A Palestinian girl cries as she stands above debris near a house that was hit during Israeli strikes in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 2, 2025. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on April 2, a major expansion of military operations in Hamas-run Gaza, saying the army would seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP Photo)

French sculptor Pierre Matter was born in 1964. “A mystical child, then a tormented teenager, he studied mathematics half-heartedly. It was only logical that he headed naturally, though initially in an erratic manner, for the mysterious universe of artistic creation. His slow progression in this field led him to try out many kinds of expression and material, from oil to gouache to ink, from comic strips to canvas, and also bas-relief in stone.”

Palestinian groom Mohamed abu Daga and his bride Israa wear face masks amid the COVID-19 epidemic, during a photoshoot at a studio before their wedding ceremony in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2020. Authorities in Gaza confirmed on March 22 the first two cases of novel coronavirus, identifying them as Palestinians who had travelled to Pakistan and were being held in quarantine since their return, as the United Nations warned of potential disastrous outcomes to an outbreak given the high poverty rates and weak health system in the coastal strip, under Israeli blockade since 2007. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP Photo)

Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City, Saturday, November 17, 2012. Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations by militants to include the prime minister's headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels. (Photo Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

An employee in a bookshop adjusts packaged cigarettes which have to be sold in identical olive-brown packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings, with the same style of writing so the only identifier of a brand will be the name on the packet, in Sydney on December 1, 2012. A new world-first law forcing tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in identical packets came into effect Saturday in Australia in an effort to strip any glamour from smoking and prevent young people from taking up the habit. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian boy herds sheep in front of the ruins of Yasser Arafat International Airport, which was bombed by Israel in the past, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 5, 2016. Nabil Shurafa's travel agency in Gaza was once packed with clients booking flights to London, Paris, New York or cities across the Arab world. These days, he's lucky if anyone comes in, as so few people can get out. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Palestinian girl Manar Al-Shinbari (R), 15, who lost her both legs by what medics said was Israeli shelling at a UN-run school where she was taking refuge during the 50-day war last summer, is helped by her sister to put on her headscarf in an apartment in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip January 13, 2015. Manar's mother and three of her brothers were killed in the same incident. The girl's family house was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the war. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)