These college graduates in Gaza finished training just one week before the war began.
We reached out to everyone in the class WhatsApp group to see how they were doing.
It’s difficult to reach anybody in Gaza. Blackouts are common, and internet access is sporadic. But 34 responded.
They were among Gaza’s most ambitious students.
The dentistry program at Al-Azhar University was very selective, and very demanding, and they had big plans. “We dream a lot — more than a brain can imagine,” one said.
But instead of starting new jobs, they found themselves plunged into endless days of burying the dead and fearing for the living.
The students had hired a videographer to capture their celebrations on the final day of exams, about a year before they finished their internships, in 2022. “The most wonderful day in our lives,” one said. That was before the Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip began.
We reached members of the class of 117 students through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. They wrote or talked to us from tents and balconies. Some even climbed on water tanks or walked long distances to grab a phone signal.
All told us they had lost loved ones. Two of their classmates were dead. And many feared they would be next.
Most of their homes lay in ruins. Many described being hungry, and losing drastic amounts of weight.
The survivors described how their loved ones were killed. The New York Times was not able to verify every attack or the circumstances of every death.
This is not the first time war has come to Gaza. Israel and the Hamas militants who made the territory their stronghold have fought repeatedly over the years, but Gaza has never seen this degree of destruction and death. Israel says that it is doing what is needed to defeat Hamas, and that it takes great efforts to protect civilians, but even its allies have begun to characterize the bombing as indiscriminate.
The graduates spoke with anger, desperation and bewilderment about how much Israel’s bombardment, now in its seventh month, has taken from them.
“We had a lot of wars before, but this one is just different,” one said. “Usually it would affect people, but not people that you know. This war took everyone.”
Loss came early for Madeha Alshayyah. She had fled her home in Gaza City, but her grandmother, uncles and cousins stayed behind, despite the bombs.
“They all died and are still under the rubble,” Madeha said.
Now, her sister is missing. She went to the market one day and never came back, she said.
Salem Shurrab had known his best friend, Mouayad Alrayyes, since they were children. They used to meet every night at a cafe at the same table.
Mouayad’s home was bombed while he was out, and his family was killed. He wrote to Salem that he wished he had died, too, “so I don’t feel the pain.”
“Your pain is mine,” Salem replied.
Hours later, Salem said, Mouayad was killed by a rocket when he went to retrieve the bodies.
Mirna Ismail’s home was destroyed, but that did not even come up in her WhatsApp groups.
Now, they discuss “only the urgent things, only who has been killed,” she said. “If someone lost his house, it is not an urgent thing now.”
Mirna lost two friends and a cousin. “We all know someone who has been killed,” she said. “And we can’t understand why they are killing them.”
The class WhatsApp group was how most of the graduates learned that two of their classmates were dead.
On Dec. 2, Aseel Taya was at home with her family, including her father, Sofyan Taya, a prominent researcher in physics and applied mathematics, when Israeli warplanes struck, the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education said. They were all killed.
Officially dentists 👩⚕️
Messages have been translated.
“Why Aseel? What did she do to deserve that?” Mirna recalled feeling. “At that time it’s not easy to cry,” she said. “You only think that this is a lie and I will see her again.”
Aseel Taya (via Rasha H. Zendah)
In February came word of another classmate’s death.
Officially dentists 👩⚕️
Messages have been translated.
Noor Yaghi was sheltering with her family in central Gaza when Israeli airstrikes hit their home. She was “like a flower,” said Asmaa Dwaima, who described her “laughing and making fun of herself and us in the labs.” The Feb. 22 strikes killed at least 40 people, according to local media.
Noor’s remains were never found, said her cousin Asil Yaghi. “Her body seems to have become small pieces,” she said. “My heart is squeezing and my tears don’t stop.”
Noor Yaghi (left) and her twin sister, Aya (via Asil Yaghi)
For many of the students, the talk is of bodies and body parts.
Muhammad Abdel Jawad was visiting an injured cousin at the hospital when he heard that the residential tower where he lived with his family had been hit. He returned home to find his sisters with “burns all over their bodies,” he said.
His father was missing.
Two days later, Muhammad went back to the remains of his home. “I found my father’s body in front of me,” he said. “I tried everything I could to get him out.” His 16-year-old sister was also killed, he said.
Ola Salama said her uncle’s body was found with no head and no feet after his house was bombed.
“The scenes I saw were more horrific than horror movies,” she said. “But they are all real.”
“The missile cut her body into pieces,” Alaa Jihad Hussain said of her 22-year-old cousin, who was killed alongside her husband and daughter. With communications often down, some of the graduates feared their loved ones might be dead without their knowing.
Only by chance did some learn about a relative’s death. When Mahmoud Naser ran into an acquaintance at a shelter in Rafah, he learned his uncle had been shot, apparently by an Israeli sniper.
“I am afraid of dying these days, and that my friends won’t find my name among the names of martyrs because there are too many,” said Asmaa Dwaima, who, already, can count three friends and four cousins among the dead.
“I’m also afraid they won’t find an internet connection to log in and publish a silly story to commemorate me.”
Mohammed Al-Baradei (right) grew up with Ahmad Al-Hourani, attending university and spending afternoons in the gym together.
But when the house next door was bombed, a wall fell on Ahmad as he slept, Mohammed said.
“All my life was with him,” he said. “All of it ended in a moment.”
Alaa AlAbadla (right) last saw his friend Basel Farwana in the seaside area where they were sheltering. Basel was killed when he went home to get a nylon sheet and some blankets for his family’s tent, Alaa said.
But Alaa has little time to mourn. He is busy looking for clean water to survive. “We don’t have time to be sad,” he said. When Israeli forces invaded Gaza from the north, most of the graduates fled south. Mazen Alwahidi was one of the few exceptions.
Food shortages are most severe in the north, and Mazen said he had lost 46 pounds and has resorted to eating donkey feed. “It was like garbage,” he said. “But we have no other choices.”
He said his aunt, a cancer patient, died without access to treatment. They buried her on a street, near a destroyed graveyard.
Noor Shehada also remains in the north. Her family was relying on wild herbs to survive, she said.
“We are starving. We are living in the 18th century.”
Before the war, her uncle traveled to Israel for chemotherapy. Without access to treatment, he died, she said.
Najat Shurrab said her cousin’s 2-year-old twins, Muhammad and Hamada, had been killed. “They were defenseless civilians,” she said.
Ms. Shurrab has a 7-month-old daughter, Masa, and they have been living in a tent in Rafah.
Every day is a struggle to find diapers and food for her baby, she said, and she fears what the future holds for the child.
Areej al-Astal was pregnant when she evacuated first to a tent in Rafah and then to an overcrowded house with her husband’s family. She slept on the floor for two months.
With food scarce, she said, she gained no weight during her whole pregnancy. Eventually, she escaped to Egypt and gave birth to a son. “The word ‘dreams’ has ended,” she said. “It no longer exists in our imagination at all.”
More than 100 members of Areej’s extended family have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to a Gazan health ministry spokesman. “I can’t count them,” Areej said.
After being displaced five times, Rabeha Nabeel and her family decided to return home, though it was missing walls.
“Even if it’s destroyed, it’s our house,” she said.
Rabeha said 27 members of her extended family were killed in the first week of the war. “I lost five of my close friends, my house, my job, my university, my happy memories and my city,” said Mohammed Zebdah.
Mohammed was supposed to pick up his certificate on Oct. 8, but then the bombs started falling.
Many of the graduates told The Times they had just gotten jobs at clinics that are now in ruins. One said he had recently begun working as a volunteer in Khan Younis, treating as many as 60 refugees a day. A few others managed to leave the country.
Months after the joyous celebrations of the graduates, the buildings of Al-Azhar University where they had their dentistry classes bear the scars of war.
“On Oct. 7, all hopes and dreams went with the wind,” Mohammed said.
WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 ambassadors and other senior career diplomats to ensure embassies reflect its “America First” priorities, a move critics said would weaken U.S. credibility abroad.
The State Department declined to provide a list of the diplomats being recalled. A senior department official said on Monday the move was “a standard process in any administration” but critics said that was not so.
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“An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Nearly 30 senior diplomats were among those ordered back to Washington, people familiar with the matter said.
They were posted to smaller countries where the top U.S. representative has traditionally been from the Foreign Service, which is made up of career officials not aligned with a political party, the people said.
The recalled diplomats were encouraged to find new roles in the State Department, a second U.S. official said.
The American Foreign Service Association representing foreign service officers said it was working to confirm which members were recalled after some reported being notified by phone with no explanation – a process its spokesperson called “highly irregular.”
“Abrupt, unexplained recalls reflect the same pattern of institutional sabotage and politicization our survey data shows is already harming morale, effectiveness, and U.S. credibility abroad,” spokesperson Nikki Gamer said in an email.
The State Department declined to respond to Gamer’s comments.
Politico reported on Friday that two dozen ambassadors were being told to leave their posts, citing a State Department official.
Trump has sought to place loyalists in senior roles since starting his second term after encountering resistance during his first term advancing his foreign policy priorities within the U.S. national security establishment.
Jeanne Shaheen, ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, assailed the Republican administration’s removal of the diplomats while about 80 ambassadorial posts remain vacant.
“President Trump is giving away U.S. leadership to China and Russia by removing qualified career Ambassadors who serve faithfully no matter who’s in power,” Shaheen posted on X. “This makes America less safe, less strong and less prosperous.”
Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Howard Goller
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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China has reportedly loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles into three newly constructed silo fields near its border with Mongolia and shows little interest in arms control talks, according to a draft Pentagon report seen by Reuters.
The assessment underscores Beijing’s accelerating military buildup, with the report saying China is expanding and modernizing its nuclear forces faster than any other nuclear-armed power. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed such findings as attempts to “smear and defame China and deliberately mislead the international community.”
The Pentagon declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital about the Reuters report.
Military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel past Tiananmen Square during the military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of People’s Republic of China, on its National Day in Beijing, China Oct. 1, 2019. Jason Lee/Reuters (Jason Lee/Reuters)
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he may pursue denuclearization discussions with China and Russia. The Pentagon report, however, concluded that Beijing does not appear inclined to engage.
“We continue to see no appetite from Beijing for pursuing such measures or more comprehensive arms control discussions,” the report said.
TAIWAN UNVEILS $40B DEFENSE SPENDING PLAN TO COUNTER CHINA MILITARY THREAT OVER NEXT DECADE
China’s rocket force has rapidly advanced. (CNS Photo via Reuters)
According to the assessment, China has likely loaded more than 100 solid-fueled DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles into silo fields near the Mongolian border. While the Pentagon had previously disclosed the existence of the silo fields, it had not publicly estimated how many missiles had been placed inside them.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report did not identify potential targets for the newly loaded missiles and could change before it is formally submitted to Congress, U.S. officials said.
CHINA’S ENERGY SIEGE OF TAIWAN COULD CRIPPLE US SUPPLY CHAINS, REPORT WARNS
China’s Long March 2F rocket, carrying three astronauts for the Shenzhou 21 manned space mission, blasts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (Andy Wong/AP Photo)
China’s nuclear warhead stockpile remained in the low 600s in 2024, reflecting what the report described as a slower production rate compared to previous years. Still, Beijing is on track to exceed 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.
China says it adheres to a nuclear strategy of self-defense and maintains a no-first-use policy. But analysts say Beijing’s public messaging increasingly contradicts that restraint.
“For a country that still advocates a policy of ‘no-first use,’ China has become increasingly comfortable showcasing its nuclear arsenal, including parading its nuclear triad together for the first time in September,” said Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst in the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
TRUMP ORDERS US NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING TO BEGIN ‘IMMEDIATELY’ AFTER RUSSIA TESTS NEW MISSILES
Trump and Xi will meet in South Korea for the first time in six years, on Oct. 30, 2025. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Burnham said Beijing’s rejection of arms control talks reflects the pace of its weapons construction. “China has no interest in locking in a long-term strategic disadvantage, and every intention of building an arsenal on par with its perceived place in the world, alongside and potentially eventually ahead of the United States,” he said.
The report also warned that China expects to be able to fight and win a war over Taiwan by the end of 2027. Beijing claims the self-governed island as its own territory and has never ruled out the use of force.
China is refining options to seize Taiwan by “brute force,” including long-range strikes up to 2,000 nautical miles from the mainland that could disrupt U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.
The findings come as the 2010 New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, approaches expiration. The treaty limits both sides to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads.
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J-20 fighter jets fly in the sky during flight performance at the aviation open-day activities of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the Changchun Air Show 2025 on Sept. 19, 2025 in Changchun, Jilin Province of China. The event will be held from Sept. 19 to 23 in Changchun. (VCG via Getty Images)
“What is surprising is that China has now loaded only about 100 of the silos it has built recently,” said Gordon Chang. “That’s an indication money is tight in the People’s Liberation Army.”
Chang warned against extending New START without Beijing’s participation. “This is no time for the U.S. to agree to an extension of the New START Treaty with Russia,” he said. “Russia and China are de-facto allies, and they are ganging up on America. Without China in a deal — Beijing has flatly rejected every nuclear arms-control initiative of the U.S. —no treaty can be in America’s interest.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
It was billed as the scandal that threatened to shake the core of European democracy.
Explosive allegations, a spectacular police operation and allegations of big money used by three non-EU countries to influence the European Parliament’s decisions.
At the centre of the storm was then-MEP and Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, young, glamorous, and well-connected.
Three years later, the European Parliament corruption scandal remains unresolved, the trial date has not been set, and the methods used by Belgian authorities have come under scrutiny.
Kaili, who was relieved of her duties as an EU lawmaker and declared persona non grata, says she was set up and is demanding justice.
“Justice is based on evidence and facts,” Kaili said in an exclusive interview for Euronews. “Three years ago, optics were presented as justice, but now we have the clarity to see what actually happened.”
Her case has returned to the media spotlight after former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, top European civil servant Stefano Sannino, and a staff member connected to the College of Europe were detained and named as suspects in a separate alleged corruption case earlier this month, investigated by the European Public Prosecutors’ Office (EPPO) and led by the Belgian police.
Kaili is defending her innocence and accusing Belgian authorities of botched methods, political framing, collusion with the media and the staging of evidence.
Kaili also said she was not surprised by the arrest of three Italian nationals in connection with the Mogherini case, as there is an effort to portray southern European countries as corrupt in public opinion, according to her.
Kaili told Euronews her professional career and personal life have been upended since the scandal broke in 2022. She also says her case is a warning to other politicians.
“When they destroy the principle of presumption of innocence, when they chose a target, stage photos and write the script before the case opens, that means being a politician in Belgium, in the European Union, is not safe,” she told Euronews.
“Politicians should not be afraid to work at European institutions. They should not be afraid to become a target. I hoped that my case would serve as a lesson. But what happened to Mogherini, it’s another case of selective political prosecution.”
In December 2022, Belgian authorities conducted a series of spectacular raids across several locations, including Kaili’s Brussels home, as part of an investigation led by magistrate Michel Claise.
A photograph of a suitcase, replete with €500 banknotes, was released by the Belgian federal police as what they called evidence of alleged corruption, with Kaili at the centre of it.
The picture went global, and she became the face of the scandal.
She was arrested and her parliamentary immunity waived. Her partner, Francesco Giorgi, and her father, who was found with a suitcase containing cash in a hotel, were also apprehended and accused of being complicit in the alleged corruption scheme, which added up to more than €1.5 million seized in total.
Throughout the investigation, Kaili said she had no personal connection to the money found at her home address, pointing instead to another former MEP, Pier Antonio Panzeri.
Belgian authorities suggested that Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania could have paid Kaili and others large sums to lobby on their behalf. Qatar and Morocco have repeatedly denied the allegations of cash for influence.
The spectacular operation, with no precedent in European history since the EU common institutions were established, put Belgium, its police, secret service and investigative authorities at the centre of an international story, without fear or favour for politicians or foreign governments.
That was in sharp contrast with the picture that emerged after the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks, in which Belgian authorities came out tainted by operational failures.
At the time, Kaili was a well-known figure in the Brussels bubble, often attending high-profile events and meetings. She has maintained her innocence throughout and refused a plea deal.
Now she is demanding justice for herself.
Since the European Parliament corruption scandal first broke, the investigation has suffered several setbacks, including the resignations of key figures in the case.
Its lead investigative judge, Claise, who first headed the case, resigned in 2023 over concerns of conflict of interest. However, he denied that it played any role in the investigation.
The Belgian federal prosecutor in charge of the case at the time, Raphael Malagnini, also resigned in 2023 to take a different job.
The methods employed by the investigating authorities, which also included the Belgian secret service, have also come into question.
Kaili spent four months in preventive detention before she was released under electronic bracelet monitoring. Her lawyers said at the time that the treatment she received while in prison amounted to torture.
Questions around the way Kaili’s immunity as an elected member of the European Parliament was lifted, which her lawyers argue was done illegally, the nature and timing of sensitive leaks published in the press and counter-probes have impacted the case, which is still not set for trial.
While information “leaking” to the media during an active probe is not rare and reflects the investigative nature of journalism, the details, timing and access to documents deemed highly sensitive went beyond just leaks, according to Kaili.
She told Euronews that Belgian authorities worked closely with a group of journalists to “write and present a script” in which she would be found guilty before she could defend herself.
“We have messages between the prosecutor, the police and journalists preparing articles before the investigation even started, deciding how they would title it and trying to twist everything to fit a headline,” she said. “These are not leaks, this is pre-orchestration.”
At the time, the Greek centre-left politician was portrayed as an ambitious woman seeking to climb the social ladder, enjoying the perks of an expensive lifestyle beyond her duties as a politician.
“I was actually very hard working,” she pointed out.
Kaili insists that she had a mandate from the European Parliament to establish relations with the Gulf countries, citing internal emails.
Asked by Euronews what the motivation could ultimately be if her allegations — which would point to serious negligence — are proven correct before the law, she replied: “That’s a very good question, but it would require a trial.”
The former MEP told Euronews she decided to speak up now because of what she calls a worrying pattern related to southern European nationals working for EU institutions.
Earlier this month, one of Italy’s top diplomats, Mogherini, stepped down from her role as rector of the College of Europe, an influential educational institution close to the EU, over public allegations of graft, again implicating a high-level official from the south of the continent.
Lawyers representing Mogherini said she was ready and willing to collaborate in the investigation, which remains ongoing.
“I think it’s easy to attack the southern European countries and create a narrative and an assumption. But the assumption of the opposite of facts and it destroys lives,” she said.
“And the reason why I’m speaking out, even though it has caused to much trouble to my family, and even to my case, is because this should not happen to anyone,” Kaili concluded.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by Euronews.
Watch the entire interview in the player above.
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