‘They are torn to pieces, I don’t know if I’m saying goodbye to my son or my daughter.’ Palestinians are grieving 11 members of a family killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City, the deadliest single violation of the shaky ceasefire, just days after it came into effect.
Published On 19 Oct 202519 Oct 2025
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Strike on civilian vehicle by Israeli military in Gaza City marks deadliest violation of eight-day ceasefire with Hamas.
Israeli forces have killed 11 members of a Palestinian family in Gaza, the deadliest single violation of the fragile ceasefire since it took effect eight days ago.
The attack happened on Friday evening when a tank shell was fired by Israeli forces at a civilian vehicle carrying the Abu Shaaban family in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to Gaza’s civil defence.
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Seven children and three women were among those killed when the Israeli military fired on the vehicle as the family attempted to reach their home to inspect it, civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said in a statement.
“They could have been warned or dealt with differently,” Basal said, adding that “what happened confirms that the occupation is still thirsty for blood, and insists on committing crimes against innocent civilians.”
Hamas condemned what it called a “massacre” and said the family was targeted without justification. The group called on United States President Donald Trump and mediators to pressure Israel to respect the ceasefire agreement.
In that attack, Israeli soldiers opened fire on people who crossed the so-called “yellow line”, the demarcation to which Israel’s military was supposed to pull back under the ceasefire terms.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Gaza, said many Palestinians lack internet access and are unaware of where Israeli forces remain positioned along the demarcation lines, putting families at risk.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that the yellow lines in Gaza will be soon marked out for clarity.
Israeli forces remain in control of approximately 53 percent of Gaza, Khoudary said.
As the exchange of captives for Palestinian prisoners under the provisions of the deal has continued, Israel has killed at least 28 Palestinians, and heavily restricted the flow of desperately needed aid, including food and medical supplies.
Last week, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood, also in Gaza City.
Israel has continued to seal the Rafah crossing with Egypt and blocked other key border crossings, preventing large-scale aid deliveries into the enclave.
The United Nations warned this week that aid convoys are struggling to reach famine-hit areas, with 49 percent of people accessing less than six litres of drinking water per day – well below emergency standards.
The World Food Programme said it has brought an average of 560 tonnes of food daily into Gaza since the ceasefire began, far below what is needed to address widespread malnutrition and prevent famine.
Hamas has said it remains committed to the ceasefire terms, including returning the remains of Israeli captives still under Gaza’s rubble.
The group handed over the body of another captive on Friday evening, bringing the total to 10 since the truce began. Hamas said it needs heavy machinery and excavation equipment to retrieve more remains, but Israel has blocked their entry.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said by blocking heavy equipment and machinery from entering, Israel is creating “a challenge for the residents of Gaza who are experienced and have the expertise to search and to dig out bodies from under the rubble” with that type of equipment.
A COMMON sugar substitute used in fizzy drinks, yoghurts and gum could be used to combat one of the deadliest kinds of cancer.
Researchers fermented the zero calorie sweetener and tested it against pancreatic cancer – finding that it killed off malignant cells but didn’t harm healthy ones.
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Stevia is a shrub-like herb used to sweeten drinks and desserts instead of sugar, which can also be bought as powder or tablets.
Previous research has suggested that stevia leaf extracts could have potential “anticancer effects”.
But isolating specific substances within the herb that could help protect against cancer and using them has remained challenging.
Researchers from Hiroshima University suggested fermenting stevia with bacteria can structurally change the extract and produce bioactive metabolites – compounds that can impact living organisms.
Study author Masanori Sugiyama, a professor in the Department of Probiotic Science for Preventive Medicine, said fermentation – or “microbial bio-transformation” – could “enhance the pharmacological efficacy of natural plant extracts” like stevia.
The team tested their theory out against pancreatic cancer cells.
“Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumour of the digestive system with a poor prognosis,” co-author Prof Narandalai Danshiitsoodol said.
“Globally, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 per cent.
“The primary reason pancreatic cancer is considered one of the deadliest cancers is its subtle, insidious onset, with most patients being diagnosed at an advanced stage and missing the optimal treatment window.
“Furthermore, pancreatic cancer is highly invasive and prone to metastasis, showing significant resistance to existing treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, resulting in very limited therapeutic efficacy.
“Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new and effective anticancer compounds, particularly those derived from medicinal plants.”
Researchers used lactic acid bacteria to ferment stevia extracts.
They isolated over 1200 strains from fruits, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants and evaluated their health benefits.
They finally landed on Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T strain (FSLE) derived from banana leaves “to enhance the antioxidant and anticancer activities of stevia leaf extract through fermentation”.
They tested fermented and non-fermented stevia extracts against pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes.
Fermented stevia killed pancreatic cancer cells more efficiently than the non-fermented extract, the study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences found.
This suggested that “the fermentation process enhances the bioactivity of the [stevia] extract”, Prof Sugiyama said.
Researchers tested out different fermentation levels to see which was most effective against cancer cells.
PANCREATIC cancer doesn’t always cause symptoms in its early stages.
As the cancer grows and you do begin to show signs, these may come and go and be unspecific, making it hard to diagnose, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Common symptoms include:
Lower concentrations didn’t kill cancer cells immediately, but they slowed their growth.
Healthy kidney cells were mostly unaffected by the stevia extracts.
Researchers plan to study how fermented stevia affects cancer in mice next, to see how various dosages will work in living organisms.
“The present study has substantially enhanced our understanding of the mechanism of action of the Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T strain in the fermentation of herbal extracts, while also offering a valuable research perspective on the potential application of probiotics as natural anti-tumour agents,” Prof Danshiitsoodol said.
In the UK, about 10,800 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and 9,600 pass away from it, according to Cancer Research UK.
It’s the fifth most common cause of cancer death.
Since the early 1990s, pancreatic cancer incidence rates have increased by 18 per cent in the UK.
The disease is often diagnosed at a late stage because it frequently lacks noticeable symptoms in the early stages.
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can help extend patients’ lives.
A blood test to pick up early signs of pancreatic cancer is being trialled in patients with a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes – a known risk factor for the disease.
Meanwhile, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic have developed a new type of jab to fight pancreatic cancer.
BBC News & BBC Monitoring
Al-ZallaqaAl-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is the main group behind a surge in militant jihadist attacks sweeping across several West African nations, especially Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
On 1 July, the group said it had carried out a major coordinated attack on seven military locations in western Mali, including near the borders with Senegal and Mauritania.
There is growing concern about the impact JNIM could have on the stability of the region.
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have struggled to contain the violence – and this is one of the factors that contributed to several military coups in the three Sahel countries over the last five years.
But like the civilian governments they replaced, the juntas are seemingly unable to stem the growing jihadist threat, especially from JNIM.
JNIM has become one of Africa’s deadliest jihadist groups within the space of just a few years.
It was formed in Mali in 2017, as a coalition of five jihadist militant groups:
These groups started collaborating after the French military pushed back several jihadist and separatist organisations that were operating in northern Mali in 2012. Eventually, the leaders of the groups came together to create JNIM.
In recent years, they have expanded geographically, establishing new areas of operation.
JNIM is led by Iyad Ag Ghali, a former Malian diplomat who belongs to the Tuareg ethnic group. He was at the helm of the Tuareg uprising against the Malian government in 2012 which sought to establish an independent state for the Tuareg people called Azawad. Deputy leader Amadou Koufa is from the Fulani community.
Analysts believe the central leadership helps guide local branches which operate across the Sahel region of West Africa.
While it is difficult to know exactly how many fighters there are in JNIM’s ranks, or how many have recently been recruited, experts suggest it could be several thousand – mostly young men and boys who lack other economic opportunities in one of the poorest regions in the world.
The group rejects the authority of the Sahel governments, seeking to impose its strict interpretation of Islam and Sharia in the areas where it operates.
Analysts say that in some areas, JNIM has been known to impose strict dress codes, implement bans against music and smoking, order men to grow beards and prevent women from being in public spaces alone.
This version of Islam can be at odds with the religion as practised by local communities, says Yvan Guichaoua, a senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies.
“These practices are clearly breaking from established practices and certainly not very popular,” he says.
“But whether it’s attractive or not, also depends on what the state is able to deliver, and there has been a lot of disappointment in what the state has been doing for the past years.”
Disillusionment with the secular justice system can make the introduction of Sharia courts appealing to some.
After its beginnings in central and northern Mali, JNIM rapidly expanded its reach. While its strongholds are in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, JNIM has also carried out attacks in Benin, Togo and at one point Ivory Coast.
It is now operational throughout Mali and 11 of Burkina Faso’s 13 regions, according to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (Gi-Toc), a civil society organisation.
In the last year, Burkina Faso has become the epicentre of the group’s activities – predominately the northern and eastern border regions. This is, in part, because of divisions and defections in the country’s military as well as how deeply embedded the militants are in the local communities, according to Beverly Ochieng, a senior analyst for security consultancy firm Control Risk.
“JNIM have an ability to embed in local communities or to be able to use local grievances as a means of recruiting or winning sympathy towards their cause,” she told the BBC.
In recent months violent incidents have spiked in Burkina Faso to previously unseen levels, according to analysis from BBC Monitoring’s jihadist media team. Major attacks have also recently been carried out in Mali, Niger and Benin.
In the first half of 2025, JNIM said it carried out over 280 attacks in Burkina Faso – double the number for the same period in 2024, according to data verified by the BBC.
The group has claimed to have killed almost 1,000 people across the Sahel since April, most of them members of the security force or militias fighting alongside government forces, according to BBC Monitoring data.
Almost 800 of these have been in Burkina Faso alone. Casualties in Mali were the next highest (117) and Benin (74).
“The frequency of attacks in June is just unheard of so far,” says Mr Guichaoua. “They have really stepped up their activities in the past weeks.”
The militants use a variety of tactics designed to cause maximum disruption, Ms Ochieng explains.
“They plant IEDs [improvised explosive devices] on key roads, and have long-range capabilities.
“They [also] target security forces in military bases, so a lot of their weapons come from that. They have also attacked civilians – in instances where communities are perceived to be cooperating with the government.”
Starlink – a company owned by Elon Musk which provides internet via satellites – has also been exploited by groups like JNIM to enhance their capabilities, according to a recent report by Gi-Toc.
The company provides high-speed internet where regular mobile networks are unavailable or unreliable.
Militant groups smuggle Starlink devices into the country along well-established contraband routes, G-toch says.
“Starlink has made it much easier for [militant groups] to plan and execute attacks, share intelligence, recruit members, carry out financial transactions and maintain contacts with their commanders even during active conflict,” an analyst from Gi-Toc told the BBC’s Focus on Africa podcast.
The BBC has contacted Starlink for comment.
The group has multiple sources of income.
At one time in Mali, funds were raised through kidnapping foreigners for ransom but few remain in the country because of the deteriorating security situation.
Cattle-rustling has now become a major source of income, according to an analyst from Gi-Toc. They did not want to be named as it could risk their safety in Mali.
“Mali is a big exporter of cattle so it’s easy for them to steal animals and sell them,” the analyst said.
Research by Gi-Toc shows that in one year in just one district of Mali, JNIM made $770,000 (£570,000) from livestock. Based on this figure, JNIM could be earning millions of dollars from cattle theft.
JNIM also imposes various taxes, according to experts.
“They tax the gold, but basically tax anything that goes through their territory, whether that’s listed goods or illicit goods,” Gi-Toc says.
“There can be an extortion type of tax, where JNIM tell citizens they need to pay in return for protection.”
The militants have also been known to set up blockades, at which people must pay to leave and enter the area, according to Ms Ochieng.
France’s armed forces were on the ground supporting the government in Mali for almost a decade – with over 4,000 troops stationed across the Sahel region fighting groups that went on to form JNIM, as well as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
While they had some initial success in 2013 and 2014, reclaiming territory from the militants and killing several senior commanders, this did not stop JNIM’s growth after it was formed.
“Counterinsurgency efforts have failed so far because of this idea that JNIM can be beaten militarily, but it is only through negotiation that the group will end,” Gi-Toc’s analyst suggested.
In 2014, Sahelian countries banded together to form the G5 Sahel Task Force, a 5,000-strong group of international troops. However, over the past couple of years, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have withdrawn, undermining the task force’s ability to tackle the insurgency.
Minusma, the UN peacekeeping force – while not a counter-insurgency effort – was also in Mali for a decade to support efforts, however it left the country at the end of 2024.
Military coups took place in Mali in 2020 and 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023.
Poor governance under the military juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger subsequently has allowed militant groups like JNIM to flourish, according to analysts.
These juntas were swift to tell French troops to leave, replacing them with Russian support and a joint force formed by the three Sahelian countries.
Though Russian paramilitary group Wagner has withdrawn its troops from Mali entirely, Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary group, will remain in place.
In Burkina Faso, a so-called “volunteer” army, launched in 2020 before the military takeover, is one strategy being used to fight militants. Junta leader Ibrahim Traoré has said he wants to recruit 50,000 fighters.
But experts say many of these volunteers are conscripted by force. Inadequate training means they often suffer heavy casualties. They are also often a target for JNIM attacks.
The military juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali have also been accused by human rights organisations of committing atrocities against civilians, particularly ethnic Fulanis. Human rights group say the government often conflates the Fulani community with Islamist armed groups, which has furthered hampered peace efforts.
Between January 2024 and March 2025, the military government and their Russian allies were responsible for 1,486 civilian casualties in Mali, according to Gi-Toc.
This extreme violence against civilians has generated anger towards the government, fuelling further recruitment for JNIM.
Getty Images/BBC
Israel’s military killed more than 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds when it fired tank shells, machine guns and drones on a crowd seeking aid in Gaza, making it the deadliest day so far around sites of the Israel- and US-backed aid group GHF.
Published On 17 Jun 202517 Jun 2025
A NEW blood test to pick up early signs of a cancer which kills more than half of people within three months of diagnosis is being trialled by UK doctors.
The genomic test uses blood samples to look for markers of the deadly disease, which often has vague symptoms.
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Currently, the UK doesn’t have a national screening programme for pancreatic cancer like it does for breast or bowel cancer.
A huge issue is the disease is often diagnosed at a late stage because it frequently lacks noticeable symptoms in the early stages.
But a new pancreatic cancer test is being trialled in patients with a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes – a known risk factor for the disease.
People over 50 with a new case of type 2 diabetes have a higher chance of also being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer within three years.
Early data suggests the Avantect test is 68 per cent accurate in picking up people with early stages of the disease, which kills almost 10,000 people every year in the UK.
It’s also 97 per cent accurate in ruling out people without pancreatic cancer.
The new clinical trial has been launched at the Cancer Research UK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.
Zaed Hamady, consultant surgeon and pancreatic researcher at the University of Southampton, who’s leading the trial, said: “There is currently no targeted early detection or surveillance test for the disease meaning patients are often diagnosed late when they become really unwell.
“If we can develop approaches to detect the cancer sooner, then there are more options we may consider to treat the disease, and patients will have a much better chance of long-term survival.
“Although most people with diabetes will not go on to develop the disease, new onset diabetes is associated with a six to eight-fold increased risk.
“This patient group gives us a way to test how accurate the new diagnostic blood test is, and that could potentially help thousands of people in the future.”
According to researchers, newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients often have similar symptoms as a person with early-stage pancreatic cancer.
This is because the cancer destroys the same insulin-producing cells that are also destroyed in diabetes.
Sean Cleghorn’s wife, Allison, discovered she had pancreatic cancer at Christmas 2020 but died four weeks later aged 54.
Mr Cleghorn, a father of three from Kingsclere in Hampshire, said: “The only symptom Allison displayed was some slight indigestion and then she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the autumn of 2020.
“Allison had always eaten healthily, was active and avoided processed food, so this diagnosis was puzzling for us.
“When we learned that new-onset type 2 diabetes was a potential risk factor for pancreatic cancer, we asked for further testing and a scan confirmed she had terminal cancer.
“We hoped she could have chemotherapy to prolong her life, but she became too weak and died four weeks later.
“Perhaps if she had been diagnosed sooner with a test like the one that’s currently being trialled, we may have had time to make more memories with our three children.”
Angelica Cazaly, senior trial manager for the trial, said: “We are asking people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who are attending GP surgeries or diabetic clinics whether they would like to take part in the study.
“Initially, we will collect blood samples from 800 people for testing.
“The results from the test, together with medical information collected from each patient, will help provide researchers with important information on how best to proceed with the rest of the study that will evaluate how accurate the test is at predicting pancreatic cancer.”
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Around 10,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year and just one in 20 survive the disease for 10 years or more.
Samuel Levy, chief scientific officer of ClearNote Health, said: “Our early data demonstrate that our Avantect test can identify pancreatic cancer in stages I and II.
“We are excited to collaborate with the Cancer Research UK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust on this transformative study that could redefine how pancreatic cancer is detected and managed for patients at high risk.”
Dr Chris Macdonald, head of research at Pancreatic Cancer UK, said over 80 per cent of people with pancreatic cancer are currently diagnosed too late for treatment.
He added: “This is an exciting time for early detection research, with tests using blood, breath and urine in development which, if shown to be successful in clinical trials, could save thousands of lives every year.
“Early findings from these tests are very promising, but more research is needed to ensure that they are as accurate as possible before they will be available in the GP surgery.”
PANCREATIC cancer doesn’t always cause symptoms in its early stages.
As the cancer grows and you do begin to show signs, these may come and go and be unspecific, making it hard to diagnose, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Common symptoms include:
A former student opened fire at a high school in Graz, killing at least nine people in the deadliest shooting in Austria’s modern history. The gunman, who acted alone, died by suicide, officials said. Victims include teens, a teacher, and school staff.
Published On 10 Jun 202510 Jun 2025