International

Thousands mourn children killed in Golan Heights strike

Published

5 months ago

July 29, 2024

Thousands mourn children killed in Golan Heights strike

Thousands of people gathered on Sunday for the funerals of children and young people killed in a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as world leaders scrambled to contain the attack’s political fallout.

Members of the Druze community wept as they carried caskets through Majdal Shams, while some yelled in anger at government ministers there, Israeli media said.

The White House, meanwhile, said Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah carried out the attack, which killed 12. Israel has also accused it. Hezbollah denies it was responsible.

On Sunday, global leaders condemned the attack and moved to de-escalate tensions amid fears it could spark a war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In response to Saturday’s strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory overnight, and Hezbollah struck two Israeli military bases on Sunday.

Cross-border fire between the two sides has escalated since Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli sites a day after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October. The Hamas attack triggered Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Hezbollah says it is acting in support of the Palestinians.

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest loss of life in and around Israel’s northern border since October.

The strike hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams, one of four towns in the Golan Heights where about 25,000 members of the Arabic-speaking Druze religious and ethnic group live.

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Israel’s foreign ministry said 10 of the 12 victims were between the ages of 10 and 16, and has not released the ages of the other two victims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price”, arrived in Israel on Sunday after cutting short his trip to the US. He planned to hold a meeting with his military chiefs to assess the situation and approve operational plans.

Hezbollah denied it had anything to do with the strike, but had earlier on Saturday claimed responsibility for four other attacks, including one on a military base around 3km (2 miles) away.

At a funeral in Majdal Shams on Sunday, weeping men wearing traditional red-topped white hats carried 10 of the white-covered caskets through packed streets, AFP reported. Women dressed in black abaya robes cried as they laid flowers on the caskets. Some mourners carried large photos of the dead children.

Fadi Mahmud, 48, told AFP that it was the first time Majdal Shams had experienced such a loss during the war.

“Our community is very close-knit. These children are like children of everybody in the village,” he was reported as saying.

Anger among the community also boiled over at the funeral, with some directing their rage at Israeli government officials who attended, the Times of Israel reported.

“Now you come here? Ten months you didn’t come!” a man wearing a military uniform was reported as shouting at Housing Minister Nir Barkat and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman. His comments were met with applause.

“We’re tired of your promises!” another person reportedly yelled at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

In a video posted on social media, hecklers surrounded Mr Smotrich, cursing and saying “we don’t want him!”, according to a Times of Israel translation.

Israeli media reported that a leader of the Druze community had asked in a letter that government ministers not attend the funeral to avoid turning the tragedy into a “political event”.

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The Druze are part of an Arabic-speaking ethnic group based in Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights and northern Israel. In Israel, they have full citizenship rights and comprise about 1.5% of the population.

But most of those in the Golan have retained an allegiance to Syria. They can still study and work in Israel, though only those with citizenship can vote and serve in the army.

The vast majority of the international community does not recognise Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1981.

On Sunday, global leaders spoke out against the strike and cautioned against escalation, although they differed on who was responsible.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that the UK “condemns the strike in Golan Heights that has tragically claimed at least 12 lives” and Hezbollah “must cease their attacks”.

“We are deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilisation,” Secretary Lammy said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington backed Israel’s right to defend itself, while adding that “we also don’t want to see the conflict escalate”.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib told the BBC that he did not think Hezbollah carried out the attack, but added “it could be a mistake by the Israelis or by Hezbollah – I don’t know”.

The Lebanese government condemned the violence and called in a statement for a ceasefire on all fronts.

Thousands mourn children killed in Golan Heights strike

BBC

International

Visa: UK raises salary entry requirement for skilled workers

Published

8 hours ago

January 3, 2025

Trends Admin

Visa: UK raises salary entry requirement for skilled workers

The UK government has announced an update to its immigration rules, notably increasing salary thresholds for Skilled Worker visas.

This change is targeted at ensuring that only highly skilled and well-compensated workers are able to access the UK job market, with some salary requirements rising by as much as 82%.

Effective from January 1, 2025, the minimum salary for most applicants will rise from £26,200 to £38,700.

International

Two dead after small plane crashes into California building

Published

17 hours ago

January 3, 2025

Trends Admin

Two dead after small plane crashes into California building

Two people have died and 18 others were injured after a small plane crashed into a commercial building in southern California, officials say.

Ten people were taken to hospital with injuries, the Fullerton Police Department said in a post on X on Thursday afternoon. Eight others were treated for injuries and released at the scene.

The single-engine Van’s RV-10 crashed at 14:15PST (20:15GMT), according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Officials have provided no further details about how the crash occurred. It is unclear whether the two people who died were workers or were on board the plane.

Police say they are evacuating buildings in the area, and are asking the public to stay away from the crash site.

Congressman Lou Correa, who represents the area of Orange County, about 25 miles (40km) south of Los Angeles, said that the building that was struck is a furniture manufacturing business.

In a post on X, Correa said that at least a dozen of the victims are factory workers.

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Aerial photos of the scene show parts of the plane inside the building. The crash also sparked a fire which was extinguished by fire crews.

Security footage recorded from a building across the street shows a fiery explosion, according to local news outlets.

“People are just shaken over the situation,” witness Mark Anderson told KRCA-TV.

“It was just a large boom, and then one of the people went out and said, ‘Oh my gosh, the building’s on fire.'”

The area where the plane crashed is near the Fullerton Municipal Airport, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Disneyland.

The plane appears to have been turning back to the airport shortly after takeoff, according to KRCA-TV.

Around 100 people were ultimately evacuated from the Michael Nicholas Designs furniture factory, according to the Orange County Register newspaper.

Juanita Ramirez, an employee, told the newspaper that she heard a loud bang before seeing a large ball of fire flying towards her.

“It felt like a dream,” she said.

This is the second plane to crash in the area in the past two months, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner.

On 25 November, another plane crashed into a tree roughly one block away from this most recent crash. No major injures were reported in that crash.

Two dead after small plane crashes into California building

BBC

International

Vegas Tesla blast suspect shot himself in head – Officials

Published

17 hours ago

January 3, 2025

Trends Admin

Vegas Tesla blast suspect shot himself in head – Officials

The decorated US special forces soldier who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas apparently shot himself in the head before the blast, authorities said Thursday, adding that his motivation was still “unknown.”

Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a member of the elite Green Berets, appears to have committed suicide in the rented vehicle filled with fuel containers and fireworks, which then erupted into flames, officials said.

Livelsberger’s body was burned beyond recognition but Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the authorities had “a lot of confidence” that he was the sole occupant of the Cybertruck.

Livelsberger, identified through his military ID, passport and credit cards, had a gunshot wound to the head and a gun was found at his feet, McMahill told reporters at a press conference in Las Vegas.

“The motivation at this point is unknown,” FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans said.

Evans said there is “no information that we’re aware of right now that connects this individual to any terrorist organization around the world.”

Kenny Cooper, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Livelsberger had legally purchased two semi-automatic handguns on Monday which were found in the remains of the vehicle.

Video footage outside the Trump hotel shows the stainless steel truck parked at the building’s glass entrance early Wednesday, then bursting into flames, followed by smaller explosions that appeared similar to fireworks.

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Seven people were wounded in the blast.

– No link with New Orleans attack –

The Trump-branded building, which opened in 2008, is part-owned by the Republican president-elect’s family business.

Evans said the link to the president-elect was “not lost” on investigators, nor was the fact that Tesla is owned by world’s richest man — and prominent Trump backer — Elon Musk.

“But we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us” it was driven by any particular ideology, he said.

Livelsberger rented the vehicle in Colorado on December 28, from where authorities tracked him driving it alone through Arizona and New Mexico to Las Vegas, which he reached on January 1, Kevin McMahill said.

McMahill said Livelsberger was a Green Beret who had been deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was currently stationed in Germany.

An army spokesperson said Livelsberger was “on approved leave at the time of his death,” and that he had been awarded multiple Bronze Star Medals, including one for valor.

Investigators said it was not yet clear how the blast detonated, but the components were mainly consumer products like fireworks and fuel.

They said some of the components had not exploded, and that the level of sophistication in the blast was not what they would expect from someone with Livelsberger’s military background.

“I just don’t think it was done as well as he was expecting it to be done,” McMahill said.

The blast came just hours after a pickup truck plowed into a crowd of revelers in the French Quarter of New Orleans, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens.

Initially investigators were probing potential links between the events, but authorities in New Orleans said Thursday they believe the Islamic State-inspired attacker there acted alone, while the FBI described the Vegas incident as “isolated.”