Israeli Ground Troops Enter Central Gaza And Chile's Musical High Desert Fiesta

0:01Today on State of the World, Israeli forces push into central Gaza, one of its last relatively safe zones. And a tiny town in the high desert of Chile fills with music for the country's largest religious festival.

0:22You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories, up close where they are happening. It's Tuesday, July 22nd. I'm Christine Arismeth. Chile's village of La Tirana attracts hundreds of thousands of the faithful for a 10-day celebration. We'll visit in a moment. First, to Gaza. Israeli ground troops have entered central Gaza for the first time in 21 months of war. Israeli military radio reports the ground operation began Monday. Palestinians there are ordered to evacuate. Central Gaza is where international aid organizations, such as the World Health Organization, have their offices and staff residences.

1:09NPR's Emily Fang is in Tel Aviv. She spoke to NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer. Why is the Israeli military entering Central Gaza now, and why is that noteworthy? So Israel's military wants to ramp up pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal, and they're trying to show they're willing to cross lines that they had not been willing to cross before. Now, previously, Israeli ground troops had not really been active in this area called Der al-Balakh because they were concerned about potentially endangering hostages kidnapped by Hamas and its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, who might be in the area. But Israel and Hamas have been negotiating a ceasefire and there is international pressure building from U.S.

1:49President Trump and also foreign ministers from more than 25 countries, which issued a statement yesterday calling for an end to the war. Because of this ground offensive, the director of the United Nations office says its premises in central Gaza have already been hit in this new offensive. This was a house for the staff of the World Health Organization, which says its male staff were handcuffed, stripped and screened at gunpoint and one of their staff remains detained. Now, we asked Israel's military about what happened here. They said they'd ordered evacuations, that they were responding to gunfire and that, quote, suspects involved in terrorist activity may be required to temporarily remove certain items of clothing.

2:31Now who this ground offensive impacts most immediately, however, are the tens of thousands of Palestinians who are living where this ground offensive is taking place. The United Nations says that with this latest evacuation order, nearly 88 % of Gaza is no longer accessible to civilians because it's now an Israeli militarized zone. And that means about 2 million civilians are squeezed into just about 12 % of the area of the Gaza Strip. Emily, NPR has been doing a lot of reporting about limited access in Gaza to food, housing, basic necessities. How is that squeeze you described affecting people's daily lives?

3:07Well, they're getting pushed even more into a smaller fragment of the Gaza Strip where the services you described have completely collapsed. I spoke to Jan Egelind about this. He is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He has, he says, about 70 colleagues in Gaza, and they've been told by the Israeli military over the months to first move south in the Gaza Strip, now to central Gaza, and most recently... We now have to leave Deiraballa with a population. Our aid workers are herded around like cattle. And with barely any food now allowed into Gaza, our NPR producer there, Anas Baba, has been reporting that people are quite literally fainting from hunger in the streets and some people are dying.

3:50Egelin says the Norwegian Refugee Council has food ready to go into Gaza. My organization has now had trucks, relief supplies, life-saving relief supplies, ready to go across the border crossings for 145 days and we've been blocked every single day. Emily, you mentioned ceasefire negotiations. How likely is a ceasefire at this point? These talks are continuing and Qatar hopes are higher than they've been in recent weeks. But one main sticking point is that Israel wants to keep a military presence in Gaza. And even if a ceasefire deal is reached soon, it's going to likely leave the biggest questions unanswered.

4:30Questions like, who is going to administer Gaza in the future? And how can the Gaza Strip be rebuilt and made livable for the people there? That's NPR's Emily Fang. Thank you. Thanks, Sasha. That's NPR's Emily Fang from Tel Aviv. She spoke to NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer on Morning Edition. Now to Chile, to a tiny town in the high plains of the Atacama Desert that's usually home to only a few hundred people. But for 10 days in July, the village of La Torana bursts with music and spectacle. As reporter John Bartlett reports, this Catholic celebration comes with a twist. For most of the year, La Tirana is a quiet desert town of about 400 people who walk its wide, empty streets under the baking sun.

5:30But for 10 days every July, it transforms. 200 ,000 pilgrims pour in for Chile's largest religious festival.

5:45Worshippers bring offerings for the Virgen del Carmen, an apparition of the Virgin Mary, from all across the north of the country and neighbouring Peru and Bolivia. Some walk the last few miles under the scorching sun, past dry shrubs and makeshift shrines.

6:04La Tirana is famous for its blend of Catholic worship and the indigenous spirits and customs of the high desert plains.

6:18Pilgrims arrive for the climax of the festival on the 15th of July, where a wave of noise hits the new arrivals in the main square. This year, over 200 dance troops showed off their furious whirling dances.

6:36Devils with grisly teeth protruding in different directions, their thatches of felt dreadlocks whipping behind them, dance in line with children in sequined smocks.

6:48The Jucumari, a giant hairy white spirit from Bolivia's high plains, dances between winged angels and staff-bearing devils. Occasionally, a street talk weaves between them. I walk with Juan Pablo Maturana to the back of the Santuario de Nuestra Señora del Carmen church under its midnight blue dome. He leads me past the altar and down a narrow hallway to a storeroom, our ears still ringing from the music outside.

7:22Maturana is the leader of the Dancers' Federation. For me, La Tirana is part of my cultural identity, Maturana tells me. I've been dancing here since I was six years old. My year starts and ends on the 16th of July. That's how it's always been.

7:46Outside, performers dripping with sweat in the afternoon sun have removed the heads from their costumes or lifted masks to reveal streams of eye makeup running down their cheeks.

7:59As alcohol is strictly prohibited in La Tirana during the festival, young people in fur suits or band uniforms sip energy drinks.

8:13By 7pm, everyone is sucked into a whirlpool of noise, where troops and their brass bands compete to fill the square with colour and sound.

8:27A hush descends before mass, then white handkerchiefs and balloons flutter above the crowd as the bell finally tolls for midnight. In a museum beneath the church, I sit down with the priest, whose heavy silver cross rests on an alpaca wool cardigan.

8:49There is a profound blend of colour, music, dance and the solemnity of the Catholic liturgy, Father Lusa explains to me. The Catholic liturgy is rigid, formal and solemn but here it has been successfully integrated with these local elements The next morning is the day of the Virgen del Carmen After yesterday's dances, an effigy of the Virgin Mary is now swaying her way through the streets on the shoulders of the worshippers She was brought out of a vault beneath the church yesterday for her annual outing and will be returned, surrounded by dancing and singing, later this evening. Down every side street, my path is blocked by an effigy or marching band filing towards me past pharmacies and mini-markets named Jerusalem or Nazareth.

9:48As evening falls and the sunset turns a sky to the west gold, performers in the square sit exhausted on top of their drums.

10:03And for another year, with the figure of the Virgin Mary tucked safely back in the vaults, the town falls quiet once more, ready for the cycle to begin again. For NPR News, I'm John Bartlett in La Tirana, Chile.

10:25That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.