By AFP
June 26, 2025
Aid distribution in Gaza has been marred by chaotic scenes and nearly daily deaths - Copyright AFP Alessandro RAMPAZZO
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide”, as rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory said Israeli forces killed 35 people.
After more than 20 months of devastating conflict, rights groups say Gaza’s population of more than two million face famine-like conditions.
Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following a blockade of more than two months, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to pick up rations.
Israel meanwhile is pressing its bombardment of the Palestinian territory, in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating militant group Hamas — whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Spain’s Sanchez on Thursday said Gaza was in a “catastrophic situation of genocide” and urged the European Union to immediately suspend its cooperation deal with Israel.
The comments represent the strongest condemnation to date by Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive who is one of the first European leaders, and the most senior, to use the term “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza.
Speaking ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Sanchez mentioned a recent human rights report by the EU’s diplomatic service which found “indications” that Israel was breaching its human rights obligations under the cooperation deal, which forms the basis for trade ties.
The text cited Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory, the high number of civilian casualties, attacks on journalists and the massive displacement and destruction caused by the war.
On the ground in Gaza, the spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP that Israeli forces killed 35 more people on Thursday in various locations across the territory, including four who were waiting to collect aid.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment, saying it required further information.
– ‘Only two girls survived’ –
Israel began its offensive Gaza to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages seized by militants during the October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,259 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
AFP footage from a hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah on Wednesday showed Palestinians sobbing over bloodied body bags containing their loved ones who had been killed in an Israeli strike.
“They (killed) the father, mother and brothers, only two girls survived. One of them is a baby girl aged one year and two months and the other one is five years old,” one mourner said.
Beyond daily bombardment, Gaza’s health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.
The United Nations has condemned the “weaponisation of food” in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations there.
The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.
The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory.
– Ceasefire push –
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war, telling reporters: “I think great progress is being made on Gaza.”
He linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas’s backer Iran to end their 12-day war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting.
Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that talks with mediators had “intensified” but said the group had “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.
The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing “on the battlefield and via negotiations”.
Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The reluctant fame of Gazan photojournalist Motaz Azaiza
By AFP
June 26, 2025
Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza has amassed nearly 17 million followers on Instagram since the start of the war in Gaza - Copyright AFP Guillaume LAVALLÉE
Guillaume LAVALLÉE
At a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hundreds of people gathered recently for a weeknight charity fundraiser hosted by a celebrity guest.
The venue was not announced in advance due to security concerns, and attendance cost at least $60 a pop — with some spending $1,000 to get a photo with the host.
Yet, the event was not a gala hosted by a movie star or famed politician, but by a photojournalist: Gaza native Motaz Azaiza, whose images of the Israeli assault following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas launched him to international recognition.
Wearing a black T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and gold-framed glasses, the 26-year-old boasts nearly 17 million followers on Instagram for his images from the war in Gaza.
“I wish you would have known me without the genocide,” Azaiza told the crowd, his voice faltering.
Before the war, Azaiza was a relative unknown, posting photos from his daily life in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to his roughly 25,000 Instagram followers at the time.
But as soon as the first strikes from Israel hit Gaza, he became a war photographer by virtue of circumstance, and his wartime posts soon went viral.
“As a photojournalist, I can’t watch this like anyone else, I’m from there, this is my home,” Azaiza said.
– ‘I want to go back’ –
After surviving 108 days of Israeli bombardment, Azaiza managed to escape Gaza via Egypt, and he has since become an ambassador of sorts for the Palestinian territory, sharing the story of his people as the conflict rages on.
“Every time you feel like you regret leaving, but then you lose a friend, you lose a family, you say, OK, I saved my life,” Azaiza said.
Before the war, Azaiza had been hired to manage the online content for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the humanitarian agency accused by Israel of providing cover for Hamas militants.
This month, he is touring the United States to raise money for UNRWA USA, a nonprofit which collects funding for the agency.
“I can’t handle this much of fame…it’s a real big responsibility,” Azaiza told AFP from the fundraiser in Philadelphia.
“This is not me… I’m waiting to the genocide to stop. I want to go back to Gaza, continue my work capturing pictures,” he added.
At one point he embedded himself in the crowd, posing for a selfie before shaking hands with donors.
At the fundraiser, a UNRWA USA official solicited donations.
“Is there someone who wants to give $20,000? I would like to have $20,000. Nobody? Is there someone who want to give $10,000? I would like to have $10,000,” the official calls out.
Once the call lowered to $5,000, five hands raised, and even more went up when asked for donations of $2,000 and $1,000.
One of the donors, Nabeel Sarwar, told AFP Azaiza’s photographs “humanize” the people in Gaza.
“When you see a picture, when you see a child, you relate to that child, you relate to the body language, you relate to the dust on their face, the hunger, the sadness on their face,” Sarwar said.
“I think it’s those pictures that really brought home towards the real tragedy of what’s going on in Gaza.”
– ‘A million words’ –
Veronica Murgulescu, a 25-year-old medical student from Philadelphia, concurred.
“I think that people like Motaz and other Gazan journalists have really stuck a chord with us, because you can sense the authenticity,” she said.
“The mainstream media that we have here in the US, at least, and in the West, it lacks authenticity,” she added.
Sahar Khamis, a communications professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in Arab and Muslim media in the Middle East, said Gazan journalists like Azaiza who have become social media influencers “reshape public opinion, especially among youth, not just in the Arab world, not just in the Middle East, but globally and internationally, including in the United States.”
“The visuals are very, very important and very powerful and very compelling…as we know in journalism, that one picture equals a thousand words.
“And in the case of war and conflict, it can equal a million words, because you can tell through these short videos and short images and photos a lot of things that you cannot say in a whole essay.”
By AFP
June 26, 2025
Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza has amassed nearly 17 million followers on Instagram since the start of the war in Gaza - Copyright AFP Guillaume LAVALLÉE
Guillaume LAVALLÉE
At a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hundreds of people gathered recently for a weeknight charity fundraiser hosted by a celebrity guest.
The venue was not announced in advance due to security concerns, and attendance cost at least $60 a pop — with some spending $1,000 to get a photo with the host.
Yet, the event was not a gala hosted by a movie star or famed politician, but by a photojournalist: Gaza native Motaz Azaiza, whose images of the Israeli assault following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas launched him to international recognition.
Wearing a black T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and gold-framed glasses, the 26-year-old boasts nearly 17 million followers on Instagram for his images from the war in Gaza.
“I wish you would have known me without the genocide,” Azaiza told the crowd, his voice faltering.
Before the war, Azaiza was a relative unknown, posting photos from his daily life in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to his roughly 25,000 Instagram followers at the time.
But as soon as the first strikes from Israel hit Gaza, he became a war photographer by virtue of circumstance, and his wartime posts soon went viral.
“As a photojournalist, I can’t watch this like anyone else, I’m from there, this is my home,” Azaiza said.
– ‘I want to go back’ –
After surviving 108 days of Israeli bombardment, Azaiza managed to escape Gaza via Egypt, and he has since become an ambassador of sorts for the Palestinian territory, sharing the story of his people as the conflict rages on.
“Every time you feel like you regret leaving, but then you lose a friend, you lose a family, you say, OK, I saved my life,” Azaiza said.
Before the war, Azaiza had been hired to manage the online content for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the humanitarian agency accused by Israel of providing cover for Hamas militants.
This month, he is touring the United States to raise money for UNRWA USA, a nonprofit which collects funding for the agency.
“I can’t handle this much of fame…it’s a real big responsibility,” Azaiza told AFP from the fundraiser in Philadelphia.
“This is not me… I’m waiting to the genocide to stop. I want to go back to Gaza, continue my work capturing pictures,” he added.
At one point he embedded himself in the crowd, posing for a selfie before shaking hands with donors.
At the fundraiser, a UNRWA USA official solicited donations.
“Is there someone who wants to give $20,000? I would like to have $20,000. Nobody? Is there someone who want to give $10,000? I would like to have $10,000,” the official calls out.
Once the call lowered to $5,000, five hands raised, and even more went up when asked for donations of $2,000 and $1,000.
One of the donors, Nabeel Sarwar, told AFP Azaiza’s photographs “humanize” the people in Gaza.
“When you see a picture, when you see a child, you relate to that child, you relate to the body language, you relate to the dust on their face, the hunger, the sadness on their face,” Sarwar said.
“I think it’s those pictures that really brought home towards the real tragedy of what’s going on in Gaza.”
– ‘A million words’ –
Veronica Murgulescu, a 25-year-old medical student from Philadelphia, concurred.
“I think that people like Motaz and other Gazan journalists have really stuck a chord with us, because you can sense the authenticity,” she said.
“The mainstream media that we have here in the US, at least, and in the West, it lacks authenticity,” she added.
Sahar Khamis, a communications professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in Arab and Muslim media in the Middle East, said Gazan journalists like Azaiza who have become social media influencers “reshape public opinion, especially among youth, not just in the Arab world, not just in the Middle East, but globally and internationally, including in the United States.”
“The visuals are very, very important and very powerful and very compelling…as we know in journalism, that one picture equals a thousand words.
“And in the case of war and conflict, it can equal a million words, because you can tell through these short videos and short images and photos a lot of things that you cannot say in a whole essay.”
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