Middle East

Beirut, Lebanon – For decades, Palestinian groups in Lebanon have run their affairs themselves. In the refugee camps established for Palestinians displaced by Israel in 1948 and 1967, Palestinian factions have overseen security and many have retained their arms.

Those days, however, appear to be coming to a close. Instead, the Lebanese state is attempting to take advantage of a period of weakness for the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as it struggles to regroup from its war with Israel, to exercise its power over the country.

Lebanon’s new government – formed in February and led by former International Court of Justice judge Nawaf Salam – has the backing of regional and international powers to disarm all non-state actors. That includes the many Palestinian groups that have carried arms since a 1969 agreement that allowed them to have autonomy in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

And on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas gave his blessing during a visit to Lebanon. A joint statement from Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared that both sides had agreed that the existence of “weapons outside the control of the Lebanese state has ended”.

“Abu Mazen [Abbas] came to say that we are guests in Lebanon and not above Lebanese authority,” Mustafa Abu Harb, an official with Fatah, the largest political faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Al Jazeera. “We do not accept weapons in the hands of anyone other than the Lebanese state.”

Is Hamas on board?

Abbas, on his first trip to Lebanon since 2017, also met Prime Minister Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the challenging prospect of disarming Palestinian factions in Lebanon and improving the rights and conditions of the estimated 270,000 Palestinians in the country.

Palestinians in Lebanon do not have the legal right to work in a number of professions, they may not own property or businesses and cannot access public service employment or the use of public services, such as healthcare and social security, according to UNRWA, the United Nations body created in 1948 for Palestinian refugees.

“We reaffirm our previous position that the presence of weapons in the camps outside the framework of the state weakens Lebanon and also harms the Palestinian cause,” Abbas said in the meeting with Aoun, according to the Palestinian state news agency Wafa.

However, questions remain as to whether the divisive Abbas, who has not faced an election since 2005, has the authority to disarm the different Palestinian groups.

A senior Hamas official in Lebanon, Ali Barakeh, told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that he hoped the talks between Abbas and Aoun would go further than just Palestinian groups’ disarmament.

“We affirm our respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and stability, and at the same time, we demand the provision of civil and human rights for our Palestinian people in Lebanon,” Barakeh said.

Hamas, which – along with Hezbollah – is considered part of the wider Iranian-allied “axis of resistance” network, has already cooperated with the Lebanese state on at least one occasion since the ceasefire with Israel. In May, the Palestinian group handed over a fighter suspected of firing rockets at Israel, according to the Lebanese army, and called them “individual acts”.

The group has also said it respects the ceasefire and is willing to work with the Lebanese state.

‘Not our president’

Over the course of his two-decade reign, Abbas’s popularity among Palestinians in Lebanon has sharply eroded.

That lack of support can be seen in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where posters of Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, as well as Hamas’s spokesperson, Abu Obeida, can be seen far more than those of the PA leader.

“None of the Palestinians, except Fatah, claim that he’s our president,” Majdi Majzoub, a community leader in Beirut’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Shatila, said. “This president doesn’t honour us and doesn’t represent us because he supports the occupation and adopts the occupation’s decisions.”

Aside from Abbas’s unpopularity, other factors may lead to a pushback against any attempt to disarm Palestinian groups in Lebanon.

Nicholas Blanford, a nonresident senior fellow with the US-based think tank Atlantic Council, said it “could be interpreted as a win for the Israelis if the Palestinians … were obliged to give [their weapons] up”.

Blanford also pointed out that defenders of the continued presence of armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon point to events such as the Sabra and Shatila massacre, when between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians were killed over two days by right-wing Christian nationalist forces with Israeli support in 1982.

Blanford, however, believes that the consensus is moving towards the disarmament of at least heavy weaponry from the Palestinian factions in Lebanon, and that some Palestinians welcome the move.

“We as a Palestinian people certainly welcome [the initiative] because things have changed,” Majzoub said.

Majzoub said bad-faith actors have taken advantage of the Lebanese state’s lack of authority over the Palestinian camps to avoid being held accountable for crimes.

Lebanon’s armed forces rarely enter the Palestinian refugee camps.

In 2007, the army besieged the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon and clashed with the Fatah al-Islam group, which was based in the camp. Hundreds died in the battle, which left large swaths of the camp uninhabitable.

The Lebanese army has also, on occasion, infiltrated camps to arrest individuals.

The security situation can at times be tense in the camps, as it is in other parts of Lebanon.

On Monday, local media reported that armed clashes between rival drug dealers in Beirut’s Shatila camp forced residents to flee.

Among the worst incidents in the past few years were the large-scale battles that erupted in the summer of 2023 between armed groups in Ein el-Hilweh camp, in southern Lebanon, after a botched assassination attempt on a Fatah official. More than two dozen people were killed in the fighting before a ceasefire was negotiated.

Carrying weapons in the camps was once seen as a right of resistance. But after more than seven decades of displacement and insecurity, some Palestinians in Lebanon today feel that carrying arms is undercutting their struggle for liberation.

“Palestinian weapons have become a threat to the Palestinian revolution,” Majzoub said. “Now, it is better for us to live under the protection of the Lebanese state.”

Attacks on civilian infrastructure rising amid Israel’s ‘intensified’ offensive on battered enclave.

Israeli attacks on northern Gaza are reported to have killed more than 50 people since dawn.

The death toll from the overnight attacks was being tallied on Monday morning. Among the targets hit was a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and a family home in Jabalia, according to Palestinian Civil Defence officials.

At least 33 people were killed in an attack in the middle of the night on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency.

The school had been sheltering “hundreds” of people, Bassal said, adding that those killed were mostly children and women. Dozens were injured, he added.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday that the target of the attack had been a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad control centre housing “key terrorists”.

“Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,” it added.

Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed fires in classrooms where forcibly displaced people had been sleeping, a child wandering alone among the flames, and people on the outside desperately trying to break windows.

In a separate attack on a residence in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, 19 members of the Abd Rabbo family were killed, according to Bassal.

A nearby tent camp in Gaza City was also targeted, according to unconfirmed reports, killing six people.

Schools targeted

Despite mounting international pressure, which has pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated last week that Israel would carry out an intensified military campaign until it controls the whole of Gaza.

International humanitarian law forbids attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools. But Israel has repeatedly bombed schools, mostly being used as shelter by displaced people, throughout its 19-month war in Gaza.

At least 50 people were killed by bombs and artillery attacks in November 2023 at al-Buraq School in Gaza City

At the nearby al-Tabin School, more than 100 people were killed as they gathered for morning prayers in August last year.

An NGO backed by Israel and the United States has announced that it is set to start distributing aid in besieged Gaza, despite its chief walking out, citing concerns over its independence.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement on Monday that it is set to launch direct aid delivery in the battered enclave, hours after its executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation.

GHF, which has been tapped to distribute food, medicine and other vital supplies that have been blocked by the Israeli military for two months, said that it aims to deliver aid to 1 million Palestinians in the territory by the end of the week.

The NGO said it then plans to “scale rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead”.

Israel said last week it would allow “minimal” aid deliveries into Gaza, where aid agencies warn of widespread famine and multiple deaths from starvation, but reports suggest that the few supplies that have entered the enclave have reached Gaza’s starving population of 2.3 million.

The United Nations and other aid agencies have refused to work with GHF, warning that the conditions under which it will work, including requiring Palestinians to gather at centralised aid points, will put people at risk and undermine other aid efforts.

Wood announced his resignation on Sunday, citing concerns over GHF’s independence.

The organisation could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement, and called for Israel to allow the entry of more aid.

The GHF board, in a statement, said it was “disappointed” by the resignation but remained committed to expanding aid efforts across the Strip.

A spokesperson for the US State Department also said it remained supportive of the NGO.

Wood’s departure follows growing criticism of GHF’s operational structure and independence.

The NGO, which claims it has been based in Geneva since February, emerged from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government”, according to The New York Times.

The UN and major humanitarian organisations have raised concerns that the GHF’s operations could undermine existing relief efforts, as well as restrict food access to limited areas of Gaza, which would force civilians to walk long distances to access aid and cross Israeli military lines.

There is also a worry that the GHF’s distribution plans, which the US and Israel say are designed to prevent Hamas from controlling aid, could be used to advance an Israeli objective of depopulating northern Gaza by concentrating aid in the south.

‘Weapon of war’

The controversy over the GHF unfolds against a backdrop of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, 1.95 million people – 93 percent of Gaza’s population – are facing acute levels of food insecurity, or not having enough to eat.

Aid agencies have described the crisis as a man-made famine, and have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.

Robert Patman, a professor of international relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told Al Jazeera that Wood’s resignation reflected the lack of support from established humanitarian bodies for GHF.

“It’s no secret that major aid donors had not been convinced by this proposal, which is essentially a start-up,” he said.

Patman also noted that many humanitarian actors argue that there is “no need for a new humanitarian organisation”, stressing that the international community should instead focus on lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

With a battered economy and a restless population, Iran is as desperate as the United States to come together, Johns Hopkins University Professor Vali Nasr argues.

Nasr told host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump’s administration is eager to reach an arms control deal with Iran, and Iran is eager to grow economically. “Both of them have arrived, after 40 some years, at a juncture where they need to change the direction of their relationship,” Nasr said.

Join the conversation on Nasr’s latest book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, which explains how Iran’s anti-Americanism “is not ideological or theological”.

Israeli forces have killed more than a dozen Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours, while thousands more face the threat of imminent starvation amid a drastically deteriorating humanitarian crisis.

On Sunday, four-year-old Mohammed Yassine joined dozens of other children who have starved to death in recent days as the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that more than 70,000 children in Gaza face acute levels of malnutrition.

As well as causing starvation deaths, Israel has intensified its bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, killing some 600 people in nearly a week.

A strike on a tent housing displaced people in central Gaza killed a mother and her children in the central city of Deir el-Balah, according to Al-Aqsa Hospital, while a child was killed when his family’s tent was struck with a drone in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

A strike in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza killed at least five, including two women and a child, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Eleven-year-old Yaqeen Hammad, a popular social media influencer, and nine of Dr Alaa Amir al-Najjar’s 10 children were also killed in separate Israeli air raids. Al-Najjar’s remaining child, 11-year-old Adam, is in critical condition in an intensive care unit.

The attacks come amid an Israeli blockade for almost three months that has choked off access to essential food, fuel, and medical supplies. Aid agencies warn that thousands of children are now at risk of death from starvation.

Children account for 31 percent of Palestinians confirmed killed during Israel’s 19 months of war on Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. This figure excludes deaths that have been reported but for which the victims remain unidentified, suggesting the real toll is higher.

A report commissioned by the United Nations also highlighted Israel’s disproportionate violence against children through targeting densely populated areas, with repeated air raids on residential buildings contributing to the rising child death toll.

At least 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Below are some of the children killed in Israeli attacks:

Yaqeen Hammad

Known for her smile and volunteer work in Gaza, Yaqeen Hammad was killed after Israel shelled al-Baraka in Deir el-Balah, northern Gaza, on Friday night.

The 11-year-old influencer and her older brother, Mohamed Hammad, delivered food, toys and clothing to displaced families, the Palestine Chronicle reports. She also played an active role in the Ouena collective – a Gaza-based nonprofit group dedicated to aid and humanitarian relief.

Messages of grief and tributes from activists, Yaqeen’s followers and journalists poured in after news of her death spread online.

“Her body may be gone, but her impact remains a beacon of humanity,” wrote Mahmoud Bassam, a photojournalist in Gaza.

“Instead of being at school and enjoying her childhood, she was active on Instagram and participating in campaigns to help others in Gaza. No words. Absolutely no words,” another tribute read on X.

Mohammed Yassine

Activists and Palestinian platforms shared on social media painful scenes of Mohammed Yassine on a hospital bed.

Appearing in a video, holding Yassine’s body, Mahmoud Basal of Gaza’s Civil Defence said: “Mohammed Yassine died from hunger, a direct result of the occupation’s prevention of food and medical aid from entering Gaza.”

“Mohammed was not the first child, and the fear has become a certainty that he won’t be the last,” Basal added.

Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s nine children

An Israeli attack on the home of al-Najjar on Friday killed nine of her children and critically injured 11-year-old Adam.

Sidar, Luqman, Sadin, Reval, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rakan and Yahya  – aged between seven months and 12 years – all died in the attack, Gaza’s Government Media Office said.

Al-Najjar is a paediatrician at the southern city’s Nasser Hospital, where her husband is receiving care after being critically injured in the attack.

“It is unbelievable,” said Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s paediatrics department, of the attack’s impact.

“You can’t imagine the shock that [al-Najjar] had when she heard about that [attack]. But up until now, she is trying to be near her son and her husband to survive.”

Joseph Neumeyer, who is also a German citizen, approached the building on May 19 with Molotov cocktails, officials say.

A dual United States and German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, federal prosecutors in New York have said.

Israeli officials deported Joseph Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday. His criminal complaint was unsealed on Sunday.

Prosecutors say Neumeyer walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails, but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to detain him.

Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and [US] President [Donald] Trump’s life,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”

Neumeyer’s court-appointed attorney, Jeff Dahlberg, declined to comment.

The attack took place against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing deadly war on Gaza, now in its 19th month. Nearly 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in the blockaded enclave, where a famine is now looming as Israeli forces continue to seal vital border crossings and uphold a crippling blockade on humanitarian aid including food, medicine, and fuel.

Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado and has dual US and German citizenship, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records.

He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said.

During his first term, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Palestinian objections, in a move that has not been recognised by the international community. He also moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

The international community should look to impose sanctions on Israel to stop its war in Gaza, Spain’s foreign minister has said, ahead of a Madrid meeting of European and Arab nations, urging a halt to Israel’s punishing offensive in which Palestinian deaths and the spread of starvation are increasing each day.

The high-level talks on Sunday are the fifth official meeting of what is known as “The Madrid Group”.

Countries in the European Union that Israel had long counted on as close allies have been adding their voices to growing global pressure after it expanded military operations in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.

A nearly three-month aid blockade has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian enclave, which has been devastated and ravaged due to Israel’s relentless war that followed the Hamas-led October 7 attack in 2023.

Barely any aid has crossed into Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a week ago that Israel would allow limited aid in to assuage concerns from allies.

The United Nations has said the amount of aid allowed in so far is a “drop in the ocean”, while some aid groups have described Netanyahu’s announcement as a  “smokescreen”.

Aid organisations say the trickle of supplies Israel that allowed to enter in recent days falls far short of needs, which is between 500-600 trucks a day. Israel has allowed some 100 trucks carrying aid into Gaza since Wednesday, officials say.

Madrid, Spain is hosting 20 countries as well as international organisations on Sunday with the aim of “stopping this war, which no longer has any goal”, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said.

“In this terrible moment, in this humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, we aim to … stop this war … [and to] break the blockade of humanitarian assistance that must go in unimpeded,” Albares told Al Jazeera ahead of the meeting.

‘We must consider sanctions’

The Madrid meeting will serve as preparation for a high-level UN conference on the two-state solution, which France and Saudi Arabia will host in New York on June 17.

“We want to create momentum” ahead of the UN conference, Albares said, so that “everyone” can recognise Palestine as an independent state.

“That conference in New York must be a big moment to push towards recognition of the state of Palestine,” he added.

A previous such gathering in Madrid last year brought together countries including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye as well as European nations such as Norway and the Republic of Ireland that have recognised a Palestinian state.

Sunday’s meeting, which also includes representatives from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, will promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After the EU decided this week to review its cooperation deal with Israel, Albares said, “We must consider sanctions, we must do everything, consider everything to stop this war.”

Germany’s Deputy Foreign Minister Florian Hahn on Sunday also warned about the impact of Gaza’s deteriorating, “unbearable” humanitarian crisis, calling for an immediate ceasefire and diplomatic solution.

Hahn stressed that ending the war in Gaza and creating a path for diplomatic efforts toward a political solution is currently one of German foreign policy’s main priorities.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Madrid, said Sunday’s meeting is going to be “crucial”.

Members are going to be “seeking the potential of further political talks that could be conducive to the Israelis coming along with the Palestinians, discussing the need to end the war and achieve a Palestinian state”, Ahelbarra said.

Israel’s deadly assault has killed almost 54,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, mostly women and children.

President Erdogan holds talks with Prime Minister Sharif aimed at ‘increasing solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support’.

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul, weeks after a military conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi.

The two countries would strive to boost cooperation, particularly in defence, energy and transportation, Erdogan’s office said on Sunday.

Erdogan told Sharif it was in the interest of Turkey and Pakistan to increase solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support in the fight against “terrorism”, Turkiye president’s office said.

The meeting in the Turkish commercial capital comes as Ankara faces a backlash from India over its alleged supply of weapons to Islamabad during the recent conflict between the two South Asian neighbours. Ankara has denied sending weapons to Pakistan.

In recent weeks, Erdogan had expressed solidarity with Pakistan after India conducted military attacks across nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. New Delhi said the attacks were in response to an April 22 attack on tourists by armed fighters in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 25 Indians and one Nepalese national dead. India has accused Pakistan of indirectly supporting the attack – which Pakistan denies.

Turkiye had warned of a risk of an “all-out war” between the nuclear-armed neighbours and called on both sides to “show good sense” to reduce the tensions, while expressing support for Islamabad’s request for an international inquiry into the Pahalgam attack.

The two countries announced a ceasefire on May 10.

Turkiye faces backlash in India

Turkiye and Pakistan have long had close economic and military links.

In February, Erdogan visited Islamabad, during which the two countries signed 24 cooperation agreements to bolster bilateral ties.

In a sign of India’s displeasure with Ankara, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson last week said that “relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other’s concerns”.

“We expect Turkey to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harbored for decades,” Randhir Jaiswal said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Meanwhile, grocery shops and leading online fashion retailers in India declared a boycott of Turkish products ranging from chocolates, coffee, jams, and cosmetics, as well as clothing.

Indian fashion websites owned by Flipkart retail and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance removed numerous Turkish apparel brands from their sites.

India’s annual $2.7bn in goods imports from Turkiye, however, are dominated by mineral fuels and precious metals. We still do not know how the bilateral trade will be impacted amid the strained ties.

Indian travel companies also suspended bookings of flights, hotels and holiday packages to Turkiye “in solidarity with India’s national interest and sovereignty”.

India has not officially ordered companies to boycott Turkish products. But the country’s civil aviation ministry on May 15 revoked the security clearance of the Turkish-based aviation ground handling firm Celebi.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s film, It Was Just an Accident, has been awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The dissident has endured years of travel bans and prison terms in Iran for his filmmaking, which served as inspiration for his award-winning work.

An Israeli air strike on the home of pediatrician Dr Alaa al-Najjar killed nine of her 10 children in Khan Younis, while she was at work in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital. Her husband and only surviving child are in critical condition.

On April 27, my brother-in-law, Samer, was killed in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza when his vegetable stall was bombed. He wasn’t armed. He wasn’t a political figure. He was a peaceful man trying to earn a living to feed his children in a place where food has become more expensive than gold.

Samer wasn’t a vendor by profession. He was a lawyer who defended the rights of the oppressed. But the war forced him to change his path.

During the ceasefire, he was able to buy vegetables from local wholesalers. After the war resumed and the crossings into Gaza were closed in March, supplies dwindled dramatically, but he maintained a small stock of vegetables. He continued selling day and night, even as buyers became scarce due to the high prices. He often tried to give us vegetables for free out of generosity, but I always refused.

When I heard about Samer’s killing, I froze. I tried to hide the news from my husband, but my tears spoke the truth. He looked like he wanted to scream, but the scream remained trapped inside his throat. Something held him back – perhaps his burdened soul could no longer bear even the expression of grief.

Samer left behind three little children and a heartbroken family. No one expected his death. It came as a shock. He was a good and pure-hearted young man, always cheerful, loving life and laughter, even in the toughest times.

I still remember him standing in front of his vegetable stall, lovingly calling out to customers.

Samer is among countless food sellers who have been killed in this genocidal war. Anyone employed in providing or selling food has been targeted. Fruit and vegetable vendors, grocers, bakers, shop owners and community kitchen workers have been bombed, as if they were dealing with weapons, not food. Bakeries, shops, farms and warehouses have been destroyed, as if the food they were providing was a threat.

Ten days after Samer was killed, a restaurant and a market on al-Wahda Street, one of the busiest in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City, were bombed. At least 33 people were killed.

Two weeks before Samer’s martyrdom, the vicinity of a bakery in Jabaliya was bombed. Days before that, a food distribution centre in Khan Younis was targeted. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, more than 39 food and distribution centres and 29 community kitchens have been targeted since the beginning of the war.

It is clear by now that in its campaign of deliberate starvation, Israel is not only blocking food from entering Gaza. It is also destroying every link in the food supply chain.

As a result of the repeated targeting of vendors and markets, all that is available now to buy – for those who can afford to buy food – are scraps. Death has become easier than life in Gaza.

The starvation is affecting babies and little children the worst. On May 21, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, died within a 24-hour period due to starvation and lack of medical care in Gaza.

On May 5, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said it had registered the deaths of at least 57 children caused by malnutrition since the aid blockade began in early March.

As a mother, I often go days without eating just to feed my children whatever little food we have left. My husband spends the entire day searching for anything to ease our hunger but usually comes back with mere scraps. If we’re lucky, we eat a piece of bread – often stale – with a tomato or cucumber that I divide equally among our children.

The hardship Samer’s wife faces is even more unbearable. She tries to hide her tears from her children, who keep asking when their father will return from the market. The loss forced her to become a father overnight, pushing her to stand in long queues in front of community kitchens just to get a bit of food.

She often returns empty-handed, trying to comfort her children with hollow words: “When Dad comes back, he’ll bring us food.” Her children fall asleep hungry, dreaming of a bite to fill their stomachs – one their late father will never bring.

Israel has claimed that it is blocking aid to Gaza because Hamas takes it. The Western media, fully complicit in distorting the truth, has parroted the claim.

Yet it is clear that Israel is not just targeting Hamas but the entire population of Gaza. It is deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians, obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid – a war crime, according to international law.

Recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the true aim of his government more than apparent by demanding all Palestinians be expelled from Gaza as a condition for ending the war.

His decision to allow food through the crossings is nothing but a PR stunt. Enough flour was let in to have images of bread distributed at a bakery circulating in the media and to reassure the world that we are not starving.

But these images do not reflect the reality for us on the ground. My family has not received any bread and neither have the majority of families. Flour – where available – continues to cost $450 per bag.

While Israel claims that 388 aid trucks have entered since Monday, aid organisations are saying 119 have. An unknown number of these have been looted because the Israeli army continues to target anyone trying to secure aid distribution.

This tiny trickle of aid Israel is allowing is nothing compared with the needs of the starving population. At least 500 trucks are required every single day to cover the bare minimum.

Meanwhile, some Western governments have threatened sanctions and made some symbolic gestures to supposedly pressure Israel to stop starving us. Why did they need to wait to see our children dying of hunger before doing this? And why are they only threatening and not taking real action?

Today, our greatest wish is to find a loaf of bread. Our sole concern is how to keep surviving amid this catastrophic famine that has broken our bones and melted our insides. No one among us is healthy any more. We’ve become skeletons. Our bodies are dead, but they still pulse with hope – yearning for that miraculous day when this nightmare ends.

But who will act to support us? Who still has a shred of compassion for us in their heart?

And the most important question of all – when will the world finally stop turning a blind eye to our slow, brutal death by hunger?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

SAUDI Arabia will lift its long-standing booze ban at 600 tourist sites by 2026 — in a boozy bid to attract visitors ahead of the 2034 FIFA World Cup and 2030 Expo.

In a shock U-turn, the ultra-conservative Kingdom will allow the sale of wine, beer, and cider at licensed locations including five-star hotels, luxury resorts, and expat-friendly compounds.

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Booze will still be banned in public, homes, shops, and fan zones — with spirits off the menu altogether under strict new rules.

The dramatic policy shift is part of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 drive to boost international tourism, lure foreign cash and shake off its teetotal image.

Officials hope controlled alcohol sales in glitzy areas like Neom, Sindalah Island and the Red Sea Project will help the country compete with Gulf rivals like the UAE and Bahrain — where boozing is already legal in tourist zones.

Licensed venues will operate under a tightly regulated system, with trained staff and strict rules to prevent abuse and uphold the Kingdom’s Islamic values.

The goal, authorities said, “is to welcome the world without losing cultural identity — positioning Saudi Arabia as a progressive, yet respectful player on the global tourism map.”

The plan is set to roll out in 2026 — eight years before the World Cup kicks off — and comes amid growing pressure to modernise the Kingdom’s image.

Several global hotel chains are already rejigging their blueprints to accommodate booze zones, with tourism bosses eyeing a flood of new jobs and international investment.

It follows a dry storm earlier this year when Saudi’s ambassador to the UK announced alcohol will be banned entirely at the 2034 World Cup, sparking fury among England fans.

Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud told LBC radio in February: “There is no alcohol at all, rather like our weather, it’s a dry country.

“Everyone has their own culture. We’re happy to accommodate people within the boundaries of our culture but we don’t want to change our culture for someone else.

“It is not a Saudi event, it is a world event and, to a large extent, we will welcome everyone who wants to come.”

Fan Tim Bailey fumed on X: “Their country, their rules. But why the f*** would anyone want to go there anyway?”

One supporter added: “Weird . . . they always want everyone else to change their culture for them.”

But now, Saudi insiders hope the new booze policy will silence critics and show the country is ready to party — with limits.

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Sources say the model is inspired by successful alcohol rollouts in Dubai and Manama, where tight control has boosted tourism and business without trashing tradition.

The Kingdom insists this will not be a free-for-all — and anyone caught misusing the system will face swift consequences.

“Sales will only happen under controlled environments, with licensed service staff and clear operational rules in place to make sure alcohol is handled responsibly and respectfully,” a government statement read.

Spirits and hard liquor above 20% ABV will remain banned, with no sign of shops, takeaways or home brewing being permitted.

The film is inspired by dissident director Jafar Panahi’s own experience in jail.

An Iranian thriller film that explores corruption and state violence in the country has won the the Palme d’Or, the coveted top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

It Was Just an Accident, directed by dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, was crowned at the world-famous festival on Saturday, hours after a power outage briefly threw the event off course.

The festival’s crowd burst into a roaring standing ovation for Panahi, who has endured years of travel bans and prison terms in Iran due to his provocative cinema, often produced in secret. He had been banned from leaving Iran for more than 15 years.

“Art mobilises the creative energy of the most precious, most alive part of us. A force that transforms darkness into forgiveness, hope and new life,” said jury president Juliette Binoche when announcing the award.

On stage, Panahi said what mattered most was the future of his country.

“Let us join forces,” Panahi said. “No one should tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, or what we should or shouldn’t do.”

Partly inspired by Panahi’s own experience in jail, It Was Just An Accident follows a man named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasseri), who kidnaps a man with a false leg who looks just like the one who tortured him in prison and ruined his life.

Vahid sets out to verify with other prison survivors that it is indeed their torturer, and then decide what to do with him.

Critics have praised the film as a clever, symbolic exploration of justice that blends dark humour with its intense themes.

Iraqi film “The President’s Cake” wins Best First Film

The festival’s Grand Prix, or second prize, was awarded to Joachim Trier’s Norwegian family drama, Sentimental Value, his lauded follow-up to The Worst Person in the World.

Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Brazilian political thriller, The Secret Agent, won two big awards: best director for Fihlo and best actor for Wagner Moura.

The jury prize was split between two films: Oliver Laxe’s desert road trip, Sirat and Mascha Schilinski’s German, generation-spanning drama, Sound of Falling.”

Best actress went to Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister, Hafsia Herzi’s French coming-of-age drama.

Cannes also honoured Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake with a best first film award, marking the first time an Iraqi film has won an award at the festival.

The Cannes closing ceremony took place after a major power outage struck southeastern France on Saturday, knocking out traffic lights and forcing businesses to close along the main shopping street in the Alpes-Maritimes holiday region. Police suspect arson as the cause.

Geopolitical tensions were also a constant backdrop at the festival, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza and US President Donald Trump’s proposal of tariffs on foreign-made films fuelling discussion.

More than 900 actors and filmmakers signed an open letter denouncing the genocide in Gaza, according to the organisers.

Hostages and Missing Families Forum called for a ‘return to the negotiating table’.

Families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have intensified their criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid large protests across the country, as the expanded military ground offensive and deadly bombardment in the Palestinian territory put the release of their loved ones at risk.

On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv, Shar HaNegev Junction, Kiryat Gat, and Jerusalem, with members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum accusing the Israeli government of prioritising its war over securing the return of their relatives.

“We demand that the decision-makers return to the negotiating table and not leave it until an agreement is reached that will bring them all back,” the group said in a statement on Saturday.

Among those speaking at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday was Einav Zangauker, the mother of captive Matan Zangauker, who directly addressed Netanyahu: “Tell me, Mr Prime Minister: How do you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning. How do you look in the mirror knowing that you’re abandoning 58 hostages?”

The mounting anger among families has only deepened in recent days following Netanyahu’s nomination of Major General David Zini as the next head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.

Zini has reportedly voiced opposition to any deal to bring an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, telling colleagues during Israeli military meetings: “I oppose hostage deals. This is a forever war,” according to Israel’s Channel 12.

“The families of the kidnapped are outraged by the words of Major General Zini. If the publication is true, these are shocking and condemnable words coming from someone who will be the one to decide the fate of the kidnapped men and women,” the forum said in a statement on Friday.

“Appointing a Shin Bet chief who puts Netanyahu’s war before the abduction of the kidnapped is tantamount to committing a crime and doing injustice to the entire people of Israel,” the group said.

Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Zini came just one day after Israel’s Supreme Court found his attempt to fire outgoing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to be “unlawful”, citing a conflict of interest tied to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial.

Despite the court ruling that Netanyahu could not appoint a replacement, he proceeded with the appointment of Zini anyway.

The attorney general later warned that the prime minister had defied legal guidance and tainted the appointment process.

The criticism comes as Netanyahu still faces an international arrest warrant request from the International Criminal Court over war crimes committed during the Gaza war.

The young victims, two of whom remain under the rubble, range in age from seven months to 12 years old.

An Israeli strike has killed nearly the entire family of a Khan Younis doctor while she was at work, Gaza health officials said.

The attack hit the home of Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician at the southern city’s Nasser Hospital, on Friday, setting it ablaze and killing nine of her 10 children, according to the head of the hospital’s paediatrics department, Ahmad al-Farra.

Al-Najjar’s husband is severely wounded, and the couple’s only surviving child, 11-year-old Adam, is in critical condition, Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement.

The dead children, two of whom remain under the rubble, range in age from seven months to 12 years old, the media office added.

The attack “encapsulates the ongoing genocide faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza,” said the office. “It is a full-fledged war crime under all international laws and conventions.”

‘New phase of genocide’

The UN’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, slammed the attack as part of a “sadistic pattern” of a “new phase of genocide” facing Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

Two doctors go to work to assist others.Nine of their kids are killed by an Israeli missile targeting their home. Only surviving child, in critical conditions.

Targeting families in the still-standing buildings: distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide. https://t.co/6tlylARKK5

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 24, 2025

Hamas said it followed a routine of Israel “deliberately targeting … medical personnel, civilians and their families in an attempt to break their will”.

The Israeli military said it had struck suspected fighters operating from a structure next to its forces in an area where civilians had been evacuated. “The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review,” the military added.

On Monday, Israel issued forced evacuation orders for Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, warning of an “unprecedented attack”. There has been heavy, deadly bombardment in the area daily.

The al-Najjar children were among dozens killed in Israel’s attacks on Friday and Saturday.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the bodies of 79 people killed in Israeli attacks were brought to hospitals between Friday and midday Saturday. That count does not include facilities in the north of the enclave that are inaccessible, it said.

The ministry puts the overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 at 53,901, with 122,593 injured.

Despite war losses, Hezbollah is using the vote as an opportunity to show it still has political influence.

Voters in southern Lebanon are casting their ballots in municipal elections seen as a test of support for Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political and armed group.

The vote on Saturday in the mostly Shia area, where Hezbollah is allied with Amal – the party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri – marks the final phase of Lebanon’s staggered local elections.

It comes after a November 2024 ceasefire between the group and Israel was supposed to end months of attacks. lsrael, however, has continued sporadic strikes as recently as on Thursday, when air raids hit multiple locations in the south.

Both Hezbollah and Amal are widely expected to dominate the municipal races, having already secured control of numerous councils unopposed.

Turnout was high in border villages ravaged by last year’s conflict, with residents of Kfar Kila – a town nearly levelled by Israeli attacks – voting in nearby Nabatieh. Others from surrounding areas cast ballots in Tyre.

“The will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told reporters on Saturday, as he made a tour of the country’s south. He said he voted for the first time in 40 years in his hometown of Aaichiyeh.

Among those heading to the polls were Hezbollah members still recovering from a series of Israeli attacks in September 2024, when thousands of pagers exploded nearly simultaneously, killing more than a dozen people and wounding nearly 3,000.

“Southerners are proving again that they are with the choice of resistance,” Hezbollah legislator Ali Fayyad, who represents border villages, said in Nabatieh.

Hezbollah still holding political influence

The vote comes at a critical time for Hezbollah. While the group emerged from the conflict with reduced military capabilities and diminished political leverage, the elections offer a platform to reaffirm its influence in the region.

“Lebanon has still not fully recovered from last year’s war between Hezbollah and Israel. In fact, Israel continues to target Hezbollah despite a ceasefire,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Nabatieh.

“Hezbollah, no doubt was militarily weakened during the conflict; it lost a lot of its military power but it is using these elections as an opportunity to show that it still has political influence,” Khodr added.

Many feel Hezbollah failed to shield them during the war, yet fears of isolation persist, she said. “They feel vulnerable … not just towards Israel, but also in a deeply divided country and they feel that opponents of Hezbollah are also marginalising the community as a whole.”

Lebanon’s new government has pledged to create a state monopoly on arms, raising pressure on Hezbollah to disarm as required under the United States-brokered truce with Israel.

Lebanon now faces the massive task of rebuilding after 14 months of war, with the World Bank estimating its reconstruction needs at more than $11bn.

In October 2023, Hezbollah launched a rocket campaign on Israel in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which was being bombarded by Israel following a surprise attack led by Palestinian group Hamas.

Israel responded with shelling and air attacks on Lebanon that escalated into a full-blown war before the ceasefire went into effect in late November.

In Gaza, the sound of drones can be heard everywhere.

An analysis by Al Jazeera’s digital investigations team, Sanad, has revealed that Israel is repurposing commercial drones to use as weapons of war in the Strip.

And as drones become ever more accessible, the line between their civilian use and their military use is becoming increasingly blurred.