ISTANBUL – Turkey said on Sunday it had killed 23 Kurdish militants in northern Syria, the latest in a series of strikes against them which have continued since U.S. President Donald Trump took office last month.
The defence ministry said the militants belonged to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
Turkey regards the PKK and YPG to be identical, while the United States views them as separate groups, having banned the PKK as terrorists but recruited the YPG as its main allies in Syria in the campaign against Islamic State.
Turkey has long called on Washington to withdraw support for the YPG, expressing hope that Trump would revise the policy of the previous administration of President Joe Biden.
Turkish forces and their allies in Syria have repeatedly fought with Kurdish militants there since the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in December.
Turkey has said that the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF – a U.S.-backed umbrella group that includes the Kurdish YPG – must disarm or face military intervention.
Under the Biden administration the United States has had 2,000 troops in Syria fighting alongside the SDF and YPG.
TEHRAN – Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has unveiled an underground base accommodating “hundreds” of homegrown anti-destroyer cruise missiles with operational ranges of up to over 1,000 km.
State-run IRIB TV reported on Saturday that the base was unveiled during a visit by IRGC’s Chief Commander Hossein Salami to monitor the combat preparedness level of the naval forces’ missile units.
The report said the missiles could be fired from the underground base, rather than brought to the ground.
Among the weapons stored in the base was the “Qadr-380” precision-guided cruise missile, which was unveiled for the first time. According to IRIB TV, IRGC Navy’s Commander Alireza Tangsiri said the missile could hit targets within a range of over 1,000 km and possessed anti-jamming capabilities.
According to the report, Salami said the display is intended to “increase the accuracy of the enemies’ calculations (about Iran’s power) and prevent them from making mistakes that would trouble themselves and others.”
The base is on the southern coasts of Iran, IRGC’s official news outlet Sepah News reported on Saturday.
Earlier this month, the IRGC unveiled an underground missile base, housing advanced Iranian missiles, including the “Emad, Qadr, and Qiam,” all liquid-fueled.
A few days later, the IRGC’s Navy unveiled an underground base accommodating various combat vessels.
GAZA – Gaza’s Civil Defense said on Saturday that it had recovered 64 bodies from the Gaza Strip while warning the dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave.
In a press statement, the Civil Defense announced that 37 bodies were retrieved from northern Gaza.
According to the statement, Israeli forces had used bulldozers to relocate bodies from various burial sites around Kamal Adwan Hospital, gathering them in open areas. Civil Defense teams later reburied them in Beit Lahia Cemetery.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health authorities reported that 27 bodies arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours.
This brings the total death toll from the Israeli offensive to 47,487, with 111,588 injured since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the health authorities.
Many victims remained trapped under rubble and in the streets, where emergency and Civil Defense teams were unable to reach them, said the authorities.
In a separate statement, the Civil Defense warned that Gaza residents are facing an extremely dire humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands left homeless without shelter or necessities for survival.
The statement noted that the region is expected to face multiple storms, posing a severe threat to hundreds of thousands of people living in tents and structurally unsafe buildings.
In addition, large amounts of unexploded ordnance and other remnants of Israeli military operations remain scattered in the streets and beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings, endangering civilians.
The Civil Defense urged the international community and human rights organizations to take immediate action to save lives before it is too late.
PARIS – A fire broke out Saturday at a retirement home in Bouffemont, Val-d’Oise department, leaving three senior residents dead and nine others injured, French news channel BFMTV reported.
The blaze occurred at around 7:15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT) on the third floor of the facility, BFMTV said, citing the Prefecture of Val-d’Oise.
According to the news channel, the three people were killed by smoke inhalation.
An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the fire, but the authorities said that the fire was probably accidental.
NEW DELHI – The death toll of the mishap in a canal in India’s northern state of Haryana rose to 7 while five persons were still missing, a local official confirmed on Saturday.
The mishap occurred late Friday night when a vehicle carrying them fell into the Bhakhra canal in Haryana’s Fatehabad district. Two persons, the vehicle’s driver and an 11-year-old boy, managed to swim out of the canal.
The dead included children and women.
One dead body was recovered Friday night while six dead bodies were recovered on Saturday from the neighboring state of Punjab, the official said, adding that efforts were being made to find the five persons still missing.
There were a total of 14 persons inside the vehicle when it fell into the canal with water flowing in strong currents. The victims were returning from a wedding in Punjab state.
At least seven people died when a medevac plane crashed in Philadelphia on Friday, including six Mexicans aboard the plane and one person who was on the ground, Mexico’s president and Philadelphia’s mayor said on Saturday.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker told a press conference that the person who died on the ground had been in a car at the site of the crash.
“Thus far, our count is that there are 19 injured victims,” Parker said.
Separately, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on X that she had asked consular officials to support the families of the six Mexican citizens who were on the plane and died when it crashed.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, based in Mexico and licensed to operate in the U.S., on Friday said its aircraft crashed with four crew members, one pediatric medical patient and the patient’s mother on board.
The child was a girl on her way home with a final destination of Tijuana, Shai Gold, who works on corporate strategy with Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, told CNN on Friday. Her mother was also aboard, he said.
KHARTOUM – At least 45 civilians were killed and 82 others injured in a shelling by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Saturday on a crowded market in Omdurman, north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, a volunteer group and a medical source said.
“The RSF militia committed a new massacre today (Saturday) with a deliberate bombing of the Sabreen Market in the Karari locality,” the Al-Thawra Resistance Committee, a volunteer group, said in a statement.
“So far, 45 civilians have been killed and 82 others injured,” the statement added, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, a medical source at Al-Nao Hospital in Omdurman said, “The hospital has received over 24 bodies, along with dozens of injured individuals.”
“The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word. We need blood donors and medical supplies,” the source told Xinhua.
In the meantime, a Xinhua correspondent in Omdurman reported that the shelling targeted the Sabreen Market, a major market frequented by residents of the Karari locality in the northernmost part of Omdurman.
He said the shelling simultaneously targeted residential areas near the market, expecting the death toll to exceed the reported figures.
No official statement has been issued, and the RSF has not commented on the incident.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) frequently accuses the RSF of bombing the Karari locality from its positions in Bahri, a city in Khartoum State.
Karari is the only area in Omdurman that remains densely populated and fully under army control.
Military confrontations between the SAF and the RSF have intensified recently in Khartoum.
The SAF has recently made significant progress in Khartoum State, reopening its position along the Bahri city axis and liberating several areas, but the city’s East Nile area remains a key base for the RSF.
The SAF is also conducting ground operations to end the RSF’s control over the Umbada area west of Omdurman, while the RSF continues to control the southern area of Khartoum.
Sudan has been gripped by a devastating conflict between the SAF and the RSF since mid-April 2023, which claimed at least 29,683 lives and displaced over 15 million people, either inside or outside Sudan, according to the latest estimates by international organizations.
TEHRAN – India has asked for Iran’s assistance in finding three of its nationals whom New Delhi says have gone missing in Iran.
“Three Indian nationals who had gone to Iran for business purposes are missing. We are in touch with their families,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday in a weekly briefing.
“We have taken up the matter with the Iranian Embassy in Delhi and with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran,” said Jaiswal.
He added that India’s Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Tehran remain in touch with Iranian authorities and have requested their assistance in locating the missing nationals and ensuring their safety.
The three missing Indians were identified as Yogesh Panchal, Mohammad Sadeeque, and Sumeet Sud.
There was no immediate confirmation from Iranian officials.
According to Indian media outlets, Panchal had recently started an export firm dealing in dry fruits and apples, and had taken a flight from Mumbai to Tehran on December 5 to explore business opportunities there. Sadeeque traveled to Iran in December 2024, while Sud traveled to the country in early January.
GAZA – Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in the fourth prisoner-for-hostage swap under the ongoing truce deal with Hamas, according to Palestinian sources.
Abdullah Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Xinhua that Israeli authorities handed the released prisoners over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Of the freed prisoners, 150 were from the Gaza Strip, 32 from the West Bank, and the remaining one, who holds Egyptian citizenship, will be returned to Egypt.
Prisoners from the West Bank were released from Ofer Prison near Ramallah, while prisoners from Gaza, released from Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, would be transported to southern Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, Zaghari added.
Local witnesses reported that buses carrying Palestinians released by Israel have arrived in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s commission for prisoners’ affairs said in a press statement that among the 183 released on Saturday, seven prisoners will be deported, without specifying which countries will receive them.
The release of Palestinian prisoners follows Hamas’ release of three Israeli hostages earlier in the day, marking the fourth such exchange during the first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The deal was enforced on Jan. 19 and its first phase will last for six weeks.
Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine February 1, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS
KYIV – Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine on Saturday, killing eight people and damaging dozens of residential buildings as well as energy infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
The Interior Ministry said that a Russian missile struck a residential building in the central city of Poltava, killing four people and injuring 13, including three children.
The ministry posted pictures on the Telegram messaging app showing the building with several top floors smashed and thick columns of smoke rising into the sky. Firefighters and dozens of rescuers were searching through the rubble.
One person was killed and four were wounded in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast in a drone attack, the mayor said.
Three police officers were killed during the attacks as they patrolled streets in a village in the northeastern region of Sumy, regional officials said.
“Last night Russia attacked our cities using various types of weapons: missiles, attack drones, and aerial bombs,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, adding damage was caused in six regions.
“Each such terrorist attack proves that we need more support in defending ourselves against Russian terror. Every air defence system, every anti-missile weapon, saves lives,” he said on the Telegram app.
INFRASTRUCTURE TARGETED
In Poltava, a small city located around 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the Russian border, about 18 apartment buildings, a kindergarten, and energy infrastructure were damaged, city authorities said.
Ukrainian officials said that damage was also registered in the city of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast, and Khmelnytskyi in the west.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces used six missiles and 17 Shahed drones to target gas infrastructure and other facilities.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its forces had launched attacks aimed at Ukraine’s gas and other energy infrastructure and had shot down 108 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours, Russian news agencies reported.
Since March 2024, Russia has launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s power sector and other energy infrastructure, knocking out about half of the country’s available generating capacity and forcing rolling blackouts.
As the war approaches its three-year mark this month and Russian forces make small but steady gains in eastern Ukraine, edging closer to the strategic logistic hub of Pokrovsk, both sides are using drones to hit infrastructure and disrupt military supply lines.
Moscow’s strikes early on Saturday followed a Russian missile attack the previous evening which damaged the historic centre of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
COLOMBO – Two people died and 35 others were injured when a privately owned bus collided with a van at Habarana in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province on Saturday, said police.
The injured have been taken to two regional hospitals for treatment, with the bus driver being arrested, the police said.
Local media reported that roughly 50 passengers were on board of the bus at the time of the accident.
Road accidents are common in Sri Lanka, with many involving buses, official data shows. In response to the increasing number of bus accidents, Sri Lankan authorities have been intensifying legal actions against individuals who violate traffic regulations on buses.
NEW DELHI – One person was killed and 11 others went missing after a vehicle fell into the Bhakra canal in the northern Indian state of Haryana, police said Saturday.
The accident took place Friday night near Sardarewala village in Fatehabad district, about 201 km west of Chandigarh, the capital city of Haryana.
According to police, there were 14 people aboard the vehicle, out of which a driver and an 11-year-old boy managed to get out. However, 12 were swept away by strong water currents.
Immediately after the accident, rescuers were rushed to the spot to trace the missing. So far, one body has been recovered from the canal.
ISLAMABAD – Eighteen Pakistani security personnel and 12 terrorists were killed in an in operations in the country’s southwest Balochistan province, the Pakistan army said on Saturday.
KABUL – Two commuters lost their lives and five others were injured due to a road accident in eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province late Friday, a local official reported on Saturday.
The incident took place on a road in the province’s Moqar district along the highway linking the capital of Kabul to southern Kandahar province when two passenger vehicles collided, leaving two dead, including a child, on the spot and five others injured, state-run Bakhtar news agency quoted Khalid Sarhadi, provincial police spokesman, as saying.
On Thursday night, a road accident in the eastern Laghman province led to the death of one person and injuries to three others.
Road accidents resulting in fatalities are prevalent in Afghanistan due to substandard road conditions, careless driving, difficult terrains, overloading of vehicles, overtaking and overspeeding.
DAMASCUS – Gunmen have shot dead 10 people in an Alawite-majority village in central Syria, a war monitor said on Saturday.
“Armed men committed a massacre” on Friday that killed “10 citizens in Arza village in the northern Hama countryside that is inhabited by citizens of the Alawite sect” of ousted leader Bashar Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas waves on a stage before being handed over to members of the Red Cross in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 1, 2025. (AFPTV/ AFP)
GAZA/CAIRO – Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel was handed over separately a few hours later at the Gaza City seaport.
Bibas is the father of the two youngest hostages, baby Kfir, only 9 months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7, 2023, and Ariel, who was 4 at the time of the cross-border attack.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. There has been no word on them since.
Israel is expected to transfer 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza, including children suffering from cancer and heart conditions, were expected to cross over to Egypt in a bus provided by the World Health Organization.
Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
Kalderon, whose two children Erez and Sahar were released in the first hostage exchange in November 2023, and Bibas both briefly mounted a stage in Khan Younis, in front of a poster of Hamas figures including Mohammad Deif, the former military commander whose death was confirmed by Hamas this week, before being handed over to the Red Cross officials.
“Ofer Kalderon is free! We share the immense relief and joy of his loved ones after 483 days of unimaginable hell,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
Negotiations on release of remaining hostages
Eighteen hostages, including five Thais freed on Thursday, have now been released in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 children, women and older male hostages as well as sick and injured, were due to be released, with more than 60 men of military age left for a second phase which must still be negotiated.
The initial six-week ceasefire, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has so far stayed on track despite a number of incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.
The Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s campaign in response has destroyed much of the densely populated Gaza Strip and killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
NEW YORK – A small plane crashed in a neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia on Friday, sparking a large fire, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had reported only two people aboard the plane, but later updated the number to six. It’s unclear whether the passengers were ejected or managed to escape. Several people on the ground were reported to have been injured.
The Learjet 55 plane, en route from Philadelphia for Springfield, Missouri, had just taken off from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport when the tragedy happened, said the FAA in a statement. It came down in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall in a densely populated residential area. The crash set multiple homes and cars on fire.
Emergency crews are responding to the fire on site, CBS News reported.
“We are offering all resources as (emergency services) respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly,” Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro wrote on the social platform X. “We’ll continue to provide updates as more information is available.”
The FAA confirmed that the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.
The crash came just days after a deadly collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C., which claimed 67 lives, marking the deadliest airplane crash in the United States since 2009.
SEOUL – One person was confirmed dead and three others went missing Saturday after two fishing boats carrying 15 crew members ran aground in waters off South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju, according to Yonhap news agency.
It was reported to the coast guard at about 9:24 a.m. local time (0024 GMT) that a 32-ton fishing vessel with seven people on board and a 29-ton vessel carrying eight were stranded in waters off the island.
Twelve people were rescued around noon (0300 GMT), and three remained unaccounted for.
Among the rescued, a captain of the 32-ton vessel in his 50s was taken in cardiac arrest to a hospital while receiving first-aid treatment such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but he died later.
The others showed symptoms of hypothermia, but it was not a life-threatening injury.
The captains of both vessels were South Koreans, while the other crew members were foreigners, such as Vietnamese and Indonesians.
Search and rescue operations had been underway for the missing three crew members.
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 – An official with Meta Platforms’, popular WhatsApp chat service said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.
The official said on Friday that WhatsApp had sent Paragon a cease-and-desist letter following the hack. In a statement, WhatsApp said the company “will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate privately.”
Paragon declined to comment. The WhatsApp official told Reuters it had detected an effort to hack approximately 90 users.
The official declined to say who, specifically, was targeted. But he said those targeted were based in more than two dozen countries, including several people in Europe. He said WhatsApp users were sent malicious electronic documents that required no user interaction to compromise their targets, a so-called zero-click hack that is considered particularly stealthy.
The official said WhatsApp had since disrupted the hacking effort and was referring targets to Canadian internet watchdog group Citizen Lab. The official declined to discuss how it determined that Paragon was responsible for the hack. He said law enforcement and industry partners had been informed, but declined to give details.
The FBI did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton said the discovery of Paragon spyware targeting WhatsApp users “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use.”
Spyware merchants such as Paragon sell high-end surveillance software to government clients and typically pitch their services as critical to fighting crime and protecting national security.
But such spy tools have repeatedly been discovered on the phones of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, and at least 50 U.S. officials, raising concerns over the unchecked proliferation of the technology.
Paragon – which was reportedly acquired by Florida-based investment group AE Industrial Partners last month – has tried to position itself publicly as one of the industry’s more responsible players.
Its website advertises “ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats,” and media reports citing people familiar with the company say Paragon only sells to governments in stable democratic countries.
Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at the advocacy group Access Now, said Paragon had the reputation of being a better spyware company, “but WhatsApp’s recent revelations suggest otherwise.”
“This is not just a question of some bad apples — these types of abuses (are) a feature of the commercial spyware industry.” AE did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
BUDAPEST – A new wave of bomb threats was reported on Thursday evening, with 44 schools receiving threatening emails, the national police confirmed on Friday.
Among the affected institutions, 13 are in Budapest, while 31 are in rural areas.
Police responded to all locations and implemented necessary security measures. “No explosives or devices capable of detonation have been found in the buildings inspected so far,” the police said in a statement. The National Bureau of Investigation of the Rapid Response Police is continuing its inquiry into the threats.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony stated that city institutions stand ready to assist law enforcement. “Budapest’s companies and institutions are prepared to provide all necessary support to the police,” he wrote on Facebook.
The latest bomb threats follow a similar incident last week when at least 292 schools in Budapest and surrounding areas were evacuated due to reported threats.
Authorities have not confirmed any connection between the latest threats and the previous incidents, although in both cases, emails were used to deliver the alarms.
After the police operation, classes resumed in the affected schools.
MOSCOW – Moscow on Friday accused Ukrainian troops of killing 22 people in an occupied Russian village, including eight women who were allegedly raped before being executed.
Ukraine controls dozens of border settlements in the Kursk region of western Russia since launching a surprise offensive in August and says about 2,000 civilians still live in areas it occupies.
Russia has now retaken several towns.
Russia’s Investigative Committee had said on January 19 it was investigating the killing of “at least seven civilians” in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
On Friday, it said it was now investigating the killing of “22 residents” between September and November.
Among the victims, whose bodies were found in the basements of several homes, were eight women who were allegedly raped before being killed, the Investigative Committee said.
AFP was not immediately able to verify the claims and there has been no official response from Ukraine.
Russian investigators blame five Ukrainian soldiers for the killings and said one of them, Yevgeny Fabrisenko, was arrested during the fighting in the Kursk region.
The committee released a video of the interrogation of a man identified as Fabrisenko, who confessed.
At a briefing on Friday, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “First people were tortured, abused, then killed either by being shot or blown up.”
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of killing civilians since the conflict began nearly three years ago. Russian forces are accused of murdering hundreds of civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.
AFP journalists are among the international media outlets that have seen and photographed the bodies of Ukrainian civilians killed, some with their hands tied.
Moscow has denied the allegations and accused Kyiv of staging the footage — a claim that has been rejected by several independent fact-checking organizations and media outlets, including AFP.
METERLAM, Afghanistan – Three children lost their lives in the explosion of an ordinance left over from past wars in the Alishing district of the eastern Laghman province in Afghanistan on Friday, a statement of the provincial police office released here said.
The ill-fated children who were playing on a hilltop found a toy-like device and began playing with it, but the device exploded killing the trio on the spot, the statement added.
A similar accident claimed two children’s lives in the southern Kandahar province on Monday.
The war-torn Afghanistan is one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world with dozens of people, mostly children, being killed or maimed every month due to the blasts of explosive devices left over from the past decades of war and civil unrest.
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Friday that Israel has received the list of three Israeli civilian hostages Hamas will release on Saturday.
The list includes Israeli-French citizen Ofer Calderon, 54, Israeli-American citizen Keith Siegel, 65, and Israeli civilian Yarden Bibas, 35.
Bibas’ wife, Shiri, and two sons, five-year-old Ariel and two-year-old Kfir, were also taken to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli military has not officially confirmed their deaths but earlier expressed “grave concern” for their fate.
Under a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect on Jan. 19, three Israeli hostages are scheduled to be released on Saturday.
Since the beginning of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement, five Israeli civilians, five female Israeli soldiers, and five Thai nationals have been released.
The first phase includes the release of 33 Israeli hostages in Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
NAIROBI – A light aircraft crashed in Kenya on Thursday evening, killing a foreign couple on board, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has confirmed.
KCAA Director General Emile Arao said on Friday that the Cessna 185 aircraft, which took off from Nairobi and was headed to Mbaruk in Nakuru County, went down in the lakeside town of Naivasha at around 5:14 p.m. (1414 GMT).
“There were two persons onboard, both of whom have unfortunately lost their lives,” Arao said in a statement.
“KCAA is actively coordinating with relevant authorities, including the Air Accident Investigation Department, emergency responders, and local security personnel, to gather further details and facilitate response efforts,” Arao said.
Naivasha Police Deputy Chief Charles Mwai said the cause of the accident remains unclear, but poor visibility due to fog in the area might have contributed to the crash.
JERUSALEM – Israel’s military said Friday it struck “multiple” Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, two months into a fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese group after major hostilities last year.
“The targets that were struck include a Hezbollah terrorist site containing underground infrastructure, used to develop and manufacture weaponry and additional terrorist infrastructure sites on the Syrian-Lebanese border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weaponry into Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
It said the overnight strikes were aimed at targets that “posed a threat” to Israel and Israeli troops.
On Thursday, the military said it intercepted a Hezbollah “surveillance” drone approaching Israeli territory, which it said “represents a breach of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
“The (army) continues to remain committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and will not permit any terrorist activity of this kind,” it said.
The Israeli army missed a January 26 deadline to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon. It now has until February 18.
Israel had made clear it had no intention of meeting the deadline, charging that the Lebanese army had not fulfilled its side of the bargain.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy in the south as Hezbollah pulls its forces back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border.
The Iran-backed militant group is also required to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the south.
TEHRAN – A US aircraft has assassinated a leading Uyghur militant in northern Syria, Al Mayadeen reported.
On Thursday night, a raid targeted a vehicle in Idlib’s countryside in northern Syria, killing Abu Dajanah al-Turkistani, who is of Uyghur origin.
Al-Turkistani was recognized as one of the prominent leaders among the Uyghur militant groups operating in Syria.
He previously held a leading role in the now-dissolved Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was led by Syria’s current leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani).
WASHINGTON -There are likely no survivors in the mid-air collision of a passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter near the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., John Donnelly, chief of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, told a press conference on Thursday.
The mid-air collision occurred around 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT Thursday), involving a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and a military Blackhawk helicopter. The Reagan National Airport will remain closed until at least 11:00 a.m. Thursday (1600 GMT) as the search and rescue operation continues, officials said early Thursday at a press briefing.
HANOI – Eight people in a family were killed on Thursday after a car plunged into a ditch in Vietnam’s northern province of Nam Dinh, local media VnExpress reported.
The accident happened on Thursday afternoon when a seven-seat car was traveling in Nam Dinh city.
The car plunged into a ditch located two meters from the road. People nearby broke the car’s door and brought the victims out.
Eight died on the spot. One is being treated at a hospital. The case is being further investigated.
JERUSALEM – Israel’s military said in a statement that two Israeli and five Thai hostages were handed over by Gaza militants to the Red Cross on Thursday, and are on their way to Israel.
JERUSALEM – An Israeli female soldier was freed by Gaza militants on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
A live broadcast showed Agam Berger, 20, entering a Red Cross vehicle in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, surrounded by Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants.
“The returning hostage is currently being accompanied by IDF special forces and Shin Bet forces on her return to Israeli territory, where she will undergo an initial medical assessment,” the military said.
Later on Thursday, Hamas is expected to release two more Israeli hostages, as well as five Thai hostages, while Israel would release another 110 Palestinian prisoners in the third exchange since a ceasefire in Gaza took effect last week.
