Tehran, IRNA — High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has condemned Israel’s brutal attack on a school in Gaza, which killed dozens of people.
Borrell said on Sunday that he had been horrified by images of the Gaza school hit by the Israeli strike a day earlier.
“There’s no justification for these massacres”, he said in reference to Israel’s onslaught at the Al-Tabin School, in Gaza City, where more than 100 Palestinians were killed.
He insisted, however, that a ceasefire would be the only way out of the devastating situation in Gaza.
The EU foreign policy chief criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for opposing a ceasefire, adding that the EU supports international efforts for bringing an end to the war in Gaza.
Borrell reiterated that over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza in early October.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina weeps while she visits a metro station in Mirpur vandalized by students during the anti-quota protests in July. (File/Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office))
NEW DELHI — Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently taking refuge in India, has accused the US of playing a role in her removal from power as she promised a prompt return to Dhaka.
Hasina was forced to resign and fled to neighboring India on Aug. 5, following weeks of nationwide demonstrations and a deadly crackdown on protesters, which emboldened a student-led movement to oust her regime after 15 years of uninterrupted rule.
The 76-year-old said Washington was to blame for her ouster in a message issued for supporters of her Awami League party, which appears to be her first statement since she left Dhaka.
“I resigned, so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over the dead bodies of students, but I did not allow it. I resigned from the premiership. I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal,” she said in a statement, which was first reported by India’s English-language daily The Economic Times.
“I beseech the people of my land, ‘Please do not be manipulated by radicals.’”
Hasina was referring to St. Martin’s Island, Bangladesh’s sole coral reef island located in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, alluding to years-old rumors claiming that the US was seeking control over the island to turn it into a military airbase.
The US Embassy in Dhaka did not immediately respond to Arab News’ request for comment on Sunday.
“If I had remained in the country, more lives would have been lost, more resources would have been destroyed. I made the extremely difficult decision to exit. I became your leader because you chose me, you were my strength,” Hasina said.
“With the grace of almighty Allah, I will return soon. The Awami League has stood up again and again. I shall forever pray for the future of Bangladesh, the nation which my great father strived for. The country for which my father and family gave their lives.”
Hasina, 76, was one of the world’s longest-ruling female leaders and has played a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s politics, a nation of about 170 million people that declared its independence in 1971.
She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s charismatic founding leader, who was killed in 1975 in a military coup when Hasina was 28. She served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and regained power in 2009.
Under her leadership, Bangladesh became one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, with World Bank estimates showing that more than 25 million people in the country have been lifted out of poverty in the last two decades.
But critics say she has grown increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country’s democracy, with many saying that the sudden collapse of Hasina’s government had reflected a broader discontent against her rule.
The student-led demonstrations that began peacefully in July were against a quota system for government jobs, which was widely criticized for favoring those with connections to the ruling party.
The rallies then turned violent as security forces clashed with protesters, leading to the killings of at least 300 people and the arrests of around 11,000 others, triggering new protests that culminated in a civil disobedience movement that forced Hasina’s resignation.
JAKARTA — Indonesia and Malaysia have called on the UN to unite against Tel Aviv to stop the mass killing of civilians in Gaza, after the latest Israeli attack on a school — at least the 21st in the past 40 days — left more than 100 people dead.
At least three Israeli missiles struck the Al-Tabin school in Gaza City — which was sheltering displaced Palestinians – in the early hours of Saturday, targeting people performing dawn prayers at a mosque inside the educational facility.
Early reports citing paramedics and witnesses said that identification of the victims was impossible as “bodies were ripped to pieces” in the attack.
Following the massacre, Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which are vocal supporters of Palestine and have been critical of Israel since the beginning of its invasion of Gaza in October, called on the international community to hold Tel Aviv accountable.
“The international community should no longer tolerate and accept the belligerence of Israel,” the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.
“Malaysia continues to call for Israel’s allies to compel Israel to immediately stop the killings of innocent Palestinians, and to stop providing Israel with the tools to continue this genocide. An immediate, urgent and decisive action by the UN Security Council is needed to enforce a permanent ceasefire.”
Malaysia said that Israel has shown “that it has no desire for peace” and urged other Muslim countries under the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation to come together and work with UN member states to demand Tel Aviv comply with the UN Security Council resolution passed in June, which called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel’s ground and air attacks over more than 300 days have killed almost 40,000 Palestinian citizens in the besieged strip, according to official estimates, though a study published in the Lancet journal last month estimated that the actual death toll could exceed 186,000.
Israel’s airstrike on Saturday has sparked a new wave of international condemnation, with the UN Human Rights Office saying that it was at least the 21st attack on schools-turned-shelters that it has recorded since July 4. The strikes have killed at least 274 Palestinians in total, including women and children, the agency added.
Israel has defended its latest operation and claimed that the school was a “command and control center” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders.”
Indonesia has also joined growing calls for the UN Security Council to “immediately conduct a comprehensive investigation” into the Al-Tabin school massacre.
“Indonesia also calls upon the international community to unite in stopping the crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Israel,” the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“Israel must be held accountable for all these crimes, and all forms of impunity must be brought to an end.”
BEIRUT — Five Iran-backed fighters were killed on Sunday in a drone strike in Syria’s east, near the Iraqi border, a war monitor said, adding it was not clear yet who was behind the attack.
“Five pro-Iranian fighters were killed and others were injured, some severely… after an unknown drone targeted the military vehicle they were in… near the Syrian-Iraqi border,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The strike occurred in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, where Iran wields significant influence and which is regularly targeted by Israel and the United States, according to the Britain-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In June, three pro-Iran fighters, including at least two Iraqis, were killed in an overnight air strike in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, the Observatory had reported at the time.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria.
Iran-backed groups including Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement have bolstered President Bashar Assad’s forces during Syria’s civil war.
The Syrian government’s brutal suppression of a 2011 uprising triggered the conflict that has killed more than half a million people and drawn in foreign armies and militants.
Tehran, IRNA — Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani has called for unity among Islamic countries to take effective measures to prevent the Israeli regime from committing more crimes.
Bagheri Kani made the remarks during a phone talk with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on the latest Israeli aggression against a school in Gaza.
The talks also focused on the necessity of adopting a joint stance on the regime’s criminal acts and preserving stability and security in West Asia.
The situation of the West Asia region is now critical due to the Israeli regime’s crimes, and Islamic countries have to pave the way for helping the oppressed Palestinians counter the occupying entity, he noted.
About the July 31 assassination of the Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh by Israel in Tehran, Bagheri Kani said the Zionists, through such a crime, did violate national security, territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the Islamic Republic.
Iran has the legitimate right under the UN Charter and international laws to take a reciprocal measure, he asserted.
For her part, the Indonesian foreign minister condemned the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and described the Israeli measures as threats to international peace and security.
Expressing regret over Israel’s killing of 40,000 people in Gaza, Marsudi stressed the need to concentrate on the issue of truce in Palestine.
To reach a ceasefire, unity and solidarity among all, particularly among the Islamic countries, is important and necessary, she added.
More than 100 Palestinians were killed after the Israeli regime’s deadly airstrike against a school in the Daraj area in Gaza at the time of morning prayers on Saturday.
TEHRAN, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Two people were killed and 12 others injured early Sunday in an eight-vehicle chain-reaction pileup in the northern Iranian province of Alborz, Iran’s IRIB news agency reported.
The incident, involving two trucks, five sedans and a pickup truck, occurred on a freeway between the provinces of Tehran and Alborz at 3:35 a.m. local time (0005 GMT), the report said.
According to the IRIB, five ambulances were immediately sent to the scene and transferred the injured to medical centers.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Ten members of a family drowned Sunday after a vehicle they were traveling in was swept away by flood water in the northern Indian state of Punjab, police said.
The vehicle was swept away in a rivulet near Jejon town of Hoshiarpur district, about 114 km northwest of Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab.
According to police, the family hailing from neighboring Himachal Pradesh were on their way to Nawanshahr town in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district of Punjab to attend a wedding.
“The vehicle carrying victims was passing through the Jejon rivulet and it suddenly was swept away in the strong current of water,” the police official said.
Officials said seven bodies have been fished out, while efforts were underway to trace the three missing persons.
KABUL, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — A blast was heard in Dasht-e-Barchi locality on the western edge of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul on Sunday, casualties feared.
MOSCOW, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — At least 15 people were injured by the debris from a Ukrainian missile that fell onto a residential building in Russia’s Kursk region, Acting Governor of Kursk region Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram Sunday.
“Due to the fall of missile debris on an apartment building in the regional center, 15 people were injured, all of whom are receiving necessary medical care,” Smirnov said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Sunday that Russian armed forces will retaliate against Ukraine for its attacks on the western Russian regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 35 drones overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions. A military operation to defeat the Ukrainian forces in Kursk was underway.
KIEV, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — A four-year-old boy and his father were killed and three others injured in the Kiev region early Sunday in a Russian missile and drone strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Kiev Regional Military Administration said in a statement that two private houses were destroyed and six others damaged in the Kiev region by falling debris of the projectiles. Still, there were no direct hits to residential and critical infrastructure.
Russian forces fired 57 Shahed combat drones and four ballistic missiles at Ukraine during the attack, said the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Ukrainian air defense destroyed 53 drones over 11 regions.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian army has launched more than 30 missiles and over 800 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine this week.
ALOR GAJAH — Hujan lebat berterusan selama enam jam mengakibatkan beberapa kawasan di Masjid Tanah dilanda banjir kilat.
Sekretariat Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Bencana Negeri (JPBN) Melaka, Lt Kol (PA) Kamarulsyah Muslim, berkata hingga jam 4 petang tadi empat kawasan iaitu Kampung Paya Lebar, Ramuan China Besar, Taman Masjid Tanah Ria dan Durian Daun terjejas.
Selain kawasan perumahan, bencana itu turut membabitkan Pekan Masjid Tanah yang tenggelam hingga hampir satu meter.
“Kita kini dalam proses memindahkan mangsa yang terjejas ke dua pusat pemindahan sementara (PPS) iaitu di Balai Raya Paya Lebar dan PPS Balai Raya Seri Tanjung.
“Jumlah mangsa yang terbabit belum dapat dikenal pasti dan operasi menyelamat sedang diteruskan selain pemantauan paras air turut dilakukan,” katanya.
Sementara itu, mangsa banjir Khairul Anwar Mansol, berkata hujan lebat berterusan bermula sejak 5 pagi sehingga menyebabkan kediamannya dinaiki air hingga paras pinggang.
“Saya hanya mampu selamatkan dokumen penting sahaja kerana air tiba-tiba sahaja masuk dan memenuhi ruangan dalam rumah pada jam 10 pagi.
“Ini adalah kejadian pertama yang berlaku di taman perumahan saya dan untuk waktu ini saya bersama isteri serta tiga anak tumpang berteduh di sebuah kedai berdekatan yang lokasinya agak tinggi,” katanya.
Seorang lagi mangsa banjir yang juga penternak lembu, Muhammad Nabil Irfan Ibrahim, 22, berkata, air mula memenuhi kandang lembunya yang terletak di Kampung Ramuan China Besar, kira-kira jam 12 tengah hari tadi selepas hujan lebat mula turun pada 7 pagi.
“Mujurlah saya cepat sampai dan dapat melepaskan kesemua 20 ekor lembu yang berada di dalam kandang. Walaupun terpaksa meredah air di paras dada ketika itu tetapi saya tekad redah untuk pastikan lembu peliharaan dapat diselamatkan,” katanya.
CHUKAI — Satu lagi mayat kejadian bot karam dekat Kuala Kemaman ditemukan terapung petang tadi.
Mayat lelaki dikenali sebagai Shahril Ismail, 50, ditemukan kira-kira jam 1 petang tadi.
Ketua Polis Daerah Kemaman, Superintendan Hanyan Ramlan, berkata mayat kedua tiba di Pos Kawalan Tempat Kejadian jam 2.45 petang tadi.
Beliau berkata, sebelum ini mayat pertama dikenali sebagai sebagai Siti Zaimah, 29 ditemukan jam 7 pagi bersama lima yang terselamat dalam kejadian itu.
“Kita masih mengesan dua lagi mangsa dikenali sebagai Aina Husna Mohamad Husani, 25, dan Yusof, 66, dalam operasi yang disertai pelbagai agensi.
“Mayat kedua-dua mangsa sudah dibawa ke Unit Forensik Hospital Kemaman untuk proses pengecaman.
“Saya pun sudah berhubung dengan pihak kesihatan dan cuba berusaha untuk menjalankan bedah siasat petang ini,” katanya di sini hari ini.
Media sebelum ini melaporkan seorang wanita ditemukan lemas, manakala tiga lagi dikhuatiri hilang selepas bot nelayan dinaiki mereka dilanggar tongkang.
(L-R) Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu of Team China celebrate after winning the women’s table tennis team gold medal match against Japan at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on August 10, 2024. (AFP)
PARIS — China won the women’s team event in table tennis at the Paris Games on Saturday for the country’s 300th gold medal in Olympic history.
China beat Japan 3-0 in the final for its fifth consecutive gold in the women’s team event, a feat that the men had also achieved on Friday.
“Each of us went all out today and played every position well,” No. 1-ranked Sun Yingsha said.
South Korea took the bronze with a 3-0 win over Germany, its first medal in the team event since the Beijing Games in 2008.
China is the dominant force in table tennis, sweeping the five Olympic gold medals in Paris, with the other victories coming in the men’s and women’s singles tournaments and in the mixed doubles event.
China has won 37 of the 42 gold medals awarded in table tennis since the sport was added to the Olympic program at Seoul in 1988.
YANGON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Four members of a family, including a seven-month-old baby, drowned while bathing in a creek in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, an official from a rescue organization told Xinhua on Sunday.
The incident occurred around 9 a.m. local time on Saturday in a creek in Meiktila town of Mandalay region, he said. The water in the creek is not very deep, about the height of an average person, he added. The children’s bodies were found immediately and taken to a local hospital, but the mother’s body is still being searched for, he said.
The family, which included the mother and her three children, lives on a farm where they live separately from others, said the official.
MOSCOW, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Thirteen people were injured in the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk region, with two in critical condition, Acting Governor of Kursk region Alexei Smirnov said on his Telegram channel Sunday.
Smirnov said that the incident occurred when a missile intercepted by Russian defense systems fell onto a residential building, triggering a fire.
Initial reports indicated that the building’s structural integrity remains intact. To date, 15 people have been rescued.
On Saturday, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that the Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian KS-701 Tunets high-speed boat in the Black Sea near the coast of Crimea.
It claimed that the Ukrainian forces hit 18 Russian vessels with Magura V5 and destroyed nine of them during the conflict.
YAOUNDE, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Three children have been found dead beneath the debris of a collapsed wall in Chad’s Kanem region after torrential rain, an official said on Saturday.
The tragedy happened on Friday at the Ligra locality of the region when a local house collapsed, resulting in the death of two girls and a two-year-old boy, said Brahim Alifa Ali, the prefect of the Kanem-Centre department.
Last week, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno warned of the risk of flooding after heavy rain battered the Central African nation for days.
The government was working to achieve “lasting solutions throughout the national territory from now on,” he said.
TRIPOLI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — At least nine people have been killed and 16 others injured in clashes between rival militias in the capital of Tripoli, a spokesman of the Emergency Department of the Libyan Ministry of Health said on Saturday.
Spokesman Osama Ali told Xinhua that the clashes that broke out in the Trajura district on Friday forced dozens of families to flee their homes.
Libya has been suffering escalating violence and political instability ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
