Rakyat Palestin membawa bekalan bantuan yang mereka terima daripada Yayasan Kemanusiaan Gaza disokong AS, di tengah Semenanjung Gaza, 29 Mei 2025. REUTERS
KAHERAH/JERUSALEM, 5 Jun – Sebuah pertubuhan disokong AS dan Israel yang mengagihkan bantuan di Gaza membuka semula dua tapak pada Khamis, sehari selepas menghentikan kerja sebagai respons kepada siri tembakan maut dekat operasinya.
Yayasan Kemanusiaan Gaza (GHF) berpangkalan di AS berkata 26 trak muatan makanan yang sangat diperlukan telah diserahkan di dua tapak di kawasan Rafah di selatan Gaza.
GHF, yang telah dikritik hebat oleh organisasi kemanusiaan, termasuk Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), kerana didakwa kurang neutral, mula mengagihkan bantuan minggu lalu dan telah menjalankan tiga tapak awal minggu ini.
Pengarah sementara GHF John Acree berkata dalam satu kenyataan bahawa kumpulan itu sedang mencari untuk membuka lebih banyak tapak, termasuk di utara Gaza, dan “memastikan penghantaran bantuan menyelamatkan nyawa selamat dan lebih cekap”.
PBB telah memberi amaran bahawa sebahagian besar daripada 2.3 juta penduduk Gaza menghadapi risiko kebuluran selepas sekatan 11 minggu Israel ke atas enklaf itu, dengan kadar kanak-kanak kecil mengalami kekurangan zat makanan akut hampir tiga kali ganda.
“Kegagalan untuk menyediakan pemakanan terapeutik dan perkhidmatan kesihatan segera untuk kanak-kanak meletakkan ribuan nyawa pada risiko serta-merta, dan boleh mengakibatkan kehilangan nyawa yang tidak perlu dan berterusan,” kata ketua bantuan PBB Tom Fletcher kepada Majlis Keselamatan dalam nota, dilihat oleh Reuters.
Rescue workers extinguish a fire of a house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Pryluky village, Ukraine, Jun. 5, 2025. AP
PRYLUKY, Ukraine – At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said.
Six drones hit a residential area in the city shortly before dawn, injuring nine others, according to authorities. The child killed was the grandson of the local fire chief, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The fire chief, identified by local officials as 50-year-old Oleksandr Lebid, “arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house.”
The attack came just hours after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, Putin said “very strongly” that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine’s stunning drone attacks on Russian military airfields on Sunday.
US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the more than 3-year-long war have delivered no significant progress, and the grinding war of attrition has continued unabated.
CHILD’S MOTHER FEARED DRONE ATTACKS
The mother of the 1-year-old killed in Pryluky was a police officer called Daryna Shyhyda, Ukraine’s National Police said.
“Today our hearts are scorched by pain,” the police force wrote on Telegram. “This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.”
Liudmyla Horbunova, 55, who lives across the street from where the Shahed drone hit, said Shyhyda had moved with her son last weekend to her parents’ house from her home in Kyiv because she was scared of potential Russian attacks on the capital.
“She ran away from Shaheds in Kyiv, but they found her here, in Pryluky,” Horbunova told The Associated Press.
Firefighters worked through charred debris and extinguished the remains of a fire that engulfed the home of Shyhyda’s parents, leaving only a brick carcass and scattered toys, clothes and a family photo book.
DRONES STRUCK ACROSS REGIONS
Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Kyiv, the capital. The city is far from the front line and does not contain any known military assets.
The last time Pryluky was struck was in November last year, when a Russian missile hit an administrative building and injured one person.
Zelensky said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson.
“This is another massive strike,” Zelensky said. “It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively.”
US PEACE EFFORT REMAINS STALLED
Zelensky, who has accepted a US ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement. Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelensky, however, and has indicated no readiness to compromise.
Germany’s new leader Friedrich Merz was due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the US on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s top presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, met with senior American officials in Washington on Wednesday and called for greater US pressure on Russia, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately stalling ceasefire talks and blocking progress toward peace, according to a statement on the presidential website.
Yermak, who traveled to the US as part of a Ukrainian delegation, met with senior American officials to bolster support for Ukraine’s defense and humanitarian priorities. He said Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defense capabilities.
MORE PEOPLE WOUNDED IN KHARKIV
Hours later, 19 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
At around 1:05 a.m., Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city’s Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles.
“By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,” Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
Russian aircraft also dropped four powerful glide bombs on the southern city of Kherson, injuring at least three people, regional authorities said.
GAZA, June 5 – Three Palestinian journalists were killed and two others seriously wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, Palestinian sources said on Thursday, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike targeted an Islamic Jihad operative at the site.
Local sources and eyewitnesses said that an Israeli drone launched at least one missile in a surprise attack on a group of journalists gathered in the hospital’s courtyard.
Fadel Naeem, director of the Al-Ahli Hospital, told Xinhua that the airstrike killed three journalists instantly. Two others were critically injured and taken into surgery.
In a statement, the IDF said it had “precisely struck an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command and control center in the yard of the Al-Ahli Hospital.”
“The command and control center was used by the terrorists to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the statement added.
The Hamas-run Gaza government identified the journalists killed as Samir al-Rifai, a reporter for the local Shams news website, and Suleiman Hajjaj and Ismail Badah, both working for the Palestine Today television channel.
According to local authorities, the total number of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war has now reached 225.
Gaza-based health authorities said that since Israel intensified its military campaign on March 18, at least 4,402 Palestinians have been killed and 13,489 wounded. The overall death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 has climbed to 54,677, with 125,530 people injured.
ZAGREB, June 5 – Two people were killed in a traffic accident on the highway near the Croatian capital on Thursday, the Croatian Radiotelevision reported.
The accident, which involved a truck and a passenger car, occurred Thursday morning on a highway in the city of Kupljenovo near Zagreb. Police and emergency services have arrived, and a medical helicopter was also dispatched to the scene, according to the report.
A Palestinian man rushes a girl who was injured in Israeli strikes on displacement tents in Khan Yunis, at the Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. AN-AFP
LONDON – The situation in Gaza has become “worse than hell on earth,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.
“Humanity is failing in Gaza,” Mirjana Spoljaric told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. “We cannot continue to watch what is happening.”
The ICRC, a global organization assisting people affected by conflict, has about 300 staff in Gaza.
It runs a field hospital in Rafah that was swamped with casualties in recent days after witnesses described Israeli troops opening fire on crowds trying to access food aid.
Spoljaric said that the situation in the territory was “surpassing any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard.”
“The fact that we are watching a people being entirely stripped of its human dignity should really shock our collective conscience.”
She called on world leaders to do more to bring the conflict to an end because the consequences would haunt them and “reach their doorsteps.”
Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 54,000 people since October 2023, mostly women and children.
The offensive was launched after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and seized dozens of hostages.
Spoljaric said that while every state had a right to defend itself, there could be “no excuse for depriving children from their access to food, health and security.”
She added: “There are rules in the conduct of hostilities that every party to every conflict has to respect.”
International condemnation of Israel has increased in recent weeks after its military pushed to take full control of Gaza after severing all food and aid supplies to the territory’s population.
Late last month, some aid deliveries resumed after Israel set up a new aid system that bypassed the UN and is now run by a newly formed US organization.
Operations at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s three aid delivery sites were paused on Wednesday after dozens of Palestinians were killed by gunfire near one of the sites.
JERUSALEM, June 4 — An Israeli reserve soldier was killed and another seriously wounded during a clash in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Israeli military said.
The military identified the slain soldier as Master Sergeant Alon Farkas, 27, from the 6646th Reconnaissance Battalion, 646th Brigade. He “fell during combat” in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, the military said, without elaborating. Another reserve soldier from the same battalion was seriously injured.
According to Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news, the two were shot at close range after a Palestinian militant emerged and opened fire with a light weapon before fleeing into a built-up area.
The incident came a day after the military reported that three other soldiers were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area, also in northern Gaza.
Since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month-long ceasefire, 13 Israeli soldiers have been killed. A total of 862 soldiers have been killed since the start of Israel’s multi-front offensive in October 2023.
At least 54,510 people have been killed and 124,901 wounded in Gaza during the Israeli military campaign, according to health authorities in the territory.
CAIRO – An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan’s Darfur region left five people dead and several wounded, the United Nations said Tuesday, and the warring parties in the northeast African nation traded blame for the attack.
The attack on the 15-truck convoy carrying desperately needed food and nutrition supplies came Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Koma in North Darfur province. It was trying to reach besieged el-Fasher city, according to a joint statement from the World Food Program and UNICEF. Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack.
“This was the first U.N. humanitarian convoy that was going to make it to el-Fasher in over one year,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.
This image made available by the Rijksmueum shows a condom with print, circa 1830, displayed at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Netherlands’ national museum has a new object on display that merges art with Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District: a nearly 200-year-old condom, emblazoned with erotic art.
The Rijksmuseum said in a statement that the playful prophylactic, believed to be made around 1830 from a sheep’s appendix, “depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health.”
It is part of an exhibition called “Safe Sex?” about 19th century sex work that opened on Tuesday.
The condom, possibly a souvenir from a brothel, is decorated with an erotic image of a nun and three clergymen.
The phrase “This is my choice” is written along the sheath in French. According to the museum, this is a reference to the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting “The Judgment of Paris,” which depicts the Trojan prince Paris judging a beauty contest between three goddesses.
The condom is on display until the end of November.
EDS NOTE: NUDITY – This image made available by the Rijksmueum shows a condom with print, circa 1830, which has gone on display at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. AP
A soldier from the US-led coalition stands guard during a joint U.S.- Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria February 8, 2024. REUTERS/File Photo
ANKARA, June 3 – The United States will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight and U.S. policies will shift in the country “because none of them worked” over the last century, the new U.S. special envoy has said.
Thomas Barrack, who President Donald Trump named special envoy last month shortly after he unexpectedly lifted U.S. sanctions on Syria, made the comments in an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV late on Monday.
The U.S. military has about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, mostly in the northeast. They are working with local forces to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.
Since rebels ousted Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad in December, the United States and other countries are re-engaging with Damascus under new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Barrack, also U.S. ambassador to Turkey, raised the American flag over the ambassador’s residence in Damascus last week for the first time since 2012.
People sit on a bench with a view of the parliament building, ahead of the elections across 27 European Union member states, of which the Netherlands is the first country to go to the polls in this round of elections to the bloc’s parliament, in the Hague, Netherlands, June 5, 2024. REUTERS/File Photo
THE HAGUE, June 3 – The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday, most likely ushering in a snap election, after anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders quit the right-wing coalition, accusing other parties of failing to back his tougher immigration policies.
But Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent, accused the political maverick of irresponsibility, and the other coalition parties denied failing to support Wilders, saying they had been awaiting proposals from his PVV party’s own migration minister.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders speaks to the media following his decision to leave the governing coalition, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3, 2025. REUTERS
PVV ministers will quit the cabinet, leaving the others to continue as a caretaker administration until an election unlikely to be held before October.
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed, in what the Gaza health ministry say was Israeli fire near a distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2025. REUTERS
CAIRO/JERUSALEM, June 3 – At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in southern Gaza on Tuesday, health officials said, in a third day running of chaos and bloodshed to blight the aid operation.
The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of people they viewed as a threat after they left a designated access route near the distribution centre in Rafah and approached their positions.
It added it was still investigating what had happened.
The deaths came hours after Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, as its forces pushed ahead with a months-long offensive against Hamas militants that has laid much of the enclave to waste.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports in northern and southern Gaza.
Women react following the death of Palestinians, in what the Gaza health ministry say was Israeli fire near a distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2025. REUTERS
An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson said its field hospital in Rafah had received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after.
Video showed injured people, including at least one woman, being rushed to a medical centre on carts drawn by donkeys.
Health officials said at least 18 more Palestinians were killed in other military strikes in the territory on Tuesday.
A woman reacts following the death of Palestinians, in what the Gaza health ministry say was Israeli fire near a distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2025. REUTERS
The United Nations human rights office in Geneva said on Tuesday the impediment of access to food relief for civilians in Gaza might constitute a war crime and described attacks on people trying to access food aid as “unconscionable”.
The head of the U.N. agency, Volker Turk, urged a prompt and impartial investigation into the killings.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer denied that civilians had been targeted.
“The IDF is doing everything in its power to allow Gazans to get to the humanitarian aid. The IDF is not preventing the arrival of Gazans at humanitarian aid sites. Indeed, we are encouraging it,” Mencer said.
LONDON – At least four journalists have been abducted and another jailed for criticizing the Houthis’ leader, media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday.
Local reports claim freelance photographer Abduljabbar Zayad, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reporter Hassan Ziyad, Soorah Media Production Center director Abdulaziz Al-Noum and deputy head of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate Walid Ali Ghalib were abducted between May 21-23.
On May 24, the Specialized Criminal Court in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa sentenced Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi t0 18 months in prison for criticizing Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi online.
Al-Miyahi was also ordered to sign a pledge not to resume his journalistic work and to pay a guarantee of SR5 million ($20,500), which he would forfeit if he continued to publish material critical of the state.
Regional director of the CPJ, Sara Qudah, condemned the actions and said: “The kidnapping of at least four Yemeni journalists and media workers and the sentence issued against Mohamed Al-Miyahi exemplify the Houthis’ escalating assault on press freedom.
“We call on Houthi authorities to immediately release all detained journalists and stop weaponizing the law and courts to legitimize their repression of independent voices.”
The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate also condemned the kidnapping, calling it an “arbitrary campaign targeting journalists and freedom of opinion and expression.”
A statement released by the organization said: “The syndicate considers these abductions a continuation of the approach of repression and targeting of journalists and opinion holders, and a hostile behavior towards freedom of opinion and expression, holding the Houthi group fully responsible for the lives and safety of the detained colleagues.”
Al-Miyahi has criticized the Iran-backed Houthis in a series of articles, broadcasts and social media posts. In his last article, prior to his abduction in September 2024 and enforced disappearance for more than a month, he accused the group of suppressing freedom of expression and “not respect(ing) people and treat(ing) them like mindless and unconscious herds.”
In January he appeared in court accused of “publishing articles against the state.” The YJS called the trial a “sham (…) where the verdict was read aloud by the judge from a mobile phone inside the courtroom, violating the most basic standards of fair trial procedures.”
The CPJ accused the Houthis, who control Sanaa and govern more than 70 percent of Yemen’s population, of running a “parallel justice system (…) widely seen as lacking impartiality” and argued Al-Miyahi’s prosecution violated Article 13 of Yemen’s press law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions.
ABUJA, June 3 – With close to 200 confirmed fatalities, authorities in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State are still searching for more than 1,000 people believed to have been swept away by devastating floods triggered by heavy rains over the past week.
The torrential downpours on Wednesday night wreaked havoc across Mokwa, a bustling market and farming town in Niger, submerging and washing away dozens of residential homes, some with occupants still inside, local officials said earlier.
Yakubu Garba, deputy governor of Niger, told reporters late Monday that nearly a week after the disaster, hundreds remained unaccounted for despite ongoing rescue efforts.
“For now, we do not know where they are. Those people have been swept away by water. We have reviewed house-to-house and based on that, the number of people yet to be seen is more than 1,000,” Garba said, adding that the flooding has displaced over 3,000 residents, affected at least 2,000 properties, washed away roads, and caused the collapse of three bridges.
One of the most urgent challenges, Garba noted, is the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the missing, whose families are desperately searching for them.
Ibrahim Hussaini, spokesperson for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, told Xinhua over the weekend that over 503 households were impacted. The search for more bodies is ongoing, with local divers and volunteers assisting in the operation.
Some residents believe the flooding may have been worsened by the release of water from a nearby dam, though officials have yet to confirm this.
“The situation is very tragic, with many families wiped out and survivors recounting harrowing losses,” Amina Yahaya, a resident from a neighboring town, told Xinhua.
Flooding in central Nigeria, including the Mokwa disaster, is the result of a complex mix of factors. The country regularly faces severe floods during the rainy season, which typically lasts six months, beginning in March and intensifying by mid-May, especially in the northern regions.
GARISSA, Kenya, June 3 – Kenyan authorities have reported that security forces killed four al-Shabab terrorists Monday in Garissa County, in the country’s northeastern region bordering Somalia.
“The success followed a meticulously planned intelligence-led operation. The militants were first spotted by a surveillance drone, after which SOG (Special Operations Group) units tracked and engaged them. A fierce exchange of fire ensued, resulting in four terrorists being eliminated,” police said in a statement.
AK-47 rifles, a machine gun, ammunition, and communication radios were recovered during the operation in Najo and Guracho areas of Garissa County, according to the statement.
“The SOG, in close collaboration with other security agencies and the local community, remains unwavering in its mission to safeguard the lives and security of Kenyans,” the statement added.
JERUSALEM, June 3 – Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The three, Lior Steinberg, Ofek Barhana, and Omer Van-Gelder, were fighters from the 9th Battalion of the Givati infantry brigade, the statement said.
Israel’s state-owned Kan TV News reported that on Monday evening, the soldiers were escorting an IDF fire truck that entered the city of Jabaliya to put out a fire in an armored personnel carrier (APC) following a technical malfunction.
As the troops were returning to Israeli territory, the convoy, which included an APC and four Humvee military trucks, entered an area where explosive devices had been planted, according to the channel.
One of the vehicles was directly hit, killing the three soldiers and moderately wounding two others.
NEW YORK, June 2 – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 jolted Dodecanese Islands, Greece at 23:17:28 GMT on Monday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 79.9 km, was initially determined to be at 36.56 degrees north latitude and 28.26 degrees east longitude.
NEW YORK, June 2 – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 jolted Dodecanese Islands, Greece at 23:17:28 GMT on Monday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 79.9 km, was initially determined to be at 36.56 degrees north latitude and 28.26 degrees east longitude.
Founded in London in 1921, PEN International has grown into a global cultural institution. It has not remained untouched by the rippling political effects of the Gaza war. AFP/File
LONDON – Writer’s group PEN International on Monday urged the international community to impose an arms embargo on all parties involved in the war in Gaza, calling specifically for a ban on weapons used by Israel in attacks that have targeted Palestinian civilians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In an open letter, the London-based association expressed outrage at what it described as the global community’s failure to hold Israel accountable for the “ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
The letter condemned the daily killing of civilians and the prolonged blockade, calling for immediate action to halt the assault.
“PEN International has documented harrowing testimonies of Palestinian writers across the OPT, all of whom have reported and corroborated the growing body of evidence demonstrating concerted and systematic efforts by Israel to erase the Palestinian people and their cultural heritage, particularly in Gaza,” the open letter said.
The group said it shared the view of other international organizations that “genocide is being perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza through various means,” and reported that at least 23 writers — excluding artists and other cultural workers — have been killed in Israeli bombardments since Oct. 7, 2023.
Describing the current period as “the deadliest for writers since the Second World War,” PEN International said the assault on Palestinian culture — through the destruction of heritage sites, cultural spaces, and the targeting of writers and journalists — was “a deliberate strategy to silence and erase the Palestinian people.”
The NGO joins a growing number of organizations, experts and legal scholars that have concluded Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the threshold of genocide.
The International Court of Justice ruled last year that Palestinians face a “plausible risk of genocide,” and UN experts, aid agencies, and hundreds of legal specialists and genocide scholars have echoed that assessment.
Even former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, writing in Haaretz, recently described the offensive as a “war of extermination,” though he stopped short of using the term “genocide.”
PEN International’s letter also detailed the “irreversible loss of much of Gaza’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage,” including independent cultural institutions, personal libraries and literary work, many of which were created under extreme restrictions and later destroyed in the war.
As of the end of May, UNESCO confirmed damage to 110 cultural sites in Gaza since the war began, including religious landmarks, historic buildings, museums and archaeological sites.
Testimonies gathered by PEN International also described the conditions faced by Palestinian writers amid the persistent threat to their lives.
“The relentless Israeli military operations, the indiscriminate bombardment of so-called ‘safe zones’ with high explosives, unexploded ordnance, sniper attacks targeting civilians, and the ongoing arbitrary restrictions and ban on humanitarian aid — are a grim, daily reality,” the letter read.
“All writers who spoke to PEN International have consistently stressed that: ‘There is no place safe in Gaza’.”
Founded in London in 1921, PEN International has grown into a global cultural institution. It has not remained untouched by the rippling political effects of the Gaza war.
In September 2024, the group passed a resolution condemning the rise in targeted killings, arbitrary detentions, and restrictions on access to information in both Palestine and Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks. The resolution placed primary responsibility for these violations on Israeli authorities.
In April 2025, PEN America, the group’s US branch, was forced to cancel its annual literary awards after several authors boycotted the event over what they viewed as the organization’s failure to take a clear stance against Israel’s war on Gaza.
The decision followed an open letter signed by dozens of authors and translators who withdrew their work from the awards in protest.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said the earthquake was centered in the Mediterranean Sea and struck at 02:17 a.m. AN-AFP
ANKARA, Turkiye – A 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Mediterranean coastal town of Marmaris on Tuesday, Turkiye’s disaster management agency said. At least seven people were injured while trying escape homes in panic.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said the earthquake was centered in the Mediterranean Sea and struck at 02:17 a.m. It was felt in neighboring regions, including in the Greek island of Rhodes, waking many from their sleep, Turkiye’s NTV television reported.
Marmaris’ governor, Idris Akbiyik, told the station that seven people were being treated for injuries after jumping from windows or balconies in panic but there was no immediate report of any serious damage.
Turkiye sits on top of major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.
In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkiye and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.
Tice, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before studying law at Georgetown University, is believed to be one of the longest-held American hostages in history. AFP/File
LONDON – Top-secret Syrian intelligence files have confirmed that missing American journalist Austin Tice was held in detention by the regime of Bashar Assad, the BBC claimed on Monday, marking the most definitive evidence yet tying the former regime to his disappearance.
Tice, a former US Marine turned freelance journalist, vanished in August 2012 near Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, just days after his 31st birthday while reporting on the escalating conflict.
For years, the Syrian regime has consistently denied any involvement.
However, files obtained by the BBC — alongside testimonies from former Syrian officials — appear to corroborate longstanding suspicions by US authorities that the Assad regime was behind his abduction.
The documents include internal communications between branches of Syrian intelligence that explicitly name Tice and detail aspects of his detention following his capture near the capital, the BBC claimed.
Shortly after his disappearance, the only public evidence of Tice’s status came in the form of a video posted online showing him blindfolded, surrounded by armed men, and reciting the Islamic declaration of faith.
Although the footage suggested extremist involvement, US intelligence at the time raised doubts about its authenticity, with one analyst calling it possibly “staged.”
In early 2013, Reuters reported that “an American man, dressed in ragged clothing,” was seen attempting to escape through the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood before being recaptured after more than five months in captivity.
He has not been seen since, and no group has ever claimed responsibility for holding him.
The BBC’s investigation, part of a long-running project for Radio 4, claimed that Tice was held in a regime-run detention facility believed to be the notorious Tahouneh prison in Damascus.
A former senior Syrian intelligence officer testified that Tice was detained by the pro-Assad National Defence Forces “until at least February 2013.”
According to the report, Tice suffered from stomach problems while in the NDF’s captivity and was treated by a doctor at least twice, including for a viral infection.
A witness who saw him during detention said Tice “looked sad” and “the joy had gone from his face,” though he was reportedly treated more humanely than Syrian inmates due to his perceived value.
A former member of the NDF, described by the BBC as having “intimate knowledge of Austin’s detention,” said the regime saw Tice as a “card” to be used in negotiations with the US.
The files also confirm that he attempted to escape through a window but was quickly apprehended and later interrogated at least twice, the BBC claimed.
These newly uncovered documents appear to be the first hard evidence directly tying the Assad regime to Tice’s imprisonment, undermining more than a decade of Syrian denials.
The investigation was conducted in collaboration with a Syrian war crimes investigator, who granted BBC reporters access to the intelligence archive.
Despite the collapse of the Assad regime in December, no trace of Tice was found among the prisoners released. Yet hope remains. In the immediate aftermath, then-US President Joe Biden reiterated his belief that Tice was still alive.
That view was echoed by Nizar Zakka, head of a US-based hostage advocacy group, who claimed Tice was likely being held by “very few people in a safe house in order to do an exchange or a deal.”
Two days before Biden’s remarks, Tice’s mother, Debra, said a “significant source” had confirmed her son was alive and being treated well. In early May, she told The Washington Post that the US government was aware of his location, though no further details were disclosed.
President Donald Trump also placed a spotlight on the case during his recent visit to the Gulf.
After meeting the Syrian Arab Republic’s new president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, Trump told reporters, “Austin has not been seen in many, many years,” without elaborating.
The comment came days after Sky News Arabia falsely reported that Tice’s body had been discovered in a cemetery in northern Syria, a claim the family condemned as “deeply disrespectful.”
The Tice family, who have led a decade-long campaign for answers, are aware of the new evidence, as are US officials and Syrian human rights groups.
Tice, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before studying law at Georgetown University, is believed to be one of the longest-held American hostages in history.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people disappeared during Assad’s rule.
