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Israel says at ‘war’ after rocket barrages, militant infiltration
Palestinian militants have begun a "war" against Israel, the country's defense minister said Saturday after a barrage of rockets were fired and fighters from the Palestinian enclave infiltrated Israel, a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has been surging for almost two years, with fatalities in the occupied West Bank hitting a scale not seen in years. At least two people were killed in Israel, officials said. Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Palestinian militant group Hamas has "launched a war against the State of Israel." "Troops are fighting against the enemy at every location," he said in a statement. AFP journalists said Israel's military began air strikes on Gaza, following the rocket barrage from inside the territory which is sealed off from Israel by a militarized border barrier. "Dozens of IDF fighter jets are currently striking a number of targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip," the military said. Rockets had earlier streamed across the sky repeatedly after the first launches from multiple locations across the Palestinian territory from 6:30 am (0330 GMT), AFP journalists in Gaza City reported. The armed wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it was behind the aerial assault, saying its militants had launched thousands of rockets and its fighters seized an Israeli tank. Israel's army did not immediately comment on the tank claim when contacted by AFP. Israeli security chiefs convened over the violence, which occurred on Shabbat and during a Jewish holiday. Air raid sirens wailed across southern and central Israel, and the army urged people to stay near bomb shelters. AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard multiple rockets being intercepted by Israeli air defense systems. Sirens blared across the city on more occasions than in any Gaza conflict in the past three years. "We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel). Their time for rampaging without being held accountable is over," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said. "We announce Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and we fired, in the first strike of 20 minutes, more than 5,000 rockets." Hundreds of Gazans flee Hundreds of residents fled their homes in eastern Gaza to move away from the border with Israel, an AFP correspondent said. Men, women and children carrying blankets and food left their homes, mostly in the northeastern part of the territory, the reporter said. Israel's military said Hamas launched "massive shooting of rockets", while at the same time "terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory in a number of different locations". Hamas "will face the consequences and responsibility for these events", it said in a statement. In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, some Palestinian residents cheered and blew their car horns as sirens blared. A regional council for Israeli communities northeast of Gaza said its president was killed in an exchange of fire with attackers from Gaza. Separately, a woman in her 60s was killed "due to a direct hit" in Israel, the Magen David Adom emergency services said. Fifteen others were wounded, two of them seriously, medics said. An AFP photographer in the coastal city of Tel Aviv saw a gaping hole in a building, with residents gathered outside. Hamas calls to 'join battle' Hamas called on "the resistance fighters in the West Bank" as well as "our Arab and Islamic nations" to join the battle, in a statement posted on Telegram. The United States condemned the Hamas fire and urged "all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks." "Terror and violence solve nothing," the US Office of Palestinian Affairs wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza since 2007 after Hamas took power. Palestinian militants and Israel have fought several devastating wars since. The latest violence follows heightened tensions in September, when Israel closed the border to Gazan workers for two weeks. The shutdown of the crossing came as Palestinian demonstrators along the border burned tires and threw rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and live bullets. Resuming workers' passage on 28 September had raised hopes of calming the situation in impoverished Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. In May, an exchange of Israeli air strikes and Gaza rocket fire killed 34 Palestinians and one Israeli. So far this year at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners have been killed in the conflict, including combatants and civilians on both sides, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. The vast majority of fatalities have occurred in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. There has been a rise in army raids, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property. The rising violence this year came against the backdrop of divisive judicial reforms introduced by the hard-right government of President Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies. Several far-right ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet live in West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law. The post Israel says at ‘war’ after rocket barrages, militant infiltration appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden calls China ‘ticking time bomb’ over economic woes
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that China's mounting economic problems make the country a "ticking time bomb." "China is a ticking time bomb in many cases," Biden said at a private fundraising event in the western state of Utah. The Democrat pointed to the country's high unemployment an aging workforce, saying "China is in trouble." "When bad folks have problems, they do bad things," he said. Biden offended Beijing in June by describing his counterpart Xi Jinping as a "dictator," in a comment slammed as a "provocation" by China's foreign ministry. Biden insisted Thursday that he was seeking "a rational relationship with China." "I don't want to hurt China, but I'm watching," he said. The United States recently relaunched its dialogue with China, with a succession of visits to Beijing by senior American officials, including chief diplomat Antony Blinken. The aim of Blinken's trip was to turn the page on recent tensions surrounding a Chinese balloon described as a "spy" operation that was shot down by the United States in February. The post Biden calls China ‘ticking time bomb’ over economic woes appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Thousands flee flooded homes after Ukraine dam destroyed
Thousands were fleeing their homes Wednesday after the destruction of a frontline Russian-held dam in Ukraine flooded dozens of villages and parts of a nearby city, sparking fears of a humanitarian disaster. Downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian police and troops in the southern city of Kherson were bringing people out from inundated areas in inflatable boats, most clutching only a few documents and pets. Despite the evacuations, officials said Russian forces have kept shelling the residential neighborhoods. Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for the dam being ripped open early Tuesday, prompting Turkey's president to propose to both nations' leaders an international probe of the breach. The destruction has also raised fears of an environmental disaster and nuclear safety risks as it provides cooling water for Europe's largest nuclear plant. One woman, Nataliya Korzh, 68, had swum part of the way to escape from her house. She emerged from a rescue boat barefoot, her legs covered with scratches, her hands trembling from cold. "All my rooms are underwater. My fridge is floating, the freezer, everything. We're used to shooting, but a natural disaster is a real nightmare. I wasn't expecting that," she told AFP. She feared for her two dogs and cat, which she was unable to save. "To get to the room where the dogs were, I would have had to dive. I don't know what's happened to them." The water was waist-deep in the central streets of Kherson and the ground floors of buildings were submerged. A spokesman for Ukraine's emergency services, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, said that "currently there is no information about the dead or injured". Water levels in Kherson have risen by five meters (16 feet), he said. While finger-pointing continued over the dam's destruction, Moscow accused Kyiv of blowing up a key pipeline that Russia used before the war to export ammonia and whose re-activation it has requested as part of grain deal talks. Continued shelling The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,700 people had been evacuated so far and reported that ongoing shelling was endangering rescuers and locals. Moscow-installed officials on the Russian-occupied side of the river said on Tuesday that more than 1,200 people had been evacuated. A policeman, Sergiy, 38, was using a radio to coordinate the rescue boats. "Today we've already saved 30 people, 10 pets. There was one child. We will work until we've brought out all the people," he told AFP. Washington warned there would be "likely many deaths" due to the breach of the Kakhovka dam. Kyiv said the destruction of the dam -- seized by Russia in the early hours of the war -- was an attempt by Moscow to hamper its long-awaited offensive, which Ukraine's leader stressed would not be affected. The United Nations warned that hundreds of thousands could be affected on both sides of the frontline. The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,852 houses had been flooded by early Wednesday. "According to our forecasts, the water level will increase by one meter within the next 20 hours," he warned. An official in President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, Daria Zarivna, said that in the occupied territory "the Russians simply abandoned people" and in the town of Oleshky on the opposite bank from Kherson, "many spent the night on the roofs of houses". 'Environmental bomb' Zelensky accused Russia of detonating an "environmental bomb of mass destruction", saying authorities expected up to 80 settlements with tens of thousands of residents to be flooded and urging the world to "react". "This crime carries enormous threats and will have dire consequences for people's lives and the environment," Zelensky said. But the explosion would "not affect Ukraine's ability to de-occupy its own territories", he added. Last October, Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at the dam, warning that its destruction would spur a new wave of refugees into Europe. Kyiv said 150 tonnes of engine oil had spilled into the river, and the agricultural ministry said about 10 thousand hectares of farmland on the right bank of the river would be flooded and "several times more" on the left bank. China expressed "serious concern" over the dam destruction, while EU chief Charles Michel called it a "war crime" and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg condemned it as "outrageous". Russia has said the dam was partially destroyed by "multiple strikes" from Ukrainian forces and urged the world to condemn Kyiv's "criminal acts". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said he proposed setting up an international commission to investigate the destruction of the dam in calls with Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Soviet-era dam, built in the 1950s, sits on the Dnipro River, which provides cooling water for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant some 150 kilometers (90 miles) away. The UN nuclear watchdog agency said the dam break was posing "no short-term risk" to the plant. Separately, Moscow accused a Ukrainian "sabotage" group of blowing up a section of the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline that Russia used to export ammonia and that is part of the international talks on allowing grain exports from Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of firing at the ammonia pipeline. The post Thousands flee flooded homes after Ukraine dam destroyed appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
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