Global News Podcast - Dozens of Gazans die in shooting near to aid convoy

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Dozens of Gazans die near to an aid convoy; Israel says its troops fired warning shots but rejects Hamas death figures. Also: D-Day veteran "Papa" Jake Larson dies at 102, and how Russia indoctrinates Ukrainian children.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and in the early hours of Monday 21 July these are our main stories. Dozens of Palestinians have died in another shooting close to a UN aid convoy in Gaza. Israel says its troops fired warning shots but rejects Palestinian figures on the numbers of dead. Japan's Prime Minister says he intends to stay in office despite his coalition failing to secure a majority in elections to the upper house.

Reports of renewed violence in outlying villages of Soweda province in Syria. Also in this podcast, the American D-Day veteran and social media star, Papa Jake Larson, dies at the age of 102. Every person that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day came through these fingers. These fingers I'm showing you right now.

Type their name. We look back at his extraordinary life. Now type their name. We look back at his extraordinary life. At the weekend, almost 175 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes, according to medics and Hamas officials. More than half died on their way to an aid site or waiting for aid, and some were killed near distribution centres

run by the US and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Imad Kouda is a student living in an Almawasi humanitarian camp near the southern Gaza border. He recorded a one day audio diary for the BBC. Here's an excerpt. The gate of our camp right now is targeted by one of the Israeli drones. They tell us that the children have been killed. The community kitchen is targeted. What we can see is very difficult.

This is happening every day. Israel doesn't allow international journalists, including ones from the BBC, to report from Gaza. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Jo Lantanel, is monitoring developments and she told us what the World Food Programme had told journalists. Shortly after entering Gaza, one of its convoy of 25 lorries carrying food aid encountered what it said were massive crowds

of hungry civilians who then came under gunfire. Now we can't verify the exact numbers of those killed but certainly we've seen footage from our trusted freelance colleagues at Schiffer Hospital in Gaza City that show a stream of bodies of young men or teenage boys brought in with many of the wounded too and the Israeli military is saying its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands in this part of northern Gaza saying this was to remove what it said was an immediate threat and it said its initial findings suggested that the casualty figures that have been

reported have been inflated. It said it certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks and we're also hearing of six other people who are killed near another aid site in the south. That's according to the health officials. We've not yet seen an Israeli military comment on that. And there were about a dozen people also said to have been killed in other Israeli attacks across Gaza in the course of the day. Many of the fatalities are connected to aid. It's hard, I know, for you to accurately assess offence, but what do you read into this pattern?

This was one of the highest reported death tolls. We've had these repeated almost daily cases in which aid seekers have been killed and if you add this latest bloodshed to UN figures that were circulating last week that brings the number of Palestinians reportedly killed waiting for aid in about two months to close to a thousand. The biggest numbers killed, more than 700 according to the figures I'm trying to stay across were in the vicinity of sites run by the Gaza humanitarian foundation. Its operations have been very controversial, although it's backed by Israel and the US. It operates exclusively in these Israeli military zones, mainly in the south of the Strip. And that is where we've seen

a number of times now Israeli fire at civilians, the Israeli military, saying it's investigating these reports of casualties, but all of this happening as the aid situation becomes more and more desperate in Gaza and having more and more warnings now of thousands of people who are suffering from the effects of malnutrition. Jolande Nel. Well, one Gaza resident who says she isn't eating regular meals is Garda Alhord, a journalist in Gaza City. I'm speaking to you and I have a terrible headache. Since two days we didn't eat anything. Nothing, nothing, nothing to be eaten here in Gaza,

like for me, for my daughters, for anyone. We just drink water all the time. If we want to go to the local market, it run out from any kind of food. If you find something, it's very expensive. Really, we are dying. People, they are just collapsing while they are walking in the street. I can't find words to describe my situation.

Today we didn't eat anything. We were looking in the market, nothing. They don't have anything. They don't have nothing. They don't have anything. They don't have money. They don't have cash. They don't have food. How they can manage? How they are running after the water truck just to get some water. We can see the kids, they are chasing the, they are looking in the garbage in the street for anything to eat. Mothers, they are chasing people to eat. Mothers, they are chasing people and they are calling anyone just to help them to feed their kids. I hope like the ceasefire will be signed this week and I hope the Hemanturian Aid will come through the crossing. Anything that could

save our lives. This is like a message from me from on behalf of my people. Like it's two years now of suffering and I hope like anyone can hear us can listen to us and stop the starvation if you are not able to stop the killing the war just to stop the starvation we want to eat Gaza journalist Gada Al Kord the Israeli authorities have proposed a so-called humanitarian city for Palestinians to be established after the conflict ends. James Nockety asked the former UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and aid coordinator Martin Griffiths about aid in Gaza.

The situation at the moment in humanitarian terms in Gaza is on a precipice because the aid trickling in is a trickle and people are starving to death. Malnutrition is a huge primary problem now as reported by MSF. So it's desperate and you know I think it's the slow death of the Gazan, which we are simply watching from the sidelines. And the humanitarian cities, Jim, is an extraordinary arrangement or proposal, because of course it lures people in, it security checks them before they get into the humanitarian cities. It doesn't let them out, which is why some Israeli senior people like Olmert and others are talking about it as a concentration camp, which has extraordinary resonances. And it's a preliminary to deportation. And it's, you know, people need to eat, so they

may be tempted by this. So I think it's an absolute affront, not just to humanitarian principles, but to all our feelings of norms and values in solidarity. Because it's a staging post to forced exile. Yes, that's really what it is. It's not a humanitarian city. It is exactly that. And it's nakedly and unashamedly that which I find even more alarming in a way. I don't know what we're all supposed to do when this set of cities is set up. Are we supposed to, you know, encourage people to go there, just sit back and say, please

don't? What's the, what's going to be the international opinion, the United Nations and others about this crime, probably a war crime. I'm not sure. It's certainly a crime against humanitarian and human rights law. So what are we going to do about it? Maybe this time we'll do more than just express concern. Martin Griffiths, James also spoke to Fleur Hassan Nahoum, a spokesperson for the Israeli government.

I think that this whole thing is a huge tragedy. And the reason why we're here two years later is because Hamas, a genocidal terrorist group that raped women and children and killed and beheaded people, and they're killing their own people. In fact, till today, people going to get humanitarian aid, they're still in power and they're still holding Israeli living hostages. So you must understand that if the UK were in a situation where a foreign country was holding on to their hostages after the worst massacre in a hundred years, that Israel can't just sit and wait for that massacre to happen again. Well, the estimates are there are probably 20 living hostages and the remains of others

still there. And that is a fact which everybody who looks at it for 10 seconds understands. But we also see, and I've just got to put this to you bluntly, that according to the Red Cross, it's a very reputable organization. Nearly half a million people… Well, I don't know, I think I could argue with you about that. Well, let's… Okay, we'll let the listeners decide about what they think of the Red Cross. Half a million people facing starvation.

In the South, more than 60% of buildings damaged or destroyed. Food and water are scarce. How do you justify that assault on an entire population in which, as the Pope pointed out the other day, children and the elderly are suffering most profoundly? Well first of all I want to push back because we've been hearing this lie of starvation already for two years. Every three months there's a new report that says they're on the brink of starvation and somehow miraculously...

Do you think it's fine. You think they've got lots of food. I know. All I can tell you is this. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was set up for one main purpose, to give food that doesn't get into the hands of the terrorists who sell the food to their own people and other ones who are starving their own people. Since they were set up a few months ago, and I've spoken to very senior people

who are running this incredible operation, there's been 52 million meals given out. Now, how do you reconcile that fact, that statistic that can be proven with the libel of starvation? Now, what's going on here is that the communists have lost their main source of funding, which is international aid that they steal, their main source of funding,

and they're doing everything, including ramping up the propaganda in order to get back the control of how they can get their income. There are British and international doctors, medics and people who have gone there to help who are trustworthy people and they are appalled by what they see. They can't believe it that a place with two million people in it and we know about Hamas, we know the awful things they did. There's no argument about that. You're quite right about that. Those massacres were dreadful. So we should just let them rule? So we should let them stay there? No, but you can do it without starving. That's what you're saying. No, no, but you see, as Martin Griffiths pointed out there, you're suggesting humanitarian camps. Well, one of your former prime ministers described them the other day as concentration camps.

Not me, that's him. This is the former prime minister that was in jail, so I wouldn't take him too seriously. Ultimately, ultimately, well, he was in jail. Ultimately, what I can tell you is this, you can't win because if we, the main challenge that exists in Gaza today is separating the terrorists who kill their own people from the regular innocent people that have suffered tremendously. How do we do that? So when you create humanitarian zones, they come and smuggle themselves into the humanitarian zone

Well, because you don't let them out everybody's an expert But nobody has any actual practical ideas about how to get rid of Hamas Israeli government spokesperson Fleur Hassan Nahoum talking to James Nockety as We record this podcast There are reports of renewed violence in outlying villages of the Syrian province of Soweda despite a ceasefire that brought a brief halt to a week of deadly clashes between the Druze and Bedouin communities. More than 1,100 people have been killed in the fighting. We've been

hearing from one man caught up in the violence, a member of the Druze community. He'd been visiting family in northern Soweda when the clashes broke out. He's asked to remain anonymous and says he's been sheltering with his elderly parents ever since. About 500 metres only from my house, my family are there, the children are screaming the whole night yesterday till 3am. Now the situation is fine, we don't know what happened. Last night they attacked us from this side. Then the smallest villages being burned. They burned it. They burned it. We see the fire. And we were waiting for them to reach us. We don't know where to go.

A resident from the Druze community in Soweda province. There have been fears the sectarian violence could spiral into a wider regional crisis. The US has urged the Syrian government to take steps to stabilise the area and ensure the safety of civilians. Our correspondent John Donnison has been close to the city and sent this report. In Soweda province, a show of force from Bedwin government. We were there as hundreds of fighters fired into the air in defiance. We found the Bedwin masked on the road at the last government checkpoint before Soweda city. One tribal elder told me for now they were observing the ceasefire but would go back in if what they called Bedouin

hostages were not brought out. If the Druze don't commit to the deal we will re-enter Soweda again he said even if it becomes our cemetery. The city is now controlled by the Druze. Residents say there is a tense calm but no electricity or running water and with food running short. The UN says more than 130,000 people have been displaced. At a school now acting as a makeshift shelter just outside the city, we met Bedouin families who had fled their homes with nothing.

I asked Tanaya Rommay Saifan whether Druze and Bedouin could ever live side by side again. No, no, not possible, she said, as the crowd backed her up. You can't trust the Druze. They are traitors. For now, the government does seem to have enforced some sort of calm after the worst sectarian violence since last year's Syrian uprising.

But with so many dead and injured, feelings are running high. This country is far from united. John Donison in Damascus Tributes are being paid to the American D-Day veteran and social media star Papa Jake Larson, who's died at the age of 102. Larson was among the allied troops who stormed northern France in 1944 to help end the Second World War. Later in life, he gained a huge social media following, sharing stories of the war and his fallen comrades. Charlotte Simpson has the story.

Papa Jake here. Coming up is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. 80 years ago, I landed on Omaha Beach. Papa Jake Larson, delivering one of his many story times to his 1.2 million followers on TikTok, determined to share the experiences of the greatest generation with the youngest. Born in 1922, Jake Larson lied about his age to enlist in the US National Guard at the age of 15. In January 1942, he was sent overseas and became the operations sergeant tasked with typing up the plans for the invasion of Normandy. Every person that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day

came through these fingers. These fingers I'm showing you right now type their name. He too was among those men who stormed the shores of Normandy on June 6, 1944, surviving machine gunfire when he landed on Omaha Beach. Posting on the account she helped set up in 2020, Papa Jake's granddaughter Michaela announced the veteran's peaceful death at the age of 102, signing off the statement with his famous catchphrase, love you all the mostest. Charlotte Simpson.

Still to come. It meant an enormous amount actually to all of us because we never got to do that back in 1997. We didn't stand on top of the roster and hear the national anthem. The true relay race winners of the World Athletic Championships 28 years ago finally get the gold medals they lost to cheating.

Shigeru Ishiba's first year as Japan's Prime Minister has been anything but smooth. He came to power promising to clean up after a major political scandal, but instead lost his party's majority in the lower house and has faced mounting pressure over Japan's rising cost of living. Now, as we record this podcast, if exit polls hold, his Liberal Democratic Party is poised to lose its grip on the upper house as well. But as I heard from our Asia Pacific editor, Celia Hatton, the embattled Mr Ishiba intends to stay on as Prime Minister. He's facing a fight for his job. He's already said that he doesn't

intend to leave his position. Of course, we're waiting for the confirmed election results. But he's also added to the fact that he says Japan is in extremely critical tariff negotiations, dangling the idea that if Japan has a leadership change at this moment, it really could weaken their hand in these very important negotiations with the United States. But going past that moment in time, I think he still is facing a lot of questions about his time at the top, but also the future of Japan's liberal Democratic Party. You know, they've been in power almost continuously since 1955, but it looks like they're probably going to lose their grip on the upper house in Japan. They've already lost their majority in the lower house. So things really aren't looking very good

for the LDP, although they don't have an obvious rival at the moment. It's a bit of a scrap for other voters among the opposition parties at the moment. Why do people seem to be out of love with the LDP? Quite a few things really. I mean, first we've been seeing a lot of voter anger about some fundraising scandals that took place within the LDP and sort of the perception that the LDP really helps its own and doesn't go too far to help ordinary people in Japan. That's been compounded by the fact that Japan's had the same continuous problems for years now.

They're facing rising inflation. They're rapidly aging population. They just simply don't have enough taxpayers to support the number of retired people who are really relying on Japan at the moment. The population is shrinking. And so there's an ongoing debate as well in Japan about whether foreign workers should be allowed in to kind of fill some of those crucial positions that Japanese people are just leaving open at the moment. And so there's

an ongoing debate around immigration like there is in many other countries. As you say, Mr. Ishiba has not resigned. At the moment, isn't intending to. We haven't got the full results yet. But is he going to be able to cling on? Well he's already facing calls from within his own party, some of his rivals are calling on him to step down. So it's really going to be touch and go. If he makes it until after these crucial trade talks that are due to continue next week, maybe he'll be able to continue his grip on power. But Japan's seen a lot of changes in the leadership at the very top in the past

few years. So I don't know if voters really have an appetite to go through another leadership change. Maybe they're going to be questioning how long the LDP should stay in power at all. Celia Hatton. His escape from prison triggered a state of emergency in Ecuador. His recapture made international headlines in June. Now, Ecuador's most notorious drug lord, known as Fito, has been extradited to the United States. His gang, Los Choneros, is linked to rising drug trafficking and extreme violence that has surged across Ecuador in recent years. Our Americas regional editor, Leonardo Rocha, told me why this was a relief for the Ecuadorian authorities.

He was the biggest drug trafficker in Ecuador, not only that, the biggest criminal leader. He was the leader of the Lashchoneiros, Adolfo Macias, known as Fito, he escaped from prison about two months after the current president, President Noboa, came into power promising law and order and promising to tackle this lawlessness in Ecuador and the rising violence. And in January 24, Fito just escaped from prison in Guayaquil. It was very embarrassing for the government. It took him over a year to arrest this guy. He was arrested a month ago, living in his hometown in basically undergrounds, in some luxury. So for the government, it's a big

victory that they can announce. The government also organized a referendum to allow the extradition of Ecuadorian citizens, that was last year, and he is the first one to be extradited to the United States to respond for his crimes there. Yeah, why has he agreed to be extradited to the US? That's very interesting. That's a bit of a mystery because normally when that started with the Colombian drug lords of the 1980s, the worst thing for them in Mexico as well was for them to be extradited to the US because when they go there, they have no privileges in prison.

They can't control the criminal organization from prison. They have no mobile phones. Basically there are no bodies in another country. I think that Fito, the only reason he may have agreed is for some leniency in his sentences and also he might have feared for his life if he remained in prison in Ecuador. That's the only explanation because he agreed about a week or two ago and he's already flying to the United States now according to the authorities. But Ecuador used to be quite a calm part of Latin America but not now. Four thousand murders in the first seven months of this year alone.

It's, well we have success stories and Ecuador is the opposite. I mean they have oil, they were peaceful, they don't produce any of the drugs, I mean cocaine, or that's the main drug there, they don't produce, but it's all produced around them, in Peru, in Bolivia, and in Colombia. And especially after the pandemic, during the pandemic, they were very badly hit, if you remember, they were the first country where you saw bodies in the streets and all that. And the other cartels, the Mexican cartels organized crime from the Balkans, Albanians also moved in and they saw it as a soft spot. The government wasn't prepared. The previous government had also basically

expelled the American army. They had the military base there. So they saw Ecuador as a soft spot in a really a very convenient location because all those cocaine being produced around now there's estimates that 70% of the cocaine sent to the US and to Europe go through Ecuador and ports and it is really despite all attempts it seems very difficult to control violence there unfortunately. Leonardo Russia. difficult to control violence there, unfortunately. Leonardo Roche. Russia's propaganda war over the conflict in Ukraine is well known, but it also seems to be waging a campaign of indoctrination targeting children in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine, with the aim not only to erase Ukrainian national identity,

but to turn young Ukrainians against their own country. Vitaly Shevchenko has this report. Children in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol taking an oath of allegiance to Russia. They have been recruited into Yonarmia, the Youth Army, a paramilitary movement linked to the Russian defence ministry. Its instructors have been dispatched to Ukraine to teach children to fire weapons, practice military tactics and generally learn how great Russia is. This is one Russian instructor singing in front of Ukrainian children about how victory will be ours and how Russian glory covers the earth.

He and the Unarmir movement are sanctioned by the European Union for indoctrinating Ukrainian children. Full-on Kremlin propaganda is also evident in schools. One Russian textbook portrays Ukraine as a Western invention created to spite Russia and argues that human civilization as we know it might have ended had Russia not invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russian soldiers often come into schools to give so-called bravery lessons. In one nursery school, children had to make trench candles and blankets for Russian soldiers. Here's Lisa. She used to go to a Russia-run school in occupied Donetsk, but now she lives in the US and she has been blogging about

her experiences on TikTok. They were preparing a huge parade of some sort. We had to hold posters. I was told I had to do it to graduate. Every time lessons started, our teacher made us stand up, put a hand on heart and listen to the Russian anthem. Outside of school, the Kremlin has launched a massive campaign of taking Ukrainian children on tours of Russia to instil pro-Russian sentiments.

The government in Kiev says more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia, many of them placed with Russian foster parents. Darya Herzemchuk, President Vladimir Zelensr Zelenskyi's Commissioner for Children, says about 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain in areas controlled by Russian forces. If a child refuses to go to school or rebels, you'd be stripped of parental rights and the child will be moved to another family. This threatens our nation's very existence. By killing and abducting children you deprive a nation of our future. That's what Russia wants. Her Russian counterpart Maria Lvova-Belova says Russia is only saving

Ukrainian children from the war. Ms Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin are both wanted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for allegedly committing the war crime of unlawful deportation of children. Vitaly Shevchenko, 28 years after the race was run, the British 4x400 relay team has been awarded a gold medal. Back in 1997, during the World Athletics Championships in Athens, the British athletes came second to the American Quartet, which was later stripped of the title after one of the team, Antonio Pettigrew, admitted to doping. One of those on the podium at the weekend was Roger Black. My colleague Rebecca Kesby spoke to him. It meant an enormous amount actually to all of us for lots of reasons because we never

got to do that back in 1997. We didn't stand on top of the roster and hear the national anthem in Athens. But in a funny way, I mean yesterday there were 60,000 people in the stadium. There were our friends, our family, our kids who wouldn't have been born or were doing that. We got to share it with our families, which actually I have to say was really, really special. But still, still wasn't the same as actually doing it on the night all those years ago. But we, we, all of us feel very fortunate that we had that moment yesterday.

Yeah. And it was such a tight race actually back in 97. I've been watching it again this morning and you ran the second leg, which was actually against Antonio Pettigrew. It was, yeah. And he went on to admit that he'd been doping and it's quite a tragic story because he ended up dying by suicide a few years later. I mean, what are your thoughts on that and how, you know, how you got to win in the end, if you see what I mean? Yeah, I mean, and we made a point to acknowledge that because myself in particular, I knew Antonio,

we were the same generation. He beat me just to win the world championships individually in 1991, sometimes would warm up and warm down with him for races around the world. He was a nice guy, liked him a lot. But he did go on to admit that he had taken drugs. He was part of an investigation called the Barco case. You may not know about that in America.

Quite a few other American athletes were involved. It was so sad that he took his life. I mean, genuinely really sad. I don't know why, they're not saying why, but yeah, yeah, I mean obviously it's a sad twist to the story. Athlete Roger Black. And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address

is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Jack Wilfen and the producers were Allison Davies and Ed Horton. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz and until next time, goodbye.