- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
Gaza beekeeper tends hives by restive border
In a field close to the Gaza Strip's restive frontier, apiarist Miassar Khoudair checks that her queen bee has survived five days of deadly cross-border fire between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army.
"The bees die from the gases, the rockets and dust as a result of the war," said the 29-year-old, dressed in a protective white bee suit.
Ahead of World Bee Day on Saturday -- which aims to raise the profile of these vital pollinators -- Khoudair has returned to her colony just a few hundred metres (yards) from the border.
In the latest escalation in hostilities between Israel and Gaza's militant groups, Khoudair was unable to access the hives amid outgoing Palestinian rocket fire and incoming Israeli airstrikes, with three or four of the apiaries destroyed.
The fighting, which began after Israeli strikes killed top militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom Israel says were responsible for attacks against its citizens, saw 33 people killed in Gaza and two in Israel, including a labourer from the Palestinian enclave, medics said.
Beyond the grass and trees surrounding Khoudair's hives, a flag of Islamic Jihad, whose fighters launched volleys of rockets toward Israel during the conflict, flies in an adjacent field.
Despite the dangers, the frontier's farmland offers some of the only areas in Gaza's densely-populated urban environment suitable for beekeeping.
"We always put them in border areas, because there are lots of trees and wild plants, and there aren't many buildings or overcrowding," she said.
The territory is home to some 2.3 million people, who have endured an Israeli-led blockade since the Islamist militant group Hamas took power in the territory in 2007.
Cross-border trade was halted until a ceasefire on Saturday took hold and the fighting also damaged an estimated 600 dunams (0.6 square kilometres or 0.2 square miles) of crops.
The value of losses to beehives, poultry farms and livestock reached $225,000, according to the Hamas-run government's media office.
- 'I rely on myself' -
The conflict halted daily life and prevented Khoudair from selling honey at her store in a usually buzzing mall in downtown Gaza City.
Khoudair studied herbal medicine and as well as selling traditional eating honey, she also sells honey-based infusions to treat everything from problems of concentration to fertility issues.
"If the honey's of high quality, it's very treatable. There are some mixtures added to the honey, and here it treats childbearing," she said, without elaborating.
Khoudair started her business a few months ago after studying honey and herbal medicine in Saudi Arabia, she said.
"While I was in Saudi, I found they have the idea of honey, their love for honey, their interest in honey, as a remedy and a supplement on the table to my lunch," she said.
With 45 percent unemployment in Gaza, according to the International Monetary Fund, Khoudair's bees provide her with a job.
"It's a very beneficial project, and I rely on myself as a woman," she said.
Standing beside her colony after inspecting her hives -- resulting in a few stings to her hands -- Khoudair urged people beyond Gaza's borders to "care about the bees' produce".
"Honey was mentioned in the Quran, we take it therapeutically, not just in a nutritional way, and it's healthy and strengthened with vitamins," she said, above the drone of her bees.
St.Ch.Baker--CPN