Israelis and Palestinians protest for peace as journalist Mariam Dagga's family mourns her death

NAZARETH, Israel (AP) — In the streets of Nazareth, Israeli and Palestinian activists wore stickers replicating the ‘Press’ insignia emblazoned on flak jackets and other clothing worn by journalists as they rallied for peace in Gaza. Their message: Journalism is not a crime.

A throng of people wearing blue-and-white ‘Press’ stickers — used to identify journalists in dangerous areas — gathered in the Israeli town on Friday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 200 journalists among tens of thousands of others. Some held photos of Palestinian journalists killed.

’’Don’t assassinate the truth," read a banner the protesters held. Some banged on empty pots to symbolize hunger in the Gaza Strip and protest the killing of journalists.

Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old who freelanced for The Associated Press, was among the war's victims. She and four other reporters were killed earlier this week when Israeli forces struck Nasser Hospital in the Gaza town of Khan Younis, along with 17 other people.

Dagga was among a group of journalists who regularly based themselves at the hospital during the war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, when an attack by Hamas militants inside Israel claimed the lives of 1,200 people and resulted in 251 people being held hostage. Israel's retaliatory military operation in Gaza has so far killed more than 63,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Mariam sought to bring to the world the travails of ordinary Palestinians displaced by the war, as well as the work of doctors and nurses treating the wounded or caring for malnourished children.

The Israeli military said it targeted what it believed was a Hamas surveillance camera in the hospital attack, without providing evidence, and that the journalists weren't the targets. The prime minister called the attack a ‘’mishap.''

All that doesn’t mean much for Mariam’s father, Riyad, sitting in his tent in Khan Younis, nearly 180kilometers (111 miles) away from Nazareth. Poring over the last photos taken by his daughter, he recalled the utter shock he felt when he heard what happened.

“I couldn’t walk. And I didn’t know what was around me when I heard the news,” he told the AP. “The person who told me the news said that Mariam was martyred, and I collapsed,” he said, his eyes welling with tears as he watched a video of his daughter and him.

Mariam’s sister, Nada, was with her at the hospital when she was killed. Nada recalled vividly the last look the two sisters exchanged when the second of two rounds of strikes hit the hospital’s stairwell, where Mariam was killed.

“Mariam, my sister, was on the stairs filming. I watched her and looked at her,” Nada said. “The last look between me and her. She looked at me and smiled.”

It was Mariam’s brother, Mohamed, who rushed into the stairwell in search of his sister, finding her among the bodies of her colleagues.

“I pulled her out and took her from the fourth floor to the operations (room),” Mohamed said. “They told me to go downstairs at the reception until you receive (the body).”

Mariam’s last photos showed the damaged stairwell outside Nasser Hospital, where she would be killed moments later. The photos show people walking up the staircase after it was damaged in the first strike, while others look out the hospital’s windows.

Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, takes a selfie surrounded by children at a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 31, 2023. Dagga was one of several journalists killed, along with other people, in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Soaring oil prices from the Iran war pushed inflation higher in Europe in April as growth continued to underperform in a worrying combination both for consumers and policymakers at the European Central Bank.

Annual inflation in the 21 countries that use the shared euro currency rose to 3.0% from 2.6% in March, fueled by a 10.9% increase in energy prices, the European Union statistical agency Eurostat reported Thursday. Crude oil is trading above $120 per barrel, up from around $73 before the outbreak of the war on Feb. 28.

Meanwhile euro-area growth for the first three months of the year disappointed with a marginal increase of 0.1% over the quarter before.

The war is dealing a massive shock to the global economy because Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which some 20% of the world’s oil formerly passed on its way to customers from producers in the Persian Gulf. The surge in oil prices has been quickly reflected at gas stations and in the price of jet fuel.

The combination of slow growth and high inflation, or “stagflation,” threatens to become a headache for the European Central Bank, whose policymakers are expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged Thursday, even though inflation is now clearly above the bank’s target of 2%

The expected surge in inflation is especially troubling because it comes at a time of sluggish economic growth. The usual antidote to inflation is for the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate, but that can slow growth by raising credit costs for buying things. If inflation is expected to be temporary, the typical decision is to look past it because interest rate changes take months to have an effect on the economy.

On the other hand, if the central bank waits until inflation is built into the economy through higher prices for food, manufactured goods and through higher wage demands, it’s even harder to wring higher prices out of the economy with painful rate hikes.

The Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve both left rates unchanged at meetings this week, and the Bank of England was also expected to also hold steady Thursday.

So the ECB and other central banks are currently frozen in place, warily watching the inflation wave roll through the economy and holding off on both rate rises and rate cuts. The bank’s benchmark rate has been unchanged at 2% since June 2025.

FILE -Clouds cover the sky over the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)