Baby girl killed with parents in Gaza airstrike as Israelis urge a mass protest over the war
The baby's body, wrapped in blue, was placed on those of her parents as Palestinians prayed over them. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.
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Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The Ukrainian children killed in Russian strikes this year
The year began with a new U.S. president and hope for a ceasefire in the grinding war. Instead, Russian attacks on Ukraine have intensified. Russia continues to relentlessly bombard Ukraine each day, killing and wounding civilians. July was the deadliest month in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, with 286 people killed and 1,388 wounded, according to the United Nations. The number of civilians killed and wounded in Ukraine in the first seven months of the year increased by 48 percent compared with the same period the year before. On Friday, President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for direct talks, but the summit yielded no breakthrough or any sign that the attacks on Ukraine will end. Trump dropped his insistence on a ceasefire and Putin demanded territorial concessions that are unacceptable to Ukraine, according to officials familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. A May 23 portrait of Snizhana Solonichenko, 46, the mother of Nikita Solonichenko, 17, who was killed in a Russian ballistic missile attack on April 4; her son and Nikita's younger brother Maksym, 8; and Nikita's girlfriend, Anna Stepanova, 17, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Since Nikita was killed, Anna has moved in with Snizhana and her family. Nikita's father has served in the army for more than three years. (Oksana Parafeniuk/For The Washington Post) Nikita Solonichenko, 17 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Ukraine has long agreed to a 30-day ceasefire to set the stage for negotiations to end the war. Russia has refused. Instead, it has ramped up attacks on heavily populated areas, according to independent military analysts and a Washington Post analysis of data from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russia says it targets military facilities and personnel as well as public infrastructure that it says aids the Ukrainian military. Radislav Yatsko, 7 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 At least 55 children have been killed in Ukraine this year, according to the U.N. The Washington Post confirmed that at least 43 of those children were killed in Russian attacks on Ukrainian-controlled territory. Post reporters verified these 43 deaths with parents, relatives, teachers and local officials, and visited the families and graves of more than 20 of them. These are some of their stories. Sofia Yavorska, 9 Killed by a Russian missile in Poltava on Feb. 1 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A residential building in Poltava, Ukraine, that was damaged by a Russian missile on Feb. 1, killing four people, including Sofia Yavorska, 9. Yehor Yavorskyi holds a portrait of Sofia, his granddaughter, and her parents, Dmytro Yavorskyi and Olena Yavorska. Sofia Yavorska's grave in Poltava. Yehor Yavorskyi, 62, loved everything about his 9-year-old granddaughter: the way she studied the encyclopedia and played tennis, how she danced and drew, the way she made candles and figurines, and even bracelets that she sold in the park to raise money for soldiers like her dad. Yehor also loved how she used to tease him by pulling at his big gray beard and begging him to shave, insisting, 'I want to see my grandfather be young!' Story continues below advertisement Advertisement On Feb. 1, Sofia's grandmother, Olena Yavorska, 59, felt an explosion as she arrived to work at a shop in Poltava. When her son, his wife and Sofia didn't answer her calls, she rushed to their apartment screaming for someone to save her family. A rescue worker pulled her aside and asked her which part of the building they lived in. 'The first entrance,' she recalled replying. 'Grandma,' he told her, 'the first part is gone.' The Russian cruise missile had destroyed Sofia's apartment, killing the 9-year-old and her parents. To honor Sofia's wishes, Yehor shaved his beard for the family funeral. Maksym and Tymofii Kotov, 11 and 13 Killed by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region on March 11 Unnamed girl, 15 Killed by Russian shelling in Pokrovsk on March 17. Her family has not released her name. Uliana-Khrystyna Malenko, 17 Killed by a Russian drone in Zaporizhzhia on March 21 Valeria Podlipska, 3 Killed by a Russian drone in Kyiv on March 23 Unnamed boy, 10 Killed by a Russian glide bomb in Kramatorsk on July 22 Diana and Daniil Zapishnyi, 12 and 7 Killed by a Russian missile in Poltava on Feb. 1 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Diana Zapishnyi, 12, who was killed in a Russian missile strike in Poltava on Feb. 1 with her brother and parents, in a photo on her aunt's phone. Tetiana Zapishnia, 39, the children's aunt, in Opishnia, Ukraine, on May 22. A photo of Daniil Zapishnyi, 7, Diana's brother who was also killed in the Feb. 1 strike. After a Russian missile killed Daniil Zapishnyi, 7; his older sister Diana, 12; and their parents, it was up to Daniil's teacher to explain to his friends why he was no longer at school. Bohdana Drok had not trained for this moment — but she did her best to explain the war and why the boy who could never sit still unless food was on the table would not be coming back to class. For weeks after, her 7-year-old students would collapse in her arms to cry. Now, when air-raid sirens go off, she notices the children are much quicker to rush to the basement shelter. Teachers wanted to hang portraits of the siblings in a memorial. But they worried placing the photos in the hallway would be too upsetting for the children still processing the deaths. Instead, their images now hang on a wall in the principal's office. Students can come to visit privately when they need a moment with one of their lost friends. 'No goal can be justified if the price is the life of a human child,' Drok said. Mykyta Perekhrest, 15 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Kostiantyn Novik, 16 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Nicole Haranska, 5 Killed by a Russian drone in Kyiv on March 23 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Oleksandra Haranska, 26, lost her daughter Nicole, 5, and her husband, Oleksandr Haranskyi, 35, in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv on March 23. Baby pictures of Nicole in a photo album. Oleksandra holds one of Nicole's drawings. Oleksandr Haranskyi, his wife, Oleksandra, and their daughter Nicole moved to Kyiv believing it would be safer than their home village of Orikhiv, near the front line in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. They desperately missed home: their 300 beehives, their successful honey business, their church. The couple had met through their evangelical faith and stayed busy in Kyiv with their new Christian community. Seeking privacy from the shared apartment where they lived, the family often slept in a mobile home on the church property. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement On March 23, they were all asleep there in the same bed when a swarm of drones struck. Oleksandra was pulled out of the rubble alive. Oleksandr and Nicole were killed. Nicole loved rainbows, art classes and church. She spoke about heaven more than most children her age. 'Mom, when are we going to run around on clouds with Jesus?' Oleksandra recalled her daughter saying. 'She believed in it fully.' Despite everything the attack took from her, Oleksandra said she has forgiven the Russian soldiers who launched the drone and killed her husband and child. 'When you say 'I forgive,' you liberate yourself,' she said. 'But I will not forget.' Arina Samodina, 7 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Oleh Kaliusenko, 17 Killed by a Russian missile in Sumy on April 13 Veronika Kariachka, 17 Killed by a Russian drone in Dnipro on April 16 Polina Osaulenko, 9 Killed by a Russian glide bomb in the Zaporizhzhia region on May 31 Kirill Golovko, 12 Killed by a Russian drone in Sumy region on Aug. 2 Danylo Nikitskyi, 15 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The spot where Danylo Nikitskyi, 15; his girlfriend, Alina Kutsenko, 15; and two friends, Mykyta Perekhrest, 15, and Kostiantyn Novik, 16, were killed in a Russian ballistic missile attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on April 4. Nataliia Nikitska, 46, Danylo's mother, holds a pair of her son's boxing gloves. Danylo Nikitskyi's grave in Kryvyi Rih. The teenagers' parents were supposed to meet soon for a barbecue: a big step in their children's new relationship that started in January and had quickly turned serious. Instead they met for the first time over their children's dead bodies, laid out in the park. The 15-year-olds' hands were intertwined. Danylo Nikitskyi and Alina Kutsenko had fallen hard for each other with the typical intensity of first love. They were growing up fast: Danylo was no longer the little boy obsessed with learning magic tricks; Alina was no longer the little girl who dyed her hair bright pink in second grade. Even at 15, they were already planning their future, hoping to attend law school together in Odesa. 'It was such a young love. A first love. And if they would have little misunderstandings it would upset them both endlessly,' Alina's mother, Marta Kutsenko said. The parents decided to bury the children together and are now designing a shared memorial plaque. Danylo's father said his favorite memory of his son, 'was everything between the 18th of November 2009 until the day of his death.' Alina Kutsenko, 15 Danylo's girlfriend, killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Tymofii Tsvitok, 3 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 Herman Tripolets, 9 Killed by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih on April 4 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A handmade car in the empty room of Herman Tripolets, 9, who was killed on a playground in Kryvyi Rih in a Russian ballistic missile attack on April 4. Svitlana Tripolets, 49, Herman's mother. A portrait of Herman in his room in Kryvyi Rih. From Svitlana Tripolets's apartment window, she looks down each day on the playground where her son, Herman, 9, was killed on April 4. Just after the explosion sent a shock wave through their building, Herman's father and sister rushed downstairs to find him. He was on the merry-go-round, dead. The family chose to cremate him, because Svitlana feared that if she knew his body was intact underground, she would just want to dig him out. They do not plan to change apartments, because no matter where they go, Svitlana said, the grief will always follow. Instead, they look out at the playground and remember Herman, who loved Legos, swimming and karate. 'He never had temper tantrums,' Svitlana said, 'and he said, 'I love my life.'' Viktoriia Kamienkova, 13 Killed by a Russian rocket in the Dontesk region on April 24 Danylo Khudia, 17 Killed by a Russian missile in Kyiv on April 24 Valeriia Khlibets, 15 Killed by a Russian drone in Pavlohrad on April 24 Dmytro, 14 months Killed by a Russian drone near Kherson on July 9 Matvii Marchenko, 6 Killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on July 31 Alina and Anastasia Gumeniuk, 10 and 13 Killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on July 31 Maksym Martynenko, 11 Killed by a Russian missile in Sumy on April 13 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A collage of pictures of Maksym Martynenko, 11, who was killed with his parents, Nataliia and Mykola Martynenko, in a Russian missile strike on Sumy on April 13. Nadiia Krasnoshchok, 69, Maksym's grandmother, at her home in Stare Selo, Ukraine. The grave of Maksym Martynenko in Stare Selo. Maksym Martynenko, 11, was born into a family of evangelical Christians, but often resisted going with them to church. On Palm Sunday, he joined his parents for the first time in a while. As they rode the bus to church, Russia launched two ballistic missiles into Sumy's city center, killing 35 people, including Maksym and his parents. Maksym's leg was blown off, and his neighbor Valeria Peredrienko recalled how, when she saw him before his burial, the rest of his body was intact. It was almost, she said, 'as if he was about to get up and run to play.' Maksym left behind his faithful dog Rex and his grandmother, Nadiia Krasnoshchok, 69, who said she was so sedated in the days after their deaths that she is only now 'slowly coming to understand' that her only relatives are gone. 'I would smash Putin's face in myself,' she said. The family was buried together. Near their shared grave, someone placed a soccer ball — the same one Maksym used to kick. Margarita Titarenko, 12 Killed by a Russian drone in the Dnipropetrovsk region on April 29 Borys Zinchenko, 6 Killed by a Russian missile in the Sumy region on May 6 Oleksandr Kapitan, 15 Killed by a Russian glide bomb in Kherson on April 18 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The empty room of Oleksandr Kapitan, 15, nicknamed Sasha, who was killed in a Russian strike on Kherson on April 18. Oleksandr Sobchuk, 54, Sasha's father, at home in the Muzykivka village. Oleksandr Sobchuk holds a dog tag doctors gave him after his son died. Oleksandr Kapitan's grave in Muzykivka. Oleksandr Kapitan was born on July 25, 2009, a month sooner than expected, with all the risks that entails. For his parents, the boy, nicknamed Sasha, was a child of hope: Their first child, born a year earlier, lived only seven days. 'When I was allowed to hold him for the first time, I was very happy,' his father, Oleksandr Sobchuk, recalled. 'We were all very happy.' Sasha grew up bursting with life. He played soccer, built construction sets, repaired bicycles and made pizza with his mother, before she died from a heart attack last year. His family survived Russian occupation in their home village of Muzykivka, in the Kherson region, in 2022. When Ukrainian soldiers retook the area nine months later, Sasha rushed in excitement to greet them. He later befriended the Ukrainian troops stationed near his home, who several months ago gifted him with a marine's beret, a military jacket and several patches. He dreamed of one day joining them in the military. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Then, on April 17, Sasha and Oleksandr were at a service station when Russian jets dropped glide bombs on Kherson, sending shrapnel into Sasha's head. Oleksandr used a rag to try to stop his son's bleeding. He called for help, but Russian drones prevented any ambulance from reaching them, so he rushed Sasha to the hospital himself. Doctors performed two long surgeries, and when Oleksandr was allowed into his son's room the next day, Sasha was breathing. His eyes were slightly open. 'I really wanted him to get out of there, to fight for himself — he was a strong boy,' Oleksandr said. 'But the shrapnel was stronger.' At home in Sasha's room, everything remains in its place. A phone from his sister. The uniform gifted by soldiers. His notebooks, backpack and construction sets. From his window, Oleksandr looks out at the cemetery where Sasha is buried and sees his son's tombstone, marked by a large Ukrainian flag to match the graves of fallen soldiers. Mykhailo Shyhyda, 1 Killed by a Russian drone in the Chernihiv region on June 5 Bohdan Hareta, 17 Killed in a June 3 Russian rocket strike in Sumy; died in a hospital on June 10. Maria Siora, 11 Killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv on June 23 Dmytro Bezverkhyi, 5 Killed in a Russian drone strike in Sumy on June 24 Lev Lamekhov, 2 Killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on July 31 Roman Hayovyi, 17 Killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on July 31 Roman, Tamara and Stanislav Martyniuk, 17, 12 and 8 Killed by a Russian missile in the Zhytomyr region on May 25 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The grave in Korostyshiv of three siblings of the Martyniuk family: Roman, 17; Tamara, 12; and Stanislav, 8, who were killed in a Russian missile attack on May 25. Olena Martyniuk, 48, and Ihor Martyniuk, 55, hold portraits of their children in their home in Korostyshiv on June 27. Family and community members mourn the children during a farewell ceremony on May 28. People wait in line to say goodbye to the children during the farewell ceremony. The hour before his siblings' funeral began, Oleksandr Martyniuk, 24, was digging through what remained of his family home — searching for anything he could salvage. Across the way, a small pile was forming: a stack of dinner plates, a heap of toys, a red rug, rolled up tight. Then he found the chickens. For three days, they had been trapped without food or water under the rubble — the same rubble that had crushed his two younger brothers and sister days before. Oleksandr gently picked each bird up — some injured, some still far from full-grown — and moved them to safety in the trunk of a half-blown-up car. They clucked as his girlfriend quietly fed them grain out of her hand. Oleksandr was in Kyiv when the call came about the first Russian attack on his quiet hometown. A missile had plunged straight into his family's home. Staying busy was how Oleksandr was coping with this new world, the one where his childhood home no longer existed, his parents were wounded, and three of his four siblings were dead. Dusk was settling in. He quickly changed his clothes, showered and rushed to the church, where hundreds of mourners came to pay their respects. His mother was too unwell to attend her three children's funeral. Instead, it was Oleksandr who stood by his father, clutching his shoulders as hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects to the three coffins in the tiny church. Two were for Tamara and Stanislav, the youngest children, who had been studying traditional Ukrainian music at a nearby school. And one was for Roman, who was due to finish high school in weeks. That night, a teacher laid his graduation sash across his coffin. Oksana Parafeniuk and Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hamas rejects Israel's Gaza relocation plan
CAIRO (Reuters) -Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Sunday that Israel's plan to relocate residents from Gaza City constitutes a "new wave of genocide and displacement" for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area. The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a "blatant deception". The Israeli military has said it is preparing to provide tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of its plan to relocate residents from combat zones to the south of the enclave "to ensure their safety". Hamas said in a statement that the deployment of tents under the guise of humanitarian purposes is a blatant deception intended to "cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute". Israel said earlier this month that it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre. The plan has raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, which is home to about 2.2 million people. The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. About 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to be still alive. Israel's subsequent military assault against Hamas has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry says. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced most of Gaza's population and left much of the enclave in ruins. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Madonna calls on Pope Leo XIV to visit Gaza before 'it's too late'
Taking to Instagram on Monday, the Queen of Pop issued an emotional plea to the leader of the Catholic Church, to travel to the Middle East in a bid to support the "innocent children" of the city. 'Most Holy Father, please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it's too late. As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone. You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry. We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children..."
