Six-year-old Fadi al-Zant is one of many acutely malnourished children at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where famine is bearing down.

Sderot

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is 'at war' following a surprise attack from Gaza by Hamas militants.

Israel-Gaza War

In the Kamal Adwan hospital located in northern Gaza, wards are increasingly being filled with acutely malnourished children, exemplified by the case of six-year-old Fadi al-Zant. The region is facing a severe famine that has instigated a dire health crisis, especially among its youngest inhabitants. The situation is sparking concern among healthcare professionals and aid organizations, as the number of children affected by malnutrition continues to rise.



In Gaza, starving kids fill wards as famine sets in

Six-year-old Ferdie Azant is acutely malnourished. His spindly legs can no longer support him to walk. He is confined to a bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where famine is bearing down. Ferdie suffers from cystic fibrosis. This is him before the war with his twin, and dancing at a wedding. You didn't feel he was ill, his mother Shemar says. He went to kindergarten with his brother like any other child. Then she says, Ferdie was taking medicine that his family can no longer find, and eating a balanced diet, vegetables, fruits, and his favourite, grilled chicken. Ferdie's condition began to deteriorate about two months ago. He'd sometimes have ten bouts of diarrhoea a night. Before the war, he weighed 66 pounds. Now his mother says, just 26. Dehydration from diarrhoea, rampant in the tent cities many Gazans now live in, hastens malnutrition. Without urgent action, famine will hit between now and May in northern Gaza, where 300,000 people are trapped by fighting. That's according to the World's Hunger Watchdog, the Integrated Food Security Phase classification, on Monday. If the war continues, his condition is getting worse. He is getting weaker. He keeps losing things. He can no longer walk. He can no longer stand. When I help him stand up, he falls straight away. He cannot hold himself. Kamal Adwan has treated most of the 27 children the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says have died of malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks. Reuters couldn't verify that number. More than five months into Israel's ground-and-air assault, launched in response to Hamas' October 7 attack, there are widespread shortages of food, medicine and clean water in Gaza, doctors and aid agencies say. The Israeli military body that handles aid transfers to Gaza did not specifically answer Reuters' questions about the deaths of children from hunger and dehydration. It said Israel put no limits on how much aid can enter. Here at the Al-Aouda Center in Rafah in the south, Ummesbah Hedji says her five-year-old daughter Isra suffers from quadriplegia, epilepsy and now malnutrition. Her medication is no longer available, and she has lost a lot of weight. Displaced like nearly all Gazans, the family now lives in a camp with no work or money. I die 1,000 times a day. I feel bad for her when I see her having spasms. There's no medication. She's hungry. She's hungry. The ward nurse, Amira Aboujaoued, says the hospital is unable to get enough milk for the children. The situation is catastrophic. Every day it gets worse. The children here are suffering from malnutrition. We see it in a frightening way each day. We have five to 10 cases of children who have severe deficiency in nutrition, especially milk. On March 4, 12-year-old Yazan al-Khafana, who had cerebral palsy, died in southern Gaza, days after Reuters took these photographs. As well as for children like Fadi, Isra and Yazan, who have pre-existing medical conditions, risks are rapidly rising for many other kids in Gaza, U.N. agencies say. Children's agency UNICEF said last week nearly one in three children under two in northern Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition, twice as many as in January. It found that 4.5 percent of children had severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.

Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul killed 39 people, with another 68 still missing, the state civil defense agency said Friday, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.

Rio Grande

Record-breaking rain hits southern Brazil

A former immigration detainee has been bailed after allegedly threatening police with a knife in Melbourne. It follows the recent violent home invasion allegedly committed by another released detainee in Western Australia Pressure is mounting on Federal Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to be held to account.

Canberra

Pressure mounts on Immigration Minister after latest detainee incident

Mexican authorities have reportedly discovered a fourth body near the cliff site where Perth brothers Jake and Callum Robinson disappeared, along with their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad. The Australian family of the brothers are en route to Mexico. The bodies are yet to be formally identified.

Ensenada

Fourth body discovered in Mexico search for Australian brothers

Ukraine is eagerly waiting for Western aid as Russia racks up more victories on the battlefield. Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on a visit to Kyiv gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use British weapons to strike directly at Russia.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

U.K. allows its weapons to be used on Russian soil

Canadian police have charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.

Surrey

Canada police charge three with murder of Sikh leader

China has launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to retrieve rocks and soil from the far side of the moon, the first country to make such an ambitious attempt.

Wenchang

China launches mission to far side of the moon

Britain's opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday (May 3) and control of several councils, inflicting heavy losses on the governing Conservatives to pile more pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

London

U.K.'s Labour claims big early win over Conservatives

Turkey has announced that it is halting trade with Israel, worth $7 billion a year, until a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid are secured in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision as breaking trade agreements.

Ankara

Turkey to stop trade with Israel until Gaza ceasefire

Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders warned of declining government support for press freedom as it unveiled its annual world rankings on Friday, highlighting Argentina among the countries where the situation has deteriorated.

Paris

States doing less to support press freedom, says watchdog

Arizona's Democratic governor signed a bill overturning an 1864 law banning abortion, a month after the state's supreme court said the Civil War-era rule was valid.

Arizona

Arizona governor signs bill repealing 1864 abortion ban

U.S. President Joe Biden said that both freedom of speech and the rule of law must be respected in protests at college campuses over Israel's war in Gaza. In response to a reporter's question, Biden said that the campus protests had not forced him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East.

Washington

Biden breaks silence on protests at University Campuses

From suspensions to expulsions to criminal charges, college students across the U.S. involved in these pro-Palestinian protests could face life-changing consequences. Some are demanding amnesty for these protesters.

New York

More than 1,000 student protesters arrested across U.S.

English voters are heading to polling stations to pick mayors, councilors and a new lawmaker in the last electoral test for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before a national vote later this year.

Voters head to polls in last test for U.K.'s Sunak

The US State Department accused Russia of having used a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, while also announcing fresh sanctions against Moscow. In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, Russia also used "riot control agents (tear gas) as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC," the department said in a factsheet.

Zaporizhzhia

U.S. accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine

There are grave concerns for Perth brothers Jake and Callum Robinson who are missing on a surf trip in Mexico's Baja region. The pair have failed to arrive at their accommodation and are not responding to contact from their families.

Council of the City of Sydney

Grave fears for brothers missing on Mexico surf trip

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has kept open the prospect of tax incentives in the budget as business warned that changes to foreign investment laws. It comes amid criticism that budget spending could prompt further inflation and prompt rate rises.

Government hints at further tax incentives in Budget

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says his country will break diplomatic relations with Israel. He's criticised Israel's conduct since the start of the war on Gaza. Petro requested to join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.

Bogotá

Colombia ends diplomatic relations with Israel

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, pushing to get more aid into Gaza, while urging Hamas to accept a deal that would halt fighting and bring some hostages home from the enclave.

Jerusalem

Blinken pushes for sustained aid into Gaza during Israel trip

Police in Georgia fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters demonstrating against a bill that would require organizations – including media and NGOs – that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents "pursuing the interests of a foreign power." The bill has been dubbed the "Russian law" by its detractors.

Tbilisi

Thousands protest against Georgia's 'foreign influence' bill

A diplomatic push is underway to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, with the U.S. exerting pressure on Hamas to agree to Israel's terms. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to attack Rafah in southern Gaza, whether there's a ceasefire or not.

Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah 'with or without' ceasefire deal

Qantas has apologised to customers after its app exposed personal passenger data. The airline blames a technical disruption and says the data breach was not a cyber security incident.

Qantas app data breach exposes customer data

The International Court of Justice has ruled against issuing emergency measures over German arms sales to Israel as requested by Nicaragua, which had argued that there was a serious risk of genocide in Gaza amid Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory.

The Hague

ICJ rejects measures over German arms exports to Israel

New York police have entered Columbia University and arrested protesters barricaded inside a building who have been calling on the New York school to divest itself from companies associated with Israel.

Police enter Columbia University, arrest protesters

A smiling and healthy-looking King Charles returned to public duties on Tuesday (April 30) for the first time since he was diagnosed in February with cancer, paying a visit to a treatment center for the disease in London.

King Charles returns to public duties, visits cancer center

A 14-year-old boy is dead and multiple people injured after a daylight sword attack in Hainault, in east London. The alleged attacker tasered and arrested by Police shortly afterwards.

Hainault

Teenage boy killed in London sword attack

Brittany Higgins has failed in a bid to delay a defamation trial brought against her by Senator Linda Reynolds over social media posts made in July last year. Fiancé David Sharaz, also named in the case, calling for the Senator to drop the case.

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Israel-Gaza War