GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes hit two homes at dawn on Friday in Khan Younis, the territory’s main southern city, killing at least 20 people including children.
Fourteen people were killed in a strike that hit the home of the Al-Fara family, and a separate air raid killed another six, according to agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Bassal said the 14 included nine children under the age of 16.
AFP photographs showed relatives at the European hospital in Khan Younis mourning the deaths of children, the bodies of several of them wrapped in white shrouds.
The military, in a statement giving an operational update, said that “a number of terrorists were eliminated from the air and ground” in southern Gaza.
While Israeli forces continue to operate across Gaza, recent weeks have seen an intensified air and ground assault in the territory’s north, where the military reports Hamas militants are regrouping.
Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis
https://arab.news/wcqvz
Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis
- Fourteen people were killed in a strike that hit the home of the Al-Fara family
Israel army confirms strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing
- Israeli military statement: Hezbollah ‘exploits the Jousieh civilian crossing … to transfer weapons’
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that it had struck a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon that it said was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
“Overnight ... the IAF (air force) struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites at the Jousieh border crossing in the northern Bekaa area (of Lebanon), the military said in a statement, adding that Hezbollah “exploits the Jousieh civilian crossing, which is under the control of the Syrian regime and is operated by Syrian military security, to transfer weapons.”
Kurdish rebels claim deadly Ankara attack
- ‘The act of sacrifice at TAI campus in Ankara at around 15:30 local time on Wednesday was carried out by a team of the immortals battalion’
ISTANBUL: The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Friday claimed a deadly attack on a state-run Turkish defense firm in the capital Ankara.
“The act of sacrifice at TAI campus in Ankara at around 15:30 local time on Wednesday was carried out by a team of the immortals battalion” of the PKK, it said on Telegram, referring to Turkish Aerospace Industries.
Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate sentenced to another 6 months in prison
- It said the charge was brought after Mohammadi staged a protest against the execution of another political prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin Prison on Aug.6
- She has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and years behind bars
DUBAI: Iranian authorities have issued an additional six-month prison sentence against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, a group campaigning for the activist said.
The Free Narges Coalition said in a statement on Thursday that Mohammadi was sentenced on Oct. 19 to an additional six months in prison on the charge of “disobeying and resisting orders.”
According to the statement, the charge was brought after Mohammadi staged a protest against the execution of another political prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin Prison on Aug.6.
Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003. Mohammadi, 52, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and years behind bars.
She is being held at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, which houses political prisoners and those with Western ties. She already had been serving a 30-month sentence, to which 15 more months were added in January. Iran’s government has not acknowledged her additional sentencing.
The latest order reflects the Iranian theocracy’s anger that she was awarded the Nobel prize in October 2023 for years of activism despite a decades-long government campaign targeting her.
Mohammadi was a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody that have grown into one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government. That woman, Mahsa Amini, had been detained for allegedly not wearing her headscarf to the liking of authorities.
The statement demanded Mohammadi’s unconditional release, saying her health situation has deteriorated drastically during her long incarceration and she is suffering from heart disease.
EU says ‘race against time’ to avoid Lebanon ‘conflagration’
- Josep Borrell says the first step needed is a ‘ceasefire’ between Israel and Hezbollah
- Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month
BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday said the international community must speed up efforts for a political solution to end the fighting in Lebanon and prevent a “conflagration.”
In a statement released the day after a conference on aid for Lebanon in France, Borrell said the first step needed was a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We are currently engaged in a race against time between the possible start of a political process in Lebanon and a generalized conflagration with incalculable consequences,” Borrell said.
“Without a suspension of hostilities, nothing will be possible,” he said.
Borrell said once fighting was halted, Lebanon needed to organize long-postponed presidential elections “as soon as possible.”
He said the Lebanese Armed Forces must become the “only military force present” in the south of the country, where Israel is engaged in ground battles with Hezbollah.
A UN peacekeeping mission in the area must also be strengthened, he said.
International calls for an end to fighting have so far failed to end the fighting in the region.
The Paris conference on aid for conflict-stricken Lebanon raised around $800 million for humanitarian aid but saw little diplomatic progress.
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month, in a bid to secure its northern border after nearly a year of cross-border fire from the Iran-backed armed group.
Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in its history.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by the attack, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon and last month launched a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country, sending in ground troops on September 30.
The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
UAE government reduces driving age, amends traffic regulations
DUBAI: The UAE Government on Friday announced a new federal decree law on traffic regulations via a statement on X.
The minimum driving age has now been reduced to 17 under the new law.
Previously the legal age for obtaining a driver’s license was 18.
The announcement comes with a new law prohibiting pedestrians from crossing roads that exceed the speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour.
UAE Government issues Federal Decree-Law on traffic regulation, which aims to keep up with the rapid evolution of transportation worldwide#UAEGOV pic.twitter.com/AD8VgGgswn
— UAEGOV (@UAEmediaoffice) October 25, 2024
