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Russia rehearsed 'massive' nuclear strike: Kremlin
Russia has practised delivering a "massive" nuclear strike, Kremlin has said.
The military practice featured delivering a "response to an enemy nuclear strike," said Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, reports BBC.
Also read: Russia rains missiles on recaptured Ukrainian city
Russian state television showed him telling President Vladimir Putin about the rehearsal, it said.
It comes as Russia's parliament endorsed Moscow's departure from a worldwide treaty that prohibits all physical testing of nuclear weapons.
Also read: Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting rescue workers with consecutive missile strikes
Russia and the US perform monthly nuclear readiness simulations, with Moscow often holding its own towards the end of October, said the report.
This year's drills included "delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike," according to Shoigu's report to Putin.
Also read: Russian missile and drone attack in Ukraine kills 21 people
According to a Kremlin statement, "practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles" had happened, the report added.
According to the statement, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from a test location in Russia's far-east, while another missile was launched from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea.
The defence ministry made available video of the testing, the report continued.
Putin announced earlier this month that Russia has conducted a "final successful test" of a nuclear-powered cruise missile.
The experimental weapon, initially unveiled in 2018, was lauded as potentially having an infinite range, but President Putin's story has yet to be officially confirmed.
The new tests will be viewed as a demonstration of force.
There is no indication that the Kremlin intends to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons, according to the US government.
Israeli troops launch brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected wider incursion
Israeli troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several militant targets in order to "prepare the battlefield" ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids.
The raid came after the U.N. warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas' bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month.
Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. Health officials said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets pounded Gaza. Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory.
Also read: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
Gaza's Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, said its strikes killed militants and destroyed military targets. Gaza militants have fired unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.
During the overnight raid, the military said soldiers struck fighters, militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either aide.
The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.
Also read: Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza approximates 5,800: Hamas-run Health Ministry
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war. That figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas also holds some 222 hostages in Gaza.
The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.
Gaza's population has also been running out of food, water and medicine. About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into U.N. shelters.
In recent days, Israel let a small number of trucks with aid enter from Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel — needed to power generators — saying it believes Hamas will take it.
UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working.
Also read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.
"Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries?" she said. "It is an excruciating decision."
More than half of Gaza's primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.
At Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to "alarming" infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said. Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said.
One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with only "slight sedation" on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched.
The conflict has also threatened to spread across the region. The Israeli military said it struck military sites in Syria in response to rocket launches from the country. Syrian state media said eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.
Strikes in Syria also hit the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.
Hamas' surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated.
"We will get to the bottom of what happened," he said. "This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me."
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said his country will stop issuing visas to U.N. personnel after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Hamas' attack "did not happen in a vacuum." It was unclear what the action, if implemented, would mean for U.N. aid personnel working in Gaza and the West Bank.
"It's time to teach them a lesson," Erdan told Army Radio, accusing the U.N. chief of justifying a slaughter.
The U.N. chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that "the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation." Guterres said "the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
Guterres said Wednesday he is "shocked" at the misinterpretation of his statement "as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas."
"This is false. It was the opposite," he told reporters.
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached an unprecedented point.
The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, which is by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, warned that the agency will be forced to halt all operations by Wednesday night unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately.
Hospitals are shutting down as they lack fuel, water, medical supplies and personnel. Fuel is being severely rationed for a select number of critical facilities. The backup generators are not designed for continuous operation and could break, said OCHA.
Read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
UN personnel visited hospitals on Tuesday. In one hospital, they noted hundreds of wounded men, women and children. Many of them were unconscious, with open wounds - lying on beds, stretchers and on the floor - with limited medical attendance. In the yard, there was a tent with tens of dead bodies, including children. Many of the dead are kept there because the morgues are full, it said.
Food stocks are running out. The World Food Programme estimates that current supplies of essential food in Gaza are sufficient for about 12 days. However, at shops, the available stock is expected to last for only five days, said OCHA.
People are resorting to drinking well water, which is extremely high in salt and poses immediate health risks. Health partners have also detected cases of chickenpox, scabies and diarrhea due to poor sanitation conditions and consumption of water from unsafe sources, it said.
Read: 40 years after bombing that killed Americans in Beirut, US troops again deploy east of Mediterranean
The number of internally displaced people is now estimated at more than 1.4 million, including nearly 590,000 people sheltering in UNRWA-designated shelters. More than 15 percent of the displaced are estimated to have disabilities, yet most shelters are not adequately equipped for their needs, it said.
Local authorities report that more than 40 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, said OCHA.
China sends its youngest-ever crew to space as it seeks to put astronauts on moon before 2030
China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station on Thursday as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon before 2030.
The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 11:14 a.m. (0314 GMT)
According to the China Manned Space Agency, the average age of the three-member crew is the youngest since the launch of the space station construction mission, state broadcaster CCTV earlier reported. Their average age is 38, state media China Daily said.
Read: Humanitarian crisis deepens in Myanmar: UN expert
Beijing is pursuing plans to place astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade amid a rivalry with the U.S. for reaching new milestones in outer space. This reflects the competition for influence between the world's two largest economies in the technology, military and diplomatic fields.
The trio — Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin — will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months. Tang is a veteran who led a 2021 space mission for three months.
The new crew will conduct experiments in space medicine, space technology and other areas during their mission and will help install and maintain the equipment inside and outside the station, the agency said.
On Wednesday, the agency also announced plans to send a new telescope to probe deep into the universe. CCTV said the telescope would enable surveys and mapping of the sky, but no timeframe was given for the installation.
Read: India conducts space flight test ahead of planned mission to take astronauts into space in 2025
China has researched the movement of stars and planets for thousands of years while in modern times, it has pushed to become a leader in space exploration and science.
It built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns over the control of the program by the People’s Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.
China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.
American spending, supply chains and capabilities are believed to give it a significant edge over China, at least for now. China has broken out in some areas, however, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.
The U.S., meanwhile, aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Read: Chinese President Xi announces major steps to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation
In addition to their lunar programs, the two countries have also separately landed rovers on Mars, and China plans to follow the U.S. in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.
At least 16 dead in Maine shooting and dozens injured: Law enforcement officials
A man opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night, killing at least 16 people and engulfing the state's second-largest city in chaos. The suspect remained at large as authorities ordered residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets.
Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press dozens of people also had been wounded. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
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Lewiston Police said in an earlier Facebook post that they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6,4 kilometers) away. The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed a gunman walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder.
“Please stay off the roads to allow emergency responders access to the hospitals,” police said.
On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. A woman who answered the phone in the emergency department said no further information could be released and that the hospital itself was on lockdown.
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Melinda Small, the owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill, said her staff immediately locked their doors and moved all 25 customers and employees away from the doors after a customer reported hearing about the shooting at the bowling alley less than a quarter-mile away around 7 p.m. Soon, the police flooded the roadway and a police officer eventually escorted everyone out of the building four at a time. Everyone in the bar is safe.
“I am honestly in a state of shock. I am blessed that my team responded quickly and everyone is safe,” Small told The Associated Press. “But the same time, my heart is broken for this area and for what everyone is dealing with. I just feel numb.”
The alert for Lewiston was made shortly after 8 p.m. as the sheriff's office reported that law enforcement agencies were investigating “two active shooter events.” Officials issued an update around 10 p.m. for what they described as a manhunt.
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"Avoid the area until authorities give the all-clear,” the statement said. “Seek alternative routes to circumvent the area and any disruptions. If already operating in the affected region, adhere to all instructions issued by local officials, including the shelter-in-place order.”
“We are encouraging all businesses to lock down and or close while we investigate,” the sheriff's office reported.
A spokesperson for Maine Department of Public Safety urged residents to stay in their homes with their doors locked.
“Law enforcement is currently investigating at two locations right now," Shannon Moss said. "Again please stay off the streets and allow law enforcement to diffuse the situation.”
Gov. Janet Mills released a statement echoing those instructions. She said she has been briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with public safety officials. The White House said President Joe Biden also had been briefed.
Lewiston, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Portland, emerged as a major center for African immigration into Maine. The Somali population, which numbers in the thousands, has changed the demographics of the once overwhelmingly white mill city into one of the most diverse in northern New England.
Ange Amores, a spokesperson for the city of Lewiston, said city officials are not commenting on the shooting. Amores said Maine State Police were planning to hold a news conference, likely at city hall, to update the public on Wednesday night.
Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, said he was “deeply sad for the city of Lewiston and all those worried about their family, friends and neighbors” and was monitoring the situation. King’s office said the senator would be headed directly home to Maine once the Senate’s final vote is held Thursday afternoon.
Death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza approximates 5,800: Hamas-run Health Ministry
The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to 5,791, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, 16,297 Palestinians were wounded in the coastal enclave, the ministry said in a statement.
Read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
The Israeli airstrikes were triggered by a large-scale Hamas attack on Israeli military targets and towns on Oct. 7, which has so far killed at least 1,400 people in Israel.
Read: Hamas frees two Israeli women as US advises delaying ground war to allow talks on captives
Leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah holds talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
A brief statement following the meeting said that Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas' Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad's leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage."
Read: Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
Their goal, according to the statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel's "treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”.
No other details were provided. The discussions in Beirut came as the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, is now in its third week. The fighting, triggered by Hamas' deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, has killed more than 5,700 Palestinians in Gaza.
As the Gaza death toll spirals, tensions have also been rising along the tense Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops since the day after Hamas' rampage into Israel.
Read: Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say
For now, those exchanges remain limited to a handful of border towns and Hezbollah and Israeli military positions on both sides. Lebanese army soldiers and United Nations peacekeeping forces have deployed in large numbers.
Dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the clashes so far, the group says, while the Israeli military has also announced some deaths among its ranks.
Nasrallah has yet to publicly speak about the war in Gaza and clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border. However, other Hezbollah top officials have warned Israel against its planned ground invasion into the besieged territory.
Israeli officials have said they would retaliate aggressively in case of a cross-border attack by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
Read: 40 years after bombing that killed Americans in Beirut, US troops again deploy east of Mediterranean
“We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state (will be) devastating," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting Israeli troops along the border with Lebanon on Sunday.
Lebanon's cash-strapped caretaker government, along regional and international figures, has been scrambling to keep the country out of the war.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
Israel vows again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major UN meeting
Israel vowed again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire from the U.N. chief, the Palestinians and many countries at a high-level U.N. meeting on Tuesday and declaring that the war in Gaza is not only its war but “the war of the free world.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also dismissed calls for “proportionality” in the country’s response to Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,400 people and has since led to more than 5,700 Palestinian deaths in Gaza according to its Health Ministry.
“Tell me, what is a proportionate response for killing of babies, for rape (of) women and burn them, for beheading a child?” Cohen asked. “How can you agree to a cease-fire with someone who swore to kill and destroy your own existence?”
Read: Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say
He told the U.N. Security Council that the proportionate response to the Oct. 7 massacre is “a total destruction to the last one of the Hamas,” calling the extremist group “the new Nazis.” He stressed: “It is not only Israel’s right to destroy Hamas. It’s our duty.”
Cohen called the Oct. 7 attacks “a wake-up call for the entire free world” against extremism, and he urged “the civilized world to stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas.”
And he warned that today it is Israel, and tomorrow Hamas and the attackers “will be at everyone’s doorstep,” starting with the West.
Cohen also accused Qatar of financing Hamas and said the fate of the more than 200 hostages taken from Israel, some of whose families came to the U.N. meeting, was in the hands of its emir.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki demanded an end to the Israeli attacks.
Read: 40 years after bombing that killed Americans in Beirut, US troops again deploy east of Mediterranean
“We are here today to stop the killing, to stop … the ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian civilian population," he said. “Over 2 million Palestinians are on a survival mission every day, every night.”
Under international law, he said “it is our collective human duty to stop them.”
Al-Maliki warned that more attacks and killings and weapons and alliances won’t make Israel safer: “Only peace will.”
“For those actively engaged to avoid an even greater humanitarian catastrophe and regional spillover, it must be clear that this can only be achieved by putting an immediate end to the Israeli war launched against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Stop the bloodshed.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the monthly meeting on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict — which has turned into a major event with ministers from the war’s key parties and a dozen other countries flying to New York — warning that “the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour.”
As the council met, a barrage of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip crushed multiple residential buildings and buried families under rubble. Nearly 90 countries were on the speakers list including about 30 foreign ministers and deputy ministers, many echoing calls for a cease-fire and halt to attacks on Palestinian civilians.
The U.N. chief said the risk of the Gaza war spreading through the region is increasing as societies splinter and tensions threaten to boil over. He called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to deliver desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel. He also appealed “to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther.”
Guterres stressed that the rules of war must be obeyed.
He said the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify “the horrifying and unprecedented Oct. 7 acts of terror” by Hamas in Israel and demanded the immediate release of all hostages.
Read: Hamas frees two Israeli women as US advises delaying ground war to allow talks on captives
But Guterres also stressed that “those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
He expressed deep concern at “the clear violations of international humanitarian law,” calling Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza and the level of destruction and civilian casualties “alarming.”
Protecting civilians “is paramount in any armed conflict,” he said.
Without naming Hamas, the U.N. chief stressed that “protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields.”
Guterres also criticized Israel without naming it, saying “protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.”
Cohen, in his address to the council, criticized the secretary-general’s remarks. After being told by a reporter at a stakeout later that the secretary-general stood by his statement, the Israeli minister said: “There is no cause for this, and shame on him.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan went further, taking issue especially with Guterres’ statement that it’s important to recognize that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
He accused the secretary-general of having lost “all morality and impartiality” and called for his resignation.
By contrast, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking for Israel's closest ally, thanked the U.N. chief “for your leadership in this incredibly challenging time, particularly in getting humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.”
He stressed Israel's right to defend itself “against terrorism” but also called for protection of Palestinian civilians saying: “We know Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people and Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas.”
He said “Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians” and “humanitarian pauses” must be considered to get aid flowing into Gaza and enable civilians “to get out of harm’s way.”
Blinken told the council all countries are determined to prevent the conflict from spreading, saying a broader conflict “would be devastating, not only for Palestinians and Israelis but for people across the region and indeed around the world.”
He warned Iran — which supports Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — that while the U.S. doesn't seek a conflict, it will respond “swiftly and decisively” to any attack on U.S. personnel by its forces or its proxies anywhere in the world.
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Iravani later accused Blinken of “wrongly” attempting to blame Iran for the Hamas attack, rejecting his “groundless allegations” and saying the Islamic Republic is committed to regional peace and security, and supports the call for an immediate cease-fire.
He echoed secretary-general Guterres’ statement that the Oct. 7 attack didn’t happen in a vacuum and claimed the U.S.’ “unwavering support” for Israel and its rapid provision of military and logistical support “made the U.S. complicit in the brutal massacre of innocent Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
Iravani also claimed that Israel, as an occupying power, has no right to self-defense in Gaza under the U.N. Charter. But he said the Charter does recognize the right to self-determination and self-defense for the Palestinian people, which Iran supports, “including resistance groups like Hamas, in the struggle against Israeli occupation.”
The United States is pushing for adoption of a resolution that would condemn the Hamas attacks in Israel and violence against civilians, and reaffirm Israel’s right to self-defense. There were some expectations that it might be voted on Tuesday, but diplomats said it was still being negotiated.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council Moscow rejects the U.S. draft and is demanding an immediate ceasefire. The U.S. draft does not mention a cease-fire and Nebenzia said Russia is putting forward its own new proposed resolution.
Read: At least 60% of Gaza's population displaced due to Israeli attacks: UN
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, speaking on behalf of the 22-memeber Arab Group at the United Nations, accused Israel of waging a war that is killing innocent civilians and “razing Gaza to the ground” in violation of international law “without any deterrent.”
“And the Security Council didn't even call for a cease-fire,” he said, urging the U.N. body charged with maintaining international peace and security to adopt a resolution to stop the war, condemn the killing of civilians on both sides, and prevent the starvation of Palestinians and their collective punishment.
“The Security Council must take a clear stance to reassure two billion Arabs and Muslims that international law will be applied,” Safadi said.
Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say
Israel escalated airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, crushing families in the rubble of residential buildings, as health officials said hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the past day and medical facilities were shut down because of bomb damage and lack of power.
The soaring death toll from the bombardment is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It augurs an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.
Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed more than 700 people in the past day
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 704 people over the past day, mostly women and children. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death tolls cited by Hamas, which says it tallies figures from hospital directors.
In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. also could not verify that one-day death toll.
“The Ministry of Health is run by Hamas, and I think that all needs to be factored into anything that they put out publicly.”
Syria, Lebanon call for immediate stop to deadly Israel-Hamas conflict
Israel said Tuesday it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they prepared to fire rockets into Israel and striking command centers and a Hamas tunnel shaft. Israel reported 320 strikes the day before.
Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Israel, for it's part, has vowed repeatedly since the massacre to crush Hamas.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told the U.N. Security Council that the proportionate response to the Oct. 7 attack is “a total destruction to the last one” of the militants. “It is not only Israel’s right to destroy Hamas. It’s our duty,” he said.
The Israeli military said it thwarted an assault by a group of Hamas underwater divers who tried to infiltrate Israel on a beach just north of Gaza. They were attacked by air, naval and ground forces.
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Across central and south Gaza, where Israel told civilians to take shelter, there were multiple scenes of rescuers pulling the dead and wounded out of large piles of rubble from collapsed buildings. Graphic photos and video shot by the AP showed rescuers unearthing bodies of children from multiple ruins.
A father knelt on the floor of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah next to the bodies of three dead children cocooned in bloodied sheets. Later at the nearby morgue, workers prayed over 24 dead wrapped in body bags, several of them the size of small children.
Buildings that collapsed on residents killed dozens at a time in several cases, witnesses said. Two families lost a total 47 members in a leveled home in Rafah, the Health Ministry said.
A strike on a four-story building in Khan Younis killed at least 32 people, including 13 members of the Saqallah family, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said there were about 100 people sheltering in the building, including many who had evacuated from Gaza City.
“We thought that our area would be safe,” he said.
Another strike destroyed a bustling marketplace in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. AP photos showed the floor of a vegetable shop covered with blood.
In Gaza City, at least 19 people were killed when an airstrike hit the house of the Bahloul family, according to survivors, who said dozens more people remained buried. The legs of a dead woman and another person, both still half buried, dangled out of the wreckage where workers dug through the dirt, concrete and rebar.
The Health Ministry says more than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including some 2,300 minors. The figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.
As the death toll in Gaza spirals, and fuel supplies dwindle, the number of facilities able to deal with casualties is shrinking. More than half of primary health care facilities, and roughly 1 of every 3 hospitals, have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.
Overwhelmed hospital staff struggled to triage cases as constant waves of wounded were brought in. The Health Ministry said many wounded are laid on the ground without even simple medical intervention and others wait for days for surgeries because there are so many critical cases.
While Israel has allowed a small number of trucks filled with aid to enter, it has barred deliveries of fuel to Gaza to keep it out of Hamas' hands. The U.N. said its operation distributing aid will halt Wednesday evening if it does not receive fuel.
To make room for the dead, cemeteries have been forced to excavate and reuse old plots. Families have dug trenches to bury multiple bodies at a time.
“Bodies pour in by the hundreds every day. We use every empty inch in the cemeteries,” said Abdel Rahman Mohamed, a volunteer who helps transfer bodies to Khan Younis’ main cemetery.
Israel says it does not target civilians and that Hamas militants are using them as cover for their attacks. Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war, according to Israel, and Hamas said it fired a fresh barrage on Tuesday.
On Monday, Hamas released two elderly Israeli women who were among the roughly 220 people Israel says were taken hostage during the Oct. 7 attack and forced into Gaza.
Appearing weak in a wheelchair and speaking softly, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz told reporters Tuesday that the militants beat her with sticks, bruising her ribs and making it hard to breathe as they kidnapped her. They drove her into Gaza, then forced her to walk several kilometers (miles) on wet ground to reach a network of tunnels that looked like a spider web, she said.
Once there, she said, she was treated well, fed and given medical care.
Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper were freed days after an American woman and her teenage daughter were released.
The Israeli military dropped leaflets in Gaza asking Palestinians to reveal information on the hostages’ whereabouts. In exchange, the military promised a reward and protection for the informant’s home.
Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation, including the targeting of U.S. forces deployed in the Mideast, if a ground offensive is launched. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border.
Humanitarian crisis deepens in Myanmar: UN expert
A growing trend of coordinated action by member states, including sanctions targeting key financial institutions and jet fuel, is offering the hope of a more effective path forward to weaken a military junta that is driving Myanmar deeper into a human rights and humanitarian crisis.
This was relayed by Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, in remarks to the General Assembly’s third committee in New York.
“The junta continues to attack the people of Myanmar with the relentless bombing of villages, hospitals, schools, and camps for internally displaced persons. But non-Myanmar nationals are also being victimised by transnational criminal enterprises, including scam operations that are flourishing on the border," said Andrews.
“Now is the time for UN Member States to strengthen and coordinate actions that weaken the junta,” Andrews said. “A world beset by conflagrations of mass violence must not lose sight of the runaway fire of brutality and human rights violations that is burning in Myanmar, threatening the lives of millions and eroding regional stability,” he said.
In his report to the UN General Assembly, Andrews highlighted the junta’s attacks against civilians, including reports of mass killings, beheadings, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, forced labour, and the use of human shields by junta forces.
Massive humanitarian needs have been exacerbated by the junta’s deliberate obstruction of the delivery of lifesaving aid, according to the report. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have endured drastic cuts in food rations even as they face the threat of coercive repatriation back into the hands of the same military forces whose genocidal attacks forced them over the border.
“Junta leaders would like the world to believe that only they can restore peace and stability in Myanmar. The opposite is true. The junta is an agent of chaos and violence, creating a vacuum of governance in the country that is increasingly impacting Myanmar’s neighbours and the international community,” Andrews said.
While condemning the actions of Member States that supply the junta with arms and provide other forms of material or diplomatic support, Andrews praised positive actions taken by governments to deprive the junta of weapons, money, and legitimacy.
“Sanctions targeting aviation fuel and key financial institutions relied on by the junta are potent measures that could help alleviate the suffering of the people of Myanmar and push the country back towards the path to democracy,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“Some of Myanmar’s neighbours have boycotted diplomatic and defence summits attended by junta officials and denounced the junta’s plans to hold fraudulent elections,” Andrews said.
“The international community must build on the momentum created by these positive developments through a working coalition of states that are committed to human rights and engaging in coordinated actions that add up to a powerful whole,” he said. “The people of Myanmar deserve no less.”