The Latest: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 21 people, health authorities say
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Sun
4 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Violent videos draw more French teens into 'terror' plots, say prosecutors
Published Jul 29, 2025 • 5 minute read A judicial source told AFP social media provides teens with a flow of violent videos Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File Paris (AFP) — One 14-year-old was allegedly planning to blow up an Israeli embassy, while a 16-year-old was convicted of having plotted to attack far-right bars incensed by 'injustice'. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account French prosecutors are alarmed at an increasing number of young teenage boys seemingly plotting 'terror' attacks, and say they all share an addiction to violent videos online. As communities worldwide worry about boys being exposed to toxic and misogynistic influences on social media, French magistrates say they are looking into what draws young teens into 'terrorism'. 'Just a few years ago, there were just a handful of minors charged with terror offences,' France's National Anti-Terror Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) said. 'But we had 15 in 2013, 18 in 2024 and we already had 11 by July 1' this year. They are aged 13 to 18 and hail from all over France, the PNAT said. Lawyers and magistrates told AFP these teens are usually boys with no delinquent past, many of whom are introverts or have had family trouble. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The PNAT opened a special branch in May to better examine the profiles of minors drawn into 'terrorism', but it said it has already noticed they are all 'great users of social media'. 'Most are fans of ultra-violent, war or pornographic content,' it said. In France, 'terrorism' is largely synonymous with extremist Islamist ideas such as those of the Islamic State jihadist group. Only in recent months has the PNAT taken on cases different in nature — one an adult suspected of a racist far-right killing, and the other an 18-year-old charged with developing a misogynist plot to kill women. A 14-year-old schoolboy who stabbed to death a teaching assistant in June was a fan of 'violent video games', although his case was not deemed 'terrorist' in nature. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In the case of France's youngest 'terror' suspects, a judicial source told AFP, social media provides them with a flow of violent videos that are 'not necessarily linked to terrorism', such as from Latin American cartels. 'They think they're proving themselves as men by watching them,' the source said. Sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar said the teens were 'neither children nor adults'. This 'leads them to violence in order to be recognized as adults — even if it's a negative adult,' he said. Laurene Renaut, a researcher looking into jihadist circles online, said social media algorithms could suck adolescents in fast. 'In less that three hours on TikTok, you can find yourself in an algorithm bubble dedicated to the Islamic State' group, she said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. You can be bathing in 'war chants, decapitations, AI reconstructions of glorious (according to IS) past actions or even simulations of actions to come,' she said. The algorithms feed users 'melancholic' content to boost their 'feeling of loneliness, with ravaged landscapes, supposed to reflect the soul,' she said. 'Injustice' One such teenager said he was motivated by a sense of 'injustice' after seeing a video online of an attack on a mosque in New Zealand. White supremacist Brenton Tarrant went on a rampage, killing 51 worshippers at mosques around Christchurch in March 2019 in the country's deadliest modern-day mass shooting. The French suspect was convicted last year for planning 'terror' attacks on far-right bars. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He told investigators it started when he was 13 and playing Minecraft, a video game, on gamer social media platform Discord. 'Someone sent Tarrant's video,' he said. 'I thought it was unjust to see the men, women and children be massacred.' 'I then watched the videos of imams telling people to stay calm and those of terrorists from the far right, and I thought it was unjust,' he added. 'Then I saw those of jihadists urging help,' he said. 'I thought that by defending this cause, my life would make sense.' A French appeals court in July 2024 sentenced him to four years in jail, including two suspended, after he contacted an undercover agent to find out about weapons. The court justified the sentence with the 'gravity' of his planned actions, but noted he lacked signs of 'deeply rooted ideological radicalization'. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Rather, it said, the defendant was the child of fighting parents from a very violent neighbourhood, who had been 'significantly deprived of affection' and had sought to 'fit in' with internet users. His lawyer Jean-Baptiste Riolacci told AFP he was an 'essentially lonely, sad and good kid, whose only occupation beyond his computer was gliding around on his scooter'. 'Guesswork' The judicial source, who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the French system favoured early intervention through charging youth for associating with 'terrorist' criminals, and then adapting their punishment according to the severity of the accusations. But attorney Pierre-Henri Baert, who defended another teenager, said the system did not work. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His client was handed three years behind bars in May for sharing an IS propaganda post calling for attacks against Jewish people as a 16-year-old. 'It's a very harsh sentence considering his very young age, the fact he had no (criminal) record, and was really in the end just accused of statements online,' he said. Another lawyer, who worked on similar cases but asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, agreed. 'When the judiciary goes after people for terrorist criminal association, it's basically doing guesswork,' she said, adding that the 'terrorist' label could be very stigmatizing. 'There's no differentiation between a kid who sent aggressive messages and a suspect who actually bought weapons,' she added. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Two judicial sources said teens prosecuted for alleged 'terrorism' are usually only spotted through their behaviour on social media. They are then charged over other actions, such as moving to an encrypted messaging app, sharing recipes to make explosives or looking for funding, the sources said. A Paris court will in September try three teenagers who, aged 14 and 15, allegedly planned to blow up a truck outside the Israeli embassy in Belgium. They had been spotted at high school for their 'radical remarks', but were then found in a park with 'bottles of hydrochloric acid' containing 'aluminum foil', a homemade type of explosive, the PNAT said. Their telephones showed they had watched videos of massacres. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Jennifer Cambla, a lawyer who represents one of the defendants, said accusations against her client were disproportionate. 'My client may have had the behaviour of a radicalized person by consulting jihadist websites, which is forbidden. But he is far from having plotted an attack,' she said. But another lawyer, speaking anonymously, said arresting teenagers 'fantasizing about jihadism' could be an opportunity to turn their lives around — even if it involved 'a monstrous shock'. 'The arrests are tough,' with specialized forces in ski masks pulling sacks over the suspect's head, they said. But 'as minors, they are followed closely, they see therapists. They are not allowed on social media, and they do sport again,' the lawyer said. One of the judicial sources warned it was not clear that this worked. It 'makes it look like they are being rapidly deradicalized, but we do not know if these youth could again be drawn in by extremist ideas,' they said. MLB Sunshine Girls Opinion Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Lebanon sentences six in killing of UN peacekeeper, main defendant gets death penalty
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's military court convicted six people accused of killing a U.N. peacekeeper, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Tuesday. Lebanese officials said the chief defendant was sentenced to death. 'UNIFIL welcomes the conclusion of the trial process and the Government of Lebanon's commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice,' it said in a statement. UNIFIL did not give further details, but three Lebanese judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the court had issued a death sentence in absentia Monday against Mohammad Ayyad, the main defendant in the case. The ruling Ayyad had been arrested in December 2022 in connection with the killing of Pvt. Seán Rooney, 24, an Irish peacekeeper. He was released on bail in November 2023 after his lawyer provided medical documents showing he had cancer. Monday's court ruling, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, handed down a fine of 100 million Lebanese pounds (about $1,117) to Ayyad in addition to the death sentence. Three others — Hussein Suleiman, Mustafa Suleiman and Ali Hakim — received only fines, while defendants Ali Khalifeh and Ali Suleiman were sentenced to one and three months in prison, respectively. A sixth defendant, Mohammad Mezher, was acquitted. Ayyad was not present for the session, with his attorney saying he was ill and hospitalized, while the other defendants appeared in court, the Lebanese officials said. The night of the attack On the fatal night, Rooney and several other Irish soldiers from UNIFIL were on their way from their base in southern Lebanon to the Beirut airport. Two U.N. vehicles apparently took a detour through the town of Al-Aqbiya, which is not part of the area under the peacekeepers' mandate, when a mob opened fire at them. Initial reports said angry residents confronted the peacekeepers, but the indictment concluded that the shooting was a targeted attack and alleged that the defendants were linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Lebanese officials said the defendants who appeared in court Monday had testified that some of them were watching a sports match and noticed a vehicle passing suspiciously several times on a narrow residential street, leading a crowd to gather. They claimed that they were unaware the vehicle belonged to UNIFIL. Hezbollah officials did not respond to requests for comment. UNIFIL and Hezbollah UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel's 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country's south for the first time in decades. Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of collusion with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah's military activities in southern Lebanon. The peacekeeping force's mandate is up for renewal in August for the first time since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a U.S.-mediated ceasefire in November.
Winnipeg Free Press
20 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Israel's leader claims no one in Gaza is starving. Data and witnesses disagree
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says no one in Gaza is starving: 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza – otherwise, there would be no Gazans.' President Donald Trump on Monday said he disagrees with Netanyahu's claim of no starvation in Gaza, noting the images emerging of emaciated people: 'Those children look very hungry.' After international pressure, Israel over the weekend announced humanitarian pauses, airdrops and other measures meant to allow more aid to Palestinians in Gaza. But people there say little or nothing has changed on the ground. The U.N. has described it as a one-week scale-up of aid, and Israel has not said how long these latest measures would last. 'This aid, delivered in this way, is an insult to the Palestinian people,' said Hasan Al-Zalaan, who was at the site of an airdrop as some fought over the supplies and crushed cans of chickpeas littered the ground. Israel asserts that Hamas is the reason aid isn't reaching Palestinians in Gaza and accuses its militants of siphoning off aid to support its rule in the territory. The U.N. denies that looting of aid is systematic and that it lessens or ends entirely when enough aid is allowed to enter Gaza. Here's what we know: Deaths are increasing The World Health Organization said Sunday there have been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children under the age of 5 — up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year. Gaza's Health Ministry puts the number even higher, reporting 82 deaths this month of malnutrition-related causes: 24 children and 58 adults. It said Monday that 14 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, is headed by medical professionals and is seen by the U.N. as the most reliable source of data on casualties. U.N. agencies also often confirm numbers through other partners on the ground. The Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza, says this month it saw for the first time malnutrition deaths in children who had no preexisting conditions. Some adults who died suffered from such illnesses as diabetes or had heart or kidney ailments made worse by starvation, according to Gaza medical officials. The WHO also says acute malnutrition in northern Gaza tripled this month, reaching nearly one in five children under 5 years old, and has doubled in central and southern Gaza. The U.N. says Gaza's only four specialized treatment centers for malnutrition are 'overwhelmed.' The leading international authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, has warned of famine for months in Gaza but has not formally declared one, citing the lack of data as Israel restricts access to the territory. Aid trucks are swarmed by hungry people The measures announced by Israel late Saturday include 10-hour daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in three heavily populated areas, so that U.N. trucks can more more easily distribute food. Still, U.N. World Food Program spokesperson Martin Penner said the agency's 55 trucks of aid that entered Gaza on Monday via the crossings of Zikim and Kerem Shalom were looted by starving people before they reached WFP warehouses. Experts say that airdrops, another measure Israel announced, are insufficient for the immense need in Gaza and dangerous to people on the ground. Israel's military says 48 food packages were dropped Sunday and Monday. Palestinians say they want a full return to the U.N.-led aid distribution system that was in place throughout the war, rather than the Israeli-backed mechanism that began in May. Witnesses and health workers say Israeli forces have killed hundreds by opening fire on Palestinians trying to reach those food distribution hubs or while crowding around entering aid trucks. Israel's military says it has fired warning shots to disperse threats. The U.N. and partners say that the best way to bring food into Gaza is by truck, and they have called repeatedly for Israel to loosen restrictions on their entry. A truck carries roughly 19 tons of supplies. Israel's military says that as of July 21, 95,435 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the war began. That's an average of 146 trucks per day, and far below the 500 to 600 trucks per day that the U.N. says are needed. The rate has sometimes been as low as half of that for several months at a time. Nothing went in for 2 1/2 months starting in March because Israel imposed a complete blockade on food, fuel and other supplies entering Gaza. Delivering aid is difficult and slow The U.N. says that delivering the aid that is allowed into Gaza has become increasingly difficult. When aid enters, it is left just inside the border in Gaza, and the U.N. must get Israeli military permission to send trucks to pick it up. But the U.N. says the military has denied or impeded just over half the movement requests for its trucks in the past three months. If the U.N. succeeds in picking up the aid, hungry crowds and armed gangs swarm the convoys and strip them of supplies. The Hamas-run civilian police once provided security along some routes, but that stopped after Israel targeted them with airstrikes. ___ Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
