JERUSALEM – The Israeli military announced on Sunday that three hostages, found dead in a Gaza tunnel months ago, were “in a high probability” mistakenly killed by the military during a November operation targeting a senior Hamas commander.

The military’s statement, announcing the completion of an investigation into the deaths of Corporal Nik Beizer, Sergeant Ron Sherman, and Elia Toledano, concluded that the three were likely killed in an Israeli airstrike aimed at assassinating Hamas Northern Brigade commander Ahmed Ghandour on Nov. 10, 2023.

The findings were based on the location of the bodies relative to the strike’s impact, performance analysis of the airstrike, intelligence findings, pathological reports, and conclusions from the Israeli Forensic Medicine Institute.

The three hostages were believed to have been held in the tunnel complex used by Ghandour. “At the time of the strike, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) did not have information about the presence of hostages in the targeted compound,” the military stated. “Furthermore, there was information suggesting that they were located elsewhere, and thus the area was not designated as one with suspected presence of hostages.”

The military emphasized that, since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, it has avoided striking areas suspected of containing hostages. “The IDF operates a mechanism through the Headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Persons in the Intelligence Directorate, aimed at ensuring that offensive actions do not harm hostages wherever possible, and invests significant efforts in gathering information about the hostages,” the military said.

The findings are expected to further intensify nationwide protests demanding the release of approximately 101 individuals still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Families of the hostages are calling for a ceasefire agreement that would secure their release.

XINHUA

JAKARTA – A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province, where the nation’s new capital is being developed, on Sunday night, according to the country’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency.

The earthquake occurred at 8:08 p.m. Jakarta time (1308 GMT) with its epicenter located 145 km southeast of Berau Regency, at a depth of 10 km below ground. Tremors were also felt in neighboring North Kalimantan province.

Indonesia, an archipelago frequently affected by seismic activity, lies within the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a region known for its vulnerability to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

XINHUA

ISTANBUL – At least 20 people were injured on Sunday in an explosion at a pasta factory in Türkiye’s northwestern Sakarya province, local media reported.

The incident occurred at the Oba Pasta factory near the Anatolian Highway in the Hendek district’s industrial zone, Halk TV said.

According to the news channel, the explosion took place at a production boiler and caused a fire.

Firefighters and ambulances were promptly dispatched to the scene, it said, noting that the exact number of workers present at the time of the explosion remains unclear.

The injured, including workers, have been transported to nearby hospitals, it added.

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PRAGUE – More than 10,500 people have been evacuated since the start of the floods in the Czech Republic caused by extreme rainfall, authorities said on Sunday.

Vladimir Vlcek, director general of the country’s Fire and Rescue Service, revealed the figure on Czech Television. He also said several hundred people were rescued.

On Sunday morning, watercourses reached the culmination of the third degree of flood activity in more than a hundred places, the Czech Environment Ministry said in a statement, calling on the residents of the affected areas to cooperate in the evacuation and to respect the orders of the rescue services.

“I am asking all citizens to postpone travel to the affected areas unless absolutely necessary. At the same time, I appeal to everyone to cooperate with the firefighters or the police and follow their orders, even in the event of a possible evacuation,” Minister of the Environment Petr Hladik said in the statement.

“The good news is that the rain is stopping, especially in the Moravian-Silesian Region and the flood wave should reach its maximum today,” said Hladik, who is also chairman of the Central Flood Commission, warning that the end of rain “does not mean the end of danger.”

Due to severe weather conditions, around 260,000 households were without power at 7:00 a.m. Sunday. The Moravian-Silesian Region was hit hardest, with over 110,000 homes there left without electricity, according to local media. Disruptions were also reported on roads, and in the Moravian-Silesian Region, the railway transport was almost paralyzed.

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute said most of rain from this episode has fallen. While Monday’s precipitation won’t be as intense as Saturday’s, saturated basins could still cause streams to rise. Rain will stop by Tuesday, with sunny weather expected from Wednesday.

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ABUJA – At least 41 bodies were recovered, and 12 others rescued after a wooden boat capsized in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara, local authorities said on Sunday.

The boat carrying more than 50 passengers and crew capsized on a river near Gummi, a town in the Gummi local government area of Zamfara, shortly after leaving the shore on Saturday, Suleiman Gummi, a national legislator representing the Gummi-Bukkuyum constituency in Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives, told reporters on Sunday.

The passengers were farmers who travel daily by boat to their farmlands in neighboring communities, Gummi said. Local authorities swiftly deployed personnel to the incident scene, including local divers, who pulled out at least a dozen survivors.

In an interview with local media, Hassan Daura, head of the Zamfara State Emergency Management Agency, said mostly women and children were killed in the incident.

Boat accidents are frequently reported in the West African country and are often attributed to factors such as overloading, adverse weather conditions, and operational errors.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels of retaliation after the group claimed a missile attack on central Israel.

“This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

“Those who need a reminder in this matter are invited to visit the port of Hodeida,” he added, referring to Yemen’s Red Sea city that Israeli warplanes bombed in July after the Houthis claimed a drone strike that killed a civilian in Tel Aviv.

The Houthis are among the Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have been drawn into the conflict triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.

On Israel’s northern flank, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement has traded regular cross-border fire with Israeli forces in exchanges that threaten to spiral into all-out war.

On Sunday morning about 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon toward Israel’s Upper Galilee region and the annexed Golan Heights, Israel’s military said.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, and Netanyahu said on Sunday that the current situation was not sustainable.

“The existing situation will not continue. We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes,” he said.

“We are in a multi-arena campaign against Iran’s evil axis that strives to destroy us.”

He described speaking with residents and authorities in the north, saying, “I hear the distress, I hear the cries.

“The status quo will not continue. This requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border.”

AN-AFP

CARACAS — Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen have been detained in Venezuela on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the country, the government said, as the United States and Spain denied Caracas’s allegations they were involved.

The arrests come amid heightened tensions between Venezuela and both the United States and Spain over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election, which the country’s opposition accuses President Nicolas Maduro of stealing.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Saturday the foreign nationals were being held on suspicion of planning an attack on Maduro and his government.

“We know that the United States government has links to this operation,” Cabello asserted.

Cabello said two Spaniards were recently detained in Puerto Ayacucho in the southwest.

He added that three Americans and a Czech national were also arrested and linked the alleged plot to intelligence agencies in the United States and Spain, as well as to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Maduro has heaped blame for the tide of adversity his country faces on the “imperialist” United States, which he accuses of conspiring with his Venezuelan opponents to overthrow him.

A State Department spokesperson said Saturday that “any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”

The State Department spokesperson additionally confirmed that a US military member was being held and noted “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela.”

Spain also rejected allegations it was involved.

“Spain denies and categorically rejects any insinuation that it is involved in a political destabilization operation in Venezuela,” a foreign ministry source told AFP Sunday.

Cabello said those detained had “contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from Eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country.”

He added that “more than 400 rifles were seized” and accused the detainees of plotting “terrorist acts.”

The Czech Republic has yet to react to the sensational claims, which come amid a deepening standoff between Maduro and Western powers.

Maduro, who succeeded iconic left-wing leader Hugo Chavez on his death in 2013, insists he won a third term but failed to release detailed voting tallies to back his claim.

Tensions between Caracas and former colonial power Spain rose sharply after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain a week ago, after being threatened with arrest.

Caracas on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and summoned Spain’s envoy to Venezuela for talks after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.”

Venezuela was also angered by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to meet with Gonzalez Urrutia and warned Spain against any “interference” in its affairs.

Caracas has additionally been engaged in a war of words with the United States, which recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner of the election.

Washington announced new sanctions on Thursday against 16 Venezuelan officials, including some from the electoral authority, for impeding “a transparent electoral process” and not publishing accurate results.

Venezuela denounced the measures as a “crime of aggression” and Maduro decorated four military officers among those targeted by the sanctions.

Maduro’s claim to have won a third term in office sparked mass opposition protests, which claimed at least 27 lives and left 192 people wounded.

The opposition published polling station-level results that it said showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a landslide.
About 2,400 people, including numerous teens, were arrested in the unrest.

Opposition leader Machado called Saturday for more protests on September 28, two months since the election, to demand international recognition for Gonzalez Urrutia as president.

Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud after Venezuela’s previous election in 2018.

With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.

Maduro’s tenure since 2013 has seen GDP drop 80 percent in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.

AN-AFP

SYDNEY — Two people died and one was seriously injured after an SUV crashed into a creek near the border of Australia’s states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland on early Sunday, local police said.

NSW police said in a report that emergency services were called to Carwal Creek Bridge, south of Mungindi, after 1:15 a.m. local time on Sunday after an SUV crashed down an embankment and landed in the creek becoming submerged and trapping three people.

A 23-year-old woman was helped out of the vehicle and was airlifted to hospital in serious but stable condition.

The bodies of two others, a man and a woman, were recovered from the submerged vehicle at noon. They were both in their 20s but yet to be formally identified.

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BEIRUT — This morning, Israeli occupation forces carried out artillery strikes on multiple towns in southern Lebanon.

The targeted areas included Rob Thalathine, Shebaa, Kafr Kela, Kafr Hamam, and Odaisseh.

The attacks coincided with the presence of Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft in Lebanese airspace.

WAFA

GAZA — Four Palestinians were killed and several others injured early this morning in Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat and Jabalia refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.

In the Nuseirat camp, three individuals were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted the home of the Imad al-Din family near Abu Srar roundabout. Israeli forces also fired on northern areas of the camp.

In Jabalia refugee camp, one person was killed and several others were injured when Israeli forces struck the home of the Swidan family. The injured were transported to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the camp for treatment.

The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023 has so far resulted in 41,182 documented Palestinian fatalities, with over 95,280 others injured.

Thousands of victims are feared trapped under rubble, inaccessible to emergency and civil defense teams due to Israeli attacks.

WAFA

KYIV — Two people died in a missile attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, local officials said, as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone and missile attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down 10 of the 14 drones and one of the three missiles Russia launched overnight, while the rest hit the suburbs of Odesa.

Oleh Kiper, Odesa’s regional governor, said the two who died Saturday night were a married couple, and that another person was wounded in the attack.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it downed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday over western and southwestern regions, with no damage caused by the falling debris. It also said another Ukrainian drone was shot down Sunday morning over the western Ryazan region.

While Ukraine and Russia regularly launch overnight drone raids on each other’s territory, Ukrainian officials generally do not confirm or deny attacks within Russia’s borders.

The latest attacks came after Ukraine made a new call Saturday on the West to allow it to use the long-range missiles they have provided to strike targets deep inside Russia, as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.

So far, the US has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Kyiv officials argue the weapons are vital to weaken Russia’s ability to strike Ukraine and force it to move its strike capabilities further from the border.

AN-AP

JAKARTA — A 5.7-magnitude under-land earthquake struck off Indonesia’s western North Sumatra province on Sunday, the country’s meteorology and geophysics agency said.

The tremors occurred at 04:37 a.m. Jakarta time (2137 GMT Saturday) with its epicenter being 17 km southwest of North Tapanuli (Tapanuli Utara) regency at a depth of 131 km under-earth, the agency reported.

The quake’s intensity registered at III MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) in Central Tapanuli (Tapanuli Tengah) regency and Gunungsitoli town, it said.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes as the archipelagic country lies in a vulnerable quake-stricken zone called “the Pacific Ring of Fire.”

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MANILA — Tropical storm Bebinca left the Philippines with six dead and at least two missing, the Philippine government said Sunday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said four died in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and two in Zamboanga Peninsula in the southern Philippines.

The agency added that one is missing in Zamboanga Peninsula and the other in Western Visayas region in the central Philippines.

The agency said that Bebinca, the sixth tropical cyclone to lash the Philippines since January this year, has affected over 200,000 people in nearly 300 villages. Almost 14,000 displaced villagers are in government-run temporary shelters.

Bebinca damaged infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and houses.

Bebinca exited the Philippines on Saturday afternoon. However, it continued to bring rain after enhancing the Southwest monsoon.

An average of 20 typhoons pound the Philippines yearly, triggering severe flooding, landslides, and other extreme natural disasters and resulting in heavy casualties to human life and destruction of crops and properties.

XINHUA

WARSAW — One person was killed and thousands were evacuated due to continuous rainfall in southern Poland, said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a press conference on Sunday.

By Sunday morning, 1,600 people had been evacuated from Klodzko, a town in southern Poland, due to severe flooding caused by continuous rainfall.

Torrential rains have caused rivers to exceed alarming levels, especially in regions like Opole, Lower Silesia, and Silesia.

The local water management authority in Wroclaw expects a flood peak on the Oder River in Wroclaw next Tuesday which will last for several days.

Tusk warned that delaying evacuation may pose a danger not only to citizens but also to the services that will have to carry out the evacuation later, in much more difficult conditions.

People in the towns of Jarnoltowek and Pokrzywna in the region of Opole started to evacuate on Saturday with authorities warning that the situation could worsen.

The director of the Karkonosze National Park in southwestern Poland has decided to close all tourist trails in the park until further notice.

Hydrologic alerts have been extended to other regions, with infrastructure damage, road closures, and halted rail services reported.

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JERUSALEM — A long-range surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen struck an unpopulated area near Israel’s international airport outside Tel Aviv on Sunday, Israeli sources said.

The missile triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel, sending residents running to shelters during the morning rush hour.

The Israeli military said in a statement that interceptors were launched but failed to shoot down the missile, which landed in an open area.

Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news reported that the missile fell in Kfar Daniel, about 6 km from Ben Gurion Airport. A fire broke out in the area.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s national rescue service, said five people were injured while running to shelters.

There were no changes to the Home Front Command’s defensive guidelines for civilians.

The incident marks the second time a projectile from Yemen has reached central Israel, following a drone attack by Houthi forces in July that killed one person in Tel Aviv.

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MOSCOW — Russia’s patience regarding a nuclear response to Western actions in Ukraine is wearing thin, warned Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, in a message posted on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

Medvedev said while “a nuclear conflict is in no one’s interest,” Russia has thus far exercised restraint in utilizing its nuclear capabilities in response to Western involvement, particularly concerning high-precision strikes deep into Russian territory. However, he cautioned that “even the greatest patience has its limits.”

This warning came following recent U.S. discussions regarding the provision of Army Tactical Missile Systems to Ukraine, which could enable strikes deeper into Russian territory.

The Kremlin has also signaled its awareness of the escalating threat, with the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noting that Russia is preparing countermeasures.

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MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan — At least three people have been confirmed dead and three others were injured in a road accident in east Afghanistan’s Wardak province on Sunday morning, a local police official reported.

The mishap occurred on the outskirts of Maidan Shar City, the capital of the province, along the highway linking the capital Kabul with the southern Kandahar province, said Mohammad Yosuf Asrar, spokesman for provincial police.

According to Asrar, the injured are now under treatment in the provincial hospital of Wardak, but their conditions were reported as critical.

The victims of the road accident, including two women, are members of the same family.

Some 2,000 people lost their lives and about 6,000 others were injured in 4,270 road accidents in Afghanistan over the past 12 months.

Road accidents due to reckless driving on congested roads and lack of traffic signs on dilapidated highways are a leading cause of deaths in the war-ravaged country.

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