Unidentified drone kills PKK member, injures another near Iraq's Sulaymaniyah, sources say
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
‘Mass starvation' across Gaza as Trump puts pressure on Israel
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that 'mass starvation' was spreading across the Gaza Strip as President Trump intervened to put more pressure on Israel to change its tactics. In a statement, the 111 signatories — including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam — warned that 'our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away'. 'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,' the statement read. It came as the United Nations said that more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed as they queued for aid in Gaza in the past two months. The UN's human rights office said Israeli troops or other gunmen had shot 1,054 people since late May, of whom 766 were killed near sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The rest were killed while trying to reach UN aid convoys. Israeli officials said they had not identified a famine in Gaza and blamed United Nations bodies for not collecting and distributing food and supplies. Some 950 trucks' worth of supplies were waiting to be collected by the UN from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, according to Cogat, an Israeli military agency. According to the UN, Israel's restrictions and permit rejections are the reason for the mounting stockpiles at the border points, as aid organisations are regularly barred from transferring aid to warehouses and distribution sites, or risk coming under fire from the Israeli army if they do not obtain permissions. As reports mount of children starving to death amid a dearth of supplies, Karoline Leavitt, Trump's press secretary, said the president had spoken to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and had been distressed by the latest 'mass-casualty event' at an aid station on Sunday, when Hamas said 79 civilians were killed after Israeli troops opened fire. Trump had raised with Netanyahu recent airstrikes by Israel on troops loyal to the Syrian interim government and a strike on a Catholic church in Gaza, events Leavitt said had caught him 'off guard'. Father Gabriel Romanelli, the priest of the Gaza church, has described for the first time since the incident on Thursday how an Israeli tank shell exploded on the side of the roof, wounding him in the leg and killing three parishioners. Leavitt, referring to the shootings at the aid point, said: 'The president never likes to see that.' Israel said its troops fired 'warning shots' on Sunday, though both it and the GHF have repeatedly claimed that UN and Hamas figures are inflated. '[Trump] wants the killing to end and he wants to negotiate a ceasefire in this region,' Leavitt added. In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas called for protests and sit-in demonstrations to take place at Israeli and US embassies across the world this weekend 'until the siege is broken and famine ends in Gaza Strip'. Netanyahu and Hamas are under renewed pressure to reach a ceasefire deal. Both sides have agreed to one in principle but have not reached terms. Israel wants the right to resume the fight to 'eliminate Hamas' after a prisoner-for-hostage exchange, while Hamas is demanding the ceasefire be guaranteed as permanent. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe this week to continue pushing for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, a US official said on Tuesday. Axios reported that Witkoff is expected to depart for Rome on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday for a meeting with the Israeli minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer and a senior Qatari envoy. Trump hated 'the pictures of starvation of women and children who desperately need that aid', Leavitt added. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 people, including 80 children, had so far died of malnutrition. Those figures could not be immediately verified but aid organisations have confirmed the deaths of children as malnutrition becomes widespread among the strip's two million inhabitants, most living in the rubble of its former towns. The UN's World Food Programme has estimated that nearly 100,000 women and children were already suffering from malnutrition. Despite the calls for a ceasefire — or perhaps in preparation for it — Netanyahu has shown no sign of letting up in the attacks on Gaza. Tanks this week pushed into the town of Deir al-Balah, which had been less damaged than other cities in the strip to date. In their statement, the 111 humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods. 'Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,' the signatories said. 'It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,' they added. 'The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.' The World Health Organisation said its warehouse and staff residence in the town had been struck. Altogether, 25 Palestinians died in airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, the health ministry said. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, told the security council the situation in Gaza was a 'horror show'. He said: 'We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. That system is being denied the conditions to function.' Romanelli told the newspaper La Repubblica about the explosion at his church. 'I was in my office working and I got up to get a tea with Father Yusuf,' he said. 'At that moment the shell arrived. The door blew in. If I had still been sitting at my desk I would probably be dead.' Romanelli, 55, an Argentinian of Italian origin who was a confidant of the late Pope Francis, said he was making a good recovery but his community was still in shock. 'Luckily, most people were indoors. The children, thank God, were inside,' he said. 'The cross that was hit is very large. The fragments arrived throughout the courtyard. Whoever was outside was hit … Everyone was shouting. They were terrified.' Pope Leo prayed for the injured and the three who died in the attack, reading out their names — Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud — at angelus prayers on Sunday. The Vatican has expressed growing frustration at the killings in Gaza. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic Church's senior representative in the Holy Land, said he had witnessed people queuing in the sun for a meal. 'This is a humiliation that is difficult to bear when you see it with your own eyes. It's morally unacceptable and unjustifiable,' Pizzaballa said. Cardinal Augusto Lojudice, a former colleague of Leo when he served in the Vatican administration, denounced 'the killing of children queueing for a handful of rice'. 'The massacre of innocents cries vengeance to heaven. We can no longer hold back from denouncing it,' Lojudice said in an interview with La Stampa. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the top Vatican official after the Pope, questioned whether the attack was an accident 'or whether there was a desire to strike a Christian church, knowing that the Christians are a moderating influence in the Middle East and also in relations between Palestinians and Jews'. Netanyahu has said Israel 'deeply regretted' hitting the church with 'stray ammunition'.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Champion kickboxer loses bid to sue Egyptian tycoon for 'many millions' in British courts for the murder of his pop star girlfriend
A champion kickboxer has lost his bid to sue an Egyptian multi-millionaire in British courts after his girlfriend was savagely murdered. Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim shot to fame as winner of a 'Pop Idol'-style Arabic TV talent show in 1996 and became one of the biggest stars in the Middle East. After moving to the UK, she formed a relationship with flamboyant London-based British-Iraqi kickboxer, Riyadh Al-Azzawi, a former six-time world champion, renowned for his fleet of gold-plated supercars. But her life was cut short aged 30 in 2008 when she was savagely murdered in a Dubai apartment by killer Mohsen Al-Sukkari. A Dubai court found the assassin had been directed by Ms Tamim's spurned suitor, multi-millionaire Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa and the pair were convicted of murder and initially sentenced to death in 2010. They were later re-sentenced to jail terms, but Mr Moustafa was given a presidential pardon and released in 2017. After earlier claims through the Dubai criminal courts were rejected, Mr Al-Azzawi in 2022 instead brought a civil claim for 'many millions' in compensation to the High Court in London. But his UK compensation bid has been ended after High Court judge, Mr Justice Butcher, overturned previous orders which had extended time for the case to be served on Mr Moustafa outside of the country. The court heard kickboxer Mr Al-Azzawi was born in Iraq, but moved to the UK, where he obtained British citizenship. He now spends his time between London and Dubai. He became the first Arab to win the world kickboxing title in 2008, before chalking up another five subsequent victories. Known as the 'golden champion', the 39-year-old is famed for his flamboyance, wearing golden clothes and jewellery and driving gold-wrapped sports cars. Ms Tamim, who he claims to have wed in an Islamic marriage in 2007, found fame in the late 1990s after winning top prize in the popular Studio El Fan television show. Setting out Mr Al-Azzawi's case, the judge said he claimed Egyptian tycoon Mr Moustafa had attempted to pressure Ms Tamim into marriage, causing her to flee from Egypt to London. She met the kickboxer there, but Mr Moustafa 'had not abandoned his pursuit' of her and, after offering her money, 'then turned to direct threats and intimidation'. 'In the particulars of claim, it is alleged that one of these threats was a message sent to Ms Tamim while she was in London, which said, "Fifty million dollars says you come back to Cairo to marry me or one million dollars says I have your throat cut",' said the judge. 'The claimant's evidence is, further, that in July 2008, Ms Tamim travelled to Dubai to stay in the apartment which she and the claimant owned. 'On 28 July 2008, she was murdered in that apartment by Mohsen Al-Sukkari, a former officer with the Egyptian police, who took not only Ms Tamim's life but that of her and the claimant's unborn child. 'The Dubai police had then launched an investigation, which had gathered evidence indicating that the defendant (Mr Moustafa) had ordered the murder and paid Al-Sukkari a substantial sum for it to be done.' Both men were found guilty after several trials and appeals, with Mr Al-Sukkari ultimately jailed for life and Mr Moustafa for 15 years. Mr Moustafa, who is now 65, was released after receiving a presidential pardon in 2017, while Mr Al-Sukkari was released in similar circumstances in 2022. Mr Al-Azzawi ultimately launched his case against Mr Moustafa in 2022, having complained of 'grief, psychological and emotional damage' and a serious negative impact on his kickboxing career, as well as future loss of earnings on behalf of his late partner's estate. He estimated his claim would be worth 'many millions,' said the judge. However, because Mr Moustafa was outside of the UK, he had to apply for permission from the High Court to serve claim documents outside the country. The kickboxer was initially successful but the case came back to court earlier this month when Mr Moustafa applied for the orders to be set aside, claiming that the UK court has no jurisdiction to hear the claim. His lawyers claimed there was a failure on the part of Mr Al-Azzawi's team to 'make proper disclosure' in relation to their argument that he brought his claim too late under UAE law, a fact which the High Court was bound to take into account. Giving judgment, Mr Justice Butcher said Mr Moustafa claimed it is 'highly arguable' that the claim would be considered too late - 'time-barred' - and agreed that there is 'at the least, a very real question as to whether proceedings commenced in 2022 are time-barred.' He said there had been 'a failure to comply with the duty to make proper disclosure' when Mr Al-Azzawi's lawyers sought permission to serve the UK case papers on Mr Moustafa in Egypt and that the orders extending time and allowing service outside of the UK would be set aside. He said: 'While it is argued by the claimant that this gives rise to a windfall to the defendant, who is not required to answer for the claimant's claim, founded as it is on a truly appalling incident, this is something which is common in applications of this sort. 'If the claimant cannot now pursue his claims because they are time-barred, the responsibility for that does not rest with the defendant.' He added that, even if the service orders had not been set aside, he would have halted the UK action on the basis that the Dubai courts were 'clearly and distinctly more appropriate' for deciding the claim. The kickboxer can continue his bid to sue in the UAE if the courts there find he is not outside the time limit to do so.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Ukraine's Zelenskiy promises joint plan to fight corruption
KYIV, July 23 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met anti-corruption and security officials on Wednesday and promised the creation of a joint plan to fight corruption within two weeks. "We all hear what society is saying. We see what people expect from state institutions — ensured justice and the effective functioning of each institution," he said after nationwide protests on Tuesday over limits to the independence of anti-graft bodies.
