Malnutrition in Gaza at alarming levels, WHO warns as aid airdrops resume
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
‘My parents were taken hostage in Iran. I need to hear from them’
Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January. Their son Joe Bennett said the Foreign Office told him he could call them last week. But after a “sleepless night of anticipation” it did not happen.
Joe Bennett said the Foreign Office told him he could call Lindsay and Craig Foreman last week, but after a “sleepless night of anticipation” it did not happen.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said they were “deeply concerned” by the case and continued to raise it directly with Iran’s government.
Mr and Ms Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January while on a “once in a lifetime” trip around the world.
Police presence in Guildford town centre after assault
The man, in his 30s, was taken to hospital with injuries, police said. He remains in a stable condition in hospital, a police spokesperson said.
Surrey Police said officers were called to North Street shortly after 23:30 BST on Saturday, after the ambulance service reported the man had been hurt.
The man, in his 30s, was taken to hospital with injuries, which the force said were not life-threatening.
He remains in a stable condition in hospital, a police spokesperson said.
Malnutrition in Gaza at alarming levels, WHO warns as aid airdrops resume
World Health Organisation warns of ‘dangerous’ levels of malnutrition in Gaza. More than 100,000 people have been affected by the crisis in the Gaza Strip. Israel has agreed to halt military operations for 10 hours a day to allow aid to reach people in need. The UN says there must be a long-term solution to the crisis.
Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter
Image source, Getty Images
The World Health Organization has warned malnutrition has reached “alarming levels” in Gaza with rates on a “dangerous trajectory” after aid airdrops resumed to the Strip.
Israel announced a series of new aid measures, after more than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups warned of mass starvation in Gaza earlier this week.
Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow aid corridors, to “refute the false claim of intentional starvation”.
Jordan, the UAE and Egypt said they delivered aid into Gaza by land and air – with Jordan and the UAE saying it delivered “25 tonnes of food aid and essential humanitarian supplies” by aid airdrops.
People in Gaza have reacted and said, although the aid is welcome, it must be the beginning of a broader, lasting solution to the deepening crisis.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has said at least 133 people have died from malnutrition since the war began.
Aid agencies have also reacted, with Médecins Sans Frontières saying the pause in fighting and aid drop is “not enough”. The UN’s World Food Programme said it welcomes Israel’s pause in military action in some parts of Gaza, but there needs to be a “surge” in aid.
We are pausing our live coverage but you can stay across this story on BBC News.
Live updates: Israel eases some Gaza aid restrictions as more Palestinians starve
A dozen people were reported to have been killed while trying to get food aid from a distribution point in central Gaza on Sunday. Al-Awda Hospital said it received 12 bodies, including those of four children and one woman, and treated more than 100 people who had been injured. The Israel Defense Forces told CNN on Sunday that it was “not aware of any casualties” after its troops fired what it described as “warning shots” near an aid distribution site.
As the Israeli military began what it called a “tactical pause” in operations in three parts of Gaza, a dozen people were reported to have been killed while trying to get food aid from a distribution point in central Gaza on Sunday.
Al-Awda Hospital said it received 12 bodies, including those of four children and one woman, and treated more than 100 people who had been injured after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid point operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
It’s unclear whether the incident occurred before the tactical pause came into effect at 10 a.m. local time, nor whether it was inside the area covered by the pause.
The Israel Defense Forces told CNN on Sunday that it was “not aware of any casualties” after its troops fired what it described as “warning shots” near an aid distribution site. The military claimed a “gathering of suspects” had endangered its troops in the area.
“The warning shots were not fired at the aid distribution site, but at a distance of hundreds of meters away from it, prior to its opening hours,” the IDF said.
More victims arrive at hospitals: There have also been further casualties among people seeking aid in northern Gaza, according to hospital officials.
At least 11 bodies have been brought into Al-Shifa Hospital since Saturday afternoon from the area used by aid convoys coming in from the Zikim crossing, according to Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the hospital’s director.
Abu Salmiya told CNN that 120 injured people had also arrived at the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its field hospital in the north had received two bodies and 54 wounded people after “the targeting of civilians waiting for aid in the Zikim area” in the north-west of Gaza Strip and an airstrike in Gaza City.
This post has been updated with a response from the IDF.
American musical satirist Tom Lehrer dies at 97, US media report
He graduated early from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut. Went to Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and received his bachelor’s degree in 1946 aged 18. In 1953 he released Songs by Tom Lehrer, a record that was sold through the post. It became a word of mouth success and sold an estimated half a million copies. In 2020, Lehrer placed his song writing copyrights in the public domain, allowing anyone to perform, record or interpret his work for free. He also relinquished all rights to his recordings and warned his website would be shut down.
He began writing lyrics while at Harvard to entertain friends.
Lehrer’s most enduring songs include The Elements, a list of the chemical elements set to the tune of I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General from The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera.
Other fan favourites include The Masochism Tango, in which singer extols his beloved’s violent passions with the lyrics, “I ache for the touch of your lips, dear / But much more for the touch of your whips, dear…”
He was renowned for his darkly comic ballads, including the necrophiliac epic I Hold Your Hand in Mine, I Got It From Agnes – where he sang about the transmission of a venereal disease – and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, which detailed the birds’ apparent appetite for “peanuts coated with cyanide”.
In 1953 he released Songs by Tom Lehrer, a record that was sold through the post. It became a word of mouth success and sold an estimated half a million copies. The BBC banned most of Songs from the airwaves the following year.
Following the success of the album, Lehrer began playing in nightclubs in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and at events for anti-war and left-wing groups.
He wrote songs for the US edition of the satirical British show That Was the Week That Was, which were were made into an album in 1965.
The highly controversial Vatican Rag, a Catholic hymn set in ragtime that mocked the Church, was featured among other songs that condemned nuclear weapons.
He wrote for the 1970s educational children’s show, The Electric Company, and in 1980 his songs enjoyed a revival when theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh staged the musical revue “Tomfoolery” featuring his work.
He also taught maths and musical theatre courses at the University of California from 1972 to 2001, according to the New York Times.
In 2020, Lehrer placed his song writing copyrights in the public domain, allowing anyone to perform, record or interpret his work for free. He also relinquished all rights to his recordings.
In a statement on his website at the time, he wrote: “In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.”
He also warned the website would be “shut down at some date in the not too distant future”. The website was still live at the time of writing.