Iran says talks with IAEA will be technical, complicated
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The Hindu
8 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Bullets, bombs, starvation are killing Gaza's children
Today, I am angry. I am disappointed. I write because my children are dying. Your children are dying. Our children are dying in Gaza. I can hear their cries. I can feel their pain. Why can't you? Every day, around 30 children are killed — by bombs, missiles, and deliberate, systemic deprivation. Only two days ago, 83 Palestinians lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Families are going days without food, leaving their orphaned children behind. Health systems have completely collapsed. Supplies have crumbled. Water is scarce. Fuel is gone. Hope is dying. Starving infants are perishing in their mothers' arms, while aid trucks sit blocked at borders. This is the gruesome face of a war that has no moral justification. This is not merely a tragedy — it is a moral apocalypse and a brutal crime against humanity. And the world's institutions? The UN? Governments? They are failing. Recent reports from the United Nations have been alarming and frightening. Gaza stands on the brink of a famine. A quarter of the population are already facing famine-like conditions and over 3,20,000 children, the entire population under five, are at risk of acute malnutrition. In Gaza City alone, child malnutrition rate has quadrupled in the last two months. I am not an expert on the historical conflict between Israel and Palestine, nor a scholar of geopolitics and neither an authority to propose a definitive solution. Certainly, the captivity and killing of innocent Israelis at the outset was unacceptable. But that does not justify the brutal retaliation on Gaza or any violence. In 2023, when Hamas had held innocent Israelis hostage and a war-like situation had just about begun, I knew that the repercussions would be worse than we could ever imagine. I couldn't sit back and immediately called my fellow Nobel Laureate friends, reminding them that the call for peace must come from us. On October 30, we 104 Nobel Laureates jointly made an appeal to every single Head of State and urged international organisations and governments to ensure the safety and well-being of all Israeli and Palestinian children. Our call to action undoubtedly had some impact. The international media covered it extensively and it echoed in the political and global discourse for a few months. We were hopeful. But sadly today, leaders are ignoring the grave situation and failing the children. Transcending borders The suffering of Gaza's children transcends borders, ideologies and conflicts. Children bear no responsibility for war. They do not drop bombs or launch rockets. They do not set policies. They hold no historical grievances. So why must they pay the ultimate price for the failures and hatred of adults? Is it their crime to be born in a particular piece of land or into a family of a certain faith? Why should these innocents suffer for the acts, right or wrong, of their ancestors? Why is the lens with which we are viewing people today, and our emotions and judgments so coloured by religious politics? This is the moment to speak out clearly. We must demand an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing of innocent civilians. Restrictions on food, water, fuel, and medical aid must be lifted immediately. Local food and grocery supply systems, bakeries, farms must be urgently restored and small vendors should be allowed to function without any fear of threats. Aid workers must be protected, never targeted or obstructed. Those weaponising starvation, blocking aid, or denying access to basics needed for survival must be held accountable under international law. The time for merely expressing concern, hosting seminars, showing sympathy, or issuing press statements is over. We must choose between complicity and compassion. And I mean compassion not as a soft emotion or a feeling, but a transformative force born from feeling the suffering of others as one's own and taking mindful action to end that suffering. Contrary to popular belief, compassion is not a moral ideal, but a practical and effective strategy for resolving conflicts. There is a sliver of hope when, last month, the UK, France, and 26 other countries issued a tough statement condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of 'human dignity'. The streets are filled with protesters, shocked and enraged by the scale of violence and trauma being unleashed. Several countries including Australia, France, Turkey, and Tunisia, have held demonstrations in the past few weeks. Other governments must also come together to produce a systematic, comprehensive, and concrete response. The day is not very far when we will realise that power does not lie in firing missiles; power lies in compassion. The voices of the innumerable young war survivors from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones who I have interacted with over the years haunt me. I vividly recall an incident from some years back when I met a 10-year-old wheelchair-bound boy in a Syrian refugee camp in Germany. He had taken shelter along with several other children, women and men, all bearing the scars of war. During our conversation, he told me that he had lost his legs — and his father — in a bomb blast. He was separated from his mother in the chaos that followed. Overcome with grief, I had asked the child what he wants to do in future. I will never forget the conviction in his voice as he replied, 'I want to study and become an engineer so that I can go back to my village that was destroyed in the war, and rebuild it.' There was hope in his eyes and his dream was alive. If we cannot save the children of Gaza from bullets, bombs and the slow death of starvation, how can we ever speak of nurturing their dreams and hopes for the future? Kailash Satyarthi is the founder of the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion; views are personal
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Israeli Air Force Pilots ABANDON Jets, Storm Outside IDF Base Against Netanyahu's Gaza Plan
Domestic revolt against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu explodes as some 200 retired and reserve Israeli Air Force pilots rallied outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv this evening to protest the cabinet's recent decision to capture Gaza City, urging an immediate hostage deal. Protesters read aloud a letter from Tami Arad, the wife of long-missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, demanding an end to the war, and a deal with Hamas fighters for the release of captives. Watch.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Netanyahu floats 'allowing' Palestinians out of Gaza as mediators renew truce push
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) revived calls to "allow" Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip, as the military prepares a broader offensive in the territory. Past calls to resettle Gazans outside of the war-battered territory, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, have sparked concern among Palestinians and condemnation from the international community. Also read | Benjamin Netanyahu's push for a no-state solution Mr. Netanyahu defended his war policies in a rare interview with Israeli media, broadcast shortly after Egypt said Gaza mediators were leading a renewed push to secure a 60-day truce. The premier told Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS that "we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave". "Give them the opportunity to leave, first of all, combat zones, and generally to leave the territory, if they want," he said, citing refugee outflows during wars in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan. In the Gaza Strip, Israel for years has tightly controlled the borders and barred many from leaving. "We will allow this, first of all within Gaza during the fighting, and we will certainly allow them to leave Gaza as well," Netanyahu said. For Palestinians, any effort to force them off their land would recall the "Nakba", or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948. Netanyahu has endorsed Trump's suggestion this year to expel Gaza's more than two million people to Egypt and Jordan, while far-right Israeli ministers have called for their "voluntary" departure. Cairo talks Israel's plans to expand its offensive into Gaza City come as diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 22-month-old war has stalled for weeks, after the latest round of negotiations broke down in July. Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced that Cairo was "working very hard now in full cooperation with the Qataris and Americans", aiming for "a ceasefire for 60 days, with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees, and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions, without conditions". Hamas said in a statement early Wednesday that a delegation of its leadership had arrived in Cairo for "preliminary talks" with Egyptian officials. A Palestinian source earlier told AFP that the mediators were working "to formulate a new comprehensive ceasefire agreement proposal" that would include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza "in one batch". Netanyahu said in his interview he would oppose the staggered release of hostages, and instead would "want to return all of them as part of an end to the war — but under our conditions". Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year. News of the potential truce talks came as Gaza's civil defence agency said Israel has intensified its air strikes on Gaza City in recent days, following the security cabinet's decision to expand the war there. Intensified strikes Netanyahu's government has not provided an exact timetable on when forces may enter the area, but civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Tuesday that air raids had already begun increasing over the past three days. Israel is "intensifying its bombardment" using "bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction", he said. Bassal said that Israeli strikes across the territory, including on Gaza City, killed at least 33 people on Tuesday. "The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes," said Majed al-Hosary, a resident of Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood. An Israeli air strike on Sunday killed four Al Jazeera employees and two freelance reporters outside a Gaza City hospital, with Israel accusing one of the slain correspondents of being a Hamas militant. Israel has faced mounting criticism over the war, which was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 2023 attack. UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in. Netanyahu is under mounting domestic pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages — 49 people including 27 the Israeli military says are dead — as well as over his plans to expand the war. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable.
