
Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah; hostage families concerned
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held.
The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
"U.N. staff remain in Deir al-Balah, and two U.N. guesthouses have been struck, despite parties having been informed of the locations of U.N. premises, which are inviolable. These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of evacuation orders," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said.
In its daily update, Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents.
Israeli sources have said the reason the army had stayed out of the Deir al-Balah districts was because they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to be still alive.
Families of the hostages have expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz, and the army chief on how they will protect them.
"The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages - both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake," the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters said in a statement.
Gaza health officials have warned of potential "mass deaths" in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza "where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," Dujarric said.
"He deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition," said Dujarric.
"Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations."
Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid, and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations.
Health Ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.
In southern Gaza, the Health Ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident but did not comment further on their status. It said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across Gaza during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. Sending undercover forces to carry out arrests is rare.
The incursion into Deir al-Balah and growing number of deaths appeared to be complicating efforts to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with U.S. backing.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the militant group was angered by the mounting death toll and hunger crisis, and that this could affect the talks on a 60-day truce and hostage deal.
AID WAITING
UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.
"Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale," it said.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday at least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for U.N. aid trucks to enter Gaza. It said at least 36 aid seekers were killed a day earlier.
Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots to remove what it said was "an immediate threat." It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated.
Israel's military said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community".
Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food. Israel rejected the statement "as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas."
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population, and caused a humanitarian crisis.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
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Japan Today
8 hours ago
- Japan Today
Nobel panel head hails A-bomb survivors' stories as 'inspirational'
Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes on Friday hailed atomic bomb survivors' testimonies as an "inspirational" force for eliminating nuclear weapons, while urging Japan and other countries to take action against the threat they pose. "You really feel inspirational of how can you turn memory into a force for change and a force for peace," Frydnes said in an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, during his first visit to Japan. He was involved in awarding the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors. Frydnes has visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- the two cities devastated by the U.S. atomic bombing in the final days of World War II -- and also met with atomic bomb survivors, including 83-year-old Nihon Hidankyo representative Toshiyuki Mimaki, and local activists working toward nuclear abolition. As time is running out to hear directly from atomic bomb survivors, who are called hibakusha in Japanese, Frydnes said, "Now we need to listen. Tomorrow, we need to act." The 40-year-old also said, "Telling stories across generations and across oceans matters," recalling how he learned about hibakusha and the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons as a child in Norway. While expressing hope that all governments, including Japan's, will do more to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, he acknowledged that the path is "filled with dilemmas." Drawing parallels with Norway, which, as a member of NATO, relies on nuclear deterrence for protection, Frydnes said, "In countries like ourselves, it starts with the people and the inhabitants." Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, advocates for a world free of nuclear weapons. However, it relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for deterrence and has not joined a U.N. treaty banning the weapons. Norway has also not signed the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. "Even though it will be a long and challenging road ahead, we should not give up on the vision that the world should be free of nuclear weapons at some point, and (there will be) no more hibakusha," Frydnes said. Amid rising geopolitical instability, Frydnes noted that the "nuclear taboo," which survivors have been instrumental in establishing, is under threat. He described awarding the Nobel Peace Prize as both sounding an "alarm bell" and "honoring those who have done a tremendous job of establishing the taboo." Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, received the prestigious award for what the Nobel committee called "efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again." The United States dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and detonated a second one above Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered six days after the Nagasaki bombing, bringing an end to World War II. The attacks killed an estimated 214,000 people by the end of 1945, leaving numerous survivors grappling with long-term physical and mental health challenges. © KYODO


Asahi Shimbun
10 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Tens of thousands flee their homes as Thailand and Cambodia clash
Thai residents who fled homes following clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers rest at an evacuation center in Surin province, Thailand, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) SURIN, Thailand--Tens of thousands of people sought refuge as border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia entered its third day Saturday, heightening fears of an extended conflict with the total death toll reaching 32. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting behind closed doors late Friday in New York, while Malaysia, which chairs the 10-nation regional bloc that includes both countries, called for an end to hostilities and offered to mediate. The council did not issue a statement but a council diplomat said all 15 members called on the parties to deescalate, show restraint and resolve the dispute peacefully. The council also urged the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as ASEAN, to help resolve the border fighting, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. Cambodia's U.N. Ambassador Chhea Keo told reporters afterward that his country, which called for the emergency meeting, 'asked for immediate ceasefires, unconditionally, and we also call for the peaceful solution to the dispute.' He responded to accusations that Cambodia attacked Thailand asking how a small country with no air force could attack a much larger country with an army three times its size, stressing, 'We do not do that.' Keo said the Security Council called for both sides to exercise 'maximum restraint and resort to diplomatic solution' which is what Cambodia is calling for as well. Asked what he expects next, the ambassador said: 'Let's see how the call can be heard by all the members there.' Thailand's U.N. ambassador left the meeting without stopping to talk to reporters. The Thai Health Ministry on Friday said more than 58,000 have fled from villages to temporary shelters in four affected border provinces, while Cambodian authorities said more than 23,000 people have evacuated from areas near the border. The latest flare-up in a long-running border dispute between the two countries has killed at least 19 people in Thailand — mostly civilians —while Cambodia said Saturday that 12 people more people have killed on its side, bringing its death toll to 13. Thailand's acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, said Friday that Cambodia may be guilty of war crimes due to the deaths of civilians and damage caused to a hospital. He said Thailand had exercised the 'utmost restraint and patience in the face of provocations and aggression' from Cambodia. Tensions over a disputed border area erupted into fighting after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers on Wednesday. The Thai military reported clashes early Friday in multiple areas along the border, including near the ancient Ta Muen Thom temple claimed by both sides. Associated Press reporters near the border could hear sounds of artillery from early morning hours. The Thai army said Cambodian forces had used heavy artillery and Russian-made BM-21 rocket launchers, prompting what Thai officials described as 'appropriate supporting fire' in return. Thailand said six of its soldiers and 13 civilians were killed while 29 soldiers and 30 civilians were wounded. Early Saturday, Cambodian Gen. Maly Socheata, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, told reporters Saturday that seven more civilians and five soldiers have died from two days of fighting. It earlier reported one fatality — a man who was killed when the pagoda he was hiding in got hit by Thai rockets. The Cambodian Education Ministry claimed that on Friday two Thai rockets had hit a school compound in Oddar Meanchey but caused no injuries. It said all schools in the province have been closed. The Thai army denied it targeted civilian sites in Cambodia, and accused Cambodia of using 'human shields' by positioning their weapons near residential areas. As the fighting intensified, villagers on both sides have been caught in the crossfire, leading many to flee. Around 600 people took shelter at a gymnasium in a university in Surin, Thailand, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the border. Evacuees sat in groups, on mats and blankets, and queued for food and drinks. Seamstress Pornpan Sooksai was accompanied by four cats in two fabric carriers. She said she was doing laundry at her home near Ta Muen Thom temple when shelling began Thursday. 'I just heard, boom, boom. We already prepared the cages, clothes and everything, so we ran and carried our things to the car. I was frightened, scared,' she recalled. Rattana Meeying, another evacuee, said she had also lived through the 2011 clashes between the two countries but described this flare-up as worse. 'Children, old people, were hit out of the blue," she said. 'I never imagined it would be this violent.' At the nearby Phanom Dong Rak hospital, periodic explosions could be heard Friday, and a military truck arrived with three injured Thai soldiers, including one who had both legs severed. Thursday's shelling shattered windows at one of the hospital's buildings and damaged its roof. In the neighboring Sisaket province, more villagers took their belongings and left homes in a stream of cars, trucks and motorbikes after they received an evacuation order on Friday. Across the border in Cambodia, villages on the outskirts of Oddar Meanchey province were largely deserted. Homes stood locked, while chickens and dogs roamed outside. Some villagers earlier dug holes to create makeshift underground bunkers, covering them with wood, tarpaulin and zinc sheets to shield themselves from shelling. Families with children were seen packing their belongings on home-made tractors to evacuate, though a few men refused to leave. A remote Buddhist temple surrounded by rice fields accommodated several hundred evacuated villagers. Women rested in hammocks, some cradling babies, while children ran about. Makeshift plastic tents were being set up under the trees. Veng Chin, 74, pleaded with both governments to negotiate a settlement 'so that I can return to my home and work on the farm.' The conflict marks a rare instance of armed confrontation between ASEAN member countries though Thailand has tangled with Cambodia before over the border and has had sporadic skirmishes with western neighbor Myanmar. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Friday that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw their troops from the border, but requested more time before implementing the action, according to a report by Malaysia's Bernama national news agency. Anwar said he had spoken to both Cambodian leader Hun Manet and Thailand's Phumtham and urged them to open space for 'peaceful dialogue and diplomatic resolution,' while offering to have Malaysia facilitate talks. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also called for restraint and urged both countries to resolve disputes through dialogue, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. The 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier between Thailand and Cambodia has been disputed for decades, but past confrontations have been limited and brief. The last major flare-up in 2011 left 20 dead. The current tensions broke out in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thailand's domestic politics. Things got worse when a land mine wounded five Thai soldiers on Wednesday, leading Bangkok to close the border and expel the Cambodian ambassador. The next day, clashes broke out along the border.


Yomiuri Shimbun
14 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Amid Starvation Scenes in Gaza, Trump Administration Hardens Tone on Hamas
Amid growing alarm about mass starvation in Gaza and images of Palestinians suffering from severe malnutrition, the Trump administration is hardening its tone toward Hamas, blaming it for the humanitarian crisis. Hamas 'didn't want to make' a deal in this week's round of ceasefire negotiations and now it would probably be 'hunted down,' President Donald Trump said Friday. Special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said the day before that the United States was at least temporarily pulling out of talks in Doha, Qatar, and would seek 'alternative options' to end the conflict because Hamas was not 'acting in good faith.' Basem Naim, a Hamas official, said on Facebook that Witkoff had mischaracterized a Hamas response that was 'very close' to what Witkoff himself proposed. The U.S. envoy, in his Thursday remarks, was 'serving the Zionist position,' Naim said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. announcement and pledged to work with Washington on alternatives. Much of the rest of the world has escalated its criticism of Israel, whose military operations and evacuation orders have pushed most of Gaza's 2.2 million people into an ever-shrinking fraction of the enclave, even as food supplies and access to them have diminished. But while Trump has sometimes grown exasperated with Netanyahu, he has maintained strong backing for Israel, often chiding the Biden administration for its 'weak' support and attempts to use military and diplomatic leverage to increase humanitarian assistance. Roughly a third of the Gaza population is going multiple days without eating, according to the United Nations. Already overwhelmed hospitals have been reporting rising deaths from starvation and a lack of medical supplies and fuel, with increasingly shocking images of human suffering emerging daily. Aid groups say that the drastic decline in food reaching Gaza is the result of Israel blockading the enclave and, since mid-May, impeding the distribution of assistance by the U.N. and other international organizations throughout Gaza through approval delays and military no-go zones. Instead, Israel and the United States have authorized and supported a mechanism, through the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to hand out food at four limited sites located in military zones and guarded by U.S. security contractors. Despite U.S. and Israeli claims that the talks broke down because Hamas doesn't want a deal, many analysts say the impasse is due to fundamental differences over its terms. 'Hamas wants a deal,' said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who has advised both Republican and Democratic administrations. Its demands are a guaranteed path to a permanent end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli forces; the resumption of large-scale U.N.-coordinated aid delivery; and release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas – physically or by removal of its remaining senior officials and militants to another country – and has continued to seek an agreement that does not commit it to negotiating an end to the war if its conditions are not met. 'The fundamental incompatibility is Hamas's determination to survive and Netanyahu's notion of total victory,' Miller said. The decision by Netanyahu and Trump to pull negotiating teams out of the talks, which one Middle East diplomat described as a negotiating tactic rather than a final word, reinforces that the Americans and Israelis will not let the horrifying reality of starvation and malnourishment in Gaza affect their negotiating resolve with Hamas, Miller said. In a statement Friday, Qatar and Egypt, mediators along with the U.S., indicated that as far as they were concerned, 'some progress was achieved during the most recent intensive round of negotiations,' and the talks were only suspended. 'Consultations before resuming dialogue once again is a normal procedure within the context of these complex negotiations,' the joint statement said. Trump, who softened his policy on Ukraine in part because he said he was disturbed at civilian suffering caused by Russian attacks earlier this year, has not dwelled on the images of starvation in Gaza and has not spoken at length about them publicly in recent days. But officials say that he is aware of the humanitarian situation and it is influencing his decisions. Trump 'has seen the images and he does not like them,' one senior White House official wrote in a message, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president's private assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 'That's why he directed Witkoff to come up with a creative aid/food program solution. He believes it's a terrible situation and needs to end,' the senior official wrote. The creative solution referred to the GHF, the Israeli- and U.S.-backed effort to replace the U.N.-coordinated system for aid that had operated in Gaza for decades, the senior official said. Israel charges that the U.N. is corrupted by Hamas. Hamas, which has run the Gazan government for nearly two decades, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 and taking 250 hostages. The group continues to hold about 50 hostages who were abducted that day. About 20 are still believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory military campaign to eliminate Hamas and free the hostages has left most of Gaza in ruins and more than 60,000 dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but says the majority of the dead are women and children. U.S. officials have repeatedly spoken of the success of the GHF, pointing to figures that show it has delivered more than 80 million meals in boxes calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days since late May. But its operations have also led to chaos and violence, with crowds of civilians desperately and dangerously rushing toward distribution points. Hundreds have been killed, shot at by Israeli troops who allege they pose a threat, or trampled in the surge toward food. The U.N., as well as many other aid groups, have refused to join the GHF on grounds that it violates their principles of neutrality, while endangering civilians. In virtual remarks to reporters Friday, GHF spokesman Chapin Fay repeated the foundation's invitation to collaborate, offering 'free' trucks, drivers and security escorts for U.N. convoys that are often attacked by hungry civilians and armed actors as they try to deliver food and medicine. Israel has said the U.N. and others are free to distribute food, but their own incompetence and Hamas sympathies are preventing it. Israel, and the GHF, say that hundreds of food-laden trucks have been inspected by the Israel Defense Forces and are waiting just inside the enclave for U.N. pickup. 'It's a moment for the United Nations and the entire humanitarian community to step up, not step back,' Fay said. 'Let's stop pretending there's only one way to deliver aid. … Let's stop letting organizational ego dictate operational decisions. The old model is broken, and ours is working.' In a letter Thursday to GHF Executive Chairman Johnnie Moore, U.N. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher 'reiterated that the U.N. stands ready to engage with any partner to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches the people in Gaza,' a U.N. spokeswoman, Stephanie Tremblay, told reporters Friday. But, she said Fletcher wrote, 'any such partnership must adhere to the globally accepted principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. This means that aid must go where needs are greatest and without discrimination, and that we answer to civilians in need, not the warring parties.' He expressed a willingness to meet with Moore. In a letter of reply Friday, released by the foundation, Moore said that the 'GHF exists to be part of the solution, not to replace or rival any institution, but to help fill the gaps with transparency and effectiveness. We are willing to put our differences aside and to adapt to help people now.' Moore said he looked forward to a face-to-face meeting, although none is known to be scheduled. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became the latest world leader to call for the GHF program to end. 'Israel's control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations,' who said blocking such aid 'is a violation of international law.' U.S. officials have strongly rejected the idea that Israel was responsible for the lack of food, charging Hamas with 'weaponizing' and stealing aid provided by the U.N. and others, and calling for additional international support for the foundation's efforts. 'Of course we want to see as much aid getting into Gaza as possible in a way that is not being looted by Hamas, and this mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been a way to do that,' Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said at a briefing Thursday. Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel during the start of the Gaza war, said that for the U.S. government there was now a 'sunk costs' problem with Israel. 'Contemplating the fact that our partner is now engaged in the forcible starvation of a people it has spent the last two years bombing means a lot of politicians have to either do what politicians are worst at and admit they have been wrong, or ignore the evidence of their eyes and find some way to avoid facing the truth,' Paul said. Some former officials said that Trump's viewpoint on the conflict on Gaza has been clear and consistent, even as the suffering becomes more apparent. 'As tragic as the suffering is of the Palestinians in Gaza, President Trump is not fooled by Hamas' vicious strategy of weaponizing civilian suffering to manipulate the world,' said Jason Greenblatt, who served as White House envoy to the Middle East during Trump's first term and had also been a longtime attorney to the president.