Middle East

The GSF, comprising some 50 vessels with over 500 volunteers from more than 40 countries, aims to challenge Israel's naval blockade and deliver food and medical aid to Palestinians.

WHO stressed the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, prosthetics, and assistive devices, alongside protection for health workers. Medical evacuation is another priority.

Before joining the flotilla, Mandla Mandela compared the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation to apartheid in South Africa.

What is the symbolic and political impact of the flotillas en route to Gaza? DW takes a look at the various missions that have tried to reach the shores of Gaza since 2010.

According to Reuters, two Israeli warships closed in on the fleet and encircled its boats, Alma and Sirius, causing their navigation and communication systems to crash.

According to the Ministry, 79 people were killed in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began in October 2023 to 66,005.

The meeting marked Netanyahu’s first discussion with a senior Arab official since Israel’s September 9 strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are partially functional and overwhelmed, grappling with critical shortages of staff, supplies, and fuel. Patients who reach care often arrive in critical condition, with delayed treatment worsening outcomes.

Among those on board are some South African citizens, including Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late former president Nelson Mandela, who has long been engaged in humanitarian efforts for Gaza.

According to the UN health agency, all but one of the dozen reported attacks on healthcare between September 7 and September  17 have been in Gaza City, with Khan Younis the 12th.

Spain is joining Italy in sending a navy ship to help an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, after activists said they were targeted by Israeli drones. Israel accuses them of being complicit with Hamas.

Among many reported attacks in the last week, on 19 September, a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl were killed and others injured when their tent was hit in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, OCHA said.

President Ruto stressed that the suffering of innocent people cannot be ignored, urging all parties to pursue a credible political process to achieve lasting peace.

The Royal Court confirmed his death in a statement, noting that funeral prayers were held at Riyadh's Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque after Asr prayers.

Speaking at a New York conference on the Middle East convened by France and Saudi Arabia, Guterres said denying statehood would fuel extremism and warned that without a two-state solution, "there will be no peace in the Middle East."

The UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognised a Palestinian State on Sunday, and President Macron announced that France would join them – to lengthy applause from delegates attending the meeting.

The recognition drive gained further traction on Monday when France and Saudi Arabia co-hosted a peace conference in New York, where ten more nations — among them Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Malta — formally recognised Palestine.

The announcement came as scheduled on the eve of the High-Level Conference on the two-state solution, organised by France and Saudi Arabia at UN headquarters in New York.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said the move also aligns with the demands of the people in those countries to support the Palestinian right to independence and to live with dignity.

Announcing the decision on Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada has always supported the idea of Palestine and Israel living side by side in peace.

Thousands of Muslims rallied at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park on Sunday, in solidarity with Palestinians and raising funds for the Gaza Medical Fund.

Despite widespread international recognition of Palestine as a state, some Western nations say they will only endorse Palestinian statehood as part of a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel. But the tide's changing.

On average, the journey south costs more than $3,000 (Sh387,000), according to the UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, making it out of reach for many.

The rejection means the snapback mechanism, included in the 2015 nuclear deal, remains in place, allowing UN sanctions to return if triggered.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that in just the past five days, 11 emergency shelters for about 11,000 people in Gaza City have taken direct or indirect hits.

Ursula von der Leyen described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as catastrophic and outlined a package of measures that would target extremist Israeli ministers and settlers, suspend bilateral aid and freeze Israel's trade agreement with the regional bloc.

According to reports, the Israeli military struck residential compounds in Doha on 9 September, reportedly housing members of Hamas’ political bureau

Investigators also said top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, had incited acts of genocide.

Arab and Islamic leaders reaffirmed their absolute support for Qatar's sovereignty, security and stability, and backed all measures it may take in response to the attack.

The meeting, set to take place in Geneva, will be the 10th urgent debate convened by the Council since its establishment in 2006.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries will convene on Sunday to prepare a draft statement for the leaders' meeting.

Olga Cherevko, Spokesperson in Gaza for the UN aid coordination office OCHA, warned that history will not judge the international community “based on the speeches that we made” but rather on actions.

142 voted in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 in abstentions.

I left Gaza, but Gaza never left me. It lives in my dreams, in my fears, and in my children's questions. I hope - yes, I still hope - to return someday to a Gaza that is free.

Qatar, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the League of Arab States, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the action and expressed concern over further escalation.

The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs called for restraint, terming the strike a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and incompatible with the United Nations principles on friendly relations among states.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Jordan's King Abdullah II emphasised the importance of international efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.

While WHO is doing the best it can to alleviate suffering in Gaza, supporting medical evacuations of over 7,640 patients, more than 15,000 others need urgent specialised care, including 3,800 children.

Only 44 out of 92 UNICEF-supported outpatient nutrition treatment centres are still functional, which means thousands of malnourished children lack access to these critical lifelines.

According to CRPD, displacement orders issued by Israel in Gaza have posed challenges for vulnerable groups, particularly those with hearing and visual impairments.

Nearly 660,000 children remain out of school, according to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNWRA. In one UNRWA school corridor now transformed into crowded living quarters, Diana explained her ordeal.

Abu Obeida is the latest prominent Hamas figure to be killed by Israel, whose military earlier killed Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh.

From the first days of the occupation in 1967, Israel has tried to keep a tight grip on media reporting, building a legal and military architecture that aimed to control and censor Palestinian journalism.

Whether or not charges specifically relating to the attacks on Nasser Hospital are ever brought, it’s an opportunity to examine how international law operates in situations like this.

Civilians never deserve to be harmed through carelessness, inadvertence or deliberate targeting

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has tracked journalist deaths globally since 1992, has counted a staggering 189 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began.

Retired Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, now head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, had been scheduled to meet the local Jewish community but called off the visit as a precaution to avoid potential "legal and diplomatic complications," according to reports.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Palestinian leaders of undermining peace and pushing for “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.

Across the Gaza Strip today, the WHO said that more than half a million people are trapped in famine, with destruction to food and health services, and to water and sanitation systems.

The OHCHR spokesperson told journalists in Geneva that Israeli authorities had carried out investigations in the past, as the occupying power.