Hello, The ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip takes today's focus as dozens of ministers gathered at the United Nations this week to discuss the rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave. International attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with U.N. agencies saying the territory is running out of food. As the death toll from two years of war nears 60,000, a growing number of people are dying from starvation and malnutrition, Gaza health authorities say, with images of starving children shocking the world and fuelling international criticism of Israel over sharply worsening conditions. Israel is also facing its own national criticism as two Israeli human rights organizations, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which it vehemently denies. Israeli citizens like Carmella, a 48-year-old teacher whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said she was distressed over the suffering an hour's drive away, inside Gaza. "It feels difficult to me as an Israeli, as a Jew, to watch those images and feel anything but tremendous compassion and horror, to be honest. I feel horror." Also on my radar today: |
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Displaced Palestinians who have not received humanitarian aid gather as they survive on leftover food, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas |
'Widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease' |
"The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," according to an alert by the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths." "Formal famine declarations always lag reality," David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said in a statement ahead of the IPC alert. The U.N.'s World Food Programme has said that almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments. The Israeli government has rejected international criticism of its policies in the enclave. |
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International leaders react |
Multiple European Union countries said last week that Israel was not living up to its commitments under an agreement with the EU on increasing aid supplies to Gaza and asked the European Commission to put concrete options on the table. France intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron said last week. The Dutch government will summon Israel's ambassador to the Netherlands to denounce the "unbearable and indefensible" situation in Gaza and has imposed travel bans on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, it said in a letter published on Monday. Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will no longer be allowed to enter the Netherlands, which accuses them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians and calling for an "ethnic cleansing" of the Gaza strip. The Dutch decision follows similar moves last month by Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, called those moves "outrageous". Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer recalled his cabinet from their summer break to discuss the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and what he called the "revolting" humanitarian crisis. Although the United States and Israel boycotted a U.N. conference on a possible two-state solution this week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the number one priority in Gaza was getting people fed, because "you have a lot of starving people", adding that he was not going to take a position on Palestinian statehood at the moment. |
Passersby look at a damaged road next to the swollen Qingshui river, after heavy rainfall flooded the area in Miyun district of Beijing, China. REUTERS/Florence Lo |
- Beijing floods: Extreme weather killed at least 30 people in Beijing after a year's worth of rain fell in less than a week, forcing the relocation of more than 80,000 people, damaging roads, cutting off power and communications in more than 130 villages, stretching the capital's disaster management capabilities and prompting some experts to call the city a rain "trap". Click here for the full Reuters report.
- Mediterranean fires: Firefighters have been battling with wildfires in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Albania, stoked by strong winds after days of searing heat across the Mediterranean region this week. Click here to keep up with all the latest extreme weather-related news.
- Climate and crops: Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season which runs officially from April to mid-November, when rains are abundant and often heavy. But this year, things are different. Rainfall was well below average last week across most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions, while a cold spell has raised concerns among farmers about potential crop damage that could reduce expectations for the October-to-March main crop, farmers said.
- Danube water levels: Keeping with water watch, mayflies on the river Danube in Hungary's capital Budapest are swarming earlier and in greater numbers than usual this year due to low water levels and an unusually hot summer, filling the air along the riverbanks as they are drawn to the city lights. Mayflies live for less than a day after they hatch, and their abundance is closely connected to the health of the Danube.
- Special report: Click here for a Reuters graphics exclusive report on the erosion of federal public land protection in the United States as Trump's administration and some Republican lawmakers in Congress are pushing policies and legislation that upend federal land protections in order to prioritize energy extraction over conservation.
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There've been a lot of tariff-based developments this week as a framework deal was announced between the United States and the European Union which will see the U.S. impose a 15% import tariff on most EU goods from next month. Click here to check out a Reuters interactive tracker on how companies are responding to the threat posed by Trump's tariffs and sign up here to get the Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter, which is a daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. |
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Sustainable Switch was edited by Mark Potter. |
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