Global News Podcast - Nearly 30 countries call for an immediate end to the war in Gaza

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

A statement by many foreign ministers has condemned what it calls the "drip feeding" of aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Also: a stolen 16th century painting is returned to an Italian museum.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Tuesday the 22nd of July, these are our main stories. Israel is facing heightened international criticism over its actions in Gaza. Nearly 30 countries have issued a joint statement condemning what they called the drip-feeding of aid to Palestinians. One of Jeffrey Epstein's victims has called on the Trump administration to release more information on the late sex offender.

Bangladesh is mourning at least 20 people, many of them children, who died when an Air Force training plane crashed into a school compound. Also on this podcast, a British woman agrees to return a painting her husband bought in good faith to the Italian Museum from where it was stolen decades ago. She gets nothing for giving it back, but... She doesn't have to compensate the people of Belluno for having their painting for half a century.

She is a good person. Not everyone will do this. We begin in Gaza, where an Israeli ground offensive in the centre of the territory is reported to have killed several people and destroyed homes and mosques in the city of Deir Ababa. Tens of thousands of Palestinians fled after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order on Sunday. The UN Humanitarian Affairs Agency says the offensive will deal a further blow to efforts to keep people alive. Families of Israeli hostages, some of whom are believed to be being held in the area, have said the operation is endangering the lives of their loved ones. Meanwhile, many of those now fleeing Deir-Bala have been displaced multiple times.

Laila Ezzat Alshana and her family, two of whom are disabled, are heading a few kilometres north to a camp in Nusrat. There is no place to go to and the people are so crowded. So there is no place even to buy their tents. There is no transportation. People are losing their minds and they are falling to the ground due to the lack of food. They don't eat. If I want to buy anything, I have very expensive amounts. So the one bag of flour right now, 25 kilos, by around $4,000 for one bag. We can't buy.

We don't have any income. I spoke to our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucet, and asked her what we know about the assault in the area of Der Al-Bala. This was a big question being asked this morning, Valerie, because there's been 21 months of war and Der Al-Bala has been seen as a place of relative refuge. I think to a person, every Palestinian in Gaza, all the aid agencies they know where is safe. But Der Al-Bala, because there has

been movement from so many other areas, has become a kind of humanitarian hub. It's a place where buildings are still standing, where the water system is working. But now when Israel issued an evacuation order for one part of Deir al-Bala, it meant, according to the UN, that almost 90% of Gaza has been issued with evacuation orders. Parliament wants Israel to control 70% of the Gaza Strip. That number would be unacceptable to the Gazans, to the partners of Israel, to Hamas, which of course is locked in indirect talks about a ceasefire. We have heard that they want to try to cut off Daryl Bala from Almuassi, which is the area where Israel keeps telling Palestinians that's where you have to go to, even though Almuassi is not even safe and even though the conditions there are miserable and there's not enough aid there either. heart, the most right-wing supporters of Prime Minister Netanyahu, including those in his cabinet,

they want to make life insufferable for Gazans everywhere so that they will end up taking up this offer that President Trump has spoken about, the Israelis talk about, about voluntarily leaving the Gaza Strip. And it seems as though it wants to push them as far as possible to the south, kettle them into as small as area as possible to make life absolutely unbearable and it is unbearable already. Lise Doucet. Amir Avivi is a retired Brigadier General in the IDF and founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Tim Franks asked him why he thinks Israel has launched this major offensive on Deir Ebala.

This major offensive is part of an overall offensive that has been going on in the last few months. The Israeli cabinet instructed the army to take over 75% of the Gaza Strip, and this is one of the last strongholds of Hamas inside this 75 per cent perimeter. This is an area that throughout the war the IDF hasn't been operating in. This is why the fight is intensive against this stronghold and the forces are moving forward toward achieving the goal of really controlling the 75 per cent that the cabinet extracted them. Yeah. And the question always is at what cost and at what cost not just to the people of Gaza but I noticed that there was a strong statement put out by the hostage and missing families forum inside Israel saying that this latest initiative, as they put it, will sacrifice

the hostages and the values on which the state of Israel was built because there is a fear from them that this could well be where some of the hostages are being held. Well, today I participated in the Knesset in a gathering with many, many hostage families who think exactly the opposite. They think, and rightly so, that only military pressure on Hamas can bring Hamas to the point where they desperately need a ceasefire and therefore are willing to release hostages. To get them to release hostages, they need to be with their backs against the wall and create the interest for them to really want this deal.

The problem we are facing is that the leadership of Hamas that is still functioning, it's in Qatar. They're sitting in five-star hotels. They really don't care at all about the guys and people or what's going on there. They're not under any pressure. One of the suggestions of my organization, the Israeli Defense and Security Forum, is to demand the extradition of this criminal leadership that instructed this attack on Israel on the 7th of October and kidnapped so many people into Gaza. So we need to put

the pressure on Hamas leadership and the remaining leadership is in Qatar, in Egypt and some of them even in Turkey. And you'll also be aware that even within Israel, let alone internationally, there are a huge number of people who say that part of the reason why this war is carrying on undoubtedly is because Hamas continues to hold hostages, but it is in large part because Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, does not want to see an end to the war because it is in his own personal political interests. You must be aware of that narrative from within Israel.

Yeah, look, I think it's a false narrative. I think that Israel set very clear goals of war which we didn't achieve yet and this is why the war is continuing. Yes, but also lots, forgive me for interrupting, but lots of people who have equal amounts of military experience, do you say they are simply unachievable, those goals of complete destruction of Hamas? Well, I have very close contact with the leadership of the IDF, and I can tell you that the leadership believes they can achieve all goals of war.

There is a discussion about the tactics, about the strategies. And also about the humanitarian cost? Well, you know, the reason why people are being asked to move out of the area where the IDF is operating is to keep them alive, to make sure that they are not in the cross of fire. So every time the IDF operates, they tell the people before, listen, we're going to operate in this area. Now you understand the cost for the soldiers, right? When you tell your enemy where you are going to manoeuvre.

But we do so. We ask the people to move to a safety area so there is no collateral damage. And this is why we are managing to save many lives. The retired IDF Brigadier General Amir Avivi. Foreign ministers from nearly 30 countries including Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Canada say Israel's war in Gaza must end now, warning that the suffering had reached new depths. In a joint statement they also condemned what they called Israel's drip-feeding of aid and inhumane killing of civilians. Our diplomatic correspondent, James

Landale reports. There have in recent years been many international statements condemning Israel's tactics in Gaza. But this declaration is notable for its candour. The signatories, all European, bar Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They say the war in Gaza must end now. Israel's aid delivery model is dangerous and fuelling instability. They condemn what they call the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children. Plans to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to a so-called humanitarian city are, they say, unacceptable. They call on Israel to lift restrictions on aid and they warn they're prepared to take further action to support a ceasefire and a political pathway to peace. That is seen by many as a code for recognising a state of

Palestine, something many countries have done but not all, including Britain and France. Israel's Foreign Ministry said the statement was disconnected from reality and insisted Hamas was deliberately acting to harm civilians seeking humanitarian aid. Hamas, it said, was the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering of both sides. Today's statement reflects Western frustration at Israeli intransigence and the growing impact of domestic political pressure. But the text was not signed by the United States and its opinion is the one that in Israel matters most. James Landil, a victim of the American sex offender,

the late Jeffrey Epstein, has called on the US government to release more information on the case. Speaking to the BBC, Annie Farmer had a blunt message for President Trump. Prove everyone wrong. If you have nothing to hide, then please release this information that people are asking for. Please make sure that Ghislaine Maxwell stays behind bars where she deserves to be.

If you are truly not implicated, then this should not be a problem to release more information about this case. Ms Farmer also said she'd never expected Mr Trump to support justice for victims because she said he was himself a sexual predator with close links to Epstein. Mr Trump has always denied any sexual misconduct. The White House called her comments recycled fake news. Jeffrey Epstein died in prison six years ago. The authorities declared he'd committed suicide while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges. The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's one-time girlfriend and assistant, was convicted in 2021 in New

York of sex trafficking of minors on his behalf. Annie Farmer spoke to our correspondent in New York, Neda Taufik, who told us what she'd said. I have known Annie Farmer for quite some time. I first interviewed her when she was going to be testifying in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. She was one of the key witnesses that secured a conviction in that case, saying she was just 16 years old when she was abused by Epstein and Maxwell. And we've talked a lot about the politics of this, Donald Trump and the rift with his base over the release of more information in the Epstein case. But Annie feels that while there is this benefit of transparency out there, that there's also people who have used this to their advantage.

They've tried to sensationalize parts of this to benefit themselves. And she says that's really taking away from the fact that there were real crimes committed, that there are victims who are dealing with this every day still. And she says that's left her feeling used. And as we heard there in the clip, she is saying to Donald Trump, look, release what people are asking for if you have nothing to hide. But at the same time, she told me she doesn't have much hope and never really did that the president was truly interested in justice for the victims. me she doesn't have much hope and never really did that the president was truly interested in justice for the victims. So she isn't holding her breath, but she says there is a real benefit to preventing further crimes against children by getting this information

out there to see what went wrong. The White House, they said that this is just recycled old fake news. They, you know, compared this to they say claims over Russian interference in the election. They believe this is all just a hoax against President Trump. And they say that Donald Trump has kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep in the past that they didn't have the type of connection that people are alleging. So Donald Trump very much speaking to his supporters, as we've seen in the last few days as well, trying to say, case closed, don't look at this anymore, move on.

Neda Taufik in New York. A Renaissance painting that was stolen from a museum in Italy back in 1973 has been returned to the institution. Antonio Solario's Madonna and Child was discovered after being put up for sale by Barbara Dadoza. She's the widow of a man who bought it in good faith and had kept it at their manor house in the English county of Norfolk. The painting was one of several that was stolen from the Civic Museum of Belluno, north of Venice. Chris Maranello from Arch Recovery International, who was involved in the

negotiations to have the painting returned, spoke to James Menendez. The painting allegedly was bought by Mrs. de Doz's husband right after the theft in 1973. She said that he did not know it was stolen, he bought it from a dealer. They were living in Austria at the time. They hung it in their substantial home in Norfolk. Eventually she decided to sell it. And when she tried to sell it at an auction house, a provincial auction house in the UK, it was flagged up as being on the Katabiniere stolen art database. Of course, she did not want to accept the fact that she couldn't sell

something that she her husband had and they had for 52 years and paid money for which is very typical of of people when I confront them with stolen artwork. They always say well I bought this I've had it it's my money why can't I keep it and they have to look at the other side they have to look that it was stolen from a museum, stolen from the people of Belluno. You know, there are two sides to every story. And of course, she didn't know me and I stepped in. And, you know, most people distrust lawyers for a good reason, but she didn't know me and she thought that I was looking to profit from her misery and she just didn't believe me. And you know, in today's world, I respect that.

You know, you can't believe people who are negotiating with senior citizens today. You have to question everything. And I don't mind her for doing that. But eventually she came around and accepted the fact that I was working pro bono and that I was trying to do the right thing for her. And she eventually relented and agreed to return the piece to the people of Ballina. So she gets nothing at all. I mean, her husband obviously paid money for this painting all those years ago, but she's not legally entitled to anything.

Well, listen, under the law in the UK, there's a limitations act, which is what she said about it. She was arguing, she said, oh, I should be able to keep this. But even under the UK law, even if she were to prevail, this painting was still listed on the Italian Catabonieri database. It was still listed on Interpol. She couldn't sell it. She couldn't travel with it.

She couldn't bring it into the EU. She couldn't exhibit it without a possibility of it being seized. So there had to be some sort of compromise. And yes, she didn't get anything other than we agreed to pay for the costs in getting the painting from Norfolk back to London over to Italy. And those funds were donated by Generale Insurance Company. So, I guess her only recourse would be to go back to the dealer that sold it to her

husband. I mean, does that dealer still exist? But she had no receipt. She didn't remember the dealer. She didn't even know the name. But you know, look at it this way. She's rented that painting that belonged to the people of Belluno for 52 years. She doesn't have to compensate the people of Belluno for having their painting for half

a century. So you know, it took a little bit of work, took a little bit of arm twisting, but eventually we got there. And you know, she is a good person. Not everyone will do this. Chris Maranello from Art Recovery International. Still to come, could a cheap camera powered by artificial intelligence provide a way to quickly diagnose skin cancer?

It's providing you with a preliminary diagnosis. However, because it's an AI, it doesn't have the final say whatsoever. We're not trying to replace doctors by any means. Next to Ukraine, President Zelensky has announced in his nightly address that a new set of peace talks with Russia will be held on Wednesday in Turkey. As we record this podcast, the Kremlin hasn't yet commented on the proposed negotiations, and previous meetings have made little progress on ending the war. Earlier in London, the British Defence Minister John Healy suggested there's now maximum opportunity to force Russia to the negotiating table over its war with Ukraine. Mr Healy was addressing a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in London,

alongside other Western allies. Germany promised to provide Ukraine with five Patriot air defense systems as soon as possible. And Mr Healy had this to say. Last week, President Trump announced a new plan for large-scale NATO weapons transfers and committed to getting these, he said, quickly distributed to the battlefield. The UK backs this policy. We will play our full part in its success. Ukraine's defence minister, Dnysh Mihail, appealed for more financial help. We are grateful to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in these joint efforts. Ukraine Defence Contact Group remains the key platform for coordinating international

military assistance to Ukraine. Today I want to use this opportunity to appeal to you, our partners and allies, for further support. Our Ukraine correspondent James Water, told us more. Germany promising not two as previously reported, but five of these patriot missile systems, these sophisticated air defenses which are seen as crucial to Ukraine's ability to defend its cities from constant Russian missile attacks. That is something. And it's a direct consequence of Donald Trump saying, I will provide American weapons to Ukraine via NATO countries,

because then you have the likes of Germany saying, okay, we'll part with ours, Ukraine can have them, and we'll get the rest, we'll buy new ones from the US. So that is something. But to give you an idea, you know, today's meeting was fully remote. And before Donald Trump returned to the White House, it was chaired by the US that kind of took the leading role here. Of course, those days are gone.

John Healy chaired it. He's chaired it before. There was no input, certainly in the public part of the meeting, from the US. The UK is trying to step up support for Ukraine where it can, it's spending more than ever, it's looking to increase drone production. But there is still no detail as to what US weapons are coming in, how they're being paid for,

and with these five Patriot systems, we still don't yet know how they will be delivered to Ukraine but they all find themselves working to this 50-day deadline set by Donald Trump for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or a peace deal by early September so as far as the John Healy was concerned he said this was a massive opportunity to arm Ukraine. James Waterhouse. Bangladesh is observing a day of mourning on Tuesday for the 20 people, mainly children, killed when an Air Force training jet crashed into a school in the

capital Dhaka. More than 170 others were injured in the accident. Relatives of pupils at the school have searched desperately for their children. Masood Tariq is one of the teachers there. I was picking up my children from the school gate when I realised something coming from behind. Then I heard an explosion. I looked back and only saw fire and smoke. I just rushed my kids away on a rickshaw and saw more smoke and fire. So many parents and children were here too. The aircraft was reportedly on a training exercise when it crashed, as I heard from our South Asia correspondent Yogatet Lemay.

We've heard from a spokesman for the Bangladeshi military and they have said that it was a mechanical failure, but they've said that they will have more details only after an investigation is carried out. They have said that the pilot, who was also killed in the crash, did try to steer the jet away from a densely populated area, but wasn't able to do so in time. And then it crashed into this school campus. But it was also when lessons were just ending.

So what we know from eyewitnesses is that it wasn't just children and students who were there, you know, and teachers. There were also parents and people who had come to pick up these school students after school was over. And we understand most of the dead are children, is that right? That's right. Most of the dead are children. We are still waiting to hear more details in terms of, you in terms of how young they were. We have heard eyewitnesses recount, a 15-year-old boy recounting how he was just outside the building and his best friend who was inside died in the air crash. He said the plane just came and crashed on top of all of them in a really distraught,

so really unimaginable scenes because these are parents who had just come to pick up their children after a regular school pick up on a day and then they were faced with these unimaginable scenes in front of them. And what about the history of the military in Bangladesh and these jets? Has anything like this happened before? What's happened now that's almost beyond belief, a jet actually crashing into a school and then causing mass casualties on the ground. But whether it's military or civilian aircraft, we haven't had any big aviation disasters in Bangladesh in the past couple of decades. So this is, you know, this is pretty shocking. And we have heard from the interim leader of the Bangladesh government, Mohammed Yunus, today as well,

and a really emotional message that he sent out where he's saying, what reply will we give to parents? What will we say to them? I have no words. How could I start? He said the unknown faces of the children are appearing before our eyes and the whole nation is in shock. Yogita Lamai. A breakthrough in AI technology could transform how skin cancer is diagnosed, especially for those in remote parts of the world. Researchers have invented a diagnostic system powered by artificial intelligence, a small offline device and a camera costing roughly $40, which analyses skin lesions without the need for access to the internet.

Tess Watts from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland developed the camera and explains how the technology would benefit patients. Right now what they can do is use a service where they take a picture of their skin lesion and it's sent to a dermatologist but obviously this is very unhelpful for people who don't have internet access to be able to send pictures in the first place. So what our system does is it has a very small portable device with a camera attached. We're using quite a powerful camera but it's quite cheap, so cheaper than you know having a smartphone camera per se. Currently our system is up to 85% accurate and we're currently in talk to begin the ethical approval process to start clinical trials. So the goal is to distribute it to people's homes, to rural clinics and for

a low cost it's providing you with a preliminary diagnosis. However because it's an AI it doesn't have the final say whatsoever, we're not trying to replace doctors by any means. The real use case for this system is to sort of provide a better queuing system for being on waitlists. So if you were to scan yourself and the prediction comes up with something that may be very serious like a melanoma skin cancer, we could then propose to bump you up the waitlist and be seen sooner. A lot of research in healthcare is being done on analysing MRI and CT scans but very little work was being done on looking at skin lesion images so I saw a real opportunity there. We have our prototype made and so I'm hoping in the next few years to have a project running in collaboration with the NHS and some other medical partners

so we can start running some trials and getting some real results for this. Tessa Watts Wimbledon is arguably the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Plans to almost triple the size of its site in West London are set to proceed after a campaign group's legal challenge was dismissed by a High Court judge. The proposals from the private members' club that operates the world's oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament include the construction of 38 new courts and an 8,000 seat stadium on a Grade II listed heritage site. It was originally partly designed by the renowned 18th century

landscape architect Lancelot Capability Brown. Jo Linsky reports. For the All England Lawn Tennis Club this is the latest step in their efforts to make Wimbledon much bigger. They want to expand onto the neighbouring Wimbledon Park golf course so they can hold qualifying on site, as well as build a new show court and community facilities. Last year they received local government approval, but that was challenged by a group of local residents whose case was dismissed today. But the Save Wimbledon Park group says it's been advised to appeal the decision, and there

are still separate legal challenges for the All England Club to overcome. A hearing about whether the land is legally protected from development is due to take place at the High Court in January. Jolynski. And finally, have a listen to this. That is the sound of an accordion from what's thought to be one of the world's largest private collections of the instrument and on Monday the auction began in Belfast in Northern Ireland of 750 of them. They all belong to Ken Hopkins, the man you just heard playing that accordion who died last year. The BBC's Tim Franks spoke to Lisa Allen, Ken's daughter, and asked her why she's selling her father's prize collection.

To be honest, there was just so many pieces. We have 750 accordions, we have 939 lots, and actually the mammoth task of manning that or selling that, you know, as an individual was just too great. So we spoke to Ross's Auctions and, you know, they were able to help us. It took five lorryloads to actually take them from the property. So it wasn't really a task that somebody could do by themselves. We really did need help for that.

You know, music is such a big part of everybody's lives and birthday party celebrations and to have them just sitting stored and not being played, I think, isn't probably the right thing for them to do. So, you know, for them to go off to new homes, to new people and breathe new life, I think is the perfect sort of legacy for him. Did your dad talk to you about sort of why he started off collecting on such an enormous scale? I mean, presumably the accordions were always around you as you were growing up. Yeah, very much so. But like, you know, four or five, you know, as a child, it's not sort of to that scale. But my dad was an engineer by trade. So he really wanted to know how

they worked, you know, everything about them. And then once he sort of got involved in that side, he would tune them, service them, repair them. Then he wanted to know where did they come from, you know, the different genres. Then he was more interested in, you know, the rare accordions, the museum pieces. And it really sort of just ran from there. And he just started to collect them and you know we ended up with so many of them. Lisa Allen.

And that's it from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, 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 Caroline Griscoll, the producers were Liam McShephy and Stephanie Zachrisson. The editor, as ever, is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye bye.