Russia to attempt to take Kyiv before dawn, says Ukrainian president

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Sirens rang out in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Friday. (FILE/AFP)
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Firefighters work at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP)
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Ukrainian citizens, among them women and children fled the conflict by crossing the Hungarian-Ukrainian border near Beregsurany, Hungary. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP)
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Updated 26 February 2022
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Russia to attempt to take Kyiv before dawn, says Ukrainian president

  • Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday and Kyiv has reported dozens of casualties
  • The capital Kyiv came under attack on Friday morning, while a missile hit the airport in the city of Rivne in western Ukraine

DUBAI/LONDON/JEDDAH: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday offered talks to end the war in Ukraine, and urged the Ukrainian military to seize power and make peace.

“I appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine, do not allow neo-Nazis … to use your children, wives and elders as human shields,” Putin said. “Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement.”

The Kremlin said it had offered talks in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, but that Ukraine had proposed Warsaw instead and there was now a “pause” in contacts.

A spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was prepared for talks with Russia, including the issue of staying neutral, a demand by Moscow before Russia invaded Ukraine early on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles pounded Kyiv, families cowered in shelters and Ukrainian authorities told people to prepare petrol bombs to defend their capital. Moscow said it had captured the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital, a potential staging post for an assault on Kyiv.

“Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighborhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv,” said the city’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. “The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us.”

Zelenskiy said there had been heavy fighting with people killed at the entrance to the eastern cities of Chernihiv and Melitopol, as well as at Hostomel.

There were loud explosions and gunfire near the airport in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, close to Russia’s border, and air raid sirens sounded over Lviv in the west. Authorities reported heavy fighting in the eastern city of Sumy.

Air raid sirens wailed over Kyiv for a second day, and some residents sheltered in underground metro stations. Windows were blasted out of a 10-story apartment block near the main airport. A two-meter crater showed where a shell had struck before dawn.

“How can we be living through this in our time? Putin should burn in hell along with his whole family,” said Oksana Gulenko, sweeping broken glass from her room.

The EU froze European assets held by Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, adding to a raft of sanctions imposed at an emergency summit on Thursday.

Numerous Western countries have imposed new sanctions on Russia, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology imports. But they have so far stopped short of forcing it out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments, drawing criticism from Kyiv which says there is no reason to hold back.

US officials believe Russia’s initial aim is to “decapitate” Zelenskiy’s government. Zelenskiy said he knew he was “the number one target” but vowed to stay in Kyiv.


Here is a live update of the main developments in Ukraine as they happen. (All timings are in GMT)


02:25: Russian troops have attacked a Ukrainian army base in Kyiv and the attack was repelled, according to Ukrainian military.

01:05: Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Friday demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops, a defeat the United States and its supporters knew was inevitable but said would highlight Russia’s global isolation.
The vote was 11 in favor, with Russia voting no and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining, which showed significant but not total opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his country’s smaller and militarily weaker neighbor. Read more.




An illuminated window of a residential building with the lighting turned off for safety reasons, in the city of Kyiv, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (AP)

00:36: As Russian troops enter Kyiv, citizens of other countries living in Ukraine have been trying to leave and get back home. 

• ‘You’re on your own’: African students stuck in Ukraine seek refuge or escape route. Read more.

• Parents, state governments, opposition urge Modi to ensure safe return of loved ones. Read more.

00:20: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on soldiers in Russia's war on Ukraine to "return to their barracks" Friday.
"We must never give up. We must give peace another chance," he told reporters after Moscow vetoed a UN resolution condemning its "aggression" in Ukraine.

00:05: Australia seeks to join others in imposing direct sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and has extended its punitive financial measures to members of Russia's parliament and more oligarchs, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Saturday.

00:00, Saturday Feb. 25: Ukraine UN envoy says we have to persevere tonight, the fate of Ukraine is being decided right now. 

23:40: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday that Russian troops would attempt to take the capital Kyiv before dawn. 




An Ukrainian mother conforts her child at an improvised shelter on a local high school after they entered Romania (AFP). 

23:30: Russia’s UN envoy says Russian troops are not bombing Ukrainian cities.




Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s United Nations Ambassador and current president of the United Nations Security Council, shows a phone image as he address the UN Security Council. (AP)

19:25: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart and condemned reports of mounting civilian deaths, including those of Ukrainian children, due to attacks around Kyiv, a State Department spokesperson said.
“The Secretary also emphasized to (Ukraine) Foreign Minister Kuleba that the United States would continue to provide support to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression,” spokesperson Ned Price said.




US State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a media briefing on Friday. (Screenshot/State Dept.)

18:51: Germany will send a company of troops to Slovakia that will build part of a new NATO battlegroup to be established there, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said.

18:35: Pope Francis in a Russian language tweet denounced the ills of conflict.
“Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil,” he wrote in separate English and Russian tweets.

18:34: The secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) said on Friday the OECD had decided to end Russia’s process of acceding to the OECD.

18:28: The organization Of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) affirmed in a statement the keenness of Arab countries exporting natural gas, especially liquefied natural gas, to provide gas supplies to their customers to ensure the stability of global markets, in its first reaction to the ongoing Ukrainian crisis.

18:15 - UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the organization was concerned about the huge population movement the invasion would cause, citing “hundreds of thousands of people on the move as we speak.” 

He added that even before this week's invasion, 3 million Ukrainians were already in need of humanitarian assistance due to eight years of conflict in the country.

Griffiths said that while there are no plans to relocate UN staff outside Ukraine at the moment, he was worried about the impact of Western sanctions on UN operations; adding that “north of a billion dollars” would be needed for aid in Ukraine over the next three months.




UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said there are no plans to relocate UN staff outside Ukraine for the moment. (UN/File Photo)

18:07: The European Union does not plan an imminent next package of sanctions against Russia, but is ready to supplement measures already announced subject to Russian activity and EU consensus, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
The idea is, if it’s necessary to do more and we identify actions on the Russian side, if we have identified consensus around more measures, they will be taken,” Borrell told a news conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

17:48: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on leaders of NATO member countries to use the SWIFT international payments system to damage Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of his government.

17:46: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that US President Joe Biden and his counterparts have agreed to send parts of the organization’s response force to help protect allies in the east.

16:39: Ukraine’s central bank transferred around $650 million to the state budget, to be used for military purposes and to cover other state needs, Russian state TASS news agency reported.

16:31: The European Broadcasting Union said no act from Russia will be permitted to take part in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.




People hide in a bomb shelter in Kyiv in the early hours of Feb. 25, 2022, as invading Russian forces pressed deep into Ukraine. (Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP)

16:15: Ukraine’s health minister accused Russian troops of firing on ambulances in the Zaporizhzhya and Chernihiv regions.

15:47: The Council of Europe said that it is suspending all representatives of Russia from participation in the pan-European rights body.
Permanent representatives of its 47 member states “agreed to suspend the Russian Federation from its rights of representation in the Council of Europe,” invoking Article 8 of its statute, the body said in a statement.

15:00: The International Olympic Committee, angry at the Russian invasion of Ukraine breaching the ‘Olympic Truce’, urged all international sports federations to cancel their forthcoming events in Russia.

14:45: France is in favor of excluding Russia from the global SWIFT interbank system but other European states have “reservations” about using such a “financial nuclear weapon,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

14:24: The EU’s foreign policy chief said he has urged China to use its influence with Moscow to respect the Ukraine’s sovereignty, adding that if the UN General Assembly fails to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it is “the law of the jungle.”




Demonstrators hold placards and chant as they take part in a rally staged in front of the Downing Street gates, in central London, on Feb. 25, 2022 to protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

14:03: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged more support for Ukraine as a matter of “the greatest urgency” in a meeting with a group that includes the Baltic states, a spokesperson for his office said.
“The leaders agreed that more sanctions were needed, including focusing on (Russian) President Putin’s inner circle, building on the measures that had already been agreed,” a Downing Street spokesperson said after the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meeting.

13:50: Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn expects an EU meeting in Brussels on Friday to reach an agreement over asset freezes targeting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

13:30 - With Russian forces in neighbouring Syria, Washington its unswerving ally and about a million citizens with ties to the former Soviet Union, Israel is seeking a delicate balance in the Ukraine crisis.

For residents of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv and home to many Jews with roots in Russia and Ukraine, the Russian invasion launched Thursday triggered shock and concern for relatives.

“I didn't expect it, when I got the message from my parents (in Ukraine),” said Natalia Kogan.

“People are stressed,” added the 57-year-old, who works at a supermarket catering for people from the former USSR

12:35: Formula One cancels the 2022 Russian Grand Prix, saying it was “impossible” to do so after the country launched an invasion on Ukraine. Read the story in full

12:14: Pope Francis went to the Russian Embassy to “express his concern about the war,” an extraordinary, hands-on papal gesture that came on the same day the Vatican announced he was canceling other upcoming events because of an “acute” flareup of knee pain. See the story here.

10:30: The Kremlin says UEFA’s decision to strip Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg of hosting the Champions League final is a “shame.” See the story here

10:22: The Kremlin says Russia will retaliate against Western sanctions imposed since the invasion.

The news comes as the EU prepares more sanctions against Russia.

10:02: UN condemns the more than 1,800 arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia.

10:00: Saint Petersburg is stripped of hosting this season’s Champions League final after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Read the story here.

(FILE/AFP)

09:58: Loud blasts heard in east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

09:15: Gunfire heard near government district in Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv.

08:57: 82 Ukrainian soldiers surrender in the Black Sea region: Al Arabiya reports citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

08:38: Russia bans British airlines from entering its airspace, including transit flights.

08:21: The Russian defense ministry says it shot down 5 Ukrainian fighterjets and 5 drones.

08:04: Russia’s defense ministry says it will deploy paratroopers to guard Chernobyl power plant, which it took control of on Thursday.

08:03: Russia’s defense ministry says it has destroyed 118 Ukrainian military sites.

07:40: Ukraine army says it is fighting Russian forces outside the capital city

07:13: Federated States of Micronesia breaks ties with Russia over Ukraine war.

07:10: UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says Russian army has failed to deliver on day 1, adding that it had taken any of its major objectives.

And he said it was estimated that Russia had lost over 450 military personnel. Read the story here

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. (File/AFP)

06:24: Ukrainian President Zelensky says in a tweet that hjs country needs “effective international assistance.”

06:18: Ukrainian President Zelensky hails his people for their ‘heroism’ in face of Russian advance and urges Russians to protest against #Ukraine war.

He says Russia will have to talk ‘sooner or later.’

05:42: Ukrainian President Zelenskiy says the new sanctions have not convinced Russia to stop its invasion.

05:19: Ukrainian President Zelenskiy says Russia resumed its missile strikes at 4 a.m. local time on Friday.

He added that the Russian strikes were fired on both military and civilian targets.

And he said Russian troops had been stopped from advancing.

04:47: Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba slams what he described as the ‘horrific’ Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv.

04:29: Ukraine’s Central Bank bans operations with Russian ruble, Belarusian ruble

03:38: A Russian missile strike hit a Ukrainian border post in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhya, killing several guards and wounding others, the border guard service said on Friday.

The region has no land border with Russia.

03:30: Sirens rang out in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Friday, a Reuters witness said.
Kyiv has reported dozens of casualties and hundreds of wounded.
The capital Kyiv came under attack on Friday morning, while a missile hit the airport in the city of Rivne in western Ukraine, its mayor said.

03:30: Ukraine says the number of downed Russian fighter planes has reached 16.

03:25: A Ukrainian fighter plane crashes into a residential building in Kyiv, erupting in a ball of flames: the Ukrainian interior ministry said.

02:40 Explosions heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

02:31: New US sanctions hit Russian banks, elites; EU list cover financial, energy and transport sectors. Read here.

01:45: French President Emmanuel Macron said the Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to bring us back to age of empires and confrontations.

He held a “frank, direct and quick” phone call with the Russian leader on Thursday to ask him to stop military operations because the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had asked him to.

The French president said there was duplicity on the part of the Russian president, but said it was important to keep the path open for dialogue with Putin. 

Speaking at an emergency EU summit in Brussels, Macron said that the bloc was more than just a market of consumers and needed to be a power with energy and defense sovereignty.  

France’s President Emmanuel Macron arriving for an emergency European Union summit. (AFP)

01:40: The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen says steps agreed by EU leaders in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine include financial sanctions, targeting 70% of the Russian banking market and key state owned companies, including in defense. She said the EU will hold the Kremlin accountable. 

01:00: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he has discussed the situation in Ukraie with  the UAE foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

00:29: Prime Minister Morrison said that Australia will impose further sanctions on Russian individuals.

He also said that its is unacceptable that china is easing trade restrictions with Russia at this time.

00:24, Friday Feb. 25: US Treasury added five more Russian banks to the sanctions list including country's the two largest, both majority owned by the government, although each faced penalties with differing severity.

— with input from agencies


Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

Updated 21 December 2024
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Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

  • The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger
  • The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus

KOLKATA: An Indian man on trial for raping and murdering a 31-year-old doctor has pleaded not guilty, his lawyer said Saturday, a crime that appalled the nation and triggered wide-scale protests.
The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
Sanjoy Roy, 33, the lone accused in the case, pleaded not guilty before the judge in a closed court on Friday in Kolkata, his lawyer Sourav Bandyopadhyay told AFP.
“I am not guilty, your honor, I have been framed,” Roy told the court, Bandyopadhyay said, repeating his client’s words.
Roy, a civic volunteer in the hospital, was arrested the day after the murder and has been held in custody since.
He would potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
The court began hearings on November 11, listening to evidence from some 50 witnesses, but it was on Friday that Roy took the stand.
“Judge Anirban Das questioned him with more than 100 questions during the six-hour-long in camera deposition, that continued until late in the evening,” Bandyopadhyay said.
Roy had earlier proclaimed his innocence to the public while screaming from a prison van outside the court before a hearing in November.
Doctors in Kolkata went on strike for weeks in response to the brutal attack.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians joined in the protests, which focused anger on the lack of measures for female doctors to work without fear.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for health care workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
The trial continues. The next hearing is set for January 2, 2025.


Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

Updated 21 December 2024
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Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

  • Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets

LONDON: The Russian embassy in London on Saturday described Britain’s planned transfer to Ukraine of more than 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) backed by frozen Russian assets as a “fraudulent scheme.”
Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets to help buy weapons and rebuild damaged infrastructure.
The loans were agreed in July by leaders of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — along with top officials from the European Union, where most of the Russian assets frozen as a result of the war are held.
“We are closely following UK authorities’ efforts aimed at implementing a fraudulent scheme of expropriating incomes from Russian state assets ‘frozen’ in the EU,” the Russian embassy in London said on social media.
British Defense Minister John Healey said the money would be solely for Ukraine’s military and could be used to help develop drones capable of traveling further than some long-range missiles.
The embassy added: “The elaborate legislative choreography fails to conceal the illegitimate nature of this arrangement.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry last week described the US transfer to Ukraine of its share of the G7’s $50 billion in loans as “simply robbery.”


Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

Updated 21 December 2024
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Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

  • Source: Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker
  • Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation

MAGDEBURG, Germany: At least five people were killed in a car-ramming attack at a German Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg that also left more than 200 injured, officials said, and a Saudi man was arrested on suspicion of driving a car into the crowd.

The Friday evening attack on market visitors gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season comes amid a fierce debate over security and migration during an election campaign in Germany, where the far right is polling strongly.

“What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the central city, part of the former East Germany, where he laid a white rose at a church in honor of the victims.

“We have now learnt that over 200 people have been injured,” he added. “Almost 40 are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for almost two decades in connection with the car-ramming. Police searched his home overnight.

The motive remained unclear and police have not yet named the suspect. He has been named in German media as Taleb A.

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security.

Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathized with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Germany’s FAZ newspaper said it interviewed the suspect in 2019, describing him as an anti-Islam activist.

“People like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, are met with neither understanding nor tolerance by Muslims here,” he was quoted as saying. “I am history’s most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs.”

Andrea Reis, who had been at the market on Friday, returned on Saturday with her daughter Julia to lay a candle by the church overlooking the site. She said that had it not been for a matter of moments, they may have been in the car’s path.

“I said, ‘let’s go and get a sausage’, but my daughter said ‘no let’s keep walking around’. If we’d stayed where we were we’d have been in the car’s path,” she said.

Tears ran down her face as she described the scene. “Children screaming, crying for mama. You can’t forget that,” she said.

Scholz’s Social Democrats are trailing both the far-right AfD and the frontrunner conservative opposition in opinion polls ahead of snap elections set for Feb. 23.

The AfD, which enjoys particularly strong support in the former East, has led calls for a crackdown on migration to the country.

Its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and co-leader Tino Chrupalla issued a statement on Saturday condemning the attack.

“The terrible attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg in the middle of the peaceful pre-Christmas period has shaken us,” they said.

A leading Social Democrat lawmaker in the Bundestag parliament warned against jumping to conclusions and said it appeared the attacker did not have an Islamist motive.

“Now we have to wait for the investigations. It seems that things are different here than was initially assumed,” Dirk Wiese told the Rheinische Post newspaper.


Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature

Updated 21 December 2024
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Eight convicted in France over murder of teacher who showed Prophet caricature

  • Eight sentenced for roles in hate campaign against teacher
  • Two associates of killer sentenced to 16 years for complicity, the father of pupil sentenced to 13 years for inciting hatred

PARIS: A French court sentenced eight people to prison terms ranging from one to 16 years for their roles in a hate campaign that culminated in the murder of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class, local media reported.
Days after Samuel Paty, 47, showed his pupils the caricatures in October 2020, an 18-year-old Chechen assailant stabbed and beheaded him outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris. The assailant was shot dead by police moments after.
Among those convicted on Friday was the father of a student whose false account of Paty’s use of the caricatures triggered a wave of social media posts targeting the middle-school teacher.
The court sentenced Brahim Chnina to 13 years in prison for criminal terrorist association, according to broadcaster Franceinfo. Chnina had published videos falsely accusing the teacher of disciplining his daughter for complaining about the class, naming Paty and identifying his school.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, the founder of a hard-line Islamist organization, received a 15-year sentence. Both Sefrioui and Chnina were found guilty of inciting hatred against Paty.
Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous. Sefrioui’s lawyer said his client would appeal the decision, according to French media.
Two associates of Paty’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, were also convicted. Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov were sentenced to 16 years in prison for complicity in a terrorist killing. Both had denied wrongdoing, according to Franceinfo.
Last year, a court found Chnina’s daughter and five other adolescents guilty of participating in a premeditated conspiracy and helping prepare an ambush.
Chnina’s daughter, who was not in Paty’s class when the caricatures were shown, was convicted of making false accusations and slanderous comments.
French media reported that the 13-year-old made the allegations after her parents questioned why she had been suspended from school for two days.


Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

Updated 21 December 2024
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Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

  • ‘Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war. I want to say it because it touches my heart’
  • The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty,” a day after the territory’s rescue agency said an Israeli air strike killed seven children from one family.

Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the territory, including seven children.

“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the government of the Holy See.

“I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

Violence in the Gaza Strip continues to rock the coastal territory more than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, even as international mediators work to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military said it had struck “several terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”

“According to an initial examination, the reported number of casualties resulting from the strike does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.

Francis, 88, has called for peace since Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza.

In recent weeks he has hardened his remarks against the Israeli offensive.

At the end of November, he said that “the invader’s arrogance... prevails over dialogue” in “Palestine,” a rare position that contrasts with the tradition of neutrality of the Holy See.

In extracts from a forthcoming book published in November, he called for a “careful” study as to whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by Israel.

The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and it supports the two-state solution.