Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida killed in Gaza, Israel says
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, has been killed in an air strike in Gaza Metropolis, Israel has mentioned.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz congratulated the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) and Israel’s safety company, Shin Wager, for the “flawless execution” in a submit on X.
He gave no element on the time or location of the operation, however the IDF earlier mentioned its plane attacked “a key terrorist” within the al-Rimal neighbourhood on Saturday, prompting reviews in Israeli media that Obeida had been the goal.
Hamas has not confirmed his loss of life. The Palestinian armed group earlier mentioned dozens of civilians had been killed and injured in Israeli strikes on a residential constructing within the district.
Katz warned on Sunday that many extra of Obeida’s “prison companions” can be focused with “the intensification of the marketing campaign in Gaza” – a reference to a just lately accepted Israeli plan to grab management of Gaza Metropolis.
Individually, the IDF and Shin Wager provided extra particulars about Saturday’s strikes that focused the Hamas spokesman.
They mentioned in a joint assertion that the operation had been “made attainable as a consequence of prior intelligence gathered by [Shin Bet] and the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate” that had recognized his hiding place.
Obeida was among the many few remaining senior members of Hamas’s army wing from earlier than its lethal 7 October 2023 assault on southern Israel.
5 missiles struck the second and third ground of the six-storey residence within the al-Rimal neighbourhood constructing concurrently from two completely different instructions.
The flat that was focused had been used as a dentist’s surgical procedure. Witnesses reported seeing a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} flying within the air after the strikes, with giant sums stolen by locals however later recovered by Hamas.
The joint assertion mentioned Obeida “served as the general public face of the Hamas terrorist group” and “disseminated Hamas’ propaganda”.
Over the previous few years, Obeida – believed to be about 40 years previous – delivered a variety of lengthy diatribes in opposition to Israel on behalf of Hamas’s army wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
All the time masked in a Palestinian scarf, he turned an idol to Hamas supporters all through the Center East.
In what could have been his remaining speech on Friday, Obeida mentioned the destiny of remaining Israeli hostages can be the identical as that of Hamas fighters, warning Israel in opposition to its deliberate invasion of Gaza Metropolis.
Native journalists reported that a minimum of seven individuals had been killed and 20 injured within the strikes on the densely populated al-Rimal neighbourhood, with youngsters among the many casualties.
Mohammed Emad, who runs a barbershop simply 100m (328ft) from the location, instructed the BBC that “the blasts had been terrifying – I could not transfer for greater than an hour”.
He added: “I am unable to consider I am nonetheless alive. I noticed injured youngsters with blood masking their faces, and other people had been operating in each route as if the world had ended.”
Footage verified by the BBC of the aftermath of the strikes exhibits terrified residents fleeing into the streets.
Blood will be seen flowing from a physique lined by material, whereas an injured little one is carried away by a person.
The IDF mentioned that previous to the assault “many steps had been taken to scale back the possibility of harming civilians, together with using precision weapons, aerial observations, and extra intelligence info”.
BBC Information has been unable to independently confirm the claims of both the IDF or Hamas.
In early August, Israel’s safety cupboard accepted a plan to grab management of Gaza Metropolis in a recent offensive, with the said goal of bringing the 22-month-long struggle to an finish.
The UN has repeatedly warned {that a} full army takeover would danger “catastrophic penalties” for Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The UK’s ambassador to Israel has mentioned it will be “an enormous mistake”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas and defied worldwide criticism of his plans to develop the struggle.
Israel’s army operation in Gaza started in response to the Hamas-led 7 October assault, through which about 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 others had been taken hostage. Since then, greater than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed, in response to the Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry.
Whereas the operation to seize Gaza Metropolis has but to start in earnest, Israeli assaults on the town – the place almost 1,000,000 individuals dwell – have been ongoing.
One native resident instructed the BBC that the identical residence constructing struck on Saturday had already been hit in an earlier Israeli air raid months in the past.
The Israeli army has mentioned it plans to evacuate Gaza Metropolis’s total inhabitants and transfer it to shelters within the south earlier than troops transfer in. Most of Gaza’s inhabitants has already been displaced many instances in the course of the battle.
Greater than 90% of the town’s properties are estimated to be broken or destroyed, and the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene programs have collapsed.
Final week, conditions of famine were confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding areas for the first time.
Houthis affirm their prime minister killed in Israeli strike
Yemen’s Houthi insurgent motion has confirmed that its self-proclaimed Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi was killed in an Israeli air strike earlier this week.
The Iran-backed group mentioned a number of different senior officers have been killed when the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) focused Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Thursday.
The IDF mentioned on the time that it attacked a Houthi “navy goal” within the Sanaa space, giving no additional particulars.
The Houthis have managed a lot of north-western Yemen since 2014, after ousting the internationally recognised authorities from Sanaa and triggering a devastating civil battle.
The Houthis mentioned Rahawi had been killed alongside a number of Houthi ministers, although it didn’t identify the others.
Saudi Arabian information website al-Hadath experiences the Houthis’ international minister, in addition to the ministers for justice, youth and sports activities, social affairs and labour, have been killed.
The workplace of Mahdi al-Mashat, the Houthis’ president, mentioned that a number of different ministers “sustained average and critical accidents” because of the strike.
It added that Muhammad Ahmed Miftah, the Houthi deputy prime minister, would assume Rahawi’s position.
Rahawi had held his submit since August 2024, and was largely seen as a figurehead of the motion as an alternative of being a part of the highest decision-making circle that plans navy operations.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the motion’s final chief, in addition to the group’s defence minister and the chief of workers, weren’t mentioned to be among the many casualties in Thursday’s assault.
The IDF is but to publicly touch upon the most recent developments.
Because the begin of the battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles at Israel and focused business ships within the Purple Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they’re appearing in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has, in flip, carried out air strikes on targets in Houthi-held components of Yemen, with the acknowledged purpose of curbing Houthi assaults.
US to cease Palestinians attending UN assembly in New York
The US says it’s going to deny or revoke visas for Palestinian officers wishing to journey to New York subsequent month to attend the UN Common Meeting session.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for in search of “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.
The choice is uncommon – the US, as host nation, is predicted to facilitate journey for officers of all international locations wishing to go to the UN headquarters.
The ban comes as France spearheads worldwide efforts to recognise a state of Palestine on the GA session. Donald Trump’s administration has totally backed Israel in voicing opposition to such a transfer.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continuously rejected the concept of a two-state resolution – the long-time worldwide components to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. It envisages an impartial Palestinian state being created alongside Israel within the West Financial institution and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu says recognition of a Palestinian state would quantity to rewarding “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.
The Israeli army launched a marketing campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, wherein about 1,200 folks have been killed and 251 others have been taken hostage.
Greater than 63,000 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, based on the Hamas-run well being ministry.
Hamas has been operating the Gaza Strip for years, with its rival Fatah in cost within the West Financial institution.
Each are speculated to be ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas can also be in command of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – the umbrella organisation which represents Palestinians at worldwide fora. The PLO has had observer standing on the UN since 1974. It will possibly take part in conferences however not vote on resolutions.
In his announcement on Friday, Rubio said: “Earlier than the PLO and PA will be thought of companions for peace, they have to persistently repudiate terrorism – together with the October 7 bloodbath – and finish incitement to terrorism in training, as required by U.S. legislation and as promised by the PLO.”
He stated they have to additionally finish efforts to bypass negotiations by pursuing authorized instances towards Israel at worldwide courts.
Rubio stated Palestinian representatives on the UN mission in New York may attend the conferences in accordance with the UN Headquarters Agreement – the doc that regulates issued concerning the operations of the UN within the US.
It’s unclear, nevertheless, if the US transfer to disclaim or revoke visas complies with that doc, which outlines that international officers’ attendance in New York shall not be impeded by the US “no matter the relations” between their respective governments and the US.
Other than France, the UK, Canada and Australia have additionally introduced plans to recognise a Palestinian state on the GA assembly subsequent month.
The state of Palestine is presently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.
However with no recognised borders, Israeli settlers controlling giant components of the West Financial institution – illegal under international law – and calls to do the identical in Gaza, any recognition of a Palestinian state wouldn’t change a lot on the bottom.
Fired CDC director Dr Susan Monarez says RFK ‘weaponising public well being’
The director of the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) stays in a heated standoff with the Trump administration after the White Home introduced she had been fired.
Susan Monarez – who has solely been within the job for a month – refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives” and accused Well being Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr of “weaponising public well being”, in keeping with her legal professionals.
Her lawyer insisted Dr Monarez’s sacking was not authorized and solely President Donald Trump – not White Home officers – might take away her.
The explanation for her elimination was that she was “not aligned with the president’s agenda”, the White Home mentioned in a press release.
At the least three senior CDC leaders resigned from the company, some citing frustration over vaccine coverage and the management of Kennedy, also called RFK.
Amongst them was Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who warned concerning the “rise of misinformation” about vaccines in a letter seen by the BBC’s US accomplice CBS Information. She additionally argued towards deliberate cuts to the company’s funds.
A protracted-time federal authorities scientist, Dr Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to steer the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote alongside celebration strains in July.
Her nomination adopted Trump withdrawing his first choose, former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who had come beneath hearth for his views on vaccines and autism.
On Wednesday, Dr Monarez’s legal professionals issued a press release saying that she had chosen “defending the general public over serving a political agenda”.
The White Home assertion asserting the termination of her submit mentioned: “As her lawyer’s assertion makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is just not aligned with the president’s agenda.”
On Thursday, Kennedy instructed Fox Information that the CDC management “must execute Trump’s agenda”.
The CDC, he added, “in in bother, must be fastened”.
The New York Instances reports that she was at odds with Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic, over vaccine coverage.
The exodus on the high of one of many world’s most foremost public well being our bodies comes as well being consultants voice concern over the company’s strategy to immunisations since Kennedy took over.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s the rating member of the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions (HELP) mentioned the sacking was “reckless” and “harmful” and referred to as for an investigation into the firing of Dr Monarez.
Daniel Jernigan, who led the Nationwide Heart for Rising and Zoonotic Infectious Illnesses, was a kind of to give up citing “the present context within the division”.
Head of the Nationwide Heart for Immunization and Respiratory Illnesses, Demetre Daskalakis, additionally mentioned he was not in a position to serve “due to the continued weaponising of public well being”.
There are additionally experiences, together with by NBC Information, that Dr Jennifer Layden, director of the Workplace of Public Well being Knowledge, Surveillance and Know-how, has additionally resigned.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) accredited new Covid vaccines whereas limiting who might obtain them.
The vaccines can be out there for all seniors, however youthful adults and kids with out underlying well being circumstances can be excluded.
“The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, as soon as used to justify broad mandates on most people through the Biden administration, at the moment are rescinded,” Kennedy wrote on X.
Dr Monarez was the primary CDC director in 50 years to not maintain a medical diploma. Her background is in infectious illness analysis.
In her month because the CDC chief, she helped consolation company staff after the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman who believed he had been harmed by Covid vaccines.
The assault, wherein a whole lot of bullets struck the constructing, killed one police officer.
Earlier this month, present and former staff of the company wrote an open letter accusing Kennedy of fuelling violence in the direction of healthcare employees along with his anti-vaccine rhetoric.
Dr Monarez’s departure comes a couple of week after a union representing CDC staff introduced that about 600 CDC staff had been fired.
The wide-ranging layoffs included staff engaged on the federal government’s response to infectious ailments, together with chook flu, in addition to these researching environmental hazards and dealing with public file requests.
Portray looted by Nazis has vanished once more, say Argentine police
A portray stolen by the Nazis that was noticed in an Argentinian property agent’s advert has vanished, a prosecutor says following a raid on the house.
Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Ghislandi was featured hanging above a settee inside a property close to Buenos Aires, which was being bought by the daughter of a senior Nazi who fled Germany after World Struggle Two.
A police raid on the home this week nonetheless turned up no portray – however two weapons had been seized, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez informed native media.
Mr Martínez stated they had been treating it as an alleged cover-up of smuggling, Argentinian every day Clarin reported.
The newspaper reported that the furnishings had been rearranged and the image was lacking from the wall after they raided the property.
Peter Schouten of the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, which first reported the long-lost art work’s reappearance, stated there was proof “the portray was eliminated shortly afterwards or after the media studies about it appeared”.
“There’s now a big rug with horses and a few nature scenes hanging there, which police say appears to be like like one thing else used to hold there”.
Portrait of a Girl was among the many assortment of Amsterdam artwork seller Jacques Goudstikker, a lot of which was forcibly bought by the Nazis after his demise.
A number of the works had been recovered in Germany after the battle, and placed on show in Amsterdam as a part of the Dutch nationwide assortment.
For greater than 80 years, the placement of late-baroque Italian portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi’s portray of the Contessa Colleoni had been unknown till now.
AD’s investigation discovered wartime paperwork that counsel the portray was within the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, an SS officer and senior monetary aide to Hermann Göring, who fled in 1945 earlier than finally transferring to Argentina, the place he grew to become a profitable businessman.
Kadgien died in 1979, however a US file seen by AD included the road: “Seems to own substantial property, may nonetheless be of worth to us”.
The paper added that it had made a number of makes an attempt to talk to his two daughters in Buenos Aires through the years however to no avail.
It was solely when one in every of Kadgien’s daughters put the home up on the market that they made any progress in finding the lacking works.
One other looted art work – a floral still-life by the Seventeenth-century Dutch painter Abraham Mignon – was additionally noticed on one of many sister’s social media, AD reported.
Following the photograph’s look, one of many sisters informed the Dutch paper she did not know what they needed from her, nor what portray they “are speaking about”.
Attorneys for Goudstikker’s property stated they might make each effort to reclaim the portray.
His sole-surviving inheritor, daughter-in-law Marei von Saher, stated her household “goals to deliver again each single art work robbed from Jacques’ assortment, and to revive his legacy”.
In response to AD, she took possession of 202 items in 2006.
Teen avoids jail over plot to assault Taylor Swift Vienna live performance
A 16-year-old who helped to organize a foiled assault on a Taylor Swift live performance in Vienna final 12 months has prevented jail.
Mohamed A was given an 18-month suspended sentence underneath juvenile felony regulation in Berlin on Tuesday.
The Syrian, who prosecutors mentioned was radicalised by Islamic State (IS) propaganda on the web, was 14 when he helped the would-be attacker with a translation of bomb-making directions from Arabic and put him involved with an IS member.
Swift’s three sold-out gigs at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium have been called off in August last year by live performance organisers after the deliberate assault was uncovered by police.
The courtroom mentioned {the teenager} made a full confession to the costs.
On the time prices have been introduced, he was solely recognized as Mohamed A in keeping with German privateness legal guidelines.
Underneath a suspended sentence, convicts want to fulfill sure circumstances to keep away from being despatched to jail.
Three suspects, all of whom have been youngsters on the time, have additionally been detained by Austrian authorities over the plot.
An investigation into the principle suspect, recognized as Beran A, is ongoing. The 20-year-old Austrian, who’s in custody, was arrested earlier than the live shows following a tip-off from the CIA.
The US overseas intelligence service mentioned the plotters had hoped to kill a lot of concert-goers.
Investigators allege Beran A had additionally deliberate to hold out an earlier assault in Dubai in March 2024.
Reviews recommended it was a part of a co-ordinated plot involving three simultaneous IS assaults however he had modified his thoughts on the final minute.
In August final 12 months, Swift described the cancellation of her Vienna tour dates as “devastating”.
“However I used to be additionally so grateful to the authorities as a result of due to them, we have been grieving live shows and never lives,” she added.