An Australian tourist paddled his surfboard to an island in Indonesia after a boat carrying three of his friends and three Indonesian crew members was missing for two days.
Elliot Foote, his partner Steph Weisse, and friends Will Teagle and Jordan Short, along with three Indonesians, were in the boat in waters around Sarang Alu and Banyak islands, off Indonesia’s Aceh province.
The wooden speedboat ran into bad weather and heavy rain after leaving Nias island on Sunday, and did not arrive at its destination of Pinang island.
Two days later, the four Australian tourists and two of the Indonesian crew members were rescued.
The three other Australians were found clinging to their boards in the sea. It is not clear how the Indonesians managed to survive.
One Indonesian crew member is still missing, according to the head of the local rescue agency.
It is also not known how the boat ended up in the sea.
Image: Pic: AP
The father of Mr Foote, who travelled to the country to celebrate his 30th birthday, said he has received a text message from his son saying he is okay.
“It says: ‘Hey Dad, Elliot here. I’m alive. Safe now. Love you. Chat later,'” Peter Foote told a news conference in Sydney.
“It’s great, it’s good news. I’ll have to talk to him and want to see photos and see what he looks like. It’s all good.”
The tourists were part of a group of 12 Australians and five Indonesians in two boats that were travelling to Pinang island – a destination known for its pristine beach and good waves for surfing.
Image: Peter Foote. Pic: AuBC via AP
The six who were rescued were taken to the island for further medical assistance.
The other boat, carrying 10 passengers, arrived on the island safely after deciding to shelter on Sarang Alu island.
Mr Foote said his son and his friends are planning to continue the final eight days of their surfing trip.
Boats and ferries are a common form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands.
But relaxed safety standards and overcrowding problems often mean accidents occur frequently.
Last month, 15 people died after an overloaded passenger boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
Eleven Thai civilians and a soldier have been killed in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, officials have said, as long-standing tensions in disputed border areas boils over.
Among those killed was an eight-year-old boy, the army said in a statement.
It said most casualties occurred in Si Sa Ket province, where six people were killed after shots were fired at a fuel station.
Another 14 people have been injured in three Thai border provinces.
Thailand’s health minister Somsak Thepsuthin confirmed the fatalities to reporters, adding Cambodia’s actions, including an attack on a hospital, should be considered war crimes.
Both countries accuse one another of starting the military clashes and have downgraded their diplomatic relations in the rapidly escalating dispute. Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings with Cambodia.
Early on Thursday, a Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia, according to Thailand’s army.
More on Cambodia
Related Topics:
“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon said.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thai jets had dropped bombs on a road near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, saying it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.
Image: Thai people who fled clashes take shelter in Surin province. Pic: AP
Clashes are ongoing in at least six areas along the border, the Thai defence ministry said.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodian troops fired “heavy artillery” on a Thai military base on Thursday morning and also targeted civilian areas, including a hospital.
“The Royal Thai Government is prepared to intensify our self-defence measures if Cambodia persists in its armed attack and violations upon Thailand’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people, including children and the elderly, running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker as explosions sounded.
The clash happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple stands along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Image: Thai people who fled clashes in Surin province, northeastern Thailand. Pic: AP
Earlier on Thursday, Cambodia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelled the Thai ambassador and recalled all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.
The day before, its neighbour withdrew its ambassador and expelled the top Cambodian diplomat in protest after five Thai soldiers were wounded in a land mine blast, one of whom lost part of a leg.
A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers, including one who lost a foot.
Relations between the southeast Asian neighbours have collapsed after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in a disputed border area in May.
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended earlier this month as an investigation was opened into possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.
Follow The World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice recognised Cambodian sovereignty over the temple area.
The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said Gaza is suffering “man-made mass starvation” because of an Israeli blockade on aid to the enclave.
Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference that the population of Gaza is “facing yet another killer on top of bombs and bullets – starvation”.
The WHO said a “deadly surge” in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children in 2025, but stressed this figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.
Centres for treating malnutrition are full of patients but do not have sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, it added.
In July alone, 5,100 children have so far been admitted to malnutrition programmes, said Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories. Some 800 of those children were severely emaciated, he said.
Image: A child faces life-threatening malnutrition in Gaza. Pic: Anadolu/Getty Images
Image: Crowds struggle for food at a charity kitchen in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Mr Ghebreyesus said: “I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear.”
“This is because of [the] blockade,” he continued, adding that 95% of households in Gaza are also facing severe water shortages.
He said the UN and its humanitarian partners were unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, while an aid blockade was in place, and that the resumption of deliveries has been insufficient.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:55
‘Gaza’s doctors treating influx of malnutrition’
There is no famine in Gaza, says Israel
An Israeli government spokesperson told Sky News the food shortages have “been engineered by Hamas”, before stating: “There is no famine in Gaza.”
Speaking on the News Hour with Mark Austin, David Mencer continued: “There is a famine of the truth and Israel will not stop telling it.”
He said aid is “flowing” into the enclave but Hamas “loots the trucks [and] deliberately endangers its own people”. The fighters deny stealing food.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:00
Sky News challenges Israel on Gaza starvation claims
Mr Mencer said Israel has allowed more than 4,400 aid trucks to enter Gaza since it lifted the blockade in May, adding that more than 700 are waiting to be picked up and distributed by the United Nations.
That is an average of around 70 trucks a day, which is the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says is needed.
“The problem is not Israel,” he said. “The problem is Hamas.”
Supplies in Gaza ‘totally depleted’
The comments came after more than 100 aid and rights groups warned of mass starvation in Gaza on Wednesday morning – saying supplies have become “totally depleted”.
Large amounts of food, clean water and medical supplies are sitting untouched just outside Gaza, but the groups blamed Israel for its “restrictions”, which they say is creating “chaos, starvation, and death”.
The situation has become so bad, aid agencies warned they were seeing even their own colleagues “waste away before their eyes”.
Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, has denied it is responsible for shortages of food and other supplies.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
In a statement signed by 111 organisations, the groups said: “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families.
“With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.
“The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.”
The groups called for governments to demand the lifting of all restrictions and for the restoration of a “principled, UN-led humanitarian response”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
10:43
Gaza: ‘My colleagues are getting thin’
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which backed the statement and is one of the largest independent aid organisations in Gaza, said it has no more supplies to distribute and some of its staff are starving – and accused Israel of paralysing its work.
“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council, told the Reuters news agency.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:10
Gaza is a ‘horror show’, says UN’s Secretary-General
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said “starvation is knocking on every door” in the Palestinian territory, describing the situation as a “horror show”.
Officials in the Hamas-run strip said at least 101 people are known to have died of malnutrition during the conflict in Gaza, including 80 children, most of them in recent weeks.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:22
Israel wants to ‘finish off’ Gaza
Some food stocks in Gaza have run out since Israel cut off all supplies in March and then lifted the blockade in May with new measures it said were needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has accused the organisations of “echoing Hamas propaganda”.
The UK and several other countries have condemned the current aid delivery model, which is backed by the Israeli and American governments.
Gaza deteriorating by the day – but what will be done?
Analysis by Lisa Holland, in Jerusalem
The urgency of the call for action by aid and human rights groups screams out from the words in the letter.
It feels like the situation is deteriorating by the day – the letter comes hours after the United Nations secretary-general described aid distribution and food shortages in Gaza as a “horror show”.
There is certainly momentum in the demands for a ceasefire and for aid supplies backed up in neighbouring countries to be allowed into Gaza.
But will it have any impact?
Israel acknowledges there has been a significant drop in the amount of aid reaching Gaza.
But the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – now in charge of almost all aid distribution in Gaza – has fiercely hit back about its handling of the situation.
However, Israel has given no public sign that it plans to do anything to alleviate the plight of hungry Gazans any time soon – instead shifting blame to the door of the UN.
The UN used to run most aid distribution, but Israel stopped that in May claiming aid was falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas.
So if there’s – as yet – no sign of the aid chain being unblocked, what of the calls in the letter for a ceasefire?
People say watch for movement by Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
He is currently in Europe and if he goes on to Doha, where indirect talks are taking place between Hamas and Israel, that could signal some sort of progress towards a ceasefire.
It has reportedly resulted in Israeli troops firing on Palestinian civilians in search of food on multiple occasions.
More than 800 people have reportedly been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres.
A former US soldier who was employed to work within the Gaza aid system approved by Israel has claimed he saw security personnel shoot at Palestinians at a distribution centre.
The unnamed American man, who served for 25 years in the US army, has alleged he witnessed force being used against unarmed innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“There is no fixing this, this needs to be put an end to,” he said in a video aired by Israeli free-to-air TV station Channel 12.
Image: A former security guard has spoken about what he witnessed. Pic: Channel 12
It comes as the United Nations criticised an aid distribution scheme run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that has been supplying aid in the Strip since late May, claiming it is a “sadistic death trap” where “snipers open fire randomly on crowds”.
The unnamed American claimed that as Palestinians were finishing getting their aid, security personnel “began shooting in their direction, shooting at them, shooting at their feet… to get them to leave”.
In another incident, he said a man was on his hands and knees picking up individual needles when security personnel wanted Palestinians to leave the site.
More on Gaza
Related Topics:
He alleged a contractor “sprayed an entire can of pepper spray into his face – that’s lethal”.
He also recounted a third incident, describing how he was standing next to two women when a contractor threw a stun grenade and it landed between him and the women.
“This thing hit her and she just drops, just lifeless, collapsed to the ground. It looked like she had been killed”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:55
‘Over 100 die of starvation in Gaza’
He said it was at that point that he decided he could no longer be part of the distribution system.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press (AP) reported that it spoke anonymously to two US contractors guarding aid distribution sites who said their colleagues regularly threw stun grenades and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians.
They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open licence to do whatever they wished, the AP reported.
Videos provided by one of the contractors and taken at the sites showed hundreds of Palestinians crowded between metal gates, jostling for aid amid the sound of bullets and stun grenades and the sting of pepper spray, the agency added.
The unnamed American man speaking to Channel 12 said the centres are in remote areas.
“The sites were not set up in locations, nor were they set up in a way that was conducive to distributing or delivering humanitarian aid to a needy population,” he said.
Residents are not allowed there by car and so people are on foot, he added.
“Most of them don’t have shoes, no water, going through active warzone areas.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:10
Gaza is a ‘horror show’, says UN’s secretary-general
He also said that if the United Nations method of aid distribution had the support, security and coordination that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is getting, then the UN process would be very successful.
UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Gaza, has criticised the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by GHF that has been supplying aid since late May, when Israel, which controls supplies into the territory, lifted an 11-week blockade.
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:00
Israel: ‘There is no famine in Gaza’
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies and largely bypasses a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
Journalists are not able to access GHF sites, which are located in Israeli military-controlled zones. When the AP ran its allegations earlier this month, it said it could not independently verify the contractors’ stories. Sky News has not been able to independently verify the latest allegations.
Follow the World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The GHF said in a statement: “This is a disgruntled former contractor who was terminated for misconduct a month ago. GHF launched an immediate investigation as soon as these allegations were brought to our attention. Based on time-stamped video footage and witness statements, we have concluded that the claims made are categorically false.
“At no point were civilians under fire at a GHF distribution site. The gunfire heard in the video was confirmed to have originated from the IDF, which was outside the immediate vicinity of the GHF site.
“The gunfire was not directed at individuals, and no one was shot or injured. We take the safety and security of our operational sites extremely seriously. When behaviour falls short of our standards, we take action. The contractor seen shouting in the video is no longer part of our operations.
“We remain focused on our core mission – delivering food to the people of Gaza in a safe, direct, and uninterrupted manner, as we have done since launching operations on 27 May. Since then, we have distributed nearly 85 million meals to residents of the Gaza Strip.”