Today’s news summary – Paper Talk: UN warning on Gaza and Matthew Perry tributes
Monday’s front pages report on the ongoing ground operation in Gaza as well as tributes to the US actor Matthew Perry, who died on Saturday, at the age of 54 in a suspected drowning.
‘Middle East on precipice’
The Daily Telegraph reports that Hamas is preventing foreign citizens from leaving Gaza. The paper has been told, by Westminster sources, that at least 200 Britons and 600 Americans are in effect being held hostage in a war zone. The issue was discussed in a series of phone calls between world leaders.
“Middle East on precipice,” is the headline for the Daily Express which leads with a warning from Iran on the increasing risk that the war could spread across the region. The paper says a message from Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, declaring that “red lines have been crossed”, has put “the world on red alert.”
The Times reports on a mother of four who was sheltering in an apartment during the 36 hours of internet and phone backouts amid heavy airstrikes from Israel. The woman the paper speaks to says it was as if the outside world no longer existed. In the dark, with no way of accessing information, she says all she had was her imagination, and was fearing the worst.
The paper reports on the UN warning that civil order is breaking down in the area as people were cut off from information for 36 hours, and harrowing accounts are now emerging. “We started asking: is this a plan finally to annihilate us?” a witness told the paper.
The Guardian reports that people’s phones started working again yesterday morning, with many being “inundated with updates, messages and missed calls” from family and friends. Civil order is beginning to collapse in the Gaza Strip, with thousands of people raiding warehouses for food, the paper adds. Wheat, flour and hygiene products were among the supplies taken from four UN-run centres across the strip on Saturday, the paper reports.
The Financial Times reports that Israel expanded its ground assault in Gaza yesterday after PM Netanyahu said the country was entering a new phase of a “long and hard” war against Hamas.
Tributes to Matthew Perry
US actor Matthew Perry is featured on many of the front pages. He died on Saturday at the age of 54. Many of the papers report he drowned in a hot tub in his Los Angeles home.
The Guardian says that his role as the “metrosexual, ironic” Chandler Bing the actor “captured the spirit of the age”.
The Daily Mirror says Perry’s death is “shocking, but not surprising.” “Friend to the end” is the headline in the Sun.
The Metro says that soon after reports of Perry’s passing emerged, fans left flowers outside the New York apartment block where Friends was set.
The Daily Express reports on the many tributes pouring in for Perry.
