Category World News

A Khan Younis doctor’s family was nearly killed by an Israeli attack while she was working, according to Gaza health officials.

According to Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s paediatrics department, the attack hit Alaa al-Najjar’s home on Friday, causing nine of her 10 children to burn inside.

According to a statement from Gaza’s Government Media Office, Al-Najjar’s husband has been seriously hurt, and Adam, the couple’s only child, is in critical condition.

According to the media office, the dead children range in age from seven months to twelve years old, with two of them still submerged.

The office claimed that the attack “capsulates the Palestinian people’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Under all international laws and conventions, it qualifies as a full-fledged war crime.

“New phase of genocide”

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the besieged enclave, criticized the attack as part of a “new phase of genocide” facing Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

Two doctors assist others at work. An Israeli missile that targets their home kills nine of their children. Only surviving child in critical condition.

The distinctive sadistic pattern of the new genocide focuses on families that live in the still-standing structures. https://t.co/6tlylARKK5

Hamas claimed to have deliberately targeted medical personnel, civilians, and their families in an effort to “break their will” in a pattern that Israel has practiced.

In an area where civilians had been evacuated, the Israeli military reported striking suspected fighters operating from a structure next to its forces. The military continued, “The claim that harm is being caused by uninvolved civilians is being looked at.”

Israel notified Khan Younis, the second-largest city in Gaza, on Monday by imposing “unprecedented attack” warnings. Daily, deadly amounts of bombing are being carried out in the area.

In addition to the al-Najjar children, numerous others have died in the attacks by Israel on Friday and Saturday.

79 people who were killed in Israeli attacks were taken to hospitals between Friday and Saturday, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Facilities that are inaccessible in the north of the enclave are not included in that figure, it claimed.

At least 10,000 properties are suspected to have been damaged in the coastal region of New South Wales in the east, according to the state’s emergency services agency on Saturday, according to a statement released on Saturday.

After days of relentless rain, which the agency reported isolated towns, washed away livestock, and destroyed homes, the weather has improved since Friday.

“We’re working closely with federal, state, and local governments to ensure Australians receive the support they need throughout the recovery,” Albanese said on X.

State Emergency Services commissioner Mike Wassing reported that 52 rescues were performed overnight while hundreds of residents are still in evacuation centers despite better conditions.

A man in his 80s was discovered at a flooded property about 50 kilometers (32 miles) from Taree, one of the worst-hit towns, to raise the death toll from flooding.

After being forced to cancel his trip to Taree on Friday due to flooding, Albanese said it is “awful to hear the news of more loss of life.”

In the state’s most populous state, where flooding was worst, isolated about 50 000 people and submerged roads.

After a powerful storm system dumped months’ worth of rain in three days, coastal areas were left rife with dead and debris.

flooded tracks affected both train and airport services. Flights were delayed by Sydney Airport’s two of its three runway closures for an hour on Friday morning.

In recent years, Australia has experienced a number of extreme weather events, which climate change experts have attributed to.

After an official reception and a meeting at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Saturday, Turkiye’s state media captured the two leaders shaking hands.

Erdogan’s office claimed Erdogan’s government welcomed the lifting of the sanctions. In a statement on X, he added that Turkiye will continue to oppose Israel’s occupation and aggression in Syrian territory.

The leaders discussed “a number of mutual files,” according to the presidency of Syria’s quick statement that was made public through state media.

The talks, which were held behind closed doors for the press, included Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler, National Intelligence Organization director Ibrahim Kalin, and Turkish Defence Industries secretary Haluk Gorgun.

His foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani and his defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra were with Al-Sharaa, who had a sizable support from Turkey, in ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Erdogan also met the interim leader of Syria in Ankara in the country’s capital in early February, marking his second international visit since meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh.

As regional allies helped persuade US President Donald Trump to lift severe sanctions against Syria, the two parties have been talking about approving bilateral relations and starting a reconstruction of Syria.

The first sanctions were lifted by Washington on Friday as part of Trump’s push to expand its footprint during his regional tour earlier this month. In response, the European Union lifted economic sanctions to aid in Syria’s recovery from years of civil war.

The new Syrian government welcomed the lifting of the sanctions, and its ministry of foreign affairs on Saturday described it as a “positive step in the right direction to reduce the country’s humanitarian and economic struggles.”

When Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, was in power, the US began imposing sanctions against Syria in 1979. However, they were significantly raised when the al-Assad government launched a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2011, which led to the country’s civil war, which resulted in the displacement of millions and the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

Any person or business involved in the al-Assad regime, including those involved in the country’s reconstruction, was targeted by the sanctions.

In southern Lebanon, voters are casting ballots in municipal elections that are intended to demonstrate support for Hezbollah, a Shia-majority political and armed group.

The final stage of Lebanon’s erratic local elections is set for Saturday, when Hezbollah is allied with Amal, the party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Following months of attacks, the group and Israel were supposed to end a November 2024 ceasefire. However, lsrael has continued to make sporadic strikes as recently as on Thursday when airstrikes targeted a number of locations in the south.

Given that they have already snagged unopposed control of numerous councils, Hezbollah and Amal are widely expected to win over municipal elections.

Residents of Kfar Kila, a town nearly levelled by Israeli attacks, cast ballots in nearby Nabatieh, which had a high turnout in border villages ravaged by the conflict from last year. In Tyre, residents of the surrounding areas cast ballots.

As he visited the country’s south on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared to reporters that “the will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction.” He claimed that Aaichiyeh, his hometown, had voted for him for the first time in 40 years.

Hezbollah members who were recovering from a string of Israeli attacks in September 2024, when thousands of pagers nearly simultaneously detonated, killing nearly a dozen people, and injuring nearly 3, 000, were among those who were going to the polls.

Hezbollah legislator Ali Fayyad, who represents border villages, stated in Nabatieh that “Southerners are proving once more that they are with the choice of resistance.”

Hezbollah is still a major political force.

Hezbollah is in a crucial moment with the vote. The elections provide a chance for the organization to reaffirm its influence in the region, despite the group’s diminished military might and political leverage after the conflict.

“Lebanon is still reeling from the Hezbollah-Israel war from the previous year. Israel continues to target Hezbollah despite a ceasefire, according to Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, who is based in Nabatieh.

Hezbollah, Khodr continued, “Hezbollah, undoubtedly, lost a lot of its military power during the conflict, and it is using these elections as an opportunity to demonstrate that it still has political influence.”

Many believe Hezbollah failed to provide them with protection during the conflict, but isolation fears persist, she said. They feel vulnerable in a divided nation, not just toward Israel, and feel that Hezbollah’s supporters are also marginalizing the entire community.

Hezbollah is being pressured to disarm as required by the United States-brokered truce with Israel because the new government of Lebanon has pledged to do so.

After 14 months of fighting, Lebanon now faces a sizable challenge of rebuilding, according to the World Bank, which needs more than $11 billion to be rebuilt.

Hezbollah launched a rocket attack on Israel in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October 2023 as a result of a surprise attack led by Hamas.

No arrests have been made at this time, according to a spokesperson for the French national gendarmerie on Saturday.

According to police sources, a high-voltage substation in the village of Tanneron, which supplies Cannes, was the subject of an overnight fire, likely an arson attack.

Later, Villeneuve-Loubet’s electricity pylon and Tanneron power substation were both vandalized, according to prosecutors and local authorities.

The Alpes-Maritimes region’s regional council had earlier announced earlier on Saturday that a significant electrical outage was affecting the region’s western region, which includes Cannes.

RTE and regional officials claim that the outage started on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time (08:00 GMT), which affected 160, 000 homes.

As power was restored around 3 p.m. (13:00 GMT), locals cheered loudly and heard music from beachfront speakers.

Businesses on the main shopping street in the Alpes-Maritimes had been closed because of the outages of the traffic lights.

On Monday, separate power outages impacted important infrastructure and airport operations across the Iberian Peninsula and some of southern France. Officials disputed foul play.

RTE reports that the French Basque Country experienced brief power outages lasting only a few minutes compared to Spain and Portugal’s blackouts last month.

The most recent issue occurred on Saturday evening just before the Palais des Festivals’ 78th Cannes Film Festival’s awards ceremony.

Festival organizers previously claimed to have switched to an alternative electricity supply in spite of the power outage, which made it possible to “maintain the events and screenings planned for today in normal conditions, including the closing ceremony.”

A jury led by French actor Juliette Binoche is scheduled to announce the winners of the 22 films in the Palme d’Or for best picture after a politically charged two weeks.