World
Israel-Gaza conflict rages on, diplomacy yet to gain traction
Israel pummelled Gaza with air strikes and Palestinian militants launched rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and other cities on Saturday, with no sign yet of an end to the worst escalation in years in the region, almost a week into the conflict.
Reuters reported, US and Arab diplomats are seeking to calm the situation. Violence overnight saw militants fire about 200 rockets at cities in Israel, whose planes struck what it said were targets used by Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza.
At least 139 people, including 39 children, have been killed in Gaza since hostilities erupted on Monday, Palestinian medics said.
Israel has reported nine dead, including children.
On Saturday afternoon, al Jazeera meanwhile reported Israel had given a “warning” that it will bomb the building that houses Al Jazeera offices and other international media channels in Gaza City in one hour.
Reuters meanwhile reported that the Israeli bombardment overnight killed more than 15 Palestinians in Gaza, medics said, including a woman and four of her children who died when their house in a refugee camp was hit. Five others died, with others wounded, the medics said.
Israel’s military said about the incident that it had hit an apartment in the Beach refugee camp used by Hamas. It said details of the case were under review.
In Israel, thousands of Israelis ran for shelter. Sirens wailed repeatedly across Tel Aviv on Saturday. One rocket struck a residential building in the commercial hub’s suburb of Ramat Gan, killing one person there, medics said, Reuters reported.
In Gaza, Akram Farouq, 36, dashed out of his home with his family after a neighbour told him they had received a call from an Israeli officer warning that their building would be hit.
“We haven’t slept all night because of the explosions, and now I am out in the street with my wife and children, who are weeping and trembling,” he said.
Israel’s military said its aircraft struck rocket launch sites and apartments belonging to Hamas militants.
Regional and international diplomatic efforts have yet to show any signs of halting hostilities. Egypt, which has been leading regional efforts, sent ambulances across its border with Gaza to bring Palestinian casualties to Egyptian hospitals.
Israel’s military said on Saturday about 2,300 rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel since Monday, with about 1,000 intercepted by missile defences and 380 falling into the Gaza Strip.
World
Trump says he is talking to Russia and China about denuclearization
Trump’s comments come months after the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired earlier this year.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday Washington is holding talks with Moscow and Beijing aimed at denuclearizing the countries with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US outpaces Russia on its number of deployed warheads.
During an interview with Newsmax, Trump said he expects China to “catch up” with the US within the next five years.
“The whole thing is a shame, because I’d love to denuclearize if possible, but we’re actually talking to Russia about that, and we’re talking to China about that denuclearization,” Trump told the outlet.
Newsmax reported that Trump had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about denuclearization.
Trump’s comments come months after the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired earlier this year.
The New START treaty signed in 2010 allowed one single extension, which was agreed by former President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin for five years. Any new extension would require an executive decision to voluntarily extend the limits of the treaty.
World
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says it is ‘painful’ when Trump chooses a different side
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview on Wednesday that it was “painful” when Donald Trump took another side in Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, after the US President said Zelenskiy should be replaced.
Zelenskiy told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side.”
He also said that he was OK with Trump being in the middle of Ukraine and Russia, but added: “If you are in the middle, you have to stay in the middle.”
Asked if he felt betrayed by Trump, who at the weekend called for Ukraine to get a new president having agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, Zelenskiy replied: “Really, yes … but it’s a little bit more complicated than just my emotions or my feelings.”
“It’s a pity we are losing (a) strong partner,” he added.
Zelenskiy also said: “We are not selling our country … it’s not about business for us, it’s just our life and this is our country.”
World
Yemen hospitals overwhelmed by surge in war casualties, Red Cross warns
Hospitals across Yemen are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in war casualties as intensified fighting along multiple front lines strains its already fragile health system, the Red Cross said on Wednesday.
Front-line hospitals in areas including Marib, Taiz and Yemen’s Red Sea coast were seeing unprecedented numbers of weapon-wounded patients, with some facilities admitting more than 700 casualties in a single week, according to the humanitarian agency, Reuters reported.
More than 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes since fighting in the country began in recent weeks, sparked by renewed fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi group and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
“Trauma care staff are under enormous pressure,” ICRC health coordinator Feras Abusamra said in a statement. Only a small proportion of Yemen’s functioning health facilities are capable of providing comprehensive trauma care, he said, while hospitals face large numbers of wounded people amid shortages of surgical supplies, anesthesia, oxygen and medicines.
Yemen’s health services, battered by more than a decade of conflict, economic crisis, displacement and disease outbreaks, may have limited capacity to absorb a new surge in mass casualties if fighting intensifies further, the ICRC warned.
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