International

Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

Published

2 months ago

July 8, 2024

Hundreds of Palestinian families have fled after receiving orders to evacuate several areas of Gaza City

Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

Palestinians in Gaza City say they have experienced one of the most intense Israeli bombardments since Israel launched its war on Hamas after the group’s unprecedented 7 October attack.

Columns of Israeli tanks are reported to be closing in on the centre of the city from several different directions.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service says it believes a number of people have been killed but has so far been unable to reach them because of fighting in several districts in the east and west of Gaza City.

The Al-Ahli Baptist hospital is reported to have been evacuated, with its patients being taken to one of the only medical facilities still functioning in the area – the already overcrowded Indonesian hospital.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage release deal are expected to resume in Qatar within 48 hours.

A preliminary meeting would take place in Egypt on Monday between US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, the official said.

Ahead of the assault in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for several neighbourhoods in the centre, including Tuffah, Daraj and the Old City.

But one of the areas that has come under the most intense assault, Tel al-Hawa, was not included in the evacuation order that was posted online with a map by the IDF Arabic spokesperson on Sunday.

On Monday afternoon, the IDF issued a new order that covered Tel al-Hawa as well as the Sabra and al-Rimal areas, to the north and west.

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One resident of Gaza City, Abdel Ghani asked: “The enemy is behind us and the sea is in front of us, where shall we go?”

Others have also told the BBC that they do not know where to go. They say that only one route remains – to go north towards the port area of Gaza City.

Some fled districts after receiving an evacuation order, only to find that the area they moved to was coming under Israeli bombardment.

In al-Rimal, a freelance cameraman working for the BBC says that he did not receive any evacuation orders, but later learnt that his neighbour did.

He left the area with his family and headed north. They are now in the port area but lack basic necessities. He says he is struggling to find water for his children.

In a statement, the IDF confirmed that it launched what it called a new operation in Tel al-Halwa overnight, following what it said was intelligence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure and fighters in the area.

The military also said that it was operating at the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, in the area.

The IDF said that at the start of the operation, it gave warnings to civilians – and it said that it would open up a humanitarian corridor for people to leave the area.

The latest Israeli offensive in Gaza comes as hopes have been rising that a ceasefire deal might finally be agreed.

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A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks has told the BBC that indirect negotiations between the Hamas and Israeli negotiating teams, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will start in Doha within the next 48 hours.

The official also said a preparatory meeting was due to take place in Cairo on Monday between CIA director William Burns, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, and the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel.

The three intelligence chiefs are then all due to travel to Doha on Tuesday.

The official outlined to the BBC several key sticking points from the Hamas perspective:

Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from both the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Philadelphi corridor, a strip of land running along the Egyptian border
Israel has vetoed Hamas’s demand for release from Israeli prisons of 100 senior figures from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah political factions

Hamas’s negotiating team has already dropped its requirement for Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire as a precondition for any potential deal.

The official said the negotiating process would be very long and complex, but that there was some degree of hope that it might work this time.

On Sunday, a statement by the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have somewhat dampened expectations by insisting that any deal must not stop Israel from resuming fighting in Gaza until its war objectives are met.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly defined those aims as being the eradication of Hamas, both militarily and politically.

Israeli forces bombard Gaza City as tanks re-enter central areas

BBC

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International

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

Published

6 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

A month after a trainee doctor was raped and m8rdered in Kolkata, India, sparking anger and protests nationwide, a gang-rape attempt was made on a nurse at a private hospital in Bihar.

Police said one of the assaulters is a doctor who is also the administrator of the institution. However, the nurse managed to escape after inflicting a cut on his private parts with a blade.

The nurse was wrapping up work at the RBS Health Care Centre in Gangapur under the Musrighararari police station limits in Samastipur district on Wednesday night when hospital administrator Dr Sanjay Kumar (pictured) and two of his associates – all of whom were drunk – tried to r@pr her.

Trying to free herself from the clutches of Dr Kumar and the others, the nurse used a blade to slash at the doctor’s genitals.

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She managed to escape and dial the police after hiding in a field outside the hospital

Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Pandey said a team was rushed to the hospital and, after making sure that the nurse was safe, three people were arrested, including the doctor. The other two accused have been identified as Sunil Kumar Gupta and Awadhesh Kumar.

Mr Pandey said the men had locked the hospital from the inside and turned off the CCTV cameras before trying to s3xually ass@ult the nurse.

“The presence of mind and courage shown by the survivor is praiseworthy,” he said.

The police have recovered half a bottle of liquor, the blade used by the nurse, blood-stained clothes and three cellphones.

Officials said the three men had been drinking before trying to assault the nurse and they will also be charged under prohibition laws because Bihar is a dry state.

Doctor Sanjay is also the organization minister of Hindu Samaj Party.

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

International

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

Published

11 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Lebanon's Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip. (File/AFP)

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

BEIRUT: Israel dropped leaflets over a Lebanon border village Sunday urging residents to leave, state-run media said, but Israel’s military told AFP a brigade had taken the initiative without approval.

It was the first time Israelis had told residents of south Lebanon to evacuate in 11 months of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel over the Gaza war, triggered by Hezbollah ally Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

“The Israeli enemy dropped leaflets over Wazzani calling on those in the area and its surroundings to evacuate,” the official National News Agency said, referring to a southern border village.

Wazzani mayor Ahmed Al-Mohammed shared with AFP a picture of the leaflets that showed a map of the region with the areas marked for evacuation marked in red.

The leaflet read in Arabic: “To all residents and refugees living in the area of the camps, Hezbollah is firing from your region. You must immediately leave your homes and head north of the Khiam region before 04:00 p.m. (1300 GMT). Do not return to this area until the end of the war.”

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It added: “Anyone present in this area after this time will be considered a terrorist.”

Wazzani is an agricultural region where Syrians are often hired to work the land.

Asked about the incident, an Israeli military spokeswoman said the leaflets had been dropped by drone in an area from which rockets had been fired into northern Israel.

“This was an initiative of the 769 Brigade, it was not approved by the Northern Command. An investigation has been opened,” she added.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft regularly drop leaflets urging residents to evacuate before an attack.

On Saturday, Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem warned that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more Israelis.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed 623 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 141 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

ARAB NEWS

International

Deadly floods hit Central, Eastern Europe

Published

12 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Deadly floods hit Central, Eastern Europe

A firefighter died during a flood rescue in Austria and one person drowned in Poland, as torrential rain caused by Storm Boris continued to wreak havoc across Central and Eastern Europe.

In Romania, five people have died, while several remain unaccounted for in the Czech Republic.

The Austrian province surrounding Vienna has been declared a disaster area, with its leaders speaking of “an unprecedented extreme situation”.

Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk declared a state of natural disaster.

Some of the worst rainfall has been in the Czech Republic, where some areas have seen around three months’ rainfall in just three days.

Evacuations are under way and four people remain missing – three in a car which disappeared into a river in North Moravia, and one man who was swept into a flooded stream in South Moravia.

Marek Joch, a resident of Lipov in the southeast, said the town was “closed from all sides” and the “next wave” of the flood is still to come.

“Now everyone is trying to clean up as quickly as possible to prevent further large spills from the river. Unfortunately, no one knows when the water will recede.

“We still have to survive until Tuesday, this is not the end.”

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Jesenik, a town located in the Jeseniky mountains, is described as completely cut off, with roads and rail lines underwater.

Around 17,000 people in the Kłodzko area alone are without power, and internet and mobile telephone connections are down.

Several dozen police and firefighters in Prague were called to rescue a man who went swimming in the flooded Vltava at 7am on Sunday.

On Saturday, police in North Moravia were called after three men were spotted wading into the flooded River Odra on paddleboards.

The mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Romania’s south-eastern Galati region, said 700 homes had been flooded.

“This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” Emil Dragomir said.

Four people were killed in Galati on Saturday, with a fifth death confirmed on Sunday.

In Austria, governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said a firefighter had died while pumping out a flooded cellar.

She said the whole of the Lower Austria province has been declared a catastrophe zone.

Multiple trains have been cancelled, parts of the Vienna underground have been closed, and at least one motorway has flooded.

In a post on X, Austria‘s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the storm situation had “worsened” and was “very serious.”

In the Polish town of Stronie Slaskie, a dam has been breached, releasing a torrent of water that has destroyed at least one house, the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management said.

In the same town a bridge collapsed, funnelling water through the streets.

“Soldiers supporting the local population are cut off from their land route back,” the Polish Ministry of Defence said.

“Many residents have to be evacuated from the roofs of their homes.”

In Glucholazy, in the southwest, the mayor of the town said the local river had overflowed its banks and was flooding the town.

A resident of the town, Zofia Owsiaka, said everyone was “scared” and there seemed to be “no hope of the rain stopping”.

In Krakow, Poland’s second largest city, residents have been offered sandbags for flood protection.

Speaking from the town of Klodzko, one of the worst-affected areas, Tusk said 1600 people in the district had been evacuated.

A total of 17,000 people in the area are without power, he said, and in parts Starlink satellites links are being used to maintain mobile phone signal and internet connections.

He added that a helicopter had been sent to help with rescue efforts in regional capital Wroclaw.

On Sunday, the mayor of Klodzko announced that his town had “lost the battle” against the floods, and that the situation had become “critical”.

Why has Storm Boris been so devastating?

Storm Boris has already brought extreme amounts of rain across central and eastern Europe, with more downpours forecast until at least the end of Monday.

The storm has been so devastating for two reasons.

Firstly, cold air from the north has mixed with moisture drawn up from the unusually warm waters of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Secondly, an area of low pressure has been stuck in a blocked weather pattern, meaning it is trapped between high pressure to both the west and east.

Following extreme flooding in 2021, the World Weather Attribution Network concluded that the warming climate meant the likelihood and intensity of such events in Europe was increasing.