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War & Peace
India, Pakistan Accuse Each Other of Violating New Cease-Fire
Leaders around the world have urged de-escalation between the nuclear-armed nations since the massacre in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
May 10, 2025
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
India and Pakistan accused each other of violating a cease-fire that had been announced Saturday by officials from both countries and U.S. President Donald Trump amid global fears of escalating tit-for-tat strikes between the nuclear-armed neighbors in the wake of last month's Pahalgam massacre in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
"Within hours, blasts were reported from the main cities of Indian Kashmir, the center of four days of fighting," Reutersreported, citing authorities, residents, and witnesses. "Blasts were heard in Srinagar and Jammu, and projectiles and flashes were seen in the night sky over Jammu, similar to the events of the previous evening."
Drop Site News noted that Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri accused Pakistan of "repeated violations" of the deal.
However, Pakistan's information minister, Ataullah Tarar, toldGeo News, that "violation of cease-fire agreement from our side is out of question."
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs later released a statement saying that it "remains committed to faithful implementation" of the deal, accusing India of committing violations, and stressing that troops on the ground "should also exercise restraint."
Earlier Saturday, the Indian minister, Misri, had confirmed the cease-fire agreement, saying that "it was agreed that both sides would stop all firing and military action on land and in the air and sea."
Indian officials have not publicly credited the United States for the deal, while Pakistani leaders have. Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar "specifically acknowledged the role played by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the process," according toGeo News.
Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, said on social media that "we thank President Trump for his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region."
The U.S. president had said on his Truth Social platform: "After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Leaders around the world, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, have urged diplomacy and restraint since militants attacked Hindu tourists and killed 26 people in Kashmir last month.
After Saturday's cease-fire announcement, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. chief, toldPTI that "we are monitoring but we welcome all efforts to de-escalate the conflict."
Sources from India and Pakistan's governments toldReuters that the Indus Waters Treaty was not part of the deal. India withdrew from the decades-old water-sharing pact after the April attack in Kashmir.
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'Civilized People Do Not Starve Children to Death': Sanders Rips Israel's Gaza Aid Blockade
"What we are seeing now is a slow, brutal process of mass starvation and death by the denial of basic necessities," the senator said, calling for an end to U.S. complicity in the humanitarian disaster.
May 08, 2025
"Today marks 68 days and counting since ANY humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza. For more than nine weeks, Israel has blocked all supplies: no food, no water, no medicine, and no fuel."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) not only highlighted those conditions in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday but also called out the fact that the worsening humanitarian crisis "gets very little discussion here in the nation's capital or in the halls of Congress," even though Israel has spent the past 19 months destroying Gaza with armed and diplomatic support from the United States.
"Hundreds of truckloads of lifesaving supplies are waiting to enter Gaza, sitting just across the border, but are denied entry by Israeli authorities," Sanders pointed out, echoing the U.S. nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which said Wednesday that it "no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread," but "our trucks—loaded with food and supplies—are waiting in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, ready to enter Gaza."
The senator took aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territory, and key members of his administration.
"There is no ambiguity here: Netanyahu's extremist government talks openly about using humanitarian aid as a weapon," Sanders declared. "Defense Minister Israel Katz said, 'Israel's policy is clear: No humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers.'"
"The time is long overdue for us to end our support for Netanyahu's destruction of the Palestinian people."
Noting that Israel's actions run afoul of U.S. and international law, Sanders said: "Starving children to death as a weapon of war is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency. Civilized people do not starve children to death. What is going on in Gaza is a war crime, committed openly and in broad daylight, and continuing every single day."
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians. According to local officials, at least 57 Palestinians have died from malnutrition and a lack of adequate medical care. Many more are struggling to find food and water, particularly since Israel ramped up its blockade on March 2.
"With Israel having cut off all aid, what we are seeing now is a slow, brutal process of mass starvation and death by the denial of basic necessities. This is methodical, it is intentional, it is the stated policy of the Netanyahu government," said Sanders. "Without fuel, there is no ability to pump fresh water, leaving people increasingly desperate, unable to find clean water to drink, or wash with, or cook properly. Disease is once again spreading in Gaza."
Families in Gaza "are now surviving on scarce canned goods," and "the starvation hits children hardest," the senator continued. "With no infant formula, and with malnourished mothers unable to breastfeed, many infants are also at severe risk of death."
"What is going on in Gaza today is a manmade nightmare," one that "will be a permanent stain on the world's collective conscience," he said. "History will never forget that we allowed this to happen and, for us here in the United States, that we, in fact, enabled this ongoing atrocity."
Sanders has moved to block some U.S. weapons sales under both the Biden and second Trump administrations, but his efforts have not garnered enough support in Congress to succeed. Still, people across the United States and around the world have condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza as genocide—and Israel faces a case on the subject at the International Court of Justice.
The senator spotlighted Israel's latest plan for Gaza, Operation Gideon's Chariots, which involves "conquering" and indefinitely occupying the territory, and ethnically cleansing the region of its Palestinian inhabitants, who would be force into the south.
"This would be a terrible tragedy, no matter where in the world it was happening or why it was happening—whatever the causes of it might be. But what makes this tragedy so much worse for us in America is that it is our government, the United States government, that is absolutely complicit in creating and sustaining this humanitarian disaster," he said.
"It didn't just happen," Sanders emphasized. "Last year alone, the United States provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel. This year, the Trump administration has approved $12 billion more in bombs and weapons."
For months, U.S. President Donald Trump "has offered blanket support for Netanyahu," the senator said. "More than that, he has repeatedly said that the United States will actually take over Gaza after the war, that the Palestinian people will be driven—forcibly expelled—from their homeland, and the United States will redevelop it into what Trump calls 'the Riviera of the Middle East,' a playground for billionaires."
Citing unnamed sources, Reutersreported Wednesday that "the United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza," sparking global criticism and comparisons to the U.S. misadventures in Iraq in the early 2000s.
US, Israel discuss possible US-led administration for Gaza Yes, cause the American occupation in Iraq famously went really well www.reuters.com/world/middle...
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— Nick Cunningham (@nickcunningham.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 11:55 AM
"This war has killed or injured more than 170,000 people in Gaza. It has cost American taxpayers well over $20 billion in the last year. And right now, as we speak, thousands of children are starving to death," Sanders detailed. "And the U.S. president is actively encouraging the ethnic cleansing of over 2 million people."
"Given that reality, one might think that there would be a vigorous discussion right here in the Senate: Do we really want to spend billions of taxpayer dollars starving children in Gaza?" the senator bellowed. "You tell me why spending billions of dollars to support Netanyahu's war and starving children in Gaza is a good idea. I'd love to hear it."
Sanders then made the case that the U.S. Senate isn't having that debate "because we have a corrupt campaign finance system" that allows organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to set the agenda in Washington, D.C. He pointed to AIPAC and its super political action committee spending over $100 million in the latest election cycle.
"And the fact is that, if you are a member of Congress and you vote against Netanyahu's war in Gaza, AIPAC is there to punish you with millions of dollars in advertisements to see that you're defeated," he said. "Sadly, I must confess, that this political corruption works. Many of my colleagues will privately express their horror at Netanyahu's war crimes, but will do or say very little publicly about it."
"The time is long overdue for us to end our support for Netanyahu's destruction of the Palestinian people. We must not put another nickel into Netanyahu's war machine," he concluded. "We must demand an immediate cease-fire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza—not for billionaires to enjoy their Riviera there, but rebuilding Gaza for the Palestinian people."
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'Assault on Children': UNRWA Condemns Israeli Raids on East Jerusalem Schools
"Now, nearly 800 girls and boys—some as young as 6 years old—are left in shock and trauma."
May 08, 2025
Israeli occupation forces enforced a ban on the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday by storming three schools in East Jerusalem, terrorizing children and staff as they shuttered the facilities and drawing condemnation from human rights defenders.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, heavily armed Israeli security forces raided the schools in the Shu'fat refugee camp in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, detaining one UNRWA employee and forcing around 550 children out of their classrooms as the invaders closed the facilities.
"As a result, UNRWA was forced to evacuate all children across the six schools it runs in East Jerusalem," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said. "Now, nearly 800 girls and boys—some as young as 6 years old—are left in shock and trauma."
"Storming schools and forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law," Lazzarini added. "These schools are inviolable premises of the United Nations. By enforcing closure orders issued last month, the Israeli authorities are denying Palestinian children their basic right to learn. UNRWA schools must continue to be open to safeguard an entire generation of children."
The International Court of Justice—which is also weighing a genocide case against Israel over the U.S.-backed Gaza onslaught—is considering whether the Israeli government's ban on UNRWA violates international law.
Hundreds of UNRWA staffers and their relatives have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Israel has bombed many UNRWA schools-turned-shelters in Gaza, including a Tuesday "double-tap" airstrike on school in the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed at least 30 of the more than 2,000 people sheltering there.
UNRWA officials also accuse Israeli forces of torturing kidnapped agency workers in a bid to elicit false confessions that they took part in the October 7, 2023 attack. UNRWA and much of the international community have condemned such allegations as baseless.
In the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall in January. Israel says the invasion is targeting resistance fighters largely based in West Bank refugee camps. However, tens of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced by the offensive, which has killed numerous civilians.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 900 Palestinians including nearly 200 children have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023. Attacks by Israeli settler-colonists, sometimes aided by Israeli troops, have also killed, wounded, displaced, and terrorized West Bank residents as Israel's far-right government forges ahead with plans to steal more land from Palestinians, ethnically cleanse them, and open the door to further Israeli colonization.
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'We Have No More Food,' Says World Central Kitchen Amid Israeli Attacks and Deadly Starvation
"Our trucks—loaded with food and supplies—are waiting in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, ready to enter Gaza," said WCK founder José Andrés. "But they cannot move without permission."
May 08, 2025
After serving more than 130 million meals and distributing 26 million loaves of bread to Gazans over the past 18 months, even after repeated—and critics say deliberate—Israeli massacres of its staff, World Central Kitchen said Wednesday that it has no more food left to prepare as Israel continues to block lifesaving aid from entering the embattled enclave and more Palestinians starve to death.
"World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza," the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit said in a statement. "We have no more food to prepare."
"We have now reached the limits of what is possible."
"Since Israel closed border crossings in early March, WCK has been unable to replenish the stocks of food that we use to feed hundreds of thousands of Gazans daily," the group continued, referring to Israel's tightening of the 579-day "complete siege" imposed on the Palestinian territory after the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
"In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination," WCK said. "We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread."
"By constantly adapting over the past weeks, we were cooking 133,000 meals daily at our two remaining WCK field kitchens and baking 80,000 loaves of bread each day," the charity added. "But we have now reached the limits of what is possible."
WCK kept serving Gaza even after Israeli airstrikes killed 11 of its staff members.
In April 2024, seven members of a WCK aid team were killed when their clearly marked convoy was bombed in Deir al-Balah, despite receiving travel clearance from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which knew exactly where the vehicles were. Renowned Spanish-American chef José Andrés, who founded WCK in 2010—and was a vocal defender of Israel—called the attack "deliberate" as some Israelis took to social media to mock the slain humanitarians.
Seven months later, Israel bombed a WCK vehicle traveling in Khan Younis, killing three of the group's staffers. A "double-tap" follow-up strike killed two bystanders who attempted to help the initial victims.
In March 2025, a WCK volunteer was killed by an Israeli airstrike near one of the charity's Gaza facilities.
The slain WCK staffers are among the more than 400 humanitarian workers killed by Israeli bombs or bullets in Gaza, where more than 52,600 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been slaughteredd and over 118,700 others wounded since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Upward of 14,000 Gazans are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. Nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, while starvation and sickness ravage the besieged strip.
Deadly malnutrition—which has claimed the lives of at least dozens of Gazans, mostly children—has increased markedly since Israel's March 2 lockdown. Local officials say that at least 57 Palestinians have died from malnutrition combined with lack of adequate medical care. One of the most recent victims was 4-month-old Jenan Saleh al-Skafi, who died of severe malnutrition in al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City on May 2.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 65,000 children in Gaza require urgent treatment for severe malnutrition.
Israel—which is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice—stands accused of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Israeli leaders including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have endorsed bombing Gaza's food stores and other humanitarian aid. Ben-Gvir claimed Republican leaders in the United States, which provides Israel with diplomatic cover and tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, agree with his stance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, where he is wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination and forced starvation, has backed his ministers' calls to starve Gaza.
Despite the growing starvation in Gaza, Israel is making it harder for foreign-based nongovernmental organizations to register and operate in Palestine by imposing what European lawmakers this week called "purposely vague" and "highly discretionary" new rules.
Although it is out of food, WCK said it is still able to distribute desperately needed potable water to Palestinians in Gaza.
"Our pots may be empty, our cooking fires snuffed out—but World Central Kitchen will keep serving," said Andrés. "Our trucks—loaded with food and supplies—are waiting in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, ready to enter Gaza. But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow."
WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi asserted that "the borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need."
"If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies," he added, "we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day."
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