GAZA, July 5 – At least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, amid warnings of a complete collapse of public sectors due to fuel shortages.

In violent attacks, Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at dawn on tents housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to local sources and witnesses.

Sources and witnesses said that flames engulfed a large number of tents in the area amid screams and cries of women and children.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that 17 people, including a doctor and three of his children, were killed in the attack.

Additionally, 15 people were killed, and several others injured in Israeli airstrikes targeting different neighborhoods in Gaza City, north of the Strip, according to Basal.

He added that four people were killed after Israeli aircraft targeted two houses in the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.

Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported in a statement that nine people, including three children, were killed by Israeli army fire near a U.S.-backed aid distribution center north of Rafah, the southernmost of the Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on these incidents.

XINHUA, 5.7.2025

KIEV/MOSCOW, July 5 – Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces on Saturday carried out a strike on the Borysoglebsk airfield in Russia’s Voronezh Region, said the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The operation is part of Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to degrade Russia’s airstrike capabilities against Ukraine, the general staff said in a statement.

The airfield serves as a home base for Russian Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter jets, said the statement. “A depot containing glide bombs, a trainer aircraft and possibly additional aircraft were hit during the strike.”

On the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defense downed over 100 Ukrainian drones across multiple Russian regions overnight.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on social media that two drones flying towards Moscow were repelled.

Voronezh Governor Aleksandr Gusev said no casualties were reported following the attack, and a power line broke down in one of the region’s municipalities due to a falling drone wreckage.

XINHUA, 5.7.2025

CHANGSHA, July 5 – A boat sinking accident on Saturday afternoon left 1 person missing, with another 28 rescued, in central China’s Hunan Province, authorities have said.

A total of 29 people fell off the 40-seat boat into the water, as the boat capsized at around 4:30 p.m. at Dongjiang Lake in the city of Zixing.

As of 6 p.m., 28 had been rescued — with one of them in critical condition receiving treatment.

Preliminary investigations have found that the area saw a sudden gust of wind, at a speed of up to 30 meters per second, when the accident happened.

Search and rescue efforts continue, while further investigations are underway.

XINHUA, 5.7.2025

July 5 – Russian air defence units downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in widely dispersed parts of the country, including two near the country’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, officials said.

Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of Leningrad region surrounding St. Petersburg, wrote on Telegram that two drones were downed in different districts south of the city.

He said no injuries or damage was reported. Operations were suspended for a time at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.

The governor of Smolensk region in western Russia said anti-aircraft units had downed three drones without any casualties or damage. The governor of Voronezh region, next to Ukraine said “several” drones had been destroyed.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported a total of 42 drones destroyed over a three-hour period, 37 of them in three regions bordering Ukraine — Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk.

Ukraine has deployed drones increasingly in attacks on distant targets in Russian territory. In one spectacular set of strikes last month, in an operation dubbed “Spider’s Web”, a number of Russian bombers were hit at various air bases.

Russian forces have used increasing numbers of drones to target Ukrainian cities, with a record total of 539 drones and 11 missiles deployed against Kyiv on Thursday night, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his military had successfully deployed drone interceptors to down Russian drones in the overnight attack.

REUTERS

ISLAMABAD, July 4 – A five-storey residential building collapsed in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday, killing seven people and leaving at least 10 injured, police officials said.

The police officials in the area told Xinhua that over 30 people were trapped under the debris after the building collapsed in Lyari area of Karachi, and rescue efforts are underway to recover the remaining individuals.

The officials said that heavy machinery is being used to help in the removal of the rubble of the dilapidated building, which had already been marked unsafe by authorities, adding that the two adjoining buildings have also been evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The eyewitnesses said that the building collapsed following several jolts that residents mistook for an earthquake, adding that it suddenly came crashing down after a couple of hours of intermittent shocks.

Following the incident, authorities cordoned off the area, and all the victims were shifted to a local hospital, where several people are said to be in critical condition.

A high-level committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

XINHUA

TOKYO, July 5 – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck off the Tokara island chain in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima on Saturday, the latest in a series of temblors in the area, the country’s weather agency said.

The quake, which occurred at 6:29 a.m. local time, measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 on Akusekijima, part of the Tokara island chain, said the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The weather agency said the temblor originated at a depth of 19 km, but there is no threat of tsunami.

XINHUA

GAZA CITY, Palestine / ANKARA /ISTANBUL – Israeli army attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 71 Palestinians on Friday, including 24 people who were waiting for humanitarian aid as Tel Aviv escalated its genocidal war on the enclave, medics said.

Three Palestinians were killed in a strike targeting civilians near the al-Sabra school, which shelters displaced people, in southern Gaza City.

Four were killed and several injured, some critically, as a result of artillery shelling targeting aid recipients near the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza Strip.

In one of the deadliest incidents of the day, 15 people were killed and 90 more injured while waiting for food assistance near the al-Tahlia Roundabout in eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a medical source told Anadolu.

Five civilians were shot dead near an aid distribution center in northwestern Rafah in southern Gaza.

Another five Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli attacks on civilian gatherings in the al-Tuffah and Zeitoun neighborhoods east of Gaza City.

Four more people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a gathering of residents in Jabalia Al-Nazla area in northern Gaza, and a tent for displaced civilians in the Saftawi area north of Gaza City.

Eleven other Palestinians were killed in a strike on a family home in the northern town of Jabalia.

Eight Palestinians, including women and children, were killed when Israeli forces struck a displaced people’s tent near Tiba Towers in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

Most of the victims were members of the same family whose shelter was directly hit near the Tiba Towers, eyewitnesses told Anadolu. Several others were injured in the attack.

In another nearby attack, three more people, including two children, were killed near the British field hospital in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis.

Airstrikes also struck two tents along the Khan Younis beachfront, killing four civilians, most of them women and children.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli artillery also struck tents housing displaced civilians in al-Mawasi, Rafah, in southern Gaza, causing further casualties.

In central Gaza, four people were killed in the al-Bureij refugee camp when a family’s house was targeted in an overnight raid.

In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, two Palestinians were killed in an airstrike targeting a gathering of civilians in the Al-Hasayneh area, medics said.

Meanwhile, three more people were killed in southern Gaza City following a strike on a family home in the al-Sabra neighborhood.

Israeli forces also hit a school sheltering displaced people, though casualties from that strike were not immediately confirmed.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces demolished multiple residential homes in northern Khan Younis, according to eyewitnesses.

ANADOLU

NEW YORK – A teenager found unconscious on top of a New York City subway train early Friday morning has died.

New York City Police were called to the Queensboro Plaza Subway Station at 2:47 a.m. and discovered the unresponsive 15-year-old male, a NYPD spokesperson said.

The boy was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The incident remains under investigation.

More than a dozen New Yorkers, many of them young boys, have been killed or badly injured in recent years while attempting to “subway surf,” or lie on top of moving subway cars. The practice dates back a century but has been supercharged by social media.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has asked social media companies to take down videos glamorizing subway surfing, which is illegal. Also, authorities have tried to address the problem with public awareness campaigns and by deploying drones to catch thrill-seekers in the act.

AP