GAZA, May 22, 2025 – An Israeli strike on Thursday evening killed three Palestinian civilians and injured others in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.
He said that Israeli fighter jets targeted the house of the Abu Sabt family in the al-Birkeh area in the city, claiming the lives of three civilians and injuring others.
WAFA
BUENOS AIRES, May 21 – Dozens of people were injured during a protest outside Argentina’s Congress on Wednesday where activists and retired Argentines demanded higher pensions, according to Reuters witnesses.
TV footage showed elderly protesters and activists singing and chanting as security forces pushed through the crowd in Buenos Aires with riot shields and batons.
The protest took place outside Congress as deputies failed to reach quorum for several bills, including proposals for pension increases and continuity of benefits for retirees.
The government of libertarian President Javier Milei, which has sought to improve the economy and tackle painfully high inflation by slashing public spending, opposed both proposals.
Milei’s austerity drive has triggered weekly protests in the capital, with workers’ unions and soccer fans joining retirees to protest pension cuts amid stubborn inflation and reduced public spending.
“This place, the home of democracy, cannot remain indifferent when a pensioner is earning 379,000 pesos (about $331 a month),” lawmaker Paula Oliveto of the center Civic Coalition party said during the Congress session.
Some 124 lawmakers were present for voting while 133 were absent.
Esteban Paulon, a Socialist Party representative, accused lawmakers who supported the government’s policies of laughing when the session failed due to lack of quorum.
“The government’s plan is evidently to kill millions of people collecting minimum wage through hunger,” he said.
The government argues that its resources are limited and to increase pensions, the country must first see more investment and economic growth.
Around 38% of people in South America’s No. 2 economy were in poverty – 11.3 million people – in the second half of last year, according to government data. This was down from 53% recorded in the first half.
REUTERS
NEW DELHI, May 22 – An Indian army trooper was killed Thursday in an ongoing fierce gunfight with militants in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.
The gunfight broke out in the Singhpora-Chatroo forest area of Kishtwar district, about 200 km southeast of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Last week, six militants were killed in two separate gunfights with government forces in the region.
XINHUA
JAKARTA, May 22 – Rescuers discovered on Thursday five more bodies of flash floods victims in Indonesia’s West Papua province, bringing the total death toll to 15, with five others still missing, an official said.
An additional piece of heavy machinery was deployed to the scene to assist search and rescue operations in Gunung Arfak Regency, increasing the total to two units, according to Agus Bashori, spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Office.
Heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides in Gunung Arfak Regency on May 15, but extremely poor communication access delayed the dissemination of information to rescuers, said Yefri Sabaruddin, head of the provincial Search and Rescue Office.
XINHUA
JERUSALEM, May 22 – Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused unnamed European officials on Thursday of “toxic antisemitic incitement” he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place.
Israel has faced a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late as it has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid supplies has left the Palestinian enclave on the brink of famine.
Saar did not name any countries or officials but said the climate of hostility towards Israel was behind the shooting of the embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.
Saar, at a news conference in Jerusalem, said the attack was a direct outcome of “toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world” since Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on Israel in October 2023.
“There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder,” he said. “This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe.”
Saar declined to identify which leader or officials he had in mind. But his remarks came after increasingly tough words from Western allies of Israel including France and Britain, which joined Canada this week in warning of possible “concrete action” against Israel over its war in Gaza.
U.S. officials said a suspect who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans was in custody. President Donald Trump and a wide range of European and other foreign leaders condemned the attack.
Saar said the “global atmosphere” against Israel had worsened sharply since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage back into Gaza.
Since then, Israel’s air and ground campaign has killed over 53,000 Palestinians and laid waste to the densely populated territory, drawing mass protests across the world ranging from U.S. university campuses to the streets of European cities.
Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take action to prevent alleged acts of genocide in Gaza after a case brought by South Africa that stirred deep anger in Israel.
Saar said: “These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders.”
REUTERS
GUIYANG, May 22 – The death toll from the landslides in southwest China’s Guizhou Province on Thursday has risen to four while 17 people remain trapped, the provincial government said.
Two separate landslides struck Changshi and Guowa townships in Dafang County under the city of Bijie on the same day, trapping two and 19, respectively.
As of 9 p.m. Thursday, the bodies of two trapped people in Changshi and another two in Guowa had been retrieved.
XINHUA
SYDNEY, May 22 – Flash flooding on Australia’s southeast coast has killed three people and cut off towns, isolating tens of thousands of residents, as officials on Thursday warned more downpours were expected over the next 24 hours.
Major flooding hit several rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, with most of the Mid North Coast region facing further heavy rainfall through Thursday.
REUTERS
JERUSALEM – The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Beit Lahia and Jabalia.
The army told residents in an Arabic-language statement that it was “operating with intense force in your areas, as terrorist organizations continue their activities and operations” there.
A similar warning for parts of northern Gaza was issued on Wednesday evening in what the army said was a response to rocket fire.
It said that one “projectile that was identified crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.
It later announced three more launches from northern Gaza, but said the projectiles had fallen inside the Palestinian territory.
Israel has ramped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas.
The territory’s civil defense agency said Israeli attacks had killed at least 19 people on Thursday.
AN-AFP
MOSCOW – Russian forces have captured the settlement of Nova Poltavka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said on Thursday.
Russian news agencies, citing the defense ministry, separately reported that air defenses had shot down 317 Ukrainian drones over the territory of Russia in the past 24 hours and 485 drones in total since the evening of May 20.
AN-REUTERS
GENEVA, May 22 – The Palestinian health minister said on Thursday that 29 children and elderly people had died from starvation-related deaths in Gaza in recent days and that many thousands more were at risk.
Food aid is expected to start reaching Gazans on Thursday after Israel let the first trucks through following an 11-week blockade, but Palestinian and aid officials say it is just a fraction of what is needed.
“In the last couple of days we lost 29 children,” Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan told reporters, describing them as “starvation-related deaths”. He later clarified that the total included elderly people as well as children.
Asked to react to earlier comments by the U.N. aid chief to the BBC that 14,000 babies could die without aid, he said: “The number 14,000 is very realistic may be even underestimating (the scale).”
Israel imposed the blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters – a charge the group denies. Earlier this month, a global hunger monitor said that half a million people in the Gaza Strip face starvation.
Abu Ramadan said that only seven or eight hospitals out of Gaza’s 36 were partially functioning, and that more than 90% of medical stocks were now at zero due to the blockade.
“My information is that very few shipments went inside Gaza – 90-100 truck loads and in the south and mid zones.” Asked if there are any medical supplies among them, he said: “As far as I know …it’s only flour for bakeries.”
REUTERS
GUIYANG, May 22 – Two people have died due to landslides in southwest China’s Guizhou Province that trapped dozens on Thursday, the provincial government said.
Two separate landslides struck Changshi and Guowa townships in Dafang County under the city of Bijie on the same day, trapping two and 19, respectively.
The national commission for disaster prevention, reduction and relief initiated a Level-IV disaster-relief emergency response, targeting recent severe flooding and geological disasters in Guizhou, particularly the landslides in Bijie.
The commission has dispatched a working group to the affected areas to assess the situations and assist in local relief efforts.
Guizhou activated a Level II emergency response for geological disasters at 2:30 p.m., while China’s Ministry of Natural Resources raised its emergency response to geological disasters from Level III to Level II at 11 a.m., and has dispatched a working team to the area to guide rescue operations.
The ministry urged local departments to promptly dispatch working teams to assist in search and rescue operations and provide technical support. It also called for enhanced monitoring and risk assessment.
XINHUA
SYDNEY, May 22 – Flash flooding on Australia’s southeast coast has killed two people and cut off towns, isolating tens of thousands of residents, as officials on Thursday warned more downpours were expected over the next 24 hours.
Major flooding hit several rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, with most of the Mid North Coast region facing further heavy rainfall through Thursday.
Police said the body of a 63-year-old man was found in a flooded home near Taree, more than 300 km (186 miles) north of Sydney, while another body believed to be that of a missing man aged in his 30s had been discovered in flood waters on the Mid North Coast.
“We’re bracing for more bad news in the next 24 hours. This natural disaster has been terrible for this community,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said during a media briefing.
“There’s 140 flood warnings, 50,000 people are in the range where they have been asked to prepare to evacuate and could be isolated, and there’s been 9,500 properties in the direct vicinity. So, we’re far from out of the woods here.”
Two men and one woman have been reported missing in separate incidents, authorities said earlier.
More than 100 schools were closed on Thursday, while thousands of properties remained without power.
Cundletown in the Mid North Coast has been entirely cut off by floods, said Nicole Sammut, a nurse caring for 67 elderly residents at an aged care home, which is also being used as a shelter by emergency teams.
“I came to work on Tuesday and haven’t left,” Sammut told Reuters.
“We are up on a hill but behind us is all water. We are isolated. I’ve never seen the water this high.”
The Manning River in nearby Taree had exceeded a 100-year-old flood record, emergency authorities said.
Sherinah Peck was evacuated at 2 a.m. on Wednesday from her farmhouse on the river, but her belongings were swept away, with some furniture later washing up on the coast.
As she searched Old Bar beach on Thursday, strewn with debris and dead and lost livestock, for a treasured bicycle that belonged to her late mother, Peck was knocked over by a cow and injured, she said.
“The cow was distressed – a wave came. I had to scramble up the sand,” she told Reuters.
REUTERS
WASHINGTON, May 21 – Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington D.C.,” she said in a post on the social platform X.
Media reports said the two were shot dead. Noem added that they are “investigating and working to get more information to share.”
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), confirmed that the AJC was hosting an event at the museum that evening.
At least one of the victims was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition before succumbing to their injuries.
Police are currently questioning a person of interest in connection with the incident.
XINHUA
BEIJING, May 22 – An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 jolted Crete, Greece at 0319 GMT on Thursday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 102.8 km, was initially determined to be at 35.46 degrees north latitude and 25.82 degrees east longitude.
XINHUA
CHENGDU, May 22 – Four people have been confirmed dead after a roof collapsed in a coal mine in southwest China’s Sichuan Province last Saturday, local authorities said Thursday.
The accident occurred at around 11 a.m. last Saturday in the Changshi’er coal mine in the city of Wanyuan, initially leaving four miners unaccounted for.
After days of search and rescue efforts, all four missing miners were found by 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, but none showed signs of life, rescue officials told Xinhua.
Rescue teams from various levels responded swiftly, but efforts were hindered by high gas concentrations, weak structural supports, damaged tunnel roofs and floors, and large, unstable coal gangue prone to sliding within the mine shaft. To prevent secondary disasters, rescuers had to carry out search operations in a more scientific and cautious manner.
The coal mine owner has been detained by police and an investigation is underway.
XINHUA
GUIYANG, May 22 – Two separate landslides struck Changshi and Guowa townships in Dafang County, southwest China’s Guizhou Province on Thursday, trapping individuals.
The two landslides struck at around 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. Thursday. Two people were trapped in Changshi, and several others were trapped in Qingyang Village of Guowa.
Rescue efforts are underway.
XINHUA
SYDNEY, May 22 – The body of a man has been found in a property affected by the flooding crisis in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).
NSW Police said in a statement on Thursday that emergency service crews were called to reports of a body being located at a flooded property in the small town of Moto, over 250 kilometers northeast of Sydney in the state’s Mid North Coast region, on Wednesday afternoon.
The body of a 63-year-old man was found and police have commenced an investigation.
As of 8 a.m. local time on Thursday, the NSW State Emergency Service had issued emergency warnings for 133 areas in the flood zone, including widespread orders to evacuate.
An updated severe weather warning issued by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) shortly after 4 a.m. on Thursday said that 24-hour rainfall totals of between 200 and 300 millimeters are possible for parts of the Mid North Coast and adjacent Northern Tablelands.
XINHUA
ATHENS, May 21 – Thousands of people took to the streets of Athens, Greece, on Wednesday to protest Israel’s latest military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing blockade.
According to police estimates, more than 3,000 people took part in the protest. Demonstrators chanted anti-war slogans, waved Palestinian flags, and held banners reading “Solidarity – Palestine Will Be Free” and “Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity,” the latter referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, has issued an arrest warrant.
The protest, held outside the Greek Parliament, was organized by the Palestinian Community in Greece and supported by left-wing political parties and labor unions. Participants called for “an immediate end to the bloodshed and the starving of children.”
“I can’t stand by and watch all this atrocity,” said Aspasia, a 41-year-old private sector employee, to Xinhua.
“As humans, we can only do one thing: be present. We came here to show our support for the people,” added George, a 20-year-old worker.
Earlier in the day, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis spoke by phone with Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
According to a statement from the Greek Foreign Ministry, Gerapetritis reiterated Greece’s call for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
XINHUA
GAZA, May 21, 2025 (WAFA) – Six civilians were killed on Wednesday in Israeli airstrikes that targeted two homes in the southern and northern Gaza Strip.
WAFA correspondent reported that three civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the home of the Abu Shamala family in the Al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Strip.
Israeli warplanes also struck the home of the Al-Nader family in Jabalia in the northern Strip, resulting in the killing of three civilians and the wounding of others.
WAFA
CAIRO/JERUSALEM, May 21 – Israel allowed 100 aid trucks carrying flour, baby food and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Israeli military said, as UN officials reported that distribution issues had meant that no aid had so far reached people in need.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would be open to a temporary ceasefire to enable the return of hostages. But otherwise he said it would press ahead with a military campaign to gain total control of Gaza.
After an 11-week blockade on supplies entering Gaza, the Israeli military said a total of 98 aid trucks entered on Monday and Tuesday. But even those minimal supplies have not made it to Gaza’s soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.
“None of this aid – that is a very limited number of trucks – has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme.
The blockade has left Gazans in an increasingly desperate struggle for survival, despite growing international and domestic pressure on Israel’s government, which one opposition figure said risked turning the country into a “pariah state”.
Thousands of tons of food and other vital supplies are waiting near crossing points into Gaza but until it can be safely distributed, around a quarter of the population remains at risk of famine, Renard said.
“I’m here since eight in the morning, just to get one plate for six people while it is not enough for one person,” said Mahmoud al-Haw, who says he often waits for up to six hours a day hoping for some lentil soup to keep his children alive.
U.N. officials said security issues had prevented the aid from moving out of the logistics hub at the Kerem Shalom crossing point but late on Wednesday there appeared some hope that supplies would move more freely.
Nahid Shahaiber, a major transport company owner, said 75 trucks of flour and over a dozen more carrying nutritional supplements and sugar were inside the southern area of Rafah and witnesses said trucks carrying flour had been seen in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering Gaza in March, saying Hamas was seizing supplies meant for civilians – a charge the group denies.
Under mounting international pressure, it has allowed aid deliveries by the U.N. and other aid groups to resume briefly until a new U.S.-backed distribution model using private contractors operating through so-called secure hubs is up and running by the end of the month. But the United Nations says the plan is not impartial or neutral, and it will not be involved.
REUTERS