World
Israel bombs Gaza home of top Hamas leader as fighting rages
Israel bombed the home of Hamas’s chief in Gaza early on Sunday and the Islamist group fired rocket barrages at Tel Aviv as hostilities stretched into a seventh day with no sign of abating, Reuters reported.
At least four Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes across the coastal enclave, health officials said, and many were injured as the sounds of heavy bombardment roared through the night.
Reuters reported that Israelis dashed for bomb shelters as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared in Tel Aviv and the southern city of Beersheba. Around 10 people were injured while running for shelters, medics said.
At least 149 have been killed in Gaza since the violence began on Monday, including 41 children, health officials said. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
Envoys from the United States, United Nations and Egypt were working to restore calm but have yet to show any signs of progress. The U.N. Security Council was due to meet later on Sunday to discuss the worst outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in years.
Both Israel and Hamas have insisted they would continue their cross-border fire, a day after Israel destroyed a 12-storey building in Gaza City that had housed the U.S. Associated Press and Qatar-based Al Jazeera media operations.
The Israel military said the al-Jala building was a legitimate military target, containing Hamas military offices, and that it had given warnings to civilians to get out of the building before the attack.
The AP condemned the attack, and asked Israel to put forward evidence. “We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” the news organisation said in a statement.
In what it called a reprisal for Israel’s destruction of the al-Jala building, Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv and towns in southern Israel early on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Saturday that Israel was “still in the midst of this operation, it is still not over and this operation will continue as long as necessary.”
In a burst of air strikes early on Sunday, Israel targeted the home of Yehya Al-Sinwar, who since 2017 has headed the political and military wings of Hamas in Gaza, the group’s TV station said.
Another air strike killed a Gaza neurologist and wounded his wife and daughter, Palestinian medics and relatives said.
Hamas began its rocket assault on Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Speaking to crowds of protesters in the Qatari capital of Doha, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said late on Saturday that the underlying cause of the hostilities was Jerusalem.
“The Zionists thought … they could demolish Al-Aqsa mosque. They thought they could displace our people in Sheikh Jarrah,” said Haniyeh.
“I say to Netanyahu: do not play with fire,” he continued, amid cheers from the crowd. “The title of this battle today, the title of the war, and the title of the intifada, is Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” using the Arabic word for ‘uprising’.
Reuters reported Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups have fired around 2,300 rockets from Gaza since Monday, the Israeli military said on Saturday. It said about 1,000 were intercepted by missile defences and 380 fell into the Gaza Strip.
Israel has launched more than 1,000 air and artillery strikes into the densely populated coastal strip, saying they were aimed at Hamas and other militant targets.
World
Israel’s Netanyahu says Iran tried to kill one of his sons
It was not immediately clear which of his sons he was referring to. Netanyahu’s elder son, Yair, lives in Miami.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran had tried to kill one of his sons, but gave no details about when the alleged plot took place, which son was targeted or how close it came to being carried out, Reuters reported.
Netanyahu’s allegation underscores the heightened tensions since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in February, during which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders were killed.
Netanyahu, whose coalition is trailing in opinion polls two months before an October 27 general election, made the claim in a telephone interview with Israel’s Channel 14. He was responding to reports that one of Israel’s security agencies had refused to provide protection for a political rival ahead of the nationwide vote.
“As for my sons. Here, I think there is something quite unbelievable, yes. Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons,” Netanyahu told the conservative channel known for its favourable coverage of the government.
“Iran tried to murder one of my sons, and therefore this security protection is not a luxury,” he said, without providing any further details about the alleged plot or how close it came to being carried out.
It was not immediately clear which of his sons he was referring to. Netanyahu’s elder son, Yair, lives in Miami.
Iran’s mission at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accusation.
Netanyahu also said he had told the Shin Bet security agency chief David Zini that appropriate security should be provided for any prime ministerial candidate.
Israeli media had reported earlier that Zini declined to provide security for Gadi Eisenkot and told the country’s election authority there was no plot to harm him, read the report.
Eisenkot’s party is projected to win the largest number of seats in the election, although Israeli governments are usually formed through coalitions among multiple parties rather than by a single party winning a parliamentary majority outright.
World
Norway to give over $9 billion to Ukraine in 2027
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and leaders from across the Nordic and Baltic region are visiting Kyiv on Sunday in a show of support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Norway plans to give another 85 billion Norwegian crowns ($9.2 billion) in financial support to Ukraine in the 2027 fiscal year, in line with the amount given in 2026, the Nordic country’s government said in a statement on Sunday.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and leaders from across the Nordic and Baltic region are visiting Kyiv on Sunday in a show of support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Norway plans to give another 85 billion Norwegian crowns ($9.2 billion) in financial support to Ukraine in the 2027 fiscal year, in line with the amount given in 2026, the Nordic country’s government said in a statement on Sunday.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and leaders from across the Nordic and Baltic region are visiting Kyiv on Sunday in a show of support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Russia and Ukraine are both ramping up drone campaigns aiming to cripple each other’s economic infrastructure, often striking targets far beyond the frontlines of the war started by Moscow, as fighting on the battlefield grinds toward the 4-1/2-year mark.
World
Israel strikes southern Syria; Damascus condemns attack
Israeli troops continue to operate in southern Syria, and Israel occupies territory in southwest Syria it seized after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Israel said it targeted a “terrorist” in southern Syria on Saturday in what Syria’s foreign ministry said was a drone strike on a civilian vehicle on the outskirts of Damascus in a “blatant” violation of its territory.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the drone had hit a civilian car on a road near Beit Jinn village in the countryside west of the capital, which caused injuries amongst civilians.
Syrian state TV reported one person was injured.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it fired in southern Syria toward what it described as a terrorist, whose activity posed an immediate threat to its soldiers. It did not say how it fired.
Tensions between Israel and Syria flared up this week after Israel bombed an airbase in the northwest on Tuesday, an escalation U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called “unnecessary.”
Syria’s foreign ministry said the strike was part of a pattern of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, and was a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty. It held Israel accountable for the consequences of such actions.
Israeli troops continue to operate in southern Syria, and Israel occupies territory in southwest Syria it seized after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
-
Latest News2 days agoFour mediators struggle to secure lasting Pakistan-Afghanistan ceasefire
-
Latest News3 days agoSyria and Saudi Arabia condemn Kabul bombing, express solidarity with Afghanistan
-
Latest News3 days agoUS judge strikes down Trump visa suspension for 75 countries, including Afghanistan
-
Latest News3 days agoAchakzai urges Pakistan to end hostility towards Afghanistan
-
Sport3 days agoAfghanistan-India T20I series could see major schedule change
-
Latest News4 days agoQatar and UAE condemn Kabul school bombing that injured dozens
-
Sport5 days agoATN to broadcast five Carabao Cup clashes live in Afghanistan
-
Latest News2 days agoAfghanEvac warns US court ruling does not reopen door for Afghans
