Journalists who covered the Gaza war shared harrowing experiences of losses and survival, expressing profound disappointment with the global community’s silent response to the killing of media professionals by Israeli forces.

During the International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress and Media Innovation Festival 2025, a panel of journalists discussed the trouble, distress, and heart-wrenching moments they faced during the Gaza war, saying it was a “deep sense of abandonment” where they witnessed the violent assault on the press.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, who lost his five family members, including his wife, in Israeli strikes and found his surviving daughter under the rubble, asked: “What did my family do?”

Al-Dahdouh said it was a “unique and agonising reality of reporting” that you had to choose between being a “journalist or a human.

He asserted that the international media failed to respond appropriately to the violence. “We were left alone,” he stated, emphasising that much more was required.

The statistics shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) showed that at least 238 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023.

Rawan Damen, another senior journalist affiliated with Al Araby TV, praised Al-Dahdouh’s balanced reporting, distinguishing between the failure of mainstream international media to address the “genocide” and the efforts of independent outlets and some organisations that did speak out.

Laurent Richard, a French journalist, warned of the grave consequences of inaction, highlighting the “normalisation” of the murder of journalists and a pervasive lack of accountability.

“Before the war, we described Gaza as a large prison; now it is a large cemetery,” said Basel Khalaf, a journalist, while describing the situation of Gaza, urging the global media to move beyond statistics and tell the human stories of Gazan reporters.

Khalaf also outlined the urgent needs of his colleagues in Gaza, including essential equipment, medical treatment for the injured, and freedom for those imprisoned by Israel, imploring the international press to keep the story alive.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has appointed Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan bin Abdullah Al-Fawzan as grand mufti, state media said.

Al-Fawzan was named the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia by royal decree, the official SPA news agency reported. The newly appointed grand mufti replaced Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh, who passed away on September 23.

Al-Fawzan has been a member of Ifta and the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research since 1992, as well as the Council of Senior Scholars, the Saudi Gazette reported.

In addition, he was a member of the Supervisory Committee for Preachers during the Hajj, the Islamic Fiqh Council, and the Muslim World League.

Al-Fawzan was born in Al-Qassim in 1935 and attended school in Buraidah. He graduated from the College of Shariah in Riyadh with a master’s and a doctorate in fiqh. He later became the Higher Institute of Judiciary’s director.

The newly appointed grand mufti is also a multi-book author and has conducted several radio shows, including the well-known Nur Ala Al-Darb programme

Al-Fawzan succeeds Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, who died in September after more than 20 years in the role.

He was appointed on the recommendation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler who has ushered in sweeping reforms in a bid to diversify the economy of the world’s biggest oil exporter.

— With additional input from AFP

The Pentagon said the B‑1s launched from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew over the Caribbean Sea toward Venezuela as part of routine training exercises.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the flights occurred near Venezuelan shores but did not say whether the aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace.

The B‑1 Lancer capable of carrying the largest weapons payload in the U.S. Air Force, including long‑range cruise missiles joins a broader U.S. buildup in the region.

U.S. military activity has intensified since September, when American forces began striking vessels they say were used for drug trafficking near Venezuelan waters, an action President Donald Trump has cited publicly.

Last week, B‑52 Stratofortress bombers also patrolled the area, escorted by Marine Corps F‑35B stealth fighters based in Puerto Rico; the Pentagon described those flights as a demonstration of bomber strike capability.

When asked whether the B‑1 flights were intended to pressure Venezuela, President Trump replied: “It’s false, but we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”

Currently, eight U.S. warships are deployed in the Caribbean Basin, supported by a P‑8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, MQ‑9 Reaper drones, an F‑35 squadron and a submarine operating near South American waters.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have conducted nine airstrikes as part of an anti‑narcotics campaign, resulting in at least 37 reported deaths. He compared the operations to the post‑9/11 war on terror, warning: “We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you.”

US Southern Command, which oversees Latin America and the Caribbean, is forming a task force for drug interdiction in the Western Hemisphere. This group appears set to handle the situation in Venezuela.

Covert CIA operation

The Trump administration has secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to US officials, stepping up a campaign against President Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader, reported News York Times on Friday.

The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela.

For weeks, the US military has been targeting boasts off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people.

American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to driver Mr Maduro from power.

Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he had authorized the covert action and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.

“We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” the president told reporters hours after The New York Times reported the secret authorization.

Any strikes on Venezuelan territory would be a significant escalation. After several of the boat strikes, the administration made the point that the operations had taken place in international waters.

The new authority would allow the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.

The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation.

It is not known whether the CIA is planning any specific operations in Venezuela.

But the development comes as the US military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for President Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela.

The scale of the military buildup in the region is substantial: There are currently 10,000 U.S. troops there, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also a contingent of Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight surface warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.

The new authorities, known in intelligence jargon as a presidential finding, were described by multiple US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the highly classified document.

‘No crazy war, please!’

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday launched a plea in English as tensions mount between Washington and Caracas: “No crazy war, please!”

Maduro’s comment came after US President Donald Trump said he had authorized covert action against the South American nation, and amid an escalating US military campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific.

“Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please!” Maduro said in a meeting with unions aligned with the leftist leader, a former bus driver and union leader.

The United States has deployed stealth warplanes and Navy ships as part of what it calls anti-narcotics efforts, but has yet to release evidence that its targets eight boats and a semi-submersible were smuggling drugs.

The US strikes, which began on September 2, have killed at least 37 people, according to an AFP tally based on US figures.

Regional tensions have flared as a result of the campaign, with Maduro accusing Washington of seeking regime change.

Late Thursday, the government in Trinidad and Tobago located just off Venezuela’s coast announced that a US warship would dock in its capital from October 26-30.

The Trinidadian foreign ministry said a unit of US Marines would conduct joint exercises with its defense forces.

Two of those killed in the US strikes were from Trinidad and Tobago.

Last week, Trump said he had authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela and was considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land.

The Republican billionaire president accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel, a charge the Venezuelan leader denies.

“We know the CIA is present” in Venezuela, the country’s defense minister Vladimir Padrino said Thursday.

“They may deploy — I don’t know how many — CIA-affiliated units in covert operations…and any attempt will fail.”

Padrino was overseeing military exercises along Venezuela’s coast in response to the US military deployment in the Caribbean.

Experts have questioned the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.