Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic content.

A 14-year-old boy lies in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, severely burned from an Israeli airstrike. Doctors say nearly his entire body is affected. His wounds have now become infested with maggots.

When the boy’s dressings are changed, maggots fall to the floor. This happens every time, Dr. Mughani said.

There’s nowhere else for the boy to go. According to the United Nations, an estimated 12,000 patients are waiting to leave Gaza to receive urgently needed medical care, but medical evacuations have been suspended since the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt four months ago.

This case is a testament to the deteriorating sanitary conditions for the Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave after 11 months of war, both within and outside hospitals.

Even as the campaign to vaccinate Gaza’s children for polio continues, the United Nations and aid agencies warn of deteriorating public health conditions.

On Sunday, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN body in charge of the Palestinian territories, said on X: “While we vaccinate children against polio, many other diseases continue spreading in Gaza.”

“Piles of trash grow higher next to tents & shelters. Sewage keeps flooding the streets. Access to hygiene products is increasingly limited. Sanitary conditions are inhumane,” UNRWA said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned last week that limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, coupled with the lack of affordable hygiene items, was aggravating Gaza’s public health crisis.

In July, the price of soap had reportedly increased by nearly 1,200% across the strip from a year earlier, with the price of shampoo almost 500% higher in the same period, OCHA said.

“Humanitarian partners have been working to ensure that hundreds of thousands of hygiene kits can reach people in need, but those efforts continue to be hampered by active conflict, access restrictions, the lack of public order and safety, and evacuation orders issued by Israeli authorities,” OCHA said.

Families who have been displaced face extreme difficulties in maintaining basic hygiene in overcrowded shelters and displacement sites, the agency said, while critical facilities, such as health centers, community kitchens, child-protection spaces, nutrition centers, and schools, lack the necessary tools to ensure safe and sanitary conditions. This situation is likely to deteriorate further during the winter.

Selling homemade soap

Some residents have taken to making soap and detergents, and selling them.

“There is no alternative. There is nothing that can be brought in. There is nothing ready-made. Everything is closed,” Al-Taweel said.

But he was worried that the raw materials may also run out in the coming days.

“The ready-made product was cheap and available, but everything is expensive… People complain.”

“The shampoo is 15 shekels ($4). We used to sell it for 10 shekels.”

But she said they were often poor quality and very expensive.

“We have epidemics and a high (rate of) infections, parasites and fungal infections in children. There is no hygiene,”  Shahoura said.

UN agencies and partners are attempting to restore wells that were damaged due to fighting in Deir Al-Balah in late August, which reduced groundwater production by 75%. Eight wells were significantly damaged, four of which cannot be repaired at present, OCHA said.

As of this month, daily clean water production in the enclave was at a quarter of pre-war supply, OCHA said, citing agencies involved in public health in Gaza.

The volume of water transported through trucking operations however doubled between 19 August and 1 September. Even so, it is far less than can be generated from wells – and delivery has been hampered by fuel shortages and persistent traffic congestion in the AlMawasi area, where thousands of internally displaced have moved.

Saeed Rayyan, a Gaza resident, sells chlorine to sterilize tents and clothes.

Supplies of liquid chlorine were hard to come by, he said, so they often had to resort to powdered chlorine and caustic soda to try to preserve hygiene.

“There are no alternative materials to eliminate diseases. There is no shampoo,” Rayyan added. People used dishwashing liquid and laundry detergent to try to stay clean.

“Due to the spread of epidemics and diseases and the lack of cleanliness in the tents, as well as the large accumulation of garbage in the country, there is no cleaning…  of the bathrooms and there is no (hygiene) supervision in the markets in general,” he said.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has said she has completed her chemotherapy and is “doing what I can to stay cancer free,” as she plans to return gradually to public life in the coming months.

Catherine, who revealed in March she has been diagnosed with cancer, said in a highly personal video released Monday that she is entering a “new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life.”

The princess, known as Kate, has made just two public appearances since her diagnosis, which came after she underwent major abdominal surgery shortly after Christmas.

“As the summer comes to an end, I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapy treatment,” said Kate, 42, who is married to the heir to the British throne, Prince William.

“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” she continued. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

In a video message showing scenes from the English summer, Kate, William and their three children – Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George – are seen walking through forests, picnicking, playing among sand dunes and wading in the sea.

“The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family,” she says in the video, filmed last month in Norfolk, on England’s eastern coast. “The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you.”

“This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved,” Kate says in the video message.

She said she is looking forward to returning to work and will be “undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can,” keeping a light schedule to allow her to recover fully.

She is expected to attend the annual Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in London in November, honoring those who have served in war.

Kensington Palace initially said Kate’s surgery had been for a non-cancerous abdominal condition but, following frenzied speculation about her wellbeing and prolonged absence from public life, Kate revealed her diagnosis in a video message in March.

Her diagnosis stunned the country, coming just weeks after King Charles III announced in February that he had also been diagnosed with cancer. Neither royal has specified the type of cancer for which they are receiving treatment.

In June, Kate said she was making “good progress” in her recovery and that she expected her treatment to continue “for a few more months.”

The next day – making her first public appearance since Christmas Day – Kate joined Charles and family members on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour ceremony in June, marking the monarch’s official birthday.

Before her appearance at the ceremony, Kate said she was making “good progress” in her recovery and that she expected her treatment to continue “for a few more months.”

In July, she received a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd as she attended the Wimbledon men’s singles final with her daughter Princess Charlotte.

A beluga whale discovered with a harness strapped around its neck in Norwegian waters five years ago – and found dead on August 31 – had a stick stuck in its mouth and its death was not related to human activity, police said on Monday.

The body of Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin – was spotted a week ago floating in the sea by a father and son fishing in southern Norway.

The animal became the subject of media attention when it was discovered off Norway’s Arctic coast in 2019 wearing a harness with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera.

Norway and Russia share a maritime border in the Arctic, leading to jokes that the whale was a Russian spy.

Norwegian police had opened an investigation into the death of the animal after two animal rights groups filed a complaint.

An autopsy showed a stick measuring 35 centimeters in length (14 inches) and 3 centimeters wide (1.2 inches) was stuck in the whale’s mouth, police for the South West district said in a statement.

“The autopsy showed that its stomach was empty. In addition, most organs had broken down,” police said.

“There is nothing in the investigations that have been carried out to establish that it is human activity that has directly led to Hvaldimir’s death.”

As a result, police would not investigate further, they added.

The animal rights groups had alleged the whale had been shot dead. On Monday, police said Hvaldimir had sustained some injuries but that they were “completely superficial,” adding “there was no evidence suggesting that Hvaldimir was shot.”

A full report will be ready in two weeks, it said.

An airstrike targeting civilian areas in southeastern Sudan has left more than 20 people dead and dozens of others wounded, authorities in the embattled Sennar state said, as civil war rages between the country’s army and a paramilitary militia.

At least 21 civilians were killed and 63 injured in the air raid on Sunday, Sennar’s acting governor Tawfiq Muhammad Ali said Monday, according to state-run news agency SUNA.

The aerial bombing, blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was also confirmed by activist group Emergency Lawyers, which keeps track of human rights abuses and civilian casualties. The lawyers’ group said more than 30 people were killed in the RSF attack, which it said targeted a market and other civilian locations.

The RSF, which assumed near-total control of the city after capturing it in July, has yet to comment on the claims.

The activist group also attributed a similar airstrike in the nearby al-Souki town that killed four people to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The conflict has left at least 18,000 people dead and displaced more than 10 million others since April 2023. The fighting has also triggered “one of the worst humanitarian disasters” according to the United Nations, with over half of the country’s population facing acute hunger.

On Friday, a UN inquiry into the Sudanese conflict found that both warring factions have committed “an appalling range” of human rights abuses that “may amount to war crimes.”

Some of those violations by the SAF and RSF included “indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies,” according to the UN report.

The report called for the deployment of an independent force to protect civilians as well as a nationwide arms embargo.

Those recommendations were rejected by the Sudanese foreign ministry which denounced the UN report.

The Israeli military has detained a convoy of United Nations vehicles in northern Gaza, according to a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces were acting “following intelligence that a number of Palestinian suspects were present in the convoy” and delayed the convoy in order to question them, it said.

The IDF said that the convoy was not involved in the transport of polio vaccines but used instead to exchange UN personnel, and that the incident is “ongoing.”

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the organization is aware “of an ongoing incident involving UN personnel and vehicles” and is working to establish the facts, Reuters reported.

Ahead of a key US presidential debate this week, families of several American hostages held in Gaza are calling on US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to offer new ideas for securing the immediate release of their loved ones.

“Enough is enough,” said Adi Alexander, whose 20-year-old son Edan was serving in the Israeli military when he was abducted by Hamas on October 7.

“Perhaps the deal proposed by President (Joe) Biden back in December was good then, but maybe we need something different now,” he added.

“I would challenge the candidates and ask them, you know, how to get our kids back,” said Ruby Chen, another US-Israeli citizen whose 19-year-old son, Itay, was killed during the attacks last year. His body is still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Our children may be not as famous as a basketball player, but you know, from our perspective, the creativity they have shown has to come back again here in our case, and to do everything possible, everything within their means – whether it’s putting more pressure, whether it’s finding creative ways to bring our kids back home.”

There is even support among the relatives of the US hostages for Washington to apply greater pressure on Israel, whose veteran prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is accused by critics of thwarting US-led hostage negotiations to appease hardliners in his fragile coalition.

The relatives said they would now support moves to curb US diplomatic, financial and military aid to Israel as a way of pushing Netanyahu toward a deal.

“But we are urging our leaders to take brave action and to put politics aside. We are not playing here. This is a real life-and-death situation,” he added.

Over 100 hostages remain in Gaza today, as living conditions in the Palestinian enclave crumble under Israeli forces’ months-long siege. Freed hostages have described suffering from frequent shortages of food and water in Gaza, and some have also reported physical and mental abuse by their captors.

The recovery earlier this month of six murdered hostages’ bodies prompted mass protests in Israel, with demonstrators demanding Netanyahu’s government strike a deal to free those who remained in captivity. Many wondered if the nationwide outrage might be enough to force his hand.

Instead, a defiant Netanyahu has doubled down on his strategy in the strip, stressing his commitment to fighting until Hamas is defeated and repeating his refusal to withdraw soldiers from the border between Gaza and Egypt – a significant new sticking point in talks to reach a deal.

Many are feared killed and wounded after Israeli forces struck a humanitarian zone created to shelter displaced people in southern Gaza, in what Israel said was an attack on Hamas terrorists in the area.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday evening that it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area” in Khan Younis, Gaza.

The strike was carried out with the direction of the Israel Security Agency and the Israeli Air Force, and steps were taken to mitigate civilian harm, it also said in a statement.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional means,” it also said.

According to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, civil defense and medical teams are working “to control the situation” following the strike.

The IDF has accused Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip of continuing to “systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

American and Chinese military commanders spoke in a long-anticipated call Tuesday as the two powers seek to manage their intensifying rivalry in a contentious Asia-Pacific region – and repair lines of military communication severed more than two years ago.

US Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo and Gen. Wu Yanan, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Southern Theater Command spoke via video conference, according to statements from both sides.

The call marks a step forward in what has been a gradual restoration of high-level US-China military communications in recent months as the two sides navigate a host of regional tensions, including over Beijing’s aggressions in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan.

Beijing severed high-level military-to-military communication with the US in August 2022 following visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the self-ruling democratic island that China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its own.

China and the US agreed to hold the commander-level call “in the near future” during a visit from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to Beijing late last month.

In Tuesday’s call, Paparo underscored that having sustained lines of communication between senior military leaders serves “to clarify intent and reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation,” according to a White House readout.

He also cited “several recent PLA unsafe interactions with US allies,” and called on the PLA to “comply with international laws and norms to ensure operational safety.”

“Paparo also urged the PLA to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond,” said the readout, which characterized the talks as a “constructive and respectful exchange of views.”

A readout published by Chinese state media Tuesday morning confirmed the talks and simply said the “two sides exchanged in-depth views on issues of common concern.”

The resumption of the commander-level talks comes amid especially heightened tensions in the South China Sea, where Chinese and Philippine ships have been engaged in a series of increasingly violent, but so-far non-lethal confrontations in recent months.

Beijing claims the sea almost in its entirety despite a major international ruling to the contrary, and the US has in recent months reiterated Washington’s “ironclad commitment” to defend its treaty ally, the Philippines.

Analysts have long warned that a miscalculation in the South China Sea could quickly spiral into a damaging regional conflict between the world’s two largest economies and that a lack of communication could compound those risks.

The talks also play out amid a range of frictions between Washington and Beijing, including over China’s close ties to Russia and what the US says is its support for Moscow’s defense industrial base, as well as Beijing’s concerns that the US is tightening ties with its regional allies to contain China.

Tuesday’s call marks a rare point of contact between top military officials leading American troops in the Indo-Pacific and Chinese strategy in the Southern and Eastern theater respectively.

It comes within a broader, gradual resumption of high-level military communication following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November.

Top US and Chinese generals spoke in December after more than a year of silence, and US and Chinese defense chiefs held rare talks on the sidelines of a defense gathering in Singapore in May.

But the Biden administration had for months pushed to move direct discussions between the two global powers beyond the government brass to uniformed officers making decisions in the region.

A Singaporean man has been ordered to repay more than 38 million Australian dollars ($25.7 million) after he lost big during a gambling spree at an Australian casino over the span of a few days.

Queensland’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that Yew Choy Wong owed that amount to the Star Gold Coast, as well as the casino’s legal fees and interest. He had racked up losses of 47.3 million Australian dollars ($31.5 million) there between July 26 and August 2, 2018.

Wong fled the country without settling his bill, according to court documents. The casino tried to recoup its losses using a blank check Wong had given its sister property, the Star Sydney, a year prior, but that check bounced after Wong told his bank not to pay out any checks from the Star, the ruling said.

The casino then tried to recover the debt in 2019 by suing Wong in Singapore, but that case was dismissed a year later because Singaporean law largely prohibits the recovery of gambling debts.

According to court documents from that case, Wong frequently played the card game baccarat at the Star’s casinos, during which he and his “entourage of some 28 people” were flown to Queensland by the casino and housed in its private salons.

In the more recent case, Wong argued he did not owe the Star any money because he had complained about the way the casino’s dealers had dealt cards to him, after which he stopped gambling.

Wong said he resumed gambling after the Star’s chief operating officer, Paul Arbuckle, verbally agreed that Wong would not have to pay for losses he had already incurred and that the casino would waive any further losses, if the dealers repeated their alleged mistakes.

Arbuckle denied making this agreement, according to the ruling.

Star Entertainment, which owns the Gold Coast casino, declined to comment on the case.

In a letter presented to the court, which was addressed to Wong and signed by Arbuckle, the COO apologized for “difficulties” Wong experienced during his visit, but noted the mistakes would have had no direct financial impact on Wong. The letter did not mention waiving Wong’s debt.

The casino also paid Wong hundreds of thousands of dollars in goodwill payments following his complaints, the ruling said.

Justice Melanie Hindman said: “The alleged agreement pleaded by Dr Wong is not evidenced by the letter of apology or otherwise supported by any other evidence adduced in the trial.”