Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital likely took a direct hit from a Russian missile on Monday, a United Nations assessment has found, as NATO agreed to strengthen Kyiv’s air defenses in the wake of the attack.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting the hospital in Kyiv and alleged, without evidence, that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile caused the blast. But a UN human rights official said evidence suggested Moscow’s forces were responsible for the deadly strike.

“Analysis of the video footage and assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damages due to an intercepted weapons system,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters Tuesday.

Bell said the attack damaged the intensive care, surgical and oncology wards at Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital, which has been vital in the care of some of the sickest children from across the country, adding that Ukrainian officials have since transferred 600 children to other hospitals.

“This terrible attack shows that nowhere is safe in Ukraine,” Bell added.

Two adults were killed in the strike and 16 others – including seven children – were injured, according to Ukrainian officials, as Russia launched a brazen daytime aerial assault on targets in cities across Ukraine during morning rush hour, killing at least 43 people in total.

The strikes across Ukraine were “strongly” condemned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, while the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk called for “prompt, thorough and independent investigations” into the attacks.

The Russian attacks came as NATO leaders gathered in Washington, where the United States and NATO allies agreed to give Ukraine more Patriot batteries and additional systems to strengthen Kyiv’s air defenses, members of the defense alliance said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden also announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine in a speech opening the NATO summit – providing much-needed support for the country at a critical juncture in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

During his speech on Tuesday, Biden vowed that “the United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line.”

‘Targeted attack by Russia’

Images and video from the aftermath of the strike on the Kyiv hospital show children with cancer being treated outside the facility and an injured toddler with blood on his face and arms.

The UN’s monitoring mission said it was likely that a KH-101 cruise missile launched by Russia struck the children’s hospital. It made the determination “based on video footage, which shows the technical specification of the type of weapon that was used” and that such footage “shows the weapon directly impacting the hospital rather than being intercepted in the air,” Bell said.

A military expert who visited the site following the blast said the damage is “consistent with a direct hit,” according to Bell.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Washington on Tuesday that “Russia always knows where its missiles hit. Always.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s denial that it had targeted the children’s hospital.

“We have not bombed the children’s hospital,” Nebenzia said at a special meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) convened following the attack. “If this had been a Russian strike, there would have been nothing left of the building at all. All the children and most of the adults would have been killed, not wounded.”

But the US also blamed Russia for the hospital strike. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UNSC meeting that the Russian “attack makes abundantly clear: Putin is not interested in peace.”

Kyiv described the strike as a “targeted attack by Russia,” with the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) saying a Russian long-range cruise missile struck the facility.

“Relevant evidence has already been found at the scene of the tragedy: in particular, fragments of the rear part of the Kh-101 missile with a serial number and part of the steering wheel of the same missile,” the SBU said.

SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk vowed the agency would respond to what he said were Russian war crimes.

“This retribution will be both legal and moral,” he said.

Listening to music, smoking hookah, and getting a Western-style haircut are all punishable acts under the suffocating rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a new UN report.

The Taliban’s so-called morality police have curtailed human rights – disproportionately targeting women and girls – creating a “climate of fear and intimidation,” said the report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published Tuesday.

The Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), established by the Taliban when it seized power in 2021, is charged with legislating and enforcing the Taliban’s strict interpretations of Islamic law.

Those interpretations include a ban on activities deemed to be “un-Islamic” including displaying images of humans and animals and celebrating Valentine’s Day. Moreover, the report said, the Taliban’s instructions are issued in a variety of formats – often only verbally – and are inconsistently and unpredictably enforced.

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in a lightning takeover following the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops after two decades of war, the radical Islamist group appeared keen to distance itself from its earlier period of rule in the 1990s, presenting itself as more moderate.

However, this report found many of the same rules of that era have been revived, despite the Taliban’s earlier pledge to honor women’s rights within the norms of “Islamic law.”

Between August 15, 2021, and March 31, 2024, the UN documented at least 1,033 instances where Taliban officers had used violence to enforce their rules.

“The de facto MPVPV reportedly has a broad mandate and various enforcement methods have been used, including verbal intimidation, arrests and detentions, ill treatment and public lashing,” said the report, which was compiled using public announcements and documented reports of human rights violations.

The Taliban’s violations against women and girls are so severe that one senior UN official recently said they could amount to “crimes against humanity.” This report details how the MPVPV is enforcing rules on the way women dress and access public places.

The Taliban has arbitrarily shuttered women-owned businesses, made it illegal for women to appear in movies, closed women’s beauty salons and restricted access to birth control, the UN report said.

Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to access parks, gyms and public baths – sometimes the only way to get hot water in the winter – and must be accompanied by a male guardian (a mahram) when traveling more than 78 kilometers (48.5 miles) from their homes, according to the report.

While women must wear a hijab, men must also follow rules about beard length and hairstyles.

In December 2023, the morality police closed 20 barbershops for one night after barbers allegedly shaved and trimmed beards, as well as Western-style haircuts, the report said. The Taliban denied claims two barbers were detained for two nights. The report said they were only released after promising not to give those haircuts again.

UN says Taliban is legally obligated to protect human rights

Afghanistan is party to seven international human rights instruments and as a result is legally obliged to protect and promote the human rights of its citizens, the UN report pointed out.

These rules violate a slew of human rights, from the right to work and attain a living, to the rights of freedom of movement and expression, to sexual and reproductive rights, the report added.

In a statement, the Taliban called the UN’s criticism “unfounded” and said the report’s authors were “attempting to evaluate Afghanistan from a Western perspective, which is incorrect.”

“Afghanistan should be assessed as a Muslim society, where the vast majority of the population are Muslims who have made significant sacrifices for the establishment of a Sharia system,” the statement said.

However, reports from Afghanistan suggest the Taliban’s repressive control over women has led to a sharp rise in suicide attempts.

Among the Taliban’s list of prohibitions, according to the report, is the public display of human and animal images, which it deems “un-Islamic.”

This law has resulted in the removal of advertising signage and the covering of shop mannequins, the report said. The UN reported some cases where NGOs were told to remove human images from materials meant to alert children or other people with limited literacy about the risk of unexploded artillery and other public health issues.

Media is heavily restricted, and residents live in a surveillance state, the report added.

“People’s right to privacy is violated through searches for prohibited items in their phone or cars, having their attendance at mosques recorded, or being required to show proof of family relationship in public places.”

The Taliban met with top UN officials and global envoys in Qatar in June in a two-day conference that excluded Afghan women, sparking outcry from human rights groups.

In a press conference after the meeting, Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, called the discussions “frank” and “useful,” and said that the “concerns and views of Afghan women and civil society were front and center.”

This was the third UN meeting about Afghanistan in Doha, but the first the Taliban has attended.

A former soldier who was sexually assaulted while serving in Japan’s military has reached a civil settlement with three of her convicted attackers in a case that exposed a widespread culture of harassment in the country’s self-defense force.

The settlement, initiated by the three former soldiers who were found guilty of sexual assault by a Japanese court in December, includes them apologizing and paying a sum of money, Rina Gonoi said on her X account on Tuesday. She did not disclose the amount of money involved.

“Today, I would like to announce that a settlement has been reached in the civil trial with the three perpetrators who were found guilty in the criminal trial,” Gonoi said.

Gonoi pursued both criminal and civil cases in the courts, including the civil lawsuit in which she is seeking compensation from the government and five former members of the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) for emotional stress caused by sexual abuse, public broadcaster NHK reported.

“I am relieved that the three years of fighting came to an end and I’m feeling three years’ worth of exhaustion all at once, but I will take care not to get sick,” Gonoi said on her Instagram account on Tuesday night.

She had previously reached a settlement with another of the five former members of the JSDF in the civil case, and the trial will continue against the government and the remaining former members, NHK reported.

Gonoi said she endured physical and verbal sexual abuse on a daily basis for more than a year while serving in the JSDF, and vowed to bring her tormentors to justice when she left the military in June 2022.

Authorities initially seemed unwilling to believe her but Gonoi’s refusal to be silenced eventually prompted prosecutors to reopen investigations in a sweeping probe into sexual harassment across the JSDF.

The broad investigation led by Japan’s defense ministry found that Gonoi had suffered physical and verbal sexual harassment daily between late 2020 and August 2021.

Japan’s struggles with gender inequality, which were highlighted during the #MeToo campaign, are well documented. The country ranks bottom of all G7 nations and 125th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s index for gender inequality.

Not backing down

As a child, Gonoi said she saw JSDF members as heroes. She grew up wanting to be like them after women officers in particular came to her rescue following the deadly 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that decimated her hometown of Higashi-Matsushima in Japan’s northern prefecture of Miyagi.

“They’d comment on my body and the size of my breasts. Or they’d come up to me in the hallways and suddenly hug me in the corridor. That kind of thing happened daily,” Gonoi recalled of her time in the station.

The last straw came in August 2021, when Gonoi said she was pinned to a dormitory floor as several senior male officers simulated sexual intercourse. It was this incident that convinced her to report her assailants.

When she reported the alleged abuse to military authorities, two investigations were launched, but both were dropped on grounds of a lack of evidence – prompting her to take the battle to social media.

Going public was a rare move in a country where sexual assault survivors can face backlash for raising their voices.

But it paid off, as the social media scrutiny pressured the JSDF into a rethink.

The defense ministry eventually launched a broad investigation into sexual harassment across the JSDF that found Gonoi had suffered physical and verbal sexual harassment daily between late 2020 and August 2021.

The case reached the highest levels, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida saying during a parliamentary meeting in October 2022 that he understood sexual harassment cases were handled inappropriately by the JSDF and the ministry.

Last December, a Japanese court ruled that the three men had committed forcible indecency against Gonoi.

The court sentenced the trio to two years in prison with a suspended sentence, NHK reported, which could allow them to avoid jail time if they do not commit a crime over a two-year period.

The landmark decision was an encouraging sign but “the country still has a long way to go to change both the criminal justice system and the culture of victim-blaming that undermines the credibility of survivors,” according to Amnesty International’s East Asia researcher Boram Jang.

“Rina Gonoi dared to speak out to break the cycle of impunity for gender-based violence in Japan. This is a rare victory not just for her, but for all victims and survivors of sexual assault in Japan, many of whom suffer in silence,” Jang said in a statement after the ruling.

At least two people have been killed after dozens of projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Tuesday evening, according to Israeli authorities.

A woman and man were “killed on the spot” when a projectile directly hit their vehicle, according to Israeli police.

“Several projectiles were identified falling in the area,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) added in a statement following sirens in the Golan Heights.

Magen David Adom paramedics described responding to a “difficult” scene.

“We saw a vehicle that suffered a direct hit, and in its front were an unconscious man and woman who were critically injured. During the medical treatment, additional sirens were activated,” the medics said in a statement.

“We ran to protect ourselves and handled the incident as sirens went off. Military personnel assisted on the scene.”

Firefighters said they were responding to at least eight fires following the projectile hits.

Hezbollah has not yet publicly commented on the strikes.

Cross-border fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been an almost daily occurrence since the war in Gaza began. But it has been gradually intensifying, raising fears it could escalate into a full-blown conflict.

Hezbollah is one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, boasting of tens of thousands of fighters and a vast missile arsenal.

The group has said its current round of fighting with Israel is to support Palestinians in Gaza.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Rwandan government has hinted that it won’t reimburse more than $300 million it has received from the United Kingdom since 2022 for a deal to deport asylum seekers deemed to have arrived illegally in the UK to the East African nation.

A Rwandan government spokesperson said on Tuesday that its migrant deal with the UK did not include any “clause regarding reimbursement” after the newly-elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he would scrap the controversial agreement.

“Within the agreement there was no clause regarding reimbursement… it never stated that the money would be refunded,” spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda said in a video posted by state-owned Rwanda Broadcasting Agency.

“We had an agreement. Both parties signed, it became an international agreement, we start implementing it, then after that you want out … best of luck,” Mukuralinda said.

The UK has given Rwanda £240 million (around $307 million) so far as part of the deal, according to a fact sheet published by the British government in April this year.

Speaking at his first press conference as prime minister on Saturday, Starmer said he was “not prepared to continue” with the controversial deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, calling the scheme a “gimmick” and denying that the bill acted as a deterrent.

The controversial plan was first announced in April 2022 by the Conservative government at the time under Prime Minister Boris Johnson but faced a series of political and legal challenges as lawmakers and activists sought to scupper the legislation on human rights grounds.

After the bill was passed in April this year, former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the plan was introduced “to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them.”

The bill was condemned at the time by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who said the arrangement sought to “shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent.”

Amnesty International UK also called the plan “a stain on this country’s moral reputation” that “takes a hatchet to international legal protections for some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”

Luke McGee and Rob Picheta in London contributed to this report

For nearly two decades, the Israeli nonprofit Road to Recovery has transported sick Palestinians roundtrip from checkpoints in Gaza and the West Bank to Israel for medical treatment.

On October 7, during Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel, several of the group’s volunteers were killed. Others were taken hostage.

Today, Road to Recovery’s work continues, and Roth feels that it is as crucial as ever.

“We … believe that patient transportation has far greater value than just humanitarian assistance,” Roth said. “It is an opportunity for us to show our Palestinian neighbors a different face than what they know in their reality. It is a chance for encounters that break down barriers and stigmas.”

On October 8, volunteers were waiting at checkpoints at the West Bank to pick up Palestinian patients and their families. The organization currently transports between 40 to 50 patients a day between the checkpoints and Israeli hospitals and medical providers.

Roth started this work in 2006 as a way to cope with personal tragedy. In 1993, his brother Udi was kidnapped and killed by members of Hamas. After his loss, Roth channeled his anger into peace.

The organization says it has since provided transportation to more than 50,000 sick Palestinians.

“Each trip is an opportunity to make a ‘small hour of peace.’” Roth said. “Especially now, just to show compassion and love. … This is the medicine for the hostility and for the hateness.”

Sometimes, the Israeli volunteer drivers and Palestinian passengers are able to communicate in Arabic, Hebrew, or English. When there’s no shared spoken language, they communicate through gestures, which Roth finds to be more powerful than words.

“If we really want one day normal life for us and for the Palestinians, we should make effort to achieve it,” Roth said. “It’s not just that you sit and you wait that something will happen. You have to do something. In the Bible, there is a phrase … that you ask for peace, and you have to run after the peace in order that it will happen. This is our mission.”

The body of an American mountaineer has been discovered by a pair of fellow US climbers 22 years after he went missing following an avalanche in the Peruvian Andes.

American brothers Ryan Cooper and Wesley Waren found the body of Bill Stampfl on June 27 on Mount Huascaran, according to Joseph Stampfl, Bill’s son.

The climbers had been descending the mountain in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca after an unsuccessful attempt to reach its 22,000 ft summit when they found the body, at about 16,500 ft.

He said the ice had preserved the body and its belongings and Stampfl’s wedding ring, helmet, mountain climbing boots, and jacket were all intact.

The brothers managed to identify Stampfl by finding a bag attached to his body, inside which they found his identification card, a camera, passport, wallet, and glasses – all of which were also intact, Cooper explained.

“Someone loved him and someone wanted him to come home,” Cooper said. “As soon as I found out he was an American climber I knew we had a responsibility to track down the family and give them the news,” Cooper said.

His body was retrieved and brought down the mountain on July 5 by the Peruvian Mountain Rescue Association and Peruvian National Police after coordination with Cooper and Stampfl’s family.

His body was taken to a morgue in the town of Yungay for an autopsy, Peru’s National Police posted on X on Tuesday.

Finding Bill’s family

Cooper, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, called his wife and informed her of his discovery the same day he came across Stampfl’s body. He asked her for help in finding Stampfl’s family, as he was still on Mount Huascaran with limited cellular service.

After much online research, Cooper’s wife was able to locate Joseph and called him on June 29.

“I told him I know the location of his dad. I told him about the ring and personal items,” Cooper said.

His motive was to help the family find closure, Cooper explained.

With “no body, there’s no way to find peace with that,” Cooper said.

Cooper also spoke to Jennifer and Stampfl’s wife Janet on the phone before sending photos of Stampfl’s ID and other belongings to the family.

‘My heart just sank’

After so many years, the news came as an emotional shock to Stampfl’s family.

“There is no preparation for having your husband killed instantaneously,” Janet said, adding that she never thought her husband’s body would be discovered. “It’s an answer to so many prayers by so many people.”

Janet said her husband loved climbing mountains. “He enjoyed it so much. He said he always felt closest to God when he got to the top of the mountain,” Janet said.

“After 22 years…I was a little shocked, it took me a while to process everything,” Joseph said, adding “now it’s time to bring him home hopefully.”

Following an autopsy in Yungay, Stampfl’s body was transferred to the city of Juarez, Joseph explained. Stampfl will be taken to a funeral home in Lima where he will be cremated, and the ashes will be sent to the family in the United States.

‘A dangerous landscape’

While Cooper is grateful to have finally been able to bring closure to the Stampfl family, the discovery was also tinged with sadness.

He had hoped that Richardson’s body might have been attached to Stampfl by a rope, but that was not the case and “he’s still missing as of today.”

He also fears that global warming may have played a role in his discovery, by thawing the ice on what is considered the world’s highest tropical mountain range.

“He was fully exposed and not in ice anymore. The thawing process happened,” Cooper said.

Since the 1950s, almost all of the world’s glaciers have been retreating, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On average, the glaciers in the Andean region – Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – have lost over 50 per cent of their coverage since the 1960s.

“The Andes is deteriorating more than any other mountain range in the region,” Cooper said, adding that the changing conditions were part of what had prevented him from summiting Mount Huascaran.

“Glaciers are melting away, the landscape has changed. It poses a dangerous landscape now,” he said.

A manhunt is underway in north London for a man suspected of being armed with a crossbow, after three women were killed Tuesday evening.

Police said they were searching for a 26-year-old man, named as Kyle Clifford, in connection with the deaths, who could be in north London or the neighboring county of Hertfordshire.

Police were called to a house in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on Tuesday evening, where they found three seriously injured women.

All the women, who are believed to be related, later died from their injuries, according to police. According to police, they are aged 25, 28 and 61, and were killed in what is believed to have been a “targeted incident.”

A crossbow is believed to have been used in the triple murder, though police said Wednesday that other weapons may also have been used.

Police have asked the public not to approach the suspect.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she is being kept “fully updated” by police on the ongoing manhunt.

“The loss of three women’s lives in Bushey last night is truly shocking. My thoughts are with the family & friends of those who have been killed & with the community,” Cooper wrote on X Wednesday.

“I am being kept fully updated. I urge people to support Hertfordshire Police with any information about this case,” she added.

A neighbor of the victims said she “would see them every day passing by and they would say good morning,” according to PA Media.

“It’s really sad what’s happened, very shocking,” she added.

This is a breaking news story, and will be updated.

Aged just four, Julia Abu Zeiter suffers from a rare neurological disease that can be fatal without medication.

The nine-month war in Gaza nearly took Julia’s life, as the fighting and displacement cut off her access to treatment.

After an arduous journey, she was finally evacuated from the war-torn enclave on June 27, accompanied only by her 21-year-old aunt, Dareen Zeiter.

Julia suffers from a rare neurological disorder called alternating hemiplegia of childhood, or AHC. It causes recurrent episodes of paralysis and life-threatening seizures. No cure exists for the illness, which is estimated to occur in approximately one in a million births. Its patients are referred to as “human time bombs” and need to constantly be monitored for signs of an oncoming episode. As soon as it strikes, lifesaving measures must quickly be administered.

The two Palestinians were among around a dozen patients leaving the floating hospital to continue their treatment in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi. Most of those patients are children, including two suffering from Leukemia.

Gaza’s ‘invisible victims’

Moored off the coast of Arish on the north coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the hospital is some 40 kilometers from Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza strip that now lies in ruins after Israel launched its ground operation there in May.

The city also housed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a crucial land bridge through which two-thirds of aid entering Gaza passed. The crossing has been closed since it was seized by the Israeli military.

The 100-bed UAE ship has received 2,400 injured Palestinians since February, according to the hospital director, Dr. Ahmed Mubarak.

Julia is “an invisible victim” of the war, Mubarak said, caught up in what Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, described as Gaza’s “silent killings, the result of deliberate deprivation.” The organization’s head of emergency programs, Mari Carmen Viñoles, said in May that Israel’s “blockades, delays, and restrictions on humanitarian aid and essential medical supplies” have made aid deliveries impossible.

Julia and Dareen are two of countless Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza, which Israel launched in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s war has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. Swathes of the enclave have been turned to rubble and almost the entire strip’s population of two million is internally displaced.

Julia and Dareen were forced to leave their home in northern Gaza when the war began. The four-year-old witnessed “explosions and shelling” throughout, her aunt said.

A punishing siege by Israel has choked the enclave, bringing humanitarian aid down to a trickle and preventing Gazans moving in and out. For Julia, this meant running out of her medication, which triggered a series of life-threatening seizures.

With the help of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a US-based non-governmental organization, Julia was able to finally evacuate through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, Dareen said.

‘Hunger is what destroys us’

Down the hall of makeshift wards from Julia was Ibrahim, who was injured in his family home in Jabalya, northern Gaza, when an airstrike hit their building on November 21. He had turned seven that day.

Ibrahim was aboard the ship with his aunt, Alaa, 21. Alaa and Ibrahim were both injured in the airstrike, having survived after being pulled from the rubble, Alaa said. The aunt sustained critical burns, while Ibrahim broke his arm and leg, she said.

The boy’s injuries did not heal properly, requiring further treatment.

“Look, this is my dad,” Ibrahim said, holding up a photo of his father, who died during the airstrike, on his aunt’s phone.

Before losing their home and family, Alaa and Ibrahim remained in northern Gaza until April, when residents were experiencing severe hunger as aid struggled to reach them amid Israel’s military operations and what humanitarian aid officials said was increased lawlessness and looting of trucks there.

In mid-March, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessed that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza and said it was projected to occur between then and May.

On Tuesday, the United Nations, citing a report by independent experts, said that the recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition in Gaza indicates famine has spread across the entire strip, decrying Israel’s “intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people” as a “form of genocidal violence”.

While Julia and Ibrahim have made it out, millions of others remain trapped in the war zone, with few signs of a ceasefire deal in sight.

Nearly 26,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza in six months, the aid group Save the Children said in April, just over 2% of Gaza’s entire child population.

“Even amid the complexities of war, how can we not grasp one universal truth: a child is a child,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said last month, calling for “a ceasefire (that) gets hostages home, and stops the killing of children.”

Dareen, Julia’s aunt, said the responsibility over her niece was too big to shoulder.