Headline

Bodies Pile Up In Central Gaza As Israel Steps Up Strikes

Published

2 years ago

October 22, 2023

Scores of people rushed to Deir el-Balah hospital to identify bodies on Sunday after Israel stepped up its air strikes on Gaza, as the territory’s Hamas rulers said 4,651 people have now been killed since the start of the war.

Authorities said Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, had suffered most from one of the most intense nights of shelling since Israel started its bombardment in response to Hamas’ cross-border attacks on October 7.

More than 260 people died in 24 hours, according to the health ministry toll, which said 1,873 of those killed in the past fortnight were children.

Israel began bombarding the tiny enclave after Hamas militants stormed over the border on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 200 in the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

At the hospital morgue in Deir el-Balah, bodies were everywhere including that of Mohammad Judeh and his three-year-old daughter Misk, who were placed on the same table, their faces uncovered.

Judeh’s cousin Wael Wafi said the girl was hugging her father when their bodies were pulled from the debris.

“All the Judeh family, including my aunt, were killed in the bombardment,” said Wafi.

“Two buildings were destroyed and came down on them.”

Some family members had taken refuge in the building after escaping shelling in northern Gaza, he added.

“My cousin was sleeping in his house with his daughter in his arms. He was a man with no record, nothing to do with the resistance,” said Wafi.

Death in the south

Another woman in the morgue nearly collapsed after lifting the sheets lying over bodies to discover her daughter and other members of her family.

Their names — Layan, Hani and Joane — were written on their legs. A relative later led the distraught woman away.

In the southern town of Khan Yunis, one strike on the Rio cafe killed 13 people.

The cafe was on the ground floor of a building housing people who had fled Israel’s bombardment of northern Gaza.

Israel has issued daily warnings for people to leave the north.

“I heard an explosion and then I saw dust, flames and debris flying. One minute later they struck again,” said Naji Shurrab, who lives opposite the cafe.

‘Move south for safety’

Israel said Saturday it was stepping up its raids and has massed tens of thousands of troops around Gaza for a widely expected ground invasion.

It says its daily raids have already killed many leaders and military commanders of the Palestinian Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.

“From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimising the danger,” an Israeli military spokesman said late Saturday. “We will increase the attacks and therefore I call on Gaza City residents to continue moving south for their safety.”

Israel has repeatedly urged Gaza’s 1.1 million residents of the north to move south ahead of any ground operation.

As strikes pummelled the strip, the Hamas government also hit out at the lack of aid, despite the arrival of 37 trucks on Saturday and Sunday. It said there were now 1.4 million displaced people within the enclave.

“The aid that arrived in Gaza is not enough for one day. We call on the international community to pressure the Israeli government to bring in thousands of trucks,” Hamas said in a statement.

Headline

Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy

Published

18 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.

The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.

“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.

Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.

The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.

The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.

The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.

That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.

In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.

AFP

Headline

Kazakhstan Bans Forced Marriage, Bride Kidnapping

Published

18 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Kazakhstan has banned forced marriages and bride kidnappings through a law that came into effect Tuesday in the Central Asian country, where the practice persists despite new attention being paid to women’s rights.

Forcing someone to marry is now punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Kazakh police said in a statement.

“These changes are aimed at preventing forced marriages and protecting vulnerable categories of citizens, especially women and adolescents,” it added.

Bride kidnappings have also been outlawed.

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“Previously, a person who voluntarily released a kidnapped person could expect to be released from criminal liability. Now this possibility has been eliminated,” the police said.

There are no reliable statistics of forced marriage cases across the country, with no separate article in the criminal code prohibiting it until now.

A Kazakh lawmaker said earlier this year that the police had received 214 such complaints over the past three years.

The custom is also present in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where it mostly goes unpunished due to indifferent law enforcement and stigma surrounding whistleblowers.

The issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan gained media attention in 2023 following the murder of a woman by her husband, a former minister, a case that shocked Kazakh society and prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to react.

“Some people hide behind so-called traditions and try to impose the practice of wife stealing. This blatant obscurantism cannot be justified,” Tokayev said last year.

AFP

Headline

Russia Arrests Woman For Detonating Bomb On Railway

Published

18 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had arrested a woman in her fifties accused of detonating explosives in a bid to sabotage the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The suspect was allegedly working on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, the FSB said, in the latest incident of alleged covert activity during the countries’ conflict.

“In August 2025, following the instructions provided by the adversary, the suspect manufactured a homemade explosive device from publicly available components, placed it on the railway tracks and triggered it,” the Russian agency said.

“She recorded the moment of the explosion on her mobile phone camera and sent the footage as a report to the handler to receive a reward.”

The statement did not name the suspect but said she was born in 1974 and carried out the alleged attack in eastern Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region.

The FSB warned Russians that it was monitoring social networks and online messenger services such as Telegram and WhatsApp for evidence of Ukrainian services recruiting Russians to carry out sabotage.

Separately, the agency told state news agency TASS that a man had been sentenced to 18 years and six months for transporting explosives on behalf of a “pro-Ukrainian” group.

A resident of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, had, the FSB said, established contact through the Telegram app with a banned “terrorist organisation”.

He allegedly retrieved explosives from a cache on the orders of this group before waiting for “further instructions”, according to the same source cited by TASS.

He was jailed by a military tribunal.

AFP