Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
15-08-2024
UNITED NATIONS/ GAZA CITY: Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour tells emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that “Israel does not care about your condemnations” over the mass killing of civilians and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The UN’s humanitarian agency tells UNSC that the recent attack on a Gaza City school, which killed at least 100 people, was “far from an isolated incident” and Israeli strikes on schools “occurring with increasing frequency”.
Israel’s military orders Palestinians to immediately leave more areas of war-battered Khan Younis as it prepares to “act forcefully”.
The US approved more than $20bn in new weapons sales to Israel despite calls to stop arms deliveries amid the huge Palestinian civilian death toll due to Israel’s war on Gaza.
At least 39,929 people have been killed and 92,240 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.
The Israeli military statement follows reports of intense clashes and explosions in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas and the nearby town of Tammun.
According to the Israelis, they have “eliminated a terrorist and hit additional terrorists during exchanges of fire”. Arrests have also been made.
We reported earlier that loud explosions had been heard in Tubas as Palestinian resistance fighters fought an early-morning raid by Israeli forces, who surrounded and besieged a Palestinian household.
As we’ve been reporting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has approved another $20bn in weapons transfers to Israel, including dozens of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles.
However, the weapons are not expected to get to Israel anytime soon as they are contracts that will take years to fulfil. The earliest systems to be delivered under the contract are not expected until 2026.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, 24-year-old Sajida al-Kafarna was sleeping with her family in a classroom at Gaza City’s al-Tabin school, when they were woken by a huge explosion.
“We reassured each other that we were OK, but when I noticed my father’s empty place, panic set in because he had gone to pray dawn prayer,” Sajida recounted.
She and her family rushed to the school’s mosque to find 58-year-old Abdul Aziz al-Kafarna.
The school was ablaze, and everyone was screaming hysterically,” she recalled in a trembling voice, speaking to media over the phone.
“One person was still on fire, calling for help, but no one could save him. He burned in front of us, and no one could get in to help.”
Heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been reported in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas where local Palestinian resistance fighters have confronted an Israeli military incursion, according to local media reports.
Palestinian fighters report detonating two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) amid the ongoing clashes which began when Israeli troops poured into the city and surrounded a home in a predawn raid.
According to media, the Israeli forces fired antitank grenades at the besieged house and also bombed a vehicle in the city.
Images and video clips shared on social media show clouds of smoke following explosions and the sound of sustained and heavy automatic rifle fire. (Int’l News Desk)
