Israel Puts the Mediterranean Beach Off-Limits to Gazans. Protests in Ukraine.

0:00Today on State of the World, Israel bars Gazans from one of their place of refuge, the sea. And in Ukraine, President Zelensky answers protests over a controversial anti-corruption law. You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories, up close where they're happening. It's Thursday, July 24th. I'm Christine Arismeth. President Zelensky says he'll restore independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption watchdogs after days of protests. We'll hear more in a moment. First, to Gaza, where the Mediterranean coast once offered a rare sense of freedom, an open horizon in a place otherwise hemmed in by fences.

0:52With most of the population displaced from their homes and much of Gaza's infrastructure destroyed, the sea was a place to fish, wash, and find some small respite from the conflict and the extreme summer temperatures. But this month, the Israeli military banned all access to the sea. The warning tells Palestinians that entering the water could, quote, endanger your lives. NPR's Ruth Sherlock and NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, have this report. After the Israeli military order this month, NPR's Anas Baba went to a beach close to Gaza City. In front of me there is two mothers that came to the beach with their own three children.

1:37Jamila Bouzaid is with her two boys and a girl aged 10, 8 and 7. Baba asks her why they've come. My children don't have food at home, she says. So I say, we'll take you to the sea. It's an attempt to distract from the hunger they all feel. She says the children beg her for food, but she can't give them. Israel has placed tight restrictions on the entry of food into Gaza, and now the quest to find something to eat has become dangerous and desperate. NPR's Baba describes the scene there. In hospitals, there are adults collapsed from hunger and the small frames of malnourished children. One shocked American doctor working in Gaza said to me, everyone is skin and bones.

2:25The UN says the crisis is among the worst humanitarian disaster ever recorded, and salvation is truly spreading. There's been an Israeli-imposed maritime blockade on Gaza since 2007 after Hamas took control, and those restrictions tightened further after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But stopping Palestinians from accessing the shoreline was rarely enforced. The Israeli military order this month banning access to the sea cited, quote, security restrictions. NPR asked the Israeli military to explain the reasons in more detail, but it responded saying it has no further comment.

3:05In the past 21 months of conflict, many displaced Palestinians have been forced up against the coastline, says NPR's Baba. Most of them, they lived literally on the beach or facing the water. And nowadays, when you see them, that they are afraid even to step in the water. According to the UN, 80 % of Gaza has either been designated an Israeli militarised zone or an evacuation zone. Intense Israeli bombardment has laid waste to population centres. With the infrastructure mostly destroyed, finding running water even to wash in or to clean your clothes in can be hard. In the crowded camps on the coast, people rely on the sea.

3:49The families that are living inside the tents, you see them sneaking like they are trying to find a way to wash themselves or to wash their own dishes without being spotted by the Israelis. It's not just the military's warning that's causing this fear. Last month, an Israeli strike hit a popular cafe on the coast. One of the most iconic and famous cafes in all Gaza, which was sitting on the water, is called Al-Baqa Cafe. 31 persons got killed there. After the airstrike for Al-Baqa Cafe, everything changed. Access to the sea is even restricted for fishermen. Some have been shot and killed by the Israeli military, according to the UN.

4:32But despite the risk, many still try. One fisherman told NPR, if he doesn't fish, his family won't eat. Lifeguard Mohamed Al-Shafi remembers a time when people would come to swim and relax.

4:52The sea can't be banned, he says. The sea is for everyone. God created it for all people, for them to come and enjoy themselves and let their kids play. Abu Zaid, the mother of three children who Baba met on the beach, hadn't seen the Israeli military warning not to enter the sea. So Baba tells her.

5:15Now they even want to take the sea from us, she cries. Let them take our souls too. What's left? Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, with NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza City.

5:33Next to Ukraine. Protesters this week have been telling President Zelensky to change a controversial law that put anti-corruption watchdogs under his control. Zelensky now says he'll restore the independence of those anti-corruption officials. Here's NPR's Joanna Kakissis. Hundreds of protesters Wednesday night waved cardboard signs with handwritten messages to Zelensky near the president's office in Kiev. Among them was Alina Bulochka, a 39-year-old IT specialist. This protest is not against President Zelensky's personnel. Yes, we are protecting our freedom, our democracy. Maybe he made a mistake.

6:20He shouldn't have made it. The mistake, she says, is a new law that puts the country's two main anti-corruption agencies under the control of a prosecutor general backed by the president. Zelensky claims the agencies worked inefficiently and suggested that they had come under Russian influence. After the protests, though, he changed course. In a video address, Zelensky said, And everyone has heard what people are saying these days on social media, on the streets, to each other. All this is not in vain. Anti-corruption activists welcomed a new plan by Zelensky to restore independence to the anti-graft agencies.

7:06But lawmaker Jaroslav Zheleznyak is skeptical. The social agreement between the citizens and government was, I don't want to say broken, but significantly damaged. Yuri Hudymenko, a sergeant with Ukraine's armed forces, runs the anti-corruption council of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. He says there's a special kind of social contract between the government and the public in wartime.

7:37During the war, he says, we hold back our criticism, and they hold their horses and don't try to build a dictatorship here. Danilo Leschinsky, the platinum-haired lead singer of a popular band called Zyferblot, put it this way. This is not the storming of the Bastille, he says of the protests. This is just a peaceful reminder that the Ukrainian people have the right to challenge their government. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, with reporting by Polina Litvinova and Hanna Palomarenko in Kyiv.

8:15That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.