Joint statement on Gaza from AFP, AP, BBC News and Reuters
'Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.
'We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
26 minutes ago
- The Sun
Starmer's gesture politics on Palestine and why a vote for Corbyn's new party will put Nigel Farage in Downing Street
JEREMY Corbyn's party hasn't even launched yet and it is already calling the shots with this government – starting with the recognition of Palestine. Keir Starmer is terrified Jeremy and his band of pro-Gaza MPs will hoover up the Muslim vote and cost Labour the next election. 6 6 So in a jaw-dropping speech on Tuesday, he announced the UK will recognise an independent state of Palestine unless Israel signs up to a ceasefire and long-term peace process. It was an astonishing change in position from Keir, who just days earlier dismissed the stance as gesture politics. So what changed? The grim facts on the ground in the Middle East remained the same. Hamas is still refusing to release the Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and held in cold, dank tunnels buried deep underneath Gaza. They have been there for more than 660 days. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu still shows no signs of being willing to accept a two-state solution. And innocent civilians in Gaza are paying the price for Hamas' reign of terror. Appalling images of starving children desperately queuing for food have haunted our TV screens and newspaper pages. The only thing that has changed is the news Corbyn is launching a new party to challenge Labour. No10 denies Keir is tearing up 75 years of foreign policy because he is running scared of Jezza. Moved by appalling images of emaciated children, he is launching a last-ditch bid to get Netanyahu to re-engage with the peace process, they say. But recognising the state of Palestine will not put food into the belly of a single hungry child in Gaza. It will not release a single hostage snatched by Hamas as they slept in their beds or danced at a music festival. And it will not bring the Middle East a single step closer to peace. It is the very essence of gesture politics Keir Starmer claims to despise. Biggest danger There is no doubt the new Corbyn party poses a massive challenge for Keir. They plan to target seats with big Muslim populations. There are fears inside Labour that 'London could fall'. Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are being targeted. Zarah Sultana — a former Labour MP who has switched to Corbyn's party — will run against Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham Ladywood. The loss of all three of these Cabinet big beasts would be a catastrophe for Labour. Sources close to Jeremy say the party could win around ten seats at the next election. Others reckon the number could be higher — more like 20. But the biggest danger to Labour is not the number of seats the party takes, but the number of votes. Pollsters More In Common say the new party could get ten per cent of the vote, mainly from current Labour and Green supporters. By nibbling at Labour's vote, Corbyn and his crew could hand Nigel Farage's Reform Party a seven-point lead — and a majority in Parliament. So vote Jeremy, get Nigel Farage in No10. Labour Party chiefs are expected to hammer this attack line on a Corbyn-led party. Keir Starmer was also under huge pressure from his own party and base to recognise Palestine. Over 100 Labour MPs had signed a letter demanding he do it. A large chunk of the Cabinet had urged him to do the same. But Keir has spent years painting himself as morally upright and principled standing loftily above the self-interest that motivates others. Now the Prime Minister looks like he is recognising Palestine to save his own political skin. As one party insider put it: 'Keir used to say country first, party second. Where does this decision leave that?' How Ozzy helped Jacob to rock up on reality TV AT first glance Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ozzy Osbourne do not have much in common. One is a pinstripe-suit-wearing former Tory MP best known for his love of Brexit and devout Catholicism. 6 The other was a heavy metal wildman famous for biting the head off a bat on stage and being so desperate for drugs he once snorted a line of ants off the roadside. So it was a bit surprising to see the Moggster dedicate a whole section of his GB News show to tributes to the late, great Prince of Darkness. But Jacob actually owes much of his success to Ozzy. The Osbournes was the original family reality TV show – featuring Ozzy, wife Sharon and children Kelly and Jack. Their lives were slightly bonkers, very loving – and made for intoxicating viewing. Twenty years later, Jacob followed in Ozzy's footsteps with Meet The Rees-Moggs, a reality TV show about his equally eccentric and loving family. Paying tribute to the Brummie rocker on telly, Mogg hailed him as 'a charismatic figure who had great charm and was at the top of his field'. He added: 'We will pray for his soul.' Judging by the rocker's hell-raising antics, I reckon that will take quite a few Hail Marys, Jacob. CUT OFF PHONE THEFTS STRICTLY dancer Michelle Tsiakkas has become the latest victim of mobile phone thieves to go public. The ballroom dancer was walking through London's Covent Garden in June when a thug on an e-bike snatched her phone. 6 When will this criminal scourge end? As a Londoner, I'm appalled to see how muggers are terrorising the capital on their green e-bikes. A phone is stolen in London every six minutes. That is a shameful statistic. When victims call the police they are just fobbed off and told officers are too busy to investigate – even when the phone has a tracker on it. Within days these mobiles are sold on by criminal gangs and end up around the world in places like China. Enough is enough. Police must take a zero-tolerance approach to these phone snatchers. I don't mind the rental e-bikes which have popped up all over the capital. But they are too easy for thugs to fiddle so they can ride them without paying – and to carry out their muggings. These businesses must step up and improve security. And if London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants a legacy he should hurry up and clean up the streets of our capital. Or his time in City Hall will go down in history as one of failure. MENUS JABBED HESTON BLUMENTHAL has revealed he is on the fat jab, and he's not the only one. The celebrity chef says so many Brits are on Ozempic and Wegovy it risks wrecking the restaurant trade. The days of charging diners through the nose for giant tasting menus might be over, he warns. It costs £395 per person to tuck into the 11-course tasting menu at Blumenthal's own restaurant, The Fat Duck. Looks like the fat jab will shrink Heston's bank balance as well as his waistline. POPE'S BLACK MAGIC Pope Leo XIV is said to have toasted St Patrick's Day this year with a pint of the black stuff. 6 Perhaps the pontiff's love of Irish stout should come as no surprise. He is a Yank after all – and they are known to be huge fans of the Irish tipple. We were always big fans of Guinness in my family. My grandad, Jim O'Sullivan (no awards for guessing where he came from), swore by the medicinal qualities of a pint of Guinness. Whenever me or my brother were feeling sick when we were kids he would suggest taking a long glug of Guinness. It is packed full of iron and would get our strength up, he said in his thick Cork accent. It sounds like The Pope agrees. Drinking Guinness is God for you! The mega-rich Brits are said to be part of a consortium trying to take over the controversial porn site. The property tycoons are considering pumping hundreds of millions of pounds in the project. Well, no one ever became poor overestimating our interest in sex. CHEAP AS LIPS CLOBBERED by the cost-of-living crisis, us girls are turning to small treats like lipstick to give ourselves a little lift. Britain's 'prestige lip market' has grown by 16 per cent in the past six months, according to the market research company Circana. I never leave my flat without a full face of make-up. But last time I bought a lippy it set me back £30, which isn't exactly cheap as chips. Although I guess it's cheaper than a week in Marbella.
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Evyatar David's family condemns Hamas video of emaciated Israeli hostage
The family of Israeli hostage Evyatar David held by Hamas in Gaza has accused the group of deliberately starving him as part of a "propaganda campaign"."He is being starved purely to serve Hamas's propaganda," the family said on Saturday, a day after Hamas released a video showing an emaciated David in a narrow concrete 24, has been in captivity since his seizure by Hamas at a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October 2023."We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas's tunnels in Gaza - a living skeleton, buried alive," the family statement added. The hostage's family also urged the Israeli government and the world community to do "everything possible to save Evyatar".In the video released by Hamas, Evyatar David is heard saying "I haven't eaten for days... I barely got drinking water" and is seen digging what he says will be his own its attack on Israel nearly two years ago, Hamas seized 251 hostages. David is one of 49 hostages who Israel says are still being held in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead. Israel has been accused by aid agencies of pushing Gaza towards famine by weaponising food in its war against Hamas - an allegation it has said there is "no starvation" and it is not imposing restrictions on aid entering Gaza - claims rejected by its close allies in Europe, the UN and other agencies active in the Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "continuing the series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip".It said that 90 aid packages containing food for residents in southern and northern Gaza had been airdropped in the past few hours as part of co-operation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said seven more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the territory on health ministry said the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of the war has reached 169, including 93 on Saturday in Gaza, the health ministry said at least 83 had been killed and 1,079 injured as a result of Israel's military offensive in the past 24 Hospital in Nuseirat told the BBC it had received the bodies of three people killed by Israeli forces near an aid distribution point on Salah al-Din street, south of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza, run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The hospital said at least 36 people were IDF said its troops "fired warning shots" hundreds of metres away from the aid distribution site, and not during its operating hours, after a crowd did not comply with their calls not to advance towards them "in a manner that posed a threat"."The IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of the warning shots, and the details of the incident are still being examined," it said there was "nothing at or near our sites today". It understood that UN/World Food Programme (WFP) aid convoys were in the area of the incident, which have been drawing large crowds that have overrun and taken food off BBC has asked WFP for journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, making it difficult to verify claims. Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the group to release its remaining Israeli blockade was partially eased after 11 weeks amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, but shortages of food, medicine and fuel remain, aid agencies have launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed. The Hamas-run health authorities say 60,430 people have been killed as a result of the Israeli military campaign.
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Hamas have made it clear. They want nothing to do with peace
Well, here's a surprise. If, that is, one defines surprise as something obvious, certain and entirely predictable. Hamas has said its 'armed resistance' will continue until an 'independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital' is established. The only person who might actually be surprised by this is Sir Keir Starmer, who on Tuesday revealed himself to be not so much out of his depth in dealing with Middle East policy as plain deceitful. Sir Keir, you will remember, announced on Tuesday that the UK would recognise a Palestinian state next month, but only if Hamas refused to agree to a cease fire. He didn't put it like that, of course: he said that if Israel instituted a cease fire then the UK wouldn't recognise a Palestinian state. Or to put it the other way round, no cease fire means recognition of a Palestinian state. But it takes both combatants to agree to a deal and, as the US negotiators attest, while Israel has repeatedly agreed to a cease fire, Hamas has repeatedly refused. So in effect the decision lies in Hamas' hands. And guess what has happened? Hamas has today responded to Sir Keir's announcement – and the request of Arab states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that Hamas disarm – by responding to the offer that if they refuse a cease fire they can have a state by saying, quelle surprise, that their 'resistance' will continue. Ever since the Hamas massacre of 1200 Jews on 7 October 2023, Sir Keir has stressed how committed he is to the release of the hostages. He has met Emily Damari, who was released earlier this year, and he has met some of the hostages' families. To each of them, he has said the same thing: that the remaining hostages must be released. But for the prime minister, talk is not so much cheap as a lie. For the first time since 7 October, he had the chance this week to really show he meant what he said and to make UK recognition of a Palestinian state conditional on the release of the hostages – which is a pre-requisite for any cease fire. He chose not to do so. We know this was deliberate and not an oversight not only because he and other ministers have refused to correct reports pointing this out, but also because in a meeting on Thursday night between Foreign Office officials and four British families of hostages, along with their lawyers, this was made unambiguously clear. On Friday the families' lawyers, Adam Rose and Adam Wagner KC, said that 'it was made obvious to us at the meeting that although the conditions for recognising a Palestinian state would be assessed 'in the round' in late-September, in deciding whether to go ahead with recognition, the release or otherwise of the hostages would play no part in those considerations.' Be clear about what this signals. When you hear Sir Keir or any other minister talk about the government being committed to the safety of Jews and to peace in the Middle East, they are, quite simply, lying. Sir Keir and David Lammy, who is said to have been pushing for recognition for months, are not only devoid of common sense, since their so-called plan for peace is a plan for Hamas to have the initiative; they are devoid of decency. Today's statement by Hamas is not in any way revealing. There is nothing that would surprise anyone who has any understanding of who and what Hamas is. It merely underlines the madness of treating Hamas as some sort of negotiating partner, rather than as a terrorist organisation which must be destroyed.
