toll

Residents say the powerful storm brought ‘raging’ flash floods that destroyed homes, overturned cars and blocked streets.

Residents of the central Philippines have slowly begun cleanup efforts after powerful Typhoon Kalmaegi swept through the region, killing at least 85 people and leaving dozens missing.

Scenes of widescale destruction emerged in the hard-hit province of Cebu on Wednesday as the storm receded, revealing ravaged homes, overturned vehicles and streets blocked with piles of debris.

Among the 85 deaths were six military personnel whose helicopter crashed in Agusan del Sur on the island of Mindanao during a humanitarian mission. The country’s disaster agency also reported 75 people missing, and 17 injured.

In Cebu City, Marlon Enriquez, 58, was trying to salvage what was left of his family’s belongings as he scraped off the thick mud coating his house.

“This was the first time that has happened to us,” he told the Reuters news agency. “I’ve been living here for almost 16 years, and it was the first time I’ve experienced flooding [like this].”

Another resident, 53-year-old Reynaldo Vergara, said his small shop in the city of Mandaue, also in Cebu province, had been lost when a nearby river overflowed.

“Around four or five in the morning, the water was so strong that you couldn’t even step outside,” he told the AFP news agency. “Nothing like this has ever happened. The water was raging.”

The storm hit as Cebu province was still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake last month that killed dozens of people and displaced thousands.

The area around Cebu City was deluged with 183mm (seven inches) of rain in the 24 hours before Kalmaegi’s landfall, well over its 131mm (five-inch) monthly average, according to weather specialist Charmagne Varilla.

The massive rainfall set off flash floods and caused a river and other waterways to swell. More than 200,000 people were evacuated across the wider Visayas region, which includes Cebu Island and parts of southern Luzon and northern Mindanao.

Before noon on Wednesday, Kalmaegi blew away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea with sustained winds of up to 130km per hour (81 miles per hour) and gusts of up to 180km/h (112mph), according to forecasters.

The storm is forecast to gain strength while over the South China Sea before making its way to Vietnam, where preparations are under way in advance of Kalmaegi’s expected landfall on Friday.

China has warned of a “catastrophic wave process” in the South China Sea and activated maritime disaster emergency response in its southernmost province of Hainan, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The majority of the deaths have occurred in the states of Veracruz and Hidalgo.

At least 64 people have died in Mexico after heavy rains and flooding hit five states last week.

The National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) chief, Laura Velazquez Alzua, speaking during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily news briefing on Monday, said another 65 people were still missing.

The state of Veracruz on the country’s southeastern coastline has confirmed 29 deaths, followed by 21 in Hidalgo, 13 in Puebla and one in Queretaro, Alzua said.

Forty-three people are also reported missing in Hidalgo, along with 18 in Veracruz and four in Puebla.

Thousands of military troops have been deployed to offer assistance across the five affected states, and governors are also working together to coordinate support, Sheinbaum said.

Early estimates show that about 100,000 houses have been affected, she added, with some near rivers having “practically disappeared”.

Facing questions about Mexico’s alert system, Sheinbaum said there were no meteorological signs “that could have indicated to us that the rain was going to be of this magnitude”.

Meteorologists have said the rains occurred thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Rainstorm Raymond, which caused rivers to rapidly rise, leading to flooding and landslides.

The heaviest rainfall was reported on Wednesday in Veracruz’s city of Cerro Azul and Puebla’s Cuetzalan del Progreso, which saw 280mm and 286mm of rain, respectively, Alzua said.

The Mexican Army, Air Force and National Guard have jointly implemented response efforts, distributing food and clean water, sometimes by air, to locations otherwise made inaccessible by landslides and road closures.

Nearly 400 repair workers have restored more than 80 percent of the electricity supply across the five states, where about 263,000 users lost power, electricity officials said during the briefing.

Crisis has damaged more than 16,000 homes and caused widespread electricity cuts.

Torrential flooding has continued to sweep parts of central and southeastern Mexico, raising the death toll to at least 44 people in less than a week.

Heavy downpours caused by two tropical storms have triggered landslides and flooding across five states, including Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

Floods have killed 18 people in Veracruz state, 16 in Hidalgo, nine in Puebla and one in Queretaro, the statement said.

Mexico’s El Universal newspaper put the death toll even higher — at 48 — and reported that dozens remain missing.

Around 320,000 people have experienced power outages, and at least 16,000 homes have been damaged, according to authorities, who fear that more landslides and overflowing rivers could exacerbate the damage.

‘We will not leave anyone’

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the military has been mobilised to help with rescue operations and aid distributions. “We will not leave anyone without support,” she said in a post on X.

Photos posted by the military showed people being evacuated by soldiers with life rafts, homes flooded with mud, and rescue workers trudging through waist-high waters.

Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains this year, and Mexico City recorded its rainiest June in more than two decades.

Authorities have attributed the latest deadly downpours to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Rainstorm Raymond, both of which dumped heavy rains on Mexico’s west.

The remnants of Raymond, with wind gusts now at 45km/hr (28mph), were expected to hit the southern part of Baja California on Sunday.

Authorities say they are using heavy equipment to look for the 49 people who remain missing.

The death toll from the collapse of a boarding school in Indonesia’s East Java province has risen to 14, according to officials, as rescuers battle to recover dozens of students believed still buried under the rubble.

Hundreds of students, most of them teenage boys, were inside the Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the town of Sidoarjo when it collapsed on Monday, initially killing at least five students and injuring about 100.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto told reporters on Saturday that rescuers found nine bodies on Friday, raising the death toll to 14.

“As of today, we are still searching for 49 people who are still missing,” said Suharyanto, who goes by one name, as reported by broadcaster Kompas TV.

More victims could be found, Suharyanto said, as rescuers moved to use heavy machinery to clear locations where the victims were believed to be buried underneath the rubble.

“After the last victim was found last night, we are focusing on a massive cleanup, with heavy equipment entering the collapsed areas,” he said.

Suharyanto said victim identification had been complicated by the fact that most of the victims were under 18 and did not have government identity cards or fingerprint records.

“Some of the bodies were too badly damaged to be recognised visually,” he said.

The total number of victims recorded is 167, of which 104 have been found and are safe, said Abdul Muhari, head of the Disaster Data, Information and Communication Centre at the BNPB.

Fourteen survivors are receiving hospital treatment, while 89 have been discharged. One has been transferred to another hospital, added Muhari.

The school collapse was so violent that it sent tremors across the neighbourhood, according to residents.

Investigators have been looking into the cause of the collapse, but initial signs pointed to substandard construction, experts have said.

The rescue operation was complex because vibrations in one place could affect other areas, officials said.

But the families of the missing agreed on Thursday for heavy equipment to be used, after the 72-hour “golden period” for the best chance of survival came to an end.

The rescue operation was complicated by an earthquake that struck overnight on Tuesday, briefly halting the search.

Bianca Adler, who is aiming to become the youngest female to conquer the world’s highest peak, has admitted her devastation at having to turn around when so close to the summit

A girl who is in the process of attempting to climb Mount Everest has been praised on social media after her latest update revealed the toll four days in the mountain’s ‘Death Zone‘ had had on her – before things took an even worse turn. Climbing Everest is a complicated process, which typically requires mountaineers to spend months training both physically and mentally, as well as acclimatising to such high altitudes.

Bianca Adler, 17, is already the youngest female to reach the summit of Manaslu [the eighth-highest mountain in the world at 8,163 metres] and Ama Dablam [6812 metres], and now she has her sights set on the world’s highest peak too. The teenager is documenting her progress, with her clip on TikTok going viral, with a staggering 26million views in just 24 hours.

In it, Bianca shared footage of herself struggling to catch her breath after returning to her camp. Climbers are required to complete their ascent in stages, working their upwards via several camps along the treacherous route.

‘Death Zone’ sits at the ridge of Everest’s summit, some 8,000 metres above sea level and close to its peak of 8,849 metres. It is so-called as the pressure of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span.

Camp 2, meanwhile, which is located on the expedition’s more popular South Route, sits at approximately 6,553 metres high – and it is the trek there from Base Camp (5,364 meters) that Bianca is currently working on.

Barely able to speak, she muttered under her breath: “I just got back from Camp 2 and I’m at Base Camp and I feel horrible.”

Coughing and gasping for air, she continued: “My throat and my lungs… I’m so out of breath even though yesterday I was at 8,000 metres. I’m feeling the worst I have ever felt.”

In a follow-up video shared on Tuesday (September 23), a dejected Bianca explained that she later made it as high as Camp 4 (7,925 metres) but was “devastated” after being forced to turn around for her own safety.

“It’s so hard. I was feeling so good and so strong but I had to turn around due to something out of my control,” she explained, with the aid of an oxygen mask. “I can’t do anything about that and it would have been stupid to carry on.”

She elaborated on Instagram: “I had to turn around on Mt Everest at 8450m (400m below the summit). The winds were way too strong for what I believed was right for my own safety. I could feel my hands and toes going numb, the first step of frostbite.

“I couldn’t see anything, there was snow blowing everywhere. It was an extremely tough decision, but I always want to choose life over a potential summit. I felt strong, like I could summit, and was devastated.”

Bianca continued: “The next night, my Sherpa guides and I tried again from Camp 4, but I was too exhausted from the 10-hour effort the previous night, and turned around. After three nights, and almost four days in the Death Zone at 8,000m or above, we descended back down to Camp 2.”

She concluded: “On the summit push, dad got sick and stayed at Camp 2 whilst I went up. On the way down, he was still sick and I was exhausted. We both got diagnosed with HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and dehydration (which is normal for mountaineering). I still feel quite sick and extremely exhausted so taking time to recover.”

Scores of mountaineers were quick to praise Bianca’s efforts, however, offering words of comfort and encouragement. “I’m more impressed by how you handled this situation than if you would have pushed yourself to the top… now you can live another day,” one responded on Instagram. “That is what’s important. A true warrior.”

A second person noted: “Such a great effort and the summit isn’t what matters the most, sounds like it was extremely hard and you had to push yourself far but still had to make a tough, but correct decision, which is one of the most valuable and fulfilling experiences you can have in the mountains. So proud!”

Whilst a third individual confessed: “I can’t even imagine how thought that decision was, but safety is always number 1 and you made the right choice. The mountains will always be there girl, well done and huge congratulations on everything you achieved this season.”

Israeli forces have killed 53 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and levelled 16 buildings in Gaza City, including three residential towers, as they ramp up an offensive to seize the northern urban centre and displace its population.

At least 35 of the victims on Sunday were killed in Gaza City, according to medics.

Two more Palestinians also died of malnutrition in the Strip, according to its Ministry of Health, taking the death toll from hunger to 422 since the beginning of Israel’s war.

In Gaza City, the Israeli military marked the al-Kawthar tower in the southern Remal neighbourhood as a target, before launching missile strikes that destroyed the building two hours later. The relentless bombardment has forced tens of thousands to flee.

“We don’t know where to go,” said Marwan al-Safi, a displaced Palestinian. “We need a solution to this situation… We are dying here.”

The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned Israel’s “systematic bombing” of civilian buildings, saying the aim of the offensive was “extermination and forced displacement”.

In a statement, the office said that while Israel was claiming to be targeting armed groups, “the field realities prove beyond doubt” that Israeli forces were bombing “schools, mosques, hospitals and medical centres”, and destroying towns, residential buildings, tents and headquarters of various groups, including international humanitarian organisations.

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a post on X that 10 of the agency’s buildings have been hit in Gaza City in the past four days alone.

That includes seven schools and two clinics that were sheltering thousands of displaced people. “No place is safe in Gaza. No one is safe,” he wrote.

‘Nowhere in Gaza is safe’

As bombardments intensified, families were once again forced to flee south towards al-Mawasi, an area Israel has designated as a “safe zone” despite repeatedly attacking it.

Ahmed Awad told Al Jazeera that he had escaped northern Gaza on Saturday as “mortar shells rained down”. He described arriving at midnight to find “no water, no toilets, nothing. Families are sleeping in the open. The situation is extremely dire”.

Another displaced Palestinian, AbedAllah Aram, said his family faced a “severe shortage” of clean water.

“Food is scarce, and inside these tents, people are hungry and malnourished. Winter is approaching, and we urgently need new tents. On top of that, this area cannot handle more displaced families,” he said.

A third man said he has been unable to find shelter in al-Mawasi despite arriving a week ago. He described his ordeal as unbearable.

“I have a large family, including my children, mother and grandmother. Not only are missiles raining down on us, but famine is devouring us too. My family has been on a constant journey of displacement for two years. We can no longer endure the ongoing genocidal war or hunger,” he said.

“Above all, we have no source of income to feed our starving children. Displacement is as painful as eviscerating one’s soul out of the body.”

UNICEF, meanwhile, said that conditions in al-Mawasi were worsening on a daily basis.

“Nowhere in Gaza is safe, including in this so-called humanitarian zone,” Tess Ingram, the agency’s spokesperson, told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi. “The camp is becoming more and more crowded by the day.”

She recalled meeting a woman, Seera, who had been ordered to evacuate Gaza City while pregnant. “She went into labour in Sheikh Radwan and gave birth on the side of the road while trying to find help, whilst evacuation orders were being issued for that area,” Ingram said.

“She is one of so many examples of families who have come here and now are struggling to access the basics they need to survive.”

Doha summit condemns ‘barbaric’ Israel

Meanwhile, the political fallout from Israel’s strike on Hamas negotiators in Qatar last week, which killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer, has continued.

Izzat al-Rashq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the “war criminal Netanyahu is attempting to shift the battle to the region, seeking to redraw the Middle East and dominate it in pursuit of mythical fantasies related to ‘Greater Israel’, which places the entire region on the brink of explosion due to his extremism and recklessness.”

He said the attack on Qatari soil was meant to “destroy the negotiation process and undermine the role of our sister state, Qatar”.

At a preparatory meeting ahead of a summit on Monday in Doha, Arab and Islamic leaders discussed ways to respond.

Reuters reported that a draft resolution seen at the meeting condemned Israel’s “genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, siege, and colonising activities”, warning that such actions threatened peace in the region and undermined efforts to normalise ties with Arab states.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called Israel’s attack on Doha on September 9 “barbaric” and urged fierce and firm measures in response.

Sheikh Mohammed said that Arab nations supported “lawful measures” to protect Doha’s sovereignty and called on the international community to abandon “double standards” in dealing with Israel.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that “silence and inaction” had emboldened Israel to carry out crimes “with impunity”. He called on Arab and Islamic nations to hold Israel accountable for “evidenced war crimes”, including “killing civilians, starving the population and driving an entire population homeless”.

Adnan Hayajneh, a professor of international relations at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that the regional mood had shifted. “The US has to wake up to the fact that you’ve got 2 billion Muslims around the world insulted, and it’s only the beginning. It’s not only the attack on Qatar, it is a continuation of destabilisation of the whole region,” he said.

US-Israeli relations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that ties with the United States remained strong, despite Washington’s unease over the strike in Qatar. Hosting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that relations were “as strong and durable as the stones in the Western Wall”.

Rubio, before his departure, claimed that US President Donald Trump was “not happy” about the Israeli attack in Doha, but maintained that US-Israeli relations remained “very strong”.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said that Washington was trying to manage the fallout.

“The US is surely going to do some damage control, saying that the strikes on Doha are not going to change the relationship with Israel, but some conversations will need to be had,” she said.

Meanwhile, Israeli ministers have pledged to continue pursuing Hamas leaders abroad. Minister of Energy Eli Cohen declared, “Hamas cannot sleep peacefully anywhere in the world,” including in NATO member state Turkiye.

Another minister, Ze’ev Elkin, said: “We will pursue them and settle accounts with them, wherever they are.”

Israeli media later reported that Mossad chief David Barnea had opposed the Qatar strike, fearing it would derail ceasefire negotiations. A columnist in the Israeli newspaper Maariv wrote that Barnea believed Hamas leaders “can be eliminated at any given moment”, but had warned that attacking Doha risked torpedoing a deal to release captives Hamas had taken from Israel during its attack on October 7, 2023.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza after the Hamas attack, at least 64,871 Palestinians have been killed and 164,610 injured, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Separately, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel’s Ministry of Defence is treating about 20,000 wounded soldiers, with more than half suffering from psychological trauma and estimates suggesting that by 2028, the figure could rise to 50,000.

A passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.

The death toll from a bus crash in western Afghanistan has risen to 79, after two survivors died from their injuries, an interim Taliban administration official said.

The incident occurred late on Tuesday in Herat province’s Guzara district, when a passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.

At least 19 children were among those killed, Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the interim Interior Ministry, told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.

Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician at the military hospital, said many bodies were too badly burned to be identified.

A journalist with the AFP news agency reported that cleanup crews were working on Wednesday to remove the burned-out bus and the twisted wreckage of the other vehicles.

“There was a lot of fire… There was a lot of screaming, but we couldn’t even get within 50 metres to rescue anyone,” witness Akbar Tawakoli, 34, told AFP. “Only three people were saved from the bus. They were also on fire and their clothes were burned.”

Abdullah, 25, another witness, told AFP, “I was very saddened that most of the passengers on the bus were children and women.”

The bus was transporting Afghans recently expelled from Iran to the capital, Kabul, provincial spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi said. The central government has ordered an investigation.

“It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the loss of numerous Afghan lives and the injuries sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fire in Herat province last night,” it said in a statement.

More than 1.5 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan this year alone, according to the United Nations migration agency, as both countries step up deportations after decades of hosting Afghan refugees. Many arrive with little means and face dire conditions in a country battling poverty and mass unemployment.

The state-run Bakhtar News Agency described the incident as one of Afghanistan’s deadliest accidents in recent years.

In December 2023, two separate bus crashes involving tankers killed 52 people, while in March 2024, another 20 died in a collision in Helmand province. In late 2022, a tanker overturned in the Salang Pass, igniting a fire that killed 31.

RAFAH, Egypt — Hamas said Monday it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as Israel indicated its positions haven’t changed, while Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from 22 months of war has passed 62,000.

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the long-running negotiations that Washington has mediated as well. “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” he posted on social media.

Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks appeared to break down last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.

Plans to expand the offensive, in part aimed at pressuring Hamas, have sparked international outrage and infuriated many Israelis who fear for the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. Hundreds of thousands took part in mass protests on Sunday calling for their return.

Egypt says Witkoff invited to join talks

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said mediators are “exerting extensive efforts” to revive a U.S. proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, during which some of the remaining 50 hostages would be released and the sides would negotiate a lasting ceasefire and the return of the rest.

Abdelatty told the Associated Press they are inviting U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to join the ceasefire talks.

Abdelatty spoke to journalists during a visit to Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza, which has not functioned since Israel seized the Palestinian side in May 2024. He was accompanied by Mohammad Mustafa, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, which has been largely sidelined since the war began.

Abdelatty said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had joined the talks, which include senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, who arrived in Cairo last week. Abdelatty said they are open to other ideas, including for a comprehensive deal that would release all the hostages at once.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told the AP that the militant group had accepted the proposal introduced by the mediators, without elaborating.

An Egyptian official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, said the proposal includes changes to Israel’s pullback of its forces and guarantees for negotiations on a lasting ceasefire during the initial truce. The official said it is almost identical to an earlier proposal accepted by Israel, which has not yet joined the latest talks.

Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egypt State Information Service, told the AP that Egypt and Qatar have sent the Hamas-accepted proposal to Israel.

An Israeli official said Israel’s positions, including on the release of all hostages, had not changed from previous rounds of talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed, and to maintain lasting security control over Gaza. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Netanyahu said in a video addressing the Israeli public that reports of Hamas’ acceptance of the proposal showed that it is “under massive pressure.”

Palestinian death toll surpasses 62,000

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that ignited the war. Around 20 of the hostages still in Gaza are believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war had climbed to 62,004, with another 156,230 people wounded. It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.

The ministry said 1,965 people have been killed while seeking humanitarian aid since May, either in the chaos around U.N. convoys or while heading to sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor.

Witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired toward crowds seeking aid. Israel says it has only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired into the air on rare occasions to prevent deadly crowding.

More deaths linked to malnutrition

Experts have warned that Israel’s ongoing offensive is pushing Gaza toward famine, even after it eased a complete two-and-a-half-month blockade on the territory in May. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that five more people, including two children, died of malnutrition-related causes.

It says at least 112 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began, and 151 adults have died since the ministry started tracking adult malnutrition deaths in June.

Amnesty International on Monday accused Israel of “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation.”

Israel has rejected such allegations, saying it allows in enough food and accusing the U.N. of failing to promptly deliver it. U.N. agencies say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in the territory, around three-quarters of which is now controlled by Israel.

Eastwood, Magdy and Lidman write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv. AP writer Rod McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 39 people, including 21 seeking humanitarian aid and 11 who starved to death, over 24 hours in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that the total number of malnutrition deaths has reached 212, including 98 children, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

Most of the deaths have occurred in recent weeks as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on aid supplies entering Gaza after partially lifting a total blockade in late May.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that famine continues to pose a serious risk “especially among children and the elderly”.

“Malnutrition among children leads to decreased immunity and may lead to death,” he said.

On Friday, the World Food Programme (WFP) called on Israel to allow the delivery of at least 100 aid trucks per day to Gaza, noting that only 60 of its aid truck drivers have been vetted and approved by the Israeli military to date.

The 100 trucks per day the organisation called for is a fraction of the 600 per day other United Nations agencies and Gaza authorities have said are needed to meet the basic needs of Gaza residents.

“Since July 27, 266 WFP trucks arriving at crossing points were turned back, 31 percent of which had initially been approved,” the agency’s latest report said.

“Convoy movements are frequently hampered by last-minute changes by Israeli authorities, and heavy insecurity due to military activities along convoy routes.”

In its latest statement on Saturday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, noted that it has not been allowed to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food and medicine, for more than five months, depriving hungry and ailing Palestinians of what they need to survive.

UNRWA has been calling on Israel to lift its siege on Gaza, saying the ongoing airdrops of humanitarian aid from several countries “are very expensive and ineffective” at reaching those urgently in need.

The warnings come as Israeli forces continued to escalate their attacks across the territory. Six people were killed by Israeli soldiers while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Two other Palestinians were also killed and transported to the Nasser Medical Complex from a GHF aid distribution site in the southern part of the territory.

One woman was killed and another person was wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting an apartment in Khan Younis in the south.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest count, at least 39 people have been killed in 24 hours.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,369 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 152,850. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

‘No one and nowhere is safe’

As the death toll continues to soar, international condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the war is growing, with several countries raising alarm over Israel’s plans to seize Gaza City in an operation that could forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones in southern Gaza.

A rare emergency UN Security Council meeting has been scheduled on Sunday to address the plan approved by Israel’s security cabinet this week.

In Gaza City, residents were defiant, promising not to leave in the event of a new Israeli ground offensive.

Umm Imran told Al Jazeera that there was nowhere safe in Gaza.

“They say go south, go to al-Mawasi, but there is nowhere safe any more – north, south, east or west. No one and nowhere is safe. We will stay here.”

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said residents were unable to sleep on Friday night after the announcement by Israel.

“People are wondering what’s going to happen to them, what’s going to be left of Gaza if Israel moves on with its approved plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City,” he said.

The Israeli plan has also been condemned by the foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the diplomats warned that Israel’s plan will “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.

“Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also urged Muslim nations to work in unison to oppose Israel’s plan.

Speaking at a joint news conference in El Alamein with his Egyptian counterpart after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Fidan said members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had been called to an emergency meeting to tackle the crisis.

At least 60,034 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the war on Gaza erupted in October 2023, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.

The grim milestone was reached on Tuesday, with medical sources telling Al Jazeera that at least 62 Palestinians, including 19 aid seekers, have been killed since dawn, despite “pauses” in fighting to deliver essential humanitarian aid.

Local accounts indicate that Israel used booby-trapped robots, as well as tanks and drones, in what residents describe as one of the bloodiest nights in recent weeks, said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“This is a sign of a possible imminent Israeli ground manoeuvre, although Israel has not yet confirmed the objectives of the attack,” he said.

The latest attacks come as the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system.

“Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,” it said in the report.

“Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point,” the IPC document added.

Food consumption has sharply deteriorated, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time, it said.

Malnutrition rose rapidly in the first half of July, with more than 20,000 children being admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. More than 3,000 of them are severely malnourished.

The IPC alert comes against the backdrop of its latest analysis released in May, which projected that by September, the entire population of Gaza would face high levels of acute food shortages, with more than 500,000 people expected to be in a state of extreme food deprivation, starvation, and destitution, unless Israel lifts its blockade and stops its military campaign.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and humanitarian blockade, which it lifted partially in March, continues to plunge the Palestinian territory into an increasingly dire malnutrition crisis as at least 147 people, including 88 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the war, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Starvation is affecting all sectors of the population, with Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, saying one million women and girls in Gaza face the “unthinkable choice” of starving or risking their lives while searching for food.

“This horror must end,” Bahous said in a social media post, calling for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the Strip, the release of captives and a permanent ceasefire.

Babies particularly affected

Medical staff at Gaza’s hospitals are seeing babies severely malnourished “without muscles and fat tissue, just the skin over the bone”, the director of paediatrics and maternity at Nasser Hospital, Ahmed al-Farra, told Al Jazeera.

The long-term consequences of malnutrition for babies, infants and children are severe as they are still developing their central nervous system during the first three years of their lives, said al-Farra.

Babies who have been malnourished will not have the required folic acid, B1 complex and polyunsaturated fatty acids that are essential for the composition of the central nervous system.

Al-Farrah said malnutrition can affect cognitive development in the future, make it hard for a child to read and write, and lead to depression and anxiety.

Tanya Haj Hassan, a doctor with the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), explains that serious health risks remain even after food becomes available again.

“The reality is the problem doesn’t end when the food arrives … malnutrition impacts all aspects of the body’s function,” Hassan told Al Jazeera.

“All of the cells in your body are altered by this. In the intestines, the cells die. That results in issues with absorption, with bacteria. Your pancreas struggles; absorbing fats is difficult.

“Your heart cells become weak and thinned. The connections are impacted, the heart rate slows. These children often die of heart failure, even when they’re being refed,” she added.

“They also have life-threatening shifts in salts; these can also lead to fatal heart rhythms. They’re more prone to sepsis and shock,” the doctor said, in reference to oral rehydration salt solutions, which are usually administered to people suffering from malnutrition.

“[Patients can face] low blood pressure, skin lesions, hypothermia, fluid overload, infection, vitamin deficiencies that can affect vision and bone.”

The death toll on both sides now stands at 32, as fears grow of a larger conflict breaking out between the neighbours.

Cambodian officials have reported another 12 people killed as a result of the ongoing border dispute with Thailand, with the death toll on both sides now standing at 32, as fears grow that the Southeast Asian neighbours may become engulfed in an extended conflict.

Cambodian Ministry of National Defence spokesperson Maly Socheata told reporters on Saturday that seven more civilians and five soldiers were confirmed dead. One other Cambodian man was earlier reported killed when Thai rockets hit the Buddhist pagoda he was hiding in on Thursday.

At least 50 Cambodian civilians and more than 20 soldiers have also been injured, the spokesperson said.

Thailand has reported 13 civilians – including children – as well as six soldiers killed over the past two days of fighting. An additional 29 Thai soldiers and 30 civilians have also been wounded in Cambodian attacks.

Cambodian newspaper The Khmer Times, quoting officials in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, said about 20,000 residents have so far been evacuated from the country’s northern border with Thailand.

More than 138,000 people have also been evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, with about 300 evacuation centres opened, according to Thai officials. On Friday, Thailand declared martial law in eight districts along the border with Cambodia.

The decades-old conflict – centred around a contested section of the Thai-Cambodian border – re-erupted on Thursday after a landmine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers.

Tensions spilled over on Thursday with Thailand and Cambodia carrying out direct attacks on one another’s territory, with both sides accusing the other of opening fire first.

Thailand said the Cambodian military launched long-range rockets at civilian targets in the country, including a strike on a petrol station that killed at least six people.

The Thai military then scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia, including the reported strike on the Buddhist pagoda, which resulted in one civilian casualty.

Cambodia has accused Thailand of using a large number of cluster munitions – a controversial and widely condemned weapon – calling it a clear violation of international law.

Phumtham Wechayachai, Thailand’s acting prime minister, said on Friday that Cambodia may be guilty of war crimes due to the deaths of civilians, as well as damage caused to a hospital.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held an emergency meeting focused on the clashes behind closed doors late on Friday in New York, but did not issue an official public statement after the meeting.

The Associated Press news agency, citing an unnamed council diplomat, reported that all 15 UNSC members called on the parties to de-escalate fighting, show restraint and resolve the dispute peacefully.

Escalation of military exchanges could move towards war, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai says.

The death toll from clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops has risen to 15 in Thailand and one in Cambodia, according to authorities, as more than 120,000 people living along both sides of the border separating the two countries flee the ongoing fighting.

Deadly fighting continued for a second day on Friday as both countries traded heavy artillery and rocket fire, the bloodiest military confrontation between the two Southeast Asian neighbours in more than a decade.

The escalation of military exchanges could move towards war, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters on Friday. For now, the clashes have involved heavy weapons, he added.

The ongoing clashes have taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, up from six the day before, a Thai military official said on Friday, indicating a widening of the fighting. Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a military spokesperson, told a press conference Cambodia had continued to use heavy weapons.

“Thai forces have responded with appropriate supporting fire in accordance with the tactical situation,” the Thai military said in an earlier statement.

Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health reported that at least 14 civilians and one soldier were killed in Thailand when fighting broke out on Thursday, and a local provincial official in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey border province told the Reuters news agency that one person was killed and five wounded in Thai attacks.

More than 30 Thai civilians and 15 soldiers were also injured, according to Thailand’s Health Ministry, while some 100,672 people from four Thai provinces bordering Cambodia have been moved to shelters, Thailand’s Ministry of Interior was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Arsit Sampantharat, the Thai Interior Ministry’s permanent secretary, was quoted by the country’s Channel 3 television channel as saying that more than half of those evacuated were from Surin province, while the rest were from the provinces of Sisaket, Buriram and Ubon Ratchathani.

Citing officials in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, the Khmer Times news organisation said that about 20,000 residents have evacuated from the country’s northern border with Thailand.

Shelling from Thailand was also reported before dawn on Friday, the Khmer Times quoted the Cambodian military as saying.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts claimed that Thailand’s strikes had caused “substantial damage” to the Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, according to The Phnom Penh Post.

Diplomatic sources told the AFP news agency that the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the border fighting.

On Thursday, Thailand said it scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia, while Cambodian forces launched long-range rockets towards civilian areas along the Thai border, Thailand’s military said.

Both countries have blamed each other for starting the clashes in a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling.

The United States, a longtime treaty ally of Thailand, has called for an immediate end to the hostilities.

China, a close ally of Cambodia, said it was deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict and hoped that both countries “will properly solve their dispute through dialogue and consultation”.

At least 62 people have been killed, including 19 who were seeking aid, in Israeli attacks across Gaza, hospital sources told Al Jazeera, and two people died from malnutrition amid growing international outrage over Israel’s conduct in the war.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 115 Palestinians have starved to death in the enclave since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Most of the deaths, which include many children, have been in recent weeks.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in March and has only allowed a trickle of aid into the territory since late May, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.

In a statement on Thursday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that “families are breaking down” amid the hunger crisis.

“Parents are too hungry to care for their children,” agency head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X. “Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food or means to follow medical advice”.

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, added that Israel has been preventing it from verifying aid waiting at distribution centres.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the situation was deteriorating, with Palestinians clamouring for any aid they can find.

“Enforced starvation, enforced dehydration, and hunger are gripping the Gaza Strip, with more people reported with malnutrition and a severe, acute shortage of food supplies and other basic necessities,” he said.

“According to what we hear from health sources, people’s immune systems are falling apart. They’re unable to fight the many diseases that are spreading because their bodies are unable to fight,” he said.

With dire conditions on the ground largely unchanged, international condemnation has continued to grow.

On Thursday, more than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demanded an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament, accused EU leaders of a double standard when it comes to Palestinian lives.

“Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,” Boylan told Al Jazeera.

“There’s a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you’re witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,” she said.

Outrage among European leaders has also soared in recent days, with 28 countries earlier this week condemning the aid blockade, while calling for an immediate end to the fighting.

On Thursday, the United Kingdom’s government announced Prime Minister Keir Starmer would hold a call with his German and French counterparts, to “discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need”.

Breakdown in talks

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral, negotiations to end the war again broke down, with US envoy Steve Witkoff announcing that his team was leaving negotiations in Qatar early.

That came shortly after Israel announced it was withdrawing its delegation from the talks.

In a statement, Witkoff accused Hamas of showing “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire”.

“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said, without elaborating.

Hamas, which has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire agreement, said it was surprised by Witkoff’s remarks.

“The movement affirms its keenness to continue negotiations and engage in them in a manner that helps overcome obstacles and leads to a permanent ceasefire agreement,” said Hamas in a statement released late on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has continued to push for a deal, while simultaneously supporting the displacement of Palestinians from the enclave to nearby countries, in what would potentially constitute ethnic cleansing.

France to recognise Palestine

Late on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would officially recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Macron said the decision was “in keeping with [France’s] historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

The move will make France the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

The move was hailed by the deputy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said it showed France’s “commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”.

Israeli officials swiftly condemned the move, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling it a “disgrace and a surrender to terrorism”.

“We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence, and undermine our historical right to the Land of Israel,” he said.

Five-day deluge unleashed flash floods and landslides that killed 18 and left nine others missing, authorities say.

Torrential rains that lashed South Korea have killed at least 18 people and left nine others missing, authorities said, as the government lifted advisories for heavy rain and the meteorological agency warned of a return of heatwaves to southern parts of the country.

The toll on Monday came as South Korea’s military also announced dispatching thousands of troops to rain-ravaged areas to assist in recovery efforts.

The downpours began on July 16 and brought some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record to some of South Korea’s central and southern provinces. The five-day deluge collapsed homes, triggered landslides and unleashed flash floods that swept away cars and campers.

At least 10 people were killed in the southern county of Sancheong, and four others remain missing there, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Another person was killed when their house collapsed in the town of Gapyeong, northeast of the capital, Seoul, while a man who had been camping near a stream there was found dead after being swept away by rapid currents.

The man’s wife and teenage son remain missing, the South Korean JoongAng Daily reported. Two others, including a man in his 70s who had been buried in a landslide, were listed as missing in the same town.

The rains also forced some 14,166 people to evacuate their homes in 15 cities and provinces, and caused “extensive property damage”, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The agency said 1,999 cases of damage had been recorded at public facilities, and 2,238 cases were recorded at private homes and buildings.

South Korea’s military said it has dispatched some 2,500 personnel to the southwestern city of Gwangju as well as the South Chungcheong and South Gyeongsang provinces to assist in the recovery efforts.

The troops will be overhauling homes and stores affected by the rains, it said.

Hannah June Kim, an associate professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Sogang University in Seoul, told Al Jazeera that “a lot of people were taken off guard” because monsoonal rains came later than expected this year.

“The expectation was that monsoons would not be appearing during this summer,” she said. “So, when this heavy rain started to fall this past week, a lot of local areas were unprepared.”

“We are seeing the heavy effects of climate change and how it’s affecting different areas,” she added.

South Korea’s Meteorological Administration (KMA) forecast more rainfall in the southern regions on Monday but said that a heatwave would follow. According to the JoongAng Daily, heatwave advisories and warnings have already been issued for parts of South Jeolla, the east coast of Gangwon and Jeju Island.

“From July 24 onward, morning lows will remain between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius [73.4F to 78.8F], and daytime highs will range from 30 to 35 degrees Celsius [86F to 95F], higher than the seasonal averages of 22 to 25 degrees Celsius [71.6F to 77F] in the morning and 29 to 33 degrees Celsius [84.2F to 91.4F] during the day,” it reported, citing the KMA.

Scientists say climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent and intense around the world.

In 2022, South Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding, which killed at least 11 people.

They included three people who died trapped in a Seoul basement apartment of the kind that became internationally known because of the Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite.

The government said at the time that the rainfall was the heaviest since records began, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.

The death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza passed the grim milestone of 58,000 on Sunday as relentless attacks killed nearly 100 Palestinians since dawn.

An Israeli air raid hit a bustling market in Gaza City, killing 12 people. Among the victims was prominent medical consultant Ahmad Qandil, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike.

Gaza’s Government Media Office also accused Israel and security contractors working at aid distribution points of intentionally attacking civilians. In a statement, it called United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites “death traps” and described the situation as “genocide engineering under US sponsorship”.

At least 805 people have been killed and 5,250 wounded while attempting to collect aid since the GHF started operating in May.

One of Israel’s deadliest attacks on desperate Palestinians occurred in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where a missile strike killed at least 10 people, most of them children, as they queued to collect drinking water. Seventeen others were wounded, according to Dr Ahmed Abu Saifan at al-Awda Hospital.

Israel’s military said it had targeted a Palestinian fighter, but the missile veered off course because of a technical failure. The Israeli claim could not be independently verified.

Gaza has suffered from chronic water shortages, worsened in recent weeks as desalination and sanitation plants shut down due to the ongoing Israeli blockade of fuel. Many residents now rely on dangerous journeys to limited water collection points.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the number of people killed has risen to at least 58,026, with more than 138,500 wounded. More than half of those killed have been women and children.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said hundreds have died while attempting to access humanitarian aid from GHF-controlled points.

“People travel up to 15km [9 miles] from the north to Rafah – many on foot, some overnight – just to get one food parcel,” he said. “But even then, they’re met with live fire from Israeli forces.”

‘No fuel, no life-saving services’

Eight United Nations agencies – including UNICEF, WHO, WFP and UNRWA – warned on Sunday that without immediate fuel access, critical services in Gaza could collapse. Hospitals, sanitation centres and food distribution operations face imminent shutdown.

“Without fuel, these lifelines will vanish for 2.1 million people,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “Fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain life-saving operations.”

Attempts to end the fighting received a cautious boost on Sunday when US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he remained “hopeful” about the ceasefire talks. He was expected to meet Qatari officials on the margins of the FIFA Club World Cup Final.

But optimism appears to be fading. A US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire remains bogged down in disagreements, with both sides blaming each other for delays.

An Israeli official confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to convene cabinet ministers late on Sunday to discuss the talks, which are focused on ending hostilities, a troop withdrawal and the release of captives held in Gaza.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s deputy leader Muhammad al-Hindi said Israel has resisted committing to key conditions before moving on to the topic of prisoners.

“We’re discussing a framework agreement. It includes three points: ending aggression, withdrawal from Gaza and safe aid distribution,” he said. “Israel wants to skip straight to the prisoners’ file without guarantees on the main issues.”

Al-Hindi accused Israel of seeking to control southern Rafah and force civilians into overcrowded, bombed-out areas under the guise of aid distribution.

“We cannot legitimise these aid traps that are killing our people. The resistance will not sign any agreement that amounts to surrender.”

Netanyahu aide faces indictment

Meanwhile, in Israel, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said that Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, is facing possible indictment over allegations he leaked classified military information to the German newspaper Bild.

Urich and another aide are accused of passing on secret intelligence to influence public opinion after six Israeli captives died in Gaza last August. The deaths sparked mass protests in Israel and deepened public anger at the government’s handling of ceasefire efforts.

Netanyahu has dismissed the investigation as politically motivated, calling it a “witch-hunt”. Urich has denied any wrongdoing.

The Bild article, published shortly after the captives’ bodies were discovered, aligned closely with Netanyahu’s narrative of blaming Hamas for the collapse of earlier ceasefire talks.

A previous two-month truce, which began in January, saw the release of 38 captives before Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed its devastating military assault.

The United Nations has appealed to the international community to bolster its support for Haiti after a report revealed that gang violence has claimed 4,864 lives from October to June.

More than 20 percent of those deaths unfolded in the departments of Centre and Artibonite, indicating that intense violence is spilling into the areas surrounding the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In a report released on Friday, the UN explained that the growing presence of gangs like Gran Grif in those areas appears to be part of a broader strategy to control key routes connecting the capital to Haiti’s north and its border with the Dominican Republic.

“This expansion of gang territorial control poses a major risk of spreading violence and increasing transnational trafficking in arms and people,” the report said.

Among its recommendations was for the international community to better police the sale of firearms to Haiti and to continue to offer support for a Kenya-led security mission aimed at strengthening Haiti’s local law enforcement.

In a statement, Ulrika Richardson, the UN’s resident coordinator in Haiti, explained that propping up the country’s beleaguered police force is key to restoring security.

“Human rights abuses outside Port-au-Prince are intensifying in areas of the country where the presence of the State is extremely limited,” she said.

“The international community must strengthen its support to the authorities, who bear the primary responsibility for protecting the Haitian population.”

The report indicates that the violence in the regions surrounding Port-au-Prince took a turn for the worse in October, when a massacre was carried out in the town of Pont Sonde in the Artibonite department.

The Gran Grif gang had set up a checkpoint at a crossroads there, but local vigilante groups were encouraging residents to bypass it, according to the UN.

In an apparent act of retaliation, the gang launched an attack on Pont Sonde. The UN describes gang members as firing “indiscriminately at houses” along the road to the checkpoint, killing at least 100 people and wounding 16. They also set 45 houses and 34 vehicles on fire.

The chaos forced more than 6,270 people to flee Pont Sonde for their safety, contributing to an already dire crisis of internal displacement.

The UN notes that, as of June, more than 92,300 people were displaced from the Artibonite department, and 147,000 from Centre — a 118-percent increase over that department’s statistics from December.

Overall, nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced throughout the country.

The massacre at Pont Sondé prompted a backlash, with security forces briefly surging to the area. But that presence was not sustained, and Gran Grif has begun to reassert its control in recent months.

Meanwhile, the report documents a wave of reprisal killings, as vigilante groups answered the gang’s actions with violence of their own.

Around December 11, for instance, the UN noted that the gangs killed more than 70 people near the town of Petite-Riviere de l’Artibonite, and vigilante groups killed 67 people, many of them assumed to be relatives or romantic partners of local gang members.

Police units are also accused of committing 17 extrajudicial killings in that wave of violence, as they targeted suspected gang collaborators. The UN reports that new massacres have unfolded in the months since.

In the Centre department, a border region where gangs operate trafficking networks, similar acts of retaliation have been reported as the gangs and vigilante groups clash for control of the roads.

One instance the UN chronicles from March involved the police interception of a minibus driving from the city of Gonaives to Port-au-Prince. Officers allegedly found three firearms and 10,488 cartridges inside the bus, a fact which sparked concern and uproar among residents nearby.

“Enraged, members of the local population who witnessed the scene lynched to death, using stones, sticks, and machetes, two individuals: the driver and another man present in the vehicle,” the report said.

Haiti has been grappling with an intense period of gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Criminal networks have used the resulting power vacuum to expand their presence and power, seizing control of as much as 90 percent of the capital.

A transitional government council, meanwhile, has struggled to re-establish order amid controversies, tensions and leadership turnover. The council, however, has said it plans to hold its first presidential election in nearly a decade in 2026.

Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned that civilians will continue to suffer as the cycle of violence continues.

“Caught in the middle of this unending horror story are the Haitian people, who are at the mercy of horrific violence by gangs and exposed to human rights violations from the security forces and abuses by the so-called ‘self-defence’ groups,” he said.

More than 160 people remain unaccounted for after devastating floods in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced, marking a dramatic increase in the number of missing from a disaster that has already killed 109 people.

Four days after flash floods ravaged several Texas counties, some striking while residents slept, hopes of finding survivors by Tuesday have dwindled – and Abbott warned that the number of missing people could still rise further.

“Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” he told reporters on Tuesday as the grim search continued.

“There very likely could be more added to that list,” he added, explaining that the figure comes from individuals reported missing by friends, relatives and neighbours.

Kerr County, located in central Texas’s “Flash Flood Alley,” suffered the most catastrophic impact, with at least 94 confirmed deaths.

This toll includes at least 27 girls and counsellors who were staying at a youth summer camp along the Guadalupe River when it overflowed early on Friday morning as the Fourth of July holiday began.

Powerful floodwaters surged through the camp, demolishing cabins while hundreds slept.

As of Tuesday evening, five campers and one counsellor remained missing, according to Abbott, along with another child not associated with the camp.

“There’s nothing more important in our hearts and minds than the people of this community, especially those who are still lost,” Abbott said.

Throughout the rest of the state, at least 15 additional deaths have been recorded, the governor added.

Ben Baker with the Texas game wardens explained that search and rescue operations using helicopters, drones and dogs face tremendous obstacles due to water and mud.

“When we’re trying to make these recoveries, these large piles can be very obstructive, and to get in deep into these piles, it’s very hazardous,” Baker said.

“It’s extremely treacherous, time-consuming. It’s dirty work, the water is still there.”

The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge, and that more could be missing.

He promised authorities will continue to work around the clock to find the missing, and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.

In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.

Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found”.

President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.

“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, ‘God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless… God bless the state of Texas’,” he told reporters as he left New Jersey.

The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.

Kidd said rescuers were evacuating people from more places along the river, “because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas”, with rain continuing to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains.

Questions over preparedness

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said.

US coastguard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.

Freeman Martin, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on Sunday that he expected to “see the death toll rise today and tomorrow”.

Authorities, meanwhile, have faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from central Texas, said several communities along the Guadalupe River were evacuated after the National Weather Service sent out repeated warnings about the rising water levels, but not those in Kerr County.

“There are still no answers as to why those here weren’t alerted,” he said.

Rattansi said while Trump has activated FEMA assistance for Texas, the president had “made it clear in the past that he wants to phase out such aid, even once saying that if a state governor needs to ask for federal emergency help, perhaps they’re not up to the job”.

Trump, when asked by reporters whether he was still planning to phase out FEMA, said that it was something “we can talk about later, but right now, we are busy working”.

Rattansi also said that the Trump administration is phasing out “research and analysis of the changing climate because it feels it’s politicised and divisive”, even though “it’s exactly that sort of analysis that led to the warnings from the National Weather Service to municipal authorities to evacuate residents up and down the Guadalupe River”.

“Climate scientists have long warned that warmer air will hold more moisture and result in ever more intense storms,” he said. “Yet just as their predictions are being realised, federal resources to predict, mitigate and manage extreme weather events are at risk as never before.”

Rick Spinrad, a former director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Al Jazeera that less research will lead to less accurate predictions, making it harder for people to prepare.

“Without research, without staff to do the work, we can assume that the predictions, [for] hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, wildfires, tsunamis, for that matter, are undoubtedly going to degrade, and that means that people’s ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised,” Spinrad said.

In February, the Trump administration announced cuts affecting the jobs of hundreds of staff at NOAA, including meteorologists at the National Weather Service.

Abbott, the Texas governor, declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday – for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV also offered special prayers for those affected by the disaster.

“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”