Israel evacuates diplomatic staff in the UAE: Report
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Hindustan Times
11 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Ukraine hits military targets and pipeline in Russia
Ukraine said Saturday it hit military targets and a gas pipeline in drone attacks in Russia, where local authorities said three people were killed and two others wounded. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends the parliament session in Kyiv, Ukraine Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)(AP) Ukraine's SBU security service said the strikes, carried out Friday night by long-distance drones, hit a military airfield in the southwestern town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk. They caused a fire in an areas where Iranian-built Shahed drones -- relied on by Russia to attack Ukraine -- were stored, the SBU said. It said the strikes also hit a company, Elektropribor, in Russia's southern Penza region, which it said "works for the Russian military-industrial complex", making military digital networks, aviation devices, armoured vehicles and ships. The governor for the Penza region, Oleg Melnichenko, said on Telegram that one woman had been killed and two other people were wounded in that attack. Russia's defence ministry said its air-defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory -- 34 over the Rostov region -- in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning. An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram. In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site's buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said. "The military repelled a massive air attack during the night," destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram. Heavy use of drones Ukraine has regularly used drones to hit targets inside Russia as it fights back against Moscow's full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022. Russia, too, has increasingly deployed the unmanned aerial devices as part of its offensive. An AFP analysis published on Friday showed that Russia's forces in July launched an unprecedented number of drones, 6,297 of them. The figure included decoy drones sent into Ukraine's skies in efforts to saturate the country's air-defence systems. In Ukraine's central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drone attacks Friday night wounded three people, governor Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Several buildings, homes and cars were damaged, he said. Russian forces have claimed advances in Dnipropetrovsk, recently announcing the capture of two villages there, part of Moscow's accelerated capture of territory in July, according to AFP's analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Kyiv denies any Russian presence in the Dnipropetrovsk area. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire in the more than three-year conflict, said Friday that he wanted peace but that his demands for ending Moscow's military offensive were "unchanged". Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders. "The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia's readiness," he wrote on X.
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First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
US-Israel strategy aims to end Gaza war, disarm Hamas: Witkoff
President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has assured families of Israeli hostages that the US is working closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu on a strategy to end the Gaza war. read more Palestinians climb onto trucks as they seek for aid supplies that entered Gaza through Israel in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip. Reuters On Saturday, President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy assured the relatives of hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas that he was working with the Israeli government on a strategy that would successfully end the Gaza war. Trump has made ending the Gaza war a top priority for his administration, although discussions have been stalled. Steve Witkoff is visiting Israel as the government faces growing pressure over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In a recording of the meeting, reviewed by Reuters, Witkoff is heard saying: 'We have a very, very good plan that we're working on collectively with the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu … for the reconstruction of Gaza. That effectively means the end of the war.' The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment on his statements. Witkoff also stated that Hamas was willing to disarm in order to end the conflict, despite the group's continuous refusal to lay down its weapons. In reaction to the reported words, Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007 but has been brutally battered by Israel during the conflict, stated that it will not give up 'armed resistance' until a 'independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital' is formed. Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel aimed at negotiating a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza conflict and an agreement for the release of half the captives ended last week in impasse. On Saturday, Hamas released its second video in two days of Israeli hostage Evyatar David. In it, David, skeletally thin, is shown digging a hole, which, he says in the video, is for his own grave. Witkoff met with Netanyahu on Thursday. Afterward, a senior Israeli official said an understanding between Israel and Washington was emerging that there was a need to move from a plan to release some of the hostages to a plan to release all the hostages, disarm Hamas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip, echoing Israel's key demands for ending the war. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Gaza starvation On Tuesday, Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating ceasefire efforts, endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As part of it, they said Hamas must hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Witkoff arrived in Israel with Netanyahu's government facing a global outcry over devastation in Gaza and the starvation growing among its 2.2 million people. The crisis has also prompted a string of Western powers to announce they may recognize a Palestinian state. On Friday, Witkoff visited a U.S.-backed aid operation in southern Gaza, which the United Nations has partly blamed for deadly conditions in the enclave, saying he sought to get food and other aid to people there. Dozens have died of malnutrition in recent weeks after Israel cut off all supplies to the enclave for nearly three months from March to May, according to Gaza's health ministry. It said on Saturday that it had recorded seven more fatalities, including a child, since Friday. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys. U.N. agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease the access to it. The Gaza war began when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
US steps in! Envoy Witkoff meets hostage families in Tel Aviv amid growing pressure on Hamas
U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met the families of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday (August 2). During the meeting which lasted over two hours Witkoff listened "to every personal story and heard each individual request, and he answered the last question and didn't go until then", Ruby Cohen, father of hostage Itay Cohen, said. Earlier Israelis gathered at Hostages Square chant slogans calling for the release of hostages and end of the war. On Thursday, Wikoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bid to salvage Gaza truce talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine is unfolding. Show more Show less
