Pope urges end to Gaza fighting in first Sunday address
https://www.jns.org/pope-urges-end-to-gaza-fighting-in-first-sunday-address/
Pope Leo XIV called for “never again war” in his first Sunday address in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square since being voted in as pontiff on May 8, according to the official Vatican News outlet.
The first-ever pope from the United States in his message to worshippers lamented the “immense tragedy of the Second World War,” which came to an end 80 years ago on Thursday “after causing 60 million deaths.”
Leo said he was “deeply pained” by the situation in Gaza amid the war against Hamas. “Let the fighting cease immediately, let humanitarian aid be provided to the exhausted civilian population and may all hostages be released,” he said.
The new pontiff also recognized “the suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people” amid the war with Russia, urging that “every effort be made to reach a true, just, and lasting peace as soon as possible” to end the conflict.
The pope also welcomed the recent announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“In today’s dramatic context of a third world war fought piecemeal … I too appeal to the powerful of the world by repeating these ever-relevant words: never again war!” Leo stated, according to the official readout.
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 13 people, mostly women and children
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/israel-hamas-war/article/israeli-strikes-on-gaza-kill-11-people-mostly-women-and-children/
Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday killed 13 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.
Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another five people were killed in strikes elsewhere, according to hospitals.
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The UN and aid groups say food and other supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.
Children carrying empty bottles raced after a water tanker in a devastated area of northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of the built-up Shati refugee camp said the water was brought by a charity from elsewhere in Gaza. Without it, they rely on wells that are salty and often polluted.
“I am forced to drink salty water, I have no choice,” said Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal disease, and there’s no medicine to treat it.”
There is suffering everywhere you look, says mother of emaciated baby girl trapped in Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/11/there-is-suffering-everywhere-you-look-says-mother-of-emaciated-baby-girl-trapped-in-gaza
Siwar Ashour, born in November, has only known war. Her mother, Najwa Aram, 23, gave birth in the one surviving room of a house that was otherwise destroyed and which 11 other people were sharing
Siwar Ashour was born into war and hunger and has known nothing else. She is now in real danger of dying without ever having known a moment of peace or contentment.
The six-month-old Palestinian girl, whose painfully emaciated body symbolised the deliberate starvation of Gaza when she appeared on the BBC this week, was only 2.5kg when she was born on 20 November last year.
From birth, Siwar had a problem with her oesophagus that has made it hard for her to drink breast milk and left her dependent on specialised formula, which is in critically short supply.
Her parents’ home in al-Nuseirat, halfway up the coast on the Gaza Strip, was bombed earlier in the war, which began in October 2023 when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, leading to an Israeli assault that has so far killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza. They lived in tents for a while but it was almost impossible to get food or water in the camp and it also came under Israeli fire.
They tried going back to al-Nuseirat to stay at Siwar’s grandparents’ home, but that was bombed, too. All that was left of the building was a single room, which they shared with 11 other people. That was where Siwar was born.
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Dr Ahmed al-Farah, the director of the children’s and maternity building at the Nasser medical complex, said between five and 10 new malnutrition cases are being recorded there every day.
“We’re seeing severe cases. Malnutrition appears in children in a horrifying and extremely visible way,” Farah said. “We have nothing to offer them. They need proteins, but there are none. We try to provide a little milk, perhaps powdered milk, but we can’t offer anything more.
“On top of that, the severe overcrowding in hospitals leads to increased disease transmission among children,” he added.There is only enough fuel left at the Nasser complex to keep the generators going for another 48 hours. They have already had to shut off electricity on the administrative floors to make it last a little bit longer, but the power supply will soon have to be cut to the overcrowded patients’ wards.
“We are helpless in the face of their needs – we cannot provide food, supplements, medication, or vitamins appropriate for their conditions,” the doctor said. “I studied malnutrition in medical school textbooks. I used to think that study would remain theoretical, something we’d never see in real life. But now, those textbook descriptions have come to life before our eyes in Gaza,” Farah said.
“I call on the world to see us as human beings – we were created just like everyone else.”
Hamas says will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander held in Gaza
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250511-%F0%9F%94%B4hamas-says-will-release-israeli-american-hostage-edan-alexander-held-in-gaza
Hamas says Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, will be released as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the territory and resume the delivery of aid. A
Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States. He was abducted from his base during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
The Hamas statement Sunday night does not say when the release will happen. The announcement comes shortly before US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East this week. Trump is not planning to visit Israel.
Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group has been in contact with the U.S. administration over the past few days. He said in a statement Hamas is ready to “immediately start intensive negotiations” to reach a final deal for a long-term truce which includes an end to the war, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages in Gaza and the handing over of power in Gaza to an independent body of technocrats.
Alexander’s parents did not immediately return requests for comment, and there was no immediate response from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has frequently mentioned Alexander, now 21, by name in the past few months.
“Every time they say Edan’s name, it’s like they didn’t forget. They didn’t forget he’s American, and they’re working on it,” Edan’s mother, Yael Alexander, told The Associated Press in February.
Trump, whose administration has voiced full support for Israel's actions, is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week in a regional tour that will not include Israel.
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/11/middleeast/edan-alexander-release-hamas-latam-intl
According to a source familiar with the matter, Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, will arrive in Tel Aviv Monday morning ahead of the release of Alexander.
The source called it “a total good will gesture,” especially since it comes with Israel poised to expand its military operations in Gaza. “We’re going to go into immediate peace deal negotiations,” the source said.
The Guardian view on Israel and Gaza: Trump can stop this horror. The alternative is unthinkable
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/11/the-guardian-view-on-israel-and-gaza-trump-can-stop-this-horror-the-alternative-is-unthinkable
The US president has the leverage to force through a ceasefire. If he does not, he will implicitly signal approval of what looks like a plan of total destruction.
Donald Trump would like a big foreign policy win as he embarks on his tour of the Middle East this week. He could secure one – and save lives – by demanding that Israel agree to a lasting ceasefire in exchange for the release of all hostages held in Gaza. He might prefer to avoid the issue, but no other leader has the leverage to force its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end this war. If Mr Trump instead backs Israel’s current proposals, he will put the US imprimatur on what looks like a plan of total destruction.
Israel’s attacks have already killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities – the vast majority of them civilians, many of them children. Bakeries, hospitals and schools have been obliterated. Aid has been blocked for two months. Gaza faces famine. Last week, Israeli officials briefed that if no deal to free the hostages seized in the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 is reached, its forces would flatten Gaza, forcing Palestinians to crush into a single “humanitarian area” or flee abroad. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said that Gaza would be “entirely destroyed”, and “totally despairing” Palestinians would realise “there is no hope”. He has said that freeing hostages is “not the most important thing”.
“Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide,” said Josep Borrell, the former EU foreign affairs chief. The international court of justice ruled in January last year that there was a “plausible risk” of genocide. Amnesty International, a UN special committee and leading scholars, including within Israel, have concluded that genocide is taking place.
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Mr Trump’s indifference to Palestinian lives and interest in relocating them to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” have emboldened the Israeli government’s worst instincts. But he could still use the power only he holds to stop the annihilation. This is his chance to make history in the Middle East for the right reasons.
Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah, striking port areas
Aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Yemen's Sanaa
Israel has launched air attacks on Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate, according to the Houthi Interior Ministry.
The attack late on Sunday came after the Israeli army said it had warned those present at three Houthi-controlled ports in the area to evacuate. It was the latest salvo in exchanges between Israel and the Houthis.
Iran says fourth round of ‘difficult’ nuclear talks with US ends in Oman
A fourth round of indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the United States has concluded in the Omani capital, Muscat, with Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs describing them as “difficult but useful”.
After about three hours of negotiations on Sunday, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei described the talks as “difficult but useful talks to better understand each other’s positions and to find reasonable and realistic ways to address the differences”.
“Next round will be coordinated and announced by Oman,” he said in a post on X.
Before the talks started, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media that Iran has a legal right to civilian enrichment of uranium that cannot be subjected to any deal. A landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew during his first term, allowed Iran to pursue its civilian nuclear activity but put restrictions on uranium enrichment to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear bomb.
“Enrichment is one of the achievements and honours of the Iranian nation. We have paid a heavy price for enrichment. The blood of our nuclear scientists has been spilled for this achievement,” he said in reference to scientists assassinated by Israel over the years.
But Araghchi said Tehran remains committed to providing verifiable assurances that it will not be able to develop a nuclear bomb, which has been Trump’s main demand.
Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar and met with senior officials to coordinate in the run-up to the latest nuclear talks. In the Omani capital on Sunday, Iran’s top diplomat was accompanied by his deputies and other members of the team tasked with technical talks that Iran still emphasises are held “indirectly” through Omani mediation.
Tehran has also repeatedly expressed concern over “contradictory” remarks made to the media by US negotiators, who are led by Trump’s longtime friend and envoy Steve Witkoff.
In the lead-up to the Muscat talks, Witkoff again called for the complete “dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear programme, including key sites in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials have suggested Iran must import enriched uranium.
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Iran is currently enriching up to 60 percent, which is close to the more than 90 percent required to make a nuclear bomb, but the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran has made no effort to produce a weapon.
lol 60% isn't close, this is science not school grades.
Hamas in talks with US about Gaza ceasefire and aid, says senior Palestinian official
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-talks-with-us-about-ceasefire-aid-entry-gaza-says-senior-palestinian-2025-05-11/
Talks between Hamas and the U.S. administration on a ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave are underway, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently repeated a pledge to help get food to Palestinians in Gaza. A U.S.-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington's envoy to Israel also said on Friday.
A State Department spokesperson said: "We cannot speak to ongoing negotiations, but I will note recent statements by Qatar and Egypt that they are continuing to engage in pursuit of an agreement."
The spokesperson said that Hamas bore sole responsibility for the war as well as for the resumption of hostilities.
"President Trump has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold the hostages, including American Edan Alexander and the bodies of four Americans," the spokesperson added.
The U.S. had previously held discussions with the Palestinian militant group on securing the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza.
...
And the article goes on with the Israeli perspective all the way back to Oct 7. Mainstream media always fails to mention the 10,000+ Palestinian prisoners in Israeli torture camps ( 59 more died since Oct 7, 187 between 1967 and 2007 ) of which 3,500 in administrative detention without representation nor due course, basically nothing but a hostage grabbed from the streets.
New Gaza aid plans would increase children's suffering, UNICEF says
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/new-gaza-aid-plans-would-increase-childrens-suffering-unicef-says-2025-05-09/
The United Nations Children's Fund on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Thursday floated by both Israel and the United States, saying that they would increase suffering for children and families.
The U.S. State Department earlier floated a solution that would allow delivery of food aid to Gaza was "steps away" and an announcement was coming shortly.
A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four "Secure Distribution Sites", resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, which drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.
"It appears the design of a plan presented by Israel to the humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
Elder said his remarks also applied to the new foundation which he understood to be part of the same broad plan.
The aid community has already rejected any plans that would give occupying power Israel a role in distributing aid in Gaza. However, the Foundation document said the sites would be "neutral" and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Friday that Israel would not be involved in handing out aid.
Still, Elder said that the use of such hubs, which the foundation says will initially serve 300,000 people each, would create risks for children and families as they go to retrieve aid and would drive further displacement.
"The use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the south will create this impossible choice: a choice between displacement and death," said Elder, who has been on several missions to Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began 19 months ago.
"It appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic."
He called instead for Israel to lift a more than two-month-long blockade on aid entries into the enclave, which is stoking widespread hunger and raising concerns about a spike in malnutrition-related deaths.
"There is a simple alternative, lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in to save lives," he said.
Hamas decision to free Alexander follows direct talks with US
Hamas has confirmed in a statement that the group is going to be releasing dual-national citizen Edan Alexander.
He was an Israeli soldier at the time he was taken captive on October 7, 2023 and the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, says that he’s arriving in Israel on Monday in hopes of bringing Alexander back to the United States, where he also holds citizenship.
It’s worth mentioning that these talks happened behind the scenes between the Americans and Hamas directly. The last time there were direct talks between the two parties, the Israelis were very angry because they were not involved, and the Americans hit back then, saying that they did not need anyone’s permission to negotiate when it came to the US captives who were being held in Gaza.
Now, when it comes to the rest of the 58 captives still being held in Gaza, the Israeli public says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prioritising his own personal and political gains over the lives of those remaining in captivity.
Netanyahu’s office did release a statement on Alexander’s release, saying he is set to be freed for nothing in exchange, but rather as a goodwill gesture to the Americans and to President Trump, who is set to arrive in the region on Tuesday.
Trump confirms US-Israeli captive returning home in step towards ending ‘brutal war’
The US president says Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier who has been held captive since October 2023, “is coming home to his family”.
In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump acknowledged the efforts of mediators Qatar and Egypt and said Alexander’s release was a “step taken in good faith towards the United States” to “put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones”.
“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!” he said.
The announcement comes as Trump is due to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Civilian casualties mount as Israel keeps up attacks, blockade
Israeli military has carried out more attacks, killing and wounding many civilians.
What’s really concerning is more families are being deliberately targeted by the Israeli military inside their homes or the tents that they are sheltering in. Starting from the early hours of Sunday, many of these attacks targeted tents in the city of Khan Younis, particularly the al-Mawasi evacuation zone, which has turned into more of a death trap for the displaced and traumatised population.
The majority of casualties transferred to the Nasser Medical Complex were women and children.
This scenario keeps repeating itself over and over across Gaza.
In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, a man and his daughter were reported killed by Israeli drone strikes. Another attack on the same neighbourhood targeted a family in their home, killing more children and more women.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation continues to be quite difficult and challenging with each passing day, with hundreds of thousands of people living on less than a meal a day – particularly the children, who do not have proper access to food supplies or water.
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity in Gaza City on Sunday
Israeli attack on Gaza school-turned-shelter kills 15
Palestinians look at a destroyed United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building in Jabalia refugee camp on Saturday, May 10
Norway wealth fund divests from Israeli company over West Bank activities
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has sold all of its shares in Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy, because the company “is contributing to the violation of international law” by helping to supply fuel to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the government’s pension fund, said in a statement that Paz operates infrastructure that supplies fuel to Israeli settlements and that there is an “unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious violations of the rights of individuals in war or conflict”.
The decision is based on a recommendation the fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, made in December last year.
The fund also previously divested from Shapir Engineering and Industry Ltd and Mivne Real Estate KD Ltd, over their activities associated with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in 2021.
Last year, Norway’s largest private pension fund also announced it was divesting from Caterpillar “over concerns about its role in human rights abuses in occupied Palestine”.
CPJ renews call for accountability in Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it honours the legacy of the Palestinian American journalist, who was killed by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank three years ago, on May 11, 2022.
“For 25 years as an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Abu Akleh was a trailblazer for women in journalism and a trusted voice for millions of viewers in the region,” the group wrote.
“We continue to call on the U.S. to investigate her killing by Israel and to hold those responsible to account.”
As we reported earlier, a new investigative documentary released by the Washington, DC-based media company Zeteo, identified a 20-year old Israeli soldier as the person who shot Abu Akleh.
CPJ honors the legacy of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on the third anniversary of her murder. For 25 years as an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Abu Akleh was a trailblazer for women in journalism and a trusted voice for millions of viewers in the… pic.twitter.com/hncD5nbbCY
— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) May 11, 2025
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