A bereaved father in Gaza tries to will his son back from the dead

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The boy was dead, limp and bloodied on the floor of a morgue, the latest casualty in Gaza. But his father could not let go.

“He’s sleeping. He’ll wake up now. There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s fine," Yusuf Zawara said Saturday. "I’m just cleaning his face. He’s sleepy. He didn’t sleep all night because of the bombing."

There was dust in the bereaved father's hair and blood on his clothes. As he knelt over his son in Shifa Hospital, deep in denial, the process of death moved on.

The hospital said 15-year-old Mohammad and his 13-year-old cousin were killed by an Israeli strike as they searched for firewood. Now is Gaza’s winter, and there has been no central electricity in the territory since the first days of the war. Most people shelter from the cold in tents or bombed-out buildings.

A relative said the two boys were killed in the area that Israel’s military has said is safe for Palestinians, about 500 meters (yards) from the Yellow Line that separates Israeli-controlled areas in eastern Gaza from the rest of the strip.

“They were targeted directly, not through any fault of their own,” Arafat al-Zawara told The Associated Press.

Israel’s military denied that those killed were children. It said it had targeted several militants who it claimed crossed the territory's “ yellow line ” and planted explosives, threatening troops.

In the hospital, Zawara patted his dead son's face, wiped bloody traces with a fingertip and rocked the head back and forth.

“Get up!” he said.

He scolded. “They hit you with a missile. You couldn’t escape? Run. People, run! Why didn’t you run away?”

It was too much. He finally bent over his son, cheek to cheek.

Then he addressed the boy’s cousin. He reached for the 13-year-old and shook him.

“Sulaiman, get up so we can get some wings and grill them!” the man said. “Get up, get up, get up, my nephew! Come on, get up, why are you dying?!”

Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 480 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10 in the war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government and maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

The ministry also says at least nine children have died of severe cold in the past weeks in Gaza as temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night and storms blow in from the Mediterranean.

While Israel disputes the ministry’s figures, it has not provided its own.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Yusuf Zawara mourns over the body of his son, Mohammad Zawara, 15, who was killed along with his cousin Sulaiman Zawara, 13, in an Israeli strike, according to health officials, at Shifa Hospital, Gaza City, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Yusuf Zawara mourns over the body of his son, Mohammad Zawara, 15, who was killed in an Israeli strike, according to health officials, at Shifa Hospital, Gaza City, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)

BANDUNG, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers struggled Sunday with mounds of mud, debris and water‑soaked ground, searching for dozens still missing after a landslide triggered by torrential rains the day before on the country’s main island of Java killed at least 11 people.

The predawn landslide roared down the slopes of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday, burying some 34 houses in Pasir Langu village. On Sunday, 79 people remained missing, many feared buried under tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

About 230 residents living near the site have been evacuated to temporary government shelters. Rescue workers retrieved two more bodies on Sunday morning, bringing the death toll to 11, according to Ade Dian Permana from the search and rescue office.

Videos released on Saturday by the country's search and rescue agency, known as Basarnas, showed rescuers using farm tools and bare hands to pull a mud-caked body from the ground and placing it in an orange bag to take away for burial.

Heavy equipment and excavators were mostly idle because the ground was too soft and unstable.

"If the slope does not stabilize; crews are prepared to continue manually," Permana said, estimating the height of the mounds of mud to be up to 5 meters (16 feet)

“Some homes are buried up to the roof level,” he added.

Visiting the area on Sunday, Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka pledged that authorities would take measures to prevent similar disasters. He urged the local authorities in West Java and West Bandung to "address the issue of land conversion in disaster-prone areas,” including ways to reduce risks.

Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii confirmed to reporters after visiting the devastated Pasir Langu village with Gibran, that the terrain condition and bad weather continue to complicate search operations on Sunday.

“We are at the mercy of the weather, and the slide is still mud ... flowing and unstable,” Syafii said, ”With the area this wide, we’ll use every asset we have ... drones, K‑9 teams and ground units, but safety comes first."

Seasonal rains and high tides from about October to April frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), an aerial shot taken using a drone shows an area affected by landslides in Pasir Langu village, in West Bandung district of West Java province, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)