Dinkinesh, a small asteroid that NASA’s Lucy mission visited last week, continues to surprise.

Lucy swung by the space rock, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, on November 1 as part of a test of the spacecraft’s equipment before tackling the mission’s primary goal: surveying the swarms of Trojan asteroids around Jupiter. The flyby of Dinkinesh, which means “marvelous” in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, wasn’t even added to Lucy’s itinerary until January.

But the first views captured by Lucy’s instruments showed there was more to the shadowy asteroid than expected. At first, images suggested that the space rock was part of a binary pair, with a smaller asteroid orbiting Dinkinesh.

However, additional images taken by the spacecraft just after the flyby’s closest approach have now revealed that the smaller asteroid is actually a contact binary — two smaller space rocks that touch each other.

Lucy came within 265 miles (about 425 kilometers) of the asteroid’s surface during its closest approach, which is when the first images were taken. The second batch of images revealing the contact binary, shared by NASA on Tuesday, were taken six minutes later from 1,010 miles (about 1,630 kilometers) away.

“Contact binaries seem to be fairly common in the solar system,” said John Spencer, Lucy deputy project scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, in a statement.

“We haven’t seen many up-close, and we’ve never seen one orbiting another asteroid.
We’d been puzzling over odd variations in Dinkinesh’s brightness that we saw on approach, which gave us a hint that Dinkinesh might have a moon of some sort, but we never suspected anything so bizarre!”

Solving an asteroid enigma

The close approach was primarily designed to help the Lucy spacecraft test its terminal tracking system, which allows the spacecraft to locate the space rock autonomously and keep it within view while flying by at 10,000 miles per hour (4.5 kilometers per second). The system surpassed expectations, which allowed astronomers to make the discovery of Dinkinesh’s unexpected companion.

“It is puzzling, to say the least,” said Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at the Southwest Research Institute, in a statement. “I would have never expected a system that looks like this. In particular, I don’t understand why the two components of the satellite have similar sizes. This is going to be fun for the scientific community to figure out.”

Data from the flyby is still transmitting from the spacecraft to the mission team.

“It’s truly marvelous when nature surprises us with a new puzzle,” said Tom Statler, Lucy program scientist at NASA, in a statement. “Great science pushes us to ask questions that we never knew we needed to ask.”

Setting a course for the Trojans

Lucy’s next close encounter will be with another main belt asteroid called Donaldjohanson in 2025. And then, the spacecraft will set off to see the Trojans.

The Trojan asteroids, which borrow their name from Greek mythology, orbit the sun in two swarms — one that’s ahead of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and a second one that lags behind it. Too distant to be seen in detail with telescopes, the asteroids will get their close-up when Lucy reaches the Trojans in 2027.

The mission borrows its name from the Lucy fossil, the remains of an ancient human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. The skeleton has helped researchers piece together aspects of human evolution, and NASA Lucy team members hope their mission will achieve a similar feat regarding the history of our solar system.

The asteroids are like fossils themselves, representing the leftover material hanging around after the formation of giant planets in our solar system, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Thousands of Palestinians fled northern Gaza on Wednesday, traveling miles on foot through the battered enclave in a growing exodus prompted by Israel’s intensified ground and air campaign.

Streams of people – women, children, the elderly and disabled – made their way down Salah Eddin Street, one of the two north-south highways in Gaza, along an evacuation corridor announced by the Israel Defense Forces.

One teenage girl compared the mass movement to the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, the Arabic term for the expulsion of Palestinians from their towns during the founding of Israel.

It was the fifth day in a row that the IDF opened an evacuation window, and numbers of people fleeing south have increased each day.

Israel has been ramping up its offensive inside Gaza, following the October 7 attacks that left 1,400 people in Israel dead.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Tuesday that IDF troops were at the “heart of Gaza City” and targeting Hamas infrastructure and commanders there. It is unclear where exactly Israel is fighting.

“Gaza is the biggest terror stronghold that mankind has ever built. This whole city is one big terror base. Underground, they have kilometers of tunnels connecting to hospitals and schools,” Gallant said. “We continue to dismantle this capability.”

The IDF has been bombarding Gaza for weeks, saying it hit 14,000 terrorist targets in the densely packed territory.

“This war left nothing safe – not churches, not mosques or anything. Today, they dropped the leaflet ordering us to leave to the alleged safe area. Now we are beyond this area of Wadi Gaza, and we are still hearing bombardments. There is no safe place in Gaza.”

“We are seven families. All of our houses are gone. Nothing is left. We couldn’t take anything – no clothes, no water, nothing. The way here was very difficult. If something falls, you are not allowed to pick it up. You are not allowed to slow down. Dead bodies everywhere.”

Baraa, a 16-year-old girl, said that she had been walking for a long time.

“It felt like the Nakba [catastrophe] of 2023,” she said, using the Arabic term for the expulsion of Palestinians from their towns during the founding of Israel.

“We walked by people who were ripped to parts, dead bodies. We walked beside tanks. The Israelis called us, and they were asking people to take off their clothes and throw their belongings. Children were very tired because there was no water.”

“We came under heavy shelling and had no choice but to leave our area,” Hani Bakhit said. “We ended up using donkey carts because there were no cars, fuel, or drinking water available. Nothing is left for us. They forced us to leave by cutting off all available resources,” he said, referring to Israeli forces.

“People who have nothing to do with the resistance are being bombed and so they are fleeing to the south,” Khader Hamad said. “They are all children, newborns, women.”

People carried few possessions in the arms or on their backs. Some sat on carts drawn by donkeys. On Tuesday, some could be seen carrying white flags and holding aloft identity documents.

“Donkey carts are the only means of transportation left,” Abu Ida said. “There is no solar power or fuel left for cars, but also those who have cars are afraid to use them. I cannot walk because I have diabetes, there’s no way I can walk on my feet.”

A woman who did not provide her name said “we are being destroyed.”

“No one cares about us. Maybe we are safe now, but I’m not sure about those who are still behind. I don’t know where my family is. My siblings are behind me. Out of fear, I couldn’t look behind. Not right, not left.

“We came from Al Shifa [Hospital], and we saw death on the way. Dead bodies, destruction everywhere.”

The videos emerged over the weekend. In one of them shared online and geolocated to Ardamata, an outlying district in El Geneina city in West Darfur state, racist slurs can be heard as men in fatigues refer to the captives as “dogs” and tell them to “gather here”.

In another cut of the video, the same men in fatigues can be seen whipping the men. At one point the men appear to be forced to run down the street. A man fires shots.

In another video, filmed less than a five-minute drive from the first video, the RSF logo appears visible on the uniforms of some of the men dressed in light colored fatigues who appear to be controlling the men huddled together on the ground. The word “liquidation” is mentioned and the words “slay them”.

The RSF on Saturday announced it had taken over the main army base in El Geneina (the 15th division headquarters), close to where these videos were filmed.

A Reuters reporter spoke to three men fleeing from Darfur into Chad on Tuesday who said they had witnessed killings by Arab militias and RSF forces targeting the Masalit ethnic group in Ardamata, the news agency reported.

“Sickening reports and images coming from Ardamata, West Darfur, inc [sic] of assassinations, grave violations and massacres of civilians, following RSF takeover of area. Those with authority must uphold international humanitarian law, protect civilians, ensure rule of law and provide unfettered humanitarian access to vulnerable persons,” the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Toby Harward, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The RSF has denied that “any incidents of ethnic cleansing or tribal conflict took place in the Ardmetta [Ardamata] area of El Geneina, West Darfur State.”

The paramilitary group said, however, that as a result of the conflict between RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Ardamata neighborhood, their actions “did unfortunately result in the displacement of civilians” as the military zone is located amid residential areas.

“The conflict ended with our forces seizing control of the SAF 15th Infantry Division and liberating the division headquarters,” the statement said, adding that “since the division was liberated, Ardmetta has seen no further acts of aggression or armed conflict. Residents have returned to their homes, and security has stabilized, allowing life to resume as normal.”

New surge in killings

Amidst the most significant increase in displacement in months, aid agencies operating in Chad say arrivals from Sudan have been describing a new surge in killings and fighting in West Darfur.

Ethnic related killings have intensified since fighting broke out mid-April between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, according to witnesses and aid groups operating in the region.

In September, the United Nations’ human rights body (UNJHRO) said it had received reports of at least 13 mass graves in El Geneina believed to contain civilians from the ethnic Masalit tribe who were allegedly killed in attacks by the RSF and allied Arab militias.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Tuesday that, following increased fighting in El Geneina, its teams working across the border in eastern Chad have seen an “immediate and major increase in the number of people arriving in the region.”

“Our people there in Ardmata were killed and displaced. Children are slaughtered, women’s money and belongings are robbed, and they can’t escape,” one Sudanese woman, Nabila Abdel Rahman, told Reuters on Tuesday.

MSF said at its hospital in Adré, a 27-year-old man told them he fled El Geneina with 16 other people, but their group was attacked on the road to Chad. He said the attackers killed everyone, but he survived by playing dead.

“Eventually a new group of refugees arrived and helped him reach the border. He has multiple bullet wounds on his hands and legs,” the MSF news release said.

A pattern of abuse

“In the first three days of November, we have seen more new arrivals of Sudanese refugees than during the whole previous month; about 7,000 people crossed the border,” MSF outreach coordinator, Stephanie Hoffmann, said.

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) director of external relations Dominique Hyde said she witnessed a surge in human suffering when she visited Sudan last week.

In the Darfur region, fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF has caused even more displacement with thousands struggling to find shelter and many sleeping under trees by the roadside, a UNCHR news release said.

“Child malnutrition is rampant, women are being raped, violence prevails and entire families are sleeping outside with no roof over their heads,” Hyde wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Since the war in Sudan broke out in April, 4.5 million people have been internally displaced and an estimated 1.2 million have fled to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR.

On Tuesday, the US State Department announced that during talks in Jeddah, the SAF and RSF “committed to take steps to facilitate increased humanitarian assistance, and to implement confidence-building measures”.

They were unable to agree on a ceasefire implementation.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, IGAD, also on behalf of the African Union, and the United States call upon the SAF and RSF to put the Sudanese people first, silence the guns, and seek a negotiated end to this needless war,” a joint statement from the talks released by the State Department said.

It comes after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for an “immediate cessation of attacks” in El Fasher in North Darfur.

“The United States is deeply troubled by reports of an imminent large-scale attack by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on El Fasher, North Darfur, that would subject civilians, including hundreds of thousands of displaced persons – many of whom only recently fled to El Fasher from other areas – to extreme danger,” Blinken said in a press statement on November 2.

The strikingly patterned ornate boxfish has no lack of detail when it comes to its hexagonal spots and keen stripes — the intricate markings are so sharp-edged in the species that it had engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder puzzling over how it came to have this distinctive appearance.

Alan Turing, a renowned mathematician who invented modern computing, proposed more than 70 years ago that animals got their patterns through the production of chemical agents that would diffuse through skin tissue, similar to the way creamer would in coffee. The chemicals would interact while other agents would inhibit their activity, resulting in pattern formation. But Turing’s theory didn’t explain how the patterns would remain so defined in a species such as the ornate boxfish.

The team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder explored how a mechanism called diffusiophoresis might create sharp patterns in a new study published Wednesday in the journal of Science Advances. Diffusiophoresis describes the movement of molecules suspended in a fluid in response to a concentration gradient of a separate chemical, causing the small particles, in this case chromatophores (pigment cells), to concentrate and clump together.

When the scientists computed Turing’s equation, modified to include this process, the simulations they generated showed the molecules’ path had always created sharp outlines, unlike the fuzzy, ill-defined spots that Turing’s theory alone would create.

“What we were kind of curious about really was that if it is diffusion, then the patterns should not be sharp … the colors should not be so striking,” said study coauthor Ankur Gupta, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. “So, what gives that striking sharpness to these patterns? That’s where diffusiophoresis comes in.”

The engineers’ findings suggest that with the diffusion of chemical agents, chromatophores are also dragged along their trajectory in diffusiophoresis, creating spots and stripes with a much sharper outline, according to a news release on the study.

Gupta said he hopes the findings will promote further research on diffusiophoresis regarding embryo and tumor formation as well as camouflage and other species’ biological processes.

“The idea of sharpening interfaces is a good one, and definitely important for biological function,” said Dr. Andrew Krause, an assistant professor of applied mathematics at Durham University in the United Kingdom who has studied Turing’s theory, in an email.

“Mathematical ideas like diffusion do often lead to ‘smooth’ or continuous interfaces, whereas most boundaries in biological tissues (e.g., like the boundaries between your organs) are relatively rigid. … It is at least one possible way to sharpen regions of gene expression,” said Krause, who was not involved in the study.

Other possibilities to refine Turing’s theory

Turing’s hypothesis first appeared in 1952 in a paper he wrote titled “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.” His theory argued that animal patterns were not random, but rather a chemical reaction-diffusion process that systematically creates the spots on a leopard or stripes on a tiger, according to the University of Warwick.

While diffusiophoresis is a suggested modification to sharpen Turing’s theory based on the recent study, there could be other possible solutions, said Jeremy Green, a professor of developmental biology at King’s College London.

“Cells are extremely sticky and are very unlikely to be moved by diffusiophoresis,” said Green, who was not involved in the study, in an email. “Cells moving to sharpen a Turing pattern (or indeed any boundary) is not a new idea, and can happen not only by chemotaxis (active cell migration) but also by other mechanisms.”

Green said he believes the study is likely to influence modeling and experimentation in the future, but there are still gaps in Turing’s theory yet to be explored. Green coauthored a February 2012 study that had found evidence to support Turing’s theory when it came to the ridges on a mouse’s palate.

“We did consider other possibilities in our paper and acknowledged that processes like chemotaxis, i.e., cell migration, are present,” Gupta said in an email. “We do not intend to claim that diffusiophoresis is the only mechanism, but rather it is present and has been underappreciated. Including diffusiophoresis helps improve the robustness of such predictions.”

For the steady stream of visitors, it’s their last chance to see Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and their youngest cub, Xiao Qi Ji, before the black-and-white bears head back to China on Wednesday.

Their departure marks the end of more than 50 years of Chinese pandas being housed at the zoo, which was the first US zoo to showcase the bears as part of what’s been called “panda diplomacy.”

Zoo staff call it a “hiatus” in their five-decade wildly popular panda program; Chinese officials have yet to say whether it will continue.

And with relations between the two superpowers in a constant state of flux, these national treasures may be finding themselves part of the extension of the diplomatic chaos that has taken over the relationship between the two countries.

The pandas’ departure from the National Zoo leaves Zoo Atlanta as the only other US zoo to feature pandas from China, and not for much longer. The contracts for Atlanta’s four bears expire next year, with no word on an extension.

It started during the Nixon presidency

China acknowledges the cuddly creatures are used for its “major political and diplomatic needs,” especially in places where it hopes to gain more influence or closer relations. China says its focus is on conservation and research and says the US program has been productive.

“The two sides have formed good cooperative relations, achieved fruitful results and played a positive role in protecting endangered species,” said spokesperson Mao Ning of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The purpose is to better protect endangered species and promote global biodiversity conservation.”

Beijing’s panda diplomacy with Washington kicked off in 1972, following President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China.

Premier Zhou Enlai gifted two giant pandas to the United States in a sign of warming bilateral ties after decades of diplomatic deep freeze.

First lady Pat Nixon welcomed the pandas to the nation’s capital, saying, “They will be enjoyed by the millions of people who come from across the country to visit the nation’s capital each year.”

Seeing the pandas’ popularity rise among Americans, China sent more of the cuddly and charismatic creatures to other zoos across the United States, eventually loaning them instead of giving them as a gift.

Changing diplomacy

Agreements between China and the US zoos stipulate Beijing owns the pandas and any of their offspring, and they require payment “for the conservation of giant pandas in China.” The National Zoo has paid $500,000 a year; Zoo Atlanta says it has contributed more than $16 million since the start of its program in 1999.

Since giant pandas arrived at the National Zoo in 1972, animal care staff and scientists have studied their biology, behavior, breeding, reproduction and disease, according to the zoo.

“The Zoo’s giant panda team works closely with colleagues in China to advance conservation efforts for giant pandas in human care and in the wild,” the zoo says on its website.

At the height of the program, there were 15 pandas at one time in the United States, but in the past decade, the numbers have dropped – coinciding with worsening US-China relations. And soon, there could be no more pandas at American zoos.

Earlier this year, videos surfaced on Chinese social media claiming pandas returning from the Memphis Zoo were being abused. Partially fueled by Chinese state media, the claims went viral.

Chinese doctors defended the zoo’s treatment of the pandas, confirming that the giant panda, named YaYa, was suffering from a skin disease, but was in good health.

But some in China still see it as a symbol of America’s bullying and oppression of China, with others highlighting countries such as Russia, which also hosts the animals, as a place where pandas are treated well.

Assuming China chooses not to send over more giant pandas, and Atlanta sends theirs back next year, by the end of 2024 the only panda in zoos throughout all of the Americas would be Xin Xin in Mexico City.

Xin Xin – who at 33 is old for a panda – is owned by Mexico and is a main attraction at the zoo, which is now bracing for a possible surge in visitors.

“For the time being, come to Mexico!” said Fernando Gual Sill, director general of the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. “In Mexico City we have the fortune to have (a panda) and to see it and to enjoy it!”

Pandas around the world

Pandas that are part of China’s loan program are meant to serve as an envoy of friendship between China and the host country, so the fading program in the United States may indicate a diplomatic shift.

Russia, China’s northern neighbor, received a pair of pandas in 2019, with Chinese President Xi Jinping standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin as they welcomed the bears to the zoo in Moscow.

Qatar received its first panda last year.

Including the United States, 23 countries have pandas on loan from China, but that number is dwindling. Scotland will lose its two pandas in December when the Edinburgh Zoo must return them to China; Australia’s Adelaide Zoo has its two pandas only for one more year.

The pandas leaving America will head to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where in recent years conservation efforts have proven successful. Pandas are no longer on the endangered species list, and their population has jumped nearly 17% over the past decade, according to Zoo Atlanta.

Still, the total number of giant pandas in China – 1,864 as of the latest census, in 2014 – is considered low for breeding and maintaining a viable population. Only around 61% of China’s pandas are protected by reserves, and their habitat is threatened by logging in established forests, which eliminates the large tree hollows pandas like to use for dens, Zoo Atlanta says.

Will the pandas ever return stateside?

Staff at the National Zoo say they’re hopeful China might one day send over more giant pandas. They’re even planning renovations for the soon-to-be vacant panda exhibit.

“We’re hopeful for the future, so we have submitted an application that’s being reviewed,” said Bob Lee, director of animal care at the National Zoo.

Zoo Atlanta’s panda habitat cost $7 million to build ahead of the bears’ arrival in 1999, and assuming the bears leave at the end of their contracted stay, it will now stand empty. Plans for the exhibit, with a welcome sign announcing the “Giant Pandas of Chengdu” and a panda-themed gift shop, aren’t clear.

Remembering how the pandas first came to Washington, zoo visitor Jane Mahalik said she hoped the current first lady might work for their return.

Unusually early heavy snowfall blanketed swathes of northeastern China this week, forcing airlines to cancel flights, halting trains and shutting schools and roads in the country’s first major blizzard of the season.

The first snowfall in northeast China usually takes place between late November and early December, state-run news outlet The Paper reported, citing a chief weather forecaster from China’s National Meteorological Center.

In Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, the railway operator halted 51 passenger trains on Tuesday due to the snowstorm. Harbin, the provincial capital, canceled more than 400 flights at its international airport on Monday, while some smaller airports in the province canceled all flights.

Schools, kindergartens, and off-campus training institutions in most parts of Harbin were suspended on Monday and Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

In the city of Jiamusi, authorities are investigating after a gymnasium collapsed on Monday amid the snowstorm, killing three students who were trapped inside, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Seven middle school students were playing basketball at the sports club when the roof collapsed on them, Xinhua reported. Three escaped while four others were trapped, the report said.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. The gym was completed in 2018 and passed a safety inspection in 2020, according to Xinhua.

This is the second gymnasium collapse in Heilongjiang in recent months. In July, after days of heavy rain, the roof of a school gym in Qiqihar city collapsed onto a student volleyball team, killing 11 people.

The two incidents have sparked public anger and raised questions over the quality and safety of constructions.

Harbin issued a red blizzard alert – the highest in China’s four-tier warning system – on Sunday and Monday.

In the neighboring province of Jilin, more than 200 expressway entrances were closed on Monday due to heavy snowfall.

China’s national weather forecaster issued an orange blizzard alert – the second highest level after red – on Saturday and renewed it on Monday for parts of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia. The alert was lifted on Tuesday.

Global fossil fuel production in 2030 is set to be more than double the levels that are deemed consistent with meeting climate goals set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the United Nations and researchers said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report, assessing the gap in fossil fuel production cuts and what’s needed to meet climate goals, comes ahead of the global COP 28 climate meeting, which starts on November 30 in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

“Fossil fuel phase out is one of the pivotal issues that will be negotiated at COP 28,” Ploy Achakulwisut, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) scientist and a lead author of the report said in a press briefing.

“We need countries to commit to a phase out of all fossil fuels to keep the 1.5C goal alive,” she said.

Under the Paris pact, nations have committed to a long-term goal of limiting average temperature rises to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to attempt to limit them even further to 1.5C.

While scientists say fossil fuel use must be reduced to meet the goal, countries have failed to reach any international agreement set phaseout dates for unabated coal, gas or oil use.

The report analysed the 20 major fossil fuel producers and found they plan to produce, in total, around 110% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting the degree of warming to 1.5C, and 69% more than is consistent with 2C.

None of the 20 countries have committed to reduce coal, oil, and gas production in line with limiting warming to 1.5°C the report said.

It said 17 of the countries have pledged to reach net zero emissions but most continue to promote, subsidise, support and plan the expansion of fossil fuel production.

The 20 countries analysed account for 82% of global fossil fuel production and 73% of consumption, the report said and include Australia, China, Norway, Qatar, Britain, the UAE and the United States.

The report was produced by UNEP, as well as experts from the SEI, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and think-tank E3G and policy institute Climate Analytics.

A UNICEF spokesperson has defended the death toll being reported out of Gaza, saying the organization’s figures had historically matched those of the Hamas-controlled Gazan health ministry.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the past month – including thousands of women, children and elderly, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawing from sources in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Israel declared war on the Islamist militant group Hamas after its brutal October 7 attack, in which it killed 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped about 240 others. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has since razed neighborhoods and bombed thousands of what it says are Hamas targets, including in refugee camps. Israel Defense Forces warnings have prompted many to flee to the southern part of the strip.

“At UNICEF we are very, very precise with our numbers. We have the reputation, not just because we are on the frontlines and we deliver, but we have evidence,” he said.

He said UNICEF was rigorous with its reporting procedures, using triangular verification to analyze intelligence, which takes more time but is “much more thorough.”

“I know the boys and girls and the moms and dads behind (the numbers) and that’s – I think for UNICEF – why we’re so outraged that they keep spiking and that we can’t get a humanitarian ceasefire,” he said, adding there are “parents who now will wake with grief every single day.”

Figures from Gaza have been met with skepticism in some quarters, with US President Joe Biden saying last month he had “no confidence” in the reported number of civilian casualties. A White House spokesperson said afterward the ministry was a “front for Hamas,” though did not dispute that thousands of Palestinians, many innocent civilians, had been killed.

After Biden’s comments, the Gazan health ministry published a 212-page report listing the deaths in Gaza since the war began that it blamed on Israel. The list does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

On Tuesday, scores of Palestinians evacuated northern Gaza during a four-hour window allotted by the Israeli military. Videos show children, women and the elderly walking down the highway holding up their identification cards, and white flags signaling their hope for safe passage.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said some 5,000 people fled to southern Gaza by foot during another four-hour window on Monday.

Amputations without anesthesia

Calls for a ceasefire have grown more urgent and widespread internationally, as more details emerge of the suffering unfolding in the isolated strip, which is nearly entirely cut off from the outside world.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday some Gaza doctors had been performing operations without anesthesia, including amputations.

“Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said during a press briefing. He reiterated the UN’s calls for “unhindered, safe and secure access” for some 500 trucks of aid a day — not only across the border but also “all the way through to the patients in the hospitals.”

On Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said more than 400 trucks had entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing in the past two weeks — compared to the 500 trucks that used to enter every day before the war.

Emily Callahan, a nurse activity manager for the non-profit Doctors Without Borders, was in Gaza last week and saw the devastation firsthand.

She described seeing children walking around with severe wounds and “partial amputations.” Their parents would go to her and the other aid workers asking for help – “and we have no supplies,” she said.

Aid convoy attacked

Even humanitarian aid is not guaranteed safe passage through the bombarded streets of Gaza, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On Tuesday, the organization said its humanitarian convoy came under fire when it was delivering essential medical supplies to health facilities in Gaza City.

The convoy consisted of five trucks and two Red Cross vehicles. Two trucks were damaged in the attack, and a driver sustained minor injuries, the organization said.

“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza, said in a statement. “We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”

Guterres said in a statement afterward: “I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al-Shifa hospital.”

Israel accuses Hamas of using ambulances, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes, including transporting fighters and weapons, and says it will strike “anywhere we see Hamas activity – a green (head)band and a terrorist.”

And while Guterres reiterated his condemnation of Hamas’ attacks and demanded the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza, he emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire – comments that have previously been lambasted by Israel’s leaders, who have called for his resignation as UN chief.

“Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed, and bombed out of their homes,” Guterres said in the statement. “This must stop.”

Waving white flags and holding identification papers aloft, residents of northern Gaza were seen fleeing south during a four-hour window allotted by the Israel Defense Forces for civilians to escape Tuesday.

Videos from the scene, including one published by the IDF, show scores of Palestinians heading south, including children, women and elderly people.

The IDF has repeatedly called on civilians to move south of Wadi Gaza as it intensifies its assault on Hamas in Gaza City and northern Gaza.

Wedad Al-Ghoul, traveling with her young son, said she had walked 8 to 9 kilometers so far (roughly 5 miles) from her home on Gaza’s coast.

“I am carrying my ID because I was told it (the passage) will be safe, I don’t know if I am going to be allowed to enter or arrive to the south,” she said.

“I am a resident of Al-Shejaiya neighborhood… We saw death in our own eyes, the floor was exploding from under us. I have only one son and three daughters, I can’t walk, where do we go? No house, no food, no water; they left us with nothing,” Zaher said.

Avichay Adraee, the IDF spokesperson for Arabic media, said via X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that safe passage was allowed on Salah Eddin Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. Accompanying the announcement, he posted a video showing displaced persons walking past an Israeli tank on the same street.

About 5,000 people fled to southern Gaza by foot during a four-hour window on Monday, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Since Saturday, Israel has opened up a humanitarian corridor for four hours each day for Gazans to move south.

But there are no fully protected zones in Gaza. Eyewitnesses described multiple explosions in central and southern Gaza on Tuesday morning that they said were caused by Israeli airstrikes.

In the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, at least two blasts were reported in a camp for displaced people south of the Wadi Gaza waterway. Videos from the city show wounded children being carried away in the arms of adults.

Amid outcry over the damage inflicted on residential areas, medical facilities and UN-run schools being used as shelters in Gaza, the IDF said Tuesday that it is prepared to strike at Hamas “wherever necessary,” including civilian infrastructure if Israel believes Hamas is using it.

UN relief agency UNRWA has described conditions in its shelters as overcrowded and “inhumane,” warning in a statement on Monday of a looming public health crisis due to damaged water and sanitation infrastructure.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s siege began, according to figures from the Palestinian health authority in Ramallah, drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Israel says the goal of the air and ground offensive in Gaza is the complete elimination of Hamas, after the militant group killed 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped about 240 others in bloody terror attacks on October 7.

Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians and civilian structures including hospitals as shields; Hamas and several hospitals in the enclave have denied that.

Over the past month Israel has attacked more than 14,000 “terrorist targets,” an IDF spokesman said Tuesday, claiming to have eliminated Hamas fighters and destroyed Hamas tunnel shafts and weapons.

Biden told reporters Tuesday that he had asked the Israeli leader, when the two spoke on the phone on Monday, to consider a humanitarian pause.

Yet Netanyahu insists he will not permit a ceasefire until Hamas releases the hundreds of hostages it still holds in Gaza. Shorter pauses in the fighting – what the prime minister described as “tactical little pauses” in an interview with ABC news on Monday – may be permitted for the passage of humanitarian goods or hostages, he said.

The US has also warned Israel over its plans for Gaza after the war ends, following Netanyahu’s comments to ABC that Israel should have “overall security responsibility” in the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period.”

“We have to distinguish between a security presence and political control,” Mark Regev said. “When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas. There is no point doing this and just going back to square one.”

The European Union’s legislative body has recommended that formal accession talks between the bloc and Ukraine should begin next year, a significant milestone in Ukraine’s move toward closer integration with the West.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today is a historic day, because today the Commission recommends that the council opens accession negotiations with Ukraine and with Moldova.”

Von der Leyen was speaking on the same day that the Commission published a report suggesting to EU member states that accession talks should finally start, nearly 18 months since the bloc accepted Ukraine as a candidate state. The same report suggests that accession talks with Moldova should also begin.

Ukraine has held ambitions to join the EU for more than a decade. In late 2013, then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to scrap a trade deal with the European Union and instead turn toward Russia sparked street protests and his eventual ouster, followed in March 2014 by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. The aim of joining the bloc – along with NATO – has formally been part of Ukraine’s constitution since 2019.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky applied for EU membership in February 2022, shortly before Russia invaded his country.

While the decision to open negotiations with Ukraine is an important step on Zelensky’s path to EU membership, talks will not begin until a set of conditions have been met. With Ukraine currently at war, it is unclear and unlikely that those conditions will be met any time soon.