After nearly three months without having access to fresh supplies, thousands of Palestinians have occupied a food distribution center in southern Gaza.
As people poured into the aid center on Tuesday in Rafah’s southern city to avoid starvation and malnourishment, there was a chaotic scene.
As the desperate crowds pressed against the fences that drew them away from the food boxes, Israeli soldiers used gunfire to disperse them.
As part of the military offensive that Israel launched in the Palestinian enclave in October 2023, Israel had imposed a total blockade on aid to Gaza.
International pressure on Israel increased as famine fears increased. Israel was warned earlier this month by allies, including the United Kingdom, France, and Canada, that if the aid restrictions were not lifted, it might face sanctions.
Days later, Israel announced that it would resume “minimal” deliveries of essential supplies.
However, that announcement was contentious, not least because Israel chose to steer clear of conventional aid distribution channels like those run by the UN.
Instead, it chose to take the helm of the effort with the assistance of the United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut, who is based in Amman, Jordan, “a lot of questions were raised, even within the Israeli government,” about how exactly this was going to operate.
As you can see from the screenshot, the private organization that was established to distribute this aid has now completely lost control.
The Hamas-backed armed Palestinian organization has denied that Israel is to blame for the chaos at the aid center. Hamas instead blaming Israel for failing to “manage the humanitarian crisis it purposefully created” in a statement released on Tuesday.
There is no proof Hamas has harmed the distribution of aid, according to Mohamed Vall, a journalist for Al Jazeera. He instead focused solely on Gaza’s pressing need: More than two million Palestinians.
He said, “These are the civilians of Gaza, the people of Gaza, trying to get just any piece of food for their children, for themselves.”
Vall added that there was also skepticism about the rationale behind concentrating aid distribution in the south of Gaza.
According to Vall, “they claim that the reason why]Israeli officials] established these distribution points only in the south is because they want to compel people to flee from the north,” or at least force them to do so.
He continued to worry that moving Palestinians south could represent the “preliminary phase for the total ousting” of Gaza’s population.
Since the start of the war, at least 54,056 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which humanitarian aid organizations and UN experts have compared to a genocide.
The US president’s administration will decide to end any remaining federal agreements with Harvard University, furthering a controversy that has been centered on issues like racial diversity and pro-Palestine student activism.
A draft letter from the General Services Administration (GSA) instructs all federal agencies to review and possibly terminate existing contracts with Harvard, which are estimated to be worth $100 million, according to the New York Times and Reuters news agencies.
According to a draft letter shared by the Times, Harvard has continued to practice “race discrimination, including in its admissions process,” and that failing to put an end to alleged anti-Semitism suggests a “disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.”
The government’s latest attempt would be to use federal funds to compel universities to accept changes demanded by the Trump administration, including stricter sanctions against pro-Palestine students, stricter curricula, and ending policies that promote racial diversity and better opportunities for racial minorities.
The Trump administration has portrayed efforts to promote greater racial diversity in US universities as discriminatory practices that place racial identity preceding merit. Supporters contend that efforts like utilizing race as one of many factors in admissions decisions are required to end decades of racism and exclusion in US higher education.
The letter states that “GSA understands that Harvard continues to practice race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life.”
The administration has also taken a bold stance on pro-Palestine activism on university campuses, which exploded after Israel’s most recent conflict in Gaza in October 2023.
Those actions are seen by critics as part of a larger assault on US universities, which Trump has portrayed as a haven for radical ideas and political discord in opposition to his administration’s objectives.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane from Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Trump administration has pursued Harvard in response to the pro-Palestinian protests, as well as making a list of demands that go far beyond that.
It requests detailed information about foreign students, which Harvard is ostensibly refusing to provide. It wants to examine people’s ideologies in general through a political audit. Thus, Harvard University has filed a lawsuit in court to stop a number of these actions, and a judge will undoubtedly hear from you as well.
A formal review of $255.6 million in Harvard contracts and $ 8.7 billion in multi-year grants was announced by the GSA, the Department of Education (DOE), and Health and Human Services (HHS), as part of a campaign to combat alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Despite making a number of concessions to government demands, the administration also cut $400 million in grants to Columbia University in New York City in March.
According to the administration, anti-Semitism is the cause of campus protests against Israel’s occupation of Gaza and US military supply to Israel, which creates an unsafe environment for Jewish students.
A Turkish international student named Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University was detained by federal agents after co-signing an op-ed calling for the end of the war, along with other international students.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and he recently made a move to curtail the university’s ability to accept international students, who currently account for about 27 percent of the total enrollment at the university.
A judge thwarted the effort, which Harvard had described as “an act of retaliation for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s unlawful assertions of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.”
A right-to-die bill was approved in the first reading in France’s lower house, marking a first step in the long process of legislation passage.
The bill’s passage was approved on Tuesday by 305 lawmakers in the National Assembly, but 199 deputies opposed it because it would allow patients to receive medical assistance until certain circumstances are met.
President Emmanuel Macron supports the text, but some conservative organizations object to it.
Macron praised the bill’s passage as “an important step” in “the path of fraternity” in a statement on X.
Macron wrote that the vote on legislation to promote palliative care and assisted dying is a crucial step. The path of fraternity that I hoped for is gradually opening up in light of my sensibilities, doubts, and hopes.
[Stephane de Sakutin/AFP] Results are displayed on a screen.
The French Senate will hear the legislation for further discussion. Given France’s lengthy and challenging parliamentary process, a definitive vote on the measure might require several months. The Senate has the final say, according to the National Assembly.
More than 90 percent of French people support laws that grant people who have terminal illnesses or endure endless suffering the right to die, according to polls that indicate the legislation will eventually pass.
According to the proposed legislation, assisted dying entitles people to use lethal drugs in certain circumstances. They may take it themselves, or those who are unable to do so by themselves may seek medical advice from a doctor or nurse.
strict guidelines
Patients would need to be French citizens or live in France to receive benefits.
A team of medical professionals would need to verify that the patient is seeking lethal medication of their own free will and that she is “at an advanced or terminal stage” of a serious and incurable illness.
Patients with severe psychiatric conditions and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are not eligible.
After reflecting for a while, someone would make the request for lethal medication and confirm it.
A doctor would issue a prescription for the lethal medication if it was approved, and it could be taken at home, in a nursing facility, or elsewhere.
According to a report from 2023, the majority of French people support end-of-life options, and opinion polls showed growing support for end-of-life options.
Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly abruptly slowed the first-year political debate in parliament, causing France to plunge into a months-long political crisis.
In the gruesome middle of the day, thousands of Palestinians have clambered over fences and pushed through crowded crowds to get supplies for life-savings, illuminating the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster that Israel’s three-month aid blockade has caused in Gaza.
As desperate crowds struggled to get to the Israeli-Israel food distribution point on its first day of operation while Israeli military gunfire rumbled in the background as military helicopters flew overhead.
Long lines of people poured into a large open field where the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had been stacked in television footage from Rafah in southern Gaza. Later, as people made their way to the GHF distribution point, they were spotted tearing down fences as they desperately needed Palestinians, including children and women.
“We have been starving for a long time. We must provide food for our children. What other options do we have? A Palestinian father told Al Jazeera, “I could do anything to feed them.”
Even though it meant taking a risk, we watched as people ran, and we followed them. Fear, however, is not as bad as starvation.
Palestinians who have been forced to leave the country on May 27, 2025, with a box of food from a US-backed foundation [AFP] promise to distribute aid to the western region of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military claimed that its forces did not fire at the aid distribution center as it was attacked by thousands of Palestinians, but instead instead used warning shots in an area close to it. It stated in a statement that the situation had been given control and that aid distribution would continue as planned.
In light of persistent hunger and Israeli bombing of civilians, including children, Gaza officials claimed Israel was ignoring the need to provide aid.
The Government Media Office in Gaza stated in a statement following the mayhem that “what happened today is conclusive evidence of the occupation’s failure to manage the humanitarian crisis it purposefully created through a policy of starvation, siege, and bombing.”
Despite claims that the new organization lacked the experience or ability to help more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, GHF, a foundation supported by the US and supported by Israel, delivered its aid to Gaza.
According to the UN and other aid organizations, the organization violates humanitarian law and could cause Palestinians to flee their homes as a result of the country’s limited distribution of aid.
Reckless, inhumane plan:
Seeing thousands of Palestinians storm the aid facility was “heartbreaking,” according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
He told reporters, “We and our partners have a detailed, principled, and operationally sound plan supported by member states to provide aid to a desperate population.” We continue to emphasize the importance of carrying out humanitarian operations in a meaningful way to stop famine and provide for all civilians wherever they are.
The unpredictable hunger that was gripping Gaza was highlighted by the chaos. 1.95 million people in the enclave are experiencing acute food shortages, according to the most recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report.
Palestinians open a box filled with food and supplies for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution on May 27, 2025 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
Aid organizations have been making frequent warnings that Israel is using Gaza’s starvation as a weapon of war.
The Norwegian Refugee Council’s spokesperson, Ahmed Bayram, told Al Jazeera, “This is not how aid is done,” describing the situation in Rafah as the “inevitable consequence of a reckless and inhumane plan.”
“These are the scenes that we have been warning about for a long time.” It created chaos. It created confusion. And he claimed that this was the outcome.
“I believe the best thing to do right now is to cancel this plan, reverse it, and let us professional humanitarians from the UN and NGOs carry out our duties,” she said. Aid is in the pipeline across the border in abundance. The decision is [open the gates and keep them open.]
Israel appointed the GHF as the principal distributor of aid following back-channel meetings between Israeli-linked officials and business figures. Israel has also prevented Israel from donating money to the UN and other international organizations.
Despite being portrayed as a neutral body, the GHF’s close ties to Israel and the US have drawn widespread condemnation. The foundation’s former head abruptly resigned this week, citing the foundation’s failure to uphold “neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” its foundation’s core human rights principle.
The GHF came from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers, and businesspeople with close ties to the Israeli government,” according to a report in The New York Times.
Israel has stated that it does not control the physical distribution of aid, but that it supports the system’s use of biometric screening, including facial recognition, to assess the status of the recipients. It is feared by Palestinians as yet another Israeli surveillance and repression tool.
Critics have also warned that the GHF’s structure and the aid concentration in southern Gaza could lead to the Israeli military’s planned depopulation of northern Gaza.
This is undoubtedly not enough.
The GHF has set up only four “mega-sites” for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, compared to the previous UN-led distribution network, which ran about 400 sites across the strip.
According to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, many of the food parcels distributed in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza were insufficient to provide for families.
Khoudary described a typical food box that contained four kilograms (8.8 pounds) of flour, two cans of fava beans, two tea bags, and some biscuits. Lentils and soup were present in small quantities in other food packages.
Khoudary claimed the 8, 000 food boxes, which the GHF claimed amounted to 462, 000 meals, would hardly last for a single family for very long.
In a brand-new era of “dangerous and uncertain” times, King Charles III of Canada’s Parliament delivered a rare royal speech praising the nation’s sovereignty.
The alleged “Speak from the Throne” on Tuesday was a historic moment. It marked Charles’ first official address from Canada since becoming king, and Charles’ third official speech that kicked off the parliamentary session was delivered by a British monarch, not a lower official.
Charles sought to explain the occasion in an Ottawa Senate address as occurring during a similarly historic “epoch.” The disruptive policies of US President Donald Trump, who threatened to make Canada the “51st state” of the US, dominated the statements.
In 1957, in the wake of World War II and as the Cold War grew, the king brought back Queen Elizabeth II, his mother, who had delivered the first “Speech from the Throne.”
He claimed that the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the start of the war on terror have all been historical landmarks in the decades since.
“Canada is in a critical position right now. Since World War II, there has never been a more dangerous and uncertain place in the world. Canada is dealing with difficulties that are unheard of in our lifetimes.
What were the main conclusions of the speech?
Sovereignty
Although only once in the speech was directly mentioning the Trump administration, a significant portion of the policies have been implemented since Trump took office on January 20.
In his opening statements, Charles and his wife Camilla described “Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope” as “a deep sense of pride.”
The government is working to “protect Canada’s sovereignty,” he said, adding that the government is rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces and strengthening alliances with Europe. “Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination, and freedom are values that Canadians hold dear.
Justin Vovk, a royal historian at McMaster University in Ontario, said the speech added pressure to Canada as it was under US pressure. Charles would have had to “approve the speech,” even though the address was actually written by Canada’s government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Vovk remarked that he would have acknowledged his ease in repeating his words. It also affirmed that Canada does have its own identity on the global stage and that it is continuing to support its commitment to international cooperation.
Trade war
Vovk noted that Charles’ speech was notable for its careful treatment of the US, which was far from a tirade against Trump. That was especially true when Trump made references to the tensions that they have caused for the two long-term trading partners, particularly with regard to their tariffs on Canada.
Early on, Charles acknowledged that “the system of open global trade, which has contributed to Canadian prosperity for decades, is changing. The relationship between Canada and its partners is also changing.
After completing a two-day visit to Ottawa, Canada, King Charles of Great Britain reviews the departure guard.
In his only direct reference to Trump, Charles later praised the strengthening of Canada-US ties as an example of the new opportunities created by change.
He claimed that “the president of the United States and the prime minister of Canada have begun to define a new economic and security relationship between the two countries, which is based on mutual respect and has shared goals to deliver transformal benefits to both sovereign nations.”
According to historian Vovk, Vovk said that the speech struck that balance and was “actually quite remarkable.”
He claimed that there was a lot of emphasis on Canadian-American cooperation. Donald Trump should or will likely be pleased about a lot of the speech, he said.
Border problems
Trump’s mention of US-Canada border issues is one of the most notable messages.
Trump had demanded that Canada retaliate against immigration and drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, at the border before imposing 25% tariffs on many Canadian goods.
Only 27 kg (59 pounds) of fentanyl were seized at the US-Canada border between 2022 and 2024, accounting for 0.1 percent of the drug’s seizures during that time, according to Canadian government data, making the pressure campaign extremely misguided.
Charles praised the soon-to-be-introduced legislation that would “enhance security at Canada’s borders.”
He added that law enforcement and intelligence agencies will have “new tools” to stop the flow of fentanyl and its precursors.
Charles also made reference to immigration, claiming that the government of Canada would “bring balance” to the situation.
That was in line with Carney’s campaign promise, which was to counteract opposition to former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s immigration policies.
domestically speaking,
The newly elected prime minister’s speech also addressed other important issues, including the Liberal Party’s 170 seats in the 343-member House of Commons in April, which the party won.
Charles cited Carney’s plan to ramp up construction of modular and prefabricated housing as well as the nation’s housing crisis. He cited efforts to “remove barriers to trade and labor mobility” across Canada’s 13 provinces.
He also made reference to energy projects’ plans to speed up energy development, claiming that the changes will “unleash a new era of growth that will ensure we don’t just survive ongoing trade wars, but emerge from them stronger than ever.”
Charles also cited the importance of Indigenous groups like the Metis and the Inuit, whose many agreements with the Crown date before Canada’s 1867 founding. He backed the groups’ ongoing efforts to “reparate” historical harm, or repair it, with the Canadian government.
The monarch proclaimed, “It is my great hope that in each of your communities and as a country as a whole, a path is found toward truth and reconciliation in both word and deed.”
First Nations people from the First Nations are present at the Parliament of Canada’s Ottawa, Canada, on May 27, 2025.
Ward Khalil focuses her eyes on the camera as she recalls the horrors she has gone through.
She recounts the Israeli airstrike early on Monday that claimed her mother, two of her siblings, and 33 other people as well as the massive fire that she discovered when she awoke and realized my mother was dead.
People all over the world have been shocked by the violent attacks against Gaza by six-year-old Ward, her small body silhouetted against the flames following the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City.
Ward’s brother and father both survived the attack, but they are both still in the hospital.
When Israeli fire struck the school, which had been providing shelter for a number of families, including many children.
“I made my way out of the fire so I could get away.” The ceiling fell on me as I was inside the fire. The entire ceiling sank. Ward recalled the blazing fire, and Ward’s voice was loud. “See? She showed the injuries to the camera, “My arm is burned here.”
They were martyred, Ward sobbed as she described the events that occurred to her family. God, forgive them.
As rescue workers and distraught relatives search the rubble and burned clothing for survivors, footage taken from the school after the attack shows blood-stained walls and charred mattresses lying on the floor.
After seeing a picture of Ward online, her uncle, Eyad al-Sheikh Khalil, rushed to the school.
He referred to the images of Ward being comforted by rescue workers close to the school, her hair being dulled by the ash from the fire, and “I was looking at the pictures journalists were posting, and I saw a photo of Ward with the Civil Defence.”
What do you anticipate a child to experience when they leave a war like this, say you? eyad posed a question. She will obviously experience mental suffering. We are all mentally ill.
A survivor who was rescued from the rubble with her son told rescuers, “It was indescribable.” “Body parts, burned bodies, and burning smells.” Our hearts have died, I tell God. We’re exhausted and shaken. Enough”.
Since Israel’s war on the enclave in October 2023, displacement people have been crowding into schools in Gaza. Many of these schools are UN-affiliated.
At least 29 civilians in the Bureij refugee camp, including children and women, were killed on May 7 when Israeli forces twice targeted a single school that had sheltered 2, 000 Palestinians in the same day.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza’s school buildings have been directly hit by Israeli fire since October 2023, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. UN satellite-based assessments show that 95% of Gaza’s schools have suffered damage, rendering the majority of the buildings unusable.
In an update released after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School, UNRWA stated that UN-run shelters are now “overwhelmed with displaced people desperately seeking safety.” Additionally, it was pointed out that the Israeli-imposed three-month siege on the territory had increased the suffering of the population in Gaza.
