PARIS (AP) — Lena Von Schōnlaub used Eiffel Tower Stadium as a backdrop for her own personal photo shoot.
Von Schōnlaub shifted her head from side to side, smiling big while she held her phone in front of her face and clicked over and over. Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower hovered right behind her, overlooking the site where beach volleyball is being played at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Katia Souza of Brazil takes a selfie from Eiffel Tower Stadium after a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A light show at Eiffel Tower Stadium dazzles spectators prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
The Eiffel Tower sparkles at dusk as the United States, on left, plays Czechia in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
French spectators at Eiffel Tower Stadium watch beach volleyball at sunset at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Maeva Ratoanina and Pierre-Yves Massive, of Paris, enjoy a romantic moment while taking selfies during sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Spectators photograph a colorful sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
It has been one of the most popular attractions of the Olympics, drawing hundreds of people looking for the best photo to post on their social media pages. The perfect setting for a digital age.
“I think it's the most beautiful location you can have," said Von Schōnlaub, who traveled to Paris from Munich, Germany. “It’s Instagrammable.”
The sand and upbeat DJ music always give beach volleyball the feel of a party. The sport has been played at plenty of iconic sites, including Copacabana Beach at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where beach volleyball is very popular.
But for many athletes and visitors, Eiffel Tower Stadium is an unparalleled background.
The 13,000-seat stadium was built specifically for the Olympics at Champ de Mars, a garden where Parisians and tourists typically sit on the grass for picnics or July 14 firework displays. The site draws hundreds of people on any regular day, but since the start of the Olympics, people buy tickets to beach volleyball matches just to squeeze through crowds of people for the perfect selfies and videos with the tower and sand in the background.
“We don't really follow beach volleyball but we wanted to see the site with the Eiffel Tower,” said Solene Naeye, a local Parisian who came to the spot for pictures. She took in her surroundings and noted the beauty of the moment. “It's a way for us French people to rediscover our city, so that's really nice.”
Matt Knigge, an alternate with the U.S. men's indoor volleyball team, came to the stadium on his night off from training Sunday. Knigge, from California, has traveled all over playing volleyball but said he's never seen such an “emblematic” location.
"You're hard-pressed to find anything more beautiful than what we have right now," he said, pointing up at the tower. “The sun is setting in the background. I think if you were writing a fairytale of beach volleyball at the Olympics, this is it.”
He took photos of himself with his digital camera, and then asked a stadium attendant to get a photo of him, hoping for the best angle possible. Then he took a few more on his phone.
“In the day and age of social media and people marketing based on social media, this is it," Knigge said while pointing around. "They've done it. They've achieved it.”
TikTok said the Eiffel Tower location tag on its app had over 80,000 posts Sunday, with the beach volleyball hashtag around 88,900.
Athletes from sports all across the Games have come over. French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the stadium on Wednesday, posted a selfie video from the top row of the stands facing the Eiffel Tower.
American college gymnast and social media influencer Olivia Dunne was there Saturday night getting some shots for all her socials. She shared a video with her 8 million followers on TikTok, as well as photos on her Instagram stories. Her TikTok post, during which she was standing right in front of the Eiffel Tower, had 1.6 million views and more than 173,000 likes only 23 hours later.
Right around 10 p.m. Sunday, the lights at the stadium dimmed. The tower lit up. Orange streaks painted the blue sky. Suddenly, the tower began to glitter and everyone “ooh'd" and "ah’d” in harmony. They all raised their phones, the same image displayed thousands of times throughout the venue.
“I'll definitely be making a post on Instagram," said Kaden Augustine, of St. Louis, Missouri, standing next to his brother, Kanen, in matching overalls displaying the U.S. flag. “Just because of how pretty it is here.”
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Katia Souza of Brazil takes a selfie from Eiffel Tower Stadium after a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A light show at Eiffel Tower Stadium dazzles spectators prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
The Eiffel Tower sparkles at dusk as the United States, on left, plays Czechia in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
French spectators at Eiffel Tower Stadium watch beach volleyball at sunset at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Maeva Ratoanina and Pierre-Yves Massive, of Paris, enjoy a romantic moment while taking selfies during sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Spectators photograph a colorful sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.
Several secondary explosions could be heard after the initial strike, but it was not immediately clear if they were caused by weapons or fuel tanks.
Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.
Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Israel is still carrying out near-daily strikes across the Gaza Strip more than a year into the war, and has been waging a major ground assault in the north, where it says militants have regrouped.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while Palestinian militants abducted around 250 hostages. Around 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times, and large areas of the coastal territory have been completely destroyed.
Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month. Hundreds of thousands of people from the north heeded Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war and have not been allowed to return.
That has raised fears among Palestinians that Israel intends to implement a plan devised by former generals in which it would order all civilians out of northern Gaza and label anyone remaining there a combatant — a surrender-or-starve strategy that rights groups say would violate international law.
The plan has been presented to the Israeli government, but it's unclear whether it has been adopted. The military says it has not received such orders.
Israeli rights groups on Monday called on the international community to prevent Israel from carrying out the plan, saying there are “alarming signs” that Israel is beginning to implement it.
The statement, signed by B'Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, warned that states “have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forcible transfer."
With no end in sight to the war in Gaza, Israel is also waging an air and ground war in southern Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that has been firing rockets into northern Israel for more than a year. Israel has also threatened to strike Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack, raising the prospect of an all-out regionwide war.
A Hezbollah aerial attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers — all of them 19 years old — and severely wounded seven others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. It’s rare for so many people to be wounded by drones or missiles, most of which are intercepted by Israel's multitiered air defenses or fall in open areas.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli soldiers mourn Sgt. Yosef Hieb, killed Sunday by a Hezbollah drone attack that wounded dozens and killed four soldiers, while at his funeral in Tuba Zangariyye, Israel, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers mourn Sgt. Yosef Hieb, killed Sunday by a Hezbollah drone attack that wounded dozens and killed four soldiers, while at his funeral in Tuba Zangariyye, Israel, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers display what they say are Hezbollah ammunition and explosives found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Palestinians try to extinguish fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, hit by an Israeli bombardment on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian man reacts to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
