ISTANBUL – The Israeli army escalated airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing at least 27 more Palestinians, medics said.
Four Palestinians, including an infant, were killed when an Israeli aircraft struck a house in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City, Al-Shifa Hospital said.
The Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital reported that two Palestinians were killed and others injured in another Israeli strike targeting a house in Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
A number of civilians were injured following an Israeli strike on Abu Helo School, which shelters displaced Palestinians in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, causing panic among the displaced families, a medical source at Al-Awda Hospital said.
Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received another body and several injured Palestinians following an Israeli airstrike targeting a room on the rooftop of a house in central Deir al-Balah city.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis also received the bodies of two people who were targeted by an Israeli drone on the Khan Younis-Rafah western road, southern Gaza Strip.
In another attack, four family members were killed and others injured in a strike that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, Khan Younis.
Three Palestinians were also killed when a tent sheltering displaced people next to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was targeted.
Separately, a person was killed near the Shuhada Mosque area in Khan Younis, while several others were injured in a strike on a second tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area.
Nine Palestinians, including a child, were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike targeting tents for displaced people in the same area.
Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli army gunfire on Al-Tina Street, west of Khan Younis.
The Israeli army has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.
US President Donald Trump met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, while Israeli officials continue engagement with Hamas aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
KATHMANDU, July 8 – Eighteen people including six Chinese nationals went missing in floods triggered by incessant rainfalls on Tuesday morning in northern Nepal.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, six Chinese nationals and eight Nepali nationals went missing as they had been working together on facilities aided by China at Rasuwagadhi border point.
Rasuwagadhi police confirmed that eighteen people including three Nepali police officers and nine Nepali nationals were reported missing in addition to the Chinese.
The Chinese embassy has sent a working group to the disaster-stricken area.
Inspector Krishna Dhital from Rasuwa district police told Xinhua earlier that the majority of the missing were working at a dry port close to the border.
A bridge at the Rasuwagadhi-Kerung border point was washed away, and several electric vehicles parked at the dry port were swept away, Dhital said.
Two bodies have been found in neighboring Dhading district, Subash Hamal, spokesperson for Dhading district police, told Xinhua.
Nepal suffers from floods, landslides and mudslides sparked by monsoon rains each year.
NEW DELHI, July 8 – At least three children were killed and six others injured after a passenger train hit a school van attempting to cross a manned level crossing in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, police said.
The accident took place at Semmankuppam of Cuddalore district, about 204 km south of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.
According to officials, the school van was badly mangled in the accident.
Reports said a bystander, identified as a 55-year-old man, was also injured at the spot after coming into contact with an electrical cable that snapped during the crash.
Preliminary investigations carried out by the police revealed that the van driver insisted on allowing his vehicle to cross the gate.
TEHRAN, Jul. 08 – A senior military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran has stockpiled several thousand missiles and drones in secure locations ready to defend the country against any aggression.
Press TV quoted Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi as saying on Monday that the Armed Forces are fully prepared for any scenario, amid reports that Israel could launch another attack on Iran despite a ceasefire that ended 12 days of military aggression last month.
He noted that key military branches—such as the Navy and the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)—were not mobilized and the Army did not deploy its full capabilities as the Armed Forces fended off Israeli attacks.
“We have produced several thousand missiles and drones so far, and their place is secure,” he added.
“Peaceful nuclear energy and the manufacturing of missiles are the results of indigenous knowledge, intellect, and science,” and thus they cannot be destroyed, he said.
Rahim-Safavi also described Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “wicked and criminal” person who has killed 60,000 people in Gaza and virtually 1,000 in Iran in pursuit of his own objectives.
However, he noted that Netanyahu “failed to achieve all his goals because the Islamic Republic was neither overthrown nor divided, and the people did not disperse. Although we suffered damage, we also inflicted damage on them (the Israelis).”
TEHRAN, Jul. 08 – A series of powerful explosions rocked western Aleppo early Tuesday, with local sources linking the blasts to possible Israeli strikes targeting Syrian military sites.
News sources have reported that massive explosions have shaken the city of Aleppo and its surrounding areas in northwestern Syria.
According to Syrian media, the explosions occurred in the western part of Aleppo, and the cause remains unclear.
Some reports pinpoint the location of the blasts to be the 46th Brigade of the Syrian Army, located west of the city.
Local outlets have cited the explosion of ammunition depots in the area as a potential cause. However, no official confirmation or statement has yet been released by the Syrian official sources.
Certain Syrian media outlets have claimed that the ruling Syrian group is aware that the explosions were the result of Israeli attacks, yet has remained silent.
They suggest this silence stems from the Syrian interim government’s reluctance to publicly confront or criticize the Israeli regime regarding the alleged strikes.
KATHMANDU, July 8 – At least 18 people went missing early Tuesday in floods triggered by incessant rainfalls in the northern area of Nepal, local police said.
The police have received reports that at least 18 people have gone missing in floods that occurred at Rasuwagadhi border point, Inspector Krishna Dhital from Rasuwa district police told Xinhua.
“The majority of them were working at a dry port close to the border,” he said.
A bridge at the border point was washed away, and several electric vehicles parked at the dry port were swept away, Dhital said.
WASHINGTON, July 7 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a platform to destroy Israel and for that reason sovereign power of security must remain with Israel.
Speaking at the White House, where he met U.S. President Donald Trump, Netanyahu described the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas was in control, as evidence of what Palestinians would do with a state.
Trump said, “I don’t know” when he was asked by reporters if a two-state solution was possible and referred the question to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said: “I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. That means a sovereign power, like overall security, will always remain in our hands.”
Later he added: “After October 7th, people said the Palestinians have a state, a Hamas state in Gaza and look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up. They built down into bunkers, into terror tunnels after which they massacred our people, raped our women, beheaded our men, invaded our cities and our towns, our kibbutzim and did horrendous massacres, the kind of which we didn’t see since World War Two and the Nazis, the Holocaust. So people aren’t likely to say, ‘Let’s just give them another state.’ It’ll be a platform to destroy Israel.
“We will work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbours, those who don’t want to destroy us and we will work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands,” Netanyahu said.
“Now people will say, ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state, it’s not that.’ We don’t care. We vowed never again. Never again is now. It’s not going to happen again.”
Palestinians have long sought to create an independent state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem through a U.S.-mediated peace process. Many accuse Israel of having destroyed Palestinian statehood prospects through increased settlement building in the West Bank and by levelling much of Gaza during the current war. Israel rejects this.
Cabinet ministers in Netanyahu’s Likud party called last week for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of July. Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.
The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Palestinian enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war.
Trump hosted Netanyahu at a White House dinner on Monday, while Israeli officials held indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar aimed at securing a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
BEIJING, July 8 – Tropical Storm Danas headed for China’s eastern seaboard on Tuesday morning, as Zhejiang province braced for landfall after the storm tore through Taiwan with record winds and torrential rain, leaving two dead and over 600 injured.
Packing winds of around 80 kmh (50 mph) at its centre, Danas is forecast to make a sharp left turn as it moves northwest across the South China Sea before striking the port city of Taizhou, prompting the local maritime authority to suspend passenger shipping and cancel over 100 voyages.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, faces growing threats from extreme weather, which meteorologists link to climate change. Risks that each year stand to wipe out tens of billions of dollars worth of commercial activity, as cities flood, shipping activity stalls, and croplands are washed out.
Authorities in Zhejiang issued a flash flood warning early on Tuesday, with forecasters expecting 100 to 250 millimetres of rain to hit the 650 km (400 miles) stretch from Fuzhou, the capital of neighbouring Fujian province, to Hangzhou, Zhejiang’s capital.
After sweeping through Zhejiang, Danas is expected to move into Jiangxi province, whose rolling hills and mountains make it particularly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.
Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit attends a meeting in Mineralnye Vody, Russia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)
MOSCOW – Russian’s transport minister was found dead from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, investigators said Monday — news that broke hours after the Kremlin announced he had been dismissed by President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin did not give a reason for the firing of Roman Starovoit, who served as transport minister since May 2024, and it was unclear when exactly he died and whether it was related to an investigation into alleged corruption, as some Russian media suggested.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the top criminal investigation agency, said the body of Starovoit, 53, was found with a gunshot wound in his car parked in Odintsovo, a neighborhood just west of the capital where many members of Russia’s elite live. A gun previously presented to him as an official gift was reportedly found next to his body.
A criminal probe was launched into the death, and investigators saw suicide as the most likely cause, according to committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, who did not say when Starovoit died.
Law enforcement agents were seen carrying Starovoit’s body from the site Monday evening.
Andrei Kartapolov, a former deputy defense minister who heads a defense committee in the lower house of parliament, told news outlet RTVI that Starovoit killed himself “quite a while ago,” and some Russian media alleged that he may have taken his life before the publication of Putin’s decree firing him. Starovoit was last seen in public Sunday morning, when an official video from the ministry’s situation room featured him receiving reports from officials.
Speculation swirls over reasons for Starovoit’s dismissal
Russian media have reported that Starovoit’s dismissal could have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region, where he served as governor before becoming transportation minister.
The alleged embezzlement has been cited as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defensive lines that failed to stem a surprise Ukrainian incursion in the region launched in August 2024. In the stunning attack, Ukraine’s battle-hardened mechanized units quickly overwhelmed lightly armed Russian border guards and inexperienced army conscripts. Hundreds were taken prisoner.
The incursion was a humiliating blow to the Kremlin — the first time the country’s territory was occupied by an invader since World War II.
The Russian military had announced its troops had fully reclaimed the border territory in April — nearly nine months after losing chunks of the region.
Starovoit’s successor as Kursk governor, Alexei Smirnov, stepped down in December and was arrested on embezzlement charges in April. Some Russian media have alleged that Starovoit also could have faced charges as part of the investigation.
His dismissal also followed a weekend of travel chaos as Russian airports were forced to ground hundreds of flights due to Ukrainian drone attacks. Most commentators said, however, that the air traffic disruptions have become customary amid frequent Ukrainian drone raids and were unlikely to have triggered his dismissal.
Shortly after Putin’s decree on Starovoit was published, Andrei Korneichuk, an official with a state railways agency under his ministry, collapsed and died during a business meeting, Russian news reports said. They said he died of an apparent heart attack.
Other high-level corruption cases pressed An official order releasing Starovoit from his post was published on the Kremlin’s website Monday morning without giving a reason for his dismissal.
Shortly before the news of Starovoit’s death broke, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Starovoit’s replacement, Andrei Nikitin, and refused to comment on the reasons behind the move.
Russian authorities have investigated a slew of cases of high-level corruption that was widely blamed for military setbacks in Ukraine.
On Monday, Khalil Arslanov, a former deputy chief of the military’s General Staff, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Arslanov is a former member of the military brass close to former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Several of them were targeted in a far-ranging probe into alleged military graft.
Last week, Shoigu’s former deputy, Timur Ivanov, was convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering and handed a 13-year prison sentence.
Shoigu, a veteran official with personal ties to Putin, survived the purges of his inner circle and was given the high-profile post of secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
In another move Monday, the Investigative Committee announced the arrest of Viktor Strigunov, the former first deputy chief of the National Guard. It said Strigunov was charged with corruption and abuse of office.
Flash floods in Texas killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left an unknown number of others still missing, and victims include girls attending a summer camp.
The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.
In hard-hit Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, according to Kerr County officials.
The death toll is now at least 104 deaths across central Texas.
