meals

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has obtained testimony from Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim, whose case has become a symbol for the mistreatment of minors in Israeli jails.

In an interview with a DCIP lawyer, published on Tuesday, 16-year-old Mohammed described the harsh conditions he has faced since his detention began in February, including thin mattresses, cold cells and meagre meals.

“The meals we receive are extremely insufficient,” he is quoted as saying.

“For breakfast, we are served just three tiny pieces of bread, along with a mere spoonful of labneh. At lunch, our portion is minimal, consisting of only half a small cup of undercooked, dry rice, a single sausage, and three small pieces of bread. Dinner is not provided, and we receive no fruit whatsoever.”

According to DCIP, Mohammed has lost a “considerable amount of weight” since his detention started more than eight months ago. He was 15 years old at the time.

Mohammed’s family, rights groups and US lawmakers have been pleading with the administration of United States President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to release the teenager.

The US has provided Israel with more than $21bn over the past two years.

“Not even an American passport can protect Palestinian children,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability programme director at DCIP, said in a statement.

“Despite his family’s advocacy in Congress and involvement of the US Embassy, Mohammad remains in Israeli prison. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military court.”

After Israeli soldiers raided Mohammed’s family home in the occupied West Bank in February, they took the teenager into custody. Mohammed recalled to DCIP that the soldiers beat him with the butts of rifles as they transported him.

The teenager was originally housed in the notorious Megiddo prison – which a recently released Palestinian detainee described as a “slaughterhouse” – before being transferred to Ofer, another detention facility.

“Each prisoner receives two blankets, yet we still feel cold at night,” Mohammed told DCIP.

“There is no heating or cooling system in the rooms. The only items present are mattresses, blankets, and a single copy of the Quran in each room.”

The teenager has been charged with throwing stones at Israeli settlers, an accusation that he denies. Legal experts say that Palestinians from the occupied West Bank almost never receive fair trials in Israel’s military courts.

The abuse that freed Palestinian captives have described after the recent prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, spurred renewed calls for releasing Mohammed.

“Right now, Mohammed Ibrahim, a US citizen, is being held in an Israeli prison. His health is deteriorating. The circumstances are desperate,” Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote on X on Sunday.

“The United States must use every avenue available to secure the release of this Palestinian American child.”

Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 79 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli jails amid a lack of medical care, restrictions on food and reports of violence and torture, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Club.

Medical officials in Gaza have described signs of torture and execution on the bodies of slain Palestinian captives handed over by Israel after the ceasefire over the past week.

Earlier this year, Mohammed’s relatives told Al Jazeera that they fear for his life.

His father, Zaher Ibrahim, said that the Trump administration could use its leverage to free his son with a single phone call. “But we’re nothing to them,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since 2022, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens, including two in the West Bank in July.

Wish chew were here? The unusual foreign foods we’ve ‘enjoyed’ on our travels, from century eggs and frog stew, to guinea pig in Peru and rattlesnake with bison testicles in Texas

Going on holiday abroad has many pleasures – new horizons to explore, new cultures to embrace and new food to try. But when you order off an unfamiliar menu more in hope than expectation, it’s possible to end up with a plate of mystery morsels.

So, in the spirit of culinary curiosity, we asked our journalists (a pretty well-travelled bunch) for their foreign food memories.

To start the undercooked meatball rolling, I’ll contribute braised jellyfish with ‘century egg’ (fermented for months until a gelatinous greenish-grey) for an awful eggs-over-queasy breakfast in China, whole baby frogs in Thailand, guinea pig in Peru and rattlesnake with bison testicles in Texas. The rattlesnake wasn’t too bad. A bit like chicken…

What’s the most unusual food you’ve ever eaten? Let us know in the comments below or by emailing [email protected]

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• Peter Rickman (production): “Octopus cooked in its own ink in the then Yugoslavia. Now I like a bit of octopus but this was like chunks of rubber floating in a watery black broth with two sad looking school dinner boiled potatoes… no thanks.”

• Ben Rankin (editors): “Horse intestines – never again. We were in a lovely restaurant in Kazakhstan, with a feast of food served to us, including special occasion dish Beshbarmak.

“The noodles and the horse meat were fine but the smelly, chewy, white intestine bites were difficult to, erm, stomach. I couldn’t get enough of the Kumys (mare’s milk) to wash it down and the Baursak (puffy bread) to get rid of the taste!’’

• Clare Fitzsimons (books): “Who doesn’t love a boiled egg? Me it turns out when it’s been cooked for about three seconds and then poured – yes poured – into a cup for you to eat (or clearly in this case drink) for breakfast.

“Singapore is a wonderful place but my breakfast left a lot to be desired and while bodybuilders like to neck raw eggs, it’s definitely not for me.”

• Lawrence Goldsmith (cartoons): “In Iceland I was served Hakarl, or fermented shark.

“It’s a traditional dish made from Greenland shark meat, cured through a fermentation process and then hung to dry. I was told that it was an ‘acquired taste’. If you like a dish tasting like highly spiced leather this is the one for you.’’

• Milo Boyd (travel): “Wiggly eel and frog stew: both fished out of a river in Croatia’s Neretva Delta in front of me and then served whole and steaming.

“The local community even came out to watch me tackle the slippery concoction, despite all of my protestations that I am a vegetarian.’’

• Mark Silver (sport): “I was with my girlfriend in her homeland of Belarus. And I was in the mood to propose to her after a good few years together. Well, I ended up not having the stomach for it, literally, after she dished up a traditional Belarusian delicacy – raw pig sausage.

“The smell did not entice me. It is a pig intestine stuffed with minced or chopped meat and spices.’’

• Michael Ham (sport): “A 10-course meal is not to be sniffed at anywhere, but the Minazuki custard with conger eel, scallop and veggies I had in Japan was also not to be sniffed at, if you catch my drift. And then it was followed by courses of crab brains and squid guts…. ‘’

• Siobhan McNally (features): “On a visit to Vilnius, Lithuania, in the late 1990s, we were served a traditional lunch of chewy boiled pigs’ ears for starters followed by Cepelinai or “zeppelins”, which are stuffed potato dumplings. We hungrily ate them up, and then our host explained ‘cooks make them like this’ before proceeding to spit in his hands and mould an imaginary German airship. We all stopped chewing and regurgitated the remains into our napkins. Now I will eat most things but I draw the line at human spittle.’’

• Andrew Gilpin (editors): “Fermented shark (again!) No one knew how it came to this: our Icelandic host dancing about with a knife in his hand and a giant cod eye in his mouth. That wasn’t even the worst thing eaten that day. The fermented ancient shark buried for months to give it that ­distinctive ammonia taste surely was. Even though it was five years ago I can still summon up the ‘taste’ in my nostrils. ‘A delicacy 400 years in the making’ – and certainly not worth it.’’

• Karin Wright (production): “On a food tour of Florence – lampredotto (lining of a cow’s fourth stomach) from a food truck, served in a sandwich with a strong salad verde (presumably to obscure the taste)… interesting flavour, awful texture. I took a bite to be polite.’’

• Aaron Flanagan (sport): “Singapore’s ‘Ice kachang’ translates very literally into ‘iced beans’ and is a traditional Malay dessert. Online reviews claim it is supposed to be a thirst-quenching concoction, but the combination of ice, jelly and red beans looks like something a five-year-old would throw together. Imagine freezing your chilli con carne overnight and eating it seconds after it leaves the freezer. Some foods shouldn’t have iced alternatives.’’

• Vicky Lissaman (travel): “Wolf, on the Côte d’Azur, France. It was described on a restaurant menu as ‘loup’ and I thought it was probably some sort of fish. (This was long before we had mobile phones to Google the meaning of words). When it arrived, all bleu and bloody, I thought that perhaps they had given me someone else’s steak. But then the waiter confirmed that it was, in fact, exactly what I ordered – wolf. I howled with laughter, and then spent a lot of time chewing it and forcing it down as if it was a bushtucker trial.’’

• Chris Granet (production): “Grilled cat, on a drunken Friday night in a Rio de Janeiro favela. It wasn’t great. A bit sinewy.”

TESCO has launched a range of “restaurant quality” ready-made meals across 160 of its stores around the country.

There are 12 different dishes included in the collection, for a different meal to be had each day of the week.

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The brand new Finest Chef’s Collection range has been designed by Tesco’s in-house chefs.

It includes slow-cooked meals ranging from Italian to Indian cuisine, as well as classic British flavours.

Prices range from £17.50 to £20 per dish.

Among the British-inspired dishes include a Blush Double Pork Chop a Tender Lamb Rump, Balsamic and Rosemary Lamb Shoulder, Succulent Pork Belly, and an Oak Smoked Chicken Crown.

Indian flavours in the collection include Tandoori Spiced Chicken Supremes, Masala Spcied Beef Cheeks, and Spice Lamb Shanks.

The chicken and beef have masala spice blends in the sauce, while the lamb shanks are served with green tikka sauce.

For the Italian inspired dishes, there is a Blush Shoulder of Pork, Stuffed Beef Featherblad with a Procini and Parmigiano Regiiano stuffing, Nduja Stuffed Porchetta, and Rosemary and Porcini Pork Shoulder.

Breige Donaghy, Director of Product Development and Innovation Tesco, said: “We know life’s busy, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on amazing food at home.

“That’s why our chefs have created the Chef’s Collection – a range of dishes inspired by restaurant menus and packed with clever techniques that make it super easy to cook something special.

“With top-quality ingredients, and most of the prep already done, these dishes make it easy to create special food moments and transform a meal at home into something truly memorable.”

It comes after research found almost 30 per cent of Brits, and around 60 per cent of adults, have tried to pass of supermarket-cooked meals as their own.

More people have also been found to be going out less to restaurants to eat compared to last year, often due to costs.

Executive Chief at Tesco, Jamie Robinson, added: “We’ve worked hard to bring authentic flavours from across the globe to customers’ kitchens without the stress of cooking from scratch.

“Most dishes have been gently slow cooked, and come with our top cooking, pairing and plating tips to help you deliver great results every time.”

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Each meal is designed as a main for two people, therefore costing £10 each.

The Finest Chef’s Collection range is launching at larger Tesco stores, and offers a 25 per cent discount of Clubcard customers until October 12.

Dishes come with step-by-step cooking instructions and a QR code that can be scanned to provide cooking, plating and pairing tips from Tesco chefs.

It comes after Tesco was mocked for launching a strange meal deal shoppers spotted in stores.

As a £9 Clubcard offer, Tesco launched a meal deal consisting of a 12-packl of Sol beers and a bag of five limes.

Many shoppers also threatened to boycott Tesco last month after it was seen increasing the price of its meal deal by 25p.

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Indonesian President Prabowo’s free meals programme hit by more mass illness as protests against government rock country.

An investigation has been launched after some 400 children became ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia’s western Bengkulu province, in the worst case of mass food poisoning linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship food programme to help pregnant women and children.

The reports of mass illness on Wednesday came as President Prabowo arrived in Beijing, China, for events commemorating the end of World War II, and days after widespread antigovernment protests rocked cities and towns across Indonesia.

Authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the illness, Bengkulu Province ‘s Vice Governor Mian said.

“We will temporarily suspend operations at this kitchen while we investigate where the weaknesses lie,” said Mian, who goes by a single name.

“This is the domain of the BGN [National Nutrition Agency] investigation team and the authorities,” he said.

Dadan Hindayana, chief of the National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, told the Reuters news agency the kitchen in question had only recently started operating, asking staff to evaluate services while waiting for results of tests on the food.

Since its launch, Prabowo’s free school meals programme has been rapidly expanded to reach more than 20 million recipients, and authorities plan to reach 83 million recipients by year-end, budgeting a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.52bn) for the programme this year.

The president launched the programme in January, but the initiative had already been marred by food poisoning that affected hundreds of people.

Last month, 365 people fell ill from free school meals in Central Java. According to local media reports, laboratory results indicated that the outbreak was a result of poor sanitation.

In the latest mass illness in Bengkulu, children aged from about 4 to 12 were rushed to a local hospital complaining of stomach pain beginning last Thursday, according to a video handout from the local government.

On Wednesday, Prabowo was seen attending a military parade hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, according to China’s CCTV.

Despite the ongoing street protests at home over his government’s handling of the economy, Prabowo decided he would travel to China, after briefly reconsidering his trip amid the mass unrest.

The Jakarta Post reported on Wednesday that some 10 people are now thought to have died in protests over the weekend, with 20 people missing and 500 injured, according to reports from civic organisations and officials.

In Geneva on Monday, the United Nations called for investigations into the alleged use of disproportionate force by Indonesia’s security forces against demonstrators.

“We are following closely the spate of violence in Indonesia in the context of nationwide protests over parliamentary allowances, austerity measures, and alleged use of unnecessary or disproportionate force by security forces,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.

“We stress the importance of dialogue to address the public’s concerns,” she said in a statement.