Ukraine has claimed it shot down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet in the Black Sea using a seaborne drone for the first time.

“This is the first time in the world that a combat aircraft has been destroyed by a marine drone,” the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said in a statement on Saturday, adding it “burst into flames in the air and eventually fell into the sea.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence said one of its units destroyed the fighter jet on Friday with a Ukrainian Magura drone near the port of Novorossiysk – a key port city for Russia where Ukraine claims there are remnants of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Russia’s defense ministry has not commented on the incident, although the claim was backed up by a Russian military blogger.

“The Ukrainians brought more than three dozen sea-drones… to the Novorossiysk area… After [our] jet was hit, the crew ended up in the water, surrounded by enemy sea-drones,” Fighterbomber said on Telegram Saturday.

Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed in December last year it destroyed two Russian helicopters “for the first time in the world” using the seaborne Magura V5 missile drone created by Ukraine’s military and engineers.

Kyiv has increasingly turned to drones to level the playing field with Russia, which boasts superior manpower and resources. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 – and following further losses after Russia’s 2022 invasion – Ukraine no longer has a functioning navy in the Black Sea.

Drones have proved effective against some of the toughest ships of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet. They are controlled from afar via a Starlink connection and can be pre-programmed for the long journeys across the Black Sea.

In February last year, Ukraine said it sank the Ivanovets, a Russian guided-missile ship in the Black Sea. Its most notable strike was on the Moskva in April 2022, which was a huge morale boost for Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.

Like the other ceremonies and traditions that accompany the advent of a new pope, his newly chosen name will be imbued with centuries of Catholic history and dissected for its many layers of meaning.

Changing his name is one of the first actions the new pope takes as head of the Roman Catholic Church and can play a hugely symbolic role in setting the tone for his pontificate.

It is a precedent that was set in the early Middle Ages and, while there is no doctrinal reason for a pope to choose a new name, it has become part of the election process.

So, how did this tradition come about, what are the meanings behind different papal names, what name could the next pope choose and how will it be announced?

Why do popes choose a new name?

St. Peter, the first pope and one of the 12 apostles, was renamed from his birth name of Simon by Jesus, but this was before he became head of the church.

Another 500 years would pass before Pope John II, who was head of the church from 533 to 535, started the papal tradition when he shed the name Mercurius, which he thought was too like the name of the pagan god Mercury.

The next pope to change his name was Peter Canepanova in the 10th century, who became John XIV to avoid being called Peter II (more on that below), said Liam Temple, assistant professor in the history of Catholicism at the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University.

After the 10th century, taking a different name became common practice for popes once they had been elected, as popes from countries such as France and Germany adopted more Italian-sounding names to mimic their predecessors.

And that then became the custom, with only a handful of popes keeping their baptismal names since, including Marcellus II and Adrian VI, who both served as head of the church in the 16th century.

What makes a pope choose a specific name?

Each name is steeped in its own history and connotations, linked to the achievements or failings of the previous popes or saints who carried it.

For example, Pope Francis chose his papal name to honor St. Francis of Assisi, with his love for peace and nature, as well as his care for the poor and focus on cooperation between different sects of the church. These associations established the priorities for Francis’ papacy.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, chose his papal name to show his commitment to peace and reconciliation by honoring St. Benedict and Pope Benedict XV, who was head of the church during World War I, Temple said.

Are any names off-limits?

One name that the new pope definitely won’t adopt is Peter, out of respect for the first pope, St. Peter the Apostle – but also perhaps because of a centuries-old prophecy that Peter II will be the last pope to serve.

There are other names that aren’t necessarily off-limits but are less likely to be chosen because of their associations with the most recent pope who bore them, said Temple.

He identifies the name Urban as an unlikely candidate for the new pope because it would “harken back to Urban VIII, who started the trial of Galileo Galilei, and would not sit well in modern debates about science, faith and religion.”

In a similar vein, the name Pius would evoke memories of Pius XII, whose role during World War II has been increasingly criticized, Temple added.

What could the next pope be called?

If the new pope wishes to continue on a reforming path, Temple said that names like Leo, referencing Leo XIII who was known for his dedication to social justice, fair wages and safe working conditions, or Innocent, referencing Innocent XIII who sought to root out corruption, might be appropriate choices.

A new pope who is elected from the Global South, like Pope Francis, may also choose a name adopted by early non-Italian pontiffs such as Gelasius, Miltiades or Victor, who all hailed from the African continent, Temple added.

Over the centuries, there have been 44 papal names used only once – most recently Pope Francis’ own.

His decision to choose a unique name had “massive historical ramifications,” Temple said, for “it had been around 1,100 years since the last uniquely named pope in the form of Pope Lando, whose pontificate lasted less than a year in the 10th century.”

John is the most popular name, with 21 popes choosing to adopt it – although, somewhat confusingly, the last pope to take that name was John XXIII, after historians accidentally misnumbered the popes after John XIV.

Gregory and Benedict are also popular pontifical names with 16 and 15 uses, respectively, while Innocent and Leo come close behind with 13 uses each. (Benedict X was declared an antipope, and expelled from the papal throne, hence the discrepancy in numbering for subsequent Benedicts.)

How will the new pope’s name be announced?

After white smoke has risen from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s have rung, the newly elected pope’s name will be conveyed to the world in a Latin pronouncement.

The senior cardinal deacon will step onto the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by two priests, and will deliver the iconic announcement: “Habemus Papam” (“We have a pope”).

The new pope’s name, as well as his baptismal names, will be translated into Latin in the announcement but his former surname will remain in his native language.

For example, when Pope Francis was elected in 2013, his given names of “Jorge Mario” were delivered as “Giorgio Marium,” but his surname “Bergoglio” remained the same.

His papal name was announced as “Franciscum” and was the last word of the proclamation, as is customary.

Romanians voted on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that could propel hard-right eurosceptic George Simion to power in a ballot that will test the rise of Donald Trump-style nationalism in the European Union.

Simion, 38, opposes military aid to neighboring Ukraine, is critical of the EU leadership and says he is aligned with the US president’s Make America Great Again movement.

Five months after a first attempt to hold the election was canceled after the first round because of alleged Russian interference in favor of far-right frontrunner Calin Georgescu, since banned from standing again, his heir apparent Simion leads opinion polls, riding a wave of popular anger.

About 1.98 million Romanians, or 11% of registered voters, had cast ballots by 0710 GMT, data showed. Voting will end at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) with exit polls to follow immediately and preliminary results expected later in the evening.

Simion voted alongside Georgescu, who called the election a “fraud” and urged people to take their country back. As dozens of people thronged outside the voting station chanting “Calin for president,” Simion said his vote was “to restore democracy.”

Simion is polling at around 30%, a comfortable lead but well short of the 50% he needs to avoid a run-off on May 18.

“George Simion equals Calin Georgescu, he gets my vote,” said Aurelia, 66, a pensioner who declined to give her last name. She said she felt “humiliated” by the cancellation of November’s first round.

“Everything is lacking here. My children are not here: Did they leave to work abroad because things were so good here?”

Political analysts said an ultimate victory for Simion could isolate the country, erode private investment and destabilize NATO’s eastern flank, where Ukraine is fighting a three-year-old Russian invasion.

Simion’s main rivals are two centrists – former senator Crin Antonescu, 65, backed by the three parties in the current pro-Western government, and Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, running as an independent on an anti-corruption platform.

Both are pro-EU and pro-NATO and back Ukraine. Victor Ponta, a former leftist prime minister who has turned conservative nationalist, is ranked fourth but could prove a dark horse.

MAGA-style leaders

Simion is not the only MAGA-style politician seeking election in central Europe. Karol Nawrocki, the presidential candidate backed by Poland’s main nationalist opposition party in a presidential election on May 18, met Trump this week.

If elected, they would expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders that already includes the Hungarian and Slovak prime ministers.

“Romania and Poland are two important countries for the United States,” Simion told Reuters on Friday.

“We represent partners and we represent allies, both military and politically, to the current (US administration. This is why it is important for MAGA presidents to be in charge in Bucharest and Warsaw.”

Romania’s president has a semi-executive role that includes commanding the armed forces and chairing the security council that decides on military aid.

To date, Romania has donated a Patriot air defense battery to Kyiv, is training Ukrainian fighter pilots and has enabled the export of some 30 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta since Russia’s invasion.

The country’s president can also veto important EU votes and appoints the prime minister, chief judges, prosecutors and secret service heads.

The Trump administration has accused Romania of suppressing political opposition and lacking democratic values after November’s election was canceled on what Vice President JD Vance called “flimsy evidence.”

A team of US observers were in Bucharest for Sunday’s vote alongside diplomats and monitors from dozens of countries.

“There is clear evidence that there was some sort of nefarious activity going on in the November election,” James E. Trainor III, Commissioner of the US Federal Election Commission, told Reuters in Bucharest.

“Time is going to prove that … it was a good decision (to cancel). I know it’s an extreme step, but … what we see is that Romanian democracy is actually stronger because (it) had this bump in the road, but yet was resilient enough of a democracy to make its way through it.”

It’s Saturday night at a rooftop bar in downtown Atlanta, and the band Orden Activa is about to launch into a Mexican ballad.

What seemed like a shy and reserved audience suddenly transforms as the opening chords of the trotting polka begin. The crowd rises to its feet and sings in Spanish as the dance floor dissolves into a sea of cowboy hats:

“I’m the ruler of the roosters
Of the Jalisco cartel.
I’ve got fighting cocks
Who duel for my crew.”

With their gently bobbing heads, matching leather jackets and knowing smiles, their act hardly screams controversy – or at least not to the casual observer.

Yet last month, a group that sang the very same song – “El del Palenque” (“He of the Cockfighting Arena”) – was barred from the United States in an unprecedented move that critics say raises troubling questions about free speech in America.

Their transgression, according to the State Department? “Glorifying (a) drug kingpin.”

The song is a narcocorrido: a ballad about the drug trafficking underworld. The band that wrote it – Los Alegres del Barranco – landed in hot water with both US and Mexican authorities recently when they performed the tune in the Mexican city of Zapopan.

That performance, in which the group sang about the exploits of El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in front of a cartoon portrait of him, not only ended the band’s plans for a US tour but left them the subject of a criminal investigation on their home turf.

As one of six Mexican drug cartels the Trump administration has declared Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the Jalisco cartel is at the center of growing US-Mexico tensions over cross-border crime. Authorities in both countries took exception when video of the concert went viral.

The venue where Los Alegres del Barranco performed swiftly apologized; the Jalisco prosecutor’s office vowed to investigate; and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned the band may have broken the law. Then the US State Department revoked their visas.

“The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau in a post on X. “In the Trump administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country.” The band apologized on Facebook the next day.

While songs about the drug trade have been censored on and off in Mexico for years, observers say increasing pressure from the Trump administration to clamp down on cartels has fueled a new wave of bans on public performance of narcocorridos in several Mexican states. Even more worryingly, they say, are signs that Mexican bands are beginning to self-censor in the fear that upsetting US authorities could compromise their ability to tour.

The action against Los Alegres del Barranco is the first time the State Department has punished a Mexican band in this way, according to Elijah Wald, author of an English-language guide to the genre. Some critics paint it as the latest anti-Mexico move by the Trump administration, which has already strained ties with its immigration crackdowns and tariff policies.

“(These bands) have been saved up to now by the fact that nobody spoke Spanish,” Wald said. “And when I say ‘nobody,’ I mean the people who are enforcing this kind of silliness. The revoking of visas obviously has very little to do with the songs. It has to do with a politics of revoking visas.”

Old tradition, modern appeal

The State Department’s rebuke may have ruined Los Alegres del Barranco’s planned US tour, but it has done little to dent the popularity of either the band or the genre. If anything, it gave both a boost.

Figures from Billboard show the band subsequently gained over 2 million new listens on streaming services, proof if any were needed of the enduring modern appeal of a genre rooted in 19^th century folk music that has long romanticized outlaws, outcasts and underdogs.

Early corridos or ballads celebrated the exploits of “famous bandits, generals, sometimes horses, sometimes fighting roosters as well,” according to Sam Quinones, a writer who covers music and the drug trade in Mexico and California.

“It was almost like a musical newspaper,” Quinones said. “This became a very common kind of entrenched genre of popular music.”

During Prohibition in the 1920s, a new subgenre – the narcocorrido – emerged to tell the tales of those smuggling illicit alcohol from Mexico to the United States, explained author Wald.

A century later and that subgenre is still booming. The most popular musical artist among US YouTube users in 2023 was not Taylor Swift, but the narcocorrido singer Peso Pluma.

Corrupted art form or moral panic?

But experts say a cultural shift took place when drug traffickers began paying musicians to write songs about themselves in the mid-1980s, when the legendary “King of Corridos” Chalino Sanchez began accepting commissions.

“He wasn’t necessarily the first, but he was the key figure in that shift, which significantly changed the economics of the business,” Wald said. “It meant anybody with money could commission a laudatory corrido.”

Since then, many singers and groups “have been sponsored by or have performed for specific figures in the narco-world, and are thought of as being aligned with particular cartels,” Wald said, leading to a situation that’s “definitely dangerous for the artists.”

Case in point: Chalino Sanchez was shot dead after a concert in Sinaloa in 1992. His murder remains unsolved.

Some fans, like Quinones – who is writing a biography of Sanchez – are critical of this shift.

“The corrido used to be about a simple man going up against power, knowing he was doomed, knowing he was going to die and fighting anyway,” Quinones said. “It became corrupted, in my opinion, when it became in praise of power, in praise of these bloodthirsty men with enormous power who killed wantonly.”

Others, though, dismiss the notion that narcocorridos encourage the violence and crime they portray, likening them to gangster-rap, video games or films like The Godfather.

“People say, ‘Oh, parents, don’t let your kid play Call of Duty, or your kid’s gonna grow up to be a shooter!’” said Ray Mancias, a 19-year-old guitarist who performed after Orden Activa at the show in Atlanta.

“I think that’s the way they’re seeing (narcocorridos) as well. They think if all these kids keep listening to it, that they’re going to get influenced by it and they’re going to start doing it. But at the end of the day, the way you grow up is your parents. No music is going to change that.”

Noel Flores – one of Orden Activa’s two singers – suggests authorities that try to ban narcocorridos risk shooting themselves in the foot.

“That’s just gonna make people want it more,” Flores said.

Canceling corridos

While some Mexican states have tried to ban the songs, and the US State Department their singers, Mexico’s President Sheinbaum has taken a softer approach – ruling out a nationwide ban and proposing instead that the government promote music about peace and love as an alternative – a position that has led to some ridicule.

“She’s trying the rather comical alternative of trying to sponsor nice music that people will listen to instead, which is charming,” Wald said. “But no, that’s not going to work.”

Of course, if authorities can’t find a way through the debate, it’s not only the bands that will lose, but fans in both Mexico and the US.

“With everything going on with (Trump), as a Mexican, cancelling corridos makes us feel more ‘less,’” said Emmanuel Gonzalez, who attended the concert in Atlanta.

Other fans have been rowdier about the idea of cancelling corridos.

When the singer Luis R. Conriquez refused to play drug-themed music at an April concert in Texcoco, Mexico, citing a local ban, he told the booing audience, “There are no corridos tonight. Should we just go home?”

They answered by trashing the stage. (Conriquez later defended his decision, saying he “must follow the new rules the government has set regarding corridos.”)

Oswaldo Zavala, a professor of literature and expert on narcoculture, says many musicians are self-censoring not out of deference to Mexican authorities, but “in response to Donald Trump’s presidency… the fear that (Trump) may revoke their visas that allow them to perform and produce their music in the US.”

A few days after their Atlanta concert, Orden Activa posted a video of their performance alongside the caption: “Let’s see if they don’t take away our visa. Don’t believe it’s a joke.”

Still, amid the fears there are those that take comfort in the irony that driving underground a form of music that has always celebrated outlaws will likely make it only more popular.

As another member of the audience in Atlanta, Violet Uresti, puts it: “I like the vibe. I like the way it brings people together. If they ban it, we’re still gonna listen to it.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looks set to secure a second term in office, media networks project, with voters choosing stability over change against a backdrop of global turmoil inflicted by a returning US President Donald Trump.

Albanese’s Labor Party needs at least 76 of 150 lower-house seats to win a majority, and while votes were still being counted, early swings towards Labor suggested the party would retain government, according to projections from national broadcaster the ABC.

Australia’s projected return of a left-leaning government follows Canada’s similar sharp swing towards Mark Carney’s Liberal Party earlier this week.

A victory on Saturday would make Albanese the first Australian Prime Minister to win re-election for two decades, since John Howard in 2004.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his conversation with US President Donald Trump at the Vatican last month was their “best” yet, with the two leaders discussing US sanctions and Kyiv’s air defenses.

The brief meeting on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral in April came at a crucial time for Ukraine, amid concerns that the US could scale back support for Kyiv and abandon peace talks.

Both sides described the talks as positive, which marked their first face-to-face encounter since their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February. Soon after, Trump questioned whether Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wanted peace, the latest sign that the US leader was losing patience with his Russian counterpart.

“I believe that we had the best conversation with President Trump of all those that have taken place before,” Zelensky told journalists on Friday, in remarks released Saturday by Ukraine’s presidential office.

“It may have been the shortest, but it was the most substantive.”

Zelensky said the pair discussed US sanctions, without elaborating, and described Trump’s comments on the matter as “very strong.” He added that he reiterated his desire to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses and told Trump he hoped to have the opportunity to purchase American weapons.

“I told him about the quantity, and he told me that they would work on it, that these things are not free,” Zelensky said.

He added that he and Trump agreed that a 30-day ceasefire “is the right first step” and that “we will move in this direction.”

On Wednesday, Washington and Kyiv signed a crucial minerals deal – an agreement both sides had been trying to hammer out since Trump returned to the White House in January.

In his Friday comments, Zelensky pointed to the Vatican meeting as the turning point in securing a deal, adding that he had managed to dispel Russian claims that Ukraine was unwilling to reach an agreement with the US. “I am confident that after our meeting in the Vatican, President Trump began to look at things a little differently,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader had earlier hailed the minerals deal a “truly equal agreement” and said it was the “first result” of the pair’s meeting.

Under the deal, the US and Ukraine will create a joint investment fund, according to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. The US may contribute new military aid to this fund, Svyrydenko said.

Zelensky also criticized a three-day ceasefire called by Putin late last month that the Russian leader said would last from midnight May 8 to midnight May 11.

The dates of the proposed ceasefire coincide with Russia’s World War II Victory Day commemorations on May 9 and the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Some international leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping and Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko, are expected to gather in Moscow on that date, to mark Russia’s Victory Day commemorating the more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians who died during World War II.

Kyiv won’t be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on 9 May,” Zelensky said.

A woman has died in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki after a bomb she was carrying exploded in her hands.

The 38-year-old was apparently attempting to place the device outside the bank early on Saturday, police reported. The blast damaged several storefronts and vehicles.

“It appears that she was carrying an explosive device and planned to plant it at a bank’s ATM,” a senior police official told Reuters.

“Something went wrong and exploded in her hands,” the official added. A criminal investigation is underway.

The woman was known to police for her involvement in past robberies, according to Associated Press. Authorities are reportedly investigating links to extremist left groups, the agency added.

The explosion comes less than a month after a bomb exploded outside the offices of Hellenic Train in Athens.

Police cordoned off the area after two Greek media organizations received warning calls that an explosive device would go off within 35 minutes, police officials said at the time. A suspicious-looking bag was spotted outside the building which was evacuated.

Five people have been rescued from an alligator-infested swamp almost two days after their plane crashed in the Amazonian jungle in Bolivia.

The small aircraft, carrying the pilot, three women and a child, crashed on Wednesday, but the group were not rescued until Friday morning, the Bolivian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

None of the group were seriously injured and they survived on chocolate and cassava flour during the ordeal.

The plane had taken off from the Baures municipality in northern Bolivia and was bound for the city of Trinidad, the Ministry said.

An hour after take-off, the pilot reported technical issues before all contact with the aircraft was lost, according to the Ministry.

The pilot, identified by local media outlets as 27-year-old Pablo Andrés Velarde, was able to carry out an emergency landing but landed near an alligator nest, he told local outlet Unitel.

“We fell into a swamp, and right next to it, there was an alligator nest. But thanks to the fuel that spilled from the aircraft, it contaminated the water and the strong smell of that scared them off, not completely, but they didn’t approach us to attack us,” he told Unitel in an interview from his hospital bed on Friday.

One survivor, Mirtha Fuentes, told local media of her emotional disbelief after surviving the plane crash. “We all cried with happiness because we were alive, with bruises, but alive and very lucky, thanks to God and the pilot’s quick thinking and intelligence,” she told Unitel.

Bolivia’s defense ministry and civil defense activated a search and rescue operation, but the first 48 hours were hindered by “adverse weather conditions,” the ministry said. Multiple flights passed over the survivors but failed to spot them, local media reported.

The group survived on rationed food recovered by the pilot from the submerged plane, the pilot told Unitel, before they were discovered by fishermen early Friday morning.

The five survivors were airlifted to the city of Trinidad, in a rescue helicopter from Bolivia’s Air Force, the defense ministry said.

“Thanks to the work of our specialized personnel, at this time the five rescued individuals, including a child, are alive and we are making every effort to take them to safe areas and provide them with the medical attention they need,” Bolivian president Luis Arce said in a statement.

The initiative to deliver aid comes as a total Israeli blockade of aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave approaches its third month, and after US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last month that “we’ve got to be good to Gaza.”

Axios initially reported on Saturday that the US, Israel and representatives of a new international foundation are close to an agreement on how to resume the delivery of aid, citing two anonymous Israeli and US sources

For two months, Israel has carried out a total siege of Gaza, refusing to allow in a single truck of humanitarian aid or commercial goods – the longest period Israel has imposed such a total blockade.

Israel says it cut off the entry of humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages. But international organizations say its actions violate international law, with some accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war – a war crime.

While taking questions from reporters late last month, Trump was asked whether the topic of aid for Gaza came up during his recent conversation with Netanyahu.

“Gaza came up,” Trump responded. “And I said: ‘We’ve got to be good to Gaza’ because people are – those people are suffering.”

“There’s a very big need for medicine, food and medicine. We’re taking care of it,” he said.

Late last year, ahead of the total Israeli blockade of Gaza, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that the risk of famine persists across the entire territory, projecting that 16% of the population would be in famine by April.

‘A massive wave of deaths’

Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, the head of the pediatric department at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza warned on Saturday that “a looming health catastrophe is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands” in the enclave.

The World Food Programme says it is ready to surge enough aid into Gaza to feed the entire population of about two million for up to two months. UNRWA, the main UN agency supporting Palestinians, said it has nearly 3,000 trucks filled with aid waiting to cross into Gaza. Both need Israel to lift its blockade to get that aid in.

Netanyahu is under intense pressure from far-right members of his fragile governing coalition to continue fighting in Gaza and withhold aid as a means of pressure against Hamas.

Last month, Defense Minister Israel Katz said his government is working on a mechanism “through civilian companies” to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza at a “later” stage, prompting a severe backlash from extremist politicians.

“As long as our hostages are languishing in tunnels, there is absolutely no reason for even a single gram of food or any aid to enter Gaza,” Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said at the time.

Katz later clarified that “no humanitarian aid is set to enter Gaza.”

In early April, COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages policy for the Palestinian territories and the flow of aid into the strip, announced a “new authorization mechanism” designed to “prevent Hamas infiltration into humanitarian organizations.”

“The mechanism is designed to support aid organizations, enhance oversight and accountability, and ensure that assistance reaches the civilian population in need, rather than being diverted and stolen by Hamas,” it said, without giving any details as to when it would be implemented.