Wednesday briefing: Updates from Gaza

Israeli soldiers were killed trying to create a buffer zone

Israel was trying to demolish part of a Palestinian neighborhood as it pursued a plan to create a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel when about 20 Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion on Monday, according to Israeli officials.

Here's the latest.

The explosion occurred after Gaza militants shot at a tank guarding an Israeli unit. According to an Israeli army newsletter, the unit had planted explosives in Palestinian buildings on the border in central Gaza with the intention of destroying them. During the firefight, the explosives went off, killing many of the soldiers inside.

Israel wants to demolish Palestinian buildings close to the border to create a so-called “security zone,” according to three officials, who spoke anonymously. The idea of ​​a buffer zone in Gaza has been rejected by both the US National Security Council and the US State Department as it would effectively reduce the size of the enclave. Israeli ministers had suggested plans to create a buffer zone since the first weeks of the war.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said the systematic demolition of Palestinian border homes could constitute a war crime because they do not pose a direct threat to Israel.

Staff: More than half a million people in Gaza are facing “catastrophic hunger”, a UN aid agency said, calling for a critical increase in aid as the “risk of famine increases”.

UNRWA, which helps Palestinian refugees, said its efforts to distribute aid were hampered by fighting and the outage of Gaza's mobile phone networks for days, as well as Israeli restrictions on Gaza's ability to move around the territory and reach hospitals .

Australia: The recruitment of a Lebanese Australian journalist and her forced departure after posting about the war in Gaza has exposed long-simmering problems at one of Australia's most trusted institutions.

Turkey approved Sweden's bid to join NATO

The Turkish parliament has brought Sweden a step closer to joining the military alliance by passing a bill allowing the Nordic country to join. It eased a diplomatic standoff that has clouded Turkey's relations with the U.S. and hampered Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The measure comes into effect as soon as it is published in the country's official gazette, which is usually a quick formality. That would make Hungary the only NATO member not to have approved Sweden's bid, causing the alliance to lose the unanimity needed to add a new member.

What's next: Sweden's accession would allow NATO to expand its deterrence against Russia, open up a vast area of ​​northern Europe to possible alliance military operations and extend the other members' automatic protection to Sweden.

The Chinese travel economy is slowly coming back

Domestic travel has flourished in China since the country eased travel restrictions in 2023 after three years of strict Covid isolation, with high-speed rail particularly popular. But a year after China reopened its borders, international travel in and out of the country remains below pre-pandemic levels.

The economic stakes are high. Before the pandemic, Chinese travelers were the world's biggest spenders, accounting for 20 percent of global tourism spending, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. Beijing has tried to sweeten the deal for incoming travelers by waiving travel visas or extending the duration of visa-free travel for visitors from eight countries including Germany and France.

The economy will remain the main limiting factor for Chinese travelers. The weight of a severe recession in the real estate sector has dampened consumer spending and confidence in China. And global geopolitical tensions remain a wildcard.

Entertainment: No Hollywood films were among the top 10 grossing films in China last year, as tensions with the US have increased and domestic offerings have improved.

Palworld, the new video game from Tokyo-based studio Pocketpair, started as a meme and was mocked during its three-year development for looking like “Pokémon with guns.”

But despite all the mockery, more than 300,000 players simultaneously logged into the game when it launched into early access on Friday. On Sunday, Palworld was one of the most popular games in the world as players rushed through a cruel world of chickens and squirrels engaged in gunfights.

Lives lived: Shih Ming-teh was a lifelong campaigner for democracy in Taiwan and spent more than two decades in prison for his cause. He passed away at the age of 83.

'Oppenheimer' leads with 13 Oscar nominations

Oscar voters lined up behind a classic studio blockbuster on Tuesday, awarding 13 nominations to Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer,” the most for any film and marking the long-awaited coronation of Nolan as Hollywood's most important filmmaker. But it did not earn a nomination for best picture.

“Poor Things,” a twist on the Frankenstein story, received the second-highest number of nominations – 11 – including one for best picture. In the best picture category were “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest.” “

Technology companies dominated. Netflix received a total of 18 nominations, including awards for short films. Apple TV+ received 13 nods, with “Killers of the Flower Moon” getting 10 and “Napoleon” three. Amazon's MGM division received five.