Israeli forces recover bodies of three hostages from Gaza

Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages which had been held in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group Hamas' 2023 attack, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

The hostages were identified as civilians Ofra Keidar and Yonatan Samerano, and soldier Shay Levinson. All were killed on the day of the attack, on October 7, 2023, the military said.

With their retrieval, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The abduction of Samerano, 21 at the time of his death, by a man later identified by Israeli officials as a worker at the U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, was caught on CCTV.

Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.

The subsequent Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run strip, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population, plunged the enclave into humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine fighting 10,000 Russian troops in Kursk region, Ukrainian commander says

Around 10,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Russia's Kursk region, about 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) of which is controlled by Ukraine, Ukraine's top military commander said.

"We control about 90 square kilometers of territory in the Hlushkov district of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and these are our preemptive actions in response to a possible enemy attack," Oleksandr Syrskyi said without elaborating, in remarks released by his office for publication on Sunday.

The Ukrainian military said the activity in this area prevented Russia from sending a significant number of its forces to Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place in the more than three-year-old full-scale invasion.

Syrskyi's troops are repelling Russian forces along the frontline, which stretches for about 1,200 km, where the situation remains difficult, the Ukrainian military said.

Russian gains have accelerated in May and June, though the Ukrainian military says it comes at a cost of high Russian casualties in small assault-group attacks.

While the military says its troops repelled Russian approaches toward Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region borders last week, the pressure continues in the country's eastern and northern regions.

The Russian military also continues its deadlydrone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian cities further from the front, prompting Ukraine to innovate its approaches to air defence.

Ukraine's military said it currently destroys around 82% of Shahed-type drones launched by Russia but requires more surface-to-air missile systems to defend critical infrastructure and cities.

The military said the air force was also working on developing the use of light aircraft and drone interceptors in repelling Russian assaults which can involve hundreds of drones.

Ukraine also relies on its long-range capabilities to deal damage to economic and military targets on Russian territory, increasing the cost of war to Moscow.

Between January and May, Ukraine dealt over $1.3 billion in direct losses in the Russian oil refining and fuel production industry, energy and transport supplies as well as strategic communications, the Ukrainian military said.

It also dealt at least $9.5 billion more of indirect damages through the destabilization of the oil refining industry, disruption of logistics and forced shutdown of enterprises, it added.

It was not clear whether the Ukrainian military included the damages from its operation "Spider's Web" which damaged Russian warplanes -- and Ukraine said cost billions in losses -- in the estimates.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky makes new threats against Russia

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has suggested that Kiev’s forces will conduct more long-range strikes targeting facilities deep inside Russian territory.

Ukraine has significantly escalated drone attacks deep into Russia in recent weeks, despite ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the actions as an attempt to derail the peace process.

In a post on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Zelensky wrote that he had held a meeting with the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, claiming that Kiev was keeping tabs on Russia’s “main pain points.” He pledged to “strike appropriate blows” with a view to “significantly reducing” Moscow’s military potential.

Zelensky also stated that Kiev was sharing its intelligence on Russia with its Western backers, with which it is “preparing joint defense solutions.”

Speaking to reporters also on Sunday, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, similarly said that Kiev “will increase the scale and depth” of its strikes on Russian military facilities deep inside the country.

On June 1, Ukrainian intelligence conducted a coordinated attack on several Russian airbases across five regions, from Murmansk in the Arctic, to Irkutsk in Siberia.

Ukrainian media later reported that the operation codenamed ‘Spiderweb’ involved dozens of first-person view (PFV) kamikaze drones. At least some of them were reportedly launched in close proximity to the targets, from commercial trucks that had been covertly brought into Russia.

The strikes were said to have been prepared for more than a year and a half and focused on Russia’s “strategic aviation.”

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said that a number of aircraft in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions had caught fire as a result of the attack.

Kiev claimed that the strikes had damaged or destroyed approximately 40 Russian military aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov later dismissed these estimates as incorrect.

”The equipment in question… was not destroyed, but damaged. It will be restored,” the diplomat told TASS in early June.

Around the same time, Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, cautioned that “when you attack an opponent’s part of their national survival system, which is their nuclear triad… that means your risk level goes up because you don’t know what the other side’s going to do.”

Reuters/RT

The legal career of Joseph Chu’ma Otteh, whose mortal remains were committed to earth on 20 June, could easily have been different. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife in 1988, very much one of the best students in the set. In 1989, Joe enrolled as a lawyer in Nigeria. He had every opportunity to deploy his prodigious talents and considerable skills in the pursuit of personal fortune and no one could have begrudged him. Instead, he chose the path of legacy and impact through the pursuit of an unpredictable career in the defence of the excluded and marginalised.

As a lawyer, Joe worried about two intractable and inter-related problems: delay in justice delivery and judicial performance. His intellect and temperament were well suited to high judicial service. For someone who did not seek nor pursue a judicial career, however, his preoccupations were startling because ultimate control over the solutions to these issues lay in the hands of the judges, or so it was thought.

Early in his legal career, Joe chose to do something about these issues and he travelled around the world to prepare himself for that purpose, learning about models fit for adaptation in Nigeria. In pursuit of answers, he undertook two programmes of graduate studies in law, one at the University of Lagos in Nigeria and another at the New York University (NYU) in the United States of America. In between both programmes, in 1994, he also researched the same issue as a Research Fellow at the Danish Centre for Human Rights in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Three years earlier, in 1991, just fresh from completing his National Youth Service scheme, Joe had joined the staff of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO). There, he began his career as a lawyer to the under-privileged and under-represented in Nigeria whose encounters with justice were defined by the twin blights of exclusion and delay. For these people, entry into the court system was sometimes attainable but exit from it was almost always intractable. 

For context, this problem probably predated Frederick Lugard’s Amalgamation of 1914. In a memorandum to Frederick Lugard dated 11 February 1914, Edward Speed, the first Chief Justice of post-Amalgamation Nigeria, lamented that “the greatest enemy to the efficient administration of Criminal Law is delay.” It was to the redress of this century-old problem that Joe dedicated his professional life.

Joe realised he could not do this alone. So, in 1999, he founded Access to Justice as an organisation dedicated entirely to figuring out how to contribute to alleviating the twin problems of judicial (lack of) performance and delay in the legal process in Nigeria. The few lawyers who had adverted to this before him seemed to believe that the way to redress delay in litigation was to litigate more cases. They would file cases on behalf of specific victims of delay believing somehow that they could jump the queue of institutional dysfunction by inflicting more dysfunction on it.

Joe’s genius lay in his capacity for patient diagnosis. He saw this as a problem of judicial administration and court management. The answer, he believed, lay in working with the judges to re-design case management and judicial throughput. To address this, Joe invested patiently in cultivating the attentions of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) at the time, Mohammed Lawal Uwais, who died earlier this month. He was successful in persuading the Chief Justice Uwais to grant consent for a pilot project in monitoring the performance of judges.

Over a period of one year, monitors would record the way the judges ran their courts, documenting such minutiae as when they began sitting; how long they did; the number of motions, trials, cases that they did and the number of rulings, judgments and orders that they produced. The report was to be submitted to the CJN with whose authorization, under the initial proposal, it was to be issued after he must have reviewed it. The information captured from the pilot was so troubling, the Chief Justice was reluctant to make it public.

Joe was disappointed but not deterred. He repurposed the report into persuading the Chief Justice to endow the National Judicial Council (NJC) with a capacity to monitor judicial performance, an advocacy in which he achieved limited success.

But his ultimate revenge lay elsewhere. As CJN in December 1979, Atanda Fatayi Williams had enacted the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) (FREP) Rules to govern litigation for the enforcement of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Chapter IV of Nigeria’s Constitution. As a cottage industry in claims for fundamental rights grew in the quarter century thereafter, the desire to simplify access to remedies through the FREP Rules became subverted. Delay became chronic and some judges fixated on using the rules to achieve judgment without delivering justice.

Joe believed the only way to change this was to reform and re-enact the FREP Rules and he spent a decade persuading a succession of CJNs that this needed to be done. In this mission, he was relentless. In 2009, Joe finally persuaded Chief Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi to enact the revised FREP Rules. It is a revolutionary piece of work that advertises the full range of Joe’s acuity.

The 2009 FREP Rules could easily be called the “Otteh Rules” because Joe drafted them. Through those Rules and in them, Joseph Otteh wrote his own epitaph long before his earthly tour of duty ended on 28 March 2025.

The 2009 FREP Rules clearly set about fixing the major issues that Joe had diagnosed as the major afflictions that made redress of human rights violations in Nigeria difficult. Three things stood out. First, it addressed clearly the issue of standing to sue or locus standi in human rights cases. Second, it makes it an obligation for courts to “in a manner calculated to advance Nigerian democracy, good governance, human rights and culture, pursue the speedy and efficient enforcement and realisation of human rights.” Third, the 2009 FREP Rules require judges to also “proactively pursue enhanced access to justice for all classes of litigants, especially the poor, the illiterate, the uninformed, the vulnerable, the incarcerated, and the unrepresented.”

This was the constituency to whom Joe devoted his professional life. His convictions and deep thoughtfulness, intellect, integrity, industry, empathy and honour were formed early. Joe was the son of teachers who found virtue in advancing dignity, service, and faith with enlightenment. His Dad, an economics teacher from Okporo in then Orlu Division of Imo State, built life in Agbor in the old Mid-West.

Born 18 October 1965, primary school commenced for Joe at the end of the civil war at the Agbor Model School. His high school began in the famous Edo College in Benin-City in 1977, ending in 1982 at the Ika Grammar School in Agbor, where his Dad served also as the Vice-Principal.

As Africans, the investment in rituals of naming have rich symbolism. When Joe was born, his parents summed up their hopes and beliefs in the name that they gave to the first of their seven children, “Chu’ma” (God knows). It was a confession of total submission to the Almighty. It is also the one consolation that we are left with at his passing.

Most lawyers retail their skills, and are content to do their cases. Joe did his law wholesale. He took charge of upstream lawyering and chose to deploy his skills in building institutions, transforming how they are run, and taking hope to the poor and excluded. Untimely as his passing is, Joseph Chu’ma Otteh has left us with the most durable and consequential impact any professional could hope for in the FREP Rules 2009. He is survived by his mum, Adanma; his wife, Ogechi; their children – Chidimso, Samantha, and Ikechi; and siblings.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sometimes after a long, productive day, I only have the energy to scroll on social media and lie on my couch. Apparently what I experience is common enough to have its own name.

“Functional freeze” is a mind-body response to stress and overwhelm that typically involves having a hard time choosing which task to complete next, and instead spending hours in one spot, says Liz Tenuto, who has a degree in psychology and is an instructor of somatic exercise.

Sometimes a person can get their tasks done during the day, but “then when they get home and when they finish everything, they just completely crash out and have a hard time getting out of bed,” says Tenuto, who is known on social media as “The Workout Witch.” 

“Essentially,” when this happens, she says, you’re “conserving as much energy as possible before you start tomorrow.”

Here are some signs to watch out for:

• Feeling emotionally numb and often disassociating
• Self-isolating and no longer feeling social
• Having sleep issues or feeling constantly exhausted
• Excessive social media use
• Spending too much time watching TV

 “Movement is the best way to come out,” Tenuto says. But you don’t want to exhaust yourself with intense exercise. Instead she suggests micro-movements like breathwork or pulling on your ears, working your way up or down the length of each lobe.

The next time I feel glued to my bed after a busy day, I’ll try gentle exercises to slowly boost my energy instead of making myself feel bad for being exhausted.

CNBC

U.S. forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites in a "very successful attack," President Donald Trumpsaid on Saturday, adding that the crown jewel of Tehran's nuclear program, Fordow, is gone.

After days of deliberation, Trump's decision to join Israel's military campaign against its major rival Iran represents a major escalation of the conflict.

"All planes are safely on their way home," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, and he congratulated "our great American Warriors."

He was due to deliver a televised Oval Office address at 10 p.m. ET (0200 GMT).

CBS News reported that the U.S. reached out to Iran diplomatically on Saturday to say the strikes are all the U.S. plans and that regime change efforts are not planned.

Trump said U.S. forces struck Iran's three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Esfahan and Fordow. He told Fox News six bunker buster bombs were dropped on Fordow, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired against other nuclear sites.

U.S. B-2 bombers were involved in the strikes, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow," Trump posted. "Fordow is gone."

"IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR," he added.

Reuters had reported earlier on Saturday the movement of the B-2 bombers, which can be equipped to carry massive bombs that experts say would be needed to strike Fordow, which is buried under a mountain.

An Iranian official, cited by Tasnim news agency, confirmed that part of the Fordow site was attacked by "enemy airstrikes."

Israel's public broadcaster Kan cited an Israeli official saying the country was "in full coordination" with Washington on the U.S. attack.

A White House official said Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the strikes.

The strikes came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat that has resulted in deaths and injuries in both countries.

Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Diplomatic efforts by Western nations to stop the hostilities have been unsuccessful.

In recent days, Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have argued that Trump must receive permission from the U.S. Congress before committing the U.S. military to any combat against Iran.

Israeli military officials said earlier on Saturday that they had completed another series of strikes in southwestern Iran, having targeted dozens of military targets.

Israel launched attacks on June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.

At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities, in the worst conflict between the longtime enemies. More than 450 Iranian missiles have been fired towards Israel, according to the Israeli prime minister's office.

Israeli officials said 1,272 people have been injured since the beginning of the hostilities, with 14 in serious condition.

** Trump addresses the world

The U.S. president warned during his address that he will not hesitate to strike other targets in Iran if peace does not come quickly in the Middle East.”

There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” he said.

Trump said that while the nuclear facilities struck by the U.S. on Saturday were the most “lethal,” “there are many targets left.”

“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” he added.

** Trump says he worked ‘as a team’ with Israel’s prime minister to strike Iran

Trump said he worked “as a team” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the collaboration was “perhaps” like “no team has worked before.”

But Trump also noted that no military in the world except for the that of the U.S. could have pulled off the attack.

Trump called Iran “the bully of the Middle East” and warned of additional attacks if it didn’t make peace.

“If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,” Trump said at the White House after the bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities were announced earlier.

Trump portrayed the strike as a response to a long-festering problem, even if the objective was to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“For 40 years Iran has been saying death to America, death to Israel,” Trump said. “They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs.”

** Netanyahu welcomes US strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision to attack in a video message posted to X, directed to the American president.

“Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history,” he said. Netanyahu said the U.S. “has done what no other country on earth could do.”

Reuters/AP

Amid a global decline in trust in news media, Nigerians stand out as the most trusting audience in the world, according to the latest Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The 2025 edition of the report reveals that 68 per cent of Nigerians trust the news they consume—the highest level globally—surpassing Finland, long known for its strong media credibility, where 67 per cent of people say they trust the media. In stark contrast, only 22 per cent of people in Hungary and Greece said the same.

The study notes that trust in the media has steadily increased in Nigeria since 2021, despite ongoing threats to press freedom. The report links this rise in trust to Nigerians’ growing reliance on multiple sources for verifying news, their high interest in current affairs, and some modest improvements in the country’s press freedom scores.

However, the same report draws a sobering picture of the global media landscape: overall trust in the news has stagnated at 40 per cent, while media avoidance is rising, with four in ten people worldwide saying they sometimes or often avoid the news, up sharply from 29 per cent in 2017. Reasons for this avoidance include negative emotional impact (39 per cent), feeling overwhelmed (31 per cent), excessive conflict coverage (30 per cent), and a sense of helplessness (20 per cent).

The situation is even more complex among younger audiences, many of whom find news “too hard to understand.” The spread of AI-generated content is also adding to public skepticism, with increasing concern over information overload and authenticity.

In Nigeria, where press freedom remains under serious threat, journalists continue to operate in a hostile environment. During the 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented at least 56 assaults or detentions of journalists by security forces. Groups such as the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have since called for international intervention to protect press freedom.

Interestingly, the report found that high levels of trust in news often coexist with low levels of press freedom, suggesting a complex relationship between media credibility and political context.

When it comes to news consumption habits, 94 per cent of Nigerians rely on online platforms, with 79 per cent getting their news primarily from social media, 65 per cent from television, and only 34 per cent from print publications.

Yet, while online platforms dominate, they also contribute to the spread of misinformation. Globally, influencers and politicians were identified as the most frequent sources of misleading content, a concern echoed by 58 per cent of Nigerians and 59 per cent of Kenyans, who worry that these figures struggle to differentiate truth from falsehood online.

The report concludes by warning that low trust levels and high misinformation risks threaten the foundation of democratic societies. It urges news publishers to embrace radical transparency, and to rebuild credibility through accuracy, impartiality, and original reporting—even as these ideals face growing skepticism in polarised environments.

The Digital News Report 2025 is based on an online survey of nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries, offering one of the most comprehensive snapshots of global media attitudes, habits, and challenges.

A devastating suicide bombing carried out by a female assailant late Friday night has left at least 24 people dead and over 30 others injured in Konduga, Borno State—one of the deadliest such attacks in recent months.

According to local sources and security officials, the bomber detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) at a crowded food joint and fish market around 10 p.m., targeting civilians in the restive northeastern town. The explosion tore through the evening gathering, killing the bomber and scores of innocent victims. Only the bomber’s head was reportedly recovered intact.

Police authorities confirmed the attack in a statement issued Saturday by Borno State police spokesperson, Nahum Kenneth Daso. He said the bomber had infiltrated the crowd before detonating the IED. Victims with severe injuries were rushed to nearby hospitals for urgent treatment, while the bodies of the deceased were deposited in a local morgue.

Eyewitnesses and local residents suggest the casualty figures could rise, as many of the wounded are in critical condition. A joint security team—comprising military personnel, police, members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), and local hunters—has cordoned off the area, stepping up patrols to forestall further violence.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram and its splinter factions, which have carried out similar assaults over the years. Konduga has remained a flashpoint in the 16-year Islamist insurgency that has ravaged Borno and neighboring states, killing tens of thousands and displacing over two million people.

The Friday night attack comes less than a year after a similar bombing in Konduga killed 17 people in August 2024, underscoring the continued vulnerability of civilian spaces despite repeated claims of progress in counterterrorism efforts.

Iran must now 'make peace', says Trump after US strikes on nuclear sites

Summary

• The US has bombed Fordo and other nuclear sites in Iran
  In an address from the White House, Trump warned Iran must make peace or future attacks will be "far greater"
  He called the strikes on Fordo and and two other nuclear sites a "spectacular military success"
  Iranian state media says part of the Fordo site was "attacked by enemy strikes", however authorities are yet to confirm the extent of damage
• Earlier, Iran's foreign minister said US involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict would be "very very dangerous" while in Istanbul to meet the Turkish president

Trump's message to Iran - negotiate or expect more strikes

Trump's message to the Iranian regime was short, simple and direct: come to the negotiating table, or more strikes will come.

"If they do not, future attacks will be far greater," he said. "And a lot easier."

In the lead-up to the attacks, Trump had repeatedly - at least publicly - left room for negotiations to continue.

Now, he continues to leave the path open, but with the threat of further American strikes looming over Iran's leadership.

"There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days," he said.

Notably, Trump did not explicitly mention the possibility of regime change in Tehran. Instead, he made it clear the US considers the operation largely over. But if - and only if - Iran comes to the table.

The US has moved considerable military assets to the region, which suggests, as Trump noted, that the US is ready to move extremely quickly if the president so chooses.

Israel and US worked as 'a team'

Trump says thousands were killed by Iran's former military commander Qasem Soleimani.

"I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen, it will not continue."

He also congratulates Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they worked as a "team" to erase this "horrible threat to Israel".

Trump remarks lasted for about four minutes.

BBC

Israeli-backed group seeks at least $30 million from US for aid distribution in Gaza

An American-led group has asked the Trump administration to step in with an initial $30 million so it can continue its much scrutinized and Israeli-backed aid distribution in Gaza, according to three U.S. officials and the organization’s application for the money.

That application, obtained by The Associated Press, also offers some of the first financial details about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its work in the territory. That includes a projection of a $150 million monthly budget once the group’s current aid sites fully gear up — an amount equal to $1.8 billion a year.

The foundation says it has provided millions of meals in southern Gaza since late May to Palestinians as Israel’s blockade and military campaign have driven the Gaza to the brink of famine.

The group’s funding application was submitted to the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the U.S. officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The application was being processed this week as potentially one of the agency’s last acts before the Republican administration absorbs USAID into the State Department as part of deep cuts in foreign assistance.

Two of the officials said they were told the administration has decided to award the money. They said the processing was moving forward with little of the review and auditing normally required before Washington makes foreign assistance grants to an organization.

In a letter submitted Thursday as part of the application, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secretary Loik Henderson said his organization “was grateful for the opportunity to partner with you to sustain and scale life-saving operations in Gaza.”

Neither the State Department nor Henderson immediately responded to requests for comment Saturday.

Israel says the foundation is the linchpin of a new aid system to wrest control from the United Nations, which Israel alleges has been infiltrated by Hamas, and other humanitarian groups. The foundation’s use of fixed sites in southern Gaza is in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to use aid to concentrate the territory’s more than 2 million people in the south, freeing Israel to fight Hamas elsewhere.

Aid workers fear it’s a step toward another of Netanyahu’s public goals, removing Palestinians from Gaza in “voluntary” migrations that aid groups and human rights organizations say would amount to coerced departures.

The U.N. and many leading nonprofit groups accuse the foundation of stepping into aid distribution with little transparency or humanitarian experience, and, crucially, without a commitment to the principles of neutrality and operational independence in war zones.

Since the organization started operations, several hundred Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in near-daily shootings as they tried to reach aid sites, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Witnesses say Israeli troops regularly fire heavy barrages toward the crowds in an attempt to control them.

The Israeli military has denied firing on civilians. It says it fired warning shots in several instance, and fired directly at a few “suspects” who ignored warnings and approached its forces.

It’s unclear who is funding the new operation in Gaza. No donor has come forward. The State Department said this past week that the United States is not funding it.

In documents supporting its application, the group said it received nearly $119 million for May operations from “other government donors,” but gives no details. It expects $38 million from those unspecific government donors for June, in addition to the hoped-for $30 million from the United States.

The application shows no funding from private philanthropy or any other source.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia conducts heavy missile and drone strike on Ukrainian military airfield – MOD

The Russian military struck a military airfield and energy infrastructure in Ukraine in an overnight attack involving missiles and kamikaze drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said that the attack, which was carried out with high-precision air-, land-, and sea-based weapons, as well as explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles, targeted the infrastructure of a military airfield and an energy facility that supplied Ukrainian forces in Donbass with fuel.

“The goal of the strike has been accomplished. All designated targets have been hit,” Russian military officials reported, without disclosing the location of the targets.

In a separate statement on Saturday, the ministry claimed that Russian warplanes, drones, missiles, and artillery had destroyed several UAV production workshops, as well as ammunition depots in Ukraine.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported a massive Russian strike on energy infrastructure in the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Region.

The Ukrainian military estimated that Russia deployed nearly 300 kamikaze drones, and eight missiles in its overnight attack.

In recent weeks, Russia has launched a series of strikes, targeting Ukrainian military-related facilities, after Kiev significantly ramped up its own cross-border drone strikes. Moscow has described the escalation as Kiev’s attempt to derail the ongoing Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that a combined strike, similar in style to the one reported on Saturday, hit military-industrial facilities in Kiev Region, as well as in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine asks allies to allocate 0.25% of GDP to boost its weapon production

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukraine's Western partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to helping Kyiv ramp up weapons production and said the country plans to sign agreements this summer to start exporting weapon production technologies.

In remarks released for publication by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was in talks with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania to launch joint weapon production.

"Ukraine is part of Europe's security and we want 0.25% of the GDP of a particular partner country to be allocated for our defence industry and domestic production," Zelenskiy said.

As the war with a bigger and better-equipped Russia has intensified in recent weeks, Ukraine's need for new weapons and ammunition is constantly growing.

This year Kyiv had secured $43 billion to finance its domestic weapon production, Zelenskiy said.

Member nations of the NATO military allianceare expected to meet next week in The Hague, to discuss higher defence spending.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has proposed that countries should each agree to spend 5% of their GDP on defence and security measures.

Zelenskiy said he was likely to visit the NATO summit, adding that several meetings with Western leaders had been set up on the sidelines. He also said that he hoped to meet U.S. President Donald Trump.

Last week, Zelenskiy attended the Group of Seven summit in Canada as he sought to discuss stronger sanctions against Russia and more military support for Ukraine with Trump there.

But he failed to meet with the U.S. President as Trump left a day early for Washington to address the Israel-Iran conflict.

Ukraine currently covers about 40% of its defence needs with domestic production, and the government is constantly looking for ways to increase production further.

Kyiv plans to launch joint weapon production outside of the country and will start exporting some of its military production technologies, Zelenskiy said.

"We have launched a program 'Build with Ukraine' and in summer we will sign relevant agreements to start exporting our technologies abroad in the format of opening production lines in European countries," Zelenskiy said.

The discussions focused on producing different types of drones, missiles, and potentially artillery, he said.

RT/Reuters