Thursday, October 24, 2024
1015 GMT — At least 55 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in besieged Gaza, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 42,847, the Health Ministry in the tiny enclave said.
A ministry statement added that some 100,544 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“The Israeli occupation has committed four massacres of families in the last 24 hours, resulting in 55 deaths and 132 injuries,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
1022 GMT — Abbas says Israel plans to 'empty' Gaza of its Palestinians
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that Israel aims to "empty" Gaza of Palestinians, especially in the northern part where it launched a sweeping assault this month.
"It has been a full year since the greatest catastrophe that the Palestinian people experienced after the Nakba of 1948, which is the Israeli war in which crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing are being committed in Gaza," Abbas said in a speech to members of the BRICS group.
"This is part of a plan to empty the territory of its people, especially now in northern Gaza where the occupation forces are resorting to starving the population there."
1014 GMT — 'No more destruction in Palestine, Lebanon': China's Xi urges BRICS to be stabilising force for peace
Stressing that there should be "no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon," China’s President Xi Jinping Thursday called on the BRICS member states to "uphold peace and strive for common security."
"We should come forward together to form a stabilising force for peace and explore solutions to address both symptoms and roots of hotspot issues," Xi told the participants of the expanded BRICS bloc format summit held in the southwestern city of Kazan, Russia.
0842 GMT –– Three Lebanese troops killed in south as Israel pounds Beirut
The Lebanese soldiers were killed as they were evacuating wounded people on the outskirts of the southern village of Yater, the Lebanese army said.
They were killed at around 4:15 a.m. (0115 GMT), a security source said. There was no immediate comment on the strike from the Israeli military, which has previously said it is not operating against the Lebanese army.
The area is part of the border region pounded by Israel during its month-long offensive against the heavily armed, Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, in a conflict that spiralled out of the Gaza war.
A security source in Lebanon said 13 Lebanese army troops had been killed whilst on active duty since the start of hostilities last year. Another 16 had been killed whilst at home. Israel has apologised in the past when it has confirmed Lebanese military deaths.
0830 GMT — Middle East is on the brink of full-scale war — Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Middle East is on the brink of a full-scale war as tensions rose sharply between Israel and Iran.
"The fighting that began a year ago in Gaza has now spread to Lebanon," Putin, sitting beside Chinese President Xi Jinping, told a meeting of the BRICS+ group in the city of Kazan on the Volga.
"Other countries in the region were also affected. The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply increased. All this resembles a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war."
0822 GMT — ‘We will always be together,’ South Africa’s Ramaphosa tells Palestine’s Abbas
South Africa and Palestine “will always be together,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas when they met for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
The two leaders discussed opportunities to “strengthen political and economic relations in line with South Africa's national interests and foreign policy priorities,” said a statement from Ramaphosa’s office.
“We are well when you are well, and you are all the time with us,” Abbas told Ramaphosa.
“Yes, of course… of course, without any doubt,” replied Ramaphosa, reiterating South Africa’s support for Palestine.
0806 GMT — Blinken arrives in Qatar on Gaza mediation push
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Doha for talks with Gaza mediator Qatar as part of a diplomatic effort aimed at heading off further escalation in the region.
The visit to the Gulf emirate, which hosts Palestinian resistance group Hamas's political office and has led mediation for a Gaza truce alongside the United States and Egypt, follows talks in Israel and Saudi Arabia on Blinken's 11th visit to the region since the start of the war last year.
0630 GMT — Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian president towards unity government for post-war Gaza
Palestinian resistance group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.
"We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war," Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.
Marzouk said that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.
0300 GMT — US and UK jointly strike Yemen’s Al Hudaydah airport — Houthis
Yemen’s Houthi group said that the US and UK carried out joint air strikes targeting the airport in western Al Hudaydah province.
In a brief statement, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said US and British fighter jets targeted Al-Hudaydah airport in two raids, without providing further details.
The statement did not mention any casualties or material damage.
There was also no comment from the US or the UK.
0151 GMT — Israel strikes residential building in Damascus
Syrian state media said Israel struck a residential building in Damascus.
"Initial reports indicate that an Israeli attack targeted a residential building in the Kafr Sousa area of Damascus," said the Sana news agency, without providing a toll.
