UN organizations and charities.

Witness Mohammed al-Khalidi claimed the Saturday shots fired at aid workers were intended to kill.

He claimed that when they suddenly saw the tanks coming from one side and the jeeps coming from the other, they began shooting at us.

The GHF sites are “death traps,” according to another witness, Mohammed al-Barbary, whose cousin died in the shootings.

“Anyone can commit murder,” My cousin had no guilt. He went to get some food. He desired to live. We want to lead the world, al-Barbary said.

According to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, families who wanted to get something to eat are instead burying their loved ones.

The GHF denied that Saturday’s killings occurred at its site, claiming they happened “several kilometers” and “hours before our sites opened.”

The incident was being reviewed by the Israeli military.

“Démarcate the gates.”

Palestinians in Gaza are “acutely at risk of famine,” according to Jagan Chapagain, the organization’s secretary-general.

He argued that no person should have to risk their lives to receive basic humanitarian aid.

The population of 2.3 million cannot meet their daily nutritional needs because basic supplies are not available in markets or distribution centers, and the price of essentials like flour has skyrocketed.

No person should have to risk their lives to receive basic humanitarian aid.

In Gaza, desperate people have been putting their lives on the line to receive basic aid in recent weeks.

The situation is seriously contaminated by famine, and it is getting worse every day. … basic food

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) head Jan Egeland refuted claims made earlier this week by Kaja Kallas, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, who had observed “some positive signs” regarding the distribution of aid in Gaza.

No relief has been pending for 142 days for the NRC and many others. not a single truck Not a single delivery,” Egeland wrote on X. He noted that looting or other problems brought on by the Gaza hunger crisis cause 85 percent of aid trucks to never arrive at their destination.

UNRWA, a UN agency for Palestinian refugees, claimed to have “enough food for the entire population of Gaza” waiting at the Egyptian border crossing with Israel and that it has been prohibited from operating in the Palestinian territory, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

The organization stated on X that UNRWA should “open the gates, lift the siege, and let its work be done.”

wave of attacks

As Israel continued its ruthless assault on Gaza on Saturday, bombing homes and tents for the displaced and residents of the area. At least 116 Palestinians were killed.

According to sources at Nasser Hospital, four bodies were discovered near southern Khan Younis at the site of Israeli strikes on Bani Suheila.

An Israeli drone attack on a tent in Khan Younis that was occupied by Palestinian refugees left at least one person dead.

Further north, according to the Interior Ministry, Israel struck an apartment building in the town of Az-Zawayda in central Gaza, killing Colonel Omar Saeed Aql, the Nuseirat police director, and 11 members of his family.

According to a source at al-Ahli Hospital, three people were killed in Gaza City when two Israeli planes attacked the Zeitoun neighborhood.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, an Israeli airstrike on the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood claimed the lives of five people in the city.

According to medical sources, Israeli shelling in the northern Gazan neighborhood of Jabalia an-Nazla claimed the lives of two people.

Off the Gaza coast, Israeli forces also opened fire on and detained three Palestinian fishermen, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.

In a rally in the capital, Dhaka, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis’ largest Islamist party supporters demanded a change to the electoral system.

The South Asian country is expected to turn in the polls next year as it approaches a jib after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.

A seven-point demand was made on Saturday by Jamaat-e-Islami against Muhammad Yunus’ interim government to ensure free, fair, and peaceful elections, as well as essential reforms, and the issuance and implementation of a charter in response to the mass uprising last year.

The party added that it wants to use a proportional representation system in the election.

Prior to the rally, thousands of Jamaat-e-Islami supporters stayed the night on the Dhaka University campus.

The nine-month war ended when the Pakistani army surrendered to a joint force of India and Bangladesh on December 16, 1971, and they continued to stream towards Suhrawardy Udyan, a historical site.

Iqbal Hossain, 40, said, “We are here for a new Bangladesh, where Islam would be the guiding principle of governance, where good and honest people would rule the nation, and where there would be no corruption.”

“We will give our lives to this cause, if necessary.”

No bias, please.

Some demonstrators wore T-shirts with the party’s logo on them, while others wore headbands with the party’s name on them, and many others carried metal badges that resembled a scale, the party’s electoral symbol.

There were also many young, 20- and 30-year-old supporters.

This nation will not experience discrimination under Jamaat-e-Islami. Everyone will have their rights. Because we adhere to the holy book, the Quran, Mohidul Morsalin Sayem, a student, said.

“Nobody will be able to take control of our country if all the Islamist parties join hands in the near future,” said one spokesman.

Shafiqur Rahman, the party’s leader, stated that the goal of the country’s struggle in 2024 was to end “fascism,” but that this time it would be fought against corruption and extortion.

What will Bangladesh look like in the future? Another fight will occur, Rahman said, and we will do everything to win it.

Jamaat, which supported Pakistan in the country’s 1971 independence war, was outlawed after Bangladesh’s independence.

It later re-apparashed and recorded its best electoral performance since 1991, winning 18 seats.

In 2001, the party re-elected as a coalition government, but it was unable to gain significant popular support.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were executed or imprisoned on charges of crimes against humanity and other serious crimes in 1971 while Prime Minister Hasina was in power from 2009 until she fled to India after being toppled by student protests last year.

The party’s registration was restored last month, allowing its participation in the upcoming April elections.

Hasina’s Awami League party publicly criticized Yunus’s government for allowing Saturday’s rally in a statement on X.

The action, according to the statement, “is a stark betrayal of the national conscience and constitutes a brazen act of undermining millions of people, both dead and alive, who fought against the evil axis]in 1971.”

If Bolsonaro’s case is dropped, the US will threaten to impose 50% tariffs.

Following a month-long stalemate, Ukraine has suggested holding a new round of peace talks with Russia.

Rustem Umerov, the head of the Defense Council, made the offer to meet with Russian negotiators for the following week, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s confirmation on Saturday.

In his evening address to the people, Zelenskyy said, “Everything should be done to bring about a ceasefire.” Russian President Vladimir Putin should stop avoiding decisions.

The leader of Ukraine also reiterated that he was prepared to meet with Putin in person. He argued that “peace at the leadership level is necessary to truly ensure lasting peace.”

Russia didn’t respond right away.

Next week, the NSDC’s secretary made the suggestion to meet with Russia. They must stop avoiding making decisions. a ceasefire exchanges between prisoners. Children’s return The killings have come to an end. And a leadership meeting is necessary to truly guarantee a lasting peace. Ukraine is prepared. pic. twitter.com/ksH7FzxnAE

Former defense minister Umerov was appointed last week as the leader of the National Security and Defence Council, and his job will be to give the negotiations more vigor.

In two earlier discussions in Turkiye earlier this year, he led the delegation of his country, which ended with a deal to exchange prisoners’ and soldiers’ remains.

In earlier rounds, Russia had outlined a list of unacceptable demands for Ukraine that demanded that it cede four of its own Ukrainian regions and reject Western military support.

However, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated on Friday that Moscow agreed with Zelenskyy’s statement that peace efforts needed “more momentum.”

After initially displaying a cordial attitude toward Russia after taking office, American President Donald Trump increased the pressure on Moscow.

Trump set a 50-day deadline for Moscow to conclude its nuclear agreement with Ukraine this week, which would mean additional sanctions could be put in place for nations that purchase Russian oil.

He also promised to increase arms shipments to the nation at the height of the conflict.

The decision to resume weapons deliveries was a sign to Ukraine to “abandon the peace process,” according to Maria Zakharova, a ministry spokesperson, who stated on Thursday that Russia would not accept the “blackmail” of Washington’s sanctions ultimatum.

ongoing fire exchange

After Russian forces launched a massive drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa early on Saturday, killing at least one resident and injuring six others, Kyiv extended its invitation to discuss further talks with Moscow.

The Ukrainian president claimed that during its overnight assault, which affected 10 of the nation’s ten regions, Russia launched more than 30 missiles and 300 drones.

In the southern Rostov region, Russia was forced to halt trains for about four hours overnight after a Ukrainian drone attack seriously injured a railway worker.

Russian air defense systems shot down three drones en route to Moscow, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, on Saturday, according to a Telegram post.

According to Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, temporarily suspended arrivals and departures for safety-related reasons before returning to normal operations.

Between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to the Russian Defense Ministry’s air defense systems (GMT) between 3 p.m. and 16 p.m.