Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 40,534

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 40,534
Smoke and flames rise from a house hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video on Aug. 27, 2024. (Reuters TV)
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Updated 28 August 2024
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 40,534

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 40,534
  • Toll includes 58 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,778 people as wounded

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that at least 40,534 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month.
The toll includes 58 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,778 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.


UN peacekeepers say Israel troops fired at Lebanon post

UN peacekeepers say Israel troops fired at Lebanon post
Updated 7 sec ago
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UN peacekeepers say Israel troops fired at Lebanon post

UN peacekeepers say Israel troops fired at Lebanon post
“IDF (Israeli army) soldiers fired at” an observation post near the border village of Dhayra
“The duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot“

BEIRUT: United Nations peacekeepers said Friday that Israeli soldiers fired at one of their observation posts in south Lebanon this week, adding the security situation was “extremely challenging” amid other unidentified attacks.
“IDF (Israeli army) soldiers fired at” an observation post near the border village of Dhayra on Friday, a statement from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said, adding “the duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot.”
Separately, it reported three incidents of unidentified fire impacting UNIFIL positions, teams and vehicles this week, adding no peacekeepers were hurt but calling the security situation “extremely challenging.”
“Since early October, peacekeepers have observed clashes on the ground in or around” a dozen south Lebanon villages and towns, UNIFIL said, noting “rocket fire from Lebanon and heavy air and artillery strikes from Israel have continued.”
The Israeli military “has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions... and has deliberately damaged camera, lighting, and communications equipment” at some positions, the UN force said.
“Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in position and on task,” it added.
“All actors are reminded of their obligation to avoid actions putting peacekeepers or civilians in danger.”
Initially set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon, UNIFIL has around 10,000 peacekeepers from some 50 countries deployed in south Lebanon.
Also Friday, UNIFIL said two Indonesian peacekeepers who were wounded on October 10 when “an observation tower at UNIFIL’s Naqura headquarters was hit by Israeli tank fire” were back on duty after having “spent three days in intensive care.”

Five killed in Turkish strikes on PKK allies: Iraqi local sources

Five killed in Turkish strikes on PKK allies: Iraqi local sources
Updated 6 min 38 sec ago
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Five killed in Turkish strikes on PKK allies: Iraqi local sources

Five killed in Turkish strikes on PKK allies: Iraqi local sources
  • Turkish drone strikes had killed 27 civilians in Syria in a 24-hour military escalation, after an attack on Wednesday at state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) near Ankara
  • “A series of Turkish air strikes targeted the Sinjar Resistance Units,” a security official told AFP

BAGHDAD: Turkish air strikes on northern Iraq targeting a group affiliated with Turkiye’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed five people on Friday, local sources said.
The strikes came after a Syria war monitor said Turkish drone strikes had killed 27 civilians in Syria in a 24-hour military escalation, after an attack on Wednesday at state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) near Ankara, which Turkiye said killed five people.
After the Ankara attack, Turkiye’s defense ministry had announced strikes against sites linked to the PKK in Iraq and Syria.
“A series of Turkish air strikes targeted the Sinjar Resistance Units,” a security official told AFP, reporting a total of five people killed, as the PKK claimed Wednesday’s attack.
The official spoke from Nineveh province, where Sinjar is located, under cover of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Speaking under similar ground rules, a second official in Sinjar gave the same toll for the “Turkish aerial bombardments targeting positions of the Sinjar Resistance Units.”
In a statement, the anti-terrorist service of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, adjacent to Nineveh, gave a lower toll of “three fighters killed” in Sinjar.
It said the strikes by Turkish drones and warplanes targeted PKK positions.
Turkiye frequently carries out ground and air offensives on positions of the PKK — which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state — in northern Iraq, the autonomous Kurdistan region and the mountains of Sinjar.
Turkiye has also over the past 25 years operated several dozen military bases in northern Iraq in its war against the PKK.


Israel army confirms strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing

Israel army confirms strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing
Updated 25 October 2024
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Israel army confirms strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing

Israel army confirms strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing
  • Israeli military statement: Hezbollah ‘exploits the Jousieh civilian crossing … to transfer weapons’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that it had struck a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon that it said was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
“Overnight ... the IAF (air force) struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites at the Jousieh border crossing in the northern Bekaa area (of Lebanon), the military said in a statement, adding that Hezbollah “exploits the Jousieh civilian crossing, which is under the control of the Syrian regime and is operated by Syrian military security, to transfer weapons.”


Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis

Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis
Updated 25 October 2024
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Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis

Gaza rescuers say children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis
  • Fourteen people were killed in a strike that hit the home of the Al-Fara family

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes hit two homes at dawn on Friday in Khan Younis, the territory’s main southern city, killing at least 20 people including children.
Fourteen people were killed in a strike that hit the home of the Al-Fara family, and a separate air raid killed another six, according to agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Bassal said the 14 included nine children under the age of 16.
AFP photographs showed relatives at the European hospital in Khan Younis mourning the deaths of children, the bodies of several of them wrapped in white shrouds.
The military, in a statement giving an operational update, said that “a number of terrorists were eliminated from the air and ground” in southern Gaza.
While Israeli forces continue to operate across Gaza, recent weeks have seen an intensified air and ground assault in the territory’s north, where the military reports Hamas militants are regrouping.


Kurdish rebels claim deadly Ankara attack

Kurdish rebels claim deadly Ankara attack
Updated 25 October 2024
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Kurdish rebels claim deadly Ankara attack

Kurdish rebels claim deadly Ankara attack
  • ‘The act of sacrifice at TAI campus in Ankara at around 15:30 local time on Wednesday was carried out by a team of the immortals battalion’

ISTANBUL: The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Friday claimed a deadly attack on a state-run Turkish defense firm in the capital Ankara.
“The act of sacrifice at TAI campus in Ankara at around 15:30 local time on Wednesday was carried out by a team of the immortals battalion” of the PKK, it said on Telegram, referring to Turkish Aerospace Industries.